The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realizing a New Train of …

The Zeitgeist Movement Defined is the official representative text of the global, non-profit sustainability advocacy organization known as The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM).

This tediously sourced and highly detailed work argues for a large-scale change in human culture, specifically in the context of economic practice. The dominant theme is that the current socioeconomic system governing the world at this time has severe structural flaws, born out of primitive economic and sociological assumptions originating in our early history, where the inherent severity of these flaws went largely unnoticed.

However, in the early 21st century, these problems have risen prominently, taking the consequential form of increasing social destabilization and ongoing environmental collapse. Yet, this text is not simply about explaining such problems and their root causality - It is also about posing concrete solutions, coupled with a new perspective on social/environmental sustainability and efficiency which, in concert with the tremendous possibility of modern technology and a phenomenon known as ephemeralization, reveals humanity's current capacity to create an abundant, post-scarcity reality.

While largely misunderstood as being "utopian" or fantasy, this text walks through, step by step, the train of thought and technical industrial reordering needed to update our global society (and its values) to enable these profound new possibilities. While this text can be read strictly from a passive perspective, it was created also to be used as an awareness or activist tool. The Zeitgeist Movement, which has hundreds of chapters across dozens of countries and is perhaps the largest activist organization of its kind, hopes those interested in this direction will join the movement in global solidarity and assist in the culmination of this new social model, for the benefit of the whole of humanity.

Note: This text is produced for sale in paperback and proprietary ebook form only at the exact cost of publishing and nothing more. It is a non-profit text which is also available for open, non-commercial distribution in whatever form, as protected by its associated Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International). One may view this text online for free as well at TZM's global website.

-- Contents --

Preface

Part I: Introduction

1: Overview

2: The Scientific Worldview

3: Sourcing Solutions

4: Logic vs Psychology

5: The Case for Human Unity

6: The Final Argument Human Nature

Part II: Social Pathology

7: Defining Public Health

8: History of Economy

9: Market Efficiency vs Technical Efficiency

10: Value System Disorder

11: Structural Classism, The State and War

Part III: A New Train of Thought

12: Introduction to Sustainable Thought

13: Post-Scarcity Trends, Capacity and Efficiency

14: True Economic Factors

15: The Industrial Government

16: Lifestyle, Freedom and the Humanity Factor

Part IV: The Zeitgeist Movement

17: Social Destabilization and Transition

18: Becoming The Zeitgeist Movement

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The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realizing a New Train of ...

Bitcoin Cash | The best Bitcoin can be.

The best that Bitcoin can be.

On August 1st 2017, We the People will breathe new life into Bitcoin.

A group of miners, developers, investors, and bitcoin users will upgrade the Bitcoin protocol as specified by theUser Activated Hard Fork (UAHF).

Those who do not want to follow our lead are free to use whichever chain they like. Miners implementing the UAHF will safely split away, creating a new version of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash.

All current Bitcoin holders will automatically own Bitcoin Cash. The existing ledger at the time of the split is preserved, thus users retain any balances they had before the split.Bitcoin Cash brings sound money to the world. Merchants and users are empowered with low fees and reliable confirmations. The future shines brightly with unrestricted growth, global adoption, permissionless innovation, and decentralized development.

These ideals can be achieved, but it depends on you to succeed. We need the support of miners, investors, and users like you. Join us to help achieve Satoshis original vision of Bitcoin as Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash.

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Bitcoin Cash | The best Bitcoin can be.

Bitcoin Cash (BCC) price, rating, news, and analysis …

Bitcoin Cash (BCC)/BCH is a hard forked version of the original Bitcoin. It is similar to bitcoin with regards to its protocol; Proof of Work SHA-256 hashing, 21,000,000 supply, same block times and reward system. However, two main differences are the block size limits, as of August 2017 Bitcoin has a 1MB block size limit whereas (BCC)/BCH proposes 8MB blocks. Also, (BCC)/BCH will adjust the difficulty every 6 blocks as opposed to 2016 blocks as with Bitcoin.Bitcoin Cash is a proposal from the via BTC mining pool and the Bitmain mining group to carry out a UAHF (User Activated Hard Fork) on August 1st 12:20 pm UTC. They rejected the agreed consensus (aka BIP-91 or SegWit2x) and have decided to fork the original Bitcoin blockchain and create this new version called Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash can be claimed by BTC owners who have their private keys or store their Bitcoins on a service that will split (BCC)/BCH for the customer.

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Bitcoin Cash (BCC) price, rating, news, and analysis ...

What Are Examples of Freedom of Speech? | Reference.com

Examples of freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment, include the right to voice political criticisms, the right to speak out against the government, the right to protest on school grounds or within the community and the right to refuse to salute or burn the U.S. flag. Freedom of speech allows individuals the right to not speak and to use offensive phrases or words.

With some restrictions as set forth by the First Amendment, additional examples of freedom of speech include contributing money to local, state and federal political campaigns and the right to advertise products and services. Symbolic speech, such as holding signs of criticisms during a protest, burning books or flags and wearing black armbands in protest of war are also examples of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech does not permit individuals to solicit or advertise illegal products or drugs, distribute and create obscene materials and use speech that would inflict harm in a crowd, such as shouting that a fire exists when it doesn't. On school grounds, additional restrictions apply, such as the right to use obscene speech in the classroom or during a speech and printing stories or photos in a high school newspaper when objections from administration exist.

