Sic Semper Tyrannis

VPK,

you mooching mossad double agent , you.

;)

Btw, bestsellers aren't much of an indication of actual readership. People sometimes buy them by the kilo to go with their kilos of make-up.

Iranian best seller

Here is a list of best sellers in Iran:

//old.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=173...

I am sorry to disappoint but no mention of Helyat.

Maryam Jan

I got to admit that I do not know who Hazrat-e Abbas was. Really never did or wanted to. Probably never will. 

I guess he used to have a horse. But that I learned from you. Thanks!

Thanks A jaan

We all need a good laugh now and again.  :)

I know Truthseeker, great fun those seven steps

I enjoyed reading the seven steps. We should come up with Farsi version of it.

Anahid

That was my point.  No one is better.

I do agree with AO, however. Religion has slowed us down considerably. Iran is still a country in which books like Helyat-ol Motaqeen has a higher sales figure than a book written by a nobel laureate.

//www.zandiq.com/articles/0000000222.shtml

Anahid jaan

I was just expressing my opinion to AO. I did not mean anything personal about you or poets. It was a light hearted comment.  

people are moved by different forms of art or science

nothing works for all.

Something else we have in common ...

I suppose it is like music, a form of expression to release feelings. But must admit it never appealed to me either, there are more productive things to be doing with the limited time you have on the planet. 

//www.poewar.com/7-easy-steps-to-a-more-pretentious-poem/ 

Meanwhile, a little ditto from me: 

A visceral pain,
my feet call out down a darkened path with a winter’s breeze…
I don’t know where I put my car keys.

American students are not any more talented or untalented than

students from other countries. I have studied and worked alongside people from all cultures and races and Americans are comparable to those from other cultures. They are not better either. But definitely not worse. American students who choose engineering, are almost always good in science or love working with technology. Foreign students going to engineering can be either great students in math and science or just study enginering because they were supposed to. I have seen excellent Iranian students too who started their own companies and sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars or are managers in technology companies or technical fellows, etc.

Maryam Hojjat

check the doBs of Avicenna, Razi and Khayyam.

This constant rubbish about pre-Islamic times is beginning to piss me off as much as Islam itself does.

Stick to real facts.

  The ingredients of

//saybrook.typepad.com/forum/2010/01/the-ingredients-of-innovation.html

//tinyurl.com/76vo6tp

"It is the chain of communicat­ion, not the means of production­, that determines a social process."

-- Robert Anton Wilson

AO, I disagee with you in all except I agree with

The sad truth is that post Islam we have been infected with the mullah culture, which is an all consuming agenda that takes curiosity away from one’s mind and focuses the person’s entire existence on religion.  As a society, we know more about Hazrat-e Abbas’ horse than we know about our local fauna.  That’s a sad fact. 

Dear AO, LOL

Good one.

Anahid Jaan - This is what you should have written

First AO came for the hezbollahis,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a hezbollahi.

Then AO came for fat people,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't fat.

Then AO came for Muslims,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a practicing Muslim.

Then AO came for people who interpret the Quran.

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Quran scholar. 

Then then AO came for poets.

and there was no one left to speak out for us.

Sorry. couln't resist. :-)

More responses later.  Got to attend to my non-poetry related job. 

Talking about NASA

Doctor Firous Naderi is the director of JPL at NASA. Prior to it he was the director of Mars Exploration Program. But I am sure people will find a way to discredit him. After all the goal is to discredit any contribution by Iranians.

//www.paaia.org/CMS/1firouz-naderi.aspx

From the Dead Poet Society script.

The movie Dead Poet Society (1989) won an Oscar with several other nominations.

Below is a quote from Keating (Robin Williams' character), highlights by me:

    Keating: We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

Everything is sacred

I Totally disagree with Mohammad Ala

I adisagree on several fronts with Dr. Mohammad Ala's notion that Americans are dumb or untalented compared to the rest of the wrold. That's one of the biggest misconceptions Iranians love to believe in to make themselves feel better. Here's why:

• Of the 323 Nobel Prizes awarded to American nationals at the time of the award (circa 2011), only roughly 30% were foreign born. If Americans suck as much as you say they do, then how can that be? 
• The overwhelming majority of NASA astronauts and managers from the Apollo project through the Space Shuttle program not only did not have any foreign accents, but had a fully homegrown midwestern/southern twang to their accent. Why is NASA so white in its history? Could it be that they are not as untalented as you claim?
• Why is it that a large % of scientists and engineers in the field are foreign born, but that suddenly they become white and homegrown at upper level management? Could it be that foreigners are always after nokhod siyah and enjoy being the khar-hammaal in the department?
• I totally disagree that American students are more untalented than their foreign peers. I teach 2 courses in University Physics for engineering majors this fall. My top 2 students are both Mexican Americans. The rest are way below  average. I taught the same course in 2001 to pre-meds at UCDAVIS. My top students there were all white, and much smarter in understanding concepts like Entropy and Heat Equations than my foreign born students (including Iranians). The thing is, if youre a smart American student, you probably wont go into engineering and sci-tech fields (like Asians and Iranians frequently do). Rather you go into one of the following 1. Business and Finance 2. Law 3. Medicine. And again, that tells us we come from a culture that values being a khar-hammaal. Otherwise, instead of being proud of being "doctor-mohandes", we would have "doctor-vakeel" or "doctor-kar afareen" (enterpreneur) as our pride of achievement. We are fools to think we're better than they are just because we supposedly have more qualified engineers per capita. It's a different world today. There's a reason why a corporate lawyer or upper level manager gets paid 10 times as much as a successful engineer or scientist. Iranians, unfortunately, refuse to see or accept the realities.

