by hilzoy
If I hadn’t read the news stories, I would never have guessed in a million years. It’s a little hard to read — it’s available in English, though how to get it to turn into English is a bit of a mystery (I did it, but only through random clicking, and I can’t recall how.) It’s a little hard to tell, but I think it accepts comments, which should be interesting if the Little Green Footballs crowd decides to drop by. The translation is awkward, in an endearing sort of way. (I particularly like the repeated references to “the extinct shah”.)
It ends like this:
“I will continue this topic later on as it took long in the beginning. From now onwards, I will try to make it shorter and simpler.
With hope in God, I intend to wholeheartedly complete my talk in future with allotted fifteen minutes.”
it’s available in English, though how to get it to turn into English is a bit of a mystery (I did it, but only through random clicking, and I can’t recall how.)
Upper right corner, second of four flags from the left, the English flag combined with the stars of the Stars of the stars an’ stripes. Click it.
Although why anyone would hide translations like this makes me think this blog is not long for this world, despite the star-quality of the blogger…;
After a bit more tinkering: I click the little flags a lot, in no particular order. (I don’t know whether this step is necessary.) The I click one of the little orange squares near the top, to the left. A new window pops up, telling me that a mistake of some kind has been made. When I close the window, there is the blog in English.
You have to click ‘Continue’ to get more than the first paragraph, and the full text takes a while to load.
d+u: as you can see, simply clicking the flag doesn’t do it for me. (Safari.)
How did I miss this lovely sentence the first time through?
“the unreal and outward of upswing”???
as you can see, simply clicking the flag doesn’t do it for me. (Safari.)
That’s what you get, Hilz, for using a Mac.
Aaaaaaannnd there goes the thread…
“Although why anyone would hide translations like this makes me think this blog is not long for this world”
I wonder if MEMRI will be checking the translations.
I wonder if MEMRI will be checking the translations.
Another stinking Mac user, right?
Without checking the link, I’ll bet it’s the Ahmadinejad one folks have been blogging about since last night; the one that allegedly tries to infect your computer, at least if you’ve got an Israeli IP address.
“With hope in God, I intend to wholeheartedly complete my talk in future with allotted fifteen minutes.”
Which is why a lot of people doubt that entry was written for a blog.
I have no idea if this is credible or not, but I’m inclined to be cautious, myself.
BBC article here.
Meanwhile, other Iranian bloggers aren’t doing so well.
I have no idea if this is credible or not, but I’m inclined to be cautious, myself.
My firewall, set to max protection, offered no such warnings. I would also suggest that appearance of normality and non-threateningivitus would be far more powerful a viral meme than an actual virus.
Of course, we stinking Mac users need not worry, since the virus would appear to be targeted at IE users. Nyah!
Mac user, had no trouble getting a translated version in all its prosaic glory. The little flag button, obscurely small as it is, Worked For Me™.
Granted it’s a translation but it seems unpolished and naive enough to perhaps be the work of the purported author.
Anyone checked the kerning yet? Do they even have computers in Iran?
BoingBoing suspects it’s a hoax anyway.
“Do they even have computers in Iran?”
You are kidding, right?
I like how even the English translation is flush with the left margin, as if it were to be read right-to-left. At least, this is the case in my version of Firefox.
Sorry, I meant flush with the right margin.
With that amount javascript, it’s obvious the man is pure evil.
I think my mind may have a touch of evil as well. Before posting my last comment, my mind helpfully inserted an ‘of’ where there was none, but after posting, it teased, “nah nah-nah nah-nah nah.”
I like how even the English translation is flush with the left margin, as if it were to be read right-to-left. At least, this is the case in my version of Firefox.
Phil, that suggests machine translation to me.
Anyone else think those poor schmoes who got arrested with 1,000 pre-paid cell-phones have nothing to do with terror? It certainly appears that way from this article.
Note that “surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes” is a crime. Presumably surveillance of an invulnerable target (Superman?) is not.
The FBI is going to investigate all you guys for being in contact with a terrorist state.
Montana?
This is not an accusatory question.
What do three guys need with 1,000 pre-paid cell phones? The only legitmate use I can think of is a plan to sell them somewhere the network works but where you can’t purchase them.
Calls to girlfriends so your wife doesn’t find out?
I haven’t got a link at my fingertips, but weren’t they just reselling them at a profit? Obviously, that shouldn’t work, but it doesn’t seem to be all that unlikely that it would.
Outside the Beltway says they were just planning to resell them at about five bucks more somewhere else. I have trouble believing that terrorists would target the Mackinac bridge. It isn’t famous. Wouldn’t terrorsts be more likely to go for the Golden Gate or for high usage bridges in New York? One thousand cell phones is considerably more than they would need, even for a long bridge like the Mackinac.
They claim they were re-selling them in TX at a profit of $5 a pop, IIRC. Certainly I can’t imagine there are enough terror cells in the U.S. such that they would need 1,000 cell phones; if there are, we’re in big trouble.
“They claim they were re-selling them in TX at a profit of $5 a pop, IIRC. Certainly I can’t imagine there are enough terror cells in the U.S. such that they would need 1,000 cell phones; if there are, we’re in big trouble.”
Ok that sort of makes sense as a plan.
RE: terror cells needing 1,000 cell phones.
I think the idea is that you don’t use any one of them for very long. So even if you have a small group, you might want lots of cell phones (say 20 per member). That is only 50 people. The London plot alone is said to implicate just under half that number. Considering the number of people who think really crazy things, I can easily imagine 3 or 4 groups of about that number in the US.
OT: the winner of the creepiest sentence of the day award is Larry Kudlow
I tried to leave a comment on the blog, but it said that it would only be posted after being reviewed.
Seb – I suppose 20 per person for a 50 person group might be plausible, though coordinating who was using what phone when might be hard (though I guess number them one through 20 and then switch every month or so to the next higher number).
surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes
If I take pictures of the security around the White House and post them on the web, am I in trouble?
“the unreal and outward of upswing”
whassamatter? you never read Gerard Manley Hopkins?
Phil, that suggests machine translation to me.
The English text, though obviously not the work of a native speaker of English, reads way too smoothly to be a machine translation (in my opinion as a professional translator, though I know zero Farsi).
“With hope in God, I intend to wholeheartedly complete my talk in future with allotted fifteen minutes.”
Anybody else think of Andy Warhol when they read this sentence? How many of his allotted fifteen minutes has been used up?
BoingBoing is now saying “It’s Real”.
Over 3,400 Iraqi civilians died violent deaths in July; that works out to around 40,800 for a year (though the July rate was the highest recorded since the war). By contrast, in 2004, the U.S. reported 16,137 murders.
I assumed that the “allotted fifteen minutes” was a reference to Andy Warhol. It would not surprise me if he intended to make a little joke using a reference to American pop culture. Foreign leaders often know a great deal more about our culture than our politicians ever bother to learn about theirs.
“Foreign leaders often know a great deal more about our culture than our politicians ever bother to learn about theirs.”
Given that (certain types of) American movies, and tv shows and other outpourings of American culture, are popular around the world, this is hardly surprising. American culture is fairly inescapable.
Although I thought of Andy Warhol when I read the “15 minutes” comment, my interpretation is that he’ll try to keep his posts shorter — he’s allotted himself 15 minutes to post. I think the Warhol reference is just an added bonus.
I really think Okham’s razor suggests that this piece wasn’t written for a blog, but for a talk. That’s just a guess, to be sure. But it seems to make the most sense to me.