My observation

At some evening last week I randomly decided to write about my day. I don't exactly know what caused this because it was just as mundane as any other. Still, when I started recalling everything and noting it down a lot of things came into my mind. They weren't just the things I did or happened to me, but also how some of them made me feel. While I was doing that I was really surprised. I didn't realize how much I could write about a supposedly boring, short day. I came to a conclusion that normally I'd just forget all that but by putting it down I probably won't. But even more importantly, I saw that this day was actually different from the ones that also just follow my routine. If I'd do the same with any other I'd likely have the same opinion opinion about it too, which would mean that every day is different to the contrary of how it sometimes seems to me.

My observation

Not a long time ago my friend sent me a link about a crime that happened in a village we live in. A man was brutally murdered, his head and genitalia were cut off when someone found him. It happened back in 2006 but until 11 years later the police hadn't found out what was possibly the real reason of it - mistake. When I watched a video of asking people about it, they weren't keen on talking about the topic. Somehow until now I hadn't heard about the situation. I know I couldn't really hear about it when it took place as I was very little, but the discovered explanation is not so old. I talked with some other people about it and most had no idea that happened but they were curious to know more. I think the reason why it's not a popular story is that for the society here it was too brutal. As mostly elder people live here they probably tried to convince themselves that nothing dangerous could reach them here and preferred to stay silent. This also made me realize that difference between our generations - while the elders try to ignore such things, younger people find it very interesting.

My observation

Recently when I was waiting for my bus I saw something I haven't noticed before. People who were standing there too were already lined up in an exact place their bus would arrive. There was no sign if it was going to show up at the start of the stop, the middle or the end. I just think that after a few times those people saw it appear there, they learned where to stand and wait for it. That's nothing strange - it's comfortable and makes perfect sense to just quickly get in instead of walking from afar first. This observation, even though it's very simple and not weird, made me think about how stiff we are as a society. It's enough that we do something a couple of times, we get used to it and it becomes normal for us. It actually makes us so easy to manipulate! We could just hear something a few times and then we would automatically do it.

From dust bowl to California drought: a climate scientist on the lessons we still haven’t learned

Recent interview with Peter Gleick, the co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a global thinktank that has become a leading voice on water issues in California and around the world, showed us the real issues with droughts in California. He stated that they weren't just a strange, accidental dry periods but due to climate change, they're increasingly the norm. During last drought there people learned a little about how to improve water efficiency yet they still seem to not realize the situations are not random. I think that, as Peter Gleick said, the first, biggest step in our fight with climate is to make everyone realize that it absoltely is changing and it's a serious problem. People should start caring more about how much they pollute the air and waste water. It's nowadays very cheap so people don't think much when they use it. But the reults of it in California are what they hate the most - droughts. They really should see that it's their fault and try to improve the situation. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/29/california-drought-climate-dust-bowl

Italian ‘king of absentees’ allegedly skipped work for 15 years

A hospital employee in Italy had been skipping work for 15 years until authorities noticed. He was still getting paid his monthly salary - €538,000 - even though he wasn't worrking at all. In an investigation police found out that in 2005 the man supposedly threatened the hospital director in order to keep her from filing a disciplinary report over his absenteeism. She was then retired and he continued his absence at work since it never was checked anyway. Now at the age of 67 he's finally facing charges: abuse of office, forgery and aggravated extortion. Six managers are also being investigated on suspicion of helping him. In my opinion this article only showed how unprofessional the hospital directors were. It took them too much time to acknowledge that they had been paying to someone who wasn't attending work. I'm able to understand the first director because she was threatened and scared to do anything about it, but people having the position after her definitely should've checked if everyone wass really working. The hospital should be managed better because it's a serious institution and having a wrong list of working doctors could cost some people a lot. I hope that the man will repay somehow for what he did because working there is very stressful for doctors and nurses since they are responsible for other lives. His absences could've caused serious issues. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/italian-king-of-absentees-allegedly-skipped-work-for-15-years

An end to cigarettes? New Zealand aims to create smoke-free generation

New Zealand has a plan to make the country smoke-free by 2025 because it's a problem there and about 4500 citizens die of it every year. The plan is to increase the legal smoking age, reduce the nicotine in tobacco products, prohibit filters, set a minimum price for tobacco and limit the places where it can be sold. The strongest of the proposals is to make smoking illegal for people born after 2004. Some people and healthcare officials say it's a good idea to finally put the end to this problem, but some express the opinion it won't work because people wiil just buy it more and illegally to show they don't agree with the idea. I think that it's an intresting thing. It's probable that it won't work at all, but I think it's worth giving a try since it rather wouldn't make the smoking problem worse and could be a start of its fall in the world. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/16/new-zealand-aims-to-create-smoke-free-generation-cigarettes

Police called to Harry and Meghan’s California home nine times since July

After Harry, Meghan and their one-year-old son, Archie moved into their house in sothern California in July, police have been called there nine times. First four calls were in July, with one call listed as a phone request, and others labelled “alarm activations”, all happening in early. Next one was in November, then on Christmas Eve and shortly after that on Boxing day due to a man trespassing. The latest one was in the middle of February, listed as an alarm activation. There's no comment about the situation from representatives of the Sussexes, or the sheriff’s department. In interview with Oprah Winfrey the couple revealed that the royal family is not responsible now for the management and cost of their security, so they have to do it by themselves. I think that it's an unpleasant situation for Harry and Meghan, because they are not entirely safe and have to worry about all the alarms and people breaking in. They don't deserve to be in a position like that just because they decided to quit as working royals. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/08/police-called-to-harry-and-meghan-california-home-nine-times

Leaf blowers and beating branches: the fight to stop India’s forest fires

Similipal national park in India has been burning for over a month. The fire was started by poachers and a minority of the local indigenous tribes, who hunt using fire. It hadn't rained there for five months, which makes the ground burn even more. In attemp to put out the fire, a forest department official uses leaf blowers and women help whith leaf branches. The government didn't react quickly and stated that no large trees, animals or human lives have been lost. In reality, the fires have affected about 25% of the fauna and flora of the park. In my opinion it's another example of what climate change is causing. There had never been such big forest fires in this park and it's rare that there's no rain for that long time. Apart from the climate, Indian government and communities are to blame. The government didn't react properly and is not telling the truth. The tribal communities didn't react too because the forest department lost their trust. They are also depending too much on forests and are not educated enough about the danger of it. The fires probably won't stop soon since the used ways of putting it out are not that effective. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/20/battle-against-indias-forest-fires-similipal-aoe

Dead Sea scroll fragments found in desert cave

Archeologiats from Israel have found two dozen Dead Sea scroll fragments from a cave in Judean Desert. It's the first discovery of biblical text in 60 years. During excavations of the Cave of Horror in 60s, 40 skeletons were found. It placed the cave on precarious position, which caused recently to scour it and in result 20 bits of parchment were discovered. It's believed that Jewish rebels were hiding in the canyon about 40km south of Jerusalem in the second century to escape a Roman advance. The fragments of Bible, which had God's name in Hebrew, could be hidden there. I think that's a really nice piece of news. It reminds us that there's still many things that we haven't found which could be important in history of the world. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/16/israeli-archeologists-find-new-dead-sea-scroll-fragments

Great apes given Covid vaccines after outbreak at San Diego zoo

In January at San Diego Zoo, nine great apes have been given an experimental Covid-19 vaccine. They received it from a company called Zoetis for use in animals after eight members of gorilla troop were tested positive. Health officers said they wanted to try their best to protect them from Covid because it's not known how it would affect other apes. In March 2020 scientists said that populations of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans could be erased during pandemic. Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced it's open to vaccinating some animals, but first the 5 million humans in the area. I think that while Coronavirus is dangerous to animals too, the priority, as the park said, should be vaccinating people. There are ways to keep apes safe, mainly wearing masks around them. If people followed restrictions and the zoos stayed closed, the animals would be safe and they wouldn't need to be get a vaccine. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/05/san-diego-zoo-apes-covid-vaccines-outbreak

Family of trailblazing female Spanish mayor hail DNA match to remains

Earlier this year in a small town in Spain an exhumation was carried out. It was in hope to find María Domínguez Remón, who eight decades ago was Spain's first female mayor, feminist and rights activis. The clues that remain it is her is the location in which she was believed to be, a hole in her skull punctured by a bullet and she was buried with a small brown comb like she would've worn. The great-grandson of Domínguez's sister took DNA tests, which turned out to match with the remains. I think that's a really good news because it helped to remember her and tell other people about her life. She was killed because she was thinking differently, was brave and was a republican. In my opinion she is now the next woman in history that we can look up to. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/02/family-of-anti-franco-spanish-mayor-hail-dna-match-to-remains

Educating Zimbabwe: illegal ‘home schools’ defy lockdown in townships

In Zimbabwe there's a poor time with education for children. Since March 2020 schools there were online due to pandemic, but people from poorer families don't have internet access. It caused almost 10% drop in children passing their exams. To help, some teachers opened their own classrooms. The government is very against it, even charging fees, saying it exposes people to Covid. I think that while the Coronavirus is serious and not to be joked with, online school in Zimbabwe was a bad choice. Everyone should be able to get education, and it's not fair some children there don't because of poverty. If the country can't ensure people have internet access to attend school, then they should find other ways to teach them. There are still plenty of ways to be safe with more people in one place. I'm glad that there are people who care about others education and chose to teach in person despite everything. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/18/educating-zimbabwe-home-schools-defy-lockdown-in-townships

Pakistan ends death penalty for prisoners with severe mental health problems

This week, supreme court in Pakistan revoked the law on the executing prisoners with serious mental problems. It also ordered prosecutors and trial judges to be trained to asses mental health issues at trial. I think that it is a good piece of news, mostly because it's unhuman for me to kill someone, even when they killed. In my opinion even though those people are in prison, they should be helped with their ilnesses. One of the points of prison is to think through the crime you commited and clearly regret it. If you have mental problems it's much harder to do - you probably weren't even yourself when you did it. I am not saying that those people should be excused for their crimes, but it's at least fair to understand mistakes. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/12/pakistan-ends-death-penalty-for-prisoners-with-severe-mental-health-problems

Human noise affects animal behaviour, studies show

Working home because of coronavirus caused noise pollution. Research shows that it gets in the way with animal cognition and mating. To capture the effect of traffic sound zebra finches (species of songbirds) were put in a laboratory with stimulated sound of it. A few tasks were made to see how they would react. They were designed to test birds' motor skills, object manipulating, ability to discriminate between colours and spatial memory. All tasks except colour association showed that zebra finches were negatively affected by the noises. Another study did research about how female Mediterranean field crickets were making mating under the traffic sound conditions. Usually males attract them by rubbing their wings together. To test the effect of noise the researchers clipped their wings, left them to interact with females and then played an artificial song to when they were trying to court the females. This study showed that because of the noise female crickets mounted sooner and more frequently when paired with high-quality courtship song. In my opinion this research shows another importance of negative human impact. Nowadays it's mainly shown as air and water polluting but as we can see it has also an effect on animals. I think it's sad how much we disturb other beings without even realizng.

What I'd like to achieve this term

This term I'd like to focus on my vocabulary and speaking. When I read, listen or watch something in English I usually skip words I don't understand. I will simply start to look them up, note and try to remember. I could make my speaking better by reading out loud and recording myself while I talk.