The Art Of War

Chapter Summary:

1. Detail Assessment and Planning (Chinese: 始計，始计) explores the five fundamental factors (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership and management) and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagements. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory. Habitual deviation from these calculations will ensure failure via improper action. The text stresses that war is a very grave matter for the state and must not be commenced without due consideration.
2. Waging War (Chinese: 作戰，作战) explains how to understand the economy of warfare and how success requires winning decisive engagements quickly. This section advises that successful military campaigns require limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
3. Strategic Attack (Chinese: 謀攻，谋攻) defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and discusses the five factors that are needed to succeed in any war. In order of importance, these critical factors are: Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army and Cities.
4. Disposition of the Army (Chinese: 軍形，军形) explains the importance of defending existing positions until a commander is capable of advancing from those positions in safety. It teaches commanders the importance of recognizing strategic opportunities, and teaches not to create opportunities for the enemy.
5. Forces (Chinese: 兵勢，兵势) explains the use of creativity and timing in building an army's momentum.
6. Weaknesses and Strengths (Chinese: 虛實，虚实) explains how an army's opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of the enemy and how to respond to changes in the fluid battlefield over a given area.
7. Military Maneuvers (Chinese: 軍爭，军争) explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon the commander.
8. Variations and Adaptability (Chinese: 九變，九变) focuses on the need for flexibility in an army's responses. It explains how to respond to shifting circumstances successfully.
9. Movement and Development of Troops (Chinese: 行軍，行军) describes the different situations in which an army finds itself as it moves through new enemy territories, and how to respond to these situations. Much of this section focuses on evaluating the intentions of others.
10. Terrain (Chinese: 地形) looks at the three general areas of resistance (distance, dangers and barriers) and the six types of ground positions that arise from them. Each of these six field positions offer certain advantages and disadvantages.
11. The Nine Battlegrounds (Chinese: 九地) describes the nine common situations (or stages) in a campaign, from scattering to deadly, and the specific focus that a commander will need in order to successfully navigate them.
12. Attacking with Fire (Chinese: 火攻) explains the general use of weapons and the specific use of the environment as a weapon. This section examines the five targets for attack, the five types of environmental attack and the appropriate responses to such attacks.
13. Intelligence and Espionage (Chinese: 用間，用间) focuses on the importance of developing good information sources, and specifies the five types of intelligence sources and how to best manage each of them

The Mystery Of The Cocaine Mummies

Partial Transcript Below: 

In the 21st dynasty of the Pharaos, 3,000 years ago, there took place one night at a temple, the funeral of Henut Taui - the Lady of the Two lands.

Compared to the great rulers of Egypt, her burial was a modest affair. But just like the Pharaos, she too was mummified, and her body placed in the depths of a desert tomb, in the belief it would give her immortality.

German scientist, Dr Svetla Balabanova, made a discovery which was to baffle Egyptologists, and call into question whole areas of science and archeology to chemistry and botany.

She discovered that the body of Henut Taui contained large quantities of cocaine and nicotine. The surprise was not just that the ancient Egyptians had taken drugs, but that these drugs come from tobacco and coca, plants completly unknown outside the Americas, unheard of until Sir Walter Raleigh introduced smoking from the New World, or until cocaine was imported in the Victorian era.

It was seemingly impossible for the ancient Egyptians to get hold of these substances.

For thousands of years people in the Andes have been chewing coca leaves, to get out the cocaine with it's stimulant, anaesthetic and euphoric properties. There are actually species of the coca family which grow in Africa, but only the South American species has ever been shown to contain the drug.

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA - Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm: 
"The cocaine of course remains an open question. It's a mystery - it's completely unclear how cocaine could get into Africa. On the other hand, we know there were trade relationships long before Columbus, and it's conceivable that the coca plant had been imported into Egypt even then."

NARRATOR:
Was it possible that coca - a plant from South America had been finding it's way to Egypt 3,000 years ago?

If the cocaine found in mummies could not be explained by contamination, or fake mummies or by Egyptian plants containing it, there appeared to be only one remaining possibility... An international drug trade who's links extended all the way to the Americas.

NARRATOR: 
But on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where the moving current of the Gulf Stream arrives in Mexico directly from the west coast of Africa, there is a professionally-employed anthropologist who does seriously beleive in such possibilities.

PROF ALICE KEHOE - Anthropologist, Marquette University: 
"I think there is good evidence that there was both trans-atlantic and trans-pacific travel before Columbus." 

But the idea that the ability of the ancients to cross the oceans might have been underestimated continues to be quietly whispered about. Over the years evidence has grown which suggests it might be time to look again at such voyages. To imagine that the Egyptians, who apparently only sailed up and down the Nile or into the Red Sea, might get as far as the Americas perhaps sounds fantastical. But in science, what is one day thought absurd, can next day become accepted as fact.

[Picture of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland]

One senior academic thinks it's important to remember that before the discovery of this Norse settlement in Newfoundland in 1965 theories about Viking voyages to America were dismissed as nonsense.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL - Historian, Cornell University: 
"What we've seen is a shift from the idea of Viking landings in America being seen as completely fantastic or partisan, to being accepted by every scholar in the field."

NARRATOR: 
The fact that evidence of the Viking crossings was hidden has encouraged Martin Bernal to contemplate even earlier voyages that are likewise dismissed as impossible.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL - Historian, Cornell University: 
"I have no reason to doubt that there were others - but what they were, and how much influence they had on American society is open to question. But that trans-oceanic voyages are possible - or were possible - seems to me to be overwhelmingly likely."

NARRATOR: 
Yet discovery of minute strands of silk found in the hair of a mummy from Luxor could suggest the trade stretching from Egypt to the Pacific. For silk at this time was only known to come from China.

PROF MARTIN BERNAL - Historian, Cornell University: 
"We're getting more and more evidence of world trade at an earlier stage. You have the Chinese silk definitely arriving in Egypt by 1000BC. I think modern scholars have a tendency to believe rigidly in progress and the idea that you could only have a worldwide trading network from the 18th century onwards, is our temporal arrogance - that it's only modern people that can do these things."

NARRATOR: 
The evidence for ancient trade with America is limited, and most of it is disputed, but it can't be completely ruled out as explaining the apparent impossibility of Balabanova's results, results that at first seemed so absurd many thought they would be explained away by a simple story of a botch-up in a lab, results that still without firm explanation continue to crop up in unexpected places.

For in Manchester, the mummies under the care of Rosalie David, the Egyptologist once so sure that Balabanova had made a mistake, produced some odd results of their own.

ROSALIE DAVID - Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum: 
"We've received results back from the tests on our mummy tissue samples and two of the samples and the one hair sample both have evidence of nicotine in them. I'm really very surprised at this."

DR SVETLA BALABANOVA - Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm: 
"The results of the tests on the Manchester mummies have made me very happy after all these years of being accuesed of false results and contaminated results, so I was delighted to hear nicotine had been found in these mummies, and very, very happy to have this enormous confirmation of my work."

NARRATOR: 
The tale of Henut Taui shows that in science facts can be rejected if they don't fit with our beleifs while what is believed proven, may actually be uncertain.

Little wonder then, that a story that began with one scientist, a few mummies and some routine tests, in no time at all could upset whole areas of knowledge we thought we could take for granted.

Paying The Price: Killing The Children Of Iraq

A documentary film by John Pilger

Sanctions enforced by the UN on Iraq since the Gulf War have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, including over half a million children - many of whom weren't even born when the Gulf War began.

Beauty

Please, Watch in full screen!

A path of sighs through the emotions of life.
A tribute to the art and her disarming beauty.

CREDITS

Director: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

Assistant Director: LAILA SONSINO

2nd Assistant Director: CARLOTTA BALESTRIERI

Editing - Compositing - Animation: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

Sound Design: ENRICO ASCOLI

Art Direction: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

Historiographer: GIULIANO CORTI

Time: 09'49"

Year: 2014

Thanks: MA&PA, ANNA, RAFFAELLA, CORRADO, VINICIO BORDIN, PAOLO RANIERI, KARMACHINA, ALBERTO MODIGNANI, AUGUSTA DESIRE GRECCHI, PAOLO BAZZANI, THOMAS MCEVOY

Video Website:
rinostefanotagliafierro.com/beauty.html

Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story

The story of Verus, a gladiator who fought in the opening games of the Colosseum in AD80. The film also tells the story of the Colosseum itself, built to accommodate a staggering 55,000 spectators for the bloody spectacle of gladiatorial combat.

The Crusades: Victory and Defeat

The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (Arabic: سلطنة المماليك‎ Sulṭanat al-Mamālīk) was a state based in medieval Egypt. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, soldiers of predominantly Kipchak Turk, Circassian, and Georgian slave origin. Mamluks were considered to be "true lords", with social status above freeborn Egyptian Muslims. Though it declined towards the end of its existence, at its height the sultanate represented the zenith of Egyptian and Levantine political, economic, and cultural glory in the Islamic era.

Baibars or Baybars (Arabic: الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري‎, al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baibars al-Bunduqdari), nicknamed Abu l-Futuh^[1] (Arabic: أبو الفتوح) (1223 – 1 July 1277, Damascus), was the fourth Sultan of Egypt from the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. He was one of the commanders of the Egyptian forces that inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked the first substantial defeat of the Mongol army, and is considered a turning point in history. Baibars' reign marked the start of an age of Mamluk dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean, and solidified the durability of their military system. He managed to pave the way for the end of the Crusader presence in the Levant, and reinforced the union of Egypt and Syria as the region's pre-eminent Arab and Muslim state, able to fend off threats from both Crusaders and Mongols. As Sultan, Baibars also engaged in a combination of diplomacy and military action, which allowed the Mamluks of Egypt to greatly expand their empire.

Battle of Ain Jalut

The battle of Ain Jalut which was fought on September 3, 1260 was one of the most important battles and a turning point in history. In 1250, only ten years before the battle of Ain Jalut, the same Bahariyya Mamluks (Qutuz, Baibars and Qalawun) led Egypt against the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. The Mongol army at Ain Jalut that was led by Kitbuqa, a Nestorian Christian Naiman Turk, was accompanied by the Christian king of Cilician Armenia and by the Christian prince of Antioch. After the fall of Khawarezm, Baghdad and Syria, Egypt was the last citadel of Islam in the Middle East, and the existence of crusade beach-heads along the coast of the Levant were forming a serious menace to the Islamic World. Therefore the future of Islam and of the Christian west as well depended on the outcome of that battle which was fought between two of the most powerful fighters of the Middle Ages, the Mamluks and the Mongols accompanied by some Christian crusaders. Baibars, who was known to be a swift commander, led the vanguard and succeeded in his maneuver and lured the Mongol army to the Ain Jalut where the Egyptian army led by Qutuz waited. The Egyptians at first failed to counter the Mongol attack and were scattered after the left flank of their army suffered a severe damage but Qutuz stood firm, he threw his helmet to the air and shouted "O Islam" and advanced towards the damaged side followed by his own unit. The Mongols were pushed back and fled to a vicinity of Bisanfollowed by Qutuz's forces but they managed to gather and returned to the battlefield making a successful counterattack. Qutuz cried loudly three times "O Islam! O God grant your servant Qutuz a victory against the Mongols". The Mongols with their Christian and Muslim allies were totally defeated by Qutuz' army and fled to Syria where they became a prey for the local population. Qutuz kissed the ground and prayed while the soldiers collected the booty. Kitbuqa the Commander of the Mongol army was killed and his head was sent to Cairo. An account by the celebrated British historian Toynbee A Study of History of the Oxford University Press does refer that the General Kitbuqa (Ketboga) was injured during the battle, however his corpse may have fallen into Mameluke hands, he may have been injured as a result of the Mongol troops having killed the horse of Baibars on their left-wing of the Mameluke troops contrary to the practice of military of the day when originating from the steppes. The incident of the horse is also recorded but not necessarily in the account of Toynbee and at least one painting shows the occurrence. Or it may be that Ketboga died in Mameluke hands for reasons of military custom, (his name possibly indicates a link to Khitan customs), or because he was Christian but Nestorian Christian so that he would not take part in mainstream Orthodox Christian communion and this may have led to him refusing treatment for his wound not so common among the Mamelukes for their captives to engage in, while it is unclear if he was influenced by the recommendation and custom "not to uncover private parts" possibly post-"Great Mongol (Mongol can be abbreviation for or version of the "Mengwu Shiwei") United Fighters State" which is the translation of the contemporary historical name. Although Muslim medical practice fully endorses the same, but also even as far as ancient China there were people not prepared to disrobe even the entire body for acupuncture.However the Mamelukes were by nature not inclined to engage in any treatment whatsoever. This was the first defeat suffered by the Mongols since they attacked the Islamic world. They fled from Damascus then from the whole of the northern Levant. Qutuz entered Damascus with his army and sent Baibars to Homs to liquidate the remaining Mongols. While Alam ad-Din Sonjar was nominated by Qutuz as the sultan's deputy in Damascus, Qutuz granted Aleppo to al-Malik al-Said Ala'a ad-Din the Emir of Mosul and a new Abbasid Caliph was about to be installed by Qutuz. All of the Levant from the border of Egypt to the river Euphrates was freed from the Mongols. After this victory the Mamluks stretched their sovereignty to the Levant and were recognized by the Ayyubids and the others as legitimate rulers. When Hulagu heard about the defeat of the Mongol Army he executed an-Nasir Yusuf near Tabriz. Hulagu kept threatening the Mamluk Sultanate, but soon he was struck hardly by conflicts with the Mongols of the Golden Horde, in the western half of the Eurasian Steppe, who converted to Islam (see Berke–Hulagu war). Hulagu died in 1265. He never would avenge the defeat of the Mongols at Ain Jalut.

