الف ب پ ...

دم مهران مدیری گرم

2011-03-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

بعد از مدت ها فرصت کردم که قسمت های ۲۹ و ۳۰ طنز قهوه تلخ را ببینم. بر خلاف کم لطفی هایی که در حقش میشود فکر میکنم کمتر کسی در میان هنرمندان ایرانی چنین توانایی داشته باشد که با تمامی محدودیت هایی که در ایران برای تهیه فیلم ها و سریال ها اعمال می شود این چنین هوشمندانه و زیرکانه و با زبان طنز به نقادی حکومت بپردازد. به نظر من قرار دادن رقص های کهن ایرانی در قسمت های ۲۹ و ۳۰ این سریال یکی از زیرکانه ترین کارهای انجام شده در مجموعه قهوه تلخ به شمار می رود.

دم مهران مدیری و تمامی همکارانش گرم

Iran's blogsphere map

2010-12-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

Persian Blogsphere / Berkman center for internet and society at Harvard University/

Last updated March 24, 2010

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. This case analyzes the composition of the Iranian blogosphere and its possible impact on political and democratic processes. The objectives of these studies are to write a narrative description of the events and the technology used in each case, to draw initial conclusions about the actual impact of technology on democratic events and processes, and to identify questions for further research.


Blocked Persian Blogsphere / Berkman center for internet and society at Harvard University/ Last updated March 24, 2010

They used computational social network mapping in combination with human and automated content analysis to analyze the Iranian blogosphere. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that Iranian bloggers are mainly young democrats critical of the regime, they found a wide range of opinions representing religious conservative points of view as well as secular and reform-minded ones, and topics ranging from politics and human rights to poetry, religion, and pop culture. The research indicates that the Persian blogosphere is indeed a large discussion space of approximately 60,000 routinely updated blogs featuring a rich and varied mix of bloggers. Social network analysis reveals the Iranian blogosphere to be dominated by four major network formations, or poles, with identifiable sub-clusters of bloggers within those poles. They label the poles as 1) Secular/Reformist, 2) Conservative/Religious, 3) Persian Poetry and Literature, and 4) Mixed Networks.

The full article in Persian can be found here.
The full article in English can be found here.
The interactive map can be found here.
Also you might like to watch this video from BBCPersian about the above study.

Ahmadinejad's Santa

2010-12-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

Street theater performance about Iran's human rights abuses - A man affiliated with the group Iran180 sits in a giant puppet outfit made to look like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the start of a small street theater performance near the United Nations in New York, New York, USA, on 10 December 2010. Courtesy of Corbis

Wikileaks cartoons

2010-12-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

Julian Assange in jail

Wikileaks Spill

Julian Assange arrested

Wikileaks

Wikileaks bomb

US wants Wikileaks founder

Julian Assange arrested

Julian Assange is watching you

The Fugitive

Whacking Wikileaks

Wikileaked Santa

Wikileaks

Santa Wikileaked

After Wikileaks

More Wikileaks

Assange and the leak

Wikileaks

Post Wikileaks diplomacy

Wikileaks

نفرات برتر کنکور

2010-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

امروز یک ایمیل دریافت کردم که اطلاعات جالبی داشت

ندا ناطق (نفر اول رشته ریاضی): استانفورد، آمریکا

اشکان برنا (نفر دوم رشته ریاضی): برکلی کالیفرنیا، آمریکا

احسان شفیعی پور‌فرد (نفر سوم رشته ریاضی): ایلینویز، آمریکا

محمد فلاحی سیچانی (نفر اول رشته تجربی): میشیگان، آمریکا

محمد امین خلیفه سلطانی (نفر دوم رشته تجربی): اطلاعات خاصی پیدا نکردم

پیمان حبیب اللهی (نفر سوم رشته تجربی): هاروارد، آمریکا

محمدرضا جلایی‌پور (نفر اول رشته انسانی): زندان اوین، تهران - در حال حاضر با سپردن وثیقه ۳۰۰ میلیونی از زندان آزاد شده است

قضاوت با شما

لطفا اگر از مابقی هم خبر دارید به صورت کامنت برای من ارسال کنید

لیست جاهایی که حتما باید در ایران ببینم

2010-10-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

در اینجا میخوام جاهایی که دوست دارم بعد از بازگشتم به ایران حتما ازشون بازدید کنم را لیست کنم

ترتیبشون بر مبنای اهمیتشون نیست

هتل کندوان در روستای کندوان در نزدیکی تبریز

باداب سورت - استان مازندران از ساری هم میشه رفت مثل اینکه

http://www.orost.ir/page/soort-image.aspx

زیگوارت چغازنبیل

http://www.irantravelingcenter.com/choghazanbil_ziggurat_iran.htm

اگه پیشنهادی دارید حتما کامنت بذارین

Rastak Music

2010-08-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

ترانه های گروه رستاک تقدیم به تمامی اقوام سرزمین ایران. به کوری چشم کسانی که نمی توانند اتحاد ملت ایران را ببینند و هراسشان ز یگانگی ماست.

Fifa world cup in 3D

2010-07-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today, I was in Miami and I watched FIFA world cup final in 3D. It was fun. I like 3D. The movie theater was located in Sunset place plaza.

beautiful note

2010-06-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. You'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by.
So...
Take too many pictures, Laugh too much, Forgive freely, and Love like you've never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. Don't be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, "LIVE IN THE MOMENT" because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back.

" We only live once but if we WORK IT RIGHT, once is enough."

ريرا

2010-06-01T20:49:00.001-07:00

سلام !
حال همه ما خوب است
ملالی نیست جز گم شدن گاه به گاه خیالی دور
که مردم به آن شادمانی بی سبب می گویند
با این همه عمری اگر باقی بود
طوری از کنار زندگی می گذرم
که نه پای آهوی بی جفت بلرزد و
نه این دل ناماندگار بی درمان !
تا یادم نرفته است بنویسم
حوالی خوابهای ما سال پر بارانی بود
می دانم همیشه حیاط آنجا پر از هوای تازه بازنیامدن است
اما تو لااقل ، حتی هر وهله گاهی ، هر از گاهی
ببین انعکاس تبسم رویا
شبیه شمایل شقایق نیست !
راستی خبرت بدهم
خواب دیده ام خانه ای خریده ام
بی پرده ، بی پنجره ، بی در ، بی دیوار ... هی بخند !
بی پرده بگویمت
چیزی نمانده است ، من چهل ساله خواهم شد
فردا را به فال نیک خواهم گرفت
دارد همین لحظه یک فوج کبوتر سپید
از فراز کوچه ما می گذرد
باد بوی نامهای کسان من می دهد
یادت می آید رفته بودی خبر از آرامش آسمان بیاوری !؟
نه ری را جان
نامه ام باید کوتاه باشد
ساده باشد
بی حرف از ابهام و آینه
از نو برایت می نویسم
حال همه ما خوبست
اما تو باور مکن !
...
بیا برویم روبه روی باد شمال
آن سوی پرچین گریه ها
سر پناهی خیس از مژه های ماه را بلدم
که بی راهه دریا نیست
دیگر از این همه سلام ضبط شده بر آداب لاجرم خسته ام
بیا برویم !
آن سوی هر چه حرف و حدیث امروزست
همیشه سکوتی برای آرامش و فراموشی ما باقی است
می توانیم بدون تکلم خاطره ای حتی کامل شویم
می توانیم دمی در برابر جهان
به یک واژه ساده قناعت کنیم
من حدس می زنم از آواز آن همه سال و ماه
هنوز بیت ساده ای از غربت گریه را بیاد آورم
من خودم هستم
بی خود این آینه را روبه روی خاطره مگیر
هیچ اتفاق خاصی رخ نداده است
تنها شبی هفت ساله خوابیدم و بامدادان هزار ساله برخاستم .
....
دارم هی پابه پای نرفتن صبوری می کنم
صبوری می کنم تا تمام کلمات عاقل شوند
صبوری می کنم تا ترنم نام تو در ترانه کاملتر شود
صبوری می کنم تا طلوع تبسم ، تا سهم سایه ، تا سراغ همسایه
صبوری می کنم تا مدار ، مدارا ، مرگ ...
تا مرگ ، خسته از دق الباب نوبتم
آهسته زیر لب ... چیزی ، حرفی ، سخنی بگو ید
مثلا ً وقت بسیار است و دوباره باز خواهم گشت !
هه ! مرا نمی شناسد مرگ
یا کودک است هنوز ، و یا شاعران ساکتند !
حالا برو ای مرگ ، برادر ، ای بیم ساده آشنا
تا تو دوباره باز آیی
من هم دوباره عاشق خواهم شد !
...
نه
پرس و جو مکن
حالم خوب است
همین دمدمای صبح
ستاره ای به دیدن دریا آمده بود
می گفت ملائکی مغموم ماه را به خواب دیده اند
که سراغ از مسافری گم شده می گرفت
باران می آید
و ما تا فرصتی ... تا فرصت سلامی دیگر خانه نشین می شویم .
کاش نامه را به خط گریه می نوشتم ری را
چرا باید از پس پیراهنی سپید
هی بی صدا و بی سایه بمیریم !
هی همین دل بی قرار من ، ری را
کاش این همه آدمی
تنها با نوازش باران و تشنگی نسبتی می داشتند
ری را ! ری را !
تنها تکرار نام توست که می گویدم
دیدگانت خواهرانه بارانند .
سر انجام باورت می کنند
باید این کوچه نشینان ساده بدانند
که جرم باد ، ربودن بافه های رویا نبوده است
گریه نکن ری را
راهمان دور و دلمان کنار همین گریستن است
دوباره اردیبهشت به دیدنت می آیم
خبر تازه ای ندارم
فقط چند صباح پیشتر
دو سه سایه که از کوچه پائین می گذشتند
روسری های رنگین بسیاری با خود آورده بودند
ساز و دهل می زدند
اما کسی مرا نمی شناخت
راهمان دور و دلمان کنار همین گریستن است
خدا را چه دیده ای ری را !
شاید آنقدر باران بنفشه بارید
که قلیلی شاعر از پی گل نی
آمدند ، رفتند دنبال چراغ و آینه
شمعدانی ، عسل ، حلقه نقره و قرآن کریم
حیرت آور است ری را ،
حالا هر که از روبرو بیاید
بی تعارف صدایش می کنیم بفرما !
امروز مسافر ما هم به خانه بر می گردد
...
قبول نیست ری را
بیا قدمهامان را تا یادگاری درخت شماره کنیم
هر که پیشتر از باران به رویای چشمه رسید
پریچه بی جفت آبها را ببوسد ،
برود تا پشت بال پروانه
هی خواب خدا و سینه ریز و ستاره ببیند
قبول نیست ری را !
بیا بی خبر به خواب هفت سالگی بر گردیم
غصه هامان گوشه گنجه بی کلید
مشقهامان نوشته
تقویم تمام مدارس در باد
و عید یعنی همیشه همین فردا
نه دوش و نه امروز ،
تنها باریکه راهی است که می رود
می رود تا بوسه ، تا نقل و پولکی
تا سهم گریه از بغض آه
ها ... ها ری را !
حالا جامه هایت را
تا به هفت آب تمام خواهم شست
صبح علی الطلوع راه خواهیم افتاد
می رویم اما نه دورتر از نرگس و رویای بی گذر
باد اگر آمد
شناسنامه هامان برای او
باران اگر آمد
چشمهامان برای او
تنها دعا کن کسی لای کتاب کهنه را نگشاید
من از حدیث دیو و
دوری از تو می ترسم ... ری را !
درست است که من
همیشه از نگاه نادرست و طعنه تاریک ترسیده ام
درست است که زیر بوته باد سر بر خشت خالی نهاده ام
درست است که طاقت تشنگی در من نیست
اما با این همه گمان مبر که در برودت این بادها خواهم برید !
از جنوب که آمدم
لهجه ام شبیه سوال و ستاره بود
من شمال و جنوب جهان را نمی دانستم
هر کو که پیاله آبی می دادم
گمان ساده می بردم که از اولیای باران است
سرآغاز تمام پهنه ها
فقط میدان توپخانه و کوچه های سرچشمه بود
اصلا می ترسیدم از کسی بپرسم این همه پنجره برای چیست ؟
یا این همه آدمی چرا به سلام آدمی پاسخ نمی دهند ...!؟
از جنوب که آمدم
حادثه هم بوی نماز و نوزاد سه روزه می داد
و آسانترین اسامی آدمیان
واژگانی شبیه باران و بوسه بود ،
زیرآن همه باران بی واهمه
هیچ کبوتری خیس و خسته به خانه باز نمی آمد
روسپیان خواهران پشیمان آب و آینه بودند
اما با این همه کسی از من خیس ، از من خسته نپرسید
که از نگاه نادرست و طعنه تاریک می ترسم یا نه ؟
که از هجوم نابهنگام لکنت و گریه می ترسم یا نه ؟
که اصلاً هی ساده ، تو اهل کجایی ؟
اهل کجایی که خیره به آسمان حتی پیش پای خودت را نمی پایی ؟
باز می رفتم
می رفتم میدان توپخانه را دور می زدم
و باز می آمدم همانجا که زنی فال حافظ و عشوه ارزان می فروخت
دل و دست بیدی در باد ، دل و دست بیدی کنار فواره ها می لرزید .
و من خودم بودم
شناسنامه ای کهنه و پیراهنی پر از بوی پونه و پروانه های بنفش !
حالا هنوز گاه به گاه سراغ گنجه که می روم
می دانم تمام آن پروانه ها مرده اند
حالا پیراهن چرک آن سالها را به در می آورم
می گذارم روبروی سهمی از سکوت آن سالها و می گریم و می گریم و می گریم
چندان بلند بلند که باران بیاید
و بدانم که همسایه ام باز مهمان و موسیقی دارد .
حالا دیگر از ندانستن شمال و جنوب جهان بغضم نمی گیرد
حالا دیگر از هر نگاه نادرست و طعنه تاریک نمی ترسم
حالا دیگر از هجوم نابهنگام لکنت و گریه نمی ترسم
حالا دیگر برای واژگان خفته در خمیازه کتاب
غصه بسیار نمی خورم
حالا به هر زنجیری که می نگرم بوی نسیم و ستاره می آید
حالا به هر قفلی که می نگرم کلام کلید و اشاره می بارد
شاعر که می شوی ، خیال تو یعنی حکومت دوست
باور کنید ! هی من ساده ، ساده به این ستاره رسیده ام ؟
من از شکستن طلسم و تمرین ترانه
به سادگی های حیرت دوباره رسیده ام
درست است
من هم دعاتان می کنم تا دیگر از هر نگاه نادرست نترسید
از هر طعنه تاریک نترسید
از پسین و پرده خوانی غروب
یا از هجوم نابهنگام لکنت و گریه نترسید
دوستتان دارم
ای سادگان صبور ، سادگان صبور !
...
به گمانم باید
برای آرامش مادرم
دعای گریه و گیسو بران باران را به یاد آورم
دلم می خواست بهتر از اینی که هست سخن می گفتم
وقتی که دور از همگان
بخواهی خواب عزیزت را برای آینه تعبیر کنی
معلوم است که سکوت علامت آرامش نیست
آسوده باش ، حالم خوبست
فقط در حیرتم
که از چه هوای رفتن به جائی دور
هی دل بی قرار را پی آن پرنده می خواند
به خدا من کاری نکرده ام
فقط لای نامه هایی به ری را
گلبرگ تازه ای کنار می بوسمت جا نهاده و بسیار گریسته ام
چرا از اینکه به رویایی آن پرنده خاموش
خبر از باغات آینه آورده ام ، سرزنشم می کنید !؟
خب به فرض که در خواب این چراغ هم گریه ام گرفت
باید بروید تمام این دامنه را تا نمی دانم آن کجا
پر از سایه سار حرف و حدیث کنید !؟
یعنی که من فرق میان دعای گریه و گیسو بران باران را نمی فهمم !؟
خسته ام ، خسته ، ری را
نه من سراغ شعر می روم
نه شعر از من ساده سراغی گرفته است
تنها در تو به شادمانی می نگرم ری را
هرگز تا بدین پایه بیدار نبوده ام
از شب که گذشتیم
حرفی بزن سلامنوش لیموی گس
نه من سراغ شعر میروم
نه شعر از من ساده سراغی گرفته است
تنها در تو به حیرت می نگرم ری را
هرگز تا بدین پایه عاشق نبوده ام
پس اگر این سکوت
تکوین خواناترین ترانه من است
تنها مرا زمزمه کن ای ساده ، ای صبور !
حالا از همه اینها گذشته ، بگو
راستی در آن دور دست گمشده آیا
هنوز کودکی با دو چشم خیس و درشت ، مرا می نگرد !؟
می توانم کنار تو باشم و
باز بی آواز از راز این همه همهمه بگذرم
من از پی زبان پوسیدگان نخواهم رفت
تنها منم که در خواب این همه زمستان لنگر نشین
هی بهار بهار برای باغ بابونه آرزو می کنم
حالا همین شوق بی قیمت و قاعده
همین حدود رویا و رفتن از پی نور ، ما را بس
تا بر اقلیم شقایق و خیال پروانه پادشاهی کنیم .
اشتباه از ما بود
اشتباه از ما بود که خواب سرچشمه را در خیال پیاله می دیدیم
دستهامان خالی
دلهامان پر
گفتگوهامان مثلا یعنی ما !
کاش می دانستیم
هیچ پروانه ای پریروز پیلگی خویش را به یاد نمی آورد
حالا مهم نیست که تشنه به رویای آب می میریم !
از خانه که می آئی
یک دستمال سفید ، پاکتی سیگار ، گزینه شعر فروغ ،
و تحملی طولانی بیاور
احتمال گریستن ما بسیار است !
در ارتباط مخفی با خواب گریه ها
حرفهای عجیبی شنیده ام .
هی ساده ، ساده !
از پس آستین گریه گمان می کنند :
آسمان فردا صاف و هوای رفتن ما آفتابی است .
حالا تو هم بلند شو ، بگو (( ها )) و برو !
اصلا چه کارشان داری ؟
اینان که مونس دو سه روز گلند و گلبرگند
و این درخت هم که از خودشان است
یک هفته ای می آیند همین حدود ما و
هی هوای خوش و
بعد هم می روند جائی دور ، آن دور ها
چقدر قشنگند
می شنوی ری را ؟
به خدا پروانه ها قبل از آنکه پیر شوند ، می میرند
حالا بیا برویم از رگبار واژه ها ویران شویم
عیبی ندارد یک بودن دیوار باغ و صدای همسایه
باران که باز بیاید
می ماند آسمان و خواب و خاطره ای
یا حرفی میان گفت و لطف آدمی با سکوت
....
من راه خانه ام را گم کرده ام ری را
ميان راه فقط صدای تو نشانی ستاره بود
که راه را بی دليل راه جسته بوديم
بی راه و بی شمال
بی راه و بی جنوب
بی راه و بی رويا
من راه خانه ام را گم کرده ام
اسامی آسان کسانم را
نامم را ، دريا و رنگ روسری تو را ، ری را
ديگر چيزی به ذهنم نمی رسد
حتی همان چند چراغ دور
که در خواب مسافران مرده بودند !
من راه خانه ام را گم کرده ام آقايان
چرا می پرسيد از پروانه و خيزران چه خبر
چه ربطی ميان پروانه و خيزران ديده ايد
شما كيستيد؟
از کجا آمده ايد
کی از راه رسيده ايد
چرا بی چراغ سخن می گوئيد
اين همه علامت سوال برای چيست
مگر من آشنای شمايم
که به آن سوی کوچه دعوتم می کنيد
من که کاری نکرده ام
فقط از ميان تمام نامها
نمی دانم از چه (( ری را )) را فراموش نکرده ام
آيا قناعت به سهم ستاره از نشانی راه
چيزی از جرم رفتن به سوی رويا را کم نخواهد کرد ؟
من راه خانه ام را گم کرده ام بانو
شما ، بانو که آشنای همه آوازهای روزگار منيد
آيا آرزوهای مرا در خواب ، نی لبکی شکسته نديديد
می گويند در کوی شما
هر کودکی که در آن دميده ، از سنگ ، ناله و
از ستاره ، هق هق گريه شنيده است
چه حوصله ای ری را !
بگو رهايم کنند ، بگو راه خانه ام را به ياد خواهم آورد
می خواهم به جائی دور خيره شوم
می خواهم سيگاری بگيرانم
می خواهم يک لحظه به اين لحظه بينديشم ...
- آيا ميان آن همه اتفاق
من از سر اتفاق زنده ام هنوز !
بی قرارم
بی قرارم
می خواهم بروم
می خواهم بمانم
دارم در ترانه ای مبهم زاده می شوم
به نسيما بگو کتابهای کودکان را
کنار گلدان و سوالات هفت سالگی چيده ام
گونه هايم گر گرفته است
تشنه نيستم
می خواهم تنها بمانم
در اتاق را آهسته ببند
شب پيش خواب باران و پائيزی نيامده را ديدم
انگار که تعبير تمام رفتن ها
بازگشت به زاد رود شقايق است
حالا بوی مينار مادرم می آيد
بوی حنا ، هفت سالگی ، سوال ، سفر ، ستاره ...
می خواهم به بوی ريواس و رازيانه بينديشم
به بوی نان ، به لحن الکن فتيله و فانوس
به رنگ پونه و پسين کوه
می خواهم به باران ، به بوی خاک
به اشکال کنار جاده بيندیشم
به سنگچين دود اندود اجاق ترنج
ترانه ، لچک ، کودری ، چلواری سپيد ،
بخار نفس های استکان
طعم غليظ قند ، رنگ عقيق چای
نی ، نافله ، نای ،
و دق الباب باد بر چارچوب رسواترين روياها
نگفتمت وقتی که خاموشم
تو در مزن ؟
می خواهم به رواج رويا و عدالت آدمی بينديشم
می خواهم در کوچه های کهنسال آواز و بغض بلوغ
به گيسوی بيد و بوی بابونه بينديشم
به صلوة ظهر و سايه های خسيس
به خواب يخ ، پرده توری ، طعم آب و حرمت علف .
چرا زبان خاموش مرا
کسی در لهجه های اين همه جنوب در نمی يابد ؟
نه ، ديگر از آن پرنده خيس
از آن پرنده خسته ... خبری نيست
روی ديوار آن سوی پنجره
کسی با شتاب چيزی می نويسد و می رود .
امروز هم کسی اگر صدايم کرد
بگو خانه نيست
بگو رفته است شمال
می خواهم به جنوب بينديشم
می خواهم به آن پرنده خيس ، به آن پرنده خسته
به خودم بينديشم
گاهی اوقات مجبورم حقيقتی را پس گريه های بی وقفه ام پنهان کنم
همين خوب است
همين خوب است
...
می ترسم ، مضطربم
و با آن که می ترسم و مضطربم
باز با تو تا آخر دنيا هستم
می آيم کنار گفتگويی ساده
تمام روياهايت را بيدار می کنم
و آهسته زير لب می گويم
برايت آب آورده ام ، تشنه نيستی ؟
فردا به احتمال قوی باران خواهد آمد .
تو پيش بينی کرده بودی که باد نمی آيد
با اين همه ديروز
پی صدايی ساده که گفته بود بيا ، رفتم !
تمام راز سفر فقط خواب يک ستاره بود
خسته ام ری را .
می آيی همسفرم شوی ؟
گفتگويی ميان راه بهتر از تماشای باران است
توی راه از پوزش پروانه سخن می گوييم
توی راه خوابهامان را برای بابونه های دره ئی دور تعريف می کنيم
باران هم که بيايد
هی خيس از خنده های دور از آدمی ، می خنديم ،
بعد هم به راهی می رويم
که سهم ترانه و تبسم است
مشکلی پيش نمی آيد
کاری به کار ما ندارند ری را ،
نه کرم شبتاب و نه کژدم زرد .
وقتی دستمان به آسمان برسد
وقتی بر آن بلندی بنفش بنشينيم
ديگر دست کسی هم به ما نخواهد رسيد
می نشينيم برای خودمان قصه می گوئيم
تا کبوتران کوهی از دامنه روياها به لانه برگردند
غروب است
با آن که می ترسم
با آن که سخت مضطربم
باز با تو تا آخر دنيا خواهم آمد
خدا حافظ ...
خدا حافظ پرده نشين محفوظ گريه ها
خدا حافظ عزيز بوسه های معصوم هفت سالگی
خدا حافظ گلم ، خوبم ، خواهرم
خلاصه هر چه همين هوای هميشه عصمت !
خدا حافظ ! خواهر بی دليل رفتن ها
خدا حافظ !
حالا ديدار ما به نمی دانم آن کجای فراموشی
ديدار ما اصلا به همان حوالی هر چه باداباد
ديدار ما و ديدار ديگرانی که ما را نديده اند
پس با هر کسی از کسان من از اين ترانه محرمانه سخن مگوی
نمی خواهم آزردگان ساده بی شام و بی چراغ
از اندوه اوقات ما با خبر شوند !
قرار ما از همان ابتدای علاقه پيدا بود
قرار ما به سينه سپردن دريا و ترانه تشنگی نبود
پس بی جهت بهانه مياور
که راه دور و
خانه ما يکی مانده به آخر دنياست
نه
ديگر فراقی نيست
حالا بگذار باد بيايد
بگذار از قرائت محرمانه نامه ها و روياهامان شاعر شويم
ديدار ما و ديدار ديگرانی که ما را نديده اند
ديدار ما به همان ساعت معلوم دلنشين
تا ديگر آدمی از يک وداع ساده نگريد
تا چراغ و شب و اشاره بدانند که ديگر ملالی نيست !
حالا می دانم سلام مرا به اهل هوای هميشه عصمت خواهی رساند.
يادت نرود گلم
به جای من از صميم همين زندگی
سرا روی چشم به راه ماندگان مرا ببوس !
ديگر سفارشی نيست
تنها ، جان تو و جان پرندگان پر بسته ای که دی ماه به ايوان
خانه می آيند
خدا حافظ !

