UNIVERSIDAD LATINOAMERICANA DE CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGIA

2012

English 3´s magazine Thinking in different ways

Mileydi Brenes

Andy Calderón

Kattia Cordero

Randall Ramírez

U L A C I T

The power of Motivation

Maybe you have been in the situation of giving up in front of challenges; well this is a

story about a father and his son and the challenges they have faced together in their

way to success.

In 1962 Dick Hoyt and his wife received terrible news, his son Rick had

complications during his birth, the umbilical cord obstructed the oxygen to the brain

developing a cerebral paralysis, doctors recommended his parents to send Rick to a

special institution, they refused this and decided to provide their son a life as normal

as possible.

From that moment a series of challenges began, first challenge was to

provide the required facilities to Rick; he could not walk or talk even though he

finished high school and went to college where he got a degree in special education.

Second challenge Rick and his family faced involved his father; when Rick

was 17 years old he arrived home with an idea, he wanted to participate in a race,

he told his father to bring him to the race, he accepted the challenge and ran

pushing his son’s wheelchair in a five-miles run. When they arrived home the son

said to his father that during the event he did not feel as a disabled person, this was

the start of a series of additional challenges.

As Father and son started to advance in their career, they participated in

marathons and ran 24 consecutive Boston Marathons, the difficulties continued

growing as Dick developed a heart disease because of his age, but they continued

together thinking in one big dream.

Ironman is one of the top challenges in the physical demanding events, it is a

triathlon consisting on a 3.86 KM swim, a

180.25 KM bike and a Marathon 42.2 KM run,

they decided to compete in this event but they

did not succeed the first time, they tried two times before finishing their first Ironman.

One failed attempt preceded the success, the first time they tried Ironman,

Dick suffered problems related to his heart disease during the swim and lost the

cutoff time, and they tried next year finishing the race. In 2003 they had an accident

that sent them to the hospital but in 2004 they finished it again.

In their 27 years of athletic career they have ran around 1000 marathons and

triathlons including five Ironman World Championships where Dick tows his son with

an inflatable boat tied to his waist, in the bike part Rick is in the front and pushed by

his father in his three-wheel chair during the run.

If you ever thought that your problems were big, probably you are now

conscious that they are not, after reading this story I’m sure you are strong enough

to overcome your challenges, it is all about having the right motivation to face them.

Randall Ramirez

J. K Rowling, an inspirational story

J. K Rowling was born in 1965 in England, as a little

girl like many others. She graduated from Exeter

University of Languages. She moved to Portugal in

1990 to become a teacher, and got to know a

journalist and get tie and knot in 1993. She has a great

daughter. After a year she got divorce from her

husband and moved to Edinburgh, taking help from

her sister. Living bye social help for 2 years, she was

written a book, because she wants to become a writer.

Rowling and her daughter, live very poor for a long time, helped by her sister.

She has never lost her dream because she always wants to write, so she wrote a lot

of stories, then every day she saw a different way to finish a book, about one kid,

with magical powers. Her dream was a crazy fantasy; of course she never thought

that. She feel it the story like another daughter. One day, her sister went to her

apartment, and she read her story about Harry Potter she called “The boy who

lived”. Furthermore, she tries to publish her book, and finally be a writer.

Her real name is Joanne Kathleen Rowling. When her mother has die, she was

alone because her father never approves her dream, and that was the only way to

be who she want to be. Every step that she took, lots with no directions, she keep

her faith, fight for it, but she was waiting almost 26 years to finish her first book, but

she never know that she is going be a famous book. Here are important to

understand that no matter if she was poor, or if she is a disease, or disability

complication, it does not matter because she only keep going, looking for her dream.

Not all people think some things like that because nowadays the people lose their

dreams just by the minimum thing, if they do not have money, if they do not have a

car, or cell phone or whatever; they never fight for their dreams. Even, they do not

know anything about what is their dream, what they want to be. Rowling is a girl,

who gave us an example because she was like any other person, but she is different

because her dream never dies; she could lose her parents, but not her dream. And

she did it, she wrote a famous novel of seven books.

At the end, if you cannot see it, the dream you are dreaming, and that voice

telling you about what you want to be, go in your own way, and fight for it, probably

never know what kind of person you are because a lot of people are a normal

people, no money, no cars, but they have a dream and we have to learn about them.

It does not matter how fast we get there, the clue is climb, just keep pushing on, and

the important thing doing your best effort and never lose your dream.

Andy Calderon M.

The impact of the media

Today the impact media has in our society is very important for everyone in several

ways.

The first way media impact us is the access to information. Many years ago,

some of us did not have idea of the technology advances and how this could help

the media gives the people information about different issues. The world change

every day this due to the amount of information we have in a click. We can see

news in a lot of media as: television, newspapers, radio, internet, magazines and

others and the most incredible is the influence that media have in our thinking.

