Hypnobirthing Northern Beaches – Planning for a Caesarean Delivery with Hypnobirthing – Video

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Hypnobirthing Northern Beaches - Planning for a Caesarean Delivery with Hypnobirthing
These days, Natural Birthing Method leaves mothers wondering,"Do I get the best for my babies?". Many mothers that go through a Caesarean Section varies from different country, hospitals and...

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Hypnobirthing Northern Beaches - Planning for a Caesarean Delivery with Hypnobirthing - Video

Shark sighting closes Warilla beach

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Jan. 5, 2015, 9:30 p.m.

Three beaches were closed for most of Monday, after a four-metre shark was seen lurking off Warilla.

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Three beaches were closed for most of Monday, after a four-metre shark was seen lurking off Warilla.

Lifeguards raised the alarm about 10.15am after spotting the shark 15 metres off the breakwall at Warilla South Beach.

"The beach was quickly closed and all swimmers in Little Lake were alerted to the sighting," a Shellharbour City Council spokesperson said.

Warilla, Warilla North and Warilla South beaches were closed while the Bendigo Bank Aerial Patrol conducted a sweep of the area.

Aerial patrol chief Harry Mitchell said a number of reports had been made in recent weeks of a shark off Warilla but shark-spotting planes had not sighted the creature.

"I think it has been there for three or four weeks. We've been flying over the area every day, making six passes a day, but haven't seen that shark," Mr Mitchell said.

Although the aerial patrol did not find the shark, the beaches remained closed all day on Monday as a precaution.

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Shark sighting closes Warilla beach

Military of the Beast : DARPA to build drones that have artificial intelligence (Jan 01, 2015) – Video

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Military of the Beast : DARPA to build drones that have artificial intelligence (Jan 01, 2015)
SOURCE: http://www.cbsnews.com News Articles: DARPA aims to create small drones to zoom into enemy buildings http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/31/drones-to...

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Military of the Beast : DARPA to build drones that have artificial intelligence (Jan 01, 2015) - Video

Simple Pictures That State-of-the-Art AI Still Cant Recognize

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Look at these black and yellow bars and tell me what you see. Not much, right? Ask state-of-the-art artificial intelligence the same question, however, and it will tell you theyre a school bus. It will be over 99 percent certain of this assessment. And it will be totally wrong.

Computers are getting truly, freakishly good at identifying what theyre looking at. They cant look at this picture and tell you its a chihuahua wearing a sombrero, but they can say that its a dog wearing a hat with a wide brim. A new paper, however, directs our attention to one place these super-smart algorithms are totally stupid. It details how researchers were able to fool cutting-edge deep neural networks using simple, randomly generated imagery. Over and over, the algorithms looked at abstract jumbles of shapes and thought they were seeing parrots, ping pong paddles, bagels, and butterflies.

The findings force us to acknowledge a somewhat obvious but hugely important fact: Computer vision and human vision are nothing alike. And yet, since it increasingly relies on neural networks that teach themselves to see, were not sure precisely how computer vision differs from our own. As Jeff Clune, one of the researchers who conducted the study, puts it, when it comes to AI, we can get the results without knowing how were getting those results.

One way to find out how these self-trained algorithms get their smarts is to find places where they are dumb. In this case, Clune, along with PhD students Anh Nguyen and Jason Yosinski, set out to see if leading image-recognizing neural networks were susceptible to false positives. We know that a computer brain can recognize a koala bear. But could you get it to call something else a koala bear?

To find out, the group generated random imagery using evolutionary algorithms. Essentially, they bred highly-effective visual bait. A program would produce an image, and then mutate it slightly. Both the copy and the original were shown to an off the shelf neural network trained on ImageNet, a data set of 1.3 million images, which has become a go-to resource for training computer vision AI. If the copy was recognized as somethinganythingin the algorithms repertoire with more certainty the original, the researchers would keep it, and repeat the process. Otherwise, theyd go back a step and try again. Instead of survival of the fittest, its survival of the prettiest, says Clune. Or, more accurately, survival of the most recognizable to a computer as an African Gray Parrot.

