Moments About Hashim هَاشِم الحَمَد

Double standard?

2012-01-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

Art From Way Back

2011-10-21T12:47:00.000-06:00

These are some of the drawings I did in highschool while I had free time ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10020003@N03/6264754502/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10020003@N03/6264228495/

Ron Paul vs. Media, RT

2011-08-17T06:46:00.001-06:00

Ron Paul does his job in Iowa, and the media cover up begins.

Headline says "All Eyes on Romney, Bachman, Pawlenty." But Ron Paul stuns the experts

Headline says "All Eyes on Romney, Bachman, Pawlenty." But Ron Paul stuns the experts.
Out of 16,892 votes cast in the Iowa Straw Poll last Saturday, Texas Rep. Ron Paul came within 152 votes of upsetting Rep. Michelle Bachman in her own home state. The close call was ignored by the national media. On Sunday, Bachman, who was born in Waterloo, Iowa, appeared on five national news programs carried by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the Fox News Channel. Paul was invited on none. The following day, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty withdrew from the race and was featured by all of the networks all day long. Once more, Ron Paul was ignored....

http://rt.com/news/blogs/contrarian-view/ron-paul-media-cover/

Mainstream media's blackout on Ron Paul

http://rt.com/news/blogs/contrarian-view/ron-paul-media-cover/

Kucinich in Syria: Media Has 'Wrong Picture' of Uprising

2011-06-28T23:27:00.002-06:00

ADAM CLARK ESTES

Dennis Kucinich has scolded the international media for exaggerating the violent protests in Syria, reports the Syrian Arab News Agency. Spotted unexpectedly in a Damascus hotel by a CNN journalist on Monday morning, the Ohio congressman has now said the press is "jumping to conclusions without talking to people and listening to what they want."

Getty/Alex Wong

The purpose of Kucinich's trip is still somewhat clouded with intrigue. We noted earlier how Kucinich has been parroting the points of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in interview with the American press, and his more recent statements to SANA reiterate his commitment to defending Assad:

"There are some who want to give a wrong picture about what is going on in Syria," Kucinich said in a press conference held on Tuesday at the Four Seasons Hotel, adding that things should be left to the Syrian people, government and leadership to decide for themselves the direction and the way to go for democratic changes.
The U.S. Congressman described what is taking place in terms of the meetings of opposition and independent figures who are expressing themselves and their views openly and freely as "a largely positive progress", saying "President Bashar al-Assad cares so much about what is taking place in Syria, which is evident in his effort towards a new Syria and everybody who meets him can be certain of this."
"President al-Assad is highly loved and appreciated by the Syrians," said Kucinich, voicing his belief that people in Syria are seeking a real change which is up to them.

...more of this article on:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/06/kucinich-syria-president-assad-visit/39378/

Noodles and Company

2011-03-23T01:08:00.011-06:00

Things I miss about living in Boulder

#1: Noodles and Company

Noodles and company was first introduced by my friend Adam Krosnowski. The Boulder native restaurant serves mainly noodles of different kinds (American, Asian, Mediterranean). The restaurant had 4 qualities the I liked the most: tasty food, cleanliness and friendly staff. Here are my favorite dishes: Left: The closest Noodles' branch to my apartment in Boulder

INDONESIAN PEANUT SAUTÉ
Spicy peanut sauce and rice noodle stir-fry, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, Asian sprouts, cilantro, crushed peanuts and lime

PENNE ROSA

Spicy tomato cream sauce, penne pasta, mushrooms, tomato, spinach and wine, parmesan or feta

THAI CURRY SOUP
Yellow coconut curry broth, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, tomato, red onion and rice noodles

photo credit: google.com and noodles.com along with food description.

I Guess I Found my Own Hero!

2011-01-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

WIRED.COM: Engineer Bill Baker Is the King of Superstable 150-Story Structures

Seventy feet beneath the Las Vegas strip, in a construction pit that will become the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, Bill Baker is looking for local talent. Baker is the head structural engineer at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the famed building design firm responsible for the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Time Warner Center in New York, and scores of other colossal glass boxes across the globe.

(The article was taken from WIRED MAGAZINE:ISSUE 15:12)

This morning he’s wearing a hard hat and an orange safety vest as he watches a Nevada construction crew at work. He’ll likely draft some of them for his next big project, the multibillion-dollar Crown Las Vegas Resort and Casino. At 1,888 (lucky) feet, it will feature what could be the world’s highest gaming room, 142 stories above the desert floor. Provided, that is, the Federal Aviation Administration will let it scrape the skies so close to the airport.

Baker inspects welds with his fingertips and, not one to suffer waste (even in Vegas), he looks appraisingly at the oversize columns. Then he rests a dusty dress shoe on a pile of rebar and turns to Brian Calley, an engineer at Schuff Steel, with the question that got him up early this morning, a question that’s key to making the steel-framed Crown a reality: “So, what’s the biggest thing you’re working with?” The Crown will use around 72,000 tons of steel, and Baker needs to know that Schuff can handle that kind of metal. At Calley’s answer (16 feet wide by 60 feet long), the bespectacled Baker enthusiastically sticks two thumbs up in the air. The fewer pieces you have to pick up and connect, the faster the building rises. And Baker knows that speed and efficiency will be just as important to getting the Crown off the sketch pad as the schematic itself. “Erection is everything,” he explains. The problem with most ambitious architectural endeavors is that “people don’t figure out the right way to build them when they design them.”

