JahanKhalili

VPK, if I recall correctly, MG invited me

only to regret it. Envy broke loose, as I was too good a member and I got chucked out.lol

TL

I am not sure if you remeber Hezbeh Kharan. It was the joke Tofigh made about "party of honest". 

A personal experience

When I was a kid in elementary school I got busted. My crime was to design a telescope during class :-) The class was pretty boring and the principle caught me.

He took my design involving mirrors and lenses and tossed it in the garbage. I am not sure if we get treated better here but I make sure to treat my kids better than it. So much for nurturing.

JK, you're welcome and thanks...;) ,but

you're making not so logical conclusions.

There was also something about pioneering work in fertility treatments (some BBC report over 2 years ago). The population in Iran hardly needs anymore breeding! lol!

Please also bear in mind that Iran is a Third World country; it simply doesn't have a tradition of a trampolining backbone for vocational pursuits (other than within Islamic traditions), especially with one kleptocracy after another.

P.S. Spot on in your  blog. The average Iranians is conditioned to think that honesty is the equivalent to extreme idiocy. 

Yeah, Thanks Tiger Lily

Please feel free to contribute here as often as you like.

If The Emphasis Is Nuclear

... then this seems to be following a familiar pattern.

Iran's government wants to be nuclear, so it probably marches people in that direction.

In other words, everything is directed.

... from Iranian parents pushing their kindergartners to dream of becoming "dok-tor", "mohandes", etc...

... to the Iranian government deciding that its all about everything nuclear.

Thanks For That Contribution, Tiger Lily

I'll have to read further.

yap, from inside

Groundbreaking, I dunno, and I suppose it's not going to be big deal globally anymore either. Scientists all over the shop. ;)

Telling Quote

Archambaut notes that Iran's publications have emphasised inorganic and nuclear chemistry, nuclear and particle physics and nuclear engineering. 

//www.newscientist.com/article/dn18546-iran-showing-fastest-scientific-growth-of-any-country.html

I see. 

Now to the Battle of Issus

JK, I think you should change your circle of Ey-ranian aquaintances, coz, even I know that the battle was lost before it even started. Both armies had mercenaries in them, but Darius especially, had a bit of a problem because he had a lot of greeks in his. Not a great idea to fight some pissed off Macedonian, and their leader having had Aristotle as a teacher and the confidence of the oracles of Jupiter on his side.

Btw there is something wrong with that picture in your blog. The shafts were much longer and the shapes of spears had been invented specially for the battle. 

P.S. What I want to know is how did young Alex, as bent as a Brighton bedspring, do his nookie bit with Darius' chicita. and now isn't that fun with that Aryan bollocks blood belloney.  Who did the deed! And what is the pudding, so we can prove it? Please don't tell me it all ended at Portsmouth Poly!

Output of Scientific Papers Rising

So this is in terms of papers that are published from inside of Iran?

Do you know if any of these papers involve anything major or groundbreaking?

Iran showing fastest scientific growth of any country

//www.newscientist.com/article/dn20291-iran-i...

Yes, I know it's easier to grow fast from nowhere, but the fact is that the country is involved, in very many of the international collaborative projects and contributing well, despite lesser facilities. 

Next, the contemporary Iranian artists, from inside Iran, are the darlings of the world market.

Last and not least, I have a suspicion that there is a speedy-Gonzalez, one size fits all mould that has been invented by an imminent Iranian surgeon in rhinoplasty. Piosneering. hatschooooo.

Baghdad vs. Parthian Battery

Another name-claiming Iranian crusade?

Minor Detail About Professor Lotfi Zadeh, From That Article

He received an MS degree in electrical engineering from M.I.T. in 1946, and then applied to Columbia University, as his parents had settled in New York City.[8] Columbia admitted him as a doctoral student, and offered him an instructorship as well.[8] He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Columbia in 1949, and became an assistant professor the next year.[5][8]

He essentially became great outside of Iran's influence, and by being away from his country and people. 

Parthian battery Baldrik, PARTHIAN! LOL

VPK's Statement

"Scientists migrate to where they are nurtured."

True. And Iran has never nurtured them in recent history.

Every appeal I have ever seen that was being made to Iranians by Iranians to become more interested in the sciences, always focused on the scientist himself in order to broaden the appeal of science and education.

For instance, I heard big talk about Avicenna (Abu Ali Sina), and what a great man he was. Great! He was great top to bottom. The ground he stood on was great, and the clothes he wore were great.

His body odor was great! His words were great, and it must have been an honor to just look at him!

But I never quite heard that much about what exactly he was interested in, or what he discovered.

As usual, the focus in Iranian culture is reputation, position, power and personage. 

When Iranians describe Avicenna, they're praising him for being somebody big.

But if some little kid were to go and buy an organic chemistry set and go and try to distill something on his own, Iranians would tell him he's wasting his time and he should go and study so he gets good grades (presumably so he can be like that great man Abu Ali Sina).

That shows that Iranians probably don't even comprehend what Abu Ali Sina was doing. 

As usual, I'll have to do that on my own without relying on Iranians. 

One more bit

They operate under a different set of cultural values and they are essentially products of Western educational institutions. 

That is 100% wrong. It is not the cultural values or the institutions. It is the IRI that is driving people away. I know that because I know doctors and scientists who moved. I know scientists who are 100% Iranian in culture. Regularly go visit Iran but do not stay. Because they don't want to live under IRI. If the Islamic regime was gone many would return to Iran.

No one is going to change already set minds. You are all absolutely right!

About the So-Called Baghdad Battery

This appears to be sheer speculation, and the wikipedia article acknowledges it:

"These artifacts came to wider attention in 1938 when Wilhelm König, the German director of the National Museum of Iraq, found the objects in the museum's collections. In 1940, König published a paper speculating that they may have been galvanic cells, perhaps used forelectroplating gold onto silver objects.[2] This interpretation continues to be considered as at least a hypothetical possibility. If correct, the artifacts would predate Alessandro Volta's 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium."

At any rate, it has not been named "the Baghdad Battery" in honor of Iranians.

; )

Nor were the people who discovered this artifact and brought it to the attention of the world and speculated about what it could have been used for, Iranian (as usual). 

Iranians are forced to refer to foreign sources to make claims about their own history (ridiculous as usual, if they are trying to make claims about Iranian greatness without irony). 

AO

Scientists migrate to where they are nurtured. There are two centers for high energy Physics: USA and CERN.  That is it. Therefore anyone who wants to do it moves to one or the other.

The same goes for other sciences. Plus IRI is not exactly the place to live. Obviously people leave it and that is not a surprise to anyone. If you are asking me do Iranian scientists move? You bet! They get ahead in the line because of their abilities.

Iran has the greatest brain drain of the world. No one wants to live under Islamist Regime.. But even with that there are Iranian scientists inside Iran. There is research being done despite the problems. You are welcome look it up on Wiki. 

Yes, VPK - But I these guys don't count - as I said in my

comment below.  They operate under a different set of cultural values and they are essentially products of Western educational institutions.  I'm talking about Iranians inside Iran.  Do we have anyone from there?

PS- I actually know a few Iranian geniuses personally.  Went to college with them.  Without giving out too much personal info., a couple of them are professors at Ivy League schools now.  But one of them came here when he was five, and the other was born here.  So, they're essentially American.

I'm not saying that we are stupid, or that we don't have potential like the rest of the world.  The problem is our priorities.  We are a philosophical culture, not an industrial one.  Kind of like the Greeks.  What have they done for the past thousand years?  Nothing! 

AO Jan

I hate to get back head to head but I have to respond:

But I look around and I see not even a single Iranian scientist who has produced anything of value for the human race for at least a couple of hundred years.  Nothing in medicince, physics, technology.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_...

Here is a list of Iranian modern geniuses

• Dr. Ali Javan from MIT is ranked 12.
• Dr. Nima Arkani-Hamed (Canadian Iranian) from Harvard University is listed as Canadian and is ranked 32.
• Dr. Pardis Saberi from Broad Institute Director Eric Lander's laboratory is ranked 49

There are many more and I don't have the time to dig it all up. Please spend the time to do a few minutes of research before posting.

