In #Louisiana, 1 person in 55 is behind bars (1619 by 100k population): 
http://i.imgur.com/216yIMy.jpg
World record by far, by an utterly corrupt system : ►http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html - and the #USA have the worst incarceration rate in the world ranked by country: 25% of the world’s inmates from only 5% of the world’s population ! #prison
Le physicien Stephen Hawking soutient le boycott académique d’Israël
►http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/05/08/le-physicien-stephen-hawking-soutient-le-boycott-academique-d-israel_3173677
(...) Dans une déclaration publiée avec son accord, le Comité britannique pour les universités palestiniennes (CBUP), qui soutient ce boycott et s’oppose à l’occupation des territoires palestiniens, explicite « sa décision prise en toute indépendance de respecter le boycott, sur la base de sa connaissance de la Palestine et des conseils unanimes de ses contacts académiques là-bas », rapporte le Guardian . Au sein de l’université britannique de Cambridge, où M. Hawking travaille depuis 1962, on la justifie en revanche par des « problèmes de santé ». Atteint de sclérose latérale amyotrophique (maladie de Charcot), Stephen Hawking se serait vu déconseiller par ses médecins de prendre l’avion.
UNE DÉCISION POLÉMIQUE
Depuis l’annonce de sa participation à cette conférence, il y a quatre semaines, Stephen Hawking croulait sous les messages venus de Grande-Bretagne et d’ailleurs pour l’enjoindre à rejoindre la campagne BDS. Désormais, ce sont les accusations d’antisémitisme qui s’accumulent dans les boîtes e-mail du physicien. On ne lui prête pourtant aucun propos de cette nature en public. Depuis sa visite en 2006 dans des universités israéliennes et palestiniennes, le scientifique aurait durci sa position à l’égard d’Israël. En 2009, le physicien a dénoncé l’opération Plomb durci menée pendant trois semaines par Israël dans la bande de Gaza, qualifiant de « disproportionnée » la réponse apportée par l’Etat hébreu aux tirs de roquettes palestiniens. « La situation ressemble à celle qui prévalait en Afrique du sud avant 1990 et ne peut continuer », avait-il déclaré sur la chaîne Al-Jazira .
L’université britannique de Cambridge corrige sa position :
►http://cifwatch.com/2013/05/08/update-on-hawking-story-cambridge-retracts-statement-denying-boycott-claim
“ We have now received confirmation from Professor Hawking’s office that a letter was sent on Friday to the Israeli President’s office regarding his decision not to attend the Presidential Conference, based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott.
“We had understood previously that his decision was based purely on health grounds having been advised by doctors not to fly. ”
““““““““““““““““
Professor Hawking’s letter to the conference guest speaker organiser stated:
“ I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this, I must withdraw from the conference. Had I attended I would have stated my opinion that the policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster. ”
““““““““““““““““““
ajout aussi sur BRICUP
►http://bricup.org.uk/index.html#238
Furore deepens over Stephen Hawking’s Israel boycott
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/08/hawking-israel-boycott-furore
Les tournures fielleuses du billet du Monde sont assez remarquables.
A Brief History Of Hawking’s Boycott - The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/08/a-brief-history-of-stephen-hawking-s-boycott.html
Confronted with the two pieces of evidence, the Cambridge University spokesman realized he had been caught in a lie.
... et BRICUP rêve dans son dernier ajout :
►http://bricup.org.uk/index.html#238
They always had that knowledge (see 1600 update). We await apologies from the participants in the Hasbara storm who accused us of lying.
L’astrophysicien Stephen Hawking crée un Big Bang en boycottant Israël
►http://www.france24.com/fr/20130509-astrophysicien-stephen-hawking-bigbang-israel-shimon-peres-boycot
(...) Sur un ton moins violent, le centre Shurat HaDin, qui représente des victimes du terrorisme, s’est aussi moqué avec ironie du comportement du scientifique. Selon cette organisation, Stephen Hawking devrait aussi choisir de ne plus utiliser son équipement informatique qui a été conçu par des ingénieurs israéliens. « La décision d’Hawking de rejoindre le boycott d’Israël est très hypocrite pour un individu qui est fier de ses accomplissements intellectuels. Son système de communication informatique a été créé par une équipe d’Intel en Israël. S’il veut vraiment boycotter Israël, il devrait aussi débrancher le système Intel Core i7 de sa tablette », a ironisé Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, le directeur de Shurat HaDin, dans un entretien au « Guardian ». (...)
