The 'New World Order'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:06:00 +0000

The Great Reset

Economic Shutdown - Food Bank
The New World Order

One Possibility!

In regards to the current economic situation, because of last year's global recession and also the recent economic slowdown a catastrophic global economic crisis has occurred.

After the stock market crashed, all of the financial markets were closed for two weeks. Many were in a state of shock!

Hyperinflation, already a concern in Latin America had begun to affect other economies as well. Because of these concerns regarding hyperinflation and the stock market crash there was total chaos, globally! Everyone panicked so much that there was a run on the banks so all of the banks were forced to close. Some have since reopened. The media and the press had 24/7 coverage of all of this on every tv channel.

One could buy a cup of coffee for a
million bolivars in Venezuela 2018
Some businesses were forced by the government to temporarily close their doors during which time government employees examined business records to any companies/corporations they wanted. Also, the internet and all social media sites were shut down so they could start a new internet service with only government sanctioned streaming news programs. The reason they said was that it was a necessary evil and we had to accept it.

Asian News Program Reports On The
Global Economic Collapse And Crisis
Now they're telling us on the daily news reports that some sort of global restructuring is going on behind the scenes involving all of the world's financial markets, economic blocks, and that everything will be okay. The other day we heard they would be implementing a new global cashless system any day now and when this happens we will no longer be able to use cash. Biometric and rfid systems/alternatives are being installed everywhere. Our hands, fingers and retinas were scanned and recorded for this new biometric system.

A Common Sight These Days In
A Shopping Center Parking lot!
Our newly appointed global leader made his first appearance and he somewhat explained our economic situation. Everyone's shocked that all of this has so suddenly come to pass after the recent stock market collapse. It's difficult to believe this is really happening. It's crazy. Everything that the global president says now becomes the law. NWO banners and slogans are showing up everywhere, throughout every neighborhood, street, and city. Massive tv displays are being installed throughout every region and major city. These are easily visible and are currently displaying the daily news reports.

We all agree martial law has become a reality. U.N. troops, the military police, and the local police have been stationed throughout every city. I never imagined anything like this could happen! Biometric and rfid identification systems are an everyday part of life. Everything's gone digital overnight. Those who have resisted this new system and are trying to live off the grid are already facing serious problems going about their daily lives.

Just recently there were new policies established for the masses regarding those who haven't gone in and received their biometric identification stating that it's now considered mandatory!

A friend of mine and his family had decided not to be included in the biometric program were on their way to live underground at one of their relatives properties. They were then stopped at one of the many local law enforcement checkpoints. Afterward he and his wife and kids have turned up missing and they haven't been seen or heard from since.

I really hope they haven't been sent to an internment camp!

Living in a global fascist state!

A Look At The 'Fascist' Agenda Behind The 'Great Reset'

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George Washington, "It is not my intention to doubt that the doctrine of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more satisfied of this fact than I am." -- 1798.

The Goal Of The Illuminati Is A 'New World Order'

The Illuminati's 'Eye In The Triangle'

Bohemian Grove - Owl Shrine. Where
powerful men go to meet once yearly.
The perception is that our day-in day-out world is real.

The truth is that this world is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by an all-powerful Illuminati controlled secret society presided over by the global elite.

The Illuminati call the shots in every major upheaval that they cause.

Their sphere of activity extends over the entire globe.

Their ambition and greed for wealth and power knows no bounds.

It is also their target to depopulate the globe and maintain a much lower population compared to what we have now.

There are certain methods of subjugation and control which are indispensable to the Illuminati.

One is, of course, complete authority over all financial systems, especially borrowing and lending.

With all banks under their direct supervision.

At the highest level the World Bank decides the fate of countries.

And it is an interesting and amazing fact that both the Federal Reserve Bank and the Bank of England are controlled by these Illuminati dynasties, in spite of the names of these banks.

It has been said that both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy wanted to change this system.

When A Real Power Move Is To Be Made It Will Be Done Suddenly!

If you want to bring about a "New World Order", you must first crash the current system.

Their Goal Is To Collapse & Sink The Dollar
The Illuminati will never allow their global hegemony to be destroyed.

The expression of this global control has been the US dollar.

They will trigger a global fiat currency meltdown.

All fiat currencies will be attacked and will collapse.

The last currency to collapse will be the US dollar.

They will then bring in a One World Digital Currency under the purview of a World Government.

There's going to be a somewhat prepared response for any controlled opposition, but the need for this is going to be relatively limited since there's not going to be a realistic threat to these Illuminati and their plans.

"We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent." James Warburg to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, l950

THEY LIVE - The Movie

'They Live' is a 1988 American science fiction horror film written and directed by John Carpenter. The film stars Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster. It follows a nameless drifter (called "John Nada" in the credits), who discovers the ruling class are in fact concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. Based on Ray Nelson’s short story Eight O’Clock in the Morning, the movie is one of those rare subversive stories that forces viewers to question their world and their surroundings.

Right from the beginning, as we see Nada walking around Los Angeles with his backpack, the movie sets a particular mood: Something is not quite right. While Nada appears to be a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, the city is not happy and it is not too kind to happy-go-lucky kind of guys. Quite the contrary, there is a sense of impending doom in the air: Poverty is rampant, helicopters fly around the city and street preachers speak of soulless beings ruling the world.

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper As John Nada
A preacher’s description of the "masters" is applicable to the Illuminati.

Seeking shelter Nada enters an empty church and discovers a hidden box. In an alley, he opens the box and finds dozens of sunglasses. Taking one, he hides the box of remaining sunglasses in a garbage can.

Nada discovers the sunglasses have unique properties. After putting on a pair, he sees the world in black and white and discovers it is not what it seems. Media and advertising hide constant subliminal totalitarian commands to obey and conform. When viewing those of wealth and authority Nada discovers they're not human.

When he has his sunglasses on, Nada sees through the smoke and mirrors projected by advertisement and mass media. He only sees the core of their message and the only reason why they exist. No matter which magazine Nada flips open, he sees the same subliminal messages, which tells a lot about the true function of "celebrity" and "fashion" magazines. Despite the fact that they are all different, they all ultimately serve the same purpose: To reinforce messages from the elite to the masses.

We’re living in two worlds, you and I.

There’s the world we see (or are made to see) and then there’s the one we sense (and occasionally catch a glimpse of), the latter of which is a far cry from the propaganda-driven reality manufactured by the government and its corporate sponsors, including the media. Indeed, what most people perceive as life in a privileged, progressive and free society — is a far cry from reality, where economic inequality is growing, real agendas and real power are buried beneath layers of Orwellian doublespeak and corporate obfuscation, and "freedom," such that it is, is meted out in small, legalistic doses by militarized police armed to the teeth.

All is not as it seems.

"The invisible Money Power is working to control and enslave mankind. It financed Communism, Fascism, Marxism, Zionism, Socialism. All of these are directed to making the United States a member of a World Government ..." —American Mercury magazine, December 1957

The NWO Dictator

The "Son of Perdition", "Antichrist",
"Beast", "Man of Sin", "NWO Dictator"
It is a fact that advocates of the New World Order will attempt to fulfill the world’s messianic expectations with an antichrist. 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4 tells us that the last days will not come until “the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,” commonly called the Antichrist.

He will sit in the Temple in Jerusalem and demand to be worshipped as God. 2nd Thessalonians 2:8 He is also called “the beast,” in the Book of Revelation. This tyrannical world dictator will be empowered by Satan and be the embodiment of all that is opposed to God.

Like Hitler the antichrist will "have a mouth that will speak very great things, and his look will be more imposing than his fellows." He will think to change times and laws and is referred to as "The King of fierce countenance" who shall "have an understanding of dark sentences." Daniel 7:20, 25; 8:23 Because of this man all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, will be forced to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, so that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Rev 13:16-17

This man will come on the scene and will offer to lead the world into total peace. He will be recognized throughout the world as a man of peace. He will promise to solve the Middle East conflict. He will bring harmony in the ecumenical-ecclesiastical church. He will offer economic solutions to the world's problems. He will arise as a world leader of peace and prosperity and reign exactly three and a half years as the world's greatest dictator.

Beware of when this man appears on the world scene. His leadership will take the world into a Great Tribulation of terror, wars, suffering and death.

Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened. Zechariah 11:17

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"The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups." -David Rockefeller

The Illuminati 'New World Order'

1930's Great Depression.
Soup Kitchen and Bread Line
(A NWO World Wide Government Accompanied By A Solitary World Bank And A Single World Religion.) (The NWO Will Have A Mapped Out Strategy And A Strategic Plan To Implement The Use Of RFID Microchips, Biometric Access Systems, Biometric Collection Devices - Handheld Scanners And Cameras, Biometric Databases, Unlimited Government Access To Data, Data Mining, Unmanned Drones, Travel Restrictions, Surveillance Cameras, Pre-Crime Surveillance, And Militarized Police.)

On October 29, 1929, The Stock Market Crashed. Will it happen again? Will the world this time be rescued by and come under the control of a madman?

The NYSE. The world's largest stock exchange market. US stocks plunge amid Wall Street crisis - 29 Sept 08.
Time Magazine 13 Oct. 2008

The rise of the one-world government is beginning to take its shape as early as now.

Its form is hidden in the emerging New World Order.

The New World Order is being established by the Elite of the Elites and consists of the Fourth Reich of the SuperRich/the Lords of Money/the International Bank Cartels/the Secret Societies/the Brotherhood and the Order/the Committee of the 300 Billionaires of the World including the Power Elite of 13 Old Line Families through the years.

This group envisions a one world banking system and currency that will give in to a cashless computer financial system, one world centralized control of global population, global control of the world’s environment, economy, trade and army.

They have already made a giant step. The year was 1945, when they drafted and created the United Nations.

These men have unbelievable power and they have spelled out their agenda in advance.

That global agenda is constructed around six goals.

The method by which these are going to be brought about will most likely be either a GLOBAL DEPRESSION, THIRD WORLD WAR, or MAYBE BOTH.

Goal #1 : The establishment of international economic order (cashless society)

Goal #2: The establishment of a one-world government

Goal #3 : The conquest and subjugation of two super powers (USA and USSR)

Goal #4: The ascension of the United States of Europe as the dominant nation in a Confederated one-world government

Goal #5: The ushering in of a supreme world leader to preside over the new unified one-world government

Goal #6 : The establishment of a one-world religion which will coordinate all the world’s religions, cults, faith groups and spiritual beliefs under the guidance of Supreme Pontiff

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"It's Necessary To Establish A Universal Regime And Empire Over The Whole World ...." "Let me control a peoples currency and I care not who makes their laws..." Adam Weishaupt Founder Of The Bavarian Illuminati

Project N. O. L. A. National Crime Camera Program

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Don't worry about purchasing, renting or leasing expensive cameras as Project NOLA uses its own funds to purchase extremely high-end crime cameras for your community. Most all camera models provided by Project NOLA feature Sony STARVIS NightVision to see Color at Night, Advanced Artificial Intelligence to accurately and automatically detect and alert upon suspicious activity, redundant recording to prevent data lose, generously long 5 year warranties, and more!

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"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." George Orwell author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, a glimpse at a dystopian future where the world is run by totalitarian regimes.

Panoptic Surveillance See-Thru 3D System

A Panoptic Video Surveillance See-Thru 3D System could be loosely described as a formalised, scalable implementation of X-ray vision. The system enables one or more surveillance agents, using a single high resolution, auto-stereoscopic display, to remotely monitor the security situation of an arbitrarily large number of locations at-a-glance.

The system would allow a single agent to monitor thousands of places at the same time without overwhelming them with the massive amount of information being processed and displayed. It enables this by using artificial intelligence to determine what’s important to look at.

The surveillance agent's mental load is radically optimized towards monitoring only what is most critical to security: presence and movement of (groups of) people and vehicles inside a campus/site and its buildings as well as any security-sensitive events (such as fires, smoke, badge access, assemblies, gun-shots, people running etc).

Agents can see, hear and transport their focused viewpoint through walls, floors and ceilings, zooming into a specific location to monitor it at a level so acute that it seems beyond the levels of even science fiction.

Designed to enable both wholistic site-wide and granular-level security, the system is ideal for monitoring airports, shipping ports, transit sites and other ports-of-entry, hotels, casinos, shopping malls, campuses, military bases, large buildings and building complexes, offering total situational awareness at a glance.

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"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Rise Of The New World Order

An Egyptian Pyramid Capstone. Symbolic Of The
Elite That Are Going To Rule Over Us In The NWO.
The recent history of the world is a history of conflicts between secret societies.

Established upper-class families with 'old money' have founded and finance the Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Club, Club of Rome, Council on Foreign Relations, Rhodes Trust, Skull and Bones, Trilateral Commission, and similar think tanks and private clubs.

These are the Illuminati, who plot to impose their totalitarian New World Order over us — an authoritarian world government controlled by the United Nations and a global central bank.

The whole Earth will be going through great changes soon, such as: climate changes, warfare, economic impacts, etc. All of this will work towards the fulfillment of a world government. This final kingdom or global empire is described in the Book of Daniel in several dreams and visions.

An Egyptian Pyramid With A Capstone In Place.
Fulfillment of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream - (in part).

'You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue--an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay'. Daniel 2:31-32

In succession the Babylonians gave way to the Medo-Persians, and the Medo-Persians gave way to the Greeks, and the Greeks gave way to the Romans. It was the Romans who were in power at the time of Christ. There had been almost an unbroken sequence of world empires from Nebuchadnezzar until the time of Christ.

BAPHOMET/SATAN/LUCIFER
Nebuchadnezzar's dream indicated that one empire would be replaced by another. The iron legs, feet and toes of the statue represented the future empire of Rome. This final kingdom would come at the very end of time or end of the age!

Daniel's Dream - (in part).

'After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast--terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.' Daniel 7:7,8

The interesting thing to notice here is that, in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, there are ten toes on the feet, and in Daniel's dream, the final form of a world government had ten horns. So the number ten is very significant in the last form of world governments which is still future.

Since the Roman Empire ceased to exist as a real empire, how many world empires have existed? There have been some serious attempts. Charlemagne, Napoleon, and Hitler, tried to conquer their world. None of them succeeded. The Bible says there are only four of these world empires, and then a final form of the fourth one--feet made partly of iron and partly of clay. What would the iron and clay mean? It is a Revived Roman Empire--partly of the old iron of the ancient Roman empire, and partly of clay, something weaker and brittle. It would include some of the old areas, but it would not be as strong and monolithic as the old Roman Empire.

We are looking for another empire that will come out of ten nations/economic blocs and then become a world power.

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"In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority." Strobe Talbot, Deputy Secretary of State, TIME, l992

Global Control Through RFID Chips Or With Biometrics

Biometric Hand/Vein Recognition

An Inserted RFID Tracking Chip
There is a possible global economic crisis coming that will lead to a financial "melt down" that the elite could use in order to establish a Global Financial Economic System. This would give centralized power to the United Nation’s International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, creating a type of "Global Federal Reserve System".

This is setting the stage for a cashless electronic currency with the use of a high tech surveillance RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip to be implanted under one’s skin or with biometrics.

The Global Elite, blinded by their thirst for power, orchestrate obtaining total control over the people in the excuse of providing for more transparency; a greater surveillance of the world financial markets, cross border firms, money laundering, terrorist financing, etc…

They believe that they are the only ones capable of governing mankind properly. However, these globalists know very well that people will not easily give up their freedom of the use of cash to accept these "bio-chips" or a biometric system unless there is a worldwide panic, be it financial or maybe even a flu pandemic, etc. to convince the population that the only way not to lose everything is to accept the use of a RFID chip or biometric system.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0000

The Illuminati

The Illuminati is a name that nowadays is used to talk of several groups characterized by secrecy, all groups working together, having one single goal, because they all share the same god. Historically however, it refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, founded on May 1 of 1776, a secret society of people who believed to be enlighten, by this same so called “god” who in the Bible is called Lucifer, who gave them knowledge hidden from the masses which they all use for the ultimate goal of global domination through a New World Order under Lucifer as god. Their first and main rule is “Do not talk about Illuminati”. There is much proof that the Illuminati, referring to all these different secret societies, has been behind both World Wars plus the one coming up, as well as many other tragedies around the world, all that may had been necessary for them to come to World Domination, following their motto “Ordo ab Chao” (Order out of Chaos).

Adam Weishaupt
Adam Weishaupt

Adam Weishaupt is the man who is recorded as having started this secret society which would come to involve all Luciferian societies, even those dating back thousands of years ago; all to keep the plan of their ancestors alive ever since Nimrod, the first human who rebelled against the Most High and who chose to be king of the world.

Adam Weishaupt was taught by Jesuits and became a Freemason before starting the Illuminati. Freemasonry and Illuminati are not one and the same, although Freemasonry has come to be controlled by the Illuminati nowadays, keeping the Freemasons in the lower ranks in ignorance of their real goal and god, information which is held by those in the 33rd degree

All Seeing Eye on Pyramid
Adam Weishaupt once wrote:

“I did not bring Deism into Bavaria more than into Rome. I found it here, in great vigour, more abounding than in any of the neighboring Protestant States. I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.”

In the Book ¨Proof of Conspiracy¨ by John Robison we read:

"Weishaupt had long been scheming the establishment of an Association or Order, which in time, should govern the World."

Illuminati Pyramid

The Illuminati was created in Bavaria, Germany, but the symbol they used as their logo seems to come from Egypt, or even the Mayans, and it holds a very significant meaning, it can be found on the United States one dollar bill.

At the bottom of the pyramid we can see the Letters MDCCLXXVI , which are the Roman numerals equivalent to 1776, which many believe are there to commemorate the independence of the United States but instead, it is there because this was the year that the Plan of the Illuminati for a New World Order would be set in motion on the “New World” called America.

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"Today the path of total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by the Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government - a bureaucratic elite." Senator William Jenner, 1954

Video Surveillance Gets Smarter

The City of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications and IBM implemented one of the most advanced city-wide intelligent security system ever conceived. The engagement is a part of Chicago's Operation Virtual Shield, a project that encompasses one of the world's largest video security deployments.

IBM helped the City experts and network engineers to design and implement a surveillance strategy infrastructure to capture, monitor and fully index video for real-time and forensic-related safety applications. This entailed building a unified fiber network throughout the downtown Chicago area, deploying a critical wireless infrastructure to offer flexibility as required, installing hundreds of new surveillance cameras, linking thousands of preexisting cameras to the network, and creating a fully redundant backend system to monitor the video, store the images and allow for business continuity and disaster recovery applications.

Chicago's security solution is designed to provide several benefits to both city officials and citizens including: real-time video surveillance intelligence for proactive homeland security monitoring; faster response time to emergencies; more effective deployment of emergency responders; and increased travel efficiency through traffic congestion tracking.

Many things go unnoticed in big cities every day, but that world has now changed in Chicago with this video surveillance system that can recognize anomalies and alert authorities to take a closer look.

"Chicago is really light years ahead of any metropolitan area in the U.S. now," said Sam Docknevich, who heads video-surveillance consulting for IBM.

Chicago already had thousands of security cameras in use by businesses and police - including some equipped with devices that could recognize the sound of a gunshot, turn the cameras toward the source and place a 911 call. But the current system will let cameras analyze images in real time 24 hours a day.

"You're talking about creating something that knows no fatigue, no boredom and is absolutely focused," said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

This system can be programmed to alert the city's emergency center whenever a camera spots a vehicle matching the description of one being sought by authorities.

The system can also be programmed to recognize license plates. It can alert emergency officials if the same car or truck circles the Sears Tower three times or if nobody picks up a backpack in Grant Park for, say, 30 seconds.

"Cities today are faced with ever-increasing threats and advanced security surveillance systems can be a critical component in ensuring safety," said Mike Daniels, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services. "IBM is proud to be a part of Operation Virtual Shield and the City of Chicago's visionary approach to homeland security."

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." - David Rockefeller

The Foundations Have Been Laid A Long Time Ago

The Apotheosis of George Washington as displayed on the ceiling of the Rotunda of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC (painted by Constantino Brumidi - 1865). It depicts George Washington rising to the heavens in glory sitting on a throne as a God. Very few recognize the spiritual elements of the architecture and the symbolism of this building which literally makes it a temple of Masonic mysteries. The city of Washington is even located in the District of the (Goddess of Columbia). In 1791, President Washington commissioned Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant, a French-born architect, city planner and freemason, to design the new capital and City of Washington.

The masons had wanted America to be a 'New Atlantis' and Washington, D.C. a second Rome. They were committing America to what has been called 'A Secret Destiny'. This future 'destiny', is 'The New World Order'. Listen to an audiobook on Freemasonry - The Truth (right click to download)

Masonic Temple Buildings - Lodge Room

In order for a global "New World Order" economic system to be established with a one-world electronic currency the sovereignty of all nations must be undermined. Then, and only then, will everyone be forced to exist and live within the confines of a single global police state thereby losing our freedoms and rights as free human beings.

The ideal of a "New World Order" might never be closer than now. It may not be long before all of us experience an abrupt change in our way of living. There has been a group that consists of Masons, Jewish Bankers, and other influential wealthy individuals that has worked for a very long time through Freemasonry and the Order of the Illuminati to achieve this "New World Order". Their goal is to set up a Global Police State with a more controlled society and continuous surveillance over every citizen! First they’ll destroy this present world system (Old Order) and then bring in their global government. They have everything in place and ready to go so when the time is right they will make their move without any hesitation.

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"The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions." – Dr. Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994

Collapse Of The American Empire: Swift, Silent, Certain!

"One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse," warns anthropologist Jared Diamond in "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed."

Many "civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power."

Now, Harvard's Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading financial historians, echoes Diamond's warning: "Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine.

A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice." Yes, America is on the edge.

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"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fascism

Roman Fascist Symbol (left)

US House of Representatives chamber, United States Capitol (on the left and right of the podium)

Close Up

This symbol of absolute rule is commonly known as a fasces, and helped inspired the name of those who espoused such totalitarian power, the Fascists.

The word comes from fascio (plural: fasci), which may mean bundle, as in a political or militant group or a nation, but also from the fasces (rods bundled around an axe). One might say the fasces embodies the essence of fascism: The people are the sticks, tied to the state to form a strong, single unit.

The [individual] is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone. The State is the ax, which has the power to create, to enforce and to obliterate.

A fascist regime generally gains support by promoting a series of ideas through the media, public rallies and other forms of propaganda. These ideas include: a nation in crisis, an idealized past, and a need for social change.

"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes." - SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER, 1952

The Coming NWO Totalitarian State

A Global Government To Rule From The UN?

The Totalitarian State will be realized when the nations of this world come together as one body, having an omnipresent government presence where individual rights are routinely ignored.

1. Government Surveillance

In a Totalitarian State "You're Under Constant Surveillance!"

With our National Security Agency involved in wiretapping, maintaining a call database, and engaged in data-mining, we can foresee that Big Brother is no longer a fictional character. Each of us has a hand-held "computer/smart phone" we carry with us most everywhere we go, which we almost never turn off. We're monitored, in various ways, in our homes, cubicles at work, cafeterias, and also in public and private. Security cameras are everywhere!

In a Totalitarian State no place is safe!
2. Perpetual War

In a Totalitarian State, the Party embraces a policy of continual military skirmishes so as to eat up any economic surplus and keep people poor and under control. Today we can see governments having a similar course of action, moving seamlessly from one military conflict to another.

3. Bread and Circuses

In a Totalitarian State, the vast majority of the population are almost not even worthy of surveillance. So long as the Totalitarian State gives them a regular dose of food, alcohol, drugs, television, the lottery and pornography, they are considered to be under control.

4. A Police State

In a Totalitarian State the government exercises rigid and repressive control over the social, economic and political life of the population. There is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. In a Totalitarian State, rights are non existent and laws are selectively enforced. The inhabitants of a Totalitarian State experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force, which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.

5. Newspeak

In a Totalitarian State language can be (mis)used to deceive and control the masses. In the real world today, political correctness and euphemism are both pervasive and pervasively derided. Some current examples are: "regime change" overthrow, "shock and awe" massive bombing, "revenue enhancement" tax increase, and "downsize" fire employees. If the Newspeak of today makes us wince, how much more will it when we're living in a Totalitarian State?

"It's up to us. No one is coming to help us. If we don’t make the effort, no one else will. It's time for the twilight of the idols. It's time for a new dawn, a new humanity, a new world order. It's time for the dawn of the Gods." - Adam Weishaupt

The Georgia Guidestones Partially Destroyed By Bomb Blast Are Brought Down

On one of the highest hilltops in Elbert County, Georgia stands a huge granite monument.

Engraved in eight different languages on the four giant stones that support the common capstone are 10 Guides, or commandments.

That monument is alternately referred to as The Georgia Guidestones, or the American Stonehenge.

Though relatively unknown to most people, it is an important link to the Occult Hierarchy that dominates the world in which we live.

The messages engraved on the Georgia Guidestones deal with four major fields:

(1) Governance and the establishment of a world government,

(2) Population and reproduction control,

(3) The environment and man's relationship to nature, and

(4) Spirituality.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.

10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

Explosion Destroys Part Of Mysterious Monument In Georgia, Then They Are Brought Down

The Georgia Landmark Known as ‘America’s Stonehenge’ Is Destroyed in an Explosive Attack

For more than four decades, the Georgia Guidestones near Elberton Ga., have been an enigma. The authorities said, “unknown individuals” destroyed a large part of the structure.

An explosive device that “unknown individuals” detonated early on a Wednesday morning destroyed a granite monument in Georgia that was built under mysterious circumstances more than four decades ago and promoted by state officials as “America’s Stonehenge,” the authorities said.

The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, which was built about nine miles north of Elberton, Ga., had four granite slabs connected to a center pillar, with a capstone on top.

But around 4 a.m. on a Wednesday morning in July 2022, an explosive device was set off, destroying “a large portion of the structure,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. It is investigating the explosion together with the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office.

Though part of the monument was still standing after the explosion, the entirety had to be demolished by officials in the aftermath out of safety concerns.

Read more »

"By the end of this decade we will live under the first One World Government that has ever existed in the society of nations ... a government with absolute authority to decide the basic issues of human survival. One world government is inevitable." -POPE JOHN PAUL II quoted by Malachi Martin in the book "The Keys of This Blood"

Monarch Mind Control

Katy In "Wide Awake" With Butterflies In Her Hair

The monarch butterfy symbolizes the mind control program Project Monarch. The trauma based mind control fragments the mind of the victim. Project Monarch was allegedly developed within the CIA’s MKUltra mind control experiments in the early 1950's.

Katy Perry’s music video “Wide Awake” is another music video among many from the music industry that conceals references to Monarch programming within its symbolism.

References to this practice occur often in mass media but are often coded using specific symbols and imagery.

The Monarch Mind Control Project is a mind control program, that was developed by the CIA, under Project MKULTRA.

Monarch Mind Control represents an important pillar of the New World Order. Authorities, celebrities, moderators, musicians, politicians, actors, sportsmen and others are being misused for the Illuminati agenda, to exemplify the wrong way of life and to condition us to accept the coming satanic age.

There have been many articles written which describe items of popular culture that conceal their symbolic references to an unknown, horrendous practice: Monarch programming. This technique of mind control seeks to create fully “programmable” individuals and is used by the shadowy elite in fields such as the military, politics and the murky underworld.

Another area in which mind control, especially Monarch programming, is used is the entertainment business – not only because some celebrities are actual victims of mind control, but because entertainment is used to subtly normalize and glamorize this awful practice through symbolism.

Katy Perry’s video Wide Awake is yet another music video that alludes to the concept of Monarch programming through its story line and its imagery. While this might not be obvious to most people, those who have some knowledge of the subject of mind control find it extremely blatant.

In many ways, the video resembles works such as the movies Labyrinth and Sucker Punch and music videos like Paramore’s Brick by Boring Brick. All of these productions visually represent the inner-world of Monarch slaves through a specific set of symbols: mirrors, butterflies (especially Monarch butterflies), mazes and so forth. Not only do these objects aptly portray psychological concepts, they are actual “trigger images” used in mind control on Monarch slaves. Wide Awake fully utilizes this set of symbols, which gives the story line a deeper, and more disturbing, meaning.

Read more »

"We are moving toward a new world order, the world of communism. We shall never turn off that road." Mikhail Gorbachev, 1987

Behind The Headlines: Crimes Of The Global 'Elite'

Sandy Hook Crisis Actor? False Flag?
For almost 30 years, investigator Ole Dammegård has been on a quest to find the truth behind some of the worst conspiracies in the history of world - such as the murders US President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, John Lennon and the blowing up of m/s Estonia killing at least 852 innocent people.

This has taken him on a very frightening and dangerous journey into unknown territories. What has been claimed as acts by lone madmen has turned out to be connected to the International military industrial complex and top level high finance, all sanctioned locally behind dark smoke screens. Ole has also analyzed the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was gunned down in February 1986.

Ole recently joined Behind the Headlines hosts Niall Bradley and Joe Quinn for a riveting radio show...

The transcript.

Read more »

"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." J. Edgar Hoover

The Order Of The Illuminati

Its Origins, Its Methods and Its Influence on the World Events.

The Order of the Illuminati is often at the center of debates about the impact of secret societies on human history. Is the Illuminati a myth or does it truly secretly rule the world? This article attempts to shed some factual light on the Order of the Illuminati by reviewing some of the most important documents on the subject.

The world “Illuminati” is thrown around rather freely to describe the elite group that is secretly running the world. Most have a general idea of the meaning of the term, but are confused about the concepts and the ideas relating to it. Is the Illuminati the same thing as Freemasonry? What are their goals? What are their beliefs? Why do they act in secret? Do they practice occultism? This article attempts to draw a more precise picture of the Order by citing authors who have extensively studied the subject. Whether they are, at the end of the day, critics or apologists of the Illuminati, these authors base their thoughts on credible facts. Some of the most interesting documents on the Illuminati were written by initiates of Secret Societies as they understood the philosophical and spiritual undercurrent driving the movement forward. Using these works, we will look at the origins, the methods and the impacts of the Illuminati on world history.

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"The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control. Do I mean a conspiracy? Yes, I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, incredibly evil in intent." –Rep. Larry P. MacDonald, killed in Korean Air Lines 007, 1983

Surveillance Cameras With Computer Chips Or Smart Sensors That Predict And/Or Sense Criminal Activities, Alerts Police

With sophisticated cameras and smart sensor systems, law enforcement agencies and transportation departments across the United States are now able to proactively monitor and respond to crimes or accidents as they unfold; the sensors can also assist transportation departments in analyzing traffic patterns in real time; the system could allow officials to change one way streets, design real time traffic signals, and multiple speed limits to make traffic flow more smoothly.

The East Orange New Jersey police department was the first U.S. agency to install a Smart Imaging Sensor system as part of its broader network of security cameras around the city.

These smart sensors process images that the high-resolution cameras record in real time and can automatically detect and/or predict when a crime is occurring. When it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly.

Government agencies and business around the world have already taken notice of predictive sensors.

Recently, an automated camera system called AIsight (pronounced eyesight), was installed in Boston after the 2013 marathon bombing, that monitors camera feeds in real time and alerts authorities if it spots unusual activity.

AIsight cameras use a statistical method called machine learning to learn what is normal for an area and then alerts on abnormal activity. That could be picking up anything from unusual loitering to activity occurring in restricted areas.

Read more »

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -H.L. Mencken

Soylent Green Or Bugs Your Choice!

Soylent Green Wafers

Soylent Green the Movie!

A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.

In the future food shortages are so extreme that a jar of strawberry jam is $150 and people weep at the sight of beef. Housing in New York City, where "Soylent Green" is set, is only affordable to the richest of the rich. The elite, they're called.

Everyone else sleeps in their cars — or on the street.

At this time the Earth is overpopulated and totally polluted; natural resources have been exhausted, and the nourishment of the population is provided by Soylent Industries, a company that makes a food consisting of plankton from the oceans.

Bug Burger - Made From Buffalo Worms
Most of the World's population survives on processed rations produced by the massive Soylent Corporation, including Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow, which are advertised as "high-energy vegetable concentrates". The newest product is Soylent Green: small green wafers which are advertised as being produced from "high-energy plankton". It is much more nutritious and palatable than the red and yellow varieties but, like most other foods, in short supply which often leads to weekly food riots.

In New York City, when Soylent's member of the board, William R. Simonson, is murdered, apparently by a burglar at the Chelsea Towers West where he lives, efficient Detective Thorn is assigned to investigate the case with his partner Solomon "Sol" Roth.

Thorn comes to the fancy apartment and meets Simonson's bodyguard Tab Fielding and the "furniture" (woman that is rented together with the flat) Shirl and the detective concludes that the executive was not a burglary victim but executed. Further, he finds that the Governor Santini and other powerful men want to disrupt and end Thorn's investigation.

Edible Bag Of Seasoned and Crunchy, Crickets,
Grasshoppers, Silkworm Pupae, & Sago Worms
But Thorn is determined to continue his work and discovers a bizarre, disturbing secret of the ingredient used to manufacture Soylent Green.

Toward the end of the movie Thorn is injured and taken away by paramedics, and shouts out, “SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!”

Dead People to be exact!

Here's what we might expect soon in the New World Order diet.

Comparison to Pre-Collapse Times

In wealthy countries, in pre-Collapse times, it was customary for people to buy most of their food at large, corporate warehouse-stores called 'supermarkets'. Often, when people see pictures of these facilities, their reaction is that the photo must be a fake. The vast size, the piles of fresh-looking and exotic vegetables, the shelves and shelves of varied boxed and bottled and immaculately wrapped products, the neatly plastic-wrapped, perfect-looking meat, it seems impossible. It's all historically accurate, though. Those images are nothing like the modern reality of going to market, and it's hard for us today to imagine how this magical fantasy land of food that our ancestors took for granted was even physically possible.

The New World Order has not come close to restoring the pre-Collapse global food system, but with decades to reshape the ruined global systems of the early 21st century, a global trade and transportation network, and access to the entire world, they have been able to shape a new global food system which by and large is fairly enviable relative to a purely local food system.

Some New World Order Food Choices

Bugs, Bugs, And More Bugs!

How would like your bug burger prepared?

Read more »

"By the end of this decade we will live under the first One World Government that has ever existed in the society of nations ... a government with absolute authority to decide the basic issues of human survival. One world government is inevitable." -Pope John Paul II

CyberExtruder's 2D to 3D Face Patent

CyberExtruder is a high tech company that has been given a patent for their process of creating reliable 3D models of a person’s face from a single or series of 2D images.

CyberExtruder has announced the release of Aureus 3D Version 5.7. "With Aureus 3D Version 5.7, we've achieved product performance at speeds unprecedented in the industry," says Paul Nicholas, President, and CEO. "With our 128 byte face template size, the smallest in the industry, we can perform matching on a database of 7.5 billion people (the world population) in 4.69 seconds. With speeds at this level coupled with superior accuracy and scalability, Aureus 3D Version 5.7 will change the industry. There’s nothing of its kind anywhere."

Aureus 3D Version 5.7 provides the easy to integrate and easy to deploy high-performance face recognition solution demanded in a wide variety of applications including loss prevention and security, access control, law enforcement and Safe City, and hospitality and gaming. Aureus 3D Version 5.7 is the perfect enhanced video analytic now required by industry leading VMS and PSIM systems.

A proprietary 2D to 3D face modeling technology mitigates the challenges of pose, lighting, and expression in combination with a novel deep neural network architecture that provides enhanced discrimination capability at high speed with low memory requirements. Providing OEM’s, solution integrators and end-users with the industry’s best facial recognition technology for a broad spectrum of real-world government and commercial applications.

CyberExtruder’s 2D-to-3D conversion is certainly an important innovation to the security and biometrics technology industries. Why? It enables better matching between offline photographs and surveillance video. While the matching of "watch list" images against surveillance video has traditionally achieved mixed results as a result of inadequate lighting, angle, expression, etc., this patent could signify a leap forward in terms of the quality and value of 3D facial images.

Research has focused on solutions to solve facial recognition’s weakest operational elements – Age, Pose, Illumination and Expression (known as the APIE problem).

The benefits of holistic 3D approach to face recognition are particularly evident when viewed in the context of mitigating errors in face matching due to subject pose (the angle of the person’s face relative to the camera) and expression (the person’s innate ability to deform their face).

Years of research have been aimed at developing ways in which a computer can not only understand how a human face is composed, but also how to differentiate one face from another. Security features which can now be applied across markets like loss prevention, financial services, law enforcement and security, healthcare, defense and intelligence and a myriad of marketing and customer service applications.

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - NORMAN THOMAS, former U.S. Socialist Presidential Candidate

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman Launches Crypto Project 'Worldcoin'

Worldcoin's Eye Scanning Orb
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has launched an audacious eyeball-scanning cryptocurrency startup 'Worldcoin' to help build a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online, enable global democratic processes and drastically increase economic opportunity. "If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI," Alex Blania and Sam Altman, Founders of Worldcoin.

Worldcoin consists of a privacy-preserving digital identity (World ID) and, where laws allow, a digital currency (WLD) received simply for being human.

The Orb Being Used In A Shopping Mall
According to the company, where the rules are less clear, such as in the US, steps will be taken so more people can benefit from both.

Users can now download World App, the first protocol-compatible wallet, and reserve their share. After visiting an Orb, a biometric verification device, they will receive a World ID. This lets them prove they are a real and unique person online while remaining completely private.

As the global distribution of Orbs is ramping up, users can find the closest one and book time to be verified with World App and at Worldcoin’s official website. In addition, the startup has begun the rollout of 1,500 Orbs to meet global demand for World ID.

"The project will increase the number of available Orbs to 1,500 throughout the summer and fall in more than 35 cities around the world," Worldcoin said in a blogpost. The new Orbs will be available in 35+ cities in over 20 countries, including India, across five continents between now and the end of 2023.

The availability of 1,500 Orbs will more than 5x sign-up capacity globally and enable millions of additional people to join the two million who have already signed up for World ID.

Read more »

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order [referring to the 1991 LA Riot]. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this *scenario*, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government." Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991

Weather As A Force Multiplier

Category 5 Irma the Strongest
Atlantic Hurricane on Record
Owning The Weather In 2025
In 2025 US aerospace forces can "own the weather" by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to warfighting applications. Such a capability offers the warfighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather modification system to achieve military objectives rather than to provide a detailed technical road map.

A high risk/high reward endeavor, weather modification offers a dilemma not unlike the splitting of the atom. While some segments of society will always be reluctant to examine controversial issues such as weather modification, the tremendous military capabilities that could result from this field are ignored at our own peril. From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns, to complete dominance of global communications and counter-space control, weather modification offers the warfighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary.

Technology advancements in five major areas are necessary for an integrated weather modification capability: (1) advanced nonlinear modeling techniques, (2) computational capability, (3) information gathering and transmission, (4) a global sensor array, and (5) weather intervention techniques. Some intervention tools exist today and others may be developed and refined in the future.

Weather As A Force Multiplier: Owning The Weather In 2025 Research Paper

Read more »

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:58:00 +0000
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow Death

The Canton Centre Mall in Canton,
Ohio is boarded up and vacant
All across America, once-vibrant shopping malls are being boarded up.

Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them. With a fresh wave of closures on the horizon, the problem is set to accelerate, according to retail and real estate analysts.

About 15% of U.S. malls will fail or be converted into non-retail space within the next 10 years, according to Green Street Advisors, a real estate and REIT analytics firm. That's an increase from less than two years ago, when the firm predicted 10% of malls would fail or be converted.

"The risk of failure for a mall increases dramatically once you see anchor closures," said Cedric Lachance, managing director of Green Street Advisors. "Their health is very important ... and most of them are highly likely to continue closing stores."

Within 15 to 20 years, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz expects as many as half of America's shopping malls to fail. He predicts that only upscale shopping centers with anchors like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus will survive.

"Middle-level stores in middle-level malls are going to be extinct because they don't make sense," said Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, Inc., a retail consulting and investment banking firm. "That's why we haven't built a major enclosed mall since 2006."

Read more »

Surveillance cameras

170 surveillance cameras on one block! NYC now Camera City. In 2005, the NYCLU counted more than 4,000 street level cameras from the West Village down to Battery Park. The group also found that the 292 cameras along 125th Street in Central Harlem recorded nearly every movement on that busy street. "I would believe the number has dramatically increased" three years later, said Matt Faiella, staff attorney for the NYCLU. The cameras have myriad uses. The NYPD wants to install thousands to protect the city against terrorism. The NYPD's recently released plan to protect the city by installing some 3,000 additional cameras in the city raised concern at the NYCLU because it takes a new step in surveillance by creating a database of license plates and people's movements. The police said the images, including license plate captures, would be erased after 30 days. Because they're continually making new discoveries to increase the effectiveness of surveillance cameras, biometrics, rfid chips, etc., the government may soon be tracking us all.

High-Tech Laser Weapons

The next generation of futuristic weapons has arrived. The U.S. Navy announced that its high-tech laser weapon is ready to disable and destroy enemy drones and small boats, should the need arise.

The 30-kilowatt laser weapon system (LaWS) is housed aboard the USS Ponce, a naval vessel stationed in the Arabian Gulf— a body of water located south of Iraq that separates the Saudi Arabian peninsula from Iran.

While sailors have not yet used the new laser to destroy any real enemy targets, the Navy is prepared to do just that, if necessary, according to Rear. Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research.

Sailors operate the laser using a video game-type controller, according to Navy officials.

The first course of action is a nonlethal option — which amounts to a very bright glare. If a threat keeps coming they can increase the strength of the laser's highly concentrated beam, which will knock out the sensors or control systems on an enemy drone or vessel. If the adversary still doesn't get the hint, the beam can be turned up higher, making it capable of destroying the threat altogether.

Biometric Digital Fingerprint Scanner

Biometric technology, requiring digital fingerprints and a photograph for identification, is used by the Department of State to establish and verify the identities of visa applicants at embassies and consulates around the world through its BioVisa program. The Department of Homeland Security established the US-VISIT program under which a traveler’s biometrics are collected in his country, compared against a watch list of known criminals and suspected terrorists, and then verified again upon arrival in the United States. Biometrics are unique and virtually impossible to forge.

Hitachi Finger Vein Scanner

This is a new payment technology brought to us by Hitachi which makes your fingertip pay for transactions. This is a biometric cardless credit payment system, which adopts the uniqueness of the blood vessel patterns in each individual human body as the signature for payment authentication. The new biometric system is able to recognize pattern of the blood vessels in your fingers, so, what you need is to insert your finger for a scan to authenticate the credit card transactions. Blood vessels are hidden under the skin, which aren’t like retinas or fingerprints and shouldn’t be possible to counterfeit. In order for you to use your fingertip for making payment, you need to first register your finger vein pattern with the credit card company. The idea of cardless payment making use finger vein that has lowest counterfeit possibility is definitely good. A few of the common problems such as card loss and theft will be eliminated with this new system.

The Financial New World Order

A Connected Global Economy
Following the 2009 G20 summit, plans were announced for implementing the creation of a new global currency to replace the US dollar’s role as the world reserve currency. Point 19 of the communiqué released by the G20 at the end of the Summit stated, “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity.” SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, are “a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund.” As the Telegraph reported, “the G20 leaders have activated the IMF's power to create money and begin global "quantitative easing". In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body.”

It continued in stating that, "There is now a world currency in waiting. In time, SDRs are likely to evolve into a parking place for the foreign holdings of central banks, led by the People's Bank of China." Further, "The creation of a Financial Stability Board looks like the first step towards a global financial regulator," or, in other words, a global central bank.

It is important to take a closer look at these "solutions" being proposed and implemented in the midst of the current global financial crisis. These are not new suggestions, as they have been in the plans of the global elite for a long time. However, in the midst of the current crisis, the elite have fast-tracked their agenda of forging a New World Order in finance. It is important to address the background to these proposed and imposed "solutions" and what effects they will have on the International Monetary System (IMS) and the global political economy as a whole.

Read more »

The Complete History Of Freemasonry

Chart Of Freemasonry. Click
on the image for a better view.
The creation of the New World Order (NWO) agenda was put in motion by the infamous character, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the one who decided to control the entire planet by any means necessary.

Of course, this meant: deception, control, financial enslavement, blackmail and murder... but also far graver things, like: wars, famine and depopulation... a genocide unlike any other before it.

Click on the image for a better view.
They are the richest clan in the world, and their empire was built on mountains of bones and sufferance.

1773 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild assembles twelve of his most influential friends, and convinces them that if they all pool their resources together, they can rule the world.

This meeting takes place in Frankfurt, Germany. Rothschild also informs his friends that he has found the perfect candidate, an individual of incredible intellect and ingenuity, to lead the organization he has planned – Adam Weishaupt.

May 1, 1776 – Adam Weishaupt (code named Spartacus) establishes a secret society called the Order of the Illuminati. Weishaupt is the Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, part of Germany. The Illuminati seek to establish a New World Order. Their objectives are as follows:

1) Abolition of all ordered governments

2) Abolition of private property

3) Abolition of inheritance

4) Abolition of patriotism

5) Abolition of the family

6) Abolition of religion

7) Creation of a world government

July, 1782 – The Order of the Illuminati joins forces with Freemasonry at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad. The Comte de Virieu, an attendee at the conference, comes away visibly shaken. When questioned about the “tragic secrets” he brought back with him, he replies: “I will not confide them to you. I can only tell you that all this is very much more serious than you think.” From this time on, according to his biographer, “the Comte de Virieu could only speak of Freemasonry with horror.”

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Behold The Cube: Saturn Worship

The Black Box or Cube, or any other
color box/cube can represent Saturn.
(The Elite worship Saturn and receive energy from it! By using the cube/box symbol and along with the pyramid, all seeing eye, owl, pentagram, fire/torch, monarch butterfly, rising sun, etc. symbols they are revealing that they are very much in control. You'll see "The Black Box/Cube or any color box/cube" along with the other symbols being used in corporate logos, movies, video games, commercials, and tv shows.)

The black cube is used to represent Saturn in numerous cultures. You might not know it, but the entire world has been worshiping Saturn for thousands of years. The cult has never stopped and its rites are still present to this day. Saturn, dubbed the "Lord of the Rings", is the reason why we exchange rings at weddings or put halos on the heads of godly people.

Since ancient times, sages gazed at the stars, admiring their heavenly glow and attributing them godly powers, based on their effect on humans.

Hexagon on Saturn's North Pole. One
can draw a 3D cube in this 2D Hexagon.

Jewish Tefillin/Phylactery
Before the Great Flood, Saturn was regarded by all mankind as the supreme god and ruler of the kings. Occult researchers affirm that Saturn ruled the kingdom of Atlantis and became the divine ancestor of all earthly patriarchs and kings.

The Babylonians called Saturn "the Star of Tammuz." Saturn worship has been perpetuated through numerous gods during antiquity: "Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all connected with 'a great Saturnian continent' they were kings that ruled over countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and Spain." - Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations

In Egyptian mythology Isis is considered Saturn’s eldest daughter: "I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest daughter of Saturn, most ancient of the Gods."

The "Kabballah" of Jewish mysticism/Masonry comes from KabbaAllah or "CubeGod" around which people gather and ceremonially walk in circles. Thus it can be said they are "circling the square or black Cube/God." Masons are also constantly referring to "circling the square" and "squaring the circle."

The Freemasonic G (Geometry/God) symbol within a compass and T-square symbolizes this as well. Just as people circle around their Cube-God Kabba, so the Masons use a compass/square around their "G" God/Geometry.

Astrologically Saturn represents darkness, misfortune, death and fear. Saturday is named after the Roman god Saturn, the Ancient Greeks referred to this god as Cronus. The symbol of Saturn/Cronus is the sickle. The sickle of Saturn and hammer of Thor (Jupiter/Zeus) combined is represented in the the symbol of Communism.

The core of the control over Planet Earth's populace lies in ancient cults. These cults are still in existence to this day. The elite follow these most ancient religions being influenced by sexual worship. The main cults are the worship of the Planet Saturn (El), Moon (Isis), Venus (Lucifer) & Sun (Ra).

Crisis Actors For False Flag Shootings?

A new group of actors is now available nationwide for active shooter drills and mall shooting full-scale exercises, announced Visionbox, Denver's leading professional actors studio.

Visionbox Crisis Actors are trained in criminal and victim behavior, and bring intense realism to simulated mass casualty incidents in public places.

Same Girl - Different Shootings?
The actors' stage acting experience, ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary American theater, enables them to "stay in character" throughout an exercise, and improvise scenes of extreme stress while strictly following official exercise scenarios.

The actors regularly rehearse scenarios involving the Incident Command System and crisis communications, and appear in interactive training films produced in both 2D and stereoscopic 3D.

Producers formed the group to demonstrate emerging security technologies, help first responders visualize life-saving procedures, and assist trainers in delivering superior hands-on crisis response training.

For example, with a large shopping center, the producers review all security camera views and design dramatic scenes specifically for existing camera angles, robotic camera sweeps, and manually-controlled camera moves.

The actors can play the part of the shooters, mall employees, shoppers in the mall, shoppers who continue to arrive at the mall, media reporters and others rushing to the mall, and persons in motor vehicles around the mall, etc.

UN report calls for new global reserve currency to replace US dollar

UN Says New Currency Is Needed to Fix Broken ‘Confidence Game’. The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.

UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.

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The Illuminati Eye Of Horus

The main methods of showing this symbol in the past were by using an eyepatch or winking. Today it's usually with one eye open and the other eye covered by one's hand or an object.

We are so amazingly distracted – baseball, football, 24 hour news, Kardashians, manufactured racism, manufactured politics, false flag events, etc.

We have Googled our way into a love for darkness rather than light.

There is a curious fascination with the perverse and the profane, with the wanton and the wicked.

Everywhere you look, there it is. The All-Seeing Eye Of Horus staring back at you from pop soda cans, sporting equipment, movies, television, radio, clothing. Even on the very dollar bill.

Why is the Illuminati All-Seeing Eye of Horus suddenly everywhere you turn? The answer is surprisingly simple, so simple in fact that it might escape our grasp.

This demonic symbol and sign reveals the Wicked One or Satan in the PERSON OF THE ANTICHRIST is about to take the stage.

Because of this man all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, will be forced to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, so that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

INITIALLY HE WILL BE RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AS A MAN OF PEACE.

HE WILL OFFER ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS TO THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS.

HE WILL REIGN EXACTLY THREE AND A HALF YEARS AS THE WORLD'S GREATEST DICTATOR.

Beware of when this man appears on the world scene. His leadership will take the world into a Great Tribulation of terror, wars, suffering and death.

Maybe we should consider the days that we are living in and ask ourselves this question, "Are we living in the biblical last days?"

The New World Order

The Illuminati/Global Elite are the ones controlling those in government who willfully seek to take the left hand path.

The Illuminati are the ones controlling world affairs through present day governments and corporations and are behind events that will lead to the establishment of a New World Order.

There is a worldwide conspiracy being orchestrated by an extremely powerful and influential group of genetically-related individuals, at least at the highest echelons, which include many of the world's wealthiest people, top political leaders, and corporate elite, as well as members of the so-called Black Nobility of Europe, dominated by the British Crown. The Luciferian Agenda of the Secret Societies that are planning this New World Order is to have a World Government, World Religion, World Army, World Central Bank, World Currency and a micro-chipped population. This New World Order global government will be a fulfillment of bible prophecy concerning the last days. Daniel 8: 23 Rev. 13: 4, 5, 7

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The North American Union

Thomas Donohue (president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) on June 16, 2006 remarked that "for CEOs, North America is already a single market, and business decisions are no longer made with a Mexico strategy---or a Canada strategy---but, rather, with a North American strategy....I think it's pretty clear now that it no longer makes sense to talk about U.S. competitiveness and Mexican competitiveness---or, for that matter, about the competitiveness of Canada. We are all in this together---we, as North Americans." Youtube Video on NAFTA and the Council on Foreign Relations - Link

All UK citizens in ID database by 2017

All British citizens will have their fingerprints and photographs registered on a national ID database within 10 years under plans outlined by the Government.

Millions in sensitive jobs, including teachers, carers and health workers, will be among the first to be entered on to the identity register.

In a bid to kick start the project - the world's biggest - foreign nationals working in Britain will begin to be issued with cards from November. Starting next year, the first British citizens will be enrolled beginning with some airport staff, power station employees and people working on the London Olympics site.

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The Ultimate Weapon Of Mass Destruction: Scalar Weapons

"Electric power is everywhere! Present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world's machinery without the need of coal, oil, gas, or any other of the common fuels." Nikola Tesla

Electromagnetic pulse and plasma weapon R & D is rapidly occurring behind the misnomer of "Non Lethality," and clearly parallel Tesla's work. Major US defence contractors and leading government weapon research laboratories are intensely interested in "Directed Energy Weapons (DEW)." Research includes "Radio Frequency and Particle Beam Weapons", "Air and Space Based Directed Energy Weapons", and, among many others, "DEW Weapons Effects on Personnel". Of interest too, is a paper written by Australian defence analyst, Carlo Kopp, which outlines in considerable detail an "Electromagnetic Bomb." The "E-Bomb," Kopp says, has the ability to inflict damage "... not unlike the experience through exposure to close proximity lightning strikes." In a broadcast dated 27 February 1996, Beijing radio outlined advances in particle beam energy technology and alluded to a "weapon even more powerful than the 'death ray.'" The broadcast likened the weapon to a "Thunderbolt," adding that the moment it struck it's target (vaporising it), a temperature of 8000 degrees Celsius would be produced.

Not least are the comments of Boris Belitsky, a leading Russian Science and Engineering correspondent, broadcast on Voice of Russia, 24 February 1997. Belitsky in replying to a question on Russian military applications of microwave generators, stated "they can be used to fire a plasmoid, that is, a blob of plasma..."

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RFID Tattoos For Tracking Cows... And People?

Founders of SOMARK Innovations Inc. , Mark Pydynowski, left, and Ramos Mays, right, with their electronic ink tattoo device at their office in San Diego.

Did you know that Saint Louis based Somark Innovations successfully tested an "RFID tattoo" on cows and rats? Yes indeed, tattoo, not the ol' RFID chip found in passports, dogs, and Dutch VIP clubbers. Somark's system uses an array of needles to inject a passive RFID ink which can be read through the hair on your choice of beast. The ink can be either invisible or colored but Somark is keeping mum as to its exact contents. They only say that it doesn't contain any metals and is 100% biocompatible and chemically inert. The tattoo can be applied in 5 to 10 seconds with no shaving involved and can be read from up to 4 feet away -- the bigger the tattoo, the more information stored. Best of it all, it's apparently safe for humans to ingest allowing the FDA to track back Mad Cow Disease, e-coli outbreaks, and Soylent Green. Don't worry, they can't track you just as long as you chew your food like mama taught. However, with "military personnel" listed as Somark's "secondary target market," well, it's just a matter of time before we're all cattle now isn't it.

Cops In Riot Gear --- Freedom To Fascism

The Militarization of the Local Police

The Real Threat of Fascism. We all should realize and be aware of the fact that the nations Germany and Italy were liberal democracies before the rise of fascism.

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New Biometric Smart Cards

ActivCard, a specialist in IDentity Management software for remote access, single sign-on and digital ID card solutions, announced an expanded cooperation with its partner Precise Biometrics AB, developer and provider of world-leading and user-friendly biometric security solutions based on fingerprints, to deliver smart card-based identification (ID) badge solutions with biometric authentication. ActivCard has incorporated Precise Biometrics' technology for fingerprint matching on smart cards, "Precise Match-on-Card", to its "ActivCard Gold 2.2" software, the most successful and widely deployed smart ID card middleware platform available on the market today. By verifying the fingerprint that's on the card, the Precise Match-on-Card method guarantees that the reference biometric template (the user's identity) never leaves the card, so it is not subject to theft. ActivCard Identity Management System™ or AIMS is a vital part of the ActivCard IDM solution that includes ActivCard Gold™ middleware software to enable client authentication methods, including one-time-use dynamic passwords (SKI), PKI and biometrics. The IDM solution may include the ActivCard Applet Suite on the card for credential management, Trinity™ single sign-on software, and ActivPack™ AAA Server for remote access.

E-Smart Technologies is a leading provider of high technology security systems that can be used to combat fraud and terrorism. E-Smart products enable government agencies and commercial enterprises to continuously and securely verify, certify and manage identification and access of citizens, personnel, customers and any other persons seeking physical or logical access. E-Smart is the exclusive provider of the Biometric Verification Security System(TM) (BVS2)(TM), featuring the Super Smart Card(TM) for Asia and the US, which experts believe to be the world's only commercially available smartcard with a full on-card matching system for biometric ID verification. The Super Smart Card™ provides maximum security due to its unique architecture that incorporates a hardware based firewall system coupled with dynamic software protection. In addition to including an on-card biometric fingerprint sensor and digital photo ID, the Super Smart Card's multi- application design allows multiple independent and secure applications to co-exist and operate on the same card. Only the registered users finger can activate the card. The sensor performs with wet, dry, hot or cold fingers. This is not the case for most other sensors. The system prevents unauthorized use of any card or card application by requiring the authorized card-holder's fingerprint to initiate any transaction or access any information. If lost or stolen, the Super Smart Card™ is useless - no one else can activate it for use of any kind. Tampering permanently disables the card and destroys any information. Counterfeit or stolen cards cannot work on the system, and are totally useless.

The USA PATRIOT Act

The Reichstag fire (an act similar to 9/11), burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin, Germany, on the night of Feb. 27, 1933 allowed the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933. This conferred dictatorial powers on Adolf Hitler. (Notice the "protecting the homeland" banner... (Isn't it interesting that they chose part of the very phrase Hitler used.) Hitler, "An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland".)

On October 26, 2001, US President George W. Bush enacted the USA PATRIOT Act. The USA PATRIOT Act is officially the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act". The bill was in direct response to the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. The goal of the Act was to reduce restrictions on law enforcement and government officials when investigating criminal activity.

9-11 False Flag Attacks
It gave international law organizations the right to probe and search citizen’s e-mail, medical, financial and personal records. Some of the main sections of the law enacted restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering, expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, and broadened immigration laws in regards to detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The bill was passed by a wide margin in the US Congress.

The USA PATRIOT Act broadly expands law enforcement's surveillance and investigative powers and represents one of the most significant threats to civil liberties, privacy and democratic traditions in U.S. history. The Patriot Act gives sweeping search and surveillance to domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies and eliminates checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that those powers were not abused. The Patriot Act and follow-up legislation threatens the basic rights of millions of Americans.

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Was The San Bernardino Mass Shooting A False Flag Attack?

A Staged Event? False Flag?
Breaking News: The San Bernardino Mass Shooting just occurred hours ago in San Bernardino, California, around 11:00am local time on December 2nd, 2015.

The getaway car! Note the damage to the
front windows & the drivers side front tire.

Same car only on a different street?
Why was it placed at two locations?

Note the missing picket fence!
It’s important to question everything right from the start. The odds are that this is yet another false flag operation with the same old purposes of scaring the public, justifying martial law (school and hospital lockdowns) and pushing the gun control agenda.

Surprise, Surprise: Active Shooter Drill Scheduled at Same Time and Place

Readers of the independent media will know full well by now the hallmarks and telltale signs of these kind of false flag staged terror events, whether they are bombings, shootings, hijackings or any other kind of attack.

Almost without exception – from 9/11 to 7/7 to Sandy Hook and all the rest of them – the script includes drills at the same or nearby time and place, to fool people into initially thinking the operation is an exercise or drill, and to distract both the victims and public from the actual attack.

It comes as no surprise then to see that the San Bernardino mass shooting was in fact preceded by this announcement of an active shooter drill in the San Bernardino area on November 30th, 2015, just 2 days before today’s mass shooting.

“VICTORVILLE-(VVNG.com): Victor Valley College officials would like to inform students and area residents that there will be an “active shooter” training exercise on the VVC campus on Monday, November 30th.

There will be significant police presence at this time according to Chief Leonard Knight who said this training will last several hours. In order to avoid any confusion, the public is being notified ahead of time. Victor Valley College Police Department (VVCPD), San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBCSD), Victorville Police Station, San Bernardino County Fire Department (SBCFD), Victorville Fire Station, and American Medical Response (AMR) have planned for and are conducting this exercise to ensure coordinated, timely and effective response to the college community, as well as enhance safety at Victor Valley College.”

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9/11 Attacks No Wreckage! Only A Round Hole At The Pentagon?

Close Up Image Of The Pentagon. No
Wreckage, Plane, Engines, Or Wings
"How easy is it for you to shift your belief system from 'I totally believe in my government' to 'Oh My God! What’s going on?' That’s exactly where I went in all of this." – Albert N. Stubblebine III

Albert N. Stubblebine III is a retired Major General in the United States Army. He was the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984. In this compelling interview, Stubblemine reveals the following information about the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001:

Stubblebine initially believed the official story regarding 9/11.

Then, he saw the hole in the Pentagon. The Pentagon was not hit by a Boeing 757.

All of the sensors around the Pentagon were turned off except one. That one sensor captured an image of the object that hit the Pentagon. At first it looked like a missile, but later the imagery was changed to look like a plane.

Note: The collapse of the twin towers was caused by controlled demolition – not the fuel from the airplanes.

Note: Larry Silverstein, the lease holder of the WTC complex, admitted that that BUILDING 7, which was not hit by a plane and had only a small fire, was intentionally "pulled" – which is phraseology used for controlled demolition.

An Early Image Of The Pentagon Before
The Collapse Of The Exterior Wall. 9/11
All of the air defense systems around Washington DC were turned off that day.

Also on 9/11, there was an exercise designed to mimic an attack on the towers by airplanes.

When you connect the dots, the picture says that what we were told by the media was not the real story.

Stubblebine, visibly upset, describes how he felt when he realized the truth about his government after having a strong belief in his country since early childhood: "My belief system was so strong from age five when I could remember standing on a parade ground at attention with not anybody telling me to do that – at West Point."

Below are some notes from the interview including a partial transcript.

5:15 Stubblebine hears about the 9/11 attacks: "We’re at war."

6:00 Stubblebine said there must have been intelligence information to know that an attack was coming and we didn’t see the signals. Somebody missed it.

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Tasers

"Taser" is an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle," a reference to juvenile adventure book character Tom Swift. A taser is a weapon that shoots two dart-like electrodes at its victims, then sending electric shocks through wire intended to stun a victim into submission, rendering him helpless and able to be controlled without excessive force. When the Taser electroshock weapon was introduced into widespread use in the early 1990s, it was touted as a "non-lethal" alternative to firearms, to be used to subdue criminals in situations that did not warrant the use of a deadly weapon. However, though the manufacturer as well as many law enforcement agencies continue to argue that tasers have reduced the need for officers to draw firearms and therefore resulted in fewer deaths, many civil rights groups and concerned citizens point to the more than 200 deaths that have resulted from tasers used by law enforcement officers as evidence that tasers are taking lives. One of the contributing factors to these taser injuries and taser deaths is the increasing use of tasers to subdue people who are not a serious threat to law enforcement officers. Instead of being used only in situations in which firearms would be used, tasers are more and more frequently used to simply subdue criminals in any kind of arrest situation. Officers may be subject to laws governing excessive force and police brutality because they sometimes risk lives unnecessarily when using tasers. Further, the news over the past few years has offered verifiable reports of police officers using tasers on individuals who are handicapped, pregnant, mentally-disabled or non-English-speaking, in addition to those who were simply objecting to an officer's aggression or inability to explain details of an arrest. The rise of cell phone camera technology and Internet video databases such as YouTube and LiveLeak has given the public more opportunity than ever to capture and display videos of taser incidents that are often astonishingly graphic.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Now The End Begins!

Close your eyes and imagine a world without electricity and modern conveniences: no Fox News, no Facebook, no email, no Blackberry, no cold drinks, no heat in the winter, no automobiles, no food and no way to cook it even if you had it.

It’s just become the end of the world as we know it.

Are you and your family going to survive?

Ours is a world of steaming hot lattes on demand, ice-cold beer in the twinkling of an eye, and internet and phone connections in a nanosecond.

We are the ultimate immediate gratification society.

And what would happen if ….

The dollar bought nothing

A virus could not be cured

Terrorists exploded nuclear bombs across the country

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanic activity all became more prevalent

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Surveillance Cameras With Computer Chips That Sense Criminal Activities, Alerts Police

( Right Top - A police officer closely monitors security camera images related to an ongoing crime. Bottom - Information on crime suspects is collected.)

With DigiSensory Technologies’ sophisticated cameras and sensor systems, law enforcement agencies and transportation departments across the United States are now able to proactively monitor and respond to crimes or accidents as they unfold; the company’s Avista sensors process the images that its 3.2 megapixel high-resolution camera records in real time and can automatically detect when a crime is occurring; when it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly; the sensors can also assist transportation departments in analyzing traffic patterns in real time; the system could allow officials to change one way streets, design real time traffic signals, and multiple speed limits to make traffic flow more smoothly.

The East Orange New Jersey police department was the first U.S. agency to install DigiSensory’s Avista Smart Imaging Sensor system as part of its broader network of security cameras around the city.

The Avista sensors process the images that its 3.2 megapixel high-resolution camera records in real time and can automatically detect when a crime is occurring. When it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly.

Government agencies and business around the world have already taken notice of DigiSensory Avista predictive sensors.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:50:00 +0000
Walmart Closing Locations Globally

Walmart announced it is closing 154 U.S. stores, according to a company press release, including the company’s 102 Walmart Express stores, the smallest format stores.

It is part of a global downsizing that will shutter 269 stores around the world out of Walmart's nearly 11,600 stores.

The smaller-format store format had been tested since 2011.

In addition to all the Express stores, 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs will be closed.

About 16,000 associates will be affected worldwide - roughly 10,000 of whom are in the U.S. - according to the company.

It said more than 95 percent of the closed stores in the U.S. are within 10 miles on average of another Walmart, so the hope is those associates can gain employment at nearby stores. In cases where that isn't available, transition assistance will be available, the company said.

Military vehicles at a Walmart parking lot?
“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart Stores, Inc. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future. It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”

However, some in affected communities were dismayed at the decision.

Michael Huffman of Waskom, TX, called the decision to close the Walmart Express in his town "a very bad and immoral corporate decision."

He said, "Walmart ran the only other grocery store in town out of business. ... There are a lot of elderly people in Waskom who need a grocery store."

Walmart said the stores it will close "represent less than 1 percent of both global square footage and revenue." The closings represent about 2 percent of Walmart stores globally, Walmart said.

The Bentonville, AR, big-box giant garnered a fiscal year 2015 revenue of $485.7 billion and employs about 2.2 million associates worldwide.

Frightening Frequencies: The Dangers Of 5G

As the old saying goes, give us an inch and inevitably we’ll want a mile. And certainly, this sentiment is true with technology.

Who doesn’t want faster, bigger (or smaller), more efficient? Take wireless mobile telecommunications. Our current broadband cellular network platform, 4G (or fourth generation), allows us to transmit data faster than 3G and everything that preceded. We can access information faster now than ever before in history. What more could we want? Oh, yes, transmission speeds powerful enough to accommodate the (rather horrifying) so-called Internet of Things. Which brings us to 5G.

