Dear Farhad, I just got back from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. I saw it with my own eyes- the system of occupation is stronger than ever. In places like the south of Hebron and East Jerusalem, I saw Palestinian land being taken daily through an insidious collaboration between violent settlers, the military, and the Israeli government bureaucracy. The government regularly appropriates land for what it calls "sterile zones." This means no Palestinians allowed. Instead, families are driven from their lands and forced to live in smaller and smaller areas. There's no other way to put it. This is ethnic cleansing. Because it's happening now, and not just in the distant past, we still can stop it. Especially today when the world's attention is on settlements, and for the first time in recent memory, a US administration is creating pressure on Israel. But we need your financial help to do it. From Dheishah refugee camp to Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem to Gaza, people I met knew the work of JVP. They are strengthened by it. They need us, and they were very clear - they need JVP to do more, not less. We need your financial support now to make this possible. But we must do more. And all of our work takes money. If you haven't already, please make a donation today. We need to raise $100,000 in the next two months to maintain and expand our campaigns. Your gift of $60, $100, $250 or whatever you can give will help us reach our goal. P.S Jewish Voice for Peace's goal of ending the Occupation is a long-term one. We are in this struggle for as long as it takes, and we need your help. Please make the largest gift you can, today. Every gift is put to good use.
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20090723
Jewish Voices For Peace: What else do you call it?
20090721
FYI : The relevance of tamper-proof designs
The relevance of tamper-proof designs
http://www.edn.com/fpgagurus/blog/890000689/post/1510046151.html?nid=4719&rid=9121315
Altera Corp.'s addition of physical-layer tamper-proof features in the Cyclone III LS jogged my memory regarding the tough uphill battle security experts faced in the last decade, convincing companies that protocol-layer encryption and digital signatures were important for commercial-grade IT designs. It took scares involving the wholesale theft of credit-card numbers and the hacking of corporate Wi-Fi networks before many companies started to treat encryption seriously. Will it take the same valiant effort to make JTAG port analysis and tamper-resistant circuit designs a mainstream feature?
What Altera is offering is not new to the FPGA market. Xilinx, for example, offers tamper-resistance for IP cores in its military-qual Virtex-5Q family. But Altera's efforts to bring such features to the mainstream of both military and commercial designs is to be commended. In May 2008, when IEEE Spectrum published an article on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Trust in Integrated Circuits (TRUST) program, there was plenty of eye-rolling among those in commercial designs. Maybe an electronic warfare system was a legitimate platform for physical-layer protection, but was DARPA paranoid? Was the agency suggesting that any IT platform could be a target for hostile hacking at the circuit-board level?
Well, yes. The establishment of the Air Force's 24th Air Force/Cyber Command, and President Obama's subsequent assignment of a civilian cyber initiative under NSA auspices, should convince skeptics that the federal government considers cyber offense and defense primary focus areas for the next decade. And one needn't assume a hostile government is focusing a board-level design. If corporate espionage spends the resources to crack 256-bit keys, it's perfectly feasible to expect future (or maybe even current) efforts to probe the internal layout of an FPGA design.
I'm not so sure most FPGA customers will buy into this until horror stories emerge similar to those experienced in the Layer 2 and 3 crypto community. But I'm glad to see FPGA vendors prod customers into thinking about tamper-proof IC design.
20090717
The future is here : Pentagon is designing a Robot fighter that can EAT!
20090715
What are Israeli soldiers saying about Gaza? Share this report with Congress.
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New Propaganda: Germany believes Iran could have nuclear bomb within 6 months'
| Another unnamed source coming via Haaretz claiming that Iran is only 6 month away from a nuclear bomb! Funny that this has been 6 month since 2005 and still not managed to get pass that majic 6 month! From 2005: http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/september2005/200905sixmonths.htm From 2008: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/iran-6-months-away-from-nuclear-weapons Iran will "know how to" make a nuclear bomb in 6 month: http://www.newser.com/story/43170/iran-boosts-uranium-stockpile.html 2005: Iran is six months away from having the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says From one of "iran-opposition" sites And my favorite site is this one: http://www.iranwatch.org/ourpubs/articles/iranucleartimetable.html They have a time table with exact date of when IRI will be able to make a bomb! Very very 'accurate' if you do not question the accuracy of their claims :) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100387.html Iran is capable of assembling an atomic bomb within six months, German intelligence analysts told the German weekly newsmagazine Stern. "If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months," an analyst with Germany's intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the magazine.
"Nobody would have thought this possible some years ago," an intelligence official told Stern. The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Tehran for defying its demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Some analysts say Iran may be close to having the required material for producing a bomb, but most say the weaponization process would then take one to two years due to technical and political hurdles. "Weaponizing" enrichment would not escape the notice of UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), unless it was done at a secret location. Until now there have been no indications of any such covert diversion, a point made by the IAEA's incoming director-general shortly after his election earlier this month. Current IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said it is his "gut feeling" that Iran is seeking at least the capability to build nuclear weapons, in order to protect itself from perceived regional and U.S. threats. Libyan leader: Peaceful nuclear program should be encouraged Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says Iran should be encouraged to pursue its nuclear program as long as it is for peaceful purposes. Gadhafi was addressing Wednesday's opening session of a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. The 118-nation group includes Iran. He said it is "unjust" to stop Iran from enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, but that it must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The United States and Israel say Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is for generating power. Libya in 2003 abandoned its own program to develop nuclear and chemical weapons. |
20090708
Good and free timing diagram program/site!
Hi guys,
I am not sure if I send this to you earlier but this is a good site for creating timing diagram for your designs for test and documentation. It is free to use but you need to register in order to access it.
http://www.timingtool.com/tt_lite
Best regards,
/Farhad
20090707
It won't be easy attacking Iran
| Here you have an interesting blog about the issue that a friend of mine sent me on Facebook: http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2009/07/joe-biden-map-office-is-calling.html The article is OK, but the interesting part is the comments (even thought the exadurate the payload of the Eitan that is around 1000 Kg): The Eitan payload is not negligible at at. If some Eitans are used to refuel the others, an Eitan can carry a 2,000+ Kg bomb. Israel has the technology to deply those accurately from 40,000 feet. A simple GPS gudiance system would do. A simple calculation would allow launching the weapons so that they hit the target almost simultaneously. Furthermore, since these planes are unmanned and also manufactured in Israel, Israel has the capability to send tens or hundreds of them on one critical mission. In addition, Israel may not have an aircraft carrier, but UAVs can be launched from much more smaller ships. Israel could launch a wave of UAVs at Iran from a few "merchant" ships in the Indian Ocean. Here you can find more info about the Eitan:The simplest form of argument is to ignore completely any evidence that does not fit your theory. The Times is a repected newspaper that doesn't publish on a whim. Of course the Israeli government would deny it. They do not want to compromise the Saudis. Israel is playing a delicate game with Iran and people like you. If Iran is not convinced Israel can attack, Israel will eventually have to attack. That is why there was a leak to the Times. It is interesting that basically the same arguments that were put forward before Israel bombed the Iraqi reactor are put forward now. People never learn. ----------------- First, my whole point is that you do not even need to fly over Saudi Arabia or Iraq to attack Iran. Second, how would Iran know over which countries the Israeli planes flew to get to it? Again, you are underestimating Israel and its electronic warfare capabilities. Israel attacked the nuclear plant inside Syria without the Syrian radars even picking up the planes. Both Israel and Saudi would deny that Israeli planes flew over Saudi. How would the Iranians or anybody else prove it? A coordinated attack of a about 50 manned aircraft and hundreds of UAVs will bring down the Iranian nuclear effort. Of course, only after Israel attacks you will believe. Thank goodness that the Arabs think like you and have always understimated Israel and its