It’s been almost 40 years since psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted his infamous Yale experiments, in which he showed that people are willing to electrocute a random stranger to the point of death in the context of a science experiment. Milgram was trying to show something about the human condition, and gleaned insights that were particularly useful in light of the Holocaust: normal, everyday people can easily be swayed by structures of authority. And theoretically, the more conscious we are of this, the more likely we are to be able to resist it.
So it’s now forty years later and it’s clear that humanity has learned nothing. At least, that’s what a documentary The Game of Death (Le Jeu Du Mort), which aired last night on French television, would have you believe.
The documentary led 80 participants into thinking they were shooting a French pilot for a new reality TV series called Zone Xtreme (not a real show). In the fake show, fake “contestants” played by actors were forced to answer questions. If they answered incorrectly, one of the participants would be asked to give the contestant an electric shock. No shocks were actually administered; the actor contestants pretended to get electrocuted. Egged on by the beautiful TV hostess and an apparently bloodthirsty studio audience shouting “Punishment!,” only 16 of the 80 participants stopped before reaching the final, lethal 460 volt shock. People apparently kept up the shocks even when the contestant appeared to be dead or unresponsive.
PARIS (AFP) – Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy -- then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead.
"The Game of Death" has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights.
But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
"We were amazed to find that 81 percent of the participants obeyed" the sadistic orders of the television presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel which airs Wednesday.PARIS (AFP) – Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological... more
If you're going to make a xenophobic poster, at least make it original:
The Algerian government has formally protested to Paris about a poster which associates its flag with Islamisme, or radical forms of Islam. The poster shows France covered by an Algerian flag and a forest of mosque minarets. The slogan reads: "Non à l'Islamisme".
It closely resembles a poster published by a nationalist party in Switzerland
before a mosque-building referendum last November. The Swiss advertising agency that devised the original poster said it planned to sue Mr Le Pen's party, the National Front, for plagiarism. (Joshua Keating, Foreign Policy)
A traditional view of Parisians as rude, unwelcoming and arrogant may be common within the imagination of the British however a poll conducted amongst French people has reached the similar conclusions.
The words snobbish and self-regarding were among those used to describe by the French to describe their capital's inhabitants.
"We find them to be hard working and cultivated," the political magazine Marianne said of Parisians in an editorial published alongside the survey.
Ecologists, breastfeeding advocates and behavioural specialists making women 'slave to their children', says Elisabeth Badinter
According to one leading feminist, the French model of motherhood is facing an unprecedented threat from a "dangerous" new brand of thought which seeks to keep women at home and make them the slaves of their children.
Click the link to read the whole storyEcologists, breastfeeding advocates and behavioural specialists making women... more
Today you probably put on the "computer", you read your "emails" and you took a look at your "blog": all English words (computer, emails, blog, newsletter) that in France, in a few days, could be changed thanks to a contest which finish today. Because French people never rellay liked english words in their vocabulary.
Yes, Virginia, there is a G-spot. That's what French docs want the world to know in a reminder that when it comes to sex, don't ask the British. UK scientists at Kings College recently declared that there was no proof that the female hyper-pleasure center exists. But French physicians declared at a symposium in Paris yesterday that the worshiped G-spot may fool researchers by remaining hidden if it's not "touched" enough, alerting women to its existence. In fact, at least 60% of women have a G-spot, one doc declared.Yes, Virginia, there is a G-spot. That's what French docs want the world to know... more
Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is planning a political comeback after being cleared of plotting to discredit President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A French parliament report called Tuesday for a ban on the full Islamic veil, saying Muslim women who wear the burqa were posing an "unacceptable" challenge to French values.
After six months of hearings, a panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.
"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable," the report said. "We must condemn this excess."
The commission however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the burqa in the streets, in shopping centres and other public venues after raising doubts about the constitutionality of such a move.
"The wearing of the full veil is the tip of the iceberg," said communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, the chair of the commission, who presented the report to the parliament speaker.
"There are scandalous practices hidden behind this veil," said Gerin who vowed to fight the "gurus" he said were seeking to export a radical brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France.
READ MORE AT LINKA French parliament report called Tuesday for a ban on the full Islamic veil, saying... more
Tarmak Films Ltd is a fully equipped boutique production company based in Soho (London, UK) dedicated to making high quality films for high profile clients. We have a lot of experience dealing with international clients and international projects and know how to integrate cultural understanding as part of our daily work in order to develop comfortable relationships. We have experience collaborating with clients from many sectors: broadcast, NGO’s, magazines, newspapers, corporate, sport, tourism.Tarmak Films Ltd is a fully equipped boutique production company based in Soho... more
Videos - French Islamic veil row intensifies -
Immigration minister backs burkha ban, women in veils rights violatedVideos - French Islamic veil row intensifies -
Immigration minister backs burkha ban,... more
Aimé Guibert, a legendary pioneer in French winemaking, looks back on his life and shares his fears about the commercialization and globalization of winemaking. We address many obstacles (sometimes literally) and wonder how we can return to authenticity and artisanal work.Aimé Guibert, a legendary pioneer in French winemaking, looks back on his life... more
Aimé Guibert, a legendary pioneer of French winemaking, takes a hard look at his own life and shares some despair about the dark, commercialized future of the global wine market. We address obstacles (literally at some points) and talk about what might get in the way of a more open, artisanal world of wine.Aimé Guibert, a legendary pioneer of French winemaking, takes a hard look at... more
The Bisson family were among the first wave of Haiti earthquake victims airlifted back to France.
Patricia Bisson and her husband Michel had travelled to Haiti over a week ago to pick up their new adopted son, Jefferson. They were at the orphanage when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.
She said their first thoughts after the quake were for the safety of their new son, who they barely knew, and to get the 40 other children aged between three months and fourteen years old, out of the dangerous buildings.
Jefferson smiled as he entered his new home country, where his mother hopes he will be able to forget the horrors of the Haiti he left and lead a happy, stable life. Patricia Bisson says he is presumed to be ten, and has already suffered enough.
Tens of thousands of people are believed to have died in the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years.
For more news video by Current TV visit http://current.com/The Bisson family were among the first wave of Haiti earthquake victims airlifted back... more
How to help prop up the ailing music industry? Tax Google, suggests a new report commissioned by the French government.
The report, handed to Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand on Wednesday, says Google and other Internet portals should be slapped with a new tax on their online ad revenues in France to fund the development of legal outlets for buying books, movies and especially music on the Internet.
The proposal is the latest idea to emerge amid France's efforts to fight illegal file-sharing and impose order — French-style — on the free-for-all that is the Internet.
The plan "seemed inevitable to us, if we want to maintain a certain pluralism in the culture world" and prevent the "endless enrichment of two or three world players who will impose their cultural formatting on us," Patrick Zelnik, a record producer who helped lead the mission, was quoted as telling Liberation newspaper.
Google appears cool to the idea but sought a conciliatory tone. Google France's public affairs director said the company told the mission it wanted "cooperation between Internet players and the cultural fields to develop new models."
Olivier Esper said there were opportunities to promote innovative solutions "instead of continuing on a path that opposes the Internet and the cultural worlds, for example the path of taxation."
Along with Google, the report cites Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and Facebook. The French branches of Yahoo! and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials at Facebook and AOL in the United States.
Critics say the plan would be messy to implement and that Internet portals would shoulder an unfair share of the burden.
"Where does it start and stop? The argument is that Google has culpability for declining music revenues because people start searches for illegal files often by Google," said Mark Mulligan, vice president of Forrester Research. But "what about the computers? Because without the computer people wouldn't be able to download. And then what about the electricity that powers the computer?"
Mulligan also says the proposal "encourages laziness from the music industry, because ultimately they are saying, you don't have to dig your way out of the problem, we'll let other companies do that for you."
The proposal is still in the early stages, and the report doesn't spell out specifics — like exactly how much new tax the portals would pay, on top of the taxes that they, like all companies, already contribute. It does estimate, however, that "given the size of the ad market on the Internet, this measure could eventually bring in euro10 million a year."
Though debate on the proposal has focused on the unusual so-called "Google tax," the report also says that Internet service providers should pay more in taxes, an idea that has been increasingly floated in France and other countries. France should rally fellow European nations to support its efforts, the document says.
READ MORE AT LINK...How to help prop up the ailing music industry? Tax Google, suggests a new report... more
French youth across the country are rebelling against various new school dress codes that ban low-slung trousers, short garments and piercings, and even holes in trousers and garments above the knee.
At Lycee Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in Essonne, south of Paris, 300 of the 2,100 students came to school wearing short shorts or mini-skirts. And at Lycee Condorcet d'Arcachon in Gironde, 200 students protested in the streets. One student said, "We're at school, we don't want to feel like we are in aprison," according to the Independent UK.
Lycee Saint-Jean-Hulst in Versailles, has taken a different approach in dealing with sartorial rebels. Girls wearing short skirts are given overalls to change into, and boys sporting saggy pants are lent a pair of suspenders.
French don't like anymore Sarkozy policy (today the consensus of the Head of state, in France, is at its historic low level). So it was born a website and various groups on Facebook that, affected by the success of the No-B day, want to organize the No-Sarkozy Day.
French video illustrating the different shapes mercury will take when subjected to different frequency oscillationsFrench video illustrating the different shapes mercury will take when subjected to... more
Nothing's better than seeing what tricks the fat boy will do for little bit of birthday cake. Of course I know that it's not good to feed people food to dogs, but this was just a little butter creme frosting, and it was his mommy's birthday. Jax is a French Bulldog.Nothing's better than seeing what tricks the fat boy will do for little bit of... more