Until now, mobile broadband networks have been designed to meet the needs of people. But 5G has been created with machines’ needs in mind, offering low-latency, high-efficiency data transfer. It achieves this by breaking data down into smaller packages, allowing for faster transmission times. Whereas 4G has a fifty-millisecond delay, 5G data transfer will offer a mere one-millisecond delay–we humans won’t notice the difference, but it will permit machines to achieve near-seamless communication. Which in itself may open a whole Pandora’s box of trouble for us – and our planet.

More bandwidth – more dangers of 5G

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New York City Police Department's Surveillance Helicopter

According to the NYPD, you won't even recognize that its there, but high above the heads of New York City's citizens, there is a $10 million special NYPD helicopter with an impressive arsenal of surveillance equipment inside it. The chopper, called "23", looks like plain helicopter on the outside, but on the inside it is chock-full of hi-tech gadgetry. The helicopter's surveillance cameras, including one for infrared photography, are mounted below the aircraft.

The chopper's arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment is powerful enough to stealthily read license plates - or even pedestrian's faces - from high above. The helicopter's surveillance system can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices. Without leaving Manhattan airspace, the chopper also was able to get a crystal-clear picture of jetliners waiting to take off from LaGuardia Airport and to survey Kennedy International Airport's jet fuel lines. The helicopter is just part of the department's efforts to adopt cutting-edge technology for its counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points.

Enhanced Driver’s License Now Ready For Border

Ontario residents can now apply for an enhanced driver’s license to use instead of a passport when crossing into the United States, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley announced today, even though the new documents won’t be ready for weeks.

The U.S. will require passports or other secure identification documents for anyone crossing into the country by land or sea starting June 1, while a passport will still be required to enter the U.S. by air.

What is it?

A new high tech licence designed to prevent identity theft and possibly serve as an alternate to your passport when travelling to the U.S. But a Ministry spokesman admits that could be ‘years away.’

What’s special about it?

It has a second photo on the front, raised lettering of the license’s number, signature and date of birth, a fine-line background, a 2D barcode, micro and rainbow printing, and ultraviolet features among others.

When can you get it?

They’ll be issued the next time you renew your license, starting this month.

What’s the cost?

It won’t be more expensive, retaining the $75 charge you pay now.

What if you’ve just renewed your license?

You’re out of luck. The only way to get the new version is to move, change the information on your current card or wait until your next renewal five years from now.

CCTV Security Cameras

An explosion proof camera and various dome mounted cameras are pictured above. CCTV is an acronym that stands for Closed Circuit Television. It is defined as the use of one or more cameras used for surveillance purposes. It was initially developed to increase bank security and has since spread to every corner of the security industry. Home security systems, businesses, corporations, organizations, and schools are several examples of locations that implement CCTV Security Systems. They produce high quality, exceptionally sharp color images, and have motion sensors that track movement across an area. They can pick a person out of a crowd and lock on them, tracing their movements; they can run at night because of infrared technology. The possibilities are endless for CCTV, especially as the technology continues to develop.

Boston Bombing: Major Problems for Controlled Media

You’re a reporter for a TV news outlet.

You’ve become aware of a disturbing trend. Thousands of private citizens are now analyzing video and photographs of crime scenes and posting their findings.

They can’t be stopped. They’re looking at news footage, casual video, photos, and what they’re coming up with challenges the official story lines your network pushes.

Some of their analysis is good.

For example, video footage of the first bomb in Boston doesn’t appear to show any shrapnel damage to the fencing near the explosion, or to the blue canopy just above the street. You, the reporter, wonder about that.

The now-famous 78-year-old runner who fell down in the street, just after the first explosion? Security personnel wearing yellow jackets were standing closer to the bomb, but they didn’t wobble or duck or waver. You, the reporter, wonder about that, too.

You, the reporter, see a photo of a storefront which was presumably right next to the first bomb. The windows are blown out. But all the glass is lying in the street, which would indicate the force of the explosion was coming from inside the store. How is that possible, you ask yourself.

Then there are the quickly circulating photos of the man in the wheelchair. He’s missing large parts of both legs. People are pushing the chair. His legs aren't bleeding. And other posted photos show he already was wearing prosthetics?

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Globalization And A One World Economy

Corporate citizenship in the world economy. Transnational Corporations exert a great deal of power in the globalized world economy. Many corporations are richer and more powerful than the states that seek to regulate them. Through mergers and acquisitions corporations have been growing very rapidly and some of the largest TNCs now have annual profits exceeding the GDPs of many low and medium income countries.

Welcome To The "New World Order"

Revelation 13: 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

U.K. To Begin Microchipping Prisoners

The British government is developing a plan to track current and former prisoners by means of microchips implanted under the skin, drawing intense criticism from probation officers and civil rights groups.

As a way to reduce prison crowding, many British prisoners are currently released under electronic monitoring, carried out by means of an ankle bracelet that transmits signals like those used by mobile phones. Now the Ministry of Justice is exploring the possibility of injecting prisoners in the back of the arm with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that contains information about their name, address and criminal record. Such chips, which contain a built-in antenna, could be scanned by special readers. The implantation of RFID chips in luggage, pets and livestock has become increasingly popular in recent years. In addition to monitoring incarcerated prisoners, the ministry hopes to use the chips on those who are on probation or other conditional release. By including a satellite uplink system in the chip, police would be able to use global positioning system (GPS) technology to track subjects' exact locations at all times. Click Here - to see a Rfid Chip image with details on individual parts.

The War Of Gog And Magog

(Nuclear War in the Middle East?)

With the threat that Israel or the U.S. could eventually opt for a military strike against Tehran's nuclear program or even actually strike Iran's nuclear facilities could be the start of a major regional war. Should the US or Israel intervene in Syria - the results could be the same.

Israel and even the entire world are now experiencing the most critical time in history. The president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, has stated again and again that his main goal is "to remove Israel from the map of the world" and for this he is preparing nuclear weapons. The "Palestinians", never existed as a nation inside Israel are fighting against Israel and since 1948 have been an instrument of the Arab-Muslim world. Islamic-terror organizations are surrounding Israel from every side and shooting missiles and rockets into Israel. Syria is armed with biological and chemical missiles aimed at Israel. All of the Arab countries have armed themselves with modern weapons to be used against Israel in the near future. The United States is putting pressure on Israel to divide the Land of Israel and to establish a 'Palestinian State'. Years after the re-establishment of the State of Israel and after several wars with Arab-Islamic nations that wanted to destroy Israel again and again, Israel is again facing pressure from every side with step-by-step preparations of the enemies of the people of Israel to destroy the State of Israel through an apocalyptic war with nuclear weapons that were never used in the past.

In bible prophecy, Ezekiel 38 & 39 informs us of a future war and invasion of Israel by a vast coalition of nations (Russia, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Turkey and Moslem Republics) that surround it. This invasion could occur at any time because of the heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions and the crisis in Syria. In regards to Iran clearly US and European powers fear that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon with UN sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Since Russia has developed close ties with Iran and Syria it makes sense that they would be invading along with the Islamic confederacy.

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Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

HAVING been taught by nuns in grade school and later going through military boot camp, I have always disliked uniformed authorities shouting at me. So I was unhappy last week when some security screeners at’Hare International Airport in Chicago started yelling.

“Opt out! We got an opt out!” one bellowed about me in a tone that people in my desert neighborhood in Tucson usually reserve for declaring, “Rattlesnake!”

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Biometric Technology

Before long, we may use fingerprints, iris scans, and voice recognition to log onto computers, buy groceries -- even when picking up kids from school. This could be you: At a convenience store, a scanner reads your fingerprints and deducts the price of a coffee and doughnut from your checking account. Once at the office, your employer uses software to monitor the rhythm of your typing or a Webcam to measure the proportions of your face before letting you onto the network. Your call to customer service won't go through until you're identified by the cadence of your voice.

Palm Reader
What: Fujitsu PalmSecure Measures: Vascular patterns and blood flow in the hand
Status: Widely available at ATMs and other locations in Japan. U.S. launch expected this year The PalmSecure bombards the user's hand with "near infrared" light to detect the pattern of blood vessels. Fujitsu is close-lipped about a U.S. debut expected later this year but says PalmSecure could be useful in health care and for granting access to buildings.

Let Your Fingers Do the Paying
What: Pay by Fingerprint device Measures: Fingerprints Status: available in certain grocery stores. Shoppers enrolled in the program can speed through checkout lines. This enables consumers to pay for goods and services with a swipe of their finger on a biometric sensor. It allowes secure access to checking, credit card, loyalty, healthcare, and other personal information, through the unique characteristics of an individual's biometric features, thereby creating a highly secure anti-identity theft platform.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:51:00 +0000
NSA Creating Spy System To Monitor Domestic Infrastructure

The National Security Agency has begun work on an "expansive" spy system that will monitor critical infrastructure inside the United States for cyber-attacks, in a move that detractors say could end up violating privacy rights and expanding the NSA's domestic spying abilities.

The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources as saying that the NSA has issued a $100-million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to build a system dubbed "Perfect Citizen," which will involve placing "sensors" at critical points in the computer networks of private and public organizations that run infrastructure, organizations such as nuclear power plants and electric grid operators.

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How America’s Police Became An Army: The 1033 Program

As many have noted, Ferguson, Missouri, looked like a war zone. And its police — kitted out with Marine - issue camouflage and military - grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles — are indistinguishable from soldiers.

America has been quietly arming its police for battle since the early 1990s.

Faced with a bloated military and what it perceived as a worsening drug crisis, the 101st Congress in 1990 enacted the National Defense Authorization Act.

Section 1208 of the NDAA allowed the Secretary of Defense to "transfer to Federal and State agencies personal property of the Department of Defense, including small arms and ammunition, that the Secretary determines is — (A) suitable for use by such agencies in counter-drug activities; and (B) excess to the needs of the Department of Defense." It was called the 1208 Program. In 1996, Congress replaced Section 1208 with Section 1033.

The idea was that if the U.S. wanted its police to act like drug warriors, it should equip them like warriors, which it has—to the tune of around $4.3 billion in equipment, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union. The St. Louis County Police Department’s annual budget is around $160 million. By providing law enforcement agencies with surplus military equipment free of charge, the NDAA encourages police to employ military weapons and military tactics.

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Full Body Scanners

(A TSA Agent working for Homeland Security views naked full-body images.)

What are full-body scanners? Remember the X-ray specs of science fiction comics that would let people see through walls and clothing? Full-body scanners are a bit like them. The scanners take advantage of the fact that at certain wavelengths,

TSA Scan Or Invasive Patdown?
electromagnetic waves can pass through clothes but not through the skin, metal or substances such as drugs and explosives. If your eyes were sensitive to these wavelengths like the scanners, every person you meet would appear naked, with pens, coins, belt buckles and the like magically festooned about their person.
You would also be able to see if they were carrying a knife, gun or explosives.

What are the health concerns surrounding them? There are two main types of full-body scanner. One uses X-rays while the other uses lower-energy millimetre wavelengths.

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The Coming False Prophet

A papal tapestry is unfurled and draped over the edge of the balcony as cardinals gather on the left and right sides of the balcony, looking out over the crowd in St Peter's Square.

The crowd cheers and starts chanting after hearing the announcement that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been voted as the new pope. We're now all waiting for Prevost to appear on the balcony, with the crowd continuing to make noise and wave flags in anticipation.

The number of people in St Peter's Square rose to more than 40,000. The flow of people toward the square increased significantly after the white smoke.

In his first speech as Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected pontiff, Cardinal Robert Prevost, said "Peace be with you all". He also called for the Church to "build bridges" and paid tribute to his predecessor, Pope Francis. The speech was delivered from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

A LAMB WITH TWO HORNS!

(Many believe that a pope will be the false prophet of Revelation 13: 11, and that this pope will unite the world's many faiths and then compel/force the masses to worship the antichrist. The time frame for this will be in the middle of the final seven year period.)

'And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH'. (Revelation 17:5) What will be the final form of Babylon the Great? We can be sure that the Whore:

(1) Will be personified as 'the False Prophet' (Revelation 16:13). Since Babylon the Great only rides the Beast, i.e., 'I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast [the Antichrist]' (17:3), she is not to be confused with the Beast himself.

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The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant.

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RFID Tag System

(Wal-Mart RFID tags to Track Clothing. A Wal-Mart employee uses a handheld scanner to read EPC labels on men's denim jeans.)

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are embedded in a growing number of personal items and identity documents. Because the tags were designed to be powerful tracking devices and they typically incorporate little security, people wearing or carrying them are vulnerable to surreptitious surveillance and profiling.

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Iris Recognition

The iris offers a rich source of data for biometric measurement.

The patterns of the iris are unique and templates derived from the iris can yield identification performance which is better than DNA matching.

The iris is the only internal organ visible from the outside and is protected from environmental factors (such as dirt and abrasion) which can afflict other biometrics. Iris recognition offers advantages in accuracy, high speed of exhaustive search, non contact with sensors and passive collection methods.

In conclusion iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual's eyes, whose complex patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.

Biometrics

The FBI's Facial Recognition
Technology. Soon we all may
be in their biometric system.
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.

Though the field is still in its infancy, many people believe that biometrics will play a critical role in future computers, and especially in electronic commerce. Access levels will include the ability to use credit card information to make electronic purchases.

In the future biometrics will be used to identify and then control and monitor individuals or people in groups that are under surveillance. (Such as: prisoners, terrorists, and people that are a known threat or suspicious of being involved in an illegal or dishonest activity and are at risk to the government or police, etc.)

Echelon (Signals Intelligence)

Trillions of bytes of textual archive and thousands of online users, or gigabytes of live data stream per day that are filtered against tens of thousands of complex interest profiles.

Designed and coordinated by NSA, the ECHELON system is used to intercept ordinary e-mail, fax, telex, and telephone communications carried over the world’s telecommunications networks. Unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is designed primarily for non-military targets: governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals in virtually every country. It potentially affects every person communicating between (and sometimes within) countries anywhere in the world. The United States National Security Agency (NSA) uses Echelon to intercept and process international communications passing via communications satellites also. It is one part of a global surveillance systems that intercept messages from the Internet, from undersea cables, from radio transmissions, from secret equipment installed inside embassies, or use orbiting satellites to monitor signals anywhere on the earth's surface.

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The Knights Templar And The Illuminati

The Knights Templar
No one exploring the myriad myths and tales of secret societies can leave out the unbelievably popular Knights Templar. There are links between this medieval order of warrior monks and Muslims, Masons, and even heretics, so we need to get a grasp of their darker side.

Whether stars of the Disney film National Treasure or pawns of modern-day political and commercial propaganda, the Knights Templar have taken root as one of the world’s leading mystery groups. But what is the truth? Did they really have a great secret? Did they really hide treasure? Were they really guardians of the Holy Bloodline? Let’s take a look.

Supposedly a group of nine knights were taken from the ruling nobility in the region of France known as Champagne, collected themselves together in Jerusalem around 1118 A.D., and formed the now infamous Knights Templar.

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Mass. State Police Check Out Boston Dynamics' Spot The Robot Dog

Spot The Robot Dog Formally SpotMini Redesigned
Spot can carry up to four hardware modules on its back, giving Spot whatever skill the robot needs for a specific job.

Cops have long had dogs, and robots, to help them do their jobs. And now, they have a robot dog.

Massachusetts State Police is the first law enforcement agency in the country to use Boston Dynamics' dog-like robot, called Spot. While the use of robotic technology is not new for state police, the temporary acquisition of Spot — a customizable robot some have called “terrifying” — is raising questions from civil rights advocates about how much oversight there should be over police robotics programs.

The state’s bomb squad had Spot on loan from the Waltham-based Boston Dynamics for three months starting in August until November, according to records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and reviewed by WBUR.

Robot Dogs At Work
The documents do not reveal a lot of details on the robot dog’s exact use, but a state police spokesman said Spot, like the department’s other robots, was used as a “mobile remote observation device” to provide troopers with images of suspicious devices or potentially hazardous locations, like where an armed suspect might be hiding.

“Robot technology is a valuable tool for law enforcement because of its ability to provide situational awareness of potentially dangerous environments,” state police spokesman David Procopio wrote.

State police say Spot was used in two incidents, in addition to testing.

Boston Dynamics vice president for business development Michael Perry said the company wants Spot to have lots of different uses, in industries ranging from oil and gas companies, to construction, to entertainment. He envisions police sending Spot into areas that are too hazardous for a human — a chemical spill, or near a suspected bomb, or into a hostage situation.

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Surveillance Cameras With Computer Chips Or Smart Sensors That Predict And/Or Sense Criminal Activities, Alerts Police

With sophisticated cameras and smart sensor systems, law enforcement agencies and transportation departments across the United States are now able to proactively monitor and respond to crimes or accidents as they unfold; the sensors can also assist transportation departments in analyzing traffic patterns in real time; the system could allow officials to change one way streets, design real time traffic signals, and multiple speed limits to make traffic flow more smoothly.

The East Orange New Jersey police department was the first U.S. agency to install a Smart Imaging Sensor system as part of its broader network of security cameras around the city.

These smart sensors process images that the high-resolution cameras record in real time and can automatically detect and/or predict when a crime is occurring. When it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly.

Government agencies and business around the world have already taken notice of predictive sensors.

Recently, an automated camera system called AIsight (pronounced eyesight), was installed in Boston after the 2013 marathon bombing, that monitors camera feeds in real time and alerts authorities if it spots unusual activity.

AIsight cameras use a statistical method called machine learning to learn what is normal for an area and then alerts on abnormal activity. That could be picking up anything from unusual loitering to activity occurring in restricted areas.

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The Future Of Money: Gearing Up For Central Bank Digital Currency

IMF speech made on February 9, 2022

Let me start by thanking the Atlantic Council for providing a fitting venue to discuss central banks’ forays into Digital Currencies.

Since its founding in 1961, the Council has made important contributions to strategic, political, and economic policy debates. Those debates have served us well, helping us to test the boundaries of our thinking and be better prepared for what lies ahead.

So, today, we aim to test our thinking again. We have moved beyond conceptual discussions of CBDCs and we are now in the phase of experimentation. Central banks are rolling up their sleeves and familiarizing themselves with the bits and bytes of digital money.

These are still early days for CBDCs and we don’t quite know how far and how fast they will go. What we know is that central banks are building capacity to harness new technologies—to be ready for what may lie ahead.

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Police Drones Are Starting To Think For Themselves

When the Chula Vista police receive a 911 call, they can dispatch a flying drone with the press of a button.

On a recent afternoon, from a launchpad on the roof of the Chula Vista Police Department, they sent a drone across the city to a crowded parking lot where a young man was asleep in the front seat of a stolen car with drug paraphernalia on his lap.

When the man left the car, carrying a gun and a bag of heroin, a nearby police car had trouble following as he sprinted across the street and ducked behind a wall. But as he threw the gun into a dumpster and hid the bag of heroin, the drone, hovering above him, caught everything on camera. When he slipped through the back door of a strip mall, exited through the front door and ran down the sidewalk, it caught that, too.

Watching the live video feed, an officer back at headquarters relayed the details to the police on the scene, who soon caught the man and took him into custody. Later, they retrieved the gun and the heroin. And after another press of the button, the drone returned, on its own, to the roof.

Each day, the Chula Vista police respond to as many as 15 emergency calls with a drone, launching more than 4,100 flights since the program began two years ago. Chula Vista, a Southern California city with a population of 270,000, is the first in the country to adopt such a program, called Drone as First Responder.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:50:00 +0000

The Tower Of Babel

(Gen. 11:1-9) Symbolizes the common effort of mankind to build a common political society. The Louise Weiss EU Parliamentary Building in Strassbourg that opened in December 2000

is said to have Pieter Brueghel's (Tower Of Babel) painting for its model. Also, on this promotional poster used by the EU there's a reproduction of The Tower of Babel with construction cranes above it and the caption 'Many tongues, one voice.' The myriad number of groups, governments, societies and interest groups who are working toward a New World Order are gradually placing all the necessary things in order to facilitate the revived dream of Babel. This would unite all nations and peoples in the worship of Lucifer. What's the logic behind the symbolism in this building? The EU says it is seeking to "build up the house of Europe" - a task yet to be completed. The building is complete and in use, but is designed to look unfinished, and even has ringed platforms to represent scaffolding. And here's the scary part. A reporter questioning "Why the Tower of Babel" as a design concept, was answered in an astounding way by an EU official. He said, "What they failed to complete 3000 years ago – we in Europe will finish now!"

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MIT Shows Off A Smart Tattoo That Can Turn Your Skin Into A Touchpad

With DuoSkin, wearables are no longer just an accessory. They become part of your skin.

The MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research set out to create on-skin user interfaces using gold leaf, which is commonly found in craft stores, as a conductor. Piggybacking on the trend in body-art and metallic jewelry-like tattoos, the team decided to repurpose gold leaf because it is “robust to movements and skin deformations during motion…[and] both workable and aesthetic in appearance.” The smart tattoos, outlined in a paper that has been presented at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, look like fashion statements but they include other materials and electrical components that make the tattoos interactive.

The tattoos can turn into an interface that can be used, for example, as a trackpad or a button to remotely control your phone. Alternatively, they can track and show you information about yourself. For example, by including thermochromic displays that change color in reaction to heat, the tattoos can show you your body temperature.

A third possible function is wireless communication. The tattoo could include an NFC (near field communications) tag, an electrical component that includes small microchips to store data that can be read by phones or other NFC devices nearby. In the near future, the technology could serve as a substitute for identification, subway cards, and even movie tickets, DuoSkin’s lead researcher Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao said in an interview.

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What Are Chemtrails And How Are They Harming Our Food And Water?

Chemtrails
Just when you thought Monsanto was under wraps, you find out they’re up to something even more horrific. What’s even worse is that it all started a long time ago!

In the late 1960s Monsanto supported the secret Muad’ Dib Geoengineering Lab to develop “chemtrail” technology; their crown jewel program to protect earth from global warming via weather control. Sounds so humanitarian, right? Wrong!

Most folks discover the reality of “chemtrails” by initially reading about it online and then going outside, looking up into the sky, and noticing the crisscrossing streaks of white clouds trailing behind jet aircraft, stretching from horizon to horizon, eventually turning the sky into a murky haze. Chemtrails are like science fiction turned reality.

This article will answer the question “what are chemtrails?” We'll share the effects of chemtrails on your environment, food, water and their connection to cancer. This information is meant to increase your awareness of the toxicity in our environment and encourage you to eliminate toxins that are within your control whenever and wherever you can.

What Are Chemtrails?

Chemtrails are geo-engineered aerosols that are loaded with toxic chemicals, including but not limited to: barium, strontium 90, aluminum, cadmium, zinc, viruses and “chaff.” Chaff looks like snow but it’s actually Mylar fibers (like in fiberglass) coated with aluminum, desiccated blood cells, plastic, and paper. Polymer chemist Dr. R. Michael Castle has studied atmospheric polymers for years, and he has identified microscopic polymers comprised of genetically-engineered fungal forms mutated with viruses, which are now part of the air we breathe.

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China Is Building A "Social Credit" System.

Everyone listen, stated the lady, "Dear passengers, people who travel without a ticket, or behave disorderly, or smoke in public areas, will be punished according to regulations and the behavior will be recorded in individual credit information system. To avoid a negative record of personal credit please follow the relevant regulations and help with the orders on the train and at the station."

This is particularly chilling to anyone familiar with George Orwell's dystopian classic, 1984.

Is China's social credit system really the dystopian sci-fi scenario that many fear?

China’s draconian censorship efforts appear a world apart from the freedom of speech protections tenuously preserved in American society. But as the two world powers evolve the similarities are becoming just as striking as the differences. While their social designs diverge, their intended results do not: both seek to shrink the Overton Window in favor of what the governing class considers a healthier, more orderly, more moral discourse.

In China, censorship isn’t just limited to critiques of the government. It also includes what the ruling party considers moral rot. Underage drinking, drug use, violence, and hyper-sexualized content get scrubbed from media and film. This top-down social engineering finds its shape in the country’s new social-credit system, which punishes undesirable behavior like canceling dinner reservations or jaywalking by restricting travel rights or access to (financial) credit.

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Predictive Programming

Neo’s passport in 'The Matrix'
expired on September 11, 2001
What is predictive programming? Is it an invasive form of Subliminal Behavior Modification? Alan Watt author of 'Cutting Through The Matrix' says that, "Hollywood is the magician's wand which has been used to cast a spell on the unsuspecting public. Things or ideas which would otherwise be seen as bizarre, vulgar, undesirable or impossible are inserted into films in the realm of fantasy. When the viewer watches these films, his/her mind is left open to suggestion and the conditioning process begins. These same movies which are designed to program the average person, can give the discerning viewer a better understanding of the workings and the plan of the world agenda."

It used to be just TV and cinema, but now 'the screen' implies a number of different media flavours and delivery formats: television, film, HD, DVD, Blue Ray, computer/console games, and also the internet and mobile media.

The control system works by keeping everyone focused on the lowest levels of the pyramid, the base levels of illusion/reality. Within this contrived paradigm, people are conditioned to believe in the synthetic culture received through their screen. Cars and football, home makeovers and cooking, gossip and reality television, etc. It all amounts to the same thing: diversion. The magician’s misdirection distracts attention while the Illuminists controls your thoughts.

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Rfid Technology

RFID Label MPI Label Company | Alien chip | 96-bit

RFID tag UPM RAFLATAC | ShortDipole (ETSI) 96-bit Gen2 UHF

RFID tag UPM RAFLATAC | Frog DualDipole 96-bit Gen2 UHF

RFID tag UPM RAFLATAC | MiniDipole 96-bit Gen2 UHF

Implantable RFID chips RFID, Inc | used for animal tracking
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. All RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio frequency (RF) signal and perhaps other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. The RFID tag can automatically be read from several meters away and does not have to be in the line of sight of the reader. The current thrust in RFID use in supply chain management for large enterprises. RFID increases the speed and accuracy with which inventory can be tracked and managed thereby saving money for the business.

Biometrics To Be Used On IDs.

Minnesota to Use Facial Recognition Technology on IDs -- State will add biometrics component to prevent fake driver's licenses

BY BILL SALISBURY

Pioneer Press via Knight Ridder
Minnesota soon will start using biometric face scans to prevent would-be crooks — and underage wannabe smokers and drinkers — from getting fake driver's licenses from the state.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday announced plans to add biometric facial recognition technology to driver's licenses as part of a broader effort to protect consumers from identity theft and unauthorized use of personal data. That effort will include stiffer criminal penalties for hackers and others who abuse access to personal data on computers.

"Identity theft causes great trauma, inconvenience and damage to a lot of people and families," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. He said the state must do more to crack down on identity thieves and strengthen safeguards for personal information.

Driver's licenses are one of the state's most important forms of identification, he said, and biometric technology will help law enforcement officers ensure that individuals are who they say they are.

The new technology would match an individual's driver's license photo with images in the state's database.

Here's how Pawlenty's office described it: "Facial recognition technology converts an image into a mathematical computer algorithm as a basis for a positive match. It uses the structure of a person's face — such as width between the eyes, forehead depth and nose length — to assign mathematical points of reference creating a unique data file."

The face scans will enable the state to detect people attempting to obtain licenses using the same photo with multiple names and birth dates, or the same name and birth date with multiple people's photos, said state Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion. "The technology … will create a higher level of integrity for Minnesota's driver's licenses."

Pawlenty said 13 other states use the technology, and it has proved "highly accurate."

No new photos will be needed to develop the state's face-scan file. State workers will scan photos on current driver's licenses to create the new file.

The new technology will cost about $1 to $2 per driver's license. Pawlenty said an $800,000 federal grant will offset these costs and that he will ask the 2006 Legislature to pay the rest.

Although he believes he has the power to implement the new system on his own, he said he would ask the Legislature to approve it.

For Minnesota retailers, the new technology means customers will be far less likely to try to use fake identification cards to make purchases, especially of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, said Steve Rush, board chairman of the Minnesota Retailers Association. Businesses will not have equipment to read the face scans, however; only the state will have that ability.

Parallels - The Roman Empire And America

Today, the United States has many parallels as an empire to that of the collapse of the ancient Roman Empire. There were many causes of the fall of Rome however, but the main problems which led to it are exactly the same as those we face currently, here in America as a nation.

The fall of the Roman Empire took a few centuries for the total dissolution of that government to take place. However, in America the same problems that brought down the Roman Empire are expedited to the point that we are looking at decades, rather than centuries before the collapse of the US government.

The following are examples of what brought Rome down as an empire, and what is going to destroy the American government in a very short time.

Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor:

We experience this in the US today in the form of the constant bickering between the House and Senate in their disdain of the President over power, money, and control.

Decline in Morals:

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New Rfid Technology

RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept. Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif. It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags, which typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.

The VeriChip, made by Applied Digital Solutions, Inc., is an implantable RFID microchip for humans. It is about the size of a grain of rice. The chip has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and can be used to hold patient-approved health-care information.

Los Angeles To Install Body Scanners In The Subway

The Los Angeles' subway will become the first mass transit system in the U.S. to install body scanners that screen passengers for weapons and explosives, officials said recently.

The deployment of the portable scanners, which project waves to do full-body screenings of passengers walking through a station without slowing them down, will happen in the coming months, said Alex Wiggins, who runs the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's law enforcement division.

The machines scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on a person's body, can detect suspicious items from 30 feet (9 meters) away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour.

"We're dealing with persistent threats to our transportation systems in our country," said Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske. "Our job is to ensure security in the transportation systems so that a terrorist incident does not happen on our watch."

Recently, Pekoske and other officials demonstrated the new machines, which are being purchased from Thruvision, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom.

"We're looking specifically for weapons that have the ability to cause a mass-casualty event," Wiggins said. "We're looking for explosive vests, we're looking for assault rifles. We're not necessarily looking for smaller weapons that don't have the ability to inflict mass casualties."

In addition to the Thruvision scanners, the agency is also planning to purchase other body scanners — which resemble white television cameras on tripods — that have the ability to move around and hone in on specific people and angles, Wiggins said.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 08:49:00 +0000
Electronic surveillance: it's everywhere and it's growing

"Eye-in-the-sky" surveillance dome camera
mounted on top of a tall steel pole.

Has the demand for and use of electronic surveillance increased? The rapid changes in telecommunications technology has been accompanied by a growth in the potential intrusiveness of electronic surveillance and a steady increase in government surveillance activity. Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior of people, objects or processes within systems for conformity to expected or desired norms. Although the word surveillance literally means "watching over" the term is often used for all forms of observation or monitoring, not just visual observation. Such as the art of watching over the activities of persons or groups from a position of higher authority. Surveillance may be covert (without a persons knowledge) or overt (perhaps with frequent reminders such as "we are watching over you"). Because they're continually making new discoveries to increase the effectiveness of biometrics, rfid chips, etc., the government may soon be tracking us all.

The Future Of Biometrics

Iris scanner

The next ten years will bring major advancements in the field of biometrics -- things like reading faces, fingerprints and irises to safeguard our own security and personal information.

The headlines stated "Europe Is United Again", May 2004

10 nations in eastern Europe and Mediterranean join bloc. Europe stood proudly reunited yesterday almost six decades after it was split in two by the Cold War, as 10 nations in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean took their places in the European Union. The once-communist states of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia officially joined the EU family. Mediterranean islands Cyprus and Malta joined them as well, rounding out what is indisputably the world’s biggest single economic bloc, and a fledgling political force, with a total population of 455 million, the EU now surpasses the United States as the world's biggest economy.

Will a global religious system the Roman Catholic Church become the Mystery Babylon spoken of in the bible?

In Revelation 17:1-6 The angel said to John come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Face, Eye, Retina, Fingerprint, And Hand Scanning Devices

Face Recognition Technology
Here users are provided the opportunity to identify or verify themselves either by biometric identification, ID card or PIN/password.

Hand Scanning Device
These units use state of the art 3D imaging technology providing for a secure biometric recognition authentication.

All of the operations of these biometric devices can be accessed from the menu on the touchscreen or keypad.

These devices feature a high definition infrared (IR) camera that enables user identification even in dimly lit environments.

When using a biometric face reader the person looks into the camera, it captures the relative position, size, and shape of the user’s eyes, nose, cheekbones, and jaw which is then used to subsequently verify or identify the user.

These biometric face readers offer lightning quick detection.

That's ideal for areas where a large flux of people have to pass.

They're also capable of recognizing the same face with up to 15 different facial expressions.

So no matter how you look or feel the reader will know that it's you!

In biometric applications, physiological characteristics are extensively used for personal identification. Some of these characteristics have also served forensics and law enforcement. Facial features, friction ridges on fingertips, ear geometry, toe print, teeth pattern, etc. have been historically used in court of law to prove an individual’s presence at crime scenes. Physiological characteristics are unique to an individual and have served as a proven way for positively identification. For example, fingerprints have been used extensively for personal identification in civil as well as law enforcement applications. Technological advancement made it possible to identify and map other physiological and behavioral features that could be leveraged to establish an individual’s identity.

Both retina and facial recognition are categorized as physiological characteristic. Retina recognition is more popular in high security applications where reliability aspect is crucial, while face biometrics is used for mass surveillance as well as personal identification. Many mobile banking and finance application use face biometrics, popularly known as ‘selfie banking’, to identify and authenticate its customers. Though application of retina biometrics has been shrinking and gradually getting outnumbered by iris recognition in recent years, it is still one of the most reliable biometrics. Retina scan requires a very close encounter with the scanning device by using a beam of light deep inside the eye which is considered to be invasive, while iris pattern can be captured with near infrared illumination from a distance which is comparatively safer for human eye. Despite their differences, retina and face biometrics share common objectives: identifying and authenticating people.

A Global Currency

The Phoenix a hypothetical currency rises from the ashes of the dollar.

In 1988, The Economist ran an article titled, Get Ready for the Phoenix, in which they wrote.

A New Global Digital System Will
Replace All Of Today's Currencies
THIRTY years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let's say, the phoenix.
At the beginning of 1988 this appears an outlandish prediction. Proposals for eventual monetary union proliferated five and ten years ago, but they hardly envisaged the setbacks of 1987.

The phoenix will be favoured by companies and shoppers because it will be more convenient than today's national currencies, which by then will seem a quaint cause of much disruption to economic life in the last twentieth century.

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British Military Attacks Drones With Huge Laser - Costs $13 Per Shot

New DragonFire laser defense system has just been tested and the laser shoots down high-speed drones and can even hit a coin.

It can shoot down drones moving at 400 mph with incredible accuracy.

With a contract signed to provide the Royal Navy with the weapon for $415 million (£316 million), it'll be on board a UK destroyer in 2027, with a rapidly accelerated deployment timeframe, five years ahead of the originally anticipated date.

The UK government just announced that the contract with MBDA will ensure the laser-directed energy weapon (LDEW) system is on board a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer very soon.

The recent test runs of DragonFire at the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Hebrides range witnessed the laser taking out drones flying at up to 650km/h (just over 400 mph). The MoD tells us that this LDEW can hit a coin smaller than a US Quarter from a kilometer away, which is a mind-boggling feat.

The UK DragonFire programme brings together the best of UK industry. It leverages MBDA's decades of weapon system manufacturing expertise, Leonardo's position as a world-leading authority in laser technology, electro-optics, and advanced targeting, and QinetiQ's experience as the only UK company to successfully develop and safely operate high-energy laser sources in the UK and coherent beam-combining technology.

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Body Check

(Dynamic structured light acquisition techniques use a set of lines projected onto an object of interest to generate a 3D surface. Fingerprints or facial scans can be acquired using this method without the need for contact, making acquisition possible from a distance)

In recent years a number of countries have initiated biometric schemes aimed at protecting their borders. Although they are typically launched amid claims that they will accelerate the immigration process, this isn't always their central purpose, and frequently the new systems culminate in long queues.

Back in 2002 Australia unveiled its plans for SmartGate, a system that uses biometric facial recognition technology linked to the passenger's e-passport.

Recent travellers in the US may have been taken by surprise by a new biometric security system in place at key airports, which requires ten fingerprints for identification. Clear Cards, which carry biometric information, have been used by Americans since 2005.

CLEAR is a private program that uses biometrics — your identity is verified through a scan of your iris or fingerprints, depending on which image is most distinctive. Clear’s biometric identity verifier is now in 24 airports (34 soon) and eight sports stadiums.

Clear ID Pass document is available to US citizens and permanent residents. In addition, to the documents required to apply for the ID, applicants were required to submit digital images of their fingerprints and iris scans, as well as a digital photo before they are issued the document. Clear then "creates and stores a template, or mathematical representation, of the fingerprints and iris images, to create a unique biometric ID of the Member."

All of the data submitted by the applicant is sent to TSA, which creates an applicant's "security threat assessment" based upon a background check that's included its controversial "no-fly lists." After the verification process, each approved applicant is issued a “card” that allows them to access designated airport security fast lanes for processing through security at airports nationwide. The card also gives access to discount parking and speedy entry into major sports venues.

Dubai has established e-gates where registered passengers swipe an ID card and pass through a fingerprint scan, and the Netherlands has introduced Privium, a paid-for iris scanning service that offers a range of benefits, including lounge access and fast-track check-in.

e-Borders

Now e-Borders (electronic borders), a programme run by the UK Home Office's UK Border Agency at a likely total cost of £1.2bn, aims to tighten security at the country's borders. e-Borders is a joint programme run in partnership with the police and intelligence agencies. It requires commercial carriers and owners, or operators, of all vessels to submit detailed passenger, service and crew data in advance of their departure to and from the UK.

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The Illuminati Arrive In America - 1785

George Washington concerning the Illuminati
(George Washington (1732-1799) Founding Father, 1st US President, 'Father of the Country'. He spoke of the Illuminati in a letter written to the Reverend G. W. Snyder (24 October 1798). He said: "It is not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not spread to the United States. On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am".)

Washington issued several warnings shortly before his death, about the Illuminati. Washington knew that the Illuminati, based in Europe, had arrived on American shores. In 1789; John Robison, a Scottish scientist warned all Masonic leaders in America that the Illuminati had infiltrated into their lodges and on July 19, 1789; David Papen, President of Harvard University, issued the same warning to the graduating-class and lectured them on how Illuminism was having an influence on American politics and religion, and to top it off; John Quincy Adams, who had organized the New England Masonic Lodges, issued his warnings.

In 1785, the Columbia Lodge of the Illuminati was established in New York City. Among its members were Governor DeWitt Clinton, Horace Greeley (politician and editor of the New York Daily Tribune), Charles Dana, and Clinton Roosevelt (the ancestor of Franklin D. Roosevelt). Roosevelt wrote a book called Science of Government Founded on Natural Law, in which he wrote: "There is no God of justice to order things aright on earth, if there be a God, he is a malicious and revengeful being, who created us for misery." He referred to himself and other members as the "enlightened ones," and said that the U.S. Constitution was a "leaky vessel" which was "hastily put together when we left the British flag," and therefore needed revision.

In 1786, a lodge was started in Portsmouth, Virginia, where allegedly, Thomas Jefferson was a member; followed by fourteen others in different cities of the thirteen colonies.

In April 1793 France sent new ambassador Edmond Genet to America so he could collect payment for the American debt incurred during the American Revolution. The money was to be used to finance France's war with England. However, his real reason for being here was to gain political favor for France and spread Illuminism, which he did through the establishment of 'Democratic Clubs.'

Washington said of "the clubs" that they "...would shake the government to its foundations."

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:33:00 +0000
The Plan

Whether you believe in a spiritual war or not, you still need Salvation. It is all that will save you when this life on earth is finished.

Do you know beyond the shadow of a doubt where you would go if you died tonight? If not, please consider the following, we pray it’s a blessing to you. The Bible says there is only one way to Heaven

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” (John 14:6)

Good works cannot save you.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Trust Jesus Christ today! Here’s what you must do:

1. Admit you are a sinner.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23)

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:10)

2. Be willing to turn from sin (repent).

Jesus said: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5)

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:” (Acts 17:30)

3. Believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

4. Upon believing the gospel, God declares you to be righteous and saves you by his grace.

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10)

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Eric Weinstein: Jeffrey Epstein Was A Front! A Construct!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:56:00 +0000

