Hervé Le Crosnier (@hlc) - Seenthis

Angelina Jolie and the One Percent | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

2013-05-21T13:32:17Z

Angelina Jolie and the One Percent | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network
►http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/05/20/angelina-jolie-and-the-one-percent

As a result, many women overestimate their breast cancer risk, choose double mastectomies when cancer is only detected in one breast and there is no medical reason for doing so, and experience overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and an overabundance of self-surveillance. Genetic testing now blasts into the risk-focused cancer surveillance market with the joyful promise of proactive, empowered, life-saving decision-making — a promise they may help to deliver for people in the one percent. But with more than 1000 mutations already identified in the BRCA genes (and others yet to be discovered), most genetic profiles and treatment options are not so straightforward.

The value of preventive measures for people at high risk notwithstanding, risk itself is a valuable commodity. The stock for Myriad Genetics — the company that presently owns the patents on the breast cancer genes and monopolizes the market on BRCA analysis (e.g., trademarked as BRACAnalysis) — went up 3 percent the day of the op-ed to a three-year high with twice the usual trading volume. Myriad markets both to consumers directly and to physicians and other health practitioners

The Angelina Jolie case opens the door for thinking about what is at stake in the cancer wars especially for people at increased risk. Yet Angelina Jolie is in a unique and privileged position. She can get the best care, top surgeons, family help, and everything else that comes with power and wealth. For the rest of us, tough medical decisions come with other costs. But we all deserve quality information, evidence-based medicine, and access to comprehensive and coordinated health care that is free from conflicts of interest and the profit motives of commercial enterprises that are eager take advantage of our fears while selling us superficial “solutions” to our problems.

Intel's Data Economy Initiative Aims to Help People Capture the Value of Personal Data | MIT…

2013-05-21T13:03:37Z

Intel's Data Economy Initiative Aims to Help People Capture the Value of Personal Data | MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514386/intel-fuels-a-rebellion-around-your-data

And that's the wider dilemma: our personal data is inextricably tied to “big data”—those far larger data sets that now power many of the online services we use. If you don't tell a navigation app where you are, it can't tell you where to turn, or tell others there's traffic ahead. One doesn't work without the other. What's more, the economic importance of products fueled with personal data is growing rapidly. According to the Boston Consulting Group, as methods for basing transactions on a person's digital records have spread from banks to retailers and other sectors, the financial value that companies derived from personal data in Europe was $72 billion in 2011. The consultants concluded that “personal data has become a new form of currency.”

Procès PIP : réquisitoire contre « la lâcheté » et « l'amateurisme » d'une « triste odyssée…

2013-05-15T21:06:44Z

Procès PIP : réquisitoire contre « la lâcheté » et « l'amateurisme » d'une « triste odyssée commerciale » | Chroniques judiciaires
http://prdchroniques.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/05/14/proces-pip-requisitoire-contre-la-lachete-et-lamateurisme

« L'un des enjeux de ce procès, a observé Ludovic Leclerc, c'est de comprendre comment un pays comme le nôtre a laissé grandir cette fraude. Comprendre aussi comment un certain nombre d'individus, au prix d'un arrangement avec leur conscience, ont accepté l'inacceptable ».

C'est effectivement la bonne question. Elle se pose aussi pour Spanghero, pour une large part de l'agro-alimentaire,...

One Company Has Enormous Power in the Breast Cancer 'Market' — and Their Pricey Test Could Be…

2013-05-15T20:33:34Z

One Company Has Enormous Power in the Breast Cancer 'Market' — and Their Pricey Test Could Be Costing Lives | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/one-company-has-enormous-power-breast-cancer-market-and-their-pricey-test-

Angelina Jolie's op-ed about her approach to mitigating breast cancer risk helped a company's stock value rise 4%. Is that what medicine is really about?

South Africa To Launch National Traditional Knowledge Recording System | Intellectual Property…

2013-05-10T10:15:47Z

South Africa To Launch National Traditional Knowledge Recording System | Intellectual Property Watch
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/10/south-africa-to-launch-national-traditional-knowledge-recording-system

The CSIR considers that traditional knowledge should be part of the modern knowledge economy, Seneti told Intellectual Property Watch. “One of the aims is to try to make those communities that hold this traditional knowledge, part of the mainstream economy.

Other challenges were finding communities who hold this knowledge, he said. “We had to establish social networks among community leaders. They had to be reassured that if the knowledge was entrusted to us, it was going to be protected.”
“We organised meetings and training sessions on what is intellectual property and the advantage for communities to share their knowledge. It was very difficult negotiating with those communities, in particular traditional healers for which this traditional knowledge is their means of living,” “It was a huge issue,” he confirmed, adding “we do not own the knowledge, we keep it.”
The public domain has been a much-debated issue at the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), which met from 22-26 April. On this issue, Seneti said the traditional knowledge that is in the NRS is publicly available but it is not in the public domain, as it belongs to the communities (IPW, WIPO, 28 April 2013). In the system, all contextual information about traditional knowledge is translated into English, he said, but the substance is left in original language and would only be provided upon substantiated requests.

Prices Cut for HPV Cervical Cancer Vaccines for Neediest - NYTimes.com

2013-05-10T10:01:37Z

Prices Cut for HPV Cervical Cancer Vaccines for Neediest - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/health/prices-cut-for-hpv-cervical-cancer-vaccines-for-neediest.html

Gardasil and Cervarix, given to girls as young as 9, have caused controversy in the United States, where many parents fear side effects and worry that girls will see the vaccines as condoning sex at a young age. The vast majority of girls in the United States have not been inoculated.
In Australia, where the vaccines have been readily accepted, a recent study found a striking drop in cervical abnormalities, which are cancer precursors, among young women. In the five years after the vaccine was introduced there, cases of warts dropped by 93 percent among women and girls under age 21.
Despite the excitement among global health agencies, the charity Doctors Without Borders called the news “disappointing,” arguing that the prices should be even lower. “Why are the pharmaceutical companies still making profits off the backs of the poorest countries?” asked Kate Elder, a vaccines policy specialist at the charity.

Onze logiques économiques qui changent le monde | Même pas mal

2013-05-03T06:42:09Z

Onze logiques économiques qui changent le monde | Même pas mal
►http://alternatives.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/05/02/onze-logiques-economiques-qui-changent-le-monde

Définie par Isabelle Delannoy, l'économie symbiotique tend à intègrer l'ensemble des modèles décrits ci-dessus. « L'émergence parallèle et non concertée de ces modèles montre qu'un vrai nouveau souffle irrigue notre époque et avance de façon autonome et forte, rassemblant de plus en plus d'industriels, de territoires, de citoyens et de consommateurs dans un mouvement qui a dépassé les signaux faibles » peut-on lire sur ce site dédié. Leur point commun ? Coupler la rentabilité économique avec la restauration des écosystèmes et la résilience sociale. Ce qu'ils peuvent atteindre ensemble ? Une toute nouvelle voie pour le développement durable, un développement où l'homme ne fait pas « moins pire » mais « bien ».

Wikipedia Decides to Segregate American Women Authors | Alternet

2013-04-25T21:50:50Z

Wikipedia Decides to Segregate American Women Authors | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/wikipedia-decides-segregate-american-women-authors?akid=10364.108806.EOdaA

Wikipedia editors have started quietly moving female authors out of the “ American novelists” category and into a newly-created sub-category for “ American women novelists,” with the intention, it seems, of creating an”American novelists” page comprised entirely of men. There is currently no corollary sub-category for “American men novelists.”

Energie : les lobbies sans transition | Mediapart

2013-04-25T21:44:38Z

Energie : les lobbies sans transition | Mediapart
http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/190413/energie-les-lobbies-sans-transition

Défense des intérêts industriels immédiats contre investissements vers un nouveau modèle énergétique : dans ce bras de fer, la question des gaz de schiste occupe une place de choix. Elle est devenue symbolique du rapport de force que les industries cherchent à instaurer avec le pouvoir politique. Ancienne présidente d'Areva, et membre du comité de pilotage du débat, Anne Lauvergeon n'est pas étrangère à l'élaboration de cette position commune, d'après un organisateur.

