ztraffer

Neda Agha-Soltan

Widening Rift in the Clergy It appears that the rift among the the top religious authorities in Iran continues to gain momentum, with the Ayatollah Khameini having to lean more and more in his enforement agencies and less in the rule of law, while his moral authority seems to be spiraling down in all but the most conservative Iranians. According to Reuters the most senior opposition ayatollah, Hossein Ali Montazeri , distanced himself further from Iran’s supreme leader, saying that “ Resisting people’s demand is religiously prohibited … I am calling for three days of national mourning from Wednesday.” and described the election results as something that “ no wise person in their right mind can believe .” Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani , who leads the 86-member Assembly of Experts -a goverment body with legal authority to remove the Supreme Leader-, is supposed to be playing a quiet but critical role in organizing the opposition. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani is...

With chants of "Allah-o-akbar!" ("God is great!") and ”Marg Bar dictator!” ("Death to the dictator!"), the people marched all over Iran today in defiance of Yesterday's threats of violence by the Ayatollah Khameini. Reports of massive use of tear gass, water cannons, and in some cases live bullets slowed slowed down the demonstrations, but did not manage to stop them completely. It looks like the government of Iran has but two options: become a plain dictatorship in all but name, or veer towards freedom and reform. Here is one of the many websites following the ongoing events Videos, photographs, and blogspostes abound. The people are leaving no room for doubt about what they want, and their willingness to pay whatever cost is necessary: >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBOBhguAjjY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t54KKSVl-c Don't miss these revealing facts about the election results here . Meanwhile, demonstrations by Iraninan citizens and the...

A blog post in Persian, translated by the NIAC "I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It's worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I'm two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a be...

In 1979, the people of Iran raised up to overthrow a goverment they did not approve of. That revolution was supposed to put in place an islamic goverment, empowered by the people. But the recent and highly contested election results triggered a series of protests in which the people of Iran made clear that they did not feel empowered by their government. "It's not about Mousavi, or any candidate, it's about democracy" explained a young protester in the streets of Teheran. It seems to me, from the multiple accounts, interviews, tweets, blogs, and cell-phone videos from the streets, that the people weren't particularly upset with the system of government -at least at the beginning- they just wanted to have a say in how things are run, and they want to be able to express themselves freely -the problem is that this is a classic example of what happens when one branch of government has power over the others: the people's sovereignty soon starts to fade. So now, wit...

I find that knowing my own and other people's personality types can be helpful to understand behavior and motivation, and therefore help find the logic in apparently confusing or contradictory behavior. This tool can then help counteract the classical mistake of assuming that behavior in others is caused by the same motivations or understanding of the world as one's own. Type selector > Test > This is what I got: Your Type is INTJ Strength of the preferences % Introverted - 78 Intuitive - 75 Thinking - 38 Judging - 22 What did you get...?

On June 4th, 20 years ago, many brave people died for demanding that their voices be heard. They wanted reform, freedom, and democracy. I think that when someone takes a stand for freedom at the risk of their own lives, they not only bring honor upon themselves, but elevate all of us, as a species, and we should all be proud of them, our brothers and sisters in the human family. As a small tribute to them, I spent some time reading about, and pondering the events that took place during the weeks that culminated that night on Tiananmen square. Two quotes in particular caught my attention: "Whether you like or not, the events ensured 20 years of fast economic growth" Beijing Netizen, Beijing "June 4th was a time when a group of people sacrificed their lives for democracy. We need to remember their efforts" Steve Chan, Hong Kong It cannot be denied that a peaceful demonstration for freedom is an honorable action and stems from basic human rights -on this belief we shou...

After brief experimentation, I have found no great performance gap between Google and Bing -Microsoft's latest Search Engine re-launch. They are marketing it as a "Decision Engine"; it is supposed to help you sort through results better by selecting more "credible" sources (better-paying sources?) I can't wait for the conspiracy theories on that. While Bing doesn't really have more to offer than Google, it does a better job of presenting and advertising its features. Even the simple, clean-looking Google interface, one of its best liked features, looks a bit too simple after Bing's nice interactive wallpapers. I am sure that if a proper comparisson is done, Google will come out on top performance-wise, at least initially, but for the first time, Microsoft appears to have come up with a credible adversary to Google, and in view of Microsoft's past history, even mighty Google should be losing some sleep. Or has Microsoft finally met its match? Eit...