Vending Machines: A Dream Gone Sour

Dawn Lahore, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010. See page # 10, read an article by Miwa Suzuki.

Now, i bought this book on starting up a business of vending machine, which i didn't know about the time i bought it. Since it was published by a magazine called Entrepreneur and was about entrepreneurship, so i bought it blindly, also it was quite cheap. "People respond to incentives."

Today I read this article (see top) about flourishing and much saturated vending machine market in Japan, with only 2.5 million drink-selling machines generating 27 billion dollars last year. They've placed it everywhere from streets to the 'icy summits of Mount Fuji'.

So, this seems like a dream business idea. Pakistan's is filled with the absence of these machines. We can do reverse engineering and reinvent and redefine what a vending machine is, and spread it everywhere!

There's one little problem, and difference b/w how things work in Japan and Pakistan. In Japan, people are not the likely to crime than in Pakistan. That's why they've spread it everywhere.

I talked about this v machine to the cook at home. I surprised him how they're selling chilled bananas with mind-reading devices (that can tell with 75% success rate what you'd like most to purchase), and he said, "Yahan tou banday nahi miltay, machine kya bachay gi!" ('Here people are missing from home, who cares about a vending machine.')

I stopped day-dreaming and went back to my Philosopher's Corner in search of a billion dollar idea!

Breaking the Ice: Benchmarking Army Personnel's Social Networking

My friend comes to my home, and asks me for help. He wants me to count people in my neighborhood whom i know. I struggled to name any at all, but eventually 3 people came to my mind in a town of of over a lac people, i presume, at least! I said to him that i'm in trouble. I ain't no good at knowing my neighbours, this is a serious lacking from Islamic perspective. So i asked him, how to penetrate and break the ice with these people in this modern town.

Remember, its a characteristic of modern cities, according to sociologists, that communal life doesn't exist there. In modern cities, neighbours usually don't know each other much, but people are very active socially on networking platforms (offline it mentioned, but online as well). What a paradox.

He suggested me a tested tip: Send a formal letter with minimum words, in most elegant manners, to your neighbor calling them on a tea. This is a practice of many an Army people who do this when they come into a new place.

I'm writing the letter as a BETA version here.

______________________________

House # ABC
Street # Alif. Bay. Pay
Mr/Mrs _________

Assalamualaekum!

I'm Muhammad Umer Toor, a business student at a university in Lahore. I'm living in ______ with my father. I'm new here, so I want to have chat with you over a cup of tea at my home.

This is mobile # ________. My notify me your arrival date and time, and we'll catch up anytime of your choice.

Regards
Muhammad Umer Toor
[university name]
External Researcher @ R&D Labs,
Kirana Bar School.

Extreme Sun, Extreme Man

Sunspot.

For past one century, for past one decade, humanity has seen such crises bigger than any crisis in civilizational history, other than the flood of Nuh or such incidents. Conditions in world have become extreme producing extreme reactions by people of any world-view. One important 'out of control factor' is the catalytic effect of Sun's energy on human mind, just as sun plays a predominant - which is too small a word - in every physical happening and variation; just as sun can destroy space satellites, annihilate electricity in Canada, nullify semiconductors - it also tinkers with sensitive electric currents of human brain.

If we see past 250 years of history of sun's activity - its storms, its 'sunspots' (which emit electro-magnetic rays and flares out of it) - it has reached its peak in 20th century (see photo below in which timeline is given along with sunspot cycles). Its heat and energy emissions have become more intense than anytime before. Sultan B. Mehmood, a Pakistani atomic scientist, could not understand why the effects of sun and its magnanimous variations should not be studied on human mind and behavior. This led him to study human history and sun's history, side-by-side, of past 250 years. He penned the book, in 1997-8 (?) and came out with startling predictions which turned out to be remarkably true.

The core prediction was about the rise of agitation, restlessness, aggression and terrorism in next decade; about the physical, earthly disasters we'd see from 2008-2017 along with political turmoil and violence. Studying the 'cosmic effects' of sun spots and sun storms on human mind and moods, he said back then that next decade would manifest extreme human behaviour which if not controlled will create havoc and crises. The bottom line is: if you can have control on your charged emotions, it turns into positivity - creativity, productivity, life, thought and civilization. He adds, "Make the hay while sun shines." Hence, extremism in behavior and outlook, is a major human problem everywhere.

When the attacks of 9/11 took place, intelligence agencies arrested Mr. Method and interrogated, "What you wrote in your book has turned out to be remarkably true. Maybe you are the master-mind behind these attacks." The author only had to say, "When i wrote the book (in '98) I also sent its copies to President Bill Clinton, PM Tony Blair and other heads of state urging them to show leadership to ensure peace." (These are not exact quotes as I am relying on memory.)

The book is written in a very acute scientific manner which is, nonetheless, highly readable by laymen. It is also punctuated by such sections on Sun's role in 'the choice of marriage and children', etc. It has useful advices for people from all walks of life from politicians to entrepreneurs It is very statistically and methodically written with case histories of events occurring in past 250 years both on sun and earth.

Sunspot cycles and timeline

Procrastination and Impatience

I came across this piece of research somewhere which shows a positive corelation between procrastination (laziness) and impatience. It means that both are to be found in a same person at a time.

I talked to a competent psychatrist about it and he noded in yes stating that one is the cause of the other and vice versa. Procrastination is destined to lead one to become impatient, irritated and haphazard. However, what are the causes of it? According to him, procrastination is caused due to following set of reasons:

1. Lack of priorities.
2. Abscence of time-frame in which to accomplish work.

Have these and you're prone to procrastinate. And when the time limit comes to near end, instantly one becomes active, so to say over-active, becoming impatient. Cure one, and you cure the other.

Art

"Art is a sacred lie."

- Allama Iqbal, Stray Reflections.

A Case Study of Kot Addu Flood Relief Project

Read the report here, Its a big mess pasting whole thing from doc here and then modifying it.

Carrying out Relief Missions for Flood Affected People: A Case Study of Kot Addu Project

New Logo for ESEF

Elementary Society to Excel in Future - Pakistan - or ESEF is a welfare organization with taste for Islamic spirituality as well, run by elite Pakistani university students (almost all undergrad now), have developed a new logo of their own. I'm loving it.

ESEF, founded in 2008, works on the basic principle of networking effort to serve Pakistan and Muslim Ummah at large. Currently they're heavily engaged in guiding young students in career choices and doing welfare activities of all sorts. It will see growth on intellectual and practical fronts in future, God willing.

For now - the logo.

One Sinister Enemy of Learning: Fear

Cost/managerial accounting is a major business course which all students of management go through. It is taught by one of most established and expert teacher/scholar in Pakistan. It has reputation of being unaccessible to simple-minded people who lack intellectual rigor. I was afraid of it, thanks to word-of-mouth of seniors. But that's just an external excuse. It was my internal mistake (a cause) that made me nervous about it, as i had to think hard about this course. I enjoyed being in class and solving cases and problem as instructor was there, who was also very accessible to us and went to great length to answer our questions, no matter how stupid. Nonetheless, when it came to self-study, i often had problems breathing well. especially when i attempted to understand its intricate theory and frameworks and tried to apply it complex cases (which is very typical of case method). Data used to be huge and thinking/intellect had to deployed in platoons to tackle any topic in that course. That's why it was fearsome

However, final papers turned to be good due to organized dedicated, directed and group work: this gives us an insight into how to succeed in exams on last day - with a disciplined friend, we systematically chased each chapter and won over it being very consistent over a span of 12-14 hours.

To say the least, this is one of most valuable courses (especially its book) i've have took in business. For instance, one recent grad of my school of management working, although as non-accounting operations management told me how useful this book on managerial accounting had been on the production floor - each day he had to refer to it, literally.

It all came back the memory of it as flash back when i was browsing through SSRN.com and found a paper on Activity-Based Cost accounting, which is a hot field in managerial accounting these days. We studied it as well. . I quote the excerpt of the abstract to illustrate my point about uselessness of fear when it comes to learning:

[Excerpt] It is essential to understand that ABC is a method that tries to frame data in a managerial decision making context. Models, figures and theories only have value to the extent that they help us to understand and explain what happens in the company. ABC is an allocation method cum story: it is an arbitrary way to allocate costs - as arbitrary as any other allocation method - but it helps in communicating how the (production) process works and, therefore, tries to upgrade the value of accounting in the decision making process. If, e.g., a good driver is found and if there is statistical evidence that supports the choice of and/or work-floor feeling on such a driver, using this cost driver in the calculations of product (line) profitability makes the accounting much more vivid and important to decision making.

Mr. Van Schenkel, founder and owner of small company producing colour printed T-shirts, has some ideas on why multi-coloured T-shirts are more expensive in production than T-shirts with fewer colours printed on them. Process mapping and accounting data are available to set up an ABC system that will allow to test the validity of Mr. Van Schenkel's ideas and to come to better accounting calculations of product profitability.

You can see how the author is applying theory and making it practical. This is a simple demonstration of higher level of learning: experimentation, application = usefulness. Had been more fearless of the burden of reputation of the course and its demanding nature, i'd have turned out to be a better citizen. And i happy i have learned this insight.

See the example and you'll get just how useful the concepts of managerial accounting is for entrepreneurship, SME's and all kinds of organization. It should be all research (read: play) with all seriousness - I'm not denying pain at all, which is part and parcel of (higher) learning. nothing can help a too fearful and shy a learner in the path of getting useful knowledge. To say the least, one has to be fearless in outlook when s/he approaches knowledge. And habit of tinkering with stuff be encouraged. It's an engineer's attitude, that's why we trust them.

What are your comments?

Appearance and Reality: An astonishing recitation by Qari Antar

Please read translation with the recitation to purify and warm your hearts.

Dear Rushdie... (A Guest Post)

Copyright. Uni: Sniggers and Sniffles of a moron

(What follows is a response to Salman Rushdie's letter denigrating religious traditions answered by a Pakistani blogger, link to whose blog is given in start of the post. Italics text is Rushdie's words, green is by the Pakistani blogger, "Uni".)

***

Rushdie: Dear little Six - Billionth Living Person: As one of the newest members of a notoriously inquisitive species, it probably won't be too long before you start asking the two $64,000 questions with which the other 5,999,999,999 of us have been wrestling for some time.
How did we get here? And, now that we are here, how shall we live?

Uni: Dear Rushdi. As one of the newest member of the notoriously sneering species, it is a pleasure to note that you at least admit that the whatever dollar questions remain unanswered - still being wrestled with.

Oddly - as if six billion of us weren't enough to be going on with - it will almost certainly be suggested to you that the answer to the question of origins requires you to believe in the existence of a further, invisible, innefable Being "somewhere up there", an omnipotent creature whom we poor limited creatures are unable even to perceive, much less to understand. That is, you will be strongly encouraged to imagine a heaven, with at least one god in residence.

Oddly, it has occured to you that we the inquisitive EXIST and all on our own... function and procreate, all on our own... the entire universe runs smoothly all on its own - down to the whole factory running within a single cell - all on its own. The fact that you're unable to percieve THIS little piece of clear logic, is what's beyond us poor creatures.

This sky god, it's said, made the universe by churning its matter in a giant pot. Or, he danced. Or, he vomited creation out of himself. Or, he simply called it into being, and lo, it Was. In some of the more interesting creation stories, the singly mighty sky god is subdivided into many lesser forces - junior dieties, avatars, gigantic metamorphic "ancestors" whose adventures create the landscape, or the whimsical, wanton, meddling, cruel pantheons of the great polytheisms, whose wild doings will convince you that the real engine of creation was lust; for infinite power, for too easily broken human bodies, for clouds of glory. But it's only fair to add that there are also stories which offer the message that the primary creative impulse was, and is, love.

Creation stories might be many - yes, but the truth is only one. If you're not convinced by it, cool. But this gives you no right to ridicule all the versions with a singlemindedness worthy of an award, really. You can't prove your theory, even if you're unconvinced by the opposing theory. There are far too many out there who (despite, not having seen it)... believe in God. And you don't find them ridiculing the opinions you hold.

Many of these stories will strike you extremely beautiful, and therefore seductive.

No. That's not the reason why we believe in them. Sorry. Wrong guess.

It is possible that they may at some point come to feel inescapable, not in the way that the truth is inescapable, but in the way that a jail is. They may at some point cease to feel like the texts in which human beings have tried to solve a great mystery, and feel, instead, like the pretexts for other properly anointed human beings to order you around. And it's true that human history is full of the public oppression wrought by the charioteers of the gods.
In the opinion of religious people, however, the private comfort that religion brings more than compensates for the evil done in its name.

Firstly, for people who do believe in God (with their hearts and minds) do not feel the truth to be like a jail, confining them. So wrong guess here again. And secondly, the teaching of human beings that led to this truth, wasn't forced upon us. Nobody pointed a gun at us to believe in God. And thus, the argument that they only did it to order us around, stands totally invalid. The fact is, that evil can take any excuse for committing evil. If religion is one such excuse, then the blame on religion itself is foolish. Go blame those particular people.

As human knowledge has grown, it has also become plain that every religious story ever told about how we got here is quite simply wrong. This, finally, is what all religions have in common. They didn't get it right. There was no celestial churning, no maker's dance, no vomiting of galaxies, no snake or kangaroo ancestors, no Valhalla, no Olympus, no six-day conjuring trick followed by a day of rest. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Your opinion, your opinion, your opinion. We don't consider the creation process as wrong.

But here's something genuinly odd. The wrongness of the sacred tales hasn't lessened the zeal of the devout in the least. If anything, the sheer out-of-step zaniness of religion leads the religious to insist ever more stridently on the importance of blind faith.

It's not blind. As I said (and I'm a believer so I know what I'm saying), the decision is a sound one, made by the heart and mind. If you don't believe that, your problem.

As a result of this faith, by the way, lt has proved impossible, in many parts of the world, to prevent the human race's numbers from swelling alarmingly. Blame the overcrowded planet at least partly on the misguidedness of the races spiritual guides. In your own lifetime, you may witness the arrival of the nine billionth world citizen. (If too many people are being born as a result, in part, of religious strictures against birth control, then too many people are also dying because religious culture, by refusing to face the facts of human sexuality, also refuses to fight against sexually transmitted diseases.)

Weird it is, that you, not having had control of when to enter this world (did you decide your birthday hmm?), and not in control of when you'll leave this world... think it's prudent to think that we all have control over the population size of this planet?

There are those who say that the great wars of the new century will once again be wars of religion, jihads and crusades, as they were in the Middle Ages. I don't believe them, or not in the way they mean it. Take a look at the Muslim world, or rather the Islamist world, to use the word coined to describe Islam's present day "political arm". The divisions between its great powers (Afghanistan against Iran against Iraq against Saudi Arabia against Syria against Egypt) are what strike you most forcefully. There's very little resembling a common purpose. Even after the non-Islamic NATO fought a war for the Muslim Kosovan Albanians, the Muslim world was slow in coming forward with much needed humanitarian aid.

Oh you don't need to remind us about the ''efforts'' of the Muslim nations right now. They are deplorable. But we also know that it's the leaders of these states that are quite oblivious to events around them. Not the common man. If the common man were like this, there would be no flotilla towards Gaza .. knowing that Israeli forces aren't going to give them a red carpet welcome. And btw, the war b/w religions is already going on. And yes, ideology remains the key war instigator even now.

