IT'S BLACK FRIDAY! SHOP TILL YOU DROP!

Today is BLACK FRIDAY! 
But what does this mean?


Read the following description from Wikipedia:

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.

The news media frequently refers to it as the busiest retail shopping day of the year, but this is not always accurate. In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up for hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside the stores, shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big-draw items. Injuries and even fatalities are reported. On Friday, November 28, 2008, Jdimytai Damour, a worker at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York was trampled to death by shoppers who broke through the store's glass doors minutes before the store's scheduled opening at 5:00 a.m.; a pregnant mother was hospitalized from injuries in the same human "stampede". On that same day, two people in Palm Desert, California, were shot and killed in a Toys "R" Us store during an argument.                                 Source: wikipedia.org (abridged)

Watch the videos below to get a general idea of how shoppers behave on Black Friday in the USA!

What do you think of Black Friday? 


Is this insane? Or is it simply a tradition?


Please comment!

IT'S THANKSGIVING DAY! HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Today, the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

Besides eating turkey and pumpkin pie and watching the Superbowl on TV, Thanksgiving Day is a day on which people give thanks for all the good things that has happened to them this year.

What about you? What are you thankful for?  

Share your thoughts and gratitude with us!

Do you want to find out more about Thanksgiving?

 Scholastic's THANKSGIVING WEBQUEST might be fun!

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/




Have some Thanksgiving fun!

Gloria Gobbler, You Can't Gobble Me

Gloria Gobbler, I Will Survive

M.C. Turkey Hammer, U Can't Stuff This

Interactive Commercial @ YouTube

Advertising is a very creative world. And proof of that is this interactive commercial you can find on YouTube. 


Click on the link below the picture in order to watch the video. Interact with it by following the hunter's instruction!

A Hunter shoots a Bear! (click here!)

Hint: Write a verb in the 3rd person singular (Present Simple tense). 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 - The End Begins

Are you a fan of the Harry Potter saga?


Were you among the first to watch the latest Harry Potter film? Have you watched the trailers? Here is one of them for you!




What do you think of this film? Will you watch it? Have you read any of the books?


Share your opinions with us!


Check out the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Official Website.

The Queen is on Facebook!

Cartoon by Paul Thomas from The Daily Express

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth II has joined Facebook? Unfortunately, you won't be able to "friend" the Queen, but you can click to "like" the page.

«The cartoon shows the Queen at her computer, surrounded by her beloved corgis. She has just received a message from a corgi asking to go walkies (i.e., to be taken for a walk). The corgi who sent the message comments: "It's the only way I can get Her Majesty's attention these days!"» (Source: The English Blog)

Gaga for Gaga? There’s a College Course for That... (from Newsy Video)

Are you a fan of Lady Gaga? 


You can now take a course about Lady Gaga at the University of South Carolina! The course is called "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame". 
What do you think about this? Would you like to attend this course? Watch the video below and leave your comment.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The University of South Carolina will offer a sociology class in all things Gaga next semester, Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.

Check the transcript for this video here!

Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot - 5th November

   Remember Remember the Fifth of November...  It's Guy Fawkes Day!    


What do you know about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot? 


Watch the video below to find out! 


Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night - visit this website 

The Indestructible Happy Meal?

A McDonald’s Happy Meal just turned six months old after sitting uncovered on a shelf since April, and isn't showing any signs of decomposition.

Watch the news spot from NEWSY.COM (you can also read the transcript below).

What do you think of this? Is fast food safe?

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

TRANSCRIPT:

A McDonald’s Happy Meal has been getting a lot of attention this week. The meal just turned six months old after sitting uncovered on a shelf since April -- and so far shows no sign of decomposing. Artist Sally Davies tells ABC she bought the burger to settle an argument with a friend.

DAVIES: “I went out and I bought the burger, I brought it home, I put it from the bag onto a white china plate, which it’s still on, and I took a picture of it.”

