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.

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.)

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

A shitty roommate

Une ahurissante histoire de collocation
(a lire plus tard)

Celtic Frost - Martin parlant de l'industrie du disque

if you are not in control of the business, then you are not in control of the art, whatsoever.
- Martin, Celtic Frost

Merzbow - Anecdote trouvé sur Relapse

That was the Merzcar, some Swedish dude hooked up an old Mercedes so that when the engine turned on, the stereo would automatically start up and play the Merzbow disc that had been sealed in there. I read somewhere that nobody bought it so it eventually got destroyed. The CD in the car was Noisembryo, which is available as a regular release.
- Jisatsu

Norma Mailer & Marshall McLuhan en 1968 à la BBC

Débat entre Norma Mailer et Marshall McLuhan

Black Metal - Gorgoroth

Reportage et interview de Gahal de Gorgoroth
Si vous avez aimé le ".... Satan" vous aimerez encore plus ce reportage (note : pas encore vu).
Viens de visionner les cinq parties et c'est un reportage essentiel pour qui s'interesse au black metal et specialement a Gorgoroth. En fait, si vous voulez voir un musicien expliquer ce qu'il est et reconnaitre les qualités de Gaahl et de Gorgoroth, alors regardez ce reportage. Difficile de prendre l'homme pour un abrutis après cela. Le reportage en lui même est assez bof mais les réponses donnés par Gaahl sont suffisamment interessante pour justifier les vingt minutes de reportages.

War on Terror - the Boardgame

Je veux ce jeu. Pas vous ?

Des cas de rage aux Philippines

Flagellation ritual expose filipinos to rabies

A health alert was issued after a man who took part in the traditional ceremony – where participants slash their backs with knifes before flaying themselves with bamboo whips – died from the virus on 11 April.

Mario Morales, the mayor of Mabalacat in Pampanga province north of Manila, told local media that Eduardo Sese may have contaminated up to 100 people who shared knives to cut themselves. He was bitten by an infected dog in February 2007.

[...]

Self-flagellation is an annual tradition in Pampanga and other parts of the Philippines in which men whip themselves into a frenzy on Good Friday to atone for their sins.

Rabies is a viral disease that infects domestic and wild animals. It is transmitted to humans through close contact with saliva from infected animals, from example through bites, scratches or licks on broken skin.

Treatment does exist in the form of antibodies to the disease followed by a vaccine to stimulate more antibody production, but it must be administered within hours of infection. Once symptoms of the disease develop, rabies is fatal in both animals and humans. Death can occur within seven days of infection.

Don't worry ma'am, I'm from the future

Interview de Warren Ellis pour Doktor Sleepless

Fanzine - Sgnl01

Mon projet de fanzine se concrétise et je passe par myspace pour y arriver. Toutes personnes qui serait intéréssés par recevoir un exemplaire du fanzine que je mettrais en place peuvent s'ajouter a mes contacts sur cette page myspace.
Le but est de créer un réseau pour que je puisse estimer le nombre de personnes intéréssés, les gens qui voudraient collaborer et ensuite les tenir informé de l'avancé du projet.
Pour l'instant je pense faire quelques articles sur des groupes, essayer d'en contacter pour des interviews peut être, et faire des chroniques de bande dessiné. Pas d'idée encore du nombre de page mais de toute façon ceci n'est encore qu'un projet qui avance pas à pas.

Un article sur l'industrie de la musique et le RIAA

Why is the music industry dishing out free download?
Merci à Nicki
Réaction

Deux webcomics

Deux nouveaux webcomics a garder en mémoire. Un dessiné par Phil Foglio qui était auparavant, entre autre, un dessinateur d'illustration de carte Magic, et le webcomics de Sam & Max réalisé par leur créateur. Attention, il faut passer la souris sur chaque case pour avoir les bulles mais aussi pour voir quelques animations.

Zimbabwe - Vivre sous le regime de Mugabe

Living in Mugabe's Zimbabwe

I am buying bread at 6,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($0.34 at current black market exchange rate) for a loaf and two litres of cooking oil for 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($6.70).

I was only taking 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($28) home a month. But even that is no more. As of yesterday, I was laid off from my clerical job.

And now, because this is Zimbabwe, I know that I am not going to get another job.

[...]

My gran used to give me 50 Zimbabwean cents to go buy bread, butter and milk - all that for so little! It was easy to live well.

And when we were at junior school, five cents in your pocket could get you sweets to last the whole week. I tell you, finding a five cent piece on the pavement was like finding gold!

Now if you see a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note on the floor, you just keep walking. You don't stop. It is nothing - no-one will even pick it up.

[...]

Mugabe is already a hero and he always will be but there is nothing more for him to do. He must just step down.

When he was prime minister everything was fine.

But when his first wife, Sally, died, he started going the other way. That women loved our country - she did so much for us.

A lot has changed. And it all started then.

Now, our country is dead. I really want a better Zimbabwe.

Decibel - Fallen warriors of sXe

Fallen warriors of sXe
Première partie d'un article sur !e straight edge et les artistes qui furent sxe mais ont brisé leur serment au bout d'un moment. La semaine prochaine, la suite avec des personnes qui sont encore sxe aujourd'hui.

“At the time, I was already involved in a lot of what you might call DIY activities, and I felt like straight-edge was an extension of that,” he continues. “I just felt like there was a lot of apathy amongst my peers, and straight-edge was a reactionary move against that. Whether it was true or just a perceived thing on my end, I felt like drugs and drinking were connected to that apathy.”

