English Conversation Course

What is Piracy Media piracy is a activity involving illegal copying and using computers programs, music, films, video games etc. The term “piracy” should influence the awareness and moral judgments of users, convincing them the illegal download is just as bad as attacking and robbing the ships from goods. (http://wondergressive.com/hollywood-pirates-hollywood/) History of Piracy About ten years ago we could buy counterfeit CDs on the “Stadium of Decade” or another market place ( music, software for 20-30 zł). Then we could even record first CDs at home, but it was very expensive. After a   few years came the golden era of CD piracy with prevalence of recorders CD-R/RW (everyone was able to buy a recorder and they were attached to PCs). Next was invented a DVD player with 8.5 GB, which could record about 7 common CDs. (http://proline.pl/?p=MSI+DH-24AWSH) After CD/DVD piracy came the internet piracy, which was a huge technological step forward and became...

Causes We can observe the increased extinction of bees. This problem has begun in USA due to the usage of chemistry and biotechnology   in farming. Probably during the last winter 1/3 bee populations died. The probable cause   are pesticides used during the florescence of plants, parasites, viruses and malnutrition of insects. (http://alikorkmaz.blogcu.com/balarisi-apis-mellifera-l-kolonilerinde-kulucka-alaninin-hesap/13245540) The fight against destruction of bees Nowadays, the American scientists are trying to retrieve the bees population in their country, by importing bees from other countries. Scientists want to invent some method of transfer of good genetic material taken from the strongest bees from Europe. The goal is to create genetically   modified bees which will be   resistant to chemicals. Future Scientists from Maryland and Department of Agriculture confirmed that the typical chemicals used in agriculture have been causing t...

Land travel is evolving. New ideas and technologies are being developed to make it even easier, faster and safer. Which of them have a chance of going mainstream? Autonomous cars seem like a good bet. Current state of things It’s all legal. On June 29, 2011 Nevada was the very first state in the U.S. to pass a law allowing self-driving cars to operate on public roads. Police officers were advised to watch out for such vehicles while patrolling the streets. It seems like a potentially very dangerous decision to make. However, Google has proven many times already that its cars can easily keep up with human drivers. Their Priuses have finished over 200 000 miles without much trouble. Two passengers sit inside the car. One is behind the wheel just in case the car needs to be switched to manual mode. The other gathers data at the back. The company seems to be moving ahead of competition but saying that there is barely anyone else investing in this technology is far from the truth. Co...

He started with PayPal, sold it, then SolarCity, Tesla, SpaceX. Fundamentally different concepts but most revolving around utilising energy sources of different kinds than fossil fuels. Elon Musk’s great adventure is now heading to the stars. He invested 100 million dollars into a project that might not turn out profitable in the long run but for now all eyes are turned into his take on space travel. One of the newer Tesla models, the Model S. (source: http://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/tesla_model-s_2014) The goal of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is to advance space technology and make humanity become a space-ranked civilisation. Thanks to most advanced technology the company can continue what NASA has been doing for many years but cheaply. The leading purpose is to create a reusable rocket to bring down the cost significantly. Unlike with Tesla, not a lot of what’s created gets patented. The cost of the rocket is about 60 million dollars. The ...

During my Erasmus stay in Ireland I had a subject called HCI - Human-Computer Interaction. There was a lot of theoretical information to learn but I would like to write about the more fun part. We were supposed to gather examples of good and bad designs of everyday objects as well as suggest interesting materials discovered on the web. Evaluation can happen on a variety of levels. Does form follow function or is it the other way around? Are the devices that we use on a daily basis, like phones and computers, a seamless extension of us and enable us to get things done? Don Norman on good design. (source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQEoJaLQRA) Don Norman recognises three levels of processing: visceral, behavioural and reflective. Visceral is the initial, subconscious reaction we get from something. Is it scary or not? Is it tasty? Thanks to the visceral feeling, we can become more focused on the task at hand or more creative at other times. It’s very easy to find moments ...