Lecture Topics
Lecture #1+2: The war in Iraq & prospects for war with Iran
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Iraq is one of the oldest civilizations in the world; over 6,000 years. It had been conquered more times than Jerusalem. Reason: the most fertile land sandwiched between 2 rivers, and oil. U.S. invading Iraq to “bring it Democracy” was a colossal mistake for which future American generations will pay heavily. The same Rumsfeld (who invaded Iraq in 2003) hugged and kissed Saddam Hussein some 23 years earlier and encouraged him to invade Iran, resulting in the 8-year Iraq-Iran war. His objective was to prevent the Islamic Republic from expanding and infecting the rest of the Arab world. Since we considered both sides to be evil, we did not want either side to win. We assisted both sides. Close to a million people died, without changing single inch of territory.
Lecture #3: History of Islam & the Middle-East
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Muhammad was born in 570, and died on June 8th, 632 A.C.E.). He was a trader, later becoming a religious, political, and military leader. However, Muslims regard him as the last messenger of God, through which the Qur’an was revealed. Muslims view Muhammad as the restorer of the original uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. By 630 Muhammad was victorious in the bloodless Conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 (at the age of 63) he untied the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity. In less than 50 years after the death of Muhammad, through conquest and conversion, Islam, shook the foundations of Byzantine and Persia, the 2 most powerful civilizations of the era. In less than a century Islam dominated an area larger than the Roman Empire at its peak. The Shi’a and Sunni sects both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts.
Lecture #4: Jewish life in Arab countries
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Patriarch Abraham & Monotheism. Egypt, Jewish slavery and Exodus. Moses and the 10 Commandments. Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land. King David, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. Nebuchadnezzar: First Jewish exile to Babylon 597 BCE. The destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple, 586 BCE. Jewish life in Babylon: 2,600 years of achievements: Writing the Talmud. Cyrus the Great: Frees the Babylonian Jews, 538 BCE. Return to Jerusalem and rebuilding the Second Temple. Jewish life under Islamic rule, and the Ottoman Empire. (1299-1922). the League of Nations and the Mandate. French and British rule. Establishment of Monarchies. The first pogrom in Babylonian history, the “Farhud” June 1, 1941. Saddam Hussein, Khomeini and Iran’s Islamic Republic. The 8-year Iraq-Iran war. Prospects for a nuclear Iran and ramifications.
Lecture #5: Current (International) Affairs
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
A comprehensive discussion of all the trouble-spots around the world, offering my unique perspective and possible solutions: North & South Korea, Afghanistan & Pakistan, The Arab Spring: Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, The Ukraine, Hamas and Hezbollah, Peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians, ISIS and Jihadism.
Lecture #6: Cosmology: The Big bang, Black Holes and UFOs
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The universe is dotted with over 100 billion galaxies, and each one contains roughly 100 billion stars. The Big Bang model offers an elegant explanation of the origin of everything we see in the night sky, making it one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect and spirit. Every scientific theory must be testable and compatible with reality. While science is simply an effort to understand the world, scientists are driven by curiosity, rather than comfort and utility. Albert Einstein condemned common sense, declaring it to be ‘the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen’. The Church later demonstrated its intolerance by persecuting the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno who followed Copernicus. The inquisition burnt him alive.
Lecture #7: Saladin and the Crusades
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Crusader “movement” stretched over a period of two hundred years, unleashing a frenzy of hate and violence unprecedented before the advent of the technological age and the scourge of Hitler. The madness was initiated in the name of religion by Pope Urban II, in 1095 as a “noble” quest to reclaim the Holy Land from the “infidel” (Muslims). The violence began with the massacre of Jews, proceeded to the wholesale slaughter of Muslims in their native land, sapped the wealth of Europe, and ended with an almost unimaginable death toll on all sides. Only because of the disunity of the Arab world did the First Crusade succeed in capturing Jerusalem. The Third Crusade, spanning the years 1187-1892, is the most interesting of them all. It brought two of the most remarkable and fascinating figures of the last millennium into conflict: Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Mesopotamia; and Richard I, King of England, known as the Lionheart.
