Chilean and sports

Well i believe that there can be some things in our genes that makes us bad for sport. For example Chilean people are in average shorter that the world average. Average high in Chilean males are 172 cm and Argentinean is 176, so they have much more percentage of mens over 180cm, wich is a good height for a defense in soccer. And also the Argentina’s population is also bigger so they have much more people that, in terms of height, are good for a soccer defense or goalkeeper so in terms only of probabilities they have the advantage.


But I believe blame our genes is a really mediocre thing, because in Chile the federal agencies nearly never help the sports, there are a lot of dark things involved like “pitutos” and greedy so the main guilty of our bad performs is sports is the government and the lack of help to young sport players.

For example China’s average mens height is 166 cm, but they have invested a lot of money in sport, and now they are in number one in gold medals in the olimpics.

In Chile some time we are good for individual sports, because all you need is a person with a lot of skills and a wealthy family to turn that boy or girl is a successful player. That happen with Chino Rios for example.

Another trait with Chilean that can explain the bad performance in sport is that the young people don’t have real discipline compared to other races like Chinese and a good example is the football player Valdivia, wish has a great talent but is such a moron, but can be solved with a very good guidance like Marcelo Bielsa, that I guess it was admired for the players and impose this father-like figure that I believe is good for the soccer player. Borghi in the other hand is like a friend, a good guy that likes Barbecue and is really funny.

September 2011.. an unusual month?

Yes, i agree with Lourdes thinking. This September has been very strange mainly because of the Juan Fernandez accident. About the other issues pointes out by Lourdes, I believe is not a thing that makes this September special, because the protest are happening since many month ago and about earthquakes we all know that this month is far away from the worst month of the year.

But the Juan Fernandez accident is really something… is shocking to see regular people so sad about the death of the passengers, and all that sorrow is focused mainly in the figure of Felipe Camiroaga. I personally think that Felipe’s death is such a shame, because TV faces are extremely powerful figures in today’s life and is very unusual that they use that power to help novel causes outside “teletón”. Felipe was a example in that aspect because he help causes like the student movements and the Punta Choros thermoelectric plant very straight forward and directly.

About the festivities is not an unusual month at all, I personally went to the “desierto florido” this September 18^th and I go away from all parties and drinking, and try keeping in touch with nature as I always try to be.

The blogging experience

I think create this blog was a great opportunity to improve our writing skills wich many times are under valuated but in some cases it will make the difference. In the blogging we can practice our reading skills  as well, because we need to read other classmates post too and leave answers.

It is also very comfortable for us because we can write in our houses and the teacher can correct the blogs from her house too so is a easy but effective way to teach and learn, I can’t really find anything bad about the blog work.

The blogging experience is a great way to learn English, that’s for sure and I’m happy to have been part of this, but I don’t believe I will continue using the blog because I use other sites like facebook for interact with friends and flickr to show my photos and so far I don’t think the blogs (new blogs like mine) are readed for many people apart from the teacher and classmates.

The other think I want to emphasize about the course is that evaluations are very original and helpful…for example the dissertation in English is a excellent exercise because if any of us go to a foreign country to study, soon or later that person will have to have a dissertation in English and after this course we will have some experience already and I consider that very important.

The level of the course is very high but accessible for most people, I can’t wait for level 4 to keep improving my English.

Finally I want to thank all the classmates especially my friends Javier and Pamela for the feedback in terms of helping in the classes and the answer in the post and the teacher wish always have good disposition with all of us and is always there in case of a doubt.

Transgenic food

Transgenic are very extended right now... Ades juice and many many other common food are made with transgenic plants (especially the Soy).

I’ve heard that transgenic cause allergic reaction and other people say that they don’t cause anything bad... the think is that long term effects are really difficult to prove but unquestionable there are many reason for reject transgenic food like hybridation with natural plants, possible damage to human health, etc. But I believe all the fighting with against transgenic is a loss cause, because we want it or no transgenic are part of our live and there are in the supermarket everywhere.

A good way to fight them is force a special logo in the labels, something like “this product contains transgenic soy”. I’m sure the people will prefer to pay a little more for a transgenic free product, but for the same reason is obvious that big factories will make a huge lobby to avoid the labeling.

Transgenic are usually involved with monopoly too, this is other problem in modern days to, because the company who sell transgenic plant is the same that sell the herbicide that work with the transgenic.

So in resume transgenic are a very dirty world, related with monopoly, secrets, a lot of powerful people, ecosystem dangers, human health issues… is the opposite to traditional small scale agriculture and that’s why I’m totally against it.

Antumapu

Antumapu is a very special campus: you love it or you hate it. Personally i think is very beatiful and allow us to relax and be a little closer to nature. (Just a little, if you want nature, you must go away from Santiago)

In this days, we have no classes because of the studient's stike, so now is more quiet than ever and is a pleasure to be here.

Is amazing that you can find some very beatiful and rare animals here, some month ago i saw a Barn Owl (a white beatiful and elegant Owl) inside of the university.. the own was on a palm and stays there for some weeks.

Some negative things are the neighbour wich is kind on unsafe, but is not so terrible, the only time i have a trouble in this years (since 2004) is when somebody stole a cellphone from me, but it was far away from the university (departamental / santa rosa) so i don't think be here is dangerous. And the other day i went to a Servipag in a street near the university, and in the begining i thougth it would be dangerous but i was surprised when i get there because all i saw was childrens playing...so i think is a bit of prejudgment (from all of us).

A Photograph

Photography has something really magical, let you paint with light and allows us to bring back memories long time forgotten. It is also a way to express emotion and to show marvelous subjects such as Landscapes or a beautiful animal.

