diff --git a/contrib/enscope/enscope.go b/contrib/enscope/enscope.go
index 5df9f8e21ad..594d5625bc3 100644
--- a/contrib/enscope/enscope.go
+++ b/contrib/enscope/enscope.go
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"strings"
 
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 const usage = "usage: enscope specFilename configFilename"
diff --git a/contrib/podex/podex.go b/contrib/podex/podex.go
index 806927c3584..8f5760d3aa6 100644
--- a/contrib/podex/podex.go
+++ b/contrib/podex/podex.go
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta1"
 	dockerclient "github.com/fsouza/go-dockerclient"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 const usage = "usage: podex [-json|-yaml] [-id PODNAME] IMAGES"
diff --git a/contrib/simplegen/simplegen.go b/contrib/simplegen/simplegen.go
index aa569d07b94..a4ff7fc58cf 100644
--- a/contrib/simplegen/simplegen.go
+++ b/contrib/simplegen/simplegen.go
@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@ import (
 	// TODO: handle multiple versions correctly
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta1"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 // TODO: Also handle lists of simple services, and multiple input files
diff --git a/contrib/srvexpand/srvexpand.go b/contrib/srvexpand/srvexpand.go
index 1aeb61e3a0b..f94a7eb14df 100644
--- a/contrib/srvexpand/srvexpand.go
+++ b/contrib/srvexpand/srvexpand.go
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ import (
 	// it should be possible to specify the version for the whole map.
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta3"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 const usage = "usage: srvexpand filename"
diff --git a/pkg/api/serialization_test.go b/pkg/api/serialization_test.go
index ac230c4306c..3a36a1816b8 100644
--- a/pkg/api/serialization_test.go
+++ b/pkg/api/serialization_test.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"strconv"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/latest"
@@ -138,6 +139,14 @@ var apiObjectFuzzer = fuzz.New().NilChance(.5).NumElements(1, 1).Funcs(
 			c.RandString(): c.RandString(),
 		}
 	},
+	func(t *time.Time, c fuzz.Continue) {
+		// This is necessary because the standard fuzzed time.Time object is
+		// completely nil, but when JSON unmarshals dates it fills in the
+		// unexported loc field with the time.UTC object, resulting in
+		// reflect.DeepEqual returning false in the round trip tests. We solve it
+		// by using a date that will be identical to the one JSON unmarshals.
+		*t = time.Date(2000, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, time.UTC)
+	},
 )
 
 func runTest(t *testing.T, codec runtime.Codec, source runtime.Object) {
@@ -162,7 +171,7 @@ func runTest(t *testing.T, codec runtime.Codec, source runtime.Object) {
 		return
 	}
 	if !reflect.DeepEqual(source, obj2) {
-		t.Errorf("1: %v: diff: %v\nCodec: %v\nData: %s\nSource: %#v", name, util.ObjectDiff(source, obj2), codec, string(data), source)
+		t.Errorf("1: %v: diff: %v\nCodec: %v\nData: %s\nSource: %#v", name, util.ObjectGoPrintDiff(source, obj2), codec, string(data), source)
 		return
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/conversion/decode.go b/pkg/conversion/decode.go
index bf5dc16c5b9..81be6bb5bef 100644
--- a/pkg/conversion/decode.go
+++ b/pkg/conversion/decode.go
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 // Decode converts a YAML or JSON string back into a pointer to an api object.
diff --git a/pkg/conversion/meta.go b/pkg/conversion/meta.go
index 0fe9cdd6484..533193d6e7e 100644
--- a/pkg/conversion/meta.go
+++ b/pkg/conversion/meta.go
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 // MetaFactory is used to store and retrieve the version and kind
diff --git a/pkg/conversion/scheme_test.go b/pkg/conversion/scheme_test.go
index 0c0ef43b728..2f6f1e8e378 100644
--- a/pkg/conversion/scheme_test.go
+++ b/pkg/conversion/scheme_test.go
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/google/gofuzz"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 var fuzzIters = flag.Int("fuzz_iters", 50, "How many fuzzing iterations to do.")
diff --git a/pkg/kubecfg/kubecfg.go b/pkg/kubecfg/kubecfg.go
index dd120b58bc2..2e9b73b3453 100644
--- a/pkg/kubecfg/kubecfg.go
+++ b/pkg/kubecfg/kubecfg.go
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util/wait"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/version"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 func GetServerVersion(client *client.Client) (*version.Info, error) {
diff --git a/pkg/kubecfg/parse_test.go b/pkg/kubecfg/parse_test.go
index d9a53fb9818..1ba5c1d1f2b 100644
--- a/pkg/kubecfg/parse_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubecfg/parse_test.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/latest"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta1"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/runtime"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 func TestParseBadStorage(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer.go b/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer.go
index 263525b377a..1bef4e1cab2 100644
--- a/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer.go
+++ b/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer.go
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/latest"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/labels"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/runtime"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 // ResourcePrinter is an interface that knows how to print API resources.
diff --git a/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer_test.go b/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer_test.go
index ef16bdc0884..0efd8c66574 100644
--- a/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubecfg/resource_printer_test.go
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/latest"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 func TestYAMLPrinterPrint(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/createall.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/createall.go
index b8e912db1d6..4f7aa26b7b1 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/createall.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/createall.go
@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/config"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/runtime"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 // DataToObjects converts the raw JSON data into API objects
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer.go b/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer.go
index b3b4955b732..384d6c84c1c 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer.go
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/runtime"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 // GetPrinter takes a format type, an optional format argument, a version and a convertor
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer_test.go b/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer_test.go
index 676d9d7a0d3..17eafb0394d 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/resource_printer_test.go
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/runtime"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 type testStruct struct {
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/config.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/config.go
index d2868c71af2..01e29c7afda 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/config.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/config.go
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ func (s *podStorage) Sync() {
 func (s *podStorage) MergedState() interface{} {
 	s.podLock.RLock()
 	defer s.podLock.RUnlock()
-	var pods []api.BoundPod
+	pods := make([]api.BoundPod, 0)
 	for _, sourcePods := range s.pods {
 		for _, podRef := range sourcePods {
 			pod, err := api.Scheme.Copy(podRef)
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/config_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/config_test.go
index 5c291aa31ff..30921d814fe 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/config_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/config_test.go
@@ -59,10 +59,13 @@ func CreateValidPod(name, namespace, source string) api.BoundPod {
 }
 
 func CreatePodUpdate(op kubelet.PodOperation, pods ...api.BoundPod) kubelet.PodUpdate {
-	if len(pods) == 0 {
-		return kubelet.PodUpdate{Op: op}
-	}
+	// We deliberately return an empty slice instead of a nil pointer here
+	// because reflect.DeepEqual differentiates between the two and we need to
+	// pick one for consistency.
 	newPods := make([]api.BoundPod, len(pods))
+	if len(pods) == 0 {
+		return kubelet.PodUpdate{newPods, op}
+	}
 	for i := range pods {
 		newPods[i] = pods[i]
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
index 7728716b898..6f45ea5d945 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 type sourceFile struct {
@@ -97,12 +97,13 @@ func extractFromDir(name string) ([]api.BoundPod, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("glob failed: %v", err)
 	}
+
+	pods := make([]api.BoundPod, 0)
 	if len(dirents) == 0 {
-		return nil, nil
+		return pods, nil
 	}
 
 	sort.Strings(dirents)
-	pods := []api.BoundPod{}
 	for _, path := range dirents {
 		statInfo, err := os.Stat(path)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
index 91e6ab9c380..7e47e7d350e 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/validation"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 func ExampleManifestAndPod(id string) (api.ContainerManifest, api.BoundPod) {
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/http.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/http.go
index 39dc9a46c2e..b9694f3cfbc 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/http.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/http.go
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 type sourceURL struct {
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/server.go b/pkg/kubelet/server.go
index b77f6ca2526..a32e3cf2522 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/server.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/server.go
@@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/healthz"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/httplog"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet/dockertools"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 	"github.com/google/cadvisor/info"
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
 )
 
