A Ton of Crap (130 page)

Tsetsaut
Tsetsaut was an Athabaskan language spoken by a North American indigenous people in northwestern British Columbia. Just about all of the information we have about Tsetsaut is from 1894, when it was recorded by anthropologist Frank Boas. Boas recorded the language from two slaves of Nisga’a, one of Canada’s Native American communities. The work Boas did with these two slaves was enough proof that the language they spoke was a separate branch of Athabaskan. The Tsetsaut people called themselves Wetaŀ. The word
Tsetsaut
comes from an Anglicization that was given by the Nisga’a and Gitksan people.

WAR ON TERROR

War in Iraq
In March 2003, the War in Iraq began. First, Iraq was attacked from the air, and then ground forces went in. Though the reasons for the war have been questioned, the Bush administration claimed that it was part of the war against terrorism and that Iraq housed terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. In April 2003, Baghdad fell and the government of Saddam Hussein dissolved soon after. President Bush announced the war was over; however, an insurgency occurred that actually led to more casualties than the initial invasion. No weapons of mass destruction were found. In December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured, and in 2006, he was hanged. U.S. combat ended on September 1, 2010, with Operation New Dawn.

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

Transfer
Often used in the political world and during times of war, transfer is an attempt to link two separate things so that the audience thinks of them both in the same way. Transfer usually deals with negative things. By linking blame of one politician to blame of their entire political party, transfer is occurring. Transfer can also be positive, however. If a highly respected organization approves or backs another organization or event, then prestige is being transferred. Common examples of transfer are also found in symbols. The flag, for example, has come to represent the entire nation.

INFINITY

Cantor’s Set Theory
Georg Cantor came to the realization that one cannot count to infinity, but one can compare sets to see if they are the same size by finding a one-to-one matching of the elements within the sets. The size of any set is known as cardinality. Sets are known as infinite if elements can be removed without reducing the cardinality. When there is the same cardinality as there are natural numbers, the set is called countable. Cantor’s theorem states if there is a set X, there is at least one set that is raised to the power of X, and that is cardinally bigger than X.

DNA

Replication
Before a cell divides, the DNA is replicated. This occurs in the nucleus, and involves the polynucleotides separating. These then act as a model for a new complementary chain to be made. When chains separate, nucleotides attract complementary nucleotides, which are joined by hydrogen bonds. This forms the rungs of the new DNA. The phosphate group of a nucleotide is linked to the deoxyribose of the adjacent nucleotide by an enzyme known as DNA polymerase. The process continues, resulting in a new molecule that has a double helix.

EXTINCT LANGUAGES

Eyak
Eyak was a Na-Dené language, which were related to Athabaskan languages. Eyak was spoken in Alaska, and the last speaker of Eyak, Marie Smith Jones, died on January 21, 2008, in Cordova, Alaska. Though she had nine children, none of them learned the language. Several factors led to the extinction of the Eyak language. Though the introduction of the English language and the suppression of aboriginal languages took part in the extinction, it was also brought on by the migration of the Tlingit people, which led to a merging of Tlingit and Eyak.

WAR ON TERROR

Fighting in Pakistan
After the attacks of September 11, Pakistan sided with the United States following an ultimatum given by President Bush. The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, said he was against Islamic extremism and pledged that Pakistan was committed to fighting terrorism. In 2002, Pakistan made some very important arrests within jihadi organizations, including al-Qaeda officials of high rank. In 2004, the Pakistan Army launched 80,000 troops to remove al-Qaeda and the Taliban. When the Taliban in Afghanistan fell, many fled to Pakistan, where they were subsequently killed and captured. Currently, there is still a Taliban Pakistani resistance fighting in Pakistan.

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

Assertion
A common form of propaganda used in advertising and politics is known as assertion. Assertion is an enthusiastic or energetic statement presented as a fact even though it is not actually the case. Assertions imply that the idea is just accepted, that there is no explanation needed. When a product is advertised as “the best,” unless they have evidence to prove their claim, this is an assertion. The advertisers want the public to just agree without seeking out any other information. Assertions can be extremely dangerous, and can lead to lies.

INFINITY

Finitism
There is also a field of math that rejects the notion of infinity. This is known as finitism. Finitism states that objects cannot exist unless they are constructed in a finite amount of steps from natural numbers. One of the leading researchers was David Hilbert. A concept even stronger than finitism is known as ultrafinitism. Ultrafinitists deny the existence of infinite sets of natural numbers because they can never actually be completed. Both finitism and ultrafinitism are forms of constructivism, which holds that in order to prove the existence of a mathematical object it must be constructed.

DNA