Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Week 14:Freestyle Football As my favourite hobby

Freestyle Football As my favourite hobby

1.     What is it?
·         Wikipedia- is the art of expressing yourself with a football, while performing various tricks with any part of the body. Similar in style to keepie uppie, kemari and the ball discipline of rhythmic gymnastics, it has become a widespread sport across the world and is practised by many people.
·         For me it’s a great idea to make my free time, a nice time.

http://www.football-cover.com/football_wallpaper/sean_freestyle_.jpg




2.   Freestyle tricks

·         Lowerbody/Air Moves - This is the most popular with the new generation of freestylers. The ball is kept aloft using mainly the feet and legs. This style is considered to be the most difficult and the one that gives a multitude of opportunities to come up with new moves and impressive combinations.
·         Upperbody - This style is very popular in Japan and Russia. Most tricks are done with the head, chest and shoulders.
·         Sitting/Sit Down - This style has become well known. All tricks are executed while sitting on the floor with your legs in the air, and the inability to move after the ball greatly increases the difficulty of any trick performed.
·         Groundmoves - These are normal football moves, but then executed without an opponent. Skillful players can make the performance of groundmoves seem like a choreographed dance.
·         Special - This style has been introduced recently and refers to the acrobatic or break dance moves performed with a football that are becoming more popular in the freestyle football world.

3.   The most popular tricks
·         Around the World (ATW) is also popular; in this move, the player plays the ball off of one foot, and that foot then circles up and over the ball before returning underneath to play the ball again. It is subdivided into Inside and Outside depending on the direction in which you make the turn.


http://fussballmarkt.com/uploads/pics/fussballmarkt_freestyler_startseite_3_tommy_01.jpg
·         Crossover is one of the basic tricks. This move requires the player to kick the ball into the air by his trail leg, while the other leg goes around the ball.

 http://www.skillmotion.com/videoimages/WQ3ziahWaHWRyJdUTfaeST3vJkAXUB-386x262.jpg
·         Hop the World (HTW) is a famous move performed by pro footballers and freestylers all around the world. Kick the ball up with one foot, and circle the other around the ball.

 http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/mTFt4kCrKeA/hqdefault.jpg


·         Mitchy around the World (MATW) is also a favorite. The same as TAWT except with an inside ATW.
·         Palle Around the World(PATW) is a triple ATW (you circle your foot three times around the ball in the air without a middle touch between the three revolutions).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/1_john_farnworth.jpg/215px-1_john_farnworth.jpg
·         Stall moves involve catching the ball in a stationary position. Many freestylers are able to catch the ball on their foreheads, the backs of their necks, or wedged between their heel and the back of their thigh.
http://d.webgenerator24.pl/k/r//bb/2x/41dkz0o4wcog4wgg0wks0k0csk0/golonka.600.jpg
·         Combos are where one trick is connected to another without juggling the ball.

4.   The most famous players
·         John Farnworth- He holds four Guinness World Records including the most around the worlds in under a minute.
·         Hee Young Woo- a former football player from South Korea. Born in Seoul, South Korea, at a very early age Woo realized he had football talent.

http://stylefreestyle.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/hee-young-woo1.jpg
·         Szymon Skalski- from Poland


http://redir.atmcdn.pl/scale/o2/tvn/web-content/m/p8/i/d10ec7c16cbe9de8fbb1c42787c3ec26/595fca4a-25c3-11e3-8ac9-0025b511226e.jpg
Krzysztof Golonka- also from Poland
·         Łukasz Chwieduk- European Freestyle Football Champion 2013


5.   Freestyle in Association Footbal

Although freestyle football exists on a standalone basis in its own right, the incorporation of freestyle skills into association football has enabled both sports to leverage off one another. Notable association football players who incorporate freestyle tricks into their game include Diego Maradona, Ronaldinho, Carlo Costly, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Robinho, Ricardo Quaresma, Garrincha, Neymar and many other players.

 

1. Do You like such "unusual" sports like freestyle football? Would You consider starting doing such thing?
2. Have You ever tried doing sports requiring lots of agility? What in Your opinion are main factor of success of such sportsman?
3. Have You ever played "zośka" when You were in school? Do You think that it has any similarities to freestyle football?





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Sunday, 12 January 2014

Week 14: 3D Printers

3D printing is becoming more and more popular and affordable among consumers other than big corporations. There was a special zone at CES 2014 tradeshow dedicated to 3D printing. Printers and printed object were shown, as well as web services, where you could personalize your own project or buy one.
http://www.cadalyst.com/files/cadalyst/nodes/2013/15417/MCor-Iris.jpg

There has been great progress in printing. A couple of years ago, a 3D printer cost about 15 thousand dollars. Nowadays, MakerBot, a company that specializes in 3D printing, presented a printer for home use that you can buy for 1375 dollars. So it’s ten times cheaper than the aforementioned. Of course, you can buy even cheaper ones, Chinese – for 499 dollars.

At this year’s CES, a company called 3D Systems presented a confectionery printer. Chocolate and sugar are used as toners.
See how it looks!
Their representatives say that in the future, we’ll be able to print pasta or other food that you can pulverize and use as toner.  
http://www.3dprintingtrends.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sugar-sculptures.jpeg

So if we can use materials such as sugar, chocolate or plastic to print in 3D, then why not use paper? How does paper printing in 3D look like? You need a ream of paper and an image-project of an object you wish to print. It is sent to the printer, which prints single elements, applies glue, and then connects the pieces together. If we want a colored object, we need to paint the paper before using the printer.


That way you can print phone cases, bowls, cutlery or imitation fruits.
A paper-using 3D printer has one big disadvantage. Today it costs 47 thousand dollars. Representatives of Mcor Technologies say that using such printers is profitable, because paper is much cheaper than plastic necessary for 3D printers.
What did you do in your spare time as kids? Did you assemble models, build ships, do puzzles or play Minecraft? These are all creative activities. It is very possible that in a couple of years kids will play “reality printing“. A dollhouse or a birdhouse have never been so easy to “build“.

My friend told me his apocalyptic theory recently, and it made me laugh!
One day someone will program a 3D printer to print another 3D printer and forget about it. One will print another, and so on... People will be unable to stop this, because the printers will keep printing and printing, and the World will be buried in printers!

What do you think is the future of 3D printers?
Do you think it’s a revolutionary discovery?
What would you print if you had such a printer at home (and you could use any available materials – plastic metal etc.)?

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Week 14: Testing Students Around The World

Students from Shanghai are the best in the world in using their knowledge.
Polish 15 year olds scored very well in Europe – only five countries scored better; Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. The Report shows that Poland has one of the best results in the world when it comes to the increase in the number of students with the best results. Since the year 2000, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has surveyed the level of education around the world, grading students’ ability to use their knowledge, instead of the knowledge itself – that is what PISA (Programme for International Student Assesment) is all about.
PISA assesses15 year olds from around the world in terms of: problem solving, analysis, argumentation and interpretation. It examines their ability to think and the level of their adult-life preparation. If, for example, reading is tested, students work on real-life texts, such as manuals or newspaper articles.
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/

PISA is one the World’s biggest students’ skill testing survey. About 0.5 million teenagers take part in it. How has it been for Poland so far? In 2000, Poland scored way below the OECD average, so did Russia, Greece and Israel. Then, we gradually progressed in reading and natural sciences, and we ended up in the middle of the chart in mathematics. We were 25th in Reading and Interpretation in 2000. In 2006, we improved and jumped to 9th place (57 countries were surveyed), in 2009, we dropped to 15th, (out of 65 countries). We scored better than several European countries: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark and France. We scored similar to Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Estonia. 
Young Finns are undisputed masters of this survey. In the first edition, 15 year olds from Finland were the best in reading and interpretation and reached 3rd place in reasoning in natural sciences. In the next editions, they always reached the podium. They were the best in reading and natural sciences in 2003, and finished 2nd in solving mathematical problems. In 2006 and 2009, they placed in the top three. In the recent edition, the Finns were anxious about the test – two weeks before the results were made public, Finnish newspapers wrote about “failure.”

Korean teenagers have scored very well over the years. In Korea however, great PISA results (mostly in math and science) are achieved by long hours of private lessons that students attend. Sometimes the extra lessons end in the middle of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6yhiGj-252k

For many people, Poland is an example of educational success. American journalist Amanda Ripley placed Poland among the countries with the most effective education systems. When selecting "schools that teach thinking" she took the results of PISA into account. In her book, she tries to answer why Poland scores better than the USA in global education rankings, even though Americans spend more money on education (per student).


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XchNCnYo6KA

What do you think – why do Polish students score so well? Why do Asian nations score best? Is it because they are so hard-working, or maybe something else? Do you think that good education has impact on economical development, or it’s not that important?
What do you remember about your schools, did you have to learn a lot?

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Week 14: Zero Gravity Roller Coaster

The latest project of California-based designer Studio BRC Imagination Arts is breathtaking. Literally. The company has developed a rollercoaster, which acts as a launcher, allowing passengers to float in zero gravity for eight seconds. The whole idea is based on the aircraft used by NASA to train astronauts – the so-called "Vomit Comet". Imagination Art’s project combines business with pleasure.
Thrill seekers would sit in a cable car which would then be launched at 160km/h. Going up the ramp, the car would slow down a bit, and the passengers would start floating. Then it would descend and repeat the maneuver, allowing people to float some more.
The whole ride would be supervised by a complicated computer system, analyzing the weight of the passengers and controlling the velocity of the cable car, adjusting the speed of descend. This would allow the passengers to float in zero gravity-like conditions for about 8 seconds.
According to Imagination Arts, building such a rollercoaster could even cost 50 million dollars. Most of the money would be spent on computer systems and machines to control the car’s acceleration. The company claims that the project could be implemented over several months.
Another advantage of this rollercoaster is that people would have fun and learn at the same time. The designers want to install a “scientist’s kit” in front of every seat, allowing the passengers to see how different things react to zero gravity. A little ball and some water would be placed in special transparent containers.
I think that the project looks interesting. If it’s ever implemented, I would love to ride this rollercoaster!



