After ‘happily ever after’

It is very common for us to hear people joking about how men and women do certain things. I reckon everyone has already heard someone talking about women's abilities to drive or men's abilities with feelings. What some people don't know is that there is a biological explanation to these differences: their brains. Although saying it might seem a little sexist, men really tend to be better at math than women. Nevertheless, women tend to be better at language skills. This might be cleared by the fact that men use more of the gray matter in the brain, while women use more of the white. By analyzing the brains we can justify other gender differences, such as spatial abilities and human relationships. Men excel in the first, while women are better in the second. One interesting fact is that these structural differences are not related to intelligence itself, as men and women score the same in intelligence tests. Human evolution developed two different brains to deal with the same situations, so let's not think that one is better than the other, but that they were supposed to be different, and that's what is great about human intelligence.

These two different ways of thinking is what caused the divorce of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming. One of them thought that women were incapable of doing anything but taking care of the house and the children, but the other disagreed and believed that women should work and get involved in business and political affairs for they are just as competent as men, having a rather feminist point of view.

Surprisingly, the roles in this discussion weren’t the ones we would normally expect. The one to defend feminist ideas wasn’t Aurora, as we would suppose, but Philip. He just couldn’t stand the princess’ behavior, and her passiveness through life and the political problems the castle faced. He expected her to have opinions, and to help him and the counselors reach agreements and decide what’s best for the castle and its subjects.

The princess, on the other hand, held a very quiet and discrete posture towards men, and believed that she was in no position to question what men say and specially to engage in real conversations with them. She thought that the same way she slept her way to being rescued, she would ‘sleep’ to spare men of her inferior arguments and beliefs, because, although she had been educated, women just aren’t fit for certain activities and conversations.

After the divorce, Aurora went back to live with her parents, in their castle, and wanted to take her son, Prince William, with her. But the young prince decided to stay with his father, because he just didn’t want to be raised by such an ignorant person with beliefs that seemed to have been learned a few centuries ago.

Sleeping Beauty said that, as a divorced woman, she shouldn’t get married again, and for the rest of her life she would just read love stories (she didn’t think she was fit to reading anything but that) and take care of her parents, that were getting older and older. With the death of her father, King Stefan, she refused to become the queen, saying that only a man can rule a country, and that queens should exist just to make the kings happier and to make it easier on them. So her son, Prince William, became King William, and decided not to get married out of fear of having a wife like his mother.

Prince Philip had got married to a plebeian, and had had three more kids with her. They ruled their country and were the first government to come up with rules in favor of the equality of gender in all aspects, followed by his son, King William.

They led most of their lives apart, but when King Philip’s wife died, Aurora came to the funeral, and stayed visiting for the week. The old sparks just came back to life, and they realized they had been stupid to get a divorce instead of trying to make it work. They figured that different ways of thinking weren’t enough to end a marriage and that they would try to make it work now, even if just for the last part of their lives.

With a scream, Sleeping Beauty woke up, realizing it had all just been a dream and that none of that had really happened. She came to her senses, realizing how stupid she had been all along and that she just wouldn’t risk losing her marriage anymore. The very next day she started the WPA - Women in Politics Association.

*.*Happy Valentine's Day*.*

Experienced translator is looking for apprentices

Documents reviser

Job description: Here the apprentice will revise the texts translated by a translator, and will translate smaller texts, like paragraphs, advertisements and résumés. You will need to work with texts in English-Portuguese and Portuguese-English.

Specific requirements: Since this job does not require specific knowledge at translation itself, and I am looking for people eager to learn this technique. I want students of translation courses and majors in English. NO previous experience is needed.

Where to work:  Currently I am working at my personal  office at 208 Sul.

Payment: the job is based on work in hours. I will pay 10 dollars per hour, 4 hours a day , 5 days per week. But if desired by the candidate an agreement can be made to work up to 8 hours. The salary varies from $800,00 to $1600,00/month.

Further informations send me an e-mail : job.translation@work.com

Dayse's Job Ad

Job Ad

Disney needs Klingon translator

Job description: The job consists basically on translating Walt Disney Studios’ masterpieces into Klingon, possibly including dubbing activities.

Job Requirements: Applicants should be fluent in English as well as Klingon. It is also essential that the applicant is familiar with Disney’s work including its movies, series, and books. Knowledge of other languages such as Parseltongue, Quenya, Sindarin, and Na’vi is also desirable. Familiarity with Star Trek’s universe is also mandatory. People skills aren’t necessary, but the applicant must be familiar with the Vulcan salut.

Job specifications: Place of work is the Walt Disney Studios, in LA. The salary is US$ 500,00/week plus meals. Work hours are on weekdays, from 8am to 6pm. Chosen applicants start ASAP.

If interested contact: DisneyinKlingon@disneysutidios.com, with complete CV.