Et un(e) de plus :
« Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel »
Physicist pulls out of conference hosted by president Shimon Peres in protest at treatment of Palestinians
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/08/stephen-hawking-israel-academic-boycott
Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president’s conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres’s 90th birthday.
Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking’s approval described it as “his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there”.
Stephen Hawking declines invitation to attend Israeli conference
►http://bricup.org.uk/index.html#238
We understand that Professor Stephen Hawking has declined his invitation to attend the Israeli Presidential Conference Facing Tomorrow 2013, due to take place in Jerusalem on 18-20 June. This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there.
Le Guardian propose un vote :
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2013/may/08/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel?CMP=twt_gu
Is Stephen Hawking right to join the academic boycott of Israel?
Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Is he right to do so?
For backing “5 Broken Cameras”, “Jewish Press” smears Dustin Hoffman as has-been “figleaf” with “Semitic nose”
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/04/for-backing-5-broken-cameras-jewish-press-smears-dustin-hoffman-as-has-b
What an ongoing calamity Zionism is for the American Jewish community. On Saturday night in LA, Dustin Hoffman was to present a Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) award to Emad Burnat, the Palestinian co-director of the brilliant documentary “5 Broken Cameras” about resistance in occupied Bil’in. A disturbing article in the Jewish Press vilifies both Hoffman for daring to present the award and Burnat for daring to chronicle the occupation.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus first provides the news, then the character assassination, then the “He’s not really Jewish stuff.” Along the way, she talks about his “Semitic nose.” Imagine if a non-Jew used such a description! And Marcus calls Burnat an “Israel-hater” because he has protested the seizure of his village’s lands by an illegal settlement.
Kid Congo Powers : Interview [Part 2] - Trebuchet Magazine | Trebuchet Magazine
http://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/kid-congo-powers-interview-part-2
The music scene that you’re involved with is perhaps less homophobic than most – was your sexuality ever an issue?
It’s hardly come into anything but for me it’s been strange because it’s mostly been my perception rather than other people’s perceptions. Like I was in and out of the closet. I was a very flamboyant gay teenager and became a rock ‘n’ roller but then, you know, in the beginning of punk rock in Los Angeles and New York in ’76, ’77 a lot of gay people were running the show and were the really creative people and the artists and the people doing clothes and musicians.
“Chameleon” - Gov’t Mule feat. Dirty Dozen Brass Band Horns - YouTube
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8G4q52EsCc
DOCUMERICA photos: The spoils of industry | The Economist
BETWEEN 1972 and 1977 nearly 70 photographers were employed by America’s fledgling Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to photograph the condition of the country’s environment. They were selected by Gifford Hampshire, a former picture editor at National Geographic and a member of the EPA’s public affairs team.
http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/9_documerica.jpg?1364221189
Hampshire was in thrall to the iconic images of the dustbowl during the Great Depression taken four decades earlier by the photographers of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). With the EPA seeking to promote its own mission to examine the country’s decaying environment, he proposed a similarly grand project.
Where life is tweet: Study ranks #happy places
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/20/happiest-cities-geotags-twitter/1933587
#:-) vs #:-(
Où trouve-t-on le bonheur et la tristesse (aux É.-U.)
Analyse du vocabulaire de 10 millions de tweets.
The study, from mathematicians at the University of Vermont, is the latest to tap Twitter’s 140-character, real-time posts to see how we’re feeling. Previous studies found that Twitter users are happiest on Sunday mornings, saddest on Thursday evenings and prone to perk up on Christmas and other holidays.
The new study used a list of 10,000 words rated on a 10-point scale as happy, sad or neutral to score tweets from 2011 that carried geographic tags. The researchers threw out neutral words (such as ‘the,’ “of” and ‘and’) and looked at how often the happy and sad words showed up in different cities and states, lead researcher Lewis Mitchell says.
Words such as ‘hate,’ “terrorist,” ‘earthquake’ and ‘greed’ were high on the sad list, he says. Happy words included ‘happy,’ “reunion,” ‘lol’ (laughing out loud) and nature terms, which helps explain how tweets from Maine, which mentioned lots of ‘forests’ and ‘rivers,’ came in only second to those from Hawaii on the happy list.
Other relatively happy states included Nevada, Utah and Vermont. After Louisiana, the least happy states were Mississippi, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia.
http://www.uvm.edu/storylab/share/papers/mitchell2013a/AppendixB_files/states_2011.jpg
Figure 1: Choropleth showing average word happiness for geotagged tweets in all US states collected during the calendar year 2011. The happiest 5 states, in order, are: Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Vermont. The saddest 5 states, in order, are: Louisiana, Mississippi, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia.
