English Conversation Course

Sunday, 20 January 2013

The Best Presentation

Vote for the best presentation. Justify your choice.

Saturday, 19 January 2013

This time we will look into the newspapers to learn what is the main topic of the heated discussions this week. Just a glance at the headlines in Forbes (Aaron Swartz Hacker Case Ends With Suicide), and first-page obituaries in Guardian (Internet pays tribute to Aaron Swartz) and New Yorker - and one must wonder - who is the guy and what is he famous for?

Aaron Swartz (born 1986) was an American computer programmer, writer, archivist, political organizer, and Internet activist. Was - as he was found death a few days ago, in his Brooklyn apartment, where he hanged himself. Pure talent, a prodigy kid, he would always achieve what he headed for. The list of his achievments is impressing!

Apart from co-building "RSS 1.0" specification of RSS and Reddit, he cofounded the online group Demand Progress and was a member of the Harvard University Center for Ethics. He was known for his involvment with a campaign to prevent the passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The bill would have monitored the Internet for copyright violations and would have enable the US government to shut down websites. Due to the work of such activists as Swartz, the bill was defeated.

In 2012 Swartz commented on the bill at the F2C:Freedom to Connect event in Washington:

"There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything that happens on the internet in terms of traditional things that the law understands... [SOPA] instead of bringing us greater freedom, would have snuffed out fundamental rights we'd always taken for granted."

Aaron Swartz was associated with the movement called hacktivism (derived from hack and activism). It is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term could be defined as "the use of legal and/or illegal digital tools in pursuit of political ends".

26-year-old, Swartz finally got into trouble when he was caught while downloading roughly 4 million academic journal articles from JSTOR.

JSTOR is a Journal Storage, a digital library of academic journals founded in 1995. Every student in most of the countries (including Poland) has an immediate access to English texts via JSTOR. It is one of the most popular scholar resources at the university.

Two days before his tragic death he learned that at trial he would face a total of 35 years imprisonment!

Swartz' family and partner have published a statement: "Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy, it is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death."

The Guardian has published a set of internet commentaries for the news.
"This scary thing about what happened to Aaron Swartz - says one of the commentators - is that he was a"doer", not just a "talker". (...) Taking action DOES change things, and the government will not tolerate that – even if it's totally legal and within your rights. This is why things as a simply as taking pictures on a factory farm (to expose animal cruelty) can land you ten years in prison and a "terrorist" label in today's world."

Aaron dreamt of the liberation of the data. Young as he was, he put his efforts to make available information that in his opinion ought to be free.

The reaction of the internet users is radically wary towards the US government. Some accuse the officialls of pursuing uncovered political goals, others just consider it a significant turn in the battle of free media. "What happened to Aaron Swartz - writes on of the Guardian readers - is a tragedy and I fear that what happened to him will make people scared of taking action. I hope the opposite happens, but one cannot be surprised if it doesn't."

If you want to read more voices on Aaron Swartz death, you will find it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/14/internet-pays-tribute-to-aaron-swartz

sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-hacker-case-ends-with-suicide/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/14/internet-pays-tribute-to-aaron-swartz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacktivism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR

QUESTIONS:

1) Polish ACTA movement caused the civil protests all over the country. What, in your opinion, would be the reaction of the Polish free media activist if the similar case would take place in Poland?

2) Why do the states fight for control over media?

I know what I'm eating

It has been known that a healthy diet is one of the most important factors that help us in maintaining better shape, attractive figure, well-being. However, this concept is not clear, and many people have trouble defining it. A healthy diet needs to be tailored to a specific organism as it should give us all necessary nutrients in the right amounts suited to our lifestyle. This means that each of us must find his/her own way to healthy eating (this is often dependent on our blood group, our temperament, work, sports we practice every day).

PRINCIPLES OF HEALTHY NUTRITION:

· Keep a variety of edible products. Do not eat the same products, your body needs a lot of vitamins for proper development.

· Beware of overweight and obesity, do not forget about your daily physical activity. Regularly inspect weight.

· Cereal should be your main source of energy (calories). Eat whole grain bread.

· Drink every day at least two large glasses of milk. Milk can be replaced with yogurt and partly cheese. Milk contains calcium, which is an essential component of bones.

· Eat meat in moderation.

· Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits every day.

· Reduce fats, in particular animal, and also products containing a lot of cholesterol and trans fatty acids.

· Keep moderation in the consumption of sugar and sweets. Sweets do not contribute anything useful, they are just empty calories.

· Limit your intake of salt.

· Drink a lot of water because it cleanses your body, it has no calories and fills our stomach.

· Do not drink alcohol. Alcohol has many calories and it does not seem so :)

Film about a balanced diet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZC4o1WtBR4

Question:

1. Do you think that a balanced diet is important for us and our health?

2. Do you use or are advised to be on any diet?

3. What do you think about weight loss diets?

Source:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramid-full-story/

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Happy Meal books

Hello everyone!

Today we are going to touch the matter of... books. Books were never a hot topic, so no wonder one would never hear about them in the evening news. Rarely do any breakthroughs take place in the winternational literacy politics. But this week is special, as we are going to see in a moment.

For the bookworms 2013 has started with two electrifying news. One comes from the United Kingdom, the other from Turkey. Let's have a look what it brings!

So we start with the UK. McDonald's is going to replace Happy Meal toys with... books. The news is striking. It means that English children would get about 15 million books in England over the next two years! Why is the most recognizable fast-food chain turning into the distribution of books?

Well, it seems that books are just in fashion, at least amongst the parents. After launching a pilot program, McDonald's heads found the feedback 'overwhelmingly positive'. What's more, survey proves that 9 out of 10 parents is expects more book promotions from the fast-food chain. Conclusions are clear: promoting literacy is just another marketing strategy.

Personally, I am all for this kind of action. Even if is is just another method of buliding up a brand. Give books away! Let's teach children that these mysterious sheets of paper wrapped in colorful covers are just another toys worth spending time at. Even McDonald's was able to notic ethat. "When children own their own books, it makes a huge difference to their reading," says chain's official, Conal Presho.

The action is partly sponsored by the British National Literacy Trust. The Organization seems to notice a positive contribution of this marketing strategy. "Our focus is on using any way we can to encourage children to read, and to read anything they can, whether that's menus in restaurants, non-fiction books or magazines – anything which spreads children's enjoyment of reading."

Giveaway books - the kids WILL love it, says McDonald's. Who would dare to doubt?

Now let's switch to good news from Turkey, an infamous country where te situation for writers is as bad as anywhere in the region. Nowadays, in 2013, the country still imposes publication bans and imprisons the authors who do not go along with the official politics. The censorship has started decades ago. However, there is no one central body responsible for that. As we can see, lifting the law causes much legal problems.

And it wasn't till this weekend that an important legal change was made. The parliament passed a bill that would enable the banned to be read again. And the numbers are striking! Over 23,000 books can now be printed freely. Amongst them "The Communist Manifesto" that now will be available in the country for the first time!

The law came into effect so quietly, that one may wonder if it is really true. But let's hope it is a sign of change. Turkey’s record on freedom of expression is alarming. The the country has more journalists in prison than any other, more than Iran or China.

For more info about this week book issues, read more at the New Yorker online magazine:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/

QUESTIONS:
1) Is the McDonald's action a good way to promote books to children?

2) This year most of the European countries would lift the ban for Adolf Hitler's infamous book "Mein Kampf", known for its racists and radically xenophobic ideas. Do you think that the state should have a possibilty to choose which books may be printed and which may not?

sources:

http://www.ramendays.com/mcdonalds-uk-putting-books-in-their-happy-meals-instead-of-toys/

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-mcdonalds-happy-meals-toys-books-20130109,0,2150667.story

http://www.mhpbooks.com/turkey-lifts-ban-on-thousands-of-books/

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Jirí Kolár

Hello everyone!

As we got to know a grasp of interesting ideas about creativity, let's have a look at a man whose creative powers has been praised for last fifty years.

Jirí Kolár obviously didn't need any creative learning. In fact, he didn't even go to Art School. Born in Protivín (Czechoslovakia)in 1914, he worked as a carpenter in his small town till the day he went to Prague to watch surrealistic collages at the Mozarteum. It was a breakthrough! Twenty-years old, he eventually decided to become an artist.

"Like most great artists of the past century, Kolář was both an anarchist and a reactionary." said Travis Jeppesen, an American novelist, poet, and art critic. Indeed, Kolár experimented with text and image in a way that was unknown in the art history. He combined them in a way that surprised the Czechs and quickly gained a fame as a shocking visual poet, leading such art circles as "Gruppe 42" and "Kreuzung".

Soon he got into trouble. His anarchistic work was too subversive for the time of Stalinism. In 1953 Jirí Kolár spent months under arrest. When released, he got a publication ban that didn't stop him from working on his poems, dramas and ballets. However, the reflections of the gloomy time may be seen in his prose. He writes in "Ocity svedek" (Eye-witness), a verse and prose diary from 1949 : "Through the breaking of a cultural tradition ... culture itself is sinking into unimaginable backwardness". It comes as no surprise that the voice of an artist and an intellectual, who regarded Stalinism as a "barbarism", was silented by the dictatorship; the book was first published in Munich in 1983. His finest collection of poems, "Prometheova jatra" (Prometheus' Liver), written in 1950, was first published in Toronto in 1985. Despite the fact most of his work wasn't published till 1980s, he was considered one of the most important writers of the time.

