Loud Thinking

“You never win the silver, you only lose the gold.”

Shah Rukh Khan.

Football World Cup 2014

A man takes his seat at FIFA world cup final in Brazil.

He looks to his right & notices that there is a spare seat between himself & the next guy.

Man asks the guy: “who on Earth would ever miss the FIFA world cup final?”

Guy: “That was my wife’s seat. We have been to the last four world cup finals together, but sadly she couldn’t make it to this one as she passed away.”

MAN: “oh… I am really sorry for your loss, but I must say that’s really nice of you to have her here symbolically by having a vacant seat, but these are expensive tickets; you would have brought another family member, friend or someone else with you!”

GUY: “No I couldn’t as they are all attending my wife’s funeral!”

The Mirror Story

A long time ago in India..
There lived a man with his family in the jungle. They had never seen a mirror in their life.

One day the man found a mirror in the jungle. When he saw his image in it he thought it was his father’s photo, he became very happy and took it along with him. He used to speak to the mirror everyday.

His wife became suspicious of him and one day when the man was out to work, she looked into the mirror and told,
“Ah now I get it. So this is the lady who my husband talks to everyday.”
She became angry and showed the mirror to her mother-in-law.

Mother-in-law saw her image in it and said:
“Don’t worry, be grateful that she is an old woman and will die soon.”

“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”

—Mother Teresa (1910-1997);
Founder Of The Missionaries Of Charity

“Never apologize for having high standards. People who really want to be in your life will rise up to meet them.”

— Ziad K. Abdelnour

An excellent letter published but the daily “Pakistan Observer” for intelligent persons..!

Artificial intelligence

Shereen Fatima Syed

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – The advancement in technology, especially the computer technology and for that matter the information technology, has led the mankind to an era of consciousness, convenience and comfort. The computers have added speed to the job earlier performed by the human hands with the support of the god given intelligence and intellect. All our information being within the scope of new computer technology, has made us subservient to the technology; however this has also helped the mankind in almost every walk of life and has given way to collection, managing and utilizing data for constructive ends. Our lives and work, therefore generate vast amounts of data. From travel information to customer satisfaction and to collect information on financial management, even to the tune as to how much money the new movies will generate. The data offers great insights and quite often this is because of the Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is usually defined as the science of making computers do things that require intelligence when done by humans. The potential of artificial intelligence is enormous and in fact a 2013 study by Oxford University estimated that artificial intelligence could take over nearly half of all jobs in United States in the near future.

Artificial Intelligence’s most common application is about finding patterns in enormous quantities of data. This allows companies to automate and improve complex descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytical tasks. For example the goal of the fifth generation computer is to develop the device which could respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and also that of self-organization. Quantum computation, Molecular and Nano technology will be used in this technology. Other example is that of customized food / smart packaging, wherein everyone wonders as to how long they should heat something up in the microwave, and sometimes a wrong guess can lead to an explosion. By 2015 food may come with microchips in the packaging that communicate with kitchen appliances.

Nutrition scientists also project that developments in food technology and engineering may enable marketers to offer convenient healthy snacks that are customized at the point of sale to meet each individual consumer’s nutritional requirements and personal preferences. However, the potential of Artificial Intelligence for organizations is enormous and if the projections turn out to be true and in the coming years the AI market will grow to a multiple billion dollar market, and doing business can take up a whole new meaning. Resulting in fewer employees required while significantly improving your bottom line results. I think Artificial intelligence is second intelligence ever to exist.

—Islamabad

Joint Parliamentary Commission for June 17, Lahore Police firing incident.

In order to strengthen the shaking democratic system of Pakistan, it is proposed that a joint parliamentary commission may be formed, to inquire and submit its report to the parliament on the 17 June Lahore carnage.

This also create confidence of the people in the democratic values of the civilian democratic system.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Sir,

The matter raised by Mr. Kalim A. Chishtie, in his below mentioned letter, published by the Daily Dawn of today, needs your personal intervention, as it adversely affects the senior citizens and widows etc.

If we compare the previous PPP rule with your one years performance, one thing is strikingly clear that PPP at least had a soft corner for the low income group, while your government seems completely oblivious of the problems, being faced by the middle class and the lower middle class citizens.

I will request you to just have a look at the utility bills of the above mentioned categories of people, to have an idea how the same has increased during your tenure, compared with the last PPP government.

Actually, your government having failed to recover the utility bills from the high and mighty people, who never pay their utility charges, has decided to punish the millions of honest bill payers, by increasing the rates of all the utility services, with a vengeance.

Now, this is a novel way of punishing the honest people, who never indulge in the theft of electricity, gas and water.

People still fondly remember that it was the last PPP government, which enhanced the upper limit of the EOBI pension to Rs. 3,600/PM.

Let me assure you that if the Rs.30,00,000/- or PKR 3 million upper limit is reasonably enhanced, your government can easily generate much more huge amount of funds, than you will get the revenue, from the tax collected on the Behbood profit payments. But, for this suggestion to be implemented, you will have to take a (firm) stand before the mighty bankers lobby, who will oppose this enhancement of limit, tooth and nail.

Submitted for your favourable consideration please.

Yours sincerely,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
Lahore.

Behbood scheme

By From the Dawn Newspaper
Updated about 2 hours ago

Comment Email Print

IT is interesting to note that out of the blue the present government has come up with a novel idea of taxing the profits of the Behbood scheme. Does the government wish that senior citizens and widows who are meeting their expenses through profits derived from the scheme should face more difficulty in managing their daily expenditures in this age of inflation?

Kalim A. Chishtie
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014

A lesson for our leaders..!

A letter published by the daily “Dawn”.

Clinton example
By From the Newspaper
Updated about an hour ago

Comment Email Print
THIS refers to the news item ‘We were dead broke when we left White House in 2001, says Clinton’ (June 10). When our rulers leave their office, we find a substantial increase in their wealth and assets.

She described her post-White House financial situation as dire and shared the struggle of paying for their homes and providing for the education of daughter Chelsea.

This statement must be an eye-opener for our ruling elite. Gone are the days when we had leaders and rulers like them. The most perfect example is that of Liaquat Ali Khan. When he was martyred he had almost zero bank balance, while his wife Rana Liaquat lived throughout her life in a rented house. Their sons are no more in the limelight.

Liaquat Ali Khan was the nawab of the state of Kernal with huge assets which he left in India and never claimed a single penny in lieu of that property. When late prime minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali went on a state visit to the US, he paid for the medical check-up of his wife from his own pocket. Will we ever get leaders like Liaquat Ali Khan and Chaudhry Muhammad Ali?

The president of the most powerful country had to deliver speeches to make two ends meet, while the ruling elite of one of the poorest countries possess property worth billions of dollars along with bank balances.

Aamir Aqil
Lahore

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

—Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991);
Writer, Cartoonist, Animator