Dear Darius

we are still the same miserable people 

Speak for yourself :-) I do not feel miserable nor do my friends. We are decent hard working members of the society. Never got in trouble. Do not take money from government. Pay my taxes and raise my kids. What more should a person do.

I second Anahid

If you guys are so worried about a Nobel prize go and invent something. Oh but it will not count because you are not in Iran. 

This is just silliness but free speech is just that. 

At the end, each person is responsible for themelves

Dear AO, Why don't you go work on some scientific discovery , you already made your point.  Rest of day, and days, weeks, if you work hard, since you are so smart and observant, you might invent few things.

مسلمون‌ها بیاد گریه کنید!

مسلمون‌ها بیاد گریه کنید!

بیاید ببینید ما چه بد بخت شدیم!

آی! وای! هوار!  گریه کنید!  گریه کنید که ایرانی‌‌ها چیزی رو اختراع نکردند!

ما چقدر بدبختیم! ‌ای خاک تو سر ما!  آخرش هیچ گُٔهی نشدیم!

گریه کنید!  گریه! 

Everything is sacred

Mexicans have more bragging rights

Compared to Iranians, I'd say Mexicans do have more bragging rights:

3 Nobel Laureates:

• Octavio Paz 
• Alfonso Robles
• Mario Molina
• Im not even going to talk about Hispanic Americans like Luis Alvarez 

We have one Firuz Naderi in NASA. They have several, including (I counted) 5 astronauts.

Their country is barely 300 years old.

We preferred to nag and complain..

They were not real teachers, for them it was a job  " ye noone bekhor o namir  sahktan".

A good physic or chemistry teacher does not need an elaborate lab to teach the basics, any daily activities or daily life ingridient  can be used to show basic facts and principles.

They were good at complaining, passing  elamieh, rumours and blaming shah and savak for every little miserable thing in their life.

Have we changed after a bloody  anvolution( not revolution)?No

we are still the same miserable people 

AO, you're playing silly again.

EA for example has already cited the 3 most important that spring to mind. Household names across the globe.

Your 2nd § is a list of inventions from across the globe.

5th § isn't thought out properly. You will find that quite a few scientists (including recent discoveries in cognitive neuro-science) would find the formative years and primary school education of fundamental importance.

As I'm on google strike, I would suggest that you look up pioneering work in sewage systems (greatest importance in agrarian cultures), hydraulic engineering,blah blah

P.S. Razi didn't invent alcohol. He discovered and isolated its properties, which made it available to use as medicine.

Mexicans have a saying that they're Mexi-CANS not Mexi-CANT'S!

Come on AO you asked for some examples and I gave you 3, all red blooded, excuse me green-blooded Persians!  Now give it up!  Or not, dig in!  

Everything is sacred

Poetry is a sore subject

with Iranians and I won't go there.

However, if you attended high school in Iran do ask yourself the following:

- What did you do during chemistry/physiscs lab sessions? (what, you didn't have any?)

- What did you do during Varzesh? (Phys Ed) - which represents the competetive nature of a nation.

____________

IRAN FIRST

____________

Dear AO, do you know meaning of this poem I wrote?

 //iranian.com/main/blog/anahid-hojjati-88

شرابی سرخ نوشیدی
ز دستان ِ مهربانِ ساقی
تو تنها مست گشتی
سه میوه زیرِ درختی
ولیکن تو دیر هستی
بر پرنده فکندی نگاهی
کشیدی آه , سپس گفتی
چه دیر این کبوتر خانه آمد
فردا ندانم من کجا خواهی بود
اما هر کجا هستی , شاید
شاید فردا کبوتر زود خانه آید 

wrong question, since in the comments ' section, I wrote:

poem is about discovery of Alcohol, gravity and flightby Anahid Hojjati on Wed Nov 17, 2010 05:01 AM PST

in this poem I meant discovery of Alcohol,
gravity and principles of flight and how in future, there will be other
scientific discoveries. However, I am afraid poem is mobham as it is now.

• edit
• reply
• flag as abusive

by Anahid Hojjati on Tue Nov 16, 2010 05:35 PM PST

Dear readers, I am curious. Did any one who read this poem before reading this comment think that the poem is about scientific discovery? If not, how about after reading this comment? Or have I written it in a way that is too confusing.

So as you see poetry and scientific discovery are not mutually exclusive. When I was writing this poem, it actually made me think of something that can be discovered. Granted, I did not come up with anything but this is an example how writing a poem helped with being curious. I thnk I am being clear but let me know if you don't agree.

Wine is not to be missed

Great contribution to the mankind, oui, oui.

PS. "divan" in Bosnian means "talk", also a kind of couch. Am surprised to discover how much Persian I know. ;o) Or is it Turkish, for that's how the word got to the Balkans.

If you believe that abandoning scientific curiosity in favor

of concentrating on poetry is perfectly fine, then please don't complain when the guy with the big aircraft carrier, nuclear submarines and military satellites shows up at your doorstep and demands your submission-- or else.  That's how the world works.  It's not an "irfani" world.  It's survival of the fittest.  Sad, but true.