The Master's Thoughts

Bizarre Conditions for Internet Cafe Owners in Iran

2011-02-06T01:01:00.002+03:30

An article in January 29 issue of Sharq newspaper lists the new bizarre conditions for Internet cafe owners and their establishments (roughly translated):

Married, and at least 30 years old.
Having ICDL or equivalent license.
Having surveillance cameras installed.
The establishment needs to be at the side of the streets.
The establishment should not be inside buildings.
The establishment should not be near a girls' school.
The establishment should have fully transparent glass doors through which the inside is clearly visible.
Putting any kind of posters or blinds that blocks the view of the interior from outside is forbidden.
Men and women, even related, cannot sit side by side.
Foreign names should not be used for the establishment.
Having fire extinguishers and first aid kits is mandatory.
The time of entrance and departure for each user should be registered.
Users should have valid identification. The identity of each user (including their national ID numbers) needs to be registered. This information needs to be kept for at least six months

Melville's First Incompleteness Theorem

2010-10-16T17:15:00.007+03:30

I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.

These are Ishmael's words from Herman Melville's Moby Dick (Chapter 32). This reminds me of Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem, though broader in its implications. I'm going to call this Herman Melville's First Incompleteness Theorem!

The Most Disturbing Novel I've Ever Read

2010-10-12T16:26:00.007+03:30

The last two days weren't fun. I spend all of my commute time listening to audio books, and the book I've been listening to in the last two days was Digital Fortress, by Dan Brown. Disturbing book, that one is. I've read all of Brown's other books. Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Angels & Demons I loved. Deception Point was fine, though its many scientific inaccuracies somehow marred the experience. Digital Fortress, Brown's debut novel, was completely another matter. Inaccuracies are so wild it causes physical pain to those who understand the subject matter, namely computers and cryptography. Here's a list of only some of the problems and inaccuracies of the novel:

When reading The Da Vinci Code, I got the impression that Dan Brown doesn't know what public-key encryption is. The name was used merely in passing however, and I thought that maybe it was only a mistake.

Oh, I was so wrong. Here, Dan Brown actually "explains" (or rather fails to explain) public-key encryption. What he describes is just plain old symmetric encryption. The brilliance of public-key encryption is using two keys each of which can decrypt what is encrypted by the other one. One of the keys is (widely) distributed and is called, wait for it, the public key! The other is not distributed at all. If I want to send someone a secret message, I simply encrypt it with their public key, knowing that it can only be decrypted by the intended party. This way, there is no need for communicating a "pass-key" at all.

"Simple syntactical errors--such as a programmer mistakenly inserting a comma instead of a period--could bring entire systems to their knees."

"Numataka could embed the algorithm in tamper-proof, spray-sealed VSLI chips..."

Come on! At least get the name right. It's VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration). Is it so hard?

'"When the denominator's zero," Midge explained, "the quotient goes to infinity. Computers hate infinity, so they type all nines."'

Not so. Dividing by zero usually causes an error, and even in systems in which infinity is represented by the maximum integer, you get all ones (in binary) not all nines.

Also, computers don't type, people do.

Firewalls are not like brick walls. Breaking a firewall, means to find a weak point in it and use it to open a way in or out. The final chapters of the book in which the firewalls of the NSA are gradually breaking down are simply ridiculous.

The novel is mainly built around the idea of an unbreakable code. Unbreakable codes do exist, though they are rarely used in practice, but unlike the novel says, an unbreakable code is a code which absolutely cannot be broken unless you have the key. You can use brute-force even with unbreakable codes.

As far as I know, the Nagasaki bomb was a Plutonium bomb. The book claims this is a widely accepted misconception. I looked up different sources and they all corroborate the fact that the Nagasaki bomb was indeed a Plutonium bomb.

Apart from inaccuracies, there are other things I didn't like about the book.

Misrepresenting the EFF. Disgusting.

Characters with an IQ of 170 who, when the cheesy story-line demands, can show the IQ of the average chicken. Or killers who always get their target but fail to do so, repeatedly, by making rookie mistakes when it comes to killing a protagonist.

There are real-world stories about NSA putting back doors in encryption mechanisms (especially in Windows encryption code). No matter these are true or false I was horrified to see that Brown (well, his protagonists) actually defend the idea.

Both the lists can go on and on. Maybe the reason I enjoyed Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Angels & Demons was, after all, the fact that I know very little about symbology and art history. Maybe there are art historians who tremble when reading those novels.

The moral of the story: If you are not William Gibson, you cannot write wildly inaccurate novels and expect people to like them!

Why We Love Harry Potter

2010-09-18T01:34:00.003+04:30

I just finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Eearthsea. The story is beautiful, and the prose nothing less than masterful, yet I felt something unappealing about it. Now, I try to read books critically, since I have always dreamed of once becoming a good writer myself (or at least a normal one!), so I'm trying to figure out what it is that makes me love Harry Potter stories so much, while this one is only interesting to me. This is what I came up with.

Though both stories are told by third person narrators, Harry Potter's narrator is much closer to the main characters. The narrator shows us the story as the life of Harry and his friends progresses, telling us about all the interesting things that happen around them in detail. The narrator of A Wizard of Earthsea on the other hand, is more distant from the protagonist. I simply can't fully feel for Ged. Of course, in many parts of the story I really, really hate Harry and the other protagonists, but the simple fact that I do have a feeling (although it is hate) means that Rowling has been successful in engaging me with her story.

Another point, and this is the more crucial one I believe, is that Rowling uses much less exposition in her books, than Le Guin does in hers. Though Le Guin's prose is much better than Rowling's, still someone is telling me (albeit in a wonderful prose) what is going on all the way through the story. In Harry Potter, I simply see events as they unfold. Following the old "Show, don't tell" advice here makes Rowling the clear winner.

This is more of a reminder to myself. When I write a story, I want to be able to enjoy reading it like I do when reading Harry Potter. Indeed, aside from Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible, there is no other book I have read over and over again more than Harry Potter books.

So dear Homayoon, if you want people like your stories, read Harry Potter even more, and learn showing your readers what is going on. Avoid exposition at all costs!

Crazy Iranian Copyright

2010-07-05T23:07:00.005+04:30

Like everything in Iran, our copyright law has always irrational and haphazard. Up until now, the copyright law for books was retained for the heirs of the author for thirty years after his death. Also, a work is not automatically copyrighted like in most other countries. It has to be registered (typical Iranian bureaucracy), and that means a book cannot be copyrighted unless it is approved by the authorities. Lately however, the crazy law has changed again into something even more insane.

The Iranian legislators changed the copyright law by removing its time limit entirely. From now on, any copyrighted work will be the property of the creator and his/her inheritors indefinitely. And if at any given point of time, there are no more inheritors, the copyrighted work will be passed on to the supreme leader! So we should forget about a Project Gutenberg equivalent for Iranian works. The ISNA report rationalizes the passing on of the work to the supreme leader as "for public use," that is the work will be owned to the leader so that he can use it "for the public benefit" as he sees fit. Again here's a typical behavior of the Islamic regime. Instead of passing something directly to the people (as in other countries in which the work goes to the public domain after a certain amount of time), it is handed to the authorities, because they see themselves the only ones who know the good of people.

UPDATE: A friend told me that the law has been vetoed by the Guardian Council, though I can't find any sources to corroborate the story.

Gods and Atheists

2010-07-04T21:04:00.003+04:30

[T]he gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows.

--The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett

If only gods did that in our world too (or kept on doing that for the last millennia or so), a lot of doubts concerning their existence would vanish.

Note to terrorists and extremists: No. You doing that in their place, even if it's by the will of God/gods, doesn't prove anything.

Hijab Ticket

2010-06-18T16:18:00.007+04:30

Somebody posted this today on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31103525&id=1083203360):

It's a ticket in the amount of 22500 tomans (around US$22) for failing to observe the Islamic modesty code. If you want to know what kind of looks can get you in trouble in Iran, here's what it reads.

The table at the left lists the possible charges:

Eye-glasses over the head: 18000 tomans (US$18)
Short manteu: 25000 tomans (US$25)
Bright-colored manteu (especially green or red): 25000 tomans (US$25)
Nail polish: 5000 tomans (US$5) per finger
Tanned skin: 25000 tomans (US$25)
Light-colored hair (depends on the color): from 50000 to 150000 tomans (US$50 to US$150)

The right sections contains information about the offender and the person/group who issued the ticket.

It's sick; that's all I can say.

An Old Generation

2010-05-14T02:22:00.006+04:30

I take up space,
therefore I am.
A celebration,
   for the birth of a volume,
   for the birth of a lined mind,
   for the birth of a striped imagination.
Is this a 27th birthday, or a 1000th birthday?
I feel old.
A ship takes me to the end of the world;
and I fall into a fish tank.
The stupid fish swallows me,
and in its belly, I blow out 27 lit candles.
And again there's darkness.
In the darkness,
   I blow out
          the blown out candles,
          the dead moments,
          and the youth gone.
I'm still blowing. I become empty, and emptier.
   like a wandering balloon.

Translated from wall photos of a friend of a friend on Facebook. I like it, because like many twenty-somethings in Iran, I already feel old.

Explosion Engineering

2010-05-09T16:28:00.004+04:30

In a time when many people around the world think that Iranians train suicide bombers in other countries (and they're probably right), how do you think I feel when I walk into the university and find white flags everywhere saying "Explosion Engineering?" (the red large text in the photo)

Okay, granted. Apparently this is a valid engineering discipline, and I think the right non-literal translation would be "explosives engineering" but still it feels weird.

Information Junky

2010-04-15T22:11:00.003+04:30

So yesterday I arrived at work and found out that we don't have an Internet connection. A colleague of mine and I tried to fix the problem but after checking everything we decided that the problem was from outside our network. We just had to wait till somebody else arrived who could fix the problem. I sat at my desk and since there was nothing I could do without an Internet connection I just started killing time doing whatever I could do with a computer without Internet.

Ten minutes later I found out I was just looking through openSUSE software catalog, reading descriptions and finding about software packages I didn't know about. I stopped for a moment to think about what I was doing. It appeared that I could do nothing else besides going through some sort of information. Had I become an addict to information? It certainly appears so. I've noticed that if I'm not reading something on the Internet, I feel numb and anxious. I have tried it. I've tried getting out of my chair, trying to practice Piano, read a newspaper, call a friend or do anything besides killing time on Wikipedia, and I immediately feel I want to get back at my computer and forget about everything else.

This can be at least part of the reason why my grades have fallen lately. I don't study, so what can I expect? My advisor and my instructors are not happy with me. I seem to need to refocus.

Alcoholics and drug addicts have support groups to help them quit. I haven't heard of a support groups for informaholics. Maybe I can find something online. :) You see even now that I feel I have a problem I'm blogging about it! There's something seriously wrong with me. I need another big dose of information to calm down!

Teabags and Cigarettes: The Legend of a Cafeteria

2010-04-10T01:12:00.003+04:30

I spent six years of my life to get my bachelor's degree at IUST (Iran University of Science and Technology, or Elm-o-San'at). If you ask me what is the most vital part of IUST life, I will answer "the cafeteria;" there is no doubt about that. Others seem to agree with me. In just a few days the IUST cafeteria page on Facebook has more than 550 fans, and counting. (This is also a testimony to the fact that the government censorship of the Internet has practically no effect. Facebook is blocked, but everyone is on Facebook.)

We're talking about the boys' cafeteria of course. In Iran there are separate cafeterias for the boys and the girls. The girls sometimes came to our cafeteria though, but I never saw the girls' cafeteria during all those years. A female classmate of mine once told me that their cafeteria more like a dungeon. The girls never seemed to find their cafeteria very important. As to the the boys', the complete opposite was true. The cafeteria had sort of a religious importance to us. We used to joke that it's a "vajeb" (Islamic mandatory) to show up at the cafeteria everyday.

The quality of the food served at the legendary cafeteria was poor, so what was so interesting about it? I have two words for you, teabags and cigarettes. Of course, cigarettes weren't sold in there, we had to buy it from outside the campus. But then, we would come to the cafeteria, get teabags and hot water in paper cups, sit with our friends (and there were always a few people we knew in there) and kill endless time talking about trivial things.

That's all I miss now from my IUST days: a cup of tea, a bag of cigarettes and a few friends to kill time with forgetting everything else in our life.

A Crazy 50000-Word Month

2010-03-14T20:41:00.006+03:30

A month ago I started this crazy idea to write a 50000-word novel in one month (the same idea as the one behind the National Novel Writing Month). I'm proud to announce that I succeeded. It's not a great or even okay novel, that was never the point of this practice. The only point was to write a 50000 novel (or at least a 50000 word text of fiction) and I did it.

The story didn't go exactly as I had planned it in my mind. Most of the characters just emerged as I was writing. In the whole, I think it was a worthy practice. As I said in my previous post, I didn't use Persian, my native language, but English which is my second language. I am very confident with my command of English, but I found out that I know only so much. There were several occasions that I had trouble putting what I had in my mind into words. Sometimes I had even trouble wording what I wanted to say in Persian. I didn't do this very frequently though, as I believe that during every translation parts of the meaning are lost and so if I'm writing in English I think in English. The trouble is, I have a very visual imagination. I make pictures of what I'm thinking in my mind, I see them clearly but I have trouble putting them into words, describing them as I see them clearly. If there's one thing I learned from this exercise, it was that I need a lot of more practice describing events, things and especially people. This last one has always been troublesome for me. If someone asks me how someone else looks like, I'll be totally at a loss as to how to describe them. I see the other person clearly in my mind, but I just don't know how to describe the image.

I'm not going to despair though. Many great writers wrote their first great novels in their fifties or sixties. I still have time. Who knows I might be one of them one day.

And as I promised to myself, I am not going to let anyone see what I've written. It's just embarrassing. It can wait. Maybe I'll be later able to rewrite the story in a better shape, or recycle it in another work.

One of my major reasons to undertake this crazy adventure was to quantize my knowledge of English vocabulary. I used this simple Python program to count the words.

import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]
text = unicode("")

with open(filename, "r") as f:
  text = f.read().lower()

new = ""
for ch in text:
  if ch in "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ":
      new += ch
  elif ch == '\n' or ch == '\x0c':
      new += ' '

text = new

words = text.split()
u = set(words)
print sorted(u)
print len(u)

When I give my novel as input to this program, I get 4082 words. So how does that compare? Let's see how many words are there in some other works of fiction. To be fair, I take the first 268458 characters of these novels (that's the length of my own novel):

Lucky (my brilliant novel!): 4082

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (J. K. Rowling): 4980
Poison Study (Maria V. Snyder): 5857
Magic Study (Maria V. Snyder): 5304
Fire Study (Maria V. Snyder): 5278
Twilight (Stephenie Meyer): 5433
New Moon (Stephenie Meyer): 5421
The Door into Summer (Robert A. Heinlein): 6011

So I know about as much as 82 percent of J. K. Rowling's vocabulary, 74 percent of Maria V. Snyders's, 75 percent of Stephenie Meyer's and 68 percent of Heinlein's. Impressive! (All right, I know that's probably a very weak measure, but it's a measure anyway, and I like numbers.)

Words, Vocabulary, and the One Month Novel

2010-02-15T03:26:00.013+03:30

I'm into languages. No doubt about that. And I am an engineer, so I have a love of numbers, too. It's been for some time that I've been wondering about words and vocabulary. How many words are there in a work of fiction for example. I mean how many unique words. Is there any difference between different languages. I've been wondering if there are more words used in English than in Persian. I'm not talking about how many words each language has, or how many words can be made, but how many are actually used.

And then, there is the more difficult question of the difference between speaking and writing. In Persian, the written language is quite different with the spoken one. It is another question I've been wondering about. Aren't there more Persian words spoken than written. It seems so to me, but being an engineer, I need proof. I need numbers and graphs.

The third question I have is my own vocabulary. How many words do I use? How many words can I use? Is my vocabulary as vast as I like to think it is?

The second question is rather difficult, and I don't have a solution for it. The first and the third are easier to approach. Of course, there are still difficulties. What is a word? Are plan and plans two words or one? What is English? What is Persian? The boundaries of languages is not very easy to define either. Still, since I want to make comparisons the exact definitions and the exact numbers are not important. I can consider plan and plans two separate words, or the same word, using the same approach for different inputs and the results remain fairly comparable.

I'm going to plan a few experiments which I might write about later, but I am going to start a related project for now which I can later use as an input to my other experiments. My current project is writing a one month novel. The same idea behind NaNoWriMo. If you are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it is an annual competition to write a 50000 word novel in one month. It takes place every November, and since I'm not going to wait until next November, I'm doing it now on my own. I started on February 12, and I'm going to finish it by March 14. NaNoWriMo winners are all those who have finished their work. There is no emphasis on quality, just quantity, so that's what I'm going to do, too. I've written 8750 words by now. It's not a great story, but if I can finish it, at least I have a rough draft of my very first novel.

If you're wondering how the hell someone is supposed to write 50000 words in one month, you might want to read Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! I'm sure you'll enjoy it even if you don't want to write a novel ever.

If you're curious about my story, it's called Lucky (working title) and it's about a boy who finds out he is luckier than the average person. I intend it to be a fantasy novel (since I am a HUGE fan of fantasy) but it can go anywhere from where it is. Here's a few paragraphs from the first chapter titled The Monster.

My friends used to think that I cheat. Even I sometimes thought that I cheat. What else could it be? Luck? That was one theory, but not a very likely one. Lucky people, apart from me, are only stuff of legends. You hear people saying, my cousin Farsheed, is such a lucky man. Anything he touches becomes gold. He buys a house, and tomorrow real estate prices skyrocket. He sells his house, next thing you know we are in economic depression. But these are legends. If you get to know the said cousin, you will find him a man with great economic sense. He buys and sells not randomly, but calculatingly. Not me. For me, it happened like this. A friend would invite us to play Mensch. We would start by rolling the die, and I was usually the one who got the six first. As the game continued, my friends used to find that I'm likely to get a four, if one their pieces is four fields ahead of mine, and a five if its five fields ahead. Mensch is supposed to be a game of pure chance. No thinking is required. Nothing serious. Just play and enjoy. But when I am involved, everything changes.

That was why I got less and less invitations to play with my friends. They didn't like to play a cheater. At first I tried to explain, that I can't explain why it is happening. “Freak accidents happen,” I used to say. I didn't add that they tend to happen around me a lot more often, and they're usually to my advantage.

They didn't buy it. “You're cheating.” They used to say, “You're not supposed to get a six right at the beginning of the game.” Not that they knew anything about probabilities. They were believers of the Murphy's Law, though they didn't like it when they were always the ones to be the victim of the Law.

But games of chance were not the only reason I got separated from my friends and classmates. At school, teachers only tended to pick me when I was prepared for the topic. It rarely happened that I was not ready and teacher would ask me a question. On the rare occasions that it did happen, I saw triumphant looks in my classmates' eyes.

So, school wasn't at all fun for me. When I started college, it was with a relief to start a new life, with new people that didn't know anything about my freakishness. Probability classes were the worse things in this new life. It was like the lecturer was deliberately taunting me. Dice and coins were always a touchy subject with me. Colored balls were soon added to the list. “There are eight red balls, five green balls, and twelve white balls in a bowl. Blindfolded, you take three balls from the bowl, one at a time and without replacing them. How probable is it that the third one is green?”

When I would see such questions, I was tempted to answer, “It depends on who is taking the balls.”

It was after one particularly nasty Probability class that I decided to quantify me freakishness. I guess that proves that I am a real freak. I took a coin and started to count how many tails I get and how many heads. I flipped the coin two hundred times. 109 heads, 98 tails. Damn it. So how is it supposed to happen? Then I notices two people coming. I couldn't hide what I was doing fast enough. Mohsen was coming towards me, with a huge smile on his face. I had tried to ignore him as much as I could, because he was a betting person. The ideal candidate to blow my new cover as a normal fifty-fifty person. But this time I decided the hell with it. Who cares what these idiots think about me. “I do,” said a small voice in my head, but I ignored it. Apparently he'd been watching me for some time and decided that I really was crazy. Not that it mattered to him. After all, he was crazy too. Beside him, was his annoyingly ever present girlfriend, Sima. I couldn't read the emotion on her face. Was it consent, curiosity, or something else? I couldn't tell.

“So who won? You or you?” said Mohsen, “Doing some lab after class? Deciding if your coin is fair or not?”

I know. It's not very good, but remember I'm after quantity for now, not quality. If it goes well, I'm gonna find out how many English words I can use in a fairly large written work. And I'm announcing what I'm doing here, so I can't back away later. Or at least I hope I won't. Wish me luck.

Westernized

2010-02-05T14:17:00.004+03:30

I never paid much attention to the government's "westernization" (or rather, anti-westernization) propaganda and I don't make my choices based on what is Iranian and what is not. But my current situation is beyond that. English has become an indispensable part of my process of thinking. I write my notes half in English, half in Persian. I think intermittently in English and in Persian. I even frequently dream in English! Now that is a bit too much, but not quite unexpected. I'm suspecting that I'm actually using English more than my native Persian despite the fact that I'm living in a Persian-speaking country.

I took a moment to think about my daily routine. when I'm at home, I'm usually either reading (almost always in English), or listening to audio books or music (both in English) or watching movies (again in English) or study (not very much, and in English naturally). When I'm out, and I don't go out unless it is necessary, I use Persian for communicating with others, which I keep
to a minimum. I rarely talk and I almost never listen (preferring to listen to audio books or occasionally music).

I never thought such thing could be possible. I used to think that even when people live in societies with languages other than their native tongues, their going to continue to use their first language for thinking. Now I see, it is even possible to stay in the society you've been born into, and change your thinking language. Interesting.

I think I am now officially westernized!

From an Islamic Republic towards an Islamic Government

2009-06-26T17:58:00.006+04:30

Etemad-e-Melli newspaper on its March 5, 2009 issue had an interesting report on the Religious Democracy Conference held by the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute of Qom. The report correctly calls it "a conference by the critics of democracy," for almost everyone in the conference opposes democracy. The views of the holders and participants of the conference, among which are Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi and some of his students, are most illuminating especially because the coup d'etat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known to be a faithful follower of Mesbah Yazdi.

The first presenters while believing that literal obedience from the principals of democracy is against the teachings of Islam, continue to say that its possible to domesticate democracy into the Islamic state. Then comes Mesbah Yazdi himself. He says those who talk about domesticating democracy are talking from "an ugly extremistly submissive" point of view. He believes the complete accepting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is against Islamic judicial instructions such as execution and amputation (of hands), and hence not acceptable. He continues that Ayatollah Khomeini did not believe that the the government needs popular support to be legitimate. He says that while Khomeini has argued that the pre-1979 Imperial regime of Iran was unpopular and hence illegitimate, he used the popularity argument only for the sake of the argument and did not believe that Islamic government should have popular support. Those who come after Mesbah Yazdi are (if possible) even more extremist. Hojjat-al-Islam Haji Heydar argues that popularity is not even acceptable for the purposes of an argument. Asserting that Velayat-e Faqih is not the democratic pillar of our government, he says undemocratic institutions should outrank democratic ones. There should be a high council of 45 faqihs that outranks the popularly elected "lower" parliament.

This is only a sample of the beliefs of those who are gaining more and more power in Iran. Mesbah Yazdi is believed to have issued a Fatwa permitting election fraud. And this is only one of the horrible things attributed to him. But all of the dreadful rumors aside, the mere opinions of his presented here is enough to know what kind of person we're dealing with. And these are not the kind of people that stop at the borders of Iran. Their goal is global domination as is the goal of Islam. If they are not stopped right now, there might come a time soon that is too late.

There's one last thing that I owe to the Ayatollah to mention here. As much as I despise this man, he is at least frank about his beliefs on democracy. There are many others in the ranks of the Islamic Republic that more or less believe in the same things but try to hide their beliefs under the masquerade of their sham elections.

Voice for the Voiceless

2009-06-25T13:05:00.012+04:30

I hear that rajanews.com and farsnews.com, two government-funded hardline Iranian news agencies, are not accessible from non-Iranian IP addresses. I tried to verify this by using a few proxy servers I have access to outside Iran and it seems to be correct. But why should a news agency limit its audience on purpose? Not unless, of course, because they have different recipies for the news they "make" for people inside and outside Iran. The lies they easily sell to Iranians with severed accesses to the outside world would not sell so easily to people who have access to all the news sources in the world. They need more delicacy, which leads me to my point: Press TV.

Press TV is an Islamic Republic funded news network for the English speaking audience. If you're reading this outside Iran, I beg you, do not fall for their seemingly independent point of view. I have seen people who, in search of an alternative news source besides the mainstream media, fall for Press TV. This is a mistake, it's jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Consider this: Press TV advertizes itself as "the voice for the voiceless." While the seventy million people of Iran, the people whose country's wealth is being spent on PressTV, has no voice in any of the Islamic Republic media, how they can "give voice to the voiceless?" You want a news source better than the mainstream media? It's fine. But go somewhere else. Anything else would be better than the Islamic Republic's "news making machine."

Update: Iain Dale and Nick Ferrari have decided not to appear on Press TV ever again. Read about their reasons here and here.

Now I'm officially an owl

2009-06-19T22:25:00.002+04:30

I go to sleep in the morning and wake up at night. I start with a meal which is more like dinner, and a few hours after that a breakfast like meal and an hour or two after that, something like an "afternoon tea." I might have an ice cream too, while starting studying around 3:00 AM. Maybe I should start making up more proper names for my meals. Crazy life, isn't it?

This deserves a Guiness World Record

2009-06-17T05:33:00.005+04:30

Ahmadinejad seriously deserves the world record for the most blatant remarks in the history of human kind.

As IRIB News reports (IRIB is the Islamic regime's gigantic media machine), he told Sunday Times reporter, "In Iran, women have more rights than men."

Even much worse than that, also reported by IRIB News, is what he told the Economist reporter, "The freedom here is nearly absolute because people can tell anything they want."

I may vomit.

Call your parents every two hours!

2009-06-16T17:43:00.002+04:30

I went to university today, only to find that the exams have been postponed. Our university is actually one of the last to do so despite the announcement by the Ministry of Science that no exams are to be postponed.

I met one of my professors though, and after a few moments of talking he suddenly asked me if I live alone or with my parents. When I told him that I live alone and my parents live in another city he said, "You know your parents are very proud of you -you're not a father so you may not understand now- and they care so much about you. You should call them every two hours and reassure them that you're safe."

That's what he said. The situation is grave!

Partly Blocked

2009-06-15T03:43:00.002+04:30

I just noticed that when I try to open my post about Mohammad Ali Fardin, I get the infamous "Access to this website is blocked" message (that's a loose translation of the Persian message). It's weird. I mean I've written worst things about the regime and none of my other posts are blocked. I thought that this might be because of a "forbidden word" in the URL (weird blocking cases can happen when a URL has forbidden words in it), but this doesn't seem to be the case since I can view the page in Google cache. My only conclusion is that that single page for some reason has been blocked.

Hooray! I finally pissed them off. It won't be long they will be coming to my door to arrest me. Time to go into hiding!

Back to Revolution

2009-06-14T22:28:00.005+04:30

I hear cries of crowds from some distance. At first, I thought it's the neighbor's TV. The Islamic Republic loves to show lengthy footage of its fake demonstrations. "Damn it. Why don't they turn it down?" I told myself, but then I realized it's not just from one direction. It comes from all around me, and from the roofs. I listened trying to distinguish what they were saying. Then I realized what I'm hearing; "Allah-o-Akbar!" which means "God is great." Now this is a religious chant, but every Iranian knows of the last time this happened: during the 1979 revolution, the chanting now is a sign of resistance. And this time, the chanting is against the Islamic regime itself.

I'm not religious at all, and in fact I very much dislike religious chantings, but this time I was deeply touched. Many times during past few years, and especially yesterday after the result of that fraud of an election was announced, I've told myself that there is no hope of change for Iran, but maybe I am wrong. I still look at it with great skepticism, but I can't help thinking "Maybe there is still hope."

We can go on and slit our wrists

2009-06-13T23:29:00.011+04:30

I haven't had a good day. I didn't get to sleep enough, I couldn't study enough for tomorrow's exam, and I was, and am, so angry, so mad, so furious that I could hardly concentrate on what I've been doing. And now, I just can't go to sleep.

Last night, I was awake, following every piece of news that I could lay my hands on how the election result was going on. From the first minutes, Ahmadinejad was ahead with more than 60 percent of the votes. This came as a shock. It couldn't be. But it was. My first impression was that this was the natural result of the fact that the first results published belong to rural areas and small towns where Ahmadinejad has most of his supporters. When I got to sleep at about 6:00 AM though, half of the votes had been counted and there was no change. Ahmadinejad kept his margin. I was quite uneasy. So I got to sleep with deep suspicions and when I woke up what I saw was Ahmadinejad declared winner, with almost the same result as last night.

So what happened? Were we actually deluded to think that Musavi had enough supporters to win the election, as The Guardian's Abbas Barzegar suggests so? Were we just tricked into generalizing what we saw in Tehran to all of Iran? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, I'm willing to bet anything that the result they published had nothing to do with what people put in the poll boxes. Musavi and Karrubi have already published a list of the violations they saw during the election. I'm not going to reiterate them here. I'm only listing the most important reasons that make me sure the whole election was a joke.

I had read in Musavi's website that his election code was 77. When I came at the polling station I saw a list of candidates. Next to Musavi's name I saw the number 4. I was going to write that number actually, but then I asked one of the present officials and he showed me another list, a smaller and less noticeable one, which showed the code numbers. The list started with Ahmadinejad, whose code was 44 and ended with Musavi, 77. I'm sure many people just wrote 4, and the Interior Ministry officials where more than happy to correct 4 to 44.
During last night several preliminary results where published. At one point Mohsen Rezaee's votes actually dropped from 633048 to 587913!
Mehdi Karrubi's campaign organization is said to have more members than the his votes in the election results. Are we supposed to believe that even his own people didn't vote for him (while Karrubi, was very much popular at least within the universities).
Musavi's campaign has announced his representatives have been denied (in various ways) overseeing the process of election in half of the polling stations.
The ratio of votes for Musavi over that of Ahmadinejad's at any given announcement was following a straight line with very very little divergence. This was also true for the ratio of votes for all pairs of candidates.
Even those who believe we've been deluded admit that in Tehran Musavi had many supporters. Since the Tehran metropolitan area consists of more than one fifth of the population of Iran, it is only natural to think that after adding Tehran votes, the results would change even if it is for a few percents. But the ratios remained pretty much the same way as before.
And the last and most important reason: The turn-out in yesterday's election was 85 percent, while 48 percent voted in the run-off poll four years ago --the reason Ahmadinejad was elected in the first place since the number of people who didn't vote was more than those who voted for him. In Iran, voting and not voting are both political decisions. Many people don't vote since they don't want to legitimize the regime. So it is easy to see that those who do not vote, are not the type to go and vote for Ahmadinejad after many years of not voting. After all, voting is our "religious and sacred duty" as the Supreme Leader and other Islamic Republic supporters tell people. Ahmadinejad's god-fearing supporters simply cannot have committed such sins in the past. They have always been voters. In the end, there is no way, this 38 percent part of the constituents had had voted for Ahmadinejad. That means he couldn't have had 63.62 percent of the votes.

The election was a fraud, and a blatant sort of fraud that could only be expected from Ahmadinejad. It was a coup, a silent coup which of course was finally approved by the Supreme Leader (or more probably he had given them the permission from the beginning).

Now what should we do? When George Bush was reelected in the US for his second term, Michael Moore wrote a letter, "17 reasons not to slit your wrist." Unfortunately, we in Iran cannot think along the same lines as he did. Unlike Bush, Ahmadinejad can be reelected for one additional term, for example, though not in another consecutive term. I've heard he has expressed discontent at the two/three term limitation. He has four years to try to change the constitution. Of course, changing constitution is not that easy, but I'm sure "the favorite president of the Iranian nation" can achieve anything he wants.

Even if he is not going for a change of constitution, he has four full years to make our lives as miserable as he can, and after his term is finished, I'm sure many Iranians (including myself) are not going to show up in future elections which will make their task of "electing" another administration like this one even easier. Yeah, we're stuck. There is no good news. We can as well go on and slit our wrists right now, or be more sensible and get out of this disappointment of a country as soon as we can.

The Last Thing

2009-06-01T19:34:00.005+04:30

May 30 issue of Iranian daily, Hamshahri, page 2, "The Statement of the British Foreign Secretary about Iran Election":

"The British Foreign Secretary, pointing to former British activities in Iran, talks in a way implying that the option of London interfering with Iran election is on the table."

This is ridiculous. So what has David Miliband said, really? You can find it here on Times Online by yourself, but I quote the relevant part.

"... given the British history in Iran, the last thing I am going to do is start interfering in their election campaign."

And the stupid members of Hamshahri's Political Group, think that implies an intention to interfere, because although it's the last thing, he still may want to do it! Now, this could be an intentional mistranslation of the phrase "the last thing I want to do" or it could be unintentional. Personally, I think the latter is the case, but still someone in the Political Group should know enough English to comment on a British official's statements, or (s)he should just shut up and talk only about domestic issues (if they know enough Persian, of course).

