Weblog assignment #1

Choose ONE of these and take a look at it. Write about the SITE, not the subject. DO NOT COPY. Your first paragraph should tell only about the site and link to it. What does the site do? Who made it? What does it look like? Your second paragraph should be your opinion.
Hand in your paper before you post it.
Type it if possible, double-space.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70909-0.html?tw=wn_culture_11
Second Life land deal ends up in court

http://secondlife.com/
Home page of Second Life

http://www.entropiauniverse.com/en/rich/5000.html
Project Entropia

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9905/14/e3.idg/
video games don't influence kids (much)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261.shtml
Can a video game lead to murder?

http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,48479,00.html
Video game addiction

http://www.nd.edu/~observer/02282001/Scene/0.html
America's love of soap operas

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4962540.stm
Controversial gay soap opera grips Cuba

Welcome to CESL 063!

photo by Eric Jang

TRAFFIC WAVES

I went to
TRAFFIC WAVES and I have written this article about it on my web log: http://www.muhammad178.blogspot.com/

He lives in Seattle; it took him 45 minutes to go back and forth to work if he's lucky. Sometimes it took him 4 hours to go back and forth to work. That forced him to watch what's going on on the road and it led him to realize a lot of things. In fact he realized that traffic is fantasy, it's like "a flowing liquid" he said. He also became a main part of this traffic; he uses his car just to be in the traffic and watch people. Finally, he thinks the traffic is a phenomena.

In my opinion, I believe that traffic is bad, and it's the only thing that makes you hate driving when you're in it. Indeed, this guy surprised me when he said he likes it, I thought he's going to hate it. As a matter of fact, when I am involved in traffic I just start to look for an exit to get away from the traffic. And I have succeed to find other ways and roads to take, so when I come the next time I won't come to the same road or highway that has the traffic. In short, people should organize themselves when they're behind the wheels, in order to prevent the traffic, and I'm optimistic about it; I believe humans are going to find a way to solve this issue.

by, Mohammed

3 Die in Saudi IKEA (BBC article)

I went to
3 Die in Saudi IKEA and I have written this article about it on my web log: http://www.muhammad178.blogspot.com/

The Ikea store in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was the scene of killing of three people in the crowded line of its opening day. The incident began when Ikea advertised its big opening and its big discounts for those who will enter first. But what happened? Almost 8000 people gathered and stayed in line in a very big crowd for the $150 vouchers; some of them came from the night before and waited until the store opened. However, one hour before the store opened at 0900 people gathered and pushed each other because everyone wanted to enter first. As a result of this crowd it hurt some people and made some die and be injured; even the Ikea guards gave up and couldn't help the hurt people; meanwhile another store in Riyadh opened and had the same troubles.

In my opinion, I believe the crowd is healthy and socializing event for people, when it is organized and safe; but if it's not it becomes dangerous and harmful. According to this Ikea story, it's completely the opposite; Ikea and other stores like it should be a shamed of what happened because of its foolish advertising. People, I say they must be smarter and wiser; they shouldn't let anyone take advantage of their need. However, police and ambulances should be aware of any crowd; they must go to it and make sure to keep it safe. In short, I hope we can gather in any public event and enjoy it, and of the same time we have to learn anywhere in this world to organize ourselves in any crowd.

by, Mohammed

Saudi's Break Taboos By Khalid

Saudi's break taboos by the Bluetooth

The restaurants in Saudi Arabia is different than the other, the families section is separated from the men section, so women don’t eat with men in the same place. While they eating their dinner they send to each other their numbers by using Bluetooth technology. They also send viruses to each other by using Bluetooth technology and bug it. Women hide their names from the men. Women are not allowed to stay with the man in privet place, like dating or staying alone in the car. They will get in trouble by the religious police. They use the Bluetooth because they want to stay out of trouble. They make a relationship by sending their pictures and their numbers, their was a small problem their, that the girls take pictures of other women in the weddings, then hw them and send them to their friends and brother. After that the men will see it and that is not allowed.
Bluetooth can keep lovers in touch safely. They send a love messages and an Arabic music to each other. It is hard for the police to catch them because they are a business men and people with connections in the government and people from the royal family. Mohammad said he always use the Bluetooth in his laptop, and when he see a pretty girl he make a search for Bluetooth devices and if he find her name he send his number to her and he start his relationship with her.

In my opinion, the Bluetooth is very harmful for Saudi people, especially in weddings, because it's very rude to take pictures and record videos of Saudi women who don’t want their picture to be seen by other men. They should make Bluetooth new technology under control, if they did not the problem will keep going and get bigger.

By Khalid Doubi.

King Fahad's Death By Khalid

King fahd's death and the marbella

King fahd death had a big impact to the Spanish, Spain missed the Saudi ruler in summer, the cost that was embosom king fahad missed him in one of the summer nights. It made a big effect to the Spanish providence. He had a lot of belonging include his castle, sanatorium and some villas. When he was alive he used to use his black beautiful helicopter to move from place to the other, several Mercedes-Benz and a special vans. a lot of people come to his castle asking for a good job. Some of those people who applied there they want to work with the royal family because it has a lot of benefits. The other want to work in a stores and jewelry shops, king fahad spent a lot of money there, because of these it put him in dealings with the hierarchy, in 2002, he was also spending 200m in that year. He had a luxury ship for one million dollars.

In my opinion king fahd's death hurt all the people in the world not just spanish, all the stock in the middle east was down in the month that he died; he is also a good man; he always helps people; he gives them jobs; he gave to the poor people and to the orphans, he is a generous man, he is one of the richest people in the world.

By Khalid Doubi.

The Roma’s Gypsies by Kim

Gypsies are everywhere in Romania. There are several classes of gypsy. One of them is affluent groups such as musicians that can travel to the West. And also affluent are those who sell fine products like rugs. They are living in houses. But most of them are poor. They migrate with covered wagons. They have things to sell, but are just as likely to make their living by begging. Based on linguistic and anthropological evidence, many people are thinking that they have migrated from Europe in the early 15th century.

I heard that Gypsy is a wanderer of Europe. They love music and could play music very well. When I went to Sevilla, which is the south-western area in Spain that is famous for Flamenco. I saw their performance. I was impressed by their performance at that time. I also had the opportunity to visit their village, Sacromonte, nearby the Alhambra palace. But it was a surprise to me. They lived in a dugout. My guide told me they do not want to live in the house which was given to them by the government. They did not feel comfortable there. So I think that their lives are like a heritage museum.

i went to gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/behavior.shtml.It explains why people act the way they do. Information is givin about the influences of behavior, and where you get your behavior from you mother or father.

In my opinion.we get our behavior from our parent's even though we might act different,
For example,If my father was a trouble maker I might be a trouble maker too, but he grow up and i will grow up. So i think we all act the way we do because of our parent's.


BY; NBEEhttp://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/behavior.shtml

by:nb

AMISH IN ILLINOIS


I went to illinoisamishcountry the website talks about amish people in Illinois Also, the site shows that the heart of Illinois country is a town of 2,200 residents which is located 20 miles west of interstate 57 off exit 203.Then, it talks about what their stores and shops look like . If you are intersted in Amish calture,visit this site above and you will find what you need to know.



In my opinion it's very interesting to know and learn different cultures. Also,we might like it or might not, but we will know about other people's lifestyles compare it with ours.

by;NB

Reading about Gene

This article discusses about whether the gene is the main reason that causes homosexuality. Some psychologist think that the fact of homosexuality was caused by the social environment. The important research discussed the relationship between the gene and the homosexuality in 1993, but they just discussed the single X chromosome, and explained that it is likely that the homosexuality gene is passed down from the mom to the son. However, the result of basing the study on a single gene is not convincing. Also, it indicated that only less than 50% showed that there is something with the gene and the sexual orientation. Therefore, there is still a long way to go.


Since the improvement of technology, lots of studies have been conducted. Even the sexual orientation can be shown by the study. To tell the truth, I didn’t realize that homosexuality can be inherited from the gene until I browsed this website. Just like what others thought, I always though that the homosexuals themselves choose to have “this” life-style they live. But the fact is not like this. As you can see from the website, lots of studies are attempting to connect the relationship between the gene and the sexual orientations and to locate that the gene seems to play a significant role in influencing the sexual orientation. Although there is not any definite and absolute result yet, and no matter what the result is, I think the homosexuals are just like the different color of people’s skin or eyes in the world; people should learn to be more of accepting the homosexual life-style.

By Jay

After Reading about Cohabitation

This website introduces a book: Unmarried to each other. It is known that there are more and more couples or partners living together without getting married. This phenomenon is more and more common now than the past. In the book, it describes some facts and discusses some questions and problems that people wonder about and would like to solve. Moreover, it provides some tips or tools for people whether it is in law, finance, having children in the coming years, etc. if they would like to keep the relationship of cohabitation or would consider living together and remaining unmarried. Also, it provides some suggestions from the real samples. Indeed, this book is packed with a lot of information about the joys and common challenges to love without getting married. In addition to the introduction of the book, there are some useful guides provided for those living together as unmarried couples from the news and other related online readings.



This book is discussing the problem of the relationship of cohabitation. It starts from why couples live together without getting married. Also, how to introduce or name each other, how to tell the children the relationship, whom the children will belong to in the future and so forth are mentioned in the book as well.

I would like to share my opinions about cohabitation. I personally agree with living together without getting married for a short term only, i.e. no longer than half year if they are sure they will be married in the coming years and this short period of cohabiting time can be seen as a kind of accommodative time. However, if those who live together hold the concept of “testing marriage,” I don’t agree with cohabitation and I don’t think that is suitable. The most important thing is that cohabitation can neither guarantee nor protect the affectional relationship. For instance, the reason unmarried couples live together is solely because of love at the moment; however, nobody knows if they will break up with each other at the next moment after a dramatic argument. Thus, it is irresponsible for the couples toward dealing with their affection.

Based on the traditional concept, couples live together only if they are married. Also, according to the terms of the law, it also says that to protect the marriage, the right and obligation for couples is to take the full responsibility of their marriage and affection. Cohabitating couples can abandon their affection anytime so nobody will be protected without the law. For instance, in the past, couples without getting married seldom lived together, and the percentage of divorce was not a high proportion. However, more and more couples live together now and the percentage of divorce is getting higher and higher. This also expresses that more and more couples would rather try “trial marriage” or cohabitation to see if they are Mr./ Mrs. right for each other so that the percentage of divorce is increasing. It proves that cohabitation will not only cause the sense of irresponsibility easily but also be helpless for maintaining the affectional relationship.

To sum up, I agree with cohabitation only based on the fact that the couples will get married in the future and they have to live together inevitably because of some reasons for a short period of time. However, I would not agree with cohabitation if they are only trying to “testing marriage.”

By Jay

After reading about Staying Single

the website, Unmarried America, talks about single families and unmarried american. And we can see several topics of unmarried america in this website. We can read Radio one , Column one , Library one. They have alot of information about unmarried america. in Radio one, we can see the voice of unmarried america. In Column one, we can read the viewpoint of unmarried america. In Library one, we can know the achives of unmarried america.

In my opinion , there are a lot of unmarried Americans and single families in America. I think they have some reasons or problems; that's why they would be unmarried or stay single. And I want to resarch the cause of unmarried surely while making the weblog.

The Gay Gene

This website, The Gay Gene, was produced as assignment for an undergraduate at Davidson college. This web site tells us about what is the Gay gene. we could know some detailed information about DNA. This web site contained a lot of content. For example, it tells us that Homosexuality and the rights of homosexuals are enormous issues in our society; it will try to discuss the rise and fall of the 'gay gene'; it tells us how they found the gay gene chronologically and the process of finding it, and says misunderstanding and problems and confusion remains, and so on.

If you are interested in genes, you should go to this web site. It has some difficult contents, but you could learn manythings. In addition, this web site has many links rebated to the gay gene. If you think you want to learn more about genes, you could find many topics about genes. When I saw this web site, I thought it's very difficult to me. However, this topics is very interesting. perhaps you may have interest, when you visit this website.

By Tomohiro Miyamura

Bluetooth

I went to this article. And I read in this web site about Bluetooth. In the last three years it circulated quickly in Saudi Arabia especially technology like this that can make people change their habit. People over there like to use the Bluetooth because it approaches them from each other, so they can chat, and send pictures. On the other hand, it’s easy to find people that you might know, or make new relationships. The great thing is that the Bluetooth feature is free. Unfortunately some people abuse this technology by annoying the others. However, this technology changed the Saudi community in a good way.

In my opinion, I used the Bluetooth before and I like it because it’s helpful and it makes you in touch with people. In fact my recommend is to try using this technology and you will be happy with it.

by Abood Raid

Cohabitation Nation

In recent years, cohabitation of population is getting more common, but they are without marriage. Some people have different opinions and show them on the cohabitation nation web site. According to this web site, they talk about cohabitation nation in many places of the world; some people thought that a cohabitation law in North Dakota could be next; and some people said,“ I don’t know how people got married before living together first”. That’s kind of different opinions; people should be thinking about that.

