Thursday, January 30, 2014

Edward Snowden's Television Interview with German Public Broadcaster ARD (January 26, 2014)

From what I understand western mainstream media is not providing very much coverage of Edward Snowden’s latest television interview (transcript). Understandable of course since much of what he talks about would contradict the script.

Figured I’d do my part and give this as much exposure as possible. Below you will find the Vimeo copy (Dailymotion, YouTube copy has been taken down due to copyright claim by ARD). It is worth the watch.

Edit: Looks like Vimeo has also removed the video due to a copyright claim by ARD, so here is the DailyMotion copy:

Edward Snowden Interview, English (1/27/2014)



Related Posts:
  • Why the U.S. Government has such a hard-on for Edward Snowden

  • So let me get this straight, we fast track renditions but hunt down whistleblowers on presidential planes!

  • The Surveillance State Killed BlackBerry, and the Same Fate Awaits Other Tech Giants
  • Tuesday, January 28, 2014

    “We Come as Friends”, a Look at Contemporary Colonialism in Africa, a New Documentary from Hubert Sauper, the Director of “Darwin's Nightmare”

    My first glimpse into what the new colonialism in Africa was looking like was with Hubert Sauper’s 2004 documentary “Darwin's Nightmare”. That’s when I realized that the future of Africa was going to be very bleak. If you are interested in what’s going on in Africa then this masterpiece is a must watch. (I was only going to provide a link to the Trailer below, but I found the full documentary online. It’s missing the English subtitles, so if you want to have the full experience I suggest tracking down a full version.)

    Darwins Nightmare (Hubert Sauper, 2004)



    I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Hubert Sauper has released a new documentary on Africa, focusing on Sudan, entitled “We Come as Friends” - Sundance program and review.

    Below you will find Democracy Now!’s full interview and discussion with Hubert Sauper regarding this project. This documentary just made it to the top of my must watch list of 2014.
    “Well, here at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, a new documentary shows how South Sudan has become ground zero for contemporary colonialism in Africa. Director Hubert Sauper’s We Come as Friends provides an aerial view of the conflict in Sudan from a shaky, handmade two-seater plane. The film depicts American investors, Chinese oilmen, United Nations officials, and Christian missionaries struggling to shape Sudan according to their own visions, while simultaneously applauding the alleged ‘independence’ of the world’s newest state. What emerges is a devastating critique of the consequences of cultural and economic imperialism….

    “For more, we’re joined by Hubert Sauper. His 2004 film, Darwin’s Nightmare, was nominated for an Academy Award. We Come as Friends will have its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival next month.

    “Hubert Sauper, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. It’s a fascinating film. Can you relate the film to what’s happening today in South Sudan?”

    South Sudan Reaches Ceasefire, But Will Nascent State Survive Oil-Fueled Neocolonialism?



    Related Posts:
  • The future of Africa looks bleak, here is why

  • Western Powers Go Full Retard on Africa: China vs. AFRICOM, a Resource War

  • France Has Forgotten the Battle of Algiers, Africa Never Will: “Ordinary Victories” by Manu Larcenet

  • Recolonization of Africa, a Symptom of Our Addiction to Growth: Differential Accumulation, Why GDP Growth Rates Influence Foreign Policy


  • Friday, January 24, 2014

    The Irony and the Hypocrisy, the U.S. Department of Defense Is Using Blackberry for Its Privacy (Update on The Surveillance State)

    The following has been added as an update to: “The Surveillance State Killed BlackBerry, and the Same Fate Awaits Other Tech Giants”.


    The major selling point for BlackBerry has always been its security and privacy - the way it encrypted communication across its network was the only game in town - that is, until 2010, when governments threatened to “block encrypted BlackBerry corporate e-mail and messaging services” unless their security agencies were granted access to them.

    This was the beginning of the demise of Blackberry. Because of The Surveillance State’s inability to spy on their own citizens, governments forced BlackBerry to change their business model, which in turn played a major role in the company’s collapse.

    Ironic, considering the latest announcement from the U.S. Defense Department that approximately 98% of their smartphone purchases for their new network will be from BlackBerry because they offer the best option in the industry for secure communication.
    “About 80,000 BlackBerrys will start being hooked up to the department’s management system at the end of this month, the Defense Information Systems Agency said in a statement last week. The network will also include 1,800 phones and tablets based on Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iOS software and Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system….

