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Darpa Wants to Master the Science of Propaganda

By Dawn Lim
October 18, 2011 12:00 pm




Mark Twain once tried to distinguish between the storyteller’s art and tales that a machine could generate. He observed that stringing “incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities,” was the province of the American storyteller. A machine might imitate simple formulas behind yarns, but never quite master them.
The Pentagon’s freewheeling research arm is hoping to prove Twain wrong. Darpa is asking scientists to “take narratives and make them quantitatively analyzable in a rigorous, transparent and repeatable fashion.” The idea is to detect terrorists who have been indoctrinated by propaganda. Then, the Pentagon can respond with some messages of its own.
The program is called “Narrative Networks.” By understanding how stories have shaped your mind, the Pentagon hopes to sniff out who has fallen prey to dangerous ideas, a neuroscience researcher involved in the project tells Danger Room. With this knowledge, the military can also target groups vulnerable to terrorists’ recruiting tactics with its own counter-messaging.
“Stories are important in security contexts,” Darpa said in an Oct. 7 solicitation for research proposals. Stories “change the course of insurgencies, frame negotiations, play a role in political radicalization, influence the methods and goals of violent social movements.” The desire to study narratives has been simmering for a while in the Defense Department. A Darpa workshop in April to discuss the “neurobiology of narratives” added momentum to this project.

In the first 18-month phase of the program, the Pentagon wants researchers to study how stories infiltrate social networks and alter our brain circuits. One of the stipulated research goals: to “explore the function narratives serve in the process of political radicalization and how they can influence a person or group’s choice of means (such as indiscriminant violence) to achieve political ends.”
Once scientists have perfected the science of how stories affect our neurochemistry, they will develop tools to “detect narrative influence.” These tools will enable “prevention of negative behavioral outcomes … and generation of positive behavioral outcomes, such as building trust.” In other words, the tools will be used to detect who’s been controlled by subversive ideologies, better allowing the military to drown out that message and win people onto their side.
“The government is already trying to control the message, so why not have the science to do it in a systematic way?” said the researcher familiar with the project.
When the project enters into a second 18-month phase, it’ll use the research gathered to build “optimized prototype technologies in the form of documents, software, hardware and devices.” What will these be? Existing technology can carry out micro-facial feature analysis, and measure the dilation of blood vessels and eye pupils. MRI machines can determine which parts of your brain is lighting up when it responds to stories. Darpa wants to do even better.
In fact, it’s calling for devices that detect the influence of stories in unseen ways. “Efforts that rely solely on standoff/non-invasive/non-detectable sensors are highly encouraged,” the solicitation reads.
Forget lie detectors; invisible propaganda-detectors are the future.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...ce-propaganda/

Paging Jesse Ventura: Iowa Guard Builds Predator-Style Ammo Packs

By Andrew Tarantola, Gizmodo.com
October 18, 2011 | 8:22 am




Remember that scene in the movie Predator, when Jesse Ventura is unleashing his M-134 mini-gun into the forest? It was being fed by an ammo box strapped to his back. Turns out, that wasn’t an actual piece of Army kit, at least until members of the Iowa National Guard created it themselves.

The National Guard division had been recently deployed to a forward operating base in Afghanistan and were issued Mk 48 machine guns when they arrived. The problem was, the belts of ammunition were extremely cumbersome and difficult for the gun’s operator to carry while on foot-patrol. The initial solution of chopping the belts into 50-round lengths and reloading constantly was abandoned after a harrowing 2.5 hour long firefight proved it untenable.

So, Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski welded two ammo boxes atop one another (with the upper case’s bottom removed), lashed them to an all-purpose ALICE pack frame, and mounted the feed chute assembly from a vehicle-mounted CROWS (Common Remote Operating Weapons Station) to the top of it. This allowed the gunner to carry a full load of ammo—500 rounds—unassisted. Even with ammo, the entire system weighed a mere 43 pounds.

The pack, dubbed The Ironman, proved so reliable in combat that Winkowski submitted the design to Army science advisers who also immediately recognized its value. Within 48 days, the Quick Reaction Cell of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) had created an improved, lighter-weight version of the pack.
As, Dave Roy, a current operations analyst at NSRDEC, explains,

We’ve already gotten email traffic from (one of) our science advisers that everybody in theater wants one of these — and by in theater, he means his specific area of operation, Regional Command East in Afghanistan — because word has spread. That (Iowa National Guard) unit is not the only unit on that FOB. As they’re walking around the FOB with that piece of kit, very senior people are taking a look at it. They recognize it as a game-changer.

While The Ironman is still a prototype at this stage, Roy hopes to have acquisition funding secured by early next year. [US Army]

Photo: 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, Iowa National Guard
See Also:

• Mexican Drug Lords Building D.I.Y. ‘Tanks’
• Libya’s DIY Rebels Outfit Trucks With Copter Rockets
• Paging Chris Anderson: Darpa Wants DIY Drones
• Paging Chris Anderson: Darpa Wants DIY Drones
• Taliban ‘Great Escape’: DIY Tunnel Leads to Massive Jailbreak

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...or-ammo-packs/

Why Does The Russian Army Need A Lot More Snipers?


The Druganov rifle is a popular weapon among Chechen insurgents led by the likes of Khusayn Gakayev.

October 20, 2011

The Russian Defense Ministry is planning crash courses to train large numbers of snipers -- and train them fast, according to the Russian dailies "Rossiiskaya gazeta" and "Izvestiya."

Beginning on December 1, training courses for snipers selected from the most promising conscripts will begin in four of Russia's six military districts.

The courses will last just three months, which experts consider far too little. Institute for Military Forecasting Director Anatoly Tsyganok, himself a former member of the Interior Ministry special purpose troops (spetsnaz), was dismissive, telling "Izvestiya" that training a good sniper takes far longer.

He said that graduates of the three month training course "won't be snipers, just rank-and-file soldiers capable of shooting at a distance of 400-500 meters. A real sniper can hit a target at 1.5 kilometers. To be able to do that, the Alpha division trains its snipers for three years, and the presidential security force for two years," Tsyganok said.

But Russia's top brass apparently wants quantity, not quality, and the sooner the better.

By 2016, they plan to deploy a total of 1,000 snipers to motorized rifle and tank brigades who would be capable of felling an enemy at a distance of 1--2 kilometers.

The next generation of snipers will be recruited from among contract servicemen, and undergo a longer period of training.

A Gun For All Seasons

The snipers will be issued with the classic Dragunov SVD 7.62-millimeter and VS 9-millimeter rifles.

This represents a reversal of the decision earlier this year to halt production of the Dragunov, which is considered inferior to NATO issue rifles.

The Dragunov does, however, have the advantage of functioning perfectly in adverse weather conditions, which could explain its popularity among Chechen resistance fighters.

The big unanswered question is precisely what kind of situation the Russian snipers are being trained for.

Snipers with just three months training behind them are likely to prove useless in "hot spots" such as the mountains of the North Caucasus.

They would, however, be useful in urban warfare. Snipers played an important role in the successive battles for Grozny in 1994-1999.

Sharpshooters could also be deployed in the event of mass demonstrations (when a few judicious sniper shots could send protesters fleeing into the arms of riot police), riots, or an Arab Spring type uprising.

Which of those scenarios the Kremlin considers a real enough threat to launch the new training program is anybody's guess.

-- Liz Fuller

http://www.rferl.org/content/why_soes_t ... 66025.html

UNICOR is very diverse. If you look at the bottom of almost all government printed documents you will see they are printed by UNICOR. In many cases there exists a mandate for the government to purchase goods or services from UNICOR FIRST ! I know when I was at Ft Bliss they ran the laundry on base and it was staffed by prisoners from FPC El Paso next to Biggs Army Airfield and JTF 6.

Boston Dynamics Contracted To Make First Terminator-like Hunter-Seeker


Photo: Boston Dynamics

The Intel Hub
Shepard Ambellas
November 26, 2011

The Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been extremely interested in robotic and cyber technology over the past few years and has now contracted Boston Dynamics to make the first Terminator-like robot fully functional.

When will we reach a point where robots become self-aware?

The Answer is — We already have, as reported in the article “Army Achieves ‘Skynet’ —Self-Aware Decision Making Network“

Boston Dynamics (the makers of the FEMA ‘Big Dog’) are contracted to design a few items for DARPA. A robotic chetah that can outrun the fastest man, zig-zag, turn, maneuver, and stop on a dime is in the works as we speak.

Boston Dynamis said;

“It will be able to zig-zag and take tight turns in order to chase and evade…. it will also be able to make sudden stops and could end up with a tail.”

Then there is the Atlas — made by Boston Dynamics, a robot that actually looks like the terminator with no head. The robot can walk heal-to-toe “like a person” over any terrain and stay upright if pushed.

Here is a clip from CNN:



Ladies and gentlemen — once these products become militarized for the battlefield (Battlefield: Now almost defined to be right outside your window) it will be game on — we officially have entered the hunter-seeker era.

http://theintelhub.com/2011/11/26/bo...hunter-seeker/

bttt

bttt

Related: » Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind! <--- LINK

well hey... the Elite have to make a live'n don't they

it's ok.. until it's your turn to go

That's the American Way