It’s this mind for efficiency that has made the practical Missourian the most important structural engineer in the world. More than the notable projects he has already built — from skyscrapers like the 73-story Tower Palace III in Seoul to the Frank Gehry designed bridge at Millennium Park in Chicago — Baker’s main contribution has been a completely novel way of constructing them. Dubbed the buttressed core, it works like this: Three structural “wings” extend out of a central hub. The wings provide support for the building, and the core keeps the wings firmly anchored so they don’t twist in the wind. The design allows Baker’s buildings to go up tall, fast, and with enough usable floor space to maximize his client’s chances of turning a profit. “It’s not just that Bill is a brilliant engineer — which his buildings are demonstrating,” says Carol Willis, director of theSkyscraper Museum in New York City. “He’s posing new structural approaches rather than reworking old ones, and that’s what it takes to build something unprecedented.”

Baker’s current slate of supertalls — towers that exceed 1,000 feet — is unmatched by any engineer in history. It surpasses even SOM’s own record from the late ’60s and early ’70s, when the firm built the 1,450-foot-tall Sears Towerand the 1,127-foot-tall John Hancock Center within a few years (and 2 miles) of each other. There’s the Crown here in Las Vegas; the 1,361-foot Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago; the 1,820-foot Lotte Super Tower inSeoul, to be completed in 2012; and the queen of them all, the Burj Dubai, in theUnited Arab Emirates. It’s a fantastic spike of a building — soon to be the most desirable address in the Middle East, already the tallest structure of any kind and still rising by a floor every three days to a top-secret height of at least 2,500 feet — more than double the size of the Empire State.

Baker’s ascension — and his buttressed core — comes at the beginning of the supertall era. People, corporations, and even desert city-states with oversize checkbooks and matching egos are racing to conquer their skylines. Most of them call Bill Baker.

Since its founding in 1936, SOM has been the court architect of the global corporation, designing and engineering hundreds of glass-and-steel towers for business districts the world over. For nearly 25 years, it held the crown for the tallest of the tall — until 1998, when the Petronas Towers (1,483 feet) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, squeaked past the Sears by the height of its twin spires.

The ’80s and ’90s were lean years for supertalls, but Baker never stopped “thinking the problem,” to use his favorite phrase. On weekdays, he’d diligently execute his duties as an associate, crunching numbers and working on small aspects of larger projects for the senior engineers. But he spent his Saturdays at the Illinois Institute of Technology — the MIT Media Lab of the tall-building world — studying with his mentor, Myron Goldsmith. Goldsmith had helped develop some structural systems: the tubular, used in the World Trade Center and the John Hancock Center, and its successor, the bundled tube, used in the SearsTower. Together, Goldsmith and Baker studied old supertall schemes and hatched new ones to test their ideas.

Baker rose through the engineering ranks at SOM with a triple threat of skills — uncommon creativity, mathematical mastery, and a quiet salesperson’s flair. He may wear the SOM uniform of a jet-black suit — crisp, elegant, unadorned — but his inner nerd is still easy to spot. Looking like William Hurt with Coke-bottle glasses, Baker carries his paperback-sized HP 48gx graphing calculator everywhere, usually stacked on top of a beat-up Moleskine notebook filled with pencil drawings and formulas. While his architect colleagues may get more of the media spotlight, Baker goes along to pitch clients — just to make sure everyone knows that SOM’s fancy skin comes with the best bones.

On a summer afternoon, sitting in a conference room overlooking a thicket of downtown Manhattan towers, Baker lays out “the tall-building problem”: Stay small, and structure is cheap. But go tall, and a major percentage of your cost goes to a larger and larger framework, just to make sure the thing doesn’t topple over. “And sometimes,” Baker says, “that becomes a hurdle you can’t get over.”

Punching buttons on his calculator, Baker runs the numbers. “The cost per square foot goes up by somewhere between the square and the cube of the height,” he says glumly. “Basically, if you keep the same footprint and make a building twice as tall, the cost of every square foot becomes somewhere between four and eight times as much.” So while someday the height of a building will be limited by the eardrum-rupturing pressure changes in its fast-moving elevators, the current restrictions are the thousand and one ways a skyscraper bleeds money. The first hit comes from the extra tons of steel and concrete necessary to keep it erect. As you increase a building’s height, its bulk becomes a magnet for wind, which can send it toppling to the ground. The second hit comes from the revenue lost during additional construction time. The third hit is from the rentable floor area sacrificed to the extra structure. And finally, when the giant tower is drywalled and ready to use, it’s inevitably too big — because no matter how hot the real estate boom, it’s never easy to hawk millions of square feet at one time. Every developer knows that the Empire StateBuilding sat empty throughout the Depression. Baker likes to describe his favorite clients, the guys who come to him with visions of clouds passing by their windows, as “not normal.”

