الأتكيت
Etiquette, one aspect of decorum, is a code that governs the expectations of social behavior, according to the conventional norm within a society, social class, or group. Usually unwritten, it may be codified in written form. Etiquette usually reflects formulas of conduct in which society or tradition have invested. An etiquette may reflect an underlying ethical code, or in may grow more as a fashion, as in eighteenth century Britain where apparently pointless acts like the manner in which a tea cup was held became important as indicators of upper class status. Like "culture", it is a word that has gradually grown plural, especially in a multi-ethnic society with many clashing expectations. Thus, it is now possible to refer to "an etiquette" or "a culture", realizing that these may not be universal. In Britain, though, the word etiquette has its roots in the eighteenth century, becoming a universal force in the nineteenth century to the extent that it has been described as the one word that aptly describes life during the reign of Queen Victoria

Etiquette fundamentally prescribes and restricts the ways in which people interact with each other, and show their respect for other people by conforming to the norms of society.

Modern etiquette instructs people to greet friends and acquaintances with warmth and respect, refrain from insults and prying curiosity, offer hospitality equally and generously to guests, wear clothing suited to the occasion, contribute to conversations without dominating them, offer assistance to those in need, eat neatly and quietly, avoid disturbing others with unnecessary noise, follow the established rules of an organization upon becoming a member, arrive promptly when expected, comfort the bereaved, and respond to invitations promptly.

By way of contrast, Roman etiquette varied by class. In the upper strata of Roman society, etiquette would have instructed a man to: greet friends and acquaintances with decorum, according to their rank, refrain from showing emotions in public, keep his womenfolk secluded from his clients, support his family's position with public munificence, and so on.

Violations of etiquette, if severe, can cause public disgrace, and in private hurt individual feelings, create misunderstandings or real grief and pain, and can even escalate into murderous rage. Many family feuds have their beginnings in trivial etiquette violations that were blown out of proportion. In the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata, the entire world-destroying conflict between the armies of two clans begins when one ruler, Duryodhana, commits a couple of minor faux pas at his cousin's castle, and is impolitely made fun of for it. One can reasonably view etiquette as the minimal politics required to avoid major conflict in polite society, and as such, an important aspect of applied ethics.

In the West, the notion of etiquette, being of French origin and arising from practices at the court of Louis XIV, is occasionally disparaged as old-fashioned or elite, a code concerned only with "which fork to use". Some people consider etiquette to be an unnecessary restriction of freedom of personal expression; others consider such free spirits to be unmannerly and rude. For instance, wearing pajamas to a wedding in a cathedral may be an expression of the guest's freedom, but may also cause the bride and groom to suspect that the guest in pajamas is expressing amusement or disparagement towards them and their wedding. Etiquette may be enforced in pragmatic ways: "No shoes, no shirt, no service" is a notice commonly displayed outside stores and cafés in the warmer parts of North America. Others feel that a single, basic code shared by all makes life simpler and more pleasant by removing many chances for misunderstandings.
Manners involve a wide range of social interactions within cultural norms as in the "comedy of manners", or a painter's characteristic "manner". Etiquette and manners, like mythology, have buried histories especially when they seem to have little obvious purpose, and their justifications as logical ("respect shown to others" etc.) may be equally revealing to the social historian.

Etiquette is dependent on culture; what is excellent etiquette in one society may shock in another. Etiquette evolves within culture. The Dutch painter Andries Both shows that the hunt for head lice (illustration, right), which had been a civilized grooming occupation in the early Middle Ages, a bonding experience that reinforced the comparative rank of two people, one groomed, one groomer, had become a peasant occupation by 1630. The painter portrays the familiar operation matter-of-factly, without the sarcasm this subject would have received in a nineteenth-century representation.

Etiquette can vary widely between different cultures and nations. In China, a person who takes the last item of food from a common plate or bowl without first offering it to others at the table may be seen as a glutton and insulting the generosity of the host. Similarly, amongst older Australian women, a woman who takes the last item of food is called the old spinster, whilst in most European cultures a guest is expected to eat all of the food given to them, as a compliment to the quality of the cooking.

Etiquette is a topic that has occupied writers and thinkers in all sophisticated societies for millennia, beginning with a behavior code by Ptahhotep, a vizier in ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom during the reign of the Fifth Dynasty king Djedkare Isesi (ca. 2414–2375 B.C.). All known literate civilizations, including ancient Greece and Rome, developed rules for proper social conduct. Confucius included rules for eating and speaking along with his more philosophical sayings. Early modern conceptions of what behavior identifies a "gentleman" were codified in the sixteenth century, in a book by Baldassare Castiglione, Il Cortegiano ("The Courtier"); its codification of expectations at the Este court remained in force in its essentials until World War I. Louis XIV established an elaborate and rigid court ceremony, but distinguished himself from the high bourgeoisie by continuing to eat, stylishly and fastidiously, with his fingers. An important book about etiquette is Galateo, overo de' costumi by Monsignor Giovanni della Casa; in fact, in Italian, etiquette is generally called galateo (or etichetta or protocollo).

In the American colonies Benjamin Franklin and George Washington wrote codes of conduct for young gentlemen. The immense popularity of advice columns and books by Letitia Baldrige and Miss Manners shows the currency of this topic. Even more recently, the rise of the Internet has necessitated the adaptation of existing rules of conduct to create Netiquette, which governs the drafting of email, rules for participating in online fora, and so on.

In Germany, there is an "unofficial" code of conduct, called the Knigge a book of high rules of conduct written by Adolph Freiherr Knigge in the late 18th century entitled exactly Über den Umgang mit Menschen (On Human Relations). The code of conduct is still highly respected in Germany still today and is used primarly in the higher society.

Etiquette may be wielded as a social weapon. The outward adoption of the superficial mannerisms of an in-group, in the interests of social advancement rather than a concern for others, is a form of snobbism, lacking in virtue.


أنتشار الأمراض النفسية والأنتحار
Suicide is more widespread than you think
Maybe you know someone who committed suicide, and maybe not, but teen suicide is a serious issue that hopefully you can help prevent!

Fact 1:
It is the third leading cause of death among teenagers — almost 2,000 teens kill themselves each year.

Fact 2:
Many teens attempt suicide. A recent survey of high-school students found that:

Almost 1 in 5 had seriously considered attempting suicide;
More than 1 in 6 had made plans to attempt suicide; and
More than 1 in 12 had made a suicide attempt in the past year. (By the way, this means that in a class of 25 students it is likely that at least two have tried to kill themselves!)
Fact 3:
Female teens are much more likely to attempt suicide than males, but male teens are four times more likely to actually kill themselves.

Fact 4:
Over sixty-percent of teens who kill themselves use guns.

Fact 5:
About 877,000 people die by suicide every year.

Fact 6:

For every completed suicide, an estimated 8-25 attempts occur.

Fact 7:
Over 3 million youth are at risk for suicide, yet only 36% receive treatment

Mental illnesses including anxiety disorders and depression are common and under-treated in many developed and developing countries, with the highest rate found in the United States, according to a study of 14 countries.

Based on face-to-face diagnostic surveys in the homes of 60,463 adults, the study found that mental ailments affect more than 10 percent of people queried in more than half the countries surveyed.

Rates ranged from 26.4 percent of people in the United States to 8.2 percent of people in Italy. While Nigerians appeared to have the lowest prevalence of mental illness — 4.7 percent — the researchers think the actual number is likely much higher since residents of the violence-prone West African nation may be hesitant to confide in strangers.

فضل رعاية اليتم وفضل الصدقة والصلاة والنوافل
Charity, preached by every religion of the world, is a way of bringing justice to society. And justice is the essence of religion, Islam has therefore made charity that is Zakah, obligatory and binding upon all those who embrace the faith; it has been made into an institution in order to give in permanence and regularity.
A society can flourish only when its members do not spend all their wealth to fulfil their own desires but reserve a portion of it for parents, relatives, neighbors, the poor and the debilitated. As the saying goes: Charity begins at home. A true believer is thus always prepared, after meeting the needs of his family, to assist other people in need of his help.

Thus the spirit of kindness and well wishing is the essence of charity. The giver is not to expect any reward from the beneficiary as there awaits for him an abundant reward from God - material, moral and spiritual - what God deems it best to confer on His servant.

Charity should be lawfully earned or acquired by the giver. It should include such things as are of use and value to others.

"Charity is for those in need." This is general principle which enjoins us to help people in need, be they good or bad, on the right path or not, Muslims or non-Muslims. No one should judge in these matters. The foremost ends in charity should be God's pleasure and our own spiritual good. The concept of charity in Islam is thus linked with justice. It is not limited to the redressal of grievances. It implies apart from the removal of handicaps, the recognition of the right that every human being has to attain the fullness of life.
The spirit of helping others to earn God's pleasure is best reflected in Muslim society in the field of education. The greatest charity for a Muslim is to learn something and then teach it to other Muslims in large numbers. Thus Muslims have devoted themselves to other's education generation after generation. Knowledge is the most wonderful thing in the whole universe. That is why there is nothing greater then knowledge being imparted by one human being to another. Muslims on a large scale have engaged themselves in receiving education and imparting it to others, individually as well as by establishing maktabs and madrasas, that is, primary schools and Colleges. These educational institutions established in the house of the teachers or in separate buildings, generally made no charges for instruction. During the medieval period, these madrasas flourished in tens of thousands throughout the Muslim world. The wealthy people helped in running these madrasas, not only though Zakah, but also by making endowments (wakf), of their properties as these madrasas. The income from these properties met the needs of these schools. The orphans and poor people were given stipends over and above free board and lodging.

Prayer and supplication -1

Prayer means "calling on, addressing, making a fervent request, asking for help." In the Qur'an, prayer is also described as "turning to Allah with all one's soul" or the "acknowledgement of one's weaknesses and limited power before Allah's infinite might, and asking for help from Him." (Yahya, 2005)

As for supplication, it is the basis of worship of God and servitude to Him. In order to secure a desire or wish he cannot obtain, a child will either cry or ask for it, that is, he will supplicate through the tongue of his impotence either actively or verbally, and will be successful in securing it. In the same way, man is like a delicate, petted child in the world of all living creatures. He has to either weep at the Court of the Most Merciful and Compassionate One through his weakness and impotence, or supplicate through his poverty and need, so that the things he wants may be made subject to him, or he may offer thanks for their being made so. Otherwise like a silly child who creates a fuss over a fly, saying:"With my own strength I subjugate things it is not possible to subjugate and things a thousand times more powerful, and I make them obey me through my own ideas and measures," he displays ingratitude for the bounties. And just as this is contrary to man's innate nature, so too he makes himself deserving of severe punishment (Nursi)

In one verse from Quran, Allah directly addresses "And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way. (Bakara 2, 186)"

There are many hadith (Prophet Muhammad 's sayings) on prayer and supplication Once he said: Allah loves those who insist on praying (Kenzû'l-irfân), "Praying is worshipping itself" , "(Especially)Three prays are not rejected:
The praying of the mazlum (opressed)
The praying of the guest
The praying of the father to the child."

Prophet Muhammed also said (pbuh)
"The dua can change our life, our outlook, and our fate. It is the most potent weapon of a believer."

The most important aspect, the most beautiful aim, the sweetest fruit of this is this: “The one who offers the supplications knows that there is Someone Who hears the wishes of his heart, Whose hand can reach all things, Who can bring about each of his desires, Who takes pity on his impotence, and answers his poverty.” (Said Nursi)

According to the Qur'an, prayer cannot be confined to any particular time and place. Because the wishes and needs of people never abate, their prayers never end. That is, prayer has no time limitations.
However the Qur'an mentions when are the best times to pray, such as the nighttime and the morning prayers, when one distances himself from daily tasks in order to concentrate on prayer. One verse stresses the importance of the dawn prayer: "... those who seek forgiveness before dawn." (Surah Al Imran: 17)

In recent years there has been some controversy on the issue of fostering and adoption. Confusion has prevailed as to the exact do’s and do not’s for Muslims that wish to foster.



A brief study of the subject may enlighten us as to the true nature of this matter. This article is designed to give the community a better understanding of the issue so that more people may get involved in this noble responsibility.

The most famous orphan in Islamic culture is, without doubt, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. His father died before he was born and by the time he was eight he had lost both his mother and the grandfather who named him. He was subsequently raised by his uncle Abu Talib who continued to be his protector until his own death, when Muhammad was an adult of almost fifty years of age.

When Muhammad's wife Khadijah gave to him a slave named Zaid, Muhammad freed the boy and raised him as if he were his own son. The importance of taking homeless children to care for them is well-established in Islam.

The Islam form of "adoption" is called kafâla, which literally means sponsorship, but comes from the root word meaning "to feed." It is best translated as "foster parenting."’

As can be seen, foster care is well established in Islam as a means of providing care to children. Fostering allows a child to benefit from the care of a good home, while at the same time not losing his/her rights from birth parents.
In the light of this historical fact, Muslims are no strangers to the concept of adoption and foster care. In fact, they have before them lofty examples of these practices right from the life of the Holy Messenger himself.

Having been brought up as an orphan himself, it placed the Holy Messenger in a position where he was able naturally and instinctively to identify with the plight of orphan children more than others. His teachings are therefore replete with the teachings and directives towards the orphan, of treating them with utmost kindness and compassion. The list of such teachings is lengthy and enumerating them in this brief article would be inappropriate. It is sufficient to quote but one saying of his: 'The home wherein the orphan is ill-treated is the worst home on earth.'

In the time of the Holy Messenger, there was hardly a home which had not taken in and adopted an orphan child. This was a normal practice in the society of his companions. Muslims should by virtue of the lofty examples and teachings of the Holy Messenger, be in the very frontline in efforts to secure the adoption and fostering of 'abandoned' children. In fact they aught to be setting the trend for the rest of society in this matter. At the least, it is expected of them to co-operate closely with groups and bodies that are promoting these efforts.

Due to the high standards of morality and conduct required of Muslims by their religious laws, Muslim homes and families are ideally positioned to imbue and impart these exhalted values to adopted children - values that will be of life long consequence to them. A word of caution to prospective adoption families though; the humanitarian and noble practice of adopting children should never be motivated by material or pecuniary interests or intensions at all. This will destroy and demolish the very spirit of this gracious deed, leaving it as a lifeless corpse

طب الأعشاب وطب البديل ومخطاره
Herbalism

Herbalism, also known as medicinal Botany medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, botanical medicine and phytotherapy, is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. The bioinformatics related to this subject could be referred to as MedBotanics (Seshagirirao). Sometimes the scope of herbal medicine is extended to include fungi and bee products.

Plants have an almost limitless ability to synthesize aromatic substances, most of which are phenols or their oxygen-substituted derivatives such as tannins. Most are secondary metabolites, of which at least 12,000 have been isolated, a number estimated to be less than 10% of the total. In many cases, these substances (esp. alkaloids) serve as plant defense mechanisms against predation by microorganisms, insects, and herbivores. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food yield useful medicinal compounds.
Utilizing the healing properties of plants is an ancient practice. People in all continents have long used hundreds, if not thousands, of indigenous plants for treatment of various ailments dating back to prehistory. There is evidence that suggests Neanderthals living 60,000 years ago in present-day Iraq used plants for medicinal purposes (found at a burial site at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, in which a Neanderthal man was uncovered in 1960. He had been buried with eight species of plants)[1] These plants are still widely used in ethnomedicine around the world.

The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents was depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon dated to between 13,000 - 25,000 BC.

Anthropologists theorize that over time, and with trial and error, a small base of knowledge would have been acquired within early tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over the generations, the specialized role of the herbalist emerged. The process would likely have occurred in varying manners within a wide diversity of cultures.

Indigenous healers sometimes claim to have learned by observing animals. According to folklore sick animals change their food preferences to nibble at bitter herbs they would normally reject. Similar animal behavior has been reported by farmers, travelers and outdoorsmen. Unfortunately such reports are largely anecdotal. Nevertheless, field biologists have provided corroborating evidence based on observation of diverse species such as chimpanzees, chickens, lambs and butterflies. Sick animals tend to forage plants rich in secondary metabolites such as tannins and alkaloids. Since these phytochemicals often have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antihelminth properties, a plausible case can be made for self-medication by animals in the wild. [2] It must be remembered that some animals have digestive systems especially adapted to cope wth certain plant toxins. An example is the koala that can live on eucalyptus, a plant that is dangerous to most animals. It can never be assumed that a plant that is harmless to a particular animal is safe for humans to ingest.

The use of and search for drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and leads that could be developed for treatment of various diseases. In fact, approximately 25% of modern drugs used in the United States have been derived from plants (citation needed).



أهمية اللغة الأنجليزية وتعلمها
The Importance Of The English Language
Frankly speaking, it is highly essential to know the language for communication. In general, the most popular language is English. In this computer age, English is the only language that any one can understand. So to say, it has become as an ideal language for expressing our feelings. First, we have to learn the language and then we have to gain fluency in the language. Unless we have the fluency in English language, it would not be possible to work with the computer. If you do not know English, then you would be in need of a translator to do the job.

The first stage of learning this language would be very interesting. Once you are fluent with the alphabets, slowly you can learn many words. It would always be better to follow the method of reading first, then writing. You can use the picture books for this purpose. When you feel that you are familiar with the words, you can form sentences. This is the most interesting stage to learn. You just think of a sentence in your mother language, and try to write the same sentence in English. There could be some mistakes. But you should not bother about it. But, you have to write the same sentence using many different words till you are satisfied with your sentence. If you follow this way, very soon you can create sentences of your own.

The next step is learning the grammar of the language. It is quite simple and very systematic compared with other languages. There are certain rules and regulations for each and every topic in grammar of this language. As long as you follow the rules and regulations, it would be a difficult task to make mistakes. You would gain that much guidance from the grammar. The presentation is the most important factor in communicating your feelings. So, naturally you must be sure while you are presenting. what you really wish to say. At any point, do not try to write or speak, beyond your capability. Even if it is a small and simple sentence, it would reach the receiver perfectly. This is our basic idea. Slowly, you can improve the standard of your language by practice. If you know to form the sentences, it is more than enough to go deep into the subject. Though this only an article about the importance of the English Language, we have to learn some of the basic points in presenting the sentences. There are three different types of sentences: They are, 1. Statements. 2. Interrogative sentence. 3. Imperative sentence. 4. Exclamatory sentence. To begin with, you must know the difference between a phrase and a sentence.

Phrase is a group of words, which gives meaning, but not complete meaning. A sentence is a group of words, which makes a complete sense.
1. Statement: The sentence starting with nouns or pronouns is known as statement.
Example: Rome is a church city.
2. Interrogative sentence: There are two types of interrogative sentences.
a. “wh” type question. The sentences starting with the following fords are “wh” type question. What, When, Where, Who, How many, How long and etcetera. Example: Why did you come late? 2. What are you doing there?
b. “yes or no” type question. For which sentences you get the reply either with yes or no they are called yes or no type question. Example: Is your father a doctor? The answer: No sir.
3. Imperative sentence: The sentence that gives command, request, and advice is known as Imperative sentence. Example: Walk on the pavement. 2. Eat regularly.
4. Exclamatory sentence: The sentence that expresses the sudden feelings or strong emotions is known as exclamatory sentence.
Example: Alas! He is dead. 2. Oh! What a beautiful sight.

When you are familiar with the above points, it would be very interesting to you to create many wonderful sentences. In general, the sentences are divided into three different kinds. They are, 1. Simple sentence. 2. Compound sentence. 3. Complex sentence.

Though it very essential to have knowledge in handling the above sentences, we have to study them separately. In this essay, we are talking about the importance of the language. Many people make mistakes even with the usage of articles. It is a pity that even scholars may make mistakes. So, you should not get dejected with your style of writing.

There is a lot of difference between these two. 1. a few 2. few When you want to say that you have friends, you have to say that,” I have a few friends.” When you want to say that you do not have friends, you have to say that, “I have few friends.”

This is the opposite meaning of the word, many. Apart from these, there are many points to be discussed later. When you feel that you are already strong on the above subjects, you can develop your knowledge for betterment of your knowledge. As long as you educate yourself, you will come across many new things. There is no end for learning. All the above points are used in the normal usage of English. The literature value of the English Language is entirely different and should be dealt separately.

التعامل مع المراهقين
How to Deal With Teenagers
Congratulations, you are a parent and your child is now a full grown adolescent/teen/monster. What are you to do when the only words from both your mouths are yelled out and your teen slams her/his door in your face. Or he/she ignores you. Tells you to be quiet or even Shut up. Or the classic, "No one understands me!" or "I hate you." or "Leave me alone!"

Can you remove his/her allowance? Sob in front of them? Try to make them understand with words like "When I was your age..." or "You have no right to..." or "I'm older than you so..."

I am an older sister at home and have just recently phased out of my rebellious teenage years. I remember the tears shed with my mother and wondering if I'm even my father's daughter. These days, now that I'm an adult, I still feel like a kid at home. Why? Because mothers will always be worrisome and naggy and fathers are... just fathers.

How can you deal with your teen? Here are some tips:

1) Do not invade their privacy and read their diary. If you must, make sure he/she never finds out. Their diaries may have traps-- my own diary had strands of hair on certain pages so when they were gone, I knew someone had opened my diary.

2) Respect him/her. If you expect him/her to respect you, show him/her respect so you play the part of a role model.

3) Accept the fact that their friends and their life outside matters more to them than life at home. No matter how much you slave for them, how much time you spent on dinner or breakfast, at the office with a bitch-ass boss-- your teen will always think of him/herself first and his/her friends, popularity, dating, and the latest gadgets, doo-das they want you to buy for them.

4) Don't yell. The more you yell, the more they yell back. If they ignore you, you can try to ignore them.

5) If all else fails and you are a mother, and your teen is out of control, have a sob-session. Cry in front of him/her. Explain to him/her your feelings and why you are worried. If you have a daughter, she might cry along with you.

6) Do not resort to violence. I am sick of seeing parents slapping around their children-- from three year olds to 18, 19, 20. Sickening.

7) Sit down and have a talk with him/her. Remember, there are always two sides or more to a story. Maybe you are the one at fault. Your teen may not be as stupid and immature as you may think. (though studies have shown people do not fully develop their brain to make wise decisions until after the age of 24)

8) Be involved but don't pry. Don't spoil him/her. Don't give in to far-fetched demands. Teach, show, and be patient.

