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Indian feminist stories- part II
To read Part I click here.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. Hence all characters in this story belong to @blog_supplement and not to me. The stories are all meant to be in humour and not to offend anyone.
Vidrum tried to keep up with Somakhya who was running towards Lootika's house like his life depended on it.
"Now come on Somakhya I understand that this situation might not seem very nice for you", began Vidrum. "But think about it in a more positive light. Lootika's impressive physical beauty plus Meghana's awesome trendy personality would make the absolute wonder woman. You will not be able to resist her. Trust me."
Somakhya stopped and shook Vidrum and screamed, "No!!!!!"
Somakhya then said, "Vrishchika, Varoli and Jhileeka have all gone to their grandparents house last week and still haven't come back. That means only Lootika and her parents might be home. I hope her parents didn't get a heart attack seeing her new avatar. They dote on her a lot."
They continued to reach the familiar street where Lootika lived which was not too far from Somakhya's house. They paused when they reached her house and out of habit they tidied their hair and clothes and chewed on some mint as their mothers always told them to do before entering a girl's house. They knocked on the door and after a few moments it was opened by Lootika. They saw that Meghana was standing right behind her. Somakhya noticed that Lootika looked different in many ways. She had removed her tilaka completely and had some arabic mehendi on her hands. Her usual intellectual woman demeanor had been replaced with an arrogant Bollywood diva demeanor.
Lootika looked at them and said, "Oh look Meghana, just when we were enjoying our time together these sexually frustrated Hindu males had to turn up. Oh my god this country is just too patriarchal that secular sisters can't even have some alone time to talk without some Hindu male pig barging in the middle. Well that gives me an idea of a new bashtag I can make on Bitter – #NoTimeForWomen
Yes that should get me a lot of re-beets for sure."
"Looks like it happened", Vidrum whispered to Somakhya.
Lootika sighed and went to the kitchen while Vidrum went to Meghana. Vidrum asked Meghana, "What happened to her and why did you come over?"
Meghana's eyes were sparkling. "She became awesome that's what happened. She is no longer the fascist she was before and I've changed my mind about her. She invited me over since her parents have gone out.
Vidrum looked at Somakhya. Somakhya shrugged and said, "Well at least she hasn't kicked us out now. Let's stay and see if I can think of a cure. I remember Lootika telling me about a cure for it when we discovered this but I forgot and I doubt she is in a state to tell me now. First I'll call Lootika's parents to tell them not to get too alarmed about this situation."
Somakhya went outside to make the call and Lootika called Meghana to come over to her room to continue talking.
Meghana told Vidrum, "I suppose you guys can come too. We have some snacks."
Somakhya came back in and they went to Lootika's room. Lootika was smoking a cigarette and she beckoned Meghana to sit on the beanie bag next to her. Meghana grabbed a bag of chips and sat down while Somakhya and Vidrum decided to stand near them and lean on the wall instead. Lootika started smoking a cigarette and said, "Well Meghana tell me about how it is in the feminist club. I'm being invited to their weekly general meetings starting this week. I just wanted to know if there are some snooty bitches there that I might need to compete with in being secular. Not that they can ever match me of course."
Meghana almost choked on her chips. "You got invited to the general meetings?"
"Yes of course", said Lootika. "I called them just before you came and asked them why the hell they didn't let an uber feminist like me join the feminist club. That too when I have 10k followers on Bitter. At first when they heard my name for some odd reason they got vehemently angry with me but after conversing with me for some time and reading my new beets on Bitter they changed their mind. They said based on my performance and behaviour in the weekly general meetings they would allow me to join the weekly 'liberation from the Hindu phallus' meetings that are conducted every Friday just before the bolly femina night party."
Now Meghana was really choking on her chips. "The weekly 'liberation from the Hindu phallus' meetings?? You got promised to get into that? Those are the most prestigious of all the feminist club meetings. Only the uber female elites are allowed in there. Getting free admission into them is no less than getting free admission into Harvard."
"It's all in a day's work for me. Otherwise my name wouldn't be Lootika, would it? Yes, I aim high always. Next I'm going to climb the feminist ladder and reach the top. Along the way of course I'm going to get a marunmatta bf, anyway not like that needs any effort on my part. But I would prefer him to be of Arab blood because I like high quality."
Meghana threw her chips bag away and looked a little upset. "Screw that I'm just going to become fat if I eat those! I want an Arab blood guy too after all!"
"But Meghana", began Vidrum.
"Shut up I'm in a bad mood", she said. "Anyway this is sister time so don't talk."
Lootika opened a bottle of scotch next to her and the cork flew into Vidrum's face. Lootika turned to Meghana and said, "Oh yeah I forgot to tell you something really trivial that happened to me. Some boy from university named Abdul Khan called me before you came in and asked me if I was willing to go out with him to the Bollywood bar tomorrow night. I told him look dude I sympathize with minority males a lot but I really don't know you and perhaps you are not at my league so I'll have to think about it."
This time Meghana couldn't control herself and shouted, "What the fuck! Abdul Khan is the most uber handsome alpha marunmatta we ever knew other than the Bollywood Khans! You are thinking about whether you should go with him or not?"
"You want me to tell him to go out with you instead?" asked Lootika. "Because I'm totally fine with that. I'm sure an Arab prince will come to take me out sooner or later if this fascist country allows him to come here."
"No thanks, Miss privileged!" shouted Meghana sobbing. "He asked you out not me. What an entitled bitch you are! I never even got invited to any feminist meetings ever before. They only allowed me to edit the articles. And Abdul Khan never ever wanted anything from me other than a strand of my hair."
Meghana ran out of the house sobbing.
"Well that escalated quickly", Vidrum whispered to Somakhya. "Lootika and Meghana can't get along even if Lootika is secular. What a wonder."
"What a jealous bitch she is", observed Lootika. "So this is the quality of feminists they produce these days. Tsk tsk. I have to correct things when I come into power. Secularism first, jealous later. That should be the slogan."
Lootika then turned to Vidrum and Somakhya and crossed her arms and said, "Well what do you two Hindu lechers want from me?"
Vidrum swept his hair back and said, "But sweetheart can't you see I'm secular?"
Lootika shrugged. "Still an unattractive Indian male."
"Well?" Lootika said turning to Somakhya.
Somakhya didn't respond to her. He didn't feel the need to. Besides she seemed more like an alien to him now rather than the Lootika he knew all these years. Sure, her looks were still the same but as he told himself one must not get overly attached to the charms of a woman lest they be burdened with too much misery. Just as the wise Buddha had said every perceived joy in this world is ephemeral and the Lootika today might not be the Lootika tomorrow.
Vidrum elbowed him and said, "Come on quit thinking so seriously. This is a parody, not MT's blog. And to top it all it is never recorded that the wise Buddha never said anything like the Lootika today might not be the Lootika tommorow."
"Yes", said Somakhya. "That line is going to be my copyrighted teaching when I renounce the worldly life. Anyway we have nothing to gain over here now. Its getting late so let's go to my house and rack our brains to see if we can find a cure."
To be continued…
The author uses twitter handle @arunbeeta
To know more about the original characters and read other stories from @blog_supplement click here.


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City Council voted on routing for BRT + AT
April 30, 2019 – After a long City Council meeting of listening to public, experts and administration, followed by sincere discussion and debate, City Council voted yesterday evening on routing for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Active Transportation (AT), including within our Downtown corridor.
Downtown Saskatoon's voice was among those present to share excitement and concern for routing options. Thanks kindly to our membership for arming us with these stats and comments in our recent survey. Regarding BRT – 72% prefer 1st Avenue over 3rd Avenue.
BRT Routing
- The north-south Downtown route of BRT will run down 1st Avenue,
- There will be non-dedicated running lanes routed along Broadway, and
- There will still be debate on whether the buses run to 1st Avenue along 19th or 20th Street from the Broadway Bridge. Due to Council also endorsing 19th Street as a bike lane route, routing BRT from Broadway Bridge to 4th Avenue, west at 20th Street and on to 1st Avenue, will be the least conflicting.
AT Routing
With respect to bike lanes (Active Transportation), Council approved the following motion below. There will be continued work and dialog with respect to the north-south AT route with the hopes that some of the issues we and many others raised will be improved – better design, less parking loss, etc.
- The existing protected bike lanes on 4th Avenue be removed by June 30, 2019,
- 3rd Avenue, 23rd Street and 19th Street (Option 1) were endorsed as the future Downtown AT network, but that implementation decisions (including capital or detailed design expenses) be deferred until the administration has completed engagement based on the following criteria:
- That the active transportation network be designed for all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and those with accessibility needs,
- That design and configuration options for the network should be drawn from collaborative engagement with all affected stakeholders (including Downtown Saskatoon), and that these options be focused on enhancing the public realm for all users,
- That engagement include outstanding concerns, including parking, design standards, streetscaping and construction, and
- In 2021, after engagement, that administration report back with opportunities to reduce costs by completing active transportation work in conjunction with future streetscaping improvements.

subset: commoncrawl


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I first saw Hayv Kahraman's paintings at Art Dubai in 2009 and happened to meet her that same day at the art fair's opening reception. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized this young Iraqi woman was the one creating these haunting pieces which had so profoundly struck me. We've been in touch ever since and I've written several articles on her, most recently a feature for the April issue of Modern Painters. Her extraordinary life experiences infuse her work with such maturity that it's easy to forget she's in her early 30's. Born in Baghdad, she and her family fled to Sweden in 1991 at the outbreak of the first Gulf War. After ten formative years in Sweden, she studied graphic design in Italy before moving to the U.S. with her husband, painter Anthony Velasquez. Now based in the Bay Area, Hayv is a burgeoning art star, but largely outside of the U.S. This is most likely due to her not having had much exposure stateside: She hasn't been in many gallery shows or exhibitions. Hopefully, her international success will help her get a break in the U.S. In 2011, she was short listed by the Victoria and Albert Museum for the Jameel Prize, an international award for contemporary art inspired by Islamic tradition. Her work is in Doha's Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the Rubell Collection and the Saatchi Collection. Her gallery shows in Dubai and Doha have sold out and she can barely keep up with demand. In her figurative work, she weaves together diverse historical sources such as the Italian Renaissance, Persian miniatures, Arab geometry and 19th-century European graphic art to create beautiful work dealing with violent subject matters like genital mutilation and honor killings. This desire to create beautiful work comes from her experience in graphic design, where symmetry and aesthetics are of utmost importance. Witnessing her country torn apart by war and violence, especially against women, has informed the subject matter in her work. Now, after six years of working in figuration, Hayv is pushing her practice and creating a new abstract and conceptual series.