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What Are Examples of Freedom of Speech? | Reference.com

The Importance of Freedom of Speech in College Essay …

812 Words 4 Pages

Freedom of speech is more than just the right to say what one pleases. Freedom of speech is the right to voice your opinion on certain topics or dilemmas around you. This basic right given to us in the First Amendment is being challenged by colleges who encourage freedom of speech with certain restrictions. In the two videos provided by FIRE, certain situations where students basic rights were violated were shown. In the first video presented by FIRE, I was very surprised to learn that some colleges opt to control what you wear, what you post on Facebook or what you say. Instead of educating young adults, it appears that colleges nowadays are trying to babysit them in every dimension of life, including their personal online social life. One example that prominently stood out to me was Hayden Barnes story, in video two. Hayden Barnes found himself in deep trouble with the school when he decided to speak out against an overpriced project that the school had decided to complete, by using student fees. This situation shows exactly why organizations like FIRE are needed. Students in certain schools have little to no verbal opinion on what happens at their school. There are certain things youre allowed to say, and certain things that you are not allowed to say. Whatever happened to freedom of speech and does it exist on college campuses? When freedom of speech is confined in higher institutions, it diminishes the budding adults importance of this crucial right.

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The Importance of Freedom of Speech in College Essay ...

Bill of Rights – Bill of Rights Institute

Download a PDF of the Bill of Rights

Click for free Documents of Freedom lesson on the Bill of Rights

Click for free Voices of History lesson on the Bill of Rights

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madisonwrote the amendments, which list specific prohibitions on governmental power, in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties. For example, the Founders saw the ability to speak and worship freely as a natural right protected by the First Amendment. Congress is prohibited from making laws establishing religion or abridging freedom of speech. The Fourth Amendment safeguards citizens right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion in their homes through the requirement of a warrant.

The Bill of Rights was strongly influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason. Other precursors include English documents such as the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, the English Bill of Rights, and the Massachusetts Body of Liberties.

One of the many points of contention between Federalists, who advocated a strong national government, and Anti-Federalists, who wanted power to remain with state and local governments, was the Constitutions lack of a bill of rights that would place specific limits on government power. Federalists argued that the Constitution did not need a bill of rights, because the people and the states kept any powers not given to the federal government. Anti-Federalists held that a bill of rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty.

Madison, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, altered the Constitutions text where he thought appropriate. However, several representatives, led by Roger Sherman, objected, saying that Congress had no authority to change the wording of the Constitution. Therefore, Madisons changes were presented as a list of amendments that would follow Article VII.

The House approved 17 amendments. Of these, the Senate approved 12, which were sent to the states for approval in August 1789. Ten amendments were approved (or ratified). Virginias legislature was the final state legislature to ratify the amendments, approving them on December 15, 1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

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THE 10 BEST Bahamas Hotel Deals (Oct 2018) – TripAdvisor

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"Featured" sort ranks properties using exclusive TripAdvisor data, including traveler ratings, confirmed availability from our partners, prices, booking popularity, location and personal user preferences. It also takes into account the compensation paid to us by accommodations and booking sites, in both the list of accommodations and the display of price offers from our partners.

Traveler Ranked

Highest rated hotels on TripAdvisor, based on traveler reviews.

Best Value

Properties ranked using exclusive TripAdvisor data, including traveler ratings, confirmed availability from our partners, prices, booking popularity, location and personal user preferences.

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Time dilation – Wikipedia

According to the theory of relativity, time dilation is a difference in the elapsed time measured by two observers, either due to a velocity difference relative to each other, or by being differently situated relative to a gravitational field. As a result of the nature of spacetime,[2] a clock that is moving relative to an observer will be measured to tick slower than a clock that is at rest in the observer's own frame of reference. A clock that is under the influence of a stronger gravitational field than an observer's will also be measured to tick slower than the observer's own clock.

Such time dilation has been repeatedly demonstrated, for instance by small disparities in a pair of atomic clocks after one of them is sent on a space trip, or by clocks on the Space Shuttle running slightly slower than reference clocks on Earth, or clocks on GPS and Galileo satellites running slightly faster.[1][2][3] Time dilation has also been the subject of science fiction works, as it technically provides the means for forward time travel.[4]

Time dilation by the Lorentz factor was predicted by several authors at the turn of the 20th century.[5][6] Joseph Larmor (1897), at least for electrons orbiting a nucleus, wrote "... individual electrons describe corresponding parts of their orbits in times shorter for the [rest] system in the ratio: 1 v 2 c 2 {displaystyle scriptstyle {sqrt {1-{frac {v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}}} ".[7] Emil Cohn (1904) specifically related this formula to the rate of clocks.[8] In the context of special relativity it was shown by Albert Einstein (1905) that this effect concerns the nature of time itself, and he was also the first to point out its reciprocity or symmetry.[9] Subsequently, Hermann Minkowski (1907) introduced the concept of proper time which further clarified the meaning of time dilation.[10]

Special relativity indicates that, for an observer in an inertial frame of reference, a clock that is moving relative to him will be measured to tick slower than a clock that is at rest in his frame of reference. This case is sometimes called special relativistic time dilation. The faster the relative velocity, the greater the time dilation between one another, with the rate of time reaching zero as one approaches the speed of light (299,792,458m/s). This causes massless particles that travel at the speed of light to be unaffected by the passage of time.

