Three Excellent Economics Lectures Focused on Disruptive Innovation by Clayton Christensen

Below you will find three excellent lectures on economics by Clayton Christensen, “the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.”

The first lecture regarding disruptive innovation is one of the best lectures I have ever seen on economics and makes a compelling argument as to why there is so much turmoil in our current economic system. The next two, continue and expand on his train of thought.

Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation - Clarendon Lectures 10th June 2013

Clayton Christensen on management - Clarendon Lectures 11th June 2013

Clayton Christensen about the process of research - Clarendon Lectures 12th June 2013

The Library of Alexandria and the Martyrdom of Hypatia: Excerpts from Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’ and Lon Milo Duquette’s ‘Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium’

I first heard about the Library of Alexandria when I was in high school. Unfortunately, being a captive of our current education system I really wasn’t given the opportunity to ponder the implications of the creation of the largest library - at the time - known in human existence or its eventual destruction. I was herded into the next classroom and forced to change my train of thought to whatever subject matter was at hand.

I had intended to look up the history of Alexandria further when I had more time, but youth being what it is, I never got around to it, not until I was reminded to do so through Carl Sagan’s thirteen-part television masterpiece “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”.

“It covered a wide range of scientific subjects including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe…. The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980, and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until [1990]…. As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. It won an Emmy and a Peabody Award and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people.”

The importance of the Library of Alexandria is implied in Sagan’s work as he opens and concludes Cosmos by taking us back to this ancient city and recounting its history.

In the first episode, “The Shores Of The Cosmic Ocean”, Sagan introduces us to the library and states that if he “could travel back into time, this is the place that [he] would visit”. As to why Sagan has brought us to this place? As he states:

“But why have I brought you across two thousand years to the Library of Alexandria, because this was when and where we humans first collected seriously and systematically the knowledge of the world.”

In the final episode of the series, “Who Speaks for Earth?”, Sagan tells us of the destruction of the Library and the murder of one of its most renowned stewards, Hypatia, an Alexandrine philosopher “who was one of the earliest mothers of mathematics.”

Below you will find a short video providing some excerpts from both episodes of the series (the full episodes are available on Vimeo at the moment: Episode 1 and Episode 13). Suffice it to say, in my opinion, the entire series should be mandatory viewing for everyone coming of age.

The Frailty of Knowledge: Sagan on the Library of Alexandria, Hypatia

I did my research into the Library of Alexandria after finishing Cosmos, and since mathematics is very close to my heart, after finding out about Hypatia, I did some research into her martyrdom as well. Fury is an understatement to describe how I felt after I found out what took place and why.

Below you will find one of the best accounts that I have come cross on what happened to Hypatia in 415 A.D. in the city of Alexandria. The four short pages are the full text that comprise Lon Milo DuQuette’s Chapter VI from “Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium: Musings on Modern Magick”. The chapter is entitled, “Devil Be My God”, and it’s a timely read considering the recent revelations of the horrors that have been visited upon humanity by our religious institutions [sic] and the proposed horrors that are set to befall us thanks to our totalitarian governments (2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

"In A.D. 415, Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, found himself in a most awkward position. Not only was he burdened with the task of concocting viable doctrines from the muddled and conflicting traditions of the young Christian cult, he was required to do so in the most sophisticated and enlightened pagan city on earth.

“Long before the alleged virgin birth of the crucified savior, Alexandria, with her celebrated schools and library, nurtured the greatest minds of the Mediterranean world and Asia. Here, religion and philosophy were lovers, and their union gave rise to dynamic environment of dialog and debate. On more than one occasion Cyril tried to glean converts from the student body of Neo-Platonic Academy, only to be stricken dumb by the discomforting realization that the fledgling philosophers were far more knowledgeable than he about the subtleties and shortcomings of his own faith. Uncomfortable as such moments were His Grace bore them dutifully. They afforded him the opportunity to suffer for his faith. His patience came to an end, however, when his faith and reputation were challenged by a brilliant and charismatic luminary of the Alexandrian School of Neo-Platonism, Hypatia-the greatest woman initiate of the ancient world.

“Hypatia of Alexandria was without question the most respected and influential thinker of her day. The daughter of the great mathematician Theon, she took over her father’s honored position at the Academy and lectured there for many years. She more than any other individual since Plotinus, the father of Neo-Platonism, grasped the profound potential of that school of thought. Her lectures were wildly popular and attracted a stream of scholars who saw in Neo-Platonism the possibility of a truly universal spiritual order-a supreme philosophy- an enlightened religion to unite all religions. Such was the golden promise of Neo-Platonism, and Hypatia of Alexandria was its virgin prophetess.

“Troubled by the continued degeneration of the Christian movement, its intolerance of other faiths and its dangerous preoccupation with miracles and wonders, Hypatia began a series of public lectures dealing with the cult. She revealed the pagan roots of the faith and systematically unmasked the absurdities and superstitions that had infected the movement. Then, with power and eloquence surpassing that of any Christian apologist, she elucidated upon what she understood to be the true spiritual treasures found in the purported teachings of the ‘Christ’.

“Her arguments were so persuasive that many new converts to the cult renounced their conversions and became disciples of Hypatia. Her lectures stimulated enormous interest in Christianity, but not Christianity as it was presented by Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria.

“Not blessed with the strength of character necessary to suffer a personal confrontation with Hypatia, Cyril embarked upon a campaign of personal vilification by preaching to his unwashed and fanatical flock that Hypatia was a menace to the faith, a sorceress in league with the Devil. These diatribes seemed to have little effect upon the sophisticated population of urban Alexandria who were beginning to realize that Bishop Cyril’s Christianity was a cult that didn’t play well with other children. Deep in the Nitrian dessert, however, Cyril’s hateful words eventually reached the crude monastery of Peter the Reader.