Le papier sur arxiv : http://arxiv.org/pdf/1302.3299.pdf The Geography of Happiness: Connecting Twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place, par 5 auteurs de l’Université du Vermont
On y trouve aussi, entre autres,
• la liste des mots corrélés positivement (et négativement) avec l’obésité
• c’est dans les régions où la part des personnes ayant une ascendance norvégienne est la plus élevée qu’on est le plus heureux
J’ai toujours pensé que les Norvégiens ont une propension au bonheur ! :)
Ça c’est excellent : l’émission humoristique américaine Saturday Night Live avait un sketch de six minutes parodiant l’invraisemblable focalisation de l’audition de Chuck Hagel devant le Sénat américain sur la seule « sécurité » d’Israël.
Du coup… l’Anti-Defamation League accuse le sketch de « possible » promotion de l’antisémitisme, au motif que le sketch pourrait suggérer, auprès de spectateurs influençables, qu’il y aurait un lobby israélien très puissant aux États-Unis (admire comment je te me conditionnelle tout ça).
L’accusation de l’ADL est d’autant plus savoureuse que le sketch n’a finalement pas été diffusé à la télévision. Hum… #wag_the_dog
“[T]here inevitably will be those who say, ‘Yeah, it’s funny, but there’s some truth to all of this,’” Foxman wrote in a letter Monday to SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels. “And for a smaller minority among those individuals, elements of the skit could play into the worst kind of ideas, even reinforcing pernicious notions of Jewish control of government in the vein of those routinely espoused by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites by suggesting that U.S. officials would even engage in public sex acts if asked to do so by Israel.”
Impossible de voir le sketch sur le site de la NBC si on n’est pas aux États-Unis. Mais il est reproduit dans cet article du Daily Beast.
En même temps, dans la vraie vie, les escrocs sont beaucoup plus drôles :
US Senate panel approves Hagel nomination
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/02/201321394731969645.html
At one point, Republican James Inhofe accused Hagel of being “cosy” with Iran because, as he said, Tehran had backed his nomination.
“He’s endorsed by them. You can’t get any cosier than that,” Inhofe said, prompting gasps within the hearing room and protests from Democrats.
“Chameleon” - Gov’t Mule feat. Dirty Dozen Brass Band Horns - YouTube
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8G4q52EsCc
Catastrophe écologique en Louisiane à cause de la fracturation - Extraction - Basta !
►http://www.bastamag.net/article2837.html
Elle n’a fait l’objet que de quelques manchettes et c’est pourtant une catastrophe écologique sans précédent qui s’est déroulée le 3 août dernier en Louisiane (Etats-Unis). En l’espace d’une nuit, plus de trois hectares de forêts marécageuses ont été engloutis, laissant place à un gouffre géant rempli d’eau, de saumure, de pétrole et de gaz naturel. D’après le site Truth-Out, les premiers signes du désastre sont apparus au printemps 2012 avec l’apparition de bulles dans les bayous, ces étendues d’eau formées par les anciens bras du Mississippi. Puis les résidents du comté d’Assumption Parish ont commencé à ressentir de petits tremblements de terres. Avant que la terre ne finisse soudainement par céder.
l’article de Truth-Out
Bayou Frack-Out : The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13136-bayou-frack-out-the-massive-oil-and-gas-disaster-youve-never-heard-
Documents obtained by the Baton Rouge newspaper, The Advocate, revealed that in 2011, Texas Brine sent a letter to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to alert its director, Joseph Ball, that the cavern had failed a “mechanical integrity test” and would be capped and shut down. The DNR received the letter but did not require any additional monitoring of the well’s integrity.
Despite this letter, regulators apparently did not suspect the brine cavern to be the source of the bubbles until a few days before the sinkhole appeared, The Advocate reported. The letter raised ire among local officials, who did not hear about the failed integrity test until after Bayou Corne became a slurry pit.
• Sommes-nous en 1861 ? • Comment un mouvement parti d’un individu le 7 novembre embrase l’Amérique underground et “dissidente”, mouvement totalement ignoré de la presse-Système. • Les pétitions pour la sécession touchent les 50 États et dépassent le million de signatures. • Finalement, ce n’est pas une querelle politique (1861), c’est une révolte postmoderne, plus grave que 1776. • La puissance psychologique de ce mouvement est bien là, terrible...