Lecture #8: Full Circle: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF IRAQ
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The first Jew was an Iraqi Jew. He was our first patriarch, born in Ur, a city south of Mesopotamia, now called Iraq. Abraham (about 1900 BC) was a citizen of great civilization and culture. In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed our first temple and razed the whole city of Jerusalem to the ground. The Jews were dispersed mostly to Persia and Babylonia. The opportunity to return arrived at 538 BCE (after 48 years) when Cyrus of Persia issued the famous decree permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple. Babylon (Babel) had become the center of Jewish scholarship. Their most influential contribution was the Babylonian Talmud (Oral Law). In the seventh century, following Muhammad’s death, his followers invaded Mesopotamia and the rest of the Arab countries. They were designated Dhimmis, protected people of special covenant with the Muslims. They were politically second-class citizens and had to pay a special toll tax. On June 1, 1941 the Iraqi Jews experienced “Farhud”, the darkest pogrom in its 2,600-year history.
Lecture #9: Biblical Stories from Abraham to Jesus
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. God, creates the world in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh day, the Sabbath. Yahweh, the personal name of god, shapes the first man from dust, places him in the Garden of Eden. God creates the first woman, Eve, from Adam’s body. Man is created to rule over the whole of creation as God’s regent. Creation is followed by rest. Adam and Eve were subsequently expelled from the Garden of Eden, were ceremonially separated from God, and lost their innocence after they broke God’s law about not eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother, after God has rejected his offerings of produce, but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel. The Patriarch Abraham appears about 1,900 BCE and discovers Monotheism, embraced by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Lecture #10: Great women in world history
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Great women in world history are 9 women who made a profound impact on world history.
Their background and accomplishments are discussed in detail:
- Sarah, Abraham’s wife (+/-1900-B.C.E): Mother of Ishmael and Isaac.
- Mary, mother of Jesus (Hebrew: Miriam, Aramaic: Maryam).
- Cleopatra (69 BC to 30 B.C.E): Was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
- Khadijah (555-619 A.C.E): First wife of the Prophet Muhammad, mother of his children.
- Joan of Arc (1412-1431 A.C.E): is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint.
- Victoria (1819-1901A.C.E): Was the monarch of the United Kingdom.
- Catherine the Great (1729-1796 A.C.E): The Prussian born Empress of Russia.
- Indira Gandhi (1917-1984 A.C.E): Was the third Prime Minister of India, four terms.
- Golda Meir (1898-1978 A.C.E): Was Prime Minister of State of Israel.
Lecture #11: Nostradamus
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Michel de Nostredame (14 or 21 December 1503 – 2 July 1566), usually Latinized as Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties (The Prophecies), the first edition of which appears in 1555. Much of the popular press credits turn with predicting many major world events. Nostradamus has been credited with predicting numerous events in world history, for example, to the French Revolution, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, both world wars, and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is also an evident consensus that he predicted the events of September 11, 2001.
Lecture #12: Armageddon
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Armageddon will be the site of a battle during the end times. The word “Armageddon” appears in the Greek New Testament Revelation 16:16. Megiddo was the location of battles going back to 15th century BC. Modern Megiddo is a town off the southern tip of the Sea of Galilean the Kishon River area, Israel. According to Christian interpretation, the Messiah will return to earth and defeat the Antichrist (the “beast”) and Satan the Devil in the Battle Armageddon. In the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Kabbalah (Zohar), the messiah must arrive before the year 6000 from the time of creation, or before the year 2240 CE.
Note: There is no agreement between them as to when this will take place.
Lecture #13: Major Islamic Leaders
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Muhammad was born an orphan; his father had died before his birth. He worked as a shepherd and a merchant, and was known to have been Ummi, or an illiterate man. Muhammad began to explore spiritual matters by secluding himself on the Mount of Light (Jabal al-Nar), situated on the outskirts of the Arabian town of Makkah, for meditation and spiritual renewal. As he approached his fortieth birthday, his meditation and retreat on the Mount of Light intensified and reached its climax during the night in the month of Ramadan, which resulted in a direct visitation from archangel Gabriel (Jibrail), conveying to him the first of a series of divine revelations, which he continued to receive until his death in 632. The angel confirmed that he, Muhammad, was God’s last and final Prophet (Nabi) to humanity.
Lecture #14: Masada
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Masada, a fortification on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. The Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish-Roman war ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Jewish rebels and their families holed up there. Almost all historical information about Masada comes from the 1st-century Jewish Roman historian Josephus. In 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, overcame the Roman garrisoned Masada with the aid of a ruse. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, additional members of the Sicarii fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop. According to Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings, but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide killed each. Only two women and five children were found alive.