Eventually, this technique produced dozens images that were recognized by the neural network with over 99 percent confidence. To you, they wont seem like much. A series of wavy blue and orange lines. A mandala of ovals. Those alternating stripes of yellow and black. But to the AI, they were obvious matches: Star fish. Remote control. School bus.

In some cases, you can start to understand how the AI was fooled. Squint your eyes, and a school bus can look like alternating bands of yellow and black. Similarly, you could see how the randomly generated image that triggered monarch would resemble butterfly wings, or how the one that was recognized as ski mask does look like an exaggerated human face.

But it gets more complicated. The researchers also found that the AI could routinely be fooled by images of pure static. Using a slightly different evolutionary technique, they generated another set of images. These all look exactly alikewhich is to say, nothing at all, save maybe a broken TV set. And yet, state of the art neural networks pegged them, with upward of 99 percent certainty, as centipedes, cheetahs, and peacocks.

The fact that were cooking up elaborate schemes to trick these algorithms points to a broader truth about artificial intelligence today: Even when it works, we dont always know how it works. These models have become very big and very complicated and theyre learning on their own, say Clune, who heads the Evolving Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Wyoming. Theres millions of neurons and theyre all doing their own thing. And we dont have a lot of understanding about how theyre accomplishing these amazing feats.

Studies like these are attempts to reverse engineer those models. They aim to find the contours of the artificial mind. Within the last year or two, weve started to really shine increasing amounts of light into this black box, Clune explains. Its still very opaque in there, but were starting to get a glimpse of it.

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Simple Pictures That State-of-the-Art AI Still Cant Recognize

STG Aerospace Wins LED Cabin Mood Lighting Contract with Thomson Airways

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Aircraft cabin lighting specialists, STG Aerospace, has been awarded a retrofit programme with the UKs largest leisure airline, Thomson Airways.

The contract will see STG Aerospace retrofit nine of Thomsons Boeing 737NG fleet and fourteen of its 757 fleet with liTeMood, a true plug-and-play programmable blue/white LED mood lighting system designed specifically to retrofit commercial aircraft cabins.

liTeMood offers airlines a cost effective, versatile and controllable solution to bring existing non LED equipped aircraft cabins up to the same quality standard as brand new aircraft helping them achieve impactful brand differentiation.

Quick and easy to install, liTeMood is a cost-effective upgrade for airlines seeking to improve passenger experience and increase yields across its fleet. It features significantly increased reliability over traditional lighting systems, thereby reducing ongoing maintenance costs and also delivers important environmental benefits. Not only is liTeMood up to 40kg lighter than original-fit fluorescent lighting, it also consumes 70% less power, increasing both the aircrafts fuel and electrical efficiency.

The cabin environment has also been a key consideration in the products design. Incorporating the latest research into the effects of ambient lighting, liTeMood has been developed to significantly enhance the cabin ambience and the passenger experience.

Marcus Williams, Director of Sales & Marketing at STG Aerospace, commented:Were thrilled to be the LED lighting of choice, for Thomson Airways. This retrofit programme expands our liTeMood product range across even more aircraft and shows that STG Aerospace is leading the way, not just in photoluminescent technology, but in all aspects of cabin lighting.

liTeMood is currently available for retrofit on 737NG and 757 aircraft, with further developments in progress including 767 and A320.

Established in 1995, STG Aerospace is a world leader in lighting technologies for commercial and military aircraft interiors. Its products are currently installed in over 9000 aircraft representing one third of the worlds passenger fleet.

The companys product range includes: safTglo, the pioneering and market-leading photoluminescent emergency floor path system; safTsign, the leading brand of photoluminescent emergency and informational signage developed for commercial and military fixed-wing and rotary aircraft; liTeMood, a plug-and-play programmable blue/white LED Mood Lighting system designed specifically to retrofit commercial aircraft cabins.