Like Donald Trump. In early 2001, Trump hired SOM to design the tallest building in the world — 2,000 feet, or about 160 stories. The kickoff meeting was set for the morning of September 11, 2001. Of course, that meeting never happened. The project stalled and was later reworked to become the merely giant 92-story Trump International that’s rising today where the Sun-Times building used to be in Chicago.

But Baker never stopped thinking the 2,000-foot problem. For a proposed 90-story apartment building in Seoul called Tower Palace III, he and then SOM architect Adrian Smith worked up a Y-shaped plan that maximized the number of windows per apartment. Neighbors fought the developers down to a more modest 73 stories, but not before Baker saw something special in that Y: It was really strong. And shockingly light.

Each of the shape’s three “noses” acted as a brace for the other two, so unless the wind was coming from every direction at once, there was always an unstressed segment to anchor it. But at supertall heights, the shape would twist — “like the dickens,” Baker says. Though such motion poses little risk of causing what engineers call the overturning moment (which is exactly what it sounds like), the same can’t be said for stomachs.

High in the air in a gently twisting building, the horizon seesaws. Nausea ensues. Baker worried that this would be a problem — perhaps the problem — for the future of supertalls. The capabilities of steel and concrete are one thing; the constitution of the inner ear is another. But he also saw a solution. If you connected each of the noses to a strong central core, the shape would not torque. Engineers — like astronomers and snowboarders — often get to name their discoveries. Baker called this the buttressed core. And of one thing he was certain: “If somebody really wanted to do the world’s tallest building, this would be the way to go.”

In spring 2003, a pair of developers invited Baker and two of SOM’s managing partners to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The developers worked for a company in Dubai called Emaar, and they wanted to construct the tallest building in the world. Dubai was eager to make its mark, and because its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (known affectionately by locals as Sheikh Mo), supported the project, there would be no litigious neighbors or pesky air traffic controllers to muck things up. “There are some places in the world that are like, Let’s do it, get it done,’” Baker says. “Dubai is one of those places.” Emaar gave SOM two weeks to submit a proposal for a residential building, to be known as the Burj Dubai. The DubaiTower.

Using the apartment building in Seoul as a starting point, Smith sketched a structure that stepped back as it rose, like a spiral staircase. He arranged the wings in a Y. “I knew from Bill that that shape would work well for a supertall,” he says. Smith then rubbed out the sharp edges, replacing them with curved petals, like the flowers of the Arabian Desert. SOM got the job, and the buttressed core would have its day — the Burj would be the tallest building in the world.

The initial scheme was for a building of about 1,800 feet, 317 feet taller than thePetronas Towers. Yet the clients made a request: Overengineer the foundation, just in case we change our minds. Which the clients did. Repeatedly. On trip after trip to Dubai — even after a hole was dug and giant caissons were set 150 feet into the sand, even after the building began to rise, a floor every three days, into the desert haze — the SOM team kept getting the same request: Can you make it taller? They worked the problem in the wind tunnel, adding fins around the perimeter (like dimples on a golf ball) to create surface turbulence and reduce the lateral forces on the building. They worked the problem with concrete specialists, engineering a high-strength mix that could be pumped into the sky, like a giant drip-castle. But one thing needed no tweaking: the buttressed core. It seemed to permit limitless growth.

Most buildings are conceived with a set height, and the engineers work to that height — or whimper as the bankers slice it down. But Baker and his team found themselves testing the Burj to see how much taller it could go. “We didn’t know,” Baker says. “You get up as far as you think you can, and you see where you are, and you say, Oh. We still have some gas left in the tank.’ But no one had ever been where we were.”

The final height of the Burj will remain secret until its completion in 2009. SOM’s managing partner George Efstathiou brags that it’ll be as high as the SearsTower and the Hancock Center stacked on top of each other (about 2,600 feet). Others say it could be taller — more than 3,000 feet. Baker thrills at the growing reality of it, but every once in a while he raps his knuckles on the table. “Quite frankly, I often urged the client to, you know — We can stop here, right?’” Baker says with a chuckle. “But they kept on pushing for taller and taller, and they were looking at me to see when I turned pale — so they’d know where to stop.”

Smith remembers it differently. “Oh, we went beyond when Bill went pale, I can tell you that.”

Weighty mission for scientists: redefine the kilo

2011-01-27T03:35:00.003-07:00

(AFP) – 1 day ago
LONDON — Scientists said Monday they were moving closer to coming up with a non-physical definition of the kilo after discovering the metal artefact used as the international standard had shed a little weight.


The original cylinder of platinum and iridium used as the standard weight for one kilogram

Researchers caution there is still some way to go before their mission is complete, but if successful it would lead to the end of the useful life of the last manufactured object on which fundamental units of measure depend.

At the moment, the international standard for the kilo -- the equivalent of around 2.2 pounds -- is a chunk of metal, under triple lock-and-key in France since 1889.

But scientists became concerned about the cylinder of platinum and iridium housed at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Sevres, near Paris, after discovering it had mysteriously lost a tiny amount of weight.

Experts at the institute revealed in 2007 that the metal chunk is 50 micrograms -- 0.0000017 ounces -- lighter than the average of several dozen copies, meaning it had lost the equivalent of a small grain of sand.

They are now searching for a non-physical way of defining the kilo, which would bring it in line with the six other base units that make up the International System of Units (SI).

The other units are the metre, the second, the ampere, the kelvin, the mole and the candela, and none of them are now based on a physical reference object.

Experiments are focused on establishing a link between mass and the Planck constant, the fundamental unit of measurement in quantum physics, to provide a new definition of the kilo.

Michael Stock, a BIPM scientist who will on Monday discuss the proposed change in London, said the metal chunk, known as the "international prototype", was coming to the end of its useful life.

"Measurements get more and more precise, and precise measurements require well-defined measurement units to express their results," he said.

He added that "our experiments are moving forward, however, it is too early to implement the new definition of the kilogram just yet."

Moments Back Home: Dates

2010-08-31T07:05:00.000-06:00

The Date coming from palm trees has been an essential part of the food of people in the middle east for thousands of years. The Holy Quran explains that Allah gave Mariam PBUH (Virgin Mary ) dates when she was about to give birth to Esa (Jesus) PBUH. The profit Mohammed also mentioned the incredible nutrition values of dates.

When my dad had started building our new house a few years ago, he planted a palm tree. A couple years later it started producing dates. Here's how it looks:

Graduation!

2010-06-26T05:34:00.000-06:00

These photos were taken (by my father) during the graduation ceremony on May-7-2010:

People I Will Miss the Most!

2010-06-07T05:47:00.000-06:00

Shawn Carroll

I still remember talking with Shawn for the first time; it was in the upstairs ITS lab in the Engineering Center. I was working on calculus 3 with some friends of Shawn, and he couldn't resist starting a conversation about professor Adam Norris, the teacher of calculus 3. Since then, we have been seeing each other through my friend Elliott. We went on camping trips, bike rides, random hanging outs in downtown Boulder or Denver and definitely going to restaurants and also eating plenty of food.

Shawn and I

Besides the obvious of being very smart, Shawn is a kind and very thoughtful person. Moreover, he and I have the sane sense of humor. We shared quotes and made fun of own and each other's professors, liked "Role Models" and made plenty of good food together. We also kept each other's deepest secrets. (you know where to go to now!)

Shawn had been the best roommate and one of the best friends I have ever had. We lived together for 2 years. He was always fun to have around.

Elliott Richerson، Moomtaazممتاز!

As far as I remember Elliott was the first American I made friends with in the States. It was during the summer of 2006. I was first to show up to the first calc1 lecture (it always comes down to calculus), Elliott was the second. One time we were standing outside class with our friend Andrew Berg, and being the top 3 students in the class, Elliott was always the top student in calc 1, we had something in common. Elliott suggested going on a bike ride. We kept in touch after the bike ride and after calc 1.

Elliott, me and Shawn

Elliott is my ridiculous friend, genius in MATLAB, talented in guitar playing and very funny. Oh, and has crazy materialism. I had calc 1, 2 and 3 with Elliott and we both got straight A's in them! Elliott, Shawn and I traveled to Las Vegas and Florida together.

David Baker

David and I playing golf frisbee

This is the most random of all. The first time I saw David was at a soccer game. What made me like David the most when I first met him was his ability to listen well. After we got to know each other, we started the habit of hanging out every Friday night. We also ate lunch together between classes when it was nice out. David's family invited me over multiple times to their house for holidays and game nights. Just like I enjoyed having David as a friend, I enjoyed spending time with his parents, brother and sisters.

My dad, David, David's sister (Naomi), David's dad (Steve) and me

David knows a lot about pretty much anything, but more so about computers. Whenever I got stuck on something, I would call him for help. He almost always had a good answer.

The Clements

I think you can get a very good feel of my relationship with the Clements family if you read this post which was posted on their blog a few days ago: http://laughterintheclementhouse.blogspot.com/2010/05/hashim.html

First I would like to introduce to you the Clements family. Mitch is the father, Katie is the mother, Anna is the oldest daughter (about four and a half years old), Josie is the second oldest daughter (about phree years old, as Josie would say is :) ) and little Ruthie, the youngest daughter.

I am going to try not to repeat what Mitch wrote in the family's blog.

Who is this bearded dude with a funky hat? I wondered. And why is he sitting in the first row? For some reason, I thought that bearded guys with funny hats are not to sit in the first row. I am not sure why, but I found myself talking to this guy after a brutal first quiz in statics. We shared our first "miserable experience."

Since then, we have became good study buddies in Sophomore year, which is the year Mitch joined CU. Mitch is the best college student I have ever encountered.

With tougher classes, came longer assignments. That meant more time to be spent with Mitch. Mitch invited me to see his family a few times in Junior year, but in senior year I became a regular. I always liked coming for the Katie's good food, the girls' silliness and a good chat away from school with Mitch and Katie.

I have had many friends and quite a few good friends, but I never seen a person that understood me as well as Mitch did. We literally "did finish each other's" sentences, and know what the other person is thinking with out having to talk it out.

Adam Krosnowski

Adam introduced himself to me in the first week of Spring classes in freshmen year. We were in the same calculus 3 class. He mentioned something about seeing me bike from another class (surveying). Adam and I always did homework together especially in sophomore year. We biked and played soccer some.

Rebecca Cohen

I will always miss biking back from school with Rebecca. It was a chance, at least for me, to unload the stress of school on someone so cheerful and so optimistic about life! Rebecca is my kind, warmhearted and relaxed friend.

I will try to update my blog with interesting things from home!

CU Student -> SABIC Employee

2010-05-04T00:07:00.002-06:00

The weekend before last, I went to SABIC's reentry workshop. The workshop was setup to prepare SABIC's students for going back to Saudi and for working with SABIC. The workshop was held in the Intercontinental in Houston, TX. During the workshop, I had the great honor of meeting the CEO of SABIC, his excellency Mr. Almady. I was further honored by getting picked to sit next to him in the VIP dinner table.

The workshop overall was very useful. I got to meet many of my future colleges and old some friends of mine. I was also recognized for graduating with honors, SABIC gave me a kindle along with certificates and other cool things.

Now that I finished my finals and projects, I am very looking forward to working for SABIC as a civil engineer!

Shaking hand with Mr. Almady

With friends

With manager Swailam Al-Swailam and my friend Maytham Alawami

Being honored...twice!

You can see me in the exact middle of the photo!

Sitting in the VIP table with top management and CEO Mr Almady

Always concentrating

I Start School 1pm

2009-08-16T20:08:00.010-06:00

My Schedule for this coming semester. So far the most seemingly easy semester. Fewer hours and classes than what I usually talke. However, I am taking senior design and an independent study both new to me.

Besides, I would have to sit with the annoying construction managment majors in the class "Construction Equipment and Methods" (of course not all of them are annoying only a couple are not)

Other than that, I am really really excited for school. I can't wait to study (will laugh at myself for saying that soon)

btw I am also taking a 3-credit online course through Continuing Education :)

Cheers!

The Only Ross Corotis!

2009-08-16T19:50:00.007-06:00

While I was editing my blog I noticed that I was missing a photo of professor Corotis (how could I) under my favorite professor of the year. I googled him, and found this photo. I thought it was way too cool (and Corotisy), to stand alone in a seperate post. I also emailed the photo to my classsmates.

"A photo of prof. Corotis when he was the dean of engineering"

Peace out!

May Fun

2009-06-01T15:33:00.016-06:00

Colorado

Hiking in Estes Park

Finally a senior!

The prettiest view I've ever seen of Boulder
Viele Lake, Boulder

Hiking in Estes Park

Mount Rushmore

Increasing my milage :)

Seattle

By the Columbia River Gorge, WA

The Space Needle!

Portland

Rose Festival!

My friend's tea pot/cup/filter

The cuttest little bridge ever!

Drinking tea in the Chinese Garden

In this photo (left to right)

Ahmed Alsinan- Daker Al Hubail- Ahmad Al Hubail- Me- Maytham Alawami

May Fun

2009-05-29T12:48:00.005-06:00

Best of 2008 (late post)

2009-03-26T16:23:00.005-06:00

I totally forgot to post this on January. But, it's never too late. Here we go:

Best Book
The Kite Runner
By: Khaled Hosseini

Best Politician
Ron Paul

Best College Professor
Ross B. Corotis, PE, NAE

Best Engineering Class
Structural Analysis taught by professor Corotis

An example of the very handy stiffness matrix!
Best Movie
Seven Pounds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nn0eKwxHY

Best Athletes
Swimming
Michael Phillips, US Team

Basketball
Chauncey Billups, Denver Nuggets
Best Drink
Morning Thunder Tea, Celestial Seasonings

Hiking!

2009-03-22T13:04:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Jack, Sarah, Shawn and I went on a four-hour hiking trip. We took a path that I have not done before.

Estes Park

2009-03-22T12:25:00.002-06:00

Here are some photos of me and my friend Maytham in a trip to Estes Park March-09

Gateway Arch

2009-01-10T20:14:00.011-07:00

My friend, Maytham, just came from St.Louis, Missouri. He told me about his visit to The Gateway Arch and showed me some pictures of it. I have heard of the structure before, but I never knew that you can actually take a tour INSIDE the arch. Isn't that amazing. Here are some pictures I found online:

From wikipedia: Mathematical equation of the arch.

or, equivalently

where

$f c = maximum height of centroid (in feet) = 625.0925$

$Q b = maximum cross sectional area of arch at base (in sq. feet) = 1262.6651$

$Q t = minimum cross sectional area of arch at top (in sq. feet) = 125.1406$

$L = half width of centroid at the base (in feet) = 299.2239$

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_arch

Photo Contest !!

2008-10-13T01:35:00.001-06:00

International Education on campus is sponsoring a photo campus for international students and scholars. Here are three candidates with their descriptions. Enjoy!