fifa world cup 2010

2010-05-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

توسعه تازه ترین

2010-04-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

دویچه وله، رجا نیوز، خبرهای تصویری از گاردین به تازه ترین اضافه شده

Khayyam

2010-02-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is among the best-selling volumes of poetry of all time. I am happy I have it here at my home in the WEST. Thanks to one of my friends who gave it to me when I was leaving Iran.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3672915/50-best-cult-books.html

Fidel Castro a life of revolution

2010-01-31T13:38:00.000-08:00

Documentary about after election crisis in Iran

2010-01-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

Mr Etaat debate

2010-01-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

Sheytoon

2010-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

اشكي در گذرگاه تاريخ

2010-01-09T21:35:00.001-08:00

شعري از فريدون مشيري:

از همان روزی که دست حضرت قابیل

گشت آلوده به خون حضرت هابیل

از همان روزی که فرزندان آدم

صدر پیغام آوران حضرت باری تعالی

زهر تلخ دشمنی در خونشان جوشید

آدمیت مرد

گرچه آدم زنده بود

از همان روزی که یوسف را برادر ها به چاه انداختند

از همان روزی که با شلاق و خون دیواره چین را ساختند

آدمیت مرده بود

بعد دنیا هی پر از آدم شد واین آسیاب گشت و گشت

قرن ها از مرگ آدم هم گذشت

ای دریغ ، آدمیت برنگشت

قرن ما

روزگار مرگ انسانیت است

سینه دنیا زخوبی ها تهی است

صحبت ازآزادگی پاکی مروت ابلهی است

صحبت از موسا و عیسا و محمد نابجاست

قرن موسی چنبه ها است

من که از پژمردن یک شاخه گل

از نگاه ساکت یک کودک بیمار

از فغان یک قناری در قفس

از غم یک مرد در زنجیر

حتی قاتلی بر دار

اشک در چشمان و بغضم در گلوست

وندرین ایام زهرم در پیاله زهر مارم در سبوست

مرگ او را از کجا باور کنم؟

صحبت از پژمردن یک برگ نیست

وای جنگل را بیابان می کنند

دست خون آلود را درپیش چشم خلق پنهان میکنند

هیچ حیوانی به حیوانی نمیدارد روا

آنچه این نامردمان یا جان انسان می کنند

صحبت از پژمردن یک برگ نیست

فرض کن مرگ قناری در قفس هم مرگ نیست

فرض کن یک شاخه گل هم در جهان هرگز نرست

فرض کن جنگل بیابان بود از روز نخست

در کویری سوت و کور

در میان مردمی با این مصیبتها صبور

صحبت از مرگ محبت مرگ عشق

گفتگو از مرگ انسانیت است

اشكي در

2010-01-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

از همان روزی که دست حضرت قابیل

گشت آلوده به خون حضرت هابیل

از همان روزی که فرزندان آدم

صدر پیغام آوران حضرت باری تعالی

زهر تلخ دشمنی در خونشان جوشید

آدمیت مرد

گرچه آدم زنده بود

از همان روزی که یوسف را برادر ها به چاه انداختند

از همان روزی که با شلاق و خون دیواره چین را ساختند

آدمیت مرده بود

بعد دنیا هی پر از آدم شد واین آسیاب گشت و گشت

قرن ها از مرگ آدم هم گذشت

ای دریغ ، آدمیت برنگشت

قرن ما

روزگار مرگ انسانیت است

سینه دنیا زخوبی ها تهی است

صحبت ازآزادگی پاکی مروت ابلهی است

صحبت از موسا و عیسا و محمد نابجاست

قرن موسی چنبه ها است

من که از پژمردن یک شاخه گل

از نگاه ساکت یک کودک بیمار

از فغان یک قناری در قفس

از غم یک مرد در زنجیر

حتی قاتلی بر دار

اشک در چشمان و بغضم در گلوست

وندرین ایام زهرم در پیاله زهر مارم در سبوست

مرگ او را از کجا باور کنم؟

صحبت از پژمردن یک برگ نیست

وای جنگل را بیابان می کنند

دست خون آلود را درپیش چشم خلق پنهان میکنند

هیچ حیوانی به حیوانی نمیدارد روا

آنچه این نامردمان یا جان انسان می کنند

صحبت از پژمردن یک برگ نیست

فرض کن مرگ قناری در قفس هم مرگ نیست

فرض کن یک شاخه گل هم در جهان هرگز نرست

فرض کن جنگل بیابان بود از روز نخست

در کویری سوت و کور

در میان مردمی با این مصیبتها صبور

صحبت از مرگ محبت مرگ عشق

گفتگو از مرگ انسانیت است

Tehran, Ashura 88

2009-12-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

These pictures will be part of our glorious history.

لطفا به مونا کمک کنید

2009-12-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

با يک آزمايش ساده و کمي از خون خود ميتوانيد زندگي مونا را نجات دهيد

دوستان عزيز، ‫

‫‫‫مونا،۲۶ ساله دانشجوی دکترای برق، يکي از دوستان عزيز ما در ميامي فلوريدا در جدال با يک بيماري طاقتفرساست و نياز به کمک جدي شما عزيزان دارد. بيماري مونا يک بيماري نادر خوني بنام Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) تشخيص داده شده که منجر به نارسايي مغز استخوان شده است. تنها راه نجات مونا پيوند مغز استخوان است که از طريق يک انتقال خون ساده انجام ميشود.

‫‫متاسّفانه تا اين لحظه مونا موفق به پيدا کردن اهداکنندهي مناسب نشده است. از آنجاييکه احتمال پيدا کردن اهداکننده در بين ايرانيان بيشتر است مونا چشم اميد به کمک دوستان ايراني دوخته است.

‫آزمايش HLA، براي يافتن اهداکنندهي مناسب، ميتواند بهراحتي و با نمونهبرداري از بزاق دهان انجام شود، که خودتان به سادگي قادر به انجام آن هستيد. اين آزمايش، از نظر جسمي، هيچ آسيبي به شما نميرساند و هيچ هزينهاي براي شما دربرندارد. اين آزمايش به صورت رايگان انجام ميشود. يک مرکز خيريه که به بيماران سرطاني ايراني مقيم آمريکا کمک ميکند هزينه اين آزمايش را براي يک بازهي زماني تا ۳۱ ژانويه تقبل کرده است. از طريق اين مرکز، در مدت ۷ تا۱۰ روز شما يک بسته با دستورالعمل کامل دريافت ميکنيد. شما ميتوانيد خودتان از بزاق دهانتان نمونهبرداري کرده و نمونه را به اين مرکز پست کنيد.

‫‫در صورتي که شما به عنوان اهداکنندهي مناسب تشخيص داده شديد، پيوند مغز استخوان ساده خواهد بود و هيچ آسيبي متوجه شما نيست. روش جديد براي اين کار فقط نياز به مقداري از خون شما دارد. از طريق يک ماشين سلولهاي بنيادي از نمونهي خون شما جدا شده و به خون مونا منتقل ميشود.

‫‫شما ميتوانيد از طريق اين سايت http://join.marrow.org ثبت نام کنيد. براي اين کار بايد از يک Promotion Code استفاده کنيد که همه ايرانيان را بصورت رايگان در يک بانک جداگانه قرار ميدهد.

‫ ‫نکات مهم در مورد اين ثبت نام:

‫· Promotion code: paci4hope

· شما فقط ملزم هستيد که بخشهاي ستارهدار (*) را در فرم ثبت نام پرکنيد.

· ‫ ‫به ياد داشته باشيد: گروه خوني در اين پيوند تعيينکننده نيست. به اين معني که هر کسي با هر گروه خوني ممکن است يک اهداکنندهي مناسب براي مونا باشد.

· شما ميتوانيد هر زمان که ميخواهيد از اهدا کردن اعلام انصراف کنيد.