ANCHOR: “And another picture, and another. Six months’ worth, she says. So how does that burger and fries look on day 180? Well, about the same.”

The meal lost its odor after a few days, and Davies’ dogs lost interest, but the media has been enthralled. Here are some of the headlines:

(The Christian Broadcasting Network asks:) “The Everlasting Happy Meal?”

(From MSNBC:) “Oh, 180-day-old Happy Meal, why won’t you rot?”

(From OC Weekly:) “The Scary Tale of the Undead McDonald’s Happy Meal”

And, of course The Daily Mail asks,

“You want flies with that?”

McDonald’s released a statement addressing Davies’ project, saying decomposition only occurs under certain conditions, and we shouldn’t be surprised about the meal’s longevity.

“If food is/or becomes dry enough, it won’t grow mold or bacteria. In fact, any food purchased from a restaurant or grocery store or prepared at home that lacks moisture would also dehydrate and see similar results if left in the same environment.”

But some aren’t buying McDonald’s explanation. Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz writes:

“It's hard to believe that a burger sitting [in] a living room in New York for six months can get mummified, like McDonald's is implying. Even with the A/C unit on, the humidity in NYC is extremely high, especially during the summer months.”

Still, a food scientist tells CNN’s Jeanne Moos McDonald’s story is plausible.

MOOS: “Food scientist Dr. John Lucey says it’s just dehydrated food.”

LUCEY: “If you took a steak home and cooked it and then forgot about it, you’d get something similar like this.”

MOOS: “How about the bun? Regular bread gets moldy."

LUCEY: “Yeah, but the burger buns are different because they’re made to be lower moisture content because they have to be tougher.”

The whole situation, Davies’ project, McDonald’s response, and the media buzz is bizarre to say the least. The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein captures the irony in two sentences.

“McDonald's is currently trying to convince people that its burgers can, in fact, grow mold. This is considered a selling point, at least in the modern world.”

So does this burger gross you out, or did Davies just inadvertently make beef jerky? Give us your take in the comments section.

Source: http://www.newsy.com/videos/the-indestructible-happy-meal/

No Pressure. 10:10 film or how a film maker got it very very wrong

No Pressure is a film produced by the global warming mitigation campaign 10:10, written by Richard Curtis and Franny Armstrong, and directed by Dougal Wilson. Intended for cinema and television advertisements but pulled within hours of its release due to bad public reception.

No Pressure is composed of scenes in which schoolchildren and office workers are summarily and gruesomely executed for failing to pledge to reduce their personal carbon emissions to the campaign's participating educators and employers. The film's recurring veiled threat is later directed toward the viewer, and superimposed over the final victim's dripping blood: "Cut your carbon by 10%. No pressure."

The film was withdrawn from public circulation by 10:10 on the same day it was released, as a reaction to immediate intense negative publicity it received hundreds of negative comments on the original YouTube upload before being pulled by the creators,and charities that had backed the film stated they were "absolutely appalled" upon seeing it.

What do you think of this commercial? Bad taste? Too radical? Tell us what you think!

Welcome to The English Spot!

We are back to school again!

Welcome to the new school year - 2010/2011!

Let's practise your English!

Do you speak English?

Do You Speak English?

Have you paid attention to language learning at school?

How many languages do YOU speak?

Leave your comments here!

IT HAS BEEN 20 YEARS… SINCE THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL!

“Wir sind das Volk!” - “We are the People”

9 November 1989 

The Berlin Wall (in German, Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely encircled the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.

The separate and much longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.

Prior to the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.

During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. 

Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.      (www.wikipedia.org)

BBC News: Collapse of the Berlin Wall (November 1989)

Fall of the Berlin Wall Remembered - 20 Year Anniversary

Would you like to know more about the Berlin Wall? 

Take a historical and geographical journey of the Berlin Wall on the Guradian website! There are 5 videos there that will tell you all about it!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/berlin-wall-20-years-on