The Singju Post: by Pangambam S Podcasts
Full transcript of mathematician and former Managing Director of Thiel Capital Eric Weinstein’s interview on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett podcast episode titled “Jeffrey Epstein Was A Front! The Collapse Has Already Started!” July 14, 2025.
The Current State of Global Tensions
STEVEN BARTLETT: Eric, you are a particularly captivating individual for the very fact that you grace so many different intellectual subjects as we sit here now having this conversation. I want to know what subjects at this moment in time are occupying most of your thoughts and most of your thinking? We have a strong listenership here, and I think the responsibility that I have meeting someone like you is to understand what we should be talking about.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So top of mind for me at the moment is tropical fruit and physics. I’m not kidding.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Tropical fruit and physics.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. But that’s just because you’re catching me on a particular day. And my local 99 Ranch Market ran out of rambutan, which I’m addicted to. No, I have serious issues with tropical fruit. I’m completely obsessed by it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: What about this week? What’s been occupying most of your thoughts this week?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, the apocalypse and physics.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why’d you say the apocalypse? And what do you mean by the apocalypse?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, we’re becoming a nerd to the apocalypse. We just watched hypersonic missiles slam into a modern city on TV, and we’re watching one of the world’s most remarkable civilizations, the Persians, take direct hits from both Israel and the US. And I’m just beside myself.
I mean, this is incredibly dramatic if you think about just the idea of the Jews and the Persians are still here. And one of the things that I find really just painful is that I care about certain cultures that I know well more than others, and these are two of my absolute favorites.
The World in Conflict
STEVEN BARTLETT: What’s going on at this moment in time? Because it feels like there’s more conflict than there’s ever been. I don’t know whether that’s just a bias that I have at this moment, but whether I’m looking at the wrong social media algorithm. But it feels like the world is tense.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, you’re too young for the Cold War, so I don’t know how old you are.
STEVEN BARTLETT: 32.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. So you really missed. I grew up in a different world where things were tense because there were two players and it was more or less the US and the Soviets. And then we decided, one of the dumbest things we ever came up with, a very smart man came up with one of the dumbest ideas, which was “the end of history.”
And, you know, the post World War II order is here to stop us from using the technologies that came out of this. And you know, I talk about this a lot. There was a six month period between November of ’52 and April of ’53 where we unlocked first the power of the nucleus because we could fuse hydrogen.
And the other thing we were able to do was figure out the three dimensional structure of nucleic acid in the form of the double helix. And suddenly, in no time flat, we had access to the two most powerful levers humanity has ever had and perhaps ever will. And so we’re just not in a position to deal with this.
The Power of Modern Technology
STEVEN BARTLETT: What does that mean? Sorry, in terms of – you said we had access to the two most remarkable things.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, the hydrogen bomb is not something that has ever been used by anyone against an enemy. This is the first full scale test of a hydrogen device. If the reaction goes, we’re in the thermonuclear era.
STEVEN BARTLETT: 3, 2, 1.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So we’re awaiting its first use in war. We did use fission devices, but we didn’t use fusion devices. And they’re at completely different scales. So the Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only two situations in which a nuke has ever been used against a population, civilian or otherwise.
And we don’t know, for example, whether or not – I don’t know, at least Covid had its origins in a bioweapons program. So at some level we’re playing with levers and tools that are so powerful. Do you realize that the key ingredient that made Covid so unique was a four amino acid sequence inserted into spike protein? So that’s 12 nucleotides coding for four amino acids. Shut down planet Earth for a couple of years. That’s how powerful this is, you know, and there are very few things that have this kind of leverage.
In 2017, we had a discovery, a white paper called “Attention is All You Need.” And oddly, many of us dealing with AI and LLMs and talking that language don’t even realize there’s a paper that you can read that changed everything. It’s eight authors out of Google, I think. And that opened up AI.
Satoshi in 2008, 2009, with the solution to the distributed double spend problem, where you could effectively port conservation laws from the physical world into the digital world, giving us digital gold. But just as a beginning, these ideas that have such high leverage are making us powerful beyond any previous world, with no attendant increase in our wisdom, in our ability to use and wield these things.
And right now, you’re seeing the face where we’re unveiling, what does drone warfare look like in FPV?
STEVEN BARTLETT: What is FPV?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: First person, you know, where you’re looking through the lens of the drone as it slams into a personnel carrier. Maybe you’ve seen this on Telegram, where you’re just watching individuals being menaced by mechanical flying birds equipped to kill them.
So we didn’t know what drone warfare looked like.
This is the beginning of drone warfare. We didn’t know what hypersonic missiles look like when they slam into a population center. I was just in Tel Aviv a couple months ago, and I was in, you know, shelters because the Houthis and some of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza were letting off missiles. But not like this, Persians, really.
You know, and by the way, they’re choosing, I think, to not inflict maximal damage. I don’t think that they could have gotten the body count a lot higher if they’d wanted to. They’re trying to speak the language of violence in a very measured fashion.
The End of an Era
STEVEN BARTLETT: So is this a particularly tense moment, or is it just the bias that I have because I’ve not been through these things before? Is there something different?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You’re looking – I can’t even believe the question. You’re looking at the end, man. This is the beginning. This is a slow rollout of a completely different world you’ve been in. We’ve all been in a completely artificially stagnant bubble for decades. My entire life up until now has been in a bubble. The only people who’ve seen real life are extremely old.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Who are those people that have seen real life?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, I would say people who went through the depression, World War II, you know, in China, people who went through Mao’s Great Leap Forward, but most of us have no idea of what, like, a real pandemic, like a Spanish flu or black plague is like. We don’t know what Poland went through, where they lost, I don’t know, 20, 25% of their population to war. Look at the statistics on the battle of Stalingrad. We don’t really understand. We’ve just – our whole life has been in a bubble.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You said, “I’m looking at the end.”
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. Remember all the talk about the singularity, like Ray Kurzweil? “We’re heading to the singularity.” What is the singularity going to be like? You’re in it. This is now. You’re looking at the disintegration of NATO. You’re looking at people who don’t know how to maintain the systems that were engineered by their great grandparents after World War II.
That order that, you know, you’re from the UK – if you think about how the UK woke up to the idea that they had built into their heads that “we are the masters of the world.” So you saw the beginning of the end of this concept of the British Empire. That moment is coming for the US and it may be that it’s coming for Israel, or it may be that it’s coming for Iran.
See, in 1967, the Israelis felt invincible in the Six Day War. And then in 1973, they had the Yom Kippur War. And all the people that they were priding themselves, having beaten these ferocious enemies that were arrayed against them, woke up on Yom Kippur in 1973 and bloodied the Israelis, and they surprised them.
So the Israelis underestimated their enemy, and that changed the entire character of the country. It went from being a triumphal state that felt that David could defeat Goliath to realizing that Goliath was quite powerful. And the same thing is going to happen here.
You saw the celebration that Trump had dealt this blow to the Iranian nuclear facilities. You watch the Persians come back. We’re starting to realize what the boundaries are, as people are more bold in trying things. Maybe Xi’s going to try to cross the Taiwan Strait, I don’t know. But the era of stasis, where very little happened over very long periods of time, is over.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So you think this is the start of escalation?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: This is the start of the undoing of the post World War II order. The idea that the post World War II order is still in place is astounding.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So what happens next?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We either scare the crap out of ourselves and come to our senses, or we don’t.
STEVEN BARTLETT: We scare the crap out of ourselves and come to our senses, or we don’t. And what does that look like, scaring the crap out of ourselves?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, I don’t know. How did you feel about the hypersonic missiles? Like, we started this, and I’m talking about tropical fruit because I’m trying to figure out whether I should buy a jackfruit and stink up my wife’s kitchen, you know? And on the other hand, I just saw hypersonic missiles slam into the buildings I was just in for meetings in Tel Aviv.
The Nuclear Reality
STEVEN BARTLETT: There’s a nuclear threat that weirdly hangs over us. And I almost feel at some deep level, we all understand and feel that threat, that there’s these nine or ten countries around the world that have the ability to basically wipe out all of us at any moment. I feel like that’s almost within us all. That knowing is within us all.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I totally disagree.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Really?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. I think about nothing else sometimes, and I still don’t believe. I don’t believe it. There’s a difference between knowing something in your head and knowing something embodied.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. I don’t know if we were able to distinguish whether we know it in our head or whether it’s embodied unconsciously to the point that it’s changing how we act. Do you know what I mean? Because I’m now aware that there’s nine countries, and I’m also aware of that, really. It’s one individual’s decision as to whether those nuclear bombs were to fly. So there’s a part of me that’s – I don’t know, maybe in suspended disbelief or at a deeper level, feels an angst, but…
ERIC WEINSTEIN: But nobody knows what to do with it. And this is part of what Elon is all about, which is that I am convinced that everybody else needs to be talking about this much more, and I need to be talking about this much less. I talk about this all the time.
People are always – I want to survive more than anything else. There’s so many things that I love about this place, and I don’t like the idea that we’re all trapped here with one atmosphere, with nine individuals, if you like, who could all wake up on the wrong side of the bed and say, “today’s the day.”
Part of what I’m so exercised about with respect to the apocalypse is how many things I want to save. This city just went up in flames. It focuses the mind. How many things can I save in one carload if I know that the police are not going to let me come back to my home? Do you save photos? Do you save musical instruments? Do you save financial records? What is it that you save? It was a very focusing question. We’re already over it. We can’t even remember the fires on that point.
The Search for Meaning
STEVEN BARTLETT: Of the things that give us meaning in our lives. Where do you think we’re at as a society in terms of our feelings of meaning and purpose and connectedness to maybe something transcendent or… I was mulling over this idea the other day. I actually posted it on my LinkedIn page, of all places.
I said that I think we need to ladder up to things to feel like anchored and content in life, we start with ourselves and we ladder up to family, then community, then maybe a mission or a purpose, and then maybe to something transcendent. And it feels like because of the design of our lives and the optimization of it, we’re increasingly laddering up to just ourselves.
I think even in my life, I’m wondering whether there’s, like a layer missing, which is the religious layer or a spiritual layer.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Do you pray?
STEVEN BARTLETT: It’s a good question.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You’ll come over Friday night and pray with us?
STEVEN BARTLETT: I’d say I do pray.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That’s pretty weak.
STEVEN BARTLETT: But it’s not the way that I see prayer in movies and stuff.
The Role of Religion and Belief
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So that’s the thing. We have this idea that somebody puts their hands together and they just believe. Yeah, but a lot of time when you’re praying, you don’t really believe. You’re not sure that you’re doing anything sensible. You feel ridiculous. And that’s true even if you’re a believer.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think we need religion?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, said the atheist.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Are you an atheist?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, but I take religion super seriously. I don’t think we’re meant to live without it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: That’s an interesting conundrum.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I don’t think so. Everybody gets hung up on it. I sort of wonder what their problem is.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Please explain. So you believe that we aren’t meant to live without religion. We’re meant to be orientated by something transcendent, but you don’t believe that it’s real?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I think that. You know, there’s this great trick that I learned when I was scuba diving, which is that your need to breathe is triggered by the buildup of CO2 in your lungs. And there are all sorts of things you can do to decrease your need to breathe. One is you can hyperventilate and you can get rid of all of the CO2 that’s residual. You can also inure your lungs to CO2 by smoking. You can also breathe out the precious air that your instincts tell you to hold in.
You can do all these things, and then you can go super deep. You can learn how to equalize the pressure in your ears by holding your nose in these techniques. And suddenly you’re far deeper than you’ve ever been. And you’re exploring the rocks and the fishes, and there’s a turtle and there’s an eel, and you get a message you’re out of air. And you look up and you see I am really far from the surface. This is terrifying.
That’s what happens when you unhook the proximate, which is air hunger from the ultimate, which is the need to breathe. So thirst is proximate to dehydration. Hunger is proximate to the need for nourishment. In part, religion and prayer is there to keep us from unhooking all of these protective things and just turning life into a hoot.
You can have a hoot without religion, but if everybody has a hoot, the whole society collapses. At some point, I think a president of the United States may have said that people who defend this country were suckers. Something like that. And I thought, “God damn you.” Maybe it’s true even. But how many families have received a flag draped coffin and felt pride like “we lost something precious? But we are part of the American tapestry in a way that few families can be.”
And when we outsmart ourselves, when we unhook all of these things, you know, every single young woman has an idea about what the opportunity cost of not going on OnlyFans is. Before, we didn’t know what the opportunity cost. There was no measurement of it. We’re becoming too sophisticated. We’ve got too much information. We’re deranging ourselves. We’re having a blast. And we’re completely undoing all of the superstructure of the world.
The number of people who don’t have children or want children. My kids make fun of me. I just go around telling people to make babies. And it’s the most normal thing in the world. I meet parents who don’t harass their own children to get married and have families. Like, what are you doing?
The Collapse of Superstructures
STEVEN BARTLETT: The superstructures of the world.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah.
STEVEN BARTLETT: One being family.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. Traditions.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Things that ground that connect you to.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And what are the symptoms of that? Unhooking from the superstructures of the world.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: How much do you care about things? How much do you care about people saying your name four generations out?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Me?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, you.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You’re probably asking the wrong person. Because I just don’t think legacy matters. Because I’m going to be dead.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That’s right. But you’re. I’m asking all of you who believe that.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That it’s so sad, it is so weird that no one cares about their legacy because they don’t see a future. So what I’m trying to say is I’m desperate to get you a future so that you care what needs to.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Happen to get me a future.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Something remarkable. Something utterly remarkable. Because it’s not going that way. And that’s what the physics part is. I talk about physics constantly. Physics is the only thing that’s going to get your future.
The Physics of Survival
STEVEN BARTLETT: How?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, right now the big problem is that we share one atmosphere.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So everything that can. All the really bad things, whether it’s pathogens, like imagine something COVID like, but far worse, or climate or radiation, all of these things don’t know anything about borders. To an extent. There’s a southern and a northern hemisphere that are separate, but even that’s not a great border. So we can draw all the borders on land that we want, but we still have basically one or two atmospheres, and I would really say one. And we’ve now gotten powerful enough to really screw it up.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And so through nukes or through carbon.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Emissions, all three of those things. Right. Everything that you care about is on one sphere with one atmosphere. And I think Elon is 100% right. We got to get to another sphere. I can’t believe that he’s focused on Mars. I mean, sure, focus on the moon, focus on Mars, focus on chemical rockets, but throw a couple billion towards physics, for God’s sakes, and let us get it. Let us get serious about exploring the cosmos.
This is our womb. This is not our home. You know the song “Closing Time”?
STEVEN BARTLETT: No, I don’t.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: “Closing Time.” “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” I think it’s about birth. Yeah, it’s time to be born. You can’t stay here. This is completely obvious to me and I am the only person who talks this way. And so I sound like a lunatic and I get tired of it. But there real reason, you know, it’s about the mangoes, it’s about the rambutan, it’s about the music, it’s about all the things that I love.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So why would you want to leave?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I want to take it with us. And I want to see what else is out there and I want to meet people.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why don’t you just stay here and fix this planet?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Because you can’t. The odds of fixing one sphere for a permanent future. You’ve already talked about it. You don’t care about the future.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I don’t have children yet either, so I don’t. Yeah, I don’t have that, but I.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My children don’t have children and their children don’t have children. And I care about them and they’re not even here.
The Unraveling World Order
STEVEN BARTLETT: We’ve got some time left here, though.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, we did. If you looked what’s happened in the last month, it’s coming undone. Pakistan and India.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you really think this is the start of the end?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I. I have no idea where I am. Of course it is. The World War II order was keeping. It’s like control rods keeping the world from going super critical.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Can’t we just put the rods back together?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Have you looked at who we had an election with? Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris in the US Tell me what’s going on in the UK what are we doing in the mayoral race for New York? I don’t know if you’re watching what I’m watching. Look at the mess that’s going on in Gaza. Russia is nuclear. Israel is presumably nuclear. Pakistan and India are nuclear. The US Is nuclear. Iran is almost nuclear. China is pissed off about Iran because it was trying to make a play through the region. North Korea is watching. Oh, and look at the UK in turmoil. UK is a very nuclear country, to say nothing of France. This is not going to go well, by the way.
Look at how much is happening with AI. Right? Everything was really stagnant. So I have this famous challenge that I give people, which is go into a room and subtract the screens and forget about style. How do you know you’re not in 1973? Drones are the beginning. Imagine I needed a refill on my coffee and you did something, and a drone brought me a coffee. To not interrupt the flow, we’d know we weren’t in 73. But in general, drones aren’t a big part of our lives. These robots. I’ve never seen a humanoid robot actually doing anything other than on YouTube where it’s like doing the mashed potato.
So in general, yeah, things were just really stagnant for a really long time. And during that period of stagnation, we had this crazy narrative, which is like “the dizzying pace of change is making it almost impossible to keep up” while things were incredibly stagnant. And so it just shows you sort of this weird way in which our minds can be programmed to completely ignore what we’re experiencing.
The Christian Substrate
STEVEN BARTLETT: Is there not chance that we’ll just continue to.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay, if you want to go with chance. Look, until you’re worried about your great, great grandchildren, I don’t want to have this conversation with you. I want you to start caring about that. I want you to go to church. You’re heir to a great tradition. One of the most important traditions in the world has to be Christianity, because both Judaism and Islam are screwed up over the law or legal traditions. Christianity, not so much. I think first time somebody crystallized that for me was Sam Harris. That’s a really important point.
But you’re heir to an incredibly powerful and important tradition. And if we don’t have a Christian substrate, we’re in real trouble because all of our society is based on an assumption of a Christian substrate.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You’re advising me to be Christian in tradition, but not necessarily in belief.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, this is the thing. You’re alienated because you think that you have to be a believer in order to go in. Otherwise you’re faking it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Get over yourself. That’s not how it works.
STEVEN BARTLETT: That’s true. That’s me. Just me being honest. I do think that if I went to a church and I sung and I prayed and stuff and I didn’t believe, I would. That I’d be like. It’d be fake.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay. Do you imagine that all those people who go to church are just sitting there 100% sure that there’s a Jesus to pray to? Do you know any Christians?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. They’re not like that. They sneak off and do bad things if they were confident that Jesus was watching everything that they were doing and they were constantly talking about how they sin. “I’m a sinner.” Right. It’s a very complicated, interesting piece of kit. And my claim is that, you know, I said the Lord’s Prayer as part of going to high school. I sat in a church, a chapel at a high school in LA that had a stained glass window with an American soldier trampling a Nazi flag into the stained glass window. It was amazing.
Faith vs. Action
STEVEN BARTLETT: How does this link to me? I was about to say computer, don’t you have faith that we’ll just be able to kind of keep this? It feels like a bit of a standoff thing.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So you’re the one with the faith? I’m the one who’s nervous. Look, you’re the believer. I’m not going to trust that. No, no, no. I’m going to get my hands dirty and try to do something about it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you know what? I think, in part, it’s because, as you said, I’ve been alive for 32 years, and through that time has been relative peace, especially in the Western world. So it’s all I’ve ever known. So I’m born with this assumption that this is just kind of how it goes, that there’s always threat, but we kind of figure it out.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Come to the Pacific Palisades. It looks like Gaza.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got some friends that lost their.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Houses there, you know, Checked out Lahaina in West Maui recently. No, it’s an absolute disaster.
AI and Revolution
STEVEN BARTLETT: Is AI a protagonist in this story? Is it?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Sure.
STEVEN BARTLETT: In what respect?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, what do you think about it, we’re going through a wild revolution at the moment, and I just hear people saying the dumbest things about it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: What do I think about it? I’m scared I might say something dumb now.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, let’s try, because I’m going to say.
The AI Revolution and Human Intelligence
STEVEN BARTLETT: Something dumb, I think. When I look at both sides of the coin and I look at the opportunity and the threat, my concern when I hear about the CEOs of the biggest AI companies in the world talking about this fast takeoff is that the transition will be too quick for us to adjust. And when they say fast takeoff, they mean that AGI arrives and the rate of its learning accelerates so quickly that it really disrupts the need for human beings to do a lot of the sort of jobs we’re doing today that are centered on intelligence.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Which jobs require intelligence?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Pretty much all of them these days, because we’ve had the Industrial Revolution where we’ve outsourced a lot of labor to machines, but I don’t think so.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Really. Yeah. I think a large portion of our conversation was actually in LLM. We didn’t actually get to the stuff outside of the LLM. You and I are two chatbots for the most part. You’re a good one.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Thank you.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m on a huge platform again, you know? But my claim is that that’s the really disturbing part, that more or less, we’re LLMs, more or less. We don’t do a single intelligent thing all day long. And the reason that they’re able to mimic us is because we don’t realize that intelligence is a last resort for us. We try to automate.
If you think about greetings, your assistant was very kind. I got out of a black car that you guys sent around, and I was greeted with the phrase, “there he is, the man, the myth.” And I knew what was coming next. “The legend.” Right. Because that is a sort of humorous way of giving an intimate greeting, but it’s still an LLM.
And I’m not saying that your assistant is an LLM. I’m saying that, more or less, what we do all day long is LLM interactions. “Hey, buddy. How are you?” “Good, good. Things have been really busy. How about you?” “Well, I got some travel coming up. Kind of excited about it, but I have to get through some work first.” I understand that’s an entirely scripted conversation.
That’s why I’m trying to say that I want to do podcasting that is outside of the LLM model. I don’t want to do just dangerous, stupid stuff. But I want to talk about things that I’ve never explored where I don’t have something ready.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think AI will ever break out of the LLM or will it expand?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I don’t think the LLMs will see. I think that waiting for AGI as the problem is a bad idea. I think the problems are going to get here far before AGI. I think even that the AGI expectation is something we’re trained to do. Do you think AGI is coming? Do you think we’ll survive AGI? Will AGI be good or bad? All of that’s pre programmed into you.
Why are you waiting for AGI? Did you not alphafold3? Did you track that? Do you know about this?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Was that the chess game?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, it’s the chess game that became the protein folding game. And you want to talk about great games. Protein folding. Now that’s a game.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I have no knowledge of this at all.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay, what do you know about proteins?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Very little.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay. Think about proteins as tiny machines.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
The Protein Folding Revolution
ERIC WEINSTEIN: There’s copying machine, there’s scissors and a shearing machine, there’s a light making machine, all sorts of things. And all of those machines are weirdly coded. Imagine that you had like a children’s show and a bunch of girl superheroes and they all had necklaces with 20 different kinds of beads around their neck.
And so when they needed a machine, they’d take off the necklace and they’d throw it into a thing called a ribosome. The ribozone would take these 20 kinds of pearls and suddenly it would build you a car or a spaceship or a gun or who knows what. Well, that’s the story of DNA, RNA and protein.
The only thing is, isn’t it weird that a linear sequence suddenly crumples up into a three dimensional object that does something? So, for example, I don’t know. Have you ever seen these Turkish rabbits that glow in the dark?
STEVEN BARTLETT: No.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay, so they took green fluorescent protein out of jellyfish.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And they spliced them into the nucleic acids of rabbits. And the Turks bred all of these glow in the dark bunnies. And what that is is a structure. So there’s something called secondary structure in protein where sometimes you get these spirals called alpha helices. And then sometimes you get a two dimensional sheet that’s made from taking a switchback in strings of amino acids.
And then if you wrap that around, you don’t have a beta sheet, you have a beta barrel. And these beta barrels are the glow in the dark aspect of Green fluorescent protein. Okay. And what we didn’t know was how a series of acts and GS could code for sequences of amino acids could form three dimensional structures. So if you just read DNA, you didn’t know. Well, that’s going to be a sports car.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Alphafold figured it out. For the most part, to an enormous extent, humans were stuck there.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And what does that mean?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It means that you could. I don’t know, you could target your enemies that have particular regions on their cell surfaces, and you could come up with proteins that only attach to them and attack. It could mean anything. It could mean nanorobots. I don’t know what it means, but my point is that that’s already here and you’re not focused on it. And you’re thinking AGI. And the funny part is that’s your LLM that got programmed to wait for AGI.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Well, I heard people that I think are very smart, much smarter than me, talk about the don’t listen to them Elon.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Sure.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I mean, he says that it’s our biggest existential threat is AI.
The Elon Phenomenon
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Elon has become the outsourcing for much of our intelligence. And if Elon means anything to you, he’s really saying to you, don’t listen to me, do something remarkable. He’s saying, where is everybody? Why is there only one Elon? There used to be lots of them. Where?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why is there only one Elon?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, not the right question. Where did all the other Elons go?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Same question, is it not?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, I think that “why is there only one Elon?” makes Elon feel more singular. You know, if you ever get a chance to go to Cappadocia or Bryce national park in Utah, you see what happens, which is that you’ll have a stone that was resting on the soil, and suddenly the wind starts to erode everything except the compactified soil right under that stone.
And you get what’s called a fairy chimney or a Hoja. And so the claim is that sometimes you get these isolated structures, and the key point is everything else eroded away. We’re supposed to have tons of Elon and everybody else got taken out.
STEVEN BARTLETT: What or who took them out?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Look at how much trouble Elon has being Elon Musk. Look, we keep hearing about him. You know, he’s on drugs. Great. Take drugs. No, I’m not kidding. Do you know how many amazing people take drugs? If you care about jazz, jazz is a whole history of drugs. Whenever I’m listening to Ray Charles, I’m hearing heroin, okay?
What are they doing at Burning Man? They’re trying to live luxuriously under oppression simultaneously. Luxuriously and as dirty and disgusting as you’ll ever be. Hopefully. They’re having tons of eye opening, mind bending experiences, chasing some way of getting out of the LLM.
And my feeling about this is it’s not even honest. I believe that Elon, for example, does understand that population and growth is really important. But I also think he just enjoys making babies. And in a weird way, this idea of “I’m going to have an empire of my children” is a forbidden concept. Try explaining that to HR. You know, it’s like, what did you say at work? So the key point is Elon is barely able to be Elon Musk.
The True Impact of AI
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think we’re overestimating the impact AI is going to have? Because a lot of people see it as this really fundamentally transformative?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You don’t think we’re underestimating it?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I think it’s going to be. I think that what AI means to us is bizarre. We’ve come up with this whole script about AGI and it’s going to take everything we do that’s repetitive is on the chopping block. And since almost everything we do is repetitive, we don’t need to get to AGI. We just need to do things where lots of people create lots of repetitive data.
And then we tokenize it and we train the AI on the tokens. And then for the most part it says, you know, it doesn’t matter, it can be a photograph, it can be music, whatever it is, amino acids. Just give me a large enough data set and let me add it and take a hike for a little while. I’ll train on it and then I’ll know how to do that.
You know what, it’s bad at things where there isn’t much data. So I just found out about these orphan proteins where everybody’s got a different version of hemoglobin, but the quaternary structure of hemoglobin, Hemoglobins, these four heme groups, four different proteins around a central element. What happens when you have a protein that has no analog anywhere else? The system doesn’t have the ability to learn it.
If I train you on the blues and you find out what a 12 bar blues progression is, then you find out that there’s a variation where the second bar goes to the fourth rather than just staying on the one for four bars and then sometimes the fourth bar has a seven in it to create tension. Okay, so it’s going to learn every single form of the blues like that. And because there’s a large corpus of that stuff, it’s going to get really good at blues music.
But if you take something that basically never happens, it’s not going to have an easy ability to train and give you more. So I think that AI is almost certainly going to transform the economy because everything that we know how to do through education creates repetitive behaviors. We don’t know how to educate for creativity and genius. We know how to educate for doing higher level things.
So radiology is a great example. Radiologists are some of the first in the crosshairs. I’m going to stare at some imaging and I’m going to say, I think that’s a tumor. I think that’s benign. And it’s going to say, just give me all of these tokens. Like, well, they’re X rays, they’re CAT scans. No, no, no. They’re just tokens.
So, yeah, it’s going to start to automate away every repetitive behavior, and then what’s going to be left is the tiny number of things that aren’t really highly repetitive or things where we really care that a human does it. Very interesting what’s happened with chess. I don’t know if you’ve been following chess.
The Chess Analogy
STEVEN BARTLETT: I loosely understand it mainly because I’ve spoken to a lot of AI experts and they often reference chess as an example where it’s one of the first things that humans did that we really cared about that fell. So they’ve been longer in the AI tractor beam than any of the rest of us in some sense. How did it fall through Deep Blue and IBM and Garry Kasparov.
STEVEN BARTLETT: But does that mean that people aren’t interested in chess anymore? What are you saying?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, no, no. That’s the whole point. So Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player of our time and perhaps of all time, was on Joe Rogan. And Joe asks him the simple question, “can your phone beat you?” He’s like, “yeah, easily.”
So the point is, we can’t compete with, I don’t know, Stockfish or whatever, the top chess programs of our time. I don’t know anymore. But nobody cares about those programs except for AI experts. We care about the drama of Anand versus Carlson.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Two humans.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Two humans. Because it’s about us. We’re very narcissistic in this way. And so there was a period, and this is something that my wife tried to popularize, so she said this thing about the Golden Age of AI complementarity where the AIs aren’t good enough to take over from us, but they’re amazing tools.
And so there’s a period where we’re teamed up, you know, the prompt engineering revolution. They’re not good enough to come up with their own prompts. And a great example of this that Chi and I have been talking about is the cyborg chess era, which is a period where humans and the AIs could form teams that would do better. But at some point, the AI just looks at the human and says, “you’re just holding me back.”
STEVEN BARTLETT: You’ve got two children.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah.
Career Advice for the Next Generation
STEVEN BARTLETT: When they’re thinking about their career prospects, with all that you think and know and believe about the future that we’re heading towards, what kind of career advice would you be giving to them?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Oh, I’ve given them terrible career advice. I gave them somewhat different career advice. So to my son, my advice was, do the hardest, most technical thing you possibly can do and be prepared to use that ability, that facility in different ways than you’re honing it, but train yourself.
With my daughter, I think she cares deeply about people, and this is a typical male, female divide. And by the way, I’m not going to talk overly much about them because I try to keep them out. But she is somebody who is taking the same level of analytic ability, but putting it in the service of the law and trying to help people who are really unfortunate. She’s very idealistic.
And so at some level, the law is not going to allow us to have AI lawyers for quite some time. It’s not going to trust anything. We’ve got jury trials and judges and a legal system that’s written into our founding documents.
To the average person, I would say, get your board in the water and prepare to paddle. Like all get out. The tsunami of a lifetime is coming, and nothing your elders have seen is going to prepare. There’s no good advice to give that’s specific.
Let’s put it this way. One of the things when people tell me about their moving from one city to another, I have a phrase that nobody likes, which is, “every place is over.” Oh, I’m moving to Austin. Yeah, it’s over. Miami, it’s over. Nashville, over. All these places are over.
And every occupation that is named is over. I’m going to be a dentist, radiologist, accountant, teacher. These are all over. Whatever’s coming, get flexible, get good. Get good on a bunch of different stuff. Learn how to think across disciplines. I have no idea what’s going to be left for us, but somebody’s going to come out on top.
And I hate to tell people that you should try to come out on top of. I don’t think it’s healthy to have everyone trying to be world class. I think you should be able to just have a life. I have a golden retriever. I don’t know that it’s the greatest golden retriever in the world. Sometimes I think it is, but he does a lot of dumb stuff. But he’s my golden retriever.
I just don’t think it. I think that this mania for optimization, if you look at your own videos, you’ll find some of the best performing videos are “This is how to succeed. This is how to get anyone you want. This is how to get out of a bad situation.” People just want capacity, but for what? Okay, you’ve optimized your day, you’ve optimized your health, your social media is optimized. Now what?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Now what? I don’t know what should be. Then say, you know, is it time to just. One would say, well, now I. One would incorrectly say, well, now I can play with my golden retriever. And then one would say, well, you should have been playing with your golden retriever the whole time.
Finding Meaning in Simple Things
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Let me put it a little differently. Through some bizarre accident, I have gotten a chance to meet incredible people that I don’t even talk about who I’ve met. I’ve gotten a chance to see the world. I haven’t seen South America, but I’ve seen most of the other continents other than the Antarctic. I’ve had a really rich life.
Take somebody who hasn’t had those opportunities, but they got a chance to have three kids. I’m not sure I wouldn’t trade places. I so enjoyed raising my children. It’s available to everyone. It’s such a strange thing that we’re talking about optimization, all this stuff.
I get to think about the substrate of the universe, theoretical physics. I dream about visiting the stars. I dream about multiple dimensions of time, meeting aliens, all sorts of things. I still think having kids was unbeatable. I’m so sad that it’s over. I’m so sad that they moved out.
I cannot believe that I was dumb enough to live in a society that doesn’t believe in having your kids with you your whole life. The idea that we look at places where kids live at home as backwards is beyond me. And shout out to the entire Indian subcontinent. Family is everything. They drive me crazy, but it’s just meaning is available for you.
And again, every time I got a chance to eat a rambutan. It’s one of my favorite fruits. Mangoes, rambutans, jackfruit, sitafal. If you can get custard apple. The amount of pleasure I get. I’ve never had a good custard apple in the entire time I’ve lived in the US. Not one. I’ve had a frozen one imported from Taiwan. You get this Cherimoya. Just get out of here, Cherimoya. You’re not good. Great custard apple. Great Sita, fal or ramfal. What a pleasure to be on this earth. And it’s available to almost anyone.
I just think that you can find meaning. For God’s sakes, go to Spotify if you have a connection, if you can afford a connection to Spotify and put in Pablo Casals’ version of the Bach Cello Suites, you’re as rich as you need to be. I’ve flown private. I’d much prefer to listen to Pablo Casals playing the cello suites in economy than to be deprived of real luxury.
I don’t know, I just. To me, meaning is everywhere. I can’t swing a cat without hitting meaning.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Have you always been like that? Or is that something that you’ve cultivated? The point about being able to swing a cat and find meaning, so many people that would be listening now could swing a hundred mile stick and wouldn’t hit meaning in their lives. But you seem to be able to find it in the purer things, the more simple things. And I’m wondering if that’s something that we can all cultivate with a change of perspective, or if it’s just the way that you’ve always been.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Why is Joe Rogan such a big deal? You ever listen to Joe Rogan talk about pugilism? Two gentlemen beating the crap out of each other as poetry, as chess. I could listen to Joe talk about MMA for days. The story of Mighty Mouse, the guy trapped in some flyweight division with unbelievable skills, who never gets to meet a formidable enemy.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think that’s a privilege? Do you think that there’s a privilege in being able to craft a story? Because so much of the meaning you’re describing there comes from these great stories. And not everybody is able to craft the story. Upon seeing something, you probably look at this item in front of me, this glass, and create a story about it that drives meaning, that makes you feel something.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I worry about its manufacture. How is it that we got a surface of revolution. What is the industrial process? How do I take a picture of this and get it a photograph of the machine that made it? You know that fly that has been buzzing around us this entire interview?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Do you remember when Obama had a fly?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. And he caught it and. Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: The confidence of that man. See, I’d try that and I’d miss and I’d screw it up in front of millions of people. It’s like I took so much meaning away from that fly.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Were you trying to. Or is that just a sort of predecessor?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We all did.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Not everyone. Some people would have gone, how was.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It that you knew exactly what I was talking about? Because he captured a moment. He was the girl in the red dress. Now, there’s this thing that women say, “not every woman can wear a red.” Well, not every man can grab a fly with confidence. I think we all see this. I think we all see beauty everywhere.
Remember that movie American Beauty with the plastic bag that gets in the air, funnel going up? And the key point is the ability just to see beauty wherever you find it. Everything behind you means something to me. The letter B is strange to me that there’s only one phonetic alphabet and that every phonetic alphabet is descended from it. I basically view everything as a hyperlink. I just want to click on the world and see what it goes to.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Not everybody does, though.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: But we do.
STEVEN BARTLETT: They don’t make the step, is what I’m saying, because people would see the B and nothing would cross their mind.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You know what’s funny? There’s an absolutely horrible account that has been just dogging me for years, trying to make my life miserable.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And a social media account.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. Doesn’t matter.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And the person said, “you know, one thing I just never understand is he’s not. He’s not hawking a book. He’s just talking. Why are his numbers high?” And the answer is, everybody cares about this stuff. They want an invitation.
One of the funniest things that gets said about me on social media is “he goes on forever and he never says anything.” And then I look at the word clouds of things that I’ve talked about, and people are just Googling everything incessantly. If you didn’t know who Pablo Casals was, now you do. Now you know what a real cellist sounds like.
I don’t know. I just. I can’t believe that I’m so far through this life and that there’s so little left. I can’t believe this doesn’t go on forever.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Does that bother you?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My people just got hit.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And.
World War 3 and Global Tensions
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You want to talk about the river and the sea, that river is not the Jordan river, and that sea is not the Mediterranean. The Arab world stretches from the Atlantic with Morocco right up to the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iraq from Iran. And I don’t think this is stable. There is no way in which we should be fighting like this. This is ridiculous.
Trump used the F word, and he’s taking a ton of crap. “Why would you use the F word?” Well, isn’t it interesting that people view Trump as so tacky? He’s got this queen sort of bluster. He doesn’t reek of finalist clubs at Harvard or Skull and Bones or whatever. No, Trump doesn’t use the F word for a reason. That he needs it. Once in a blue moon and it better mean something.
And he said this to Iran, and he said this to Israel. “These two countries have been fighting for so long, they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” He didn’t make a mistake. The rest of the world has just forgotten how to calibrate. Where do you see Trump in. How is he clothed? He’s almost always in a suit and tie, and he almost never says the F word. And it’s carefully calibrated to get everybody’s attention.
And we’re so frightened asleep that we don’t even hear it. This is World War 3, and it’s already started. Biden was there in the Oval Office, non compos mentis. And I was being told, “don’t worry, there’s a committee that’s replaced him.” Because I was talking about the fact that he can’t be president.
I just don’t know what we’re doing. I’m so mystified by everybody else. It’s like, Elon makes sense to me. I’m not Elon. I’m a very different person. But at least Elon makes sense to me. Not 100%, but 98%. Elon makes sense to me. It’s everybody else that I’m completely confused by.
STEVEN BARTLETT: What part of what Elon is saying makes so much sense to you?
Understanding Elon Musk
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Oh, geez. Everything. One, we have to have babies. We have to keep going. Two, it can’t all be about problems. You have to be excited to be alive every morning. You have to work your ass off your whole life.
You want to know one of the most beautiful things that ever happened? Somebody telling Elon that he was the world’s richest human being. He said, “huh, that’s interesting. Okay, back to work.” Amazing, right? There’s no reward that he can’t have more of by stopping work and enjoying his wealth except doing stuff.
And I was born in this country. My parents were born in this country. My grandparents on one side were not, but my grandparents on the other side were. Elon is so American, that cowboy spirit that he does all sorts of stuff I can’t stand. I don’t want to see one more of those Pepe memes ever. I really don’t. What the fuck is his problem? Okay, I don’t know him at all.
But Elon at his best is the United States. Anything is possible here and we just waste our lives on interpersonal drama. He wastes his life to an enormous extent as a troll. I cannot. The part of him that I don’t understand is one why he’s not focused 100% on physics. I think he sees it as going through grok and AI. He doesn’t want to trust humans.
I think he sees Mars as energizing to engineers and the stars are innovating to engineers because the science. There’s no amount of engineering you can’t engineer your way to the stars with the science we have. But he’s being a complete pussy when it comes to science, and he’s being a total hero when it comes to engineering. But he is the quintessential American.
The Continuation of Life and Legacy
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Can’t believe my story doesn’t go on forever. Look, I’ve never died before so I have no experience with it. So as far as I know, I’ve always been alive and it’ll always go on that way. But there’s another thing that I’ve talked about occasionally which is I’m not the most public spirited human being. I am somebody who will take the last rambutan. I know that you’re not supposed to do that in almost any culture on earth, but sometimes it’s just sitting there and it bothers me.
Okay, so I’m not the classiest person on earth, but I’ll tell you something. If you have a kid and you have a choice about eating the rambutan yourself or giving the rambutan to your child, it’s a no brainer. You’re going to enjoy the rambutan so much more if you give it to your kid. And you’ll see. And that’s the way in which this goes on forever. It’s great. I mean, just how many young people do I have to yell at? “I don’t know if I want to have kids. I don’t want to bring anyone into this horrible world,” have kids.
STEVEN BARTLETT: It bothers you. I can see it personally bothers you.
The Middle East Crisis and Global Implications
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Do you have any idea how much hate there is right now for Israel? Do you have any idea how destabilizing this action against Iran was? Do you have any idea how many people have suffered for how long under the mullahs? We are being cheated of Persia. I’m not talking about Iran for the Persians. I’m talking about we are cheated of Persia, the entire planet, one of the greatest societies on earth. Taken offline.
Look, you’re catching me on the wrong week. I don’t want to dwell on it. This is just incredibly irresponsible. We’re not going to survive this. Israel is certainly not going to survive this. If the Abrahamic world does not get its head out of its ass, if the Christian world does not start to stand up for itself without becoming this “Christ is King” nightmare.
You know, I was in Tel Aviv before this all happened and I just said it from the stage, “make the Middle East Christian again.” Does nobody understand their role is sort of my question. How can you have Bethlehem without a strong Christian presence? Have you ever been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?
STEVEN BARTLETT: No.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Can I give you another assignment?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Get off your ass and go. You got the money? Walk the Stations of the Cross and for God’s sakes, stop with the issue about belief. You can pray like the rest of us. We’re not sure if we’re praying. We’re not sure if the thing is hooked up and anyone’s listening. You have the right to go back, even with doubt, even with knowledge, and you have the right to believe about it. Tomorrow you know where you’re not going to be, but people are going to be mentioning your name.
STEVEN BARTLETT: When you say that your people are under attack, who are you referencing as your people?
Identity and the Jewish Experience
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I would. In general, there’s several groups of people that I would describe as my people. The Jews would be one, dyslexics would be another. Americans would be another. Scientists would be another. It depends on what these things. But right now I’m thinking about the Jews and I’m thinking about the fact that the social media businesses have lost complete control of the bot farms.
And we’re just seeing this unbelievable. I feel like I’m living through the 1930s again. We’ve seen this movie before. It doesn’t end well. You know, what happened in Gaza is an unbelievable tragedy. And that tragedy was partially architected by the United States of America shoving a two state solution down the throats of Palestinian Arabs who absolutely do not want a two state solution.
And the creation in part of the situation where Israel has a hand, the US has a hand, the Palestinian Arabs have a hand, the creation of Hamas and the promotion of this just unbelievable genius, Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, who is continuing to best Bibi Netanyahu from the grave. You know, it’s just an amazing feat nobody reads anymore. As you know, there’s an old Sherlock Holmes story called “The Problem at Thor Bridge.” Ever heard of it?
STEVEN BARTLETT: No.
The Sinwar Strategy: A Modern Thor Bridge
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So you’re British. Sherlock Holmes gets called in on a case in which there’s a murder. The murder is traced to this gentleman who still exists. What Sherlock Holmes figures out is that it’s not a murder, it’s a suicide in which the gun will fall into the river at Thor Bridge because it’s tied to a weight and the person uses the suicide to frame someone else. You know, it’s just one of these genius little vignettes. And that’s what Sinwar was. He was a genius. He knew he was going to die.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Who was Sinwar? Sinwar’s the person who’s committed suicide.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Sinwar’s suicide was an IDF assisted suicide. I wrote about this almost instantly after the October 7th invasion. It didn’t make any sense that Gaza would undertake such an act against Israel, given the asymmetry and what this mirrored was that before the 1990s.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So you think Sinwar committed suicide to then cause the people of Gaza to invade Israel?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, no, no, no. Sinwar would be happy enough for all the Gazans to die. And so what he did was he architected a situation in which Israel would be compelled to respond using the wrong tools. He tricked Israel. And, you know, I’m very confident to talk about this, because if you check my old tweets, I say “IDF assisted suicide” and “Munchausen by proxy” and “Zugzwang,” right?
And I said, these are the concepts. Familiarize yourself, because Israel is going to invade Gaza. And I knew what was going to happen because it took me, like, why would you do this? It doesn’t make sense from first order logic, but third and fourth order logic, you’re like, oh, of course it makes sense. This is hybrid war. The most important thing for Sinwar is video.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why?
Hybrid Warfare and the Power of Video
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Look at the effect of the video. The video of Gaza has turned the world to an extent against Israel that’s sort of inconceivable. There’s a doctrine called hybrid warfare, and I think it came out of the US in the early 2000s, and it says that the kinetic component of warfare, the killing, the actual shooting and the planes and the bombs and all this kind of stuff is not the major component. The social media is really important. The video is important. The memetic complex is important.
And Israel has an advantage over the Gazan Arabs in kinetic warfare. And Sinwar knew that, and he was like, brilliant. All we need to do is force Israel to come after us. And this is this thing I was going to say, before the 1990s, we had a spate of killings of policemen firing on people who had pulled toy guns on them. And we would say things, and I remember this, like, “whatever you do, don’t point a toy gun at a policeman. Don’t you realize what’s going to happen?”
And then somebody coined the phrase “police assisted suicide.” The policeman is the instrument. That’s what I knew was going to happen. And for better or for worse, Bibi just couldn’t figure out where he was. And Bibi was dumber and Sinwar was smarter.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Is there any way back from here? Cause you said this is World War Three.
The Path Forward: Saudi Arabia and Iran
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, the way there is, but it’s slim and it’s evaporating. I mean, almost everything depends on Saudi Arabia and the Iranians and the Persians. If the Persians didn’t take this opportunity to rise up against their oppressors, I don’t know what they’re waiting for? Yes, you’re going to get killed in some numbers, but you have to figure out whether you’re interested in tyranny or not.
So the Persians are absolutely falling down on the ground, on the job, not rising up against the mullahs. This is a coordinated moment. Like, you know, there’s a moment for a prison break. This would be it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Who are the mullahs in this?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: The ayatollahs, the.
STEVEN BARTLETT: The government of Iran.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Khomeini. Yeah, the theocratic government of Iran.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So the rulers of Iran, basically, the people that are.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay, so I don’t know if you know a ton of Persians. They’re varied in their religiosity. But there’s a, you know, there’s an underground gay scene in Tehran. There’s super hyper modern people just like you and me who can’t stand these guys.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And so you’re saying that if they.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Rise up, that would be one of the parts of the solution. The other thing is Saudi Arabia, and I have to be very measured and careful here. You can’t fantasize about the Middle east becoming Western Europe overnight. Every time we do this, we make a terrible mistake. When you have a modernizer like MBS.
STEVEN BARTLETT: In Saudi Arabia, he’s the ruler of Saudi Arabia, right?
The Middle East Crisis and America’s Historical Responsibility
ERIC WEINSTEIN: De facto, he can’t suddenly become a modern person. So, you know, if we end up talking about Khashoggi and murders and murdered journalists and all this stuff, the whole conversation will derail. But he’s a modernizer, and there was a moment where he needed to not condemn Israel publicly and thank it privately, but to say we’ve all been terrorized by this country and Israel did what everyone needed. We needed to rise up against the mullahs. Because you can’t have a nuclear theocracy. You can’t have a highly developed notion of heaven, where this is the anteroom where you’re waiting to get into the real room.
That issue of needing to be rid of an aspiring nuclear theocracy, something that Israel undertook. Now, something that I’m going to say there are three words in Yiddish which you may have heard or may not. Schlemiel, Schlamazel, and Nebbish. So there are three unfortunate people. You don’t want to be any one of those three, but the subtlety is that the schlemiel is a klutz and the schlemiel spills hot soup on the schlamazel. So the schlamazel is the unfortunate person to whom bad things happen. And the nebbish is the weak, ineffectual person who decides that it’s his job to clean up the message. So the schlemiel spills the scalding hot soup on the schlamazel and the nebbish cleans it up.
Now in the US we’ve got this terrible sort of Christian nationalist problem that we’ve developed, which is what sometimes people call the woke, right? Where we have a bunch of people who’ve been badly treated. White Christian Americans have been badly treated in the woke era. They’ve been forced to salute everybody else’s, you know, yay for, I don’t know, Honduran Lesbians Day. And it’s like, okay, enough, we don’t want to do that anymore. We’ve also done great things and I absolutely think that they’ve been mistreated and they’ve gone sort of metastatic and their attitude is no more wars for Israel. America first.
Operation Ajax and the Creation of Modern Iran
What I was getting to with the schlemiel, schlamazel and nebbish is that most Americans don’t have any idea who Kermit Roosevelt was. Do you have any idea of who Kermit? So the US and the UK jointly overthrew a democratically elected leader in Iran through something called Operation Ajax. We installed the Shah. And then there’s this period where everybody stupidly celebrates the miniskirts and the jazz that was going through Tehran, which was a bridge too far. In other words, the miniskirts were a really bad idea because they were ready for some amount of modernization and they weren’t ready for that. And so we pushed it too far. And so we got the mullahs for 40 years.
And now we chop off people’s fingers and we pluck out people’s eyes and we put homosexuals on ropes and dangle them from cranes. They’re barbaric. They’re horrible human beings. These are really bad men, the mullahs. And we did that. So the scalding hot soup is revolutionary theocratic Iran. And we spilled it all over the Middle East, which is the schlamazel. We spilled it on Saudi Arabia, we spilled it on Iraq, we spilled it on Israel. Everybody suffers from having these people installed because of the US and the UK instituting a problem back in the 50s.
And who’s the nebbish who cleans this up? Israel volunteers for this job. And then Saudi Arabia pretends, “Oh my God, this is terrible. Our Muslim brother is being attacked by our Jewish barbarian.” I just can’t believe anybody’s dumb enough to fall for all of this. Like we’re involved in a story where nobody can sort things out. There’s no talking heads anyone believes in.
Understanding Iran’s Strategic Communication
And if I didn’t understand this, then how is it that I have a tweet from 10 days after October 7th or I appeared on Trigonometry? I’m telling you, Israel hasn’t even walked into Gaza yet. And I know what the strategy is. Iran sent hypersonic missiles into the ground in Israel as a message. Violence is a language and they spoke it well. The mullahs may be crazy, but they’re still Persians. They’re extraordinarily skilled.
And so what they did is they wasted some of their arsenal saying, “You have no Iron Dome and we’re not going to kill you. We’re going to put our missiles, we’re going to waste our missiles by sending them into your earth and try to kill no one.” And the Israelis, these brilliant, genius Israelis who pull off all sorts of things that the world can’t believe are dumb enough, some of them to say they sent all these missiles and they couldn’t even hit anyone. And I’m just thinking, do none of you understand anything? I just don’t even know where I am. And I’m looking at, you know, I…
STEVEN BARTLETT: Know Tulsi, Tulsi Gabbard there.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, Tulsi’s amazing.
STEVEN BARTLETT: She’s the head of the intelligence program for the United States.
Tulsi Gabbard and the Reality of Modern Warfare
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Director of National Intelligence. Right. Tulsi has seen the devastation not of war, but of US action abroad. Like, we haven’t really had full wars, but we get involved in Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever and you know, people die and there are firefights. It’s not like it has nothing to do with war, but full on war is a very different thing. We say the Iraq War, but I want to be very careful about the language. War usually involves you getting rocked at home, not just your troops abroad.
I don’t think she appreciates the gravity of the situation. That somehow what we need to do is we need to stabilize this thing for 50 to 100 years while we desperately try to figure out a long term solution. This idea of like just we’re not taking responsibility for the world, we already screwed up. I don’t want to send Americans, you know, I’m not an Israeli, I’m an American. I don’t want to send my fellow Americans to die in foreign battles that we have no business being in. But we have to take ownership of our history with oil and energy in the Middle East.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And what does that look like?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Taking ownership, recognizing that we created the…
STEVEN BARTLETT: Mullahs and doing what about it?
The Two-State Solution Problem
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And wait, wait a second. Not just that. And that we also created a lot of the heartache along with Sinwar and to a much lesser extent, Israel by foisting this two state solution on people who would never put up with it. Like, I lived in Israel for two years. You would have conversations with Arabs, some of whom are Israelis, you know, and they would say, “Look, you know, you just don’t understand the West Bank and you don’t understand the difference between the West Bank and Gaza.” And they would tell me straight up, “You’re going to get us all killed with this two state solution. Stop it.”
And, you know, it was very hard for me to hear, but we’re just having a child’s conversation about the Middle East. And I will say this about the UK. The British Foreign Service had a different failure mode than the US they really learned the regions, they learned the dialects of the languages of the countries that they were involved in. The British Empire took many places that they were involved in seriously. And they have a very complicated legacy.
I spent a lot of time in Bombay, and there’s a lot of debate among very educated Indians about figuring out how to think about the British legacy. All of the great institutional structures that were built, all of the prejudice and bigotry. Why was such a small country able to colonize such a large land? Basically working with the locals. It’s a rich conversation. We’re having childlike conversations about all of this.
I’m sorry if I’m going on about this, but it’s just a very weird thing that we can’t get anybody’s attention. You can’t even get my attention. I’m watching hypersonic missiles slam into the places I just was. And then I’m watching a cat video, and then I’m trying to figure out what to order through Uber Eats. And it’s just like, I can’t stay focused. It’s really important to put this right. And the US screwed up the Middle East along with the UK really good. And we have a lot of responsibility. And if we want to go isolationist, I understand that. But you first have to put back the chicken soup that you spilled.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And how’d you do that?
The Challenge of Leadership
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m not sure. I’m not the Director of National Intelligence. I’m not the Secretary of Defense. I’m not in the Oval Office. I mean, you know, it’s very weird. I was workmates with J.D. Vance, you know, these are people who are, you know, Bobby Kennedy lives one canyon over from me in Los Angeles. The people around power in the U.S. godspeed, just wish them well. I don’t care what party you’re in. But to try to sabotage Trump or sabotage Tulsi or sabotage Pete Hegseth, these guys need to figure this out and they need to be at a totally different level.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And he’s figuring out peace in the region.
The Reality of Cold Peace
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You know, the peace between Egypt and Israel is a shitty, crappy, horrible peace, but it’s peace. It’s not a loving relationship. It’s not a question of everybody going back and forth between the two countries saying, you know, “We used to be enemies, now we’re friends.” It’s a lousy, cold peace. I’ll take it.
We need to have peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs who can live in peace, and we need the people who cannot live in peace. We need to find someplace else for them to be. It is absolutely imperative. And by the way, this goes for the Israelis. There are a small number of hardcore Israeli settlers who cannot live in peace with their neighbors. And it’s very important that they, the people who cannot live in peace, not be there.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do we need to go to. Are you suggesting that we focus on regime change in Iran?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That is really the responsibility of the Persians.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So I want to get clear on what you see as a solution. Because you’re saying the Persian people have to rise up, the US need to care, but not get involved in that regime change.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m saying that a bunch of things need to happen if we’re to have a long term solution.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I make you president tomorrow.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I hate when people do this, but…
STEVEN BARTLETT: It’s the clearest way of understanding the actions you would…
The Art of Strategic Communication
ERIC WEINSTEIN: First of all, if I was president tomorrow, I sure as hell wouldn’t be on a podcast discussing strategy with you.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Trump does it?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, I decline to answer all sorts of questions on camera.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Fair.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. So my feeling is that you do a lot more behind closed doors and this idea of just handing people, “You’re the king of the world, what do you do tomorrow to stop…” You know, it’s like, don’t do that to me. Because it’s just, it’s a no win question.
If I was going to, I’d do a lot of Straussian communication. I’d meet with people in private, I’d use lots of carrots and sticks. I try to use long range thinking. And I wouldn’t tell you what my plan is. And by the way, I very much respect Donald Trump in certain ways, one of which is that this confuses our friend Sam Harris no end. Sam is always like, “Well, he’s not being truthful. He’s not making sense.” He’s a negotiator. You don’t sit down to a negotiation with an open book saying, “Let me make sense to you.” You sit there saying, “You don’t know what I’m going to do next. You don’t know how big the stick is. You don’t know how much carrot there is. Maybe I’m prepared to give you more. Maybe my stick isn’t as big as you think. Or maybe it’s twice as big.”
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think anyone has good answers?
The Challenge of International Relations and Nuclear Physics
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’ll be honest. I think that Trump is, in part, respected because he has some intuitions about this stuff. His intuition is not to say everything. His intuition is that negotiation is more important than transparency. And at a time when everybody’s craving transparency. “Tell me everything.” No, I’m not going to tell you everything. I’m going to try to save some children today. I’m going to threaten, I’m going to cajole. I’m going to do all sorts of things. And that’s what I’d do.
I would assemble the best people around me. I would stop giving so many press conferences. I wouldn’t tweet every four seconds. I’d be extremely strategic about it. But, you know, the situation in Tel Aviv and in Gaza makes me sick to my stomach. And in Ukraine, almost all of my DNA comes from Ukraine. At least passed through it. I’ve been there. And, you know, Russians in Ukraine. Ukraine used to be known as Little Russia. How are we sitting here watching this?
What moron decided in 2004 that we were just going to hand full Article 5 status to former Soviet republics without consequence? It is not the case that I don’t. I would love to have Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in NATO. Not at this cost. Look, the world is a brutal, brutal place. We’ve gotten really bad at international understandings. I can’t stand what’s happened to Europe. Europe has been completely denatured. We’re playing with fire everywhere.
And I just. I don’t know how to talk about it, because every time I talk about things where I’m the only person who sounds like this, it’s bad for my life. Look, if you’re in general a Ukraine hawk and you say we need to make sure that Ukraine is completely supported so that they don’t give an inch of territory, yeah, you’ll take a lot of crap, but you’ll be in a large group. And if you basically have the idea that Russia was minding its own business and the US was encircling it and good Russia, bad us, you’ll have a lot of company for that perspective.
I don’t sound like any of that. The most important thing is to stabilize the world again, and we’re not going to get another chance like World War II if we’re not smart. We’re crazy to give up this order that we have. And again, one more time, I’m talking about this stuff, and I don’t want to be talking about this stuff. Elon is 100% right. We can’t talk about problems all the time. It’s cheap, meaning there’s an entire universe to explore. And we’re sitting here focused on our own drama always, and I’m getting sucked into it. I don’t want it. I want to be talking about traveling through time and space using Easter eggs and hidden features of what we thought was the space time continuum.
The Hidden Dimensions of Reality
STEVEN BARTLETT: I’ve got this picture that I came across.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Tell me.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Well, I’d love you to tell me. This is the flower of life geometric model. And I was reading through some of your work and I came across this sentence that said you’d kept a secret for 30 years in terms of your belief about the nature of the reality that we live in and that you thought maybe it was more than just the dimensions we experienced. Maybe there was 14 dimensions. I’ve always, I wonder this a lot, you know, because we’re fixated on problems. We’re fixated on what we see and what we hear and what we feel. But I wonder sometimes if even that is an illusion. I’ve spent a lot of time actually thinking recently about the simulation theory. And is this whole reality just some simulation on some kid’s video game in another dimension? So I thought, you know, you’re a.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Physicist, do me a favor. Put that in a triangle pattern here. Okay, so we have three mugs. Think of those as vertices of a tetrahedron. And think of this coaster floating here as the fourth vertex.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Mm.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: For every two vertices. So the number of vertices we would agree is four.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. What’s this vertice mean?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Points.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. 1, 2, 3, 4.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Idealize these three things in this as points. Draw a line segment between all of these four vertices. How many line segments are there?
STEVEN BARTLETT: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Six.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yep. So there’s six edges, four vertices. How many triangular faces that have three vertices on them?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Oh, four.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah. This is how to think about the actual dimensions that we have open to us. The four faces we know about. The key point that I was trying to get at is I don’t believe that you just have the four dimensions. I believe that you have all six edges are dimensions. And all four vertices are also dimensions. I’m talking about a hidden world.
It’s very interesting. Physics has gone stagnant in terms of how we usually measure progress. The way we measure progress is the change in something called the action, or the Lagrangian, a specialized device. And that used to change a lot. And then in 1973, it stopped changing. The major thing that we have is we have no new ideas about how to change the Lagrangian that anybody finds that exciting or interesting. So there’s been no progress. Nobody goes to Stockholm to get a Nobel Prize because they changed the Lagrangian of the world.
Understanding the Lagrangian
STEVEN BARTLETT: What’s the Lagrangian?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: The Lagrangian. So you probably think about physics in terms of equations, like Maxwell’s equations or the Einstein equations or whatever. Think about an equation as being not the primary thing that physicists think about. So I give this example. The Beatles had four basically different configurations. When Ringo was the front man, he was singing “Octopus’s Garden.” George Harrison is singing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” You know, Paul is singing about “Penny Lane” and John is singing about “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Those four equations, those would be those different configurations of the Beatles with one of them front and everybody else backing. The front man would be the equations, but the Beatles would be the Lagrangian. It’s the thing that generates the four different configurations, okay?
And there’s this bizarre force field that anybody who wants to talk about physics and doing something new in particular, leaving or traversing time or multiple dimensions of time. Anything that’s really close to what might be possible gets slammed. We don’t know why, because it’s very cheap to explore ideas and we have no new ideas. But the only thing about a new idea in physics is that a new idea changes the balance of power in the world. Remember the thing I was saying about AlphaFold 3?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
The Most Dangerous Thought in History
ERIC WEINSTEIN: AlphaFold 3 changed the balance of power in the world. Bitcoin changed the balance of power in the world. The Diffuse proposal from the EcoHealth alliance changed the balance of power in the world. If that was the source of the COVID virus. Anytime somebody has a really big idea and the biggest idea, and I talk about this, people don’t grasp it.
Probably the most dangerous thought anyone has ever had was Rutherford in 1911 saying, “I wonder whether there’s a neutral version of the proton.” It doesn’t sound dangerous, but it’s hard to send a proton into a bunch of protons, because it’s positively charged, and a massive nucleus is really positively charged. And so there’s a repulsion if there’s a neutral version of the proton.
And these things are barely stuck together with a strong force, even though they’re trying to scream away from each other because they’re all positively charged, you can send a neutral version of the proton right into the center tap. And just imagine you have a bunch of magnets that are trying to flee from each other, and the Velcro around them is barely holding it together. So now you have a bullet in the form of a neutral proton, a neutron, and it hits this thing where the magnets want to come apart, and the Velcro is barely holding it together. Well, that idea led to the chain.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Reaction and the nuclear bomb.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, that was the fission bomb. And then a geometer. So I’m a geometer and not a physicist, and a physicist named Edward Teller, and the geometer was named Stanislaus Ulam, said, “I wonder if there’s a way to take the chemical bomb that creates the fission bomb and use the fission bomb as the detonator for a fusion bomb.” So bomb number one, bomb number two, bomb number three.
And what they figured out was that the only way to create that is to reflect light in a particular way, to compress hydrogen into helium and release energy. Because anything other than light wouldn’t get to the tertiary stage fast enough before the atomic bomb. Like you’re using a Hiroshima Nagasaki as a detonator. That’s how crazy it is.
So that chain of ideas, which is maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton, maybe I can send that into the middle of an atom that’s very heavy. That was built in a stellar collision. Maybe if I have a bunch of those uranium or plutonium type things, each one, when they break apart, will have more neutrons inside, that is more neutral protons, that will hit more nuclei, that will release more energy, and maybe that can then focus the light, the gamma radiation that comes off of this thing, or who knows what, to compress a narrow rod to create fusion, which only occurs on the sun, in the sun, but do it on Earth.
So we’re going to take a little bit of the sun on Earth. That chain of ideas was the most dangerous thing anybody’s ever thunk. And that’s why when you try to do physics, you don’t know, why are people making fun of me? Why are they being mean? Why are they dissuading me from talking? I don’t know.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You have a suspicion.
The Forbidden City of Los Alamos
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, there was a guy named Jack Raper, unfortunately, named Mr. Jack Raper, who was a reporter in Cleveland, who, for some reason, during the war in 1944, decided to vacation in New Mexico. So he goes to New Mexico and he comes back and he says, “I’ve got a crazy story. There’s a city that nobody knows about with a mayor who’s supposed to be the second Einstein, and it’s the most secretive city in the world, and the mayor is working on a doomsday weapon, and even the people who live in the city don’t know what it is.”
And he writes the story of Los Alamos and publishes it in 1944. The scoop of the millennium, to say nothing of the century. Nobody knows about this article, and it’s called “Forbidden City.” We pretended that it never happened.
STEVEN BARTLETT: For those that don’t know, Los Alamos is where the atomic. The nuclear bomb was, I guess, conceived and brought to life and tested.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, it was really designed there. And most of the nuclear processing took place at other sites, whether Hanford or Oak Ridge, I’m not sure. And it was tested a short distance away at the Trinity site. So go watch the movie Oppenheimer, if you will, but this is why physicists are the only occupation in the country that doesn’t have full free speech.
The Hidden Physics of Government Secrecy
STEVEN BARTLETT: So are you suggesting that there’s dangers in believing in more dimensions, that maybe some people might not want to be known in the same way that we didn’t want the.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My point is, I don’t think our government knows the real secrets of physics. If I had to make a bet tomorrow, I don’t think there’s a secret government office that knows physics. I think that there were a bunch of very smart people who knew how dangerous physics was, and that the idea that we would continue to do it in public struck them as insane.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Because it could lead to destruction.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: When I tell you that the most dangerous idea in human history is maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton, that’s supposed to sound insane, but the entire chain of ideas results in nuclear fusion happening on Earth at the direction of the President of the United States.
And that’s what I’m trying to get at, which people don’t understand, which is you probably don’t even realize that the Department of Energy is really the Department of Physics because we pretend that it’s the Department of Energy. Like we had a War Department that became the Department of Defense.
STEVEN BARTLETT: We’re scared of the possibility of physics.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We don’t even want to talk about it. Literally no other occupation has lost free speech like physics. There’s a special doctrine called restricted data that says you cannot write physics on a napkin even if you have nothing to do with the government.
I think even if you’re not an American, if it has anything that could possibly have to do with nuclear weapons, in other words, any advance that might have to do with nuclear weapons, you have to recognize that the instant you put pen to paper or you start talking to somebody, you’re committing a violation of the 1917 Espionage Act.
And if you think that’s crazy, start exploring the words restricted data. 1917 Espionage Act, 1946 and 1954 Atomic Energy Acts. The doctrine of bourne secret. It is illegal to pursue Q clearance data if you don’t have a Q clearance. But if you’re creating Q clearance data out of your own head as a byproduct of trying to do physics, you are actually potentially committing a capital offense.
The Theory of Everything and Its Implications
STEVEN BARTLETT: And your theory of everything, your theory, the theory you just talked to me about there, what does that mean for the average person that’s listening to this in terms of.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We don’t know.
STEVEN BARTLETT: That they should.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, this is my point. Did Rutherford know what he was doing?
STEVEN BARTLETT: No.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So I talk about this a lot, but I do think it’s probably one of the greatest lyrics ever in any song. And unfortunately, it occurs in a song that got way too popular. “The baffled king composing hallelujah.” That line. A baffled king does not realize what he is doing when he composes. Rutherford was a baffled king. Maybe there is a neutral version of the proton he was composing the end of the human race.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And your ideas about the nature of reality.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m a baffled person.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And your proposal.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I am baffled. I don’t know what it leads to is what I’m trying to tell you.
STEVEN BARTLETT: But your assertion is that there’s more than this dimension that we understand and more than ourselves.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m telling you that I can name for you what particles there are left to be found. And what comes back to me is you don’t have any predictions. And I’m thinking this doesn’t even make sense. Literally. I’m telling you there are. Maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton. Doesn’t begin to talk about all the things that I’m talking about, about so many new forces, so many new particles, ways to go in. There’s no longer an arrow of time in my theory.
STEVEN BARTLETT: So you could live forever, theoretically.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What does it mean if you think about a final theory? And again, by the way, I just want to say something? I say my theory sometimes when I’m having to defend it, but it isn’t mine. It just is.
You know, Everest didn’t belong to Sir Edmund Hillary or to Mallory, or even to the surveyor for whom the mountain is named. When you chose to make the first ascent on Everest, you just chose a route, and then you either did or did not traverse the route. We don’t know whether Mallory may have succeeded.
But my point is that this isn’t my theory. There is a theory that’s there. It might be wrong. It’s possible I may have screwed it up, but it’s got so much in it that I have no idea what it means.
Understanding Hidden Dimensions
STEVEN BARTLETT: And the simple way to understand this theory is that there’s dimensions that exist beyond the ones that we know.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We already know from Einstein that these dimensions are implicitly in Einstein’s theory. Every single dimension that I’m talking about is being constructed out of the four that we began with. When I put the cups here and the coaster, the edges were calculated from the vertices and the faces were calculated from the edges.
My point being, these dimensions are already here. And because the dimensions are already here, they were already present in Einstein’s theory all along. When you ask for what Einstein’s real equation is, we actually don’t think about it that way. We call it the Einstein field equations, plural. How many of them are there? 10. Why are there 10? Because there are six edges and four vertices that weren’t accounted for. They’re already in Einstein’s theory. We just didn’t take them seriously as directions you could go in.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You’ve heard about this simulation theory, haven’t you?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Why? I don’t want to talk about it.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Really?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, again, it’s the LLM problem. The really interesting thing comes from. I don’t know. And maybe the cosmos is traversable. Maybe times travel replaces time travel. You see, if I flip all of the dimensions of time and space, so I have one of time, three of space. In Einstein’s theory, the time dimension gets a minus sign. The three spatial dimensions get a plus.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Sign, and the three spatial dimensions are.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: X, Y and Z. Yeah, Z. Forgive me.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Which is for a simple person.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Depth, width and height.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah, you can go forward, backwards, up, down.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Right? So we have three dimensions there, and then we have one of time. Because the conversation takes place over time. You’re moving around. Now flip the time dimension to being plus when it was minus before, and all the plus dimensions to being minus. So now I have three time dimensions and one Space dimension, it would look exactly the same. The one space dimension would take the function of time and the three time dimensions would have the function of space.
We don’t even teach people the idea that there is not necessarily an arrow of time if time is not one dimensional. The only dimension that has an arrow is one. If something has one dimension, you can say, I tried to do this on Rogan. I said, if you have a cassette tape and you want to go back to an earlier song, again, your younger listeners will have no idea what we’re talking about. You have to go back through all of the songs before, but if you have a stylus on a turntable, some of them will be hipsters with vinyl in their own homes. You can lift the stylus up and it doesn’t need to go back and unplay each song in reverse.
You may be able to go back in time without going back through time. I don’t know what this means, but it’s a lot like saying maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton.
The Hidden World of National Security
Now, what I’m concerned about is that essentially none of my physics friends know that there is a doctrine of restricted data. They’ve never heard of the 1946 and 54 Atomic Energy Acts. They don’t know that the Department of Energy that funds them is really the Department of Physics. They don’t know the extent to which we went to hide all of this stuff. They don’t know that they’re not allowed to talk to foreign nationals from hostile nations on our own soil because of a doctrine called deemed exports.
There’s an entire hidden world of national security. And the penalty for talking about national security with people who don’t live that is that you’re a conspiracy theorist. It’s like, do you have this terminology? Do you know the acts? Do you want to Google it? Well, you’re.
This is also just something that’s really interesting about the UFO, UAP world. We had this admission recently that the government knew that at a minimum. And again, I don’t think this is by anywhere close to the full story, at a minimum, there were secret, fake special Access programs. Do you know about special access programs? Super secret programs are called Special Access programs.
Then there’s a further category called Unacknowledged Special Access Programs, or usaps, which is you can know that a Special Access program exists. Like maybe Warhead Recovery might be a known one, but then there might be an unacknowledged Special Access program, which is like theft of foreign nuclear warheads, which it’s not even on the books. Only the super secret lawmakers in the Gang of eight, or whatever it is can know that that exists.
And then there are further designations of secretness. There’s waived and bigoted so you could have like a wave bigoted, unacknowledged special access program. And you don’t know any of this language. And then there’s this chorus of morons who the instant you start to educate people about the existence of the super secret Squirrel Club, rise up and say this is all conspiracy theory.
And you’re saying, wait a second. We just admitted in UFO UAP land that we have a fake special access program, which I predicted on Joe Rogan. I said we may be faking a UFO situation. The cost and the penalty at a personal level for letting people know how the government keeps secrets is personal destruction.
The Fake UFO Program Revelation
STEVEN BARTLETT: The US faked a UFO program?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yes. Correct. You don’t know about this? I think the Wall Street Journal had an article about it. So these guys knew when they filed their reports on the UFO UAP, that there actually is, at a minimum, a fake UFO UAP program.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why would they want to fake UFOs?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: This is so weird. Did you happen to watch Joe Rogan Episode 1945 where I talked about the whole history of the golden age of general relativity and its relationship to UFO, UAP, antigravity research and the atomic bomb?
STEVEN BARTLETT: I didn’t.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: When we invaded the beaches of Normandy on D Day, that was called Operation Overlord. We had an entirely fake invasion planned of Norway called Operation Fortitude. That was part of Operation Bodyguard, which is part of just total deception. And why? Because we were building up troops to do something huge.
So we tried to convince. We planted plans for the invasion of Norway on dead bodies to wash up on beaches so the Germans would find them. We fake stuff all the time. That’s what we do. And you can’t talk about what we do that is deceptive without being ruined by what are called covert influence operations.
You watch my Twitter account, you’ll see all sorts of accounts descend on it. Fraud, charlatan, grifter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Some of that is just people being mean. But you’ll notice that if I really start talking about physics and I start talking about security and I start talking about things that anyone can Google and most of us don’t think to do it, suddenly it gets really, really intense. And the whole point is it’s supposed to be untraceable.
It’s supposed to be a way in which almost certainly we know a ton about what happened in the Wuhan Institute of Virology because of two bioweapons conventions that we were signatories and which we ratified the Geneva Convention and a bioweapons convention in the 1970s. But that’s not top of mind for ordinary people. They just watched their great grandma die and watched their children get sick and they watched their own brain fog. They can’t know whether that was a bioweapon that we were working on coming out of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with Ralph Baric’s lab. You know, we’re up to constant secret stuff.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Why would they fake the UFOs, though? What was that distraction?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You ever seen the B2 bomber?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What if you saw that before we were ready to say it existed?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah, you’d think it was a UFO or something.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: So wouldn’t it be better if we had a UFO story ready to go when we had cool aerospace?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Oh, okay, so you’re saying they’re working on something which they didn’t want you to know.
The UFO Deception Strategy
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What’s more, what if we convinced China or Russia or Iran that we had incredible powers that they don’t have? Then they might be very reluctant to strike us. Or they might waste a tremendous amount of money developing anti-gravity technology when there’s no such thing. There are plenty of good reasons to fake such things. Why would we fake an invasion of Norway if we weren’t going to invade?
STEVEN BARTLETT: But if that’s a distraction technique, do you have any hypothesis as to what was going on there?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: But that’s not my job.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Okay?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Because as soon as you do that, I know that the quality of my guessing is not going to be at the quality of my detecting when we’re up to bullshit.
In other words, if you ask me why is physics stagnant? I can say I don’t know. But there’s a decent chance that we know how dangerous physics is and that it’s crazy to do it in an open university environment. We’ve taken precautions. We have a system of national laboratories which are effectively our secret university system where you have to be an American.
So we’re using our regular universities and the whole world comes through it. We have Chinese people learning physics side by side with our own people.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And I guess you’re saying that you don’t know if UFOs exist, but you’re sure now that they were faking the science.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I am absolutely positive that we have unacknowledged programs that have “UFO” written on the side of them.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Okay.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: In other words, the number of people who repeat strikingly similar things, who appear to be completely sober in every other respect, with no known acting ability. There is no way in the world that these people just spontaneously have decided to destroy their sanity, their career, and their reputation.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I’ve got you.
The Intelligence Community’s War on Its Own People
ERIC WEINSTEIN: At a minimum, we’re faking. I think we are doing a lot more than faking a UFO program. I don’t know what it is, and I also would not be talking about this on a large podcast, but for one thing, I have a particular hatred for one aspect of our intelligence community.
And I don’t mean that I disagree or don’t like or I’m not uncomfortable when our Secret Squirrel Club inside the intelligence world, and inside in particular, covert operations, targets our own people who are not read into these programs for personal destruction, reputational destruction, mental destruction, economic destruction.
We take our best people and we make fun of them and we belittle them and we destroy their families, their lives, their ability to earn. I have a very strong sense that you never destroy your best people.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Do you think you’re under attack?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Let me talk about Leo Szilard instead. Leo Szilard is the father of the…
STEVEN BARTLETT: Manhattan Project, which was where the nuclear bomb was created.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That’s right. He was not allowed to go inside the Manhattan Project because they didn’t trust him. He was a genius. He was the idea for the Manhattan Project. He and Einstein made sure that it happened. The government barely trusted Oppenheimer, if you saw the film.
What they did with Leo Szilard was they minded him. They knew how good he was. They knew how important he was. They listened to him and they didn’t destroy him. He undoubtedly knew that the program was going on, but he wasn’t allowed inside the program. I think that’s okay.
I think it’s okay that our security state recognizes that some people are not cut out to keep secrets. Some people are not cut out to die with certain facts that have to be kept hidden. That’s fine.
The desire of our government to destroy people who have no idea what they’ve tripped over because our government isn’t good enough to keep its own secrets. This is an abomination. You cannot destroy your A team.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Who are you referring to when you say people are being destroyed? Are you referring to people like yourself?
Jeffrey Epstein: The Construct
ERIC WEINSTEIN: If you look at, for example, Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein conducted a conference called “Confronting Gravity.” I don’t know who Jeffrey Epstein was, but I would certainly bet money that he was a product of at least one or more elements of the intelligence community, the CIA, the FBI, those are ours. Department of Homeland Security has some of the stuff. Geospatial Intelligence has some of this. It’s a large network.
I’m talking about people like David Grusch. I’m talking about people potentially like David Fravor. I’m talking about people like Jake Barber. I’m talking about scientists like Leo Szilard. Imagine if Leo Szilard didn’t know that the Manhattan Project was going on. Or Jack Raper, a journalist who broke a story. These people all think that they’re doing their jobs.
I desperately want to know why Jeffrey Epstein knew so much about my work and I want to know why he was connected to my graduate program. I was in the Harvard Mathematics Department. Jeffrey Epstein was absolutely connected to the Harvard Math Department. I want to know why.
STEVEN BARTLETT: How was he connected to the Math Department?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You’re pushing me to say things I’m not going to say, but I don’t mind.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I’m curious. I’m not trying to push you out.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I understand, but I’m just not going to do it. I’m saying that anybody who wants to can check this out.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You say he was connected to the Math Department, to the Harvard Mathematics Department.
STEVEN BARTLETT: How did you know he was connected?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You can Google it. You could Google it right now. This is not… I can point at all sorts of stuff that’s hidden in plain sight.
STEVEN BARTLETT: I’ll take your word for it. And the assertion that I’m picking up on is that Jeffrey Epstein was planted in your world to keep…
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m not saying he’s planted. I don’t know who he was. I don’t know who ran him. He certainly was not a financier in any standard sense.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Really.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That was a cover story.
STEVEN BARTLETT: The way that we know Jeffrey Epstein in the UK especially is just this guy who was this rich guy who had this island, who brought people there and then did these despicable things.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: “Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.”
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah, that’s what we… That’s the story.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: “Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.” It’s called perseveration. He was a disgraced financier. What kind of a financier? A disgraced one. What was his name? Oh, he was “Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.” They perseverate that into your mind so that you autocomplete that in your LLM life. Do you believe that? That’s what Jeffrey Epstein was.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You met him?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, I can tell.
STEVEN BARTLETT: That financier.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: He wasn’t a financier the day I met him.
STEVEN BARTLETT: What was he?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: He was a weird guy who didn’t seem to know a lot about currency trading, claiming to run a multi-billion dollar FX hedge fund.
STEVEN BARTLETT: When you say a weird guy, what made him weird?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Same stuff I’ve said on Chris Williams. I’m not going to go back through that. My point is you’re getting a different interview.
So what I’m trying to get at is Jeffrey Epstein knew a tremendous amount about my work when nobody knew anything about my work. And he had a pipeline into me that I didn’t understand, which is that he was connected to my graduate program. And you can check out the conference called “Exploring Gravity” and hosted a physical workshop called “Confronting Gravity.”
STEVEN BARTLETT: “Confronting Gravity,” that’s right.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: In March 2006.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah. What is Jeffrey Epstein… Jeffrey Epstein is very focused on gravity.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Was it a gravity conference? It was about gravity, yeah. What the fuck was he doing talking about bloody gravity if he’s a financier?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It was very important to get Nobel laureates and some of the smartest people on Earth to come to the Virgin Islands and talk about gravity. Stephen Hawking was there, David Gross was there, Lawrence Krauss was there. Lisa Randall was there right before his conviction. And I’m telling you, he was very focused on the Harvard Math Department. And he knew all about me in ways that he wasn’t supposed to.
The Multi-Program Construct
STEVEN BARTLETT: I have to be clear. I have to be clear on my understanding of what you’re saying, from what I understood. And you can say, “Steve, I’m not going to answer that,” whatever. But I just have to… Because you’ve opened up a curiosity hole in my mind. So let me try and fill it. Even if it’s the conversation you had with Chris, I’ll just evade you if you… Fine.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, fine.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Fine. You’re within the right to evade me. And I hold the right to ask, which is… So is what I’m hearing is you believe, and I’m just going to say it how I think it is. What I’m hearing is you believe that Jeffrey Epstein was not a financier. He was planted in some way to influence…
ERIC WEINSTEIN: He was a construct, is what I said.
STEVEN BARTLETT: He was a construct in some way to mess with the progression of physics.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Jeffrey Epstein, apparently, I think some… I’ll tell you what I said when I met him. When the meeting was over, I immediately called my wife and I said, “I have just met a construct.” She said, “What do you mean?” I said, “This person is not who they claim to be. Somebody has constructed this human being to be something that they are not, which is a hedge fund genius, somebody who could understand the euro and the yen like nobody else.” Bullshit. Not true.
I believe that whoever constructed Jeffrey Epstein was running multiple different programs through the same thing, having put in a large initial investment. It wasn’t about one thing. If you build a mall, you don’t just have clothing stores in the mall. You have a food court in the mall. You have jewelry in the mall. You have all sorts of different things in the mall.
Jeffrey Epstein was a construct of something that was running multiple things. One of those things was science. And I don’t think that the science and the pedophilia were necessarily in the same bucket. He was funding all sorts of people. I don’t think everybody at that… Part of the problem with calling his plane the “Lolita Express” and calling his island “pedophile island” is that you just can’t see all the different things that were going through this guy.
I don’t think almost any of those scientists are exposed to anything really horrible. I think he was trying to keep a periscope on everything that was interesting. And I think that his girlfriend’s father, Robert Maxwell, was all through scientific publishing, and I think Pergamon Press was in part a control mechanism for making sure that revolutionary discoveries were taking place within a framework.
Anybody can look, you can write a substack article and you can hit post, and suddenly the world has access to your substack article. That is a nightmare. What if somebody posts weaponized anthrax? What if they do the equivalent of saying, “What if there’s a neutral proton?”
STEVEN BARTLETT: So you think he was controlling science?
The Reality of Managed Society
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I think that Robert Maxwell was in part trying to control science. I think Jeffrey Epstein was in part trying to fund science, trying to control it. I don’t really know. Again, part of the problem with why conspiracy theorists have a bad name is that they’re not content to live in ignorance. And I am.
I know something is really off with this story. If you look at me saying things like, “you don’t know whether Biden is going to make it to November.” Ha ha ha. Eric. What an idiot. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, then he has a debate, he doesn’t make it to November. I’m not Nostradamus. I’m just dumb enough to say something in public that makes sense.
Let me say something in public that makes sense. Our national security people suck at their jobs. The people who are in charge of the Department of Energy, which is masking the Department of Physics, which is masking the Department of Nuclear Weapons. Right. The Atomic Energy Acts, which are really about atomic weaponry, recast as atoms for peace or who knows what. Jeffrey Epstein, who is not a disgraced financier. The newspapers that have always had a national interest component and have liaisons so that they can work with the CIA and the State Department and they do each other’s bidding and scratch each other.
This whole network is what I’ve called managed reality. We live in managed reality. We are all in some version of the Truman Show. And you can look at it, you can Google it, I can give you a million search terms. And every time I give a million search terms, you’ll watch my reputation get torn apart.
Are you going to blame me that you didn’t know what the “whole of society approach” is? Because you didn’t know that Daniel Inouye, center for Security in the Pacific, came up with an idea for soft fascism to fight hybrid wars. You didn’t know what hybrid warfare. Look at my talk at ARC, Jordan Peterson’s group, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. It’s at almost 2 million views. And why is it? Because people are saying, “I didn’t know these terms.”
Human Terrain and Information Warfare
Did you know what the Human Terrain Project is? Do you know about human terrain? You’re a mountain, I’m a valley. And instead of war planners figuring out how do we use that valley to capture that mountaintop because it gives us an eagle’s nest to snipe from or whatever they say. Okay, this is the second most powerful podcast in the world. Second to Joe Rogan. How do we capture him?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Leave me alone, please.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, but that’s what I’m trying to say. You’re human terrain.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: When the human terrain wakes up and says, “wait a minute, I’m human terrain.” Well, my feeling is, if you don’t want me to talk about this on a podcast, then keep your terms separate. Nobody knew the term “pre bunked malinformation.” Do you know what pre bunked malinformation is?
Malinformation is information we don’t want to get out. Technically, people try to pretend that it’s information that will be misinterpreted, but really it’s real stuff that is deleterious to the narratives that we’re trying to push forward and what we’re trying to do. And pre bunked means discredited, so we knew it debunked. We have to debunk disinformation. We get that. But you didn’t know that we had to pre bunk malinformation, which is we have to destroy truth tellers.
The Challenge for Independent Media
STEVEN BARTLETT: What do you think that means for people like me as podcasters, you know? Cause we’re doing these long form conversations.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I take you’ll snap back, you’ll say, “that was a really interesting talk.” And then you’ll have somebody else on who’ll be talking about the importance of melatonin and how we don’t understand the role of sleep. And you’ll have somebody else on with who will be talking about how do you do a clothing brand from scratch and turn it into a billion dollar unicorn. You’re not going to stay here on this topic. This is your time with me. And it’ll have some effect and it’ll start to fade. And that’s what this is.
I’d love to be doing my podcast. I just don’t know how to do it safely. I want to talk about taking our lives back from the intelligence community. I want to talk about taking our lives back from Silicon Valley, even though those people are my friends. I want to talk about taking my life back from the phone, from despair, from not having a future.
I want to talk about having a glorious existence that is not mediated by morons who sit inside the Beltway and play with large budgets and hurt people, particularly really good people who are good at their job, who are trying to figure out how to advance humankind, their family, the national interest, and get foul.
I did not ask for Jeffrey Epstein to fall into my life. I met him once, but it was enough to know, “Holy cow, the Harvard Math Department can’t be what I think it is.” Why was he there? I didn’t even know. I never heard his name when I was there.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Is that where you met him?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, no, no, no. I think very powerful people at JP Morgan told me I needed to meet him. He didn’t want to talk about finance, he wanted to talk about science.
Living Under Surveillance
STEVEN BARTLETT: You can’t do your podcast safely.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My employer was a special informant to the FBI. He’s like one of my closest friends. I’m not going to say who it is.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Your employer?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, and one of my closest friends. I live under a periscope. Proctoscope is really what I meant, but yeah, I don’t. I want to do physics, man. I’m really, really good at it, you know? And if we have an idea that we shouldn’t do physics in public, I would like to have a call from somebody inside. “Hey, Eric, we need you to come in.” Okay, great. What’s up? But I didn’t use your resources. I didn’t use your Grants. Nobody ever informed me.
My God, nobody ever informed me about restricted data. How many people on Earth know that there’s a doctrine that says physicists don’t have free speech? We can execute you for doing your job. It’s never been tested in the courts, and I hope that the Supreme Court will not allow that. But, you know, if we have a problem that is so serious in theoretical physics that it needs the world’s largest exemption from free speech, we need to amend the Constitution.
You can’t just do this as a sneak attack where you reserve the right casually to hook the 1917 Espionage act up against the 1946 and 54 Atomic Energy Acts. I’ve canvassed my physics colleagues. One of the memes against me, which is very funny, is that no physicists take me seriously when I’m in their offices all the time. I just don’t know what my life is.
And with this latest advent of war in the Middle east, are you really going to pretend that if you can Google all of these things that I have no idea what I’m talking about? I’m looking to have a conversation with my own government. I’m looking to have a conversation about theoretical physics, and I can do it quietly, but I have rights. And I do not believe that the 1946 and 1954 Atomic Energy Acts are constitutional. Try me. There is no restricted data. You can’t do that to an American. And you can’t just keep mounting covert influence campaigns.
You know, I just spent five days in the physics department. I’m not allowed to say that it was five days in the physics department as a visitor, I gave a talk. I’m not allowed to say that I gave a talk. I don’t know what this is.
STEVEN BARTLETT: And.
The Corruption of Scientific Institutions
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’m tired of it. You know, it’s just like, if you’re managing the Middle east this badly, if you’re managing physics this badly, if you’re managing the national economy this badly, if you screwed up Covid this badly by getting inside of the Lancet and Nature. You know, peer review is this fake thing that supposedly stretches back to the founding of the Royal Society. And it’s very clear from the scholarship around it that it comes out of a period between 1965 and 1975 initiated by the Medicare act, predicated on the need for editors for the journal expansion, founded by Pergamon Press and Robert Maxwell.
By 1975, there’s a giant battle between the NSF and both fiscal and cultural conservatives against something called a course of study, or macOS, where Peer review was born in a Utah clinic, came out of the medical literature because the federal government in 1965 with the Medicare act, picked up the need to pay for so many medical procedures. They wanted to say, “why are we assigning this many medical procedures?” The doctors circled the wagons and said that we will peer review each other. Then by 1975, the NSF was under the microscope and they used peer review as a self defense of last resort to say, “we will be reviewing each other.”
Peer review is a myth. The scholarship is clear as day. I can’t keep going on the world’s largest podcasts saying everything that can be googled and figured out and just constantly have as my reward that the government refuses to have a conversation with me and sends its gaggle of idiots to harass me.
STEVEN BARTLETT: You think it’s doing that? It’s sending a gaggle of it.
The Power of Science and Its Suppression
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yes, I do. I do think. I think that some of them are actual idiots who just enjoy causing problems. But I think more than anything, we have a real problem. Science is too powerful. If you wanted to just cut to the ultimate core of this. If four amino acids can shut down planet Earth, if. What is it? A nine page paper, solving the double spend problem can create a new currency not backed by violence, but backed by mathematics. If the concept of an inner product in a large vector space generates something you can’t tell isn’t a human being in 2017? Do you have any idea what the power of the human mind is at this point?
Linear algebra can create something that you would fall in love with. It can create the most beautiful music you can imagine, or it can animate a photo of a dead relative so that you can actually have the experience of having some video of you with a great grandparent you can’t even remember. Science is the most amazing, powerful, crazy stuff possible. And we spend a fortune trying to convince people that scientists are worthless, that scientists are incapable. And in large measure, they’ve convinced the scientists themselves.
My colleagues, the supposed physicists, will spend their entire lives pretending to do physics and retire without ever having actually done any. I was in this physics department. I was just in. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent that long as a visitor. The top people in this physics department professed that they had no interest in the physical world, that they only cared about the mathematics that they were doing. And I just thought, “you’re in a theoretical physics group and you profess openly that you have no interest whatsoever in the physical world.” Well done.
I don’t know who you were. I don’t know how you did it, but it took you four decades to get the physicists to stop caring about the physical world. Somehow what we did is we stopped the world’s most powerful and the world’s most important group from making progress. And why Elon Musk is not out here saving this by just throwing a few billion at it? Elon, if you’re out there, it’s Ad Astra, yes or no? Mars is a stopgap message. Do you want to go to the stars? Is there something we don’t know?
A Call for Transcendence
To the Department of Energy. Do you want to have conversations? Is there anyone at all out here? That’s my question. That’s why I do the podcasts. And it’s. By the way, I’m repeating myself. I’ve said this before. Send lawyers, guns, and money. There’s no one out here.
But I will say this. If we could get out of here, you know, in terms of transcendence, in terms of things that are really exciting, there’s nothing that I had greater pleasure at as a father than taking my children for meteor showers. We take the dog. We go to a secret location outside of Los Angeles that’s quite dark. We just lie under the sky and watch for hours, you know, and look up at the heavens and think, “my God, that’s a destination. That’s some place I could go.”
I don’t think that there’s a more inspiring thing than to figure out the infinity of space, all of these galaxies, and the deep field photographs of these space telescopes filled with worlds, and we’re stuck here. It’s like, it’s enough already. Time to go. Let’s have some fun. That’s really what I’m excited about. Been great to be here.
Final Advice for Living Better
STEVEN BARTLETT: Thank you for being here. Super fascinating. And it spun my brain in several different directions at the same time. I want to bring it back to the person who’s got to the end of this conversation, and they’re sat at home in their box of shorts, maybe listening on their iPhone as they fall asleep wherever they are in the world or on a train or plane or whatever, and allow you to offer them some kind of closing message that might make their life better in some way. It’s a broad brief, but I think it’s the most important brief, which is, you know, having heard everything we’ve talked about today, what advice would you give the listener? An actionable piece of advice so that they could live a subjectively better life?
Life Advice and Recommendations
ERIC WEINSTEIN: The songs of Tom Lehrer are pretty terrific, as are the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. You might want to explore the Azores as well as the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesian is one of the easiest languages to learn because it’s been denuded of most of the complexity that screw up people who have a hard time learning other languages.
Buy a poster of tropical fruit and make sure that you visit every single one on that poster before it’s time for lights out. Consider Bach’s B Minor Mass and the Cello Suites, particularly by Pablo Casals. And take a serious listen to Eva Cassidy singing “Stormy Monday” in an album called “Live from Blues Alley” to see if you really know how to feel things.
I think Professor Longhair’s “Big Chief” is one of the most brilliant pieces of piano music. It’s absolutely inspiring. And if you really like that, James Carroll Booker III has an album called “The Resurrection of the Bayou Maharaja.” Seriously, think about visiting the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
Take a look at Kurt Jaimungel’s channel. He’s doing amazing stuff being done by no one else on earth. I think that Chris Buck is really amazing. And if you think that “Crossroads” is good, have a listen to his version of “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones. An incredible groove and I didn’t really appreciate it the first time I heard it.
I think that the people making spark amps at Positive Grid and my friends at Neural DSP with the Quad Cortex will blow your mind with how much great audio equipment you can make. You can get a good electric guitar for a few hundred bucks thanks to advances in China. Put it into an open tuning and buy yourself a slider. Just slide a glass along it and you’ll be able to play most songs that you’d care about within a minute or two, maybe three, because you only need three chords.
Get married. It may not work out. It may be miserable. Have some kids. There’s nothing else great to do on this planet. At least give it a try and if your parents won’t pressure you to do it, I’m happy to do it. Try to keep this thing going. Try to dream big about legacy. Don’t feel embarrassed about wanting to conquer the world or leave a permanent stain. Get out of this moment where everybody’s worried about narcissism and drama.
Listen for meteor showers. They’re announced regularly. Nobody actually does anything about them and it’s worth inconveniencing yourself with people you love and take the dog really seriously.
Think about whether you want to pile on when you see what is almost certainly a federal or other campaign targeting people who are standing up for you, whether they’re trying to figure out where Covid came from, trying to figure out who was behind Jeffrey Epstein. Recognize that almost everything you’ve been taught to do in terms of hating Israel as part of somebody’s campaign out of Qatar. The situation in Gaza is incredibly dire. Don’t stop caring about the people who are living under that. Recognize that the Persians are not the mullahs.
Get involved. Wish your country’s leadership well, even if you didn’t vote for them and you think that they’re horrible people. They’ve got very hard work to do. Be good to each other. Try it’s a grand adventure and make sure you have some fun before it’s lights out. That’s it.
The Final Question
STEVEN BARTLETT: We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they’re leaving it for. And the question that was left for you. I love this question. What is the problem that you are doing the most mental gymnastics to avoid?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Pass. I know the answer. It’s not appropriate for your audience. One of the things about being in the hot seat on podcasts is that it is not right to force anyone to respond to a question. I know how to falsify an answer to that and I’m not going to do that and I’m not going to share the answer to that question because it’s not appropriate. But it’s a great question. Feel free to leave it for someone else. This doesn’t seem fair. Whoever you were, thank you for the question.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Obviously, my reaction was just tremendous curiosity, which would be a natural reaction to what you just said.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Thank you for a great interview.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate you. It’s so unbelievably fascinating and you’ve given me so much. Unfortunately, you’ve given me a lot of answers, but you’ve given me even more questions, and maybe that’s the product of a good conversation.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You live in LA?
STEVEN BARTLETT: Yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We’ll do it again.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Appreciate you.
STEVEN BARTLETT: Thank you.

