So, if Ukraine is buying fuel from its enemy, Russia, then also Russia is selling fuel to its enemy, Ukraine. And together, they manage to keep the meatgrinder rolling. I wish some of my former friends were more like these enemies.
In this attention economy, everyone is broke, I often say. I hope you have a little bit of real attention capital to invest in these and if you do it properly, the return is better than peak Bitcoin. Unless you’re among the very few who saw it already. Chapeau to you!
Wish you best of focus!
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
Former advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych said that Volodymyr Zelenskiy failed to overcome corruption in Ukraine. He said this in a new interview on Yulia Latynina’s YouTube channel. According to him, there should be a person in power who wouldn’t engage in corruption and wouldn’t let his subordinates do it. In his opinion, there is no such person in power today and “unfortunately, so far we have not been lucky. “He (Zelensky, – ed.) has not completely beaten corruption, examples abound. It is clear that you can say that there was a war, that there were two waves of covid. But from my point of view, the war is just a good occasion to apply extraordinary measures and to deal with corruption. But as we can see, unfortunately, not to the end yet,” said Arestovich.
Arestovych also cited the story of the former head of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh, who together with the leadership of the region was caught “stealing humanitarian aid by wagons,” a position “to which the president personally appoints a person.” “As we can see, the personnel selection is lame, badly. And then, he didn’t do it for a day, not two days – he did it for months,” Arestovych noted.
Let us remind you that people from Zelensky’s close entourage have been marked in dozens of major corruption scandals lately.
People’s deputy of Ukraine Geo Leros, who was expelled from the pro-government faction “Servant of the People” for his criticism of the Office of the President, accused the management of OPU of embezzlement of 500 million hryvnias. Leros analyzed the testimony of the deputy head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, which directly described the schemes used to siphon huge sums from two state enterprises – the Odessa Port Plant and the United Mining and Chemical Company. According to Leros, Zelensky’s inner circle took part in the schemes: Dmitry Sennichenko, former head of the State Property Fund; Timur Mindich, co-owner of Kvartal-95 studio (owner of the apartment where Zelensky lived during the election and where the president celebrated his birthday at the height of the coronavirus pandemic); Zelensky’s assistant and business partner Sergiy Shefir (OPU’s chief communicator with oligarchs); and current “overseer” of the tax administration Andriy Gmyrin. “Sennichenko siphoned off UAH 500 million from the budget with the help of the Office of the President, this is a loss to the state, this is money that has settled in the accounts of representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine” – said Leros. Details of the schemes and dozens of other involved persons are also confirmed by journalists of the media outlet Censor.net, which received copies of the testimony of the former deputy head of the SPF Sergiy Ignatovsky. According to these documents, Shefir and Mindich directly told former SPF head Sennichenko, who is now wanted, how to set up schemes to withdraw funds.
“The Odessa Port Plant has always been a corrupt feeding trough for the authorities in Ukraine, which is why the tenders for its privatization have always been disrupted. Instead of profits for the budget, the “controlled” directors were appointed there, who left the enterprise unprofitable, and then concluded unprofitable for the state tolling agreements with specially selected private firms, ostensibly to save the plant. In reality, the planned unprofitability allowed the profits to be transferred to private enterprises, while the losses were left to the state-owned enterprise. This was exactly the scheme set up by President Vladimir Zelensky’s entourage. The NABU records show a discussion about the appointment of the right person, the private business in whose interests the appointment is made, and the money to be received by those involved in the deal,” the well-known Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov adds.
Another person from Zelenskyy’s inner circle – the head of the “Servants of the People” faction, David Arahamiya, has been accused of corrupt collusion with a raider who is trying to bankrupt a member of the “grain corridor” – a large grain terminal in Odessa port. This is stated in an investigation by the Business Censor website. According to the journalists, Arahamiya is lobbying the interests of the American foundation Argentem Creek Partners (ACP) in a conflict with the Ukrainian holding company GNT Group. GNT Group is a Ukrainian stevedore and agricultural exporter that took a $75 million loan from ACP in 2019. Because of the war with Russia and covid restrictions, repayment of the loan was difficult, but with the start of the grain corridor, the company had the ability to settle the loans. But after Arahamia met with lender representatives in Vienna, the lenders curtailed restructuring talks and began enforcing debt collection in the height of the grain corridor. At the same time Arahamia was caught in a lie, as he covered his meetings in Vienna with the status of the head of the supervisory board of the government office on attraction and support of investments UkraineInvest. After that the office was forced to deny this information and justify that they knew nothing about Arahamia’s meetings. The asset that ACP wants to take over from the GNT Group is worth about $200 million, although the loans with interest is about $120 million. $80 million difference is a weighty argument for the corrupt officials in the Ukrainian government, the media write.
YOU MAY REMEMBER HIM FROM THIS BOMBSHELL 2019 INTERVIEW:
Ukraine War: Zelensky adviser resigns over Dnipro remarks
Image caption,Mr Arestovych initially said Ukraine air defences appeared responsible for Saturday’s deadly strikes, before rowing back
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has offered his resignation after suggesting a Russian missile which hit a building in Dnipro, killing 44 people, was shot down by Kyiv.
Mr Arestovych apologised and said he had made a “fundamental error”.
The original remark caused widespread anger in the country, and was used by Russian officials to blame Ukraine.
The adviser is a well-known figure because of his daily updates on YouTube, watched by millions.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has not yet commented on Mr Arestovych’s decision to resign.
Hours after Saturday’s missile strike hit an apartment building in Dnipro, Mr Arestovych initially said it appeared that the Russian missile had fallen on the building after it was shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Ukraine said the building was hit by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which it does not have the capability to shoot down and is reportedly extremely inaccurate.
Ukrainians reacted angrily to Mr Arestovych’s initial comments, with some accusing him of strengthening the position of Russian propagandists. Some Ukrainian parliamentarians signed a petition calling for Mr Arestovych to be dismissed as a government official.
He later posted a letter tendering his resignation and said he had made a “fundamental error”.
“I offer my sincere apologies to the victims and their relatives, the residents of Dnipro and everyone who was deeply hurt by my prematurely erroneous version of the reason for the Russian missile striking a residential building,” he wrote in a longer post on Telegram.
Mr Arestovych is one of the most public Ukrainian faces of the war, using his YouTube channel to hold daily discussions on issues related to the conflict. The channel has more than 1.6 million subscribers, and his videos often have more than 200,000 views. Unusually for Ukrainian officials, he speaks in Russian rather than Ukrainian.
Before his resignation offer, his comments had been used by Russian officials to blame Kyiv for the strike.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian attacks “do not strike residential buildings” and suggested it was caused by Ukrainian air defences, a conclusion he said had also been reached by “some representatives of the Ukrainian side”.
Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa were also hit on Saturday in attacks which Moscow said were targeted at Ukraine’s military and energy infrastructure.
HERE’S ANOTHER RECENT INTERVIEW OF HIS
If you can stand the dubbing, maybe you can extract something useful, I provide this for you rather to get acquainted with the character and body language, he’s very vocal since he left Kiev for Israel, and you’ll probably hear again from him
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
EdCamp Ukraine (Ukrainian: ЕдКемп Україна) is a movement of educators in Ukraine. It is based on the principles of the worldwide EdCamp movement, which originated in the United States. Ukraine was the third country in Europe and the ninth in the world to join the original movement in 2014. As of 2020, EdCamp Ukraine is the second biggest EdCamp community in the world, and the biggest community of educators in Ukraine.
EdCamp Ukraine’s 2018 initiative concerning the development of professional education succeeded in reforming the career-enhancement training process, in particular by de-monopolizing the government-sponsored professional education enterprises. As the initiative’s result, in 2019 the new regulations of the Ministry allowed educators to develop their professional skills through a wider range of educational and scientific institutions, as well as through private and legal business ventures. Their education is funded by government or local budgets according to the “money follows the teacher” principle.
The anti-discrimination expertise of EdCamp Ukraine became a part of the Ministry’s textbook-approval procedure. EdCamp Ukraine’s activity led to the establishment of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform, and to a variety of anti-corruption and de-bureaucratization procedures. For example, in 2019, two independent sources estimated that the de-bureaucratization reforms EdCamp Ukraine lobbied for decreased teacher paperwork by 20 to 30%.
EdCamp Ukraine’s signature events are unconferences: free and independent events that focus on communication between educators, international experts, speakers, and government figures. Since 2015, EdCamp Ukraine has organized six national and 186 regional in-person and online unconferences. In 2020, more than 10,000 members attended the Sixth National unconference, which became the biggest online event in Ukraine (as recorded in the Ukraine Record Book).
History
The original movement
The original EdCamp movement was established in 2010, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.[10][11][12] The movement was created as an alternative source of professional development for educators[13][14][15] and in response to American educators’ complaints about the inefficiencies of their educational system.[16][14] As of 2020, 44 countries have joined the movement.[10][14][15]
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, the EdCamp format was acknowledged by the HundrED organization in their worldwide review of innovative education organizations.[17][14][15]
In 2020, EdCamp US merged with the Digital Promise organization, which develops innovations for education especially through incorporating technology.[18]
Based on the principals of the original EdCamp movement, EdCamp Ukraine is a movement of Ukrainian educators[12][19][20][2] based around a non-governmental, non-profit public organization that focuses on the independent professional development of educators nationwide.[8][21][5][6][4] It also works on education system reformation and improvement.[14] Ukraine became the third country in Europe and the ninth in the world to join the original movement.[22][23][24] The members of the organization are called “white crows,” describing people who seize change in their community and are not afraid to try alternative techniques.[11][16][25]
The EdCamp Ukraine organization was founded by Oleksandr Elkin, and as of 2020 he still serves as its Head of Board.[8][26][27][2] Prior to the foundation of the organization, Elkin worked for an IT company and developed programs to improve the Ukrainian education system,[25][12] such as the school management system School Champion, a platform that connects Ukrainian education institutions.[11] The EdCamp Ukraine organization was inspired by the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.[10][12]
The EdCamp Ukraine movement began in 2014, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[3][10] On December 29, 2015, the EdCamp Ukraine organization was officially registered as a non-profit public organization. In 2017, it launched a crowdfunding project to fund its first office,[4][25][1] which was opened in Kharkiv in 2018.[28] In 2019, the organization became the official owner of the EdCamp trade mark in Ukraine.[29]
As of 2020, EdCamp Ukraine is the second biggest EdCamp community in the world and the biggest community of educators in the country,[14][15][10] with a membership more than 40000. Of those, 21,802 work in Ukrainian schools, which is about 5% of all Ukrainian educators. According to research, the EdCamp movement is present in half of Ukrainian schools.[30][9]
Unconferences
One of the key signature events of EdCamp Ukraine are the free unconferences held yearly in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[15][8][11] Educators apply and participate in an oral interviewto be selected to attend.[25]
Unconferences are “edutainment” (education/entertainment).[31] Topics are shaped at the beginning of an event, and participants are the main authorities,[10][32][16] meaning that every member of the unconference can become a speaker.[33] This format makes it easier for educators to learn from each other, as its sessions are held a free discussion format.[32][11][31]
Several main methods and principles of unconferences are:
The “two legs” law, which implies that every member is free to build their own schedule within the event, attending any session or joining any discussion[11][16]
The “long tale effect,” which means that the most important steps are not made during the discussions or unconferences, but afterwards, when real action towards improvement is taken[11][16]
The “speed-geeking” practice (a three-minute tête-à-tête conversation between members and speakers) to spur communication and make as many acquaintances as possible between members and experts at unconferences[11]
Arenas of action
Professional development for educators
Participation in EdCamp unconferences.