capabilities. The downside is that people like you undemine Israel's deterrnece and therefore make war much more likely. ------------- Cordesman, the so called expert, does not even mention the Eitan in his report. He only mentions UAVs in defense contexts against ballistic missiles. His report lacks any imagination. Furthermore, we are talking large numbers of UAVs and serious electronic warfare. This is not something the Iranians can handle, especially with the UAVs flying at 40,000 feet. Nobody thought Israel would beat the Arab armies in 6 days, free its hostages in Entebe or bomb the Iraqi reactor. It was also lack of imagination that led to 9/11. Everybody thought that Bin-Laden could do it or would do it. Israel has also committed the sin of lack of imagination, with 1973 being a prime example. Here are the facts: 1) Israel is only second to the US in electronic warfare with Israel selling such systems to India, Australia and even China if not for a US veto. 2) Israel was the first to perfect the use of UAVs in battle and exports tons of them per year. The Eitan can fly to iran and back without any problems. 3) Israel has been planning for an attack on Iran for years. 4) There are reports from respectable newspapers that the Saudis are on board. 5) Israel successfully attacked an advanced Russian system in Syria without the system ever detecting its planes. It is clear to me that all you need to employ is a little imagination to see that Israel can strike effectively at Iran. Do you think Israel will publish all the capabilitis of its UAVs? Or agreements it has with other neighbors of Iran (not Saudis)? Use your imagination. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Eitan And this from Paris Air Show 2007: http://defense-update.com/events/2007/summary/parisairshow07uav.htm
The Watchkeeper UAV built by Elbit Systems and Thales for the British forces is also maturing. In recent months, the WK-450 (now designated Hermes 450B) was reshaped to accommodate specific British requirements. Its fuselage diameter grew by 30 cm, allowing more space and payload capacity adding 200 pounds for more fuel and systems. The WK-450 was displayed at the Thales outdoor exhibit, where visitors could also see the ground control segment. Some of the advanced applications developed for the system were also displayed. Elbit Systems also unveiled Hermes's big brother - the new Hermes 900. It is currently under development, with first flight expected in late 2007.
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Designed as a top tier tactical UAV, Hermes 900 will assume many of the missions of MALE platforms, while retaining the ground support and commonality of current Hermes tactical UAV units. With a typical payload capacity of 300 kg, Hermes 900 can easily carry multiple payloads as well as external stores. Elbit did not elaborate on the types of such stores, but among the items that could be considered are suitable guided weapons, cargo dispensers or air-deployable mini UAVs (a concept first utilized by the Finder UAV).20090706
This is not a JOKE: Ryanair to make passengers stand
Ryanair to make passengers stand
Ryanair is considering proposals to make some of its customers stand during flights.
By Ben Leach
Published: 7:00AM BST 06 Jul 2009
Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, plans to make some passengers stand
The low-cost airline would charge passengers less on "bar stools" with seat belts around their waists.
Michael O'Leary, the chief executive, has already held talks with US plane manufacturer Boeing about designing an aircraft with standing room.
He is now seeking approval from the Irish Aviation Authority before ordering a new fleet of carriers, according to The Sun.
A Ryanair spokesman told the newspaper: "If they approve it, we'll be doing it."
Mr O'Leary is reported to have got the idea from the Chinese airline Spring, which has put forward similar plans. It estimates space could be made for up to 50 per cent more passengers and costs could be cut by 20 per cent.
It is not the first time Ryanair has come up with a controversial proposal for cutting costs. Earlier this year Mr O'Leary suggested passengers could be charged £1 to use the on-board lavatories.
In an interview on BBC television he said that the low-cost airline was looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that "people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny."
Mr O'Leary also considered introducing a "fat tax" for overweight passengers.