Lecture #15: Free Masons & U.S. Presidents
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately two million in the United States. A poem known as the “Regius Manuscript” has been dated to approximately 1,390 and is the oldest known Masonic text. George Washington (who was a member of a Virginian lodge) as the first Grand Master in the U.S. There is no degree in Freemasonry higher than that of Master Mason, the Third Degree. Candidates for regular Freemasonry are required to declare a belief in a Supreme in a Supreme Being.
- 9 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Masons.
- 13 of the 40 signers of the Constitution were Masons.
- 4 U.S. Presidents were 3rd degree Free Masons.
Lecture #16: The Bermuda Triangle
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, is an undefined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and ships have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. According to the US Navy, the triangle does not exist, and the name is not recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names. Contrary to popular belief, insurance companies do not charge higher premiums for shipping in this area. The first written boundaries date from an article by Vincent Gaddis in a 1964 issue of the pulp magazine Argosy, where the triangle’s three vertices are in Miami, Florida peninsula; in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and in the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with the total area varying from 500,000 to 1.5 million square miles.
Lecture #17: The Tunguska Event
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Tunguska event was a large explosion caused by the impact of a small asteroid or comet, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, on June 30, 1908. The explosion occurred at an altitude of 5-10 kilometers. It is the largest impact event on or near Earth in recorded history. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from as low as three to as high as 30 megatons of TNT. The energy of the explosion was about 1,000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometers, and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
Lecture #18: Prohibition in the United States
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide Constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal law; nationwide prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933. Saloons were seen as a breeding ground for political corruption. Prohibition provided a financial basis for organized crime to flourish. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended. Some drugstores sold “medical wine” with around a 22 percent alcohol content. Illegal alcohol beverage industry made an average of $3 billion per year in income.
Lecture #19: Artificial Intelligence
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence exhibited by machines or software, and the branch of computer science that develops machines and software with intelligence. The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence – the sapience of Homo sapiens – can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine. Turing’s theory of computation suggested that a machine, but shuffling symbols as simple as “0” and “1”, could simulate any conceivable act of mathematical deduction. Ray Kurzweil has used Moore’s law to calculate that desktop computers will have the same processing power as human brains by the year 2029. Humans and machines will merge in the future into cyborgs that are more capable and powerful than either. The first AI robotic pet, AIBO, came available as a companion to people. In 2006, AIBO was added into Carnegie Mellon University’s “Robot Hall of Fame”.
Lecture #20: Ice Age
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
An ice age, or more precisely, a glacial age, is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheet and alpine glaciers. We are still in the ice age that began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch, because the Greenland, Arctic, and Antarctic ice sheets still exist. The paleontological evidence consists of changes in the geographical distribution of fossils. Analysis of ice core and ocean sediment cores has shown periods of glacial and interglacials over the past few million years. There have been at least five major ice ages in the Earth’s past. There were extensive polar ice caps at intervals from 360 to 260 million years ago in South Africa during the Carboniferous and early Permian Periods.
Lecture #21: Irish Potato Famine
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island’s population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight. Some 250,000 people left Ireland to settle in the New World alone, over a period of some 50 years. From the defeat of Napoleon to the beginning of the famine, a period of 30 years, “at least 1,000,000 and possibly 1,500,000 emigrated”. By 1854 between 1.5 and 2 million Irish left their country due to evictions, starvation, and harsh living conditions.
Lecture #22: The Human Brain
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but has a more developed cortex than any other. Large animals such as whales and elephants have larger brains in absolute terms, but when measured using the encephalization quotient which compensates for body size, the human brain is almost twice as large as the brain of the bottlenose dolphin, and three times as large as the brain of a chimpanzee. Much of the expansion comes from the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, especially the frontal lobes, which are associated with executive functions such as self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thought. The number of neurons, according to array tomography, has shown about 20 billion neurons in the human brain with 125 trillion synapses in the cerebral cortex alone.
Lecture #23: The Trail of Tears
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the ethnic cleansing and forced relocation of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian removal Act of 1830. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease and starvation on the route to their destinations. Many died, including 2,000-6,000 of 16,542 relocated Cherokee, European Americans (both Christians and Jews), and African American freedmen and slaves also participated in the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole forced relocations. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek ceded the remaining country to the United States and was ratified in early 1831. Nearly 17,000 Choctaws made the move to what would be called Indian Territory and then later Oklahoma. About 2,500-6,000 died along the trail of tears.
Lecture #24: Global Warming
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Global warming refers to an unequivocal and continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the warming has occurred in the oceans. Since the early 20th century, the global air and sea surface temperature has increased about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. Human activity since the Industrial Revolution has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. These levels are much higher than at any time during the last 800,000 years. Direct geological evidence indicates that CO2, values higher than this were last seen about 20 million years ago. This is likely the first time CO2, levels have been this high for about 4.5 million years.
Lecture #25: The Dead Sea Scrolls
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts discovered between 1947 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank. They were found on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name. The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus and bronze. The manuscripts have been dated to various ranges between 408 BCE and 318 CE. Bronze coins found on the site 04 BCE) and continuing until the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE). The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of twelve caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in what is now the West Bank between 1946 and 1956 by the Bedouin people and archeologists. In partnership with Google, the Museum of Jerusalem is working to photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them available to the public digitally, although not placing the images in the public domain, expected to be completed by 2016. Google will make them available online free of charge (http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/).
Lecture #26: Natural Disasters
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake. In 2012, there were 905 natural catastrophes worldwide, 93% of which were weather-related disasters. Between 1980 and 2011 geophysical events accounted for 14% of all natural catastrophes. An epidemic is an outbreak of a contractible disease that spreads through a human population. A pandemic is an epidemic whose spread a global. There have been many epidemics throughout history, such as the Black Death.
Lecture #27: The Bible Code
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Bible code, also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah. This hidden code has been described as a method by which specific letters from the text can be selected to reveal an otherwise obscured message. Although Bible codes have been postulated and studied for centuries, the subject has been popularized in modern times by Michael Drosnin’s book The Bible Code and the movie The Omega Code. The primary method by which purportedly meaningful messages have been extracted is the Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS). Often more than one ELS related to some topic can be displayed simultaneously in an ELS letter array. Throughout history, many Jewish and later Christian, scholars have attempted to find hidden or coded messages within the Bible’s text, notably including Isaac Newton.
Lecture #28: The Alamo
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Bexar All of the Texian defenders were killed. Buoyed by a desire for revenge, the Texians defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, ending the revolution. The resolution effectively banned the taking of prisoners of war: in this period of time, captured pirates were executed immediately. Santa Anna reiterated this message in a strongly worded letter to United States President Andrew Jackson. Just before daylight on March 4, part of the Texian force broke through Mexican lines and entered the Alamo. By 6:30 a.m. the battle for the Alamo was over. Mexican soldiers inspected each corpse, bayoneting anybody that moved.
Lecture #29: Spanish Inquisition
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834. Estimates of the number of persons charged with crimes by the Inquisition range up to 150,000 with 2,000 to 50,000 people actually executed. The edict required: “The Moriscos to depart, under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence…to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange…just what they could carry.” During the reign of Charles IV of Spain, the Inquisition was first abolished during the domination of Napoleon and the reign of Joseph Bonaparte (1808-1812).
Lecture #30: The Aztec Empire
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Mexica Triple Alliance or Aztec Empire began as an alliance of three Nahua city-states or “altepetl”: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These city-states ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until they were defeated by the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies under Hernan Cortes in 1521. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1520, the lands of the Alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, and the other partners in the alliance had assumed subsidiary roles. The alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded rapidly after its formation. At its height, the alliance controlled most of central Mexico as well as some more distant territories within Mesoamerica. Aztec rule has been described by scholars as “hegemonic” or “indirect”. Rulers of conquered cities were usually left in power as long as they agreed to pay semi-annual tribute to the alliance or provided military support in wars with enemy states.
Lecture #31: Time Travel
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
What is “Time travel”, or “Time Machine”? Understanding Quantum entanglement, Teleportation and wormholes. Forward and backward time travel. Einstein’s Special & General Relativity. Is Faster-than-light travel possible? The Grandfather Paradox. According to Stephen Hawking’s Carl Sagan’s speculations. What is Causality & Reverse Causality? Effect of gravity and Spacetime. The Tripler Cylinder. Parallel Universes. Time dilation. And suspended animation. The G.P.S. concept. Eternalism or Four-Dimensionalism. Recent experimentations.
Lecture #32: Dust Bowl
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Dust Bowl, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1930-40. Rapid mechanization of farm implements, especially small gasoline tractors and widespread use of the combine harvester, significantly impacted decisions to convert and grassland to cultivated cropland. The unanchored soil turned to dust that the prevailing winds blew away in clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. More than 500,000 Americans were left homeless. Between 1930 and 1940, approximately 3.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states. In just over a year, over 86,000 people migrated to California. Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes established the Soil Erosion Service in August 1933.
