the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Suggested documentaries watched by failedevolution at the 19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Based on Andrew Feinstein's acclaimed book of the same title, the film reveals how the international trade in weapons – with the complicity of governments and intelligence agencies, investigative and prosecutorial bodies, weapons manufacturers, dealers and agents – determines economic and foreign policies, undermines democracy and creates widespread suffering. Through scrutinizing research and by approaching both dangerous places and bright thinkers (such as the late Eduardo Galeano), the director with the distinctive style sheds light on how our realities are being constructed, but also posits alternative perspectives through this horror. http://tdf.filmfestival.gr/default.aspx?lang=en-US&page=1463&date=3/4/2017&movie=1805

Last year, a Russian startup announced that it could scan the faces of people passing by Moscow’s thousands of CCTV cameras and pick out wanted criminals or missing persons. Unlike much face recognition technology — which runs stills from videos or photographs after the fact — NTechLab’s FindFace algorithm has achieved a feat that once only seemed possible in the science fictional universe of “Minority Report”: It can determine not just who someone is, but where they’ve been, where they’re going, and whether they have an outstanding warrant, immigration detainer, or unpaid traffic ticket. For years, the development of real-time face recognition has been hampered by poor video resolution, the angles of bodies in motion, and limited computing power. But as systems begin to transcend these technical barriers, they are also outpacing the development of policies to constrain them. Civil liberties advocates fear that the rise of real-time face recognition alongside the gr

A knife attacker has been shot after a car mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and charged the gates of parliament, in what police are treating as a terrorist incident. Police are treating the incident as terrorism      A woman is dead and others have "catastrophic" injuries      Several people have been injured after a car reportedly mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge and "tried to mow people down" A police officer was stabbed inside Parliament grounds. The officer's condition is not known Alleged assailant shot by armed police A woman has died and a number of others have been hurt, including some with "catastrophic" injuries in the incident on Westminster Bridge, the Press Association reports junior doctor Colleen Anderson as saying. She also said she treated a police officer in his 30s who had been taken to King's College Hospital with a head injury. “I confirmed one fatality. A woman. She was under the whe

globinfo freexchange Donald Trump is about to break the record of withdrawing his promises faster than any other US president in history. It's not only the fact that his administration has been literally taken over by Goldman Sachs, the top vampire-bank of the Wall Street mafia. Recently, Trump announced another big alliance with the vulture billionaire, Paul Singer, who, initially, was supposedly against him. It looks like the Trump big show continues. The 'anti-establishment Trump' joke has already collapsed and the US middle class is about to be eliminated by the syndicate of the united billionaires under Trump administration. As Greg Palast told to Thom Hartmann: Paul Singer whose nickname is "the vulture", he didn't get that nickname because he is a sweet and honest businessman. This is the guy who closed the Delphi auto plants in Ohio and sent them to China and also to Monterrey-Mexico. Donald Trump as a candidate, excoriated the

by Ivan Eland The recent North Korean missile tests raise questions about contradictions in President Donald Trump’s national security policies. During his campaign Trump implied that the United States should fight fewer wars overseas and demanded that US dependents, Japan and South Korea, do more for their own defense, perhaps even getting nuclear weapons. Yet a recent article written by David Sanger, a national security reporter for the New York Times, noted that Trump had tweeted that North Korean acquisition of a long-range missile "won’t happen" and that his administration was considering preemptive military strikes on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs or reintroducing US tactical (short-range) nuclear missiles into South Korea, which were removed twenty-five years ago. So which is it – demanding US allies do more or ramping up America’s efforts to make them even more reliant on American power? And this is not the only Trump policy contradic

President Donald Trump has weaponized the revolving door by appointing defense contractors and their lobbyists to key government positions as he seeks to rapidly expand the military budget and homeland security programs. Two Department of Homeland Security appointments Trump announced Tuesday morning are perfect examples. Benjamin Cassidy, installed by Trump as assistant secretary for legislative affairs, previously worked as a senior executive at Boeing’s international business sector, marketing Boeing military products abroad. Jonathan Rath Hoffman, named assistant secretary for public affairs, previously worked as a consultant to the Chertoff Group, the sprawling homeland security consulting firm founded by former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. The firm has come under fire for advising a variety of firms seeking government contracts, including for full-body scanners deemed invasive by privacy activists. Hoffman also led a state chapt

