Hulleye Comes By!

it seems that the persians are in quite the hotspot as of late. every other media channel has the letters i-r-a-n plastered somewhere on the screen. was it always like this? nope, media portrays the evils rather well according to the current mood of american politics. in any case, the movie 300 has gotten rave reviews and the critics have soaked up blockbuster ratings and the moguls that be have made their millions from it. even though it’s a work of fiction by a great story teller, namely frank miller, it’s been acclaimed already, and rather inaccurately as a historical film. here is a bit of an insight in greek and persian history as dr. kaveh farrokh reviews the film piece by piece and explains how the film has demonized and butchered the greeks and persians and their ancient cultures.

In the course of their historical intercourse, Greece and Persia have created breathtaking works in domains such as the arts, architecture, sciences, music and of course, democracy and human rights. It is interesting that many modern Greeks acknowledge and appreciate ancient Iran as a civilization as worthy as their own, yet the same is not necessarily true in northwest Europe and North America. 

This review will focus on eight items for discussion:

(1) The Notion of Democracy and Human Rights

(2) What really led to War

(3) The Military Conflict: Separating Fact from Fiction

(4) The Error of Xerxes: The Burning of Athens

(5) The “West” battling against the “Mysticism” of “the East”

(6) The Portrayal of Iranians and Greeks

(7) A Note on the Iranian Women in Antiquity

(8) “Good” versus “Evil”

why is the number 17 not as random as it should be?

The Melbourne to Karachi tram or the W-11 tram was a tram commissioned by the city of Melbourne decorated by a team of professional Pakistani vehicle decorators during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

humans and machines interact in a fairly bizarre manner. in science fiction, even more so. here’s a detailed analysis of the interactivity between machines and humans in popular sci-fi culture.

so the washington post, recently hired one of the world’s bests violinists, and put him outside a D.C. metro station to play for pocket change and to see whether anyone would notice him. the results are mind boggling. i love how consumed we all are in the morning.