Lecture #33: Kristallnacht
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Kristallnacht “Crystal Night”, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, or Reichskristallnacht Pogromnacht, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9-10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed. At least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Jewish homes. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew resident in Paris. It marked the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.
Lecture #34: Gettysburg Address
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil war, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 91, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. Beginning with the now-iconic phrase “Four score and seven years ago” – referring to the Declaration of Independence, written at the start of the American Revolution in 1776 – Lincoln examined the founding principles of the United States in the context of the Civil War, that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flame of withering injustice.”
Lecture #35: E.S.P. (Extrasensory Perception)
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Extrasensory perception or ESP involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. Psychic abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance, and their trans-temporal operation as precognition or retrocognition. ESP is also sometimes referred to as a sixth sense. Parapsychology is the study of paranormal psychic phenomena, including ESP. People who believe in psi (“sheep”) tend to score above chance, while those who do not believe in psi (“goats”) show null results or psi-missing. This has become known as the “sheep-goat effect”. Memory was offered as a better model of psi than perception. Meta-analyses evidencing reliable effects, and many confirmatory replication studies.
Lecture #36: Atlantis
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Atlantis is the name of a fictional island mentioned within an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato’s works Timaeus and Critias, where it represents the antagonist naval power that besieges “Ancient Athens”. The Republic. Atlantis eventually falls out of favor with the gods and famously submerges into the Atlantic Ocean. Plato’s vague indications of the time of the events – more than 9,000 years before his day – and the alleged location of Atlantis – “beyond the Pillars of Hercules” – has led to much pseudoscientific speculation. The Theosophists believed that the civilization of Atlantis reached its peak between 1,000,000 and 900,000 years ago but destroyed itself through internal warfare.
Lecture #39: Book of Mormon
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: According to Smith’s account the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as “reformed Egyptian” engraved on golden plates. Joseph Smith said that when he was seventeen years of age an angel of God named Moroni appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings, engraved on golden plates by ancient prophets, was buried in a nearby hill in present-day Wayne County, New York. The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus’ birth. The Book of Mormon went on sale in New York on March 26, 1830. The Jaredite civilization is presented as existing on the American continent beginning about 2500 BC, – long before Lehi’s family arrived in 600 BC – and is being much larger and more developed.
Lecture #40: Emancipation Proclamation
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as a war measure during the American Civil War. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not itself outlaw slavery, and did not make the ex-slaves (called freedmen) citizens. It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. Prior to the Proclamation, in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, escaped slaves were either returned to their masters or held in camps as contraband for later return. None of the confederate states restored themselves to the Union, and Lincoln’s order, signed and issued January 1, 1863, took effect. The Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners who envisioned a race war.
Lecture #42: Stonehenge
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, one of the most famous sites in the world. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists believe it was built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The dating of cremated remains found on the site indicates that deposits contain human bone from as early as 3000 BC. The site is a place of religious significance and pilgrimage in Neo-Druidry. In 2013 a team of archaeologists, led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson, excavated more than 50,000 cremated bones of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge. Roman coins and medieval artifacts have all been found in or around the monument. A decapitated 7th century Saxon man was excavated from Stonehenge in 1923.
Lecture #43: Armenian Genocide
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. The number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 800,000 to 1.5 million. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915. The majority of Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the Armenians increasingly came to see the Russian Empire as the ultimate guarantor of their security. By 1914, Ottoman authorities had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as a threat to the empire’s security. Winston Churchill described the massacres as an “administrative holocaust”.
Lecture #46: Knights Templars
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, commonly known as the Knights Templar, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were among the most prominent actors of the Christian finance. The organization existed for nearly two centuries during the middle Ages. When the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. In 1307, many of the Order’s members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. King Philip, who was already deeply in debt to the Templars from his war with the English, decided to seize upon the rumors for his own purposes, as a way of freeing himself from his debts. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end. He called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year.
