viernes, 13 de julio de 2012

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS


HAVE A GREAT SUMMER HOLIDAY



martes, 29 de mayo de 2012

Abraham Lincoln






Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States from 1861 until 1865, his assassination.



He grew up in a poor family on the western frontier, so Lincoln was self- educated but however he became a country lawyer, Illinois state legislator in the 1830s, a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives in the 1840s, but he failed twice to be elected to the United States Senate in the 1850s. He was a person who opposed slavery in the United States, and after this, he won the Republican Party nomination and was elected President of the US in 1860.


Lincoln exercised war powers, which included the arrest and detention without judgment of thousands of secessionists. Moreover, his efforts to the slavery abolition included issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging frontier states to ban slavery and helping get though Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and he did the job in 1865. 

Under his leadership, the Union established a naval blockage that close down the South’s normal trade, took control of the frontier slave states at the beginning of the war and tried to catch the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Many generals failed and each time that these generals failed, Lincoln replaced another until Grant succeeded in 1865.

He approached to War Democrats and managed his own re-election in the 1864 presidential election. Politically, he fended with patronage; he pitted his opponents and appealed to the American people with the power of oratory.

Lincoln delivered a speech in 1863; it was a symbol of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty and democracy.  But six days after the delivery of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth. His death was the first murder of  a U.S. president.

Lincoln has been classified by people as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents.


Marta Alcover Ibáñez

lunes, 28 de mayo de 2012

Sitting Bull


Hi everyone, I'm gonna tell you some facts of the life of this incredible man, a man that I admire a lot.

Sitting Bull(1831-1890), also known by his Sioux name Tatanka Iyotanka, was a native Amerindian chief of the Sioux's tribe Hunkpapa.

He was born in 1831 near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Dakota Territory. When he was born he was named Jumping Badger but there is a Sioux tradition by which he was later given one of his father's names, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka, Sitting Bull in English.

In the Dakota War of 1862 the Sioux killed 600 settlers and soldiers in Minnesota as a response to the bad treatment that the Sioux have received by the gorvernment. Because of that, in 1864 about 2200 American soldiers attacked a Sioux village. The defenders were led by Sitting Bull among others Sioux chiefs. But as a result the Sioux were driven out.
In September of the same year Sitting Bull was shot but the wound wasn't too serious.

During the period 1868–1876, Sitting Bull became the most important of Native American chiefs as most of the chiefs had moved to live in the reservations where they were dependent for subsistence on the US Indian agencies. But Sitting Bull refused to adopt any dependence and he and his warriors lived isolated on the Plains. Every Amerindian tribe which was threatened by the white people asked for Sitting Bull's help, and their people became really numerous.

On June 25, 1876 the Americans attacked the Sitting Bull's camp, the Little Big Horn River, but they didn't know how large the camp was so they were defeated by the Amerindian warriors. Over the next year, the new American military forces pursued the Sioux, forcing many of them to surrender. Sitting Bull refused to surrender and in May 1877 led his band across the border into Saskatchewan, Canada.
But in 1881 hunger and cold forced Sitting Bull and the people who remained with him to surrender.

At first they were recluded as prisoners of war in the Fort Randall but 20 months after they were allowed to come back to to the Standing Rock Agency. But when the Ghost dance took place the American feared it and thought that Sitting Bull was one of the leaders of this Ghost dance. Finally he was killed by a Sioux, their people got angry. As a result 8 policemen and 7 of his supporters died that day.

As time passed, Sitting Bull became a symbol and archetype of Native American resistance movements .

I hope you like the life of this amazing man, a symbol for many people, a hero for a society.

Borja Gil García

domingo, 27 de mayo de 2012

Films



Hi everybody!


In class we spoke about this film. I don't know if you have seen it but it is an interesting film.


REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is a story adapted from the novel by Richard Yates. Revolutionary Road is a portrait of an American marriage in 1950s.
Frank and April Wheeler are a special and different couple who will to live their lives based in their ideals. Apparently, they are a happy couple with two children. However, when they move to the suburbs in Connecticut, the Wheelers find themselves becoming what they didn’t expect: people with a routine life like the others. Then, they have to decide if they fight for their dreams or resign themselves.

In this film we can see the different aspects of the 1950s; the age of conformity, in which families became suburban.

You can find more information here:


JOHN WINTHROP

John Winthrop was born in Groton, Suffolk, England in 1588. He studied law in London but he was persecuted due to his Puritan religious beliefs. Winthrop thought that the Church of England should abbolish bishops and relics of Roman Catholicism. He served as governor of Massachusetts for twelve terms and was considered to be a good leader. However, in 1636 he clashed with Roger Williams and was forced to banish from the colony.

In addition, in 1645 Winthrop became the first president of the Confederation of New England. His book History of New England was published after his death in 1649.

A Model of Christian Charity is a sermon delivered to his fellow Puritans colonists aboard the ship Arbella before landing at Massachusetts Bay Colony. However, it is known because of the phrase ''City upon a Hill'' which became the ideal New England colonists placed upon their capital city (Boston). 



Here you can take a look at the main points of this sermon:

''God has made different classes of men, and, indeed, of all things. All men are not created equal. The reason herof:
In conformity to the rest of the world and demonstrating his wisdom, God created a great variety and differences in his creatures for the persevation of the whole.

The differences give humans the opportunity to manifest the work of the Spirit withhim them.


God made variey any differences so that all men would have a need of one another.'' [...]





Harriet Tubman

Hey guys! I was studing for tomorrow's exam and I thought that it would be interesting to know more about Harriet Tubman


Harriet Tubman (Araminta Harriet Ross) was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Given the names of her two parents, both held in slavery, she was of purely African ancestry. She was raised under harsh conditions, and subjected to whippings even as a small child. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to assist in tying up a man who had attempted escape.
Tubman was given a piece of paper by a white neighbor with two names, and told how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At the first house she was put into a wagon, covered with a sack, and driven to her next destination. Following the route to Pennsylvania, she initially settled in Philadelphia, where she met William Still, the Philadelphia Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. With the assistance of Still, and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, she learned about the workings of the UGRR.In 1851 she began relocating members of her family to St. Catharines, (Ontario) Canada West. North Street in St. Catharines remained her base of operations until 1857. There she worked at various activities to save to finance her activities as a Conductor on the UGRR.
After freeing herself from slavery, Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland to rescue other members of her family. In all she is believed to have conducted approximately 300 persons to freedom in the North. 
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Tubman served as a soldier, spy, and a nurse, for a time serving at Fortress Monroe. While guiding a group of black soldiers in South Carolina, she met Nelson Davis, who was ten years her junior. Denied payment for her wartime service, Tubman was forced, after a bruising fight, to ride in a baggage car on her return to Auburn.
Source: http://www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/life.htm

sábado, 26 de mayo de 2012

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897)



Harriet Ann Jacobs was slave but she could escape from slavery to the north and there wrote her only work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, was one of the first autobiographical narratives about the fight for freedom of the slaves and story of the sexual abuse they suffered. She changed all the names of people and cities because she didn’t want to compromise anyone for helping her.
After all, she became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. For a short time Harriet worked in Rochester in New York in Anti-Slavery Office where they became acquainted with Frederick Douglass, Amy Post and other abolitionists.
Harriet died in Washington on 7th March in 1897.



viernes, 18 de mayo de 2012


Annie Besant (1847 - 1933)


Besant was a British social reformer, campaigner for women's rights and a supporter of Indian nationalism.
Annie Woods was born in London on 1 October 1847. She had an unhappy childhood, undoubtedly partly due to her father's death when she was five. Annie's mother persuaded her friend Ellen Marryat, sister of the writer Frederick Marryat, to take responsibility for her daughter and Ellen ensured that Annie received a good education.
In 1867, Annie married Frank Besant, a clergyman, and they had two children. But Annie's increasingly anti-religious views led to a legal separation in 1873. Besant became a member of the National Secular Society, which preached 'free thought', and also of the Fabian Society, the noted socialist organisation.
In the 1870s, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh edited the weekly National Reformer, which advocated advanced ideas for the time on topics such as trade unions, national education, womens' right to vote, and birth control. For their pamphlet on birth control the pair were brought to trial for obscenity, but were subsequently acquitted.
Besant supported a number of workers' demonstrations for better working conditions. In 1888 she helped organise a strike of the female workers at the Bryant and May match factory in east London. The women complained of starvation wages and the terrible effects on their health of phosphorus fumes in the factory. The strike eventually led to their bosses significantly improving their working situation.
Social and political reform seems not to have satisfied Besant's hunger for some all-embracing truth to replace the religion of her youth. She became interested in Theosophy, a religious movement founded in 1875 and based on Hindu ideas of karma and reincarnation. As a member and later leader of the Theosophical Society, Besant helped to spread Theosophical beliefs around the world, notably in India.
Besant first visited India in 1893 and later settled there, becoming involved in the Indian nationalist movement. In 1916 she established the Indian Home Rule League, of which she became president. She was also a leading member of the Indian National Congress.
In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé and adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she claimed was the new Messiah and incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929.
Besant died in India on 20 September 1933.



