‘Compliance’ Highlights Temptations, Perils Of Blind Obedience [trailer included]
Media Monarchy
August 28, 2012
from guardian.co.uk: One can object to some of its particulars, but Frank Bruni has a quite interesting and incisive New York Times column today about a new independent film called Compliance, which explores the human desire to follow and obey authority.
Based on real-life events that took place in 2004 at a McDonalds in Kentucky, the film dramatizes a prank telephone call in which a man posing as a police officer manipulates a supervisor to abuse an employee with increasing amounts of cruelty and sadism, ultimately culminating in sexual assault – all by insisting that the abuse is necessary to aid an official police investigation into petty crimes.
That particular episode was but one of a series of similar and almost always-successful hoaxes over the course of at least 10 years, in which restaurant employees were manipulated into obeying warped directives from this same man, pretending on the telephone to be a police officer.
Bruni correctly notes the prime issue raised by all of this: “How much can people be talked into and how readily will they defer to an authority figure of sufficient craft and cunning?” That question was answered 50 years ago by the infamous experiment conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram, in which an authority figure in a lab coat instructed participants to deliver what they were told were increasingly severe electric shocks to someone in another room whom they could hear but not see. Even as the screams became louder and more agonizing, two-thirds of the participants were induced fully to comply by delivering the increased electric shocks.
Ottawa sinkhole swallows car on Highway 174
Canadian Press
September 4, 2012
The scene on the Highway 174 off-ramp Tuesday after a sinkhole opened up. — Ottawa Fire Department / The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Fire officials in Ottawa say a driver suffered minor injuries after a car went into a sinkhole on Tuesday afternoon.
Spokesman Marc Messier says the car fell into the hole on the Highway 174 off-ramp at Jeanne D’arc Boulevard.
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Shoot to Kill: Autonomous Robots Developed By DARPA Will Not Question Orders
by Susanne Posel
theintelhub.com
September 4, 2012
The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program seeks to find ways to utilize different remote robotic manipulation systems that are controlled by humans. This program is divided into 3 aspects:
• Hardware: to design dexterous multi-fingered robotic hands
• Software: develop complex algorithms for grasping, manipulation and sensory perception
• Outreach: beta-testing robotics in public forums to further study robotic autonomy
In 2010, DARPA revealed a robot at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Denver that was interactive in a public forum. Participants would write software and have the robot preform specified tasks. The goal of this event was to show that robots were being developed by the US government to preform “dangerous tasks” such as disarming an explosive device thereby reducing “significant human interaction”.
Universities and other government-controlled agencies such as Carnegie Mellon University, HRL Laboratories, iRobot, NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI, and the University of Southern California, provided teams of researchers to write software for DARPA.
Boston Dynamics, Inc., has been awarded a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities.
These robots are being created to assist in excavation and rescue missions, according to DARPA.They could also be employed to evacuation operations during either man-made or natural disasters.
This week, the Project Offices for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Apache Attack Helicopter and Armed Scout Helicopter revealed the Manned Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) at Michael Army Airfield, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. During the exercise, MUSIC showed that the US Army could use drones armed with lethal weapons that were wired for precise communication with their operator.
The RQ-7 Shadow is another enhanced drone with weapons capabilities. As the US Army endeavors to combine ground forces with drone technology, their tactical operation’s success is multiplied.
The use of government-sponsored universities such as Cornell, MIT and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has created prototypes for bi-pedal robots that will someday be the synthetic army or police force.
Stanford University’s Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) wants to introduce autonomous robots into law enforcement situations; such as response in lieu of police SWAT teams.
Drones for law enforcement are being developed with the creation of the Talon SWAT/MP that can be configured with a multitude of weaponry. Some include a multi-shot TASER, LRAD, 40mm grenade launcher, and a 12-gage shotgun.
An earlier version of Talon, developed for the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense, was of the VIPeR series that were equipped with a 9 mm mini-Uzi with scope and pointer, or grenade launcher.
In 2006, Los Angeles began using aerial drones to spy over citizens under the guise of tracking suspects. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently ended that program. The police force retaliated citing that “there is an immediate need by state and local public safety personnel for unmanned aerial systems.”
The Naval Research Laboratory has developed SAFFiR, the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. SAFFiR is an autonomous bipedal humanoid robot, based on the CHARLI-L1 robot created at Virginia Tech. This robot can interact with humans with a comprehensive response system that utilizes language – including slang to make it more familiar. A robot that can hold a conversation and fight fires is quite impressive.
In 2009, with funding from the Pentagon, DARPA created the Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) which was a size of a Humvee. This robot car used sensors to drive autonomously and calculate its target, await remote instructions or decide to fire.
MULE’s potential has been in the works for the last 3 years. Its advancement and use as a battlefield vehicle is being tested and readied for deployment. The remote controls mirror those of a gaming console which gives the operator the ease of playing a “video game” while at the same time instructing a deadly piece of equipment on targeted missions.
Unmanned ground vehicles have been in use since Iraq and Afghanistan. They are armed for combat with the same capabilities as ground troops. MULE’s development as an autonomous weapon for the purpose of allowing a robot to decide on whether or not to carry out a mission is advantageous to the US military.
A force of robotic “peacekeepers” that are programed to become violent without remorse – will enable the government to organize and act where human law enforcement and/or trained soldiers may hesitate.
Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.
The Missing Secrets Of Nikola Tesla [video]
YouTube — SowhatNC
October 29, 2009
From Google Videos
Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 7 January 1943) was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla’s patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier, in the territory of today’s Croatia, he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen.[2] After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the “War of Currents”, he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America.[3] Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla’s fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture,[4] but due to his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist.[5][6] Tesla never put much focus on his finances. It is said he died impoverished, at the age of 86.
From Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
[hat tip: Before It’s News]
POTENT NEWS is now on TWITTER and FACEBOOK
PotentNews.com
September 4, 2012
Potent News is now on TWITTER and FACEBOOK.
http://twitter.com/potentnews
http://facebook.com/potentnews
If you aren’t already familiar with the fact that these things are also used as government spy tools, then have a quick look at our surveillance and internet sections here at Potent News (under tyranny, via the top menu).
That said, if you already use these social media tools and will not leave them anytime soon then feel free to tweet and use the fascist-book to share any Potent News posts that you find valuable.
The fight for internet freedom is always raging and we are truly in an information-war. There are victories but only if we remain vigilant in our quest for the truth.
3MIN News Sept 4, 2012: Magnetic Instability & Birth of a Coronal Hole [video]
Suspicious0bservers
September 4, 2012
Malta Rain: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120904/local/Lightning-wind-and-r…
US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/
Ryan Dawson on RT: U.S. Drone Strike Kills 14 Civilians In Yemen [video]
YouTube — Rys2sense
September 4, 2012
http://rt.com/news/yemen-us-drone-warfare-291/ a lot more was said go read the text.
Al-Hadi the president of Yemen was elected in Feb after being the only name on the ballot. This is a political struggle not just some strife between religious tribes as the West likes orientalize it. .
“I don’t really agree that this is a conflict between Islamic militants versus the government. Yemen was just unified in 1990; they had a civil war in 1994. South Yemen has had its accession movement since 2007, and it wasn’t about religion or ethnicities, it was about resources. The majority of the oil is on that side of the country, although the majority of the profits have been allocated to the north. These are monetary issues. It has become more of a religious issue because of the press and because the US policy of killing civilians drives people in that direction. They don’t even have to see eye to eye ideologically, they just have a common enemy. “
