Friday 9 August 2013

Mexican drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero (aged 60) is ordered to be released from prison. He founded the disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel with other drug traffickers in the 1970s and was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena Salazar in 1985. After the murder, the drug trafficker fled to Costa Rica but was later arrested and extradited back to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 40-years in prison for drug trafficking and murder.

By age 29, the Mexican authorities alleged that Rafael Caro Quintero had amassed a fortune of $500 million, with 36 properties and over 300 business in Guadalajara alone. His wealth and notoriety were large enough to spark rumors that said that he had offered to help lessen the country's financial crisis in exchange for impunity.

In November 1984, the Mexican authorities raided a 220 acre ranch known as El Búfalo in the state of Chihuahua, owned by Caro Quintero. The authorities burned more than 10,000 tons of marijuana – totaling a loss of around $160 million. U.S. Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar, who had been working undercover in Mexico, was responsible for leading the authorities to the large marijuana fields. In retribution, Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar were kidnapped in Guadalajara on 7 February 1985 and were brutally tortured and murdered. After burying the two bodies in a clandestine grave, Caro Quintero fled from Mexico on 9 March 1985 with his associates and his girlfriend Sara Cristina Cosío Gaona. Former Mexican Judicial Police chief Armando Pavón Reyes reportedly allowed Caro Quintero to flee from the airport in Guadalajara to seek refuge in Costa Rica in a private jet after paying a $300,000 bribe. On April 4, 1985, Caro Quintero was arrested in Costa Rica and extradited to Mexico City. He was sentenced to 40 years for drug trafficking and for the murder of Camarena and Zavala.

Caro Quintero's Guadalajara Cartel fell apart in the early 1990s, and its remaining leaders went on to establish their own drug trafficking organizations: in Tijuana, a large family formed the Tijuana Cartel; in Chihuahua, a group controlled by the drug trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes formed the Juárez Cartel; and the remaining faction left to Sinaloa and formed the Sinaloa Cartel under the trafficker Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.

On the early hours of August 9, 2013, a tribunal ordered the immediate release of Caro Quintero after 28 years in prison. The court ruled that the drug lord was tried improperly in a federal courtroom for crimes that should have been treated at a state level.

DEA Statement Regarding the Release of Rafael Caro-Quintero (August 09, 2013)
- http://www.justice.gov/dea/divisions/hq/2013/hq080913.shtml

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Planes is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise and the first film in a planned Planes trilogy. It was released on August 9, 2013 in the Disney Digital 3D and RealD 3D formats.

Official Trailer:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KumjBXHdzY

Sweet Home Alabama!

Sweet Home Alabama is a song by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd that first appeared in 1974 on their second album, Second Helping. None of the three writers of the song were originally from Alabama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUQBC3J-7Y

Crónicas y relatos de México (Once TV)

Angéles González G. - Crónicas y relatos de México (Once TV)
- http://www.oncetv-ipn.net/cronicasdemexico/index.htm

The Lantern (Ramadan Story)

British Council Learn English for Kids - Read a story! The Lantern (Ramadan Story)
- http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/the-lantern-ramadan-story

"A young prince runs away from home and is imprisoned by a lonely ghoul. Who will save him? Ramadan is an Islamic festival, a time of year when people remember the poor. Read the Lantern, a story about the special festive lanterns that light up the nights during Ramadan."

Mexico Volcano Popocatépetl

Jaclyn Skurie - Pictures: Mexico Volcano Spews Ash 2 Miles High (National Geographic, July 8, 2013)

- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/pictures/130708-volcano-mexico-city-popocatepetl-eruption-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20130709news-mexvolca&utm_campaign=Content#/mexico-volcano-grounds-flights-smoke_69159_600x450.jpg

National Geographic - Video: Vocanoes 101
- http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/environment-natural-disasters/volcanoes/volcanoes-101/

Pocoyo!