“Years of preaching to the wind and converting scorpions had uniquely qualified Peter to be the cleansing sword of the Prince of Peace, and the thought of a devil-possessed woman attacking his savior was more than this man of God could stomach. Mustering a rag-tag collection of fellow hermits, he marched to Alexandria where they met with officials of the Caesarean church who informed him that each afternoon the shameless Hypatia drove her own chariot from the Academy to her home. Armed only with clubs, oyster shells, and the Grace of God, Peter and his mob ambushed Hypatia in the street near the Academy. Pulling her from her chariot they dragged her to the Caesarean church where they stripped her, beat her with clubs, and finally (because of an on-going debate over the soul’s eternal status if the corpse remained whole) scraped the flesh from her bones with the oyster shells. The scoops of flesh and the rest of her remains were then carried away and burned.

“The reaction of the Alexandrian community was one of confusion and shock, and the Neo-Platonist school was dealt a blow from which it never recovered. Although he went to great lengths to distance himself from the incident, Cyril took full advantage of the situation and used the terror of the moment to further intimidate the city and establish that the will of the Christian God was to be resisted an one’s own risk.

“The martyrdom of Hypatia was certainly not the first example of truth resisting evil and losing, but it did mark the beginning of a prolonged spiritual delirium tremor from which Western Civilization has never fully recovered. Even the bright souls who did not succumb to the universal madness were forced to blossom against the twisted projections of the collective nightmare.

“Spiritual growth is not impossible in such an environment. But where wisdom is perceived by the world to be ignorance; love is considered sin, and all that is best in the human spirit is condemned and repressed, the road by which a seeker of enlightenment must travel takes many curious turns. On such a journey one’s companions are outlaws and rebels; sacredness breeds in blaspheme, truth falls from the lips of false prophets, heaven is sought in hell, and God is the Devil himself."

Corporate City States and the Oligarchy: World Bank and the Federal Reserve: Shadow Governments and Their Secrecy

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Further information at: Not-so-Random Information: Introduction and Table of Contents

NOTE: Bill Moyers’ 1987 report on “The Secret Government” embedded below in Part III is a must watch.

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1. Corporate City States and the Oligarchy
2. World Bank and the Federal Reserve
3. Shadow Governments and Their Secrecy

I. Corporate City States and the Oligarchy

The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest - “It's the dark heart of Britain, the place where democracy goes to die, immensely powerful, equally unaccountable. But I doubt that one in 10 British people has any idea of what the Corporation of the City of London is and how it works. This could be about to change. Alongside the Church of England, the Corporation is seeking to evict the protesters camped outside St Paul's cathedral. The protesters, in turn, have demanded that it submit to national oversight and control.

“What is this thing? Ostensibly it's the equivalent of a local council, responsible for a small area of London known as the Square Mile. But, as its website boasts, ‘among local authorities the City of London is unique’. You bet it is. There are 25 electoral wards in the Square Mile. In four of them, the 9,000 people who live within its boundaries are permitted to vote. In the remaining 21, the votes are controlled by corporations, mostly banks and other financial companies. The bigger the business, the bigger the vote: a company with 10 workers gets two votes, the biggest employers, 79. It's not the workers who decide how the votes are cast, but the bosses, who ‘appoint’ the voters. Plutocracy, pure and simple….

“As Nicholas Shaxson explains in his fascinating book Treasure Islands, the Corporation exists outside many of the laws and democratic controls which govern the rest of the United Kingdom. The City of London is the only part of Britain over which parliament has no authority. In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected. The mayor of London's mandate stops at the boundaries of the Square Mile. There are, as if in a novel by China Miéville, two cities, one of which must unsee the other….

“The City has exploited this remarkable position to establish itself as a kind of offshore state, a secrecy jurisdiction which controls the network of tax havens housed in the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories. This autonomous state within our borders is in a position to launder the ill-gotten cash of oligarchs, kleptocrats, gangsters and drug barons.…

“It has also made the effective regulation of global finance almost impossible. Shaxson shows how the absence of proper regulation in London allowed American banks to evade the rules set by their own government. AIG's wild trading might have taken place in the US, but the unit responsible was regulated in the City. Lehman Brothers couldn't get legal approval for its off-balance sheet transactions in Wall Street, so it used a London law firm instead. No wonder priests are resigning over the plans to evict the campers. The Church of England is not just working with Mammon; it's colluding with Babylon.”

3 'City States' Rule the World Full documentary: “Ring of Power”

II. World Bank and the Federal Reserve

World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve - “A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve. The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success.

“Citing an explosive 2011 Swiss study published in the PLOS ONE journal on the ‘network of global corporate control,’ Hudes pointed out that a small group of entities — mostly financial institutions and especially central banks — exert a massive amount of influence over the international economy from behind the scenes. ‘What is really going on is that the world’s resources are being dominated by this group,’ she explained, adding that the ‘corrupt power grabbers’ have managed to dominate the media as well. ‘They’re being allowed to do it.’”

World Bank Whistleblower Karen Hudes Spills More! 11-30-13

III. Shadow Governments and Their Secrecy

A Shadow Government Controls America - “There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power….

“Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an ‘establishment.’ All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State-s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude.”

The Secret Government: Bill Moyers (1987)

Russia, Ukraine and Western Mainstream Media: The Secret State and Its Assassination Program: Assange, WikiLeaks and the NSA: E.P.A. and Chemical Companies Silencing Scientist: Revolt, Unite and Conquer

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Further information at: Not-so-Random Information: Introduction and Table of Contents

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1. Russia, Ukraine and Western Mainstream Media
2. The Secret State and Its Assassination Program
3. Assange, WikiLeaks and the NSA
4. E.P.A. and Chemical Companies Silencing Scientist
5. Revolt, Unite and Conquer

I. Russia, Ukraine and Western Mainstream Media

Distorting Russia: How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine - “Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts. (Was any Soviet Communist leader after Stalin ever so personally villainized?) If Russia under Yeltsin was presented as having legitimate politics and national interests, we are now made to believe that Putin’s Russia has none at all, at home or abroad—even on its own borders, as in Ukraine….

“Russia today has serious problems and many repugnant Kremlin policies. But anyone relying on mainstream American media will not find there any of their origins or influences in Yeltsin’s Russia or in provocative US policies since the 1990s—only in the ‘autocrat’ Putin who, however authoritarian, in reality lacks such power. Nor is he credited with stabilizing a disintegrating nuclear-armed country, assisting US security pursuits from Afghanistan and Syria to Iran or even with granting amnesty, in December, to more than 1,000 jailed prisoners, including mothers of young children….