miércoles, 16 de mayo de 2012

Indigenous Culture and Art of Australia




1. The British conquest was in 1788 in…

a) Canberra
b) Sidney
c) New Zealand

2. During the British settlement…

a) Aboriginal people had nationality and rights
b) Were not ruled by the settlers
c) Over the 50% of the Aboriginal population died.

3. Aboriginal art:

a) it is  not recognised by the western
b) it is exhibited in eminent museums
c) it is not important in the international art market


4. Aboriginal culture:


a) arrived to Australia around 70,000 years ago
b) it is not an ancient culture
c) is a wealthy old tradition

5.Dreaming stories are displayed:

a) only in art
b) art, music, dancing and storytelling
c) art, music, dancing and cinema


BLANCA MOLINA
JUDITH SERRANO
PATRICIA PALOMINO
CRISTINA LUQUE
MIHAELA DUMITRU

lunes, 7 de mayo de 2012

Route 66



QUESTIONS:


‎1. In which city does Route 66 start in?
 
A) New York
B) Madrid
C) Chicago
D) Mexico


2. What city signals the end of Route 66?

A) Los Angeles
B) Oklahoma 
C) Boston
D) California

3. What U.S. president helped to make Route 66 a historic site?

A) George Bush
B) Bill Clinton
C) Barack Obama
D) George Washington 

4. During what great economic downturn was Route 66 built? 

A) Second World War
B) Dust bowl
C) Independence War 
D) The Great Depression


Members:

Juan Tamayo 
Emily Cundick
Miriam Cabanillas
Jonas Stensgaard

References:

Wikipedia 
Google
Cartoteca de la Facultad de Geografía y História UV.

sábado, 5 de mayo de 2012

TV Series and Social Changes in the US



Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels and Generation X were TV series from the 70s
a) True.
b) False.

What was the main theme of the 80s series?

What was very popular among young people in the 90s?
a) Body piercing and leather jockets.
b) Body piercing and tattoos.
c) Tattoos and gothic clothes.

The sixties, marked by the western genre of TV Shows, were replaced by allien and sc-fi TV series.
a) True.
b) False.

What was the main genre of TV series in the 90s?


Beatriz Martínez Ortega
Virginia Coll Rodriguez
Álvaro Moltó Pérez
Jose Vicente Benavent Cháfer
Enrique González Rodríguez

Blibliography:
  • Wikipedia.
  • Corcos, Christina A. VISITS TO A SMALL PLANET: RIGHTS TALK IN SOME SCIENCE FICTION FILM AND TELEVISION SERIES FROM THE 1950s TO THE 1990s.

viernes, 4 de mayo de 2012

Digital Story 2012 final project



QUESTIONS:

1. What was the aim of immigrants to come to Britain?
a) because it is a touristic plalce
b) because of the drought in their motherlands
c) because they were looking for work
d) they wanted to learn English

2. What happened after the arrival of immigrants?
a) the British economy grew and there was a demand for labour
b) the British people discriminated against the immigrants
c) the situation for immigrants was so bad that they become homeless
d) all the British people were openminded and friendly with the immigrants

3. In British tv series, which ethnicities generally represent the upper-class?

a)indians
b)chinese
c)white-british
d)africans

4. Which work won the Bokker-Prize?

a)Gone too far!
b)Mende Nazer's autobiography
c)Midnight's Children
d)Never let me go

Members:
Andrea Mascarell
Diana Banu
Cristina Cerezo
Burak Giray
Gabriel Mayer

Advertisement in Super Bowl


Questions


  1. What was the game called before being Super Bowl?
a)      Champions League
b)      NFL- Championship Game
c)      NFL-AFL World Championship Game

  1. Which commercial was the first famous one?
a)      Noxzema
b)      Gillette
c)      Coca-Cola

  1. When does the most expensive advertisement appear?
a)      At the end of the match
b)      After the big show
c)      In the halftime break

  1. Which of these statements are true and which are false?
-Christmas, Super Bowl ands Thanksgiving are the most important cultural events during the year.
-M&M’s, H&M and Coca-Cola have appeared for the first time this year.
- In this year’s edition, the final has been held in Texas.
- 51% of viewers watch the commercials more than the actual game.

