above freezing snow! is it a myth or reality

It is a reality, and it happened Yesterday!! Yesterday morning, It was snowing like crazy, when my thermometer was well above freezing (around 4 degrees C).

This seems against everything we learned in science classes when we were taught that snow melts when the temperature rises above Zero C (or 32 F). How then did we witness snow?

The naive answer is that snow start melting indeed but it did not have enough time to completely melt before it reached the ground. That is partially true, but this is not what happened yesterday!! Yesterday the upper atmosphere was cold and wet, so snow formed. The lower layers were dry with temperature above freezing. The catch here is DRY, while snow is following, it started melting. Now water of course, has a good tendency to evaporate, The evaporation is falling snow took place at higher rates than normal due to the dryness of the lower levels of the atmosphere. To transfer melting snow from liquid state to vapor state, energy is required. This energy is taken from snow crystals themselves, so the energy within the snow flake becomes less, and henceforth, its temperature goes down. What are we having here:-

The atmosphere is warm enough to cause snow to melt; the atmosphere is dry enough to cause evaporation of melting snow; energy is required for evaporation,. This energy is taken from snow crystals causing them to cool down. If the evaporation rate is just right, the temperature of the snow crystal drops back to zero and the crystal maintains its freezing state. The crystal is at Zero temperature, and the atmosphere is above zero, therefore, snow keeps falling because it is still at zero temperature regardless of the fact that its surrounding is really above zero.

Summary, when the atmosphere is above freezing and the wind is dry, snow flake can keep falling. There is a formula that tells you for at what temperature snow can still fall at what humidity level. In fact, and based on such formula, snow can still fall at temperature of as high as 8 degrees when the humidity is 20% . Interesting, isn't

Fairy Tale wedding ends before it started

"We decided to remain friends", fairly common statement and it was the statement that Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds made two weeks after they got wed at Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia on Jan. 1, 2008. If this incident took place in conservative countries like the middle east, i could imagine what reasons are entailed, but knowing Eddie, no, i do not believe that this is what he was expecting from a 40 year movie star. Otherwise, he would have chosen the virgin islands for the ceremony and not Bora Bora!

9/11, the truth

A truely informative web site http://www.ae911truth.org/ Architects and Engineer give scientific evidents that the 3 buildings that collapsed in 9/11 could not be due the Airplane crash. Rather these engineers believe that it was rather controlled demolition!!!!!!!!

ammar sajdi

So you think you can shoot

a couple of month ago, i went with friends to Sahab, a small town in the eastern outskirts of Amman to demonstrate our shooting capabilities.
We were accompanied by first class instructor, a friend of our called mahmoud maharmeh.
We drove around 20 Km into the desert to reach Al-Mahrameh 1000 Dunum ranch.

We used a 9 mm Gun





There are three steps:

Hold the Gun
Aim
Shoot

If you ignore the instructions as to how to hold the gun, this is what may happen




me injured, and it took around 6 weeks and it has not completely cured.

The first lesson: Adhere to the instructions completely











This happened to me and my friend Maen, but Amjad escaped the injurey

















Amjad Shooting

















Maen Shooting







Aiming instructions is what you expect them to be, however, shooting experience is a bit difficult because of the bang sound and the reflex that one experiences. What makes you loose you concentration during aiming, is that while you are triggering and expecting the bullet to go out, your are in a wait state and you body and mind starts to react to the bullet explosion and its noise before it actually happens. If you can control this refelx, you shall score well.

Cold

I have been dorment for a while, something i seem to enjoy these days. for some reasons, nothing outside the domain of my direct (and inactive) life seems to matter. my wife is in Australia and coming back tomorrow. I spend the past 3 week all alone. That was cold! Moreover today was one of the coldest days this winter in Amman; the temperature reached a max of only 3 Degrees during the day, and it is below zero now at 10 PM. It will remain cold at least till next wednesday; unfortunately, it will also be very dry as well. These conditions are due to a high pressure system centered in Syberia and causing cold north weasterly winds to blow on middle eastern countries. No effective weather system is expected till Jan 20th where a low pressure system is expected to approach us. Still , however, it is too early to decide.

down under

tomorrow i am supposed to be traveling to Perth Australia with Jumana on a two week trip to visit friends living over there. A vacation, in other words. Due to thoughts beyond my control, Juaman will end up going to visit and I guess i will be staying right here in Amman

coming up in a trip to Angola, a country with extremely poor population, and yet one of the most expensive African countries where Malaria and Yellow fever can be found in abundance. Not only that, but if you are driving in the Capital, keep all cars locked and do not stop to anybody. Avoid being alone, avoid traveling, avoid leaving the hotel and you will be safe.

mish bilmood

The title says it all

رأيت نابلس

An article my mother worte after visiting Nablus last month (NOV 2007)

