Food Inflation Crisis Signals U.S. Dollar Collapse

NSA TO LISTEN TO CONVERSATIONS IN REAL TIME VIA CELLPHONE MIC

Facebook’s new mobile spy app which listens to a user’s background noise by utilizing the device’s microphone is merely another backdoor via which the NSA and other government agencies will be able to spy on conversations in real time, a technique that we warned about eight years ago.

“Each time I think they’ve become as creepy as possible, somehow they find a way to be even creepier than that,” joked comedian Jimmy Kimmel in response to the announcement, before a skit about how Facebook would soon automatically post your thoughts as a status update.

“Facebook is to release a new feature on its mobile app that “listens” to your music and TV shows,” reports BBC News. “The feature, which will be available in a few weeks’ time, uses the microphones inside users’ smartphones to detect nearby music or TV shows.”

Although Facebook claims the app cannot record conversations, the user agreement for Facebook’s messenger service includes a term that necessitates users to agree to allow their audio to be recorded without permission. Given that microphones on cellphones exist for the sole reason of sending audio of speech, Facebook’s claim that its new app cannot also do so is dubious to say the least.

Such technology was already being mooted eight years ago, when we published an article entitled,Government, Industry To Use Computer Microphones To Spy On 150 Million Americans, in which we explained how, “Private industry and eventually government is planning to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance and minority report style invasive advertising and data mining.”

Given new reports based on the latest Edward Snowden documents which show that the NSA is recording nearly every phone call in entire countries, to think that the federal agency isn’t already utilizing or at least planning to use open microphones on cellphones to spy on Americans would be incredibly naive.

Back in March it was revealed that the NSA is masquerading as Facebook in order to infect millions of computers around the world with malware as part of its mass surveillance program.

“We are sure this will not be abused or hacked by the NSA… and we are sure there will be plenty of small digital print that users will understand… One wonders though, is there any way for non-Facebook users to know that they are being eavesdropped upon?” asks Zero Hedge.

The answer is that every virtually single user of smartphones has given their permission to have their conversations listened to via the device’s microphone. As we have previously highlighted, terms of agreement for both Android and iPhone apps now require users to agree to allow their microphone to be activated at any time without confirmation before they can download the app.

Earlier this year we also reported on how a computer programmer discovered that Google’s Chrome browser had the ability to record conversations without the user’s knowledge.

Credit to Info wars

"Unipolar Model Of World Is Over... Give Us Our Money"

Vladimir Putin has concluded his lengthy interview having covered everything from "the end of the unipolar model of the world" - i.e. de-dollarization - to US and Europe's responsibility for Ukraine's "full-scale civil war." The Russian leader noted that he's "trying to help Ukraine" but following the loans from the IMF asks "where's our money?" and warned that US sanctions have had little effect on the Russian economy but will have a boomerang effect. The following distills his 120 minute discussion... Putin "expects common sense to prevail."

• RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN SPEAKING IN ST. PETERSBURG
• *PUTIN SAYS HE EXPECTS COMMON SENSE TO PREVAIL

   

De-Dollarization
 

• *PUTIN SAYS UNIPOLAR MODEL OF WORLD HAS RUN ITS COURSE
• *PUTIN SAYS IMF REFORM HAS HALTED
• *PUTIN: NEW LEADERS DON'T WANT TO HEAR ALTERNATIVE VIEWS
• *PUTIN SAYS ALTERNATIVE CENTERS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH FORMING
• *PUTIN SAYS DOHA ROUND OF WTO ISN'T MOVING FORWARD
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA-CHINA COOPERATION TO HELP BOOST GLOBAL GROWTH
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA TO BOOST RUBLE, YUAN IN TRADE W/ CHINA

Sanctions

• *PUTIN SAYS CLEAR THAT ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ARE POLITICAL PRESSURE
• *PUTIN SAYS ECONOMIC SANCTIONS HAVE BOOMERANG EFFECT
• *PUTIN SAYS SANCTIONS TARGETING PEOPLE CLOSE TO HIM
• *PUTIN SAYS HE'S PROUD TO HAVE SUCH PATRIOTIC FRIENDS
• *PUTIN SAYS SANCTIONS HURT FRIENDS' BUSINESSES
• *PUTIN SAYS SANCTIONS AREN'T FAIR, AREN'T LEGAL
• *PUTIN SAYS FRIENDS BROUGHT MONEY TO RUSSIA BEFORE SANCTIONS
• *PUTIN SAYS DOESN'T UNDERSTAND TALK ON 3RD ROUND OF SANCTIONS
• *PUTIN SAYS SANCTIONS NOT HAVING WIDESPREAD EFFECT ON ECONOMY
• *PUTIN TELLS BUSINESS NOT TO GIVE IN TO BLACKMAIL, WE'LL HELP

Russian Economy
 

• PUTIN COMMENTS ON ACCESS TO RUSSIA'S ENERGY DEPOSITS
• PUTIN: RUSSIA'S MOST PROMISING INVESTMENTS ARE ON SHELF
• *PUTIN SAYS KOVYKTA, CHAYANDA HAVE GAS RESERVES FOR 50 YRS

• *PUTIN SAYS CENTRAL BANK'S WORK TO CLEAN UP BANK SYSTEM NOT EASY
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN BANK CLEANUP HAS COSTS FOR BUDGET
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL CONTINUE CLEANING UP BANKING SYSTEM
• *PUTIN SAYS NEED TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO CHEAP LOANS FOR SME
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA IS CHANGING, QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVING
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN FDI LAST YR ALMOST $80B INCLUDING ROSNEFT
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN GROWTH SLOWDOWN HAS FOREIGN, DOMESTIC CAUSES
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA ALREADY RESPONDING TO SLOWER GDP GROWTH
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN ECONOMY NEEDS GREATER LABOR MOBILITY
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA MODERNIZING ITS DEFENSE INDUSTRY
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA TO MAKE CHEAPER INVESTMENT FUNDS AVAILABLE
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN GOVT, CENTRAL BANK WORKING ON FINANCING
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA TO RECAPITALIZE SYSTEMICALLY IMPORTANT BANKS

Eurasia

• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA TO BOOST TIES WITH ASIA, PACIFIC REGION
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA IS WORKING ON MAJOR EURASIAN INTEGRATION
• *PUTIN SAYS MAY 29 EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION SIGNING IS MAJOR STEP
• *PUTIN SAYS UNION WILL INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS
• *PUTIN SAYS CHINA DEAL BOOSTS ENERGY, METALS, PIPEMAKERS
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA IS CHANGING, QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVING

Ukraine
 

• *PUTIN SAYS U.S., EUROPE RESPONSIBLE FOR UKRAINE SITUATION
• *PUTIN SAYS U.S., EUROPE WANT RUSSIA TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE IN CHAOS, CIVIL WAR
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE IN FULL-SCALE CIVIL WAR NOW
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA NOT TO BLAME FOR CIVIL WAR IN UKRAINE
• *PUTIN SAYS WEST SUPPORTED STATE REVOLUTION IN UKRAINE

• *PUTIN SAYS ANY CLASHES WILL END IN TALKS; BETTER THEY START NOW
• *PUTIN SAYS KIEV GOVT CONTINUES PUNITIVE CAMPAIGN IN EAST
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINIAN CIVILIANS DYING FROM MILITARY CAMPAIGN
• *PUTIN SAYS PEOPLE IN UKRAINE WANT COUNTRY TO GET OUT OF CRISIS
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL RESPECT CHOICE OF UKRAINIAN PEOPLE
• *PUTIN SAYS YANUKOVYCH NOT LEGALLY REMOVED FROM PRESIDENCY
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WANTS SOME KIND OF CALMING IN UKRAINE
• *PUTIN SAYS WANTS PEACE, CALM IN UKRAINE
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL WORK WITH ELECTED UKRAINE PRESIDENT
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE ELECTION DOESN'T MEET MODERN STANDARDS
• *PUTIN SAYS HE PERSONALLY WORKED ON UKRAINIAN PROBLEMS
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE IS VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR HIM
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE PROBABLY NOT VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR U.S.
• *PUTIN SAYS MUST ACT CAREFULLY IN FORMER SOVIET UNION
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA HAS NOTHING TO HIDE ON CRIMEA
• *PUTIN: CRIMEA COULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER TRAGEDY THAN IN ODESSA
• *PUTIN ASKS FOR OBJECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF DECISION ON CRIMEA

• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE ABUSING ITS POSITION AS TRANSIT COUNTRY
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE REFUSING TO PAY UNDER ITS GAS CONTRACT
• *PUTIN SAYS HE KNOWS UKRAINE IN DIFFICULT ECONOMIC SITUATION
• *PUTIN SAYS `WE'RE TRYING TO HELP' UKRAINE, PROVIDED $3B LOAN
• *PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE'S GAS DEBT IS GROWING
• *PUTIN SAYS `WHERE'S OUR MONEY,' WHERE DID MULTIBILLION HELP GO

• *PUTIN SAYS HE HOPES AGREEMENT CAN BE REACHED ON UKRAINE
• *PUTIN: RUSSIA GAVE ABOUT 10BCM OF GAS FREE TO UKRAINE
• *PUTIN SAYS WEST ISN'T GOING TO BUY UKRAINE'S DEFENSE GOODS
• *PUTIN SAYS 245 UKRAINIAN FIRMS PROVIDE DEFENSE GOODS TO RUSSIA
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA TRIED TO SHOW UKRAINE EU PACT WAS HARMFUL

Europe

• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA HAS ONLY SEEN SLOGANS FROM EU
• *PUTIN SAYS EUROPE IS RUSSIA'S MAIN TRADING PARTNER
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA READY TO WORK WITH EU, EU MEMBERS SEPARATELY
• *PUTIN SAYS HOPES EUROPE REMAINS RUSSIA'S KEY TRADING PARTNER

US

• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA DIDN'T RUIN RELATIONS WITH U.S.
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA CONTINUES COOPERATION WITH U.S.
• *PUTIN: U.S. WANTS TO CONTINUE MILITARY TRANSIT TO AFGHANISTAN
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA, U.S. HAVE MANY AREAS FOR COOPERATION
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA, U.S. CONTINUE WORK TOGETHER ON IRAN
• *PUTIN SAYS HE'S OPTIMISTIC U.S. TIES CAN BE NORMALIZED
• *PUTIN SAYS U.S. MAY BE SEEKING TRADE ADVANTAGES W/ EUROPE

Snowden

• *PUTIN SAYS SNOWDEN WOULD HAVE LEFT RUSSIA IF NOT FOR U.S.
• *PUTIN SAYS SNOWDEN CONSIDERS HIMSELF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER
• *PUTIN SAYS SNOWDEN NOT RUSSIAN AGENT
• *PUTIN SAYS SNOWDEN SITTING IN RUSSIA, NOW WHAT?
• *PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA DOESN'T DUMP OVERBOARD HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
• *PUTIN SAYS SNOWDEN NOT GIVING RUSSIA ANY INFORMATION

Credit to Zero Hedge

Dramatic footage: Insider video shows Ukraine helicopters firing at own troops

FLIGHT 370: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Accuses CIA of Cover-up

BLOOD ON THE ALTAR part 2

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PART 2 - The Lucifer Effect

s
Perhaps unknown to some readers is a most notorious experiment that took place in America more than forty years ago.

Commonly referred to today as “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” in 1971, a group of student recruits participated in a study at Stanford University, where they were instructed to act out roles of detainees and guards in a makeshift prison in the basement of the school. What resulted in the test was an unexpected and almost immediate breakdown in normative social behavior that illustrated such astonishing cruelty on the part of the participants that it was quickly shut down, leading the organizer and director, Professor Philip Zimbardo, to embark on a larger quest of discovery regarding how “the majority of us can be seduced into behaving in ways totally atypical of what we believe we are.”^[i] The program graphically illustrated that, given the right set of circumstances, a majority of people are capable of monstrous inhumanity against others. The Wikipedia entry on the Stanford Prison Experiment explains what happened:

Participants were recruited and told they would participate in a two-week prison simulation. Out of 70 respondents, Zimbardo and his team selected the 24 males whom they deemed to be the most psychologically stable and healthy. These participants were predominantly white and middle-class. The group was intentionally selected to exclude those with criminal background, psychological impairments or medical problems. They all agreed to participate in a 7–14-day period and received $15 per day (roughly equivalent to $85 in 2012).

The experiment was conducted in the basement of Jordan Hall (Stanford’s psychology building). Twelve of the twenty-four participants were assigned the role of prisoner (nine plus three alternates), while the other twelve were assigned the role of guard (also nine plus three alternates). Zimbardo took on the role of the superintendent, and an undergraduate research assistant the role of the warden. Zimbardo designed the experiment in order to induce disorientation, depersonalization and deindividualization in the participants.

The researchers held an orientation session for guards the day before the experiment, during which they instructed them not to physically harm the prisoners. In the footage of the study, Zimbardo can be seen talking to the guards: “You can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they’ll have no privacy.…We’re going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what all this leads to is a sense of powerlessness. That is, in this situation we’ll have all the power and they’ll have none.”

The researchers provided the guards with wooden batons to establish their status, clothing similar to that of an actual prison guard (khaki shirt and pants from a local military surplus store), and mirrored sunglasses to prevent eye contact. Prisoners wore uncomfortable ill-fitting smocks and stocking caps, as well as a chain around one ankle. Guards were instructed to call prisoners by their assigned numbers, sewn on their uniforms, instead of by name.

The prisoners were arrested at their homes and charged with armed robbery. The local Palo Alto police department assisted Zimbardo with the arrests and conducted full booking procedures on the prisoners, which included fingerprinting and taking mug shots. They were transported to the mock prison from the police station, where they were strip searched and given their new identities.

The small mock prison cells were set up to hold three prisoners each. There was a small space for the prison yard, solitary confinement, and a bigger room across from the prisoners for the guards and warden. The prisoners were to stay in their cells all day and night until the end of the study. The guards worked in teams of three for eight-hour shifts. The guards did not have to stay on site after their shift.

After a relatively uneventful first day, on the second day the prisoners in Cell 1 blockaded their cell door with their beds and took off their stocking caps, refusing to come out or follow the guards’ instructions. Guards from other shifts volunteered to work extra hours to assist in subduing the revolt, and subsequently attacked the prisoners with fire extinguishers without being supervised by the research staff. Finding that handling nine cell mates with only three guards per shift was challenging, one of the guards suggested that they use psychological tactics to control them. They set up a “privilege cell” in which prisoners who were not involved in the riot were treated with special rewards, such as higher quality meals. The “privileged” inmates chose not to eat the meal in order to stay uniform with their fellow prisoners. After only 36 hours, one prisoner began to act “crazy,” as Zimbardo described: “#8612 then began to act crazy, to scream, to curse, to go into a rage that seemed out of control. It took quite a while before we became convinced that he was really suffering and that we had to release him.”

Guards forced the prisoners to repeat their assigned numbers to reinforce the idea that this was their new identity. Guards soon used these prisoner counts to harass the prisoners, using physical punishment such as protracted exercise for errors in the prisoner count. Sanitary conditions declined rapidly, exacerbated by the guards’ refusal to allow some prisoners to urinate or defecate anywhere but in a bucket placed in their cell. As punishment, the guards would not let the prisoners empty the sanitation bucket. Mattresses were a valued item in the prison, so the guards would punish prisoners by removing their mattresses, leaving them to sleep on concrete. Some prisoners were forced to be naked as a method of degradation. Several guards became increasingly cruel as the experiment continued; experimenters reported that approximately one-third of the guards exhibited genuine sadistic tendencies [doing things we will not publish here]. Most of the guards were upset when the experiment concluded after only six days….