Live long and prosper.

Job Ad

"Scientist" by Kris Wilson

Que dó! ._.

Descriptive Paragraph

         Many people might think that a descriptive text is just a written sequence of facts and observations about someone or something. A more critic reading, however, can help the reader to find lots of hidden information about the subject and even about how the author deals with situations and people behavior. Academic students are used to study a smaller way of writing descriptions that is the Descriptive Paragraph, where the content has to be more condensed in order to gather and present relevant information in just a few lines of text. A simple Descriptive Paragraph should have the structure of other paragraphs: One topic sentence, three or four supporting sentences and at the end, the concluding sentence, where the author resumes the whole paragraph. Here follows an example of a descriptive paragraph.

Men and Women can change the way they live if the raising patterns are not the same. Occident people, when raising female children, are unconsciously concerned on them future marriage, teaching the girls how to be good housekeepers, that grow playing with dolls, a baby-toy that teaches how to raise a real baby. On the other side, male children are raised to show strength and security, providing women a good domestic life. At school, kids get to know about different people and habits, starting to see how different – or similar – they were raised. When things go different, as a doll-repulsive woman or a weak and insecure man, there is behavior change: boys and girls abandon old concepts to adapt their minds to the new structures and concepts about family and marriage, creating new behaviors to new situations.

The brain: Men vs. Women

It is very common for us to hear people joking about how men and women do certain things. I reckon everyone has already heard someone talking about women's abilities to drive or men's abilities with feelings. What some people don't know is that there is a biological explanation to these differences between men and women: their brains. Although saying it might seem a little sexist, men really tend to be better at math than women. Nevertheless, women tend to be better at language skills. Such facts might be cleared by the fact that men use more of the gray matter in the brain, while women use more of the white. By analyzing the brains we can justify other gender differences, such as spatial abilities and human relationships. Men excel in the first, while women are better in the second. One interesting fact is that these structural differences are not related to inteligence itself, as men and women score the same in intelligence tests. Human evolution developed two different brains to deal with the same situations, so let's not think that one is better than the other, but that they were supposed to be different, and that's what great about human intelligence.

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus - Part 2

Guys,

here are a few texts you may wanna read before writing your paragraphs:

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html

http://www.livescience.com/3808-men-women-differently.html

http://www.mastersofhealthcare.com/blog/2009/10-big-differences-between-mens-and-womens-brains/

Please, don't forget you have till Sunday night to send it me!

XOXO,

Fernanda

-

Rwá!

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus

Male Brain x Female Brain

If you find any interesting texts to post, feel free to do so...

See you Monday!

XOXO!

#UnBAlagada

Flood at UnB

Dramatic Situation.

No Class tomorrow, UnB website not online. The servers were damaged, and there is water everywhere.

For some of us, no class on the first semester of every year. 1º/2010, employees strike. 1º/2011, water attack.

See more on:

#UnBAlagada | Blog do Apolinário

http://twitter.com/dceunb

http://g1.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2011/04/chuva-forte-em-brasilia-derruba-arvores-e-alaga-predio-da-unb.html

Correio Braziliense - Cidades DF - Danos causados pela chuva levam UnB a suspender aulas

I feel sad.

How about you?

Obama's handling of circumstances

Barack Obama has been pretty much the center of attention since his candidacy and victory to the presidential elections of USA. Some people believe he is sort of a potential voice for democracy and human rights, also being considered as a symbol of hope for the era in which USA abandon the critical government of W. Bush. However, due to his coming to South America instead of giving support to the recent catastrophy in Japan, critics have come down on him in a rush, contributing to a general disapproval from US citizens. Despite the lately critics, Obama has been operating his proper duties as a responsible president regarding the estabilization of his country. With this in mind, economic agreements between Brazil and USA, for instance, were one of the main issues discussed during his visit. By doing so, he reveals not only the concerning, but also the efforts on working on solutions to the reconstruction of the American economy, once it still suffers the dramatic effects of the last world crisis.

New House Commander, New Policies.

Dilma Rousseff's government has just started, and she got big challenges: deal with international relation and internal environmental questions. Only three months after assuming the higher executive position in Brazil, Ms Rousseff received Barack Obama, who came to narrow relations with the Latin country, or at least, get to know how Dilma's political position is going to be. By other  hand, Brazil has being pressured by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to not to build Belo Monte dam in the middle of Amazonia, that will flood a big forest area to become the third bigger hydroeletric plant on the planet making thousands of indians homeless. The foreing ministry did not like the request and responded describing the request by the IACHR as unjustified and premature. With all those events on external relation,  Obama's visit and halt working of Belo Monte dam, President Dilma will need too much time to organize her external policies and put order on the house. 

With information from BBC - Latin America

Dilma and her legacy.

