When I die, when my coffin is carried out,

You must never think, I am missing this world,

Do not shed any tears, do not lament or feel sorry,

I am not falling into a monster’s abyss,

When you see my corpse carried out,

Do not cry for my leaving, as I am not leaving,

I am arriving at eternal love,

When you leave me in the grave,

Do not say goodbye, remember a grave is only a curtain,

For the paradise behind,

you will only see me, descending into a grave,

Now watch me rise, how can there be an end,

when the sun sets, or the moon goes down,

It looks like the end, it seems like a sunset,

But in reality it is a dawn, when the grave locks you up,

That is when your soul is freed,

Have you even seen a seed, planted in earth,

Not rise with new life? why should you doubt the rise,

Of a seed named human,

Have you ever seen, a bucket lowered into a well,

Come back empty?

Why lament for a soul, when it can come back,

Like Joseph from the well,

When for the last time, you close your mouth,

You words and soul, will belong to the world,

Of no place and no time.

Mevlana Jalal ud-Din Mohammad Rumi

September 30, 1207 – December 17, 1273

“Our Milky Way Galaxy is a spiraling disk of over 200 billion stars (Suns). It spans 2 million light years (1 light year = 6 trillion miles). If we shrunk the Milky Way to the size of Earth, our solar system would be the size of a football Stadium, Earth would be the size of a golf ball. We humans would be invisible.”

There are estimated to be at over 200 billion galaxies in the visible Universe.

Then why I think I am the big man when I am practically nothing?

The Islamic world does not innovate when it relates to science, technology, medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, cosmology, etc. etc. Hence the reason for their low manufacturing output of viable goods that people use in their day-to-day life (excluding oil, originally discovered by the Americans and the British). The low output also relates to the absence of democratic principles and the freedom of speech among their citizens.

Sadly, the emphasis on religious fanaticism, terrorism, cave mentality and corruption will continue to deprive some of the most capable people of the Islamic world to become productive citizens of this Earth.

The results of the recently released “2015 Global Innovation Index” that covers 141 countries shows that Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK), Sweden, the Netherlands and the USA are the world’s five most-innovative nations.

However, in terms of “Innovation Quality” as measured by scholarly articles, university performance and the patent applications, the USA holds the top spot followed by the UK, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland.

2015 Top 20 Countries in Global Innovation Index are:

Country                                  Rank

Switzerland                             1

United Kingdom                      2

Sweden                                   3

Netherland                              4

USA                                        5

Finland                                    6

Singapore                               7

Ireland                                     8

Luxembourg                            9

Denmark                                 10

Hong Kong                              11

Germany                                 12

Iceland                                    13

South Korea                            14

New Zealand                           15

Canada                                   16

Australia                                  17

Austria                                     18

Japan                                      19

Norway                                    20

Source – The Global Innovation Index 2015is the collaboration between Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as co-publishers, and their Knowledge Partners.

This artist’s concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle.

NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star.

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the “habitable zone” — the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

“This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.  This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet and has 385-day orbit. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

A joint report from several anti-war groups has calculated that around 80,000 Pakistanis have been killed in the war against terror between 2005 and 2013 including civilians, military personnel and the terrorists.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), which is associated with the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi reports that 26,862 terrorists and 5,498 military personnel were killed by the end of 2013. In 2013, SATP calculated 3,001 civilian deaths in Pakistan by the terrorists.

Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) joint report says that 45,503 civilians were killed between 2005 and 2012.

This leads to a conclusion that that the terrorists are responsible for killing 48,504 civilians by the end of 2013.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London estimates that 416 to 951 Pakistanis have been killed by the US drones.

Additionally, 45 journalists were killed in the same time period.

These and other figures were also included in a joint report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival and the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

Excerpts from Pakistan Daily Dawn Newspaper – Published March 31st, 2015

What is America to me?

A name, a map, or a flag I see

A certain word, democracy

What is America to me?

The house I live in, a plot of earth, a street

The grocer and the butcher, and the people that I meet

The children in the playground, the faces that I see

All races and religions, that’s America to me

The place I work in, the worker by my side

The little town or village, where my people lived and died

The howdy and the handshake, the air a feeling free

And the right to speak my mind out, that’s America to me

The things I see about me, the big things and the small

That little corner newsstand, or the house a mile tall

The wedding and the churchyard, the laughter and the tears

And the dream that’s been a growin, for about two hundred years

The place I live in, the street, the house, the room

The pavement of the city, or a garden all in bloom

The church the school the clubhouse, the millions lights I see

But especially the people, yes especially the people

That’s America to me

Songwriters: Lewis Allan / Earl Robinson

The House I Live In lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow