Memorable quotes II

-The only thing wrong with dogs is that they can't live forever.
-Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.
-I have the deepest affection for intellectual conversations. The ability to just sit and talk. About love, about life, about anything, about everything. To sit under the moon with all the time in the world, the full speed train that is our lives slowing to a crawl. Bound by no obligations, barred by no human limitations. To speak without regret or fear of consequence. To talk for hours and about what's really important in life.
-Do not judge by appearances. A rich heart may be under a poor coat.
-

Croatian pronouns

Learning the Croatian Pronouns is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Croatian language. But first we need to know what the role of Pronouns is in the structure of the grammar in Croatian.

Croatian pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns, relative pronouns (connect parts of sentences) and reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject). Here are some examples:

English Pronouns	Croatian Pronouns
Pronouns	Zamjenice
I	Ja
you	ti (+ vi: as 2. Person Pl.)
he	on
she	ona
we	mi
they	oni
me	mene
you	tebe (+vas: as 2. Person Pl.)
him	njega
her	nju
us	nas
them	njih
my	moj
your	tvoj
his	njegov
her	njen
our	naše
their	njihov
mine	moji
yours	tvoji
his	njegovi
hers	njeni
ours	naši
theirs	njihovi

As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Pronouns in Croatian has a logical pattern. Locate the Pronouns above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Croatian.

List of Pronouns in Croatian

Below is a list of the Personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, relative pronouns, reciprocal or reflexive pronouns in Croatian placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Croatian vocabulary.

English Pronouns	Croatian Pronouns
I speak	Ja govorim
you speak	ti govoriš
he speaks	on govori
she speaks	ona govori
we speak	mi govorimo
they speak	oni govore
give me	daj mi
	dati tebi
give him	dajte mu
give her	dajte joj
give us	dajte nam
give them	dajte im
my book	moja knjiga
your book	tvoja knjiga
his book	njegova knjiga
her book	njena knjiga
our book	naša knjiga
their book	njihova knjiga

Personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, relative pronouns, reciprocal or reflexive pronouns have a very important role in Croatian, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Croatian Pronouns, you might want to check the rest of our Croatian lessons here: Learn Croatian. Don't forget tobookmark this page.

Memorable quotes

-Love is giving someone the power to destroy you, but trusting them not to. Unknown.
-And then my soul saw you and kind of went "oh, there you are: I've been looking for you"
-The people that are there on your darkest nights are the ones worth spending your brightness days with.
-Generally, talking to yourself is a sign of higher intelligence. In fact, those who talk to themselves then to achieve more in life.
-Let's go somewhere where nobody knows our name.
-Stuck in a generation where loyalty is just a tattoo, love is just a quote and lying is the new truth.
-Only dead fish go with the flow.
-If you are looking for the one person who can change your life take a look in the mirror.
-One day I am going to leave this town and I won't look back.
-Learn to be alone and to like it. There is nothing more freeing  and empowering than learning to like your own company.

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget (French: [ʒɑ̃ pjaʒɛ]; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As the Director of the International Bureau of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual."

Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 and directed it until his death in 1980. The number of collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory."

According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing."

Constructivism, philosophy of education

Constructivism, as perspective in education, is based on experimental learning through real life experience to construct and conditionalize knowledge. It is problem based, adaptive learning, that challenges faulty schema, integrates new knowledge with existing knowledge, and allows for creation of original work or innovative procedures. The types of learners are self-directed, creative, innovative, drawing upon visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, bodily kinesthetic, verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligences. 
The purpose in education is to become creative and innovative through analysis, conceptualizations, and synthesis of prior experience to create new knowledge. 
The educator’s role is to mentor the learner during heuristic problem solving of ill-defined problems by enabling quested learning. 
The learning goal is the highest order of learning: heuristic problem solving, metacognitive knowledge, creativity, and originality that may modify existing knowledge and allow for creation of new knowledge. Exemplars of constructivist theory may be found in the works of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, and David Kolb.