1. My Quiet place or a person coming from the desert where creeks are extremely rare, I’ve been very amazed with the beauty of Boulder Creek. The creek runs from above the town of Nederland and across the city of Boulder. I like walking and also biking by the creek. I like to sit by the creek when I am taking a break between classes, after I leave Boulder Public Library and while I catch my breath after a long run. Boulder Creek has very refreshing water, gorgeous trees all around it and a lot of ducks that rely on it. Boulder creek simply forms a complete ecological system.

2. ¿Yo Quiero Taco Bell?

sWhether you like fast food or not... Whether you think Taco Bell is a Mexican restaurant or you think it’s the biggest lie of all time. You certainly would want absolutely no harm to the people who work in Taco Bell or its consumers. This is a photo of an abandoned Taco Bell restaurant in the New Orleans, Louisiana. Even two and a half years after the hurricane, a lot of buildings in New Orleans are still abandoned. Most of these left buildings still have a sprayed x-sign on them. The x-sign, as you can probably see in white ink in the middle corner of the restaurant, represent the number of dead people found inside. No body was found in this restaurant in the evacuation process as the zero below the x-sign indicates.

3.It Ain't Rocket Science
Shawn Carroll is an aerospace engineer in The University of Colorado. He has some unusual interests. He likes math (obviously), rockets (he has to!), physics, aerodynamics and MATLAB coding; however, he think there’s nothing better than staying in the mountains for a few days and forget about school for a little bit. Right before this photo was taken, Shawn was just finished chopping a fair a mount of wood as seen in the photo. He also had a fire going to the keep him warm while it’s freezing cold elsewhere.

Lost Paradise Of Dilmun

2008-07-01T02:50:00.008-06:00

Here are some pictures I found online of The Lost Paradise Of Dilmun (http://www.lpodwaterpark.com/).

It's like Water World in the US. The Lost Paradise Of Dilmun is supposed to be the biggest water park in the entire middle east. I've visited the park only few days ago. I did not take pictures though :(

Home Sweet Home

2008-06-01T01:26:00.002-06:00

I am going to be in Saudi for the next 2 months. If you need to contact me, use my Vonage number that can be seen on my facebook profile )

Relaxing Time Yet?

2008-05-17T00:51:00.004-06:00

Finally, I finished my Sophomore year. It is absolutely flattering to look back and see the amount of tests, labs, projects and papers that I finish and did really well in. I just my grades from last semester and they're all satisfying.

It's a huge relief to see that all the hard work paid off. All the nights in the darkness of the dungeon (the engineering center). All the cold/snowy morning that I had to wake up in and go to my 8 o'clock classes. All the seemingly endless materials homework assignments.

Picture of me and my friends studying
for my Int. To Micro final

Well, is it time to celebrate all that and enjoy summer? Not really. 3 days after my last final, I started summer school. I am taking Intermediate to Macroeconomics theory (ECON3080). I go to class everyday from 9am until 12:15pm. Everyday seems to be so long. Over 3 hours in class and 5-6 hours of studying. The class isn't as hard as I expected though. I am actually enjoying it. Sort of ;) At least it's better than setting home doing nothing.

Recent picture of my and my friend
Shawn during hiking

2 more weeks and I'll be done with that class and will leave to Saudi Arabia. I am really excited to see my family and friends. The closer I get from the going back home, the slower time goes by and the less motivation I have to study for my class

I really hope to stay focused for the next couple weeks and do well in my class. Then, I can lay back and enjoy summer.

Did They Really Say that?

2008-02-14T15:03:00.002-07:00

George W Bush
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace. “ ~ that totally makes sense (not really)
"
I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America, where it's nice and safe and secure." ~well thanks for making iraq as far away as possible from being safe or secure.

“The terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed.” ~ hmm another lie!

Saddam Husain
"I am not guilty, I am innocent." ~ dude! are you kidding me!

Ariel Sharon
"Everyone there should move, should run, should grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that's grabbed will be in our hands. Everything we don't grab will be in their hands."

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."

"Sharon was felled by a stroke in 2006 and has remained in a coma since"

Refrences:
http://www.thedigitalbeat.com/2007/04/10-dumbest-george-w-bush-quotes.html
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/02/con04079.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_w_bush.html
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/01/31/44937.html#006

I'm in the Newspaper!

2008-01-10T07:14:00.001-07:00

did you read the Colorado Daily for Wednesday 1-9-2008? Well, I was in it and my friends Axuale and Liz. An article was written about our trip to New Orleans and the title of the article is Alt-Break which can be found in the front page of the newspaper!

Online link:

‘Alternative winter break' trip embarks

By PAULA PANT Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 9:34 PM MST

She could have been skiing, or watching movies while munching on chocolate-chip cookies, or enjoying any of Colorado's cozy wintertime activities in her time off from CU-Boulder.

Instead, on a 70-degree day in New Orleans, CU-Boulder sophomore Liz Dowgin pulled on a pair of gloves, pulled up some noxious plants, and pulled through her mild discomfort.

