Apple Watch

There is something wrong about ‪#‎AppleWatch‬. I love Apple products. They are convenient and look beautiful. The Apple Watch may be convenient but not beautiful for sure. Watch is not just for convenience. I already have two smartphones in my hands but still wearing a watch as I like to check the time there.

Watch is a piece of fashion. I believe (as a non-expert) fashion is about originality. It's hard to believe that electronics can offer such originality.

I may wear Apple Watch one day, but that would be when I am also wearing jeans and t-shirt. Or, I may buy it as a gift to a teenage relative of mine. I wouldn't wear it with suits.

Artists in politics

Artists taking part in politics, believe me, doesn't look good. They may even sound stupid. Politics isn't everything. Let its professionals do that.

Transcendence

On Tuesday, my fiance and I had a great time watching the movie Transcendence (2014). We enjoyed it a lot. Both of us are so much into the theme of the movie, Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is debated in this movie. The story is ended with the deaths of Dr. Will and Evelyn Caster. Dr. Will Caster, who has invented an intelligent computer brain named "PINN", dies from cancer. Evelyn wants to bring back his husband to life through restoring his memories using the AI technology that Dr. Caster has invented. There are groups of people who are against these creations and want to stop them. Finally, they succeed to stop Dr. Caster, who is then an intelligent computer brain, by injecting a computer virus through the body of Evelyn. Evelyn gets shot and dies and Dr. Caster can't save her. Both die lying next to each other...

Artificial Intelligence, as a philosophical or ethical concept, is not a new thing. There are those, as depicted in this movie and also in another movie named "Her" that I have also recently watched, who believe AI is ethically questionable. At any point of time, man can hesitate and think about the ethicality of AI, or other somewhat similar concepts like "In vitro fertilisation" (IVF). From the view of man however, the righteousness license of these developments and breakthroughs are not issued by and from a meta-physical existence. Man quite a while ago decided on his own that exploring the nature is "OK" once he said "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). Nature is not any longer a sacred place full of magic, driven by meta-physical forces, where the entrance is not permitted. Man allowed his imagination to indefinitely explore the horizon of possibilities. Such a brain can travel thousands of years, with a speed of light, into the depth of the sky. And, that brain is also truly able to create a god, as it is best put by Dr. Caster, "Isn't this what man has always done?"

Pakistan: A Hard Country

I am reading "Pakistan: A Hard Country."

This book is especially recommended for those who angrily curse Pakistan without any hesitation or thought about why Pakistan, and by that I mean many different political, social, and religious fractions living together in this land, behaves the way it does. I am barely half the way through the whole book, but even now, I have realized how I was mistaken with my perceptions about Pakistan, the government, the army, its geopolitical environment, the past and the future, and many more things.

The author of the book, ‪Anatol Lieven‬ writes, "Pakistan is quite simply far more important to the region, the West and the world than is Afghanistan: a statement which is a matter not of sentiment but of mathematics. With more than 180 million people, Pakistan has nearly six times the population of Afghanistan (or Iraq), twice the population of Iran, and almost two-thirds the population of the entire Arab world put together. Pakistan has a large diaspora in Britain (and therefore in the EU), some of whom have joined the Islamist extremists and carried out terrorists attacks against Britain."
According to the author, it is true that the government of Pakistan supports the Afghani Taliban and by that it promotes extremism, however, it may also be the first stand against it.

Pakistan is made of many contradicting groups, fractions, ideas, however that won't be a cause for its collapse, if one wants to argue that. What may destroy the Pakistani system though will be the "flood and other ecological disasters" on the scale like that of the 2010.

You must read this book.

Participation

Extremism can only be resolved by providing chances for participation of isolated groups and fractions in the society. I don't expect politicians to understand this fact.

Looking like Gandolf

Movies that are made about the historical religious leaders always portray them handsome, tall, masculine, with long beautiful hair, and awesome beard that made their faces look kind and like an angel. Well, considering their lives and thoughts, it's natural that we imagine their faces as such. But did they really look like that? I don't know!

But the thing is, regardless of these great men's thoughts, not all of them look like Gandolf. That I am positive about.

A hypothetical test: Line up all the great men in all professions and subjects in the history. Count the number of those among them who look average, according to the perceived standards of a good-looking man, and not even look like Gandolf.

Conclusion is yours to make.

Stylish candidates

It appears some of our presidential candidates in Afghan Elections 2014 have a tendency of using their Facebook photos for their campaign materials! They are dressed up in different formats, styles, dressing codes.

That's bad! It may imply they don't have a stable character. They get into different shapes and styles as per the voters' expectations. Whilst that can be considered a progress in the Afghan political sphere, whereas the practitioners are beginning to pay more attention to their people, but it looks dishonest as well. Voters may not trust candidates who look pretentious.

At the same time, having so much attention to appearance is a negative attitude for a leader. President Obama always wears black or blue because he says he don't want to be distracted by these things. In a different profession, Einstein wore always the same color or type of clothes, so did Steve Jobs.

Having a neat look is a complement for a leader, while having less attention to it is a virtue for them.

Karzai

Angrily, unforgivably, and openly, they curse Karzai, and then, call him "dogmatic!

Karzai is a genius. I have never had, in recent years, the faith I had in him when I voted for him the first time, nor even as much as I believed him when I voted for him the second time, just in a hope that the other candidates wouldn't win. He has shown times and times the level of tolerance and flexibility, practically and explicitly, I have never seen in any other Afghan politicians. He has shown a level of professionalism of which you never find a second example in the Afghan political history. He doesn't respond of course, he just ignores! What else could have you expected from a leader to survive for twelve years in a highly radicalized society like that of Afghan's?! That of course makes the rest of us angry!

He had no solid ethnic basis to leverage for political gains, nor a firm support from the U.S. during Obama.Yet, he never gave up negotiating. He consistently demanded more either domestically or internationally, empty-handed.

Does he seek personal interest? Who doesn't! In an amateur political environment like the Afghanistan's, where the politicians are comprised of murderers, pedophiles, smugglers, or charlatans formerly called "intellectuals", he appears to remain the only one who can stay rational and seek the national interest, as well as his personal.

BSA? I have said this before. There are more to this game than meet the eye. We want to sell our country, but for a better price! Stay patient!

Gender-based violence

I've never believed in feminism and its historical male conspiracy theories. As a businessman, I believe in productivity when it's about women, rather than gender mainstreaming brought about by international NGOs in Afghanistan.

However, my definition of gender-based violence is rather all-inclusive, i.e. I believe violence is not limited to physical hardships of murder, torture, sexual abuse, etc. but it encompasses all types of intentions, actions, policies, laws, customs, traditions, cultures, that stops, in one way or the other, passively or actively, the belief, action, or imagination of a female to develop.

And, I don't know what exactly "development" could mean here; and actually, I don't intend to provide any definition either.

Quality

What determines quality of a product? Durability, Sustainability, Low Price, the so-called Snob Effect?

Yes and no! All these factors and more are significant factors in determining the quality of a product, good or service, one way or the other. But how can we measure the durability of a haircut or sustainability of an air travel? Or, what does the low price have to do with a Lamborghini? And the snob effect has nothing to do with the quality of the product! Quality is not merely a perception, it's real! But are we able to draw a general outline for a quality product? How would that product look like then?

Quality means Convenience and Control translated into the various aspects of a product utility. The experiences you are pleased and gratified with through the moment you make your mind to have/buy the product to the moment you're practically using/having/receiving it, and beyond. Saying it again, it is about the total experience of control and convenience you have over planning, purchasing, using, and recycling the product.

Today morning, it took me five minutes to open the package of a set of AAA battery. FIVE MINUTES! For god's sake, that product has little quality to me! Yesterday, I was pouring water into my Siemens iron. When I was closing the lid of its tank, it had a sound like I broke the lid! (It didn't broke.) Although it's a good iron and I have been using it for over a year now, but I am not going to recommend it to anyone else!