The Conquest of Happiness

Conquest of Happiness is a very interesting and a wonderful book by Bertrand Russell. Bertrand Russell was one of the most prominent intellectuals of the early twentieth century. His major domains were philosophy and mathematics. However, this book is about life. Particularly, the book lists many tips and tactics for acquiring happiness in life and for developing a happier and a more content personality. Apart from its contents, the book is also very well written and is a good resource for anyone willing to improve their reading comprehension of the English language. There are many good examples in the book through which Russell has tried to persuade his readers to live with a simpler lifestyle. The book also gives a reflection of the simplistic mindset that Bertrand Russell had.

The most interesting thing about the book is where the author gives and example regarding struggle for survival. I do not remember the story verbatim, but it somewhat goes like this. Russell gives the example of a businessman living in a big city such as London. He spends most of his time with his work. He is so much workaholic that he hardly has time for his spouse and children. He leaves home early in the morning and comes back much late at night. On work he spends most of his time devising strategies in order to beat his business rivals. This is how his life goes on. Russell suggests that if you ask such a man on as to why he works so hard? The usual answer would be that he has to struggle for survival. Russell argues that this is not struggle for survival. Russell then gives an example of two friends stuck on a wrecked ship. Everyone except them has died on the ship. In order to feed themselves to stay alive they have eaten up all the corpses. Their plight is now such that in order to remain alive one of them would have to eat the other. This, Bertrand Russell argues, is struggle for survival.

There are many other interesting things in the book and avuncular advice to his readers for achieving happiness. For instance, Russell suggests that achieving happiness is not a one day endeavor. Rather it should be acquired over time and should be considered as a lifetime goal. Among other things Russell also argues that one should never feel guilty or remorseful from the point of view of having committed a sin. Although Russell asserted that he would explain his rationale somewhere latter in the book, as far as I remember he did not do it.

Overall the book is very nicely written and despite the fact that it is very old, it is still very much relevant for everyone to read.

Stratfor

Many people try to understand the world affairs through various sources such an news, newspapers, gossip and conspiracy theories. This normally leads to more conspiracy theories. People end up having either no understanding of the reasons for things happening around the world or they develop a foggy view of affairs at best. This lack of objective development of opinions can be further obscured by cultural conditioning. For instance, many people in the Muslim world would presume that the U.S. has a hand in the recent chemical attacks in Syria, while being oblivious of the ideological humanitarian struggle that has refrained the former from going to war or attacking the latter in response to the chemical attacks. Although, at least apparently, the two phenomena are quite orthogonal. Indeed, the way things are understood can be painful and ridiculous. It is a pity! Similarly, one may wonder what, for instance, the Europeans actually think about the role Russians have played in averting any possible air, or whatever, strikes. Indeed, there could be many misunderstandings.

Startfor addresses such misconceptions and misunderstandings very effectively through its weekly geopolitical analysis reports. Stratfor, as the name suggests, is a syncronym for strategic forecast. It is a Washington based think tank. It covers almost any situation in the world that may have any significant impact on the geopolitics of the world. Irrespective of whether it is an economic situation arising in Europe, a military situation raising its head in Afghanistan, a hurricane that may affect American trade or a political handshake in China that may affect the export of toys elsewhere and its consequence on global economy, Stratfor tries to explain that through its own vantage point of objectivity. Overall stratfor is quite objective in its treatment of various issues it picks. Stratfor can also be quite blunt and surprising in the way it explains a situation. It appears that the major objective of Stratfor is to talk about ulterior motives of nations.

The most noteworthy thing about Stratfor is the way its CEO, George Friedman, writes about any geopolitical situation. Apart from the content about the matter, the articles are interesting to read in their own right. That means that apart from his choice of topics, the way he writes is quite inspiring. Usually he starts off with a random phrase or a thought and then slowly builds his argument in the light of examples, limitations and lessons from history. The choice of words and the structure and flow of article keep the reader engaged till the end of the read. And the most fascinating thing is the way he ends his discourse.

Machine Learning

Machine Learning by Tom M. Mitchell is the first text book for students who aspire to learn the subject of machine learning. It presents detailed and easy to understand illustrations of various concepts that are used in the field of machine learning. These include, necessary topics concerning probability and statistics, artificial intelligence, neural networks and evolutionary algorithms. 

The best thing about the book is its illustration of feed-forward, back-propagation, multi-layer perceptron (MLP). The good thing about it is that the underlying mathematical concepts are explained in a layman friendly manner. One learns techniques for computing partial derivatives and the chain rule for differentiation for the first time in high-school calculus without having any apparent and significant practical benefit. Their utility becomes clear when one reads and understands how the MLP works. More precisely, Mitchell explains how partial derivatives are computed with respect to the weight coefficients at every step of the MLP so as to guide the gradient descent algorithm to plunge into some locally or globally optimal solution. Similarly, Mitchell shows the significance of applying the chain rule to derive weight coefficients at every layer and node of the MLP with respect to the input values at its first layer. The whole explanation is quite fascinating and exciting.

Mitchell also introduces and covers the complicated topic of evolutionary algorithms in a very nice way. Initially various concepts surrounding genetic algorithms are introduced in a lucid manner to make the student comfortable with the subject. Mitchell then illustrates genetic programming. Other important and interesting algorithms are also discussed. For instance, coverage of the famous simulated annealing algorithm is quite interesting. The book is an excellent guide for any student who has began to learn machine learning. 

Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings

During the last ten days of this Ramadhan I managed to treat myself with a thorough and complete read of the Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings. The fatwa is written by Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. Dr. Qadri is an eminent Muslim scholar and his book is an attempt to guide Muslims in particular, and rest of the humanity in general, on as to why terrorism is wrong when seen through the central teachings of Islam. The book is more or less 450 pages long and contains narrations from Quran, hadith and examples from the conduct of early Muslim rulers and caliphs. The central aim of the book is to address the confusion that lurches within the minds of young Muslims viz a viz terrorism and jihad. According to Dr. Qadri the current intensity and magnitude is becoming a great cause of atheism in the world. Another reason is that the wave of terrorism that has persisted for more than a decade has been a great cause for bringing disrepute to the Muslim Ummah in general and Pakistan in particular, where Dr. Qadri  is originally from. He argues that while majority of the Muslims condemn terrorism in all forms, a minority of Muslims give it a tacit approval. It is worth remembering that Dr. Qadri was one of the first Muslim scholars who condemned the world trade center tragedy extremely vociferously.

In almost the first three quarters of the book Dr. Qadri has argued against terrorism and rebellion in a painstaking manner. In reality, this portion of book is dedicated to arguing against internal rebellion within a Muslim state. The matters concerning rights of non-Muslims living in Muslim countries have also been discussed thoroughly. Dr. Qadri argues that devout Muslims should not revolt against their unjust rulers even if they are unjust, cruel and tyrant, as it is forbidden. On the other hand, they should acquire lawful and constitutional means for getting their matters resolved by the state. Dr. Qadri argues that the people who abandon peaceful routes, such as adoption of democracy or a peaceful constitutional struggle, and rebel against the state are outlaws and should be dealt with severely accordingly.

Dr. Qadri also argues that according to the central teachings of Islam it is the duty of the Muslim state to protect the rights of the non-Muslims who live in their country. It is the duty of the state to provide security for their life, family and property. They should have proper privileges to practice their religious chores while not coming in conflict with the tenets of Islam. 

The last part of the book is dedicated to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. Dr. Qadri argues that Muslims living in non-Muslim countries should abide by the rules and regulations of the country they reside in. Muslims should not become a source of mischief for the country they reside in. Instead they should pray and wish well for their country of residence. 

In order to strengthen his argument regarding the conduct of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries he quotes the classical event of migration of early Muslims to Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia). He quotes that the early Muslims who migrated to Ethiopia were received well by the Negus who was a Christian. The Negus treated them with humility, honor and respect. In return Muslims who lived there were also extremely loyal to the Negus. So much so that in one of the conflicts of the Negus with one of his rivals the Muslims prayed to Allah for his victory and even vowed to help him in time of need. Dr. Qadri argues that such should be the conduct and intentions of Muslims while living in non-Muslim countries. 

Dr. Qadri ends the book by suggesting a few peaceful alternatives to violence and unrest. For instance, he proposes Muslims to acquire modern education, make effective use of print and electronic media to convey their concerns, stage peaceful demonstrations and rallies, and learn from other societies about how to live and coexist with peace, harmony and nonviolence. Every Muslim and non-Muslim should read this book. 

Long Time No See

I remember having written my last post during the month of Ramadhan. It has been more or less 40 days I did not write anything on this blog ever since. But this does not mean that I did not wish to write. Writing is fun! My last post was about Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. I wrote about him in the context of his new book concerning his fatwa on terrorism and suicidal bombing. After writing about him the next thing I wanted to do immediately was to grab his book and have a read at it. And that is precisely what I did. I read the book. But I fell short of writing a review about it, as that is what I wanted to do also. 

The book is very nice and argues extremely against all forms of terrorism from an Islamic perspective. I believe that every Muslim and non-Muslim should read it. I had a few other ideas in my mind about writing too. These included, for instance, to write about topics such as consciousness, free will, geopolitics and more book reviews etc. In fact I had made a list of topics I had wanted to write about. Reiterated, writing is a lot of fun! The reason why I stopped writing was that I wanted to give myself a break and contemplate on what I really wanted to do for future. The reason why I did not write a review about the fatwa is a bit obscured in my mind and I also do not understand precisely why I did not reflect on it. But I suppose I did not write about it because I think that by writing about it I am only trying to coax a humanity that does not really care about such things. Specially given that what is happening in the world around us on a daily basis. More precisely, given that what is happening in Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere and given also the role of global powers in such affairs, I feel that people concerned and involved in such affairs care less about such literary efforts and more about their own ulterior motives. I nonetheless feel that everyone should retire for a while , though, from whatever roles they have in their wild pursuits and try to reflect on consciousness and other aspects of life and/or afterlife.

But who cares what a book writer has to say or a blogger has to write on peace specially when the stakes are too high. But how high are the stakes really?

Shaykh-ul-Islam

Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, is an Islamic scholar and a political and a social worker from Pakistan. He is the founder and CEO of Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI) which is an NGO aimed at promoting religious moderation, quality education, and interfaith dialogue. Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is a cogent thinker and writer who has written many books on various topics about Islam. Recently he has written a very interesting book titled Fatwa on Suicide Bombings and Terrorism. This is supposed to be a very interesting and inspiring book. In this book, according to Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri himslef, he has left no stone un-turned in the theology of Islam in order to argue against suicide bombings and terrorism. This means that he has turned every page of Quran and Sunnah and claims to have argued against terrorism in light of that. This is quite interesting and remarkable. Presuming that the writing of this book is motivated by rationality and reason, it could be a great resource for understanding true Islam. The book is being reported to have been translated in other foreign languages too. Furthermore, I have heard that the book has already been translated to Danish language.

I remember having met Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri when I was an undergraduate student. I suppose it was back in 1,999 or 2,000. Current era of terrorism had not began yet and the world was a peaceful place in some sense. The reason for meeting him was quite interesting. Two of our very dear friends had become atheists. I would not disclose the names for the purpose of confidentiality. Another one of my friends was very concerned about this. He was affiliated with MQI and proposed to us to take both of them for a dialogue with Dr. Qadri. After much efforts we reached MQI center in Lahore. We were a group of around more than 50 people as I remember. Dr. Qadri was somehow not expecting us. He nonetheless greeted us warmly and we had our meeting and dialogue with him. As the meeting progressed, incidentally the two of our dear friends chose to keep quite. This was rather strange because they used to be very vociferous about their atheistic ideas on the campus. After all the idea of taking them to Dr. Qadri ensued due to this. And they had agreed to having an open dialogue with Dr. Qadri prior to going there.

Seeing their silence and the consequent gravity of the situation, I decided to ask all the atheistic questions that I thought could be the most compelling about the existence of God. I found it interesting because I had recently started to learn to speak in English those days. I used to form a sentence in my mind and then utter it. It used to be questions normally. I learnt to become a bit more spontaneous over the years due to my interaction with books, movies, the Internet and various people. Similarly, my knowledge about atheism was also very limited. I remember that the friend of mine who had reverted to atheism used to keep a thick book along side him. I remember that it posed questions about the existence of God. The idea that someone would read something about the existence of God used to appear very weird to me in those days. I think it would be just as if an atheist or a materialist would find it hard to grasp the idea that God somehow existed. But for me, just like many religious people, God simply existed. There was no question about that!

So as the discussion proceeded, I asked many questions and they were answered and the congregation listened. Most of the questions revolved around the existence of God Himself, creation of life and of universe. Dr. Qadri answered each one of them in the light of Quranic verses. There were other questions like if God created the universe and all the life then who created God. Such a question has a basis in philosophy and the cosmological argument addresses it. There were also other typical questions of the sort that why does an onion have so and so number of peels and why not any other number. For instance, a typical question could be that why is God not like this or why is He like that. Or, why cannot God be seen if He exists. Such questions were also answered. But a problem with such questions is that no matter how much one dwells in to their explanations, the answers can never quell the concerns. Latter in my life I took atheism seriously and read it. This gave me a clearer perspective on what atheism was all about.

Meeting Dr. Qadri was otherwise a pleasant experience. He is a simple and a courteous man. I hope his new book on terrorism is read by every Muslim and non-Muslim.

Fractals

One of the possible sources through which one comes across a knowledge about fractals is the study of Internet traffic behavior. Internet traffic can be said to behave in a self-similar manner. Self-similarity means that given a network traffic trace, the pattern of variability of various network metrics, such as end-to-end delay or variance, at various time-scales does not exhibit any change. In other words it means that given a time-series of network statistics, no-matter how much you zoom-in or zoom-out of  that time-series, the pattern you observe is the same.

Internet traffic behaves in such a way due to various reasons. Self-similarity is modeled using heavy-tailed or long-range statistical distributions. A heavy tailed distribution is one which has its hump on one side and it is skewed to another side. Its tail is rather thick and that is probably why it is called heavy. They are normally classified as belonging to some exponential family of statistical distributions. Pareto and Weibull distributions are examples of such statistical distributions. It has a finite mean and an infinite variance. It is the consequence of this infinite variance that anything modeled through it exhibits a self-similar behavior as described above. I presume that if something like a time-series of internet delays has an infinite variance, it will exhibit the same type of variability no-matter what time-scales you choose to look at it. This makes it self-similar.

The simplest way of understanding self-similarity is usually proposed to be the study of fractals or fractal art. A fractal in fractal art is a piece of art that apart from its aesthetic appeal has one additional quality. That quality is that if one zoom's in or out of the picture, one gets to see the same pattern repeating as was seen in the previous step.

Crime and Punishment

I read crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky during the summer of 2004. It was recommended to me by a dear friend. With a typical slow start of a huge novel, the author introduces us with the characters of his novel, about the living circumstances of the people of his time, about the poverty of St. Petersburg, and the lonely and cold Russian streets of its time.

The central character of the novel is a young man named Raskolnikov who lives in a small rented room in St. Petersburg. For some odd reason he develops an idea that he should kill an old lady, who is a pawn-broker. After much pondering Raskolnikov sneaks into the old woman's apartment and kills her with an axe. He also murders her half-sister. Nonetheless, apart from a few things he leaves the apartment untouched and does not take anything substantial from it. As Raskolnikov fled, he somehow fortunately managed to do so unseen and unobserved.

The plot of the novel takes various turns and twists with a number of events emerging as it progresses. But what is central to the novel is the thought process of Raskolnikov as he holds the secret of his crime in his heart. Even though nobody knew of his crime, his psychological bewilderment make him appear as a suspicious person. Eventually he discloses his secret to his beloved, Sonya. Despite there being a minimal  practical chance of him being convicted, he eventually confesses upon Sonya's persuasion. He is eventually sentenced to eight years of penal servitude in Siberia. Sonya follows him there too. After some time in the prison the process of his redemption and moral rehabilitation begin. This happens due to the affectionate influence of Sonya.

Reading Crime and Punishment can be an extremely depressing thing to do. A sensitive reader can himself go through various psychological phases during the read. The most tormenting thing here is of course to go through the tormenting thought process of Raskolnikov after he commits the murder. Putting oneself in the shoes of Raskolnikov is the other difficult thing to do. Actually it is not only difficult, it is unavoidable too. While reading the novel the reader unconsciously maps himself on to the circumstances and the personality of Raskolnikov. This adds further anxiety to the nerves of the reader. Visualizing about the poverty ridden  circumstances of St. Petersberg is the last thing that keeps the reader melancholic for a few days of viscous reading. Through crime and punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky creeps into the conscience of every one of its readers.

Mesmerism

Tomb of Hazrat Gul baba Bektash in Budapest, Hungary

It may astonish a few, surprise some others and annoy the others to know that mesmerism is also claimed to have a basis in Islamic mysticism. I read about this in the book Irfan. I made a few translations from that book. My reading of Irfan was motivated by my desire to understand the nature of consciousness. I read it after I read atheism, specially The End of Faith by Sam Harris. The chapters I translated include An Account of Invocation of Jinns, Angels and Souls, The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding and Certainty in Belief is Dependent Upon Seeing.The book is written by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here.

Somewhere in Irfan the author suggests that mesmerism also has a basis in Islamic mysticism  According to the narrative in the times in which Franz lived there used to be Hazrat Gulshan baba Bektashi (or probably it was Gul baba) somewhere in the Eastern Europe. I do not remember the country precisely but I think that it was Hungary. Hazrat Gulshan baba used to treat the people about their problems. By the blessings of Allah he could cure the sick. He was also blessed enough by Allah the he could treat the wounded. Thus, it was reported that many wounded soldiers used to come to him and he  used to make dum on them. In hours of desperation he even used to apply his spit to the wounds of the sick and they used to heal by the blessings of Allah. Even Christian soldiers used to come to him and he was quite venerated by them.

In those years Franz Mesmer started visiting his shrine. From there he acquired a few tricks of the trade viz a viz what we now know as mesmerism or its descendant, hypnotism. This is what I read in Irfan, Allah knows the best.

God of the Orient

The other day I came across an Urdu novel titled "Khuda-e-Mashriq", literally meaning "God of the Orient" in English. I casually browsed its pages and I could not resist reading a part of it with a lot of concentration. I shall talk about that latter. But first I would like to briefly describe what the novel is about. The novel is written by Muhammad Zahid Afghan. As the name suggests, the writer is most possibly from Afghanistan. The central character of the novel is a British female who travels all the way from England to various Eastern countries and probably lands up somewhere in the subcontinent. Her name was Salomi. I am not sure though, but I think that I should reconfirm. There she makes friends. And she has her perplexities and bewilderment typical of a traveler.

The part that I found the most interesting was that the favorite personality of Salomi was the renowned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In her conversations with her friends she talks about Friedrich Nietzsche and his nihilism. This was the part that I found most interesting. I heard about Friedrich Nietzsche  and a few about his quotes a long time a go from friends. Names such as Friedrich Nietzsche and others can be quoted in educated circles as a symbol of intellect. But after a long time, I started wondering what his really philosophy was. After all it is important to know what someone really contributed as a philosophy as opposed to merely quoting from his/her quotations. I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was an atheist and that much of atheism of the present day can be attributed to having a background in Nietzsche-ism. Well, I could be wrong but I suppose that Friedrich Nietzsche still has an impact. Latter I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was a nihilist about the existence of God. And I wondered what were the reasons that led Friedrich Nietzsche in to nihilism.

Salomi explained the underlying reason very clearly. At one point she starts narrating about the life of Friedrich Nietzsche to her friends with an emotional vigor. She says that as Christianity arrived, for some odd reason the West started indulging in barbarism. As a consequence Friedrich Nietzsche became agnostic about the existence of God. He abandoned his civil life and went somewhere in the alps to live there. There he created a new God. Zarathustra! 

Latter while having a discussion with her friends, they ask each other that then who was the God of Zarathustra. One of the characters proposes that the God of Zarathustra was the God of Hazrat Ghulam Moi-ud-din Chishti (RA). He (RA) was a sufi saint with a substantial following in the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that Zarathustra (AS) was himself a prophet of Islam. Overall the novel is nicely written and tries to address various philosophical curiosities. It is interesting to note also that there are people in Afghanistan who try to do such delicate and creative work.

Awaken the Giant Within

I was recommended to read Awaken the Giant Within, written by Anthony Robbins, a long time ago by a close friend. The book was recommended for learning about acquiring better emotional health. I have to admit that I could not put the book down as soon as I started reading it. It is a very fascinating and motivating book. It describes many methods for becoming emotionally healthy. Along with that it also provides guidelines for acquiring good physical health and for becoming financially sound. However, it is mainly focused on emotional health which, in my opinion, is also the best thing about the book.

The author takes a multi-pronged approach to rehabilitate the emotional health of its readers. It tells motivating stories about the lives of people who at some points in their lives were stuck in extraordinary circumstances. They eventually liberated themselves of their misery because of things like courage, motivation, dedication and hope. Indeed it is quite encouraging to read audacious stories about people who had a multiple personality disorder with around hundreds of altars, or of people who were stuck in concentration camps during the holocaust.

The book also offers practical tools such as neuro-associated conditioning (NAC). Following such methods and tools can definitely affect a person's personality in better ways. Among many fascinating things about the book, one is the power and ability of any person to change his/her state of mind extremely quickly. That no matter in whatever state of mind a person is, one can change that within an instant. Although there are many quotes in the book that affect a person immediately. But the one I liked the most is: Change your focus, change your life. 

The goal of the book is to make the reader to learn to become a happier and a more prosperous person. The main emotion one experiences while reading the book is that of euphoria. Anthony Robbins has indeed done a great job by writing such a marvelous book.

Understanding Digital Signal Processing

Understanding digital signal processing (DSP) can both be intriguing and frightening in the beginning. The mathematics involved in various integral transforms can turn off many teachers. The mysterious domain transformations can fascinate many a novice. For a long time as a graduate student I was amazed by the underlying idea behind transformation of a digital signal from time domain to frequency domain. I simply could not understand how it happened. After going through many lectures and books, I eventually came across Understanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. 

Understanding Digital Signal Processing (DSP) treats the subject in a way no other author or teacher has ever done. The best thing about the book is that elucidates the various and many key concepts of DSP in an extremely layperson friendly manner.  It is quite inspiring to learn with the help of examples on as to what the various transforms and transfer functions do with a digital signal. One has a great eureka moment when one learns that the Fourier transform is basically a cross-correlation function. In order to know the strength of a particular frequency component in a multi-spectral signal, the signal is simply corss-correlated with another signal of that particular frequency. This is a very enlightening way to learn about the Fourier transform.

There are many other cherish-able ideas in the book. For instance, to know that a FIR filter is basically a smoothing function. Similarly, the rationale behind choosing a particular Nyquist's sampling rate is also quite informative. The reasons for having bell-shaped windowing functions and their linkage with spectral leakage is also explained in a very nice manner. Other topics like the Z-transform, or IIR filtering are also covered in a very nice way.

 Understanding digital signal processing can is the best book for anyone who wants to learn DSP from the ground up. It is also quite suitable for anyone who is an expert but wants a revision of concepts. It is specially useful for learning the key concepts of DSP and for developing a transparency in the mind about what actually happens to the signal when it is transformed from one domain to another. Any person who wants to learn DSP should definitely read Understanding Digial Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. Understanding digital signal processing (DSP) can both be intriguing and frightening in the beginning. The mathematics involved in various integral transforms can turn off many teachers. The mysterious domain transformations can fascinate many a novice. For a long time as a graduate student I was amazed by the underlying idea behind transformation of a digital signal from time domain to frequency domain. I simply could not understand how it happened. After going through many lectures and books, I eventually came across Understanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. 

Understanding Digital Signal Processing (DSP) treats the subject in a way no other author or teacher has ever done. The best thing about the book is that elucidates the various and many key concepts of DSP in an extremely layperson friendly manner.  It is quite inspiring to learn with the help of examples on as to what the various transforms and transfer functions do with a digital signal. One has a great eureka moment when one learns that the Fourier transform is basically a cross-correlation function. In order to know the strength of a particular frequency component in a multi-spectral signal, the signal is simply corss-correlated with another signal of that particular frequency. This is a very enlightening way to learn about the Fourier transform.

There are many other cherish-able ideas in the book. For instance, to know that a FIR filter is basically a smoothing function. Similarly, the rationale behind choosing a particular Nyquist's sampling rate is also quite informative. The reasons for having bell-shaped windowing functions and their linkage with spectral leakage is also explained in a very nice manner. Other topics like the Z-transform, or IIR filtering are also covered in a very nice way.

 Understanding digital signal processing can is the best book for anyone who wants to learn DSP from the ground up. It is also quite suitable for anyone who is an expert but wants a revision of concepts. It is specially useful for learning the key concepts of DSP and for developing a transparency in the mind about what actually happens to the signal when it is transformed from one domain to another. Any person who wants to learn DSP should definitely read Understanding Digial Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. The book is particularly suitable for the mathematics shy.

Bunny in the Clouds

Muhammad (PBUH) written naturally in the clouds.

I remember having read an article a few months ago in connection with Dr. Eben Alexander's much hyped book Proof of Heaven. I don't remember exactly but I think that the article was published in the scientific American magazine. The article had a mention of a phenomenon of seeing a "bunny in the cloud" in it. According to my extrapolated understanding of it the term is related to wishful thinking. That no matter what random shape the rather amorphous clouds acquire, if a person is adamant about seeing a bunny in the cloud, he/she will eventually see it. This is a nice analogy to explain the idea of wishful thinking. That no matter what a person sees or feels in his/her dreams, hallucinations, spiritual trances or commas, if a person is hellbent on perceiving it as heaven, he/she will eventually do so. 

Laa Ilaaha Illa Allah written in a farm in Germany.

It makes a lot of sense to wonder that whether the phenomenon of seeing a bunny in the cloud is always a visual illusion or can it also be attributed some authenticity at times. Here I presume the use of the term "bunny in the clouds" to be metaphorical. This means that both bunny and the clouds can mean anything that can be seen or observed. For instance, bunny can mean a flower, food, drinks, a knife, a sword, Jesus (PBUH), Marry (PBUH), Muhammad (PBUH), Allah, a garden, heaven or fire. Similarly cloud can also mean anything like a cloud, a dream, moon, a potato or a watermelon. 

Religious people have a great propensity for seeing different types of such metaphorical bunnies in different types of those so-called clouds. Thus, it is not uncommon to see visual appearances in the clouds that resemble Jesus Christ (PBUH). Some of them are vague and there are others that seem to be made up. But there are indeed a few that appear to be shadows of a standing man with a staff in his hand. I have chosen one of such pictures of the clouds to post here. 

Jesus (PBUH) in the clouds.

Obviously it is no proof that it Jesus standing in the clouds with his staff in his hand. One cannot even claim that it absolutely looks like as if a man is standing in the clouds at all. These are just randomly arranged clouds. But still if we look at these clouds closely, they do appear to have a human head with rather thick and curly hair. A left arm. The bends of the chest. and something that resembles a stick. But whether this man is Jesus (PBUH) or not cannot be claimed. But this is only one picture. There could be other more vivid pictures on the web that may be easily claimed and classified to be containing Jesus (PBUH) in them. 

Allah written on a cactus.

Muslims also have a tendency for finding names of Allah and Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) written on clouds and other things. Indeed, there are many pictures on the Internet in which the word Allah has appeared to have been written naturally in the clouds.

Muhammad (PBUH) written on a goat

Similarly, a simple search query reveals that pictures with the word Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabic appearing on clouds and other things like stones, bread, or in a fruit are also quite numerous. At some points such appearances are vague but at others they are quite vivid. 

Allah written on foreheads of newborn twins

Such phenomenon has also been termed as pareidolia. There is also religious paredolia in which names or figures of religious figures visually appear in various natural phenomena.

Allah written inside a pomegranate

It is quite wonderful to observe that many of the appearances in the pictures are extremely vivid. One can only hope that these pictures are real and not forged. 

Gora

The Urdu word "Gora" literally means "white man" in English. Its feminine counterpart "gori" means a white woman. The word is commonly and quite frequently used to refer to an average white person of a Western origin. Particularly, it is used to refer to European and American white men. But it would not be an exaggeration to include people from other racial backgrounds, like the Chinese and the Japanese, to form a generalization. In short, the word gora can be used to refer to a person belonging to any of the advanced countries. In a literal sense it is used to refer to a white man of Caucasian background.  

It is not uncommon to hear mentions of gora in normal everyday discussions in Pakistan. Gora did this, gora did that. Gora is a genius. Gora is creative. Gora has better laws in his country. Gora has better values. Gora is humane. Gora is humble. Gora is funny. Gora is fun. Gora is simple. Gora is honest. Gora is innocent. Gora's science. Gora's research. Gora's technology. Gora's ideas. Gora is not jealous. Gora is not wicked. Gora's this and gora's that. Indeed, gora can sometimes be discussed in Pakistan like  the way shrimps were cherished by Bubba in Forrest Gump.  

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the gora has earned this good reputation and respect among the Muslim societies due to his/her superior character of the personality. Gora can be discussed in many diverse circles and places, ranging from markets to mosques. Indeed, many Muslims believe that should the gora recite the testimony of purity and convert to Islam, he/she would be a better Muslim than them already. Muslims claim to have with them a code of the most supreme morality in the form of Quran and Sunnah. It is a pity that the values of Quran and Sunnah are not practiced by the Muslims as the way they should be. They, nonetheless, find a practical implementation of these values in the life of a gora. Muslims, however, appreciate this strength of character. 

The Muslim Way of Speaking

Speech and language are essential and important components of human communication. Societies have evolved many languages over the course of human evolution. Currently there is a large number of languages and dialects that are spoken on our planet that may be believed to range between being euphonious to cacophonous. The manner in which a person speaks reflects on how genteel and humane he/she is. In civilized communities it is considered a norm to speak in a sweet-sounding manner. It may be thought that the early civilized societies may have had a tradition of learning to speak well too. To be able to speak is a great blessing of Allah Almighty indeed. But it is not difficult to find a widespread abuse of this blessing in everyday life. It is not uncommon to come across conversations that are full of swearing, cursing, profanity and slandering.

The Muslim Way of Speaking addresses this problem in a comprehensive, eloquent and lucid manner. The book is written by renowned Muslim scholar Harun Yahya. The book is available for download on his personal website and can be read online too. The book is also available for purchase on online stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The book is written from an increasingly Islamic perspective. It takes examples from Quran and Hadith on  as to how to speak and address people in normal everyday discourse. First of all it emphasizes on the importance of praising Almighty Allah in speech and to call Him through His beautiful names. It advises to speak with the knowledge that Allah is with the speaker at every moment. It warns not to associate others else with Allah. It is advised to speak in the knowledge of one's helplessness in the face of Allah and that no task can be performed without the will of Allah. Quran should be employed as a guide in speech. One should speak in the certainty of fate and the truth that there is good in everything. Allah should be trusted in all the situations.

One should speak with the awareness that life of this world is transitory. One should have concern in his speech for what is lawful and what is unlawful. One should avoid the style of speech that is influenced by Satan and one should seek refuge of Satan from Allah. One should enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. One should speak with wisdom, sincerity, truthfulness, sensibly and logically. One should also give good tidings.

One should speak so as to arouse joy and enthusiasm. One should say what is best. One should not speak under the influence of the mean inner self and by being motivated by personal desires. A person's speech should be measured, courteous and respectful. Humility should be a cornerstone of good speech. Similarly, while speaking one should have an attitude of tolerance and forgiveness. Consultation should be a major part of intercommunication. One should make frequent references to one's disposition about submission to the will of Allah and to acknowledge that there is no strength but in Allah. It is very important to adopt good manners while speaking to one's parents. Backbiting and gossiping behind people's backs should also be abandoned. Suspicion and slander should be abandoned. Similarly mocking and ridiculing people should be discouraged and abandoned. One should not speak out of covetousness and envy. One should not speak in vein and make empty and trivial statements. One should not interrupts others speech and on their own turn they should speak calmly. A very important point is to adopt the manner of speech that is appropriate to the level of knowledge of the person that is being addressed. Speaking hypocritically should be avoided at all costs. A way of speech that gives rise to doubts should be avoided. A manner of speech that is probing and prying should be avoided. The statements that lead to evil should be avoided. Obfuscation should be avoided and secret and meetings should not be held. One should speak so as to defend and support our prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him).

Finally the books lists the advantages of adopting such meritorious traits in one's speech and the author presents the conclusion. The last chapter of the book is deception of evolution. It is dedicated to addressing Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. It tries to show with the help of logic, and in the light of relevant literature review on as to how the materialist theory of evolution presented by Charles Darwin is wrong and flawed. 

