ACHILLES

Achilles was the hero in the story of the siege of troy, described by homer in Iliad. His mother Thetis, who was a sea goddess, dipped him in the river Styx when he was young, as she thought its magic powers would save him from death. However, she forgot to dip the heel by which she held him. Later, when he was told that he could choose between a long and quite life at home, and a short life which would make him famous forever, he chose the short life.
Achilles and his warriors sailed for troy with many other Greek princes, under the leadership of Agamemnon. He was soon famous for his bravery, and during the first nine years of the war he fought many battles.
In the tenth year he quarreled with Agamemnon, and refused to fight anymore. Then hector, the great Trojan leader, killed Patroclus, the best friend of Achilles. This made Achilles so furious that he joined in the battle once more, and killed hector after a terrible and pitiless fight. In this fight he was helped by the goddess Athens. Afterwards he refused to allow the Trojans to give hector an honorable burial. In spite of their pleas, he dragged Hector’s body in the dust as he drove in his chariot round the walls of troy.
A short time later, just as the Greeks were about to capture the city, Achilles was shot in the heel during the fight outside the Trojan gates. This heel was the one his mother had failed to dip in the river Styx, and he soon died of his wound.



Mahsa bayaneh

Short Story

If god can work through me, he can work through anyone.


I met a man who came to Tampa for his father’s funeral. Father and son hadn’t seen each other in years. in fact, according to the son , his father had left when he was a boy , and they had had little contact until about a year ago , when his father has send him a birthday card with a note saying he would like to see his son again.
After discussing trip to Florida with his wife and children and consulting his busy schedule at his office, the son tentatively set a date to visit his father two month later. He would drive his family down when school was out for vacation. He scribbled a note and with mixed emotion, dropped it in the mail.
He heard back immediately. Written on lined paper torn from a spiral notebook, such as a school boy would use, were words of excitement penned in a barley legible scrawl. Misspelled words, poor grammar and incorrect punctuation bounced off the page. the man was embarrassed for his father. He thought twice about the up coming visit.
It just so happen that man’s daughter made the cheer leading squad at her school and had to go to a camp conducted for cheering techniques. Coincidentally, it started the week after school was out. The trip to Florida would have to be postponed. His father said he would understand, but the son didn’t hear from him again for some time. A note here or there. an occasional call. They didn’t say much-muttered sentences, comments about your mother, a couple of clouded stories about the man’s childhood – but it was enough to put together a few of missing pieces.
In November the son receive a call from his father’s neighbor. His father has been taken to hospital with heart problems. The son spoke with the charge nurse, who assured him his father was doing well following a heart attack. The doctor could provide details.
His father said “I am fine. You don’t have to make a trip out here. The doctor says there was minor damage, and I can go home day after tomorrow”.
He called his father every few days after that. They chatted and laughed and talked about getting together ‘soon’. He sent money for Christmas. His father sends small gift for his children and a pen for and pencil set for his son. It was a cheap set , probably purchased at a discount pharmacy or variety-type store, and the kids tossed their tokens from grandpa aside without much notice. But his wife received a precious music box made of crystal. Overwhelmed, she expresses her gratitude to the old man when they called him on Christmas day.” It was my mother’s “.old man Explained. “I wanted you to have it “.
The man’s wife told her husband that they should have invited the old man for holidays. As an excuse for not having done so, she added, but it probably would be too cold for him here, anyway.”
In February, the man decided to visit his father. As luck would have it, however, his boss’s wife had to have an operation, and the man had to fill in and work a few extra hours. He called his father to tell him he would probably get to Florida in March or April.
I met the man on Friday. He had finally come to Tampa. He was here to bury his father.
He was waiting when I arrived to open the door that morning. He sat in the chapel next to his father’s body which had been dressed in a handsome, new, navy blue pinstriped suit and laid out in a dark blue metal casket.
“Going home” was scripted inside the lid. I offered the man a glass of water. He cried. I put my arm around his shoulder and he collapsed in my arms, sobbing. “I should have come sooner. He shouldn’t have had to die alone.” we sat together until late afternoon. He asked if I had something else to do that day, I told him no. I didn’t choose the act, but I knew it was kind. No one else came to honor the life of the man’s father, not even the neighbor he spoke of. It cost nothing but a few hours of my time. I told him I was a student, that I wanted to be a professional golfer, and that my parents owned the funeral home. He was an attorney and lived in Denver. He plays golf whenever he can. He told me about his father.
That night, I asked my dad to play golf with me the next day. And before I went to bed, I told him, “I LOVE YOU DAD.”

