Slow Motion Footage of The Shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant

Youtube is trying to make it so you can't see this video. If you have to click through to Youtube to watch it, skip ahead to about 6:00 minutes in. The slow motion footage begins right after that.

Please note that the father, yells at Police, "You just shot my baby. She's just a kid. Are you stupid? A fucking kid?" 

And that was right after he had kicked another kid in the back of the head, while she was sitting on the ground, with all the power in his body.

Islam is Perched Upon a Throne of Philosophical, Scientific, and Historical Lies

Fact or Fiction?: 1001 Muslim Inventions Comes to Washington D.C.

National Geographic Explorer’s Hallin Washington D.C. has hosted some of the most prestigious exhibits in America.  Previous exhibits have included the Chinese terracotta warriors, as well as theJames Caird, the lifeboat Sir Ernest Shackleton miraculously sailed from Antarctica to South Georgia Island in 1916.  Currently it is hosting a curious exhibit through February 2013 entitled “1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization.”  This high tech, slickly produced exhibit explicitly seeks to debunk the “myth” that the dark ages were dark.

The exhibit purports to provide examples of innovations from Muslim civilization, and some of the claims may come as a surprise to those familiar with the Wright Brothers or Yuri Gagarin.

I recently visited “1001 Inventions” which was housed on the same floor as a fantastic Titanic exhibit.  I purchased entry to the museum at a ticket booth staffed by Rebecca Head, a National Geographic employee.  Perhaps assuming I was heading to see the Titanic exhibit, Head pushed attendance at 1001 Inventions  – “There is a really great exhibit on Muslim inventions you should see.”

The exhibit begins with star power – a short movie starring Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley.  Kingsley plays a librarian who faces a trio of young uniformed (presumably British) students seeking information about “the dark ages.”

Kingsley’s character bristles at the children’s characterization, critical of those “filling your head with such nonsense and ripping down the good of former civilizations.”

But “everyone knows the Greeks and Romans invented everything!” one child replies.

Kingsley’s librarian doesn’t equivocate – “some of the most important discoveries” were made by “Muslim civilizations.”

Harry Potter-style magic takes over, and Kingsley is transformed with beautiful flourish from an English librarian into the exotic turban wearing historical figure of Al-Jazari.  The children are enthralled, both on the screen, and in the audience.

Al-Jazari informs the three children that a grand civilization “that stretched from Spain to China” was responsible “for some of the most important discoveries” in the world.  These include, according to Kingsley’s transformed Al-Jazari, devices such as the camera.

And herein lies the most fascinating characteristic of the entire exhibit – the slipperiness of its language.  Indeed, language throughout the exhibit, as we shall see, becomes a way to trick attendees.  Cleverly chosen words nudge readers toward unsupported conclusions.  Myth mingles with science.  Rumor becomes history.

Consider the “invention” of the camera.  Al-Jazari, portrayed masterfully and magically on screen by Kingsley, says “he” was responsible for explaining “how our eyes work” and developed camera obscura. Even if it is historically accurate that Al-Jazari pioneered camera obscura, the slithery language of the screenplay generates an inference that Al-Jazari is somehow legitimately involved in the chain of inventions culminating in my Nikon 35mm.

I was reminded of George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language when he wrote: “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

Kingsley’s Al-Jazari fulfills Orwell’s warning in the film when he introduces another Muslim inventor, Abbas Ibn Firnas, who “dared to dream man could fly 1000 years before the Wright Brothers.”

Outside the theater, Firnas is featured in a flight exhibit.  Firnas is “said to be the first person who tried to fly.  His first attempt which has passed into legend took place when he leapt from the minaret of the Great Mosque in Cordoba.  Equipped with a glider with wooden struts, he managed to fly and landed more or less unharmed.  [His] next flight was more ambitious.  From the top of a nearby hill, he launched himself and his flying machine, apparently gliding for some distance before falling, a problem blamed on the lack of a tail.”

Notice all of the tricks of language.  He was the first “who tried to fly,” and “passed into legend,” “more or less unharmed,” the “flying machine,” (implying moving parts), and “apparently gliding for some distance.”  Naturally he also diagnosed that that cause of his failure was the want of a tail. The exhibit neglects to inform us about whether he applied this fix to his “machine.”

The exhibit also features an interactive game for children where they can help Firnas fly by flapping their arms.