Overall I have found the book to be a very enjoyable read. It is well written and the quality and amount of material presented in the book is quite balanced and enlightening. I found this book while I was looking for literature regarding neural basis for language, speech and accent production. Although I could not find anything of that sort in the book, I believe that the book is an excellent resource for behavioral rehabilitation.  

Air Conditioning

I thought about this idea a long time ago when I was a university student. The idea was to air-condition beds, sleeping bags, small tents, or any other similar thing which has a small volume good enough for one person to sleep in. The next thing is to attach a duct and a pipe with the facility and to eventually connect it to a small air conditioner. The air conditioner will keep the facility cold for as long as it will run. The person who would sleep in it would have sweet dreams. 

Such an apparatus would have an additional advantage. Cooling a small volume of space is easier and cheaper to do than to cool a larger volume, such as that of a whole room. Thus, it can be highly cost effective. Similarly, the same air conditioner that may have cooled a single room that may have been hosting a couple of people can be used to supply cold air to a larger number of people sleeping in things like sleeping bags. This can be done by spreading a small pipeline. And such an air conditioning solution can be useful in countries with hot climate. Countries like Pakistan that are suffering from an acute electricity crisis can benefit a lot from such schemes.

Language and Speech Production

The other day I was thinking about writing a small research proposal around the idea of studying neurological basis for accent and language production. There were a few interrelated reasons for which this came to my mind. First is based on the observation that some people have a natural talent for adapting themselves to various accents. I have personally met some people who can change from a very crude Punjabi accent to a very polite Urdu accent in a fraction of a second. It was also very cool to observe a few people whose native language was Mewaati and they used to change between swinging Mewaati and plain Urdu in a fraction of a second. Same can be said about multilingual people who can speak languages other than Urdu, such as Siraaiki, Potowaari, Punjabi and possibly also English.  Indeed, I have seen people who can copy accents very fast and can have a wide variety. There are people who can mimic a plethora of lingual accents and dialects. Many comedians and actors fall under this category.

The other reason was based on the observation that some people are more prone to speaking in a harsh and impolite manner. Indeed, swearing is very common in Pakistan. I am not sure but I think that the tendency to swear is related to the idea that a person appears to be more masculine and virile if he does so. I am not sure if swearing is considered a crucial positive aspect in grooming and upbringing of an adolescent boy. Moreover, most of this profanity loving psychology is inherited from Bollywood movies too.  Swearing and the use of obscene expression can be very common in Pakistan. When you have a problem, you swear. When you are happy, swearing can sometimes be the best way to express that joy.

On the other hand, I have also had a chance to come across many very soft-spoken people both in Pakistan and abroad. There are languages and dialects that may be considered very euphonious and sweet sounding. Indeed, the way you speak or the way you are addressed can have a great impact on your personality. However, this may not be claimed that people who are more likely to use rough and obscene language are indecent, less effective or less loved in any way. On the contrary, a sweet sounding person can sometimes be considered weak and worthless as opposed to a person who uses whatever words that come to his mouth and somehow manages to achieves his objectives, such as developing a domineering aura around himself.

But I think that it is worthwhile to study the neurological basis for accent and language production. To this end, it can be a good idea to study how people learn to speak from an early age and how they develop one way of speaking or the other. It would also be a nice idea to see the social and psychological factors that affect the speech related affairs of human personality. Along with that it would also be interesting to study the neurological basis for language. It would be interesting to see what parts of the brain play an important role in language production. Similarly, to see how the human ability to speak evolve over the course of his/her life, and whether it is a adaptable trait. It would also be very interesting to study the benefits multilingual people can have over people who speak only one or two languages. And most importantly, I wonder that what are the benefits and pitfalls of speaking in one way or the other.

Power of Unity

Following article in the August, 2013 issue of Ubqari magazine is particularly interesting and eye catching. This was written by Maulana Waheed-ud-deen Khan. I remember having posted another article by him earlier in December, 2012. That was about the importance of tolerance. I find this article important because it illustrates the importance of unity in our life and does so with the example of two European astronomers namely, Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The article is written below. It is quite interesting to note that the Ubqari magazine is getting better and better by the day. The writers in the magazines write articles for encouragement and motivation by taking examples from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is also quite interesting that the author may certainly have read about the works of the two characters of the following article. Johannes Kepler's name may be well known to many, as I remember that we come across this name in our high school physics. But I am sure that Danish Tycho Brahe is not a very well known name, although his significance in the history of cosmology cannot be undermined. It is interesting to have read his mention in the magazine.

Nonetheless, Ubqari magazine is a treat for everyone. It is an increasingly Islamic magazine that tries to teach all of the humanity as to how to co-exist peacefully. It is being published in a time while a great proportion of humanity is quite confused, and not least of the causes of this confusion is religion. Ubqari invites people to Islam and its magazine is worth reading and the sermons worth listening to. The article is as follows:

No person can do anything tremendous alone. But united struggle has a price. And that price is to overlook the differences and to unite on the common interests.

Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were contemporaries. But one thing had become an obstacle for both of them in a significant discovery related to astronomy. That was that none of them had complete expertise on every corner of their respective scientific fields. Tycho Brahe had made a plenty of observations in astronomy. He used to keep writing his observations. He had collected a large volume of a written treasure related to the observations about astronomy. But the second aspect about the knowledge of astronomy is related to mathematics. But Tycho Brahe was weak in mathematics.

On the other hand the situation with Johannes Kepler was that he did not have any expertise in astronomical observations. His only specialty was that he was an expert in mathematics. And from a mathematical point of view he had formulated many precious ideas about astronomy. 

Although Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe had personal differences. So much so that in one of his letters, Johannes Kepler had accused Tycho Brahe of hypocrisy and had bad-mouthed him. But Tycho Brahe did not become angry with Kepler despite being short tempered. At the last moment of his life he thought that only Johannes Kepler can be a better inheritor of his knowledge treasure. Thus, he invited Kepler to himself while forgetting all of his rudeness. And in 1601 he gave all of his educational treasure to Johannes Kepler without seeking any reward in return. When all the stock of Tycho Brahe's observations reached Kepler, the deficiency of Kepler was addressed. Now he applied all the mathematical powers of his mind to associate them with these observations. The result of this came out in these three principles which are known as Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.

This is the secret to a great success in the present world. Every man has a limited knowledge. And based on this any single person cannot do something tremendous alone. But united effort has a price. And that price is to overlook the differences and to unite on common interest. To unite with people despite the differences. This, indeed, is dignity and generosity.

The Code Book

After having read Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem and Big Bang it is inevitable that one would go on to read The Code Book too. As the name suggests the book is about the history and evolution of the science of encryption. Apart from being a difficult subject, cryptography can come across as boring and lackluster. But Simon Singh knows how to treat his audience well. The Code Book takes its reader on to a roller coaster ride in to the wonderland of cryptography. In the book Mr. Singh chronicles the development of the science of cryptography and crypt-analysis from the times of ancient Romans and Egyptians all the way to our current times and quantum cryptography. During the course he records all the important events and hallmarks in the history of cryptography. The effect cryptography has had on the lives, wars, liberty and the geopolitical landscape of our times is described in a revealing way.

The Code Book begins with the Romans involvement with early forms of cryptography. Julius Caesar's secret military writings are discussed. It distinguishes between cryptography and crypt-analysis. It also elucidates the role of Arabs in the development of crypt-analysis and a few old methods of cipher analysis. It then goes on to discuss the clandestine plot of Mary queen of Scots to assassinate the British Queen Elizabeth. The assassination plot was deciphered by Queen Elizabeth and she had the former beheaded. At its climax, it moves on to the stage of world war 2 and a significant portion of the book is devoted to the developments concerning the deciphering of Germans' enigma codes. The efforts of Allen Turing and his contemporaries, on both sides, are worth reading.

The author then brings right in to our very own era of so-called modern cryptography. Here the author discusses the evolution of various techniques such as RSA, PGP and public-key cryptography. The author also discusses various philosophical, ethical and moral issues concerning personal privacy in our times. In particular, the discussion on the trade-of between the level of personal privacy and the level of information gathering by the law enforcement agencies is discussed from the point of view of security.

The final chapter concludes by speculating about the future of cryptography and discusses and analyses the potential of quantum cryptography. Here again the author has done a commendable effort to elucidate some of the intricate concepts in quantum physics, specially superposition, and to analyse their relevance with quantum computing and cryptography. Simon Singh has a very inspiring style of writing about popular science. All of his books are written with much lucidity and eloquence. The pace of the plot is fast while not compromising the fine details. A person who opens the book once and set's off to reading looses track of his/her diurnal chores, looses track of time and would find it hard to close the book before the last page is reached. Anyone who would read The Code Book would fall in love with cryptography.

Big Bang

I developed an addiction for popular science after reading Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem. Afterwards I got hold of his Big Bang. This time I didn't borrow it from the library, rather I bought it for my personal collection of nice books.

The book takes a modest start by describing the earlier notions held by the ancient people of Greece, Perisa and Egypt about the nature and origin of the universe. After setting the stage for a keen discussion on the subjects of cosmology and astronomy, the author lands his readers right in to the lives and works of middle and post-middle age scientists. 

Simon Singh has a remarkable storytelling talent. The manner in which he narrates the history and development of any scientific enterprise keeps the reader spellbound till the last page, and for several subsequent days. The story is never less attractive than any bestselling thriller. Actually, the plot moves so swiftly while hopping over people and evolution of ideas that before the reader gets a chance to contemplate over any particular idea, he/she is ridden to a next more exciting one. Yet at the same time the fine details about the crucial concepts are not compromised. Everything is explained in an extremely lucid manner. And the biographies of the people involved make the whole narrative all the more interesting.

Big bang describes the works of notable scientists like Albert Einstein, Johannes Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe and Ptolemy etc. The list goes on. It discusses the times and circumstances in which these people lived. The hardships they had to suffer. The theories which they challenged or developed. Their confrontation with the bureaucracy and the popularly held beliefs. And consequently how the various theories about the existence of universe evolved. The book is also interesting as it educates its reader not only about the nature of cosmology, but also about the intricate interplay between science with other realms of human existence, such as religion. 

Johannes Kepler

I can never forget having read this book for another reason too. I read this book while in various European cities. These include, Limerick, Vienna, Salzburg and Graz. I particularly remember that while I was reading about Johannes Kepler and his work, I was sitting in a garden in Graz. And when I finished reading the chapter concerning him, I noticed that there stood a statue of him in front of me. Similarly, I remember that read about the steady state model and its comparison with the big bang model on a hilltop in Graz on which I had gotten to through a lift. There were many people around me but I was practically oblivious about their existence. I read about the CMB (cosmic microwave background) on my way back to Limerick in a bus. These vivid memories are unforgettable and romantic.

Big bang is a must read for every student of science. Once you will read it, you will fall in love with cosmology. And you would also want to live the rest of your life as a cosmologist or an astronomer.