    “The Pentagon’s statement shows that Samsung Electronics Co. (SMSN), the biggest maker of Android devices, and Apple aren’t making the inroads into military smartphone sales that many expected because they can’t always meet the security specifications the Defense Department wants.”
    BlackBerry CEO John Chen stated that:
    “Many in the regulated industries -- those with the most stringent security needs -- still depend solely on BlackBerry to secure their mobile infrastructure. For governments, BlackBerry cannot just be replaced -- we are the only MDM provider to obtain ‘Authority to Operate’ on US Department of Defense (DoD) networks. This means the DoD is only allowed to use BlackBerry,… Across the globe, seven out of seven of the G7 governments are also BlackBerry customers.”
    The hypocrisy of our government’s stance on secrecy is not lost on the citizenry as is evident with a recent case in Canada where a senior citizen refused to fill out a census form. One of the main reasons for her public disobedience was that she did not believe her private information would be secure:
    “…she is worried about the safety and security of that data, considering Lockheed’s ties to the U.S. military and the absolute powers of the U.S. Patriot Act, which allows the government to demand data from any American company, regardless where that information originates.”
    It appears that our governments believe in secrecy for themselves and transparency for everyone else. A model that is inconsistent with an open and just society. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out in his keynote address at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress (2), what the future holds, may it be a dystopian totalitarian surveillance state or one in which human rights are recognized, depends on us (full keynote and excerpt from the transcript provided below) :
    “But I ultimately think that where the greatest hope lies is with the people in this room and the skills that all of you possess. The privacy technologies that have already been developed: the Tor Browser, PGP, OTR, and a variety of other products are making real inroads in preventing the US government and its allies from invading the sanctity of our communications.

    “None of them is perfect. None of them is invulnerable, but they all pose a serious obstacle to the US government's ability to continue to destroy our privacy. And ultimately, the battle over Internet freedom, the question of whether or not the Internet will really be this tool of liberation and democratization and whether it'll become the worst tool of human oppression in all of human history will be fought out, I think, primarily, on the technological battlefield.

    “The NSA and the US government certainly knows that. That's why Keith Alexander gets dressed up in his little costumes, his dad jeans and his edgy black shirt and goes to hacker conferences.

    “And it's why corporations in Silicon Valley, like Palantir Technologies, spend so much effort depicting themselves as these kind-of rebellious, pro-civil-libertarian factions, as they spend most of their time in secret working hand-in-hand with the intelligence community and the CIA to increase their capabilities, because they want to recruit particularly younger brainpower onto their side, the side of destroying privacy and putting the Internet to use for the world's most powerful factions.

    “What the outcome of this conflict is, what the Internet ultimately becomes really is not answerable in any definitive way now. It depends so much on what it is that we, as human beings, do. One of the most pressing questions is whether people like the ones who are in this room, and the people who have the skills that you have, now and in the future, will succumb to those temptations, and go to work for the very entities that are attempting to destroy privacy around the world, or whether you will put your talents, skills and resources, to defending human beings from those invasions, and continuing to create effective technologies to protect our privacy. I am very optimistic, because that power does lie in your hands.”

    Glenn Greenwald Keynote on 30c3 (address begins at 5:00)



    As for how much we actually know about The Surveillance State’s activities? The following video from Global Research TV is a good summary of our current predicament.

    Justifying the Unjustifiable: Deconstructing the Lies of the NSA



    Related Posts:
  • The Surveillance State Killed BlackBerry, and the Same Fate Awaits Other Tech Giants

  • How to Protect Ourselves on Social Networks and from Data Collection Systems of Governments and Corporations

  • Powerhouse Panel Discussion on the Surveillance State and the War on Whistleblowers: Alexa O'Brien, Robert Manne, Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald, and David Coombs

  • Why the U.S. Government has such a hard-on for Edward Snowden

  • Anomalies, Prisons, and Geophysics: How Governments Use Data and How to Stop Them

  • Bradley Manning and the trial of the United States Military

  • A Candid Speaker and Three Hypocrites address the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly


  • Thursday, January 23, 2014

    Excellent Interview and Discussion on the Current State of Affairs in Turkey and What the Future May Hold for the Region

    Turkey is one of the major players involved in the Syrian conflict (2), it is an area of interest in the pipeline wars, and is paying a high price due to the destabilization of the region brought about by the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq. In short, the shit is hitting the fan in Turkey.

    Below you will find an excellent interview and discussion with Sibel Edmonds on The Corbett Report regarding the current state of affairs in Turkey and what the future may hold for the region.
    “In this exclusive interview for the Boiling Frogs Post Eyeopener report, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds discusses her recent article, “Turkish PM Erdogan: The Speedy Transformation of an Imperial Puppet”. We talk about Erdogan's falling out with Fethullah Gülen and the CIA, and how serviceable puppets are discarded by their shadow government masters when they reach their ‘expiration date.’”
    Sibel Edmonds Explains the CIA's "Reverse Engineering" of Erdogan

    Tuesday, January 21, 2014

    Pomegranate Salad Dressing Recipe: Maple Syrup, Hemp Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic

    See Table of Contents for additional material related to Pomegranates, ASMR Pomegranates and ASMR.

    Eating a Big Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon (ASMR - Tapping, Male, Chewing, Crunching)


    Recipe:

    2 Cups of Pomegranate Seeds
    1/3 to 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
    1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
    1/4 Cup Hemp Oil (Olive Oil)
    1 to 2 Cloves of Garlic
    1/4 to 1/2 Tea Spoon of Cayenne Pepper

    Adjust according to how much you need and how sweet/spicy/sharp you like the taste.

    Monday, January 20, 2014

    Excellent Lecture on Our Indefinite Growth Based Economic System: Problems and Solutions with David Harvey

    In the following lecture, David Harvey discusses some of the limitations of our indefinite growth based economic system and provides some solutions to fix the problems.

    The Contradictions of Capital - David Harvey


    Friday, January 17, 2014

    Eating a Big Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon (ASMR)

    I had some requests from the ASMR community to create a longer version of “Eating a Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon”, so I did. Hope you enjoy, Peace :)

    Eating a Big Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon (ASMR - Tapping, Male, Chewing, Crunching)

    Thursday, January 16, 2014

    Excellent Lecture and Panel Discussion on the Madness of Prohibition

    The following lecture by Sanho Tree and panel discussion with Dr. Dominic Corva and Dr. Sunil Aggarwal predates the legalization of cannabis in Washington State and Colorado and Uruguay becoming the first country in the world to legalize the production and sale of cannabis, but it is well worth the watch and covers many of the devastating aspects of America’s War on Drugs. It includes an excellent summary of Plan Colombia, Mexico’s militarization of the war on drugs, benefits of certain ‘drugs’, and much more. The lecture ends at about the 40-minute mark with 20 minutes dedicated to comments by the other Panelists.

    Pirate Television: Sanho Tree - Addicted to Failure

    Tuesday, January 14, 2014

    It’s Not Just the Mainstream Media That Is Scripted to Manufacture Consent, so Are Our Politicians


    I. Manufacturing Consent


    To say that mainstream media is controlled is an understatement. We’ve gone far past the time of relatively semi-covert CIA programs such as Operation Mockingbird where “some 3,000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts.” Those days are long gone; the mainstream media is now openly scripted (2-pdf) to manufacture consent.
    “We're not analyzing the media on Mars or in the eighteenth century or something like that. We're dealing with real human beings who are suffering and dying and being tortured and starving because of policies that we are involved in, we as citizens of democratic societies are directly involved in and are responsible for, and what the media are doing is ensuring that we do not act on our responsibilities, and that the interests of power are served, not the needs of the suffering people, and not even the needs of the American people who would be horrified if they realized the blood that's dripping from their hands because of the way they are allowing themselves to be deluded and manipulated by the system.” - Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992
    Manufacturing Consent: Thought Control in a Democratic Society


    For example, in the following three videos, Conan O'Brien’s Team Coco provide excerpts from a few mainstream media ‘news’ outlets, showing the full extent of the homogeneity of the script. As Conan states, “that’s kind of scary!”, “I find it frightening.”

    Conan O'Brien Fully Exposes Mainstream Media


    Media Reacts: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition


    Media Reacts: A Child's Happiness Edition



    II. Our Politicians are Scripted


    It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s not just the mainstream media that has been scripted for conformity. Majority of our politicians as well have been scripted to present a uniform front. They are, in essence, puppets, the strings for which are firmly in the hands of the plutocrats (2, 3).