His poetic work avoid conventional metaphors and sophisticated language. He would rather use vulgar excerpts from everyday talk and implot politicians speeches that were a part of the Stalinism language. Typically he wrote monologues spoken by unhappy women and their disintegrated souls, thus focusing on the internal experience rather than external world. His verse may surprise with the evocations of beauty and strong liturgical elements.

Around 1959 Kolár abandonned his poetic work and focused on visual arts. He included materials from everyday-life like hairs, razor blades, and zippers. He produced miniature-objects and collages. "In order to “make it new,” - said Travis Jeppesen - the artist must systematically reject every aesthetic tendency that’s come before." One look at some of his art collages would serve as a thousand words. (http://butdoesitfloat.com/I-m-chasing-after-an-image-nothing-more)

He was amongst those who would never compromise to the Communist power. Along with Vaclav Havel, a playwright and later Czech president, he signed Charter 77 (the declaration calling on the Communist authorities to respect international human-rights agreements). Then he was forced to emigrate to France in 1980. At the time his work was exhibited in such world-known galleries as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (1981) and participated in the Biennale in Venice (1990).

As a leading figure in Czech artistic and anarchistic history, Jirí Kolár died in Prague in 2002.

QUESTIONS:
1) What is the impact of the dictatorship on the art work?

2) Recently media are struck to hear that a Czech tattooed drama professor runs in the presidential election (see:http://www.sundaytimes.lk/130113/sunday-times-2/tattooed-professor-in-race-to-be-czech-president-28436.html ). Do you think that an artist and an intellectual may become a successful politician?

sources:

http://www.jiri-kolar.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/23/arts/jiri-kolar-88-czech-collage-artist-and-poet.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Kol%C3%A1%C5%99
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Jeppesen

Drifting

This discipline is slowly coming to Polish. It was launched in Japan. At the beginning it was a "slippage" in the winding, mountain roads, later it moved to tracks, where competitions are organized. Drifting has also become popular in the United States, where is the famous D1 Grand Prix. It's mostly about having fun, showing your skills and driving style.

Drifting is the art of skillful car driving into a corner with a big beautiful slip. In this discipline, leaders have cars with rear-wheel drive.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJe2JFhZ3JhGbg9ViZYSJZArpSOgNs1fptnNCv_59we6BlsTBfJBDho1ltqhlwHVt107sDdtBw87N1sJV5xchvVgIq8JWv5w3-30XiTe2l39Qa49OB3alLNal_eV2FHaemNXo7Ge1NxnQ/s1600/kaam+karne+de.jpg

What should your car have to drift?

Suspension - hard accordingly, to better feel the reactions of the car. It involves changing the shock absorbers, springs, struts inserting, changing the geometry of the suspension. It is good to improve the braking system.

Wheels - tires are very important. They should be of good quality. They cannot be too highly profiled, which can cause the slipping of the tire and the rim. Often wheels are wider than the tires, which also minimizes the risk of slipping tires.

Engine - The engine must provide enough power (at least 150HP), the car must have its supply. Very important elements are rummage (in extreme cases, permanently welded bridge) and strong enough clutch and gearbox. The oil cooler is needed. It should also be remembered, the power unit are subject to very high loads, it is almost always used for maximum performance.

Other useful modifications - is worth using a good, sport steering wheel, which will provide us with a good "contact" with the car. Also a handy bucket seat, thanks to which we do not fall at the first corner and we ‘feel’ the car better. Sports safety cage and seat belts are obligatory.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4OiqzdVGv5WLlCRk82wXpGtlQrea2r7B6KuukC4KBUFiyj9AqIRsTNzGbZgoX_NdlpZk1jNQDfz2zqtIR3c4t12dV_Q5BVXlS0pMUC-roqR_cwc4J9fL5KnkMMBQ9ATUPtTY4LAqdipC/s1600/drifting-techniques.jpg

The most common cars in drifting: Nissan Silvia, Nissan Skyline, Toyota Corolla AE86, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and many more with rear wheel drive or four-wheel drive.

http://www.carthrottle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Nissan_350z_Drift.jpg

Unfortunately, this kind of entertainment is not completely safe, despite the use of a security cage, bucket seats, belts sports accidents happen while drifting.