How To Obtain Power In the Desert

Mustafa Al Saeed

I would like to share with my mates something I know and did at my farm in Saudi Arabia and I think they will enjoy knowing how to do it. It is making a small generator that runs on wind and solar energy.

My farm is faraway from an area that has electricity yet we need energy so we can stay up at night and if we want to use anything that needs power to work. We could obtain power from a generator. However a generator is expensive, and needs petrol. Furthermore every time we bought a generator it would not work after seven months or less than a year because the weather in my country exhausts the machines. Thereby I was thinking about any idea that could help me, even I lost money. Then I was invited to have dinner in the desert with my old friends, and I found that they use solar cells and a dynamo to generate electricity.

It was very cheap. It did not cost more than 250 NZ dollars. I just bought a big battery, which is used in trucks, however it was second hand, and a dynamo that generates power for a car. I have one that I bought from a second hand car place. I also found a long pole, and a fan with wires that does not work.

I took the blades from the fan and fixed those blades to the dynamo, and then I connected the wires between the dynamo, the solar cell and the battery. I sited the dynamo on the pole and then I left the pole and steadied it on the land. Then I connected every light, my television and receiver to the battery, and finally I put the solar cell outside on the rooftop. It is enough to work for 6 hours at night. But it depends on the weather. It is a very good idea for a small trip or a house faraway from town.

Learning To Play A Musical Instrument When You Are Mature

Araceli Munoz

Don’t think that you aren’t able to learn a musical instrument just because you aren’t young enough or because you don’t have an ear for music. Music doesn’t have age and you can always train you ear. Don't you doubt it, if you like music, you can make this dream come true.

It’s of great important that you can have a good teacher. Maybe it is more important that she knows to teach, than she is a genius at music. Your teacher has to help you to discover which is the best form of or strategy for learning music. Make sure that she understands your interests, tastes and preferences. But if, you finally see that this system doesn’t fit you well you can change strategy or maybe teacher.

The most important thing is being constant and persistent. If you want to learn to play an instrument you should practice. Make an effort to prepare your lessons everyday. Be patient and take all the time that you need to acquire your knowledge of music and to assimilate all the things that you have learned. Don’t give up if at first it’s difficult for you learning musical language and you don’t make progress quickly. You shouldn’t desist from your attempt easily.

You should enjoy music and you might not worry if your music doesn’t sound good or your musical notes aren’t right or precise. Try to be relaxed and to have a good time. Think that you don’t have any exams, you have got nothing to lose, and you don’t have to demonstrate anything to anybody.

Take every opportunity to try to play musical pieces or songs that you like and you can enjoy. Look for a moment to appreciate music in your free time. Bear in mind that the time that you dedicate to music is also a time that you dedicate to yourself. You can take it as a break in your busy life or a moment of relaxation.

Finally, remember that studying music can not only improve your musical skills, but also stimulate your mind. You will be able to see that in a little time your memory, coordination and concentration will get better and this improvement will be able to help in other spheres of your life.

How To Be Successful in Exams

Fatmah Al Naser

How good are you at coping in exams? Do you know what to do if you have exams? Read my suggestion to be successful in exams.

First of all, study hard, that makes you confident in exams and remember the key points of knowledge. Also sleep very well before going to the exam. That will help you to focus on the right answers. If you do not know the solutions to some questions, do not panic. Try to be relaxed, and then the information will come to you smoothly. Don’t be late for exams because that will not make you relaxed. Eat breakfast before taking an exam and do not drink too much tea or coffee because a lot of tea and coffee makes you stressed and nervous.

Follow these instructions and you will successful in exams. Good luck!

Achievements: The Child’s Wishes or The Parent’s Ambitions?

Araceli Munoz

Years ago, Iskander and Noraisha Yusof were the youngest siblings ever to be accepted at university, and their sister Sufiah began university when she was 13 years old. They were taught by their father, who was a mathematician, and they never went to school. But, these siblings haven’t shared the same luck. Iskander and Noraisha continued with their studies successfully, while Sufiah’s life has gone from bad to worse since she began university. She felt that her life was controlled by her father and his academic interests.

The case of Sufiah is the same as some other prodigy children, who cannot bear their parents’ pressure or the expectations that people put on them, or also, their lack of adaptation to an uncommon social environment.