National unconferences
EdCamp Ukraine’s National unconferences are considered the key event of the year for Ukrainian educators.[10] The first EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in June 2015, and attended by more than 350 visitors.[11][34]
The Second National unconference
In April 2016, the second unconference was held in Kharkiv. The event was part of the 2016 Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and the Institute of Educational Modernization (Ukrainian: Інститут модернізації змісту освіти) events.[16][31] It was held in partnership with more than 40 Ukrainian organizations[31] and financed via crowdfunding at the Ukrainian platform Spilnokosht (Ukrainian: Спільнокошт).[34][16] Between 500 and 550 people visited the unconference, including around 80 Ukrainian and international experts from 12 countries. The event consisted of 145 sessions in 17 different locations.[31][16]
Main topics included new technology, an anti-discrimination approach in education, community integration, and English language as national priority.[31][16] The concept of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа), a reform in Ukrainian education,[35][36] was outlined and discussed.[16] International speakers at the event were: Oskar Brenife, author and philosophy Ph.D. from Paris, France; Eva Rambala, lecturer and trainer in non-violent communication, from Budapest, Hungary; and Esther Wojcicki, journalism teacher and media arts program founder from Palo Alto, California, USA.[31][16]
The Third National unconference
The third EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in April 2017. Almost 700 educators participated, including people from 20 countries other than Ukraine. The Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych, joined the event.[33][37][13][38] There were 20 sessions in 20 locations and 135 speakers from 20 different countries.[4][3] At this unconference, the Ukrainian version of the Global Teacher Prize was announced.[13]
Main topics at this event included the formation of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) and future reforms in the Ukrainian school system.[33][13][38] British author, speaker, and international advisor on education Ken Robinson addressed the unconference in a 10-minute video message.[39] European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) researcher Giovanni Porchellana spoke at the unconference.[13]
The Fourth National unconference
The fourth EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in Kharkiv in 2018.[40] Participants totaled 946 educators from 24 Ukrainian regions, and 143 experts from 11 countries presented.[24] One of the main topics of the unconference was anti-discrimination in education.[41]
Six hundred EdCampers gathered at the Constitution Square in Kharkiv for a flash mob that was later registered in the Ukrainian Record Book as the biggest gathering of educators ever.[42][43] Ukrainian and international public figures took part in the flash mob, including Liliya Hrynevych, the Minister of Education and Science; Hadley Ferguson, co-founder of the original EdCamp movement in the US; Caspar Peek, representative from United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine; and Yaacov Hecht, Israel educator and founder of democratic schools.[42][43][44] Speakers included Yaacov Hecht,[44] Liliya Hrynevych,[35][24] and Esa Sinivuori, a Finnish expert from Lumo Education.[44]
The Fifth National unconference
The fifth unconference was held in 2019 in Kharkiv. About 1,000 educators attended, including experts from 20 countries.[45][46][47]
Anti-discrimination policies in education were widely discussed during the event.[41][48] Another main focus introduced the concepts of Social Emotional Ethical Learning system (SEE Learning) to Ukrainian educators (SEE Learning is a system of the “soft skills” that include creative thinking, empathy, the ability to work in a team, and other skills previously introduced to EdCamp Ukraine team by the fourteenth Dalai Lama).[19][46][49])[46][47][45] Plans were discussed to incorporate SEE Learning into Ukrainian schools.[47]
The EdCamp Ukraine team invited the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to join the unconference to discuss Ukrainian education and necessary reforms.[50] Due to a scheduling conflict, the President couldn’t attend, but addressed the EdCamp Ukraine team and members in a letter.[51] The members were also addressed by the Dalai Lama in his video message.[52]
During the unconference, another record was set: “The biggest number of locations to join an online educators’ flash mob” registered Ukraine Record Book.[20]Liliya Hrynevych, as well as several other Ukrainian public figures and international guests such as Giovanni Porchellana from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and Israel educator Yaacov Hecht, took part in the flash mob.[20]
The Sixth National unconference
Due to quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, EdCamp Ukraine’s 2020 unconference was held online. Its theme was “High Five for Education.” Oleksandr Elkin and EdCamp Ukraine 2020 were acknowledged in the “United States and Ukraine: Virtual EdCamps” issue of Education Continuity, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[53][54]
The main subject of the online marathon—education within the Coronavirus pandemic—was discussed by educators and parents from all over Ukraine.[55] It was the first time parents were invited to attend the unconference. More than 10,000 members and 65 speakers from 22 countries joined the online event. People entered virtual unconference sessions 80,689 times.[15][56] Lectures and sessions totaled 55 hours.[54]
The five main subjects discussed at the event were distance learning, education policies, physical and mental health, financial and legal challenges, and partnership in education.[57][54]
In December 2021, was organized the seventh (non) conference – “National EdCamp for joy! -)” (alternative name EdCamp Joy).[59] The (non) conference in the online format lasted 10 days, from December 7 to 18. The event was attended by 1,161 people – teachers of all levels of education, other adults who work with children and parents. The offline part was held in the format of a meeting of international delegations of the EdCamp movement from 18 to 22 December. Memoranda of cooperation were signed between the national movements of EdCamp in six countries (Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Romania, Armenia),[60] EdCamp Ukraine with the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,[61] and H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.[62] The event was attended by 30 world-renowned scientists, educators, psychologists, thought leaders, whose research and practice relate to the phenomenon of joy. This is the world educational expert and developer of international PISA testing Andreas Schleicher (Germany), education specialist, documentary film producer, venture investor and writer Ted Dintersmith, psychologist, writer, founder of the teaching program at Williams College Susan Engel (USA) teacher Shalva Amonashvili (Georgia).[63] There were also closed screenings of three films: “Most Likely to Succeed” (2015, USA), “Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times” (2021, USA) and “Why am I alive” (Чому я живий, 2021, Ukraine).[64]
Regional unconferences
After attending EdCamp Ukraine’s unconferences, educators volunteer to hold regional unconferences, or mini-EdCamps, for their communities.[11] These regional unconferences are held monthly in different Ukrainian education institutions. Between 2015 and 2020, there were 186 regional unconferences.[65][66] In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine held around 40 regional unconferences in different Ukrainian cities, supported by the US Embassy and different Ukrainian companies.[4][25]
In 2016, the EdCamp Ukraine team held a competition for educators to hold official mini-EdCamps in their cities, and received 25 applicants.[11] From 2017 on, EdCamp Ukraine has provided support and financing to teachers who win the contest through their EdCamp in a Box program.[4][3] Between 2015 and 2021, there were 234 regional unconferences. In 2021, EdCamp Ukraine held around 45 regional unconferences in different Ukrainian cities.[67]
EdCamp Ukraine began developing EdCamp in a Box in 2016.[16] In 2017, the organization established the project EdCamp in a Box 3.0. The project provides competition winners with necessary documentation, support, and funds to hold a regional unconference in different Ukrainian cities.[4][3][23]
Other projects for educators
In 2018, the I National summit-challenge “EdCamp-Angels in Action” was held in Odessa, Ukraine, and was visited by 100 mini-EdCamps coordinators from across the country.[41][12] During the summit, nine organizations joined the union to support New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform.[68]
In 2018, EdCamp Ukraine published a book, Improving with EdCamp: How to hold educational unconferences for your community, which illustrates EdCamp Ukraine’s main principles and education methods as well as step-by-step advice for offering a mini-EdCamp in any city.[69] The same year, the organization introduced their own online course, How to Organize EdCamp for Your Community.[23][70]
Also in 2018, three training sessions organized by EdCamp Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the United Nations Population Fund, and other Ukrainian organizations were held to certify experts for their anti-discrimination project. Forty-seven members attended to increase their knowledge and skills.[41]
In October 2021, the EdCamp Ukraine team presented a course titled Educators’ Professional Development: New Regulations And Possibilities, on the Ukrainian online course platform Prometheus.[71] EdCamp Ukraine also has its own educational podcast on YouTube and Mixcloud online platforms.[72][73]
In March 2020, EdCamp partnered with the Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine and other organizations to hold a national online professional development training session for 4,000 educators.[15] That same year, an online meeting was held to discuss the reopening of educational institutions after the COVID-19 quarantine, as well as innovations in education with Ukrainian specialists and public figures such as Lilia Hrynevych.[74][75]
Next, EdCamp Ukraine, with Ukrainian and Swedish partners, set up a contest among young educators from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine; 30 educators took part.[76]
From November to December 2020, EdCamp Ukraine ran an EdCamp online marathon for educators to discuss, learn, and incorporate new teaching methods and practices during the worldwide epidemic of COVID-19 and the period of distance education.[77]
Since February 24, 2022, EdCamp Ukraine has been implementing a number of anti-crisis initiatives to support educators, parents, children and youth during the war.[78]
Open Space of Sustainability – open online meetings for all with specialists from the Institute of Trauma and Emory University.[79]
EdCamp-academy for students, teachers and parents – a system of regular activities to support adults and children.[80]
Thematic expert materials on sensitive topics – videos, infographics, cartoons with tips, explanations, lists on topics related to evacuation from hotspots, travel abroad, adaptation to new places, volunteering, etc.[81]
In 2016, EdCamp Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine took an anonymous poll of almost 8,000 educators in regard to paperwork. They used the research to introduce an initiative supporting de-bureaucratization in schools.[83][84] In 2017, they published “Children and Paperwork: reaching balance in school” to report the results of the research, illustrating the issue from different angles and providing ideas for reforming school paperwork systems.[85][25] Later in 2017, due to the anti-bureaucracy initiative, teachers were relieved of conducting the student census.[86][25]
In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Science passed new regulations in regard to school documentation,[87][12] decreasing the amount of paperwork in schools by 20%[84] to 30%.[12]
New Ukrainian School Reform
In 2016, the concept of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) was outlined and discussed at the second EdCamp Ukraine unconference.[16] This reform initiative became the main subject of discussions between Ukrainian educators and government through EdCamp Ukraine unconference 2017.[3][4][33][13][38] That year, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine released a document publishing the main concepts, aims, and reform stages for the New Ukrainian School.[88][3] Oleksandr Elkin, the founder and head of EdCamp Ukraine with vice-president Olena Massalitina co-authored the New Ukrainian School Reform concept.[8][4][2][89][10] The New Ukrainian School was the first Ukrainian educational reform movement to include soft skills (creativity, openness for communication and partnership, and conflict resolution) into school curriculum.[12] Soon after, Ukrainian teachers started to integrate some of the concepts of the New Ukrainian School into the school system.[4]
In 2018, the reform was officially introduced into schools.[35][36] That year, during the summit challenge for regional coordinators of mini-EdCamps around Ukraine, nine Ukrainian organizations joined the union to support and lobby for further development of the New Ukrainian School.[68]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine established the #книгоНУШ project, aimed at creating book clubs and compiling vital educational books as the foundation for the New Ukrainian School system. Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist, and translator Serhiy Zhadan was one of the first activists to support and promote the initiative.[90][3][91]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the Institute of Education Content Modernization (Ukrainian: Інститут модернізації змісту освіти) established an anti-discrimination review of Ukrainian textbooks. Later that year, according to the initiative, textbooks for 1 and 10 grades were reviewed by the anti-discrimination expert commission for the first time in history.[25][41][3]
From 2016 through 2020, EdCamp Ukraine holds anti-discrimination trainings for textbook authors and publishers.[92] Starting in 2018, the organization also holds trainings and a summit to teach educators how to review textbooks according to anti-discrimination principles.[93][41][94]
While at the beginning of the project, no textbooks fully met the anti-discrimination educational standards, by 2018, 22% of books met the new anti-discrimination regulations.[93] In 2019, that rose to 42%.[41]
As of 2020, anti-discrimination review officially became part of the textbook-approval procedure.[95]
Professional education
In 2018, EdCamp Ukraine, with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), and other Ukrainian organizations, did a research project called “To teach and to learn: how Ukrainian education can grow” in regard to educators’ professional development.[96][12][97] The project involved 8,427 educators,[24] and 87% of them expressed the desire to develop professionally and learn the English language. At the time, 11% could speak English.[98] EdCamp Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science started to work on an initiative to enable educators to officially develop their professional skills, not only through government-sponsored education but also through non-governmental organizations, business ventures, and with the help of other sponsors.[12][9]
In 2019, the Ministry of Education and Science passed new regulations in regard to teacher’s professional development. According to the new regulations, Ukrainian educators are to spend a minimum of 150 hours every five years developing their professional skills. The whole process is funded by government or local budgets, which is the essential rule of another newly established principle, “money follows the teacher.”[99] Educators can fulfill those hours through educational and scientific institutions or private and legal business ventures, and are free to choose among the institutions that provide such services.[100][101][99]
The Ministry of Education and Science created a group to work on professional development topics which included EdCamp Ukraine founder and president Oleksandr Elkin and vice-president Olena Massalitina.[102][9]
Anti-corruption initiative
Since 2018, EdCamp Ukraine has partnered with the USAID project “Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions” (SACCI). Together with other Ukrainian ventures and organizations, they work to decrease corruption in Ukrainian schools. One result of the partnership was an anti-corruption educational toolkit for teachers to use in, teaching children how to fight corruptive practices. The toolkit contains games, quests, and ideas for training sessions. As of 2020, session on anti-corruption techniques became part of all annual EdCamp Ukraine unconferences.[103][104]
EdWay
In 2021, the organization launched EdWay – the National platform for professional development opportunities for teachers, where educators are free to choose the subject, form, type and content of professional development.[105]
Lessons of kindness
In 2021, EdCamp Ukraine together with #GenerousTuesdayChildren (#ЩедрийВівторокДіти) and a specially selected team of authors developed a manual for the formation of a culture of charity in the educational process: “Lessons of kindness: ideas and tips for the school year”.[106]
International projects and partnerships
Over the years, Ukrainian EdCampers have promoted their organization and its ideas in Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, and Moldova.[10][107] They served as advisors for African and Italian EdCamps.[107] The EdCamp Ukraine team has close relationships with educators in the US, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and Singapore.[12]
Early events
From 2015 through 2020, EdCamp Ukraine supports and celebrates Global Dignity Day, and gives classes in regard to it in Ukraine. During the sixth annual Global Dignity Day celebration in 2020, the organization attracted Ukrainian schools to participate by holding lessons and discussions in online and offline formats.[25][108] In September 2020, the president of EdCamp Ukraine, Oleksand Elkin, was appointed Global Dignity Country Chair for Ukraine.[109][8] Since 2015, 2,789 educational institutions and 379,843 participants have joined the celebration of the Day of Dignity.
