AL-Mutanabbi

AL-Mutanabbi is one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language. He made more than 326 poems. His poems were about pride in himself, the philosophy of life and praising leaders and kings. Actually, I like this great poet because of his wonderful poems. Indeed, his poems spread in all the Arab world. However, he was simple minded in some situations. For instance, he praised kings to take money and gifts. Believe it or not, he claimed that he was a prophet! Also, he made some poems to insult others by using bad words. Nevertheless, with a good judgment, he was genius even though he made some mistakes. Finally, to err is human.

Ataallh Alatoai

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess player of all time. In fact, when he was fourteen years old, he was the U.S. chess champion. In 1972 he became world champion. Without a doubt, Bobby was a genius, but at the same time he was dumb. To illustrate, he refued to play chess on saturday because he had become a convert to the worldwide church of god. Also, when the september11,2011, attacks occurred, he called it wonderful news, because he was anger of the U.S. government. Indeed, I believe he was very intelligente , but he had a hard life. He died outside the U.S. many people do not like him because al some of his reactions. Consequently, Bobby was very intelligent, but he had problem s in his life.

Van Gogh (1853~1890)

Although I do not know a lot of information or history of art, I would like to go to a museum just to look at pieces of art. Sometimes I went to a museum on the weekend when I felt tired because of exercise. One day, before I went to the National Gallery in Korea to look at Van Gogh's masterpieces with my friend, I searched on the web to learn who he was. He was one of the geniuses in the art field. He was going to be a minister in a church, but he could not; however, he got a mental problem. Moreover, he always had trouble with his family and friends. His mental problem made it hard for him to keep a relationship with other people. When he was ok, he only focused on drawing pictures. One of his stories is that he cut his ear by himself after a controversy with his friend. Finally, he killed himself by gun in 1890. In my opinion, people who are called genius have different thought and ideas; as a result, they always have a problem in relationships with other people and also seem lonely. It makes them "crazy," and changes their life "specially."

Sungu, Kim

Osamu Tezuka(手塚治虫) is a genius in Japan

Osamu Tezuka is the most famous cartoonist in Japan. He made the first animations on TV. The most important and popular character of his is "Mighty Atom" Actually, his main occupation was a doctor. Thus, most of his cartoons related with medical science. He always constructed his cartoons; as a result, he neglected his main work. However, he got a lot of prizes in his life. For example, he got a prize of Mostra Intervazionate d'Arte Cinematografica. Japan is known as the most famous country of cartoons now. I like his cartoons because his stories are really interesting. Some of them are little difficult for me, but his cartoons taught us something important in our lives. Even if he is a doctor that is a valuable occupation from a social point of view, he could become a genius. we can learn that to keep something you like will make us geniuses. Also, having the occupations of great worth to the public are not necessarily important o become geniuses. If I have a chance, I want to become like him.

Akino Iwamoto

Abdullah Alotaibi, Van Gogh.

Van Gogh was a great painter and one of the most effective artists throughout history. Indeed, he painted a lot of famous paintings. His paintings express that he painted when he was sad, but a few of them when he was happy. He coped with a lot of problems, such as losing some jobs; the girl that he loved refused to marry him, so became interested in religion instead of art. He worked as a preacher, but he did not complete it because he seemed depressed. On day, he cut his ear because he wanted to send it to the girl. Also, he shot himself with a gun. In fact, I learned that we can be genius even if we cope with big problems. Also, every genius in the past should have coped with misfortunes.

Akino Iwamoto

I think that there are many controversial and unfair questions in the world. I am a girl,so there are many questions I can answer. For example, "How do you make up your face to be smaller?" I can answer this question completely, however, I think that most men cannot answer this. This question is unfair. I always make up my face, also i am really interested in make-up and things about beauty. On the other hand, men will be able to answer many questions women cannot answer. For example, "How do you go to the market?" most women have a poor sense of direction. However, most men have acquaintances with the place. Also,I think that men are good at spatial things. This question may be an unfair question.

Do you know what the question was in IQ tests?

