Jariatu Kallon
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Silence is the real power
hmm Buddha often told his disciples that the sharpest knife in the world is our tongue and the most dangerous weapon in the world is our world which can kill people internally without any blood set our words are our strength but it can also be our greatest weakness if we don't know what when where and how to open our mouth and speak if we use the right words with the right intention at the right time then it will make us a successful person but if we don't use the right words at the right time with the right intention then it will make our life worse than hell so today I will tell you a story on silence and it's going to change your life and it will show you the power of Silence so there was a very famous Buddhist monk in Japan and his name was renjai Ranger used to live alone near Forest far away from the noise of the world Ranger was a very meditative and enlightened man and that's why he was very prominent in Japan but one day a prince comes to enjoy and said dear monk I always feel exhausted frustrated and perplexed my mind is in a chaotic State although I have everything money Fame amenities something that everyone wishes for or aspires to happen then why there is so much disturbance and anxiety in me the monk replied you just already know the answers to this question just you never looked for it the monk said I want to do an experiment what do you like to do with following that there will be no disturbance and anxiety in your life the prince gets so surprised by hearing this an ax to the monk tell me what I need to do the monk said for the next 10 days you will be staying at my ass room and it will live your life like an ordinary person and in this 10 days you will be sitting alone in silence you will speak as little as possible the prince agreed with the Monk on the first day the prince felt that his mind was more Disturbed and more chaotic than usual there were a lot of questions that started rising in his mind and he was feeling uncomfortable to live like an ordinary people but he was silent anyway nothing comes out of his mouth not even a word he just sat alone in silence but by night he began to experience a sense of satisfaction inside he felt that was odd and asking himself why he was feeling joyful deep inside and why his inner restlessness and anxiety began to subside the next day the king sat quietly in solitude staring at nature at the plants flowers the birds were flying in the sky for the first time in his life he was feeling that the nature around him was just amazing he was watching and feeling the salinity of nature throughout the day one week has passed in this way by now all the anxiety depression and all the restlessness all bustle so turmoil in his mind just went down on the morning of the Eighth Day the prince sat in solitude again and in a few minutes his eyes get closed automatically and he went into deep meditation he sat down there with his eyes closed for the whole day and fall into the deep meditation no worries no words the King was filled with infinite peace and joy from within after spending the rest of his day in meditation the prince appeared in front of the mouth and moved down to the Monk and said dear monk I have got the answers that why there was so much turmoil and anxiety in my mind I have got every answers that why my mind was so restless and this start the monk said tell me what answers did you get the prince said I was to talk more than it was necessary I used to waste my words and energy on anyone all day long I used to talk on nonsense things with my people and then I used to think about those same things alone this way I just wasted my time and keep thinking in a negative way and because of that my mind get Disturbed and restless and that's why I was not able to work on anything properly and then I started failing in almost everything I did and because of my failure I became even more depressed and irritated and that just destroyed my life but now these 10 days are completely different now I'm feeling like I'm living my life in a fulfilled way but before this I was living my life in a wrong way and I also learned that you just don't need to meditate meditation happens automatically when you are still calm and silent during the last few days of meditation one of the first thing I have learned is that the most important event in human beings Life Is Knowing oneself during this range I said not just to you but most of the people in the world speak more than necessary even today people only speak to him late each other some people talk even without wanting and waste their lives once Buddha asked by his disciples dear Buddha why are you silent most of the time Buddha said because in silence I can hear the divine within me silence is the first step to dissent within yourself without silence it is impossible to know yourself the first rule of knowing and understanding yourself is that becomes silent talking too much platters the Mind by which we lose our control over our mind and we lose our Focus people who talk much can never have focused power they can never be focused on their goals and if you're not focused you will not be able to understand the truth of life after that the monk finished his talk and the prince get back to his Palace my friend you must have noticed that people who talk more often become the object of laughter among people and those who speak less and stick to their words they get respect from people and people listen to the awards and trust them too those who talk much are not sure of their thoughts their mind is unstable and busy it's full of noise and a person with an unstable mind can be successful on anything in life a person with an unstable mind can tap laser focus if a person knows when where and what he has to talk about those people are very intelligent and their personality becomes very attractive everywhere and he is successful in whatever he does friends if we look deep deeper into the personality of a great and successful person then we will find that they speak less and they end their talk in as a few words as possible and before they talk they think deeply about things and the people who speak a lot often they lie and to put garbage on other people hate and might the criticized people and that is why even their own people hate them and try to avoid them in our Indian opening studs it's been said that our words are real brahmacity from Silence comes patience and from patience comes meditation and from meditation we become aware of our life and that is why if we talk much we lose the silence which is the first pillar of our Calm Mind so my friend from now from today let's become silence today we will only speak what is needed and we will try to end our talk in a very few words and if possible we will try to sit quietly alone at least two hours every day and believe me that this will definitely bring a positive change in our lives and maybe just maybe some of you will find yourself like that Prince thank you so much for watching
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Motivation
The story of an unhappy Crow
don't compare yourself with anyone in life if you do so you will be the saddest person in the world there was a story of an unhappy crow that I want to share with you I hope this story is gonna change your life so there was a crow the problem with him was that he was black he was really sad and unhappy in life because of his color so he was crying suddenly a monk has seen that the crow was crying so the monk asked the crow why are you crying the crow said what to do if not cry is really a life that I'm living it's really a color the black no one likes black no one likes me no one likes to have a crow as a paid did you see anyone to have a crow as a paint no one gives me food I spend most of my time in the garbage see the God made me a crow so I hate my life the monk said what do you want to become if you get another chance I will make you thing I will fulfill your waist the crow said if I get another chance so I would like to be a swan a white swan what a beautiful color white the symbol of peace okay I will make you the swan the monk's head but before that I want you to meet the Swan Once so the crow goes and meet this one and say to the swan wow brother what a color the God gave you you look amazing you must be happy in life look how amazing you are how happy you are the swan said who said you that I am happy the crow said are you not not at all the swan side what's bothering you is really a color the white disgusting no one likes white white basically loose on the coffin so you are not happy the crochet not at all the swan said now two of them came back to the Monk and the swan said give me one chance the monk said what do you want to become someone said make me a parrot what a leaf what a color combination green and red the parrot has people like to have parrots as a paint parrots can also talk so made me a parrot the monk said I will but before that go to the parrot and meet him once now the crow and Swan were into the jungle and searching for a parrot but they could not find a parrot after a lot of searching they found a parrot and say to the parrot wow how amazing you are what a color what a leaf just amazing people pay to you they give you a name how happy you are in life how amazing your life is parrot said who said to you that I am happy Swan said are you not not at all the parrots say it but bothering you my problem is my color the green is it really a beautiful color it is as same as the Jungle the leap the tree see you were searching me for a long time but he could not find me because of my color so now three of them came back to the Monk and said dear monk give me a chance the monk said what do you want to become the parrot said the peacock what an amazing bar what a feeder what a color when he dances people take pictures of him the monk said I will make you all three of you but before that can you please go to the peacock and meet him once now all of them run and meet the peacock and said wow peacock what an amazing life that God gave you when you open your feeders people are staring at you they take pictures of you people wait for you to open up your feeders because they like you they want to see you dancing how happy you are how amazing your life is and finally peacock said who you are who told you that I'm happy do you have troubles too the crow said peacock said it's a lot of troubles there what trouble do you have a parrot and Crow said peacock said listen carefully there is a sound can you hear that parrot said yes what's that sound listen it carefully can you hear that yes yes I can the crow and parrot said but what's that peacock said it's Hunter and kill the peacock every feeder will be extracted one by one from his body and will be sold to all over the world and to the market and people will buy it and they will use it to decorate their house is it really a life why do you want to become peacock Crow said so you are not happy peacock said not at all the crow said then what should we become according to you who is the happiest animal in the world the peacock said to the crow you you are the happiest animal in the world the crow said how am I how can I be happy in the world the peacock said to The Crow and be hard about the chicken burger yes the Crusade have you heard about the chicken sandwich yes the crow said but have you heard about the crow burger or Crow sandwich no the crow said did you see anyone to sell a crow's feeder or meat no the crow side do you have any danger no do anyone hunts you no do you have trouble with anyone no does anyone have trouble with you no and who is living a great life me or Ryu who is the happiest boy in the world it's you brother it's you because we have no idea are we gonna wake up in the next morning or not so no matter who you are where you are how do you look what you have you are great never ever compare yourself with anyone in life there is no one better than you God has not created another person like you you are unique believe it what you are doing here you are impacting in this world thank you so much guys for reading this storyif you really think that this story is inspired you what makes you happy or then make
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Motivation
Faded echoes
Here’s a shorter version of the poem: --- **Whispers of the Baobab Tree** Beneath the baobab’s ancient shade, we loved, Eyes deep as the Niger, holding unspoken dreams. But love, like the wind, slipped through our fingers, Leaving only silence where laughter once danced.