This all might seem harmless, but consider the argument I had with my 8-year-old after leaving the exhibit.  She was convinced that the Wright Brothers were not the first to fly, and instead it was Firnas launched from the mosque at Cordoba a millennium ago.  This would not be the only instance when thought corrupted the language of the exhibit, which in turn corrupted thought, at least among the more impressionable.

The short introductory film with Kingsley playing Al-Jazari goes on to tell the three on-screen students (and the many children in the theatre) that the 1001 inventions include medical devices, ideas or unspecified things which somehow led to the compass and GPS satellite navigation and the very Industrial Revolution itself.

Al-Jazari hands the children a book called “1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World” and urges them plainly to “spread the word.

MORE

From Will at The Other News:

Tom Holland's 'Islam: The Untold Story' documentary in the UK has unleashed a firestorm of criticism by Muslims in England and Europe. Muslims claim the documentary about Islam, by the noted left-leaning historian and liberal, is false and that it is islamophobic.  

Michael Coren and Canada's Sun TV talk about how thin skinned Muslims are about any questioning of Islam or investigation of any historical context regarding Islam or Islamic text that questions Islam.  

Holland has been met with criticism and even death threats.  

This is your future any Canadian, America, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Ireland, English, India, China and Russa.

Did Al Gore Cancels $1,200 Per Handshake Event In Copenhagen Because Of Climategate?

You betcha'!

From Newsbusters:

Al Gore apparently has canceled a high-priced speaking engagement during the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen.

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, the Nobel Laureate was slated to lecture about his new book "Our Choice" where attendees could pay over $1,200 a ticket for the right to meet the Global Warmingist-in-Chief and have their picture taken with him.

According to Danish newspaper Berlingske, this has been canceled due to "unforeseen changes" to Gore's schedule (rough translation follows, h/t Marc Morano):

Al Gore has this morning told Berlingske Media's great annoyance has canceled his planned major climate talks for Danes 16th December 1 Tap in the old Carlsberg because, under the title "Climate Conclusion".

Cancellation comes with regard to unforeseen changes in Al Gore's program for the climate summit, COP 15. [...]

Around 3000 the Danes had already secured a ticket for Berlingske Media's event, planned since August and should have taken place just two days before the climate summit, COP 15, will end. [...]

- We have had a clear-cut agreement, and it is unusual with great disappointment that we have to announce that Al Gore cancels.

From what NewsBusters can tell, this is the $1,200 per handshake lecture. Unfortunately, the link advertising this event at VisitCopenhagen.com now goes to a page claiming "This page cannot be found."

However, the cached version disclosed:

The lecture with Al Gore is on 16 December 2009 in one of the old bottling halls, Tap 1, at Carlsberg Brewery. Tap 1 is a new venue for concerts, lectures and exhibitions in Copenhagen's new developing area of Carlsberg's old brewery site.

Obviously, this is the same event that Berlingske claims has been canceled.

Makes one wonder why VisitCopenhagen.com chose to scrub this event completely from its website rather than inform folks it's been canceled.

Exit question: Do the "unforeseen changes" to Gore's schedule have something to do with ClimateGate and/or the fee being charged for his handshake?

Junk Scientist Fraudsters Deleted Data That Proved Earth Was Cooling

From Gateway (click on the title above to get the whole story):

Climategate: it’s all unravelling now

Climate Depot- Daily Express

Junk Scientists deleted global cooling data that showed the earth was cooling not heating up.

The deleted information is in red. (WUWT)
Watts Up With That posted this report that exposes the junk scientists behind global warming as complete frauds.

For the very first time, the Climategate Letters “archived” the deleted portion of the Briffa MXD reconstruction of “Hide the Decline” fame – see here. Gavin Schmidt claimed that the decline had been “hidden in plain sight” (see here. ). This isn’t true.

The post-1960 data was deleted from the archived version of this reconstruction at NOAA here and not shown in the corresponding figure in Briffa et al 2001. Nor was the decline shown in the IPCC 2001 graph, one that Mann, Jones, Briffa, Folland and Karl were working in the two weeks prior to the “trick” email (or for that matter in the IPCC 2007 graph, an issue that I’ll return to.)

Meanwhile, it seems the American people are no longer buying into the Global Warming Myth:

Poll: 59% think AGW scientists may have falsified data