Unauthorized Washington Post Offers a Fantasy Grounded in Movement Wisdom
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/unauthorized-washington-post-offers-a-fantasy-grounded-in-movement-w
On Wednesday morning, as commuters in Washington D.C. made their way to work, the front page of what appeared to be the Washington Post had people stopping in their tracks. The headline read...
Scientists find massive reserves of mercury hidden in permafrost | EurekAlert! Science News
▻https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/agu-sfm020518.php
WASHINGTON D.C. — Researchers have discovered permafrost in the northern hemisphere stores massive amounts of natural mercury, a finding with significant implications for human health and ecosystems worldwide.
In a new study, scientists measured mercury concentrations in permafrost cores from Alaska and estimated how much mercury has been trapped in permafrost north of the equator since the last Ice Age.
The study reveals northern permafrost soils are the largest reservoir of mercury on the planet, storing nearly twice as much mercury as all other soils, the ocean and the atmosphere combined.
Article original:
Permafrost Stores a Globally Significant Amount of Mercury
Paul F. Schuster, Kevin M. Schaefer, George R. Aiken, Ronald C. Antweiler, John F. Dewild, Joshua D. Gryziec, Alessio Gusmeroli, Gustaf Hugelius, Elchin Jafarov, David P. Krabbenhoft, Lin Liu, Nicole Herman‐Mercer, Cuicui Mu, David A. Roth, Tim Schaefer, Robert G. Striegl, Kimberly P. Wickland, Tingjun Zhang
Geophysical Research Letters 45:1463-1471 (2018)
►https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017GL075571
Déjà cité ici:
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/748765
#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #Anthropocène #capitalocène
No Stealth For You!: Trump Signs Defense Bill That Blocks Transfer Of F-35s To Turkey - The Drive
▻http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22859/no-stealth-for-you-trump-signs-defense-bill-that-blocks-transfer-of-f-35s-
▻https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/jjjajja111c.jpg?quality=85
The escalating F-35 saga between Ankara and Washington D.C., which you can read about here, hit a crescendo today when President Donald Trump signed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) at Fort Drum in upstate New York. Language in the bill specifically stops the delivery of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Turkey—a NATO ally and one of the first international partners on the program dating back two decades. Turkey has plans to buy 100 of the stealthy fighters, 30 of which are already on order, and has invested $1.2B into the program so far.
The sanctions have sent Turkey’s already faltering economy into a tailspin, with its currency, the Lira, taking a huge nosedive. Erdogan has stated that America’s move to impose sanctions is a “stab in the back” and his administration is working to forestall more economic damage and to stabilize the situation. He also said that “economic terrorists” will be dealt with, which apparently includes media that print negative information about the economy.
As the once tight relationship between the U.S. and Turkey fractures, Turkey continues to be pulled closer into Moscow’s orbit, especially in an economic sense—a reality that is very concerning for its NATO partners. Beyond its increasing affinity towards Russia, the F-35 and S-400 issues, and the escalating spat over the extradition of religious figures, many other issues between the Washington D.C. and Ankara persist.
How I met your mother
▻https://africasacountry.com/2018/07/how-i-met-your-mother
The author relives his greatest World Cup moment.
Zinedine Zidane, 2006.
It was not love at first sight. She was cheering on the Azzurri. I was for Les Bleus. That she’s not Italian and I’m not French, did not matter. We teased each other as if we were. We met for the first time in that crowded, boisterous movie theater just outside of Washington D.C. A mutual friend invited us both to watch the World Cup final in 2006. Seven months later, we had a romantic spark, during another unplanned meeting at the now-defunct DC club, Agua Ardiente. We danced like Zidane in the Brazilian midfield. Now we’re married and have been for 9 years. Each World Cup final has become an unofficial anniversary for us, marking the (...)
Be a Presidential #innovation Fellow
▻https://hackernoon.com/be-a-presidential-innovation-fellow-864c3ea3adea?source=rss----3a8144eab
Logo of the Presidential Innovation FellowsThe Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIFs) are awesome, and they are hiring.The Fellows are the vanguard of innovation within #government, specifically tasked with creating innovative solutions to huge problems within the US Federal Government. You spend a year in Washington D.C. as a part of a team of 15 to 25 other Fellows, each trying to guide the ship of state technologically and sometimes in policy — especially tech policy.Application is competitive, as is pay. You don’t have to have great credentials —but you do have to be an impact junkie. You have to be ready, willing and able to instigate change in huge bureaucracies that resist change. I believe the PIF leadership is devoted to recruited a diverse and gender-balanced class in 2018.The (...)
