100 YEARS WITH IBM

International Business Machines (IBM) is an American multinational technology and consulting firm headquartered in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.
The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation through a merger of four companies and adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924.
In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S., as well as the 7th most profitable. Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest firm by Forbes for 2011. Other rankings for 2010 include #1 company for leaders, #2 best global brand, #3 green company, #15 most admired company, and #18 most innovative company. IBM employs more than 425,000 employees(sometimes referred to as "IBMers")in over 200 countries, with occupations including scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals.
IBM holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide. Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, five National Medals of Science, among many others. The company has undergone several organizational changes since its inception, acquiring some companies and spinning off companies like Lexmark (1991).

Video on IBM's Centennial:

LET'S READ FOR INSPIRATION

Where did this little boy get the inspiration to write this?

"How tired I am of this unbearable distance between us. How I long for the toll of the recess bell. Have you forgotten me? Grown mindless of me? Tell me I am not writing into an abyss. Or that is what will become of my heart."

From reading! Why don't you?

Video "READING INSPIRES CHILDREN":

SIXTH ROLAND GARROS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR RAFA NADAL

For the sixth time in seven years, Spanish tennis-player has won the French Roland Garros Championship. Rafael Nadal equalled Bjorn Borg's record of six French Open titles after defeating Roger Federer 7-5 7-6 5-7 6-1 in a hard-hitting final at Roland Garros.
The world number one brushed off an early injury concern to move into a commanding two-set lead and seemed to be heading for an easy win.
Some inspired play from Federer caused Nadal to wobble at the end of the third set but the Swiss player could not keep mistakes out of his game and any hopes of an unlikely comeback were soon killed off by the clay court master.
Nadal raced away from his great rival in the fourth set to move level with Borg as the man with the most French Open titles since the tournament became an international event in 1925.

Video Rafa Nadal Clay Tennis King:

E.COLI CUCUMBER CRISIS

The E.coli cucumber crisis has hit the news throughout Europe this week. Here's coverage on the British media:

[bbc.co.uk]
E. coli cucumber scare: Spain angry at German claims

Spain has expressed anger at links being made between Spanish cucumbers and a deadly E. coli outbreak.
The country's agriculture minister said Germany pointed to Spanish cucumbers "without having reliable data".
Meanwhile, German officials have voiced doubts about whether the Spanish cucumbers they are investigating carried the deadly E. coli strain.
The outbreak has led to 16 deaths - 15 in Germany and a woman who died in Sweden after travelling to Germany.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease institute, says more than 1,150 people within Germany have been affected by enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, also known as EHEC.
In many instances, the gastrointestinal infection has led to Haemolytic-uraemic Syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney problems and is potentially fatal.
The RKI has confirmed 373 cases of HUS in Germany.
"We want Germany to provide, without any delay and distractions, the necessary information of its investigation", Rosa Aguilar Spanish agriculture minister
German authorities initially pointed to organic cucumbers from Spain. But Spanish officials have refused to accept the blame, saying it is still unclear exactly when and where the vegetables were contaminated.
Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar said: "We are disappointed by the way Germany handles the situation."
"We want Germany to provide, without any delay and distractions, the necessary information of its investigation so that the European Union can know what is causing the E. coli outbreak."
Speaking at an EU meeting in Hungary, she also said the issue should be treated as a "common problem" and that there should be compensation for Spanish and other European producers affected.
The Netherlands has also said it will ask for compensation.
The president of Spain's fruit and vegetable export federation has urged the government to deal with the outbreak, saying it was costing Spanish exporters $200m (£120m) a week.
Asked which countries had stopped buying Spanish produce, Jorge Brotons was quoted as telling a news conference: "Almost all Europe. There is a domino effect on all vegetables and fruits."
Authorities in Hamburg said four suspect cucumbers found there last week - including three imported from Spain - were carrying EHEC, but not the same kind found in patients.
"As before the source remains unidentified," Hamburg state health minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said.
"Our hope of discovering the source of the cases of severe complications with HUS unfortunately has not been fulfilled by these first results."
She also defended the decision to link the outbreak to Spanish cucumbers last week.
"It would have been irresponsible with this number of ill people to keep quiet about a well-grounded suspicion," she said. "Protecting people's lives is more important than economic interests."
Earlier, a senior German scientist warned that the outbreak could worsen.
"We hope the number of cases will go down but we fear it will worsen," said Oliver Grieve, of the University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein, where many victims are being treated.
German authorities have warned people to avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.
In Sweden, authorities said there were 39 suspected E. coli infections, including 15 with HUS.
On Tuesday, Swedish authorities said a woman in her 50s had died in hospital, after being admitted on Sunday following a trip to Germany.
Cases have also been reported in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.
Several countries have taken steps to curtail the outbreak, such as banning cucumber imports and removing the vegetables from sale.

