Getafe CF

Getafe Club de Fútbol or simply Getafe, is a Spanish professional acting football based in Getafe, a city in the south of the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium is Coliseum Alfonso Pérez which was opened in 1998 and can hold 17393 spectators. The club was founded in 1946 and refounded in 1983.

Getafe participated in the top level of Spanish football for 12 years between 2004 and 2016. The club's main rivalry is against neighbours Leganés, who are based near the town of Getafe, and a friendly rivalry against Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid. Sociedad Getafe Deportivo was founded in 1923, only playing in lower divisions from 1928 to 1932. After the Spanish Civil War, in 1945 five Getafe locals, Enrique Condes García, Aurelio Miranda Olavaria, Antonio Corridor Lozano, Manuel Serrano Vergara and Miguel Cubero Francés, while meeting at "La Marquesina Bar", decided to form a local team. Officially founded on 24 February 1946, the club was named "Club Getafe Deportivo".

The club originally played in the "Campo del Regimiento de Artillería", which lacked goal posts. Shortly after, the club moved to San Isidro, housed in the current Municipal Sports Center of San Isidro. Here, Club Getafe was promoted to the third división follosing their victory against Villarrobledo in the 1956-57 season. Getafe was nearly promoted to the Segunda División in 1957-58, but was defeated by CD Almería. 

On 2 September 1970, the club inaugured its own stadium after being promoted back to the "Tercera División". Presided by chairman Francisco Vara, "Las Margaritas" won a 3-1 victory over "Michelín". The team survived in the third level that season, and six years later gained their first promotion to the second division in which played six seasons with little success. From 1976 to 1982, they placed below tenth level all six years.

In 1978, the club advanced to play against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey round of 16. Playing at home in the first leg, Getafe drew with a star-studded Barcelona team 3-3, before traveling away for the second leg and being thrashed 8-0 at the Camp Nou. At the conclusion of the 1981-82 season, players having not been paid, Getafe was automatically relegated and subsequently liquidated. 

Meanwhile, on 1 September 1976, a new club was founded in the National Sports Council and the Regional Federation of Castille. The club was called "Peña Madridista Getafe". This club played for four seasons in various divisions, until taking the name "Club Deportivo Peña Getafe", and played under this name for a further two seasons. On 10 July 1982, they joined forces with the much older "Club Getafe Promesas", and were registered again in the Regional Federation of Castille. 

Based on the merger the previous year, the present "Getafe Club de Fútbol" was officially founded on 8 July 1983, after passing through assembly. Starting in the regional leagues in 1983-84, Getafe was promoted for four consecutive seasons until reaching "Segunda División B". The club started a new period with its promotion into "Segunda" in 1994-95, staying only two years. Threatening absolute disappearance just a few years later in 1997, Getafe survived relegation into the fourth level "Tercera División" following a two-legged playoff victory over Huesca.

Meanwhile, Getafe's current stadium, the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, was inaugurated on 1 January 1998. Returning to the second division for 1999-2000, Getafe lasted another two seasons. However, one year later, they would return following an amazing promotion in 2001-02 during which one of their players, Sebastián "Sebas" Gómez, was murdered, and controvery regarding unpaid payments of players following a debt of 3 million of €. Consolidating their position after one year, Getafe had a fantastic season in Segunda. 

At the top of the table for most of the year, the side travelled to the Canary Islands on the final matchday needing a win to assure a historic promotion to "La Liga", the top-flight. Amazingly, they defeated Tenerife 5-3 with five goals from Sergio Pachón, thus becoming along with Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Rayo Vallecano the fourth team from the Community of Madrid, and the first of them from outside of the capital, to ever play in "La Liga". With this promotion, Getafe had ascended the whole Spanish football pyramid, achieving this feat in only 20 years.