In my country, most people are pursuing marriage, but I think cohabiting is a good way to adapt before people get married; it is better than people figuring out they can not adapt to each other after, they got married, because they can know what kind of person their partner is, and they can know more about his or her personality.

By Alan

BBC article about Saudi IKEA

I have read a BBC article about Saudi IKEA. The web site said “Three die in Saudi shop stampede” because too many people wanted to go into the store and buy the $150 vouchers. The incident made three people die and Sixteen people injured. IKEA will have two new stores which have 200% more space than the old stores, opening in Jeddah and the capital, Riyadh.

I`m very surprised about the incident, because I have never seen people who wanted to buy something, even if it will make people in danger. The report said they will have two stores that have 200% more space than the old stores; I think they have to solve the problem of crowds, andwhether the place`s space is enougt or not.

By Alan

Stock market crash

i went to this article.
The definition for stock market is: very quick alteration with damage,and this damage they will share with every company.There was many stock market crsashesin 1929 and 1987.
But the biggest and most widespread one was in 1929.It caused a lot of problems with everyone that lived in this time and the people were near dying. This stock made loss trouble in money, but the good thing was in 2002 the stock market was decreasing, which made for people peace of mind.

In my opinion,this article was interesting and it made me curios to read more about stock market, and I thing in 1929 some people die because the unforeseen change.
However, I don’t think so. In this time the stock market could do it again.

by abood raid

IKEA in Jeddah

The link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3618190.stm


In the opening of IKEA stores in the west of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah city more than 8000 people has gathered near the store for the $150 or 500 RS, IKEA opened the doors at 9:00 am one hour before the scheduled time, because of the large number of people who gather in front of the store. And when the crowed begin to enter the shop in huge numbers the, security couldn't control them and because of that one Saudi man and also a Pakistani where crushed. The new IKEA is now 200% bigger than the old store.

Conclusion: the reason that they didn't succeed the shop successfully:
1- They did not do any survey on the consumer behavior.
2- The opened the store before the scheduled time when the should not open it at all because of the crude.
3- The store was very small and the population of Jeddah is very high and that mean that the store planning was vary bad.
4- The security forces were not enough to control the crude.



Abdulla Alhumaidi

Rude and crude


http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?id=35442&adid=opinion


In this article the writer is talking about how people are becoming more rude and less polite in several ways, and she also gives some examples of that In a survey in ABC news, 78% of American say they encounter loud cell phone chatting, and 75% percent hear it often, but the main problem is to say bad words loudly, or even to talk in the cinema theater. She also gives some other examples, about how people are not polite and when she asked them why they said there is not much time to be polite.



What I think is that it is a problem of religion, and in Islam the profit Mohammad told Muslims that politeness is a very important issue and even in Christianity. So it is not about etiquette or what ever it is about believing in something.



Abdulla Alhumaidi

IQ- Genetics or Environment by Kim

According to the Fabian Grasso of AllPsych Journal in July 1. 2002, the debates about the life’s developmental forces will be over sooner or later. Many scientists, for example, Lewis M. Term, a professor of Stanford University, David Wechsler, a Psychologist working at the U.S. Army's Camp Logan, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, the author of 'The Bell Curve',etc, have looked for clues into how we grow, why we do things and what we do. So they have tried to formulate understanding of I.Q. which centers on the effect of argument between nature of nurture. The inability to recognize which factor is responsible for any specific trait, but knowing that one or both of the two is responsible, will keep the argument of genetics vs. environment on the forefront of our search for answers for a long, long time.

Even though it's not easy to know I.Q. clearly, I had thought I.Q. was only depended on genetics before I saw a genius who is called Ung-Yong Kim in Korea. When he was six years old, he was on TV and showed us how to solve the mathematics problems about the differential and integral calculus. All people who had seen the program were surprised, and we had thought he was a great scientist in the world. But, I was disappointed when I heard the news that he changed to a common man. He had studied home with his parents for 10 years. But, his special ability vanished. I think that it teaches us not only the nature but also the nurture are important.

weblog assignment #6

You may choose any article from weblog assignments 1-5, that you have not read, and do it. OR, you may choose your own article and do that. If you choose your own: be sure that it is related to the subjects we have discussed; and, be sure it's in English.

Remember two other things you need to do before Tuesday....
1. Drop a total of eight comments on your classmates' weblogs;
2. Put TWO of your weblog assignments here (on the AE2 weblog).

Check the links. Fix the grammar. Make them look nice! Thanks. It looks good so far!!
-Tom L.

maxime ghislain zondo

I navigated through the website concerning the wisdom of crowds this article and i found out that there are some elements required to form or to destroy a wise crowd.
Four elements are essential to form a wise crowd. For example, diversity of opinion, when each person should have his private information. Independence, and decentralisation, when people opinions aren’t determined by the opinions of those around them and when people are able to specialize on local knowledge. The last one is aggregation, when some systems exist to turn private judgment into a common decision.
On the other hand the crowd can only do as well as its smartest member, rather than perform better. These are the elements for failures of crowd for being too centralized, too divided, and too imitative.

In my opinion not all crowds are wise, we have unwise crowd too. Although, all these dissensions, the crowds are characterized by collective experimental details. And the main reason is that people in the crowds are conform by the systematic flaw of making decisions

maxime ghislain zondo

iread the website concerning gay gene.Through this effort, I realized that there is a lot of contradictions, confusions and controversy about the homosexual issue. Despite those challenges there is still amazing research which tries to assume the homosexual behavior is gene-linked. For example there is study that reported the gay gene seems to be maternally linked, and is found on the Xq-28 stretch of the X chromosome (hameretal, 1993). But this funding was seriously criticized and questioned by another study, which found out that there is no evidence to relate the homosexual act to genetics (Marshall, 1995). Furthermore other people, especially anti-gay people attribute homosexuality to something such as a mental or physical illness. So ,up to now, there is still confusion about finding whether homosexuality is related to nature or nurture.

In my opinion, it is very hard for us to understand clearly what is going on. Because if it comes to questions of genetics of any homosexual behavior. We have the statement that is genetic behavior, or inherited. And the same time we have the statement that it is not genetics behavior or it is not heritable. I think we must not be skeptics; we have to be hopefully optimistic that in the future the truth shall prevail. But for me the homosexuality is purely related to nurture. On the other hand it is caused maybe by mental or physical illness. Or it is temptation.

sohail

illinois amish
i was interesting in amish life and wanted to know about the way they live , what they eat, how they deal with the ordinary life ,what their jobs are ...ets. then i found the answers to my questions on illionisamish ifound that they have the same kinds of food but in an amish style and they make business by selling i to the people and make money.
also they make money eith thein farms.

in fact, i respect the way which they live but i think they must be moderen.


# posted by sohail @ 2:22 PM 0 comments

sohail

Bluetooth in Saudi Arabia
www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/12/saudi.bluetooth.ap/index.html


I wentto

website to read about Saudi Bluetooth . I read some different stories about young male and female from Saudi Arabia who use Bluetooth. In fact they from Riyadh city which is the capital of the country .I read that they use it to connect with girls and brake the taboo of the society and they use this technology because they think it’s a safety way to make some relationships with other girls while the religion police do not know about it.


In my city which is Jeddah, we have very different culture from Riyadh. For example, girls do not covered their faces when they meet their relative boys or men, we also have many ways to make relationships with other girls with out using Bluetooth but we still use it. In fact, we in Jeddah have more freedom because what called religion police had decreased I mean they can not control us as a result some families from Riyadh come and live in Jeddah.


#

Weblog Assignment #5

For this assignment, you may choose among the articles below, OR you may choose from the articles in weblog assignments 1-4 that you have not done yet, OR, you may choose your own article. If you choose your own article, it may be a weblog post; it must be in English; it should be about one of the topics we've studied. In other words, read about people and their influence on each other; don't do a completely unrelated topic.

TRAFFIC WAVES- one driver can improve traffic (William Beatty)
http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

News article about traffic clumps: go slow to improve traffic (SF Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/06/MN229472.DTL

Mass Delusions and Hysterias: Highlights from the Past Millenium (lots of bizarre incidents)
http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-05/delusions.html

Belgian Coca-cola incident
1999/1999_07_12_t_coke.htm">http://www.gladwell.com">1999/1999_07_12_t_coke.htm

Bluetooth helps Saudis break taboos (CNN article)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/12/saudi.bluetooth.ap/index.html

Chinese cell phones change North Korean culture
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5145

Rude and Crude - Cell phone use (Indiana student newspaper)
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?id=35442&adid=opinion