I often hear people talking about Dilma and her lack of political abilities, and how she only won last year's elections because of former president Lula's support. Well, I reckon these people ignore the fact that Dilma was bound to go where no other woman had gone before, she was going for the post of president of the fourth largest democracy in the world. People forget that Dilma didn't have any of the characteristics usually atributed to women (a husband, children, in other words, a loving family), so she had to rely on herself. She had to show the country that, although she didn't any of the tipically female stereotypes, she was capable and tough enough to handle it. The problem is: since she was a woman, she had to be twice as tough and transmit twice as confidence as a man would have to, so she ended up being labled as scary or people would say she couldn't reach people, and her political abilities were too limited. Well, there is no use in denying that Lula's support was a major asset in Dilma's campaign, but we shall not be as mistaken as to say that she only won anything because of Lula. Truth is people love gossiping and feeding rumors about other people, but the inevitable truth is Dilma is the first female president of Brazil, and she has changed our history in a way no one has done before.

Big G and The Big D(umb).

Well, I don’t really know when literacy began to be important and a priority on the United States of America. But certainly, they invested a lot. And they the did it on the right way. I’m sure I wasn’t the first one that got surprised while getting there and realizing such an amazing thing: everyone there speaks English (at least the natives), even children! God, that explains why they were – for so many years – the most important economy on the world. I felt kinda dumb, at first, since it took me several years to understand that “the book is on the table” really meant something, not only just a beat. It is not for you to laugh, you gotta take in consideration that it seemed just an smart – and for that, even kinda charming – way to say: everybody, now, get down on the floor, and start shaking you asses. Anyway, as I was telling you, I went there and I was mesmerized with their intelligence. But I guess you all know how life goes and how things can change in such a small period of time. I got to know more about their president in charge, while living there and reading the papers and watching the news. I like calling him “Big G”, but you can call him as everybody else do: George W. Bush. As you all must know, he was born in 1946, and I started thinking there was no literacy on that time, or that I – and most of the population of the world – was smarter than him. Once he said: ''I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.'', it was “ok” for me, not knowing if he was trying to get, silently, outside the closet, or if he only wanted to be loudly stupid. Just an example on how ambiguous a Big G’s speech can be. At least I hope he has already realized the book was really on the table. Now I’m glad with Obama there, and Dilma here – even Lula before -, at least they can speak their first language and make people understand what they mean. Big G is now writting a book, down there in Texas, I’m a little afraid that, considering his huge power, after publishing it, we all have to by new dictionaries in order to read in understand it. It’ll be difficult, for me, buying Stupidish Dictionary or ever a Thesaurus. Big G, it’s your problem, not mine, if you don’t get that the book is on the table.

Make sure there's nothing wrong with your logic!

Needles to say, be careful with what you write, apes and monkeys! =]

Being a politician is hard to do

The United States and Latin America

Flying down to Rio

Latin Americans like Barack Obama. They would like him even more if his rhetoric of partnership was matched by policy changes

Mar 17th 2011 | from the print edition

IN APRIL 2009, shortly after becoming president of the United States, Barack Obama attended a 34-country Summit of the Americas in Trinidad where he charmed those present—even Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez—with a call for the often fractious relationship between the United States and its neighbours to become an “equal partnership”. Two years on Mr Obama remains wildly popular with ordinary Latin Americans. But as he sets off on March 19th for his first trip to South America, he will find it hard to shake off a familiar air of mutual frustration.

For a start, part of Mr Obama’s mind will surely be elsewhere, on the wrangling in Washington over the budget and on the events in the Arab world and Japan. It must once have seemed a good idea to spend a weekend in Rio de Janeiro, watching a song-and-dance show in a favela. But to his domestic opponents it may not appear so.

For many South Americans, the United States is no longer the only game in town (if it ever was). Trade with China is booming. Many South American countries feel increasingly confident that they can make their own mark in the world. That is especially true of Brazil, the most important leg of Mr Obama’s trip.

Relations between the two countries have long been beset by minor niggles. But last year saw a big falling-out over policy towards Iran. Brazil, along with Turkey, voted against the UN resolution that tightened sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s then president, had earlier tried to broker a deal with Iran.

Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, is a protégée of Lula. But American diplomats are heartened by signs that she wants a fresh start. She has distanced herself from Iran, saying that she disagreed with Brazil’s previous abstention on votes condemning the country’s human-rights record. In a cabinet with many holdovers from Lula’s day, one change stands out: Celso Amorim, who was closely associated with the Iranian adventure, has been replaced as foreign minister by Antonio Patriota, a former ambassador to the United States who is married to an American.

