Second Semester

Iain Mc Gilchrist: The Divided Brain

Hi, this is my last blog, and today I’m going to tallk about a really important topic in psychology, the brain. The psychiatrist Iain Mc Gilchrist in his talk "The Divided Brain", he says that for many years it has been said that such function does in the left or right hemisphere strictly is a serious mistake; while the hemispheres are biologically separated, united by the corpus callosum -which has diminished their thickness with the human evolution- But this does not mean that the functions are completely separate, is the integration of both hemispheres that humans can perform a wide range of activities. For example one hemisphere of the brain more attention to detail, while the other hemisphere has the monitoring function, that is, pay attention to everything going on around them.

In my opinion, this is a topic that has interested a lot to all those working in the mental health field, although the brain is still one of the great mysteries of existence, because it has a number of functions –is so well organized- it is difficult to explain. The important thing is always understood as a whole, not as isolated parts, but the sum of the parts is more than the parts separately.

Here the link of the video: 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html

Bye :)

English learning

Hi everyone, today I’m going to talk about my Engliesh course, this is my third year doing the English course in the university, when I left school I had little knowledge of English, I had English since ten years old but it was always difficult for me. I think that estudy English –Language in general- is important for life, used to meet other people, visit other countries and to study on the progress made ​​in psychology in other place of world.

I believe that in the English course this semester I learned many new things, things that before me were very difficult to do, but I think I'm a little better. The activities we had were very interesting, write a blog every week helped me learn to write and express myself in English. The other class activities such as talks and expositions, help me in pronunciation and creating ideas in English, although I not participate much, listening to my classmates helped me with pronunciation and better understand the language. I think the course is well organized and includes everything you need to learn English, but for people who do not understand or do not like much, sometimes it gets a bit boring. It is important to be making changes to the course according to the interests of students.

Regards, bye bye.

Schools kill creativity

Hi, today I to talk about a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, “Schools kill creativity”. Sir Ken Robinson speaks to us about the importance of the creativity in the schools system.   

Sir Ken Robinson talks about how the education Systems are organizad in general. It refers to that creativvity is left out of educational space, but from their point of view, creativity shlould have the same space as the literacy.

Creativity ir forgottem for two rehaznos, Fritz because it stigmatizes the mistake, because it is taught that wrong is the worts that can happen, and the fear not create something new and therefore misses the creativity in children and also in adults.  And second is the prioritization of subjets given  in the schools, math and lenguaje are more important than artistic subjects like arts, music, dance and theater,  but Why is this hierarchization?, Why education is focused in the head, leaving the body?. Regarding this, Sir Ken Robinson said that education systems are based on academic ability, because thet arise to supply the needs of industrialization, the subjects are more useful the more serve to work, leaving out many talented people.   

Sir Ken Robinson finally proposes to rethink the fundamental principles of education, and currently is running out a single resource –the ability academic- being that the people hace many resources, aims to educate people more complete.  

I think the conference Sir Ken Robinson is a very interesting proposal in education, so that speech can be seen anywhere in the world, in Chile and even in education that we receive. For example, the last year in Chile was proposed and carried out the reduction in hours of arts and technology, to increase the hours of language and mathematics, with special emphasis on these areas. It is important to assess the human as a whole and not only to emphasize academic skills, as these are a part of it and in doing so we may leave out important aspects of the person.

Bye bye!

A photograph

What memories! Hi classemates, today  I will show you a picture that reminds me very very nice moments. This photo was token in the summer 2010, while vacationing in Valparaiso, a beautiful holiday!, I went with my best friends –Carla, Andrés and Nicolás (he took the photografy)-.

In 2009, we were on vacation in Valparaiso because Gabriel – another friend- has a home in that city. And our week in Valparaiso just  coincided with the carnaval, it was great!

The carnival is really wonderful, in this edition there were many artists from different countries and many people in the streets, everyone was happy, singig and dancing until the morning.

This photo was taken the last day of carnival, this night we met with some friends and also we met many people from different places as Santiago, Brasil and Scotland, I remember that they played his bagpipe, while the people watched and applauded.

Oh, that nice holiday!

Bye bye!

Before Sunrise

Hi! Today I am going to talk about my favourite film; Before Sunrise. This movie was filmed in 1995, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. 

Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meet on a train that traveling to Europe. Celine is a French student who travels from Budapest to French; Jesse is a young American who traveling through Europe, after breaking his girlfriend in Spain. They are known on the way from Budapest to Vienna, but Jesse has a flight to EE.UU. and he has to wait in Vienna through the next day. Jesse convinces Celine to get off the train and walk together one night for Vienna -a magical night to remember forever-.

In the course of that night they visit many places in Vienna while they talk on various topics as life, death and sex. Finally they come to a park - is one of the best scenes in the movie- where it generates a great complicity between them. The next day they must be separated, and at the last moment, they decide to meet again in the same place (the station of Vienna) in six months later. 

I like this film because it tells a story about two people (very natural), which by coincidence or by fate the find love in one night, hoping to meet again in a more time. It's a simple story with a script that traps, which makes us part of the movie. There are also beautiful scenarios, as the little cemetery they visit, the record store, cable car, etc, that lets us know Vienna.

Ten years after being filmed “Before Sunset”, but that's not today's topic. 

Bye bye!

Stationary bike-desk hybrid generates energy to charge devices

Hi everyone.  Now goig to write about a very importante topic today. On the web  I found to news about  a new inventions  that produces clean energy. The invention is called WeBike, and is a “stationary bike, and pedaling creates electric energy to charge up devices (…) the “desk, made of aluminum, steel and cedar wood, uses an LED display to show how much power is being generated (…) The WeBike allow people to get work done, squeeze in some cardio and save environment”

The importance this news is caring for the planet, because they can charge small devices such as laptops, cell phones, music players, etc. If this invention is spread through the world –or inventes other- would have a great energy saving.

These inventions demonstrate the concern of people for the creation and utilization of clean and renewable energies. The energies are clean energy production system to the exclusion of any contamination, and also a system in which we dispose of all dangerous residue to our planet.

Therefore, this type energy has many benefist as produce less carbon dioxide emissions, are cheaper, less dependende on dirty energy, polluting and dangerous, and reduce the impact of climate change.

In conclusion, this news is only a small contribution to a topic that involves us all, in a cultural, social, economis, political topic; which over time becomes more and more relevant. 

Bye Bye!