Thursday, May 31, 2007

Relapse - Cocaine

Relapse - Mr Budd on the effect of cocaine

Energy rush + euphoric feeling + shamelessness + weight loss + being really stupid and shallow + willingness to suck cock for another bag.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Une election de miss univers troublé

Japan wins troubled Miss Universe contest

In another hitch, Miss Mexico was made to change her outfit for the regional dress contest after her original dress, decorated with brutal images of rebels in a 1920s religious uprising being hanged or shot, drew accusations of poor taste….

This year, [the pageant] attracted protesters wearing white dresses splashed with fake blood and sashes proclaiming “Miss Juarez,” “Miss Atenco” and “Miss Michoacan” in reference to places in Mexico made infamous by killings or sexual abuse of women.

In another quirk for 2007, the long, twisted dreadlocks of Miss Jamaica, the contest’s first ever Rastafarian participant, and the close-shaved head of Miss Tanzania stood out from the lacquered manes of the other contestants.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Un accro des chats porno serait en fait dépendant

Us sex addict sues over firing

James Pacenza, 58, says he was addicted to online chat rooms and that IBM should have offered him sympathy and treatment instead of firing him.

The Vietnam War veteran says he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since 1969.

He argues that he used the internet to control his psychological problems.

[...]

The stated reason was that he visited an internet chat site for a sexual experience after he had previously been warned.

James Pacenza's lawyers will argue in court that their client was using the internet to self-medicate as a way of controlling his post traumatic stress disorder.

They will also argue that Mr Pacenza's claimed addiction to adult internet sites should be treated in the same way as other employees' addictions to drugs or alcohol.

The case, which has been postponed until 29 June, has potential implications for employers across America and their attitude towards regulating how employees use workplace computers.

(Non seulement ce serait un changement au niveau de la régulation de ce que peux et ne peux pas faire un employé sur son lieu de travail mais en plus cela voudrait dire que des avocats "aideraient" des psychologues a définir une addiction a Internet.)


Thursday, May 24, 2007

Quelques références biographiques autour de Freakonomics - Wikipedia

Gary Becker - Idole de Steven Levitt (Freakonomics). Economiste a l'origine de travaux sur la vie en société et le crime, entre autre.
Steven Levitt - Auteur de Freakonomics, théoricien de la vie quotidienne comme les matchs de sumo trafiqués ou le commerce du crack.
Robert Rosenthal - Psychologue auteur de la théorie de l'effet pygmalion (les attentes des professeurs par rapport a une copie d'un élève).

Gravity's Rainbow - Wikipedia

Gravity's Rainbow de Thomas Pynchon sur Wikipedia

Gravity's Rainbow
is an epic postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.

The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest undertaken by several of the characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device named the "Schwarzgerät", which will be installed in a rocket with the serial number "00000."

Frequently digressive, the novel subverts many of the traditional elements of plot and character development, traverses detailed, specialist knowledge drawn from a wide range of disciplines, and has earned a reputation as a "difficult" book.

In 1974, the three-member Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction supported Gravity's Rainbow for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. However, the other eleven members of the board overturned this decision, branding the book "unreadable, turgid, overwritten, and obscene." The novel was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and won the National Book Award in 1974. Since its publication, Gravity's Rainbow has spawned an enormous amount of literary criticism and commentary, including two reader's guides and several online concordances, and is widely regarded as Pynchon's magnum opus.

Nagi Noda - La publicité mène a tout

Nagi Noda
Designeuse et publicisite japonaise au premier abord obsédée par les pandas. Elle a travaillé avec un peintre, Mark Lyden, sur une gamme de vétements sous le nom "Broken label". Leur travail est vendu chez Colette sur Paris.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Le journalisme musical et les chroniqueurs de comics

Warren Ellis - On magazines about comics

Now, obviously, I'm an old guy. My notion of what makes a good comics magazine comes from the 80s, pre-net. In fact, I worked on a comics magazine back then, Speakeasy, which was very informed and influenced by music papers. It was a monthly, and we didn't have a huge problem getting stuff reviewed within a month of its release. Obviously, we weren't affecting things within the week of their new-release cycle. But, hell, even the music paper came out every two weeks. It was a slower time. That said, you could still find the comics being reviewed, as indeed you could now.

Music papers were the grail of arts writing, back then. There was a period in the 80s where the best cultural writing anywhere was being done in the music inkies. And the majority of this was happening in the reviews sections. These weren't enthusiastic amateurs who thought that ten years of reading superhero comics (or skimming them behind a desk) qualified them. These were people who were hired (very important) because they lived and breathed and understood music and who could write and communicate brilliantly.

And what they did was write with passion and in an informed manner. These were people who knew what they were talking about, and who could contextualise what they were feeling about the work at hand, be it excitement or disappointment.

Des faits sur les agressions sexuelles sur des adolescents sur internet

Just the fact about online youth victimization

Un ensemble de 9 videos sur une conférence où quatre intervenants spécialistes des agressions sexuelles et des relations entre adolescents sur le réseau internet parlent de ce qu'ils connaissent et démontent les mythes autour des abus sexuels sur Internet. Les 4 premières vidéos laissent la parole, chacun a leur tour, aux intervenants avant de passer aux question du public. Je n'ai vu que ces quatres la et je recommande leur visionnage car elle renseigne efficacement et les intervenants sont comprehensible et sympathique.

En résumé, il se dégage plusieurs points essentiels :
Les adolescents ne proposent pas tous un profil sur Internet
Ils ne proposent pas non plus souvent des informations personnels sur leur profil et choisissent même de ne donner que des fausses informations ou très peu.
La plupart des victimes de prédateur adulte sont faites sur des adolescents et pas des enfants. De plus, la majorité de ces agressions sont comis par des adultes qui révèlent leur age véritable a leurs enfants et ont une relation suivit avec eux. Les spécialistes parlent même alors d'une sorte de relation amoureuse entre l'adulte et l'enfant (ce qui peut rappeler en partie le livre Lolita de Nabokov).
Le réseau internet sert d'amplificateur a des conflits ou a des relations qui existent déjà dans la vie réel. Les adolescents ne se servent pas spécialement de leur profil pour rencontrer de nouvelles personnes qui ne font pas partie de leur réseau direct d'ami mais pour se faire connître de personnes qu'ils fréquentent déjà dans la vie réelle.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Un nouvelle drogue dans la région de Dallas - Le Cheese

Stopping a kid killer

Cheese is made by grinding up cold medication and mixing it with black-tar heroin, which is typically smuggled in by Mexican drug cartels. A $30 purchase of heroin can yield 40 to 50 cheese hits, each costing about $2—more affordable for users and more profitable for mixers. The drug, which is snorted, derives its name from a supposedly Parmesan-like appearance, though in reality, it looks more like coarse sand. Because the amount of heroin in cheese is sometimes small—as little as 3 percent—the drug rarely shows up in field tests. But the heroin quantity can be inconsistent. "Kids will be scoring 3 percent and all of a sudden, they get 9 or 10 percent, and you are dead," says James Capra, Special Agent in charge of the DEA's Dallas field division.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the cheese phenomenon is the users' age. Dallas police have arrested kids as young as 12—and in one case, the Dallas school district nabbed an 11-year-old. In fact, dealers use the drug's inoffensive moniker to market it to youth, says Capra. "Put yourself in that kid's mind," he says. " 'It's got a funny name, and it's only a couple of bucks'." The users' youth also complicates treatment. "Cognitively, they don't understand consequences," says Michelle Hemm, director of the Phoenix Academy of Dallas, a residential treatment facility for teens that's seeing a growing number of cheese cases. "This age group is developmentally hard to deal with."

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Orange Mécanique - Une analyse conspirationniste

Une analyse en deux parties de Orange mécanique par Rober Ager, un partisant des théories de conspiration autour des Illuminatis. Interessant même si il reste douteux que Kubrick ait voulut dire autant de choses en lien avec les Illuminatis dans ses films.
Part 1
Part 2
Note : Après avoir regardé les deux parties de ce mini documentaire, je le trouve très interessant même si la plupart des conclusions conspirationnistes viennent surtout du désir de l'auteur de voir des symboles là où il n'y a que des éléments très anodins ou lié a tout autre chose. L'analyse est toutefois bien mené et donne envie de voir (et peut être de revoir) le film grâce a une analyse méthodique de quelques symboles très interessants qui réapparaissent tout au long du film.

Homo floresiensis - L'origine des légendes autour des elfes ?

Wikipedia - Homo floresiensis

Homo floresiensis ("Man of Flores", nicknamed Hobbit) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times.

[...]

Early doubts that the discoveries constitute a new species were voiced by the Indonesian anthropologist Teuku Jacob, who suggested that skull of LB1 was a microcephalic modern human, but support for species status appeared in March 2005, following publication of details of the brain of Flores Man in Science.[4] Subsequently several researchers, including one scientist who worked on the initial study, have disputed the 2005 study, supporting the conclusion that the skull is microcephalic.[5][6] The original discoverers have argued against these interpretations and maintain that H. floresiensis is a distinct species.[3][7] To date, the only complete cranium is that of LB1, and additional skeletons may be required to resolve this debate.

Steam Punk en photos

Une petite collection de photos très steam punk sur FlickR.

De graves troubles politique en Turquie

Hundreds detained in Turkey rally

Nearly 600 people have been arrested in Istanbul as police launched a dramatic clampdown on left-wing demonstrators trying to hold a May Day rally.

Officers fired tear gas and used batons to stop the crowd marching to Taksim Square, where they were due to mark the 30th anniversary of "Bloody May Day".

Thirty-four people died in 1977 after a gunman fired, triggering a stampede.

This year's rally is taking place in a country already tense over a disputed presidential election.

The constitutional court is currently examining an opposition call to cancel the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president. The first round of parliamentary voting ended in disarray on Friday.

[...]

The presidential election has pitted secularists against the Islamist-rooted AK party, which has an overwhelming majority in parliament.

The army - seen as a guardian of Turkish secularism - has warned that it will defend the separation of state and religion, the legacy of the state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Les Etats unis chercheraient à poser leur véto contre une nouvelle réduction des gaz a effet de serre

Us seeks G8 climate text changes

Washington objects to the draft's targets to keep the global temperature rise below 2C this century and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

[...]

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has made climate a priority for the organisation, with backing from other leaders including Tony Blair.

[...]

The European Union, which includes half of the G8 members, has already adopted commitments to aim for a global temperature rise of less than 2C, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

Japanese news organisations recently reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government was also planning to push fellow G8 members for tough targets.

But at preparatory discussions between officials of the G8 countries, US negotiators have made clear their opposition to several key components of the draft.

As well as objecting to mention of targets for global temperature rise and greenhouse gas emissions, Washington is also seeking to remove a section acknowledging that the UN is the "appropriate forum" for agreeing further action.

[...]

Preparations for the 2005 G8 summit in the Scottish resort of Gleneagles also began with a climate change draft which grew weaker as discussions continued.

Leaders decided then to agree a weak document rather than leave with no agreement at all.

Un chat qui a de l'endurance

Cat survives slow boat from China

A cat trapped in a cargo crate without food or water seems to have survived a 35-day sea voyage from China to the US.

[...]

A local vet suggested cats coped well with shortages of food and water.

"Usually we say that animals can only survive a few weeks without food and only a few days without water," Raleigh veterinarian Michelle Misavage told the Associated Press.

"The theory is that cats have such good kidneys their bodies adjust to the lack of water and somehow they received small amounts of moisture from condensation."

L'Amérique post 9/11 continue

Congress toughens up anti mooninites legislation

Hence the new bill currently being entertained by Congress, "The Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007."

The gyst of the revised bill is that "Terrorist hoax devices" should be illegal even if they aren't intended to be interpreted by idiot officials as terrorist hoax devices. Under this rationale, a box of Crayons left on the sidewalk would be illegal, provided a major city mayor threw enough of a hissy fit about it.

La scientologie - Quelques données

Row over scientology video

This is the context Scientology will not tell you about. I have met too many good people who say Scientology was founded by a liar, L Ron Hubbard; that it attacks its critics without mercy; and the celebrities who endorse it have not the foggiest idea what it is really like.

Take "Rosemary", who is an ordinary mum and lives in England. She had two children and one died. Her surviving daughter was also her best friend. Then her daughter joined Scientology and her mother saw less and less of her.

Almost two years ago she received a "disconnect" - a letter cutting her mother out of her life totally.

Rosemary received no Christmas cards, no birthday cards, no Mother's Day cards.

Rosemary said Scientology was a cult. It was one of the most moving and shocking interviews I have ever done.

Out of the blue, three hours after we left, her daughter came round for the first time in almost two years seeking a reconciliation. The next day she begged her mum not to use the interview. So we won't.

[...]

Scientology is a pay-as-you-go religion - which is one of the reasons why the Charity Commission in Britain does not class it as a religion.

When you have paid as much as £100,000, you get to Operating Thetan Level Three and learn about "The Incident".

L Ron wrote that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien lord called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs.

Ex-Scientologists have insisted to me that Xenu is part of Scientology. If so, it is a religion that requires its followers not to tell others about its core belief, which is very odd.

Critics say that if we all knew about Xenu, then Scientology could not charge people as much as £100,000 to find out about him.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Création du webzine

Deux systèmes de création de blogs sans encadrement trop invastifs
Dotclear
Wordpress

Des cultes sanguinaires en Nouvelle Guinée

PNG police in shoot out with human sacrifice cult

Riot police have been sent to a remote mountainous village in Papua New Guinea after a gun battle between police and members of a cult involved in human sacrifices, local media has reported.

[...]

Belief in magic is widespread in Papua New Guinea and women suspected of being witches are often hanged or burnt to death.

Une pétition pour que Paris Hilton échappe à sa peine de prison de 45 jours

Hilton backs online pardon appeal

The petition paints Ms Hilton as a role model who "provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives".

[...]

"If the late former President Gerald Ford could find it in his heart to pardon the late former President Richard Nixon after his mistake(s), we undeniably support Paris Hilton being pardoned for her honest mistake," it says.
(je me permet de rajouter qu'en lisant cette phrase j'ai faillis m'étouffer en machonnant un bretzel imaginaire).

Qui est Gordon Brown (le successeur de Tony Blair)

What is Brown likely to do as a PM ?

On a personal level, he is regularly caricatured as a private, introspective, moody and self-sufficient individual whose ideal team consists of just one and who, when crossed, bears a grudge.

That impression has not been helped by remarks from colleagues such as former Home Secretary Charles Clarke who spoke of his psychological issues and inability, or refusal, to work with others.

[...]

In an attempt to dispel some of that image, Mr Brown has undergone a voluntary makeover of late.

He has a near-permanent smile on his face, and has been ready and even eager to talk about his family life and personal tragedies, such as the loss of his first child - again referred to during his campaign launch.

[...]

He hinted at the possibility of introducing a written constitution to underpin all that is best about the country's shared beliefs and values.

Although he made it clear that, while his first big policy will be centred on restoring trust in politicians, a written constitution may be some way away.

[...]

What is now clearer than ever, however, is his style will be different, his Cabinet team will be different and there will undoubtedly be surprises aimed at reinvigorating Labour as it prepares to face the growing threat from David Cameron's Conservatives at the next General Election.

Mort d'un paleovisitologiste

Yuriy Morozov dies

I would define this feature as follows: “elusive reality”. It is well known that people possessing paranormal abilities not infrequently turn out incapable of displaying these in the presence of skeptical investigators; poltergeists refuse to “rage” before video cameras; the only evidence of “alien abductions” is word of mouth; Nessie still remains a legend; the “Abominable Snowman” has never been caught.In essence, classical science has a certain reason when it refuses to consider these subjects. Scientists are accustomed to “normal” phenomena of the physical world that may be instrumentally recorded and reproduced under given conditions. That is why they simply cannot recognize the existence of phenomena that are not so “yielding” to researchers.

Yuri Mozov

Notes sur son ouvrage de référence, Traces of ancient astronaut (1991) sur le site du Research Institute on Anomalous Phenonema.

+
Article Wikipedia sur la Cryptozoologie.

Un nouveau degré dans la catégorie "Meurtre sanguinolant"

Man chops off his head with chainsaw

A man cut off his own head with a chainsaw after stabbing his 70-year-old father to death in their apartment in the German city of Cologne, police said.

[...]

Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son's body.

"We do not believe any third party was involved,'' he said.

Morgan Murphy - Humouriste

Why I don't want children ?
I think it's selfish to get a pet that will outlive you.
Morgan Murphy

De la prévention sur des produits radioactifs divers au Pakistan

Have you seen any nuclear material ?

Pakistan has never lost nuclear material per se, but it has a poor track record of protecting its nuclear technology. The father of its nuclear weapons programme, A.Q. Khan, is notorious for having sold the nation's secrets on the black market. Last week, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, released a report suggesting that Khan had been involved in selling nuclear secrets to Iran, in addition to North Korea and Libya.

Pakistan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority played down the significance of the ads. "No radioactive source has been stolen, lost or missed," spokesman Zaheer Ayub Baig told news@nature.com via e-mail. Baig says that the newspaper ads were simply meant to warn citizens about old medical and industrial sources that may have been lost before the founding of the nation a half-century ago. He adds that in coming weeks, advertisements will also appear in regional and English-language papers.



Lost radioactive materials, often called "orphan sources," can pose a risk to public health. In 1987, an abandoned canister of caesium-137 found in a Brazilian scrap yard led to the contamination of over 244 people. And the problem is not confined to the developing world. In March, a container of yellowcake uranium turned up in a Los Angeles area pawn shop. Yellowcake is not considered dangerous, but the store owner nevertheless called authorities.


Lewis says that the cultural stigma surrounding radiation in the West, and the relative infrequency with which sources are lost, makes the need for such advertising campaigns largely unnecessary. In Pakistan, he imagines, it might well make sense to place such an ad. But given the country's difficult history, it doesn't inspire confidence, he says. "It's having to do it in the first place that's suspicious."

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Des nouvelles d'Iran

The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of 'pornography', videos and films deemed vulgar by the country's censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each.

The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released. Source: AKI

et

Iranian president under fire for embracing his old teacher

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of indecency after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his schoolteacher.

At a ceremony on Tuesday ahead of Iranian teachers' day, Mr Ahmadinejad was photographed and filmed by state media stooping to kiss the woman's hand and then clasping her arms in an embrace.

The ultra-conservative Hezbollah newspaper, which is not related to the group in Lebanon of the same name, criticised him on the front page.

[...]

"This type of indecency progressively has grave consequences, like violating religious and sacred values."

The elderly woman, who was not named, wore thick gloves along with a headscarf and long black coat, meaning that Mr Ahmadinejad avoided any skin contact.

But his action raised eyebrows because according to sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related.