What's up everybody? JTW of Team Xtrades here with the first in a series of educational videos that are a crash course I've developed based on my experiences doing one-on-one mentoring with new traders a Couple of quick housekeeping items make sure to hit that like button below Also, make sure to turn on notifications and subscribe to our YouTube channel here to catch updates on all the latest educational content for traders like you Also a quick disclaimer that the contents of this video are not intended to be financial advice And I am not a certified financial advisor You're 100% responsible for the investment decisions you make the following is purely my opinion that I am sharing for educational purposes So with that let's get started So when I say risk management to folks Typically the first thing that comes to mind is position sizing. So I think it's best that we start by laying some Framework for what our max position size should be based on how large our account is So if we're talking about an account that's trading with $5,000 or less Generally speaking, I would recommend a 10% max position size So if we're using the example of a $2,000 account that allows us essentially $200 per trade For accounts that are on the $5,000 and up-size I recommend 5% as a general rule of thumb If we're using a $5,000 of the bare minimum account size to use that max position percentage 5% of that $5,000 account gives us about $250 per trade Obviously you can continue to scale the present position size down depending on if you have a larger and larger account So if you have a hundred thousand dollar account You could easily scale that down to a 1% position size and still be afforded a decent dollar amount to execute your trade plans with When we're talking about these max position sizes, these are not to exceed percentages for anyone trade on anyone ticker with a directional bias So what I mean when I say that is if you're putting the max position size into long-term Apple calls So let's say 10% of a $2,000 account and Apple calls giving yourself some time and You see that Apple may be Making a downside move for a short period and you want to not be totally exposed to the losses You might incur during that Downtrend you might open some short-term Apple puts with let's with let's say 5% of your available buying power. So overall you've got 15 percent tied up in Apple But because it's not all tied up in a directional bias It's not more than 10% saying it's going to be a bullish scenario for Apple You are staying within the bounds of these guidelines. I am providing for position sizing One of the more common mistakes I see newer traders making is that they want to use what they're going to stop out at as far as Loss on the trade as their exposure limit instead of using the Total amount to open the position as the factor that they're using to determine what their position size is So instead of using our prior example with the $2,000 account using a $200 max position size They will use a $200 loss as a means to still achieve that Overall maximum risk exposure on the trade, but the actual cost of entering the trade is much greater than $200 So to run that through a little bit further just using these examples that I've spelled out here So if we use a $200 contract purchase, so that's 10% of that $2,000 account And let's say our trade plan gets invalidated and we wind up stopping out at a 30% loss on those contracts That turns into a $60 loss or ultimately 3% of the account Where that was standing when we open the trade now if we keep our Losses to essentially that type of scenario and let's say it's a worse case Situation and we take nothing but losses Before we ultimately run that account down to zero if we're only taking a 3% loss per trade that results in allowing us to take in Total 33 trades however, if I go back to that scenario where We're using the 10% Being 10% of the account being where we are actually stopping out and not limiting the buy to open Amount to 10% of the account. Well now we're down to only 10 trades if we take nothing but losses starting out as a new trader It's important especially for newer traders that you have as many opportunities To learn and develop and get better as a trader early on without knocking yourself out of the game too quickly Obviously, it's going to be very easy to blow an account if you only have 10 trades to make starting out Versus being able to have three times as many trades if you're being smart about your actual position sizing So next I want to talk a little bit about contract selection. This is another Area where I see newer traders making a lot of mistakes and Typically those Mistakes are either they are going way too far out of the money with their strike selection Or they are buying contracts with very little time on them for the trade to work out So some general rules that I personally have in place For newer traders that I work with contracts have at least three and a half trading days on them Early on into learning how to trade Obviously more time is better. I've never had anybody reach out to me and say hey man These option contracts are doing really well, but they've got way too much time left on them Also important in the contract selection process is picking the right strikes Strikes should generally be no more than two to three strikes out of the money depending on the contract expiration So if we take a look at this Tesla example to the left You can see that if I give myself Five trading days, which would be this coming Friday's expiration on December the 2nd And I look at my strikes as being 185 being my at-the-money strike because Tesla is currently trading at 182 86 My 187.5 strike being one strike out of the money 190 being two strikes out of the money and 192.5 being three strikes out of the money If I'm giving myself Five days, which is pretty close to the bare minimum of time on a trade and Let's say I want to go two strikes out of the money. So I want to take the 190 strike It's going to cost me at least $325 to get into that trade So if I'm working with a $2,000 account, I've got a 10% max buy to open position size I obviously cannot afford $325 a contract and still respect my rules for position sizing So what this ultimately means is that it may take time to earn the ability to trade some tickers Especially those that have high volatility and more expensive options contracts Starting out. I definitely recommend finding tickers That aren't overly volatile and don't have very inflated options contract prices while you're getting your strategy and your system in place but eventually You'll grow as a trader and your account will grow and eventually that $325 per option contract once you've hit let's say a $10,000 account size and you're using a 5% position size which allows you $500 for the trade Well now that 325 is very affordable. So again, that's what I mean when I say it may take some time to earn the ability to trade some tickers So now let's talk a little bit about proper risk reward and trade planning Trade planning is something I will cover in-depth in a separate video But for now, let's talk about a risk-to-reward setups. So if we use this Tesla trade plan that I developed for our members at x-trades during one of our morning podcasts where we were looking to take puts on Tesla and The plan in this particular Scenario was to take puts below or on a break of 2 15 42 support We then had price targets at 2 10 36 201 14 and 192 10 being our third and final price target to the downside. We had a stop-loss average down level at 2 19 23 whether we are shorting shares or playing options in this particular scenario in either case we want to make sure that we have the proper risk reward with regards to the distance of the Move on the underlying asset between our entry in our first price target in the distance between our Entry in our stop-loss level as you can see in this particular case our risk-to-reward ratio For us to hit PT1 With our stop-loss at 2 19 23 was a 1.36 risk-to-reward as you are developing Your trade plans based on the chart and the price action of a particular ticker you may find yourself spotting scenarios where your risk-to-reward is much greater than 1 to 1 in some cases 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1 3 to 1 setups. I would consider those a plus setups 2 to 1 setups are still a setups. That's still pretty good 1 to 1 setup should be considered sort of be setups. They meet the bare minimum requirements For us to want to get into a trade But obviously we want to have more than just the bare minimum before we throw money into the market for newer traders You will want to focus strictly on a plus setups where your risk-to-reward by the time you hit your first price target Is 3 to 1 that will allow you to be Wrong More frequently but still overall profitable because you'll only need to beat essentially a 33.3% success rate on your trades if you're limiting your risk-to-reward setups To a 3 to 1 scenario or a plus setups and early on you're going to be wrong a lot more than you're going to be right Now as you can see our trade plans typically do have more than one price target and you can hit Pts 2 and 3 So in this particular case the overall risk-to-reward set up on this Tesla trade plan was actually 6.39 to 1 if we got PT 3 Without stopping out versus what it would have cost us to stop out But again, we want to really make sure that we're judging our setups based on That PT 1 distance from our entry and the stop-loss distance from our entry So if you follow all the guidelines that I've provided so far in this video You should put yourself in a position to trade Sustainably for long enough to learn and develop a system that is ultimately profitable for you But in closing I do have a few final tips First and foremost focus on education first and find yourself a trading community That allows you to grow and expand as a trader. Obviously my personal recommendation is X trades X trades was instrumental in my development as a trader personally and I can't say Enough about the folks on the team at X trades and their abilities to help Teach newer traders how to become profitable and trade for a long duration of time While you're learning don't be afraid to start off paper trading especially until you get the mechanics of opening and closing your positions and you get the basics of Charting and trade planning down to a science next make sure to adjust your starting position size based on The risk to reward or the type of setup the plan is providing for you especially For anything less than those a or a plus setups make sure that you're always putting some consideration into the possibility of having to average down or Potentially average up on a trade that's working in your favor if you start off with the full five or ten percent of your Account based on your account size as you're starting position size Obviously, you've left yourself no room to add to that directional bias at that point and last but not least lotto's are fun But until you are trading Profitably for a long period of time and you're essentially Working with a small fraction of your profits or you know quote-unquote house money To put a very small stake into a lotto trade Generally speaking and until you've hit that point. I recommend avoiding lotto's as a rule of thumb So with that I'd like to thank you for your time and for watching this video one final reminder to Tap that thumbs up button and subscribe to our YouTube channel here for Updates on the latest educational videos coming out from the team at X trades Also one note that there is a link below for a 20-day free trial for anyone interested


Gotta open up the Blu-ray of Jaws cuz I ain't open it up yet. I watched it on Netflix But I had to own it Yeah, hello everybody here welcome back to book versus movie finally with episode 2 We're finally talking about Jaws word of warning before you continue on with this video If you have not seen the movie and you have not read the book there's gonna be spoilers for both So if you care about spoilers and haven't read the book haven't seen the movie I suggest UGTFO what I hope to accomplish with this series is the age-old question is the book Always better than the movie before we jump into Which is better? I want to tell you a short story About me and my grandmother my grandmother used to take all of us grandkids She has something like 20 25 grandkids, but she would always make time for each and every one of us And one of my most prized memories from when I was a child is that's going to Universal Studios every every now and again It was once a year We would go to a theme park sometimes it was not very far if you don't know I grew up in Southern, California either it was not very farm Magic Mountain Disneyland or Universal Studios and one of the things that I remember the most about the Universal Studios trips is of course a section where you go over The rickety dock and Jaws comes out of the water. I loved that section of it I loved everything about it and it just watching this movie reading this book brought back so many pleasant memories of my Grandmother and I couldn't have asked for a better experience right off the bat If we are going along the timeline of the movie right off the bat You hear more from the kids then you in the movie version then you ever do in the book The one of the things one of the problems that I had with the book was There wasn't enough of the family and I didn't really see the purpose of the kids now I'm an author myself and one of the big pet peeves. I've had is repetition and fluff I in fact, I can't even call this fluff or superfluous information because I mean the kids are used throughout But it is very very small roles that they are mentioned in fact I don't think you ever hear one of the kids talking the book whatsoever I could be wrong, but if they do talk in the book It wasn't memorable in the movie the town looks about how I imagined it in the book It's a very quaint little New England town. I think it's in what New York is an Amity New York I think that's it. It looked about how I suspected but one thing I did notice right off the bat Is there were far more people when the visitors came in there were far more people in this town Than there ever was in the book Boy Scouts are new at some bad hat Harry a huge difference between the Book and the movie