Intelligence

Since this is my blog, this post talks about intelligence from my point of view.

I perceive most people as stupid :D. I don't dispite them, I don't judge them, and I don't disrespect them for that, but that's how I perceive it.
Why are most people not intelligent... Why do people fail to use their minds...
Here is my own explanation
For me, Intelligence is composed of three factors:

1. Genetics: The power of mind you inherited from your parents (the processor).
2. The collection of knowledge: The experiences and the things you learned (the database).
3. The way you think: The way you taught yourself how to tackle a problem (the algorithm).

1. Genetics:
This is basically how your mind is constructed or something. You inherited that from your parents, your parents have over the years of evolution developed a mind that is more powerful than some and less powerful than others. You can't be more intelligent in that aspect. This type of intelligence grows as you grow, you are born with a tiny brain but that grows as you grow, and probably settles down and doesn't grow more around the age of 20-21 or something. Since I am a computer engineer, I'd like to call that your processor. Once you're working with a certain processor, you cannot get it running any faster, it's the hardware. BUT!! that's not everything, there's still a huge difference of what runs on that processor and what kind of information does that processor has access to. Everybody was born with some hardware; so everybody has the basic platform to work with. I perceive this type of intelligence as the least affecting the overall problem solving skills (practical intelligence) of a person.

2. The collection of knowledge:
This is composed of all the things you learned over the years... You already know solutions to some problems, actually a looooot of solutions to a looooot of problems. This information acts as your database of solutions to the problems you know. You can pull out a solution you already know and use it right away (or modify it a little and use it). Everything there is ready, organized, efficient, and pre-thought (either by you or someone else). For example, if I ask you this problem 1+1=?. You will answer right away, '2', because you (or your math book's author) already thought about that and you know it. The extra-ordinary thing is, THIS IS THE TYPE OF INTELLIGENCE THEN ARE TRYING TO TEACH YOU AT SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. They are actually trying to teach you how to be more intelligent by teaching you solutions that other people thought out before. This is the source of all technology today. In the old ages, people used to think of solutions to many problems; but these were not documented or not communicated to other people, and eventually lost. So at some point, people needed to rethink something many times because the pre-thought solution was not communicated to them, or completely lost. When the world started discovering means to communicate, document, and centralize solutions the world already knows, knowledge started spreading and the world seems to be becoming more intelligent. But the fact is, it's not.. Human brain anatomy didn't change; we didn't evolve that much, physically, in the past 500 years. The good news is, you can learn this type of intelligence. Just don't let some problem slip through your fingers without KNOWING and STORING the solution for it so it's ready next time you need it. The bad news is, you use a mere small fraction of the knowledge you collected. People feel if they learn a solution there will be a very small chance (probability) to use it later, because it's very rare that you're faces of a problem you learned the solution for. This urges people not to KNOW or STORE the solution for a problem they faced before because it seems too much effort for a very little chance to use it later. But guess what?? If everytime you face a problem and know the solution for it, you just neglect keeping this solution neatly stored in your mind, you will end up with no database at all... If your database is small, this makes things even worse, it makes the probability of finding a solution for a problem even smaller.. and you feel that there's even less chance of using it later. Pretty bad isn't it? This, in my opinion, is the main reason people are stupid. People you know that you think have solutions for everything simply know how to never let something go without KNOWing how and why this thing behaves that way, and they STORE that in their mind. You use this type of intelligence when you quickly solve a problem.

3. The way you think:
The way people think is different. Some people think about the theory/idea behind the problem, try to find a logical way, then formulate the solution according to that. Others may keep trying any random pattern of solution till the figure out the one that works. There are many types of thinking patterns, many of them I don't know of. This thinking pattern is self-taught, nobody would teach you that. You probably have taught yourself this over the years. You might even have many thinking patters, you might even have one that you favor other the others. You thinking pattern along with your database are our most powerful problem solving tools. You might even have a database of thining patters along with information about when to use them. I like to think of the thinking pattern as the algorithm that runs on your processor. Your algorithm might be stupod and takes a lot of time, may be even never reaches a solution, and your algorithm might be very intelligent and finds a solution in seconds. Your algorithm might be even more advanved that it detects the type of problem and executes a different algorithm suitable for the type of problem. For example, if you tell me unlock a small bicycle lock which has a combinational lock which has only 1 disk with numbers. I would right away try all of them and see which works. There are only 10 possibilities, trying each will take 2 seconds, you have your solution in 20 seconds. I know this because I have an entry in my database saying "Brute force (try all solutions) => use it when you have a small number of solutions". If the bicycle lock had 6 disks with numbers, I might now think about how this lock works and try to find a flaw in the design that would get it open. Or I might think what is the easiest way to break the lock/chain. Again, this type of intelligence is self-taught, it grows over the years. The bad news is, people are still stupid, why? Because people BELIEVE they cannot get more intelligent, they believe it soooo deep in their hearts that they completely don't try or even think remotely of the possibility there might be a way to be a little more intelligent. So they don't try to improve on their way of thinking, sometimes don't even perceive they have a way of thinking. This type of intelligence is slow, tiring, and needs thinking. You need to take your time with the problem and understand it, then come up with a solution, sometimes even in the form of many partial solutions that individually won't work. Remember, you need to STORE the result you came up with after you use this type of intelligence in your database; otherwise it will be very expensive to use this type every time.

Conclusion:
Your mind, is your mind, it will not change and it won't grow. But, what you use your mind for is completely changeable, you can think in a completely new way, you can learn different types of thinking, know them and know when to use each. You can also store a very large database of pre-thought solutions that you can very quickly modify or use out of the box (sorry out of your mind). The biggest part of your intelligence is self taught.

YOU CAN GET MORE INTELLIGENT. VERY EASILY.

Roasted Chicken (Recipe)

Here's a very very simple and fast recipe for you.
Ingredients:
- 1 Chicken
- 1 to 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp allspice (optional)
- ground red hot pepper (optional)
- 2 tbsp oil

Recipe:
- Wash your chicken
- cut through the center of the breast of the chicken, through the breastbone until the breast is completely separated
--> OR cut an medium onion in wedges and place it in your chicken
- season the outside of the chicken with the spices you have
- flip the chicken open through the cut and place it in a pan (see picture) and cut some slits through the breast and thighs
--> OR if you didn't cut the chicken then place it in a pan and cover it with aluminum foil
- place your chicken in a preheated over, 180 deg C in case of the cut chicken, or 220 in case of a chicken covered in foil.
- leave the chicken in for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (uncover the foil for the last 10-20 minutes in case of the whole chicken)

Enjoy it and tell me if you liked it :D

Christmas Turkey - Episode IV - Roasting (Recipe)

Now the final stage, roasting your turkey:
You can say this is the easiest part :D

Since I don't have a meat thermometer, then I will provide guidelines to get the turkey well done without using one. Moreover because we, egyptians, like our meat very well cooked, this recipe will get ur turkey very well cooked. If you don't like that, you might want to follow something like these guidelines.

Ingredients:
- some butter (same as from seasoning)

Recipe:
- Put the turkey in a roasting pan, or on the oven rack and put a pan under it to collect the dropping juices.
- cover the seasoned and buttered turkey with a tent of alumunim foil (donot let the tent touch the turkey, this might cause the skin to stick to the tent and tear on removal).
- preheat the oven to 220-230 deg C.
- put the covered turkey in the preheated oven.
- leave the turkey for 40 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180 deg C.
- calculate the cooking time, 40 additional minutes for each kg of turkey, this is the minimum time for cooking. for my turkey it was 40+40*5.6 = 4.4 hours
- for a well done turkey, calculate it based on 50 additional minutes for each kg, for my turkey 40+50*5.6 = 5.33 hours
- now leave the turkey alone for all except the last hour of cooking.
- when 1 hour is remaining, take the turkey out, remove the tent, and paint it with butter. Now put it back in the oven without the tent.
- redo the last step every 15-20 minutes until your turkey looks exactly the way you want.

Guten appetit.

Christmas Turkey - Episode III - Stuffing (Recipe)

Okay, so here you go for the stuffing. Take care that the stuffing has to be ready when the turkey needs it, especially if your turkey was in brine, because right after you take your turkey out of the brine, it starts loosing the water it took in, so better get the turkey in the oven 20-30 minutes after taking it ouf ot the brine.

Ingredients:
- 6-8 cups bread, cut into 1-2 cm cubes
- 100 gm walnut
- 100 gm almonds
- 3 big chopped onions
- 2 chopped colored paprikas
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 green apple, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup raisins
- Stock from turkey giblets (boil them for 30 minutes with some salt)
- 2 tbsp dried parsley (substitute 1/4 cup chipped fresh parsley)
- some salt and ground pepper

Recipe:
- Take the bread to the oven on medion-low heat (160-180 deg C) for 10-15 minutes, till dry and golden red.
- roast the nuts on low heat in a pan (without adding any butter or oil). Afte roasing, break them with your fingers.
- melt 3 tbsp butter in a pan and add the onions and the paprika and fry for 10 minutes
- melt 3 tbsp butter in a pan and add the bread, fry for 2 minutes or so.
- add the onions and paprika to the bread, and add all remaining ingredients
- add 1 to 1&1/2 cup of stock, make sure not to make the bread very moist, the bread should be half moist half dry.
- cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

Ready :D

Now you can stuff your turkey, in the cavity, between the skin and the meat, between the thighs and the breast, in the neck cavity or any other place you like.

Christmas Turkey - Episode II - Seasoning (Recipe)

Now time to season your turkey:
Ingredients:
- 1 orange
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tsp thyme (za3tar)
- 1 tsp all spice (baharat)
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 bay leaves, break it finely with your fingers
- 1 tsp rosemary, break it finely with your fingers
- some molten butter (substitute some olive oil/normal oil for that)

Recipe:
- Rinse the turkey with normal tap water after removing from the brine.
- insert your hand between the meat and the skin (separate them along the way) from the neck and go over the breast, and from the cavity opening and go over the thighs.
- mix all ingredients in a small bowl.
- cut the orange, and juice it all over the turkey, inside the cavity and between the skin and the meat.
- take small quantities of the mixed seasoning and put it between the skin and the meat in the separated places. Also season inside the cavity. You should use half the amount for this.
- Spread the other half over the skin of the turkey from the outside, make sure the seasoning is spread evenly.
- Now you can stuff the turkey if you want.
- the left over from the orange is used to plug the cavity to keep the stuffing in place.
- after seasoning, paint the turkey with molten butter (should solidify when touching the turkey because the turkey should be just out of the fridge).

NOTE:
- You should start with Episode III - Stuffing before even taking the turkey out of the brine. But the actual stuffing comes after most of the seasoning is done.

Christmas Eggnog (Recipe)

Again, one amazing Christmas Recipe, here you go:

Ingredients:
(yields 4-5 cups)
- 350 ml cold milk
- 3 cold eggs
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 cloves
- some vanilla (I use 2 packs of vanilla with sugar)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cold whipping cream (substitute 1/2 cup of milk if you don't have whipping cream)
- 3/4 cup dark rum (you can use your favorite alcohol here)
- 1/2 tsp salt

Recipe:
- Separate the eggs, put the whites in a pan and the yolks in another
- Add the salt to the whites, and whisk them, you need continuous, hard, fast whisking for may be 3 minutes. The whites will start to foam, keep whisking until stiff peaks form (lift a litte of the foam with the whisk, it should form a peak, now rotate the whisk, if the peak doesn't lean to any side or move, that's your stiff peak).
- now, add the sugar to the yolks, and beat them till they get a softened butter appearance.
- add the rum to the yolks little by little while stirring.
- add the nutmeg, the cloves and the vanilla.
- add the milk again while stirring.
- now add the egg whites.
- and at last, add the whipping cream.
- stirr for 1 more minute.
- garnish with a little ground nutmeg

And it's ready :D, Enjoy

NOTE:
- after whisking the egg whites, the foam will start to diminish, so if you need to make the eggnog well before serving, then do everything except for whisking the eggwhites.. then 30-20 minutes before serving, whisk the whites and add them to the mixture and you're ready.
- If you are concerned about foodsafety, and/or don't like eating raw eggs, please don't use this recipe.

Christmas Turkey - Episode I - Brine (Recipe)

After this turkey was cooked, it turned out to be very well seasoned till the deepest meat inside. Here's how you go for this:

Ingredients:
- 1 cup table salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 orange
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 bay leaves (wara2 lawra)
- 1 tbsp dried thyme (za3tar)
- 1 tbsp ground black pepper
- 6 litres of cold water

Recipe:
- In a large bucket (more than 10 litres big), combine the salt and the dry ingredients with the water first, and stir well until the salt is completely dissolved.
- Now, juice the lemon and the orange on the water, and then cut the remaining into wedges, then add them to the water.
- Cut the onion into wedges and add all the remaining ingredients to the water.
- Stir well.
- Put your turkey inside, breast side down, and cover the bucket.
- Put the bucket in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours.

NOTE:
- Leaving the turkey for more than 24 hours will result in a little oversalted turkey, do that only if you like your food salty.
- Remember to wash your turkey well before putting it into the brine.
- Remember to wash your turkey well after removing it from the brine.

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Who are Copts??

Well, I just wanted to explain this. Mostly, I won't be using my own words.
Wikipedia says, quote "Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone semantic shift over the centuries to mean more specifically Egyptian Christian after the bulk of the Egyptian population converted to Islam." unqote. And thus, Copts (Egyptian Orthodox Christians) are indeed the only successors of the pharaohs whose roots are well established.

After the Arabic invasion of Egypt in the 7th century, again I quote from Wikipedia "The Arabs imposed a special tax, known as Jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt." unquote. Quote "The Arabs in the 7th century seldom used the term Egyptian, and used instead the term Copt to describe the people of Egypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as the Coptic Church." unquote.

Coptic life kept deteriorating throughout the centuries until the rule of "Muhammad Ali" in the early 19th century, but that didn't last for long though.

Quote from Wikipedia "In 1952, Nasser led some army officers in a coup d'état against King Farouk, which overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's mainstream policy was pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. The Copts were severely affected by Nasser's nationalization policies because, although they represented about 20% of the population, they were so economically prosperous as to have held more than 50% of the country's wealth. In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to and sense of identity about their Egyptian pre-Arab, and certainly non-Arab, identity. As a result, many Copts left their country for Australia, North America or Europe."

I think this little history concludes somehow, Who are Copts?

irssi, very nice and neat IRC client and TERMINAL BASED