Moderate newspapers are generally supposed to be a better way to get Information in Iran in comparison to the widely viewed channels of the state run TV, and although Hamshahri is a more or less a conservative newspaper, still it is preferable to many other alternatives. I cannot help thinking about the poor people who rely on such reports for their perspective of the world outside Iran. Given that the image Iranians hold of the West is very much distorted by state run TV, we do not need more distortions by a popular newspaper like Hamshahri.

Internet Filtering and the Prosecutor General

2009-05-25T21:50:00.004+04:30

The most annoying thing about Internet filtering in Iran is the seemingly random nature of it. You cannot predict what is going to happen tomorrow, or even an hour later. A website could be blocked for only a few days, or it could be blocked for the rest of its life. Internet users meanwhile, are in a constant worry about their online activities since their favorite social networking or blogging website could be blocked at any time and they have to migrate their work to somewhere else, waiting for the next ban.

But why is that so? One might argue that the question is fundamentally wrong, since everything happening in Iran is chaotic and non-deterministic in nature, and Internet filtering is not an exception. Well, that's right. The reason behind the chaotic way everything works in Iran is that there it's not the law that governs actions, but the will of a certain person. How that person feels at the present can steer the whole country to another direction. In case of Internet filtering, this person is none other than the infamous judge Mortazavi who have never lost an opportunity for restricting freedom of expression. He has always been going way past the line, especially when it comes to persecuting journalists and Internet users, but who is to battle the Prosecutor General of Tehran? While the Iranian law clearly states that Internet filtering is to be carried out by a committee supervised by the Cultural Revolution High Council, Mortazavi is his own law. His method can only be described as blackmail. He orders ISPs to block websites, threatening (implicitly or explicitly) that they will be shut down if they don't cooperate.

The dual nature of Internet censorship is one of the reasons Mortazavi can act like this. Some websites are blocked by the Iranian Telecommunications Company (the company that ISPs get their data links from), while others (most of them actually) are blocked by ISPs that are far more manipulatable by the Prosecutor General.

While the very nature of censorships laws in Iran is immoral, we could probably get along much better if there was a clear formula by which everything worked. The recent blocking of Facebook, while disastrous and most probably illegal, was expectable. People were connecting to each other and encouraging others to participate in the coming election and vote for anyone but the current president, and the last thing the Ahmadinejad administraion wants is a high turnout in the election, because then he will certainly lose. But then there are other blockings that still seem random and chaotic and one wonders that probably the Prosector General has not been feeling well lately, and he's probably ordered a few more websites blocked just to feel better.

The Free Content License They Used 1800 Years Ago

2008-07-19T16:43:00.010+04:30

In my Pahlavi (also called Middle Persian) classes we've started reading a new text called "The Book of Wars (or Works) of Ardeshir-e Bābakān" which belongs to some 1800 years ago. Here's my rough translation of its first paragraph:

In the name, power, and help of the Creator Ohrmazd, the Glorious, the Great, wishing health and long life for all good-doers especially those who have this (text) (re)written.

Imagine if we had something like that last phrase in the GNU FDL (or other licenses)!

A note about the text for the curious:

Although the book is very interesting from a historical or linguistic perspective, it's not the most honest kind of history. To the contrary, it is part of a grand struggle by the Sassanid Empire, not only to legitimize their government, but also to remove their predecessors the Ashkanians (the Parthians) from the face of history. Interestingly, the government they were trying to remove from history is, to this very date, the longest ruling government in the history of Iran, having ruled more than 460 years. You will be surprised to know that they succeeded in this quest to a very large extent. The Ashkanian Empire is hardly ever mentioned in later texts. This fact, along with the fact that Sassanids destroyed almost everything their predecessors had built, makes it very difficult for us to get to know about what was probably the coolest government we've had in our history: a federal (and to a large extent democrat) empire.

Update: I did a little bit more research and found out that my assumption that the book is written 1800 years ago may not be correct. Apparently, for all that we know, it is written some times during the reign of Sassanids, which make it any time between 1800 and 1400 years ago. Still I guess it is old enough!

Of the Confusion, and of 3D

2008-03-02T21:09:00.005+03:30

You know what my problem is? It's having two many interests. Well, at times it can be in an advantage, but generally it means I'm divided between doing all the things I like and learning about them.

One of these many interests of mine which I had forgotten for many years is drawing. As a kid, I used to take drawing classes. Once my teacher told me, "you know what, you're quite good at drawing. Do you like drawing?" I answered, "I don't know!" He looked at me in some strange sort of way, like it's the strangest thing in the world not to know if you like something or not.

Now that I come to think about it, at that time I was feeling quite the same way that I do now. I knew I liked drawing, but I didn't know if it's the right thing to like. It's a few months that I'm thinking about this again. And now, I have more problems. I have already channeled my abilities to other fields. But since I am already confused about what I'm going to do after graduation, maybe a little more confusion is not much important.

My other fields of interest are programming and computer science (especially formal language theory, compiler theory, data storage, and graphics), and linguistics. To add to the confusion, my current field of study is computer hardware!

Back to the drawing problem, I'm beginning to feel like Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince. Since it seems too late to pick drawing again, lately I've been trying to remedy my situation by studying about computer graphics (from a programmer's perspective) and also 3D modeling and animation. These subjects have turned out to be very fascinating. The following is one of my first attempts to model something non-trivial. It may not be great, but I'm pretty much proud of it! It's my own pair of eyeglasses modeled using Blender, a great piece of Free/Open Source software.

But, yet still, the confusion remains.

The Mighty Fortress

2008-01-16T17:05:00.000+03:30

Do not lose your faith. A mighty fortress is our mathematics. Mathematics will rise to the challenge, as it always has.
Stanislaw Ulam

I've not been able to post anything new to my blog for a long time. My mind has been quite busy to think of anything to write. I also haven't had enough time, nor it seems I'm going to have for a while. Anyhow, I was reading this thought provoking article today, when I saw the above quote from Stanislaw Ulam which I really liked. I thought I would post it here, even if it is only as a reminder to myself.

I never thought I would admit this one day, but I really love math!

He Does Exist

2007-09-14T21:59:00.001+03:30

If you look at a watch, you can easily tell that it was designed and built by an intelligent watchmaker. Now, what would you say if there has been no power failure in your area for a long time, you are ripping your favorite Lord of the Rings DVDs to your hard disk so you can easily watch them several times a day (skipping parts from time to time) and the operation is supposed to last about three hours and only a few minutes before it is finished the power goes out only for a few minutes? What do you conclude? If you are smart enough to see that the watch has a watchmaker (so God exists!), you can easily see that Murphy does exist, too. It is as clear as daylight!

Bad Place for an Error Message

2007-07-21T12:27:00.000+03:30

When a traffic light goes mad!

Iraq War, and the Turtles

2007-07-09T01:00:00.000+03:30

Three years ago I watched Turtles Can Fly in the movies. Today, I had the pleasure of watching it again on DVD. The movie is directed by Bahman Ghobadi, while the fabulous movie score by Hossein Alizadeh greatly adds to the value of this great movie. I'm quoting from my diary, the entry for November 28, 2004. Be aware that it contains spoilers.

In an artist's work, one can hear his cry; and his grief, and his pain, and his sorrow. Is the way of expressing their thoughts, the only thing that makes an artist different from others? Maybe. Anyhow, when a group of artists (although, most of them non-professional) together show their best performance led by another great artist we see such thing as Turtles Can Fly by Ghobadi, Alizadeh, and others.

Turtles penetrates to the hearts of the audience. For a short time disconnects them all from the outside world and brings them together to see the real depth of the disaster, and to do this, it does not refrain from making them suffer so that they can feel the sufferance of the children in the story. When Shirkooh tells Kak Satellite how Kak Esma'eel has beaten him, everyone smiles at his sweet childishness but this is only the beginning. When Agrin's son, Riga, touches her mom's face and hair and then his heart, the tears start falling in the theater. When Henkov sees Riga's death in a dream the hearts stop beating for a moment, but Turtles continues: Satellite crying on one side, the child's body under the water of the spring, and finally a pair of shoes at one side of the deep valley (reminding one of the opening scene of the movie in which Agrin jumps into the valley). The movie takes away everyone's breath and in the end, everyone is speechless. All are shocked by what they have seen; the result of the crimes of the dictator who was finally taken away. But then, who is going to answer the pains of all Agrins.

People leave the theater silently. Empty streets, the cold air of midnight, cabs by the door of the theater, Tehran's strange quiet at this hour, all are awaiting out there, but they're still at some distance. People get out of the doors, maybe not even thinking about their companions, each taking their way home while they have not forgotten the stare of Agrin and her child.

An Update on Iranian Censorship

2007-06-29T12:21:00.005+03:30

I've encountered two new cases of censorship from the Islamic Republic in the last two days:

1. Journalists are warned not to report any problems related to fuel rationing as BBC reports. I checked out a few newspapers yesterday (both reformist and conservative) and I found out that is correct. No stories. It's not that difficult to hear the real news, though, here in Tehran. You should just get out of the house.

2. To my surprise, today I found out that del.icio.us is filtered out. I cannot imagine why, especially because other social bookmarking websites I know (reddit, digg and technocrati) are not filtered.

UPDATE: I'm hearing that at the "fuel night" mobile service providers had been ordered to shut down SMS services. You see, they're well aware of the importance of text messages in Iran.

How to Set Fire to a City in Two Hours

2007-06-27T15:56:00.002+03:30

I've recently had much difficulty updating my blog for two reasons. First, I'm heavily engaged with my final exams; and second, for some reason I can't access blogger. It seems there's something wrong with my Internet provider. I'm now using a proxy server to access blogger.com.

Anyhow, this recent piece of news was so much of a surprise that I couldn't help _not_ to write about it. Last night the government announced the fuel rationing will start from this midnight! I'm reading in the newspapers that even the Traffic Director of Tehran Municipality has not been notified of the government's decision. Now, we in Iran are getting used to arbitrary decisions of the Islamic Republic officials but this one was unexpected even for us. I've heard from the time of the announcement people have rushed to gas stations so that they can get some more fuel before the rationing starts officially. The government announcement indicates that people cannot get more than the announced amount (3.5 liters per day for private vehicles) even for a higher price.

There has been much turmoil in Tehran last night and this morning. The protectors have set fire to several gas stations, and there are HUGE lines in the remaining ones. I took this photo from one such line of cars. The cars on the right side of the street are waiting in a line to get to a gas station some two kilometers ahead.

The huge line of automobiles disrupted the traffic and I had to spend much more time to reach home.

On my way to university today, I felt something is wrong as soon as I reached the street. There were far more people and vehicles in the streets than usual, and then the cab I took charged me a higher price than previous days. I was listening to music all the time so I couldn't hear what people were saying around me. On the way back, I decided to took off the headphones and see what is going on around me. Soon, I noticed everyone is talking about rationing gas. I think this is a serious wrong step by Ahmadinejad administration. I'm personally against almost everything he does, but this one seems to be beating himself. His administration is one of propaganda. The state-run media are trying to ignore the turmoil. Today's headline of the hard-line daily Keyhan, for example, was about another one of the supreme leader's endless talks! One short column described everything about fuel rationing in two paragraphs like nothing important has happened; and just next to the same news-stand that the large number of unsold copies of Keyhan were stacked, everyone was talking about the _real_ news.

Justice?

2007-06-10T20:37:00.000+03:30

Another poster from our university: Alliance for Justice! May I ask for some injustice, then?

Permission Denied

2007-05-29T23:43:00.001+03:30

A poster today I saw at university about a female-only camping program in Shiraz planned. The large text over the image says "Permission Denied".

This is how things are going on today in Iranian universities.

Thirty Years Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away

2007-05-25T07:56:00.000+03:30

Thirty years ago, in a galaxy far far away, a movie came to change the world. I congratulate all Star Wars fans on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Learn, the Direct Way

2007-05-24T21:54:00.000+03:30

Today, I took part in a seminar about teaching Esperanto using the direct method ("rekta metodo", in Esperanto), that is in Esperanto and not in one's mother tongue. This method is usually known as the Cseh method ("Cseh" is pronounced "che") after its creator, Andreo Cseh. It was surprising to me to see how well a language can be taught without any tools (even books) and in the learning language itself (in this case, Esperanto). After some thought, I realized it is the very method everyone learns his/her mother tongue with.

In such Esperanto events, it is generally forbidden to use a language other than Esperanto (although, we did forgo this rule many times!). In Esperanto culture, to speak in one's mother tongue in Esperanto events is called "to crocodile" (in Esperanto, "krokodili"). We even had a crocodile to punish the wrongdoers!

The crocodile watched over us not to use a "nacia lingvo"!

The second part of the seminar is being held tomorrow. I am looking forward to it.

Shargh Is Back

2007-05-17T16:50:00.000+03:30

Today, I was walking past the newsstand on my usual way to the university and like always having a glance at the headlines, when I saw something shocking: Shargh. Shargh ("East") was a reformist daily that was closed down by the government some eight months ago. The major reason for the closure was this cartoon:

My non-Iranian readers may find it difficult to understand the meaning of the cartoon. President Ahmadinejad claimed that he felt there was a light around him when he was addressing the UN General Assembly last year! As we enjoy one of the world's least tolerant governments here in Iran, the newspaper was immediately ordered to be shut down, and since the representatives of the mighty Allah never make mistakes, they definitely had the right to do so!

Anyhow, as I said, the good news is Shargh is back again. Shargh used to be (and is again) the flagship of Iranian moderate dailies, and probably the most popular among them. Now, after Shargh (and also Hammihan after a seven year ban) has joined the line of moderate dailies again, I guess we should expect another wave of shutting down publications, maybe soon, and this cycle goes on and on!

[Note: Although, I noticed the return of Shargh today, the first issue after the ban has been out on Monday.]

Contrast

2007-05-16T14:53:00.000+03:30

At the back, you see the Islamic Republic parliament.

The President and Bananas

2007-05-02T22:05:00.000+03:30

Today's lunch at university's self-service restaurant was quite good. Guess why?

It is a well known fact that there are "special" occasions in Iran on which everything becomes good; everyone tries to make people happy; all government officials think about the problems of people; public services run smoothly; and, in universities (like other state run institutes) the quality of meals becomes much better! A good example of such occasions is just before an upcoming "election" (they call it an election, not me!), but we're not near an election. So why there was even a banana with our lunch?

It's simple. We had a "guest": the "popular president of the nation", Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Now, one might wonder how he dared to enter another university after he was heavily protested against in Amirkabir University and called a dictator by the students. Did he imagine it would be any different in Elm-o-San'at? No. He is definitely aware of the hatred of students towards himself. And, as one might expect, he didn't show up in the public. Isn't it ridiculous that he visited the university without actually visiting any students? And I don't mean students wanted to see him (we'd rather to see a monkey in the zoo!) but everyone felt it would be great to demonstrate another Amirkabir.

And, by the way, this "popular" president of ours always pretends to be a mere teacher whose only earning is from teaching. It struck me if it is his job to teach students here (and yes, it is a shame, but he is a faculty member of our university), why should he be welcomed by placards? Doesn't that confirm that he actually doesn't attend any classes?

Everyone's Excited

2007-04-19T12:30:00.000+03:30

Ubuntu website is almost down! I guess there are thousands (or millions) of people around the world who are refreshing the main page (and the download pages) every few seconds. Everyone's expecting the release of Ubuntu 7.04 (codenamed "Feisty Fawn"). The release is due today. Everyone's excited! I can't help not to refresh. I think I should go and read something, just to be away from my computer.

Happy Birthday to Me

2007-04-16T00:27:00.000+03:30

My birthday cake. The text reads "Kara L'Elektito, Bonan Naskiĝtagon" which in Esperanto means "Dear L'Elektito, Happy Birthday". L'Elektito or Elektito is my Esperanto nickname. It means "(The) Chosen One".

Yesterday was my birthday. My apartment was too small for a party so I invited my friends to a restaurant but before that, they surprised me with a small party at IREJO office. I had a great night. Thanks, everyone.

King of Hearts

2007-04-06T12:30:00.000+03:30

April 6, 2000. Tehran. More than 20000 mourners gather as the "king of hearts" is taken to where he should sleep forever.

Mohammad Ali Fardin was born in 1930 in Tehran. He became popular as a wrestler especially when in 1952 he won the silver medal in world freestyle wrestling championship, Tokyo. In 1962, he starred in Cheshemeye Abe Hayat ("The Spring of Life") as his first movie. His performance in Soltan-e-Ghalbha ("King of Hearts") and Ganj-e-Gharun ("Croesus' Treasure") will never be forgotten by the Iranian public.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution he only starred in one more movie, Barzakhiha ("The Damned"), before his films were eventually banned. After that, Fardin retired from cinema and opened a bakery until he died in 2000 of a heart attack.

There are few who had been able to won the hearts of millions of Iranians like Fardin did. While his death was completely ignored by the Islmaic Republic media, more than 20000 people gathered in his funeral.

Fardin wrestling

Fardin and Zohuri in Ganj-e-Gharun "Croesus' Treasure" (1965)

Fardin and Azar Shiva in Soltan-e-Ghalbha "King of Hearts" (1968)

Fardin and Googoosh

Lucky Thirteen

2007-04-02T19:41:00.000+03:30

I was going to write a post titled "Unlucky Twelve" yesterday, but it was such an unlucky day that "I had a very bad feeling about it!"

Today is Farvardin 13, aka "Sizdah-be-Dar". I couldn't find a good translation for this phrase in English. It means something like "throw away the thirteen". Sizdah-be-Dar is the last day of the Iranian Norooz festival. Iranians believe it is unlucky to remain at home on this day so almost all people go on picnic. On the picnic, they throw away their Sabzeh, the seeds they grow in a dish as part of Norooz traditions, (usually) into a river.

On Sizdah-be-Dar some people fasten a few grass leaves together. They believe when the knot opens one of their problems will be solved (this is especially done by unmarried girls who think it will help them find Mr. Right).

Another thing some people do is pulling practical jokes or telling others a "thirteen's lie" (it is something very similar to April Fool; Farvardin 13 normally falls on April 2 and in some years on April 1). An excellent example of a thirteen's lie was Shargh newspaper's "lies" two years ago. Shargh, printed a full paper of false news on that day. Some of them, like that the Milad tower is going to collapse due to a technical mistake in its design, were widely believed, although the page was titled "The Thirteen's Lie" (apparently many people had not noticed it!).

Another good tradition many people do is releasing the Norooz gold fish back into rivers.

And, again, we have the story of Islamic Republic's struggle to weaken Iranian traditions. The IRI media forecasted a rainy day (it did rain, but late at afternoon). They also held a Sabzeh Fair on Farvardin 12 so that people would not do the normal tradition of throwing their Sabzeh into rivers. I pointed out Farvardin 12 is an unlucky day; it is the day "they" call The Islamic Republic Day. 28 years ago on such day, Khoemini called for a nation wide referendum in which the large number of ignorant people voted "Yes" to Islamic Republic. I'm curious how many of them had really read the new constitution draft. Anyhow, which one's an unlucky day? The day on which everyone goes out and has fun (and few really believe in the unlucky thirteen), or the day on which one of the most brutal governments of the world officially recognized itself?

A New Day

2007-03-19T16:57:00.000+03:30

A new order came and a new day

Farvardin 1
3:37:26 AM, Tehran Time

On this time begins the Iranian new year 1386 (2566 with imperial origin), and again it comes another Norooz.

If you are not familiar with the Iranian calendar, it may seem strange to you that the Iranian new year does not start at midnight. The Iranian calendar is a true solar calendar. Being far more accurate than the Gregorian calendar, it begins each year on the vernal equinox as precisely determined by astronomical observations from Tehran (and Kabol). If you want to know when the new year begins in other places in the world, this web page may be useful.

But this Norooz is not an ordinary festival. It is the true symbol of the Iranian culture, and it is so powerful that even the hands of Islam could not eliminate it, although I can assure you they did their best to do so (and still we see the hard struggles of the Islamists today to wipe Norooz off the minds of Iranians, of course to no avail).

Here's a list of some quick facts about Norooz.

Khane Tekani --Home Cleaning
Home Cleaning, or "Khane Tekani", may start as early as the beginning of Esfand (the last month of the Iranian year). It is customary for people to clean their houses before the coming of the new year. During this time, they also buy new clothes, and probably renew their furniture. The point is to start a "new" year. All these activities make Esfand a busy month. The traffic gets much heavier and the Bazaars get a lot more crowded.

Haft Sin Table
"Haft Sin", literally "seven S", is a table with seven major items whose names start with letter "sin" (an equivalent of English S). The seven items are usually:

sabzeh: wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish
samanu: a sweet pudding made from wheat germ
senjed: the dried fruit of the oleaster tree
sir: garlic
sib: apples
somaq: sumac berries
serkeh: vinegar (as far as I know, this has originally been wine which was banned by Islam after the Arab conquest)

Besides them, there are usually these items too: a mirror, candles, goldfish in a bowl, decorated eggs, and a poetry book (almost always Divan of Hafez). Depending on how religious a family is, there may also be a holy book on the table.

My family's "Haft Sin"

As I have already pointed out in one of my previous posts, the stories (such as in Shahnameh) say Norooz was the day in which Jam flied in the sky with the help of the divs in his service, and after that the day was called Norooz ("Novroch", in Pahlavi). "No" means "new" and "rooz" means "day", so Norooz is a "new day", marking a new era as Jam brought new order to the world (and was called Jamshid after that, because as he flied in th sky everyone saw him shining in light; "shid" means "light").

And today, again, a new order came and a new day. As Iranians always say on this day:

Har roozetan Norooz
Noroozetan pirooz

May your everyday be Norooz,
and your Norooz be happy!

Big Brother

2007-03-19T00:37:00.000+03:30

When I finished reading George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, I was wondering who is the real Big Brother among all those I know. My first candidate was the Supreme Leader, but I reconsidered that because even "they" don't claim he is watching us. Who is the one then? The one that watches over? The one that we should fear and yet love?

Quickly I started remembering about him. I remembered I read in "the Book" that he is watchful over all things. I even remember I heard the world is his very presence, and that we should not "commit sins" in his presence.

They say someone will come, a reformer, who will rebuild our "corrupt" world and make it a place in which everyone loves him. Don't they say how he is going to do that? Of course, they do; he will kill those who don't love him.

And now I think I know the Big Brother, but unfortunately I hate him. Maybe they should take me to the room 101; although I doubt if even that can make me love Allah.

In Memory of Pooh

2007-03-14T15:29:00.000+03:30

I just posted my translation of part of A. A. Milne's "Us Two" to my Esperanto blog. I very much like this poem (my favorite part is where where it says "I'm never afraid with you"). In case you have not read it, you might like to read it here.

Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
"Where are you going today?" says Pooh:
"Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too.
Let's go together," says Pooh, says he.
"Let's go together," says Pooh.

"What's twice eleven?" I said to Pooh.
("Twice what?" said Pooh to Me.)
"I think it ought to be twenty-two."
"Just what I think myself," said Pooh.
"It wasn't an easy sum to do,
But that's what it is," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what it is," said Pooh.

"Let's look for dragons," I said to Pooh.
"Yes, let's," said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few-
"Yes, those are dragons all right," said Pooh.
"As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That's what they are," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what they are," said Pooh.

"Let's frighten the dragons," I said to Pooh.
"That's right," said Pooh to Me.
"I'm not afraid," I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted "Shoo!
Silly old dragons!"- and off they flew.

"I wasn't afraid," said Pooh, said he,
"I'm never afraid with you."

So wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
"What would I do?" I said to Pooh,
"If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said, "True,
It isn't much fun for One, but Two,
Can stick together, says Pooh, says he.
"That's how it is," says Pooh.

New Blog

2007-03-13T19:09:00.000+03:30

I'm trying to further my knowledge of Esperanto, so I decided to write a new blog in Esperanto. This blog will remain my first priority, but I'll do my best to have good posts in the new blog, too. Remember that my Esperanto writing is far from perfect. Please bear with me, and let me know my mistakes.

You may find the new blog here.

The Red Wednesday

2007-03-13T14:13:00.000+03:30

"Give me your fiery red color,

and take back my sickly pallor."

The eve of the last Wednesday of the year (in Iranian calendar) marks a familiar event: "Charshanbe Suri" (or more correctly, "Chaharshanbe Suri"). Charshanbe Suri, which literally means "Red Wednesday", is celebrated with lighting bonfires and using firecrackers. People go to streets, gather in groups, sing and dance.

A major tradition is jumping over fires and singing "Sorkhie to az man, zardie man az to". A literal translation would be "Your redness is mine, my yellowness is yours." I found the above translation more interesting, "Give me your fiery red color, and take back my sickly pallor." I was going to write on the origins of the festival here, but I think my information on the subject is not complete and I don't want to post incorrect information to my blog. As far as I know, today's form of the festival does not seem to adhere completely to ancient Iranian beliefs. Ancient Iranians respected fire deeply and would not jump over it. The true festival of Fire, "Sadeh", is far different than Charshanbe Suri. However, the tradition, even in its today form, is very old and it does not have any religious significance. Today, Iranians with different religious backgrounds, Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and others take part in the festival as a completely secular event.

In recent years, Charshanbe Suri has become quite a dangerous event. Last year, I went to Gisha, one of the major centers in Tehran people usually go to on this night. It was an experience much like being in a real battle front. The constant sound of Firecrackers bursting was much like the sound of bombs. As we left the place, I saw riot police coming to attack people.

Charshanbe Suri is not very much liked by the Islamic regime (and that's why I like it!). Maybe that's because on this night a lot of people gather and go completely out of control. In fact, the night before the last Wednesday of the year is one of the few occasions in which the Islamic Republic laws practically are not applied. Many women go to public places without the Islamic hejab (Islamic cover) dancing and singing with men.

This year my Esperantist friends and I went to a private garden for the festival (and one day earlier; the festival is now expanded in many days and other days are much safer than the "red Wednesday"!). Among many other things, we sang a few Esperanto songs together. It was a wonderful night.

The Pre-Norooz Meeting

2007-03-09T23:27:00.000+03:30

Twelve years ago on a day like this, on March 9, IREJO held the first "antaŭ-noruza renkontiĝo" or "pre-Norooz meeting," to celebrate the coming of the Iranian new year. From that time, there have been more pre-Norooz meetings (although not every year) celebrated in Esfand, the last month in the Iranian calendar. The meeting have been held by IREA in the last few years, but this year again we, the new IREJO, decided to hold the meeting ourselves. We chose the same date for the meeting when the first "renkontiĝo" was held: Esfand 18.

About an hour before the beginning of the program I arrived at the door of Mr. Habibpoor's gallery. As I left the taxi, I saw Soheyl and Farmehr coming. We could easily find the apartment.

The label reads "bonvenu" which means "welcome" in Esperanto.

Elaheh had already arrived there with the "haft sin" table she had promised.

"Haft Sin" is a major tradition of Norooz. (Sorry for the low-quality photos. It seems I need some time to get used to my new cell phone's camera!)

We prepared the memorial cards we wanted to give our guests.

Inside the card you see the large word IREJO, to which is attached a few symbols of Norooz along with the Esperanto green star. Under it, it is printed "Bonan novjaron! 1386" which means "Happy New Year! 1386".

After the cards were ready we quickly made other preparations. We started on 17:10. I was the host of the program. I started by welcoming the guests in Esperanto and then in Persian, then I invited Mr. Mamduhi, current president of IREA, who talked about human communications, languages, and Esperanto. After him Mr. Shafi'ee, the vice-president of IREA gave us the IREA Year Report and also introduced the newly elected Komitato (literally "committee", the legislative body of Esperanto organizations). In the third part of the program, Mr. Torabi (one of the founders of IREJO and later IREA, a chief member of the Komitato, and the editor of Irana Esperantisto quarterly) talked about the future programs of IREA. During his speech something unexpected happened!

Little Alma does not like to be apart from her father for a long time!

After Mr. Torabi's speech we had a not-so-short break. This break is the main reason for which the renkontiĝo is held; after all, it's all about meeting each other. During this time, the guests had time to talk (some of the guests come from other cities and we can meet them only on such occasions), and of course to eat!

After that, I introduced Soheyl as the official speaker of IREJO to the audience. Soheyl talked about what the new IREJO has done since this Fall and what we plan to do. He also informed the participants about two programs IREJO is going to hold: Charshanbe Suri, and an excursion to Taleghan this Norooz.

The renkontiĝo finished by awarding prizes to a few active members, and finally having a group photo.

Here are a few more photos from the meeting. As the host of the program I didn't have much time to take photos. Others have taken more photos which I may post later here.

Note: I know you may have had difficulties understanding this post because I didn't describe all of the terms I used about Iranian traditions. That's because I'm going to have more detailed posts about these traditions in the next few days.

A painting of L. L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. Ahmad and Elham brought the painting. I didn't have time to ask them who the painter is, though.

"Haji Firooz" also took part in the renkontiĝo!

A "Sabzeh". The placard reads "Happy Norooz" in Persian and Esperanto.

Is This a Joke?

2007-03-08T18:54:00.000+03:30

The picture shows http://cesa.iust.ac.ir when viewed from Firefox (and other non-IE browsers). The text reads "For better viewing and more security, please view this website using Internet Explorer."

We have to use this website to download the practices for some of the university courses.

I get angry when I see some people who hardly know anything about web design (this is apparent from the first time you visit the website) claim such things about "security." Of course, the implementor of the website is not concerned about our security (if he was, surely he would not recommend using IE). He only wants to use Internet Explorer's non-standard features instead of the world wide accepted standards and using a free software equivalent (IF the website really needs those features, which I doubt about it).

Non-free software bothers, non-free "standards" ruin.

High Rise

2007-03-01T19:57:00.000+03:30

J.G. Ballard's "High Rise" probably can be classified in the genre usually known as New Wave Science-Fiction. I am a big fan of Sci-Fi (and Fantasy), although it is very hard to exactly tell what Sci-Fi is. There are totally different definitions for Sci-Fi. I prefer to use the term in a general sense to include the works of Stanislaw Lem, Arthur C. Clark and Issac Asimov, for example, although their works are totally different in both style and content, and despite the fact that Lem does not consider himself a Sci-Fi writer (and if you have read his works, you can easily notice how much different they are).

High Rise is even more different than the Sci-Fi works I have read so far but, Sci-Fi or not, I pretty much enjoyed Ballard's masterful style when reading High Rise, as the first book by him I read.

(Spoilers Coming)
High Rise is about the life of the 2000 people who live in an ultramodern forty-story building. The high rise offers all the services needed by its occupants (who are mostly highly educated professional people). Just by the time the tenants of the last apartment arrive life in the high rise starts to gradually change.

It starts quite innocently by things like a wine bottle smashing over Dr. Laing's balcony and later by short power failures. Soon violence spreads quickly across the building. The residents divide themselves into three classes: the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. This classification matches both their social class and the floors they live in (the lower class are those who live in the first ten floors, the higher class live in the upper floors, and the middle class in between).

The high rise, initially designed to offer anything its tenants need, now becomes a completely isolated world in which the residents try abandoning all their relationships with the outside world and even convincing others that everything is going fine inside.

Life in the high rise changes quickly from the three-class environment into a hunter/gatherer culture; just like they have time-traveled thousands of years back in time, to the dawn of the human kind.
(No more spoilers)

I came across High Rise accidentally in the library, and I'm glad I found it. Now I'm planning to read more books from Ballard. If you're not sure which book you're going to read next, you may want to try High Rise.

I have also read a film adaptation is underway for 2008.

New Cellphone

2007-03-01T19:21:00.000+03:30

I forgot to tell you about my new cellphone. After a lot of deliberating I finally bought a black Nokia N80. With a stylish design, 3 megapixel camera (plus a VGA front camera), great Music Player, excellent connectivity options (including Mass Storage and PictBridge modes), wireless LAN support, and driven by a 3rd edition series-60 user interface it seems to suit my needs well. I replaced the in-package headset with another one with a remote control to enjoy the music player the most.

I celebrated the WLAN support with connecting to the Internet during Dr. Barangi's class (Electric Circuits 2) and ignoring the boring topic!

Copy Protection

2007-02-22T11:46:00.000+03:30

A brilliant definition for "copy protection," from the Jargon File.

copy protection: n.

A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers from using it. Considered silly.

Esfandgan, a Day for Women

2007-02-22T11:05:00.000+03:30

During the last one or two months I have been considering a post about the Iranian calendar and/or ancient Iranian festivals (which are closely related, and both are in line with my series of mythology related posts), so I was delighted to see a post in my friend's blog on the same topic. Since her blog is in Esperanto I decided to translate the post here (with her consent, of course). I thank Fifio for her great post. Be aware that this is a free translation. I'm not going to do a literal exact translation, nor I'm going to keep the author's writing style! I hope you enjoy it.

The title of the original post is "The 'Esfandgan' festival, an Iranian Day for Women."

In ancient Iran each day of a month had a name. Those names were names of deities. But don't get me wrong; ancient Iranians' beliefs were not polytheistic. In their beliefs, each natural power had it's own sacred master (or deity), while the all-powerful One God was "Ahuramazda."

All months in the old Iranian calendar had 30 days each of which, as I said, had it's own name. So there were thirty day names. For example, the first day was Ahuramazda day, the second was Bahman day, the third was Ordibehesht day, and so forth.

Note that today's Iranian official calendar has four seasons and twelve months:

Spring
1. Farvardin
has 31 days; from March 21, to April 20.

2. Ordibehesht
has 31 days; from April 21, to May 21.

3. Khordad
has 31 days; from May 22, to June 21.

Summer
4. Tir
has 31 days; from June 22, to July 22.

5. Mordad
has 31 days; from July 23, to August 22.

6. Shahrivar
has 31 days; from August 23, to September 22.

Fall
7. Mehr
has 30 days; from September 23, to October 22.

8. Aban
has 30 days; from October 23, to November 22.

9. Azar
has 30 days; from November 23, to December 21.

Winter
10. Dey
has 30 days; from December 22, to January 20.

11. Bahman
has 30 days; from January 21, to February 19.

12. Esfand
has 29 days (30, on a leap year); from February 20, to March 20.

Today's calendar is a little bit different from the old one. One difference is the number of days in each month. Another difference is that we don't have the day names anymore. The month names are the same, though.

You might have noticed that some month names are the same as the day names I gave as an example. In fact, all month names are also day names. So in each month, there is one day in which the name of the month and the name of the day are the same. These are the twelve festivals of ancient Iranians. For example, on Bahman 2, we have the "Bahmangan" feast. The "gan" suffix pluralizes a noun, so Bahmangan literally means Bahmans.

These are the twelve festivals:

Farvardingan (on Farvardin 19)
Ordibeheshtgan (on Ordibehesht 3)
Khordadgan (on Khordad 6)
Tirgan (on Tir 13)
Mordadgan (on Mordad 7)
Shahrivargan (on Shahrivar 4)
Mehrgan [also pronounced "Mehregan"] (on Mehr 16)
Abangan (on Aban 10)
Azargan (on Azar 9)
Deygan (on Dey 1)*
Bahmangan (on Bahman 2)
Esfandgan (on Esfand 5)

* As I mentioned, the name of the first day of each month is Ahuramazda. The word "Dey" in old Persian language means "God" or "Deity." Ahuramazda was the One God so Deygan was celebrated on Dey 1. You might have noticed the similarity between the word "dey" and the English (Latin) "deity." That's because these words, in ancient Persian and Latin, are from the same root.

I said every natural power has its master. As an example, Aban is the master of water, Azar is the master of fire, and Bahman is the master of good thoughts. Esfand is the mistress of the Earth and plants. Esfand's incarnation was a woman because in Iranian mythology the Earth is usually described as a woman. There's a simple philosophy behind this; the Earth is the mother of all.

On the 5th day of month Esfand, we celebrate Esfandgan. It is the festivity of women --the women's day. Although it is an old belief, we still celebrate it. (By "we" I mean everyone who loves Iran and the Iranian culture.)

I wish a happy Esfandgan for everyone.

(Here, Fifio thanks Ms. Emrani for correcting her Esperanto post. I thank both of them. Happy Esfandgan!)

Lost: a Long Loved One

2007-02-21T00:08:00.001+03:30

During the last two years, we hardly ever parted. Almost anywhere, at parties, out with other friends, at work, in university classes, and even occasionally at night in my bed, we were together. There were many times that I was depressed, and she cheered me up. There were many times that no one was around but her.

At the time that we were almost washed away together by the stream in flood at Tangeh Savashi, we didn't even think about parting; and all that night after that when she was horribly sick. But sooner or later, it happens.

I always enjoyed reading A. A. Milne's poems.

"Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
there's always Pooh and Me."

And now I even enjoy more since it reminds me of the time she was my Pooh.

I'm going to buy another cellphone but I will not forget the happy days we had together. Whether or not we will meet again some time in the future, I don't know.

The Paranoid

2007-02-10T17:58:00.000+03:30

It may be a small thing, but these small things sometimes really hurt; especially, when there are a lot of them. What is it? Simple. take a look at the picture: Google "Code Search" is not available in your country. And so is Google Toolbar, and Sun Java Runtime, and Paypal (which ironically is also blocked by the government), and a lot more of these small things.

And why? Because of the paranoid one who is always thinking and speaking about "the enemy." or because of the other guy who feels responsible to "wipe" another nation "off the map," but does not feel that responsible to tackle the problems of his own nation (if he has any feelings towards his homeland; or probably he follows his leader on this, that when returned to Iran after years and was asked "How do you feel, Ayatollah Khomeini, now that you have returned to your homeland after all these years?" and he simply answered, "Nothing.")

Because of them? This one, then, really hurts.

A Journey to the White Spaces

2007-02-05T22:35:00.000+03:30

"He looked at maps, and wondered what lay beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly white spaces beyond its borders." --The Fellowship of the Ring

There are things about the old world one may miss. For me, it is living in a mysterious world; one in which you can imagine anything you like about what lies a few miles away. A world in which "the road" is the start of a journey you do not know about its end.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. Do you realize that this is the very path that goes through Mirkwood, and that if you let it, it might take you to the Lonely Mountain or even worse places?"

I get disappointed when I think about what we call "a road" today. You can drive as much as you like and you will keep seeing signs saying, "Qom 40", "Esfahan 175", "Ahvaz 680", and things like that.

When I think more about it, our maps do show white spaces beyond our planet; Well, yes, they are usually painted black and there are small white points on them our physicists can tell you exactly what atoms they are made of. What the physicists cannot tell you, is how it looks like to live there (and even their information about what they are made of [or even if they exist or not] is a little bit out-dated; they cannot tell you anything about our neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, newer than 2.5 million years ago). So we do have white spaces; quite exciting. The disappointing fact is that we cannot take a backpack and start a trip to see the mountains ("Mountains Gandalf, mountains!"). I believe a time will come, sooner or later, that people will be able to do that. I don't have much hope that I will be alive by that time. Seems we are in the wrong time.

Maybe years later, a grand grandchild of me will take a backpack and start a journey towards the white spaces to see the lonely mountain. Maybe, on the road, he/she will be singing:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say

And a Spark Came Down from the Eternal Flame

2007-01-30T00:20:00.000+03:30

It happened by the will of Mazda, when Hushang, the grandson of Kayumars the second shah of all, returning from a hunting expedition saw a black snake and decided to hit it by a stone. He missed the snake and the stone struck another stone and a light came out of it. The light was the first spark of the flame that came down from Mazda's eternal flame. The king suggested that this is a divine flame worthy of being held high in regard.

And then the king ordered a feast of singing, dancing, and drinking around the fire. It was the day we call Sadeh.

There are different stories about Sadeh and the origin of the feast but nonetheless Sadeh has been one of the most important Iranian festivals during thousands of years. The story I pointed out above is indeed the most famous account narrated by Ferdowsi in Shahnameh. The word Sadeh, literally means "century" or "one hundred". This is said to be due to the fact that Sadeh is celebrated on Bahman 10 (January 30), 100 days after the beginning of winter in the old Iranian calendar. Ancient Iranian calendar had only two seasons, summer and winter, and winter started on October 21. Another popular tradition suggests that the word Sadeh points out to the fact that from the celebrated day there are 100 days and nights remaining to the beginning of Norooz, the Iranian new year festival. There are other traditions about the meaning of the name and its historical origin.

Although Sadeh is not a widely celebrated tradition in today's Iran, many people, especially Zoroastrians in Yazd, hold feasts on this day. Unfortunately, Sadeh has coincided with Shi'ite tradition of Ashura, the day (in lunar calendar) in which the third Shi'ite Imam was killed, and so the Zoroastrians in Yazd had to cancel the feast. So unfortunate.

Islamic Bureau for Censorship

2007-01-26T01:05:00.000+03:30

A few days ago I had a post about the rumors I had heard about registering websites/blogs, recently required by the government of Iran. At that time, I could not find the website it was said people have to register their websites in; I finally found it: samandehi.ir ("samandehi" literally means "organizing"). As the website says, all websites and blogs with a top-level domain name has to be registered with the Bureau for Organizing Iranian Websites within two months beginning from January 28, 2007. As I have read, the term for having a top-level domain name has been silently added after the huge amount of protest from bloggers (and it is not reflected in the bylaw, yet!).

I spent some time reading all the information in the website and I found the entire plan enormously ridiculous. The bylaw, as presented in the website, defines an "internet sites" as "all centers in the Internet network that provide www and FTP services" (I'm literally quoting the phrase used). I cannot translate all the bylaw here for your amusement (it's quite long) but, accept it from me, everything about the website and the plan (including the very text of the bylaw) looks completely amateur and apparently shows the knowledge of the "governors" about the Internet itself.

An amusing point among all I read in the website, was that nowhere I could find anything about who this law applies to. Does it apply to Iranians? To those who live in Iran? To those who provide Persian language content? Or something else? No answer. And together with the fact that the government has announced that access to non-registered websites will be blocked, it can be used to block *any* website easier than before. Also notice that the bureau has complete power over the matter and does not even need the decision of a court.

Another issue that has been a matter of much discussion by Iranian bloggers is the location of the web servers that are going to store the important information the information the bureau collects (the information which even includes which database servers the website uses, if any). The location of the web servers can be easily tracked by looking up the location of the IP addresses obtained by a "whois". The web servers are located in China and the U.S.! Keyhan's justification of this is funny, too. (Keyhan is a hard-line Iranian daily). Keyhan believes this is a mistake made by "tracking the incorrect IP (Internet Provider)". Apparently, the Keyhan reporter does not have the slightest idea what IP and IP addresses are.

It seems the Islamic regime is strengthening its place as the greatest enemy of the Internet (only after China), but probably we'd better call it the most frightened government from the Internet (and the power of its citizens), and I believe "The Islamic Bureau for Censorship" makes a much better name for the bureau than "The Bureau for Organizing Iranian Websites", and it follows the tradition of calling the state-run agencies, "Islamic" ones. What do you think?

Why We Need Arc

2007-01-23T17:12:00.000+03:30

A lot of Lisp enthusiasts, including me, have been eagerly expecting the arrival of Arc ever since Paul Graham announced working on it. I think not only having Arc is exciting, the Lisp community really *needs* Arc.

Back in the old good days Common Lisp had one of the largest standard libraries ever. This has changed dramatically in recent years and now CL's standard library can correctly be called "tiny". This becomes a real problem along with the fact that CL does not have a de facto standard, only an official one which is not sufficient, nor does it have a de facto implementation and although the lack of a single prominent implementation can be beneficial (Darwin's evolution theory) along with the fact that CL's standard library is really tiny in comparison to many new languages today (Python, for example) and there is no way for adding new packages to the standard library, a fundamental problem arises, and this problem for the Lisp community. Many good libraries have been written for Common Lisp, but they are not anyhow part of the standard and neither they have become a de facto standard. I believe, Arc can change that. Why? Because there is one man behind it, just like Python. In case of Python, the language and the libraries are largely being developed and enhanced by the community, but the presence of Guido assures that everything runs smoothly and when there cannot be a consensus (like for the new "if" expression in Python 2.5, or the "print >>" statement) there is one man who decides what to do. This sometimes may sound undemocratic, but at least it will help things run.The position of Paul Graham in today's Lisp community is probably even stronger than Guido in Python community. Many new Lispers will tell you that they turned to Lisp only because of reading Graham's essays and in fact he has become kind of mentor to them.

Whenever we have Arc, we will have a real evolving de facto standard: new libraries can be added to the standard library and language enhancement proposals can be made. We can enjoy an evolving language, as much as Python, Perl and Ruby programmer can.

Some people have been criticizing Paul Graham for announcing a vaporware and that Arc is only a delusion. I disagree with this belief. Why there isn't a running implementation of Arc after so much time, and despite the fact that Paul Graham is always encouraging software startups to release a working edition as early as possible? Shouldn't he follow his own advice? I don't think so. When he encourages startups to release early, he is teaching them how to start a company and finally make money out of it (and releasing early, as he argues, is essential for today's startups). But he himself is not going to start an Arc company; Arc is his hobby, and besides that, releasing even a very early alpha or beta, will start his career of leadership in a community and it will certainly take a lot of time from him; a time he may not be able to spare now. Also, releasing a working edition will probably take his hobby from him. Paul Graham, as far as I can understand from his website, is a language enthusiast and he seems to really enjoy constantly changing the language to see only what happens. He won't be able to do that as much after release. This reminds of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was a language enthusiast (of course, human languages I mean) and he loved to change the languages he invented, the process which started from early Qneya and resulted the modern Quenya beside others (and not to mention other languages he invented). After release of Lord of the Rings he was not able to play with his favorite hobby as he liked anymore. So I don't think it is correct to blame Paul on not releasing Arc. We're asking him to leave his hobby, and then spare a lot of his time for the coming community. Although he himself has decided to do that, it would be very ungrateful of us demand anything else. We should only hope!

I'm a Free Man Again

2007-01-22T23:40:00.000+03:30

Well, at least as much free as one can be in Iran!

Side Note: I really don't think that I'm going to pass Engineering Mathematics, but it's not important now!

After Three Days

2007-01-21T21:24:00.000+03:30

"Thus spake the master programmer: after three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." The Tao of Programming, Geoffrey James

This is what's happening to me --I'm losing my life's meaning. The exams have been one of the causes. One other reason was I didn't know what to write. If you're a devout programmer, you know what I mean. It's the worse feeling ever. I'm a little picky about what to write and it becomes a problem sometimes (like now). Anyhow, I got a few ideas, and I will start one in the next few days --hopefully, before I commit suicide for not having a reason for life!

No More Math Tonight

2007-01-21T21:00:00.000+03:30

I have about 11 more hours to study for tomorrow morning's exam, and you know many students do use such time to read more, but I don't. Although I'm not yet quite sure if I know enough to pass the exam, I simply can't study more. Whatever I do, my brain does not like over-studying!

Tomorrow, I'm going to be a free man again!

Is Your Website Officially Registered?

2007-01-20T15:51:00.000+03:30

I have read in several news websites (including BBC and The Guardian) about a recent announcement by the government requiring the owners of all Iranian websites and blogs to register their websites/blogs with the authorities. I could not find any information on this from domestic news agencies, though. I cannot say, such thing is impossible (nothing foolish is impossible when someone like Ahmadinejad is in power), but it seems completely impractical to me, especially about bloggers. Many Iranian bloggers already blog anonymously; others can go underground as well. I saw Several bloggers have added a banner reading "I won't register my blog" on their blog header.

I'm awaiting new information about the issue to be released. This can be the next step in a series by one of the thirteen enemies of the Internet. Maybe next year we will miss the current "great" conditions.

Exam Time

2007-01-15T23:14:00.000+03:30

This term's final exams have already begun. I'm sorry if my posts are getting infrequent. I hope I'll have more post after the exams are finished on Monday, next week.

A Visit to Sa'ad Abad

2007-01-09T00:09:00.000+03:30

Sa'ad Abad Complex is a group of palaces and facilities located at Shemiran area of Tehran. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, it was the official residence of the royal family and was also used to host the royal family guests, like foreign officials visiting the country. Sa'ad Abad is currently used as a multi-function complex: some of the buildings serve as public museums, while some others are occupied by organizations like Baseej and Presidency.

Today, I went to visit Sa'ad Abad with my friends from IREA (Iranian Esperanto Association). Here are a few photos from our visit.

A snowman located opposite the fine arts museum!

Ferdowsi statue built out of snow.

Statue of Omar Khayyam, the famous Iranian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, out of snow.

Statue of Maestro Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the famous traditioanl singer, again out of snow.
Shajarian is one of the most well known Iranian artists and probably the greatest singer in the history of the recorded Persian traditional music.

An interior view of the White Palace. The curtains show images of Iranian mythology.
(I did not take this photo myself).

We had to wear these to enter the Shavand Palace (also called Green Palace)

An interior room in Shahvand Palace. Shahvand Palace was the residence of Reza Shah.

Reza Shah's suits. He is wearing these suits in most of his photos I've seen.

Most of the trees in the complex are about a hundred years old.

Omidvar brothers traveled round the world with this car.

Names of the countries they visited (plus the poles) is written on their car.

Would You Replace the Washing Machine?

2007-01-02T23:26:00.000+03:30

"If your car or washing machine is still running well, do you replace it? Would you replace your car if a new one required you to learn a new way to turn it off?"

I came up with this question today in an article discussing if upgrading to Windows Vista is really essential for most users or not, considering that they are doing their everyday tasks before that normally, and also that according to a study by Softchoice, 94 percent of PCs do not meet the system requirements for Vista Premium. You may know that I'm not using Windows anymore, but the question and the article made me think seriously, and I finally concluded that, "yes, I would!"

