Hypatia

Hypatia was born between 350 and 370.
She was a Greek scholar from Alexandria in Egypt. Above all she integrated the tradition of Plato's philosophy. After she taught mathematics, philosophy and astronomy.

She lived in Egypt during the Roman occupation. Despite her good judgement, she was blamed because she didn’t want to become Christian and she was killed by a group of Christians at 415.

Hypatia was considered the first notable woman in history.



Adriana

revised by : Lara & Diana.

Thomas Rosický is Czech mid-field football player that actually plays in Arsenal F.C. He is known like “The Little Mozart” because he has a great imagination and a lot of creativity to make football. He also possesses an incredible shot that it destroy the defensive lines and his skills allow him to dribble and to face up with facilities. Then, his skills make him the best mid-field player on the Barclay’s Premier League.
the League and Rosický dedicated a great effort to overcome his injury. For this reason I All this qualities reinforce that Thomas Rosický is one of the best football players in the world. A horrific injury in the right knee obligates him to remove 18 monthsconsider him as a genius.

Xavi

(revised by Jennifer and Sílvia)

Leonardo da Vinci was born the 15th of April 1452 in Italy, and he was dead the 2nd of May 1519. Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, sculptor, inventor, musician, engineer and a painter. He was a Renacentist, an Humanist considered one of the greatest painters of all time in the history. Leonardo was spent the longest period of his life (nearly 20 years) in Milan, and then returned for shorter periods in futures years. He was honored with the title of First Painter, architect and mechanic of the king and a pension of 5,000 crowns. Leonardo da Vinci, painted the picture of “Mona Lisa” or “Gioconda” , and this picture is very famous because Leonardo applied his famous invention, the “sfumato”, and he gets this ambiguity in the smile and look of the girl. Another paintings are The Last Supper, Vitruvian Man, etc, and related to the military engineering, the foundry and assembly of the big guns.


I chose Leonardo da Vinci because I think that he was a great inventor of gadgets that we use nowadays, for example the parachute, the bicycle, etc. His painting was very famous in the world because he paints "Mona Lisa", a painting that doesn’t express the happiness but doesn’t express the sadness, and the look of the girl was impressive. I think making all this in a painting, the expresion and he look, was very dificult and he did it.

Maria

revised by ainoha, susana

Mozart's complete name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He was born in 1756 in Austria, and dead on 5 December 1791. Mozart was an Austrian composer and pianist. He was a master of classicism, considered one of the most important musicians in history. His first tours to Europe made him famous and was acquainted with the musical styles of Europe, and he was the first major composer who tried to establish a degree independent. Mozart is son of Leopold Mozart and when he was six years old, he demonstrates his skills in music. He married Constanze Webwe, sister of his former love and like many musicians of his time, Mozart died in total poverty.

I chose this character because I think that Mozart was a genius example for child, and left us with many major symphonies; among the most representative were Symphony No. 35 in C Major and Symphony No. 41 in C major. And the pieces he composed continue to affect today, both in his time as today's music, is much admired.

Joana

(Revised by Jenny Ganal)

Picasso

Pablo Diego Picasso was born in Spain in 1881 . He is reputed as one of the most important artistic figures in the 20th century as he is known for co-founding the cubist movement.

Since his childhood, Picasso showed a good artistic talent to paint in a realistic way. During the first decade of the twentieth century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. Picasso’s creativity manifested itself in paintings, sculptures, drawings, and architecture and qualified him as one of the best artists in art history.

Picasso’s work is often distinguished in periods. The most representative periods are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912) and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919). His most famous works are the proto-cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernika (1937), which represents the german bombardment of Guernika during the spanish Civil War.


Pablo Picasso died in 1973 in Mougins, France. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.” He was buried at the Château of Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence.

Jenni, Sílvia

Correctors: Joana and Leah

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (Thomas Edison)
He was born on February 11, 1847 and died on October 18, 1931.
He was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that influenced all the world, as the electric light bulb.
Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1093 patents in his name.
Edison is said: "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Jenny Ganal
revised by: Mireia & Marc C.

Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was an important character of the Renaissance. He was born in 1473 in Poland and he died in 1543 at the age of 70. He was the astronomer who formulated the first heliocentric theory of the Solar System.
I admire this character because he did an important step for the astronomy and he was very important for the scientific Revolution.

Marc Serra

Revised by: Sandra & Maria

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney (Walt Disney) he was born in 1901 and lived for 65 years. He is a famous person because he was producer, director, scriptwriter and entertainer.

I admire Walt Disney because he is a person that nowadays we can see these films and they are very ancient.

Also, the children and the adults like these films and it is very important because they spent a lot of time to realize and elaborate a goods films.

Lara

Correction: Marc Serra and Adriana
rerevised: Mireia & Marc

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is a well-known film director that was born in 1963 in Tennessee (America). His career started when Lawrence Bender offered him a job as a screenplay writer. Since then, he has directed a lot of exciting films that received loads of positive critics. The first film he directed was “Reservoir Dogs”, which won the Critic’s Award at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. There are also other films that have been directed by this cinema genius such as: “Pulp Fiction”, “Deep Proof”, and many more.
His work is valorized as the plot of his films is perfectly done and includes psychological elements in them. Quentin Tarantino is an example to follow by other directors because he is a cinema prodigy, and has and outrageous mind.

Leah

Dalí

Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in Figueres (Spain) he is considered as the most important painter of the surrealist art movement. He took over the Surrealist theory and he transformed it into a more positive method that he named “critical paranoia”.
He joined a Surrealist group in Paris where he meets Gala and he falls in love. They started a relationship that continued until his death in 1982.
During that period Dali focuses on eroticism and paints pictures as “The Great Masturbator”. At the age of twelve he discovers the style of the French impressionists and becomes an impressionist, later he knows Picasso’s art and become a cubist. Finally he died in 1989 at the age of 85.