Good luck! Hopefully, your teen won't grow into an adult who sends you to a nursing home and doesn't visit you unless you are near death. Or doesn't even call you on Mothers'/Father's Day. Or would rather go on vacation with his/her own family than spend one day at your home... Wait a second-- are you treating your own aged parents the same way? What comes around, goes around, my friend... Shameful... you and you expect your child to give a nut about you? Your monster is only a reflection of yourself.



السياحة في المملكة العربية السعودية
Tourism in Saudi Arabia
The Central Region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia includes the capital, Riyadh, and a number of other important towns, north and west of the capital, such as Buraidah, Unaizah and Ha'il.
This is the heartland of the country, and in Arabic is known as Najd. It is also the most traditional and, in general, the most religiously conservative region of the country.
Outside Riyadh, in the towns and villages of the Najd, westerners are not as common as they are in the east or in Jeddah and are therefore objects of interest. Also in the Najd is the town of Buraidah which is the only place in Saudi Arabia where even foreign women are required to be veiled.
Though Riyadh is the capital of the country, it has only in the past few years that it has become the real centre of the Kingdom's government. Technically Riyadh was always the capital but until the early 1980s, the ministries, embassies and virtually everything else were in Jeddah. They have now been moved to Riyadh and the embassies are all located in an area known as the Diplomatic Quarter.
As a matter of fact, until the embassies moved to Riyadh, the only airline allowed to fly into the city was Saudia. All that has now changed with many international carriers serving Riyadh as well as Jeddah and Dhahran.
Riyadh has predictably undergone a major transformation since the discovery of oil. In 1932 the city was only 8.5 square kilometres in area, but by 1994 it had expanded to over 1600 square kilometres. As a matter of fact, very little of what you see in Riyadh today is older than 50 years and a great deal is less than 20.
Riyadh (which is the plural of an Arabic word meaning garden) enjoys a winter climate that is cool and pleasant with moderate temperatures. Rain is not unusual in the winter, nor are sandstorms. Summer is dry and hot, but without the uncomfortable humidity of Jeddah or Dhahran.
It is important to note that permits for visits to all archaeological sites and forts in the country, except for those located in the Eastern province, are obtained at the Riyadh Museum. The exceptions to this rule are Dir'aiyah (pictured) -- the oasis town which is the ancestral home of the Al-Saud and which was restored in the early 1980s, some 30km from the capital's centre) and the Najran Fort. Permits are issued at no charge upon production of your passport or residence permit (iqama).

Things to see in Riyadh
Riyadh Museum --
Open Saturday to Wednesday from 8am to 2pm. Admission is free.
In the Ethnographic Hall is a large model of the Masmakh Fortress, which is central to the history of modern Saudi Arabia. This was the fort in Riyadh that Abdul Aziz and his followers captured in January 1902, thus returning the Al-Saud to a position of power in their homeland. (They had spent the previous 10 years in exile in Kuwait.)
Besides the model of the fort, the display includes carved and painted doors from Qaseem, the area north of Riyadh, and Qateef, a town which was once a major port on the Gulf. There are also clothes, musical instruments, weapons, traditional cooking utensils, woven bags and some jewelry.
The main hall is well organized with signs in both Arabic and English. The periods covered range from the Stone Age to early Islamic times. In one room, there is an interesting display of Islamic architecture.
Masmakh Fortress
The fort (pictured), built of dried mud, is open Saturday to Wednesday from 7.30am to 1.30pm. A permit is required which can be obtained from the museum.
This is the fortress which Abdul Aziz and his followers captured in 1902 and which begins the history of present-day Saudi Arabia. There is a well-restored traditional majlis on the ground floor. The courtyard contains a well, which is still functional. The courtyard is surrounded by six painted doors, which open into empty rooms. On the upper level, there are amazingly carved walls and three columns which support the wooden roof.
Murabba Palace
Built by King Abdul Aziz in 1946 as a home and seat of government, this combination palace/fortress is open from Saturday to Wednesday from 8am to 2pm.
King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies
Normally there is an exhibit on some aspect of Islamic art or culture. There is also a permanent exhibition on the treatment and preservation of old books and manuscripts.
King Saud University Museum
Open from Saturday to Wednesday in the mornings. To visit it, an appointment must first be made through the university's public relations office . Usually, a day is required to arrange a visit for a small group.
Displayed in the museum are objects from the university's archaeological excavations at Al-Fao and Rabdhah. The former is on the edge of the Empty Quarter (the vast sandy desert in the Kingdom's southeastern corner) and was a pre-Islamic city between 300BC and AD300. The latter is about 100km east of Madinah and was a station on the pilgrimage road linking Makkah and Madinah to Persia and Iraq.

Outside Riyadh is the historic area of Diriya, the capital of the first Saudi state dating from the 18th century. This area has also been restored and opened to tourists.
An annual cultural festival is held at Janadriya, called the Janadriyah Festival. It is organized by the National Guard and takes place at a special site some 45km outside Riyadh. It includes traditional dancing, camel races, lectures and poetry readings as well as traditional arts and crafts shows. It normally lasts about two weeks and takes place in the winter when the weather is cooler, usually in February.


Bordering the Arabian Gulf and containing the towns of Dhahran, Al-Khobar, Dammam, Qateef, Hafuf and Jubail, the Eastern Province is where oil was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.
Before the discovery of oil, Dammam and Al-Khobar were tiny fishing and pearling villages. There was no Dhahran at all.
Dammam is the administrative centre of the province and one end of the Dammam-Riyadh railway. Trains leave daily for Riyadh at 7.30am and 4pm. The journey takes between four and five hours and the train passes through Abqaiq and Hafuf, the main town in the Al-Ahasa oasis.
Al-Khobar is more western in orientation than Dammam. The first recorded settlement was in 1923 and, because of its location next to the early ARAMCO camp, it grew rapidly. In the earliest days of oil shipment from the Kingdom, oil moved from a pier at Al-Khobar to Bahrain, where it was processed. Today, Al-Khobar is at one end of the King Fahad Causeway, a 25km feat of modern engineering that links the Kingdom to the island of Bahrain.
Dhahran is the town that ARAMCO built. The city consists of the ARAMCO compound, the airport (soon to be moved to a spectacular new site some 60km north), the US Consulate and the King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals.
Some 13km north of Dammam is the town of Qateef; it was first settled about 3500BC and for centuries was the main town and port in this area of the Gulf. In fact, some early European maps label the present-day Arabian Gulf as the "Sea of Elqateef". Qatif and the nearby island of Tarut are historically some of the most interesting sites in the Kingdom.
About 90km north of Dammam is the town of Jubail (pictured). Until the mid-1970s it was a small fishing village but it then became one of the Kingdom's two newly created industrial cities. The other one is Yanbu on the Red Sea Coast. The industrial city is a complex of petrochemical plants, an iron works and a number of smaller companies, plus a Royal Saudi Naval Base.
Near Jubail are the ruins of what was unearthed in the mid-1980s by a group of people attempting to dig their vehicle out of the sand. The ruins are known as the Jubail Church and are acknowledged by the Saudi bureaucracy who will not issue permits to visit it because "the site is being excavated." In any case, the ruins originally contained four stone crosses, which later went missing though the marks where the crosses were are still visible. The ruins are thought to date from the 4th century, which make them older than any known church in Europe. Not much else is known but speculation is that it was in some way connected to one of the five Nestorian bishoprics which are known to have existed in this area of the Gulf in the 4th century.
The town of Hafuf is the centre of the Al-Ahasa oasis which is one of the largest in the world. Until about a century ago, most of the dates in Europe came from here and the area remains one of the world's largest producers of dates.
Hafuf itself contains an old fort and one of the most interesting souks in the Kingdom. Because of the enormity of the oasis and the number of picturesque villages scattered through it, a leisurely drive through the greenery is an entertaining way to spend an afternoon.

Other things to see in the Eastern Province
Both Dammam and Al-Khobar have an impressive Corniche along the Gulf.
The development at Half Moon Bay on the Gulf is a beautiful tourist and recreational attraction.
The towns of Qateef and the islands of Tarut and Darin near Dammam may be the point of a morning excursion. Both have been inhabited for thousands of years and both have old forts.
The oasis of Al-Ahasa with its springs and streams is one of the greenest and most delightful places in the Kingdom. It is well worth a day trip by car during which one drives slowly through the villages and the area.
The Thursday morning market in Hafuf, the main town of Al-Ahasa, is particularly interesting both for its traditional crafts and for the general feeling of an old marketplace.

As far as non-Muslims are concerned, Jeddah is the most important city of Saudi Arabia's western region, known as the Hijaz.
Jeddah is by far the most cosmopolitan city in the Kingdom, hardly surprising when you realize it has been the main port for Makkah since early Islamic times. Indeed, until well into the twentieth century thousands of pilgrims arrived at Jeddah seaport annually as the first step on their trip to Makkah and Madinah.
The Hijaz came under nominal Turkish control in the 16th century, though local rulers kept a great deal of power and influence. The first foreign consuls arrived in Jeddah in the first half of the nineteenth century. King Abdul Aziz and his troops took control of the city in 1925 and afterwards, foreign representatives to his court lived in Jeddah rather than Riyadh. The embassies remained in Jeddah until the mid-1980s when they were all transferred to the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh. Nonetheless, there are still a large number of foreign consulates in Jeddah as the city retains its importance as the commercial capital of the Kingdom and it is, of course, the main port of entry for the millions of pilgrims who visit the Holy Cities each year.
Most of Jeddah's historic sites are along the old city walls, which were demolished, in the late 1940s. The old city (pictured) is now a protected urban area in which buildings cannot be torn down unless they are absolutely beyond repair and, if they are torn down, they must be replaced with something of similar size and architectural style. Within the old city, many of the traditional houses are built of coral, taken from reefs in the Red Sea.
Within the old city, there is the Sharbatly House and the Naseef House. These are two old houses, the traditional homes of two of Jeddah's merchant families and both have been restored to their original state.
The Municipality Museum is opposite the National Commercial Bank headquarters in the old city. It is the only remaining building of several which comprised the British Legation in Jeddah during World War I. The museum is open in the mornings from Saturday to Thursday; admission is free but a permit from the Jeddah Municipality is required (telephone: +966 2 669-5556 or 660-7671). Once the permit has been granted, it is still necessary to make an appointment with the curator of the museum.
There is a Christian cemetery in Jeddah in a street in the old city named the "Street of the Cemetery of the Foreigners". It is no longer in use and the last burial had taken place in the early 1950's, but is kept up in turn by several of the foreign consulates in the city. It is walled and there is a large gate, but can be peered into from some of the buildings surrounding it.
Al-Balad district of Jeddah is a historic area. Houses have been reconstructed as they were 100 years ago and it is an interesting area to walk through and observe. These houses, which have been restored and are open to tourists, belong to various old Jeddah families.
About 70km east of Jeddah is the Holy City of Makkah where the Prophet was born in the 6th century AD. He began to preach in Makkah and it was to Makkah that he returned shortly before his death in AD632. Makkah and its environs are strictly off-limits to non-Muslims and there are checkpoints on the roads leading into the city.
Makkah is Islam's holiest city and it is to Makkah that all devout Muslims dream of coming at least once (the hajj) in their lifetime. The centre of the city is the Grand Mosque and the sacred Well of Zamzam beside it. The Kaa'ba to which all Muslims turn when they pray is in the central courtyard of the Grand Mosque and, according to Islamic tradition, it was built by the first prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael.
In the mountains above Makkah and Jeddah is the town of Taif. Its elevation gives it a climate far cooler and pleasanter than either Jeddah or Makkah and without the uncomfortable humidity of the former. Many families from both Jeddah and Riyadh maintain houses in Taif as an escape from the uncomfortable summers in those two cities.
Taif became a part of modern Saudi Arabia in 1924 when the soldiers of King Abdul Aziz took the city. Most recently, Taif was the seat of Kuwait's government-in-exile during the Iraqi occupation of that country in 1990-91. It is also well-known as a producer of high quality attar-of-roses from its roses, which have a particularly sweet fragrance.
There is a museum in the city in the Shubra Palace, open only on Thursday from 9am to 7pm.
Madinah is the holiest city in Islam after Makkah and was in fact the first to accept the Prophet's message. The Prophet fled to the city, then called Yathrib, from Makkah in AD622. (The Islamic calendar dates from His flight to Madinah.) The most important place in the city is the Prophet's Mosque, which contains His burial place. Everything of historical or religious significance is within the precincts forbidden to non-Muslims, although the outskirts of the city and the airport are open to all.
Located several hundred kilometres north of Madinah is the ancient -- and now uninhabited -- city of Madain Salih (pictured). It is the best known and the most spectacular archaeological site in Saudi Arabia. During its prime, it was an important stop on the caravan routes from the incense-producing areas of southern Arabia to Syria, Egypt, Byzantium and other points. The immense stone tombs, which have made it famous, were carved between 100BC and 100AD and the city itself was the second city in the Nabataean Empire, after Petra in modern-day Jordan.
The ruins at Madain Salih are in fact better preserved than those at Petra in Jordan, because of the hardness of the local stone. The Nabataeans became rich through their control of the incense route and their charging caravans tolls of up to 25%. They entered a decline in the first century AD when the Romans realized that the incense could be loaded onto ships and taken to Egypt. Less expensive items continued to move along the route and it was never totally abandoned. In Islamic times, the pilgrim route from Damascus to Makkah passed through Madain Salih.
For those who want to visit Madain Salih, a great deal of bureaucratic bother and hassle can be avoided by booking a tour through the Madinah Sheraton. Both the hotel and the airport are on the outskirts of the city and so are open to non-Muslims.
The hotel's tour is a weekend one -- covering arrival at the hotel on Wednesday evening with a slide presentation. The trip to Madain Salih with a guide begins on the Thursday at 6.30am, and returns to the hotel in the evening. Friday is a free day and the price of around SR700 or SR750 includes the trip to the site, two nights at the hotel, all meals from dinner on Wednesday evening to lunch on Friday and airport transfers.
Normally the hotel needs three weeks to arrange the tour, which is for groups of 10 or more and which only operate when there are enough people.
To anyone standing on its shore and gazing out across its dazzling waters, the Red Sea may seem to be a misnomer. Anything less red cannot be imagined; its blueness is palpable, indisputable and infinite. Yet this is the name which seems to predominate over those it has borne in the past; the Sea of Hejaz, the Arabian Gulf, the Coral Sea or, less romantically, Tanker Alley.
Poets among us who extol the scarlet beauty of the setting sun as it dips below the watery horizon, will feel no further need to justify the aptness of its name, but scientists take more convincing. They will doubtless tell you of the red coral on the famous reef, or the planktonic algae, which leave a dull red tidal scum at the edge of the water. So -- is it to be coral, scum or sunsets? Take your pick.
Oil tankers, cargo vessels, passenger liners and fishing boats all ply their trade across the surface of this great waterway, but for many, the true fascination of the Red Sea is hidden just below its surface. Here lies the diver's paradise; one of the world's most impressive reefs, containing more than 200 species of multi-coloured coral.
For enthusiasts in Jeddah, dive shops abound. Equipment may be bought or hired, and most shops offer courses with qualified diving instructors. These courses range from elementary tuition for beginners to recreational dives for the more experienced. Several of Jeddah's large hotels offer weekend diving packages and some have their own private, man-made beaches with dive shops and easy access to the reef.
Snorkeling is a popular way to view the edge of the reef, especially for those with limited confidence in their swimming ability. However, most divers will tell you that there is nothing to beat the thrill of experiencing the depth of the reef and the teeming marine life to be found there. Sharks, manta rays, turtles and eels will take pieces of bread from your hand, and brilliantly coloured schools of fish teem all around, in bewildering variety. Such is the lure of the reef that many novice divers become totally 'hooked' and cannot imagine why they have never joined in the fun before.
The arts of boat-building and navigation have a proud, centuries-long tradition in the Red Sea region. Sadly, however, ancient boat-building skills are lapsing into obscurity, with the advent of outboard motors and fibreglass hulls. The beauty of the houri, the sambuk and the dhow, carved without the use of plans by the craftsman's unerring eye -- all are rapidly vanishing and may even now belong to the past.
Fishing, however, is an art that still preserves time-honoured methods, mostly due to the difficulties imposed by the dangers of the reef. The hook-and-line method of fishing has been in use for more than four thousand years and is still going strong. Conservation of certain species of fish and the dangers of over-fishing are both important issues for the Saudi Arabian government -- as a result, the total catch is respectable, though not excessive. The Kingdom's fishermen land a total of 8,000 metric tons of fish per annum, which, although eight times as much as the Sudan, is less than half Egypt's total catch.
In addition to its marine life, the water of the Red Sea is also a vital commodity. The city of Jeddah is totally dependent on it for household and industrial supplies, and enormous desalination plants are in operation. These supply drinking water, which has been purified to a high standard, as well as non-potable domestic water. Seawater is also used in large quantities by oil refineries and cement works situated along the coastline.
The danger of pollution is always present in the Red Sea, particularly from oil spillage, and a Royal Decree forbids the discharge of any pollutant substances, including oil, within 100 miles of the Saudi Arabian coastline.
For swimmers, divers, traders, industrialists, fishermen and tourists, the Red Sea has its own kind of perfection. And even the idle gazer, pondering the impenetrable blue/red anomaly, can be said to have been given something to think about.

العرب في عيون الأعلام الغربي
Foreign media scramble to win over Arab viewers

Western media outfits, most with public funding and partly political motives, are racing to add more Arabic TV *******s and websites to the mix, undeterred by scant advertising revenue

Rarely have Western news organisations wooed Arab hearts and minds so avidly - or with so little certainty of political or commercial reward.

Freed by satellite television and the Internet from the dreary monopoly of state media, Arabs already get news in their own language from a plethora of local and foreign sources.

Western media outfits, most with public funding and partly political motives, are racing to add more Arabic TV *******s and websites to the mix, undeterred by scant advertising revenue.

Jihad Ballout, spokesman for the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, said competition was welcome, giving more choice to consumers, but argued that from a business perspective the TV market was saturated. “The pie is quite limited,” he said.

Ballout, whose own ******* was set up with Saudi financing, questioned why foreign media groups were planning big investments that were likely to take years to see a return.

“Is it purely to reflect a different perspective, and whose perspective will it be?” he asked.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) plans to launch an Arabic TV ******* in the autumn. Germany’s Deutsche Welle has aired three hours daily of Arabic news and features since 2002.

France’s planned CNN-style ******* expects to start an Arabic component next year. Even the Danish Broadcasting Corporation says it is contemplating news in Arabic.

Russia Today, a state-run English-language television *******, has announced plans for an Arabic version.

“It will definitely not be political,” asserted Akram Khuzam, the venture’s general producer, before adding: “Television is influence. Why should Russia ignore this instrument, especially in such a restive region?”

Media cacophony: A powerful tool it may be, but the challenge for any foreign news organisation will be to gain credibility in an area where distrust for Western policies is deep-rooted and flourishing - and where the airwaves are already brimming with alternatives.

“There’s a real cacophony of media in the region. Even poor neighbourhoods in Damascus have satellite dishes,” said Ali Abunimah, who runs Electronic Intifada (electronicintifada.net) to promote Palestinian views on the Middle East conflict.

“Even in a country as restricted as Syria, there is enormous access to media from elsewhere,” said the 34-year-old Jordanian based in Chicago. “That challenges the US stereotype of a controlled media where people don’t know any better.”

Polls show the ******* of choice in most Arab homes is still the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which blazed to success after it went on air in 1996 with its combination of hard news, slick format and talk shows that broke taboos in the Arab world.

While its Arab perspective delighted an audience sometimes irritated - or simply not reached - by CNN or BBC World, Al Jazeera offended Arab governments by giving dissidents a platform and hosting often raucous political debates.

Saudi Arabia hit back with Al Arabiya. Now Arab governments from Abu Dhabi to Mauritania have their own satellite stations, as do some Lebanese factions such as Hizbollah.

Al Jazeera, which plans to launch its own English ******* this year, also upset Washington by airing statements from al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks.

As Arab anger mounted over the Iraq war and US support for Israel, the Americans launched Al Hurra (the Free One) Arabic TV station in 2004 to cut through what President George W Bush called “the barriers of hateful propaganda” in the Middle East.

Least popular: A poll published by the University of Maryland last year showed Al Hurra was the least watched of eight Arabic networks. Hizbollah’s al-Manar ******* did little better. Al Jazeera led with 65 percent of viewers, trailed by Al Arabiya on 34 percent.

The survey, conducted in October with pollsters Zogby International, did its research in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Can new Western entrants add value for Arab viewers?

Lawrence Pintak, director of the American University in Cairo’s Adhem Center for Electronic Journalism, said BBC Arabic TV might be best-placed to win over an Arab public sceptical of Western “public diplomacy” and jaded by media overload.

“The BBC brings a lot of credibility,” he said, citing the track record of the BBC’s Arabic radio service, for decades a listening habit for Arabs seeking independent news.

Competitors suggest that the BBC’s Arabic venture, directly funded by the Foreign Office, may be tarnished by the British government’s decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Johannes Hoffmann, spokesman for Deutsche Welle, said Arab viewers perceived the German station, unlike the US or British media, as independent and objective. “After all, we were not one of the warring parties (in Iraq),” he said.

Abunimah said anything that smacked of propaganda would fall flat among Arabs tired of being treated as if they were stupid.

“We don’t need more documentaries about Denmark without addressing the political divides (between Arabs and the West).”

Foreign media eyeing the Arab world should complement their coverage with “an honest acknowledgement of what is at the root of the divisions - anger at the policy choices of Western governments and intolerance in Western societies,” he said. reuters


البنات وفضل تربيتهن
Girls are a blessing from Allah swt and a means of attaining Paradise. The love of boys and hatred of girls is a custom from the days before Islam, the Days of Ignorance, and are rejected by the Quran. We find on the contrary, that Islam encourages Muslims and believers to seek out the great rewards obtained for those who raise their daughters on love of Allah and love of the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) said “If a person has a baby girl, teaches her, raises and trains her well, then gives her hand in marriage, Allah gives him a double reward.” [Bukhari and Muslim] The Prophet (s) said, “If a person has a baby girl and never humiliated her and never put her down and never put his son above her, Allah will grant him paradise.” [Abu Dawud and al-Hakim] The Holy Quran encourages the teaching of girls and called for women to be partners in interfaith debates when it says, “If any one disputes in this matter with thee, now after (full) knowledge hath come to thee, say: ‘Come! let us gather together,- our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves: Then let us earnestly pray, and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie!’" [3: 61] In this verse, Allah mentioned the women in total equality with the men, as participants in a religious debate with unbelievers who refused to accept the faith in the time of the Prophet (s).



حقوق الأنسان في الأسلام ولجان حقوق الأنسان
The political system of Islam is based on the three principles of towhid(Oneness of Allah), risala (Prophethood) and Khilifa(Caliphate).

Towhidmeans that one Allah alone is the Creator, Sustainer and Master of the universe and of all that exists in it - organic or inorganic. He alone has the right to command or forbid. Worship and obedience are due to Him alone. No aspect of life in all its multifarious forms ¾ our own organs and faculties, the apparent control which we have over physical objects or the objects themselves ¾ has been created or a acquired by us in our own right. They are the bountiful provisions of Allah and have been bestowed on us by Him alone.

Hence, it is not for us to decide the aim and purpose of our existence or to set the limits of our worldly authority; nor does anyone else have the right to make these decisions for us. This right rests only with Allah. This principle of the Oneness of Allah makes meaningless the concept of the legal and political sovereignty of human beings. No individual, family, class or race can set themselves above Allah. Allah alone is the Ruler and His commandments constitute the law of Islam.

Risala is the medium through which we receive the law of Allah. We have received two things from this source: the Qur’an, the book in which Allah has expounded His law, and the authoritative interpretation and exemplification of that Book by the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), through word and deed, in his capacity as the representative of Allah. The Qur’an laid down the broad principles on which human life should be based and the Prophet of Allah, in accordance with these principles, established a model system of Islamic life. The combination of these two elements is called the shari’a (law).

Khilifa means "representation". Man, according to Islam, is the representative of Allah on earth, His vice-gerent; that is to say, by virtue of the powers delegated to him by Allah, and within the limits prescribed, he is required to exercise Divine authority.

To illustrate what this means, let us take the case of an estate of yours which someone else has been appointed to administer on your behalf. Four conditions invariably obtain: First, the real ownership of the estate remains vested in you and not in the administrator; secondly, he administers your property directly in accordance with your instructions; thirdly, he exercises his authority within the limits prescribed by you; and fourthly, in the administration of the trust he executes your will and fulfils your intentions and not his own. Any representative who does not fulfil these four conditions will be abusing his authority and breaking the covenant which was implied in the concept of "representation".

This is exactly what Islam means when it affirms that man is the representative (khalifa) of Allah on earth. Hence, these four conditions are also involved in the concept of Khalifa. The state that is established in accordance with this political theory will in fact be a caliphate under the sovereignty of Allah.

Democracy In Islam

The above explanation of the term Khilafa also makes it clear that no individual or dynasty or class can be Khalifa: the authority of Khilafa is bestowed on the whole of any community which is ready to fulfil the conditions of representation after subscribing to the principles of towhid and Risala. Such a society carries the responsibility of the Khilafa as a whole and each one of its individuals shares in it.

This is the point where democracy begins in Islam. Every individual in an Islamic society enjoys the rights and powers of the caliphate of Allah and in this respect all individuals are equal. No-one may deprive anyone else of his rights and powers. The agency for running the affairs of the state will be formed by agreement with these individuals, and the authority of the state will only be an extension of the powers of the individuals delegated to it. Their opinion will be decisive in the formation of the government, which will be run with their advice and in accordance with their wishes.

Whoever gains their confidence will undertake the duties and obligations of the caliphate on their behalf; and when he loses this confidence he will have to step down. In this respect the political system of Islam is as perfect a dorm of democracy as there can be.

What distinguishes Islamic democracy from Western democracy, therefor, is that the latter is based on the concept of popular sovereignty, while the former rests on the principle of popular Khilafa. In Western democracy, the people are sovereign; in Islam sovereignty is vested in Allah and the people are His caliphs or representatives. In the former the people make their own; in the latter they have to follow and obey the laws (shari’a) given by Allah through His Prophet. In one the government undertakes to fulfil the will of the people; in the other the government and the people have to fulfil the will of Allah.

The Purpose Of The Islamic State

We are now in a position to examine more closely the type of state which is built on the foundations of tawhid, Risala and Khilafa.

The Holy Qur’an clearly states that the aim and purpose of this state is the establishment, maintenance and development of those virtues which the Creator wishes human life to be enriched by and the prevention and eradication of those evils in human life which He finds abhorrent. The Islamic state is intended neither solely as an instrument of political administration nor for the fulfillment of the collective will of any particular set of people; rather, Islam places a high ideal before the state for the achievement of which it must use all the means at its disposal.

This ideal is that the qualities of purity, beauty, goodness, virtue, success and prosperity which Allah wants to flourish in the life of His people should be engendered and developed and that all kinds of exploitation, injustice and disorder which, in the sight of Allah, are ruinous for the world and detrimental to the life of His creatures, should be suppressed and prevented. Islam gives us a clear outline of its moral system by stating positively the desired virtues and the undesired evils. Keeping this outline in view, the Islamic state can plan its welfare programme in every age and in any environment.

The constant demand made by Islam is that the principles of morality must be observed at all costs and in all walks of life. Hence, it lays down as an unalterable policy that the state should base its policies on justice, truth and honesty. It is not prepared, under any circumstances, to tolerate fraud, falsehood and injustice for the sake of political, administrative or national expediency. Whether it be relations between the rulers and the ruled within the state, or the relations of the state with other states, precedence must always be given to truth, honesty and justice.

Islam imposes similar obligations on the state and the individual: to fulfil all contracts and obligations; to have uniform standards in dealings; to remember obligations along with rights and not to forget the rights of others when expecting them to fulfil their obligations; to use power and authority for the establishment of justice and not for the perpetration of injustice; to look upon duty as a sacred obligation and to fulfil it scrupulously; and to regard power as a trust from Allah to be used in the belief that one has to render an account of one's actions to Him in the life Hereafter.

Fundamental Rights

Although an Islamic state may be set up anywhere on earth, Islam does not seek to restrict human rights or privileges to the boundaries of such a state. Islam has laid down universal fundamental rights for humanity which are to be observed and respected in all circumstances. For example, human blood is sacred and may not be spilled without strong justification; it is not permissible to oppress women, children, old people, the sick or the wounded; women's honour and chastity must be respected; the hungry must be fed, the naked clothed and the wounded or diseased treated medically irrespective of whether they belong to the Islamic community or are from amongst its enemies. These, and other provisions have been laid down by Islam as fundamental rights for every man by virtue of his status as a human being.

Nor, in Islam, are the rights of citizenship confined to people born in a particular state. A Muslim ipso facto becomes the citizen of an Islamic state as soon as he sets foot on its territory with the intention of living there and thus enjoys equal rights along with those who acquire its citizenship by birth. And every Muslim is to be regarded as eligible for positions of the highest responsibility in an Islamic state without distinction of race, colour or class.

Islam has also laid down certain rights for non-Muslims who may be living within the boundaries of an Islamic state and these rights necessarily form part of the Islamic constitution. In Islamic terminology, such non-Muslims are called dhimmis (the covenanted), implying that the Islamic state has entered into a covenant with them and guaranteed their protection. The life, property and honour of a dhimmis is to be respected and protected in exactly the same way as that of a Muslim citizen. Nor is there difference between a Muslim and a non-Muslim citizen in respect of civil or criminal law.

The Islamic state may not interfere with the personal rights of non-Muslims, who have full freedom of conscience and belief and are at liberty to perform their religious rites and ceremonies in their own way. Not only may they propagate their religion, they are even entitled to criticize Islam within the limits laid down by law and decency.

These rights are irrevocable. Non-Muslims cannot be deprived of them unless they renounce the covenant which grants them citizenship. However much a non-Muslim state may oppress its Muslim citizens it is not permissible for an Islamic state to retaliate against its non-Muslim subjects; even if all the Muslims outside the boundaries of an Islamic state are massacred, that state may not unjustly shed the blood of a single non-Muslim citizen living within its boundaries.

Executive And Legislature

The responsibility for the administration of the government in an Islamic state is entrusted to an amir (leader) who may be compared to the president or the prime minister in a Western democratic state. All adult men and women who subscribe to the fundamentals of the constitution are entitled to vote for the election of the amir.

The basic qualifications for an amir are that he should command the confidence of the majority in respect of his knowledge and grasp of the spirit of Islam, that he should possess the Islamic quality of fear of Allah and that he should be endowed with qualities of statesmanship. In short, he should have both virtue and ability.

A shoora(advisory council) is also elected by the people to assist and guide the amir. It is incumbent on the amir to administer his country with the advice of this shooraThe amir may retain office only so long as he enjoys the confidence of the people and must relinquish it when he loses that confidence. Every citizen has the right to criticize the amir and his government and all reasonable means for the ventilation of public opinion must be available.

Legislation in an Islamic state is to be carried out within the limits prescribed by the law of the shari’a. The injunctions of Allah and His Prophet are to be accepted and obeyed and no legislative body may alter or modify them or make any law contrary to them. Those commandments which are liable to two or more interpretations are referred to a sub-committee of the advisory council comprising men learned in Islamic law. Great scope remains for legislation on questions not covered by specific injunctions of the shari’a and the advisory council or legislature is free to legislate in regard to these matters.

In Islam the judiciary is not places under the control of the executive. It derives its authority directly from the shari’a and is answerable to Allah. The judges are appointed by the government but once a judge occupies the bench he has to administer justice impartially according to the law of Allah; the organs and functionaries of the government are not outside his legal jurisdiction, so that even the highest executive authority of the government is liable to be called upon to appear in a court of law as a plaintiff or defendant. Rulers and ruled are subject to the same law and there can be no discrimination on the basis of position, power or privilege, Islam stands for equality and scrupulously adheres to this principle in social, economic and political realms alike.

Human Rights, The West And Islam

The Western Approach

People in the West have the habit of attributing every beneficial development in the world to themselves. For example, it is vociferously claimed that the world first derived the concept of basic human rights from the Magna Carta of Britain - which was drawn up six hundred years after the advent of Islam. But the truth is that until the seventeenth century of no-one dreamt of arguing that the Magna Carta contained the principles of trial by jury, Habeas Corpus and control by Parliament of the right of taxation. If the people who drafted the Magna Carta were living today they would be greatly surprised to be told that their document enshrined these ideals and principles.

To the best of my knowledge, the West had no concept of human and civic rights before the seventeenth century; and it was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the concept took on practical meaning in the constitutions of America and France.

After this, although there appeared references to basic human rights in the constitutions of many countries, more often than not these rights existed only on paper. In the middle of the present century, the United Nations, which may now be more aptly described as the Divided Nations, made a Declaration of Universal Human Rights, and passed a resolution condemning genocide; regulations were framed to prevent it. But there is not a single resolution or regulation of the United Nations which can be enforced if the country concerned wants to prevent it. They are just expressions of pious hopes. They have no sanctions behind them, no force, physical or moral, to enforce them. Despite all the high-sounding resolutions of the United Nations, human rights continue to be violated and trampled upon.

The Islamic Approach

When we speak of human rights in Islam we mean those rights granted by Allah. Rights granted by kings or legislative assemblies can be withdrawn as easily as they are conferred; but no individual and no institution has the authority to withdraw the rights conferred by Allah.

The charter and the proclamations and the resolutions of the United Nations cannot be compared with the rights sanctioned by Allah; the former are not obligatory on anybody, while the latter are an integral part of the Islamic faith. All Muslims and all administrators who claim to be Muslim have to accept, recognize and enforce them. If they failed to enforce them or violate them while paying lip-service to them, the verdict of the Holy Qur’an is unequivocal:
"Those who do not judge by what Allah has sent down are the disbelievers (Kafirun)." (5:44)
The following verse also proclaims:
"They are the wrong-doers (zalimoon)". (5:45)
A third verse in the same chapter says:
"They are the perverse and law-breakers (fasiqoon)." (5:47)

In other words, if temporal authorities regard their own words and decisions as right and those given by Allah as wrong, they are disbelievers. If, on the other hand, they regard Allah's commands as right but deliberately reject them in favour of their owns decisions, then they are wrong-doers. Law-breakers are those who disregard the bond of allegiance.

Does Beauty Really Matter?
When this article is being written, what comes immediately to mind is a series of surveys done by a popular magazine called Psychology Today. The surveys, conducted over the past three decades, were on how people feel about the appearance of their bodies. The findings are what they should not have been. Letís wish so.

In 1972 twenty-three percent of American women were dissatisfied with their appearance but by 1997 that figure had risen to fifty-six percent. In 1972 fifteen percent of men were dissatisfied with their appearance but by 1997 that figure had risen to forty-three percent. Thirty-eight percent of men are now dissatisfied with the size of their chests compared to the thirty-four percent of women dissatisfied with their breasts. Men are getting pectoral implants.

Millions of women have had surgery to change the shape of their breasts or increase their size. A strange phenomenon!

Shall we presume that there were more good-looking men and women three decades ago than there are now, or shall we presume that while looks might have remained the same (or believe it, turned better) but it is the attitude of a man or a woman towards him or herself that has changed. Is it that we are constantly failing to understand the true meaning of beauty or the beauty is failing in getting us become good-looking? Something is missing somewhere. Let’s come to that later.

We always, and everywhere, try to be beautiful, and in the process a mirror becomes more personal to us than we are to ourselves. The process of becoming beautiful and looking good is so rapid that what we become is just an outward us. Is being beautiful so important? Even now we see the most popular people not so good-looking, and the most beautiful people next door not so popular. Does beauty really matter? Probably it does, particularly for people who have a dying preoccupation for the body and would go to any length to safeguard it. No wonder then, despite nearly thirty years of feminism, beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar a year business. Those who make money have a mind, and those who spend have forgotten they have it.

Least do we realize that we would look the way we are, and an expression on our face is actually the reflection of what we are from within? We can camouflage the exterior, but what can we do to the interior. Our goodness or badness, generosity or animosity, or love or hatred, all show somewhere here or somewhere there on our bodies. If we are good from within, our face reflects a mesmerizing state of goodness; if we are not, we clearly show it through our expressions.

It is this body we always give a helping, and not to what lies beneath it. This way we only answer some deep-rooted anxieties in our psychology, and do not provide a solution to them. We keep on spinning answers for these anxieties, until we run out of them as we advance in age. Try as you might, you canít camouflage old age.

We fail to achieve ageless beauty. The reason being that we failed to recognize it when we were young. Ageless beauty, says Ayurveda, comes from within.

Ayurveda values inner beauty as much as it does value outer beauty. Beauty, it adds, is based on good health. What is more important is that whenever Ayurveda recommends an external application to enhance your looks, it always has some degree of effect that it exerts internally on you. Henna, for example, is a hair-coloring agent and vitalizer for of us, but when it remains on the scalp and remains in contact for long, it does more to our internal health than what meets the eye. Lifestyle changes, another thing Ayurveda recommends, make you look good naturally than become good artificially. Haven't you ever come across simple-looking, down-to-earth people who impress upon, and look good to you, in the first very instance? They are the ones who carry an inner, positive influence as a beautiful mark on their faces. Beauty is nothing but a mindset, and you are actually a positive or a negative mindset when you look beautiful, or do not.

صعوبات التعلم
Learning disability is a term used to denote various types of difficulties with learning.

Learning disability (U.S.) -- In the U.S., the term is used to refer to a learning difficulty that is unexpected given the general intelligence of the affected individual. That is, the academic performance of the affected person is much lower than the individual's general intelligence would predict.
Learning disability (U.K.)-- In the U.K., the term is used to refer more generally to developmental disability.
Disability means loss or lack of functioning, either physical or mental, such as blindness, paralysis, or mental subnormality—which, unlike illness, is usually permanent. Disabilities are usually stigmatizing . Moreover, disabled persons often need extra financial and personal support.

Learning disability means disorders characterized by substantial deficits in scholastic or academic skills, including reading disorder , mathematics disorder , and disorder of written expression . Also called academic skills disorders or learning disorders. Learning disability disorder that prevents students from learning as well as would be expected from their ability, as measured on an intelligence test. It covers a range of problems, including difficulties with reading, writing, mathematics, or communication.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted to protect qualified people with disabilities. The first article in this series focused on the requirement that a claimant under the ADA be otherwise qualified for the position, and able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation by the employer. This article discusses the ADA concept of disability. The statute defines a disability in three distinct and unique ways that broaden its impact in the workplace. For purposes of the ADA, disability means having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, having a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. Physical or Mental Impairment The first definition of a disability is "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual." A great amount of legal debate has centered around the terms "physical or mental impairment," "substantially limits," and "major life activities." The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), the body charged with enforcing the ADA, has defined a "physical or mental impairment" as any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one of the major body systems, or any mental or psychological disorder such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, or specific learning disabilities. In its interpretive guidance, the EEOC notes that it does not consider physical characteristics (eye and hair color, height, weight and muscle tone within normal ranges) as impairments. Similarly, predispositions to illness, pregnancy, and personality traits (poor judgment and quick temper) are not disabilities unless resulting from a psychological disorder. Advanced age is also not a disorder, according to the EEOC, although medical conditions associated with advanced age would be. The prevalence of learning disabilities is very apparent-early intervention is key to young children's success in school


الجشع والطمع
Greed
Greed is selfish excessive or uncontrolled desire for possession or pursuit of money, wealth, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. It is generally considered a vice, and is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholicism. (People who do not view unconstrained acquisitiveness as a vice will generally use a word other than greed, which has strong negative connotations.)

Some desire to increase one's wealth is nearly universal and acceptable in any culture, but this simple want is not considered greed. Greed is the extreme form of this desire, especially where one desires things simply for the sake of owning them. Greed may entail acquiring material possessions at the expense of another person's welfare (for example, a father buying himself a new car rather than fix the roof of his family's home) or otherwise reflect flawed priorities.

Coveting another person's goods is usually called envy, a word commonly confused with jealousy. The two word denote opposite forms of greed. We may envy and wish to have the possessions or qualities of another, but we jealously guard the possessions or qualities we believe we have and refuse to share these with others. Greed for food or drink, combined with excessive indulgence in them, is called gluttony. Excessive greed for and indulgence in *** is called lust, although this term no longer carries as negative connotations as it once did.

Greed is sometimes represented by the frog.

A woodcut by Ugo da Carpi, is entitled "Hercules Chasing Avarice from the Temple of the Muses." [1]. Thomas Aquinas metaphorically described the sin of Avarice as "Mammon being carried up from Hell by a wolf, coming to inflame the human heart with Greed".

Proponents of laissez-faire capitalism sometimes argue that greed should not be considered a negative trait and should instead be embraced, as they claim that greed is a profoundly benevolent force in human affairs, as well as a necessary foundation for the capitalist system. Critics have argued this definition confuses greed with self-interest, which can be benign

أمثال
Proverbs are speech metaphors. Many of the widely known proverbs each tell a condensed story. In some cultures only elderly people use proverbs. It is not enough for one to know proverbs, one must also know how to use them in the right contexts.

Functions of Proverbs:

Proverbs often contain witty statements hence they serve as repositories of wisdom and wit.
Proverbs may sum up situations, pass judgements, recommend a course of action or serve as a past precedents for present actions.
Proverbs are used either for education, advice, counselling or criticism.
They could be used for social or moral training of children: to be honest, patient, kind, hard working etc.).
Examples of Proverbs:

Honesty is the best policy
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
Two heads are better than one.
One tree does not make a forest.
Rome is not built in a day.
Look before you leap.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
Better late than never.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
All that glitters is not gold.



أهمية تعليم الطفل لغات بجاننب العربية
Children have the capacity to develop new language more naturally than do adults. Children who learn more than one language before adolescence, will acquire those languages with more ease and "native-like" ability than they would trying to study those languages as adults. Most adults who began to seriously study a second language for the first time in junior high, high school or later, look at bilingual children with envy, realizing that even years of laborious study are not likely to render them "equal" or "balanced" bilinguals. It is true that many bilingual children are not balanced bilinguals, using each of their languages with equal ability, since assuring that they have equal exposure to both languages is quite a task--sometimes an impossible task--for the parents. However, bilingual children do acquire their dominant language (or both their languages if neither is dominant) to an ability equal of that of their monolingual peers. Additionally, they acquire a piece of a second language, generally learning far more of that language far more quickly than an adult could. How well a bilingual child develops their second language can vary from a child who only knows a few phrases and some very basic vocabulary in a second language, to a child who listens and understands, but cannot or perhaps will not speak, to a balanced bilingual child who communicates in both languages with the same command as monolingual peers in both languages.

Whether a bilingual child is just dipping their toe into a second language, or actually swimming in it, that child is experiencing to some degree the richness of another language. Children that are exposed to more than one language, even if they never fully learn that language as children, have a higher capacity for foreign language learning as teens or adults. Just playing foreign language cassettes in the home, and trying to speak whatever you know of a second language to your infants and young children will help their minds expand linguistically in a way that will give them an educational advantage later.

In addition to stretching their minds intellectually, learning two languages allows children to stretching their understanding of people beyond their dominant culture. Being able to step into another culture through its language is like being able to live a second life. Although some bilingual children do not have a lot of exposure to the culture of their second language, the language itself conveys much of the culture of the people who speak that language. Further, even if children are not living with native speakers of their second language (who are fully a part of the culture associated with the child's second language) in their house or community, they are still likely to be exposed to original songs and stories from that culture. Bilingual children have some experience seeing how different cultures cause different people to interpret completely differently the exact same circumstance. [Example] Seeing two different cultures internally helps bilingual children realize that much of what is considered universal human behavior within a culture may be unique to that culture. This awareness and understanding of differences between people prepares children to reserve judgment when they see someone respond "inappropriately" to a situation.