"George Ade is famous as a
a. baseball player
b. comic artist
c. actor
d. author"

It is unfair to foreigners. I guess that some Americans who do not usually watch television have a question about who George Ade is. But they can guess who he is. Let's take the opposite situation. If the test is made in Korea, one of the questions should be, "Young Sub, ae is famous as a." I know he is famous pitcher in "Korea." He has played in Korea. Is this question fair to Americans? I do not think so. I think that it is reason that Wechsler tried to change the test's form efectively.

Sungu, Kim

Abdullah Alotaibi, The Unfair Question.

I remember one question from when I tested in The Saudi Aramco. The question was, "How old was King Faisal when he was sent by King Abdulaziz to visit the United Kingdom and France at the end of World War1?" The multiple choices were 13, 15, 17, 19 years old. In fact, I thought that 17 or 19 was the best answer. Finally, I chose 19 because I thought that the other answers were unrealistic. After the test finished, I found out 13 was the best answer for the question. I was surprised about this information. I wondered how King Faisal dealt with the countries when he was 13 years old! On the other hand, what was the relationship between the question and the Saudi Aramco program? The question was unfair, because it related for people who read a lot about specific information in history. Furthermore, I did not study this information when I was in a school. Therefore, students should widen their cognitions even if information is not related to their majors.

'

Ataallh Alatoai

When I graduated from high school, I took an important tast in my country. to get the admission in a university. One of the most unfair questions was: when the older arab people describe the desert and said, "like Yebrain sand";What does that mean:
Distress, Breadth, Drouqh, Abounding. In fact, I was surprised About this question, because I did not know any information about Yebrain desert. I believe this question was unfair for two reasons. In the beginning, it required good historical information, but many students do not know any information about this area. In addition, the oldest students just know that question. In fact, those kinds of questions should not be about somethings that were extinct. In short, the above two reasons show why I think that question was unfair.

Cultural Bias in IQ Tests

IQ tests have many questions that are considered culturally biased. For example, I had a look at an Australian test of intelligence, and I found this question: Suppose your brother in his mid-forties dies unexpectedly. Would you attribute his death to: a.God b.Fate c.Germs d.No-one e.someone f.Your brother himself. This question is unfair to many people such as people who believe in God and Godless people. People who believe in God believe that everything in the universe takes place by God's willing. So, they will choose the first answer. On the other side, Godless people may choose the second one. If we turn a blind eye to this problem, we will find another one which is ambiguous. Germs, no-one, someone, brother himself, all of them are possible answers to this question. If I were in the examinee's shoes, this question would confuse me. I wonder why scientists and researchers do not solve this problem. Why do not they make IQ tests without cultural bias?

Welcome to 116!

We are studying intelligence and IQ testing (we studied Bobby Fischer also). Posts done below this were from earlier terms.

Welcome back 115 students!

movie of guy driving in water

Hammad wants to know how people feel about the guy in this movie. I say this should be illegal. But actually it brings up a number of interesting points.

Please feel free to comment! My comment says "CESL" because I had logged in as CESL (I forgot) but actually it's from me! -Tom Leverett

Comparison between book "Rifka" and the movie "Fiddler on the Roof"

I want to compare the book Rifka and the movie Fiddler on the Roof, and I will go over the comparison as points:

* The family in the movie and Rifka's family share their clothes.
* All of them are Jewish.
* The difference between them, the members of the family in the movie father, mother, and five daughters. Rifka's family members are father, mother, daughter, and five brothers.
* The father in the movie has a brother in low in America. The Rifka's father has three sons in America.
* The family in the movie broke the tradition when they danced as group.
* they are -Rifka's family and The family in the movie- persecuted by the army.
* America was their destination.

Khaled
Nov 29, 2010

KAZOO

Yuki Shiozuka

This is a simple instrument which was invented by an
African American. It has been used ceremony such as
annual parties, celebrations, or traditional festivals. The
sound is like birdcalls. To play kazoo is not easy because
you must vibrate air from their lugs. If you require it, you
can play melodiously. Nowadays, kazoo becomes famous,
so you can buy it in gift shops. In terms of price, metallic kazoo is cheaper than wood one. Some
of musicians use it at their concert, and children play it as a toy. Kazoo is not only for traditional
ceremony.

