CNN banned

Was it just a simple unintended mistake over an insignificant news or was it a very clever way of disturbing the news to achieve some other goals. Nobody might ever know but we can have some guesses. For example why should such an error occur in such a sensitive time and over such a delicate matter? And why should such a media like CNN make that mistake? Any way, sometimes some things aren't very easy to comprehend. This time, out of any feelings for my country or the government ruling over it, and considering only reason, I think they did the right thing in punishing CNN over this behavior.
Link to the English version of this news
Link to the French version

Bullshit!

In one of the tv shows of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he invites an author as a guest. Keneth Timmerman, the author who has written a book "countdown to crisis: nuclear showdown with Iran" says about Iranians that "They've been killing Americans for 20 years" , then he continues and comments during his interview that
"They [the iranians] literally love us". Jon Stewart turns to him and asks "What about burning the flags?". He doesn’t actually answer that but all in all again this is a very good example of typicalizing foreigners (in this case Iranians) the way they like.
He tries to sound reasonable and tries to show his statements are well credited but what he claims he has done, interviewing some very informative people during past two years is unrealistic. I can strongly say that those Iranians who live in foreign countries and haven't live in Iran in any period during the past 9 years don't know shit about this country or its people even if they call themselves Iranians. Besides, even if those people say something about Iran and claim they have critical information, you have to doubt them. Because in the case of Iran you are dealing with a regime which even the very people inside it aren't sure about its aims and what it really tries to achieve by this weird diplomacy over the nuclear issue and Israel.
And the real bullshit is the claim made about the 9/11, that Iranian regime was behind it and participating in planning it with Alghaeda (the ironic thing is that they had made almost the very same claim about the Iraqi regime before the US invasion). There is nooooooooo way that such a thing would be possible and happen! Even if Iran is against US and planning to endanger its interests around the world, at the same time it is against Bin Laden in every way. Because it is not only US which are considered an enemy by him, but Shiite Muslims (the majority in Iran) are also considered to be traitors, unbelievers and heathens.

The other thing I like to write about if I find enough time is Sean Penn's view of Iran during his visit in Presidential elections which was published in San Francisco Chronicles. He might be an activist in these kinds of events but he is just a Hollywood actor and nothing more. I think his views of Iran which were very on surface (I don't know if there is any expression like this in English and I hope I could express what I had in mind) are nothing compared to the analysis which ordinary people of Iran make of the actions of their government and other governments of the world during their daily talking. But even they can't change anything with these talking. It seems that most of them have given up and waiting to see what happens next.

Being a better person

I feel this blog helps me to organize my thoughts, specially the very important thoughts about the whole cause of us being here which I rarely find enough time to think and concentrate about them. I think in a way this blog helps me to be a better person; The most important reason is that in a daily life we are so busy dealing with our relations with other people that we rarely find a proper time to sit and think of what we think about the world around us and where we are heading. Of course this has some drawbacks. The important drawback in my case is that I don't really think deep before I want to write something in here so some writings may seem unthoughtful or raw. I try to avoid these kinds of writings but clearly it is unavoidable.

Axis of Evil

It appears to me that the major problem we have to deal with is having the concept of Good and Evil and spreading this concept to every human being on earth and dividing them in only these two categories. I hope I don't offend the beliefs of anyone when I say that I believe this is a deviation made in the true nature of Christianity by the Catholic Church. But of course, the whole idea goes back to a much earlier time and the initial religious ideas of the early civilizations especially in India and China. It was in those lands where the starting human civilizations came up with the idea of two opposite poles and everything made of two poles. Sometimes the reality might be simplified applying these concepts but in the overall case this is not a good way of dealing with truth. The truth is always a tricky business and it can't be handled one sided. I wish (probably a very vain wish) the humans would become more understanding of one another.

Cool!

Cool! somebody has put my recent post about the role of media in Clipmark. Check it out, and hopefully express your thoughts.

Return of the Exam-Man

I am finally back after a long time and after a month full of exams and projects and applications! My GRE was much better than what I though it would be but maybe it wasn't as I first planned it. The reason is pretty simple as a matter of fact: in the last two weeks leading to the test I found out that I have two other exams, one the day before and one the day after the exam. And just when I finished that horrible week of exams I found out I have two other coming the next week and when I was almost done with them I found out that TOEFL expires in two years and mine has just lost its validity a week before.
But now it is much more relaxing. I should just hand in a project by the end of the week and then fly to Norway next week to begin my christmas vacation. Meanwhile I have a lot of half written posts that I should finish and put them here.

An evening with Jay Leno

It is really sad and frightening what the world is driving itself into. It seems that we are heading towards a real mess full of misunderstandings and animosity. And it is not like just a simple misunderstanding between two friends. This is the kind of deep painful misunderstanding that has thickened through the years and it has speeded up in the last three or four years. What seems to worsen the case is that it seems everyone is ok with this and no one is stepping forward to make a move and make things better. Among all these the media is playing the role of the match for this pile of dry firewood.
A few days ago I saw one of Jay Leno's programs. Well! The whole center idea of this episode was making fun of Iran's space program. Making fun of things is ok in a comedy but to give wrong data to make people hate a country where most of the Americans are already considering it enemy and especially in this offensive cruel manner where it tends to insult the whole country does not seem fair. Of course, what else is fair now?
Anyway, it is not funny any more to call an Iranian, Mustafa. First of all, it is more an Arabic name and word than Iranian and I have told you how they feel when they are told they are Arabs. And second, it is one of the titles of prophet of Islam, Muhammad. So it is an insult to a religion than to anything else.
When someone from Middle East sees this it really annoys him, not because of the insults and making jokes out of them but maybe mostly because they are doing it by giving misleading information and introducing them in a totally false way.
This I think is the most serious problem of our world today. Although we claim that now we live in a small village of world and the distances have shortened by the means of internet and media, at the same time we hardly know each other very well and we are full of prejudgments and misunderstandings. And the very means that should have helped solve this problem has turned to worsen it: the Media.

Test Center

Last time, three years ago, when I wanted to take the GRE exam I had to travel to a whole new country and change from car to minibus, then to a bus and then to a plane to get there.
Now it is only five minutes away, BY WALK!

Three

trio , trisome , or triple ?

Commence

Knowledge of French language is helping me a lot this time in GRE. If last time I knew this much french I would have definitely got much higher in my verbal. A simple example might clarify what I have in mind: one of the words is Arboreal which means "of connection with trees". Now how should I guess this might be the meaning? But knowing that tree in french is "arbre" the rest seems so obvious.

Glass

I don't know if you know or have ever heard of Philip Glass. He is a contemporary music artist whom I heard one of his compositions in an Iranian film called the Pear Tree. At the time I had no idea who the composer of that soft magical music was. But the music was one of the best parts of that movie which is among my favorite Iranian films. Then about three months ago, while watching a documentary on Pop Art, I heard it in the background. Has it happened to you too? ofcourse it has, when you want something so bad you would do anything including a lot of crazy stuff to get it. So there I was spending several hours in the public library, checking the film again and again, looking in the names of music used in the film and searching for them in the same library. The investigation probably didn't exactly payed off as expected, because I couldn't find the exact piece, but I found out that the name of the artist is Philip Glass and during these last weeks every week I have got one of his CDs from the library. His music seems very simple, described best as minimalistic, although he himself doesn't like the term. It consists of a few simple rhythms which iterates, repeats and transforms gently. There aren't any events in it and it is more like an ever changing and at the same time unchanging sound of a breeze of wind or a flow of water. Among them there are some pieces called glasspieces and also some dance pieces which are all great!

Many Thanks!

A-Lumpen-Proteriat and Tilotamma, Thank you both, for your great advices. It seems that talking about Times was a very stupid thing to do. To be honest, at that time I just took a shut. I had know idea what to read. And by the way, I totally agree that New Yorker is much better than Times but I haven't been around any New Yorker magazine, ever! However I have always wanted to read one. I have to go find one very soon very fast.
And Princeton Review is great! Both links are very useful. Now the only problem is the time. A month: enough or not enough, that is the question.