Yasmine Mohseni: Tell me about your upcoming exhibition(s)
Hayv Kahraman: At the moment, I am preparing for my second solo show in October 2012 at The Third Line gallery in Dubai, where I'm exploring themes of the body as a cultural construct and how our bodies occupy space. Right now, I'm working on a piece that involves a detailed scan of my own body that will then be cross sectioned into 542 horizontal slices and nested into 12 pentagonal frames, creating an unfolded dodecahedron. It will be made of cow skin, or rather rawhide, which is essentially the step before making leather where the skin has only been cleaned and soaked in lime. It's proving to be a very interesting material to work with both conceptually as well as physically!
YM: Describe your style
HK: This is a hard question for me right now as I find myself shifting into different stylistic realms. While the underlying questions of diaspora and gender are still catalysts in my work, stylistically my work has shifted towards a more abstract translation of patterns. In earlier work, these patterns were manifested through a fusion of Arabic calligraphy, Persian miniatures, the Italian Renaissance and Japanese prints. Recently, I've been fascinated with geometry and symmetrical systems of solids and tessellations. I'm attracted to the idea of symmetry as a representation of the sublime in a Kantian sense, and how these systems of patterns can be a reflection of the infinite.
YM: Why did you become an artist?
HK:Ah the clichéd answer would be because it serves as the perfect gateway to question the world around me, which is utterly true! But, it's also the only thing I know how to do.
YM: Which single artwork in art history has inspired you the most?
HK: Wow! Tough one! I'm not sure I have one single work I can refer to especially since my periodic obsessions are all very strong. Right now, I'm obsessed with grid patterns. A few years ago I was obsessed with Artemisia Gentileschi's "Judith Slaying Holofernes" and the Fayum portraits.
YM: Which artists (living or dead) do you find most inspiring?
HK: Living, Shirin Neshat and Mona Hatoum have inspired me a great deal. Dead, I would have to say Bihzad, Kurosawa and Raphael.
Work from Hayv Kahraman's new series will be on view at The Third Line booth at Art Dubai, opening on March 21. [...]
From the HuffPost website.


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By Placing this vote, you agree that you have listened to the audio submitted by all finalists of The Next Voice Over Star via The Wendy Edwards Show podcast for AUDIO BOOK WEEK. VOTE ONLY ONCE. As our finalists compete to become The Next Voice Over Star, it comes down to YOU to make it happen. Cast your vote for the contestant whose quality of work was the best for AUDIO BOOK WEEK on The Wendy Edwards Show and help them to become The Next Voice Over Star! http://wendyedwards.com
Who is The Next Voice Over Star of AUDIO BOOK WEEK?
|7% (7)
|JD Dickinson
|66% (66)
|Steve Noland
|1% (1)
|Justin Beck
|25% (25)
|Jason See
99 voters have answered this question.
This poll was created on 2011-03-23 00:34:03 by wendytime


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Play icon radio icon rewind icon right arrow
Jerry Judy WR Alabama Denver Broncos 16.LeBron James 5.Ruthy Hebard F Oregon Chicago Sky 9.Kitkja Laska G Latvia Seattle Storm 12.Kitkja Laska G Latvia Seattle Storm 12.4 �?Super Bowl LIX TBD Feb.
Patrick Queens LB LSU Baltimore Ravens 29.But to us, it happened, and it was a good learning experience for some of our guys.Brandon Alyuk WR Arizona State San Francisco 49ers 26.
Breida's absence meant that Raheem Mostert got some of the game's most important carries in overtime.Derrick Brown DT Auburn Carolina Panthers 8.�?The Hershey Company: Hello Happy.
Championships, the things I do in the community, being a good teammate, playing hard.
Megan Rapinoe 2.Sheets are currently being sold at a dedicated Web site and will also be available at retail nationwide, including GNC and convenience stores, beginning in June.Lauren Cox F Baylor Indiana Fever 4.Lionel Messi 3.
Jordan Love QB Utah State Green Bay Packers 27.Austin Jackson T USC Miami Dolphins 19.MiLB's national partners, including BAM Live, ECHO Incorporated, Guardian Protection, ISM Connect, Nationwide, Satisfi Labs, Screenvision, Stouffer's, and Uncle Ray's, are part of the campaign.A multi-media campaign coming in May includes Phelps and Raisman on the front of Silk Soymilk cartons.Kenneth Murray LB Oklahoma Los Angeles Chargers 24.
Special Forces use an encapsulated silver fibre put into clothing as it is being manufactured to fight odor and bacteria, which lasts pretty much for the lifetime of the garment.He took his case to court; in 2016, a judge ruled that Dre's alliance with Lee had ended prior to the Apple buy, leaving Lee without any of the Apple loot.Plus, he had a baby.The match, which pitted MLS stars against Chelsea of the English Premier League, was labeled the first smart game in pro sports history.Alex Morgan 5.
On Derby Day, Blue Moon will create a branded pop-up venue on the Churchill Downs infield.Kitkja Laska G Latvia Seattle Storm 12.He's a veteran guy, just plugging him in during the week with different things to work for.Sprint is in the first year of a four-year deal with the NBA, under which it replaced T-Mobile as the league's official wireless communications partner.�?According to data and consulting firm NPD Group, the U.S.
That they see me as a leader, see me as a guy they trust means a lot.Financial terms of the pact, which runs through the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, were not shared.They need speed to stick with Philly.


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The Culture Hotel Villa Capodimonte was built on 1995 in Naples and is situated on the same hill where King Charled III of Borbone built the wonderful Capodimonte Royal Palace (18th century) which is immersed in a stunning botanic park that includes today a famous Art Gallery with beautiful art pieces.
The facility is surrounded by historical and important buildings: it is surmounted by the antique Palasciano Tower (19th century) that once it was the Florentine style residence of the founder of the Red Cross.
Nearby the hotel rises also the Astronomic Observatory (19th century) established by G. Murat which today is in part organized as a museum of antique equipment.
Our hotel boasts a strategic position: the historical city centre of Naples is located few steps far, the exit of the highway is at 900 metres and the Airport at just 7 km. For this reason the Hotel Villa Capodimonte is the ideal choice both for those who travel for business and for leisure.
Inside the Culture Hotel Villa Capodimonte, our guests will be welcomed in one of the 55 comfortable rooms and they will have at disposal several services and comforts such as a spacious restaurant lounge, an American bar, solarium, Internet point, free parking space and garage.
Our facility is ani deal place for those who have to organize congresses and business meetings thanks its fully equipped meeting point and its 5 congress rooms which can host maximum 120 persons.
The hotel offers its guests free parking facilities and a complimentary shuttle service to the historic center.
Give us your Feedback
Culture Hotel Villa Capodimonte, Via Moiariello, 66 - Naples


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As Carl Sagan once said, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." And if you wish to make a moon from scratch, according to new research, you must first create planets with rings (after inventing the universe, of course).
Earth's moon may have emerged from a long-vanished ring system, much like the rings still encircling Saturn—and the same goes for many of the satellites orbiting the other planets. The bulk of the solar system's regular satellites—those moons that stick close to their planets in roughly equatorial orbits—formed this way, rather than taking shape simultaneously with the planets as a direct result of planet formation, French astrophysicists have concluded. The researchers reported their findings in a November 2012 issue of Science.
Through theoretical modeling, Aurélien Crida of the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis and Sébastien Charnoz of the University of Paris Diderot found that the moon-formation action begins at the edge of a planetary ring, where a satellite can take shape without being shredded by the gravitational pull of the planet. There moonlets coagulate from the ring material before migrating outward. As the ring system spits out moonlet after moonlet, the small objects merge to form larger moons, which may merge in turn as they spiral outward from the planet.
The new hypothesis seems to explain a key commonality among the regular satellites of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—namely, that moons farther from their respective planet tend to have larger masses than their closer-in neighbors. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the coalescing moons grow larger and larger as they drift farther from the planet and its rings and undergo progressively more mergers along the way. The end result is a neatly ordered satellite system, with small moons on the inside built from few moonlets and large moons farther out built from numerous moonlets.
Planetary scientists generally accept that a giant impact into the newly formed Earth ejected a huge cloud of material that became our moon. In Crida and Charnoz's conception, that ejecta first flattened into a ring around the planet, which then spread out and coagulated into the moon.
The new hypothesis is not without its problems. For example, if extensive, Saturn-like ring systems once adorned Neptune and Uranus, where are they now? "We have a few ideas, but nothing too convincing," Crida says. "But I think we can find good reasons for the disappearance of the rings, and the satellites remain as the smoking gun."


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Month: July 2009
Sentences to ponder
Jason Kottke reports:
The collective optimization of individual driving routes by drivers using realtime traffic maps slows everyone down.
That is, everyone picking the "fastest" route on the map results in
overall slowdowns. Interestingly, the solution to this problem may be
to remove some roads so that drivers have fewer options for route
Here is more. To how many other problems can this point be applied?
Assorted links
1. Motley Fool podcast, by me.
3. Chess players play the "beauty contest" game.
4. The Robot Gamelan Orchestra.
5. Markets in everything, a new use for pigeon blood, the link is safe for work but not for everybody.
From the comments: who lives longer?
Adam reports:
At birth, someone living in the Netherlands can expect to live 2.35
years longer than someone born in the US, but at age 65, the difference
is reversed, and someone living in the US can expect to live 0.4 years
longer than someone living in the Netherlands. This difference can be
explained by assuming that semi-socialized health care is better for
young and worse for old people, or, at least as likely, different
policies are not the main cause of the difference
Sources: CDC national vital statistics 2004,
www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_09.pdf and RIVM 2007
levensverwachting, www.rivm.nl/vtv/object_document/o2309n18838.html (in
One interesting feature of this data is that it can be used to argue for a number of different points of view.
*Imperial*, by William Vollmann
It is glorious in its 1100 pp. plus of text, analytical diatribes, love stories, monomaniacal rants, ecological analyses, and unevenly eloquent prose. I'm on p.206 and so far it's a first-rate book on the Mexican-American border (Imperial is a county in California), low lifes, the desperation of America's empty spaces, and this is from an author who issues books like others do blog posts.
Suddenly I turn the page and see a heading: Warning of Impending Aridity. Some text follows:
This book represents my attempt to become a better-informed citizen of North America. Our "American dream" is founded on the notion of the self-sufficient homestead. The "Mexican dream" may be a trifle different, but requires its kindred material basis. Understanding how these two hopes played out over time required me to cultivate statistical parables about farm size, waterscapes, lettuce prices, etcetera. I have harvested them (doubtless bruising overripe numbers on the way), and now present them to you. Some of them may be too desiccated for your taste. If you skip the chapters devoted to them, you will finish the book sooner, and never suspect the existence of my arithmetical errors. As for you devotees of Dismal Science, I hope you will be awestruck by my sincerity about Mexicali Valley cotton prices.
Jason Kottke has an excellent post on Vollmann's book, with links and excerpts. One description is: "Just write that it's like Robert Caro's The Power Broker," she said, "but with the attitude of Mike Davis's City of Quartz"…but even that turns out to be inadequate:
Imperial is like Robert Caro's The Power Broker with the attitude of Mike Davis's City of Quartz, if Robert Caro had been raised in an abandoned grain silo by a band of feral raccoons, and if Mike Davis were the communications director of a heavily armed libertarian survivalist cult, and if the two of them had somehow managed to stitch John McPhee's cortex onto the brain of a Gila monster, which they then sent to the Mexican border to conduct ten years of immersive research, and also if they wrote the entire manuscript on dried banana leaves with a toucan beak dipped in hobo blood, and then the book was line-edited during a 36-hour peyote séance by the ghosts of John Steinbeck, Jack London, and Sinclair Lewis, with 200 pages of endnotes faxed over by Henry David Thoreau's great-great-great-great grandson from a concrete bunker under a toxic pond behind a maquiladora, and if at the last minute Herman Melville threw up all over the manuscript, rendering it illegible, so it had to be re-created from memory by a community-theater actor doing his best impression of Jack Kerouac. With photographs by Dorothea Lange.
How's that for the best sentence I read last night (it's from Sam Anderson)? As Vollmann himself once said: 'I used to think the Imperial Valley was hot, flat and boring,'
You can buy it here. Here is an Imperial slide show.
Palermo, Sicily bleg
In a bit of time I will be there for four days. Please tell me what I need to know, food of course included. I'll be able to do a day trip, but mostly I'll be in Palermo.
Assorted links
1. Top ten books in international economic history?
2. Slovakian review of Create Your Own Economy.
3. Eric Falkenstein on high-frequency trading.
4. Cronenberg to film DeLillo's Cosmopolis.
5. Surprising facts about best-selling authors; yes Sidney Sheldon is the same guy behind I Dream of Jeannie.
Coincidence? I think not.
From a very good piece in the NYTimes on lobbying:
One of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats during this year's health care debate is a physician-owned hospital in one of the country's poorest regions that has sought to soften measures that could choke its rapid growth.
According to the Times, the hospital has been quite successful in its efforts. And where is this powerful hospital with all the lobbying money located? Why in the metropolitan area of McAllen, Texas. McAllen, Texas? Hmmm…now where I have heard that name before?
Keep this in mind when you hear promises of Medicare savings from Washington.
*Au Revoir To All That*
The subtitle is Food, Wine, and the End of France and the author is Michael Steinberger. This is a very readable and interesting book on France's decline as world culinary leader, building on an informal "economics of cuisine." Even in France I would usually rather eat outside of Paris and this book helps explain why.
South Korea fact(s) of the day
The household savings rate in South Korea
will have plummeted from a world-beating 25.2 percent in 1988 to a
projected world low of 3.2 percent in 2010, according to the OECD.
Here is much more. In fact:
South Koreans work more, sleep less and kill themselves at a higher
rate than citizens of any other developed country, according to the
OECD. They rank first in time spent online and second to last in
spending on recreation, and the per capita birthrate scrapes the bottom
of world rankings. By 2050, South Korea will be the most aged society
in the world, narrowly edging out Japan, according to the OECD.
And here's one problem with aggregate savings rates:
…South Korea ranks first in per capita spending on
private education, which includes home tutors, cram sessions and
English-language courses at home and abroad.
An obsessive pursuit of educational achievement, it seems, is one of
the driving forces behind the low savings rate. About 80 percent of all
students from elementary age to high school attend after-school cram
courses. About 6 percent of the country's gross domestic product is
spent on education, more than double the percentage of spending in the
United States, Japan or Britain.
Markets in everything
This one is from Jacqueline:
"Tap water?" said Alison Szeli, 26, picking up the clear plastic bottle
with orange letters: "Tap'd NY. Purified New York City tap water."
She studied the description: "No glaciers were harmed in making this
water." She compared prices: Smartwater cost $1.85. Tap'd NY was 35
cents less.
I suspect this will seem odder to you, the older you are.
How did ADHD evolve and survive?
Michelle Dawson (without endorsing it) directs my attention to this paper:
The evolutionary status of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is central to assessments of whether modern society has created it, either physically or socially; and is potentially useful in understanding its neurobiological basis and treatment. The high prevalence of ADHD (5–10%) and its association with the seven-repeat allele of DRD4, which is positively selected in evolution, raise the possibility that ADHD increases the reproductive fitness of the individual, and/or the group. However, previous suggestions of evolutionary roles for ADHD have not accounted for its confinement to a substantial minority. Because one of the key features of ADHD is its diversity, and many benefits of population diversity are well recognized (as in immunity), we study the impact of groups' behavioural diversity on their fitness. Diversity occurs along many dimensions, and for simplicity we choose unpredictability (or variability), excess of which is a well-established characteristic of ADHD. Simulations of the Changing Food group task show that unpredictable behaviour by a minority optimizes results for the group. Characteristics of such group exploration tasks are risk-taking, in which costs are borne mainly by the individual; and information-sharing, in which benefits accrue to the entire group. Hence, this work is closely linked to previous studies of evolved altruism.
We conclude that even individually impairing combinations of genes, such as ADHD, can carry specific benefits for society, which can be selected for at that level, rather than being merely genetic coincidences with effects confined to the individual. The social benefits conferred by diversity occur both inside and outside the 'normal' range, and these may be distinct. This view has the additional merit of offering explanations for the prevalence, sex and age distribution, severity distribution and heterogeneity of ADHD.
Overall the argument is weak because it relies too much on group selection. An alternative tack is to admit that ADHD, and correlated traits, can have cognitive advantages and thus survival and mating advantages. One simple story is that many people with ADHD can use their "jumpiness" to propel themselves to sample and learn extra new pieces of information. The current distribution of identified cases from the ADHD population likely suffers from selection bias, namely that it identifies ADHD cases associated with greater life problems.
Addendum: Jerry Fodor has a recent paper challenging common applications of evolutionary psychology; Razib defends Darwin.
Assorted links
1. Me on Reason.TV.
2. Nicholson Baker whinges about Kindle.
3. North Korean beer commercial.
4. An intellectual journey with many stops (one of Brad DeLong's best posts).
5. Extending the "all you can eat" concept, and yet the law intervenes. Or, "the culture that is Germany."
6. The Women's Leadership Fund, a new investment strategy.
7. More patently false claims about China.
8. Via Kottke, cats play Arnold Schoenberg's Op.11; I loved this one.
Will health care reform happen? A simple guide
I presented the following theory to two notable health care commentators a few nights ago. Congressmen are looking to sell their voters for the highest "price" possible and they know Obama really wants, and indeed needs, to win a health care victory. As health care reform "falls apart," these Congressmen face the risk that they will get nothing for those votes. Suddenly their cartel falls apart and they lower the price for those votes. A deal is then possible and Obama buys the votes at the lower price.
What appears to be pessimistic news for health care reform can in fact be optimistic news. Another implication of this theory is that a lot of the "news" along the way, concerning the fate of reform, is simply noise.
I don't know what is the "p" of an extended coverage bill passing, but I believe that p has stayed fairly constant so far.
There are plenty of games in which the equilibrium and the true offer curves are not revealed until the final period. When it comes to health care, we're not yet at the end.
Identifying and Popping Bubbles: Evidence from Experiments
On the way up, bubbles encourage excessive investment in the bubble sector. On the way down a bursting bubble can create wealth shocks, liquidity shortages, and balance-sheet death-spirals. For both of these reasons, it would be good to be able to identify and pop bubbles. Identifying bubbles isn't easy, however, because, especially when interest rates are low, prices can increase rapidly with small, rational changes in investor expectations. But the difficulty of identifying bubbles is reasonably well known. What I think may be less appreciated is that bubbles are hard to pop even when you know that they exist.
In the lab we can create artificial assets with known dividend streams and thus known fundamental values. Since Vernon Smith's classic experiments (JSTOR), we know that even in these cases efficient markets fail and bubbles are common. Bubbles occur even as uncertainty about the fundamental value diminishes (JSTOR). We also know that once a bubble starts it's difficult to stop. Circuit breakers and brokerage fees (transaction taxes), for example, don't do much to stop bubbles (see King, Smith, Williams, and Van Boening 1993, not online.) Investor education doesn't help (for example telling participants about previous bubbles doesn't help). Even increasing interest rates doesn't do much to stop a bubble already in progress and may increase volatility on net.
Futures markets (JSTOR) and short selling do tend to dampen but not eliminate bubbles, thus, there is a case for expanding futures markets in housing and making short selling easier (not harder!).
Bubbles are also less common with more experienced traders – this is one of the strongest findings. Don't get too excited about this, however, it's experience with bubbles that counts not just trading experience. I once asked Vernon, for example, how the lab evidence generalized to the larger economy. In particular, I asked whether 3 bubble experiences in the lab–the number which seems to be necessary to dampen bubbles–might translate to 3 big bubbles in the real world such as the dot com, commodity and housing bubbles (rather than to experience with your run of the mill bubble in an individual stock). He thought that this was a reasonable inference from the evidence. Thus we may not see too many big bubbles during the trading lifetime of current market participants but experience is a very costly teacher. Can we do better?
The last factor that does seem to make a difference is that bubbles liftoff and reach higher peaks when there's a lot of cash floating around. In theory, this shouldn't matter, fundamental value is fundamental value. If an asset is worth $10 in expected value then it's worth $10 whether you have $20 in your pocket or $200. But in practice bubbles are bigger when cash relative to asset value is high.
Note that the latter experiments are consistent with the Fed having a significant role in bubble inflation (a theory I have not pushed). In other words, rather than identifying and popping bubbles already on the rise, not blowing bubbles in the first place may be easier and more productive.
High-frequency trading
A few MR readers ask about high-frequency trading. Senators are calling it unfair because some traders have access to more powerful computers,and better quants, than do others. The traders with the most powerful aids get there first and make more money. Here is a typical critique. Felix Salmon is also skeptical.
I do not worry about high-frequency trading. Telegraphs and telephones also brought their own, earlier versions of high-frequency trading. As did stock index futures. There are second-best arguments relating to hockey helmets and the like but that is the case with most forms of progress and greater economic speed. You don't have to think that the current profits measure the current social value of high-frequency trading to argue that the overall trend should be allowed. The correct judgment of efficiency occurs at the system-wide level, not at the level of the individual trading strategy. The short-run story is that private profits exceed social returns but in the longer run the trading activity and liquidity brings increasing social returns and better communication of information.
I'm not a believer in the strong versions of efficient markets hypotheses, so I do admit that high-frequency trading, like just about every other trading strategy, can bring short-run "whiplash" effects on market prices. But if you don't like it, you can trade yourself at much lower frequencies, which is probably what you should be doing anyway. At the same time high-frequency trading smooths out or shortens many other cases of price whiplash. High-frequency trading brings more liquidity into the market. Call it "low quality liquidity" if you wish, but it still looks like net liquidity to me.
The complaint is that this liquidity sometimes vanishes. Maybe high-frequency trading can scare other traders out of the market;
that charge has been leveled against every method of informed
trading. In the short run it is sometimes true but markets respond by
upping the general requirements for quality trading and many market
participants rise to meet the new standard or else switch to longer
time horizons.
On the critical side there is lots of talk of "unfairness" and "manipulation," combined with snide references to the financial crisis. I'd like to see a serious efficiency argument against high-frequency outlined and defended, without the polemics. That would include a case that regulation will prove workable and catch only the "bad liquidity," while at the same time avoiding capture by envious and inferior competitors.
If high-frequency trading is used to trick other traders into revealing their demand schedules, and then canceling orders, I can see a case for regulating that particular practice. On that issue, here is background, from a critic, but note that these charges seem to be unverified.
The philosophical question is why it might possibly be beneficial to have market prices adjust within five seconds rather than within fifteen. One second rather than five? 0.25 rather than one? If you had been writing in the year 1800, what comparisons would you have chosen?
Remember that old comic book where they had Superman race against The Flash? The Flash won. Someone had to, just keep that in mind.


text:
Today's Headlines
- After a lackluster year, Carrion leaves White House "urban czar" post for lesser duties at HUD (NYDN)
- FTA chief Rogoff skeptical on Dallas' chances of snagging viable transit public-private partnership (Morn News Blog)
- LaHood uses Massachusetts appearance to take the state to task for not acting on distracted driving (Globe)
- Ryan Avent: Seattle light rail lawsuit could finally make clear that roads are just one part of the nation's holistic transportation networks (Economist)
- FRA chief sees little need to emphasize the "high-speed" in high-speed rail (Prog. Fix)
- Gulf oil spill not the nation's only infrastructure wake-up call: Boston's broken water main underscores cities' unmet modernization needs (GreenTech Enterprise)
- Truckers want U.S. DOT, not the more stringent EPA, to regulate their fuel usage (Green Car Reports)
- Local editorial board urges PA Gov. Rendell to resubmit a fourth bid for federally sanction I-80 tolls (Indep-Review)
- What American high-speed rail planners can learn from China (Ctr for Amer Prog.)


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Saturday Night Live distanced itself from Mueller-fueled cold opens for a second week, but celebrity political impersonations are still the order of the day. The weekend's latest saw none other than Michael Keaton join the ranks of Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump, Ben Stiller's Michael Cohen, and Robert De Niro's Robert Mueller, with the Batman star taking on a bearded Julian Assange behind bars.
The episode's opening moments made explicit a focus on fewer Trump sketches going forward, as MSNBC narration stated "Now that the Mueller report turned out to be a big fat zero, we're back to prison shows." From there, a gaggle of inmates (played by Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson, and Kyle Mooney) compared misdeeds, until a well-dressed woman played by Kate McKinnon entered the scene, identifying herself as indicted Full House star Lori Loughlin.
After a few digs at Loughlin and her family's white-collar college crimes, Pete Davidson's Michael Avenatti graced the scene, rattling off his own laundry list of bizarre alleged crimes. Enter the week's biggest headline—WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, now behind bars. "I attacked the U.S. military," Keaton bragged. "I'm an actual James Bond supervillain—and I'm one step away from destroying the goddamn moon!"
Not exactly Saturday Night Live's sharpest political skewering, but Weekend Update got in a few shots at Assange, too. "It was so satisfying to see an internet troll get dragged out into the sunlight," Colin Jost joked of Assange's heavily-photographed perp walk carry. "You can be lord of darkness on the internet, but when seven cops have you pinned to the sidewalk, you can't be like, 'I summon the power of e-mails!'"
Jost linked Assange's arrest with Donald Trump's bizarre denial of any WikiLeaks familiarity, noting of the president, "you're more obsessed with WikiLeaks than this audience is with BTS." The shout-out to the night's musical guest was one of many references to the K-Pop group's incredible popularity. Cheers for the boy band seemed to catch cast members off guard all night.
Saturday Night Live will return on May 4 with former cast-member (but surprisingly, first-time host) Adam Sandler, joined by musical guest Shawn Mendes.


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Cinnamon Cinnamon is a unique person that has a mind of her own, she wears and does what she wants, not by what people are going along with, but what her taste is. She loves her mother so much to that point were they felt like if they were sisters, "We were like sister, truly. I was the sister she always wanted and her daughter and best friend forever and ever". Cinnamon wasn't that close with her father like it used to be, now that they both had tell each other the truth of what has happen, they feel more closer than it was. Grandmother Beverly and her were never that close and they don't get along at all, they are always arguing, and things has never been the same ever she has moved in.
Eight years ago, her mother and father had a miscarriage and they seemed on giving up on having another child.
Six months ago, her mother announce at dinner that she was pregnant, grandmother was not happy and she started saying that she was too old to have another baby and how are you going to take care of it. The things that Grandmother Beverly said had made her suffered a miscarriage and she was rushed to the hospital. She lost the baby.
When Cinnamon was at school, she was sent to the principal office. She really didn't knew what was going on, everyone keep looking at her like if she has done something wrong. She looked at Clarence, they are best friends and they could trust and communicate with each other, he put a face saying that everything was going to be all right and tell me what happens. When she went into the principal office she saw her grandmother and she wonder what she was doing here. Her grandmother sings her out. On the way home she ask her what was going on and she didn't respond till the third time. Grandmother had just told her that she found her mother humming, watering the plant naked with red lipstick picture of a baby in her stomach.
When they got home, Cinnamon went to get her mother, she looked everywhere till she went to her room and found her folding and unfolding the same blanket that was at her side. All suddenly the mother feels pain and she thinks she's thinks that she's about to give birth. They call the doctor and they said that they were going to put her in a mental ward. Cinnamon tried to reach her father but she couldn't reach him nor could she.
When cinnamon ask her father he kept making excuses and tried to change the subject. Since the mother is at the clinic, grandmother is trying to take advantage on changing the house the way she wants it to be.
"People act like if the don't want anything to do with you, but as soon as they can learned something about you, they seized it and then they take great pleasure in spreading the news, especially if its bad news." The students at school had found out what has happen to cinnamon mom and they are spreading the news around and making bad comments. That afternoon Cinnamon went to see her mother and at the reception counter she had to say who she was, so she said that she was her youngest sister that came from Las Angeles.
Cinnamon can't sleep at nights because she has all these questions on her mind about her father. Then she decides to spy on him and Clarence went with her. Cinnamon found her father with another woman. She thought that he thought since I was at school, mother was at the clinic, and that grandmother was at home that no one would suspect him. She dig a hole big enough and she put the charm necklace that he gave her in her sixteen birthday and it felt like if she was burring him.