In 2017, the Ukrainian version of the Global Teacher Prize was announced and officially begun at the national unconference.[13][4] Oleksandr Elkin served as a judge for the annual prize from 2017 to 2019.[110][111][112]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine introduced a new branch of activity: international trips aimed at researching education in different countries, called EdTrips.[4][25] Its first destinations were Finland[113][25] and Estonia.[114] Later, EdTrips visited Sweden.[115]
In 2018, EdCamp, in partnership with Lumo Education, established another international project, Seven Days of Change. In this program, the EdCamp Ukraine team invited Finnish educators to visit a Ukrainian school and share Finnish educational concepts with Ukrainian staff. Out of 675 applicants, a school in Poltava Oblast won the chance to host Finnish colleagues.[114]
An EdTrip in 2019 visited Dharmsala, India. There, 16 participants were invited to meet with the Dalai Lama. He introduced the concept of Social Emotional Ethical Learning (SEE Learning), created by the Emory University in the US.[19][46][49] The program is aimed at learning basic human skills such as resilience, empathy, and concentration.[116] That same year, the EdCamp Ukraine team was invited to an official SEE Learning presentation in New Delhi.[49]
The concept of SEE Learning was widely discussed during the fifth unconference.[46][47][45] The concept was supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and incorporated in 26 Ukrainian schools from 23 regions of the country for a trial period as part of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform.[116][117][49][21] After the success of the SEE Learning trials, the program was officially introduced in 26 Ukrainian schools.[5]
By 2020, EdCamp Ukraine became Emory University’s official SEE Learning partner in Ukraine[5] and launched introductory online sessions on SEE Learning to around 20,000 educators.[21] Teachers in schools that incorporated the program took part in training sessions with program developers from Emory University (US) and Ukrainian experts working on the project.[116]
In 2020, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, an online conversation between Dalai Lama XIV and the Ukrainian people was held. The meeting was hosted by Oleksandr Elkin; Liliya Hrynevych, former Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine; Taras Topolya, UNICEF Youth Ambassador to Ukraine and well-known Ukrainian singer; and Nataliya Moseychuk, a TV host recognized nationwide.[21][46][118][21][6][119][49] Topics were education for peace, peace in the world, and the pandemic’s influence on the world.[120][49] The Dalai Lama also answered questions from Ukrainian citizens.[120][6]
Awards and recognition
Organization
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine won first prize at the 5th National Competition of Public Non-Government Organizations (Ukrainian: V Національний Конкурс Публічних Звітів Організацій Громадянського Суспільства).[121]
Personal achievements
In 2017, Focus magazine listed Oleksandr Elkin among the 100 most influential Ukrainians.[8][26]
In 2018, Oleksandr Elkin was among five Ukrainian men nominated for the 2019 Father of the Year award in the Father-Educator category.[122]
In 2020, the vice-president of EdCamp Ukraine Olena Massalitina was awarded Woman of the Year in the Secondary Education category within the “Ukrainian Women” contest.[89] The same year, she became one of the 100 Most Influential Ukrainian Women as chosen by Focus magazine.[123]
In 2021, Oleksandr Elkin entered the ranking of the 100 most influential people in Ukraine according to the rating of FOCUS magazine and took 85th place.[124]
In 2022, NV named Oleksandr Elkin a “Ukrainian Prometheus”.[125]
As part of the fourth national unconference in 2018, 600 EdCampers gathered at Constitution Square in Kharkiv for a flash mob. This gathering was later registered in the Ukrainian Record Book as the biggest educators’ gathering.[42][43]
In 2019, Ukrainian and international educators set another record during the 2019 unconference: 650 educators gathered at Constitution Square in Kharkiv and educators from 25 Ukrainian regions joined the flash mob online.[127] “The biggest number of locations to join an online educators’ flash mob” was registered in the Ukraine Record Book.[20]
In 2020, more than 10,000 people attended the EdCamp Ukraine online unconference, the largest attendance of an online educational conference in Ukraine to date. This record was registered in Ukrainian National Record Register.[
Is Dalai Lama the Asian response to Mother Theresa’s activities in India?
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BlackRock voted to replace Tesla’s Musk with independent chairman
REUTERS, AUGUST 31, 2018
Funds run by BlackRock Inc voted in favor of a recent shareholder proposal that would have required Tesla Inc to replace Elon Musk with an independent chairman.
BlackRock-managed funds voted for a measure requiring the chairman be an independent director, according to BlackRock’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The proposal, which was defeated, would not have affected Musk’s standing as Tesla’s chief executive officer.
More than 86 million shares voted against the proposal at a shareholder meeting in June, while fewer than 17 million voted in favor, Tesla said.
Some corporate governance activists call for the chairman and CEO roles to be split between two people to improve oversight, and the new filing revealed at least one major investor backed such changes at Tesla. BlackRock’s role in backing the proposal was not previously reported.
Musk has been under pressure over the company’s spending and after tweeting on Aug. 7 that he planned to take the company private, only to abandon the idea by Aug. 24.
Tesla’s board had said that the company’s success “would not have been possible” without Musk’s “day-to-day exposure to the company’s business.”
Yet top proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc supported the proposal, citing concerns about Musk’s pay and board independence.
“BlackRock’s approach to investment stewardship is driven by our fiduciary duties to our clients, the asset owners,” a BlackRock spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “Our approach to engaging with companies and proxy voting activities is consistent with our commitment to drive long term shareholder value for our clients.”
BlackRock funds are a top-10 Tesla stockholder, controlling nearly 6.5 million of Tesla’s 170 million shares, according to Thomson Reuters data based on public filings.
Vanguard Group Inc-run funds voted against the independent-chair proposal, a recent filing showed. Funds run by Fidelity Investments sided with Tesla on director votes and other controversial items this spring, its filings showed.
BlackRock’s report also showed it voted this year in favor of shareholder proposals at Facebook Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc to give each shareholder an equal vote on governance matters.
Some companies are structured in a way that gives some shareholders more power than others, regardless of how many shares they hold.
BlackRock withheld votes or voted against nearly all management recommendations at Netflix Inc, including an advisory vote on executive pay.
HIS PORTFOLIO IS ALREADY VERY INTRIGUING, TO SAY THE LEAST
But if you think of him as a face for the Pentagon pillar of the Military BioTech Complex, it all makes much more sense.
Zip2 is among Elon Musk’s oldest yet most notable investments. This site came at a time when the internet needed directories, i.e., before Google and Yahoo. After dropping out of Stanford in 1995, the now-Tesla CEO launched Zip2, joined by his brother Kimbal, and using their father’s $28,000 lent to them. Zip2 was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999, earning Musk $22 million.
Musk then invested $10 million from his Zip2 profits into establishing X.com, one of the earliest attempts at online banking.
Bitcoin Investments
Many people are curious about what motivated Tesla CEO Elon Musk to invest in Bitcoin. Is he worried that the world will become a digital country ruled by virtual bankers? Or is it because he believes that powerful forces can manipulate the financial system to benefit the few and shut out the many? You can likely understand why the virtual currency, Bitcoin, is important to him.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk invested in Bitcoin late last year. His long-term investment was worth about $1.5 billion for the electric car company. As he continues to work on his various ventures, he promotes all forms of cryptography and virtual currencies.
Regarding the recent boom in the value of Bitcoins, many people are wondering if this will cause governments to lose control of their money. As mentioned, Musk is an entrepreneur, so he has every right to invest in any venture that he believes to be profitable and safe.
If he were to mention during an interview that he was involved in investing in virtual currency, would the media ask him why? Would they stop and ask why he thought it was a good idea? Surely not. They would probably ask him what digital currency he thinks is the best to use at this moment.
PayPal
PayPal is on the way to becoming one of the most important players in the e-commerce scene. Already famous for its PayPal mobile payment system, the company has made big moves into the mobile payments arena.
They recently announced that they would release an iPhone application that allows you to make offline purchases at millions of locations. They also have an application for the Android operating system that allows you to make purchases at about a quarter of a million locations.
The interesting part about this story is that there was hardly any talk of either of these companies being boring companies before this partnership. As you might expect, given that Paypal is a well-respected company with a history of investing in high-profile businesses, it was only natural for them to want to invest in Paypal as their chief executive officer.
Sika
Sika Company, also known as Sika International, is a Swiss international chemical company that provides services to the construction and motor vehicle industry worldwide.
The company creates products and systems for sealing, waterproofing, strengthening, dampening, and reinforcing. Their product lines offer a variety of sealants, varnishes, roof coatings, paints, epoxies, and adhesives.
When Sika began producing products, they focused on manufacturing synthetic rubber and plastics called Thermoset Polyimide. As the company expanded and products became more mainstream, the name was changed to Sika International.
In the late nineteen seventies, shortly after World War II began, the United States became interested in its products and began working with them on strategic goals. A contract was signed in 1954.
Since then, the United States and Switzerland have worked together to provide the best products to their competing industries.
Tesla Motors
When we last checked in with the story of the potential sale of Musk’s Tesla, the now-bankrupt Space Age Company stakeholders had a meeting to approve a plan for selling the company.
The stakeholders approved a deal that will allow them to purchase many shares of stock from Musk’s venture while also receiving millions of dollars in cash.
It is unclear how much money will be raised through such a transaction since it will depend on the deal the Musk brothers come up with. It is also unclear if the funds raised will be kept by the company or given to Musk.
There are several reasons why the shareholders approved this sale. It was reported that the Space Age Company needed more money for research and development, especially considering it was developing a new rocket engine.
Additionally, the board of directors felt that it was better to raise money than to lose existing investors, and the brand would be worth more than most of the investments made by private equity firms in the past.
The sale will free up millions of dollars previously used for marketing and product development. Many people are worried that once these millions of dollars are gone, the brand’s future will be in jeopardy.
Modine Manufacturing
The company’s technology allows them to produce high-quality and durable off-road original equipment manufacturer parts in the process of producing many of the highest temperatures on Earth and at great pressures.
This extreme capability and ability to utilise space and time to produce superior products make them ideal for high-volume, low-volume production processes.
Modine’s technology in vehicle cooling products and high-pressure heat transfer components enables them to offer a broad range of products and services to a diverse customer base.
They can develop thermal and lubrication systems capable of handling extreme environments and rugged work locations.
Additionally, Modine has developed various high-volume sheet metal products optimised for specific vehicle applications, such as bodybuilding, sheet metal fabrication, and sheet metal brazing.
Modine’s ability to handle these wide ranges of vehicle applications allows them to serve many customers, many of whom are in the automotive industry.
Dogecoin
By now, anyone with even an ounce of interest in investing is aware of Musk’s investments. Dogecoin is among those whenever the subject of Elon Musk stock portfolio comes up.
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that began as a gag but has since gained mainstream recognition. Most people also know that Elon Musk is a huge proponent of Dogecoin, frequently touting it as profitable on his social media accounts.
Musk himself has confirmed that Dogecoin holds a significant portion of his investments. Even his investment advice features Dogecoin.
In his recent tweets, Musk suggested the concept of launching Dogecoin payments on Twitter as well. In January, Elon Musk revealed that Tesla merchandise was purchasable via Dogecoin as well.
Owing to the efforts of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Dogecoin’s value rose concurrently with Musk’s tweets about it in the past months. In July last year, Musk had shared his opinions about the problems linked with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
He also assumed that a Dogecoin update was meant to resolve such issues, e.g., lowering transaction costs and times, giving the currency an advantage over other digital coins.
The Boring Company
The Boring Company is a company that provides solutions to traffic problems by building underground tunnels. With headquarters in Pflugerville, the company revealed that it raised over $675 in a Series C funding round, bringing the company’s value to more than $5.5 billion.
Musk tweeted about the event in April, revealing that the company was to hire competent people and increase boring machine manufacture. He further revealed that he wished to build thousands of miles of underground tunnels.
Founded by Musk, the Boring Company announced that it had managed to win approval for constructing a 29-mile underground runner network linking fifty-one stations under Las Vegas.
The network will transport 57k passengers per hour and has been deemed the company’s largest project. The Boring Company plans to transport passengers as fast as 150 miles per hour. The company has only been able to reach 50 miles per hour thus far.
Besides PayPal, Tesla, and Twitter, the Boring Company is among the companies closely monitoring investment funds as a growth investment.
The Boring Company completed a tunnel for Teslas that started from the Las Vegas Convention Center and stopped at Resorts World Hotel.
DeepMind Technologies
DeepMind Technologies is an AI company developed in late 2010. Musk was among the company’s most distinguished angel investors. Google acquired the company later in January 2014 for an unknown amount.
As it is known, the Tesla co-founder is notoriously worried about artificial intelligence one day taking over; hence, DeepMind made it into one of Musk’s investments. It has been made clear that he did not do it to make money. Instead, he did it to stay ahead of how quickly AI technology develops.
DeepMind has directed most of its research on reinforcement learning, an AI technique that incorporates deep learning (for recognising patterns) with reinforcement learning.
DeepMind created this type of learning contingent on reward signals, e.g., a game score, and named the technique in a 2013 white paper.
SolarCity
Musk purchased solar energy company SolarCity in 2016. He convinced the Tesla Motors board that the investment was part of a greater plan to introduce vertical integration within Tesla as that would help with power generation and consumption.
The deal has been under scrutiny in the past recent years and Musk and Tesla stockholders are involved in a court battle that could lead to settlements worth $13 billion. When the deal was finalised, Musk held around 22% of Tesla stock and 21% of SolarCity.
The Chief Executive Officer has denied any misconduct regarding the SolarCity deal. At the same time, Tesla stockholders state that Musk and his family and business partners took unfair advantage of the deal.
Since the deal, Tesla stocks have skyrocketed, claiming above $1000 per share, up 1500% in the past half-decade. SolarCity was established by Peter and Lyndon Rive, Musk’s cousins. Musk acted as a board member (chairman, to be exact) when the company was acquired.
OpenAI
OpenAI is a research lab focused on AI. The firm is based in San Francisco and is seen as a competitor to Alphabet’s DeepMind. Musk was among the earlier funders of the firm, pledging $1 billion when it was established in 2015. Later in 2019, the company received a $1 billion grant from Microsoft. Musk, who served as a board member since the firm was founded, quit in 2018 but still plays an advisory role at the company.
While resigning, Musk cited possible complications since OpenAI and Tesla were both active in AI projects. OpenAI had been a non-profit until 2019. After it received its Microsoft grand, the firm changed its business model to become a for-profit company. Furthermore, it also revealed the commercial licensing of its technologies. Musk has criticised the company’s deal with Microsoft.
Twitter
Elon Musk surprised everyone with his bid to buy Twitter in 2022. It was reported in major news outlets that Elon Musk would buy Twitter for $44 billion. Musk’s main objective was to make the social media platform’s algorithm open source to encourage free speech. However, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Musk later terminated his deal to buy Twitter.
Neuralink
Neuralink is a neurotechnology company that Elon Musk co-founded. It has been developing an implantable brain-machine interface since its establishment in 2016. Neuralink’s co-founders include Google Inc., Google Ventures, among others. The company aims to link a brain to computers via high-speed brain implants. Though the concept of this technology may seem truncated, there is a focus on helping quadriplegics communicate via mobile gadgets in the future.
The company has demonstrated its progress in its findings by showing a Macaque monkey control a cursor in a game of Pong. However, it has not reached human trials yet.
NeuroVigil
Musk is very keen on technology and studying the mind, and NeuroVigil is yet another one of his investments in the field. The company is famous for developing brain monitors and employs algorithms to find indications of pathology in individuals who do not display other symptoms, e.g., brain cancer patients or neurodegeneration.
Musk was one of the major investors taking part in the company’s second funding round in 2015.
Stocks Musk Doesn’t Invest In
While little is known about Musk’s investment portfolio, one thing for sure is that the bulk of his holdings happen to be in both private and public companies he has control over. He does not own any prominent stock positions in other businesses than his own.
Musk is not a hedge fund manager; therefore, he is not obligated to reveal smaller investments. With that being said, he may have small investments in publicly traded stocks.
Musk’s Private Equity
Musk established and controls numerous companies, with SpaceX being the largest. He holds nearly 44% of the company, valued roughly at $127 billion in a funding round in May 2022. With a total value of nearly $300 billion, Elon Musk’s Space and Tesla make up a majority of his net worth.
Besides SpaceX, Musk has majority ownership of many other start-up businesses he was involved in or founded.
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You get 1000 Internet points if you find a definition for “criminal” that Bourla doesn’t fit.
this is huge and I thought it will blow up without my help, but it has actually kind of sank under the many smoke grenades launched lately, and even I forgot about it, luckily for social media, where no crime goes forgotten or forgiven. So it’s my duty to stir this some more, I hope you will share my feeling.
On December 2nd 2021, the BBC published on its website, its popular news app and in the BBC News at One programme a video interview and an accompanying article under the headline ‘Pfizer boss: Annual Covid jabs for years to come’.
The interview by the BBC’s Medical Editor, Fergus Walsh, conducted as a friendly fireside chat, gave Dr. Albert Bourla, the Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, a free pass promotional opportunity that money cannot buy — as the U.K.’s national public service broadcaster, the BBC is usually prohibited from carrying commercial advertising or product placement.
Pfizer CEO Bourla commented on “vaccinating” British children under 12:
“There is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely are in favor of doing it [vaccinating 5-to-11-year-olds in the UK and Europe].”
“Immunizing that age group [children under the age of 11] in the UK and Europe would be a very good idea.”
“Covid in schools was thriving.”
“So, there was no doubt in my mind that the benefits completely were in favor of doing it.”
The interview was conducted before the vaccine was approved for children between the ages of five and 11 in the UK.
After the interview was published, parent campaign group UsForThem filed a complaint with the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA). The complaint accused Dr. Bourla of making “disgracefully misleading” comments about vaccinating children and that the comments were “extremely promotional in nature,” and that he violated several clauses of the code of practice by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
“There is simply no evidence that healthy schoolchildren in the UK are at significant risk from the SARS COV-2 virus and to imply that they are is disgracefully misleading,” the complaint said.
PMCPA convened a code of practice panel that found that Dr. Bourla had indeed violated the code of practice in a few ways, including failure to present information to the public in a factual and balanced manner, misleading the public, and making claims that cannot be substantiated.
The Appeal Board considered that the subsequent strong opinion statements, including ‘So, there was no doubt in my mind that the benefits completely [completely] were in favour of doing it [vaccinating children against Covid-19]’ and ‘I believe it’s a very good idea’ might infer to the ultimate audience, including members of the public, that there was no need to be concerned about potential side-effects of vaccination in healthy children aged 5-11 which was not so. The Appeal Board considered that this implication was misleading and incapable of substantiation. The Appeal Board therefore upheld the Panel’s rulings of breaches of the Code.
The Appeal Board considered that the CEO’s opinion statements, including ‘So there is no doubt in my mind about the benefits completely are in favour of doing it’ might infer to the ultimate audience, including members of the public, that the benefits outweighed the risks when the UK regulatory authorities had not yet made any conclusions in relation to the vaccination of 5 to 11 year olds; no Covid-19 vaccine was licensed in the UK in that age group when the article at issue was published and the Appeal Board therefore upheld the Panel’s rulings of breaches of the Code.
The process took a year to complete. The group published its story here.
The Telegraph reported Pfizer appealed against the findings of the panel and strongly disagreed with UsForThem’s claims that the CEO violated the code of practice. The company argued that Dr. Bourla’s remarks were based on “up-to-date scientific evidence” and they could be proven through “publicly available independent benefit-risk assessments.”
An appeal board upheld that Dr. Bourla misled the public, made claims that were unbalanced, and made unsubstantiated claims.
However, it ruled against claims that Pfizer discredited the industry, encouraged reckless use of a treatment, and did not maintain high standards.
Now, I would also like to bring to your attention this expose that’s too massive to copy/paste here and I don’t even want to deprive independent citizen journalist Anthony Colpo of his well deserved website hits, so please follow these links:
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Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has some disturbing skeletons in her family wardrobe.
Her political roots in Nazi Germany account for the insane war-driven agenda of the European Union toward Russia under her stewardship and her total subservience to the U.S. imperialist objective to defeat Moscow.
Author Evan Reif explains how her politician-father Ernst Albrecht packed his regional government with unreconstructed Nazis and former Wehrmacht officers when he was governor of Lower Saxony in the 1980s.
Ursula von der Leyen’s family derived much of its industrial wealth from working closely with Hitler’s Third Reich. Her aristocratic family was also married into slave-owning cotton planters in the American South.
That legacy of inherited wealth not only benefited Ursula’s elite education but also her precocious rise in German politics. She became the German defense minister from 2013-2019 despite having no formal background in the military. Under her watch, the German army was massively rearmed and she also became mired in corruption scandals.
At the end of 2019, she was appointed President of the European Commission, the top political post in the European Union. This was done without a vote from the German parliament such was the lack of confidence in her eligibility.
She has spearheaded the US-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia with remarkably hawkish anti-Russian rhetoric. Her zeal for pursuing hostility toward Russia is consistent with the Nazi ideology her father indulged in.
Ursula von der Leyen has shown an astounding “ability” to “fail upwards”, as Evan Reif wryly points out. The only explanation for such undue political ascent despite her incompetence, plagiarism, and corruption, is the help of a powerful network – the transatlantic U.S.-led NATO alliance and its intelligence agencies.
The disturbing upshot is that Europe is being led into a disastrous war against Russia in the service of US-European imperialism – euphemistically called “Western values” – by a person who is a scion of Nazi legacy and politics and who does not have a democratic mandate.
Eight decades after the end of World War II and the defeat of Hitler’s Third Reich, the imperialist objective of conquering Russia is alive again. Should we be surprised though, when we look at the odious political background of the European Commission’s president?
At the end of July 1942, he succeeded him Otto Bauer to the district captain in Lemberg-Land district in the Galician district, who was the district governor there Otto Wächter. Bauer remained head of the district’s internal administration. Berthold Pütter, the district captain of Lemberg Grodek, was to Wehrmacht moved in, the district administration had been merged with Lemberg-Land.
As with a number of other district captains, it is proven that the Leyen had informed about the Jewish actions in advance.[ 2 ]
Von der Leyen was only briefly head of his Knights been. His widow Huberta von der Leyen headed the company, which his son Friedrich Heinrich von der Leyen II took over in 1970.
URSULA’S FATHER INVOLVED IN THE FAMOUS CELLE HOLE FALSE FLAG OPERATION
Celle Hole (German: Celler Loch) was a breach in the outer wall of the prison of Celle, Germany. First used on July 25, 1978, the name was part of a campaign by one of the West German secret services (Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz) and the GSG 9 in an attempt to lay blame on the Red Army Faction, West Germany’s most active and prominent left-wing terrorist group. However, the incident was revealed in 1986 to be a plot by the government, a false flag operation, much to the embarrassment of the government. The Verfassungsschutz used the name ‘Operation Fire Magic’ (German: Aktion Feuerzauber).
The secret services used a stolen Mercedes-Benz SL (R107), driven by two criminals named Klaus-Dieter Loudil and Manfred Berger who were recruited by the secret services. In the car were forged passports, one of them with a photograph of Sigurd Debus. Serial numbers of the passports showed that they were stolen from German authorities. Mr. Debus was an inmate in the Celle prison. He was considered as a Red Army Faction terrorist suspect. Some tools to be used for a prison escape attempt were brought secretly to Debus’ prison cell by the secret services.
The action should have had taken place one night earlier when twelve secret service officers, one GSG 9 demolition squad officer and Jürgen Wiehe, a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior of the state of Lower Saxony, waited for the right moment to detonate the bomb on July 24. But they had to interrupt the action since two lovers coming from the nearby funfair entered the danger area. So the action was deferred.
On July 25, 1978, at 2.54 a.m., the bomb was detonated at the outer prison wall, but caused minor damage. No inmate was able to escape. The Mercedes was later caught in Salzgitter (80 km away) in a police roadblock, with the driver having already escaped. The false passports and some ammunition were found in the car.
In Celle, a 1.5 square meter hole, named the Celle Hole (Celler Loch), was left in the outer prison wall. A handgun, model Walther PPK 7.65, which was the official pistol of one of the secret service officers, as well as a rubber dinghy, were found. The Celle prison is situated close to the bank of the river Aller. After the detonation, Debus’ conditions of detention were aggravated “for security reasons”. The secret service had planted escape tools into Debus’ cell, which were found in the search after the attack, and was supposed to prove Debus’ participation. Hence, the detainee started a hunger strike as a protest against this. Sigurd Debus died on April 16, 1981 shortly before the scheduled date of his discharge from prison
Ernst Albrecht testified before the eleventh committee of inquiry of the parliament, which is to clarify the background of the explosives attack on the Celler prison staged by the Lower Saxony Constitutional Protection on 25 July 1978. Albrecht testified for two and a half hours, since then it has been established that his government statement on the “Celler Loch” and a later government report are not in agreement.
Nazis an Jews owe each other their modern existence and perpetuity, contrary to the popular belief that they are mutually exclusive. If Jews often paint swastikas on their own doors it’s because they can’t find a Nazi to do the manual labor for them. Bourla found one.
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IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE PROBABLY TARGETED BY A GOVERNMENT OR TWO. SO I MADE SOMETHING FOR YOU. SEE DETAILS / ORDER
Explosive new book claims Bill Clinton’s steamy phone sex calls with Monica were intercepted by Russia and the UK and used in a ‘blackmail’ attempt by Israeli Prime Minister according to ex-intern’s secret dossier on the President
A sensational book by Weekly Standard editor Daniel Halper claims:
Investigators for Monica Lewinsky compiled a dossier of hundreds of pages of documents on Bill Clinton’s dalliances and misdeeds
Russia, Great Britain and Israel intercepted White House phone calls, including x-rated conversations
Young Bill Clinton ‘assaulted’ a date in a wooded area of a San Francisco park. Decades later, he called her to ask for her support in his presidential campaign
Bill set his sights on Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Hurley and the first African-American Miss Arkansas Lencola Sullivan
‘Everybody you think he f*****, he did’, a source told Halper
Hillary was furious about Monica but not because he cheated – ‘it was that he got caught and so rubbed her nose in it’
According to a new blockbuster book, tapes of Bill Clinton’s steamy phone sex with Monica Lewinsky posed a threat to national security and resulted in a not-so-subtle ‘blackmail’ attempt by the Prime Minister of Israel, who used the torrid exchanges to try to ‘convince’ the President to secure the release of an American spying for the Israelis.
The book, Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine by Weekly Standard editor Daniel Halper, has been described as ‘scrupulously researched’ and ‘juicy’.
The contents of this latest tome about the ultimate power couple have been widely leaked and have already been the subject of numerous news reports.
Halper reports evidence that not only the Israelis but also the British and Russians had ‘scooped up’ the microwaves off the top of the White House and taped Clinton’s phone sex conversations with Monica – and perhaps other women.
Caught on tape: According to the author of the blockbuster new book Clinton, Inc., who had exclusive access to files compiled by Monica Lewinsky’s team of advisers, phone sex conversations between the intern and Preident Clinton were intercepted by the British, the Russians and the Israelis
The book’s contents were leaked to dozens of journalists about 10 days before its official launch date today.
According to allegations in the book, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the tapes to try to persuade Clinton to release Jonathan Pollard, an American caught and jailed for spying for Israel.
Clinton lobbied for Pollard’s release but his attempts were ultimately thwarted by CIA Director George Tenet.
That bombshell and scores of others – some amusing, some alarming – are part of hundreds of pages of allegations compiled by a team of lawyers and investigators working for Monica Lewinsky and viewed exclusively by Halper.
The so-called ‘Monica Files’, chronicling the dalliances and misdeeds of Clinton, were assembled for the hapless White House intern after the public outing of their affair in case she might be drawn into legal action against the President.
In what a source of Halper’s dubs a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ operation, more leaks from the documents are likely to get into the hands of Republican operatives as the 2016 election approaches.
On March 29, 1997, Clinton summoned Monica to the Oval Office. He had something ‘important’ to tell her. The president was on crutches, having fallen down the steps outside golfer Greg Norman’s house in Florida.
Hurley burley: Bill Clinton and Liz Hurley at 2005 Children Charity Ball in Saint-Petersburg. Halper Lists Hurley among his rumored conquests
Clinton hobbled into the study outside the Oval Office where the couple had oral sex, Halper reports. This was to be the last time the couple had sex.
Then, as recounted by Halper from The Monica Files, the President told Monica he had something ‘important’ to discuss.
‘We may have been overheard’, he said, referring, no doubt, to the frequent phone sex exchanges between the President and the White House intern.
Monica said she didn’t know what he was talking about and couldn’t imagine how anyone could overhear them.
Clinton doesn’t really answer her. He only responds, ‘If anybody ever says anything about the calls I’ve made to you, tell them we were just joking.’
After the affair was made public and prosecutors questioned Monica, she told them that Clinton ‘knew their calls were being monitored all along, and the phone-sex was just a put-on.’
But Monica’s canny investigative team learned that the monitoring of calls was the real deal.
Strong arm: Israeli Prime Minister used the tapes of Clinton’s phone sex conversations to try to win release for a jailed spy, the book claims. Clinton tried to ‘accommodate,’ but failed. The tapes were never released
Then, as reported in the book, at a meeting held in October 1998 near Wye River, Maryland, Prime Minister Netanyahu pulled Clinton aside and revealed that the Israelis had listened to Clinton Monica’s sex talk, and assured the President that they ‘threw away the tapes’. But the apparent quid pro quo was that Clinton would arrange for the release of Jonathan Pollard who was convicted of spying for Israelis and a cause celeb for the country.
While government officials in either country would not confirm the nature of Israeli eavesdropping, Halper reports there is ample evidence to support Monica’s story. In the end however, not willing to risk the wrath of his national security team, Clinton pulled back on his effort to free the spy.
‘Foreign spies weren’t the only ones who knew about the couple’s phone sex.’
The author says Clinton also had phone sex with other women while on presidential trips, including one visit to the Seychelles.
It was an open secret that the British government listened in on conversations on the island.
The details of Monica’s phone sex with Clinton were not only known by foreign spies. Monica shared the juicy details with some of her confidantes, according to papers viewed by the author in The Monica Files.
Halper reports on a conversation Monica had with a friend, in which she asks if a man calls a woman for sex isn’t it usual for him to ask what the woman is wearing.
Referring to Clinton, Monica admits, ‘Well, he would say what HE was wearing’.
Monica revealed to her friend that in their sex talk, the President would describe what he was wearing as he pleasured himself, usually a gray University of Arkansas sweatshirt and what he called his ‘blue tighties.’
In another bombshell reportedly uncovered by Monica’s team, a woman, then a student at a university in California, claimed that she met a young Bill Clinton when he returned from his studies in England as a Rhodes scholar. She described a disturbing encounter with the man who would be president.
Fatal attraction: Bill’s liaison with Monica proved to be a disaster for both of them. They met at a White House function in 1997
Scene of the crime: When Monica was summoned to the Oval Office by President Clinton they would often go off to another room and have sex
Rebound: Monica recently came out of seclusion following years of keeping a low profile. She wrote a thoughtful, revealing essay about her life in Vanity Fair and now is out and about in London , New York and Los Angeles
The couple dated once, Halper reports, and then they met up again at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. According to Lewinsky’s team they went to a wooded section of the park, where the future president pushed her to the ground and tried to have sex with her.
She ‘scratched and kicked’ him and managed to get away. Halper reports no charges were filed against Clinton.
Incredibly, decades later, the woman heard from the then Governor of Arkansas, according to Monica’s dossier, to tell her he was running for President and ask for her support.
‘The Monica Files also reveal the President used the White House theatre, just steps away from the First Lady’s offices, for many of his trysts.’
She said she would, but the woman believed the call was ‘a blatant attempt’ to find out if she would reveal anything about the assault in San Francisco, Halper reports.
The Monica Files also reveal that the President used the White House theatre, just steps away from the East Wing offices of then First Lady Hillary Clinton, for many of his trysts.
According to the files, claims Halper, aides were willing to open up to Monica’s people about Bill’s indiscretions as long as their identities were kept secret.
In 1994, Halper reports that during his first term in office, Clinton called his close friend David Pryor, then a US senator from Arkansas to brag about his latest conquest, a pop icon. Pryor couldn’t help but be incredulous that not only would Clinton have the gall to have such a potentially explosive liaison, but actually boast about it.
Keep them guessing: Miss Arkansas Lencola Sullivan was named during the Monica Lewinsky investigation as having a possible fling with Clinton. Halper spoke with her but she would neither confirm nor deny a romantic relationship
Pryor called the singer’s agent to put a stop to the dangerous relationship. ‘I don’t tell her what to do,’ the agent replied.
According to the book. the incorrigible Clinton had no shame about his womanizing. ‘When I was in high school I was a fat kid in overalls and now all the women want to f*** me,’ he told his Yale classmate Mack McLarty, Halper reports.
Another insider tells Halper, ‘Everybody you think he f*****, he did – and the more dangerous the better.
The insider continues, ‘All genius is flawed. The great artists are addicted….His addiction is p****.’
Halper reports on some of the women Clinton supposedly bedded. The first African-American Miss Arkansas, Lencola Sullivan, was named as Clinton’s alleged mistress during the Monica Lewinsky investigation. Sullivan refused to confirm or deny any previous romantic relationship with the former president to the author.
Halper reports that actresses Gina Gershon and Elizabth Hurley, Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of the former vice president Walter Mondale and Barbra Streisand were also on Clinton’s hit list.
Hillary was able to look the other way…until Monica.
She was furious about Monica, Halper says, but not for the reasons one might expect.
‘It wasn’t that he was f****** someone else. It was that he got caught and so rubbed her nose in it,’ a senior Clinton aide told Halper.
The volatility of their relationship was confirmed in Halper’s book. According to one source of Halper’s, screaming matches and throwing things like lamps ‘really did happen’.
Two-faced: Halper believes that the Clintons are not what they seem. He unravels their secrets and lies in his scorching new book
His fling with Monica benefited Hillary greatly, according to Halper, first because she was able to use it to her advantage as the wronged wife winning the sympathy of potential women voters as she contemplated a possible Senate race in New York.
But even more importantly, It resulted in a significant shift in the balance of power between the couple. Never exactly the obedient wife, Hillary was deeply in love with her husband and was willing to play second fiddle.
At a public event, reports the author, Hillary would depart before Bill, waiting for him in the presidential limo. After a short while, she would send someone to fetch her husband, but Bill would purposely stay an extra fifteen minutes.
She was trying to control Bill but Bill wasn’t having it. But after Monica the dynamic changed.
‘Hillary was no longer the one in constant pursuit of Bill’s love and attention. He now needed her in a way he never did before,’ Halper concludes.
Halper contends that the couple now live ‘comfortably’ and ‘happily’ as they lead separate lives – and separate bedrooms. Even while they were in the White House they hadn’t shared the same bedroom in seven years.
Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine by Daniel Halper and published by Harper Collins is available on Amazon
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! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
Mankind uses the mobile phone as a shovel to dig its own grave. With very rare exceptions of conscious users. If you want to be one of them, you need to be informed and aware of how this thing works and how our enemies use it against us. And in order to become so, you need, among other things, to fully absorb what I’m about to show you.
Perceptive people over 40 years old have often sensed a rift in the logic of events last few years. The powers that be occasionally commit apparently illogical and inexplicable acts, that later make sense in relation with other later events . Like a present response to unpredictable future events. Which is also illogical, unless they have a time-travelling machine, another illogical concept. So we often erase these senselessly convoluted connections from our minds just to maintain sanity.
The mind-trap there is the assumption of unpredictability.
Pre-scripted events and predictive programming are two ways to solve the predictability problem. But sometimes these don’t work either and there’s just no way you can draw a straight timeline and causality.
What if you don’t need to time-travel to see the future?
What if they can simulate it, then build it and tune it up? Which means they can react to what you would’ve done if they didn’t REACT BEFORE THE CAUSE? Remember those stories in media where morons get arrested for resisting arrest and they are too dumb to defend themselves. Add a topping of Minority Report for good taste. And to soften the edges, what if they just can control your edge perception? Here’s how:
“Perhaps your real life is so rich you don’t have time for another.
“Even so, the US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda.
“The DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual “nodes” to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and AR.
“Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a “synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information”, according to a concept paper for the project.
“SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP),” the paper reads, so that military leaders can “develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners”.
SWS also replicates financial institutions, utilities, media outlets, and street corner shops. By applying theories of economics and human psychology, its developers believe they can predict how individuals and mobs will respond to various stressors.
“Yank a country’s water supply. Stage a military coup. SWS will tell you what happens next….
(((Yeah, and New World Order cybersoldiers are gonna be Warcrafting-out on awesome gizmoscapes like this while some nimble illiterate teen with a cheap assault rifle simply shoots them.)))
A powerful ‘sentient’ computer simulation of billions of people and nations that ‘mirrors’ reality is up-and-running and likely tracking your every move
Artificial neural network with chip. Credit: mikemacmarketing / original posted on flickr (Wiki Commons Public Domain)
What if someone created a digital avatar of you and placed it in a massive simulation database –- and you knew nothing about it?
How would you feel about that?
Yes, while you are blissfully ignorant and unaware and just going about your normal life, your “simulated self” is now also going about its own life in a simulated global environment with most of the other eight billion other people inside a simulated planet earth.
Well, what if I were to tell you that this has already happened?
It has!
The server for this world simulation database –- that includes your avatar -– is actually located in (drumroll): Indiana!
That’s right!
It’s called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS). It is up and running, and housed in a building at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
The SWS is the brainchild of Dr. Alok R. Chaturvedi, a professor of information systems who is also the founder and director of the SEAS Laboratory at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management.
SEAS stands for Synthetic Environment and Analysis Simulations.
Dr. Chaturvedi outlined his concept for the SWS in a 2006 academic paper titled:
From the abstract of this document, the concept is explained this way:
“The goal of the Sentient World Simulation (SWS) is to build a synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information, such as major events, opinion polls, demographic statistics, economic reports, and shifts in trends.”
I should add that the “geography” of an area is modeled at multiple levels, including city, state, country, selected regions of interest and, of course, globally. Some categories for models include military, political, social, economic, informational and infrastructure nodes.
After publishing his 2006 concept paper, it didn’t take long for the thing to get up and running. By 2007, the SWS had already collected massive amounts of data in 62 of the 195 nations on Earth.
It is important to point out that the SWS is a project that was initiated by the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Some believe, as does futurist Rebecca Hardcastle Wright Ph.D., that SWS has since advanced well beyond 62 countries in the 15 years since 2007 to now encompass most areas of the planet that matter and has swept up the majority of Earth’s 8-billion-person population.
IT’S NOT QUITE ‘THE MATRIX’ YET BUT …
Now let me clarify that your avatar in the SWS is not (probably not yet) a complete duplicate of yourself in terms of image or looks, and it does not possess self-aware consciousness as did Neo and his pals in the Matrix.
It is significant to note that the SWS team at Purdue maintains that they “do not create your identical likeness” and instead used a “depersonalized likeness.” They also say this depersonalized likeness is “not immediately identifiable” and “cannot be replicated.”
Even so, many may find it equally disturbing that each avatar in the SWS virtual reality universe does represent a thorough activity profile of who you are and what you are doing in the real world.
That’s because you are likely “feeding” your avatar every day whether you know it or not.
You do that by participating in the digital world. Every time you engage with cyberspace, the SWS vacuums up that data point and adds it to the profile of your avatar.
For example, when you make a purchase on Amazon, search for something on Google, do your taxes online, text a friend, pay a utility bill, use a debit card to pay for a meal at a restaurant –- that information is funneled to the SWS and your avatar is updated to reflect your ongoing lifestyle.
This creates a “predictive model” of you and tells SWS operators how you are likely to react in certain situations as well as how you will perform or act in a group dynamic situation.
WHY WAS THE SENTIENT WORLD SIMULATION BUILT?
Well …
Remember when former NSA computer consultant Edward Snowden went rogue in 2013 and fled to Hong Kong and then to the Russian Federation along with a treasure trove of highly classified intelligence files on the NSA’s massive global surveillance program?
This surveillance program involved mostly tapping and monitoring millions, if not billions of telephones and internet communication accounts. The overt rationale for the creation of this program was for counterterrorism.
Ostensibly, the NSA wanted to be able to identify terrorist chatter across the telecom and cybernetwork bandwidth as a way to identify and thwart possible major attacks against American interests.
National Security Agency HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland (Public Domain)
Snowden bolted because of the NSA’s ability to tap and monitor private citizens and everyday innocent Americans a fundamental violation of privacy, unconstitutional and the start of a bona fide “Big Brother” nightmare state.
Well, one might consider the SWS the next logical step. It is the NSA wiretap effort on steroids.
With this new system, the information gathering on all citizens of the world can go well beyond listening into their phone chatter, texting or email communications.
Rather, it collects a wide range of data points that essentially provides a complete profile of every person, including what they do, what they like, how they act in certain situations, and so on.
When all this information is dumped into one massive database –- in this case, an actual simulation program –- you not only have real-time data on every individual in every nation on earth -– you also now can massage the data in myriad useful ways.
That includes running gaming simulations on how vast populations will react to specific situations.
For example, let’s say the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) would like to know how the population of the East Coast would react if they knew an enemy had released a deadly virus into the subway system of New York City.
The DoD folks would be eager to “game the scenario” of a bioweapons attack before it happened to that they, in turn, could formulate an effective response by knowing with a high degree of certainty how large populations of people would react.
As Dr. Chaturvedi writes in his concept paper:
“The ability of a synthetic model of the real world to sense, adapt, and react to real events distinguishes SWS from the traditional approach of constructing a simulation to illustrate a phenomenon. Behaviors emerge in the SWS mirror world and are observed much as they are observed in the real world.”
WHO USES SWS DATA?
As you might expect, the SWS has no lack of eager clients consisting of powerful government agencies, private entities and Fortune 500 companies. A short (and by far not exhaustive) list includes:
· The U.S. Department of Defense
· The U.S. Department of Justice
· Eli Lilly
· Lockheed Martin
· The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Furthermore, SWS has found customers in everything from banks and financial institutions that use it to test psyop events — to Hollywood studios who want to “game out” audience reactions to proposed movie scripts and ideas.