Turner broke his edge six years later, at the age of 21. By that time, he had moved to Boston, started Isis and was finishing up art school. “I was true ’til 21, dude,” he laughs. “But I never drank—I just started smoking weed—so it didn’t really have anything to do with that age. It was more like, ‘OK, I’ve gotten what I need to out of this and I’m no longer in fear of falling into this drugged-out, pathetic state, so I’m gonna start smoking weed again.’”

Still, Turner feels that straight-edge was a positive influence on his life. “Aside from all the teenage dogma and wanting to belong and so forth, I do believe that straight-edge put me on a path that was ultimately beneficial to me,” he says. “It was part of what got me involved in the underground DIY culture, and instead of spending my time figuring out how to score drugs, I really did get more involved in the local scene and started up a distro—which eventually turned into the label—and I made contact with a lot of other like-minded individuals both within my area and outside of it. So I really do think it was a motivational force in my life. And you know, regardless of whether you endorse it or not, drinking and smoking are not good for your health. So the fact that I escaped that for a number of years was probably beneficial in that sense, too.”

[...]

Pelican guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec grew up in the Parisian suburbs, where there exists a considerably more relaxed attitude toward teenage (and even pre-teen) drinking than anywhere in the States. “I was always encouraged to drink beer or champagne at family functions—it was never banished or forbidden,” he explains. “Even in middle school, I’d get six-packs with my friends. Then I moved to South Korea when I was 11.

“Being in a new culture and being around people I couldn’t relate to, having to learn English and everything—all that was very conducive to drinking and doing a lot of drugs. My parents never really cared until everything else started to fall apart and I started doing really shitty in school. That was when I was around 15 or 16. And Korea was a really easy environment to get anything in. There were no restrictions, no drinking age, nothing—so I spent my life in bars with friends, even as early as 14 or 15. I was hanging out with GIs, prostitutes—just crazy, crazy shit. But to me it was normal because I didn’t have anything to compare it to.”

Then the shit hit the fan. “My sister, who is only a few years younger than me, started going to the same parties and that became a real problem for me—seeing her do the same things that I was doing didn’t make me feel comfortable at all,” he says. “One night, I wasn’t there, she passed out, and some people who I thought were friends of mine took advantage of her.

“She came home and wouldn’t name names, but I was enraged. I knew about straight-edge culture from some of the bands I had been listening to, so I just decided to embrace the complete opposite of what I’d been living—if only to show her that I could sever myself from that and to make a statement against what had happened. That was halfway through my senior year of high school, right before I came to the States for college.”

[...]

oth Scofield and Schleibaum would eventually break edge. Scofield managed to hold out for two years after his Cave In bandmates Steve Brodsky and Adam McGrath started drinking. “That was hard, because I was tied to the hip with those guys at that time in my life. We’d play a show and they’d be like, ‘OK, we’re going to the bar.’ I wanted to hang out with them, but I wouldn’t even go into bars at that point. So I’d just sit in the van while those guys had beers and shot the shit and had fun. I think about some of those tours we did, and I was just sitting in the van. It’s like, ‘C’mon, man—at least go hang out with your friends.’ Which I would do from time to time, but let’s face it, it’s not that cool to order Cokes at the bar.”

Scofield eventually drank his first beer at the age of 23. “It was a Coors Light tallboy from the fridge,” he recalls. “I was all by myself. I just got so tired of being… almost afraid, you know? I think one of the reasons I had never drank or smoked pot was because I was scared. I was afraid of what would happen. Eventually, I realized that it wasn’t that big of a deal to go to the bar with your friends, have a few drinks and a few laughs. It didn’t mean you were gonna turn into a crazy alcoholic.

Idée - Appel a suggestion

Je serais intéressé par un projet de fanzine version papier comprenant des articles sur les comics ou la bande dessiné en général et des interviews avec des artistes (musique, scénariste ou autre). L'idée serait de proposer :
Soit sur un format papier disponible dans des librairies, bibliothèque ou disquaire pour un prix de vente modique (type 2 euros, voir 1 euros).
Soit un forma téléchargeable sur un système de blog quelconque (Blogger ou livejournal) pour permettre aux personnes de lire les articles directement sur leur ordinateur ou de les imprimer aux quatres coins de la France (dans l'absolut).
Si vous avez des suggestions d'idées ou des objections a fournir, je suis prêt a les entendre. Tout demande de collaboration est accepté aussi mais je ne sais pas du tout si cette idée arrivera au bout de son chemin donc c'est a mettre en suspend pour le moment, mais pas a oublier.

Warren Ellis - Fanzine / Flyers

Here's an idea I float out there
every couple of years:

Years back, I stole a term from
Bruce Sterling, "ideological freeware"
-- this predated Creative Commons
-- and applied it to the notion of
web distribution of printed matter.
We were talking in terms of the
dearth of good writing about comics.
Simply put, one could create a small
magazine about comics and format
it for cheap copying in black and
white, and free it so anyone could
print off copies.  And then put it
in comics stores.  Viral distribution
from pixel to print.  SAVANT was
the one that took up the entire idea,
and the first twenty or so numbers
of that were fireworks.

I'm talking specifically about web-
to-print here, rather than the mags
where the PDF was the end result,
not the intermediate form.

