Best Tech of World Mobile Congress 2019

The World Mobile Congress in Barcelona whirled around 5G technology -which won't be widely available until 2020- while it showcased the latest in mobile phones, foldable smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Huawei Mate X or the Nokia 9 PureView -with more rear cameras than any other. But there were other gadgets on the Fira Gran Via floor:  Microsoft presented its HoloLens 2, a light mixed reality headset only available for enterprises right now.  The best camera zoom was the Oppo 10x and the biggest microSD card was the ScanDisk Extreme with 1TB of storage capacity.  Huawei launched a faster and more powerful laptop, the MateBook X Pro (2019). The prices of these devices match their top-notch quality, as you can read in this link to Mashable, which opens the door to the technology you will be using in the future.

Although the Mashable report above is short and it illustrated with photos, the density of the information and the technical vocabulary makes this text a C1 reading task.

If you still want to find out more about the organization of the WMC -the exhibitors, the speakers, the seminars, the programmes, the networking  possibilities and much more- you can click here on the official web page of the congress.  Reading this long and technical text could be a C2 task.

Winter Heatwave Starts Wildfires and Picnics in Britain

The hottest winter day on record in Britain has sparked wildfires in the countryside of Sussex and Wales, while Londoners bask in the sun and go picnicking in February.  The Daily Mail reports on this freak heatwave and its connexion to climate change with amazing pictures.

Oscars 2019: Best and Worst Dressed

This is a link to a picture gallery of the best and worst dressed celebrities on the red carpet of the Oscars 2019.  You may agree or disagree with the opinion of Los Angeles Times.

And here you can find the full list of Oscar winners from The New York Times.

From Astray Cat to Local Celebrity

This story from Animalkind, a USA Today video franchise, talks about Pip, a cute street cat that was adopted by a family in the summer resort of Ocean City, Maryland, and has become a local celebrity.  Pip is a restless, adventurous cat that has helped some people overcome loss and sadness and has put a smile on the face of those who have seen him playing around. 

The speed of delivery in the speech and the vocabulary are challenging, so, this short video can be classified as C1, although the subtitles can make it accessible to lower level students.

The Neuroscience of Addiction

Psychology professor Judith Grisel talks on Fresh Air about the neuroscience of addiction.  She compares alcohol to a sledgehammer on the brain, cocaine is like a laser -it is very specific, whereas marijuana floods the brain with one specific effect. She explains how our brain learns to react against these addictive substances when they are used regularly to bring you to a state of balance, "homeostasis", which reduces the effects of drugs in the long run. Then she discusses binge drinking, the legalization of marijuana, among other things. Professor Grisel was a marijuana and alcohol addict in her youth, but she has been clean for 30 years. She is the author of the book "Never Enough: the Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction".

This NPR interview lasts 36':03", but it has a script, so it can be classified as C1.

A Quick Make-up Routine, When You Are in a Hurry

This short Beauty article from The Irish Times, gives you some tips about how to make-up quickly when you have overslept in the morning, or you are already sitting on public transport on your way to school, which is not that uncommon in the British Isles.  A quick glance at it and you may find some practical ideas for tomorrow's rush!

Jon Batiste, a Talented Pianist Live on NPR

Jon Batiste is a talented pianist who leads the band at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In this Fresh Air interview (44':25"), he starts explaining how he grew up in a musical family in Louisiana, where he started singing, and then turned to percussion and the piano. But what makes this interview unique is that he plays the piano to illustrate his technique (02':53"- 05':27"), his style (14':36"- 16'-30") and influences like the bamboula rhythm (07':37"- 10':05"), Thelonious Monk (17':20"- 20':12"), (20':38"- 21':47"), or Bach (23':20"- 24'-33").  Jon Batiste also shows how music can create an atmosphere and convey feeling like in "St James Infirmary", which he subsequently analyzes (25':43"- 29':10"), and he finally performs his own personal version of the children's song "If you are happy and you know it" (40':11"- 42'-40").  Jon Batiste has recently published an album called Hollywood Africans, "a mix of boogie woogie, blues, standards and originals, including compositions inspired by classical music".

The language in the interview is rather technical at times, so the interview is classified as C2, but the music Jon Batiste plays can be enjoyed by anyone at any level.

Valentine's Day with Bolliwood Movies

Bollywood films are extremely popular in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, the Middle East, North Africa etc. Actor Shah Rukh Khan was named the biggest movie star in the 1990's-2000's by the Los Angeles Times. Aamir Khan is the best-known actor thanks to his huge success in China and India, and Salma Khan, one of the top ten best-paid actors worldwide, has been hailed as a world star by CNN.  Yet, the general public in the West seem to know very little about the movies that are made in Bollywood.  Here you can find a list of some Bollywood romantic movies to celebrate Valentine's Day with your partner, a selection presented to you by The Indian Times.

Art for Rent at the Weisman Art Museum

The Pond, by Hide Kawanishi (1957)

The Weisman Art Museum of Minnesota offers students, employees and departments the possibility of renting original pieces of art to decorate their homes or offices for six months at affordable prices, The Minnesota Daily reports.

