A deep flaw has been discovered in thousands of #neuroscience studies — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/725746/a-deep-flaw-has-been-discovered-in-thousands-of-neuroscience-studies-so-why-aren
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/mri-scanner.jpg?w=1600
the Eklund study does point at a much bigger problem facing science: how it deals with the fact that a certain proportion of studies are always flawed.
#recherche #reproductibilité (ou pas) #saumon_mort #faux_positifs
in 2009, some researchers put a dead salmon into an fMRI scanner, just to see what would happen. To their surprise parts of the brain lit up, as if the dead fish were “thinking.”
What Eklund’s studies have shown, however, is that the real rate of false positives can often be far higher than 5%.
the flaws in fMRI are a good example of how scientists are tackling one of the biggest problems the discipline is currently facing: that of making experiments reproducible.
Photos : These 1970s brutalist buildings in Serbia look like Star Wars spaceships — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/655106/photos-these-1970s-brutalist-buildings-in-serbia-look-like-star-wars-spaceships
Signalé par @isskein que je remercie
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/forkate-3.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600
Mirko Nahmijas has lived in Belgrade his whole life, but looking through the lens of his Canon 6D has helped him see the futuristic buildings looming over his city with new eyes.
“When you’re born here you never appreciate it,” he says. “You never notice the buildings.”
Nahmijas started shooting images of the brutalist buildings of his hometown in January. The style of architecture, also known as socialist modernism, was popular in Serbia in the 1970s when the country was still known as Yugoslavia and was under the communist rule of Josip Broz Tito. His images capture the stark, almost alien beauty of the structures against clear blue skies, free of their urban context and empty of humans.
@serbie #architecture #brutal_architecture #brutalisme
The emerging field of cute studies can help us understand the dark side of adorableness
▻http://qz.com/740598/the-emerging-field-of-cute-studies-can-help-us-understand-the-dark-side-of-adora
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/cuteness.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1598
Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/722661/neuroscientists-say-multitasking-literally-drains-the-energy-reserves-of-your-br
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/rtr4ty27.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600
When we attempt to multitask, we don’t actually do more than one activity at once, but quickly switch between them. And this switching is exhausting. It uses up oxygenated glucose in the brain, running down the same fuel that’s needed to focus on a task.
[...]
Studies have found that people who take 15-minute breaks every couple of hours end up being more productive, says Levitin. But these breaks must allow for mind-wandering, whether you’re walking, staring out the window, listening to music or reading. “Everyone gets there a different way. But surfing Facebook is not one of them,” he says. Social networks just produce more fractured attention, as you flit from one thing to the next.
Les graphiques de W.E.B. Du Bois et de ses étudiants (liens en vrac)
▻https://blog.kurtosys.com/storytelling-data-visualization
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nR8GIyJANfA/TWVlQnJUDhI/AAAAAAAAETQ/OQJDoPnaOiM/s1600/GN_illiteracy.jpg 
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sx-ppkHIGwg/TWVlQl6fm2I/AAAAAAAAETI/ZPD7sy6WLQA/s1600/GN_Value.jpg 
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PEf7IH9aiGE/TWVlQ9IHaYI/AAAAAAAAETY/gw70834JnMg/s1600/GN_CityRural.jpg 
http://visualoop.com/media/2014/04/Routes-of-the-African-slave-trade-1900-680x490.png 
http://visualoop.com/media/2014/04/Income-and-expenditure-of-150-Negro-families-in-Atlanta-680x490.png 
http://visualoop.com/media/2014/04/City-and-rural-population-1890-1900-680x490.jpg (recherche à partir de ▻https://twitter.com/joshbegley/status/745234042212257792 )
Hand-Drawn Early-20th-Century Charts Showing the State of African-American Economic Life
▻http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/03/04/web_du_bois_charts_from_his_project_the_georgia_negro.html
et tout est dispo en haute définition ici:
▻http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=%22lot%2011931%22%20NOT%20medal&st=grid&co=anedub&loclr=blogpic
Cette figure est particulièrement étonnante :
W.E.B. Du Bois commissioned beautiful hand-drawn data visualizations and infographics for the Paris World Fair — Quartz
▻https://qz.com/906774/w-e-b-du-bois-commissioned-beautiful-hand-drawn-data-visualizations-and-infograp
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/lead-image.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600
The cartography of control: Mapping the Calais refugee camp
Images of people living in make-shift shelters, mud and squalor, have exposed the world to the living conditions in Calais’s refugee camp, known as “the Jungle”. But despite intense media coverage over the past year, it can be hard for outsiders to gain a true perspective on life in the camp, which has become a town in its own right.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/jungle-map-e1466174646663.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=3068
▻http://qz.com/710341/the-cartography-of-control-mapping-the-calais-refugee-camp
#cartographie #visualisation #Calais #asile #migrations #camp_de_réfugiés #campement #jungle
cc @reka
Mongolia is changing all its #addresses to three-word phrases
Mongolia will become a global pioneer next month, when its national post office starts referring to locations by a series of three-word phrases instead of house numbers and street names.
