For the Independence Day - 8 Polish inventions world would have difficulties to exist without:

1.
Process of natural oil refining done by Ignacy Łukasiewicz -and the actual oil industry

That dude thought it was a nice idea to pump the black stuff from the depth of the Earth and change it into something useful. He invented gasoline, and a lot of other useful stuff. He was also the owner of the first oil drill in the word.

Why should you care? 
...well everyone loves driving, right?

2.
Manual mine detector 

Józef Kosacki (1909–1990) was an officer in the Polish Army during World War II. Like many soldiers at the time he really did not fancy losing parts legs or life. With this in mind Kosacki invented the Mine detector (Polish) Mark I in 1942. It was the first mine detector that could be carried around and operated by one man and the Mark 4c version remained in service with the British Army until 1995. Later versions are just a follow up of the previous one.

Why should you care? 

Well, you probably don't have to if you live in Chicago or Warsaw. But if you live in Kabul you may find the idea of mine detection handy.


3.
The Bulletproof Vest
It’s true that the Chinese or the Koreans or somebody messed about with the idea of bulletproof vests in the 1850s but the first true bulletproof vest of the kind you would recognize today was invented by a Polish priest in Chicago in 1893.

Kazimierz Żegleń was born near Tarnopol (now Ternopil in western Ukraine) in 1869. He moved to Chicago where he had been a priest for over 40 000 people. If he wasn't praying, he tried to invent a bulletproof vest. Noone really knows why, but I guess because people in Chicago carried a lot of guns around  and weren't that friendly.

Why should you care?

If you are in the army, you do care. Current model in use is only a follow up to the original.

4.
Radiation - the idea that some of the elements in nature are the source of  ionizing radiation and that it can be used for both medicine and killing

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences.

Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres.

When she was dying, she was already aware of the fate radiation brings to the world, and that it will be used for nuclear weapons just as much as for medical purposes...if not more.


Why should you care? 

Well if you don't by now, I cannot convince you.

5.
First effective vaccine against epidemic typhus

Invented by Polish born biologist and chemist dr Rudolf Weigl many years ago. Another thing is that dr Weigl used typhus research to help rescue Jews during the WWII - he claimed he needs volunteers to test the vaccine.

6.
Silicone processing 

Jan Czochralski invented method which is till now used to process industrial silicone for electronics.

Why should you care? 

Can you imagine not having a laptop now?

Or not using Facebook?

7.
Graphen processing

Speaking of computers. Another generation of material used for the same purpose in electronics was invented in Poland too.  To be exact we invented how to cheaply produce it - and it makes it global technology now.

I always claimed that Polish equivalent of Samsung could be created based on it, but hell, we sell the material globally and who knows, maybe these dudes will invent something more?

Why should you care? 

Do you want to have a laptop which you can roll into your pocket? And cheap one?
Soon you will. 

8.
Digital reading apps for blind people - digital Braille 

ZZ Braille Reader   is used by many people now. Done by young Polish student Karol Stosik who won Imagine Cup 2012

Overally Polish students won Imagine Cup for 21 times now with far more things than I can remember.

Why should you care?

Yeah I know it intimidates. Polish women are one of the most beautiful in the world and the whole population smart. So if you want to have smart kids, you should get some Polish genes. 

There are plenty of other things we invented or work on.

We don't have leading global technology businesses yet, but remember that 25 years ago we had been a communist state with empty shelves on the shops.

Happy Independence Day to all Polish people :)

I wish you plenty of ideas, courage and hope. 

Let's unite for technology.

My first ever trip abroad

No idea what got me to write this entry. Had it been recent remarks from an Indian friend that I don't stick my nose from the comfort zone and must meet more people?

I very definately don't just stick to my comfort zone, however we all need mental comfort of sticking to those who are worth sticking to, that's my answer.

But regarding the rest he was right. I am a born traveller who got stuck on the couch a little bit for recent 2 years afraid of new chalenges and happy with safe mundane daily routines.

And yet I love being in different places which stumulate me enough to feel I am alive.

I remember how I got abroad for the first time. Not abroad to Slovakia via a mountain border, but really abroad and really to the West.

I was 19 when I won some contest for young brains. The reward was a summer school of National Trust with some collaboration with the University of Cambridge.

Dedham village pictured by John Constable. He was one of the first landscape painters in the world and is by far one of the most famous British artists ever.


I packed my suitcase and went to London. First real challenge was getting through the border control. I heard so many stories of people who got returned at the Heathrow airport without any reason that my legs were a little bit trembling when I approached Immigration Officer.

