spanish english club

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-07-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new issue of the Weekly Bilingual News! Today, something short and different!

Across all the week, in the United States, the frustrating discussions about the debt-ceiling between the White House and the Congress were at top of the news, like in UK, the investigation about the phone-hacking, and in Europe, the financial plan to maintain the euro stability due to the Greek crisis.

In the middle of this scenario, on Friday July 22, a terrible weeping of pain and confusion came from Scandinavia, where the terror shook Norway through the Oslo's bombing attack and the massive killing on the island of Utoya.

Different sources guess that the suspect perpetrator of the killing and bombing is a psychopath with extremist beliefs. We will not debate about his profile. To find the answer for the crime is the responsibility of the Norwegian police and authorities.

But we can not stay indifferent in front of the morbid mind of the criminal or criminals who cut nearly 100 lives. The crime perpetrated doesn't have ideological justification in a civilized world. For this reason, we would like to express our compassion for all the youngsters and other innocent people who were cruelly killed in the slaughter of Utoya and the streets of Oslo.

Our humble pray to God for all victims of this tragedy…

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- authorities = autoridades
- beliefs = creencias
- compassion = compasión
- crime = crimen

- cruelly = cruelmente

- death toll = número de víctimas

- extremist = extremista

- fatal = mortal

- frustrating = frustrante
- God = Dios
- humble = humilde
- indifferent = indiferente
- island = isla

- killing = matanza
- life, lives = vida, vidas
- massive = masivo
- morbid = morboso
- Norway = Noruega

- Norwegian = noruego, noruega, noruegos, noruegas

- perpetrate, perpetrated = perpetrar, perpetrado

- phone-hacking = escuchas telefónicas ilegales, piratería telefónica

- police = policia
- pray = rezar, rogar
- profile = perfil
- psychopath = psicópata
- responsibility = responsabilidad
- Scandinavia = Escandinavia

- shook = sacudió
- slaughter = matanza
- stability = estabilidad
- tragedy = tragedia
- victims = victimas
- weeping = llanto

- youngsters = jovenes

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Betsy, Bob, Erika, John, Mark, Pauline, Stephanie, and Suzanne for your messages and comments about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Sources: Norway official website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, The Washington Post, and Reuters.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-07-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the Weekly Bilingual News! Again we are making a short tour across the world through a brief analysis of the major events of the last few days. We include a chapter of bilingual vocabulary linked with this issue.

The second half of the year began with a mix of bad news concerning financial, economic and political issues, plus bombing attacks, uprisings, repression, scandals, assassinations, and other deaths.

On Sunday 10, "Bulgaria", a Russian tourist boat with more than 180 people on board, sank on the Volga River in a fatal accident. Amid wind and rain, a strong storm knocked the vessel that disappeared in several minutes under water. The death toll was over 100 people. The boat was more than 50 years old. According to different sources its maximum capacity was 120 passengers. The authorities ordered a special investigation to know the causes of the accident.

On Monday July 11, in Damascus, Syria, the embassies of France and US were attacked by followers of the regime in apparent retaliation because the French and American ambassadors visiting an opposition city.

On July 12, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of Afghan President Karzai, was shot and killed in an unclear episode, by a longtime associate of his family at his home.

On July 13, again Mumbai, India was the target a terrorist attack. Three bombs exploded in its financial district killing at least 21 and wounding more than 100. About this incident we wrote the followed comment in a Wall Street's blog: "The three blasts show that till now India hasn't fixed its weakness in security while Mumbai continues to bean attractive place for terrorists."

On July 14, from Mountain View, California, Google posted the financial results of its second fiscal 2011 quarter ended June 30 with figures showed the Internet's company is recovering ground after some recent shakings. Its quarterly revenues were US$ 9,026 million, up 32.25% from the same period of a year ago. It also published a net income of US$ 2,505 million, up 36.14% year over year.

On July 15, in Istanbul, Turkey, a group of 30 countries recognized the Libyan Transitional National Council. The U.S. and other nations have formally recognized the main opposition group in Libya as the legitimate government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Col. Gadhafi has forfeited his right to rule in the Transitional National Council.

From Tuesday to Friday, Italy gained room in the papers due to the austerity measures proposed by the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and approved by the Parliament. This initiative came after rumors that the financial authorities of the European Union were afraid that Rome could convert into a second Athens. The Italian government made an important effort to restore calm to worried European leaders and markets.

Meanwhile, the phone-hacking scandal of the "News of the World" in the United Kingdom generated resignations of the top executives of News Corp and members of the British police, arrests and a suicide. The case continues opened and Rupert Murdoch, owner of the media group, could be damaged. Scotland Yard in UK and FBI in US are instituting research to know the extent of the phone-hacking procedures.

During all week, in Washington, the discussions between the White House and the leaders of Congress about the big deficit of the federal government continued without definitions.

The Wall Street markets closed the previous week in negative territory. On Friday July 15, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 177.47 points for the week, or 1.40% to 12479.73, while Nasdaq Composite declined 70.01 points in the same period, or 2.45%, to 2789.80.

On Sunday July 17, the Japanese women soccer team defeated US in a dramatic end of penalty kicks winning the Women's World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany. It was the first title for Japan. The United States was looking for its third world cup. After an excellent match ended 2-2, it lost its chance to be again world champion in a series of the eleven meters shots.

JOURNALISM AND PHONE-HACKING

The phone-hacking is not a new practice to find murders, follow terrorists and enemies, and uncover the truth in cases of crimes, security and defense issues. It is used by intelligence agencies, police forces and private detectives in different circumstances, sometimes violating ethical principles of the society or going against international agreements with friends, partners and others.

In the case of the "News of the World", the circumstances look worse than the phone-hacking used by the police because the press is not the correct institution to try to enforce the law. Definitely, journalists have to research information always respecting ethical principles and the privacy of others.

In connection with the UK scandal where some involved journalists working for the Murdoch media empire, we wrote the following comments in an Internet blog of Wall Street Journal: "The News Corp's scandal opens a new question mark about what really is the role of journalists: 1) Describe the events in a reasonable way? 2) Compete with the police in the detective research of the events? 3) Or push the last bloody knife in the body of the victims?"

SPECIAL TOPICS

LIBYAN REBELS: The Journal Community of WSJ asked to its members: "Should the U.S. have granted legitimacy to the Libyan rebels?"
Our Answer: "Till now we only know the National Transitional Council is an enemy of the Libyan regime. But are they our friends? We have to be cautious!" (July 16, 2011)

FACEBOOK IN THE SKY: The Journal Community of WSJ asked to its members: "Do you think Facebook is worth $100 billion?"
Our Answer: "Facebook is a fantasy of some investors and speculators who want to inflate the balloon without logical sense. Unfortunately, the environment that Facebook offers to link people and businesses does not have enough professional level to guarantee important business transactions. Sometimes, its users receive suggestions for personal or business links that are not viable. In general, the connections are only for fun or to find friends. Facebook is not a hardware and/or software maker. How many other assets can we consider to achieve the worth of $100 billion?" (July 15, 2011).

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- assassination = asesinato
- assets = activos
- austerity = austeridad
- British = británico, británica
- boat = barco, buque
- causes = causas
- concerning = sobre, acerca de
- death toll = número de víctimas
- episode = episodio
- fatal = mortal
- forfeit = perder derecho a
- fun = diversión
- illegal = ilegal
- Italy, Italian, Italians = Italia, italiano, italiana, italianos, italianas
- net income = ingresos netos
- on board = a bordo
- phone-hacking = escuchas telefónicas ilegales, piratería telefónica
- revenues = ingresos
- river = río
- Russia, Russian, Russians = Rusia, ruso, rusa, rusos, rusas
- shakings = sacudidas
- sink, sank, sunk = hundir, hundió, hundido
- soccer = fútbol
- Turkey = Turquía
- vessel = barco

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Ann, Betsy, Bob, Erika, Joseph, Mary, Stephanie, and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Sources: Google website, Facebook website, US Secretary of State website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-07-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new Weekly Bilingual News with a brief analysis of the news across the world. We include a chapter of bilingual vocabulary linked with this issue.

Like every month in its first days, the economic information linked with the job unemployment was the subject of different headlines (Unemployment rate: 9.2%, Non-farm payrolls rose 18000). At the same time, other events ran in parallel. The big deficit of the federal government and the discussion about raising the debt ceiling made more dramatic the debate. Additionally, the launch of the last shuttle mission of NASA created concern for the people associated with the American space program who will lose their jobs.

Around the world, new fears are growing in connection with the European countries with big debts. Portugal is the focus of a lot of observers. Some analysts also believe Spain and Italy could have problems. In general, the world economy is in jeopardy.

Meanwhile the countries involved in the Arab Spring didn't show significant progress. Some news from Libya confirmed that the rebels are advancing to Tripoli but till now they have a difficult path to take control of the central government. From the other side, Iraq was again shook by bombing attacks and the Egyptians complained in Cairo's streets about the slowness of political changes after the resignation of the President Hosni Mubarak.

In the United Kingdom, research practices of the journalists of the newspaper "News of the World" generated a huge scandal that compromised the top management of News Corp and the former editor Andrew Coulson, who once worked for Prime Minister David Cameron. Amid allegations that reporters of the paper hacked into phones of murder victims and families of slain soldiers, Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp, decided to close the tabloid.

In the United States, the negotiations between the White House and the leaders of Congress about the debt ceiling improved thanks to the personal dialogue between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner but on the Sunday summit the leaders failed to produce a deal.

The Wall Street markets closed the week in the positive territory despite on Friday the majority of the indexes declined due to the disappointment by the June job report. During the last four work days, Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 74.43 points, or 0.59% to 12657.20, while Nasdaq Composite grew 43.78 points, or 1.55%, to 2859.81.

NEW AFRICAN NATION

On Saturday, July 9, South Sudan was declared independent from Sudan after years of civil war between armed groups from the north and south of the African country that killed two million people in five decades.

In 2005, with the intervention of United Nations, the Muslims of the north and the Christians of the south signed a peace agreement that was the previous step for the independence referendum of last January where the people of the south decided their destiny.

he Republic of South Sudan formally emerged as a new independent country after the split of Sudanese nation into two countries.

In Juba, capital city of the youngest Africa state, was celebrating the official ceremony of independence, while in border north of the country, the violence continues for the dispute of oil areas with Sudan.

About this event we wrote the following comments on the blog of NewsHour PBS "The birth of South Sudan reminds us of the birth of a stunted child with a lot of diseases and low life expectation."

SPECIAL TOPICS

LAST SHUTTLE MISSION: TechRepublic posted: "What does this mean for the future of manned flight?"(1), written by Larry Dignan about NASA'S last Shuttle mission.
Our Comment: "Multiple negative consequences. From our point of view, tostop the Shuttle mission without a better alternative is to put in the trash all the efforts that NASA made to open new human paths through the extraterrestrial space. The United States will lose ground in many different ways: scientific, defense, security, industrial, and economic.

JOB REPORT: Wall Street Journal published "Jobs Data Dim Recovery Hopes" (2) about the June job report of the US Secretary of Labor.
Our Comment: "Since 2008, we haven'tseen a continuous strong recovery going downthe street. During this period, the statistics were always handled in away to avoid bad reactions, but the real situation is worse than the numbers say. It is a serious drama."

DEBT CEILING: Wall Street Journal posted: "Entitlement Cuts Divide Democrats" (3) about the Congress and White House discussion around of the debt ceiling of the federal deficit.
Our Comment: "When in our home, our incomes are less than our expenditures and nobody gives us credit, we have to cut some items fromour budget that normally are necessary. Something similar should happen in government. When we expend more money than our normal incomes, we cannot balance our budget and our "reserves" will decline despite all the magic formulas of our Secretary of Treasury. Of course, the public finances are more complex than the home finances, butwe have to cut expenditures or invent new "taxes". Definitively, we cannot go against the basic principles ofaccounting."

CISCO SPYING CHINESE: Wall Street Journal published: "Cisco Poised to Help China Keep an Eye on Its Citizens"(4) about the security system implemented by Cisco Systems in China.
Our Comment: "In general, the technology companies that implement electronic security systems don't analyze the possible social and human consequences of their work."

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- accounting = contabilidad
- deficit = déficit
- economy = economía
- debt ceiling = techo de la deuda
- jeopardy, to be in jeopardy = estar en peligro
- job = empleo, puesto de trabajo
- oil = petróleo - recovery = recuperación
- reserves = reservas
- shuttle = transportador, lanzadera
- spacial program = programa espacial
- taxes = impuestos

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Jenny, John, Mary, Stephanie, and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Flag of New African Nation: South Sudan

Sources: TechRepublic, US Secretary of State website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, The Washington Post, Think Tank of Spanish-English Club.

References: (1) "What does this mean for the future of manned flight?" by Larry Dignan, July 8, 2011, TechRepublic.(2) "Worries Grow Over Jobs" by Justin Lahart and Joe Light, July 8, 2011, Wall Street Journal. (3) "Entitlement Cut Democrats" by Jonathan Weisman, July 8, 2011, Wall Street Journal. (4) "Cisco Poised to Help China Keep an Eye on Its Citizens" by Loretta Chao and Don Clark, July 5, 2011, Wall Street Journal.

Weekly Bilingual News - Special Edition

2011-07-04T03:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Today - 4th of July - is a very special celebration of the United States. It is Independence Day, the birthday of the nation.

¡Hola! Hoy, 4 de Julio, es una muy especial celebración de los Estados Unidos. Es el Día de la Independencia, el cumpleaños de la nación.

All the nations with historical roots have a day that is the symbol of their fight for their freedom and independence. It is an important milestone in the history of each country.

Todos los pueblos con raíces históricas tienen un día que es el símbolo de su lucha por su libertad e independencia. Es un importante mojón en la historia de cada país.

Happy Independence Day!

¡Feliz Día de la Independencia!

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- birthday = cumpleaños
- country = país, patria, tierra
- fight = lucha
- freedom = libertad
- historic = históricas
- history = historia
- independence = independencia
- milestone = mojón
- nation = nación, pueblo
- roots = raíces
- symbol = símbolo

Happy 4th of July!

¡Feliz 4 de Julio!

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-07-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new brief analysis of the news of the end of June and beginning of July across the world. We include a chapter of bilingual vocabulary linked with the subjects of this issue.

During the last few days, a mosaic of different events was in the headlines of the papers and TV. From Cuba, the report about the surgery of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez created expectations about the political future of his country. In Syria, the government called to leaders of the opposition trying to reduce the international pressure for the repression against demonstrators of the last months. In Athens, the Greek Parliament confirmed its support with the austerity measures proposed by the Prime Minister. The International Monetary Fund named French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as its new managing director. In Monaco, the Prince Albert II married a former Olympic swimmer with all the luxury and fantasy of fairy tales. The former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexual assault, was released from his house arrest in New York.

To remark, on Tuesday, June 28, Afghanistan was again shook by the suicide attack of the Inter-Continental Hotel of Kabul. After near six hours of terror, helicopters of the NATO troops ended the siege by militants of the Taliban who showed that till now they have the capacity to storm in the capital of the country.

In the United States, the discussion around the cut of the federal deficit continued in a tense environment between the White House and Republican lawmakers. On Wednesday, June 29, President Barack Obama made the case for ending certain tax breaks for "millionaires and billionaires" as an option to keep the federal government from defaulting on its debt. The hot new tone from the President surprised the political analysts.

The Wall Street markets changed their direction after weeks with negative and mixed results. All the main indexes closed in the positive territory with important growths. For the week, Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 648.19 points, or 5.43% to 12582.77, while Nasdaq Composite climbed 163.14 points, or 6.15%, to 2816.03.

WHERE SOCIAL NETWORKS GO?

On Wednesday June 29, News Corp announced the sale of the social network MySpace for $35 million that had been acquired for $580 million just six years ago. The buyer is Specific Media, a small a digital media company. The huge differences between the acquisition and sale prices produced surprise from external observers.

A day later, in a special report, the TV program NewsHour of PBS (2) analyzed the case and the recent advance of Facebook, a competitor of MySpace that now is climbing to the sky with a strong valuation of its business. In connection with this subject we wrote the following comment: "The social networks alone will not change the economy because a lot of the projects are only bubbles that will disappear tomorrow. This niche of technology is more cannibalistic than other sectors. But we think the social media services associated with innovative tools could revolutionize the real and virtual worlds in the years ahead. This is important, despite the corpses that drop off on the route."

After that, in the Journal Community forum of WSJ, a group expanded the discussion asking about the current role of Internet in connection with traditional businesses. This was the question for debate: "Do you see the Internet as an opportunity or a threat to traditional business models?" We answered: "We see the Internet as a simultaneous opportunity and threat to traditional business models. Internet helps the traditional businesses in their globalization. In other words, Internet as a tool gives the opportunity to spread some good local businesses in the global way. But sometimes these very good ideas die when others take the helm of those businesses, or big investors buy the ideas, the factories, the engineering of the products and the shops, and they merge with other ideas, other factories and other products. In summary, Internet is a machine that cannibalizes businesses and we never know what will happen with our ideas or our products or our shops when they merge with others. Only a very small group of traditional business models can endure the integration with Internet as a tool without losing its roots. (June 2, 2011, Journal Community, WSJ)

Next, Zynga, a software company that produces games that work on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, entered in the big scene. This social network game developer announced its plan to sell stock in the New York financial market as a public company. A journalist from Wall Street Journal remarked that Zynga is valued near to $20 billion in a story titled: "Nothing Virtual About Zynga Profits" (2). This was our comment: "We prefer to be cautious. In a virtual business, the profits of today don't guarantee a big harvest of tomorrow."