A proposed method for triangulation of rogue IMSI catchers (a.k.a. “Stingray” devices)
▻https://hackernoon.com/a-proposed-method-for-triangulation-of-rogue-imsi-catchers-a-k-a-stingra
Stingrays are on the loose in Washington D.C.It has been widely reported this week (AP, NPR, Washington Post, BBC) that Washington D.C. and other undisclosed cities are exhibiting anomalies that appear to be due to unauthorized and unknown IMSI catchers (such as the notorious “stingray” devices). These #spying devices are often used by law enforcement to track individuals, intercept texts, and listen to calls. (The ACLU keeps an updated list of federal agencies known to employ IMSI catchers for domestic #surveillance.)The suspected existence of rogue IMSI catchers with unknown operators in American cities was disclosed in a letter (and its attachment) from the Department of Homeland Security to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, dated 26-March 2018.The letter acknowledges that the “use of IMSI (...)
Is U.S. President Trump Drawing Inspiration From Inner Mongolia? | The UB Post
▻http://theubpost.mn/2018/03/18/is-u-s-president-trump-drawing-inspiration-from-inner-mongolia
It’s perhaps for this reason that there wasn’t actually that much discussion about a proposal that would be particularly unusual for modern America: the idea of a military parade in Washington D.C. While this has actually happened before when the U.S. needed to drum up civilian support for conflicts abroad, it’s now viewed more as a mark of an authoritarian or dictatorial regime (thanks in large part to associations with North Korea and Russia). We don’t know exactly what Trump is envisioning, but it’s possible that he’s actually taking inspiration from Inner Mongolia – which may be a first for a U.S. president.
The closest thing to an official account is that Trump was directly inspired by the Bastille Day parade he witnessed in France – almost a cheerier version of the sort of parades we’ve occasionally seen in Russia and the Far East. However, we also know that in July of last year Xi Jinping presided over a parade in Inner Mongolia, marking the 90th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army. Over 12,000 military units and personnel were in action with Jinping inspecting them directly, ultimately making for both an impressive spectacle and a formidable show of strength.
Given the fact that Trump publicly discusses what he appears to view as a very competitive relationship between the U.S. and China, it’s easy to imagine that this 2017 parade had an effect on him as well. So while some still think it’s unlikely the U.S. president actually gets his parade, there’s a chance we could see an Inner Mongolian spectacle imitated in Washington in the near future.
#défilé_militaire #humour_mongol …
Opinion libre, probablement inspirée par cette revue des revues
Donald Trump Is Not the Only One Who Likes a Grand Parade
▻http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/donald-trump-is-not-the-only-one-who-likes-a-grand-parade
US President Donald J. Trump wants a military parade—a grand military parade.
Trump, reportedly inspired by the Bastille Day parade he witnessed in Paris last summer, has asked the Pentagon to organize a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington that [wait for it] tops the French.
The reaction to Trump’s plan has ranged from skepticism to criticism.
The last major military parade in the United States marked victory in the Gulf War in 1991. George H.W. Bush was president at the time. According to the Washington Post, opinion was sharply divided over the parade.
China Has Detained the Relatives of Four U.S. Journalists, Report Says
▻http://time.com/5180483/uighurs-journalists-crackdown-china
China has detained the relatives of four U.S.-based journalists in an apparent retaliatory crackdown that marks the latest in hostilities against members of the press who cover the restive Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, the Washington Post reports. Four ethnic Uighur journalists with Radio Free Asia in Washington D.C. have reported their relatives disappeared or detained. Shohret Hoshur, Gulchehra Hoja, Mamatjan Juma, and Kurban Niyaz believe their family members, including elderly (...)
Cracking Avatar’s Language Codes - Issue 57: Communities
▻http://nautil.us/issue/57/communities/cracking-avatars-language-codes-rp
One hot Thursday in July of 2013, I met a gangly young man at Washington D.C.’s Union Station. Energetic and slightly nervous, he politely shook my hand and ushered me to a silver sedan where his girlfriend, Sarah, was at the wheel. Although he introduced himself as Ian Riley, for the next five days I would know him as Ftiafpi. Ftiafpi, meaning “for the sake of studying,” is his name in Na’vi, a language specially created for James Cameron’s 2009 epic 3-D film, Avatar. Ian and Sarah were taking me to AvatarMeet, an annual gathering of fans and Na’vi speakers to be held amid the sweeping forests of Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. As we drove towards the gathering, the land became greener, with eagles replacing city pigeons, and road signs pointing to waterfalls and farms instead of (...)