Gifted children have to improve their skills but without being isolated from the rest of society with whom they have to live together, sooner or later. Maybe they should develop their learning without the necessity of stopping being children. They should go to school and not lose contact with other children of the same age.

In these times, stress also affects most children, who have to do numerous extra-school activities (music, languages, sports and so on). Often parents force children to do what they had liked doing and they haven’t been able to do. So, do our children have to be a reflection of our own defeats? And in the end, are the obtained achievements the achievements that they wanted to obtain or, maybe, the ones their parents wanted them to obtain? Is it the parents or children who decide where and how to triumph?

On the other hand, what should they sacrifice of their life to obtain this achievement? What price do they have to pay? And, to what extent can academic achievements be important if they don’t go accompanied by success in one’s personal life?

And finally, why do we need them to stop being children so soon? Perhaps this is only a parents’ choice. Some parents want their children to grow so fast, and others, like me, like enjoying the childhood of their children, although they know that this time will not last forever. Just as a Catalan song says: “Nothing or nobody can avoid them suffering, hands drawing on the clock, that they decide by themselves and that they make mistakes, that they grow and one day they say to us goodbye”.

Fabiola Arredondo!

Fatmah Al Naser

Fabiola Arredondo has achieved an unusual amount. She was born in Spain, and she studied in the USA and is married to a South African. She worked as managing director of Yahoo!

Nowadays, she is a director of Rodale, which is an authoritative source for trusted content in health, fitness and wellness around the world. She was managing director of Yahoo Europe, and she provided the leadership that enabled Yahoo Europe to become one of the leading Internet companies in Europe, achieving solid financial and overall business performance.

She has really changed the world through her management of such a successful company.

I really admire her because she made Yahoo a successful company in a short time. I have learned from her how I can be patient and how can I make a great plan for my future.

Reflections on some prodigies

Mustafa Al Saeed

Iskander Yousif and his sister have graduated without studying at school. They just studied at university straight away, majoring in maths. Earlier, their father taught them at home, and he has good experience in mathematics. Furthermore, Iskander started his study at university when he was 12 years old. Sufiah, who is Iskander oldest sister, was accepted for study at Oxford University when she was just 13 years old.

They do not say how they studied at home, but I suppose that the father taught them regularly and used some materials from schools, in addition he is intelligent and would have worked hard in his teaching.

It is extremely likely that family is very intelligent to study at university so very young and be successful. Mathematics is not an easy subject, I studied more than ten maths papers at university, though my subject was not maths but computing. It is not very difficult to understand a lot of mathematical theories but the most complicated thing is to apply the theories in work or in life. I am very interested in maths and I know it is very hard to study that subject. Not only young or teenagers that did not study at school before, but adults who finished their high school, find it very hard. Maths is a tool for every science, especially in the technology part. Technology relies on maths.

Introducing Halle Berry

Yuko Iwata

Halle Berry is a famous, successful, and beautiful woman. She is an African American. Really, she is half white and half black but her mother decided to categorize her as black, because her mother knew that even though Halle was half white, she would be discriminated against in her country as a black person.

Halle was beautiful when she was young. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio in 1986. She was the 1986 Miss USA, and the first African-American Miss World entrant in 1986.

She has succeeded after changing her profession to an actress. She has starred in many films and Berry's performance has been recognized with several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

But she has not always been happy. Berry has been the victim of domestic violence, and now works to help other victims. In 2005, she said "Domestic violence is something I've known about since I was a child. My mother was a victim of it. Early on in my life I made a choice, and I chose men that were abusive because that was what I knew growing up … the first time it happened, I knew enough to keep moving.” Berry has indicated that she planned to adopt children.

To tell the truth, I didn’t know her name until I read the textbook. At first, I didn’t have any interest in her achievement. I thought most of her achievements were about her beauty. Also I had thought that there isn’t racial discrimination in Hollywood anymore, but when people admire her for her success, they never forget to say “It was the first time for an African American.” It makes me realize that she is still discriminated against. But she looks noble all the time, though she has had tough luck in her private life. I think that she has dignity as an actress, as a woman and as a black person. That is the reason why I am attracted to her.

The Similarities or the Differences: Which Interest You?