Constructivism influences Instructional theory by encouraging discovery, hands-on, experiential, collaborative, project-based, and task-based learning. Constructivist epistemology, as a branch of the philosophy of science, offers an explanation of how human beings construct knowledge from information generated by previous experiences. It has roots in cognitive psychology and biology and is an approach to education that lays emphasis on the ways knowledge is created while exploring the world. Ernst von Glasersfeld describes constructivism as “a theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, psychology, and cybernetics”.

Montessori Education

Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori and characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development. Although a range of practices exists under the name "Montessori", the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) cite these elements as essential:

• Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the most common
• Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
• Uninterrupted blocks of work time, ideally three hours
• A constructivist or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
• Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators
• Freedom of movement within the classroom
• A trained Montessori teacher

In addition, many Montessori schools design their programs with reference to Montessori’s model of human development from her published works, and use pedagogy, lessons, and materials introduced in teacher training derived from courses presented by Montessori during her lifetime.^[

Principles of the Montessori Method

The Montessori method has been and is very popular around the world with early childhood professionals and parents. The Montessori approach is designed to support the natural development of children in a well-prepared environment.

Five basic principles fairly and accurately represent how Montessori educators implement the Montessori method in many kinds of programs across the United States. These principles include: 1. respect for the child, 2. the absorbent mind, 3. sensitive periods, 4. the prepared environment, and 5. autoeducation.

Respect for the Child

Respect for the child is the cornerstone on which all other Montessori principles rest. As Montessori said,

As a rule, however, we do not respect children. We try to force them to follow us without regard to their special needs. We are overbearing with them, and above all, rude; and then we expect them to be submissive and well-behaved, knowing all the time how strong is their instinct of imitation and how touching their faith in and admiration of us. They will imitate us in any case. Let us treat them, therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them (Montessori, 1965).

Teachers show respect for children when they help them do things and learn for themselves. When children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for effective learning autonomy, and positive self-esteem.

The Absorbent Mind

Montessori believed that children educate themselves: “It may be said that we acquire knowledge by using our minds; but the child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic life. Simply by continuing to live, the child learns to speak his native tongue" (Montessori, 1966). This is the concept of the absorbent mind.

Montessori wanted us to understand that children can’t help learning. Simply by living, children learn from their environment. Children are born to learn, and they are remarkable learning systems. Children learn because they are thinking beings. But what they learn depends greatly on their teachers, experiences, and environments.

Early childhood teachers are reemphasizing the idea that children are born learning and with constant readiness and ability to learn. We discuss these concepts further in Chapter .

Sensitive Periods

Montessori believed there are sensitive periods when children are more susceptible to certain behaviors and can learn specific skills more easily:

A sensitive period refers to a special sensibility which a creature acquires in its infantile state, while it is still in a process of evolution. It is a transient disposition and limited to the acquisition of a particular trait. Once this trait or characteristic has been acquired, the special sensibility disappears....(Montessori, 1966).

Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a sensitive period for writing), the sequence and timing vary for each child. One role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the setting for optimum fulfillment.

The Prepared Environment

Montessori believed that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. The prepared environment makes learning materials and experiences available to children in an orderly format. Classrooms Montessori described are really what educators advocate when they talk about child-centered education and active learning. Freedom is the essential characteristic of the prepared environment. Since children within the environment are free to explore materials of their own choosing, they absorb what they find there. Maria Montessori was a master at creating environments for young children that enabled them to be independent, active, and learn.

Autoeducation

Montessori named the concept that children are capable of educating themselves autoeducation (also known as self-education). Children who are actively involved in a prepared environment and who exercise freedom of choice literally educate themselves. Montessori teachers prepare classrooms so that children educate themselves.

The Teacher’s Role

Montessori believed that “it is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may be always ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience" (Montessori, 1967).