بعد عدة سنين وفجأة قررت والعائلة زيارة بلدنا المحتلة نابلس، لمشاركة أهلنا هناك بمناسبة فرح يعنينا أمره. تلك المدينة التي ولد فيها والدي وأولادي إلا إياي ....، كنا ننتظر على أحر من الجمر، رغم الحذر والمخاوف .. أن نصل مدينتنا الرابضة الراسخة بين جبلين، راسخة بما تحوي بين جبليها من ثراء عتيق وخضرة نامية وانسان ذي جذور تمتد وتمتد....
طريقنا إلى نابلس لم تكن صعبة، ولكنها طريق غريبة .. بعيدة بعض الشيء، مقفرة في بعض أجزائها وجديدة كالشرق الأوسط الجديد، تاركة العارضة والبادان اللتين هما الأجمل والأخضر والأكثر ثراء.
وعندما أشرفنا على الوصول، ظهرت أمامنا .. وكأنها تسد سماءنا وهواءنا فلا نكاد نتنفس، مستوطنة ضخمة جاثمة على أعلى الجبل، مرعبة منذرة تطل بعنف وسيطرة على المنطقة، تحول دون خفقان قلب الحنين والحب إلى حزن وانكماش وخوف.
دخلت البلد وأنا خائفة أن أرى ما رأيت في الطريق .. وكان توقعي في محله.. المدينة أكبر وأكثر عمراناً .. إلا أن نابلس الصغيرة الخضراء العتيقة التي يضمها الجبلين .. ويجعل أهلها أكثر التصاقاً وتلاحماً .. تغيرت .. نعم أنا مقتنعة أن التغيير أمر عادي وطبيعي ولازم للحداثة.
وصلنا الفندق وبلدنا لم يكن فيها فنادق إلا حديثاً .. فكل البيوت هي بيوتنا، فنحن نحل إذا أردنا حيث شئنا .. فنحن ضيوف البلدة كلها .. هذا ما نشعر به .. ألم أحدثكم عن طبيعة العلاقات الإنسانية الحميمة قبل قليل ...
الفندق صغير ومتواضع ولكنه مفعم بالمحبة والقبول ... خرجت إلى الشوارع أجوبها يمنة ويسرة .. والذكريات تتدفق كالفيلم السينمائي، هناك حنين وشوق وفرح باللقاء .. وكان الناس جميعاً تطل من النوافذ تقول "أهلين"، هذا الجو أغفلني بعض الشيء عن اتساخ البلد المؤسف وعمرانها الممتد عشوائياً لا يروق للناظر.
في الليلة الأولى استمتعنا بحفل فرح مرح ضم الأحباب والأصدقاء .. خاصة الشباب منهم الذي تركتهم أطفالاً ويافعين مجتمعين في الحاكورة .. والآن هم يشقون طريقهم بقوة وعزم في أرضهم الطيبة التي حددت وسرقت وضاقت عليهم إلا أنها عزيزة .
الليلة الأولى حفل ممتع ثلاث ساعات ضم الأهل والأحباب .
والليلة الثانية معركة ضارية استمرت من الساعة الثانية ليلاً إلى التاسعة مساءاً في اليوم الثاني، استشهد فيها شاب مقاوم، وأما الكهل والطفلة رانية البالغة من العمر ثلاث سنوات فقتلا خطأ كالعادة !! مع الاعتذار بعد القتل طبعاً !!، وجرح خمسة وعشرون شخصاً مختلفي الاصابات، كما أعتقل كثيرون .. وانتهت المعركة بنسف منزل آل الهواش واعتقال ابنيهم ... آل الهواش المعروفون بشرف المقاومة ضد الاحتلال.
لم تكد زغاريد الفرح تملأ الأجواء وتصل إلى أعلى السماء، حتى خنقتها زغاريد الحزن العميق تتخللها نواح وولوله .. على فقدان الأحبة، هذا الفقدان الوحشي والقصري المتحدي والخارق للشريعة الإلهية والإنسانية.
بعدها يختفون وتختفي كل الآثار وكأن هناك حجاب يحجب كل الأخبار عن العالم الخارجي، صمت رهيب يلف الأحداث .. وكان المخلقات من انسان وبنيان تختفي عن وجه الخليقة هكذا دون أن يلمسها أحد..يا إلهي ما هذا الأسلوب الشيطاني القمعي الدقيق التخطيط, في وجه أسلوب عفوي فوضوي مختلف التبعات والعدوات، يضل الطريق يجهل كل شيء عن المستقبل .. كل شيء إلى أين .. ومتى . وإيان

امل جردانة سجدي

Ammar Sajdi

www.realsoft-me.com

www.e-ammar.net

The world's TOP 100 Engineering and computer universities

I was not surprised not to find any Arab or Islamic university among the leading universities in the world. Also not surprised to find two Israeli universities, which tells you what?
And that the top 15 Universities are all American with Cambridge (UK) coming 16th??
Tohoku (Japan) at 17th???

