With unparalleled access to players on both sides of the conflict, Mark Bowden paints a picture so real, one can almost hear the angry shouts of captors, smell the gunpowder emanating from hot barrels of machine guns, and feel the ground tremble as rescue planes roar into the night sky. This is as close to being thrust into the boots of a war correspondent as you're ever likely to get.

Funny Garbage simultaneously launched websites for the Atlantic Monthly and Grove Press to support the work of Mark Bowden regarding the 1980 Iran hostage crisis. Though distinct in design each site serves to complement and cross-promote: relating Mr. Bowden's book The Guests of the Ayatollah, an accompanying Discovery Times Channel documentary and an interactive feature article for the Atlantic Online.

The interaction of photos, multimedia clips, documents and maps within the text heighten the realism of an already compelling narrative. Combining technologies to resolve potential hurdles to access, Flash-integrated media allow a wider audience to examine audio and video clips. Utilizing AJAX and CSS, Funny Garbage created contextual popup boxes, which provide closer looks at key participants, dates and events culminating in the storming of the US embassy in Tehran and the subsequent military operation aimed at freeing the hostages taken in the breach.