The above is according to Hardcastle Wright in her book 2021 book, Exoconscious Humans. She also said the SWS was used to simulate a cough spreading inside an airplane during the height of COVID. (Exoconscious Humans, Page 160).
NSA poster, circa 1950s-60s (Public Domain)
IS THERE PUBLIC OUTRAGE?
There is some, but as far as I can tell, those sounding an alarm about the intrusiveness of the SWS are few and far between.
One person who is disturbed by the existence of the SWS is software specialist and cryptocurrency advocate Alireza Beikverdi. He wrote in a 2015 article for Cointelegraph.com:
“The project is dangerous and intrusive enough that one of its researchers even quit, citing concerns about the possibility of handing over such a dangerous weapon to a top-secret agency with little accountability.” (Source)
Beikverdi added:
“This not only invades our privacy but can also cause severe damage to society. Knowing that there is a copy of each of us in the virtual world, which can think and behave like us, and whose actions can be predicted by the authorities is a far more intimidating invasion. This will have a negative impact on societies by reducing trust between citizens and government, as well as among people — altering normal human behavior since the populace will be conscious of the fact that there is a copy of them in a virtual world without their consent.” (Source)
Others grumble about the SWS but also express a sense of inevitability. One example is the commentators over at the Everywhere You Go is Bullsh*t webcast. In this video, they state:
“As our lives move online, this (the SWS) is an inevitable part of that. We all want that feeling of safety and this kind of thing provides … and we allowed this to happen. I think as more people become aware that this is the reality of this intense kind of privacy breach is happening, I think eventually we are going to accept it and it is going to get worse — or there will be some kind of rebellion about it and it’s going to be a pretty interesting future.”
ONLY SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Certainly, the existence of the Sentient World Simulation project at Purdue University has profound implications in and of itself.
However, in conducting research for this story, I quickly found myself drawn into a much deeper and more complex rabbit hole.
When you place the SWS into context with other current facets driving other kinds of technological determinism — such as the race toward fully self-conscious AI, the cybernetic manipulation/transformation of the human body, the transhumanism movement writ large — it becomes apparent that SWS is but one aspect of a rapidly evolving human sphere of fundamental transformations.
Thus, even if you loathe the idea of the SWS and want to implement social and/or political efforts to slow it down or kill it — you’ll be up against an array of technological/social initiatives of profound scope, character, variety and purpose.
Can anyone stop it, or even opt out? That won’t be easy.
CIA’s Gus Hunt On Big Data: We ‘Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
NEW YORK — The CIA’s chief technology officer outlined the agency’s endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech on Wednesday.
Speaking before a crowd of tech geeks at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, CTO Ira “Gus” Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos — and that the agency wants all of it.
“The value of any piece of information is only known when you can connect it with something else that arrives at a future point in time,” Hunt said. “Since you can’t connect dots you don’t have, it drives us into a mode of, we fundamentally try to collect everything and hang on to it forever.”
Hunt’s comments come two days after Federal Computer Week reported that the CIA has committed to a massive, $600 million, 10-year deal with Amazon for cloud computing services. The agency has not commented on that report, but Hunt’s speech, which included multiple references to cloud computing, indicates that it does indeed have interest in storage and analysis capabilities on a massive scale.
The CIA is keenly interested in capabilities for so-called “big data” — the increasingly massive data sets created by digital technology. The agency even has a page on its website pitching big data jobs to prospective employees.
Hunt acknowleded that at some scale, data storage becomes impractical, adding that he meant “forever being in quotes” when he said the agency wants to keep data “forever.” But he also indicated that he was interested in computing capabilities like 1 petabyte of RAM, a massive capacity for on-the-fly calculations that has heretofore been seen only in computers that simulate nuclear explosions.
He referenced the failure to “connect the dots” in the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber” who was able to board a plan with an explosive device despite repeated warnings of his intentions. In that case, a White House review found that the CIA had all of the data it needed to identify the would-be bomber, but still failed to stop him. Nevertheless, the agency does not seem to have curbed its ambitions for an endless amount of data.
A slide from Hunt’s presentation.
“It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information,” Hunt said. After that mark is reached, Hunt said, the agency would also like to be able to save and analyze all of the digital breadcrumbs people don’t even know they are creating.
“You’re already a walking sensor platform,” he said, nothing that mobiles, smartphones and iPads come with cameras, accelerometers, light detectors and geolocation capabilities.
“You are aware of the fact that somebody can know where you are at all times, because you carry a mobile device, even if that mobile device is turned off,” he said. “You know this, I hope? Yes? Well, you should.”
Hunt also spoke of mobile apps that will be able to control pacemakers — even involuntarily — and joked about a “dystopian” future where self-driving cars force people to go to the grocery store to pick up milk for their spouses.
Hunt’s speech barely touched on privacy concerns. But he did acknowledge that they exist.
“Technology in this world is moving faster than government or law can keep up,” he said. “It’s moving faster I would argue than you can keep up: You should be asking the question of what are your rights and who owns your data.”
US Govt Develops a Matrix-Like World Simulating the Virtual You
Picture a parallel virtual world that collects information on our virtual identities in real time, tracks our behavior, and is smart enough to interpret this data to simulate a virtual YOU on its own.
It is not surprising that data in the Information Age can be extremely valuable, even a source of power. Now picture a parallel virtual world that collects information on our virtual identities in real time, tracks our behavior, and is smart enough to interpret this data to simulate a virtual YOU on its own. This is exactly the concept of Sentient World Simulation (SWS) that was proposed in a paper by a few researchers in 2006, which has since largely flown under the radar.
Sentient World Simulation
SWS is one of the ongoing projects by secret agencies and organizations such as the NSA. In fact, these organizations have a long history of always seeking new technologies to process a continuous stream of information about the population. However, SWS differs from other information aggregators such as Google in that this technology actually simulates us, while taking our personalities into account, in a parallel virtual world.
SWS is actually a continuously running, continually updated mirror model of the real world in parallel on a computer, designed to predict and evaluate future events and courses of action. Put simply, SWS is a virtual mirror of the real society where individuals, leaders, organizations and institutions are simulated according to real data. The geography of a society is modeled at various levels including city, province, country, region, and world in terms of political, military, economic, social, information and infrastructure nodes.
SWS uses Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulation (SEAS), which is designed to be agnostic to the type of simulations and choice of models in order to allow experimentation in the context of multiple and potentially conflicting theories and predictions.
In a complex scenario, a single theory from SWS doesn’t give comprehensive information about the case. It requires a different analysis from different perspectives of the same phenomena by combining all the theories. It’s developed in a way where each component and theory is built on the previous, serving as stepping stones in the development of SWS.
Global Research reported that “U.S. defense, Intel and homeland security officials” are involved in constructing this project. With all the massive data collections, and also all the records from the Internet, SWS has the potential to predict the answers to many complicated queries, as it gets more intelligent the more information it is fed.
Watched Over by Machines
The project is dangerous and intrusive enough that one of its researchers even quit, citing concerns about the possibility of handing over such a dangerous weapon to a top secret agency with little accountability.
“With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected — through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks, cell phone geolocation, Internet searches, Amazon book purchases, even E-Z Pass toll records — it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think.”
This not only invades our privacy but can also causes severe damage to society. Knowing that there is a copy of each of us in the virtual world, that can think and behave like us, and whose actions can be predicted by the authorities is a far more intimidating invasion. This will have a negative impact on societies by reducing trust between citizens and government, as well as among people — altering normal human behavior, since the populace will be conscious of the fact that there is a copy of them in a virtual world without their consent.
Another thing in the back of everyone’s minds could also be the possibility of a virtual copy doing something that you are doing right now. Perhaps a simulated version of me has actually written this article? The line between actual reality and virtual reality will surely blur as more and more information is collected.
Some people may argue that SWS could also be a beneficial tool for governments and secret agencies to use to prevent terrorism and predict incidents by simulating them in a mirror world. Moreover, these type of models are often justified by the phrase: “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.” This phrase has always been the excuse of those who want to downplay increasing threat of a surveillance state and imply guilt for those who express concern.
But while massive data gathering and simulation models could indeed have their benefits for society. Such is the double-edged sword of most breakthrough technology. The centralized control of personal and social information by a single entity gives it immense and unprecedented power.
Decentralization
Blockchain architecture could be used to create a decentralized data network that would not give any particular entity control, mitigating the risk of data misuse. Decentralization, by not giving an advantage to any one entity, is a viable solution that can save us from horrible future scenarios.
While this system is certainly more difficult to build and implement, as it requires the involvement of a lot of people, a decentralized data network not only guarantees and makes sure that the technology isn’t used against the interests of the majority of the population, but also reduces the possibility of censorship, facilitating free speech.
Any new technology can be used for both good and evil. Nevertheless, if these technologies are used transparently and in a way that reduces the possibility of manipulation and centralized control by bad actors, then the relationship between people and their representative government would be drastically improved. Perhaps then we would be able to attain greater individual privacy and realize the vision of Edward Snowden, who described his childhood:
“I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines.”
The NSA’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The building of the massive NSA data center in Utah to permanently store copies of all digital communication sent around the world. The UK government’s “Communications Data Bill” to monitor emails, instant messages and other personal information. What was dismissed as crazy conspiracy theory just over a decade ago has become, in this post-9/11 era, the all-too-familiar stuff of newspaper headlines and talking head reportage.
In fact, it was about a decade ago that the tactic of the intelligence agencies seemed to change. Instead of keeping their activities classified–referring to the NSA as “No Such Agency,” for example, or officially denying the existence of Echelon–the government increasingly began shoving this information in the public’s face.
Perhaps the scariest thing about something like the Total Information Awareness Office is not merely that it was proposed in the first place, or that it incorporated such blatantly creepy Orwellian imagery to convey its true nature and purpose, but that, as we sit here 10 years later, and as the core functions of the TIA office are now being openly performed by the NSA, DHS and other governmental agencies, people are now actively making excuses for this nightmarish police state.
“If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear” has always been the rallying cry for those who are too afraid of questioning presumed governmental authority to speak out against the surveillance state and the implied assumption of guilt that goes along with it. With feigned bemusement these moral midgets inevitably ask “What’s so bad about the government spying on you, anyway?”
The answer, of course, is that the very question implies that the agencies tasked with carrying out this constant Big Brother surveillance are themselves above reproach, shining lights of moral rectitude who would never abuse this incredible power for nefarious ends. For the unimaginative out there, Hollywood yarns like “Enemy of the State” have provided fictional examples of what can go wrong if someone, somewhere, abuses this power of information and surveillance to target an innocent person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To be sure, the power that these technologies give for agencies, or corrupt groups within those agencies, to destroy the lives of targeted individuals, is itself a fitting answer to the question of why government surveillance should be troubling to us. But beyond what can happen to specific, targeted individuals in such a scenario, however, is a much larger question: What if this data, our emails, our phone calls, our credit card transactions, our social media posts, our cell phone GPS logs, and all of the hundreds of other pieces of data that are admittedly being collected on us every day, were being fed into a database so gargantuan it contains a digital version of every single person on the planet? And what if that database were being used by the Department of Defense to war game various scenarios, from public reactions to natural disasters to the likelihood of civil unrest in the wake of a declaration of martial law?
Remarkably, this is precisely what is happening.
It is called the “Sentient World Simulation.” The program’s aim, according to its creator, is to be a “continuously running, continually updated mirror model of the real world that can be used to predict and evaluate future events and courses of action.” In practical terms that equates to a computer simulation of the planet complete with billions of “nodes” representing every person on the earth.