Dedefensa.org : Aux armes, et “sécession pour tous” !
http://www.dedefensa.org/article-aux_armes_et_s_cession_pour_tous__16_11_2012.html
Nearly half of the US threatens to secede — RT
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-secede-petition-government-540
As the saying goes: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Some Americans upset with the results of Election Day don’t quite agree, and now residents from 20 states have filed petitions with the White House to secede from the country.
Can high speed rail compete with self-driven cars and all the technology of the future? | Singularity Hub
http://singularityhub.com/2012/09/04/can-high-speed-rail-compete-with-self-driven-cars-and-all-the-techno
Self-delivering cars offer the option of mobility on demand in a hired vehicle that is the right vehicle for the trip — often a light, efficient single passenger vehicle that nobody would buy as their only car today. These cars will offer a more convenient and faster door-to-door travel time on all the modest length trips (100 miles or less)
#automobile je ne vois pas bien comment traduire “self-driving car” en français, de manière pas lourde…
Hurricane Isaac … and the seven years since Hurricane Katrina
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/pers-a31.shtml
31 August 2012
Whatever the ultimate damage caused by Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf Coast region of the US, the new storm has underscored once again the depths of the social crisis in America and the dramatic failure of its political system.
No thinking human being can honestly believe it is impossible for the “richest country on earth” to protect its people from a Category 1 hurricane. Yet, once again, parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are being flooded, some 900,000 people are without electricity, and tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents face evacuation.
Seven years ago, the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina were a damning indictment of American capitalism. The combination of crumbling infrastructure, the official refusal to listen to warnings about the levee system, the overall lack of preparedness, and the conditions of the poorest sections of the population, led to a terrible human tragedy. At least 1,800 died, and 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged, with 70 percent of its housing units damaged and tens of thousands trapped in the city for days without food, drinking water or assistance.
#etats-unis #katrina #isaac #mississippi #louisiane #nouvelle-orléans #désatres
Hurricane Isaac Makes Landfall in Louisiana - NYTimes.com
Depuis Katrina, de nouvelles protections ont été construites, les anciennes digues apparemment renforcées. Isaac sera donc un test pour voir si le nouveau système résistera.
By JOHN SCHWARTZ and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published : August 28, 2012
NEW ORLEANS — On the eve of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which brought widespread devastation after the colossal failure of the system built to protect the city, New Orleans on Tuesday night once again found itself facing the impending arrival of a huge and deadly storm.
Isaac was a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 miles per hour when it made landfall at 6:45 p.m. local time just southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River, about 95 miles from New Orleans, and then wobbled westward and back out over water. Around 11 p.m., it was about 75 miles southeast of New Orleans with the same sustained winds.
#etats-unis #ouragan #isaac #katrina #mississippi #nouvelle-orléans
Report: State systems for overseas voters vulnerable
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-07-24/states-online-voting/56467106/1
States trying to make it easier for troops overseas to vote have set up voting systems that are vulnerable to hacking when they allow voters to return ballots online, via e-mail, or Internet fax, says a state-by-state report to be released today.
#vote
Louisiana is the world’s prison capital | NOLA.com
►http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html
The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s.
Tennessee ‘monkey bill’ becomes law
http://www.nature.com/news/tennessee-monkey-bill-becomes-law-1.10423
Nicknamed after the ‘monkey trial’ of 1925, in which Tennessee prosecuted high-school science teacher John Scopes for violating a state law against teaching evolution, the new measure allows public-school teachers to “help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories”. Biological evolution, global warming, the chemical origins of life and human cloning are listed as examples of such theories.
Photos : The Color Landscape of the Depression Era (Plog)
►http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/11/03/captured-the-color-landscape-of-the-depression-era/5064
These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small towns. The color digital photographs, scans of color transparencies, show the places of Depression Era America – the industry, the homes, the landmarks and the landscapes of a country emerging from the Great Depression and into World War II. All the caption information is taken from the original photographers and, where noted, was added to by the Library of Congress staff. (...) Source: Plog
The colourful snaps that show the ugly side of America’s #pollution | Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053645/A-silk-purse-sows-ear-The-colourful-snaps-ugly-Americas-pollution.html
At first glance they’re beautiful, but these incredible snaps reveal something far more ugly.
J Henry Fair’s spectacular aerial images show the devastation man has wreaked on America.
#photographie #environnement
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/26/article-2053645-0E89B83A00000578-380_964x636.jpg