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Poets
Silent Ruins
Here’s a nine-line heartbreaking poem you could use: --- **Faded Echoes** In the silence, your voice lingers, a ghost, Every whisper, now a wound in my chest, Love’s light snuffed, lost in the dark we once feared most. Your laughter haunts these empty halls, Memories turn to shadows that never rest, What was whole is now cracked, crumbling, and small. Promises dissolved like mist at dawn, A heart that beats with sorrow, worn and drawn, In the ruins of "us," I stand, utterly gone.
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Poets
Humans can talk to whales
Intro - What it's like to be a whale - You are seeing something almost no human has ever witnessed - a whale's eye view of life in the ocean. Footage like this is only possible thanks to cutting edge technology that's changing how we study these species. But to truly understand what it's like to be a whale, what you see isn't the important thing. It's what you hear. Whales exist in a world of sound. Many have wondered if their songs and clicks might even be a form of language. This video is about how new technology, like artificial intelligence is being used to decode this sonic world. Scientists are now using whale songs to train AI language models like ChatGPT for nature. Their hope is that these tools will help us better understand what it's like to be a whale. New technology is completely revolutionizing how we study and protect nature. I recently saw this firsthand as part of an ocean mission with Planet Wild, where we used drones to deploy these camera robots onto the largest animal that's ever lived. Blue whales. - Whoa. Did you get - That? Stick around to the end of the video to learn more about the episode I hosted on their channel. But first, join me on one of the most fascinating and perspective changing explorations we've ever researched, into a whale's world of sound, as we meet whale scientists, animal communication experts, and artificial intelligence innovators, on a quest to answer one question: can we use AI to talk to whales? Ch. 1 - The record that saved Earth's whales from extinction Hey, smart people, Joe here. You're listening to a record called "Songs of the Humpback Whale." In the 1950s, a navy engineer named Frank Watlington was using top secret underwater microphones to listen for Soviet submarines when he recorded these eerie alien like sounds. In the 1960s, these recordings made their way to biologist Roger Payne. When Roger, and his wife Katy, analyzed the sounds, they found complex rhythmically repeating collections of notes. These whale sounds were songs, and those songs were in danger of disappearing. See, in the second half of the 20th century, whales were on the brink of extinction, thanks to unrestricted slaughtering for use in soap lubricants, pet food, even margarine. We killed around 3 million whales in the 20th century alone. Some populations shrunk by more than 90%. When you look at the sheer biomass that humans removed from ocean ecosystems, scientists think this was the biggest annihilation of any animal in human history. Well, Roger Payne had a crazy idea to try and save whales from extinction. - You know, how do you describe somebody like Roger Payne? - Iain's the CEO of Ocean Alliance, a whale conservation group Roger Payne founded in the 1970s. - He was probably the father of modern whale research. But what's more important than that, I think, is Roger understood scientific papers or science alone won't save the wild - World. In 1970, Roger produced an album of these humpback whale songs and it changed the world. Songs of the Humpback Whale went multi-platinum. Those whale songs even made it onto the Voyager golden records that are now flying off somewhere outside our solar system. This version here was included in an issue of National Geographic Magazine. It is the largest record pressing of all time. Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Whitney Houston... No, it's whales. It's honestly hard to imagine today how big a deal this album was. Not just for people, but for whales too. Songs of the Humpback Whale helps spark a revolution in ocean conservation. The Save the Whales movement was born in 1972. The United States passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act. There were protests and actions against whaling ships. By the 1980s, the International Whaling Commission had banned commercial whaling worldwide. Fast forward to today, most of the species that we used to hunt are recovering. No joke, this album might be the reason we still have whales today. - You know, I think it really did change how people thought about wild animals. Wait a minute, these aren't cat food and dog food and lubricants. These are singer poets, you know, musicians in our oceans with their haunting, haunting voices. - Sadly, Roger Payne passed away in 2023. Ch. 2 - Can AI help figure out what whale songs mean? But all of this happened because humans realized -- whale songs mean something. In the decades since, scientists have learned whale songs have dialects. They carry family connections, name-like identifying calls. Unique songs are composed and passed across whole oceans like culture. - We nearly all love music. Who can't appreciate a great composer? A great singer? And these are clearly nature's greatest composers. - The songs that whales compose are rich and complex. But if a song doesn't have words, how can you begin to understand what it means? Especially if the composer can't talk back? Well, this is where technology might be able to help some scientists think. AI's ability to comb through enormous volumes of data in search of meaning might make it possible to figure out what whales are saying when they sing. When I first heard about this, I was really confused, honestly. I mean, like a lot of you, I'm pretty impressed by what AI can do, but I'm also a little bit skeptical. Like, it's one thing to ask Chad GPT to help me come up with a title for this video or something. But how do you ask a thing that's not alive, what a totally different species, is trying to communicate? This is my quest to answer that. We're about to talk to whale scientists, animal communication experts, AI innovators to get some answers. And let me tell you what I learned in the end completely changed how I looked at this entire question. Okay, so I'm about to interview an animal communication Ch. 3 - Living in a world of sound (umwelt) expert so we can get an idea of how you even figure out this question of what an animal is trying to convey when it makes a sound. And that question centers around this word called UMWELT. - It's my favorite word! - This is Caroline Casey. She researches animal behavior and communication. - Oh my gosh, yeah. So umwelt refers, well, it was, it was developed by this researcher named Jakob Von Uexküll. I'm probably butchering that. But it, it basically refers to the the the self-perceived world of an animal and how it interacts with the world around them. And so if you think about our sensory lenses, they're very biased towards vision and hearing. That's what we are most attuned to. But other animals have completely different sensory lenses through which they perceive the world around them. So the sensory systems that they are reliant on, we cannot assume that they're similar to our own. - Okay, so you're saying, I have to imagine what it's like to be a whale. To imagine what it's like to be a whale, first, close your eyes. Because underwater, a mammal's vision might reach 10, maybe 15 meters, but sound travels faster and farther underwater than it does in air. Down here, your primary sense is going to be sound. I mean, take blue whales. They aren't just the largest thing that's ever lived. They make the loudest call of any animal ever. They can make sounds that can be heard over a thousand kilometers away. That would be like me having a conversation across the entire state of Texas. The umwelt of a whale is about sound on scales of distance and time that we can't even fathom. Fathoms... an underwater joke. Boo. Ch. 4 - How do whales make sounds, anyway? But just because whales are all about sound doesn't mean we can't turn it into something visual to help us understand it better. This is a spectrogram, basically. A spectrogram is a way to represent sound on a graph. When it comes to whales, knowing what vocalizations look like can teach us a ton. For instance, this is a blue whale vocalization, Baleen whales, like blues, they make sound with a larynx kind of like we do. Toothed whales, on the other hand, (or other fins?) like orcas, they make sound through their noses. Basically these balloon like lips that can be opened and closed to make sounds like clicks and whistles. I'm a dolphin. Tooth whales also have this thing called a melon, a chunk of special fat on their forehead, which they can use to aim and focus sound. Sperm whales string their sounds together in vocalizations called codas. They're almost like Morse code. Sperm whale codas are incredibly complex, probably because they have the biggest brain of any animal. And that's the thing. If we are looking for meaning in whale sounds, it's not just about making sure that whales have the right hardware. They need the right software too. Well, how do you figure out what makes a whale brain tick? It's not like we can send whales through an MRI machine. But scientists have looked at brains from beached whales and learned a lot about how they work. For example, the part of a whale's brain that's associated with intelligence - it's bigger than a human's is relative to our body mass. Whales also have special neurons in their brains that we only find in animals that are highly social and intelligent and chatty. So that means whales have the right hardware and software to communicate in really complex ways. And now we're at the point where we can't avoid it any longer. We've gotta talk about the L word -- language. What would it take for whale sounds to count as language? Ch. 5 - We need to talk about the L word This is a kind of controversial question. Language researchers have this loose set of rules. For something to be a language, it has to have individual words with specific meanings. The ability to create new words when you need them, and the capacity to describe things that have happened in the past and may happen in the future. So baby talk -- -- not a language. Klingon? "SuDwI' HutlhwI' je" Language. - Language is this really complex thing. So we can't look at one whale song and just slap the L word on it. We've gotta look for patterns in tons of songs over a long period of time. It sounds like we're gonna need a bigger boat. And that boat is called AI. - There are now tools that allow pattern recognition to be much more quantitative. - Ari Friedlaender is one of the leading whale behavior researchers on Earth. - But the D call of a blue whale looks like this and has this shape. Once you know sort of what that is, you can look through volumes of data and pull out all of those cases of finding that individual call. The volume is so high at this point. If you've got 10,000 or a 100,000 images, having something that can go through and process and look for that similar pattern in in real time almost is gonna change everything about how that type of data is collected. Ch. 6 - How AI is already changing whale research - Well, it turns out AI has already changed the way that we study whales. I'm talking whale tails. Whale tails are flukes, they're like human fingerprints. No two are alike and we can use them to identify and track individual whales. And luckily researchers and whale watchers on vacation have taken thousands of whale tail photos. Now, it used to be if you wanted to identify the whale you just saw, you had to flip through literal binders of pictures and match the photos by hand. This worked, but it took thousands of hours. So scientists decided to take a bunch of these fluke photos, feed them into a computer and let it learn. They created a neural network that studied whale tales over and over until it could correctly ID them. And now AI can ID whale 90% of the time. That's better than