Theoretically, time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to advance further into the future in a short period of their own time. For sufficiently high speeds, the effect is dramatic.[2] For example, one year of travel might correspond to ten years on Earth. Indeed, a constant 1g acceleration would permit humans to travel through the entire known Universe in one human lifetime.[12]. At a constant 1g traveling up to 0.99999999 c it would take 30 years to reach the edge of the universe 13.5 billions lightyears away. [13] Space travelers could then return to Earth billions of years in the future. A scenario based on this idea was presented in the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, and the Orion Project has been an attempt toward this idea.

With current technology severely limiting the velocity of space travel, however, the differences experienced in practice are minuscule: after 6 months on the International Space Station (ISS) (which orbits Earth at a speed of about 7,700m/s[3]) an astronaut would have aged about 0.005 seconds less than those on Earth. The current human time travel record holder is Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.[14] He gained 22.68 milliseconds of lifetime on his journeys to space and therefore beat the previous record of about 20 milliseconds by cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev.[15]

Time dilation can be inferred from the observed constancy of the speed of light in all reference frames dictated by the second postulate of special relativity.[16][17][18][19]

This constancy of the speed of light means that, counter to intuition, speeds of material objects and light are not additive. It is not possible to make the speed of light appear greater by moving towards or away from the light source.

Consider then, a simple clock consisting of two mirrors A and B, between which a light pulse is bouncing. The separation of the mirrors is L and the clock ticks once each time the light pulse hits either of the mirrors.

In the frame in which the clock is at rest (diagram on the left), the light pulse traces out a path of length 2L and the period of the clock is 2L divided by the speed of light:

From the frame of reference of a moving observer traveling at the speed v relative to the resting frame of the clock (diagram at right), the light pulse is seen as tracing out a longer, angled path. Keeping the speed of light constant for all inertial observers, requires a lengthening of the period of this clock from the moving observer's perspective. That is to say, in a frame moving relative to the local clock, this clock will appear to be running more slowly. Straightforward application of the Pythagorean theorem leads to the well-known prediction of special relativity:

The total time for the light pulse to trace its path is given by

The length of the half path can be calculated as a function of known quantities as

Elimination of the variables D and L from these three equations results in

which expresses the fact that the moving observer's period of the clock t {displaystyle Delta t'} is longer than the period t {displaystyle Delta t} in the frame of the clock itself.

Given a certain frame of reference, and the "stationary" observer described earlier, if a second observer accompanied the "moving" clock, each of the observers would perceive the other's clock as ticking at a slower rate than their own local clock, due to them both perceiving the other to be the one that's in motion relative to their own stationary frame of reference.

Common sense would dictate that, if the passage of time has slowed for a moving object, said object would observe the external world's time to be correspondingly sped up. Counterintuitively, special relativity predicts the opposite. When two observers are in motion relative to each other, each will measure the other's clock slowing down, in concordance with them being moving relative to the observer's frame of reference.

While this seems self-contradictory, a similar oddity occurs in everyday life. If two persons A and B observe each other from a distance, B will appear small to A, but at the same time A will appear small to B. Being familiar with the effects of perspective, there is no contradiction or paradox in this situation.[20]

The reciprocity of the phenomenon also leads to the so-called twin paradox where the aging of twins, one staying on Earth and the other embarking on a space travel, is compared, and where the reciprocity suggests that both persons should have the same age when they reunite. On the contrary, at the end of the round-trip, the traveling twin will be younger than his brother on Earth. The dilemma posed by the paradox, however, can be explained by the fact that the traveling twin must markedly accelerate in at least three phases of the trip (beginning, direction change, and end), while the other will only experience negligible acceleration, due to rotation and revolution of Earth. During the acceleration phases of the space travel, time dilation is not symmetric.

Minkowski diagram and twin paradox

Clock C in relative motion between two synchronized clocks A and B. C meets A at d, and B at f.

In the Minkowski diagram from the second image on the right, clock C resting in inertial frame S meets clock A at d and clock B at f (both resting in S). All three clocks simultaneously start to tick in S. The worldline of A is the ct-axis, the worldline of B intersecting f is parallel to the ct-axis, and the worldline of C is the ct-axis. All events simultaneous with d in S are on the x-axis, in S on the x-axis.

The proper time between two events is indicated by a clock present at both events.[27] It is invariant, i.e., in all inertial frames it is agreed that this time is indicated by that clock. Interval df is therefore the proper time of clock C, and is shorter with respect to the coordinate times ef=dg of clocks B and A in S. Conversely, also proper time ef of B is shorter with respect to time if in S, because event e was measured in S already at time i due to relativity of simultaneity, long before C started to tick.

