I have recently uploaded an industry-cum-firm note on SSRN (Social Science Research Network): click here to go to the page and download for free. I just wanted to share it to encourage you to submit your papers to this most popular research paper database where barriers to publishing are almost zero. This site was created by Harvard professors who wanted to create a parallel medium for people to publish their papers free of any ideological bias and entry requirement. Most of the papers you find here are of top quality and free.
Abstract to my paper: The New York Times: Newspaper Industry Analysis, Crises & Reforms
Newspaper industry is the fastest shrinking industry in America, according to a research by LinkedIn. What are the implications for society and journalism? Why did the fall come about? How did a very profitable industry become so precarious that even the giant newspapers face the threat of going out of business, perhaps forever? In this paper, we do not seek to provide a strategic, bailout plan that if implemented can save a newspaper; however, it give clues about what went wrong by introducing to the industry structure of newspapers and its crises.
At the helm of this affair is the leading ‘general-interest’ newspaper, The New York Times, which is our protagonist. The story of New York Times also applies and explains how majority of conventional newspapers work or worked (as many have ceased producing print, reduced days of productions, or filed for bankruptcy). This study is about an industry facing a creative disruption, about which it had little clue. We will give a diagnosis of the crises of newspapers and possible reforms, focusing on it market leader: The Times.
This paper is divided into three sections: introduction to the New York Times as an institution; analysis of the news industry in the USA, print and online; recommendations for New York Times.
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Why i didn't & don't like Mondays
:D this research has something cool to say. i receive a daily stat from Harvard Business blog. Following is its copy:
Stress Hormone is Higher on Monday Mornings
"Levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which has been linked to increased blood pressure and weakened immune responses, are higher in white-collar workers' saliva on Monday mornings than on Sunday mornings, says a study led by Jason Devereux of University College London. Cortisol levels in 77 people employed in health care, government, technology, and consulting averaged 16.80 nanomoles per liter on Sunday mornings, but 22.52 nanomoles per liter on Monday mornings. The higher levels of secretion may be in anticipation of a stressful day at work, the researchers say."
Source: An exploratory study to assess the impact of work demands and the anticipation of work on awakening via saliva cortisol
Alpha and Omega: Why Muslims must excel in Scientific Research
Copyright/write - Dr. M. Zaman Khan,
Tranlsated (& notes) by, Yours Truly.
Many Pakistani professors, with the exception of few noble souls, follow this line of pattern: They come, they teach Western science, glorify it, make pupils memorize it, and then criticize their students of their impotence, as concluding remarks. However, rarely they are self-critical of the fact that they do very little research at their own, locally. If they do so, only then they can have the moral authority of criticizing young students about their lack of interest in scientific research. This matter of doing research locally is first and the last thing Pakistani and Muslim teachers and students should be aware of.
Why it is so? According to a Prophetic tradition of Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him), a non-believing man once came to him and challenged him a match of wrestling. He said he could beat ten persons at a time. Prophet accepted the challenge and beat him three times in a row. Impressed by his physical strength, the non-believer could not resist believing his religious message. Therefore, he accepted Islam.
The example illustrates that if you are impressed by one aspect or part of a person or a thing, you are also prone to be impressed by its whole. One reason for studying science and doing independent research lies in this psychological aspect of human being to preserve one’s own identity, world-view and civilization. If we go back it time and explore Muslim history, there was a time when Greek philosophy and sciences were encountered by Muslims. When Muslim youth experienced the brilliance of Greek science (mathematics, physics, etc.) they could not avoid taking Greek metaphysics and religious knowledge as sound as its physical sciences. It was a grave mistake from Islamic point of view. They could not decide what to take, and what to reject.
The very same problem is being encountered by contemporary Muslim youth getting education based on Western models and content. Today, as then, they study Western science and research, which is of top quality, and they cannot remain unimpressed by its vitality. But, they mistakenly consider that Western social sciences and their views on religion would be as accurate and sound as their physical sciences. Truth is that the results of their social sciences and views on religion have been disastrous for humanity, completely opposite to their success in physical sciences*. Their religious world-views need to be studied at all as a source of guidance by Muslim youth blessed with the gift of Islam.
Our future needs in science are not being met due a lack of interest in research. Due to this gap and inferiority complex generated by this very reason vis-à-vis Western science, we also observe that contemporary Muslim universities teaching non-religious sciences don’t value much their religious educational institutions. Having seen the importance of ‘innovation’, ‘change’ and ‘evolution’ in scientific theories and experimentation, they come to fancy that religion (i.e., of Islam) would be something similar to a laboratory experiment or a science text-book which needs to be updated regularly. Nothing can be farther from truth than this, due to the ‘eclipse of intellect and soul’, in words of Seyyed Hossein Nasr**.
To avoid this clash and to bridge this gap, it is indispensable to meet the need of scientific research in Muslim world. If this cannot be done, then it is safe to fear that our future generations cannot overcome the inferiority complex vis-à-vis west; and they may end up depriving themselves, and humanity, of treasures of religious knowledge of Islam and also a sense of Sacred, to which we owe our existence, which is supreme science.
________________________
* Prof. Dr. Asad Zaman, International Islamic University, has written a research paper discussing this very fact. He compares the tragic consequences of Western social sciences for humanity. See, The Origins of Western Social Science, Dr Asad Zaman available on his personal website: http://sites.google.com/site/asaduzaman. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ph.D. Harvard in history and philosophy of science, has also shown the tragic consequence of Western humanism for environment, see his book, Religion and the Order of the Nature, Suhail Academy, Lahore.
** For a refutation of this and similar modern mental fashions and erratic views on religion, see The Reign of Quantity; The Crisis of Modern World; East and West, by Rene Guenon, Islam and the Plight of Modern Man; Knowledge and Sacred; Islamic Life and Thought; Science, Civilization and Islam, by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
Tranlsated (& notes) by, Yours Truly.
Many Pakistani professors, with the exception of few noble souls, follow this line of pattern: They come, they teach Western science, glorify it, make pupils memorize it, and then criticize their students of their impotence, as concluding remarks. However, rarely they are self-critical of the fact that they do very little research at their own, locally. If they do so, only then they can have the moral authority of criticizing young students about their lack of interest in scientific research. This matter of doing research locally is first and the last thing Pakistani and Muslim teachers and students should be aware of.
Why it is so? According to a Prophetic tradition of Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him), a non-believing man once came to him and challenged him a match of wrestling. He said he could beat ten persons at a time. Prophet accepted the challenge and beat him three times in a row. Impressed by his physical strength, the non-believer could not resist believing his religious message. Therefore, he accepted Islam.
The example illustrates that if you are impressed by one aspect or part of a person or a thing, you are also prone to be impressed by its whole. One reason for studying science and doing independent research lies in this psychological aspect of human being to preserve one’s own identity, world-view and civilization. If we go back it time and explore Muslim history, there was a time when Greek philosophy and sciences were encountered by Muslims. When Muslim youth experienced the brilliance of Greek science (mathematics, physics, etc.) they could not avoid taking Greek metaphysics and religious knowledge as sound as its physical sciences. It was a grave mistake from Islamic point of view. They could not decide what to take, and what to reject.
The very same problem is being encountered by contemporary Muslim youth getting education based on Western models and content. Today, as then, they study Western science and research, which is of top quality, and they cannot remain unimpressed by its vitality. But, they mistakenly consider that Western social sciences and their views on religion would be as accurate and sound as their physical sciences. Truth is that the results of their social sciences and views on religion have been disastrous for humanity, completely opposite to their success in physical sciences*. Their religious world-views need to be studied at all as a source of guidance by Muslim youth blessed with the gift of Islam.
Our future needs in science are not being met due a lack of interest in research. Due to this gap and inferiority complex generated by this very reason vis-à-vis Western science, we also observe that contemporary Muslim universities teaching non-religious sciences don’t value much their religious educational institutions. Having seen the importance of ‘innovation’, ‘change’ and ‘evolution’ in scientific theories and experimentation, they come to fancy that religion (i.e., of Islam) would be something similar to a laboratory experiment or a science text-book which needs to be updated regularly. Nothing can be farther from truth than this, due to the ‘eclipse of intellect and soul’, in words of Seyyed Hossein Nasr**.
To avoid this clash and to bridge this gap, it is indispensable to meet the need of scientific research in Muslim world. If this cannot be done, then it is safe to fear that our future generations cannot overcome the inferiority complex vis-à-vis west; and they may end up depriving themselves, and humanity, of treasures of religious knowledge of Islam and also a sense of Sacred, to which we owe our existence, which is supreme science.
________________________
* Prof. Dr. Asad Zaman, International Islamic University, has written a research paper discussing this very fact. He compares the tragic consequences of Western social sciences for humanity. See, The Origins of Western Social Science, Dr Asad Zaman available on his personal website: http://sites.google.com/site/asaduzaman. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ph.D. Harvard in history and philosophy of science, has also shown the tragic consequence of Western humanism for environment, see his book, Religion and the Order of the Nature, Suhail Academy, Lahore.