is quaint comes in super early into the story in the movie in the book He doesn't come in I think until about halfway through and he gets a real quick chapter You hear from him something about you know, there's big shark out there or I can't remember exactly what he's thinking I know that he's introduced with his own chapter and then it goes Directly back to Brody or I might even go back to Ellen who's we're gonna talk about a lot in this video Brody's wife Ellen is in the is has a major role in the book whereas she doesn't in the movie now as far as quaint is concerned I was actually really shocked that he came in so early at first and then I realized hey No wonder this guy's there more because I like this version of the character I love the actor that played the guy so that's big point for the movie another person who has a bigger role in the Movie that has a relatively smaller role in the book is mrs. Kintner the mother of the boy who's eaten by the shark after Brody wanted to shut down The beach public in the movie and it wasn't public right off the bat in the book Which is another thing that I actually liked more right up front We get that out of the way that Brody wanted to close the beach But nobody would let him as I'm watching the movie It is very obvious to me that the movie has a much lighter tone than the book This is almost almost a family movie now it's rated PG-13 But back then it took a lot to get an R rating for whatever reason I think you had to have like gratuitous sex and you know a hundred F words if you got a If you got an R rating back then but a lot of movies were PG-13 In today's market with as much blood as in this movie I'm sure that if Jaws came out today It would be a rated R movie and they probably would have cut back a lot Especially with the murder of the kitten or the the killing I wouldn't say the murder The killing of the kitten or boy that was bloody as hell I was shocked that they went that far people were shocked in at the beginning of it That they actually went for the full on Georgie scene exactly what happens to him in the book I'm not gonna spoil anything for that movie But or the book but a lot of people were shocked that that happened that they showed as much as they did Whereas in the old 19 was it 95 or I can't remember exactly the old Tim Curry version They just cut away with the kids screaming now we get into one of the biggest differences in The book and I'm gonna be here for a while the movie Version of Hooper doesn't know Ellen Brody There is no awkward Very awkward, you know a restaurant scene where there's where she's talking about just tells dude right off the bat That she has a rape fantasy And they end up sleeping together, you know very very very quickly It she knows that she wants to do she's gonna go after the dude but what what struck me very odd is when I watched the movie and There was no no no mention that they didn't even know each other There was no infidelity subplot and that's what made the movie. I think that much better There's one other point that I'm going to get to that. I think makes the movie win this But it seemed watching the movie version It seemed like that that that whole infidelity subplot just it didn't make any sense whatsoever It seemed tacked on to make the book longer than it was with the movie version You didn't have they didn't have to go into that you saw it Big runtime for the movie. It's two hours long. You don't fit. You don't miss it I mean and when when I watch movie adaptations, I always say okay, well, I miss that part of the of the book I missed this I missed that and that's one of the main reasons people say they like the books better, but here I Actually enjoyed the fact that they cut that and I had no problem with them cutting it leaving it It might have made it a a darker film a darker experience, but there was no purpose for it no purpose whatsoever But that does completely nerf the Ellen character the Ellen character in the movie is just a Support character just someone off on the side whereas in the book She's more of a main character because all that content there in the middle is her you know hooking up with Hooper and Causing the backstory with the drama between Brody and Hooper But in the movie They don't mind each other. In fact, they're pretty buddy with each other They have lined together they well I guess Brody does know Ellen because they had dinner together, but they don't hook up And I liked the back-and-forth between Richard Dreyfus and what's his name Roy Schneider? I like the back-and-forth between those guys their versions of Brody and Hooper I like that much more than any of the interactions in the book where they were arguing This is one of the only times where I was happy with the fact that they got rid of drama It made the movie more fun It made the movie more entertaining to watch these especially on the boat when they're there with Quinn Gave you a bit of comfort before the final fight at the end and I thought that was really really cool once again I'm gonna be talking about something that won the movie version over for me probably my favorite part of the movie period Quint's World War two story the the story that he taught that he tells a Brody and Hooper About the sinking of his ship and the survival and the sharks and all that that section is Amazing it is probably in my top ten of all-time of cinematic like monologues I remember I was sitting there listening to this guy and the movie kind of went away I don't know if that's a positive or negative for some people But for me it was really cool because it was like I was in an audio book I was just listening to this guy and I was picturing in my mind what he must have gone through Whoever wrote that scene brilliant. I don't know if there was ad-lib going on I don't know if he stuck directly to the script But the actor did a terrific job bringing that history and bringing that character development Without a load of exposition and there is a little bit of exposition with the telling instead of showing But here it works. It feels like an old boat captain telling a story and that's exactly what it is It's the most realistic section of the the movie is him sitting down and talking about this Terrible tragedy that happened while he was out at sea in world war two one thing I will say about quint though is him running his motor to the breaking point and It completely crapping out. It just seemed against character for that character Quint seemed like a rational individual Even though he's a little off his rocker as far as the whole fishermen thing is concerned You know being alone too much whatever you want to say but There was an aspect of that that didn't feel right about quint's character Whether it be the book especially the book version of quint wouldn't have done that and this version of quint I don't see him Especially after what happened in the world war two that story that he told I don't believe that he would have ran his engine to the breaking point Maybe he would have pushed it a little too hard and then backed off But for the most part I think that was really out of character and i'm going to give the quint version The the book version of quint i'm going to give him the point here And of course we come to the point where I know everybody will probably talk about it The only problem that people have with this movie is that the shark is dated The special effects are antiquated You have a mechanical shark. They didn't have to think actually think Whoever that they didn't have CGI back then because Of the because I don't think it would have worked very well Especially I'm I'm thinking of movies like deep blue sea and whatnot or maybe ghost shark Sorry, I just I mean if you've seen the movie the ghost coming the ghost shark coming out of the pool is amazing Anywho back to the Back to the differences. So um with the shark I I imagine the shark much bigger than it was Of course they had limitations with the animatronics and all that in the movie But I imagined it much bigger not megalodon bigger But I imagined it much bigger than it was in the movie. Maybe that was just my own brain working But I mean I'm I'm trying to remember exactly how big I think is what a 25 footer something like that in the book I'm not exactly sure, but it didn't seem to be a 25 foot shark in maybe 10 15 feet Maybe that I could be wrong and my spatial awareness is completely off But it seemed like a bigger shark in the book Of course that's explained away like I said with the limitations of the special effects But I didn't have a problem with the limitation of the special effects I watched the movie. I am super critical of books and movies and they're you know, the way things are tackled I didn't have a problem with it. Um now did the shark look real? I don't know. I haven't seen too many sharks But did the shark act realistic? I have no idea I personally did not have a problem With the movie version of the shark now you look at it here on the blu-ray Which I haven't even held up. I went and bought the blu-ray just so I could hold it up for you guys What anyways the uh the shark on here is far looks far more menacing than the book in the uh in the movie Of course, but then I realized something when it came. It's just the it's literally It's a the poster. It's the one on here is the one on here So anyways, this is the paperback. I couldn't find remember when I did my congo book versus movie I couldn't find my paperback in jaws. Well, I finally found it. It's in terrible condition, especially after me reading it Um, but I'm probably going to end up getting an updated version of it also Um, but I got the blu-ray of jaws, even though I did watch it on I think netflix or amazon prime It's one of the other Um, and I had to end up owning it But the blu-ray on amazon was actually cheaper than the dvd version Uh, and that was but that was during black friday. So it's probably not the same anymore Now the rob schneider We're gonna need a bigger boat mine is iconic if you don't know Um, I had never seen the movie up until the point when I read the book and I watched the movie This is only like five months ago y'all. I know it's been a while. Um, I've been preparing for this for for for a minute Um, but I'd never actually seen the scene. Um, I I knew it was there I but I'd never saw Roy schneider, um I've seen clips of him doing the reaction, but I've never seen the reaction and the And the uh, the actual line together in in the movie When I watched it, I think it's another one of the things that gives it to the movie version Is that it that scene is it's iconic for a reason But that scene actually made me laugh. I knew it was coming I was looking for it and it still made me laugh Roy schneider's reaction is perfect and now we get to the point the biggest Well, I don't know one of the one another another one of the big differences here Is that hooper survives? Um, I like that. Of course I can't I came to like the dude a lot more In the movie because he wasn't a douchebag You know having an affair with a married woman this character richard dryfus's hooper Was probably my second I would say it's my set. I loved quint quint was way up here brody I could I mean, I know he's the main character, but I honestly could have done Without other than the you're gonna need we're gonna need a bigger boat Um scene I probably could have done without Roy schneider. He could have been anybody But richard dryfus nailed that role and I will forever see him as hooper I actually preferred quint's death in the book over the movie It was very it was a great scene in the movie But I think that the ahab ending of the book was much better I think that was a much better ending for that character because he had lived his life out in the sea It brought things full circle for him and the sea ended up killing him not the shark I mean, I guess it could be assumed that he dragged him down then he ate him But for me, I feel like he just dragged him down drown him and just left him The the action movie one liner at the end of the movie man as a Wrong genre folks. So that's everything I found with the book and the movie. Did I miss some differences? Of course, I did. I know there's a lot of really minor stuff like there was two kids in the movie Three kids in the book, but I don't think that stuff's important or even interesting Um, so what I talked about here was just the interesting stuff If you have anything that you caught that isn't in one version or another or improvements or reasons why you like the book If it's not obvious, I like the movie more So this is one of those times where the movie I think is better again Going back to congo. I felt the same way But if you have any reasons why you like the book more maybe because it's a darker experience Maybe because you like the infidelity subplot. Let me know down there in the comments below But until next time I have been in you've been you this has been book versus movie and I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye Oh For you guys who are still here. What do you want me to do next? I have a choice To everybody clicked away already because I did my outro, but We have a choice between choke by chuck pollinik, which I would really love to reread I've never seen the movie and we have the witches of eastwick by john updyke Which one of these you guys want to see next comment down below. Let me know. Bye. Bye


My presentation is in two parts, and the first part is the background. More or less, the generic information about what Middle Eastern region, as we know it, has contributed to Western civilization. And so that is in the areas of math, medicine, sciences, a lot of other things. I was going to show a brief clip from Michael Woods documentary, which I recommend, an excellent documentary. It's called, very relevant to our session, is called Iraq, the cradle of civilization. But when I looked at the time constraints, I decided to just do the homework, make the notes for you. So on a slide, I put them there. So I will not be showing that, and we'll have more time to cover the second part, which is more difficult in terms of access. You can get the kind of information about contributions on the internet. The second part is the literary influences from the Middle East on some great Western writers. So I'll be spending more time on that than on the first part. So before I get started with my presentation, I would also like to announce that it's a good news that at City College, we have started a certificate program in Middle East Studies. And I have some brochures here. Please help yourself as you leave. It is important to add that you don't have to be a candidate for a certificate to enjoy the richness of such courses. The courses are open to anyone with interest. The card system, I know some of you may not like it. You can ask your questions. But I just think it economizes on time. And also more participation, people can write. Sometimes somebody is making a very good point, but takes a long time. I've done that many times. So it was for that reason I thought the cards would be a good way to economize. So to start with my lecture or talk or presentation, so this is the title, as you can see. And the second part of this slide is what I was going to show you in the video clip. So we can just look at it very quickly. What is so important about the Middle East? So as a Potamian contributions to Western civilization, writing, first astronomy, first map of the world, first laws, King Hammurabi's code of law, first sciences, first literature, all these first time achievements. And then the three Abrahamic faiths also came out of the Middle East. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Sufism is another contribution which is embraced by the whole world, regardless of one's faith. One can warm up to Sufism, people who don't like orthodox religions. They love Sufism because of its warmth and its openness. I think it is something which we will look at a little bit in more detail when we talk about Rumi, one of the great Sufi writers. So you can read the rest of the script here. And I want to mention, toward the end of the slide, you will notice it is very relevant that there are two books, primarily the first one, which says, for specific Middle Eastern and Islamic influences, Philip Pascini's recent book, Domes, Arches, and Minerates, a history of Islamic-inspired buildings in America, it is an essential resource. Nothing could be more relevant for our purposes. And the author of the book himself happens to be here. So I'm honored to have Phil right here. The second book I have mentioned there is also interesting and relevant. It is titled, very interestingly, All America. All is the Arabic for the All America. And as you can see, the subtitle tells you what the book is really about. It travels through America's Arab and Islamic roots. Phil's book is very scholarly. And I think if you pick it up, you really want to finish it, because it's so interestingly presented. So it's really a rare book. We're also fortunate today that our event is being covered by a journalist of high integrity who writes for Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. And the person happens to be here. That's Elaine Pascini. So we are very fortunate to have these two individuals interested in this program. I'm going to just read maybe one or two lines from here. In the news you see or hear some names these days. One city is Talafar, T-A-L-A-F-A-R, second word. That is probably the only city according to Michael Wood, which has continued through all these millennia and survives. It still is there. And right now, there is an attempt to take Talafar back from ISIS. So what will happen there? Something similar to what happened in Mosul. When Mosul was captured, thousands of innocent people were also slaughtered in the process. And the other city besides Talafar is Uruk. And Uruk, U-R-U-K, it existed up until 300 AD. And the gate of Uruk, you can see that gate even today in some sort of condition, dilapidated, but it's still there. So the continuity of city life, so that is something which is a great contribution from Mesopotamia, specifically Sumer, which is the southern part of Iraq. Writing begins there. It is known as the cuneiform writing, the badge-shaped symbols. And it is a miracle of archaeology. I would say that I can hold a little book in my hand, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which was inscribed on tablets of clay. And then it was found through rigorous efforts of archaeologists. And deciphering that language is really a miracle. So we are very fortunate we have a lot of archaeologists still working on some other scripts of other civilization. So that's basically the information that I wouldn't want to share with you. He doesn't mention what I would like to add that there are other contributions made by people much later from the Middle East. One contribution which must be acknowledged is the translation into Arabic of all existing Greek and Roman manuscripts. The Arabs were great translators, and they translated everything they could put their hands on. It was because of those translations, availability, that the European Renaissance was possible. The standard encyclopedia of medicine of the medieval time was by Avicenna. He wrote this encyclopedia known as the kanun, C-A-N-U-N, which means the law. And another person who is very, very famous and well-known and made huge contributions is known as Razi, R-A-Z-I. Their names are there, but they're buried in too much verbiage. I am still trying to cut down on the words. He wrote about 200 books, and it was these people who for the first time diagnosed smallpox and a few other diseases, and they introduced the idea of words, separate words for separate contagious illnesses. So this was something huge. Al-Khwarizmi is known as the father of algebra. Al-Khwarizmi's name became Algorithm. Al-Khwarizmi in Algorithm. And so the algebra comes from the Arab scholars. The Indian concept of zero and the Arabic numerals, which also are of Indian origin, they were introduced to Europe by the Arabs. So I'm going to move on to the literature part of this presentation. I have to keep my eye on the clock also. The epic of Gilgamesh, as I mentioned, is the first book of literature known to humanity. What does it contain? I have it with me. It's a very thin book. You can have a look if you want. If you promise not to handle it carefully, because it may fall apart. The epic has themes which are still extremely relevant, like the quest for everlasting life. And then at the same time, a very simple recipe for living a contented life. I would like to draw your attention to the recipe for the contented life. If you look at the middle of the slide, the words in bold letters, Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking, everlasting life. Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things. Dance and be merry. Feast and rejoice. Cherish the little hand that holds your hand and make your wife happy in your embrace. For this, too, is the lot of man. It's not just that you have to be out on adventures, the impossible adventures. You could be doing these small things, and they can give you fulfillment. So Gilgamesh was on his quest for everlasting life after he lost his closest friend, brother-like, by the name Enkidu. It's also a good theme of the brotherhood of these two people, very strong relation. So much so that after Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh has no desire to live unless he can vanquish just the very existence of death. And Enkidu is known as the man from the hills, very different. And Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk, and very, very much of a city kind of a person. So the two diverse people can unite and be so close that life would be meaningless without the other person. So these themes run through this great epic. I'm taking you to the next slide, which I'm sure you will enjoy very much if you are not familiar with it. This is a poem inscribed on a Persian carpet and given to the United Nations by the government of Iran as a gift. The words are in Farsi on the right, and the translation is, the sons of Adam are limbs of each other, having been created of one essence when the calamity of time affects one limb. The other limbs cannot remain at rest. If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others, you are unworthy to be called by the name of a human. Interestingly, former president, I hate to say the word former for him, Barack Obama, he used reference to this poem in his first message to the Iranian people on the eve of the new year, which in Iran they call Naaruz. So also if you want to really know more about the Middle Eastern contributions to Western civilization, listen to his lecture of 2009 that he gave from Cairo. Easily available. So nice to learn about the history through some eloquent, elegant speeches, isn't it? The tweets can teach you that much. OK, Sadhi's prose tales are also very captivating. One prose tale is about Sadhi feeling bad that he doesn't have slippers. And he walks barefoot to the mosque to pray. When he goes inside the mosque, he sees a man without feet. So he was complaining about slippers. And he is somebody who is without. It's a very classic tale, which most of us probably are familiar with. And then another very comic story about a conversation between a Jewish and a Muslim man. And Sadhi says, everyone thinks himself perfect in intellect. And should wisdom disappear from the surface of the earth, still no one will acknowledge his own ignorance. So he has a very open attitude. And he just says that no one is perfect, but we are all hung up on the idea of presenting ourselves as we are flawless. One other story which I think you will enjoy reference to is about the advice. If you know something, of course, speak up, participate, and share your knowledge. But if you don't know something, the best approach is silence. And Mark Twain said something very funny on that topic. Also, you may have heard it, but I want to repeat it.  He's classic in the way he puts things. He is eulogized by Emerson in the last paragraph you can see. And Emerson, a very famous American author, wrote about Sadhi, about half his, and some other Persian poets, and he made an audience for them because of his stature. It was very helpful. Hafiz is the next author I want to introduce you to. His full name is Sham Suddin, but he's known as Hafiz. Goethe used the title of the works of Hafiz, Diwan, D-I-V-A-N, which means collection. And Goethe used, borrowed that from Hafiz to write his East-Best Diwan. That's Goethe. And many French writers, and Emerson, as I mentioned, they translated his works, and they wrote very highly, very complimentary words about him. Gertrude Bell, the British author and also someone who was very much involved in the Middle East, spent a lot of time there. She translated Hafiz. I think it's very admirable when somebody whose language is not Farsi, is able to become so good at it that can translate. So Gertrude Bell introduced Hafiz in a long introduction. She died in the middle of 20th century. So some of her views are a bit dated for me, but she did a wonderful job. And I want to just read some of her words that she has to say about Hafiz and the poetry of Hafiz. So the very last section has lines from Hafiz. And Gertrude Bell says that these lines are always relevant, whether they are written today or 500 years ago. The first one is, my beloved is gone, and I had not even bid him farewell. How many times do we think that we have time, and then when the time comes to say goodbye, you are not able to really do a good job, even express yourself? And the second one about the loss of his son. Very painful. He lost his son and also his wife, and he had a pretty sad time of his life at that time. And he says, then said my heart, I will rest me in the city, which is illumined by her presence. Already her feet were bent upon a longer journey, but my poor heart knew it not. The next set of verses from Hafiz, these are what have made him very famous.  That's an ultimate compliment, we love it. And the last one is very popular with Nietzsche, the German philosopher, love this quotation, because he uses the words ecstatic wisdom to describe Hafiz. So wisdom can be boring or it can be also ecstatic. So he finds ecstatic wisdom in Hafiz's poetry. So this is what Hafiz had to say. I have estimated the influence of reason upon love and found that it is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the water's face and disappears so much for the reason and for passion to love. I have 15 more minutes, so I want to see what else I can introduce you to. I won't be able to cover all that. I knew that, not enough time. But Umar Khayyam is very important. And if you haven't studied him, I think it is really easy and very captivating. After every world war, first world war, the second world war, hundreds of Umar Khayyam clubs sprang up all around the globe. And you wonder, what is it that is so appealing, so captivating about him? He was basically an astronomer, a scientist. And writing poetry was his best time. And he wrote these quadrants.  So we can look at a few of them together. So these are some of the recipes people want to embrace. Perplexed no more with human or divine, tomorrows tangle to the winds, resign, and lose your fingers in the tresses of the Cyprus slender, minister of wine. Not hard to figure out what he wants us to do. And the theme that you are talking about here is known in literature as Carpe diem theme. Seize the day, seize the micro moment of the passing time because it is not going to come back ever. And then the next one, Khayyam, if you are drunk with wine, be happy. If you sit with a beautiful one for a moment, be happy. The end of all worldly existence is nothingness. Think of nothingness as being, be happy. Very hard to do that, which is good advice. And the last one, I think it echoes in John Milton's Paradise Lost also. Sometimes it is not a matter of borrowing. It is things happening at the same kind of thoughts coming to different authors. I sent my soul through the invisible, some letter of that afterlife to spell.  The words from Paradise Lost, Milton wrote, are the words given to Satan.  