Here you can find a link to the Weisman Art Museum webpage that explains the characteristics of the art rental programme.

The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal

The Purkinje cell in the cerebellum

The Weisman Art Museum in Minnesota mounted an exhibition of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's drawings, which has been touring several univeristy art museums in the USA and Canada since 2017. Here you can find a link to the exhibition calendar note.

A resource kit for elementary and secondary education teachers and students was published in pdf and here you can see the reproductions of some of the original drawings by Cajal as well as lesson plans to use in the classroom (C2 Level). Cajal's drawings inspired artists like Dalí, Miró or Tanguy. 

Santiago Ramón y Cajal is considered the father of neuroscience, he was awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine in 1906, and he was a fine artist too.  Here you can find a link to Cajal's Wikipedia page.

Chef José Andrés: "Vegetables are so Sexy"

Chef José Andrés won the James Beard Humanitarian Award for his relief work in Puerto Rico after the devastating effects of hurricane Maria in 2011.  He used the local arena as giant kitchen to provide 75,000 meals a day to feed the hungry in the island.  He has published a memoir called "We Fed an Island" telling his experience managing chaos, which is like running a kitchen, he says. In the second part of this NPR interview (18':50"), he talks about his background in Spain, how he learnt to cook paella from his father, he jokes about the criticism he faced as an immigrant for daring to change a traditional American dish, the Philadelphia cheesecake, he celebrates vegetables and fruit ("vegetables are so sexy", he claims), he jokes again about "molecular gastronomy", and he concludes by stressing how important it is not to be afraid of failure if you want innovate, either in the kitchen or as a relief worker after a hurricane.

Crazy Rich Asians: a Hollywood Hit or a Flop?

Crazy Rich Asians is the first Hollywood release featuring an Asian and Asian-American cast since 1993's The Joy Luck Club.  It has been a box-office hit worldwide, making $230 million (Warner Bros invested $30 million in the movie). Film critic Richard Lawson describes it as a "fairy-tale romp, full of direct Cinderella references that has some muddied messaging about wealth.  Mostly it just whisks us away on a whirlwind tour of an almost fantastical world.  Crazy Rich Asians is breathless fun -but rather weightless too" (Vanity Fair). The richness of the language and the style make reading  this review a C2 task.

But in mainland China, the reception of the film has been quite different.  Katrina Yu, writing for Aljazeera, explains that Crazy Rich Asians has been a box office flop in China, it has only made $1.5 million, an "atrocious performance" according to independent China film industry consultant Jonathan Papish.  The film is not seen as "a celebration of Asian culture, but a demonisation of it", according to popular reviews on Chinese movie websites. This Arts & Culture report can also be recommended for C2 students.

Finally, you can listen to NPR and read a Fresh Air interview to Kevin Kwan, the writer of the best selling novel that the film is based on, where he talks about his upbringing in a wealthy family and his gradual exposure to Bohemian society in Singapore, and where he also responds to the criticism of the movie for starring Henry Golding, a half British, half Malay actor and model. This radio interview with a script could be accessible to C1 students.

The Chinese Around the World Celebrate the Year of the Pig

Chinese communities around the world are welcoming the Year of the Pig with family feasts, shopping sprees, trips back home or abroad or with prayers.  This article from CNA (China NewsAsia, in Singapore) reviews some to the celebrations and parades in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Hong-Kong, Sydney, Los Angeles and London.

All the World is a Stage

William Shakespeare can be fun!  This lesson, which starts with a listening, vocabulary and speaking task from Headway Upper-Intermediate, Oxford Univerty Press, 1987, continues with a discussion about the seven ages of man and aging, a topic that has changed very little since Elisabethian times. Then you can find two videos that explain the plot of the play "As You Like It", one from Shmoop and the other one by a teacher, Ian Finley. Finally, you can find four renditions of Jaques' classic monologue "All the World is Stage" performed by Digital Theatre Plus, Morgan Freeman, Tom O'Bedlam and Beth Kennedy in Troubadour Theatre Company. The picture in this post shows Orlando and Rosalind, the two main characters in "As You Like It". 

Shakespeare still has something to say 500 years later, you only have to decide whose performance you prefer.

Japan's Elderly Crime Wave

The number of crimes committed by people over 65 in Japan is on the rise.  Meagre state pensions that do not pay bills and loneliness are pushing a growing number of elderly Japanese to commit petty crimes, reoffend and serve long terms in prison, where they can find food, accommodation and healthcare for free... and company too!  If you want to find out more, you can read this BBC News Stories article, which includes a short video (in Japanese and English with subtitles) and a link to a radio report from BBC radio 4 and the BBC World Service programme "Assignment". Both the text and the video can be classified as B2 level.

Here you can find a direct link to the BBC Radio 4 report (and the BBC World Service Assignment programme) on Japan's Elderly Crime Wave, which lasts 28 minutes. The narrator speaks slowly and very clearly, but there is  no transcript, so the documentary is classified as C2.