SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE NORWOOD MISTERY

This book is very interesting, because here whe can see a good Sherlock and a very clever detective. The story begins with a young boy named McFarlane, John, he enters very scared and excited to Sherlock's house, he askes him for help because he's in troubles with the police, he's being acused for the murder of Mr. Oldacre, an old builder.

Due to the young man's fear, Sherlock wants to know more about it, so he askes him the whole story. John is a lawyer and one day and old man came to his office saying that he wanted to leave him all his fortune, because he was his son. With this notice the young lawyer was very surprised and he didn't believe it. Mr. Oldacre was the oldman that day, he made all the paperwork to leave his will to his son John. That same night he went to Oldacre´s house to sign more papers, and he left there at 9:30 p.m, it was late to catch a train so he stayed in a hotel near there. The next morning he saw in the newspaper the article about Oldacre and his dead.

Then, the police catched McFarlane and it's here when Sherlock starts to investigate the facts. First he goes to Oldacre's house, there he took a good look of everything and talks with Mr. Oldacre's housekeeper, Mrs Lexington, but she says nothing about the night before it, she looked nervous and didn't look Sherlock to his eyes, she kept her eyes on the floor. This seemed suspect for him, but he didn't insist because all that she said was that she let in McFarlane that night, and that he was the killer of Oldacre.

Afterwards Sherlock goes tosee inspector Lestrade who's very sure about his prisioner, in fact, the whole Scotland Yard agrees with Lestrade. Sherlock is not happy with this, he wants to know more, so he goes to McFarlane´s house and talks with his mother, a beatiful and kind woman. She tells him everything about the dark past with McFarlane and she denies that he was the father of her son John. Many years ago Oldacre asked her to marry him, but she said no and a few months later she got married with John's father, that same day she received her picture slashed with a knife from Oldacre. He was a bad man, a terrible man.

He came back to Oldacre's house and asked Dr. Watson to accompany him through the house, watching every floor of it and every room. He went up to the top floor with a bag of dry grass, there he bunt the bag and asked to his partners to scream: Fire¡¡ Fire¡¡ lauder and lauder. As son as they started to scream "Fire¡¡" a small door opened and an old, small and ugly man came out and the police screamed "Oldacre¡¡". Mr Oldacre was hidden in a small room inside the wall and when he found out that there was not fire he started to say that it was a joke. The true story was that Oldacre didn't have a lot of money as he said, and he wanted to disappear with Mrs Lexington and acused him of his murder, so that anyone could find him. 

This was THE NORWOOD MISTERY, a false murder and a very clever oldman, who was caugth by a false fire.

THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY II: MOVIE

TRAILER OF THE MOVIE

I haven't seen one of this movies, but this one was quite interesting and funny. This chapter was about Xixo and his son, his children accidentally stow away on a fast-moving poachers' truck, unable to get off, and Xixo sets out to rescue them. Along the way, he encounters a couple of soldiers trying to capture each other and a pilot and passenger of a small plane, who are each having a few problems of their own.

 

"Never talk to strangers", is advice Dr. Ann Taylor should have heeded. While attending a business conference in Africa, the corporate law Ph.D. from New York accepts an offer from an obvious womanizer to catch a glimpse of the country's wildlife by tagging along with him as he flies an errand for his employer. But the promised half-hour aerial safari turns into something much longer and more hands-on after unforeseen circumstances result in a change of pilots, and a crash landing deep in the Kalahari dessert.

Fortunately her new companion, Dr. Stephen Marshall , is a zoologist with plenty of survival skills. Unfortunately, he hasn't much sympathy for the citified woman's ignorance or fear of her new natural surroundings. Despite their differences, the two attempt to formulate a course of action that will get their wounded plane airborne again. However, things never go exactly as planned.... 

 

Meanwhile a few sand dunes over, a couple of curious Bushman children  discover a large and unfamiliar object. They have no sooner crawled up its large and shiny exterior than the beast roars to life. Clinging to each other and the top of the moving vehicle, the youngsters watch helplessly as they are carried away from all they know.