Fear of GRE

Last night I spent an almost crazy night! With an evening gathering which they call it a "soirée" or "pot basket" for the basketball team, both boys and girls. We were about fifteen people sitting aroung a big table and trying to hit each other's glasses with everything we could like a real basketball player does!!
But other than that I must say I have to start working on this GRE thing! and specially the analytical part. I think I must start to read some professional articles, but I'm not sure from which magazines or newspapers. I think I might start with New York Times and Time. I've also got a book and some list of words to begin study for the verbal part and the rest is a piece of cake or else I hope it would be. Anyone, any advices?

Almost Fallen

This Saturday night it was SUPAERO Gala night again and unlike last year where I was lonely for most of my time in school, this time I arranged to go with my newly found friends from this year's master program. One of them is a Lebanese girl from a Japanese and Syrian origin. She had invited some of her other Lebanese friends from Paris to come to gala. And just like last year among the 12 bar-theme which they had in Gala there was a bar-theme of Oriental music with Indian and Arabic music and Arabic belly dancing that was beautifully performed by a girl. So we sat down and began enjoying the Arabic music and dance the way they enjoy it in Beirut, and soon three other Arab students joined us, two boys and a girl from Morroco. Although sometimes I almost could feel a little tension between the Frenchs in that room with our group but I learned to ignore it. But I must confess that in the beginning it was not at all that easy. First when I saw a woman watching at our group with a not-very-nice look on her face I wanted to show them that I'm not Arab and even though I'm sitting here with my friends this is not we used to do when playing our music but then I realized I'm being shameful! The very thing I hate is happening to me. This is a room of orietal music and these people are part of this world and all those who are here are here by their own choice and we are providing them the real atmosphere that the whole thing is about; so the hell with whoever dislikes it and still sits there!

filling the Gap

It has been a long time, hasn’t it ? I don’t know the reason why it took so long to come and write in here again but instead, right now I have a few good reasons to continue writing regularly for a while and I mean only the english weblog. I may start to write my other two weblogs too but I have to look for other reasons to start them.
Well ! let me fill you in with what has happened in here for me during the last two months or so. Life has gotten much more complicated for me in here, I can say ! The internship which I have started in this two months in the Signal Processing Lab in here doesn’t seem to go very well and I really need to increase my efforts. But the good news is that the proposal which I did during the summer as part of my internship and most of its technical part was done by me has been accepted by Eurpean Space Agency. We are going to celebrate it some time in the end of this month. I have involved myself in a lot of school activities mainly sports, so all my evenings are full now and another result of this involvement has been to get to know a lot of new people through these activities. I have also made some new friends among the new master students. Other than these my relationship with my friends from the last year, my Iranian friends has grown and thus has made it more complicated to manage. This caused in lesser time which I spend with them but it is good time anyway.
Also there was an eliptical eclipse in 3rd of october. Toulouse had a good position with 78% of sun covered but Madrid in Spain had the best position which I missed to go with our astronomy club. And it was completely cloudy that day in Toulouse although I managed to take two to three pictures from instantaneous gaps between the clouds.
I have started sending letters to a list of professors which I’ve made from US universities asking them to see if they accept any new graduate PhD students for the next year. Fortunately today I got two very positive responces but one of them has asked if I can take GRE test again and improve my results in analytical part. That seemed a good idea but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to manage to be ready for it or not. I have to start memorizing words and writing essays so I would be ready for the next month. I’ll have to work hard ! And writing in my weblog will be a possible practice for my english writing. I’ll have to choose some hot topics in the news these days and discuss them in here !
As a result of these things going on around me I missed an opportunity to interview with a german reporter about blogs. It was supposed to be a program in german radio. I couldn’t respond to him in time and when I responded it was already late. It seems that I keep loosing my chances to interview with the reporters. I don’t know if it is even an important thing to mention it in here or not.