Bioengineers Build Open Source Language for Programming Cells | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

2013-04-24T09:51:36Z

Bioengineers Build Open Source Language for Programming Cells | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/04/bio-fab-open-source-language

According to Endy, this notion began with a group of students from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco a half decade ago, and he's now calling for a commercial company to recreate Sun Microsystems' Java vision in the biological world. It's worth noting, however, that this vision never really came to fruition — and that Sun Microsystems is no more.
Nonetheless, this is what Endy is shooting for — right down to Sun's embrace of open source software. The BIOFAB language will be freely available to anyone, and it will be a collaborative project.

La biologie de synthèse est effectivement une manière de reprendre ce qui a échoué en informatique et de l'appliquer au vivant, en espérant un miracle, justement parce qu'il s'agit de vivant.

Bombing Suspect Cites Islamic Extremist Beliefs as Motive - NYTimes.com

2013-04-24T09:43:46Z

Bombing Suspect Cites Islamic Extremist Beliefs as Motive - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/boston-marathon-bombing-developments.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20

But they said some of his statements suggested that the two brothers could represent the kind of emerging threat that federal authorities have long feared: angry and alienated young men, apparently self-trained and unaffiliated with any particular terrorist group, able to use the Internet to learn their lethal craft.

Three Years After the BP Spill and the Gulf Is Still a Mess | Alternet

2013-04-22T15:40:23Z

Three Years After the BP Spill and the Gulf Is Still a Mess | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/environment/three-years-after-bp-spill-and-gulf-still-mess?akid=10351.108806.jFHAl7&rd

MNM: What has been the most difficult part of covering this story?
JD: The most alarming thing for me was that BP controlled media access and the Coast Guard and local governments acquiesced. Detail police where hired by BP to stop journalists like myself from documenting the spill. This is going on again in Arkansas with the EXXON pipeline spill. I find this policy highly objectionable. During the BP spill the mainstream press fought back and BP had to back down, but overall it was always a battle to get close to the oil.
I managed to get to some beaches the day the oil hit for the first time, before they had been closed down. I did whatever it took to get my images. I challenged BP officials who asked for my ID by asking them for theirs and letting them know, I don't answer to BP. The media should have access to industrial disaster areas if the public is ever going to get a true picture of the damage.

Google Is Forbidding Users From Reselling, Loaning Glass Eyewear | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

2013-04-21T20:37:59Z

Google Is Forbidding Users From Reselling, Loaning Glass Eyewear | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
►http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/google-glass-resales

Welcome to the New World, one in which companies are retaining control of their products even after consumers purchase them.
It was bound to happen. Strange as it may sound, you don't actually own much of the software you buy today. You essentially rent it under strict end-user agreements that have withstood judicial scrutiny. Google appears to be among the first to apply such draconian rules to consumer electronics.

Google garde le contrôle sur ses Google Glass, désactivables à distance

2013-04-20T14:46:25Z

Google garde le contrôle sur ses Google Glass, désactivables à distance
http://www.clubic.com/realite-augmentee/actualite-554506-revente-google-glass.html

En somme, les utilisateurs ont payé une paire de lunettes connectée à un tarif très élevé, mais le dispositif reste finalement dans les mains de Google, qui en garde le contrôle.

The Novartis Decision : A Tale Of Developing Countries, IP, And The Role Of The Judiciary |…

2013-04-16T13:34:23Z

The Novartis Decision: A Tale Of Developing Countries, IP, And The Role Of The Judiciary | Intellectual Property Watch
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/04/15/the-novartis-decision-a-tale-of-developing-countries-ip-and-the-role-of-th

The worldwide attention received by the Indian SC ruling and its global implications could represent a turning point. For decades, scholars and students from all over the world spent a considerable time studying decisions by judicial authorities in industrialised countries, in particular those of the US Supreme Court. Several of these decisions marked the emergence of new trends and approaches to intellectual property that, in some cases, would be subsequently incorporated into international agreements and would also heavily influence intellectual property legislations in developing countries.

