Great Inventions part 8

Great Inventions part 8

Car:
Car is a wheeled self-powered motor vehicle used for transport. The first motor vehicle ever created was a car artillery made by french military engineer N. J. Cugnot in 1769. Due to high weight of steam engine almost all vehicles created in that time were the prototypes of steam stagecoaches. In XIX century the elecrtric cars - vechicles driven by energy from battery started to appear. At the end of XIX century this type of cars reached stunning speed of 100km/h. The first vechicle with internal combustion engine was invented in 1875 by S. Marcus and despite reaching the max speed of 6km/h it is said to be the prototype of modern car. Next important moment in history of automotive was invention of high-speed petrol engine in 1883 and vechicle equipped with it in 1886 by G. Daimler. In the same year K. Benz created his own model of car. In 1890 both of them are setting up their car factories in 1926 after many years of fierce competition their companies merge creating Daimler-Benz Company. At first all cars had shape of horse-drawn carriage which changed as a result of car accident during race in 1900, when driver of one of the Daimler's car died.
Cugnot's vechicle:

Great Inventions part 7

Great Inventions part 7

Incandescent light bulb:
Light bulb is an electric light with a wire filament heated to such a high temperature that it glows with a visible light. The fliament heated by passing an electric current is protected from oxidation with a glass or quartz bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. The first recorded inventor of a light bulb was de Moleyns who in 1841 created a small electric lamp. It wasn't very successful invention because the platinum wire he used was easily melting. Much better was a bulb with carbon fiber obtained from charred bamboo created in 1854 by Henry Goebel. The third bulb inventor Alexander Łodygin's creation in 1873 lighted for 30 minutes. Among the light bulb inventors two of them stood out: Joseph Wilson Swan who used bayonet base in his bulb which in 1878 lighted for 13,5 hours and Tomas Alva Edison whose bulb in 1879 lasted for tens of hours. Swan's patent blocked the european market from Edison so they started the company named "Siemens Edison Swan". Till today we use Edison's bulbs with threaded shaft (Edison - E27) in our houses and Swan's bayonet base in car lights.
                           Edison's light bulbs:

Great Inventions part 6

Great Inventions part 6

Telescope:
Lenses were used for cenruries until someone found out that combining two lenses together enlarge the image. Probably the first one who did it was one of Dutch glasses maker in XVII century. Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Jenssen and Jacob Metius are the three whom the development of refracting telescope is credited. Hans patented his project in 1608 and started to manufacture it. Dutch government bought them for army because they quickly realized how usefull it is for marine. In 1609 Galileo heard about Dutch telescope, within a month he built his own and improved it in the following year. In the same year he become the first pearson who point the telescope skyward in order to make telescopic obeservations of the celestial object. Using the telescope Galileo made some crucial discoveries for astronomy and changed the point of view about the structure of the universe. In 1668 Isaac Newton using not only lenses but also mirrors created a reflecting telescope in which do not occure chromatic aberrations (colors distortions) unlike in the refracting ones. Invetion of achromatic lenses in 1733 which partialy corrected color aberrations enabled to produce shorter and more functional refracting telescopes.

Newtonian Telescope:  

Chromatic Aberration:

     

Great Inventions part 5

Great Inventions part 5

According to the comment below the previous post about Steam engine - James Watt introduced some crucial improvements to steam engine and because of that he is said to be the one who started the Industrial age. Maybe that's why he comes to your mind when You think about the steam engine.

Refirigerator:
Before the invention of refrigerator people used icehouses to storage food for the most of the day. Basically it was a hole below the ground level filled with snow and ice where you store food to keep it fresh for longer. The first who invented something like refrigerator was professor William Cullen in 1755. He used a pump to create a partial vacuum over a container of diethyl ether, which then boiled, absorbing heat from the surrounding air. This experiment created a small amount of ice but have no practical usage at that time. In 1805 Oliver Evans described a closed vapor-compression refrigeration cycle for the production of ice. Thanks to the British scientist Michael Faraday (the same one who is known from his Faraday cage) who liquified ammonia and other gases by using high pressures and low temperatures in 1820, 14 years later Jacob Perkins invented the first vapor-compression refrigerator system which could operate continously. The refrigerators for home and domestic use was created in 1913. The first company that succeed in commercialising fridges was Electrolux.
                             Scheme of refrigerator:

Great Inventions part 4

Great Inventions part 4

Steam engine:

It's a heat engine that uses steam as working fluid to perform mechanical work. The first steam engine was aeolipile (also known as Heron's Engine) created in the 1st century AD  by Heron from Alexandria. His invention was a cupola rotated by vapor stream from bent metal tubes. It didn't have any practical use back then but in fact it was a complete model of steam turbine. In 1690 Denis Papin created a cylinder with piston and little amount of water on the bottom, which was heated to pull up the piston and after removing the source of heat steam was condensing and the piston was moving. Due to too low thermal efficiency his machine couldn't work properly but the year of his invention is considered as the birth of steam engine. The first useful steam- powered machine was a pump for dewatering mines created by Thomas Savery in 1690. His invention had the power of 1 horsepower (750W). In 1712 Thomas Newcomen improved Savery's machine to piston atmospheric steam engine. In 1883 Carl Lavar created action turbine and year later Charles Parsons  created reaction engine.

Great Inventions part 3

Great Inventions part 3
"Four Great Inventions" (part 2/2)

Papermaking:
Paper was used already in about 2nd century BC for wrapping and padding, but paper mass production was invented in about 100 AD. First sheets of paper were made of mulberry and other bast fibres, fishnets, old rugs and hemp waste. Using paper as writing medium was widespread by 3rd century AD. By 6th century paper in China paper sheets begun to be used as a toilet paper and one century later it was folded and sewn to create bags for tea. The paper currency was first developed in 7th century but it wasn't really used until 11th century.

Printing:
Woodblock printing was first found in China is about 220 AD and futher advanced by 11th century. In China was also invented movable type of printing but because of the number of chinese characters it wasn't that popular. Creating a book by using printing method was long and tedious work due to the need to assemble thousands of individual characters but if the same book must have been be copied thousand times it became eventually more efficient than rewriting.

According to the comment below the first part of "Four Great Inventions" these inventions are so important to China because none of them were reinvented in Europe but they were brought there from China. Of course they were very much improved in Europe (like modern dry compass and western printing press).

Great Inventions part 2

Great Inventions part 2
Today let's look at "Four Great Inventions". (part 1/2)

This term describes four inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology.

Compass:
The first one is Compass. Invented in about 200 BC during the Han Dynasty but it wasn't used for navigation but for geomancy and fortune-telling. The earliest reference of usage for navigation comes from the book dated to 1040-1044. Initially the lodestone compass was a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water(known as "wet compass").

Gunpowder:
It was discovered in 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality. During this time the gunpowder formulas' nitrate level was between 27% and 50%. By the end of 12th century formulas was improved and capable to be used in the earliest granades.
In 1280 there was a fire in a bomb store in arsenal in Weiyang which caused  great explosion where 100 guards were killed instantly and wooden pillars were blown to the sky for a distance of 3 km away.
In 14th century the quality of gunpowder allowed to produce first gunpowder powered guns.


Phrases from "Ted":
Baloney - something not true
Example: I think that UFO is utter baloney.
Split-second - very short period of time
Example: They time I had to make a split-second decision.

Great Inventions part 1

Great inventions part 1
Let's start with something that certainly nobody expected - Fire and Wheel.

The discovery how to ignite, keep and control fire is dated back 75 thousand years ago. Prehistoric people used it to cook their meals and create tools. The first methods to ignite the fire were bow drill also called fire drill, hand drill and fire plough - these are methods based on friction. Also the most primal method was striking a stone onto another stone - this is called percussion method.
This discovery is probably the most important of all. Becouse of this people could craft more advansed tool or prepare better food which contributed in human evolution. This is also the first thing that distinguish human from animals.