“I just got attacked by fire ants,” Dowgin said over the phone from Fontainebleau State Park, where five CU-Boulder students spent Tuesday afternoon cutting down the Chinese Tallow Tree, an invasive species to the indigenous plants of the New Orleans area. “We're right in the thick of it.”

Three women and two men from CU-Boulder are spending the final week of their winter break on the north shore of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain, volunteering for the National Wildlife Federation, as the first crew from CU-Boulder to travel on an “alternative winter break” trip.

Print this story | Email this storyWhile “alternative spring breaks” have a strong tradition at CU-Boulder and across the nation, this year's “winter break” trip is the first in what organizers hope will be an annual tradition.

“We thought it's a good opportunity to spend our winter break [doing] something useful,” said CU-Boulder junior Axaule Sultanova, the site leader for this week's New Orleans trip and an architectural engineering major.

The crew, mostly consisting of freshmen and sophomores, flew into New Orleans on Monday and will return Saturday.

“When we first got picked up at the airport, as we were kind of looking out the windows, I really didn't think it looked any different than any other city. In my head, I wondered what's all the hype about,” said Dowgin, a psychology major. “Then in the east, when we traveled away from Bourbon Street and the tourist areas, I realized it's still devastated. [I saw] strip centers after strip centers that are completely abandoned and buildings that are completely dilapidated.”

The group drove by a long-forgotten Taco Bell; they saw deserted homes still marked with symbols indicating the number of dead bodies found inside.

The volunteers are staying in the St. Bernard Parish at a shelter aptly named Camp Hope. The shelter is filled with about 700 volunteers, mostly college students, including a group from Colorado State University. Dowgin says she sleeps “in a room with 35 cots with girls I've never met before, and we have to take three-minute showers in freezing cold water. There are some volunteers that have lived in this particular shelter for years.”

This is the first trip to New Orleans for all five students on CU-Boulder's team.

“We're seeing that there's a lot of work yet to be done,” Sultanova said.

CU-Boulder sophomore and civil engineering major Hashim Alhamad lived in Dammam, a city of 700,000 in eastern Saudi Arabia, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Nevertheless, “we all heard about it,” said Alhamad, who moved to the U.S. two years ago.

He joined CU's Alternative Breaks trip to New Orleans partly because he wanted “to actually talk to people who saw the hurricane,” he said.

In the 24 hours since he arrived, he's already heard stories of people who punched through their ceilings to climb onto their roofs when water engulfed the second floor of their homes.

One long-term volunteer told him about a hurricane victim who refused help in the immediate aftermath.

“[The victim] said, ‘No, I don't want any help',” Alhamad recalled. “‘All I need is my wife and my kids, who died. Can you bring them back?”

Contact Paula Pant about this story at pant@coloradodaily.com, or at (303) 531-4951.

Actor Viggo Mortensen endorses Dennis Kucinich for President

2008-01-07T00:53:00.001-07:00

2007 Tops

2007-12-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

Best movie

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Best politician

Dennis Kucinich

Best athlete

Allan Iverson

Best book

I am Legend by Richard Matheson 322 pages

Best CU class

Analytical Mechanics 1 (Statics)

Best CU professors/teachers

Erin Byrne (Differential Equations and Linear Algebra)

Steven Pollock (Physics 2)

Best drink

Sparkling tea

Best video game

Metal Gear Solid (portable ops plus)

Best event

CoTESOL 31st Annual Fall Convention and Exhibition and being a panelist in one of the conferences

Best songs

Bubbly – Colbie Caillat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWfB4lurT4

Going to be in a conference... as a panelist!!

2007-10-07T14:18:00.000-06:00

CoTESOL 31st Annual Fall Convention and Exhibition
November 2-3, 2007
Renaissance Denver Hotel and Convention Center

In November 2nd ( less than 4 weeks from now), I'll be going to be in an educational conference in Denver. The conference is a part of the TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Convention that will be hold from on the 2nd and 3rd of November. The conference or th forum I am attending is the IEP/Higher Education SIG Forum.

For further information about my forum visit: http://www.colorado.edu/iec/cotesol/FALL07/forums/Forums2007%202.htm

For information about the whole convention go to:
http://www.colorado.edu/iec/cotesol/

or visit the TESOL website:
www.tesol.org

from the forum webpage:

IEP/Higher Education SIG Forum

Friday, November 2, 10:15-12:00, Logan Room

Preparing ESL students for college academics

Panelists: Wayne A. Gilbert, Andrea Feldman, Mary Kay Wedum, Hashim Alhamad, Magdalena Ayala

There is a growing need in the field of ESL to understand what is necessary for ESL students to successfully transition from adult education and IEP programs to mainstream college academics. Panel members from strategic positions inside academia will discuss vital essentials related to this issue. Areas covered will include the current preparedness of ESL students in college classes, what students need to be better equipped for these classes, and what ESL instructors can do to ensure that this transition is successful.

Hashim Alhamad, from Saudi Arabia, is a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who is studying civil engineering and economics. He loves school and mangoes.