It's a very similar idea there. These next two quadrants are very, very controversial because if you look at them, they could be raising questions about the imperfection of the creator. If there is imperfection in the creation, then does it mean there is some imperfection in the creator also? So it's kind of a very bold questioning of the scheme of things and the imperfections in life in human beings. The second quadrant, none answered this. But after silence spake, a vessel of more ungainly make. So this is the scene where Khayyam is saying, I walked into Potter's shop, where vessels are made by the Potter using clay, the needed clay. And this vessel is called of ungainly make, has some kind of a flaw. And so they sneered at me for leaning all over I. What did the hand then of the Potter shake? The Potter's job is to create a perfect vessel. If the vessel is imperfect, then the hand of the creator also has to be blamed. So this is the kind of writing which gave him the notoriety of having some blasphemous idea. Or he could be saying, everything is God's creation and should be accepted on its face value as it is, as perfect. And if you cannot see it, there's the problem with your vision also. It could go either way. The last two are very famous, and you have probably read them, the moving finger of fate. Nothing can change your fate. You can cry all you want, but once it is recorded, it is done. And the last quad train, live for the day. Don't worry about tomorrow or yesterday. Rumi is the most popular poet in America. I really don't know if it would be the case if there were not some very good, accessible translations. Because Rumi is quite complex, and he writes in language which is not simple. Coleman Barks, our poet, American poet, has done a very good job of translating, making Rumi accessible. He is one of the major founders of the Sufi faith. I love the words which are inscribed at the entrance of his shrine in Konya, Turkey. What are those words? The last words in the first paragraph. This is the Kaaba of lovers. Kaaba is a sacred place. Whoever comes here lacking becomes complete. It's very optimistic. And the doctrine of fana, F-A-N-A, which means extinction, is associated with his name. It is the extinction of the ego in order to blend completely with the beloved. The ego is always what gets in the way. So the two poems which are there on the slide, one is about Sufism is called the heart-based version of Islam, heart-based. And this poem that I have on the slide is the best exemplar of the importance of the engagement, involvement of the heart in any search. So I searched for God among the Christians on the cross, and therein I found him not. I went into the ancient temples of idolatry. No trace of him was there. I entered the mountain cave of Hira, and then went as far as Kandahar, which is Kandahar, as we call it today. But God I found not. He mentions all these places he went to, and he traversed the globe looking for the truth. And he says, in the end, he found it in his heart. So that's the famous. And the most famous of his poems is the next one, which is sometimes referred to as the read poem, R-E-E-D. It is the poem about the pain of separation from the beloved. You could call the beloved as the divine, or it could be the beloved as a person. So it applies to both. It is on the next slide. And before I read that slide with you, and this last one here, the famous British author, Somerset Mom, he adapted one of the stories of Rumi. And it is called An Appointment in Smyrna. The original story is Rumi's centuries before Somerset Mom. And the story is about fate, that you can't run away from death. And there is a certain comfort that comes to you if you believe that there's a moment when you are going to be no more. And then there's no reason to be frantic about, worry about how it will all end, because it is going to happen a certain way. So that is the idea that is still very much fixed in the Middle Eastern Islamic world, that the moment of death and the manner of death is predetermined. So this story is that Solomon is very interesting about Rumi that he will bring in the holy prophet of Islam. He will bring in the Jewish prophets, Moses, Jesus, Abraham, many others. And so the story is that Solomon had these very supernatural powers. A man came to him trembling with fear and begged him to send him to India, dispatch him to India. Because he had seen the angel of death, his name is Azrael, looking at him with a look that frightened him. So Solomon knows this person and he dispatches him to India. And then he runs into the angel of death and asks him, why did you look at that person and frightened him? And Azrael says, no, I didn't want to frighten him. I was just bewildered myself that I have an appointment with this person in India and he will need 1,000 wings to get there. So that's running away from fear. It is running toward it. Interesting kind of a take on that. So the next slide is the last one that I will be able to share with you. Listen to the story told by the read of being separated. Since I was cut from the read bed, I have made this crying sound. Anyone, apart from someone he loves, understand what I say. Anyone pulled from his source, longs to go back. At any gathering, I am there mingling in the laughing and grieving, a friend to each. But few will hear the secrets hidden within the notes, the notes of the read. The last author that I will have time to share with you is Najib Mahfouz. And he is, I think, maybe the second Middle Eastern author who got the Nobel Prize for literature. He got that in 1988. The story that I want to share with you is really very simple, very short story. He writes long novels, very complex novels, like Midak, Ali, was also controversial. And the children of Gabal were very controversial, in which he is almost making fun of Orthodox religions. Just look at his words in the first paragraph. Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization. You can put it more succinctly. And that is the reason for so many problems in the world of our interpretation. He's not finding fault with religions because they have in them the potential to bring people together, if you mean to do that. But we latch on to the negatives which every religion has. If your intent is to bring people together, why not focus on those areas that have that impact? So simple. So in this story, it's a conversation between a very young little girl and her dad. She's saying that I am with Nadia, who is a Christian girl, all the time. But when the time comes for religion class, we are sent into different rooms. I don't want to be separated. So the discussion goes on.  She is a Christian. And so that is natural that you will be instructed in your religions separately. And then she asks him, who makes these rules? Why are these rules there? And who is God? Can I see him on TV? I want to see him. And then she asks questions which are receiving glib answers from the father.  