    A good example of the boldness of the puppet masters in revealing their hand, taunting us as if naught could be done, is presented below. In the following video, chronicling events from 2003, we witness Stephen Harper and John Howard reciting a near identical speech where they urge their respective countries to join the Coalition of the Willing and support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

    Stephen Harper copies John Howard


    The question we should be asking ourselves is; who wrote this script? It’s a safe bet to assume that the speech did not originate from either party, and this is not just some conspiracy theory. As Noam Chomsky points out in a 2006 Q&A session, “The people who run the country are those in political office, but much more importantly their associates and the concentrations of private economic power.”
    “To tell you the honest truth, I doubt very much that George Bush has much to do with policy formation, I mean, the way the President is more or less like royalty in the United States. So the Queen of England opens Parliament with a speech, right, but nobody asks whether she believes it, or whether she understands it. Her role is a ceremonial role. It’s a role that’s connected with unity of the people, patriotism, obedience, and so on and so forth. The content is something else, that’s by people who run the country.

    “The people who run the country are those in political office, but much more importantly their associates and the concentrations of private economic power. That’s where the country is really run, and that shouldn’t be a big secret either. America’s leading social philosopher John Dewey, who’s right very mainstream American, he pointed out that once, that as long as we have what he called industrial feudalism rather than industrial democracy - that means tyrannical totalitarian institutions running the economy – command economies basically, instead of industrial democracy where workers control management, as long as we have that than ‘politics will be the shadow cast by business over society’, and that’s approximately accurate. It’s not like the State has no independent choices, it does, but an amalgam.
    Noam Chomsky on Who Controls Government



    III. Mainstream Media’s Script


    As to how mainstream media goes about the business of manipulating its audience? The following two videos are a good introduction to this topic.

    Charlie Brooker's How to Report the News - Newswipe - BBC Four


    This Is What Happens When You Watch Mainstream Media TV News


    An excellent in-depth four-part documentary series exploring how our governments and the mainstream media go about the business of manufacturing consent available through, “The Century of the Self” (easily found online). A shorter introductory documentary on why we are being bombarded with the same message from centralized powers through, “Human Resources: Social Engineering In The 20th Century”.

    Human Resources: Social Engineering In The 20th Century


    Sunday, January 12, 2014

    Graffiti and Murals from Northern Ireland: Taking a Walk in Belfast in Autumn of 1998

    A few days ago I watched Steve McQueen’s “Hunger”, the British-Irish historical drama about the 1981 Irish hunger strike which took place in protest to the inhumane conditions inside the infamous Maze Prison - quite a relevant topic considering our current predicament (2).

    After finishing the movie and taking a moment to catch my breath, I remembered that I had a few pictures from my trip to Ireland that I wanted to share.

    In autumn of 1998 I made my way to Northern Ireland. I was in Belfast a few months after the signing of the Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement). When I arrived in the city, I was told that it wasn’t the best of times to be there. There had been some outbreaks of violence and tensions were running high. I was warned that it wasn’t safe to venture the city and that I should stay in the well-known areas. I didn’t follow this advice.

    I put on my walking shoes, grabbed my camera and some supplies, and went for a two-day excursion in and around the city. I got some inquisitive looks during my journey but I kept on smiling and nodding and making sure that people understood that I was just a passerby, probably lost and of no threat. I’m not even sure if that was necessary since no one really paid me heed, but better safe than sorry when travelling in unknown territory.

    Below you will find 32 pictures taken of some graffiti, murals, writings, and tags from Belfast during this short 1998 walkabout. The first image is a mural of the ten prisoners who died during the 1981 hunger strike depicted in Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” (click images to enlarge and expand).































































    Originally shared these images in 2009 on the previous site.

    Wednesday, January 8, 2014

    Here Is What Happened in Fallujah in 2004, a Prelude for What Is to Come in 2014

    The war that will determine the future of Iraq is just beginning (2, 3, 4). The temporary illusion of pacification, control, and peace that was financed by U.S. taxpayers through the “surge” and the “Awakening” has vanished. Left behind are a destitute people in a war-torn country awaiting their final fate as violence escalates in this proxy war between regional and global superpowers.

    Sound familiar? It should. It’s what many independent analysts were warning us about while our mainstream media pundits and politicians continued to celebrate the end of war, again and again.

