Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Iranians forced to register their websites? What in the heavens name is this?

As probably obvious by the title, I'm currently somewhat confused and you could even call it somewhat ticked off. Last night a Persian speaker friend of mine sent me a link to an article in a Persian weblog that he found amusing. Well honestly the article itself didn't take as much of my attention as the little banner on the corner of the page did. Yes, it's similar to the one I've posted here. I had a feeling that I had seen the same banner before on possibly another Persian weblog. I clicked on the banner and was directed to THIS website, where I got a bit of an explanation as to what's cooking, and I also found the link to THIS OTHER website, where I got the complete and full version story.
So, as far as my understanding is, this is what's going on. The 2nd website is the homepage for an Iranian government organization who's name translates to something in lines of "The Iranian Website Classification Organization". To make the long story short, this organization's soul purpose is to classify and register all the websites or weblogs owned by Iranians, so that [obviously] they can take their nasty acts of censorship and harassment of the Iranian internet users to it's next, simpler step. The organization's expectation is for every single Iranian domain owner to go ahead and hand them all information about their websites, weblogs and whatever other sort of online identity that they have, which in turn will make it a lot simpler for the Iranian government to either annihilate whatever online content they don't find to their liking, or make them inaccessible from Iran. How bloody bizarre is that? I wonder who's unholy idea this is, to take away the smallest peace of freedom of speech that may be left through the internet, using this new, enhanced and completely idiotic tactic? And I really do mean idiotic: what on earth makes them fancy that people will just go through with this? Hence the first website I mentioned, and the banner.... that's the big "NO" for the answer. Thank you very much!
But you know what bakes my noodles even more? Just out of pure curiosity I had a look around the organization's website and came across their website registration form. And guess what. It's applicable to Iranians everywhere, not just in Iran [you can select whatever country you're in]. Yeah. Bloody right. I wonder how far they think they're going to get with that one....

Tuesday, September 05, 2006 Self Destruction? OR NOT!

I don't quite remember when I first received the news regarding the the Sivand dam [Iran - Fars] reconstruction and how it could seriously damage Iran's archeological sites, but I do know that now I'm completely sick and tired of my mailbox and Orkut scrap book getting filled up with all the emails and messages on the topic, which oh, yeah, happen to be ALL BLOODY LIES!
So here's the story: The Sivand dam has been an important part of an on going 10 year plan to provide irrigation water for the farmers in the area, and now that it's nearly complete, some very disturbing rumors have been spread around which have managed to cause serious concerns for a whole lot of people, including myself for a short while. [If you didn't know already, I'm Persian. At least to a large extent.] The rumors have it that the flooding of this dam could cause the total destruction of some of Iran's most important archeological sites including Pasargadae, the city built by King Cyrus the Great, and the King's tomb. So these are the rumors that everyone has been receiving and damn well spreading without the smallest bit of research and any actual credible information.
Now here's my question to whoever's been spreading the rumors thinking that they've been doing a fine job opening the eyes of the world to the truth: HOW GULLIBLE CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE? Why won't you go and learn the truth for yourself instead of getting so fizzed up over a bunch of spam mails? When are you going to wake up and see what's really happening, and what role you're actually playing here?
Last night I received an email saying that the flooding has started, and the tomb has already gone under, and HEY it included bloody PICTURES believe it or not. That's it, I've had it, my folly taking capacity is officially over. I've decided to post a little piece of authenticated truth here, so "you", rumor spreaders, might consider going and talking to the right people, or even better, taking a little trip and seeing things for yourself if you can. And of course I hope this helps anyone who would like to have some knowledge of what's been happening.
The Pasargadae and King's tomb are in fact kilometers away from the bloody dam. There's even a few villages in between, which means what exactly? Are you telling me that all those people have been drowned for cryin' out loud? Of course not, you didn't even think of that did you? In addition, you seem to fail to realize that the archeological sites of Iran don't just belong to Iran, they belong to the world nation and therefore they're all under protection of UNESCO. The Persian government doesn't do any kind of construction work around any of Iran's archeological sites without the permission of UNESCO. On the other hand, a Persian-Italian archeological research team has just recently unearthed another huge site in the area, which is being explored right at this moment. Makes me wonder, did they drown too? Or are they doing under-water explorations now?
The only actual concern that has been brought up so far, is the effects of the possible increase of steam in the air. As it turns out, in comparison with the amount of rain that the sites receives each year, the steam problem is totally negligible. I also have to mention that some interesting solutions are being discussed currently for the rain problem. I also have another little hint for the rumor spreaders: You might want to start thinking in lines of "what effect these rumors have on the international view of Iran", and how many more examples of similar problems we're dealing with currently, which have to do with certain political matters that I'm just too sick of them to get into them here anyway.
And now for some laughs, I'd like to share with you the very amusing [or not] photoshop works that I've just received, displaying the supposedly flooded tomb of Cyrus.
If you have some additional news, photos, or anything to contribute to the article, or for some discussions or questions, please either ICQ, MSN, or Yahoo me. Thank you.

Sunday, May 14, 2006 Duh!

Something's terribly wrong with me today! I've been debugging the simplest mere extension circuit for hours now and I still can't get it to work! All bloody analog...nothing fancy. Now I have a blown up op-amp & 2 burnt finger tips, and after looking around for God knows how long I just realized that I have a reversed zener-d and for some reason I just couldn't see it. Golly...I'm quite sure there are a few more of "that" type of problems laying around staring at me right now. I should probably leave it for now....at least for a few hours.
As for World Cup frenzy....well I'm still pretty ticked off over Iran's pathetic [for one kind word] performance in the game vs. Mexico. I've received all sorts of lectures on why things happened the way they happened and why this was to be expected....not like they make me feel any better. England's team however has so far done well....& my fave match so far was the Ghana vs. Italy game. One hell of a game that one.
And as for my Greek language studies....it's going fine, thanks for asking! :) I mean it's going as fine as it can possibly go given the conditions! It's funny how everything tends to sound 180˚ different than what I would expect according to the alphabet basics. My search for "living resources" is still "on going"...... On the plus side, teaching Persian to my German friend is going pretty smooth.
Now only if I could figure how this thing is supposed to sound like......:P

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Bogus

My mind is all over the place @ the moment. There are reasonz why I haven't been writing much lately, believe me! Besidez the fact that I've been getting 3/24 hourz of sleep, and I have no idea what'z been happening to the remaining 21, I've been experiencing some mental challengez az well! (yeah...like I don't alwayz...!) No really, this one'z bothering me. I feel like I've disrespected my own sense of sensibility (if that'z even a correct English sentence!). I think for a fraction of a second I actually believed....I believed in something that was obviously a 100% bogus, and now I'm still paying for it.If u haven't got it by now, I'm talking about that Ahura guy and all his colorful speeches about his mission & bla bla woof woof.....This guy put his finger on quite a sensitive point & he successfully played a large number of people....& although I was one of the generally non-believersz, now that everything'z over I feel like there'z a hole inside of me.....maybe it'z where hope used to be.... @ least for a very short while.....