Lecture #54: Paranormal
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Paranormal is a general term (coined c. 1915-1920) that designates experiences that lie outside “the range of normal experience or scientific explanation” or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science’s current ability to explain or measure. It can best be thought of as a subset of pseudoscience. Paranormal phenomena include extrasensory perception (ESP), telekinesis, ghosts, poltergeists, life after death, reincarnation, faith healing, human auras, and so forth. The most notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to ghosts, extraterrestrial life, unidentified flying objects and cryptids. In 1957, the Parapsychological Association was formed as the preeminent society for parapsychologists. The James Randi Educational foundation offers a prize of a million dollars to a person who can prove that they have supernatural or paranormal abilities under appropriate test conditions.
Lecture #59: Scientology
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), beginning in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey. Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. The church is often characterized as a cult, and it has faced harsh scrutiny, include brainwashing and routinely defrauding its members. Further controversy has focused on Scientology’s belief that souls (“Thetans”) reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth. Dianetics uses a counseling technique known as auditing, to enable conscious recall of traumatic events in an individual’s past. In 2007 a church official claimed 3.5 million members in the United States.
Lecture #61: Nuremberg Trials
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany. The Tribunal was given the task of trying 23 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Not included were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, all of whom had committed suicide several months before the indictment was signed. On 1 November 1943, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States published their “Declaration on German Atrocities in Occupied Europe”. Some 200 German war crimes defendants were tried at Nuremberg, and 1,600 others were tried under the traditional channels of military justice. Twelve of the accused were sentenced to death, seven received prison sentences, three were acquitted, and two were not charged.
Lecture #62: Civilization
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Civilization generally refers to state polities which combine these basic institutions, having one or more of each a ceremonial center, a system of writing and a city. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over both nature, and over other human beings. The emergence of civilization is generally associated with the final stages of the Neolithic Revolution, a slow cumulative process occurring independently over many locations between 10,000 and 3,000 BCE, culminating in the relatively rapid process of state formation, a political development associated with the appearance of a governing elite.
Lecture #66: Jihad and Holy War
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
From the Qur’an, the Islamic Scripture: Jihad, to struggle, to strive with determination to further the cause of God: “Let those fight in the cause of God who sell the life of this world for the next”. Allah guaranteed Paradise to those who would “fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain.” (Qur’an 9:111). Jihad is carried out in order to achieve the ultimate goal of Islam: To establish Islamic authority over the whole world. Islam is not just a religion. Islam teaches that Allah is the only authority; therefore, political systems must be based on Allah’s teaching and nothing else. (Qur’an 5:44, 47). The focus of jihad is to overcome people who do not accept Islam. Those who reject Islam must be killed. “Fight them so that there be no more seduction, until no believer is seduced from his religion. And that religion is God’s until God alone is worshipped.” (Qur’an 2:193).
Lecture #69: Pan-Arabism/Islamism
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification of the countries of North Africa and West Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, referred to as the Arab World. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. When the Ottoman Empire surrendered in 1918, the United Kingdom refused to keep to the letter of its arrangements with Hussein. Abdallah of Jordan dreamed of uniting Syria, Palestine, and Jordan under his leadership in what he would call Greater Syria. This distrust was one of the principal reasons for the founding of the Arab League in 1945. The Arab defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and the inability of pan-Arabist governments to generate economic growth severely damaged the credibility of pan-Arabism as a relevant ideology.
Lecture #70: Colonialism and Democracy
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colony in one territory by a political power from another territory. It is a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous population. The European colonial period was the era from the 16th century to the mid-20th century when several European powers established colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s. The Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire existed at the same time as the above empires, but did not expand over oceans. The Empire of Japan modeled itself on European colonial empires. The United States of America gained overseas territories after the Spanish-American War for which the term “American Empire” was coined. After World War II, decolonization progressed rapidly.
Lecture #71: Rumi & Sufism
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi also known as Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, and more popularly simply as Rumi (1207-17 December 1273) was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic. His poems have been translated into many of the world’s languages. Rumi has been described as the “most popular poet”. Rumi’s works are written mostly in Persian, but occasionally be also used Turkish, Arabic, and Greek, in his verse. His Mathnawi, composed in Konya, may be considered one of the purest literary glories of the Persian language. Rumi was born to native Persian-speaking parents, originally from the Balkh city of Khorasan, in present-day Afghanistan. He lived most of his life under the Persianate Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works and died in 1273 AD. He was buried in Konya and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage.