‫
‫دوستان مقيم ايران که مايل به همکاري هستند، براي اطلاعات بيشتر درمورد آزمايش HLA در ايران با خانم دکتر مينا زارعي، خواهر مونا، به اين شماره تلفن تماس بگيرند: 09122145379

ساير شماره تلفنهاي تماس با شرح زير است: 09122002674- 09122481424- 02144990236 -02144990031

‫لطفاً دوستان و خانوادهي خود را از طريق ايميل، تلفن و هر وسيله ممکن در اين مورد آگاه کنيد. ما به کمک همه شما براي نجات زندگي مونا نياز داريم.

‫
‫شما ميتوانيد درخواست مونا را از زبان خودش در نامه زير بخوانيد:

‫به همه دوستان عزيز ايراني،

‫‫‫من مونا زارعي اين نامه را از روي تخت ICU در بيمارستان Jackson ميامي فلوريدا براي شما مينويسم.

‫‫از زماني که بيماري PNH را در من تشخيص دادهاند من ۲ سال به تنها يي با عوارض طاقتفرساي اين بيماري مقابله کردهام. اين براي يک دختر ۲۶ ساله در يک کشور غريب با يک بيماري ناآشنا کار آساني نيست. در دو ماه اخير، من به طور مداوم در ICU بستري بودهام. تيم پزشکي به اين نتيجه رسيدهاند که تنها راه نجاتم پيوند مغزاستخوان است. من چشم اميد به ياري شما دوختهام. تمام چيزي که من نياز دارم، شماري از سلولهاي بنيادي خون يک دهندهي مناسب است که به خون من منتقل ميشود. من تنها به مقداري از خون شما نياز دارم.

‫‫در ماههاي اخير، شرايطم بسيار مايوسکننده بوده است. نميدانم چقدر زنده ميمانم، اما اين را ميدانم که يک اهداکنندهي مناسب ميتواند زندگي من را نجات دهد.

‫ ‫با اميد به شما، دوستان با محبت و مهربان ايراني، من هنوز اميدوار به زندگيام.

‫ ‫من واقعاً به کمک و همياري تک تک شما براي پيدا کردن يک اهداکنندهي مناسب نيازمندم.

‫‫لطفاً به نجات زندگي من کمک کنيد.

‫‫با احترام فراوان

‫‫ مونا زارعي

Please Help Mona

2009-12-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

With a simple test, and a little blood, you can save Mona’s life

Dear friends and family,

One of my close friends living here in Miami, 26 year old PhD student Mona, is facing a terrible medical crisis and is in dire need of the help of Iranians living both abroad and back home. Mona has been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) which has recently progressed to bone marrow failure. Her only chance for survival is a bone marrow transplant which can now be accomplished via a simple blood transfusion.

Unfortunately, so far Mona has not been successful in finding a match donor in several donor banks. Because the chance of finding a match among her own nationality is much higher, Mona has now turned to the Iranian community for help.

The HLA test that will determine your bone marrow type requires only a few cells that you yourself can easily swab from your cheek. The test will not hurt you in any way and it won’t cost you a cent. Through the kind support of the PACI, Persian American Cancer Institute in California, anyone can do the HLA test for free by the end of January 2010. The registry will send you a free kit with full instructions in 7 to 10 business days. Once you have collected your cheek cells the last step is to mail the kit back to them.

If you turn out to be Mona’s match, the procedure that follows is very simple. The new technique for bone marrow transplantation separates stem cells from the donor’s blood. The blood is filtered through a machine and the stem cells are skimmed off and transferred to the recipient’s body. This new method is called peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

You can register as a donor through this link http://join.marrow.org and by entering the PACI promotion code you will be freely placed in a separate bone marrow bank for Iranian Americans.

Key Points to consider when registering:

·Promotion code: paci4hope

·You are only required to fill in the spaces with an asterisk (*) next to it.

·Remember: blood type is not relevant in HLA matching. This means that anyone with any blood type may be a match for Mona.

·You are free to withdraw from donation process at any time.

For those friends who are living in Iran and would like to help, please contact Dr. Mina Zarei, Mona’s sister, 09122145379 for information on how to complete the HLA test in Iran. Other contacts are as follows: 09122002674- 09122481424- 02144990236 -02144990031

Please notify all of your family and friends via email, telephone or other means. We need as many people as possible to help save this young woman’s life.

Below is a letter in Mona’s own words asking for your kind help:

To all my fellow Iranians,

I, Mona Zarei, am reaching out to you from the Intensive Care Unit at Jackson memorial hospital in Miami, Florida.

Since being diagnosed with PNH I have fought with the complications of this disease by myself for almost two years trying to stay strong and keep my spirits high. Being a 26 year-old woman living in a foreign country alone with a strange disease has been no easy task. Recently in the last two months, I have repeatedly been hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU).

As my doctors have concluded, my only option for survival is a bone marrow transplant. It is for this reason that I am reaching out for your help in saving my life. All I ask of you is some of the stem cells of your blood to be transferred to my body. All I ask of you is only a little bit of your blood.

In these past few months of hardship I have almost reached the end of my rope. I am unsure how much longer I have to live. But what I do know is that the one thing that can save my life is a matching donor. And With Iranians like you, I am unwilling to lose hope.

I desperately need your help and kind support in finding my match.

Please be the one to save my life.

With much respect,

Mona Zarei

slogans after Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's death

2009-12-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

عزا عزاست امروز، روز عزاست امروز.... ملت سبز ايران صاحب عزاست امروز
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اين ماه ماه خون است.... سيد علي سرنگون است
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منتظري مظلوم.... آزاديت مبارك
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عزا عزاست امروز، روز عزاست امروز.... منتظري محبوب پيش خداست امروز
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منتظري نمرده.... اين دولته كه مرده
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ديكتاتور ديكتاتور.... منتظري راهش ادامه دارد
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تسلیت کینه ای... نمی خوایم، نمی خوایم
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منتظری نستوه راهت ادامه دارد... حتی اگر دیکتاتور بر ما گلوله بارد
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دیکتاتور دیکتاتور ... منتظری راهش ادامه دارد
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موسوی کروبی... تسلیت تسلیت
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تجاوز توی زندان... اینم بود توی قران؟
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یا حجت بن الحسن.... ریشه ظلم رو بکن
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دیکتاتور بداند... طاهری زنده است
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ما بچه های جنگیم... بجنگ تا بجنگیم
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تجاوز، جنایت... وای بر این دیانت
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تجاوز، خیانت... وای بر این ولایت

Iran's Opposition Loses a Mentor But Gains a Martyr

2009-12-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

By Robin Wright, Times Magazine
Grand Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazeri was known as Iran's defiant cleric, first in challenging the autocratic rule of the Shah, and then later in confronting the very revolution he had helped foment. Now, the big question in Tehran is whether his sudden death of natural causes will catalyze a broader showdown between the regime and the opposition Green Movement.

Montazeri, who died at 87 in the holy city of Qom, was one of only a handful of grand ayatullahs in Shi'ite Islam. Having once been designated to succeed the revolution's founder, Grand Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, as Supreme Leader, his outspoken criticism of the regime gave cover and legitimacy to the opposition Green Movement — and infuriated a theocracy ruled by his clerics of lesser rank. (Read about Montazeri in the top 10 players in Iran's power struggle.)

Following the disputed June 12 election, Montazeri publicly questioned the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and warned Iran's security forces that they would have to answer to God for their actions against protestors. In a soul-searching letter to Iran's clerics and seminaries, Montazeri recently stated: "The goal (of the revolution) was not simply to change the names and slogans but keep the same oppression and abuses practiced by the previous regime. Everyone knows I am a defender of theocratic government, although not in the current form. The difference lies in the fact that I intended for the people to choose the jurist and supervise his work... I now feel ashamed of the tyranny conducted under this banner. What we see now is the government of a military guardianship, not the guardian of Islamic scholars."

Montazeri's transformation is a microcosm of Iran's revolutionary experience, and the evolving split among the clerics. "Montazeri began as a radical and a principle architect of the system of government that placed so much power in the hands of the Supreme Leader," said Shaul Bakhash, author of The Reign of the Ayatollahs. In the 1980s, he was also patron of the World Islamic Movement, a group committed to exporting Iran's revolution. His son Mohammad trained with the PLO in Lebanon.

But on the revolution's 10th anniversary in 1989, Monatzeri dared to criticize the regime for failing to fulfill its early promise. He condemned mass executions of dissidents. And he called on the government to correct "past mistakes." After Khomeini's fatwa imposing a death sentence on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, Montazeri warned, "People in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people." (Read "Ayatullah Khomeini Returns to Haunt Iranian Politics")

Adds Bakash, "Later in life he became a defender of individual rights which he [had] ignored in the early years of the revolution," championing everything from an open press to freer speech.

For his bluntness, Montazeri has lived under virtual house arrest since 1997, when his religious school was alsoclosed down. His office has occasionally been attacked; religious vigilantes once smeared "Heretic of the Age" across his wall, and guards were often posted outside to cut off contacts. But in 2000, he began using the Internet to reach beyond his jailers, corresponding with other clerics and supporters seeking his rulings.

Given his clerical superiority and his outspoken views, it's hardly surprising that Montazeri became the nemesis of Iran's current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei doesn't really have a reply when Montazeri proclaims that the Islamic Republic of Iran is neither Islamic nor a Republic," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His immense standing was reflected in the fact that news of his death sent thousands of Iranians streaming to Qom. Grand Ayatollahs walked to his home in a show of respect, while opposition websites reported new protests against the regime at several universities. Several showed video clips of supporters shouting "Montazeri, your path will continue" and "Our green Montazeri, congratulations on your freedom."

With his passing, the Green movement loses a spiritual mentor. "His death is certainly a blow to the opposition, but it shouldn't dramatically affect their fortunes," said Sadjadpour. "It could also prove a catalyst for more protests, especially given the fact that he died during Muharram [a Shi'ite holy month that celebrates martyrdom]." Montazeri is to be buried Monday, and mourned a week later in a ritual that coincides with Ashura — the holiest Shi'ite day of mourning marking the martyrdom of Hossein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed's grandson, in the fight against injustice. Montazeri's passing will also be commemorated on eleventh and fortieth days after his death, each day of mourning marking an emotional opportunity for his opposition supporters to rally.

"What made Montazeri unique was his integrity," said Sadjadpour. "Despite the power and wealth that many of Iran's political clerics have amassed, very few of them will die like Montazeri, revered by the public and with their integrity intact."

شعارها- ادامه

2009-12-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

اوني كه تقلب كرده .... عكس‌ها رو پاره كرده
دولت كودتا .... استعفا استعفا

Aria-ee-Nejad

2009-12-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

Funny posts are not real news

2009-10-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Iranian News Agencies can not even distinguish between a Joke and a real news. This is a Huffingtonpost article:
Iran Trying to install Microsoft Windows 7.
TEHRAN (The Borowitz Report) - Tensions between the United States and the Iranian government have risen over the weekend amid intelligence reports that Iran is trying to install Microsoft Windows 7.

Spy-satellite photos reveal a shipment of Windows 7 software, as well as a dozen IT professionals from Redmond, Washington, arriving early Saturday morning in Tehran.

While intelligence analysts warn that Iran's acquiring Windows 7 is a matter of grave concern, a Defense Department spokesman, Tracy Klugian, was careful not to overstate the danger: "Even under optimal conditions, Windows 7 will probably take at least two to five years to successfully install."

Mr. Klugian underscored his remark by reminding reporters that Iran attempted to install Microsoft Vista over three years ago: "They still haven't gotten that to work."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/iran-trying-to-install-mi_b_332769.html

And here is a translation by Tabnak news Agency
ویندوز 7 هم باعث اختلاف ایران و آمریکا می‌شود!
هرچند کارشناسان اطلاعاتی به دلیل ممنوعیت صادرات کالاهای آمریکایی به ایران و همچنین عدم رعایت قانون کپی رایت در ایران، دستیابی ایران به نرم‌افزار ویندوز هفت اورجینال را موضوع بسیار بااهمیتی می‌دانند؛ اما «تریسی کولوگین»، سخنگوی وزارت دفاع آمریکا (پنتاگون) در این باره می‌گوید: ما باید بسیار مواظب باشیم، نه اینکه در این زمینه‌ها گزافه‌گویی کنیم.

سرویس اجتماعی ـ پس از اینکه روز شنبه، سیستم های جاسوسی آمریکا اعلام نمودند، یک محموله نرم‌افزار ویندوز هفت (اورجینال و فول پک) به همراه کارشناسان «آی.‌تی» از شرکت ریموند واشنگتن به ایران وارد شده، کارشناسان معتقدند، احتمال بروز تنش بین ایران و آمریکا افزایش پیدا کرده و موجب بحث و جدل میان این دو کشور شود.

به گزارش خبرنگار «تابناک» به نقل از «‌هافنگتون پست»، هرچند کارشناسان اطلاعاتی به دلیل ممنوعیت صادرات کالاهای آمریکایی به ایران و همچنین عدم رعایت قانون کپی رایت در ایران، دستیابی ایران به نرم‌افزار ویندوز هفت اورجینال را موضوع بسیار بااهمیتی می‌دانند؛ اما «تریسی کولوگین»، سخنگوی وزارت دفاع آمریکا (پنتاگون) در این باره می‌گوید: ما باید بسیار مواظب باشیم، نه اینکه در این زمینه‌ها گزافه‌گویی کنیم.

سخنگوی پنتاگون ادامه داد: حتی در شرایط مطلوب برای نصب ویندوز هفت، دست‌کم دو تا پنج سال زمان نیاز است تا این ویندوز، به طور کامل و موفقیت‌آمیز در ایران گسترش پیدا کرده و در اغلب رایانه‌ها نصب شود.

او همچنین اظهارات خود را با این مطلب به پایان رسانید که ایران در سه سال گذشته، تلاش بسیاری کرده است تا نرم‌افزار ماکروسافت ویستا را نصب کند اما آنها تاکنون این کار را انجام نداده‌اند!

بنا بر این گزارش و به گفته کارشناسان مایکروسافت، ویندوز 7 که از سال گذشته، نسخه demo و امسال نیز نسخه ناقص آن در بازار پخش شده، از کاملترین و زیباترین نرم‌افزار‌های سیستم عامل بوده و دارای کمترین حفره امنیتی و مشکلات ویندوز «XP» و «Vista» است.

ناگفته نماند که مایکروسافت نسخه «Windows 7 Ultimate beta Build 7000 » خود را رسما در تاریخ جمعه، نهم ژانویه 2008 برای دانلود عمومی و تست در دو نسخه 32bit به حجم 2.43 GB و نسخه 64bit به حجم 3.15 GB منتشر نمود. فایل دانلود شده به صورت یک DVD Image و به فرمت ISO هست که به راحتی می‌توانید آن را به کمک هر برنامه‌ راینری همانند Nero روی یک DVD رایت کنید. این نسخه‌ها به دلیل بتا بودن و برای تست کاربران، آن هم رایگان از سایت مایکروسافت و در یک نسخه «Ultimate» قابل دریافت شدن هستند. مایکروسافت در این «OS» جدید نسبت به ویندوز «Vista» [و XP] (از لحاظ ظاهر، امکانات، مشکلات سخت‌افزاری و از همه مهمتر سرعت) تغییرات مثبتی داشته است.

از سال 2000 و پس از ویندوز موفق «XP»، قرار بود این «OS» منتشر شود، اما به دلایل گوناگون و مشکلات متعدد و همانند همیشه، عجله بیل گیتس، ویندوز Vista که اشکالات بسیاری داشت، در سال 2006 منتشر شد، ولی به گفته مسئولان مایکروسافت، «Windows 7» نسخه ارتقا یافته و بهینه شده «Windows Vista» هست که مشکلات آن را ندارد.

Free Hugs - All the same

2009-10-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia: The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places. The campaign in its present form was started in 2004 by an Australian man known only by the pseudonym "Juan Mann". The campaign became famous internationally in 2006 as the result of a music video on YouTube by the Australian band Sick Puppies. The hugs are meant to be random acts of kindness - selfless acts performed just to make others feel better. International Free Hugs Day is celebrated on the first Saturday of July.