Do you like this kind of entertainment? Would you like to feel as if you were floating in space?

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Monday, 6 January 2014

Week 13: Special Effects in Films.

Recently, I have watched a behind-the-scene footage of the new film with Sandra Bullock entitled ‘Gravity’ on YouTube. The film has a great visual artistry, but almost all space views are breathtaking, aren’t they? Anyhow, I want to write today a little bit about special effects in movies.



Nowadays it is hard to imagine a Hollywood movie without a tons of special effects. But how did it all start? In the beginning small mock-ups were built and movements of strange creatures were achieved by stop-motion photography which uses realistic puppets or models that are manipulated and photographed one frame at a time. It was a really toilsome, wasn’t it?

New technologies in the early nineties enabled the creation of stunning effects. Yet, they were very expensive and only films with huge budgets could afford them. I can make a bet that most of us remember “Titanic” by James Cameron. However, although computers were extensively used, many scenes were created with mock-ups: For instance, the first minutes of the movie, where the Titanic wreck was explored by scientists:


Mock-ups were also used in scenes where the ship was going down but real-sized scenography was built in a port.

Often, computers are mixed with real scenography and f/x make-up. But sometimes it’s quite the contrary and all scenes are computer generated. Sometimes, even already dead actors can star in a movie or commercial:


The evolution of special effects can be observed in movie series like Stars Wars or Harry Potter. In the mentioned titles special effects are in everything, from scenography, spells and make-up. Those films involves pyrotechnics and computer generated effects. 


Closely connected with special effects is make-up art. For instance, in the TV series “The walking dead” most of the actors who played zombies had prosthetics, that imitated peeling skin. 


BTW zoombie is recently quite a popular Halloween make-up, isn’t it?


In recent years, we can watch films that are fully generated in computers. Probably all of us have heard of “Avatar” movie, which in my opinion looked great but the screenplay was unfortunately poor….Going back to the Gravity movie, even though the action takes places in just one location, all the scenography was computer generated. Actors were hung in one place and quick movement illusions were achieved by changing the backgrounds and camera tracking. I think such scenes with almost no props demand from an actor a great imagination and the ability to precisely learn choreography.

Questions:

  1. Do you pay attention to special effects in movies?
  2. Do you agree that good special effects are those which are unnoticeable? 
  3. Do you think that a good movie should have special effects?
  4. Do you think that bad special effects could result in a film flopping?


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Week 13: ESPERANTO - la dua lingvo por ĉio!

Introduced in 1887 by Ludwik Zamenhof, Esperanto is the world’s most widely spoken constructed language. It’s hard to say exactly how many people speak Esperanto but statistics say that there are up to two million of Esperantist, who use the language regularly. The figure might not be impressive, especially when compared to most of national languages. Yet, still it’s worth knowing at least some facts about Esperanto, because its origins are in Poland. Moreover, studies show that teaching Esperanto in kindergarten helps children in learning other languages later on. See the four minutes footage:



The intention.

Zamenhof’s purpose was to create a language that could be an international base for communication between nations. He claimed that most conflicts stem from misunderstanding. Usually when we talk in a foreign language to one of its native, we feel the so called language barrier. Sometimes the native can look down on us. To overcome that imbalance we could choose a language that is foreign to both parties, but what language should it be? National languages are usually difficult and complicated. Therefore, Zamenhof decided to create a completely new language, that no nation could claim rights to, is easy to learn and at the same time precise enough so it doesn’t lead to problems with comprehension.

Esperanto is designed to be easy.

How easy it is? Let’s see…

  • Vi legas precize tiel, kiel vi skirbas! - Everything is phonetic!

There are 28 letters in the Esperanto language. When you learn how each of them should sound, you can pronounce every word perfectly!



  • No exceptions!

Esperanto is an extremely regular language and there are literally no exceptions - hurray! Moreover, you don’t have to hit the books for hours to cram vocabulary, because you can easily construct them!

There are 10 prefixes and 29 inflixes which help you to build new words from one root.




When you take any bilingual dictionary, the esperanto part is usually three times thinner because it contains only word roots!

  • Flexability

Languages have their own specific words sequence in sentences. Most of these patterns, if not all, can be applied to Esperanto. 

Let’s take a sentence: 
He put a mouse in the shoe.
An Esperantist could describe the mouse’s plight by saying:
Li metis nuson en la suon.
or shorter and using word formation:
Li enŝuigis nuson.

The word enŝuigis means “inshoed” :)

In the below example the root trajn (English: train) is used as a noun, a verb and an adverb:

source: own elaboration 

  • no gender

Nouns have no gender, however, to preserve the flexibility, they have two cases: nominative and accusative… 

  • Verbs don’t conjugate:

source: own elaboration 

  • There are 3 tenses and 3 aspects…

… which make 6 possible endings for any verb form.

source: own elaboration 

  • vocabulary based on Germanic, Slavic, Latin languages…

… some of which are already familiar to us :)

source: own elaboration 


I have presented above around more or less 90% of Esperanto grammar - it’s short and sweet, isn’t?

Speakers


There are no official statistics of how many people speak Esperanto. However, according to lernu.net - the biggest learning portal of Esperanto - there might even be 10,000,000 people who can speak that language at least to some extent. Of course, to retain language skills you have to keep using them. As I stated before, there are up to two million regular users of Esperanto. The figure includes around two thousand… natives. Yes, there are natives of Esperanto - people for whom Esperanto is their first language. On the one hand, it is, let say a breach of Zamenhof’s intention, but on the other hand, it shows that it’s not just “a fake language”. Esperanto is a living language and as any other language it is still changing. There are couples that met during Esperantio conventions, started a family and decided to use the language at home. Below you can watch some footage created by one of such family:



Besides big Esperanto conventions, there are a few radio stations, books and magazines in the language. One of the most active communities of Esperanto in the world is in Warsaw, they even have their own internet radio: http://www.podkasto.net/ 


If you want, to find out more about Esperanto, you can start from www.lernu.net but for those who remember BBC’s language course “Muzzy in Gondoland” I recommend its Esperanto version :)




Questions:


  1. Do you think that teaching Esperanto at kindergartens or primary schools could really help children to learn other languages?
  2. Isn’t a designed language just a waste of time?
  3. Do you find Esperanto as much worth learning as a national language?
  4. Do you agree that most conflicts are caused by lack of understanding? Would a common language help in preventing from wars? 
  5. Do you think that one of national languages should be a worldwide language? How about English, or the so called Globish English?
  6. In your opinion, is a language only a tool of communication or is it something more?
  7. Would you like to try to speak Esperanto? Why yes/why not?

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Week 13: Couchsurfing

In October, we discussed hitchiking and I would like to write about a somehow connected topic, namly couchsurfing.


Couchsurfing.com is a portal dedicated to travellers, where they can find local people who would like to show them their cities or even offer free accomodation, not always in a form of a couch :) I admit, that it sounds strange at first. It reminds me of house swapping, where families swap houses during holidays (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Exchange). I personally cannot imagine allowing strangers to live alone in my house. However, couchsurfing is something different and when I firstly stumbled upon couchsurfing I was mesmerized by its optimistic atmosphere. Firstly, couchsurfing is not about free accommodation! It’s about connection between people from different cultures. If you just use the portal to avoid paying for hotels, you will be quickly outcast. Offering a couch is just a one way to participate in couchsurfing. Some people just offer their time and take travellers around and show them interesting places. In many cities, there are regular meetings where people just hang out together. It’s about sharing your life, your experiences and your journey. The most advantageous, and unfortunately the most risky at the same time, is sharing your home. If you don’t like to travel with a travel guide in your hand, then couchsurfing is the best alternative. Who knows the greatest places better than locals? Besides hospitality exchange (free couch to sleep on, showing around the place, etc.) couchsurfing is also abour social networking services where travellers help each other with travel issues.
Couchsurfing is a great way of exploring places on a budget without spending a lot of money on accommodation. It is a great alternative for solo travellers who don’t want to feel lonely or are looking for new friends and fun. You can meet amazing people who can look after you and show you around the city. From my experience, couchsurfing is a way to see the places from the locals’ perspective. From the outside, CouchSurfing may appear to be a platform for freeloading around the world, but in reality surfers crash with hosts with the implicit understanding that both parties will gain some sort of social value from the exchange. This could be sharing insights into other cultures; cooking, drinking or practicing language skills together. Remember, it’s not just about the furniture.
You may ask if it is safe. Well, in today’s world nothing is safe. The same applies to couchsurfing. User’s personal data can be verified (she or he transfers a small amount of money using their credit card), they can have a photo and references left by some other couchsurfers, but you cannot be 100% sure who you are being hosted by.
Questions:

  1. Have you ever tried something similar to couchsurfing? Would you ever like to try?
  2. Do you like travelling? What do you focus on while traveling?
  3. When it comes to travelling, do you plan everything beforehand or do you prefer to go with the flow? What about organized tours offered by travel agencies?


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