80`s 90`s or 00`s?

 Chilean society has passed through many changes in the last decades that involve many areas, culture, music, customs, political changes and one that it is very controversial these days: EDUCATION, So I would like to do a brief comment about eache decade form 80`s,90`s and the past decade

First of all in the 80`s  (I`m not gonna write about the obvious thing that was happening back then in our government...) things were very different, the education was going through a big change from being gratuitous to start paying, the music that used to be heard was mainly latin rock, like Virus, Los Prisioneros, etc. And what I think is the most dramatic and drastic thing of all was the curfew, wich time was variable (6, 10, 12 PM) wich I think it was a very hard way to maintain the control of the people.

Then, in the 90's our country was coming back to normal, with the return of the democracy when the NO won in the voting and with the subsequent election of the president Patricio Aylwin. Now the music was very diversified, the were a lot of new genres, like grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains), rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Manu Chau)and pop music (with the king and the queen of the pop, Michael Jackson and Madonna, the Backstreet boys, the Spice Girls, Hanson) among others (Bjork, RATM, etc). Music became a big industry both nationally and internationally. In TV the shows Clueless and The Fresh Prince of Bel-.Air were trendy. And the mini skirts were very popular!

And finally the last decade, in the earliest 2000`s came a very particular trend, the “axe” wich caused excitement among the young people, these trend passed really quick, but it was huge, jaja. Then came the reggeaton, wich continues nowadays. But now there are even more styles and genres of music than before! It`s a really big industry!

And for what it has to do with the society, the first woman president elected in Latin America, Michelle Bachellet.

And about education matters… I have nothing to say :)

PS: I LOVE 90`S!

vet chalenges

Veterinary Medicine is one of the most difficults careers, with a lot of challenges that needs to be faced in order to succed an become good veterinarians.

First of all wich I think is one very importante challenged in my discipline is in the technology area, because there are not too many machines in clinics that are made for animals. actually, in the clinics they use human machines to take the exams and to mesure the constants of the animals (temperature, pressure, etc). It does not exist technology specially made for the animals.

The second area that I wanna tolk abut, is in the social-matter, because in Chile the animals have no rights because they are considered as things, and things have no rights because they don`t have duties. So they would never be taking seriuosly or be respected, unless you are an animal lover jaja, and you really care about them.
Another social matter related to the discipline, is that now there are a lot of veterinary faculties, from public and private univeristies, wich increases the number of profesionals in the field, it is more competitive and dificult to find a job, being minor clinic the most required job.

what can we do in order to solve this chalenges?
In the first case, what needs to be done, obviuosly, is to design the same machines used for humans, but for animals, machines that had the same function, but specially made for them, because animals are not like humans, they have a different anatomy, their bodies have different temperatures, they are smaller and more fragil than us.

And for the social matter, thats very hard to improve when ir comes to the animals rights.
But for the competition of jobs, we will have to prove that we are the best, that we come from a better univesity and that we are more prepared for the job than the others. This is something that we are the only ones that can solve it, for what I said before, that we have to show that we can do it and we are better than the competition.

what else needs to be said about education?

The education is one of the main problems in our country nowadays. With a government that does not want to hear what the students had to say.

I am not totally aware of the problems with the scholarships and credits, that is one of the things that the students are protesting for, so I won`t talk about it.
But what I can say, is that I think that the problem begins in the schools, even there the education is not fair to everyone, the public and private education are very far away one from another, reaching very different PSU`s scores, the result of this is that the ones that can pay for a better school education get in better universities (Universidad de Chile, Universidad Católica, Universidad de Santiago, etc) leaving behind people as smart as them but with less resources.

And another big problem that our education has, is definitely our government (honourable mention to out minister of education Joaquín Lavín), and the way that it has to resolve the problems and the way that they repress any kind of manifestation or free expression.

To finish, I think that the problems that we are facing now are not easy or quick to solve, they require a lot of patience, understanding, power of will, among a LOT of things, and most of all TIME.

Animal Testing

This article talks about how to minimised the animal testing by considering the three Rs, wich are:  replacement, refinement and reduction. The aim of this three Rs is to find alternatives to avoid animal suffer, by not using them alive in the experiments, or by using a smaller number of animals, and trying not to stress them and make them suffer during the experiment.

Here are some replacement for animal experiment:
1- LAL (limulus amoebocyte lysat) assay:  this test detects toxic compounds in drugs, proucts and devices. Replacing the use of live rabbits.
2- cells culture and stem cells (cells that can turn into any body cells): Animal and human cells can grow in a lab, this allows scientist to test for toxicity.
3- computer models: they predict the effects of chemicals on the body.