She's embroidering and enjoying the cornering of her husband by this little girl. And she finally says, what is heaven? And who will go to heaven? And she says, and she gets the answer. If you do good deeds, then you will go to heaven. And she realizes toward the end that the answers that she's getting are really not good enough. She says, I am going to be with Nadia everywhere, also in my religion class. And the story ends whether or not she will get her way. The implication is she might because she has the implicit support of the mother as well. And the author gives these lines to the father. You can read, out of frustration, all that he can tell his daughter is that she has to remain a Muslim like her mother and father. But that doesn't satisfy the little girl. And then all these questions I mentioned. And then toward the end, the author says he didn't know how much of what he said was right and how much was wrong. The stream of questions had aroused the question marks deep inside him. So he says, a child teaching awareness, bringing a new perspective to the father. It reminds me of a very famous statement from the prophet by Khalil Gibran. He says, give your love to your children. But don't try to give them your morals and edicts how to do things, because they will have their own. There's something similar happening here. The last item, and that's the last line, excerpts from his speech. In that speech, which I don't have time to open up and read to you, he talks about the sacredness of knowledge. And he says he comes from a tradition which holds knowledge as sacred. And he gives the example that in one of the wars with the Byzantines, the Byzantines had many prisoners of war in the captivity of the Muslim conquering army. And the Muslims offered to free all the prisoners in exchange for a few manuscripts of Greek writing. So he says that writing is sacred in his culture and his civilization. I am reminded of my recent experience in Palermo, Italy. I went to the archaeology museum there. And I was astonished and very pleased to see a whole room dedicated to this Syrian archaeologist whose name is Khalid al-Assad. He was an archaeologist who was murdered by ISIS because he would refuse to give away the secrets of certain very important historical sites. So I think it's really something which we don't register today, because in the old tradition it has to be revived. He ends his speech by saying what Sadi said, we are all one family. It is the duty of the powerful countries to reach out and stamp out the famine, the disease. It is your duty. And then he ends by pleading, please end the misery of Palestinians and also save the Jews from compromising their values too much because he doesn't believe that what is happening in Israel is 1988, things have gotten much worse. So I think I would like to say that as you think about this whole presentation, think of the possibilities of what you can do. In, for example, in the case of Syria, why am I saying, why don't you do something about Syria? I'm saying you, I can do something about solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem because we live here and this country is the only stumbling block in the solution because we veto the UN Security Council resolution that would enforce the perfectly legal accepted Resolution 242. So I think we all have that obligation and I appreciate that Najib Mahfouz articulated that so well. So thank you very much. These are the cards here. And if you can write your question, that will be great. Thank you.


Hello everyone, this is Amit Dan of AmitDan.com. Today I will have another episode of review video and I'll be reviewing the Amazon Basics 500 watt ceramic small space personal mini heater. If this is your first time or if you visit, thank you for your support on this channel. I'm always trying new and different ideas. If you appreciate very deep, please go ahead and come back for more. If you're only looking for review videos, there will be links in the description box below. So just a few weeks ago I reviewed a space heater which was another brand and it was a big heater. Not too big but much bigger than this. And today I have the small mini personal space heater which is Amazon Basics 500 watt ceramic small space heater. So the heater didn't have any packaging. It just came like this. It was just in a bubble wrap and they just provided small kind of warning instructions but this is not actually a manual. It doesn't say like you know how to operate or anything. It just has lots of like you know warnings and stuff. So there's really nothing to show here and they didn't even like you know put any pictures or anything. They just mentioned that you know what not to do. So I'll just you know set this aside. So the heater looks like this. If I have a cell phone and I'm going to put it on here then you'll be able to see that you know how big is this.  And it's very basic. There's just only one button.  There's no temperature control or no you know heat control and there's something like here which is a security feature. So what happens that you know if you trip it or if it falls or climbs then it stops the heater which I'm going to show you very shortly.  This is very surprising that it has a lot heating capacity but the one thing is that you know it doesn't stop.  So once you turn it on it's going to keep like you know going and going and going so it will like you know give you heat as long as you don't turn off the heater. So I'm just going to you know connect this with the electric output. I have the wire right here and I'll just turn it on and I'll just show you like you know how it sounds like or the switch options when I turn it on. So the heater is connected right now so to turn it on you're going to have to just you know press the button right here which I'll do and you can hear the heat or you can hear the noise. So this is working right now and the security feature let's say if I lift it up it just stopped the heater and if I put it back it turns on again and if I recline it it turns off and if it you know fails it turns off. So basically it's just that you know small white button like this here or you know switch that does that and the heat power is very good.  It has a bit noise but it's not too much noise as well and overall this is a really you know I'm really happy with the product and there's no affiliated links or I was not paid for this product. I purchased this with my own money so you get totally honest and unbiased opinion. So this is very good for like you know let's say you're if you're working at desk or if you have a very small room then this is good enough you can put it on your desk or put it under the desk or even if you can just like you know let's say you have one room and you don't want to turn on the heater for the whole house then you can just use this and just you know turn it on inside your room that should work as well and that's how actually I worked this last night I turned off the heater of the whole condo and then I just kept it on and it just worked fine because you know it was inside the room but comparing the price and everything definitely this is a very you know good purchase. This is a 500 watt and this one this unit is 120 volt 60 Hertz so this is definitely very you know friendly on electric bill and except that you know it's a very good designing and the base or frame is plastic but it doesn't get hot when the heater is on because it was on last night for like eight hours and then I touched it in the morning and it was still cool or you know there's no heat movement from the heater to the frame so definitely this is you know something you can consider if you're looking for small space heater or personal heater or mini heater so that's all for today thank you for watching this video there'll be more videos coming up so I'll see you shortly thank you