My favorite images: Magee McIlvaine
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/07/my-favorite-images-magee-mcilvaine
My photographic work is and always has been deeply personal to me. The majority of my childhood was spent in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I grew to be comfortable with being marked as different, whether in Lusaka or in Washington D.C., and found hip hop as a point of common ground, as a way…
Hungarian premier praises Hitler ally, Israel accepts clarification to avoid marring Netanyahu visit
Viktor Orban’s remarks placed Israel in an embarrassing position in light of Netanyahu’s slated visit. After protesting remarks, Israel decided to consider matter resolved even though Hungary didn’t apologize
Barak Ravid and Amir Tibon Jul 02, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.798853
Two weeks before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to join a diplomatic summit in Budapest, tension erupted between Israel and Hungary over a speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in which he praised the leader of Hungary during the Holocaust, Miklos Horthy, who collaborated with the Nazis. Israel protested the remarks, but according to a senior Israeli official, Jerusalem agreed to accept a weak clarification by the Hungarian foreign minister in order to avoid damaging the upcoming summit.
The affair began on June 21, when at a political rally of Fidesz, the party Orban heads, the prime minister said of Horthy, who was regent of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 to 1944: “The fact that history did not bury us after World War I was thanks to a number of extraordinary statesmen like the regent, Miklos Horthy. This fact cannot be contradicted by mentioning the unfortunate role of Hungary during World War II.”
According to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Horthy led anti-Semitic policies, passed laws against the Jews over the years, was an ally of Adolf Hitler and collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. From 1942 to 1943, Horthy resisted German pressure to place the Jews in ghettos and deport them to extermination camps. But after Germany conquered Hungary in 1944, Horthy appointed a puppet government obedient to the Nazis and gave it full authority to act against the Jews. As a result, half a million Hungarian Jews were sent to extermination camps; most were murdered in Auschwitz.
Orban’s remarks were made as part of an extremist nationalist and racist campaign he is conducting ahead of elections in 2018 and to prevent his party’s voters from leaving it for the extreme right-wing party Jobbik. One of Orban’s close advisers is the American political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. The latter served as campaign director for Benjamin Netanyahu’s and Likud’s campaigns in 1996 and 1999, and for Yisrael Beiteinu and its chairman, Avigdor Lieberman, in 2006. He was also deeply involved in the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu’s joint campaign in 2013.
Orban’s statements drew criticism from the Hungarian Jewish community and the World Jewish Congress. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the leading institution in Holocaust research in the United States, released an unusually harsh statement in response to Orban’s remarks: “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemns any attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Hungary’s wartime leader, Miklos Horthy, who was a vocal anti-Semite and complicit in the murder of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust.”
The U.S. museum also wrote that Orban’s praise for Horthy as a statesman was “a gross distortion of historical fact and is the latest in a long series of propagandistic attempts of the Fidesz political party and the Hungarian government that Mr. Orban leads to rewrite Hungarian history.”
Orban’s remarks placed Israel in an embarrassing position considering that Netanyahu is to meet his Hungarian counterpart at a summit in Budapest on July 18, and the next day he and Orban are to meet with the leaders of Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. This is Netanyahu’s first visit to Hungary since he returned to the prime minister’s office in 2009.
Still, Orban’s remarks required a response by the government in Jerusalem and four days after the speech, Israel’s ambassador in Budapest, Yossi Amrani, issued a statement noting that Orban’s words were very disturbing and the collaboration of the Horthy regime with the Nazis must not be forgotten, as well as the race laws enacted during his time and the destruction of Hungary’s Jewish community. “Whatever the reason and national goal might be, there is no justification for such statements,” Amrani said in a public statement.
A senior Israeli official said that Amrani also communicated through quiet channels with senior officials in the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry in Budapest, demanding clarifications and saying Israel hoped Orban’s statements would not cast a pall over the upcoming summit. A few days later, when the Hungarian government had still not issued a clarification, Amrani gave an interview on a major Hungarian television station and reiterated Israel’s demand for clarification and a warning that the tension could hurt the summit.