Bilingual children not only better appreciate what is human versus what is cultural, but they are also more inclined to have a deeper appreciation of language. They understand at an early age that their is more than one way to label or discuss something. They understand that different labels for the same object or idea in different languages can have different connotations. They are more likely to see the creative possibilities of language and explore their own linguistic creativity.

جرائم الحرب
War crime
In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under international law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. Every violation of the law of war in an inter-state conflict is a war crime, while violations in internal conflicts are typically limited to the local jurisdiction. In essence, the term "war crime" represents the concept of an international jurisdiction as applicable to the most severe crimes, in areas where government is dysfunctional and society is in a state of turmoil.

The article "list of war crimes" summarizes war crimes committed since the Hague Conventions of 1907. In addition, those incidents which have been judged in a court of law to be crimes against peace and crimes against humanity that have been committed since these crimes were first defined (in the London Charter, August 8, 1945) are also included.

The article "list of war criminals" is a list of war criminals as according to the conduct and rules of warfare as defined by the Nuremberg Trials following World War II as well as earlier agreements such as Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, and the Geneva Conventions of 1929 and 1949.

War crimes include violations of established protections of the laws of war, but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a flag of truce, or using that same flag as a ruse of war to mount an attack.

Attacking enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. However, Protocol I, Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids attacking parachutists who eject from damaged airplanes, and surrendering parachutists once landed. [1]

War crimes include such acts as mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. War crimes are sometimes part of instances of mass murder and genocide though these crimes are more broadly covered under international humanitarian law described as crimes against humanity.

War crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as the Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo trials have been convened. Recent examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

Under the Nuremberg Principles, the supreme international crime is that of commencing a war of aggression, because it is the crime from which all war crimes follow. The definition of such a crime is planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. Also, participating in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any such act constitutes such a crime.


الحرب النووية
Nuclear, or atomic warfare, is a war in which nuclear weapons are used. Throughout the course of history, they have only ever been used twice in a state of war (the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and only by one side in the confrontation, the United States of America. Today the term usually refers to confrontations in which opposing sides are both armed with nuclear weapons.

The possibility of using nuclear weapons in war is usually divided into two subgroups, each with different effects and potentially fought with different types of nuclear armaments.

The first, a limited nuclear war (sometimes attack or exchange), consists of only the use of a small number of weapons in a tactical exchange aimed primarily at the opposing military forces. The effects of the weapons would still affect civilian locations. Many military bases are located near cities and nuclear fallout would be spread widely through the atmosphere.

Various nations developed relatively low-yield tactical nuclear weapons during the Cold War for use in such situations, though the explosive power of such weapons still vastly exceeds those of conventional (non-nuclear) arms.

The second, a full-scale nuclear war, consists of large numbers of weapons used in an attack aimed at an entire country, including both military and civilian targets. Such an attack would seek to destroy the entire economic, social, and military infrastructure of a nation by means of an overwhelming nuclear attack.

Some Cold War strategists argued that a limited nuclear war could be possible between two heavily-armed superpowers (such as the United States and the Soviet Union) and if so several predicted that a limited war could "escalate" into an all-out war.

Even the most optimistic predictions about the effects of a major nuclear exchange predict the death of millions of civilians within a very short amount of time; more pessimistic predictions argue that a full-scale nuclear war could bring about the extinction of the human race or its near extinction with a handful of survivors (mainly in remote areas) reduced to a pre-medieval quality of life and life expectancy for centuries after and cause permanent damage to most complex life on the planet, Earth's ecosystems, and the global climate. It is in this latter mode that nuclear warfare is usually alluded to as a doomsday scenario.

A third category, not usually included with the above two, is accidental nuclear war, in which a nuclear war is triggered unintentionally. Possible scenarios for this have included malfunctioning early warning devices and targeting computers, deliberate malfeasance by rogue military commanders, accidental straying of planes into enemy airspace, reactions to unannounced missile tests during tense diplomatic periods, reactions to military exercises, mistranslated or miscommunicated messages, and so forth. A number of these scenarios did actually occur during the Cold War, though none resulted in a nuclear exchange

حقوق الحيوان أو حماية الحيوانات

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the movement to protect non-human animals from being used or regarded as property by humans. It is a radical social movement[2] insofar as it aims not only to attain more humane treatment for animals,[3] but also to include species other than human beings within the moral community[4] by giving their basic interests — for example, the interest in avoiding suffering — the same consideration as those of human beings.[5] The claim is that animals should no longer be regarded legally or morally as property, or treated as resources for human purposes, but should instead be regarded as legal persons.[6]

Animal law courses are now taught in 87 out of 180 United States law schools, [7] and the idea of extending personhood to animals has the support of some senior legal scholars, including Alan Dershowitz[8] and Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School.[6] The Seattle-based Great Ape Project is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt a Declaration on Great Apes, which would see gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos included in a "community of equals" with human beings, extending to them the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.[9] This is seen by an increasing number of animal rights lawyers as a first step toward granting rights to other animals.[10][11]

Critics of the concept of animal rights argue that animals do not have the capacity to enter into a social contract or make moral choices, and therefore cannot be regarded as possessors of moral rights. The philosopher Roger Scruton argues that only human beings have duties and that "[t]he corollary is inescapable: we alone have rights."[12] Critics holding this position argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for food, as entertainment, and in research, though human beings may nevertheless have an obligation to ensure they do not suffer unnecessarily.[13] This position is generally called the animal welfare position, and it is held by some of the oldest of the animal protection agencies.


وصف لأفراد عائلتك في يوم ما
Eid ul-Fitr
often abbreviated as simply Eid, is an Islamic holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Fiṭr means "to break the fast" and therefore symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period. On the day of the celebration. As a family, we wake very early and then after praying the first normal everyday prayer, we are required to eat in a small quantity, symbolizing the end of Ramadan. Then, we attend special congregational prayers held only for this occasion in mosques, in large open areas, stadiums or arenas. The prayer is generally short, and is followed by a sermon (khuṭba). Worshippers greet and embrace each other in a spirit of peace and love after the congregational prayer. After the special prayers, festivities and merriment are commonly observed with visits to our home from relatives and friends to thank God for all blessings.

For us, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyous occasion with important religious significance, celebrating of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory, peace of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. We celebrate not only the end of fasting, but also thank God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control. It is a time of giving and sharing, and many of us buy new dresses in this holiday

تحريم الخمر والقمار ولحم الخنزير
The matter of Halal and Haram meat has consensus in the scholars through the history of Islam. The issue has been addressed completely through the Holy Qur’an and Hadith. May Allah guide us towards making the right choices for ourselves in this regard, and May He protect us from all Haram.
Food and drink, being the basic needs of human beings, have been discussed in detail and clearly explained in the Holy Qur’an and Hadith. Especially, the issue of Halal and Haram meat is discussed quite extensively.

Unfortunately, we choose not to follow the established rules of Shari’ah based on the Holy Qur’an and Hadith. Instead, we make up our own rules to suit our needs and circumstances and do not seem to care if they are contradictory to the commands of Allah and His beloved Prophet (saws)

First of all, it should be kept in mind that in order to learn about any particular issue from the Holy Qur’an and Hadith, one muse be thoroughly well versed in the Arabic language. We must never attempt to understand and especially render a judgment about any issue of Shari’ah based on the translations of the Holy Qur’an and Hadith. Since translations are never totally accurate and generally do not reflect the true spirit of the message, one takes the risk of misunderstanding an issue based on the translator’s perception of it. Thus, the whole foundation on which we would base our interpretation will be wrong and if the foundation is wrong then the structure we erect on it will be wrong as well.

Secondly, it is essential that one knows the rules governing the interpretation of Qur’an and Hadith. Without this knowledge we are also very likely to misinterpret the commands of Allah and His Prophet (saws).

Someone may argue that Allah has mentioned in the Qur’an, “We have made the Quran easy”; then how come we have to learn this and that to understand the true meaning of Quran? It should be borne in mind that whenever and wherever Allah says in the Holy Quran “We have made the Quran easy”. He has also added the word, “To take advice from and remember”, and not to deduce interpretations of your own liking. If the Holy Quran was made easy for everyone to interpret and to deduce the commands of Allah and the practices of Shariah, there would have been no need for sending a prophet and there could not have been any uniformity in the practice of Deen. As Allah says in the Quran:

“And we have also sent down unto you {O Muhammad (saws) the Dhikr, reminder and the advice (i.e. the Qura’n)} that you may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them, and that they may give thought.” (16:44)

Imam Ghazali and other scholars have mentioned fifteen branches of knowledge which one must acquire in order to gain insight into any particular issue from the Holy Quran and Hadith. One of these branches of knowledge, for example, is the knowledge of the background and circumstances under which Quranic verses were revealed. Without this knowledge, it would be impossible to understand the meaning and rationale of many of the verses in the Holy Quran. Consider the following verse:

“Those who believe and do righteous good deeds there is no sin on them for what they ate if they fear Allah and believe and do righteous good deeds, and again fear Allah and believe and one again fear Allah and do good deeds with Ihsan. And Allah loves the good doers.” (5:93)

If one looks at the literal translation of the above verse, one gets the impression that whatever one eats, whether it is Haram or Halal, will not make any difference as long as one believes in Allah, performs good deeds and is mindful of his/her duties. It is only when we learn the background of and the circumstances under which the verse was revealed that we truly understand the meaning of the verse.

Let us examine the background of this verse. When the verse forbidding alcohol was revealed, some of the companion expressed their concern about those who died before the revelation of this verse. The above verse was revealed to this concern and to ensure the companions that as long as the person believed in Allah and was pious, God-fearing and mindful of his/her duties of Allah, he/she will not be punished for his previous drinking; if he is punished, it will not be because of his drinking but because of his lack of faith and fear of Allah.

The above example clearly demonstrates how essential it is to have the knowledge of the rules dealing with the interpretation of the Holy Quran. Without this knowledge one can easily go astray.

There are many such examples in the Holy Quran and Hadith. Suffice is to say that one must acquire the knowledge of the fifteen subjects mentioned by Imam Ghazali if one intends to deduce the rules of Shariah himself from the Holy Quran and Haidth. If one renders judgments from the Holy Quran and Hadith without this knowledge, he/she will lead himself and other innocent Muslims astray. May Allah protect us and guide us to the right path!!

Thirdly, one should remember that when we investigate an issue through the Quran and Haidth, we should look at all the Quranic verses and Hadith relating to the topic. Only then will we be able to see the total picture of what Allah and His Prophet (saws) have taught us about this particular issue.

Take for example alcohol, if one reads the verse, “Do not pray when you are drunk” (4:43). One may easily misunderstand and claim that drinking is permitted in the Holy Quran as long as one is not praying while drunk, because drinking is forbidden only at the time of prayer. This person will not be able to understand the rules of Shariah about drinking because of his lack of knowledge of other verses of the Holy Quran and Hadith dealing with the commands of Allah about drinking. He may not realize that this verse was revealed at eh beginning of Islam and that another verse forbidding it altogether was revealed later on. The verse read as follows:

“ O believers, wine, gambling, (ungodly) shrines and divining devices are all abominable works of Satan; therefore refrain from these so that you may attain true success. Indeed Satan intends to sow enmity and hatred among you by means of wine, gambling to prevent you from the remembrance of Allah and from Salah. Will you not, therefore, abstain from these things?” (5:90-91)

since the intent of this short article is not to discuss the rules of interpretation of the Holy Quran and Hadith, we will not go into the details of the fifteen branches of knowledge described by Imam Ghazali. Those who are interested in learning more about them may consult Imam Ghazali’s writings such as, “Ihya-Al-Uloom”.

Let us now return to the main purpose for which I started to write this little article.

Allah has mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah,

“Those four things are forbidden from you: 1) Dead animal, 2) Blood, 3) Pork, and 4) any animal slaughtered in the name other than Allah.” (2:173)

As I have mentioned before, it is not enough to take only one verse from the Holy Quran to deduce the rules about an issue because we have to consider all the verses that may be directly or indirectly related to this issue. When we search the Holy Quran for verses related to the slaughtered animal (Zabiha) and Halal and Haram meat, we find that there are a number of other things, which are forbidden. Take for example verse #3 of Surah al-Ma’idah.

“ Forbidden for you are: 1) dead animal, 2) blood, 3) the flesh of pork, 4) any animal slaughtered in the name other than Allah, 5) or killed by strangling, 6) or through a deadly blow, 7) or by falling from a height, 8) or killed by (the goring of) horns, 9) or eaten by wild beasts, 10) or the one which has been sacrificed on altars (or at a shrine)” (5:3)

If we take only the first verse from Surah Baqarah mentioned above, we may believe that only three types of meat and blood are forbidden (Haram) and everything else is permitted (Halal). Even in the second verse quoted from Surah Ma’idah, all other forbidden animals, such as lion, dog, tiger, etc., have not been mentioned. Although every Muslim knows these beasts are also forbidden for consumption. We find these details only in Ahadith. For the animal to be Halal there are certain conditions that follow.

FIRST CONDITION: TO RECITE THE NAME OF ALLAH:

Similarly, according to the Holy Quran an animal slaughtered without reciting the Takbir (the Name of Allah) is also forbidden as stated in Quran:

“ And do not eat the flesh of an animal over which Allah’s name has not been mentioned at the time of Slaughter; this is indeed sinful. The Satan puts doubts and objections into the minds of their friends, so that they should dispute with you, but if you obey them , you are surely Mushriks.” (6-121)

It follows from this verse that it is essential to say the Takbir (reciting the name of Allah) when slaughtering the animal. If the Takbir was not recited, the meat becomes forbidden for consumption.

Imam Raghib Asfahani has mentioned seven verses from the Holy Quran in support of reciting the Takbir when slaughtering an animal for consumption.

1. “ So eat of that (flesh of the animal) over which Allah’s name has been mentioned, if you truly believe in His Revelations”. (6:118)

In this verse Allah clearly commanded us not to consume the animal upon which the Takbir was not recited at the time of slaughtering. It is; therefore, abundantly clear that if we believe in the Holy Quran, we must not eat of an animal that has not been slaughtered in the name of Allah.

2. “Why should you not eat of that over which Allah’s names has been mentioned, when he has already given you explicit knowledge of those things which He has forbidden for you except in a case of extreme helplessness? And surely many people lead others astray by following their own desires without any knowledge. Indeed your Lord best knows the transgressors.” (6:119)

In this verse Allah has once again made it very clear that those who eat the meat of animals not slaughtered in the name of Allah are ignorant, following their desires blindly.

3. “And do not eat the flesh of the animal over which Allah’s name has not been mentioned at the time of slaughter; this is indeed sinful..” (6:121)

In this verse it is clearly stated once again that the animal which has not been slaughtered in the name of Allah is forbidden for eating, and to do so is a great sin. It is further stated in the same verse:

“ And certainly, the Shayatin (devils) do inspire their friends (from mankind) to dispute with you, and if you obey them [by making al-Maitah (a dead animal) legal by eating it], then you would indeed be Mushrikun (polytheists);” [because they (devils and their friends) made lawful to you to eat which Allah has made unlawful to eat and you obeyed them by considering it lawful to eat, and by doing so you worshipped them; and to worship others besides Allah is polytheism]

Clearly Allah has warned us that Satan will inspire their friends in fabricating arguments and excuses to make Halal what Allah has made Haram for us. Obviously, these friends of Satan would be the ones who follow their own desires without knowledge. If we follow them, Allah says we would become Mushriks, because we associated these people with Allah in giving us commands.

4. “That they may witness the benefits made available for them, and mention the name of Allah on the appointed days over the cattle he has provided them”. (22:28)

In this verse where Allah has ordered us to sacrifice the animal, He has once again reminded us not to forget to mention the name of Allah when sacrificing the animal.

5. “And for every nation We have prescribed a way of sacrifice so that they should pronounce the name of Allah over the cattle which he has provided for them”. (22:34)

In this verse Allah has informed us of a very important fact, that He made it compulsory for the previous Ummahs as well to recite His name when slaughtering the animal. Therefore, it is also compulsory for the Jews and the Christians to recite the name of Allah when they slaughter an animal for consumption. This is whey we have been allowed to eat the meat of an animal slaughtered by the people of the Divine Books. This issue is discussed in more details in the next section.

6. "And We have included the camels (dedicated for sacrifice) among the Symbols of Allah, for there is much good for you in them. Therefore, mention the name of Allah over them when they are drawn up in lines (for sacrifice)." (22:36)

In this verse too, Allah impressed the need of reciting His name, when animals are slaughtered to offer sacrifice. Ordinarily a butcher slaughters an animal tor consumption, but during the Hajj season every one has to slaughter his own animal. This is why Allah is emphasising and reminding us not to forget reciting His name at the time of slaughter.

7. "They ask you what has been made lawful for them. Say, all the good and pure things have been made lawful for you. You may also eat of what the hunting animals, which you have trained lo hunt in accordance with the knowledge Allah has given you, catch and hold for you. You should, however, mention Allah's name over it and fear (to violate the Law of) Allah, for Allah is swift at reckoning." (5:4)

This verse deals with hunting for meat. Allah has commanded us to recite His name before letting loose the hunting animals (e.g., dogs, hawks, etc.) after the prey. Only then the hunted animal will be Halal; otherwise, it will be Haram. This law of hunting has been mentioned very clearly in many Ahadith as well. This is the only right way to make sure the hunt is Halal.

I will present the following two Ahadith as examples.

1. The Prophet (saws) said, "If you recited the name of Allah, then released one hound after the prey and another hound joined him, and the two dogs hunted the prey together; then the hunt will not be Halal because it is possible that the animal may have been killed by the dog on which Allah's name was not recited."

2. If an animal is hunted with an arrow and the prey fell in water after getting hit, then the animal will not be Halal because it is possible that his death may have been caused by the fall
or by drowning. There are many Ahadith on this subject in the authentic books such as Bukhari. Muslim, Abu-Daud, Tirmiz, Nasai, and Ibn-Majah etc. All of these Ahadith make it abundantly clear that an animal killed without reciting the name of Allah at the time of slaughter is Haram.

Therefore, reciting the name of Allah at the time of slaughter is the first condition for the meat to be Halal, Now, whoever tries to prove otherwise is ignorant and is following his own whims and desires; thereby, misleading himself and others.

SECOND CONDITION: SLAUGHTERING BY CUTTING THE THROAT

The second condition is that the animal should be slaughtered by cutting the throat, as it has been made clear in the following two Ahadith.

1. Abu Hurrairah (ra) narrated that the beloved Prophet (saws) once sent Budail bin Waraqah (ra) to Mina to announce and inform the pilgrims to slaughter their animals at the neck. (Dar Qutni. p. 544)

2. Abdullah bin Abbas (ra), Umar (ra) and Ali (ra) have all narrated that the Prophet (saws) instructed them to slaughter the animal at the neck. (Bukhari)

How and where should the neck be cut has been explained as well. Look at this Hadith:

1. Rafi bin Khudaij (ra) narrated that I asked the Prophet (saws) about slaughtering the animal: he (saws) replied, "That slaughtering the animal with any sharp object (with the exception of nail and teeth) makes it Halal." (Ibn Abi Shaibah, Zaila'i)

The word (Awdaaj) in this Hadith means the two blood vessels, the oesophagus and the windpipe. Out of these four, at least three must be cut for the animal to be Halal for consumption.

Now, regarding the question about the animals slaughtered by People of the Book, that is. the Jews and Christians, we find the following verse in the Holy Qur'an.

"This day We have made lawful (Halal) for you all the clean and pure things, and We have also made lawful (Halal) the food of the people of Scripture for you and your food for them." (5:5)

According to the above verse, we are allowed to eat the food of the people of the Book. But. does this mean that we are allowed to eat the meal of animals slaughtered by the Jews and Christian even if they do not follow the requirements of slaughter prescribed by Allah i.e., reciting the name of Allah and cutting the animal's throat as prescribed? Not at all. Interpreting the meaning of the verse in this manner will amount to abolishing these requirements, discarding all the verses in the Holy Qur'an and literally hundreds of Ahadith about them without any proof to the contrary.

. Under no circumstances are we allowed to discard, disregard any command of Allah in the Holy Qur'an and the Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad (saws) without any solid proof to the contrary.

Even a Muslim that kills an animal without the prescribed method, it will be rendered as Haram so how about the others. In this case, if we assume that the above mentioned conditions for the slaughter of animals are meant only for Muslims and not for Christians and Jews, then it means that no matter how they kill the animal, it will be Halal for them and for us. But if a Muslim slaughters an animal without meeting these requirements, the meat would be Haram for our consumption. Does this make sense? It may also mean that Allah 's more lenient with the Jews and Christians in this regard than He is with Muslims. Docs that make sense?

In fact, this is not the meaning of this verse. In order to understand the real meaning of this verse, we must first answer two questions.

1. What is meant by the word (Ta'aam)'?

And

2. Why did Allah make Halal for us the food of only the Jews and Christian and not of others?

Let us look at the first question. The Arabic word (Ta'aam) means "food or meal". Now if we take this literal meaning of the word, then, according to this verse, pork and wine will become Halal as well because both of these food items are regularly consumed by the Christians. And, no Muslim will ever agree to this interpretation of the verse because we know that both pork and wine have been clearly declared as Haram lor us by Allah. It, therefore, follows that lhe word "Ta'aam" here does not mean all types of food. In the
interpretation of this verse. Imam Qurtubi has explained, "all those food consumed by the Christian and the Jews, which are forbidden for Muslims, do not become Halal because of this verse." (Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, v.6, p.77).

There is a consensus among the scholars of the Holy Qur'an since the time of the Protphet (saws) that the word "Ta'aam" here means the meat of Halal animals slaughtered by Christians or Jews. Ibn-Kathir, Imam Jassas. Imam Aaiusi and others have derived this interpretation from the narrations by Abdullah bin Abbas. Abu-Darda, Abu-Umamah. Miijahid, Qatadah, Saeed-bin-Jubair, Ikrimah, Ala', Hasan Basri, Makhol Shami, Dhahhak, Ibrahim Nakhai. Imam Suddi, and Imam Muqatil, etc.)

Now then, why was the slaughtered meat of only Jews and Christians made Hala! for us and not of others?

The answer is quiie obvious. The Jews and the Christians used to slaughter their animals in exactly the same way as prescribed in Islam. They recited the name of Allah at the time of slaughter and cut the animal at the neck. So, their method of slaughter was exactly like ours. Allah had prescribed for them the same method of .slaughter as has been mentioned in Surah Hajj, verse 34. This can be confirmed through the Bible, Torah and the well established Jewish Dietary Laws. Look at the following quotations.

1. "You shall kill of your herd and your flock...as I have commanded you" (Deuteronomy 12.21)

2. The mammals and birds that may be eaten must be slaughtered in accordance with the Jewish law. (Dent. 12:21). We may not eat animals that died of natural causes (Dent. 14:21)
or that were killed by other animals. In addition, the animal must have no disease or flaws in the organs at the time of slaughter. These restrictions do not apply to fish; only to the
flocks and herds (Num. 11:22).

3. Ritual slaughter is known as shechitah and the person who performs the slaughter is called a shochet, both from the Hebrew root Shin-Chet-Tav, meaning to destroy or kill. The
method of slaughter is a quick, deep stroke across the throat with a perfectly sharp blade with no nicks or unevenness. This method is painless, causes unconsciousness within two
seconds, and is widely recognized as the most humane method of slaughter possible. Another advantage of shechitah is that it ensures rapid, complete draining of the blood, which is also necessary to render the meal kosher. The shochet is not simply a butcher; he must be a pious man, well-trained in Jewish law, particularly as it relates to kashrut. In smaller, more remote communities, the rabbi and the shochet were often the same person.

4. The humane laws of shechita probably go back to biblical times. The Torah itself implies knowledge of it: "You shall kill of your herd and your flock... as I have commanded you"
(Deuteronomy 12.21). And the moral basis of shechita was explained 800 years ago by Maimonides in his Guide of the Perplexed: "...the Law enjoins that the death of the animal
should be the easiest. It is not allowed to torment the animal by cutting the throat in a clumsy manner, by pole axing, or by cutting off a limb while the animal is alive. It is also
prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day (Leviticus 22.08). in order thai people should be restrained from killing the two together in such a manner thai the young is slain in the sight of the mother...."

5. In our time, the ethics of shechita were summarized by the noted Conservative rabbi. Samuel Dresner in the excellent booklet The Jewish Dietary Laws: "The laws of shechita
provide the most humane method of slaughtering animals. Great care is exercised that the knife to be used must be regularly examined before and after it is used to determine that it is perfectly smooth, without a notch that might tear the flesh. The cut severs the arteries to the head of the animal, thereby stopping circulation to the head and rendering the animal unconscious of all pain. This is not true when the animal is only stunned by a blow."

All of the above quotations have been taken from the web-page "Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws" on the internet at the site, whit.org/shofar/html/kosher.html/schechita.

It should be clear now why the slaughtered meat of the Jews and Christians was made Halal for us. If the Jews, Christians, or even a Muslim slaughter an animal without properly following the prescribed requirements; the meat will not be Halal for us.

There are lots of people these days who claim to be Jews and Christians, but their beliefs are not exactly in accordance with their faith. Can they be included in the definition of the People of the Book? Similarly, there are people who claim to be Muslims, but refuse to accept the basic tenants of Islam. Can they be considered Muslims? Certainly not. Besides, there are many Christians and Jews who do not even believe in God anymore.

In Summary, therefore, the first condition for their meat to be Halal for us is that they should be People of the Book (Jews or Christians), and secondly, they must slaughter according to their religious requirements (which are not different from Islam).

Generally, Jews and Christians do not slaughter their animals according to their religion with the exception of orthodox Jews who cat the Kosher; because they know that what is available in the market-place is not permissible for them to eat.

How unfortunate it is that there are Jews who still follow the commands of Allah , whereas the Muslims are looking for all kinds of excuses to violate them. May Allah give us the guidance.

It should also be remembered that all the butchers in the slaughter-houses may not necessarily be Jews and Christians: they could be persons from other faiths also.

Some people present the Fataawa (verdicts) of Islamic scholars from Saudi Arabia as a proof that we can eat the meat of an animal slaughtered by Christians and Jews. But this is merely another ploy to misguide the lay Muslims, because the fataawa of Saudi scholars deal with the packed meat they import from outside on which it is very clearly written that it has been slaughtered in accordance with the Islamic principles. Saudi Government has proclaimed a law that no Haram meat will be imported, and Saudi scholars keep this rule in mind when they render a Fatwa. Their faiaawa do not apply to the meat we get in the North American grocery stores and slaughter houses.

It is common knowledge that the meat sold in the grocery stores in North America and other western countries is neither slaughtered by the Jews or Christians necessarily, nor is it slaughtered in accordance with their religious requirement. It is, there-fore, clearly not Hlalal for our consumption.

By now, all doubts in our minds about which meat is permissible (Halal) and which is forbidden (Haram) should have been lifted. I pray to Allah for His protection from Satan and his human friends who are leading us astray from His straight path..

ورق اليانصيب
lottery is a popular form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. Some governments forbid it, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments.

The first signs of a lottery trace back the Han Dynasty between 205 and 187 B.C., where ancient Keno slips were discovered. The lottery has helped finance major governmental projects like the Great Wall of China.

The first known European lottery occurred during the Roman Empire, and was mainly done as a form of amusement at dinner parties. Each guest would receive a ticket, and prizes would often consist of fancy items such as dinnerware. Every ticket holder would be assured of winning something. The first European lottery to award money was held in Florence, Italy in 1530. As with the earlier Roman style lottery, all ticket holders would be eligible for a small prize, such as a trinket, for playing.

The Dutch were the first to shift the lottery to solely money prizes and base prizes on odds (roughly about 1 in 4 tickets winning a prize). The lottery proved to be very popular, and was hailed as a painless form of taxation. In the Netherlands the lottery was used to raise money for e.g. supporting poor people, building dikes, construction of defense works for towns and to buy free sailors from slavery in the Arab countries. The English word lottery stems from the Dutch word loterij, which is derived from the Dutch noun lot meaning fate. The Dutch state owned staatsloterij is the oldest still existing lottery.

Lotteries come in many formats. The prize can be fixed cash or goods. In this format there is risk to the organizer if insufficient tickets are sold. The prize can be a fixed percentage of the receipts. A popular form of this is the "50-50" draw where the organizers promise that the prize will be 50% of the revenue. The prize may be guaranteed to be unique where each ticket sold has a unique number. Many recent lotteries allow purchasers to select the numbers on the lottery ticket resulting in the possibility of multiple winners.

Lotteries are most often run by governments or local states and are sometimes described as a regressive tax, since those most likely to buy tickets will typically be the less affluent members of a society. The astronomically high odds against winning have also led to the epithets of a "tax on stupidity", "math tax" or the oxymoron "voluntary tax" (playing the lottery is voluntary; taxes are not). They are intended to suggest that lotteries are governmental revenue-raising mechanisms that will attract only those consumers who fail to see that the game is a very bad deal. Indeed, the desire of lottery operators to guarantee themselves a profit requires that an average lottery ticket be worth substantially less than what it costs to buy. After taking into account the present value of the lottery prize as a single lump sum cash payment, the impact of any taxes that might apply, and the likelihood of having to share the prize with other winners, it is not uncommon to find that a ticket for a typical major lottery is worth less than one third of its purchase price.

The fact that lotteries are commonly played leads to some contradictions against standard models of economic rationality. However, the expectations of some players may not be to win the game, but the thrill and indulgence in a fantasy of possibly becoming wealthy become the goal. Even ignoring the thrill factor, there is the theoretical possibility that the purchase of a lottery ticket could represent a gain in expected utility, even though it represents a loss in expected monetary value, thus making the purchase a rational decision. Insurance, for instance, represents negative expected monetary value but is not considered to be a tax on stupidity because it is generally believed to deliver positive expected utility to the individual.

Lottery tickets are usually scanned in big numbers using marksense-technology.



حب قرأة الحظ أو معرفة البخت
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means and often for commercial gain. It often conflates with the religious practice known as divination.

Common methods used for fortune telling include astromancy, cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot card reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and cheiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The latter three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sinti people (often called "gypsies"). Various forms of fortune-telling appear throughout the world. Typical topics that fortune-tellers make predictions on include future romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects.

In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune-tellers more than men: some indication of this comes from the profusion of advertisements for commercial fortune-telling services in magazines aimed at women, while such advertisements appear virtually unknown in magazines aimed specifically at men. Telephone consultations with psychics (charged to the caller's telephone account at very high rates) grew in popularity through the 1990s.

Chinese Fortune Telling better known as (Chinese: 算命, syun meng) have been through countless rituals and divination techniques throughout the dynastic periods. There are only 4 major methods still in practice between China and Hong Kong today due to accuracy and popularity by choice. Overtime, many of these concepts have gone into Korean and Japanese culture under other names. For example "Saju" in Korea is using the four pillar method.


Face reading - It is the interpretation of facial features of nose, eyes, mouth and other criteria within one's face. And convert those criteria into predictions of the future. This usually covers the phase of one's life, and reveal the type of luck associated with certain age range.
Palm reading - It analyzes the positioning of palm lines for love, personality and other traits.
Kau Cim - It requires the shaking of a bamboo cylinder, which results in at least one modified incense stick leaving the cylinder. The Chinese characters inscribed on the stick is analyzed by an interpreter. The prediction is short ranged as it covers one Chinese calendar year.
Zi wei dou shu - The procedure is sometimes loosely called (Chinese: 劈命, pik meng) or if someone seeks a advisor with a mastery of the Chinese calendar. The astrology is used in combination with Chinese constellation, four pillars of destiny and the five elements. The end result is a translation of one's destiny path. It is an interpretation of a pre-determined fate. The result of the details vary depend on the accuracy of the original four pillars information you provided. This method can also verify unique events that have already happened in one's life.

Scientists believe that several factors explain its popularity and anecdotal accuracy:

Predictions almost always use vague terms and do not lend themselves to falsification. Therefore, the prediction is never wrong, but a person's interpretation of it can always be wrong.
Confirmation bias predisposes people to look for cases where predictions can be interpreted as accurate more than they look to find inaccurate ones.
Consumers of fortune-telling services may also fail to realise that statements made about them might reflect reality, but would equally apply to most other people (for instance, the statement "you fought with your parents sometimes as a teenager" applies to a large majority of people). This is the Forer effect.
Fortune-tellers usually exhibit skills at reading people and telling them what they wish to hear (the technique of "cold reading").
A person who performs a divination for himself or herself may be using his or her reactions to the arbitrary stimuli (such as tarot cards) as a way of mentally organizing his or her own thoughts.
Predictions can be a source of amusement and diversion.
Predictions can reduce anxiety about the uncertain future.
When making a decision based on incomplete information, the fortune teller or oracle can reduce the anxiety associated with guessing.
It can be an external source of authority to invoke in support of a decision to be made, or in defense of a decision that was made.
The predictions themselves can cause the subject to alter his or her behaviour in a way that makes the predictions become true, see self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fortune-telling in the context of an individual's belief system has a good chance of being believed

أهمية الأخلاق في تعاملنا

The Importance of Values and Morals
"The Importance of Values and Morals." Sounds like a no-brainer of an article for us, a people of faith. They are the code we live by in a civil and just society. They are what we use to guide our interactions with others, with our friends and family, in our businesses and professional behavior. Our values and morals are a reflection of our spirituality; our character. They are what we hope to model for our children and the children around us, because children do watch us as they develop their own sense of right and wrong. Everyone knows their importance, don't they?
Well, maybe not. One only has to watch Jerry Springer-type shows or the spate of "Reality TV Shows" to find evidence to the contrary. Every day in the news we hear about crooked politicians, greedy CEOs, insider trading, embezzling evangelists caught in "love triangles," "good Christians" doing very bad things. On talk-radio, news shows, at our churches, all around us, we hear about the decline of values, morals, ethics, civility, manners and, of course, common decency. People talk nostalgically about the "good old days" when Americans lived according to a set of standards of which they could be proud.

So have we really become a nation without values and morals? I don't think so. It's just that everyone has their own ideas about which values and morals are the ones we should follow. The choices are as varied as our country is heterogeneous. One only has to look inside the different church denominations to see the diversity of concepts regarding moral behavior. That realization doesn't stop each of us from believing that our particular values and morals comprise the "right" set-- the set everyone else should accept as well.

Another problem is that we, as human beings, are inconsistent in most things--including our morals and values. We tend to compartmentalize them; stressing one type while disregarding another. Some people seem willing to overlook unethical business practices while condemning ***ual behaviors and attitudes. Others overlook ***ual behavior and attitudes while crying foul over shady business practices. Turning a blind eye upon specific immoral activity seems to happen frequently in politics, sports and in the church. At times, it would appear that morals and values are morals and values of convenience.

But, as people of faith, aren't we supposed to have a clear sense of morals and values? Aren't we supposed to be above all that hypocrisy and compartmentalizing? After all, the Bible offers many examples of morals and values; behavior we should aspire to. But they, like us, often appear contradictory and inconsistent. Unfortunately, as flawed human beings, we often fall short in our pursuit of faith and "good, Christian conduct." The same can be said of our pursuit of consistency in our morals and values. It is a difficult task made more difficult by the world around us.

In the end, however, the importance of determining our values and morals is still imperative. They are reflective of our own sense of right and wrong, our character and, more importantly, our spirituality. While the world around us may spin out of control, children will continue to look to us for guidance in developing their own sense of what is important in life. And while we will never attain perfection and may never achieve consistency, a clear sense of moral and ethical standards is worth the effort.

After all, the children are watching

مشاعر الحزن والسعادة
What is Happiness? What is Sadness?
Long ago in China there was a famous student of Zen Master Ma Jo named Han Ong. Everyone said to him, "You are lucky, you are happy." Then he said, "What is luck? What is happiness?" He always spoke like this.

He had a good horse, which he liked to ride every day. One day the horse disappeared, so everyone said, "Oh, are you unhappy? Are you sad?" He said, "What is sadness? What is happiness?" No feeling. His horse ran away, but he only said, "What is sadness? What is happiness?" Everyone said, "This man has no feeling.'' Usually, if someone is attached to something and it goes away, then he is very sad. But Han Ong only said, "What is sadness? What is happiness?''

A week later Han Ong got a very good horse; we say, jun me. This means it only has to see the shadow of the whip and it runs. This is a very clever horse. So everyone said, "You are happy. You are lucky." He said, "What is luck? What is happiness?" Only this. No feeling. Then everybody said, "This man is very lucky." His son liked the horse and rode it every day. He only had to mount the horse and it would go, so he rode around and around, very happy. Then one day while riding, he fell and broke his leg. So everyone said, "Ah, I am sorry your son broke his leg. Are you sad?" He said, "What is sadness? What is happiness?" No feeling.

Soon after this, there were many wars, with North China and South China fighting each other. All the young people had to go to the army. But Han Ong's son had a broken leg, so he could not go; he stayed at home and only helped his parents. His leg was not so bad, so he could work in the garden and help them with their chores. Everybody said, "You are lucky. You are happy." So he said, "What is luck? What is happiness?" This style speech.

This is Han Ong's famous, "What is happiness? What is sadness?" His whole life he used only this speech to teach other people. Outside, happiness appears, luck appears, sadness appears, but he is not moving. "What is true happiness? What is sadness?" Not moving. This mind is very important. Originally there is nothing. If you attach to something, then you have luck, happiness, sadness, suffering -- everything appears. If you don't attach, this is clear mind. Then there is no sadness, no happiness, no unhappiness -- they all disappear. So if you attach to name and form, if you attach to words, then your mind is also moving. Don't attach to anything. Then your mind is enough. Then appearing, disappearing, whatever happens outside doesn't matter. Then teaching other people is possible. So Han Ong's friends and all his students learned from him. Only one word: "What is sadness? What is happiness?" This means your mind moving is no good. If you make happiness, if you make sadness, that's no good. Don't make anything; don't attach to anything; don't hold anything. Then you are complete. This was his teaching.

So our Europe trip is almost finished. We too have had many kinds of happiness, appearing and disappearing. Put it all down, O.K.? Only go straight: "What is luck? What is happiness? What is sadness?" We have had a lot of luck, a lot of happiness, a lot of suffering, a lot of sadness. But what is happiness? What is sadness? What is luck? Only go straight.

الاسترخاء واليوجا

The beauty of yoga exercise is that it can be enjoyed by all. No matter your age or fitness level, this gentle, yet powerful discipline offers a completely balanced workout, allowing you to develop strength with flexibility, while reducing stress and tension. Practicing yoga has been shown to improve overall health and cardiovascular fitness. And practitioners agree: this ancient art may slow and possibly even reverse the aging process.

First popular in the United States during the 1960s and '70s, yoga has now re-entered the mainstream. People today are rediscovering what yoga practitioners have known for thousands of years-that yoga's simple stretching exercises provide the opportunity for a lifetime of radiantly good health and inner peace. Health professionals now recognize that yoga's preventive, healing benefits can be the perfect antidote to the stresses of the modern world.

YOGA THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Yoga is an ancient philosophical system that originated in India over 5,000 years ago. Yoga means "to yoke" or "union" in Sanskrit-a bringing together to make whole the body, mind, and spirit. In approximately 2 A.D., the great Hindu sage, Patanjali, wrote down the principles of classical yoga in the Yoga Sutras. Since that time, yoga has evolved into four philosophical branches: Bhakti Yoga (cultivating devotion), Jnana Yoga (developing wisdom), Karma Yoga (the way of action), and Raja Yoga (inner concentration). The stretching exercises familiar to Westerners are hatha yoga, a small branch of Raja Yoga.

YOGA'S HEALTH BENEFITS

While a small dose of hatha yoga can result in a heightened sense of well-being, a regular regimen will reward you with a body that's lighter and more flexible. Scientific studies confirm many of yoga's benefits. In an article in Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition, and Health Journal, a team of Georgia Tech researchers concluded that a 32 minute yoga routine was a more efficient cardiovascular exercise than the same amount of time spent walking on a treadmill. According to the research team, yoga's cardiovascular value, along with its ability to enhance flexibility, strength, and coordination, qualifies it as an important form of exercise.

A plethora of healthcare providers, hospitals, and insurance companies confirm yoga's preventive benefits. Having a flexible lower-back and hamstring muscles can reduce your chances of becoming one of the millions of Americans afflicted with back pain, says physician and yoga teacher Mary Pullig Schatz, M.D. In her best-selling book, Back Care Basics, Dr. Schatz advocates a program of therapeutic yoga exercises for the prevention and rehabilitation of back pain. Studies on yoga exercise, relaxation and meditation techniques indicate that it can relieve high blood pressure, help chronic pain and illness, and neutralize the toxic stress of modern life. Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, offers a therapy program that teaches patients how to incorporate yoga and meditation into their daily lives.

YOGA

Daily yoga practice, meditation, relaxation and breathing techniques, and a low-fat vegetarian diet, are key components of Dr. Dean Ornish's innovative program for the non-surgical treatment of heart disease, described in his book, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Random House, 1990). Dr. Ornish's program has proven so successful that medical insurance companies now reimburse individuals who participate in it.

YOGA POSTURES (Asanas)

Yoga stretching for flexibility has been recommended by exercise specialists to prevent injury and improve sports techniques. Exercise physiologists Dr. Frank Katch, Ph.D., and Dr. William McArdle, Ph.D., authors of Introduction to Nutrition, Exercise and Health, strongly suggest that yoga stretches be performed slowly, with each position held for at least 10 seconds to fully extend the muscle.

Over the centuries, different yoga poses have been developed to efficiently stretch every muscle in the body slowly and gently as a type of moving meditation. While weight training improves dynamic strength--in which muscles become shorter and thicker as a result of moving the weight they work against-holding yoga poses develops isometric strength. Muscles with this kind of power turn long, lean, and limber from pushing against resistance from a fixed position.

There are hundreds of yoga postures, called asanas, which belong to one of five basic movement categories: forward bends, backbends, twists, standing and inversions, as well as meditation poses. A balanced yoga class should have a series of postures that includes all five movement categories. Although yoga can be practiced at home, it's a good idea for beginners to attend a class to learn how to safely and properly perform the postures. If you have a medical condition, always consult your health professional before beginning an exercise program.

Whether you're 9 or 90, you can enjoy the many benefits of yoga. Its requirements are minimal: all you need are 30 minutes each day, a mat or blanket, and a small exercise space. Yoga addresses a wealth of different needs: it can teach children to quiet their minds while promoting strength and flexibility; provide healthy ways for senior citizens to slow down the aging process; and serve as a natural beauty aid by creating a more limber, graceful body and serene demeanor. Hatha yoga practice provides each of us an opportunity to reach our full potential physically, mentally and spiritually.

BREATHING AND MEDITATION

In yoga philosophy, prana is life force energy. Pranayama breathing is the conscious regulation of the breath that circulates revitalizing prana throughout the body. Research indicates that breathing slowly and deeply sends a message to the body and mind that all is well, thereby interrupting the stress cycle. Many different controlled breathing exercises are available in hatha yoga.

The following simple exercises can be performed anytime to promote calmness--

Sit comfortably in a chair, or on the floor in a cross-legged or half-lotus position, keeping your back straight and your neck and head aligned with your spinal column. Gently place both of your hands, fingertips touching, below the bellybutton. Then slowly breathe in and out from your stomach. You should feel your belly calmly rise and fall with each breath. Continue this basic breathing technique for ten breaths, allowing yourself to derive a joyous serenity.

Triange-Standing Position: (stretches and strengthens legs and lower back) Stand with legs three feet apart, right foot pointing right, arms extended out to the sides. Reach out with the right arm extending torso until right hand reaches right leg. Grasp the right leg as far down as you can (between the knee and ankle) while extending left arm upward. Turn head to look up at left hand. Hold the pose for 30 seconds. Come up slowly and repeat on the opposite side.

Sphinx-Backward Bending Posture: (back and abdominal stretch) Lie on your abdomen with legs hip distance apart. Bend down elbows and place beneath your shoulders, arms straight forward. Keep the shoulders down from your ears while tightening the buttocks. Hold the pose for 5 seconds.