I really love take photos, it is a mixtures of so many thing that lead to a great photo: technical knowledge, patience, skills, even luck. It all plays a role so a photo is an unrepeatable moment, a fraction of second immortalized forever.

The branch of photography I like the most is wild life photography, mainly because since I was 5 or so, I went camping with my mother so I develop a great interest and link with nature and now is my passion by far so I believe I have a way to look at it not so common.

With photography you can play with exposures times and other factors, allowing us to see in a very different way than our eyes does. For example the photo attached to this blog was capture with a lot of exposition time (about 2 second), and with a very stable tripod, so all the things who doesn’t move look steady and clear (like rocks) but the water does moves in relation to the camera so it looks fuzzy, but the effect is very pleasant. And all this is achieved just playing with the light, no Photoshop involved.

Recently I’ve find out that have some photographic skills is very useful, for example I have taken photos in friend’s weddings and is a way to help them (because the hired photographer sucks!), because a nice photo of an important moment sometimes is priceless.

Pollution once again

The Ventanas case is very serious but it is not as unfrequent as we all want. Air pollution is something quite usual in this country, starting with the capital which is heavily polluted. I don’t know many other countries so I can’t compare the situation, but all I can say is that here the big companies have an excessive power, that can some times be more important that the people’s health, and that is the root of many problems.

It is inconcedible that because of the pollution a school has to close, and the pollution source is still open. Nothing will change if we continue trying to solve the problems once they happen, I believe the solution is to change the legislation, so many dirty factories can’t be so close to a city, must be a law that prohibit that, but here in Chile the interest about money is number one priority to the people who matter and environmental care is just a way to make that money income sustainable over the years, not the environment.

So, what can we do about Ventanas, now that is all polluted? I think that in fist place, all the factories have to install state of the arts filters on their chimneys, in Ventanas and in every other city, it doesn’t matter how expensive they are.
Second, we have to investigate how is possible to have so many industries near a city, and change the law to ensure that never happen again.

Japan's nuclear leak. ¿What does it says about mankind?

The nuclear leak in Japan is a very serious issue that will persist damaging people and animals for a long time since the day of the earthquake. It’s nothing less that the result of a history of unaware and disrespectful humanity to nature, that grows in exponential rates just like a pest with unlimited resources.

In a different scale, I must say that I’m very sad for the people that lives nearby because if they are not directly damaged for gamma radiation, they will suffer damages in their children and the zone will be for sure close for a long time, just like Chernobyl, and in a small Country like Japan that is very sad.

Like an ecologist, i must advise that all animals that grows in exponential rates, in some moment decrease it’s growing and eventually stabilize their growing rate according to the environment offer of resources and in other cases they all die: exponential rates of growing don’t exist in nature for a long time (see image).

This tragedy is a opportunity for others countries to harden their regulations related to the safety of nuclear power plants, and to avoid the building of nuclear plants in other countries similars to Japan in terms of earthquake activity.

Flickr, the photographers site

hi! i've been thinking about a web site related to my career but is not easy.. perhaps i have none :S

instead i'm gonna write about a photography website, that is a big hobby for me and hope some day it became my profession.

(I use my account primary for wildlife photoghraphy, so is kind of related with my career)

The web site is named Flickr and allows any one to upload photos in a relative good quality compared with others similars sites.

Flickr have millions of users of all kind, president Piñera have one and many other famous guys too, but for me is a great chance to see wildlife photography that others amateurs from Chile have taken.

I log in to the site nearly every day, to look for new photos, I have a lot of very good Chilean photographer as contacts, so if any of them upload a new photo, Flickr let me know so every day I can see tons of great photos.

But the think I like the most is that Flickr is very connected with google search motor, so if you look for “pristidactylus valeriae” in google images, 12 out the first 20 photos are taken for me, and that is a great advantage.

Finally, my account is http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardo007/.. check it out!

The Departed review

One of the last movie i seen was "The Departed" (Los infiltrados). This is a movie of 2006 and won the oscar award the same year for best movie, best director among others.

The movie director is Martin Scorsese a very famous guy and he has made a bunch of great movies like Gangs of new York and the cast is impressive: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, etc. so everything in this movie is big, expensive, very hollywoody and made for the great audiences.

But no everything is so great... because this movie has a dark side that no many people knows about it: Is a remake of a 2002 oriental movie whos name is "Infernal Affairs", really identical but the original one is much shorter, much more inteligent and fast, without the multimillionar cast, famous director and hollywood fancyness. So since the time i see the original i just don't like the remake so much… is sad that Scorsese’s first oscar come from a remake, he has some much better movies. And other think that i don’t like is the fact that if you are going to film a remake, at least give some credits to the original, but I thing that the fact that Departures is a remake will affect the admiration towards Scorsese and his work.

post nº 1

hey this is my post number one. Welcome all! My name is Bernardo, Bernardo Segura and this is my first class. To have a blog is something that i never thought about, because there are so much social networks in internet wright now that i feel overwhelmed and i can't be in every one of it at the same time. Facebook is just to much information to share, but here i am: with my brand new blog. Perhaps i can use it to share some information about wildlife and photos that i take (i love to take photos to wild animals and natural lanscapes). This course is a great oportunity to practice my english, and learn english is in my top priorities wright now, at the same level of my thesis. well, thanks for reading this..have a nice day Bernardo.

edit: i forget to mencion that i'm studying Agricultural engineering... actually i already finish all courses and right now i'm doing a master in wild areas and nature conservation.