  1. How much costs a 30 seconds long commercial during Super Bowl?
a)      1.7 million dollars
b)      1.5 million dollars
c)      3.5 million dollars

Ana Tamarit Izquierdo
Paula Gandia Fornes
Jimmy Ewertsson
Joakim Persson

Important people of 20th and 21st centuries

Video link

QUESTIONS:

1.Racial segregation is:
a. to keep one group of people separated from another and treat them differently because of race.
b. to though out of the country people from another races.
c. to accept people from different races.

2. Why was Rosa Parks arrested?
a. She made a public scandal.
b. She refused to cede her seat to a white passenger.
c. She sat on a bench where a white person was already sitting.

3. What was the famous speech of Martin Luther King?
a. “ There is no black America and white America, a Latino America and Asian America, there’s the United States of America”
b. “Action Now”
c. “I have a dream”

4. True or False:
a. Obama was the first black candidate for Presidential Elections in US  _____
b. Civil Rights Act was established  in 1965  _____

MORE THAN A BEVERAGE

Digital story telling: MORE THAN A BEVERAGE

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_sNR6vc42nk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 María Forner Palanca
 Carla Pavía Fayos
Joana Montoya
 Antonia Antonova Boyadzhieva
Joan Miguel Darós

 References:
www.tea.co.uk
www.allabouttea.co.uk
www.londontea.co.uk
 www.afternoontea.co.uk
 www.teaparty.org

 TEA, MORE THAN A BEVERAGE
 1. Where did the tea tree originally grow? a. UK b. India c. China
 2. When did the tradition of afternoon tea arrive in England? a. Boston Harbor b. Washington D.C. c. London
 3. Where did the tea party take place? a. 1060 BC b. 1660s c. 1960s
 4. What is the most expensive tea in the world? a. White tea b. Panda pooh tea c. Oolong tea
 5. Who popularize the consumption of tea in England? a. Charles II of England b. Catherine of Braganza c. Shen Nung

Million Dollar Money Drop with United States Art & Architecture


Here are our questions!

1. Art Deco's concern was more __________ than fuctional.
2. The Chrysler Building was started in 1928 and completed in 1940. T/F
3. What criticizes the Organic Architecture?
4. ___________ designed one of the most important postmodernist building of the USA, the AT&T Building (New York)
5. There are no differences in Campbells' Soup Cans. T/F

British Royal Family (digital story)



1. Who changed  the name of the dinasty from Saxe- Coburg & Gotha to House of Windsor?

a) George V                   b) Edward VII                  c) Queen Victoria              d) George VI


2. Camilla Parker was Prince Charles' mistress when Diana was alive. T/F. 

3. What's the name of the mother of Queen Elizabeth II?

a) Mary of Teck            b) Alexandra of Denmark       c) Elizabeth Bowes- Lyon   d)Margaret

4. Why was the name of the Royal House changed?

a) Because of the anti-German feeling
b) Due to a problem with the Spanish Monarchy
c) Because is the surname of the creator.

5. Who is Baron Carrickfergus?





Created by:
Marta Alcover Ibáñez
Cristina Brotons Fons
Belisa Beatriu Chulià Langa
Gülşen Kocaevli
Borja Gil García

D. S. Cultural Symbols (Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia)

Hello to everybody!

We are pleased to present you our video about Cultural Symbols in which we talk about four countries which were colonies of the British Empire.

We will enjoy the video through a tour in our "Happy Voyage Airlines" and we will discover some interesting aspects of these countries with the help of our guides.

Fasten your seatbelts and be careful with turbulence!

We really hope you enjoy the tour!






And here we have our 4 questions:

1) Who did King William III of Orange defeat?
              a)Henry VIII.
            b)King James II.
            c)Queen Victoria.
2)How many points has the Maple Leaf of Canada’s flag?
            a)6.
            b)9.
            c)11.
3)What does the Motto of South Africa mean?
            a)Divided people.
            b)Diverse people unite.
            c)Equal people.
4)What do you think is a swagman in the song of Waltzing Matilda?
            a)An itinerant worker.
            b)Landowner.
            c)A shepherd.


