Open Letter to Muslim People living in the Western world.

This was a letter I wrote to a person I met:

Hey <name>. Obviously I'm not waking up at 06:00 tomorrow to have breakfast with you, as much as I'd like to. The reason I wanted to chat with you it's because it's a shame an intelligent and educated person like you to be spouting nonsense. If you're not interested in having friends in Europe you can stop reading my messages right here. Because the rest only applies if you want to be respected in Europe and to have deep, meaningful friendships.                      

When you go around telling people in europe that you believe the quran was beamed to muhammad by god then certainly people will never take you seriously. As a person, as a scientist or as anything else. It shows that you have no critical thinking skills. To us in Europe, telling us that quran was written by god (or the bible, or any other religious book for that matter) is like telling us that you believe in Harry Potter. It's practically the same thing because both are works of fiction.                      
It's literally RIDICULOUS to go around saying that to people, especially in scientific circles. So as a countermeasure to this I recommend that you tell people you practice islam because you LIKE it, and try as much as possible to avoid the word "god".

All that "scientific" evidence that you cite to prove that the quran is the word of god is just a bunch of jokes that don't stand up to REAL scientific scrutiny. By real science I don't mean some scholar of the quran. That's not science. Science means following a trail of evidence to come to the truth, not interpreting some writings the way you like to interpret them. So yes, that's another thing you should stop saying in Europe, that the quran is based on scientific evidence. It is NOT.

Following the completion of your degree you will hold the title "Master of Science", but I wonder, how can you be a master of science if you don't even have a basic understanding of how to follow a trail of scientific evidence? It's baffling to me (and to the other people you met in my party,  how you have not questioned all these things that you have been told since you were a child. And how, even after "researching" about the quran you still believe it's godsent. This really makes me question your research ability and your ability to reason logically.

This is why you and I cannot be friends. And why you will struggle making friends with non muslim people in Europe. At this point there's something that needs to be mentioned: I am not perfect. I have my flaws (quite a few in fact) like most people and I make mistakes. So despite what I wrote to you today, I believe in freedom of speech and expression. So you should say what's really on your mind, even if I disagree with it or I find it ridiculous. That being said you need to exercise critical thinking about everything, even what I wrote here to you today.                      

Good luck with the rest of your stay in <country>, I hope you manage to come back to Europe to continue your studies.

eGlobal Central is not a german company

I recently purchased a smartphone from eGlobal Central (de). The smartphone arrived with considerable delay (despite being promised 6-8 working days for delivery). At first inspection it was obvious the smartphone package was tampered (opened). I was sure because a friend of mine had also purchased the Nexus 5X and it had a seal. This package had no seal:

There was also dust under the protective film which was evidence the phone had been opened. Finally the box had "UAE" on it. I suppose this means it's a United Arab Emirates version. Repeated e-mails to eGlobal central for RMA went unanswered. There were no sender address details on the package and no invoice so I contacted the courier company (GLS) for an address. They provided me with the following address as the sender's address:

DGS Group Europe
Eddi Cheuk
Matlingeweg 100
NL 3044 EW Rotterdam

Matlingeweg 100 is the address of a GLS (courier company) depot in Rotterdam. This means Eddi Cheuk (his LinkedIn profile) sent the package himself by going to the GLS depot in Rotterdam.

Further research showed that eGlobal central is a "front" for this Hong-Kong company called DGS Group Ltd. (DGS stands for Drop-Shipping Global Services)

Here is their address:
DGS Group Ltd.
10/F., No. 9 Wing Hong Street
Cheung Sha Wan
Kowloon, H.K.

And here is their website:
http://www.dgsgroup.com.hk/

These guys operate a number of "front" websites including:

http://www.dropshipgs.com/
http://www.eglobalcentral.eu/
http://www.eglobalcentral.de/
http://www.eglobalcentral.uk/
http://www.eglobalcentral.nl/
http://www.eglobalcentral.co.uk/

Stay tuned as I uncover more information on this unreliable company.

My favorite phone

I have owned a number of android smartphones but the best one so far has been the HTC Dream and the HTC Desire Z. There was something about the hardware keyboard that I really liked. I wish some manufacturer would take mechanical android keyboards more seriously.