Data Privacy Day (28 January)

Data Privacy Day History

Data Privacy Day seeks to raise awareness about the importance of personal information privacy. Businesses and individuals are often unaware of how their data is being used. This observance aims to raise awareness about how data is used or collected. It also aims to create more trust among individuals and businesses.

Data Privacy Day was established in 2008 by the National Cyber Security Alliance. It is observed annually on January 28th.

Data Privacy Day Facts

• According to security.org, in the U.S, more than 1,000 data breaches occurred in 2020. These breaches affected more than 155.8 million individuals.

• The average cost of a data breach in the U.S is $8.19 million. The average cost of a data breach worldwide is $3.9 million.

• According to the Insurance Information Institute, there were nearly 1.4 million reported cases of identity theft in 2020, resulting in a $4.5 Billion in total loss.

Data Privacy Day Top Events and Things to Do

• Make sure your data is secure. A few ways to ensure your data is protected is by using two-factor authentication, using different passwords, and by using a VPN. You can learn more about VPNs Here.

• Reevaluate your password strength. If you have used the same password for years, consider updating it or changing it to something new. Use phrases or sentences, or even a random password generator. Be sure to write down your new password somewhere so you don't forget it.

• Watch a film about data breaches and data security to better understand the risk involved. Here are our suggestions:
  
  

                                     The Great Hack (2019)
                                     Anon (2018)
                                     Zero Days (2016)

                                                                                                                         Taken from https://www.wincalendar.com/Data-Privacy-Day

Sun Jun 21st, 2020 World Music Day

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words, and that which cannot remain silent."

Victor Hugo

There’s nothing in the world like the sound of your favorite song coming on, it just gets right into your head and your body and makes you move. Or maybe it takes you on a journey to a faraway place and time, where you languish in a memory of times gone by and people who are no longer present. Some of our favorite songs can lift us up out of depression and sorry, and make an otherwise horrible day suddenly seem like it’s not so bad. World Music Day celebrates music in all its forms and the impact it’s had on the world and the human spirit.

Read more here

Most Popular Music Styles (1910-2020)

What's your favorite track/band?

BOOK DAY 23 APRIL. DON QUIXOTE - Bedtime Story

VIDEO STORY 

LISTEN AND READ ALOUD

World Book Day, in Spain

On 23 April, World Book Day is celebrated all over the world. In Spain this is a day to encourage reading and the enjoyment of literature in a different way. It is also a day on which the great universal writer Miguel de Cervantes is particularly remembered with the presentation of the prize which bears his name, the most important distinction in Spanish letters.

For writers, publishers and the reading public,23 April is a red-letter day on the calendar. The celebration of World Book Day is the perfect opportunity to meet your favourite author, give the gift of literature or buy that novel that you've always wanted at an attractive discount. What's more, librarians, museums, and other cultural institutions usually organise special activities to mark the occasion (round tables, book signings, lectures, guided visits, children's workshops, storytellers, concerts, public readings, etc…). An invitation to experience the world of letters in a different way.

The festivity of Sant Jordi

In Catalonia the day coincides with the popular festivity of Sant Jordi. According to tradition, on this day it is customary to give the gift of a book to men and a rose to women. Thus cities like Barcelona become transformed into an enormous open-air bookshop-florist's, full of stalls with authors signing copies of their work.

Cervantes and 'Don Quixote'

On 23 April, the birthplace of the writer Miguel de Cervantes, Alcalá de Henares, puts on all its finery: in the auditorium of the University, the King and Queen of Spain present the Cervantes Prize, the most important literary distinction which is awarded in the world of the Spanish language.

Cervantes' masterpiece, 'Don Quixote of La Mancha', is also a protagonist of World Book Day. Every year, in the Column Room at the Círculo de Bellas Artes academy in Madrid, there is a non-stop reading of the novel: this involves 48 hours of uninterrupted reading by figures from the world of culture and politics, as well as an anonymous citizens. The tale of Don Quixote is also read in numerous centres of the Cervantes Institute located abroad, in order to mark this date.

Book Night

Book Night is held in Madrid. Over 100 bookshops stay open until midnight with a special cultural programme which includes everything from live music and encounters with writers through to activities for the children. What's more, anyone who buys a book on that day will be given a 10% discount off the price.

Book Day is a fantastic way for book lovers to whet their appetite for the numerous book fairs which take place all over Spain a little later in the year.

 from http://www.spainisculture.com/

Unfortunately, this year everything is different. But we can always celebrate it at home.

EARTH DAY 22 APRIL 2020

LOVE QUOTES

Happy Valentine’s Quotes

• “On a scale of one to ten, I’d give you a nine — and I’m the one you need.” —Anonymous
• “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put U and I together.” —Anonymous
• “Sometimes I wonder how you put up with me. Then I remember, oh I put up with you. So we’re even.” —Anonymous
• “Love is like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can feel it.” —A Walk to Remember
• “I love you not only for what you are but, for what I am when I’m with you.” —Roy Croft
• “A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady.” —Thomas Moore
• “One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” —Helen Keller
• “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” —Henry Ford
• “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” —Jim Morrison
• “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Because of you, I laugh a little harder, cry a little less and smile a lot more. Happy Valentine’s Day!” —Anonymous
• “I have looked at you in millions of ways and I have loved you in each. Happy Valentine’s Day.” —Anonymous
• “Good friends are like the stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.” —Anonymous

• “You are what I never knew I always wanted.” —Fools Rush in
• “For love, I’d do anything. For you, I’d do more.” —Anonymous

More quotes? Click here

Videos:The Environment / Environment vocabulary

Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day. Reading (B1)

Black Friday & Buy Nothing Day

British Council

Anti Bullying Animated Short Film Project

This video was created by Veterans Memorial High School student, Fabian Gutierrez as a part of a class project. Bullying can be stopped. Story and animation by Fabian Gutierrez. Music by Matia Cupelli. Pro Lighting by Andrew Price. Additional models and textures by Members of the BlendSwap Community.

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY (2nd April)

World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day on 2 April every year, encouraging Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) throughout the world. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution "62/139.

Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

Nominated for Nobel Prize

Who is Greta Thunberg?

Human Rights

What Are Human Rights?
Human Rights Defined

While some dictionaries define the word right as “a privilege,” when used in the context of “human rights,” we are talking about something more basic.*

Every person is entitled to certain fundamental rights, simply by the fact of being human. These are called “human rights” rather than a privilege (which can be taken away at someone’s whim).

They are “rights” because they are things you are allowed to be, to do or to have. These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm or hurt you. They are also there to help us get along with each other and live in peace.

Many people know something about their rights. Generally they know they have the right to food and a safe place to stay. They know they have a right to be paid for the work they do. But there are many other rights.

When human rights are not well known by people, abuses such as discrimination, intolerance, injustice, oppression and slavery can arise.

Born out of the atrocities and enormous loss of life during World War II, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948 to provide a common understanding of what everyone’s rights are. It forms the basis for a world built on freedom, justice and peace.

https://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights/

Reading for Thought

I found the following story (true) in Indi100.  Is a different world possible?

"We were walking in opposite directions near the new student accommodations, you briefly looked at me and kept walking and a couple of seconds later I turned around and started following you, I notice the moment you realised that I was following you by how your pace changed, your shoulders squared and you grabbed your phone. That didn't stopped me, you just kept walking and I maintained the distance (some 50 feet behind you) pretending to talk on my phone, I thought a couple of times on closing the distance and introduce myself, talk to you, but I didn't, so you kept walking, throwing glances to check where I was. I could also tell you that once you turned around the corner to the dead end street next to the motorway (the only one near the city centre were parking is not measured) were your car (and mine) was parked that if you had being wearing tennis shoes you would probably have started to run, but wisely you kept you pace in your high heel boots. I stopped by my car, yours was further down the street, and used my phone again, and I saw you taking a picture or video of my when you passed by my side in your car.

What you probably never noticed was the other two guys, the ones in the other sidewalk, the ones that pointed at you and started to follow you before we crossed the first time, you didn't notice how they looked at you or the fact that they seemed to be on drugs, or a bit drunk, or maybe both. You also didn't notice when you passed me in your car that they were in the corner of the dead end street, looking at you in your car passing by and then at me. You also missed the next ten minutes while I waited in my car for the police to arrive (that I called while you were getting into your car), the 15 minutes of questions that followed and me showing them the picture of the two guys that I took while I was following you.

I really sorry that I scared you, but to be completely honest, I was really scared myself, I'm no hero by any means and my instinct was telling me to get (*) out of there, but you could have been my wife (she parks in the same street) or my daughter and I wouldn't forgive myself I something happened and I did nothing to stopped it.

He later edited the post for clarity:

1 I shared this because the situation scared me, and if a similar situation happened somewhere else I wish that the situation is not ignored or shrugged off. Do I have any advice? Dunno, probably just this: if you think that you are being followed or that something is wrong, don’t wait to see what happens, call the police, call a friend, a family member, knock on a door or get into a shop, worst case scenario you’ll look a bit paranoid.

2 She was carrying some sort of briefcase alongside her purse and was well dressed, I think that the briefcase was what called those guys attention."

Children Go Blue

http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/

2018: Children are taking over and turning the world blue

This year the world is going blue! We’re asking individuals, schools and corporates worldwide to go blue to help build a world where every child is in school, safe from harm and can fulfil their potential, and we know you do too. Going blue activities include: sharing our promo video for Children's day, signing the global petition and going blue in support of children’s rights in social media, and much, much more.

World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day is celebrated on 13 November. How can we become happier by doing kind things for others? And how can we help the world by doing kind things for ourselves?

QUOTES

MORE QUOTES HERE

READING COMPREHENSION. LEVEL B1

Learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/world-kindness-day

KINDNESS QUOTES QUOTES

World Paella Day València

Celebrate World Paella Day (#Worldpaelladay) on 20 September!

It is time to put an end to the disputes, debate and list of permitted or prohibited ingredients. For one day, the city of Valencia, the birthplace of paella, will share its most international dish with the rest of the world, revealing a recipe that combines tradition, culture and culinary excellence.

On 20 September, Valencians, as the creators of paella, will relinquish their role as guardians of the recipe and, in the spirit of fun and friendship, will resolve the eternal debate surrounding the authentic paella. A day will therefore be added to the international calendar to honour this dish and turn it into an international emblem from the very place it was created.

Paella is a symbol of Valencian culture and a global ambassador for its cuisine, but the recipe has often been embroiled in media disputes, such as the use of chorizo by the English chef Jamie Oliver, actor Rob Schneider's oven-based recipe in a glass dish or the rice with chicken, calamari, chorizo and clams made by the chef Gordon Ramsey.

But the what and the how no longer matter because on 20 September Valencia will invite the rest of the world to "put its grain of rice", to make a paella the centrepiece of get-togethers with friends and family, just like the Valencians do, and to discover the true origins of the most Mediterranean recipe, which came into being in Valencia.

                                                                                                                     www.visitvalencia.com

How to cook a Valencian Paella

Volunteering

Down to Earth (from Pixar's "WALL•E") - Peter Gabriel

Dangerous Species in The Mediterranean

World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) occurs on 5 June every year, and is the United Nation's principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. 



The theme for 2017 is 'Connecting People to Nature – in the city and on the land, from the poles to the equator'.