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From Guardian’s website (Comment is free..) by Nasrin Alavi

Washington is using the sort of rhetoric it used in the build-up to the war in Iraq. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, looms forever large in the western media. So you may care to see a few Iranian faces other than Ahmadinejad’s for a change.

The video above, for a song by the underground Iranian band Kiosk, titled Love for Speed, was filmed entirely in Tehran. It’ll give you a flavour of the sort of music that booms out of rickety taxis and flash cars alike in city’s maddening traffic. Kiosk are very popular in Iran.

The video was shot in a two-and-a-half days by Ahmad Kiarostami (son of the legendary Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami). Ahmad just walked up to passers-by in Tehran asking them to mime the lyrics.

I have to warn you that Kiosk sound far too much like Dire Straits. I also have to share a dark Iranian secret with you here. There are many Iranians who love Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and Manchester United Football Club with a passion. Although the track is subtitled the translation in the video isn’t that great. But you’ll get the gist, the opening lyrics are:

The power of love or love of power
Modernism versus tradition forever

Living in the axis of evil
Drive a Citroen 2CV and a have a love for speed

Why feel any pain and suffer
With pills and powders at hand

Nothing to eat for lunch or dinner
Then let them eat yellowcake

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Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of three stories and an argument. The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen.

See the talk

I found this video while looking at the following sites:

prothink.org

wakeupfromyourslumber.com

I also stumbled on this article which is extremely controversial:

Holocaust is Nothing But A HoloHoax.

A word of caution: some of the material in the above sites are obviously anti-zionist and in some cases may seem anti-Semite – the authors of these articles deny that they racist or anti-semitic and that they are simply telling us facts that you do not normally hear about in the main stream media. I’ve read quite a few of their articles as a reference point on what ‘the other side’ is talking about – they do not in any way reflect own opinions.

Some great lectures on this site with lots of pictures and article titles like:

Problem with Audiences, What Happens Behind the Scenes and Misconceptions About Air.

Done in an old-school pre ’97 web style but fun nonetheless.

Courtesy of Paul Downey

Three years in the making, Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers of the World explores the apparent madness at the heart of US military intelligence.

With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Jon Ronson examines the extraordinary – and plain bizarre – national secrets at the core of George W Bush’s war on terror.

This is a three part series originally shown on Channel4 in August 2007.

You can see the first part here.

You can never have too many books, so we are delighted to share with you some ways to get them for free. From children’s books to technical books, there are numerous resources that offer literature for free. Some of the following sites offer actual printed books, while others feature electronic books (aka “ebooks”). Please bear in mind that the list is alphabetized, not ordered by importance.

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mind42.com

Keep track of all your ideas, whether alone, with colleagues and friends or working together with the whole world.

mind42.com is a browser based online mind mapping application. With mind42.com installing mindmapping tools is no longer needed- for a hassle-free mindmapping experience. Just open the browser and launch the application when needed.

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