In other article from the blog Digits of WSJ titled "What Zynga CEO's Letter Could Have Said" (3) was reproduced the official letter of Zynga announcing its IPO .This was our new comment: "Zynga is jumping into a virtual world that till now has a low value. The pioneers of the Internet's search machines have destroyed the monetary value of a lot of valuable intellectual works with the technique of cloning their creative brains. If the Zynga's philosophy expands its roots, we will see a new Renaissance of intellect that will reward the intellectual workers with real revenues. Good beginning!"

In summary, after browsing the official website of Zynga we conclude that the game developer founded by Mark Pincus in 2007 in San Francisco, California, is marking a possible turning point in the evolution of the social networks. We really enjoyed navigating through games like FarmVille, CityVille and RewardVille. Probably the virtual creatures (imaginary tractors and special goods) of these games will make history.

OTHER SUBJECTS

WHITE SMOKE AT IMF: On June 28, the conclave of election of the new "Pope" of the IMF selected Ms. Christine Lagarde after the United States and China endorsed the French Minister against the Mexico's central banker Agustin Carstens. Wall Street Journal talked about the selection process in an article titled: "France's Lagarde Named IMF Chief". These were our comment: "Ms. Christine Lagarde thinks she is a celebrity and for this reason, she deserves to become the head of IMF. But the real world doesn't begin in the Camps-Élysées. The International Monetary Fund needs a leader who will feel comfortable walking with their feet submerged in a swamp or across the smelly alleys of the poor neighborhoods of the big cities of the emerging countries."

GOVERNMENT REFRESHMENT - On July 3, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Politics Dog Possible Top Treasury Vacancy" where the journalist Damian Paletta talks about the rumors that Secretary Timothy Geithner will leave the President Obama's cabinet very soon. Our Comment: 'The potential departure of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is the last opportunity of President Obama to correct the mistakes he made when he arrived at the White House. The successor has to be a brilliant professional with more knowledge than the current Secretary about the economy of every day and every corner of the nation, and with enough humbleness and intelligence to speak on the same level with Republican members of the Congress, Chinese financial authorities, colleagues of the Democratic party or a beggar at the end of a religious ceremony."

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Afghanistan, Afghan = Afganistán, afgano, afgana
- beggar = mendigo
- brains = cerebro, inteligencia
- budget = presupuesto
- cabinet = gabinete
- cannibal = cannibal
- cannibalistic = canibalístico
- ceremony = ceremonia
- cloning = clonando, copiando en un sentido genético
- Cuba, Cuban = Cuba, cubano, cubana
- deficit = déficit
- demostrators = manifestantes
- destroy, destroyed = destruir, destruyó
- developer = desarrollador
- dog = seguir los pasos
- French = francés, francesa
- game = juego
- Greece, Greek = Grecia, griego, griega
- harvest = cosecha
- humbleness = humildad
- intellect = intelecto
- Mexican = mexicano, mexicana, mejicano, mejicana
- Pope = Papa
- refreshment = refresco
- religious = religioso, religiosa
- Renaissance = Renacimiento
- repression = represión
- reward = premio, recompensa
- siege = cerco, sitio
- smelly = maloliente
- social network = red social
- storm = tomar por asalto
- suicide = suicida
- surgery = cirugía, operación, intervención médica
- swamp = pantano, ciénaga
- Venezuelan = venezolano, venezolana

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Ann, Bob, Erika, Frederic, Gaby, Joseph, Mary, and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

A mosaic of different events across the world...

Sources: Zynga website, MySpace website, IMF website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, The Washington Post, Think Tank of Comlab.

References: (1) "Are Social Media Services the Next Tech Bubble?", NewsHour Report Air, June 30, 2011, PBS. (2) "Nothing Virtual About Zynga Profits" by Rolfe Winkler, July 2, 2011, Wall Street Journal. (3) Digits - WJS Blogs : "What Zynga CEO's Letter Could Have Said" by Tom Loftus, July 3, 2011, Wall Street Journal.(4) "France's Lagarde Named IMF Chief", by Sudeep Reddy, Nathalie Boschat and William Horobin, June 29, Wall Street Journal.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-06-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the Weekly Bilingual News, a new edition of the periodical communication of the Spanish-English Club with a brief analysis and comments about how the world was running in the last few days.

In this opportunity the main words of the week were: war, withdrawal, troops, bombs… President Obama announced the plan for the withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan while the Congress debated about the authority of the President to participate in the NATO campaign against the Libyan regime.

Other key issues of the week were the release from the national oil reserves, the discussions about raising the ceiling of the federal budget, the Greek financial crisis, the sickness of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the trial against the former strongman of Tunisia, the attacks along the border between North Sudan and South Sudan, the Syrian repression, and bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Tuesday June 21, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman launched officially his campaign for president for the Republican nomination of the 2012 presidential election. Mr. Huntsman resigned as American ambassador to China same weeks ago.

On Friday June 24, Apple widened its legal battle against Samsung Electronics Co. by filing a suit against the South Korean maker in its home market over the Galaxy smart-phone. Last April, the father of the Mac made its first legal demand against Samsung in the United States alleging that Korean company copied the "look and feel" of its iPhone and iPad products for smart-phones and tablet computers that Samsung released last year and this year. In the official presentation to the Californian Court, Apple said that the manufacturer of Galaxy infringed upon design patents and "trade dress" registrations of its products. (trade dress: legal term that generally refers to features of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging).

Wall Street continued showing the pessimism of the investors for the gloomy moments of Greece and a non-clear panorama of the American economy. The markets of New York closed with mixed results. For the week, Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 69.78 points, or 0.58% to 11934.58. Nasdaq Composite gained 36.41 points, or 1.39%, to 2652.89.

END OF THE AMERICAN CRUSADES

On Wednesday June 22 President Obama unveiled his plan for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. 5000 troops will head home this summer and another 5000 will leave Afghan territory before the end of the year. We wrote the following comment in the Journal Community forum of Wall Street Journal: "Till now, we don't have an exact idea in what phase is the Afghan campaign in. Can we discuss a withdrawal plan? We only know how many soldiers are dying onthe battlefield according to the public information distributed by the press, but we don't know who will be the winner and what will be the last balance relative to the original goals for this war. We understand that for political reasons, the White House wants to announce the withdrawal now, but what will happen in one year and in two years?" (Group Topic: How quickly should U.S. troops be drawn down in Afghanistan? Domingo A. Trassens, June 23, 2011)

Two days later, Wall Street Journal posted an article originally titled: "Bomb Kills 60 in Afghanistan" (1) where the writer of the story informed about a new bombing attack in Afghan territory. Immediately we wrote: "Are the new 60 deaths a good symptom that all is working well in Afghanistan? Or maybe in this country, 60 people are not a relevant number? How we can measure the blood spilled in the territory controlled by the Talibans?"

Next, also Wall Street Journal published another story about the war in the region titled: "Taliban Use Husband, Wife Bombers" (2) where the author described the bombing procedures of the terrorist group using women and also men as couriers and transport of bombs against public places in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This was our comment: "Who can believe it is possible to sign an agreement of peace with fanatic criminals who sacrifice their own people as a tool to spread their terror?"

Last, in the moment we was beginning the writing the new Weekly Bilingual News, we received other story from Wall Street Journal titled: "Iran Woos U.S. Allies as Troops Withdraw". This was our new comment: "U.S. and its western allies have expended their money, their time and the blood of their soldiers in a frustrating effort to export "democratic packages" to countries that never have had interest to raise the flags of the western democratic movements. It is regrettable that during 10 years of fighting, we have never reread the history about the Crusades of the Middle Ages, when different military campaigns failed in their ambition to impose the rules of Christianity on nations ruled by Muslims and pagans."

In summary, we think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a lot of common points with the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The American and NATO troops are fighting in territories where religious factors are more powerful than the freed mind of the population and where the regimes never trust in the friendship of western countries.

After all the events of the last few days we see that Iran is playing in the background with good results. Last Saturday, the Afghan and Pakistani presidents visited in Tehran and discussed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad how they can work together when the NATO troops leave Afghanistan.

OTHER SUBJECTS

VENEZUELAN FUTURE: On June 25, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Chavez Illness Sparks Succession Talk" where the author says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in Cuba for medical intervention. Several sources suggest he has prostate cancer.

Our Comment: "Venezuela has to turn the page of Chavez off and it has to open the country to a free election looking for a new government with new faces, new ideas, and patriotic principles. Venezuela is a great country that has beenruled for decades by corrupt governments and bad politicians."

NATIONAL OIL RESERVERS: On June 24, Journal Community of WSJ asked to its members the following question: "Should the IEA and U.S. release oil from reserves?"

Our Opinion: The decision to release oil from the national reserves is risky. The producers have to produce more oil per day.

YAHOO'S SICKNESS: On June 23, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Yahoo, CEO Bartz Face Tough Shareholder Meeting" where the writer says Yahoo doesn't find a new formula of success.

Our Comment: "Yahoo has been sick since the mid-2000 when Google knocked its business. From that moment, nobody found the antidote for anti-Google. This is bad, but Yahoo has to learn to live with its sickness or dig its grave to die."

GREEK AUSTERITY: On June 22, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Greek Vote Sets Stage for More Cuts" where the author says the Greek Parliament will support the austerity plan.

Our Comment: "We agree the vote of confidence is a victory for Papandreou in the Parliament, but this vote doesn't imply that all the Greeks accept the new measures. Some press interviews from Athens' streets show there are a "gap" between politicians and the population because the poor people have not voice in the decision of the rulers of the country."

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Afghanistan, Afghan = Afganistán, afgano, afgana

- ambassador = embajador

- austerity = austeridad
- budget = presupuesto
- clinic = clínica

- courier = mensajero, mensajera

- Crusades = Cruzadas

- Cuba, Cuban = Cuba, cubano, cubana

- fanatic = fanático, fanática, fanáticos, fanáticas

- fight = combate, lucha, pelea

- gap = vacío, hueco

- grave = tumba

- Greece, Greek = Grecia, griego, griega

- Iraq, Iraqi = Irak, iraquí (m/f)

- Iran, Iranian = Irán, iraní (m/f)

- Middle Ages = Edad Media, Medioevo

- oil = petróleo

- Pakistan, Pakistani = Paquistán, paquistaní (m/f)

- parliament = parlamento (also: Congreso, and in Spain: Cortes)

- regrettable = lamentable

- reread = releer

- reserves = reservas

- rulers = gobernantes

- sacrifice = sacrificar

- shareholder = accionista (m/f)

- sickness = enfermedad, mal

- sign = firmar

- spill, spilled = derramar, derramó

- spread = diseminar, extender

- South Korea, South Korean = Corea del Sur, surcoreano, surcoreana

- Sudan, Sudanese = Sudán, sudanés, sudanesa

- transport = transporte

- troops = tropas
- Tunisia = Túnez
- Venezuela, Venezuelan = Venezuela, venezolano, venezolana

- war, wars = guerra, guerras

- withdraw = retirarse, retirar

- withdrawal = retirada

- woo, woos = cortejar, corteja

SPECIAL VOCABULARY

The Crusades of the Middle Ages were military campaigns called by Catholic Church (popes and kings) against Islamic forces and pagans in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. These expeditions to the Holy Land ended without the success. They didn’t spread the principles of Christianity in the regions dominated by other religious believes.

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Betty, Erika, Frank, Gaby, John, Mary, and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

End of the Crusades: Iran in the background. Who will be the winner?

Sources: Word History published by United States Armed Forces Institute, Apple online pressrom, Yahoo website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, The Washington Post, Think Tank of Comlab.

References: (1) "Deadly Suicide Blast at Afghanistan Clinic", Associated Press, Kabul, WSJ, June 25, 2011 / (2) "Taliban Use Husband, Wife Bombers", Associated Press, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, WSJ, June 26, 2011 / (3) "Iran Woos U.S. Allies as Troops Withdraw". Jay Solomon, WSJ, June 27, 2011.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-06-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new online communication from the Spanish-English Club! In this Weekly Bilingual News you will find a brief analysis of the news of the last few days plus a story of success.

Before we talk about politics, finances, economy or civil wars, today we have something different to mention. On Thursday, June 16, IBM celebrated its first 100 years with different activities across 170 countries of the world. The Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano and other IBM executives rang The Opening Bell of the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street as part of the special events for the first century of life for the American company.

Also during the week, other technology companies were in the headlines of newspapers. Hewlett-Packard announced the most important changes in the management of the company since Léo Apotheker assumed as CEO and president. The former executive of SAP is trying to maintain the helm of the HP under his control.

For the other side, Research In Motion warned about an important fall in the sales of its BlackBerry. By the way, the smart-phone niche is a very demanding market. If a maker cannot update its products in step with its competition, it will lose market share despite all its previous contributions to the industry. In general, the classic consumers of digital devices are not loyal to the brands. They always want the latest technological innovations. When BackBerry was at the top, RIM didn't generate a sociological phenomenon like the armies of Apple's fans.

Across the world, again Greece was one of the main headlines of the international media. In Athens, the Greek Primer Minister George Papandreou reshuffled his cabinet with the appointment of Evangelos Venizelos as new finance minister and asked to the Parliament for voting a package of austerity measures. Meanwhile, in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas launched a new plan to woo private investors to acquire the bonds of the Greek debts.

In the American politics, Michelle Bachmann added her name to the list of candidates for the Republican nomination of the 2012 presidential election. Michele Bachmann is member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 6th congressional district of Minnesota. She is a supporter of the Tea Party movement. Some observers think Michelle is the most anti-Obama candidate till now in presidential campaign.

The Wall Street markets after a long series of falls, closed with mixed results in the middle of the Greek financial crisis. For the week, Dow Jones Industrial Average gained a fraction of one percent and Nasdaq Composite fell one percent.

FIRST CENTURY OF IBM

IBM was founded by Thomas J. Watson Sr. on June 16, 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) through the merger of four companies: Tabulating Machine Company, International Time Recording Company, Computing Scale Corporation and Bundy Manufacturing Company. In 1924, CTR changed its original name by International Business Machines (IBM).

During its first hundred years, IBM has played a very important role in transforming business, science and society through different inventions and strong dynamics. Its history is a succession of key milestones: punched card tabulating machines, electronic typewriters, computers, the first hard disk drive, mainframe systems, the UPC code, microprocessors, printing systems, computer programming languages, operating systems, database systems, the IBM PC, and more. By the way, in the last few days, IBM announced it will provide the microprocessors that will serve as the heart of the new Wii U system from Nintendo.

To celebrate the new milestone, the technology company is releasing a book titled: "Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company" written by journalists Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm and Jeffrey M. O'Brien that shows the ways the world has changed over a century in technology, business and the way progress happens, as well as the role IBM has played in making these changes.

At the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Samuel Palmisano speaking to the employees of the company said that IBM "will reexamine the history of technology innovation and predict where the world will be in the next 100 years."

OTHER SUBJECTS

AL QAEDA IN ACTION: On June 16, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Al Qaeda Names New Leader" where the author says Ayman al-Zawahri who was the number two of al Qaeda is now assuming the vacancy generated by the death of Osama bin Laden.
Our Comment: "The western countries have to be more careful when they support uprisings in countries of the Arab world because probably they might work for the benefit of al Qaeda."

LIBYAN BOMBING: Also on June 16, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Obama Defends Libya Intervention" where the writer talks about the president's authority to pursue a military action in Libya.
Our Comment: "According to the public information about Libya, we don't see results and advances. Worse, we don't have any idea if the efforts of U.S. and its allies will help to establish a modern democracy or will they contribute to create a new extremist regime."

SYRIAN REFUGEES: On June 15, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Syrian Refugees in Turkey Call for Action" that comments the exodus of Syrian civilians due to the repression of tanks and troops of the government.
Our Comment: "We understand the situation of the Syrian refugees is dramatic but western countries cannot be involved in more civil wars of the Arab world without the effective support of the United Nations. It could have a detrimental effect for the international volunteers."

CHINESE CYBERASSAULT: Also on June 15, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Opinion: China's Cyberassault on America" with some opinions about the recent Chinese cyber attacks.
Our Comment: "We think the White House is losing time, resources, and energies in the efforts to help countries that don't know what they want, while it doesn't focus on the true risks for the nation. Without any doubt, China has a plan to conquer the world with cyber-weapons. In the first phase, step by step, the Chinese captured the best jewels of the technology industry developed by American companies and western engineers. Now, China is deploying the second phase of its plan: training for its hackers and cyber-soldiers in the guerrilla warfare. What will be the third phase? We believe the cyber-soldiers are spreading panic to prepare the battlefield for something worse."

IMF CANDIDATES: On June 14, Journal Community of WSJ asked to its members the following question: "Which candidate should become the new head of the IMF?" (Agustin Carstens from Mexico, Stanley Fischer from Israel, Christine Lagarde from France)
Our Opinion: "We think the International Monetary Fund has to select a candidate who knows what poverty is and how deep it can be for the economic and social problems of the emerging countries. This candidate is Agustín Carstens. Please don't select celebrities because they only look for the grandeur of themselves!"

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Apple's fans = fanáticos de Apple, simpatizantes de Apple
- Athens = Atenas
- austerity = austeridad
- bonds = bonos
- century = siglo
- database systems = sistemas de base de datos
- demanding = exigente
- hard disk drive = dispositivo de disco duro
- mainframe = unidad principal, unidad central, sistema central
- microprocessor = microprocesador
- operating systems = sistemas operativos
- printing systems = sistemas de impresion
- programming languages = lenguajes de programación de computadores
- punched card tabulating machines = máquinas de tabulación de tarjetas perforadas
- reshuffle = reorganizar
- ring a bell = replicar una campana
- smart-phone = teléfono inteligente
- typewriter = máquina de escribir
- UPC (bar code) = código universal de productos (código de barras)

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Ann, Bob, Erika, Frank, Jenny, Joseph, Mary,and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Technology always requests a good service

(Courtesy from IBM Palisades Center)

Sources: IBM, HP and RIM websites, Wall Street Journal, Journal Community of WSJ, PBS NewsHour, Barron's Online, New York Times, Think Tank of Comlab, others.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-06-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new edition of the Weekly Bilingual News! In this issue you will find a brief analysis about how the world was running during the last few days from the perspective of our comments posted in different blogs.

Last week began on Monday June 6 with the Worldwide Developers Conference of Apple where Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of the company, introduced the eighth major release of Mac OS X (Lion), iOS 5 (advanced mobile operating system for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) and iCloud (first Apple's cloud computing services).

In Peru, Ollanta Humala defeated to Keiko Fujimori in a second round for the presidency of the nation. Ollanta Humala is a former army officer who led a rebellion like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Keiko Fujimori was the "first lady" of the Peruvian President, his father Alberto Fujimori.

Meanwhile, in New York, from Monday to Friday, the Wall Street markets continued its decline amid of the negative reactions to the speech of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and the worries about the economic recovery of the country. Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on Friday under the mark of 12000. For the week, DJIA lost more than 1.5 percent adn Nasdaq Composite fell 3 percent.

In Washington, President Obama received the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a meeting that smoothed differences over Libya action between the United States and Germany and opened the doors for new ways of cooperation across the Atlantic. The White House honored to Dr. Angela Merkel with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Hours later upon the return of Ms. Merkel to Europe, Wolfang Schäule, financial minister of Germany revealed his new financial plan to help Greece that try to reduce the risks of a collapse of the euro and European Union.

NATO COMMITMENT

Next, in a quasi perfect sequence of crucial speeches, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates criticized the members of NATO who didn't have ammunition and resources to participate together in the Libyan bombing.

About the problems of the North Atlantic Alliance we wrote the following comment: "Before his departure, the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made his best contribution to his nation by showing the current picture of NATO in a speech that will be memorable. By the way, after three months of campaign in Libya, the forces of the alliance remind us the battles of the Crusaders of Middle Ages to conquer Jerusalem. Is it possible to achieve military goals without coordination and the poverty of resources?" (PBS NewsHour, Analysis Air Date: June 10, 2011, "After Gates' Blunt Warning, What's Next for NATO?")

Originally NATO was created with the intention of protecting the countries of Western Europe against possible attacks of the Soviet Union and its partners. Today the military alliance includes 28 members: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States.

During the last decade, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization grew a lot in the number of members, but it has lost stature. The difficulties to implement the Libyan operation – Operation Unified Protector - show coordination and economic problems among the allies. Due to this new scenario, it is time the United States rethinks its commitment to the alliance.

OTHER SUBJECTS

PAKISTANI HUMILIATION: On June 10, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Pakistani Army Pleads for Respect" by Matthew Rosenberg, Tom Wright and Zarid Hussain, where the authors comment the negative reactions of Pakistani army and population about the United States continue.
Our Comment: "Nobody gives billions of dollars as a gift. Of course, the American commando operation humiliated the Pakistani army. But why did Pakistan accepted the money if they didn't want to apprehend Osama bin Laden?"

THE FACES OF FACEBOOK: On June 9, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Facebook Again in Spotlight on Privacy" by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Christopher Lawton that explains Facebook is using a face recognition technique to identify people in photos of its website.
Our Comment: "We think Facebook is an innovative company that is making important contributions for developing of social networks. But we also have concerns about the intrusive techniques Facebook uses frequently against the interests of its members. For example, we don't like that somebody wants to push us more than where we want to goin our social connections. By the way, usually, Facebook sends messages with statements like this: "a friend is waiting for you", but when we enter to the system we don't find a friend waiting for us. They want to push us to contact people who we don't know and we don't have any interest to know."

ECONOMIC RECOVERY: On June 8, Journal Community of WSJ asked to its members the following question: "Do you think the U.S. economic recovery will strengthen in the second half of 2011?"
Our Opinion: "We don't perceive symptoms of economic recovery for the second half of 2011. With more than 14 million people out of work, an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, the high gasoline prices and a lot of people working for less than 7 dollars anhour it is not possible to make a trustworthy forecast. Ben Bernanke plays with all the math formulas of the Federal Reserve from before the 2008 crisis, but in three years he hasn't show sufficient efforts to rebuild the finances of the country. Additionally, politicians from both parties continue discussing if they should cut taxes or create higher stimulus packages without a rational plan. It is tough to recognize that nobody in Washington experiences the hunger of the people who wait near restaurants to eat the food that others didn't eat. Also it is offensive that our politicians don't think sensitively about Americans who fight abroad or in the country as volunteers, while there are lawmakers who have time for chatting pornography and more."

CHINESE MOMENTUM: On June 7, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Chinese Companies Embark on Shopping Spree in Europe" by John W. Miller says Chinese are looking for top European food companies after acquisitions in other industrial sectors like Volvo and the IBM PC unit.
Our Comment: "Chinese know that for conquering the world they need the best brands, the best products, the best companies and the expertise in businesses from Americans and Europeans. With money they can make excellent acquisitions in the moment that U.S. and Europe are in crisis."

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- acquisition = adquisición

- ammunition = municiones

- brand, brands = marca, marcas

- chat, chatting = charlar, charlando

- China, Chinese = China, chino, china

- cloud computing = computación nube

- crucial = decisivo

- Crusader, Crusaders = Cruzado, Cruzados

- embark = embarcarse

- food = comida, alimentos

- Greece, Greek = Grecia, griego, griega

- Holy Land = Tierra Santa

- humilition = humillación

- Jerusalem = Jerusalén

- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia

- Middle Ages = Edad Media

- momentum = momento

- operating system = sistema operativo

- Pakistan, Pakistani = Paquistán, paquistaní (m/f)

- Peru, Peruvian = Perú, peruano, peruana

- pornography = pornografía

- quasi = cuasi

- remind = recordar

- Soviet Union = Unión Soviética

- speech, speeches = discurso, discursos

- stature = estatura

SPECIAL VOCABULARY - VOCABULARIO ESPECIAL

. Crusaders: Warriors of the Crusades, the military campaigns to take the control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

. Face recognition: technology to recognize human faces in photos and pictures.

. NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

. Tripoli: In Arab, its name is Tarabulus al Gharb, also known as the Western Tripoli.

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bev, Bob, Erika, Mary, Paul, and Stephanie your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Sources: Apple Press website, NATO website, Wall Street Journal, PBS NewsHour, Barron's Online, New York Times, Think Tank of Comlab, others.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-06-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new issue of the Weekly Bilingual News! This is the first communication of June 2011 with a brief analysis and comments about the news of the last few days.

May ended with a lot of concerns about the economy of the country: manufacturing production, inflation, jobs and the bad performance of the Wall Street market across the last five weeks.

After the trip of President Obama through Europe where he talked with world leaders about how to help Egypt, Tunisia and the countries involved in the Arab Spring, his next step was to visit Joplin, Missouri, where a tornado hit complete families of Americans who also need help and assistance. With this frame, the first days of June began full of skepticism. Economists, investors, and jobless people showed worries for the negative conditions the United States are living through.

ECONOMY & JOBS

On June 1st, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "May Data Indicate Slowdown" where the author explained the slowdown of the manufacturing sector and how industry again shows symptoms of less demand of cars and other products.

Our comment: "The US economy cannot improve if the manufacturing sector doesn't generate jobs. The growth of industrial production is one of the most important factors for job creation".

A day later, on June 2, also Wall Street Journal posted another story but about the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index titled: "DJIA Drops 279.65 on Economy Worry".

Our Comment: "The economy worry is real. Since 2008, we were pessimist about the trends of the economy in the US. Meanwhile, in 2010, others celebrated the apparent economic recovery of the nation. Our thesis is: the productive and R&D sectors are the main engines of modern economies. How many US manufacturing plants were opened in the last three years? How many old factories were re-opened? How many R&D labs were moved abroad? Additionally, how many American companies are assembling products with 99% of supplies made China, Vietnam or other countries?"

On Friday, June 3, the US Labor Department published the May's job figures that include a net of 54000 new jobs and the climb of the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 9.1 percent. Private employers hired 80000 new workers, but the manufacturing sector and the government eliminate positions. According to different sources, the expectations of the economic analysts were higher than the numbers published by the government.

On the same day, the TV program NewsHour of PBS, analyzed the U.S. unemployment report for May with the participation of Lisa Lynch of Brandeis University and Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors and the coordination of the journalist Judy Woodruff. The analysis was titled: "'Utterly Disappointing' May Jobs Report: Why Aren't Businesses Hiring?"

Our Comment: "During the past decade, American companies moved complete production lines abroad, looking for cheap manpower. Then a high percentage of the productive infrastructure was dilapidated. Since that moment, the domestic manufacturing industry assembles from computers to cars with a high level of imported parts. Additionally, the software makers went to India, East Europe, Russia and other places to hire professionals with excellent background but less expensive. Meanwhile the services sector grew with numbers of fantasy: more salesmen for houses, cars and papers for the past times of richness. In 2008, all the curves of growth for the services sector fell abruptly. Now, also the government is cutting positions of teachers and others. With this panorama, the potential margins for improving the employment indexes are small. The phenomenon cannot reverse itself in a short time. The disappointments will continue."

On Saturday, June 4, Wall Street Journal made a new evaluation of the fall of the economy in May and the impact in the stock market: "Economy Point Down, Takes Market With It". Our Comment: "The investors of Wall Street are realizing that the optimistic economic forecasts and speeches of the politicians and economists were not true. The "engines" of the American economy are exhausted."

OTHER COMMENTS:

CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS: On June 4, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Thousands Rally in Hong Kong for Human Rights" about the protest through the streets of Hong Kong against the oppression of the Chinese regime.

Our Comment: "We cannot expect the human-rights-movements to advance fast across China. The Communist Party worked for decades to procreate androids that only follow the orders of their leaders. Of course, like any dictatorship regime, there are people who have their own minds and fight to express their ideas of freedom and human rights. But the western countries will not help these people because nobody wants to damage their pocketbooks. Today everybody has businesses with the Chinese without caring a lot about what happens in the jails of China."

CUCUMBERS, TOMATOES, LETTUCE...: On June 3, Wall Street Journal published a story titled "E. coli Crisis Intensifies". Its subject: the food problems across Europe and the people who died in Germany due to bacterial infections till to be determined. In the beginning, medical institutions said the cucumbers and tomatoes imported from Spain have bacteria that produce sickness in the people who eat these farm products. After the complaint of Spanish agricultural authorities, the German labs denied the first news.

Our Comment: "Everybody talks about the bacterial infections but nobody knows from where the sickness comes and how many products are contaminated. In the middle of this chaos, a new European war began against cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce. A new factor of discord for the EU!"

NOKIA'S MISFORTUNE: On June 2, Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "Nokia's Latest Headache: Android" where the author comments the sales of Nokia are falling dramatically. The mobile phone leader thinks the devices of the Android platform from Google are damaging its business.

Our Comment: "From the throne of the king of the mobile phone market, Nokia didn't see the path of the evolution of the technology. After that, when it woke up, it refused to follow the route of the new software leaders and signed an agreement with Microsoft, another loser of the phone business. Now, it continues losing ground without taking any heroic action. The last IDC's reports show that in Western Europe, Samsung surpassed it in the segment of mobile phone and Apple in the niche of smart-phones. Android is not the problem, the problem is the sickness of Nokia."

WEEK SUMMARY

Again the main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 290.32 points or 2.33% to 12151.26, while Nasdaq Composite fell 64.08 points or 2.29% to end at 2732.78. This was the fifth consecutive week that Dow Jones fell.

In the week, Japan was news because the Prime Minister Naoto Kan has lost the confidence of the Parliament. During the last few years, due to corruption cases and other unclear issues, Japan was changing its prime ministers continuously. Now the earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster shook again the weak foundation of the political apparatus. We think the Japanese political institutions don't work properly due to different factors: corruption, shortage of political leaders, and maybe fatigue of the system.

Google accused China for a cyber-attack of important electronic accounts of Gmail. The Chinese government refused the accusations, while the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the hackers that are making the Internet unsafe. In separate note, the Pentagon affirmed that any cyber-attack against American government institutions will be consider from now an act of war and it will repel aggressively.

In the Arab world, the bombing of the Presidential Palace of Yemen and the trip of the President Ali Abdullah Salen to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment produced big commotion and important interrogations about the future of country. The Yemeni President was injured in the attack but nobody knows about his health and the level of his wounds.

In the frame of the political campaign for the U.S. 2012 presidential elections, the former Mass governor Mitt Romney announced he is running for the GOP presidential nomination. Till now it is not clear if Sarah Palin will join the list of Republican candidates.

In the technology arena, the Chinese PC maker Lenovo announced the acquisition of German PC maker Medion with the intention to extend its presence across the European region. In 2005, Lenovo bought the PC unit of IBM and its famous notebook ThinkPad plus all the technology developed by IBM for mobile computers. According to the IDC report, in the first quarter 2011 quarter, the Chinese maker grew 16.3% worldwide compared with a year ago and shipping 8,172,000 computers.

In other news, Apple anticipated details of the 2011 Worldwide Developer Conference from June 6, where Steve Jobs and his team are introducing new hardware and software: the new operating system Lion, iCloud – cloud computing services - and software for Macintosh, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- android, androids = androide, androides

- apparent = aparente

- assemble = armar, ensamblar, montar, fabricar

- assistance = asistencia

- cloud computing = computación nube

- cloud computing services = servicios de computación nube

- concern = preocupación

- cucumber, cucumbers = pepino, pepinos

- damage = dañar

- data = datos

- dilapidated = desmoronado, desmoronada, desvencijado, desvencijada

- economy = economía

- engine, engines = motor, motores

- exhausted = agotado, agotada

- frame = marco

- forecast = pronóstico

- former = anterior

- hit = golpe, golpear

- human rights = derechos humanos

- intensify, intensifies = intensificar, intensifica

- investor = inversor

- jail, jails = cárcel, cárceles

- job, jobs = trabajo, trabajos, empleo, empleos

- jobless = sin trabajo

- lettuce = lechuga, lechugas

- manpower = mano de obra

- misfortune = desgracia

- notebook = computador portátil

- operating system = sistema operativo, sistema operacional

- outcome = resultado

- parts = partes, piezas

- pessimist = pesimista

- pockets = bolsillos

- rally = mitin, manifestación

- realize = darse cuenta

- speeches = discursos

- skepticism = escepticismo

- supply, supplies = suministro, suministros

- symptom, symptoms = síntoma, síntomas

- system = sistema

- thesis = tesis

- tomato, tomatoes = tomate, tomates

- utterly = completamente, totalmente

- war = guerra

SPECIAL VOCABULARY - VOCABULARIO ESPECIAL

DJIA: Dow Jones Industrial Average

IDC: International Data Corporation

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Ann, Bob, Gaby, Erika, Fred, Paul, and Susan your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

The manufacturing sector depends of imported parts.

Sources and references: Wall Street Journal, PBS, Barron's Online, New York Times, Think Tank of Comlab, others.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-05-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the fifth Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with comments and a brief analysis about how the world was running during the last few days.

On May 26, press sources informed the arrest of Serbian general Ratko Mladic accused for the Srebenica massacre during the Bosnian war. Three days later, while the leaders of the European Community were celebrating the news, a group of his sympathizers clashed against the police in Belgrado - the capital of the former Yugoslavia - asking for the liberation of the commander of the Serbian troops during the racial cleansing of the Balkans in 1995.

In the blog of the story "Clashes Erupt to Protest Mladic Arrest" (Wall Street Journal, 2011/05/29) we wrote the following comment: "When we read the news about the arrest of Ratko Mladic and the reactions from people who are defending the Serbian general, a question come to our mind. Can we acclaim their "hero" to be responsible for the massive slaughter of more than 8000 disarmed men and boys and the rape of their women and children? Always in wars, the fighters commit atrocities for hate, revenge, fear or hunger. But after the fighting, we cannot forgive the crimes of the architect of a massive killing. Evidently, the people who are protecting Mladic are sick persons, murderers, or androids of the war."

Also during the weekend, more than 160,000 Germans went to the street in a national pacific demonstration. For the first time in the history of Germany, on Saturday May 28, an anti-nuclear movement marched under the slogan "Nuclear power: the end!" simultaneously in more than 20 cities. In Berlin, the demonstrators went to the offices of the Chancellor Angela Merkel, demanding the end of nuclear energy in the country. The largest demonstrations were in: Berlin; 25000, Munich: 25000, Hamburg 20000, Hanover: 12000, Freiburg: 10000 Frankfurt am Main: about 8000, Fürth: 8000, Landshut: 8500, Bonn: 7500, Essen: 6000, Bremen: 5000, Mannheim 4100, Mainz: 4000, and Dresden 3200.

In the blog of the story titled: "Germany to Go Nuclear-Free by 2022" (Wall Street Journal, 2011/05/30) we posted this comment: "It is good that Germany is working to develop new alternative electric resources. It is also good that the authorities request more controls for the providers of nuclear power. But it is crazy to destroy the investment in nuclear reactors. If the green extremists don't balance their impetuosity, they will damage the German economy."

OTHER COMMENTS:

GOVERNMENT AND DISASTERS: In the blog of the WSJ story about the Missouri's tornadoes titled: "Obama to Visit Tornado-Struck Missouri" we wrote: "In the moments of disasters, the President has to see the people with problems independently of their political party. The President and the other authorities govern for the Americans, no for the members of their party. "(2011/05/29). According to the author of the article, President Obama didn't win in Missouri during the 2008 presidential election.

PAKISTANI FRIENDSHIP: In the blog of the Wall Street Journal story about the first American official visit to Pakistan after the death of Osama bin Laden titled: "Clinton Gets Cold Reception" we wrote: " It is normal that the Secretary of State has to work with people who are not friendly. This is part of her job. Probably, now the Pakistani government and its secret service don't want to show their faces because they feel embarrassed. They received billions of dollars, but they didn't find Osama bin Laden who was living near a military academy for many years."(2011/05/29)

LIBYAN REVOLUTION: In the blog of a new WSJ story about Libya titled: "Libyan Rebels Offer Amnesty to Pro-Gadhafi Soldiers" we posted the following comment: "The initiative of the political leader of Libyan rebels is very risky. Who will teach the principles of democracy to the Pro-Gadhafi soldiers? The wolves of today will not be lambs of tomorrow, but "wolves" know how to disguise themselves into lambs, to wait for new opportunities of assaults, kidnappings, and other dark businesses." (2011/05/28)

IRAN UNPLUGS INTERNET: In the blog of the WSJ story titled "Iran Vows to Unplug Internet" we wrote: "Today everybody knows Internet is the first enemy of the dictatorships. The technology makes easy the transmission of dialogues, pictures and videos from everywhere in the world. Any observer has the tools to show how the dictators and their gangs of bandits mistreat defenseless people, killing and abusing protesters. Only censorship can silence the voice of the freedom. Iran and the other countries that unplug Internet are devils who are afraid of the power of democracy." (2011/05/28)

ARAB SPRING SUPPORTERS: In the blog of the Wall Street Journal about the G-8 conference: "G-8 Launches $40 Billion 'Arab Spring' Partnership" we posted: "The initiative of the G-8 for helping the countries of the 'Arab Spring' seems positive. However, through the declarations of some of the members of the group, we don't see an organic assistance program of immediate action. Frequently, in the international meetings, the politicians draw projects that nobody will implement in a good sense. For example, what kind of aid G8 will give to Egypt before its citizens decide the country they want. President Mubarak resigned months ago, but now the religious violence is bringing new difficulties to convert the Arab nation in an authentic democracy. It is possible for someone to give money to groups of people that do not know what they want?" (2011/05/27)

MICROSOFT AGAINST CHINA: In the blog of a WSJ story about the visit of Microsoft CEO to China titled: "Ballmer Decries Huge China Sales Hole" we published the following comment: "The complaint of Steve Ballmer doesn't show something new. China always was the Achilles' heel of the software industry. Frequently, the pirates find support from members of the Communist Party." (2011/05/26) (Steve Ballmer remarked the sales of Microsoft's software don't grow in China in the same way the PCs are growing due to the piracy.)

WEEK SUMMARY

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.46 points or 0.56% to 12441.58, while Nasdaq Composite declined 6.46 points or 0.23% to end at 2796.86. This was the fourth consecutive week that Dow Jones went down.

During the last week different subjects were headlines of the newspapers and TV:
- G8 conference in France
- Tornadoes in Missouri and other states
- President Obama's trip to Europe
- Arrest of the Serbian Ratko Mladic
- First American delegation to Pakistan after the death of Osama bin Laden.

The repression in the streets of Syria and the Yemeni uprising generated new concerns in the western capitals. International banks blocked funds of Syrian authorities. In Yemen, tribal groups demanded the resignation of the central government. In Libya, the rebels offered amnesty to Pro-Gadhafi soldiers who quit the regime.

In the technology arena, the press commented about new initiatives of Hewlett-Packard to change direction after the poor financial results of its last fiscal quarter. The HP CEO Leo Apotheker looks for leadership in cloud computing. Meanwhile some top managers of HP are leaving the company.

In other news, the political campaign for the U.S. 2012 presidential elections brought other names to the list of potential Republican candidates. Sarah Palin began a tour across the country. Some observers think she will run for the GOP presidential nomination.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- acclaim = aclamar, aplaudir
- amnesty = amnistía
- arrest = arresto
- atrocity, atrocities = atrocidad, atrocidades
- Balkans = Balcanes
- clash, clashes = choque, choques
- cleansing = limpieza, purificación
- decry, decries = condenar, condena
- defection = deserción
- demonstration = manifestación
- demonstrator, demostrators = manifestante, manifestantes
- disaster = desastre
- fear = miedo, temor
- forgive = perdonar
- France = Francia
- friendship = amistad
- funds = fondos
- German = alemán, alemana
- hate = odio
- hero = héroe
- hunger = hambre
- intention = intención, propósito
- massacre = masacre
- movement = movimiento
- nomination = nombramiento
- pacific = pacífico, pacífica
- racial = racial
- revenge = revancha
- savage = feroz, furioso
- Serbian = serbio, serbia
- simultaneously = simultáneamente, al mismo tiempo
- slaughter = carnicería
- sympathizers = simpatizantes
- tornado, tornadoes = tornado, tornados
- tour = viaje, recorrido
- tribal = tribal
- unplug = desenchufar
- Yugoslavia = Yugoslavia

SPECIAL VOCABULARY - VOCABULARIO ESPECIAL

G8: The Group of Eight (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States) = El Grupo de los Ocho (Canadá, Estados Unidos, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Japón, Reino Unido, y Rusia)

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Betty, Bob, Gaby, Erika, Mary, Pierre, Stephanie and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

New German Revolution: Atomkraft: Schluss!: Nuclear power: the end!

Nueva revolución alemana: El final de la energía nuclear.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-05-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the fourth Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with a brief analysis about how the globe was running during the last few days.

From the perspective of our comments posted in blogs in important online publications, you will have different images than normally you catch from TV or newspapers. The chapter of bilingual Vocabulary will help you in your conversation in Spanish and English.

NEW TECH BUBBLE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "Does LinkedIn's successful IPO signal a new tech bubble?"
Our Comment: "We think LinkedIn is a new tech bubble, but we are not sure the enthusiasm is merited. The professional-networking companies are very important today. However it is not easy to value them for one IPO. We cannot measure the services of Linkedln using the classic algebra of 1 + 1 + 1… because its business model is a combination of different math equations. This makes more difficult the evaluation of its success or failure from the perspective of the external observers that want to count how many users it has, how much money could earn by connection, and what will be the time and resources requested by any kind of connection." (2011/05/22)

ARAB SPRING: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "Do you support or oppose increased U.S. economic aid to Middle East countries"
Our Comment: "Is the economy of U.S. overflowing in gold and precious minerals? Do we have money to sow everywhere despite all the economic problems of our country? We know Middle East and North Africa live a terrible moment, but these people will not solve their problems with a charity program. First of all, they have to learn to use their own resources and integrate themselves with other nations in harmony and peace. Second, we cannot teach the principles of democracy by buying the heart of rebels and protesters. We didn't buy the friendship of the Pakistanis despite the billions of dollars we sowed through the nests of the Taliban and al-Qaeda." (2011/05/21)

ISRAEL - PALESTINE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "President Obama supports a two-state solution based on Israel's 1967 borders. Do you agree?"
Our Comment at the Journal Community: "From 1967 until now, a lot of events happened between Israel and Palestine. Who can erase 44 years of history by mandate? We think before the endorsement of the 1967 borders, both parts deserve a new constructive dialogue." (2011/05/20)
Our Comment at NewsHour of PBS: "We think both states – Palestine and Israel - have the right to have the own land, but we understand the argument of Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli borders before the Six Day War are indefensible." (Posted in the blog sector of the PBS Report "Netanyahu, Obama Meet Amid Disagreement on Path to Middle East Peace", May 20, 2011).

SYRIAN BLOODY SCENE: Wall Street Journal posted a story titled: "U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Syria's President" (2011/05/18) about the international punishment against the Syrian's regime due to the bloody repression of the street protesters.
Our Comment: "The situation of Syria is worsening. The blood stains its government institutions and leaders. Meanwhile more people emigrate from the Arab world to the western countries. But Europe and U.S. cannot assume the role of the "police" everywhere. The Libyan's civil war continues. In addition, the events from Yemen to Egypt show a very complex international panorama." (2011/05/18)

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 83.71 points or 0.66% to 12512.04, while Nasdaq Composite fell 25.15 points or 0.89% to end at 2803.32. This was the third consecutive week that Dow Jones declined.

In summary, during the week the sexual scandal of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund was news everywhere. European and American politicians and economists asked themselves about the future of the IMF and the countries – Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain… - that need its financial assistance. Some French politicians feel "it is too much about nothing".

Across the world, the Arab Spring showed new dramatic pictures of the repression in the streets of Syria, the bombing of most important ports of Libya, new protests in Yemen and Bahrain, the borders dispute between Israel and Palestine, and the religious persecution of Egypt.

In the technology environment and the Wall Street's aisles the initial public offering (IPO) of LinkedIn shook to the observers. The stock of this young company opened at US$83 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 84% from its initial public offering price of $45, and giving to the company a market valuation of nearly US$ 9 billion.

LinkedIn is a professional social network company founded by Reid Hoffman in December 2002. In May 2003 it introduced its first English web pages in the United States. Now its services are available in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. It has more than 100 million users in 200 countries. In the fiscal 2010 year, it posted revenues of US$243 million and a net income of US$15 million.

In other news, the political campaigns for the U.S. 2012 presidential elections brought more announcements from the Republican arena. While Mitch Daniels - current governor of Indiana – said he will be out of the campaign, Tim Pawlenty, - former governor of Minnesota – announced his Republican candidacy for president. Another candidate: Herman Cain, businessman, author and talk radio show host, announced he is running.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- aisle, aisles = pasillo, pasillos
- author = autor/a
- Bahrain, Bahraini = Bahréin, bahreini
- borders = fronteras
- bubble = burbuja
- businessman = hombre de negocios
- candidate, candidates = candidato/a, candidatos/tas
- dispute = disputa
- founded = fundado/a
- globe = globo, mundo
- governor = gobernador/a
- headlines = titulares
- market valuation = valuación del mercado
- net income = ingreso neto
- Palestine, Palestinian = Palestina, palestino/a
- persecution = persecución
- professional = profesional
- regime, regimes = régimen, regímenes
- repression = repression
- revenue = ingresos, ventas
- scandal = escándalo
- social network company = compañía de redes sociales
- spring = primavera
- stock = acción, papel bursátil
- talk radio show host = locutor de radio

SPECIAL VOCABULARY - VOCABULARIO ESPECIAL

Arab Spring = Primavera Árabe: The awakening of democratic movement across the Arab countries. Till now the main countries involve in the Arab Spring are Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan, Algeria, and Morocco. Some political observers also include in the group: Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, Kuwait, Oman, Western Sahara and Mauritania.

IMF: International Monetary Fund = FMI: Fondo Monetario Internacional.

IPO: Initial Public Offering = OPV: Oferta Pública de Venta: First sale of stock by a private company when it is going to be a public company.

Six-Day War = Guerra de los Seis Días: The Six-Day War took place between June 5th and June 10th,1967. After a strong and fast offensive, Israel defeated to armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, and took effective control of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Ann, Bob, Gaby, Erika, Lucy, Paul, Stephanie and Susan your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Geography of the Arab Spring: A mosaic of countries, regimes, cultures and history.
Geografía de la Primavera Árabe: Un mosaico de paises, regímenes, culturas e historia.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-05-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the third Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with a brief analysis about how the world was running during the last few days.

From the perspective of our comments posted in blogs in important online publications, you will have different images than normally you catch from the TV or the newspapers. The chapter of bilingual Vocabulary will help you in your conversation in Spanish and English.

NEW KISSINGER BOOK: Wall Street Journal story: "The China Challenge". This article makes an introduction of the new book by Henry Kissinger titled: "On China". (2011/05/15) Our Comment: "We have to recognize that Henry Kissinger made an important work in the construction of a wide bridge between the United States with China. Really this American statesman has the patience and a steady emotional stability to pave a new road to the Far East. But despite all his merits, Kissinger didn't change the arrogant attitude of the Communist Party who always tries to wash the brains of the free people of the world."

THE PC UNIVERSE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "Will you buy the Google Chromebook?" (2011/05/13)
Our Comment: "With more than 25 years in the technology market, we learned to wait before we make a decision about a new device or platform. Google is a successful Internet search-engine company that also is growing as provider of Android and other software tools. But its experience in the segment of PCs is shorter than other software companies (IBM, Novell...) that challenged Microsoft without success. We have to see how Google assumes the new compromises. By the way, when a company introduces a new operating system for computers, it has to develop a strategy to support the growing of this operating system according to the new state of the art of technology. Despite all the problems that Microsoft had from Windows 98 to Windows XP and after the flaws of Windows Vista, today it is going from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Will Google survive similar difficulties? Will Google create a community of partners like Microsoft has? Now we have to observe the performance of Google as PC (laptops and netbooks) operating system provider before making conclusions."

OBAMA'S RE-ELECTION: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "Will the death of Osama bin Laden guarantee Obama's re-election?" (2011/05/12)
Our Comment: "We don't think the death of Osama bin Laden has opened the door for the President Obama's re-election. The crucial issues of today are the economy and the social problems. When there are more than 13.7 million of people without jobs, the hunger of these people runs across the country."

FUTURE OF SKYPE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "What do you think of the Microsoft deal to buy Skype for $8.5 billion". (2011/05/11)
Our Comment: "It is a good deal for Microsoft because the software leader will take the technology of Skype and offer new services. But this deal doesn't imply a good business for the Skype's customers. Often, Microsoft strangles its customers with fees and additional costs. Also, thinking as a giant, it commits frequent mistakes in the business with small customers."

WOMEN ABORTION: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question for its members: "Should states require sonograms before allowing women to have abortions". (2011/05/11)
Our Comment: "This is a very controversial subject. We think each case has its own background. We cannot regulate it only from the results of a sonogram. For this reason, answering your question (yes/no), we are only transferring the responsibilities of the women, couples and doctors to the cold text of a law."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week with mixed results. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 42.99 points or 0.34% to 12595.75, while Nasdaq Composite gained 0.91 points or 0.03% to end at 2828.47 in a week with a lot of economic concerns and growing uncertainty.

In summary, the continuous rise of gasoline prices and other signs of inflation are hitting the population across the United States. During the week different political analysts discussed the subject after the majority of the country price-per-gallon surpassed US$ 4.00.

Moreover, five top executives of the biggest oil companies operating in the country were interrogated by the Senate Finance Committee to explain why the gasoline prices have risen nearly 30% since the beginning of the year.

Other bad news of the week was the Mississippi's flooding. After overflowed extensive areas around its riverbed, the water as well threatens the coasts of Louisiana. Frequently, during the springtime, the big rivers that cross the central plains after thaw in the mountains produce some flooding. This year, the damages produced by the Mississippi River are exceeding past seasons.

The political campaigns for the US 2012 presidential elections returned to the headlines of the newspapers with different announcements from the Republican arena. While Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul announced they will run for president, Mike Huckabee said: "No". Some political analysts wait the decision of Mitch Daniels, current governor of Indiana. (Last minute news: Donald Trump will not run for president).

This was our comment posted on Wall Street Journal about the Huckabee's decision: "Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee answered "NO" despite his first numbers in the polls. We have to respect his decision, but a lot of Republicans and Americans will miss him during the debates of the 2011 presidential campaign. Huckabee has the profile and ideas that an important group of citizens look for when they think about positive changes in the country." ("Huckabee Says He Won't Run for President", 2011/05/15)

From Yemen to Syria, the revolts continued rattling the Arab world. Also in the Palestinian border, Israeli troops repressed protesters. And in Greece, new economic rules produced demonstrations across the streets of Athens and other cities.

The revolutionary group of Libya tries to create an interim legislative and executive bodies and its leaders look for the financial funds the international institutions have frozen to condemn the Gadhafi's regime.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- bicycle = bicicleta
- bridge = puente
- challenge = desafío, reto
- condemn = condenar
- device = dispositivo
- flaw, flaws = defecto, defectos
- flooding = inundación
- gasoline = gasolina, nafta
- hunger = hambre
- inflation = inflación
- moreover = además
- operating system = sistema operativo
- overflow, overflowed = desbordarse, desbordó
- patience = paciencia
- pave = pavimentar
- platform = plataforma
- profile = perfil
- rattle, rattling = golpear, golpeando
- revolt = rebelión
- riverbed = cauce
- sonogram = sonograma
- stability = estabilidad
- statesman = estadista
- steady = firme, fijo, fija
- thaw = deshielo
- threaten = amenazar
- wide = ancho

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Erika, Harold, Lucy, Peter, and Suzanne your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Americans have to follow the European bicycles if they don't want to pay US$ 4.00 per gallon.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-05-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the second Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with our comments posted in important online publications about how the world was running during the last few days.

On Friday, May 6, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the non-farm payroll employment rose by 244,000 in April. The private sector added 268,000 jobs and the government cut 24,000 positions.

For the other side, the same government organization informed the unemployment rate edged up to 9.0 percent from 8.8 percent on March. Among the major worker groups these were the rates:
- Adult men: 8.8 percent
- Adult women: 7.9 percent
- Teenagers: 24.9 percent
- Whites: 8.0 percent
- Blacks: 16.1 percent
- Hispanics: 11.8 percent
- Asians: 6.4 percent
Like previous months, when the press received the numbers from the US Labor Department, some journalists looked at the statistics with optimism, but others said with these figures, President Obama will have serious problems on the 2012 president elections.