The club started 2004-05 poorly, lying at the bottom of the table. Home wins over Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Real Madrid, followed by a sole away win of the season over Athletic Bilbao, saw Getafe clim to finish 13th, being the only promoted side to avoid relegation. At the end of the season, the club lost head coach Quique Sánchez Flores and several players to rival clubs. In Getafe's next season, the club briefly topped the table before slipping to finish ninth. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Argentine-born Mariano Pernía became Getafe's first ever Spanish international, before moving to Atlético de Madrid.

In 2006-07, Getafe again finished ninth in the league, conceding only 33 goals in 38 matches and goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri "el pato" was awarded the Zamora Trophy, having recorded 12 clean sheets. The highlight of the club's season was reaching the 2006-07 Copa del Rey final, a competition in which Getafe had never reached the quarter-finals before. The run included a two-legged semi-final against Barcelona in which Getafe lost the first leg 5-2 at the Camp Nou before producing a 4-0 rout in the second leg at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez.

Getafe lost their first ever major final 1-0 to Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Through this, the club qualified for the following season's UEFA Cup qualification, as Sevilla had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League through their league position. The following season, coach Bernd Schuster left after two seasons to become head coach at Real Madrid, and Getafe appointed Michael Laudrup as his replacement. Under Laudrup, Getafe again finished the league mid-table. 

In the UEFA Cup, the team managed to progress to the quarter-finals after finishing top of Group G, only losing once, setting up a tie against four-time European Cup Winners Bayern Munich. Getafe drew the away leg 1-1, thanks to an injury time equaliser from Cosmin Contra. In the second leg, Rubén de la Red was sent off after six minutes. Contra put Getafe ahead just before half-time, but in the 89th minute, Franck Ribéry equalized to send the match into extra time. Two quick goals from Javier Casquero and substitute Braulio gave Getafe a 3-1 lead, but Bayern pulled a goal back from Luca Toni, before Toni again scored seconds before the end of extra time, giving Bayern an away goals win. Getafe also had successful run in the Copa del Rey, reaching the final for a second year running. 

In the final, at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, Getafe were beaten 3-1 by Valencia. In the 2015-16 season, Getafe were relegated to second division after spending 12 years in first campaign. However, in 2016-17, the club immediately returned to "La Liga" after defeating Huesca and Tenerife to gain promotion via the play-offs. In the 2017-18 season Getafe finished in the 8th position, easily avoiding the relegation back to "Segunda División". In 2018-19 season they finished 5th, their highest finish in the first division, and qualified to the 2019-20 Europa League group stage. The team continued performing well in the 2019-20 season.

The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker is a 2019 American epic space-opera film produced, co-written, and directed by J.J. Abrams.  It is the third installment of the Star Wars squel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part "Skywalker saga". It was produced by Lucasfilm and Abrams's production company Bad Robot Productions, and was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 

The film's ensemble cast includes Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Kelly Marie Tran, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Ian Mcdiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams. It features the second posthumous film performance by Fisher, who died in 2016 and appears through the use of unused footage from The Force Awakens.

The Rise of Skywalker follows Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron as they lead the Resistance's final stand against Kylo Ren and the First Order, who are now aided by the return of the deceased galactic emperor, Palpatine. After the new trilogy was announced following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, it was originally reported that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson would write the script for Episode IX. 

In August 2015, Colin Trevorrow was hired to direct and to write a script with his collaborator Derek Connolly; both ultimately retained story credit with Abrams and Chris Terrio. In September 2017, Trevorrow left the project following creative differences with producer Kathleen Kennedy, and Abrams returned as director. Principal photography began in August 2018 at Pinewood Studios in England and wrapped in February 2019. Post-production was completed on November 24, 2019.

The Rise of Skywalker had its world premiere in Los Angeles on December 16,2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 20, 2019. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast performances and visual effects but criticized the story, pacing, and perceived departures from the themes and story of The Last Jedi. it has grossed over 918 million dollars worldwide against a production budget of 275 million dollars, making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 2019.

Polaris

Polaris, designated Ursae Minoris, commonly the North Star or Pole Star, is the brighest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star. The revised Hipparcos parallax gives a distance to Polaris of about 433 light-years (133 parsecs), while calculations by other methods derive distances around 30% closer. 