sauf que...
The new system is devised by a British startup called What3Words, which has assigned a three-word phrase to every point on the globe.
▻http://qz.com/705273/mongolia-is-changing-all-its-addresses-to-three-word-phrases
ping @severo
Ce n’est pas tellement les immenses espaces « vides » qui posent problème, mais plutôt les zones urbaines. Et là, même à l’époque où c’était le système « rationnel » à la soviétique qui était censé régné, c’était le bazar intégral…
Officiellement, une adresse, c’était (il pouvait en manquer certains éléments)
– province
– ville
– district
– quartier (micro-rayon)
– numéro d’immeuble
– numéro de porte
– initiale du prénom du père, prénom
En pratique, les numéros, notamment d’immeubles, avaient disparus à peu près partout. Ils ne se suivaient pas géographiquement et le visiteur (normalement pas le postier) n’avait aucune idée de où étaient les limites des micro-rayons et donc du changement de numérotation…
Ah, sinon, les 3 mots de l’adresse, sont évidemment en anglais, mais on pourra passer gratuitement ! à la traduction en allant sur internet…
Mongol Post will start using the system sometime next month, Sheldrick says. In practice, this means it will pay What3Words to license a bit of software that converts three-word addresses into GPS coordinates. When a piece of mail with a three-word address enters the postal system, it’ll be converted into GPS coordinates for delivery. Users can look up these three-word locations, which have been translated into Mongolian, for free on the What3Words website or app.
Mais à la limite, c’est pas grave, le système n’a de sens que si on dispose d’un accès internet permanent sous la main…
D’ailleurs, la photo du bandeau montre bien la nature du problème…
Dans les « quartiers de yourte » pour trouver quelqu’un on dépend fondamentalement du réseau des voisins.
UB by night (ou presque)
Merci @b_b
La faiblesse de #w3w pour moi, c’est la dépendance à une table de coordonnées. Pour ça je préfère #geohash ou similaires qui contiennent l’information dans le code.
C’est le problème du #triangle de #Zooko si je ne me trompe (@stephane ?)
▻https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooko%27s_triangle
On ne peut pas avoir un code #postal à la fois : simple à se souvenir, auto-suffisant (pas besoin d’interroger un serveur central) et unique...
En utilisant les exemples de la page wikipedia, w3w c’est le DNS, geohash c’est le .onion.
@severo Oui, c’est bien ce triangle.
What it is about suburbia that makes it so hostile to humanity ? To someone with no training in architecture, it’s often experienced as a great, non-articulated existential malaise, like depression. You know it sucks, but it’s hard to say exactly why. Here are a few pointers...
▻http://qz.com/698928/why-suburbia-sucks
4. Proximity does not mean pedestrian accessibility
On the other hand, it is not so uncommon in suburbia to live very close to a nearby shopping center. I’ve had lots of suburban friends tell me, “Actually, the grocery store is 1,000 ft from me. Very convenient.” Indeed, when we lived in an apartment complex in the Perimeter Mall area in Dunwoody, the nearby Walmart shopping strip was within spitting distance. I could almost see the store entrance from my bedroom window.
