Faster than a speeding bullet

Really! See the article and video on Slate.


Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

Just makes me wanna have some sweet tea!

War sucks but the only good thing that came out of the Iraq war were all those never seen photographs of Saddam Hussien and his family.

Damn he looks hot having tea in that blue.....whatever it is that he is wearing!

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn , NY

Wild NYC

For an entire afternoon a wild coyote in Central Park was a big news in New York City. The coyote was chased and captured by the New York Police Department Emergency Service Unit officers. I guess it was a nice break for them from chasing bad-guys and terrorists.
How did this wild animal made his way to the big apple? And from where? The only explanation I can think of is that some idiot kept this poor animal as a pet and released in the park. Nothing surprises me in this city. We have had people arrested for keeping alligators and lions in their small apartments.
Otherwise how does a coyote can make his way through any of the boroughs into the city?

He looks very cute and we will all be very happy when he is released back in the wild....not Central Park.

Daily News Photo

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, New York

Big Boy!

This Chinese boy is Huang Jiaxin and weights about 160 Kg.

Okay can you guess his age?

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY




answer: fifteen

Kicked him WHERE?

I came across this, totally random. You just have to see the video here.


Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

World Leaders Cricket Championship

Please stop giving these folks "props" to make them look more like "real" people. They are not! Bush may know baseball, but not cricket and Charles is hitting a T-cricket used by children!


George and Charles should worry about poverty, AIDS, environment and the upcoming nuclear war......NOT cricket.

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, New York

Google Naw-Ruz

Last year Google ran a Persian Haft-Sin with their logo on Iranian New Year's day (March 21st).


Here is a link to send to Google to repeat the logo again. I frankly think if they did it last year, they will do it again....but you know these pesky Persians!

I think they should also make one for Chaharshanbeh-Sori too!!!

Ramin
Brooklyn, New York

Repent

I found this sign at St. Patrick's Church in New York City during Ash Wednesday mass on March 1, 2006.


Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

World Leaders

In light of US/Iran nuclear issue these photos seem very......not appropriate!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (left) - US President George Bush (right)

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, New York

Don't Mess vit Edward Petrossi

This clip has been making its rounds since December 2005, but its never too late to watch it!

Quick Stop store manager, Iranian-American Edward Petrossi and martial arts expert challenges his would be robber!

Click here for the video, and here is the ABC7News site in California.

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

Baghdad Girl Blog

She loves cats and lives in Baghdad.
I heard about her blog-site on NPR this morning and wanted to link her on my site. Don't just look at the cute cat photos, but read the short blogs she has been posting.


Brooklyn, NY
Ramin Talaie

I Love You Dawg!

Is this still the 21st Century?
I am just going to let you read it by clicking on the links.

Sudan
Man Marries a Goat

India
Girl Marries a Dog

Brooklyn
Ramin Talaie

Bush on the movie "Brokeback Mountain"

I love this video clip....just click here and watch it.


Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

Italian Politics

Not sure what the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was gesturing about during his first electoral speech before the official opening of the Italian electoral campaign at the Palacongressi building in Florence, but this picture taken by Alessandra Benedetti makes my blog!


Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

Father and Son?

Now we know why Sean Penn was in Iran during the recent presidential elections.

Left to right - Ali Akbar Hashimi Rafsanjani (former Iranian President), Sean Penn (American actor)

Ramin Talaie
New York, NY

Not for Publication

I have been collecting a series of out-takes on personalities and politicians. Which one is your pick!?

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela during a UN news confrence

Colin Powel, Former Secretary of the State speaking in Ellis Island

Donald Trump, signing copies of his audi books in Barnes & Nobel

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, NY

2005, a Perspectives in Quotes

File these under:

KATRINA
"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on hurricane refugees in the Houston Astrodome.

JUST WRONG
"I got it at Nordsstroms [sic] ... Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
Former FEMA Director, Michael Brown, in an Aug. 29 2005, email to an aid about his TV appearance and wardrobe.

"It's got everything. Fame. Race. Homosexuality. A Peter Pan love story."
British paparazzo Jeff Rayner, explaining the media's interest in the Michael Jackson child molestation story.

JUST RIGHT
"This is killing us around the world."
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to VP Dick Cheney, after asking the GOP senators to reconsider the anti-torture amendment.

IRAQ
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."
President Bush, offering a mea culpa but strongly defending his decision to go to war, on the eve of Iraq's first national election.

"I chose to do what my friends wanted me to."
Pfc. Lynndie England, pleading guilty at her court-martial on charges of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib.

"He's said that my son - and other children we've lost - died for a noble cause. I want to find out what the noble cause is."
Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, on why she was keeping a vigil outside Geroge Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

TERRORISIM
"If London can survive the Blitz, it can survive four miserable events like this."
Sir Ian Blair, London Metropolitan Police commissioner on London transit bombings.

CORP. AMERICA
"You did not notice $25 million was missing from your W-2?"
Prosecutor, Ann Donnelly, to former Tyco CEO, Dennis Kozlowski at his trial for securities fraud.

FINAL WORD
"Courage."
TV anchor, Dan Rather, final word as he signed off from the CBS Evening News" for the last time after 24 years of reporting. Rather was mocked for using the signoff when he experimented with it briefly in 1986.

source: Newsweek

Ramin Talaie
December 31, 2005
Brooklyn, New York

2005, a Perspectives in Quotes

File these under:

KATRINA
"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on hurricane refugees in the Houston Astrodome.

JUST WRONG
"I got it at Nordsstroms [sic] ... Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
Former FEMA Director, Michael Brown, in an Aug. 29 2005, email to an aid about his TV appearance and wardrobe.

"It's got everything. Fame. Race. Homosexuality. A Peter Pan love story."
British paparazzo Jeff Rayner, explaining the media's interest in the Michael Jackson child molestation story.