“The Sochi Games will soon pass, triumphantly or tragically, but the potentially fateful Ukrainian crisis will not. A new Cold War divide between West and East may now be unfolding, not in Berlin but in the heart of Russia’s historical civilization. The result could be a permanent confrontation fraught with instability and the threat of a hot war far worse than the one in Georgia in 2008. These dangers have been all but ignored in highly selective, partisan and inflammatory US media accounts, which portray the European Union’s ‘Partnership’ proposal benignly as Ukraine’s chance for democracy, prosperity and escape from Russia, thwarted only by a ‘bullying’ Putin and his ‘cronies’ in Kiev.”

A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup

II. The Secret State and Its Assassination Program

The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program - “The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

“According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.”

“The drone operator, who agreed to discuss the top-secret programs on the condition of anonymity, was a member of JSOC’s High Value Targeting task force, which is charged with identifying, capturing or killing terrorist suspects in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

Seeing The Secret State: Six Landscapes [30c3]

III. Assange, WikiLeaks and the NSA

Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks and Its Supporters - “Top-secret documents from the National Security Agency and its British counterpart reveal for the first time how the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom targeted WikiLeaks and other activist groups with tactics ranging from covert surveillance to prosecution.

“The efforts – detailed in documents provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – included a broad campaign of international pressure aimed not only at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but at what the U.S. government calls ‘the human network that supports WikiLeaks.’ The documents also contain internal discussions about targeting the file-sharing site Pirate Bay and hacktivist collectives such as Anonymous.

“One classified document from Government Communications Headquarters, Britain’s top spy agency, shows that GCHQ used its surveillance system to secretly monitor visitors to a WikiLeaks site. By exploiting its ability to tap into the fiber-optic cables that make up the backbone of the Internet, the agency confided to allies in 2012, it was able to collect the IP addresses of visitors in real time, as well as the search terms that visitors used to reach the site from search engines like Google….

“In 2008, not long after WikiLeaks was formed, the U.S. Army prepared a report that identified the organization as an enemy, and plotted how it could be destroyed. The new documents provide a window into how the U.S. and British governments appear to have shared the view that WikiLeaks represented a serious threat, and reveal the controversial measures they were willing to take to combat it.”

Julian Assange on Being Placed on NSA "Manhunting" List & Secret Targeting of WikiLeaks Supporters Part 2

IV. E.P.A. and Chemical Companies Silencing Scientist

A Valuable Reputation: After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him - “In 2001, seven years after joining the biology faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Tyrone Hayes stopped talking about his research with people he didn’t trust. He instructed the students in his lab, where he was raising three thousand frogs, to hang up the phone if they heard a click, a signal that a third party might be on the line. Other scientists seemed to remember events differently, he noticed, so he started carrying an audio recorder to meetings. ‘The secret to a happy, successful life of paranoia,’ he liked to say, ‘is to keep careful track of your persecutors.’

“Three years earlier, Syngenta, one of the largest agribusinesses in the world, had asked Hayes to conduct experiments on the herbicide atrazine, which is applied to more than half the corn in the United States. Hayes was thirty-one, and he had already published twenty papers on the endocrinology of amphibians. David Wake, a professor in Hayes’s department, said that Hayes ‘may have had the greatest potential of anyone in the field.’ But, when Hayes discovered that atrazine might impede the sexual development of frogs, his dealings with Syngenta became strained, and, in November, 2000, he ended his relationship with the company.

“Hayes continued studying atrazine on his own, and soon he became convinced that Syngenta representatives were following him to conferences around the world. He worried that the company was orchestrating a campaign to destroy his reputation. He complained that whenever he gave public talks there was a stranger in the back of the room, taking notes. On a trip to Washington, D.C., in 2003, he stayed at a different hotel each night. He was still in touch with a few Syngenta scientists and, after noticing that they knew many details about his work and his schedule, he suspected that they were reading his e-mails. To confuse them, he asked a student to write misleading e-mails from his office computer while he was travelling. He sent backup copies of his data and notes to his parents in sealed boxes. In an e-mail to one Syngenta scientist, he wrote that he had ‘risked my reputation, my name . . . some say even my life, for what I thought (and now know) is right.’ A few scientists had previously done experiments that anticipated Hayes’s work, but no one had observed such extreme effects. In another e-mail to Syngenta, he acknowledged that it might appear that he was suffering from a ‘Napoleon complex’ or ‘delusions of grandeur.’…

“Hayes published his atrazine work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a year and a half after quitting the panel. He wrote that what he called ‘hermaphroditism’ was induced in frogs by exposure to atrazine at levels thirty times below what the E.P.A. permits in water. He hypothesized that the chemical could be a factor in the decline in amphibian populations, a phenomenon observed all over the world. In an e-mail sent the day before the publication, he congratulated the students in his lab for taking the ‘ethical stance’ by continuing the work on their own. ‘We (and our principles) have been tested, and I believe we have not only passed but exceeded expectations,’ he wrote. ‘Science is a principle and a process of seeking truth. Truth cannot be purchased and, thus, truth cannot be altered by money. Professorship is not a career, but rather a life’s pursuit. The people with whom I work daily exemplify and remind me of this promise.’”

Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted by Herbicide Firm Syngenta

V. Revolt, Unite and Conquer

Have Americans Lost ALL of Our Constitutional Rights? - “This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right. (This is an updated version of an essay we wrote in February. Since then, it has become apparent that the few rights we thought we had left are largely illusory.)”

Unite and Conquer: Fighting Back Against the Oligarchy

The Pomegranate ASMR Video Page

As a follow-up to the beard ASMR videos (picking wet hair and dry hair), while making the pomegranate videos I decided to produce some of them specifically for the ASMR community.

Pomegranates are one of my favorite fruits and when they are in season, I end up gorging on them. I enjoy them not just because they are extremely beautiful, delicious and good for you, but also because they take time and care to enjoy and I find the experience meditative, i.e., it tickles my brain.

The following videos share this process. ASMR videos regarding other topics will be produced in the future.