What occurred to me after that,
that I don't think anyone picked up,
was the broadside format.  The
single sheet.  The broadside has a
centuries-long history as a device
for disseminating news and ideas.

I mean, flyers go up on the web to
be printed off, sure.  But it's not
quite the same thing.  Getting an
idea, or a piece of writing, on a
single sheet and saying, yes, print
this off, copy it and distribute it
wherever you like -- that'd be
interesting.

In web terms, the costs are tiny --
host the image on a free hosting
site if you're worried about the
bandwidth hit.  Use Livejournal or
Blogger for the whole thing.

Hell, I might even do it myself one

Warren Ellis
of these days...

Terence McKenna - Citation

The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish.

-- Terence McKenna

Un cimetierre sur Seconde Life

Warren Ellis - the Island of lost souls

“It’s the first thing like it I have seen in SL… an entire sim dedicated as a cemetery. It’s a strange virtual spirituality there, I guess… a friend of mine that departed in real life has her grave there. For me, it was nice, because she lived on other side of the world, and this was the only way for me to create something for her.”

Grant Morrison devient scénariste de film

Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum, the Invisibles, Superman All Star ...) scénarisera l'adaptation au cinéma du jeux vidéo Area 51. Le jeux ne me dit rien mais la zone 51 est le nom d'une mythique base de l'armée americaine censé contenir des informations sur les extra terrestres, comme des ovnis ou des cadavres de petit gris retrouvé sur le site de Roswell.

Le monde du traffic d'enfant au Philippines

Chairmans reveals seedy world of trafficking
Un interview exclusif de la BBC avec un trafiquant d'enfant aux Philippines.

Takashi Miike - Sukiyaki western

Trailer de Django
Takashi Miike adapte pour le Japon un classique du Western : Django, le cowboy qui traine son cerceuil. Bientot sortie au Japon.

Un scientifique accuse le gouvernement americain de modifier ses recherches pour des fins politiques

Scientist accuses White House of nazi tactics

James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, took particular issue with the administration's rule that a government information officer listen in on his interviews with reporters and its refusal to allow him to be interviewed by National Public Radio.

[...]

"I am concerned that many scientists are increasingly engaging in political advocacy and that some issues of science have become increasingly partisan as some politicians sense that there is a political gain to be found on issues like stem cells, teaching evolution and climate change," Issa said.

Hansen said the Bush administration was not the first in U.S. history to practice information management over government scientists, but it has been the most vigorous. He deplored a "politicization of science."

[...]

Cooney was asked about changing "will" to "may" in prepared testimony describing the impact of human activity--particularly the burning of oil and coal--on the Earth's temperature. He said his edits were based not on political views but a 2001 report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Une famille entière dédiée aux marches anti homosexuelles

The most hated family in America

The Phelps family pickets mourners across the country, to mark what it describes as God's revenge on the US for tolerating homosexuality.

Their actions are in the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers 71 and is headed by "Gramps", preacher Fred Phelps. The church, which is based in Topeka, Kansas, mostly comprises his extended family.

[...]

They're well known because of these pickets which they've been doing for at least 15 years now. The pickets weren't always of soldiers' funerals, but it got more extreme as it went on. Originally it started as pickets of places where gay people congregated - a local park becoming a cruising area which they objected to, and then when Aids came along they said it was punishment for homosexuality and they began picketing Gay Pride parades and marches and also then the funerals of people who died of Aids. And they didn't originally use offensive words like "fag". They would say "homosexuality", but then it just escalated.

[...]

They go to school; you can have normal conversations with these people. They're intelligent, high achieving, have good jobs, and they're kind, for the most part, when they're not on pickets. They're easy to communicate with and deal with too. It's just this one area - their pickets.

[...]

I think that the pastor is not a very nice person. I think he's an angry person who's twisted the Bible and picked and chosen verses that support his anger, that sort of justify his anger, and he's instilled that in his children and they've passed it on to their children. Although the second and third generation are by and large quite nice people from what I saw, they still live under the influence of their Gramps.

Une camera a l'épaule pour agir a distance sur des appareils

Shoulder worn camera acts a third eye

The system can recognise when the wearer is pointing with a finger, grasping an object or resting their hands on a surface.

Pointing can direct the camera towards a target. Or it can be used to overlay virtual objects on a video picture. This video shows virtual objects being generated and positioned with different hand gestures.

"If you are going to use wearable computers, you cannot use a computer and mouse," Mayol Cuevas says. Instead, users may one day assemble their own "virtual workspace" around them using a wearable computer and a head-mounted display, he suggests.

"A person's hands are always there to see," he told New Scientist. "I want to have the system use that to tell if you are, say, cooking or eating." This information could warn a computer to reroute phone calls to avoid interruptions, or cause it to bring up information on a computer screen or head-mounted display related to the task in hand.

Des morçeaux de victimes du 11 septembre mélangés aux gravas utilisés pour les routes

9/11 remains possibly used on road

Eric Beck, a construction worker employed at the Fresh Kills landfill in the borough of Staten Island, where the rubble was taken after the Twin Towers fell, said in his affidavit that the process of sifting through the debris was rushed.

Beck said he saw sanitation workers removing small pieces of debris containing possible bone fragments and loading them "onto tractors, and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts."

Des moutons dotés d'organes humains pour la transplantation

Now scientist creates a sheep that's 15% human

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

[...]

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

[...]

But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV.

William Blake - Citation

"Sans contradictions, il n'est pas de progression"
William Blake
extrait de "Vers une écologie de l'esprit" de Gregory Bateson (p.325)

Grant Morrison - Interview

Morrison à Pop Image
Je me souviens avoir lut cet interview il y a un an ou deux et l'avoir beaucoup apprecié bien que je ne comprenais pas tout les concepts. Le temps est venu de s'y remettre et de voir la différence.

Comic Book - Innocent ?

Superdickery
Comment rire avec les pires couvertures de comics au monde et la preuve ultime que Superman est un viel enfoiré.

You can be a magician today

Disinfo.2 - Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, scénariste de the Invisible, the Filth ... parle de magie et d'une méthode pour faire devenir de vos souhaits une réalité. Méthode simple pour y arriver et atteindre ses désirs :
Choisir un souhait réalisable, quelque chose d'assez crédible, l'écrire sur un bout de papier, retirer les voyelles de tout les mots et ne conserver que les consonnes. Puis, transformer cet ensemble de lettre en un symbole magique, n'importe lequel, ce que vous voulez, pour former une image, un symbole personnel qui représentera votre souhait.

Encyclopedie Marvel

Marvel Universe - the Appendix
Un receuil de la plupart des personnages de l'univers Marvel avec un profil détaillé, bio et photo comprise. De quoi se demander comment il peut rester un criminel normal dans l'univers Marvel ou même un flic sans un pouvoir particulier.

Quelques videos pour la route

Car il faut rire parfois, vous pouvez appeler Ahmed. Ensuite vous n'aurez qu'a vous rendre dans le magasin du coin pour acheter de l'ammeublement. En rentrant, n'oubliez pas de boire un bon verrre de Bukake avec votre chat. Et puis surtout, le soir, allez cambrioler de la façon la plus créative qu'il soit le supermarché du coin.

Terrorstorm sur Google video

Terrorstorm
Dernier reportage en date de Alex Jones, le commentateur radio croyant des les Illuminatis et autre théories étrange de ce genre.

Outfoxed sur Google video

Outfoxed
Un reportage sur la chaine de télévision, Fox News, démontrant le biais très important des reportages et des présentateurs en faveur du gouvernement Bush. Les témoins sont pour la plupart des analystes ou des anciens employés de la Fox qui apportent une vision unique d'une chaine de télévision dont chaque nouvelle est orienté d'une certaine manière.

Rechauffement planétaire part - L'homme est une des causes

Climate change 2007 : the Physical science basis
La première partie d'un document .pdf sur le changement climatique contenant les résultats de 2500 scientifiques affirmant que l'homme est en partie responsable du rechauffement climatique.

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years (see Figure SPM-1). The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture.

[...]

Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. This is an advance since the TAR’s conclusion that “most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations”. Discernible human influences now extend to other aspects of climate, including ocean warming, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns (see Figure SPM-4 and Table SPM-2)

Rechauffement planétaire (suite)

“The shift to climate being a major focal point came about for two very distinct reasons.

The first reason was because by the mid-80’s the majority of people now agreed with all the reasonable things we in the environmental movement were saying they should do. Now when a majority of people agree with you, it’s hard to remain confrontational with them. And so the only way to remain anti-establishment was to adopt ever more extreme positions. When I left Greenpeace it was in the midst of them adopting a campaign to ban chlorine worldwide. I said ‘guys, this is one of the elements in the periodic table you know, I’m not sure it’s in our jurisdiction to be banning an entire element’.

The other reason that environmental extremism emerged was because world communism failed, the wall came down and a lot of peaceniks and political activists moved into the environmental movement, bringing their neo-Marxism with them, and learned to use 'green language' in a very clever way to cloak agendas that actually had more to do with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization than they do with anything in ecology or science”.

Patrick Moore (co fondateur de Green peace)

Le rechauffement planetaire est il due à l'homme ?

the Great global warming swindle

Are you green? How many flights have you taken in the last year? Feeling guilty about all those unnecessary car journeys? Well, maybe there's no need to feel bad. According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn't your fault and there's nothing you can do about it. We've almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they've got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming

Intoxication à la vodka en Russie

When vodka is your poison

[Putin] has brought in a series of laws, tripling the price of vodka and threatening dire penalties if people drink black market moonshine, which they call samogon.

And that is, of course, what everybody who can't afford shop-bought vodka does.

They called it the yellow death. It started in the summer when dozens of people turned up in casualty, a vile shade of yellow.

They called it the yellow death. It started in the summer when dozens of people turned up in casualty, a vile shade of yellow.

The dozens turned to hundreds, then a thousand. The better cases recovered, but will die long before their time.

The worst cases? Natasha is not yet 30, she's got a seven-year-old boy called Maxim and she has less than a year to live.

Her whole body has gone yellow - an instantly recognisable feature of toxic hepatitis.

Something has destroyed her liver and now all the natural toxins in the body are stacking up.

Her own body is poisoning her and there is nothing medicine - or at least nothing state medicine in Russia - can do about it.

[...]

A doctor told me that the most likely cause was something which had been added to the moonshine - polyhexamethylene biguanide hydrochloride.

And that stuff had got on the market as a medical disinfectant, Extrasept. It was 95% pure alcohol and tax exempt - making it cheaper than moonshine.

Dodgy traders had mixed the cheaper Extrasept with the home-made samogon - and made a killing.

[...]

Later, when we got back to London, we had Extrasept tested on human liver cells - and it killed every single one.

Reportage de la BBC sur Hunter S Thompson

BBC documentary on Hunter S Thompson
1978 BBC documentary in Gonzovision

Serbian vampire hunter against Milosevic

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic's come back

Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back - by driving a three-foot stake through his heart.
According to Ananova, the politically-motivated Van Helsings, led by Miroslav Milosevic (no relation), gave themselves up to cops after attacking the deceased despot in his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac.

[...]

Miroslav Milosevic said "he and his fellow vampire hunters acted to stop the former dictator returning from the dead to haunt the country". His team explained that the wooden stake had been "driven into the ground and through the late president's heart".

Art Bell - Enregistrement mystère

Art bell gets a frantic call from an ex worker of Area 51 about earth change

The following tape was sent to me by a webfriend named Teri. It is a short segment from a radio show that Art Bell did, I understand, in 1997.

[...]

When you listen to this tape, listen to your intuition. Listen to you gut reaction. Feel this guy's emotion. If you get chicken-skin (goose-bumps), I believe that is your higher self telling you that what you hear is the truth.

When you hear silence on the tape - keep listening. There is more after a fairly long break. The silence is because within 2.08 minutes of speaking, the caller was knocked off the phone line. There was a massive shut down.

I am told that on the very next program Art said they found out what the problem was: Their satellite had LOST EARTH LOCK. That means, it was KNOCKED OUT OF POSITION!!! What would have the immense power and capability to knock one a satellite out of position so quickly???

[...]

Here is a transcript of the talk:

"Hello Art? Art? Hi....I don't have a whole lot of time..um...I was a former employee of Area 51...I was let go on a medical discharge about a week ago...and...and...(starts to cry)...I kinda been running across the country...um...um....man....I don't know WHERE to start......they'll triangulate on this position really, really soon... (starting to break up and get more frantic--Art tells him to give us something quick>)...OK...um...um....What we're thinking of as Aliens ...they're EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL BEINGS...that an earlier precursor of the SPACE PROGRAM MADE CONTACT WITH...uh...they are NOT what they claim to be...uh...they have INFILTRATED a lot of aspects of the MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT particularily Area 51...uh...the DISASTERS that are coming...the GOVERNMENT knows about them....and there's a lot of SAFE AREAS in this WORLD THAT THEY COULD BEGIN MOVING THE POPULATION TO...N O W - Art.....but they are NOT doing anything about it... THEY WANT THE MAJOR POPULATION CENTERS - WIPED OUT SO THAT THE FEW THAT ARE LEFT WILL BE MORE EASILY CONTROLLABLE....(breaking up more, starting to cry...)...I started getting...." Silence - Art went off the air at that point.

Cette retranscription de l'enregistrement peut être entendu à la fin de l'album "Lateralus" de Tool. Un enregistrment est aussi téléchargeable ici.

Note : Area 51 est le nom donné a une zone d'essai pour de la technologie extra terrestre récupéré par l'armée americaine.

France - Nouvelle loi sur la diffusion de film montrant des actes de violence sans être un journaliste

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

[...]

The law, proposed by Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended to clamp down on a wide range of public order offenses. During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offense of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of “happy slapping,” in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker’s friends.

[...]

The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules. The journalists’ organization Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for a free press, has warned that such a system could lead to excessive self censorship as organizations worried about losing their certification suppress certain stories.

Jean Baudrillart (Philosophe et Sociologue)

French philosopher and social theorist Jean Baudrillard dies

Baudrillard, a sociologist by training, is perhaps best known for his concepts of "hyperreality" and "simulation."

Baudrillard advocated the idea that spectacle is crucial in creating our view of events - what he termed "hyperreality." Things do not happen if they are not seen to happen.

[...]

The public's - and even the military's - view of the conflict came largely through television images; Saddam Hussein was not defeated; the U.S.-led coalition scarcely battled the Iraqi military and did not really win, since little was changed politically in Iraq after all the carnage. All the sound and fury signified little, he argued.

The Sept. 11 attacks, in contrast, were the hyper-real event par excellence - a fusion of history, symbolism and dark fantasy, "the mother of all events."

His views on the attacks sparked controversy. While terrorists had committed the atrocity, he wrote, "It is we who have wanted it. . . . Terrorism is immoral, and it responds to a globalization that is itself immoral."

Japan - Une centaine de couple font l'amour dans une même pièce

A hundred couples having sex in one room
Un centaine de couple de japonais se sont retrouvés dans une sorte de hangar ou des futons avait été deposé sur le sol. Puis ... par couple, ils ont fait l'amour.
Je me demande si cela a un interêt autre que pour un fantasme de hippie sur le retour ou pour gagner une place dans le livre des records mais c'est maintenant fait et le monde peut passer a un nouveau record encore plus incroyable. En fait, c'est là tout l'interet de faire ce genre de choses : Placer une pierre dans le temps, prouver que cela est possible, et inciter d'autres a faire la même chose en encore plus grand.

Body parts sent to wrong adress

Body parts from China intended for a US laboratory have been mistakenly sent to a Michigan home by a delivery firm.

The authorities believe 28 more bubble-wrapped human organs could have been dispersed across the country.

The body parts - which are preserved - were for medical research, police spokesman Roger Parent said.

Conservapedia - Wikipedia par et pour des conservateurs

Conservapedia

Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American.

[...]

You will much prefer using Conservapedia compared to Wikipedia if you want concise answers free of "political correctness".

Cherchez l'erreur.

Paprika de Satoshi Kon

Paprika

Fanzine au fomat pdf

Your pdf's mag magazine
Un site regroupant de nombreux fanzines au format pdf téléchargeables gratuitement.

Putting back the punk into steam punk

Steam punk #01
Un magazine au format pdf, téléchargeable gratuitement, avec des nouvelles de, entre autre, Michael Moorcock.

Un cas d'inceste devant les tribunaux en Allemagne

Brother and sister fight for right to continue their incestuous affair

"We want the law which makes incest a crime to be abolished," said Mr Stübing - who faces the prospect of another jail term for continuing his relationship with his sister. "We do not feel guilty about what has happened between us," both added in a joint statement.

[...]

"We are dealing with a piece of legislation which dates back to the last century and which no longer makes any sense," said Jerzy Montag, a spokesman for Germany's Green party.

[...]

They went on to have four children. All but one of them have been placed in care and two are mentally damaged as a result of inbreeding. In 2002, Mr Stübing was given a one-year suspended sentence after being found guilty on 16 counts of "illegal coitus" with his sister.

[...]

Mr Stübing, an unemployed mechanic, was released from jail last year and is still living with his sister. Although he has had himself sterilised to avoid fathering more children, he could be sent back to jail at any time for persistently reoffending.

George Dvorsky - Islamic fascism

Islamic fascism, actually yes

Many people have the idea that fascism is the monopoly of white supremacist types. This is not the case. At its core, fascism describes the rise of a self-identified group that has grossly exaggerated its historical and societal significance. This self-identity, which typically manifests as a sense of superiority or shared destiny, can encompass anything from race, nationhood, religion, and a shared cultural heritage.

[...]

Al-Qaeda, for example, is a paramilitary organization with the stated task of reducing the outside influence of Islamic affairs. This is very much an example of cultural xenophobia and an overstated sense of social mission. Like the fascists of 20th century Europe who feared the specter of Bolshevik globalization, many Muslims today fear the encroachment of American and Jewish values. The result is a far-right, exclusionary, militaristic, and hyper-sensitive counter-reaction in the form of fascism. (j'ajoute aussi a ce sujet l'anti americanisme ambiant qui est tout de même prohiminent dans nos medias nationaux et qui peut aussi devenir problématique si on reste dans la même problématique).

[...]

Indeed, democracy, due process and other elements of social justice as we know it in liberal democracies are absent in countries like Iran and the former Taliban Afghanistan. The goal of these theocracies is to embed religious ideology across the land and to maintain a monopoly on all ideas and institutions; radical Islam, like any totalitarian ideology, is enforced as the alpha and omega of personal existence (the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior). In this sense the revolution that is Islamic totalitarianism is comparable to the Stalinization of the Soviet Union and the work of the Nazis in 1930’s Germany. The Soviets tried to create a worker's utopia and the New Man, while the Nazis worked to ensure racial purity and create a 1,000 year Reich; Islamic fundamentalists want to create a heaven on earth – a phenomenon comparable to the quasi-totalitarian and theocratic efforts of the Calvinists in 16th century Geneva.

Ring sur youtube

Trouvé dans les commentaires d'une video de youtube

In 1876, a young girl named Jenn was walking down a river, an insane man killed her by stabbing her in the back, raping her, and then hanging her in his closet. While he hanged her he said Bukakke Bukkake.
Now that you have read this message, she will find you and her dead body will haunt your house for 5 years. Every night you go to sleep she will appear in your closet, hanging their with her glowing red eyes.
repost 3 times to be saved

Même en supprimant les chains mails ont tombe sur des conneries du même genre.

George Dvorsky - le Menace des bloggers

Cyberwarfare and the "blogger threat"

It's generally felt that, with the meteoric rise of the Internet and with the information and communication revolutions still in full swing, the threat of networked groups and individuals to spread disinfo and to engage in widescale social engineering campaigns has never been greater. One could imagine a fleet of blogs calling for people to rise up over an issue like runaway global warming.

Consequently, that the Homeland Security Department considers bloggers a potential threat really shouldn't come as a complete surprise; the military would likely shut down threatening and subversive blogs during times of war or civil unrest. (voir par exemple les blogs de soldats en Irak qui documentaient la guerre sur le terrain et qui se sont vu fermé car ils propageaient une vision différente de la vision officiel).

[...]

Freedom of speech is a peacetime luxury.

At the same time, however, I have to think that the real impact bloggers could conceivably have is over-stated. I don't think memes work in such a pervasive way, particularly not today in the age of diversified media. If blogs could actually cause people to riot, for example, it's not because the blogs are telling them to do so, but because there's a genuine reason for doing so. (conclusion : les blogs sont un symptome d'un besoin d'information et non à l'origine d'un phénomène, ils ne font que le colporter).

John Fante - Romancier

John Fante - Wikipedia

Recurring themes in Fante's work are poverty, Catholicism, family life, Italian-American identity, sports, and the writing life. Anyone interested in the literature of Los Angeles would do well reading "Ask the Dust," as it has been referred to over the years as a monumental Southern California/Los Angeles novel by a host of reputable sources (e.g.: Carey McWilliams, Charles Bukowski, and The Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Georges Dvorsky - Nier l'holocauste et nier le rechauffement de la planète

The right to be wrong

And just last week a dispute erupted in Oregon, where Gov. Ted Kulongoski has considered firing the state's climatologist George Taylor, who has said human activity isn't the chief cause of global climate change. "It seems if scientists don't express the views of the political establishment, they will be threatened and that is a discomforting thought," said Alabama state climatologist John Christie, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Indeed, the notion that certain lines of scientific inquiry be prohibited is unacceptable and runs against the spirit of academic due diligence. Part of the problem here is that bona fide research is often conflated with the malevolent work of the denial industry; there is a growing network of fake citizens' groups, extremists, and bogus scientific bodies who are claiming that the science of global warming is inconclusive. These groups, to no one's surprise, are the sorry spawn of corporations who have the most to lose in the struggle against greenhouse gas emissions. Exxon is one company that certainly comes to mind.

[...]

The war against climate change is at risk of becoming a new religion where 'climate contrarians' have been pegged as the new blasphemers. At its extreme, global warming skeptics may be at risk of being accused of crimes against humanity.

Les limites des reportages sur le 11 Septembre

9/11 : the video
(une inscription est necessaire pour consulter l'intégralité de l'article)

Possibly the most prolific conspiracy filmmaker is radio talk show host Alex Jones. Something of an expert in the production of underground videos, Jones is famous for making Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove (2000), in which he sneaks into the Bohemian Grove compound in Northern California in order to expose what he believes are the secret occult rituals practised by world leaders and top business executives. (cf. Conspiration des Illuminatis)

[...]

Jones’s recent films almost fall beyond the scope of conspiracy theory, and his analyses of the constitutional ramifications of the Patriot Act are incredibly thorough; however he often becomes immersed in notions of global government, the role of the Skull and Bones Society in American politics, and secret Nazi links.

[...]

89 per cent of respondents to a 2004 CNN Poll believed that the US government was covering up information regarding 9/11, yet their concerns are only rarely reflected in the mainstream media, and demands that investigations be opened and evidence released are ignored.

[...]

Subsequent events, such as the flooding of New Orleans, have revealed a government that lacked the organisational skills to evacuate a few hundred people from a sports stadium, despite the press repeatedly demanding action; it seems unlikely that this same government could organise 9/11. Moreover, an event like 9/11 would have needed numerous conspirators and co-conspirators to make sure that it would work according to plan. With such a large number of people involved, surely somebody would eventually, even accidentally, spill the beans.

the Onion - Restriction on child's imagination

Child safety experts calls for restriction on child's imagination

Although no cure has yet been developed for childhood imagination, preventative measures can deter children from potentially hazardous bouts of make-believe.

"Many of the suggestions are really quite simple, like breaking down cardboard boxes or sewing cushions to couches so they cannot be converted into forts or playhouses," McMillan said. "Blank pieces of paper, which can inspire non-reality-based drawings, should be discarded unless they are used in one of our recommended diagonal folding and unfolding activities. And all loose sticks left lying in the yard should be carefully labeled 'Not a Sword.'"

Ceci est bien sur extrait d'un site parodique.

Takashi Miike - Citation

Takashi Miike a propos de the Audition
"Le film est dangereux, mais moins que d'être un être humain".

Alex Jones - Brain scan

Big Brother brain scan to detect pre crime

Sebastian Brant - Theologien

"There is nothing nowadays that our children... fail to know."
Sebastian Brant

50 brilliant mind forecast

Brilliant mind forecast

Michael Gazzaniga
Does our species have a moral compass? Do we mostly get along because we enjoy common reactions to similar challenges? Can we truly understand how we understand others, their intentions, desires and beliefs? Understanding these issues is what is coming down the pike.

Robert May
The significant breakthrough we really need is better understanding of human institutions, particularly of the impediments to collective, cooperative activity in which all individuals pay small costs to reap large group benefits. Darwin recognised the evolution of cooperative behaviour as one of the most important unsolved problems of his day

Helen Heber Katz
Advances in heart regeneration are around the corner, digits will be regrown within five to ten years, and limb regeneration will occur a few years later. Central nervous system repair will occur first with the retina and optic nerve and later with the spinal cord. Within 50 years whole-body replacement will be routine.

Stephen Wolfram
I expect the children of 50 years from now will learn cellular automata before they learn algebra.

Timothy Gowers
However, one of the great gaps in our knowledge is that nobody knows how to show that searching for solutions really is harder than checking that the solutions are correct. This is the P = NP problem.
[...]
Therefore, if we found a solution to the P = NP problem it would profoundly affect our understanding of mathematics, and would rank alongside the famous undecidability results of Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing.

Igor Aleksander
The notion that information has a physical basis, like the wind, is itself less than 50 years old. Those involved in the rapid development of computation now have the power to understand the brain-machine in a way that was not possible through classical sciences. They are beginning to formalise the many elements of what we call consciousness.

Michael Benton
Well, until we have a near-complete tree of life, it is hard to understand large-scale patterns such as rates of evolution, mass extinctions and diversifications. It would be nice to know for sure whether the diversifications of flowering plants and of social insects are linked, whether the demise of the dinosaurs really opened the world to mammals, when and how life moved onto land, whether the Cambrian explosion was a real event, and when and how the major increases in biological complexity were achieved. We might even find out what lies at the very root of the tree.

