Tarek Hoteit Notebook

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Labels: lebanon, media

Posted by Tarek Hoteit at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

I came across this link for interactive-map of the different languages spoken in the United States. Selecting a language would show you in colors the popularity of that language in each state or county. Unsurprisingly English makes 82% of language spoken, followed by 10% Spanish. 0.23% of US population speaks Arabic (614582 people). Interestingly 203,466 people speak some sort of Native North American languages which must have survived all the past centuries the widespread of English and Spanish in the United States.

View the Map

Posted by Tarek Hoteit at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

In an article by Reuters based upon Science journal, the geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture shows Islamic mathematics supremacy 500 years earlier than Western scholars.



quoted from Reuters.com, "Medieval Islamic artisans developed a pattern-making process for designing ornate tiled surfaces that allowed them to produce sophisticated patterns not seen in the West until centuries later, a new study suggests. Many walls of medieval Islamic buildings have ornate geometric star-and-polygon, or “girih,” patterns, often overlaid with a zig-zagging network of lines. This undated picture shows an archway from the Darb-i Imam shrine, Isfahan, Iran ( built in 1453 ) with two overlapping girih patterns. REUTERS/handout/K. Dudley and M. Elliff."

Posted by Tarek Hoteit at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

from mapsofwar.com
"Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Persians, Europeans...the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question."



if you can't see the screen play, click here.

Labels: middle east

Posted by Tarek Hoteit at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments