Proverb

An old proverb from Gilan :

" bacheh taa vaghti ke beresseh be piri , momkeneh rang e cheshmaash ham aabi besheh"

It means " A person while getting old can experience that much strange and non sence thing from around and the life can be so harsh and full of difficulties to even change the person's eye color"
This is true everybody behaves different over the life and you sometime miss to recognize persond you were thinking that you knew them completely.

Site seeing in Quebec

A link on site seeing in Quebec :

http://www.bonjourquebec.com/

Somalia pirates out of control !

Here is an article on Somalia pirates in Herald Tribune. The just attacked to an Iranian vessel in the Red Sea. They are out of control !

The link :

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/13/business/pirates.php

Airline Safety Tips

Airtrips are always the safest way of travel. Only 36 airlines in North America do not have any fatal acciedent over past 38 years (since 1970). The same thing is in Europe. Even in Iran , the airplane is still the safest mean to travel.

I found some interesting links on this issue. The website www.airsafe.com is the most accredited website on the air safety issues.

I just chose the 10 Airline safety tips to reduce the chance of fatal accedient statitically :

http://www.airsafe.com/ten_tips.htm

Airlines without any fatal accident in their history in the middle east : ( Mahan Air from iran is also on the list)
http://www.airsafe.com/events/regions/af_nofat.htm

And finally a list of airlines not to be taken for an airtrip :

http://www.frommers.com/tips/health_and_travel_insurance/article.cfm?tipID=HEALTH&articleid=5138&t=Travel%20Health%20%26amp%3B%20Safety%3A%20Safest%20Airlines%20%26amp%3B%20Planes

Mongol Invasion of Persia - 1

Mongols invaded central asia and north east of Iran in 1218 A.D. (617 Hejri). The first invasion took about 5 years ( rdered by Ghenghiz khan) . A number of battles took place and Khawarazmids lost all except one in Parwan (presently loacted in north east Afghanistan ). Mongols sacked all cities in central asia and destroyed any thing there including Samarkand, Bukhara, Khawarazm (presently Urgench), Herat, Merv and Neishabour. In this period as a result of famine and massacre the population of Persia droped from 2.5 millions to one tenth (250000). There are only a few regions in modern Iran , which was not suffered from the first Mongol invasion including Tabriz in Northwest and Shiraz in south.

The second wave of invasion started from 1257 A.D. by Hulegu. They did a massacre in Iraq and west Iran (in one case 800000 in aghdad and neighboring regions) and destroyed the ancient irrigation system of south Iraq. The massacre was such terrible that no sufficient population could be found to repair the irrigation system. Some of the lakes and small khours as a esult of the destruction of the ancient irrigation system and agriculture in south Iraq have been remained from that period untouched.

They kept invading until 1259 when a coalition from Egypt composed of Turkic soldierd raised from childhood and trained in Egypt as soldiers amd cavaliers (Mamaalik; from the word al-mamluk; slaves) in addition to the local people of Palestine defeated Mongols in Ain Jalut (Plaestine). This moment is the end of the Mongolian progressive invasion to Middle east and West Asia. This moment was very important in old islamic days and still in some countries including Egypt is highlighted in the religious Calenders (The day is in 17th of Ramadan) with some celebrations.

You can find a timeline of Mongol conquests on :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions

List of Iranian medlaists in Olympic (1948-2008)

You can find the list of medalists in past 60 years (since the first olympic attendance in 1948) upto date (August 20, 2008).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_at_the_Olympics

A super computer for U of T

Here is the link on the most energy efficient supper computer in the world, which will be operated at U of T .

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/08/14/utoronto-scores-worlds-most-energy-efficient-supercomputer/

The IUPAP young scientis prize

Dr. Yasaman Farzan won IUPAP young scientis prize. She is a young and active physists , currently a faculty member of the Institute for studies in Physics and Mathematics (IPM), Tehran, Iran.

She was a Physics Olympiad winner during her high school. She graduated with a PhD from Italy and the States and she was back to teach and work in Iran. Here is her homepage:

http://physics.ipm.ac.ir/people/farzan/

and you can find more on the prize she wins:


http://www.interactions.org/cms/?pid=1026217

Palestine mourns his national poet

Mahmoud Darwish was a hero in Palestine and a well known poet in modern arabic literature passed away. He was grown up in Aka and exiled to Jordan, France and USA for his political activities as a member of PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). He is an icon for Palestinian people and his works have been regularly narrowed all around the world. His first work and the most famous one is the wingless bird " Asafir bila ajniha" and the famous identity card is among his first works in this book.

His funeral ceremony was held in West bank and many officials attended. He passed away in 67 in the United States.

Here is a link :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Darwish

Some facts on Georgia (country)

You can find some nteresting facts on Georgia and South Ossetia. Many attentions have been paid on Georgia and the sudden war to Russia:


South Ossetia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_ossetia


Georgia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)


A famous singer from Georgia : Sopo (Sopho) Khalvashi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E97ZfemlQfQ

An article on the daily power cut in Iran

Here is a link on an article regarding the daily power cut and impacts given by Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04c2d95c-66fe-11dd-808f-0000779fd18c.html


P.S. You can always find related articles to Iran on www.ft.com . The Middle East Section

Slavery in the old traditional way !!!

It might be shocking to know that some tribes in the north and centre of Mauritania still attack to the originally african people of south and they capture them and use them as their slaves. This is banned by the official authorities however, it is impossible to prevent slavery according to the nature of the country constituting of different tribes which only obey their local heads.

Here is a link on Mauritania and its demographic distribution :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritania

Artificial Mountain!

The UAE is not a mountianeous country. It covers by flats and deserts. There is a competetion to design some artificial mountains to add more touristique attractions. Everybody who wants to try the creativity can participate in the following competition :

http://www.manmm.net/

The First Encyclopedia in Iran

The First Encyclopedia in Iran is Mossahab encyclopedia:

Here are some interesting readings I found on Mossahab encyclopedia:

Who was Dr. Mossahab:
http://jazirehdanesh.com/find.php?a=14.202.411.fa

How Mossahab encyclopedia was prepared :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2008/08/080805_an-cy-sanaati-masaheb.shtml

Asian cheetah

Iran is the last habitat of Asian cheetahs. They used to live in a vast region from Saudi Arabia to India. However, they have been formally called as an extinct spices in all the region except center, east and southeast of Iran (Semnan, Yazd, Bafgh and most probably in Baluchistan). The number of remaining cheetahs ( locally called Youz or Youz-Palang) is estimated to be less than 60. This issue is not only a national concern but also an international one as a rare type of cheetah (leopard) is being extinct without any replacement.

Recently a joint group of Iranian-American researchers started exploring all opportunities to save remaining asian cheetahs in Iran. They use sophisticated pointing tools to detect the remaining cheetahs and establish a rigorous protection plan. It might be interesting to know that the only exception of the US sanctions on exporting sensitive radio and radar equipments is for these pointing tools. The case was too vital to be considered as a political issue influencing by the present US-Iran conflicts.

Here are some additional links on the asian cheetahs, Iranian-American joint research group and other protective measurements on this issue:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2008/08/080805_wmj--asiatic-cheetah.shtml

http://www.iraniancheetah.org/English/EAbout%20Cheetah.htm