Members:
Àngela García Ibáñez
Natasha Martínez Caminero
Beatriz Prieto Bolinches
Mª Dolores García Jiménez
Rafael Martínez García

jueves, 3 de mayo de 2012

How to blog a video-clip from YouTube.

Go to the YouTube site where you video-clip is.
Click on "compartir" and then on "insertar". Copy the embed code (código de inserción).
Then access this blog and click on "new entry".
There are two options at the top, left-hand side of the page: redactar and HTML. You generally use "redactar" to write a post. Click on "HTML" and, once there, paste the embed code of your YouTube video-clip.
Then go back to "redactar". You should be able to see your video-clip now.
Add any text you wish and publish your entry.
The questions about your video should be included in the same entry.
When your questions are ready, access blog, edit your entry and type the questions. Publish.

Good luck :)

martes, 1 de mayo de 2012

BEHIND WW2. THE SUFFERING OF THE INNOCENTS.

Hello to everybody!

In the last class we were talking about WW2 and the attack of the Japaneses in Pearl Harbour. All we know many people died and it was terrible but, do you know what happened with innocent Japanese citizens who were living in US at that moment? Let me show you the other point of view. The other side.

The video I uploaded explains very well the tough life a father had. Being persecuted without reason.

The man who sings the song is Mike Shinoda, member of the group Linkin Park (although he performed this song with other group called Fort Minor) and in this song he explains his grandfather's life. A part from his voice, the other two voices which appear in the song are Shinoda's father and grandmother voices.

I hope you like it!


domingo, 22 de abril de 2012

Florence Nightingale




Hi everyone!
I’m going to talk you about a very well known and admirated English woman of the nineteenth century: Florence Nightingale (1820-1910).

She was an important and celebrated nurse, writer and statiscian.
She devoted herself with so much love to his profession as a nurse (she was convinced it wasa call of God”) that until our time is considered a great symbol of nursing, because of all the medical and hygienic reforms she made.

Florence was born into a rich family, belonging to high society, in Florence, Italy.
She decided to be nurser in 1844, in spite of the family’s opposition, since they expected that she become a wife and mother (victorian values).
She began to educate herself very hard in the art and science of nursing.

The most famous of her actions was her contribution in the Crimean War (1854). She and a 38 volunteer nurses were taken to the Ottoman Empire, where the main British base of operations had been settled.
The British soldiers were dying because of poor higiene and nutrition, and Nightingale fought very hard for improve the sanitary conditions .
Consequently, she helped reducing deaths in the Army during the peacetime and promoted better sanitary designs of hospitals.

During this stage, she got the nickname “The Lady with the Lamp”, because of the article that published the Times:

She is a ministering angel without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.


In 1859, she collected funds and created the “Nightingale Fund” for training the nurses, and then she opened in 1860 the “Nightingale Training School”, in the Saint Thomas Hospital.

She died at age 90, in 1910, while she was sleeping in her room of Park Lane.

Camden Lock





Hi!!
I've never been in Britain, but I would like.
It is a country so famous that even if you have not been, you know many of the most known places, like the Big Ben, the  Stonehenge, the Windsor castle, the London eye....

I think London is the most visited city.  Anyway, If I had the opportunity to visit this country, I would go without thinking twice to Camden Lock, in London, located in the Regent Canal.
This is a bohemian district, with  lots of open-air markets and food stalls.
The markets are very large and crowded. The streets , in the photos, seem to be full of life. There are many colours and people of different styles.

There are very famous clothing stores and the pubs: there’s much nightlife and young people.
I think it really woud be an interesting and curious place worthy of visiting.
Don’t you think the same?
Best wishes!

miércoles, 18 de abril de 2012

MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT and SUFFRAGISTS


Millicent Garret Fawcett was born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk in 1847.  She was a British writer, reformer, feminist, suffragist, and political worker. In 1867 she married Henry Fawcett, an economist. He was a defender of human rights and because of his condition of blindness; he depended upon her all the time. That is why Millicent Garret started to be really involved in his work. In this year, she also became part of the management of the London National Societies for Women’s Suffrage.

Mrs Fawcett had been engaged for many years in the higher education of women and their political and economic future. At certain time of her live she became more prominent and active because of her husband’s death (1884) and also because of the division of the suffrage movement over association with particular parties, she was in favour of the non-alignment of the women's suffrage movement with political parties. Various small societies had grown up with the same aspiration, the advancing of the cause of women’s suffrage. In 1896 these were associated under the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, and Mrs. Fawcett in 1907 became the president of this movement.

