Bad news for the smokers in the UK

 Although everyone knows that smoking is extremely harmful, people don't seem to care. What influence can your addiction have on your life and more important on the quality of your life? Well, the statistics don't look too bright now: around 8 million people are smoking, 80.000 deaths from smoking diseases happen every year and what is more concerning is that approximately  200.000 children start smoking at an early age not being able to realize the consequences of their actions and how these  consequences can affect their health ( but I guess the rule of the forbidden fruit couldn't make exception in this case either).

According to Royal College, cigarettes cost 100 million lives in the UK ( unless current smokers actually quit), as an individual who is a regular smoker shortens his or her life with 10 years. No matter how many campaigns are going to be realized in order to reduce the number of smokers in the UK ( and why not in the entire world) things cannot be dramatically changed from a year to another. Even though now, there are rumors that the smoking ban is said to be extended to parks and other public areas and there are going to be taken legal action so that children can be protected from becoming second hand smokers, reality speaks for itself. Since the middle of the 20th century there has was produces a seismic shift, people started to smoke even more than they did in the past. 

So, in order to fight this battle against smoking,the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley declared in a speech at the Royal College of Physicians that this war is not over any they will continue trying to reduce the numbers of the smokers. As a next step, supermarkets will be forced to remove tobacco displays on April 6 and all other shops will have to end them in April 2015. Are these measures going to make a difference?

The next step after Harry Potter- J.K Rowling's new book

There is no doubt that Harry Potter will remain an epic story that made the entire world believe that magic exists. What was so special about it? To be honest, there was something more than the story of some young teenagers that have to face different problems, it was the story of my generation. This generation who faced, maybe not Voldemort and Death Eaters, but exams and teachers and more important this book taught us how to overstep the difficulties that most of us have.

So,it is time for a new beginning.It is time that J.K. Rowling, the author of these books moves on, continuing her path as a writer of adult books. The title, release date and details of the novel are still a mystery for everyone, but don't worry: they are going to be revealed later on this year. As she declared, "although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world."

At a certain point everyone has to grow up. So did I and so did the millions of Harry Potter's books readers. Now we will have to wait so that we can decide if the maturity of her new ideas can travel as fast as Harry Potter's books traveled some years ago.

Apple and their concern

Just a quick comment on my new discovery. I was going through The Guardian Media in the morning and I found the piece on Apple slandering Poland. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2012/mar/02/apple-poland-daily-star?INTCMP=SRCH Well, American giant went far too much, comparing their income to the national heritage. Lucky them, having half a trillion income, lucky them selling thousands tools a day... nevertheless, ''Apple is worth more than Poland'' ( 497$ bn annual income) is a bit awkward. You can not compare a country with a brand, in that negative way. And I know, it's true. A little bit of diplomacy would be thought much appreciated.
Apple never seemed good enough in PR and marketing (not responding to letters, tweets, complaints), never cared about the customers, now has gone further: they're forgetting about the audience, just after the Apple Store opened in Warsaw. Not the best publicity: myself, I'm regretting having an iPhone.

Szybki komentarz dotyczacy mojego nowego odkrycia. Przegladajac poranne wiadomosci The Guardian Media wpadlam na cudowny artykul poswiecony Apple, ktory skutecznie znizyl Polske do wartosci przedmiotu. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2012/mar/02/apple-poland-daily-star?INTCMP=SRCH Amerykanski gigant posunal sie chyba za daleko. Szczeslwie, moga pochwalic sie 500 bilionami dolarow dochodu, szczesliwie sprzedaja tysiace, albo setki iPadow dziennie. Tak czy siak 'Apple warte jest wiecej niz cala Polska' (497 bilionow dolarow dochodu) brzmi niefortunnie. Nie porownuje sie kraju z tworca MacBooka w tak niefortunny sposob. I chociaz wiemy, ze to prawda, troche dyplomacji Apple zostaloby bardzo docenione.
Apple nigdy nie wydawalo sie mistrzem PR i marketingu. Nigdy nie odpisowalo na listy, posty na Twitterze i uwagi. Teraz poszli dalej, zapominajac o swoich potencjalnych klientach, swiezo po otwarciu salonu Apple w Warszawie. To chyba nie najlepsza reklama: ja sama zaczynam zalowac, ze kupilam iPhone'a.

Maize ball

Why don't you imagine there is a small village in the north of Brazil. You live there. You own the small farm and you plant the maize. It's Thursday morning and your wife is just preparing you some porridge. Suddenly, you hear this unearthly boom. You look out the window and it seems like half of the universe fell down right on your ground. What would you do?
a) Would you lock yourself in your small hacienda and wait for redemption?
b) Would you call the Police, Army, emergency service and: media, along with The Sun on Sunday?
c) Would you go outside and play with extraordinary objects?

What would you do? Jose Valdir Mendes, who owns the farm has done nothing. He asked her wife to stay inside for couple of hours. Eventually, interested in the natural force, went outside and saw an enormous funnel in the ground with a huge ball inside, with turned out to be a part of orbiting satellite.

Wyobraźcie sobie małą wioskę na północy Brazylii. Mieszkacie tam. Jesteście właścicielami małego gospodarstwa. Sadzicie kukurydze. Jest czwartkowy poranek i Wasza żona przygotowuje Wam owsiankę. Nagle słyszycie huk. Wyglądacie za okno i wydaje Wam się, że na polu leży kawałek wszechświata. Co robicie?
a) Zamykacie się w hacjendzie i czekacie na ratunek?
b) Dzwonicie po policję, straż i służbę zdrowia oraz media: w tym The Sun on Sunday?
c) Wychodzicie na zewnątrz i oglądacie kosmiczne obiekty?

Co robicie? Jose Valdir Mendes, który jest właścicielem owej farmy nie zrobił nic. Rozkazał żonie zostać w środku na kilka godzin. Wreszcie, zaciekawiony super nienaturalnym zjawiskiem, wyszedł z domu i zobaczył ogromny lejek, a w nim: kulę, która okazała się kawałkiem sztucznego satelity.

Modern Robin Hood

Do you remember The Robin Hood? It's the one who took away from the rich and gave to the poor. Contemporary philosophers are wondering, whether it was good - natured and ethical, really... but nevertheles: he was a hero. Just like 48 years old Emma Harrison, which gave the job to hundreds of thousands people in the United Kingdom. Is she a hero? Not necessarily. Robin Hood used to live in a forest, she is staying in worth millions pounds residence. Her company earned last year about £180m. She paid herself almost nine millions.
The company A4e, which is being funded by The Government was established in 1991. As the founder admits: 'our main goal is to improve people's lives'. So far, she has easily improved her own, living in the villa with a cinema, night club, couple of pools and 100 acres of land. The company: Action for Employment claims that only providing this £9m Emma is able to pay herself back the stress and risk she incurs at work. Apparently, it is still not enough for to whom it may concern. Emma earns quite a lot on her home, which she has previously hired to the company owned for... £462m. Besides, there work of a4e seems to be dubious. According to the Daily Mail, the agency managed to place people in jobs that lested no more than 24 hours, but a4e took the payment-by-result money from the Deparment of Work and Pensions.
Emma, after her previously faithful firends, seeks publicity. Widely known to British media, has performed in 'Make me a Million', 'Benefit Busters' (Channel 4) and 'Rich and Jobless' (BBC1). The last title strongly relates to Mrs Harrison, which quickly and easily took advantage of her unemployed. Now, they hold it against her. Just like The Scotland Yard, who investigates Emma for fraud.

Pamiętacie Robin Hooda? To ten, który zabierał bogatym i dawał biednym. Współcześni filozofowie zastanawiają się nad robinhoodowską etyką, ale abstrahując od sporu: był bohaterem. Zupełnie jak 48 - letnia Emma Harrison, która dała pracę setkom tysiecy ludzi w Wielkiej Brytanii. Jest bohaterką? Niekoniecznie. Robin Hood mieszkał w lesie, ona mieszka w wartej miliony funtów willi. W zeszłym roku jej firma zajmująca się poszukiwaniem pracy dla 'długoletnich' bezrobotnych, zarobiła 180 milionów. Sama Emma, prawie dziewięć.
Sponsorowana przez brytyjski rząd firma a4e działa od 21 lat. Jak mówi założycielka: chcemy poprawiać ludzkie życia. Jak dotąd, wspaniale poprawia swoje. Mieszka w willi z barem, klubem nocnym, basenami i 100 - akrowym gospodarstwem. Jej organizacja: 'Akcja dla zatrudnienia' (Action for employment) utrzymuje, ze tylko dzieki 9 milionom zarobku, Emma jest w stanie odplacic sobie stres i ryzyko, ktore w pracy ponosi. Okazuje sie jednak, ze samej zainteresowanej te pieniadze nie wystarczaja. Zarabia nawet na domu, ktory wynajela wlasnej firmie jako miejsce kilkudniowego zebrania za... bagatela 462 miliony funtow. Oprocz przekretow pienieznych, dochodza tez te zwiazane z dzialalnoscia a4e. Daily Mail donosi, ze czesc z bedacych pod jej opieka bezrobotnych otrzymala prace trwajaca 24 godziny, a sama firma: zwrot pelnej kwoty od Departamentu Pracy i Emerytur Brytyjskiego Rzadu.
Emma, wedlug oddanych jej wczesniej przyjaciol, zatraca sie i szuka reklamy. Bardzo popularna w swiecie brytyjskich mediow, ma za soba wystepy  miedzy innymi w 'Make me a million', 'Benefit Busters' (Channel 4) i 'Rich and Jobless' (BBC1). Tytul tego ostatniego doskonale zdradza charakter Pani Harrison, ktora szybko i latwo zarobila na swoich bezrobotnych. Oni sami, maja jej to teraz za zle. Tak jak Scotland Yard, ktory prowadzi sledztwo w sprawie oszustwa finansowego.