Polaris is a triple star system, composed of the primary star, Polaris Aa (a yellow supergiant), in orbit with a smaller companion (Polaris Ab); the pair in orbit with Polaris B (discovered in August 1779 by William Herschel). There were once thought to be two more distant component, Polaris C and Polaris D, but these have been shown not to be physically associated with the Polaris system. 

Polaris Aa is a 5.4 solar mass F7 yellow supergiant of spectral type IB. It is the first classical Cepheid to have a mass determined from its orbit. The two smaller companions are Polaris B, a 1.39 F3 main-sequence star orbiting at a distance of 2400 astronomical units (AU), and Polaris Ab (or P), a very close F6 main-sequence star with an 18.8 AU radius orbit and 1.26.

Polaris B can be seen even with a modest telescope. William Herschel discovered the star in August 1779 using a reflecting telescope of his own, one of the best telescopes of the time. By examining the spectrum of Polaris A, it was also discovered in 1929 that it was a very close binary, with the secondary being a dwarf, which had been theorized in earlier observations. In January 2006, NASA, released images, from the Hubble telescope, that showed the three members of the Polaris ternary system.

Ab, the nearby dwarf star, is in an orbit of 18.5 AU (2.8 billion km) from Polaris Aa, about the distance between the Sun and Uranus, which explains why its light is swamped by its close and much brigher companion. Polaris Aa, the supergiant primary component, is a low-amplitude Population I classical Cepheid variable, although it was once thought to be a type II Cepheid due to its high galactic latitude. Cepheids constitute an important standard candle for determining distance, so Polaris, as the closest such star, is heavily studied.

Invasive species

An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health. The term as most often used applies to introduced species that adversely affect the habitats and bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, or ecologically. 

Such species may be either plants or animals and may disrupt by dominating a region, wilderness areas, particular habitats, or wildland-urban interface land from loss or natural controls (such as predators or herbivores).  This includes plan species labeled as exotic pest plants and invasive exotics growing in native plant communities. The European Union defines "Invasive Alien Species" as those that are, firstly, outside their natural distribution area, and secondly, threaten biological diversity.

The term is also used by land managers, botanists, researchers, horticulturalists, conservationists, and the public for noxious weeds. The term "invasive" is often poorly defined or very subjective and some broaden the term to include indigenous or "native" species, that have colonized natural areas, for example, deer considered by some to be overpopulating their native zones and adjacent suburban gardens in the Northeastern and Pacific Coast regions of the United States.

The definition of "native" is also sometimes controversial. For example, the ancestors of Equus ferus (modern horses) evolved in North America and radiated to Eurasia before becoming locally extinct. Upon returning to North America in 1493 during their hominid-assited migration, it is debatable as to whether they were native or exotic to the continent of their evolutionary ancestors.

Notable examples of invasive plant species include the kudzu vine, Andean pampas grass, and yellow star-thistle. Animal examples include the New Zealand mud snail, feral pigs, European rabbits, grey squirrels, domestic cats, carp and ferrets. Invasion of long-established ecosystems by organisms from distant bio-regions is a natural phenomenon, but has been accelerated massively by humans, from their earliest migrations though to the age of discovery, and now international trade.

While all species compete to survive, invasive species appear to have specific traits or specific combinations of traits that allow them to outcompete native species. In some cases, the competition is about rates of growth and reproduction. In other cases, species interact with each other more directly. Researchers disagree about the usefulness of traits as invasiveness markers. One study found that of a list of invasive and noinvasive species, 86% of the invasive species could be identified from the traits alone.

Another study found invasive species tended to have only a small subset of the presumed traits and that many similar traits were found in noinvasive species, requiring other explanations. Common invasive species traits include the following: 

- Fast growth
- Rapid reproduction 
- High dispersal ability
- Phenotype plasticity
- Tolerance of a wide range of environmental conditions
- Ability to live off of a wide range of food types
- Association with humans
- Prior successful invasions

Typically, an introduced species must survive at low population densities before it becomes invasive in a new location. At low population densities, it can be difficult for the introduced species to reproduce and maintain itself in a new location, so a species might reach a location multiple times before it becomes established. Repeated patterns of human movement, such as ships sailing to and from ports or cars driving up a down highways offer repeated opportunities for establishment (also known as a high propagule pressure).

An introduced species might become invasive of it can outcompete native species for resources such as nutrients, light, physical space, water, or food. If these species evolved under great competition or predation, then the new environment may host fewer able competitors, allowing the invader to proliferate quickly. Ecosystems which are being used to their fullest capacity by native species can be modeled as zero-sum systems in which any gain for the invader is a loss for the native. However, such unilateral competitive superiority (and extinction of native species with increased populations of the invader) is not the rule. 

Invasive species often coexist with native species for an extended time, and gradually, the superior competitive ability of an invasive species becomes apparent as its population grows larger and denser and it adapts to its new location. An invasive species might be able to use resources that were previously unavailable to native species, such as deep water sources accessed by a long taproot, or an ability to live on previously uninhabited soil types. For example, barbed goatgrass was introduced to California on serpentine soils, which have low water-retention, low nutrient levels, a high magnesium/calcium ratio, and possible heavy metal toxicity. Plant populations on these soils tend to show low density, but goatgrass can form dense stands on these soils and crowd out native species that have adapted poorly to serpentine soils.

Chess and Health

In recent decades there is a boom in the publication of scientific studies and doctoral theses on the contribution of chess in different areas of human life: educational, social and therapeutic. The results of the different studies usually lead to similar conclusions: chess is a cognitive and emotional training that intervenes in the improvement of planning organization, problem solving attention, viso-spatial capacity, memory, emotional intelligence, among others.

Thanks to the advance of science and technology, instruments are being developed that allow us to study both the architecture and the functioning of the human brain, and in our case, it gives us the possibility of knowing the chess brain. I like to higlight the different studies published in the last decade by psychologists and scientific critics Bilalic, M. and Gobet, F. which they conclude how the brain of a chess player works differently from the non-player: 

For example, they checked how the chess players had greater activation of the lower left area of the parietal lobe, the medial para-hippocampal cortex and the fusiform area. The different investigations carried out by the group of Campitelli, G. concluded that playing chess produces a bilateral activation of the cingulum, cerebellum and frontal lobe.

ELO

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was originally invented as an improved chess rating system over the previously used Harkness system, but is also used as a rating system for multiplayer competition in a number of video games, association football, American football, basketball, Major League Baseball, table tennis, Scrabble, board games such as Diplomacy and other games.

The difference in the ratings between two players serves as a predictor of the outcome of a match. Two players with equal ratings who play against each other are expected to score an equal number of wins. A player whose rating is 100 points greater than their opponent's is expected to score 64%; if the difference is 200 points, then the expected score for the stronger player is 76%. 

A player's Eo rating is represented by a number with increases or decreases depending on the outcome of games between rated players. After every game, the winning player takes points from the losing one. The difference between the ratings of the winner and loser determines the total number of points gained or lost after a game. In a series of games between a high-rated player and a low-rated played, the high-rated player is expected to score more wins. 

If the high-rated player wins, then only a few rating points will be taken from the low-rated player. However, if the lower-rated player scores an upset win, many rating points will be transferred. The lower-rated player will also gain a few points from the higher rated player in the event of a draw. This means that this rating system is self-correcting. Players whose ratings are too low should, in the long run, do better than the rating system predicts and thus gain rating points until the ratings reflect their true playing strengh.

Arpad Elo was a master-level chess player and an active participant in the US Chess Federation (USCF) from its founding in 1939. The USCF used a numerical ratings system, devised by Kenneth Harkness, to allow members to track their individual progress in terms other than tournament wins and losses. The Harkness system was reasonably fair, but in some circumstances gave rise to ratings which many observers considered inaccurate. On behalf of the USCF, Elo devised a new system with a more sound statistical basis.