Zimbardo argued that the prisoners had internalized their roles, since, even though some had stated that they would accept “parole” even if it would mean forfeiting their pay, they did not quit when their parole applications were all denied. Zimbardo argued they had no reason for continued participation in the experiment after having lost all monetary compensation, yet they did, because they had internalized the prisoner identity.

Prisoner No. 416, a newly admitted stand-by prisoner, expressed concern over the treatment of the other prisoners. The guards responded with more abuse. When he refused to eat his sausages, saying he was on a hunger strike, guards confined him to “solitary confinement,” a dark closet: “The guards then instructed the other prisoners to repeatedly punch on the door while shouting at 416.” The guards stated that he would be released from solitary confinement only if the prisoners gave up their blankets and slept on their bare mattresses, which all but one refused to do.

Zimbardo aborted the experiment early when Christina Maslach, a graduate student in psychology whom he was dating (and later married), objected to the conditions of the prison after she was introduced to the experiment to conduct interviews. Zimbardo noted that, of more than fifty people who had observed the experiment, Maslach was the only one who questioned its morality. After only six days of a planned two weeks’ duration, the Stanford prison experiment was discontinued.^[ii]

Following the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo wanted to continue his research into the dark side of human psychology to decipher under what conditions “it” can be uncaged. His next big opportunity came a decade ago, in April 2004, while on a business trip to Washington, DC. That’s when he saw the American television show 60 Minutes airing images taken from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq of naked detainees forced to simulate fellatio in front of mocking US soldiers. Other prisoners were unclothed and made to lie atop each other; a female soldier was seen leading a naked Iraqi around like a dog, complete with leash and collar, and electric wires were attached to a hooded inmate who was balancing on a small box. Later, it was learned that this type of torture had become sexualized and included examples of a male prisoner being sodomized by a guard using a chemical light and a female prisoner being raped. While Americans were aghast at the images and information, Zimbardo had seen such sadism before, right there at Stanford University years earlier, where his undergraduates had forced fellow students to simulate sodomy, among other things. Although Zimbardo’s “guards” knew their classmates had actually done nothing to deserve the maltreatment, he later wrote, “some…were transformed into perpetrators of evil,” illustrating that “most of us can undergo significant character transformations when we are caught up in the crucible of social forces.”^[iii]

In January 2008, Random House published Zimbardo’s impressive yet chilling study on the subject in a book titled The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. In it, Zimbardo, who was called as an expert psychologist to testify during the trial of one of the Abu Ghraib guards, dismantled what happened at that military facility while also reflecting on his earlier Stanford experiment to conclude that wherever conditions allow for what he calls “deindividualization,” the foundations for the towers of evil are laid and a line between good and evil can be crossed in nearly any heart.

Interestingly, Zimbardo actually drew parallels between his findings and the biblical story of the fall of that once-powerful angel named Lucifer:

According to various scenarios of early Christian Church Fathers (from Cyprus, Armenia, Greece, and France), Lucifer was God’s favorite angel.… His sin, and the origin of his transformation into the Devil, stems from his envy of man and disobedience to God… Apparently a cosmic battle ensued in which…Lucifer and the fallen angels were cast out of heaven into Hell. Lucifer is transformed into Satan, the Devil, following his fall from grace.… Thus, “The Lucifer Effect” represents this most extreme transformation imaginable from God’s favorite Angel into the Devil. My work has focused on lesser transformations of human character not as dramatic as this one, in which ordinary, even good people begin to engage in bad deeds, for a short time or longer, that qualify as “evil.”^[iv]

Zimbardo goes on to describe how, given the right situational conditions, ordinary persons can be transformed from good to evil and will proceed to engage in malevolent activity, even to the point of setting aside “personal attributes of morality, compassion, or sense of justice and fair play.”^[v]

Of course, what Zimbardo’s research reflects was revealed beforehand in the Bible: “The [unredeemed] heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Given these facts about fallen human nature, is it much of a stretch to imagine the role the Lucifer Effect will play in the lead-up to the war on truly born again believers by Antichrist and his religious "Christian" followers?