Not long afterward, their father Xixo  finds their tracks. Although a native to the Kalahari, this particular Bushman recognizes the tire marks because he has had dealing with the Heavy People before.  So the anxious parent sets off to find his family.

Following a formula similar to its prequel, the paths of these groups converge, as well as get tangled up with some other desert wanderers, like some nasty hunters and a couple of military men from opposing armies. The director Jamie Uys carefully balances fish--out-of-water comedy and hilarious antics with reminders of the Big Continent's battle against poaching and its constant presence of war. He also interjects his personal bias for the simple life and cynicism for civilized man, while proving untamed animals are the least of the misadventures to be encountered in his homeland.

Consequentially, the film does contain moments of peril: some at the hands of nature and others from bad guys who threaten with both fire and firearms. Although a gunshot injury is portrayed (blood is briefly seen), young viewers are more likely to be disturbed by a near-accident that occurs when the indigenous children don't recognize the potential danger of a rifle.

Other concerns include the use of mild to moderate profanities and some flashes of skin. The topless nudity and bare buttocks of the tribal people may be their authentic costume, but not all parents will find the intended humor in the habit Dr. Taylor's pink dress has of flipping up over her head and revealing her underwear.

This movie teaches about love, respect and teamwork, because we don't always need someone, but when we really need him we must accept this a be kind, that way that person will be kind with us.

LESSON: WE MUST LEARN HOW TO WORK WITH OTHERS¡¡¡¡

TEAM WORK...

 

IF WE WORK WITH OTHER'S HELP WE'LL BE SUCCESSFUL¡

A BLUE REVOLUTION

It may already be too late for some water-short countries with rapid population growth to avoid a crisis. Many other countries can avoid the coming crisis if appropriate policies and strategies are formulated and acted on soon. Whether water is used for agriculture, industry, or municipalities, there is much room for conservation and better management. Effective strategies must consider not only managing the water supply better but also managing demand better.

To avoid catastrophe over the long term, it also is important to act now to slow the growth in demand for freshwater by slowing population growth. Currently, in many developing countries millions of people want to plan their families and to use contraception. Family planning programs have played an important role in assuring individual reproductive health and in reducing national fertility levels. Continuing and expanding these programs also can help assure that population growth eventually slows to sustainable levels in relation to the supply of freshwater.

 Toward a Blue Revolution 

The world needs a Blue Revolution to conserve and manage freshwater supplies in the face of growing demand from population growth, irrigated agriculture, industries, and cities—just as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture in the 1960s. A Blue Revolution will require coordinated responses to problems at local, national, and international levels.

Locally led initiatives show that water can be used much more efficiently. When communities manage freshwater resources efficiently, they also manage other natural resources better, improve sanitation, and reduce disease. At the national level, especially in water-short regions with dense populations, adopting a watershed or river-basin management perspective is a needed alternative to uncoordinated water-management policies by separate jurisdictions. At the international level countries that share river basins can fashion workable policies to manage water resources more equitably. Development agencies need to focus more on assuring the supply and management of freshwater resources and on providing sanitation as part of development and public health programs.

A water-short world is an inherently unstable world. As the next century dawns, water crises in more and more countries will present obstacles to better living standards and better health and even bring risks of outright conflict over access to scarce freshwater supplies. Finding solutions should become a high priority now.

It's not too late for us to be aware of water crisis, we don't have to wait till earth gets dry, WE CAN STILL SAVE OUR BLUE PLANET ¡¡¡

 

WATER, LET'S NOT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED 

THE WORLD' S BIGGEST PROBLEMS

Nowadays the world we live in has many problems, not only economics, political or educative, but also environmental. This are the world’s biggest problems:

• Economic Collapse : Fragilities in the current global economy could tip the developed world into conditions not seen since the 1920s.

 

• Peak Oil : Petroleum has powered the modern world for almost 100 years; today, many industry insiders say that we may be reaching a permanent peak in oil production. 

• Global Water Crisis : Over the last 50 years the human population has nearly tripled, while industrial pollution, unsustainable agriculture, and poor civic planning have decreased the overall water supply. 

• 

• Species Extinction : Certain species that human beings depend upon for our food supply are going extinct; if their numbers fall too low we may face extinction ourselves. 

•  

Rapid Climate Change : While the debate rages on about the causes of climate change, global warming is an empirical fact. The problem is both a curse and blessing, in that people from different cultures will either have to work together or face mutual destruction.  

  There are lots of troubles, but I chose one: GLOBAL WATER CRISIS, because it is as important as the others, but this for me it's the main problem that we have to fix.

Water, simply put, makes the existence of the human race on this planet possible. With few exceptions, water has always been a natural resource that people take for granted. Today, the situation has changed. Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. According to the World Bank and World Health Organization, 2 billion people lack access to clean water and 1 billion people do not have enough to even meet their daily needs.

Every day an increasing amount of pollution seeps into rivers and lakes making them toxic to humans, and underground aquifers , our most significant sources of water, are being depleted at an alarming rate. By 2050 the number of people on the planet is projected to exceed 9 billion, and if current trends continue more and more useable water will be lost. Making an adequate supply of water available to everyone alive today is a monumental task, and ensuring that there is enough water for all future generations will require an unprecedented level of international cooperation and compassion.

Humanity has approximately 11 trillion cubic meters of freshwater at its disposal. Groundwater aquifers contain over 95% of this water, while rain, rivers, and lakes make up the remaining 5%. Approximately 1,700 m3 of water exists for every person on the planet, an alarming low number. According to the Water Stress Index, a region with less than 1,700 m3 per capita is considered “water stressed”.

The global supply is not distributed evenly around the planet, nor is water equally available at all times throughout the year. Many areas of the world have seriously inadequate access to water, and many places with high annual averages experience alternating seasons of drought and monsoons.  

Graph 1 shows water availability per person within a country.

Water usage differs highly between developing countries and developed ones. Developing countries use 90% of their water for agriculture, 5% for industry, and 5% for urban areas. Developed countries use 45% of their water for agriculture, 45% for industry, and 10% for urban areas. In the last century water usage per person doubled, even as the total population tripled, creating a situation today where many areas of the world are consuming water at an unsustainable rate.  

Graph 2 highlights in red all the areas where water is being consumed at a nonrenewable rate.

In the coming decades, water crises will likely become increasingly common. If the population continues to grow at a rate of 1 billion people every 15 years, the Earth’s capacity to support human life will be severely strained. Population growth notwithstanding, the current supply of water is being degraded by pollution, overdrawing, and climate change.  

It is not too late to guarantee a safe supply of water for everyone alive today and for all future generations; although to do so would require an unprecedented level of international cooperation, trust, and compassion.

WATER the essential ingredient for life on this planet¡¡

THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY

Many people enjoy Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his friend, Dr Watson. But who know remember that Holmes and Watson were real people? Everyone has forgotten that they lived before Conan Doyle gave them life in his book.

Dr Watson died in 1926. He was seventy-three. He left behind him a locked box, and order that it must not opened for fifty years. For fifty years the box lay hidden in a dark room below a bank. Years came and went, and the world changed in a thousand ways.

In 1976 the box was opened. It contained a packed of papers. They tell a terrible story. Some people say it cannot be true. They say Watson was lying, or that he was sick when he wrote it. After so many years we cannot be sure. We have checked all the facts that we can. All we know is that the story could be true. It is possible. We think it is probable. Now you must read it and decide for yourself.

The Editors.

I understand why this Sherlock Holmes novel is controversial among, even hated by some Holmes fans, who are used to one interpretation of the detective, but I found it to be fascinating and very well rooted in the canonical “Holmesian” texts. It’s sophisticated (and darkly Gothic) psychological look not only at Holmes (who I found to be poignantly redeemed at the end, contrary to what I'd expected from other reviews) but also at the wonderful Dr. Watson who kept me very interested.

 I thought the "Holmes and Watson were real people, and Arthur Conan Doyle intentionally 'fictionalized' them" approach was well realized. Whether or not you accept this interpretation of Holmes, I think it's clear this work is both carefully and lovingly crafted with sincere attention to canonical detail. It's not my absolute favorite pastiche to date, but it's a very important and compelling one, and I'm very glad I’ve read it.