Mr. Ala

There  is nothing contradictory in my statements.  Yes, we are very good--actually excellent--at creating a lot of useless poetry.  That's all.  Now, let's see how divan-e-Hafez will cure cancer or send a man to the moon.  

Dear anglophile - I wish you had read my comments

before responding.  Both of them talk about "modern times."  Yes, we may have done something 3000 years ago, but we had a different culture back then.  We weren't infected with the mullah culture yet.  

Incidentally, we shouldn't really take credit for the Baghdad Battery.  It was invented in areas under Persian control.  Doesn't meanthe person who inevented it was an Iranian.  But again, I'm talking about modern times.   

0/10

>2011
>Sitting around all day bawwwing

Check science publications....

In the west, money has been the driving force behind new discoveries…. other countries are catching up.  In a genetic conference in Tehran where participants represented 26 countries, they admired Iranian findings given their limited resources (some of which are because of illegal sanctions against several written Accords and international agreements).  Recent science publications include Iranians who live in Iran.I am turning off my computer … enjoy discussions….

Iranians invented the first battery in the world

Mr. Ala, respectfully, you still haven't answered my question

I have no qualms about Iranians and literature.  Yes, we love poetry and the arts.  But I look around and I see not even a single Iranian scientist who has produced anything of value for the human race for at least a couple of hundred years.  Nothing in medicince, physics, technology.  Nothing!  What have Iranians invented that is being used for the benefit of humanity?  Please name one.  I'm not talking about useless poetry and movies.  Please name an invention.  

I also find your comment about people not receiving recognition because they're in Iran to be the same old "blame the West" type of nonesense (respectfully).  Iranians are not deprived from the Nobel Prize because of some conspiracy by the West.  They haven't received Nobel Prizes in sciences because they haven't deserved one.  That's the bottom line.

At some point, we will have to come to the realization that our culture prioritizes philosphy over science and technology.  The "West" values science and technology--we love poetry.  That's all. 

Iranians have played a major role in Iran's cultural downfall...

by Anonymous Observer on Wed Nov 16, 2011 08:19 AM PST

AO I find your statements insulting and uninformative also.  I think your comment does not reflect your intelligence.  It is offensive to say the least.

When I was in Lima, Peru, I was shocked that their school children read Persian poetry in elementary schools.  NO, no… Lima is NOT Caracas where once a week people watch Iranian movies and love them.  I had an American student who married a Venezuelan and went to Caracas to visit his in-laws… He had fallen in love with an Iranian weekly show and asked me about how it ended.

If Iran’s culture has failed …. Iranians have played a major role in its downfall.

 As an educator who has taught in various countries I totally disagree with your statement that Iran has not had major scientists.  Winning math Olympic medal and Kharazmi Awards are major accomplishments in Iran.  A student who won both of these Awards has come up with several inventions.  If this person was in the West, he would be given a Nobel prize or something close to it.  There are many.  Keep on ignoring the education that our people have received in Iran which to me is the major reasons Iranians have done well, for example at JPL in USA.

Baldrik jaan LOL

Baldrick

First of all I am glade JK or Baldrick is learning so fast. He has learned to make civilised responses.

However I have made a second discovery about him.

He is also a TYPICAL Iranian, for the following reasons;

- He been in Iran for a short time but he THINKS he knows them all. In fact Iranians are generally less sure of themselves. It is possible his dad's family are the way he is generalising everyone.

- He THINKS he is the only one who knows all these cultural issues. For years different bloggers in different ways have expressed themselves.

- What he preaches he does not practice. i.e. he just talks.

- He contradicts himself and in my opinion this makes him more Iranian then he can imagine.

- He is complaining about everyone and everything Iranian.

Following my last point, I have a question to ask him. How perfect is his other self????????????????? Has anyone seen him mentioning it???

And one word of advice to Baldrick, fix you dad's family before they do more psychological damage to your feelings.