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Showing posts from January, 2005

Funny thing about mobile phones

When mobile phones were first introduced they were large bulky items, the size of most cordless phones of these days. But now they have shrunk in size and have so many features that fill an entire book. In the beginning they could only be owned by those who very rich, nowadays - almost everyone has them including kids. The original need for these phones was entirely business purposes just like personal computers use to be. Businessmen of large companies found the phones useful to make their deals while on the move in the chauffeur driven cars or were in not in their offices and were elsewhere. Well that was the original idea till their prices dropped and their features increased. In the beginning owning a mobile phone was a symbol of prestige, people would hauling them around in parties as if they were a luxury item. Today only those people make a show of their phones if they are really very expensive and have countless features in them although they may never use them or

Evolution versus faith

What anyone chooses to believe is his (or her) choice. But faith and science canot be mxed up. Faith is a matter of personal choice - one can believe anything one - no one can challenge a belief. Science however is different. It is not a matter of what anyone believes it is a matter of observable information. Science is divided in two the theoretical and the practical. If people choose to believe that Earth is the centre of the Universe or that it is flat, it is entirely their choice. If they choose to believe that human beings did not evolve from some other creature then they have no reason. No one is forcing them to believe otherwise, matters of faith no matter how much overwhelming the evidence is against their collective belief, nothing can change that, they will continue to believe. They do not want to hear or see anything which contradicts their tenets. . Science presents information which has been observed and analysed - it can be challenged provided one has overwhelming evi

Troubles in Balochistan

Sui the area in Balochistan from where natural gas is provided to the rest of Pakistan has been facing troubles. The trouble of the rights of Balochistan over its supply to the rest of the country have been ignored for too long. As long as there was a political solution to this issue and civilian management – the differences did not exist. If any arose they were resolved to the mutual benefit to all. But troubles have been mounting since the military took over the top management of the company. Things have become worse because the military in its ham handed way started undoing all the arrangements made which keep the peace in Balochistan. The always think guns and bullets are the answer to all the issues. Never in the history of the country has there been stoppage in the supply of natural gas to the country, but this has under happened under a military management. Wherever the military controls anything, things are bound to go to be problems. Some of the classic e

Entrance exams in colleges

At one time the results of the examination boards of any given area was good enough for admission in any college (or university). Now the results of examination boards results are no longer considered a worthwhile qualification on the basis of which one can get an admission in a college - now college has started having entrance exams. Only if the candidates can clear the entrance exams will be they are admitted in a college. It is obvious that board examinations are no longer trusted by colleges – one of the reasons is that for every given area – the standard of education varies. It can be very poor in some parts and very high in others, the concept of a uniform standard does not exist. So if a student clears an exam of particular class from a specific examination board, it will not be the same as a student qualifying from the same class from another examination board. The owners of colleges are well aware of the rampant corruption, which exists in examination boards and their affi

Remembering scrabble

There was a time scrabble use to be a board game. Of course it had all kinds of rules how it should be played. But after getting tired of the rules, we (my friends and I) would buy more scrabble games and break every rule the game had. We would have twenty blocks and come up with crazy words, which did not exist in the dictionary and some which no one used in polite company. We would laugh our heads off at the bizarre words, sometimes they would not be words instead entire phrases and even sentences. We would put several boards together and the game would never end. But coming to this day and age - the video game age - there is no flexibility no way you can make your rules - so rigid. Leave alone scrabble, we would make hash of chess. We buy as many chess games as we could and play the entire game with queens and no other pieces, the person who could wipe out the other's chess pieces would win. There was no check or checkmate, it was our version coming in with all the big