Week 4 [04.05 – 11.05] Home office – blessing or punishment?

Increasing risk of spreading COVID-19 epidemic made many companies shut down itself or change the style of work of their employees. Many people were sent home to work remotely as a part of the telecommuting. In Poland it is known as “Home Office”. What is that? Is that a perfect style of work for everyone?

People who work from home do their duties completely remotely. They work using work laptops, sometimes with special access to company’s network. Communication takes place using e-mails, phone calls or special apps for communication. Nowadays, when whole companies are made to work from home, even larger meetings with 20+ participants are carried out using Skype, Microsoft Teams or Zoom. At first glance, we can see only cons of this solution. Every employee can save  time used to travel to and from work. Also, it is easier to deal with an unexpected problem, because it is easier to ask an employee to log in for a few moments regardless of the time of day. But it’s not as perfect as it seems to be.

http://www.outsourcingportal.eu/pl/userfiles/image/aktualnosci/2019/sierpien/13/shutterstock_home_office.jpg

First of all, when you work in an office you have all your colleagues nearby. There is no problem to ask for something or to talk about something. You can also immediately show something on your screen and solve problems together. When you chat using special apps or emails these things last much longer so it’s much harder to be as efficient as in an office.  Another problem is that working remotely is something you have to learn to do. If you didn’t work like that before, you quickly realize that in your house there are many distractors. That’s why many people advice to avoid working in the same room where you sleep. The best option is to have a special room for working, but naturally sometimes it’s impossible. Last but not least, it’s much harder to participate in online meetings compared to face-to-face ones. Sometimes your Internet connection is poor and then you can understand every second-third word which makes it possible that you miss something important. Often, it’s also hard to participate actively, because when many people speak at the same time, it is impossible to understand anything. All voices mix so the whole conversation becomes incomprehensible.

https://korpovoice.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/laptop.jpg

To sum up, remote work is a perfect solution to do your duties when you can’t commute. During the epidemic many companies realized that remote work is a must for the proper operation of the company. But when everything comes back to normal I don’t think that people will prefer to work at home, because it has some flaws which make normal work harder.

1. Do you work remotely? What do you think about it?
2. Do you prefer remote or stationary work?
3. Do you think that remote work will be the main style of work in the future?

Week 3 [20-26.04.20] Hybrid cars

Hybrid cars

Nowadays we constantly hear about electric or hydrogen powered cars that are the future of automotive industry. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of hybrid cars on the Polish streets. We live surrounded by the technology, that was the 90s future. Whether the hybrid cars are the future, the present or maybe already the past of the automotive world?

The first hybrid car was built in 1900 by Ferdinand Porsche in cooperation with Ludwig Lohner & Co – the first Austrian car manufacturer. The modern hybrid era began with the Toyota Prius in 1997 and less than 20 years later, by July 2015, Toyota sold more than 8 million hybrid vehicles. In the first quarter of 2019, hybrids generated 50% of Toyota’s sales in Europe.

A standard hybrid vehicle has two power sources – these are a petrol engine (usually, but there are some models that use diesel engines) and an electric motor. That kind of combination allows to use the benefits of both – hybrids consume less fuel in comparison to standard petrol car and they also have lower CO2 emission than any standard petrol or diesel car. There is also another type of hybrid cars – the plug-in hybrids, that differs the fact the they can be charged from the power socket (standard hybrids charge the battery mainly during breaking) and have longer range (about 50km in comparison to 5km) on the electric motor.

From the user’s perspective hybrids are a bit more fun to drive in the cities, because of their electric motor and its infinite torque, which makes the car eager to accelerate in most conditions. On the other side, outside the city hybrids consume more fuel than diesel engines and similar amounts comparing to petrol engines.

As you can see on the chart above hybrid cars possess an important percentage of electric vehicles market share and they don’t look like giving up. Even though electric cars are considered the future of the automotive industry, hybrid cars here and now are an important part of the market. Moreover, they don't seem to lose their popularity in favour of electric cars.

There is much that I would still like to write, but the number of aspects to consider when thinking about the future of motoring is difficult to grasp. I’d love to read your opinion on this topic:

• Have you ever driven a hybrid or fully electric car? What are your experiences?
• Whether hybrid cars are only a short stop on the road to fully electric cars?
• Or maybe the limitations of modern electric cars will not be overcome in the nearest future?

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle
• https://www.statista.com/chart/14118/global-electric-vehicle-stock-by-year-and-engine-type/

WEEK 3 [20-26.04.20] The Plague of Justinian

Article written by Dominik Seroczyński

Justinian I (in the middle)- Credit: Adobe Stock -Source: 

http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news%2C79784%2Cplague-justinian-late-antiquity-did-not-decimate-population-europe-says-new

Due to the current global situation, materials about past epidemics appear in many media. I would like to introduce you to the epidemic I read about recently.

The Plague of Justinian is a bubonic epidemic that affected the Byzantine Empire in 541-542 CE (desease spread in throughout the Mediterranean world and finally disappeard in 750 CE). Sources say that plague has killed between 25 and 50 million people— which is about half the world's population at that time (The Black Death, you've probably heard of, has killed 50 million people of Europe in 4 years).

Justinian’s empire - Source: https://brewminate.com/justinians-plague-541-542-ce/

Originating from China and northeastern India, the plague was transported by trade roads: land and sea. It was carried by fleas feeding on black rats, which traveled with merchants.

Symptoms of the desease are:

• fever and chills
• headache
• muscle pain
• general weakness
• seizures

Infected person may also experience painful, swollen lymph glands, called buboes (which give bubonic plague its name). These typically appear in the groin, armpits, neck, or site of the insect bite or scratch.

People affected by the disease had at their disposal treatment methods known then - developing (and making many mistakes) medicine and beliefs. Some had access to doctors, others were treated at home, for example with the help of amulets, to which they attributed magical, including healing, properties.

The unaware people helped themselves to spread the disease. Not knowing what the source of the problem was, and having to deal with a huge number of victims, they had a problem with the proper disposal of human and animal bodies.

Source: https://alchetron.com/Plague-of-Justinian

Bodies that were not disposed of immediately posed a risk of infecting people dealing with him (insects feeding on him, including fleas). First, people were buried in cemeteries, but they quickly overflowed. Then ditches and mass graves were dug, but that was not enough. The bodies were thrown into buildings, and also put on boats and thrown into the sea. The army was involved in cleaning up dead bodies.

The disease does not choose, as found out Justinian I - who is the most known patient (survived the disease).

The Plague of Justinian has more dimensions than the disease and its health (and fatal) consequences. Justinian I has his share.

Procopius of Caesarea,  late antique Byzantine Greek scholar, explained, that Justynian opressed population devastated by disease. In a country ruined by illness, Justinian not only did not reduce the annual tax rate, but obliged people to pay their obligations and for their dead neighbors.

Despite his illness, the Byzantine Empire was still a power, but never as great as it was before the disease.

I recommend this short video, where you can find more information about the plague.

Questions:

1. Have you ever heard of The Plague of Justinian?
2. What do you think about the attitude of the ruler and his support for subjects?
3. Do you think the world is better prepared for such events today?

Sources:

https://www.ancient.eu/article/782/justinians-plague-541-542-ce/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140129-justinian-plague-black-death-bacteria-bubonic-pandemic/

https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2016/05/what-was-the-plague-of-justinian/

https://www.healthline.com/health/plague#if-you-think-you-have-plague

Week 3 [20-26.04.20] COFFEE GUIDE

What do you know about one of the most popular beverages in the world?

ORIGIN OF COFFEE

The most common legend about the origin of coffee is about an Abyssinian goat herder called Kaldi from 8^th century. One day Kaldi noticed that his goat was jumping highly and bleating loudly with extraordinary way. Kaldi wondered why his goat acted so strange and started to looking for the source of the goat’s unusual behavior. He found a small shrub with berries which were eaten by his goat.  Kaldi believed that these berries had an impact on the goat and decided to share his discover with monks. They weren’t enthusiastic about Kaldi’s story and threw berries into the fire. After a moment air was filled with pleasing aroma which caught monks’ attention. They took coffee beans out of fire, crumbed them out and poured over boiling water. And that was the first pot of coffee…  (you can read other legends at https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-origin-of-coffee-765180)

https://www.yahava.com.au/a-very-short-and-hilarious-history-of-coffee-1/

COFFEE BEANS: ARABICA OR ROBUSTA?

Today’s world is dominated by two coffee species – Robusta and Arabica. At the first sight they look the same. The main differences between those two are: taste, flavour profiles, chemical features,  growing conditions, price etc. The taste of Arabica is described as sweeter, softer with fruits and berries tones while Robusta has more stronger and nutty flavour. Robusta beans are more circular and contain almost twice as much caffeine as Arabicas. More caffeine have an impact on the bitter taste of Robusta which can make it as an unpleasant drink. Robustas are easier to grow and as a result they are cheaper to produce than Arabica. In addition Robustas are more resistant to insects and weather conditions. They can also grow at lower altitutes than Arabicas - they are grown from 200 meters a.s.l. whereas Arabicas crops need to be located between 1000 to 2000 m a.s.l. Generally, blends of these two types of coffee are mostly sold because of 100% Arabica price and bad Robusta taste.

http://www.craftcoffeeguru.com/arabica-robusta-coffee-what-is-the-difference/

TYPES OF COFFEE NOWADAYS

Coffee is the 2^nd world’s famous beverage.  It is made from roasted coffee beans. It can be a simple drink like an espresso (attention! This is espresso - unfortunately it’s often mispronounced as "expresso"). Still,  when we go to a coffee house we can get confused by the variety of available coffee types. The most popular types of coffee:

• Espresso  - it’s the most popular and the most important type, because every coffee starts with espresso. There is no other coffee without it. If you want to drink tasty coffee you need to learn how to make a good espresso (you can find a short instruction at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd_XKGB8pTw).
• Americano – a cup with a shot of espresso and filled with hot water.
• Cappuccino – single espresso with part of steamed milk and equal part of warmed milk. Perfect proportion of espresso to warm milk to froth is 1:1:1.
• Caffé Latte – it’s just white coffee. Most often it’s just double espresso with warm milk.

The picture below shows different types of coffee. Each of them has a unique flavor. I believe that you will find something just right for you. 

https://www.agferrari.com/espresso-drinks-list

Do you like coffee? How often do you drink coffee? What is your favorite kind of this beverage?

 Sources:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-origin-of-coffee-765180

https://www.toptenslist.com/worlds-most-consumed-beverages.html

https://www.agferrari.com/espresso-drinks-list

https://www.thekitchn.com/coffee-basics-the-difference-b-41949

https://www.compatible-capsules.com/coffee-basics/arabica-vs-robusta-coffee-whats-the-difference/

Week 3 [20-26.04.20] Learn anything in 20 hours

    Have you ever wondered how long it takes to learn a new skill? Maybe you would like to learn to play an instrument, try a new kind of sport, or speed up the reading pace? No matter what it is, you have certainly made excuses like I'm too busy right now or it will take too long.

    Exploring this topic, one may come across Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book entitled 'Outliers: The Story of Success'. In his book, Gladwell writes about the so-called 10,000-hour rule. It says that we need approximately 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a given field. This number is intimidating. It's like working full time for 5 years. Malcolm Gladwell studied cases of professional athletes, world-class musicians, and chess grandmasters. It is no secret that these fields are considered to be highly demanding and ultra-competitive. But the question is, do we want to become masters in a highly competitive discipline or just learn something new and finally become pretty good at it? The good news is that you need much less time to achieve the latter.

    Looking at different books dedicated to the topic of skill acquisition, one can often see the chart similar to the one below.

Source: https://www.themetalearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/josh-kaufman-20-hours.png 

This graph is called the learning curve. With just a little bit of practice, you get much better in a short time, until you reach a certain level. This point is called a plateau. From now on, consecutive gains become much harder to get. During the journey of acquiring a new skill, we want to reach this point as soon as possible. In a huge number of cases, it's possible in just 20 hours. It's approximately 45 minutes per day for a month. One may ask, how this can be achieved? The key is to practice intelligently and efficiently. This involves splitting the work into four stages.

    Firstly, deconstruct the skill. It means you must exactly define what you want to learn. The important thing is it should be measurable. Then divide the skill into smaller pieces. Often something we describe as a single skill requires a wide range of various things. Secondly, learn enough to self-correct. You need to gain a skill level required to notice your mistakes and be able to fix them. This is called the learning loop. Thirdly, remove practice barriers. Dispose of things that impede your inspiration to exercise. Make it more manageable to rehearse, by removing all interruptions.

    After completing the above three steps, there is a time to exercise for a minimum of 20 hours. If you're ready to take on the challenge of learning a new skill, I'd love to hear about it in a comment. 

Questions:

1. Have you heard of the 20 hour method before?
2. What is a new skill you would like to learn?
3. Do you often think about what you could potentially do and procrastinate?

Sources: 

1. http://sourcesofinsight.com/learn-anything-20-hours/
2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3228917-outliers
3. Josh Kaufman - “The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything...Fast”