Four Loko

Between jobs, school, family, and bills we feel we need to drink something that supplies the energy our body needs. Here comes the energy drink, but this one has a bad reputation for the twelve spoons of sugars it contains in each can, and for the damage to the brain that it could cause.  However, now we can find a new mixiology: Alcohol and energy drink! Both of them in an unique can called Four Loko.  This drink contains 12 percent of alcoholic, the same as five or six beers, in it and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

The alcoholic energy drink is considered dangerous because the energy it gives to people covers the level of intoxication that they have for the alcohol, allowing people to drink more and more.  In most of the cases, the students, more than twenty, finished their schoolar and universitary parties at the hospital with a high level of alcoholic intoxication. The worst thing is that many of those were underage. This is why many states decided to ban Four Loko in their territories, while the company that own this brand, supports its rights to sell it because, as many alcoholic drinks, they have to face underage people problems buying the product, but they ask not to be banned.

Check what you drink. Don't trust only on the can, the colors and the good taste. Drive safe or give someone else your car key!!!

My pics

 

P1. Greenwich Beach

I love to take pictures! Why? I don't know and I can't even remember when I got the interest in taking pictures, but only can remember that if I have to go anywhere, I have to carry my cam or at least my cellphone to take a picture in the right moment I want it. I always take pics about my family, my friends, special events, or beautiful views of nature. Maybe, and as my ex-colombian boss' wife told me once, I chose the wrong proffession for me - Computer Science Engineering; however, I think I can mixed them and get something very interesting... I did a search about some of the pictures that I took and that I like, and as a result I got these: 

 

P2. West Haven Beach

The first one shows how the water of the sea was getting frozen by the low temperatures in  Greenwich beach at the beginnig of February this year.  That was the first time that I saw this kind of reaction of the water to the weather and was amazing. However, we can think how is it possible that our poles are melting now if their places are extremely cold, more than Greenwich? But as we read in our class's book, there are many factors that cause influence in this event. The second picture was taken, off course by me in West Haven's beach in a beautiful day while I was walking with my boyfriend in summer time, to have a relaxing moment of all things we had to do for those days.



P3. West Haven Beach Jetty

The sun was looking amazing and even I could not seen it directly, I used the cam to do it and got this pic; I love how the sun and the sky look.  And finally, the third picture was taken as well in West Have, the same day than the second one. It is one of the several jetties this place has in all his long beach. I could see those people in seated in there and it looked to me as a good moment for one more pic. Well, I hope you like my images, let me know!

Salsa Calena!

The Salsa is a combination of african-caribbean and cuban music, which was born after the cuban revolution in the 59's and the exile of cuban to the United States. At the beginning of the 70's the separation of musical development between cubans and exiled cubans caused a big confrontation, and this is why the word "salsa"  was chosen by exiled cubans to call their music, but the cubans in the island said it was only the same "cuban son" used for commercial purposes. Then, the african items were included, such as drumbs, wood boxes and some other that generated a sound. However, salsa was a hit that has spread around the world, and we can't forget that many puerto rican musicians and from other countries, who lived in New York help to create a new beat very different to the one that cubans made.

First World Salsa Contest 2005's Champions from Cali

On the other hand, the salsa in colombia came after this because of the big influence of african slaves in our land and the caribbean coast very closed to us. We took this music as our representation and we did some changes that are visible for anyone that can see our dance. In our case, the "calenos" keep the same movements between the couple, but we use more our legs and sexy corporal movements to dance salsa,  very different to Puerto Ricans who dance with their arms and cubans with their hips.

Babies dancing colombian salsa

I want to show you how colombians can enjoy every instrument of the orchestra that is playing a "salsa calena" song, no matter if we are children or adults, at the point that my people has won the first mundial contest of salsa in 2006. I feel very excited watching those videos, and this remaind me that we always say that colombian people especially from Cali, Colombia, carry the salsa beat on our blood and our heart. Let me know guys if you like this... I really do it, even if I don't have the ability to dance like that, but I do want to do it!!!

Self-dancer that follow the instruments on the music

The Miners Were Rescued!

Fenix II Capsule

On October 15, 2010 at 12:00 am and after more than two months of waiting, the miners who were trapped in the San Jose Mine in Chile, started to be rescued in a thirty-six or fourty-eight hour-planned process. The engineers team, helped by NASA specialists, built three fifty-four centimeters of diameter's capsules with eight wheels, called Fenix I, II and III, were the miners had to go in to be extracted from the bottom of the earth.



Miners on the cave to be rescued


This last week miners had a special diet to fit in it: two spoons of tuna and a little glass of water every two days. When the plan started, the rescue team sent three paramedic people in the Fenix II capsule to check vital signs of each miner and sent up first, the strongest ones who were in charge of transmitting what they were seeing, doing easier the path for coming ones; then the ones who had any health problem, and then the ones in regular conditions.



First rescued miner and the president

Every movement, up or down, was taking between sixteen and twenty minutes, but then the process was faster, mostly when no one was going down. At the end, the thirty-three miners were rescued in less than twenty-four hours, doing of this an unique and extraordinary rescue that left a big trace in the history of the world.  The chilean president and his wife were supporting the miners families in every step of the process while they were waiting for the miner in the capsule. 


Second rescued miner

Although seeing a new miner "borning from the earth" was a motivation moment, some cases were special, such as the first miner whose son was really excited to see his father after a long time; the second miner who brought rocks for gifts to the rescue team and the chilean president and used his last energy to motivate people to sing with him about patriotic feelings; and finally the last miner who closed the moment singing with the whole people the chilean anthem as the end of the suffering they and their families had for sixty-nine days. One more special moment that paparazzi's were waiting for was the time when the miner with wife and girlfriend was coming out, but even his wife was happy to see he was ok, whe never showed up, instead, his girlfriend went to show him her support.

Halloween

Halloween is a special celebration was born from old ritual practices that that Celtics, Catholics and Roman religious used to do in the day before “All-Saints”. In this day the dead could come back to the earth, and for that, Celts did bonfires and wore customs to represent and invoke the devil and the ghosts around him. At this time also were practiced sacrifices of animals and people to the devil, to obtain the favor or petition that was made. This is why many of our present religious are not agree with this kind of celebrations where children are involved.

However, in our time children and adults use to wear customs that represent the character or activity they like. Children go door to door mostly early at night time asking and collecting candies in the traditional “trick or treat”, which later enjoy counting and eating for several days. In many schools Halloween is the time for dance and customs shows, instead of having classes. People decorate houses, yards, schools and offices with pumpkins in all sizes, cobwebs, unreal spiders, cats and rats; also with graves and dead people coming from the yard, in order to offer a closer celebration of the day of dead people.

On the other hand, in previous days to Halloween many cats and children get lost because nowadays many people who follow dark practices continue offering animal and human sacrifices to the devil in cemeteries or places where they can’t be seen. That’s why we have to enjoy this time but paying special attention to our little boys and girls!

Chilean Miner Rescue

Since August 5, 2010, 33 miners where buried by a landslide caused by a stone explosion in San Jose, Chile. The first prediction the engineers gave was that they must wait for three or four months. They have been waiting for two months to be rescue; however, after a couple of weeks, good news came to our ears when engineers said the rescue process has advenced very good and they can reach miners in a couple of months.

The miners had to take off their cloth because of the high temperature they have to face in the cave where they are. They only had food for two day, but they have had water that goes to them by a natural duct. After engineers could introduce some probes to find them, they started to feed them and give them the chance to talk to their families, to make them stronger while they have to hold in ther.

Many people from the rescue group are anxious to help them to reach the surface of the mine, but also the survivers of a past tragedy of a chilean soccer team that was lost in the mountains for almost three months, went to give them the support to hold. Besides them, the miners' families are waiting for them. This week, we had very good news when we knew they would be rescue this weekend! A unusual situation that has people worried about a special miner is that his wife and his unknown girlfriend are desperate to clarify this unconfortable situation.

The Andean Condor

Talking about climate changes and animals in danger of extinction, I want to talk about the Andean Condor, an animal that has a special role as the symbol in the patriotic and historical Colombian coat of arms of my country and many others in South America, such as Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Ecuador. Condors were considered important since many ancient cultures inhabitant the Andean Mountains for its power and health. People used to think they have medicinal features, and since that time, they started to hunt them trying to get condors organs.

The Andean Condor is a species of South American bird with the largest wings in the world that spans with 3.2 m and can flight up to 16000 feet, going to places where no one or nothing can reach easily. This bird can be found in the Andes Mountains and Pacific coasts of western South America. However, the human hunting activities have reduced their habitat and have caused also, the almost extinction of this interesting and imposing animal.

The condor feeds itself on carrion and prefers carcasses from big animals; it also has the longest life time, up to 50 years, and it reaches their sexual maturity at age of six years. They have two eggs in each birth doing human task a hard process to increase their population. The most sadly thing is that presently we can only find EIGHT different condors known flying in the Andean!! This is really disappointed!

Facebook

Some time ago I saw a colombian investigative journalism tv program. It was about a young girl who was killed by unknown people and with unknown reasons. She had two brothers, a lot of cousins, and a bounch of friends, in and out of Facebook. After her death and when some days passed, her family could think clearly about the tragic incident, and seeing that police didnt get the responsible people of that, decided to look for the killer themselves. Is not a mistery that many of these incidents where people is murdered, continue opened for many years without a solution. One of her brothers was out of the country and the other was in it. The very first went back to Colombia and started a detailed search of his sister's friends in Facebook, in which web page she had almost two thousand friends in two different profiles: the first one was open to everyone, and the last one was private for  the closest firneds and relatives. The cousins of the brothers wanted to be added to the search, as their friends also did when a hint to solve the mistery was found: a videotape of the security records of the building where the girl was living with her family, and in where she appeared with some friends the day she was murdered.

For five days ten people - brothers, cousins and friends - compared each picture of her facebook's friend lists with the images of the videotape.The results didn't wait too long for showing something: the main person who appeared in the video and very close to her the day she died, was one of her firneds in facebook! The best hint they got to find him was that he almost always used to wear the same shirt in pictures, as he did in the video. They read all the postings he did after his friend death they knew he was the killer, and sent to the police all the investigation they did. The guy was found gilty and condenated to life imprisonment. The postings the guy did were very obvious: pictures with jackets they stole from her closet, in special one white she used to love and wear all the time; messages in his wall where he was selling staff he stole from the house, such as alcoholic drinks, vhs, laptops, cams, camrecorders, etc. Finally, the case was closed and someone was paying for it...

My sister's scary stories

When my sister was working in the evening shift in the store she works, she used to come home really late, an sometimes she had to drive to CVS or ShopRite to buy her baby's staff. I couldn't do it because i didn't have a car in that time, and I was always studying and sitting my niece. Anyway, the thing is she had to go almost always alone to do this. One day she was coming from ShopRite and had to pass by Toy's R Us. That night was raining and was darker than the usual; it was also eleven at night. When she did the curve in there, she saw one person stand in the sidewalk, like waiting for something or someone. The big problem the situation had was that the bus was not able at that time, almost at the middle of the night. Even if you have to call a taxi cab, you have to specify the axactly adress. However, when she passed in front of him, she turned to see what happend to him, but he never move his body. She only could see someone with black jacket and his or her covered. Even my sister tried to see his face, she only could see a white but the face. Paola told me she felt something strange and she got nerviois. When she drove to home I saw she was frightened, she was so scared, at the point she forgot in the porche some movies she had rented that night, to spend some time together in family. She had to take a chamomile tea and calm down for a while, and then we could see one of the movies she got for us..

"Sorry" revive people?

I was relaxing at home today after a very long day, and I wondered to know what was happening in the world. So, I decided to watch the news and found out a harsh reality: some people in the world do not deserve to know what they know! People can be mind, careless about other people and animals, but this is a point to analize and assess what are we doing to us and other, even though we do not know them.

The news I saw talked about american scientists who were asking forgiveness to the Guatemala government, a latin country located in Center-America. Why? Because more than 60 years ago, between 1946 and 1948 the labs where these scientists were working decided to produce vaccines against sexually transmitted deseases. To have the people to experiment, silent and cruelly, they took the decision to infect to hundred of people in Guatemala, starting with prostitutes to infect hundreds more men, and continuing with prisoners, orphan children, and mentally ill people. With this they killed innocent people trying to reach their "goal".

Am I wrong or we have to have a freaky mind to only think about actions like these? We are distroying our own race in order to get whatever we want to reach. It is true we have to do some sacrifices to find out the solutions or cures to this type of deseases; however, is it necessary to hurt innocent people like this, attack a poor country to have any reward? I do not think so. We have to respect one another. A single sorry is not enough, or can't revive the people they killed with that experiment.