عباس بن فرناس never broke his neck !!!

It's true, Abbas 'bn Fernas never broke his neck, in fact, his flight attempt is considered succesful. Abbas 'bn Fernas actually _settled in the air and flew untill he fell a long distance away_ as described by 'bn Hayyan. 'bn Fernas was a scientist and he did _not_ do a stupid thing. He did a successful flying attempt based on scientific calculations and observation of birds, which proved correct. It is said that 'bn Fernas failed to land correctly, which should be done by flaring his wings as commonly practiced in hang gliders, and hurt his back (some sources said that he only broke a rib). Abbas 'bn Fernas' flight was the first flight attempted by a human in the documented history.

Basbousa Recipe

After so much time researching and trying. And with the help of Ahmed Garamoun, we finally came to the perfect recipe for the very much loved oriental sweet "Basbousa"

Revised recipe, written on 6th of september 2010

Dough:
1/2 kg of "de2i2 semid" or griess in german (weichweizen)
300 gm of sugar
300 ml of water
around 100 gm of molten butter
1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Syrup:
500 ml (2 cups) of sugar
375 ml (1.5 cups) of water
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Ustensils:
Mixing bowl
30 cm lightly greased pan for baking

Mix all dough dry ingredients, then add the butter then the water while mixing till a loose paste forms. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Put in a 180 degrees oven for around 50 minutes (until golden red/brown)

Once you put the dough in the oven, add the water to the sugar to make the syrup, bring to a boil, after all sugar is dissolved add the lemon juice and set aside to cool.

Once the dough is out of the oven, sprinkle the syrup on top lightly (no pouring) until all the syrup is on the dough (dough could take a little time till the syrup is absorbed)

Cover (with aluminum foil) and let it cool to room temperature then cut and serve.

Almonds or other nuts could be sprinkled on top of the dough before baking, press them lightly inside the dough after sprinkling.
about 1/2 cup of coconut could be added to the dough.

Let me know your feedback

Assault on Entebbe

Please watch the videos here

This is what nations do for their people... I feel shame for my nation.

Alcohol content in bread

I want to broadcast this message, because many people don't really realize it.

There is an organizm called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Or what we know as "Yeast". When yeast is alive, it eats sugar and roduces water, alcohol and CO2. There is no way to avoid that. The same yeast that is used for brewing alcoholic beverages is used for baking, which means, the same process that produces water, alcohol and CO2 happens in each and every loaf of bread. A study has been done to analyze the alcohol contents of bread, it has been found that a normal loaf of bread, bought from the bakery contains between 0.04% to 1.9% alcohol. 1.9% is a really close number to normal light beer, and I believe is by far superior to most baked food whose labels include alcohol among the ingredients. I would thus conclude, I don't think it's correct to have an alcohol phobia in the sense that many people do, because you already get your dose of alcohol each and every day. I see a more rational way to think about it, how much alcohol starts to get me drunk. And thus, drinking an alcoholic beverage, or eating something that contains alcohol in the ingredients is totally okay, because _bread_ is one of those things. You just need to watch for the amount of alcohol you are consuming. Based on personal experience, an average adult man would start feeling he drank alcohol after consuming around 1.5 liters of light beer (2.5%) or 500-750 ml of normal beer (5%). For non alcoholics, I am not inviting you to be drunk all the time, I am not encouraging you to drivink alcoholic beverages, I am just calling for you to think about your alcohol phobia. Alcohol is not that scary, in fact, you drink some every day !!

References: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1709087/pdf/canmedaj00470-0140b.pdf (The section about Alcohol content in bread)

Discussion - Am7aya f forn afrangy

(This post is related to

Am7aya fi forn afrangy -- A book by Christine Amir -- قمحاية في فرن أفرنجي )

Well, finally I got the book, at least for a few weeks to read it. (Thanks to Youstina Daoud for that)
Me, having lived 30 months so far away from home, I have lived most of the experiences Christine is talking about in the book, only more intense. I'm astonished of how similar was the way I reacted/coped with things to the way she did. I would like to comment/discuss some part of the book that has been a great controversey for me. It's chapter 10 "Masr Tel3et Menhom".