Mr Obama and Ms Rousseff have potentially important business to do. They will sign agreements on scientific co-operation and the cross-recognition of patents. They will also talk of weightier matters. Mr Obama will want to push business opportunities for American firms; the United States has a rising trade surplus with Brazil and the White House is selling the visit as part of its efforts to revive the economy. Although Ms Rousseff has postponed a $6 billion order for fighter jets, Mr Obama will press the merits of Boeing F-18s (rather than France’s Rafale). The Brazilians want technology transferred in the eventual deal; they also want to sell to the Americans their own military-transport aircraft.

The Americans would like Brazil’s backing for their calls for China to revalue the yuan, though Brazil’s policymakers also blame the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy for the overvaluation of the real. Brazil wants the United States to end its subsidy to its inefficient corn-ethanol producers. That would open the market for Brazil’s sugar ethanol.

Brazil craves American support for its claim to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. In November Mr Obama gave explicit backing to India’s claim. But the mistrust sown by Lula’s Iranian gambit means that the furthest the administration has gone is to say that it “admires” Brazil’s “growing global leadership” and “aspiration” to the seat, as Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, put it last month.

Mr Obama’s next stop, in Chile, was to see an agreement on nuclear co-operation. But Chile, subject to earthquakes and tsunamis, is fast reconsidering the idea of nuclear power. Mr Obama’s last stop is El Salvador. Its president, Mauricio Funes, is a moderate, pro-American leftist; and Central America is beset with drug violence.

In Santiago Mr Obama is to give a speech setting out his vision of relations with Latin America. It will not be easy. The issues that matter most south of the border are migration, curbing America’s demand for drugs and export of guns, expanding trade and ending the American embargo against Cuba. On all of these the president is circumscribed by political deadlock in Washington.

The United States still matters in many ways in Latin America. Mr Obama’s own story inspires many in a region where blacks and indigenous people are often disadvantaged. He can be a powerful voice for democracy and human rights. But unless his words are backed up with some substance his appeal may fade.

from the print edition | The Americas

*.*A first-topic warm-up*.*

Presidential politics in Brazil

Nov 12th 2009 | SÃO PAULO
From The Economist print edition

TITLE

Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s preferred successor, is a more interesting politician than she appears to be. But would she be different from her boss?

WHEN Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, identified Dilma Rousseff, his chief-of-staff, as his preferred successor in the top job, the collective response of people who follow such things was a puzzled frown, as if perhaps there had been a misprint in the newspaper. Ms Rousseff had proved herself an able administrator. But if she had the natural political gifts required for electoral success in the world’s fourth-largest democracy they had been well hidden. Her campaigns for local office in Rio Grande do Sul, her political home, were unsuccessful. Her sentences go on for a long time and contain lots of subclauses. But she has one thing that nobody else in Brazilian politics has got: Lula’s unqualified backing. Given that the president’s approval ratings are still north of 80% as he enters the final year of his second term, this is worth a lot.

Despite their difference in manner, Ms Rousseff has become Lula’s political shadow. Her duties include the government’s “Growth Acceleration Programme”, which aims to mobilise investment of $301 billion in infrastructure between 2007 and 2010. So the two constantly traverse the country opening roads and the like, or even just announcing that they might be built.

Their views are impossible to tell apart. Her answers to questions about Brazil’s future tend to begin with the words, “President Lula’s government has…” before going on to list recent achievements. Her concern with keeping inflation low, her faith in the government’s wisdom to plan and “induce” economic activity, and her refusal to criticise undemocratic actions by other governments in the region, especially that of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, are identical to the president’s. So it is slightly surprising that she only switched her political allegiance to the Workers’ Party, a vehicle built around Lula, nearly two decades after it was founded.

Though it has been smothered recently, Ms Rousseff in fact has an interesting political identity of her own. Born to a Bulgarian immigrant father and a teacher in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, her childhood was much more comfortable than Lula’s. But she became a middle-class radical, involving herself in the far-left resistance to the military governments that ruled Brazil for two decades from 1964. Quite what she did is the subject of some mythmaking. But it seems that she helped to plan a celebrated robbery in which a gang stole $2.4m from the safe of Adhemar de Barros, a former governor of São Paulo (who rejoiced in the tag “he steals but gets things done”).

Asked whether a technocrat like her can be elected president, she replies “I think so.” Her task before the election next October is contradictory. She needs to stick close enough to Lula to benefit from the heat he radiates, while distancing herself enough to convince voters that she is her own woman. The opinion polls have Ms Rousseff lagging the opposition’s José Serra by between 15 and 20 points. Neither of them has officially declared their candidacy yet, and the campaign will start in earnest only in April. The question that Ms Rousseff will have to ponder is whether seamless continuity is indeed the path to the presidency.

The very first thing...

One fine day, César asked me whether I could let you write a blog. Of course I'll let you write a blog - the down side is I'm going to grade you on it. =]

Assignments shall come as time goes, so check this blog on a regular basis...

Your loving lovely teacher,

Fernanda.