Week 3: How to be your own boss - entrepreneurship in Poland

Recently I decided to take a big step in my life and start my own company. This got me thinking about the topic of entrepreneurship in Poland.

There is a lot of talking around the level of unemployment in our country. In my surrounding a lot of older people think that the government should be the main institution to provide jobs for the young. Personally, I believe that this should be the other way around and that the young should be motivated and provided with knowledge and incentives to create their own businesses and create job opportunities for themselves and for others.

Here's an interesting article covering this topic:
http://www.gew.co/press-releases/what-future-entrepreneurship-poland-0
 in which you can find the following statement:
 "young Poles far more often than their age-mates from other European countries perceive themselves as entrepreneurs, but small percentage of them eventually decide to take up their own business activity"
What do you think may be the factor that may lead to this discrepancy?

As a funny side note, please look at the video presented below in which people in 1989 are asked about the meaning of the word 'entrepreneurship':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SOcQ5qXtRo
Although it might seem funny I would like to ask you a question: what does this word actually mean to you?

Please feel free to talk about your personal experience on this topic. Have you ever run your own business or know someone who does? Do you think that having your own company is the only way to reach a good financial level? And what about the level of education in our schools - do you know what are the pros and cons of having your own business?

P.S. If you find any additional material around this topic please share with us!

Week 2: What is new in the Universe?

Since Wednesday we have been able to find information about a new planet in our solar system:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/26/dwarf-planet-super-earth-solar-system-2012-vp113













The such serious thing has already had its own page on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_VP113

The orbit of the just discovered planet suggests that there probably is an another big planet on the far outer reaches of the solar system (called “Super Earth”).

An another interesting thing seems to be a way which the new planet was discovered. Phil Plait, author of http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/03/26/oort_cloud_revealed_2012_vp113_has_largest_perihelion_distance_known.html claims that discovering new cosmic objects is a matter of time: “Our telescopic eyes are getting better at seeing these incredibly remote objects; our hardware and software better at teasing out their faint signal.”. Did astronomers find that new planet? Or was a whole work done by machines and they “only” confirmed its existence?

I would like to use this discovery to talk about cosmic research.
1. How important are cosmic research for us? What benefits do the give for ordinary people?
2. How many planets does our solar system contain? Do you think that the solar system will ever be researched as well as the Earth is nowadays?
3. Should we spend such big money for cosmic research even if we are able to explore effectively only a small part of universe?
4. When will people be able to travel to different planets? If you had a such possibility, would you like to take a part in such expedition and why?
5. Will future discoveries of new cosmic objects be depended more on astronomer (who are creating a new theories) work or on other engineers (who are creating better hardware and software) work?

Week 1: What is the max price scientists are ready to pay for their discovery?

At the end of 2013 year there emerged a news that Shokalskiy vessel got stuck in the ice of Antarctica. The mission was introduced few weeks earlier to recreate explorer Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition from a century ago.

The original expedition performed in early nineteenth-century brought huge amount of scientific knowledge about Antarctica but also took life of many people from Mawson’s crew.

The remake expedition met harsh Antarctica but even they got stuck in ice they had instant link with the world through Internet and other media.

Here are the links to Mawson/Shokalskiy expeditions.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25682462

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131226-russian-ship-stuck-ice-mawson-trek-antarctica/

Mawson was ready to pay the highest price for his scientific work.

Is it the case with nowadays science?

Are there any science areas that you must risk your life while exploring?

Week 1: Could your home office kill you?

 I would like you to read the article Could your home office kill you? published at  http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131204-could-your-home-office-kill-you and comment on/discuss it. Besides, describe your study room/home office. Are you a homeworker? If not, can you imagine working from home?  Will more people work from home in the foreseeable future?

Week 1: Best jobs for smart, but lazy people

I would like you to read the article The Best jobs for smart, but lazy people published at http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140228-jobs-for-the-smart-but-lazy and comment on/discuss it. Make your own list of such jobs in  Poland;)

Summer Semester 2013/14

Dear Students,

The course will start 24 March 2014.

1. Each week  there will be presented texts/films and presentations, which I would like you to read/watch and comment on.

2.  You should also present a scientific article with your comments and questions for the group to discuss: you do not write it, you just find something of your interest online, present it and moderate the discussion of it.  Put your name on the list of blog moderators next to the date when you would like to do it.

3. At the end of the semester you will give a 5-7 minute presentation.   

 Weeks of our work on the blog:





1. 24-30.03.14          Waldemar K.
2. 31.03-06.04.14     Grzegorz G.
3. 07-13.04.14          Kinga M. , Grzegorz K.
4. 14-20.04.14          Jacek, Mati
5. 05-11.05.14          Kamil P. , Slavek H.
6. 12-18.05.14          Wiktor
7. 19-25.05.14          Kamil  Drabek
8. 26.05-01.06.14     Krzysztof S., Michail
9. 02-08.06.14          Artur Sz., Sławomir J.

Week 9: People with Aphasia

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder caused by traumatic brain injury or disease. It’s common consequence of stroke that damages specific brain regions responsible for language generation and comprehension. Aphasia affects approximately over 30% of stroke survivors. Aphasics can have different communication disabilities depending which area and extent of brain is damaged and these impairments may vary in intensity and severity. Language modalities including talking, reading, writing, remembering words and understanding spoken or written languages can be affected in various combinations. Precise classifying types and subtypes of aphasia is difficult because language is a comprehensive and complex behavior. Therefore every aphasics is unique and has highly selective range of disabilities. The most common kinds of aphasia are: expressive aphasia (loss the ability to produce spoken or written language also called Broca’s aphasia), receptive aphasia (inability to understand language in its written or oral form also called Wernicke's aphasia) and global aphasia (combination of both comprehension and expression of language). Other impairments concern problems with recalling words or naming objects (anomic aphasia), poor speech repetition (conduction aphasia) and many more.

Please watch this sad document to better understand main problems concerning people with aphasia:

When someone loses the ability to use language due to injury, for instance because of aphasia, he or she also loses the ability to communicate and share stories, which can eventually lead to social isolation. Individuals with aphasia like to be listened to and understood like other healthy individuals. They want to express their ideas, comments, anecdotes and feelings about what occurred to them in their daily life. Storytelling supports also communication goals such as maintaining or establishing social connections, besides the transfer of information. Aphasics require easy access and simplicity in their communication aids and need the ability to communicate at a distance instantaneously.

There are many Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) solutions providing hardware and software tools for supplementing or replacing speech or writing in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.

Thanks to mobile devices like smartphones/tablets and social networks the aphasics have a great opportunity to communicate and share their everyday experience via multimodal interfaces. Many applications are available starting from very basic like picture dictionaries (for example ICOON digital or Oxford Picture Dictionary) with icons/images representing objects, activities etc.:

to very advanced like DynaVox Compass offering comprehensive set of tools supporting everyday conversations:

These tools can help to communicate using the precise words for complete communication and self-expression.

If you interested in this topic I recommend further reading:
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~joanna/papers/CUU2003_McGrenere.pdf

Some questions for discussion:
1. Have you ever heard about aphasia or met a person with this disability?
2. What is the biggest problem for people with aphasia in your opinion and how it could be reduced?
3. Do you know any applications that might be useful to such people?
4. Quality of life of such persons is very important for better rehabilitation results. What is the level of awerness of this issue in Polish society?