Dali is known for his for his surrealist paintings, they are very impressive. He had the ability to create a personal style and recognized in all the world. One of his best known works is “The Persistence of Memory”. He showed provocatively all the intimate situations of his life and thoughts.

We admire Dali for his great imaginative capacity. For being like he was in spite of being criticized by it. As we can see in his biography he was very precocious
When we see his paintings we escape from the real world and we enter in a dream that we can control.
Two years ago I went to his museum house, and I saw a lot of interesting things and I could see how exentric he was. He only had his bedroom, he never invited to sleep anybody. He had a mirror in the bedroom focused at the window, so that when he awoke he could see the sun without leaving the bed. He was an interesting person .

Karen, Erika

Revised Maria and Sandra

Galileo

Galileo Galilei was born the 15th of February 1564 in Italia and he was died the 8th of January 1642. Galileo Galilei was a important Italian physic and astronomer. He created the telescope and he discover the satellites of Jupiter and the movement of this satellites around the World. Also he said that de moon shone thanks of the reflects of the sun. He thought the sun revolved in itself. He supported the Copernico’s theories of the movement of the World and for these reason he had a lot of problems with the theologians and the church. In 1609 Galilei created the refracting telescope, with this telescopes he discover the phases of Venus. The works of Galilei are:
• Sidereus Nuncius (1610).
• Il Saggiatore (1623).
• Discorsi (1630).

We admire Galileo Galilei, because he is a very popular genius and we work Galilei in primary and we think his discovers are interesting for Humaidan, because this discovers changes the concepts and the theories of the galaxy and the planets.

Ainoha, Susana

Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel was a revolution fashion designer and French creator of perfumes. She was born in 1883, in a very poor family that sometimes didn’t even have anything to eat.
When she was 17 years old, she learned to sew, and in this moment she dreamt to become a famous designer.
She opened her first hat’s shop in Paris in 1909 aided by men that she had sex relationships with.
Everybody saw in Coco as the pioneer of feminism and ready to break formulas and schemes. She criticised the feminism fashion (big hats laden with furs and flowers animals, corsets…)
Coco Chanel's mode is more simple, comfortable, straight lines, but with a touch to high distention. One of her famous phrases is: "everything that goes out of fashion is fashion". In this time launched in the market a perfume very important, Chanel Nº5.
Although the recession she designed the costumes by actress like Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly…
I admired this woman, because in this time when women were considered few important in the society, Coco transformed a feminism model of fashion and impose an other completely opposite. She was a woman with character and she was capable to dominate mens, they do what she wants.

Mireia Vilches
Revise by: Karen & Erika

2nd year - ei, you're a genius!

Ok - it's time for you to talk about someone you consider a genius. You need to: 1) tell us the most relevant details about this person; why was/is s/he relevant?; 2) tell us why you admire the character and 3) send us a link to a picture you'd like to show. Remember to sign your comments. Your comments are due by Friday 20 November.

Leonardo da Vinci was the renaissance man par excellence. He was born in 1452 and lived for 67 years, during which he cultivated the fields of botanics, mathematics, engineering, hydrodynamics, optics, anatomy, painting, sculpture, architechture, writing and music. He was a very curious man, and many of his works are considered masterpieces, as for example Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Apart from these works, many others have become really famous, as (among others) the Vitruvian Man (aka The Canon of Proportions).
His work, apart from being influential in different areas of knowledge, is the example of an extreme sense of curiosity, zeal for work and interest in life in general, which is an example to follow by present day people.

2nd years - Hide and seek

As we have seen in class, being a spy can be an interesting, but also a dangerous, way of living - thank God, lots of gadgets are always available to make life easier, as you will see in the videos in blocks I (spies) and II below (gadgets).

Task: pick up one video from each block and, after watching them as many times as necessary, send a comment to your teacher summarising the one from block (I) and giving your opinion on the gadgets appearing in the video from block (II). You must do this in class.

I)

Casino Royale - The poisoning

MacGyver

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfCa3wn37mU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIIIoDJPVAk&feature=related

Mata Hari

II)

Megawhat.tv

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-XYEHoF4Xo&feature=fvw

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUVfyNNfuvk

No problems with you English? Then click on this article on the invisibility cloak developed at Duke University. After reading the article and watching the video, comment on the risks and benefits of having and using such a cloak.

1st years - Laughing matters

Here are a few funny clips for you to enjoy. Watch and listen to them a couple of times; if necessary, use the subtitled fragments (remember you should select a fragment according to your level!).

Task: Write a summary of at least two of the fragments and, after deciding which one you liked most, write a short comment justifying why. Do not forget to write your name at the end of the comment and to send it to your teacher.

You can select your own video, but remember that it has to be in English (with or without subtitles) and that you have to include the link in your comment so that we can add it to the blog.

Just for champs: maybe you would like to check this link and tell us why D. Letterman, Johnny Depp and the whole audience laugh - what is the matter? How about some Roger Rabbit? Can you write a brief summary of the first part of the video (up to min. 4:10)=


Jim Carrey – Karate instructor

• Spanish subtitles

Mr. Bean having an exam

• Spanish subtitles

Little Britain – The reverend

• Subtitles: Spanish English

TV Commercials

• Beauty is nothing without brains (no subtitles)
  

• Makes good better (no subtitles)

Monthy Python’s Flying Circus

• Ministry of silly walks - Spanish subtitles
  

• How to survive a flight