Y&R doesn't stand for The Young and The Restless. Young & Rubicam is the one of the world's largest consumer advertising agencies and its Brazil branch created a series of ads that once again suits our purpose: presenting the story differently.

 

 

 

... I've really enjoyed being your teacher this year even if it has been a really difficult one. I've really enjoyed being a Bloggy Builder. I really appreciate your participation. I've been impressed by your really awesome works. I am actually amazed by your energy. It gave me strength and energy to cope with difficult moments this year. I wish you all the best. I'll teach the Fifth Child next year. I wonder whether I should keep on blogging the minds. I'll see. The most important thing right now is your success.Fred, thanks for your participation! Stef, thank you for this year, thank you for your advice, and sorry for what you know. I really appreciate the whole thing (KWIM). Well, kids,  I know you will succeed. Don't hesitate to share your experience. Never seen most of you but, thanks to the blog, it was as if we were made "of the same substance"...

Thank you.

Roast (comedy)

A roast is an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heartwarming tributes, the implication being that the roastee is able to take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult, and therefore, show their good nature. It is seen by some as a great honor to be roasted, as the individual is surrounded by friends, fans, and well-wishers, who can receive some of the same treatment as well during the course of the evening. The party and presentation itself are both referred to as a roast. The host of the event is called the roastmaster. Anyone who is honored in such a way is said to have been "roasted".

Possible Xblogtation: Interesting video dealing with social network services. Develop the concept of new internet powers. Could refer to the brand new iG8. Organize your own roasting.

 

 

 

Example of famous roast:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An efficient campaign about education. They compare pupils in a class to football players on the pitch. The referee is compared to the teacher. They want to criticize the fact that children are influenced by adults' attitudes.

Possible Xblogtation: Can be used in a lesson about education or parents/children relationship.

 

 

I've always been attracted by and interested in robots and bionics. One of my favorite characters are Darth Vador, R2D2, C3PO, etc.

What is really interesting is the relations that could exist between Humans and Robots. How disturbing robots can be. How threatened humans can be. And what if robots could develop feelings?

I've just found the following video which is actually really stunning!

 

 

The video can be found on the BBC website and it is the illustration of the following article (The whole article can be read HERE)

 

World first

Last year, a 24-year-old Austrian named Patrick was the first patient in the world to choose to have his hand amputated, again by Professor Aszmann, and a bionic replacement fitted. He lost the use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work.

He can now open a bottle quickly and tie his own shoelaces.

"My reaction was 'Oh my god, I've got a new hand!'," he told BBC News.

"I can do functions which I did with my normal hand with the prosthetic arm," he said, recalling his response to first being fitted with a bionic hand.

"I think it was very cool - I did not do things with my hand for three years and then you put on the new hand and one moment later, you can move it. It's great."

Patrick is already testing a new hand, which its makers say will give him much greater movement. The hand has six sensors fitted over nerves within the lower arm, rather than the two on his current prosthesis.

Multiple signals can be read simultaneously, enabling the patient to twist and flex their wrist back and forward, again using the same brain signals that would have powered similar movement in the real hand.

Professor Oskar Aszmann prefers to calls these elective amputations "bionic reconstruction" and has been working closely with Otto Bock, who have a research and production facility in Vienna.

Before the first operation, the professor held a symposium to discuss the procedure, to which senior surgeons and a theologian were invited.

He believes elective amputations are the best option for patients who have lost hand movement and who have no hope of regaining that movement through surgery.

"You see a patient come to you with a tremendous need for hand function and it's only a thought away to come to the next conclusion," he said.

"If the patient cannot address his only hand and I can change his anatomy in a way so he can communicate with an artificial hand, then of course I'll just take away what's there and provide a technological hand for him."

But Professor Aszmann has faced opposition in some quarters, with senior colleagues even requesting he cancel this latest operation - requests the professor promptly rejected.

He said the alternative for patients like Milo would be years of pointless surgery.