All the good memories about her fathers change, now she sees him different. When the father told her were she was, she wanted to tell the truth badly, but she couldn't. When she went at school people started asking Clarence how it was because they thought that they were in a relationship. When Clarence went to her house for the spirits, the spirits went inside of them, and then they made love. The grandmother catches them and she was going to tell her father till Cinnamon said "which ones worse minds or his?" Cinnamon is scared that something might happen to Clarence. Her mother thinks that the grandmother was right about the baby. The mother is getting better and has a plan to kick out grandmother. Clarence father is angry because of what happen and his sending him to Brook Academic School. There are bad rumors going on about cinnamon because of Clarence living. Cinnamon has got the part that Iris wanted to be on and now she is planing to make her life miserable. When dell is trying to tell Cinnamon to watch out for Iris, she said that Shakespeare was right "The world was a stage, and all of us merely players." The mother came home and they started putting everything back the way it was. On the weekends Cinnamon would go to Miss. Hamilton houses to rehearsal for the schools play. When she was rehearsal with Miss. Hamilton she told her "think of him only as charming, handsome man, so when you reveal the truth the audience would be shock" she told her that for then she would do good. Iris really wanted revenge so she took a picture of Miss. Hamilton and her inches close that looked like if they were about to kiss. She put that picture in front of everyone to see and it said "teachers per or something more!" At lunch Cinnamon meet the people of the play in a table and they were telling each other that everything was going to be all right. After the play everyone was congratulating Cinnamon for doing just a great job. Behind the stage Miss. Hamilton was with an old friend that was an agent name Edmond Senetsky. His mother owns the only place of collage that is about doing drama and she was set to have an appointment to go to that school. When she went it was dark and no one was there, except her. She sent a letter to cinnamon house saying that she was accepted.


text:
190 Park Street
South Melbourne, VIC 3205
I had heard of KUU Cafe + Japanese Kitchen a long time ago, but it was only recently that I had managed to pay this little spot a visit.
Although I've always known KUU for having an intriguing, Japanese-inspired brunch menu, it was actually dinner that I came for, after deciding that salad is no longer an option for dinner in the recently descended Melbourne winter.
Set a little bit off the bustle of the main South Melbourne strip, KUU is as cute as a button with its whitewashed brick walls, fresh flowers, and wooden tables and chairs that wouldn't look out of place in a primary school. The overall result is endlessly cute and endearing – an image helped along by our bubbly, enthusiastic waitress.
For those used to the kind of Japanese food you get in restaurants, KUU comes as a bit of a surprise. This restaurant, along with others such as BrimCC, serves up a more homely style of the cuisine we all know and love. The dishes are healthier and more balanced than your usual katsu curry, and often incorporates a bit of an international spin.
But first, Miso Soup ($4.5, large)! Served in a hefty, huggable bowl, this savoury and umami broth was a perfect antidote for the cold weather.
The Tsukune Chicken Balls ($15.5) made for a hearty meal. Although there was the option to have the meatballs with teriyaki sauce and a raw egg yolk, we decided to get them slathered in a mild tomato-based sauce, and topped with a grating of parmesan. Served alongside a mound of perfectly cooked brown rice and a crisp salad drizzled with beetroot dressing, this was simple yet satisfying.
The Teriyaki Salmon ($18) was exactly the same as the meatballs, except for, well, the salmon. And what a fine piece of salmon it was! Slightly brown and crispy at the bottom, yet pink and flaky all the way through, this was a delicious way to get your omega-3s. It was unfortunately on the smaller side, but it was made up for by the creamy scoop of mashed potatoes – if you ask me, anyway.
Despite not having overly amazing food, and prices a few dollars more expensive than what I'd expect to pay, I was rather taken with KUU cafe and its unique charm. With that said, I think the real drawcard of KUU lies in their daytime menu of trout ochazuke and matcha affogatos. Because after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Rating: 13/20 – too KUUte.
This rating reflects my personal experience at the time of visit.


text:
Residenza d'Epoca 1861 redefines the Bed&Breakfast
hospitality experience.
Capture the essence of Santa Maria di Castellabate at Residenza d'Epoca 1861, the elegant 17th Century boutique hotel where your dreams come true.
Relax and let yourself be carried away by the flavors of the traditional Cilento cuisine, that you can enjoy at the restaurant Osteria 1861, open for lunch and for dinner.
All the rooms have a terrace or a balcony sea view, and are provided with a private bathroom with shower, frigo bar, TV sat, telephone, air conditioning – heating, hair dryer, Wi-Fi.
Room Superior 2From: €130,00 per night View Room Details
Room Superior 1From: €130,00 per night View Room Details
Room Suite 2From: €140,00 per night View Room Details
Room Suite 1From: €140,00 per night View Room Details
Room Standard 2From: €100,00 per night View Room Details
Room Standard 1From: €100,00 per night View Room Details
Osteria 1861 is one of the most interesting proposals of the Cilento gastronomic landscape. The fascination and the elegance of the place combined with the dishes created with mastery by the chef make this place enchanting, both on the seafront, with heavenly sea view, in the characteristic stone wall dining room, and in the romantic […]
Cilento, sea and culture. What to visit in S.Maria di Castellabate.
Cilento is not only a sunny place with a clear sea, but also a place of culture and architectural beauties to visit. If after a long day at the beach you want to visit the city attractions, that's where you can go and what places you can visit for a fascinating walk.
The top 3 things to do if you are in S.Maria di Castellabate
Santa Maria di Castellabate is the largest hamlet of Castellabate, a charming town of Cilento, overlooking the sea and the marina. If you have chosen to come here in Castellabate, you have chosen the right place to relax away from the frenetic city, enjoy the sun, the sea and the food of the Cilento. You […]
Cliento, the Top 5 typical products you can't miss in S.Maria di Castellabate
Italy is rich in cultural, naturalistic but also culinary wonders. If you have chosen Cilento as a place to spend a vacation, you have chosen the right place. Here the land kissed by the sun and the sea can give the best typical products that you have to taste during your holiday. In Cilento you […]
Placed at the far end of Lungomare Perrotti, Residenza d'Epoca 1861 has a privileged panoramic position, from which you can admire and enjoy the beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the Mediterranean Sea.


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[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:50 pm
Post subject: New Painting From Moh Salehi
کار تازه ای از محمد صالحی زاده، هنرمند پر توان و درخشان معاصر ايران
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:49 pm
Post subject: Empress Farah Pahlavi speaks on Sivand Dam
Please Listen To Empress Farah Pahlavi Speaks On Sivand Dam
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:32 pm
Post subject: Painting From Akbar Nemati
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:15 pm
Post subject: Cyrus the Great Persian Version - Spenta Productions
In Search of Cyrus the Great - Spenta Productions - Persian (Farsi) Version
در جستجوی کورش بزرگ
This film is about Cyrus the Great - Persian Version
Click URL:
Spenta Productions - Cyrus Kar
12 min 51 sec - Feb 4, 2007
Spenta Productions was founded by Cyrus Kar with one simple mission: to shed light on history's most pivotal moments, which, for whatever reason, have gone untold or mistold. We believe that an accurate account of history will lead to a better understanding of the present.
در جستجوی کورش بزرگ
In Search of Cyrus the Great English Version - Cyrus Kar- Spenta Productions
11 min 23 sec - Oct 6, 2006
To Watch This Video Please Click Here
Cyrus (580-529 BC) was the first Achaemenid Emperor. He founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes- the Medes and the ... all » Persians. Although he was known to be a great conqueror, who at one point controlled one of the greatest Empires ever seen, he is best remembered for his unprecedented tolerance and magnanimous attitude towards those he defeated. Upon his victory over the Medes, he founded a government for his new kingdom, incorporating both Median and Persian nobles as civilian officials. The conquest of Asia Minor completed, he led his armies to the eastern frontiers. Hyrcania and Parthia were already part of the Median Kingdom. Further east, he conquered Drangiana, Arachosia,Margiana and Bactria. After crossing the Oxus, he reached the Jaxartes, where he built fortified towns with the object of defending the farthest frontier of his kingdom against nomadic tribes of Central Asia.
The victories to the east led him again to the west and sounded the hour for attack on Babylon and Egypt. When he conquered Babylon, he did so to cheers from the Jewish Community, who welcomed him as a liberator- he allowed the Jews to return to the promised Land. He showed great forbearance and respect towards the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of other races. These qualities earned him the respect and homage of all the people over whom he ruled.
Please Help NOW Cyrus The Great Film Documentary By Director Cyrus Kar
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 3:36 pm
Post subject: Sivand Dam, and New Challenges for the Islamic Republic on t
Sivand Dam, and New Challenges for the Islamic Republic on the Way of Destruction of Iranian Heritage
07 February 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Today a large number of demonstrators have attended in front of Islamic Republics Ministry of Energy to voice their objections against inundation of Sivand Dam and destruction of pre-Islamic Iranian heritage in Fars province.
With attendance of a representative of the Public Relations Department and some of the authorities of the Ministry who succeeded in calming down the angry crowd with promising them that the flooding of the dam will not be started until getting the formal permission of the President of Irans Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), protesters left the area for ICHTO headquarter to continue their objections.
The protesters however, were confronted with severe reaction from the Islamic Regime Revolutionary Guards who confiscated their cameras, and there is a report that number of protestors were arrested and taken away by the regime's security forces.
Placards in the crowd read: Preserving cultural heritage is preserving the cultural values of a country, Protecting cultural heritage is as important as protecting the geographical borders of a country, With inundation of Sivand Dam what will be your answer to next generations?, Rescue historical sites in Sivand region, Save Pasargadae, With inundation of Sivand Dam, what will happen for Irans cultural heritage and ecosystem?, What a high cost for producing energy, What a pity, Iran is getting lost, Leave our heritage alone, which was accompanied by some slogans, such as Death to the destroyers of Irans heritage.
The outcome of the objections was that protesters succeeded in winning the approval of the counsellor of the President of ICHTO to hold a session with attendance of authorities of ICHTO, Islamic Republic Ministry of Energy, and NGOs to discuss the case in detail to reach to a conclusion about inundation of the dam.
Dam construction by the Islamic Republic has become one of the nightmares of Iranian cultural heritage in the recent years.
One of the most important examples of such is construction of Sivand Dam in Bolaghi Valley, in Fars province, which is an important archaeological site close to the world heritage site of Pasargadae. This issue created an unease situation for the Islamic regimes authorities, and raised many concerns and created rumours across the country saying that some anonymous groups have vowed to destroy the dam by explosives before becoming operational.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:15 pm
Post subject: Here Is Iran
Here Is Iran
اینجا ایران است :
اینجا سرزمینی است که در خیابان هایش بانوان را به سبب اینکه خواستار کمترین خواسته هایشان شدند کتک می زنند . اینجا سرزمینی است که دخترکان به سبب آزادی خواهی پدرنشان دزدیده می شوند . اینجا سرزمینی است پر از گشنگانی که از زور گشنگی می گویند انرژی هسته ای حق مسلم ماست . اینجا سرزمینی است که نوجوانان را اعدام می کنند در اینجا برای اولین بار به مردم دنیا فهماندند که حقوق بشر چیست ولی اینجا حقوق بشری دیده نمی شود . اینجا سرزمینی است که از سوی همه ی دنیا تهدید می شود ( ژاک شیراک چندی پیش اعلام کرد که اگر ایران به اسرائیل حمله کند تهران را با خاک یکسان می کند ) ولی حاکمانش در این فکرند که با درست کردن یک یا دو بمب اتم اتحاد اسلامی درست کنند و دنیا را بنام اسلام و برای مسلمان کردن فتح کنند . اینجا سرزمینی است که در آن روشنفکران را زندانی می کنند و کور اندیشان بر مردم حکم می رانند . اینجا سرزمینی است که در آن تا مردم سرشان به سنگ نخورد به اشتباهشان پی نمی برنند . اینجا حکومت دینی است ولی مردم ضد دین هستند . اینجا سرزمینی است که در آن نباید به نیاکانمان افتخار کنیم و باید خود را تازی بدانیم در غیر این صورت دشمن خدا و لایق مرگ هستیم . اینجا سرزمینی است که در آن آرامگاه بزرگترین مرد دنیا را به زیر آب می برند
کوروش کبیر بیدار شو که اینجا همه در خوابند .
کوروش کبیر بیدار شو مگر اینکه خودت از آرامگاهت دفاع کنی .
کوروش کبیر بیدار شو که شاید تو بتوانی از جوانان مام میهن دفاع کنی .
اینجا همه ی مردم در انتظار این هستند که یکی بیاد و آنها را آزاد کند آری از منتظران امام زمان بیش از این نمی توانیم انتظار داشته باشیم. اینجا زنده ها اهمیتی ندارند ولی مردم مرده ها را می پرستند .
آری اینجا ایران است اینجا سرزمینی است که همه برای نابودی ضحاکیان که خونشان را در شیشه کرده اند منتظر کاوه هستند و وقتی کاوه ای از راه می رسد به جای اینکه با وی همدل شوند دست در دست ضحاک می دهند و مشغول سرکوب کردن کاوه می شوند .
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:19 pm
Post subject: Oppositions to Inundation of Sivand Dam Still Continue
Oppositions to Inundation of Sivand Dam Still Continue
14 February 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Today, a group of cultural heritage enthusiasts and NGOs gathered in front of Islamic Republics Parliament in Tehran to voice their objection to the flooding of Sivand Dam by the Islamic regime in Fars province once again. Protesters carried placards in support of saving historical sites, which are located in Bolaghi Valley behind the Sivand Dam and will submerge with inundation of the dam.
According to Persian service of CHN, what distinguishes this gathering from the others is the wide variety of crowd who have come from different Iranian provinces including Fars, Khuzestan, and Esfahan with a coherent approach to express their anger with drowning of Iranian historical sites by the regime, including local Qashqais among the crowd with their traditional dresses who have come from long distances to take part in this gathering all indicates that the issue has become a matter of great national concern. With signing a declaration, more than 30 political teams have also announced their disagreement with inundation of Sivand Dam.
Protesters have threatened that they would continue their objections through other governmental organizations if they do not receive a positive response to this request by the Parliament.
Earlier to this, Amir Reza Khadem, member of Cultural Commission of Irans Parliament said that in an attempt to put an end to this crisis, he has proposed the possibility for flooding the reservoir of the dam only up to 1800 meters high to Islamic Republics President during his recent attendance in the Parliament. Kadem believes that this height of water would prevent the possible damages which the inundation of the dam would pose to the historical sites in the area including the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great, located 9-kilometre distance of the dam.
Condemning the weak policies of the president of Irans Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) towards Sivand Dam, Khadem said: [Islamic Republics] Minister of Energy has accused ICHTO for showing indifference toward the inundation of Sivand Dam by failing to fulfil its obligation for submitting a comprehensive record about the negative consequences of flooding of the dam to this Ministry. Meanwhile it is also said that authorities of the Organization have unofficially announced their agreement with inundation of the dam.
Member of Cultural Commission of Irans Parliament expressed hope that Regimes Ministry of Energy and Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization would reach to an agreement based on this proposal provided that Irans President announces his agreement within the shortest time.
The news about construction of Sivand Dam in Bolaghi Valley which is an important archaeological site close to the world heritage site of Pasargadae raised many concerns and angers among Iranian as well as the cultural enthusiasts all over the world. Ever since the initial phase of Sivand Dam construction, large groups of archaeologists and experts from Iran and across the globe became engaged in an emergency salvation project to save the remaining historical evidence at Bolaghi Valley before inundation of the dam made this salvation project the biggest one ever in the history of Irans archaeological activities.
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:22 pm
Post subject: Listen To Majesty Farah Pahlavi
موضوع برنامه: ايران پس از 28 سال
CLICK HERE to Listen Feb.10, 2007 NEW
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Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:42 am
Post subject: Iran's Rich Architecture and Rare Treasures Threatened
Iran's rich architecture and rare treasures threatened by possible US strikes
· Many ancient remains are close to nuclear plants
· Archaeologists anxious to avoid repeat of Iraq chaos
March 05, 2007
The Guardian
Maev Kennedy
In his quiet office at the British Museum, among the portraits of long-dead explorers and copies of 3,000-year-old inscriptions, one of the greatest experts on the archaeology of the Middle East has a series of maps of Iranian nuclear installations spread out across his desk.
John Curtis's maps fill him with foreboding: because they show how many of Iran's nuclear plants are perilously close to ancient cultural sites.
Natanz, home to a uranium enrichment plant, is renowned for its exquisite ceramics; Isfahan, home to a uranium conversion plant, is also a Unesco world heritage site and was regarded in the 16th century as the most beautiful city on earth.
Other nuclear installations lie close to Shiraz, dubbed "the city of roses and nightingales", famous for the tombs of medieval poets; Persepolis, the great palace of King Darius, whose ruins are still magnificent; and the 6th century BC tomb of Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler who was said to have been buried in a coffin of gold.
Four years ago Dr Curtis was warning that war in Iraq would be a disaster for some of the oldest and most important sites in the world. He has since seen his worst fears confirmed: the site of ancient Babylon became an American military base; thousands of objects are missing from the national museum at Baghdad; and looted artefacts have been illicitly excavated and smuggled out of the country.
Now Dr Curtis dreads seeing history repeated, this time through the escalating threat from the United States against Iran. "Any kind of military activity whatever in Iran, whether aerial bombing or land invasion, would inevitably have the gravest consequences, not only for its people but for its cultural heritage - which should be a matter of concern not just to Iranians but to the whole world," he said.
"The main nuclear bases would seem the most likely targets - which would directly threaten two major sites, Isfahan and Natanz." The medieval splendour of those cities, at the height of the power of Islamic Persia from the 13th to the 17th centuries, was built on a cultural history which was already thousands of years old. The history of cities, of writing, of engineering and astronomy began in the ancient centres of Iran and Iraq.
"The archaeology is so rich there is almost nowhere that you could say is devoid of interest," Dr Curtis said. "But certainly a list must be compiled of the sites which need the most consideration."
Unlike the looted and still shuttered national museum in Baghdad, in Iran the risk is considered less for the national museum in Tehran than for hundreds of major sites with standing buildings and ruins, and thousands of known but unexcavated sites. Some of the structures are in stone, but most are in baked brick with elaborate tile decorations, a building type particularly vulnerable to blast damage.
Apart from Isfahan and Natanz, other potentially vulnerable sites cover 3,000 years of the world's history: a stepped stone tomb at Pasargadae, within 50 miles of one of the nuclear sites once held the body of Cyrus the Great, the king who enormously expanded the Persian empire and conquered mighty Babylon in 539 BC. And the ruins of the great city and palace at Persepolis are among the most imposing in the Middle East, despite the fact that it was ransacked by Alexander the Great in 330BC, after the Macedonian defeated the armies of the Persian emperor Darius. The destruction of the palace is still regarded as one of the greatest acts of vandalism in history. Alarm is growing over the potential fate of Iran's treasures. Professor Harriet Crawford, of the Institute of Archaeology in London, one of the archaeologists who sounded the alarm before the Iraq war, said yesterday: "An attack on Iran would not only cause thousands more avoidable deaths, but would also risk inflicting untold damage on its heritage, comparable with that seen in Iraq."
Precious stones
The magnificent palace of Darius, the centrepiece of which is the Hall of 100 Columns, above, was destroyed by Alexander the Great but the ruins, including some standing columns, are still imposing. It lies within 50 miles of the Ardakan and Fasa uranium processing plants
An ancient site in a fertile river valley, internationally renowned from the 16th century - "Isfahan is half the world" - as the new capital of Shah Abbas I. It is adorned with magnificent mosques, palaces, the second largest square in the world (originally laid out as a polo ground), gardens, fountains and bridges, including a 33-arch bridge dating from 1602. A World Heritage Site, the historic centre is only a few miles from the Isfahan uranium conversion plant
Famous for its 13th and 14th century mosques and shrines, now mostly stripped of their spectacular lustre tiles, which are in museums across the world. Fragile baked-brick buildings; very close to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant
Tomb of Cyrus the Great
A well-preserved stone tomb on a stepped platform. According to the Greek historian Arrian, the king's body lay in a golden coffin under an inscription reading "Mortal! I am Cyrus, son of Cambyses, who founded the Persian empire, and was King of Asia. Grudge me not then my monument." It is situated at Pasargadae, close to Persepolis.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:05 am
Post subject: Paak tarin mard e zamin! Video Music
Paak tarin mard e zamin! Video Music
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:34 pm
Post subject: On the threshold of the grand catastrophe
Alert From The International Committee to Save Pasargad wrote:
On the threshold of the grand catastrophe
Please listen to the last clamor of Bolaghi Gorge
Pasargad Plains and the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great!
An open letter to the world
Ladies and gentlemen! According to the official news-agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the government of Mr. Ahmadinejad has decided to begin the impoundment of the Sivand Dam in the next few days, despite the fact that many experts and thousands of people from all over the world have protested against such an atrocious act.
This means that a vast number of important archeological sites, containing mankind's most precious cultural heritages, are being flooded. Amongst the endangered sites is the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great, the author of the first declaration of Human Rights in 2500 years ago, that recognized the unconditional rights of human beings in choosing their religions, manifesting their opinions and cultural interests. A sample of his decree is on show at the United Nations while the original artifact is on display in British Museum.
Ladies and gentlemen! Around two years ago, the International Committee to Save Pasargad, issued an open letter addressed to you, informing you of the serious dangers that the impounding of Sivan Dam would create. Ever since, many of you, including thousands of Iranians, who are interested in the preservation of human kind's cultural treasures have tried their best to stop this catastrophe. We have written to all international organizations, including the UN, UNESCO and many other entities that have anything to do with the preservation of archeological treasures. We have repeatedly asked them to act according to their duties in this regards and intervene in a matter that should be considered as a much graver act than the destruction of Buddha's statutes in Afghanistan by the hands of Taliban. Unfortunately, we now see that the legitimate wishes of thousands of people of the world have been left ignored and the Cultural Heritage Organization of IRI, in collaboration with its Ministry of Energy, and supported by the whole administration of Mr. Ahmadinejad, have carelessly embarked on the destruction of Iranian nation's cultural heritage left and preserved for them through thousands years of history.
Ladies and gentlemen! Although it is the glorious reminiscence of ancient Iranian history that is being destructed in the hands of a group of unappreciative and ignorant people, we have to remind you that such a loss is not confined to the people of Iran. It is the whole world and the whole humanity that is standing on the threshold of loosing a part of its history and cultural achievements.
Ladies and gentlemen! If nuclear bombs endanger the lives of human beings, such acts of cultural genocide are actually just other sorts of destructive weaponry that annihilate the intellectual and spiritual lives of humans. It is a mind void of any knowledge of cultural values that can embark on the destruction of lives through either wars or such destructive actions in the realm of culture. Such dangerous weapons can only be used by such ignorant minds.
The silence of responsible organizations such as UNESCO, UN and other civil and political establishments in the face of such atrocities can, in fact, be interpreted as ignoring the threat of a nuclear showdown without acknowledging that if such cultural bombs are being exploded in any part of this planet everyone all over the world would be harmed through the spread of such dangerous anti-culture venom.
The International Committee to Save the Pasargad, would like to plea for help from everyone concerned. Please listen to this last clamor of the Bolaghi Gorge and Pasargad Plains, the home of Cyrus the Great and do not deny them of any action that is humanely possible on your part to stop this calamity in its initiating stage.
Only those who have done what they were supposed to do now would not be ashamed in the eyes of the future generations.
With love and regards
The International Committee to Save Pasargad
April 9, 2007
REQUEST FOR YOUR ACTION NOW - Black Day Of Iran Soon
Footsteps of Taliban, The Islamist Scorpion Invaders and Occupiers Of Iran, Hostage-Takers, Terror and Torture Masters are set to destroy a major part of humankind's cultural heritage
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:53 pm
Post subject: Actions Request to Stop Sivand Dam By Ms. Shokooh Mirzadegi
Actions Request to Stop Sivand Dam By Ms. Shokooh Mirzadegi From SavePasargad
21 min 34 sec - Apr 18, 2007
Please Click To Watch Video:
Only those who have done what they were supposed to do ... all » now would not be ashamed in the eyes of the future generations. What You Can Do?
1- Sign and spread this sample letter or petition : Power of Attorney to Dr. Dadkhah in relation to the impounding of Sivand Dam:
2- Help spreading the story by Email 3- Contact newspapers, TV-channels, blogs and other media and ask 4- Put a link to this open letter or petition. 5- Contact Free World officials ask them to support .. 6- By increasing the world public awareness we will create powerful critical mass against wrong doer ....
On the threshold of the grand catastrophe Please listen to the last clamor of Bolaghi Gorge Pasargad Plains and the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great! An open letter to the world
Ladies and gentlemen! According to the official news-agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the government of Mr. Ahmadinejad has decided to begin the impoundment of the Sivand Dam in the next few days, despite the fact that many experts and thousands of people from all over the world have protested against such an atrocious act.
This means that a vast number of important archeological sites, containing mankind's most precious cultural heritages, are being flooded. Amongst the endangered sites is the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great, the author of the first declaration of Human Rights in 2500 years ago, that recognized the unconditional rights of human beings in choosing their religions, manifesting their opinions and cultural interests. A sample of his decree is on show at the United Nations while the original artifact is on display in British Museum.
Ladies and gentlemen! If nuclear bombs endanger the lives of human beings, such acts of cultural genocide are actually just other sorts of destructive weaponry that annihilate the intellectual and spiritual lives of humans. It is a mind void of any knowledge of cultural values that can embark on the destruction of lives through either wars or such destructive actions in the realm of culture. Such dangerous weapons can only be used by such ignorant minds.
The silence of responsible organizations such as UNESCO, UN and other civil and political establishments in the face of such atrocities can, in fact, be interpreted as ignoring the threat of a nuclear showdown without acknowledging that if such cultural bombs are being exploded in any part of this planet everyone all over the world would be harmed through the spread of such dangerous anti-culture venom. The International Committee to Save the Pasargad, would like to plea for help from everyone concerned. Please listen to this last clamor of the Bolaghi Gorge and Pasargad Plains, the home of Cyrus the Great and do not deny them of any action that is humanely possible on your part to stop this calamity in its initiating stage.
This is considered as educational material and highly recommended by ActivistChat.com
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:32 pm
Post subject: Iran Dam Said to Threaten Ancient Sites
Iran Dam Said to Threaten Ancient Sites
April 20, 2007
The Associated Press
Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis.
At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms.
Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line Iranian leader did not attend the inauguration.
The launch was delayed for months to give international archaeological teams time to conduct excavations in the area of the planned reservoir after an appeal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The work yielded significant discoveries such as a road believed to be the Royal Passage of the Achaemenids, a powerful dynasty in ancient Persia in the 6th century B.C., as well as an Achaemenid village with a cemetery and inhabited caves dating back 7,000 years.
Iranian intellectuals and activists condemned the Tehran government for going ahead with the dam, calling it a "stupidity."
Archaeologists say flooding from the dam will submerge the Royal Passage, which linked Persepolis to Susa, two capital cities in ancient Persia, as well as some of the 130 ancient sites along the Tang-e-Bolaghi, a mountain path that crosses the Sivand River.
There are also concerns that humidity, spreading through underground water from the dam, could damage nearby Persepolis.
The sprawling ruins, Greek for "City of Persians," are famed for the grand double stairway rising to a wide, terraced audience hall with 72 columns. Sacked by Alexander the Great about 330 B.C., the old city is visited by millions every year, mostly Iranians but also foreigners.
Experts also worry about Pasargadae, an ancient capital built by Cyrus the Great sometime after 550 B.C. that holds his tomb.
Both Persepolis and Pasargadae, only 19 miles and 5 miles away from the dam, are on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
Iran's Islamic-oriented government has not shown much concern for cultural sites from the Persian era, unlike the country's more recent Muslim monuments.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Vice President Rahim Mashaei, who is also head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization, as saying Thursday that the "opening of the Sivand Dam is no danger for Pasargadae" but did not mention the Royal Passage or Persepolis.
Archaeologist Parviz Varjavand said "irreplaceable human heritage" will be lost.
"This ruling establishment gives no value to Iran's cultural heritage. It is an act of stupidity and obstinacy," he said.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 5:04 pm
Post subject: Why did Ahmadinejad personally decided to inaugurate the imp
Why did Ahmadinejad personally decided to inaugurate the impounding of Sivand Dam? By Professor E. Nooriala
Please Click To Watch Video:
This is a quick but ... all » comprehensive analysis of the situation, in three parts Why experts oppose the impounding of Sivand Dam? Why Ahmadinejad administration insists in impounding the dam despite all such evidences? What happens next?
Why experts oppose the impounding of Sivand Dam?
1. Cultural Reasons a. The uniqueness of Pasargad plains b. The importance of Cyrus the Great mausoleum
2. Environmental Reasons: a. The type of the soil that is mixture of salt and sand and is very absorbent of water, thus, capable of spreading the underground waters. b. The Dam will dry the unique lakes of the region that are fed by the Polvar River, destroying the habitat of rare birds. d. The weight of the lake sitting over a site that had a few faults will widen the faults and could create the possibility of big earthquakes.
