The following are the videos available from this lecture:
Fallujah: US War Crimes in Fallujah - US Military and Western Mainstream Media trying to conceal War Crimes in Fallujah (Vengeance, Blackwater Style).
Lecture, Part 1 to 6: Dahr Jamail’ Full Lecture - An American Perspective on the Catastrophic Occupation of Iraq.
Q&A Part 1: Question and Answer Period: Part 1 - Topics covered in this series are: 1) How do we support the resistance in Iraq; 2) What drives US Foreign Policy; 3) On the fate of Iraqi refugees.
Q&A Part 2: Question and Answer Period: Part 2 - Topics covered in this series are: 4) How have you been received by US media? 5) How can Americans stop the US government? 6) Is the US hemorrhaging from Iraq, and what will happen with Iran?
Q&A Part 3: Question and Answer Period: Part 3 - Topics covered in this series are: 7) How difficult is it to do a body count in Iraq? 8) Will the US withdraw from Iraq? 9) What can Canadians do to stop the American Empire?
Q&A Part 4: Question and Answer Period: Part 4 - Topics covered in this series are: 10) What does the future hold for Iraq? 11) What is the education system like in Iraq? 12) Comments on Depleted Uranium and Gulf War Syndrome.
Q&A Part 5: Question and Answer Period: Part 5 - Topics covered in this series are: 13) Negroponte's US backed Death Squads in Iraq; 14) Democrats, US car bombings, US troop resistance; 15) Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, Dahr Jamail's future.
Every time I read a story published in Western mainstream media about what transpired in Fallujah in 2004 during two US assaults on the city I feel sick.
The evidence proving that the United States committed war crimes, slaughtering innocent men, women and children is irrefutable. The US military’s use of chemical weapons is irrefutable. The destruction of a city amounting to collective punishment is irrefutable. All of this occurred because four Blackwater mercenaries were killed by Iraqis who were trying to protect their city from what we now know as “America's Private Army”.
I have tried to understand why Western mainstream media has remained complicit in its coverage and reporting of this event, and I believe I have found the answer.
“…a secret intelligence assessment of the first battle of Fallujah shows that the U.S. military thinks that it lost control over information about what was happening in the town, leading to ‘political pressure’ that ended its April 2004 offensive with control being handed to Sunni insurgents.”
This propaganda piece continues to state that:
“…the decision to order an immediate assault on Fallujah, in response to the televised killing of four contractors from the private military firm Blackwater, effectively prevented the Marine Expeditionary Force charged with retaking the town from carrying out ‘shaping operations,’ such as clearing civilians from the area, which would have improved their chances of success.”
According to the article:
“Crucial to the failure…was the role of the Arabic satellite news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya… ‘They filmed scenes of dead babies from the hospital… Comparisons were made to the Palestinian intifada. Children were shown bespattered with blood; mothers were shown screaming and mourning day after day.’”
The damning part of this article, which explains why Western mainstream media has continued to turn a blind eye to what happened in Fallujah is presented in the last two paragraphs (emphasis added):
“…later in 2004, when U.S.-led forces successfully retook Fallujah, they brought with them 91 embedded reporters representing 60 press outlets, including Arabic ones. ‘False (sic) allegations of non-combatant casualties were made by Arab media in both campaigns, but in the second case embedded Western reporters offered a rebuttal,’ the authors said.”
Did everyone catch that? While all other embedded and non-embedded journalists were reporting that innocent men, women and children were being massacred, “embedded Western reporters” were denying these reports. Do you feel sick yet? You should be by this time, especially if you remember that during World War II, Nazi ‘news’ sources never reported on German War Crimes, and if they did, they used words such as “false allegations”, “military action”, “informational battle”, “successfully retook”, and “presumably killed”. How appalling would those that died during World War II in the fight to stop fascism find his type of propaganda in the United States?
If you would like to know what really happened in Fallujah, then watch the following short excerpt from a lecture by Dahr Jamail, an award winning unembedded American journalist who was in Fallujah at the time of the US assault.
Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah: US War Crimes
Further information on American War Crimes in Fallujah through the following two documentaries:
The following is Part 1 of the Question and Answer period that followed the 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail's lecture in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. Topics covered in this post are:
1) How do we support the resistance in Iraq.
2) What drives US Foreign Policy.
3) On the fate of Iraqi refugees.
The following is Part 2 of the Question and Answer period that followed the 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail's lecture in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. Topics covered in this post are:
4) How have you been received by US media?
5) How can Americans stop the US government?
6) Is the US hemorrhaging from Iraq, and what will happen with Iran?
4) How have you been received by US media?
5) How can Americans stop the US government?
6) Is the US hemorrhaging from Iraq, and what will happen with Iran?
The following is Part 3 of the Question and Answer period that followed the 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail's lecture in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. Topics covered in this post are:
7) How difficult is it to do a body count in Iraq?
8) Will the US withdraw from Iraq?
9) What can Canadians do to stop the American Empire?
7) How difficult is it to do a body count in Iraq?
8) Will the US withdraw from Iraq?
9) What can Canadians do to stop the American Empire?