Now lets look at the Wheel. It was invented in Mesopotamia about 3500 BCE and used to build first wagons (4 wheels, 2 axles) - used for transport and a potter's wheel - first machine based on rotary motion which made the production of dishes way easier and contributed in creation of the first profession - a potter. Later people invented more machinse based on wheel such as lathe, reel, pulley, rotary quern and gear. Wheel unlike fire mayby not help in human evolution in a biolgical terms but surly accerelated the evolution in technology.

Moon formation theory phrases:
To break sth off - to sepatate a part of sth from the biggest part
Example: Big iceberg broke off the ice shelf at the north pole.
To gaze up - to stare at sth above
Example: Many people love to gaze up at the stars.
Debris - fragments, remains of sth
Example: The Moon is probably made of the debris of the Earth.

House M. D. s01e10 "Histories"

In today's episode of House M. D. Dr Wilson asked House to take a case of homeless woman. Dr Foreman was against it becouse he thought that the patient is simulating to get some free meals. The thing that House found interesting is why Wilson wanted to treat the woman and why Forman didn't. House decided to look at their families history to find some clues. When Wilson found out what House did he called him "limping twerp" but then he told him about his brother who left his family and Wilson never saw him again and that's why he wanted to treat random homeless pearson.
Treating the patient wasn't an easy job becouse there was no family records and information about woman due to her homelessness. In the end House figured out that she has a very rare disease that occurred only 10 times in last 20 years and unfortunately it's incurable.
Meanwhile Dr Cuddy forced a house to teach 2 medical students about patient histories. In brief at first they thought that House is a jerk then they saw how intelligent and wise he is and eventually they described him as a brilliant jerk.
Phrase: "Mazel tov" - this phrase was adapted from hebrew and it means "happiness" or "congratulations".

House M. D. s01e09 "DNR"

In this week's episode House took the case of a musician with paralyzed legs who suddenly got problems with breathing. House wasn't interested in pneumonia - the reason why the patient came to the hospital but in paralysis which occurred half year before. Musician's personal doctor said that it was an uncurable disease called ALS, but House wanted to check it himself. He got in trouble becouse when the patient got lung obstruction House reanimated him despite the fact that musician signed the DNR (which is a phrase of the week) - "Do not resuscitate" document. He sued House becouse he preferred to die for lung obstruction rather than for long agony caused by ALS. In court House persuaded the judge, using Sixth Amendment Right which says that he has right to meet his prosecutor in court, to prevent the patient to "pull out his plug". This gave House enough time to figure out what the real problem is and cure the patient.
Meanwhile Foreman got job offer from musician's doctor who was Foreman's old friend. Eventually House persuaded him to stay by telling him that maybe his friend forgives him his faults but House abuses Foreman becouse he care what he does.

House M. D. s01e08 "Poison"

This time House's team is trying to cure a teenager who got unconscious during math test. The main problem they have is not a disease but overprotective mother of the patient. She questions all their decisions and diagnoses which almost killed her son. Obviously she thinks that this is House's fault. This is the type of character in film or series I hate most.
In this episode Cameron and Chase note similarity between House and Foreman. Foreman of course tries to prove that they are wrong but he notice that sometimes he act exactly like House and wear the same type of clothes which at the end suprisingly doesn't make him mad.
I also perceived that House is always shown as the wisest and the brightest even if he is wrong. I know that it's necessary to make it rummy (which in Google translator means "interesting") but this is the only thing I don't like in this series.
I didn't noticed any interesting phrase this time. Usually the come from House but in this episode he mostly used irony than idioms.

House M. D. s01e07 "Fidelity"

This episode of House M. D. Is really hard to comment. There are no interesting events to describe in general and if I tried to describe relations and meaning of characters comments to each other the post would be 300 words long and probably very boring to read. The main plot of this week episode is about patient who got African sleeping illness becouse she had an affair and she don't want to admit it and her husband who don't believe it and can't deal with it. There are also House's team members opinions about trust, fidelity and their source in their past. There is also humorous thread about Dr House's attitude to Dr Foreman. In Foreman's opinion House is racist becouse he gives him tasks based on his skin color like lying to the patient or burglary. House said that it's true and he doesn't think that this is wrong which confuse Foreman. He said that these are things that Foreman is best at.
Phrase I enjoyed: "no pain no gain" it means that discomfort is necessary to archive goals and it has equivalent in Polish.