The Novartis decision might be spearheading a world where judicial decisions from countries such as China, India and Brazil have an increasing global reach and contribute to shaping global approaches to intellectual property. It is also more generally reflective of the growing assertiveness of developing countries, particularly emerging economies, in the current global intellectual property landscape. In the past two years, opposition from these countries was an important factor in the broader mobilization that led to the de facto demise of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Internet ou le nouveau « miroir sans tain » - Page 4 | Mediapart

2013-04-16T13:29:43Z

Internet ou le nouveau « miroir sans tain » - Page 4 | Mediapart
http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/economie/110413/internet-ou-le-nouveau-miroir-sans-tain?page_article=4

« Le système actuel repose sur une perversion de la gratuité », explique à Mediapart Franck Leroy. « Elle est devenue un problème à partir du moment où les entreprises de service internet ont détourné ce principe de gratuité, en prétendant offrir des services gratuits alors qu'en fait, le système, globalement, n'est pas gratuit. L'internaute paye ce service d'une autre façon, et sans qu'il en soit informé. Ce modèle économique s'est mis en place de manière progressive. Personne n'a eu à un moment un trait de génie. Il n'y a pas non plus de complot. Ils ont juste cherché, comme beaucoup, une solution pour rentabiliser leur système. Une société comme Google engrange 50 milliards de dollars de chiffre d'affaires en 2012 alors que ses systèmes sont totalement gratuits. »

« La question clé est : “La vie privée est-elle une marchandise ?” » poursuit l'essayiste. « Nous sommes dans une économie libérale, voire ultralibérale. Dès que quelque chose devient une marchandise, cette chose est soumise à la loi du marché et à la loi de la concurrence. Ça veut dire, en clair, que ça ne peut avoir qu'une issue : la fuite en avant pour que les prestataires disposent des meilleurs informations sur les gens, toujours plus. »

The Antisocial Network of Bitcoins - NYTimes.com

2013-04-16T12:04:50Z

The Antisocial Network of Bitcoins - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/krugman-the-antisocial-network.html

Par Paul Krugman

Gold's value comes in part because it has nonmonetary uses, such as filling teeth and making jewelry; paper currencies have value because they're backed by the power of the state, which defines them as legal tender and accepts them as payment for taxes. Bitcoins, however, derive their value, if any, purely from self-fulfilling prophecy, the belief that other people will accept them as payment.

How the Banner Ad Was Born | Digiday

2013-04-15T14:32:41Z

How the Banner Ad Was Born | Digiday
http://www.digiday.com/agencies/how-the-banner-ad-was-born

Of course, not that many people saw the ad. Anker doesn't recall the exact numbers, but said the eCPM would be “ridiculous.” But that's missing the point, he added. “It wasn't for AT&T about reaching 5,00 more people. It was about being an innovator. It got them huge amounts of press. You couldn't value what we were doing back then other than how do you create something new.”

Pierre Dardot : la construction du commun | Association pour l'Autogestion

2013-04-15T14:12:15Z

Pierre Dardot : la construction du commun | Association pour l'Autogestion
http://www.autogestion.asso.fr/?p=2970

Face à cela, la mobilisation des citoyens pousse à la formation de commun. C'est le cas des semences et de l'eau. A cet égard, Pierre Dardot compare les remunicipalisations de l'eau entre Naples et Paris. Dans le premier cas, celle-ci s'inscrit dans un contexte de luttes alors que la remunicipalisation de l'eau à Paris s'est faite par le haut. L'une a produit du commun, l'autre pas, ce qui a une incidence notable sur les structures de décision.

IGEP IV – Hervé Le Crosnier/Jean-Michel Besnier : Le numérique peut-il aider à résoudre les…

2013-04-13T16:57:19Z

IGEP IV – Hervé Le Crosnier/Jean-Michel Besnier : Le numérique peut-il aider à résoudre les inégalités qu'il engendre ? | Centre International de Philosophie Politique Appliquée
http://cippa.paris-sorbonne.fr/?page_id=799

Cette conférence fut centrée sur la logique des inégalités et sur la contradiction entre l'idéologie, le discours sur un réseau égalitaire, et la réalité des pratiques sociales, des nouveaux pouvoirs. C'est qu'en effet, un constat s'est imposé, celui de la réorganisation des anciennes dominations autour de nouvelles dominations, la question des inégalités portant aussi sur la question des relations entre les rapports de production et les rapports sociaux.