Eating a Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon - ASMR - Soft-Spoken, Male, Chewing, Crunching

How to Squish Pomegranates on a Table -- ASMR -- Crunching, Cracking, Soft-Spoken, Male

Close-up of How to Squish Pomegranates with Your Fingers - ASMR - Crunching, Cracking, Soft-Spoken

First Person Perspective of Squishing Pomegranates -- ASMR -- Crunching, Cracking, Soft-Spoken

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

Cutting 11 Pomegranates in Half -- ASMR -- Cracking, Tapping, Crunching, Male, No Talking

Deseeding 11 Pomegranates -- ASMR -- Tapping, Crunching, Male, No Talking

Eating a Bowl of Yogurt and Pomegranates Seeds at a 1 to 1 Ratio - ASMR - Male, Crunching

Eating a Bowl of Pomegranates Seeds with Apples and Dark Chocolate with a Spoon [ASMR]

Pomegranate, Apple, Chocolate Fruit Salad Eating a Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with Apples and Cocoa/Cacao [ASMR]

Eating Fruit Salad: Pomegranate Seeds, Kiwi, Persimmons, Hemp Hearts, Mulberries & Cacao Nibs [ASMR]

Let's Make Some Pomegranate Liqueur: Tasting Homemade Liqueurs, How to Make, Recipe

The Pomegranate Video Page

Initially it was my intention to do a nice little write-up about pomegranates, create a couple of videos, get into some of its health benefits, and then go off on a minor tangent and include a little discussion about the significance of Sergei Parajanov’s 1968 Soviet-Armenian psychedelic film, “The Color of Pomegranates” (imdb, full movie linked below):

“One of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, Sergei Parajanov's ‘Color of the Pomegranate,’ a biography of the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova (King of Song) reveals the poet's life more through his poetry than a conventional narration of important events in Sayat Nova's life. We see the poet grow up, fall in love, enter a monastery and die, but these incidents are depicted in the context of what are images from Sergei Parajanov's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems, poems that are seen and rarely heard. Sofiko Chiaureli plays 6 roles, both male and female, and Sergei Parajanov writes, directs, edits, choreographs, works on costumes, design and decor and virtually every aspect of this revolutionary work void of any dialog or camera movement.”

The Color of Pomegranates: Sayat Nova. Sergéi Paradzhánov

That was the initial intention, but I sort of went a little ballistic on the video aspect of the project. Since the videos say and share as much if not more than what my initial intensions were for that phase, I figured I’d end it here and just create a Playlist linking to all the pomegranate videos I ended up putting together. It was a fun little project and I hope you enjoy. Peace.

1) Eating a Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon

2) How to Eat Pomegranates Part 1: Two Ways to Eat the Seeds, Tapping Them out and Munching on the Pods

3) How to Eat Pomegranates Part 2: Squishing Pomegranates and Sucking out the Juice

4) How to Squish Pomegranates on a Table

5) Close-up of How to Squish Pomegranates with Your Fingers

6) First Person Perspective of Squishing Pomegranates

7) Pomegranate Squirting from Too Much Squishing, This Is What It Looks like

8) Eating a Big Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with a Spoon

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

10) Cutting 11 Pomegranates in Half

11) Deseeding 11 Pomegranates

12) Eating a Bowl of Yogurt and Pomegranates Seeds at a 1 to 1 Ratio

13) Eating a Bowl of Pomegranates Seeds with Apples and Dark Chocolate with a Spoon

14) Pomegranate, Apple, Chocolate Fruit Salad Eating a Bowl of Pomegranate Seeds with Apples and Cocoa/Cacao

15) Eating Fruit Salad: Pomegranate Seeds, Kiwi, Persimmons, Hemp Hearts, Mulberries & Cacao Nibs [ASMR]

16) Let's Make Some Pomegranate Liqueur: Tasting Homemade Liqueurs, How to Make, Recipe [ASMR]

A Blast from the Past: The Language of Mathematics on Google Maps Street View

Winter is nearly at an end, spring is in the air, and it’s almost time to do some math. I’ve been gearing up to start producing another full season of math videos for The Language of Mathematics and Math in Real Life. There is a lot planned for 2014 so it should be a nice full year of some math goodness.

Once the weather warms up and the consecutive days of rain cease, we’ll be heading out with the camcorder and the tripod to find some nice walls where we can continue working on Series IV as well as producing some videos on a few random and not-so-random topics. A lot more on that later. For now, I’d like to share a little blast from the past.

A few weeks ago, while a friend was surfing Street View of Vancouver on Google Maps she came across one of my favorite walls in the city, and it so happens to have captured one of my handiworks from the math videos.

The site has some sentimental value for me. It’s the first wall I used when I began this project back in 2007, and shows the location of the first math video I loaded on YouTube. For those that have been around long enough, if you recall, it was the wall that I used to create the videos where we discussed the Real Number Set (Part 1 and Part 2) in Series I.

The image that my friend found shows my handiwork from Series IVa on the wall. It’s from the video where we discussed systems, SI units, and where we created a conversion table for colored squares and triangles. You’ll find the video we created below, and if you are so inclined, you can use Google’s Street View to check out the area further if you want to have a feel for why this wall is the only location that I have come back to for every series since starting this project - a wall that we will most likely visit for many years to come.


View Larger Map

2011: Series IV - Systems, SI Units, and a Conversion Table for Colored Squares and Triangles (Math Series IVa #146)

As for the rest of the videos that were produced in this area, you will find them below. For multi-part sets, the links are provided below the videos that have been embedded. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed creating them. Peace.

2007: Series I - The Language of Mathematics (3): The Real Number Set - Part 1 Part 2: The Language of Mathematics (4)

2008: Series II - Language of Mathematics II (42): Exponents and Radicals (1 of 3) Part 2 and Part 3. I also put together a set of these videos linking the concept of exponents and radicals with the real number set: Part 1 and Part 2

2009: Series IIIa - Language of Mathematics III (63): Black holes and elementary particles (Part 2) Part 1: The Language of Mathematics III (62)

2010: Series IIIb - Why Do We Factor? Introduction to Factoring Polynomials: The Language of Mathematics IIIb (105)

CIA’s Regime Changing Activities in Venezuela: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Chavez: Inside the Coup)

There is unrest in Venezuela again and the odds are that the CIA’s regime changing activities have a lot to do with it. A good time to take a look at an amazing documentary about the last time the CIA started a coup in Venezuela: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, also known as Chávez: Inside the Coup, is a 2003 documentary focusing on events in Venezuela leading up to and during the April 2002 coup d'état attempt, which saw President Hugo Chávez removed from office for two days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader Pedro Carmona; and the Carmona administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return.”