These were our comments posted in the blog of story titled "Job Engine Shifts to Higher Gear" published on Wall Street Journal: "When I analyze the monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, I don't think about the "seat" of the President or about his future at the next presidential election, I feel the pain of the more than 13.7 million of persons who don't have job. Nobody who never lost his/her job can imagine the feelings of the people who had to count their last pennies to survive. For the other side, the government institutions only see the statistics and they don't have the sensitivity to understand the real distance between an unemployment rate of 8.8 and 9.0." (2011/05/08)

OTHER COMMENTS:

NEW WAR TOOLS: Wall Street Journal story: "The SEAL Sensibility". This article revealed important details about the special US commando troops that kill Osama bin Laden and the way they act.
Our Comment: "We cannot defeat terrorists with tanks and classic conventional weapons. The commando operations are the only tools to fight against these bad guys. As victim of the terrorism, I learned that brutality is part of the game from both sides. If you don't kill your enemy, he will kill you." (2011/05/07)

COMPANY'S APOLOGIES: Wall Street Journal story: "Sony CEO Apologizes for Data Breach". This article explains Sony accepted responsibilities for the data breach of its Playstation's Network.
Our Comment: "It is not the first time during the last ten years that a Japanese company commits important mistakes and after that, its CEO apologizes in public. By the way, we have to remember the case of the Sony's batteries that converted different notebooks into "toasters". With expressions as: "We feel very sorry…" they will not repair the damages they provoke." (2011/05/06)

Due to the recent fall of the sales of BlackBerry phones, the Journal Community of WSJ asked to all the members about the smart-phone platforms the users are adopting now.
Our Comment: "From our point of view, in the smart-phone platform, Android is taking a similar role to Windows in the PC platform. For this reason, Research In Motion has to move its BlackBerry to Android or build a strong bridge between its operating system and the Google's operating system before all its efforts go in the trash and its devices to the museum. When we visit technology museums, we find a lot of devices that were magnificent jewels twenty years ago, but today nobody remembers them. It is not possible to stop the evolution of technology..." (2011/05/07)

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 171.80 points or 1.34% to 12638.74. Nasdaq Composite fell 45.98 points or 1.60% in the same period, to end at 2827.56.

In summary, the subject of the week was the US SEAL operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. On Friday, the job report for April didn't change the main discussions. Only a small group of observers paid attention about the decline of oil prices under the mark of US$ 100 per barrel.

In the technology industry, the case of Sony and the private information of its Playstation Network was stolen generated a lot of comments and evaluations. According to some sources, the Japanese company was involved in more that one robbery of data from members of the Playstation community.

The political campaigns for the US 2012 presidential elections continued active despite other subjects were in the top of the news. On Thursday evening, in Greenville, S.C, the Republican candidates had their first public debate. During the event, the Former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty said that President Obama made a good job finding and killing Osama bin Laden.

In the international arena, again Egypt was in the list of the countries with new incidents and deaths for aggressive reactions of Muslims against Christians. Additionally, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen were also in the headlines of the papers.

Meanwhile, the news about Libya and the Col. Gadhafi passed to a second level. Journalists that came from Tripoli during the last few days confirmed the capital is under the threat of gangs that work for the regime. A lot of Libyans flew to other areas and out of the country during the last few months. Nobody has the right to act with freedom and the members of the press know the jails are opened for those who defy the rules of the terror game that thrives in the country. The followers of Gadhafi spy on everybody and every movement of the foreigners and non-sympathizers of the dictator.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- breach = brecha, abrir brecha en
- commnado = comando
- Egypt, Egyptian = Egipto, egipcio, egipcia
- followers = seguidores, partidarios
- gangs = pandillas, bandas - incident, incidents = incidente, incidentes
- Muslim, Muslims = musulmán, musulmana, musulmanes
- nobody= nadie
- operating system = sistema operativo
- Pakistan, Pakistani = Paquistán, paquistaní
- platform = plataforma
- smart-phone, smartphone = teléfono inteligente
- spy = espiar, espian a
- sympathizer, sympathizers = simpatizante, simpatizantes
- threat = amenaza
- toaster = tostadora

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Bob, Erika, Joseph, Lucy, Mary, and Stephanie for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Jobless: When the last coins are not enough...

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the first Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with our comments posted in important online publications about how the world was running during the last few days.

After a week with controversial and hard news about different subjects, in the nigh of Sunday, the death of the mastermind of the al Qaeda organization topped all the headlines of the seven last days.

Next, you can read our comment posted in the blog of the Wall Street Journal story titled: "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" and written by Laura Meckler and Adam Entous (May 2, 2011).
Our Comment: "The most important symbol of the world terrorism fell. On May 1st 2011 at 11.35 PM EDT, President Obama interrupted the peaceful hours of a Sunday night to inform that the United States in a special command operation has killed Osama bin Laden. Without any doubt, it is a great news, and the results of huge efforts and the blood of thousands and thousands soldiers and innocent civilians dead or wounded across the world during approximately 10 years. But till now, it is early to measure the effects of the killing of the leader of al Qaeda. We have to hope the extremists of the Muslim countries cannot use the figure of Osama bin Laden as a martyr of the Arab world. After the capture of the dead body of the al Qaeda's leader, the US government has to articulate a strong campaign to disassemble the ideological infrastructure created by the extremist organization who declared a holy war against the western civilization and the Christian countries. The work is not done yet."

DEMOLITION OF LIBYAN REGIME: Wall Street Journal story: "Gadhafi Survives NATO Missile Strike That Killed Son" (2011/05/01) The article explains Moammar Gadhafi survived a missile attack by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren on Saturday.
Our Comment: "The psychological demolition of Gadhafi's regime began. For a dictator with the invulnerability of Col. Gadhafi, the death of his son will become a mortal knock. No cruel man can survive for a long time when in the boxing ring, his blood reduces his sight and distances."

HARD TORNADO SEASON: Wall Street Journal story: "South Settles Into Slow Rhythm of Recovery" (2011/05/01). The article comments the slow recovery from the first strong tornado that hit different cities of Alabama and other states of the south.
Our Comment: "Tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes show us how small we are against natural disasters. Despite the advances of technology and the techniques to prevent natural catastrophes, the human beings are quasi-impotent against the fury of Nature."

TANKS IN SYRIAN STREETS: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the critical political situation in Syria: Will anti-government protests in Syria succeed in overturning President Assad's regime? (2011/04/30)
Our Comment: Again Syria is re-entering the big political scene with military actions, but in these circumstances some of the protagonists are different from before. Now Syria is not fighting against Israel or helping to a political faction in Lebanon. The recent news shows how the regime is trying to deal with the protests of its own people. We don't have enough experience to know about the ability of Bashar al-Assad to survive anti-government protests successfully. But from our perspective, the Syrian leader made a huge mistake sending tanks and armored vehicles to kill Syrian citizens. Maybe, the regime will stop the current protests, but in the end, Bashar al-Assad will fall in the grave of his martyrs. The History teaches us that the political leaders who use guns against the sons of their own nations, they drown in the blood of the heroes of the protests.

BRITISH ROYAL WEDDING: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton: What do you think of the royal wedding dress worn by Kate Middleton? (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "We are not an expert in royal weddings. For this reason, maybe our opinion is not valuable. Personally, we liked the dress of Kate Middleton. The ceremony and the couple reminded us the reading of the fairy tales of our childhood."

SONY IN THE TARGET: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the hacker attack suffered by the Playstation Network: Have you been affected by Sony's Playstation Network hacker attack? According to the own Sony Corp's press office, a hacker has obtained customer information, including credit-card numbers from 77 million members of its online PlayStation Network. (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "We had not been affected by the hacker attack, but we always thought the online PlayStation Network could be a risky environment because the "devils" always look for crowds when they are enjoying any amusement."

OFFSHORE DRILLING: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about different initiatives to increase the own oil production in the country: What steps should Congress take to lower gas prices? (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "From my point of view, the Congress has to take all the necessary steps to help in the expansion of the offshore drilling."

FIRST FED PRESS CONFERENCE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the first press conference of the Federal Reserve chairman: How would you grade Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's first press conference? (2011/04/28)
Our Comment: Ben Bernanke is economist, professor at Princeton University, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve of two different White House administrations (Republican and Democrat). Of course, for his current role, he is involved in the politics of the country in connection with economic issues but his career is not political. If you read the biography of Mr. Bernanke, you don't find a relevant political background in his career. The economists have their own political orientations but they are not politicians withintheir profession. (By the way, Ben Bernanke according to his public biography is Republican.) We have to remark that the economy like education, security and defense are very important matters of the nation but subordinated to politics.The function of the Fed Chairman is mainly technical. For this reason, we have to judge Mr. Bernanke for the way that he manages his technical obligations, and not for his political profile."

PRESIDENT'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the birth certificate of President Barack Obama: Does the release of President Obama's birth certificate settle questions about his citizenship? The document released said Mr. Obama was born at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. (2011/04/27)
Our Comment: "Probably we think very different to the majority of the political observers, but today it is not a main issue in the discussion about whether President Obama is really American by birth or not. He is right now the President. Maybe before he arrived at the White House, all the voters had to ask for his birth certificate. Personally we think it is a good idea that every new presidential candidate shows his/her birth certificate before he/she has the chance to arrive to the White House. About the President Obama we have other subjects to discuss before the 2012's voting. Now to talk about the President Obama's birth certificate is only a distraction more with respect to more important issues about his leadership of the country."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 304.55 points or 2.44% to 12810.54. Nasdaq Composite gained 26.23 points or 1.96% in the same period, to end at 2873.54. Both indexes closed April 2011 with higher values than the previous month of March.

In summary, after the celebration of Easter, in the United States and in the world, the journalists had a lot of work. More of the news came from the Arab countries including Morocco, Libya, Yemen, and Syria.

In the technology industry, key protagonists continued reporting the results of the first three months of 2011 with diverse figures. Research In Motion showed the sales of its smart-phones BlackBerry were weaker than before during the last quarter. In other news, Sony had to recognized private information of its Playstation Network was stolen.

The political campaigns for the US 2012 presidential elections produced the first important debate about the identity of President Obama. Mr. Donald Trump - one of the potential Republican presidential candidates - put a question mark about if the President was born in United States, Kenya, or other country. After that, the White House released a copy of the birth certificate of Mr. Barack Obama issued in Hawaii.

On Friday, President Obama visited some areas of Alabama that suffered a lot of damages and deaths due to the first important tornado storm of the 2011 season. Nobody knows till now how many persons died because there is debris everywhere in the area affected.

On Saturday, the press agencies confirmed that Libyan leader Col. Gadhafi survived the NATO missile attack that killed one of his sons and other members of his family. Meanwhile, Tripoli, the capital of Libya, continues under the total control of the groups of followers of the regime.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- attrition = agotamiento, guerra de agotamiento
- birth certificate = partida de nacimiento, certificado de nacimiento
- blood = sangre
- boxing ring = cuadrilátero
- citizenship = ciudadanía
- demolition = demolición, derribo
- devils = demonios, diablos
- disassemble = desmontar
- dress = vestido, ropa
- drilling = perforación
- drown = ahogar
- fairy tale = cuento de hadas
- fury = furia
- grade = clasificar
- grave = tumba
- hurricane, hurricanes = huracán, huracanes
- holy = santo, santa, sagrado
- Lebanon, Lebanese = Líbano, libanés, libanesa
- manhunt = persecución
- martyr, martyrs= mártir, mártires
- mastermind = mente, figura principal, inteligencia
- missile = mísil, proyectil
- Morocco, Moroccan = Marruecos, marroquí (m/f)
- offshore = costero, costera
- psychological = psicológico, psicológica
- raid = incursión, asalto
- recovery = rescate
- rhythm = ritmo
- royal = real
- settle = resolver
- son = hijo
- steal, stole, stolen = robar, robó, robado
- survive = sobrevivir
- Syria, Syrian = Siria, sirio, siria
- theft = robo
- tornado, tornadoes = tornado, tornados
- wedding = boda, casamiento
- worn = usado

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Erika, Frank, John, Mary, Paul and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

According to press sources, United States killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad during a comando operation. Abbottabad is city of Pakistan located at 31 miles (50 kilometers) northeast from Islamabad, capital of this country of South Asia.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-04-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Today is Easter (Pascuas de Resurrección), a very important religious celebration for Catholics and Christians across the world.

Also from the sunset of April 18 to the nightfall of April 25, the Jewish community is celebrating Passover (Pascuas de los judíos).

Both celebrations have important historic and tradition roots that come from generations to generations. They are days for reflection and nice encounters with family and friends.

Our best wishes for the members and friends of the Spanish-English Club.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! (¡Felices Pascuas!)

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the third online communication of the Spanish English Club in April. The new Weekly Bilingual News will show how the world was running during the last few days.

From the perspective of our comments posted in blogs in important online publications, you will have different images than normally you catch from the TV or the newspapers.

Always, we include a chapter of bilingual Vocabulary to help you in your conversation in Spanish and English.

AIR-CONTROLLERS SLEEPING - Wall Street Journal article: "New Rest Rules for Tower" written by Andy Pasztor (April 17, 2011). During the last few days, press sources commented on recent air-traffic incidents due to the air-controllers who fell asleep in their workplaces. Now, FAA is ordering nine-hour breaks between shifts for air-controllers to fight workplace fatigue.
Our Comment: It is positive that the FAA tries to find a solution to the controllers' problem, but the problem is not only a schedule problem. They need special physical and psychological training and very good payment.

TECHNOLOGICAL EXODUS - Wall Street Journal article: "Samsung May Sell Hard-Drive Unit" written by Jung AH-Lee (April 17, 2011). During the first decades of evolution of the technology industry, one of most important segments was the hard-disk manufacturing. Some years ago, when IBM decided to sell its hard-disk-drive unit to Hitachi, a lot of analysts were surprised. Next the Japanese Fujitsu also sold its factories of hard-disk drives. Recently, Hitachi said: "Bye-bye to the disk unit."
Our Comment: The exodus continues. Some weeks ago, Hitachi informed their decision to sell its hard-disk-drive unit. Now, Samsung is following the same path. Who will be next?

AUSTERITY PLAN - Wall Street Journal article: "Greece Outlines Five-Year Austerity Plan" (April 15, 2011). After the terrible economic debacle of the last year, Greek government has decided to cut expenditures, selling utility companies that it owns.
Our Comment: The initiative to privatize government's companies is a positive step to fix the Greek economy.

NATO WARPLANES - Wall Street Journal article: "NATO Commander Calls for More Warplanes" (April 14, 2011). The air strikes by the allies against the Libyan positions continued during last week without clear results till now. Now, the commander of NATO troops at an international meeting in Berlin, Germany asked for new military airplanes to help rebels to defeat the Gadhafi's regime.
Our Comment: NATO Commander asks for more airplanes. It is okay, but for how many days or months NATO will need more warplanes? Will the Libyan operation have an end in a short time? Till now nothing is clear despite the money that western countries are expending for bombing Col. Gadhafi's bunkers.

IRAN BEHIND THE SCENE - Wall Street Journal article: "U.S. Says Iran Helps Crackdown in Syria" (April 14, 2011). After weeks of protests in the streets of different cities of Syria, some press sources commented U.S. complains because the Iran's government is helping the president of Syria against protesters across this Arab country.
Our Comment: It is nothing new that Iran's regime always is behind the scene manipulating political issues of the Middle East.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS - Wall Street Journal article: "Demand for PCs Falters" (April 14, 2011). In the first quarter of 2011 the worldwide demand of PCs declined again according to the analysts of the technology market.
Our Comment: Today digital tablets and smart-phones are giving flexible alternatives to the PC users who really don't need strong data processing functions. We think this is one of the factors that are pushing the demand of the PCs down.

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 38.22 points or 0.35% to 12341.83. Nasdaq Composite fell 15.77 points or 0.57% in the same period, to end at 2764.65.

In summary, during the last week, in the United States, the 2011 federal budget continued at the top of the news. Now the subject is increasing the debt ceiling of the federal budget.

Other important topic was the American intervention in the Libyan's air attack of the Col. Gadhafi positions. Again President Obama talked in public about the U.S. policy toward Libya and the rest of the Middle East.

Republicans and Democrats began the new campaigns for the 2012 election. Mitt Romney announced his intention to run for president. It is the second time that the former Massachusetts' governor will try to get the seat in the White House as a new Republican president.

On the international side, new incidents across the Arab world (Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Lybia, Bahrain...), the growing problem of the African refugees, and the radiation of the Japanese nuclear accident were also important topics of the news.

During the last weekend a lot of people across the world traveled for their Easter week vacation. In different countries of Europe the children will not go to the school during the next few days. Meanwhile, train stations and airports are full of travelers.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- austerity = austeridad
- bunker = refugio
- control tower = torre de control
- Greece, Greek = Grecia, griego, griega
- hard-disk = disco duro
- Iran, Iranian = Irán, iraní (m/f)
- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia
- refugee = refugiado
- Syria, Syrian = Siria, sirio, siria
- warplane, warplanes = avión de guerra, aviones de guerra

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

hanks to Anne, Bob, Erika, Joseph, Stephanie, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Easter's decoration in European train station

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-04-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the second Weekly Bilingual News of April 2011 with the news of the last few days in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. The bilingual Vocabulary included in this issue will help you in your conversation in Spanish and English.

BUDGET CEILING - Wall Street Journal article: "White House Braces for Bigger Battles Ahead" written by Carol E. Lee (April 10, 2011).

Our Comment: "The press celebrated the last-minute deal to avert the shutdown of the federal government. According to the article written by Carol E. Lee, we see that some of the points of the agreement between Republicans and Democrats were fixed with pins. We have to hope the weak points of the federal budget will be reinforced soon. "

AVERT SHUTDOWN – Wall Street Journal article: "Last-Minute Deal Averts Shutdown" (April 9, 2011).

Our Comment: "Our politicians fought as children who dispute toys in the playroom of the primary school. It really was absurd that they waited to the last minute, to achieve a deal."

NO CHANGES IN YEMEN - Wall Street Journal article: "Three Die as Yemeni Security Forces Fire on Protesters" (April 9, 2011).
Our Comment: "According to different sources, two weeks ago, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he was planning to leave the government immediately, but till now he continues in power. What is really his game? How many people have to die in Yemen before the real changes arrive?"

LIBYAN REBELS VS. NATO - Wall Street Journal article: "NATO and Libyan Rebels Try to Mend Fences After Misfire" (April 9, 2011).
Our Comment: "We think the tensions between the NATO and rebels will continue if the military campaign continues longer. The armed movements without leaders who can accelerate the actions are dangerous for the civil population caught between the fighters."

NEW EGYPTIAN TURMOIL - Wall Street Journal article: "Egypt Rallies Swell Against Military" (April 9, 2011).
Our Comment: "The new incident shows that the real problem for Egypt was not the former President Mubarak. The political components of the current situation are more complex and the Egyptian's future remains uncertain."

MEDICARE DATABASE – Wall Street Journal article: "Senators Push to Open Database on Medicare" (April 8, 2011).
Our Comment: "We think the idea to open Medicare's database could help to detect cases of dishonesty from professionals who use this medical system to enrich themselves, but always we have to evaluate the pros and cons."

REFUGEES WITHOUT DESTINY – Wall Street Journal article: "Migrant Boat Sinks in Mediterranean" (April 7, 2011). Up to 200 refugees are missing in cold waters, and 15 were found dead. Europe struggles with Influx from the turbulent North Africa.
Our Comment: "Big drama! But the migration from countries ruled by inhuman regimes will continue despite the risks that these people take when they flee."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week with mixed results. Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 3.33 points or 0.03% to 12380.05. Nasdaq Composite declined 9.18 points or 0.33% in the same period, to end at 2780.42. The political uncertainty about the 2011 federal budget during the week produced negative effects in the stock market.

In summary, during the last few days, in the United States, the main subject was the Congressional debate about the federal budget for the current year. Meanwhile, different incidents across the Arab world and the radiations of the Japanese nuclear plant shared the headlines of the newspapers and TV.

In the international side, different papers remarked about the growing problem with refugees from African countries in chaos including Ivory Coast that affect to Italy, France and other European countries.

On Friday April 8, in the last minutes of the day, at the eleventh hour, Republicans and Democrats achieved an agreement to avert the shutdown of the federal government but till now all is not settled. Congress and the White House have pending subjects linked with the 2011 budget to define.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- avert = prevenir
- budget = presupuesto
- ceiling = límite, techo
- database = base de datos
- France, French = Francia, francés, francesa
- federal budget = presupuesto federal
- Ivory Coast = Costa de Marfil
- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia
- misfire = fallar
- rally = mitín
- refugee = refugiado
- shutdown = cierre
- swell = marejada, oleaje

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Betty, Bob, Erika, John, Steven, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

All the nation was pending of the approval of the federal budget.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-04-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the first online communication from the Spanish English Club in April 2011. The new issue of the Weekly Bilingual News introduces the news of the last few days in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. The bilingual Vocabulary included in this issue will help you in your conversation in Spanish and English.

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM – WSJ - Journal Community Question: "What should we learn from, and how should we respond to, religious extremism such as the March 20 Florida Quran-burning and the resulting killings in the Islamic world?" (April 4, 2011). "In Afghanistan on Friday, people incensed by the recent Quran-burning ceremony by the Rev. Terry Jones over ran the United Nations office in the northern Afghanistan's largest city, killing at least seven foreigners and several Afghans, according to U.N. and Afghan officials."
Our Answer: "We cannot change the attitude of political or religious leaders with extremist ideas, but we can try to diminish the effects of their actions with an educative message about why we have to respect other religions and cultures. Always the violence creates more violence. The History shows us that the political and religious extremisms generate violence. Definitively, we have to isolate all kinds of extremism with a clear and resolute opposition." And about the Muslims: "We agree with you that frequently the Muslims are aggressive against the beliefs of others. We felt the violence in our skin, traveling through Muslims countries, but we learned we cannot generate more violence and this is the only way to stop the sickness of the extremism. It is similar to stopping the attack from a "dog" without a bite. The extremists act like "dogs" that never learned to respect the freedoms of others. Of course, it is a hard process for the reeducation of people that enjoy the violence because they are also victims of the violence."

2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN – An article of The Washington Post written by the journalist Dan Balz and titled: "2012 GOP presidential candidates confront a changing landscape" (April 3, 2011) says: "This is not an easy time for Republicans who are thinking of running for president in 2012. Whatever assumptions about the road ahead that may have existed a few months ago suddenly look more complicated, because of unfolding events here and abroad.

Our Comment: "Today, the landscape is more complex than before the midterm elections because now the Republicans are sharing some responsibilities with the White House in domestic and international issues, till now without clear definitions about the new budget. Additionally, military forces of the United States are involved in Libya, a volcano in total eruption."

TYRANNIES FALLING – Wall Street Journal story written by Bari Weiss and titled: "Opinion: 'The Tyrannies Are Doomed" (April 2 2011) comments that the scholar of the Middle East Bernard Lewis is optimist for the political changes in the Arab and Muslim countries, but "he says the U.S. should not push for quick, Western-style elections."

Our Comment: "We agree with Bernard Lewis that it is positive the Arab and Muslim countries are seeking democratic changes. But we cannot push countries ruled by tyrannies for decades into bloody revolutions. These countries have to learn the ABC's of freedom and democracy gradually. They have to develop their own political movements and develop political leaders with the capacity to create new democracies according to their own cultures and traditions. It is not possible that these new leaders become masters in politics in a short time when during years they have only seen the bars of the jail and the boots of their wardens."

EMPLOYMENT RECOVERY – WSJ Journal Community question: "How would you describe the recovery? Economists thought the jobless rate would unchanged at 8.9%, but March hiring was stronger than expected. Where are we in the recovery? Are recent gains sustainable?" (April 1 2011).

Our Answer: "Till now, the recovery is a slow and painful walk over through a path with a lot of obstacles, taking weak steps in the middle of a dense fog."

GOOGLE IN CHINA – Wall Street Journal story: "Google Losing Ground in China" (March 31, 2011) comments the businesses of Google are declined in China.

Our Comment: "I never discussed whether Google committed mistakes in its relationship with the Chinese regime, but the Free World knows the practices of China are not uniform. The Chinese authorities use the foreign resources as the owners of those resources, but they don't balance the rules about internal and external competition with the same eye. The Communist Party continues pointing its preferences in an excessive way in a country that wants to share the same seats of the countries of the Free World."

LIBYAN DEFECTOR – Wall Street Journal story: "Foreign Minister Resigns His Post, in Blow to Regime" (March 29, 2011) comments the Libyan Foreign Minister Mr. Koussa resigned and flew to London.

Our Comment: "It is positive that members of the Libyan regime leave Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government, but till now it is early to applaud. We have to observe the movements on Tripoli and other Libyan territory without cheering. We know the Libyan dictator is a clever fox always with new tricks in his hands… We have our doubts Mr. Koussa left Col. Gadhafi because he changed his mind about his boss. Probably there is other business behind the scenes that we don't know."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 156.13 points or 1.28% to 12376.72. Nasdaq Composite grew 46.54 points or 1.70% in the same period, to end at 2789.60. This was the second week that both indexes climbed after negative results.

In summary, during the last few days, the air strikes of the ally forces against Libyan targets were at the top of the headlines of newspapers and TV. President Obama defended the US intervention with other countries of NATO. Meanwhile, the radiations of the Japanese nuclear plant continued at the side of the news showing the fears of the world for the direct and indirect effects of this problem.

On Friday April 1, the US Labor Department published the Job Report of March showing some improvement in the employment side during the previous month. The non-farm payrolls rose by 216,000, but till now there are about 13.5 million people who would like to work, but without success in their job searching. In the United States, the economy continued to add jobs at a continued pace in March, moving down the unemployment rate to its lowest level in two years, and edged down to 8.8% last month.

Despite the good news about jobs and the economy recovery, analysts and other observers continued remarking that a lot of people will never return to their previous jobs, because the economic conditions are changing and some businesses are dead or declining. Additionally, a TV panel from PBS commented about the difficulties of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to find positions in the civilian world. Everybody remarks the merit of US soldiers fighting abroad but the companies don't open the doors to the veterans that are returning to the country.

Sunday night some rumors from the press commented in advance that President Obama is launching his re-election campaign for the 2012 elections. On the same night, the German liberal politician Guido Westerwelle announced he is resigning as Vice Chancellor of Germany and the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), victim of the disaster his party suffered in the regional elections of the previous weekend when the Green Party shook the political apparatus of the European country as consequence of the radiations of the Japanese nuclear plant damaged during the last tsunami in the Asian region.

Last-minute: President Barack Obama launched his re-election campaign elections in a video on his website. Days before, the political journalist Gwen Ifill in the web pages of PBS posted an article titled: "Iowa, I Hear You Calling" writing:"AMES, Iowa. I have this little theory that has long served me well. Everything, I believe, is politics. Politics determines whether your children go to school or to jail; whether they eat or starve; whether their futures will improve on your past. This is why I love politics and don't mind politicians. So it is with no small amount of anticipation that I look forward to the 2012 campaign." Our Comment: Gwen, Why do you point to Iowa, thinking about the 2012 campaign? From now to voting time, we will live through a lot of facts in the domestic and international arenas. And depending on all these new issues, the politicians will have to fight hard in many different battle fields. You cannot accelerate the time…You cannot define today when and where the future will take place. "

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- abroad = en el extranjero, al extranjero
- Afghanistan, Afghan = Afganistan, afgano, afgana

- ally, allies = aliado, aliados

- airstrikes, air strikes = bombardeo aéreo
- assumption = presunción, suposición
- bars = rejas
- belief = fe, creencia
- bite = mordedura, morder
- bloody = sangriento, sangrienta, sangrientos, sangrientas
- budget = presupuesto
- confront = hacer frente a, enfrentarse con
- defector = desertor, desertora

- diminish = disminuir - extremism = extremismo
- eruption = erupción
- gradually = paulatinamente
- incensed = indignada, encolerizada

- Islam = Islam - isolate = aislar
- jail = cárcel
- landscape = paisaje
- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia

- Muslim = musulmán, musulmana
- opposition = oposición
- Quran = Corán
- revolution = revolución
- scholar = erudito/a, sabio/a

- starve = pasar hambre
- tyranny, tyrannies = tiranía, tiranías

- volcano = volcán
- warden = guardia, guardián, guardiana

SPECIAL VOCABULARY

- GOP: Grand Old Party (Republican)
- Islam: monotheistic religion that believes in Allah (Alá) and begins with the teaching of the profet Muhammad (profeta Mahoma).
- Quran (Qur'an, Kuran, Koran, Coran): religious book of the Islam

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Bob, Carl, Erika, Steven, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Dead businesses - Lost jobs

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-03-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the fourth Weekly Bilingual News of March 2011. The last few days were very intense in the news. You can learn about what was happening in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. The Vocabulary included will help you in the bilingual debate.

NATO VERSUS DICTATORS – Wall Street Journal story: "Fresh Airstrikes Aid Rebels" March 27, 2011). This article comments on the advance of the enemies of the Libyan dictator after the NATO took the command of the allies and deepened the bombing of the air defenses of Col. Gadhafi's regime.

WSJ Journal Comment: "Who is moving the Libyan revolution, the rebels or the NATO's rockets? But NATO cannot remove all the dictators of the world"

GREEN GERMANY – Wall Street Journal story: "Greens' Gains Are Setback for Germany's Merkel" (March 27, 2011). This article talks about the results of the German regional elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate (or Rhineland Pfalz) under the influence of the nuclear panic that the Japanese accident generated across the world.

WSJ Journal Comment: "Germany - March 2011: No black! No red! Green! The accident of the Japanese nuclear accelerated the decline of the two German traditional parties: CDU (black) and SPD (red), but also the advance of the Green Party in two regional elections destroyed the electorate of the fragile FDP, hitting its coalition with the Angela Merkel's government. What will happen in the federal elections of the current year? Could the "green politicians" take over power? In this potential situation, what will be the future of German nuclear plants? Independently of all, both traditional parties – Christians and Socialists – have to refresh their ideas, remove "dinosaurs", and move with the speed of the new economic cycle…"

GOOGLE-GARAGE – Wall Street Journal story: "At Google, Page Seeks to Cut Red Tape" (March 25, 2011). This article analyzes the change of CEO in Google after long years of growth under the Eric Schmidt's helm. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is retaking the command of the company with the idea to move it like a start-up. During the Schmidt's cycle, Google grew from 200 to 24,000 employees.

WSJ Journal Comment: " Mr. Page: Please we don't want to reinvent the wheel! Now Google is not a garage-company, it is a big corporation. And the merit increase was from Eric Schmidt."

SYRIAN SHAKE – Wall Street Journal story: "Troops Open Fire on Syrian Protesters" (March 25, 2011). This article shows how the Syrian regime is shaking after protesters against the government of President Bashar al-Assad were in the streets.

WSJ Journal Comment: "Big mistake! When the troops open fire on protesters they show that a regime is losing its control. Historically, this is the beginning of the falls of the governments pressured by public turmoil."

CHAOTIC YEMEN – Wall Street Journal story: "Yemeni President Nears Deal to Resign" (March 24, 2011). This article talks about the dangerous situation of one of the countries that is strategic in the fight against the terrorism.

WSJ Journal Comment: "After long weeks of turmoil, the Yemen protesters threw down another leader of the Arab world. Will the departure of Ali Abdullah Saleh open the doors to a democratic government like the western countries or similar to the Islamic republics?"

JORDANIAN KING – Wall Street Journal story: "Police in Jordan Intervene in Protest Clashes" (March 24, 2011). This article says the Jordanian king Abdullah II is taking different initiatives to stop the protests against their political system.

WSJ Journal Comment: "In Jordan, what is the real target, the head of the king or the heads of the members of government?"

LATIN AMERICAN OBSTACLES – Wall Street Journal story: "Obama Faces Policy Obstacles in Latin America" (March 23, 2011). This article shows the President Obama's visit to three countries of Latin America was not relevant in connection with the big political obstacles that White House faces in the dialogue with the brothers of the South.
WSJ Journal Comment: "According to the information distributed by the press about the first trip of President Obama to Latin America, we don't see important achievements. It was only a symbolic visit to a part of the continent without a politically logical itinerary: Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, three countries with very different realities."

RUSSIA IN THE BACKGROUND – Wall Street Journal story: "Russia Lifts Its Energy Profile Amid Crisis" (March 22, 2011). The reports reveals Russian deals offering oil to Japan and trying to open and generate new businesses due to the current energy crisis.
WSJ Journal Comment: "While the allies fighting against Gadhafi will expend their resources in the battle, Russia will increase its revenues, acting in the background."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 362.07 points or 3.05% to 12220.59. Nasdaq Composite climbed 99.39 points or 3.76% in the same period, to close at 2743.06. Both indexes ended with bigger percentages of growth after two week of negative results.

In summary, during the last few days, the chaos across the Arab world gained again the headlines of newspapers and TV. Meanwhile, the Japanese tragedy continued at the side of the news showing how difficult is to control the radiations from their nuclear plant damaged.

During the week, AT&T announced its intention to buy the T-Mobile US; the software leader Oracle posted excellent quarterly revenues; and RIM - BlackBerry father- showed new problems in its competition against Apple.

On Friday March 25, under NATO protection, the Libyan rebels began their recovery of the cities that the Gadhafi's troops captured during the previous weeks.

On Sunday March 27, in German regional elections, the Green Party shook the government coalition led by the Chancellor Angela Merkel, and showed the first effects of the panic the Japanese nuclear accident across the world. German Green politicians are against the nuclear energy power plants.

Last-minute: The Green Party was second in parliamentary elections of Baden-Württemberg, third in Rhineland Pfalz, and second in the communal elections of Hessen. In the three states, they won positions from other parties.
Baden-Württemberg:
- CDU: 39,0% (-5.2%)
- SPD: 23.1% (-2.1%)
- Green: 24.2% (+12.5%)
- FDP: 5.3%(-5.4%)
Rhineland Pfalz:
- SPD: 35.7% (-9.9%)
- CDU: 35.2% (+2.4%)
- Green: 15.4% (+10.8%)
- FDP: 4.2% (-3.8%)
(Sources: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany, 2011/03/29, Pag 6-7)

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- ally, allies = aliado, aliados
- airstrikes, air strikes = bombardeo aéreo
- background = fondo (other meaning: "antecedentes")
- battle = batalla
- Brazil, Brazilean= Brasil, brasileño, brasileña
- chaotic = caótico
- Chile, Chilean = Chile, chileno, chilena
- Christians = cristianos (In Germany, CDU)
- coalition = coalición
- command = mando
- deepen = profundizar
- dinosaurs = dinosaurios (In this case: politicians with outdated ideas. In Spanish: "anacrónicos")
- electorate = electorado
- helm = timón
- El Salvador, Salvadorian (or Salvadorean) = El Salvador, salvadoreño, salvadoreña
- fragile = frágil
- garage = garaje
- garage-company = compañía pequeña iniciada en un garaje o pequeño local
- Germany, German = Alemania, alemán, alemana
- Green Party = partido ecologista (In German language: Die Grünen)
- Jordan, Jordanian = Jordania, jordano, jordana
- last-minute = de última hora
- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia
- outdated = anticuado, fuera de moda
- remove = remover, destituir
- Russia, Russian = Rusia, ruso, rusa
- self-control = autocontrol
- setback = contratiempo, revés
- Socialist = socialista (In Germany, SPD)
- spread = esparcir, diseminar
- start-up = empresa joven
- Syria, Syrian = Siria, sirio, siria
- take, took = tomar, tomó
-Yemen, Yemeni = Yemen, yemenita(or "yemení") (The name "Yemen" is not included in the online dictionary of the Real Academia Española)

SPECIAL VOCABULARY

CDU: Christian Democratic Union (of Germany)
FDP: Free Democratic Party (of Germany)
garage-company: a company created in a garage (or small place) with short resources but innovative ideas like Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and others.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Playbook: new digital tablet from RIM that will launch to the market on April 19.
RIM: Research In Motion. This a technology company from Canada, father of BlackBerry and Playbook. Since Apple introduced the last versions of iPhone, its revenues declined.
SPD: Social Democratic Party (of Germany)

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Harold, Mary, Stephanie, Steven, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Zeit für mehr Grün (Time for more green)

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-03-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the third online communication of the Spanish-English Club of March 2011.Through this Weekly Bilingual News you can learn about what was happening during the last few days in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. The Vocabulary included will help you in the bilingual debate.

