I am reading and reviewing books of @SamHarrisOrg this December, with the extra time available after work. First book I read is following.

The book is written by the neo-atheist Sam Harris. I am a passionate sunni Muslim. I would like to learn and review some of his work, and judge them from my personal view based on Islamic theological perspective. It shall be interesting because as you would know, the neo-athiests
want to abolish religions altogether and suggest a world where things are based on science and logic. How is that coherent and how is it relavent? Let's see for ourselves. I would like to thank the local Muslim handles and atheist handles who actively participate in discussions.
I would advice everyone to stick to a more academic discussions and not to deviate the discussion with mockery of Islamic and atheistic beliefs.
This book talks about lying and it's ill effects on the individuals and at large on the society. In a nutshell here are some of the gists of the book. The book basically identified specific ways in which lying is detrimental and why we should avoid lying.
So, on one hand one might say, look here we see the morality being drawn from science. Here Sam Harris has identified the lying and it's dangers without any religious text. Does this notion applies? Can we say science can define morality?
I would say, it's too early to conclude anything of that sort yet, as this is just one of the cases of objective morality, where we say lying is bad. I agree that the information provided in the book are convincing that lying infact is bad, and should be avoided.
In this case, Harris did not refer to any religious text about how they define lying, obviously because he wants to ban religions and show that we don't need religion to live as good people. Do we agree to this? Again. It too early to conclude anything of this sort. Let's just
Talk about lying only for instance. Does religious scripture define lying smiliar to how Sam Harris has defined? On a basic level, it does. On an advanced level, religious scriptures does not detail out sections of it just for lying, which is not really essential, because the
Scriptures idenify on a general level things as being moral or not. God orders how lying is bad and should be avoided, via his book and via prophethood. So fundamentally both sources identity them as being wrong. Sam Harris is an author, and just because he is a neuroscientist
Does not make all of his work scientifically accurate. Infact the book as a whole is philosophical. There is no single grounded theory. But so are many written work. So as a good philosophical work, I would definitely think the book will help people, convince them to stop lying
And make them better people. On the other hand, I would also think that the effect the same concept brings about via religious scripture is far more effective and obligates people from stop lying. Now, believers and unbelievers, both lie. All the time, people lie. The difference
Is people who are follow strict religious guidelines will lie less and probably are more honest people. A work written by an author does not gurantee or obligate anyone. It just is no better than me writing a book named 'opposable thumbs'. It does not obligate poeple to use them.
The conclusion : this is a good book. It encourages people to stop lying. It motivates one to be honest person. So does religious scripture, and the effect is huge from religion, as people are obligated to obey God and his messengers rather than learning a 'nice to have' opinion.
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॥ॐ॥
अस्य श्री गायत्री ध्यान श्लोक:
(gAyatri dhyAna shlOka)
• This shloka to meditate personified form of वेदमाता गायत्री was given by Bhagwaan Brahma to Sage yAgnavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य).

• 14th shloka of गायत्री कवचम् which is taken from वशिष्ठ संहिता, goes as follows..


• मुक्ता-विद्रुम-हेम-नील धवलच्छायैर्मुखस्त्रीक्षणै:।
muktA vidruma hEma nIla dhavalachhAyaiH mukhaistrlkShaNaiH.

• युक्तामिन्दुकला-निबद्धमुकुटां तत्वार्थवर्णात्मिकाम्॥
yuktAmindukalA nibaddha makutAm tatvArtha varNAtmikam.

• गायत्रीं वरदाभयाङ्कुश कशां शुभ्रं कपालं गदाम्।
gAyatrIm vardAbhayANkusha kashAm shubhram kapAlam gadAm.

• शंखं चक्रमथारविन्दयुगलं हस्तैर्वहन्ती भजै॥
shankham chakramathArvinda yugalam hastairvahantIm bhajE.

This shloka describes the form of वेदमाता गायत्री.

• It says, "She has five faces which shine with the colours of a Pearl 'मुक्ता', Coral 'विद्रुम', Gold 'हेम्', Sapphire 'नील्', & a Diamond 'धवलम्'.

• These five faces are symbolic of the five primordial elements called पञ्चमहाभूत:' which makes up the entire existence.

• These are the elements of SPACE, FIRE, WIND, EARTH & WATER.

• All these five faces shine with three eyes 'त्रिक्षणै:'.
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.