From that it can be seen, that the proper time between two events indicated by an unaccelerated clock present at both events, compared with the synchronized coordinate time measured in all other inertial frames, is always the minimal time interval between those events. However, the interval between two events can also correspond to the proper time of accelerated clocks present at both events. Under all possible proper times between two events, the proper time of the unaccelerated clock is maximal, which is the solution to the twin paradox.[27]

In addition to the light clock used above, the formula for time dilation can be more generally derived from the temporal part of the Lorentz transformation.[28] Let there be two events at which the moving clock indicates t a {displaystyle t_{a}} and t b {displaystyle t_{b}} , thus

Since the clock remains at rest in its inertial frame, it follows x a = x b {displaystyle x_{a}=x_{b}} , thus the interval t = t b t a {displaystyle Delta t^{prime }=t_{b}^{prime }-t_{a}^{prime }} is given by

where t is the time interval between two co-local events (i.e. happening at the same place) for an observer in some inertial frame (e.g. ticks on his clock), known as the proper time, t is the time interval between those same events, as measured by another observer, inertially moving with velocity v with respect to the former observer, v is the relative velocity between the observer and the moving clock, c is the speed of light, and the Lorentz factor (conventionally denoted by the Greek letter gamma or ) is

Thus the duration of the clock cycle of a moving clock is found to be increased: it is measured to be "running slow". The range of such variances in ordinary life, where v c, even considering space travel, are not great enough to produce easily detectable time dilation effects and such vanishingly small effects can be safely ignored for most purposes. It is only when an object approaches speeds on the order of 30,000km/s (1/10 the speed of light) that time dilation becomes important.[29]

In special relativity, time dilation is most simply described in circumstances where relative velocity is unchanging. Nevertheless, the Lorentz equations allow one to calculate proper time and movement in space for the simple case of a spaceship which is applied with a force per unit mass, relative to some reference object in uniform (i.e. constant velocity) motion, equal to g throughout the period of measurement.

Let t be the time in an inertial frame subsequently called the rest frame. Let x be a spatial coordinate, and let the direction of the constant acceleration as well as the spaceship's velocity (relative to the rest frame) be parallel to the x-axis. Assuming the spaceship's position at time t = 0 being x = 0 and the velocity being v0 and defining the following abbreviation

the following formulas hold:[30]

Position:

Velocity:

Proper time as function of coordinate time:

In the case where v(0) = v0 = 0 and (0) = 0 = 0 the integral can be expressed as a logarithmic function or, equivalently, as an inverse hyperbolic function:

As functions of the proper time {displaystyle tau } of the ship, the following formulae hold:[31]

Position:

Velocity:

Coordinate time as function of proper time:

The clock hypothesis is the assumption that the rate at which a clock is affected by time dilation does not depend on its acceleration but only on its instantaneous velocity. This is equivalent to stating that a clock moving along a path P {displaystyle P} measures the proper time, defined by:

The clock hypothesis was implicitly (but not explicitly) included in Einstein's original 1905 formulation of special relativity. Since then, it has become a standard assumption and is usually included in the axioms of special relativity, especially in the light of experimental verification up to very high accelerations in particle accelerators.[32][33]

Gravitational time dilation is experienced by an observer that, being under the influence of a gravitational field, will measure his own clock to slow down, compared to another that is under a weaker gravitational field.

Gravitational time dilation is at play e.g. for ISS astronauts. While the astronauts' relative velocity slows down their time, the reduced gravitational influence at their location speeds it up, although at a lesser degree. Also, a climber's time is theoretically passing slightly faster at the top of a mountain compared to people at sea level. It has also been calculated that due to time dilation, the core of the Earth is 2.5 years younger than the crust.[34] "A clock used to time a full rotation of the earth will measure the day to be approximately an extra 10 ns/day longer for every km of altitude above the reference geoid." [35] Travel to regions of space where extreme gravitational time dilation is taking place, such as near a black hole, could yield time-shifting results analogous to those of near-lightspeed space travel.

Contrarily to velocity time dilation, in which both observers measure the other as aging slower (a reciprocal effect), gravitational time dilation is not reciprocal. This means that with gravitational time dilation both observers agree that the clock nearer the center of the gravitational field is slower in rate, and they agree on the ratio of the difference.

High accuracy timekeeping, low earth orbit satellite tracking, and pulsar timing are applications that require the consideration of the combined effects of mass and motion in producing time dilation. Practical examples include the International Atomic Time standard and its relationship with the Barycentric Coordinate Time standard used for interplanetary objects.

Relativistic time dilation effects for the solar system and the earth can be modeled very precisely by the Schwarzschild solution to the Einstein field equations. In the Schwarzschild metric, the interval d t E {displaystyle dt_{text{E}}} is given by[38][39]

where

The coordinate velocity of the clock is given by

The coordinate time t c {displaystyle t_{c}} is the time that would be read on a hypothetical "coordinate clock" situated infinitely far from all gravitational masses ( U = 0 {displaystyle U=0} ), and stationary in the system of coordinates ( v = 0 {displaystyle v=0} ). The exact relation between the rate of proper time and the rate of coordinate time for a clock with a radial component of velocity is

where

The above equation is exact under the assumptions of the Schwarzschild solution. It reduces to velocity time dilation equation in the presence of motion and absence of gravity, i.e. e = 0 {displaystyle beta _{e}=0} . It reduces to gravitational time dilation equation in the absence of motion and presence of gravity, i.e. = 0 = {displaystyle beta =0=beta _{shortparallel }} .

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Time dilation - Wikipedia

Church of the Highlands – Freedom

What are Freedom Groups?

During a 13-week Small Groups semester, Freedom Groups gather weekly to discuss the Freedom Small Group curriculum, which is designed to equip you to live the victorious and abundant life Christ came to give you. Freedom Groups build on the foundation of your faith in Christ to help you embrace the truth of Gods Word as it relates to your worldview, your past, your sin, your personal value to God, and your purpose in His Kingdom. This group will help you remove every obstacle to intimacy with God and walk in true freedom.

The Freedom Curriculum focuses on six areas of personal growth:

God never wanted us to pursue dead religion, rather His heart is for us to know Him personally and live in our true identity as His children. You will learn what it means to live in the Tree of Life and how a simple but powerful perspective shift can impact every area of your life.

The Bible talks about the Spirit-led life, but this kind of living can feel hard to reach. Through Freedom, you will learn the principles of spiritual order and how feeding your spirit over your emotions and flesh is key to walking in the Spirit.

God calls us to love and serve Him above all else, and when we do, we see how we can grow in our purpose, live forgiven and forgive others, and receive His blessings. Freedom will help you learn how to surrender to Jesus and live in freedom daily.

Our words have power, and by learning to speak words of life that line up with Gods Word, your words can change your environment and relationships and break the power of the enemys words in your life.

God has a unique plan and purpose for our lives, but we also have an enemy who is trying to keep us from fulfilling this purpose. In your Freedom Group, you will learn how to stand in the authority of Jesus to overcome sin and the enemys schemes as you allow God to use your life for His glory.

We all worship something. Freedom will help you learn how to daily direct your worship to God and discover how it can influence the heart of everything you do.

At the end of the Small Groups semester, there is a Freedom Conference that every Freedom Group member is encouraged to attend. The Freedom Conference focuses on solidifying what you learned in Freedom by helping you take next steps to overcome your past and lay a foundation for walking in daily freedom.

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Church of the Highlands - Freedom

Seth Rogen, Michael Keaton Starring in John McAfee Movie …

Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton will star in King of the Jungle, a comedy about the true story of tech magnate John McAfee.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris) are directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, based on the Joshua Davis Wired magazine article John McAfees Last Stand.

Keaton will play McAfee, creator of the McAfee Antivirus software. McAfee cashed in his fortune, left civilization, and moved to the jungle in Belize, where he set up a compound of guns, sex, and madness. Rogen will portray Wired magazine investigator Ari Furman, who accepts what he thinks is a run-of-the-mill assignment to interview McAfee, but once he arrives in Belize, he finds himself pulled into McAfees escalating paranoia, slippery reality, and murder.

Production companies are Cond Nast Entertainment, Zaftig Films, MadRiver Pictures and Endurance Media, and Epic Entertainment. MadRiver and Endurance are co-financing. IMR International will introduce King of the Jungle to foreign buyers at the American Film Market, which opens Oct. 31 in Santa Monica, Calif. CAA Media Finance is representing the U.S. rights.

The film will be produced by Jeremy Steckler of Cond Nast Entertainment, Zaftigs Charlie Gogolak, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, MadRivers Marc Butan, Endurances Steve Richards, and Epics Joshua Davis.

Rogen starred in and produced The Disaster Artist for A24 and Sausage Party for Sony. He is currently in post on an untitled Lionsgate comedy, starring alongside Charlize Theron.

Keaton was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Alejandro G. Irritus Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and starred in Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy. He can next be seen in Tim Burtons Dumbo for Disney, which will be released in March.

Rogen is represented by UTA and Principal Entertainment LA. Keaton is represented by ICM Partners and Ziffren Brittenham.

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Seth Rogen, Michael Keaton Starring in John McAfee Movie ...

Seth Rogen & Michael Keaton Join John McAfee Film King Of …

EXCLUSIVE: Heres a hot one. Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton are newly aboard dark comedy King Of The Jungle, the movie based on the wild true story of rogue tech magnate John McAfee.

As we previously revealed, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris) are directing from the script by feted writing duo Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (American Crime Story). The film is from Cond Nast Entertainment, Zaftig Films, MadRiver Pictures and Endurance Media, who have now come on board to co-finance, and Epic Magazine. IMR International will be selling the movie at AFM next week. CAA Media Finance is repping domestic.

Based on the Wired magazine article John McAfees Last Stand, the film will tell the wild true story of rogue tech magnate McAfee (Keaton), creator of the McAfee Antivirus software, who cashed-in his fortune, left civilization, and moved to the jungle in Belize. There, he set-up a Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness. In the film,Wiredmagazine investigator Ari Furman (Rogen) accepts what he thinks is a run-of-the-mill assignment to interview McAfee, but once he arrives in Belize, he finds himself pulled into McAfees escalating paranoia, unhinged reality, and murder.

This was a hot project when it was announced in 2017 with Johnny Depp on board to star and it hasnt lost its luster with Rogen and Keaton an intriguing one-two punch combining commercial and high-brow appeal.

The film will be produced by Jeremy Steckler of Cond Nast Entertainment, Zaftigs Charlie Gogolak, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, MadRivers Marc Butan, Endurances Steve Richards, and Epics Joshua Davis.