Now you're probably wondering why I would do that. It's simple. Consider the case of the washing machine. What if you don't upgrade the washing machine and keep receiving emails containing attached dishes that can only be washed with the washing machine that can be turned off some new way (probably the new way consists of a nine item menu and even an "Are you sure?" dialog after that)? And in the case of the car, probably most new parts have a "new-turn-off-way certified" or a "modern-turn-off tuned" seal on them? Wouldn't the average user just upgrade to the new washing machine (or car)? Seems reasonable, ...or probably the whole thing is seriously wrong.

Don't bother with Vista, and also put an end to Word attachments.

Happy New Year, the Spammer Way!

2006-12-31T13:37:00.000+03:30

I got this today, in a semi-spam email message from a Free Hosting provider company. Actually I had signed up there once for checking their features, but I never asked for an email, even a Happy New Year one. Anyhow, here it is:

Let all your old be fade away,
let your New comings cast this Day.
May your past be lost in abyss
and your future will be filled with a bliss.

Even though we might've learned much,
with wisdom that 2006 offered bunch;
but that would mean we lost our yearn
for we still have much to learn.

So I pray for your endless flame to know more each day,
and let your continuing quest may bring every New Day.

Happy New Year Everyone!

The Reminder

2006-12-31T02:09:00.000+03:30

One of the main themes I wanted for my blog was stories and mythology. I don't know if the readers of my blog liked them or not, but I personally enjoyed writing those posts about Arash and Kaveh. Unfortunately, I have had little time for working on stories lately. I like to read more about each story I want to retell, compare sources and compile the best narrative I can. I have a few candidates, one of which is retelling the story of Siavash, one of my favorites in Shahnameh, but I need some time to think about the retelling and style, and to write several drafts and to throw them away. I'm not a professional, but as I said I like to do the best I can.

This is more of a reminder for myself, than an announcement, of course. I wish the exams started and finished sooner. When something unpleasant is going to happen, well, the sooner, the better!

The Wise Move

2006-12-30T14:39:00.000+03:30

It's more than a month I haven't booted into Windows. Today, I had to go to Windows to check something work in Windows, because I want to give it to a university instructor and it has to work correctly in Windows. Guess what happened? Just when Windows XP started up, after a long time of hard disk activity, it proposed me to restart the computer because it had detected a new hardware! And I assure you there is no new hardware. Of course, I clicked 'No'.

I had a short work of a few minutes, and it was enough to show me how slow Windows is. It was like a headache. I'm wondering how I used to do my everyday work in Windows. I'm now more confident about my move, and I'm so happy it finished!

From the Master of Words

2006-12-27T13:48:00.000+03:30

One once informed Anushirvan the Just, "the Mighty Lord has eliminated that enemy of yours." He answered, "are you certain that He has let me be?"

Sa'adi, Golestan ("The Rose Garden")

Sa'adi has always been admired for his flawless mastery of words. This is one of the shortest stories from his Golestan. Although short, I believe it is very beautiful and it proves the Master of Words was even able to form a powerful story with only a handful of words --especially the original Persian story, not this quick translation of mine.

Man Is Not Made for Defeat

2006-12-27T00:56:00.000+03:30

"But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed, but not defeated."

A few days ago, I had some free time at the university. I decided to go to the central library and read something until the class starts. The literary part of the library is really a shame. There are very few literature books in comparison to others. Probably about a hundred or so. Anyhow, I was searching among them when I came up with this copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The poor book seems to have endured many painful years. I had not read any of Hemingway's books, so I started right there. It absorbed me.

I can definitely say it is one of the finest books I've read. It entered the list of my favorite books instantly.

The Old Man and the Sea, for those who have not read it, is a story of a man's struggle with the beasts of the sea; a story of a human being's unbelievable power. The old man is a mere old fisherman, yet he shows how much power a human being can have when he wants. Hemingway's strong and vital style absorbs the reader. It's one of those books you cannot easily put away before finishing it.

Cultural Engineering

2006-12-26T15:13:00.000+03:30

I was going to my engineering mathematics class in the Islamic Knowledge department (some math classes are taking place there due to a space shortage in the math department) where I saw a poster with the title "The Cultural Engineering National Conference". This is a new plan from an ever fearful government that's doing its best to survive. So what the heck is cultural engineering? I thought it should be another invention of him ("him," in the same sense it was used in The Lord of the Rings) just like the software movement project he announced some time ago and had nothing to do with real software (yes, he's so supreme that he can order the words change their meanings as he likes!). So I started to do a search on Google, and guess what? I was right! I got some results, though. Let's check one out. This is what Cultural Engineering L.L.C. says, and it's interesting enough to quote from their definition page:

"Cultural engineering is a conceptual approach to cultural development planning and management that takes into account the changing concepts of culture and the design of practical strategies for dealing with issues and problems raised by culture and development in diverse contexts.... In other words, cultural engineering is about systems, processes, alternatives and the formulation of creative solutions to challenges in the development of cultural institutions and the promotion of people’s participation in cultural life."

It seems, as I already suspected, cultural engineering is not a well-established world-wide concept and the results I got were mostly part inventions used by some author to express an idea, like the one I quoted, which is mostly a corporate definition and interestingly involves "the promotion of people's participation in cultural life," as the last sentence puts it, and not someone else trying to smooth the cultural status of a nation to match his own interest. Yes, they want to engineer a nation in quite the same way someone tries to change the internals of a machine to have it work better for their needs. The only difference is that in the former a seventy-million nation should suffer and not a poor machine, but who cares?

Now that I'm writing about a himself-invented phrase, I think it's a good place to write about the other one I mentioned earlier: a software movement! I'd better quote a definition first. This is my translation of part of an essay from aviny.com. The essay titled "The Principals of the Software Movement" is written by Mohammad Ghalibaf, the current Tehran mayor.

Every civilization is built out of hardware and software. Hardware is the social structure and its products.... software is the conceptual system that backs the hardware, and like the hardware has many types: the principal concepts like philosophy of logic and logic [itself], the technical concepts like different mathematical, physical and social sciences, and also the social and general concepts with their own technical definitions, all of which are among the software.

I hate it when non-technicals use a phrase they don't understand at all for something else. Anyhow, software movement, along with cultural engineering, is part of a larger project they are working on: to control all the aspects of the Iranian society and then use it as a tool for their aims. The aims I'm talking about is, of course, far from a local Islamic system for Iran. They are (or want to be) "global gladiators", as Alvin Toffler calls them in his book, Powershift. Remember that their religion is all about world conquer.

Freedom Is Good

2006-12-26T14:22:00.000+03:30

No, this is not a political post. It has more with the hacker spirit than with them (Don't misunderstand the real hacker for the stereotypical Hollywood types you see in movies or read about in newspapers; They're crackers. See Eric Raymond's famous How to Become a Hacker for more information on "Freedom Is Good" and the hacker attitude itself). I've just left the company I was working for in the last two months and I'm enjoying my freedom.

Now I understand the stress of working for someone else: someone stupid chooses a stupid project for you to work on, and you should maintain a long long list of stupid standards and then present your program for even a more stupid person (the exact "pointy-haired boss" type Paul Graham describes; See Revenge of the Nerds for more info). All of these happens in a stupid environment where they call it a company. And I was the smartest of the programmers (they said) and was assigned those projects that needed a smarter guy!

Now I'm again on my own. I choose my own project (how about an online game, or something fun like that), I can choose my own programming language (My favorites are Lisp, and Python after it), I maintain my own coding standards (isn't it just stupid to call the loop index "intCounter"?) and the working place is "home, sweet home", with the favorite Ubuntu box always at hand.

One can understand heaven only after experiencing the hell!

Happy Holidays

2006-12-25T21:32:00.000+03:30

I was forgetting this most important post:

Happy Holidays Everyone!

[It's a little bit early to say happy new year!]

Plus Five

2006-12-25T21:16:00.000+03:30

Today, five new members took part in this week's IREJO meeting. This is very good news for IREJO. We mostly discussed the new website today. We also formed a five member team for organizing the excursions; I am in this team. Forming a music group was discussed, too.

I think IREJO should expect a new brilliant era.

A Long Long Night

2006-12-21T10:39:00.000+03:30

It seems the sun is in a hurry as it moves faster than any other day and as it sets down the horizon, its last rays disappear sooner than ever, and then it starts: Yalda.

It is as long as it seems it is not going to an end, and it is as dark as neither the moon nor the stars can beat its darkness, and it is cold, colder than ever. Ahriman is in full power.

But not all hope had vanished. There is Azar, the burning and unburning fire, the visible and invisible fire, the eternal flame of Mazda. The night is going to be defeated, since Mithra is the protector of the morning light.

No matter how long it will take, Ahriman will be defeated, as it was defeated long long ago on the same day, when the sun was born. Now come and celebrate. As long as you are with Mazda's fire, Ahriman can never harm you. Come and celebrate the birth of Mithra, the ever protector of the light of early morning.

* * *

Today is the last day of Azar, the ninth month in the Iranian calendar and it marks the time of the Winter Solstice and the old celebration of Yalda, the longest night of the year, also known as "Shab-e-Chelle", and it is believed to have been celebrated for some 6000 years. Yalda, which literally means "birth", was the night on which the God of love, friendship, and light, the God of Sun, Mithra (a.k.a. Mehr) was born. Since Mithra was believed to be the guardian of the early morning light, there were many feasts in his honor on this night.

Yalda has lost its religious impact today and is mostly considered a social gathering. Nonetheless it is the most widely celebrated among the ancient Iranian festivals only after Norooz (and probably "Charshanbe Suri"). Since, most of those old festivals are getting forgotten (thanks to the deliberate negligence of the current rulers of Iran), I believe it is most important for us to celebrate those that are still respected.

Watermelons are considered one of the most important parts of the Yalda festival. Googling about watermelons, I found the interesting website of National Watermelon Promotion Board which aims at the promotion of watermelon demand in the U.S. and Canada. It has many interesting parts (including a recipe database) for watermelon lovers. If you are a watermelon fan, check it out.

And, by the way, happy Yalda!

They're All Women!

2006-12-18T22:29:00.000+03:30

Today, in this week's IREJO weekly session, the IREJO board of directors was elected. Elham, Farmehr and Sayeh were chosen as the board ("estraro") members, in order, as the president ("prezidantino"), general secretary ("gxenerala sekretariino") and financial director ("kasistino"). This is the first full female board during the history of IREJO. I congratulate them all.

We also briefly discussed the IREJO web site (irejo.org is now registered for IREJO), the pre-Norooz meeting ("La Antaux Noruza Renkontigxo", Norooz is the Iranian new year festival), as well as the upcoming translation and conversation meetings.

La Zamenhofa Tago

2006-12-15T20:51:00.000+03:30

Today, December 15, was the Zamenhof Day ("La Zemenhofa Tago", or the Esperanto [literature] Day). Like many Esperantists around the world, we celebrated this day in a special gathering with (mostly) other members of IREA (Esperanto Association of Iran).

The celebration was a quite small gathering that took place in the house of one of the members. In this get-together, first of all we listened to Mr. Mamduhi's speech (in Esperanto) on the development of Esperanto and its help towards communications and tourism, as well as the language problem on the Internet. Mr. Mamduhi, who is the current president of IREA, provided some useful diagrams during his speech.

After that Mr. Habibpur read us a poem by Zamennhof himself in both Esperanto and Persian. He also provided us with a good background on the topic. I enjoyed this part of the program very much. Thank you Mr. Habibpur!

The third part, after a short break, was the beautiful performance of Niku Mamduhi based on a play about Esperanto.

After that Dr. Sayyadpur gave a useful speech on the works of William Auld, the famous Scottish author who has been dominated for the Nobel Literature Prize for several times. William Auld, who is one of the most well known figures of the Esperanto literature, died on September this year.

The last part of the program was Mr. Torabi's speech about the association, which was followed by a self-introduction of the members so that we would get to know each other better.

December 15 is the birthday of L. L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. I should thank everyone who had a part in holding this get-together, and congratulate all the Esperantists of the world, "la gesamideanoj", for the "Zamenhoftago".

The Six

2006-12-12T22:50:00.000+03:30

Yesterday, after quite a long time, I went to the office of IREA to join an IREJO meeting, and there I met five other members of IREJO, two of which I already knew, along with Mr. Torabi, a leading IREA member.

IREJO (IRana Esperantista Junulara Organizo, "The Organization of Iranian Young Esperantists") is the youth branch of IREA (IRana Esperanto-Asocio, "The Esperanto Association of Iran") which is itself the national branch of UEA (Universala Esperanto-Asocio, "World Esperanto Association") in Iran. IREJO is also the national branch of TEJO (Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo, "The World Organization of Young Esperantists"). After a few years of brilliant activities, IREJO has been quite inactive for several years and we are going to start reorganizing IREJO, and make it more active again. Having undergone a long period of inactivity, IREJO currently does not even have a board of directors ("Estraro"), so one of our highest priorities is electing a new board. Setting up a website, holding weekly meetings and (biweekly?) translation classes, and planning excursions ("ekskursoj") are among our current plans.

On The Wall

2006-12-12T06:21:00.000+03:30

What do they wanna say? Is it all about Pink Floyd, or there's more?
(poster on a wall in our university)

Complex Integration, Residues, and Our Education System

2006-12-08T12:42:00.000+03:30

I knew that Dr. Jazbi as a mathematician does not say anything definitely unless it is proven to her, so why was she strongly asking us to prove it, in any case distinctively, that the last statement evaluates to zero, although she definitely told us that it will always evaluate to zero? Finally someone asked her, and she simply answered, "Well, if all you have to do is to find a few residues, then what are you here for? Everyone can do that."

We should prove that so that the problems remains sufficiently difficult for the examinations. Many parts of the education system of Iran acts this way. They are not preparing students to solve real problems. In real world we have access to all textbooks, tables, computers and calculators, and we know that statement always evaluates to zero. So Isn't something seriously wrong about this system of education? But real world problems tend to be much more complicated that the ones they want us to solve in the exams. If they want their exams to be sufficiently difficult, then they can use some real world problems and let us free to use anything we want. So why don't they do that? I guess that is because it takes them a lot of effort, for this is not a simple change in the exams but a big change in the education system itself.

They might argue that in some courses, like engineering mathematics, there is no real world problem unless, of course, they go into details of something like a real mechanical system. That is correct, and that's why I say we need a fundamental change in the educations system. I mean I really doubt about the necessity of a course like engineering mathematics (in its current form). As a computer engineering student, I don't think I will ever need to solve heat equations. In fact, if I were to study only software (i.e. if I could), I would hardly needed a bit of non-discrete math like differential equations (and I'm not going to talk about all the non-sense we are mandated to study in the Islamic Knowledge department).

A university is a place that attracts a lot of smart people and can let them do great things. That is good, and this is why I still like it, and if we compare it to all other state run institutions it's definitely a lot better than them (bad is better than worse, or worse is better than the worst!) but it could be a whole lot more productive, and more fun.

Unix Quote: The Insight

2006-12-04T21:32:00.000+03:30

"Part of the charm of Unix is, all of a sudden, having a great insight and saying to yourself, "So THAT's why they did it that way.""

— The Unix Companion (page 356)

Source: Harley Hahn's Unix Quotes

No Need for Thinking!

2006-12-01T16:00:00.000+03:30

"It is really easy. You don't even have to think. We will take care of that for you." This can be a good motto for the government of Iran, and especially for president Ahmadinejad's government. A few minutes ago, an SMS from my brother informed me that English Wikipedia and IMDb have been added to the filtering list of the Telecom company (the government organization which all telecommunications service providers of the country have to get their infrastructure services from). Uploading the "Requested Page Is Forbidden" image above, I found out that photos1.blogger.com is also filtered out (I cannot see the image myself now, I hope it fits well!).

English Wikipedia is my first place for searching information about almost any topic, as it is for many many people, so this is a shock (and I'm not going to stop using it, even if it is filtered!). This is the first time a major English language site is filtered. Previously, most filtered information-providing web sites where Persian, for example while BBC English is open, BBC Persian is filtered. I think this may be a new wave of Internet filtering which can include many other major sites (even Google and Blogger?) in the future. Step by step they are doing their moves. First it came the limiting of broadband services, now new major web sites are filtered? Who can guess what their next move is going to be?

The Way of Unix

2006-11-30T19:53:00.000+03:30

I'm enjoying my life! Switching to Linux was an excellent idea. I'm just regretting why I didn't do this earlier (I had been thinking about this for more than a year!). In many books I had read how things in Unix are, and it was all like a mystery. Now I am really experiencing the way of Unix in Linux. How is it different, you ask? My answer: Although there are a *lot* of differences, the most important thing, in my opinion, is you must learn before you can do anything. Learning is essential. For example, in my first days in Linux I made a complete mess with my package manager and a large number of packages. Many programs simply stopped working. It took me a lot of time to figure out what's wrong and a few days to fix everything. But now I know much more than before. What would I do in Windows to fix such thing? A simple reinstall! Yes, simple it is, but does it teach you not to make the same mistake again? Apparently not. And that's why many people keep reinstalling Windows every few weeks (or even more, sometimes much more).