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Chavez: Inside the Coup

Two plus Two Does Not Equal Five: Will the Real Terrorist and Drug Lords Please Stand up

The root cause of society’s ills is how we deal with education. Deep down we all know this, but for decades we have barely lifted a finger to address it. The main reason for this inaction is because most of us are ourselves products of this defective system. We have been programmed for obedience.

The degree of indoctrination that we are exposed to varies depending on the intensity of the totalitarian nature of the state. All centralized institutions indoctrinate. All centralized powers lack transparency. All centralized information is incontestable.

2+2=5 | Two & Two - Nominated as Best Short Film of 2012 Bafta Film Awards

For example, after centuries of committing crimes against humanity and overseeing genocides across the globe, it was only just recently that it was officially recognized that the catholic church has been, for decades, systematically sexually abusing children:

“The Roman Catholic Church has ‘systematically’ protected predator priests, allowing ‘tens of thousands’ of children to be abused, a United Nations committee said Wednesday in a scathing report that cast the first shadow over Pope Francis’ honeymoon period as pontiff.”

Anyone who has even remotely done any research on this topic, or has been the unfortunate victim of such horrendous crimes would tell you that they did not need a UN report to tell them the truth, but that is the nature of centralized institutions. Only when they are on the verge of collapse do we officially recognize their crimes.

QandA May 25th - response to question on Ryan Commission Report

Below you will find two other examples of the truth seeping out of the cracks. An article and video on U.S. government policy of terrorizing and assassinating innocent civilians, as well as an article and video on U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking. The only question that remains is, are we going to assist in the collapse of this empire, or is our indoctrination so absolute that we will dismiss the brutal truth and continue to support this system?

The Real Terrorists
The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program - “The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

“According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using….

“One problem, he explains, is that targets are increasingly aware of the NSA’s reliance on geolocating, and have moved to thwart the tactic. Some have as many as 16 different SIM cards associated with their identity within the High Value Target system. Others, unaware that their mobile phone is being targeted, lend their phone, with the SIM card in it, to friends, children, spouses and family members….

“As a result, even when the agency correctly identifies and targets a SIM card belonging to a terror suspect, the phone may actually be carried by someone else, who is then killed in a strike. According to the former drone operator, the geolocation cells at the NSA that run the tracking program – known as Geo Cell –sometimes facilitate strikes without knowing whether the individual in possession of a tracked cell phone or SIM card is in fact the intended target of the strike.”

Death By Metadata: Jeremy Scahill & Glenn Greenwald Reveal NSA Role in Assassinations Overseas Part 2, Part 3

The Real Drug Lords
Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke - “If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.

“Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a ‘record’ financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.”

Mike Levine & Gary Webb - The Big White Lie + Dark Alliance = CIA drug cartel

It’s Not the Economy Stupid, It’s Your Stupid Foreign Policy: How to Get Rid of Our Oligarchs

Isn’t what’s going on in the Ukraine, this attempt at regime change, which is unfortunately on the verge of turning into a full blown proxy-civil war (2) threatening to bring about the Balkanization of the region, the same game that has been played out in countless other countries for the better part of the last century?

1. 1953 Regime Change in Iran
2. War Crimes in Iraq
3. Mainstream Media and the Need for Insurrection
4. Gladio B and The Grand Chessboard
5. The Need to Become Politically Aware

I. 1953 Regime Change in Iran

It was the 1953 CIA instigated coup of the democratically elected government of Iran that really began the regime changing endeavors of the Western superpowers.

The first attempt of a Middle Eastern country to free themselves of Western control of their resources occurred with Iran in 1951 when the democratically elected president, Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq, nationalizated Iran's oil industry. Unfortunately, however, Western powers would not stand idly by while Iranians took control of their own resources, which is why in 1953 the CIA, following instructions from Britain, organized a coup against Dr. Mosaddeq and overthrew the government.

This was a well-documented event and general knowledge among all those who have lived in the Middle East and Asia for decades, but was not well known in the West until the year 2000 when the United States government released documents on the operation, and apologized to Iran and its people for the devastation that it unleashed.

The following short two-part documentary is a good introduction to this topic, and without a doubt, should be mandatory viewing in school curriculums in the United States and the UK.

Operation Ajax: Iran and the CIA Coup in 1953 Pt. 1/2

Operation Ajax: Iran and the CIA Coup in 1953 Pt. 2/2

It was the fall of Mohammad Mosaddeq more than any other event in the last century that has empowered and given credence to the covert undertakings of the CIA and the military–industrial complex as well as the neoconservative oil barons and their banking associates on Wall Street - from now on referred to as the oligarchs.

II. War Crimes in Iraq

What we have to understand is that it’s not the fact that these oligarchs have been successful in overthrowing countless nations that has brought us to the brink of World War III (2). It’s the fact that the majority of Western citizens continue to be mesmerized and hypnotized, satisfied with the activities of the oligarchs as long as some wealth trickles down to them, or that they are oblivious and apathetic to the death and destruction that is being unleashed in their names, that is the problem. This indifference to the suffering of ‘others’ has been the main reason that state sponsored terrorism has been codified and normalized as an acceptable form of foreign policy - as long as it is our nations that are doing the terrorizing of course.

In the following excerpt, 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, describes what transpired in Fallujah in 2004 during two U.S. assaults on the city. These war crimes are part of our history and will never be forgotten, or forgiven.

Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah: U.S. War Crimes

III. Mainstream Media and the Need for Insurrection

The main facilitator, normalizing such war crimes has been the mainstream media (2). As Noam Chomsky pointed out regarding U.S. operations on the African continent in a recent piece entitled, “No Wonder the World Is Terrified of America -- We're the Biggest Threat: Keeping the world safe from America”:

“The death of Nelson Mandela provides another occasion for reflection on the remarkable impact of what has been called ‘historical engineering’: reshaping the facts of history to serve the needs of power.

“When Mandela at last obtained his freedom, he declared that ‘During all my years in prison, Cuba was an inspiration and Fidel Castro a tower of strength. . [Cuban victories] destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa . a turning point for the liberation of our continent - and of my people - from the scourge of apartheid. . What other country can point to a record of greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations to Africa?’…

“The U.S.-approved version is quite different. From the first days after South Africa agreed to withdraw from illegally occupied Namibia in 1988, paving the way for the end of apartheid, the outcome was hailed by The Wall Street Journal as a ‘splendid achievement’ of American diplomacy, ‘one of the most significant foreign policy achievements of the Reagan administration.’…

“To the end, the Reaganites remained virtually alone in their strong support for the apartheid regime and its murderous depredations in neighboring countries. Though these shameful episodes may be wiped out of internal U.S. history, others are likely to understand Mandela’s words.

“In these and all too many other cases, supreme power does provide protection against reality - to a point.”

These oligarchs have been able to use our resources: mineral, oil, water, air, and human life, to wage war so that they can obtain more power, and we have let them get away with it. If only we truly understood what Howard Zinn meant when he explained that all wars are class wars, so there is never a need for war, only insurrection. Maybe then we could rid ourselves of these oligarchs (Please note, the audio glitch in the following video improves within a few minutes).

Howard Zinn: Myths of the Good Wars (Three 'Holy' Wars)

IV. Gladio B and The Grand Chessboard

So, yes, what’s going on in the Ukraine is the same old game as before but in a different field, however, this time, a lot more is on the line since the unrest may be impossible to contain. As we found out during the 2008 Russia–Georgia War (2), the ‘other’ side will not be disposed of so easily.

At present, Western powers are involved in multiple covert and overt proxy wars spanning the globe, and for us to have a full appreciation of what’s taking place we must become aware and involved in the diplomatic affairs of our nations and the activities of our politicians. We need transparency. It’s the only way that we can hold our oligarchs accountable for their crimes.

An Introduction to Gladio B - James Corbett on Breaking The Set Extensive coverage of Gladio B at: “Interview 616 – Sibel Edmonds Answers Questions on Gladio B”. Further information on Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard at: “The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War” .

V. The Need to Become Politically Aware

Everything is politics, from what we eat to what we drink, from what society deems acceptable behavior to what it considers a criminal offence, from who we interact with to how we interact with them. Politics decides if we are free or if we live as slaves in bondage.

Politics determines what our children are taught in school, how we treat the ecosystem, what theories scientists investigate, how art is perceived (video), what version of history we recall, and how the future will remember us.

In essence, politics governs our thoughts, our understanding of reality, and how we and our society evolve. It is, therefore, essential that we participate in the political process, may it be through demonstrations, whistleblowing, elections, activism, disobedience or a myriad of other forms of direct action, or may it be through simple analysis so that we have a full understanding of what is being done in our name.

The question we should be asking ourselves is, should we continue to intervene in the political affairs of other nations or should we mind our own business and tend to our own problems?

The following lecture by Scott Ritter provides us with some direction and insight. The lecture, which in my opinion should also be mandatory viewing for every American and part of every high school curriculum, explains what took place in the buildup to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the opening of Pandora's Box.

Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential

A Fascinating Article and Documentary: Lykov Family, Surviving in the Siberian Taiga since 1936

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II: In 1978, Soviet geologists prospecting in the wilds of Siberia discovered a family of six, lost in the taiga

“The four scientists sent into the district to prospect for iron ore were told about the pilots’ sighting, and it perplexed and worried them. ‘It’s less dangerous,’ the writer Vasily Peskov notes of this part of the taiga, ‘to run across a wild animal than a stranger,’ and rather than wait at their own temporary base, 10 miles away, the scientists decided to investigate. Led by a geologist named Galina Pismenskaya, they ‘chose a fine day and put gifts in our packs for our prospective friends’—though, just to be sure, she recalled, ‘I did check the pistol that hung at my side.’

“As the intruders scrambled up the mountain, heading for the spot pinpointed by their pilots, they began to come across signs of human activity: a rough path, a staff, a log laid across a stream, and finally a small shed filled with birch-bark containers of cut-up dried potatoes. Then, Pismenskaya said,

“beside a stream there was a dwelling. Blackened by time and rain, the hut was piled up on all sides with taiga rubbish—bark, poles, planks. If it hadn’t been for a window the size of my backpack pocket, it would have been hard to believe that people lived there. But they did, no doubt about it…. Our arrival had been noticed, as we could see.

“The low door creaked, and the figure of a very old man emerged into the light of day, straight out of a fairy tale. Barefoot. Wearing a patched and repatched shirt made of sacking. He wore trousers of the same material, also in patches, and had an uncombed beard. His hair was disheveled. He looked frightened and was very attentive…. We had to say something, so I began: ‘Greetings, grandfather! We’ve come to visit!’

“The old man did not reply immediately…. Finally, we heard a soft, uncertain voice: ‘Well, since you have traveled this far, you might as well come in.’”

Surviving in the Siberian Wilderness for 70 Years (Full Length)

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Discusses Who Should Rule Ukraine on Behalf of the United States (Update to Death Follows McCain to the Ukraine)

To say that what’s happening in Ukraine is extremely important is an understatement. It will be precedent setting, just like what’s happening in Syria (2), and just like what happened in Afghanistan and Iran, but a lot more on that later. For now, the following has been added as an update to: “What Cold War? This Cold War: Death Follows McCain to the Ukraine as the Armenia-ultimatum to Screw over Russia Fails Again for the EU and the U.S.”

Ukraine crisis: Leaked phone call embarrasses US - "The two officials also discuss frankly the merits of the three main Ukrainian opposition leaders - Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleh Tyahnybok. The female speaker says that Mr Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing world champion, should not be in any new government. 'I don't think it's a good idea.' She adds: 'I think Yats (Arseniy Yatseniuk) is the guy who's got the economic experience.'"

