Archive for February 1st, 2014
Hot posts this week (Jan. 25/2014)
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 1, 2014
Hot posts this week (Jan. 25/2014)
- Social experiment on perception, taste, and priorities: Joshua Bell playing at a metro station in Washington DC
- The Controversy of Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala : “I have been a Mossad agent since 2003″. Part 2
- Last Meal before execution of inmates: In pictures
- Biking in 1895: A list for Don’t, targeting women bikers…
- Lost in recurring night dreams: Wandering around this flat university town…
- Time for Outrage and Indignation! Of the Righteous Kinds: The Giant Triplet of militarism, liberal materialism, institutionalized Terror…
- Bring sleeping bags to these Museums: 8 sites that offer overnights…
- “Did I choose to be a social designer?” And “Did the will and opportunity collide?”
- Best to write in pajama? Part 2
Modern Electricity? Not Edison, but Hassan Kamel Sabbah and Tesla
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 1, 2014
Hasan Kamel Al-Sabbah (in Arabic حسن كامل الصباح) sometimes referred to as Camil A. Sabbah, or the Oriental Edison (August 16, 1895 – March 31, 1935) was an electrical and electronics research engineer, mathematician and inventor.
He was born in Nabatieh, Lebanon. He studied at the American University of Beirut.
In 1916, he joined his military service with the Ottoman army and worked as a telegraph operator
He taught mathematics at Imperial College of Damascus, Syria, and at the American University of Beirut.
The US President acknowledge in a speech his appreciation of Sabbah inventions. About 76 patents in electricity and aviation were registered in 13 countries.
Chicago Westinghouse company, and three German electrical companies confirmed the validity of Sabbah’s inventions and patents
He discovered the processes of nuclear fission
He is the first to invent a powered television by sunlight
In 1927, he joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In 1932, he was named “The youngest genius of the Electrical Association”
In 1921, he traveled to the United States and for a short time studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the University of Illinois in 1923.
In 1923, he entered the vacuum tube section of the Engineering Laboratory of the General Electric Company at Schenectady N.Y. where he was engaged in mathematical and experimental research, principally on rectifiers and inverters.
The scientist Easton declared: “Sabbah was the only one who dared discuss, critic and clarify Einstein theory on general relativity…”
The French scientist Maurice Leplain admitted the genius of Sabbah.
He died in an automobile accident at Lewis near Elizabeth Town, N.Y., and many believe that he was assassinated since he had no visible injuries, falling in a deep ravine.
Hassan wrote to his father lamenting the deep resentment of his scientist colleagues…
He was the nephew of linguist and writer Sheikh Ahmad Rida.
Among the patents were reported innovations in television transmission.[1][2][3][4]
Policeman in Beirut: Photography is “illegal” in Hamra?
Are the latest car explosions and threats to “leaders” launching the security forces into a period of tight control over whatever might be considered as intelligence gathering by the various factions (internally and externally:?
Habib Battah posted in The Beirut Report this January 30, 2014
Cop: [Looking exasperated] “Of course. It is illegal to take photos, not just here, anywhere in Hamra! Even anywhere in Beirut!”
Cop: Yes. It’s a law, I don’t know what it is called! I didn’t say anything after the first or second photo, but then you took two or three! But you seemed like a nice guy so I will let it slide. Just don’t take any more, okay?
Me: Do you know what you are saying? Do you know how many people you need to arrest to enforce this law? Do you know how many buses you need to arrest everyone taking photos today in Hamra or the rest of Beirut?”
Suddenly our conversation is interrupted by a loud police siren.
(The plate actually began with number 1)
I then point to a car with no tail lights, a motorcyclist without a helmet, the traffic lights around us, each one illegally festooned with a flag of a certain Lebanese political party that has claimed this intersection as its territory. See red circles:
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Interrupted panorama shot. I couldn’t get a better one because of the new “law” against photography |
Me: So all this illegal stuff is going on right in front of you, every minute, and you want to stop me for taking a picture of it?
Cop: Listen. [Pulls out tiny folded up piece of paper from his pocket] You see this? It says here my duty today is “traffic management.” I can’t issue tickets until after this shift is over tonight.
(I didn’t think of it at the time, but why then was he trying to arrest me if technically he had no right?)
Cop: Let me tell you a story. Once I stopped this guy who was harassing a woman. He was Syrian, he had no ID papers. I got a phone call from headquarters. They said release him immediately. You see people have “waasta” (connections), there are people you can’t touch.”
I bid the cop farewell, wishing him more success at his job in the future.
Postscript:
Of course, I have been harassed for taking photos before, but ironically the police once actually tried but failed to help.