WikiLeaks Vows More Revelations

WIKILEAKS plans to release another batch of 15,000 classified documents relating to the war in Afghanistan following its weekend disclosure of a ream of US army reports detailing civilian deaths and detainee abuse during the Iraq war.
The new documents would be released in the near future, according to WikiLeaks' Australian founder, Julian Assange, who said he remained committed to the public disclosure of the ''intimate details of war'' despite fierce criticism from world governments.
''We make a promise to our sources, who go through incredible risks sometimes to get us material, that we'll do justice to their efforts and get them the maximum political impact possible,'' a pale and weary-looking Mr Assange told journalists in London.
Advertisement: Story continues below
His pledge came as US and Iraqi officials sought to downplay the significance of the disclosure of almost 400,000 battlefield reports by US soldiers known as ''Sigacts'' - military jargon for reports of significant activity - which have shed new light on the Iraq war's civilian toll.
The revelations prompted a call by the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak, for the US to investigate whether its troops were implicated in any of the incidents detailed.
He said the US had a moral duty to consider the matters even if the alleged violations pre-dated the current government.
''President Obama also has an obligation … to probe whenever there are credible allegations torture has happened - and these allegations are more than credible - and then it is up to the courts.''
However, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, mired in a stalemate with his political rivals since parliamentary elections last March, has dismissed the records as a politically timed smear and a series of ''media games and bubbles''.
''These are all just fakes from the internet and Photoshop,'' said Hassan al-Sneid, a leader of Mr Maliki's coalition.
His opponents said the report supported their claims that Mr Maliki and his State of Law party had used state forces for nefarious ends.
''For years we have been talking about the armed groups that are working under the name of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence that have direct connections with some leaders in the government,'' said Maysoon al-Damluji, a spokeswoman for Iraqiya, the secular bloc that finished first in Iraq's March 7 elections, slightly ahead of State of Law.
The Pentagon, while deploring the release of the documents, has not challenged their authenticity.
The massive cache details thousands of civilian deaths, including hundreds killed at checkpoints manned by US soldiers. The logs showed there were more than 109,000 violent deaths between 2004 and the end of 2009: more than 66,000 civilians, 24,000 people classed as ''enemy'', 15,196 members of the Iraqi security forces and 3771 coalition troops.
Iraq Body Count, a British group that has tracked the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the war started in March 2003, said it had analysed the information and found 15,000 previously unreported deaths.
Mr Obama, on a campaign sweep of western states ahead of next week's mid-term congressional elections, has not addressed the issue in any depth, while in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a pro forma response, condemning the disclosure of any classified information that threatened national security, or put at risk the lives of coalition forces or civilians.
The disclosure was ''shameful'' and something that could ''undermine our nation's security'', according to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
The Pentagon had also issued the results of a recent Associated Press survey showing that Americans had more confidence in the US military than they had in banks, the media, public schools and organised religion.

Two things before the holidays.

Here is an article about the Koran, its teachings and its relationship to Judaism and Christianity. Great article for anyone interested

The Meaning of the Koran

And here is the funniest youtube vid i've seen in ages:



Have a great Spring Break guys. See you next term.

The Power of Music

An update on the required work for successful completion of English this term:

- Two short writing tasks (most of you have submitted these)

- Three Common Place Diary entries.

- Class work and one writing task on the novel, Holes.

Now here is an extraordinary video interview about the power of music.

Building becomes canvas

Building becomes canvas as part of a projection festival in Russia.

A Mosque in Manhattan

For anyone making Common Place entries on the issues faced by Islam in the Western world, this clip is excellent:

Ban the burka?

This issue was raging in the French media last year, and then became a topic for debate in Australia earlier this year. Should the burka be banned in Western countries? Here is an example of a commonplace journal entry:

Article title: Burkas not welcome in France: Sarkozy, date: June, 22, 2009


For: Sarkozy, French politicians, Western women's rights groups.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy claims that the burka is "a symbol of subjugation" (subjugation - tobring under control; to make submissive). Sarkozy's claim that wearing the burka undermines French secularism and women's rights received support from some politicians. In response to "pro-choice" perspectives, Sarkozy argues that "civil servants must not wear any outward sign of their religion, whether they are Catholics, Jewish, Orthodox, Protestant or Muslim." Women can wear headscarves as long as it their decision to do so.

Against: French Council for the Muslim Religion, Barack Obama:
Mohammed Moussaoui has called the banning of the burka a way of "stigmatising Islam and the Muslims of France" (stigmatise - to brand or mark in a negative way). There are several thousand Islamic women who wear the burka living in France today. American president Barack Obama has defended Muslim women's choice to wear the headscarf if they want to. French politicians have been accused of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.

Kiwi

Isn't this fantastic...



And an excellent archive of material, video, audio and advice on how to make a digital story:
http://generator.acmi.net.au/

While my guitar is gently personified

I couldn't help myself. If you discover other examples of Personification, please shoot me an email. I will post them here.

Okay so we are nearly half way through term 3. Term 3! That is crazy talk. And I want you guys to complete three writing tasks for me before we get to the end. Notice how I use the full word "three" when referring to the number of writing tasks, and the numerical "3" when referring to the term... I don't know what that means - but I'm sure it means something good.

Now... we've got to do a bit of work on the novel. There will be some class work, a few minor exercises, and one extended writing task, but let's worry about that next week. For now, I want to start having a look at different perspectives on current events. So, start collecting articles from newspapers, magazines, the internet, television... wherever.

When you find an issue interesting, the first thing to do is to briefly describe what the issue is - it could be a school issue (should the school buy a rhinoceros), a local community issue (should rhinos be allowed to start and own small businesses in Glenroy), a political issue (would a rhinoceros be a better prime minister than Julia Gillard?) or a world issue (what can be done to help prevent imminent extinction of the African rhinoceros?). Once you have done this, identify and describe two different points of view (perspectives) on the issue. Note: This is the really important part. For example, identify who thinks that a rhinoceros would be a good prime minister and why, then identify who thinks Julia Gillard would be a better prime minister and why.

Dedicate about half a page to each issue. Not much, right? Like three lines to describe what the issue is, where it is taking place and who it concerns, then no more than five lines to describe each perspective. That is sweet bugger all.

Here are a few issues to get you started:

Ex-PM Rudd to PM Gillard: "I'll Save you."

Australia's mean-spirited handling of refugees

Sense and sensibility about our fellow creatures

Plagiarism in schools in the digital age

And now lets get a different perspective

Near Space Balloon Flight, shot with HD HERO cameras from GoPro from Kevin Macko on Vimeo.

Taking a closer look

Hey guys - I often rabbit on about how big the world is and the fact that it is full of interesting stuff, but here is a little video that reminds us about the beautiful intricacy of even the most ordinary of things.


Zoom into a Tooth
Uploaded by Weird_Weird_Science. - Explore more science and tech videos.

Enjoy!

Suggested resources on Vikings

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga

The BBC

Oh... and here is that RPG. Just click on the Vikings.

Why is this so cool?

And then... there are things like this in the world...

Ferris Bueller vs Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite vs Ferris Bueller

1. Ferris Bueller and Napoleon Dynamite are both high school students with unusual names. What makes them similar? What makes them different?

2. While both films explore similar themes, there are many points of difference. How would you describe the style of each film?

3. Each film includes a climactic dance sequence – what is the purpose of this scene? Compare and contrast these two scenes.

M.I.A. - 'Born Free'

Great stuff from one of America's most in your face and interesting musical performers.

The letters of Ahmad Ibn-Fadlan

Check out these letters written by the Arabic traveller, Ahmad Ibn-Fadlan, about his experience of living amongst the Vikings in Russia, 922 AD.
http://www.sammustafa.com/Resources/Fadlan.pdf

A little evidence of what a little research can unearth on youtube... Here is an excerpt from a film about Ibn-Fadlan's time with the Vikings, starring none other than Desperado's Antonio Banderas.

What are you going to do today Napoleon?

Just so I know you have access to the Napoleon Dynamite questions...