The story of Human Rights

2009-10-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01

2009-10-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

In Memory of Parviz Meshkatian

2009-09-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

تالار وزارت کشور

مجموعه شعارهای سبز

2009-09-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

دیکتاتور بیچاره بازی ادامه داره
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نه غزه نه لبنان جانم فدای ایران
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نترسید نترسید ما همه باهم هستیم
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ما اهل کوفه نیستیم پول بگیریم بایستیم
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خامنه ای حیا کن جمعیت و نگاه کن
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یا حجت ابن الحسن ریشه ظلم و بکن
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یا حسین میرحسین
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الله اکبر
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مجتبی بمیری رهبری رو نبینی
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خامنه ای قاتل است ولایتش باطل است
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باران رحمت خدا بر سرم منتظری رهبرم
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منتظری زنده باد صانعی پاینده باد
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موسوی زنده باد کروبی پاینده باد
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کروبی دستگیر بشه ایران قیامت میشه
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مرگ بر روسیه
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مرگ بر چین
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این خون که در رگ ماست هدیه به ملت ماست
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محمود خائن آواره گردی خاک وطن را ویرانه کردی کشتی جوانان وطن الله اکبر کردی هزاران در کفن الله اکبر مرگ بر تو مرگ بر تو ...
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پول نفت چی شده خرج بسیجی شده
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بسیجی حیا کن جمعیتو نگا کن
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بسیجی واقعی همت بود و باکری
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دروغگو خفه شو
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دروغگو برو گمشو
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پیش نماز قاتله این نماز باطله
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شکنجه تجاوز دیگر اثر ندارد
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کهریزک کهریزک خجالت خجالت
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صل علی محمد اشک خدا در امد
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ای رهبر کودتا ارتش سبز ایران اماده قیام است
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مجتهد واقعی منتظری صانعی
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دیکتاتور حیا کن سلطنت و رها کن
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خس و خاشاک تویی دشمن این خاک تویی
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بسیجی حیا کن مفت خوری رو رها کن
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میکشم میکشم آنکه برادرم کشت
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کروبی بت شکن بت بزرگ رو بشکن
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دیکتاتور دیکتاتور این آخرین پیامه، ملت سبز ایران آماده قیامه
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دروغگو دروغگو 63 درصدت کو؟
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ما اهل کوفه نیستیم پشت یزید بایستیم
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زندانی سیاسی آزاد باید گردد
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اعتراف شکنجه دیگر اثر ندارد
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چقدر بهت پول دادن باطوم به دستت دادن؟
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ما اهل کوفه نیستیم موسوی رو بفروشیم
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درود بر منتظری سلام بر صانعی
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رهبری رهبری این آخرین پیامه
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اشك تمساح نميخواهيم دولت مصباح نميخواهيم
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ادامه دارد...

Animal Farm

2009-09-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

An interesting movie by Kiarostami

2009-09-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ghazieh shekle aval shekle dovvom from Green Mind on Vimeo.

چریک پیر اصلاحات

2009-08-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

Fear is a sickness

2009-07-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

Apocalypto is a movie by Mel Gibson. There is scene in that movie which is the base for the whole story of the movie. here is the dialogue between the father and his son after seeing a group of defeated people who are running out of their village:
Father: Those people in the forest, what did you see on them?
Son: I do not understand
Father: Fear...Deep rotting fear...They were infected by it... Did you see? FEAR IS A SICKNESS,... it will crawl into the soul of anyone who engages it... it has tainted your peace already... I did not raise you to see you live with fear... strike it from your heart... Do not bring it into our village...

watch part of the movie here:

to the Iranian people 1

2009-07-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Mousavi among protesters

2009-06-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

protest in Iran against fraud in election

2009-06-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

Life is Messy

2009-06-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

another hero of my professional life :)

TankMan

2009-06-04T20:30:00.001-07:00

Mousavi in ILAM

2009-05-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

Yare Dabestani - Mansour Tehrani

2009-05-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

These days are election days in Iran and I went back to review some epic poems and songs. Here is one of the most popular one:

Copenhagen Fall Out - Niels Bohr & Werner Heisenberg

2009-05-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

nspired by the actual events that have intrigued and baffled historians for more than 50 years, Copenhagen revolves around a 1941 meeting between two brilliant physicists, Niels Bohr of Denmark (Stephen Rea) and Germany's Werner Heisenberg (Daniel Craig); long-time friends whose work together had opened the way to the atomic bomb, but who were now on opposite sides of World War II. Heisenberg made a covert trip to see Bohr and his wife Margrethe (Francesca Annis) in Copenhagen, but the meeting ended in disaster. Copenhagen explores Heisenberg's visit to Denmark and what happened during the pivotal meeting that was to become a defining moment of the nuclear age

Mir Hossein Mousavi in a glance, his ideas and campaign

2009-05-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

Iran: from past to the future

2009-05-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

Voting Results in University of Tehran

2009-05-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sar omad zemestoon

2009-05-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Vinton Cerf : father of internet

2009-05-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Mashrooteh

2009-04-29T01:34:00.001-07:00

Richard Dawkins

2009-04-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Mousavi

2009-04-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Iran’s Yankee Hero

2009-04-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

source: new york times
By FARNAZ CALAFI, ALI DADPAY and POUYAN MASHAYEKH

FEW Americans have heard of Howard Conklin Baskerville, but most Iranians know his name. A native of Nebraska, Baskerville graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary and moved to Iran as a Presbyterian missionary. He was 23. The year was 1907. Baskerville was an idealist at a time of idealism in Iran.

The year before Baskerville’s arrival, the ailing king of Iran, Mozaffar ud-Din Shah, had bowed to popular demands for a constitutional monarchy and Iranians had drafted the first Constitution of their 25-century-long history. A parliament, the Majlis, was established and each city elected an assembly, or Anjoman. Tabriz — where Baskerville worked as a schoolteacher — was the capital of the constitutionalists and its assembly assumed a national role in the movement. Many Iranians presumed that the time for change had finally arrived.

But the shah died in January 1907, and his son Muhammad Ali Shah was a Russophile and despot who opposed the Constitutional Revolution. His Cossack brigades, commanded by Russian officers, attacked and bombarded the Majlis. The constitution was suspended. Politicians, journalists and the leaders of the constitutionalists were hanged.

Surrounded by royalist troops, the people of Tabriz fought back. And instead of choosing the safety of the American consulate, Baskerville joined the outgunned and outnumbered constitutionalists. The young Nebraskan has been quoted as saying, “The only difference between me and these people is my place of birth, and this is not a big difference.”

Baskerville was given command of a contingent of 150 men whose job was to defend the city’s fortifications. Three weeks later, on April 19, 1909, while he was leading a mission to break through the royalists’ siege and bring food into the city, a bullet tore through his heart and he was killed instantly. He was 24 years and 9 days old.

Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of his death and, despite the Iranian government’s estranged relationship with the United States, Baskerville is still revered and honored as a symbol of American ideals and principles. In 2005, President Mohammad Khatami unveiled a bust of Baskerville in Tabriz’s Constitution House. Someone still leaves fresh yellow roses on his gravestone in Tabriz. To Iranians, Howard Baskerville is their American martyr.

YouTube and Universal to launch premium music site

2009-04-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video website as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube's huge usage.

The new advertiser-supported site, featuring professional videos, will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said.

The deal is a boost for YouTube, which has been under increasing pressure from music labels and publishers who are frustrated that the popular site has been unable to pay higher fees for rights to use their music and videos.

Talks broke down late last year between YouTube and the No.3 music company Warner Music Group. Last month YouTube was forced to block all music videos in the UK and last week it had to do the same in Germany in a similar dispute with song publishers over money.

Vevo is an attempt to address this disparity between YouTube's popularity, it has 100 million users in the U.S. alone according to comScore, and its relatively low advertising rate or CPMs (cost per thousand page views) as it is called.

The new site will be a music video hub wholly owned by Universal, a unit of French media group Vivendi.

It will feature higher-quality videos, as opposed to the typical grainy and often user-generated videos on YouTube.

The idea is for Vevo to attract big-name advertisers and other content-owner partners.

"The rationale is to help make Vevo a place that brands feel more comfortable," said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal's eLabs.

"Ultimately we think it will increase in effect the CPMs and drive more revenue to YouTube and more revenue to the music business than they can have today," said Caraeff.

YouTube and Universal Music will share advertising revenue generated by the site. Both sides are betting that building a premium site will help increase advertising rates. Many big brand owners have avoided advertising alongside YouTube's ad hoc mix of user-generated videos.

David Eun, Google's vice president of strategic partnerships, said the higher quality professional content would appeal to advertisers.

"As we continue to work more closely with advertisers and potential sponsors we have a good sense of the type of content that they're attracted to," said Eun.

Industry watchers will likely compare Vevo with Hulu, a high quality online video service jointly owned by NBC Universal and News Corp with about a third of the number of users of YouTube.

Hulu which features popular TV shows and some movies, has been more successful at selling advertising inventory to big brand owners than YouTube.

Vevo will also serve as a syndication platform called the Vevo Music Network which will power music videos on partner sites.

Universal Chief Executive Doug Morris is said to be in talks on bringing other music companies on board to give fans a comprehensive music site. Talks with EMI Group and Sony Music, which renewed its YouTube deal in February, will likely be more straightforward than talks with Warner Music. But Universal is hoping to have all four majors and others on board before launch.

"The feedback from the fan and advertiser is that ultimately they want all of the premium music content and not just Universal Music Group," said Caraeff.

Caraeff declined to comment on whether the other music companies could negotiate for a stake in Vevo. The music companies jointly own stakes in other ventures including MySpace Music.

Plans for Vevo come in addition to the renewal and extension of YouTube's existing recordings and publishing rights deal to feature video content from Universal artists such as U2, 50 Cent and Kanye West.

Rick Steves: A Perspective on Iran

2009-04-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

source: fora.tv

What Iran is going to do in the future

2009-04-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

source: TED.com

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses mathematical analysis to predict (very often correctly) such messy human events as war, political power shifts, Intifada ... After a crisp explanation of how he does it, he offers three predictions on the future of Iran.

Charging mobile with wave of hand

2009-03-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

source: itvnews.tv
Washington: Imagine charging your cell phone or iPod by waving your hand, or stretching your arm, or taking a stroll. Well, it could be a reality soon.
Scientists are mulling a technology which can convert mechanical energy from body movements or the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that may be utilised to power a broad range of electronic devices without batteries.

"This research will have a major impact on defence technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences and even personal electronics," lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology said.

In fact, the new "nanogenerator" could have countless applications, among them a way to run electronic devices used by the military when troops are far in the field.
According to the researchers, harvesting energy from the environment by converting low-frequency vibrations, like simple body movements, the beating of the heart or movement of the wind, into electricity, using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires that conduct the electricity.

The ZnO nanowires are piezoelectric — they generate an electric current when subjected to mechanical stress. The diameter and length of the wire are 1/5,000th and 1/25th the diameter of a human hair.

In generating energy from movement, the researchers concluded that it was most effective to develop a method that worked at low frequencies and was based on flexible materials.

The ZnO nanowires met these requirements. At the same time, they say a real advantage of this technology is that the nanowires can be grown easily on a wide variety of surfaces, and the nanogenerators will operate in the air or in liquids once properly packaged.

Among the surfaces on which the nanowires can be grown are metals, ceramics, polymers, clothing and even tents.

"Quite simply, this technology can be used to generate energy under any circumstances as long as there is movement. The nanogenerator would be particularly critical to troops in the field, where they are far from energy sources and need to use sensors or communication devices," Mr. Wang said.

The findings are presented at the American Chemical Society's meeting.

Google lays off another 200 staff

2009-03-26T19:47:00.001-07:00

source: bbc

The search engine company Google is planning to cut nearly 200 marketing and sales jobs in its second set of lay-offs this year.
Google blamed the cuts on having grown very quickly, which meant it had over-invested in some areas as well as "creating overlapping organisations".
The cuts represent less than 1% of the 20,200 people employed by Google.
Earlier this year, the company decided to lay off 100 of its recruiters because it was taking on fewer people.
"Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time," Google's Omid Kordestani said on the company's official blog.
"When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right and we certainly didn't."
Google said that staff affected would be given time to find other jobs within the organisation or severance packages if they had to leave.

I Like this Cool President

2009-03-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

The President's Message to the Iranian People

2009-03-20T10:38:00.001-07:00

President Obama's special video message for all those celebrating Nowruz, or "New Day." This year, the President wanted to send a special message to the people and governmen

Sixth Sense

2009-03-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

source: TED.com

This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

Stephen Colbert and Maxim

2009-03-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Mahmoud's Non-Consensual Endorsement Deal

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

Iran and the west

2009-03-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

Militant Islam enjoyed its first modern triumph with the arrival in power of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979. In this series of three programmes, key figures tell the inside story.

Former US president Jimmy Carter talks on television for the first time about the episode that, more than any other, led American voters to eject him from the presidency. Iran's seizure of the US embassy in Tehran and the holding of its staff for 444 days took more and more of Carter's time and energy. His final days in office were dominated by desperate attempts to secure the release of the embassy hostages. Those who sat in the White House with him, planning how to rescue the hostages, how to negotiate their release and, finally, wondering whether anything could be rescued from the disaster, all tell their part in the story.

Other contributors include former vice president Walter Mondale, ex-deputy secretary of state Warren Christopher and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. The other side of the story is told by top Iranians: Ayatollah Khomeini's close adviser, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri; his first foreign minister, Ebrahim Yazdi; his negotiator with the US, Sadeq Tabatabai; and the founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rafiqdoust.

Rick Steves Travel to Iran

2009-03-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

In Rick Steves' Iran you'll discover the splendid monuments of Iran's rich and glorious past, learn more about the 20th-century story of this perplexing nation, and experience Iranian life today in its historic capital and in a countryside village. Most important, you'll meet the people of this nation whose government so exasperates our own.

Alex Wagner Trugman - University Of Miami and American Idol

2009-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

source: www.themiamihurricane.com
Sophomore Alex Wagner-Trugman, originally from Studio City, Calif., began his singing career in the modest setting of his bedroom closet. He taught himself how to sing, but it was not until college that Alex thought of music as a talent that could propel him to success.

Now, as one of 36 finalists on America’s beloved “American Idol,” Wagner-Trugman has withdrawn from the university for the spring semester and has the chance to become the next superstar from the U.

Alex, who rose to the top of more than 100,000 contenders, will participate in his first live performance from Hollywood tomorrow.

During the summer of 2008, Alex and friends went on a road trip to Phoenix, Ariz., to audition for “American Idol.” When Alex had the opportunity to showcase his singing talent, he sang James Ingram’s “Baby Come to Me”.

Although Simon Cowell said no, judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi gave him the golden ticket to Hollywood. Alex went on to find his groove on the historic stage of the Kodak Theater during Hollywood Week and continued to advance.

In order to progress to the top 36, though, Wagner-Trugman had to beat his friend Cody Sheldon in a sudden-death sing-off, which he did with a stirring rendition of Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

“I can’t take any credit for Alex’s singing ability,” said David Malis, Wagner-Trugman’s voice professor who helped him sing with more authority. “He works hard and is focused on it. I think Alex can be successful at any singing style.”

Wagner-Trugman’s roommate for the past two years, sophomore vocal performance major Dan Granbow has especially missed the presence of Alex.

“It has been tough be here without my best friend, but I know how amazing this experience is and how much it means to him,” Granbow said. “All I can do is be his biggest fan and support this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If anyone can do it, it’s Alex.”

A unique character whose quirky personality has already been highlighted on the show, Alex is an eclectic person whose outlandish activities consistently surprise his friends and classmates.

Suitemate Ryan Freedman, a sophomore majoring in marine science and biology, remarked on the many ludicrous activities he remembers with Alex.

“My favorite Alex memory was when he won the Rock, Paper, Scissors competition in Sportsfest 2008. We carried him in on a plywood board. He got all dressed up with a robe, sunglasses, and gelled hair,” Freedman said. “He somehow won the entire event and became the Rock, Paper, Scissors champion.”

Alex has even earned the respect of his professors outside the classroom.

“Alex has a great [basketball] jump shot,” laughed Malis, who knows Alex on a personal level. “Alex is a charming, personable, talented guy. If things go well, he could be there in the end.”

Iran demands apology from Hollywood over 'Wrestler'

2009-03-02T00:25:00.001-08:00

source:www.telegraph.co.uk

Without an apology, members of Iran's film industry should refuse to meet with representatives from the nine-member team, said Javad Shamaqdari, the art and cinema adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"In my viewpoint, it is a failure to have an official meeting with one who is insulting," he said.

The film "300," portrays the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days. It angered many Iranians for the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.

Iranians also criticised "The Wrestler" starring Mickey Rourke as a rundown professional wrestler who is preparing for a rematch with his old nemesis 'The Ayatollah'.

During a fight scene, "The Ayatollah" tries to choke Rourke with an Iranian flag before Rourke pulls the flagpole away, breaks it and throws it into the cheering crowd.

While American actors such as Sean Penn have travelled to Iran, it is rare for such a large group to visit. In February, Iran denied visas to a U.S. women's badminton team that had been invited to compete in a tournament in Iran.

The group includes the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sid Ganis; actors Annette Bening, and Alfre Woodard; producer William Horberg; AMPAS Special Events Programmer and Exhibitions Curator Ellen Harrington; and Tom Pollock, the former Universal Pictures chairman.

According to the web site of Iran's Cinema Association, the group arrived Friday in Iran. They met a group of Iranian artists on Saturday, and will be holding educational seminars in directing, screenwriting, acting, producing, marketing and film distribution.

Shamaqdari says Iranians will warmly host the visiting Americans "but it will not stop Iranians from demanding an apology."

