OBSERVATIONS
When is the next war with Iran?
Recently, I visited one of my relatives who had returned from Iraq to Iran for good. I asked about a limited war like “surgical strike” by Israeli or American air force. He said, “That will not happen. Israelis know not to engage directly with Iran, since they know they will instigate the wrath of Iran. If Israeli’s attack Iran, the Iranians have quite good map of all the Israeli nuclear installation and they know where to hit it with great accuracy and minimum charge and cause great pain to them. They always can say you attacked our civilian nuclear program, we attacked your military nuclear program. Besides that, Israelis have the Americans in their hand and they can force the American to do what they want to do.
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The Grocery Buying Patterns of Iranian Spies
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WITNESS
نگاهی زیبا و موشکافانه دارد به دوره ای از تاریخ ِ گوشه ای از کشور مان
قاچاقچی های مسلح، که سیگار و مشروب حمل می کردند، برای رهائی از تعقیب
قایق های حفاظت شرکت نفت، شروع به تیر اندازی می کنند، ولی به دلیل رسیدن
نیروی کمکی کاری از پیش نمی برند و با محموله ی خود به دام می افتتند
....اما حاصل اندوهبار آن از کار افتادن قلبی بود که شور عشق در ترنم طپش
های آن جاری بود وجز عطوفت و مهر ذخیره ای نداشت، و شوق انتظاری شیرین در
آن موج می زد.
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BEAUTY
The concept of extreme beauty and its power
One of the things we as Iranians have in common with the West (surprised?) is the appreciation and an almost religious worship of extreme beauty. So strong is this in Iranians, that many of us can feel outright physical pain when we are confronted with "heavy duty beauty". To Iranians, the attainment of beauty is looked at as a birthright that even God (or Allah) cannot take away. Historically the pursuit of beauty has been well documented. In books and literature, art and architecture, and even as we have seen recently, Tehran has become the plastic surgery capital of the world, as big nosed beauties, do anything to mend the seemingly singular defining (obvious at least) flaw between their flawless doe eyes.
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MONEY
Crises in subprime mortgages
Up to now two CEOs of fortune 100 companies have fallen from grace because of the collapse in CDO markets and more shoes may have to drop before this crisis is over! So what is going on?! This is my take of the situation: CDO stands for the Collateral debt obligation. We don't need to get to the technical definition of it. So much to say that it is a financial derivative instrument. Now, since Black and Scholes published their paper in mid 70s people know how to price the derivatives. Here is finance 101.
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Persepolis Wins Grand Jury Prize at French Italian Film Festival 2007 in Florence Italy amidst repeated protest from Iran’s government.
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RUMI
Photo essay: Concert to celebrate poet's 800th birthday
by
kfravon >>>
IRAN
I am taking a break right now. In which I want to write about life goes on in Tehran, written by a friend of a friend of a friend on the net: "To show that regardless of what any president would have you imagine, despite what any media outlet would have you believe, life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran"
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PROFILE
Marjane Satrapi and "Persepolis"
It is unusual for the French press to agree on anything, divided across the political divide as they are. But when it comes to hailing Marjane Satrapi’s new animated movie, ‘Persepolis’, they speak as one. From the right wing newspaper ‘Le Figaro’, to left wingers ‘Humanité’ and ‘Libération’ and centrist ‘Le Monde’, all have hailed Satrapi’s movie as a work of pure excellence and highly successful in breaking down stereotypes on Iranians and Iran. Gloria Steinem has even gone so far as to proclaim that with this film, Marjane Satrapi “may have given us a new genre” while ‘USA Today’ called it “a mighty achievement”
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OPPOSITION
Shortcomings of extremist secular nationalism
Today, a great many Iranian opposition blogs and websites trumpet the secular nationalist ideology as the flag of opposition to the current Islamist government of Iran. The pre-historic glory of Persepolis is the other component to the complex Persian/Islamic binary of modern Iran. In its extreme form, this ideology is harshly anti-Islamic, denouncing the current IRI servants of the Arabs who have forced the yoke of Islam upon the Persian masses who would yearn to cast off this alien ideology. Such rhetoric may serve well in riling up opposition to the current government, but it is grossly inaccurate in its analysis of Iranian society and politics
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Bang! and the dirt is gone.
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WAR
بوش به ايران حمله خواهد کرد
سردبير «القدس العربی» در مقاله ی خود توضيح می دهد که بعد از تابستان امسال، ديپلماسی غربی دچار نوعی تنش شده است؛ و همه ی نشانه ها حاکی از آن است که اين ديپلماسی ناچار است که به طور خاص به خاورميانه و شرايط متغيّر آن نظر بدوزد. او اضافه می کند که در خاورميانه، نقطه ی تمرکز، ايران خواهد بود: هدف فوری آمريکا. او از يک تحرّک اوج گيرنده ی سياسی، ديپلماتيک، مدياتيک، و نظامی بی سابقه عليه ايران می نويسد. چرا که فرصت چندانی برای جرج بوش باقی نمانده است؛ و او بايد هرچه می خواهد عليه ايران انجام دهد را به سرعت عملی کند.
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