September 2013 Breaking News Mounting evidence suggests Israeli strike on Iran approaching A master of balance 8 COPS BEAT MAN TO DEATH WHILE HE BEGS FOR HELP THEN COVER IT UP Putting it together: the modular car With the 10^5 Competition, MIT's Vehicle Design Summit (VDS) will leverage distributed innovation to build a better car. In August 2012, ASKlabs produced a microdocumentary about the MIT Vehicle Design Summit, an MIT Edgerton Center-supported team, featuring co-founders Anna Jaffe (Environmental Science MIT '06) and Nii Armar (Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT '08); Robyn Allen (Aerospace Engineering, MIT '07), a third co-founder, was not filmed. Founded in 2006, with the goals of reducing waste in auto manufacturing and reducing global carbon emissions from vehicles, this dynamic MIT student group has grown to become an international design and engineering collective. FILM CREDITS:Producer/Director: Alberta ChuEditor: Stephanie MunroeMotion Graphics: Alex HoganCinematography: Stephen McCarthyComposer: P. An ASKLABS Production ©2012
Nuclear Deal With Iran Prelude to War, Not "Breakthrough" Tony CartalucciActivist Post "...any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context—both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down. Written years ago, as the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were already plotting to overrun Iran's neighbor and ally Syria with Al Qaeda to weaken the Islamic Republic before inevitable war, this quote exposes fully the current charade that is the "Iran nuclear deal." If you enjoy our work, please donate to keep our website going.
Education is Ignorance, by Noam Chomsky (Excerpted from Class Warfare) DAVID BARSAMIAN: One of the heroes of the current right-wing revival... is Adam Smith. You've done some pretty impressive research on Smith that has excavated... a lot of information that's not coming out. You've often quoted him describing the "vile maxim of the masters of mankind: all for ourselves and nothing for other people." NOAM CHOMSKY: I didn't do any research at all on Smith. He did give an argument for markets, but the argument was that under conditions of perfect liberty, markets will lead to perfect equality. He also made remarks which ought to be truisms about the way states work. This truism was, a century later, called class analysis, but you don't have to go to Marx to find it. The version of him that's given today is just ridiculous. But even more interesting in some ways was the index. I want to be clear about this. This is true of classical liberalism in general. It's the same when you read Jefferson. CHOMSKY: ... CHOMSKY: That's an eighteenth century idea. ...
The US War Machine -- 2 of 3 TreeHugger © James Lawrence Powell (with permission) Is There Still a Scientific Consensus on Global Warming? Back in 2005 (which is a loooong time ago in Internet time), Naomi Oreskes published a famous paper in Science titled "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change". It's a meta-study that looked at 928 scientific papers between 1993 and 2003 and concluded that, despite what the media often implied, there was a very strong consensus among scientists about climate change, with none of the papers disagreeing with consensus position. Fast-forward to the present, and James Lawrence Powell has done a similar meta-study, but including a lot more peer-reviewed papers (thousands have been published since 2003). What did he find? The pie chart above is a good visual representation of the very strong scientific consensus. And if corroborated over time, such a paper would probably deserve a Nobel prize... NASA/Public Domain Via Desmogblog
Terminator Robots to Take Over the Battlefield by 2023? Nicholas WestActivist Post The U.S. military's pursuit of killer robots continues to make the news, despite the concerns of major international human rights groups who have launched a campaign to stop the runaway development of robots for war. Cambridge University has even launched a "Terminator" study program known officially as the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Nevertheless, the military-industrial complex and their partners in the Congressional "drone caucus" are reaping big profits from machine warfare. However, studies done within the military have revealed that there has been an emotional connection established, with some soldiers even mourning robots that have been "killed" in action. Not only will soldiers be outnumbered -- they will be massively outnumbered ... by a factor of 10 to 1 according to robotic weapons expert, Scott Hartley: ten years from now, there will probably be one soldier for every 10 robots. Daksh – Daksh is one of the most current military robots.
OBAMA vs ROMNEY: Here's Who's Right About The Economy WikiLeaks (Documentary) While the World Watches the Iran Talks, Japan and China Move Closer to War Chris CarringtonActivist Post A small group of uninhabited islands, the Senkaku Islands if you are Japanese, the Diaoyu Islands if you are Chinese, are causing major friction between the countries. China has created a new ‘air defense identification zone’ over the disputed waters around the islands. The islands are claimed and controlled by Japan and Japan purchased three of the islands from a private citizen who owned them in September 2012. China, though, still claims the islands are in their territorial waters. Taiwan has also laid claim to the small island chain and has declared that it would “defend its sovereignty of the archipelago”. The air defense zone came into effect on Saturday and China is insisting that all aircraft passing through the zone must: “maintain two-way radio communications” and “respond in a timely and accurate manner” to identification inquiries, China’s Defence Ministry said. So why all the fuss? Read more…
Why Americans doubt man-made climate change - Inside Story: US 2012 It was 42 years ago that the first Earth Day was organised in the US, drawing millions of Americans to rallies across the country calling for a sustainable environment. Some consider that day to be the birth of the modern environmentalist movement in the US. Today the day is marked by millions around the world but its impact in the US seems to have fizzled, with only dozens turning out at the National Mall in Washington DC on Sunday. While the first Earth Day helped lead to the establishment of the US Environmental Protection agency, this year it was largely ignored by politicians and the public. And for the Republicans it is something they would rather distance themselves from. So why do most Americans still doubt that climate change is man-made?