Η αθώωση των 14 κατηγορούμενων για την υπόθεση της Μονής Βατοπεδίου και των ανταλλαγών εκτάσεων με το Δημόσιο προκάλεσε ιδιαίτερη ευφορία στους άμεσα ή έμμεσα εμπλεκόμενους, οι οποίοι προσπαθούν εναγωνίως να πείσουν ότι δεν υπήρχε σκάνδαλο. Τα πράγματα ωστόσο δεν είναι ακριβώς έτσι. Αντιθέτως, εκείνο που κρίθηκε και αποφασίστηκε είναι πως οι κατηγορούμενοι δεν είχαν δόλο. Σύμφωνα δηλαδή με το δικαστήριο, δεν αποδείχθηκε απλώς η ηθική αυτουργία, ενώ προέκυψε -κατά το δικαστήριο- πως ό,τι έκαναν οι μοναχοί το έκαναν από την πεποίθησή τους πως η λίμνη ανήκει στη Μονή. Το σκάνδαλο του Βατοπεδίου που αποκαλύφθηκε το 2008 προκαλώντας πολιτικό σεισμό κρίθηκε ωστόσο με την απόφαση 197/2015 του τριμελούς Εφετείου Κομοτηνής, το οποίο έκρινε πως η λίμνη Βιστωνίδα και οι παραλίμνιες περιοχές ανήκουν στο Δημόσιο και επομένως κακώς ανταλλάχθηκαν. Το εν λόγω δικαστήριο αποτελούμενο από τους Χρήστο Τζανέρικο, Μυρσίνη Παπαχίου και Μιχάλη Κακαμανούδη, απέρριψε συγκεκριμένα

While often remembered for his philanthropy, the last surviving grandson of America’s first billionaire died today, leaving behind a dark legacy indicative of how American nobility often shape policy from behind the scenes. by MintPress news desk No one person encapsulates the enduring legacy of the “robber barons” of the Industrial Age quite like David Rockefeller. Rockefeller, who died today at the age of 101, was the last surviving grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the oil tycoon who became America’s first billionaire and the patriarch of what would become one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in American history. David Rockefeller, an undeniable product of American nobility, lived his entire life in the echelons of U.S. society, becoming symbolic of the elite who often direct public policy to a much greater extent than many realize, albeit often from the shadows. Rockefeller made it clear that he preferred to operate out of public view desp

WikiLeaks Part 9 - Examples The CIA's Engineering Development Group (EDG) management system contains around 500 different projects (only some of which are documented by "Year Zero") each with their own sub-projects, malware and hacker tools. The majority of these projects relate to tools that are used for penetration, infestation ("implanting"), control, and exfiltration. Another branch of development focuses on the development and operation of Listening Posts (LP) and Command and Control (C2) systems used to communicate with and control CIA implants; special projects are used to target specific hardware from routers to smart TVs. UMBRAGE The CIA's hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a "fingerprint" that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity. This is analogous to finding the same

Eric Tousaint’s study of the odious debt doctrine by Eric Toussaint Part 11 - What were the arguments advanced by the United States? Spain had issued Spanish securities in Europe with French and British bankers in the name of Cuba. Spain was guarantor of the issuance of these securities and they were backed by revenue from the Cuban customs and other taxes. The majority, if not all, of the bonds issued by Spain in Cuba’s name and the wealth they generated remained in Spain. Strictly speaking, there was no such thing as a Cuban debt because Cuba, as a colony, did not have the right to issue securities on its own initiative or in its own name. The island’s finances were controlled exclusively by the Spanish government. There was no proof that the Spanish bonds secured by Cuba’s revenues were actually used for projects that were beneficial to Cuba. Quite to the contrary, the history of Cuba’s finances as a colony showed that revenue f