RRJ #1

Playing 'Pong' With the Blink of an Eye
ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2010) — University students have developed a computer game that is operated by eye movements, which could allow people with severe physical disabilities to become 'gamers' for the first time.

Imperial student demonstrates how neurotechnology works. (Credit: Image courtesy of Imperial College London)
The students, from Imperial College London, have adapted an open source game called 'Pong', where a player moves a bat to hit a ball as it bounces around the screen. The adaptation enables the player to move the bat using their eye.
To play the game, the user wears special glasses containing an infrared light and a webcam that records the movement of one eye.
The webcam is linked to a laptop where a computer program syncs the player's eye movements to the game.
The prototype game is very simple but the students believe that the technology behind it could be adapted to create more sophisticated games and applications such as wheelchairs and computer cursors controlled by eye movements.
One of the major benefits of the new technology is that it is inexpensive, using off-the-shelf hardware and costing approximately £25 to make.
Eye movement systems that scientists currently use to study the brain and eye motion cost around £27,000, say the researchers.
Dr Aldo Faisal, the team's supervisor from the Department of Computing and the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, says:
"Remarkably, our undergraduates have created this piece of neurotechnology using bits of kit that you can buy in a shop, such as webcams. The game that they've developed is quite simple, but we think it has enormous potential, particularly because it doesn't need lots of expensive equipment. We hope to eventually make the technology available online so anyone can have a go at creating new applications and games with it and we're optimistic about where this might lead. We hope it could ultimately provide entertainment options for people who have very little movement. In the future, people might be able to blink to turn pages in an electronic book, or switch on their favourite song, with the roll of an eye."
Mr Ian Beer, who is a third year undergraduate from the Department of Computing, adds: "This game is just an early prototype, but we're really excited that from our student project we've managed to come up with something that could ultimately help people who have really limited movement. It would be fantastic to see lots of people across the world creating new games and applications using our software."
Researchers in Dr Faisal's lab are now refining the technology so that it can monitor movements in both eyes. This would enable a user to carry out more complicated tasks such as plotting a journey on screen. This might ultimately allow them to use eye movements to steer a motorised wheelchair.
Student team includes: William Abbot, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Oliver Rogers, Department of Maths and Department of Computing; Tim Treglown, Department of Maths and Department of Computing; Aaron Berk, Department of Computing; Ian Beer, Department of Computing.
A video demonstrating how the computer game works can be downloaded and embedded from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gU8RqttXeo

Xinwu Chen
EAP1
Mar, 30, 2010
Computer engineering
Reference:
ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2010). Imperial College London, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100326101113.htm
Vocabulary:
Neurotechnology: n. one kind of technology of human’s anxiety
Bounces: v. jump
Infrared: n. red light, not by human beings
Prototype: n. example
Sophisticated: adj. not easy
Applications: n. be used
Approximately: adv. almost
Supervisor: n. the worker who is the manager of the other workers
Bioengineering: n. biology engineering
Enormous: adj. huge, large
Optimistic: adj. one kind of human behavior like happy life
Ultimately: adv. finally
Entertainment: n. public shows
Motorized: adj. auto things
Summary:
This article is written about a student group invent a new technology program in the U.K. It’s about a helpful hardware on a glass. You can control the computer with human’s eyes. The student in the group told us, this skill can be used in a lot of ways. On the other hand, this skill is cheaper than another same tech. Because it’s only cost £25, another skill from some sciences has cost £27,000. The students in the group are very happy to be a member, and the y will continue working with this program.
Reaction:
Did you feel very exciting? When I watch the video and the article, I feel good. This article is describe a very famous tech. Think about you can control your computer with your eyes, it’s very fantastic. If I go to the university, I can do the same thing as they did. It’s unbelievable, if you can control computer with your mind. But it’s really true. From this essay, we can see that we don’t have to do something with a lot of money. There is a massage “Just do it!” explained the action, that means do something by my own hands and trust myself can do it.