Eric Weinstein is a mathematician, economist, science policy expert and a frequent public speaker on a variety of subjects within the sciences.

Dr Weinstein was formerly a co-founder of the Sloan Sponsored Science and Engineering Workforce Project at Harvard and the National Bureau of Economic Research, a co-founder and principal of the Natron Group in Manhattan as well as a visiting research fellow at Oxford University in the Mathematical Institute. Since completing a PhD dissertation in the Mathematics Department at Harvard in 1992, he has held research positions in Mathematics, Physics, and Economics departments (at MIT, Hebrew University, and Harvard respectively). He delivered the Special Simonyi Lectures at Oxford University in 2013 putting forth a theory he termed “Geometric Unity” to unify the twin geometries (Riemannian and Ehresmannian) thought to ground the two most fundamental physical theories (General Relativity and the so-called Standard Model of particle theory, respectively). He has been asked to address the National Academy of Sciences on five occasions on the future of scientific and academic research at elite institutions within the United States.

Is This The End of Humanity? TRIGGERnometry: w/ Eric Weinstein

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:58:00 +0000

Is This The End of Humanity?
In this episode of Triggernometry, mathematical physicist Eric Weinstein returns for a gripping discussion on the existential threats facing humanity, ranging from the legacy of thermonuclear weapons to the rise of AI. Weinstein argues that we are living in a “BC/AD” moment of human history, defined by our god-like power over the atom and the cell, and warns that our current global leaders may lack the skill to navigate the “escape room” of our solar system. He makes a provocative case for resuming nuclear testing to reinstill a necessary fear of these weapons while urging a radical “sprint to the finish” to colonize other planets and transcend the limits of Einsteinian physics.
TRANSCRIPT:
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Eric, welcome back to TRIGGERnometry.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Thanks, guys. Great to be here.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: It’s great to have you back on. We’ve had three previous conversations, all of them extremely popular with our audience. People loved it. But the one thing that we’ve always felt that they’ve missed out is some of the conversations we’ve had with you in private.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We really shouldn’t talk about that.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: We should talk about some of the conversations. Some of the conversation we’ve had in private is actually about geopolitics and particularly how all of that is informed by the invention of first nuclear weapons and then thermonuclear weapons.
It’s interesting that as we sit down to record this, this episode might not go out for a few weeks, but as we sit down to record this, the Trump administration has just announced that it wants to do nuclear testing again. On par with other countries is the language. We don’t know the detail of that, but this seems to be a thing that we’ve talked about in the past. So just take us through it. Take it away, Professor.
The Forgotten Danger of Nuclear Weapons
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, it’s awfully nice to see the two of you. And onto nuclear weapons. I’ve been talking about this for a while. Somehow there was a crazy idea. At the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall fell, nukes became a non-issue, which was never true. And there was never a peace dividend, because there will never be a peace dividend as long as we know how to create this technology from physics.
And this issue about fictionalizing nukes and what they mean and how to think about them so that we can live our lives. I mean, right now we’re looking out at Los Angeles and there exist websites that will allow you to simulate the effect of any of the tests with any epicenter you like chosen at any point here. And whether or not you’re going to have gamma radiation as you will from the thermonuclear weapons, or cesium from fission weapons or dirty bombs, or who knows what.
All of our cities, other than two in Japan, have been untested as to how they’ll perform under these circumstances. So it’s not clear that it even makes sense to build cities. But because no one’s used a nuclear weapon in anger since 1945, we don’t know whether this is a silly thing to be worried about or the most important thing to be worried about.
So for years I’ve been calling for a return to rare above ground nuclear tests, which I think were ended by the Test Ban Treaty of, what is it, 62. So it’s been over 60 years since we’ve had above ground nuclear testing. And as a result we’ve just forgotten the power of the strong force and the electromagnetic force together. It’s just astounding and just, if I can say from a physics perspective we would call this SU Gauge theory. It’s just a technical thing that leads to engineering abilities that are sort of unthinkable.
I mean, I don’t know how to put it. I don’t think we can really think through the effect of thermonuclear weapons on urban centers. And the fact that this comes from physics and comes from science. Even my colleagues in physics are completely disconnected from their Manhattan Project colleagues. And that ethos, it was so long in the past that it’s sort of like modern Greeks thinking about Ulysses. There’s just no direct connection. It’s some sort of mythological thing.
So anyway, I’ve been talking about this nonstop till I’m blue in the face. Many people are bored of hearing it from me, but it was always going to be the main issue.
The Peace Dividend Myth
KONSTANTIN KISIN: So first of all, you said a lot of things there I want to pick up on. But the first one is you said there’s no peace dividend. Is that really true, Eric? I mean, we had historian Dominic Sandbrook on one of the Rest is History. Guys, we had a great, it’s one of our most popular conversations and one of the things we talked about is the reason there has not been another world war is because of nuclear weapons. They are sufficient deterrent for major powers to get direct conflict between them. Is that not true?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It’s worked for 80 years, exactly as you say. And if you’re settled, if you’re happy with 80 years, you could even double it to 160 years, which is a drop in the bucket when it comes to geological time, even human time. So, yes, they make the world much safer in the short run, much safer than it’s ever been. So if you like to think in short term thinking, nuclear weapons are the best thing that ever happened to humanity.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Surely, though, as those weapons become more and more powerful and one of the things you’ve talked about is the transition from nuclear weapons to thermonuclear weapons and the impact of that. But beyond that, I mean, Russia is developing what they call a tsunami bomb, which is basically a giant nuclear torpedo. It explodes in the water outside Los Angeles and, you know, the entire western seaboard basically gets swept off the map. Same on the eastern side, Eastern seaboard.
As the potential damage becomes greater, isn’t that a greater disincentive for those weapons to be used? And therefore we are more likely to not have a world war?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You’re more likely to not have a world war if everyone is convinced of the calculus and everyone remains rational. But this is sort of the whole idea behind playing chicken. People always fancy themselves excellent chicken players. And so it’s sort of that scene in Rebel Without a Cause where you have two people who think that they can outwit the other one as to what level of risk they can handle.
I don’t view the current crop of leaders as particularly skilled. I mean, I would say that Putin would be the most skilled of the current crop of leaders and Xi, but they’re not world class talents in this department, I don’t think. And nobody’s used these weapons in so long, they’re not even positive whether they’ll work.
And so the fear of God also has to be reinstilled in the population through, let’s say through music. I mean, there was a song called “The Eve of Destruction” that your listeners can find or “On the Beach” or “Dr. Strangelove.” And all of these stories we’ve stopped telling so that we no longer think of these things as immediate.
So I don’t think it works as well as you think it does. But if you’re satisfied with that short term cessation of hostilities because everyone’s so terrified of the consequence, absolutely. That’s the major positive externality of Armageddon and the apocalypse is that it keeps the peace very well in the short term.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, my thinking is you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. Right. And you know that. Which is, I think one of the reasons you’re saying we should be testing nuclear weapons is your rationale that we should be doing this to remind people.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Just how dangerous. We should remind ourselves. You know, I don’t think there’s this sort of cavalier attitude that you develop when you know how men who’ve never gone to war. I’ve never been to war. Men who’ve never gone to war tend to talk tough because they have no idea what they’re saying.
And so I’m always interested when I see people who are, you’ve got a tough guy and you’ve got a guy who’s actually been in Special Forces at the same table. And the guys who talk stuff will go on at great length, and the guy who’s actually seen some stuff will just remain silent. It’s not even worth having the conversation.
My feeling is that there are too many people in the middle of a masculinity crisis who are currently at the head of world government.
The Element of Luck
FRANCIS FOSTER: Eric, when we talk about nuclear weapons, what we sometimes fail to acknowledge is there’s an element of luck to this peace because we came quite close, didn’t we, in the Cuban Missile Crisis to everything going disastrously awry.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Sure. Even in the early 80s with Stanislav Petrov, I believe, who more or less said, I think the Americans probably aren’t actually attacking us. I’m going to hold off and launching. Yeah, it’s come several times. It’s come down to sheer good luck.
And I just don’t want to, I don’t feel like playing Russian American roulette forever. I mean, it just, I guess even the questions are offensive. Why are we pretending that this is, it’s not safe. I mean, to me, the exciting thing is, if we were smart, we would be taking the supposed peace time dividend and we’d be plowing it into the idea that the solar system is an escape room.
It’s our job to escape the solar system as fast as we possibly can and spread out so that if something goes wrong on one planetary surface, we’re not all doomed. And that doesn’t seem to animate anyone. To me, it’s clearly the world’s most important question. I’ve spent my entire life on this question. I’m not really on the podcast circuit. That’s what I really do.
And no one’s interested. No government is interested. There’s no institute, there’s no fund. There’s nothing you can apply for. No one is interested in the idea that the solar system is an escape room and that Einstein is our jailer. We’ve got to get past Einstein before the thing goes off. It’s as clear as day to me.
The Iran Question
FRANCIS FOSTER: I think the thing is, is that is, to put it mildly, incredibly big picture for most people, including myself. I think the thing that most people and most governments have been almost lulled into a false sense of security around nuclear weapons because we just assume that the other person won’t use them.
Where it starts to get a little worrying for me is when you look at Iran developing nuclear weapons with a country that is so fiercely ideological, and particularly when they look at Israel and they’re, they’ve said in their own words, they want Israel wiped off the map. Isn’t that the most dangerous outcome if someone like Iran has nuclear weapon as opposed to Russia or any other country?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I mean, India and Pakistan, you know, you have two countries that are, the difference between Urdu and Hindi is nil. These people are exactly the same culturally. One more Hindu religion, one more Hindu, one more Muslim. However, you know, that is an incredibly dangerous flashpoint because it’s dependent upon skill. And you have the government versus the army versus the ISI in Pakistan.
You know, if I think about the Taiwan Strait and China in its calculation, versus the U.S., that’s incredibly dangerous. We have a half proxy war between Russia, Ukraine, with Ukraine representing NATO and the US and we’ve humiliated Putin in particular, in my opinion, by the 2004 ascension into Article 5 status of the three FSU countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Latvia, Estonia. Sorry.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yes. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania. Sorry. And the 1999 provocation of Poland, which I think was entirely defensible as a Warsaw Pact entry into Article 5 status. I don’t know what we’re doing. I think we seem insane. Let me put it on the table. I don’t think anybody’s thinking rationally.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Why do you say that?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Because I think I’m thinking rationally. I think I can defend everything that I’m saying, and I think no one can handle it because nobody actually is motivated to go behind. If general relativity holds, gentlemen, we’re in real trouble. It’s very hard. Einstein is the problem.
FRANCIS FOSTER: What do you mean by that, Eric?
We’re four light years away from the nearest star. So if you think about habitable planetary surfaces, if you could grant science fiction powers to Elon, and he could terraform the moon and Mars, we’d have three spheres that we could get to sort of by chemical rockets. That is not enough diversification for humanity. It’s nowhere close.
So then you have this issue, okay, where do we get the supply of spheres? The issue is atmospheres. We’re all connected by the same atmosphere. So you saw that with, like, Chernobyl, the cloud doesn’t stay in Ukraine. The only place to find new planetary surfaces, if we’re not going to make artificial platforms, which is very difficult, is to be able to get very far away very quickly.
And you can sort of do this with something called time dilation. But if you were to do a round trip and traveling just at the speed of light, by taking a short jump to the nearest star and back, you’d lose eight years relative to your relatives. That’s not practical. It’s not going to work. You can’t really traverse the cosmos if general relativity is in force.
So we know general relativity isn’t the last word. We know Einstein isn’t the final sage. And for some reason, because his theory hasn’t budged for over 100 years, basically 110, we’re demotivated. We just have decided that we live in space time, which is totally untrue. We don’t live in space time. Space time is a model of where we live.
And in that model, there’s no out. We can prove that you can’t go faster than the speed of light. And as a result, we’re trapped here. This is like the greatest puzzle ever. It tells you that everything that we’re good at, science, physics, introspection, mathematics, can be brought to bear on the question of our survival.
And if we can crack this one problem, we can split up. You can have a planet. You can have a planet. The Oprah principle of the cosmos. And then we don’t all have to have the same fate if one planet goes stupid, and most of them will go stupid.
FRANCIS FOSTER: I mean, I see what you’re saying, but I think for the vast majority of government and people, they see their concerns are more real world. And by real world, I think things are happening in the here and now.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: More short term, I guess.
FRANCIS FOSTER: I guess so. The point is, to then propose these things, they may be in the long term a good idea. A lot of people will go, but we don’t have enough money in this country. We’ve got a huge deficit in the economy.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: The allocation is zero. And by the way, let’s stop talking about normal people. Normal people just don’t matter. The goal is to save normal people. And to save normal people you need extraordinary people. You see who endangered these normal people? It was two guys, Stanislav Ulam and Edward Teller. And these two guys came up with a piece of geometry. Do you know how the thermonuclear weapon works?
FRANCIS FOSTER: No.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: You should explain how a nuclear weapon works then how a thermonuclear weapon works. And then also, what have been some of the developments since the thermonuclear weapons were invented? Like I mentioned the tsunami bomb, etc.
The Birth of Thermonuclear Weapons
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay, so the first thing is, why didn’t we have these crazy weapons during the Civil War? Civil War was very close to World War II in human history. And if you look at one, it’s clearly fought in antiquity. And then suddenly you’ve got jet planes and you can have the ability to drop off.
The key issue is that we didn’t understand that there was something called the neutron. We knew about protons and electrons before we knew that there were neutrons. About 1911, I think Ernest Rutherford said, maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton inside of the atom. And that was the most dangerous idea, in my opinion, any human ever had. Just that one idea. Maybe there’s a neutral version of the proton.
Why is that? Because if you send a proton as a bullet into a very large atomic nucleus, that’s a lot of protons stuck together. So as magnets, they’re all trying to run away from each other. But there’s some extra force called the strong force that is even crazier than the super strong force of electromagnetism that’s pushing.
But if you send this proton in, as it gets closer and closer, it gets repelled because everything is charged, like with like. But what if you have something that doesn’t feel that charge, but it’s just like a proton that’s like a bullet that then taps this thing. And this thing is already straining to stay together under the strong force. So it blows apart. And what does it do? It releases more bullets, these neutrons. And that’s what a chain reaction is. It’s bullets creating bullets, creating bullets tapping at these.
Think about a bunch of magnets velcroed together so that they stay together and don’t repel. And then suddenly when you tap them, the velcro comes apart because it’s just at that critical thing. So that would be called a subcritical mass of heavy elements like uranium. And now the idea is that if you push that together, it goes from subcritical, not enough bullets to start the chain reaction, to critical enough bullets. That’s what causes the reaction.
So what you do is you take a subcritical mass of radioactive material and you wrap it in a sphere of chemical explosives, and you push that thing from subcritical to critical so that the density of the bullets means that there are enough targets for them to hit. That’s the first stage, and that’s fission. And that’s what we did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and at Trinity.
Now, why did it take seven years to come up with thermonuclear weapons? Because what you want to do there is you want to actually fuse hydrogen into helium to release the energy that you get in the sun. And for that you need a detonator that is already the atomic weapon of madness from 1945. And now you’re going to just use that as the detonator.
So what you do is you create sort of like a lipstick like tube and you put the detonator fission weapon in the top part of the tube. And what Stanislav Ulam and Edward Teller figured out was that you could bounce the consequences of that weapon on some geometric pattern and have the reflected waves come down to a rod and compress hydrogen into helium in the second stage.
And the key problem there, as I understand it, is that because you’re using an atomic bomb as a detonator, the top part’s going to blow apart the tertiary stage and therefore it won’t work. But there’s one thing that can get there fast enough so that you don’t blow up the design before it’s ready, and that’s light.
And so my understanding is that what you do is that you take the light that comes off of the initial explosion and you focus it with geometry to concentrate it in the tube to create the tertiary state. So chemical is the primary, subcritical to critical is the secondary. Reflected light to compressing hydrogen to helium is the tertiary. And that thing was Ivy Mike in November of ’52. And that is the BCAD, my friends, of science.
FRANCIS FOSTER: What does that mean? BCAD?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You know, there’s like before Christ and after Christ and they’re just very different. Before November of 1952 with the test known as Ivy Mike, the first hydrogen bomb. And in the publication in April of 1953, less than six months later, with the double helix giving the structure of DNA, we didn’t have the power of the twin nuclei, the nucleus of the atom and the nucleus of the cell.
And then after that, suddenly we were like gods. And that is the BCAD of human history that’s much more important than the birth of Christ. Before that time we didn’t have the power of gods, and after that time we did.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: And what is the difference between the nuclear weapon as it originally was, the detonator, and the second generation, the hydrogen bomb, etc.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, there was no point to ducking cover. I mean, you weren’t going to survive this thing. It was just at a different scale. I mean, you’re talking about orders of magnitude bigger bombs than what already caused the Emperor to surrender in Japan. We’re just talking inconceivable levels of destruction.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, give me an, let’s conceive it.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My guess is that one or two devices means that Los Angeles is no more.
FRANCIS FOSTER: By no more you mean completely flattened and raised to the ground?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, I mean there was a, the Soviets of course, were slightly late to the game. Sakharov was a father of that bomb. And of course they had to go big or go home. So they did this Tsar bomb. And the Tsar bomb, I think it’s in Nova Zemlya.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Nova Zemla, yeah. New land.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: New land. KONSTANTIN KISIN: New land, yeah.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And this was at a scale that wasn’t conceivable. I wish I had, the American comparable device was this thing called Castle Bravo, which was way bigger than we had expected. We didn’t know how well we could control it. But if I’ve played on the simulators, all of these concentrated cities are just instantly uninhabitable.
FRANCIS FOSTER: And what are the long term effects of these types of weapons? Does it mean that the land that they have been detonated on will never be able to bear fruit, etc.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, my understanding is that the hydrogen ones are actually cleaner, that you really have gamma radiation in the form of photons that are very hard to guard against. The other ones have these radioactive isotopes that linger on for forever. But I’ve never really cared that much about the post war scenarios. My feeling is that once you get going, everything that you know about life as we’ve led it is gone.
The Reality of Nuclear War
KONSTANTIN KISIN: And not to say nothing of the fact that as we understand it currently, I think if you had nuclear war between major players, the tit for tat would actually end all human life on earth, wouldn’t it?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Even if it didn’t, you’re talking about setting back everything that we know of as life, as modern life to levels that I don’t know, whether there’s subsistence living or hunter gathering or somebody’s got some crazy compound, but I’m not going there. It’s too much. And by the way, there’s a comparable version of this for pandemic, and we’re talking about playing with things where we’re just not. If you saw what happened with COVID just took over the planet.
FRANCIS FOSTER: I guess the question is if you have weapons of that magnitude does not therefore instill a certain humility in the people wielding them. For instance, you look at Putin. Glad you find this question’s funny. But you know, unless you are completely insane, you wouldn’t be tempted to push that button because you know that the moment you launch that weapon, not only have you ensured the destruction of millions of people, you’ve also assured your own destruction.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What conversation are we even having? These people are nuts, Francis.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Which people?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Oh, Sinwar was clearly crazy.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Yep.
The Nuclear Threat and Global Leadership
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Khomeini. Putin is absolutely up for brinksmanship. Xi, I think, thinks he can calculate this fairly well. Donald Trump is famous for promoting himself as a wild card, my friends, in order to confuse his negotiating partners. I just don’t see this level of skill.
Netanyahu clearly did not understand he was in a hybrid war and he fought a kinetic war while he lost the hybrid war. I don’t see this level of skill.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, hold on a second. I mean, if you look at Russia, Ukraine, and we should come back to that because of the point you made. But you know what I think about the invasion of Ukraine? I think it’s an abomination from Putin. I agree, and I know you do.
But I also think, and we should explore this actually before we get into the nuclear dimension, because the one argument I’ve never heard anyone who thinks that the west provoked Russia ever address is the argument that I always make on this, which is ultimately, every time Russia is strong, it seeks to cushion itself westwards, create a bigger cushion between Moscow and its western frontier.
And so if you don’t expand NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that’s fine, but what you will end up with is a Russian dominated Eastern Europe in the way that you had before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, some people will see that as a price worth paying, others not. But ultimately my point is you are going to find yourself in a confrontation with Russia at some point, unless you have no red lines whatsoever.
Unless you and Putin is on record as saying America is evil. Because what they did is they upset the post World War II order. They went reneged on the agreement of the post World War II order. Well, the post World War II order was Russian tanks in Berlin. Right. So, and half of Germany being effectively controlled by the USSR.
So unless you’re prepared to tolerate that, you are always going to get into a standoff with Russia. And therefore, if you don’t expand NATO into Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, they just become, they get taken over by Russia in some form. And if we say, well, Russia’s got nuclear weapons, we always just, we got to be careful. Well, when does that end? At some point there is a tension that has to be addressed. Even in a nuclear world, isn’t that inevitable?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Eric, I’m just a mathematician. I mean, I guess you’re doing your…
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Whole I’m just a comedian thing now. No, we’re free America. Well, you’re free American.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Yeah, you will soon be free Americans. My friends, I believe we are going to have to redefine the west to include a lot of Eastern Europe. And I wish that we would do that to include Russia. It’s a very weird thing to have to say. Russia both is and is not the West.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Correct.
Russia and the Definition of the West
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And I feel like we haven’t spent enough time thinking about Russia. The differences between Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, I have to say, I think it’s just really important that we recognize that the west probably made a bad line of division between Austria and Hungary, where we sort of stopped seeing ourselves at some point. How is Poland not us?
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Poland increasingly is us, but Russia isn’t.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: But Chopin was us and Tchaikovsky was us. And Putin that Putin, Pushkin should be us. Dostoevsky is certainly us. I mean, in many ways, my feeling, particularly as a mathematical physics guy, it was a different mathematical physics culture, different musical culture.
This is why, for example, Van Clyburn’s winning of the competition in Russia was so powerful that America recognized that in the style of play, the Russians were dominant. They were the experts. And I have to say that Russia is a barbell culture. It’s the highest of the high and the lowest of the low, and we just don’t understand it well enough.
So I’ve spent a great deal of my life appreciating Eastern Europe, in awe of Eastern Europe. And I’m sad to say that in general, I don’t think we give Eastern Europe its due. The two men who gave America its thermonuclear strength came from Budapest and Lvov, which is, I’m now told, is Lviv.
But Stanislav Ulam came from the mathematical school of Banach and Hausdorff in the Scottish Cafe. And Edward Teller came from Laszlo Ratz’s math classroom at the Lutheran Gymnasium in Budapest. And these fine Americans who signed our death warrant were Eastern Europeans.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Yes, but neither of those places is in Russia, Eric. Then we’re talking about.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: No, but I’m saying. But I am saying that we are already over the line. When Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania were absorbed into NATO, we acknowledged that we have the wrong line. We said, those are us. If we say Ukraine is us. Ukraine’s old name was Little Russia.
The key issue is that Russia is the strongest part of that universe, and we would have had to make an accommodation. That said, we recognize your strength, we respect your strength, your brilliance, and I think it was the right thing to do.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Sorry, go ahead.
Cultural Differences and the Value of the Individual
FRANCIS FOSTER: I think one of the issues is the way that we see Russia is completely different. And Constantin Jumping. And if I get this incorrect, is that we don’t see them as Western because of the way they treat the individual. The individual in Russia is expendable.
And we saw that by the way they treated their soldiers in World War II, whereby as long as, you know, if, however, men had to die, that’s however many men had to die. But they had to move forward, dig a trench, throw them in, cover the trench, we keep moving. America is, and the US and the UK is, you know, we leave no man behind.
So I feel that that’s the way that we see Russia, as a completely alien culture because of that. Because we see it as a cold, brutal way of looking at its own populace.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My God, I don’t agree with this at all. I believe. I’m sorry, let me.
FRANCIS FOSTER: No, deep, go ahead.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I’ve never actually had this out, so it’d be great to push back a little bit and see where it goes.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Yeah. And we’re also all thinking out loud, this isn’t something we came prepackaged to. Right.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I don’t think that this is true. I think that there’s an issue of geography, and geography has a lot to do with how people die in war. So in general, for example, Austria is Alpine Germany. It’s a very hilly place, whereas a lot of Germany is much flatter. That is going to affect how tanks and other things roll through, how defensible something is.
You have a piece of geography in Eastern Europe which leads to incredible killing and movable borders. So if you look at just a historical timeline of how, let’s say, Lithuanian Polish Empire expanded and contracted and everything’s moving around, it really doesn’t get still until the nuclear weapons come in. So you have a situation in which these people have been subjected to very high levels of uncertainty and warfare because of a bad accident.
So you have the same situation in some sense with the Jews. During the 1930s and 40s, you had fantastic percentage of the world’s Jewish population put to death. And one thing that could have happened is that we would have found that we had adjusted to the concept of the expendable Jew. And the Jews said, under no terms is this going to happen. We are going to treat every Jewish life as precious. We will bargain a thousand people for the return of a single Jewish hostage. It, in fact gets us into trouble.
So my feeling about this is Poland experienced what, like a fifth or a fourth of its population dying during World War II. I don’t feel that way about polls at all. And it is true what you say Francis, about expendability in terms of risk tolerances. Have you been over in Russia?
FRANCIS FOSTER: No, I’ve never been to Russia.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It’s just different. People have a different level of risk tolerance, and I believe that that is culture. But if you move a Russian to Bel Air or Beverly Hills, they very quickly acclimatize to the idea that their safety matters.
And my feeling about this is this is the luxury of a country with unbelievable borders. Two beautiful oceans, a very long, peaceful border with Canada and kind of a weird border with Mexico. Thinking that there’s something about American life that is precious and it’s an accident.
Almost 100% of who I am came from Russia and Ukraine and Moldova and Romania and Latvia. I think we just have to get out of this mindset. I think that they are us and they are a spicy, weirder, stranger version of us. But in the grand scheme of thing, it’s not Africa, it’s not East Asia, it’s not the Pacific Islands. That’s us. And we have. I wish that we were oriented differently.
Russia as a Separate Civilization
KONSTANTIN KISIN: But I don’t agree with that, actually. But there’s also a lot to unpack elsewhere. I mean, the greatest objection, I think, to what you’re saying is that Russia sees itself as being a separate civilization. Russia sees itself as the descendant of the Eastern Christian civilization, and there’s a continuation of it, in fact. So the idea that they, an alliance is possible. But I think what you’re talking about, which is absorption, I don’t think there’s ever been any appetite for that.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, I think that there was. I think that we may have blown that. I think there was a period of time when Russia, and if we’re just going to be honest, because we both know both cultures, there was a desire to say, don’t you see us as you. You know, the concept that somebody’s really made it, if they’ve made it in the West?
The Russians were, in some ways, in my opinion, like many other civilizations, partially pooh poohing and partially desirous of being seen. And I believe that in part, it was up to NATO and the west to not treat this as we won, you lost. Ha ha. But instead to be gracious in victory and say, this was not a defeat of Russia, this was a defeat of communism, which had settled over Russia.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: But even once you’ve done that, look, Russia has a brief experiment with democracy in the 90s. Doesn’t work out, and, you know, people will say, oh, the evil Americans came, and that’s not what happened. It’s not what happened at all. Sure, there were some western people who came and did business and profited. It was actually Russians that used the moment to steal as much wealth as they could.
And after that finishes and all the chaos of that eight year period finishes, you’ve got a former KGB colonel who comes in. He’s not elected, he’s appointed by the previous president to make sure that his corruption doesn’t get prosecuted. And the Russian people are perfectly happy with 26 years of a KGB colonel being in charge.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, it’s Putin’s all the way down. There’s also this yearning for the strongman to stop chaos.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Right, exactly. And it comes from hundreds of year history. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this on air, but it comes from the times of trouble, really. But also before that, which is the time Russians learned that instability is worse than anything else. Literally. So you can have the worst tyrant ever, but that’s still better than chaos.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What is the great quote? The great quote, something like better 30 years of tyranny than a single night of anarchy?
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, yes, well, because the times of trouble is a period of time when a very short time due to political instability and some other things that happen, like a third of the Russian population gets wiped out. You have foreign, foreign fake rule after foreign fake rule after foreign fake ruler coming in. And people go, okay, we’ve got to have stability. Right.
But that’s precisely my point is people with that mental attitude might be right for their geography, might be wrong for their geography, but what it does is it creates a culture that I think is not compatible with the way that we do things. And the evidence is there, I mean, the Polish people or the Ukrainian people, they didn’t go down the same path as Russia after 1991, after 1989. Because Russia wants to be a power center. It doesn’t want to be part of a thing where it’s not the main thing. That’s my argument.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You as a Britain, you as a Russian, you who’s talking here?
KONSTANTIN KISIN: I have access to both perspectives.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I understand that. What I’m saying is, but do you that for yourself? I’m sorry, you’re talking about a guy from Russia talking to a guy whose family came from Umay. It’s a little rich that we’re having this conversation in Los Angeles. It’s not really.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: I don’t think so at all.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Tell me more.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, because people within there are, I have friends who are Westerners who live in Russia and love it there. Yeah, but they don’t love it in the west because their mindset is not suited to this culture. It’s suited to that culture.
The communism was entirely foreign to this place.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, that’s not what I’m saying. I mean, like, right now.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Sure, I understand. What I’m trying to say is I believe that we had opportunities that may no longer be present for a greater union after this battle was over, when there was uncertainty. If instead of trying an isolated democracy with American economists meddling in post Cold War reconstruction, whatever, if we tried something different, I think there was an opportunity.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Something different how? Like, what should we have tried?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I don’t know. There was a period of denazification after.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: World War II, but that requires admission of defeat, which is the thing you’ve just said we shouldn’t have done. You said we should have been.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: What did I say? That what was important to defeat was Communism. This is what we did with Germany, is that we made a point about defeating Nazism and we allowed the German people the ability, which was not entirely true, to say, oh, yes, those Nazis were terrible. That wasn’t us.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Yes, yes, but what happened in Russia, you’re right, is we didn’t defeat communism as the ideology. We didn’t say you went through this terrible period of communism. All of these terrible communist leaders, they were bad, whatever. But, you know, a lot of people in Russia don’t think communism was a great period in Russian history.
But my point is, in order to have gone through that, Russia would have felt even more humiliated. Or some Russians would have felt even more humiliated than they ended up doing. And the thing that many Russians feel humiliated by is not that the evil American economists came and ruined everything.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: It’s actually the fact. I remember this as a kid in Russia being given humanitarian aid. And the view is, well, you know, these people, they gave us these crumbs off their table. How insulting. We will build ourselves up again and we will be strong and we will shine.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I do think it was kind of insulting.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, should we have done that?
Russia’s Complex Legacy
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I don’t know. Look, I think in part I’m in awe of Russia. And I’m in awe of Russia in its brutality, its backwardness, its horror. I’m in awe of its accomplishments, its achievements, its high culture. I think about Russia a lot. Most of my American friends do not.
Just as a side note, I’m very worried about my family losing its familiarity with its Eastern European heritage. I make a point of my son and I go on Kvass runs and we try to figure out who’s got the best kvass from all of the Armenian stores that carry it. Just talking a lot about the Soviet schools of mathematics under Gelfond and under physics under Lev Landau and what these cultures were about and what they meant.
I care tremendously about Russia, and I feel connected to it. I don’t feel that way with China. I mean, a Chinese American can say I feel that, but I do feel a continuity from Austria to Hungary to Moscow.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: I don’t think that’s, with all respect, a very strong argument when we’re talking about the thing that we’re talking about. Because if you say we should have done something else, I don’t know what taught to be persuaded.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I said, I really think that we should have separated two things. We should have separated out the Communist overlay and the Russian substrate. We should have been celebrating not only Russia, to be blunt, but there’s Ukrainian opera, there’s the incredible savoir faire and joie de vivre of the Georgians, the proud histories of the Armenians. And, you know, there’s so much over there that we don’t even know exists as Americans.
And I really feel like I wish we treated these places with the respect that I have for them and all of their accomplishments, their literature, their music, their science. I just think it’s a crime. Even in mathematics, we make up two different names for the same theorem, depending upon whether we want to claim that it was done in the west or it was done in Eastern Europe.
But look, we don’t need to labor. I think we have a difference of opinion. I think that it’s not an easy sell, but it’s not impossible. And I think you think it’s more difficult. And I will have to say that you probably know far more about these two cultures than I do.
Russia as a Separate Civilization
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Well, I agree with your point about respecting different cultures and their many achievements. I am not the reason. I’m not picking on you specifically. I have heard this argument a lot about how the reason we’ve ended up in conflict with Russia is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West mistreated Russia. And I’m sure you can find plenty of individual examples of where that’s absolutely the case.
But overall, my contention is that Russia is a separate civilization that doesn’t want to be part of our civilization, doesn’t see itself as part of our civilization, and the only viable friendly relationship with Russia is one of alliance right now. Was that achievable? Maybe. But it would have been achievable at cost in the same way that the alliance with the Soviet Union during World War II was necessary for the west and unavoidable if we were going to win that war collectively.
But the cost was tremendous. The cost was the subjugation of all of Eastern Europe. And what I’m saying is, unless we took the position that we took, we would have ended up allowing Russia to overrun not just half of Ukraine as it now has, but all of Eastern Europe is the inevitable destination of that. For very much for the very geographical reasons that you lay out a while back.
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The Complexity of Eastern Europe
ERIC WEINSTEIN: You know, this gets into I think it’s very unfortunate that certain civilizations in the boundary land between what is clearly Western Europe and Russia. But you know, it has always been the case to me that Ukraine people in the east of Ukraine people in the west of Ukraine barely see themselves as members of the same country. The way the western crust of Turkey looks to Anatolia and says there be dragons, even though it’s their country.
So there’s a great deal of intra country alienation where Chernowc looks to the Donbass and says, wow, that’s some freaky stuff. Particularly with Lwow, which I think of as being a Polish city, even though it’s in Ukraine. Look, Eastern Europe is complicated and you have to think not in terms of, boy, it’s really sad that Riga can’t simply be part of the West.
My feeling is that if we were in grouping Russia, we would be getting a better deal for Latvia than saying, okay, Latvia, you’re with us, and then antagonizing Russia. But this is above my pay grade. This is just my caring about each of these places individually and caring about different places within.
Just to tell a tiny little anecdote. I got my great aunt in Kiev to take me to Umayn, where my family was from, and she said, do you want to see the park where your grandfather used to walk with me? I said, sure. You know, and it was like Versailles. It was some park on a scale you couldn’t even believe called Sofivka. Nobody in the west has ever heard of this place. That’s ridiculous. This should be a famous site throughout the world. And I don’t know how that happened.
So what I think we need to do is to recognize that we have an exaggerated blindness when it comes to Eastern Europe. And a lot more of us should try to speak, you know, a regional language. And a lot more of us should care. Just the way the Brits used to have their foreign service be very well informed about all four far flung provinces where they could see the world because they had an empire to take care of.
I think the US should be honest that it’s had an empire and it should care a great deal more to speak the local languages, to care about the traditions, to understand the difference between orthodoxy and other forms of Christianity, et cetera, et cetera.
America’s Geographical Isolation
FRANCIS FOSTER: Look, I agree with you with the argument in that sense and the arguments you’re making about Eastern Europe. There’s a lot of people in Latin America who feel very bitter towards the United States because they would put forward the same arguments. You’re Venezuelan, you’re Mexican, you’re Argentine, you’re Mexican, you’re Colombian, you’re Mexican. And they would make that point. And in some ways it’s probably merited.
I think one of the challenges that America faces is that the geographical isolation of your country, you don’t have to engage with the world the same way The British do because we’re a tiny little island and we are in Europe separated by a small bank of water. So we have to be more engaged than you do at the moment. Now that might change.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Man, my. Your tiny little island was like this.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Superpower once upon a time. It ain’t anymore.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Come on, man.
FRANCIS FOSTER: But it ain’t anymore.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: 100 years ago.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: A hundred. I mean, 1948 is within living memory. And the Suez crisis. I just think this is not true, Francis. I think this is much more recent. You have to understand. I married into an Indian family. And so I go to your British clubs in Bombay that are now populated by Indians and I look at the club members who died during the Great War and it’s all British names.
I feel connected. The arguments we get into in Bombay are very often arguments about were the Brits that bad, how much was positive, how much was negative. Of course you’re not around to hear them. I’m sure if you were around people would be angrier.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: That’s what we do.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: But I’m talking. The guy who mostly comes from Ukraine is talking to the guys from Russia and Venezuela. As if you’re British and I’m American. There is something a little rich about all this. That in general, the UK was very knowledgeable about the world because Oxford and Cambridge and the Foreign Service and the army and the British East India Company worked as a system.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Agreed.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: And that system eventually gave way to the American system. I think one thing people don’t understand or appreciate about James Bond is that James Bond was created because Felix, who works for the CIA has to be a less than character. And there’s something about the British that is necessary to keep the world in order. Right. It’s sort of a. It’s a post empire vision for a powerful, strong, virile Britain.
Britain’s Diminished Status
FRANCIS FOSTER: Look what you were talking about in my opinion, and as someone who lives in the UK, you’re talking about a Britain that sadly no longer exists. Eric, it doesn’t exist. We are financially bankrupt. Our army is tiny, our navy is practically non existent. When it comes to our political might, no one really listens to us anymore. You could see that, by the way, Keir Starmer spoke about recognizing a Palestinian state. And to be honest, you, when it came to Netanyahu, he regarded it as a mere. As a mere irritant.
The UK’s Hidden Strengths
ERIC WEINSTEIN: I was invited by one Dr. David Tong to go to Trinity College in Cambridge. And I can’t tell you how priceless that day I spent with David was. I went to the Portico where he said Newton measured the speed of sound by clapping. And I saw the notes in the first edition of the Principia about what should be fixed in the second. And I was thinking, okay, this is Michael Attia and Isaac Newton. All of that stuff is still in the UK. That magic is still in the UK.
I’m in the UK often enough to know that the UK’s biggest problem is that it’s got to get over this negative view of itself. We in the States have a much more positive view of the UK. And my feeling is, for God’s sakes, man, get it together, slough it off, pick yourself up and get back to being the UK. It is essential that you become the UK. We don’t know exactly who we are if you’re moping about, so it’s really important to just cut the crap.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Look, I agree that we need a stronger view of ourselves. I think we need to stop apologizing. I think we need to stop seeing ourselves as the worst people in history. I completely agree. What I’m dealing, what I’m talking to you about, Eric, are just the facts of where the UK is at the moment. I’m not saying if we don’t sort ourselves out in 40, 50 years time, we can’t beat that.
Hyper Liberal vs Hypo Liberal Illiberalism
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Didn’t the US go through a Great Depression? We did. Okay, so we were in the Great Depression, couldn’t figure out our way out. You know, my feeling is that you need to be stronger and you need to tap into some extremely dangerous stuff. And I’m sorry about that.
But part of the issue is liberal societies go illiberal in one of two ways. They go illiberal through hyper liberal illiberalism and hypo liberal illiberalism. So the US has been experimenting with hyper liberal illiberalism. Maybe we shouldn’t have a border because all people are, no person is illegal. Maybe you can be any gender you want, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That is not liberalism. That’s revolutionary thinking.
That’s going to get reversed by hypo liberal illiberalism, which is like the Donald Trump MAGA. Let’s blow up a boat which we hope is filled with drugs and ask questions later. That kind of super masculine. We’re going to send the National Guard in, we’re going to send ICE in, we’re going to throw people out. And one way of looking at it is that it’s a turn towards fascism. It’s possible.
But another way of looking at it is that it is necessary to counter the negative effects of a spate of hyper liberal illiberalism with hypo liberal illiberalism. That’s a little confusing. I’m sorry, but one thing that we’re doing is we are undoing some of the excesses with excesses that are currently in favor for this group.
And my feeling about this is the UK may have to experiment. And as a guy who has a preference for not only a liberal state, but I would probably err on the hyper liberal. But I don’t like hyper liberal illiberalism. You may have to experiment with hypo liberal illiberalism to get rid of the sense of weakness and not being able to defend yourselves and not knowing who you are.
This question about what does it mean to be English? What does it mean to be British? Enough, we all know what it means. One of the things is that you guys are a human software producer. So if I think about Michael Attia, who’s one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, come to Harvard, I played ping pong with him. He was absolutely British. But the name Atiya indicates that his family is from Lebanon. Paul Dirac, the great English physicist, had a French last name. Whether Disraeli. So many great people from the UK have clearly been from somewhere else.
My feeling is you have to be more proud of the software that you built. The software that you built is second to none. It’s the envy of the world and you’ve got to stop this madness of self hatred.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: So what is the British software?
Defining British Excellence
ERIC WEINSTEIN: My God. It’s irreverent. It loves oddities. It’s extremely dry in its humor. It’s incredibly bold and daring in its creativity. It mixes irreverence and reverence like nobody’s business. It’s elitist as the day is long. It’s elitist in multiple senses, both in the landed sense, which I don’t love, but it’s part of your system and in the sense of being a meritocracy.
I love the fact that when you guys can’t do things, initially you do them better. For example, you can’t grow wine to save your life. So what did you do? You turned France into a parlor game where you could guess the vintage and the chateau, and you created French wine. You don’t think of it that way, but you did. And then when they went to war with you and you couldn’t get access to French wine, you created your own wine houses in Portugal where they didn’t have any noble grapes. So what did you do? You created crazy numbers of minor grapes as if they were noble grapes to create port. That’s why they all have English.
I mean, just one cool thing or the blues. I’m very proud of what we did with the blues up until Skiffle, which was terrible. You guys came up with Skiffle and I think it’s almost unlistenable.
FRANCIS FOSTER: I mean, it produced the Beatles, but let’s not get into that.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It produced a lot beyond the Beatles. The aftermath of Skiffle was the elevation of the blues into this unbelievable virtuosic art form. We didn’t know what we had and you sent it back. That’s what the British Invasion is in large measure, the UK telling us what we had and didn’t appreciate in ourselves. We had to send you Jimi Hendrix before we understood what he was. I love these stories.
And, you know, my feeling about it is you also have a bit of a barbell culture, which we love. You know, the guys who brawl at the football games and the pubs are connected to the people who have, without question, the world’s finest sensibilities about art, the greatest historians and masters of language.
One of the things that I think is terrible is that you don’t know your own culture often enough. I grew up as a Jewish kid from a Ukrainian Jewish family in LA fetishizing Chaucer. And, you know, when I taught my kids drinking songs, I went back to Ravenscroft in 1609, you know, and looking at this canon, my daughter fell in love with Henry Purcell. You know, we played Gilbert and Sullivan in the house and Flanders and Swan and all the, or, you know, the great British American projects.
T.S. Eliot is this marriage of the UK and Missouri where I had Jim Watson in my office who discovered three dimensional structure of DNA. And I got a chance to play Francis Crick. A little video of him on my screen in my office. And I watched Jim tear up because it was clear that there was no person on earth that was ever going to be for him what Francis was.
And I got a chance to ask him. I said, I read your book very carefully. You shared an office with Jerry Donahue from Linus Pauling’s lab at Caltech. And he told you that all of the textbooks were wrong, that the hydrogen atom was in the wrong place in the nucleotides in the next page. You figured out the base pairing arrangement through hydrogen bonds. Didn’t you really do the double helix and not you and Francis?
He looks at me and he says, oh, no. He says, absolutely. You’re right. I did the inside of the double helix. But look at the beautiful sugar phosphate backbone twirling around the outside. That’s 100% Francis. And so you look at it, you think, okay, the world’s greatest scientific partnership ever. It’s the US on the inside and the UK on the outside. I mean, it just doesn’t get better than that for me.
And I could go on and on and on about what I got from the UK that I could never have gotten from anything else. You’re in charge of that legacy and you’re screwing it up. We want the confidence, we want you guys to be the great orators of our time. How much do we lean on Churchill again, a complex product of America and the UK. It’s very important to us if we are going to be the major power, that the UK play its role.
Nuclear Testing and Modern Threats
KONSTANTIN KISIN: So we’ve returned to where we started through the medium of hydrogen. And where we started was your point was that a lot of the people who now have control over nuclear weapons are second string. Or in the case of, you know, some countries who are pursuing nuclear weapons might be outright, you know, crazy. I think there are people like that as well. But what I don’t understand is how does the testing of nuclear weapons to demonstrate to us just how destructive they are address that problem?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, in multiple ways. First of all, there was a question about testing a nuclear weapon for the simple purpose of reminding us of what we’re talking about. To scare the crap out of us so we can get another 80 years of peace.
But the other thing is if we test them within our scientific programs, then we will have more lethal weapons because we will be more assured that we know how they behave. We’ve lost a lot of knowledge about how these weapons behave by letting that atrophy. So it really matters a great deal whether it’s underground, whether it’s above ground or underground. Nuclear testing, you know, the underground stuff doesn’t have the same impact and the above ground stuff has terrible consequences.
I’m not the person to design this and I don’t think we’re doing it in a smart way. I think what we’re doing is that we’re all playing chicken again. And by the way, there’s a lot of stuff that can happen beyond nuclear weapons. It doesn’t need to have the same raw terror.
But if you can figure out how to send energy through the earth and have it refocus at some other point so that you could vaporize something at a cell phone coordinate. Right now we don’t know how to do that because the only thing that you can send through the Earth would be like neutrinos, which are hard to catch on the other side, or gravity waves. You can’t send photons through the earth particularly, or electrons. But if you do further research in physics, you may be able to create all kinds of weapons that you can’t possibly imagine, including time weapons.
The AI Arms Race
FRANCIS FOSTER: Which brings us nicely to AI because it currently feels that we’re in an arms race when it comes to AI between America and China. Is that something that concerns you, Eric?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That’s not how I would phrase it.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Okay, well, you push back on my inadequate phrase.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We’re just playing with fire and we don’t know what fire we’re playing with. So you can view it as America versus China. By the way, don’t sell DeepMind in the UK short. They figured out AlphaFold. Well done, gentlemen.
We don’t really know what this game is like. We don’t know what it’s about. We’re playing it as if it was an old style game. But DeepSeek migrated very quickly. And I’ve talked to some of the major players. I said, how are you going to keep secrets from China? They said, we can’t.
FRANCIS FOSTER: So essentially, we can’t keep secrets from China. Therefore, what we have, they will have. And vice versa.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Maybe. Or maybe the issue is the bottleneck is the chips. Or maybe somebody will figure out something about chip architecture where it’s not as essential to use this scheme. And maybe the energy needs are going to dwarf anything. Or maybe the energy needs are suddenly going to collapse.
We’re at the beginning, we’re at the infancy of something that is astounding. And we already know how astounding it is. And it can only be this astounding or more. And we’re acting as if it’s not that big of a deal because it hasn’t changed our lives that much yet.
The Challenge of Preventing Dangerous Innovation
KONSTANTIN KISIN: That’s one reason. The other reason we’re acting this way is that human beings have not come up with a way of preventing people from playing with fire. We can’t. It just isn’t going to happen. Even if the entire west, let’s say, agreed not to do this, even if the entire world agreed not to do this, someone somewhere would still do it because the advantage of being the one that’s doing it is so tremendous. So there’s actually nothing we can do to stop people playing with this fire. Is that fair?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That’s according to you.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: I mean, I’m asking you.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, the Test Ban Treaty. I have this feeling that if we were talking in the 50s, you would have said that the Test Ban Treaty was impossible because you can’t stop people from playing with fire.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Explain to us what the Test Ban Treaty is.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: We agreed to stop testing nuclear weapons among the major players.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: That hasn’t prevented the existence of nuclear weapons or their continued development.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: It has certainly slowed down. It’s antiquated the weapons a great deal. It stopped the atmospheric testing that caused radioactive decay products to blow in the wind. We had things like, what is it, Operation Starfish, where we exploded a weapon in space, knocked out the grid in Hawaii. We retarded ourselves a great deal. And then we signed the bioweapons conventions in the 70s, which had a big effect on how we do research. We have scared ourselves before into some kind of cooperation that does something.
The Multipurpose Nature of AI
FRANCIS FOSTER: But isn’t the challenge with that? And I think it’s a very good example. But nuclear weapons are mainly used for one thing and one thing only. AI is multipurpose.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Well, first of all, Russia doesn’t agree with you. Russia used nuclear weapons for engineering purposes. They would use them to dig holes or put out fires or do all sorts of crazy things. So even that is not quite true.
And then with respect to AI, things don’t always spread just because they’re known. I keep giving this example, like, if I ask people, do you know the formula for black powder?
FRANCIS FOSTER: No.
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Do you? No. 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur, 15% charcoal. Okay, now everybody at home knows, but they’ll forget it. We in general don’t see people taking advantage of these huge leverage opportunities.
Right now, we’re in some race because we don’t know what we’re racing for. We just know that if the other guy had something that we didn’t have, that feels vulnerable. But the problem is the other guy may become the AI itself. So the US and China may get into a race to get this thing, and then the thing says, you dear, sweet children, nobody even knows what we’re talking about.
KONSTANTIN KISIN: Right?
FRANCIS FOSTER: So doesn’t that mean that that’s even more dangerous? Because with nuclear weapons, we know what we’re talking about.
Living at Death’s Door
ERIC WEINSTEIN: Okay? We have been at death’s door. I mean, am I right that we were just gentlemen at the Cave of the Apocalypse together in Greece? In Greece, yeah. Okay, so my feeling is we’ve been thinking about the apocalypse for a long time, and we should have been thinking about the apocalypse every week since 1952, 1953.
Suddenly we’re back to thinking about it. My friend Peter Thiel is giving lectures about the Antichrist. People are talking about Armageddon, the AI Apocalypse. We need to be thinking about this. I don’t know how we got out of thinking about this now that we’re thinking about it again.
It’s what I said at the ARC Conference. It’s a race. It’s a sprint to the finish. Right now, the world has woken up. Holy crap. The World War II order is crashing as we speak. People around J.D. Vance, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin have no patience for this anymore. Nobody’s maintaining it.
Okay, so the question is, what are we doing? This is so clear to me. I can’t understand why everyone isn’t animated by it. And I could pretend that I’m crazy and that you all are sane, but I’m pretty sure it’s the reverse. No, I really think that. I really think I’m somehow not affected by some sort of universal mind virus, and I can’t figure out why.
So the argument is, this is the time to run like hell. This has been in our future for forever. And we’re here. And right now, the thing to do is to try to figure out how to spread out and run as many experiments as we can and recognize that it’s not just that Eastern Europe is going to get sacrificed to Russia. Planets are going to die because the technology is just too powerful.
We should be honest where we are. And if we’re honest, right now, the thing to do is to colonize as many planets as we can find in the heavens. And that seems crazy to people, but I just had a conversation on my way over with a person who doesn’t exist, who told me all sorts of points that I made were good, others were weak. She knows all about every aspect of the world. If I ask her to tell me a doctor joke, I can say, tell it to me in Urdu, tell it to me in Yiddish, tell it to me in Russian.
We are already living science fiction lives. Why can we not understand that this is the time to lead a science fiction life about getting out of the solar system and finding the largest number of planets and spreading out and running the largest number of experiments we can?
Everything that has one planet and us trying to make sure nothing goes wrong here is completely enervating. But somehow none of you are energized as I am. And I don’t know why to say we are Ferdinand and Isabella. It is time to find Columbus and try to reach something new. Whether it’s a new route to India or whether it’s new land entirely, it’s time to do something new.
The last major landmass that was found on Earth was found off the north coast of Siberia about 100 years ago. We’ve gone out of the habit of finding new worlds. And my feeling about this is that this should be energizing us. We have a brief period to sprint. We should create new institutions, new science. We should take on Einstein and defeat him. We should get excited. We should dance harder, sing longer, do more partial differential equations into the night and try to realize that we’re on the eve of destruction.
And take a Jewish attitude, which is survival at all costs. Something will work out, something will provide. If we just believe and work hard enough and risk everything. Our history tells us that it’s always possible to survive. And that’s what, really, as a Jew, what I want to bring to a diverse audience of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, atheists, Buddhists, I don’t care.
There’s something about the Jewish will to survive that is not infecting planet Earth. I just see everybody basically on the couch with their remote, solving minor problems. And it’s time to recognize, no, no, no, this is the end. This is the apocalypse. This is the phase transition. And it’s been clear as day since 1952, 1953. And we’re just now waking up to it with AI for reasons that are completely unclear. But that’s always been the problem, Francis. It’s always been the problem.
A Call for Glory and Hope
FRANCIS FOSTER: Eric, it’s been a fantastic conversation, as always. It feels a bit weird saying this, considering what we’ve been talking about over the previous hour, hour and a half or so. So what is the one thing that we’re not talking about that we really should be?
ERIC WEINSTEIN: That a lot of our problems are mediated by our phones. That the phone is not an appliance, it’s a brain scrambling device. And that in general, we’re making things out to be much harder than they’re meant to be.
We have grand challenges. We have the ability to fall in love, form families, drive each other crazy, and not screw up this whole beautiful experiment. And my feeling about it is that we’ve decided somehow that there’s something wrong with us. And I think that it’s, we’re just making things out to be much more difficult than they are.
There are glorious, wonderful challenges. There are places to visit that are still remarkably undiscovered on Earth. And we’re going to wake up hopefully in the next couple of years to the idea that with the machine’s help, we can solve all sorts of problems that we thought were intractable.
And so I think the thing that we’re not talking enough about is that this is the sprint to the finish and it can be glorious, even though it’s incredibly dangerous. And that if we just have a completely different attitude, which is that we are the original badasses that changed everything in such a short period of time. We get back to being those people who did so much instead of visiting the monuments built by our ancestors.
I think we could imagine that unlike this period of stability and safety for the last 80 years, this could be a period of incredible chaos, great peril, lots of fear, but unparalleled fun, excitement, wonder, glory. We don’t even feel comfortable with the word glory. We can say Slava, Ukraina, but we can’t say glory to us.
And I think it should just be a glorious age filled with hope. And I think we can get out of here. And I love the fact that I’m back on the show and I can end on a positive note like that. So thank you both.
FRANCIS FOSTER: Well, thank you as always, Eric. And make sure to join us over on Substack where you get to ask Eric your questions and we get to carry on the conversation. Everyone focuses on the US versus Russia relationship to be the one to set off a bomb, but which lesser known conflict competitive pairing should we also pay attention to in terms of setting off a nuclear exchange?

Eric Weinstein is a mathematician, economist, science policy expert and a frequent public speaker on a variety of subjects within the sciences.

Dr Weinstein was formerly a co-founder of the Sloan Sponsored Science and Engineering Workforce Project at Harvard and the National Bureau of Economic Research, a co-founder and principal of the Natron Group in Manhattan as well as a visiting research fellow at Oxford University in the Mathematical Institute. Since completing a PhD dissertation in the Mathematics Department at Harvard in 1992, he has held research positions in Mathematics, Physics, and Economics departments (at MIT, Hebrew University, and Harvard respectively). He delivered the Special Simonyi Lectures at Oxford University in 2013 putting forth a theory he termed “Geometric Unity” to unify the twin geometries (Riemannian and Ehresmannian) thought to ground the two most fundamental physical theories (General Relativity and the so-called Standard Model of particle theory, respectively). He has been asked to address the National Academy of Sciences on five occasions on the future of scientific and academic research at elite institutions within the United States.

Data Centers: Are They Really Surveillance Or Spy Centers?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:21:00 +0000

AI Overview
The immense computing power housed in AI data centers is directly driving a massive expansion in global and domestic surveillance. These facilities provide the necessary infrastructure to ingest, process, and analyze vast amounts of data—from facial recognition feeds to location tracking—for law enforcement and government agencies.
How AI Data Centers Power Surveillance
Predictive Policing & Data Brokers: Data centers process massive, warrantless collections of data, such as geolocation and web-browsing information purchased from data brokers. This allows law enforcement agencies to build geospatial heat maps to predict crime trends.
Real-Time Crime Centers: Platforms aggregate feeds from widespread sources (like automatic license plate readers and public CCTV cameras) into searchable, AI-powered networks. Officers can use natural language searches to track specific vehicles, bystanders, or suspects.
Global Monitoring: At a larger scale, AI data center architecture enables widespread public surveillance, such as real-time tracking of dissidents and monitoring of crowds using biometric scanning.
Physical Security Inside the Facilities
Interestingly, these data centers also use AI for their own physical surveillance. Operators use AI-powered cameras with video analytics to secure server racks, prevent unauthorized access (such as "tailgating"), and guide automated emergency responses.
Privacy & Public Concern
Civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, frequently cite "mission creep" regarding this technology. Tools originally justified for specific security applications are now increasingly used to monitor everyday citizens. If left unchecked, privacy advocates warn that these networks could facilitate an unprecedented digital surveillance state.
And:
Data centers play a central role in mass surveillance by serving as the physical infrastructure where vast amounts of personal information are stored, processed, and analyzed. While data centers themselves are neutral facilities designed for general business functions, they can be utilized for surveillance when government agencies or corporations gain legal—or sometimes unauthorized—access to the data housed within them.
How Data Centers Facilitate Surveillance
Mass Storage: Agencies like the NSA use massive facilities, such as the Utah Data Center, to store billions of communications, including emails and text messages, for later analysis.
Legal "Loopholed" Access: Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the U.S. government can compel providers to hand over data. Recent legislative changes have attempted to broaden the definition of service providers to include almost any business with access to communication equipment, potentially including data center operators.
The Data Broker Loophole: To bypass warrant requirements, some federal agencies simply purchase bulk personal data—such as location history and web browsing habits—from data brokers who store this information in commercial data centers.
AI Supercharging: Advanced AI models running in these centers can now process "unclassified bulk data" to recreate people's movements, associations, and daily habits at an unprecedented scale.
Real-World Examples of Monitoring
Internet Traffic Splitting: Whistleblowers have previously revealed that major telecommunications companies installed hardware at their facilities to provide the NSA with full copies of all fiber-optic internet traffic.
Targeted Programs: Programs like PRISM allow intelligence agencies to collect data directly from the servers of major technology companies.
Corporate Monitoring: Beyond government spying, data centers enable companies to track worker productivity through keystroke monitoring and facial expression analysis, practices that are legal in many states.
Privacy and Policy Responses
Digital rights organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU frequently advocate for national privacy bills and the closure of data broker loopholes to limit warrantless mass surveillance. They argue that the current "mission creep" of surveillance technology—initially intended for foreign intelligence but increasingly used on domestic citizens—undermines basic civil liberties.

Also:

How AI can enable public surveillance

Data Centers Throughout The Country
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers many promising applications. Algorithms and machine learning can help develop new drugs and target treatment in effective ways. AI also plays a role in tracking climate change by monitoring weather patterns. Wildlife experts have coupled AI with satellite imagery to monitor how endangered species are faring and where threats are appearing.
But there is a dark side to AI as well, given its potential for nefarious purposes. Concerns around privacy, safety and security have grown as the technology is used to analyze confidential material and amplify false narratives as part of disinformation campaigns. Due to its scalability and capacity to examine large data sets, it can study people’s behavior and act on that information.
Perhaps the starkest example is in China, where AI enables surveillance on a widespread scale. Coupled with social media monitoring, cameras, and facial recognition, the technology enables authorities to track dissidents and government critics and identify their statements and locations. There is infrastructure in place that can integrate information from a variety of sources and analyze it in real time for government authorities.
Concerns over AI surveillance echo the fears surrounding TikTok’s data-sharing practices with Chinese authorities, including the collection of users’ personal details and content interactions. U.S. officials have flagged this as a national security threat, contributing to Congress’ decision to ban TikTok in 2024.
However, AI surveillance may no longer be just a foreign government threat. Reports have surfaced about potential abuses in the U.S., including government contracts that may enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor social media. According to the Politico Digital Future newsletter, “the contractors advertise their ability to scan through millions of posts and use AI to summarize their findings” for their clients. With major agencies, law enforcement, and intelligence services now in the hands of Trump loyalists, this monitoring capability is a particular concern right now when the administration is going after its critics.
DHS later confirmed it is using digital tools to analyze social media posts from individuals applying for visas or green cards. The surveillance software would search for any signs of “extremist” rhetoric or “antisemitic activity.” The announcement raised questions about how these terms would be defined and whether public criticism of certain countries could be used to label applicants as “terrorist sympathizers.”
Other reports suggest that surveillance has already occurred within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to sources quoted by Reuters, “some EPA managers were told by Trump appointees that Musk’s team is rolling out AI to monitor workers, including looking for language in communications considered hostile to Trump or Musk.” The EPA has denied the report, calling it “categorically false.”
It is not just the American government that is getting into the monitoring act. Some U.S. companies already engage in workplace surveillance of their employees for business purposes. In the absence of a national privacy bill, there are few legal safeguards to limit workplace computer or network surveillance—or even to require that such monitoring be disclosed. Employers can track what workers do on their computers, even if they are using their equipment at home as part of hybrid work. Some firms even go as far as monitoring keystrokes or facial expressions to see what people are doing, who may be underperforming, and whether they are obeying company policies. These digital practices are perfectly legal in many states.
Overall, it is a risky time for AI-based surveillance because we have a combination of advanced digital technologies, high-level computing power, abundant and non-secured data, data brokers who buy and sell information, and a risky political environment. It is the confluence of each of these factors that endanger people’s freedoms and ability to express themselves in an open manner. As AI surveillance grows, individual freedom diminishes, and the risks of government and corporate overreach rise.
A national privacy bill could help mitigate some of these threats by establishing privacy standards and blocking some of the most dangerous practices, but it would not be a comprehensive solution.
Further, U.S. government agencies should be barred from using AI or facial recognition software to spy on individuals or monitor their public statements on social media. Using such tools to track what people say about public officials could cross into undemocratic territory for the United States.