PUNISHING LIBYAN REGIME – Wall Street Journal story: "Allies Press Libya Attacks" (March 20, 2011). This article talks about the attack of an international coalition against the Libyan regime of Gadhafi. On March 19, France, United Kingdom, United States and other countries launched the operation Odyssey Dawn to hit the air defenses of Libya.

WSJ Journal Comment: " Sometimes thousands rockets are not enough to kill a clever fox in a foggy wood. Will the allies target well or will they expend all their bullets for nothing?"

LATIN AMERICAN TOUR – The Washington Post story: "Amid Japan and Libya crises, Obama heads to Brazil for five-day Latin America" (March 20, 2011). This article comments on the trip of President Obama to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.

The Washington Post Member Comment: "We think the President Obama didn't take a good step in his first trip to Latin America, excluding Argentina and Peru from his itinerary. If the White House wants to recreate good relationships with South America, due to historical, political and economic reasons, it has to put all the same level including Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. South American countries are very sensitive to these details."

MENTHOL CIGARETTES – WSJ – Journal Community question: "Should menthol cigarettes be banned by the FDA?" (March 19, 2011). Wall Street Journal posted a poll about a study of FDA that said menthol-flavored cigarettes account for about 30% of total cigarette sales in the U.S. and are favored by adolescents and African-Americans over non-menthol cigarettes. The panel was concerned that youth who smoke menthol-flavored cigarettes are more likely to become regular smokers than those who smoke non-menthol cigarettes.

Journal Community Answer: "From my point of view, before banning something, we have to educate the users about the consequences (the pros and cons). It is ironic that in our western world, first we accept every thing that anybody introduces in the consumer market. And after that, we ban the same things because we think they are bad for the others. We are not God, decreeing what is "a mortal sin", is not our job."

EMERGENCIES FOR DISASTERS – WSJ – Journal Community question: "In light of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threat, what kind of disaster planning have you done? Is your home stockpiled with supplies? Have you discussed emergencies with your family? "(March 17, 2011). The Journal Community shares the concerns of people about new natural disasters.

Journal Community Answer: "You always have to prevent possible disasters, but depending on the place where you live, the risks will be different and the emergency plans will change. We don't have to panic due to the Japanese earthquake."

DOUBLE-DIP RECESSION: WSJ – Journal Community question: "Between an expected rise in energy prices and the impact of Japan's earthquake, are we headed for a double-dip recession?" (March 16, 2011). A global market sell-off started in Tokyo and continued in New York as Japan's nuclear crisis deepened and worries escalated over the human and economic toll of the earthquake.

Journal Community Answer: "Till now it is very early to determine what will be the reactions of the Japanese economy after their tragedy. Nobody has to push up energy prices and spread rumors about recession. Every time something happens, the speculators want to win thanks to the confusion of the markets."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 185.88 points or 1.54% to 11858.52. Nasdaq Composite dropped 71.94 points or 2.65% in the same period, to close at 2643.67. Both indexes suffered bigger falls.

In summary, during the last few days, the Japanese tragedy and the potential accidents of other nuclear power plants dominated the headlines worldwide. Meanwhile, American and Japanese officials offered sharply different assessments about the situation at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

On Friday, March 18, the United Nations cleared the way for an international military action against the Libyan regime, after declared the no-fly zone in Libya. The UN resolution came after the Gadhafi's forces recovered the control of majority of cities in the hands of the rebels and the dictator promised a bloody end for the enemies of the regime.

During the weekend, US invited to international journalists to the amphibious assault ship USS KEARSARGE(LHD 3) to observe the start of the operations of the Odyssey Dawn. Now this ship of the US Navy is located in the Mediterranean Sea, near the costs of Libya.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens

Spanish-English Club

Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com

URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- air defenses = defensas aéreas

- ally, allies = aliado, aliados

- amphibious = anfibio
- Argentina, Argentinian = Argentina, argentino, argentina
- assault = asalto

- ban = prohibir, prohibición
- Brazil, Brazilean = Brasil, brasileño, brasileña
- bullets = balas
- Chile, Chilean = Chile, chileno, chilena
- coalition = coalición

- commander = comandante

- crisis, crises = crisis, crisis
- El Salvador, Salvadorian = El Salvador, salvadoreño, salvadoreña
- embarkation = embarco, embarque

- foggy = brumoso, con niebla

- fox = zorro
- hit = golpear, destruir
- landing = desembarco
- menthol = mentol
- Peru, Peruvian = Perú, peruano, peruana
- recession = recesión
- rockets = cohetes

- ship = barco, buque
- South America, South American = Sudamérica, América del Sur, sudamericano, sudamericana
- target = blanco
- wood = bosque (Other translation in Spanish: madera)

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Bob, Erika, John, Mary, Steven, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

"USS KEARSARGE (LHD 3) is the fourth ship in the history of the U.S. Navy named for Kearsarge Mountain in New Hampshire. USS KEARSARGE is the third ship of the Wasp class multipurpose amphibious assault ships. Her primary mission is the embarkation, deployment, landing and support of a Marine landing force."

"USS KEARSARGE has been awarded the Golden Anchor for Retention Excellence, the 2008 Battenberg Cup Award, the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Service Award, the CNO Environmental Safety Award, the Admiral Flatley Memorial Award, Department of Energy / Department of the Navy Energy Efficient Awards, the Chief of Naval Operations Safety."
(The information and photo of the USS KEARSARGE (LHD 3) was provided as public service by the U.S. Commander, Naval Surface Force, Atlantic.)

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-03-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the second Weekly Bilingual News of March 2011, a month now full of dramatic and conflictive news.

Through the online communication of the Spanish-English Club you can learn about what was happening during the last few days in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. They are interesting subjects for a bilingual debate. The Vocabulary included will help you.

HUGE HUMAN TRAGEDY - WSJ story: "Rescuers Dig for Survivors, But Thousands Feared Dead" (March 13, 2011). The article talks about the situation in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami, and the efforts of rescuers to find survivors under the debris.

WSJ Journal Comment: "After the earthquake, the situation in Japan is critical. One key question that remains in the air is: Why God didn't stop the drama before the fury of Nature crashed against the people of a country that suffered a lot of catastrophes?"

US ENERGY POLICY - WSJ story: "U.S. Could Rethink Nuclear Reliance" (March 13, 2011). The article argues about the U.S. nuclear energy policy in the mirror of Japanese atomic catastrophe threat.

WSJ Journal Comment: "The Japanese nuclear problem can help us to build more safe nuclear plants, but we don't have to change the energy policy every day as a flip-flop."

TECHNOLOGY AFTER THE QUAKE – Barron's Online story: "Japan: Some Disruption For Semis, Says iSupple" (March 11, 2011). The article talks about the analysis of iSupple in connection with the impact of the earthquake on the technology industry of Japan. iSuppli is an organization that makes statistics about production and revenues of the technology industry across the world. Immediately, after the Japanese earthquake, iSuppli said the semiconductor sector will be impacted by the earthquake. The supply chain of Toshiba could be one of the worst affected of the disruption. This company produces 35% of the global production of NAND flash memory.

Barron's Online Comment: "Till now it is early to evaluate the complete impact of the Japan's earthquake in the technology industry, but I agree the Japanese plans will become supply chain problems."

NUCLEAR ENERGY – WSJ Journal Community question: "Is nuclear energy safe?" (March 11, 2011). The Journal Community of the Wall Street Journal launched a poll about the nuclear plants due to the Japanese emergency at one of its nuclear power plants.

Journal Community Answer: "We believe the state of art of the technology makes the nuclear power plants safe. But we can never say they are 100% safe against the nature's disasters because the man doesn't have a total control of the forces of the nature."

VENTURE CAPITAL MONEY – WSJ Journal Community Question: "- If you had venture capital money to invest, which sector would you back?" (March 11, 2010). Journal Community said venture capitalists are chasing after companies that develop Web-based software and digital services, looking to invest in what could turn out to be the next Facebook or Twitter.

Journal Community Answer: "In the technology arena, there are different kinds of sectors. Some of them are very risky because they are only bubbles that enthusiastic youngsters blow up without solid foundations. But there are other sectors built around strong platforms like Lotus Notes, Oracle Database, VMware, and Cognos that develop software tools and applications for business solutions. The start-ups of those sectors are good because they always are under the protection of big umbrellas of leaders of the industry."

DEMOCRACY CONCEPT – Wall Street Journal story: "Opinion: Is U.S. Democracy Just Talk?" (March 11, 2010). One journalist from Wall Street Journal wrote about the concept of democracy, now that Arab countries claim for democratic governments.

WSJ Journal Comment: "Yes, democracy is a wonderful concept, but the problem is the implementation of this wonderful concept in each country according to the history and culture of the country, plus the current ambitions of politicians and public people. How many politicians put their ideals first? How many politicians act according to their ideals? Today the democracies have lost important values that were the start of the democratic movements of the world. We talk more than we act."

MUSLIMS AGAINST CHRISTIANS – PBS Report: "News Wrap: At Least 13 Dead After Sectarian Violence Erupts in Egypt" (March 9, 2010). This report comments at least 13 people were killed and 140 wounded in a new sectarian violence in Egypt as Muslims attacked Christian demonstrators. The Christians were protesting the burning of a church.
PBS Comment: "The attacks of Muslims against Christians across the Arab world show the contradictions of countries that today are raising the flags of the democracy. What kind of democracy they will build while they burn the churches of the Christians?"

GUANTANAMO TRIALS – PBS Report: "Obama Reverses Course on Gitmo, Allowing Detainee Military Trials to Resume" (March 7, 2010). This report comments White House informed the detainee military trials at Guantanamo Bay will resume.
PBS Comment: "The reversing of the ban on military trials at Guantanamo is another signal of the inconsistency of some decisions of the first two years of government of the current administration of the White House."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 125.48 points or 1.03% to 12044.40. Nasdaq Composite declined 69.06 points or 2.48% in the same period, to close at 2715.61. It was the biggest weekly fall of Nasdaq from August 2010.

In summary, during the last few days, across the world, Libya dominated the headlines till Friday morning when Japan's disaster shook press agencies, TV, and the people. Before the Japanese quake, one of the news reports said France recognized Libyan rebels, while Gadhafi forces continue their advances against enemy positions, recovering the control of important cities in the country.

In the beginning of the week, the Wisconsin legislation cutting some collective-bargaining rights was the hottest subject of the US press. On Thursday evening Wisconsin's state Assembly approved limits on collective bargaining for public employee unions following a controversial vote in the Senate a day before. Democratic legislators were playing hide-and-seek during the last weeks traveling outside the state to block the voting.

Another subject of the American forums was the potential military intervention in Libya. In different press interviews, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates showed reservation about this issue. Meanwhile, other press sources confirmed China, Russia, Holland and Belgium are some of the weapon providers of the Libyan regime.

On Friday morning, the earthquake in the Asian country topped the headlines also in the United States. Since that moment, the atomic catastrophe threats are pushing a new debate about the energy power policy of the country.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- argue = argumentar, discutir, razonar
- atomic = atómico, atómica
- ban = prohibir
- Belgium = Bélgica
- blow up = inflar
- bubble = burbuja (In both English and Spanish, this name is used to referent ideas without a solid foundation)
- catastrophe = catástrofe
- Christians = cristianos
- crash, crashed = estrellar, estrelló, estrellado
- debris = escombros
- democracy = democracia
- detainee = detenido, preso
- dig = cavar, remover
- disaster = desastre
- disruption = trastorno, interrupción
- earthquake = terremoto
- fear, feared = temer, temió, temido
- flash memory = memoria flash (It is a special non-volatile memory used in digital devices like cameras, MP3 players, mobile-phones, data storage drivers.)
- flip-flop = cambio drástico, cambiar drásticamente.
- fury = furia
- global = mundial
- God = Dios
- hide-and-seek = juego de las escondidas, escondidas
- Holland = Holanda
- Japan = Japón
- Japanese (singular and plural) = japonés, japonesa, japoneses, japonesas
- Muslims = mulsumanes
- nature = naturaleza
- nuclear = nuclear
- platform = plataforma
- poll = encuesta, sondeo
- quake = temblar, terremoto
- reliance (on) = dependencia (de)
- relief = socorro, ayuda
- rescuer, rescuers = rescatador, rescatadora, rescatadores, rescatadoras, (Another meaning: "salvador")
- reservation = reserva
- revenues = ingresos
- Russia = Rusia
- semiconductor, semiconductors = semiconductor, semiconductores
- semis (semiconductor supplies) = suministro de semiconductores
- start-ups = empresas o compañías jóvenes (Normally, the business people uses this name to reference young companies with innovative ideas and/or projects).
- supply chain = cadena de suministro
- survive = sobrevivir
- survivor = sobreviviente, superviviente (Both Spanish names are recognized by the Real Academia Española)
- top, topped = encabezar, encabezó, encabezaron
- trial = juicio, proceso
- tsunami = tsunami (In Spanish, tsunami is a new word approved by the Real Academia Española: "ola gigantesca producida por un seísmo o una erupción volcánica en el fondo del mar.")
- venture capitalists = inversores de capital de riesgo
- volatile = volátil

SPECIAL VOCABULARY

Gitmo or GTMO: Guantánamo Base Naval Base.
NAND: It is one of the two flash technologies used in memory cards to store images, music and other digital data. NAND devices retain data integrity when a machine loses power or is turned off. It was introduced by Toshiba in 1989. Today, the NAND flash memory is used in the manufacturing of the new data storage drivers (SSD).
Toshiba: Japanese corporation with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the leaders of the segments of flash memory devices and SSD (solid-state drive). It also produces PCs, computer peripherals, power systems, industrial and social infrastructure systems, home appliances, and more.

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bob, Erika, John, Julie, Peter, Stephanie, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

In the north of Tokyo, you can see the city of Sendai that according to news was hit for the strong waves of the tsunami.
En el norte de Tokio, ustedes pueden ver la ciudad de Sendai que de acuerdo con las noticias fue golpeada por fuertes olas del tsunami.
(This map is courtesy of the US State Secretary)

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-03-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to another online communication of the Spanish-English Club! The new issue of Weekly Bilingual News includes comments that we posted in important online publications during the last few days. They are interesting subjects for your debate and bilingual conversation. The Vocabulary included will help you.

FEBRUARY JOB NUMBERS - WSJ story: "Jobless Rates Falls Further" (March 4, 2011). The article talks about the February job report of the US Labor Department. Private companies added a net of 192,000 jobs, but the number of people out of work continues high: 13.7 million, approximately double the number before the recession.
WSJ Journal Comment: "While the US Labor Department posted that in February the private sector added thousands of jobs and the unemployment rate slipped to 8.9%, more low-paid employees only survive. Nobody expects big changes in short time."

SMALLER GOVERNMENT – WSJ – Journal Community Questions: Do we need a smaller government? Is Washington bloated? And does it mean we need a smaller government? Can we have that without cutting services that might really help people? (March 3, 2011)
Journal Community Answer: "Yes, the government is bloated. We need a smaller and more efficient government. Every office, every department, every position in the Congress and the White House has to be justified. The ideas that for every issue, for every problem, for every difficulty, the government needs a new program, a new adviser, a new commission, and a new budget are not the right way to make more jobs. With the current technology available, and techniques of analysis of information systems of the administration, the government can reduce billions of dollars of expenditures and offer better services to the country, the community, and the citizens."

STEVE JOBS IN ACTION - WSJ story: "Apple's Showman Takes the Stage" (March 2, 2011). The article comments that Apple CEO stopped his medical leave to introduce iPad 2, appearing in public in the conference where Apple introduced a thinner, lighter and faster digital tablet than the first iPad. In connection with the launch of the new product, Steve Jobs said: "With more than 15 million iPads sold, iPad has defined an entirely new category of mobile devices. While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we're launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again."
WSJ Journal Comment: "Always Steve Jobs brings to market the next innovative news for the industry. It was splendid that the Apple's CEO introduced personally his new creature: iPad 2. Congratulations!"

NUCLEAR ENERGY - WSJ Journal Community Question: "Should the U.S. explore nuclear power for energy needs more aggressively?" (March 2, 2011) According to Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates is funding and guiding a start-up called TerraPower, whose goal is to make nuclear reactors smaller, cheaper and safer than today's nuclear energy sources. The company has made pitches in France and Japan.
WSJ Journal Answer: "We agree nuclear power has to be one of the most important priorities of the United States. About the initiative of Bill Gates, TerraPower seems very interesting, if Microsoft is not in the middle."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory, despite the fall of Friday. Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 39.43 points or 0.33% to 12169.88. Nasdaq Composite gained 3.62 points or 0.13% in the same period, to close at 2784.67.

In summary, during the last few days, Libya and the Arab world were again important headlines of the international press. Different western leaders agree that opponents of Gadhafi need tanks, heavy weapons and military logistics, but nobody is sure about what are the best actions to stop the Libyan massacre. During an interview of the TV program NewsHour, retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who commanded no-fly zones over Iraq during the 1990s, said "no-fly zones" implies a military intervention and whoever imposes the fly-prohibition has to be able to knock down the airplanes that violate it. He also said US has to act together with the United Nations.

Also during the week,Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh - another protagonist of the Arab turmoil - apologized for his statements against the U.S. government, and is planning to leave the presidency. Some days ago, during a university conference, the Yemeni leader said the United States and Israel were behind the Arab protesters across all the countries of the region.

In the United States, the debates about the size of government and how the states could cut expenditures continued at the top. During the week, the agreement between US and Mexico to allow Mexican trucks driving across the border between both countries produced opposed opinions. On Friday, the unemployment rate of February generated good comments from analysts and members of the government.

In Brazil, Europe and other countries of the world, during these days the people are celebrating the 2011 Carnival. In Germany, this festive season is used to mock politicians and criticize the mistakes of political leaders made during the last twelve months. The case of the former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg who resigned during the week over a plagiarism scandal is part of the scene.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- bloated = hinchado
- Brazil = Brasil
- carnival = carnaval
- commission = commission
- double = doble
- Europe = Europa
- faster = más rápido, más rápida
- fly = volar ("fly" was other very different meanings is Spanish)
- German = alemán, alemana
- Germany = Alemania
- headline, headlines = titular, titulares
- heavy weapons = armas pesadas, armamento pesado
- Iraq = Irak
- jobless = sin trabajo, desempleado, desempleada
- knock down, knocked down = derribar, derribó
- Libya = Libia
- lighter = más liviano, más liviana
- Mexican = mexicano, mexicana, mejicano, mejicana
- military = militar
- million = millón
- mock, mocked = ridiculizar, ridiculizó, ridiculizaron, burlarse de, se burló de, se burlaron de
- no-fly zones = espacio aéreo desmilitarizado
- out of work = sin trabajo (Also in Spanish: fuera de funcionamiento).
- pitches = lanzamientos
- plagiarism = plagio
- priority, priorities = prioridad, prioridades
- reactor = reactor
- recession = recesión
- resign, resigned = renunciar, renunció
- retired = retirado, jubilado
- safer = más seguro. (Also in Spanish: fuera de peligro).
- scene = escena, escenario
- showman = director de espectáculos. (Also in Spanish: empresario de espectáculos, actor, gran actor)
- slip, slipped = deslizar, deslizó
- stage = escena
- start-up = empresa joven
- tablet = tablero
- tank, tanks = tanque, tanques
- thinner = más delgado, más delgada
- truck = camión
- United Nations = Naciones Unidas
- Yemeni = yemenita

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Betty, Bob, John, Marcus, Stephanie for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.

Carnival Parade in Germany

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-02-27T22:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the Weekly Bilingual News, online communication of the Spanish-English Club! Today again we are sharing with you some comments we posted in important online publications during the last few days. All are interesting subjects for your debate and bilingual conversation. The Vocabulary included will help you.

LIBYAN TURMOIL - WSJ story: "Obama Says Gadhafi Must Leave" (Feb. 27, 2011) The article comments President Obama talked with the German Chancellor and both agreed Gadhafi has to leave Libya.

WSJ Journal Comment: "President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have the right to say Gadhafi must leave, but the Libya's dictator always was hard and heartless with his people and enemies. Nothing new we are seeing from his side. Additionally, he knows how to evade international demands against him. Nobody will defeat him only with words."

2011 US FEDERAL BUDGET - WSJ Journal Community: "Will Congress pass a budget plan for 2011 in time to avert a shutdown of the federal government?" (Feb. 25, 2011) March 4 is the deadline to approve the 2011 budget of the federal government. During the last week some political analysts showed fears about a shutdown of the government if the members of the Congress don't agree about the 2011 budget.

Journal Community Answer (Feb 27, 2011): "After the political analysts expressed their fears, the last reports say that members of Congress are working to pass the budget plan for 2011 before the deadline. If Republicans and Democrats agree on this critical issue, it will be an important achievement after a lot of disagreements."

US SPATIAL FUTURE – PBS report: "Discovery's Launch Marks Beginning of End for NASA Shuttle Program" (Feb. 24, 2011) The report comments details of the mission for Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It also says NASA will end the shuttle program shortly after this mission. This was the final mission of "Discovery".
Member Comment: "This moment with big economic problems and political disagreements about what are the first investment priorities, it is very difficult for NASA, but we have to make the best efforts to keep the space programs on the radar."

MOBILE COMPUTING WORLD - WSJ article: "Apple Updates MacBooks with Intel Technology" (Feb. 24, 2011) Apple updated its MacBook Pro family of mobile computers with the next generation of Intel processors and graphics that are twice as fast as the previous generation. The new dual-core and quad-core Core processors are based on the high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology of the semiconductor maker that delivers 10 gigabits per second and can support all the important I/O standards.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "Apple working with the next generation of Intel processors will be in the first line of updating mobile computers."

ETHICS OF LAWMAKERS – WSJ Journal Community Question: "Is it ethical for lawmakers to leave the state or avoid the statehouse in order to avoid a vote on legislation they oppose?" (Feb. 23, 2011) The question is about lawmakers of different states who are blocking the voting of laws they oppose.
Journal Community Answer: "It is not ethical for lawmakers to avoid a vote on legislation they oppose. Democracy requires the participation of all the lawmakers independently of their own ideas or opinions. They have responsibilities like every other public employee with their states and communities."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 260.80 points or 2.10% to 12130.45. It was the biggest weekly percentage drop since November 12, 2010. Nasdaq Composite fell 52.90 points, or 1.87% in the same period, to close at 2781.05. About these results we wrote the following comment at Data Points: U.S. Markets (WSJ, Feb. 25): "In this occasion, the fall of the major indexes of Wall Street has a clear explanation. The key factor was the chaos of Libya - important world provider of oil – that deepened the crisis inthe Arab world."

In summary, during the last few days, the turmoil in Libya was the main headline across the press of the world. In particular, Italy, France and Germany followed the news from the North African country very nervously because they are important buyers of the Libyan oil and they have investments in its petrol industry.

On Saturday February 26, the United Nations agreed on sanctions against the Gadhafi regime. On Sunday, February 27, press sources announced rebel groups advanced to Tripoli, the capital of the country. By the way, about the Libyan chaos we wrote the following comment in the Washington Post blog several days ago: "It is hard to recognize it, but the freedom route of Libya will be very bloody." (Washington Post: "Clashes spread closer to Tripoli; U.S. consults allies on Libya options", By Leila Fadel, Liz Sly and Howard Schneider Feb. 25).

In the United States, other important issues were: 1) the possible shutdown of the federal government, 2) the unions and collective-bargaining rights of the Wisconsin state workers, 3) the future of gay marriage, 4) the oil barrel price over $100.

In other news, PBS (Feb. 24) reported a Saudi Arabian citizen, a college student in US, was charged for a possible bomb plot against the house where former President Bush is living in Dallas, Texas. This case is a new sample of the terrorism threat due to extremist people who are living in the west countries.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- against = contra
- ally, allies = aliado, aliados
- Arab = árabe
- avert = prevenir
- avoid = evitar, eludir
- barrel = barril - bloody = sangriento, sangrienta
- budget = presupuesto
- chaos = caos
- clash, clashes = choque, choques - closer = muy cerca
- collective-bargaining = contrato colectivo de trabajo, convenio colectivo de trabajo
- computer = computador, computadora
- dictator = dictador
- ethics = ética
- evade = evadir, eludir
- Gadhafi = Gadafi (others write Gaddafi).
- heartless = cruel
- I/O = entrada/salida
- lawmaker = legislador
- launch, launching = lanzamiento
- Libya = Libia
- Libyan, Libyans = libio, libia, libios, libias
- mobile computing = computación móvil
- processor = procesador
- program = programa
- petrol = gasolina
- oil = petróleo
- sanction, sanctions = sanción, sanciones
- Saudi Arabian = saudí, saudita
- shuttle = transbordador
- spatial = espacial
- statehouse = legislatura
- shutdown = cese o suspensión de actividades
- topple = derribar, volcar
- turmoil = desorden, alboroto
- union = unión, sindicato - update = actualiza

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bev, Bob, Erika, Freed, Joseph, Maria Waleska, Peter, Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.
.

The chaos of Libya deepened the crisis in the Arab world.

El caos en Libia profundizó la crisis del mundo árabe.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-02-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new online communication of the Spanish-English Club through the Weekly Bilingual News!

The current issue continues with the style we began to outline in the previous Weekly Bilingual News, focusing key issues through several comments we posted in important online publications during the last few days. All are interesting subjects for your debate and bilingual conversation. The Vocabulary included will help you.

EGYPT VERSUS U.S. JOBS - WSJ Journal Community question: "Jobs, deficit: What should be the higher priority for Congress and President Obama?" (Feb. 6, 2011) On Friday February 5, the US Labor Department posted the Job January Report. The news was not relevant for the press and the Government didn't make a lot of efforts to explain its figures.
WSJ Journal Community Answer: "It is painful to recognize that the first week of February showed that the White House is more interested in the new jobs for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and other anti-American groups than the employment panorama of the United States where the survey of businesses found only a net gain of 36,000 jobs on January despite the unemployment rate declined to 9 percent." Domingo A. Trassens

SNOW: BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS - WSJ Journal Community question: "Business owners, what's your strategy for dealing with big snow storms?" (Feb. 5, 2011) This question was part of the analysis of the problems the last snowstorms created for companies and businesses in the United States.

WSJ Journal Community Answer: "The companies cannot stop their activities and cancel their business compromises for bad weather conditions. The owners of the companies have to define their own strategies depending of the kind of business. In some cases, they have to define emergency plans that will allow their employees to do the work in their homes. In other cases, they have to provide tools and clothes to support external operations with the minimum of difficulties for their workers." Domingo A. Trassens

EGYPTIAN PICTURES: GOVERNMENT TRANSITION – Wall Street Journal article: "Egypt's Prime Minister Meets With Protest Leaders". (Feb. 5, 2011) This article analyzes the Egyptian crisis and the reactions of members of the government of this Arab country to facilitate a peaceful political change.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "Intelligent play! It is good that members of the Egyptian government meet protesters trying to reduce pressure. Maybe this way could make easier the transition process." Domingo A. Trassens

CHINA EYES U.S. DEFENSE – Wall Street Journal Article: "China Eyes U.S. Defense Contracts." (Feb. 3, 2011) This article analyzes the Chinese efforts to gain U.S. Defense contracts..
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "From my point of view, U.S. Defense has to block all the attempts of Chinese companies to enter the circle of its providers." Domingo A. Trassens - 4 Recommendations.

EGYPT: FALL OF MUBARAK REGIME – Wall Street Journal Article: "Regime Seeks an Exit for Mubarak." (Feb. 3, 2011) This article comments on the pressure of the United States and other countries to find a peaceful exit for President Mubarak.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "In the international arena, everybody "dreams" a new future for Egypt, but only the Egyptians can define the future for their nation. External hands could complicate more the complex current panorama. Some years ago, when I visited Egypt, I learned the Egyptians are afraid of the influence of the western countries in their internal issues." Domingo A. Trassens - 2 Recommendations

ARAB WORLD IN FLAMES – Wall Street Journal Article: "Hundred Join Antigovernment Protests in Jordan" (Feb. 3, 2011) This article remarks in the Arab world the chaos and protests are spreading across different countries with different regimes and history.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "The spreading of the antigovernment protests across the Arab world is a danger sickness with an unclear end. It is not a democracy movement like we know in the western countries." Domingo A. Trassens

ISRAEL GAS PIPELINE – Wall Street Journal Article: "Israel Worries About Gas Pipeline" (Feb. 3, 2011) This article analyzes the worries of Israel if the new Egyptian regime moves against its neighbor.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "In my opinion, Israel has to develop a plan mulling the worst-case scenario because radical Islamist groups put religion before business." Domingo A. Trassens.

APPLE VERSUS CLASSIC PUBLISHERS – Wall Street Journal Article: "Apple to Tighten Control on Content" (Feb. 2, 2011) This article comments the fears of the classic publishers of publications and magazines in front of the new functions of iPad and the growing of iTunes store.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "Digital devices like iPad will grow with more and more digital content and iTunes could help. For this reason the efforts of Apple to improve the horizons of its products are right. Of course, iTunes will contribute to push down the classic publishing business." Domingo A. Trassens.

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 48.14 points or 0.41% to 11823.70. Nasdaq Composite fell 2.65 points, or 0.10% in the same period, to close at 2686.89.

In summary, the week was very intense in the segment of international news. Egypt and the Arab World were at the top of all the headlines of newspapers and TV. In a second step, the U.S. Job Report of January produced poor and ambiguous comments.

Other issues of the week was the health care reform that last year President Obama pushed forward and current reactions of politicians and common people who disagree with the implementation of the new health care legislation.

The snow and bad weather in the north of the country and Europe produced many problems with negative consequences for the economy and transportation.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- ambiguous = ambigüo
- antigovernment = antigubernamental
- contract = contrato
- Egypt = Egipto
- Egyptian = egipcio/a
- eye = mirar de soslayo, mirar, ojear
- Jordan = Jordania
- pipeline = cañería -protest = protesta
- scenario = escenario
- snowstorm = tormenta de nieve
- strategy = estrategia
- worries = preocupaciones, temores

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Bob, Erika, Frank, John, Mary, Peter, Stephanie for your messages.

Weekly Bilingual News

2011-01-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new edition of Weekly Bilingual News, the online communication of the Spanish-English Club!

STATUE TO HONOR BILL CLINTON - WSJ Journal Community: Giant statue of Bill Clinton in New York for three-year anniversary of Kosovo's independent. (Jan. 21, 2011) The Journal Community is asking to its members their opinion about a sculpture artist who wants to honor the former two-term U.S. President.

WSJ Journal Community Comment: "When somebody talks to me about a sculpture for someone who is alive, I am reminded by my teacher's explanation in the primary school about statues are to honor heroes, leaders, politicians and other figures, who are dead, after they made important contributions for the best of the nation or the humanity. Former President Bill Clinton is alive and still very active. I don't understand why an artist wants to freeze his figure in a sculpture at this moment despite Kosovo, Haiti or other issues." Domingo A. Trassens.

NEW ECONOMIC WINDS - PBS NewsHour Analysis: Obama Presses for an Economy in "Overdrive". (Jan. 21, 2011) This article analyzes some initiatives of President Obama to reactive the economy of the country. On Friday, he named General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to lead a panel on job creation and economic competitiveness.
PBS Member Comment: "Today, there is not room for ideologies and dreams. It is time to address the country with pragmatism. President Obama has to take the economy with his both hands, very carefully and responsible… The ECONOMY is first priority in running a lot of other political issues in the right way." Domingo A. Trassens

MORE AGILE GOOGLE - WSJ Article: Chief Seeks More Agile Google. (Jan. 21, 2011) This article analyzes important changes Google is planning with the replacement of the current CEO Eric Schmidt by one of the founder of the company, Larry Page.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "I have my doubts Larry Page will make a better job than Eric Schmidt as CEO of Google. Larry has a very good professional background but he never ran a complex company like Google is today. Before Google, Schmidt was chairman and CEO of Novell and important executive of Sun Microsystems during the golden era of this computer company. Today Google needs a strong management experience and a very balanced helm. Can Page handle these responsibilities? We don't know." Domingo A. Trassens, 3 Recommendations.

CHINESE FRIENDSHIP - WSJ Article: Rivals Seek New Balance. (Jan. 19, 2011) This article comments on the summit between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Hintao at the White House, in Washington DC.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: "It is very difficult to see the visit of Mr. Hu Hintao like other White House's visitors because the US-Chinese relationships in the last year were hurt by different issues that showed disagreements from both parties. Despite it all, we have to make our differences in a polite way trying to ensure the visit ends with some positive results." Domingo A. Trassens, 1 Recommendation.

APPLE VULNERABILITY - WSJ Journal Community Question: Can Apple succeed without Steve Jobs at the helm? (Jan. 19, 2011) The Journal Community commented CEO Steve Jobs is taking a new medical leave for his cancer problems. Jobs is like a hero for the Apple's fans because his innovative ideas changed the technology industry during the last decade.
WSJ Journal Community Comment: " In the previous medical leave of Steve Jobs, Apple Computer worked very well showing maturity as a company and discipline in its plans and executions. I think the current conditions are better than before. Apple can go beyond its visionary leader. Don't worry!" Domingo A. Trassens, 1 Recommendation.

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week with mixed results. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 84.46 points or 0.72% to 11871.84. Nasdaq Composite declined 65.76 points, or 2.39% in the same period, to close at 2689.84.

In summary, the week was very intense in the political and business arenas. First, the visit of the Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington generated important analysis of the relationships between the Big Asian Dragon and the United States. After that, the press followed the first signs President Obama plans new efforts to reactive the economy. Also two leading technology companies – Apple and Google - shared the headlines of the papers with crucial decisions that can shake their respective futures. Apple today is the second more valuable company in the US economy after Exxon and before Microsoft.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?

1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?

2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- alive = vivo
- analysis = análisis
- analyze, analyzing = analizar, analizando
- artist = artista
- balanced = balanceado, equilibrado
- beyond = más allá de
- crucial = decisivo, crucial
- dead = muerto
- doubts = dudas
- dragon = dragón
- ensure = asegurar
- execution = ejecución, realización
- fans = fanáticos
- freeze = congelar, helar, convertir un una barra de hielo o de materia
- golden = dorada
- handle = manejar
- helm = timón
- hurt = hacer daño, dañar, lastimar
- medical leave = licencia médica, licencia por enfermedad, licencia por problemas de salud
- panel = panel (In Spanish the accent syllable is "nel". It is the same word than in English but with a different pronunciation).
- parties = partidos
- pragmatism = pragmatismo
- replacement = reemplazo, cambio
- room = espacio
- sculpture = escultura
- shake, shaking, shook = sacudir, sacudiendo, sacudió
- signs = señales, rastros
- statue = estatua
- summit = cumbre
- visit = visita

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Bill, Bob, Carol, Erika, George, Mary, Peter, Suzanne for your messages.

Jobless pragmatism: Ask for food, eat