Recent Posts
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
The English alphabet has Arabic origins, does it not?
No, it is mostly Latin/Greek in origin. Those alphabets some have pointed to early Semitic (Phoenician) alphabets as precursors. Arabic is written totally differently, right to left, like its cousins Hebrew, Farsi, and Aramaic.
The English number system, on the other hand, was totally lifted from the Arabic, as the Latins had a cumbersome letter style we still see on offical documents (MCMXXLVII stuff) which was hard to do higher math functions in. The Arabs brought us the concept of zero from India and our numerical system looks very similar to theirs still.
Of course it is confusing to Westerners translating that a 'five' (hamsa) looks like a zero and a zero (sifr- another loan word 'cypher') looks like a period, but what can ya do?
EDIT: Check out the cool Arabic ten-sided dice I found looking for a pic to show you the numbers! Top left is one, bottom right is ten.
I am wondering why the western press did not pick up this. I mean, I feel for the Iranian people, but also for oppressed people anywhere.
Come on. NYTimes declared Afghanistan's election "a success" when blatant vote fraud beyond anything in Iran was clear to everybody. Some moral fretting since then, but that just maintains the myth of moral supremacy. Seriously, did you see in mainstream press even 1% of the Iran coverage when the Egyptian regime started shooting anybody trying to go to voting stations half-way thru the vote when reality broke thru their self-believed propaganda and they realized they wouldn't win a real election? Or even a peep about the farce of the PLO 'elections' (from hand-picked delegates) who AFTER announcing the final results (after holding the ballots in arbitrary secret locations a couple of days), have to go back and say 'oh, this guy actually WAS elected' after some back-scene horse trading. The reason you haven't heard a peep about Saudi elections... there aren't any.
It's called (our) good guys and (not our) bad guys.If want to know more than what's on the loyal statist press' menu of the day, you have to stray further afield.
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
2 Iranian dissidents say they were raped in captivity
I am appalled. Is there any way these allegations could ever be confirmed?
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
2 Iranian dissidents say they were raped in captivity
I am appalled. Is there any way these allegations could ever be confirmed?
Most likely no. I'm sure they weren't filmed in any fashion. I am really surprised the gentleman came forward with his allegations, the nature of which convinces me that it is true. Considering the fundamentalist Shia view on homosexuality, he has indeed committed 'social suicide' by revealing that he was raped by his captors. Even in our relatively open society, something like that would be hard to live down, in Iran it would make you a pariah.
*sigh* and as for nukes, I'd really hate to see Iran get them. I would hope if they do they would have the forebearance not to try and nuke Israel off the map, but considering the undercurrents of Jihad and the rhetoric they put forward, I wouldn't like to bet money on that. Hopefully the horrors of nuclear warfare can penetrate even the Supreme Council's thick skulls.
Balance of deterrence, or a catastrophe
Do you realize that Iran actually has the upper hand in this game?
Balance of deterrence, or a catastropheDo you realize that Iran actually has the upper hand in this game?
And, in other news on this subject ...
Iran is winner in nuclear talks
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
Unrest as Iran marks embassy siege
Looks like it is still not over. I worry over the violence which may re-errupt.
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
Although it will be bloodier, I think the US or the UN meddling with Iran's internal politics will only bring misery. Their country is overwhelmingly young, and they cannot squash all the methods of information sharing without running back into the 20th Century. Eventually, they will have a civil war, and then, perhaps, the UN can go in as peacekeepers once the dust settles. And then only if invited. The US should stay clear out of it. Maybe China can send in a few divisions for the UN. It'd be nice to see the fundamentalists hating on someone else for a change ...