The visits come as President Barack Obama has indicated a new willingness to open up relations with Iran.

Relations between the two countries have been strained over concerns in the West that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons program, something Tehran denies. The U.S. has also alleged that overwhelmingly Shiite Iran supports Shiite militias in Iraq, which Iran says is not true.

The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage-taking at the U S Embassy in Tehran.

Funny: World Leaders Gather To Roast Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2009-02-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

www.theonion.com

GENEVA—In what observers are calling an unprecedented opportunity for the international community to express its grievances against Iran's controversial leader, dozens of world leaders and key U.N. delegates gathered Saturday to roast Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The event, which took place beneath U.N. headquarters in the historic Geneva Friars Club, brought together the heads of every G8 member state, as well as some of today's top foreign policy makers and peace brokers. Roastmaster and former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan kicked off the evening by welcoming President Ahmadinejad to "what [was] sure to be the first and last time Mahmoud would ever be surrounded by 72 virgins."

"Ladies and gentlemen, and Tony Blair, we stand here in the presence of one of the most vicious and destructive forces in the world today—but enough about Bea Arthur," said Annan, gesturing with a tumbler of Makers Mark across the long white tables of chuckling diplomats to the former Golden Girls star. "Some people here tonight will tell you that Mahmoud refuses to engage in diplomatic talks, that he is the most ruthless stonewaller who has ever lived. Well, those people have obviously never met my first wife."

The black-tie affair brought together representatives from warring nations and longtime enemies who sat in the hallowed, oak-walled dining room and patiently awaited their turn to lambaste Ahmadinejad. Some of the evening's most pressing topics included the Iranian president's insistence on developing a nuclear program, his possible involvement in the 1989 assassination of an exiled Kurdish leader, and his excessive body hair.

"You know, a lot of folks have been criticizing Ahmadinejad for covering up one of the most horrifying and unspeakable crimes ever perpetrated on humankind," Russian president Vladimir Putin told the assembled guests. "But don't you listen to them, Mahmoud. I happen to like your beard."

Ahmadinejad, seated in a plush red armchair just to the right of the podium, seemed in high spirits as he calmly endured countless ribs from his allies and fellow arms-race competitors. Rolling his eyes and shaking his finger in mock disapproval, he was taken to task for everything from his brutal treatment of political dissidents to his recent visit to Columbia University.

link to original article

a view from Iran

2009-02-10T14:56:00.001-08:00

When America invaded Iraq in 2003, residents of border countries like Iran wondered what would happen to them if the US ever invaded. Some attribute the growing nuclear threat from Iran as a response to fears of a US lead invasion. In response to Iran's uranium enrichment program, the UN has imposed various economic sanctions. What does this all mean for residents living under these tense conditions?

Golboo Fiuzi, a young resident of Tehran, Iran, sounds off about her experiences living in constant fear, and what life is like now. She also talks to fellow Iranian citizens about why they think the US hasn't attached yet, their political views, opinions about globalization and their lives under UN imposed sanctions.

Iran's culture cops

2009-02-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

A special part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Basij is a controversial and secretive organization that is growing in influence and power.

Hope and Khatami...

2009-02-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

He came but hope this time he could use this opportunity, I hope.

Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now

2009-02-06T21:38:00.001-08:00

The Ayatollah (Cardiff city fans)

2009-01-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

source: wikipedia

The Ayatollah celebration came into use at Cardiff City games in 1990. It was originally performed by the singer and fans of a Welsh-language punk group called U Thant. It was first performed by Cardiff City fans at Sincil Bank, home of Lincoln City, on September 15, 1990, the day after U Thant had played a gig at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre. U Thant's singer had been inspired by footage of attendants at the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini, which was broadcast live on British TV, doing the movement to express their grief at his death.

It has been claimed that it was initially used as a sign of despair at the way the team were playing, but this is not true. In the era of inflatable balloons, it was simply a surrealist performance which looked good on the terraces. Cardiff at the time were struggling in the lower leagues, but it quickly became very popular with fans of the club and has since been used in terms of celebration and support for the team. Away games at Hereford United and Peterborough United in 1992 helped cement its place in the fans repertoire.

The start of the Ayatollah has often mistakenly been credited to former chairman Sam Hammam. This is likely due to the national coverage of Hammam performing the celebration pitchside and in front of the visiting Leeds fans, drawing criticism from then-Leeds manager David O'Leary, the Football Association and a BBC undercover report, following the now infamous 2-1 victory over Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup in 2002 which degenerated into a riot on the final whistle

Author Azar Nafisi reveals dark family secrets in new memoir

2009-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

source: http://www.miamiherald.com
BY CONNIE OGLE
In her bestselling book Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi writes of a beloved friend and advisor who tells her, ``Lady, we do not need your truths but your fiction -- if you're any good, perhaps you can trickle in some sort of truth, but spare us your real feelings.''

Fiction is all well and good. Reading Lolita in Tehran, after all, eloquently reveals the universal power of literature, which Nafisi taught to a handful of her best students at her house after resigning from the University of Tehran during Iran's bloody Islamic revolution. But Nafisi, who appears Friday at the University of Miami's Gusman Concert Hall, has ignored her friend's advice -- a choice at odds with her upbringing, in which ''talking about personal secrets would be a taboo.'' In her latest book she excavates painful memories about her family.

Set against the backdrop of a changing Iran, Things I've Been Silent About: Memories (Random, $27) introduces us to Nafisi's father, once mayor of Tehran, who enchanted his daughter with stories and later spent four years in jail by order of the Shah's regime, and her mother, who was elected to the Iranian Parliament but embittered by her husband's infidelities. Nafisi, who thinks of her books as ''siblings,'' understands the connections that draw us to the prose of Nabokov and Fitzgerald, Austen and James. But she believes that truth has a unique resonance.

''Time and again we are confronted by the power of real stories,'' Nafisi says from Washington, D.C., where she is a visiting professor and director of the Dialogue Project at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University. ``I think how ironic it is that, with a novel, you have to make it seem real by not showing the complexity and exaggerations in life. But life is really more astonishing than any fiction we can create.''

And so Nafisi writes of her parents and herself, focusing on her mother and how her escalating bitterness shaped their lives. (Her younger brother Mohammed is mentioned, too, though Nafisi says he asked not to be part of the book.) Her mother lost her mother at an early age and was raised by a stepmother ''who treated her as a poor relation.'' She wanted to be a doctor but instead married a terminally ill man who hid his sickness until after their wedding. After he died, she married Nafisi's father. The story plays out against dramatic events: Nafisi would return home after college in the United States to witness the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

UNIVERSAL APPEAL

Experience forged in such an exotic place may seem worlds away from many of her readers, but a large part of the book's appeal is Nafisi's honesty and skill in reflecting universal truths about the complications of mother/daughter relationships.

''She wanted me to have what she never had,'' says Nafisi, the mother of a grown daughter and a son. ``Mothers are always trying to imagine their daughters doing things they never did and going places they've never gone and being who they were not. But, on the other hand, my mother also resented me for going places she had never gone. She never forgave my father or me and my brother for what she never had in life. She was so deprived, and that made her bitter.

'This story, I've been writing it all my life. Our first confrontations and first relationships to the world are created through our family. We first see ourselves through their eyes. So this story must've been boiling in me, in my diaries. . . . It started when my mother died, and I was writing Lolita. I had been worried about her when we left Iran. She would be very alone and wouldn't admit to it. It was impossible for me to come and go between there and here, and she refused to come here. That was when I was obsessed with her. . . . I went through a lot of pain writing this book. The publisher will tell you that as late as late fall, I was telling them, `I'm not going to give you the book.' But I'm so glad I could articulate this relationship and understand my parents. When you understand people, you can love them. You don't reach closure. But pain should be confronted.''

KHOMEINI'S RISE

Things I've Been Silent About confronts other ugly truths, but Nafisi was determined to deal even-handedly with any subject that could lend itself to sensationalism. The revolution led to bloody confrontations, jailings, beatings, executions. Nafisi was molested as a child by a family friend, a crime further complicated by the fact that Iran reinstated a law that permitted girls as young as 9 to be married.

That law, along with the mandatory veil for women, infuriate Nafisi, who explains that her grandmother always wore the veil and was Muslim, just as her Muslim mother never wore it. Yet in her book she admits her complicity in Khomeini's rise:

''Too arrogant to think of him as a threat and deliberately ignorant of his designs, we supported him,'' she writes. ``And yet everything was there for us to see.''

Such comments would seem to confound critics who find Nafisi's strident dismissal of the Islamic revolution too Westernized. But Nafisi declines to think of herself as a political writer -- Lolita ''was not a political manifesto'' -- but one who explores individual stories to bring context to a complicated history.

''You have to have an individual voice,'' she says, 'otherwise people would not connect. We talk about the Holocaust and say, `Six million died,' but six million is a figure. When you talk about someone's shoelace, that that's all that's left of a person, that's different. Daniel Mendelsohn wrote about his family [in The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million], and he re-created the dress his great-aunt wore. How did they feel? Did they fall in love? What color was the color of their eyes? That is what gets you. We need to make the connection with the person, not the abstract.''

Nafisi's ability to meld the personal and the historic in her books is important ''because she helps us to humanize and ultimately clarify an area of the world which is a complete mystery to the West, especially America,'' says Lucette Lugnado, whose family memoir The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit explores life in 1950s Cairo. ``We are still dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 to some degree. . . . I think for years that part of the world has been an absolute puzzle and mystery to us. In my own way I wanted to try to understand and explain to people that once upon a time there was a very different sort of Middle East. . . . I think Nafisi does the same in her own way. She's scathing and formidable in her deconstruction.''

A NEW ROLE

Right now, though, Nafisi is reveling in a new role: that of U.S. citizen. Myriad crises -- economic disasters, wars on two fronts -- make this an odd time to become an American, but Nafisi sees things differently.

``Nabokov would talk about life being planned by this Grand Planner, and I find it interesting that just as I became a citizen, I finished the book. But I feel I'm fortunate, because you have to go through a crisis in order to change. Hope is based on crisis. When things are not going well, you start questioning. I'm glad to be part of the crisis.''

I Have a Dream

2009-01-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color — blacks, Hispanics, Asians — were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.

Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King helped organize a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. His partners in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom included other religious leaders, labor leaders, and black organizers. The assembled masses marched down the Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, heard songs from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and heard speeches by actor Charlton Heston, NAACP president Roy Wilkins, and future U.S. Representative from Georgia John Lewis.

King's appearance was the last of the event; the closing speech was carried live on major television networks. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following is the exact text of the spoken speech, transcribed from recordings.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

4 Ways To Make Fun of Obama

2009-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Looking Ahead: 4 Ways To Make Fun of Obama -- powered by Cracked.com

Google's Gdrive

2009-01-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

Throw your hard drive away, Google's Gdrive arriving in 2009
By Christian Zibreg
source: tgdaily.com

Chicago (IL) - Google Drive, or Gdrive as it is better known, has to be the most anticipated Google product so far. When it arrives, Gdrive will likely cause a major paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop.

The service has the potential to eclipse even Gmail, Google's second best-known product after their google.com search engine. That said, it's no wonder users have been ripe with anticipation for years - yes, that's how long the rumors have persisted. Gdrive is basically online storage where Google servers have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive. It will likely also come with enough brains to do cool tricks now with bigger things down the road - like booting your computer from online drive to load the Google operating system.

Gdrive is basically a cloud-based storage that should have two faces: A desktop client that keeps local and online files and folders in two-directional sync via a web interface for accessing your desktop files anywhere and anytime, using any network-enabled computer. In addition, it will come tightly integrated with other Google services to enable editing of supported document types, like spreadsheets and presentations via Google Docs, email via Gmail, images via Picasa Web Albums, etc.

This opens powerful possibilities. For instance, you could start working on a spreadsheet at home and continue via Gdrive web interface accessed in an Internet cafe. When you arrive back home, changes to the spreadsheet have already trickled down from the cloud to your desktop. The idea, of course, is all but revolutionary, but Google's execution could set it apart.

SkyDrive, MobileMe, Back to my Mac

Microsoft's SkyDrive offers 25GB of online storage free of charge but is limited to 50MB per file. The software maker's more advanced beta service (dubbed Live Mesh) comes with a less spacious 5GB of online storage but with more intelligence: Its service keeps your files seamlessly synced across desktop, web and mobile worlds. The latter client also allows you to access files from your desktop using a Windows Mobile-powered cellphone.

Apple has promised similar desktop, mobile and web file syncing between Macs, PCs and iPhones via a MobileMe cloud service, but the feature was delayed due to ongoing MobileMe difficulties - even though Apple built it into its desktop. Called "Back to my Mac," this OS X Leopard feature pairs with MobileMe online storage to let you search, access and edit files stored on a remote Mac. Besides such offerings from industry heavy-weighs, there are similar free or low-priced online storage services from others that let you do more or less the same.

Storage for your entire life

Most of the aforementioned services are crippled in one way or another, however. None of them gives you enough storage in a free version, but paid upgrades are too expensive and you're better off buying a bigger hard drive for less money. It is these weaknesses that Gdrive aims to exploit as Google allegedly plans to offer an unlimited (or nearly unlimited) storage either free of charge or at a small fee.

If the company applies its "free-everything" policy to Gdrive, a free version should give us enough online storage to match the capacity of hard drives typically found in the machines of average users. Paid versions could offer true- or near-unlimited storage. Added intelligence could enable other neat features as well, like comprehensive backups with the ability to go back in time like Apple's Time Machine and revert previous file versions, automatic file scanning against known viruses and malware, searching the hard drive on your desktop remotely via google.com, and more. Yes, we're speculating here, but there are facts which indicate that Gdrive could arrive soon, and likely this year.

It's not vaporware

For instance, Google Apps in the past identified "www10.google.com" URL that led to the service login page as a Gdrive service. Although the reference was removed, you can still login to the mysterious "www10" service of Google Apps, although you can't do anything with it. Google also added CNAME entries for the "webdrive-client.l.google.com" subdomain, suggesting a product named "Webdrive." In addition, WHOIS check of googlewebdrive.com reveals that the domain points to Google's name servers.

As revealed in this MacRumors forum entry, the latest piece of evidence comes from several Mac user who noticed that Google's Picasa for Mac application, recently released as beta, offers "Google Web Drive" as one of the choices in the context-sensitive menu that appears when you right-click on a folder with images. Another Mac user confronted Google on Picasa forum to clarify this feature, but the company remained silent. Finally, Google's Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Gmail, alluded to Gdrive in a recent interview with Cnet. "We know people's file sizes are getting bigger," he said. "They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not worry about which computer they're on. Google wants to be solving these problems."

So, Google gets to see all my stuff, right?

With Gdrive, privacy implications could overshadow its benefits. Remember how privacy advocates chased Google "to hell and back" for indexing content of Gmail messages? It also didn't help any that the company scanned your email in order to serve better, more relevant ads when viewing a message. Gdrive would scan everything you upload to it, just like Google Desktop - the company's application that brings the power of its search engine to your desktop (it scans the content of authorized files and folders on your machine).

We don't, however, see a problem if Gdrive will let users exclude any file or folder from being sent online, plus if indexed Gdrive stuff can't be associated with our personal information. As long as Google uses Gdrive indexing to provide better search and serve better ads, most would be willing to trade tiny bit of their privacy for a free online storage. [I wouldn't, not in a million years. -Rick]

Google built an empire on "free services - a bit of privacy" strategy and it'll certainly work with Gdrive. Yet, we have no doubt that Gdrive will become holy grail for privacy advocates around the world.

Pieces of the Google operating system fall in place

The Gdrive "leads and hints" mentioned in this article does not mean that a product exists, but they strongly indicate a new Google-branded online storage service is in the works. Google Web Drive, Gdrive, or whatever name Google decides to call it, may be just around the corner. Online sources are now sure Google will unleash Gdrive in 2009. Google watchers have no doubt that the product will stun users.

If the company can really deliver cloud-based storage with enough free space to hold entire content of your hard drive, it will be a key paradigm shift. Although Google once led in free email storage with Gmail, and still rates high with 20GB per account, rivals overtook the search giant with general-purpose online storage. Most of them offer around 50GB of cloud storage free of charge. Of course, that is not to say there is no innovation left in Google anymore. The company of its size and millions of users may prefer to wait for the right timing to do the job right.

We have no doubt that Gdrive could have a huge impact on everyone, especially the cloud-based generation that's coming up and running mainly web applications - doing most of its computing online. We're also pretty certain that Gdrive, Chrome and Android are important pieces of the bigger picture, the one that replaces Microsoft logo on your desktop with Google's. So, don't be surprised if the computer you'll be using a few years down the road comes with no hard drive at all, but boots the Google operating system entirely off Gdrive and the Internet.

Special Ops: How to move a president in a few hours

2009-01-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

* Story Highlights
* Ex-White House usher details whirlwind moving operation for Bush, Obama
* Scores of staffers switch out Bush, Obama furniture, clothes, etc. in six hours
* Obamas allocated $100,000 to redecorate 24 private rooms in the White House

By Thom Patterson
CNN

(CNN) -- Comedian Mark Russell was at a recent event in Chicago, Illinois, when he found himself sitting next to Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to President-elect Barack Obama.

Russell asked her whether President Bush's staff members were going to remove all the Os from their computer keyboards, alluding to the 2001 incident in which President Clinton's departing staff removed Ws from some White House computers.

Jarrett said no, but that didn't stop Russell from speculating what really happened when President Bush's daughters, Barbara and Jenna, gave Obama's two daughters a tour of the White House recently.

"The Bush daughters showed Sasha and Malia Obama around," Russell joked. "Barbara showed them where all the bedrooms were, and Jenna showed them how to make a fake ID."

Russell sees humor in the presidential transition, but the actual operation to move both families in and out of the White House is serious business.

The clearing out of the Bushes' belongings began over the summer, when many items were packed and taken to Crawford, Texas, says Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. Then, during the Christmas holiday, the Bushes moved their personal things out of Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, according to McBride.

On January 20, the Obamas move in -- a side of Inauguration Day that most people never see: a grueling, precisely timed workday involving scores of staffers that follows six months of careful planning.

Gary Walters worked at the executive mansion from 1986 until 2006 as chief usher in charge of moving presidential families in and out of the White House. From his Virginia home, Walters described how the complicated Obama move in to the White House is completed in only a few hours.

In the morning, after the Bushes and Obamas depart the executive mansion for the Capitol Hill swearing-in ceremony, moving trucks will roll up to the south side of the White House, Walters said.

The drivers put down their tailgates, allowing most of the White House's 93 staff members to begin unloading Obama family items, he said.

"Staff members all have been given very specific jobs on that day, almost down to the minute as to what their responsibilities are," Walters said.

The move is designed to be seamless, painless and invisible while millions of Washington visitors -- and millions more watching on TV -- follow the inauguration ceremonies and the parade that follows.

By about 5 p.m., before the Obamas move from the parade viewing stand to their new home, the presidential move must be complete.

"Their clothes will be in their closets; everything will be put away," Walters said. "There should be no full or half-empty boxes will in view. Furniture will be set in proper places. Their favorite foods will be in the kitchen or the pantry. The chief usher will welcome them into their home and ask them what they would like to do before going out to enjoy the inaugural balls."

Incoming first lady Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, will also be moving into the White House residence, which has 24 rooms on the second and third floors. The Obamas have hired California decorator Michael Smith to use an allocated $100,000 to redecorate the space. VideoWatch what decorator may do with the White House »

"I think they're going to find that this is really conducive to family life," President Bush told CNN's Larry King. "President-elect Obama has got a 45-second commute to see his girls."

In the West Wing of the White House, the political jostling has begun among new staffers to grab workspaces near the center of power: the Oval Office.

There, the carpet is changed with each new administration to suit the incoming president, Walters said. Possibly, the office desk will be changed, as will paintings that will be hung on the wall.

Books on the Oval Office shelves will be changed per the new commander in chief, as will accessories to be placed around the room, Walters said. Staffers may tote in a new sofa and chairs -- or busts of past presidents.

Following tradition, Bush is expected to leave a personal letter written to Obama. Past letters have offered the new president private words of advice and reflection.

Several Democratic presidents have chosen to hang a Thomas Sully painting of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, said political scientist and historian Martha Joynt Kumar, an expert on the White House. "In the residence, many presidents have brought their personal paintings to decorate their living space."

After movers tote out boxes of office materials from Bush staffers, the West Wing will become a dusty workspace, with empty bookshelves and the odd three-ring binder left behind, say veterans of the White House press corps.

As in previous moving periods, contractors may come to slap on a coat of paint or lay carpet as the new crop of staffers finds their workspaces.

"It was incredible," former Clinton staffer David Seldin said, recalling his experience on Inauguration Day 1993. "I think people were overwhelmed with the sense that it was real and the sense that something that you had been working on as a political campaign is actually becoming part of the government."

On Tuesday, once the whirlwind moving operation is finally done, Chief Usher Stephen Rochon will probably greet Obama the same way Walters did Bush in 2001.

Standing near the doorway to the White House North Portico, Walters recalls, he said, "Hello, Mr. President, welcome to your home."

Oh, and about those Os on White House keyboards -- two Bush officials told CNN on Sunday that outgoing aides won't be getting payback on the incoming Democratic administration.

There is an understanding that Bush will be furious if there are any pranks, especially after cordial transition between the two administrations, the officials said.

NASA's new moon buggy

2009-01-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

NASA's new Small Pressurized Rover is designed to carry astronauts long distances. It will also be in Obama's inaugural parade.

Windows 7

2009-01-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

source: cnn.com

Microsoft's Ballmer touts 'best version of Windows ever'

* Story Highlights
* Microsoft to release beta version of Windows 7 operating system on Friday
* CEO Steve Ballmer promises Windows 7 will be faster, easier to use
* Ballmer gave keynote address Wednesday at CES trade show in Las Vegas
* Ballmer: Despite recession, tech companies should push forward with innovation

By Brandon Griggs

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with an impassioned endorsement of PCs and a sneak peek at the company's future Windows 7 operating system.

As expected, Ballmer announced that Microsoft is releasing a beta version of Windows 7, which will be available for download beginning Friday. The news suggests the world's largest software maker may be giving up efforts to rehabilitate its often-maligned Vista operating system, which was released worldwide in January 2007.

"We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever," Ballmer told an audience of several thousand tech professionals and journalists inside a cavernous ballroom at the Venetian hotel. "We're working hard to get it right and get it ready."

Without mentioning the security and compatibility issues that have dogged Vista, Ballmer promised that Windows 7 will make PCs faster and easier to use. He didn't offer a timetable for its official release, although Windows Vista went on sale more than two years after it was issued in beta form.

Early reviews of Windows 7, which was leaked to the Internet in beta form in late December, have been positive.

The forthcoming operating system will have touch-screen capability, side-by-side windows for comparison shopping and a "Peek" feature that makes open windows transparent, allowing users to see the icons on their desktop.

"Windows 7 makes it easier to move between the things on your desktop," said Microsoft group project manager Charlotte Jones, who gave a brief demonstration of the system on the hall's giant display screens. Jones said the new system also makes it easier to send files back and forth between home computers.

Ballmer later yielded the stage to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, who praised the explosive growth of the company's Xbox Live online gaming community. Bach also announced forthcoming releases of new versions of Microsoft's popular "Halo" game series: "Halo Wars," due Feb. 28, and "Halo 3: OSDT," which will ship in the fall. VideoWatch Bach predict coming trends »

Wednesday's address marked the energetic Ballmer's debut as CES keynote pitchman, a job that had been handled for the past decade by Microsoft chairman and industry pioneer Bill Gates. Ballmer's presentation came two days after a similar, high-profile keynote at the Macworld show in San Francisco by Apple, Microsoft's chief rival, and its vice president Philip Schiller, filling in for the ailing Steve Jobs.

Unlike Schiller, Ballmer tackled the struggling economy head-on in his remarks. He said that although the recession has created "a period of reduced expectations," the tech companies that push forward now with innovative research will fare better in the long-term than the companies that scale back.

Ballmer said the convergence of screens on computers, TVs and mobile phones is revolutionizing how people communicate with each other.

"Our digital lives will continue to get richer. There's really no turning back from the connected world," he said. "We're on the verge of the kind of technological transformation that only happens once every 10 or 15 years."

As if to prove his point, Ballmer also welcomed onstage program manager Janet Galore, who gave brief demos of some Microsoft product prototypes, including a tabletop-like touch screen and a flexible, wafer-thin digital screen you can roll up like a piece of paper.

In a gentle swipe at Apple, which has gained market share against Microsoft in recent years, Ballmer said the PC remains the best choice for consumers seeking "value and power" in a computer.

"That's why we say, 'I'm a PC and proud of it!" he bellowed -- a reference to a new Microsoft ad campaign that play off similar ads by Apple.

Ballmer also announced that Microsoft has formed a partnership with Verizon Wireless to add Live Search tools to all Verizon smart phones in the U.S.

He also announced a partnership with Dell, which will soon come loaded with Microsoft's Windows Live suite of software, and links between Windows Live and the social-networking site, Facebook.

Reaction to the 90-minute presentation, which also included a performance by Australian musical-comedy trio Tripod, was mixed. Attendees praised the lively pace of Ballmer's talk, but wished he had made more news.

"I really loved what I heard tonight. There's definitely a lot of things to look forward to," said Sebastian Mineau, a Montreal-based blogger with MSN Canada. "It [Windows 7] wasn't a big surprise. But it was still nice to get the confirmation straight from the lion's mouth."

"It was very disappointing," said Ben Sillis, a reporter with ElectricPig, a British tech site. "CES is supposed to be about new products, new stuff. And this had all already been leaked. There was nothing new."

Some 2,700 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees are in Las Vegas for CES, the nation's largest consumer electronics trade show. The event runs through Sunday.

Web 2.0 is so over. Welcome to Web 3.0

2009-01-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

source: cnn.com

Facebook and Twitter may be more popular than ever among users, but what are they worth?
By Jessi Hempel, writer
Last Updated: January 8, 2009: 3:13 PM ET

(Fortune Magazine) -- Financially speaking, Web 2.0 has been a total bust.

Social-networking companies such as MySpace and Facebook have loyal fan bases, but they're not exactly minting money. MySpace's projected $600 million revenue in 2008 falls far short of parent News Corp.'s (NWS, Fortune 500) billion-dollar sales target for the site. Messaging service Twitter has no business model. Video-sharing site YouTube was the only big sale; Google paid $1.65 billion for it two years ago but still hasn't figured out how to make much money off it.

Social media's champions hoped 2008 would be a watershed year for Web 2.0. (That's the term tech publisher Tim O'Reilly coined four years ago to describe a new wave of Internet innovation that let users publish and share content.) Instead, the past 12 months have been a disappointment. Almost no new game-changing companies have emerged since Twitter burst on the scene in 2007, and while it's true existing sites have changed the way we interact on the web, they've failed to deliver new ways to cash in the way their Web 1.0 predecessors, such as Amazon and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), did.

One reason is that the economic climate for today's web startups is a lot chillier than it was during the first dot-com frenzy. The door for initial public offerings has all but closed: Just six U.S. venture-backed companies went public last year, and none were web outfits. And potential acquirers - from Internet companies like Yahoo to traditional media conglomerates like CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) - have big problems of their own.

Not that being bought is a panacea for social-networking firms. Few of them have seized on a viable business model. Most rely on display advertising - a.k.a. banners - to make money. But marketers have cooled to display ads on the web, and they're especially skeptical of such advertising on social-networking sites.

Fact is, when you're looking at photos from last night's holiday party on Facebook, you're probably ignoring that teeth-whitening ad. And with all the user-generated content, these sites have so many page views that Web 2.0 companies can't command the same rates as, say, portals. Yahoo's news site, for example, can charge more than 30 times as much as Facebook for a banner ad.

Most industry watchers bet on Facebook to develop the silver bullet for advertising on these sites. In fall 2008 CEO Mark Zuckerberg debuted Beacon, first billed as a "social ad" strategy that would monitor and distribute information about a user's e-commerce preferences to his friends. Zuckerberg caught flak from the privacy police, and Beacon was significantly downplayed.

The site recently launched Facebook Connect, which lets users access other sites with their Facebook log-in. Web publishers are excited about it, but for now, the company still relies heavily on "traditional" slow-growing forms of web advertising. Revenues for 2008 are expected to be about $275 million this year, according to several sources, and it is still not profitable.

Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, the largest outside investor in Facebook, remains optimistic. "Thus far the home-run outcomes have not yet appeared, but I firmly believe we will see them over the next couple of years," he says, explaining he thinks these companies are still in their infancy. In fact, Accel just announced two new funds, totaling a billion dollars, dedicated to investing in early-stage social-media companies.

Indeed, the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world could still grow up to be economically powerful. Consider that Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) once was just an online bookstore, and that Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) started out simply as another search engine.

But today's Web 2.0 companies may find themselves transformed or even eclipsed by yet another wave of web innovators. New companies are cropping up to expand the utility of the web, creating location-based services and financial payment systems that can be bolted onto existing sites. Often bootstrapped, they are frequently profitable and may get acquired quickly. Even in today's tough environment, these upstarts are the ones raising money and trying to score a life- or business-altering hit. Welcome to Web 3.0.

Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

2008-12-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

source: www.beliefnet.com
Faith makes people want to kill each other--but it's the best thing we've got.

Israelis and Palestinians are killing each other by the hundreds in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Hindus and Muslims are slaughtering each other in India, herding neighbors into house or trains then setting them afire. Catholics and Protestants continue to kill each other in Northern Ireland. Sunnis and Shias have their arms wrapped around each other's throats throughout the Islamic world. And of course, on Sept. 11, 19 Muslims were so determined to murder helpless Christians and Jews that they were willing to die to shed the blood of other religions.

Not a terribly good reflection on faith, is it? If religion makes people want to murder each other, maybe religion is bad for the world.

Religion has certainly been bad for history. In recent decades alone, Hindus and Sikhs have been slaughtering each other, blowing up airliners and firing artillery shells into temples. In the fighting over Sri Lanka, Tamil Hindus have fired machine guns at school buses full of Sinhalese Buddhist children, and the Buddhists in turn have firebombed Hindu schools. Thousands of Chinese grew up as orphans because their Buddhist parents were murdered during World War II at the urging of Shinto priests.

Looking further back, huge numbers of Eastern Orthodox Armenians were murdered by Muslims at the turn of the century. Much of Europe's history has been a nightmare of Christian-on-Christian killing, including the 30 Years' War, in which an estimated 7.5 million people--one-third of the European population at the time--died owing to Catholic-versus-Protestant slaughter. England's history is full of Protestants murdering Catholics; France's history is full of Catholics murdering Protestants; Spain's history is full of Christians murdering Jews. Pretty much all of Europe is to blame for the Crusades, in which Christians murdered Muslims. This inventory could go on at considerable length. King Olaf Tryggvason's declaration from about the year 1000--"all Norway will be Christian or die!"--sums it up.

So is faith bad? The fact that religions preach love, but often generate violence, cannot be dismissed as a minor imperfection.

And if you talk of mere hatred--as opposed to all-out killing--the accounting is even more horrifying. Many faiths and denominations have throughout history dedicated themselves to hating other faiths and denominations. About 100 years ago, to cite one of many examples, Protestant denominations called the Pope the Whore of Babylon, while Pope Leo XIII declared Protestants "enemies of the Christian name." Sunnis and Shias have been denouncing each other since just a few years after the Prophet Muhammad died. The Eastern Orthodox church has in its past denounced Catholicism as a false religion. In 1997, a small group called the Union of Orthodox Rabbis declared that the Conservative and Reform movements of Judaism are "not Judaism at all." Intrigue among Buddhist and Shinto sects have led to much violence.

Considering this bill of attainder, it could be awfully tempting to turn away from religion as a retrograde or divisive influence. This seems to be the view in Europe, where rates of religious observance have been in sharp decline for a century. Today, just 10 percent of the citizens of the European Union regularly attend worship services of any faith; in the United States, the comparable figure is a little more than half. Europeans seem to be aware of the bloodshed that faith has cost in the past--religious killing has been comparatively rare in the United States, probably a reason observance remains relatively high--and to be saying, "To hell with it."

Killing in the name of God or belief, which shames every religion, ought to give the person of faith pause. But should it cause us to abandon faith? Would the world be better off if religion disappeared?

Some people would say yes, and since it's impossible to conduct this experiment, as faith is definitely not going away, we can't be sure. But when we observe the horror of religiously motivated violence or hatred, maybe the correct question is, Without religion would it be even worse?

What's really underlying many "religious" disputes is ethnicity, money, and national distinctions, factors that would exist regardless of whether anyone had ever heard the word "God." The fighting in Israel today, for example, is not primarily about religion--Jews, Muslims and Christians have coexisted fairly peacefully in that area for most of the last 1,300 years. Until recently, the Holy Land fighting was mainly about land, and whom it's been promised to. Palestinians hated Israelis because they viewed them as oppressors, not because they were Jews--although that hatred has turned lately to anti-Semitism. Israelis hated Palestinians because they viewed them as terrorists, not because they were Muslims--although, lately the hatred has turned anti-Muslim. If the land dispute could be resolved, the religious dispute would rapidly fade to secondary or tertiary status--though ethnic tensions pitting Ashkenazim and Sephardim against Arabs might drone on.

Similarly, the tension between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland has a religious component, but its essence is class-based and nationalist. Protestants in Northern Ireland tend to be well-off and Anglophile; Catholics, to be working class and to want the Brits out. Suppose religion vanished tomorrow morning, and these two groups divided themselves by arbitrary labels that had nothing to do with faith. Let's say one position was arbitrarily designated "Orange" and the other "Green." Do you think the conflict would instantly end? No, it would continue as before, if not worsen, since Christianity--both Catholicism and Protestantism--would no longer be present to urge each side to love its neighbor.

Similar ethnic, class, and nationalistic disputes underlie pretty much every fight that looks on the surface to be about religion. Suppose the Christian and Islamic faiths vanished. Sept. 11 might still have happened. Within the Arab world, where many resent the West, violent fanatics might have vowed to kill themselves solely on secular grounds. Indeed, it can be argued that since the mass murderers of Sept. 11 openly violated the Quranic prohibition against killing the innocent, they weren't true Muslims anyway. What they were was terrorist fanatics. And a certain number of people like this would exist in the world whether religious faith existed or not.

Men and women of all faiths must feel deeply chastened about the continuing violence in the name of religion. We ought to feel the very worst about violence, or hatred, perpetrated by those who say they believe what we believe. But this does not mean we should give up those beliefs. Rather, we must work to make belief sincere. Only then is there a chance the violence will stop.

Occupied Minds

2008-12-31T14:26:00.000-08:00

source: linktv.org

Occupied Minds is the story of two journalists, Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian-American, and David Michaelis, an Israeli citizen, who journey to Jerusalem, their mutual birthplace, to explore new solutions and offer unique insights into the divisive Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film takes viewers on an emotional and intensely personal odyssey through the streets of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Dajani and Michaelis grew up in Jerusalem just a few miles apart from one another — but in reality, worlds apart. Both have extensive and complex ties to their homeland. Jamal traces his family history in Jerusalem back to the 7th century, while David was born in Jerusalem to parents who had immigrated from Germany in the 1920s to escape growing anti-Semitism.

In their San Francisco offices, the two men are the only Palestinian-Israeli team working together in American media -- at Link TV, the nation’s leading network dedicated to presenting global news, issues and culture. Michaelis, as Director of Current Affairs, brings the national Link TV audience investigative and other insightful news features. Before co-founding Link TV, he was most recently producer of “Popolitika,” the most popular news program on Israel TV. Dajani, as Director of Middle Eastern Programming, produces the 2005 Peabody Award-winning daily newscast MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East and the weekly Middle East new analysis program, the Mosaic Intelligence Report. MOSAIC features selections from daily TV news programs produced by national broadcasters throughout the Middle East, including, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, and Iran, among others. Dajani also produces analytical features on the Middle East and Islam, as well as often appearing as a commentator on those issues for networks.

After four years of collaboration and watching the escalation of hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians with increasing alarm, they decided to combine their personal experiences and expertise to examine substantial opportunities for peace in the Middle East.

Far from the safe shores of San Francisco, Dajani and Michaelis explore the possibilities of lasting peace in the Middle East by interviewing leading activists, government officials and civilians on both sides of the conflict. Among the myriad of voices they hear from are: a wanted Palestinian gunman, an Israeli soldier who is breaking the silence about his service in the Occupied Territories, an Israeli surgeon who lost his eyesight in a suicide bombing, an Israeli mother who lost her son in the conflict, and a Palestinian activist who lost her cousin.

One man, a leading gunman for the Palestinian Intifada who lost his mother, brother and friends in the fighting, reflects upon the cumulative effect of daily indignities and suffering: “A person is burned on the inside and his life closes in on him… All he wants to do is explode.” When asked about the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians coexisting peacefully, the blinded Israeli doctor says: “We must differentiate between what is needed and what is real. In reality, we’re not so good.”

As Dajani and Michaelis make their way through the many worlds that make up contemporary Israel and Palestine, they struggle to find lasting solutions to what others believe may be a never-ending conflict.

Men's Chess Superiority Explained

2008-12-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

source: www.sciam.com

Women are so much better than men at so many things. But according to a report published by the Royal Society, chess is not one of them. The topic of sex differences when it comes to matters of the mind is, needless to say, a divisive one. Those who wish to argue that women are just not as smart as men often point to chess as their proof. Although girls can obviously play, no woman’s ever been world champion. But before looking for cultural or biological explanations for the disparity, scientists say you need to do the math.

Serious chess players are assigned ratings based on their performance against other players. So the scientists compared the ratings of the top hundred male and top hundred female players from Germany. And they found that the men indeed outperformed the women. However that difference can be almost entirely explained by statistics. Because the larger the population, the wider the range of measured scores—the bell curve has a longer tail. And because many more men play than women, the best male players are extreme outliers on that bell curve. As more women play, a few should also reach those extremes, right out there with the men. To which one might be tempted to say: Checkmate.

—Karen Hopkin

Ahmadinejad hallucination

2008-12-23T01:48:00.000-08:00

Yalda Night

2008-12-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

Significance of winter solstice in Persian culture

By Massoume Price
source:www.iranian.com

Yalda, a Syric word imported into the Persian language by Syric Christians means birth (tavalod and meelaad are from the same origin). It is a relatively recent arrival and refereed to the "Shab e Cheleh" festival, a celebration of Winter solstice on December 21st. Yalda, forty days before the next major Persian festival "Jashn e Sadeh", has been celebrated in countless cultures for thousands of years. The ancient Roman festivals of Saturnalia (God of Agriculture, Saturn) and Sol Invicta (Sun God) are amongst the best known in the Western world.

In most ancient cultures, including Persia, the start of the solar year has been marked to celebrate the victory of light over darkness and the renewal of the Sun. For instance, four thousand years ago the Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of the sun at this time of the year. They set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar. They decorated with greenery, using palms with 12 shoots as a symbol of the completed year, since a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each month.

The Persians adopted their annual renewal festival from the Babylonians and incorporated it into the rituals of their own Zoroastrian religion. The last day of the Persian month of "Azar" is the longest night of the year, when the forces of Ahriman are assumed to be at their peak. While the next day, the first day of the month of "Day" known as "Khoram rooz" or "Khore rooz" (the day of the sun) belongs to Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of the sun over darkness. The occasion was celebrated in the festival of "Daygan" dedicated to Ahura Mazda, on the first day of the month of "Day".

Fires would be burnt all night to ensure the defeat of the forces of Ahriman. There would be feasts, acts of charity and a number of deities honored and prayers performed to ensure the total victory of the sun that was essential for the protection of winter crops. There would be prayers to Mithra (Mehr) and feasts in his honor, since Mithra is the Eyzad responsible for protecting "the light of the early morning", known as "Havangah". It was also assumed that Ahura Mazda would grant people's wishes.

One of the themes of the festival was the temporary subversion of order. Masters and servants reversed roles. The king dressed in white would change place with ordinary people. A mock king was crowned and masquerades spilled into the streets. As the old year died, rules of ordinary living were relaxed. This tradition persisted until the Sassanid period, and is mentioned by Biruni and others in their recordings of pre-Islamic rituals and festivals. Its origin goes back to the Babylonian new year celebration. These people believed the first creation was order that came out of chaos. To appreciate and celebrate the first creation they had a festival and all roles were reversed. Disorder and chaos ruled for a day and eventually order was restored and succeeded at the end of the festival.

The Egyptian and Persian traditions merged in ancient Rome, in a festival dedicated to the ancient god of seedtime, Saturn. The Romans exchanged gifts, partied and decorated their homes with greenery. Following the Persian tradition, the usual order of the year was suspended. Grudges and quarrels would be forgotten and wars interrupted or postponed. Businesses, courts and schools were closed. Rich and poor became equal, masters served slaves, and children headed the family. Cross-dressing and masquerades, merriment of all kinds prevailed. A mock king, the Lord of Misrule, was crowned. Candles and lamps chased away the spirits of darkness.

Another related Roman festival celebrated at the same time was dedicated to Sol Invictus ("the invincible sun"). Originally a Syrian deity, this cult was imported by Emperor Heliogabalus into Rome and Sol was made god of the state. With the spread of Christianity, Christmas celebration became the most important Christian festival. In the third century various dates, from December to April, were celebrated by Christians as Christmas. January 6 was the most favored day because it was thought to be Jesus's Baptismal day (in the Greek Orthodox Church this continues to be the day to celebrate Christmas). In year 350, December 25 was adopted in Rome and gradually almost the entire Christian church agreed to that date, which coincided, with the Winter solstice and the festivals, Sol Invicta and Saturnalia. Many of the rituals and traditions of the pagan festivals were incorporated into the Christmas celebration and are still observed today.

It is not clear when and how the world "Yalda" entered the Persian language. The massive persecution of early Christians in Rome brought many Christian refugees into the Sassanid Empire and it is very likely that these Christians introduced and popularized "Yalda" in Iran. Gradually "Shab e Yalda" and "Shab e Cheleh" became synonymous and the two are used interchangeably. With the conquest of Islam the religious significance of the ancient Persian festivals was lost. Today "Shab e Cheleh" is merely a social occasion, when family and friends get together for fun and merriment. Different kinds of dried fruits, nuts, seeds and fresh winter fruits are consumed. The presence of dried and fresh fruits is reminiscence of the ancient feasts to celebrate and pray to the deities to ensure the protection of the winter crops.

Iranian Jews, who are amongst the oldest inhabitants of the country, in addition to "Shab e Cheleh", also celebrate the festival of "Illanout" (tree festival) at around the same time. Illanout is very similar to the Shab e Cheleh celebration. Candles are lit and all varieties of dried and fresh winter fruits are served. Special meals are prepared and prayers are performed. There are also very similar festivals in many parts of Southern Russia that are identical to "Shab e Cheleh" with local variations. Sweet breads are baked in the shape of humans and animals. Bon fires are made and dances resemble crop harvesting. Comparison and detailed studies of all these celebrations no doubt will shed more light on the forgotten aspects of this wonderful and ancient festival, where merriment was the main theme of the festival. Happy Shab e Cheleh.

Without My Daughter (Part 6 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:39:00.001-08:00

Without My Daughter (Part 5 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

Without My Daughter (Part 4 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:37:00.000-08:00

Without My Daughter (Part 3 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:36:00.000-08:00

Without My Daughter (Part 2 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

Without My Daughter (Part 1 of 6)

2008-12-19T01:34:00.000-08:00

Amazon Turk

2008-12-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

source: www.nytimes.com
Artificial Intelligence, With Help From the Humans
By JASON PONTIN

COMPUTERS still do some things very poorly. Even when they pool their memory and processors in powerful networks, they remain unevenly intelligent. Things that humans do with little conscious thought, such as recognizing patterns or meanings in images, language or concepts, only baffle the machines.

These lacunae in computers’ abilities would be of interest only to computer scientists, except that many individuals and companies are finding it harder to locate and organize the swelling mass of information that our digital civilization creates.

The problem has prompted a spooky, but elegant, business idea: why not use the Web to create marketplaces of willing human beings who will perform the tasks that computers cannot? Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, has created Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online service involving human workers, and he has also personally invested in a human-assisted search company called ChaCha. Mr. Bezos describes the phenomenon very prettily, calling it “artificial artificial intelligence.”

“Normally, a human makes a request of a computer, and the computer does the computation of the task,” he said. “But artificial artificial intelligences like Mechanical Turk invert all that. The computer has a task that is easy for a human but extraordinarily hard for the computer. So instead of calling a computer service to perform the function, it calls a human.”

Mechanical Turk began life as a service that Amazon itself needed. (The name recalls a famous 18th-century hoax, where what seemed to be a chess-playing automaton really concealed a human chess master.) Amazon had millions of Web pages that described individual products, but it wanted to weed out the duplicate pages. Software could help, but algorithmically eliminating all the duplicates was impossible, according to Mr. Bezos. So the company began to develop a Web site where people would look at product pages and be paid a few cents for every duplicate page they correctly identified.

Mr. Bezos figured that what had been useful to Amazon would be valuable to other businesses, too. The company opened Mechanical Turk as a public site in November 2005. Today, there are more than 100,000 “Turk Workers” in more than 100 countries who earn micropayments in exchange for completing a wide range of quick tasks called HITs, for human intelligence tasks, for various companies.

PriceGrabber.com, a comparison shopping site, uses Mechanical Turk to match images to the product pages. “Harnessing the power of this enormous, decentralized work force allows us to obtain images for a wide variety of items in a fraction of the time it would have taken to do it ourselves,” said Sagar M. Jethani, PriceGrabber’s director of content development and community.

Mechanical Turk’s customers are corporations. By contrast, ChaCha.com, a start-up in Carmel, Ind., uses artificial artificial intelligence — sometimes also called crowdsourcing — to help individual computer users find better results when they search the Web. ChaCha, which began last year, pays 30,000 flesh-and-blood “guides” working from home or the local coffee shop as much as $10 an hour to direct Web surfers to the most relevant resources.

Amazon makes money from Mechanical Turk by charging companies 10 percent of the price of a successfully completed HIT. For simple HITs that cost less than 1 cent, Amazon charges half a cent. ChaCha intends to make money the way most other search companies do: by charging advertisers for contextually relevant links and advertisements.

Harnessing the collective wisdom of crowds isn’t new. It is employed by many of the “Web 2.0” social networks like Digg and Del.icio.us, which rely on human readers to select the most worthwhile items on the Web to read. But creating marketplaces of mercenary intelligences is genuinely novel.

What is it like to be an individual component of these digital, collective minds?

To find out, I experimented. After registering at www.mturk.com, I was confronted with a table of HITs that I could perform, together with the price that I would be paid. I first accepted a job from ContentSpooling.net that asked me to write three titles for an article about annuities and their use in retirement planning. Then I viewed a series of images apparently captured from a vehicle moving through the gray suburbs of North London, and, at the request of Geospatial Vision, a division of the British technology company Oxford Metrics Group, identified objects like road signs and markings.

For all this, my Amazon account was credited the lordly sum of 12 cents. The entire experience lasted no more than 15 minutes, and from my point of view, as an occluded part of the hive-mind, it made no sense at all.

I was also interested in learning what it was like to be a consumer of crowdsourcing. So at 2:40 p.m. on March 14, I asked ChaCha, “Who was Evelyn Waugh’s commanding officer in the Commandos during World War II?” In an instant-messaging window, CandieSue22087 immediately welcomed me to ChaCha and asked me to be patient.

At 2:44, CandieSue threw up her virtual hands and transferred me to another guide, Tressie57635, who referred me to an academic paper on “suffixal sound symbolism in the novels of Evelyn Waugh.” When I protested, Tressie complained that it was a hard search, and at 2:49 she gave up, typing that I might do better with yet another guide. When I agreed, Tressie accidentally ended the search altogether — but not before serving me a page of 12 search results, not one of which was relevant.

A quick search on Google quickly provided the right answer.

THERE have been two common objections to artificial artificial intelligence. The first, confirmed by my own experiences searching on ChaCha, is that the networks are no more intelligent than their smartest members. Katharine Mieszkowski, writing last year on Salon.com, raised the second, more serious criticism. She saw Mechanical Turk as a kind of virtual sweatshop. “There is something a little disturbing about a billionaire like Bezos dreaming up new ways to get ordinary folk to do work for him for pennies,” she wrote.

The ever-genial Mr. Bezos dismisses the criticism. “MTurk is a marketplace where folks who have work meet up with folks who want to do work,” he said.

Why do people become Turk Workers and ChaCha Guides? In poor countries, the money earned could offer a significant contribution to a family’s wealth. But even Mr. Bezos concedes that Turk Workers from rich countries probably can’t live on the small sums involved. “The people I’ve seen commenting on blogs seem mostly to be using MTurk as a supplemental form of income,” he said.

Mitch Fernandez, 38, a disabled former United States Army linguist, said by e-mail that he became a Turk Worker for various reasons: “At first, I was just curious about the idea of crowdsourcing.” But he said he soon found that by working about two hours a day, he could often earn more than $100 a week. In the last nine months he made around $4,000, which he used to buy a high-definition television, a DVD player and a new subwoofer — all from Amazon.com.

“I do this primarily for the money, but I also view it as a form of therapy to get me used to working again.” he explained. “The experience has gotten me thinking about pursuing a library science degree.”

We probably have at least another 25 years before computers are more powerful than human brains, according to the most optimistic artificial intelligence experts. Until then, people will be able to sell their idle brains to the companies and people who need the special processing power that they alone possess through marketplaces like Mechanical Turk and ChaCha.

Shoe thrower hates both US, Iran role

2008-12-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

source: Associated Press
By ROBERT H. REID

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi TV reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush was kidnapped once by militants and, separately, detained briefly by the U.S. military. Over time, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a 28-year-old unmarried Shiite, came to hate both the U.S. military occupation and Iran's interference in Iraq, his family told The Associated Press on Monday.

Al-Zeidi's act of defiance Sunday transformed an obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year U.S. presence here, but also fearful that their country will fall under Iran's influence once the Americans leave.

Several thousand people demonstrated in Baghdad and other cities to demand al-Zeidi's release. The attack was the talk of the town in coffee shops, business offices and even schools — and a subject across much of the Arab world. A charity run by the daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi bestowed a medal of courage on al-Zeidi, calling on the Iraqi government to free him.

Al-Zeidi was held Monday in Iraqi custody for investigation and could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Bush. Conviction carries a sentence of up to two years in prison or a small fine — although it's unlikely he would face the maximum penalty given his newfound cult status in the Arab world.

Bush was not hit or injured in the attack, and Iraqi security guards wrestled al-Zeidi to the ground immediately after he tossed his shoes. White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury when she was hit in the face with a microphone during the melee.

But Bush took a drubbing later as Arab satellite TV networks repeatedly broadcast images of him ducking the shoes at the Baghdad press conference. The sight of an average Arab standing up and making a public show of resentment was striking — especially against a leader widely blamed for a litany of crimes including the turmoil in Iraq, where tens of thousands of civilians have died in the war.

A geography teacher at a Baghdad elementary school asked her students if they had seen the footage of the shoe-throwing. "All Iraqis should be proud of this Iraqi brave man, Muntadhar. History will remember him forever," she said.

Bush joked about the incident later telling reporters: "I'm pretty good at ducking as some of you know," a reference to avoiding questions. He downplayed the significance of the display saying he didn't think "you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want but I don't think that would be accurate."

A day after the incident, al-Zeidi's three brothers and one sister gathered in al-Zeidi's simple, one-bedroom apartment in west Baghdad. The home was decorated with a poster of Latin American revolutionary leader Che Guevara, who is widely lionized in the Middle East.

Family members expressed bewilderment over al-Zeidi's action and concern about his treatment in Iraqi custody. But they also expressed pride over his defiance of an American president who many Iraqis believe has destroyed their country.

"I swear to Allah, he is a hero," said his sister, who goes by the nickname Umm Firas (mother of Firas, her oldest son), as she watched a replay of her brother's attack on an Arabic satellite station. "May Allah protect him."

The family insisted that al-Zeidi's action was spontaneous — perhaps motivated by the political turmoil that their brother had reported on, plus his personal brushes with violence and the threat of death that millions of Iraqis face daily.

Al-Zeidi joined Al-Baghdadia television in September 2005 after graduating from Baghdad University with a degree in communications. Two years later, he was seized by gunmen while on an assignment in a Sunni district of north Baghdad.

He was freed unharmed three days later after Iraqi television stations broadcast appeals for his release. At the time, al-Zeidi told reporters he did not know who kidnapped him or why, but his family blamed al-Qaida and said no ransom was paid.

In January he was taken again, this time arrested by American soldiers who searched his apartment building, his brother, Dhirgham, said. He was released the next day with an apology, the brother said.

Those experiences helped mold a deep resentment of both the U.S. military's presence here and Iran's pervasive influence over Iraq's cleric-dominated Shiite community, according to his family.

"He hates the American physical occupation as much as he hates the Iranian moral occupation," Dhirgham said, alluding to the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite clerics in political and social life. "As for Iran, he considers the regime to be the other side of the American coin."

That's a view widely held among Iraqis — including many Shiites — who believe the Americans and the Iranians have been fighting a proxy war in their country through Tehran's alleged links to Shiite extremists.

Al-Zeidi may have also been motivated by what a colleague described as a boastful, showoff personality.

"He tried to raise topics to show that nobody is as smart as he is," said Zanko Ahmed, a Kurdish journalist who attended a journalism training course with al-Zeidi in Lebanon.

Ahmed recalled that al-Zeidi spoke glowingly of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers organized protests Monday to demand his release.

"Regrettably, he didn't learn anything from the course in Lebanon, where we were taught ethics of journalism and how to be detached and neutral," Ahmed said.

Iran's Nuclear Operation Revealed To Be Cover For Greatest Roller Coaster Ever

2008-12-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

source: www.theonion.com
December 15, 2008

TEHRAN, IRAN—Nearly 30 years of tense relations between the U.S. and Iran came to a dramatic end this March when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that his country's suspected nuclear program was in fact a covert operation to build "Ali Baba and the 40 Loops"—the largest, most thrilling roller coaster in the Middle East.

In a globally televised address before the United Nations, Ahmadinejad unveiled the 500-foot-tall steel coaster, which he called a "very real threat" to anyone not interested in having a blast. The Iranian leader then challenged all thrill-seekers—young and old, Christian, Muslim, or Jew—to ride the mighty coaster, which can reportedly reach speeds of 165 mph by using a newly developed electromagnetic propulsion system previously seen only in blurry satellite images.
"I regret having kept you in the dark for this long, but doesn't the surprise make it so much better?" a smiling Ahmadinejad said while gesturing to the massive coaster's interlocking quadruple vertical corkscrews. "And to think, you were all afraid we would use this technology for evil. Well, the only thing the world should fear now is Ali Baba's heart-stopping 400-foot drop!"

Members of a special U.N. envoy were immediately granted access to the new ride, and spent the next six hours conducting more than 30 separate critical examinations of the roller coaster. By late evening, however, inspectors said their findings were still inconclusive and determined that the fact-finding mission would require further test rides, corn dogs for everyone, and photographic documentation of their efforts.

Despite years of economic sanctions and the constant threat of military action, Iran reportedly continued working on the clandestine project by stockpiling metal tubes for the tracks, enriching uranium to provide glow-in-the dark lighting for the subterranean portion of the ride, and purchasing hundreds of gallons of neon green paint from Pakistan.

"We have moved wisely and decisively to establish Iran as a regional power in the amusement park field," said Ahmadinejad, adding defiantly that the nation would not succumb to Western standards for height requirements. "Wheeeee!"

In response to rumors that the new Iranian amusement park will include a ride dedicated to bridging the foreign relations gap with Israel, Ahmedinejad flatly denied the existence of the so-called "Holocoaster."

YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money

2008-12-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

Source: the new york times

By BRIAN STELTER

Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living.

Michael Buckley quit his day job in September. He says his online show is “silly,” but it helped pay off credit-card debt.

One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job.

Mr. Buckley quit his day job in September after his online profits had greatly surpassed his salary as an administrative assistant for a music promotion company. His thrice-a-week online show “is silly,” he said, but it has helped him escape his credit-card debt.

Mr. Buckley, 33, was the part-time host of a weekly show on a Connecticut public access channel in the summer of 2006 when his cousin started posting snippets of the show on YouTube. The comical rants about celebrities attracted online viewers, and before long Mr. Buckley was tailoring his segments, called “What the Buck?” for the Web. Mr. Buckley knew that the show was “only going to go so far on public access.”

“But on YouTube,” he said, “I’ve had 100 million views. It’s crazy.”

All he needed was a $2,000 Canon camera, a $6 piece of fabric for a backdrop and a pair of work lights from Home Depot. Mr. Buckley is an example of the Internet’s democratizing effect on publishing. Sites like YouTube allow anyone with a high-speed connection to find a fan following, simply by posting material and promoting it online.

Granted, building an audience online takes time. “I was spending 40 hours a week on YouTube for over a year before I made a dime,” Mr. Buckley said — but, at least in some cases, it is paying off.

Mr. Buckley is one of the original members of YouTube’s partner program, which now includes thousands of participants, from basement video makers to big media companies. YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, places advertisements within and around the partner videos and splits the revenues with the creators. “We wanted to turn these hobbies into businesses,” said Hunter Walk, a director of product management for the site, who called popular users like Mr. Buckley “unintentional media companies.”

YouTube declined to comment on how much money partners earned on average, partly because advertiser demand varies for different kinds of videos. But a spokesman, Aaron Zamost, said “hundreds of YouTube partners are making thousands of dollars a month.” At least a few are making a full-time living: Mr. Buckley said he was earning over $100,000 from YouTube advertisements.

The program is a partial solution to a nagging problem for YouTube. The site records 10 times the video views as any other video-sharing Web site in the United States, yet it has proven to be hard for Google to profit from, because a vast majority of the videos are posted by anonymous users who may or may not own the copyrights to the content they upload. While YouTube has halted much of the illegal video sharing on the site, it remains wary of placing advertisements against content without explicit permission from the owners. As a result, only about 3 percent of the videos on the site are supported by advertising.

But the company has high hopes for the partner program. Executives liken it to Google AdSense, the technology that revolutionized advertising and made it possible for publishers to place text advertisements next to their content.

“Some of these people are making videos in their spare time,” said Chad Hurley, a co-founder of YouTube. “We felt that if we were able to provide them a true revenue source, they’d be able to hone their skills and create better content.”

In a time of media industry layoffs, the revenue source — and the prospect of a one-person media company — may be especially appealing to users. But video producers like Lisa Donovan, who posts sketch comedy onto YouTube and attracted attention in the fall for parodies of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, do not make it sound easy. “For new users, it’s a lot of work,” Ms. Donovan said. “Everybody’s fighting to be seen online; you have to strategize and market yourself.”

Mr. Buckley, who majored in psychology in college and lives with his husband and four dogs in Connecticut, films his show from home. Each episode of “What the Buck?” is viewed an average of 200,000 times, and the more popular ones have reached up to three million people. He said that writing and recording five minutes’ worth of jokes about Britney Spears’s comeback tour and Miley Cyrus’s dancing abilities is not as easy as it looks. “I’ve really worked hard on honing my presentation and writing skills,” he said.

As his traffic and revenues grew, Mr. Buckley had “so many opportunities online that I couldn’t work anymore.” He quit his job at Live Nation, the music promoter, to focus full-time on the Web show.

There is a symmetry to Mr. Buckley’s story. Some so-called Internet celebrities view YouTube as a stepping stone to television. But Mr. Buckley started on TV and found fame on YouTube. Three months ago, he signed a development deal with HBO, an opportunity that many media aspirants dream about. Still, “I feel YouTube is my home,” he said. “I think the biggest mistake that any of us Internet personalities can make is establish ourselves on the Internet and then abandon it.”

Cory Williams, 27, a YouTube producer in California, agrees. Mr. Williams, known as smpfilms on YouTube, has been dreaming up online videos since 2005, and he said his big break came in September 2007 with a music video parody called “The Mean Kitty Song.” The video, which introduces Mr. Williams’ evil feline companion, has been viewed more than 15 million times. On a recent day, the video included an advertisement from Coca-Cola.

Mr. Williams, who counts about 180,000 subscribers to his videos, said he was earning $17,000 to $20,000 a month via YouTube. Half of the profits come from YouTube’s advertisements, and the other half come from sponsorships and product placements within his videos, a model that he has borrowed from traditional media.

On YouTube, it is evident that established media entities and the up-and-coming users are learning from each other. The amateur users are creating narrative arcs and once-a-week videos, enticing viewers to visit regularly. Some, like Mr. Williams, are also adding product-placement spots to their videos. Meanwhile, brand-name companies are embedding their videos on other sites, taking cues from users about online promotion. Mr. Walk calls it a subtle “cross-pollination” of ideas.

Some of the partners are major media companies; the ones with the most video views include Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, CBS and Warner Brothers. But individual users are now able to compete alongside them. Mr. Buckley, who did not even have high-speed Internet access two years ago, said his YouTube hobby had changed his financial life.

“I didn’t start it to make money,” he said, “but what a lovely surprise.”

Who Wrote the Koran?

2008-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Source: new york times

By MOHAMMAD AYATOLLAHI TABAAR

For more than two decades, Abdulkarim Soroush has been Iran’s leading public intellectual. Deeply versed in Islamic theology and mysticism, he was chosen by Ayatollah Khomeini to “Islamicize” Iran’s universities, only to eventually turn against the theocratic state. He paid a price for his dissidence. Vigilantes and other government-supported elements disrupted his widely attended lectures in Iran, beat him and reportedly nearly assassinated him. In a country where intellectuals are often treated like rock stars, Soroush has been venerated and reviled for his outspoken support of religious pluralism and democracy. Now he has taken one crucial step further. Shuttling from university to university in Europe and the U.S., Soroush is sending shock waves through Iran’s clerical establishment.

The recent controversy began about eight months ago, after Soroush spoke with a Dutch reporter about one of Islam’s most sensitive issues: the divine origin of the Koran. Muslims have long believed that their holy book was transmitted word for word by God through the Prophet Muhammad. In the interview, however, Soroush made explicit his alternative belief that the Koran was a “prophetic experience.” He told me that the prophet “was at the same time the receiver and the producer of the Koran or, if you will, the subject and the object of the revelation.” Soroush said that “when you read the Koran, you have to feel that a human being is speaking to you, i.e. the words, images, rules and regulations and the like all are coming from a human mind.” He added, “This mind, of course, is special in the sense that it is imbued with divinity and inspired by God.”

As Soroush’s words spread thanks to the Internet, Iran’s grand ayatollahs entered the battlefield. In their rebuttal, the clerics pointed to the Koranic verses that state “this is a book we have sent down to you (O Muhammad).” They ask, Don’t these verses imply that God is the revealer and Muhammad the receiver? They also point out that there were times when Muhammad waited impatiently for the revelation to come to him and that in more than 300 cases the prophet is commanded to tell his people to do one thing or another. This demonstrates, the argument goes, that the commands are coming from elsewhere rather than from the heart or the mind of the prophet himself.

Soroush, in turn, responds by saying that the prophet was no parrot. Rather, Soroush told me, he was like a bee who produces honey itself, even though the mechanism for making the honey is placed in him by God. This is “the example the Koran itself sets,” says Soroush, citing the Koran: “And your Lord inspired to the bee: take for yourself among the mountains, houses . . . then eat from all the fruits . . . there emerges from their bellies a drink . . . in which there is healing for people.”

Soroush has been described as a Muslim Luther, but unlike the Protestant reformer, he is no literalist about holy books. His work more closely resembles that of the 19th-century German scholars who tried to understand the Bible in its original context. Case in point: when a verse in the Koran or a saying attributed to Muhammad refers to cutting off a thief’s hand or stoning to death for adultery, it only tells us the working rules and regulations of the prophet’s era. Today’s Muslims are not obliged to follow in these footsteps if they have more humane means at their disposal.

Soroush’s latest views have not endeared him to the powerful conservative wing of Iran’s establishment. Some have accused him of heresy, which is punishable by death. There have been demonstrations by clerics in Qom, the religious capital of Iran, against his recent work. But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly warned against feeding the controversy. He said those who are employing “philosophy or pseudo-philosophy” to “pervert the nation’s mind” should not be dealt with “by declaring apostasy and anger” but rather countered with the “religious truths” that will falsify their arguments.

In Iran today, many opponents of the government advocate the creation of a secular state. Soroush himself supports the separation of mosque and state, but for the sake of religion. He seeks freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Thus he speaks for a different — and potentially more effective — agenda. The medieval Islamic mystic Rumi once wrote that “an old love may only be dissolved by a new one.” In a deeply religious society, whose leaders have justified their hold on power as a divine duty, it may take a religious counterargument to push the society toward pluralism and democracy. Soroush challenges those who claim to speak for Islam, and does so on their own terms.

Pictures of you: Images from Iran

2008-12-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

Iran: Seven Faces of Civilization

2008-12-05T15:41:00.001-08:00

A set of most impressive pictures

2008-12-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Most of the people all around the world have cried when they saw these pictures, How about you?

Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars

2008-11-30T23:46:00.000-08:00

By Clara Moskowitz
Source: Wired.com

Giant glaciers buried under the surface of Mars at much lower latitudes than any previously known ice are a potential source of drinking water for future astronauts.

The discovery, made using ground-penetrating radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, offers new possibilities in the search for life on the red planet.

"If there is life on Mars, this kind of ice would likely preserve ancient organisms and DNA," researcher Jim Head, a planetary geoscientist at Brown University, told Wired.com. "Examining the water ice could give you a good sample to try to detect if there had been life there."

The newly-discovered glaciers, reported Wednesday in Science, appear to contain the largest volume of Martian water ice outside the poles.

"Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles, and up to one-half mile thick, and there are many more," said study leader John Holt of the University of Texas at Austin, in a press release.

Many scientists doubted that giant reservoirs of ice could exist on Mars so close to the equator, but calculations suggest these regions were once much colder than they are now, due to variations in the tilt of Mars' rotational axis. The ice was buried under debris, and as the areas warmed, the ice was insulated by its protective layer of surface rock.

Puzzling surface features above the glaciers, such as sloping deposits of rock near larger mountains, were first noticed by NASA's Viking orbiters in the 1970s. Some experts thought they represented rocky debris made slippery by tiny bits of ice mixed with dirt. But recent studies of buried glaciers on Antarctica, which look markedly similar, support the buried glacier hypothesis.

Recently Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed that there really are giant layers of ice hidden under the surface with data from its SHARAD radar instrument. When the radar scanned the regions, its reflected signal bounced back in a pattern consistent with traveling though a thick layer of ice, rather than rock. Furthermore, the velocity of the radar's reflected radio waves matched that expected from passing through water ice.

The glaciers are good news for future studies on Mars, because they lie at more easily accessible latitudes than the freezing cold poles. They could even prove helpful as a source of drinkable water to future astronauts exploring Mars.

"This says there may be samples of ice within our reach," Head said. "If we're thinking ahead to human exploration of Mars, it means we could go to some of these places and actually have water ice there."