Month: June 2007

WiTricity: Wireless Electricity

WiTricity MIT TeamImagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers, and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate.

Well that future could be just around the corner; A team at MIT led by Prof. Marin Soljacic has experimentally demonstrated an important step toward accomplishing this vision of the future, they were able to light a 60W light-bulb from a power source more than 2 meters away, without any physical connection between the source and the appliance.

The MIT team refers to their concept as

Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Moving towards greener computing…

In an initiative to improve computer power use – equivalent to shutting down twenty 500 megawatt coal-fired power plants – Google and Intel have set up the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

The forty starting members, including AMD, Dell, HP, IBM and Sun, hope to better manage power-delivery and power management of computers to achieve this by 2010. Suppliers, businesses and individuals are being asked to join and help save $5.5 billion in energy costs.

Servers and PCs waste lots of power from the moment it enters their power cables. Google’s SVP for operations, Urs Holzle, said: “The average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year – and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs.”

Source: Techworld

Always great to see big companies moving towards providing greener solutions. On an individual level though we can all help by turning off our computers when we’re not actually using them, that saves a lot of energy in itself.

My Top 10 Favourite Tunisian Dishes

I posted a couple of years ago about my 10 favourite dishes, from different origins, but to be honest, no matter how many countries I’ve been to and how many cuisines I’ve tried, I still think that Tunisian cuisine is the best when taken in its entirety.

This is why I thought I’d share with you the list of my top 10 favourite Tunisian dishes.

1. Mloukhia: I personally worship Tunisian Mloukhia, and so do most other Tunisians. It’s the greatest dish created by mankind with a magical taste and smell that enchant your senses.

2. Couscous: Our Tunisian national dish, whether with meat, chicken or fish it’s just perfect. With a cup of fresh Lben on the side, I’d have this meal any day.

3. Nwaser: Another Tunisian delicacy that I love. Its small steamed square-shaped pieces of home-made pasta covered in a delicious tomato-based sauce just take you to another level of food joy.

4. Dwida Mfawwra: Another steamed pasta based meal that I enjoy so much.

5. Njara: A dish from my home city of Bizerte, also steamed pasta based, and very delicous as well.

6. Kleya: Small pieces of meat, liver and whatnot spiced and cooked with some onion and parsley thrown on top. Great dish.

7. Tunisian Pasta: Pasta may have its origins in Italy, just across the mediterranean, but it only lives up to its full potential when cooked in a Tunisian household with our Tunisian tomato sauce.

8. Keftaji: A great Tunisian fast food made of a mix of vegetables, topped with a fried egg. Love it.

9. Leblabi: Another Tunisian fast food; boiled chick peas and bread crumbs, spiced and mixed, very yummy.

10. Blankite Salad: Slices of baguette bread, soaked in a tomato-based sauce, topped with Mechouia Salad, a slice of egg, a slice of cheese and a slice of olive. Amazing.

If you’re ever in Tunisia, you have to try some of the mouth-watering dishes above; you’ll never forget the tasty experience.

My Perfect Tunisian Summer Day

Inspired by an off-topic question posted in one of the comments, I felt like posting what a perfect summer vacation day in Tunisia would be like for me:

– Wake up whenever I feel like it
– Have ftayer (pancakes) for breakfast
– Hit one of the beaches in the North of Tunisia for half a day (Best Places To Swim In Tunisia)
– Go back home for lunch, preferably Macaroni or Couscous
– Rest, watch a movie, take a nap…
– Go out for some ice cream and a walk on La Marsa’s Boulevard
– Have a delicious Bambaloni (Tunisian donut) in Sidi Bou Said
– Meet with some friends and enjoy the evening over a nice cup of tea with pine nuts in the Sidi Chebaane Caf

Do It, Just Don’t Get Caught!

I think one of the biggest problems of the Arab world today is the “Do whatever you want as long as I don’t catch you doing it” mentality and attitude that’s being applied to a wide variety of things we just don’t want to handle.

This problem exists at all levels of our Arab societies, and it’s simply a way of avoiding to face the issues and problems that exist and taking the necessary steps to address or solve them.

An example I’ve seen so many times at the family level: The tough father forbids his son to smoke; but he knows his son is smoking behind his back, he smells the smoke, he finds the traces, his son stinks of smoke; but as long as he doesn’t smoke in front of him and he doesn’t catch him smoking, it’s somehow fine!

Again at the family level: the parents are conservative and don’t want their daughter having any relationships with boys, yet in reality they are more or less sure she has a boyfriend, still it seems to be ok as long as they don’t catch her with him.

At the society and government levels, there are many other examples as well, one of which is homosexuality; As a mainly conservative society, homosexuality is frowned upon in the Arab world, and is even illegal by law in some countries, but the general approach by the society and governments is to ignore it and let gay people do whatever they want as long as they’re not caught doing it.

Prostitution, extremism, bribery, nepotism, and the long list continues, are all other serious issues that are dealt with in the same way in countries around the Arab world.

The same approach is used in so many other places, at so many other levels for so many different issues and problems.

This policy of turning our back on things and acting like they’re not there happening right behind us is surely a failed one, it will only make the situation or problem worse, as we run away from the responsabilities we have, postponing our decisions, and letting our indecision and fear control us.

The fact that a certain issue is a hard one should give us all the more incentive to face it, solve it if it’s a problem, reach a compromise if it’s a sort of conflict, in short find a way to deal with it and move forward.

10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

Another great post on zenhabits, this time about the 10 sins of negative thinking.

The following are 10 thoughts that should trigger an alarm that you’re entering into a negative thinking area:

1. I will be happy once I have _____ (or once I earn $X).
2. I wish I were as ____ as (a celebrity, friend, co-worker).
3. Seeing others becoming successful makes me jealous and resentful.
4. I am a miserable failure

Guess The Movie From The Quotes #2

So let’s give this guessing game another turn…

The following are a number of quotes from a famous and cool movie that has achieved cult film status. See if you can guess the movie from the quotes; should be quite easy for any movie fan.

– I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
– Every day above ground is a good day.
– In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.
– All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one.
– You wanna waste my time? Okay. I call my lawyer. He’s the best lawyer in Miami. He’s such a good lawyer, that by tomorrow morning, you gonna be working in Alaska. So dress warm.
– Say goodnight to the bad guy.
– So you wanna dance, Frank, or do you wanna sit here and have a heart attack?

So did you guess what film these quotes are from?