The Syrian Public’s View and Treatment of Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria After Death

In Syria, it is considered banned within society to properly bury supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. When the bodies of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria supporters are found, they are often cleared away with machinery and placed into dump trucks to be removed to a dumping site alongside the rubble found around them (e.g. collapsed buildings). Civilians are provided proper Islamic burials if possible but supporters of Daesh, the Syrian name for the organization, are not provided this last right and/or dignity. Syrians who participate in this practice justify doing so using the logic that because supporters of the Islamic State directly caused the devastation which Syria is now experiencing, therefore they too deserve to be removed alongside side it in the same mechanistic manner

The Reason Alexander the Great Invaded India in 327 B.C.

Macedonian king Alexander the III, more commonly referred to as “Alexander the Great”, campaigned into India due to the fact that he was inspired to do so by one of his personal heroes; Dionysus (pronounced “dai-oh-nai-sis”). Dionysus campaigned into India in a Greek epic Alexander was familiar with, and Alexander III believed that if he did this as well, he would return to Macedonia, Greece an immortal, joining Dionysus and the pantheon of the Ancient Greek gods

The Cinematic Films With the Least and the Most Dialog

There are a myriad of films which are famous in large part due to the cast speaking virtually no dialog at any point throughout the film’s runtime. In opposition to this, other films and film franchisees have become renowned for the inverse reason, dialog heavy films characterized by dense character exchanges and storylines driven by dynamic characters and expressive speech. In terms of films with casts who are rather quiet, All Is Lost created in 2013 with Robert Redford stranded at sea had a script that was a mere 31 pages in length with almost no spoken lines, WALL·E, a children’s animated film from 2008 featured 89 lines of dialog (51 by machines and 38 by humans) throughout the entirety of its screen time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968, relied heavily upon silence to create dramatic tension, and finally Moebius, produced in 2013, contained no dialog whatsoever. In direct contrast to this and on the other side of that same spectrum, dialog heavy films exist in parallel, with the example of Casino, from 1995 which was extremely dialog heavy with a script of approximately 40,000 words, which is nearly double the average script length, with additional examples available as well (e.g. Dogma from 1999 with a 148 page script, A Few Good Men from 1992 with a 162 page script, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) from 1991 with a 183 page script etc.). This contrast demonstrates the principle that cinema can thrive in both environments of near silence with only body language, facial expressions, and set and character visuals to carry the story, as well as in rapid fire, constantly evolving, dialog heavy scenarios in which the script becomes the most important piece (or character) of the film

The Origin of the Weekend for Workers

The weekend was invented in the 19th century in Marseille, France (pronounced “mar-say”) as part of a broader societal shift during the Industrial Revolution. During the period, workers within factories and shipyards were often laboring 6 – 7 days per week, with little rest in between shifts. Because Marseille had a bustling port with a strong labor movement and  growing working class, reformers and unions began to push for a scheduled rest day for leisure and recovery. By the mid 19th century, experiments of giving workers Saturday afternoons off began to spread rapidly, which permitted workers more time for their families, religious observance(s), and day to day community life. This practice gradually evolved into the 2 day weekend, beginning in France and then being disseminated across Europe and North America. World governments and industries permitted this shift to occur because it became understood that rest improved productivity and overall job satisfaction