Money

The point I want to make with these two examples is that there's nothing inherently valuable about a dollar or a stone or a coin. The only reason these things have any value is because we've all decided they should. And because we've decided that, they do. Money is about the exchanges and the transactions that we have with each other. Money isn't anything objective. It's about a collective story that we tell each other about value. A collective fiction. And that's a really powerful concept.

In the past two decades, we've begun to use digital money. So I get paid via direct deposit, I pay my rent via bank transfer, I pay my taxes online. And every month, a small amount of money is deducted from my paycheck and invested in mutual funds in my retirement account. All of these interactions are literally just changing 1's and 0's on computers. There's not even anything physical, like a stone or a coin. Digital money makes it so that I can pay someone around the world in seconds.

That's because digital money isn't really mine, it's entries in databases that belong to my bank, my credit card company or my investment firm. And these companies have the right to say "no." If I'm a PayPal merchant and PayPal wrongly flags me for fraud, that's it. My account gets frozen, and I can't get paid.

We're about to enter a new phase of money. (Estamos a punto de entrar en...)

Cryptocurrencies are the first step of this evolution. Cryptocurrencies are digital money that isn't run by any government or bank. It's money designed to work in a world without intermediaries. Bitcoin is the most ubiquitous cryptocurrency, but there are hundreds of them. And these things are real money.

So what the banks used to give us -- trustworthy digital money transfer -- we can now get with a clever application of cryptography. And this means that we don't have to rely on the banks anymore to secure our transactions. We can do it ourselves.

MONEY. Vocabulary:

Invest money in / spend money on

Be in credit / be overdrawn (al descubierto)

Get into debt / get out of debt

Buy-get something on credit / pay cash for something

Get a loan / repay a loan (a la persona),

Pay back (devolver a alguien el dinero prestado) / pay off (devolverlo al banco)

 Have a good credit rating (calificación de crédito) / have a bad credit rating

Take out (contratar un préstamo, arrange to get a loan, morgage…) from a bank

Get high interest rate (tasa de interés) / get a low interest rate

Have a current account / have a saving account

Be well off / be short (of money). We also can say: be in debt

Take-get money out of an account / put money into an account

 Más formal para sacar o meter dinero: withdraw / deposit

Go down: caer. Price have gone down

Come to (ascender, precio total): The house repair come to about 1200 euros

Put down on (rebajar, dar una entrada o adelanto): He’s put 2.000 euros down on a new flat

 Come into (heredar): She came into a lot of  money when her aunt died 

Take off (rebajar): The shop took off 50 euros off the table because it was damaged 

Save up (ahorrar) Rip off (timar): $8 for an ice cream? He’s ripping people off. 

A deposite

To be rolling in Money

To be broke: estar en bancarrota = be out of money

To be bankrupt: ser insolvente. Bankruptcy: quiebra, bancarrota

Property es incontable

The equality of gender nowadays

She

She speaks very clearly

HeForShe: what we share is much more powerful than what divides us.
It is not our gender that defines us, but ultimately, our shared humanity.

A perennial American question: why has gun control failed?

(ADAPTED FROM THE GUARDIAN)

The gunman who killed 58 people and wounded 527 in Las Vegas on Sunday night qualified as a “super-owner” – one of the estimated 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns.

Little is yet known about Stephen Paddock and his motives. But the apparent ease (facilidad) with which he acquired his arsenal – 42 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to police – has renewed the urgency of a perennial American question: why can’t the United States effect sensible gun control?

Look at Australia, which enacted  (promulgaron) a ban (prohibición) and mandatory (obligatorio, forzoso) buyback (recompra)of more than 600,000 long guns following a mass shooting (tiroteo) in 1996, effectively ending the problem of mass shootings (already rare) and halving (to halve: reducir a la mitad) gun deaths. Why can’t the United States do that?

From one angle, the answer is complicated. It involves the powerful gun lobby, political partisanship (partidismo político), the hundreds of millions of guns already in US civilian hands, the fact that mass shootings, while horrifying, represent only a sliver of US gun deaths, and a national mythology attached to guns.

From another angle, the answer is simple. The United States could, in fact, adopt gun control – if the public felt strongly enough about it. “If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change,” Barack Obama said in June 2014.

A majority of US gun owners – 74% – say the right to own a gun is “essential” to their freedom, while only 44% believe that the ease with which people can legally obtain guns contributes at least a fair amount to gun violence. The disagreements only expand from there.

In the wake of the most deadly mass shooting in the United States, here are key features of the American gun control debate.

How outrage fizzles (desaparecer, esfumarse)

Opponents of gun control feared new restrictions after the killing of 20 six- and seven-year-olds at Sandy Hook elementary school in December 2012. The national outrage was intense, and legislators who previously were not interested in gun control measures suddenly were.

Two senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Pat Toomey, sponsored a bill (proyecto de ley) that would have imposed universal background (antecedentes) checks for commercial gun purchases, including at gun shows and over the internet. Eighty-four percent of Americans favor such a law.

But after participating in initial negotiations over the bill, the National Rifle Association came out in strong opposition and falsely claimed the bill would lead to a national gun registry.  “The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill,” Obama said in a furious Rose Garden speech.

‘Successes’ at gun control

While the national focus on gun control always intensifies after mass shootings, mass shootings account for only a small proportion of US gun deaths annually. Gun violence instead is concentrated in the country’s poorest, most racially segregated neighborhoods, with African Americans, who represent 13% of the total population, making up more than half of overall gun murder victims.

Is it all the NRA’s fault?

Obama said that senators who had not dared to support the bill have the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after (perseguir) them in future elections.

NRA members are known for being politically active – showing up at public meetings, bombarding congressional offices with telephone calls, and for voting.

What kind of gun control?

One hurdle (obstáculo) to effective gun control measures in the United States is a disagreement over what kind of action is needed. Focus on a new military-style weapons ban may detract from a potential ban on high-capacity magazines, which may be the more effective measure to limit the terrible toll of mass shootings. Researchers also call for (exigen) more investment in threat assessment (evaluación) and intervention programs. Community advocates urge more funding (financiación) for local programs that have been shown to reduce gang-related murder. Health experts urge the public to recognize that mental health is a serious factor in gun suicide.

Are there simply too many guns are out there?

There were about 265m, at last count – more than one for every adult American. That means that any new gun control measure in the United States advances against an ominous (amenazante) reality, of a country already flooded with guns. That reality is the core of gun advocates’ claim that new legislation to limit gun ownership would not increase public safety while funneling (to funnel: canalizar, encauzar) gun possession toward lawbreakers.

The American gun mythology

Debate rages as to whether  (se ha desatado un debate en torno a) the  framers (legislador, artífice) of the constitution drafted the second amendment, which enshrines (recoge) the American right to bear (tener) arms, as a hedge against private militias; as an affirmation of the country’s revolutionary roots; as an acknowledgment (reconocimiento) of a divine individual right; or as all of the above. From the revolutionary war to the genocide of Native Americans to the taming (to tame: domesticar) of the western wilderness (tierra salvaje) to the ratification of the code of anti-government American individualism, US history is filled with guns. The future may be, too.

Expresiones y correcciones

Se dice "In the end", pero "at the end of":
     In the end, I couldn't go to the party.
     I got at the end of the party.
It depends ON
I get off to a good/bad start Tener un buen/mal comienzo
I get off on the right /wrong foot Empezar con buen/mal pie
It is safe: es seguro. It is safe to say ...

Nature's best

suitable- unsuitable /sútebol/ (apropiado-inapropiado)
harmless (inofensivo)
faithful (fiel)
eager: (í:ga/ entusiasta, impaciente
affectionate: cariñoso
lucrative
outrageous /áurei3es/ indignante, intolerable
fierce: fiero
endangered /índeied/(en vías de extinción)
frightening:/fraitning/ aterrador, que da miedo

Swans and wolves are the most faithful animal species. They only have one mate and never change partner.
Some types of dogs, such as pit-bulls, are considered unsuitable pets for families.
My friend scrams (grita) when she sees a spider or a bee.
Most of the animals are harmless if you leave them alone.
She's eager to get a cat, but her husband thinks they aren't affectionate.
Buying and selling exotic animals is lucrative, but it is also outrageous.
Mosquitoes are not quite annoying as bees and wasps as far I'm concerned (No son tan molestos como... en lo que a mí respecta)
Crocodiles look very dangerous and fierce.
Tigers are slightly (un poco) more endangered than wales
Leopards are nowhere near as beautiful as tigers. (NO son tan hermosos como)