The convention will be in Renaissance Denver Hotel. 3801 Quebec Street, Denver, Colorado (near old Stapleton)

New acadamic year

2007-08-26T19:21:00.000-06:00

School starts tomorrow morning. I do not really know how I feel about that. Sometimes I feel so excited; however, sometimes I feel nervous. It's interesting how most of my friends are thrilled and happy about going back to school. I just looked at my calender and I found out that I would have 5 finals and 9 midterms which is insane.

Despite how I feel about the getting back to school and how tough classes can be, I am not letting fear gets into me. I know that I can succeed this semester as I did in the past semesters. If the classes are tough, I'm going to be tougher and ace them all!

~Hashim

My school schedule for the Fall semester

okay, the night before school starts. I lost my stupid buff card and spent 2 hours to find it. I found it inside the Statics book. ahhhh son of ...

First Place

2007-08-13T23:57:00.000-06:00

It's always good to be first place because that means you're the winner. In any competition, you want to be the first one to reach the finishing line. If you finish second, it means that you loose. I know that in school it does not work that way. But, I just been told from my differential equations professor that I had to top score in the whole class! I could not believe it. Now, I feel ready for the fall semester after I finished all my summer classes with the highest scores.

I know that I did not do that by myself. I've been asking God to help me while I was taking two four-credit classes in the same time. I've been asking my parents to pray for me. I've been getting so much help from my differential equations teacher/friend Erin.

Thank you God
..and thanks to all people who believe in me and I ask them to keep doing so, and I'll never put them down.

...and thanks for reading... YOU ROCK
~Hashim

Ohio and Michigan

2007-08-11T19:19:00.000-06:00

Two Fridays ago, I left Boulder going to Columbus to visit my friend from Saudi Arabia Abdurouf. I really liked Columbus and likes the school there, Ohio State. Then after that I went to Lansing, MI to visit another friend of mine there, Dan. Dan has a wonderful family living in a charming house. I hanged out and played ping-pong and paint ball.

Here's some pictures from my trip to Ohio and Michigan:

When You Have 2 Life Changing Finals

2007-07-26T20:18:00.000-06:00

2 life changing finals are coming up:

Differential Equations final: Hashim vs Erin's test (lol) Friday 9:20 Engineering center. referee: Erin Byrne (Applied Math)
Asian Cup final (Soccer): Saudi Arabia vs Iraq. Sunday 6:35am. Referee: Ali Hamad (UAE)

'Me 16 hrs before the DFQ final'

The reasons to win both finals (that makes me so nervous!):

I love math and soccer.
I like Erin and Saudi Arabia.
I've not done great in the past few weeks with DFQ, and Saudi Arabia has had a horrible soccer team for the past 8 years and never won the Asian Cup since 1996.
This is the last math class I'm taking (maybe).... how sad :(
My friend Adam is watching the soccer game with me :)
The games starts 6:30am on Sunday morning, so Saudi better win this game.
I'll be happy for the next few years for winning 4 math classes and Saudi winning the forth Asian cup.
Because I love math and soccer... oh did I already say that? my bad, but it's so true.

' Saudi qualified to the Asian Cup final '

A Better One!

2007-07-24T16:03:00.000-06:00

few weeks ago, I lost my camera (:sadness). I was hiking/climbing with my best friend from Michigan when I lost it. It was a 7.1 M.P Cannon camera. But! now I got a cooler camera. It Exilim EX-Z1050 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 2.6" LCD (Black) SWEET!

I'll put pictures taking by my new camera as soon I finish my Differential Equations final!

doesn't it look cool?

Drop it! ... Now.... or Just Do Not!

2007-06-12T23:45:00.000-06:00

The beginning of this week has been really unpleasant for me. I realized that I am struggling very badly understanding what my Differential Equations professor "explains" in class. I thought about dropping the course later this month if I don't survive after the first midterm and the first lab. Unfortunately, there's no time for that. The dropping deadline for this course is this Friday June 15th. I have 2 days to decide whether I should drop the course or not. The decision is not that easy. I am asking Allah to guide me to the right decision.

from: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/viciousg42/71834184/)

Summer school started

2007-06-05T19:02:00.000-06:00

summer classes just started yesterday, I am really excited and feel very productive. I am taking two fun classes, principles of microeconomics and Introduction to Differential Equations and Linear Algebra. There's no clear correlation between the two classes; however, both could be very enjoyable.

My friends in Saudi

2007-06-05T16:13:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of me with some of my friends in Saudi Arabia after we had lunch. The picture was taken when I was in Saudi 2 weeks ago.

One Down... One to Go

2007-05-07T19:21:00.000-06:00

I took my first final today 7:30am-10:00am and I totally nailed the test.It was a calculus 3 test, and I am so darn happy that I finished my last calculus class. Actually it sounds pretty sad that I am not taking any more calculus :( but I will be taking Differential Equations and linear Algebra this summer!
Now I got to go to study for my final my Wednesday, wish me good luck, (I really need it)

Cheers!
~Hashim

CU-Boulder Campus is So Beautiful

2007-04-29T20:35:00.000-06:00

I was just walking from my apartment towards the engineering center at CU-Boulder and I decided to take some pictures!