    We’ll talk more about the reasons, the players, and the most likely outcome for the region in the future. For now, as the government of Iraq armed with U.S. weapons (2) and supported by Iran prepares to enter Fallujah to try and displace “terrorists” [sic] armed and supported by “Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, all allies of the United States” [sic], let’s take a look at what is in store for the inhabitants of this ancient land by taking a look at what happened in Fallujah in 2004 when the United States and Britain razed the city (please note, Dahr Jamail’s testimony of what happened in Fallujah is a must watch).

    1. Introduction, Concealing War Crimes in Fallujah

    2. Dahr Jamail on What Happened in Fallujah

    3. Documentary: Fallujah, the Hidden Massacre



    I. Introduction, Concealing War Crimes in Fallujah


    Every time I read a story published in Western mainstream media about what transpired in Fallujah in 2004 during two U.S. assaults on the city I feel sick.

    The evidence proving that the United States committed war crimes, slaughtering innocent men, women and children is irrefutable. The U.S. military’s use of chemical weapons is irrefutable. The destruction of a city amounting to collective punishment is irrefutable. All of this occurred because four Blackwater mercenaries were killed by Iraqis who were trying to protect their city from what we refer to as “America's Private Army”.

    I have tried to understand why Western mainstream media has remained complicit in its coverage and reporting of this event, and I believe I found the answer.

    On January 2, 2008, The Washington Times reported that:
    “…a secret intelligence assessment of the first battle of Fallujah shows that the U.S. military thinks that it lost control over information about what was happening in the town, leading to ‘political pressure’ that ended its April 2004 offensive with control being handed to Sunni insurgents.”
    This propaganda piece continues to state that:
    “…the decision to order an immediate assault on Fallujah, in response to the televised killing of four contractors from the private military firm Blackwater, effectively prevented the Marine Expeditionary Force charged with retaking the town from carrying out ‘shaping operations,’ such as clearing civilians from the area, which would have improved their chances of success.”
    According to the article:
    “Crucial to the failure…was the role of the Arabic satellite news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya… ‘They filmed scenes of dead babies from the hospital… Comparisons were made to the Palestinian intifada. Children were shown bespattered with blood; mothers were shown screaming and mourning day after day.’”
    The damning part of this article, which explains why Western mainstream media has continued to turn a blind eye to what happened in Fallujah is presented in the last two paragraphs (emphasis added):
    “…later in 2004, when U.S.-led forces successfully retook Fallujah, they brought with them 91 embedded reporters representing 60 press outlets, including Arabic ones. ‘False allegations of non-combatant casualties were made by Arab media in both campaigns, but in the second case embedded Western reporters offered a rebuttal,’ the authors said.”
    Did everyone catch that? While all non-western embedded and non-embedded journalists were reporting that innocent men, women and children were being massacred, “embedded Western reporters” were denying these reports.

    Do you feel sick yet? You should be by this time, especially if you remember that during World War II, Nazi ‘news’ sources never reported on German War Crimes, and if they did, they used words such as “false allegations”, “military action”, “informational battle”, “successfully retook”, and “presumably killed”.

    If you would like to know what really happened in Fallujah, then watch the following short excerpt from a lecture by Dahr Jamail, an award winning unembedded American journalist who was in Fallujah at the time of the U.S. assault.


    II. Dahr Jamail on What Happened in Fallujah


    On 8 December 2007 Dahr Jamail, an award winning American author and journalist who is best known as one of the few unembedded journalists to report extensively from the Iraq War, spoke to roughly 200 people at the Vancouver planetarium in British Columbia Canada about his book, “Beyond the Green Zone”, and the catastrophic occupation of Iraq.

    I attended this lecture and was fortunate enough to film the event. The following is an excerpt of the lecture, talking about what happened in Fallujah in 2004 when the United States and Britain assaulted the city. Additional videos from this lecture available at: “An American Perspective on Iraq, Dahr Jamail”.

    Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah: U.S. War Crimes
    more from Dahr Jamail: Dahr Jamail Returns to Iraq to Find Rampant Torture and a Failed State Living in "Utter Devastation" and Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq with Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers


    III. Documentary: Fallujah, the Hidden Massacre


    Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre


    Related Iraq Posts:
  • On this tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a reminder, according to the UN charter, the invasion was illegal

  • The British Military, Operating Death Squads from Belfast to Basra: Terrorizing Civilians is What Occupying Forces Do

  • Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah: U.S. Military and Western Mainstream Media trying to conceal War Crimes in Fallujah (Vengeance, Blackwater Style)


  • Monday, January 6, 2014

    An Exercise for the Mind: a 10 by 10 Math Puzzle: a Pattern Recognition Game: Meditation on an Open Maze


    Updates

    UPDATE 5 (EDIT): Here are two versions of the game available online to play for free: Version #1 and Version #2. And here are some solutions provided by cochd using the online game. Fun :)

    UPDATE 4: Playlist for videos, including live streams, related to this game available here: 10 by 10 Grid and Multiplication Table, plus a Math Puzzle, a Pattern Recognition Game.

    UPDATE 3: Two elegant solutions to this puzzle, completing it by breaking it down into four quadrants, provided here by JoxnJoxn and here by Alex K..

    UPDATE 2: I put together the following video for my ASMR Math series showing the gameplay. Hope you enjoy :)



    UPDATE 1: See end of post for some code that was provided by a couple of people to help play and obtain solutions for this game. A big thank you to Nicklas and angelatheist for helping out with this.



    Introduction
      A few years ago one of my students introduced me to a simple and intriguing game. He didn’t know where the game originated from but said that it was popular in Turkey, and that he and his friends loved playing it.

      It is probably best categorised as a mathematical puzzle that requires no arithmetic calculations, just placements of numbers based on two rules; hence I prefer to refer to this puzzle as a pattern recognition game, or simply, an exercise for the mind using an open maze – a meditation of sorts.


    The Purpose of the Game
      To take a 10 by 10 grid, equaling 100 squares, and completely filling in every square based on two types of movements.

    The Rules are Simple
      1) Create a 10 by 10 grid (graph paper or a spread sheet will come in very handy).


      2) Fill one of the squares with the number 1, then, based on the following two movement types, use consecutive numbers to fill in the rest of the grid:
        Movement Type I: If the next number in the sequence is going to be placed vertically or horizontally, then it must be placed exactly three squares away from the previous number - there must be a two square gap between the numbers.

        Movement Type II: If the next number in the sequence is going to be placed diagonally, then it must be placed exactly two squares away from the previous number - there must be a one square gap between the numbers.



      3) Numbers can only be placed in empty squares - once a square has been used it can not be used again. All placements must occur within the grid.

      4) Game is complete when the number 100 is reached - when all empty squares in the grid are filled. If you cannot continue placing numbers based on the two movement types above, and empty squares remain in the grid, then the puzzle is not complete and the game lost.

    Two Incomplete Examples and a Solution
      Example 1: The first example is one where I tried to get the worst possible result. I was able to end the game in 6 moves.


      Example 2: The second example is my best result so far. In this example I was able to reach 99 – one move short of finishing the game.


      A Solution: The final example is a solution completed by my student who introduced me to the game. He had been playing this game for approximately three years, and this was the only solution that he had been able to obtain during this period. This means that we know there will be at least four solutions to this game – the one presented below and its three mirrors (CORRECTION: As Mark VP pointed out in the comments, "if you have a solution, there are 7 other ones you can get through symmetries, e.g. 3 by rotating, and 4 more by mirroring those 4 around a diagonal." Thank you, Mark, for three extra solutions). It would be interesting to find out how many solutions actually do exist - any mathematicians or programmers out there interested in tackling this problem?


    Variations
      Aside from creating a weighted scoring system or using symbols instead of numbers to fill in the squares, two variants could be: 1) give a starting point and an end point for the game – this will dramatically increase the difficulty of the puzzle; 2) create different types of grids but maintain the same placement rules – an example is presented below.


    For anyone who wants to try this out, below you will find a sheet with 12 grids (click to enlarge). Ideally, a simple program based on the parameters above loaded on a device with a touchscreen would be the best way to play this game. If you are into such things, I hope the game entertains you, and if you find anymore solutions, please send them my way. Thanks in advance.



    Play Online:
      1) Here are two versions of the game available online to play for free: Version #1 and Version #2. Thank you to the peeple that put these together. Good luck and Enjoy.


    Notes:
      1) See Nicklas Kulp's comment below for a link to a Jar file that runs a program that allows you to play on a 10 by 10 grid on your computer. Seems legit and worked for me, so thank you Nicklas (the file).

      2) See angelatheist's comment below for a link to a python script to get solutions to this puzzle (link to the code). Thanks angelatheist.


    Videos: