What is ASMR

Well first of all ASMR stands for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response". The first time I heard this words I didn't understand anything, so that's why it is better to explain it with simple words. I would say that ASMR is a sensation you feel in your head or back, like a tingle. This is caused when you are feeling something really satisfactory,with a low and pleasant sound o even with visual stimuli you like. It is really hard to explain an abstract concept like this, so that's why I always tell everybody to try it.

There are lots of ways to feel ASMR and in YouTube there is a great diversity of these kind of videos. But here everything complicates. First of all I have to say that not everybody feels ASMR,I even think that only a few can feel it. This shouldn't be a problem, but sometimes these people think that these kind of videos make no sense and that are even creepy. At the end they despise this community and think that we, the people who listen to ASMR,are freaking weird.

On the other hand there are also problems for the ones who can feel it. Everyone is different so each person has a different "trigger". With this I mean that maybe a person feels good by hearing someone whispering but not by hearing someone tapping an object. Each one has to find his or her own trigger. For example I really feel pleasant by listening someone whispering, tapping hard plastic and moving liquid objects (like bottles or sprays). And of course there are sounds that I really hate, like metal and crystal ones.

To end this topic I want you to know some things if you are thinking of trying it. One basic rule is to wear headphones. Most videos use binaural sounds and can only be perceived by using them. The other thing I would say is that you have to be in a completely silent atmosphere, just to listen to ASMR and not to other thing that can interfere in it. But the most important one is to relax and enjoy!

So that's more or less all. Of course there are lots of more things to talk about ASMR like artists, different triggers, its benefits... but this post can't be very long, so you will have to discover it by your own. 

See you!

Net Neutrality

Today I'm going to speak about the net neutrality, which is a topic that not everybody knows about but that is so important for our lives.

Firstly I will explain what the net neutrality is. The net neutrality is the principle by which all the Internet traffic should be treated equally. It basically means that internet is an information network and it will be more useful if it is public and if everybody has the same rights and duties.

The net neutrality was overthrown in 2017 in EEUU and for a lot of people it means the end of the Internet like it was. Why? The answer is that it allows the ISPs or Internet Service Providers to control the Internet and use it to make a fortune. For example they will make that some services as mails or video games have bad internet connection and will make the companies that use those services to pay more money. Another way in which they can use the end of the net neutrality is that the ISPs can create two internets, one for the rich people and another for the poor ones. These are some reasons why some people have decided to fight against the end of the net neutrality.

Some of the most famous organizations are Fight for the future, Demand Progress y Free Press in which they have been fighting for ten years against the end of the net neutrality. All these organizations have created a movement called "battle for the net" in which they fight against the FFC (Federal Communications Commission) that are the organizations that apply censorship to media as for example TV or radio.

How will the battle for the net finish? It is difficult to predict because we, the people, are fighting for the net neutrality but the other team has the power of money and they are very powerful. So far, they have won the first battle, but the war will be long. Like the 22 million people who have already shown their rejection to the end of the net neutrality, I am absolutely against the end of it and I think that we have to fight because the Internet belongs to everybody and it should continue like that.

My trip to England

Two months ago I went on a trip, a trip to improve my English. I spent a whole week living with an English family (very kind and hospitable), and also going to lessons to a local English academy.

We were a total of about sixty students from the IES Virgen del Espino. The first day (Saturday) was a little bit busy. I woke up at four o'clock because we were meeting at five o'clock in the High School to take the bus that took us to Madrid airport. The plane took off at ten o'clock and arrived at half-past twelve in Bristol airport. After that, we took a bus that took us to Totnes, our destination. When we arrived in Totnes they distributed us in different families throughout the town. We were prepared to spend thirty-six consecutive hours with our respective families. 

On Monday it was our first day at the academy. We had to get up early. When we arrived at the school, they divided us into two groups. We did many funny things; except for the test that was necessary to prove our English level and to make the groups for whole rest of the week.

From Monday to Friday we went every morning to the academy and we learnt new things (local legends, customs…) and we also reinforced some grammar aspects. In the afternoons (or before lunch, from twelve o'clock to six o'clock), we did many different, interesting and funny activities, such as trampolining, going to the cinema, bowling, visiting different towns, gymkhanas... 

Saturday was a different day. We spent the whole day visiting a big city called Plymouth, in my opinion, very beautiful. It was the city where one of my native teachers was born, and his father guided us throughout the city, explaining to us the history of some of the most important monuments in the city. 

Sunday was our last day, we woke up early to take the bus that would take us to the Bristol Airport. They divided us into two different groups: the ones that would arrive in Bilbao (few people) and the ones that would arrive in Maddrid some hours later. 

This trip has been an amazing experience that proved us that we can live with a real English family talking English all the time…GREAT!!!

Is graffiti an art form?

For the last decades, graffiti have formed part of our street life. They are practically everywhere, in buildings, buses, in the railways… But is it considered art?

Some may think that it isn’t art, that it is disrespectful, and I understand this, because there are some graffiti that are just simple lines or words that are painted on private houses, buildings and just spoil public elements, not to say that it's really hard to clean them. I think that their main problem is the location. From my point of view, they should be promoted and be given more space in the streets for them. Some are just stunning, incredible works of art.

Some graffit are city-funded, that is, they are created to beautify the environment with some spectacular art work. In fact, in some cities like Stockholm or neighbourhoods like Brooklyn´s Bushwick, you can find enormous walls, for people to paint on them, to express themselves. You are even encouraged to paint on them. I think this is a great idea. Through graffiti there is a feeling of freedom and creativity, because street art is not just about painting on the walls, but about expressing yourself or your way of thinking. You don't need to be famous or be supported by art galleries and museums, you can just put your work when and as you wish in the streets.

However, now, with the social media, there are more graffiti artists that shows their works, and why they do it. Some of these would rather remain anonymous, because of legal and privacy reasons. And even some of the graffiti artists don't tag their work, and the mystery continues. The best part of this is that in most of the cases they are never like you think they really are!

There is also a kind of ‘hidden reason’ in the graffiti world: which is that painted streets show a colourful world that makes a life happier, because, it adds uniqueness to boring grey walls. You walk through, and it just draws a smile on your face. It motivates you. It makes people get inspired.

Now if you saw someone making a huge and beautiful mural, with incredible details, colours... Wouldn´t you call that person an artist?

The Large Hadron Collider

What can you do with a 27 kilometer tunnel that runs sometimes under France, sometimes under Switzerland? The answer is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). It is made up of two tubes, near 1500 electromagnets and liquid helium that cools everything to less than the temperature of the outer space. 

It took hundreds of scientists and engineers from many different countries around the world to build it. Directed by the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the LHC has been operational since 2008 and involves 2500 staff and 12000 visiting academics representing 600 universities. As we can see, it is an international project.

How does it work?

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

The objective is to focus and bend beams at a particular moment, and it is this collision that scientist are interested in.

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, Known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

Scientists hope that by colliding particles beams they will be able to answer some of the most interesting and challenging questions of physics, such as the theory that says that gravity only works at large scale and not in the aspect of the tiniest part of matter. This is one of the questions that famous scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, have been trying to answer but they haven't been able to.

Why couldn't you be the one to answer it?             

Drugs

Hello to everyone! Today I´m going to talk about drugs and their effect in society.

According to the RAE a drug is a substance preparation with a stimulating, depressing, narcotic or hallucinogenic effect. When we talk about drugs we relate them directly to dependence, violence or addiction. However some of them have benefits for us or are used for medical treatments such as marijuana, may be used for asthma, spasms, muscle convulsions, pain and as an enhancer of cancer therapies in places like Germany, Italy, California and Holland. But it´s also true that drugs cause a lot of problems.

These lasts years the consumption of drugs has increased: alcohol and marijuana are the most consumed ones, and cocaine addiction increases every day. Nowadays young people like to try drugs because at first they cause them happiness and wellness, but the long-term effects can be terrible for their health: like the destruction of neurons; development of psychiatric illnesses such as psychosis, depression or schizophrenia; injuries to the liver; malfunction of the kidneys and nerves; development of contagious diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis; heart problems such as heart attack; early death…

They also cause problems in our society, there are 4 million accidents each year because of drugs, 38% of homicides are committed under the effects of them, they are also cause for unemployment, family problems and divorces.

There are different ways to consume drugs: snorting, smoking, through injections, orally… Now it is very easy to get drugs, so you have to be very careful and not fall into this dangerous area.

Risks and benefits of Genetics

Nowadays, scientists are investigating and developing new ways of genetic modification. Great advances have been made through the years. Some examples are the production of insuline or animal cloning (like Dolly the sheep). Nevertheless, the science community doesn’t always have in mind that playing with life can carry some consequences. The study of these consequences is called bioethics.

In scientific language, bioethics is the study of the ethical aspects and the risks of life sciences (medicine and biology, mainly), as well as the relations of man with other living beings. Bioethics suggests that not all alterations or genetic operations carried out by human beings are correct. An example is the prenatal genetic alteration, cloning or chosen mutation.

These studies are related to all kind of science, but to resume we are going to focus just in the most important aspects of genetics that can have beneficial or harmful consequences which should be taken into account. The main points are: medicine, agriculture and food, environment and human genetics.

Regarding medicine, we can observe many benefits thanks to genetic alterations. For example, the prevention of genetic diseases, the production of medicines, different uses in forensic medicine and paternity tests or gene therapy. However, there are also some consequences, such as side effects from the consumption of genetically modified products or the creation of new diseases.

In relation to food and agriculture, genetics can increase the production amount and the nutritional value of food and at the same time increase the strength and duration of harvests, food and animals. But having in mind other points of view, that would mean a total control of the food market by multinationals in biotechnology.

Then it is the environment. On the one hand, modifications in genetic structure can produce biodegradable plastics or bacteria which feed in pollution. On the other hand, if the modified species are not controlled, there could be a displacement of natural species and genetic pollution could occur. It consists of uncontrolled transfusion of genetic alterations.

From my point of view, human genetics is the most questionable part of bioethics. I agree that this kind of development is important, and it is good to have knowledge of the full human genome, but the creation of human clones or altered people may be really dangerous. It should have some limits. Using it to avoid human genetic diseases is right, but if we start using it to create our own personalized children just to make them perfect...well, you just have to watch GATACCA.