"Milorad is now 26 years old and he wants to go on with his life. To biologically reconstruct a hand for him would be a never-ending story and in the end he would still have a non-functional hand.

"It is in the patient's interest to provide him with a solution he can live with properly and successfully, and so I have no problem with cutting off his hand."

In the event, the amputation itself passed without incident.

Scar tissue from a previous operation was removed and then the hand cut off with a pneumatic saw. Tissue was then taken from the hand and transplanted to the wrist to provide a cushion for the prosthesis.

Speaking from his hospital bed following the surgery, Milo was a little drowsy, but as positive as ever.

"I feel good," he said, his bandaged arm lying on a cushion besides him.

"I'm happy that it's over and look forward."

The article and the video could be studied with many other elements. It could be related to fictive characters, famous movies or books or even to philosophical notions and questions. Here are some suggestions. Feel free to propose others.

 

 

 

 

Isaac Asimov's writings could be exploited. His Robots chronicles are masterpieces and have influenced many other books or films (such as I, Robot)

 

 

 

 

Blade Runner which was influenced by Philip K. Dick's Do Androids dream of electric sheeps?

The novel and the film are really impressive and considered as classics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I., is a 2001 science fiction drama film directed, produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg. It was based on Brian Aldiss' short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darth Vader is an iconic/mythic character who embodies the process "a man who became a machine". The Star Wars story tells his fall into the Dark Side and tries to explain how a pure and innocent little boy can become the most terrific monster of the galaxy.

 

 

 

 

Here is a very disturbing video:

Unicef had a very brilliant idea. They intended to turn an everyday tool into help. Here you can donate a mispelled word for education. Just watch the campaign to understand...

Possible Xblogtation: Can you turn an everyday tool into help?

 

A really beautiful and disturbing animated short movie made by some artists from Pixar.

Possible Xblogtation: Any ideas about how to use it in class? It could be an illustration for lessons about horror, suspense and fantasy. It could be the basis for imaginary works such as "imagine what could have happened", or "Imagine a conversation between the other dolls".

 

 

Here is Claire C’s equation on The Fifth Child. It was inspired by the article on “funny equations” about newmath.com.

 

 

 

Here is the explanation of my work : 

 

 

I use the concept of the article "Funny equations" on the blog for The Fifth Child. My work is about Ben, and I think it is "the" cliché of the book.  

 

First I took a picture of a little boy and with my software, I represent Ben on black and white because it is the result of the equation. Indeed, we can consider Ben like an angel or like a devil. We have two sides with this character. But, behind Ben there is Harriet and we can't forget her. There is a lot of supposition about her behavior : crazy, post natal depression, denial of pregnancy, hysteria, addiction... But her behavior influences Ben's life. Even if I thought Ben was a monster in my first reading, I was sceptical. Ben is just a child, with his innocence and that's why we can easily suppose that is not a monster.  

 

When I did my work, I wanted to show that Ben is just a child with his bad and good sides. It is probably Harriet's dominant point of view (during all the novel) which persuades us that Ben is a monster. She's rejecting Ben from the beginning, we have no chance - when we read - to know how he can be if Harriet love him like the others, if she wasn't tired, if she doesn't take pills etc... 

 

I've just found the following pictures on the net representing famous quotes from famous movies used in the msn context.

Possible Xblogtation: Create your owns or rewrite dialogues from famous texts to make fun of them.

 

 

I found on newmath.com the following funny equations. I've always hated maths, but now I begin to appreciate!

Possible Xblogtation: Create your own ones!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are funny caricatures made by an Art teacher (Chuck Dillon). The stereotypes are based upon the students he has had so far.

Possible Xblogtation: Create your own stereotypes. The documents can be used in a lesson about stereotypes.

 

 The vid is a spoof ad about the new social networking services such as FB and Twitter and how they could be used by parents to trace their children.

Possible Xblogtation: Use it in class for a lesson about kid-parents communication, generation gap or problems of intimacy on the Net.