Are the high rise building and mega malls in Dubai getting us anywhere?
Or the tones of IT graduate from our 22 jordanian unversities contribute anything to the world?
Or the massively luxurious car, unprecedented in other parts of the world taking us anywhere?
How about the near $100 Per barrel OIL prices that our neigbouring countries are charging now a days?
Isn't the quran that started with the word 'IQRA2' ? (read- a clear indicator for the important of education)
Let me NOT imagine what prophet mohammad would react to all of that

(source: http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ARWU-FIELD2007/ENG.htm)

1 Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT)
2 Stanford Univ
3 Univ Illinois - Urbana Champaign
3 Univ Michigan - Ann Arbor
5 Univ California - Berkeley
6 Pennsylvania State Univ - Univ Park
7 Georgia Inst Tech
8 Univ Texas - Austin
9 Univ California - San Diego
10 Purdue Univ - West Lafayette
11Univ California - Santa Barbara
12Univ Southern California
13Univ Maryland - Coll Park
14Carnegie Mellon Univ
15Cornell Univ
16Univ Cambridge
17Tohoku Univ
18California Inst Tech
19Univ Toronto
20Northwestern Univ
21Univ Wisconsin - Madison
22North Carolina State Univ - Raleigh
22Univ Washington - Seattle
24Princeton Univ
25Kyoto Univ
26Ohio State Univ - Columbus
27Imperial Coll London
28Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Lausanne
28Tokyo Inst Tech
30Univ Florida
31Texas A&M Univ - Coll Station
32Natl Univ Singapore
33Univ California - Los Angeles
34Univ Minnesota - Twin Cities
35Harvard Univ
36Univ Pennsylvania
37Hong Kong Univ Sci & Tech
38Technion Israel Inst Tech
39Osaka Univ
40Univ Massachusetts - Amherst
41Univ Oxford
42Univ Colorado - Boulder
43Univ California - Davis
44Univ Manchester
45McGill Univ
46Univ Waterloo
47Virginia Tech
48Univ California - Irvine
49Natl Chiao Tung Univ
50Duke Univ

RANK from 50-75

Arizona State Univ - Tempe
Case Western Reserve Univ
Chalmers Univ Tech
City Univ Hong Kong
Kyushu Univ
Michigan State Univ
Nanyang Tech Univ
Polytechnic Inst Turin
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst
Rice Univ
Seoul Natl Univ
Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich
Tech Univ Denmark
Tokyo Univ
Tsing Hua Univ
Univ Bordeaux 1
Univ Bristol
Univ British Columbia
Univ Delaware
Univ Leuven
Univ Melbourne
Univ New South Wales
Univ Sheffield
Univ Sydney
Univ Twente
Univ Virginia

Rank 76 - 100

Boston Univ
Chinese Univ Hong Kong
Delft Univ Tech
Hokkaido Univ
Indian Inst Sci
Iowa State Univ
Johns Hopkins Univ
Korea Advanced Inst Sci & Tech
Lund Univ
Natl Taiwan Univ
Natl Tsing Hua Univ
Pohang Univ Sci & Tech
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ
Tech Univ Munich
Tel Aviv Univ
Univ Alberta
Univ California - Riverside
Univ Central Florida
Univ Leeds
Univ Louvain
Univ Montreal
Univ Naples Federico II
Univ Newcastle
Univ Paris 06
Univ Southampton
Univ Utah
Univ Utrecht
Uppsala Univ
Washington Univ - St. Louis
Zhejiang Univ

Kunafeh Sunday

Our engagement for the E-government project in Syria is officially over (and practically 98% over). It was rather a Chaotic entropy, not a particularly easy engagement, however partially ejoyable, and therefore, Kunafeh is served in the company on Sunday! I am not fond of kunafeh at all, neither my genetic belonging to Nablus had any influence towards improving my affinity to Kunafeh. Neverthetheless, i observed that Kunafeh is one way people of this region exhibit their ceremonial inclinations.

weather matters

looks like we are going to have a rainy week this coming week.
we are going to have some rain tomorrow evening, but this is not the reason why i am writing!
If things in the atmosphere remain the same, we are expecting a real wintery storm next Wed, Thursday. I mean Strong winds, cold temperature and lots of rain.
It is not easy to confirm things at this moment, because Atmospheric science is so complex of a science and our atmosphere is a fairly complex system. Weather forcasts stem from computerized model that require super computers to simulate including data mining techniques. (follow this link to a what data mining is)http://www.e-ammar.com/introduction_to_data_mining.htm
Business intelligence (BI)and to a less extent is picking us also in government sector here in Jordan. Yesterday, I had a demo to the Customs department in Jordan in which we showed them techniques and technology we currently used to create BI solution for them.
We are also building our skills to satisfy IBM demand for consultant capable of using IBM DataStage (One of the leading ETL tools).

The interesting thing to observe here is that my personal interest in weather system and atmospheric science is not immensely decoupled from what i do for living.

Next blog, i will post an article that my mother wrote after visiting Nablus after so many years of absance