YOU WILL OBEY

Film highlights the temptations and perils of blind obedience to authority

"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.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Rail is a gigantic scam for siphoning off public money

Nearly 20 years after John Major's disastrous privatisation, this is the reality of Britain's railway: a byword for bewildering fragmentation, unreliability and exorbitant cost – and a gigantic scam for siphoning off public money into the pockets of monopoly contractors.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Rachel Corrie verdict exposes Israeli military mindset

Corrie's parents have not received justice, but their quest reveals the lie of the IDF's claim to be the world's 'most moral army'.

Rachel Corrie was crushed by a military bulldozer nine years ago as she tried to stop the Israeli army going about its routine destruction of Palestinian homes.

FLASHBACK

Rachel Corrie lies on the ground fatally injured by the Israeli bulldozer.

BLAST OFF

Neil Armstrong's last interview: rare glimpse of man and moon mission

 

Was the moon landing faked?

"People love conspiracy theories," he replied. "I mean, they are very attractive. But it was never a concern to me because I know one day, somebody is going to go fly back up there and pick up that camera I left."

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, dies at 82
US astronaut who led the Apollo 11 mission underwent heart-bypass surgery earlier this month

An Audience with Neil Armstrong

BIG BROTHER

Trapwire uses data from CCTV networks to figure out the threat level.
Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images

Trapwire surveillance system exposed in document leak

 

Papers released by WikiLeaks show US department of homeland security paid $832,000 to deploy system in two cities

It sounds like something from the film Minority Report: a CCTV surveillance system that recognises people from their face or walk and analyses whether they might be about to commit a terrorist or criminal act. But Trapwire is real and, according to documents released online by WikiLeaks last week, is being used in a number of countries to try to monitor people and threats.

ALIEN BIG CATS

Hunt for big cats, including cougars, panthers or pumas, in Victoria begins after decades of reported sightings

Witness sightings have been recorded, over at least 60 years, of cougars, panthers or pumas in a wide stretch of Victoria from Gippsland to the Otways, the Grampians, central Victoria and at Beechworth in the northeast.

Melbourne-based big cats researcher Michael Moss said "there is no doubt they (big cats) are out there," adding that the recent rediscovery of the Tiger Quoll in the Otways again proved how easy it was for animals to remain undetected in wilderness area for long periods of time.

THE QUICKENING

Arctic ice cap on course for record melt

United States scientists say the Arctic ice cap is melting at a startlingly rapid rate and may shrink to its smallest-ever level within weeks as the planet's temperatures rise.

University of Colorado researchers say the summer ice in the Arctic is already nearing its lowest level recorded, even though the melt season is not yet over.

"The numbers are coming in and we are looking at them with a sense of amazement," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the university.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

The Aussie Bond

Spy v Spy: - The Australian-born James Bond, George Lazenby, passed up a lucrative seven-movie contract to join the peaceniks. Now, on the 50th anniversary of the movie franchise, he's still talking like a hippy and the movie execs are wondering if he should get a ticket to all the parties they're planning.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Ry Cooder: 'Mitt Romney is a dangerous man, a cruel man'

Romney is as bad as anyone can be. He's a dangerous man. He's a cruel man. He's a perfect creation for what the Republican party is all about. And that is to say, a rapacious capitalist. Anyone who ran Bain Capital is not your friend. All they're going to do is rape and pillage the land.

The veteran guitarist on his new album of protest songs, Election Special, and how the Republican party is out to destroy America and Barack Obama's presidency.