Week 4: A Brief History Of Oculus

Photo Source : https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

You may have heard that Mark Zuckerberg recently bought a company that manufactures headset for Virtual Reality - Oculus Rift:
http://time.com/39577/facebook-oculus-vr-inside-story/

If you have not heard of this product, please view a short presentation of the latest version:

Here you can find more details:
http://www.oculusvr.com/dk2/

A story that is behind this sounds like a movie. The originator of the product - Palmer Luckey at the age of 15 became interested in Virtual Reality and started to build own prototypes. Soon after, he met John Carmack - the guru of 3D games and so it all began. The project constructed so far at home has become one of the biggest comeback stories in the history of technology. Now Palmer Luckey at the age of 21 is a billionaire, just two years since the founding of his company:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/a-brief-history-of-oculus/

It seems that the coming years will be marked by Virtual and Augmented Reality. On the market there are more and more players developing these technologies -  for example Sony Morpheus project:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/19/project-morpheus-hands-on/ 

or Meta Space Glasses:
https://www.spaceglasses.com/

Our world is becoming less and less real ...

A few questions for you:
Why are the Oculus glasses have become such a success?
Do you think that the Oculus will really revolutionize the entertainment market?
Why Facebook bought this technology and how it will be used?
What are the best uses of Virtual Reality technology in your opinion?
What is the future of Virtual Reality?
Do we really need all this?

And Happy Easter for everyone!

Week 4: Tiredness, medical or psychological problem ?

Photo Source : http://yvafrica.com/Uganda/tips-to-help-beat-tiredness/

Everyone from us experiences tiredness, isn't important how this is formed. Sometimes we have this because our work is monotonous, or we study to much. This tiredness causes decrease our capabilities, mostly for people who take to much responsibilities. Even if we take a holidays then after this time we come back to this again... and again...

I read last time some nice articles:

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/problemsdisorders/tiredness.aspx

and

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8877.php

If you are not tired before Easter please have a look there ;)

Anyway, this time i don't want to produce many questions because I appreciate your time (before Easter) so please only "try" to answer : How to fight with this?

Happy Easter for everyone!

Week 3 - The future of money.

Hi guys,

The link below :

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity

gives a very peculiar and interesting  point of view on the definition of
the money.  Specifically  the one of  the fiat money. 

The definition and history of the fiat money is also  very well presented
here : 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money 

According to the wikipedia definition, the fiat money is monetary obligation 

(regarded as a legal tender) that derives  its  value from government
regulation or law.   On the other hand according the economists form the 

Bank of England,  who published  the article in The Guardian,  nothing
would be further from the truth.  Newly disclosed  process of money creation ( M1
Stream) turns out  to be nothing more than capitalisation of loans and
other financial obligations  created by the banks.  In such a process, slowly and
gradually all the existing material wealth and people's possessions
and/or obligations will end up as a property of banks.  This includes financing of
all forms of government to begin with. Paradoxically,  the process is
self-destructive in its very nature and it will spell the end of money as
we know now. Simulation models performed by researchers at Harvard and by the
Bank of England economists, show the entire process  to last approximately
80 - 90  years,  out of with 60 some years already had passed.  After that
time central banks literally own everything and there is no way to
monetized any more obligations. 

What then ?? Historically, every previous attempt to introduce fiat paper
money has failed; every one more spectacularly than next. What about the
current cycle ?

1- What other forms of recognizing  and regulating/capitalizing of the
obligations will egsists ?
2- What else can be used  to create a stable money system ?
3- What do you think of using new crypto-currencies,  like bitcoins or
litecoins as new emerging standard for monetary system ?
4- What are 2 main advantages of emerging binary standards  like Bitcoins
over every other monetary system known to People in the past ?

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?