At first she supported the more visible militancy. Woman’s Social and Political Union pledged to work by militant, with no lawful tactics. When revolutionary militants increased their violence she was strongly opposed to the methods of suffragists and all out disassociated the N.U.W.S.S .

Millicent Garrett Fawcett emphasized her efforts on a bill to achieve the women’s right to vote to singles and widows. This attempt failed and only the Labour Party had support women’s suffrage. Like clockwork N.U.W.S.S aligned officially with Labour Party.

Then she supported the effort of the British war in the World War I. She thought that if women supported it, women’s suffrage would be conferred when the war finished.

In 1919, Parliament admitted the Representation of the People Act and British women over the age of thirty were allowed to vote. The next president was Eleanor Rathbone. She and organization, now transformed itself into the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (N.U.S.E.C), worked for reduce the voting age for women to 21, as for men. Millicent Garret Fawcett disagreed some reformations by the N.U.S.E.C and left her position on the board of the
organization.
In 1924 she was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, and also became Dame Millicent Fawcett. Finally she died in 1929 in London.
If you want to know more information about Millicent Garret Fawcett and the Women's Right to Vote you can find more information in this interesting video-clip: 


domingo, 15 de abril de 2012

Gertrude Elion

Hello everyone!


Gertrude Belle Elion was born on January 23rd, 1918 in New York. She was a pharmacologist and a biochemist. She graduated from Hunter College in 1937 and, later, from New York University in 1941. Due to the fact that she was unable to obtain a graduate research position, she decided to work as a laboratory assistant and as a high school teacher. Years later, she stopped working as an assistant to Georger H. Hitchings at Burroughs Welcome pharmaceutical company. 

Gertrude Elion and Hitchings
In her numerous researches, she and Hitchings used the differences in biochemistry between pathogens, which are agents that cause diseases, and normal human cells in order to design new chemicals that were able to inhibit or kill the reproduction of some specific pathogens without harming the host cells. Both of them achieved new effective drugs against leukemia, gout, urinary infections, malaria, herpesviral and several autoimmune diseases. 

Gertrude Elion receiving the  
Nobel Prize of Medicine
In 1988, Gertrude Elion, together with Sir James Black and Hitchings, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Moreover, she obtained other awards: the National Medal of Science in 1991 and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Likewise, she became the first woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Finally, she died on February 21st, 1999.



domingo, 1 de abril de 2012

Rosa Parks pioneer in civil rights


She was born on February the 4 , 1913 in Alabama united states. She was raised in a poor family, her father was a carpenter and her mother a school teacher. During her life she took various jobs among them housekeeper, domestic worker and hospital aide.

In 1932 she married Raymond Park who was a barber and who belonged to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) . Some years later, she became secretary of the association.

All over her life, Rosa had seen the segregation between blacks and whites; the discrimination happened in every place. Even thought in public transport buses. Black people could not sit just anywhere they wanted in the bus. They had to sit in the back of the bus. If white people were already sitting in the front of the bus, the black person had to pay the fare, get off the bus, and reenter at the back door. Sometimes the bus driver just drove off and left them before they could get back on at the back door. If the bus filled up with people, the driver would ask a black person to move so he could reposition the movable sign which divided the black and white sections.

But on the 1st of December, 19995, Rosa and four other people were sitting in the first seats of the black setion of the bus, the driver moved the board back and asked the four to get out. The other three complied, while Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. The driver called the police and she was arrested. After this incident, she decided to stand up for her rigths because she was tired of being humilated.

As a result. Began a nationwide movement that launched the career of none other than Martin Luther King; which paved the way for the removal of tne racist and discriminatory attitude withing the United States of America.

On the 13th of November, 1956, the United States Supreme Court passed a court order which deemed the racial segregacion on buses to be unconstitutional. After that, Rosa Parks and her NAACP associates, suffered many attack from segregationists.

But life for Rosa and her husband became very difficult; both of them lost their jobs. They had to move to Hampton, Virginia and then to Detroid where she worked as a seamstress.

In 1965 she was appointed as a secretary and receptionist in the congressional office of African-American U.S.representative John Conyers. She worked there until she retired in 1988.

In 1977 her husband die of cancer.

In 1992 Rosa Parks published her autobiography .

Later on in 1996 she received honors such us the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinto

Rosa Parks passed away on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92.


Rosa Parks was and continued being a symbol of struggle on equal terms among human beings…

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.

RoSa PaRkS