Grupo GH

-GH a final de palabra:
         /f/ cough /káf/ , laugh /láf/, rough /ráf/ (áspero) o
          no se pronuncia: sigh /sái/ (suspirar), weigh /wei/, high /hái/
-GHT a final: solo se pronuncia la  /t/
          thought /zót/, bought /bót/, caught /kát/, sought /sót/ (to seek: buscar) o
          height /háit/ (altura), weight /wéit/
GH- al principio de palabra: /g/ ghost /góust/, ghetto /gétou/
-GH- en medio
     /f/ cough-coughed /kóft/- rough (áspero) roughest /ráfest/- laughing /láfing/
     no suena: higher /háia/; sighed /sáit/; weighed /wéit/
- En palabras compuestas: egghead (intelectual)/éged/ bigheaded (creído) /bighédid/

Plastic and carbon foodprint

The supermarkets sell too much plastic packaging to consumer. They should commit (comprometerse) to a plastic-free aisle /ail/ in their stores. But they prefer not to talk about the amount of plastic packaging /pácki3ing/ they put on the market. The top supermarkets are creating a plastic waste (desperdicio) problem of more than 800.000 tonnes each year. There is a mounting (creciente) public concern about the damage (daño) that plastic does to the natural world.

Supermakets in the UK keep their plastic footprint (impacto) secret.

Supermarkets in the UK keep their plastic footprint secret with a confidentiality agreement signed /saind/ with the agencies involved in the British recycling compliance (cumplimiento) scheme. It means the amount of plastic packaging created by each supermarket and the money they pay towards its recycling is kept out of the public domain.

Maybe Britain should adopt the French system of "bonus-malus" where supermarkets are taxed more for using material which is not easily recyclable and less for sustainable and recyclable packaging.

While supermarkets like Co-op has cut its plastic packaging by 4% in the last 10 years, and they has introduced key changes which others have followed...

Iceland would eliminate plastic packaging on all its own-brand products within (dentro de) five years.

This is vertiginous the way plastic production is growing. Supermarkets are shamed (avergonzados) for plastic packaging.

It's something we do every day: open the lunchbox (fiambrera), unwrap our food and throw away the packaging. But all that waste can really start to add up (sumar, ascender).

That's one of the reasons why people were outraged (indignado) /autrei3/ when they saw this photo from the US of a peeled mandarin in a plastic container. Many said it was really wasteful (derrochador),  given the mandarin's peel was already a natural packaging.
We should leave mandarins, babanas in their natural packaging: the peel./pi:l/.
We`re lost our minds and we need to think about what we're buying.
A lot of so called convenience food is really light stuff that can easily blow out of our bins or blow around and get into thw waterways.

Some schools have made a switch (cambio) to something called "nude food". It's a food without wrapper (envoltorio), so you could put it in a reusable container, It reduces the amount of rubbish that we have, and if that rubbish doesn`t get put in the bin, it blows around and can end up in the ocean, and some animals like turtles can think it's jellyfish (medusas) and eat that and that cab be bad for their body.

Unnecessary packaging
The peel is a natural packaging
to wrap- to unwrap- a wrapper
envolver-desenvolver-envoltorio
packet /pákit/

These days we're all becoming more and more concerned about the effect our lifestyle has on the environment. Our carbon footprint tells us how much land and water is needed to support the way we live. It takes into account things like the food we buy, the amount of traveling we do, the amount of rubbish we throw away and how much energy we consume.

Forty percent of food produced in the US isn't eaten. Landfills are a terrible place for food. Trapped without oxygen under a mountain of garbage, a head of lettuce takes 25 years to decompose. While scraps (sobras) in compost piles transform quickly into valuable fertilizer, in landfills (vertedero) they instead produce methane (a greenhouse gas).

Compost: abono.

To compost: usar como abono, convertirse en abono, fertilizar

    You can compost all vegetable peels and fruit skins.

Composting is a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus which fuels (aviva, alimenta) plant growth (crecimiento) and restores vitality to depleted (agotado) soil (tierra). It's also free, easy to make and good for the environment.

You can buy or build a compost bin.

Composting offers a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers and reduces landfill waste.

waste: desecho, desperdicio

To waste: desperdiciar

wasted: desaprovechado, desperdiciado

wasteful: derrochador, desperdicio

e-waste: electronic waste

household waste: desechos familiares (viejos muebles, TV...)

planned obsolescence

to put on the rubbish at night

to throw away

To sort/classify the rubbish

junk, junk food, junk mail (=spam)

biodegradable

renewable

sustainable

garbage (AM)- rubbish (UK): basura

trash (incontable): basura

Vídeo y práctica sobre environment