Author Archives: Alicja Klimkowska

10 January 2021
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TikTok

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During quarantine many people started doing many creative things, one of them was TikTok.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media application, targeting the age group 13-20. The main function is creating and posting short videos from 15 or 60 seconds long, with the content which is creative, educational, funny and emotional. It was established by the Chinese company ByteDance in September 2016.

Why is it so popular?

TikTok is skyrocketing its popularity among generations. It is easy to use and create short videos.

Celebrity endorsements – several celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon, have helped drive TikTok’s popularity

Localized content – the app often runs local contests and challenges and captures local trends using localized hashtags.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-tiktok/

But most importantly, TikTok is very entertaining, so many people are not posting but only watching. You can find everything you are interested in. TikTok contain:

  • Many funny videos to brighten your day
  • Dancers and singers so you can enjoy some art (especially during COVID-19 times)
  • Educational and craft videos to learn something new
  • And much more.

Why is TikTok is so addictive?

TikTok has a special algorithm to chose videos you will enjoy based on your history, likes and followers. Moreover, the app s very easy to use, and you see so many exciting videos, but you never knew what is coming next. Last but not least, the videos are short, compact and brief.

Sources:

https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-tiktok/

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Tiktok-so-addictive

2 January 2021
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Renewable resources – Solar Panels

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In today’s world, we already have five renewable resources biomass energy, hydropower, geothermal power, wind energy, and solar energy. I would like to focus on the one you can install even in your house: Solar Panels.

What are solar panels?

The simplest form of energy that can be obtained is solar energy. That is why solar panels were created. Photovoltaics is a process in which, thanks to its panels, we can obtain electricity from the sun. Solar panels are placed on the roof to collect energy from the sun and use it for free electricity.

How do they work?

The solar panels’ principle of working is that the photovoltaic cells that create the panels convert solar energy into electricity. A photon which is, the minimum unit of light falls on a silicon wafer that is a photovoltaic cell.

Why solar panels are good?

The most important thing about photovoltaics is that they are a renewable source of electricity and has no negative impact on the environment. Unlike fossil fuels, the sun creates much more energy than human needs.
Additionally, while using solar panels to generate electricity, no greenhouse gases emissions (carbon dioxide CO2) are released into the atmosphere.

The costs

Photovoltaic panels are costly. Of course, it all depends on how many panels you are planning to have, but they seem to decrease their price form year too another. However, once the solar panels are installed at someone’s property, they save a lot of money, because they do not use electricity from the powerhouse, but they are producing energy themselves. This means not paying electricity bills for the rest of your stay in this house.

To conclude, solar panels are desperately needed in our world. They are reducing CO2 emission and will not end anytime soon. They are expensive to install for a private person, but it gains profits after years, for not paying electricity bills. So I leave you with the question: Should we do solar panel installations in our homes our New Year’s resolution?

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/41995-how-do-solar-panels-work.html

https://www.fortum.com/about-us/our-company/our-energy-production/solar-power-unlimited-source-energy

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/how-does-solar-work

22 December 2020
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Autonomous vehicles

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Have you ever watched “Back to the future”? They predicted that in 2015 we will have flying, driverless cars. For flying cars we will have to wait a bit more, but today I will focus on something which already exists: autonomous vehicles and if we people are ready for them.

In the media there is a big discussion whether autonomous cars will make our lives easier and safer, or there will be more accidents because the system will fail. Additionally, there are many voices of people, which are just scared of losing control over the car.

What is an autonomous car?

Seemingly ordinary car, but when you step inside it, it starts to be extraordinary. There is no wheel, no pedals, you have 5 passengers seats. It is remotely connected and automated vehicle. But besides typical equipment of car you can find a AI system which is programmed to arrive to destination you put into your GPS and being thought the speed limit, road signs and many maneuvers which are possible during driving a car, as well as many cameras so car can watch the surroundings and be prepare to drive once the conditions change. Moreover, the design of the car is also very streamlined and modern.

 

Pros

  •  Safe for you and surroundings around, because using data autonomous cars can predict human behaviors as well as the machine will not answer the phone, which could distract the driver at any moment
  •   Comfort, in an autonomous car, the driver can read a book, check news from around the world or reply to an email.
  • Autonomous cars are economical and careful
  • Autonomous metro in many cities around the world has been standard for years
  • The car can really quickly change and adapt to the weather (rain, snow)
  •  Electric cars → eco-friendly, no emission of CO2
  • People get tired, their vigilance and concentration are distracted, they use smartphones, make calls, listen to music, think about private or business matters, get nervous when they stand in traffic jams, they get nervous when they cannot find a parking space, and in addition they simply have worse or better days.
  • Autonomous cars are thought patterns in traffic or in between car interaction and they will reduce traffic when every car will be autonomous
  • Creating new jobs (people who will be working on creating AV)

 

Cons 

  • AI will never have emotions or imagination like humans
  • Some technical errors → human can react really fast, and system might fail
  • Unregulated Industry (who will be responsible for the disaster)
  • Job loss in the transport industry (Uber, taxi, delivery people)
  • Really high costs of cars
  • No entertainment for people who like to drive, because there is a lot of people who likes to drive a car, and this makes them relaxed
  • Accident on the highway and it will try to avoid it, but it will not see the car which is speeding
  •  Hackers can hack your car
  • Not enough accurate data, which will teach a machine to learn human behaviors
  • More cars, and possibility of disappearing public transport in the future
  • Not many charging stations

Why don’t we want to drive autonomous cars?

Firstly, we are afraid to give up a control. Many people struggle when they cannot control everything, and there is a car where you do not need to do anything just set up the GPS and go.
Secondly, we do not trust it with our lives and our family. It is a big scare factor for humans. We think that machine cannot make a choice for us to save us.
And last but not least we fear from unknown. This is something new for most of us, we do not fully know it, we cannot fully accept and give the control to the machine. But I would like to leave you with one important question: What would your great grand parents say, if you would tell them that you took money out of the wall?

 

Resources:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/428639/reasons-why-us-drivers-are-likely-to-purchase-a-fully-autonomous-car/

https://www.bosch.com/stories/economic-impact-of-self-driving-cars/

https://www.driverlessguru.com/self-driving-cars-facts-and-figures

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/14/21063487/self-driving-cars-autonomous-vehicles-waymo-cruise-uber