Jun 2008
Free eCards from Postcards from the Amazon
26/06/08 14:09 Filed in: Artwork
I've recently setup a new web site which allows you
to send ecards based on photography shown on the
Galleries of
http://www.trailsofthespirit.com Now I've started
to extend the images to include original fine art.
I've extended an invitation to some of my
artists friends in the Amazon to put up some of their
original artwork - all being well their art should be
available within the next week, meanwhile I'm kicking
off this new section by putting up some of my own
work (tonight). So if you want to brighten up your
emails check it out
http://www.postcardsfromtheamazon.com
And remember it's free.
B.
And remember it's free.
B.
Imagine learning Spanish at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT?
24/06/08 17:46 Filed in: Spanish
Well that's exactly what I'm doing since late last night.
After a long day and when trolling through the internet I came across a comment that it's possible to take a subject taught at MIT through a program they call MIT OpenCourseWare. It's a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT
Well did they have an online Spanish Course? Yes they do I discovered as I searched their site. Not only that, it's free or more accurately you can make a voluntary donation, and you don't even have to register to take the course!
This is one of those gems that abound on the internet if you can just find them. So I've started my new MIT Spanish Course 1, (and yes there's Spanish 2 as well), with written material and no less than 52 really well produced online Spanish streaming video lessons. Amazing!
Here's the link - and thank you MIT how incredibly generous of you. http://ocw.mit.edu
Getting my head around learning Spanish
23/06/08 11:54 Filed in: Spanish
When travelling in Peru learning Spanish was
naturally way easier now I'm back in Ireland, trying
to learn Spanish feels like trying to decipher the
Dead Sea Scrolls.
That's why last week I decided to take a one-on-one Spanish lesson with a woman from Cuba. For around one and a half hours I got to practice my sub nino attempt at Spanish. Thankfully it got better as the session progressed, enough to encourage me to repeat the process later this week. This time however I'm going to attempt un houra per day.
So blew the dust off my Collins/Tony Buzan learn Spanish package and will get going esta noches. I know a lot more Spanish than my brain will let on. It's something about learning a language at school, marks out of ten and all of that learning brutality that passed for schooling when I was a child. To get from under that and have fun learning a language, now wouldn't that be something! I'll let you know what works, and what doesn't as I aim for 'flowing conversations in Spanish' level.
B.
That's why last week I decided to take a one-on-one Spanish lesson with a woman from Cuba. For around one and a half hours I got to practice my sub nino attempt at Spanish. Thankfully it got better as the session progressed, enough to encourage me to repeat the process later this week. This time however I'm going to attempt un houra per day.
So blew the dust off my Collins/Tony Buzan learn Spanish package and will get going esta noches. I know a lot more Spanish than my brain will let on. It's something about learning a language at school, marks out of ten and all of that learning brutality that passed for schooling when I was a child. To get from under that and have fun learning a language, now wouldn't that be something! I'll let you know what works, and what doesn't as I aim for 'flowing conversations in Spanish' level.
B.
Peru to protect isolated tribes
22/06/08 09:01 Filed in: Amazon
This is a follow up article to yesterdays post.
Brazil says dozens of tribes live in the region. Authorities in Peru are to take measures to protect some of the last indigenous tribes to have avoided contact with the outside world. They have promised to stop loggers encroaching on their land near the Brazilian border.
The announcement comes after photographs of an
isolated tribe taken near the border with Peru were
circulated around the world. The unknown group of
native Amazonians were armed with bows and arrows.
The images were taken by the Brazilian government
from the air, and showed some members of the tribe -
their bodies painted red and black - firing arrows at
a photographer in an aeroplane.
The Brazilian government say they took the photos to prove that dozens of isolated tribes live in the region, on both sides of the border. They only hunt, gather and fish, they don't farm, but they know fire - 'Marco Tulio Valverde'
Although anthropologists were not able to name the tribe it is believed that they had travelled a short distance from neighbouring Peru.