humans can do. And it can even ID whales from fuzzy or bad photos. What this proved is that AI isn't just some gimmick, it can help people do real science. - This is an opportunity if there are people that are interested in the animals that I work on -- to help us process the data that we have or facilitate more data collection that'll help us learn about these animals in a new way. I'm all for that. Ch. 7 - Training computers to listen to animals - I guess I need to talk to somebody who actually works on this AI stuff. - Hi, I am Katie Zacarian. I am a co-founder and CEO of the Earth Species Project. There's this thing called artificial intelligence that you may have heard of and there's been some breakthroughs in the last decade, which give rise to a whole new way of approaching this problem. - The biggest breakthrough came in 2017 when researchers from Google published this paper called "Attention Is all You Need." Now, before this, computers had trouble understanding sentences because they had to read them one word after another, like how we normally read. But this new idea was like having a magic spotlight that shines on all the words in the sentence at the same time to figure out how they fit together, like puzzle pieces. - For the first time you didn't really need to to label the data and it can detect meaning. - This made computers much faster at understanding language. And because they can understand language better, they can do all sorts of cool things like translating languages, summarizing articles. And answering questions like this is what made ChatGPT possible. But also what was really cool is when applied to things like audio, sound, music, human speech, it also worked well. Why not for animal communication? There's some things that human beings are really great at. Like if I were to play you the sound of a bark and play you the sound of a meow, I'd be like, what animal is the bark? And you'd be like, - Oh, it's a dog. Okay, yeah, - Yeah. And yeah, I was like, cat. We human beings are really good at being able to do that from a very few examples. But what if I were to play you 10 million barks? How much time would that take you to go through hours and hours and hours, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of hours of audio and be able to accurately assess a bark from a meow? - AI is really good at these kind of things. Taking scales of data that exceed our tiny and significant finite human lifetimes and finding meaning in it -- sometimes meaning that we can't even see or hear. - There may be things that are just kind of escaping us because of our, you know, our humanness, our anthropo-ness. If we could accelerate that with machine learning and AI, that would be incredible. - Earth species project and other groups are out there right now trying to train computers to comb through immense data sets of animal sounds, turn them into math that computers can understand and look for patterns. Ch. 8 - How can we decode what a whale song means? But just because we can find patterns in these sounds isn't the same as knowing what they mean. These sound patterns sort of don't mean anything unless we know what the animal is doing. - It's a really complicated question, I think far more complicated than most people might think. So my name is Michelle Fournet. I am a marine acoustic ecologist. Do I think that AI can help? Sure, if it's used the right way. Do I think that AI is ready? No, it requires an enormous amount of data -- thousands, millions of data points in order to paint an accurate picture of what's occurring in nature. And we don't have that yet. - So what would it take to sort of paint that picture? - So step one is -- what is the whale doing when it produces the sound? Step two is -- who is the whale with? And then step three is -- how does the whale respond when it hears the sound? And if you could put all of those things together, then you could begin to ascertain what the sound is for. We are just barely, you know, scraping the surface of the amount of data that we would need for AI to build a model that would help us to to decode something. When you think about how long it is, we've been studying medicine or chemistry or natural science, you know, we have several hundreds of years of of thinking about natural science, and we've only been studying whale song really since the sixties. It's only been 60, 65 years that anyone's been listening to these vocalizations. Ch. 9 - Making WhaleGPT is so much harder than we realize - And that is when it hit me. All of these amazing things that humans are training AI to do, they are so easy in comparison to decoding whale language because you remember that word umwelt. - It's like the things that we would even say to a whale, we have to remember that is that is within our umwelt, even the greeting, "hi, how are you?" - asking another animal how they feel internally -- that is a very human way of communicating and we don't know, and we can't assume that whales communicate in that same way. I mean, - Think about that. We might share the planet with whales, but they live in a completely different world. - Whales in general have been on earth for 150 million years. They've been communicating for 150 million years. We have been here for a hundred thousand years. In our current form, when we think about language, it's arrogant to think that the language of an animal that evolved in the ocean over millions and millions of years is going to be analogous to our own. And so until we can come up with a version of AI that is capable of ingesting 115 million years worth of data, I don't think it's going to answer the questions. - But it just can't let go of this idea. I mean, let's face it, what you and I really want to know is what if AI does get there? I've seen headlines saying that we're gonna have Google translate for humpbacks. I've watched YouTube videos saying we're gonna have chat GPT for whales. Serious people are genuinely trying to make these things right now. How do we know that AI won't get there soon? The power of AI just continues to grow and grow. Every few months we see it do some new thing that we thought was impossible. What if whale GPT becomes real one day? - The desire to learn how to talk to a whale and have it talk back to you -- that's very enticing. I think there are times where the ability to communicate with a whale is really important. If it is in danger. Like, I wanna go to the ocean and drop a speaker in the water and I wanna have a conversation with the whale. AI might help me do that. But does that benefit the whale? And if it doesn't, why do it? - At the beginning of all of this, I wanted to figure out how technology might let us understand whales and talk back to them. I mean, that would be so cool. What I realized along the way is technology is absolutely changing the way we study and protect these and other species. And AI will absolutely be a part of that. I mean, it allows scientists to do things they could never do before. Study more than they ever could in a lifetime. Ch. 10 - Should we really be doing this? But when we think about how far we take that technology, what I've realized is the question isn't, can we talk to whales? It's should we? Like, so much of this time we spend trying to figure out nature, we make it about us when more of the time, we should be making it about them. Okay, I've been asking everybody this question. Let's say hypothetically, technology advances and AI allows us to decode and communicate back to whales. What would you say? - If I could talk to a whale, I'd probably say, "what pisses you off?" - I don't have a need to talk to no whale. I would prefer to leave it alone. It's a wild animal. Let it live in - Peace. Everything that I would think to say is a very human construct, like "I'm Sorry." - To be able to understand would be profound. I don't know about communicate. It's a very big question that deserves a lot of thought from many, many people. And maybe also animals need to be part of that - Deliberation. As someone who's had the privilege of sitting in a small boat with a hydrophone in the water listening to whales, it's one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I do not necessarily think that that experience is made better by making a sound myself. My hope is that we can, as a species, that we can learn to be better listeners. And I think I have great hope that being better listeners will bring us an enormous amount of joy. - When you think about it, listening is what started all of this. And maybe being better listeners, whether it's with our ears or AI, is what we need to keep fixing our ocean ecosystems from the smallest plankton, to the largest species that have ever lived. As for me, what would I say to a whale? Curious"
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Proof
Archeological history that change our view of history
Intro History is far more complicated that we would like to believe. Even in our schools today, different versions of events are being taught to students, depending on the country they’re in and how those events in history affected that country. “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,” right? Nevertheless, we also have archaeology, which sometimes helps us to better understand what happened regardless of what was written down in centuries past. And sometimes, some such discoveries turn the way we saw history right on its head. 10. Ancient Fast Food Ancient Fast Food We generally tend to think that fast food came about fairly recently, right? And it does make sense, after all, given the faster pace the world is moving nowadays as opposed to the slower ancient times. In fact, the first such shops, which were serving fish and chips, opened in Britain during the 1860s. Then, in the 1950s in the US, the drive-through restaurants became popular, and… well, you know the rest. But taking a quick snack for lunch and then hurrying on your way is not something new and has been going on since ancient times. This place was the so-called thermopolium, or “place where (something) hot is sold,” and it was a common sight all throughout the Greco-Roman world; particularly in larger towns and cities. These thermopolia are, in fact, the forerunners of all present-day restaurants. They usually consisted of a small room that opened onto the street and specialized in two or three items such as spiced wine, meats, cheese, or lentils. These establishments were quite tiny and almost never had tables for people to sit at. There was only a counter with several embedded earthenware jars called dolia where the food was stored. These places were frequented mostly by slaves or people who did not have the means or facilities to cook for themselves. And as it so happens, these thermopolia were also frequent hangouts for all sorts of shady characters. These places were even abolished on several occasions for this exact reason, since they harbored all sorts of “effeminate Greeks and thieving slaves,” as Plautus, a Roman playwright from the 3rd century BC, once said. There were, however, some fancier establishments too, with some tables inside and even some frescoes painted on the walls. One such ornate restaurant called the “Thermopolium of Asellina” was discovered in Pompeii and is one of the best preserved in the world. 