Maybe it’s because Michael Jackson has died—it’s a sad and unnerving feeling to think that he’s gone—but today has had a very peculiar quality to it. Even for Iran, today was rather strange. Let’s look at what’s happened. Seems like Iran is in a state of flux, alternating between days of horrific violence and tense calm. Today is the major exam day of Iran, during which the Konkoor---Iran’s college entrance exam—is administered. It’s of a different mode than the SATs.

At the present moment, Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) is slightly embarrassed to be dealing with a leak involving the personal records of 45,000 members of the Cornell community. Just slightly.

Much to my dismay, it looks like I’d spoken too soon about things appearing relatively calm in Iran. Today was chaotic. The major point of incidence in Iran was at Baharestan in Tehran. Baharestan is where the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) meets. Protesters amassed there today (the 24th) in an effort to again show their rejection of the election results that had President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad overwhelming reelected to the presidency. As is now frequently the case in Iran, where there are protesters there are Basij paramilitary forces. And where there are Basiji there is sure to be violence.

If you've kept abreast of what has been going on in Iran, then you'll have noticed perhaps that things seem somewhat calmer in Iran. That's all relative of course; compared to Saturday, anything even slightly tamer is bound to appear calm. Beyond that, however, the government has increased its efforts to curtail communication between the protesters and the rest of the world.

Unless you’re apathetic about news and/or foreign policy (if you are, why are you reading this blog?) then you’ll have heard by now about the protests in Iran. I won’t rehash the whole events of the past week,--they can be seen here --but it is important to note just how monumental the events of the past week have been in Iran.

For a long time, architecture wooed me with tales of utopia and romance; I believed that skyscrapers, steel girders and curtain walls would herald positive change in the world. The legacies of the most famous architects include visions of perfection – Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City, Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin Pour Paris. But the reality of modern architecture is a far cry from these visions.