Video from SkyNews:

Video from Euronews:

CHAMPION LEAGUE FINAL 2011: BARÇA BEATS MANCHESTER UNITED AT LONDON'S WEMBLEY STADIUM

Barça Football Club won last night their fourth Champion League Final against Manchester United at London's Wembley Stadium. Here's how British media have reported the news:

[guardian.co.uk]

Champions League press reaction: 'This Barça is the best team in the world'
• Spanish press places Barcelona in the pantheon of greats.

The Spanish press were united in hailing Barcelona's victory over Manchester United in the Champions League final as a landmark for the club and for European football. As they groped for superlatives nearly all the newspapers found space for a headline containing Sir Alex Ferguson's quote: "No one has given us such a hiding."
The notoriously madridista Marca saluted the victors as "A dream Barça", with all its echoes of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team of the 1990s. Indeed the paper referred to the "Pep Team" after their coach, Pep Guardiola, and described their football as "excellent".

La Vanguardia did not stint on the hyperbole with the headline: "Barcelona enters Olympus with the gods."

El País proclaimed: "Wembley falls in love with Barça." Recalling the club's first European Cup victory at the same stadium in 1992, the paper observed: "From Wembley to Wembley Barcelona has undergone an extraordinary process of maturing ... There is no better defence of an idea than victories, but there is no better victory than the fact that the stability of a club does not depend exclusively on a final result, but on a route map. That is the greatness of this Barça, which, make no mistake, will also be the principles that will enable them to vaccinate themselves in defeat."

The already pro-Barcelona Mundo Deportivo was beside itself and felt the best way to express its enthusiasm was by placing four exclamation marks after the word "Champions" (in English).

The celebrating Barcelona fans, the culés, have taken up José Mourinho's pointed question – with its suggestion of skulduggery – of "why?" do Barcelona keep winning as a chant: "por qué?". El Mundo Deportivo produced a long list of reasons why, including Guardiola's brilliance, David Villa's conclusive third goal, Eric Abidal's return from life-threatening surgery, etc...

In Barcelona 132 people, including 37 local police, were injured in disturbances as up to 50,000 people celebrated the victory on the streets. Police made 84 arrests for public order offences around Plaça de Catalunya, Las Ramblas and the Arc de Triomf which come in the wake of weeks of unrelated street protests in the Catalan capital.

Videos from Euronews:

GRIMSVÖTN: ANOTHER ICELANDIC VOLCANO DISRUPTS EUROPEAN SKIES A YEAR AFTER

Here's information on Iceland's 2011 volcano, which threats to close down European skies:

[bbc.co.uk]
Iceland has closed its main international airport and cancelled domestic flights after its most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting.
A plume of smoke has risen 20km (12 miles) into the sky from the volcano.
But Iceland's Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic.
Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, led to the closure of a large section of European airspace.
Governments feared that ash particles could cause aircraft engines to fail, and the closure caused chaos to air travellers.
Different ash
Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokeswoman for the Isavia civil aviation authority said: "We have closed the area until we know better what effect the ash will have."
The authority said Keflavik airport, the country's main hub, would remain shut for the rest of Sunday.
But officials say the eruption is unlikely to have the same impact as Eyjafjallajokul in 2010.
University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said this was Grimsvotn's largest eruption for 100 years, "much bigger and more intensive than Eyjafjallajokull".
He added: "There is a very large area in south-east Iceland where there is almost total darkness and heavy fall of ash. But it is not spreading nearly as much. The winds are not as strong as they were in Eyjafjallajokull."
He said this ash was coarser than last year's eruption, falling to the ground more quickly instead of floating long distances.

Video from ITN News:

Video from Channel 4 News:

SPAIN'S LOCAL & REGIONAL ELECTION RESULTS

Once again, we've looked at the British media to see how the news of Spain's local and regional elections has been covered:

[From bbc.co.uk]

Spain's governing Socialist party has suffered heavy losses in local and regional elections.
Amid anger at the failing economy, the centre-right Popular Party (PP) won 37% of the vote to the Socialists' 28%, and nearly all the 13 regions up for grabs.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero conceded defeat but ruled out early general elections.
There was a shock result in the Basque country, where a new radical separatist alliance beat the Socialists.
The new grouping, Bildu, which was nearly banned by the courts for members' alleged links to the armed group ETA, won more than 25% of the council election vote.
That put it second behind the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, which won about 30%, and pushed the Socialists, with 16%, into third.

Voting took place amid mass protests against high unemployment and the government's handling of the economy.
Young demonstrators holding sit-ins in Madrid and other cities said rallies would continue for another week.
Mr Zapatero said three years of economic crisis had taken their toll.
"It destroyed thousands of jobs. It is a crisis that had profound effects on citizens' morale. I know that many Spaniards suffer great hardship and fear for their futures," he said.
"Today, without doubt, they expressed their discontent," he added.
However, he vowed to pursue job-creating reforms until the end of his mandate. A general election must be held by March of next year. He has already said he will not stand for re-election.Bastions fall
Jubilant PP supporters celebrated outside their party headquarters in Madrid as the final votes were being counted.
The party seized power in several regions, including Castilla-La Mancha where the Socialists have always held power.
In municipal elections, the PP won by about two million votes, compared to its victory margin of 150,000 in 2007.

The Socialist party also lost bastions such as the town halls in Barcelona and Seville.
Prime Minister Zapatero's government has been struggling to overcome recession and create jobs.
Spain's overall jobless rate soared to 21% in the first quarter of this year, the highest in the industrialised world. Youth unemployment stands at 45%.
Meanwhile, thousands of young protesters remain camped out in squares across the country.
What began as a sit-in in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square a week ago has turned into a national protest movement popularly known as 15-M.
About 30,000 people were estimated to have occupied the central square in the run-up to the vote.
The protests, which have also taken place in cities including Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Bilbao, have so far been peaceful.
Demonstrators defied a government ban on political protests on the eve of the election.
On Sunday, protesters in Puerta del Sol voted to stay in the square until at least 29 May.

Video from Euronews:

SPANISH TAKE THE STREETS ON PROTEST BEFORE SUNDAY'S LOCAL ELECTIONS

The 2011 May Spanish protests, also referred to as the 15-M Movement, Spanish revolution or Indignados (Spanish for outraged) are a series of demonstrations in Spain whose origin can be traced to social networks and the ¡Democracia Real Ya! (True Democracy Right Now!) civilian digital platform, along with 200 other small associations.

Starting on 15 May 2011 with an initial call in 58 Spanish cities,the series of peaceful protests demand a radical change in Spanish politics, as protesters don't consider themselves to be represented by any party nor favoured by the measures approved by politicians. The protests have been staged close to the municipal elections, to be held on May 22. The press has related them to the economic crisis, Stéphane Hessel's Time for Outrage!,the NEET troubled generation and current protests in the Middle East and North Africa, Greek, as well as the Icelandic protest and riots.
Even though protesters form a heterogeneous and ambiguous group, they share a strong rejection against Spanish politicians, the current two-party system in Spain between PSOE and PP and political corruption and a firm support for basic rights: home, work, culture, health, education.
A protester in Madrid with the hashtag #spanishrevolution in his banner. Social networks have played a decisive role in these demonstrations, but Twitter has been the most important by far, with hundreds of tweets per minute in critical moments and some hashtags becoming rapidly global trending topic, such as #DemocraciaRealYa, #NoLesVotes, #AcampadaSol or #NoNosVamos.
These protests have also appeared in a critical situation: Spanish youths are academically more prepared than ever before but they're facing a 50% youth unemployment, and 89% of Spaniards think political parties only care about themselves, according to Metroscopia. Protesters' purpose is to camp in cities' main squares until May 22.
There have also been several protests outside Spain: Braga, Coimbra, Faro, Lisboa and Porto in Portugal, Dublin in Ireland, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Paris in France and London in the United Kingdom.

