sábado, 27 de marzo de 2010

Natural Disasters

The term disaster refers to the enormous human and material losses caused by events or phenomena as earthquakes, floods, landslides, deforestation, pollution and others.

Disasters are not natural, but the phenomena that produce them. This term is different in two: "natural phenomena" and "natural disaster". Where nature is in a continuous process of movement and transformation, which manifests itself in different ways, through some regularity phenomena like rain in a few months of the year in mountainous areas, and extraordinary appearance, such as tremors earth, volcanoes or natural wear of soil erosion occurs.

Other disasters may be caused by human activities that alter the normal environment. Some of these are: environmental pollution, erroneous and irrational exploitation of renewable natural resources such as forests and soil and non-renewable like minerals, housing and buildings in high risk areas.

Natural phenomena such as rain or wind, become natural disaster when they exceed a limit of normal, usually measured through a parameter. This varies depending on the type of phenomenon (Richter scale for earthquakes, Saphir-Simpson scale for hurricanes, etc.)..

The effects of a natural disaster may be amplified due to poor planning of human settlements, lack of safety measures, emergency plans and warning systems and man becomes a bit blurred.

To institutional capacities to reduce disaster risk group, they can trigger other events that will reduce the chance of surviving it because of gaps in planning and security measures. A classic example is earthquakes, buildings and houses to collapse, trapping people in rubble and broken gas lines that can catch fire and burn injuries in the ruins.

Human activity in areas with high probability of natural disaster known as high risk. High-risk areas without instrumentation or appropriate steps to respond to natural disasters or reduce their negative effects are known as areas of high vulnerability.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages of Distance Learning

Advantages: It doesn't require commuting, this saves you money and time that you had otherwise spend on travel, from home to school and back. You can complete most of the classes at your convenience, because almost all classes are asynchronous, which means you don´t have to attend a lecture at a particular time and place. And you can review the assignments and do your home work during your free time. Also you don´t have to live in the same city while pursuing the education of your choice. You only need internet and a computer to do it.

Disadvantages: Despite the many opportunities of distance education, there are inevitable accompanying costs. Live video communication for example, requires a webcam, and enough bandwidth, and you must own a computer and internet access. Both the instructors and students involved in distance learning may need to make sacrifices at times to get things done in time. Most often you´ll be studying alone, feel isolated or miss that social physical interaction that comes with attending a traditional classroom. But one of the major disadvantages of distance learning is that not always offer all necessary courses online.

Segunda Mitad del Noveno

The most recent Ruben Blades' CD includes a song that could be dedicated to Venezuela's Actual Political situation. It´s a Message that seems to be directed to the Venezuelan Democratic People, hard and realist, but also, at bottom, with hope.

The Lirycs from "Segunda Mitad del Noveno" seems to show the exactly critical moment we are living in our country: Any time we could drown inside the military well that we have fallen. The baseball as example is for a country like ours so everyone could understand easily the gravity of the moment. The only way out is the democracy, that decides the game but nobody knows what to do, No action, the heroes are gone, it´s an emergency call, bases are full, full of trouble, full of motivations to win, to left the other team on the field, a team that has 10 years winning, and striking out everybody else. To defeat despair, the game is not over yet. And We can not lose.