20090630
Between Tel Aviv and Tehran by Uri Avnery,
Between Tel Aviv and Tehran by Uri Avnery, June 30, 2009 Hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens pour into the streets in order to protest against their government! What a wonderful sight! Gideon Levy wrote in Ha'aretz that he envies the Iranians. And indeed, anyone who tries these days to get Israelis in any numbers into the streets could die of envy. It is very difficult to get even hundreds of people to protest against the evil deeds or policies of our government – and not because everybody supports it. At the height of the war against Gaza, half a year ago, it was not easy to mobilize ten thousand protesters. Only once a year does the peace camp succeed in bringing a hundred thousand people to the square – and then only to commemorate the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The atmosphere in Israel is a mixture of indifference, fatigue, and a "loss of the belief in the ability to change reality," as a Supreme Court justice put it this week. A very dramatic change is needed in order to get masses of people to demonstrate for peace. For Mir-Hossein Mousavi hundreds of thousands have demonstrated, and hundreds of thousands have demonstrated for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That says something about the people and about the regime. Can anyone imagine a hundred thousand people gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the official election results? The police would open fire before a thousand had assembled there. Would even a thousand people be allowed to demonstrate in Amman against His Majesty? The very idea is absurd. Some years ago, the Saudi security forces in Mecca opened fire on unruly pilgrims. In Saudi Arabia, there are never protests against election results – simply because there are no elections. In Iran, however, there are elections, and how! They are more frequent than elections in the U.S., and Iranian presidents change more often than American ones. Indeed, the very protests and riots show how seriously the citizens there treat election results. Of course, the Iranian regime is not democratic in the way we understand democracy. There is a supreme guide who fixes the rules of the game. Religious bodies rule out candidates they do not like. Parliament cannot adopt laws that contradict religious law. And the laws of God are unchangeable – at most, their interpretation can change. All this is not entirely foreign to Israelis. From the very beginning the religious camp has been trying to turn Israel into a religious state, in which religious law (called Halakha) would be above the civil law. Laws "revealed" thousands of years ago and regarded as unchangeable would take precedence over laws enacted by the democratically elected Knesset. To understand Iran, we have only to look at one of the important Israeli parties: Shas. They, too, have a supreme guide, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who decides everything. He appoints the party leadership, he selects the party's Knesset candidates, he directs the party faction how to vote on every single issue. There are no elections in Shas. And in comparison with the frequent outbursts of Rabbi Ovadia, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a model of moderation. Elections differ from country to country. It is very difficult to compare the fairness of elections in one country with those in another. At one end of the scale were the elections in the good old Soviet Union. There it was joked that a voter entered the ballot room, received a closed envelope from an official, and was politely requested to put it into the ballot box. "What, can't I know who I am voting for?" the voter demanded. The official was shocked. "Of course not! In the Soviet Union we have secret elections!" At the other end of the scale there should stand that bastion of democracy, the USA. But in elections there, only nine years ago, the results were decided by the Supreme Court. The losers, who had voted for Al Gore, are convinced to this very day that the results were fraudulent. In Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and now, apparently, also in Egypt, rule is passed from father to son or from brother to brother. A family affair. Our own elections are clean, more or less, even if after every election people claim that in the Orthodox Jewish quarters the dead also voted. Three and a half million inhabitants of the occupied Palestinian territories also held democratic elections in 2006, which former president Jimmy Carter described as exemplary, but Israel, the U.S., and Europe refused to accept the results, because they did not like them. So it seems that democracy is a matter of geography. Were the election results in Iran falsified? Practically none of us – in Tel Aviv, Washington, or London – can know. We have no idea, because none of us – and that includes the chiefs of all intelligence agencies – really knows what is happening in that country. We can only try to apply our common sense, based on the little information we have. Clearly, hundreds of thousands of voters honestly believe that the results were faked. Otherwise, they would not have taken to the streets. But this is quite normal among losers. During the intoxication of an election campaign, every party believes that it is about to win. When this does not happen, it is quite sure that the results are forged. Some time ago, Germany's excellent 3Sat television channel broadcast an arresting report about Tehran. The crew drove through the main street from the North of the city to the South, stopping frequently along the way, entering people's homes, visiting mosques and nightclubs. I learned that Tehran is largely similar to Tel Aviv at least in one respect: in the North there reside the rich and the well-to-do, in the South the poor and underprivileged. The Northerners imitate the U.S., go to prestigious universities, and dance in the clubs. The women are liberated. The Southerners stick to tradition, revere the ayatollahs or the rabbis, and detest the shameless and corrupt North. Mousavi is the candidate of the North, Ahmadinejad of the South. The villages and small towns – which we call the "periphery" – identify with the South and are alienated from the North. In Tel Aviv, the South voted for Likud, Shas, and the other right-wing parties. The North voted for Labor and Kadima. In our elections, a few months ago, the Right thus won a resounding victory. It seems that something very similar happened in Iran. It is reasonable to assume that Ahmadinejad genuinely won. The sole Western outfit that conducted a serious public opinion poll in Iran prior to the elections came up with figures that proved very close to the official results. It is hard to imagine huge forgeries, concerning many millions of votes, when thousands of polling station personnel are involved. In other words: it is entirely plausible that Ahmadinejad really won. If there were forgeries – and there is no reason to believe that there were not – they probably did not reach proportions that could sway the end result. There is a simple test for the success of a revolution: has the revolutionary spirit penetrated the army? Since the French Revolution, no revolution has succeeded when the army was steadfast in support of the existing regime. Both the 1917 February and October revolutions in Russia succeeded because the army was in a state of dissolution. In 1918, much the same happened in Germany. Mussolini and Hitler took great pains not to challenge the army, and came to power with its support. In many revolutions, the decisive moment arrives when the crowds in the street confront the soldiers and policemen, and the question arises: will they open fire on their own people? When the soldiers refuse, the revolution wins. When they shoot, that is the end of the matter. When Boris Yeltsin climbed on the tank, the solders refused to shoot and he won. The Berlin Wall fell because one East German police officer refused at the decisive moment to give the order to open fire. In Iran, Khomeini won when, in the final test, the soldiers of the shah refused to shoot. That did not happen this time. The security forces were ready to shoot. They were not infected by the revolutionary spirit. The way it looks now, that was the end of the affair. I am not an admirer of Ahmadinejad. Mousavi appeals to me much more. I do not like leaders who are in direct contact with God, who make speeches to the masses from a balcony, who use demagogic and provocative language, who ride on the waves of hatred and fear. His denial of the Holocaust – an idiotic exercise in itself – only adds to Ahmadinejad's image as a primitive or cynical leader. No doubt, he is a sworn enemy of the state of Israel or – as he prefers to call it – the "Zionist regime." Even if he did not promise to wipe it out himself, as erroneously reported, but only expressed his belief that it would "disappear from the map," this does not set my mind at rest. It is an open question whether Mousavi, if elected, would have made a difference as far as we are concerned. Would Iran have abandoned its efforts to produce nuclear weapons? Would it have reduced its support of the Palestinian resistance? The answer is negative. It is an open secret that our leaders hoped that Ahmadinejad would win, exacerbate the hatred of the Western world against himself, and make reconciliation with America more difficult. All through the crisis, Barack Obama has behaved with admirable restraint. American and Western public opinion, as well as the supporters of the Israeli government, called upon him to raise his voice, identify with the protesters, wear a green tie in their honor, condemn the ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad in no uncertain terms. But except for minimal criticism, he did not do so, displaying both wisdom and political courage. Iran is what it is. The U.S. must negotiate with it, for its own sake and for our sake, too. Only this way – if at all – is it possible to prevent or hold up its development of nuclear weapons. And if we are condemned to live under the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb, in a classic situation of a balance of terror, it would be better if the bomb were in the hands of an Iranian leadership that keeps up a dialogue with the American president. And of course, it would be good for us if – before reaching that point – we could achieve, with the friendly support of Obama, full peace with the Palestinian people, thus removing the main justification for Iran's hostility toward Israel. The revolt of the Northerners in Iran will remain, so it seems, a passing episode. It may, hopefully, have an impact in the long run, beneath the surface. But in the meantime, it makes no sense to deny the victory of the Iranian denier. |
Unscientific observation of 'iranian' twitters!
| I have been on twitter for a very long time and was very surprised that many of the so called Iranian twitters pupped up and got 1000s of followers in a very short time so I did an unscientific follow up on them based on the time they twitts and what they say, I tried to contact them and only managed to get in touch with only 2, one in the US who is living in the UK right now (not in the list) and the second one was Gita who was quoted as being in Iran by many ppl sicne she was twitting in Farsi. This is as I said highly innaccurate but interesting to observe for the next time since most of these so called Iranian tiwitters start sending messages between 9:30 A.M European time and 11 or 12 pm european time, and others start writing around 11:30 EU time and end up around 3-4 A.M EU time which does not make sense for a person who lives in Iran unless they have a very odd sleeping hours. Cheers, /Farhad http://twitter.com/madyar Always gets on around noon EU time, very active, sends 100s of twits per day. http://twitter.com/persiankiwi Highly reported by media, ALWAYS sends messages in EU time, probably in the UK http://twitter.com/mousavi1388 Probably in Iran, but mostly repeats what others have sent, LOTS of rumers comes from himm highly inaccurate reporting, source of the 'mousave under house arrest' news http://twitter.com/IranElect Started recently, definitely in the US (east coast) http://twitter.com/iran09 Hard to say, he twits all the time, always from his computer using FireFox, and pretends he is actually THERE! http://twitter.com/Gita She is one of the few who actually responds to ppl. She admitted she does is not living in Iran "right now" but that "she lives in Iran" caught her when she said that she had called her relatives "in Iran" to check things out in Farsi but said differently in English! http://twitter.com/StopAhmadi One of the most famous ones, his time of sending is like the US east coast ALWAYS, never responds to people and acts like he is sitting in the head quarter of Mousavim lots of BS, but lots of good news too, mostly repeated from others. |
شخصیت های کشور: ابراهيم نبوي
ابراهيم نبوي در این ماه اتفاقات مهمی رخ داد که باعث شد تعدادی از شخصیت های کشور از چیزی که قبلا بودند، خواسته و ناخواسته تبدیل به چیزی بشوند که نبودند. سید محمد خاتمی: یک فیلسوف اصلاح طلب که همه بخاطر او به موسوی رای دادند، تبدیل شد به یک فیلسوف اصلاح طلب که همه بخاطر موسوی دوستش دارند. مهدی کروبی: یک نامزد لر شجاع که اصلاح طلب بود، تبدیل شد به رئیس دیده بان حقوق بشر و رئیس سازمان زنان ایران و پس از انتخابات در شلوغی خیابانها گم شد. محسن رضایی: یک سردار متخصص استراتژی و کارشناس فدرالیسم که در عرض 24 ساعت تبدیل به قهرمان ملی شد و آنچنان مورد توجه قرار گرفت که یادش رفت قبل از انتخابات انصراف بدهد، در نتیجه بعد از انتخابات از قهرمانی ملی اعلام انصراف کرده و سالم به پایگاه خود بازگشت. محمود احمدی نژاد: یک قهرمان بین المللی در عرصه خارجی و یک رئیس جمهور بدنام بی عرضه در عرصه داخلی که در عرض یک هفته تبدیل به یک جنایتکار جنگی در عرصه جهانی و یک کودتاچی بدنام بی عرضه دروغگو در عرصه داخلی شد. اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی: یک سوپرمن که قرار بود وارد اتاقش بشود و کت و شلوارش را دربیاورد و به نجات همه بپردازد، وی وارد اتاق شد و با گذشت سه هفته هنوز از آن خارج نشده است. اکبر ناطق نوری: یک رئیس دفتر رهبری که از سوی یک نامزد محبوب رهبری متهم به فساد مالی شد. وی از آن تاریخ از خانه خارج شده و هنوز مراجعه نکرده است. علی لاریجانی: شخصیت هشتم حکومت جمهوری اسلامی که به دلیل حذف نابهنگام پنج شخصیت دیگر، تبدیل به شخصیت سوم حکومت شد. وی در حالی که داشت می دوید از همه تندروها عقب ماند و به مدت یک هفته تبدیل به یک شخصیت میانه رو شد. محمد علی ابطحی: یک شخصیت روحانی اینترنتی دوست داشتنی میانه رو و معتدل که به دلیل انقلابیگری دیگران دستگیر و از صحنه مبارزات دیلیت شد. عطاء الله مهاجرانی: راست ترین نیروی اپوزیسیون در طول تاریخ که قرار بود چپ ترین نیروی پوزیسیون بعدی بشود، ولی در اثر یک تصادف نابهنگام تبدیل به رهبر معترضین شد. شیرین عبادی: مهم ترین شخصیت بین المللی ایرانی که اخیرا متوجه شده است انتخاباتی در ایران صورت گرفته است. محسن مخملباف: یک فیلمساز معتبر بین المللی که بیست سال از سیاست جدا شد و از ده روز قبل، روزی یک سال عقب ماندگی اش را جبران می کند. غلامحسین کرباسچی: یک شهردار اسبق که ده سال مشغول زیباسازی شهر تهران بود و بشکلی موفقیت آمیز همین پروژه زیباسازی را در مورد شیخ اصلاحات انجام داد و او را از یک کوهستان بی آب و علف تبدیل به یک چشم انداز دیدنی کرده و مجددا به همین اتهام زندانی شد. صادق محصولی: یک وزیر میلیاردر که به دلیل عدم آشنایی با مقدمات ریاضیات حاصل جمع اعداد را قبل از انجام چهار عمل اصلی به عنوان نتیجه انتخابات اعلام کرد. او ترجیح داد به جای چهار عمل اصلی ریاضی( منها، جمع، ضرب و تقسیم) از چهار عمل اصلی فیزیکی( زدن، انداختن، سقوط و شتاب دادن) استفاده کند. فاطمه رجبی: همسر سخنگوی دولت که تا یک ماه قبل کسانی را که به طرف صاحبش حمله می کردند گاز می گرفت، وی در ماه گذشته اصولا گاز می گیرد، دلیل خاصی هم ندارد. میرحسین موسوی: یک نخست وزیر سابق که بیست سال نقاشی می کرد و حرف نزد، نزد، نزد، نزد، نزد، نزد، اممممما حالا که آمد حرف بزند، آی زد!!!! سید علی خامنه ای: یک رهبر متوسط و معمولی که هیچ وقت نه خیلی چپ زده بود نه خیلی راست، نه خیلی کند رفته بود، نه خیلی تند، نه خیلی مورد توجه بود، نه خیلی مورد بی احترامی، و سرانجام تصمیم گرفت حرف آخرش را بزند، اما دستپاچه شد و آخرین حرفش را زد. حزب الله: گروهی از آدمهایی که پیراهنشان را روی شلوارشان می انداختند و به مردم اخم می کردند، سرانجام آنان دست شان را زیر پیراهن شان بردند و اسلحه های شان را کشیدند. مردم ایران: هفتاد میلیون نفر که سی سال بود رفته بودند توی خانه و بیرون نمی آمدند، حالا سی روز است که از خانه بیرون آمدند و دیگر توی خانه نمی روند. |
20090628
Bon Jovi Sings in Farsi (baa man baash - Stand By me )!
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdAnRB_Truw I don't like Bon Jovi or Andy at all, but it is interesting that he sings in Farsi! Cheers, /Farhad |
20090624
Nice GNU based schematic and PCB CAD program!
This is an interesting CAD program, with some really good examples:
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
Kicad has been developed for years. It becomes a multilingual, cross-platform and complete independent EDA tool, follows GPLv2 license. It is a set of software tools with a project manager:
- eeschema: Schematic Capture;
- PCBnew: Board Editor with 3D viewer, requires open source Wings3D as 3D modeler;
- Gerbview: GERBER viewer;
- CVPCB: footprint selector;
- Kicad: project manager.
And library generator
http://kicad.rohrbacher.net/quicklib.php
Some info and comments:
http://dev.emcelettronica.com/kicad-free-and-open-source-eda-tool
20090623
Zimbabwean Nightmare Of Neglect Continues In South Africa
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20090622
FYI: Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran
Do you remember this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552784/Bush-sanctions-black-ops-against-Iran.html
Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran
President George W Bush has given the CIA approval to launch covert "black" operations to achieve regime change in
Mr Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilise, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.
Under the plan, pressure will be brought to bear on the Iranian economy by manipulating the country's currency and international financial transactions.
Details have also emerged of a covert scheme to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme, which United Nations nuclear watchdogs said last week could lead to a bomb within three years.
Security officials in Washington have disclosed that Teheran has been sold defective parts on the black market in a bid to delay and disrupt its uranium enrichment programme, the precursor to building a nuclear weapon.
A security source in the US told The Sunday Telegraph that the presidential directive, known as a "non-lethal presidential finding", would give the CIA the right to collect intelligence on home soil, an area that is usually the preserve of the FBI, from the many Iranian exiles and emigrés within the US.
"Iranians in America have links with their families at home, and they are a good two-way source of information," he said.
The CIA will also be allowed to supply communications equipment which would enable opposition groups in Iran to work together and bypass internet censorship by the clerical regime.
The plans, which significantly increase American pressure on Iran, were leaked just days before a meeting in Iraq tomorrow between the US ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and his Iranian counterpart.
Tensions have been raised by Iran's seizure of what the US regards as a series of "hostages" in recent weeks. Three academics who hold dual Iranian-American citizenship are being held, accused of working to undermine the Iranian government or of spying.