Pocoyo Website:
- http://www.pocoyo.com/en

July - BBC Learning English Exercices

Playing with fire / Thursday, 04 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/07/130704_todays_phrase_playing_with_fire.shtml

Suspended coffee... / Thursday, 04 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2013/07/130704_6min_suspended_coffee.shtml

How sharp is your tongue? Watch what you say! / Tuesday, 09 July 2013
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/07/130709_todays_phrase_sharp_tongue.shtml

Annoyed? Frustrated? Angry? It's doing my head in! / Tuesday, 09 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theenglishwespeak/2013/07/130709_tews_131_doing_my_head_in.shtml

Tweet of the day / Thursday, 11 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2013/07/130711_6min_tweet_of_the_day.shtml

All the colours of the rainbow / Thursday, 11 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/07/130711_todays_phrase_colours_of_the_rainbow.shtml

To make a beeline for / Tuesday, 16 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/07/130716_todays_phrase_beeline.shtml

To look someone in the eye / Thursday, 18 July 2013
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/2013/07/130718_todays_phrase_look_in_the_eye.shtml

- Restart parties / Thursday, 18 July 2013
What do you do when your phone, camera or kettle stops working? Do you throw it away and buy a new one?
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2013/07/130718_6min_restart_party.shtml

National Geographic - Space Pictures

Andrew Fazekas - Space Pictures This Week: Starburst Aurora, Milky Way Portraits (National Geographic, July 5, 2013)
- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/pictures/130705-best-space-pictures-252-aurora-borealis-science/?source=hp_dl1_news_space_photos_20130709#/best-space-pictures-252-aurora-borealis_69074_600x450.jpg

Jackie Robinson

Jack "Jackie" R. Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. The "Color Line" was a tacit racial segregation policy in American baseball that excluded players of Black African descent from Major League Baseball. Robinson broke the Color Line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947.

In addition to his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. Initiated for the first time on April 15, 2004, Major League Baseball has adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", on which every player on every team wears #42. Robinson died on October 1972, aged 53.

Google Images: Jackie Robinson

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- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

German V2 Word Order Explained

While some features of German grammar resemble those of English, German grammar differs from that of English in that it has, among other things a strict verb-second word order in main clauses.

In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order is the most distinctive principle of word order in Germanic languages. The only exception here is English, which has predominantly SVO order, although certain vestiges of the V2 phenomenon can also be found in English. The V2 principle requires that the inflected verb appear in second position of a declarative main clause, whereby the first position is occupied by a single major constituent that functions as the clause topic.



The sentences a-d, which are all perfectly acceptable, have the finite verb spielen in second position, whereby the major constituent that appears in the first position varies. Note that the subject die Kinder remains in the position immediately before the finite verb play. The V2 principle allows any major constituent to occupy the first position as long as the second position is occupied by the finite verb.

While modern English is broadly SV, an earlier stage of English was V2, and some vestiges of the former V2 structure surface in a number of varying constructions. Many instances of subject-auxiliary inversion, for instance, can be analyzed as V2 structures:


V2 order with the subject-auxiliary inversion of a constituent question:

a. Sam is watching the cup games.
b. Which games is Sam watching?


Inverse copular construction:

a. The cause of the riot is a picture on the wall.
b. A picture on the wall is the cause of the riot.


V2 order in narrative speaker-labeling:

a. The boy cried, "Wolf! Wolf!"
b. "Wolf! Wolf!" cried the boy.

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- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2_word_order

July Comics!

Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
- http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/07/07
- http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/07/08

Scott Hilburn - The Argyle Sweater
- http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2013/07/08

Wiley Miller - Non Sequitur
- http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2013/07/08

John Graziano - Ripley's Believe It or Not
- http://www.gocomics.com/ripleysbelieveitornot/2013/07/07

Dave Blazek - Loose Parts
- http://www.gocomics.com/looseparts/2013/07/06

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 82nd and Fifth

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - 82nd and Fifth
- http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/

82nd & Fifth is the Met's address in New York City. It is also the intersection of art and ideas. We've invited 100 curators from across the Museum to talk about 100 works of art that changed the way they see the world. Eleven Museum photographers interpret their vision: one work, one curator, two minutes at a time. 82nd & Fifth is a year-long series of 100 episodes. Throughout 2013, new releases will appear every Wednesday.