Electric Bicycles a call to lebanese inventors

I have seen this new bike called the optibike (http://www.optibike.com/). It is a mixed electrical mechanical bicycle. It can combine electric power with pedal power to go very fast. I am thinking that this is the kind of bike that we need in Beirut if bicycle transportation is to become viable. With all the slopes that we have in the country this will make it easier to go up the roads, for example the sessine slope.

One thing that I think the optibike is missing is regenerative braking. I think a bike with such a braking system will utilize the liIon battery to its maximum.

So this is a call to lebanese inventors to come up with a bike that is like the optibike but with the addition of regenerative braking. Once invented we will lobby Parliament for bike lanes all over beirut.

Mining bulletin boards Data

I am wondering what happens to all the data stored in online chat forums and discussion boards. Do you think that they can be mined by companies to produce some important metadata about individuals, trends and policies. Can they be used for artificial intelligence research, for example language processing and "watson" types answer robots. This has already been happening on the web with targeted advertising. For example you read an e-mail about a wedding on gmail and you get an advert about wedding dresses (there are smarter examples, see if you can think of some or remember some that happened to you).

What is different about online discussion board data is that it groups several opinions on a certain topic, exploiting this data could be a topic for an interesting research paper. For example an analysis of the lebanese online forums could reveal what sample of lebanese think about some issues and be used by politicians to target political campains. It could also be used to israelis mossad to identify trends in lebanese thinking. In fact i do think that the mossad is exploiting this data in online forums. At least building profiles of people who use them, same as the CIA is doing with facebook. But for me the biggest potential is in the AI research. All the conversations going on can be exploited by a soficticated computer to simulate intelligence.

Solution for the Housing Problem in Lebanon

I have posted something about this before, but after some thought here's another solution:

We all know the real reason why Lebanese real estate prices have skyrocketed: The Gulf Arabs. Their voracious appetite for Lebanese real estate can only be matched by their appetite for Lebanese women. Therefore a lot of Lebanese have suggested to ban them from buying property in lebanon (which they think solves the problem for real estate at least). This solution however will deprive Lebanon of much needed foreign capital and can cause a real estate burst in Lebanon not unlike the American burst with all its ramifications. Furthermore such a move could affect the Lebanese diaspora in the gulf who would be retaliated against.

Another solution that someone has suggested to me was to put a ceiling on the price of land and houses, so that a landlord can only charge so much for a property he wants to sell. One could see the hand of socialism creeping in here, and the ramification for property rights. Now the solution I will propose will have some socialist feel, but won't be as intrusive as forcing people to sell their land at some fixed price, which would end up benefiting the khaleejis anyway.

The solution would be good old taxes. A progressive tax on all real estate sales so that about 40 percent of the price of a house is paid to the government. With this money the government can build low cost housing for those who can't afford it, and subsidize the old landlords who are renting with the old rent law. The plan would aim to use the money as wisely as possible to make home owners out of most lebanese. With a 40 percent tax, for every 3 houses sold at least 1 house can be given to a lebanese family who can't afford one.

Stormy March

The heaviest storms we have seen so far this year in lebanon. It hailed so much in Antelias that it seemed like it was snowing. We are heading towards the March 14 commemoration with the Hariri movement monopolizing billboards all over the country, with their anti hizballah slogan. The question any reasonable person without amnesia should ask is why haven't they protesting their weapons when they had the majority? Why did they ally themselves with the party in 2005? Why did they reelect Berri in 2009 ?

Books: Pale Blue Dot

I have finished reading my First E-Book. "Pale Blue Dot" by the Late Great Carl Sagan. It was hugely enjoyable. Also reading it on my Sony Ebook reader was a hoot. About the book Sagan a proponent of Space exploration and of SETI ( the search for extraterrestrial life) make a balanced case for why we should explore the solar system and why we should support efforts like SETI. Over all he does agree that man spaced flight has more a political or social than a scientific benefit, with unmanned spaceflight having the most promise. Only one chapter covered SETI though, with a hint at possible alien signals. The book was written in 1993, he covered all NASA space missions util then, so no mention of the much publicized NASA mission to Mars in 1997.

Some things you don't hear often is colonization of asteroids which he supports, and moving asteroids around earth's orbit over which he has many reservations (at least for the short term).

Anyway hugely enjoyable, I recommend it to anyone.


As for the rest of the books I am reading:
I am still struggling with Covey's 8th Habbit which someone gifted me and Herta Muller's Passport. I fail to get excited about Covey's work related self help, although it has some useful tips. As for the Passport its language is too difficult, which is why i have been reading this 93 page book for more than a month now.

I have put Graham's "The intelligent inventor" on the shelf along with the books I have not finished. I won't be reading this until i have finished some other more interesting book.

I am thinking of starting reading a new book that I could get more interested in. I am thinking of starting "Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion" by Jay Heinrichs. This might help me more in online chats, so I will read it very carefully. I have gotten this book a while back. In fact i had ordered in from Libraries Antoine last October and it came early December. As always I will keep you posted with what I read next.

All religions are not the same

This is true, there is a big difference between religions. This is not another anti-islamic rant, but seriously why does islam suck so bad ? Maybe because muhamad liked to fuck 9 year old pussy. I mean seriously how can a muslim accept this ? He was over 50 and she was 9 and he has sex with her, after she had her first period.... WTF.

I think muslims should wake up a bit and adopt a new religion. Why not become buddhists.... Or hell even embrace no religion at all...

I think while most arabs are muslims there will always be backwardness in arabia. this is the truth.

Physics for Future presidents

I have finished reading "Physics for Future Presidents" by Robert Muller. Although this got a rating of 4 at amazon.com and it covers a lot of interesting topics, i found the book to be terribly disappointing. This guy is an american conservative with a political agenda botches the facts and figures throughout his book to advance his goals. Some things advanced are true, like for example the importance of conservation, while some thing are plain false. He makes the claim for example that coal in america will last for a thousand years and in china they will last for 100, while here are the facts from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#Major_coal_producers .

He also advances some thing about global warming that are very sketchy.