Video from Euronews:

GALICIAN'S LITERATURE DAY 2011: LOIS PEREIRO

Luis Ángel Sánchez Pereiro alias Lois Pereiro (born in Monforte de Lemos, 16 February 1958-died in A Coruña, 24 May 1996) was a Galician poet and writer. The Día das Letras Galegas ("Galician Literature Day") will be dedicated to him in 2011.
He was born in Monforte de Lemos, in a family from O Incio. He studied in the school of the Escolapios, and began to write at the age of 15. After finalising the COU left to Madrid, where he initiated the university studies of Political Sciences and Sociology. After a stay in Monforte working in the familiar company, devoted to the glass industry, he returned to Madrid to study English, French and German. There he founded the magazine Loia with Antón Patiño, Manuel Rivas and his brother Xosé Manuel Pereiro.
In 1981, he goes to live to A Coruña, where he joins to the magazine La Naval. In this period he made contact with a group of poets participating in several anthologies.
Between 1983 and 1987 he travelled throughout Europe. He worked as a German, French and English translator of scripts and, especially, for television, dubbing conventional series (episodes of Dallas and Kung Fu).
He published two collections of poems while alive, "Poemas 1981/1991" (1992) and "Poesía última de amor e enfermidade" (1995). In 1996, year of his death, "Poemas para unha Loia" was published. It collects works of his period in Madrid, published in the magazine Loia.
Pereiro suffered from AIDS, but the final cause of his death was a liver failure. Officially and according to a sentence of the Provincial Audience of Lugo, after a lawsuit, the reason of his death was an intoxication by rapeseed denaturalised oil.

Lois Pereiro's poems have been translated into English. Here's one translated by Jonathan Dunne:
V
What can I offer the one who attempts me?
Numbered days of inert passion
and eternal love always shared
with the debt owing to an existence
redeemed for usurious payments
conjugating the verbs “live” and “love”
in the first person plural
reduced to the forms of the present.

What can I offer the one who attempts me
if I’m a loose thread of the hope
Penelope weaves
and unweaves?

LORCA'S EARTHQUAKE ON THE BRITISH MEDIA

Last Wednesday afternoon, two earthquakes shook the town of Lorca (Murcia) in the southeast of Spain. The news has had coverage on the British media. We have found some examples:

[From bbc.co.uk]

Hundreds of people have spent the night outdoors in the southern Spanish town of Lorca after an earthquake which killed at least 9 people.
The magnitude-5.2 tremor toppled several buildings after striking at a depth of just 1km (0.6 miles), 120km south-west of Alicante.
Lines of cars lay crushed under tonnes of rubble and a hospital was evacuated as a precaution.
Wednesday evening's quake came about two hours after a 4.4-magnitude tremor.
It is not clear how many people were injured, although Spanish media say there are dozens.
Military deployed
Spanish TV captured dramatic images of a church bell tower crashing to the ground, landing just metres from a cameraman.
Shocked residents and workers rushed out of buildings and gathered in squares, parks and open spaces. Old buildings were badly damaged.
As night fell many people were still too afraid to return to their homes.
"The whole of the centre of Lorca has been seriously damaged," a delegate from the regional government of Murcia told national radio.
"There are thousands of very disorientated people."
A doctor told the online edition of El Pais that she and her colleagues went into the streets and treated people with serious injuries, many of them "unconscious".

Video report from ITN-News with footage from RTVE:

Video report from Euronews:

Video from BBC-Breakfast News:

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

[Extract from the beginning of the book. Read during the Intercultural Week, lecture on the USA, 10th May]

YOU don't know about me without you have read a
book by the name of The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was
made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth,
mainly. There was things which he stretched, but
mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never
seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it
was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt
Polly - Tom's Aunt Polly, she is - and Mary, and
the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book,
which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as
I said before.

Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom
and me found the money that the robbers hid in the
cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars
apiece -- all gold. It was an awful sight of money
when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took
it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar
a day apiece all the year round -- more than a body
could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she
took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize
me; but it was rough living in the house all the time,
considering how dismal regular and decent the widow
was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it
no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my
sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But
Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going
to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would
go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went
back.

Link to listen to it: http://content.loudlit.org/audio/hfinn/pages/01_01_hfinn.htm

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a book by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Considered as one of the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective).
The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Satirizing a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.
The work has been popular with readers since its publication and is taken as a sequel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". It has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. It was criticized upon release because of its coarse language and became even more controversial in the 20th century because of its perceived use of racial stereotypes and because of its frequent use of the racial slur "nigger", despite that the main protagonist, and the tenor of the book, is anti-racist.

THE CAT IN THE HAT

[Whole story read at Multicultural Week, lecture on USA, 10th May]

"The Cat in the Hat" is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella. With the series of Beginner Books that The Cat inaugurated, Seuss promoted both his name and the cause of elementary literacy in the United States of America.

In the first book featuring the character ("The Cat in the Hat", 1957), the Cat brings a cheerful, exotic and exuberant form of chaos to a house with two young kids, brother and sister, one rainy day while their mother leaves them unattended. The Cat performs all sorts of wacky tricks—the Cat at one point balances a teacup, some milk, a cake, three books, the Fish, a rake, a toy boat, a toy man, a red fan, and his umbrella to amuse the children, with mixed results, while the pet-fish gets angry. Then, the Cat gets a box from outside. Inside the box are two creatures named Thing One and Thing Two, who begin to fly kites in the house. The Cat's funny tricks are vainly opposed by the family pet, a sapient and articulate fish. The children (Sally and her unnamed older brother, who serves as the narrator) ultimately prove exemplary latchkey* children, capturing the Things with a net and bringing the Cat under control. To make up for the chaos he has caused, he cleans up the house on his way out, disappearing a second before the mother arrives.

The book has been popular since its publication, and a logo featuring the Cat adorns all Dr. Seuss publications and animated films produced after "The Cat in the Hat". Seuss wrote the book because he felt that there should be more entertaining and fun material for beginning readers. From a literary point of view, the book is a feat of skill, since it simultaneously maintains a strict triple meter, keeps to a tiny vocabulary, and tells an entertaining tale. Literary critics occasionally write recreational essays about the work, having fun with issues such as the absence of the mother and the psychological or symbolic characterizations of Cat, Things, and Fish.

More than 11 million copies of "The Cat in the Hat" have been printed. It has been translated into more than 12 different languages. In particular, it has been translated into Latin with the title "Cattus Petasatus".

Slide from the book:

View more presentations from neirten.

A beloved favorite, this Dr. Seuss classic comes to life in an animated adaptation. Impulsive and imaginative, the Cat in the Hat romps through the house dispelling boredom for a brother and sister on a rainy day — naturally, only while Mum is away!

Video clip of the animated version:

"The Cat in the Hat" is a 2003 American slapstick comedy film loosely based on the 1957 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss.

Video trailer of the 2003:

[*latchkey children = children who have the key of their house to go back in after school because their parents are working]

Tatiana & Charlene reading "The Cat in the Hat" at our school library in front of their class-mates and German exchange students on Tuesday, May 10th.

GERMAN STUDENTS ARRIVING TODAY ON A 10-DAY STAY

[Photo update: Spanish & German partners at Colegiata on Wednesday afternoon]

The German students from the Willstätter Gymnasium in Nuremberg will be arriving to A Coruña this afternoon. They take part in our school-exchange programme. Tomorrow will be their first day in our school. They are going to be with us until Thursday 12th May.
They'll be around our school, but we've also prepared lots of extra activities for them.
Wedsnesday 4th: Welcome breakfast at 10:10h at English classroom 2. Visit to A Coruña city centre in the morning, stopping at Plaza de Lugo fish market. Visit to the Old Town in the afternoon.
Thursday 5th: Trip to the Cies Islands with their Spanish partners, all day.
Friday 6th: Visit to the Bellas Artes Museum.
Weekend with their host families.
Monday 9th: Visit to the Hercules Tower and Aquarium in the morning.
Tuesday 10th: Visit to A Coruña's port in the morning and trip to Betanzos in the afternoon. In the evening, they'll attend Deportivo's football match at Riazor Stadium.
Wednesday 11th: Visit to Inditex's General Headquarters in Arteixo in the morning. In the evening, there'll be a farewell dinner with all the students, their host families and teachers at the school's cafeteria.
Thursday 12th: Trip to Santiago with their Spanish partners and departure from airport in the afternoon.