Pose of a Child-Forward Bending Posture: (stretches the back, neck and shoulders) Sit on your heels with knees bent touching the floor together. Slowly bend your torso forward until stomach rests on thights and forehead is centered to floor. Place arms alongside your body, palms upward, and hands close to ankles. Relax deeply, breathing comfortable. Hold pose for up to one minute.

Half Candle-Inversion: (stretches and strengthens the back, shoulders, and arms) Do not do this pose if you have high blood pressure or are menstruating. Lay on your back then slowly raise your legs into the air, lifting the hips. Support the back of your hips with your hands, while your elbows are securely braced on the floor as close together as possible. Keep the legs straight with your feet at a 45 degree angle above your head. Hold the pose for 30 seconds.

Simple Twist-Twist: (stretches and strengthens the back muscles and spine) Sit on the floor in a cross-legged position keeping the spine straight. Slowly rotate your torso to the right and place the right hand on the floor behind the right hip. Grasp the right knee with the left hand and look over the right shoulder. Hold the pose for 10 seconds. Repeat the twist to the left.

Meditation Posture-Half Lotus (stretches hips, knees and ankles, improves posture) Sit cross-legged, right leg in front of the left, keeping the spine straight. Do not force this position, or it may injure the knees. Gently grasp the right foot with both hands and slowly bring it high up on the left thigh. Extend arms out to sides of knees, touching index finger to thumb, palms facing up. Breathe deeply and hold the pose for 10 seconds. Repeat with the left foot.

المرأة هل ممكن أن تصبح رئيسة
Why Can't a Woman Run for President?
With the tone and substance of national policy in the United States in a seemingly bottomless downward spiral, threatening both the peace of the world and the freedom of Americans, it may be fair to ask, why talk about a woman running for president?

The simple answer is that the best promise for improvement may well be in calling on the talents of humanity's other half, so largely ignored in American politics (actually, humanity's more-than-other half since males on average die much younger).

I sincerely believe America has scraped the bottom of the barrel for male leadership talent with George Bush. Indeed, in some ways this is true of both parties since Al Gore, while a far more intellectually-capable man, threw away the election with a fatuous, me-too campaign and insisted on blaming Mr. Clinton's past activities for his loss. Hardly the stuff of great leadership.

When will a woman run for president? When this question is posed in op-ed opinion pieces, the answer frequently offered is something along the lines of "when one decides to run." A very reassuring bromide that injects "choice," that most pliable word of American corporate-speak, into the discussion.

Of course, the reality is that an apron-strings, cookies-and-milk mind-set still dominates much of American society's attitudes about women. People abroad likely find it hard to appreciate the truth of this when they think of America as a place of rapid change and advanced technology.

But not everything is technologically advanced in America. You have only to recall the incompetent mess of Florida ballots in the last election for an example of how a technologically advanced nation can be backward even in areas of technology.

And rapid change certainly does not occur uniformly through American society. This is a nation where millions of people look for signs of Satan in children's books and attend religious revivals where folks are slapped on the forehead to cure cancer. One of the largest fundamentalist Christian denominations in the United States proudly declares that the little woman's place is to support her husband as patriarch of the family. The role for women amongst American fundamentalist Jews is pretty much what one would expect to find in the mid-17th century.

America's South, with its cloying ideals of belles, cheerleaders, baton-twirlers and cotillions, represents patriarchal values in the raw. After all, it is the place that spontaneously generates people who speak in tongues and handle poisonous snakes as part of divine worship. Almost the nation's entire supply of fundamentalist preacher-entrepreneurs, people who make a fine living out of refusing to recognize what century they live in, are incubated and developed in the South. And the South, due to changing trends in population, is the part of the country that has risen to great new influence in American politics.

The treatment of Hillary Clinton set a standard of viciousness no other society on earth, claiming to be civilized, could match. An intelligent and independent-minded woman was harassed and insulted for eight long years simply because she was intelligent and independent-minded. Undoubtedly, it all served as an effective warning that the Barbara Bush image, the smiling granny serving cookies and milk while overseeing ghost-written books about her dog Fluffy is the preferred one for the White House.

In a very real sense, Elizabeth Dole, who did make a weak attempt at the Republican nomination, despite the benefit of a syrupy Southern accent, was never a serious candidate. Comments on Ms. Dole's abilities, reported in the mainstream press, included her skill at descending from a podium and the fact that her shoes coordinated with décor.

She was always a weak candidate, having held appointed offices, with no genuine experience in politics, and someone who long played public cheerleader to her morose and plodding husband's political fortunes (some would say that alone disqualified her), a gracious man who returned the favor by publicly disparaging her campaign early on (What else does one expect from someone who actually bawled at Richard Nixon's burial?).

The strong, lingering smell of anti-feminism in America, kept alive by people who believe we should be guided by principles that predate the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, certainly helps explain why the most capable women don't run. Christine Whitman, former governor of New Jersey, is an outstanding example, now safely tucked into a lesser cabinet post (lesser as far as the Bush Boys are concerned - after all, what's the environment but a name for a photo-op?) where she is free to say virtually nothing - a very dynamic governor, whether you agree with all her policies or not, reduced to a cipher.

Perhaps, "can't run" is the more appropriate expression, since money, steam-shovels full of it, from private sources drives the entire American political engine. George Bush provided the definitive proof that a candidate most people never heard of and who had never taken any interest in national policy can win, provided only he started his journey through the primary campaigns with $70 million stuffed in his pockets and received frequent top-ups as he glutted the airwaves with numbing pictures of vacuous benignity. The sources of this money still do not see fit to trust women with command over resources in business, so it is not surprising they do not trust them with command over resources in politics.

Something is very wrong with national politics when a country of America's stature can't come up with a better choice than George Bush or Al Gore (incidentally, has anybody noticed the increased role of inheritance in the great republic?). America's rotten system for financing elections is at the heart of the matter. What other nation holds to a mindless equivalency between money and free speech? Presumably, if you pushed this legalistic, anti-democratic notion to its limit, big-money contributors would be entitled to do all the speaking in elections. Everyone would still have a vote, but only those with money could talk to them. George Bush's campaign hinted strongly at the future possibility.

The party system is also at fault here. Despite the countless chamber-of-commerce testimonials we hear about free enterprise in America, it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone to institute it into politics. We have a virtual monopoly situation (actually, what economists call a duopoly) with two parties using countless dodges, gimmicks, and unfair rules to keep out competitors. Just a little room is left around the edges of all the high barriers to entry so that some suggestion of a free market is maintained, much the way small independent bottlers of soda receive a few square feet out of an entire aisle dedicated to Coke and Pepsi products in a supermarket. The restrictions against a third-party candidate's even getting on the ballots of all fifty states would fill a book.

New parties bring new ideas and new blood. Why does anyone believe that two parties are any more capable of this than if there were only two banks doing all financial transactions? Republicans in particular love to blather about "creative destruction" in the economy. Did it ever occur to them that the same Schumpeterian principle applies to institutions like political parties? The national parties have crotchety old establishments that do not contain many women or other fresh-thinking people in influential positions.

Methods of national debate also are part of the problem. So long as argumentative nonsense is regarded as debate, an immature and intellectually-dull national politics will continue. Negative advertising is only a small part of this phenomenon. Many talented people are repulsed at entering a contest where lung-power and attitudes play a far greater role than ideas or wisdom. This was certainly the case for General Powell, and I suspect former Governor Whitman. One could make a joke about this form of debate appealing more to hormone-driven males than thoughtful women, but in fact it does not appeal to the thoughtful of either ***. Yet it dominates American politics, just as dominates the airwaves with public affairs programs that don't inform.

Change in the way America does the business of politics offers the best chance for escape from the intellectual and moral sinkhole represented by the Bush administration. Such change would bring more excellent people forward, and I have no doubt that at least half of them would be women. And America would take a big step forward in its promise to be a democratic society, rather than one run by money with a semblance of democratic institutions. But in saying these things, I fear I may be pointing towards solutions whose very impossibility now leaves a sense of a settled and depressing fate

My best friend

Probably my best friend is one of my schoolmates. Her name is ..... and we have known each other since we were ...... years old. If I were to describe how she looks, I would say she is very pretty. She has short brown hair, brown almond-shaped eyes, a small nose and a small pointed chin. She is not very tall but not short either and she is quite slim. She doesn't like to dress up so I usually see her wearing jeans and a T-shirt or sweater.

It seems like she and I are always talking or laughing about something. She has a very nice personality and a wonderful sense of humor, but she can also get a little depressed from time to time. I can always count on her to be honest and to give me the best advice.

We are interested in many of the same hobbies. We both enjoy music, playing the guitar and singing. We like going to the cinema but sometimes can't agree on which movie to see. Sometimes we just walk around, trying to find a new area of the city to explore. We both like traveling, reading, and swimming. Sometimes during the summer, I go with her and her family to their summer house which is located next to a large lake. We usually spend most of the day swimming or exploring the area but sometimes we take a small row boat and go fishing. In the evenings, we might walk into town and see a movie or stay at home and watch television. Whatever we're doing, it's always fun to be with her.

I know I can rely on her. Even when our lives get busy, we still make time to see each other. I can't imagine going to school and not having her there. Since I am better in math and science and she is better in English and languages, we can always help each other if we get confused about a difficult homework and assignments. We are lucky that we complement each other so well, and that we get along so well. I hope that our friendship will continue and be just as strong after we graduate from high school. We would like to study at the same university.

برامج الواقع في التلفزيون
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people instead of professional actors. Although the genre has existed in some form or another since the early years of television, the term "reality television" is most commonly used to describe programs produced since 2000. Documentaries and nonfictional programming such as the news and sports shows are usually not classified as reality shows.

Reality television covers a wide range of programming formats, from game or quiz shows which resemble the frantic, often demeaning shows produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s (a modern example is Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big Brother.

Critics say that the term "reality television" is somewhat of a misnomer. Such shows frequently portray a modified and highly influenced form of reality, with participants put in exotic locations or abnormal situations, sometimes coached to act in certain ways by off-screen handlers, and with events on screen sometimes manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques.

Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the 1940s. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt's Candid Camera, (based on his previous 1947 radio show, Candid Microphone), broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks. It has been called the "granddaddy of the reality TV genre." [1] Debuting in the 1950s, game shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences, involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes. In 1948, talent search shows Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting. The Miss America Pageant, first broadcast in 1954, was a competition where the winner achieved status as a national celebrity.[2]

The radio series Nightwatch (1954-1955), which tape-recorded the daily activities of Culver City, California police officers, also helped pave the way for reality television.

First broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1964, the Granada Television series Seven Up!, broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary seven-year olds from a broad cross section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, a film documented the life of the same individuals in the intervening years, titled Seven Plus Seven, 21 Up, etc. The series was structured simply as a series of interviews with no element of plot. However, it did convey the individuals' character development over time.

The first reality show in the modern sense was the 12-part 1973 PBS series An American Family, which showed a nuclear family going through a divorce. In 1974 a counterpart program, The Family, was made in the UK, following the working class Wilkins family of Reading. In 1992, Australia saw Sylvania Waters, about the nouveau riche Baker-Donaher family of Sydney. All three shows attracted their share of controversy.

Some talk shows, most notably The Jerry Springer Show, which debuted in 1991, try to present real-life drama within the talk show format by hosting guests likely to conflict on the set
Reality television as it is currently understood, though, can be traced directly to several television shows that began in the late 1980s and 1990s. COPS, which first aired in the spring of 1989, showed police officers on duty apprehending criminals; it introduced the camcorder look and cinéma vérité feel of much of later reality television. Nummer 28, which aired on Dutch television in 1991, originated the concept of putting strangers together in the same environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued. It also pioneered many of the stylistic conventions that have since become standard in reality television shows, including a heavy use of soundtrack music and the interspersing of events on screen with after-the-fact "confessionals" recorded by cast members, that serve as narration. One year later, the same concept was used by MTV in their new series The Real World; Nummer 28 creator Erik Latour has long claimed that The Real World was directly inspired by his show. Changing Rooms, a British TV show that began in 1996, showed couples redecorating each others' houses, and was the first reality show with a self-improvement or makeover theme. The Swedish TV show Expedition Robinson, created by TV producer Charlie Parsons, which first aired in 1997 (and was later produced in a large number of other countries as Survivor), added to the Nummer 28/Real World template the idea of competition and elimination, in which cast members/contestants battled against each other and were removed from the show until only one winner remained.

أدمان النت
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is a theorized disorder originally made as a satirical hoax[1] by Ivan Goldberg, M.D., in 1995. It is compared to pathological gambling as diagnosed by the DSM-IV. Dr. Goldberg, along with Kimberly Young, Psy. D. are currently lobbying for the inclusion of IAD into the DSM-V, the next edition of the DSM, which would open the doors for insurance companies to pay out for Internet addiction counseling. However many others argue that IAD is not an actual disorder and should not be classified as a mental disorder in DSM-V.

In June 2007, the American Medical Association declined to recommend to the American Psychiatric Association that they include IAD as a formal diagnosis in the 2012 edition of the DSM.[2] Instead, their toned-down response recommended further research of "video game overuse."[3] Members of the American Society of Addiction Medicine opposed calling overuse of Internet and video games a true addiction.[4] Among the necessary research is a way to define "overuse" and a way to differentiate an "internet addiction" from obsession, self-medication for depression or other disorders, and compulsion.

A pattern of Internet use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress as manifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring at any time in the same 12-month period:

Tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
A need for markedly increased amounts of time on Internet to achieve satisfaction.
Markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of time on Internet.
Withdrawal, as manifested by either A or B below:
(A) the characteristic withdrawal syndrome, 1, 2 and 3 below
Cessation of (or reduction in) Internet use that has been heavy and prolonged.
Two (or more) of the following, developing within several days to a month after Criterion:
(a) psychomotor agitation
(b) anxiety
(c) obsessive thinking about what is happening on the Internet
(d) fantasies or dreams about the Internet
(e) voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers
The symptoms in Criterion 2 cause distress or impairment in social, occupational or another important area of functioning
(B) Use of Internet or a similar on-line service is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Internet is accessed more often or for longer periods of time than was intended, causing the untreated addict to neglect responsibilities at work and the needs of the family at home.
There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control Internet use.
A great deal of time is spent in activities related to Internet use (for example, buying Internet books, trying out new WWW browsers, researching Internet vendors, organizing files of downloaded materials).
Frequent talks about the Internet in daily life.
Important family, social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced in duration and/or frequency because of Internet use.
Internet use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical, family, social, occupational, or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by Internet use (for example, sleep deprivation, marital difficulties, lateness for early morning appointments, neglect of occupational duties, or feelings of abandonment in significant others).
It should be noted however that these criteria were originally posted as a joke by Ivan Goldberg on www.psycom.net as a parody of the strict format of the DSM, Goldberg did not actually believe that IAD existed. Subsequent researchers such as Kimberly Young, Mark Griffiths and John Charlton have investigated the idea of IAD further and attempted to create more accurate diagnostic criteria for Internet Addiction Disorder

التأمين الطبي
Health insurance is a type of insurance whereby the insurer pays the medical costs of the insured if the insured becomes sick due to covered causes, or due to accidents. The insurer may be a private organization or a government agency. Market-based health care systems such as that in the United States rely primarily on private health insurance.
The concept of health insurance was proposed in 1694 by Hugh the Elder Chamberlen from the Peter Chamberlen family. In the late 19th century, early health insurance was actually disability insurance, in the sense that it covered only the cost of emergency care for injuries that could lead to a disability[citation needed]. This payment model continued until the start of the 20th century in some jurisdictions (like California), where all laws regulating health insurance actually referred to disability insurance.[1] Patients were expected to pay all other health care costs out of their own pockets, under what is known as the fee-for-service business model. During the middle to late 20th century, traditional disability insurance evolved into modern health insurance programs. Today, most comprehensive private health insurance programs cover the cost of routine, preventive, and emergency health care procedures, and also most prescription drugs, but this was not always the case

A Health insurance policy is an annually renewable contract between an insurance company and an individual. With health insurance claims, the individual policy-holder pays a deductible plus copayment (for instance, a hospital stay might require the first $1000 of fees to be paid by the policy-holder plus $100 per night stayed in hospital). Usually there is a maximum out-of-pocket payment for any single year, and there can be a lifetime maximum.

Prescription drug plans are a form of insurance offered through many employer benefit plans in the U.S., where the patient pays a copayment and the prescription drug insurance pays the rest.

Some health care providers will agree to bill the insurance company if patients are willing to sign an agreement that they will be responsible for the amount that the insurance company doesn't pay, as the insurance company pays according to "reasonable" or "customary" charges, which may be less than the provider's usual fee. The "reasonable" and "customary" charges can vary.

Health insurance companies also often have a network of providers who agree to accept the reasonable and customary fee and waive the remainder. It will generally cost the patient less to use an in-network provider.

عجائب الدنيا السبعة
The 'Seven Wonders of the World' (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a widely-known list of seven remarkable manmade constructions of classical antiquity. It was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. Later lists include those for the Medieval World and the Modern World

Seven Wonders lists about the Middle Ages are existing historical lists for which there is no unanimity of opinion about origin, content or name.[1] These historical lists go by names such as "Wonders of the Middle Ages" (implying no specific limitation to seven), "Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages", "Medieval Mind" and "Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages". The lists are more properly seen as a continuing type or genre in the Seven Wonders tradition than a specific list.

It is unlikely the lists originated in the Middle Ages. Brewer's calls them "later list[s]"[2] suggesting the lists were created after the Middle Ages. This is supported because the word medieval was not even invented until the Enlightenment-era, and the concept of a "Middle Age" did not become popular until the 16th century. Further, the Romanticism movement glorified all things related to the Middle Ages, or more specifically anything pre-Enlightenment era, suggesting such lists would have found a popular audience in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some items found on some of the lists are not technically from the Middle Ages (according to modern historical standards), but we know the lists were not created by modern medieval historians, so such standards did not apply.

Typically representative of the seven:[1][3][4][2]

Stonehenge
Colosseum
Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
Great Wall of China
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
Hagia Sophia
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Other sites that have been mentioned include:

Taj Mahal[5]
Cairo Citadel[6]
Ely Cathedral[7]
Cluny Abbey[8]

In the tradition of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, many other lists of wonders have been proposed, including both human feats of engineering and wonders of Nature. However, these lists are rather informal, and there is no consensus on any particular list.


Modern wonders
******* Tunnel
CN Tower
Empire State Building
Golden Gate Bridge
Itaipu Dam
Delta Works
Panama Canal
Tourist travel wonders
Noted travel writer Howard Hillman has compiled lists of the top man-made[10] and natural[11] tourist travel wonders of the world:


Man-made travel wonders of the world
Great Pyramids of Giza
Great Wall of China
Taj Mahal
Machu Picchu
Bali
Angkor Wat
Forbidden City
Bagan Temples & Pagodas
Karnak Temple
Teotihuacán

Natural travel wonders of the world
Serengeti Migration
Galápagos Islands
Grand Canyon
Iguazu Falls
Amazon Rainforest
Ngorongoro Crater
Great Barrier Reef
Victoria Falls
Bora Bora
Cappadocia

Natural wonders
Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, as there has been debate over how large the list should be. One of the many lists was compiled by CNN:[12]

Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
Mount Everest
Polar Aurora
Parícutin volcano
Victoria Falls

Underwater wonders
This list of underwater wonders is of unknown origin but has been repeated sufficiently often to acquire a degree of notability:[13] [14]

Palau
Belize Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Deep-Sea Vents
Galapagos Islands
Lake Baikal
Northern Red Sea

My Favorite Movie
My favorite movie is....., can I get back to you on that?

It's not that I don't know what my favorite movie is. That would be silly. No, I'm sure I can come up with one. Let's see. It's probably a comedy, because I generally like comedies more. I made a life decision long ago that I was generally pro-comedy.

It might be Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie more than any other. Except possibly for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but we don't need to get into that. I've seen Holy Grail hundreds of times, and I've worn out more than one videotape. But really, I've seen it so often that I don't have any need to see it again. So I don't see how it can be my favorite, really. I mean, yes, I've basically memorized it. But on the other hand, that means that I can just watch it in my head, and if it's a movie I never watch, is it my favorite?

As a side note, I don't go around quoting Monty Python everywhere I go. I used to, but I got over that, because I didn't want to be, you know, that guy. Actually, I still do a lot of Python quotes, but they're obscure ones and I try to make them unnoticeable. They're like a delightful surprise for people who have wasted as much of their lives as me.

So now I'm looking at my dvds, trying to decide which is my favorite. It might be Aliens. That's a great movie. Between it and Highlander, I've quoted my way through an awful lot of role-playing games. (That's right, ladies: Monty Python and role-playing games. I promise I'll get more highbrow tomorrow.)

Boy, this is hard. I don't understand how people do it. Some people can just rattle off their favorite food, color, and member of the Brady Bunch, but I don't seem to have ranked my tastes that way. I'm going to try to convince myself that means I'm complex and mysterious.

Oh! It could be His Girl Friday. Every time I watch it, I want to go find people and drag them over and start explaining how great this movie is. Sometimes I even go through with it, which doesn't always work. Apparently, not everybody appreciates great cinema. Or possibly they don't appreciate me nudging them in the ribs saying "Hah? Brilliant!" every few minutes. Either way, while it's worked a few times, introducing people to His Girl Friday has been more a tentative goal than an actual achievement.

I'm running through the rest of the alphabet, and there are a few good nominations. I have an irrational attachment to Kill and Kill Again, but I wouldn't say it was my "favorite." Maybe my "favorite martial arts movie set in South Africa." The Muppet Movie? Mmmmaybe. Popeye? Possibly, but it's right there on the shelf next to The Princess Bride, which is also a good choice.

Yaah, so I don't know. My favorite movie is probably His Girl Friday. Or maybe Help! which I've just noticed I don't even own. What's up with that?


