Last month, China hit another major milestone. It passed Japan and became the second largest economy in the world, leaving only the US in its way. Give China a decade, maybe a little more, and it will inevitably surge into the lead. That’s the accepted narrative.

Note: It looks like Internet Archive has removed this film after hosting it for some time. If it comes back online, we will let you know.

In late February, Charles Ferguson’s film – Inside Job – won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Jon Stewart had to do it. He had to connect the dots. We’re going after the public servants trying to do some good.

Greece and Ireland are down. Portugal is teetering. And Spain may soon be the biggest domino to fall. All of this makes this satirical clip a little timely – perhaps a bit too painfully timely.

Last week, we showed you a clip of Bill Gates speaking at the recent Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe. Our comments concentrated on a shorter segment where Gates talks about the coming transformation of education – about how the internet will start displacing the traditional university within five years.

Slavoj Zizek, one of today’s most influential philosophers/theorists, spoke earlier this year at the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA). And now RSA has posted the video online with their patented animated treatment. Like other recent RSA speakers, Zizek makes modern capitalism his focus.

The economic/financial picture is looking ugly once again. Indeed, just yesterday, the most emailed New York Times article warned that the stock market might be on the verge of an epic crash, one that will bring the Dow below 1,000.

RSA offers up another animated video explaining what makes us tick. This time, they’re featuring a lecture by Daniel Pink, the bestselling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

You’ve perhaps heard the buzz around Dan Ariely’s new book, The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. (If not, read this review in the NY Times.) Appearing at PopTech! last year, Ariely spent 20 minutes fleshing out an argument in his book.

The news isn’t good. The Euro is losing value daily. Countries are slipping into “sovereign debt crises” – meaning they’re going broke. And the markets are swooning once again. We’re watching the proverbial other shoe drop.