STG Aerospace has preferred supplier status with Boeing, Embraer, BAe Systems, Fokker and Saab among many other aircraft manufacturers and can also count hundreds of airlines, lessors and MROs among its customers.

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STG Aerospace Wins LED Cabin Mood Lighting Contract with Thomson Airways

Mountain Toad Brewing partners with aerospace firm for new Golden site

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A rendering of the new Moutain Toad Brewing facilty as drawn by Studio DH Architecture (Provided by Mountain Toad Brewing)

Mountain Toad Brewing in Golden is planning a 20,000-square-foot production facility and shared space with an aerospace sensor company.

"The facility is the result of the demand for more beer," Kaylee Robbins, a Mountain Toad founder and its director of sales, said in an e-mail. "We currently cannot keep up and do not have space to expand production at our current location."

Robbins said that if everything goes smoothly, the project will break ground in the spring with operations beginning in early 2016.

Plans for the facility proposed for 16401 Table Mountain Parkway in the Coors Technology Center go to Golden's planning commission for a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A Mountain Toad Brewing beer waits to be consumed on Aug. 23, 2013, in Golden. (Anya Semenoff, Your Hub file)

The site is just north of Colorado 58 in the Coors Technology Center accessible from McIntyre Street. Robbins said Mountain Toad will occupy about 17,000 square feet with a second tasting room, 30-barrel brewery and a canning line.

The remaining 3,000 square feet will be home to office space for Custom Control Sensors, a Los Angeles-area manufacturer of flow control switches for aerospace, defense and other industries. The company is also the developer and owner of the land.

Robbins said the connection between the brewery and the engineering company is familial the owner of Custom Control Sensors is related to one of Mountain Toad's four owners and the companies joined forces because both were looking to expand in Golden.

"CCS is seeking a small (research and development) facility to foster innovation in its product line and tap into the abundance of engineering skills in the Golden area," she said.

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Mountain Toad Brewing partners with aerospace firm for new Golden site

Parrot’s New In-Dash System Gives Any Dumb Car Apple or Android Brains

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While Apple CarPlay and Android Auto promise to make your car's in-dash system infinitely more bearable in the not so distant future, you're still stuck in the unfortunate position of having to choose between one or the other. Not so Parrot's whimsically named RNB6, which lets you go both ways. Oh, and it has a dash cam built right in.

The flexibility of the RNB6 extends beyond its operating system agnosticism; it comes with nav, hands-free telephone operation, voice controls, and on-board diagnostics that let you know just how low your tire pressure is. And again: dashcam.

The RNB6 should fit in just about any relatively recent car, which itself is not such a feat but is reassuring if you've never dipped a toe in the aftermarket before. And CarPlay/Android Auto feature is a welcome one for householdslike mine!that have a split platform personality. Or, you know, if you don't want your car to dictate what phone you buy next.

Are there caveats? There are caveats! The biggest one being that there's no price or availability for this yet, and while it certainly doesn't smell like vaporware it's definitely going to cost. Whether that split platform personality commands a premiumor rather, just how much of a premium it commandsis going to go a long way towards deciding if this belongs in your dash.

But also: that dash cam!

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Parrot's New In-Dash System Gives Any Dumb Car Apple or Android Brains

Religions sinister fairy tale: Extremists, the religious right, Reza Aslan and the fight for reason

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I would like to thank Reza Aslan. In his recent Salon rebuttal to denunciations (including mine) of religion put forward by people the media has come to call New Atheists, he resurrects a word the late Christopher Hitchens, now three years departed, used to describe himself: antitheist. (Aslan even provides the link to a relevant Hitchens text from long ago that is well worth reading.) Antitheists hold that the portrayal of our world and humankinds place in it as set out in the foundational texts of the three Abrahamic religions constitutes, to quote Hitchens, a sinister fairy tale, and that life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case. The reason? [T]here may be people, he wrote, who wish to live their lives under a cradle-to-grave divine supervision; a permanent surveillance and [around the clock] monitoring [a celestial North Korea], but he certainly did not. The eternally repressive alternate reality concocted by the religious of eons past, if true, would be, in his words, horrible and grotesque.