9. War is Older Than We Thought War is Older Than We Thought War was commonly believed to have originated alongside the advent of civilization. This, of course, doesn’t mean that people weren’t killing each other even before that. After all, the reptilian part of the brain, which we all have and which pushes us towards things like hate, envy, aggression, dominance, and territoriality among others, was also found in people more than 10,000 years ago. This means that before the discovery of agriculture and animal husbandry, people were only able to kill each other through the occasional murder or small family skirmishes. But after people began settling down and growing in number, more organized and coordinated forms of battle were invented; things like raids or wars, for instance. The fact that structured hierarchies and slavery also appeared during this time also helped wars along. Nevertheless, an archaeological discovery made in 2012 in Kenya seems to indicate that small scale wars were also taking place even before agriculture appeared there. On the banks of the Lake Turkana, archaeologists came across 27 skeletons dating back to somewhere in between 9,500 to 10,500 years ago. These skeletons once belonged to men, women, and children which archeologists believe were members of a semi-nomadic tribe that settled close to the lake. All of the skeletons showed signs of blunt force trauma or wounds from projectile weapons. One of the women had both of her knees shattered and showed signs that her hands were bound when she died. Who attacked them, or what really happened is not known, but no other massacre on this scale has ever been discovered from so long ago. 8. Europeans and America Europeans and America Christopher Columbus and his men are no longer believed to be the first Europeans to discover the American continent. Today it is fairly common knowledge that Leif Ericsson, an Icelandic Viking explorer, was the first European to come across to North America when he was blown off course on his way to Greenland from Norway almost 500 years before Columbus. In the Saga of the Greenlanders which talks about Leif Ericsson and his travels to Vinland, present-day Newfoundland, there is mention of a Bjarni Herjólfsson, who also made it to a land west of Greenland when he too was blown off course by the wind, even before Leif Ericsson himself. But whatever the case may be here, some newer archaeological evidence points to the fact that the Europeans made it to North America even before Europe had a name, or at least the name of “Europe.” Several dozen stone tools have been found along the East Coast in six distinct locations. One in Pennsylvania, three from the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland, one in Virginia, and another one was discovered by a scallop trawler some 60 miles off the Virginian coast. All of these tools bear a striking resemblance to the stone tools used by the prehistoric Solutrean tribes from present-day western France and northern Spain. What’s more, all of them were dated somewhere in between 19,000 to 26,000 years ago. Because of this time period, most archaeologists have rejected the idea of being just a simple case of coincidence based on the too-similar design. Furthermore, one of the stone knives discovered in Virginia revealed under chemical analysis that it actually originated in France. The reason for the relatively small number of tools found on the East Coast dating from that period also explains how those Stone Age Europeans got to America in the first place. Back in those times, the planet was going through an Ice Age, and like the Native Americans who crossed into America from Asia over the Bering land bridge, so did these Solutreans cross over what is now the north Atlantic, Iceland, and Greenland. As shown by that knife found by the scallop trawler 60 miles off the coast of Virginia, the sea level was far lower than it is today. And since these people stayed mostly around the coast, many of their tools are also underwater. Another archaeological discovery that places Europeans in North America longer ago than previously believed is an 8,000-year-old skeleton found in Florida. When subjected to a genetic marker test, this man’s remains revealed high levels of European markers, not found in Asians. 7. Australians and America Another archaeological discovery, this time from Brazil, points to the fact that Australians also made it to the Americas long ago. Several human skulls discovered there match the characteristics of those from places like Australia and Melanesia. Similarly, some 33 skulls found on the Baja California peninsula in Mexico also point to this theory. And according to the stone tools and charcoal discovered at the site in Brazil, these people could have inhabited the area for nearly 50,000 years. The theory is that they arrived in the Americas by boat across the Pacific. Though seemingly impossible for people from 50,000 years ago, cave paintings in Australia have shown some boats that were actually built to withstand the ocean. Moreover, in 1947 Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and a few others made it across on a balsa wood raft. Archaeologists also believe that these people died out with the appearance of the Asian peoples coming in from the north via the Bering land bridge. This is because the shape of the skulls changes from those with an Australian appearance to those with a Mongoloid appearance between 9,000 to 7,000 years ago. The only survivors could be tribes of people who lived in the Terra del Fuego region of South America. This is the southernmost tip of the continent, and the people who still live there show hybrid skull features of both mongoloid and negroid ancestry. If proven true then Native Australians could be the first Americans ever. 6. How Old is Our Friendship with Dogs? How Old is Our Friendship with Dogs? There is no debating that wolves were the first animals ever to be domesticated by humans. Even before animal husbandry became a thing, man and wolves (which then turned into dogs) were hunting together in a sort of synergy that benefited both species. But how old is this interspecies collaboration, really? Common theories place the beginning of this relationship somewhere around 15,000 to 18,000 years ago and it happened separately in both China and the Middle East. This is without a doubt far older than any other domesticated animal in the world. Dogs were well established as part of human society around 10,000 years ago, and in Germany for instance, humans and dogs were sometimes buried together as long as 14,000 years ago. But the discovery of a canine skull in the Altai Mountains in Siberia pushes this timeline by at least another 15,000 years. Radiocarbon dating has placed the skull somewhere around 33,000 years old, and its genetic markers indicate that it more closely resembled modern-day dogs than actual wolves. The similarity between modern dogs and this particular skull was also evident thanks to its shape and size. Another old canine fossil dates back to around 31,000 years ago and was discovered in Goyet Cave in Belgium. And even though its mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) indicates that it does not share its matriline with any extant wolves or dogs, its skull morphology is more similar to a dog than an actual wolf. 5. The Oldest Writing in the World Three inscribed tablets that were found in what is now present day Romania may contain the oldest writing system in the world. Each of them is about two and a half inches wide, each has markings on it, and all of them are dated back to around 5300 BC. They were found in 1961 in a ritual pit, alongside other clay and stone offerings and the bones of an elderly woman, probably a sort of priestess. The Tartaria Tablets, as they are known, are thought to have belonged to the Turdas-Vinca culture that inhabited the area during that period. But despite the importance of the discovery and what they stand to represent if proven to be the real deal, the tablets are still shrouded in some controversy. For instance, Mesopotamian experts disregard the Tartaria Tablets by saying that the symbols on them are not actually writing, but only decorations. Other experts believe that these tablets actually contain an early form of Sumerian script since some of the symbols found here are identical to pictograms found in Jemdet Nasr in Iraq. A German linguist and Mesopotamian script specialist by the name of Harald Haarmann strongly believes that the symbols on the tablets are an early form of writing. He bases his assumptions on the many other symbols that are part of the so-called Danube script found throughout the region on various other ceramic objects and which number roughly the same as the Egyptian hieroglyphs. A more recent discovery from 2009 has brought to light a Neolithic workshop that was once manufacturing clay tablets. Another 120 similar tablets were found at the site, some containing symbols similar to the ones at Tartaria. If these symbols are ever proven to be authentic and part of an actual ancient script, then the cradle of civilization could be moved from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. 4. The City of the Sun in North America The City of the Sun in North America Native Americans usually lived in tepees, right? Well, yes… at least, some of them did. But in fact, many Native North Americans lived in large cities before the arrival of the Europeans to the continent. One notable example is Cahokia, or the City of the Sun. It is located in in the state of Illinois, close where the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers merge. This area is one of the most fertile on the continent and here one Native American culture, the Mississippians, made it their home. But they didn’t just live in tepees, but rather in grand cities of some 20,000 people strong. Cahokia was at its peak between 1050 and 1200 AD, and during this time, it was bigger than any other European counterpart. And here is where this tepee misconception comes into play. It was so ingrained into white people’s imaginations that when they came across some earthen mounds in the region, they initially attributed them to retreating glaciers. When they did eventually realize that these were actually man-made, they attributed their construction to Phoenicians, Vikings, and even a lost tribe of Israel. Pretty much anyone other than the Native Americans themselves. And Cahokia is big. It spans over an area of about six square miles and had a total of 120 earth mounds. The city was carefully planned and organized, with plazas, residential areas, and elite compounds. The largest of the earth mounds found here is about 100 feet tall and contains more than 25 million cubic feet of earth, carried here in willow baskets 50 pounds at a time. Known as the Monks Mound, this is the largest earthen structure in the Western Hemisphere. Fairly little is known about the civilization that built it, however. We do know that their trade network was vast, reaching from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians and from the Great Lakes to Florida. They practiced human sacrifice and relied heavily on corn for nourishment. Today, however, only 70 of the original 120 earth mounds have survived and there is a four lane highway running right through the historic site. Cambodia's Medieval Cities 3. Cambodia’s Medieval Cities The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful in Southeast Asia, and probably in the world at the time. It existed in between 802 AD to 1431 AD and extended over what are now Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. They ruled over the region including where the temple complex of Angkor Wat is located. The temple complex itself is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia and consists of many architectural marvels besides the obvious temples found there. Back in 2012, a team of archaeologists made use of state of the art laser technology called LiDAR. This technology has the ability to see through dense vegetation and map the topography under the jungle canopy. What they discovered was amazing, to say the least. They used LiDAR again in 2015, in a project that became the most extensive airborne survey used for archaeological purposes ever. Some 734 square miles of terrain was scanned and it revealed an unimaginable network of roads, water ways, and densely populated cities, unrivaled anywhere in the world at the time. Lead archaeologist on the project Damian Evans had this to say about the discovery: “We have entire cities discovered beneath the forest that no one knew were there – at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay and, it turns out, we uncovered only a part of Mahendraparvata on Phnom Kulen [in the 2012 survey] … this time we got the whole deal and it’s big, the size of Phnom Penh big.” Phnom Penh is the current capital city of Cambodia. This survey has shown that the Khmer Empire was able to design and implement an elaborate water system on a grand scale, centuries before archaeologists believed the technology even existed. This new discovery also disproves the theory on how the Khmer Empire eventually collapsed. Up until 2015, it was believed that they were invaded from the north and people fled south. But the lack of any cities in that direction disproves this theory. In any case, Angkor is now, without a shadow of a doubt, the most extensive urban settlement in the world prior to the Industrial Revolution. This is, of course, if LiDAR technology doesn’t discover any others. 2. The Gold Crucifix of Denmark The Gold Crucifix of Denmark One beautiful afternoon in 2016, an amateur metal detector in Denmark came across a gold crucifix in a field near the town of Aunslev, Østfyn. After he posted his discovery on social media, some people advised him to take it to a local museum, which he did. Here, the curator dated the Birka crucifix to somewhere in the first half of the 10th century AD. It is made out of finely articulated goldthreads and small filigree pellets, and has a loop through which a chain once went. What is really interesting about this find is that it’s dated between 900 and 950 AD, leading historians to believe that the Danes were converted to Christianity earlier than previously believed. Prior to this discovery, the earliest representation of Jesus on a cross in Denmark came in the form of the Jelling Stones – two large rune stones dated to 965 AD, and which are located in Jutland. These stones commemorate Harald Blåtand, or Harald Bluetooth, for his role in converting the Danes to Christianity. What this tiny cross does is push back the period when these Vikings became Christians by several decades, at a minimum. The Appearance of Agriculture 1. The Appearance of Agriculture It’s a common belief that agriculture started off in what are now Armenia, eastern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Iran around 11,000 years ago. Then it spread to the rest of the Old World. And while this is still true, new archaeological evidence shows that agriculture actually developed in two distinct parts of this particular region, known as the Fertile Crescent, and each then spread to different parts of the world independently. Genetic evidence has proven that there are stark differences between people living in the southern Levant, like Israel and Jordan, and those from across the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. Each of these groups of people developed their own style of agriculture and animal husbandry, favoring different plants and animals for domestication. They lived in complete isolation from each other for centuries or even millennia before they actually met. And it is believed that they only came in contact in eastern Turkey when both groups were in search of obsidian needed for all sorts of tools. It’s also believed that these people met, intermingled, exchanged agricultural techniques and ideas, and then migrated westward into Europe. Those who remained behind, however, went their own separate ways, spreading their distinct forms of agriculture to other parts of the world. Those living in the southern Levant eventually travelled to East Africa, going through present-day Egypt and down the Nile and the Red Sea coast, while those living in western Iran made their way north into the Eurasian steppe and then eastward into present day India and Pakistan. While this discovery doesn’t seem like much given that both of these populations emerged from the Fertile Crescent region, it does change our perspective of how history and the start of civilization actually played out.
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in History
Alima heartbreaking story
in the bustling city of Karachi where the seab breeze mingles with the scent of street food and the sound of honking cars lived a young woman named Alinda she was the Talk of the Town known for her striking Beauty and her sharp intellect her deep Cal lined eyes seemed to draw people in and her Flawless skin glowed with a Radiance that made heads turn wherever she went Alina was well aware of her beauty and she wielded it like a weapon using it to get what she wanted Alena came from a well-off family and her parents had always doted on her they provided her with the best education the most fashionable clothes and everything she could ever ask for but despy their efforts to raise her with strong values Alina's vanity began to consume her as she grew older she became obsessed with her appearance spending hours in front of the mirror perfecting her look she followed the latest fashion trends always making sure she was dressed in the most stylish and revealing outfits as elina's Beauty became more pronounced so did her arrogance she had little regard for those around her often dismissing people she deemed beneath her boys flocked to her each hoping to win her heart but Alina treated them all with disdain she enjoyed the power she held over them knowing that they would do anything for just a smile from her one of these boys was zann a quiet and humble young man who had admired Alina from afar unlike the others Zion was not attracted to Elena's beauty alone he saw something deeper in her a potential for kindness and warmth that she had buried beneath her Pride Zion was a devout Muslim and he often prayed for Alina hoping that she would one day find her way back to the path of righteousness one day mustering all his courage Zion decided to approach Alina he found her sitting alone in a cafe sipping on a latte and scrolling through her phone Z hesitated for a moment moment but then he walked over to her table Alina he began his voice soft but steady may I talk to you for a moment Alina looked up from her phone her perfectly shaped eyebrows arching in Surprise she knew Zion everyone in the neighborhood did he was known for his piety and His Kind nature but Alina had never paid much attention to him she waved a hand gesturing for him to sit down more out of curiosity than anything else what is it Zane she asked her tone indifferent Zayn took a deep breath I've been watching you for a long time Alina you're beautiful no doubt about that but there's more to life than Beauty I've seen how you treat people how you let your pride dictate your actions I think you're better than that I believe you have the potential to be truly great if you choose to follow the right path the path that Allah has laid out for us Alina stared at him stunned into silence for a moment then she laughed a short mocking laugh that made Zion's heart sink you think you can preach to me Zion you who spends your time praying and helping others while I live my life the way I want I don't need your advice or your pity I'm happy with who I am Zion's face remained calm though his heart achd at her words I'm not here to judge you Alina I'm just offering you a chance to see things differently true happiness comes from within from knowing that you're living a life that pleases Allah Alina's expression hardened you can save your sermon for someone who cares zahen I don't need them she stood up grabbing her purse and walked out of the cafe without another word as the days passed Alina's life continued as it always had she basked in the attention she received flaunting her beauty and reveling in her popularity But as time went on something began to change Alina started to feel a strange sense of emptiness a hollow feeling that she couldn't shake no matter how much she tried to ignore it the feeling persisted gnawing at her whenever she was alone then one evening as she was getting ready for a party Alina noticed something unusual in the mirror her skin once Flawless had developed a small rash on her cheek dismissing it as nothing serious she covered it up with makeup and went on with her night but over the next few days the rash spread becoming more prominent and harder to conceal Alina visited several doctors but none could identify the cause of her condition the rash soon turned into painful sores that marred her once perfect face desperate Alina sought out every possible remedy from traditional medicines to expensive treatments but nothing worked her beauty the one thing she had always prided herself on was slipping away and there was nothing she could do to stop it as her condition worsened Alina began to withdraw from the public eye the parties the outings the attention all of it faded as she isolated herself in her home too ashamed to face the world the boys who had once admired her were nowhere to be found and her so-called friends slowly drifted away the only person who still came to see her was Zen who visited regularly bringing her food and offering her words of comfort one evening as Zayn Sat by her bedside Alina finally broke down why is this happening to me Zen what did I do to deserve this she sobbed tears streaming down her face Zion gently wiped away her tears Alina this is not a punishment it's a test a test of your faith your character and your strength Allah is giving you a chance to reflect on your life to repent and to find the path that leads to true peace Alina looked at him her eyes filled with regret I was so proud of my beauty Zen I thought it made me special better than everyone else but now now I see how wrong I was Z nodded beauty is a gift from Allah but it's not meant to be used to hurt others or to elevate ourselves above them true beauty lies in our Deeds our kindness and our humility Alina began to pray something she hadn't done in years she sought forgiveness for her arrogance for the way she had treated others and for neglecting her faith as she prayed she felt a sense of peace that she had never known before a calmness that eased her troubled heart but elina's illness did not relent her condition continued to deteriorate and soon it became clear that she wouldn't recover as her time grew near Alina found solace in her prayers and in the presence of zann who remained by her side until the end when Alina finally passed away her family and the community were deeply saddened despite her faults they prayed for her soul hoping that Allah would show her mercy but when her body was taken to the cemetery for burial something strange happened as the grave was dug a swarm of insects emerged from the ground Buzz buzzing and crawling in such numbers that it was impossible to proceed the people were horrified unsure of what to do every time they tried to dig a new Grave the same thing occurred more insects more disruptions it was as if the Earth itself was rejecting her a final judgment on the life she had led in the end they had no choice but to bury Alina in the original grave amid the swarming insects the event sent shock waves through the community serving as a grim reminder of the consequences of living a life of vanity and neglecting one's duties to Allah Alina's story became a warning a tale passed down to teach others the importance of humility kindness and Faith the beauty she had once treasured above all else had faded leaving behind only the memory of a woman who had learned too late that true worth is not found in appearance but in the content of one's heart and soul and so Alina's Journey came to an end but the lessons it carried continued to resonate reminding all who heard it of the fleeting nature of worldly Beauty and the Eternal importance of living a righteous life
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in History
The three strangest border on earth
Intro - I want to show you three borders that are very peculiar. Here they are. (dramatic music) One, two and three. And not just because they look weird on a map, but because of how they look in real life. (dramatic music) Us map nerds love looking at things that look weird on a map. Like this town that is cut up by a bunch of Dutch and Belgian enclaves. Looks really weird on a map, but in reality, the people living here aren't deeply affected right now by these strange borders. I'm interested in borders that look interesting on a map and that are connected to real world things, real people. There are a lot of these out there, trust me, but there are three in particular that I want to talk about today. Three borders that blow my mind and that help us learn about how far countries will go to control land and water, so let's do this. - [Announcer] ISIS continues to lose ground in Syria. - [Reporter] Artificial islands under construction could become military bases. - [Australian Reporter] Deal reached makes the US the only Western country to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. (dramatic music) Morocco - [Johnny] The first border is the Moroccan Berm Wall. Morocco is this country in Northern Africa that claims all of this land, but if you look at Google Maps, you'll see this dashed line and that there's another country underneath it that isn't Morocco, it's Western Sahara. This dash line is not the border I want to talk about, but let me explain. The line is dashed because Morocco doesn't want all of this to be a country, doesn't want these people to have independence. Morocco thinks it's theirs, so since 1975 when Spain left this land, Morocco has been fighting to keep the people down here from controlling the land. They took this pretty far. In the 1980s, when they got out the bulldozers and started building a wall, and after a decade of digging, they created the border that I want to talk about. This is what it looks like on a map. - [Reporter] You know Morocco's-- - [Annoucer] Build a wall-- - [Reporter] To 1700 mile Berm in occupied Western Sahara. - [Johnny] It is a nearly 3000 kilometer wall of sand and dirt. I mean, that's a huge, huge wall. This wall is meant to keep the local people who want Western Sahara to be a free and independent country on this side of the line and allows Morocco to occupy the other 80% of what would be Western Sahara, and that 80%, by the way, is the more resource rich part of the country, and it is not just a wall. It is a bunch of Moroccan troops who load it up with weaponry, radar, and underground bunkers. Oh, and landmines. Tons and tons of landmines. (dramatic music) This is widely accepted as the longest landmine field on earth. (dramatic music) When I was in Morocco, I learned that it is literally illegal to show a map that contains this border or anything that is not this. Many countries don't recognize Morocco's claim to all of this land. In fact, the United States didn't recognize the claim until last year when the Trump administration said that they would recognize it in exchange for Morocco becoming friends with Israel again. Sort of a weird love triangle. It's just, it's so weird how this stuff works. It's like, you're not real, but if you like my friend, you're real now. Meanwhile, the people who live here in this little strip, they run their own country, but it's under the militant eye of the Moroccan military who patrol this wall to keep them out of the rest of their country. These locals have been in a decades long struggle to fight for the day when they can break down this sand barrier and actually build their own country. But the powers that be aren't letting that happen anytime soon. Syria Okay, okay, so that is the Moroccan Berm Wall, 3000 kilometers of sand and dirt. Crazy. Next up, let's go over to Syria. (dramatic music) Sometimes borders can embody history, religion, energy, dictators, and modern day guerrilla warfare all in one, and that's what's happening over here in Syria. (dramatic music) Okay, wait, before we get into this, we need to pause and I need to thank today's sponsor who allows me to make these videos. Thank you NordVPN for sponsoring this video. Okay, so if you don't know what a VPN is, it is a thing that allows you to connect to a secure server sometimes outside of your country so that you can browse the internet anonymously and securely and from whatever country you want. I use this all of the time, especially when I'm traveling. NordVPN is like an industry leader in the VPN space. They have a very good product that allows you to go in, choose the country you want to connect from, and quickly have a secure, anonymous connection to the internet. You can connect up to six devices and on every major platform, Windows, Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, et cetera. You could even do this on like an Android TV. I use Nord VPN for two reasons. Number one is because when I'm traveling, I'm often connecting to a wifi router inside of like a coffee shop or like a public area. With a VPN, you can do this more securely, and when I'm traveling my computer kind of freaks out and thinks that like, I'm someone else so I get kicked out of my Gmail, I can't watch like the Netflix shows I'm used to. With NordVPN, I can just connect to an American server, and now, as far as my computer knows, I'm still in the US. I have access to all my favorite content. I can choose from over 5,000 servers in 60 different countries and all of this is lightning fast so you don't notice any difference. It is an incredibly helpful service. You don't have to take my word for it. There's a link in my description. When you go click that link, you will get a really good price on a two year plan that you can get your money back if you don't like after 30 days. Plus this comes with a huge discount, so that link is in my description. It is NordVPN.com/JohnnyHarris. Thank you NordVPN for sponsoring my video and my channel and allowing me to do this work. We are now ready to get back to the maps. Let's go to Syria. (dramatic music) Okay, so we're in this part of the world, the Middle East. We have Syria, and up here, you have Turkey. There's this one really famous guy in Turkey. He was like the grandpa of the guy who started Turkey's big empire the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, this guy may or may not have died by drowning in the Euphrates river, like right here, and so to honor him, they decided to bury him right on the banks of the Euphrates River, right here on this like really famous hill. Sort of seems like an interesting decision to bury the person like right on the banks of the river that killed them. Anyway, not my decision. They buried him on this famous hill, and this again was like a long time ago. This was back when this region was just one big empire, it was Turkey's big Ottoman Empire. But of course the Europeans wouldn't let this last for long, so they show up in the early 1900s and they cut this region up. Like they literally like divvy it up, it's like you Britain, you get this part, France, you get this part, Russia, you get this little bit up here, Italy, you get this bit over here. Like they just like cut the lines up. It's just, it's madness, and eventually France took their little plot of the Middle East, and like, these are now two countries. We have Turkey up here and we have Syria down here, and they drew this line separating these two countries. "Wait, wait, wait," said the new Turkey, "The tomb of our really important guy is like now in the new Syria," and France was like, we're not going to redraw the line so like Turkey, you can control this little circle of land where the tomb is. That little bit of land is officially Turkey, but we're not going to redraw the whole line. Turkey was like, sweet, that works. So it's the 1920s and Turkey looks like this, plus this little tiny dot in Syria where the tomb of Suleyman is, and like Turkish guards could be there and guard the tomb, and it was fine. Fast forward 50 years and things are going fine at the tomb. Syria is now run by this dictator, and he's like, Hey, we want to build a dam right here on the Euphrates. You know, hydro electricity. But then Turkey freaks out because all they see in all of this is a dam that is going to fill this whole valley full of water, this valley where the hill is where their guy is buried is gonna be underwater soon and their special grave could soon be totally destroyed. So what did they do? They move the grave. Meaning they move their little bit of sovereignty from right here all the way up here, 85 kilometers north, still inside Syria. Why didn't they just move it into Turkey? So this border, this little conclave of Turkey just moved up. Okay, so now it has a new location. It doesn't stop there, so the dam is built, the tomb is safe, there is now a lake called Lake Assad after the dictator. Fast forward another half century, and now the dictator's son is in power, and guess what's happening in Syria? - The Islamic state Now controls more than half of Syrian territory. This morning that includes some of the most important cultural treasures. - The ISIS fighters has now entered the archeological ruins. - We're talking the capital of ISIS. - ISIS took over a lot of Syria in 2014 and 2015, including where the new Turkish tomb was, where this little speck of Turkey was, and if you don't know anything about ISIS, you should know that in addition to being awful in every way, they also love to destroy sacred old things. - This morning ISIS claimed to have destroyed priceless pieces of history. - [Reporter] What they didn't blow up with explosives, they literally tore apart by hand. - So Turkey is freaking out now. They're like, dude, ISIS is going to destroy the tomb, so they moved it again. This time, right up to the Turkish border, still in Syria though, but like within a few hundred meters of the border. So now you have Turkey, Syria, and a little bit of Turkey in Syria. There's this clip of the prime minister of Turkey visiting the newly moved tomb. He prays to it and then as he walks out, you get a little reminder that this dot on the map is still a border. It still has borders. These fences separate this prime minister from Turkish sovereign territory on one side, and then a fence, and then Syria, where all these kids are. No, but seriously, like why didn't they move it into Turkey? Like if you're going to move it all that way for the second time, like, just move the thing into Turkey where it's not surrounded by a country that is devolving into a civil war. You know what I think it is? I think it's that Turkey is like one of the few big, powerful countries that doesn't have an exclave meaning a little island of themselves in a different country. I think they literally just want to be like, oh yeah, we have one of those. Like, we've got one of those weird things on the map. It's 200 meters off our border, but like, we have it. We can move it whenever we want, but whatever. That is how this sacred site exclave border thing moved around, and eventually it's supposed to move back to its second location, but the details are fuzzy on how that's going to happen. Okay, so that's Turkey and Syria, let's go to our final border, which has to do with the ocean. South China Sea (dramatic music) - [Reporter] China's military buildup has angered the Obama administration. - [Johnny] So we're over here in Southeast Asia, just under China. This body of water, the South China sea. This place is home to vital trade routes, tons of oil and gas, tons of fish, strategic military posts. I mean, this sea has it all, which is why everybody wants it. Look at all of these lines. These are the claims from all of these different countries on the South China sea. It's like a total nightmare, right? Okay, okay, hold on. Let's unpack all of these. First let's remember that every country that borders an ocean gets 200 nautical miles into the ocean to be their economic waters, where they can fish and mine and whatever. That's their economic waters. So that's how you get a lot of these borders. So like Vietnam by default can have all of this water. It's their exclusive economic zone, their EEZ. Malaysia's looks like this, and if you're going to claim any more water than this default EEZ, you sort of have to like justify yourself. You have to be like, we claim more than our EEZ because X, Y, and Z. So yeah, it's looking a little bit messy, but then wait till China, the big dog in the neighborhood, swoops in and says the UN, Shmoo-N, I'm not into the UN and whatever. We've been here for like 5,000 years on these waters. Our claim to this ocean is this. Like, they literally didn't do any sort of scientific claim here. It was literally guy with map draws a dashed line through 90% of the South China sea, and is like, this is China's. And everyone's like, whoa, how, how does that make sense? And they're like, 'cause we're freaking China. And everyone's like, okay? And that is how you get this, a total mess of lines, and it's not just in the water. There are islands down here. Like this set of islands down here is claimed by like five countries. So yeah, there's international law for this stuff, but in reality, it's a total free for all, and guess who's winning in the free for all. You guessed it. Chinas Plan (dramatic music) China's not waiting for a diplomatic solution here. What they do instead is just like show up to these islands and build military bases and landing strips, but then there's big parts of this body of water that have no islands so what does China do? They show up and dig up a bunch of sand from under the ocean and build islands and then build military bases and landing strips. Like, look at these boats. These boats are making islands. They've created 1300 acres worth of new land in the South China Sea. - [Announcer] Overall China is adding to its islands at the rate of at least three and a half acres a day. - And they populate it with military assets. Okay so that's what it looks like on a map. It's wild. So as always, we have the lines on the map that look a certain way, but then the facts on the ground often say something totally different. This whole sea is controlled by China. In addition to building islands, they also will chase down fishermen from like the Philippines and Vietnam who are fishing in their own waters, totally legal, and they will show up and just attack them. They'll capture them, they'll intimidate them, and they'll make sure that they know who's boss, and no one can really do anything about it. So all these lines can look all complicated, but in reality, it's pretty simple what it should look like.
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Earth
Chinese Traditional Marriage
if you ever been to a Western wedding it usually involves a beautiful dress cake lots of dancing but if you ever been to a Chinese wedding they are quite different and of course Chinese wedding customs will vary according to the family's ethnicity and what part of China they're from but there are some similarities so here are some of the common things you'll find in Chinese weddings number one wedding Common things in Chinese weddings decorations the two families to decorate the bridal house in the reception site for the upcoming wedding ceremony lots of lively colors red in particular is used in Chinese wedding decoration red banners used for wedding is called happiness manners which is an essential part of the wedding decorations it's decorated on both sides of the door of the newlyweds home and the reception site the Chinese writing on the banners are typically rhythmic poem appraising the adorable couple in the perfect union number 2 photos in Western weddings photos are of course taken throughout the day of the wedding and family photos are often taken after the ceremony but prior to the reception however in Chinese weddings Chinese couples usually start taking their wedding photos way before the wedding day now these photos are usually taken by a wedding studio in front of many different fake backdrops the couples will wear a range of outfits from traditional tuxedos and wedding dresses and even to ancient Emperor and Empress stress and of course everything in between in addition to these pre-wedding photos on the day of the actual wedding family and friends photo time is very important to Chinese people especially southern Chinese in which the happy couple could spend up to two hours taking photos with family and friends in all sorts of combinations you know bride and groom and bride's parents bride and groom's and groom's parents both parents both parents and siblings both parents and friends etc etc number three overly cheesy videos in addition to photos let's talk about the wedding video even though most Chinese people won't eat it they love cheese how else would you explain Chinese wedding videos I mean come on you've seen Chinese music videos before right that thing just oozes cheddar Chinese wedding videos are no different many couples choose to film a TV type of video that is designed to make you cringe while watching it in addition to that video on the wedding day many Chinese couples will take a few hours with the videographer to film themselves in a variety of Titanic s composes usually in the local park if you don't believe me just go to central park any sunday afternoon around 2 o'clock number 4 crazy door games now this one is fun but can sometimes be very painful for the men door games originated from ancient times which implies that the bride is a lovely girl and her family and friends do not want to marry her away nowadays these door games are set up by the ladies to torment the groom and his groomsmen and if you're thinking of fun loving games like fun trivia or forcing the groom to profess his love in front of everyone then you're not wrong but often Chinese people take this to a whole new level so yes there are trivia questions asked to the groom about the bride and the relationship but if he gets it wrong sometimes yes Toledo will sabi sandwich or drink a soy sauce coat if you're wondering one of wasabi sandwiches just imagine two thin slices of seaweed and a big chunk of wasabi in the middle and I don't think I need to describe to you what a soy sauce coke is number five goat and money in the West weddings typically cost newlyweds a significant amount of money but in China the bride and groom become significantly better off financially after they get married especially nowadays where wedding dowry skus traditionally the bride and groom will receive gold rings bracelets earrings and necklaces from their family and friends and a whole lot of cash Chinese couples won't be registered at the local Target or Macy's the only gift to give a Chinese couple is money and guests will bring the cash stuffed in red envelopes or home ball nowadays as more and more Chinese are becoming increasingly wealthy wedding gifts are growing as well for example one father in Fujian China was reported to have given his daughter checked this out over 200 million dollars in the form of cars villas and stock in their family company number 6 I like this one the tea ceremony then moving on to the official ritual of the Chinese wedding which equals the wedding vows in a western wedding the new the weds kneel three times to heaven and earth to the ancestral tablets and their parents then to each other the kneeling part has been replaced now with bowing in modern Chinese wedding times the bride then presents tea to the parents and relatives in sequence of seniority those who receive the tea usually gives the bride and groom yep you probably guessed it more gold and money number Changing of the dresses seven changing of the dresses the color red is considered good luck a strong color that can drive away evil spirits the traditional Chinese wedding dress in northern China usually is a one-piece dress called a cheap Hall embroidered with elaborate gold and silver designs prized from southern China usually wear a two-piece dress also elaborately adorned with golden Phoenix and Dragon in the old days a piece of red veil as part of the bride's costume to cover her face during the wedding ceremony sometimes it is an arranged marriage the bride wouldn't show her face until the wedding night when the groom unveils the veil and that's when they see each other for the first time anyway in modern Chinese weddings the bride changes dresses at least three times on the wedding day she would start with western-style white wedding gown for a charge or civil ceremony then at the tea ceremony she would change to traditional Chinese bridal dress which she will wear to the reception as well before the end of the banquet she would change into a cocktail dress and greet the guests and then see them off at the door thus this dress is also called some cook dress or seat the guests off dress number 8 food food and of course more food in western weddings you usually have to tell the bride and groom if you want the chicken or the fish and you get a piece of a wedding cake after but at Chinese weddings the food is meant to put you into a food coma right thin in there there is a Chinese saying should transfer me which literally means 10 complete and beautiful and that basically means something is complete and perfect that's why the tables at Chinese weddings will see 10 guests and they are usually 10 courses for the banquet as well some types of food are we served at the Chinese wedding banquet which includes fish roast suckling Peggy yup pigeon chicken cooked with red oil lobster and desert bun with lotus seed stuffed inside the pronunciation of fish is the same as abundance meaning the newlyweds will have plenty of wealth roast suckling pig is usually served whole fidgets usually implies a peaceful future chicken also means phoenix cooked in red oil to symbolize the wish for a prosperous life ahead for the newlyweds lobster is literally called dragon shrimp in Chinese now having lobster and chicken at a Chinese banquet means that the dragon and Phoenix are harmonious together and the yin and the young elements this family is balanced man my Chinese weddings are just so much more poetic the Western weddings yeah and the food is better as well okay I have to say I've been to some Chinese weddings and the food was not good and there was ten courses I know which one you're talking about they went the cheaper route but I'm just saying usually it's pretty good you go to a guy's banquet hall it's very good I haven't experienced that now a lot of you guys have you been watching us you know that Mike and I have been to a lot of weddings um we both use a sh wedding oh we did um I I just have a bunch of friends that get married all the time yeah one year I think I was best man at five weddings that's a record yeah that is a record let me tell you guys something the Western way to prepare lobster I think is boring you steam it or you boil it come on bake it if those others right Corinne Chinese will cook it in black bean sauce scallions or oh no there's there's a way the cookie might might not seem good but it's delicious just a bacon with cheese I never heard of that before hmm well some good I just I liked of course yeah and you know you you I like of course you saute it she turn Scalia yeah but I've been to one Chinese wedding with you I didn't think the food was like that spectacular well you've been to one you got up come higher they're not all the same alright does anything amount of money but that's one thing that is very different right because Chinese people make a lot of money on weddings exactly a Westerners action base spend a lot of money and also the funny thing is like you said like what my Western friends get married of course like I go to where they register yeah but you said I've never seen so much the holder like ok this might sound weird you know if people were gonna rob a bank I'd be like don't rub thanks Robert Chinese wedding don't do that but I'm saying there's so much newer secret gold and jewelry of any Chinese wedding gets robbed it's your fault I don't understand why they don't have security outside of a Chinese wedding I really don't because there's so much money in there and I'm surprised like that when they do the tea ceremony like the bride doesn't burn people more often because nowadays not a lot of people just know how to make tea like especially the young people like the feel they don't ceremony really make goods he in those ceremonies they just use whatever you don't think they're they're like trying to do that tea not that I think but that's what you're supposed to do that's not what's gonna put in ancient times like they do the real tea ceremony well this is much different from that ancient times they also don't give away two hundred million dollars well maybe they did but they don't give away you know a Porsche and this point data point it's girl it's great stuff all right guys hope you learn something from this video let us
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Marriage
types of African traditional marriage practices . AI-Generated.