The following is Part 4 of the Question and Answer period that followed the 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail's lecture in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. Topics covered in this post are:
10) What does the future hold for Iraq?
11) What is the education system like in Iraq?
12) Comments on Depleted Uranium and Gulf War Syndrome.
10) What does the future hold for Iraq?
11) What is the education system like in Iraq?
12) Comments on Depleted Uranium and Gulf War Syndrome.
The following is Part 5 of the Question and Answer period that followed the 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail's lecture in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. Topics covered in this post are:
13) Negroponte's US backed Death Squads in Iraq.
14) Democrats, US car bombings, US troop resistance.
15) Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, Dahr Jamail's future.
13) Negroponte's US backed Death Squads in Iraq.
14) Democrats, US car bombings, US troop resistance.
Since the turn of the century the environment has become a quintessential concern for all of humanity. The changes that are taking place in the ecosystem will affect every living species on this planet. The following is some food for thought:
On 8 December 2007, I had the opportunity to attend the Vancouver environmental global day of action that was organized to coincide with The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. I took my trusted little camcorder and recorded some of the event.
The following video is the talk given at the event by David Suzuki, a world renowned “Canadian science broadcaster and environmental activist”, and the founder of the The David Suzuki Foundation: an environmental organization founded in 1990, “focusing on four program areas – oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and the Nature Challenge - the Foundation uses science and education to promote solutions that conserve nature and help achieve sustainability within a generation.”
Below you will find a video and an article that I posted in 2007 regarding colony collapse disorder. Both are still relevant today but in need of an update. This is an important issue for me and I will continue to follow this story and at some point update the article. Some of the most recent and relevant developments below.
The positive side of Colony Collapse Disorder: The Gaia Principle
All living organisms have self-preservation defense mechanisms to protect themselves from harm. Whether an organism survives an attack or contamination depends on its ability to contain or destroy an outbreak or infection.
According to the Gaia principle, all “living and nonliving parts of the Earth are viewed as a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism.” In essence the Gaia hypothesis states that the Earth is alive, implying that it also has a self-defense mechanism to protect itself from harm. If we take this into consideration, then it may shed some light onto the reasons as to why the honeybees are dying across the globe, and what we can do about it.
“In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives” across the United States. “Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives…The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers.”
A detailed survey conducted by Bee Alert Technology (pdf) indicates that disappearances have been the main cause of CCD. Results from June 2007 indicate that 43% of beekeepers surveyed in North America believe that the cause of their bee colonies collapsing has been disappearing bees, compared to 15% cause by Mites and 3% by pesticides. ‘Disappearing’ is the perfect term to describe what is happening, because we, as of this moment, do not know why the bees are not returning to their colonies. The data indicates that the severer the colony loss, the better the correlation with disappearances.
How serious is the situation? There have been reports that up to 80% of the bees in certain regions of Europe and North America have perished. Albert Einstein is said to have stated: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man,” which clearly sums up the current predicament in no uncertain terms.
There is a positive side to the story however; the death of the bees is an early warning signal. Insects are in general at the bottom of the food chain, therefore we, being at the top of the food chain, will usually not be immediately affected by mass extinction of a certain insect species. Bees however are different, they are not only at the bottom of the food chain. We use them as pollinators in our production of fruits and vegetables, and we also consume their labor of love, being honey, directly. This means that bees hold the distinction of being involved in all levels of human consumption. It is because we are so heavily invested in honeybee labor to produce our food that we have been lucky enough to become aware of this epidemic early.
The reasons for why the bees are dying are likely a combination of what has been listed above. Knowing this, we remain bewildered as to why the bees are flying off en masse and not returning to the only thing that they know, which is a colonial life.
The Gaia principle provides some answers. Bees are the most efficient delivery system known on this planet. If they are infected with a virus, carriers of a pathogen, then there is a serious risk of contamination. If the Gaia principle is taken at face value, then the Earth will be aware of this infection and will do whatever is necessary to contain it. This includes committing euthanasia on one of its species (living parts) by signaling the bee colonies to eliminate themselves from the equation.
The Gaia hypothesis is still speculation, but it does help us to understand the interconnectiveness of life on Earth. Since we, our lifestyle, is the most likely culprit of this pandemic, then we would be wise to modify our behavior before the Earth decides that the only way to prevent this infection from spreading is to eliminate the source and not the delivery mechanism.
What is required are large-scale scientific investigations as to the cause of CCD and the consequences of the destruction of the ecosystem through our technology, scientific experimentations, and environmental contamination. We are slowly moving in the right direction with people beginning to realize the benefits of consuming organic food, the use of Genetically Modified seeds being suspended in France , and research into the dangers of EM radiation becoming more widely available, but we must begin to rapidly implement changes. We are approaching the tipping point with this crisis and should make it a global priority.
Hopefully dealing appropriately with the CCD epidemic will usher in a time where we will value the health of the Earth above all else and learn to keep this planet from harm by reducing our ecological footprint.
"Malalai Joya (born April 25, 1978) is an activist, writer and a former politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of what she considered to be warlords and war criminals in the Afghan parliament. She is an outspoken critic of the Karzai administration and its western supporters, particularly the United States."
