a Phenomenon Called "Fingilish"!!

Farsi (Persian) is the formal language of Iran. It is written in Perso-Arabic Script which is basically Arabic Alphabet with four extra alphabet whose sounds doesn't exist in Arabic (with English equivalents of g,ch,p,zh sounds).

"Finglish" is persian mixed with English, and it's mostly used when Farsi words are typed in Latin alphabet and it is the most common kind of typing when Iranian poeple are chatting-online , writing an email or an SMS to a fellow Iranian. It must have been originated from the times when no or little Farsi add-ons existed in computer softwares and cell phones(which is still true, though to a lesser degree) and most poeple, including me, are more comfortable with it than with Farsi typing. For example, my cell phone supports "Arabic Alphabet" (which is a wrong name as it includes the extra four alphabet I just mentioned), or my windows and my Office have Farsi added to them -with a whole bunch of different kinds of fonts- but I haven't typed even one Farsi SMS or Farsi Email in my life. Ironically enough I am a lot faster in Latin (and thus Fingilish typing) than Farsi typing. I even hardly know the place of Farsi alphabet on the keyboard without constantly looking at them.

a few motnhs ago somebody introduced me to a software called "En2Fa Translator" which would allow you to type in Fingilish and ask the program to convert that into Farsi script, which could be a real life saver for many. I don't know how much you english poeple (or any latin script based language speaking people for that matter) can relate to what I am saying, but I think it must be the same with all languages with non-latin script.

Of course many passionate advocates of Farsi language, try to encourage people to start learning and getting used to Farsi typing as a campaign to save this language, and Fingilish is just a small example of the ways English has affected Farsi. An English teacher I know says it's only a matter of time for all languages to fade away and give their place to English as a universal language.

Koppel on Discovery: Iran, the Most Dangerous Nation?

This is the name of one of the Koppel Team's Series: "Koppel on Discovery". Koppel Team traveled to Iran for three weeks in 2006 and filmed this documentary which is about post-revolution Iran and Iran-Us conflicts.
As an insider of what's really happening in Iran, I must say that they have done quite a good job. They are relatively unbiased -which is the most important quality of a documentary in my opinion- and they have managed to cover many important aspects. I highly recommend this 2-hour documentary to anybody who wants to get a refreshed view of what's really happening in Iran. I am sure it will surprize many of you who have never had any idea about Iran more than the one-sided, politically disturbed point of view of Bush administration's speeches. (and don't get me wrong: by that I don't mean Iran is all about peace and freedom and brotherhood and scientific achievements and islamic idealism as claimed by the one-sided, politically disturbed depiction of Ahmadinejad's speeches either.)

more info on the Discovery Channel's official site: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/koppel/iran/people/people.html

Erdos-Bacon Number

Did you know that there exists something called "Erdős–Bacon number "? according to Wikipedia it is "the sum of one's Erdős number -which measures the 'collaborative distance' in authoring mathematical papers between that individual and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos—and one's Bacon number -which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from actor Kevin Bacon." seems like Erdos was one of the most prolific sceintists in mathematics and Bacon is considered as one of the most prolific actors, and these numbers are basic measures of "small world phenomenon". Among people with defined Erdos-Bacon Number you can find Erdos himself (with Erdos-Bacon number of 3) , Stephen Hawking (with Erdos-Bacon Number of 7) and Natalie Portman(with Erdos-Bacon Number of 7)!!

who am I?

I am a citizen of this world, happened to be born as an "Iranian girl", currenlty living in Iran and working as an engineer.