Also, the media decide which news are for the public’ attention as sports, politics,

shows, sex, nutrition or economy and it is very important that they have different

specialist in these areas. Majority of the families spent their free times looking at

news and this is way the news’ quality is very important. The media must take in

consideration are the target audience, intellect and age.

It is very important because children think that the information showed in media

represents the real world and it can change their life. For this reason is so important

to consider teenagers` values and behaviors their geography area and

socioeconomic and cultural situation.

Finally, media could be used as a tool to inspire education, knowledge and fun.

Therefore, the media have an undisputed usefulness but they should not take

possession of our lives but the influence positive or negative by the mass media on

our society produces a real transformation in people.

Kattia Cordero S.

Longevity

Many people associate longevity in a negative way. It is inevitable that over the

years we begin to lose some physical and mental abilities. More than one time we

have heard of magic potions, pills and water sources for eternal youth, but this is

completely false. There are three easy tips that we must apply to enjoy and have a

healthy longevity.

Undoubtedly physical activity is vital for the development of a healthy body. It is

very important to practice it to keep the elasticity of our body. A lot of elderly people

get terrified with just thinking about daily exercise, but we have to incorporate this in

our life routine to have an efficient body. As a medical recommendation it is

important to exercise 30 minutes three days a week.

Good nutrition is closely associated with daily exercise. A balanced diet is

essential for the optimal performance of our metabolism. Over the years, it is normal

that our body becomes slower, and this also happens with the metabolism.

According to Dr. Oz, a person who lacks a healthy diet, without being obese, may

have further issues such as diabetes and osteoporosis. Some common diseases

such as arthritis, hypertension and heart disease are associated with poor nutrition.

Family is an important factor to have a healthy longevity. Many studies around

the world prove that age is not important, humans by nature always are going to

need love and attention. It is a shame that we often forget the ones who saw us

grow, and bring it to us all the love and attention that we need in that moment.

Elderly people are a worthy and young people have to be more conscious of the

treasure that elderly people are.

Leaving behind all the “tips” mentioned, I am sure attitude is the most important. We

don not have to take longevity as something bad or associate it with death. It is not

important how old we are how we look, what really matters is how we feel inside. We

must not have to be scared of “getting old”, aging is part of the long process of life.

Mileydi Brenes

Animal Intelligence, true or false?

Which interesting phenomenon is happening

around the world? Animals are showing that they

are also intelligent. Scientists believe that animals

are adapting to the environment in which they live

and are slowly evolving. Also humans teach some

kind of animals to make tricks or even to speak.

Some people get benefits from animals´

intelligence.

When people think in animals, they immediately think only in cats and dogs

because they are the most common pets in houses. But when we are talking about

animal intelligence is not including just cats and dogs. We can also mention parrots,

dolphins, monkeys or birds. A perfect evidence of animal intelligence are those

animals show emotions as well as humans. They get sad and depressed when

someone hurts them.

Some experts said that “animals are always going to be there when you need

them”. Intelligent animals can help people with some diseases. Dogs usually help

people who are blind to cross the street. Also dogs advice their owners whenever

there is a stranger close to the house, or they know what is dangerous for children

and they take care of them.

Some animals like dolphins heal people with their sympathy. Animals are

important for humans because they give us the happiness that we need. Even when

we are tired, unhappy or whatever happens; animals can change our style of life.

They make us different people.

In conclusion, some humans ignored that animals are intelligent or even that

they have emotions because they said that they are just animals (pets) but they are

wrong. In wildlife you can find animals with an extreme and curious behavior.

Animals can do the same like humans. We have to live a peacefully life with animals

because they make people forget about their problems.

Andy Calderon M.

Knowledge or Punishment?

Since we have memory we learned through different sources, some people think

that training is enough; experts think that the learning and the skills’ acquisition

comes from a combination of training, networking (seeing other executing or asking

questions) and experience. We know that most of the people learn executing, but

how to provide experience to our students? Here is where homework takes place.

But how the homework is seeing in today’s context?

In the past our society worked in a different way that today, years ago the

dynamics of family included specific roles, dad was working while mom was in home

taking care of the house and children, this allowed the children to have a shorter

class period and have enough time to do homework under mom supervision after

school. This is something that changed dramatically and drive us to the first

challenge, today’s reality is that both mom and dad are working and in most of the

cases we are talking about full time jobs.

Based on the society dynamic changes, now we are facing a second

challenge for the family, today school schedules are extended to align it with the

family needs. Additionally globalization have teach us about the great advantages of

the early age stimulation and parents are now more focused on including in their

children schedules topics such as languages, science or math. This is great but also

is generating more demanding job for children who are spending long hours on

school and most of this time is dedicated to work on the knowledge the world is

demanding.