Masr, eh heya masr?? masr, ana etwaladt henak, w law kan el e5tyar f idi makontesh e5tart dah. 3esht awel 20 sana men 3omri henak, w bardo law kan 3andi el e5tyar makontesh e5tart dah. As7aby w ahli wel nas el ba7ebohom henak, dih yemken el 7egga el wa7ida el sa7, bas lazem a2oul enno ana ma2adetsh kol el wa2t dah ma3 nas tany 3lshan a3raf hal el nas el 3ereftohom f masr dol mo5talefin walla dah el tabi3i. W mesh ma3na enno 3agebni el nas el f masr enno lazem a3od f masr, fi mogtama3at masreya _nedifa_ f 7ettat tanya ktir.... ana moshkelti ma3 masr mesh mawke3ha el go3'rafy wala el 7okouma wala el gaww wala el nadafa wala ay 7aga men el 7agat dih. ana moshkelti ma3 masr el masreyiin, el masreyiin lesabab 3'er ma3loun fakado el e7teram bekol ma3anih. y3ni tela2i wa7ed afel 3alek fel rakna w tale3 bethom yenam w howa 3aref kwayes awi enno 3arabitak dih mesh men el 7etta w shwaya sa7ebha hayob2a 3ayez yemshi. howa nafseyan mestaraya7 tamaman w byetla3 beitoh yenam w yesha5ar. ana ba2oul fakado el e7teram 3lshan bel tasarof dah, walaw enno momken nas ketir te2oul 3ady mesh moshkela kebira, 3lshan el ragel 7atta law mesh ased bekol salasah karrar enno ana wa7ed a2all menno w enno howa momken yenam f bethom w ana 3ammal adawar 3aleh 3lshan yetalla3 3arabito. ana 3aref enno a3'labeyet el nas mesh waselohom el mawdou3 dah kwayes, bas lamma teshoufh el nas el f almanya (ana a3ed f almanya) byetsarafo ezay hatefham, mesh hatefham ana 7asses b eh w bafakar b eh ella lama te3ish f west sha3b mo7taram. tabba2 ba2a el masal dah 3ala kol el bani2admin, 3al mwazaf fel morour, 3al bayya3, 3al zabet, 3ala kol ahl masr. el nas fakadet e7teramhom w ta2derhom lel nas el tanya. ana law mo7taram, mesh ha3od ma3 el nas dih, belzat law 3andi el forsa arou7 7etta tany. Harou7 a3ish barra, mesh ba2oul hansa as7abi w hansa zekrayati, ana hagy saye7 (zay el walad el sha3ro tawil el Christine etkalemet 3aleh fel ketab), hagy _mo7taram_ hanbeset, w atfassa7 w arou7 el ahramat w sharm el sheikh w arawa7 betna.
fi mawdou3 tany Christine betetkallem 3aleh f chapter 11. Ana 3ayez awasal resalah, e7sas enni fel beit. Enno el 7etta dih beta3ti, enni a5bat el 3arabeya w awel mad5ol el beit ab2a mettamen, fi ra2yii, law 7ad 3ash barra masr aw barra beito lefatra tawila men el wa2t (1,2 years..) el e7sas dah ra7, w 3'aleban mesh hayerga3 tany, w belzat lel welad. hayiigi makano e7sas tany.. e7sas enno ana lazem atsarraf, e7sas enno law kassart 7aga hatedfa3 tamanha, law 3ayez teshteri 7aga lazem twafarlaha, law 3ayez takol lazem totbo5, law 3ayez telbes lazem te3'sel.... hayiigi makano e7sas _el mas2ouleya_. e7sas esteklaleyah, e7sas enno ana mesh me7tag 7atta baladi wala beity 3lashan mamotsh. dah mostawa aa5ar men el e3temad 3ala el nafs. el e7sas dah sa3b awi fel awel, hat7ess enno malaksh sanad, mafish 7ad yenfa3 a3ayatlo w a2ollo ta3ala el7a2ny. w a7san bektiir enno el kalam dah et3amal fina delwa2ty, 3lshan keda keda lama hanetgawez hayet3emel fina, fakkaro fiha enno dah _demo version_, nos5a tagribeyah, mabtedfa3sh fiha flous. 3lshan ba3d keda mayenfa3sh yob2a fi tagarob. ana basta3'rab men el ahali el bet2affel 3ala wladhom (5osousan el banat) w mota5ayelin enno keda homma beysa3do. keda homma beyzawedo el ta3'ayor el haye7sal lama wladhom hayob2o modtarrin 3'asb 3anhom yetsarafo.