Country Life versus City Life

Have you ever wondered how people live in ithe country versus how people live in the city? The country lifestyle and the city lifestyle have a lot of differences, so I saw them as work,. Let me tell about these The first difference is work. Both of them people usually work , but how they work different . To begin with, farmers work outside and harvest. Employee of the company work inside and work on machine. Second, the country has small markets and the city has big markets. The third way, is the people in country don't need more money. Everytime, they need to buy something , they can trade each other such as rice,potato.etc...But the people in the city make more money because they need more thing such as food, fish,etc... Some people argue that city life is better than country life. However, the authenticity of this statement is dubious. The interpretation of this statement maybe entirely biased depending on the individual. Not everyone suited to the city life and not everyone has the desire to reside permanently in the countryside. You may prefer to be better suited to one type of lifestyle than that of another. Even so, one cannot possibly make a general claim that city life is better than country life. It is really ones perspective whether city life is better than country life. Everyone has unique differences and requirements. Therefore, the better life would have to be the lifestyle that caters for ones necessities.


A dream that i had

yesterday i dreamt that i was in a big house with full of children and toys. i was very happy because the children were all around me and hugging me. Then, i told them to go to the back yard, so we can play with the sand. so, we went outside and we all happy playing with each other. then, suddenly the water sprinkler was on, and we all got wet. then, suddenly i felt something itching on my back. when i asked one of the children to see what's on my back, he replied that i have wings on my back!!
then, i found myself flying through the blue beautiful sky with the children too.

i woke up feeling great and weird at the same time because of my bizzare dream that i had.
معليش ترا الحلم من عقلي

أحترام ألأديان
Should We Respect Religion? Does Religion Deserve Respect?

Religious Believers Demanding Respect:
An increasing source of conflict in the world today is centered around religious believers’ demands for respect. Muslims demand “respect” that would forbid criticism, satire, or mocking of their religion. Christians demand “respect” that would amount to something very similar. Nonbelievers are caught in a bind when it’s not clear what “respect” is supposed to entail and how it is supposed to be achieved. If respect is so important to believers, they need to be clear about what they want.
Respect vs. Tolerance:
Sometimes, a person who wants respect is simply asking for tolerance. The minimal definition of tolerance is a state where one has the power to punish, restrict, or make something difficult but consciously chooses not to. Thus I may tolerate the barking of a dog even if I have the ability to stop it. When it comes to non-violent, consensual behavior, religious believers’ demand for tolerance is usually reasonable and should be granted. It’s rare, though, that this is all that is desired.
Going Beyond Tolerance:
Respect and tolerance are not synonyms; tolerance is a very minimalist attitude whereas respect involves something more active and positive. You can think very negatively about something you tolerate, but there is something contradictory about thinking very negatively about the exact same thing you are also respecting. Thus, at the very least, respect requires that one have have positive thoughts, impressions, or emotions when it comes to the religion in question. This isn’t always reasonable.

Should Beliefs Be Respected?:
There seems to be a popular impression that beliefs deserve automatic respect, and therefore that religious beliefs should be respected. Why? Should we respect racism or Nazism? Of course not. Beliefs don’t merit automatic respect because some beliefs are immoral, evil, or just plain stupid. Beliefs may be able to earn a person’s respect, but it’s an abdication of moral and intellectual responsibility to automatically accord the same respect to all beliefs.
Should the Right to Believe be Respected?:
Just because a belief is immoral or stupid doesn’t mean that there is no right to believe it. Belief may be unwise or irrational, but a right to belief must cover such beliefs if it’s to have any meaning at all. Therefore, a person’s right to believe things and to hold their religious beliefs must be respected. Having a right to a belief, however, is not the same as having a right to not hear criticism of that belief. The right to criticize has the same basis as the right to believe.
Should Believers Be Respected?:
Although beliefs must earn respect and should not receive automatic respect, the same is not true of people. Every human being deserves some basic minimum of respect right from the beginning, regardless of what they believe. Their actions and beliefs may lead to greater respect over time, or they may strain your ability to maintain that minimum. A person is not the same as what that person believes; respect or lack thereof for one should not lead to the exact same for the other.
Respect vs. Deference:
The most significant problem with believers’ demands for respect for their religions and/or religious beliefs is that “respect” too often amounts to “deference.” Deferring to religion or religious beliefs means according them a privileged status — something understandable for believers, but not something which can be demanded from nonbelievers. Religious beliefs merit no more deference than any other claims and religions do not merit deference from nonbelievers.
How Religion Can and Should Be Respected:
The increasingly raucous demands from religious believers that their religions be accorded more “respect” in the public square and from non-adherents is a sign that something very serious is going on — but what, exactly? Believers apparently feel that they are being slighted and insulted in a significant manner, but is this true, or is it instead a case of mutual misunderstanding? It may be that both are occurring at various times, but we won’t get to the root of the problem without being clear about our terminology — and this means that religious believers must make it clear what sort of “respect” they are asking for.
In many instances, we’ll find that religious believers are not asking for something appropriate — they are asking for deference, positive thoughts, and privileges for themselves, their beliefs, and their religions. Rarely, if ever, are such things justified. In other instances, we may find that they aren’t being accorded the basic tolerance and respect which they deserve as human beings, and they are justified in speaking out.

Respecting religion, religious beliefs, and religious believers does not and cannot include treating them with kid gloves. If believers want respect, then they must be treated as adults who are responsible and culpable for what they assert — for better and for worse. This means that their claims should be treated seriously with substantive responses and critiques, if criticism is warranted. If believers are willing to present their position in a rational, coherent manner, then they deserve a rational and coherent response — including critical responses. If they are unwilling or unable to present their views in a rational and coherent manner, then they should anticipate being dismissed with little afterthought.

Ramdan, the ninth month of the Islamic year, is a holy month of fasting ordained by
the Koran for all adult Muslims . According to the Koran, the fast of Ramadan has been
instituted so that believers will become more pieous. This particular month was designated
because it was the month during which Muhammad received the first of the Koran's
revelations.
The fast during Ramadan begins each day at dawn and ends immediately at sunset. During the
fast Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink, or smoke. Before going to sleep each night, special
congregational prayers are offered in which long passages of the Koran are read. The night
between the 26th and 27th days of Ramadan, the night of the first revaltion, is called the Night of
Determination, during which God determines the course of the world for the following year. The
day after the end of Ramadan is called the Fast-Breaking and is celebrated with special prayers
and festivities.




This marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting, and is a festival of great celebration. In Islamic countries it is a public holiday. The first Eid was celebrated in 624 CE by the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) with his friends and relatives.

Muslims are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking Allah for the help and strength that he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control.

The festival begins when the first sight of the new moon is seen in the sky.

Muslims in most countries rely on news of an official sighting, rather than looking at the sky themselves.

Eid ul Fitr is very much a community festival and people go out into the streets to exchange greetings, and visit friends and relatives.

The celebratory atmosphere is increased by everyone wearing best or new clothes, and decorating their homes. There are special services out of doors and in Mosques, processions through the streets, and of course, a special celebratory meal?eaten during daytime, the first daytime meal Muslims will have had in a month.

Eid is also a time of forgiveness, and making amends.

Eid ul Adha (10 Dhul-Hijja)
The Festival of sacrifice which marks the end of the Hajj or holy pilgrimage, which is one of the 5 pillars of Islam, however it is celebrated by all Muslims, not just those who are on the pilgrimage.

The festival remembers the prophet Ibrahim?s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to. God appeared in a dream to Ibrahim and told

أخطاء الأطباء
Causes of Medical Mistakes
When a medical mistake happens to a patient, the question is always why did it happen. In many cases, the issue is not one of negligence by a doctor or other medical practitioner, but rather a systemic issue. On the other hand, there are many cases of malpractice brought against medical practitioners, alleging various levels of failings. In any case, let us attempt to categorized some of the possible causes of medical mistakes or errors.

Fundamental difficulties in medical care: Providing health care is a difficult undertaking and it is inevitable for some level of mistakes to occur.

Inherent difficulty in balancing the need to double-check to avoid diagnosis errors with the need to avoid over-testing.
Inherent impossibility of doctors, and even specialists, of staying up-to-date for every condition they face in their work.
Inherent impossibility of doctors to give totally accurate medical care when only a brief time is available for appointments for each patient.
General medical industry system problems: The medical industry overall contributes to higher than necessary rates of medical mistakes. Although some errors are unavoidable, the industry could do much better.

Under-funded medical care
Inefficiency leading to poorly used funds
Over-busy doctors and other medical staff
Over-tired doctors from excessive time schedules
Slow adoption of new technologies
Failure to report medical errors for fear of lawsuits, making errors hard to monitor and correct.
Unnecessary medical tests to double and triple-check, from fear of lawsuits
Individual doctor mistakes: Your doctor can obviously make a mistake in various ways.

Simple human mistakes: everyone makes them, even the best doctors.
Doctors who are drunk or on illicit drugs
Poor handwriting: can lead to errors in filling prescriptions or wrong hospital medications or tests.
Poor dosage instructions: difficult to read numbers, such as zeroes and decimal points, can lead to wrong dosages.
Patient mistakes: The patient can contribute to an error occurring in their health care. Patients should view achieving good medical care as something over which they have partial control.

Failure to report symptoms: some patients do not tell the doctor about all their symptoms for various reasons (embarrassment, thinking it will be irrelevant, the doctor didn't specifically ask about it, etc.).
Delay in reporting symptoms: this is a very common human tendency, a form of denial that something is wrong.
Failure to report other medications they are on, either prescription or over-the-counter medications.
Failure to report other alternative medicines they are taking
Non-compliance with treatment plan or medications: over-looked medications, financial troubles, laziness, etc.
Dishonesty of patients: certain hypochondriac and factitious syndromes, desire to obtain restricted drugs, malingering, insurance fraud, getting time off work, etc.
Fear of legal issues: e.g. failure to admit to taking illicit drugs
Fear of social issues: e.g. failure to admit to lifestyle or social habits.
Fear of doctor's scolding: e.g. failure to admit to not following treatments.
Patient pressure: the tendency to push the doctor for certain treatments, such as antibiotics, sleeping pills, or behavioral drugs, even when they may not be in the best interests of health. This creates a conflict between the doctor's desire to give correct medical care and keeping the patient happy.
Failure to read medication labels and instructions fully
Pharmacist mistakes: The dispensing of medications at the pharmacy can be the source of various mistakes.

Wrong medication dispensed
Similarly labeled or packaged medications wrongly given.
Similarly named medications confused (by doctor or pharmacist)
Wrong dosage dispensed
Failure to communicate instructions on taking medication
Pathology laboratory mistakes: The various laboratory tests used for diagnosis (and sometimes treatment planning) can have several types of errors:

Errors in labeling samples: mix-ups in patient samples
Cross-contamination during testing
Inherent known risks in various tests (false positives, false negatives)
Limitations of certain tests for certain patients
Human error in examinating visual slides (e.g. cell biopsy, Pap smears)
Pharmaceutical industry mistakes: The drug industry has contributed to certain medical mistakes such as:

Naming similarities in medication brand names
Inadequate safety testing of some drugs leading to drug withdrawal
Hospital mistakes: The hospital is a large institution that can make numerous types of mistakes.

Nosocomial infections: these are infections that are caught during a hospital stay, either from the environment or from surgery or other treatments.
Surgical mistakes
Errors in transferring and re-labeling medicines into smaller containers
Medication errors: wrong medication, wrong dosage, etc.
Surgical mistakes: Any type of surgical procedure has various risks and there are certain errors that can occur.

Wrong patient surgery
Wrong site surgery: e.g. surgery on the wrong organ.
Failure to suspend other medications before/during/after surgery: e.g. deaths from lactic acidosis due to Metformin usage in surgical recovery.

المشاهير وهوس المعجبون
Celebrity Worship Syndrome is a newly identified psychological condition. A CWS sufferer is a person that is obsessed with a person in the public eye i.e. a celebrity. The condition is sometimes referred to as "Celebrity Obsession Syndrome" or "Mad Icon Disease

Objects of affection
Psychologists have indicated that though many people obsess over glamorous film, television, sport and popstars, others have unlikely icons such as politicians or authors. The only common factor between them is that they are all figures in the public eye i.e. celebrities.


[ Causes of CWS
Social psychologists agree that the reasons are complex. [1] However, some reasons recur.


[ Relationships
Researchers believe that in a media-orientated society, celebrities have taken the place of neighbors, relatives, friends and family for many people. They feel that the respect for family members has been replaced by worship of the famous, as this is the new method of associating with success. In modern cultures, there is less emphasis on the value of experience, but instead knowing the 'secret' of success, and celebrities are seen to hold this, since they often come from mediocrity.


[Clinical component
Researchers also indicate that there is a clear clinical component to behavioral patterns associated with CWS.


[ Darwinian evolution
Research indicate that evolution played a role in CWS.


[ Fan bases
Psychologists feel that fan bases resemble religious cults and can be a cause of CWS, because:

They often organize conventions and recruit new followers.
Fans pursue an interest in one celebrity and denigrate other stars.
Obsession resembles religious worship.
They make sure they watch all appearances made by their celebrity.
They try to collect items touched by their superstar.

[ Three types of CWS
Psychologists in the U.S.A. and UK. created a celebrity worship scale to rate the problems. U.S.A. psychologists Lynn McCutcheon, Rense Lange, and James Houran, (2002) (1)introduced the Celebrity Attitude Scale, a 34 item scales administered to 262 persons living in central Florida. McCutcheon et al (2002) suggested that celebrity worship comprised one dimension in which lower scores on the scale involved individualistic behavior such as watching, listening to, reading and learning about celebrities whilst the higher levels of worship are characterized by empathy, over-identification, and obsession with the celebrity.

However, later research among larger U.K. samples have suggested there are 3 different aspects to celebrity worship; Maltby, and the aforementioned psychologists(2) examined the Celebrity Attitude Scale among 1732 United Kingdom respondents (781 males, 942 females) who were aged between 14 and 62 years and found the following 3 dimensions to celebrity worship:


[Entertainment-social
This dimension comprises attitudes that fans are attracted to a favorite celebrity because of their perceived ability to entertain and become a social focus such as “I love to talk with others who admire my favorite celebrity” and “I like watching and hearing about my favorite celebrity when I am with a large group of people”.


[] Intense-personal
The intense-personal aspect of celebrity worship reflects intensive and compulsive feelings about the celebrity, akin to the obsessional tendencies of fans often referred to in the literature; for example “I share with my favorite celebrity a special bond that cannot be described in words” and “When something bad happens to my favorite celebrity I feel like it happened to me’”.


[ Borderline-pathological
This dimension is typified by uncontrollable behaviors and fantasies regarding scenarios involving their celebrities, such as “I have frequent thoughts about my favorite celebrity, even when I don’t want to” and “my favorite celebrity would immediately come to my rescue if I needed help

الأخلاق
In sociology, manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be cultured, polite, and refined. They are like laws in that they codify or set a standard for human behavior, but they are unlike laws in that there is no formal system for punishing transgressions. They are a kind of norm. What is considered "mannerly" is highly susceptible to change with time, geographical location, social stratum, occasion, and other factors. That manners matter is evidenced by the fact that large books have been written on the subject, advice columns frequently deal with questions of mannerly behavior, and that schools have existed for the sole purpose of teaching manners. A lady is a term frequently used for a woman who follows proper manners; the term gentleman is used as a male counterpart; though these terms are also often used for members of a particular social class.


[edit] Purpose of manners
Manners ease the stress of communal living, and mannerly behavior recognizes the right of others to share communal space. Many of our daily expressions of politeness reflect this function. Saying "excuse me," for example, shows that you recognize that you have invaded another's space, and regret the necessity of doing so. It is a basic tenet in law that it is wrongful to cause damages to another (see norm). Since there cannot be a law for every slight, daily causing of damage to another, manners serve to at least acknowledge, if not make recompense, for the damage. Needless to say, the teaching of good manners should start early in life and show the value of respect and consideration for all parties.


[edit] Miss Manners
One thinker, Judith Martin, (aka Miss Manners -- see Further Reading below) regrets that in recent times the idea that one should be "assertive" has gained currency, holding that being assertive is simply another name for "the Impulse Rude," which is to be resisted at all times. She prefers "the withering look, the insistent and repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command, and the tilted nose." She also rejects the idea that manners is all about making people comfortable, "as if etiquette weren't magnificently capable of being used to make others feel uncomfortable, all in the name of preserving peace in the public arena. Manners are used in life for good people so that other people know that you were raised correctly and that you are civilized."

“ Manners are very important in life. Good ones that is. You can get attention if you use proper etiquette. Politeness is what most guests look for. If your parents raise you correctly, you will probably have fair manners.

كيف تصبح مثقفا
How to Become a Sophisticated Adult
Do you want to be more sophisticated? Here's how.

[edit] StepsBe polite and charming. Being polite and charming is mostly about being aware of your companions and their feelings. Is your dinner companion an avid golfer? Then let him/her discuss golf. Express an interest in the subject. Respond intelligently with whatever knowledge you may have that relates. If you know nothing about golf, let them talk. Human beings like to talk; the best conversationalists let others talk and keep the conversation moving with leading questions and the occasional meaningful, insightful, or witty comment. A leading question is one that "leads" your conversation partner to speak at more length than a simple yes or no answer. Never interrupt and never forcefully assert your knowledge. Being selflessly aware of your companions' interests can give the impression of charm.
Understand etiquette. Etiquette is a system of manners and customs that each individual culture devises. The main purpose of etiquette in most modern cultures is to make those around you more comfortable or at ease. Be careful, however, because etiquette is different in each culture. It's important to study the rules of etiquette that your culture/society has adopted. There are plenty of online resources for that type of research. Use them. Study what is appropriate at various types of social functions, not just at the dinner table. And, when in doubt, ask yourself "What will make my companions more comfortable--behavior A or behavior B?"
Dress well. It's important to know what colors and what clothing styles suit you. By reading fashion magazines, you can get a better understanding of current trends but be wary of being too trendy--you can go broke keeping up with this season's latest. It's better to build your wardrobe on a solid foundation of classics that don't change much from season to season but that can easily be accessorized to keep them current. Do your research and find out what doesn't change much but also works for your personal style and body type. Get the advice of a professional if you don't know.
Know what you're talking about. It's important to be as knowledgeable about as broad a range of subjects as you can be. Read! Read everything, from newspapers to non-fiction books to magazines to scientific journals to literature. Being actually knowledgeable about a subject keeps you from appearing like that know-it-all buffoon who talks too much at parties and doesn't really know much about anything. You know who I mean. You've seen him/her before. Avoid that by actually being knowledgeable and by not speaking up when you don't know anything. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." If you want more specific direction, read up on your friends' interests. At least you'll be able to listen intelligently.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of material that one can read? Start with newspapers. Find a good national or local paper ,preferably one that covers international events. Good magazines like TIME are easy to read and entertaining. If you can't subscribe to a newspaper www.nytimes.com is a good place to start. Here's a secret to coming across as well read - read abridged ( shortened) versions of classics or read book reviews. Book reviews give you enough information to carry on conversations about famous or award winning authors. Find a category of fiction (not romance but historical, sci-fi,classics,etc.) you like and read up at the local library. If the size of books frighten you, read up short stories. Some of the best writers wrote stories a few pages long. I recommend O'Henry very strongly. Don't forget about poetry - start with a poet whose work you studied at school and go on from there. And one more final advice- if you are truly desperate and absolutely can't read the book- see a movie version of it!
Be respectful. First, it's important to respect yourself. Understand your strengths and weaknesses. Learn to appreciate your strengths and forgive your weaknesses while improving those that you can. From this base, you'll have the sensitivity and confidence to be respectful of others' feelings and needs.


البرمجة اللغوية العصبية
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to psychotherapy and a "model of interpersonal communications"[1] based on the subjective study of language, communication and change. It was co-founded by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s as a method of personal development. They developed a set of practices and techniques based on modeling successful psychotherapists of the time. However, its application was not limited to psychotherapy, rather they attended to the patterns of interpersonal communications that could be applied generally. Its theoretical foundations borrowed from a range of disciplines, including various psychological fields, linguistics, cognitive science and occupational therapy. NLP and its many variants are taught through seminars, workshops, books and audio programs. The field is loosely spread and resistant to a single comprehensive definition. There is also a great deal of difference between the depth and breadth of training and standards.

An important assumption of NLP is that emotion, thought and behavior consists of, and is influenced by, how the sensory-specific modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory) are organized and give rise to consciousness.[2] Further, the mode and limits to the underlying mental representations is revealed by unconscious choice of words, sensory-specific predicates (eg. visual language) and non-verbal cues (such as intonation; gesture; posture; facial expression and eye movements). A basic method in NLP involves asking specifying questions to help clarify the intended message in communication. It seeks to recover what has been left out and to reframe faulty thinking when the communication is distorted or over-generalised. These meta-model questions are often combined with suggestions for personal growth and potential.[3] Another technique seeks to alter sensory-specific submodalities (eg. brightness, size or location of visual imagery or sensory representations) to affect the intensity of mental states and affect changes in behavior. A classic format has people anchor resourceful mind-body states (eg. creativity, confidence, etc.) to make them available in situations where a person wants to act differently. Generally, the intent of NLP is to increase choice in the underlying representations so that the individual has more choice and flexibility in the world.

In the early 1980s, NLP was heralded as a important advance in psychotherapy and counseling.[4] Reviews of research in counseling psychology at this time found little empirical support for NLP assumptions or effectiveness in the literature, in particular the claim that matching sensory predicates improves rapport and influence.[5][6] The lack of support in the literature reviews marked a significant decrease in research interest.[7] There has been some ongoing research efforts and pleas for further empirical research.[citation needed] The developers of NLP tend to use analogies to understand and describe their models and tend to rely on intuition, anecdotes and personal experience as evidence as opposed to experimental research. NLP and its related techniques continue to be popular in books and workshops, especially in some areas of psychotherapy, management training, self-help, education and motivational training. NLP is criticized by some evidence based psychologists as a form of New Age psychotherapy that has little, if any, empirical support.[8][9][4]



محاكمة المشاهير
Do Celebrities Get Fair Trials?
Most Americans think celebrities get special treatment in the nation's legal system, but they also believe Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Martha Stewart will get fair trials, an Associated Press poll on celebrity justice found.

Blacks were less confident than whites that Jackson and Bryant will be treated impartially.

Nearly half the people surveyed said they think Stewart will be convicted, while far fewer believe Jackson and Bryant will be found guilty, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

Jackson faces charges that he molested a child. Bryant faces ***ual assault charges in Colorado. Stewart is charged with lying about the sale of stock.