The advert that can tell who you are

If a few years ago we were able to differentiate between what is reality and what is not, today films have been only a continuity of what we are living in our everyday life.

Well, as I have a particular interest in what is related to media and advertising , I found out about this new advert that is now in London, the advert that can "read" passers-by. It customizes its content to match the people's wishes. I know, this idea seems to be taken from a movie. To be honest, I think that the people who thought about it were visualizing the sci-fi film, Minority Report. Maybe that is the reason why Tom Cruise ( who is playing the main character) is often used as aN example.

Technologists call it The Star Trek effect. Why? Simple: because every time people are presented sci-fi imaginary gadgets on screen ( touch screen, social networking, iris recognition), scientists are making everything humanly possible to transform the film into reality. That is what happened with this ad.

Even though the number of ads that a person is bombarded every day (more 300 in case you were wondering) it's worth making the distinction about what is really important to remember. Children charity "Plan UK" installed this board on Oxford Street that is able to tell the gender of the passers- by. It's using facing recognition, so if the person who is looking at the ad is female, she will see something different from a male. It sounds like future...Maybe it is!

So, if you happen to pass on Oxford Street look after this ad and prepare to be surprised! 

School not for boys

Despite all the advantages of being a boy when you're twelve ( playing football, wearing trousers and learn how to swear ) it is apparently terribly hard to be a schoolboy in the UK. You can make every effort, but if your work is going to be marked by female teacher - you lost. The Centre for Economic Performance published the report which accuses mistresses of giving lower marks... to boys only. Now we know why pupils prefer to play outside, rather than listen to furious lady, who, additionally is trying to ruin their grades. According to one of the country's leading academic researchers, the result is 'fascinating'. Boys don't seem to be that happy. However, it is not as bad as it seems, as much as 15% of teachers are man!
It seems like the research revealed the truth that we all know. My former history teacher was that fascinated with boys, that none of them ever appeared on the exam, knowing the promotion will be given anyway. Otherwise, my poor mum could not pass her economy exam, because of the lecturer who loved her that much and never let her go. How is it in your school? Did you ever struggle to outsmart your teacher with girly dress or gallant smile?

Pomimo wszystkich niepodważalnych pozytywów bycia dwunastoletnim chłopcem ( granie w piłkę, chodzenie w spodniach, nauka pierwszych przekleństw ), najwidoczniej niezmiernie trudno jest być uczniem w brytyjskiej szkole. Możesz wylewać ostatnie poty, ale w konfrontacji z nauczycielką (!) nie masz szans. The Centre for Economic Performance opublikowało raport, który oskarża kobiety i zaniżanie ocen... chłopcom. Wiemy już, dlaczego dzieciaki wolą wagarować, niż wysłuchiwać wściekłej nauczycielki, która też z powodzeniem rujnuje ich świadectwa. Według jednego z ekspertów w dziedzinie brytyjskiej edukacji, wynik ten jest fascynujący. Mniej zafascynowani wydają się uczniowie. Nie jest jednak najgorzej, całe 15% grona pedagogicznego stanowią mężczyźni.
Wynik nie jest chyba zaskakujący. Moja była nauczycielka historii tak uwielbiała chłopców, że żaden z nich nie pojawiał się na klasówkach, wiedząc, że i tak do matury przystąpi. Moja mama - na przekór - nie mogła zdać egzaminu z ekonomii, bo zakochał się w niej prowadzący. Jak to jest w Waszej szkole? Mieliście okazję przekupić nauczyciela sukienką albo szarmanckim męskim uśmiechem?