Quiet diplomatic contacts had been underway since Wednesday in an attempt to resolve the crisis, and on Saturday Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto spoke by phone to Amrani to put an end to the affair. In a statement to the press released after the phone call, Szijjarto said he had made clear to the Israeli ambassador that the Hungarian government had zero tolerance for any kind of anti-Semitism.
Szijjarto also said that he told Amrani that “the regime of Miklos Horthy had its positive times but also very negative times and we must respect the historical facts that clearly indicate this.” The foreign minister added that the positive part of Horthy’s legacy was his work to stabilize Hungary after World War I, but the very negative part was “his historical sin,” when contrary to his promises he did not protect the Jewish community, passed laws against it and that hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. “All of these are historical sins whose seriousness cannot be diminished,” Szijjarto said.
Although Szijjarto did not clarify Orban’s remarks, apologize or express regret for them, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, with an eye on the upcoming summit, decided to act with restraint and end the affair. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in response: “Israel believes that the statements by the Hungarian foreign minister to the Israeli ambassador in Budapest constitute an important clarification with regard to recognition of Horthy’s crime against the Jews of Hungary. We will always remember the 564,500 of our brothers and sisters of the Jewish community of Hungary who were murdered in the Holocaust.”
Zionist Union Ksenia Svetlova turned to Netanyahu on the issue. “As you dared to cancel your meeting with the German foreign minister after he met with Breaking the Silence, I demand that you cancel your visit to Hungary and your meeting with Viktor Orban, who has expressed sympathy for his country’s dark past from the time of the Holocaust, and not for the first time.”
"I expect the person who turned the ’whole world is against us’ [mantra] into a career to have the same standards against people from the extreme right in the world," she added.
“These says I am working on an amendment to the proposed entry into Israeli law so that it prohibits the entry into Israel of declared anti-Semites, people who oddly enough have become his party’s partners, and are even invited by them to visits to Israel,” Svetlova said.
John Swinton - Wikiquote
▻https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Swinton
There is no such a thing in America as an independent press, unless it is out in country towns. You are all slaves. You know it, and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to express an honest opinion. If you expressed it, you would know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid $150 for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, I would be like Othello before twenty-four hours: my occupation would be gone. The man who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the street hunting for another job. The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same — his salary. You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an “Independent Press”! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.
E. J. Schellhouse: The New Republic. Founded on the Natural and Inalienable Rights of Man (1883) pp. 122-123 archive.org, quoting - “copied from an Eastern paper” - what “was uttered by a prominent New York journalist at a press dinner a short time since”, when “the hackneyed and ridiculous toast, ’The Independent Press,’ was proposed”.
The journalist’s name is disclosed as John Swinton in [Edward Hewes] Gordon Clark’s Shylock: as Banker, Bondholder, Corruptionist, Conspirator, Author’s Publisher, c/o the American Bimetallic League, Washington D.C. 1894, p. 111
Washington D.C. pushing to be “the capital of #eSports”
▻http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-03-13-washington-d-c-pushing-to-be-the-capital-of-esports
U.S. city now sponsors NRG Esports, will host live events in new $65 million stadium
Right now Washington D.C. is packed again with people protesting Trump’s unAmerican racist nativism. A new generation is rising. #WeWillWinpic.twitter.com/idjBIik4e5
▻https://twitter.com/jerrysaltz/status/825803663562129409
Right now Washington D.C. is packed again with people protesting Trump’s unAmerican racist nativism. A new generation is rising. #WeWillWin pic.twitter.com/idjBIik4e5
Why Jewish leaders rally behind a Palestinian-American Women’s March organizer -
Linda Sarsour makes no secret of her opposition to Israel and support of BDS, the women’s rights activist kept that rhetoric out of the event — to the relief of her Jewish allies.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.767407
NEW YORK — When online attacks against Women’s March co-chair Linda Sarsour started this week, progressive Jews were among the first people to back her on social media.
“Jews are some of my biggest supporters,” Sarsour told Haaretz in an interview. Sarsour, a born-and-bred Brooklynite whose parents are of Palestinian origin, directs the Arab American Association of New York, an advocacy and social services group, and is considered a rising star in city politics.
She has for several years worked closely with groups on the far-left edge of the Jewish community, like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Because Sarsour is an outspoken critic of Israel and backs boycotts, divestment and sanctions, mainstream Jewish groups have long held her at arms’ length.