An Iranian-American reporter with Radio Free Europe, who was visiting Iran, has had her passport seized. Another Iranian American, businessman Ali Shakeri, was believed to have been detained as he tried to leave Teheran last week.
The US responded with a show of force by the navy, sending nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, into the Persian Gulf.
Authorisation of the new CIA mission, which will not be allowed to use lethal force, appears to suggest that President Bush has, for the time being, ruled out military action against Iran.
Bruce Riedel, until six months ago the senior CIA official who dealt with Iran, said: "Vice-President [Dick] Cheney helped to lead the side favouring a military strike, but I think they have concluded that a military strike has more downsides than upsides."
However, the CIA is giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan.
Iranian officials say they captured 10 members of Jundullah last weekend, carrying $500,000 in cash along with "maps of sensitive areas" and "modern spy equipment".
Mark Fitzpatrick, a former senior State Department official now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said industrial sabotage was the favoured way to combat Iran's nuclear programme "without military action, without fingerprints on the operation."
He added: "One way to sabotage a programme is to make minor modifications in some of the components Iran obtains on the black market."
Components and blueprints obtained by Iranian intelligence agents in Europe, and shipped home using the diplomatic bag from the Iranian consulate in Frankfurt, have been blamed for an explosion that destroyed 50 nuclear centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear plant last year.
The White House National Security Council and CIA refused to comment on intelligence matters.
Ants inhabit 'world without sex' :(
This is too funny not to spread, specially the last part that says that the ants have learned “not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction” J
Ants inhabit 'world without sex'
| By Victoria Gill |
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These ants do not need males |
An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.
The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters.
This species - the first ever to be shown to reproduce entirely without sex - cultivates a garden of fungus, which also reproduces asexually.
The finding of the ants' "world without sex" is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Anna Himler, the biologist from the University of Arizona who led the research, told BBC News that the team used a battery of tests to verify their findings.
Unusual evolution
By "fingerprinting" DNA of the ant species - Mycocepurus smithii - they found them all to be clones of the colony's queen.
And when they dissected the female insects, they found them to be physically incapable of mating, as an essential part of their reproductive system known as the "mussel organ" had degenerated.
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Anna Himler |
Asexual reproduction of males from unfertilised eggs is a normal part of some insect reproduction, but asexual reproduction of females is "exceedingly rare in ants", wrote the researchers.
"In social insects, there are a number of different types of reproduction," explained Dr Himler. "But this species has evolved its own unusual mode."
She and her colleagues do not know exactly why this particular species has become fully asexual, and how long ago the phenomenon evolved.
They are carrying out further genetic experiments, which will enable them to estimate how long ago the evolutionary change occurred.
No sex please
There are advantages to life without sex, Dr Himler explained.
"It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring."
But combining genetic material in sexual reproduction gives future generations many more advantages.
"If we're more diverse, we're more resistant to parasites and disease," explained Laurent Keller, an expert in social insects from the University of Lausanne.
"In a colony of clones, if one ant is susceptible to a parasite, they will all be susceptible. So if you're asexual, you normally don't last very long.
"But in ants we're seeing more and more reports of unusual methods of reproduction," added Professor Keller, who was not involved in this study.
He also points out that social insects, like ants, may be particularly well suited to this type of reproduction because it enables the queen to control the caste and sex of all the offspring in her colony.
The first farmers
Dr Himler's interest in Mycocepurus smithii was originally sparked not by their unusually biased sex ratio, but by their ability to cultivate crops.
"Ants discovered farming long before we did - they have been cultivating fungus gardens for an estimated 80 million years.
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More interested in gardening than sex |
"They collect plant material, insect faeces and even dead insects from the forest floor and feed it to their crops," she said.
Many different species of ant - including the famous leafcutter ants - cultivate fungi, relying on it for nutrition.
But this particular species is able to grow "a greater number of crops than other ant species", she explained.
"When we started to study this species more closely, we just weren't finding any males. That's when we started to look at them in a different way."
Since the fungus crop reproduces asexually, Dr Himler thinks it might give the ants some kind of advantage "not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction".
"There is certainly more work to be done in this system," she added. "We're quite excited about the direction this research might take us, and its implications."