The AXLR8 iniciative, launched by the European commission, identifies areas of research that could lead to refinement, reduction and replacement of animals in research. One goal of this iniciative is to use fewer, and one day no animals in experiments.
A notice on the AXLR8 webside said: "Current reliance on high-dose animal toxicity studies … is a source of uncertainty in human health risk assessment... Conventional animal tests are, in general, quite time consuming, costly in both economic and animal welfare terms, and offer little mechanistic understanding of how chemicals act in the body." and adds "instead of focusing on signs of gross toxicity at high doses in living animals, an alternative, '21st century' approach advocated by leading scientific and regulatory authorities … is to work towards a mechanistic understanding of how chemicals interact with cellular  response pathways in the human body at environmentally relevant exposure levels".
The European commission hopes that advances in biology (molecular and cellular) will progress in the search of the replacemen to animal experiments.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/31/animal-research-alternatives

My Faculty

The Faculty of Veterinay is one of the many faculties of the University of Chile, and like all of them it has good things, and also bad things that needs to be improved.

My faculty is very far away from the rest, in La Pintana,  is very pretty and quiet, wich I think it`s a good think because that way it`s easier to concentrate, away from all the noise. Second, what I think that it`s really cool about the faculty is that we have something called "Mundo Granja" that it`s like our little farm with a lot of animals: horses, cows, sheeps, ducks and even ostriches!

BUT on the other hand, the faculty has a lot of thinks that, in my opinion, could be changed in order to make it a better place for all of us.

The first thing that I think that needs to be reevaluated is the curriculum (I know that now we have the new curriculum, so this might be hard to reevaluate) because we have too many subjects each semester and also we have to take electives, and I think that this is a big load on us, and it is more complicate to have good marks in every subject  and we don`t have all the time that we need (or wish). And I would like to have the oportuniy to make my own schedule, choosing  the teachers, the days, etc.

Another thing is the infrastructure, I think that we need better classrooms, with no flies! jaja, more computers (and good ones!), etc.
In third place I would like to have more electives, because we can`t make it to the electives in other faculties and then come back to La Pintana to classes! we need more sports, artistic elecives, that help us to relax and have fun doing them!
And last but no least are little things that doesn`t bother me that much right now, like the casino (that needs to be change completely!), more places to hag out like the "cuchitril", a better library (actually this is important!), more teachers, do something with all the dogs jaja, etc.

I think that all of those things, would help to improved our faculty and make it nicer to everyone!, would brought a lot of benefits for the students, teachers,and every person who works here :)

Italy

The topic of today is the country that I would like to visit, which is... I don´t know, jaja, I`ve always wanted to go to Europe and travel across it, and visit as many countries as I can, Germany, Italy, England, France, Spain, Austria, all of them! They are so near one and other! But if I had to choose one right now, I think it would be Italy.
I`ve seen pictures of Italy and I love the architecture of their cities,  it`s a country so old, with such amazing buildings! And people say that it`s a very romantic place
Of course I would go to Rome, and I would love to visit the Vatican, even though I`m not a catholic person. I will also visit the Fondata di Trevi, where you throw a coin and you make a wish. Another place that I would go to, is the ruins of the Greek theatre, the Phanthom, the Anfiteatro di Verona, the colisuem, Pompeya, Napoli, I would go to Milan, specially to see the Duomo do Milano. I would like to see the Pisa Tower, and all the touristic places!
I would also like to taste their typical food, which I am not sure what it is, and visit a lot of museums, and learn more about their culture.
I would love to live a few years there, in order to study, to learn about the country and learn their language and most of all to travel to other countries that are near.
So I think that Italy is the best place to go to, with so much history behind, and beautiful places to visit!
And I can´t wait to read about the countries that you would like to visti!
Regards! :)

TRANSANTIAGO

Transantiago system was a big change compared with the previous system, and it began with a lot of problems about the routs, the bus stop, etc. but to me it wasn`t that bad at all.
I started to travel by bus two years before the transantiago started,, in 2005 and I was 14 years old when I first travel by myself,and to me the system was really good, I had to take the bus in order to get to my school, in peñalolen, and not too many people went there in the peak hours, so the bus was always empty and I always took a seat when I got the bus, and we had to pay with coins, wich I liked more, because I used to say to the dirver "can you give me a ride for..." (less money than what it was the students rate, jaja)
Then, when the transantiago system started I went to school in other place, in bellavista, and I did not take buses anymore, my mom drove me in the mornings and in the afternoon I came back to my house using the subway, so I didn´t really have problems with it the transantiago.
I started to use more the buses in 2009 when I entered to the university, but then I used to study in republica, and it was two years after the system began so there were a lot of problems already resolved and most of the time I travel in the subways, because it was faster in the mornings. And when I was not in a hurry, I used to take the buses, and a thing that annoyed a lot, was that the trayect of the buses were changed, it confused me a little at first. other think is that I thougt (and I still think) that the short trayects (those with the buses of colours) are very unnecesary, the "troncales" are more useful. But then when I entered to this university to study vet I appreciated that, jaja, because now exists the bus 216!
And other thing new about transantiago, is that now we use the "bip" to pay wich I thinki that it`s a good idea. Another great idea was that you have two hours to change buses, or take the subway ( no more than 3 times) and you don´t have to pay again.
So, I think that transantiago was a very drastic change compared with the previous system, and we were not prepared to it yet in 2007, but I must recognize that it has improve a lot, and like everything it has good and bad things and the only thing that I would like to incorporate to the buses are curtains, like the all buses used to have, jaja, because the sun is very annoying and dangerous!