Frank Wilczek
The sun rains about 10,000 times as much energy onto Earth as we now use. We'll learn how to capture at least a thousandth of that energy, thus vastly increasing the world's wealth.

Geoffrey Miller
Thus, science will kill religion - not by reason challenging faith, but by offering a more practical, universal and rewarding moral framework for human interaction.

Elizabeth Loftus
I've spent three decades learning how to alter people's memories. I've even gone so far as planting entirely false memories into the minds of ordinary people - memories such as being lost in a shopping mall, cutting your hand on broken glass or even witnessing demonic possession as a child, all planted through the power of suggestion.
[...]
In 2048, a descendant of George Orwell will write 2084, a book about a totalitarian society in need of control. When we have mastered the false memory recipes, we will need to worry about who controls them. What brakes should be imposed on police, lawyers, advertisers? More than ever, we'll need to constantly keep in mind that memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing.

Terry Sejnowski
To understand how the brain creates consciousness we must first understand unconscious processing, which does most of the heavy lifting for us. I suspect that when we start to make progress with this the problem of consciousness will, like the Cheshire cat, disappear, leaving only a smile in the air.

Gouvernement des Etats Unis - Quelques chiffres

Department of justice - 2008 budget request

-- Preventing and Combating Terrorism: $227 million
-- Preventing Violent Crime: $214 million
-- Drugs and Border Security: $89 million
-- Crimes Against Children and Obscenity: $25 million
-- Judicial System Support and Incarceration: $152 million
-- Enforcing Federal Laws in the Courts: $33 million
-- Management and Information Technology: $75 million

Ask Earache

Un groupe demande des conseils a Digby Pearson, directeur du label Earache Record

Réponses :
I thought with mentioning Killswitch as an influence,that maybe there would be some melodic vocals, but none materialised so i was kinda bummed on that one-maybe try some melodic chorus passages?

Et on se demande pourquoi le metalcore est aussi présent ...

You were right to send me the link to your myspace page- its the hands down BEST online way to cultivate a fanbase and so, get a career going.I see you have 9000 profile views, thats about typical for up n coming bands like yourselves..however, labels like us get really excited to see 100,000+ profile views, so you have 91,000 more to go.

Et on se demande pourquoi Job for a Cowboy a été signé ...

"Honoo no Yoko" (Flaming Yoko)

Stripper's blazing performance makes fan shout "fire" in a crowded theatre

Then came the climax of her stage performance, the routine from she got the stage name "Flaming Yoko": She would inject a quantity of alcohol into her vagina, part her thighs and spurt the liquid towards a waiting flame.

As a safety measure to spare those in the first row of seats from singed eyebrows and possible first-degree burns, Yoko would request customers to lean back away from the stage. "This is being done in complete defiance of fire regulations," she would warn them in a verbal disclaimer.

The great ball of fire at the climax of her performance was the source of considerable anticipation, and excited male fans often got into the act, counting down "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and then, in unison shouting "Fire!" as she let fly, causing an impressively large fireball to burst forth in mid-air.

Ceci n'est pas un extrait d'un roman mais le recit de la performance réelle d'un strip teaseuse japonaise. La performance physique en elle même est impressionante mais ce qui m'impressionne le plus est le fait que des gens suivent et viennent voir, et participent même, a ce genre de spectacle dans le cadre d'un strip tease. Mise a part le coté spectaculaire, je ne vois pas quel genre d'excitation une performance de ce type peut provoquer.

Keisuke Kichi - Artiste / Sculpteur japonais

Maquette ? Sculpture ? Je ne sais pas trop comment définir le travail de Keisuke Kichi mais ce qui est certain a mes yeux c'est que son travail est très très interessant. Assez proche de l'imaginaire des films des studios Gibli dans la réalisation visuel, l'origine japonaise de l'auteur ne fait pas de doute quand on voit les visages et les designs de ces personnages. Sa vision du futur placé sous le regard nostalgique des années ou l'on imaginait encore comment seraient les années 2000 est une pierre de plus dans la mythologie du steam punk et autre courant neo retro.

Une meilleur perspective des planètes de notre système solaire

Quel taille a vraiment notre planète par rapport aux autres ?

Plutocracy - Definition

Plutocracy - Wikipedia

A plutocracy is a form of government where the state's power is centralized in an affluent social class. The degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low. This can apply to a multitude of government systems, as the key elements of plutocracy transcend and often occur concurrently with the features of those systems. The word plutocracy itself is derived from the ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratein, meaning to rule or to govern.

Kezanti - Sculpteur de vie

Kezanti est un sculpteur dont les réalisations me rappelle assez les peintures de Alex Grey par leurs couleurs et aussi par l'intention porté surtout aux muscles et aux terminaisons nerveuses. Il réalise aussi des sculptures mobiles comme ce tigre dont les muscles prohiminents me rappellent l'animal domestique de Musclor dans les Maitres de l'Univers.

Thou Shall not be Gay (part 2)

Vous vous souvenez de Love God's Way quelque posts plus bas ?
Et bien voilà une deuxième dose :
Donnie Davies - God hates a fag (la video)
Et son site officiel aussi !
En gros, Donnie serait un "homosexuel réformé" qui aurait découvert son homosexualité au lycée et aurait vaincu ses "désirs impures" grace à Dieu. Et donc maintenant, il le sait : God Hates a Fag ! (trad : Dieu hait les pédés).