COMING UP NEXT -- What University Experiments On "Obedience To Authority Figures" Tell Us About The Coming War Between Christian vs. Christian

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[i] Alastair Leithead, “Stanford Prison Experiment Continues to Shock,” BBC News, August 17, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14564182.

[ii] “Stanford Prison Experiment,” Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stanford
_prison_experiment&oldid=605102500 (accessed April 21, 2014).

[iii] Edward Marriott, “Torture as Second Nature,” April 28, 2007, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/29/politics1.

[iv] Philip Zombardo, “Who Was Lucifer and How Did He Become the Devil,” Lucifer Effect, http://www.lucifereffect.com/lucifer.htm.

[v] Ibid.

Credit to Raidersnewsupdate.com

The Robots Are Coming, And They Are Replacing Warehouse Workers And Fast Food Employees

here are alreadymore than 101 million working age Americans that are not employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs? Thanks to technology, the balance of power between employers and workers in this country is shifting dramatically in favor of the employers. These days, many employers are wondering why they are dealing with so many human worker "headaches" when they can just use technology to get the same tasks done instead. When you replace a human worker with a robot, you solve a whole bunch of problems. 

 Robots never take a day off, they never get tired, they never get sick, they never complain, they never show up late, they never waste time on the Internet and they always do what you tell them to do. In addition, robotic technology has advanced to the point where it is actually cheaper to buy robots than it is to hire humans for a vast variety of different tasks. From the standpoint of societal efficiency, this is a good thing. But what happens when robots are able to do just about everything less expensively and more efficiently than humans can? Where will our jobs come from?

And this is not something that is coming at some point in "the future".

This is already happening.

According to CNN, there will be 10,000 robots working to fulfill customer orders in Amazon.com warehouses by the end of 2014...


Amazon will be using 10,000 robots in its warehouses by the end of the year.

CEO Jeff Bezos told investors at a shareholder meeting Wednesday that he expects to significantly increase the number of robots used to fulfill customer orders.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love Amazon. And if robots can get me my stuff faster and less expensively that sounds great.

But what if everyone starts using these kinds of robots?

What will that do to warehouse jobs?

PC World has just done a report on a new warehouse robot known as "UBR-1". This robot is intended to perform tasks "normally done by human workers"...


The UBR-1 is a 4-foot tall, one-armed robot that could make warehouses and factories more efficient by performing tasks normally done by human workers.

Unlike the industrial robots widely used in manufacturing today—usually large machines isolated from people for safety reasons—this robot can work alongside humans or autonomously in a workspace filled with people.

This little robot costs $50,000, and it can work all day and all night. It just needs a battery change every once in a while. The creators of this robot envision it performing a vast array of different tasks...


“We see the robot as doing tasks, they could be dull, they could be dirty, they could be dangerous and doing them repetitively all day in a light manufacturing environment,” said Melonee Wise, Unbounded Robotics CEO and co-founder. Those tasks include stocking shelves, picking up objects and assembling parts.

The UBR-1 isn’t designed for small component assembly, but it can manipulate objects as small as dice or a Lego piece, Wise said. Unbounded Robotics is targeting companies that want some automation to speed up their manufacturing process, but can’t afford to fully automate their businesses.

To many people this may sound very exciting.

But what if a robot like that took your job?

Would it be exciting then?

Of course you can't outlaw robots. And you can't force companies to hire human workers.

But we could potentially have major problems in our society as jobs at the low end of the wage scale quickly disappear.

According to CNN, restaurants all over the nation are going to automated service, and a recent University of Oxford study concluded that there is a 92 percent chance that most fast food jobs will be automated in the coming years...


Panera Bread is the latest chain to introduce automated service, announcing last month that it plans to bring self-service ordering kiosks as well as a mobile ordering option to all its locations within the next three years. The news follows moves from Chili's and Applebee's to place tablets on their tables, allowing diners to order and pay without interacting with human wait staff at all.

Panera, which spent $42 million developing its new system, claims it isn't planning any job cuts as a result of the technology, but some analysts see this kind of shift as unavoidable for the industry.

In a widely cited paper released last year, University of Oxford researchers estimated that there is a 92% chance that fast-food preparation and serving will be automated in the coming decades.

It is being projected that other types of jobs will soon be automated as well...


Delivery drivers could be replaced en masse by self-driving cars, which are likely to hit the market within a decade or two, or even drones. In food preparation, there are start-ups offering robots for bartendingand gourmet hamburger preparation. A food processing company in Spain now uses robots to inspect heads of lettuce on a conveyor belt, throwing out those that don't meet company standards, the Oxford researchers report.

Could you imagine such a world?

When self-driving vehicles take over, what will happen to the 3.1 million Americans that drive trucks for a living?

Our planet is changing at a pace that is almost inconceivable.

Over the past decade, the big threat to our jobs has been workers on the other side of the globe that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

But now even those workers are having their jobs taken away by robots. For example, just check out what is happening in China...


Foxconn has been planning to buy 1 million robots to replace human workers and it looks like that change, albeit gradual, is about to start.

The company is allegedly paying $25,000 per robot – about three times a worker’s average salary – and they will replace humans in assembly tasks. The plans have been in place for a while – I spoke to Foxconn reps about this a year ago – and it makes perfect sense. Humans are messy, they want more money, and having a half-a-million of them in one factory is a recipe for unrest. But what happens after the halls are clear of careful young men and women and instead full of whirring robots?

Perhaps you think that your job could never be affected because you do something that requires a "human touch" like caring for the elderly.

Well, according to Reuters, robots are moving into that arena as well...


Imagine you're 85, and living alone. Your children are halfway across the country, and you're widowed. You have a live-in aide - but it's not human. Your personal robot reminds you to take your medicine, monitors your diet and exercise, plays games with you, and even helps you connect with family members on the Internet.

And robots are even threatening extremely skilled professions such as doctors. For instance, just check out this excerpt from a Bloomberg article entitled "Doctor Robot Will See You Shortly"...


Johnson & Johnson proposes to replaceanesthesiologists during simple procedures such as colonoscopies -- not with nurse practitioners, but with machines. Sedasys, which dispenses propofol and monitors a patient automatically, was recently approved for use in healthy adult patients who have no particular risk of complications. Johnson & Johnson will lease the machines to doctor’s offices for $150 per procedure -- cleverly set well below the $600 to $2,000 that anesthesiologists usually charge.

And this is just the beginning. In a previous article, I discussed the groundbreaking study by Dr. Carl Frey and Dr. Michael Osborne of Oxford University which came to the conclusion that 47 percent of all U.S. jobs could be automated within the next 20 years.

47 percent?

That is crazy.

What will the middle class do as their jobs are taken away?

The world that we live in is becoming a radically different place than the one that we grew up in.

The robots are coming, and they are going to take millions of our jobs.

So what do you think of this robot invasion? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

Credit to Economic Collapse

PETER SCHIFF: BRACE FOR IMPACT

Foreign Troops Practice Invading Tampa

Russia May Sign Agreement to Build 8 Reactors in Iran

ST. PETERSBURG, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow may sign an intergovernmental agreement with Teheran this year to build eight new reactors for nuclear power plants in Iran, a source close to the negotiations told journalists Thursday.

Two reactors could be built at the Bushehr Power Plant and six reactors at other sites, the source said, adding that the talks were in their final stage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that Russian-Iranian cooperation will continue despite international turbulence around Tehran. Putin said that Russia and Iran are not only neighbors, but also long-standing reliable partners.

Iran’s only nuclear power plant near Bushehr came online September 2011 and began operating at full capacity a year after. Moscow handed over operational control of the Russian-made plant to Iran in September last year.

Construction of the power plant in the country’s south began in the 1970s but was plagued by delays. Russia signed a billion-dollar deal with Tehran to complete the plant in 1998.

Credit to RIA Novosti

Pope Faces Serious Health Concerns

As Pope Francis begins a trip to the Holy Land on Saturday with a rigorous schedule that could be challenging even for the healthiest person, Vatican insiders are raising questions about the pontiff's health.