Also:

US government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices

On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors’ Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car’s sensors, cameras and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you’re going, who’s with you, what you say, and biological metrics such as facial expression, weight and heart rate. Your car may also collect text messages and contacts from your connected smartphone.
Meanwhile, your phone continuously senses and records your communications, info about your health, what apps you’re using, and tracks your location via cell towers, GPS satellites and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
As you enter the store, its surveillance cameras identify your face and track your movements through the aisles. If you then use Apple or Google Pay to make your purchase, your phone tracks what you bought and how much you paid.
All this data quickly becomes commercially available, bought and sold by data brokers. Aggregated and analyzed by artificial intelligence, the data reveals detailed, sensitive information about you that can be used to predict and manipulate your behavior, including what you buy, feel, think and do.
Companies unilaterally collect data from most of your activities. This “surveillance capitalism” is often unrelated to the services device manufacturers, apps and stores are providing you. For example, Tinder is planning to use AI to scan your entire camera roll. And despite their promises, “opting out” doesn’t actually stop companies’ data collection.
While companies can manipulate you, they cannot put you in jail. But the U.S. government can, and it now purchases massive quantities of your information from commercial data brokers. The government is able to purchase Americans’ sensitive data because the information it buys is not subject to the same restrictions as information it collects directly.
The federal government is also ramping up its abilities to directly collect data through partnerships with private tech companies. These surveillance tech partnerships are becoming entrenched, domestically and abroad, as advances in AI take surveillance to unprecedented levels.
As a privacy, electronic surveillance and tech law attorney, author and legal educator, I have spent years researching, writing and advising about privacy and legal issues related to surveillance and data use. To understand the issues, it is critical to know how these technologies function, who collects what data about you, how that data can be used against you, and why the laws you might think are protecting your data do not apply or are ignored.
Big money for AI-driven tech and more data
Congressional funding is supercharging huge government investments in surveillance tech and data analytics driven by AI, which automates analysis of very large amounts of data. The massive 2025 tax-and-spending law netted the Department of Homeland Security an unprecedented US$165 billion in yearly funding. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of DHS, got about $86 billion.
Disclosure of documents allegedly hacked from Homeland Security reveal a massive surveillance web that has all Americans in its scope.
DHS is expanding its AI surveillance capabilities with a surge in contracts to private companies. It is reportedly funding companies that provide more AI-automated surveillance in airports; adapters to convert agents’ phones into biometric scanners; and an AI platform that acquires all 911 call center data to build geospatial heat maps to predict incident trends. Predicting incident trends can be a form of predictive policing, which uses data to anticipate where, when and how crime may occur.
Privacy risks of using AI to collect data
The U.S. Government Accountability Office identified 10 privacy risks in collecting data using systems that include artificial intelligence. The report, published on March 26, 2026, also included a longer list of challenges to preserving privacy while collecting data using AI.
List of 10 items
Data persistence Data may continue to exist in AI systems and be difficult to extract/remove once collected.
Data re-identification AI has the ability to cross-reference multiple data sets from seemingly independent and anonymous outputs to reidentify anonymized data.
Generation of deceptive or inaccurate outputs AI may be used to intentionally or unintentionally generate deceptive outputs (e.g., deepfakes) or inaccurate outputs (e.g., hallucinations) that may result in harm towards individuals.
Improper disclosure AI can reveal and cause improper sharing of individuals’ data when it infers additional sensitive information from raw data.
Increased accessibility to sensitive information AI can make sensitive information more accessible to a wider audience (e.g., data brokers) than intended.
Invasion of privacy from data aggregation AI may combine various pieces of data about a person to make inferences beyond what is explicitly captured in those data (e.g., social scoring), which can invade an individuals’ personal space and solitude by revealing private information (e.g., health-related, financial, location).
Lack of security over data Inadequate AI data requirements and storage practices can result in data breaches and improper access.
Lack of transparency related to data use AI may be used without providing individuals with notice and control over how their data is being used.
Lack of transparency in AI model algorithmic decision-making The workings of AI models could include decisions based on individual data that one is unaware of and that can lead to privacy risks.
Secondary use of data The use of personal data for purposes other than originally intended can be exacerbated by AI’s ability to repurpose data.
DHS has also spent millions on AI-driven software used to detect sentiment and emotion in users’ online posts. Have you been complaining about Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies online? If so, social media companies including Google, Reddit, Discord, and Facebook and Instagram owner Meta may have sent identifying data, such as your name, email address, phone number and activity, to DHS in response to hundreds of DHS subpoenas served on the companies.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s national policy framework for artificial intelligence, released on March 20, 2026, urges Congress to use grants and tax incentives to fund “wider deployment of AI tools across American industry” and to allow industry and academia to use federal datasets to train AI.
Using federal datasets this way raises privacy law concerns because they contain a lifetime of sensitive details about you, including biographical, employment and tax information.
Blurring lines and little oversight
In foreign intelligence work, the funding, development and controlled use of certain AI-driven gathering of data makes sense. The CIA’s new acquisition framework to turbocharge collaboration with the private sector may be legal with proper oversight. But the line between collaborating for lawful national security purposes versus unlawful domestic spying is becoming dangerously blurred or ignored.
For example, the Pentagon has declared a contractor, Anthropic, a national security risk because Anthropic insisted that its powerful agentic AI model, Claude, not be used for mass domestic surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons.
On March 18, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed to Congress that the FBI is buying Americans’ data from data brokers, including location histories, to track American citizens.
As the federal government accelerates the use of and investment in AI-driven spy tech, it is mandating less oversight around AI technology. In addition to the national AI policy framework, which discourages state regulation of AI, the president has issued executive orders to accelerate federal government adoption of AI systems, remove state law AI regulation barriers and require that the federal government not procure the use of AI models that attempt to adjust for bias. But using advanced AI systems is risky, given reports of AI agents going rogue, exposing sensitive data and becoming a threat, even during routine tasks.
Your data
The surveillance capitalism system requires people to unwittingly participate in a manipulative cycle of group- and self-surveillance. Neighborhood doorbell cameras, Flock license plate readers and hyperlocal social media sites like Nextdoor create a crowdsourced record of all people’s movements in public spaces.
Sensors in phones and wearable devices, such as earbuds and rings, collect ever more sensitive details. These include health data, including your heart rate and heart rate variability, blood oxygen, sweat and stress levels, behavioral patterns, neurological changes and even brain waves. Smartphones can be used to diagnose, assess and treat Parkinson’s disease. Earbuds could be used to monitor brain health.
This data is not protected under HIPAA, which prohibits health care providers and those working with them from disclosing your health information without your permission, because the law does not consider tech companies to be health care providers nor these wearables to be medical devices.
Legal protections
People have little choice when buying devices, using apps or opening accounts but to agree to lengthy terms that include consent for companies to collect and sell their personal data. This “consent” allows their data to end up in the largely unregulated commercial data market.
The government claims it can lawfully purchase this data from data brokers. But in buying your data in bulk on the commercial market, the government is circumventing the Constitution, Supreme Court decisions and federal laws designed to protect your privacy from unwarranted government overreach.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure by the government. Supreme Court cases require police to get a warrant to search a phone or use cellular or GPS location information to track someone. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act’s Wiretap Act prohibits unauthorized interception of wire, oral and electronic communications.
Despite some efforts, Congress has failed to enact legislation to protect data privacy, the use of sensitive data by AI systems or to restore the intent of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Courts have allowed the broad electronic privacy protections in the federal Wiretap Act to be eviscerated by companies claiming consent.
The way to begin to address these problems is to restore the Wiretap Act and related laws to their intended purposes of protecting Americans’ privacy in communications, and for Congress to follow through on its promises and efforts by passing legislation that secures Americans’ data privacy and protects them from AI harms.

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Hidden Consequences of the Big Data Surveillance Complex
A free and democratic society is only as strong as its citizens’ abilities to make informed decisions, which, in turn, are only as strong as their media and digital literacy skills and the quality of information they consume.
Unbeknownst to much of the public, Big Tech exacts heavy tolls on public health, the environment, and democracy. The detrimental combination of an unregulated tech sector, pronounced rise in cyberattacks and data theft, and widespread digital and media illiteracy—as noted in a Dispatch on Big Data’s surveillance complex—is exacerbated by legacy media’s failure to inform the public of these risks. While establishment news outlets cover major security breaches in Big Tech’s troves of personal identifiable information (PII) and their costs to individuals, businesses, and national security, this coverage fails to address the negative impacts of Big Tech on the full health of our political system, civic engagement, and ecosystems.
Marietje Schaake, an AI Policy fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI Policy, argues that Big Tech’s unrestrained hand in all three branches of the government, the military, local and national elections, policing, workplace monitoring, and surveillance capitalism undermine American society in ways the public has failed to grasp. Indeed, little in the corporate press helps the public understand exactly how data centers—the facilities that process and store vast amounts of data—do more than endanger PII. Greenlit by the Trump administration, data centers accelerate ecosystem harms through their unmitigated appropriation of natural resources, including water, and the subsequent greenhouse gas emissions that increase ambient pollution and its attendant diseases.
Adding insult to the public’s right to be informed, corporate news rarely sheds light on how an ethical, independent press serves the public good and functions to balance power in a democracy. A 2023 civics poll by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School found that only a quarter of respondents knew that press freedom is a constitutional right and a counterbalance to the powers of government and capitalism. The gutting of local news in favor of commercial interests has only accelerated this knowledge blackout.
The demand for AI by corporatists, military AI venture capitalists, and consumers—and resultant demand for data centers—is outpacing utilities infrastructure, traditional power grid capabilities, and the renewable energy sector. Big Tech companies, such as Amazon and Meta, strain municipal water systems and regional power grids, reducing the capacity to operate all things residential and local. In Newton County, Georgia, for example, Meta’s $750 million data center, which sucks up approximately 500,000 gallons of water a day, has contaminated local groundwater and caused taps in nearby homes to run dry. What’s more, the AI boom comes at a time when hot wars are flaring and global temperatures are soaring faster than scientists once predicted.
Constant connectivity, algorithms, and AI-generated content delude individual internet and device users into believing that they’re well informed. However, the decline of civics awareness in the United States—compounded by rampant digital and media illiteracy, ubiquitous state and corporate surveillance, and lax news reporting—makes for an easily manipulated citizenry, asserts attorney and privacy expert, Heidi Boghosian. This is especially disconcerting given the creeping spread of authoritarianism, smackdown on civil liberties, and surging demand for AI everything.
Open [but not transparent] AI
While the companies that develop and deploy popular AI-powered tools lionize the wonders of their products and services, they keep hidden the unsustainable impacts on our world. To borrow from Cory Doctorow, the “enshittification” of the online economy traps consumers, vendors, and advertisers in “the organizing principle of US statecraft,” as well as by more mundane capitalist surveillance. Without government oversight or a Fourth Estate to compel these tech corporations to reveal their shadow side, much of the public is not only in the dark but in harm’s way.
At the most basic level, consumers should know that OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT, collects private data and chat inputs, regardless of whether users are logged in or not. Any time users visit or interact with ChatGPT, their log data (the Internet Protocol address, browser type and settings, date and time of the site visit, and interaction with the service), usage data (time zone, country, and type of device used), device details (device name and identifiers, operating system, and browser used), location information from the device’s GPS, and cookies, which store the user’s personal information, are saved. Most users have no idea that they can opt out.
OpenAI claims it saves data only for “fine-tuning,” a process of enhancing the performance and capabilities of AI models, and for human review “to identify biases or harmful outputs.” OpenAI also claims not to use data for marketing and advertising purposes or to sell information to third parties without prior consent. Most users, however, are as oblivious to the means of consent as to the means of opting out. This is by design.
In July, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule, which would have made online unsubscribing easier. The ruling would have covered all forms of negative option marketing—programs that give sellers free reign to interpret customer inaction as “opting in,” consenting to subscriptions and unwittingly accruing charges. Director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, John Davisson, commented that the court’s decision was poorly reasoned, and only those with financial or career advancement motives would argue in favor of subscription traps.
Even if OpenAI is actually protective of the private data it stores, it is not above disclosing user data to affiliates, law enforcement, and the government. Moreover, ChatGPT practices are noncompliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the global gold standard of data privacy protection. Although OpenAI says it strips PII and anonymizes data, its practice of “indefinite retention” does not comply with the GDPR’s stipulation for data storage limitations, nor does OpenAI sufficiently guarantee irreversible data de-identification.
As science and tech reporter Will Knight wrote for Wired, “Once data is baked into an AI model today, extracting it from that model is a bit like trying to recover the eggs from a finished cake.” Whenever a tech company collects and keeps PII, there are security risks. The more data captured and stored by a company, the more likely it will be exposed to a system bug, hack, or breach, such as the ChatGPT breach in March 2023.
OpenAI has said it will comply with the EU’s AI Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI, which aims to foster transparency, information sharing, and best practices for model and risk assessment among tech companies. Microsoft has said that it will likely sign on to compliance, too; while Meta, on the other hand, flatly refuses to comply, much like it refuses to abide by environmental regulations.
To no one’s surprise, the EU code has already become politicized, and the White House has issued its own AI Action Plan to “remove red tape.” The plan also purports to remove “woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models,” eliminating such topics as diversity, equity, and inclusion and climate change. As Trump crusades against regulation and “bias,” the White House-allied Meta decries political concerns over compliance with the EU’s AI code. Meta’s claim is coincidental; British Courts, based on the United Kingdom’s GDPR obligations, ruled that anyone in a country covered by the GDPR has the right to request Meta to stop using their personal data for targeted advertising.
Big Tech’s open secrets
Information on the tech industry’s environmental and health impacts exists, attests artificial intelligence researcher Sasha Luccioni. The public is simply not being informed. This lack of transparency, warns Luccioni, portends significant environmental and health consequences. Too often, industry opaqueness is excused by insiders as “competition” to which they feel entitled, or blamed on the broad scope of artificial intelligence products and services—smart devices, recommender systems, internet searches, autonomous vehicles, machine learning, the list goes on. Allegedly, there’s too much variety to reasonably quantify consequences.
Those consequences are quantifiable, though. While numbers vary and are on the ascent, there are at least 3,900 data centers in the United States and 10,000 worldwide. An average data center houses complex networking equipment, servers, and systems for cooling systems, lighting, security, and storage, all requiring copious rare earth minerals, water, and electricity to operate.
The densest data center area exists in Northern Virginia, just outside the nation’s capital. “Data Center Alley,” also known as the “Data Center Capital of the World,” has the highest concentration of data centers not only in the United States but in the entire world, consuming millions of gallons of water every day. International hydrologist Newsha Ajami has documented how water shortages around the world are being worsened by Big Data. For tech companies, “water is an afterthought.”
Powered by fossil fuels, these data centers pose serious public health implications. According to research in 2024, training one large language model (LLM) with 213 million parameters produced 626,155 pounds of CO2 emissions, “equivalent to the lifetime emissions of five cars, including fuel.” Stated another way, such AI training “can produce air pollutants equivalent to more than 10,000 round trips by car between Los Angeles and New York City.”
Reasoning models generate more “thinking tokens” and use as much as 50 percent more energy than other AI models. Google and Microsoft search features purportedly use smaller models when possible, which, theoretically, can provide quick responses with less energy. It’s unclear when or if smaller models are actually invoked, and the bottom line, explained climate reporter Molly Taft, is that model providers are not informing consumers that speedier AI response times almost always equate to higher energy usage.
Profits over people
AI is rapidly becoming a public utility, profoundly shaping society, surmise Caltech’s Adam Wierman and Shaolei Ren of the University of California, Riverside. In the last few years, AI has outgrown its niche in the tech sector to become integral to digital economies, government, and security. AI has merged more closely with daily life, replacing human jobs and decision-making, and has thus created a reliance on services currently controlled by private corporations. Because other essential services such as water, electricity, and communications are treated as public utilities, there’s growing discussion about whether AI should be regulated under a similar public utility model.
That said, data centers need power grids, most of which depend on fossil fuel-generated electricity that stresses national and global energy stores. Data centers also need backup generators for brownout and blackout periods. With limited clean, reliable backup options, despite the known environmental and health consequences of burning diesel, diesel generators remain the industry’s go-to.
Whether the public realizes it or not, the environment and citizens are being polluted by the actions of private tech firms. Outputs from data centers inject dangerous fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the air, immediately worsening cardiovascular conditions, asthma, cancer, and even cognitive decline, caution Wierman and Ren. Contrary to popular belief, air pollutants are not localized to their emission sources. And, although chemically different, carbon (CO2) is not contained by location either.
Of great concern is that in “World Data Capital Virginia,” data centers are incentivized with tax breaks. Worse still, the (misleadingly named) Environmental Protection Agency plans to remove all limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to documents obtained by the New York Times. Thus, treating AI and data centers as public utilities presents a double-edged sword. Can a government that slashes regulations to provide more profit to industry while destroying its citizens’ health along with the natural world be trusted to fairly price and equitably distribute access to all? Would said government suddenly start protecting citizens’ privacy and sensitive data?
The larger question, perhaps, asks if the US is truly a democracy. Or is it a technogarchy, or an AI-tocracy? The 2024 AI Global Surveillance (AIGS) Index ranked the United States first for its deployment of advanced AI surveillance tools that “monitor, track, and surveil citizens to accomplish a range of objectives— some lawful, others that violate human rights, and many of which fall into a murky middle ground,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reported.
Surveillance has long been the purview of authoritarian regimes, but in so-called democracies such as the United States, the scale and intensity of AI use is leveraged both globally through military operations and domestically to target and surveil civilians. In cities such as Scarsdale, New York, and Norfolk, Virginia, citizens are beginning to speak out against the systems that are “immensely popularwith politicians and law enforcement, even though they do real and palpable damage to the citizenry.”
Furthermore, tracking civilians to “deter civil disobedience” has never been easier, evidenced in June by the rapid mobilization of boots on the ground amid the peaceful protests of ICE raids in Los Angeles. AI-powered surveillance acts as the government’s “digital scarecrow,” chilling the American tradition and First Amendment right to protest and the Fourth Estate’s right to report.
The public is only just starting to become aware of algorithmic biases in AI training datasets and their prejudicial impact on predictive policing, or profiling, algorithms, and other analytic tools used by law enforcement. City street light and traffic light cameras, facial recognition systems, video monitoring in and around business and government buildings, as well as smart speakers, smart toys, keyless entry locks, automobile intelligent dash displays, and insurance antitheft tracking systems are all embedded with algorithmic biases.
Checking Big Tech’s unchecked power
Given the level and surreptitiousness of surveillance, the media are doubly tasked with treading carefully to avoid being targeted and accurately informing the public’s perception of data collection and data centers. Reporting that glorifies techbros and AI is unscrupulous and antithetical to democracy: In an era where billionaire techbros and wanna-be-kings are wielding every available apparatus of government and capitalism to gatekeep information, the public needs an ethical press committed to seeking truth, reporting it, and critically covering how AI is shifting power.
If people comprehend what’s at stake—their personal privacy and health, the environment, and democracy itself—they may be more inclined to make different decisions about their AI engagement and media consumption. An independent press that prioritizes public enlightenment means that citizens and consumers still have choices, starting with basic data privacy self-controls that resist AI surveillance and stand up for democratic self-governance.
Just as a healthy environment, replete with clean air and water, has been declared a human right by the United Nations, privacy is enshrined in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although human rights are subject to national laws, water, air, and the internet know no national borders. It is, therefore, incumbent upon communities and the press to uphold these rights and to hold power to account.
This spring, residents of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, did just that. Thanks to independent journalism and civic participation, residents pushed back against the corporate advertising meant to convince the county that the fossil fuels powering the region’s data centers are “clean.” Propagandistic campaigns were similarly applied in Memphis, Tennessee, where proponents of Elon Musk’s data center—which has the footprint of thirteen football fields—circulated fliers to residents of nearby, historically Black neighborhoods, proclaiming the super-polluting xAI has low emissions. “Colossus,” Musk’s name for what’s slated to be the world’s biggest supercomputer, powers xAI’s Hitler-loving chatbot Grok.
The Southern Environmental Law Center exposed with satellite and thermal imagery how xAI, which neglected to obtain legally required air permits, brought in at least 35 portable methane gas turbines to help power Colossus. Tennessee reporter Ren Brabenec said that Memphis has become a sacrifice zone and expects the communities there to push back.
Meanwhile, in Pittsylvania, Virginia, residents succeeded in halting the proposed expansion of data centers that would damage the region’s environment and public health. Elizabeth Putfark, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, affirmed that communities, including local journalists, are a formidable force when acting in solidarity for the public welfare.
Best practices
Because AI surveillance is a threat to democracies everywhere, we must each take measures to counter “government use of AI for social control,” contends Abi Olvera, senior fellow with the Council on Strategic Risks. Harlo Holmes, director of digital security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Wired that consumers must make technology choices under the premise that they’re our “last line of defense.” Steps to building that last line of defense include digital and media literacies and digital hygiene, and at least a cursory understanding of how data is stored and its far-reaching impacts.
Best defensive practices employed by media professionals can also serve as best practices for individuals. This means becoming familiar with laws and regulations, taking every precaution to protect personal information on the internet and during online communications, and engaging in responsible civic discourse. A free and democratic society is only as strong as its citizens’ abilities to make informed decisions, which, in turn, are only as strong as their media and digital literacy skills and the quality of information they consume.

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The federal government is building Big Brother
Fighting for digital privacy has never been more important. The Trump administration has empowered big tech surveillance companies like Palantir and Babel Street to aggregate Americans' personal data into massive government databases. This includes the collection and sharing of precise location information that makes it easy for police and federal agencies to track people, including at protests and while peacefully observing ICE agents.
Palantir and Babel Street don't only collect and aggregate huge quantities of public and nonpublic information about ordinary Americans. They also apply machine learning algorithms to look for patterns in the information, pull out so-called "suspicious activity"— like criticism of the Trump administration—and automate profiling and surveillance.
According to recent reporting from 404 Media, Palantir’s ICE app, called ELITE, “populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address.” The State Department is already using similar technologies as part of its "catch and revoke" program, targeting U.S. visa holders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has extended these social media surveillance practices to visa applicants, effectively screening immigrants based on their political expression.
That's bad enough.
But it could very quickly get worse, because what the government does to foreigners is often a prelude to what it intends to do to U.S. citizens.
A weaponized federal government prepares to take on U.S. citizens
Indeed, in September 2025, the Trump administration issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, instructing the Department of Justice to investigate civil society organizations, activists, and donors, with a particular focus on the political left and pro-democracy organizations. Palantir’s and Babel Street's databases provide the infrastructure to identify, track, and act against these targets.
The Fourth Amendment and state constitutional protections, like Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, guarantee individuals the right to be free from warrantless government surveillance and tracking. But these constitutional protections are being eroded right in front of our eyes.
The White House ignores the law. And the administration's reckless disregard for civil liberties is given astonishing reach by AI and machine learning technologies that automate surveillance and profiling, enabling the government to track and categorize people at a scale never before possible.
This automation means the government is no longer limited by the number of people it employs. Effortless and pervasive monitoring tracks people on sidewalks, roadways, and even into our private spheres—including the websites we visit, the ideas we express, and the places we spend and donate our money.
The ACLU and other organizations are filing lawsuits to stop Trump's assaults on our civil liberties at the federal level.
We are also hard at work in the states, to ensure state and local government resources are not being used—intentionally or not—to assist with Trump's assaults on the rule of law and our democratic freedoms.
Massachusetts's slide into a digital surveillance state
Mirroring surveillance expansion at the federal level, AI-powered technology is enabling local and state law enforcement to erode our privacy here in Massachusetts. Nearly every part of policing is becoming automated—from warrantless tracking of all drivers on the roads through automatic license plate readers to social media surveillance.
Some of these tools have valid law enforcement purposes when implemented with proper guardrails. The problem is that there are few, if any, guardrails in place today. Even worse, as our work on Flock license plate readers has shown, when state and local police beef up their surveillance apparatus, Trump's agencies are often the beneficiaries.
Law enforcement agencies often justify expansions of surveillance by suggesting that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. But that’s simply not true.
In Commonwealth v. Augustine, Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court was among the first courts to recognize that people retain their right to privacy even in public spaces. The Supreme Court has acknowledged this reality as well. In the landmark case Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court warned that privacy rights could be eroded by “ever alert” modern surveillance technologies. Both the Augustine and Carpenter cases established that police cannot track people via their cell phone location for extended periods of time without a warrant.
Yet the automation of policing continues to surge, with apparent disregard for our bedrock constitutional rights.
Surveillance technology companies like Axon, Motorola, Flock Safety, and Genetec are rolling out AI-powered predictive policing and "real-time crime center" tools that greatly increase the potential for abuse.
These technology suites gather data from various surveillance devices and sources into a central database bolstered with AI capabilities, including facial recognition. The result: police can follow your every move — tracking where you live, work, worship, protest, get healthcare, and more.
And they can do this not just to one of us, but to all of us, with the mere click of a button.
In Massachusetts, this shift toward AI-driven surveillance is already underway. Here are some of the tools deployed by state and local law enforcement agencies:
Automatic license plate readers
Police departments across Massachusetts are deploying AI-powered automatic license plate readers (LPRs) that transform routine traffic monitoring into comprehensive location tracking tools.
Companies like Flock Safety and Vigilant Solutions provide law enforcement agencies nationwide with access to vast networks of cameras that capture and store license plate data, creating detailed records of people's movements over time. These technologies don't just track people suspected of serious crimes—they monitor everyone on the roads, building massive databases of where ordinary people go about their daily lives.
Today, unrestricted sharing of license plate reader data through Flock and Vigilant's national databases is facilitating ongoing civil immigration enforcement by federal and state authorities, and even helping cops in Texas investigate a woman for terminating her pregnancy.
When combined with cell-site simulators that can track the location of mobile devices, police gain unprecedented ability to follow individuals without a warrant, even though the Supreme Court raised concerns about this practice in Carpenter.
According to documents obtained by the ACLU of Massachusetts in response to public records requests and other publicly available sources, more than 80 police departments across the state have adopted automatic license plate reader systems. No state laws regulate the use of this location tracking technology.
Surveillance cameras, facial recognition technology, and video analytics software
The proliferation of surveillance cameras across Massachusetts cities and towns has created a foundation for AI-powered monitoring that extends far beyond what was previously possible.
The ACLU of Massachusetts obtained the user guide of one common video analytics software, BriefCam. It reveals extensive reliance on facial recognition technology and machine learning to automatically identify and follow individuals across multiple camera feeds. This technology transforms scattered surveillance cameras into an integrated tracking network that can follow the daily movements of countless surveillance targets with minimal human labor.
Facial recognition technology is far from perfect. It has well-documented misidentification issues — including the recent misidentification (twice!) of a woman who was taken into ICE custody. Even famous athletes have been misidentified. The technology’s high error rates reflect a persistent and insidious racial bias that disproportionately harms people of color.
Yet police departments continue to use it.
The Springfield Police Department is among the Massachusetts law enforcement agencies using BriefCam, despite a local ordinance prohibiting City agencies from using face surveillance. The Boston Police Department also has a contract for BriefCam but says it is not currently using the software.
How you can help rein in the surveillance state
We need immediate action at both the state and local level to ensure that law enforcement can continue to use technology to protect the public from true threats — without creating a digital dragnet that sweeps up the data of millions of people suspected of no crime.
The ACLU of Massachusetts’ top priority this legislative session is data privacy protection.
The Senate has passed a strong data privacy bill. The House is now considering similar legislation. This bill will limit the amount of information companies can collect and process about us, and will completely forbid them from selling especially sensitive data like precise geolocation information.
We know ICE is purchasing cellphone location data and using it to hunt down our friends, family, and neighbors. Massachusetts must prohibit the sale of these sensitive data, to ensure agencies like ICE cannot skirt Fourth Amendment warrant requirements simply by cutting a check to a data broker.
Take action to support comprehensive data privacy legislation today.
We are also supporting other important legislation. With your help, they will gain momentum in the coming months. These include:
H.3755 would prohibit the accumulation and sharing of license plate reader data on millions of people not suspected of any wrongdoing, while still allowing law enforcement to use these tools in legitimate criminal investigations, subject to judicial oversight.
H.1946 and S.1053 would establish critical guardrails on the use of facial recognition technology and advanced video analytics software that threaten our privacy and disproportionately harm communities of color.
In addition, you can encourage your municipality to adopt a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance, which gives local leaders and residents democratic oversight of surveillance tools such as license place readers and facial recognition before they're deployed. CCOPS has already been enacted in Boston, Cambridge, Lawrence, Medford, Northampton, and Somerville.
If your community doesn't yet have a CCOPS ordinance, now is the time to organize and advocate for one—visit the ACLU of Massachusetts CCOPS resources page to learn more.
Protect privacy without compromising safety
AI can multiply the power of individual surveillance tools exponentially, transforming them from limited investigative resources into an omnipresent digital dragnet that monitors everyone, not just people suspected of serious crimes.
The automated nature of these systems means that traditional limitations on police resources—once a vital check on government overreach—have been effectively eliminated, replaced by AI-powered surveillance that never sleeps, never forgets, and constantly watches our every move.

Pope Leo Creates Artificial Intelligence Study Group

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:00:00 +0000

AI Overview
Pope Leo XIV has made artificial intelligence a central moral focus of his papacy. He views AI as the defining issue of a new industrial revolution. His concerns center on labor rights, AI-directed warfare, and the potential for technology to diminish human creativity, wisdom, and neurological development.
The Vatican addresses AI across several key initiatives and statements:
First Encyclical Warning: Pope Leo's encyclical, reportedly titled Magnifica Humanitas, is a major moral document emphasizing human dignity, labor protections, and the ethical management of artificial intelligence.
Interdicasterial Commission: The Pope approved the creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which coordinates the work of various Vatican departments to study and address the global societal effects of AI.
Warnings Against "Virtual Popes": He has directly dismissed the idea of a "virtual pope" and discouraged youth from asking AI to do their homework, stating that machines lack genuine wisdom and the ability to discern right from wrong.
Concerns Over Automated Warfare: He has heavily denounced the rise of AI-directed weaponry, warning that it leads the world into a dangerous "spiral of annihilation".
Papal Name Significance: He chose the name "Leo" to deliberately align his teachings with Pope Leo XIII, who authored Rerum Novarum—a foundational text on workers' rights during the first Industrial Revolution.

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Pope creates artificial intelligence study group as Vatican prepares to release his first encyclical

Pope Leo XIV has created a study group on artificial intelligence, the Vatican said Saturday, as he gears up to release his first encyclical that is expected to emphasize the need for an ethics-based approach to the technology that prioritizes human dignity and peace.
The Vatican said Leo had decided to create the in-house study group because of the acceleration in AI’s use, “its potential effects on human beings and on humanity as a whole (and) the church’s concern for the dignity of every human being.”
The announcement came a day after Leo signed his encyclical, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, dated his most important encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” or Of New Things. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.
It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church’s social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace.
“I think that the Catholic Church in many ways is going to be the adult in the room on some of these debates about how we are going to integrate AI into the rest of our society,” said Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame who directs its ethics institute. “For sure, the pope is going to be one of the most forceful advocates for human dignity in these discussions.”
Just days after his 2025 election, Leo told the cardinals who made him pope that the Catholic Church owed it to the world to offer the “treasury of its social teaching” to confront the challenges posed by AI on “human dignity, justice and labor.”
The public release of the encyclical, expected in the coming weeks, will likely become a new flashpoint between the Chicago-born Leo and the Trump administration, which has made the rapid development of AI a matter of vital national economic and security strategy. The United States has strongly rejected international regulatory efforts to rein in AI and the Trump administration has removed bureaucratic roadblocks slowing its development domestically.
The flurry of Vatican activity came as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up a visit to China that included AI business. Traveling with Trump on Air Force One were, among others, Elon Musk, whose social media platform X features his AI chatbot Grok, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently secured federal approval to sell H200 AI chips to Chinese buyers.
The Vatican wants its voice and values in the AI debate
Since the AI boom kicked off with ChatGPT’s debut, the technology’s breathtaking capabilities have amazed the world. Tech companies have raced to develop better AI systems even as experts warn of its risks, from existential but far-off threats like rogue AIs running amok to everyday problems like bias in algorithmic hiring systems.
The United Nations last year adopted a new governance architecture to rein in AI after previous multilateral efforts, including AI summits organized by Britain, South Korea and France resulted only in nonbinding pledges. In 2024, the EU adopted its own Artificial Intelligence Act, applying a risk-based approach to its AI rules.
The Vatican has sought to add its voice to the debate, offering ethical guidelines for the application of AI in sectors from warfare to education and healthcare. The underlying call has been that the technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence.
The Vatican has also warned of the environmental impact of the AI race, noting the “vast amounts of energy and water” required by AI data centers and computational power.
“There are almost a billion and a half Catholics in the world, so that alone is reason to pay attention,” said Thomas Harmon, theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. “But beyond the numbers, the Catholic Church has a deep and sophisticated tradition of thinking through what it means to be human.”
In 2020, the Vatican enlisted tech companies to sign on to an AI pledge, known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics, which, among other things, outlined core principles for AI regulation, including inclusiveness, accountability, impartiality, and privacy. Microsoft, IBM and Cisco were among the private sector companies that signed on.
In his final years, Pope Francis called for an international treaty to regulate AI, saying the risks of technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great to merely trust in the morality of AI researchers and developers.
He also brought his authority to bear on the Group of Seven, addressing a special session on the perils and promises of AI in 2024. There, Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans. He called ultimately for a ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, colloquially known as “killer robots.”
AI-savvy Leo is concerned with peace, truth and human relations
In-house, Leo has warned priests against using AI to write their homilies. But the math major pope, who does spend free time scrolling on his phone, has also raised his voice on the broader implications of AI on world peace, labor and the very meaning of reality.
For the Augustinian pope, generative AI’s ability to misinform and deceive through deepfake imagery is particularly worrisome, given that the search for truth is a fundamental element of his religious order’s spirituality.
In a June 2025 speech to an AI conference, Leo acknowledged generative AI’s contributions to healthcare and scientific discovery. But he questioned “its possible repercussions on humanity’s openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp reality.”
Leo, who has emphasized a constant appeal for peace, has also called for monitoring how AI is being used and developed in warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine, where automated weapons systems are using everything from aerial drones and maritime and ground platforms.
“What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation,” he said this past week at La Sapienza, Europe’s largest university.

Also:

Pope Leo sets Catholics on collision course with AI
Pope Leo XIV is expected to sign his first encyclical later this month, positioning artificial intelligence as the defining moral and labor challenge of a new industrial revolution.
Why it matters: The document, reportedly titled "Magnifica Humanitas" ("magnificent humanity"), would become the Catholic Church's clearest attempt yet to place human dignity, labor rights and ethics at the center of the AI race.
Catholic and European outlets reported that Leo is poised to sign the AI encyclical on the anniversary of "Rerum Novarum" (1891), Pope Leo XIII's foundational industrial-era labor encyclical.
But the Holy See's Press Office told reporters on Friday that the announcement about the document will take place on May 22, per InfoVaticana, a Spanish-language digital news outlet that covers the Vatican.
The encyclical will focus specifically on AI's impact on "people and working conditions," framing it as Leo XIV's effort to modernize Catholic social teaching for the AI era, per the French newspaper Le Monde.
Other reports suggest "Magnifica Humanitas" will argue technology must remain subordinate to the human person — not the reverse — and that AI systems should protect workers, creativity and moral agency.
The Vatican has not commented, but it has implemented formal AI guidelines and monitoring structures inside Vatican City.
Zoom in: The late Pope Francis warned repeatedly that AI risked reducing humans to data points and accelerating inequality, surveillance and autonomous warfare.
The Holy See also backed the "Rome Call for AI Ethics," an initiative urging transparency and human-centered AI development.
Context: Encyclicals are among the most important documents a pope issues — used to set priorities and define how the Catholic Church responds to major global challenges.
They often act as blueprints for a papacy, signaling what issues will take center stage for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
Zoom out: The Vatican has stepped up cybersecurity partnerships and AI oversight efforts, blending defense with diplomacy and ethics.
In February, Leo told priests not to use AI to write homilies or to seek "likes" on social media platforms like TikTok.
What they're saying: "This is exactly the fear ... that machines were replacing human labor. And that's exactly what we're seeing right now with AI," said Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Chesnut said Leo is treating AI less like a tech trend and more like a replay of the industrial revolution, with entry-level workers already "evaporating" as automation accelerates.
"This is going to be one of the fundamental pillars of his papacy."
Between the lines: Leo XIV's choice of name increasingly looks like a mission statement.
By invoking Leo XIII, the pope is explicitly drawing parallels between 19th-century industrialization and the AI revolution now unfolding, Catholic experts say.
The message: The Church believes it has a historic role to play again during a period of technological upheaval.
The intrigue: Some American Catholic institutions have also been preparing for this moment and discussing the use of AI.
The Catholic Health Association of the United States, for example, has been examining the ethical implications as AI increasingly shapes health care delivery.
The bottom line: The Vatican is signaling it does not intend to sit out the AI era.

King Charles Announces Introduction of UK Orwellian Digital ID System

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:55:00 +0000

AI Overview
On May 13, 2026, King Charles III delivered the King's Speech, which officially announced that the UK government will proceed with the introduction of a national digital ID system through a new "Digital Access to Services Bill".
While some critics and privacy advocates have characterized these plans as Orwellian or intrusive, the government describes the initiative as a voluntary, secure, and modern way for citizens to interact with public services.
Key Details of the 2026 Digital ID Announcement:
The Announcement: King Charles stated, "My Ministers will also proceed with the introduction of Digital ID that will modernise how citizens interact with public services".
Voluntary Nature: The government has positioned the digital ID as an optional, free, and voluntary tool, rather than a mandatory national ID card, aiming it at those without traditional documentation like passports or driving licences.
Intended Use: The digital ID is intended for use across public services (e.g., NHS services, HMRC records, DWP benefits) and the private sector, such as assisting renters, verifying age, or proving right-to-work.
Implementation: The bill aims to establish a legal framework for creating, storing, and verifying digital credentials, with the rollout expected by the end of the current parliament.
Shift in Policy: The government U-turned on earlier proposals, confirming that this digital ID will no longer be mandatory for right-to-work checks.
Concerns and Criticisms:
Privacy Advocacy: Organizations such as Big Brother Watch have expressed significant concerns, arguing that even a voluntary scheme could lead to a "cradle-to-grave" system for mass surveillance and increased government control.
Public Reception: Despite being framed as a convenience, there has been a lukewarm reception to the proposals, with concerns over potential data breaches and the risk of state overreach.
Potential Expansion: Some analysts worry that despite being labeled "voluntary," the scope could expand over time, leading to a de facto mandatory system.
The King's Speech also mentioned a police reform bill that could introduce new legal frameworks for police use of facial recognition and biometrics alongside the digital ID system.

Also:

UK claims new system will facilitate access to government services, but critics fear it's precursor to China social credit score model.
UK monarch King Charles III announced the rollout of the nation’s digital ID system, ostensibly to allow more citizens to access government services online.
“My ministers will also proceed with the introduction of Digital ID that will modernize how citizens interact with public services,” the king declared in Parliament on Wednesday.
The Sun claims the digital ID “would allow people to prove who they are online ‘in one safe place, at the touch of a button.'”
“The digital ID can also be used for things like free childcare vouchers, tax, passports and driving licences, replacing piles of paperwork and repeated checks,” reports The Sun.
The system would effectively do away with internet anonymity and comes as the UK government has also announced new crackdowns on antisemitic speech, much of which is communicated online.
The scheme has reportedly been revised and “watered down” following massive public opposition and is no longer mandatory as first proposed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year.
While the government professes the system will enhance access to social services, many fear the digital ID scheme could become a precursor to a system resembling China’s social credit score model, which tracks citizens via facial recognition and denies or restricts services based on AI assessments.

Also:

Controversial digital IDs WON’T be mandatory, Charles confirms in King’s Speech
THE controversial digital ID scheme won’t be mandatory, King Charles confirmed in the King’s Speech.
The monarch, 77, delivered a speech to the State Opening of Parliament which featured over 35 bills including on immigration, the NHS and police.
His Majesty’s speech marked the beginning of a new parliamentary session outlining the Government’s legislative priorities which included changes to the digital ID scheme.
Sir Keir Starmer first proposed mandatory digital IDs last year as part of plans to modernise public services and tighten right-to-work checks.
But it has now been confirmed that the public “will have an option” to use the scheme as part of the Digital Access to Services Bill.
It was announced that it would be “free to access for anyone who wishes to use it”.
Ministers launched a consultation on digital ID in March which would allow people to prove who they are online “in one safe place, at the touch of a button”.
The digital ID can also be used for things like free childcare vouchers, tax, passports and driving licences, replacing piles of paperwork and repeated checks.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said at the time that the current system often rewards “pushy” people who know how to work the system, while others struggle to get help.
The plans had already been watered down after it was announced they would be mandatory which sparked a fierce backlash.
Outlining the priorities of the government in his speech, the King said the UK faced an “increasingly dangerous and volatile world”.
Key pieces of legislation announced included the European Partnership Deal which will “strengthen ties with the European Union” as well as the Police Reform Bill.
It was announced that the Government is set to crack down on anti-antisemitism while new legislation will also be introduced in the wake of the horrific Southport attack in 2024.
Also included was the Courts Modernisation Bill which includes the controversial plan to restrict trial by jury to the most serious cases.
The King and Queen left Buckingham Palace in a procession earlier this morning, before making his way to the Houses of Parliament at around 11.15am.
The King travelled in the State Coach while being escorted by members of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
He was seated on the throne in the Lords chamber before the Black Rod, a senior Lords officer, was sent to the House of Commons to summon MPs to the Lords to listen.
The State Opening of Parliament is littered with pomp and pageantry – and the procession from Buckingham Palace is no different.
But the pomp and pageantry comes amid efforts to oust the PM, who was last night clinging on to his ailing premiership.

Also:

UK to relaunch digital ID scheme, King’s Speech confirms
“My Ministers will also proceed with the introduction of Digital ID that will modernize how citizens interact with public services [Digital Access to Services Bill]” the King said, outlining the government’s law making agenda.
The King's Speech, a centuries-old tradition marking the start of a new parliamentary session, is written by ministers and read by the monarch in the House of Lords. It typically confirms policies that are already in motion rather than introducing new proposals.
Among the headline measures was confirmation that legislation will proceed on digital identity – despite a recent government U-turn.
Originally pitched as a tool to crack down on illegal working, the scheme will no longer be mandatory for right-to-work checks.
First conceived under Tony Blair’s Labour government, digital ID has shifted from what was once described as a "silver bullet” against illegal immigration to a system that can help employers verify new hires.
UK ID scheme now voluntary, King confirms
Under the new scheme, the government is positioning it as an optional tool for those without traditional identification such as passports or driving licences.
The policy shift follows mounting public backlash, including a petition signed by 3 million people, alongside concerns over privacy, cybersecurity risks and the potential for state overreach.
Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, argued that even a voluntary plan would lead to more governmental control of people’s lives, and that the UK should drop it entirely.
“Access to public services we all pay for should never require a digital ID. This would inevitably be an intrusive, multi billion pound system no one wants, no one voted for, and that has no real purpose."
Silkie Carlo, director, Big Brother Watch
“Plans so far have indicated that the digital ID would be a cradle to grave system ripe for mass surveillance and more government control over people’s lives," she added.
It will also be required for right to work checks to stop those with no right to be in the country from finding work. On Gov.uk, it said: "This is to send a clear message that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to work, deterring people from making dangerous journeys."
Your free digital ID will be stored securely on your phone and will help to prove your identity, including age and residency status, simplifying access to government services and a range of uses across the private sector.
It will be free to download and employers will be required to check it as evidence of your right to work in this country. This is to curb the prospect of work for illegal migrants.
Guidance shared via Gov.uk said: "Work is now underway to draw up the design and technical details of the scheme to ensure it is inclusive, fair and follows best practice for security and data privacy, including drawing on examples of where digital IDs are already delivering benefits internationally.
"The government will launch a public consultation to ensure we get the best possible input. Police will not be able to demand to see your digital ID – as with current precedent."
The digital ID will be free to individuals, so everyone can access it. Citizens right across the UK have access to the new digital ID. The new digital ID will be the authoritative proof of who someone is and their residency status in this country. It will include:
name
date of birth
information on nationality or residency status
a photo – as the basis for biometric security – just like an eVisa or Passport, but updated for the modern digital world we live in.
According to the government, your personal data will be better protected because if a phone is lost or stolen, the digital credentials can be easily revoked and reissued, providing better security than traditional physical documents.

Enoch And The Watchers And The Nephilim

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:41:00 +0000

AI Overview
Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, is a pivotal biblical figure (Genesis 5:21-24) known for walking with God for 300 years and being taken to heaven without experiencing death. His life signifies intimate fellowship, righteousness, and prophecy, setting him apart as a "Hero of Faith" (Hebrews 11:5) who broke the cycle of death, while the non-canonical 1 Enoch links him to a visionary role regarding the fallen angels known as "Watchers".
Enoch: "He Walked With God"
The phrase "Enoch walked with God" is interpreted in several profound ways:
Continuous Fellowship: It implies a constant, intimate, and interactive relationship, not a one-time event.
Lifelong Faithfulness: He maintained this walk for 300 years after the birth of his son Methuselah, implying a firm dedication to God's will despite the growing wickedness of his time.
Pleasing God: Hebrews 11:5 highlights that Enoch's walk was a testament to his faith, pleasing God so deeply that his walk ended with his translation (removal) from earth without experiencing death.
Prophetic Action: Enoch is depicted as a prophet (Jude 1:14-15) who walked "against" the ungodliness of his day, acting as a "John the Baptist" figure who warned of divine judgment.
The Translation (God Took Him)
Unique Departure: Genesis 5:24 says, "And he was not, for God took him." This implies a miraculous departure from the mortal realm, where Enoch did not suffer physical death.
The "Seventh" Factor: Being the seventh generation from Adam, Enoch represents a symbolic number of completion or spiritual perfection.
Enoch and the Watchers (The Book of 1 Enoch)
While the canonical Bible does not detail the "Watchers," the ancient, non-canonical text 1 Enoch (part of the canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) provides context:
The Watchers: These are a group of fallen angels (led by Samyaza) who were originally guardians assigned to watch over humanity.
The Sin of the Watchers: Driven by forbidden desires, they descended to earth, married human women, and brought forth giants (Nephilim), filling the world with violence and chaos.
Enoch’s Role: Because of his righteousness and close walk with God, Enoch is given divine visions and acts as an intermediary, witnessing the sins of the Watchers and hearing the decree of their judgment.
The Connection: In this narrative, Enoch's close "walk" is directly contrasted with the Watchers' fall, showcasing him as a chosen human who gained knowledge of heavenly mysteries.
The Book of Enoch (specifically 1 Enoch or The Book of the Watchers) details the descent of rebellious angels known as Watchers, who bred with human women to produce a race of violent giants called the Nephilim. These events directly cause the great flood, resulting in a narrative that expands upon Genesis 6 to explain the origins of evil, fallen angels, and the destruction of the hybrid giants.
The Watchers
Rebellion: Led by Samyaza and Azazel, a group of angels (the watchers) desired human women, descended to Mount Hermon, and broke their oath to God.
Forbidden Knowledge: The Watchers taught humanity forbidden arts, including metallurgy (weapons), magic, astrology, cosmetics, and astronomy, which accelerated human corruption.
Judgment: Because of their rebellion and corruption of humanity, the Watchers are judged by God and imprisoned in dark places until the final judgment.
The Nephilim
Origins: The Watchers fathered children with human women. These offspring were the Nephilim—a race of monstrous giants.
Destruction: The Nephilim devoured human food and eventually humans themselves, causing widespread destruction on Earth.
The Flood: Their chaotic nature necessitated the great flood as a form of divine cleansing to remove the corruption of humanity and the hybrids.
Enoch's Role
Intercessor: Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, acts as an intermediary. The fallen Watchers ask him to petition God on their behalf for forgiveness.
Prophet of Judgment: God refuses the petition, and Enoch instead delivers the prophecy of judgment, condemnation, and destruction to the Watchers and their Nephilim offspring.
Heavenly Tours: In the latter sections of the book, Enoch is shown the heavens, the secrets of creation, and the places of punishment for the Watchers.

Also:

What Is the Book of Enoch? (And What It Isn’t)
The Book of Enoch is one of the most vivid, controversial texts to come out of ancient Judaism. It is not part of the Bible for almost all Christians. But it is a major window into how some Jews between the Old and New Testaments understood Genesis 6, the “sons of God,” and the giants.
The Bible itself only tells us a little about Enoch. In Genesis 5:21–24 we read: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Later, Genesis 6:1–4 briefly describes “sons of God,” “daughters of man,” and the Nephilim.
Then the story moves straight into Noah and the flood. Scripture gives almost no details about who these sons of God were, how their unions worked, or exactly what the Nephilim were like.
The Book of Enoch (usually called 1 Enoch) steps into that silence. It is a collection of Jewish writings, put together between about 300 and 100 BC. It claims to record visions and journeys that God gave to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.
But scholars agree Enoch himself did not write it. It is what we call pseudepigraphal—written under the name of a famous figure to give weight to the message.
1 Enoch is actually several books in one: the Book of the Watchers (ch. 1–36), the Book of Parables, the Astronomical Book, and others. The section most people think of is the Book of the Watchers, which retells the Genesis 6 story in dramatic detail.
For many centuries, complete copies of 1 Enoch survived only in Ge’ez (Ethiopic) manuscripts inside the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which still treats it as Scripture. The rest of the Jewish and Christian world did not.
When fragments in Aramaic turned up among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 20th century, scholars realized just how old and widespread this Enoch tradition was in Second Temple Judaism. For a deeper dive into this background, see Fr. Stephen De Young’s overview of the Book of the Watchers on Ancient Faith and this survey of the Watchers and origins of evil on TheTorah.com.
Here is the key point: the Book of Enoch is a powerful ancient Jewish commentary and expansion on Genesis 6. It teaches us what some Jews believed. It does not stand alongside Genesis as what God Himself declared.
Regarding the Giants, “Enoch teaches us what some Jews believed about Genesis 6—not what God declared about it.” Genesis 6:1–4 is the inspired baseline. Enoch is one later way of filling in the gaps.
How the Book of Enoch Retells Genesis 6, the Watchers, and the Giants
If Genesis 6:1–4 is a tight, mysterious summary, 1 Enoch turns it into a full-blown drama. Genesis says: “The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose… The Nephilim were on the earth in those days…” (Genesis 6:2, 4).
That is all. No names. No locations. No list of sins. No giant battles. The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36) “explodes” those verses into a story.
In 1 Enoch, a group of heavenly beings called Watchers—“sons of heaven”—are appointed to watch over humanity. They look down, see the beauty of human women, and decide to cross a line. Their leader, often called Semjâzâ (or Shemihaza), fears that if he goes alone, he will bear the guilt by himself.
So about two hundred angels gather on Mount Hermon, swear an oath together, and descend as a group. They take wives “for themselves,” knowing full well that they are violating God’s boundaries. This is where Genesis and Enoch still overlap: both describe heavenly “sons of God” taking human women. But Enoch adds the details, names, and dialogue.
The Watchers do more than marry. They begin to teach humanity “forbidden knowledge.” One named Azazel trains people in warfare, swords, shields, and armor. He also teaches cosmetics and jewelry—how to beautify the eyelids, how to work with precious stones and dyes.
Other Watchers teach astrology, omens, root-cutting, sorcery, and how to manipulate creation. In Enoch’s eyes, this is not progress or neutral science; it is a corrupt form of wisdom that leads to violence, sexual sin, and idolatry.
Their children are the giants—the Nephilim. Enoch describes them as enormous, far beyond normal human size. They devour all the food humans can produce. When that runs out, they turn on humans themselves.
They eat animals, then people, and finally even one another. Blood fills the earth. The whole world is enslaved and crushed under their violence, until, in Enoch’s words, “the earth complained” and the cry of the oppressed rose to heaven.
God responds by sending archangels—Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel—to act. They report the horrors they see. God commands Gabriel to turn the giants against one another in war, so they destroy each other.
He tells Raphael to bind Azazel in the desert until the final judgment. Michael is ordered to bind the other Watchers in dark pits “for seventy generations,” echoing what the New Testament later calls “chains of gloomy darkness” (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).
In 1 Enoch 15–16, God gives Enoch another shocking explanation: when the giants die, their spirits do not go away. Because they were born from heaven and earth together, their disembodied spirits remain on earth as evil spirits that afflict humanity.
As 1 Enoch 15:9 puts it, “The spirits of the giants… shall be called evil spirits upon the earth.” In Enoch’s retelling, the Watchers are rebellious heavenly “sons of God” who cross the boundary between heaven and earth, and their union with women produces violent giants, the Nephilim.
Their forbidden teaching spreads bloodshed, idolatry, and corruption. God judges the angels and their offspring, using the flood as a cleansing of a world ruined by this cross-realm rebellion. The lingering “evil spirits” explain ongoing demonic activity.
This is far more detail than Genesis gives, and we must keep that in mind. But when Peter and Jude speak of angels who sinned, are imprisoned, and are connected with Noah’s days (2 Peter 2:4–5; Jude 6–7), they are clearly drawing on this same story-world that Enoch helps us see. For more on the Nephilim specifically, see the overview at Biblical Archaeology Society.
Why the Book of Enoch Is Not a part of Scripture
Because Enoch is so vivid—and because Jude 14–15 directly quotes 1 Enoch 1:9—many Christians wonder: why is it not in our Bibles? There are several reasons the historic church, and almost all Jewish communities, have not treated 1 Enoch as inspired Scripture.
First, authorship and date. The biblical Enoch lived before the flood. The Book of Enoch was written roughly between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, many thousands of years later. It reflects the language, concerns, and literary style of Second Temple Judaism, not primeval history.
It is pseudepigraphal by design. Ancient readers often accepted that kind of writing as a normal way to say, “This is in the line of Enoch’s wisdom,” but that is not the same as inspired prophecy.
Second, canon history.
1 Enoch does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. It is absent from the Greek Old Testament list used by most early Christians. It was not adopted into the canons of the Western or Eastern churches.
Only the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its Eritrean sister church include it formally. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that some Jewish groups loved and copied it, but it was never a universal standard.
Third, quotation does not equal canon. Jude 14–15 says: “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all…’”
This is a direct quote of 1 Enoch 1:9. But Paul also quotes pagan poets in Acts 17:28. That does not canonize their whole works. Inspired authors sometimes use familiar lines from well-known writings to make a true point. The Spirit guarantees the truth of what is used—not the status of the whole source.
Finally, the church has always sensed that Enoch’s genre is mixed. It is part interpretation, part imagery, part apocalyptic vision. It extends Genesis 6 in ways that often feel more mythic and symbolic than historical.
That does not make it worthless. It does mean we must not treat it like Genesis or the Gospels. A simple guardrail helps: read the Book of Enoch the way you would read something like Pilgrim’s Progress or the writings of Josephus—deeply interesting, often helpful, sometimes insightful—but never equal to Scripture.
As Paul tells Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). Enoch is not on that level.
How Enoch Influenced Jewish and Early Christian Thought
If Enoch is not Scripture, why does it matter? Because it shaped the world in which Jesus, Peter, Jude, and the early church lived and thought. First, Enoch gives us a detailed Second Temple Jewish interpretation of Genesis 6.
When Peter speaks of “angels who sinned” being cast into Tartarus and tied to Noah’s day (2 Peter 2:4–5), and when Jude talks about angels “who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling” and are now kept “in eternal chains” (Jude 6–7), they are using language and ideas that match the Enoch tradition much more than the brief Genesis text.
Second, Enoch offers an origin story for demons that became influential: the idea that the spirits of the dead giants are the “evil spirits” that roam the earth. The Bible itself never states this directly, but you can hear echoes of this way of thinking in early Christian writers who connect demons, fallen angels, and primeval rebellion.
Third, Enoch helped fill out early Jewish and Christian angelology and judgment themes. The picture of rebellious heavenly beings, a sealed abyss, and a final day when God will judge both humans and angels shows up all over the New Testament. Enoch provided a shared vocabulary and imagination that biblical authors could draw on while still correcting it where needed. Today, the Book of Enoch also stands behind much of the modern discussion about Nephilim, giants, and the unseen realm.
Unfortunately, that sometimes turns into hype and conspiracy. Our goal on Chasing the Giants is very different: to let Enoch show us how ancient Jews wrestled with Genesis 6, so we can read our Bibles more clearly, not chase hidden codes.

Also:

Fallen Angels in the Book of Enoch: Who Are the Watchers?
The Book of Enoch tells the story of the Watchers, angels who procreated with mortal wives and taught mankind forbidden arts, resulting in their downfall.
The Book of Enoch tells the story of two hundred Watchers, or angels, sent to watch over humanity. These Watchers conspired to commit sins by taking human women as wives and having children with them. They also taught humans many forbidden skills relating to the different arts and sciences. God condemned these fallen angels for their actions and assigned archangels to confine them to Tartarus until their final judgment.
Where does the Book of Enoch come from, what does it say about the Watchers and their crimes, and how does Enoch’s account relate to the rest of the Biblical canon?
Where Is the Book of Enoch in the Bible?
The Book of Enoch does not appear in the Bible but is an ancient Jewish religious text credited to Enoch, seventh from Adam, the father of Methuselah and the great-grandfather of Noah. However, it was probably composed between 300 and 100 BCE. While it was considered an important religious text in ancient times, it is no longer considered canonical scripture by the majority of Jews and Christians. Nevertheless, the authors of the New Testament were familiar with Enoch and cited the work. Parts of the book of Enoch were preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves. Some Greek translations also survive.
Book of Enoch Summary
The Book of Enoch contains the Book of the Watchers, which describes the Watchers sent to oversee mankind, their betrayal of their mission, and their ultimate fall. It also contains the Book of Parables of Enoch, which explores divine judgment, the fate of the righteous and unrighteous, and the role of the Messiah.
The Astronomical Book contains descriptions of the movement of heavenly bodies, and knowledge revealed to Enoch on his trip to Heaven with the archangel Uriel. The Book of Dream Visions contains a vision of the history of Israel potentially as far as the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Finally, the Epistle of Enoch contains a variety of information, including exhortations to Methuselah on how to live righteously, the birth of Noah, and the fates of the righteous versus sinners.
Revelation of the Book of Enoch
Following the sins of the Watchers, God tasked the Archangels to deal with the rebellious fallen angels. He also instructed the archangels to show Enoch, the main character in the Book of Enoch, what would happen to the Watchers and their offspring. In the process, different archangels show Enoch the workings of creation, especially that of the heavenly bodies and how they impact man. It is this encounter with the archangels that the Book of Enoch describes.
At first glance, the knowledge the Watchers imparted to humans does not seem that different from what the archangels shared with Enoch. Furthermore, the knowledge that the Watchers shared with humans is considered science by many readers today. It is the knowledge that falls into various fields of science and art. So, were the actions of the Watchers virtuous and in service of humanity, or were these angels instigators of violence?
What Sins Did the Fallen Angels of Enoch Commit?
The Watchers descended to earth in the “days of Jared,” the father of Enoch. Jared was of the sixth generation from Adam. The Watchers conspired to take wives and have children with human women instead of watching over humanity as they were supposed to do. They also taught humans various sciences and skills (1 Enoch, The Watchers 3:2-7).
The Watchers’ desire for female humans was born from lust. The intermingling of Watchers and human women resulted in the Nephilim. These giants were violent and destructive individuals who had no regard for life. The rebellion of the Watchers resulted in them becoming fallen angels.
Some of the Watchers also taught the humans forbidden skills. Azazel, for instance, “taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all coloring tinctures.”
In modern terms, this is metallurgy and cosmetology. Metallurgy is the art of extracting metals from rock and shaping those metals into various implements and artifacts. Azazel taught humans to shape metal into weapons, ornaments, and bracelets and how to set precious stones in them. Cosmetology is the professional skill or practice of beautifying the body by applying pigmented powder and accessories.
Semjaza, the leader of the two hundred Watchers, taught “enchantments and root−cuttings” while Armaros taught them how to resolve enchantments. Baraqijal taught astrology while Kokabel shared information on the constellations. Ezeqeel shared the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel instructed on the signs of the earth, Shamsiel on the signs of the sun, and Sariel on the course of the moon.
This science sounds innocent enough and correlates with many modern practices and fields of study. Some scholars have interpreted the cutting of roots as a reference to the practice of herbal medicine or to agricultural production, and the references to the constellations, the sun, and the moon to the study of astronomy. Some people may consider the Watchers’ act of teaching humanity these sciences as virtuous, designed to uplift humanity and increase their knowledge — but was it?
Was it Science or Sorcery?
The early Christian readers of 1 Enoch, most of whom believed the book to be a valid source for theology, had a very different view of what the Watchers were up to. They understood Semjaza’s teaching of enchantments and root cutting as the practice of witchcraft.
Irenaeus, for instance, considered the enchantments and root cutting as “the discovery of rare substances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupiscence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God.” The other teachings on astrology, the heavenly bodies, and the earth gave rise to soothsayers, augurs, magicians, and other forms of practitioners of the dark arts. It was not the science practiced today.
Irenaeus, Commodianus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria are among many early Church Fathers who reflect negatively on the Watchers and their influence on humanity. According to Commodianus, the Watchers were so revered among men that they erected statues to commemorate them once they died. In his understanding, the Watchers were the demons people worshiped and prayed to in his day.
Corrupting Influence
Azazel’s teaching may, at first glance, seem innocuous, an early form of metallurgy and cosmetology, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say. The Watcher Azazel is associated with crafting metal objects such as weapons, bracelets, and jewelry with costly stone inserts and the art of using cosmetics. His teachings had a corrupting influence on humanity and led to much fornication, degradation, and violence.
The information in the Book of Enoch has parallels with Genesis. Azazel’s instruction soon led to industry. Lamech, in the line through Cain, was the seventh generation from Adam and juxtaposes Enoch, a righteous man. Lamech was the first polygamist, taking two wives, Adah and Zillah. Adah means “ornament,” and names in the Old Testament often point to character or nature, implying she may have liked to beautify herself with make-up and accessories like metal bracelets and jewelry with precious stone inserts.
The son Lamech had with his other wife, Zillah, was called Tubalcain, which points to him as a character in the likeness of Cain. The Bible describes him as “the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron” (Genesis 4:22). He likely manufactured both ornaments and weapons at scale.
Lamech was a man prone to violence that threatened any challenger with mortal injury (Genesis 4:23-24). His propensity to violence parallels the circumstance described in the book of Enoch where “men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven” (1 Enoch, The Watchers 3:14). It was the bloodshed among men that caused the archangels to call on God for action (1 Enoch, The Watchers 4:1).
It was, however, not only men who were violent. The offspring of the Watchers and human women, the giants, consumed whatever men gathered. When humans could no longer sustain the giants, they started feeding on humans too. The giants then turned on the animal kingdom and, eventually, on one another.
Punishment of the Fallen Angels
The Watchers received a severe punishment for leading humanity astray. They would see their offspring, the giants, murdered and destroyed (1 Enoch, The Watchers 4:25). God denied their supplication for mercy. The destruction of the giants happened in two ways. First, many giants turned on one another, devouring each other’s flesh, and drank each other’s blood (1 Enoch, The Watchers 3:14). Secondly, those that remained were destroyed in the flood (1 Enoch, The Book of Noah, 1:15-16).
The punishment of the Watchers did not end there. God instructed a selection of archangels to bind the Watchers and cast them in an allocated part of the underworld that is called Tartarus. The fallen Watchers were to remain there until their final judgment.
Details of the different punishments suffered by the Watchers are included in the texts. For example, God told Raphael to bind Azazel and cast him into an opening in the desert on rough and jagged rocks. His face was covered so that he could see no light, and he was to remain there until the day of judgment when he would be cast into the fire. This is described as necessary so that all the children of men do not perish as a result of the knowledge shared with them.
The Watchers Versus the Archangels
The Watchers, or fallen angels, shared information regarding the heavenly bodies with humans and were punished for it. The archangels shared information regarding the heavenly bodies with Enoch without punishment for their actions. What were the differences between the two acts?
It was not within the purview of the Watchers to provide knowledge to humans. The Book of Enoch states that Azazel “taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were in heaven, which men were striving to learn.” Azazel and the other fallen angels were not authorized to share their information with humans. The Watchers’ teaching led to unrighteousness, godlessness, and sin.
The results of the knowledge the humans acquired from the fallen angels harmed them and caused them to separate from God and become lawless. They started practicing occultism and used magic, potions, and spells on one another to influence and manipulate one another. The depraved interaction between the fallen angels and humans culminated in the birth of the giants. These giants typified the destructive result of the intermingling of the Watchers and humans and eventually resulted in the almost complete destruction of both.
The knowledge that the archangels shared with Enoch was a different matter altogether. God authorized the archangels to share their knowledge of heavenly bodies and their motion with Enoch. It was not knowledge that would lead to occult practices but science that pertained to cycles, seasons, and systems God created and set in place. The sharing of this knowledge brought Enoch and the few faithful people who remained in a closer relationship with God (1 Enoch, The Watchers, 7:68)
Fallen Angels of Enoch in Conclusion
The Watchers became fallen angels because they were more concerned with their desires than doing what they were appointed to do, watching over humanity. They decided to take wives and have children with the daughters of men, resulting in giants as offspring. They also taught humanity how to make weapons, how to make ornaments, and how to use cosmetics. All of these things harmed humanity and eventually led to their destruction.
The Watchers did not have noble intent with the actions they took. On the contrary, they seem to have set themselves on doing what was in their selfish interest. Instead of being watchers, they became abusers. There was nothing virtuous in their deeds, and considering the results of their actions, we should regard them as the villains of this story.
Some religious groups advise against reading this book. Why stay away from the Book of Enoch? It was clearly written long after the life of the supposed Enoch, by multiple authors over several centuries. It was one of the many religious texts that did not make it into the final canon of the Bible, known as Apocrypha. Scholars also suggest that it contradicts canonical texts.
With that said, knowing the period during which it was written, the Book of Enoch provides interesting information about the evolution of Jewish beliefs during the Second Temple Period, in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt and under the pressure of Hellenization.

Self Protection Against Face Scanning Devices

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:42:00 +0000

Anti Scan Face Mask

AI Overview
Protecting against face scanning involves disrupting infrared (IR) cameras and hiding facial features. Effective methods include wearing infrared-blocking glasses, specialized masks, or clothing with retroreflective materials that blind cameras. Other techniques include using face coverings (masks/scarves), hats to block overhead cameras, and using software to scramble photo data.
Physical Anti-Surveillance Methods
IR Blocking Glasses: These prevent cameras from seeing your eyes and can break smartphone Face ID systems. Some specialized glasses, like those from Reflecticles, can block infrared light.
Reflective Hats/Clothing: Clothing or hats made of retroreflective materials reflect light back at cameras, causing bright spots that disrupt algorithms.
Face Masks/Scarves: Covering the nose and mouth removes crucial identification points for AI systems.
"Invisible" Hats: Specialized hats (e.g., Invisible Mask) can project infrared light to disrupt camera sensors.
A New Mask Can Block AI Facial Recognition From Every Angle
A Dutch designer, Jip van Leeuwenstein, created a transparent, lens-like mask that blocks AI facial recognition from all angles by distorting key biometric markers like jawlines and eye spacing, while remaining transparent to human vision. Developed as part of the “Surveillance Exclusion” project, this tool protects privacy in public spaces by causing cameras to misidentify wearers, acting as a form of protest against AI surveillance.
Key Aspects of the Anti-Surveillance Mask:
[Transparent Design: The mask is clear, allowing people to see facial expressions and interact normally, unlike opaque masks.
[AI Confusion: It bends and refracts light, disrupting the specific, geometric mapping points (nose, jaw, eye spacing) used by AI cameras to identify individuals.
[Versatility: The mask is designed to disrupt recognition from multiple angles, including side and partial views.
[Context: The project, which has gained attention through tech and privacy forums, aims to highlight the growing invasiveness of automatic surveillance in urban environments.
This mask is one example of a growing field of "privacy tech" designed to challenge the ubiquity of AI surveillance systems in public infrastructure.
Created as part of his Surveillance Exclusion project at the Utrecht School of the Arts, the mask gently alters facial contours enough to confuse algorithms — all while keeping real human expressions clearly visible.
The innovative design quickly drew attention from tech enthusiasts, researchers, and media outlets, becoming a striking symbol of resistance against growing digital surveillance.
Digital and Tactical Protection
Digital Cloaking (Fawkes): The Fawkes app creates "invisible" modifications to your photos, which, when uploaded, scramble how facial recognition models identify you.
Makeup/Patterns: Using high-contrast or asymmetrical makeup/patterns can confuse computer vision models (sometimes called "Computer Vision Dazzle")
Avoid Over-Sharing: Limiting the number of high-quality, clear photos of your face online reduces the ability of services like Clearview AI to scrape your data.
Techniques to Avoid
Standard sunglasses: Many do not block the infrared light used by modern cameras.
Simple scarves: A flimsy scarf that does not change the structural appearance of the face may not work.
Small reflective stickers: Often ineffective against advanced surveillance cameras.

Also:

Stop Facial Recognition: Countermeasures for Mass Surveillance
Facial Recognition: How it Works
Now that you know some basics about biometrics in general, let’s focus on facial recognition in particular. Facial recognition is composed of two major phases. The first is facial identification and the second is facial recognition. Identification is determining “do I see a face” and recognition is determining “do I know who this face belongs to.”