Answer to Kevin Dettmar's review

Dear Editor
About 2 years ago you wrote a review of a film "Dead Poets Society". Your attitude was very negative,  you criticized almost every aspect of the movie. I think that some of your arguments are good and you truly considered them and some of them seems very biased and for me you invented them only to make your review more critical and controversial.
I think that the image of the teacher in this film is misleading as well becouse obviously if all teachers are like Mr Keating we won't learn anything like math or history.
Also I agree with you that Mr Keating is a Lost Boy. On some level he tries to make his students the same as he is. He doesn't accept the fact that these boys can be not ready for mature life and to think for themselves.
On the other hand I disagree with your argument that it is bad that Mr Keating teach his students to "feel" the poem and not to understand it. Maybe I'm wrong but isn't "feeling" the poem the reason for what somebody wrote it?
Likewise I don't agree with you that Mr Keating didn't teach his students freedom and to think for themselves. It is true that he showed them his point of view but his point was to show them that there is always another way to think. I think that the allusion to recreate Dead Poets Society was the way to show them freedom and to find their points of view about poems and life.
Your last argument was that Mr Keating eventually didn't teach his students nothing about English. I agree as well as I disagree with this. In fact he didn't teach them anything about understanding of poems or things that they will need at college but his lessons about freedom, other points of view, and "feeling" the poems can't be called "nothing".
Yours sincerely
Reader

House s01e06 "The Socratic Method"

This post I would like to start from phrase I found interesting becouse whole plot of this week episode is based on it. "Socratic Method" is a form of dialogue in which interlocutors are asking and answering questions to find if their theory is true or false. In this episode House is trying to treat a woman with schizophrenia from the couse of the clot. Becouse there can be plenty of reasons of the clot each member of House's team has his own theory and using Socratic Method they are trying to figure out which one is the best. The rummy thing in this episode is the fact that House refused to say that he took this case only becouse of schizophrenia but eventually when he treated his patient from psychical and mental disease he found out that for him the woman is no longer interesting.

House M. D. s01e05 "Damned if you do"

This case was about a nun who came to clinic becouse of chemical burns on her hands. House gave her an injection of a anti-allergic medicine but she got much worse a couple of minutes later. Cuddy -  the head of the hospital assumed that it was House's fault become he gave the nun too high dose of the drug. House of course didn't belive that he could made a mistake. Eventually he found out that the nun has been allergic to a copper and she got sick because of the copper cross inside of her which was form of birth control in '80.
Whole episode is connected to faith. House obviously doesn't believe in God and divine judgments, his friend Wilson is jewish, 2 people of his team are unbelieving and the third one is a christian. Most of them concluded that in the case of health it is better to trust House than a God.

Phrase (2 this time becouse both of them I found interesting equally):
1) "Hippocratic oath" - oath that ancient doctors made. It was a basis of today's medical ethics.
2) "Damned if you do.  Damned if you don't." - in a simple words - "You are screwed either way"

House M. D. s01e04 "Maternity"

This episode of House M. D. was more serious than others. This time the patients were 6 infants who got sick simultaneously about 72 hours after beeing born. House discovered that there was infection in the hospital which was weird becouse infants were on the different floors so nobody knew what could be the reason. The infants were given 2 types of medicines for most common baby diseases but after a couple of hours turned out that one medicine was helping slightly however the other one made the kidney failure. There was no clue which medicine is good and which is bad so House made a hard decision to discontinue one of 2 medicines for 2 babies, different for each one. Only he was able to decided to do that becouse everybody knew that one infant would die and it did. The rest of babies got well soon after this incident. 2 members of the House team had some hard time during this case becouse they must inform parents about their baby's death.
Phrase: "needle in the haystack" - this one suprised me becouse I didn't know that there is equivalent of this proverb in english.

Is Mr Keating a good teacher?

