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Showing posts from November 22, 2020

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] 5 Tips for Effective Presentations

  So you’ve got to give a presentation. Let's say you already have the text and the main message that you want to share with your audience. But what to do next? How to structure your content? Here are 5 tips for you:   1. Create an easy-to-follow structure When it comes to what you have to say, break it down into three simple sections. First of all, you need the introduction , preferably a short one. People mostly prefer when a presenter gets straight to the topic as fast as possible. The second section is the body of your presentation. This will contain the main information you want to share. This is where you hit ’em with the facts, quotes, and evidence to back up your main points. And the last one is the conclusion . The conclusion is where you loop back to your original statement and give the audience some key takeaways on how they can put into practice what they've learned.   2. No more than 10 slides in total .  No one wants to sit through pages and pages of slides. So t

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] Are we alone in the Universe – the Fermi paradox

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PqEmYU8Y_rI/maxresdefault.jpg     “ Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying ”- Arthur C. Clarke I think every one of us has at some point in their life wondered “Are we alone in the Universe?”. Thought of drifting on a solitary, muddy globe through time among the cold, unforgiving and empty space is quite overwhelming and probably brings no joy even to the most introverted people between us. We’ve been looking for anything from outer space seeming unnatural or artificial, but so far we haven’t had a single piece of evidence that all we’ve seen, heard or felt bore the mark of extraterrestrial life. Shouldn’t there be someone out there?   Let’s wonder for a minute how likely it is that life sprung into existence somewhere else in the Universe. Of course, even with modern technology and decades of research we still don’t really now what made us become different than other carbon-based compounds an

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] Bacteriophages – one of the medicines of the future?

  As every one of us must sure now by now, viruses are deadly. After all, right now every single of one us limits human contact to bare minimum, due to one virus: SARS-Cov-2 more commonly known as Covid-19. With a death toll of more than 1,34 million [1]   people and other, even deadlier [2]   viruses we know of such as e.g. HIV one could think that viruses can only bring harm and destruction to humanity. However, what if we employed the deadliest kind of viruses on Earth – bacteriophages, to possibly avert the impending doom you might not be aware of? Due to excessive use of antibiotics in therapies, bacteria, as living entities, have evolved and antibiotic-resistant bacteria are killing thousands of people annually, 35,000 in United States alone, according to the 2019 Antiobiotic Resistance Threats Report. While this number may seem small in comparison to other deadly diseases, we currently do not have any reliable way of dealing with such infections and the number of deaths per ye

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

  Procrastination is one of the main barriers blocking you from getting up and making the right decisions. Recent studies have shown that people regret more the things they haven't done than the things they have done. In addition, feelings of regret and guilt resulting from missed opportunities tend to stay with people much longer. The mind of a procrastinator is a special mechanism that Tim Urban helps us to understand in his hilarious and insightful talk.   Questions: Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time? How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html https://procrastination.com/what-is-procrastination  

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] The psychological traits that shape your political beliefs

                             The psychological traits that shape your political beliefs   Every human being is different from another. But, when it comes to how we perceive world and cope with lack of certainty, or feeling of ambiguity, we can be categorized into groups. In the video, Dr Dannagal G. Young, explains how these traits form our political beliefs, and how they can be exploited by media an politics.       Questions:   1.     Which one of the two trait sets, presented in the video, do you see in yourself? Maybe a mix of both?   2.     Have you ever felt that, media try to manipulate your emotions?   3.     Do you have an impression that nowadays, mass media divide societies around the world?

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] Bored Of Drinking Coffee? Try Yerba Mate.

    Yerba Mate has it all:   the strength of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the euphoria of chocolate, all in a single drink.   History of Yerba Mate   The origins of yerba mate come from the Guaraní natives, who used its leaves as a drink, currency in their exchanges with other prehistoric cultures and even an object of cult. Yerba mate comes from the naturally caffeinated leaves of a native species of holy tree, Ilex Paraguariensis , found deep in the South American rainforests. According to legends of the indigenous people of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina the holy tree has magical powers to unite and energize.                                            Guarani people drinking Yerba Mate Production of Yerba Mate   Currently, Argentina is the leading producer of Yerba Mate. Within Argentina, the plant is cultivated in the Misiones Province, where the trees thrive in the region’s humid, subtropical climate. The process