Jenna Marbles, the Woman With 1 Billion Clicks - NYTimes.com

2013-04-13T10:02:23Z

Jenna Marbles, the Woman With 1 Billion Clicks - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/fashion/jenna-marbles.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130413&_r=0

Like Jenna Marbles, the pantheon of telegenic 20-something YouTube stars has carved out a new entertainment genre, complete with its own rules and visual vocabulary.
In videos that typically last five to eight minutes, they talk straight to the camera and riff through head-spinning jump cuts, non sequiturs and exaggerated facial expressions to court shrinking attention spans and rack up views.
A few years ago, YouTube stars were one-hit wonders, viral accidents whose fame came and went like a passing storm.
“Now we have this whole industry, with networks, managers, P.R. and award shows,” Mr. Van said. “We have this whole system dedicated to making more money and sustaining success, so these personalities are more likely to succeed longer than they could have before.”

gTLD : Google détaille ses ambitions pour .search, .app, .blog et .cloud

2013-04-12T09:18:37Z

gTLD : Google détaille ses ambitions pour .search, .app, .blog et .cloud
http://pro.clubic.com/it-business/nom-de-domaine/actualite-553018-gtld-google-detaille-ambitions-search-app-blog-cloud.ht

J'y crois très fort ;-)

Dans un document repéré par Techcrunch US, Google explique qu'avec le .search, « notre but est de fournir une appellation identifiable auprès des sociétés fournissant des fonctionnalités de recherche ». Plus précisément, Google ne proposerait pas de créer un dépôt de type http://service-de-recherche.search mais entend permettre aux internautes de se rendre simplement sur http://search. Ces derniers effectueraient ainsi une requête sur un service préalablement déterminé par leurs soins. Google ouvrirait alors ce gTLD à ses concurrents directs souhaitant s'y greffer.

La BnF en flagrant délit de Copyfraud ? Une députée alerte Aurélie Filippetti

2013-04-12T09:03:03Z

La BnF en flagrant délit de Copyfraud ? Une députée alerte Aurélie Filippetti
http://www.actualitte.com/justice/la-bnf-en-flagrant-delit-de-copyfraud-une-deputee-alerte-aurelie-filippe

La Bibliothèque nationale de France est conservatrice des œuvres qu'elle héberge. Elle n'en est pas propriétaire. Madame Isabelle Attard souhaite savoir sur quelle base légale la Bibliothèque nationale de France s'appuie pour s'affirmer propriétaire des reproductions numériques des œuvres du domaine public qu'elle met à disposition dans Gallica, alors qu'elles devraient être considérées comme appartenant elles-mêmes au domaine public.

Save Wounded Knee - NYTimes.com

2013-04-12T08:51:36Z

Save Wounded Knee - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/opinion/save-wounded-knee.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130412&_r=0

Une conséquence de la destruction de la propriété collective au profit de la propriété privée.

Now, our heritage is in danger of becoming a real-estate transaction, another parcel of what once was our land auctioned off to the highest bidder. The cries of our murdered people still echo off the barren hills — the cries we remember in our hearts every day of our lives. But they may finally be drowned out by bulldozers and the ka-ching of commerce.
The Wounded Knee site passed from the Oglala into private hands through the process known as allotment, begun in the late 1800s, by which the federal government divided land among the Indians and gave other parcels to non-Indians. The idea was to shift control of our land from the collective to the individual and to teach the Lakota and other Native Americans the foreign notion of ownership. But to us, the policy was just another form of theft.

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime - NYTimes.com

2013-04-12T08:31:39Z

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/taping-of-farm-cruelty-is-becoming-the-crime.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=ed

One of the group's model bills, “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act,” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.”