Now that I'm talking about Linux making people learn, I remember part of Eric Raymond's How to Become a Hacker in which he says about Unix-like systems: "...you'll have fun, and you'll soak up more knowledge than you realize you're learning until you look back on it as a master hacker." Now I don't mean that I've become a master hacker, but I'm beginning to realize.

Another thing I'm really enjoying in Linux is that automating tasks is a whole lot easier. There are a lot of powerful scripting languages and the whole system is much more scriptable. I learned that in Linux the solution of many problems I might have to install a program for in Windows, is a small script. A script is a program, and what else is more enjoyable for a programmer than writing programs for everyday tasks?

Unix, and today's Unix-like systems like Linux, are a dream world for a programmer. If you enjoy programming and you're still stuck to Windows, you're probably missing the most enjoyable environment a programmer can ever have.

The Suitcase

2006-11-23T19:46:00.000+03:30

I have started reading Chamedan ("The Suitcase") by Bozorg Alavi (Here's his official website, in Persian) . It is one of Alavi's early collections (first published on 1934).

We decided to read this book at a book club at university. I'll have a post about Chamedan and Alavi later.

The Silmarillion

2006-11-23T17:37:00.000+03:30

I finally finished reading The Silmarillion. Not that I am a slow reader (I started on October 11, and the book has 455 in Persian translation), I only had little time to spend on it. In fact, I read most of the book in the time I had between my classes at the university.

The Silmarillion is a complex work and not an easy book to read. The stories contain a lot of themes, names, and various information. The Wikipedia entry on "Of the Rings of Power and the third Age" (the final part of the book) says:

The work is a fictional historical essay dealing with the preamble to the events described in Tolkien's epic novel The Lord of the Rings, and the events themselves, in the style of The Silmarillion. The fact that those events are explored in a mere handful of pages suggests that if the events described in the rest of The Silmarillion had been written in the style of The Lord of the Rings they would have filled hundreds of volumes.

For a complete understanding of the book, it is necessary to read it more than once. That is what I do for most of the books I like. I usually find many interesting points when I re-read the books I had already read. In case of Silmarillion I have a new opportunity. I read the Persian translation and now, thanks to a dear friend, I have the original English text. I can read the stories again, and this time in the original language. The Persian translation was not completely flawless and it's major problem was reading the names. In Persian, normally short vowels are not written. Of course, it is usual to write the short vowels when a new word is introduced, or provide the original foreign word as footnote, but in this case I cannot really blame the publisher because the number of new words was very much and writing all of them with short vowels would probably make the text a little ugly. Anyhow, everything is going to be fine with the original text. I guess I will start it as soon as I get rid of the mid-term exams.

The first part of the book is Ainulindalë ("The music of the Ainur"). It is the story of the creation of the universe ("Eä") in Tolkien's Legendarium and its style is somehow like that of the Old Testament which I really enjoyed --I love archaic style. The story of the creation of the world out of music, especially, is very interesting. I had already tried to compose my own versions of the creation for the fun of writing fiction, and I was fascinated that part of Ainulindalë was similiar to one of my own accounts (in mine, the life was blown into the world from the song of the First Lady --Ovëliad).

The second part, Valaquenta, is less like a story but it's vital to the reading of the rest of the book, as it describes the Valar (those among the Ainur who became the powers of the world), the Maiar (the lesser Ainur who came to help the Valar), and the Enemies (those fallen among the Valar and the Maiar).

The third part of the book, Quenta Silmarillion ("The Account of the Silmarils"), is the bulk of the book and describes the beginning of the world before the elves and the men, the awakening of the elves and later the men and the dwarves, and mainly the story of the Silmarils, the three star-like jewels which were made by Fëanor (one of the high elves, those who went to Valinor upon the invitation of the Valar) along with many stories narrated meanwhile. Probably the most beautiful chapter in this part is the story of Beren and Lúthien. The story was also narrated by Aragorn as a very short poem in Lord of the Rings (FotR, A Knife in the Dark).

The fourth part is named Akallabêth ("The Downfallen"). This is my favorite part, although it is quite short. Akallabêth is the story of the fall of the kingdom of Númenor after the Dúnedain are deceived by Sauron and attempt to attack the Undying Lands and the Valar (and that is why they started calling him Sauron the Deceiver later). Only a group of them, still faithful to the Valar, survive (those lead by Elendil, that Aragorn in Lord of the Rings is his descendant) and Númenor itself is completely destructed by the will of Eru Ilúvatar ("the One, Father of All"). The theme partly resembles the story of destruction of Atlantis. Interestingly, the Quenya form of Akallabêth is Atalantë.

The final part of the book, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, tells the story of the making of the rings of power (and the most noticeable among them, The One Ring) and the events that lead to the events of Lord of the Rings, as well as a short narration of Lord of the Rings itself, in Silmarillion style. The book ends with the Eldar's leaving of the Middle-earth and the beginning of a new age for men.

Final words: I strongly recommend reading The Silmarillion for anyone who likes fantasy. Especially, if you have already read Lord of the Rings, reading The Silmarillion would increase the joy of the reading of both of the books.

New Experiences

2006-11-19T21:12:00.000+03:30

I've been having new exciting experiences during the last few days. I finally moved to (GNU/)Linux and my transition process was amazingly painless. As a programmer, I find the new environment more convenient --everything is simply more natural. The speed of the PC is better. No more annoying lags and pauses. Although my computer is quite well equipped, the system always lagged in Windows.

In Windows, I used Firefox as my web browser, and Thunderbird as my mail client. Both of them work the same way here, and these are two of my most frequently used programs. OpenOffice is quite satisfactory for my needs, and my favorite language, Python, is just here for me. I was also surprised to see that many Windows applications run very well in Linux under an emulator (such as WINE).

For those who are not familiar with Linux, Linux is by itself only a kernel, and together with the many parts obtained from the GNU project it becomes a complete operating system (many argue that GNU/Linux is a better name for the system, and I agree, but using this long name repeatedly is quite annoying). There are many ways to mix these parts together, so there are many Linux distributions. I use Ubuntu. As I had heard, and now actually experienced, Ubuntu is a good choice for new converts! It has a very convenient environment with a selection of well-maintained packages for everyday tasks. Ubuntu was surprisingly easy to install. The installation program did everything in a few easy steps and it even set up a dual boot system for me.

With the new ADSL Internet connection, now I have a system of my dreams. I had always dreamed of having a Unix system with a direct Internet connection from a local network and that is what I actually have now. Linux is a complete Unix-like system, with much more than Unix itself, and the ADSL modem/router, in fact, gives me a network with a direct Internet connection. It is just like in the books --pretty exciting!

The Azhi, the Blacksmith, and the King

2006-11-15T16:35:00.002+03:30

We read the story of Kaveh the blacksmith, Zahhak the Azhi, and Jamshid and Fereydun, the two most praised kings of the ancient world (in Iranian mythology).

In Iranian mythology, Jam is the greatest king ever. He is both a king and a priest of Ahura Mazda. He teaches people how to use metals and many other materials, he teaches them how to build houses, he teaches them how to make perfumes and wine, how to mine jewelry, how to sail in the seas and much more. He orders the society and divides people into four classes: the priests, the warriors, the farmers, and the artisans. All the creatures in the world come under his rule. One day, when he is sitting on his throne the divs who serve him raise his throne and as he flies into the sky all his people see him shining brightly and after that he is called Jamshid (shid means "light" in Persian). That day, which was the first day of Spring, was then called Norooz ("new day") and it became the most important celebration of the people. Iranians, and some other nations of the Greater Iran, still celebrate Norooz as their most important celebration --the celebration of the beginning of the new year.

Jamshid had a cup (called Jām-e Jam, "Jam's Cup"), filled with the elixir of immortality, in which he could see everything in the universe. Jamshid's Cup is an important symbol in Persian literature.

Jamshid ruled the world for over three centuries, and during that time there was neither disease nor death in the world, but he was finally corrupted by his pride and hence the Farr (the imperial glory Ahura Mazda gives someone to rule the people) departed from him and so Jamshid fell to Zahhak and was later cut in two and killed by him.

The description of Zahhak (originally Aži Dahāka) slightly differs in the different sources we have, i.e. Avesta and post-Avestan older texts, and Shahnameh. In Avesta, Aži Dahāka is the greatest of the Ažis (dragons) "with three mouths, six eyes, and three heads" (presumably meaning three heads with one mouth and two eyes each). He is demonic although his other characteristics match those of a human being. Shahnameh, and many post-Avestan texts, identify him as an Arab (or at least of Semitic origin) who becomes under influence of Ahriman. He gains kingly rule after the fall of Jamshid, and although he leads the world a thousand years of misery, his reign was ultimately good since had he not become the king, the rule would have been taken by the immortal demon Xešm, and so evil would have ruled upon earth until the end of the world.

Zahhak was finally defeated by Fereydūn, a descendant of Jamshid, who took him into the mountains of Alborz and chained him up on top of Damavand where he will live until the end of the world. It is said that at the end of the world, Zahak manages to free himself and starts to destroy the world but before he can do that, Garshasp the ancient hero who killed the other dragons will wake up from death, slay him as the last living dragon and save the two thirds of the world that Zahhak has not devoured.

But Shahnameh also speaks of another figure: Kaveh. Kaveh is a unique character in Iranian mythology because he is an ordinary person, unlike most other heroes. He is brave enough to stand before the most feared Azhi and complain from him, brave enough not to sign a testimony even the highest ranking officials do not dare not to sign, brave enough to call the name of the Azhi's enemy in the public. So much brave that Zahhak himself admits (as Ferdowsi says in Shahnameh) "when Kaveh came in, as I heard his voice, it seemed to me that a wall of iron rose between us." Probably Kaveh is a symbol of the people who helped Fereydun, for although it was Fereydun who chained Zahhak up in Alborz, his army of people who accompanied him to the capital made Zahhak fear so much that he fled. If Fereydun was the key to freedom, then Kaveh (and the people he symbolizes) turned that key in the door.

The rise of Kaveh was like a spark in the darkness; a spark that set fire to a crowd. His flag, the leather apron he put on the spear, became a symbol of Fereydun and the Iranian Empire until the fall of the Sassanid dynasty during the Arab invasion when Arabs torn it into pieces (in fact, the history doubts that the real imperial flag was Kaveh's flag, and probably it was another one whose name was similar to Kaveh's, but it's no different for in fiction and mythology we are considering the world in another stage of imagination, as J.R.R. Tolkien puts it in one of his interviews).

The last word is that the above picture shows the statue of Kaveh in Esfahan. For years the Islamists have fought building statues since Islam is against building statues or paintig pictures of people. It seems that they have lost the war, although it took many statues destroyed to achieve that, for now there are many beautiful statues in Esfahan (as well as in other cities).

The Blacksmith (Final Episode)

2006-11-12T18:35:00.001+03:30

When Kaveh comes out of the assembly, he goes streight towards the crowd. He takes a spear and puts his leather apron on it. Then he cries out:

"O People! This is a devil you are living under his rule. Who among you is going to disobey the evil? Who among you is going to call for Fereydun?"

And it comes a large crowd of people following that simple leather flag while Kaveh guides the people to the Alborz mountains where, he knows, Fereydun lives.

Fereydun from top of the mountain sees the crowd of people coming, and he perceives, "Its time had now come."

So Fereydun brings the old crown passed to him and puts it on, for it's time that someone from the royal line wear the crown of the world. And then he asks for his mother's permission to go, the one he owes his life to, more than any son owes his life to his mother. Farank, with tears upon her face, calls for Mazda's help for his son and lets him go.

Then Fereydun asks his older brothers to have a mace made for him, and they summon the greatest of the blacksmiths to make the mace. The blacksmiths make a grand mace for him with a head like that of an ox and, with his mace in hands, Fereydun leaves with his army of people for Zahhak's capital.

On their way, they reach the Arvand river. Fereydun asks the river keeper to let them pass the great river with the boats, but he refuses. "I have the word of the king of the world," he says, "that no one shall pass this river without an explicit permission.

Fereydun gets angry and, without the fear of the great river, guides his horse through the water and then everyone follows him.

So they make their way through Arvand and travel all the long way until they reach the capital where they find Zahhak has fled and left the capital.

So Fereydun enters the palace with little resistance and then he sets all the prisoners free of the jail and of Zahhak's magic and among those who were set free were Arnavaz and Shahrnavaz, the two daughtars of Jamshid and the most beautiful women of the world.

But there is Zahhak's treasurer there who, although pretends to submit, is still a slave to Zahhak and when he gets the time he goes near his master and tells him all he has seen.

When Zahhak hears of Fereydun, sitting on the throne with the daughters of Jamshid besides him, he loses his temper and rushes towards the palace.

Fereydun is looking for him when Zahhak himself comes to the palace and with a sword in his hand is going to kill Arnavaz and Shahrnavaz, but before he can manage to kill the two, Fereydun strikes him with his ox-headed mace on the shoulders, and on the heart, and on the skull, and from the Zahhak's wounds there come many vermin.

Fereydun is going to kill Zahhak that he hears the voice of Sorush, the messenger angel.

"His reign has come to an end, but not his time. Take him to Alborz."

So Fereydun takes Zahhak to Damavand and there again he hears Sorush saying,

"Have him chained up on the top of Damavand, and let him be there imprisoned until it comes the end of the world, when he will meet his end along with the others. The world will see no other harm from him before that time."

So it ends, the rule of Zahhak, and it comes the era of Fereydun. The era of delight and happiness, and Fereydun ornaments the simple flag of Kaveh with many jewels and it remains a symbol of the royal line, and of his land for a long long time.

And of Zahhak no one hears anymore, before the end of the world, except some of those who wander among the Alborz mountains --they can hear his fell voice groaning in pain and waiting for the time the hands of fate will set him free to face his final destiny.

Freedom of Choice

2006-11-06T15:39:00.000+03:30

On the board of the so-called Ma'aref Department (the department which provides the mandatory Islamic courses for all the students in the university), I saw a list of the new courses available as well as a few comments including the following funny note:

"The students of minority religions can take the courses of their choice freely from the provided list of available courses of the Islamic Knowledge (Ma'aref-e-Eslami) department, without any limitations."

(Notice that in Iran you have to be either Muslim or a follower of one of the three recognized minority religions. The Islamic Republic does not believe any other case is possible!)

It's worth taking a look at the list those students can freely choose from: Islamic Thoughts 1, Islamic Thoughts 2, The Human Kind in Islam, Social and Political Rights in Islam, The Philosophy of Morality (of course in Islam!), Islamic Morals, The Islamic Revolution of Iran, Getting Familiar with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Emam Khomeini's Political Way of Thought, The History of Islamic Civilization and Culture, The Analytic History of the beginning of Islam, The History of Emamat (the way of the Shi'ite imams), Topical Interpretation of the Koran, Topical Interpretation of Nahj ol-Balagheh (a book containing the speeches and letters of Ali, the first Shi'ite Imam).

Really that's a diverse list! Each student has to take six of these courses.

The Day University Fell

2006-11-03T23:06:00.000+03:30

It is Aban 12 (I mean the twelfth day of the seventh month "Aban" in Iranian calendar) and it reminds me of what happened exactly two years ago in our university and how the respect of a university professor and the university itself was crushed under their feet. I don't believe most readers of my blog know about what happened in Elm-o-San'at that year, so I will provide you with a very brief account of the happenings.

On Aban 12, 1383 (November 3, 2004), Ebrahim Yazdi (secretary general of the Freedom Movement Party) and Mohammad Reza Tajzadeh (member of Islamic Iran Participation Front) were invited to the university to give lectures in Bahrami amphitheater). It was apparent even before that day that it is very probable that there will be unrest in the university upon their arrival because the two parties are part of the "opposition" body (if this word is the correct one for what if we have in Iran!) and in fact the Freedom Movement Party is mostly considered an illegal party by the ruling class.

The day before that, Mehdi Purrahim who is a political activist student met almost all the rooms in the "Inner Dormitory" and tried to persuade all in the program. The same night, announcement cards are spread across the dormitory that Basij is preparing an attack on tomorrow's program. Many students ask Purrahim to cancel the program and that the university does not need more political confrontations, but he does not accept.

The day after that (Aban 12), the program finally starts. Both Yazdi and Tajzadeh are there. There seems a lot of movement around the Basij cabin. On the other side, Ayatollah Najafi, the representative of the supreme leader in the university, is giving speech in the mosque and is saying that the program is illegal and without his counsel, and nobody cares (of course, except the members of Basij who were in fact acting on this!). One of the members of the Mohebban Group (a religious group) announces that the prayer holders in the mosque are going to go the the presidency building to protest. Suddenly a group of some 40 people leave the Basij cabin and start going towards the presidency building. A large crowd of students see everything.