But, perversely, that doesn’t mean I could walk to the store, as a normal person from virtually anywhere else on the planet might conclude from that statement. In its fanatical quest to eviscerate the pedestrian realm and make cars exclusive first-class objects, suburbia manages to make far even that which is conceptually close. Building ordinances generally require some sort of “divider” between these adjacent land parcels, like a ditch, a chain-link fence, or a concrete wall or noise barrier. In our case, that means I had to walk out of the apartment complex, go around the divider, and then cross several hundred feet of parking lot to go to the store.
It goes without saying that most normal people would choose to drive the distance. And that’s the idea.
les ronds-points là, on a appelle ça des raquettes de retournement je crois bien
Par contre la comparaison avec Saint-Germain, pour moi, ça ne tiens pas. L’architecture haussmanienne, sèche comme un coup de trique, une série de cubes décorés, plantés à ras le trottoir, sans interruption, crée une densité tout aussi dystopique et paranoïaque que la suburbia.
For young fish, plastic is basically the McDonald’s all-day breakfast — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/698666/for-young-fish-plastic-is-basically-the-mcdonalds-all-day-breakfast
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/post-1341-1228813683.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1200
Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden reared larval fish in different concentrations of microplastic particles. The findings, published in the journal Science, showed that fish exposed to high concentrations of microplastic particles while developing went on to display abnormal behaviors. These went on to only eat plastic, ignoring their natural food. Researchers were especially surprised that they preferred plastic to their natural food source.
A UN flowchart for refugees reveals how ridiculously complicated it is to apply to asylum
Two months after Europe’s agreement with Turkey went into effect, Greece has finally shared the rules for asylum-seekers already in Greece to apply for refugee status. The process, explained in a handout distributed by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the Greek government, adds a new step to the current system: pre-registration, which allows asylum-seekers to live in Greece until their application has been processed.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/screen-shot-2016-06-02-at-12_colorcorrected.jpeg?quality=80&
▻http://qz.com/697971/a-un-flowchart-for-refugees-reveals-how-ridiculously-complicated-it-is-to-apply-
#Grèce #procédure_d'asile #réfugiés #asile #migrations #complexité
Uber and Airbnb really are for the wealthy and well-educated
▻http://qz.com/687471/uber-and-airbnb-really-are-for-the-wealthy-and-well-educated
The radically simple way to make female refugees safer from sexual assault: decent bathrooms
For the tens of thousands of refugee women trapped in Greece, daily life is made that much more treacherous by a very basic problem: unsafe bathrooms.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/rts9ip6-e1464268123352.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=3200
▻http://qz.com/692711/the-radically-simple-way-to-make-female-refugees-safer-from-sexual-assault-decen
#toilettes #genre #femmes #réfugiés #asile #migrations #violences_sexuelles #viols
Même problème qu’en Inde avec les toilettes
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/391399
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/137496
Et cet exemple autour de l’#énergie pour la cuisine : ▻http://seen.li/ap61
The World Bank is eliminating the term “developing country” from its data vocabulary — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/685626/the-world-bank-is-eliminating-the-term-developing-country-from-its-data-vocabula
In the 2016 edition of its World Development Indicators, the World Bank has made a big choice: It’s no longer distinguishing between “developed” countries and “developing” ones in the presentation of its data.
The change marks an evolution in thinking about the geographic distribution of poverty and prosperity. But it sounds less radical when you consider that nobody has ever agreed on a definition for these terms in the first place.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/infant-mortality.gif?w=680
#chiffres #méthodologie #développement #géographie #économie
#Kenya to close refugee camps, displacing more than 600,000
Kenya will close all refugee camps, a move that would displace more than 600,000 people living there, the government announced Friday.
The decision includes #Dadaab, the largest such camp in the world. It’s home to more than 300,000 people on the Kenya-Somalia border.
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/06/africa/kenya-closing-refugee-camps/index.html
#réfugiés #asile #migrations #réfugiés #fermeture #camps_de_réfugiés
Kenya Says It Will Shut Down The World’s Largest Refugee Camp
Kenya says it plans to shut down two refugee camps, including the world’s largest, due to security concerns. The announcement was swiftly condemned by human rights groups that say the move puts some of the world’s most vulnerable people at risk.