But that is changing as mainstream players like Rabbi Sharon Brous of Los Angeles’ Ikar and the National Council of Jewish Women work with Sarsour on issues of shared concern, like the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants on January 21. NCJW was one of dozens of partner organizations and helped ensure substantial Jewish involvement.
Sarsour was a Women’s March national co-chair. Early Monday, politically conservative publications and figures began publicly attacking her. Their charge? That she supports Hamas and favors sharia, or Islamic religious law, because she opposes municipalities and states banning it. That, say sources, is a dog-whistle way of suggesting that someone is an ISIS-type extremist, though in many respects sharia parallels halacha, the system of Jewish law.
First out was an article in online Front Page Mag, titled “The Anti-Semite Who Organized the ‘Women’s March on Washington,’ and the half-million lemmings who showed up in ‘solidarity.’” Front Page is part of hard-right conservative David Horowitz’s “Freedom Center School for Political Warfare,” a network that includes anti-Muslim websites “Jihad Watch” and “Truth Revolt.”
Backed by Sanders
That article’s allegations spurred others that quickly circulated online. But it also galvanized others to stand behind Sarsour.
From left: Carmen Perez, Gloria Steinem and Linda Sarsour onstage during the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017Theo Wargo/AFP
Among those tweeting their support for Sarsour are former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders — for whom Sarsour spoke as a surrogate after his final debate with Hillary Clinton — and actor Mark Ruffalo.
So did Brous, who Sarsour invited to speak at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. They have known each other since starting as Senior Fellows at Auburn Seminary, an interfaith institution in New York, in 2015.
9500 Liberty documents the first time in U.S. history that an Arizona-style immigration law was actually implemented—and the surprising grassroots opposition that led to its repeal.
Racial tension and threats of violence erupt when Prince William County, adopts a law requiring the police to question people who appear to be undocumented immigrants. Supporters of the law ride a wave of hysteria to an election victory. But many reconsider when the local economy feels the impact of a sudden exodus of workers, consumers, and business owners. Despite fears of reprisal, a group of concerned citizens launches a “virtual resistance” using social media, setting up a final showdown with the law’s -ferocious advocates.
Le site de #help_save_manassas :
▻http://www.helpsavemanassas.org
–-> #délation :
Intéressant, autour de 1 heure après le début du documentaire, on montre les répercussions économiques (#économie) de cette loi anti-immigrants, quand un grand nombre de migrants ont quitté la ville... Résultat ? Maisons vides, enfants qui perdent la majorité des amis, restaurants sans clients, etc.
Mexicans Without Borders (Spanish: Mexicanos Sin Fronteras) is a Washington, D.C.-based rights group that has been active against what it sees as the growing harassment of alien workers. The group also seeks to address the broader social and political roots of immigration.
The central objectives of MSF are permanent residency for all illegal aliens residing in the country and the establishment of legal channels for future waves of aliens.
The committees of undocumented folks that now form the organization first came together in 2001. Its organizers claim that giving permanent residency to the 11 million workers and families in the country illegally would greatly benefit all workers. They have stated that they support all reforms that benefit aliens, but are looking for a more thorough reform that provides solutions to the phenomenon of immigration at a structural level, not just at the level of legality.
The group has organized mass demonstrations in the Virginia and Washington D.C. areas to protest local laws that they claimed targeting aliens. They also document and record cases of alleged discrimination and racial profiling in order to build civil lawsuits in federal courts.
Les vidéos mises sur YouTube (résistance contre la #loi_anti-immigration) :
These are statements made on October 16th during an the historic 12-hour Citizens’ Time of Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors’ Hearing on anti-illegal immigration resolution.
#Federation_for_American_Immigration_Reform
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a non-profit tax exempt organization in the United States that advocates changes in U.S. immigration policy that they believe would result in significant reductions in immigration, both legal and illegal. It reports a membership of more than 250,000 members and supporters,[1] and has been called to testify before the United States Congressional committees on immigration bills.
FAIR is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded on January 2, 1979, with seed money from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Its founding chairman was John Tanton, a leader of many anti-immigration and environmentalist groups, including Zero Population Growth and the Sierra Club’s population committee.[2]
FAIR’s first executive director was environmental lawyer Roger Conner. Other co-founders included University of California, Santa Barbara, history professor emeritus and author Otis L. Graham, Jr., feminist Sharon Barnes, and the late former Gulf Oil president and board chairman Sidney Swensrud.[3][4] Dan Stein has been president of #FAIR since 1988.
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_for_American_Immigration_Reform
site de FAIR :
▻http://www.fairus.org
AntiBVBL was formed in February 2008 in response to an anti-immigrant sentiments which surfaced in Prince William County, Virginia. The blog ceased official production in February 2010 but a spin-off blog formed and can be found at Moonhowlings.net
Prince William County citizens united against these measures which have been declared unconstitutional in other localities, further vindicating their efforts for a tempered approach on the issue.❞
Silicon Valley’s Unchecked Arrogance — The Development Set
▻https://medium.com/the-development-set/silicon-valley-s-unchecked-arrogance-d86cbb8db52
YCombinator and their Silicon Valley counterparts often talk about the value of geography. The best ideas, we are led to believe, come from a small stretch of earth close to San Francisco.
James Fallows in a recent Atlantic essay describes how most of America’s elite believe in “The Big Sort” — that to be successful, one must be sorted into a few metro areas: San Francisco, New York, Boston, perhaps Seattle or Washington D.C. When it comes to people investing in new ideas, this is absolutely true. 78% of investment in startups goes to three states (New York, Massachusetts, California). While in the past 20 years startup investing has increased 300% in those states, it has actually declined in the other 47 across the country.
Silicon Valley has become a “monocrop” culture where entrepreneurs are well-educated, have frictionless access to capital, and have their basic needs taken care of. The majority of resources today are going to entrepreneurs whose lived experience is in well-off, well-connected cities.
Kerry at Saban Forum: Current Trends Are Leading to a One-state Reality - Haaretz - Barak Ravid Dec 05, 2015
▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.690205
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at the Saban Forum in Washington D.C. Saturday, warned that current trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are leading to a one-state reality. Kerry also said that if the situation continues, it is unclear how long the Palestinian Authority can survive.
“If there is a risk the Palestinian Authority might collapse and Israel wants it to survive, shouldn’t Israel do more to help sustain it?” Kerry said.
“Without the Palestinian Authority, Israel will be responsible for civil administration of the West Bank - it costs billions,” Kerry said. “Without the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, the IDF would be forced to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to the West Bank indefinitely.”
Kerry said that the distrust between the two sides has never been more profound. “President Abbas feels great despair - more than I have ever heard him,” he added.
“I believe that many people in the security establishment in Israel want to see steps for strengthening the Palestinian Authority,” the secretary of state said.
Kerry added that the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict mustn’t become a “slogan,” but warned that “current trends are leading for a one-state reality.”
“We have to be honest about what a one-state solution looks like,” Kerry said, warning that in such a case Israel couldn’t maintain its character as Jewish and democratic, asking rhetorically what the international reaction would be to such a scenario, and saying that true peace with its neighbors will not be possible under such conditions.
“The one-state solution is no solution at all for a Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace,” he warned.
Kerry criticized Israeli settlement construction, saying that it raises questions about Israel’s long term intentions. Kerry noted that Palestinians didn’t receive any construction permits in Area C in 2015. He also noted that several Israeli cabinet ministers declared their opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Saying that peace is the best way to achieve security, Kerry stated that first of all, the violence must stop. “There’s no justification for violence against civilians. Israel has the right and the obligation to defend itself.”
“We need people to act in restraint. The Palestinian leadership should stop the incitement and condemn terror attacks,” he said.
On Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the Forum and said that he opposed the one-state solution, stating that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians. “We are happy they already have their political independence,” he said, adding that Israel wants to strengthen Palestinian competence to govern themselves.
Earlier on Saturday, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid addressed the Forum, saying that solving the conflict “is not the number one priority of Israel - it is the only priority.” Saying that Israel must move toward solving the conflict as soon as possible, Lapid said: “We have been waiting for 40 years for the right timing to have peace with the Palestinians. Enough is enough - we need to do it.”
Regarding the fight against Islamic State, Kerry seemed to be rebutting statements made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon the day before about a lack in U.S. leadership, and laid out U.S. actions and policy against ISIS and in Syria.
“We want a transition to a unified non-sectarian Syria,” Kerry said, adding that the U.S. isn’t naïve about the diplomatic effort in Syria. “It’s difficult,” he admitted. However, he added that the Vienna talks were “the most promising diplomatic effort regarding Syria in the last years.”