On Saturday, October 27 2007, I had the pleasure of attending the Vancouver Peace Rally. I took my trusted little camcorder and ended up filming the event. The following is some of the footage from that day:
The following is part of a video series that was taken from July 18 to 21 at Soundwave 2008, a three day outdoor electronic music and visual extravaganza held on the west coast of Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.
The following is a brief record of approximately twenty-four hours of Soundwave 2007. The video and audio were shot in chronological order and edited as such.
I hope to provide a list of the DJ's and visual artists from this short, so if you know who certain DJ's and/or visual artists are during certain segments, then please drop me a line or post a comment.
Peace,
chycho
Soundwave 2007: 24 hours of light, music and dance, Part 1
Soundwave 2007: 24 hours of light, music and dance, Part 2
Music and Visuals:
1) The opening Soundwave visual of "G-Force" is by "Shameless" from the Roadhouse campsite
2) Thank you Michael for sending the following info: "You were looking for djs names for your segments... 1:27 Mike M ... after that is Xavier with the drum & bass ..."
The following is part of a video series that was taken from July 13 to 15 at Soundwave 2007, a three day outdoor electronic music and visual extravaganza held on the west coast of Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.
In August 2007 the 17th World Diplomacy Championship and DipCon 40 were held in Vancouver, Canada at the University of British Columbia.
Initially I had planned on attending this event as a player, however, a few days before the games began I decided that instead of playing in the tournament I would film it. I wanted to document this event and hopefully obtain enough footage to be able to create a short instructional video to help promote this amazing strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954.
I personally consider Diplomacy to be one of the greatest games ever created, and believe, along with many others, that it should be a mandatory part of our education system. In these times, when politics governs every aspect of our lives it would be prudent to teach the art of diplomacy, and what better way to achieve this task than by playing a board game.
I have uploaded some of the raw footage into the following three sections. These videos should give everyone a pretty good idea of what this game is all about. Sometime in the future I’ll try and create an instructional video and upload additional footage:
Series IIIa and IIIb give you the power to be able to factor and solve polynomials of any degree. Factoring techniques included in this series are: the Difference of Squares, Complex Trinomial Factoring (4-step method), Quadratic Formula including The Discriminant, and Synthetic Division.
In addition to the above, we also do an in-depth discussion of The Division Statement, Polynomial Long Division, look at the graphical meaning of factoring polynomials, use Let Statements and Substitution to factor polynomial and non-polynomial functions, and discuss The Remainder and The Factor Theorems.
Extras included in this series are look at Why Math is Important and two tips on how to improve your study habits.
In this series we learn different techniques for solving equations, combine and isolate variables, talk about the equal sign, how to move around an equation, discuss the graphical meaning for solving equations, learn about restrictions, and how we would go about checking solutions.
Also included is an introduction to polynomial equations and functions, a discussion of their classifications, and factoring techniques, beginning with the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Simple Trinomial Factoring (Factoring techniques for polynomials is continued in Series IIIb).
In addition to the above, we also take a brief look at the difference between black holes and elementary particles.
This series is all about exponents and radicals: how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide them; how to take a power to a power; and the process involved for simplifying radicals and large expressions.
We also take a detailed look at how exponents and radicals are related to the Real Number Set. Please note that the videos for this part of the series have overlaps. Videos #40 and #41 discuss the importance of the subsets of the Real Number Set and how they translate over to the basic operations for exponents and radicals. The information contained in these two videos is repeated in videos #42-44, with the addition of examples. If you are familiar and comfortable with the basic operations for exponents and radicals, then videos #40 and #41 should suffice. If you would like the information to be presented with examples, then it will be worth your while to view the latter set. See Video #39 for more information on how the material is being presented.
In addition to the above, five book recommendations (Part 1, Part 2).
The first part of this series deals with the absolute basics of mathematics: the Real Number Set; basic operations; prime numbers and their importance; and how to deal with fractions. This is where it all begins. Please be comfortable with this material before moving on.
The second part of this series deals with basic geometry and trigonometry. Topics discussed include: right triangles and trigonometric ratios; parallel lines; congruent and similar triangles; the Cartesian coordinate system; and slope, midpoint, and distance of a line. We also take a quick look at three different types of proofs related to these topics; those related to triangles, lines, and the Cartesian coordinate system. (NOTE: at some point in the future an in-depth introduction to trigonometry will be produce.)
At the request of my readers, in 2009 I began to provide torrents for the math videos. The torrents are available through The Pirate Bay and other file sharing networks.
Downloads are Series specific and files organized based on their video number, i.e, the order in which the videos were produced. See the Table of Contents for The Language of Mathematics to put things into context.
Please note that videos from Series I, II, and IIIa were tagged with chycho.com, and those for Series IIIb tagged with 420math.com.
Below you will find the exercises and solutions available for The Language of Mathematics. Over time, more will be added and those in draft form will be finalized.
Please keep in mind that like most people, I am prone to making silly mistakes, so please take the answers with a grain of salt. Corrections and suggestions are always welcome.