 // Server is a http.Handler which exposes kubelet functionality over HTTP.
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/types.go b/pkg/kubelet/types.go
index 818104a9a12..bb2d87f7d19 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/types.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/types.go
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ const (
 // For setting the state of the system to a given state for this source configuration, set
 // Pods as desired and Op to SET, which will reset the system state to that specified in this
 // operation for this source channel. To remove all pods, set Pods to empty object and Op to SET.
+//
+// Additionally, Pods should never be nil - it should always point to an empty slice. While
+// functionally similar, this helps our unit tests properly check that the correct PodUpdates
+// are generated.
 type PodUpdate struct {
 	Pods []api.BoundPod
 	Op   PodOperation
diff --git a/pkg/runtime/embedded.go b/pkg/runtime/embedded.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 11ac2894651..00000000000
--- a/pkg/runtime/embedded.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-/*
-Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
-
-Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
-    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
-Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-limitations under the License.
-*/
-
-package runtime
-
-import (
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
-)
-
-// Encode()/Decode() are the canonical way of converting an API object to/from
-// wire format. This file provides utility functions which permit doing so
-// recursively, such that API objects of types known only at run time can be
-// embedded within other API types.
-
-// UnmarshalJSON implements the json.Unmarshaler interface.
-func CodecUnmarshalJSON(codec Codec, b []byte) (Object, error) {
-	// Handle JSON's "null": Decode() doesn't expect it.
-	if len(b) == 4 && string(b) == "null" {
-		return nil, nil
-	}
-
-	obj, err := codec.Decode(b)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	return obj, nil
-}
-
-// MarshalJSON implements the json.Marshaler interface.
-func CodecMarshalJSON(codec Codec, obj Object) ([]byte, error) {
-	if obj == nil {
-		// Encode unset/nil objects as JSON's "null".
-		return []byte("null"), nil
-	}
-
-	return codec.Encode(obj)
-}
-
-// SetYAML implements the yaml.Setter interface.
-func CodecSetYAML(codec Codec, tag string, value interface{}) (Object, bool) {
-	if value == nil {
-		return nil, true
-	}
-	// Why does the yaml package send value as a map[interface{}]interface{}?
-	// It's especially frustrating because encoding/json does the right thing
-	// by giving a []byte. So here we do the embarrasing thing of re-encode and
-	// de-encode the right way.
-	// TODO: Write a version of Decode that uses reflect to turn this value
-	// into an API object.
-	b, err := yaml.Marshal(value)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic("yaml can't reverse its own object")
-	}
-	obj, err := codec.Decode(b)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, false
-	}
-	return obj, true
-}
-
-// GetYAML implements the yaml.Getter interface.
-func CodecGetYAML(codec Codec, obj Object) (tag string, value interface{}) {
-	if obj == nil {
-		value = "null"
-		return
-	}
-	// Encode returns JSON, which is conveniently a subset of YAML.
-	v, err := codec.Encode(obj)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic("impossible to encode API object!")
-	}
-	return tag, v
-}
diff --git a/pkg/runtime/extension.go b/pkg/runtime/extension.go
index eebc9dcfa94..6fe7fea2e91 100644
--- a/pkg/runtime/extension.go
+++ b/pkg/runtime/extension.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ package runtime
 import (
 	"errors"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 func (re *RawExtension) UnmarshalJSON(in []byte) error {
diff --git a/pkg/util/diff.go b/pkg/util/diff.go
index 343733ded45..0000fa35747 100644
--- a/pkg/util/diff.go
+++ b/pkg/util/diff.go
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ package util
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/davecgh/go-spew/spew"
 )
 
 // StringDiff diffs a and b and returns a human readable diff.
@@ -56,13 +58,19 @@ func ObjectDiff(a, b interface{}) string {
 	return StringDiff(string(ab), string(bb))
 }
 
-// ObjectGoPrintDiff is like ObjectDiff, but uses go's %#v formatter to print the
-// objects, in case json isn't showing you the difference. (reflect.DeepEqual makes
-// a distinction between nil and empty slices, for example, even though nothing else
-// really does.)
+// ObjectGoPrintDiff is like ObjectDiff, but uses go-spew to print the objects,
+// which shows absolutely everything by recursing into every single pointer
+// (go's %#v formatters OTOH stop at a certain point). This is needed when you
+// can't figure out why reflect.DeepEqual is returning false and nothing is
+// showing you differences. This will.
 func ObjectGoPrintDiff(a, b interface{}) string {
+	s := spew.ConfigState{
+		Indent: " ",
+		// Extra deep spew.
+		DisableMethods: true,
+	}
 	return StringDiff(
-		fmt.Sprintf("%#v", a),
-		fmt.Sprintf("%#v", b),
+		s.Sdump(a),
+		s.Sdump(b),
 	)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/util/time_test.go b/pkg/util/time_test.go
index 3722ada63f2..aef8517f481 100644
--- a/pkg/util/time_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/time_test.go
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 type TimeHolder struct {
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ func TestTimeMarshalYAML(t *testing.T) {
 		input  Time
 		result string
 	}{
-		{Time{}, "t: \"null\"\n"},
+		{Time{}, "t: null\n"},
 		{Date(1998, time.May, 5, 5, 5, 5, 50, time.UTC), "t: 1998-05-05T05:05:05Z\n"},
 		{Date(1998, time.May, 5, 5, 5, 5, 0, time.UTC), "t: 1998-05-05T05:05:05Z\n"},
 	}
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ func TestTimeUnmarshalYAML(t *testing.T) {
 		input  string
 		result Time
 	}{
-		{"t: \"null\"\n", Time{}},
+		{"t: null\n", Time{}},
 		{"t: 1998-05-05T05:05:05Z\n", Date(1998, time.May, 5, 5, 5, 5, 0, time.UTC)},
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/util/util_test.go b/pkg/util/util_test.go
index 2c253c33a27..9c3c0300048 100644
--- a/pkg/util/util_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/util_test.go
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
-	"gopkg.in/v1/yaml"
+	"github.com/ghodss/yaml"
 )
 
 func TestHandleCrash(t *testing.T) {