Facial identification requires cameras and a good mathematical model of what a face is or isn’t. Traditionally these cameras were visible light cameras, but the need to function in low-light, especially in surveillance purposes, as well as the need to get high-grade contrast, means many operate in the near-IR spectrum, like night vision devices do.
Facial recognition requires the system to have an enrolled dataset. How exhaustive the dataset needs to be is dependent on the application.
Understanding the two-phase process and their components is key to developing countermeasures, which we will discuss later. But why would people want countermeasures in the first place?
The wide-spread deployment of facial recognition technologies, driven by machine learning (ML) and “artificial intelligence” (AI) systems is, in terms of threats to a free society, second only to the adoption of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). And, just like CBDC, the masses have been conditioned over time to accept aspects of it, or its forerunner, in their lives under the guise of “cool” or “convenient.” Some examples include:
Facial identification helping auto-focus the camera on your smartphone when you’re taking photos.
Facial recognition helping to automatically tag “friends” when you upload your photos to social media.
Facial recognition being used to unlock phones and computers.
Making it cool, fun, and convenient creates a situation where people actively, willingly, participate in feeding the data model. For years, people have been uploading photographs of themselves, friends, and family, to social media sites. These sites then introduced facial identification and allowed you to tag the face with who it belongs to. Eventually social media started offering to tag photos for you, which is fun and convenient, right? Well, it can do that because machine learning models were built and trained by people tagging photos.
Millions of photos are uploaded to social media and tagged every day. Facial recognition models are being perfected through this massive influx of data.
Think of all those photos of people, at different angles, in different lighting conditions, at different ages. If you wanted to build the perfect dataset for an automated facial recognition system, you couldn’t ask for a better one — certainly not the state DMV database or State Department’s database of passport photos.
But what about the model? Just having photos of individuals isn’t enough. Each image needs to be analyzed in order to build a mathematical model of that person’s face. These days, system designers are increasingly relying on technologies like convolutional AI to automate the creation of these models via processes which are opaque to them. However, in general facial recognition models are going to be based on the geometric relations between facial landmarks, such as:
Distance between eyes, ears, etc.
Breadth and length of the nose.
Bone structure of the face (cheek bones, brow ridge, etc.)
Additionally, some of these measurements will be based on measured or inferred depth. These measurements require good lighting and contrasts in order to assess, a situation which has led to no small amount of controversy in recent years. In recent years, there have been no small number of cases where facial recognition technologies, deployed for various purposes, have been accused of being “racist,” either because the sensors have trouble with darker-skinned subjects, or because the training dataset for the machine learning algorithms is predominantly white or Asian.

Because this causes issues with applications that people want to work, such as device security or social media applications, these complaints tend to drive the state of the art in pushing facial modeling, advancing it in the general case.
The Facial Recognition Threat Right Now
Whether you’ve noticed it or not, facial recognition technology is already being used extensively in crowded public places, especially within countries that favor authoritarian control over citizens’ right to privacy.
In China, the future is now. Mass deployment of surveillance cameras hooked up to high-performance computing clouds, with massive datasets, provide an all-seeing eye. People caught merely jaywalking are identified and then put on digital billboards to humiliate them and force social conformity, all in keeping with their social credit system. Facial recognition is tied to digital ID and payment systems. You can go into a fast-food restaurant, walk up to the kiosk, be served, and have your account debited, all from facial recognition. Fun, cool, and convenient, right?
The much darker side is that while social justice warriors in the U.S. and Europe are misguidedly pushing to help make facial recognition technology better at identifying minorities, in China they have developed data models and algorithms which can identify, with a great deal of accuracy, the ethnicity of a person. This technology is being used specifically to target the frequently persecuted Uighur minority population in Western China’s Xinjiang province.
In the U.S., we have protections that China doesn’t have. When the first publicly documented case of police using facial recognition technology en masse came to light in 2001 at the Tampa-hosted Super Bowl, there was a wide-spread outcry about how it was a 4th Amendment violation. Of course, this was pre-Sept. 11, pre-PATRIOT Act, and before Snowden’s revelations that would make this seem like a blip. In the U.S. now, some cities have created ordinances banning the use of facial recognition technology, sometimes due to privacy implications, other times at least in part because of the seemingly disproportionately high false positive rate for minorities leading to incorrect identification and false arrests. (Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, for instance, rolled out their ordinances against facial recognition in 2020 so that police could not use it during the ongoing riots and protests).
However, there are areas of the U.S. where the rules don’t always apply. Borders and checkpoints are one. Automated immigration checkpoints comparing on-site snapshots to your passport photo are becoming well established in the U.S. and other rich countries, offering convenience for greater acceptance of the tech. There can be no doubt that facial recognition technology is being deployed in the surveillance systems of major airports as well.
The same mobile technology that was pioneered and rebuked two decades ago will continue to make appearances at major events and especially at protests. And even when real-time facial recognition isn’t in play, surveillance photographs can be compared to government and open-source data sets (all those photos you put on the internet) for identification. This tactic was heavily leveraged both by government employees and private-sector open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts and digital sleuths after the events on January 6, 2021, for instance.
The Threat in the Future
In the U.S., we’re highly suspicious of three-letter agencies hoarding and manipulating our sensitive data, but many of us hand that same data to social media and tech corporations without blinking an eye. Here, the threat of invasive facial recognition is less likely to come directly from the government and more likely to be privatized. As China is doing now, and as The Minority Report showed, we’re likely headed to a future where the profit-fueled surveillance we have long known in the online world will move to the real world. You’ll walk into a store, be identified, and then based on your likes and internet history, will be offered products in real time. Or, based on your Personal ESG score — a measurement of how environmentally friendly and socially conscious your lifestyle is perceived to be — you might even be told you can’t spend money there.
As the social acceptance of the technology grows until it becomes basic background noise like flushing toilets and flipping light switches, there’ll be fewer and fewer legal challenges, and eventually government surveillance will step up as well. Via “public-private partnerships” in the name of “public safety,” we’ll find the lines increasingly blurred.
What About Countermeasures?
Some systems are going to be harder to trick than others. How hard is going to be a function of how good the hardware is, how exhaustive the database is, and how sophisticated the model is. Saying for sure what will or won’t work is therefore hard. However, with some experimentation and research, I have a few things that I know will defeat some systems and may have success against others.
The Android application ObscuraCam can quickly edit out faces and other distinguishing marks. This is perfect for countering facial recognition and methods OSINT analysts might use.
Online Countermeasures
With regards to online countermeasures, the goal is to deny the creation of a good data model of your face. This can basically be broken down into two tactics:
First, is adversarial modeling. In machine learning, this essentially means spoiling the dataset with lies. You operate an account as yourself, or otherwise upload photos, but the photos are not of you. You then tag those photos as you, so the data model doesn’t associate your face with your person.
The second tactic, and one that’ll bring you much joy in your life, is to simply avoid playing the game. Get off social media. Spoil all your data, then delete your account. If you never had social media, all the better. Ask your family and friends not to upload photos of you. If they must, blur out the photos.
If you must swap photos online, use secure or covert communications applications to do it, and spoil the photos directly. Applications like ObscuraCam can take advantage of facial identification and pixelate or otherwise redact the photo when you take it. You can also use it to quickly obscure any other identifying information.
Despite obscuring a large portion of my face with this mug, A match was still made at a distance of an average distance of 0.53, which is near the threshold but still a match. A more sophisticated model would likely defeat this.
Real-World Countermeasures
Broadly speaking, there are three different categories of countermeasure we can use against facial recognition systems in the wild:
The first type of countermeasure attacks the ability of a system to detect a face in the first place. This is going to include anything from simple face coverings to purpose-driven clothing.
The second type of countermeasure is going to cause a false negative with facial recognition, after facial detection has occurred.
The third type of countermeasure is going to attempt to cause a false positive, making the system think that we’re someone else entirely. We’ll call this the “Mission Impossible” countermeasure.
Facial recognition: How to protect yourself from surveillance
With advances in facial recognition, surveillance culture is rising and remaining anonymous in public is getting difficult. In this in-depth guide, we explore how to avoid surveillance from face recognition and ways to protect yourself.
When you think of face paint and glitter, protecting yourself from facial recognition is not the first things that comes to mind, but events like Halloween and kids’ parties. And when you think about a face mask, you might have flashbacks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But believe it or not, these creative techniques, even as simple as a face mask, could help you improve your privacy through anti-facial recognition. In this deep dive, we explore different ways you can throw off facial recognition technologies to remain anonymous in public and protect yourself: whether you’re at a protest, a music festival, or walking in the street.
Surveillance through facial recognition systems is becoming increasingly smart and used globally. It’s not only present at protests or airports, but more worrying when you enter shops, get your car filled up, or go on your commute to work, it’s likely that CCTV and facial recognition technologies have captured your face.
In the UK, for example, the police scanned almost 4.7 million faces with live facial recognition cameras in 2024, which is more than twice as many as in 2023. This is worrying, especially considering that the UK isn’t recognized as a top surveillance state like China, for example.
While some might not be concerned if they live in a surveillance state, for others like minority groups, activists, protesters, or people who care about having privacy, ensuring they protect their identity against cameras and facial recognition software is necessary.
Even though recognition software is becoming smarter and harder to evade, there are still different ways to remain anonymous and steer clear of surveillance from this technology.
When it comes to protecting yourself, you need to be protected in two ways:
Protecting yourself from the surveillance of face recognition software.
Protecting your digital identity, which can be secured with these digital security tips that are especially useful for activists.
We have many in-depth guides which give the best tips to protect your digital identity and jack up the security of your tech devices – be sure to check out the links above and make use of the tips which also improve your privacy and security. Now, let’s deep dive into how to protect yourself from the surveillance of face recognition systems.
What is face recognition, and how does it work?
Face recognition was first created in Japan in 1969, and since then, it has been used globally. While some countries have stricter laws regarding who can use it and how it can be used, in other countries like China (think of the Chinese social credit system) and increasingly in the US and the UK, surveillance through facial recognition tech is becoming the new normal.
Simply put, facial recognition is a biometric identification system that uses machine learning to identify faces in photos, video footage, and even in real-time. This type of identification software is able to convert an image of one’s face into data, and then run it against already existing facial data in databases.
While the top, most advanced recognition tools can get 99.97% accuracy in ideal conditions, there are techniques to bypass these systems by feeding them faulty data. From painting your face in specific ways to wearing a COVID mask, glasses, and a hat.
If you decide to make use of the methods we explore below, we’d recommend doing further research into the type of recognition technology being used and its algorithm to ensure that you have a good chance of not being recognized. This is especially important because there’s not one anti-recognition method that’s bulletproof. Additionally, some techniques are creative and fun but could make you stand out, compared to others which will make you blend in more.
Computer Vision Dazzle: face paint, makeup & hair
Painting your face and applying makeup is not only for parties - you can even use anti-facial recognition makeup to camouflage your face and potentially trick facial recognition or facial detection algorithms in some cases.
The idea of using makeup as a camouflage to avoid facial detection was introduced by Artist Adam Harvey, who also created the open source anti-facial recognition toolkit. Harvey also coined the term Computer Vision Dazzle, CV Dazzle for short, when he discovered that it was an effective way to bypass the Viola-Jones face detection algorithm (commonly used in the past) but has since deprecated.
Because detection tools heavily rely on the dark shadowed areas of the face, like the dark areas under your eyes, your nose bridge, facial symmetry, and the shadow under your nose, if you strategically use makeup and hair on the dark and light areas of the face, you can change the appearance of your facial features. If done correctly, this creates asymmetries and potentially blocks facial detection tools. And because this blocks detection, facial analysis, recognition, and emotional analysis cannot be utilized.
Inspiring examples of CV Dazzle can be seen in The Dazzle Club, a collaborative project by artists Evie Price, Emily Roderick, Georgina Rowlands, and Anna Hart that ran from 2019 - 2021. The project was started after the forced admission of facial recognition software by Argent on the King’s Cross Estate in London where the four artists had been making art.
The idea behind The Dazzle Club, as explained by Emily Roderick, “Making embodied research into public space surveillance - drawing awareness of technologies and building new expressions of community and trust. Walks, films, texts and workshops pay attention to publicness and being seen.” Through interventions in public areas, like their silent walks through London while wearing CV Dazzle, the club highlighted and raised concerns around technology, data, and human rights, while also creating new expressions of collective creativity and trust. Note: If you
decide to embrace CV dazzle, we’d recommend doing in-depth research to ensure how you paint your face and the light and dark spots you camouflage are effective at blocking the probability of detection. It’s important to remember that there are different algorithms used for facial detection and facial recognition, which could require different techniques to hide yourself.
Accessories: sunglasses, caps & masks
There are also many accessories you can use, like a baseball cap, sunglasses, bandannas, or a COVID mask. Think along the lines of accessories that cover large portions of the face.
Face masks & bandannas
Using a face mask is still one of the easiest and most affordable ways to conceal your identity, while also not standing out from the crowd. If you’re protesting and would like to protect your identity from facial recognition and police surveillance, a simple face mask worn with sunglasses or a cap is a good solution. It’s important to be aware that face masks are not allowed to be worn in some locations or at specific events; this is dependent on the laws in your area. So before you opt for this, we’d recommend doing some research to check if you’re legally allowed to be wearing one.
If you’re tired of wearing a face mask (which is understandable) or if it’s illegal in your country, you could wear a bandanna instead – what’s nice with the bandanna is that you can choose to wear one that’s plain or one that’s fun and bright depending on what your needs are.
Caps & hats
Like the face mask, a cap or wide-brim hat is a quick and easy way to help conceal your identity, with the added benefit of protecting you from the sun. If you choose to wear one, make sure the brim is pulled low and avoid wearing caps with logos.
Anti-facial recognition glasses
You can opt for a regular pair of sunglasses, preferably large ones that also cover your eyebrows, or you can buy a pair of anti-CCTV glasses. The anti-CCTV glasses work in different ways by either blocking or reflecting CCTV infrared light (IR), and in return this disrupts the face recognition technology.
Creative frames
Today, there are even creative masks / frames you can wear. A beautiful concept is the Incognito Mask created by Ewa Nowak. This futuristic-looking frame worn around the face makes it impossible for facial recognition systems to measure the distance between and height of your facial features. Clothing
Avoid logos
Avoid clothing with big logos and slogans, and make sure your clothing covers up any tattoos or birthmarks as these can be tracked by the police. This is especially important if you attend a protest, as police are known to identify protesters based on their clothing.
Consider wearing all black
What you choose to wear depends on the place or event. Often all black clothing is a good choice because it helps you blend in, and if you’re attending a solidarity protest, this is usually the suggested color as well.
Anti-surveillance fashion
Yes, anti-surveillance fashion is a thing – it’s like modern-day camouflage! There are many clothing designs and projects that use special fabrics, designs, and patterns to confuse cameras, obscure key facial features and even block signals from tracking devices.
For example, you can get scarves and clothing made out of retro-reflective materials that work by disrupting a camera’s flash, making everything captured in the image go dark when captured in dark or dimmed lighting.
Take a look at these:
Stealth Wear and Hyperface by Adam Harvey
Anti-flash fashion by Ishu
Facial Weaponization Suite by Zach Blas
While anti-surveillance fashion is innovative and fun, it is often more on the pricey side, and it isn’t a bulletproof solution to remain anonymous from facial recognition.
Privacy isn’t easy, but it’s possible
When you think about privacy, there are many aspects to it. Think about it - privacy online to protect our digital identities, and privacy in the physical world to remain anonymous and private when doing our daily tasks. Unfortunately, since there are so many aspects to privacy, actively remaining private or knowing where and how to start can feel overwhelming.
While there is not one bulletproof method to ensure privacy and avoid surveillance through facial recognition software, there are things you can do as we’ve discussed above and it’s amazing to see that they can be creative and fun. Before adopting one of these, always do additional research about the best way to protect yourself from being identified, for example by checking out the excellent guide by the EFF. It’s also important to ensure that you not only protect yourself physically but also digitally. For example, by not taking your mobile device to a protest and using anonymous email like Tuta Mail.
At Tuta Mail we believe that everyone deserves privacy. Whether it be when emailing a friend, walking down the street, or protesting for your rights. As an end-to-end encrypted email provider, serving no ads and no tracking we are committed to not only offering free email that’s anonymous and private by design, but also to educate and inform everyone on the importance of privacy and security.
Together we can make the world a better place.

Also:

How Safe is Your Face?
Europe and US states impose tough restrictions on facial recognition, while the US federal government hesitates. China moves full steam ahead.
When Milan’s Linate Airport introduced a “Faceboarding” facial recognition system — no boarding pass required, just a quick scan and you’re through — Italy’s data protection authorities reacted with horror. They suspended the system, citing “insufficient safeguards” for passengers who had not chosen to participate.
Both European and American approaches to the technology face a common challenge: how to move fast enough to stay competitive with China and other authoritarian states while moving carefully enough to preserve civil liberties.
The technology is advancing fast, driven by artificial intelligence. The market for facial recognition could reach $18 billion (€15.4 billion) by 2030, up from $8 billion today. Scanning a face is convenient compared to collecting fingerprints or encoding an iris. And many consumers like that convenience, whether it be for unlocking a device or boarding a plane where ID was previously required. But biometric data can also be abused, and governments and companies could abuse facial recognition to conduct mass surveillance. Studies show that facial cognition algorithms can be biased and inaccurate, more likely to misidentify people of color — and in particular, women of color.
In Europe, biometric systems must meet strict privacy requirements before they can operate. The US has no comprehensive federal law on facial recognition, though states are rushing to fill the void. Eighteen states have enacted statewide facial recognition technology regulations for law enforcement or broad public use, while three states have pending legislation under consideration or scheduled to take effect. The remaining twenty-nine states have neither active statewide FRT laws nor pending statewide FRT legislation.
China, for its part, has no qualms. It operates surveillance systems at a massive scale through projects like “Skynet” and “Sharp Eyes.” Beijing deploys more than 700 million cameras. In Shanghai, authorities are tripling the number of facial recognition cameras to allow tracking of 50 million citizens. A new National Identity Authentication Law went into effect on July 15, which encourages Chinese citizens to submit their true name and a facial scan, after which they would be issued a unique ID code used for all online accounts
Both the US and Europe want to avoid such mass surveillance.
Europe is tightening regulations. The new AI Act imposes strict obligations on “high-risk” systems, including biometric identification. Data extraction from CCTV or the internet to expand biometric databases is prohibited, unless it is targeted and users consent.
Even voluntary facial recognition schemes face tough European scrutiny. Airport operators in the EU often position biometric boarding as an “optional opt-in” for EU citizens, but data protection authorities and regulators push back. Authorities require robust consent flows, data minimization, retention limits, and data protection impact assessments before these systems can operate.
Penalties are stiff. When US facial recognition company Clearview AI scraped billions of images from social media, breaching European GDPR privacy law, Dutch regulators imposed a €30.5 million fine and ordered the company to delete EU citizens’ images. Austrian privacy group noyb filed a criminal complaint in Austria last month that could subject Clearview executives to personal liability and even imprisonment.
The US approach to facial recognition technology is market first, regulation later. No comprehensive federal law governs commercial or law enforcement use of facial recognition. Regulation remains a patchwork of federal proposals and state and local statutes.
Surveillance use is increasing in the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reportedly employ facial recognition technology to scan motorists’ photos to identify undocumented immigrants. The FBI compares driver’s license and visa photos against the faces of suspected criminals, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Federal attention is growing. In Congress, various facial recognition bills have been introduced, including a recent proposal requiring the Transportation Security Administration to inform passengers of their right to opt out of face screenings. So far, though, all have stalled.
America’s fragmented approach allows experimentation and fast deployment but creates inconsistent protections. A facial recognition system legal in one state may be banned in another. A practice permitted for private companies may be restricted for the police. This patchwork creates uncertainty for both technology developers and citizens.
Courts are giving broad leeway to roll out facial recognition. When spectators sued New York’s Madison Square Garden for using facial recognition to block entry, a 2024 federal court dismissed the case.
Major US technology companies have implemented some voluntary limitations. Microsoft’s “Responsible AI” standards and product controls include strict access requirements for biometric features and documented risk assessments. Amazon announced a one-year moratorium in 2020 on police use of its “Rekognition” facial recognition product. The company later extended those restrictions indefinitely amid public pressure.
The Milan airport case arguably shows democratic oversight working. An independent regulator reviewed a biometric system, found it lacking in safeguards, and shut it down. No one was arrested. That model — transparent rules, independent enforcement, and accountable decision-making — is slow. It is messy. It creates compliance costs. But it separates the West from China.

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Anti-Facial Recognition Glasses
Facial Recognition and Ghost Glasses
Facial recognition is a powerful tool used by many organizations globally, from governments and tech giants to casinos and fast food joints. It was designed to identify a person through digitally mapped facial features.
The growing use and development of facial recognition technology has raised some major concerns. Some people are worried about being identified without their permission and the risks that may pose to their privacy. There's also no guarantee that data collected by the software will be kept secure or used in an ethical manner.
Accuracy is another big issue. Some facial recognition tools have trouble processing the faces of women, older people, and/or those with darker skin. Wearing a mask or certain cosmetics can also make the software less accurate. This can lead to potential issues with false identification, racial bias, and discrimination.
Anti-facial recognition glasses (or ghost glasses) can make it harder for cameras to get clear photos of the wearer's face. If you want to protect your privacy and avoid having your image captured, ghost glasses may be worth a look.
Read on to learn more about facial recognition technology and the camera-blocking eyewear that may help thwart it.
What Is Facial Recognition?
Facial recognition software uses biometric data — such as the distance between the eyes and nose — to create a unique profile for an individual face. This profile is then compared to all the other profiles in a given database to determine if there is a match that can be used for identification.
Businesses and law enforcement organizations use facial recognition tech to bolster security and aid in investigations. Some companies also use it to better understand customer demographics and behavior.
You can see facial recognition software in action at airports and shopping centers, and when you use Face ID to unlock your smartphone. And your face has probably been tagged automatically in at least one photo on social media.
How Do Anti-Facial Recognition Glasses Work?
Ghost glasses use a combination of techniques to confuse facial recognition software, including:
Infrared-blocking lenses – Some privacy glasses have special lenses that reflect or block the infrared light that cameras use to capture images.
Reflective materials – Some glasses use reflective materials on the frames to disrupt facial recognition technology.
These blocking techniques make it harder for the camera to detect a person’s facial features. Without a clear image or biometric markers to map, it may not be possible for the software to create a profile for comparison.
Camera-blocking glasses sometimes come with different options for tinted lenses, frames, and styles. Some are designed to look like regular sunglasses while others have a more futuristic look. The best place to find them is usually through an online retailer.
Prescription options may also be available if you need vision correction.
Choosing the Right Pair
When shopping for anti-facial recognition glasses, you should consider the following factors:
Material – The lenses and frames should be made from quality materials that won't easily break or scratch. Look for brands with good reviews and high rates of customer satisfaction.
Fit – Glasses that fit comfortably on your face will provide better coverage and make it harder for cameras to capture a clear image. Consider trying them on or comparing measurements with those of your current glasses.
Usage – Think about where you'll be using the glasses most often. Are they for everyday use or just for specific situations? This can help you determine what lens tint and other features will be best.
Price – The price range for camera-blocking glasses can vary. Keep in mind that more expensive glasses aren't always better quality.
Style – Ghost glasses come in many styles and colors, so choose a pair that suits your personal taste and face shape.
UV protection – Some anti-facial recognition glasses also provide UV protection. If this is an option, make sure you get 100% UVA-UVB lens protection. This is an extra bonus if you plan to use the glasses outdoors.
How Effective Is Privacy Eyewear?
While anti-facial recognition glasses can make it harder for cameras to capture a clear image, they are not 100% effective. Some cameras may still be able to capture your face. This depends on your distance from the device and the surrounding light.
It’s also important to remember that facial recognition software is constantly evolving. This means that glasses on the market now are designed to block existing technology. But they may not be effective against future software updates.
Try Privacy Glasses
Ghost glasses can be a useful tool in protecting your identity and privacy, but they’re not completely foolproof. Surveillance technology is constantly evolving, and so are the methods used to block it.
The decision to use anti-facial recognition glasses should be made after careful consideration. With the right pair, you may feel better protected from the less noble uses of facial recognition technology.

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The fashion industry is helping fool face recognition software with new clothing designs
Are you concerned about facial recognition cameras monitoring your every move? Some large venues and arenas are using it as a security measure, claiming it ensures safety for guests and employees. However, the technology is also being used for surveillance and to block people from entering businesses.
As was the case for New Jersey native Kelly Conlan. Conlan was just passing through security at an event at Radio City Music Hall when security stopped her and refused to let her into a Rockettes show because their facial recognition software identified her as an attorney.
Although not involved with the case, Conlan works for the same law firm that has been involved in a personal injury litigation against a restaurant owned by MSG Entertainment, which also owns Radio City Musical Hall. The company decided that all attorneys working for law firms engaged in litigation against them are banned "from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved." More and more of these types of facial recognition incidents are happening nationwide. So what do you do?
Well, one start-up may have the answer to how you can stop this from happening to you. The company is called Cap_able, and its mission is to create wearable fashion that will help you to make the choice of whether you want your face analyzed by facial recognition devices or not.
What is Cap_able, and what have they created?
Through their Manifesto collection, Cap_able has created a line of hoodies, pants, t-shirts, sweaters and dresses that are embedded with artificial intelligence algorithms that thwart facial recognition software.
The facial recognition cameras will either fail to identify you completely or think that you are an animal embedded within the clothing pattern, like a giraffe, zebra or dog. This gives you more control over your body without having to worry about technological devices always monitoring you.
Model wears colorful dress during photoshoot
How are the designs made?
Co-founder and CEO Rachel Didero came up with the idea for these designs while studying for her Master's at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She had read a story about how tenants in Brooklyn fought against their landlord who wanted to have a facial recognition device at the entrance of their building and got inspired to create something that would give people a choice.
Combining fashion and engineering, Cap_able designs and tests each image with an object detection system called YOLO to see if they can beat a facial recognition system. They can then create a physical version of the pattern using a Computerized Knitwear Machine and create the final product using all Egyptian cotton.
Do the designs really work?
Didero says that, as of now, the clothing worked about 60% to 90% of the time when being tested with YOLO. Although Cap_able's algorithms are improving, they also have to keep up with the fast-paced, moving world of tech.
Facial recognition devices are being improved upon every day, so they certainly have their work cut out for them. And with the products starting at the price of $300, it may be a hard sell for the company. However, they make a valid point about the invasion of facial recognition and continue to work hard to improve their technology.
Model wears colorful sweater during photoshoot
Here in the U.S., there is currently no federal law requiring signs to be posted if facial recognition cameras are being used in a public or private place. However, some states and municipalities have laws and regulations regarding the use of facial recognition technology, and those laws may require signs to be posted. It is important for you to check with your local authorities to determine what, if any, requirements apply to the use of facial recognition cameras in your specific area.

A Company Has Figured Out a Way to Make Facial ID Invisible To Detect Or See

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:32:00 +0000

Metalenz’s Polar ID face-scanning technology works even when the camera is hidden under the display.
We're all too familiar with the notch—the unsightly cut-in that graced many smartphones for years, like the iPhone X or the LG G7.
The notch has largely been replaced on today’s smartphones by floating punch-hole cameras that take up less space and look a little more futuristic, though notches are still prevalent on some laptops, like Apple’s MacBooks.
On the iPhone, Apple calls its floating pill-shaped camera system the Dynamic Island, which debuted on the iPhone 14. The iPhone still has the largest camera cutout today, due to its Face ID biometric authentication system. (Barring Google Pixel phones, the vast majority of Android phones don't offer a secure face authentication equivalent, so they don't need a bulky camera cutout.) This island could get much smaller, however, thanks to new under-display camera technology announced at Display Week 2026 from Metalenz, a optics startup from Boston.
A Primer on Metasurfaces
Metalenz’s optical metasurfaces technology is a flat-lens system that uses a fraction of the space of traditional multi-lens elements in most smartphones. You can read more about it in our original coverage of the company here, but in short, instead of refracting light through multiple plastic or glass lens elements—which improves image clarity, corrects aberrations, and brings more light to the camera sensor—metasurfaces use a single lens with nanostructures to bend light rays toward the sensors.
Metalenz says more than 300 million of its metasurfaces are already used in consumer devices today, replacing bulky traditional optics in time-of-flight sensors that capture depth information and assist with a camera's autofocus.
The company also pioneered a method to use these metasurfaces to capture polarization data. When light hits an object with specific material properties, it creates a unique polarization signature. Light reflecting off black ice has a different polarization signature from light reflecting off the road. Using machine learning algorithms, this enables a system that can quickly identify black ice on the road and alert the driver.
That's why the company developed Polar ID, a facial authentication platform to rival Apple's Face ID. With polarization data, its sensors can distinguish a real face from someone wearing an eerily accurate 3D mask of the same person, because the polarization information from light bouncing off a human's skin is unique compared to light bouncing off the silicone of the mask. Yes, it's even more secure than Google's face unlock system on Pixels, which can be spoofed with a high-quality 3D mask.

Metalenz announced a partnership with Qualcomm in late 2023 to scale it up, and now this Polar ID face-recognition system is finally ready for mass production. It will be deployed on consumer devices—laptops and smartphones—in 2027. Its rollout could mean that Android finally gets a Face ID equivalent, with components that use less space than Apple's TrueDepth camera system, and unlike Google's face unlock, it isn’t affected by bright light or dim environments.
“We've now proven with multiple third parties that have done testing that we meet the highest security standards they have in terms of performance, in terms of keeping out masks and any mask of any quality,” Rob Devlin, CEO of Metalenz, tells WIRED.
But the next step? Making those components disappear from view.
The Under-Display Camera
At Display Week, a display technology convention in Los Angeles, Metalenz showed off how its Polar ID system could work underneath an OLED display. You'll still have a selfie camera visible on the screen for, you know, selfies. But the Polar ID system would sit next to it under the display, where it’s effectively invisible.
This isn't the first time we've seen under-display cameras—Samsung famously employed one on several iterations of its Galaxy Z Fold folding smartphone—but image quality greatly suffers when the camera is stuffed under the display. This is likely why Samsung switched to a traditional punch-hole camera on its latest Z Fold7.
That isn't much of a problem with a sensor designed to capture polarization data. Devlin says the signal does get slightly distorted by hiding under the display, and you lose some intensity, but the polarization information largely remains unchanged. You can see in the example image above—the top three images are what the traditional Polar ID sensor sees, and the set below is what it sees when Polar ID is underneath an OLED display.
The display needs a thinned-out section to house the Polar ID sensor, meaning this system requires tight integration with the display manufacturer. But adding that thinner region should not affect panel quality. (Devlin says the company is in early conversations with a few of the bigger smartphone manufacturers but didn’t divulge details.) “You can't really even tell that there is a thinned-out region,” Devlin says about the display.
Over a video call, I watched a demo of Devlin testing Polar ID under OLED, and the system had no trouble authenticating his face or discerning when he was wearing a 3D mask.
“Folks have decided to differentiate along a continuous display versus Apple’s interrupted display,” Devlin says. “So I think this is also something that can really offer face unlock in a truly seamless manner—seamless in the sense that you don't even feel like you're securely unlocking your phone when you are.”
You can imagine that this under-display camera could prove useful not just in phones but in laptops that want to eliminate the notch for a continuous display. While Polar ID will arrive on devices in 2027, Devlin says the under-display version is likely an extra year out and should land in the market in 2028.
Smartphone companies have long been infatuated with an uninterrupted screen experience while minimizing the black bars around the panel, with some, like Samsung, exploring under-display cameras and others even trying pop-up cameras that mechanically rise up out of the phone's frame. It is likely why Android phone makers haven't fully adopted a Face ID-like biometric authentication system: The hardware was too bulky and expensive to justify interrupting a beautiful, edge-to-edge display. Polar ID’s solution might finally give them the security they need without the “island” they've been trying to avoid.

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A New Lens Technology Is Primed to Jump-Start Phone Cameras
The optics in your smartphone have been pretty much the same for more than a decade. That’s about to change.
The camera on the first iPhone way back in 2007 was a mere 2 megapixels. And it only had a rear camera; there wasn't even a front-facing selfie shooter. Today, you'll find multiple cameras on the front and back of phones—some of them with sensors as large as 108 megapixels, like the biggest camera on Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra.
But while the sensor size and megapixel counts of smartphone cameras have increased considerably in the past decade—not to mention improvements in computational photography software—the lenses that help capture photos remain fundamentally unchanged.
A new company called Metalenz, which emerges from stealth mode today, is looking to disrupt smartphone cameras with a single, flat lens system that utilizes a technology called optical metasurfaces. A camera built around this new lens tech can produce an image of the same if not better quality as traditional lenses, collect more light for brighter photos, and can even enable new forms of sensing in phones, all while taking up less space.
A Flat Lens
How does it work? Well, first it's important to understand how phone camera lenses work today. The imaging system on the back of your smartphone may have multiple cameras—the latest iPhone 12 Pro has three cameras on the back—but each camera has multiple lenses or lens elements stacked on top of each other. The main camera sensor on the aforementioned iPhone 12 Pro utilizes seven lens elements. A many-lens design like the iPhone's is superior to a single-lens setup; as light passes through each successive lens, the image gains sharpness and clarity.
Image may contain Light and Electronics
“The optics usually in smartphones nowadays consists of between four and seven lens elements,” says Oliver Schindelbeck, innovation manager at the optics manufacturer Zeiss, which is known for its high-quality lenses. “If you have a single lens element, just by physics you will have aberrations like distortion or dispersion in the image.”
More lenses allow manufacturers to compensate for irregularities like chromatic aberration (when colors appear on the fringes of an image) and lens distortion (when straight lines appear curved in a photo). However, stacking multiple lens elements on top of each other requires more vertical space inside the camera module. It's one of many reasons why the camera “bump” on smartphones has grown larger and larger over the years.
“The more lens elements you want to pack in a camera, the more space it needs," Schindelbeck says. Other reasons for the size of the bump include larger image sensors and more cameras with zoom lenses, which need extra room.
Phone makers like Apple have increased the number of lens elements over time, and while some, like Samsung, are now folding optics to create “periscope” lenses for greater zoom capabilities, companies have generally stuck with the tried-and-true stacked lens element system.
“The optics became more sophisticated, you added more lens elements, you created strong aspheric elements to achieve the necessary reduction in space, but there was no revolution in the past 10 years in this field,” Schindelbeck says.
This is where Metalenz comes in. Instead of using plastic and glass lens elements stacked over an image sensor, Metalenz's design uses a single lens built on a glass wafer that is between 1x1 to 3x3 millimeter in size. Look very closely under a microscope and you'll see nanostructures measuring one-thousandth the width of a human hair. Those nanostructures bend light rays in a way that corrects for many of the shortcomings of single-lens camera systems.
The core technology was formed through a decade of research when cofounder and CEO Robert Devlin was working on his PhD at Harvard University with acclaimed physicist and Metalenz cofounder Federico Capasso. The company was spun out of the research group in 2017.
Light passes through these patterned nanostructures, which look like millions of circles with differing diameters at the microscopic level. “Much in the way that a curved lens speeds up and slows down light to bend it, each one of these allows us to do the same thing, so we can bend and shape light just by changing the diameters of these circles,” Devlin says.
The resulting image quality is just as sharp as what you'd get from a multilens system, and the nanostructures do the job of reducing or eliminating many of the image-degrading aberrations common to traditional cameras. And the design doesn't just conserve space. Devlin says a Metalenz camera can deliver more light back to the image sensor, allowing for brighter and sharper images than what you'd get with traditional lens elements.
Another benefit? The company has formed partnerships with two semiconductor leaders (that can currently produce a million Metalenz "chips" a day), meaning the optics are made in the same foundries that manufacture consumer and industrial devices—an important step in simplifying the supply chain.
New Forms of Sensing
Metalenz will go into mass production toward the end of the year. Its first application will be to serve as the lens system of a 3D sensor in a smartphone. (The company did not give the name of the phone maker.)
Devlin says current 3D sensors, like Apple's TrueDepth camera for Face ID, actively illuminate a scene with lasers to scan faces, but this can be a drain on a phone's battery life. Since Metalenz can bring in more light to the image sensor, he claims it can help conserve power.
Other good news? If it's a 3D sensor on the front of a phone for face authentication, Devlin says the Metalenz system can eliminate the need for a bulky camera notch jutting into the screen, like the one in current iPhones. The amount of space saved by forgoing traditional lens elements will enable more phone makers to put sensors and cameras beneath a device's glass display, something we'll see more of this year.
Devlin says the applications for Metalenz reach beyond smartphones. The technology can be used in everything from instruments for health care to augmented- and virtual-reality cameras, to the cameras in automobiles.
Take spectroscopy as an example. A spectrometer is used to finely detect different wavelengths of light, and it's commonly employed in medical assays to identify particular molecules in the blood. As metasurfaces allow you to collapse “a tabletop of optics into a single surface,” Devlin claims you can pop the right sensors in a smartphone with Metalenz to do the same kind of work.
“You can actually look at the chemical signature of fruit with a spectrometer and tell whether it's ripe,” Devlin says. “It's really not just an image anymore, you're actually accessing all sorts of different forms of sense, and seeing and interacting with the world, getting a whole new set of information into the cellphone.”

The Pope’s True Loyalty Is To Globalism, Not Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:22:00 +0000

They used to call it the “new world order” – A partially public and partially covert agenda to dismantle western civilization. Its purpose is to upend the global financial system, destroy liberty minded movements and eventually erase nations and borders to produce a single communist-like central government ruled by the elitist class.
Today, there are many names for this “beast system”. Some call it the “multipolar world order” even though it would not actually be multipolar. Others call it the “Great Reset”. But the NWO concept that has been promoted most in our post-pandemic discourse is the idea of “Multiculturalism”.
Multiculturalism has always been in the background, at least since the Obama years. It was right under the surface, waiting to be used as a vehicle to move the globalist vision forward. The American people have been prepped for it for generations. The Europeans are currently suffocating in it and it might be too late for them.
The strategy seems rather simple but it is actually a complex effort relying on numerous moving parts synchronized to maximum effect. The most important mechanism is narrative and social influence; the public has to be taught to accept multiculturalism as an inevitability. This brings us to the modern church and its abandonment of western values.
The Vatican’s Shift Into Multiculturalism
In recent news, Pope Leo XIV triggered widespread debate among conservatives when he offered up a thinly veiled attack on the Trump Administration, calling US strikes on Iran’s infrastructure akin to “war crimes”. Interestingly, Leo refused to condemn the wholesale slaughter of protesters by the Iranian regime until this week, likely due to pressure from conservative critics calling out the hypocrisy.
The Pope has been an avid critic not just of Trump, but conservative anti-immigration movements in general. In December of 2025 he argued:
“I know that in Europe there are, many times, fears that are present, but oftentimes generated by people who are against immigration and trying to keep out people who may be from another country, another religion, another race. And in that sense, I would say we all need to work together…”
This runs parallel to Leo’s statements in July of 2025, when he asserted that:
“The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges… She knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”
The treatment of immigrants as almost “divine” is a bizarre byproduct of the multicultural religion. This idea has been presented by several popes in recent decades, comparing refugees and illegal immigrants to the Holy Family traveling to Egypt to escape King Herod. In reality, Mary and Joseph were Roman subjects and merely traveled from one part of the Roman Empire to another. They were not “immigrants”, illegal or otherwise.
Keep in mind, the Pope lives within a secure compound protected by two miles of walls standing 40 feet high. The Vatican is one of the most restricted pieces of ground on the planet. Like most globalist elites, he never has to deal with the consequences of the mass immigration policies he supports.
For instance, the Vatican has refused to comment on the rising tide of crime and violence (including rape gangs) caused by mass immigration, specifically from Muslim countries. Nor has he commented on Islamic communities enforcing Sharia Law in Europe in defiance of integration.
In fact, Pope Leo pretends as if these problems simply don’t exist and that the millions of people opposed to third world migration are acting out of bigotry rather than a rational concern for the safety of their families and their culture.
And make no mistake, the Catholic Church has played an integral role in the spread of mass immigration. Under Joe Biden, the Catholic Church enjoyed over $200 million in direct grants for helping bring hundreds of thousands of migrants to the US. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was responsible for settling around 18% of all “refugees” and asylum seekers entering the US from 2021 to 2024.
The EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) has budgeted over $10 billion from 2021 to 2027 for organizations helping to settle millions of migrants in Europe, and a large portion of that budget goes to Catholic-based NGOs.
To many Christians the Pope still represents a central figure of influence despite the Vatican’s clear shift to the political left over the past several decades and its increasing abandonment of traditionalism. To non-Catholics (and wise Catholics), the office of the Pope is viewed as a Trojan Horse designed to destroy Christianity and the west from within.
The Vatican has grown into a purveyor of the progressive movement since the Vatican II reforms in the 1960s. These reforms including a focus on “interfaith relations” (universal religion) and a policy of detaching the church from its role as a pillar of western civilization. Today, 47% of Catholics vote Democrat despite the fact that woke ideology directly violates many of the most sacred Christian principles.
The Church’s interest in Muslim immigration spiked in 2010 under Pope Benedict XVI and they have been deeply involved with mass migration programs ever since, often in coordination with leftist politicians.
The Alliance Between The Vatican And The Luciferian Elites
Nothing woke up the masses more, in my opinion, than the nightmare of the Covid pandemic. During this crisis the globalists proudly proclaimed their intentions to lock down the world, enforce perpetual vaccine mandates, establish a medical tyranny and fast-track every NWO program imaginable.
One such program was the “Council For Inclusive Capitalism”, which I believe was the intended foundation for a global government; the top of the pyramid. The project was announced as a partnership between globalist controlled corporations, leftist NGOs, climate organizations, the Rothschild Family and, of course, the Vatican.
The Vatican’s mission within the council seemed to revolve around promoting socialism as “Christian adjacent” (This is a lie – Christianity encourages independent and voluntary charity, not forced charity through government taxation or atheistic collectivism). They were also tasked with forming a platform for a “universal religion”, or a union of religions.
The CIC took advantage of the hysteria surrounding the pandemic to advance the multicultural agenda as well as ESG (a program meant to use corporations to enforce woke ideology through social and financial influence). The project ultimately failed when the covid narrative fell apart.
The Council has since gone underground. However, in 2026 the Vatican Bank approved the appointment of François Pauly, a former Rothschild director, to lead its Board of Superintendence. The CIC is undeniable proof that the Vatican and associated leaders are intertwined with the luciferian elites. It is no longer a conspiracy “theory”, but a confirmed fact.
The Crusaders Were Right, The Globalist Pope Is Wrong
In 1095 AD at the Council of Clermont in France, Pope Urban II gave a speech on the relentless invasion of the Ottoman Turks which was threatening to destroy Europe and the last vestiges of western civilization. He appealed to Christian men to stand and fight, to stop the erasure of Christendom. For 300 years the Muslims had cut into the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, migrating and conquering as they went.
By the time of Urban’s call to arms, the Islamic caliphates had taken over 60% of all Christian lands and were on the doorstep of Western Europe.
Before this speech it was widely believed that Christians would not organize or fight. The success of Urban’s plea for action shocked the Pope himself. Thus began the First Crusade to save the west. In the end, the Muslims were pushed out of Europe, back to the Arab lands. Without the crusades we would still be living in the dark ages of a Muslim theocracy.
Nothing has changed since then in terms of the conflict. The western world is still completely incompatible with Islam. What has changed, rather, is the circumstances and the players. Today, the Vatican is a multicultural monstrosity working with people who, more than anything, want open borders, the dismantling of the west and the elimination of Christianity.
They clearly see Islamic immigration (and third world immigration from socialist nations) as a valuable weapon for cleaving the US and Europe. As I noted in my recent article “The US Separation From And NATO Is Long Overdue”, European globalists have used mass immigration to implant a foreign army to subdue and control the native population. It is a tactic as old as time – Political leadership using subsidized foreign hordes as a way to control their own rebellious citizens.
This is why they have ignored every reasonable call by the populace for reforms and deportations. This is why they ignore the rape gangs, the murders, the terrorism. They WANT these things to happen. That’s why they let the barbarians inside the gates in the first place. The Vatican and the Pope are a part of this agenda. As an institution, the Papacy was tasked with protecting the western world. If the Vatican is casting aside this sacred duty, then it no longer represents Christianity.

Bugs Were Supposed to be the Future of Food. Now, the Industry is Collapsing.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:06:00 +0000

How the farmed-insect frenzy lost its buzz.
“We have to get used to the idea of eating insects.”
This proclamation came from, of all people, an insect researcher. Dutch entomologist Marcel Dicke pitched eating bugs in his 2010 TED talk as critical to sustainably feeding a growing human population, because insects have a much smaller carbon footprint than beef, pork, and chicken.
To make his point, he even featured photographs of what might be a common meal in this bold new future: a stir-fry with mealworm larvae, mushrooms, and snap peas, finished with a chocolate dessert topped with a large fried cricket.
Three years later, the United Nations published a comprehensive report that echoed many of Dicke’s ideas and argued that insects could be a more eco-friendly food source not just for humans, but also for livestock. The report received widespread media coverage and helped to trigger a wave of investment from venture capital firms and governments alike into insect farming startups across Europe, the US, Canada, and beyond, totaling some $2 billion.
There’s a ring of truth, it turns out, to the conspiracy theory that the globalist elites want us to eat bugs.
This money was pouring into insect agriculture at a time when investors and policymakers were hungry for new models to fix the conventional meat industry’s massive carbon footprint. And what’s more disruptive and novel than farming and eating bugs?
You personally might recoil at the thought of eating fried crickets or roasted mealworms, but many cultures around the world consume insects, either caught from the wild or farmed on a small scale. And while grubs don’t feature prominently in current paleo cookbooks, our paleolithic ancestors most certainly ate plenty of bugs.
But the past decade has shown that even if you build an insect farm, the global market may not come. Of the 20 or so largest insect farming startups, almost a quarter have gone belly up in recent years, including the very largest, Ÿnsect, which ceased operations in December.
All told, shuttered insect farming startups account for almost half of all investment into the industry. “Things have gone from bad to worse for the big insect factory business model,” one insect farming CEO said late last year in a YouTube video.
And Vox can exclusively report that plans to build a large insect farm in Nebraska—a joint project between Tyson Foods, America’s largest meat company, and Protix, now the world’s second largest insect farming company—are indefinitely on hold.
Beyond the financial woes of the insect farming industry, some philosophers worry about the ethical implications of potentially farming tens of trillions of bugs for food, as emerging research suggests insects may well have some form of consciousness and hold the capacity to feel pain and suffer.
“Evidence is building that there’s a form of sentience there in insects,” Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics who leads the Foundations of Animal Sentience project at the university, told me last year.
But it looks like they may not have too much to worry about. In spite of the initial hype surrounding the bug farming boom, the insect agriculture industry has learned just how difficult it is to compete with the incumbent, larger animal-based meat industry—and that, perhaps, it never really made sense to try doing so with bugs.
Insect farming is similar to other types of animal farming. The insects reproduce, and the offspring are raised in large numbers in factory-style buildings. Many of the same welfare concerns for farmed chickens and pigs are present on insect farms, like disease, cannibalism, and painful slaughter. In the case of insects, the creatures are killed by a variety of means. They might be frozen, baked, roasted, shredded, grond, microwaved, boiled, or suffocated.
In 2020, insect companies farmed an estimated 1 trillion bugs, and the most commonly farmed species today are black soldier fly larvae, mealworms, and crickets.
While some people might tell researchers they’re open to adding bugs to their diet, these smallest of animals remain a novelty food in the US and Europe, as opposed to a commodity capable of displacing wings or burgers.
“The human food market, basically, has not materialized,” Dustin Crummett, a philosopher and executive director of The Insect Institute—a nonprofit that researches the environmental and animal welfare implications of large-scale insect agriculture—told me. “Only a tiny fraction of farmed insects are used for human food.”
But insect farming startups haven’t only sought to put insects on our plates or grind them into protein bars; many want to sell insect meal (ground up insects) as feed for other farmed animals. It’s a sustainable alternative, they argue, to the soy fed to factory-farmed chickens and cattle, much of which is grown on deforested land. Insect meal could also replace fishmeal (largely composed of small, wild-caught species, like anchovies and sardines), which is fed to farmed fish and heavily contributes to overfishing.
This approach of farming insects for livestock feed, however, isn’t materializing either, and much of it comes down to cost.
According to a 2024 analysis published in the journal Food and Humanity and co-authored by Crummett, the cost of insect meal is about 10 times that of soybean meal and 3.5 times that of fishmeal, a major cost gap that is unlikely to narrow anytime soon.
Insect meal is so expensive, in part, because feeding insects is expensive. Farmed insects are typically fed agricultural “co-products”—like wheat bran and corn gluten—most of which is already fed to livestock, and so insect farmers have wound up in competition with big meat companies to buy up these ingredients. This simple fact weakens the narrative often driven by insect farming startups that they are putting food scraps that otherwise would’ve been thrown away to good use.
“Organic waste from the industry becomes feed for insects,” Protix’s website reads. “This circular food production mirrors nature’s circle of life.” But this is misleading; Protix feeds its insects ingredients like oat husk and starch, which are typically used in traditional livestock feed anyway. “It doesn’t really make sense to buy chicken feed to feed insects to feed to chicken,” as one insect farming startup founder told AgriTech Insights a couple of years ago.
And it’s not guaranteed that insect meal will be more sustainable than soy or fishmeal. According to a UK government report, the environmental impact of insect farming depends on a number of factors, including what insects are fed and whether startups power their farms with fossil fuels or renewable energy.
Energy usage explains a lot of the industry’s cost challenge. Farmed insects require warm temperatures, and in Europe, where so many of the startups are based, energy prices have sharply risen in recent years.
To lower costs and develop new revenue streams, some insect farming startups have pivoted to become “waste management” companies, too. Rotting food waste in landfills is a huge source of global greenhouse gas emissions, and insect farming companies can earn money by taking it off other companies’ hands and letting bugs eat it.
But here, too, the industry has run into obstacles, including strict EU regulations around what can be fed to insects and an inconsistent product. When insects are fed food waste, their final nutritional profile can vary widely depending on what they’re fed, but livestock feed companies need nutritional consistency.
And it turns out that even the largest and most powerful companies in the space can run into hard, economic realities when trying to rear bugs on waste en masse.
In late 2023, America’s biggest meat company, Tyson Foods, announced it had invested an undisclosed sum of money in Protix, a large Dutch insect farming startup. That Tyson was putting its weight behind it seemed like much-needed proof that insects could be the future of food, as so many startups, investors, and researchers had claimed.
The two companies planned to build a massive insect farm together near Tyson’s cattle slaughterhouse in Dakota City, Nebraska. At the insect farm, Protix would raise and kill around 70,000 tons of larvae annually—what I estimate to be approximately 300 billion individual insects. The bugs would feed on cattle paunch, partially digested plant matter removed from the stomachs of cattle slaughtered at Tyson’s plant. After a few weeks of feeding on the animal waste, the larvae would be slaughtered and ground up into insect meal, destined to become food for pets and livestock.
It was a way for Tyson to “derive value” from its waste, as it told CNN.
Now, Vox can exclusively report that Tyson Foods has withdrawn its air permit application to build the plant, and the plant itself is “on hold indefinitely.” That’s according to email exchanges last December between Tyson Foods and the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment, which were obtained through public records requests by the nonprofit Society for the Protection of Insects.
Tyson and Protix did not respond to questions for this story.
The companies’ stalled plans aren’t unique in the insect farming space.
In early 2024, Innovafeed—currently the largest insect farming startup—opened a pilot plant in Decatur, Illinois, in partnership with ADM, the massive food and livestock feed manufacturing company. The US Department of Agriculture awarded Innovafeed a $11.7 million grant to turn insect waste into fertilizer at the plant, but a year and a half after it opened, it suspended operations, citing funding challenges.
Through a public records request, Society for the Protection of Insects obtained over 600 pages of documents pertaining to the grant, though about half of it is redacted, including much of the environmental review and Innovafeed’s commercial records. Last week, the organization sued the USDA over the heavy redactions, arguing it’s in the public’s interest to fully disclose the details of the deal.
The USDA declined to comment on pending litigation, and Innovafeed did not respond to questions for this story.
The biggest blow to the industry yet came late last year when the largest startup of them all—France-based Ÿnsect, which had raised over $600 million, representing nearly a full third of the sector’s funding—ran out of money. And a quarter of that backing had come from the French government. A recent whistleblower investigation alleged severe mismanagement at Ÿnsect’s production facility that led to filthy conditions and health problems for workers. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
As insect farming startups struggle to stay afloat, their main trade group—the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF)—is going so far as to call on the European Union to mandate publicly funded food services, like school cafeterias, to buy insect meat and publicly owned farms to buy insect meal to feed to their animals. IPIFF didn’t respond to an interview request for this story, nor did the North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture.
As for the outlook of the insect farming sector, more startups will probably go under in the years ahead, and for the survivors to continue on, they may need to leave Europe and North America for warmer climates and lower operating costs.
But the rise, fall, and resettling of the industry isn’t uncommon in the agricultural technology field, Crummett says. Vertical farming, for example, seemed like a great idea on paper, but it’s been an economic failure.

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Bug Out: the Insect-farming Industry Is Collapsing, for Reasons That Aren’t Hard To Guess
Perhaps the greatest revelation of the Department of Government Efficiency, apart from the sheer, staggering scale of the pork, was just how much of it was being funnelled through USAID—and, of course, where it was going and to whom.
All of a sudden, we discovered that literally everything awful in the world—from drag-queen storytime in Vanu’atu and sex-changes for dwarfs in Morocco, to research into rare aardvark viruses and cat-torture in China—all of it was being paid for with US taxpayer money via USAID.
Fancy that!?
So why not insect-farming too?
It certainly fits the bill. It’s evil and disgusting and runs counter to all our deepest, most fundamental instincts; it serves no real purpose except to degrade, humiliate and elicit sniggers—if not uproarious laughter—from those who came up with the idea and would never, under any circumstances, do it themselves.
In short, it’s perfect.
Well, I did a little digging and, to my surprise, it doesn’t look like the US taxpayer was propping up the global insect-farming industry, not really. USAID made a “request for information” in 2022, meaning it was looking for input on how it could invest in the industry, but other than that it was just a few small-scale projects in places like Uganda, Madagascar and Indonesia to help farmers feed their livestock with black soldier flies or dispose of waste by feeding it to worms—stuff like that.
So, it’s just a coincidence that insect-farming is on its last… legs, ahem, after Kekius Maximus took his gold-plated chainsaw to the United States Agency for International Development.
Anyway, none of this changes the fact that insect-farmers are, indeed, in very deep trouble.
A long article on Mother Jones examines the industry’s woes in detail, from its early days with so much promise, when billions of dollars poured into startups from venture-capital firms and governments; to today’s dismal prospects. In recent years, almost a quarter of the 20 largest insect-farming startups have now failed, including the biggest, Ynsect, which came tumbling down last December.
“Things have gone from bad to worse for the big insect factory business model,” one unhappy CEO said in a YouTube video.
Plans for further expansion, including the building of a massive insect farm in Nebraska by Tyson Foods, have been placed on indefinite hold.
As if to add insult to injury, moral philosophers are now proposing that, far from being ethical, bug-farming on an industrial scale is, like traditional farming, deeply immoral. Insects, apparently, have some form of consciousness, feel pain and may even have opinions about the final season of Stranger Things.
I pondered the question of insect sentience this morning while I sat on the toilet and watched a woodlouse meander across the bathroom floor. Frankly, I’m not convinced. But if moral philosophers—a useless lot, for the most part—can make life harder for insect-farmers, then I’m happy to let them do it.
End cruelty to mealworms! Worker ants of the world, unite—you have nothing to lose but your chains!
Energy-price increases have played a big role in the industry’s misery, driving up the cost of heating the enormous warehouses where the insects are farmed. Costs are especially high in Europe, where more sensible energy policies could have been devised by a four-year-old child with water on the brain.
It also turns out feeding insects is expensive—maybe even more expensive than feeding some larger animals, like fish. We were told the opposite.
But, of course, the biggest problem is that nobody wants to eat insects. Obviously. It doesn’t matter how many times we’re told “cockroach milk” is the next superfood, or that we have to eat crickets instead of chicken to save the planet from global boiling, people just don’t want to do it.
In large part, the problems of the insect-farmers are the problems of the so-called “alternative protein” industry more broadly.
Nobody wants to eat “plant-based meat” either, or “plant-based eggs,” or “lab-grown meat” or any other eldritch abomination spawned in a bioreactor and dressed up as a cruel mockery of Mother Nature’s perfection.
During the pandemic, the makers of these products started to change tack as it became clear sales were flagging and projections laughably optimistic. They turned from claims about taste and health benefits—which nobody really believed—to manipulation and shame-based marketing. The most notable example was the barf-inducing “Help Dad” campaign from “oat-milk” brand Oatly. Tragically unhip fathers were confronted by their broccoli-haired kids and put through a plant-based struggle-session at the fridge door. Dad’s crime? Reaching for a cold glass of cow’s milk instead of Oatly.
Unsurprisingly, despite market research that suggests shame is the best way to market oat milk and insects, consumers aren’t buying it. So long as there are free-market mechanisms driving what ends up on store shelves, consumers will keep on buying the real thing instead.
Which is why pressure groups are now trying to get government to step in and force consumers to buy insects. The International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed is calling on the European Union to mandate that taxpayer-funded food services, including school cafeterias, sell insect “meat” and that publicly owned farms feed their animals insectmeal—ground-up insects. Other groups are trying to do the same thing in the US.

What Is Armageddon?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:29:00 +0000

AI Overview
In military terms, Armageddon refers to a final, catastrophic, and decisive battle, often synonymous with nuclear war or a global conflict that ends civilization.
It originates from biblical prophecy as the ultimate showdown between good and evil, used now to describe an apocalyptic scenario or a war of absolute annihilation.
Key Military Contexts:
Final Battle Concept: It refers to a, potentially literal or symbolic, last battle where global powers gather for a terminal conflict.
Apocalyptic Scenario: It is used as a colloquialism for a global nuclear apocalypse that threatens the survival of humanity. Symbolic Location: It stems from "Har Megiddo" (Mount Megiddo) in Israel, known as the site for this apocalyptic showdown.
Geopolitical Rhetoric: In recent contexts, it has been used to describe, and criticize, framing modern Middle Eastern conflicts as "religious wars" aimed at fulfilling prophecy, say Al Jazeera news.
The term is rarely used in official military doctrine to describe operational plans, but rather as a dramatic description of potential nuclear warfare.

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War of Words – ‘ARMAGEDDON’
‘Armageddon’ came to English, via Greek, from Hebrew har megiddo, meaning ‘mountain of Megiddo.’ According to the Book of Revelation 16:16, it is the place where, at world’s end, on Judgement Day, Heaven’s forces will defeat the armies of evil in a final battle.
The word can be found in an 1811 letter of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley: ‘several others of the Armageddon-Heroes maintain their posts.’ It has often been used as an allusion to any last, tremendous, struggle, as in Rudyard Kipling’s 1896 A Song of the English: ‘In the day of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all.’ On occasion, it has been employed to describe nuclear war.
In ancient times, Megiddo, located in the Jezreel Valley, was a strategically important city that sat astride the primary route leading into southern Syria. It was the scene of the Battle of Megiddo, one of the most famous of the whole of the Bronze Age.
In 1485 BC, the warrior pharaoh Tuthmosis III moved against it. He was opposed by an alliance of Canaanite rulers.
There were three routes to the Plain of Esdraelon, upon which stood Megiddo. His officers counselled Tuthmosis to avoid the third, the narrow Aruna road, as it would make the Egyptian army vulnerable on the march, and the other two were easier. Yet the Aruna offered a straight passage to Esdraelon, and would allow his army to appear less than a mile from Megiddo.
Tuthmosis also believed that the Aruna’s obvious difficulty would work to convince the enemy to guard the other two roads, and leave it uncovered.
Thus the pharaoh chose the Aruna road, and his move indeed surprised the hostile coalition. The Egyptians deployed without trouble onto Esdraelon, and the next day crushed the enemy in battle.

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Most people believe Armageddon is about the end of the world. But what does the Bible actually reveal?
On the hills outside the city of Nazareth in Galilee of Israel, you can stand and look out over the flat plain of the Jezreel Valley. To the west, at the end of the valley you can make out a hill, the site of a place called Megiddo.
Nazareth is where Jesus was raised by His parents, Joseph and Mary. It is not hard to imagine Jesus as a youth spending time in these hills overlooking the valley. Jesus, who was God in the flesh - knew the history of the land before Him, both past and future. He knew one day, on that spot, armies would gather to fight Him at His glorious second coming.
Jesus grew up near a place called Armageddon. Armageddon carries a powerful message for the world - a message that comes straight from Jesus Christ.
Armageddon! What do you think when you hear that word? Most of us probably think of the end of the world - or a movie.
But what most people believe is not accurate. Armageddon is actually just an old city. It's a real-life place on the map and you can travel there today. It's a place no longer inhabited and it's surrounded by a long and wide valley.
In future prophecy, Revelation reveals that armies will gather in this valley to fight Jesus Christ when He returns in glory and power.
There's a powerful message for each of us in the prophecy of Armageddon. If you heed that message, it can change your life and prepare you for Christ's return.
For every person you ask about Armageddon, you'll get a different answer. But what's the truth? What do the Scriptures say? Let's look in the book of Revelation.
In chapter 16, we see seven devastating plagues that represent God's final judgment on the world - a world that has rejected Him. They are symbolized by bowls being poured out upon the earth.
The fifth of these bowls brings darkness on the throne of the evil ruler of the final superpower of mankind, which is depicted as a beast. The impenetrable darkness will be so frightening that people will be gnawing their tongues out of despair. In their anger and their pain they are going to curse God. And instead of turning to Him for help, they will refuse to humble themselves or to repent. Tension in the world will escalate (Revelation 16:11). Satan, of course, is pulling out all strings behind that evil leader called the Beast, and in his rage against God, he prepares to maneuver the world and its armies into a box canyon. There will be no way out.
Notice what it says in verse 12. "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." In other words, great armies from the east will be on the move toward Israel. It continues, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet." Who is the dragon, the Beast and this false prophet? The dragon is Satan. The Beast is the leader of the final, evil superpower of mankind. And the false prophet is an evil religious leader who will deceive the whole world with his false religion. The Scripture continues: "For they are spirits of demons performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:12-14).
What we're reading is an incredible peek into the invisible spirit world. With hints like this throughout the Scriptures, we know that there is another dimension that we really can't see, feel, touch or taste. But it is very real. It's inhabited with good spirits - angels, servants of God - and evil spirits, Satan and his demons. In this verse, it gives us a metaphorical vision of what is going on in the spiritual dimension. It shows the dragon - Satan - spewing from his mouth evil spirits - represented here by frogs. What happens in the spirit realm has always had a connection with what happens in our own physical realm. What we're reading here are evil spirits causing chaos in the spirit realm. These evil spirits directly influence events in our physical world.
In other words, Satan's rage behind the scenes will be what causes the armies of the world to gather in the land of Israel. Armageddon is not the name of the battle that will be fought. It is the place where they will gather for what is possibly the largest, and certainly the most conclusive, battle in all world history - The Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. Of all the great battles in history - battles such as Gettysburg, Thermopolye, or Normandy - this battle is more significant than all the others combined. It's been named two thousand years in advance.
Now take note of something remarkable in the Scripture in verse 15. It says, "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed" (Revelation 16:15). Right in the middle of this description of end-time armies, spiritual deception and the wrath of Satan is this little gem of a statement.
Then it continues right on after this as it did before with descriptions of more dramatic signs and events. It would be easy to just gloss over it, but that would be a critical mistake. We're going to come back to this verse later and explain it a bit more.
Let's go on to verse 16 and see what it says, "And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon" (Revelation16:16). The word, "Armageddon" is just the combination of two Hebrew words: the word, "har" and the word, "megiddo." Of all the places, why then is this so significant? Why do the armies gather there? Well a brief look at the history of the area can help us answer that question.
On a map of the State of Israel, you can see the site of Megiddo. For thousands of years, it was a city where people lived. Every time it was destroyed in war, they'd fill in the dirt and they'd build on top. Today it is a hill popping up out of the flat plain called, Jezreel. Archaeologists have excavated the site for several decades. Their work has exposed ancient secrets long hidden beneath its soil.
Megiddo has seen more battles than any other place on earth. Why? Because whoever controlled Megiddo controlled a narrow strategic stretch of road called the Via Maris, which was a major international highway in the ancient world. This road stretched from Egypt all the way to Babylon, which is today, more or less, the modern nation of Iraq. In ancient times, this was the link - this Via Maris - between the major empires and the trade routes of the day. In the ancient world, any nation who wanted control of this region had to control Megiddo.
Over the years, many battles took place at Megiddo. In 1479 B.C., the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III launched a campaign near Megiddo to assert dominion over territories in and north of Canaan.
In the Bible, King Solomon stationed troops, and chariots and horses in Megiddo, using the city as a northern fortress (1 Kings 9:15). Today there are massive gates still standing at the entrance to the ruins in Megiddo, and they date from this period and they are evidence of the city's strategic regional location. Later, during the reign of Judah's King Josiah, pharaoh Necho from Egypt came to Megiddo to fight against Assyria. Even though God told Josiah not to get involved in this battle, he did and he was killed (2 Kings 23:29).
And in modern times both Napoleon (1799) and the British General Allenby (1918) defeated Turkish forces at Megiddo. The area has never lost its significance as a battleground for control over this crucial crossroad of empires.
So we see that Megiddo is the place where armies have gathered in the past and it is where armies will gather in the future before the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. Does the Bible show us then where the actual battle will ultimately be fought? It does, and you will see where in a minute.
Conflict in the Middle East dominates the news today. Why does this part of the world matter to you? The answer lies in Bible prophecy.
We have seen that armies from all over the world will gather at Armageddon in the "time of the end" to fight Christ at His coming. Armageddon is a place. The battle is the event. And, there is an important spiritual lesson that connects events that took place in ancient Megiddo to what is happening today.
Let's look at a couple of scriptures to set the stage.
Let's look at Zechariah chapter 14, where it tells us: "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem... Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle" (Zechariah 14:1-3).
The prophet Joel adds some detail to this. It says: "I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land" (Joel 3:2).
Jerusalem is where the battle of the great day of God Almighty is fought. Specifically, the focal point of battle will be in the steep valley that is today called, Kidron located between the Old City of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Christ will descend with a spirit army and tread the winepress of His wrath. Revelation 19 says this: "And the winepress was trodden without the city, and [the] blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs" (Revelation 14:20). As human armies fight God the carnage will be so great that the blood will run several feet deep.
It will be a terrible battle - one that will end in the peace of the Kingdom of God.
Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley provide an ideal staging point for this battle. We can imagine forces flowing in through the port of Haifa, a few miles to the northwest. Transport planes, and helicopters, troop carriers and tanks will ferry men and materiel into the region. Jet fighters and missiles will no doubt be engaged in a battle that suddenly turns its attention to a force coming from an unexpected location - the heavens above Jerusalem. In their folly and deception, they will fight Christ, never recognizing Him as the Messiah.
Today, this is difficult, very difficult to imagine. We read these scriptures and we ask, "How could political leaders be deceived to fight Jesus Christ, the Son of God?"
The answer may lie in one verse we skipped over in Revelation 16. Let's go back and read it. Notice that verse 15 is a thought injected by Jesus Christ, who is the author of the book of Revelation. It says this: "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame" (Revelation 16:15). Here is Christ saying to those with ears to hear - there is a way to avoid being part of this great end-time deception.
What is Christ saying to us? What is in this message that we must understand? What is the spiritual lesson that Armageddon represents? It's this: That unless you obey Jesus Christ and His teachings every day, you too may be fooled into resisting Him on that day along with everybody else. See, the Bible says that the deception will be so subtle and so powerful that even somebody looking for it will be deceived. How? Look again at what Jesus says: "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame" (Revelation 16:15).
What are the "garments" mentioned? They are keeping God's commandments, knowing right from wrong, discerning between good and evil. Garments are worshipping God instead of the devil, who is the god of this age. Garments are the "righteous acts" of God's people (Revelation 19:8). In the final confrontation between God and Satan, God wins! And Christ is summoning us to a life where we stand with Him - today - against the powers of darkness. That is what it means to keep one's garments.
Are you standing with Jesus Christ today? Do you stand with God in truth when we see signs of spiritual and moral decay all around us? Have you looked at popular culture lately? The signs of inner-cancer are plain to see. Of course, we would all say that we try to stand our ground and keep our morals intact. But it's so easy to slowly allow tolerance of sin to seep into our lives.
Megiddo was a place where empires sought to control the ancient world. In this prophecy, it represents sinful man's final effort to control the world apart from the righteous creator God. And, there is a parallel to our society today.
Let me give you just one example.
There is one vivid lesson from the old city of Megiddo that illustrates my point. At the edge of the city is a large circular altar. Throughout history people would offer sacrifices on this altar in the worship of a fertility god. Now some historians even believe that human sacrifices were made here. This would also include child sacrifice. Imagine what one of those worship services might be like. Loud music. Worshippers dancing, shouting and calling out to the fertility god. A large fire roaring on the altar. And then they throw a small child into the embers to die an excruciating, senseless death in service of a fake god.
It's difficult to imagine how people could do such a thing. Today, we recoil in shock and horror at the thought. Mankind's sin and rejection of God's way is exactly why this battle - that many people call "Armageddon" - why that battle must take place. This final battle represents God's judgment on a world that has forgotten and rejected Him in favor of their own desires.
Megiddo was a key city in the ancient world. Whoever controlled it controlled a vital link in world commerce. And in the end of the age, Megiddo - or it's other name, Armageddon - represents man's last effort to control the world without God.
Armageddon, a place, an event of the battle of the Great Day of the God Almighty.