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction

Iran: A Brief History
The Iranian history dates back to over 9,000 years ago and the country is among the three ancient regions in the world where writing appeared for the first time. Pictorial writings found in the west of Iran date back to over 3200 years before Christ. The first empire was founded in Fars Province by the Iranian Dynasty, the Achamenians over 2500 years ago. The country was ruled under the monarchy ever since until 1979 when the Islamic Revolution occurred and subsequently a new system, the Islamic Republic, was established.Iran is among the few countries in the world which has always maintained its independence and has never been a colony or a protectorate. During the past one 2hundred years, Iran has experienced two coup d'etats and two revolutions. The coup d'etat in 1920 staged by Reza Shah led to establishment of the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1924, and the coup d'etat of 1953 launched bythe U.S. in cooperation with Britain and in support of Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, led to the fall of the national government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq.The 1906 Revolution in Iran, which was the vanguard of all the revolutionary movements in the region including the Russian revolution, is known as the Constitutional Revolution. It wasregarded a step forward towards changing from absolute despotism to a parliamentary and legal system. The Islamic Revolution of Iran was culminated in 1979 under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, one of the great Iranian clerics. The revolution, which led to the fall of the imperial system in Iran, is considered as a move towards the establishment of democracy based on national-religious beliefs of the people.
The Chronology of Persian History The accurate date for the arrival of Aryans in ancient Persia is not known. The Aryans are the ancestors of Iranians and progenitors of Iranian political systems. The odds are that the milestone dates back to 3000 to 5000 B.C. when, to historians and archeologists, locals in eastern, central and northern Iran were still socially too underdeveloped to set up big administration formations.Merely, in western and southern segments, there was the powerful Ilami regime. Historical relics showcase their association with immigrant newcomers. The similarity of Aryan names to Ilami ones proves this theory. Coincident with Egyptians and Mesopotamians, Ilamis, who are of the earliest civilized and urban populations worldwide, introduced the alphabets and led the globe into a historic era.The Ilamis were followed by different governments established by various Persian communities. One of the most ancient governments was that of Medes. Bringing Persian tribes together in contemporary Hamedan (named after the very event), they pioneered running administration in ancient Persia. Later on, the Achaemenids established the first empire of the world. Next epochs witnessed the ruling of a wide variety of Persian descendants, also domination of foreign powers which assumed Persian identity and pretended safeguarding Persian culture, history and language. They ruled over either the entire Iran or a few regions from time to time.

- Proto Literate (3500 B.c)

- Proto Elamite (3200-2700 B.C)

- Old Elamite (2700-1500 B.C.)

- Middle Elamite (1500-900 B.C.)

- Neo Elamite (900-646 B.C.)

- Mades (708-550 B.C.)

- Achaemenid (550-331 B.C.)

The invasion of Alexander the Great 330 B.C.

- Selucids (312-250 B.C.)

- Partian (250 B.C. - 226 A.D.)

- Sasanian (224-652 A.D.)

The arrival of Arabs and introduction of Islam (624 A.D.)

- Taherian (820-872 A.D.)

- Saffarian (868-930 A.D.)

- Alavian of Tabarestan (864-1034 A.D.)

- Samanian (874-999 A.D.)

- Ale Ziyar (928-1043 A.D.)

- Ale Boye (932-1055 A.D.)

- Ghaznavian (977-1186 A.D.)

- Seljoqs (1037-1194 A.D.)

- Kharazmshahian (1127-1231 A.D.)

The invasion of the Mongol (1219 A.D.)

- Ilkhanids (1254-1349 A.D.)

- Ale Jalayer (1336-1411 A.D.)

- Timorids (1369-1500 A.D.)

- Safavids (1502-1739 A.D.)

Formation of a national government and recognition of Shia as the national religion (1502 A.D.)

- Afsharian (1735-1803 A.D.)

- Zandian (1750-1794 A.D.)

- Qajars (1779-1925 A.D.)

The Constitutional Revolution (1906 A.D.)

- Pahlavi (1925-1979 A.D.)

The Islamic Revolution (1979 A.D.)-

Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-... A.D.)

BIOGRAPHY OF J.K ROWLING

JK ROWLING

Ms. J K Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sod bury, Gloucestershire, England. Her given name at birth was Joanne Kathleen. Ms. Rowling has one sister, Di, who was born 2 years after J K.It is interesting to note that Ms. Rowling claims that she has actually been writing since she was 5 or 6 years old. Her first story, called Rabbit, was filled with interesting characters, such as a large bee called Miss Bee.Ms. Rowling, along with her parents and sister, moved twice while J K was growing up. While at one of their homes, close to Bristol and in Winterbourne, she had friends next door whose last name was Potter. J K never forgot the children, or the last name, which she liked very much.When she was nine years old her family moved again to Tut shill. Ms. Rowling attended a primary (grade) school in Tut shill, and later attended Weyden Comprehensive. Ms. Rowling describes herself as being shy, freckly, with no natural athletic ability but a great love of literature. Later, when she graduated from Wyden Comprehensive, she attended Exeter University. Here Ms. Rowling studied French after her parents encouraged her into what they believed would be a wonderful career as a bilingual secretary. After graduation, however, it did not take Ms. Rowling long to realize that she was not meant to be a secretary. Self described as the worst secretary ever, very disorganized; she found it increasingly hard to remain attentive during meetings, actually writing story ideas instead of taking notes as she had been instructed.When Ms. Rowling was 26 years old she moved to Portugal to be an English teacher. Ms. Rowling has been quoted many times as saying she loved teaching English, often teaching in the afternoons and evenings so that she could be free to work on her writing during the mornings. It was during this period that she began working on a story about a wizard.Ms. Rowling met and married a journalist in Portugal (he was Portuguese), and her daughter Jessica was born in 1993. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, the marriage ended in divorce and Ms. Rowling, along with her infant daughter, moved to Edinburgh, Scotland so that J K could be near her younger sister, Di. It was during this time that Ms. Rowling became determined to not only finish her Harry Potter wizard novel, but to get it published. Often she would write in restaurants, where she and her daughter could stay warm while she wrote. Ms. Rowling requested a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, which she eventually received, in order to complete her book. When it was completed and after several rejections, Ms. Rowling sold the novel, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, to Bloomsbury in the UK for the equivalent of about $4,000.To support her daughter and herself, Ms. Rowling began working as a French teacher. After several months Arthur A Levine Books/Scholastic Press bought the American rights to the first Harry Potter, and Ms. Rowling received enough money to give up teaching and write full time. Ms. Rowling has described this moment as the happiest of her life.After Bloomsbury Children's Books published the book in June 1997, it was long before Ms. Rowling was recognized as a major discovery. The awards and accolades grew quickly for both Harry Potter and Ms. Rowling. In 1997 the book won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smartest Prize.When published in the US, in September of 1998, the book was renamed and released by Arthur A Levine Books / Scholastic Press; the new title was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.Ms. Rowling quickly wrote a sequel, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, which was published July of 1998 in the UK and in June 1999 in the USA. Immediately after this successful sequel a third book, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, was published in July and September of 1999, in the UK and the USA, respectively.To her amazement, and joy, Ms. Rowling became a household name when the first three installments of the Harry Potter series took over the top 3 slots in the New York Times bestsellers list. (Is interesting to note that the books also did as well, achieving similar results, in the UK)By the summer of 2000, Ms. Rowling had reportedly earned over $400 million for her first three Harry Potter books, which have been printed in 35 languages and sold over 30 million copies. Her fourth book in the popular series, entitled Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, pre-sold over one million advanced copies, with a first printing of 5.3 million. Because of her domination and incredible success on the New York Times bestseller list, the decision was made to introduce a bestseller list for children’s books, which would eliminate the dominating factor of these bestsellers on the current The New York Times bestseller list. This brought a tremendous amount of relief and happiness to a lot of competing authors - and a tremendous honor to Ms. J K Rowling.Writer -

Novels include Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008) (announced) (novel)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) (announced) (novel)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) (filming) (novel)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) (novel)

Harry Potter: Quid ditch World Cup (2003) (VG)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) (novel)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) (novel)