I'm in Gonbad-e-Kavus now. My best suggestion for the Canadian government to get results is: block students from going to Canada! Everyone at Sharif wants to go there! This increases the pressure on the Iranian government by keeping the students in Iran... like slamming the lid on the pot of boiling water.

Is the US responsible for everything that goes wrong in Iran? Brilliant post from Usenet.

Donkey lover sues. Donkeys often carry things up the mountains at Darakeh, but the most overloaded donkeys I've seen are at Kolakchal. Donkeys are considered the stupidest animals by Iranians. I think the lawsuit is a positive step, because kindness to animals is not a virtue held in high regard in Iran. In Israel things are rather different. (The Islamic ideal is on the same site.)

I have always been fascinated by the idea that there is a masterpiece film that no-one has ever heard of... or that no-one has ever heard of or seen some of the best films ever made. To support this idea, there are really good films (well known in Iran, for example) that are not in the Internet Movie Database at all. One of them is showing only in Iran and Japan right now. It is a fantastic film about cultural clash and exchange called "Wind Carpet". It has an official Japanese site. It won the audience award at the 2003 Fajr Film Festival and also won an award at the 2002 Tokyo Film Festival. If you are visiting Japan or Iran you should go and see it! I feel privileged that I can. (In general I don't like Hollywood movies much - there is absolutely no reason why lots of money should result in good films - it's far more likely that "the money turns everything to crap".)

Mortazavi to investigate Kazemi's death. It's much more and much less than a joke, it's a crime. She was interrogated by him, he apparently tried to cover up her death with the stroke story, and now he is the investigator? And what are the "reformists" going to do? As usual, nothing! As Ladysun might say, no-one seems to give a shit. "They" commit crimes, then investigate and exonerate "themselves", while reformists stand around and bitch about it. I hope other countries start backing Canada up right now.

Of course Khatami has no intention of resigning. He wants to stay until "the end" - just to clarify, that means June 2005! I know this is not hard to see, but emotions always get in the way of clear vision, which is why I love Economist/ICG so much.

Mr Asefi thinks Iran is a "free society".

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(7:11pm Tehran time) Hmmmm, Yas-e-no is a reformist paper. One of two things has happened - the host is very popular, or the victim of a denial-of-service attack. Does it happen often?

(I was looking at a new English blog Free thoughts on Iran and tried to go to the Sharif petition link.) It's important not to be silent, like the writer said.

Mortazavi is not fit to be a judge says MP Mohsen Armin; his boss Shahroudi (the Iraqi) is investigating Ms Kazemi's death!!! Unbelievable. You can see nothing is going to happen, with the judiciary investigating itself. Still, if the hardliners can somehow engineer another crisis, that will be good for them.