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The Battle of Armageddon
This Battle in Revelation
Scripture teaches that God will not tolerate unrighteousness upon the earth forever. The unrighteous age in which we now live will conclude with a direct battle between the unrighteous nations of the earth and Christ Himself, when Christ appears in righteous glory and wrath. That battle is often referred to as the Battle of Armageddon.
The primary account of this final battle begins with the sixth bowl event:
Rev 16:13-16 – 13And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. 15(“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) 16And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
In this passage, we observe the following:
Verses 13-14 indicate that this battle will be instigated by the unholy trinity of Satan (the dragon), Antichrist (the beast), and the False Prophet. The call to battle will be carried out by spirits of demons who will persuade the whole world to take part in this battle by performing signs. The ones performing these signs will be demon-possessed False Prophet and perhaps others who are among the many false prophets showing great signs and wonders described by Christ (Matt 24:24, Rev 13:13). Their battle shall ultimately be against God, the Almighty.
Verse 15, as it is placed here, informs us that this battle will be at least part of the “coming like a thief” event that Jesus and his apostles promised (Matt 24:43, 1 Thes 5:2-4, 2 Pet 3:10).
Verse 15 also offers a blessing to some, which suggests that people on earth may still repent even as late as the sixth bowl event, and this promised blessing is for those who do.
Verse 16 confirms that nations of the world shall heed this call to battle, and it says that the place where their armies will gather is called “Har-Magedon“, which in English is commonly named “Armageddon“, and in Hebrew it means “Hill of Megiddo”. Megiddo is in Israel.
Side note: The word “awake” in verse 15 is a metaphor for being aware and watchful (e.g. 1 Thes 5:6). This translation says “stays awake“, but “is awake” is preferable, as conveyed by several other translations, e.g. Rev 16:15 KJV, Rev 16:15 ASV, Rev 16:15 NLT, Rev 16:15 YLT). The preferred meaning allows that the person could become awake even during the sixth bowl.
The account in chapter 16 described the nations assembling for battle, but it didn’t mention the battle itself or its outcome. However, the outcome is vividly described when the narration of the bowl events is resumed in chapter 19 (chapters 17 and 18 are the “bowl interlude”, see Revelation Overview). There, we see that the battle begins and ends with the visible return of Christ to earth:
Rev 19:15-21 – 15From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” 17Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.” 19And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
The outcome of the battle reveals the following:
Verses 15-17 say that it is Christ’s intent is to conquer all nations with a “rod of iron“, indicating his intention to destroy them. As Psalm 2:9 says, “You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”. The “wine press of God’s wrath” metaphor identifies this as the great day of God’s wrath (Isa 63:2, Joel 3:13).
Verses 18-19 make it clear that this is a resumption of the same account that began with the sixth bowl event from chapter 16. Note that Christ comes up against the “beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him“. The only place we see armies of the earth assembled by the beast to make war against God is in the sixth bowl.
Verses 20-21 describe the outcome of the battle. This will be the shortest and most one-sided major battle of all time.
First, the leaders are captured and destroyed, and then the rest are killed and their bodies are left as food for the birds. This battle will be a slaughter of the wicked. We also see a reference to this battle in chapter 14, which is part of the Introduction to the Bowls, with this summary of the Armageddon battle:
Rev 14:19-20 – 19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.
As you can see, chapter 14 uses the same “wine press of God’s wrath” metaphor that was used in reference to the Battle of Armageddon in Rev 19:15, indicating that it is describing the same event. Here, the wine press metaphor is described as harvesting of the “grapes of wrath” (the sin of men) which have been declared as “ripe” (the point has been reached where God will tolerate their sin no longer). God’s wrath against the earth is expressed figuratively by saying “the wine press was trodden” with “blood coming out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles“. This must refer to the same slaughter that will occur at Armageddon.
While the wine press is figurative, the added phrase “for a distance of two hundred miles“, is probably not figurative because this specific distance would have no apparent figurative meaning. It adds some literal geographical information, which is discussed below.
A glancing reference to this battle is also described in the sixth seal, which itself is a summary of the bowls:
Rev 6:15-17 – 15Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
This passage describes people who are terrified because they are facing God’s wrath. These people are enumerated as follows: (1) the kings of the earth, then (2) the great men and the commanders, and finally (3) the rich and the strong and every slave and free man. Notice how well this agrees with the Battle of Armageddon account we saw in chapter 19: “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great“. As chapter 19 continues, we see that their terror was justified, because they are all killed and their flesh is given as food for birds (Rev 19:17, 18, 19, 20, 21). The final question, “who is able to stand?” is rhetorical, and the obvious answer is “no one”.
We see one more reference to this battle in chapter 17 (part of the bowl interlude):
Rev 17:11-14 – 11“The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. 12“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13“These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. 14“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”
The battle here is called the war against the Lamb in verse 14, and it quickly summarizes the same outcome that we see in chapter 19, stating simply that the Lamb will overcome them when he appears as the Lord of lords and King of kings, all in agreement with Rev 19:16. This verse emphasizes that the war will be waged by Antichrist (the beast and eighth king mentioned in verse 11) and the ten other kings who, as described in verses 12-13, will be united in alliance with Antichrist. Again, this is in harmony with all of the Armageddon-related passages above.
Where Will this Battle Be?
The place called “Armageddon” comes from Rev 16:16, which says that the armies will gather there. As mentioned above, it refers to Megiddo in Israel. However, we should understand that there are also other places in Israel that scripture has identified as locations where these armies will gather. Megiddo and these other places are discussed below.
♦ Megiddo
This place, referenced by Rev 16:16, refers to an area in northern Israel encompassing the southwest portion of Galilee. Other battles have been fought there, including the famous one in which Josiah the king of Judah was killed (2 Chronicles 35:22-23).
Interestingly, this was also a battleground in 1918 during World War I. At that time, the Allied forces led by the British Empire defeated the forces of the (now extinct) Ottoman Empire. As a result, this land came under the control of the British Empire. Thirty years later, in the aftermath of the holocaust of World War II, motivation was high to provide the Jews with their homeland, and the British government and supporting nations approved the establishment in 1948 of the modern Jewish state of Israel. In this sense, Israel is a country today as a consequence of this 1918 “battle of Armageddon“.
♦ The Valley of Jehoshaphat
Joel 3:12-14: “12Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. 13Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. 14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”
This passage is clearly referring to the battle at the end of the age because (1) It refers to the “Day of the Lord” and (2) it uses the same metaphor that we see in Revelation (e.g. chapter 14) with the sickle harvesting grapes of wrath and treading them in the wine press. It says that the nations will gather for battle at a place called the “valley of Jehoshaphat”.
The Valley of Jehoshaphat refers to the Kidron Valley, which passes between the temple mount of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (according to JewishEncyclopedia.com).
♦ Edom
Isaiah 34:2-5: “2For the LORD’S indignation is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. 3So their slain will be thrown out, And their corpses will give off their stench, And the mountains will be drenched with their blood. 4And all the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree. 5For My sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.”
This is also clearly a reference to the final battle in the end times. The sky rolled up like a scroll is the same description that was given in the sixth seal (Rev 6:14), and the intense depiction of wrath and death corresponds with that given in Rev 14:20 and Rev 19:17-21.
This passage speaks of God’s wrath falling upon a place called “Edom”, which is a large region that encompasses the southern part of Israel, just south of the Dead Sea.
From the Biblical references above, we have the following geographical information concerning this battle:
Three places are cited as locations of this final battle: (1) Meggido, (2) Kidron Valley, and (3) Edom.
We also have Rev 14:20, “And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles“. The “two hundred miles” figure is unfortunately calculated and approximated. A more direct translation would call it “a distance of 1,600 stadia“. Since a stadia is about 607 feet, a more accurate conversion to miles would be about 180 miles. Several other translations use the more precise language: Rev 14:20 ESV, Rev 14:20 HCSB, Rev 14:20 KJV, Rev 14:20 NLT, Rev 14:20 YLT).
It is interesting to observe that on a map of Israel, the three locations above fall on a straight line, and that the distance of this straight line comes out to about 180 miles.
Why Do All Armies Gather for Battle?
Scripture doesn’t say explicitly why the armies gather there, and yet I think the reason becomes quite evident when one follows the narrative of Revelation.
Recall that before the armies gathered for battle in Israel, there were two Jewish witnesses in Jerusalem who had been striking the earth with plagues (Rev 11:3, 6), perhaps including the first four trumpet events described in chapter 8. God protected these two witnesses such that all efforts to stop them had failed for nearly 1260 days until Antichrist finally killed them (Rev 11:5, 7).
However, the two witnesses came back to life and ascended to heaven (Rev 11:11, 12). Immediately following their ascension, a new series of plagues (the first five bowl events) began to strike the earth. These new plagues were similar to the trumpet events, except that they were much more severe. The earth was literally being destroyed.
What could be done to stop these plagues? There are no Jewish witnesses to kill this time, but it will be clear to everyone that these sorts of plagues are associated with the Jews, and that a surviving remnant of Jews has been protected by God for the past 3 1/2 years (Rev 12:6, 14). From the perspective of the ungodly world, destroying this last remnant of Israel once and for all will be seen as the only hope to save the world from these deadly bowl plagues.
The armies of the world will thus be united in a desperate effort to destroy the Jews, who they see as somehow being the cause of these plagues. They will assemble for battle in Israel, and this gathering for battle is itself the sixth bowl event. The outcome of the battle is described at the end of the seventh bowl event, in chapter 19.
What is the Outcome of the Battle?
By the time the armies of the nations prepare to assemble in Israel, a series of devastating bowl plagues will have destroyed much of the earth. The latest such plague shall be darkness over all the earth (the fifth bowl event). Even under these circumstances, the determined nations shall utterly commit themselves to the “great cause” of sending armies to destroy Israel in hopes of saving the world, because they are convinced that Israel is somehow causing the plagues. Their arrival in Israel will be the fulfillment of the sixth bowl event.
The armies that arrive in Israel may be confident of victory. They will be led by Antichrist himself, and perhaps the same technique that he used earlier to kill the two Jewish leaders (Rev 11:7) will work on the rest of Israel. However, they will all be in for a jolt. The earth will experience an earthquake unlike any other, as described in the seventh bowl (Rev 16:18, 19, 20), possibly including the destruction of all mountains and Islands. Nobody will be able to stand and entire cities will collapse.
And yet there shall be an even greater shock as Israel’s king returns to fight for them, and Israel’s king is none less than the Son of God, appearing in wrath (Rev 19:15). As Jesus described it, “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” (Matt 24:30).
Rev 19:12 says “His eyes are like blazing fire”. Recall that back when Jesus first visited John on Patmos, John’s description of Jesus said “His eyes were like a flame of fire”. John said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not” (Rev 1:14-17). This sort of thing has happened other times in scripture, where someone witnessed a holy being, fell as if dead, but was then revived when told by the holy person to not be afraid. It seems that being confronted with this holy light must be an absolute terror for a sinner. Heb 4:13 says “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
When Christ appears in wrath, everyone on earth will be exposed to this holy light, but this time, there will be no one to say “don’t be afraid”. I think this explains the behavior of people (as described in the sixth seal) when it says that they will hide in caves, “calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev 6:16-17).
After describing the appearance of Christ, John turns his attention back to the armies that were assembled against Israel, and he describes their fate: Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. John tells how these armies shall be quickly annihilated, with their bodies given as food for birds. The rest of the unredeemed world shall also see the appearance of God’s wrath, and they shall all be killed (Rev 19:20, 21).
If there are any survivors at all (aside from the protected remnant of Israel), it will be people who repented during the bowl judgments and were not killed by them. The prophecy concerning the Day of the Lord will be fulfilled, “I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold” (Isa 13:12).
Where Are Christians During the Battle?
They would be among the “The armies of heaven following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean”, mentioned in Rev 19:14. This is an army of glorified saints, and they are the ones the Bible describes as “clothed in clean garments”, referring back to the Bride of Christ in heaven (Rev 19:8).
What is God’s Purpose in this Battle?
As discussed above, it’s not that hard to see why the unredeemed world would come to do battle against Israel. But this battle also seems to serve God’s purposes.
One of the remarkable things we observe about God is that He respects the laws that He laid down for men. For example, we call Christ our “faithful high priest” because he came to offer up himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. However, Christ didn’t just come and do this without first having a way for him be a legitimate priest upon the earth. God had created a special priesthood just for that purpose through Melchizedek (Gen 14:18-20, Psalm 110:4, Heb 7:1-28).
Likewise, when Christ comes to reign as king, he won’t just assume that role without first having been established as a legitimate king on earth. God went to the “trouble” of establishing an earthly royal line with king David, making sure that David’s royal line survived, and that Jesus Christ was the descendant of David and the rightful heir to his throne.
However, if Christ comes to assume his role as king on earth by virtue of inheriting the throne of David, then he should, according to the laws of men, become the king of Israel, just as David was (Matt 2:2, John 1:49, John 12:13, Acts 1:6). How then does he come to be the legitimate “king of kings” (Rev 17:14, 19:16), reigning over all the earth?
The answer may be that according to the common law of men, if your land is unjustly invaded by an enemy, then you have every right to counter-attack and defeat your enemy. In the case of Armageddon, Israel is unjustly invaded by all nations, giving the king of Israel (Christ) every right to attack all nations. By being victorious over all nations, Christ becomes king of kings, while at the same time doing so legitimately according to the laws of men. Thus, for man’s purposes, the battle of Armageddon will be an attempt to destroy God’s people. But for God’s purposes, the battle of Armageddon will exalt Christ as the one and only king over all the earth (Zech 14:9).
In His role as king over all the earth, he shall put an end to sin all over the earth and establish His Millennial Kingdom, followed by His kingdom of everlasting righteousness over all the earth (Dan 9:24, Isa 13:9, Isa 26:9, Jer 33:15, 2 Pet 3:13). This is the ultimate purpose of the battle of Armageddon.

Geofencing: What It Is And How You and Your Car Can Be Tracked

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:19:00 +0000

AI Overview
Geofencing creates a virtual boundary around a real-world location using GPS, cellular, or Wi-Fi data to trigger automated actions—such as alerts, notifications, or marketing messages—when a device enters or exits the zone. It is used for fleet management, marketing, security, and smart home automation.
How Geofencing Works
Virtual Boundary: A digital, geofenced perimeter is drawn on a map using specialized software, either as a radius or a custom polygon.
Location Tracking: The system monitors user devices (smartphones, GPS trackers) that have location services enabled .
Trigger Action: When a device crosses the boundary, a predefined action is initiated, such as sending a push notification, email, or updating a database.
How to Set Up a Geofence
Select a Platform: Use a GPS tracking service, marketing tool, or API like Google's.
Define the Area: Draw a circle or custom shape on a digital map around a specific location.
Set Parameters: Define whether the action is triggered by entry, exit, or dwell time.
Configure Actions: Set up notifications (e.g., alert manager) or actions (e.g., serve an ad).
Benefits of Geofencing
Targeted Marketing: Delivering, customized, ads or offers to customers, nearby.
Operational Efficiency: Tracking vehicles, and, assets in, real-time for better logistics.
Enhanced Security: Receiving, alerts when, unauthorized vehicles move after-hours.
Automation: Adjusting, smart home, devices like, lights or, HVAC based on occupancy.
Limitations and Legal Implications
Privacy Concerns: Constant tracking of user locations raises significant privacy issues.
Battery Drain: Continuous use of GPS/location services can significantly reduce battery life on mobile devices.
Accuracy Issues: GPS signals can be unreliable in dense urban environments or indoors, leading to false alerts.
Data Consent: Users must typically opt-in to location tracking, making compliance with data protection regulations crucial.
Car geofencing real time
Real-time car Geofencing uses GPS trackers (like Bouncie, BrickHouse, or Cube) to create virtual boundaries, instantly alerting you via app, text, or email when a vehicle enters or exits a defined area. These systems provide live location tracking, crucial for security, fleet management, and driver monitoring, with instant notifications for boundary breaches.
Key Features of Real-Time Geofencing:
Instant Alerts: Receive notifications immediately when a car crosses a designated boundary.
Custom Boundaries: Set up "safe zones" (home, work) or "prohibited zones" (restricted areas).
Live Tracking: Monitor vehicle location in real-time, often with updates every few seconds to minutes.
Activity Logs: Review detailed history of when a vehicle entered or left a specific zone.
Applications: Useful for preventing theft, managing teen drivers, or tracking company vehicle usage.
Popular Real-Time Geofencing Devices:
Bouncie: Plugs into the OBDII port for real-time, up-to-the-minute updates.
BrickHouse Security: Offers Spark Nano 7 for discreet, real-time tracking.
Cube GPS: Provides worldwide 4G tracking with app-based alerts and hardwire options.
ShadowGPS: Features motion-based alerts, custom geofences, and speed monitoring.
These systems typically operate via a mobile app (iOS/Android) or web portal and require a cellular data subscription for real-time functionality.
Geofencing police monitoring and surveillance
Geofencing allows law enforcement to create a virtual perimeter, enabling surveillance of all mobile devices within a specific location and time frame to identify suspects.
Primarily using Google’s "Sensorvault" or tools like Fog Reveal to track movements, this technology offers real-time monitoring and historical analysis for investigations. It raises major privacy concerns and Fourth Amendment challenges.
Key Aspects of Police Geofencing
Geofence Warrants: A formal, often controversial request to companies like Google to identify every device in a specified area at a specific time, sometimes used without traditional probable cause.
"Reverse Search" Method: Police define a crime scene (location) and time to find potential suspects, rather than starting with a suspect to find evidence.
Data Sources: Data is harvested from GPS, cell tower triangulation, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, revealing precise location history, including movements inside private homes or businesses.
"Pattern of Life" Analysis: Tools like Fog Reveal enable police to track a device's history to identify "bed-down" (home) locations and daily routines.
Legal Challenges: In 2024, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled these warrants "inherently unconstitutional", though other courts have disagreed, creating a split that may reach the Supreme Court.
Common Use Cases
Criminal Investigations: Identifying suspects in robberies, murders, or crimes.
Real-time Tracking: Monitoring for when a device enters or leaves a designated zone.
Proactive Policing: Creating virtual perimeters around sensitive locations or public events.
Risks and Privacy Concerns
Dragnet Surveillance: Innocent individuals within the geofenced area have their private data swept up by law enforcement.
Accuracy Issues: While precise, data may not be 100% complete.
Lack of Transparency: Often, the use of such tools is rarely mentioned in court records, making defense challenging.
Critics argue these tools amount to general warrants, which are prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.
Geofencing and warrants and arrest
Geofence warrants are legal orders compelling companies like Google to identify all mobile devices within a specific, user-defined geographic area and timeframe to help police find suspects when none are known. They are "reverse" searches that often sweep up data from innocent bystanders, raising significant fourth amendment and privacy concerns.
How Geofence Warrants Lead to Arrests
The Process: Law enforcement defines a crime scene (e.g., a bank robbery) and requests data for a specific time, allowing them to see all devices present.
Data Analysis: Companies (primarily Google) provide data, often in stages: first anonymized, then more specific data for devices of interest, and finally, user identification for identified suspects.
Suspect Identification: Police analyze the data to find patterns or individuals who visited the scene, using this to establish probable cause for an arrest.
Common Use Cases: These warrants are used to investigate crimes like murder, robbery, burglary, and even for identifying individuals in protest areas.
Key Concerns and Legal Status
Constitutional Disputes: These warrants are often considered "general warrants" because they allow searching for suspects without pre-existing evidence, which may violate the Fourth Amendment.
Conflicting Rulings: In 2024, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled them inherently unconstitutional, though allowed them under the "good faith exception". Other courts have different, sometimes conflicting, opinions.
Privacy Impact: They can expose the movement data of thousands of innocent people to the police.
Declining Use: Due to privacy pressures, Google has begun to restrict how it handles these requests, although law enforcement still attempts to use them.
Important Considerations
Inaccuracy: GPS data may be inaccurate, leading to the potential for wrong arrests.
Search Scope: Warrants can cover large areas, including private homes, businesses, and public spaces, for hours or days.
The Supreme Court: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the constitutionality of these, as lower courts are divided.
Geofencing for police surveillance and monitoring
Geofencing for police surveillance uses virtual, GPS-based perimeters to track, monitor, and identify suspects by collecting data on all mobile devices within a specific area and time.
Primarily executed through "geofence warrants" targeting companies like Google, this technique identifies individuals present during crimes, often functioning as a dragnet that captures innocent bystanders.
Key Aspects of Police Geofencing
Definition & Mechanism: Law enforcement establishes a "virtual fence" around a crime scene. They then compel technology companies (e.g., Google, through its Sensorvault database) to provide data on all mobile devices that were within that area during a specified timeframe.
The Three-Step Process:
Search: Google searches its database for all devices in the area.
Anonymized Data: Google provides anonymized data to police.
Identification: Police narrow the search, and Google reveals the identity of the users of interest.
Use Cases: These tools are used to solve crimes ranging from homicides to theft.
Scope: Warrants can cover areas from a few feet to over an acre and durations from minutes to days.
Legal & Ethical Concerns:
Fourth Amendment Challenges: Critics argue that these warrants act as a "dragnet" and constitute unreasonable search and seizure, as they do not start with a specific suspect.
Legal Divergence: While some courts have upheld them, others, such as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, have ruled them unconstitutional.
Data Limitation: Google has announced it will change how it stores location data, limiting the effectiveness of these warrants.

Also:

What Are Geofences and How Do They Work?
Have you ever checked your phone’s Maps app to see a section of the freeway highlighted in red, indicating a traffic slowdown? This is useful information, but how does Google know about the traffic jam in the first place?
Some might suspect Google is monitoring actual traffic conditions, but that assumption is incorrect. Rather, the search giant provides real-time traffic information by using GPS to track the movement of cell phones within their owners’ cars.
Slow phones = slow cars = traffic. By tracking and recording the position of billions of individual devices in real time, Google provides a helpful service to consumers.
Google’s Location History
Google uses a feature called Location History to pull this off. According to Google, the feature is turned off by default, requiring a user to affirmatively opt in to make use of location-related information.
Deleting Location History or even pausing being tracked can be confusing for users. If you delete the application that prompted the opt-in, Google may continue to collect GPS data through your account. Even if you turn off Location History in your Google account, the company may sometimes still collect time-stamped location data from your device through other applications or services. For example, if you access Maps — whether it is to get directions or to read reviews for local businesses — your phone may still report its location to Google even if you have opted out. Similarly, searching for just about anything can trigger your phone to report its location to Google.
All told, Google is tracking over a billion devices worldwide, both Android and iOS, and saving that data to help provide services and advertising to its users. And this data can be extremely helpful to law enforcement investigators.
While GPS is not new technology, the use of geofence warrants in law enforcement investigations is relatively recent.
What Is a Geofence Warrant?
A geofence warrant is a formal request from law enforcement to a provider (usually Google) to provide the Location History data of every device within a defined geographic region and within a specific time frame. Those two factors — the location and the time — are the most important elements of a geofence warrant. The purpose of the warrant is to eventually narrow down a single user from the list of devices returned by the provider, with the goal of identifying that device owner as the perpetrator of a crime.
The most obvious way devices are tracked is through the global positioning system, or GPS, which is usually accurate to within a dozen or so feet in optimal conditions. Device locations may also be tracked using cell phone tower triangulation as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. Location History information can often reveal a device location much more precisely than cell site location data. Providers like Google collect this data every two minutes or so, so it is not always 100% complete. However, it is generally accurate enough to show that a device (and its owner) was in a specific area at a specific time.
While GPS is not new technology, the use of geofence warrants in law enforcement investigations is relatively recent. Whereas GPS triangulation targets a specific person already known to police, geofence warrants are different in that they cast a fairly wide net. According to a 2022 Slate article, “Google received its first geofence warrant in 2016. Law enforcement’s use of these warrants has grown exponentially since then. Warrants to Google for users’ location information grew 1,500 percent from 2017 to 2018 and 500 percent from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, Google received about 9,000 geofence requests.” That number has continued to grow in the ensuing years.
The Geofence Warrant Process
Picture this: Police receive a report of a shooting at a convenience store. According to eyewitnesses and CCTV, two suspects entered the store, demanded cash from the register, and after an altercation, shot at the store clerk. The incident lasted five minutes. The suspects left the store around 3:15 p.m., ran to a vehicle and drove northbound for two blocks before eyewitnesses lost sight of them.
Based on these facts, police may determine that cell phone location data could be helpful in identifying the suspects.
Requesting device information from Google is a three-step process:
Step 1: The investigator sends a warrant to Google requesting information on devices with estimated locations that were within the area (e.g., a two- to three-block perimeter around the convenience store) and time frame (e.g., 3:00 to 3:30 p.m.) defined in the warrant. Google uses Location History data to identify devices matching the warrant criteria. At this point, device owners are still completely anonymous to law enforcement. Instead of user information, the devices are tagged with a code that hides their personal identifying information from investigators.
Step 2: If the investigator can narrow down the results after analyzing the de-identified list of devices and their locations, they may request additional information about specific devices and their locations before and after the time frame in the warrant, as well as outside the geographic “fence” (the original location). For example, if Step 1 provides two devices that were exiting the convenience store at the time and driving in the direction that corresponds with the eyewitnesses, then in Step 2, the investigator may request that Google provide additional information about those devices — specifically, additional Location History data. Now we are outside the original time frame (3:00 to 3:30 p.m.) and the original location (two to three blocks from the convenience store) of the original geofence warrant.
Step 3: Using the information from the first two steps, investigators further narrow down any devices that closely match the pattern of evidence for possible suspects, and request account information (including names and email addresses) from the provider. Slate points out that “Google ‘prefers’ that this third set of users be narrowed from the second set, but it’s possible, at least, that sometimes that doesn’t happen.”
Note that a judge-approved warrant is currently only required before Step 1 in the process. The rest of the steps happen without any additional oversight from the courts. The process appears, rather, to be managed by a Google employee and the law enforcement investigator. Google appears to be using this process to respect users’ privacy and limit the data released to law enforcement. Nonetheless, some people see this as problematic.
Privacy and Accuracy Concerns
Geofence warrants can be useful in investigations, but they are not without their controversy. One relates to privacy. By their very nature, geofence warrants return data on devices owned by innocent people who may not have even been witnesses to the crime.
In a much-criticized warrant relating to the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, the FBI requested and received from Google a list of 5,723 devices that was eventually pared down to 1,535 names and used to identify and prosecute participants. A Reason article about the case notes that a warrant of this kind “arguably allows law enforcement to work backward, to say, We think a crime was committed around this place and this time. Let’s sweep up location data for everyone who was there and investigate them all.” This process, author Bonnie Kristian notes, is uncomfortably similar to a “general warrant,” which is exactly what the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent.
Another issue is accuracy. While GPS data appears to be accurate within 10 or 11 feet, that is not always the case. Trees, buildings, bridges and other structures can interfere with the connection to the satellites that allow the system to work. This can cause “dirty data” that may result in innocent people being swept up in the investigation who were not even in the location of the crime when it occurred. Conversely, this potential for inaccuracy can exclude the actual perpetrators. In one case, Jorge Molina was arrested in Arizona and held in jail for six days after location data falsely tied him to an Avondale murder — in spite of Molina having a solid alibi. He subsequently filed a $1.5-million lawsuit against the city of Avondale, its chief of police, and several officers.
Important Cases
Two cases illustrate both the concerns and successes regarding geofence warrants.
United States v. Chatrie
On May 20, 2019, a gunman robbed the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia. The suspect got away with $195,000, escaping on foot. As part of its investigation, law enforcement filed a geofence warrant with Google, which produced responsive Location History information. An analysis of the data led police to arrest Okello Chatrie and charge him with the robbery. Chatrie’s defense team filed a motion to suppress the location data on Fourth Amendment and other grounds.
In her ruling on the motion to suppress, U.S. District Court Judge Hannah Lauck called into question the validity and legality of the sweeping warrant. In part, she said, “Astoundingly, the Government claims that law enforcement established probable cause to obtain all information (Steps 1, 2, and 3) from all users within the geofence without any narrowing measures. Yet the warrant simply did not include any facts to establish probable cause to collect such broad and intrusive data from each one of these individuals.” Since investigators gathered location information on 19 cell phones, only one of which may have been the suspect’s, the judge indicated that the warrant violated the constitutional rights of at least 18 innocent people.
Another concern was the size and scope of the geofence: The perimeter was roughly the length of three football fields, and the time frame was an hour. The judge thought this constituted an overly large dragnet from which to collect device location data.
In spite of her reservations, though, the judge denied the motion and permitted the data gleaned from the geofence warrant on the basis that the detective who had been working with Google in Steps 1, 2, and 3 had acted in good faith. In the conclusion of her decision, she stated: “If the Government is to continue to employ these warrants, it must take care to establish particularized probable cause. As the legal landscape confronts newly developed technology and further illuminates Fourth Amendment rights in the face of geofence practices, future geofence warrants may require additional efforts to seek court approval in between steps, or to limit the geographic and temporal information sought. But in light of the complex legal issues that lead to this Court’s conclusion, the Court cannot say that Det. Hylton’s reliance on the Geofence Warrant was objectively unreasonable.”
In the end, Okello Chatrie was convicted of the bank robbery charges and sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal detention.
Price v. Superior Court of Riverside County
On Oct. 29, 2019, a man referred to in court records as “Jovany R.” was shot and killed on the front porch of his home in Jurupa Valley near Riverside, California. According to investigators, Jovany had been growing marijuana in the home, and they believed the crime was related to his grow house operation. A man named Ahmad Raheem Price was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and unlawful possession of the firearm used to commit the murder.
During their investigation, law enforcement submitted a geofence warrant to Google. In contrast to the Chatrie warrant, the area in this case was limited to “the front porch area where the shooting occurred, and the street in front of the house … for the lengths of two houses in each direction (north and south), between 10:00 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. … a 22-minute period.” This time and location was based on eyewitness testimony as well as 911 calls that provided specific information regarding where and when the crime occurred.
In advance of the trial, Price’s legal team filed a motion to suppress (among other things) the information gained from the geofence warrant on the grounds that the request “(1) failed to satisfy the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause and particularity requirements; (2) had to be traversed based on material factual omissions in their affidavits; and (3) violated the particularity and notice requirements of the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act.”
Unlike the federal court in the Chatrie case, the Price court held that the warrant was “narrowly tailored” and did not question whether the warrant left too much discretion in the hands of law enforcement. This was because the court found that this geofence warrant “was a model of particularity in geographic scope and time period.” In denying the petition, the judge praised the investigators for how the warrant was drafted to “minimize the potential for capturing location data for uninvolved individuals.”
The motion to suppress was denied and Price was tried and convicted in early 2023.
Key Takeaways
If you are a law enforcement investigator and want to use geofence warrants in your investigations, here are some tips for helping to ensure your geofence warrants stand up to scrutiny in a future prosecution:
Narrow Geography: Draw your geofence as tightly as you can, based on the information you have about the crime and who might have committed it. The smaller the geographic area, the more likely the warrant will be considered particularized, and, hopefully, sustain Fourth Amendment challenges. For example, the Chatrie court suggested that instead of simply circling a radius around the crime scene, which can sweep up innocent devices, investigators should have used what they knew about the crime to draw a specific polygon around the area instead. In other words, try to eliminate extraneous areas if you reasonably can.
Limited Time Period: Similarly, be sure to use the narrowest possible time frame, within reason, to limit the number of irrelevant devices (and their owners) returned in the results of Step 1.
Justify Each Step: When you request additional information in Steps 2 and 3, document the logic you used to narrow down the initial list. This will help ensure that you are not “fishing” and help you justify your requests for additional information from the provider.
Involve the Prosecutor: Do not attempt to do all this by yourself. Work with the prosecutor or your agency counsel as you draft your geofence warrant and work your way through the steps. You may get some good advice during the process, leading to a properly completed and successful investigation.
Geofence warrants are just one of several fascinating new tools being used to investigate crimes. The more you know about them, and the better you adhere to the best practices, the more successful you will be as you put them to work in your investigations.
Update: January 4, 2024
On December 12, 2023, Google announced substantial changes to how and where it stores users’ Location History data. According to the company’s public release, Location History information will be transitioned from storage in centralized databases to being encrypted and saved on individual users’ devices. The company announced users will be given the option of backing up this data to personal cloud-based storage, where the information would not be accessible to Google. Also, Google will be reducing the default rule for the automatic deletion of Location History data from 18 months to three.
According to Skye Witley, writing for Bloomberg Law, this change “will eventually render the company unable to fulfill geofence warrants, which typically seek to identify anyone with Google accounts who was within a given perimeter during the time of a crime.” In 2021 the company stated that more than 25% of all law enforcement warrant applications in the U.S. were related to geofence requests.
In covering the story for Forbes.com, Cyrus Farivar and Thomas Brewster revealed a “current Google employee … told Forbes that along with the obvious privacy benefits of encrypting location data, Google made the move to explicitly bring an end to such dragnet location searches.” While the newly announced change won’t block government agencies from requesting user and account information from Google, Farivar and Brewster emphasize, it will prevent the company from being able to produce time-stamped geo-location details that were requested to implicate users in a criminal investigation.
Google has indicated these new data policies “will gradually roll out through the next year,” so it is possible the company could still produce responsive data for cases that happened prior to the change.

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Fog Revealed: A Guided Tour of How Cops Can Browse Your Location Data
Fog Data Science, when you give some apps permission to view your location, it can end up being packaged and sold to numerous other companies. Fog Data Science is one of those companies, and it has created a sleek search engine called Fog Reveal that allows cops to browse through that location data as if they were Google Maps results.
Here's a deep dive into Fog Reveal’s features. Although accounts for Reveal are typically only available to police departments, we're going to analyze the app’s public-facing code to get a better understanding of how it works, how it’s used, and what it looks like when cops get warrantless access to your location data.
Fog Reveal offers law enforcement a powerful and incredibly invasive tool for sifting through huge datasets of phone location data. Reveal’s workflow allows cops to perform “geofenced” device searches, i.e. a search for all devices in a specified region on a map, and then find all other locations those devices were at other times. A powerpoint presentation obtained from a Police Department gives us a look into how cops use these features to identify so-called “bed-down” locations and build up “patterns of life” for device’s owners. These features clearly undercut Fog’s claim that their product only contains “anonymized” data with “no PII [personally identifiable information]”.
Also Reveal’s frontend code contains the traces of a much more powerful “federal” featureset, which would allow users to further deanonymize data by revealing device Advertiser IDs, IP addresses, and other phone details. We do not know if these features are currently in use, but regardless, they demonstrate how simply showing a few more data fields can make a data aggregation tool like this much more invasive.
Methodology
To properly interpret our findings, it’s important to understand what kind of software Fog Reveal is, and to explain our research methodology. Fog Reveal, like Google Maps, is a web application that runs in your browser. To research its functionality, we locally reconstructed the app based on the web resources available by visiting www.fogreveal.com. This was possible because upon loading the page, without logging in or even clicking anything, the site automatically requests nearly all the javascript/HTML needed by the fully functional app. Throughout this document, we’ll be referring to the javascript and HTML pulled from Reveal as the “frontend” or “frontend code”, and to its server-side application as the “backend” or “backend code.”
By saving Reveal’s frontend files and organizing them into directories mirroring their original URL paths, we made a local reproduction of the site’s resources. From there, we utilized a mock backend server to serve the files and handle API calls made by the frontend, and then systematically worked out the format of data expected from that API. Once this was done, we had a semi-functional local reproduction of Reveal that made no requests to Fog’s actual server, and yet allowed us to explore its features.
Because our mock server isn’t an exact replica of Reveal’s actual backend, we should preface this by saying that our findings here only apply to the frontend code, as our mock server’s functionality is based on educated guesses and only returns fake location data. Consequently, it’s possible that our local reproduction’s behavior differs from Fog’s actual application. Where appropriate, we will cite the relevant frontend code and point out where uncertainties remain, and in general will describe our estimation of Fog Reveal’s actual features with as few assumptions about the backend as possible.
With that out of the way, let’s now take a look at our findings on Fog Reveal’s features. All of the data depicted in the following document, including latitude/longitude coordinates and IP addresses, are fake data generated randomly by our mock backend server.
Making a query
After signing into Reveal, the user is presented with a Google Maps view of the US, as well as a toolbox at the top-right of the screen:
Reveal’s frontend shows several tools for drawing geofences, the most basic of which is just a circle:
If this isn’t specific enough, users can also draw arbitrary shapes to carve out a more detailed geofence:
The frontend limits the size of these geofence queries, although those limits are quite large. For example, the frontend circle tool will allow queries with a radius of 2500 meters, allowing up to nearly 20 square kilometers when performing a “signal search.” It’s possible that the backend imposes further limitations.
The user can also specify a date and time range for their query, and it seems that these ranges can stretch back over several months: a copy of Fog Reveal’s user manual received from a Police Department claims that date/time ranges can extend up to 90 days, and can be searched “back to Jun[e] of 2017”.
Query Results
After specifying a geofence and date/time range, the user can run their query. Queries return a set of data points, referred to as “signals” in the user manual, which represent where a device was at a given point in time. The user can then do further analysis on these signals, such as grouping them by the device that produced them, or displaying the path taken by the device over time:
Digging deeper with device queries
The frontend code suggests that Fog creates unique internal identifiers for devices–called “Fog IDs” (or “registration IDs,” which we understand to be the same as Fog’s “device registration number”). These unique identifiers can be queried directly, allowing users to get all signals produced by devices within a certain period of time, regardless of whether they were in the original geofence or not:
In the user manual, this feature is called a “device query” and is described as including data from the device’s “local, regional or global travel.” The user manual also describes a feature called “common device queries”, which allow the user to determine “if any devices are common to multiple locations.”
Federal features
If certain user parameters are set, Reveal will update its logo to display “Reveal Federal”, and enables the frontend to request a much more powerful suite of query tools from the backend. The frontend code suggests that these conditions may occur if the user is a member of federal law enforcement, but because we have no public records mentioning any such federal users, we don’t know for sure which users (if any) this is true for. For the purposes of this document, we will refer to these hypothetical users as federal users.
Federal users have access to an interface for converting between Fog’s internal device IDs (“FOG IDs”) and the device’s actual Advertiser ID:
This is eyebrow raising for a couple reasons. First, if this feature is operational, it would contradict assurances made in a sample State search warrant Fog sends to customers that FOG IDs can’t be converted back into Advertiser IDs. Second, if users could retrieve the Advertiser IDs of all devices in a query’s results, it would make Reveal far more capable of unmasking the identities of those device’s owners. This is due to the fact that if you have access to a device, you can read its Advertiser ID, and thus law enforcement would be able to verify if a specific person’s device was part of a query’s results.
Additionally, when a federal user views the devices in their results, the frontend is designed to show them a great deal more information about each device than it does non-federal users. Assuming that the backend provides this data, a federal user could view device information such as:
User Agent
Browser Family
Browser Version
OS Family
OS Version
Device Family
Device Brand
Device Model
Whether the device belongs to an EU Resident
Last Seen IP Addresses
Federal users are also given an interface to query for signals/devices based on one or more IP addresses:
Connections to Venntel
Many of the features we analyzed in this article are powered by API calls that reference Venntel, a major player in the data broker scene and DHS contractor. Although it’s true that Fog’s engineers could have named these API endpoints arbitrarily, the way they function does seem to suggest that Venntel is a source of location and device data for Reveal.
Notably, when a Reveal user performs any geofenced device query, that query is submitted to the URL path /Venntel/GetLocationData. Additionally, queries for specific device locations send a request to /Venntel/GetDeviceLocationData, and when a federal user makes a request for more device details, the frontend sends a request to /Venntel/GetDeviceDetails. This means that nearly all frontend requests having to do with searching device or location data are prefixed with “Venntel”. And this wouldn’t be the only connection between Fog and Venntel: many of the records EFF has received point to a close link between the two companies.
Conclusions
As we've seen, Fog Reveal provides law enforcement a powerfully invasive tool for searching huge swaths of commercially available location data. With a few clicks, its users can find not only the devices present in a location, but also everywhere else each of those devices went during other time periods. Its federal featureset, whether currently in use or not, demonstrates how much more invasive the tool could be by only revealing a handful of other fields.
If you’re not happy about the idea of your location data possibly being sold to companies like Fog, we don’t blame you. Luckily, there’s an easy step you can take to make it much harder for data brokers and companies like Fog to tie your location data to your device: disabling Ad ID tracking on your phone. Beyond that, we believe that there are changes needed at both the technical and legal levels to prevent this kind of invasive data collection and usage.

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What is Geofencing

It’s high time you integrate geofencing into your business. It’s proven to get you more sales, engagement, and loyal customers.
Geofencing is a location-based service that businesses use to engage their audience by sending relevant messages to smartphone users who enter a pre-defined location or geographic area.
There are smart companies that send product offers or specific promotions to consumers’ smartphones when they trigger a search in a particular geographic location, enter a mall, neighborhood, or store.
Do you desire to improve your customer experience? I’m sure you are, considering that 90% of customer experience decision-makers have agreed that a good customer experience is critical for their success.
And with customers being the major source of revenue for every business, delivering high-quality service through geofencing is important. If you’re into any form of digital marketing, you need to take this seriously as it’d help you acquire new customers and convert them into paying customers.
A Study by Bain & Company shows that a little increase of 5% in customer retention, can lead to a profit increase of 25% to 95%. Trust me, these numbers are worth paying attention to!
Since customer retention is too challenging, knowing how to interact with your potential leads in a more personalized manner will definitely help.
A research report by Experian shows that personalized emails sent to consumers have a great effect on open rate, triggered open rate, promotional click rates, and triggered click rates.
So, the earlier you start reaching out to potential and loyal consumers at the most relevant time, with the relevant product/service, the better the results you’re likely to get.
So how do you achieve it?
Simple: Integrate “geofencing” into your marketing strategy and you’d be amazed at the consistent results that you’ll get. Creating geofencing campaigns can truly transform every facet of your business.
Does it work? Well, Papa John’s is renowned for their Super Bowl ads, but they ran a mobile ad triggered by Geofencing solutions from ThumbVista, to promote their Papa Loyalty Programs.
At the end of the campaign, the brand recorded over 68K impressions with 469 actions taken resulting with a .69% CTR. They also gained a brand awareness with the rewards program in a new market area.
You might have heard of it, or this could be your very first time to hear it — and I guess you’re now wondering what it’s all about.
Having been introduced to geofencing and how it can help with customer service, let’s consider a few definitions.
What is Geofencing?
According to Techopedia, geofencing is described as:
“A technology that defines a virtual boundary around a real-world geographical area.”
While Wikipedia defines it as:
“Virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.”
It’s not some complicated programming language or complex development tool.
Geofencing is a technique of serving smartphone users with ads that are relevant to them, by creating a virtual perimeter or boundary around your business location which notifies users as soon as they enter the boundary.
In other words, geofencing can be regarded as a mobile marketing optimization strategy. So far, you could see the bright side of your business as you leverage on mobile ads that are targeted to your customers within a geographic location.
People are always ‘on the go,’ but they always have their smartphones with them — which they use to research products and services before buying them.
A report by the Office for National Statistics revealed that 58% of internet use ‘on the go’ is on mobile phones or smartphones.
For this reason, you’re no longer at a crossroad on whether you should start building geofencing campaigns or ignore it. Right now, it’s an important aspect of your marketing strategy.
Is Geofencing Right For Your Business?
Why is geofencing so important today?
You may not fully be aware, but let’s review some of the reasons that will make you kick yourself in the butt for not leveraging it:
i) Easy customer reach: When it comes to reaching out to your customers, geofencing is an option you shouldn’t neglect — because it notifies your customer about your product/services whenever they’re close to your business location through their mobile phone. That’s cool, isn’t it?
There’s no doubt as to the results it will generate, especially when you consider how addicted people are to their mobile phones.
ii) Instant consideration: Can you call the attention of your customers instantly when they walk by your store without shouting at the top of your voice?
I doubt.
Through geofencing, you’re able to trigger instant messages that pique a customer’s interest and nudges them to come check out the latest deals in your store. Remember that 90% of SMS are read within 3 minutes — so, geofencing campaigns help consumers make informed and instant decisions.
iii) Grows brand awareness: The mobile marketing strategy that leverages on geofencing provides local and multi-channel businesses, the chance to communicate with their potential consumers who are close by and ready to purchase through mobile phones.
These messages serve as a reminder to your consumers to choose your brand out of the thousands of other similar businesses around a particular location.
iv) Reduction in cost of marketing: With the high cost of creating ads campaign, using geofencing is sure to cut down the cost and still produce a great result — since it only focuses on local consumers and these consumers are likely to buy from you.
Geofencing is more like an extension of your restaurant, store or shop. And with geofencing you don’t need to stand in front of your store to call anybody that passes by, because you’ve already known your potential consumers.
You’re also provided with the opportunity to offer your products/services to your customers at the right time when they’re in need of it.
With the availability of GPS on virtually all smartphones and tablets, efficient tracking is now easier for both marketers and consumers.
This new development has also given rise to new marketing opportunities for online entrepreneurs, because they can now locate their potential consumers right on the go.
A lot of brands have recorded success through their geofencing campaigns — especially those with highly classified data that need utmost security.
Here are some of the business models or organisations that can make use geofencing application:
i) Asset management: The application will notify a network administrator when a company asset, meant to be used within the firm goes out. And from there, they can track the location and also lock it from being accessed.
ii) Fleet management: In this field, geofencing is used to notify a dispatcher when their vehicle goes out from its route.
iii) Human resource management: Here geofencing is used to restrict staff from having access to some spaces within the firm, without a second authentication.
iv) Drone management: It’s used to create a temporary restricted area for drones, during a sporting event.
v) Marketing: A brand can use geofencing to notify their customers of their coupons, new product, or ongoing promo when the consumer enters a specified geographical region with their mobile phone.
vi) Law enforcement: In this instance, geofencing can help the security authority when a person under house arrest goes out from the building.
How Does Geofencing Work?
So far, we’ve covered a lot about geofencing and what it can do for your business. Do you know how it works?
It’s simple though. Geofencing helps you to keep in control of your business by notifying you when a potential consumer is passing by your store, by a competitor’s, or entering into a predefined area.
To get it working, you need to use a mapping product like Google Map to map out the regions you want to geofence. This region can be in a circular or polygon shape in most cases.
Once your desired region is mapped out for geofencing, you can then target your consumers via their mobile phone’s GPS.
Then, you can monitor your geofence through the day for potential prospects or customers who might be interested in your offer. It keeps to track them until that parameter is breached — either they’re trying to enter or to go out.
In fact, for a successful geofencing to be attained, you also need to incorporate a definite customer targeting, and personalized messages.
Solely depending on technology is not effective.
Benefits Of Geofencing
The need to leverage on geofencing cannot be overemphasized. Though it’s still a new practice, but the rate of success achieved with it is immeasurable.
A study shows that consumers love receiving location-specific offers right on their phone, due to its location relevance and interest.
That said, here are some benefits you wouldn’t like to miss:
i) It serves as an ads portal: This is obtained when potential consumers are close to your store and you’re notified of their presence. Sending your new products to them, free giveaways and discounts, will definitely get them to consider your store.
ii) It targets your potential consumers: Social media has a bigger marketing opportunity since it’s populated with a lot of consumers that are ready to read your messages and stick to your brand.
But with the help of geofencing, you can focus your campaign to the user that are more likely to convert — especially those local consumers.
Interestingly, these are the consumers that will be excited to walk into your store and make a purchase after seeing your ads.
iii) It links your offline business to your online presence: With geofencing, you can notify passersby to look you up on social media for better customer engagement.
In fact, it serves as your gateway to your social media and internet identity.
iv) It provides real-time analytics: No doubt, a good marketing requires a to-and-fro conversation between the customers and the marketers.
Geofencing makes it a lot easier and more effective.
Because it notifies you as soon as a consumer enters your marketing region so that you can properly prepare to receive them in your store.
v) It offers a service: Since the mobile use rate is high and users are highly interested when they’re online, offering a free WiFi in your Restaurant, Bar, and Hospital will definitely improve customer experience.
This can be achieved by simply sending messages to passersby via geofencing, and notifying them of the free WiFi they can enjoy while in your place.
And don’t forget this has its benefits.
vi) It secures your products: Since you can keep track of people’s location with geofencing, it can also be used for tracking your employees and products.
With this technology, you get notified when an employee leaves his/her duty post or when a product is illegally removed.
Case Studies From Companies Using Geofencing
The use of geofencing is gradually becoming popular, though it’s a new marketing practice. Good news is, businesses have recorded lots of success with it. Let’s see:
i) Elle Magazine successfully increased sales with ‘shop now!’ mobile pop-up to connect potential buyers to selected stores, using the location-based offer. All thanks to geofencing.
ii) Uber Car Hiring Service also used geofencing at LAX to notify people around that they can get a cab to wherever they’re going within a minute, just with a click.
iii) Wal-Mart is another brand making it real big with geofencing. Their app comes with a store mode that picks up signals when a buyer is within the store, and delivers coupons and e-receipts.
Geofencing Tools
Getting appropriate marketing tools will help you get things done on time and more efficiently. Below are some of the best tools you can use:
i) xAd: This tool eliminates every form of assumption in marketing, because it serves messages based on your potential consumer’s location.
xAd has a proprietary platform that automatically creates boundaries around places often visited by a consumer. For example, a Restaurant, Shopping mall.
It’s with these insights that marketers can target ads to their customers when they’re within those locations.
ii) Koupon Media: This tool prompts a targeted offer to shoppers when they’re within the store.
Koupon Media has features that study the behavioral attribute of buyers within the geofenced locations, and uses it to present the buyer with offers they can’t resist while they are shopping.
iii) NinthDecimal: This helps marketers to target consumers near their own stores or competitor’s locations, with tangible media ads through phone calls, appointment requests, and couponing.
It also has a walking and driving map to easily lead your customers to your nearest sales point.
In Conclusion
“In today’s modern world, people are either asleep or connected.”
– Janice H. Reinold said.
Your customers are attached to their mobile phones all the time. It’s your responsibility to engage these customers when they’re not asleep.

The War of Gog and Magog: Ezekiel 38-39

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:44:00 +0000

AI Overview
The prophecy of the War of Gog and Magog, found in Ezekiel 38–39, describes a massive, future invasion of Israel by a coalition of nations led by a figure named Gog. In this vision, God intervenes supernaturally to destroy the invading forces on the "mountains of Israel" to reveal His holiness to the world.
The Coalition of Nations
The prophecy identifies a leader, Gog, from the land of Magog, who serves as the "chief prince" of Meshech and Tubal. He leads a multi-continental alliance against Israel:
Magog, Meshech, and Tubal: Often identified with territories in modern Turkey, Russia, or the Black Sea region.
Persia: Modern-day Iran.
Cush: Regions south of Egypt, primarily modern Sudan and Ethiopia.
Put: Ancient Libya or North African regions.
Gomer and Beth-togarmah: Peoples from Asia Minor/Turkey and the far north.
Key Events of the War
Preparation and Invasion: Gog conceives an "evil plan" to plunder Israel, which is described as a land of "unwalled villages" where people dwell securely after being gathered from the nations.
Divine Intervention: As the armies advance "like a cloud covering the land," God unleashes a series of judgments: a massive earthquake, pestilence, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
The Aftermath: The destruction is so vast that it takes Israel seven months to bury the dead and seven years to burn the abandoned weapons for fuel.
Theological Interpretations & Timing
The "Latter Years": The prophecy explicitly states this occurs in the "latter days," leading many scholars to link it to the end-times or the period surrounding the Second Coming of Christ.
Ezekiel vs. Revelation: While Revelation 20:7–10 also mentions "Gog and Magog," many theologians distinguish the two events. Ezekiel’s war involves specific northern nations before or during the Tribulation, whereas Revelation’s battle occurs at the end of the Millennium and involves all nations.
Modern Context: Some contemporary Bible scholars associate the "far north" with Russia and suggest the current geopolitical alignments between Russia, Iran, and Turkey are precursors to this prophecy.

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The Battle of Gog and Magog
The battle of Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is perhaps one of the most debated events in biblical prophecy. Some approach these chapters as non-literal, having only an idealist or figurative meaning, without any historical reality. This provides no possibility of a future fulfillment of the details contained in the passage, which leaves the reader to find a meaning relevant to present circumstances without any significant controls to govern that meaning.
Others approach these chapters as having a historical fulfillment, being an invasion of some kind, but differ on its participants, location, and timing. One group considers this invasion as already fulfilled in an ancient battle during the Old Testament era, one option being the events in Esther 9. Usually, this is an attempt to avoid a future fulfillment involving Israel as a nation. Neither an idealist/figurative view nor a past fulfillment view do justice to the details of the passage, which means its fulfillment is yet future, but when, where, and with whom?
Commentators propose a number of options regarding timing of the invasion. These include:
1. Just prior to the onset of the seven-year Tribulation
2. After the Tribulation period begins
3. Around the middle of the Tribulation
4. Just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
5. Between the Second Coming and the commencement of the Millennium
6. At the end of the Millennium
Each of these views has some support from the biblical data, which is why the debate continues.
Which Nations Will Invade Israel?
The key consideration is the content of Ezekiel 38 and 39. What features of these chapters indicate the timing of the invasion, its participants, and location? All agree that the nation of Israel is one of the participants, being the one invaded, and Ezekiel’s messages have focused on the possession of the land, which points to the location as the Promised Land, Judea and Samaria. Not all agree on the identity of Gog and Magog, but most agree that Gog is a title for the ruler of Magog, not a personal name, even though a person is in view. Knowing the identity of Magog helps work out the context of the battle.
Magog occurs in the Old Testament on four occasions (Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5; Ezekiel 38:2; 39:6). It identifies a descendant of Japheth in the table of nations, which scholars trace to the ancient Scythians. These tribes lived in the region north of the Black Sea and some consider their territory stretched from Ukraine to Siberia. Further, Ezekiel describes Gog as “the prince of Rosh” (38:2, NASB), which also suggests a location in Russia, although the use of “Rosh” is debated. Thomas Ice argues for “Rosh” being a noun labelling a nation, as against an adjective describing “prince” (“chief prince,” ESV). Hebrew grammar supports this usage and, as a noun, it can be traced to “Tiras” in Genesis 10:2, adding more support for a Russian identity. It thus appears that this invasion includes an army from the north of Israel composed of modern Russians.
Two other participants are named in this group, Meshech and Tubal, both of which are included in the table of nations in Genesis 10. Scholars agree that Meshech refers to the location of modern Turkey, southeast of the Black Sea. Tubal is always grouped with Meshech and his descendants also occupy modern Turkey. Modern Turkey is increasingly dominated by Islam, moving further away from ties to Europe. It seems that Turkey also participates in this invasion of Israel, joining with the Russian contingent.
Added to these are “Persia, Cush, and Put” (Ezekiel 38:5), as well as “Gomer and all his hordes” and “Beth-togarmah” (38:6). Persia is clearly modern Iran, another Islamic nation, whose name was changed to Iran in recent times. Cush and Put are more difficult to identify, as is Beth-togarmah. Scholars consider Cush is the nation of northern Sudan, an Islamic one, and Put is Libya, another Islamic (mainly Sunni) nation, and possibly includes Algeria and Tunisia because the ancient borders extended west beyond modern Libya. Gomer’s descendants inhabit the west-central region of Turkey, joining with Meshech and Tubal. Beth-togarmah literally means “house of Togarmah,” who is identified as a son of Gomer in the table of nations (Genesis 10:3). This is another participant located in Turkey.
The invading armies include Russia and Turkey from the north, Sudan/Libya (possibly including Algeria and Tunisia) from the south and west, and Iran from the east.
In total, the invading armies include Russia and Turkey from the north, Sudan/Libya (possibly including Algeria and Tunisia) from the south and west, and Iran from the east. Consequently, sometime in the future, an enormous military force surrounds Israel, which is far beyond their capacity to defeat. God alone can deliver them from annihilation, which Ezekiel reveals He does (38:17–23; 39:1–6).
When Will the Nations Invade Israel?
The question remains as to the timing of this invasion. Several descriptions in these chapters in Ezekiel provide some insights as to when it occurs. The first includes time referents, “After many days,” “In the latter years” (38:8), and “In the latter days” (v. 16), which best correspond to prophetic descriptions of the consummation of God’s dealings with Israel and the nations (Isaiah 2:2; Daniel 10:14). This is yet to occur, so the battle is still future and would be best placed in the 70th week of Daniel 9:26–27, the Tribulation, when God resumes the completion of His plan for Israel.
The second describes the occupants of Israel as “gathered from many peoples” and “from the nations” (Ezekiel 38:8, 12), which cannot be an ancient past return to the land, such as from Babylon or Medo-Persia, because the returned exiles did not come from multiple nations. This best describes the near past and present return of Jewish people to Israel, which affirms the timing is future to now.
The third describes these returned Jews as “now dwell(ing) securely” (38:8, 11, 14) and without the need of protective defenses identified as “unwalled villages” and “without walls, and having no bars or gates” (v. 11). Further, the inhabitants are characterized as “the quiet people” or at rest (v. 11), which suggests they are unconcerned about external threats and have no fear of attack. This description extends to all the inhabitants, not just a segment of them.
At this point, scholars diverge, based on the interpretation of these phrases. Some consider Israel’s present state to fit them because the nation is secure on account of its military might, being confident in its capacity to defeat any foe. This would mean the battle of Gog and Magog would precede the Tribulation, not requiring an additional element of peace provided by the Antichrist’s covenant with Israel in the Tribulation Period (Daniel 9:27).
Others consider Israel is not presently at rest, “quiet people,” even though having a significant degree of security, because the nation is on constant alert against an attack from its enemies. An additional protection is necessary to bring the nation to a point of rest. The strong covenant with Israel enacted by the Antichrist for seven years (i.e. The Tribulation Period, Daniel 9:27) provides this additional protection. The covenant, however, is broken at the midpoint, so Israel only enjoys additional protection in the first three and a half years. This means the battle of Gog and Magog would occur in the first half of the Tribulation, probably near its end.
Several commentators consider other factors, which suggest the timing is at the end of the Tribulation, but it cannot account for these descriptions of Israel being at rest and secure. In the second half of the Tribulation, the Antichrist violently persecutes the Jews and all who will not take the mark of the beast. Some other commentators suggest the timing is before the Millennium after the Tribulation, which will provide the best degree of rest and security, but it does not fit the eventual outcome of deliverance by God, which is the spiritual renewal of the nation. Israel’s repentance occurs at the return of their Messiah at the conclusion of the Tribulation (Zechariah 12), which would be prior to this proposed timing.
It is no wonder that Israel’s enemies desire to possess such riches by annihilating its citizens, but to no avail as they are destroyed by divine intervention.
This leaves two options as the only viable possibilities that fit the critical contextual data: The battle of Gog and Magog is prior to the Tribulation, or it is in the first half of the Tribulation, probably near the breaking of the covenant by the Antichrist. The second option seems best for a number of reasons but still has difficulties to explain.
It best fits the description of security and rest as characteristic of Israel prior to the battle occurring. The covenant of peace operating in the first half of the Tribulation provides that security and rest, beyond Israel’s own capacity to ensure it. Further, a battle that effectively removes the world influence of Russia and other nations would leave a power vacuum that the Antichrist could use to rise to world domination at the midpoint of the Tribulation (Revelation 13). In addition, a battle that violates the Antichrist’s covenant with Israel provides a catalyst for him to break it and pursue his full agenda. Its major difficulty is dealing with the description of burying the dead for seven months and burning the weapons for seven years (Ezekiel 39:9, 12). This is not insurmountable, but a battle before the Tribulation provides more time for accomplishing these two descriptions.
Why Do the Nations Invade Israel?
Another aspect needs inclusion. What motivates this invasion of Israel? The answer is spoils of war in the form of material gain (38:12–13). The degree is described as “great spoil,” which involves “silver and gold” and “livestock and goods.” What was previously “a continual waste” (v. 8) and “waste places” (v. 12) has become a prosperous location of great wealth. This is true of modern Israel, replete with commercial activity, natural resources, innovative technology, and abundant agriculture. It is no wonder that Israel’s enemies desire to possess such riches by annihilating its citizens, but to no avail as they are destroyed by divine intervention.
Finally, the most significant element for this battle is God’s part in it. As much as this coalition of nations against Israel is pursuing its own purpose, Ezekiel reveals that God is controlling the situation for His purpose. He states, “I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out” (v. 4). This control of the conflict is repeated several times, emphasizing who is orchestrating the battle. God’s purpose is self-revelation—“they will know that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ” (vv. 23, 39:6–7, 13, 21–22, 28). God is sovereign over all, even the invasion of a powerful enemy against His people.
In summary, the battle of Gog and Magog is the future invasion of a coalition of nations, including Russia, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, and Libya (Algeria/Tunisia), against Israel near the midpoint of the Tribulation, motivated by acquisition of material wealth. The outcome is a devastating defeat for Israel’s enemies by divine intervention, which exalts God as the true victor and safeguards God’s people for spiritual blessing.

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Gog and Magog in Ezekiel vs. Revelation
Although the terms Gog and Magog appear in proximity in both the book of Ezekiel (Eze. 38:2-3; 39:1-11) and the book of Revelation (Rev. 20:8), a comparison of these passages indicates two different historical events are in view.
because Gog and Magog are mentioned as combatants in a war at the end of the Millennium ( Rev. 20:7–9 ), many have identified the two battles in Ezekiel and Revelation as one and the same. However, the events following the battles are quite different, as are the events preceding each battle. In Ezekiel’s prophecy, the battle of Gog and Magog is used by God to draw Israel to Himself; in Revelation the battle of Gog and Magog comes after God has drawn His people to Himself for one thousand years of blessing during the Millennium. Therefore, it seems best to place Ezekiel’s battle in the Great Tribulation.
Gog of the land of Magog invaded Israel in Ezekiel 38, prior to the rebellion mentioned in Revelation 20 at the end of the millennium. Differences between the two passages include:
The Ezekiel invasion is from the north, the rebellion in Revelation 20 is from the entire earth.
The Ezekiel invasion requires seven years to dispose of weapons, whereas the Great White Throne judgment immediately follows the rebellion in Revelation 20.
The Ezekiel invasion occurs before the establishment of the kingdom, whereas the event in Revelation 20 occurs afterwards.
The Ezekiel invasion is destroyed on the mountains of Israel, whereas the Revelation 20 force is destroyed around Jerusalem.
“In Ezekiel Gog was the leader and Magog his land, while in Revelation both represent nations.”
This prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Gog and Magog cannot be identified with the prophecy in Re 20:7-10 for three reasons. The former takes place before the Kingdom is established on earth; the latter after this Kingdom. Also, in Ezekiel the invasion comes only from the north, but in Revelation it comes from the 'four quarters of the earth.' Furthermore, the rebellion of Gog and Magog and their destruction in Re 20:7-10 marks the ushering in of the eternal state (Re 20:11-15); but in Ezekiel it is preliminary to the Millennial Kingdom on earth.
The fact that Gog and Magog are mentioned both in Ezekiel 38:1,6 and in Revelation 20:7 indicates to some a connection. However, Gog is a human leader and Magog are a people in Ezekiel 38, but their meaning is not defined in Revelation 20. In other respects the scene is different. In Ezekiel life goes on after the war, requiring months to bury the dead. The war in Revelation 20 is followed immediately by the destruction of the earth and the creation of the new heaven and new earth. The war in Revelation 20 concerns Jerusalem. The war of Ezekiel does not touch Jerusalem. The scenes are different.

