The Oldest Story in History

      What is oldest story in history? It is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story origin is in Sumer, which is part of Iraq now. Sumer dates back to 4500-4000 BC, it was the city of one of the oldest civilizations in history.
   
     



      The story was engraved on big stone tablets, and it had many versions, but most of them talk about Gilgamesh, the king of a city called Uruk. He was one third human and two third god.
The story focus on the friendship between the king and Enkidu, a man created by the gods to match Gilgamesh's strength. The friendship ends after many adventures by the death of Enkidu on the hands of the gods, because the king and Enkidu angered the gods by killing two heavenly creatures. After that the king realizes that although he is two third god,  he is still one third human and that one day he will meet the same fate as his friend. The king learns of a mortal man who lives at the end of the earth where the sun set. He takes off to find the immortal man, but fails after many attempts to become immortal. When he returns home and come across the giant wall that he built around his city her realize that a man may die, but his name live through generations by the work he does. The king becomes good to his people, and after his death, he was remembered for his generosity and the great wall that he built around his city. The story was said to be the same story of Noah, with some differences.
   

Goodbye Cash

I was looking for a topic to write about and found this amazing Website that show you the latest inventions in many fields like medical, electronics, computers and many more. The invention that grabbed my attention was The Square. It is a small device that you plug into your iphone, ipad, ipod, and you can swipe a debit or credit card through the Square to charge people money.
The Square is a new way to eliminate the use of paper money, and become Eco-friendly. The inventor of the Square is the co-inventor of Twitter Jack Dorsey. With this invention less people will carry cash with them, therefore less robbery will take place, and even if a thief made you swipe your credit card, you can cancel the payment in 24 hours.
I think the only objection, will be why is it an I-device? I think the answer to that is that Apple products are safe, and it is very hard(or impossible)  to hack or put a virus on an Apple product if it wasn't Jailbroken. In the future, this device might be used on phones and tablets other than Apple's devices, but I do not believe it will be as secure as it would be on an Apple.

Assigned Entry #5 Fourth Estate

        Nowadays you can study a generation, by looking at the type of music they listen to, the movies they watch, and finally the news that interests them. Media has proven to have a major influence on people. TV and other type of media set the standards that most people think they should live up to, to have a perfect life.

        Ads convey many different messages, some are hidden and some you can spot directly. Some ads have direct influence on a person, and others have an indirect affect, which means that you may not believe an ad but you start to think about it and study the idea in your head, since it’s the humans’ nature to do so.

With time, the media have changed in purpose, content and the messages. In the old days, although there weren't many ads at that time, the message was direct. The major companies have noticed the influence of media on the viewers, so they started using media to manipulate people and make them buy or do what they want. That’s when the media became a million dollar industry.  Ads got into all types of media like TV, radio, internet, billboards, and newspapers. I miss the days where you didn't have to wait 25 sec to watch a video on YouTube.

        Media can be used to mislead people and that’s what the major companies did; they used the media to make people feel bad about themselves, or even scare them. so they buy their products and live the life style that has been designed for them . In Egypt, politicians and business men tried to use the media to suppress the revolution, by feeding the people wrong information, and scaring them into thinking that if they kept going with the revolution the country will collapse, but the people were tired of their lies, so they didn't believe the TV and started using the social media to get the real news and communicate with their fellow revolutionists.

        I learned that if I wanted to listen to the news, I should listen to both sides of the topic, and argue till I know the whole truth, not just some fabricated reality.

Assigned Entry #4 Main Influence

When I lived in Iraq for 12 years, I did not hear the word capitalism. In Iraq, the government used to control all the companies that worked in the country. So I didn't know the meaning of capitalism, until I traveled to Egypt in 2005.

 In Egypt, I noticed that the people in the government are the same ones who own the major companies. The best Example is Ahmed Ezz who was an Egyptian businessman and one-time politician, the former owner of Ezz Steel and the former chairman of Egypt's national assembly's budget committee. Also a former senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party of Egypt and has been described as "a confidant of the president’s son Gamal Mubarak, and two other former ministers. In his positions in the government, Ezz used his authorities to lower taxes for his business and buy cheap raw material for his factories. Also he used his connections in the government to eliminate any major competition in the market. Plus many more examples like Ezz, even the president Mubarak himself used his powers to make profit for himself. That was one of the reason people revolted against Mubarak and his government. 

  When I watched the movie Capitalism: Love Story, I realized that Capitalism here is the same in Egypt. The only difference is that here the competition is bigger, and poverty is much less than Egypt. While I was watching the movie, I kept comparing situations that happened in the movie to similar ones in Egypt, and wondered will there be a time that people revolt against the government someday like in Egypt? It is possible, and some people are already revolting, asking for their rights and better work conditions. Some people already noticed what Capitalism has been doing to the country, and they started educating people about the problems of Capitalism. The Government should control the private companies not the other way around.

In the 21^st century, Money became everyone’s ambitious and lifelong goal. Everything around us became labeled with price. If you don’t make enough money, then you are not living. Nowadays, people are running in circles, they work for minimum wages to buy food and pay the rent so they can go work at the next day. What kind of life is that? It is not a life. People in Europe work to live, and in the U.S they live to work.