Wild camping in Switzerland

There are a lot of rumors online about whether wild camping in Switzerland is allowed or not yet no definitive answer.
Last week I was in Switzerland, we couldn't get to the camping site before it closed. So, we drove on a small country road till we found a suitable place, we parked the car a little bit inside the woods by the roadside and we deployed our tent right next to the car. We were not bothered by anyone during the night. The next morning while we were preparing to leave, the forest rangers came, they parked right behind us and asked whether we spend the night there. We said yes, the guy asked if we threw any garbage. We said no, the guy said "Have a nice day" and left. I guess this confirms beyond no doubt that wild camping in Switzerland is competely legal if not even welcomed. We camped the next day in Zurich. We deployed the tent along with 13 other wild campers' tents on a flat freshly mowed place. We spend a peaceful night till the morning.

هشام الجخ - جحا

Really amazing poetry about Egypt. If someone doesn't understand Arabic and/or the Egyptian dialect, please add a comment below, I will try to provide translation.

Men's rules

Men have gathered and discussed a great deal and finally came up with a set of rules that should be followed around them. Girls, please, this is a really serious things, most of those rules should be stricktly followed when you are around men, the rest of them are really good guidelines on how to behave. This is no joke, those rules are really meaningful since not following them is guaranteed to get on a man's nerves.

Andrew Boktor



These are our rules:


Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!



1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.



1. Crying is blackmail.



1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one:

* Subtle hints do not work!
* Strong hints do not work!
* Obvious hints do not work!
* JUST SAY IT!



1. 'Yes' and 'No' are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question



1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for



1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor



1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days



1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us



1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one



1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done

Not both
* If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself



1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials



1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we



1. ALL men see in only 16 colours, like Windows default settings.

Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a colour. Pumpkin is also a fruit.
* We have no idea what mauve is.



1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.



1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle



1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear



1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine, Really



1. You have enough clothes



1. You have too many shoes



1. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

After a big trip

Vienna (Fino) Bread Recipe

After a very long time and many trials, I finally figured out how to make Vienna Bread (commonly known in Egypt as Fino). The bread has a very thin and soft crust, very light, and chewy. Here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
850 ml of flour (if you have a cup of 200 ml, then just measure 4.25 times) (roughly 550-600 g)
210 ml warm water
85 ml oil
42 g fresh yeast (you can substitute for about 10 g of active dry yeast)
5 tbsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt

For this recipe I use my bread machine, but if you have an electric mixer with dough extention or even by hand it should be ok. Add the yeast to the water, then add 1 tsp sugar, then mix well until all yeast is dissolved. Now in the bread machine (mixing bowl) add everything except flour and salt. On top of that add the flour. Mix for 5 minutes on low speed. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add the salt and mix on medium/high speed for 15 minutes. Let it rise in a warm place (the bread machine should do that for you if you select the dough cycle) for about 50-60 minutes, the dough will be roughly 3 times the original size. Punch down, divide into 4 pieces for big loaves. Make each piece into a ball then spread it into a rectangle, roughly 20x35 cm. Roll to get a 35 cm long loaf. Pleace on baking paper and let rise for about 25 minutes in a warm _humid_ place. I heat the oven to 50 degrees, add 100 ml of hot water to the bottom of the oven, turn it off, and put my bread inside. After 25 minutes, take the bread out of the oven, heat the oven till it's 200 degrees (not any less). Spray the bread with a mixture of sugar and water (1 tbsp sugar for 125 ml water). Put the bread in the oven, set the oven to roughly 230-240 degrees, and add another 100 ml of hot water to the bottom of the oven. The bread should start showing color in 3 mintues and should be red/light brown colored in 8-10 minutes. Take bread out, spray once more with water and sugar. Let the bread cool for a while (the crust will become soft during that time). Bag the bread, it will stay fresh for roughly 2-3 days when properly bagged. Or refregirate/freeze for more time. Defrosts/heats very well in a microwave oven.

This recipe was created completely by me, use it, don't publish it.

NOTE: I will post photos when I make the bread next time.

file permissions and chmod

When you "ls -l" you get some crazy symbols on the left similar to "drwxr-xr-x". These represent the file permissions. Here is how they work.
You have 10 letters: "0123456789"
0 will be 'd' if it's a directory and '-' otherwise
123, 456, 789 correspond to the rights for "owner", "group" (owner's group), "every body else"
so, 1,4,7 are for the "read" right
2,5,8 are for the "write" right
3,6,9 are for the "execute" right
If you have the right, there will be an 'r', 'w', or 'x' respectively, otherwise a '-'
The command to change those is chmod. To change something, you must have a "write" right, or be a root.
chmod works in 2 ways:
- Either write "chmod xxx file" where x is a single octadecimal digit corresponding to the rights you give to each group, where the 1st x is for the 1st group and so on.
As a side note, here is a table for octadecimal transformation into binary:
0 -> 000
1 -> 001
2 -> 010
3 -> 011
4 -> 100
5 -> 101
6 -> 110
7 -> 111
so, now map the 3 binary digits to "rwx" and you get your rights for one group. For example, 5, which is 101, represents r-x rights.

- the other way to use chmod is to do use some letters
'u' = user (owner)
'g' = group
'o' = others
'a' = all (the 3 permissions)
'r' = read
'w' = right
'x' = execute
'-' = remove
'+' = add
and you write it such as "chmod [a|u|g|o]+ [+|-] [r|w|x]+". What this means in english is, write chmod, then write any combination of "augo" then write '+' or '-' then write any combination of "rwx". So u+x will give the owner execute right and og-rw will remove the read and write from others and group.
Take care because sometimes a-r or a-w or u-r or u-w can be dangerous if you don't have root access. There are a lot of other options, consult the chmod manual (man chmod) for the full details.

kturtle scripts

I modified the leaf script from http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~mbanaji/recreation/kturtle.html to work with kturtle and I wrote my own Mandelbrot set tutrle script. I thought this might be useful for someone else.

Here is the code for the mandelbrot set. The code can scale to very high resolution but you will face terrible problems with kturtle speed. For best performance, select full speed (No highlight) from the Run menu.



Here is the code for the leaf. It is a modified version to work with kturtle as well as some fixed logic mistakes. Again use the same running environment as mandelbrot for best results.

Forgot to say, these files will not work if you just copy/paste them in the kturtle editor, you should .turtle files then open them from kturtle. This is because the turtle script is different from what is saved in the file and when you save/open it translates back and forth between both.

Cranking to power a laptop

I was watching a guy talking about that they want to create a laptop that gives you a 1:10 ratio of cranking vs. operation time. A human cranking with a good generator that doesn't lose a lot in the process of converting the energy could give a 100 watts output for a few minutes after which he will start getting tired and the output will decrease. So what this guy is talking about is only achievable if you can get your laptop to function under 10 watts. Which is a feasible number, and actually it is currently at 8 watts with a target of 2 watts. Now the other option is mentioned was to hang a heavy rock on a pulley that would rotate your generator and you would just pull the rock up when it's approaching the ground to sustain the electricity generation. Here he has done a lot of imagination. Let's say you have a 5 kg rock, you hang it 2 meters high. The energy you stored in that rock is mgh which is 5*10*2. This is 100 joules. If you even have the 2 watts laptop, 100 joules will sustain you for 50 seconds. So it seems you need a 100kg rock, along with a pulley and a rope that could support that, and even then, it would give you roughly a quarter hour of operation time.

I believe that our devices had gone far beyond our capability to generate their power by pedaling. We either need extremely power efficient devices that operate in the range of 0.1-0.5 watts, or we need to generate the power in another way.

I wanna go to MIT

I am astonished at the HUGE difference between the way I was taught in Egypt and the way things are done at MIT. Believe it or not, at the GUC I couldn't stand a lecture, I slept in or didn't attend at least 60% of all lectures, and now I cannot stop watching MIT video lectures. I watched 4 lectures in a row, and I really cannot stop although I know most of the information there.

So, I really really wanna go to MIT.

Quantum Physics

I remember very clearly that it was part of our curriculum in the 3rd semester at the GUC that we should have done an introduction to quantum physics. Our luck was out enough that we had a professor that decided to skip that out when he didn't have enough time to explain it. What stupidity that was. For the professor, watch and learn how it's done.

Try Linux

Hello People,
now, I've been using Linux or GNU/Linux for quite a long time, and it is quite clear to me that it is much more superior to Microsoft Windows. For me, the superiority lies in one perticular aspect, I have control over my hardware. First of all, Linux is quite rich with tools that gives you the needed flexibility to do most of the things you want to do with your hardware. Second, the tools perform the way they are supposed to.
Away from all reasons why you should use Linux, which is not the purpose of this post, I would like to make a tiny commitment. For all of you out there that really want to use Linux, or at least try, and don't know where to start. I am willing to provide the needed assistance and put you on the right track at least to try using Linux for a few months.

If you are someone who wants to use linux, or who already does but has problems somewhere, just leave me a comment on this blog post (preferably stating your e-mail address) and I will contact you back and we will get your system running in some way or another.

Just give it a try, it's really worth it.

[UPDATE] If you need a Linux CD, almost any Distribution, please leave a comment below. I will either provide instructions on how to download and burn one yourself, how to order one for free (not recommended as it puts more financial burden on the distro), or I will burn you one myself.

Earth Resources

I have been thinking for a while about the exploitation of earth's resources. We're consuming oil, coal, forests, water, fish, etc at an extremely fast rate. We far exceeded earth's capability to re-produce those resources. Even something like nuclear energy sources, they seem to have no side effects, but in fact, we are releasing huge amounts of energy. Think of it like that, there is a certain amount of energy trapped in the doomed uranium atom that went into the reactor, that energy was released, part of it is released as heat, and is dumped into water or air, and the rest is converted to electricity. But the story doesn't end there, this electricity eventually finds its way to someone's home, where he will use it to generate heat, or turn a motor. Even the energy that goes into turning a motor or lighting some place, this eventually is absorbed by something that transforms that into heat.

We need concrete, we need food, we need wood, we need iron, we need .... And the world population is so big that we are using the resources faster than they are generated. I personally don't see any way out of this death trap except by decreasing the population of earth. Countries don't only need to maintain a stable population, they need to decrease their population. I believe that some studies should be done to estimate the optimal population for earth that grants a decent quality of life and at the same time consumes resources at a pace less than or equal to earth's capability of reproducing those resources.

What is Expo in RC airplanes

It seems to me through the many videos that I watched that many people don't really understand what the "Expo" (Exponential) function does on an RC transmitter. Most people believe that the expo will smoothen/dampen out the movements of the airplain and make it not so sensitive, which is not true, in fact, partially, the expo will MAKE the airplane more sensitive and twitchy. As I am studying engineering, I see exponential curves almost everyday, so I will try my best to explain how they work.