Regarding the nuclear deal with Iran, Kerry addressed Israel directly, saying that he knows Israel still has concerns, but that the U.S. is “convinced that we will know what Iran is doing.”
“Under the nuclear deal all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb are blocked,” he said, adding that it was the deal was the right thing to do, “regardless of whether they will change their behavior or not.”
On Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the Forum and said that he opposed the one-state solution, stating that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians. “We are happy they already have their political independence,” he said, adding that Israel wants to strengthen Palestinian competence to govern themselves.
How to Map a Sandwich : Surfaces, Topological Existence Theorems and the Changing Nature of Modern Thematic Cartography, 1966-1972
▻http://www.stonybrook.edu/libmap/coordinates/seriesa/no7/a7.htm
Article excellent et marrant porté à notre attention par @cdb_77
How to Map a Sandwich: Surfaces, Topological Existence Theorems and the Changing Nature of Modern Thematic Cartography, 1966-1972
Date of Publication: March 15, 2009
John Hessler
Senior Cartographic Librarian at the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Madison Bldg., Room LMB01, Washington D.C. 20540-4650.
Abstract: This paper is meant to be the beginning of a project that examines the use of abstract mathematics and the changing ontology of mapmaking in the early years of the development of computer cartography. The history of the conceptual developments that took place during this revolutionary period in the history of mapmaking is both controversial and incomplete. Much of the primary source material has yet to be examined by historians, residing as it does in obscure journals, government archives and in obsolete software. This study provides a look at one example of this conceptual development in the early years of computer cartography through a close reading of two papers on existence theorems published by the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. It attempts to highlight the changing conceptual and mathematical foundations of mapmaking during this period and in doing so provides a case study for the difficulties that historians of modern cartography face in researching this critical period in its history.
#cartographie #états-unis #sandwich #sémiologie #visualisation #population #démographie
Walking With #Wole_Soyinka
▻http://africasacountry.com/walking-with-wole-soyinka
Several times, I have met Professor Wole Soyinka without actually meeting him. It was either in a crowded reading room in Washington D.C. or at some event in Nigeria. As a photographer not as a writer, I really wanted to meet the man away from the usual crowd that surrounds him all the time. I […]
#Tal_National represents #Niger
▻http://africasacountry.com/tal-national-represents-niger
Hamadal Issoufou Moumine (also known as Almeida), the leader of the Nigerien band, Tal National, begins his concert at Artisphere, a venue outside of Washington D.C., by asking the audience if they know where Niger is. There’s a cacophonous mess of unintelligible shouts, to which he listens patiently, before telling the crowd that the country is in West Africa. He continues educating the audience throughout the evening. Between two energetic songs, the dance floor is packed and sweaty, and (...)
Ties between #Israel and #Egypt only getting stronger, despite regional tension
By Amos Harel
Haaretz, Sep. 8, 2013
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.545682
One of the outcomes of the military coup in Egypt is the stronger bond between Cairo and Jerusalem. Although the two nations want to keep their warmer relationship under wraps, it is hard to ignore the fact that they enjoy not only tactical cooperation the ground, but also a convergence of strategic interests. Considering the dramatic chain of events in Egypt since 2011, it is very hard to predict the coming months, but at least in the short term, Israel’s security situation on its southern and western fronts has seen a major change for the better.
The change actually started in Washington D.C. in July. According to the American press, Israel went to great lengths to smooth things out between the new Egyptian regime and the United States. For the Egyptian generals it was very important that the regime change not be labeled a military coup. In that event, American law would make illegal the yearly $3.5 billion in aid to Egypt, most of which goes toward the military.
Even though the events in Cairo were a coup in every sense of the word, it seems that it was in the American administration’s interests to prevent that term from being applied. Israel and its supporters, mainly on Capitol Hill, also played a part.
The Egyptian generals knew how to show their gratitude and Israel is pleased with operations against terror in Sinai and Hamas in Gaza.
Egyptian pressure on Hamas has meant it will not dare even think about firing rockets at Israel or allowing smaller Palestinian factions to do so. The Hamas leadership in Gaza, still surprised and bruised by the violent and effective way the leaders of their sister movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, were deposed in Cairo, are careful to obey.
Before relations with Egypt cooled, Hamas (inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo) stepped out from under the influence of Iran and Syria, and denounced Syrian President Bashar Assad’s civil war. As a result, the flow of money and weapons to Gaza from Iran ceased. Hamas now finds itself at a loss on all fronts.