The Montessori teacher demonstrates key behaviors to implement this child-centered approach:

• Make children the center of learning because, as Montessori said, “The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child” (Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook).
• Encourage children to learn by providing freedom for them in the prepared environment.
• Observe children so as to prepare the best possible environment, recognizing sensitive periods and diverting inappropriate behavior to meaningful tasks.
• Prepare the learning environment by ensuring that learning materials are provided in an orderly format and the materials provide for appropriate experiences for all the children.
• Respect each child and model ongoing respect for all children and their work.
• Introduce learning materials, demonstrate learning materials, and support children’s learning. The teacher introduces learning materials after observing each child.

La salud mental mejora al dejar de fumar. Estudio de la Universidad de Washington.

• Un estudio de la Universidad de Washington demuestra que las personas que dejan de fumar están ayudando a mejorar su salud mental.

• A la hora de tratar a un paciente, los psicólogos no tienen en cuenta si éste es fumador o no. Y si lo es, ni se les pasa por la cabeza instarle a dejar el vicio, ya que primero es mejor hacer frente a la depresión, ansiedad o a los problemas de consumo de drogas que tenga el individuo. Pero, ¿y si estuvieran equivocados?
  El último estudio de la Universidad de Washington (EE.UU.) demuestra que las personas que están en tratamiento psicológico pueden dejar de fumar sin que repercuta en su salud. Y no solo eso: además estarán ayudando a mejorar su salud mental.
  "Los médicos tienden a tratar la depresión y los problemas de dependencia del alcohol o de drogas primero, permitiéndoles 'automedicarse' con cigarrillos si es necesario", asegura la investigadora jefe,Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg.
  Además, el estudio -publicado en Physchological Medicine- relaciona el dejar de fumar o reducir el consumo de cigarrillos con una mejora de salud mental. No obstante, los investigadores no saben si lo que lleva a los pacientes a dejar el vicio es consecuencia de la mejora de su salud mental, o si el dejar de fumar conduce a esta mejoría. "De cualquier manera nuestros resultados muestran una fuerte relación entre dejar de fumar y una mejor perspectiva psiquiátrica", asegura Cavazos-Rehg.
  Dejando a un lado los resultados, los investigadores del estudio consideran que es muy grave que los psicólogos no insten a sus pacientes a dejar de fumar, aunque interfiriera en el desarrollo de sus problemas psiquiátricos. 
  ¿Cómo llegan a esta conclusión?
  Los investigadores se basaron en algunos cuestionarios del Estudio Epidemiológico Nacional sobre Alcohol y Condiciones Relacionadas, que encuestó a casi 35.000 personas durante la década del año 2000. Así, hasta 2010 las personas contestaron cada tres años a preguntas sobre su relación con el alcohol, tabaco y salud mental.
  Ya con los datos sobre la mesa, los científicos se centraron en los cuestionarios de 4.800 fumadoresdiarios. Comparando resultados, los investigadores descubrieron que los que tenían alguna adicción y problemas psiquiátricos en el momento de la primera encuesta, eran menos propensos a tener o desarrollar esos mismos problemas psicológicos tres años después si habían dejado de fumar. 
  En las entrevistas del año 2000, alrededor del 40 % de los que fumaban diariamente sufrieron cuadros de depresión o ansiedad, o los habían superado; el 50 % tuvo problemas con el alcohol; y un 24 % tuvo problemas de drogas.
  Comparando esta encuesta del año 2000 con la de 2003, se desprendió que el 42 % de los que continuaron fumando durante esos tres años sufrió trastornos del estado de ánimo, en comparación con el 29 % de las personas que dejaron el hábito.
  Los problemas con el alcohol afectaron al 18 % de los encuestados que habían dejado de fumar en comparación con el 28 % de los que seguían fumando.
  Respecto al consumo de drogas, en 2003 afectaba solo al 5 % de los que habían dejado el tabaco, en comparación con el 16 % que continuaba con el vicio.

The Great Gatsby movie. Memorable quotes.