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The War of Gog and Magog: Ezekiel 38-39
Israel is currently under attack, but its greatest threat is yet to come. In the not-too-distant future, a coalition of overwhelming forces will soon be arrayed against it. Only God can save Israel from total annihilation. We will reveal the identity of each nation seeking Israel’s destruction. Who exactly are Gog and Magog? Are they leaders, nations, or spiritual entities? Will Russia be involved in this notorious battle? The timing of this battle has been hotly debated down the years, and no-one really knows precisely when it will take place.
There’s a war soon coming in the Middle East that will cause God himself to rain down hailstones and fire upon the invading armies who’ve come to take spoil from God’s beloved Israel and a great earthquake that will annihilate them in their tracks. And what if there were preparations being made right now for this future conflict? This war of ‘Gog and Magog’ fits the prophetic timeline only when the restrainer has been removed from the earth prior to the seven year tribulation period. Yet even today, the nations are ready; the pieces on the chess board are being moved into place, causing a chain reaction that will hurl like minded nations headlong into direct conflict with Israel.
In scripture, Gog is mentioned as the leader and Magog is a people. Gog is the ruler of a people called Magog and the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. One day this Gog will lead a coalition of nations arrayed against Israel and God will destroy them all in the process for their rebellious arrogance and misplaced allegiance. Few realize that Ezekiel’s prophecy of this coming invasion from the North of Israel was written 2500 years ago and is yet to come to pass, it is still a future event.
This leader Gog will lead a force from the land of Magog. So where is Magog exactly? Well, he’s mentioned in Gen 10:2 as one of the sons of Japheth and again in 1 Chronicles 1:5. Magog was identified as the land of the Scythian’s now occupied by Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Flavius Josephus described the ancient Scythian’s as coming from the land of Magog. The Scythian’s were mentioned in the NT in Col 3:11 and were a barbaric race which inhabited the steps of Russia. Today Magog would basically cover the ‘Stan’ nations i.e. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and finally Afghanistan, which is another territory that Russia has sought to, conquer in recent memory.
Most scolars declare Magog to be the land of modern day Russia and one should not doubt their research. Now most scholars conclude that Rosh is the old name for Russia. The term Rosh was used in the time of the Egyptians and referenced a nation to the far north of Egypt, so people would have been very familiar with Rosh as a nation in the time of Ezekiel. Many believe that Rosh is the old name for present day Russia which will lead several armies in coalition against Israel. Regarding the term Gog, is more likely a title like Pharaoh, rather than a direct name of someone, but this Gog is not to be confused with the Antichrist, he is separate and distinct from him. Let’s not forget that the Antichrist will eventually lead a Western coalition of forces but this Gog is leading an army from the north along with Magog in direct opposition to God himself, so the Antichrist and Gog are two separate leaders and not to be confused with each other.
Her'es a list of all the nations that will come against Israel in these last days as part of this coalition of forces coming down from the North, described in Ezekiel chapters 38-39. Listing the old name for the nation and the equivalent modern day version. Starting with Gog the leader of Magog (representing Ukraine and western Russia) along with Rosh, which is Russia, then Meschech and Tubal which comprises of Modern day Turkey, then Persia, also known as Iran, then Ethiopia and Cush which would be Sudan, then Put which is Libya, then Gomer which is likely Turkey or modern day Germany, and finally Beth Togarmah, which manly believe to be Turkey as well. So to summarize, the nations that will invade Israel in the coming tribulation period from the North will be, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, Ethiopia, Sudan, and possibly Somalia too, Libya, and finally Germany. But why? Why would they even consider doing such a thing? Well one thing is for certain, Russia has had a long history of antisemitism along with the other nations. They all have historically harbored a supernatural hatred for Israel and that’s why Germany is included on that list as a potential invader in coalition.
Regarding Russia, have you noticed this nation has been on the rise of late? Russia has flexed its muscles recently on the world stage for sure. Firstly, Russia meddled with Georgia in 2008, then again in Crimea in 2014 where it annexed that nation and testing the boundaries of the old Soviet Union. Russia then backed separatists in 2014 in Eastern Ukraine and Russia has also been linked with the deaths of 298 people based upon a Dutch inquiry into the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight over the Ukraine, three years ago. Based on cell phone records and eye witness accounts as part of the investigation, a powerful SA-11 surface to air missile was used to shoot down this plane, much to everyone’s horror.
Then in 2015, Russia sent some armed forces to Iran and then into Syria to assist the Syrian leader Bashar al Assad’s crumbling regime. To top that, for the first time, Russia has finally attained the warm water port of Tarsus in the Mediterranean Sea, which it has yearned for down the centuries. Russia had a large presence in Syria, taking advantage of the nation’s instability and using it to potentially establish a beachhead for further advancement in the Middle East at a time of its choosing. The trouble is Russia now has a military presence situated directly North of Israel for the first time and this is prophetically significant. If you run a straight line from Israel on any globe you will see that Moscow is directly north of it, along with Turkey which will be one of the invading nations also.
Now, some believe this war of Gog and Magog will take place in the first half of the tribulation period, while others believe it to be merely another account of the battle of Armageddon. Yet it will probably occur prior to Armageddon and within the tribulation because it occurs in a time of peace when the peace treaty with Israel is in full effect. Ezekiel chapter 38 describes a time when Israel is at peace with its surrounding neighbors and this coming conflict fits the prophetic timeline of occurring during the tribulation period, once this future peace treaty is in effect.
Now one of the most intriguing aspects of this coming war in verse 4 of Ezekiel 38, is the fact that the army is riding from the north on horseback! Yes horseback! These horsemen have shields, swords and helmets. But of course today no army would fight like that. This intriguing statement infers that perhaps, due to the cataclysmic incidents in the tribulation period, man will revert back to ancient weaponry. Others believe it suggests the usage of an Electro Magnetic Pulse prior to this war, in which some of the modern weaponry would be rendered useless, leaving only ancient weaponry as the means for attack. Or could these terms simply be metaphors for modern weapons? In Ezekiel 39:9-10 it mentions that it will take seven years for the weapons to be gathered and used as fuel. Could this time frame of seven years be coincidental with the time it takes for the effects of radiation to dissipate?…We shall see.
Remember, Israel is described as a land of un-walled villages at this time, a land without walls where Israel dwells safely, without gates or bars. As you know Israel today has walls in place and some built recently for its protection against occasional terror attacks from the Palestinian territory. Based on this scripture we know this War of Gog and Magog is a future event and the walls that currently stand in Israel will be somehow removed and Israel will be living peacefully prior to this Northern invasion.
Now, in verses 12 and 13, it states that these invading marauders have come to take a ‘spoil.’ But what spoil are they talking about? In the past few years Israel has gone from a nation with very few oil and gas resources into one that could eventually rival Russia as an exporter of natural gas to Europe. Russia benefits greatly from its export of gas west to Europe topping the list of nations having the most natural gas reserves. But Israel recently discovered the Leviathan gas field 50 kilometers offshore having 22 TCF of gas and scheduled to come online in 2019. Then it has Tamar gas field holding 9 TCF in gas reserves. These discoveries have been described as game changers by those in the oil industry. Their discovery alongside another recent oil field having 1.4 billion barrels of oil has caused a stir on the geopolitical scene. Israel could become a competitor with Russia, vying to service the winter energy supply of the European continent. This is significant. Israel is also abundant in food, technology and other natural resources.
Could it be that Russia and the forces it’s allied with come to strip Israel of its oil and gas resources? You see, Russia is rich in gas but has hard to recover oil that’s only economic at higher oil prices. Did you also know that despite being the biggest country in the world in terms of landmass, Russia has a relatively small population of close to 150 million, yet it imports 40% of its food supply, meaning that it cannot currently produce enough food for its own people? In Ezekiel 38:4 it says that God himself will put hooks in the jaws of the invaders from the North. One might believe that one of the spoils mentioned in Ezekiel’s passage is food and during the tribulation period crops will no doubt fail throughout Russia which is already reliant upon other countries to feed its population, and will resort to looking for food down south.
Another reason for this hook could well be the desire for Islamic Nations headed up by Russia to wipe Israel off the map. If you review the nations mentioned earlier they are all largely Islamic and harbor an intense distrust and even hatred for Israel. Could it be that the peace treaty that the Antichrist initiatives with Israel, be thwarted by the Islamic nations at the last minute or perhaps Russia is in such dire need to ensure the survival of its people they need food so badly, justifying an invasion to the south?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:47:00 +0000

New World Order

In international relations theory, the term "new world order" refers to a new period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power. However, in conspiracy theory, the term "New World Order" (the capital letters are distinguishing) refers to the advent of a cryptocratic or authoritarian world government.

Alternative World Scenarios for a New Order of Nations [144 Pages] - The author of this futures work presents scenarios appropriate for near- to long-range planning of the activities of the Department of Defense and its agencies out to the year 2020 and beyond. Additionally, the scenarios, because of their design, are useful to other departments of the U.S. Government, industry, business, and academia. Forecasts developed for this report use a technique created by the author for monitoring past, present, and future global trends and events, which he molds into plausible and thought-provoking scenarios of the United States in the world's societies of tomorrow. These plausible scenarios are provided so that users can build policies and make decisions while anticipating and judging their consequences before implementation. Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Military environments, Alternative world scenarios, Active and reserve components, Long-range planning.

American Exceptionalism and a New World Order [23 Pages, 300 kb] - The United States has a long tradition of placing American values at the center of foreign policy. Establishing a new world order that is based on three cornerstones will begin to shape a new leadership role for the U.S. This involves a shift to soft power as the core competency of foreign policy. In addition, the U.S. needs to lead in developing key innovations and developing a global economic strategy. Also, the U.S. needs to maintain military might unequaled in the world. Achieving this new strategy rests upon international organizational change with the U.S. leading the way for a new world order.

An Analysis of the 'New World Order' and Its Implications for U. S. National Strategy [40 Pages, 1.91MB] - The Cold War is over and the result is a transition from a bipolar world of US vs. USSR to a multipolar world or New World Order where the US remains the only military superpower. However, this status is tentative for the United States. Like all the great superpowers in history, the US is about to let the weight of its military establishment, drag its economy into collapse. This paper looks at the implications of President Bush's new world order, and the opportunities it presents the US to preserve a peaceful international environment with an open international market system while at the same time retaining its superpower status. The paper establishes that the new world order is more than just rhetoric or simple statement of fact, it exists but is ill- defined. As a result, the paper proposes to define the term as a democratic world where all nations join together in partnership and cooperation under the framework of the United Nations to establish peace, prosperity, and justice for all.

Arms Control and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: How Will They Impact U.S. Deterrence in the New World Order?, April 1996 [29 Pages, 1.1MB] - In the absence of a superpower balance, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are rapidly proliferating. As U.S. defense resources shrink, options to address the new WMD threat are also shrinking. These dynamics are changing the role of Arms Control (AC) and U.S. deterrent strategy. This paper analyzes the relationship between proliferation of WMD, AC, and the status of U.S. deterrent forces in the new world order. It argues that motives to proliferate are to strong to be overcome by AC, but that AC can play a positive role in improving U. S. and International security. Further it argues that regardless of its efficacy that AC is unavoidable; and that U.S force structure decisions are driven by our perception of the threat, not AC agreements or actions.

Back to the Future: The Role of the Founding Fathers in Shaping the New World Order [145 Pages, 5.67MB] (Master's Thesis) - This thesis asserts that America bas a core set of values inherited from the Founding Fathers that should serve as an integrating mechanism for strategic planning. The author shows how American core values developed and were operationalized in the operational codes (paradigms) of the Founding Fathers, the policy makers of the Cold War era, and contemporary policy makers as they set out to define America's role in the New World Order. The paper begins with an investigation of the role that paradigms play in science and asserts that operational codes serve the same purpose for nations. This parallel is investigated because it provides an insight into the nature of paradigm shifts. The United States has had two identifiable paradigms -- isolationism and the goal of nation building of the Founding Fathers and the containment policy of the Cold War. From there, the nature of American values is investigated. Inheritance from Western civilization, the Enlightenment, the rise of Individualism, and the development of a unique American philosophy are all important elements in the nature of American values. The Declaration of Independence is shown to be an embodiment of these unique values. The best articulation of the operational code of the Founding Fathers is found in George Washington's Farewell Address. The statements on foreign policy and articulation of values which lead up to and follow the Farewell Address are examined. The thesis then moves from the era of the Founding Fathers to the era of the Cold War. The operational codes of George Kennan and Paul Nitze are compared and contrasted. Nitze's operational code as applied to Vietnam is examined through several presidential administrations, and lessons learned are offered. The author criticizes the National Security Strategy of August 1991 for its neglect of values. He contends that the Nation's new operational code must be based on core values inherited from the Founding Fathers.

Beyond Stalemate: Deterrence and Nonproliferation in the New World Order, April 1994 [32 Pages, 1.7MB] - U.S. deterrence and nonproliferation policies need to be updated to meet the challenges of the new world order. To be effective, these new policies must be based on an understanding of potential proliferators motives for pursuing nuclear weapons, must be realistic, and must be implemented as early in the nuclear program as possible.

Building Order in The New World Order, 20 March 1992 [35 Pages, 1.2MB] - ThiWith the end Or the Cold War and the shattering or the Soviet Empire to pieces smaller even than that ruled by Peter the Great a recurring theme or the defense debate is that the world is too uncertain, that invisible dangers lurk behind every bush, and that we must retain a huge military presence to protect against instability and potential threats. Our grand strategy, once easily articulated by the single word, containment, has been superseded and the lack of an unambiguous threat has prompted a fractious debate. Whether the size or our military forces are be based on what is necessary to protect our interests, or on what our politicians deem is affordable depends on our ability to look ahead to see a clear path tor our nation, and define the role the military will play.

Bush's New World Order: The Meaning Behind the Words [74 Pages, 0.4MB] - The phrase new world order has been widely used on the political scene since first publicly coined by former president, George Bush. Although quickly adopted as the catch phrase of the 1990s, few people actually agree on what new world order really means. Since new world order, while elusive in definition, is most frequently used to describe aspects of the post Cold War international scenario, understanding the true meaning of that phrase is critical to projecting our future strategic environment and prospects for the new millennium. The attempt of this paper is to reveal that true meaning. Historical analysis will be the primary methodology used to reveal the meaning of George Bush's specific terminology describing his concept of new world order. In a January 16, 1991 speech, he identified the opportunity to build a new world order where the rule of law governs the conduct of nations, and in which a credible United Nations can use its peacekeeping role to fulfill the promise and vision of the UN's founders. These words will be dissected and historically analyzed to develop a clear picture of new world order. Additionally, the primary mechanisms for implementing new world order will be addressed; and finally, specific strategic environment and national security implications will be drawn from those conclusions.

Changing the Acquisition Process for a New World Order, April 1993 [46 Pages, 1.8MB] - The Chinese blessing (or curse?), 'May you live in interesting times', is certainly applicable in today's world. The crumbling of the Berlin wall and subsequent end of the Cold War prompted former President Bush to proclaim a 'new world order' had arrived. Unfortunately, the new world order is more a world of disorder. This paper explores the ramifications of these profound changes to the Department of Defense's acquisition process. The changes are a result of the shift in national military strategy from reliance on forces- in-being to a reliance on military potential. The following changes are discussed in the paper: (1) A More Flexible Acquisition Process; (2) Fewer New Starts/More Existing Program Upgrades; (3) Decrease in the Number of Production Programs; (4) Increased Focus on the Ability to Reconstitute; (5) Increased Emphasis on Four ' ... ilities'; and (6) Increased Reliance on Prototyping. Because of its importance, the subject of prototyping is examined in detail. But a prototype in and of itself does not represent a warfighting capability. A strategy must be devised to take a system that has been developed through low rate production and then 'shelved', through production restart. The following recommendations are then discussed: (1) Design Producibility In From the Start; (2) Increase Manufacturing Technology and Process Investment; (3) Develop 'Smart' Shutdown Technologies; (4) Develop a Long Lead Procurement Strategy; (5) Increase Reliance on Government/Commercial Integration; and (6) Increase Use of Lean Production Techniques. If the United States is to remain the leader of the 'new world order', the DOD acquisition process must change to adjust to the 'interesting times' in which we live.

China's Response to the 'New World Order' [35 Pages, 1.3MB] - As world change swept the globe over the very recent past, U.S. President George Bush described an emerging 'new world order.' He stated a belief that the American system should form the basis of a new international system. He further stated that the U.S. must seek to take the lead in the new order forming such an international system. China is the largest of the very few remaining Marxist-Leninist states. As the third leg of the former world strategic triangle, China remained a challenge to U.S. foreign policy throughout the Cold War. Now that the Cold War is over, China is integral to the formulation of any new order. China's long history and cultural background differ significantly from America's. It is important that the U.S. understand, to the extent possible, how those differences will be reflected in China's response to the new world order. A review of Sino-American relations since normalization in the early 1970's shows reform that brought China increasingly closer to the U.S. until the Tiananmen Square tradegy in June, 1989. Since then, world events such as the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the Unification of Germany, U.S. dominance in Operation Desert Storm and the Soviet Coup have had great effect on China's leaders and the course of reform.

Deterrence for World Peace: A New World Order Option [41 Pages, 1.3MB] - The recent collapse of the former Soviet Union has brought an end to the Cold War and a beginning to change and uncertainty. The shift from a bi- polar to a multi-polar world has uncovered trends that make the future of the new world order complex and dangerous. The rise in regional conflicts, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, accelerated worldwide technology transfer, and the disposition of some 30,000 nuclear warheads in the Commonwealth of Independent States are but a few of the major trends that can have a profound effect on world peace if not controlled. To solve this problem of control will bring a new emphasis to the word 'deterrence.' For 45 years the word 'deterrence' has been most commonly used to describe the justification for a nuclear arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Now, the global community of nations can 'deter' further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by using the recommended three-part solution of a global nuclear test ban, worldwide acceptance of the Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS) system, and arms control enforcement using embargoes and economic sanctions by an international system like the United Nations.

Disorder in the New World Order [53 Pages, 2.34MB] - The phrase 'New World Order' has, over the last four years, become a much overused and relatively meaningless cliche. Its original intent was to provide a conceptual illustration of a tortured world community scintillatingly close to creating a new international order in the aftermath of the Cold War. This new international order would make possible a world without conflict, pain or hunger, where people of all regions could live in freedom as equals. This concept, and its attendant utopian condition, brings tears of hope from that portion of humanity which has the time to spend thinking on such things. However, in reality, thus far in our international devolution from 40 years of Cold War, we have made little, if any, progress toward realizing a New World Order. In fact, not only have we yet to decide upon what course we should take in pursuit of this new order, we have not even decided that this new order should be. In the interim, conflict, tension and war continue to expand around the globe while the major powers of the world, those with the potential to control global events for the betterment of the world community, continue in their intellectual struggle to determine a role for themselves.

Explaining the New World Order of the 1990's, 2003 [32 Pages, 1 MB] - The decade of the 1990s dramatically altered the Cold War international order in two fundamental aspects. In the political-economic sphere, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 shattered the ideological divide that had driven much of the policy-making during the Cold War. The new Russia and its former eastern European client states rushed to adopt Western economic and political models, albeit with varying degrees of success. The handful of avowedly Marxist states, such as Fidel Castro's Cuba and Kim Il Sung's Democratic People's Republic of Korea, remained mired in despotism and economic ruin. The People's Republic of China gradually became Communist in name only as it sought to adopt market capitalism and limited democratic reforms to modernize its moribund economy. The two books I review in this paper attempt to explain why these tectonic changes occurred in the international order during the 1990s and what implications these changes herald for the future. In Empire, authors Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri propose a new emerging system of international order based on an ultimately successful Marxist theory. In Culture and Carnage: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, Victor Davis Hanson proposes that the West's hegemony is derived from its cultural vibrancy which produced political, economic and military institutions far superior to anything in the non-Western world. Hardt and Negri have the much harder task. Despite their enormous efforts, they ultimately fail to validate Marxist theory as a viable predictor of the evolving world order. In contrast, Hanson has an easier job explaining why the West has won. His work convincingly shows that the West's military proficiency is directly attributed to its unique culture.

Grand Strategies for Dealing with Other States in the New, New World Order [14 Pages, 110kb] - The art of statecraft has often involved efforts to improve the security of one state by taking advantage of the power and influence of other states. This is, for example, why a state typically seeks to forge military alliances with others. It is also why some states provide economic and military support to client or dependent states and why some advocate the formation of multistate trading blocs. The theory behind the trading-bloc strategy is that cooperation on security matters is more likely when there are strong economic and other mutually beneficial connections among the members of the bloc. Among the tools that have been and are being used to influence other states are trade preferences, loans, loan guarantees, concessionary pricing for military sales, export-import financing, technical assistance, foreign aid, and international disaster relief. While humanitarian altruism is a major factor in foreign aid and disaster relief, statesmen often see the reduction of suffering as a method of improving the stability of a recipient state or as an inducement for a recipient state to cooperate more fully on security matters. Many ideas for making American foreign policy more effective have been offered in recent years. Some of them involve ways of prioritizing all forms of official, state-to-state assistance on those states whose stability or cooperation will most benefit the national interests of the United States. Obviously, there are many states that are already stable and already do generally cooperate with the United States. Canada, Japan, and the states of Western Europe (disagreements over the second war with Iraq notwithstanding) fall into this category. Certainly the economically advanced and politically stable states of the collective West have a common interest in suppressing the signal threat- global terrorism- of the new, new world order that sprang from the rubble of the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 11 September 2001.

Gunboat Diplomacy in a New World Order: Strategic Considerations for U.S. Naval Intervention in the Twenty-First Century [94 Pages, 4.64MB] - With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, the threat of global war has all but been eliminated. At the same time, the Third World is experiencing a rising tide of instability, brought about by economic and social inequities, religious fundamentalism, and resurgent ethnic and political rivalries, and fueled by increasing military capabilities caused by the proliferation of advanced-technology weapons. As a result of these changes, U.S. security strategy is turning from its Cold War focus on global containment to the protection of U.S. interests against regional instabilities. The most dramatic confirmation of this change in direction was the announcement by the President on 2 August 1990 of a new National Security Strategy which would focus on maintaining stability and responding to regional crises, rather than on preparing for a global conflict against the Soviet Union. The past decade offers numerous examples of U.S. intervention in regional instabilities and crises that achieved varying degrees of success. Many of these interventions provide important lessons for the future in terms of how and when to use naval forces, and what the risks are to the national interest if a given mission fails to achieve its military or political objectives. This study is an examination of U.S. naval strategy and its evolving focus on crisis intervention, and how recent uses of U.S. naval force illustrate the need for a reevaluation of naval intervention and its implementation in a "new world order." To this end, three specific uses of U.S. naval power in the last decade are instructive: the U.S. intervention in Lebanon from March 1982-March 1984; U.S. naval operations off Libya from August 1981-April 1986 (including the 1986 air strike on Tripoli); and the Persian Gulf tanker escort operation of 1987-1988).

The Mexican Military Approaches the 21st Century: Coping with a New World Order [35 Pages] - The author's discussion of the roles and missions of the Mexican forces has special salience in this era of 'alternative missions.' Since the U. S. Army has had to deal with the same missions of civic action and counternarcotics, this study provides a timely and instructive lesson on how the Mexican military has wrestled with these challenges. North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), Civic action, Counternarcotics, Mexico, Mexican army

Military Diplomacy in the New World Order, 25 April 1993 [58 Pages, 2.69 MB] - The New World Order--that articulated by former President Bush at the end of the Cold War era--remains yet unsettled and, in fact, undefined. It is filled with uncertainties and instabilities caused by traditional enmities now reemerging. This reemergence is a result of a world shift from bipolarism to polyarchism. The leadership role of the United States in this new era will, it is predicted, involve selective engagement. Additionally, the U.S. will exercise the role of a grand facilitator. In this altered security environment, this paper argues that coercive and cooperative military influence--especially that defined as military diplomacy--has a continuing place in the exercise of U.S. global leadership. This study reviews the historical record of military diplomacy and examines the past use of the four services individually and in joint operations. Particular analysis is given to the current adaptive planning construct established by the Joint Staff with regard to the employment of flexible deterrent options as an aspect of military diplomacy.

Military Operations Other Than War in the New World Order: An Analysis of Joint Doctrine for the Coming Era [71 Pages, 2.5 MB] - The United States has experienced numerous eras of distinct international systems which governed its relationship with other nations. The end of the Cold War symbolized a transition point between such systems. Historically, the nature of a new order as well as the transitional point between orders is fraught with uncertainty. Nonetheless, instruments of national power such as the military must respond to the changing system to remain effective. The post-Cold War era has been characterized by an increased use of the military for operations short of war to include humanitarian operations, peacekeeping, sanction enforcement, etc. Although these missions are not new to the Armed Forces, military doctrine has only begun to address the unique challenges involved in executing operations short of war. Joint Publication 3-07, Joint Doctrine for Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW), lists six fundamental principles for MOOTW. This research applies the concepts embodied in the principles of MOOTW with three MOOTW models; the Range of Military Operations Model developed by the U.S. Army, the Crises and Lesser Conflicts Model developed by Rand researchers Carl H. Builder and Theodore W. Karasik, and the MOOTW Characteristics Model developed by RAND researchers Jennifer M. Taw and John E. Peters.

Military Review, September 1994. Volume 74, Number 9 [92 Pages]

National Missile Defense Strategy for the United States Post 11 September, 2001 - A Search for Security in a New World Order, 9 April 2002 [39 Pages, 2.1MB] - This paper examines the history of the ABM Treaty as it relates to missile defense and postulates strategic options as they relate to the U.S. strategic linkage to the treaty itself. This review includes 2nd and 3rd order effects for the U.S., as well as an assessment of strategic risk. Key nations included in this analysis include the U.S., Russia and China. In light of the current geo-political situation, the paper concludes with a recommended course of action and challenges for the future.

The New World Order: A Second Look. A Selected Bibliography. [43 Pages] - Partial contents of this report pertain to: U.S. National Security; the U.S. Military; U.S. Foreign Relations; International Security; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; International Relations; World Economic Order; and Specific Countries and Regions.

The New World Order: A Vision and Its Dimensions [46 Pages, 2.06MB] - The Cold War is over. The Soviet Union has been dissolved. The United States is no longer the world's preeminent economic power. Both Europe and Japan are enjoying a greater share of the world's resources. Still, from the perspective of combined military, economic, political, and diplomatic power, the United States has no equal. President Bush suggests that a 'New World Order' has emerged. Principles of democracy, shared responsibility and mutual cooperation among nations are the hallmarks of that new order. He recommends that the principles of the New World Order guide the foreign policy of the United States throughout the decade of the nineties and into the twenty-first century. This paper probes the dimensions of that New World Order. It discusses the likelihood of a unipolar or multipolar world, and concludes that a stratified world order might be a more apt description. It explores the role of international organizations within the new order. It examines implications for U.S. foreign policy, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army. The paper concludes by revealing why President Bush's vision is compelling.

Nuclear Strategy in the New World Order [19 Pages, 0.4MB] - For 50 years, the US depended on its nuclear arsenal to provide the underpinning to the deterrent aspect of its military strategy. However, on September 11, 2001, three of four hijacked civilian aircraft successfully completed their suicide missions against high value targets in the United States-the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. US military might, to include its overwhelming nuclear arsenal, failed to deter the terrorists who killed nearly 3000 people, most of whom were Americans. Although the US nuclear force structure, policy and strategy have thus far deterred a nuclear attack on the US, it is not properly postured as a viable deterrent against asymmetric attacks. However, given the proper force structure, policy and strategy, the US nuclear arsenal could provide a greater degree of deterrence against such attacks in the future. This paper will first briefly describe the strategy of deterrence and its underpinnings in basic psychology. Second, it will briefly overview the deterrence strategy of the Cold War and highlight the findings of the Nuclear Posture Review that will serve as the foundation of the Bush nuclear strategy. Next, this paper will consider the ethical issues surrounding the use of nuclear weapons, as both a deterrent and a combat weapon. Finally, the paper will analyze US nuclear strategy and make policy recommendations for using nuclear weapons as part of a deterrent strategy against future asymmetric attacks.

Peace in the Middle East: How It Will Impact the New World Order and the American Strategy [52 Pages, 1.91MB] - The historical events of the last decade have shifted the world system from the traditional West-East competition to cooperation and exchange of interests between the East and the West. Security and stability of the world has emerged as a very important element of the new world order. Since anything happening in any part of the world affects and gets affected by what happens in the other parts of the world, achieving peace and stability in the Middle East is important for the peace and stability of the world. Since the US is considered the leader of the new world system, the protection of international security and stability has become its responsibility. This paper begins with a description of threats and challenges to the peace of the Middle East, then discusses the bases of peace in the region, the impact of the regional peace on the new world order and the American strategy and ends with recommendations for achieving and keeping peace in the region.

Policing the New World Order: An Alternative Strategy. [32 Pages] - The United States responded decisively in the recent Persian Gulf crisis. The Bush Administration considered successful resolution of this crisis a precursor to the "new world order." Many questions now confront policy makers as America approaches the 21st Century. A pressing question is the following: Can America continue to serve as the world's policeman? America's challenge for the 1990s is to avoid the trappings of world policing that past superpowers have experienced throughout history "a la Pax Britannica." The United States can achieve this by, first, formulating its national security strategy to elevate the role of the United Nations as the world's policeman. Second, the United States' national security strategy should support the establishment of a United Nations standing peacemaking force. This force would provide the United Nations and international community a short-notice military employment capability during the early "warning period" of an impending crisis. Such a force would ultimately lower the United States' profile as the world's policeman in the emerging new world order. This essay addresses in five parts the establishment of a standing United Nations peacemaking force. First, it analyzes the circumstances and the international implications of America's involvement in the Persian Gulf War. Second, it discusses the resultant new world order and the United Nation's inability to enforce world order. Third, it highlights a deficiency in America's emerging defense strategy for the new world order. Fourth, it presents a proposal for a standing United Nations peacemaking force that the United States would support in the 1990s. And finally, it concludes with a view of America's future in policing the new world order.

Security Challenges for Small States in the New World Order: Options for Nepal [44 Pages, 1.9MB] - The post cold war period is marked by a new multi-dimensional strategic environment giving new focus to international relations and security of small states. Though the US is the only superpower, the world is moving to multipolarity and interdependence where regional powers and international systems have an increasingly powerful role. In such an environment small states are finding themselves even more vulnerable. This paper analyzes the security challenges small states face in the evolving new world order and suggests viable security options for small states in general and Nepal in particular. It analyzes the special characteristics of small states and their vulnerability to both traditional and new forms of threats. It relates national interests with world order and makes an in depth study of the security systems of balance of power and collective security from the perspective of a small state. It analyzes Nepal's regional and internal security environment as well as her historical setting and national interests. The paper then applies the concepts of security systems in the context of Nepal to determine viable security options.

Strategy and Logistics for the New World Order [138 Pages, 5.79MB] -An interdisciplinary analysis of the post-Cold War world to determine the optimal strategy to attain the national interests of the United States, and the requisite logistic structure to support that strategy. The optimal solution is found to be a strategy based on multinational defense centered on a permanent force of United Nations garrison port complexes. This multilateral force would be augmented by as small a national defense force as necessary to ensure national security. The thesis endeavors to reconnect the cultural and philosophical past of the United States with its immediate future. National interests are identified through examination of American Pragmatism and the philosophies of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. To determine the current status of common defense, based upon the Foreign Military Sales system, and analysis of current data is accomplished. Future threats to the United States are examined with special emphasis on nuclear terrorism. The ability of Islamic nations in North Africa and the Middle East to produce significant quantities of uranium is demonstrated. The grave political as well as ongoing environmental consequences of this recent capability are discussed in detail.

Technology Security Policy: From the Cold War to the New World Order [122 Pages, 5.42MB] -This thesis examines U.S. technology security policy in a transitional period marked by a rapidly changing security environment and an era of economic globalization. It provides an historical analysis of this policy since the onset of the Cold War and a financial analysis of the $40 million budget request for technology security, counter-proliferation, and export controls in the Clinton Administration's FY 1994 defense budget presentation. The historical analysis is based largely on the evolution and roles of two multilateral control regimes -- CoCom and the MTCR. The crux of this analysis is a detailed examination of the fate of the $40 million request as it moved through the congressional budget process. This analysis identifies problems and policy issues surrounding resource allocation for technology security. Based on the treatment of the budget request by the defense committees of Congress, a number of conclusions were drawn. Although technology security is considered a high priority item by both the executive and legislative branches of government, Congress appropriated funding for only 20 percent of the Administration's request. Significant decreases are attributed to inter-agency turf struggles, the slowness with which DoD policy-making positions were filled, and an initial spending plan that was perhaps overly ambitious and prematurely presented. Ultimately, two reviewing bodies were born out of legislative compromise; however, potentially redundant reporting likelihood of a decisive review of current proliferation policy.

Toward A Dangerous World: U.S. National Security Strategy for the Coming Turbulence [336 Pages]

Training Tactical Level Leaders in the United States Marine Corps: Meeting the Challenges of the New World Order [58 Pages]

Turkey's Role in the New World Order, Feb 1998 [7 Pages, 0.6 MB] - Turkey faces new challenges as the result of the political, military and economic developments we have been witnessing over the past decade, not the least of which is finding Turkey's role in the new world order that is now taking shape. If we were to make a brief evaluation of the present environment it would be correct to characterize it as a period of transition and transformation that calls for reorientations and new architectures.

The U.S. - Japan Security Alliance: Will it Survive in the New World Order? 1 April 1991 [126 Pages, 5.3 MB] - When George Bush took office in January 1989, he spoke of a new world order. The characteristics of this new world order may be more physical than the ideological Cold War. Some characteristics are emerging--resurfacing of old rivalries, greater interdependence between major powers, more weapons of mass destruction, information revolution, and the ascendancy of mass destruction, information revolution, and the ascendancy of economic power over military power to name a few. These changes mandate a review of old alliances designed to implement a national security strategy of containment. One candidate is the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan commonly referred to as the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance. Now that the Cold War is over, is this treaty still relevant? Given Japan's economic miracle, should the United States continue to provide Japan's national security and protect Japan's vital interests? This paper examines the treaty from three perspectives: Is the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance still relevant in the emerging world order from a military perspective? Is the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance still relevant from a political perspective? What roles should the United States and Japan undertake to promote stability in the emerging world order?

U.S. Strategic Maneuver: A New World Order Requires Some New Thinking, Not Reorganization, 21 June 1991 [39 Pages, 1.1 MB] - The current changes in the kinds of world threats we face and the requirement to downsize U.S. forces pose as significant challenge to the military as significant as those confronted at the end of World War II. The concept of Strategic Maneuver within the military, accompanied by a focusing process of (areas-to-threats-to-interests-to-resources-to-requirements) using the current organization, will allow a smaller force to operate effectively. The Persian Gulf War proved that the concept of Strategic Maneuver, formed by prioritizing and combining the individual and unique capabilities of each military services, is the best method to meet the future defense needs. The alternative plan of service reorganization and downsizing within compels the planners to unlearn all of the post-Viet Nam lessons. New mobility concepts such as the C-17's, for more efficient air lifting, and SL-7's for faster shipping cannot by themselves form the mindset needed to maintain efficiency. This paper argues that the wheel does mot have to be reinvented in order for a smaller one work as well.

The United Nations Security Council Veto in the New World Order [183 Pages, 6.01 MB] - The United States should move to replace the Security Council veto with a double majority voting method. United States' national security will improve as international security improves. International security will improve as the Security Council acts effectively. The Security Council will act more effectively as it becomes more authoritative. Promoting respect for the Council and a veto alternative are necessary to make the Council more authoritative. The double majority voting method best promotes Council authority.

A World 2010: A New Order of Nations [127 Pages, 5.69 MB] - In this book, A World 2010: A New Order of Nations, the author describes the decline of the influence of the 20th century superpowers. He explores the notion of a devolution of political and economic world power and forecasts a rise of a new order of nations. Further he advances the concept of a rise of 21st century postindustrial states to preeminence. These new realities could usher in a new era of relative world peace brought about by the crumbling of the Soviet Union, the formation of new global economic interrelationships and coalitions, and the advancement of former Third World nations to become competitive industrial states. The author concludes by forecasting the notion of a U.S. national requirement for a subdued worldwide military presence that serves a passive role, deterring conflict and preserving peace.

$112B Plan To Rebuild Gaza Called "Project Sunrise"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:23:00 +0000

AI Overview
"Project Sunrise" is a $112 billion, 10-year proposal led by Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to reconstruct the Gaza Strip into a high-tech, luxury coastal hub, according to reports in late December 2025 and January 2026. Unveiled during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026, the plan aims to turn the war-torn territory into a "Middle East Riviera" with high-rise hotels, smart cities, and AI-optimized energy networks.
Key Aspects of Project Sunrise:
Vision: The 32-page blueprint proposes "pie-slice-shaped" smart cities, a new seaport, an airport, and a freight rail line.
Development Plan: The plan, which is slated to take 10 years, focuses on turning 70% of the coastline into commercial and tourist space. It is structured in phases, starting with "New Rafah" in the south to house 100,000 units before moving north.
Funding: The proposal includes a $112.1 billion investment strategy, with the U.S. potentially anchoring approximately $60 billion in grants and loan guarantees.
Conditions: The plan is heavily contingent on the total demilitarization of Hamas, with Kushner emphasizing there is "no Plan B" without verified disarmament.
Challenges and Criticism:
Security & Feasibility: Critics and officials doubt the feasibility of the project while Hamas is still active or without a stable political solution.
Humanitarian Concerns: The proposal faces backlash for focusing on luxury development rather than immediate, sustainable housing for the 2 million displaced residents, with some critics calling it a form of "colonization".
Rubble Removal: The plan faces a massive hurdle in simply clearing the estimated 60 million tons of debris, which the UN estimates could take over seven years.
Kushner has argued that with proper security, the project could transform the region rapidly, citing similar developments in other parts of the world.

Also:

Trump admin. pitches 'Project Sunrise' to turn Gaza into 'futuristic coastal destination'

The plan to transform the Gaza Strip into a "gleaming metropolis" was shown in 32 PowerPoint slides in a pitch to world governments and investors, the report said.
The Trump administration is pitching “Project Sunrise,” a plan that will reportedly rebuild the Gaza Strip into a “futuristic coastal destination,” according to a Friday report by the Wall Street Journal.
It noted that US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, along with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and two other White House aides, drafted a proposal comprising 32 PowerPoint slides to transform Gaza.
The presentation, depicted as “sensitive but unclassified,” was shown to Turkey, Egypt, and several investors and wealthy Gulf kingdoms, according to the report.
This reconstruction would cost $112.1 billion over 10 years, according to the WSJ, which cited the draft proposal. The US would provide $60b. in grants, with the plan stating that Gaza would eventually be able to self-fund many projects.
The WSJ also notes that the presentation doesn’t specify which countries or companies would fund the reconstruction, nor where Gaza’s residents would live during the rebuilding. This has caused some US officials to express doubt about the plan, with some saying that Hamas will refuse to disarm in the first place.
The proposal was developed over 45 days, with Kushner and Witkoff enlisting the help of senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum.
Officials cited by the WSJ said that if the project goes through, they plan to “update and revise the numbers about every two years as it unfolds.”
Kushner and Witkoff had previously met with Egyptian, Turkish, and Qatari officials in Miami to discuss developments in Gaza before the two US officials delivered their presentation.
Initial US announcement of Gaza takeover was made by Trump in February
The report by the WSJ comes almost a year after Trump initially announced during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would take over the management of the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future.
He said that by taking over Gaza, the US will create economic development that will provide an “unlimited number of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
“We’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something that the entire Middle East could be very proud of,” Trump said.
Friday’s WSJ report cited supporters of Kushner’s and Witkoff’s latest proposal, who said that allowing Gaza to continue without reconstruction or development is a worse alternative. It also cited Trump’s vision of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” as a better solution.

Also:

Kushner, Witkoff draft $112B proposal to develop Gaza into ‘smart city’ with luxury resorts

Trump administration reps have just revealed a grandiose $112 billion plan to rebuild war-torn Gaza into a futuristic international destination dubbed “Project Sunrise.”
The 10-year development plan, drafted by first son-in-law Jared Kushner, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, and two top White House aides, is currently courting investor countries with a 32-slide PowerPoint presentation detailing the bold plan to renovate burning rubble into beach resorts.
Illustration of the "Humanitarian Islands in Gaza" Plan: Interim Phase, showing various IDP cities, crossings, security inspections, and humanitarian aid routes within the Gaza Strip.
Gaza would see the development of luxury hotels, high speed rail and AI-optimized smart grid features that would revolutionize the small slice of the coveted Mediterranean coastline into a bustling metropolis, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“Gaza’s destruction has been profound, but we believe what lies ahead is not just restoration — it’s a chance to develop a gateway of prosperity in the Middle East with state-of-the-art infrastructure, urban design, and technology,” the executive summary slide read, according to the outlet.
The total $112 billion cost would be spread out over 10 years, with the US agreeing to “anchor” up to $60 billion in grants and guarantees on debts by raising industry funds.
“Reimagining Gaza as a ‘smart city’ with tech-driven governance and services,” one slide from the PowerPoint presentation beamed.
The ambitious proposal — developed within the last 45 days by Kushner, Witkoff, and White House aides consulted Israeli security experts about the path forward — further called for establishing a “Chief Digital Office and an innovation lab to define standards and guide policymaking.”
The presentation does not go into detail about which countries or companies would be investing in the rebuilding fund, according to WSJ.
Though the plan mapped out distinct phases of construction, it did not provide details for housing the 2 million Palestinians who would be displaced during the massive construction necessary.
There is an estimated 68 million tons of rubble in Gaza after thousands of Israeli airstrikes leveled cities during the two-year war in Gaza.
US officials who have knowledge of the proposal are skeptical that it will come to fruition because a condition would be Hamas agreeing to disarm, the Journal reported.
Witkoff, meanwhile, met Saturday in Miami with high-level delegations from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to discuss implementation for the second phase of the Gaza cease-fire plan.

Also:

Project Sunrise: US $112bn Gaza plan turning war into a real estate bonanza
US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner have pitched a $112 billion worth of “Project Sunrise” for the development of the war-torn Gaza. The pitch, termed as "sensitive but unclassified,” had 32 pages of PowerPoint slides, with skyscrapers, luxury resorts, high-speed rail, AI-optimised smart grids- a real estate bonanza. The plan doesn't clarify where the 2 million Gazans will live during reconstruction, which nation or companies will fund the project, or what the return on investment will be.
The Project Sunrise
It was developed by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with help from Israeli firms and security officials within 45 days. The proposal was shown to officials from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar in Miami on Friday. The project, reportedly, will cost around $112.1 billion and will take 10 years. It plans to develop the Gaza Strip in three phases- removal of destroyed buildings, unexploded ordnance and Hamas’s tunnels- construction of permanent housing, medical facilities, schools and religious spaces- then the luxury beachfront properties, tech corridors and modern transportation hubs will be developed. Geographically, it will start in the South from Rafah, Khan Yunis, then the central camps and finally Gaza City. The United States is supposed to anchor 20 per cent of the fund, and then there will be funding from foreign government grants and sovereign debts.
Why is the Project a trap?
The project classically fits within the framework of a neo-colonial, extractive capitalism. Here, extraction replaces occupation. The projected plan is based on the demilitarisation and decommission of Hamas' weapons and its tunnel network.
“You are not going to convince anyone to invest money in Gaza if they believe another war is going to happen in two, three years,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
But the proposal skips some of the fundamental steps. Normally, any conflict resolution will follow these steps chronologically: cease fire, political settlements, re-establishment of governance and then reconstruction. But here it's a ceasefire, then demilitarisation and then reconstruction. Political security and sovereignty to be figured out later. For Hamas, which was formed to end the colonial occupation of Israel and establish a Palestinian state, this will be hard to swallow. Further, there is no plan for the 2 million people to live during the reconstruction of Gaza. The humanitarian aid is conditional on the political surrender, which is a form of coercion. Moreover, the proposal frames this as “Dubai in the Mediterranean”, tries to erase years of trauma and the history and tries to portray it as an underutilised 'real estate'. Palestinians are promised jobs later, not ownership. The rebuilding process starts with holding 2 million people hostage. The core contradiction is how does free economy works on occupied and unfree people and land.

Pax Judaica, Jerusalem And AI Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:30:00 +0000

Pax Judaica (Latin for "Jewish Peace") refers to a modern theory, primarily found in online circles and some Islamic eschatological interpretations, envisioning a future global order dominated by Jewish or Israeli power, often linked to end-times prophecy, surveillance, and a "Jewish World Order". It's contrasted with historical terms like "Pax Romana," but in these contexts, it carries fears of technological control (AI, digital gulag) rather than traditional peace.
Key Aspects:
The NWO Theory: Describes a future global system where Israel or Jewish institutions exert total control, often leveraging advanced technology and surveillance.
Eschatological Roots: Draws from interpretations of Biblical and Islamic end-times prophecies (eschatology) about a coming world government or the role of Jerusalem in the final days.
Themes: Involves ideas like a digital surveillance state run from Jerusalem, AI control, and the subjugation of nations, contrasting with traditional power structures.
Cultural References: Appears in novels and media, sometimes as a fictionalized apocalyptic scenario or as a warning against perceived hidden agendas, such as in *Pax Judaica: The Novel* by Ahmad Ibn Fouad.
Origin of the Phrase: "Pax" (peace) and "Judaica" (Jewish things) combine to suggest a "Jewish peace," but the concept is often framed as sinister or controlling, unlike traditional ideas of peace.
In essence, "Pax Judaica" is a contemporary concept about power, technology, and prophecy, often circulating in niche spaces online and in certain religious discussions.
Empires rule through armies, territory, and conquest.
Today, Israel rules through leverage, institutions, surveillance, and proxy control.
The idea of Pax Judaica — not as a slogan, but as a framework for understanding how power now operates in the modern world. Why Israel’s influence appears disproportionate to its size. Why regional actors court Jerusalem before Washington. Why resistance hasn’t disappeared — but no longer has a path to victory.
From historical Pax systems to proxy rule, from geopolitical judo to surveillance and artificial intelligence, this is a breakdown of how dominance is enforced without occupation — and why the next phase of empire won’t announce itself.

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Pax Judaica And The AI Gulag

It is framed as a coming global order in which Jews, or Israel more specifically, preside over a digital gulag – an omniscient AI surveillance architecture, run from Jerusalem, that subordinates nation states, controls access to basic services, and keeps the world’s population on a tight algorithmic leash.
It exploits real developments – Israel’s aggressive deployment of AI and surveillance technology, especially in Gaza and the West Bank; the steady normalisation of digital tracking and control across the planet; the hollowing out of democratic oversight in favour of automated decision-making – and that a secret cabal of Jews is orchestrating world events behind the scenes.
The era of US-led “Pax Americana” is ending. America is being weakened from within – socially, economically, morally. While that empire fractures, a new centre of gravity emerges in Israel. From Jerusalem, so the claim runs, a centralised world authority will govern through an integrated AI surveillance grid. Every communication, financial transaction, movement, and biometric trace is hoovered into this system. Algorithms assign people risk scores, compliance ratings, and social permissions. Access to banking, travel, health care, work – in some versions even access to food – becomes contingent on digital obedience to this hidden authority.
Palestinians are portrayed as experimental subjects: the test case for a planetary control system. The intensification of surveillance and targeting in Gaza and the West Bank is taken as proof of a prototype – the beta version of a digital prison to be rolled out globally once perfected. Where prisons used to have walls and bars, the new detention centre is a mesh of code, devices, and bureaucratic dependencies. All of this, we are told, is “Pax Judaica”.
Firstly, Israel’s integration of advanced technologies into its security and military apparatus is well documented by human rights organisations, investigative journalists, and even by participants in its own tech sector. AI-assisted target selection in Gaza, large-scale data mining, facial recognition systems in Hebron and East Jerusalem, integrated command-and-control platforms, and highly automated drone operations are not science fiction. They are real systems, built by real companies, deployed in real conflicts.
Secondly, Palestinians have been subjected for decades to forms of control, surveillance, and collective punishment that would be intolerable to most populations. Checkpoints, population registries, permit systems, settler violence, confiscation of land, and severe restrictions on movement and trade are not rumours but lived experiences. The addition of machine learning and ubiquitous sensors into this infrastructure does nothing to soften its impact. It hardens it.
Thirdly, the trend towards what might be called “digital enclosure” is not confined to one geography or one people. States and corporations across the world are building systems that harvest behavioural data, assign risk scores, and shape access to resources. Biometric IDs in India, social credit experiments in China, expanded surveillance powers in so-called liberal democracies, the commodification of personal data by global technology firms, and the growing interest of central banks in programmable digital currencies all point to a direction of travel in which the ability to live outside digital networks, or to escape their scrutiny, becomes increasingly fragile.
None of this is speculative. It’s happening in plain sight. There’s no doubt that a digitally mediated control society is possible. Key to any truthful understanding is how far we have already ventured into that territory, and whether we have the political imagination, institutional capabilities, and ethical courage to alter course.
Where an older generation spoke of bankers, newspapers, and revolutionary movements supposedly infiltrated by Jews, the current iteration swaps in AI systems, digital currencies, and global surveillance platforms. The villain remains structurally identical. Only the props have been updated.
Here are several characteristics.
One is the insistence on a single hidden centre of control. The contemporary world is anarchic, fractured, and multipolar. Power is distributed across states, corporations, military alliances, intelligence agencies, religious movements, criminal networks, and transnational capital. These forces compete, collide, and occasionally cooperate, but they don’t converge neatly into a unified command. To reduce this messy system to one nerve centre in Jerusalem is to replace complexity with a comforting goal: that someone is in charge, and we know who they are.
A second is the ethnic and religious coding. By labelling this supposed world order “Judaica”, the narrative implies that there is something inherently Jewish about total surveillance and algorithmic despotism.
A third is the portrayal of Palestinians not simply as victims of occupation and war – but as experimental subjects in a rehearsal for global enslavement.
· Responsibility is narrowed to a single alleged architect, and with that narrowing comes a strange absolution of everyone else. Security agencies in Asia, technology giants headquartered in North America, surveillance vendors in Europe, authoritarian regimes in Africa or Latin America – all of these actors, each building their own instruments of control, recede into the background. The complex circuitry of industrial economism, in which surveillance, data extraction, and militarisation are embedded, are revealed in the Jewish plot.
In that light, the “Pax Judaica” story looks like a glimpse behind the curtain.

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Predictive History Channel Youtube, Transcript
Pax Judaica - The Greater Israel Project and Jerusalem as the Centre of the World
So this is the endgame guys. The Freemasons will create artificial intelligence in Jerusalem and this will become the world government.
Again, this is just conspiracy theory.
Don't believe this. This is just for fun. Okay? But if it happens like this, then that's interesting. Okay? But that's the grand plan to create a world government in Jerusalem.
And what's the center of this world government? Solomon's temple because the Freemasons believe that their founder was the one who created Solomon's temple. So by recreating Solomon's temple, you close the circle.
Okay. So again, this is very complicated. and I don't want to get too many things wrong, but this is a general gist of it. And so what and so what we can see is that all roads lead to Jerusalem. If that is the case, okay, then this helps us understand certain things about the world that otherwise don't make any sense. All right, so let's go over them.
The first thing that doesn't make any sense is America's war on terror. Yes, I understand that America was attacked on 911.
I understand that. But why did they have to go attack Libya and Iraq and all these other places that have nothing to do with al Qaeda? And the answer is they're trying to create something called the Greater Israel Project.
They're trying to have Israel become Pax Judea, the grand power in the Middle East, because that's important in all secret societies. Israel must become the dominant power in the Middle East.
Okay, so this helps us understand why the war on terror happened the way it did. That's number one. Number two is right now America is threatening to attack Iran. Why would they do that? Because in order for Pak Judaica to come into being, Iran must be taken out of the equation. Iran must be destroyed. Then if that were to happen, there would be no challenger to them. Okay, does that make sense, right? The third thing is Silicon Valley and AI.
So right now you have AI chat GPT which doesn't really do anything, okay? It makes cool images on your computer and it helps you cheat on in school. Okay, that's about it. Doesn't really do anything else. And if you don't go to school, then you're like, why am I using chatbot? Okay, and you're not going to pay a lot of money for it. So AI, it's a dead end. But at the same time, around the world, everyone's spending billions, $200 on data centers, right? So, everyone's putting money into AI, but then you're like, well, how can you make money off that?
If you think the answer is for you to use AI, well, it's hard to make money off that. But if the answer is to create an AI surveillance state, that makes a lot more sense, right?
A surveillance state, very easy, guys. We have it in China. Okay, it's digital ID and digital currency.
And the idea is that everything you buy, everything you do will be tracked. And so they can create a profile on you.
This profile will tell the government who you are, how you behave, what you think. Not only that, the government can also manipulate how you think, how you behave. Okay? And this is of course called the mark of the beast.
Right?
And so that's what Pax is a global AI surveillance system. Okay? It also helps us explain immigration in Europe.
Okay? Because the war on terror, you've sent these millions of refugees from Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq into Europe, which is causing a lot of conflict in Europe. Why? Why would that happen? Well, for Pax to come into being, you need to destroy the world. Okay?
So, I'm not saying this is true, but I'm saying like if the goal is Pax Judaica, it does help us connect the dots. It helps to explain why things are happening the way they are. Okay.
Also, the last thing is anti-semitism. Okay. So, you may have noticed if you're online, people don't like the Jews. And this is like out of nowhere after October 7th. Um, you have anti-semitism over the internet. I have criticized Israel before. Okay? But anti-semitism is not the same as anti-zionism, right? Zionism is a belief that Israel is a chosen people and the promised land and all that. Okay? But Judaism as religion, it's perfectly fine. So why would people not care about the difference between anti-zionism, and anti-semitism? Okay.
And you can argue it's all purposeful because remember the part of the plan is to force the Jews to return to Israel. That's very important for this plan to work out. Okay? It's key. That's why you are seeing so much anti-semitism around the world today.
Okay? And the last thing of course and something we'll discuss is something called the red heifer. So red heifers are red cows that are perfectly genetically modified and you need the red heifer in order to sacrifice. The red heifer first is used to purify the ground in order to reconstruct the Solomon's temple. Okay? And guess what? They've already sacrificed the red heifer first. So it seems as though everything is in place. All right?
They're moving towards Pax Judaica.
All right?
So let's discuss what will happen in the short term and in the long term if Pax really is the end goal. Okay. So when you have Israel fighting wars everywhere. Okay. The main enemy right now is Iran.
In Europe, you have the Europeans about to go to war with Russia. In Ukraine, America right now is threatening to attack Venezuela, South America.
You have 10% of the US Navy in the Caribbean and they're about to attack Venezuela.
You have China and Japan at conflict. You have India here and you have Africa. Okay. So, so what's going to happen in the short term? Okay. Well, what we know is that Europe is planning to go to war with Russia.
At the same time, you have a lot of immigrants in Europe and this is going to create civil wars in Europe. So you have both war with Russia as well as civil war. So Europe is kind of screwed. Okay.
America has the same situation where the left right divide is so polarized that eventually they'll go to war. If you read the news, you may have heard about the shootings at Brown University as well as this MIT physicists who were shot. So, random violence will be more and more common in the United States. And you can argue that's all deliberate because the idea is this.
Let's just say you have a jar. You put red ants in a jar and black ants in the jar. They get along fine. But you take the jar and you just shake it up and now they're at war with each other. Okay, that's what's happening where the left and right, they really don't like each other. They don't talk to each other and they refuse to engage in debate with each other, but then going to fight each other, in which case their mentality takes over and they start killing each other. So, we're going to expect civil war in the United States.
Then you're going to have the Americans start to attack Venezuela and possibly other countries in South America. So, America is in for a bad time.
Japan and China and India, they're all going to have conflicts with each other. But also, what we should expect is that America starts to embargo China, meaning America uses its sea power to block China from accessing resources, more seas. And China imports most of its oil and a lot of its food. So if there's a blockade of China, you can expect the Chinese economy to really suffer. All right. But and then what we can expect to happen is America at some point will go to war with Iran and this will destroy both countries. Iran will not lose this war, but it won't win this war neither because America is just going to bomb the crap out of Iran. It's going to send Iran back decades. But America will lose this war. But this is important because America loses war, it's forced out of the Middle East. And once it's forced out of the Middle East, all its military assets goes to Israel, which creates the Pax Judaica. Does that make sense, guys? That's the plan. Okay.
Okay, now you have Pax and what Pax will do is start to control the world because through chaos and conflict, Pax Judaica can make a lot of money, right? Because Pax, what's going to happen is that you have these technology companies like Google, they're going to move over to Pax Judea and build a global surveillance state.
You have civil wars, you need AI to control people. If you're going to war with Russia, you need weapons, okay? But you also need financing as well. So, you can expect a lot of banks to move to Israel and it's possible Israel becomes now the global reserve currency because everyone is trading with Israel.
If you're Russia, you need to your resources, right? Oil, energy, and grain. So, Russia controls a third of the world's carbohydrates. Guess what, guys? Israel controls Africa.
So, what will happen is that Russia and other countries will sign a trade agreement with Israel and Israel becomes a center of global trade.
Okay, does that make sense? So this is how Pax Judaica will profit and remember that Israel has the world's best intelligence agency the Mossad and what they can do is go around the world and create as much chaos as possible. So while the world is burning, Israel is profiting and that's what the future looks like for the next 10 20 years and this will of course lead to the rise of the antichrist who will take control of Pax Judaica and force the world to eventually attack Israel in something called the War of Gog and Magog and this will of course lead to second coming of Jesus. So, that's a grand plan. Right.
Any questions?
Does it make sense to you guys? I know it's evil and you know what? I could be a complete idiot. Okay. I could just make making all this up. But you have to ask yourself three questions. Does it connect the past? Does it explain what's happened in the past? Does it explain what's happening today?
And will these things happen in the future? Okay. So, we haven't lived for the future yet, but you can see the trends.
Okay. All right, guys. The promised land. This is the greater Israel project. Okay. This is what Yahweh promised to Abraham in the Bible. As you as you can see, it's pretty huge which is the entire Middle East extends from the Nile to the Euphrates in Iraq. Okay. It's a huge area and if you say the Israelites are sorry that the Israelis want to achieve the greater Israel project they call you conspiracy theorist like we don't want that. Okay but explain two things to me.
First of all why is the greater Israel map on a chevron of an IDF soldier. Okay these are soldiers Israeli soldiers and they wear the insignia of the greater Israel project. Okay this is the map.
Also, if you look at the flag of Israel, there are two blue lines, right? These represent rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates.
All right? So, if it's a conspiracy theory, then how do you explain these two things? All right. But I want to argue to, you know what, Pax, it's not about Israel or the greater Israel project. What it is ultimately is an alliance of transnational capital multinationals like Google and Meta and intelligence agencies that will be based in Jerusalem. Okay. So, secret societies will be based in Jerusalem and they will use it as a headquarters for their global conspiracy and they will profit from chaos and conflict in around the world because they think that this is the culmination of prophecy.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that Jews will be in charge. Okay? Does that make sense, guys? So, it's a much more complicated idea than people think it is.

US used powerful mystery weapon that brought Venezuelan soldiers to their knees

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:14:00 +0000

The US used a powerful mystery weapon that brought Venezuelan soldiers to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood during the daring raid to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro, according to a witness account posted Saturday on X by the White House press secretary.
In a jaw-dropping interview, the guard described how American forces wiped out hundreds of fighters without losing a single soldier, using technology unlike anything he has ever seen — or heard.
“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the guard said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”
Moments later, a handful of helicopters appeared — “barely eight,” by his count — deploying what he estimated were just 20 US troops into the area.
But those few men, he said, came armed with something far more powerful than guns.
“They were technologically very advanced,” the guard recalled. “They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.”
What ensued, he said, was not a battle, but a slaughter.
“We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” he said. “They were shooting with such precision and speed; it felt like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute.”
Then came the weapon that still haunts him.
“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.”
Fire and smoke rising from Caracas mountainside in the distance, with city buildings and homes in the foreground.
The effects were immediate and horrific.
“We all started bleeding from the nose,” he said. “Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a question regarding whether Karoline Leavitt’s sharing of the post — captioned, “Stop what you are doing and read this…” — indicated the administration was verifying the veracity of the eyewitness account. An estimated 100 Venezuelan security forces were killed in the Jan. 3 attack, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.
It is unclear if any of those were caused by the mystery weapon.
The outmatched defenders were helpless as the small US unit wiped them out, the guard said.
“Those twenty men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us,” he claimed. “We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The military has had directed energy weapons — which neutralize targets using focused energy such as microwaves or laser beams — for years, but this could be the first time it’s been used in combat by the US, an ex-US intelligence source told The Post. China reportedly used a microwave weapon in 2020 against Indian soldiers during a border dispute in Ladakh.
The source noted that those weapons have capability to produce at least some of the symptoms, including “bleeding, inability to move or function, pain and burning.”
“I can’t say all of those symptoms. But yes, some,” the source said. “And we’ve had versions for decades.” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in handcuffs, escorted by two DEA agents.
After the raid, the message couldn’t be more clear: Don’t tread on Uncle Sam, the Maduro loyalist said.
Now, he says, the message is clear: Don’t tread on Uncle Sam.
“I’m sending a warning to anyone who thinks they can fight the United States,” he said. “They have no idea what they’re capable of. After what I saw, I never want to be on the other side of that again. They’re not to be messed with.”
The guard said the raid has already sent shockwaves across Latin America — especially after President Donald Trump recently warned that Mexico is now ‘on the list.’
“Everyone is already talking about this,” he said. “No one wants to go through what we went through. What happened here is going to change a lot of things — not just in Venezuela, but throughout the region.”
A former US intelligence source told the New York Post that the symptoms described could be consistent with directed energy weapons, which use focused energy such as microwaves. Such systems, the source noted, have existed for decades and can cause bleeding, disorientation and physical incapacitation.

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Did US Forces Use Sonic Weapons in Venezuela Operation to Capture Maduro? What the Claims Say & What Remains Unclear

Claims of a sonic weapon used by US forces in a Venezuela raid spark global debate after an eyewitness alleged troops were incapacitated by an intense sound force.
Allegations that US forces used a powerful and previously unseen weapon during a raid in Venezuela have ignited worldwide attention and intense debate. The claims emerged after a dramatic eyewitness account described Venezuelan security forces being incapacitated within minutes during an operation aimed at capturing President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.
The account, shared on X by the White House press secretary, detailed a highly coordinated assault in which advanced technology allegedly overwhelmed Venezuelan defences. While US officials have not confirmed the details, the narrative has raised serious questions about the nature of modern warfare and the weapons potentially being deployed behind the scenes.
What Happened During the Alleged US Raid in Venezuela?
According to the account attributed to a Venezuelan security guard, the operation unfolded with alarming speed. He claimed that radar systems suddenly went offline without warning, leaving forces blind and confused.
“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the guard said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”
The guard said only a small number of US troops entered the area, supported by fewer than ten helicopters. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Americans allegedly gained immediate control of the situation.
“They were technologically very advanced,” he said. “They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.” ‘Not a Battle, But a Slaughter’: Eyewitness Account
The encounter, as described, was brutally one-sided. The guard claimed Venezuelan forces had no chance against the speed and accuracy of US firepower.
“We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” he said. “They were shooting with such precision and speed; it felt like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute.”
The most alarming claim came when he described the alleged deployment of an unknown device that appeared to incapacitate troops instantly.
“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly, I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.”
He described severe physical effects moments later.
“We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon, or whatever it was.”
White House Silent on Weapon Claims
The White House has not clarified whether reposting the account amounted to official verification. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared the account with the caption “Stop what you are doing and read this,” but officials declined to confirm whether such a weapon was used.
Venezuela’s Interior Ministry said around 100 security personnel were killed during the January 3 operation, though it did not specify the cause of death.
What Are Sonic Weapons?
Sonic weapons, also known as directed energy or acoustic weapons, use focused energy such as sound waves, microwaves, or lasers to disable targets rather than destroy them physically. Experts say such systems can cause intense pain, disorientation, internal injuries, and an inability to function.
A former US intelligence source said the description closely resembled directed energy weapons. “The military has had versions of these for decades,” the source said. “Some of those systems can cause bleeding, pain, burning, and the inability to function.”
Similar allegations surfaced in 2020 when China was accused of using a microwave weapon against Indian soldiers in Ladakh, claims Beijing denied.
‘A Warning to Anyone Who Thinks They Can Fight the US’
The Venezuelan guard said the raid sent shockwaves across Latin America, especially amid recent warnings from President Donald Trump.
“I’m sending a warning to anyone who thinks they can fight the United States,” he said. “They have no idea what they’re capable of. After what I saw, I never want to be on the other side of that again. They’re not to be messed with.”
He added, “What happened here is going to change a lot of things, not just in Venezuela, but throughout the region.” As questions grow louder and confirmation remains elusive, the claims have fueled fresh fears about the future of warfare and the shadowy technologies shaping it.

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Military forces use sound weapons like
Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) for crowd control and hailing, projecting painful or loud sound beams, while research explores infrasonic (low-frequency) and ultrasonic (high-frequency) weapons for disorientation, nausea, or incapacitation, though the latter (like the Mosquito) is more common in private security; these sonic tools aim to incapacitate without physical force, but pose risks of hearing loss, neurological issues, and trauma.
Common Types of Sound Weapons
Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs): These specialized loudspeakers project focused, high-intensity sound beams, used for communication, deterrence (pirates, insurgents), and crowd control, capable of causing pain (110-130 dB) and disorientation.
Ultrasonic Devices (e.g., "Mosquito"): Emit high-pitched sounds painful to younger people but often inaudible or less impactful to older adults, used for dispersing unruly crowds.
Infrasonic Weapons: Still largely in research, these use very low, often inaudible frequencies to cause disorientation, nausea, and psychological distress.
Other Applications & Examples
Psychological Warfare: Historically, armies used loud sounds (like drums, horns) and even music (Doris Day songs) to affect enemy morale.
Naval Defense: LRADs are used to keep small boats and pirates away from warships.
Crowd Control: LRADs and ultrasonic devices are used to disperse protesters, though their use is controversial and sometimes legally challenged.
Effects & Concerns
Health Impacts: Can cause permanent hearing loss, traumatic brain injuries, nausea, headaches, and psychological trauma.
Debate: While intended for non-lethal control, high-intensity sonic attacks raise concerns about excessive force and human rights violations, with some devices being banned or restricted in certain areas.

Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) use focused beams of electromagnetic energy, like lasers, microwaves, or particle beams, to disable, damage, or destroy targets without physical projectiles, offering speed (speed-of-light travel), precision, and low cost-per-shot for countering drones, missiles, and other threats, with major global powers actively developing them for military applications.
Types of DEWs
High-Energy Lasers (HELs): Use concentrated light beams to burn, melt, or overwhelm sensors on targets like drones and rockets (C-RAM).
High-Power Microwaves (HPMs): Emit intense microwave energy to disrupt or destroy electronic systems, often used against swarms of drones or sensitive equipment.
Particle Beams: Accelerate particles to high speeds, though less commonly discussed than lasers and microwaves for current deployments.
Sound Beams: Use focused acoustic energy, like LRAD systems, for non-lethal crowd control or warning.
Advantages
Speed of Light: Energy travels almost instantaneously, crucial for intercepting fast threats like hypersonic missiles.
Precision: Highly focused beams allow for targeting specific components of a threat.
Scalability: Can be adjusted for effects, from temporarily "dazzling" sensors to complete destruction.
Low Cost-Per-Shot: Cheaper than launching traditional interceptor missiles for every drone.
Applications
Counter-UAS (C-UAS): Defending against drone swarms.
Missile Defense: Intercepting incoming rockets, artillery, mortars, and potentially ballistic/hypersonic missiles.
Electronic Warfare: Disrupting enemy communications and surveillance.
Personnel/Optical Defense: Dazzling or disabling enemy sensors and optics.
Development & Deployment
Key Developers: United States (DARPA, military branches), China, Russia, UK, Israel, France, Germany, India.
Current Status: Maturing technology, with systems being integrated onto air, land, and sea platforms, aiming for deployment mid-to-late 2020s.