Iranian Chill Thread

sha ah · Jun 8, 2021

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401975456883253255

Surenas · Jun 9, 2021

Armenia seeks Iranian specialists to set up their UAV technology/industry.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399072847058833415

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399072851987140610

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399289461826064384

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399144411028668417

sha ah · Jun 9, 2021

Too little too late. They should have purchased drones and missile technology from Iran before the conflict broke out. Now all they can do is wait for a good opportunity to strike back, maybe in 20-30 years ?

Surenas said:
Armenia seeks Iranian specialists to set up their UAV technology/industry.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399072847058833415

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399072851987140610

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399289461826064384

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399144411028668417

Very strange that they're trying to recruit people publicly. Wouldn't it make more sense to reach out to the Iranian government under the table ?

Surenas said:
Armenia seeks Iranian specialists to set up their UAV technology/industry.

sha ah · Jun 9, 2021

LOL take a look at this. He won't be going out in public for s while.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1402248485609615360

SalarHaqq · Jun 9, 2021

Dariush the Great said:
@SalarHaqq

baradar. nazaret ro mikhastam. mibinim ke dar ataash suzi ha akhir barkhi az khabargozari ha va khabarnegaraan say va talash daran ke kheyli bozorgtar az ooni ke hast jelve bedan. be nazaret in yek no khianat nist? nabayad ina peygiri ghazaayi beshan? shayad baazi az ina ham manzure badi nadashte bashan vali faghat baraye khodnamayi va khabar ro gonde kardan in kaar ro mikonan. in be zarare mamlekate. be ghole omid dana in entekhabaat gharbi yek tote az tarafe gharb hast. azaadi khabarnegaari ham yek tote hast va ma bayad jolo in ro begirim. nemigam kore shomali beshim vali baazi az khatte ghermezha rayat nemishavad.. makhsusan agar dar bore amniate melli bashad.

Ba ejaze Englisi pasokh midam ta sari tar she.

I didn't follow the reporting of these events by Iranian media. What you describe is indeed problematic. It's not so much a question of freedom of the press as a question of conditioning, one might say - in the west, they do not need to resort to direct coercive measures, and yet all their mainstream media are completely streamlined. Any dissident voice is a 'controlled' one (as with controlled opposition), or so inaudible that it doesn't matter to the powers-to-be, for it will be drowned out by the mainstream propaganda anyway.

But arguably, this cannot work in countries with fewer resources, because the sheer market share of western media (and their client states' media) makes it impossible to compete. Hence the necessity for countries challenging western hegemony to resort to more forceful control measures indeed.

However, prior to focusing on national broadcasters - which are in need of a comprehensive overhaul, no doubt (many things must be improved, from the quality and professionalism of some of the shows and some of the reporting, to weeding out western-apologetic, borderline treasonous elements upto elements with quasi "ethno"-separatist leanings), access to subversive foreign media, especially the Farsi-language ones which are specially tailored to destabilize Iran, must be restricted. Otherwise the playing field is never going to be even.

Now this of course is easier said than done (both from the technical and from the social-political point of view) but in my opinion it has to be done nonetheless. One major precondition for this is the establishment of a separate national internet system. Although this is not as simple as it may sound, and actually requires considerable investments and expertise, Iran has been working on it for more than a decade now. However, speed of progress is not satisfactory. Clearly, the current liberal administration has not been particularly keen on prioritizing the project. But there's hope that with the success of a revolutionary candidate at the upcoming presidential election, this initiative will gain momentum too.

Also, the national internet should not simply be a redundant parallel network for emergency situations (i.e. in the event that Iran loses access to the global internet, for whatever reason). It should outright replace the global internet. In other words, when it comes online and as soon as it is sufficiently developed, Iran should completely switch off from the regular internet, i.e. physically disconnect - except for a unique channel that will allow access to a pre-selection of harmless websites only.

Indeed, useful websites not damaging to Iran's political and societal stability should be made accessible as much as possible, but this would require a reverse type of filtering system: instead of the current classical procedure, which lets through every website by default and then filters out undesired ones on a case-by-case basis (or mass filters them ex post using certain algorithms), in the system I envisage, all foreign websites ought to be blocked by default, and then the permissible ones will be unfiltered on a case-by-case basis. Imagine having some 5.000 trusted and well trained employees unfiltering, say, some 48 websites each on a daily basis (while spending 10 minutes on average to check out and evaluate a website), that's some 240.000 websites unfiltered each day, and over 7.2 million per month. And thousands of jobs created for people with foreign language skills. These authorized sites will then be "fed" into the national network.

Remaining sites will be physically inaccessible, even through VPNs and so on. But with many useful ones still online, people will not be able to complain all too much and the transitional shock will be dampened. Of course, the anti-IR crowd which spend their time on foreign-funded opposition websites, as well as those addicted to pornography will have to cope with withdrawal syndromes for a period of time, but that too is feasible.

