PRINCIPAL DON GARDNER, BD SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL GRX11 IB GRADUATION

                                     

   

Congrats to Grade X11 IB2 students on their graduation -

The empty seats await the arrival of the Grade X11 students.

1989 Tiananmen Square Protests

Meltdown (pt 1-4) The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010

Limits of Perception full documentary on Science Channel

Great TOK Website! Congrats to all who produced this fantastic resource!

http://lancastertheoryofknowledge.blogspot.in/

PHYSICS - BBC Beautiful Minds - Jocelyn Bell Burnell on Truth and Understanding

TOK ESSAY WRITING GUIDE

http://issuu.com/confusedcelt/docs/tok_essay_writing_guide

PLATO - Allegory of the Cave(animated)

Pakistan -Doctor jailed for helping CiA Osama Bin Laden search

                                           Has anyone been jailed for helping Bin Laden live in Pakistan for many years?

A good example of the conspiracy mentality! 500,000 hits - why?

BBC - Can ultra-orthodox Jews live with the web?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18155404

"THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: BEYOND CONSPIRACY" (ABC-TV)(PART 1)

History AOK -1964 LBJ and Vietnam- HBO Path to War (2002) - How President Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam

A weary President Johnson listens to two advisers offer completely opposite courses of action in 1965. The first speaker is Clark Clifford who argues that Johnson should withdraw as Vietnam is not a strategic issue for the USA and escalation of the war will lead to disaster. The alternate view is offered by Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara. He warns the President that if the USA does not support South Vietnam against the communist forces of Ho Chi Mihh and North Vietnam (armed by China and Russia) then America will lose credibility and communism will spread throughout Asia, country after country will fall (the 'domino theory'). It is one of the ironies of history that McNamara had opposed the Joint Chiefs during the Cuban Missile Crisis but that he became more 'hawkish' during the Vietnam war. Another irony is that Clark Clifford succeeded McNamara as Secretary for Defence in January 1968, Johnson's last year as President. Clifford essentially continued the official policy, by that time America was bogged down in Vietnam, more and more young men being sent there in the vain hope of a victory over the Vietnamese. That victory had eluded the French colonists in the 1950s and eluded the USA until its undignified retreat in the 1970s.

Ivy League Online Courses Free - watch a report on BBC Click programme

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/default.stm

BBC Panorama: Daylight Robbery CORRUPTION IN US WAR IRAQ

In "Chocolate's Child Slaves," CNN's David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/

Holocaust Survivors-The Last Days (Steven Speilberg,Shoah,1998)[1Maven].avi

                                                I post this in memory of all those who suffered and to expose the false holocaust deniers.

INSIDE 9/11 : ZERO HOUR (PART 1 of 4) National Geographic. -SHOCKING BUT EXCELLENT.

                                                Who were the hijackers on September 11th 2001? What do you know about the attack on the WTC in 1993 and how significant is that in understanding the 2001 attacks?
The possibility of real conspiracies cannot be ignored.                                       

However, as in all knowledge claims we must weigh the evidence of claims and counterclaims in our search for the truth.                                                               

 Conspiracy theories flourish on the internet. However, critical thinkers must look at the evidence, look at the sources of these conspiracy claims. "Loose Change" and the so called "911 Truth Movement" are excellent examples of confirmation bias. Many in the Arab World echo these American theories rather than accept that people from their community committed mass murder.

Conspiracy theorists ignore vital questions.
Where is Mohammed Atta? Are his former teachers in a Hamburg College also part of the 'government cover-up'? How sad that this nonsense has spread around the internet.
 His father, a lawyer in Cairo initially denied that his son could have been involved but in subsequent interviews sought to justify the attacks.     If Arab extremists did not commit the attacks where is Mohammed Atta? Where are the other hijackers? Did all the people in the flight schools lie? Did the the staff in air traffic control lie?                                                                     

 The Conspiracy theorists take quotations out of context or  edit interviews to manipulate snippets out of context. The psychological basis of these theories may be a mixture of many factors. The desire for notoriety, the refusal to accept that horrible events may be caused by relatively minor individuals. The public assassination of JFK by the nerdy Lee Harvey Oswald, the murders in New York, masterminded by an extremist in a cave in Afghanistan. The death of Princess Diana in a horrible accident is so shocking that some people prefer to claim that she was murdered by her own government. 

Why? Because as T.S. Eliot wrote:

"Humankind cannot bear too much reality."       

Tragic events provoke a sense of outrage, incomprehension and unfairness in many people.        

Conspiracy theories offer a neat explanation of sinister elites who rule the world and conspiracy theorists become imbued with a mission to spread their version of the 'truth'.                                                                                  

 Serious thinkers always follow the evidence and when it conflicts look at the sources and the authority and academic qualifications of those sources. For further aspects, students might look at the "Moon Landing Hoax" influenced by the Hollywood film "Capricorn One". In the 1950s Hollywood films fueled the UFO sightings across the USA. At the very least, the ability of the conspiracy theorists to broadcast their views is a sign that democracy works. Freedom of speech is protected, even when the views expressed are not supported by the facts.
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Inside the Hamburg Cell - BBC documentary on Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian overseas college student in Hamburg, Germany. If the 911 Conspiracy theories are correct, are the German teachers here also lying about their student? The official version of 911 tells us that he moved to America and studied flying at a small flight school. Are the instructors there also lying? Finally, if he was not a terrorist pilot on September 11th, where is he now? You can see the father of Mohamed Atta on this video and watch his facial expression and listen to his words about America and decide for yourself what kind of political environment his son grew up in. The sad fact is that America has been beset by conspiracy theories about UFOS, Secret Communists in the US Government, the murder of President Kennedy by rogue elements in his own government, the UN as some kind of secret world government and critical thinking is often suspended. The 911 Conspiracy Film "Loose Change" fits into this pattern of paranoia. Watch this BBC documentary and decide for yourself who really carried out 911. Part of the resistance in America to facing this awful truth, may have been the belief that a superpower like America could not be infiltrated by a bunch of young Arabs who then outwitted the government. The reality is that hijackers had always landed planes in the past and negotiated for demands - release of other terrorists etc So even when it became clear that the planes were hijacked, no one in the government could have predicted that the terrorists would crash them into buildings as a form of mass terror. This group had no intention of landing, they only needed the skills to fly the planes into the Twin Towers and other buildings and they hoped that the American economy would crash. They did not need to know how to take off or how to land to complete their mission of death and destruction.

BBC 911: The Conspiracy Files - THE BEST DOCUMENTARY ON 911. WATCH THIS AND SEND TO YOUR FRIENDS.

                                                It seems that many teenagers who were very young in 2001 have been influenced by the slick conspiracy film "Loose Change". The IB promotes critical thinking but millions of people watch "Loose Change" on the internet and then simply conclude that they 'know' what really happened. The BBC has a long tradition of 'truth in the news' and I urge all readers of this blog to send this video to their friends. Even some adults who remember the JFK assassination conspiracy theories are also susceptible to these new conspiracy theories. Please watch this film, which tackles the conspiracy theories in a step by step logical fashion.
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RIGH WING CONSERVATIVE POSTER 1950S USA WARNING OF COMMUNISTS POSIONING THE WATER ( in official government led public health programmes)