Well said! Speaking for myself, Im happy to be labeled an antitheist. Or an atheist. It makes no difference to me. The point is, I do not, cannot, believe, and do not wish to believe. I have never envied people of faith their worldview, never esteemed the ability to consider something true without evidence, never respected as morally superior those who manage this feat of credulity and illogicality. For that matter, I have never had an experience for which I sought a religious that is, supernatural or superstitious explanation. For Aslan, though, the semantic distinction between atheist and antitheist is key and intended to discredit those speaking out for rationalism and against religion.

Not only is New Atheism not representative of atheism, he writes. It isnt even mere atheism. It is in fact antitheism, which he finds to be rooted in a naive and, dare I say, unscientific understanding of religion one thoroughly disconnected from the history of religious thought. He contends that atheism has become more difficult to define for the simple reason that it comes in as many forms as theism does negative atheism, positive atheism, empirical atheism, and even agnosticism. He cites an obscure poll dividing nonbelievers into categories academics, activists, seeker-agnostics, apatheists and ritual atheists, with the least numerous (and hence ostensibly least credible) being the antitheists, who account for only 12.5 percent. His conclusion: the vast majority of atheists 85 percent according to one poll are not anti-theists and should not be lumped into the same category as the anti-theist ideologues that inundate the media landscape.

Just how an atheists understanding of religion per se differs from that of an antitheist Aslan does not say. Neither of them, after all, believe in God. And is he saying that an atheists concept of faith is more scientific (and thus presumably more accurate) than an antitheists? Doubtful: Aslan is a Muslim. The critical factor would appear to be that unlike (upstart) antitheists, (old-time) atheists, at least as he sees it, dont speak out much about religion. Presumably, (plain-old) atheists keep quiet and humbly listen to scholars such as Aslan explain away the role of faith in, for instance, the barbarities that assault us daily in news from abroad. If, however, atheists forcefully advocate their rationalist convictions, they become antitheists and join the negligible 12.5-percent minority of his poll, to be safely dismissed or regarded as an annoyance.

These are questionable assumptions, to put it charitably, but they are beside the point. Aslan is hoping to discredit and classify into irrelevance those who publicly insist, as I have (and he quotes me), that religion is innately backward, obscurantist, irrational and dangerous. Backward, because it relies not on reason for solutions, but on looking to ancient texts for ready-made answers. Obscurantist, because it discourages searching for truthes about our world using empirical methods. Irrational, because (for starters) the very notion that this or that shepherd or merchant ages ago was chosen by a divine being to deliver a message valid eternally and for all humanity offends reason and commonsense. Dangerous, because (again, just for starters), armed with holy texts, the faithful practice all sorts of mischief and savagery, damaging both members of their own communities and those outside them. But atheist or antitheist, no matter: what counts is the shared bedrock of nonbelief, the refusal to accept as fact, and defer to, what is asserted without evidence.

There can be only one reason that Aslan adduces his taxonomy of nonbelievers: to confuse the argument, this time by claiming that atheists (or antitheists) are busy propagating a fundamentalism of their own, and a potentially murderous one at that. Once harmless, some of the faithless, in his telling, have been horribly transmogrified into wannabe tyrants. He opens a brief but otherwise interesting historical excursus on the roots of nonbelief by erroneously deciphering the Greek roots of the word atheist, atheos, which breaks down not as without gods but without god. In any case, antitheists, from the middle of the 19th century, he says, have professed a stridently militant form of atheism, and seen religion as an insidious force that must be rooted from society forcibly if necessary.

To lead readers to this conclusion, he presents a misapprehension of history from which he draws an incorrect analogy injurious to New Atheists. He announces that Marxs vision of a religion-less society was spectacularly realized with the establishment of the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China two nations that actively promoted state atheism by violently suppressing religious expression and persecuting faith communities. But it wasnt atheism that motivated Stalin and Mao to demolish or expropriate houses of worship, to slaughter tens of thousands of priests, nuns and monks. It was anti-theism that motivated them to do so.

Untrue. In both countries, faith enjoyed nominal constitutional protection as a private matter and was never outlawed, lingering on despite official efforts to the contrary. Militantly atheist, the communist governments of the two countries opposed religion because it rivaled the all-encompassing state ideology they were bent on inculcating in their subjects. This was particularly true in the case of Russia, where the tsar had claimed a divine right to the throne and ruled as Gods viceroy on earth, and the Russian Orthodox Church functioned as an arm of the state. Lenin and then Stalin waged a decimating war on the Old (faith-buttressed) Order, with the clergy numbering heavily among their countless victims, with many houses of worship destroyed or expropriated. But Stalin eventually had to backpedal and enlist the Church to help him rally the masses in World War II. The point is, both Russia and China aimed to break resistance to their versions of Marxism, with the goal of establishing dictatorial temporal power.

(Perhaps, though, religion did play a part in deforming Stalins psyche. He was a seminary student until he found his calling with the Bolsheviks.)

But back to New Atheists and antitheists and their alleged penchant for dangerous fundamentalism. Having equated them with historys most notorious tyrants, Aslan provides incendiary quotes from Richard Dawkins and Hitchens, and poses the question: If you honestly believed [such terrible things] about religion, then what lengths would you not go through to rid society of it?

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Religions sinister fairy tale: Extremists, the religious right, Reza Aslan and the fight for reason

The Role of Microorganisms in Genetic Engineering

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'Genetic engineering' or genetic manipulation as it should properly be called, relies essentially on the ability to manipulate molecules in vitro. Most biomolecules exist in low concentrations & as complex, mixed populations which it is not possible to work with effectively. This problem was solved in 1970 using the molecular biologist's favourite bug, Escherichia coli , a normally innocuous commensal occupant of the human gut. By inserting a piece of DNA of interest into a vector molecule, i.e. a molecule with a bacterial origin of replication, when the whole recombinant construction is introduced into a bacterial host cell, a large number of identical copies is produced. Together with the rapid growth of bacterial colonies all derived from a single original cell bearing the recombinant vector, in a short time (e.g. a few hours) a large amount of the DNA of interest is produced. This can be purified from contaminating bacterial DNA easily & the resulting product is said to have been 'cloned'.

Most vector molecules were originally derived from one of two sources:

Vector molecules & cloning are not the only contribution which microorganisms have made to genetic manipulation. The actual task of altering the DNA at a molecular level is carried out by the use of naturally-occurring enzymes - most of which are derived from bacteria or viruses:

EcoRI from Escherichia coli BamHI from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens

These systems operate by enzymes which recognise specific short regions of DNA sequence, which are usually palindromic ('Able was I ere I saw Elba'), e.g:

5' GGATCC 3' 3' CCTAGG 5'

Recently, thermostable polymerases have become important, e.g. Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus. This bacterium has evolved to grow in hot springs at temperatures which kill most other species. These enzymes allow the amplification of as little as one molecule of DNA into a large amount by means of repeated cycles of melting, primer annealing & extension by the enzyme which is not destroyed by the high temperatures used in this process. This is known as the polymerase chain reaction:

The utility of cloning is partly analytical, i.e it provides the ability to determine the genetic organization of particular regions or whole genomes (the human genome will soon be underway). However, it also facilitates the production of naturally-occurring & artificially-modifed biological products by the expression of cloned genes. The ability to take a gene from one organism (e.g. man or a tree), clone it in E. coli & express it in another (e.g. a yeast) is dependent on the universality of the genetic code, i.e. the triplets of bases which encode amino acids in proteins:

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The Role of Microorganisms in Genetic Engineering

Talent Plus Featured in The Patient Experience Journal

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SOURCE: Talent Plus, Inc.

LINCOLN, NE--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2015) - Talent Plus Science of Talent is featured in The Patient Experience Journal in an article, authored by Dr. Edgar Staren, of Cancer Treatment Centers of America and Talent Plus' Dr. Susan Hirt and Doug Rath, identifying why scientifically assessing talent and behavioral skill in physicians beyond their clinical skill set is vital to providing excellent patient care. "Just as patient-centric measurement is prompting healthcare organizations to refine their care models, physician selection processes must also be enhanced to better serve patients," stated author, Dr. Susan Hirt.

"Volume 1, Issue 2 of Patient Experience Journal continues to push our thinking on both the edges and the fundamentals of the patient experience conversation. Staren at al. touch on the heart of the matter in experience excellence, the very power of personal interactions. They help us see the value in identifying behavioral excellence, specifically as it relates to physicians and how looking beyond skills in selection can positively impact on overall performance," offered Jason Wolf, President of The Beryl Institute.

Titled, Beyond Credentialing in Physician Selection: Application of an Instrument that Measures Behavioral Aptitude, this article provides insight into why scientific selection benefits both the medical institution as a whole and the patient's they serve. -- To download this journal article for free Click Here.

Talent Plus is proud of the work we do to impact patient lives with The Science of Talent . Recently recognized as one of the 2014 Best Places to Work in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine, and as the Leading Talent Assessment Partner(SM) in the industry, we are excited to partner with health care organizations that are focusing on one of the most important aspects of health care, the patient experience.

For more information about the Physician Interview or our suite of clinical and non-clinical assessments for health care organizations, contact us at healthcare@talentplus.com or call 1.800.VARSITY.

Talent Plus, Inc. is the Leading Talent Assessment Partner with over 400 clients in 20 countries delivering selection and development in more than 20 languages. Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, Talent Plus also has an office in Singapore. For more information, please visit http://www.talentplus.com or call 1.800.VARSITY.

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Talent Plus Featured in The Patient Experience Journal

Science and Dogs | A science based exploration of (mostly …

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I once found an interesting article in The Anatomical Record and Ive been getting their email TOCs and early view alerts ever since. Usually its obscure stuff, though occasionally the subscription pays off. Case in point, the third installment of The Anatomy of the Dog Soft Palate, yes the appeal is still limited

This chart appeared in Mental Evolution in Animals Mental Evolution in Man, both published in the 1880s; Romanes depicts the emotional and cognitive development starting with unicellular. On the left, at level 21, Romanes lists Jealousy. Anger and Play. On the right side, at level 28 we see Anthropoid apes and dogs at the same

I am slowly writing a post on animal pain or how we view pain in animals, not really sure yet. During my research I came across this lecture (audio / 40 min / 19 MB). by Joanna Bourke; I found the parallels in our historical attitudes toward animals and the other(i.e. gender, race, economic classes)

Hogarths The Four Stages of Cruelty (1751) depict, fictional protagonist Tom Nero as he progresses from cruelty to animals as a child,to cruelty to animals as an adult. While various Scenes of sportive Woe, The Infant Race employ, And torturd Victims bleeding shew, The Tyrant in the Boy. Behold! a Youth of gentler Heart, To

The SPARCS conference was a unique opportunity for people to hear directly from researchers; not restrained by an interviewer, the PIs were able to present their research in whatever way they felt was important. Researchers dont often get to talk directly to the public and I cant think of a case where such a distinguished

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‘Ukraine joining NATO could TRIGGER All-out WAR’ US-led NATO at Russia’s borders. – Video

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#39;Ukraine joining NATO could TRIGGER All-out WAR #39; US-led NATO at Russia #39;s borders.
#39;Ukraine joining NATO could trigger all-out war #39;... The reason Victoria Nuland invested USD 5 billion in Ukraine regime change was to bring the US (thru NATO) at Russia #39;s borders with...

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'Ukraine joining NATO could TRIGGER All-out WAR' US-led NATO at Russia's borders. - Video