Some 60 percent of people surveyed said celebrities get treated better by the judicial system because they have a lot of money, while 12 percent think they are singled out for prosecution because they are high-profile. Only one-quarter of the public thought celebrities are treated like ordinary citizens.

"They definitely get special treatment," said Jake Minsinger, a 37-year-old welder from Hanover, Pa. "Usually, they're all out on bail. When they show up in court they're well dressed. And instead of a public defender, they have a team of the most expensive lawyers in the country."

Some said they think celebrities have it tougher in the courts.

"I think they get special punishment because they have money and people are jealous of them," said Ruth Gearin, a retiree from Milwaukee. "When they're up, people want to bring them down."

Most in the AP-Ipsos poll were aware of the three high-profile cases. But only one-fifth said they were closely following each of the trials.

Blacks were twice as likely as whites to be paying close attention to the cases against Jackson and Bryant, both of whom are black.

By a 2-to-1 margin, people said they thought the pop star would get a fair trial, and by a 3-to-1 margin they thought the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star and Stewart would get fair trials.

But there were sharp differences between whites and blacks on the question of whether Jackson and Bryant would or would not get fair trials.

Whites thought Jackson would get a fair trial by a 60-30 margin; blacks thought he would not by a 49-38 margin. Whites thought Bryant would get a fair trial by a 76-18 margin. Blacks were more divided; 54 percent said he would get a fair trial and 43 percent said he would not.

The differences in views recall the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The football Hall of Famer was tried and acquitted of the 1994 slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and a friend, Ronald Goldman. A civil jury later held him liable and ordered him to pay the victims' survivors $33.5 million.

The AP-Ipsos poll found 77 percent believe Simpson was guilty. When broken down along racial lines, 82 percent of whites thought he was the killer while only 35 percent of blacks felt that he was the killer. Similar differences in attitudes between whites and blacks were evident at the time of the verdict.

While most in the poll were familiar with the three current cases, many were not that familiar with their details. Still, they had opinions about the outcome.

By a 2-to-1 margin, people thought Jackson would be acquitted, and by a slightly larger margin, they thought Bryant would be acquitted. By 48 percent to 35 percent, people thought Stewart would be convicted.

"I don't think she's very well liked, people probably go harder on her," said Kim Beach, a 39-year-old mother from Roseville, Calif. "She does these things no women can do, and then she says 'Oh, it's just so simple,' and you say, 'No way."'

Even if the three celebrities are convicted, the vast majority of Americans say they will continue watching them and buying their products, the survey found.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken Jan. 9-11 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points .

THE IMPORTANT OF ENGLISH IN THE WORLD AND IN THE COMMUNITY

Frankly speaking, it is highly essential to know the language for communication. In general, the most popular language is English. In this computer age, English is the only language that any one can understand. So to say, it has become as an ideal language for expressing our feelings. First, we have to learn the language and then we have to gain fluency in the language. Unless we have the fluency in English language, it would not be possible to work with the computer. If you do not know English, then you would be in need of a translator to do the job.
The first stage of learning this language would be very interesting. Once you are fluent with the alphabets, slowly you can learn many words. It would always be better to follow the method of reading first, then writing. You can use the picture books for this purpose. When you feel that you are familiar with the words, you can form sentences. This is the most interesting stage to learn. You just think of a sentence in your mother language, and try to write the same sentence in English. There could be some mistakes. But you should not bother about it. But, you have to write the same sentence using many different words till you are satisfied with your sentence. If you follow this way, very soon you can create sentences of your own.
The next step is learning the grammar of the language. It is quite simple and very systematic compared with other languages. There are certain rules and regulations for each and every topic in grammar of this language. As long as you follow the rules and regulations, it would be a difficult task to make mistakes. You would gain that much guidance from the grammar. The presentation is the most important factor in communicating your feelings. So, naturally you must be sure while you are presenting. what you really wish to say. At any point, do not try to write or speak, beyond your capability. Even if it is a small and simple sentence, it would reach the receiver perfectly. This is our basic idea. Slowly, you can improve the standard of your language by practice. If you know to form the sentences, it is more than enough to go deep into the subject. Though this only an article about the importance of the English Language, we have to learn some of the basic points in presenting the sentences. There are three different types of sentences: They are, 1. Statements. 2. Interrogative sentence. 3. Imperative sentence. 4. Exclamatory sentence. To begin with, you must know the difference between a phrase and a sentence.
Phrase is a group of words, which gives meaning, but not complete meaning. A sentence is a group of words, which makes a complete sense.
1. Statement: The sentence starting with nouns or pronouns is known as statement.
Example: Rome is a church city.
2. Interrogative sentence: There are two types of interrogative sentences.
a. “wh” type question. The sentences starting with the following fords are “wh” type question. What, When, Where, Who, How many, How long and etcetera. Example: Why did you come late? 2. What are you doing there?
b. “yes or no” type question. For which sentences you get the reply either with yes or no they are called yes or no type question. Example: Is your father a doctor? The answer: No sir.
3. Imperative sentence: The sentence that gives command, request, and advice is known as Imperative sentence. Example: Walk on the pavement. 2. Eat regularly.
4. Exclamatory sentence: The sentence that expresses the sudden feelings or strong emotions is known as exclamatory sentence.
Example: Alas! He is dead. 2. Oh! What a beautiful sight.
When you are familiar with the above points, it would be very interesting to you to create many wonderful sentences. In general, the sentences are divided into three different kinds. They are, 1. Simple sentence. 2. Compound sentence. 3. Complex sentence.
Though it very essential to have knowledge in handling the above sentences, we have to study them separately. In this essay, we are talking about the importance of the language. Many people make mistakes even with the usage of articles. It is a pity that even scholars may make mistakes. So, you should not get dejected with your style of writing.
There is a lot of difference between these two. 1. a few 2. few When you want to say that you have friends, you have to say that,” I have a few friends.” When you want to say that you do not have friends, you have to say that, “I have few friends.”
This is the opposite meaning of the word, many. Apart from these, there are many points to be discussed later. When you feel that you are already strong on the above subjects, you can develop your knowledge for betterment of your knowledge. As long as you educate yourself, you will come across many new things. There is no end for learning. All the above points are used in the normal usage of English. The literature value of the English Language is entirely different and should be dealt separately

differences between Saudi culture and Egyptian culture in Ramadan.

Ramadan is very important month to Muslims because its a month which they have to fast from sunrise to sunset.
Fasting is the fourth pillar of Islam. Saudis celebrate the month of Ramadan in a special way. During Ramadan Saudis fast for 30 days and offer all-night prayers in the mosques. It is a month of devotion and supplication for Muslims who believe that the gates of heaven are then opened, and all prayers are answered. People stay up all night and sleep after performing their dawn prayers. Ramadan is a season to foster family relations and good neighborliness too. Families break their fasts together, and many special meals are cooked for the occasion like "lokaimat". Restaurants prepare Ramadan dishes and cater to Ramadan timings. Muslims begin their fasts at dawn and eat after sunset. Shops and supermarkets are open all night, and it is the season for shopping, socializing and blessings.
On the other hand, What makes this month different in Egypt? A long time ago, Egyptians adopted certain social habits during this month that are not directly related to religion. Officially, the working hours are diminished to allow more time for prayers. People usually sleep very late and spend considerable time in the mosques. The traditional practice starts immediately after sunset, which is announced to people through all mosques by the ritual "azan", or the call for prayers. Once, beginning in the 16th Century, it was the habit of the Egyptian government to fire a canon which could be heard throughout Cairo to announce end of the daily fast. This loud shot was fired from the Citadel over the "el-Moqattam" mountains. Modern technology has replaced this habit so that now announcements are made on radio and TV."Iftar" is considered the main meal of the day during Ramadan and is often very rich. Any type of food might be served, but traditionally the desert almost always includes "konafa" or "qatayef". The former is a cake-like food made of wheat with considerable sugar, honey, raisins and different types of nuts. The later is almost the same, but takes the shape of a small circular cake, which is folded to include nuts and raisins.
Since Ramadan is considered to be the most joyful month of the whole year, children also have their share of fun. The "fanoos" or lantern is a must for every kid. These are traditionally made of tin and colored glass, with a candle inside. More modern examples are battery operated, but really lack the spirit (though each year there seems to be a trend to see who can produce the most snazzy fanoos). All mosques and streets during the whole month are full of colored lights in a festival fashion, and in the past, children played in the streets with their lanterns, singing "wahawy ya wahawy". This tradition is still practiced, though rarely now in the streets, except in middle class or poor neighborhoods, and in the countryside.More than half of the serials produced by the Egyptian TV are broadcast during Ramadan for the first time. another traditional program is the "fawazeer", which is a daily riddle usually broadcast during a comedy or musical show. The family is usually gathered around the TV for long hours, if they do not go for prayers

eid al fitr
is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Fiṭr means "to break the fast" and therefore symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period. On the day of the celebration, a typical Muslim family is awake very early and then after praying the first normal everyday prayer, is required to eat in a small quantity, symbolizing the end of Ramadan. They then attend special congregational prayers held only for this occasion in mosques, in large open areas, stadiums or arenas. The prayer is generally short, and is followed by a sermon (khuṭba). Worshippers greet and embrace each other in a spirit of peace and love after the congregational prayer. After the special prayers, festivities and merriment are commonly observed with visits to the homes of relatives and friends to thank God for all blessings.
For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyous occasion with important religious significance, celebrating of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory, peace of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims celebrate not only the end of fasting, but also thank God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control. It is a time of giving and sharing, and many Muslims dress in holiday attire

Compare and Contrast Cites where I have Lived



I have opinions of all the places I have lived. Each place has its advantages and disadvantages, and I am not sure if there is any place that really fits me well. In this essay, I will examine the bad and good aspects of some of the places I have lived. Then, I will compare what I consider to be "ideal" conditions with the good aspects of those places where I have lived. Lastly, I will choose the place that I think is best for me.



I was born in Taipei, and I lived there for a great part of my life. I consider it to be my hometown, and I cherish many of the memories I have form there. I like the people and places in Taipei, especially some of its unique characteristics, like the night markets. The pattern of the city is familiar to me, and the streets are always full of people shopping.



Taipei does, however, have some bad aspects. It was a severe air pollution problem, and heavy traffic jams are commonplace. The city just has too many people packed into too little space. Its many buildings are packed closely together, and this just makes the overcrowding problem worse.



After living in Taipei during ny childhood and teenage years, I moved to southern Taiwan to attend college. The town I lived in was much less populated than Taipei, and that was nice. But, it was very hot there and that was a big problem. They also did not have a large shopping center, so buying nice clothes was difficult. I felt like I could not look fine or pretty. Unlike Taipei, this town had no fine restaurants or shops either.



On the good side, this town was wide open. There was lots of space and the natural scenery was just beautiful. Because it was not so crowded, and traffic was not a problem, there was not much pollution either. I like this because it was easier to keep healthy.



When I finished my work at a hospital in Taiwan, I moved to the university of Woollongone, in Australia. I went there to study conversational English. I stayed for four months, but after a while I became very lonely. The territory was very open, I had no friends there, and because of that, I had no social life. Eventually, I had to leave because I could not find a job, and without a job, life for a foreigner was too hard. The one reason I stayed as long as I did was because of all the unique plants and animals native to Australia. I like to see them, and many of them were easy to approach.



Finally, I moved to Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. Of all the places I have lived, I think I like it here the best. It is nice here for several reasons. . Because the population is not too high, there are lots of natural places to visit, lots of job opportunities, and less crowded transportation facilities. I am not sure of all the reasons, but I think life here is just much more exciting.



Richmond does, however, have some problems. My family and best friends are not here so sometimes I get lonely. Also, the television and radio programs and the newspapers are not in my language, and they do not apply to my own culture. Because of this I cannot get news of my own country, and this disturbs me.



After living in all these place, I think I can honestly say which characteristics are most important to me, and which ones are not so important. I have though about this very much, and I now feel like I can rank these things in order from first to last. First of all, I would like to live in a capital city, because it is not boring and I can meet lots of people. This makes me feel needed, and I like that. Secondly, the place I live needs to give me a wide and varied social life, full of activities. I like this because it lets me experience an abundant of interesting life styles. The third condition is an appropriate mix of people and nature. Nature can meet people's spiritual needs only if there is enough of it. If a place is too populated, air, water, and noise population become a problem. Next on the list is a large number of shopping centers. I like to buy nice things, and if there are no shopping centers, it is difficult to find the nice things I want. If I have this things, I think I can be happy. But, it would be nice if the place I live also has a nice climate, lots of job opportunities, and plenty of news about my own culture. If a place has all these characteristics, I think I would love to live there.



So, after living in many places, I think Richmond is the one that best fits me. It meets all of my geographical preferences, and if I had to describe it in one word, I would have to say it's just "wonderful".

The World of Football

He’s at the 20 the 10 touchdown! As you can tell my subject is football, the reason why I picked this subject is because for the last 2 years I’ve always picked basketball as my subject and I decided to do a sport that I also like to play and watch like FOOTBALL. Today I’m going to take you step by step into the wonderful world of football. Football is an exciting team sport played chiefly in the U.S.A and Canada. It’s played by elementary schools, high school, college, and professional teams. Millions of people crowd stadiums each football season to watch their favorite teams. Millions of people also watch it at home. The 2 biggest leagues for football is the (NFL) and the (CFL)

In the United States, 2 teams of 11 players play football on each team. Canadian football teams have 12 players on each team. Each team try’s to score their points by running the ball or passing the ball in order to get a touchdown. During the game possession the ball shifts from team to team. The team with the ball is the offensive team the other team is the defensive team, the defensive team try’s to stoop the offensive team from scoring

A good football team combines strength and speed. Physical contact, especially involving blocking and tackling, is a basic part of football. The game also requires quick reaction and thorough preparation for each game. In addition split second teamwork is necessary in order to have a winning team like the San Francisco 49ers(my favorite team) one of the best team in the (NFL). There are several variation of football one of the two I know is flag football the other is touch football both of those variations eliminate the need for physical violence flag football and touch football are mainly used for elementary and high school programs such as intramural

The uniform means a great deal in football it allows you to take harder blow without being injured or hurt. A player’s uniform is made of cotton and nylon so that the player can move and be flexible so that he can turn those tight turns when he has to. The ball also plays a big role in the game. The ball is an oval shaped ball that has stitching on the side to let the quarterback throw the ball in a spiral so that both the catcher and the quarterback both know where the football is going so that they can make a play and game some yards. Football is a confusing sport and everyday I also learn a new thing about the world of football and so far I told you most of the stuff and maybe next time I’ll know more and this essays will be much longer than this

How to Start a Clothing Store

Are you fashion forward? Do you love working with the public? Then it might just be time for you to marry your fashion sense and your business sense with a retail clothing business.
Opening an apparel store is serious business. For some of you, it may mean giving up the safety of your corporate job with its steady income, paid holidays, vacations and the opportunity for advancement. All this, and guaranteed 12- to 14-hour days. "Running an apparel store is more than a full-time job," stresses Nancy Stanforth, professor of merchandising at Oklahoma State University. "Running an apparel store is something you do all day every day."
Always Room For More

Fortunately, there's always room for the right kind of apparel store. Although you might not guess it by the number of malls and outlet centers cropping up, we're mostly a nation of small, independent merchants. In fact, most retail stores, and that includes apparel stores, are small, both in size and in sales volume, compared to a Gap or Old Navy. The typical apparel store is a small operation, usually run by the owner alone or by a husband-and-wife team.

Here is a handy set of questions that will help you determine whether fashion is indeed your forte.
1. Is this a business in which you have experience? Maybe you've taken those merchandising classes; maybe you've watched your father, mother or grandparents run a business; maybe you spent a summer selling makeup over the counter at Macy's. In any case, your experience and business sense are as important as your interest in clothes.
2. Can you live with the inherent risk in the apparel business? This isn't meant to scare you; we're only trying to present a balanced picture. If you're serious about opening an apparel store, you need to know that, like the restaurant business, the apparel business is risky. You may pour your life savings into a business that goes bust within a year.
"Nothing is sure-fire, and there are risks attached to starting any kind of business," says Fred Derring, president and owner of D.L.S. Outfitters, a New York City-based apparel marketing and consulting company, "but you've really got to love the clothing business because you can make more money doing almost anything else. Even in the restaurant business--if you're successful--you can make more money in five years than you can in 15 years in the apparel business."
3. Do you believe strongly in the apparel industry? On a serious note, you really need to think about why you've decided to open an apparel store vs. a homeopathic pharmacy or an organic grocery store. Whatever your particular fashion passion, it has to be enough to carry you through the yearly holiday rushes as well as the slow summer lulls. It's like marriage: When times get tough, you need to remember why you took those vows in the first place.
4. Is your niche overcrowded or dominated by a few? It doesn't take a Ph.D. to see that the apparel industry is crowded. All you need to do is save all those catalogs stuffed in your mailbox or visit your local mall on the weekend. But there always seems to be room for more, particularly if you're offering consumers something they feel they're lacking.
5. Can you become a specialist? If you're opening an apparel store for the right reasons, you probably think you've got the corner on something someone else in your professional community doesn't. Maybe it's surf clothes; maybe it's chic plus-size fashions; maybe it's leather and jewelry imported from Turkey.
Specializing, or finding your niche in this business, is crucial to your success. And in many cases, all it takes is a little common sense. As Kira Danus, a buyer from D.L.S. Outfitters in New York City, says, "No apparel store should be stocking twill khaki shorts if there's a Gap within 10 miles."
6. Do you have a competitive advantage? In a word, this is called "marketing." For now, hear this collective quote culled from every apparel entrepreneur interviewed for this business guide: "Today the competition isn't two doors down the block; it's at the local mall. People can get everything we sell at their local mall, so we have to set ourselves apart other ways. Pay attention to the demographics in your area, to the location and available foot traffic, to television and movies and what people are wearing on the street."

تعبير عن انقراض الحيوانات

Extinction is the disappearance, brought about by natural or unnatural means, of an entire species.
Some species of plants and animals die out naturally because newer species are more successful at competing for food and living space. Others have become extinct because of changes in the planet or because of natural disasters. Dinosaurs, for example, may have died out because the climate became cooler--maybe because an asteroid collided with the earth and caused a big cloud of dust that blocked out the sun.
In today's world, however, species mostly become extinct or are threatened with extinction because of humans. Humans hunt animals, destroy their habitats, and introduce other animals that prey upon the endangered animals or compete for their resources. Among these factors, the greatest threat to plants and animals is habitat destruction.
It is estimated that about 125 species of birds and 60 species of mammals have become extinct since 1600. Currently, there are approximately 1000-1100 species of birds and mammals that are facing extinction. If invertebrates and plants are included, the total number of species in imminent danger is around 20,000.
Sample these internet activities and complete the tasks for each one to learn about a few of the animals that no longer exist

Learning Math
This essay is about my experience in learning math. I will write about my experience of learning it, my reasons of learning it, my current level and my learning style.


I started learning math when I was 7 years old in elementary school. I studied there numbers, division and add numbers. In fact, my father taught me numbers before I enter school. From year to year, math became difficult but I sill like it. From that time until now I have been studying it. I usually use math skills to count my money, specially when I go to shopping or when I travel to another country.


I have two good reasons to learn math. Firstly, I would like to be chemical engineer which I need math to study chemistry. Secondly, I hope to be manager for a factory which I have to know math skills to count money.

It is so hard to measure my level. However, I can say I am good with matrix problems, root problems and normal math problems, but I am not very well with triangle problems.

I think I am a deductive learner because I prefer to start revising my lessons by looking at rules and then try to solve problems.

what is my favorite holiday?
Chinese New Year

my favorite holiday still was the Chinese New Year I celebrated in China because It was the time for me to achieve my dream in past year and to enjoy the holiday atmosphere.

The Chinese New Year is the time for me to achieve my dream in past year. When I was five years old, both my mother and my father were busy for their jobs, so they sent me to preschool. I had to stay at school six whole day and night and at home only one day and night per week. I
. . .
Finally, I could get much money when I said “Gong Xi Fa Chai” to my relatives and I could buy toys and books I liked in the money. Second, my family, relatives, and friends came together.

The Chinese New Year is the time for me to enjoy the holiday atmosphere. First, Preparations tended to begin a month from the date of the Chinese New Year (similar to a Western Christmas), when people started buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. really missed my parents and felt lonely, so my dream was that I could stay home whole week. I enjoyed the special happy holiday atmosphere. When the Chinese New Year came, my dream came true – I could stay with my family whole two weeks in the coming Chinese New Year, and I felt I am the happiest girl in the world.
In the Chinese New Year, my dream from last year came true, and I enjoyed the holiday atmosphere and plan the new hope for next year. A huge clean-up got underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses were cleaned from top to bottom, to swept away any traces of bad luck, and doors and windowpanes were given a new coat of paint, usually red. What happy time I had? I really like this holiday. We have so many parties to meet together and talk each other. The doors and windows were then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity

The Process of Making Coffee

Coffee is a beverage, which most Americans drink, and the majority of them do not know how coffee is made. The process of making coffee is a complex procedure, which make this beverage rich in flavor. The first step in the process of coffee making is picking up every cherry carefully. The picking of cherries has to be very precise because if the cherry is picked up to early it will lack of essential sweetness, but if the cherry is picked up to late it will be sour. The second step is the process in which they take out all the soft juicy fruit of the cherry and leave the coffee bean pealed. This is called “despulpado.” During this process the coffee is separated the by altitudes, and quality.

The next step to follow is fermentation, in this process they leave the coffee beans in long tanks for the coffee to release all the honey left from the pulp. The third step washing the coffee beans. During this process the beans are placed in large tanks filled with water pressure, which leaves the beans with no honey leftovers. It also separates the coffee beans by quality, the beans that float are the low quality beans and the ones that are in the bottom of the tank are the good quality beans.

During the drying process all the beans are arranged in a patio outdoors, the wind and the sun are in charge of drying the beans. The last step roasting the coffee, in this process is where the roaster will decide the taste of the batch of coffee being roasted. All these steps to follow are the steps coffee beans go through before consumers can actually drink it. It is important to have knowledge of things that are involved in our lives like coffee

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