The Battle of Ain Jalut is also notable for being the earliest known battle where explosive hand cannons (midfa in Arabic) were used. These explosives were employed by the Mamluk Egyptians in order to frighten the Mongol horses and cavalry and cause disorder in their ranks. The explosive gunpowder compositions of these cannons were later described in Arabic chemical and military manuals in the early 14th century.

[Above info is via: Wikipedia]

Library Of Alexandria

The Lost Libraries Of Timbuktu

Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, 

Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.

Historical Torture Methods and Devices

Al-Andalus: History Of Islam In Spain

Al Andalus -- History of Spain is documentary from BBC4, Britain . The moderator is Bettany Hughes is a historian, author and broadcaster who has spent the last twenty years sharing knowledge about the world's civilizations and culture with a wide audience. She is a Research Fellow of King's College London and has been made an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. She has taught at Bristol, Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

The two hour programme reminded us that in Spain, Islam was a culture of phenomenal innovation which continually emphasized the importance of learning. France's largest library at the time contained 700 books. The library in Cordoba, Spain, on the other hand, contained over half a million volumes. People converted to Islam because they believed the religion was attractive and offered them something of value. The Muslims in Spain built a culture that was the very pinnacle of civilized life. And when later the rest of Europe underwent a massive intellectual and cultural revolution -- the Renaissance, the programme convincingly asserted that the Renaissance was the continuation of an intellectual process that had begun centuries earlier in Islamic Spain.

After been vast studies of history, there was no others religion that have a vast and dynamic structure of economy, politics and knowledge. Why most non- Muslim converted to Muslim at the time. It because of the religion itself have their own law in governance the wealth, social structure and intellectual power.

Coming Ashore

Predators are forced to specialize and devise new strategies when they're confined by geography, other species... or changing conditions.

Long Live The Queen

A power-hungry princess ant enslaves a neighboring ant colony to become their new queen.

Komodo Knockout

A younger Komodo dragon challenges the "Head Honcho" to a fight.

Shrike The Impaler

The shrike likes to leisurely enjoy its meals... skewered.

When The Moors (Muslims) Ruled Europe

An insightful documentary into the prosperity Islam engendered in Europe during its glorious reign there.