Over the past few weeks Egypt has shut down most of the hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza, and has stopped the transfer of fuel to the Gaza Strip, which means that instead of receiving subsidized fuel from Egypt, Hamas now has to important fuel, at six times the cost, from Israel. Gaza residents can only cross into Egypt via the Rafah border for a few hours every day.
Meanwhile, Egypt is releasing a great deal of information, at least some of which appears untrue, about supposed assistance Hamas and smaller Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip are rendering to Islamist terror groups in Sinai. In Sinai itself, Egypt is operating aggressively against terror cells, most of whose members are Bedouins. More than 100 activists have been killed and hundreds of others have been arrested there since last month, and the number of attempted terror attacks against Israel has declined.
Israel has allowed Egypt to exceed the number of its troops, tanks and helicopters in Sinai as stipulated in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, so it can more effectively fight terror. The Egyptians have also stopped Gaza fishing boats they caught in Egypt’s territorial waters off Sinai.
In Egypt itself the generals are fighting for their lives, and anything goes. An attempt last week was made on the life of the Egyptian interior minister, who is in charge of internal security, apparently by Islamist groups. Fearing further retribution by the military regime, the Muslim Brotherhood was quick to deny responsibility for the attack, in which 23 passersby were injured by a large car bomb. Local media intimated that Hamas may have had a hand in the attack, which is doubtful, but serves to restrain Hamas in Gaza.
The regime has also arrested thousands of Muslim Brotherhood activists, including former ministers. It has shut down the movement’s newspapers, and has imposed limitations on the Al-Jazeera network, considered sympathetic to the Brotherhood.
Pictures of former President Hosni Mubarak have been put up in the streets and Mubarak himself has been transferred to better prison conditions. After all, most of the generals now in power were formerly his men.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry has granted internal security personnel virtually unmonitored and the right to shoot protesters. Brotherhood protests have gradually declined, as General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seeks to impose the fear of the regime on the street. Thus, he pushes the Brotherhood and its affiliated movements into underground terror actions.
In addition to the aid from Washington which continues to flow, Egypt has also received aid from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and Kuwait, with pledges amounting to $12 billion. Meanwhile, the first overtures of reconciliation with Qatar, friend of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been seen with Qatar sending Egypt three ships bearing liquid gas.
Against the backdrop of improved relations with Egypt Jordan’s King Abdullah has refrained over the past year from accusing Israel of obstructing peace with the Palestinians. We may assume that shared strategic interests are behind this change, along with U.S. aid to Jordan.
In the new Middle East, everything seems temporary, and it is hard to know whether this is a start of a wonderful friendship. But it certainly may be said that new alliances and power arrays have emerged from the ▻http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/Arab%20Spring-1.476711Arab Spring.
Toujours plus gros // Burger King set to start delivering to your house | Death and Taxes
►http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/174634/burger-king-set-to-start-delivering-to-your-house
Yet Burger King is seeking to make the process of getting a value meal even easier. Recently, the chain selected four restaurants in the Washington D.C. area to start a delivery service, which will make receiving a Double Stacker with large fries and a Coke as simple as dialing a phone number.
Do we Really Need to use Human Medicine on Farm Animals?
►http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/01/06/do-we-really-need-to-use-human-medicine-on-farm-animal
Advocates have warned for decades that the use of human medicines in this manner was a public health threat waiting to happen. More and more, we see these warnings coming true, with antibiotic resistant bacteria ending up in the environment and on our food.
A study last year sampled grocery store meat in Washington D.C., Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and Flagstaff and found that almost one quarter of all samples were contaminated by the bacteria that causes staph infections—and that bacteria was resistant to three or more classes of antibiotic drugs. There are only seven classes of antibiotics important to human medicine.
As Climate Change Worsens, Scientists Feel Increasing Pressure to Speak Out | InsideClimate News
►http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20111229/climate-change-worsens-scientists-james-hansen-nasa-advocacy-skep
In August, James Hansen [of NASA] participated in the Washington D.C. protests against the Keystone XL where he was among the more than 1,000 people arrested.
“The scientific community has to make it very clear that we can’t burn all the fossil fuels—but governments are going ahead and setting up the infrastructure for unconventional fuels—tar sands and tar shale,” he said. “The science is clear we can’t do that without creating a different planet. What the paleo-record tells us is that we have to start ending emissions now.”