JUST RIGHT
"This is killing us around the world."
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to VP Dick Cheney, after asking the GOP senators to reconsider the anti-torture amendment.

IRAQ
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."
President Bush, offering a mea culpa but strongly defending his decision to go to war, on the eve of Iraq's first national election.

"I chose to do what my friends wanted me to."
Pfc. Lynndie England, pleading guilty at her court-martial on charges of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib.

"He's said that my son - and other children we've lost - died for a noble cause. I want to find out what the noble cause is."
Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, on why she was keeping a vigil outside Geroge Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

TERRORISIM
"If London can survive the Blitz, it can survive four miserable events like this."
Sir Ian Blair, London Metropolitan Police commissioner on London transit bombings.

CORP. AMERICA
"You did not notice $25 million was missing from your W-2?"
Prosecutor, Ann Donnelly, to former Tyco CEO, Dennis Kozlowski at his trial for securities fraud.

FINAL WORD
"Courage."
TV anchor, Dan Rather, final word as he signed off from the CBS Evening News" for the last time after 24 years of reporting. Rather was mocked for using the signoff when he experimented with it briefly in 1986.

Ramin Talaie
December 31, 2005
Brooklyn, New York

So this is Christmas....What have you done?

Peace continues to be missing in the world as billions of people around the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Today four months after the hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the city remains desolate and devastated.

In Iran, Ahmadinejad questions Holocaust and in Iraq Saddam Hussein makes fun of his own victims in a so-called Iraqi court in Baghdad.

Hundred of thousands of Pakistanis are exposed to a harsh winter after a powerful earthquake.

AIDS, poverty and war persist and is rampant in Africa.

The artic caps continue to melt and thank God we continue to ignore our environment and the Kyoto Protocol.

France burns with the anger of Muslim youth while Chinese child-laborers manufacture toys for our children.

The White House admits to wire tapping and spying on its own citizens and the Patriot Act "stays the course" by getting 5 more weeks of life in Washington.

Let us not forget about the avian flu. In my book any flu that can fly is worth being considered pandemic.

Right now, children die of diseases long eradicated in the U.S. such as Polio.

At home in New York City I feel lucky. At least I have on-line shopping and the ever popular gift certificates. I am also very excited about the new Mac Donald debit cards. Another Christmas and another shopping season ends.

Transit Workers Union Scrooges almost ruined the shopping season, I mean the holiday season for all of us. At least they now have the 'respect' of most New Yorkers.....get back to work you “thugs” someone yields. A few more days of walking in brutal cold and I am afraid FEMA would have had to intervene.

After over 20 years in America, what I like best about Christmas is the Yule log on Channel 11. It was there when I first landed in this country and it is now back again.

Below is a frame grab taken from a broadcast of WPIX-TV's Yule log. The televised Yule Log, a recurring 7-minute video that debuted on the Tribune Co. stations in 1966, has gained renewed popularity since returning to the air in 2001 after a 10-year hiatus.

Courtesy of WPIX - Via Bloomberg News

The Yule Log on my TV on Christmas day

Ramin Talaie
From my apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

Ethics

Take a look at the following images and note the photo credits:

Majid/Getty Images - Published in The New York Times

Roozbeh Jadidolislam/Polaris/Deadline Photo Press - Syndicated Worldwide

Majid/Getty Images - Syndicated Worldwide by Getty

Hossein Fatemi/FARS News Agency - Syndicated for free in Iran

Hossein Fatemi/FARS News Agency - Syndicated for free in Iran

Fact
All of the above photos are essentially one image. However, there are 3 different names attached to it.

Questions
Who is the real photographer? Was this image stolen? Is this a common practice among Iranian press?

The Real Story
The image captures the pandemonium, rescue and the tragedy of a C-130 plane that crashed into a residential tower.

Reuters reported that over 116 people died in the crash. Among the dead were 68 journalists and media technicians, en route to cover military exercises in the Gulf from various news agencies.

I feel that the tragic loss of friends and colleagues is over shadowed by the lack of ethics shown by the Iranian press/photo community.

Fars News Agency, like other government sponsored news gathering organizations in Iran is underwritten by the Ministry of Ershad a branch of the government in charge of monitoring and controlling media in Iran.

Photographers who work for these news agencies (i.e. Fars, ISNA, ILNA) are sometimes given full access to events that are not always welcoming to foreign press.

Their photographers get paid a salary and the images are owned by the news organizations for distribution. The publications in Iran do not pay for the use of the images or the reports.

Some photographers hungry for worldwide recognition and a quick dollar sell the exact images to various stock and news agencies outside Iran.

Polaris in New York along with SIPA and Deadline in Europe are some of the agencies that syndicate their work. I believe that in some cases they do turn a blind eye to this issue.

One principal offender, Majid, who is a senior shooter with Fars also takes other people's work and sells it under his own name.

Majid also sells to Getty Images which supposed to be distributing exclusive pictures through their wire services.

I am not sure how to address this problem. One photographer blogger in Iran, Mohammad Kheirkhah is trying to address this issue from the inside.

Perhaps one cause and motivation is the lack of existing strong copyright regulations and disregard for international intellectual property laws.

The annual international book fair in Tehranattracts millions of people. Various trade show attendees openly promote and sell titles translated from English without permission from the rightful authors and/or the publishers.

Computer programing titles on sale in Tehran book Fair
document IRAN/Ramin Talaie -April 2004

Iran is applying to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). A byproduct of the WTO membership is enforcing and supporting international copyrights and intellectual property laws.

WTO membership might be years away, but the way I see it, ethics among journalists should rise above it all.

This is a challenge for all Iranian journalists to understand and to face it head on...now.

Ramin Talaie
Brooklyn, New York