My mom was wise. She told me: "Who cares you are just a teenager from a middle income household? I will give you my old credit cards and let's make sure you dress nicely. You must really look rich and they will let you in". So she was right, I had my best outfit on myself and made sure the IO had seen the content of my wallet as I pretended to look for some paper in it.

I was in :) And out to the airport hall of Heathrow Terminal 2.

My taxi driver was not there. It was really the first time I had to speak English not at school but to really English people and it was a bit of stress too. I approached the Information Desk, said who I am and what happened. They told me to patiently wait and soon indeed my taxi driver arrived. He excused himself and told me he got stuck in traffic en route.

Willy Lotts House

It was late. I have not seen much from the car because it was already dark and I might have slept on the way. I learnt from that guy he was a single parent, a father of a teenage girl struggling to make ends meet. Courses to Heathrow to pick up clients of Flatford Mill was a big part of his monthly income.

I was greeted by the Head of the Field Study Council and shown my room. On later days everyone was so curious of me. They frankly had never met a foreigner from Eastern Europe before.

For me it also was a great experience. In Poland I was persecuted at school for my brains and probably for wearing one pair of jeans throuought high school as it was financially difficult time for my family. Used to being always poked and critisized I was initially scared of them all so hardly approached people. I remember it took my classmates 3 days to get me into the group.

I attended an Ecology class with kids from one of the English high schools. Bunch of them, few native English, Pakistani siblings - a brother and a sister and a Hindu from Kashmir - best buddies at school. They became my best buddies for forthcoming time. They also made me stop being scared of people...of how my life looked back in Poland I obviously never told them.

One of the walks I took - credit not mine because it is not mine video, but the person took the same route. 

We have discussed a lot... I told stories about Poland and Polish life in general. They asked me lots of questions. I even got a first thing close to a boyfriend - my Kashmit friend used to walk next to me singing "I will follow you follow you wherever you may go". It was charming and sweet...even more charming was his natural shyness - real for a guy of my age back then. If compared to my British friends Polish people were agressive and spoiled. Also very narrrowminded.

We have learnt lots of things together :) I also got my interest in travelling and meeting new people back then :)

Later I was reassigned to a Natrual History class of professor Oliver Rackham. To meet even more new people and get a different experience. Young kids were much better than adults...adults were closed and stiff to some extent. But professor Rackham was a complete exception. I of course had no idea who he was back then and how influential figure in world science he really is up to date.

That white window sticking out was my room actually. Everyone thought it was the whole room, but it was only my window. Each morning at 4 am I was regularly awake by cocks and a train passing Manningtree station 4 km away.


He took long hours discussing a lot of things with me. Asked plenty of questions... and given me a book with his dedication.

But he was nevertheless right when he said" Maybe one day we'll meet. But it won't be soon".

He was right because back then Poland was still undeveloped. My British friends had email addresses, blogs, yahoo accounts and chats. It all made them connected and I did not have it for years to come. I had first miliitary access to internet in 2003 or 2004... later an hour long dial-up and only later in 2007 a fixed line. Now it all seems so natural to be connected to friends globally, but then I was an alien from an alien culture who appeared in lives of my friends for only a while and soon disappeared.

I walked around a lot. I remember cute little streams and green meadows full of cattle and horses. Everything so green and each little village marked with a high tower of usually medieval church made of stone which was visible on the skyline from afar.

Villages were full of small tiny rock houses and little bridges. People enjoyed sitting in tea gardens quietly talking to eachother and walking slowly. A pedestrian however, like me - was a  strange thing to see by the road as everyone drives everywhere even if it is a rather small distance - like a kilometer to a shop. 

I took long walks, some of them even 50 kilometers long, and even reached a shore where a local river falls in to the North Sea.

Flatford is a native village of John Constable who specialized in painting local landscapes. Of course things have changed since his times as people switched from horse carriages to the cars, but trees and rivers and some villages remained the same. Later I learned that it was preserved countryside, something hardly met in Poland where plenty of historic places are simply moved to country parks to be visited instead of being left in place. New architecture in the neighboirhood has to match a style as well, no mess or ugly new homes are allowed.

He was born and lived in Willy Lott's House, a place which was visible from my window and where we had several meetups with the professor sitting by the fire. It is still run as a hotel attached to Field Study Council.

People were rather friendly but most friendly and open were those young and those who were over 60... it is remarkable what is the reason of it. And, is it so today as well, and also is it only my own impression?

After some days I was driven to the local train station with a suitcase and purchased a ticket to London. My family's relatives were supposed to let me stay there for 2 nights because my flight was on tuesday and my stay in Flatford was ended on Sunday. 

I decided to walk around London... it was London up to 10th storey still, bit grey and a little bit full of rubbish and cigarette smoke stinking here and there. It was mess but it was an organised mess, unlike Warsaw. It made as grey impression on me as Warsaw did for many years but people were very friendly.

I walked by the riverside probably entering plenty of forbidden places as I ended up in some industrial area. But again there were no clear signs which side of the road or harbour am I supposed to go so I did use what I have seen.

I remember meeting some construction guys who whistled at me... it happened to me a lot when I was a teenager, no idea why. Cars have beeped and men were whistling even here in Poland.

I met some homeless people sleeping in the backyard of Victoria Station. They were rather friendly and asked me what I was doing there. I was en route to Tower Bridge so they showed me which way I should go further.

At Tower a nice guardian let me in with my Swiss Army Knife despite of regulations because I was scared of losing it. Probably I also looked harmless too :) He told me to stay quiet about it but after so many years I think I make no harm. Who knows if he still works there, lol :)

I could not reach my family's folks and panicked a bit as it was already late afternoon. There was an Indian elderly guy who asked me wether I am ok. I told him the situation and he called his wife and asked her to prepare a bed for me. I was so shocked with his interest because in Poland we just look straight and pass on strangers. They could die on the street and noone would help them probably. This is how I spent the night, hosted by a very nice family of immigrants from India. Everyone treated me like their own daughter or sister or at times even better. It was also my first ever contact with Indian cuisine, but spiced up to European taste.

Mr and Mrs Kumar were also so interested in me, who I am and where do I come from. We sat late hours and I kept telling stories about Warsaw life etc. They had a shop with souvenirs near the Westminster Abbey.

The next day I met a Polish guy who helped me to navigate around subway lines... some trains were leaving in two different directions from the same platform, unlike in Seoul were lines cross and platforms are separated with only connecting corridors. It scared me a lot as being lost is not nice.

We made to Notting Hill - I think it was already after that famous movie but I am not really sure what brought us there... and I have seen the Hyde Park Corner where London street screamers meet and scream out whatever they want, sense or nonsense.

I bought some stuff at Portobello Road. It was not top cheap but still it is one of the cheapest outlet streets in the world.

And then I reached my family at Ealing Broadway. I have not met them since that moment. It was a stay in a typical big suburban villa with a garden, what an average middle class Londoneer achieves at some point. They got British citizenship via two paper marriages they made to British friends who they later divorced with mutual consent. It must have been a great friendship indeed for people to agree upon this - and a lot of trust too. It was a way to enter UK job market on equal basis and my mother's cousin made tremendous success out of it reaching one day a Downing Street 10 address with his consulting expertise.

I went to Liverpool Street by subway and collected my suitcase. I had only 8 pounds left as I was too proud to ask my mother's cousin for cash. I was thirsty too...and a little bit panicked as the Liverpool Street was not the end station of my line. But a  nice Sikh helped me again as he simply asked me if I was alright after he had seen me glancing with stress via the windows of the train. He even brought me to my locker and asked wether I needed any further assistance. I thanked him and went on to look for a cab.

Cab driver was a very nice guy originally from Kenya. A very tall nicely built Massai - very intelligent and it was visible he read a lot and took any opportunity to learn new things he only could. We stayed in touch and he later proposed to me but I was not ready to settle down so young - I just turned 19 when it happened.

He dropped me off at the Heathrow and helped me to find a right gate to my plane. I paid exactly those 8 pounds and also had a sip of water cause I was thirsty.

So I went home. It was my first ever real adventure abroad.

Since then I have travelled many places and worked at as well. I am very definately not a couch potato in a comfort zone but a born traveller and I simply research reality...taste it, feel it. Process it.

But one thing doesn't change. I don't enjoy bars and typical European drunk parties. One beer with close friends or a glass of wine in good companionship is completely enough for me. I also don't enjoy clubs or other venues like that because I dislike too much noise. And no I don't go to a bar alone. Nowhere. Do I have to?

I enjoy casual conversation on the train and a fortune choice of wether I stay friends with this person or not. Joining street performers to listen to their show is also nice. A discussion on FB... there are so many ways of meeting new people. I don't have to join typical European drinking lifestyle to enjoy my life.

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When I find and scan my photos from that time I will put them here. Now enjoy this guys. :)

Let me sing you the Waltz

...out of nowhere, out of my thoughts,
let me sing you the Waltz,
about this one night stand.

Richard Linklater made another movie everyone remembers. What makes a movie "cult" in our Western comprehension? It must touch universal meanings, some images or emotions everyone carries in one's brain or the heart.

Before Sunset is the typical conversation movie. Two people who shared a teenager's style one night stand meet 9 years later by chance ( or by no chance ...?) in Paris during a bookfair.

Celine jumps from one guy into another but at the core she is lonely 30-something with a cat and Jesse is a suerficially stable dad of two and by now somebody's husband.

What is typical for Linklater he does not leave a clue how it ends. Wether Jesse stays with Celine and goes for a divorce? This is left painfully unanswered and every person who watches the movie has one own individual answer to this question depending on what he or she believes in.

My mathematical brain never really understood how is it even possible to do a story about a one night stand. The guy got what he wanted, used bit of charming chitchat and went his own way, it happens and it will happen.

Until recently when I realised that we all have at least one special memory we share with someone who is deep in the brain somewhere and always will be, and that not everything is so strictly black and white.

I missed the ending, I wanted Jesse and Celine be together as a source of hope. But now I guess it is more a challenge, a "what will you do with your story of the kind?" question. I must find my own answer for it. 

And now let me sing you a Waltz for a night:

Mafalda di Savoia

"Italiani, io muoio, ricordatevi di me non come di una principessa, ma come di una vostra sorella italiana" - Remember me not as a princess, but as a fellow Italian sister

I had this movie on my UPC recorder ever since last August 2012. I never watched it because it takes almost 4 hrs and I knew it is an important movie, one that I would love to watch alone.

Mafalda di Savoia is a movie about a real person, Italian princess, daughter of Victor Emmanuel III, who married Philip of Hesse and hemce she because really involved in politics at the eve of nazi era in Europe, even if she did not really want it.

 Princess Mafalda

Although hell of war in the background this movie is at first a movie about a life of a woman, her commitment to her family, her husband despite all odds and finally to her children.

Stefania Rocca portrays her in an absolutely genial way, to the extent I wonder why she was never nominated to ANY award for this work. For a person who admitted in many interviews that she had to learn great deal about the princess because she knew nothing about her before being asked to become Mafalda in the movie, creation was genial.

 Princess Mafalda
But also Hary Prinz who plays Rudiger, her greatest antagonist who after years of male pursuit and her constant rejection becomes a master of her life and death in the concentration camp, is a genial actor.

Another one whom I would give an award if I could would be Franco Castellano for the role of doctor Maggio, Italian socialist who in the end would do his best to save the princess. 

My favorite scene of this movie? I have 3 of them. 

One is when Mafalda prefers to bath with her children already dressed in a ballroom gown cause this seems more fun than joining her husband for a party with Adolf Hitler.

Rudiger

Another one when she saves a Jewish girl risking being shot on the spot.

And another one when she falls to the feet of Rudiger, never giving up her pride for herself, but not hesitating if she knows this way she can save doctor Maggio.

I will not write spoilers here. This is a must watch for those who like good movies.

Doctor Maggio

Last but not least- costumes and makeup in the movie are really perfect.

Does it have any downsides, if it supposed to be critisism?

Hmmm.... maybe Buchenwald should be shown more drastically. But it is, believe me, drastic enough.

Moment of truth

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Mafalda di Savoia - Il coraggio di una principessa 2006

For those who speak Italian: http://www.amazon.ca/Weber-morte-Mafalda-Savoia-Buchenwald/dp/8845256413

Changes

15 years ago I used to vanish from home for 3 months with no means of contact, now I have cellphone, email, twitter and so on.


Somehow I cannot imagine walking around with no cellphone. It gives me sense of security in case I would be kidnapped for trafficking or attacked or needed help in any occasion. 

But 15 years ago I was travelling alone for holidays as a teenager and I had to walk 12 km through the hills to reach nearest phone booth. 

My parents were ok with it. Somehow they trusted that I am reasonable and I will be allright. 

But I was limited only to people I could meet in my real life and I must admit they weren't always best. Some of them were good some really crappy. Just like those met in the internet. They are both good and evil, attractive or annoying, stable or unstable etc.   

I guess internet is just a new reality and we at the core stay the same.

Cyber world

Have you ever wondered what trust does mean in contemporary world and how does cyber world full of gadjets influence our lives in rather negative way?