Technical Reasons: a. The Dam is built on the bed of river sediments and would not prevent the penetration of waters from under it. Once this shortcoming was discovered IRI has spent a lot of money to a Chinese firm for injecting cement in to the base of the dam. This reinforcement has not yet been tested. In similar cases, such after-fact action has not been totally successful. b. The topographical calculations are not correct, according to independent Iranian engineers. The mausoleum of Cyrus is in fact about 10 meters under the crown of the dam and if Sivand is fully impounded it will drown the mausoleum. The Ministry of Energy is already talking about the impossibility of full impounding which means the Dam cannot be fully operational for agricultural purposes. c. The water of the lake made by Sivand dam will push the salt content of the soil to the surface and will ruin the present agriculture.
So, why Ahmadinejad administration insists in impounding the dam despite all such evidences?
General Reasons:
a. The Pasdaran Army that has acted as the builder of the Dam has worked on Bolaghy Gorge for 15 years and has plunder its treasures. Now they want to cover the evidence.
b. IRI has become sensitive to what it calls Soft Destabilization that is women's movement, student's protests and so on. It has become very sensitive to the tide of protests against the Sivand Dam and is circumventing such endeavors.
c. IRI authorities believe that backing off in cases where people are demanding a specific issue would be seen as a great victory against the regime. So, it tries to discourage such sentiments.
Hidden Reasons:
a. The true responsible people in Rafsanjani and Khatami administrations are trying to wash their hands by encouraging Ahmadi-nejad that has become an expendable entity. b. This is seen as an effective way of demoting the importance of pre-Islamic era. c. Now that the Leader of IRI has declared the new Iranian Year as the Year of National Unity, this action implicitly announces that the pre-Islamic culture and history is not a part of the National Unity he has in mind.
What happens next? a. Everything happening now - like impounding Sivand in a time of the year when there is not water in Polvar River, or attaching women in the streets of Tehran and so on tells me that Ahmadinejad is intentionally creating social turmoil. This is usually done in IRI when some kind of back off is going to be announced and they don't want people to focus on such development. They have to be engaged in other matters. b. It all depends on the reaction of Iranian people. It is a kind of silent referendum and Ahmadinejad will claim victory if no reaction is detectable on the part of the people. c. But if people show detectable sensitivity and the tide of reactions goes up, then those in shadow (even the Leader himself) would use Ahmadinejad as a sacrificial lamb and try to become national heroes. e. The rest is wishful thinking .
This lecture by Iranian Scholar Professor Esmail Nooriala is considered as educational material and highly recommended by ActivistChat.com . This is 19th lecture, part of weekly lecture series in Persian from site
. If you wish to invite Professor Esmail Nooriala for lecture in English or Persian regarding different Iranian cultural or Political subjects please contact Professor Nooriala directly by Fax: 509-352-9630
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:41 am
Post subject: Iran Dam Unleashes Torrent of Controversy
Iran Dam Unleashes Torrent of Controversy
April 26, 2007
Agence France Presse
Hiedeh Farmani
Iran has overruled critics and started filling a new dam in the parched south of the country that will drown an ancient archaeological site and could threaten the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Thousands of activists have rallied and petitioned the government not to flood the dam, which is only seven kilometres (four miles) from Pasargadae -- the first capital of the Persian Empire.
During a visit to the area earlier this month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the inauguration of the Sivand dam. Once operational, the dam will supply water for irrigation as well as provide hydroelectric power.
But it will also drown parts of the Tange Bolaghi area, a mountain pass with ancient settlements dating back to 5,000 BC.
And protestors are worried that increased humidity from the lake could damage the limestone tomb at Pasargadae of King Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid empire in 6th century BC.
Cyrus remains a revered figure for Iranians as the conqueror of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon and author of the Cyrus Cylinder, a declaration in cuneiform seen by some as the world's first assertion of human rights.
His tomb is an imposing construction rising 10 metres (32 feet) amid the ruins of the ancient capital with a base of six monumental stone steps leading up to his mausoleum.
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and fellow human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah have lodged a complaint on behalf of 3,000 Iranians against Cultural Heritage Organization (CHO) head Esfandyar Rahim Mashai and Energy Minister Parviz Fattah.
"We demand that the flooding be immediately halted but despite the sensitivity of the issue the court has not taken a decision yet," Dadkhah told AFP.
"We have expert studies and documents that prove the dam will drastically change the ecology of the region and damage the tomb when flooded," he said.
"We have to choose wisely between flooding a dam which is useful for a limited period and cultural heritage that links the past, present and future of this land," said Dadkhah.
The lawyer won two lawsuits last year to prevent damage to sites in the historic city of Isfahan, which raised concern that the authorities were not paying enough attention to Iran's ancient heritage.
These involved the construction of a tall building in Naqsh-e Jahan Square, which which was reduced by several floors, and a subway route under historic Chahar Bagh Street.
The conservative government has rejected any criticism that is is less than attentive to Iran's pre-Islamic past in Isfahan, Pasargadae or elsewhere.
It insists that flooding the dam will stop the moment there is any proof of a risk to Pasargadae, and points to the importance of its completion for the local community.
The lake produced by the dam will be 11 kilometres (seven miles) long and will hold 92 million cubic meters of water, increasing the amount of fertile land in an region by 9,000 hectares (22,239 acres).
The authorities are also hoping the water from the dam will help local communities stem a salinization process that has put 28,000 hectares (71,166 acres) of farmland in jeopardy.
Pasargadae lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the former Achaemenid capital Perseopolis, Iran's best known ancient site, which is visited by thousands of foreign tourists each year but is too far away to be threatened by the dam.
It will take takes up to a year to fully flood the dam, and the CHO says it could be halted if experts proved humidity posed a threat to the nearby sites.
"We have invited foreign specialists to join our own people currently working at the site and we hope to have enough data within a few months to decide whether flooding should stop," CHO research chief Taha Hashemi told AFP.
"The ministry of energy is obliged to halt the operation if we find the slightest evidence that the humidity is damaging to the tomb," said Hashemi, who was in charge of the CHO's legal affairs under reformist former president Mohammad Khatami.
After Pasargadae was recorded as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, the organization appealed to international archaeologists to join excavation operations on the site.
The teams discovered 7,000-year-old inhabited caves and pottery ovens, wine-making facilities dating back to pre-Islamic Sassanid era (224-651 AD) and remains of the Imperial Road connecting the Achaemenid capitals of Persepolis and Susa.
Despite scepticism voiced by critics, Hashemi insists that excavations in Tange Bolaghi have been completed and that there is nothing significant left to be unearthed.
"All the excavating teams wrote there is no problem to flooding the dam," he said, dismissing speculation that the current government prefers preserving Islamic heritage to pre-Islamic relics.
"We stand firm against any threats. There is absolutely no difference between pre-and post Islam.
"I am not surprised by the protests and I truly appreciate people's concern. Old civilizations were built by water; one must be careful with modern day dams."
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Winter for gardeners
Hi all,
Took the plunge and started my own gardening business and really enjoying it.
I've not experienced a winter in this new role though, does anybody have any tips/ideas to help pay the bills over winter (other than putting money aside in the summer).
Thanks guys
Took the plunge and started my own gardening business and really enjoying it.
I've not experienced a winter in this new role though, does anybody have any tips/ideas to help pay the bills over winter (other than putting money aside in the summer).
Thanks guys
Buttercupdays Posts: 4,178Depends a bit on where you live, but winter can be a good time for certain jobs, such as clearing ground, making new beds and paths, cutting back overgrown shrubs etc., but only if it is not freezing or too wet. Doesn't necessarily work where I live!If it is generally better for you, then you could advertise/ promote along these lines and see if you get any takers. It will be harder physically and less pleasant probably, but hey, if it pays the bills...0
Thanks for the reply, I live on the south coast so all of those suggestions sound really good.0
nutcutlet PeterboroughPosts: 26,641I do more work in my garden in winter than I do in summer.
There's shrubs and trees to prune, plants to move in suitable conditions, dead growth to cut back0
purplerallim LincolnshirePosts: 4,511Put leaflets around offering leaves removed from guttering, it's what they do here . 😀0
If it's mild, grass keeps growing. I've been known to cut mine (high setting) when I'm off work between Christmas and New Year if it's dry enough.
If you have the skills, you could also perhaps try handyman-type work (outdoor or indoor), which might appeal to less able people.0
Thanks guys. The leaf clearance and guttering service may be my best bet then.
Been looking to add new skills to my repertoire such as fencing, paving but so expensive to learn these. 😊0
Painting/treating fencing, sheds etc is easy for able-bodied people, but boring. People might pay you to do that, and it could be done in dry spells during the winter. You could even invest in one of the new-fangled fence spraying doodahs.
NewBoy2 BristolPosts: 1,8081. Collect all of the leaflets and flyers that you receive through your door and any your friends and neighbours can give you
2. Call them all and say that you deliver leaflets in their area as a business and could they consider you for the next campaign.......its OK to tell a lie until you get your first contract
3. You can charge @ £6.00 per 100 leaflets and you can deliver @ 100 an hour. If you get 3 contracts in the same area you can deliver them at the same time so thats £18.00 ph
It also keeps you fit and you meet all sorts of people but look out for the dogs of Bad Owners
On your rounds opportunities to canvas for new deliveries and also new part time jobs will arise
I did this when I retired at 61 and although you dont get rich its better than Homes Under The Hammer
Everyone is just trying to be Happy.....So lets help Them.0
Thanks again guys. I do enjoy homes under the hammer though! 😉0
glasgowdan Posts: 632batten_i there's no need for a gardener to be out of income in winter. I've been doing it long enough now. I used to get a good feet-up in the winter, having made plenty from March-November, but now I rarely get much time off.
Lawn treatments.
Tree work.
Hedge cutting.
Pressure washing.
Soft washing.
Stone chips, mulches.
Leaf clearance.
Clearing borders, digging new ones.
Garden tidy ups.
All can be well-paid work. You can do hedges and trees in the cold spells. I have plenty photos from tree jobs in the snow, it keeps you warm!
What sort of work have you been enjoying the most since starting?0