The third issue arises because even when the school schedule increased

considerably, the amount of homework is not decreasing, most of the assignments

for home are more complex and require more time to be accomplished, and here is

when parents are commenting that sometimes they feel that homework is for

parents, not for kids.

As fourth issue we would like to mention is the fact that with the time the

relationships between parents and kids have been deteriorated, this because kids

feel that parents are more authority than friends and this could be side effects of the

mentioned factors. When parents arrive home, after a tiring day of work, they need

to start fighting with kids to have homework ready and here is when knowledge

becomes punishment.

At the end of the equation the most important thing is that our kids learn how

to win in a challenging environment but we cannot forget that they are kids and they

need to play, have the support from their parents and feel they are respected as

persons and not treated as learning machines. When the difficult ages arise the

most powerful weapon parents will have is the relationship they built with their kids

in the early ages, sometimes this is the most important task of a parent.

Kattia Cordero

If you plan to have a long life, do it right!

A lot of people have among their plans to spend their elderly years enjoying the

family, going to vacation house, spending time with friends, traveling or taking time

to be with their grandchildren; but some do not include among their plans ensuring

they will be healthy enough to really enjoy during the last days of their lives. This

article will share some tips to make this a reality.

The first component any person needs is a plan. The life plan is something

that can change during the time, but it is always important, especially when it

regards to ensure the financial stability when the retirement comes. Some experts

ensure that a financial plan is something that helps people in the desire to live long

years. The absence of stress related to financial problems is something that is

crucial for a life with happiness.

A second advice is to have a healthy lifestyle from an early age. It is important

to have a balanced diet, create exercising habits and avoid the excess on practices

that could affect our body in the long term such as smoking, drinking or drugs.

Today, the people who live longer always have a healthy life in common. They are

very active people and the physical activity is a habit for

them and also they have very strong family ties.

Medical advice is a third component to enjoy good

health in the elderly age. Have routine visits to the doctor

and make early checkups to detect critical health issues

is always a good idea. Some people use to ignore their

illness procrastinating solutions to problems that become

difficult diseases with the time; this will have serious

effects in the mature ages.

Avoiding practices as managing high stress levels, not taking enough

sleeping hours or a diet based on fast food is something critical to maintain a good

health during your life. If you are good converting good lifestyle practices on habits

then for sure you will have the energy and time to enjoy all the plans you have made

for your last years.

If you plan to have a long life then maintains yourself as healthy as possible

during the entire journey. If it is your plan, then do it right. The actions start today

and need to be maintained for years. Plan on financial stability and be prepared

because the best years of your life are yet to come.

Randall Ramirez

Intelligent Animals!

According to some studies, animals have shown that despite not having advance

cognitive functions such as humans, they can develop intelligent skills similar to us.

One of them is they can adapted to the environment and another to be able to learn

certain behaviors according to their capabilities. Some of the animals that are in the

top list of intelligence are: the elephant, for its incredible memory, the parrot for his

ability to imitate sounds and the chimpanzee because the 98% of their genes is

equal to humans.

We have often heard about prodigious memory of the elephant. There are many

investigations that prove their intelligence. These animals have the ability to learn

and do many tasks with precision without forgetting how, and also is that they don

not forget people who threaded them violently. Elephants can recognize the call of

over a hundred different elephants, no matter how many years have been passed

without contact. Another interesting fact about this animals, is they can recognize

the bones of the bodies of their same species, they can do this with theirs great

ability to smell and memory of course.

Despite the fact that a parrot has brain size is similar to that of a nut, but this is not

an impediment to being able to imitate humans and animals voices or daily sounds.

According to the Macquarie in Sidney, parrots have the EQ similar to a kid of six

years old. One of the most amazing investigations done was with an African parrot

named Alex. This parrot was studied for almost 31 years, and it was able to imitate a

lot of different voices, chose different shapes of the same color and solves simple

puzzles. Unfortunately he died in 2007, so the investigations were suspended.

We cannot forget to mention the chimpanzee, which over the year have shown its

great ability of communication, doing many different sounds and signs. This is the

animal that is more close to human being. They are able to invented different types

of tool to use them in their daily life to survive. The chimpanzees have the ability to

capture feelings of others and also prove to have their own conscience. The last

investigations demonstrated that chimpanzees have better memory than humans.

Around the world there a lot of animals’ centers that study more thoroughly the

different behaviors of animals, are constantly doing a lot of test to try to understand

better how their brain and body works. Even though Scientifics a shared different

opinion of animals´ intelligence, the result is that there has no doubt that human

being intelligence is higher compared to any animal, because our brain is more

complex than we imagine. Our brain is more than perfect and has unique

characteristics in comparison to others animals on earth.

Mileydi Brenes