Mr Keating is an english teacher in the school in film "Dead Poets Society". For me the answer for that question is quite clear. I think that he is great teacher but he also makes mistakes. He teaches in an unconventional way. His main point is to teach his students how to think for themselves, to be independent, to give them some freedom and to not be afraid of doing what they wanted, in their lifes to do. In that times his teaching method was surely controversial especially in good traditional school where where discipline was very common and expected. As a graduate he experienced it by himself. He encouraged his students to read and understand the true meaning of poetry and becouse of that they started to read and write poems on their own. His lessons made his students to overcome their fears like Todd Anderson's fear of speaking in public and shyness and Neil Perry's fear of strict parents. He made a mistake by thinking that all of his students are smart enough to understand his lessons and to not consider them as harmful. Becouse of misunderstanding headteacher started to thought that he encourage students to break rules. On the other hand the scene when half of the students stood on their desks in expression of respect and gratitude shows that his time and effort were not wasted.  To sum up I think that he is good at teaching but his method outdid his era.

House M. D. s01e03 "Occam's razor"

In this episode House took the case of a teenager who had got sick and had several symptoms that together didn't fit to any disease. House decided to give patient some medicines for casual diseases but obviously (just like in all episodes of entire 6 seasons)  they only caused more trouble. Eventually House got the idea while he was arguing with Wilson about his attitude towards patients. Maybe he looks like a pearson who doesn't care about other people but in fact he just doesn't show his feelings to don't get distracted.
Phrase I enjoyed: same as the title - "Occam's razor" also known as "law of parsimony". It's a problem-solving principle which says that we should choose the  most simple theory with the fewest assumptions. 

House M. D. s01e02 "Paternity"

In this episode Dr House is trying to treat a 16 year old boy who has night terror connected to brain disfunction. Every diagnose that House and his team made came out as wrong and kid is getting worse. Meanwhile House bet with whole team,  his friend Wilson and his boss Cuddy that patient parents lied to him that they are not biological parents of the kid. House won the bet by doing the DNA test with parents coffee cups. This fact came to be crucial clue to figure out what disease did the boy have.
During work with very sick patients House has to do a few hours  clinic work a day. There are usually people who are very stupid what House prove to them in not very polite way.
Phrase I enjoyed: "I'm a people pearson"
Dr House said that to patient in clinic.  It was very ironical bicouse noone thinks that middle-aged doctor with a cane is in fact the most cynical and impolite pearson in the whole country.

House M. D. s01e01 "Everybody lies"

Our new task is to write a review and a comment of  a chosen TV series.  I chose House M. D. I watched it already few years ago but I liked it very much so I don't mind watching it again. The series is about a doctor named Gregory House.  He is eccentric, cynical, impolite, honest, bright and very intelligent pearson. He is a boss of a "special cases" ward. He treats people with unusual diseases.

In this episode his patient is a woman who works in a kindergarden. During the lesson she got problems with talking and eventually epileptic attack. At first it was thought that she has a tumor but after some testing and thinking House figured out that she has a tapeworm in her head.
I liked this episode mainly becouse of the main character whose personality is great and very funny. His cynicism and intelligence is a hilarious connection.  The thing I like the most is that House treats everybody like an idiots.

Phrase I enjoyed:
"Humanity is overrated"
House said that after a sentence "I don't like talking to patients, they can lie to you but you can't lie to them"

(I watch this series with a english subtitles to understand the medical terms I'm not familiar with)

Natalia's blog review

I think that your blog is very good . First of all your posts are suprisingly long. You usually don't look like a pearson who like to talk much. Your posts are pleasant to read becouse of your writing style. When I'm reading your blog I fell like I'm listening to the interview rather than just reading. It's clear that you pay attention and concentrate while writing. Your posts didn't change much since the beginning of the term but I don't think that they really need changing at all. I don't see any big grammar mistakes (probably becouse I'm not very good at grammar), but sometimes your posts are slightly chaotic and unorganized.
To sum up your blog is well-written and I found it very interesting. I think that you are one of the best writers in our class.