-They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and people and then, retreated back into their money and their vast carelessness.
-I rang, I wrote, I implored... but not a single one of the sparkling hundreds that enjoyed his hospitality attended the funeral. And from Daisy not even a flower. I was all he had. The only one who cared.
-After Gatsby's death New York was haunted for me... That city... my once golden shimmering mirage... now made me sick. On my last night on New York, I returned to that huge, incoherent house once more... He threw all of those parties hoping she'd wander in one night...
-I remember how we had all come to Gatsby's and guessed at this corruption while he stood before us concealing and incorruptible dream...
-The moon rose higher and as I stood there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come such a long way... and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. But he didn't know it was already behind him. Gatsby believed in the green light... the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter. Tomorrow we will run faster... stretch out our arms farther... and one fine morning. So we beat on... boats against the current... borne back... ceaselessly.... into the past...

3 metros sobre el cielo pelicula completa en español (audio original)

Fish oil properties

#1: Fish Oil Can Help You Lose Body Fat

Fish oil can help you lose body fat for a number of reasons, some of which are well known, while others are just emerging. First, fish oil provides essential fats because it is made up of omega-3 fatty acids. Essential fats are those which the body can’t produce on its own—they must be eaten—and it must have them for optimal function.

Fish oil won’t turn into fat in the body. Instead, the body will favorably use the fat from fish oil to build the outside lipid (fat) layer that protects our cells. Any kind of fat can be used to do this—trans fats, omega-6 fats, whatever you eat—but your cells will function the best, and metabolism will be optimal if fish oil makes up the cell lipid layer because it improves the activity of insulin.

This allows for better insulin sensitivity, which is a principal factor in fat loss. If you have poor insulin sensitivity, you will have a very difficult time losing fat. The other benefit of fish oil is that it is anti-inflammatory, which will be explained in greater depth in #3.

You can see fish oil working its fat loss magic in a recent study that gave healthy subjects 4 grams of fish oil or the same dose of safflower oil (an omega-6 fat) for 6 weeks. The participants who took the fish oil significantly lost body fat and increased muscle mass—and they weren’t even exercising!

Of interest, the participants in this study had a decrease in their levels of the stress hormone cortisol after taking the fish oil. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that degrades muscle, leads to fat gain, and makes you feel stressed out.

#2: Fish Oil Can Help You Build Muscle: It’s Anabolic

As mentioned in #1, since fish oil decreases cortisol it leads one to think that it is anabolic, and the happy news is that there’s research to back this idea up. For instance, a new study that was performed on aging rats showed that giving them fish oil for 8 weeks significantly increased protein synthesis and helped them increase muscle cross-sectional area.

Fish oil is anabolic for humans as well. A study that gave middle-age adults 4 grams of fish oil a day found that it increased protein synthesis, producing a significant muscle building effect. The mTOR pathway that produces muscle growth was enhanced by 30 percent, as was muscle cell membrane signaling—the same mechanism via which insulin health is improved also enhances muscle building. Muscle mass increased by 2 percent, however, due to the small study population, researchers didn’t measure changes in body composition.

In fact, the anabolic effects of omega-3s prompted the NCAA to ban the distribution by major colleges to scholarship athletes. The rationale was that omega-3s gave an unfair advantage to the more financially advantage institutions who could afford to give this supplement to athletes.

#3: Fish Oil Will Decrease Inflammation, Enhancing Body Composition

Inflammation in the body is horrible for health, but it also significantly impacts your ability to lose body fat and build muscle. I can’t overstress the importance of decreasing inflammation if you want to be lean!

Inflammation seems to be this word that has no meaning for the general population, and people just don’t seem to understand that “inflammation” equals disease, illness, delayed recovery from injury, and obesity. Did you know that fat tissue actually produces inflammation on its own, progressively increasing the inflammatory status in the body?

Fish oil has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, which is a principal reason it helps you lose fat. First, we saw in the study mentioned in number #1 that the people who took 4 grams/day of fish oil had lower cortisol at the end of the study. Anytime cortisol is unnecessarily elevated it causes inflammation and has a protein degrading effect that causes muscle and lean tissue loss.