The project is based out of Purdue University in Indiana at the Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulations Laboaratory. It is led by Alok Chaturvedi, who in addition to heading up the Purdue lab also makes the project commercially available via his private company, Simulex, Inc. which boasts an array of government clients, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, as well as private sector clients like Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin.
Chatruvedi’s ambition is to create reliable forecasts of future world events based on imagined scenarios. In order to do this, the simulations “gobble up breaking news, census data, economic indicators, and climactic events in the real world, along with proprietary information such as military intelligence.” Although not explicitly stated, the very type of data on digital communications and transactions now being gobbled up by the NSA, DHS and other government agencies make ideal data for creating reliable models of every individuals’ habits, preferences and behaviors that could be used to fine-tune these simulations and give more reliable results. Using this data, the SEAS Laboratory and its Sentient World Simulation offshoot are able to create detailed, operable real-time simulations of at least 62 nations. “The Iraq and Afghanistan computer models,” according to a 2007 Register report on the project, “each has about five million individual nodes representing things such as hospitals, mosques, pipelines, and people.”
At the time of initial reports on the program five years ago, there were only 62 country-level simulations being run by the US Department of Defense. These simulations grouped humans into composites, with 100 individuals acting as a single node. But already at that time, the US Army had used the systems to create a one-to-one level simulation of potential Army recruits. The ultimate aim would be to archive enough data on each individual to be able to make a computer model of everyone on the planet, one that could be used to predict the behaviors and reactions of every single person in the event of various scenarios.
The program can be used to predict what would happen in the event of a large scale tsunami, for example, or how people would react during a bioterror attack. Businesses can use the models to predict how a new product would fare in the market, what kind of marketing plans would be most effective, or how best to streamline a company’s organization.
The original concept paper for the project was published in 2006 and in 2007 it was reported that both Homeland Security and the Defense Department were already using the system to simulate the American public’s reaction to various crises. In the intervening five years, however, there has been almost no coverage at all of the Sentient World Simulation or its progress in achieving a model of the earth.
There is a very good chance that these types of systems are, at least for the moment, pure quackery. Computers are only as valuable as their programming, after all, and the algorithms required to accurately predict responses in chaotic systems with multiple, dimly-understood variables is orders of magnitude beyond what is currently possible. Or is it? One of the great ironies of our time, as Glenn Greenwald goes on to point out in his speech on the surveillance state, is that although we live in a time when it is possible for nebulous government agencies to know every detail of your life, from what you ate for breakfast to where you shopped last night to who your friends are, we are also living in an age of unprecedented ignorance about what are our own governments are actually doing.
This is the heart of the matter. Somehow we are expected to go along with the sophomoric sophism that “If we have nothing to hide then we have nothing to fear,” yet at the same time we are asked to believe that the government must keep all manner of information secret from the public in order to carry out its work of “protecting” that public.
If the government has nothing to hide, then why doesn’t it release the notes, memoranda and findings of the 9/11 Commission in full and unredacted?
Why doesn’t it release the records of the JFK assassination investigation instead of arguing, as it is, that those records should once again be removed from a declassification review that is to take place in 2013, 50 years after the assassination itself took place?
Why doesn’t it release the full audit trail of what banks received the emergency TARP funds and in what amounts?
Is it because, after all, the government does have something to hide from the public that are its ostensible masters? Is it because the old maxim that “Knowledge is power” is more true than we could ever know, and that the government’s one-way insistence on transparency for the citizens and opacity for itself is a reflection of the power that it holds over us?
The Sentient World Simulation is just one example of one program run by one company for various governmental and Fortune 500 clients. But it is a significant peek behind the curtain at what those who are really running our society want: complete control over every facet of our lives achieved through a complete invasion of everything that was once referred to as “privacy.” To think that this is the only such program that exists, or even that we have any significant details about the ways that the SWS has already been used, would be hopelessly naive.
So where does this leave a public that is at such a disadvantage in this information warfare? A public that is effectively told that anything and everything they do, say or buy, can and will be catalogued by the a.i. control grid even as the details of that grid are to be kept from them? Unfortunately there is no easy way back from the precipice that we were ushered toward with the creation of the national security state and the passage of the National Security Act of 1947. Perhaps we have already stepped over that precipice and there is no going back in the current political paradigm. These are things for an informed, aware, knowledgeable citizenry to decide through a societal dialogue over the nature of and importance of “privacy.”
But without a general awareness that programs like the Sentient World Simulation even exist, what hope do we have in counteracting it?
Wearable exercise trackers provide data that encode information on individual running performance. These data hold great potential for enhancing our understanding of the complex interplay between training and performance. Here we demonstrate feasibility of this idea by applying a previously validated mathematical model to real-world running activities of ≈ 14,000 individuals with ≈ 1.6 million exercise sessions containing duration and distance, with a total distance of ≈ 20 million km. Our model depends on two performance parameters: an aerobic power index and an endurance index. Inclusion of endurance, which describes the decline in sustainable power over duration, offers novel insights into performance: a highly accurate race time prediction and the identification of key parameters such as the lactate threshold, commonly used in exercise physiology. Correlations between performance indices and training volume and intensity are quantified, pointing to an optimal training. Our findings hint at new ways to quantify and predict athletic performance under real-world conditions. Laboratory performance tests provide the gold standard for running performance but do not reflect real running conditions. Here the authors use a large, real world dataset obtained from wearable exercise trackers to extract parameters that accurately predict race times and correlate with training.
Starve the beast of your data by minimizing unnecessary usage. You don’t really need a smartphone half the times you’re out. You’re just being a junkie. Buy a goddam laptop, you need it more than a new expresso machine, tape the camera and the mic, use it wisely to give away a minimum of info etc… whatever you can think of to minimize the authentic data about you.
Intoxicate the beast with fake data: like things 7ou don’t really like, follow people you don’t care about, tag yourself in unrelated things, build a web o fake random connections, be unpredictable, break patterns, do random acts of randomness. When you start getting ads and suggestions you can’t care about, you’re on the good path.
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No money for energy? Warm yourselves with some billion-dollar biotech research!
ARPA-H is modeled after similar agencies that advance innovation in their sectors, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is known for contributing to achievements such as the internet, GPS and even Moderna’s vaccine for COVID-19.
If you’re not familiar with DARPA yet, please see these posts first.
What all these ARPAs do is one thing: spend countless billions from public money to do research that’s later handed to private companies through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scam. Universities used to provide these services, they still do to a smaller scale, but they can’t be as secretive and can’t be involved in some highly sensitive projects from a national security perspective.
ARPA-H launches path to speed public-private partnerships
The mission of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is to advance better health outcomes for everyone. To realize this mission, innovations sparked by ARPA-H must be able to transition into the real world. Transition strategies are often left to the last phase of a program, which significantly reduces the likelihood of a solution to reach the people that need it. ARPA-H seeks to facilitate public-private partnerships for accelerating technology transfer and transition by launching an effort to form Partnership Intermediary Agreements (PIA) that will make transition resources available throughout the entire program life cycle.
“Since the launch of ARPA-H almost a year ago, we have been building the team, tools, and capabilities that each program manager will need in order to launch audacious programs capable of advancing the state of the art in health innovation,” said Renee Wegrzyn, inaugural director of ARPA-H. “The PIA capability is critical to ensure that incoming program managers can hit the ground running and pursue big challenges in health.”
A PIA is an agreement established with a nonprofit partner with deep commercial sector and transition expertise, to engage academia and industry on behalf of the government. Speed and flexibility are the two main advantages of PIAs. PIAs allow for novel approaches that mirror commercial practice to get solutions to market. PIAs are authorized under 15 U.S.C. §3715 to create public-private partnerships.
“We at ARPA-H care deeply about getting solutions to everyone, and this is a powerful tool to ensure those solutions survive in the wild,” said Craig Gravitz, director of ARPA-H’s Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office (PATIO). “This ensures ARPA-H programs address the market dynamics that matter for success, early and often.” PATIO is ARPA-H’s transition and commercialization office and focuses on ensuring that technologies developed through ARPA-H programs are readily accessible and scalable.
ARPA-H’s PIA application is designed to be easy to understand and implement, enabling potential intermediaries from all eligible communities who may not have deep government expertise to rapidly submit.
The PIA application is now closed. Awards will likely be made approximately 30 days from release date.
Dr. Renee Wegrzyn serves as the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), appointed on Oct. 11, 2022, by President Joseph R. Biden.
Previously, Wegrzyn served as a vice president of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks and head of innovation at Concentric by Ginkgo, where she focused on applying synthetic biology to outpace infectious diseases – including COVID-19 – through biomanufacturing, vaccine innovation, and biosurveillance of pathogens at scale.
Wegrzyn comes to ARPA-H with experience working for two of the institutions that inspired the creation of the agency – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
As a Program Manager in the DARPA Biological Technologies Office, Wegrzyn leveraged the tools of synthetic biology and gene editing to enhance biosecurity, support the domestic bioeconomy, and thwart biothreats. Her DARPA portfolio included the Living Foundries: 1000 Molecules, Safe Genes; Preemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE); and the Detect it with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) programs.
Wegrzyn received the Superior Public Service Medal for her work and contributions at DARPA. Prior to joining DARPA, she led technical teams in private industry in the areas of biosecurity, gene therapies, emerging infectious disease, neuromodulation, synthetic biology, as well as research and development teams commercializing multiplex immunoassays and peptide-based disease diagnostics.
Wegrzyn served on the scientific advisory boards for the National Academies Standing Committee on Biotechnology Capabilities and National Security Needs, National Academies of Science Board on Army Research and Development, Revive & Restore, Air Force Research Labs, Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Innovative Genomics Institute. She holds doctoral and bachelor’s degrees in applied biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, was a fellow in the Center for Health Security Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative and completed her postdoctoral training as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Heidelberg, Germany.
With ARPA-H’s billions in Congressional funding and broad mandate to solve intractable health challenges, several audience members asked Wegrzyn what success might look like for the nascent agency. In addition to accelerating breakthroughs in disease prevention and health care delivery, “We want to create tools and products that people want to use,” Wegrzyn said. “We want it to be so obvious to the rest of the world why ARPA-H is here. … So that’ll look like success.” “And paradoxically,” she added, “success should also look like failure.” If the agency doesn’t experience failure, she argues, it may not be taking big enough risks. Another key indicator of success for ARPA-H will be in its diversity — in the problems it solves, in the communities it serves and in the program managers it hires. Spreading the word to people around the world, including those in underrepresented communities, will be pivotal.
The acceleration of COVID-19 testing platforms and vaccine development has demonstrated the possibility of expediting research for similar biomedical breakthroughs. However, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lacks a framework to regularly sustain this type of research. A new federal agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), offers a unique opportunity to capitalize on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and drive federal investment into high-risk, high-reward biomedical research. ARPA-H will mirror the flat bureaucratic structure of the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the employment of independent project managers. ARPA-H is also unique in how it centers equity in the agency’s core mission. These unique traits could enable the agency to fill the gaps in current biomedical research under the NIH. Nonetheless, ARPA-H’s implementation is not without challenges: its incorporation within the NIH has raised concerns regarding its ability to specialize in high-risk research and the diversion of funding away from the rest of the NIH. These worries can be mitigated through the separation of ARPA-H and the NIH. Successful implementation of the ARPA-H framework would supplement current NIH work, diversify the US federal research strategy, accelerate promising breakthroughs, promote equity in health, and transform the nature of biomedical research in the US.
And this is not the last ARPA you’ll hear about. We’re in a world of ARPAs.
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A slide from Hunt’s presentation.
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