First of all, let's start by showing the difference between an exponential and a linear function. An exponential function is on the form y=e^x (^ means "to the power") and if we draw x vs y on a curve, here is how it will look like.
Opposed to exponential functions, there are linear functions whose graph should look like a line. Here is an example of how they look.
You should naturally be wondering now, what the hell does this have to do with RC flying. I will explain that right now. Imagine that your control sticks are the X axis of the graph, when you move your stick to a certain position, your transmitter translates that into the y value of the curve, and that's the value that's actually sent to the receiver and thus to the servos.
Now let's see how each graph affects the airplane. The linear function, which is the default one, if you tilt (move) your control stick 1 degree (think of it as 1 mm), the servo moves 1 degree in that same direction (think of it also as 1 mm). Let's say you "really" want to dampen your airplane movements. This you can do by going to your airplane's curves and just making then look like a line that is not very steep, a little closer to the horizontal, this means that now, if you tilt your stick 1 degree, the servo will move only 0.5 degrees, which is "damping/smoothing" the movements. But this has a disadvantage, let's say that when you tilt you stick to the max it goes 10 degrees. Now your servo will go 5 degrees. When in fact, your servo can physically go up to 10 degrees. Thus you are using some maneuvrability, and actually some capability to recover from a possible crash for example.
The expo now comes in handy, let's see how the expo function behaves. In the expo function, the amount that the servo moves does not depend only on how much did you tilt your stick, but also on where it is. So for example if you center your stick to zero and then tilt it 1 degree, the servo will move 0.5 degrees. Now, take your stick and tilt it 9 degrees and consider that your new starting position. If you tilt your stick 1 more degree, the servo will react to that with a movement of 2 degrees now. I know it might be a little hard to grasp, just sit and look at the curves and think about it. What the expo function now does for you is that it makes movements near the zero position of the stick move the servos less, while movements near the extremes of the stick move the servo more. This is very useful because small movements near the center are usually used when you are hovering a helicopter and just making small adjustments to keep it in place, or flying and air plane on idle and also making small adjustments to keep it streigt or make a wide bank or something like that. At the same time, movements near the extremes of the stick are used when you are making stunts or trying to recover from a possible crash. In those situations, sensitivity doesn't really matter since you are already making big movements and jamming the stick left and right all the way.

So, to sum it up, expo doesn't decrease the twitchiness or the plane or dampen the movements, it does that only near the center of the stick, but compensates for this by making movements near the end of the stick more twitchy and sensitive to give you the full range of your control surfaces/servos. A linear function is just an almost direct map between your control sticks movement and the servo movement, which means, if you move your control stick 1 degree the servo will move 1 degree not depending on whether the stick moves near the center or near the extremes. (Please note that it doesn't necessarily mean that your servo will move 1 degree for each 1 degree tilt of the stick, the servo could move 2 or 3 degrees for each 1 degree from the stick... this was just an example to demonstrate. But you can change the amount the servo moves for each "x" movement of the stick in your curves or there was another place where you could set the throws or something like that. I just don't remember the name in the menus, you would specify how much % of the servo movement should correspond to your 100% stick movement, and the computer calculates everything else for you. Note, you have 2 settings for this, one is called Normal-Rates, and the other is called Dual-Rates, so basically you can configure 2 sets of curves, one for each.)

I hope this little article was helpful for somebody out there, please let me know if you like it.

Only she looks at me that way

Taken in Wuerzburg, Germany on Saturday 5th of June 2010.

Image Type: jpeg (The JPEG image format)
Width: 3872 pixels
Height: 2592 pixels
Camera Model: NIKON D60
Date Taken: 2010:06:05 15:24:16
Exposure Time: 1/125 sec
Aperture Value: f/4.5
ISO Speed Rating: 100
Flash Fired: Flash did not fire
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Focal Length: 32.0 mm
Software: Ver.1.01

In Egypt

I am sitting right in my room in Egypt now. Will be there for the next 23 days.

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