The Disaster Artist, Superbad and Knocked Up star Rogen recently voiced DisneysThe Lion Kingreboot and starred opposite Charlize Theron in Lionsgates Flarsky. Keaton, who was Oscar-nominated for Birdman, and starred in the lauded Spotlight, will next be seen inTim BurtonsDumbofor Disney.

IMRs enticing slate also includes Justin KurzelsRuin,starring Margot Robbie and Matthias Schoenaerts;What is Life Worthstarring Michael Keaton; Olivier AssayasWasp Networkstarring Penlope Cruz, Pedro Pascal, Gael Garca Bernal and Edgar Ramrez; and John Michael McDonoughsThe Forgiven.

Rogen is represented by UTA and Principal Entertainment LA. Keaton is represented by ICM Partners and Ziffren Brittenham.

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Seth Rogen & Michael Keaton Join John McAfee Film King Of ...

Incredible Augmented Reality Demo Conjures Up Ghostly Versions of Your Coworkers

Ghost World

An augmented reality startup called Spatial popped out of stealth mode Wednesday with an incredible AR demo that shows how its service can populate an empty room with ghostly — yet bustling — versions of your coworkers.

“We think the future of work is going to be increasingly distributed,” CEO Anand Agarawala told TechCrunch. “When you put on Spatial, [your coworkers] are in the room with you. It feels like they’re all sitting at the table, and they feel like they’ve been teleported into the space with you.”

Augmented Reality Check

Spatial claims its “collective computing environment” will let remote workers share data with each other in seemingly physical space. All they have to do is don an AR headset, such as Microsoft’s HoloLens. But that could prove to be Spatial’s Achilles’ heel — the current generation of AR headsets are uncomfortable to wear and have narrow fields of view.

Still, the demo is a powerful vision of what virtual work environments could look like in a post-Slack world — even if we need to wait for the hardware to catch up with the concept.

READ MORE: Spatial Debuts ‘Minority Report’-Inspired Augmented Reality Collaboration Tool [Variety]

More on augmented reality: Amazon Has Plans for Headset Free Augmented Reality to Transform Your Home

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Incredible Augmented Reality Demo Conjures Up Ghostly Versions of Your Coworkers

These Tiny Drones Can Pull Objects 40 Times Their Weight

Force of Nature

What do you get when you combine a wasp, a gecko, and a team of world-class roboticists?

You get a drone called FlyCroTug, and while the above sounds like the setup to some terrible joke, this tiny bot is pulling way more than its weight — literally.

Pull Up

FlyCroTug is the work of a team of researchers from Stanford University and Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. While most drones serve the same primary purpose — to provide us with eyes in the sky — these researchers wanted to create a drone that could actually do something. In the case of FlyCroTug, that “something” is pull.

In a paper published this week in the journal Science Robotics, the research team details how the tiny drone is able to attach itself onto a smooth surface using an adhesive inspired by geckos. If the surface is rough, tiny spines inspired by yet another creature — insects — take hold. Once anchored, FlyCroTug can then pull objects up to 40 times its own body weight.

Open Sesame Drones

The research team demonstrates the bot’s abilities in a video released alongside the paper. In one demo, researchers use a remote control to direct the tiny drone to lift a filled water bottle. In another, they have a pair of the bots open a door — one FlyCroTug latches onto the handle, pulling it down while a second slips a hook under the door that it then pulls horizontally.

The researchers see potential for the bots to help in search and rescue missions, navigating collapsed buildings and moving debris out of the way if necessary. But it’s hard not to let your imagination run wild watching the bots work together on the door demo. Who else is thinking they’d be the perfect partners for a heist? Just me?

READ MORE: Small Flying Robots Haul Heavy Loads [EurekAlert]

More on drones: The Red Cross Officially Launched the First Drone Program for Disasters

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These Tiny Drones Can Pull Objects 40 Times Their Weight

New Roundup Ranks the World’s Robots by Creepiness

Robot Repository

They can be cuddly or creepy, humanoid or like something from another world. They’re the robots currently making waves in the tech industry — and now you can find them all in one convenient online location.

On Thursday, the magazine IEEE Spectrum launched ROBOTS, an aptly named online guide to the world of robotics. And not only is the site likely to trigger some laughs — and/or nightmares — but it could also shape the future of the industry.

Uncanny Valley

Currently, the ROBOTS site features 192 bots, including robo-celebrities Atlas, SpotMini, and Pepper and working bots RoombaDa Vinci, and Curiosity. Clicking a robot’s thumbnail brings up a profile on it that includes a short bio, photos/videos, and details about the robot’s creation.

It also pulls up a ranking section where visitors can note how much they like a robot, rate its appearance on a scale of “creepy” to “nice,” and indicate whether or not they’d want to own the robot.

IEEE Spectrum then uses this information to update three rankings: Top Rated, Most Wanted, and Creepiest. Telenoid, which looks an awful lot like the human being mascot from “Community,” currently sits atop the Creepiest ranking, but Diego-san, the big-headed baby bot, has our vote. Yikes.

Inspire Something

So far, experts seem to dig the site, both for its entertainment value and the role it could play in shaping the future of robotics.

“This is the repository that future generations of humans and robots will look back upon with nostalgia,” Rodney Brooks, cofounder of iRobot, the company behind Roomba, told IEEE Spectrum.