Dr. Salehi (then president of the university) is leaving the building that he is interrupted by the group. They start beating and insulting and even some spit over him. Two university security officials are also beaten meanwhile.

The group move Salehi outside the university and, surprise, there is a bus awaiting them, and not a private bus but one belonging to Vahed company, government owned company in charge of inner city transport buses belonging to the municipality. They get Salehi on the bus and go away.

Holding a university professor hostage before everyone! The students cannot believe their eyes. Everyone surrounds the Basij cabin. Slowly rumor grows that the cabin should be destroyed! This is the same cabin its computer holds a lot of private information about the students, may it no longer be!

There are some 2000 students around the cabin. The students have only one demand: Dr. Salehi should be released or the cabin will be destroyed. At last, the crowd loses its patience. Many rush towards the cabin. It does not take long that the cabin ceases to exist.

Salehi was released the same day before the Science Ministry (Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, which is in charge of the universities). He is taken to a hospital.

This is a short account of what happened in the university on Aban 12 according to many students. Of course, there are many things in this account that Basij does not confirm. In fact, Basij does not confirm any direct connection with what happened on that day, although they mainly accuse the group who destroyed the Basij cabin while about Salehi, well, "he himself started everything by allowing those two enemies enter the university!" Shargh newspaper publishes a brief account of the on-goings and is immediately closed (temporarily) for "publishing lies" (I should also note that about a month ago Shargh was closed for publishing a cartoon related to what Ahmadinejad said, and this time the stoppage seems permanent).

The students stopped attending classes the next week (and so did many others in other university) to protest against Basij. A few days after that Salehi could leave the hospital and was welcomed again by a large crowd of the students; the attack brought him immediate popularity (on a basis of, "everyone who is their enemy, is our friend!"). The attackers were dismissed from the university and, ironically, were immediately accepted into Emam Hosein University (an army-owned university). A group of those who formed the attack on the Basij cabin were also "suspended" from attending the university for two semesters.

Salehi was the first (and probably last) university president after the Islamic revolution to have been chosen by a faculty election and was not appointed by a higher ranking official. He later resigned. Nothing remains currently of the Basij "spying" cabin. It has been replaced by some green fields and an ATM! There is also almost nothing remaining to remind us of what happened two years ago, and the many questions who rose in the minds of the students, if not yet vanished completely from their memories, will soon go away and then, well, nothing happened! After all, how many people remember those students who were beaten and killed in Tehran University dormitory two years ago?

The Blacksmith (Episode II)

2006-11-03T16:23:00.001+03:30

It is the era of Jamshid, the one who had the sheed (the light) upon him and the one who hold the Farr (the imperial glory) for such a long time. There was never an era like his, nor there is going to be an era like that before the Later Day (at the end of the world). But the era of the one with the light is ending.

It is before an audience of great leaders of the world that Jamshid's fall begins. "Tell me who brought the world new order," He tells them, "who brought you good eating and peaceful sleeping and comfortable living? Who drove away the demons from your lands? Who taught you the arts and the ways of ordering your communities? The crown and the throne of the world are mine, tell me who else deserves the kingship of the world?"

And this way, the Farr departs from him. The end of the golden era of the world is coming. One can see darkness in the western horizon. Jamshid's cup shows a clouded world, but he does not bother taking a look at it.

* * *

In the west, in Arabia, Zahhak had been seduced by Ahriman and had killed his father and become the ruler of Arabs. It is for the second time that Ahriman (the evil spirit) comes to him, disguised as a good looking man, and introduces himself as a skilled cook and offers to cook Zahhak extraordinary foods. He cooks many fabulous meals and when Zahhak lets him ask something from him, he simply asks to kiss the king's shoulders. Zahhak is fool enough to let him do that and as soon as Ahriman touches Zahhak's shoulders he disappears and two serpents rise upon Zahhak's shoulders. Zahhak, frightened to death, cuts the two serpents but they grow again. Then he calls upon all the physicians of his land to cure him, but to no avail. Then for the third time Ahriman comes to him, this time disguised as a skilled physician, and tells him the only way he has is to feed the serpents with man's brain to keep them calm and maybe someday they will wither away. And Zahhak starts doing that, completing his journey towards becoming an Azhi (dragon).

* * *

When the Farr leaves Jamshid, his commanders rise up against his authority. Rebellion spreads throughout the land and when Zahhak the Azhi comes to overthrow him, he simply flees. The world has fallen.

This way, Zahhak becomes the ruler of the world. Those who did not stand against him when he rose against Jamshid realized soon that they have exchanged the bad for the worse. Little they know that they have also been saved from the worst. Anyhow, each day two men are killed to feed his serpents. Sorcery spreads the world. The ways of righteous, all those who Jamshid brought, are almost forgotten. Until one night Zahhak has a horrible dream. He wakes up scared and finds Arnavaz (Jamshid's daughter who Zahhak brought her to himself and cast a spell on her along with her sister, Shahrnavaz) besides him Arnavaz asks him, "what is it my lord? Tell me what have you seen in the dream?" Zahhak tells her, "I saw three warriors coming to me, and the youngest of them beat me with his mace and dragged me towards a tall mountain." Then he summons the wise men and the dream-readers to explain him the dream. But the men are afraid to tell anything, until Zahhak becomes angry and finally one of them tells him that his reign is coming to an end and a man, still not born from mother, is going to overthrow him. They even tell the man's name: Fereydun.

Zahhak searches all the world for Fereydun, and meanwhile Abtin, Fereydun's father, is killed to feed Zahhak's serpents, and then later Barmayeh, a great cow whose milk feeds young Fereydun is also killed by Zahhak's men, while Fereydun's mother takes him to Alborz mountains to keep him from Zahhak's spies.

Years pass as all efforts to find Fereydun are in vain and Zahhak, who is still much frightened by the prophecy, summons an assembly of the kingdom's leading men to have them all testify his righteousness.

The Long Expected Entrance

2006-10-28T20:04:00.000+03:30

Finally the new main entrance of our university was today inaugurated with an official ceremony in which Mohammad Ghalibaf, the Tehran mayor, was among the invitees. The entrance structure was undergoing construction for about three years. I like the new entrance, even more than the famous entrance of Tehran university. You can see a picture of it in the above picture (If you want to compare it with the Tehran university entrance, there is a small picture of it on the the main page of their website.)

The Blacksmith (Episode I)

2006-10-27T20:50:00.000+03:30

There is a large crowd of people gathered around the palace. Inside, all leading men of the kingdom are around the large hall. At the end of the hall the sorcerer king is sitting on his throne. The two serpents who had grown long ago on his shoulders are still slowly moving around his head. The hall is now in a fearful silence as he starts to speak. "You are all aware of my deeds, men of my kingdom," he says, "and you're aware that I have done nothing but good, for you, and for our people, and for our land." The hall is still in silence.

"So you are now signing this document, testifying this. That I have always been in the righteous path, that no harm has ever come from me to any man, that the world has always been in peace under my reign."

Now, the men in the hall are doing nothing but silently signing the document, without the slightest defiance. It was then that a voice of tumult is heard from the hallway, and suddenly a man, wearing a blacksmith's apron, enters the hall shouting.

"O' King! I am Kaveh, the complainant," he calls out, "I have come to complain from you, for I have had eighteen sons seventeen of which have been killed by your men and whose brains have been eaten by your shoulder serpents, and now the last one of them is in your prison to be killed the same way soon. If you are the king of the world, and you are the snake-shouldered, why should we people suffer?"

Zahhak, the snake-shouldered king, shocked by the man's move, can only call for freeing the blacksmith's son. Then, angry in his heart but unable to do anything, he hands the document to Kaveh and asks him to sign it. "Now sign this, as you have seen my justice," he says.

Kaveh reads the documents and gets angry. "You have all become the agents of evil, having signed this document of lies for the fear of the demon," he says to the men in the hall, then he tears the document apart and leaves the hall along with his son.

The Irony of Names

2006-10-23T00:43:00.000+03:30

The insistence of the the Islamic government of Iran to name the streets of the cities after Islamic figures sometimes causes ridiculous situations in which not only no one uses the name, but many cannot even pronounce it! Probably the most interesting one is the "Hojr ebn Oday" street in Tehran. Almost no one uses this name to call the street (it is very strange to many people), few people know who this Hojr has been or even know how they should pronounce the name (because in Persian, short vowels are not ordinarily written), and more ironic than that is that it seems that even the city officials, at least those in charge of the signs at the beginning of the streets, don't know what this name is all about, because the signs are inconsistant (in their English section where the pronunciation is clearer) and almost all of them are incorrect! If you take a look at the picture I've taken, you see that it reads "Hajar ebn Oday" and I've even seen some places where the signs read "Hajar ebn Adi", while Hajar in Arabic means "stone" and I don't think even Arabs call themselves stone!

The people of the area call the street "Tir andaz" (which means "the archer"). In fact, the street was originally called "Arash-e Tir andaz" (Arash The Archer) in honor of Arash the great Iranian legend (the same one I had two posts about) and was later renamed after the Islamic revolution. And who is Hojr? Hojr ebn-Oday (Hojr son of Oday) was one of the close followers of Ali (Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law) who was killed by the order of Mo'avieh the Omavi caliph. But no matter who he is, the important fact is Hojr does not exist for the average Iranian and really few people know about him or care about him (and the fact that I do know about him proves that I am not an average Iranian! :) ). Of course, due to the government's deliberate neglecting of Arash's story in the media and at schools, even a great legend such as Arash is getting overlooked by the average Iranian, but I think still there are more people who know Arash and almost all who know him surely respect him, while this is not true about Hojr, that is clear by the naming issue I mentioned, and many other figures whose names (or their erroneous name!) pose on the street signs.

A Frightened Government

2006-10-18T12:06:00.000+03:30

The Islamic Republic government has officially ordered all broadband service providers to stop providing broadband services with a speed higher than 128kbps. I haven't heard anywhere they have announced the reason, but I think I know it: fear, great fear of their citizens. Why else they may want us not to have a high speed internet connection other than that they don't like the internet itself and they are just understanding that the internet is not something they can restrain easily. They are spending millions of dollars for all the equipment they need for filtering and controlling the internet but still it slips from their hands easily. And they have been probably thinking if we cannot control it, at least we should do our best to minimize the use of it. Then someone tells the big guy, "Hey! Take a look at this. This ADSL stuff lets them to access the enemy's media so easily and with such a high speed. You must do something about it." And then they got more afraid. The result, is another tie they are trying to fasten around the internet.

This surely annoys me and many others, but who cares. They may even get happy if this causes a few more of us leave the country. I heard Haddad-e-Adel (current head of the parliament) has said "Even if half of the 'brains' leave the country, we shouldn't worry, because the other half would be enough for us!" This is their logic, and it surely makes sense from their point of view. But they are making the same strategic mistake every dictator makes. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers," as Princess Leia said in Star Wars and I believe this is what they are going to get.

Fear is their powerful weapon, yet they are themselves beaten by it more than anyone else.

Simulated Real Life

2006-10-17T19:15:00.000+03:30

“A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day. The master noted the novice’s preoccupation with a hand-held computer game. “Excuse me”, he said, “may I examine it?”

The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the master. “I see that the device claims to have three levels of play: Easy, Medium and Hard”, said the master. “Yet every such device has another level of play, where the device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered by the human.”

“Pray, great master”, implored the novice, “how does one find this mysterious setting?”

The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it under foot. And suddenly the novice was enlightened.” –The Tao of Programming, Geoffrey James

This is how the master programmer talks about video games. Probably if he could find me spending so much time in a video game, he would crush my computer under his feet, too! Of course, the master programmer does not completely reject video games (“…[The Tao] is even in a video game,” he says somewhere else), but anyhow I know I should do something about it since I have been spending much of my spare time playing The Sims 2 in the last few days. I have so much other things to do, and I plan to do half a dozen of them from noon to night, then at midnight I find that I have done almost nothing but guiding my sims through their lives for a few days! The interesting point is that it’s somehow like the game the master programmer explained, “where the device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered by the human”. Yes. The Sims is not an ordinary game. It’s “real life” simulated. I remember what some Dark Throne players say, “RL is more important that DT!” (that is, real life is more important than playing Dark Throne). Now I think I should say to myself, “RRL is more important than SRL!” (Real real life is more important than simulated real life.)

Arash, Another Lookَ

2006-10-12T20:19:00.000+03:30

My previous post was about Arash the Archer. It was a short retelling of the story in English by myself and I hope I have done it well, since it is one of my favorite stories. I believe, of course, the best narrative is by Siavash Kasrayi who told the old story in verse so beautifully. I think, there is an English translation of Kasrayi's narrative, although I have not read it.

The story, as you may have read from my previous post, tells the story of a man who puts his life on an arrow and throws it so far that it frees the entire land of Iran from the occupation of the barbarian Turanians and, believe it or not, every time I read the story it brings tears to my eyes. I'm not sure why. Probably because of the beauty of the story, or probably because of the great devotion of Arash, or probably both and much more. If you like the story, here's some more information about it.

The battles between the uncivilized people, called Turanians, who lived east of Iran in Central Asia shapes a large part of the Iranian legends and mythology, especially those narrated by Ferdowsi in his grand epic Shahnameh. Ferdowsi has referred to Arash in his book several times but has not mentioned the story. The story is attested in Avesta that shows how old it is (at least 1000 B.C.). In modern time, the story came into popularity again after Siavash Kasrayi published his narrative of it in verse.

Let's take another look at the legend.

The story starts in a time that Turanians have moved forward far into the Iranian territories and have reached near Mount Damavand. Damavand is usually considered the heart of Iran, and Iran at that time was a very larger country that its north eastern border was the Oxus river in Central Asia. Turanians, eager to smash the hearts of the peoples of Iran, suggest that the border between the two countries should be set upon the place an arrow, thrown by an Iranian archer, lands. No one in Iran is willing to accept the arrow until it comes to Arash, an ordinary man from an ordinary family. He goes upon the mountain and, knowing that no mere arrow can fly that much to cover all Iran-Zamin, puts his life on the arrow and throws it. The arrow flies by the power of his spirit and goes as far as the far bank of the Oxus and sets the eastern border of the empire for many centuries, while Arash's body is turned into many pieces and spread all over the land.

It is said that the spirit of Arash still dwells in Mount Damavand and helps the lost people find their way.

The One with the Arrow

2006-10-12T18:31:00.000+03:30

It is a dark time; the time of ruin, the time of corruption, the time of the decline of the civilized and the advance of the barbarian, the time of the going of the light and the coming of the dark. Wherever you look, you see suffering, you see sorrow, you see despair.

In the battlefield there is only the huge pile of the dead and a few men standing at the side of Iran with their lord before the huge army of the barbarians, the last of the guardians of the Shah, in the eyes of all of which it can be seen the exhaustion of the battle. It is only now that Afrasiab, the lord of Turanians, has accepted the peace with only one condition. There is an arrow in his hands and a snicker on his mouth while he shouts "Our border shall be the place this arrow lands", and Manuchehr the Shah says, "yes, to the place the arrow flies, it is Iran". But Afrasiab laughs at him in his heart, "You fool! But who is going to throw it?! No man has remained of your archers".

And the arrow is passed by, going from one hand to another, throughout the land and no one dares to accept it, until it comes to Arash.

And it is Arash that, holding the arrow firmly in his hand, is going north to the heart of the land. To Damavand.

A cold wind is blowing. Arash looks upon the mountain as he goes north and although he is walking strongly, a trembling passes his body. "No", he says, "it's not me. It's the wind". And he takes his next steps.

"Wait", a voice calls, "Wait". There's a man running behind him. "That will go to nowhere, Arash. Go back. Go back and throw the arrow towards Afrasiab himself", the man says.

"No", answers Arash, "I will not do that because then another Afrasiab is going to rise and replace him. I'm going to end this once and for all. I'm going to free all with my arrow". And he continues his way as he goes towards the mountain.

And now, Arash is standing on the peak of Damavand, and he looks upon his land, and upon his people, and upon his Shah, and upon his bow and his arrow. And then Arash strains his bow as never before and as soon as he lets the arrow fly, his bow hits the ground.

Tomorrow, when people go searching for Arash, they return only carrying his bow, never finding a sign of his body.

And it was at the noon of that day that people could find an arrow upon the body of an old walnut tree on the far bank of the Oxus river; the glorious sign of a victorious nation.

And it was the only arrow, whose flying made the sun smile, and its falling made the earth happy. It was the flying of the spirit of the one with the arrow.