BUSY DAYS AT RAFAEL DIESTE'S

Definitely, we're living busy days at Rafael Dieste Secondary School.

Today, Tuesday 3rd May, our 1st and 2nd year ESO students have gone out on our traditional trip to Lugo, organized by the Religion Department. They'll spend the day in Galicia's Roman capital visiting museums, the Cathedral and the Roman Walls.

For the students staying at school, we'll receive the visit of Miguel D'Ors, a Spanish professor and poet, born in Santiago de Compostela in 1946. He's been considered one of the most important contemporary Spanish poets. His works have influenced many young poets and have been translated to English, French, Portuguese, German, Russian, Armenian and Polish. He retired as Spanish Literature teacher at the University of Granada. he has been invited to our school to attend a performance organized by our Reader's Club at 12:30h at our Assembly Hall. Students from 3rd & 4th year ESO and 1st Bac participate in it.

Tomorrow, 2nd year ESO-students will be attending Movilab, mobile laboratories at the Mendez Nuñez Gardens and 3rd and 4th year ESO-students will be marching at this year's Correlingua from Riazor to the Tower of Hercules in support of the use of Galician language.

23rd APRIL: BOOK DAY

World Book and Copyright Day (also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days) is a yearly event on 23 April, organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. The Day was first celebrated in 1995.

The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Spain as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day. This became a part of the celebrations of the Saint George's Day (also 23 April) in Catalonia, where it has been traditional since the medieval era for men to give roses to their lovers and since 1925 for the woman to give a book in exchange. Half the yearly sales of books in Catalonia are at this time with over 400,000 sold and exchanged for over 4 million roses.
In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on this date because of the Catalonian festival and because the date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the death of Miguel de Cervantes.

Although 23 April is often stated as the anniversary of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes, this is not strictly correct. Cervantes died on 23 April according the Gregorian calendar; however, at this time England still used the Julian calendar. Whilst Shakespeare died on 23 April by the Julian calendar in use in his own country at the time, actually he died ten days after Cervantes, because of the discrepancy between the two date systems. The apparent correspondence of the two dates was a fortunate coincidence for UNESCO.

Video World Book & Copyright Day:

Video "WHY READ?":

22nd APRIL: EARTH DAY

Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.

Video Earth Day:

Video Earth Day by Greenpeace:

25 YEARS OF PIXAR ANIMATION

Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville California, United States. The studio has earned twenty-six Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammys, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was acquired by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion; the transaction made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney. Pixar has produced eleven feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995. It was followed by A Bug's Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters, Inc. in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003, The Incredibles in 2004, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E in 2008, Up in 2009 and Toy Story 3 (to date, the highest-grossing animated film of all-time, grossing over $1 billion worldwide), in 2010. All eleven films that Pixar has produced have been largely successful, both critically and commercially. The $602 million average gross of their films is by far the highest of any studio in the industry.

All the films produced by Pixar are among the fifty highest grossing animated films of all time. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up and Toy Story 3 make it to the top 50 list of highest-grossing films of all time, with Toy Story 3 at #5, Finding Nemo at #21, Up at #39, and The Incredibles at #50. All eight Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for that award, commencing with Monsters, Inc.. Six of the eight have won the award: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3. Up and Toy Story 3 are among the only three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. On September 6, 2009, executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The award was presented by Lucasfilm founder George Lucas.

Pixar will be celebrating 25 years of animation in 2011, the same time its upcoming film, Cars 2, is released. Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary with the first Cars. The Pixar: 25 Years of Animation exhibition was held at the Oakland Museum of California from July 2010 until January 2011.

