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Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

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Our Big Small World

01 January 2012 | The Fountain | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

The past year was a busy one for The Fountain. In cooperation with many local NGOs and authorities, The Fountain organized quite a number of panels, seminars, and conferences all around the world. Locations ranged from Australia to South Africa, from Nigeria to North America. The major ones among t…

Virtue and Happiness

01 January 2012 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Those who promise happiness to people must equip them with virtues first. Happiness is out of reach for those whose hearts have not been saturated with virtue. From the past to the present, sound minds have always accepted it as so. Felicity and virtue are twins. Virtue, succinctly, is being disti…

Coping with Autism

01 January 2012 | Esen Bakhautdin | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

"When I took my one-year old son to the supermarket, he never responded to other mothers' playful overtures. I used to tell them, 'Oh, he just woke up from his nap.' He was very unresponsive baby. We knew that something was wrong with him," expressed my close friend, on her early experience with au…

The Optimizing Man

01 January 2012 | Devrim Bulut | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

In 1881, F. Edgeworth defines the first principle of economics such that every agent is motivated only by self-interest. The idea of self-interest motivation is conceptualized with a hypothetical economic agent named as "homo-economicus" who behaves rationally and in accord with logical principles…

The Difficulty of Modeling the Brain with Artificial Neurons

01 January 2012 | Fatih Gelgi | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

“The human brain, then, is the most complicated organization of matter that we know.” Isaac Asimov If someone asks what you recall when you look at the following pictures, I can hear you say ‘President Obama’ and ‘Statue of Liberty’. You just see a fragment of the pictures and remember them…

Bustling Willpower

01 January 2012 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Fate sometimes blows As gently as breezes; At other times it blows as tough As raging northeasters Rendering huge mountains to dust, Rendering feet to heads Razing heads to the ground. Sometimes caressing woeful bosoms At other times dusting grief over merry faces A mysterious program Far beyond…

Hearing the Light

01 January 2012 | Seth Mette | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

On a Saturday morning, I was sitting in the nearby park in our neighborhood. It was especially lovely to do it at this time of the year. The birds start chanting after a winter-long silence, flowers spread their mesmerizing scents everywhere, and the wind sings operas of resurrection constantly in…

Same World, Different Lenses: A Brief Overview of Cultural Differences

01 January 2012 | Osman Senkaya | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

According to the British writer Raymond Williams, culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in English. It has many definitions but here is the crux to remember: Culture is the way of life of a given society. Our culture is what we are as a group; it is learnt from birth and is p…

The Power Law

01 January 2012 | Murat Yuksel | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

The desire of explaining things and trends around us has been a decisive component of wisdom. The complexity of nature challenges human thought and experience to answer the question of “why.” The answers have been wide-ranging, from religion to experimental science. The desire to explain and tackle…

Myth or Reality: The “Invasion” and Spread of Islam in Spain

01 January 2012 | Karin De Villa | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

The majority of Spaniards, as well as people worldwide that have heard about "Muslim Spain," know about the conquest of Spain, (Hispania at the time) by the Arabs. However, few deepen their search in analyzing whether this could actually be a logical approach, considering the number of people that…

Towards the dream of Star Trek: Antimatter

01 January 2012 | M. Fatih Yilmaz | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

In physics, matter is defined as the composition of particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons. Antimatter is composed of antiparticles such as anti-electrons (positrons) and antiprotons (protons with negative charges). The existence of antimatter was suggested in 1928 by Paul Dirac and wa…

Speech and Power of Expression

01 January 2012 | Ayse Meva Nur | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Speech and the Power of Expression: On Language, Aesthetics, and Belief Fethullah Gulen Translated by Korkut Altay 9781597842297 Tughra Books, 2010 Mankind has been given exclusive possession of speech—a weapon so powerful that it is mightier than the sword. The power of speech extends vast dis…

Inbisat (Expansion)

01 January 2012 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Literally meaning growing larger and deeper, spreading and expanding, Sufis use inbisat to signify the relaxing of one's heart, to the extent allowed by the religion, so that it can embrace everybody and make them pleased or contented with one's gentle words and pleasant manners. In the context of…

Who Speaks for Islam?

01 January 2012 | Mirkena Ozer | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

"Who Speaks for Islam? What Do 1.3 Billion Muslims Really Think?" John L. Esposito, Dalia Mogahed 978-1595620170 Gallup Press, 2008 To date, many have spoken for Islam: experts, apologists, extremists, politicians, religious leaders, even fiction writers. In this cacophony of voices everyday Mu…

Are We Big Enough to Be Arrogant?

01 January 2012 | Nuri Balta | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

A small-scale blueprint of the universe, the human body is a miraculous work of art that manifests the beautiful divine names and attributes of God Almighty. A human body is made up of a set of hierarchically organized components: an organ system, organs, tissues, cells, organelles, macromolecul…

How I Wish I Could Be a Seed

01 January 2012 | Musa Ilhan | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

How I wish I could be a seed, embedded within the bosom of the earth. Protected I would be from all external elements which may cause me harm. A comfortable and familiar environment I would be in, like a human mother’s womb full of mercy – perhaps the reason why you are commonly referred to as “mot…

The Cultural Perspective and Societal Change

01 January 2012 | Daniel Hummel | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Society is built on institutions; this is an inescapable fact. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, an institution is “a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture” (Institution, 2010). The local neighborhood association is an institution that binds neighbors…

The Heart-Mind Connection

01 January 2012 | Mustafa Tabanli | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Dr. Windsor Ting and Dr. Gregory Fricchione examine the mind-body connection in their remarkable book The Heart-Mind Connection. Research shows that negative emotions can actually cause or worsen heart disease. They say in the back cover that they have useful information for those who have cardiova…

The Human Being in Numbers: Last Lesson for Peter

01 January 2012 | Irfan Yilmaz | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

Dear Peter! Until today, almost all of your organs and systems introduced themselves and explained the great artistry in their creation along with their wisdom and precision. Certainly, these were not just for your information. Of course, it is important for you to know about your organs and their…

Fixing obesity in the brain

01 January 2012 | The Fountain | Issue 85 (January - February 2012)

1- Fixing obesity in the brain Original article: Czupryn, A. et al., Science 334, 1133 (2011). Neurons are a highly specialized group of cells that transmit electrical stimuli to elicit responses in the body. This high specialization comes with a price: with few exceptions, neurons cannot divid…

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