In my last post, I told you about some of the sci-fi ideas that have become reality and some that haven’t just yet. But while we lament the late arrival of the holograms to our everyday life and, by the way, I’m still waiting for my flying DeLorean, there are sci-fi predictions that better not come true.

The idea of a humanity that evolves enough to create the perfect machine and then get dim-witted namely because of the use of this awesome new machine to a point they can’t handle the machine they have created is all too real. Especially with everyone telling us how people are using their brain less and less.

We’re only using 10% of our brain in our daily activities. Right? Wrong! Though you’ve heard that statement way too many times and it has been attributed to smart people like Albert Einstein, it is, in fact, a myth, an urban legend. In reality, only brain damage could cause a large percentage of the brain to become unused and anything less than 50% brain availability would affect one’s experience on so many levels that they wouldn’t be sitting around trying to figure out how to use their brain more.

I was actually watching this highly informative Ted Lesson on Card Counting from Simon Rose when I started thinking about using one’s brain. Though I was watching the video in an attempt to get a better understanding of card counting, the statement “Using your brain is perfectly legal” really got my attention.

I had some issues with card counting – I knew it was legal but wondered if it was moral to do it – but once I heard that statement, I instantly knew he was right. It’s double standard to encourage people to develop their brains and showcase gifted people who could memorize hundreds of names and/or numbers in a few minutes and yet discourage them in doing something similarly important for their brain which is set in the much more pleasant setting of blackjack. Besides, Simon Rose, a dealer with more than 15 years of casino experience, writes reviews of online casinos and obviously knows what he’s talking about.

In the video, there are some experts discussing card counting and how it can be learnt. The simple systems, such as Speed count, they say, can be learnt in about an hour, whereas the more complex ones, such as the High-Low counting strategy, might take months of regular practice to master. I decided to devote time to card counting and improve my skills and so could you.

So, not only is blackjack a game that is extremely entertaining but by perfecting it and mastering a card counting strategy you could be winning some extra cash and protecting your brain from degeneration. Before you jump into it, have a look at www.blackjacksites.info where you’ll find a step by step guide to card counting, a list of the best UK casinos for blackjack, and everything blackjack-related.

The future is here, folks! The sci-fi of yesterday is the present of today! The dreams of the great authors of our past are our reality! And sure, maybe it’s not exactly how we imagined it – we don’t have flying cars, or those awesome holograms from “Minority Report”, and the world is only secretly ruled by corporations as opposed to overtly, but just take a moment to think about all of the awesome things that we do have! Self-driving cars! Virtual reality! A device in our pocket that has immediate access to all of the information known to mankind! If you could go a hundred years back in time and tell people these things, you’d blow their minds! Hell, if you go only fifty years back in time you’d still blow a whole lot of minds!

But I have to say that I don’t know about many industries that have seen as much modernization and updates as gambling has in the last 20 years. The thing you have to understand about gambling is that it has remained virtually unchanged for the last 300 years. Back in the 18th century, casinos used to be places where you could bring your own deck of cards and challenge whatever sucker walked by you, and the casino took a commission on your winnings for housing you. Ever since they started employing their own dealers, though, casinos have been pretty much stagnant until the late 20th century, when the concept of an online casino was first proposed and executed.

And now, in 2016, online casino has developed into a juggernaut that’s quickly becoming one of the most profitable entertainment industries of all time. And guess what? Even THEN it keeps on developing! After smartphones became a big thing, online casinos went mobile, to great success – now you can gamble from anywhere you like! The number of games that are available in big casinos has also increased drastically, from a few dozen 10 years ago to a few hundred today, with many of the games being based on famous properties such as a “Game of Thrones” slot or a “Marvel” roulette. But the biggest development, in my eyes, is the invention of the live casino, which bridges the gap between online and physical casino.

For those of you who don’t know, live casino involves betting on a very real game of blackjack, roulette, craps or whatever it is that your casino is offering, played by a dealer somewhere around the world. The game is broadcast live to anyone who’d like to watch, with the spectators also being allowed to place bets in real time with real money. It’s a bit more complicated to explain in a single article, though there’s plenty of places online where you can learn the ins and outs of live roulette online if you’re interested. Still, live casino is only one of the many advancements that online gambling has achieved in the last few years. Who knows what else we’ll see in the future? Maybe in 2026 we’ll be playing online casino in virtual reality, or by using “Minority Report”-style holograms? Or maybe we’d be too caught up in the War of the Corporations to have any time for gambling. Who knows. I, for one, welcome our new Coca-Cola overlords.

Women have notoriously been more outspoken against war throughout history. Whether it is because the experience of giving life and being a parent as a woman is different or they are just more peaceful creatures by default – the reality is that it’s the case. So today I decided to dedicate a short article about women and tech and science. Yes, it seems not related but it is very much so. And I believe it’s the case because we often underestimate the involvement women have already had in science in general against all odds and thus make it hard for them to continue. And just imagine for a second a world where we equally take part in the technological progress and in any decisions made as a result. I do believe the planet would be a much better place.

So below you will find a very, very short outline of some great characters that have left their imprint on modern day life without most of us even knowing of their existence. Feel free to learn more about them at will – they surely deserve it.

Agnes Pockels, 1862-1935

Agnes never went to college as she wasn’t allowed – at the time few colleges accepted women. Her father and brother both had degrees in physics and she read their books in her spare time between chores such as dishwashing and cooking. She ended up completely self-taught and not only discovered the influence of impurities on the surface tension of fluids but came up with a device (now known as the Pockels trough) that is a key instrument in the new discipline of surface science. Using an improved version of this same thing, the American chemist Irving Langmuir made some additional discoveries and earnt himself a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1932. Obviously Agnes didn’t get one. What to say.

Emmy Noether, 1882-1935

Emmy’s father was in mathematics. She however struggled (but finally succeeded with persistence) to get a degree. However, she was not allowed to be a teacher – her dream at the time, as the University of Erlangen had a policy against women professors. Whilst studying at University of Göttingen, she met with Felix Klein and David Hilbert. They invited her to join the Mathematical Institute in Göttingen and together began working on Einstein’s general relativity theory. Three years later she proved two theorems that were basic for both general relativity and elementary particle physics. One is still known as “Noether’s Theorem.”

Maria Goeppert-Mayer, 1906-1972

Well, if you paid at least a little attention at school, you would know Marie Curie. Maria was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics and for something rather interesting – she solved the mystery of the magic numbers. The following numbers – 2, 8, 20, 28, 50 and 82 (did someone shout Bingo?:)) – are the number of protons in atomic nuclei. No one knew why these elements were so stable at the time. Maria thought protons and neutrons in the nucleus sit in shells just like electrons and that filling nuclear shells is what leads to stability. She went as far as to prove that nuclei do have shells and do actually form what she called magic nuclei. At those numbers, protons and neutrons arrange themselves into highly stable symmetrical spheres. That all wasn’t as easy as it may sound now, as on top of the struggle to graduate (even with the help of her father who was a professor himself), Maria didn’t have a paid job or an office right until she got the Nobel Prize (greeted by the headlines in newspapers “S.D. Mother Wins Nobel Prize.”, please!) – she ended up teaching and helping for free just to be able to stay around in universities, often following her husband who was a professor too.

Well, that’s for starters and should give you something to think about. Hope you enjoyed this reading and will be back soon for more.

Hello everyone and welcome to all new-comers to our blog. Today I’ve picked an interesting topic. It was due to a pure accident, I was discussing some recent events with a friend and somehow the conversation ended up with mentioning the Olympic Truce. So I thought, this is something on topic and we have all been buried under tasks after the holiday season, so let’s call it a sign and write about that. Let’s go.

Now, everyone is I am sure familiar with the tradition. It originates from Ancient Greece in the 8th century and consists in the announcement of peace just before and during the Olympic games. Just think about the magnitude of that! Especially back in those days. Even death penalties were forbidden during the games. Sport was (and still is) able to stop wars. Why can’t we just stick to that long term, hey? I suppose it’s not that simple. But let’s not digress.
In modern time, the UN revived the tradition in 1993 with a declaration, work was continued over some years until the official establishment of the International Olympic Truce Foundation in 1999 and the International Olympic Truce Centre in cooperation with Greece. The idea was to protect the interests of everyone involved with sport, and to promote peaceful principles in our modern life. At present, every city is welcomed and encouraged to participate in their own way in that initiative. It is a beautiful (even if it is somewhat utopian) idea – where all the countries in the world work towards resolving international disagreements by peaceful means and sport is used as a common way to reach out to each other and forget our differences.
We can also see another trend taking a new shape online. With the internet and rise of online gaming, it is even easier to unite people from all over the world around sport events. One activity that has emerged from people joining in their interests from all over the world is betting. With the speed of travel of information now it is rapidly growing.
Betting, particularly in Europe, goes way back in history. Take horse races for example – widely popular in the UK in the early 50s. This is where the first sport sponsorship deals were struck as well – a beginning of a whole new era for sports across the board since the more the activities have invested in them, logically, the more, better and quicker they can develop. With the regulation of gambling and sports betting in particular over the past two decades, different sport disciplines have continually benefitted from the attention (measured in cash investments but subsequently – fame and popularity worldwide as well). As we speak, some of the best paid professions around the globe are sport related with football being in the leading position with 80% of the over €100 million invested in the all-favourite sport by the betting sector in UK (data provided by EGBA).
Interesting development right? I found it quite intriguing and certainly worth a thought. I hope you have enjoyed this read and it will spark some thoughts and conversations over a drink or two with friends, surely was the case with me! In any case – be back soon for more thoughts, events and news from our old beloved continent!

Welcome to InitiativeForPeaceBuilding!
Imagine you could live in a world of peace and merriment, what a luxury you’d say! Global peace is an ideal of freedom and happiness, where the more freedom we enjoy, the easier it will be for us to make our lives better. I believe that striving for achieving global peace should be everyone’s mission, no matter what your religion, race, ethnicity or political beliefs may be.
As nature cataclysm, wars and terrorism have destroyed entire regions and even countries, more and more people are on the urge to find a shelter, where their families will be safe. So, let’s take the war in Syria as an example. More than four million refugees of the Syrian Civil War were forced to leave their home country and flee to Europe and the neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The emigrant crisis is one of the most heartbreaking stories these days and is described as the most important since the 2nd world war. Nowadays, finding a completely safe country, with high human development, becomes really challenging. Well, apart from some major natural disasters and political issues, safe places should offer a good environment for entertainment. It is very important everyone to be able to find something entertaining according to his/her age, interests and gender.
I decided to start this blog in order to give my view of various peace topics. I aim to discuss not only some difficult issues, such as World War, but I will stress on some simple topics like how to find a safe place to gamble online? So, along with discussing how to find a safe country to live in, I will give you some tips on how to find an entertaining online gaming site, which is both trusted and reputable and provides fair odds. I’m open to receiving your comments and recommendations about some topics you’d like to discuss here. Welcome one again and have a happy reading!