In parallel to this, I would counsel a reversal of the tolerant policy on satellite dishes. As an official said in an interview not too long ago, it's been years since the Supreme Leader eased restrictions in this regard by instructing law enforcement not to be too strict on satellite dishes. As a result, today no more raids are taking place to dismount them, and signal jamming is rare. I can perfectly understand the Leader's reasoning and logic behind this decision, and there are indeed various benefits associated with it. He certainly has access to more complete information on Iranian society than all of us combined. In my humble opinion, considering the existential nature and the intensity of the threat Iran is facing, and considering how the realm of media and information war has perhaps been one of Iran's relative weak spots, as well as the negative impact these foreign satellite broadcasters and the internet have had on Iranian society - both culturally and politically, I believe it could perhaps be useful to explore some alternative approach to the issue.

sha ah · Jun 9, 2021

What is it with all these fires in Iran ? Is it because of the surging temperatures ? summer heat ? global warming ? lack of investment in infrastructure ? sabotage ? Recently Iran has began importing electricity from Turkmenistan to avoid power outages.

Summer weather and low electricity prices have encouraged millions of Iranians to blast their air conditioners. The low prices also encourage Crypto mining, both legal and illegal, on a massive scale.

In many western countries, the electricity consumed to produce one Bitcoin will be more expensive than the Bitcoin produced, so essentially it's not worth it. In countries like Iran, Armenia, China, low electricity prices make it a very profitable enterprise.

Large Fire Erupts In Iran Soft Drink Plant

For the fourth time in a week there has been a major fire incident in Iran, as a blaze engulfed a soft drink plant near Tehran.

iranintl.com

Steel-Plant Fire in Iran Is Latest in Spate of Incidents

www.bloomberg.com

Iran starts limited electricity imports from Turkmenistan amid tight supplies

Iran is importing 140 MW of electricity from Turkmenistan amid tight supplies in its eastern regions.

www.presstv.com

makranman · Jun 9, 2021

sha ah said:
What is it with all these fires in Iran ? Is it because of the surging temperatures ? summer heat ? global warming ? lack of investment in infrastructure ? sabotage ? Recently Iran has began importing electricity from Turkmenistan to avoid power outages.

Summer weather and low electricity prices have encouraged millions of Iranians to blast their air conditioners. The low prices also encourage Crypto mining, both legal and illegal, on a massive scale.

In many western countries, the electricity consumed to produce one Bitcoin will be more expensive than the Bitcoin produced, so essentially it's not worth it. In countries like Iran, Armenia, China, low electricity prices make it a very profitable enterprise.

Large Fire Erupts In Iran Soft Drink Plant

For the fourth time in a week there has been a major fire incident in Iran, as a blaze engulfed a soft drink plant near Tehran.

iranintl.com

Steel-Plant Fire in Iran Is Latest in Spate of Incidents

www.bloomberg.com

Iran starts limited electricity imports from Turkmenistan amid tight supplies

Iran is importing 140 MW of electricity from Turkmenistan amid tight supplies in its eastern regions.

www.presstv.com

i think it is everything but sabotage. why you ask?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1400137956074000386

also i remember hemmati said in one of the election debates, our investment in infrastructre got negative last year. i don't know what it means exactly, but i guess it is not good news...

sha ah · Jun 9, 2021

Realistically the government should have expanded Iran's power grid sufficiently so that it could handle both crypto mining and fullfill the nations essential needs. After all the crypto mining industry in Iran generates billions and in the end most of that money gets pumped back into the economy one way or the other.

Iran has massive amounts of natural gas / crude oil and can produce turbine generators. I'm guessing that the sanctions had a negative effect on any attempts to expand the power grid ? Realistically the currency did lose 90% of its value and Iran's oil exports also fell by 90% at one point.

Since then the currency has recovered somewhat and oil exports are pretty much up to pre-sanction levels. This year Iran's economy is set to grow and so there's no excuse for the upcoming government.

makranman said:
i think it is everything but sabotage. why you ask?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1400137956074000386

also i remember hemmati said in one of the election debates, our investment in infrastructre got negative last year. i don't know what it means exactly, but i guess it is not good news...

makranman · Jun 9, 2021

sha ah said:
Realistically the government should have expanded Iran's power grid sufficiently so that it could handle both crypto mining and fullfill the nations essential needs. After all the crypto mining industry in Iran generates billions and in the end most of that money gets pumped back into the economy one way or the other.

Iran has massive amounts of natural gas / crude oil and can produce turbine generators. I'm guessing that the sanctions had a negative effect on any attempts to expand the power grid ? Realistically the currency did lose 90% of its value and Iran's oil exports also fell by 90% at one point.

Since then the currency has recovered somewhat and oil exports are pretty much up to pre-sanction levels. This year Iran's economy is set to grow and so there's no excuse for the upcoming government.

mining blackouts are not just in iran tho.

Bitcoin Blackouts: Russian Cryptocurrency 'Miners' Minting Millions While Sucking Abkhazia's Electricity Grid Dry

People in Abkhazia are infuriated by rolling power outages that are disrupting daily lives. They’re also angry at the cryptocurrency “miners” who are sucking the electricity grid dry.

www.rferl.org

i am personally against doing crypto mining for the sole purpose of fulfilling needs of the nation. the prices we see now, will not last forever and the infrastructure required for mining are not cheap. but if i have a spare GPU, i will certainly mine the hell out of it...

)

about the rest of your points, i think we need to get rouhani and ask him WTF are you doing?!
also, i am very concerned about next admin. they might end up as a second ahmadi nejad and create a dutch disease or do another 4200 toman dollars of jahangiri and burn all the hard earned $$$...

EvilWesteners · Jun 9, 2021

SalarHaqq said:
Ba ejaze Englisi pasokh midam ta sari tar she.

I didn't follow the reporting of these events by Iranian media. What you describe is indeed problematic. It's not so much a question of freedom of the press as a question of conditioning, one might say - in the west, they do not need to resort to direct coercive measures, and yet all their mainstream media are completely streamlined. Any dissident voice is a 'controlled' one (as with controlled opposition), or so inaudible that it doesn't matter to the powers-to-be, for it will be drowned out by the mainstream propaganda anyway.

But arguably, this cannot work in countries with fewer resources, because the sheer market share of western (and western client state) media makes it impossible to compete. Hence the necessity for countries that challenge western hegemony, to resort to more coercive control measures indeed.

However, prior to focusing on national broadcasters - which are in need of a comprehensive overhaul, no doubt (many things must be improved, from the quality and professionalism of some of the shows and reporting, to weeding out western-apologetic borderline treasonous elements and even some elements with quasi "ethno"-separatist leanings), access to subversive foreign media, especially the Farsi-language ones which are specially tailored to damage Iran, must be restricted. Otherwise the playing field is never going to be even.

Now this of course is easier said than done (both from the technical and from the social-political point of view) but in my opinion it has to be done nonetheless. One major precondition for this is the establishment of a separate national internet system. Although this is not as easy as it sounds and requires considerable investments and expertise, Iran has been working on it for more than a decade now. However, speed of progress is not satisfactory. Clearly, the current liberal administration has not been particularly keen on prioritizing the project. But there is hope that with the success of a revolutionary candidate at the upcoming presidential election, this will gain momentum too.

Also, the national internet should not simply be a redundant parallel network for emergency situations (i.e. in case Iran loses access to the global internet, for whatever reason). It should outright replace the global internet. In other words, when it comes online and as soon as it is sufficiently developed, Iran should completely switch off from the regular internet, i.e. physically disconnect - except for a unique channel that will allow access to a pre-selection of harmless websites only.

Indeed, useful websites that aren't damaging to Iran's political and societal stability should be made accessible as much as possible, but this would require a reverse type of filtering system: instead of the current classical procedure, which by default lets through every website and then filters out undesired ones on a case-by-case basis (or mass filters them ex post using certain algorythms), in the system I envisage, all foreign websites ought to be blocked by default, and then the permissible ones will be unfiltered on a case-by-case basis. Imagine having some 5.000 trusted and well trained employees unfiltering, say, some 48 websites each on a daily basis (while spending 10 minutes on average to check a website), that's some 240.000 websites unfiltered each day, and over 43 million per month. And thousands of jobs created for people with foreign language skills. These authorized sites will then be "fed" into the national network.

The remaining sites will be physically inaccessible, even through VPNs and so on. But with many useful ones still online, people will not be able to complain all too much and the transitional shock will be dampened. Of course, the anti-IR crowd which spends their time on foreign-funded opposition websites, as well as those addicted to pornography will have to cope with withdrawal syndromes for a period of time, but that too is feasible.

In parallel to this, I would counsel a reversal of the tolerant policy on satellite dishes. As an official said in an interview not too long ago, the Supreme Leader eased restrictions in this regard years ago by instructing law enforcement not to be too strict on satellite dishes. As a result, today no more raids are taking place to dismount them. I can perfectly understand the Leader's reasoning and logic behind this decision, and there are indeed various benefits associated with it. He certainly has access to more complete information on Iranian society than all of us combined. However, in my humble opinion, considering the existential nature and the intensity of the threat Iran is facing, and considering how the realm of media and information war has perhaps been one of Iran's relative weak spots, as well as the negative impact these foreign satellite broadcasters and the internet have had on Iranian society - both culturally and politically, I believe it could be useful to explore some alternative approach to the issue.

WOW.

Half a dozen people, that I respect very much and are political analysts (of varying degrees), HAVE TOLD ME THE EXACT thing over the last 10 years.

You are very well informed on this subject, and your thoughts are pretty deep.

Look forward to reading more of your ideas.