Марионетки Майдана (Marionettes of Maidan)

More information on this: In the following video the reporters actually do a great job questioning the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Jen Psaki, on why the United States is, in essence, planning a regime change in the Ukraine.

State Dept. Psaki grilled over leaked ' F**k the EU ' tape - Russia leaked it

A Music Video from Egypt with a Message: “Some people are dancing and others are dying, and the loudest voice in the party is the voice of silence”, Cairokee

I came across the following music video from Cairokee on the Egypt subReddit. I don’t speak Arabic so I had no idea what the lyricist was saying, but I found the tone to be extremely powerful and really wanted to know what the message was, so I asked if anyone could provide a translation.

I received a personal message with a draft translation which I greatly appreciated. As well, another user was kind enough to post a more detailed translation to the subReddit.

Below you will find the translation of the lyrics and the music video. I believe the message will resonate not just with those struggling in the Arab world to dispose of their oligarchs and dictators, but with everyone across the globe struggling for freedom, social justice, equality, dignity, human rights, and with those who oppose the system.

كايروكي - ناس بترقص و ناس بتموت
Cairokee – “Some people are dancing and others are dying”

“The path is very dark, so if you and I won’t burn then who will light the way?” - Che Guevara

The truth is as clear as daylight
But forbidden to approach or touch

The word of truth in our time is suicide
Saying it would be going against the flow

I have more than thousand examples
Malcolm X, Gandhi and Che Guevara

They died because they felt the suffering of the people
They wanted justice to be the foundation

Try calling for freedom or social justice
Try saying equality or dignity for the people

Try calling for human rights or oppose the system
Don’t ever "think" by thinking you cross a red line

The best you can do is get some bread
To keep quite not to stay alive.

And if you are determined to walk against the flow of the people
The answer will be a bullet

Some people are dancing and others are dying, and the loudest voice in the party is the voice of silence

Some people are dancing and others are dying, and the loudest voice in the party is the voice of silence

Ignorance is bad and is the creation of the regimes
A weapon that works across all eras

Give the people a fish they will eat for a day
Teach them how to fish they will eat everyday

Knowledge is light and the light doesn't pass by us
We are living in the dark and the dark can hide a lot

Killing, imprisonment, blood, corruption and injustice
Raping any dream we are living in a prison

With time everything passes
Bread-winning is hard and tends to rust minds

Fear has occupied the hearts of people
And kill the feelings within them

O our parents this is our future
Don’t take times side against us

Your generation has always been silent
And has never spoke out

Now you've come to teach and tutor?
It is now time to pass the torch

Some people are dancing and others are dying, and the loudest voice in the party is the voice of silence

Some people are dancing and others are dying, and the loudest voice in the party is the voice of silence

When Mainstream Media’s Narrative Collapses: Building 7

It’s been years since I met anyone that still believes in the official government story of the lone gunman. For obvious reasons of course, since you would have to be completely obtuse to hold onto such simplistic perceptions of the world - not to mention to having no understanding of physics at all.

For those that continue to encounter such people, the only advice I have is to sit down with your loved ones, or those that you would like to educate, and have them read or watch a little Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks - JFK

Further information on the JFK assassination at: “Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City”, and “The Death Of John Kennedy: The Media helped sell the lie of the lone assassin”.

As we all know, throughout history our governments and politicians have lied. They have conspired to obtain power, to overthrow governments, to destroy their political rivals, and to make money. Politics is littered with conspiracies but the mainstream media treats this word with contempt. Have we forgotten Watergate, Tonkin, Iran-Contra, Basra, Fallujah, Pinochet, Mohammad Mosaddeq, Reichstag, Oklahoma City, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Pine Ridge, COINTELPRO, Northwoods, Condor, Iraq, LIBOR, Robo-Signing round one, Robo-Signing round two, HSBC, The War on Drugs, and much more?

With all the above information at our disposal, for some reason - maybe because it’s beyond people’s reality tunnel - there are those that still adamantly believe in the official government version of what transpired on 9/11 as if it was beyond scrutiny, very unfortunate considering what is at stake.

9/11: A Conspiracy Theory

There are serious discrepancies in the narrative of 9/11, one of them occurring the day of the attacks with the BBC jumping the gun and reporting the collapse of Building 7 before the building had actually collapsed.

“On September 11th 2001, BBC World reported at 4:57pm Eastern Time that the Salomon Brothers Building (more commonly known as WTC7 or World Trade Building 7) had collapsed. This even made the 5pm EST headlines, what is bizarre is that the building did not actually collapse until 5:20pm EST.

“9/11 was unusual enough, without BBC World being able to foretell the destiny of WTC 7. What is even stranger, is that the women reporter is telling the world that the building had collapsed when you can see it in the background over her left shoulder. Then at 5:15pm EST, just five minutes before the building did actually collapse, her live connection from New York to London mysteriously fails.

“So the question is, on 9/11 how did the BBC learn that WTC7 collapsed 23 minutes before it actually did.”

BBC Reports Collapse of WTC Building 7 Early-- TWICE

Aside for Building 7 being the only skyscraper in history to collapsed in on itself due to fire, the BBC’s deviation from the script - or should I say, them screwing the timing of the delivery and reporting the collapse of the building earlier than scheduled - should be raising alarm bells for everyone.

Below you will find three videos that provide some further information about this topic. They are well worth the watch.

9/11 Truth: What Happened to Building 7

We Are Change UK - Phil Hayton and WTC7

BBC's Jane Standley - Audio cuts-out when asked about WTC7

As for what really happened on 9/11? The following summary provided by James Corbett is a great introductory analysis.

Who Was Really Behind the 9/11 Attacks?

Related Posts:

What will make or break the United States of America is the truth about 9/11: Investigate the theories behind the conspiracies

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

A Few Choice Words from Immortal Technique to Mainstream Media’s War Profiteering Pundits: “Shut the Fuck Up You Mindless Drone!”

What Cold War? This Cold War: Death Follows McCain to the Ukraine as the Armenia-ultimatum to Screw over Russia Fails Again for the EU and the U.S. (Update 7 on February 2023)

UPDATE 7: February 21, 2023: Video also avaialble on BitChute, Rumble and Odysee

UPDATE 6: Additional discussion on the Russia-Ukraine war in the following short videos pulled from a live stream held on February 7, 2023: "Five Video Segments: Europe's History, Ukraine Civil War, Russia's SMO, Sierra Leone and Armenia": Video links available on: Patreon, SubscribeStar and Substack.