Video 25 years of Pixar Animation:

Pixar's first short animation story from 1986 "Luxo", Pixar's logo:

LEARN ABOUT EASTER, BEFORE GOING ON HOLIDAY!

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Christians celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday. The chronology of his deat and resurrection is variously interpreted to be between AD 26 and 36, traditionally 33. Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. The week from Palm Sunday to Easter is known as Holy Week. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of fasting, prayer, and penance. Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. It occurs during the spring, in and around the month of April. Secular customs, such as the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations and are often observed by Christians and non-Christians alike.

Easter eggs or spring eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. The egg is a pagan symbol of the rebirth of the Earth in celebrations of spring and was adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.

The oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. These eggs are often hidden, allegedly by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning. Otherwise, they are generally put in a basket filled with real or artificial straw to resemble a bird's nest.

The Easter Bunny or Easter Hare (sometimes Spring Bunny in the U.S.) is a character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs, who sometimes is depicted with clothes. In legend, the creature brings baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children on the night before Easter. The Easter Bunny will either put the baskets in a designated place or hide them somewhere in the house or garden for the children to find when they wake up in the morning.

HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAY!!

TSUNAMIS IN SPAIN? SOONER OR LATER, YES

This is a report appeared on April, 11th in Spanish newspaper "El País" about the possibility of a tsunami occuring in our country. The risk exists.

In 1755 a tidal wave swept through Cádiz and Huelva, killing 1,240 people; Spain has no early warning system to alert of great waves, experts warn Tsunami is a Japanese word, but that does not mean to say that destructive tidal waves only happen in the Pacific. On All Saints' Day in 1755, Cádiz and Huelva were hit by a devastating wave after an earthquake on an Atlantic fault line some 400 kilometers off the coast. Although far fewer people lived on the coast then than today, the wave claimed 1,240 lives. Scientists don't know whether history will repeat itself next year or in 500 years, but given the destructive power of this phenomenon, they are calling for an early warning system. The tremor is remembered as the Lisbon earthquake because it destroyed the city and killed 12,000 people in Portugal. It measured around 8.4 on the Richter scale, according to reconstructions by scientists, explains Emilio Carreño, head of the Seismic Network of the National Geographic Institute (IGN). "The quake was felt in Germany and nearly all the cathedrals with towers in the peninsula were damaged," adds Carreño. The quake generated a tsunami. The cliffs of the Algarve were barely damaged but in the zone between Cádiz and Huelva, home to marshes below sea level, it made a huge impact. In Ayamonte (Huelva) alone, 400 drowned. In Cádiz, where waves measured up to 6.5 meters, the governor ordered the closure of the sea wall gate, which helped save lives. The event generated so much alarm and surprise that it is well documented. Mauricio González, a researcher with Cantabria University's Oceanographic and Coastal Engineering Group and a tsunami expert, says the 1755 quake was not an isolated case. "Over 18 tsunami-generating quakes were registered between 300BC and 1900," in the Gulf of Cádiz. In the Mediterranean, tsunamis are less destructive but they can be dangerous for bathers, and low-lying zones in summer. Since the devastating tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, scientists began to study the phenomenon and how to predict it. A European project has now identified the possible sources of tsunamis and their effect. Since the Japan nuclear disaster, atomic power plants' resistance to quakes is also under review across Europe. In Spain, nuclear plants are situated outside the zone with the highest seismicity, and Lisbon 1755 was one of those taken into account. However, González explains, "there is still no early warning system. [...] In Japan, the warnings meant only a fraction of the deaths seen in Indonesia." Paradoxically, "Unesco's detection system would enable Spain to find out about tsunamis, but it wouldn't know how to respond to an alert," he adds. González has modeled the alarming impact of a tsunami on Cádiz, now home to 125,000. "A great tsunami will hit the Spanish coast tomorrow or in 100 years." It's just a question of time. RAFAEL MÉNDEZ - Madrid - 11/04/2011

WHAT'S A POEM?

Here's a poem by Charles Ghigna called "What's a poem?" in a slide based on Silvia Vardell's PowerPoint posted on her blog poetryforchildren.blogspot.com.