The real wars of religion are the wars religions unleash against ordinary citizens within their "sphere of influence." They are wars of the godly against the largely defenceless - American fundamentalists against pro-choice doctors, Iranian mullahs against their country's Jewish minority, Hindu fundamentalists in Bombay against that city's increasingly fearful Muslims.

If you're calling state laws as wars... then even more weird is that you didn't mention in this list of yours one very very important one... the policies of the state of Israel, the policies of India on Kashmiri Muslims... it's not only the godly who impose their laws. Secular governments do the same thing. If one opinion is unacceptable to you, doesn't mean you go about calling it war and then select a subset of state policies as examples. Puny indeed.

The victors in that war must not be the closed-minded, marching into battle with, as ever, God on their side. To choose unbelief is to choose mind over dogma, to trust in our humanity instead of all these dangerous divinities. So, how did we get here? Don't look for the answer in story books. Imperfect human knowledge may be a bumpy, pot-holed street, but it's the only road to wisdom worth taking. Virgil, who believed that the apiarist Aristaeus could spontaneously generate new bees from the rotting carcess of a cow, was closer to a truth about origins than all the revered old books.

To choose unbelief is your choice, we're open to believing in God, despite you thinking of it as being closed minded. Trusting in humanity can't go side by side with belief in God? Apparently, you haven't read much into history. Imperfect human knowledge was enlightened with scriptures, and this knowledge was the source of illumination for a great number of minds. And then you ask, how did we get here? Didn't you, in the beginning talk about this as a notoriously inquisitive display to ask these questions? Consistent, aren't you?

The ancient wisdoms are modern non-senses.

Live in your own time, use what we know and, as you grow up, perhaps the human race will finally grow up with you and put aside childish things. As the song says, "It's easy if you try."

As for mortality, the second great question - how to live? What is right action, and what wrong?- it comes down to your willingness to think for yourself. Only you can decide if you want to be handed down the law by priests, and accept that good and evil are somehow external to ourselves.

The blind wanderings and backtrackings of modern sciences is also a lot of claptrap, no worries. And sure, go ahead with this logical mode. Hand over the morality reigns to each and everybody's own individual self. So if a thief thinks its moral to steal (because he/she felt it inside that its okay!), then don't blame him. Sure.

To my mind, religion - even at its most sophisticated - essentially infantalizes our ethical selves by setting infallible moral Arbiters and irredeemably immoral Tempters above us; the eternal parents, good and bad, light and dark, of the supernatural realm.

To each, his or her own. We don't (and won't) mock your ideas. Follow what you will, but at least you shouldn't mock the things you don't agree with.

How, then, are we to make ethical choices without a divine rulebook or judge?

You're not supposed to. That's the thing, see.

Intellectual freedom, in European history, has mostly meant freedom from the restraints of the Church and not the state.

The Church men had made the laws that were suffocating mankind. Christianity had nothing to do with it. Even now, the lobbying for doing away with celibacy laws prove that the original teaching did NOT contain celibacy - nothing unnatural is ever promulgated in the main religions.

This is the battle Voltaire was fighting, and it's also what all six billion of us could do for ourselves, the revolution in which each of us could play our small, six-billionth part; once and for all we could refuse to allow priests, and the fictions on whose behalf they claim to speak, to be the policemen of our liberties and behavior. Once and for all we could put the stories back into the books, put the books back on the shelves, and see the world undogmatized and plain.

You mean, see the world in chaos and disorder. Even right now, the world's in disorder because of lack of belief in accountability (yes, even by those who CLAIM they're following religion and do heinous crimes - all acts of people who don't believe in God, Hereafter and Judgement).

Imagine there's no heaven, my dear Six-Billionth, and at once the sky's the limit.

Imagine a Just God, and imagine trying to follow His Teachings, being good to fellow humans and doing good in all spheres of life. The sky is certainly the limit.