Intro [Music] the african society is a diverse one with different cultures and traditions marriage is an important part of african societies it has its own set of traditions that are followed and practiced these practices often times have deeper meanings and significance welcome to afro in today's video we'll explore some of the most common and unique microtraditions performed in africa shall we begin Knocking the introduction asking for a girl's hand in marriage is pretty much a common practice around the world and it is no different for most african cultures but it does come with a little twist for some ethnic groups in ghana this is known as which literally translates us knocking the groom together with his family on a special pre-arranged night knocks on the door of the bride's house once they are let in the prison gives such as wine and colanders to the bride's family they then announce their intentions and discuss the prospects of joining the two families through marriage if everything goes well the bride comes to give her final consent which most of the time is a yes various african communities have different ways of performing the knocking ceremony in nigeria the yoruba calls it this which literally means no me let me know you yagikuyu community in kenya call said this tell us how this is called in your country Engagement Ceremony [Music] in most african societies is a union between families not just two individuals that's why an engagement ceremony which is basically a diary payment ceremony is very important [Music] red prize remains a crucial part of african marriages in the past bread prize was a guarantee that the bride is ready to tear rubber for the first time it was also a way for the group to demonstrate that he will be a good provider who will take care of the bride the ceremony differs slightly from country to country in burkina faso the muaga tribe calls it this on this day the groom's family goes to the bryce family to offer the negotiated bread price this can be in the form of livestock cereals kitchen utensils or clothes each community in africa has its own way of celebrating the engagement ceremony in kenya the yagi kuyu community core said while in south africa the zulus call it [Music] Submission marital submission just like in the christian faith several african communities teach for submission to one's husband that's why it is a common practice in many african societies to see a bride kneeling before her husband during an african wedding or engagement ceremony in burkina faso during the traditional engagement ceremony bryce from the mossie or the muga ethnic group are given a drink by their younger cousins the bride is supposed to taste the drink first before offering it to her husband on her knees as similarly shown in this nigerian one [Music] All Hail the Queen all hail the queen while every bride would like to feel like a queen on a wedding day eritrean brides actually look and dress like one crowns are placed on these african bride and groom's heads as a symbol of their new status as king and queen of their new households the priest blesses the crowns and then swap them three times between the couple to seal the union [Music] Dancing dancing at a wedding is a tradition shared across the world in fact no marriage ceremony in africa is ever complete without people getting their groove on at the reception but in the west african country of niger tamils do the dancing [Applause] Money Spray money spraying a popular african wedding tradition especially in west africa is to spread money on the bride while she dances of course only notes are encouraged you can't go hurling coins at people older guys are usually the ones throwing the money but anyone can participate to show their happiness for the people it is also a basic show of flamboyance and influence and a symbol of prosperous future for the bride and groom No smiling no smiling for most couples their wedding day is the happiest day of their lives that is if they are beaming faces are anything to go by but that is not the case for these congolese brides and grooms marriage is considered a serious affair including the reception in the photo session the bride and groom are not allowed to smile if they did it would mean they are not serious about the marriage fortunately these practices died and congolese weddings these days are full of happiness and smiles Tasting of the 4 elements tasting of the four elements the euro by ethnic group also present in countries like nigeria nigerian benin have a wedding tradition called the tasting of the four elements during that ceremony the bride and groom get a literal taste of flavors that represent the distinct stages in a marriage by tasting each of these flavors the couples symbolically demonstrate that they will be able to overcome everything together which of these african married traditions are performed in your country leave us a comment down there you share with a friend on facebook what's up in twitter ask you jamie who's murphy and i'll catch you in the next video peace
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Marriage
Types of Slave Trade During the European Colonial Period
Here is a detailed overview of the types of slave trade in Africa, in approximately 800 words: The slave trade in Africa took many different forms over the centuries, with various systems of enslavement existing long before the arrival of European colonizers. While the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas is the most well-known, Africans were subjected to several other types of enslavement as well.
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in History
Forbidden . AI-Generated.
once upon a time in a far away Kingdom there lived a kind woman named Nika Nika was expecting a baby and she was very happy but there was someone who did not want her to be happy this person was Nica's husband's brother a man named aen AA abena had special powers and could see the future he looked at ncah and saw that her unborn baby would become a powerful being he did not like this and felt threatened abena went to the king and said your majesty I have seen the future Nica's baby will become a monster and destroy our kingdom the king trusted aena because he was wise and Powerful he was scared and believed what aena said the king called for Nica he told her you must leave the kingdom your baby is not welcome here Nica was heartbroken she did not understand why this was happening with tears in her eyes she packed her things and left the kingdom NCA walked and walked until she reached the forest of spirits of Vengeance it was a scary place where many spirits lived Nica was frightened but had no other place to go she built a small Hut and waited for her baby to be born one night as the moon Shone brightly Ena gave birth to a baby boy she named him Chima which means God knows NECA loved her baby very much and promised to protect him no matter what in the forest there were seven powerful Spirits they saw neca's kindness and decided to help her they gave Chima a magical staff that would protect him and guide him as he grew years passed and Chima grew into a strong and brave boy he loved his mother and the forest but he always wondered why they lived in such a lonely Place NECA told him stories of the kingdom and how one day he would understand everything Chima knew that one day he would have to face the kingdom and find out the truth about his past with the magical staff and the spirit's guidance he felt ready for the adventure that awaited him Chima grew up surrounded by the tall ancient trees of the forest of spirits of Vengeance the forest was alive with the sounds of chirping birds rustling leaves and The Whispers of the spirits every day Chima played among the trees learning from the spirits who watched over him they taught him many things about the forest and its Secrets one day while exploring a new new part of the forest Chima saw a glowing light curious he followed the light and found a beautiful shimmering pool the water was clear and sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight Chima knelt down and touched the water to his surprise the water began to swirl and form shapes who are you Chima asked amazed a soft voice replied I am the spirit of the pool I have been watching over you since you were born Chima felt a warm feeling in his heart why do you watch over me he asked because you are special Chima the spirit said you have a great Destiny one day you will bring Justice to those who wronged your mother and you Chima thought about the stories his mother had told him about the kingdom I want to help my mother he said but I don't know how the spirit of the pool smiled you have the power within you Chima the magical staff will guide you and remember you have the seven spirits to help you Chima felt stronger and more determined he thanked the spirit of the pool and went back to his mother Nika was waiting for him with a warm smile mother I met the spirit of the pool today Chima said excitedly it told me that I have a great Destiny Nika hugged her son tightly I know you do my dear dear Chima she said you are destined for greatness but remember you must always be kind and brave Chima nodded he knew his mother was right with the spirit's help and his mother's love he felt ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead one Sunny morning Chima woke up feeling different he felt stronger and more confident he picked up the magical staff the spirits had given him and went outside side the forest was peaceful and the birds were singing their sweet songs please like this video share and drop your comments while waiting for the continuation follow this page for more
By Jariatu Kallonabout a year ago in Fiction