Some in the Holy See are beginning to openly discuss concerns about Francis' condition and asking if the Holy Father is overtaxing himself.

Less than two years into his papacy, the 77-year-old Pope has been on a remarkable whirlwind of activity that a man half his age might find difficult to keep up with.

But close observers are noting that the Pope's physical body may be failing to keep up with his youthful energy and vigor, especially considering he only has one fully functioning lung.

As a young boy in Argentina, before the advent of advanced antibiotics, the Pope suffered an infection which led surgeons to remove most of one lung.

He has appeared to cope with that well through the years, but recently the Pope has canceled a number of papal appointments, citing health reasons.

Although planned months ago, the Pope last week put off a visit slated for May 18 to the Marian shrine of Divino Amore in the suburbs of Rome. The reason given was to "lighten the commitments" of the Pope ahead of his Holy Land visit, but further cancellations followed that weekend owing to a cold.

These are not the only times appointments have been delayed or canceled in recent months.

On Feb. 28, Francis called off a visit to Rome's Major Seminary due to a "light fever."

And before that, in early December, he felt compelled to cancel, at the last minute, a meeting at the Vatican with Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, who came with a delegation from Expo 2015. The Vatican said the Holy Father had "expressed fatigue" after a general audience in St. Peter's Square in which he had greeted the faithful for nearly three hours.

Indian Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, told the Italian daily Libero that he concelebrated Mass with the Pope for a few days last summer and found him "very tired and fatigued."

He added: "I honestly do not know how long he might be able to sustain this pace that he's certainly not accustomed to."

Last September, the Argentine magazine Noticias reported that the Pope's personal physician in Argentina had said he was "concerned" about his patient's health.

"I have the impression that something is wrong," explained Liu Ming, a Chinese Taoist doctor who claims to have helped cure the future Pope from heart and liver problems through acupuncture and other Oriental treatments.

But Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi is playing down any fears. The visit to Divino Amore would be "very challenging" given Francis' usual wish to meet so many people and groups. "I think he thought: 'Well, we can do all that another time,' and that shouldn't be considered a cause for concern," he said.

Some close to the Pope have said they notice he has difficulty breathing, and during the 14 months of his papacy has gained a significant amount of weight, perhaps as much as 20 pounds.

"It's a very serious condition," Dr. Peter Hibberd told Newsmax in discussing the Pope's single lung.

"If you are 20 years old and have one lung, you wouldn't notice it because all humans have a large reserve capacity in their lungs," said Hibberd, a 30-year hospital and emergency medicine specialist who writes for Newsmaxhealth.com.

Hibberd noted that as they age, people "lose lung function," which in turn makes the extra or "reserve" capacity of the lung more critical in keeping the blood well oxygenated while allowing the body to exchange gases.

"His repeated fatigue reports and weight gain suggest he may be slipping into a form of chronic heart failure common among victims of significant lung disorders such as COPD," Hibberd suggested.

"His immunity will be challenged when under stress, and more frequent pauses to recover from otherwise small insults — such as colds, sore throats, and minor injuries — can be expected to increase in the future unless he paces himself," Hibberd said. He noted that patients with chronic lung conditions require an inhaler and nighttime oxygen to breath comfortably.

The Pope's weekend trip to the Middle East will be grueling. Francis will give 15 discourses in Amman, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem during the 48-hour trip, from Saturday to Monday.

His visit follows the intensity of the last few weeks that have included leading the church's Easter celebrations and presiding over the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.

The Pope's visit to the Holy Land is notable for being unusually short, especially given the obvious significance of the destination.

Lombardi said the Pope had received many requests to visit other areas such as Galilee, "but one cannot do everything."

In any case, he said, it has to be seen in the context of Pope Paul VI's historic trip in 1964. This visit commemorates the 50th anniversary of that visit, when Paul met the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, in Jerusalem.

"Even that trip lasted three days," Lombardi said.

On his trip, Pope Francis plans to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, also in Jerusalem.

Credit to News Max

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