Alex's Posts (3)

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When I ask myself "Who is the most important person of our time", I have only one name in my mind - Elon Musk.

If you don`t know who he is, let me explain. He is an entrepreneur of a "new era" - he is the owner of such companies as Tesla Inc., SpaceX, Hyperloop. He was a founder of a well-known payment system PayPal.

He was that person who decided approximately 10 years ago that somebody should demonstrate others power of electrocars - and he did it successfully. He showed automotive companies that electroocars could be profitable. And what you can see now? Electrocars is a global trand and in 20 years 80% of us will forget about petrol.

I will not write a lot about his products for renewable energy - it is not so fascinating, renewables have already become an indispensable part of our life.

But what I want to write is his space company SpaceX. They have already signed a one-billion contract with NASA - it is OK. But Elon Musk would not be Elon Musk if he had not mentioned about much bigger targets - he is going to colonise... Mars! Of course, we all understand probability of this event during our lifetime, but... but, maybe, you remember words of one great man, that were said at the beginning of 60`s: "We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and to do other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard...".

Elon Musk and his SpaceX now have the most powerful rocket of all huminkind and they are going to fly several people to the Moon in the nearest future - even, maybe, they will be able to compete with NASA! Just imagine! A private company vs the US government!

I am sure, without Elon Musk our technology development would be a little slower. We would not have nowadays so many private space companies that want to earn money in space and auto-giants would not start production of dozens different models of electrocars. He is changing the way we will live.

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My TOP-3 sci-fi books in English.

Yesterday it was a World Book Day. Books make our life more interesting, learn us and bring our souls to new places, worlds and situations.

A long time ago I found that sci-fi books were the best way to start reading in English. Sci-fi authors usually use quite understandable language, good sci-fi books are full of new ideas and you read them not "for learning", but for pleasure. So, here are my TOP-3 books you can read in English:

1. "READY PLAYER ONE" by Ernest Cline. Obviously, you have already heard somewhere this title. Maybe, you have already watched the movie, made by Steven Spielberg. But if even so, you must read it. If you like culture of 80`s and 90`s, you like movies and games, and from time to time you want to become a teenager again - stop reading this post and download "Ready Player One" on your device.

2. "SLEEPING GIANTS" by Sylvian Neuvel. This is more "mature" reading. Sylvian Neuvel decided to write a book in two genres: science fiction and a political thriller. Much less action than in the previous book, but still very interesting. Secret technologies, aliens, politicians...

3. "OLD MAN`S WAR" by John Scalzi. If I am not mistaken, it was the first book in English I have ever read. Space ships, hostile planets, angry aliens and interstellar wars, humor - you can find here everything you need. John Scalzi is an author that never get a Pulitzer Prise, but still some of his books are really worth reading.

This is not my  TOP-3 sci-fi books at all - some of my favorites sometimes difficult to read even in my native language, but the list above includes books, that are easy to read and have fun for non-native speakers of English.

If you have some favorite books in English - please, share your list in comments!

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Why revolutions fail

I am from Ukraine. If you don`t know, it is a quite big country in the Eastern Europe, that has borders with such big countries and Unions as Russia and the European Union.

During the 21-st century we have had several uprisings/revolutions - in 2004 and in 2014. The first one was peaceful with no casualties, but the second revolution was bloody - died more than 100 people and things were getting worse and worse...

First of all, a "friendly" country Russia decided to use weakness of Ukraine in 2014 and annexed the Crimean Peninsula - a big region. Moreover, Russia provoked a "little war" in other two Ukrainian regions - Donetsk and Luhansk. Now it looks like a civil war  with some Russian forces on the side of anti-government rebels. Of course, it does not remind Syria, where all the country is destroyed, but still... Still people are dying here because of bullets.

But I wanted to write even not about this. I wanted to say, that even after imaginary "victories" of two revolutions Ukraine remains a corrupted country with a weak economy, bad roads and low salaries. And the main reason for this - the same system of governing, that remains after each revolution.

Every politician before been elected says: "You will live like angels in the Heaven", but after elections nobody remembers their promises.

In a bestselling book "Why nations fail" authors say that if you are not able to change the whole system of distribution of national wealth among all citizens, you will not change the situation in your country by any number of peaceful or bloody revolutions. Like examples they mention Mexico, other countries of Latin America, but I want to add to this list Ukraine too.

If you ever decide to change your country, don`t think about uprisings - think about systematical changes. At least small. It could have much better results.

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