Worshippers pray during Arafat Day at a park in southern Tehran, Iran. Arafat is a sacred day in the Islamic calendar marking Hajj pilgrimage a day before Eid al-Adha, or Feast of ...
A man cools off from the summer heat under an open air shower to beat the heat in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's government declared an official holiday in Baghdad due to a scorching heatwa...
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani, left, and President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who is the current judici...
Iran's new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran.
In this picture released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to vote at a polling station at Imam Kho...
In this file photo made available by Young Journalists Club, YJC, presidential candidates for June 18, elections Alireza Zakani, left, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, second left, Saeed Jalil...
Supporters of presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi hold signs during a rally in Tehran, Iran. Iran's clerical vetting committee has allowed just seven candidates for the ballot, ni...
Ebrahim Raisi, head of Iran's judiciary registers his name as a candidate for the June 18 presidential elections at the interior Ministry in Tehran, Iran.
Former Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks with the media after registering his name as a candidate for the June 18 presidential elections at elections headquarters of the In...
A clergyman registers his name as a candidate for the June 18, presidential elections at the interior Ministry in Tehran, Iran. Iran opened registration Tuesday for potential candi...
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Senior Vice- President, Senior Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, right, and South Korea's Prime Minister C...
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Senior Vice- President, South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, left, and Iran's Senior Vice-Presid...
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani, right, meets Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, left, in Tehran,...
This picture released by the official website of the Iranian Defense Ministry shows the launch of Iran's newest satellite-carrier rocket, called "Zuljanah," at an undisclosed locat...
This photo released by the Iranian Army, shows a missile being fired during a military drill. Iran's military kicked off a ground forces drill on Tuesday along the coast of the Gul...
In this photo released by the Imamedia missiles are launched during a drill. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces on Friday held a military exercise involving ballistic m...
This photo released by the Iranian Army, shows Iran-made warship Makran prior to be joined to the Navy, in Iran. Iran's navy was poised to begin a short-range missile drill in the ...
In this photo released by the Iranian army, a drone is launched during a military exercise in undisclosed location in Iran. On Tuesday, the Iranian military began a wide-ranging, t...
In this photo released by the Iranian army, drones are displayed prior to a drill, in an undisclosed location in Iran. The Iranian military began a wide-ranging, two-day aerial ri...
Tayebeh Mokhber is injected with the Coviran coronavirus vaccine produced by Shifa Pharmed, part of a state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate, in a ceremony in Tehran, Iran. The fi...
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Millions of twitter users were left frustrated by one of the oldest tools in the Internet hacker handbook: the Distributed Denial-of-Service attack (commonly shortened to DDoS). As Time reports:
DDoS attacks are surprisingly low tech. Using a network of computers (dubbed zombies) controlled by a single master machine, the hacker tries to overwhelm the a website's servers. It's a brute force approach — the network of hacker-controlled computers flood the server with requests for data until the server overloads and comes crashing down. Graham Cluley, a computer security expert, likened the attack to "15 fat men trying to get through a revolving door at the same time." The attacks do no lasting damage — user data isn't compromised and the site isn't down for long. Once the fat men stop rushing the doors, everything returns to normal.
So is this the worst DDoS attack ever, as some Twitter fans are claiming? No, the DDoS attack on Google earlier this year was probably still the worst attack on record, says Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in the Computer World. He of course also has a theory as to who may be behind it:
Twitter has become the way for Iranian protesters to keep in touch with each other and let the rest of the world know about how their election was stolen from them. The Iranian opposition had been planning protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inauguration ceremony. A great deal of this planning has been over the Internet on blogs, and, of course, Twitter.
Slavoj Žižek in the LRB:
There are many versions of last month’s events in Tehran. Some see in the protests the culmination of the pro-Western ‘reform movement’, something along the lines of the colour-coded revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia. They support the protests as a secular reaction to the Khomeini revolution, as the first step towards a new liberal-democratic Iran freed from Muslim fundamentalism. They are countered by sceptics who think that Ahmadinejad actually won, that he is the voice of the majority, while Mousavi’s support comes from the middle classes and their gilded youth. Let’s face facts, they say: in Ahmadinejad, Iran has the president it deserves. Then there are those who dismiss Mousavi as a member of the clerical establishment whose differences from Ahmadinejad are merely cosmetic. He too wants to continue with the atomic energy programme, is against recognising Israel, and when he was prime minister in the repressive years of the war with Iraq enjoyed the full support of Khomeini.
Finally, and saddest of all, are the leftist supporters of Ahmadinejad.
Read the full article: here
Parvaneh Vahidmanesh in the Wall Street Journal:
Dear Ali Khamenei,Read the full piece here
You may not have heard of me, but your daughter knows me well. For eight years, I studied with Boshra at the Refah school in Tehran. The Refah School is where Ayatollah Khomeini resided during the Islamic Revolution. On its roof, leaders from the Shah's regime were executed. Sound familiar?
...If you, contrary to what I believe, are not aware of what's going on in the streets of your country -- if tear gas hasn't burned your eyes and the sounds of gunfire haven't pierced your ears -- then Boshra can direct you to some of the information available on the Internet. Ask her to show you the photos of Neda's last moments in the street. Neda, just like Boshra, has a father and a family who deeply loved and cared for her. Like Boshra, Neda cherished a thousand dreams in her heart.
Wonder what took it so long -- three separate e-mail links in 10 minutes.