The anti-inflammatory evidence of fish oil goes further: It is not just chronic inflammation that fish oil can prevent. It also decreases the acute inflammatory response to intense exercise. A recent study had young athletes take 3 grams of fish oil for 7 days and then perform very intense eccentric exercise to failure.

Results showed that compared to a placebo group, the fish oil group had much lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers, less muscle swelling, and less soreness and pain in response to the workout. Researchers suggest the fish oil helped with the elimination of waste products produced in response to energy metabolism during exercise, enhancing the anabolic properties in muscle tissue.

What it all comes down to is that getting the optimal percentage of your dietary fat from fish oil will convey these anti-inflammatory benefits: a) speed detoxification of stuff you don’t want in your body (waste products, inflammatory biomarkers), b) improve cellular health and the building of muscle, c) decrease hormones that cause inflammation, and d) help you be lean and feel better.

#4: Take Fish To Improve Insulin Sensitivity And Metabolism

Recall that fish oil improves insulin sensitivity because it gets incorporated into the cellular lipid layer, which allows the cell receptors to bind more easily with insulin. Once insulin is bound, its purpose is to shuttle glucose from dietary carbs into the muscles to be stored and used as energy later. If insulin can’t bind easily, it elevates cortisol, causes inflammation, and the overall result is that you get fat.

Insulin also plays a role in muscle building, which is the reason it is called an anabolic hormone. The good news is that by taking fish oil and limiting your carbohydrate intake, insulin will improve the muscle building process and it helps to load nutrients into the muscle like creatine and carnitine that are essential for physical performance and fat burning.

An example of the effect of fish oil on insulin sensitivity and body composition is seen in a recent study of women with type 2 diabetes who took either 1.5 or 2.5 grams of fish oil a day. After 30 days, both groups decreased body fat and shrunk their waistlines, while having significantly improved insulin sensitivity. Of interest in this study, the group on the low 1.5-gram dose experienced the greatest reduction in belly fat and improvement in insulin health, indicating that supplementation should be based on individual needs to pad omega-3 intake from the diet. 

#5: Get The Right Ratio of Fish Oil To Other Fats For Body Composition

Hopefully, you agree that fish oil will help you build muscle and lose body fat. Here are some suggestions for getting more omega-3s into your diet:

•    Get most of your omega-3s from EPA and DHA, with only a small intake of the third omega-3, alpha linolenic acid (ALA) that is provided by flax seed.

•    The omega-6 fats are from plant rather than marine sources. They include olive oil, nuts, avocados, and the isolated vegetable oils—corn, soybean, canola, and the like. The Western diet is VERY high in omega-6 fats due to the overuse of isolated vegetable oils. Ideally, you want a balanced intake of omega-6 to omega-3 fat, while avoiding isolated vegetable oils completely.

•    The isolated vegetable oils cause inflammation when you eat too much of them. The reason is that the body uses the same enzymes to convert the omega-3 and the omega-6 fats into a form that can be used by the body. Simply, if you eat too many omega-6 fats—studies estimate the average Western diet provides a ratio around 16:1 of omega-6 to omega-3 fats—there won’t be enough enzymes available to convert the omega-3s.

•    Researchers estimate that large reductions in omega-6 intake decrease our need for omega-3s dramatically—by 90 percent in some cases—because they won’t be fighting for enzymes and the omega-3s won’t be needed to counteract the inflammation caused by the overabundance of omega-6 fat.

•    Try a “whole diet” approach to get the complex nutrient and fat requirements for optimal body composition: Eat wild cold water fish, pasture raised, grass-fed beef, and wild meats. Supplement with high-quality fish oil that is in triglyceride form rather than ethyl ester because it has superior bioavailability. Round your fat intake out with nuts, olive oil, avocado, and coconut oil, with very limited intake of other organic oils. Avoid hydrogenated, trans fat, and processed foods.

•    Avoid foods fortified with omega-3s because you don’t know the source or quality of the fat.