UPDATE 5: February 24, 2022:

Video also avaialble on BitChute, Odysee and CensorTube

UPDATE 4: Ukraine signs historic EU trade pact sparking Russia ire (27 Jun 2014) - ADDITIONAL INFO: Excellent explanation of the implications of the trade agreement with the EU: EU Association Agreement with Ukraine Is a Gift to Kleptocrats

UPDATE 3: Update on Ukraine: NATO and Its Military Bases Surrounding Russia, Fracking and Natural Gas, US Policy and Disintegration of Ukraine, CIA, FBI and Obama’s Lies

UPDATE 2: For additional analysis see: "What’s Really Going On: Bahrain vs. Ukraine, Can You Spot the Difference?"

UPDATE 1: U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Discusses Who Should Rule Ukraine on Behalf of the United States - Ukraine crisis: Leaked phone call embarrasses US - "The two officials also discuss frankly the merits of the three main Ukrainian opposition leaders - Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleh Tyahnybok. The female speaker says that Mr Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing world champion, should not be in any new government. 'I don't think it's a good idea.' She adds: 'I think Yats (Arseniy Yatseniuk) is the guy who's got the economic experience.'"

Марионетки Майдана (Marionettes of Maidan)

More information on this: In the following video the reporters actually do a great job questioning the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Jen Psaki, on why the United States is, in essence, planning a regime change in the Ukraine.

State Dept. Psaki grilled over leaked ' F**k the EU ' tape - Russia leaked it

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It has become obvious that what's going on in Ukraine is an extension of the cold war as the U.S. and the EU try and peddle a modified version of the Armenia-ultimatum to their people. Sound complicated? It's not really. What's going on in Ukraine is an economic proxy war that has turned sour.

The trade deal that the EU has offered the Ukraine is garbage. To find out how bad it is all we have to do is look at why Armenia ended up telling the EU to shove it when they tried to jam the same deal down their throats.

In September 2013, Armenia called off an Armenia-EU Association Agreement after they found out that the trade deal was not really about easing trade restrictions with the EU but about screwing over Russia, and themselves by extension:

“The apparently smooth progress towards a final deal came to a shuddering halt in early September, when President Serzh Sargsyan met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and announced plans to join another economic bloc, the Moscow-led Customs Union. Membership of the grouping, which currently includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan, would require Armenia to adopt a different set of trade tariffs and agreements which EU officials say are not compatible with the Association Agreement.

“Despite this, President Sargsyan says Customs Union membership would not conflict with the EU accord, which he argues could be uncoupled from the DCFTA.

“‘Armenia is ready even now to sign an Association Agreement with the EU,’ Sargsyan said in a question-and-answer session after addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 2. ‘Sadly, our partners in the European Commission have said there is a clear contradiction between the Customs Union and the agreement on a free trade zone.… We have suggested that we could sign just the Association Agreement, which mainly covers political reforms.’….

“‘There has recently been a lot of talk about the civilisational choice facing members of the Eastern Partnership initiative. We have always stated that we don’t believe it’s right to view the issue in those terms.’”

What the EU wanted Armenia to do is equivalent to telling someone that they can come over and play at your house as long as they are willing to permanently tell the rest of their family to fuck off! Insanity!

As someone who is aware of the history of its people and the region, knows the game at play, and those involved, I can honestly tell you that anyone that is arrogant enough to tell Armenians to screw over Russians for a dangling carrot is one dumb MOFO. After all, everyone knows that what the EU offers hasn’t really worked out too well for the citizens of some of its periphery members, such as those in Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, or Portugal.

The main thing we need to know about what's going on in Ukraine is that it’s based on our indefinite growth based economy - the EU and the U.S. needing to grow to maintain their crony capitalistic system because if they don't the bubbles will pop. This is what the Ukraine deal is about, a self-consuming economic model that must devour everything in its path to maintain power.

As for John McCain, death, destruction, and corruption follow him everywhere, so if we're wise, we wouldn't allow this shill to make any more speeches on other people’s soil but instead arrest him for treason in the United States.

“Of course Russia is interested to keep Ukraine close to Russia politically, economically but it does not use its pressure to be interpreted as an intervention in internal affairs of Ukraine. It is in the contrary.

“We watched today what is going on from the Eastern Europe. Europe parliamentarians are coming to Kiev demonstrating and even camping. Polish parliamentarians are camping in Kiev in Maidan, main square of Kiev city.

“And so yesterday Russian TV showed John McCain arrival to Kiev and he brought with him some luggage, diplomatic luggage, eight big bags: one of them only was set for ... [his] diplomatic car and the seven other big bags were placed in Ukrainian cars and they said that it is money. Huge amount of money brought to spread, to support opposition.

“I asked where is international law? How is it possible to intervene in such ugly way in the internal disturbed situation in Ukraine?

“Money, money and all this was spread [among opposition] and made based on huge amounts...

“So I think that not Russian intervention but European, American intervention, direct appearance in demonstrations, appearance among oppositions, take and flow, making some speeches, encouraging for revolution.

“That I can say, I as a former diplomatic, my job, I cannot even imagine such kind of behaviors are suitable for current international law...”

Marine calls for John McCain to be arrested and tried for treason at town hall meeting

If you would like to know what’s really going on in the Ukraine than the following three videos will do a good job explaining it. In the first, James Corbett gives us a short rundown of what’s taking place (the segment of interest takes place between 1:30 to 5:20). In the second, Amy Goodman hosts an interview and debate between two guests: “Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University; and Anton Shekhovtsov, a Ukrainian citizen and University College London researcher who has just returned from observing the protests in Kiev.” And in the third, a chaotic debate on CrossTalk between three guests: John Laughland, Tony Halpin, and Dmitry Babich.

Who is Behind the Ukrainian Riots? - New World Next Week

Debate: Is Ukraine's Opposition a Democratic Movement or a Force of Right-Wing Extremism?

CrossTalk: Radical Ukraine