The Art Of War Sun Tsu

Courtesy Of: The History Channel

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sunzi" and "Sun Wu"), a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period (some scholars believe that the Art of War was not completed until the subsequent Warring States period. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insights.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics: "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name.It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business 
tactics, and beyond.

Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy, and that the decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, 
competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_...

Islam - Empire Of Faith

Narrated by Ben Kingsley
Produced and directed by Robert Gardner 
PBS documentary: http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam

Episodes:

(1) Prophet Muhammad (sallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam) and rise of Islam
(2) The Awakening
(3) The Ottomans

The production of Islam: Empire of Faith was a big challenge from the beginning, simply because it covered more than a thousand years of history and culture, and a very large part of the world.

But we really wanted to push beyond the conventional form of historical documentaries, which have depended on pans and tilts of still pictures, supplemented with landscapes and interviews. We wanted to find a way to use the visual techniques usually reserved for fiction motion pictures to tell a story of great scope that took place in pre-photographic history. This meant the project would require very large scale costumed re-enactments and equipment far beyond the ordinary documentary production package of camera, zoom lens, tripod and small light-kit.

We knew that we had to find a way to present images of cultural history — both re-enacted scenes and contemporary scenes of Islamic architecture and city life — in a way that would evoke the past, but maintain a sense of authenticity. The scenes would be dream-like and impressionistic but would still give viewers a sense that what they were seeing was accurate in historical terms.

We designed a production package that included a robotic crane with an 18-foot reach (Jimmi-jib), allowing us to fly the camera through architectural spaces, and a Steadicam that would allow for smooth camera moves through buildings at ground level — even mounting it on a truck to shoot running horses at full speed. We took a wide selection of lenses from extremely wide to telephoto and we also brought a high-speed camera for true slow-motion (500 frames per second) allowing us to slow an action down that actually took one second to fully twenty seconds on-screen. All of these taken together would provide an extraordinarily production palette. But it also meant that we had to travel with more than 40 cases of equipment — and do so in seven different countries. The logistics were severe.

The actual American camera crew was very small — Director of Photography Rege Becker (who also operated the Steadicam) and First Assistant Cameraman and Jib Operator Nick Gardner, who also shot second camera when required. The rest of the crew was hired and trained in each country — Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Spain, Turkey and Iran.

It was in Iran that we used a motion picture company — with a crew of 50 — to produce the costumed re-enactments. Iran's foremost Art Director Majid Mirfakhraei, had to create locations, costumes and props for more than a thousand years of history — from the deserts 7th century Arabia, to the palaces of the Ottoman empire. The same team of stunt riders had to be made-up and redressed to play Arabian mounted soldiers, Crusader knights, Mongol raiders, Ghazi horsemen and Ottoman cavalry. A full sized, four-story replica of the holiest shrine in the Muslim world (the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia), had to be built in the deserts of Southern Iran and the vanished world of 8th century Baghdad had to be created in the ruins of a 19th century Persian palace. More than 300 costumes were required, as well as a dozen camels and riders, dozens of sheep and goats, an entire Bedouin encampment and the streets of Jerusalem in the 11th century — complete with market stalls and citizens.

This extraordinary production design, set in epic landscapes, gives the film a startling sense of scope and provides a remarkable window through which to examine the past. The film took 18 months to edit, and is supported by an original score by Leonard Lionnet.

Checkpoint - Every Day Life in Palestine Documentary

A film showing the day to day reality of Palestinians subjected to demeaning humiliation at Israeli military checkpoints as they attempt to go about their daily lives in their own lands.

No political speeches. No opinions. Just an honest record of the drudgery and humiliation of dealing with checkpoints.


Filmed by an Israeli Jew.

ISRAHELL ON EARTH

This powerful documentary exposes the hell that the palestinians have been going through. The world has been hijacked by a cabal of zionists/occultists, and the support given to them by governments has alienated much of the world. IsraHell on Earth looks at the origins of the abomination that is IsraHell and exposes its apartheid crimes.

Baltuggy and Shabihah (Thugs)

البلطجية والشبيحة

Al-Jazeera Documentary