Lets take Facebook for first shot. If someone doesn't like me can chose which information I can see and which not on his/ her timeline. If he or she doesn't wanna talk in a given moment he or she is hiding from me on chat mode. If your husband is having an affair and she is one of his FB friends you won't even know because he has hidden friendlist from anyone to see.

Ah forgot to add that when we all changed into timeline it was possible to erase visibility of any activity from a choosen person. So if you are divorced or have a messy breakup in your history you can clean it all up like it never happened. But it is also a good tool for players- as they can erase entire history of their prior prey hunting. 

All for the sake of privacy. All in a good cause.

Now let's take Skype. Skype on the surface does not lie. It can have a mode settled to busy, away, or available. Also logging off and...invisible but  for evryone not a chosen one person.

Let's take yahoo - now here you can turn invisible to a given friend despite all other options.

Gmail chat wasn't so problematic at all, it had a red mode, orange mode, green mode and grey mode- but there again you could only hide from everyone not a chosen person. But to give you more comfort, geeks had already thought about another application to make your life easy - you can turn orange on demand. Orange mode on gmail chat used to be an indication of just being away- i.e. a real information. Now if someone is orange on gmail chat he or she can ignore any message incoming cause he or she is away on assumption, when literally being at his or her desk.

Let's take a look what does it do to our behavior? Do we have a courage to face someone? A civil courage to say simple "Hey, see I am busy now, please contact me later". Or "Look you behaved really awful and I don't want to be your friend anymore". Discuss and face people.

No, instead cyber world enables us to take comforting way outs, prolong things, wait endlessly for God knows what, enables deception very much.

How many people do you know who are not hiding on gmail?

How many people do you know who are not orange on gmail because they have installed some app?

How many people do you know who would honestly refuse to talk to you, say they have no time, or simply admit to be angry in a given moment?

Close to none?

Dudes, it is getting worse than that... there will be 0 in the 2.0 World.

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I dream about a home without cables, electricity, or any fancy electronics. But I love to write this blog, so I guess I am electicity dependant ass.

Time of Honor

I am wondering why I have not written this post earlier. Maybe because admitting to love for a historic series is a faux-pais among sophisticated cosmopolitan circles of mine? Or because my own understanding is too intimate, at the edge of something very personal?

So now after 4 seasons and at the beginning of the 5th one I do admit my love to a series Time of Honor.

Some years ago during a project focused on renacting groups recreating historic events related to occupied Warsaw I heared from one lady- veteran about consulting a script for the series dedicated to parashooted underground soldiers - Cichociemni.

These guys were trained in Great Britain by their former Polish instructors to be parashooted on the occupied territories with aim to profesionally organize resistance against Nazis but also against the Soviets who basically occupied half of the country.

Time of Honor is a result of private passion of many people. it recreates realities of pre-war Warsaw, occupation, Soviet invasion but also later hopeless fight put against Soviet domination and fiction state Stalin imposed in Jalta.

The script follows a story of friendship between 4 guys, their family life, love life and parallel stories. There is also a triangle. A Judas - Karol whose sister was held by Gestapo is trying to sell off his wife's friends into German hands. The very same Judas compromised by long term cooperation with the Germans starts cooperating with the Soviets. His wife leaves him during the war and unites with her lifetime love - trained underground soldier parashooted from Britain. Cichociemni - underground soldiers who never had given up their weapons and never recognized Soviet Polish state become his enemies forever. He would spend his life clinched between rests of remorse and passion for revenge... There is also a doctor Otto-  a German with a golden heart who comes from Breslau and who faces death sentence for helping his love and friend dr Maria - wife of a Polish general. Each character has a unique and real personality, attitude, looks, style of walk, dress etc.

In the script there is nothing too long. No situation, no dialogue, nothing boring or too psychological. Pure action and thrill in war realities.

It is also not patriarchal story of brave male cocky dominance. They are male and female, but all of them are in combat despite their obvious sexual differences. All of these women seem far less intellectually castrated than many I meet in my contemporary life.

Last but not least. Music makes it! The author of the music album made already international career and received many awards both in Poland and abroad. Chajdecki is not a noname in music world. He is just 32 - my age, but since 16 cooperates with such institutions like Yale School of Drama or New York School of Visual Arts.

The music for the series was nominated for IFMCA in 2011.

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I cannot stop thinking that it somehow portrays private life and struggles of my grandma. It takes imagination to look at 86 year old woman and see Wanda or Ruda in her. Imagine she dressed and looked like the ladies in the series. That she behaved like them too... now she barely walks.