“Robots are magnetic to kids,” added Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “This catalog has the potential to inspire kids to learn computational thinking and computational making, which in turn will provide them with tools to create amazing things in the future.”

Of course, that’s assuming bots like ECCE don’t give the little ones nightmares.

READ MORE: Explore the World’s Coolest Robots, All in One Place [IEEE Spectrum]

More on robots: Watch the Boston Dynamics Robodog Twerk and Moonwalk To “Uptown Funk”

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New Roundup Ranks the World’s Robots by Creepiness

This Electric Chewing Gum Never Runs out of Flavor

Bad Taste

You’re standing in the checkout lane. You know you want to buy a pack of gum, but just aren’t satisfied with any of the available options. You ask yourself: “Why is it so hard to find a bitter-tasting gum that zaps my tongue with electricity and never runs out of flavor?”

OK, so maybe not.

But on Monday, a team of Japanese researchers demonstrated just such a gum at a technology symposium in Berlin, Germany. And while you might never find this electric chewing gum at your local convenience store, a piece could one day come packaged with your favorite virtual reality (VR) game — and, in the nascent field of virtuality, that’s a big deal.

Sensory Underload

Most of today’s VR systems trick you into thinking you’re in another world by manipulating sight and sound. You don a headset and a pair of headphones, and you’re fighting zombies or whatever.

A few researchers have attempted to bring touch and smell into the virtual experience, but with middling results. Taste has proven particularly tricky to incorporate — according to the Japanese team’s research paper, many attempts include the use of grotesque-sounding “cables around a user’s lips or batteries in their mouth.”

Not exactly the kind of tech that facilitates a seamless transportation to another world.

Tip of the Tongue

The Japanese team’s device, however, looks pretty much like a regular stick of gum. Instead of just chicle and sugar, however, it incorporates a small device — slightly smaller in diameter than a dime, and covered with a saliva-repellent film — that generates a painless current of electricity when chewed. When this electricity hits the chewer’s tongue, it give the sensation of tasting something bitter or salty. As long as the chewer keeps chewing, they’ll keep “tasting” the electric chewing gum.

Why it’s a big deal: The researchers believe they can force the gum to simulate other flavors by adjusting the strength and pattern of the electric current generated while chewing. If they’re successful, we could be moving toward a future in which VR experiences tickle your tastebuds as well as your senses of sight and sound.

READ MORE: Electric Chewing Gum Zaps Your Tongue to Create a Virtual Flavour Hit [New Scientist]

More on VR: You Can “Feel” Virtual Objects Using Microsoft’s New Tech

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This Electric Chewing Gum Never Runs out of Flavor

Jeff Bezos: Amazon Won’t Stop Helping the Military

DOD + Amazon 4Ever

You might not think Amazon should work with the U.S. government, but guess what? Jeff Bezos don’t care.

The CEO channeled his inner honey badger during a WIRED event on Monday, telling the audience that, despite both internal and external protests, Amazon would continue to work with the U.S. military on various projects.

“We are going to continue to support the [Department of Defense],” said Bezos. “And I think we should.”

Distance Desired

Bezos’s comments come amid a recent wave of controversy surrounding tech companies’ work with government agencies.

In May, Google found itself under fire for helping the U.S. military use artificial intelligence to analyze drone strikes, and in June, Microsoft employees decried the company’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That same month, Amazon employees and shareholders asked the company to stop providing government and law enforcement agencies with its facial recognition software Rekognition.

Dept. of Dissent

Following these protests, Google (sort of) agreed to step away from the drone strike project, and Microsoft’s CEO downplayed the company’s involvement with ICE.

Bezos, however, isn’t about to let angry employees and shareholders decide whose sandbox Amazon can play in.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me…One of the jobs of the senior leadership team is to make the right decision even when it’s unpopular,” he told the audience at the WIRED event.

And Bezos does appear to believe working with the DOD is the “right” decision. “If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the U.S. Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble,” he said.

Maybe so. But Amazon’s technology is powerful, and if Bezos indiscriminately lends that power to government agencies, there’s a solid chance the average American is going to be in trouble instead.

READ MORE: Jeff Bezos Defends Amazon Taking Defense Contracts, Even as Google and Others Shy Away: ‘This Is a Great Country and It Does Need to Be Defended’ [Business Insider]

More on Rekognition: Employees, ACLU Demand Amazon Stop Facilitating Government Surveillance

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Jeff Bezos: Amazon Won’t Stop Helping the Military

Y Combinator Is Turning Its Attention to Carbon Removal

Plan B

It’s never a bad idea to have a back-up plan — especially when the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Climate change could render vast segments of the Earth completely uninhabitable to humans, and attempts to address the problem by cutting carbon emissions might not be enough to save the planet.

We need a Plan B, and startup accelerator Y Combinator wants to help develop it.

Out of the Air

Y Combinator helps startups get off the ground by offering up to $150,000 in funding in exchange for a 7 percent stake in the company. The accelerator maintains a Request for Startups page that lists areas it’s particularly interested in funding. On Tuesday, it added carbon removal technologies to the list.

“We have conviction that it’s a worthwhile endeavor to remove CO2 from the air and transform it into something else useful or figure out how to store it safely, long-term,” wrote Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman in a blog post. “They may seem like moonshots now, but our goal is to try to come up with technically feasible solutions at realistic costs.”

Chasing Rainbows

Some experts argue that carbon removal technology isn’t a realistic solution to our climate woes — they’ve even gone so far as to call the proposed machines “carbon unicorns,” since they don’t yet exist.

But just because we don’t have adequate carbon removal systems right now doesn’t mean some innovative entrepreneur couldn’t develop them with a little seed funding — the kind Y Combinator is now offering up.

Who knows? Perhaps this unicorn funding could lead to a planet-saving breakthrough.

READ MORE: Frontier Carbon Removal Technologies [Y Combinator]

More on carbon capture: A Tax Incentive Might Finally Make Carbon Capture a Thing

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Y Combinator Is Turning Its Attention to Carbon Removal

These Lego-like “Brixels” Could Make Your Walls Into Robots

Meet the Brixel

The term “smart home” probably makes you think of a more-or-less traditional house that features a few smart lights and connected appliances.

Design studio Breakfast threw out that playbook with an extraordinary new demo of a technology it calls “Brixels” — a portmanteau for “bricks” and “pixels.” They’re smart blocks, kind of like giant Legos, with built-in actuators that let them transform on the fly, giving designers a new tool with which to create adaptable public and living spaces.

Bling Blocks

In a series of photos and videos, Breakfast showcased Brixels with wooden, colored, and mirrored finishes. One video — check it out below — shows how we could use double-sided Brixels to create a wall that can transform from a solid color into a brilliant mirror.

Of course, you’ll never know how you feel about anything in interior design until it’s 10 years old and clogged with dust and grit. But if these Brixels prove that they have longevity, they could be an exciting new resource for architects and designers.

READ MORE: Say Hello to ‘Brixel’, 2018’s Answer to the Brick [Curbed]

More on smart homes: A New “Mega-Sensor” Could Make Your Entire Home Smart

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These Lego-like “Brixels” Could Make Your Walls Into Robots

Report: Amazon Tried to Sell Facial Recognition Tech to ICE

Face Hole

Retail giant Amazon tried to sell its facial recognition technology to US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this summer, according to documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and first reported by the Daily Beast.

ICE has attracted controversy during the Trump administration for what critics and insiders say is overzealous enforcement of immigration laws, which includes rounding up undocumented immigrants at hospitals and church shelters.

On Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported that ICE has discussed deploying Rekognition, Amazon’s facial recognition tech, which can scan a person’s face against a database of millions in just moments.

ICE ICE Baby

Amazon workers and former ICE insiders are reportedly concerned that Amazon’s facial recognition tech would give the agency too much power.

“If they have this technology, I can see it being used in any way they think will help them increase the numbers of detentions, apprehensions, and removals,” former deputy director of ICE Alonzo Peña told the Daily Beast. Peña also said that abuse of the tech “should be an area of concern, given this new technology — there’s potential for its use to be very widespread.”

Things to Come

The idea of ICEs widespread deployment of facial recognition tech brings to mind China, where the government is using an extensive system of cameras and facial recognition tech to apprehend drug smugglers and other suspected criminals.

Some local police departments in the U.S. already use Rekognition, but whether we’ll ever see the U.S. government adopt facial recognition tech as readily as China’s has remains to be seen. If it tries, though, it’s likely be the tech industry providing the algorithms — so the public response to the revelation about Amazon and ICE could be a preview of how Americans will perceive that relationship.

READ MORE: Amazon Pushes ICE to Buy Its Face Recognition Surveillance Tech [Daily Beast]

More on Amazon: Employees, ACLU Demand Amazon Stop Facilitating Government Surveillance

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Report: Amazon Tried to Sell Facial Recognition Tech to ICE

Uber Aims to Replace Delivery Drivers With Drones

Drone Home

Uber, a $120 billion company that does not make money, just announced a literal flight of fancy.

The ride-hailing service wants to transition its delivery program Uber Eats from human drivers to autonomous, airborne drones. And it wants to do it by 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Who’s Driving?

The future is inexorably defined by those with the money to shape it. According to The WSJ, Uber executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the words “we need flying burgers” out loud, in real life.

Let’s just take a second to let that sink in, and be grateful that Silicon Valley has its priorities so well-aligned with the rest of us.

Delivery Instructions

This isn’t the first time Uber launched a new venture in the face of enormous technological and legal hurdles. The company is still working to develop its flying taxi service, and a network of flying drones will face similar challenges that make the 2021 goal a bit of a stretch.

But what this does mean is that the company that changed being designated driver from a real slog into a profession is now trying to take work away from its network of drivers.

If this comes to pass, instead of telling a courier which apartment to buzz and giving them a tip, I’m gonna have to go outside, figure out how to open up some dumb robot’s storage box, and hope its propellers don’t take me out while I’m grabbing my ‘burg. Hard pass.

READ MORE: Uber Ambitiously Eyes 2021 for Food-Delivery Drones Launch [The Wall Street Journal]

More on Uber’s ‘ambitious’ projects: Uber Plans To Launch Flying Taxis With Technology That Doesn’t Exist

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Uber Aims to Replace Delivery Drivers With Drones