Wayne (Weimin) Li

If you know the structure of our brain, you will wonder how interesting our brain is! Experts have shown that our brain is technically divided into two parts. One is named ‘white matter’ and the other is grey matter’. The former one, mainly functions to help us transfer information, the latter’s major potentiality is to help us think.
As we all know, most women can do multi-tasking. They can talk to a boss on the telephone, cook dinner and keep an eye on the baby at the same time. In this women come out top every time.
But, as you know, men are good at spatial tasks. Usually, this kind of ability is associated with sports, exercise, physical movement and so on. As a male, I tend to the spatial skill, which is important to me. So you know, I don’t like doing things like women who can do lots of things at the same time. It’s difficult and in a way leads to mistakes and troubles. Whereas, the reason why I prefer spatial ability is I like doing sports and painting. I can use my imagination to do these things well. And another reason is that I’d like to be a designer, which was my dream when I was a child. It has already past, but I still remember it. I wish it would come true in the future.
In my opinion, I’d prefer being interested in the differences between male and female, because we don’t spend time on the common things that both genders have. Actually, we are more interested in the differences. It’s our natural curiosity.

Does Size Really Matter?

Araceli Munoz

The brain is a mysterious organ that has fascinated scientists of all times. During a lot of time experts have tried to discover how it works and its connection with human behaviour. Everyday more is known about the brain and its relation to the control of our body, our emotions and our learning capacity, and regarding our behaviour and cognition. But the brain is still a big unknown for us, and a lot of times these isn’t a clear explanation of how brain works with regard to these issues.

Maybe because human behaviour and mental processes are very difficult to objectify, their study is very complex. The frontier between biological and social processes isn’t clear, though to explain human behaviour we can turn to biological or socio-cultural factors, or maybe a combination of both. And this combination implies another dilemma too: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do some skills that have an origin in biological processes entail posterior socio-cultural changes? Or perhaps some environmental factors can involve changes in our body as time goes by? What skills are innate and which ones are acquired and a fruit of socialization?

So, some skills associated with men or with women maybe have to do more with learned habits, behaviours or practices than with innate abilities. Are men innately less emotive, delicate and sensitive than women? Or maybe this has to do more with the fact that in the majority of societies it isn’t very well looked upon that men show their feelings?

But the ambiguity of this frontier between the biological and the social also sometimes entails an abuse of biologistic[1] explanations about some skills in order to justify social relations of power between people of different genders, ethnic groups or social classes. Likewise, other times biologistic explanations have been used to try to justify the rejection and discrimination that a part of the society exerts overt minority social groups. It isn’t so long ago that homosexuality was erroneously considered a mental illness. Therefore, sometimes some manifestly social behaviours have been pathologised or medicalised, looking for reasons in biology or medicine that can justify inequality in our societies.

A lot of men have tried to justify their position of power in front of women in society saying that their intelligence is bigger than women’s or that women are better gifted for some skills related to the domestic scope. During a lot of time the idea that men were more intelligent, because they had bigger brains than women, has dominated (showing the obsession that a lot of men had and have with regard to the size of things). Currently, it has been demonstrated that brain size is only important with regard to body size, because the larger the body is, the larger the part of the brain used to controlling this body has to be (ask an elephant!). But the amount of grey matter, focused on thinking, in men is the same as in woman.

I can’t deny that biological differences between men and women exist. But I refuse to think that these differences can justify any position of power of men in front of women. People have to be careful because it’s very easy to create stereotypes based in differences and later to reify[2] them as if they are absolute truths.

---

[1] Biologistic / Biologism: “Use of biological principles in explaining human especially social behaviour” (WordReference.com)

[2] Reify: “Consider an abstract concept to be real” (WordReference.com)

We Complete Each Other

Fatmah Al Naser

Recently, there has been a lot of research about the human brain. Many scientists try to know how the human brain works during sleep hours. Also, they do many experiments on animals' brains.

The important thing about the human brain is it consists of two halves, known as the left and right hemispheres. The two halves of the brain process information in different ways. In addition, the women's brain is smaller than men's. I think the differences between male and female brain make life easy and sometimes difficult.

The interesting things about the brain are the woman's brain is able to do many things at the same time while the man's brain does not have this ability. These brain differences appear in the career choices men and women make.

In conclusion I would like to say the differences between men and women's brain are important, because they complete each other.