** For a refutation of this and similar modern mental fashions and erratic views on religion, see The Reign of Quantity; The Crisis of Modern World; East and West, by Rene Guenon, Islam and the Plight of Modern Man; Knowledge and Sacred; Islamic Life and Thought; Science, Civilization and Islam, by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
"Tragedy of Morals and Birth of Science in the West"
Dr Asad Zaman, Islamic International University, Islamabad, is writing a research paper on the topic quoted in this post's title. Below, I'd produce the abstract and sources, and link to the page from where I got this open information. you may like to comment or write Dr. Zaman about it (at asadzaman@alum.mit.edu).
Tragedy of Morals and Birth of Science in the West
(under preparation) (by Asad Zaman)
Abstract: How Birth of Science in conflict with religion gave strong methodological bias to the way science was viewed in the West. In particular, the exaggeration of the potential of science of settling ethical, moral and human problems led to a very distorted foundation for social sciences. The social sciences have been ideologically constituted in the sense that they were based on false beliefs about what the physical sciences are. The upshot is that there is room for a thoroughgoing revolution in the received ideas of science natural and social (quote from Manicas).
It is only after such re-organization that room for a reasonable foundation for Islamic Economics would emerge. In this paper, we hope to provide such foundations.
Sources:
Peter Manicas: A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Part I: details historical circumstances that led to an easy victory for empiricism/positivism even though realist alternatives were available
Part II: Details special circumstances leading to emergence of modern social sciences in USA.
Hans Kung: Does God Exist?
Himmelfarb: De-Moralization of the West.
Tawney: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Reuben, Julie: The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual transformation and the marginalization of morality. 1996 University of Chicago Press.Read his paper On Improving Social Science Education in Pakistan and The Origins of Western Social Science to get insight into the thought of Dr. Zaman.
Fast Food & Haste
I have always been suspicious of nasty old fast food that caused trouble in my stomach when I used to have a liking of it. But since when i have left eating this un-nurturing, little morsels of suspicious meat, cooked in utter 'hastiness', believe me not, my quality of life has increased mani-fold, saving my pocket as well ;) What follows here is research done on the behaviors of fast-food consumers by Toronto University, namely: Fast Food and Impatience; moreover, i received the following summary in an email by Harvard Business Review, The Daily Stat:Does Fast Food Make People Hasty Well as Hungry?
20% speedier reading. People who had been subliminally exposed to fast-food logos read a 349-word passage in an average of 69 seconds, compared with a control group's 84 seconds, though there was no time pressure, according to a study of 57 undergraduates. Researchers Chen-Bo Zhong and Sanford E. DeVoe of the University of Toronto suggest that the time-saving principle embodied by fast food unconsciously induces haste.
Read research here (pdf).
What makes an Idea a SUCCESs?
Read Made to Stick: Why some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Heath brother that what makes an Idea a SUCCESS is SUCCESs. It stands for:
- Simple
- Unexpected
- Credible
- Concrete
- Emotional
- Stories
If any idea that is to be communicated has few or all above qualities, it would STICK in the minds of audience, others would die. The rest of the book just explains each quality. Plus, the whole book is filled with useful resources for teachers, as one of the author has been a very enthusiastic teacher.
You don't just learn by solving questions...
... rather you can also learn - perhaps better - by 'posing (or developing) questions'. According to a research article in School Science and Mathematics, "Problem posing, with its emphasis on having students generate and develop their own mathematical problems from particular situations or on the basis of their prior problem solving experiences, may be an important activity that in fact helps students develop as inquiry-based problem solvers."*
Well, I have a friend who does the same with his O/A level students in Pakistan, helping them make DISTRACTORs: questions that only 1 out of 1000 can answer. One of his student said that this is the way of real learning and growth. How does it happen that by posing questions a student may better solve a problem? the article mentions two instance:
Well, I have a friend who does the same with his O/A level students in Pakistan, helping them make DISTRACTORs: questions that only 1 out of 1000 can answer. One of his student said that this is the way of real learning and growth. How does it happen that by posing questions a student may better solve a problem? the article mentions two instance:
1. ... he or she may look to break down or reduce the original problem into smaller problems, the solution of which lead to a solution of the original problem.
2. ... students engaged in the solution of a problem may generate a result that challenges or calls into question their prior goals and actions. In these situations the ways that the student acts to resolve the new question often leads to a reformulation of the original problem which may in turn lead to progress in finding a solution.* Problem posing and problem solving: a dynamic connection. mathematics education Charlene Sheets; Victor Cifarelli. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2009 School Science and Mathematics Association, Inc.
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