Concepts in BB cosmology

The reading we are covering in class this week can be partly found in this link from NASA.

Here is the illustration that was not so clear in our copy (page 7) -at least to me- and which presents the possible scenarios for the size of the universe according to time, from which the red curve is the one our universe seems to be following.

One of our Physics majors, mentioned that the universe started as a "singularity"?!*?!# Go to the second paragraph of this link -if you want to- to find more about it. There is also (guess what?) another video there. That´s right. Quite interesting, though, and it is just 6 minutes. It mentions some of the concepts in Cosmology we have read about lately.

If someone is interested in string theory, here is a reading . There is also a nice video created by NASA about Einstein which discusses key concepts. It is 7 minutes and a half, so watch it only if you are interested and have time ;-)

Arianna recommends this video on the size of the universe, and Alejandro Nunes this one on Milky Way and the reason why it is named that way.

From USB en Breve: Beatles and Estudios Generales

Los Beatles y la revolución cultural de los 60’s en la Semana de Estudios Generales. La XXII Semana de Estudios Generales se inaugurará este año con el foro “La Década de los Sesenta en la Venezuela Musical”, el lunes 4 de mayo, a la 1:30 de la tarde, con la participación como panelistas de Jorge Spiteri, Andrés Seger, César Miguel Rondón y Colette Capriles, y la moderación del profesor Emilio Mendoza. Al foro, que se realizará en el Conjunto de Auditorios, seguirá, a las 3 de la tarde el concurso Retro-Moda 60’s, abierto a toda la comunidad universitaria y que otorgará premios a los tres primeros lugares.
Las actividades proseguirán el martes 5 de mayo, a las 11:30, con la proyección de la película El Graduado (Mike Nichols, 1967). Al mediodía se llevará a cabo la inauguración de la Exposición Iconográfica de la producción discográfica de Los Beatles, en la nueva sede del Decanato de Estudios Generales, ubicada en el primer piso de MEM.
El miércoles 6, al mediodía en el Conjunto de Auditorios, el grupo Los Buitres dirigido por Jorge Spiteri, ofrecerá el espectáculo USB, un Concierto Revival, con los temas clásicos de Los Beatles. Todas estas actividades están enmarcadas en el curso “Los Beatles y la revolución cultural de los sesenta” que se estrenó este trimestre en la Universidad Simón Bolívar como parte de la oferta de Estudios Generales. El curso, concebido por Emilio Mendoza, compositor y profesor de Música de la USB, es el primero de una serie en torno a la música popular en el mundo y en Venezuela.
La programación de la Semana incluye dos foros más que tratarán los temas de la autonomía universitaria y el sistema electoral venezolano. El primero de ellos, “La vigencia de la autonomía universitaria en el tercer milenio”, será el miércoles 5 de mayo, a las 2 de la tarde en el Conjunto de Auditorios. Participarán como ponentes Pedro Aso, ex rector, y Benjamín Scharifker, rector de la USB. La moderación será de la profesora Violeta Rojo. El jueves 7, a las 10 de la mañana en la Sala Rosario Horowitz de la Biblioteca, María Corina Machado (Súmate) y la profesora Natalia Brandler participarán en el foro Sistema electoral venezolano.
La Semana concluirá como es tradición con La escritura hecha en casa, evento de premiación de los concursos Serrano Poncela, Iraset Páez y Santos Urriola. Será el jueves 7 de mayo al mediodía en el Atrio de la Biblioteca.

It works now: Birth of the universe

Are you an audiovisual learner? Many people are, especially in this time and age when we have been used to watching TV/movies and are now glued to the Internet on a daily basis.
Try to imagine and recreate the birth of the universe in your mind with the information you have so far. Take a few minutes, close your eyes, imagine you are watching a film inside your brain .............. Was it difficult to visualize how our universe was born?

Now watch the following video to compare what it is played there with what you probably have in your mind right now. Is you version very different to the video´s? Any comments? Write them in the comment´s area, I am curious to know about the results of your visualization. For this post you will need headphones to listen to the video. I hope you have them. If you don´t, tell me next class, OK?

Humason and Hubble

This is a recreation of the story on Mount Wilson Observatory, Humason and Hubble´s work: the Doppler effect. No, Humason did not marry Hubble´s daughter ;-) The video is almost 10 minutes.
>

Free workshop at USB on Keys to Success

El Decanato de Extensión, la Asociación de Egresados USB y Venezuela Competitiva, en el marco de la *Cátedra Itinerante para el Éxito Venezolano* invita a los estudiantes de la USB, y al público en general, a participar en el "II Taller Las Claves del Éxito en personas y organizaciones" el cual se realizará el miércoles 29/04/09 7:30 a.m. y 5:00 p.m. en el Conjunto de Auditorios de la USB.

El taller tiene como objetivo:
- Capacitar a los participantes en estrategias básicas para la conformación de un cuadro de mando integral estratégico organizacional,

- Motivar actitudes y aptitudes para la competencia, así como también reforzando valores de excelencia, promoviendo la intención de crear y desarrollar cooperativas, microempresas y PYMEs, a través del descubrimiento y fortalecimiento de capacidades de emprendimiento.

El taller tendrá 3 secciones, los cuales son:
1) La Persona competitiva: Cualidades y articulación de competencias.
2) La Organización competitiva: Definiendo la estrategia empresarial.
3) Casos exitosos.

El taller es completamente gratis.
---
Other workshops:
** TALLER PERMANENTE DE CANTO INICIA EL LUNES

Una nueva edición del Taller Permanente de Canto se ofrecerá a partir del lunes 27 de abril, destinado a todas aquellas personas de la comunidad universitaria (activas) con deseos de aprender técnicas vocales y dominio de la voz cantada, además de conocimientos
teóricos en torno al tema. El mismo será dictado por el profesor Pedro Salas, tenor con estudios en Chile y Venezuela y con una acumulada experiencia en canto lírico.

Las clases serán gratuitas y se ofrecerán todos los lunes y miércoles del trimestre entre 11:00 am y 4:00 pm, en la miniconcha (al lado de la Casa del Estudiante). El contenido del taller, los ejercicios y el repertorio pueden consultarse en el enlace
https://webmail.usb.ve/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultura.usb.ve%2Fnoticia.php%3Fid%3D453

--------------------------------------------------------------
** MUGA INVITA A LOS TALLERES DE BAILE

Los integrantes de MUGA: Grupo de Danzas Tradicionales invitan a la comunidad universitaria a formar parte de los talleres de Salsa, Merengue, Tambores, Dance Hall y Salsa Casino. Las inscripciones ya están abiertas y pueden formalizarse en el CONJUNTO DE
AUDITORIOS en horario comprendido de 8:30 am a 3:30 pm. En el stand se le facilitará al interesado el número de cuenta para realizar el depósito correspondiente. Los horarios de los talleres se pueden consultar en la página web.

Doppler effect phenomenon ... red shift

There is a video in Youtube about the doppler effect, actually there are many. These are two I found interesting but you may find lots of others. Make comments on anything new to you, what it made you think of, other examples, whatever ...

Doppler Effect: sound and water as samples.
Red shift and galaxy movement.
Big Bang Theory (TV series)

Financial crisis at USB

In case you have not read it, here is a link to news about USB.

EARTH DAY: April 22nd

"On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held. People made promises to help the environment. Everyone got involved and since then, Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing.

What are you doing to improve our planet? What can be done immediately? Are there certain regulations at USB to make Sartenejas "green"? How eco-friendly are you? Take this quiz to find out and tell us about your results.

For more ideas on Earth Day go to National Geographic or play a vocabulary game for kids

On Facebook

Do you remember we mentioned in class when reviewing 111 and 112 that there are always new words that need to be defined, described, compared, contrasted, etc.? We also referred to Blogs and Wikis and some of their differences. What would a good definition of Facebook be?

Well, I googled it and this is what I found: "Facebook is a free-access social networking online utility that easily connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet"

It definitely is not a simple or static webpage. It is made up of many networks, each based around a company, region, or school. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. Privacy settings can be set at any time to control who can see what on Facebook.

"The Wall is a really interesting place to look for buzz, because when one person writes a post on a friend's or a group's Wall, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people might see it; those viewers may read, digest, and pass on that information, spreading it virally."

By the way "free-access social networking online utility" is a compound word or complex noun phrase, the center of which is ... what word? Try to untangle the phrase into its components. Let´s see who can get the right meaning.

Welcome to our blog for ID1-113

Dear students from ID1-113: This will be the place where we will keep in touch throughout this term. I hope you get used to visiting this site, bringing creative ideas on how to read better and more efficiently in English, and making comments about our activities, strategies, materials, etc.

As you may know, this is the last required English course for most of you. Math students still have one more year of four-skill content based English courses. They are very lucky indeed to have a study program where English is given a special place. The rest of you can either take Communicative English, Toefl, Writing in English or two-year courses in French, German, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin, once you hace completed all the three first -year English courses.

Did you know about this? Yes, you can take any of those courses right here at our university. You need a pre-registration, though, and permission from your professional studies coordinator in order to take these courses. Positions are filled early as there are too many students who would like to take these extra-plan courses (credits are valid for your GPA but do not count towards graduation)

Again, our main course objective will be reading comprehension but this time we will focus on three areas: the universe, evolution and artificial intelligence. We will be applying some of the skills and knowledge we learned and practice in the previous two courses. Check the evaluation plan in the side bar and start posting your comments, suggestions and concerns in the "comments" area at the end of each blog post.

To get you started writing, please tell us about your expectations in this course, what you would like to improve in your reading, what you would like to learn, if the courses have been at your level so far or if they have been too easy or too difficult. Go ahead and leave your comment. To have an idea on how blogging works in a reading course, you can visit previous sites published in the first and second terms.

If you don´t know how to write a comment, click here for instructions. Let´s begin then !!!