Elo's system replaced earlier systems of competitive rewards with a system based on statistical estimation. Rating systems for many sports award points in accordance with subjective evaluations of the "greatness" of certain achievements. For example, winning an important golf tournament might be worth and arbitrarily chosen five times as a many points as winning a lesser tournament.

Chess and Education

Chess is on its way to being implemented in schools, after unanimously approving the non-law proporsal that the PSOE (Spain) has presented in the Education and Sports Commission of the Congress. After this first step, Pablo Martín, deputy who has debated the proposal, explains to Verne that the objective is that this "very useful pedagogical tool that has a very small cost" ends up being a school subject.

Martín himself is fond of chess and, in fact, prepared the proposal with the help of Juan Ramón Galiana, his chess teacher in Mallorca, and Leontxo García, a specialized journalist collaborating with El País and author or a report that summarizes the benefits that He has chess for children. This report recalls that the proposal is not born from scratch: there are already more than 300 public and private schools in chess is a compulsory subject, following the recommendation made in 2012 by the European Parliament.

 1. Help develop intelligence: according to the report by Leontxo García, which collects data from studies published in several countries, "chess children develop more intelligence and achieve better academic results (by 17% on average) than non-chess players, especially in mathematics and reading (precisely the two fields where Spanish students fail most, according to the Pisa Report)". 

To give other examples: a report from the Kasparov Chess Foundation collects the results of various studies that show how chess improves creativity, problem solving, memory and concentration. Another test conducted in serveral Italian schools shows that this game contributes to the improvement of academic performance.

2. And not only intelligence: Miguel López, who has been a chess teacher, explains that this game helps children improve "their ability to concentrate and also to mature. They see that the acts have consequences and this helps them not to be excessively impulsive." For example, rules such as touched piece, played piece help to think before acting.

Leontxo García lists in his report the five intelligences that chess develops (of the eight in the Howard Garner classification): logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, intrapersonal and interpersonal.

3. It is good for the little ones: López points out that you can teach even after three years; "the smaller, the better, because it will influence your ability to reflect and your patience. Although you can't demand that they play a three-hour game."

Leontxo García considers it interesting how it helps preschool children (3-5 years old) "because it shows that - contrary to what the experts maintained until recently - abstract intelligence can be worked before 6 years", which is why Pablo Martín explains that the PSOE (Spain) will propose that "chess enters as a subject in primary education". (Also because "the high school curriculum is more loaded." García mentions the example of the Colombian Adriana Salazar, in whose center in Bogotá "4-year-old children play chess, play the violin and practice taekwondo. It uses the transverse method (teaches geometry and encourages spatial vision, among many other applications), which has also worked well with older children (for example, when explaining universal history in parallel with the history of chess)."

4. It is good for the elderly: "the frequent practice of chess delays and improves brain aging, and could prevent and delay Alzheimer's disease," explains Leontxo García, who describes the game as a "mental gym." 

5. It is a game: the game is the child's way of learning to relate to the world, improves social skills and imagination, and encourages creativity, as well as helping learn social norms and cope with frustration: "in chess you lose, as in any game, and nothing happens," López tells us. 

The fact that it is a game is also an extra motivating factor: "at the outset, it is more fun than a class," notes López, who still remembers that in the lessons he taught (optional), "you could quickly see who He had signed up for interest and who, bound by his parents."

6. But it is not just any game: the game always has positive effects for a child, but chess has other advantages over bridge, for example, which is studied in many universities because of its relationship with mathematics: "there is no luck factor," say López, recalling that the players they do not depend on the distribution of cards or the result of a roll of dice. "And in addition there are many variants. No two chess games are the same." Leontxo García adds that its infrastructure is cheap, that it is universal, that it has more than 15 centuries of history and, above all, that it has "very interesting connections with art, science, computers, pedagogy and psychology".