UNHCR appeals to Kenya over decision to end refugee hosting
The Ministry of Interior made the announcement on May 6 in a statement that cited economic, security and environmental burdens. It said the Government had disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs and was working on a mechanism for the closure of Kenya’s refugee camps – a move that could affect as many as 600,000 lives.
Kenya to close all refugee camps and displace 600,000 people
’This reckless decision by the Kenyan government is an abdication of its duty to protect the vulnerable and will put thousands of lives at risk,’ Amnesty International warns
►http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/kenya-refugee-camp-closure-dadaab-worlds-largest-a7019461.html
NGOs urge government of Kenya to reconsider intended closure of refugee camps
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) providing assistance to refugees in Kenya acknowledge the hospitality and responsibility that the Government of Kenya has borne over decades. Despite the huge economic and social pressure, Kenya continues to host close to 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers from neighbouring countries, the majority being from Somalia and South Sudan. The Burundi conflict has also led to an influx of refugees from the country into the Kakuma camp. Fifty-six percent of this current refugee population in Kenya comprises women, children and the youth who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse while in displacement. The acceptance of refugees in Dadaab, Kakuma and those living in urban settings is a reflection of good practice and gesture exhibited by the Government of Kenya and host communities over the years.
Dispatches: Scapegoating Refugees in Kenya
Now Kenya, home to almost 600,000 refugees – two thirds from Somalia – seems ready to join the bandwagon of European states failing to uphold their obligations to refugees and asylum seekers. On May 6, Kenyan officials stated – not for the first time – that Kenya would stop hosting refugees and close refugee camps due to environmental, economic, and security concerns.
▻https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/11/dispatches-scapegoating-refugees-kenya
Ein Flüchtlingslager der Grösse Zürichs umsiedeln
Kenias Regierung will in Kürze mit der Räumung des grössten Flüchtlingscamps der Welt beginnen. Ein Experte nennt gute Gründe, die «Stadt der Verlorenen» zu retten.
▻http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ausland/naher-osten-und-afrika/pEin-Fluechtlingslager-der-Groesse-Zuerichs-umsiedelnp/story/14566910
Prise de parole du président kényan :
▻http://www.interior.go.ke/?p=3113
Kenya Is Trying To Close The World’s Biggest Refugee Camp And This Is Why
Kenya recently announced it will close the world’s biggest refugee camp. It’s a move it’s threatened before, but this year, it has some unexpected leverage: Europe.
▻https://www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/whats-behind-kenyas-plan-to-close-down-the-worlds-biggest-re
Kenya’s Push to Close World’s Largest Refugee Camp Fuels a Sense of Displacement
As Western allies question plan, Dadaab’s largely Somali residents, some of whom have never lived anywhere else, worry about where they might go
▻http://www.wsj.com/articles/kenyas-push-to-close-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-fuels-a-sense-of-displacement-
Inside the world’s biggest refugee camp
Dadaab was meant as a temporary home for Somalis fleeing their country’s civil war. Twenty five years later, it’s home to 330,000 people - and the third biggest city in Kenya. This week, the Kenyan government announced plans to try and close it down.
Why is the cost of hosting refugees falling on the world’s poorest states?
As long as rich nations pay lip service to meeting the needs of the world’s displaced, they cannot blame Kenya for closing refugee camps like Dadaab
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/13/why-is-the-cost-of-hosting-refugees-falling-on-poorest-states-kenya-dad
Story of cities #44: will Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, really close?
Twenty-five years after it opened, Kenya has announced its third biggest ‘city’, the Dadaab refugee complex, is to be shut down. But for many residents, this sprawling slum in an inhospitable desert is the only home they know
▻http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/story-of-cities-44-dadaab-kenya-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-closed?CMP=
Kenya: Refugees face police persecution and death after disbanding of Department of Refugee Affairs
Refugees in Kenya are facing the risk of arrests, and death, after the government disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) – which delivered official movement passes to those wishing to leave camps – earlier in the month.