Lecture #73: Science beyond Einstein
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
What lies beyond the farthest star? How was the universe created? What happened before the beginning of time? This would complete the cosmic quest begun by Einstein in the 1930s to unify gravitation with the other known forces. Astronomers, when they probe the heavens are awed by the fact that the light they are receiving was emitted by stars billions of years ago. In the time before Newton, scientists believed that the universe was perfectly ordered and structured. By the 1800s, however, with the turmoil leading up to the birth of relativity and quantum mechanics, physics seemed confused and chaotic. Now we seem to be returning to one original idea – an orderly universe. The superstring theory shows that symmetry plays a pivotal role in physics. Many possible universes that are compatible with relativity can be constructed.
Lecture #74: Zoroastrianism
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Zoroastrianism, also called Zarathustrianism, is an ancient semi-dualistic monotheist religion of Greater Iran. It was adopted in differing forms as the generally inclusive overarching state religion of the Achaemenes Empire and subsequent Parthian and Sasanian Empires, lending it immense prestige in ancient times. Recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million. Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the “Wise Lord” (Ahura means “Being” and Mazda means “Mind” in Avestan language). During life, the fravashi acts as a guardian and protector. For the most part, Zoroastrianism does not have a notion of reincarnation, at least not until the final renovation of the world.
Lecture #76: The rape of Nanking
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking was an episode during the Second Sino-Japanese War of mass murder and mass rape by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. The massacre occurred over six weeks starting December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants, and perpetrated widespread rape and looting. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated in 1948 that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in the incident. China’s official estimate is more than 300,000 dead based on the evaluation of the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947.
Lecture #78: Unitarianism
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Unitarianism is a theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism, which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one being. Unitarians maintain that Jesus is in some sense the “son” of God, but not the one God. Unitarianism is also known for the rejection of several other conventional Christian doctrines, including the soteriological doctrines of original sin and predestination, and, in more recent history, biblical inerrancy. There were a number of Unitarians who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible, and this made them question the virgin birth story. Aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted: Oneness or unity of God. Reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy coexist with faith in God. Ability to exercise free. Eleven Nobel prizes have been awarded to Unitarians.
Lecture #79: Paradise and Hellfire
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Muslims believe that the life of this world is only a temporary refuge, and that one day everyone will face God to account for their choices in life. The belief is that a person’s soul leaves the body and awaits a final Day of Judgment before God. Those who are good will be rewarded with admission into Eternal Paradise, called “Jannah”. “…gardens, beneath which rivers flow.” Those who are evil will be doomed to punishment in Eternal Hellfire, called “Jahannam”. Sura 5:38. God granted humans free will, it was conditional to a covenant that they would faithfully worship none but God and live in accordance with divine will (Qur’an 2:38-9). Muslims believe that while the faithful will live forever in paradise, disbelieving evildoers will have their recompense in hell (Qur’an 3:131, 78:21-2). The greatest reward for those in the Garden will be the company and pleasure of God.
Lecture #80: Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as the Klan or the “Hooded Order”, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism. Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been anti-communist. Members adopted white costumes, robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to be outlandish and terrifying, and to hide their identities. Six well-educated Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee created the original Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, during the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The second Klan embraced a burning Latin cross primarily as a symbol of intimidation. The members of the first Klan in the South were exclusively Democrats. A prominent online forum for white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, racism, and anti-Semitism.
Lecture #200: Jonathan Pollard
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
Who is Jonathan Pollard? His upbringing and education, his attempt to join the CIA, and how he ended up with Navy Intelligence. His extensive use of hard drugs. Things he lied about during interviews. How he was caught, the nature of his conviction and sentencing, the secrets he divulged to Israel and other governments, and serving the full 30 years. He was released on November 20, 2015. Extensive quotes of people and governments in trying to reduce his sentence, including the State of Israel, of which he became a citizen in 2005 while in jail. Also listed are those who objected to his early release. He must remain in the U.S. for the next 5 years and refrain from writing a book… His wife, who participated in his actions was sentenced to 5 years in jail, but served 3.5 years. She now lives in Israel (they are divorced).
Lecture #234: The Yom Kippur War
Saul Silas Fathi / fathi@optonline.net
The Israeli intelligence broke down in the 1970’s and allowed the Arabs to launch
An attack on October 6th, 1972, Yom Kippur, Israel’s holiest day. What were the roles of President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and General Alexander Haig?
The oil and Arab factors within the State Department. What were Anwar Sadat’s?
Intentions? Did Golda Meir threaten to use “the ultimate weapon” if not supplied
With needed military hardware? Russian threat to interfere. U.S. betrayal of Israel
And how the Israeli generals reversed the outcome of the war…