1. Who is Napoleon Dynamite? What sort of a person is he?

2. Does Napoleon fit in with the other kids at school? What makes him different to his classmates?

3. Who are Napoleon's family and friends? Do you think he is happy at home or at school?

4. Do you think that Napoleon Dynamite is a super hero? Why?

5. If Napoleon is the hero of the film, who are the bad guys? What qualities make them bad?

There will be more questions for you to think about, disect and respond to once we have finished the film. . . 'Hey Tina, come get some ham!'

History - Vikings

Just so we all know where to find this stuff...



In today's class we discussed what we already know about Vikings while also doing some drawings of these historical sea farers.

Required work: students need to read pages 4 and 5 in their Humanities Alive textbook and complete Activities 1 through 5 in complete sentences.

Allllllllllllllllllright

Okay so today was Wednesday and tomorrow is Thursday and that means we only got one more day until it's Friday and by my reckoning that is the first week of term three tackled. Congratulations!

As you are all aware, there were two small (tiny!) writing tasks set on Monday. Now, what I didn't tell you is that this term I want to focus on what writers affectionately refer to as the "drafting process". We will talk more about why drafting is important in class on Friday, but for now it is enough for me to tell you that draft copies of written work will be expected, followed by revised, new and improved drafts.

So, rough draft copies of the two small writing tasks set on Monday (see the previous post for descriptions of each task) will be due for submission next Monday.

Also, there are questions about Ferris Bueller's Day Off that need to be completed.



Here are the questions:

1. How is Ferris represented in the film? Why do other students respect and value him so much?

2. How is Ferris different to regular students? Provide three examples from the film to support your description.

3. How is Ed Rooney (the principal) represented in the film?

The film is a comedy - but it also deals with some serious issus facing young people. Discuss with examples.

5. What does Ferris Bueller stand for? What does Ed Rooney stand for? Write a personal philosophy statement for each.

And I will be giving you some work to complete on Napoleon Dynamite after we watch the film this week.



See... I told you we'd be doing fun stuff in English. And just in case you're interested... you should try to track down a copy of...

English - The first writing tasks

How many of us actually continue to read or write during the holidays? Isn't it more fun to spend time with friends, go to the movies or stay up late watching the FIFA World Cup? So to give those writing muscles a bit of a flex, here are the two writing tasks I've come up for this week:

Task 1: If you were making a film about your holidays, or about something that happened during your holidays, what sort of film would it be? Describe the genre, casting, characters, events, use of special effects and music. Work on this in pairs.

Task 2: There are two options for this one:

A. How is a video game like a piece of art?

B. What moment in history, in which part of the world, do you wish you had been born in? Why?

I reckon a minimum of half a page each is pretty good. Agree? Good.

The first post - the beginning and evolution of life in term 3

Term three is going to be a big one, and we've got a lot of material to cover in English, Humanities and Drama.

In English we will be exploring different techniques for writing narrative, while also considering alternative types of narrative story telling. We will read and discuss Louis Sacher's novel, Holes. To add a bit of spice to our interpretations of Holes, we will also consider how the novel's themes have been explored by other artists. Then there is all the fun language stuff, like word roots, prefixes, suffixes, and other bits and pieces that enable us to understand and manipulate language.

In Humanities we're putting down the geo-spatial skills and picking up on some old school European history. There will plenty of pillaging and plundering as we study the violent times of the Vikings and, later on, the Middle Ages. We will learn about where people lived, how they survived, and the artistic traditions of this period in history.

Drama will be a different ball game. After knocking over the final parts of our unit on public speaking, we will continue our exploration of improvisation and scene building. There will be a school production that we'll need to prepare for, and that will require actors, singers and dancers on stage, as well as the technical wizardry of lighting and production personnel weaving their magic backstage. We will need to agree upon a performance piece for our class to work on, so start thinking about what you'd like to do. To light a little inspiration, check out the very funny video bellow:




Please note: All assignments and tasks will be posted here each week and I will do my best to provide notes and information sheets on topics covered in class. Regular video samples or links to cool stuff online will also be posted every few days, and you are all welcome to send me links that you think are of interest.

For example, here is a stop motion animation that will blow your mind. Enjoy.