▻http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kenya-refugees-face-police-persecution-death-after-disbanding-department-
Somali refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab camp may die trying to cross Mediterranean
Somalis are the second largest group of Africans perishing trying to cross the Mediterranean and the closure of the Dadaab camp, the world’s largest refugee settlement, will only add to the migration crisis in Europe as many of those displaced will make their way to European shores, aid organisations have warned.
▻http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/somali-refugees-kenyas-dadaab-camp-may-die-trying-cross-mediterranean-156
Will Kenya really close Dadaab?
If the Kenyan government is bluffing over its announcement that it will close Dadaab refugee camp by November and repatriate 350,000 Somalis back across the border, then it’s a more elaborate ruse than usual.
▻https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2016/05/19/will-kenya-really-close-dadaab
Closing Dadaab will dishonour 2013 deal on refugees, Kenya told
Somalia has asked Kenya to respect the 2013 Tripartite Agreement on repatriation of refugees in its bid to shut down the Dadaab camp.
▻http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/05/24/closing-dadaab-will-dishonour-2013-deal-on-refugees-kenya-told_c1355769
Kenya’s threat to close its refugee camps could be real this time
Kenya is threatening to close the world’s largest refugee camp and send some 600,000 people back to the wars, drought, or famine from which they fled. Citing the “very heavy economic, security and environmental burdens” it has borne on behalf of the region and international community, Kenya said its time “hosting refugees has come to an end” in a statement late last week.
▻http://qz.com/680032/kenyas-threats-to-close-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-could-be-real-this-time
Kenya’s threat to close Dadaab camp plays on international refugee fears
The Kenyan government says that it plans to close Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp. It had also threatened to close the country’s other major refugee camp, Kakuma, but has subsequently said it won’t. Speaking at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Deputy President William Ruto declared that Dadaab will be closed by the end of the year.
▻https://theconversation.com/kenyas-threat-to-close-dadaab-camp-plays-on-international-refugee-f
Au Kenya, la fermeture du camp de Dadaab en question
En annonçant la fermeture du camp de Dadaab pour des raisons de sécurité, le gouvernement kenyan hypothèque encore plus l’avenir d’une population estimée entre 300.000 et 500.000 réfugiés, menacés de rapatriement en Somalie. Entretien avec Léon Salumu, responsable des interventions pour MSF au Kenya.
▻https://blogs.mediapart.fr/msf/blog/010616/au-kenya-la-fermeture-du-camp-de-dadaab-en-question-0
Feature : Somali refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab camp fear repatriation
A section of the more than 300,000 Somali refugees living in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp in northeastern Kenya, have expressed fears the planned closure of the camp will have far reaching effects on their lives.
▻http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-06/11/c_135428362.htm
In partnership, we will bring Somali refugees home
The parties involved are determined to resettle Dadaab residents, but in a dignified, orderly way.
Somalia’s prime minister: ‘We don’t want Kenya to push [out] refugees’
The government of Kenya has come under intense criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups for announcing that it will shut down Dadaab refugee camp by November, which, with nearly 400,000 residents, is the largest in the world. Critics have said that Kenya is unfairly blaming Somalian refugees for al-Shabab terrorist attacks and is making a grave mistake by threatening to send refugees back into areas of Somalia still ravaged by the Islamist terrorist group. Kenya threatened to close the camp last year, after an al-Shabab attack on Garissa University killed 147 people; it later backed down on its decision. But this time, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said, according to a spokesman, “the decision to repatriate the refugees is final.” On Monday, Somalia’s prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, sat down with The Post and discussed the decision to close Dadaab.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/06/15/somalias-prime-minister-we-dont-want-kenya-to-push-out-refugees/?postshare=5271466176014838&tid=ss_tw
Somali Refugees Struggle in Shadow of Forced Return
Kenya’s November deadline to shut down camps and repatriate Somali refugees leaves a community living in dangerous limbo, with some contemplating escape to Europe.
▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2016/06/23/somali-refugees-struggle-in-shadow-of-forced-return?platform=hootsuite
Dadaab returnees will leave camps voluntarily, says UNHCR
In Kenya, moves are continuing to encourage about 320,000 Somali nationals to leave Dadaab, one of the biggest camp complexes in the world for displaced people, the UN Refugee Agency said Monday.
▻http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2016/06/dadaab-returnees-will-leave-camps-voluntarily-says-unhcr
Four ways closing the world’s largest refugee camp will hurt Kenya
Kenya is getting closer to realizing its goal of closing the world’s largest refugee camp. This week, president Uhuru Kenyatta met with United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to discuss Kenya’s widely criticized decision. According to Kenyan officials, Ban told Kenyatta that the UN understands Kenya’s desire to close the camp and would seek funds to ensure the safe repatriation of refugees.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/2015jun14_dadaab_ifo_1.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=3000
▻http://qz.com/709079/four-ways-closing-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-will-hurt-kenya
Connectography by Parag Khanna | PenguinRandomHouse.com
▻http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530058/connectography-by-parag-khanna/9780812988550/#
signalé par @alaingresh ce livre avec un concept que ne connaissais pas
About Connectography
From the visionary bestselling author of The Second World and How to Run the World comes a bracing and authoritative guide to a future shaped less by national borders than by global supply chains, a world in which the most connected powers—and people—will win.
Connectivity is the most revolutionary force of the twenty-first century. Mankind is reengineering the planet, investing up to ten trillion dollars per year in transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure linking the world’s burgeoning megacities together. This has profound consequences for geopolitics, economics, demographics, the environment, and social identity. Connectivity, not geography, is our destiny.
In Connectography, visionary strategist Parag Khanna travels from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, Pakistan to Nigeria, and across the Arctic Circle and the South China Sea to explain the rapid and unprecedented changes affecting every part of the planet. He shows how militaries are deployed to protect supply chains as much as borders, and how nations are less at war over territory than engaged in tugs-of-war over pipelines, railways, shipping lanes, and Internet cables. The new arms race is to connect to the most markets—a race China is now winning, having launched a wave of infrastructure investments to unite Eurasia around its new Silk Roads. The United States can only regain ground by fusing with its neighbors into a super-continental North American Union of shared resources and prosperity.
#connectographie #géograpie #cartographie #Mondialisation #Monde_connecté #monde_interconnecté #monde_systémique
un exemple :
Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures — Quartz
▻http://qz.com/666153/megacities-not-nations-are-the-worlds-most-dominant-enduring-social-structures-a
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/cities-gdp-population-global.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600
C’est une conversation tout à fait passionnante :)
How one programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code - Quartz
▻http://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/13072.jpeg?quality=80&strip=all&w=400
A man in Oakland, California, disrupted web development around the world last week by deleting 11 lines of code.
The story of how 28-year-old Azer Koçulu briefly broke the internet shows how writing software for the web has become dependent on a patchwork of code that itself relies on the benevolence of fellow programmers. When that system breaks down, as it did last week, the consequences can be vast and unpredictable.
“I think I have the right of deleting all my stuff,” Koçulu wrote on March 20 in an email that was later made public.
And then he did it.
One of the open-source JavaScript packages Koçulu had written was kik, which helped programmers set up templates for their projects. It wasn’t widely known, but it shared a name with Kik, the messaging app based in Ontario, Canada. On March 11, Koçulu received an email from Bob Stratton, a patent and trademark agent who does contract work for Kik.
Stratton said Kik was preparing to release its own package and asked Koçulu if he could rename his. “Can we get you to rename your kik package?” Stratton wrote.
“Sorry, I’m building an open source project with that name,” Koçulu wrote back.
The conversation quickly escalated, with Stratton threatening legal action: “We don’t mean to be a dick about it, but it’s a registered trademark in most countries around the world and if you actually release an open source project called kik, our trademark lawyers are going to be banging on your door and taking down your accounts and stuff like that — and we’d have no choice but to do all that because you have to enforce trademarks or you lose them.”
“Hahah, you’re actually being a dick,” Koçulu replied. “So, fuck you. Don’t email me back.”
Stratton brought Kik’s request for the name to npm, again citing the company’s trademark and potential confusion. Isaac Schlueter, the chief executive of npm, agreed to turn the name over to the company.
To Koçulu, npm’s decision to transfer ownership of the kik package to Kik ran counter to the values of the community it serves. In his reply, Koçulu said he wanted all of the packages he had registered on npm taken down. “I don’t wanna be a part of NPM anymore,” he wrote. “If you don’t do it, let me know how do it quickly.”
Two days after Koçulu’s last email to npm, on March 22, JavaScript programmers around the world started receiving a strange error message when they tried to run their code. The issue was severe enough to keep some developers from updating apps and services that were already running on the web. The error spit out many lines, but one stood out:
npm ERR! 404 ’left-pad’ is not in the npm registry.
It meant that the code they were trying to run required a package called left-pad, but the npm registry didn’t have it.
Message de Azer Koçulu :
▻https://medium.com/@azerbike/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules-9045c06be67c
Oil is now so cheap even pirates aren’t stealing it any more - Quartz
▻http://qz.com/619281/oil-is-now-so-cheap-even-pirates-arent-stealing-it-any-more
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/oil-tanker-zeus-e1455795985436.jpeg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1
Stealing the oil from a ship is no mean feat.
Oil tankers are enormous, and ships that carry expensive cargo are designed to be difficult to board. Stealing can mean hijacking the original tanker, disabling its tracking devices, taking it to a location where it can’t be spotted, and transferring thousands of heavy barrels to a different vessel that can then be sailed away. Stealing crude also means finding a buyer for it, or else getting involved in the messy and dangerous business of illegal refining.
Over the past six months, the price of oil has plunged due to a global oversupply. And for some pirates, it’s just not worth stealing it any more.
Photos: Artist #Ai_Weiwei has draped Berlin’s concert hall with 14,000 refugee life jackets
Ai Weiwei has been a harsh critic of Europe’s response to its refugee crisis.
He recently set up a studio on the Greek island of Lesbos, the main entry point for tens of thousands of refugees who make the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey. He is working on several projects that highlight the refugees’ plight, recently reenacting the harrowing photo of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi.
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/h_52585395.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=3200
▻http://qz.com/616552/photos-artist-ai-weiwei-has-draped-berlins-concert-hall-with-14000-refugee-life-
#Berlin #art #gilets_de_sauvetage #réfugiés #asile #migrations #Allemagne
cc @reka
Why is Central Africa missing from so many maps?
▻http://qz.com/602406/why-is-central-africa-missing-from-so-many-maps
Why is Central Africa missing from so many maps? - Quartz
▻http://qz.com/609107/africas-largest-mobile-operator-has-hired-eric-holder-to-take-on-the-nigerian-go
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/wapo3.png?w=1600
Missing statistics are not the only problem. Measures must also be accurate enough to form the basis for effective policy. Many of the published statistics for African countries are known to be based on flawed or incomplete sources. According to Morton Jerven, an economist who has published two books about problems with African statistics, “Presidents are elected, rejected and reelected on the promise of creating more jobs, yet most of these presidents would not have the faintest idea of how big unemployment is, whether [it] is going up or down, or even where people work or where they want to work.”
Economics are probably where bad data has been the most visible. In his 2013 book, Poor Numbers, Jerven lists many deficiencies in African states’ national accounting. The very next year revisions to GDP calculations in some of those countries found that they they were off by as much as half. Most Central African countries have not yet aligned their national accounts to global standards and are likely to be subject to similarly skewed statistics.
Problems are by no means limited to the data published within the countries. The United Nations’ oft trumpeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a particularly dramatic illustration. These goals are evaluated using local statistical indicators, such as childhood immunization rates and the percentage of residents with mobile phones. They drive development efforts around the world, but nowhere more than in Sub-Saharan Africa. When local data is not available, the UN fills in the gaps. In 2015, 65% of the MDG indicators for Central African countries were either estimated, derived from statistical models, or were last measured prior to 2010.