I chose to research the story of John Judge because he startled me into not one, not two, but many, disorienting dilemmas. John is worthy of such in-depth investigation because of what he does, who he does it with, why he does it, and the vision that motivates his actions. Inside John’s brain is a compendium of government policies, programs, and actions that have profoundly affected the way our government works. In this paper, I give the floor to John and the other participants [Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D., Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D., Tamara Carter, Joe Green, Michael Nurko] the opportunity to be heard in full context. The opinions stated herein represent their own assessments, based on their experiences, and their relationship with evidence not often openly admitted to even existing in public either by the media or by state authorities. I do not filter their statements in any way, but leave the fullness of their presentations to the reader.
This animation shows all important battles that took place over the last ten centuries. The sizes of the explosions and labels are proportional to the number of casualties.
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998 … Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.
NATO’s decision to intervene in Libya on humanitarian grounds has become an alarming and revealing assessment of America’s understanding of war. The way the “established” media portrayed the Libyan conflict, and its subsequent reception, illustrates our society’s failure to recognize how the power dynamics of plutocratic governance shape our realities. There is significant historical evidence that during times of war propaganda is used to justify military action for special interests. If we are to believe the theme of “change” will define our generation, we must pierce through both the media and the government’s rationalization of war.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and his legacy still has a tremendous affect on American society and the world [...] Today, however, I find popular culture’s understanding of Dr. King incomplete. It seems to focus solely on his “I have a dream speech”, and his quest for civil rights, neglecting the fact he also spoke out against the war, in support of unions, and for blacks to have respect for themselves. These topics directly challenge the power structure that controls our society.
I do not claim to be a Malcolm X scholar, but I value him not as a black militant or nationalist; I value him as a proud, assertive spokesman for the oppressed in the United States and abroad who was paradigmatic of what “Brother Rabbit” stood for in challenging both the oppressor within (the corruption of the Nation of Islam and what he called the “House Negro”) and without (the system of colonialism and white supremacy in the United States, Africa, and elsewhere). Therefore, despite the numerous attempts — honest and otherwise — of certain factions to reclaim him , Malcolm X belongs to the people at large and always will.
Have you ever experienced a moment that made you wonder if everything happens for a reason? That your actions and inspirations fit into some greater purpose? It’s a tricky question to answer for a number of reasons – for one, it requires us to change our understanding of the concept of free will. Rather than believing the history of the planet is solely the product of individual autonomy (of all life), what if all our actions are part of a cosmic story? One interpretation of the Mayan calendar, by Dr. Johan Calleman, states the Maya believed periodic fluctuations in cosmic energy influenced life and fueled the evolution of consciousness. This doesn’t provide an excuse to sit back and do nothing, but rather an understanding of our purpose as carriers of change.
Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.
The civilization that built the Sphinx, raised the pyramids and built the world’s first library also produced the world’s first physician, created geometry and astronomy and were among the first to explore the nature of our existence. And they passed their knowledge along to the Greeks. Modern people, in turn, have benefited greatly from this early education.
The holidays are part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrong, and inhumanity of slavery. They are professedly a custom established by the benevolence of the slaveholders; but I undertake to say, it is the result of selfishness, and one of the grossest frauds committed upon the down-trodden slave. They do not give the slaves this time because they would not like to have their work during its continuance, but because they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it. This will be seen by the fact, that the slaveholders like to have their slaves spend those days just in such a manner as to make them as glad of their ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to be, to disgust their slaves with freedom, by plunging them into the lowest depths of dissipation.