Authorities in Peru's Amazon state of Madre de Dios now say they will stop illegal loggers who travel deep into the forest in search of tropical hardwoods. They are often the first people to encounter the tribes.
Marco Tulio Valverde, an adviser to the regional government, said: "We haven't determined if there are three different groups or only one, nomadic, which has been displaced. "They only hunt, gather and fish, they don't farm, but they know fire."
Sickness risk.
According to Survival International, a group that supports tribal people around the world, there are an estimated 500 isolated indigenous people in the region.
Survival International's director, Stephen Corry, said: "This is a positive first step from the Peruvian government, but it must act fast.
"It must stop the logging, remove the loggers and any other invaders from the uncontacted Indians' land, and ensure that no-one else enters in the future."
Apart from the possibility of violent confrontations, encounters with outsiders are often fatal because the isolated people lack the antibodies to protect themselves from a common cold or the flu.
The Peruvian government has also sent a team to the jungle to determine whether or not the photographed tribe had been displaced from Peru by loggers.
According to the BBC's Dan Collyns, the government has been reluctant to set aside new areas of land for uncontacted tribes, and some officials have even denied the existence of such tribes, but there are signs of a changing attitude.
This information supplied by the BBC news service - Barry
Brazil says dozens of tribes live in the region. Authorities in Peru are to take measures to protect some of the last indigenous tribes to have avoided contact with the outside world. They have promised to stop loggers encroaching on their land near the Brazilian border.
The Brazilian government say they took the photos to prove that dozens of isolated tribes live in the region, on both sides of the border. They only hunt, gather and fish, they don't farm, but they know fire - 'Marco Tulio Valverde'
Although anthropologists were not able to name the tribe it is believed that they had travelled a short distance from neighbouring Peru.
Authorities in Peru's Amazon state of Madre de Dios now say they will stop illegal loggers who travel deep into the forest in search of tropical hardwoods. They are often the first people to encounter the tribes.
Marco Tulio Valverde, an adviser to the regional government, said: "We haven't determined if there are three different groups or only one, nomadic, which has been displaced. "They only hunt, gather and fish, they don't farm, but they know fire."
Sickness risk.
According to Survival International, a group that supports tribal people around the world, there are an estimated 500 isolated indigenous people in the region.
Survival International's director, Stephen Corry, said: "This is a positive first step from the Peruvian government, but it must act fast.
"It must stop the logging, remove the loggers and any other invaders from the uncontacted Indians' land, and ensure that no-one else enters in the future."
Apart from the possibility of violent confrontations, encounters with outsiders are often fatal because the isolated people lack the antibodies to protect themselves from a common cold or the flu.
The Peruvian government has also sent a team to the jungle to determine whether or not the photographed tribe had been displaced from Peru by loggers.
According to the BBC's Dan Collyns, the government has been reluctant to set aside new areas of land for uncontacted tribes, and some officials have even denied the existence of such tribes, but there are signs of a changing attitude.
This information supplied by the BBC news service - Barry
Brazil says uncontacted Amazon tribe (near Peru), threatened.
21/06/08 17:54 Filed in: Amazon
"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's government
agreed to release stunning photos of Amazon Indians
firing arrows at an airplane so that the world can
better understand the threats facing one of the few
tribes still living in near-total isolation from
civilization, officials said Friday.
Anthropologists have known about the group for
some 20 years but released the images now to call
attention to fast-encroaching development near the
Indians' home in the dense jungles near Peru.
"We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear," said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four "uncontacted" tribes for Brazil's National Indian Foundation."
Shot in late April and early May, the foundation's photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.
Meirelles told The Associated Press in a phone interview that anthropologists know next to nothing about the group, but suspect it is related to the Tano and Aruak tribes
(Source AP News)
"We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear," said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four "uncontacted" tribes for Brazil's National Indian Foundation."
Shot in late April and early May, the foundation's photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.
Meirelles told The Associated Press in a phone interview that anthropologists know next to nothing about the group, but suspect it is related to the Tano and Aruak tribes
(Source AP News)