Astro Hacker News - "The Persian MâR-Nâmeh Or, the Book for Taking Omens from Snakes" (1892)

shervinafshar |next [-]

> How, one should rightly ask, could a khrafstar like the snake possibly be associated with good fortune?

For a while a running joke in Persian Wikipedia community was to call software "bugs", _khrafstar_s.

sfRattan |root |parent [-]

The use of "bug" for engineering defect (a use that predates software by around a century) shares Middle English etymology with bugbear and bugaboo, both of which relate to evil spirits/creatures and annoyances. Khrafstar is not unreasonable as a translation.

Razengan |next |previous [-]

I wish there were more games based on Persian lore.

Like how Al-Qadim was an Arabian-themed setting for D&D.

pazimzadeh |root |parent [-]

Or just more movies about the Persians, where they’re not evil etc..

brunorsini |root |parent [-]

Go straight to the source, Iranian cinema is awesome and widely available.

An easy starter is last year's "It Was Just an Accident", which was nominated for a couple of Oscars. It goes from being hilarious to offering a deep reflection on vengeance vs reparation.

Kiarostami and Farhadi are also two great directors to explore.