How Will Historians of the Future Run MS Word 97? How Can We Save It for Them? - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/how_will_historians_of_the_future_run_ms_word_97_how_can_we_save_it_for.singl
How Will Historians of the Future Run MS Word 97? How Can We Save It for Them? - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/how_will_historians_of_the_future_run_ms_word_97_how_can_we_save_it_for.singl
Jeff Bezos’ plans for the Washington Post: How he could Amazon-ify the newspaper. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/08/jeff_bezos_plans_for_the_washington_post_how_he_could_amazon_ify_the_newspape
But wait! Is the Washington Post so universally interesting to merit such prominent placement? Well, maybe not. But parse Bezos’ words carefully:
“The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs…Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about—government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports—and working backwards from there.”
Bezos tips his hand here. The Post isn’t known for its coverage of restaurant openings or scout troops. Yet Bezos seems to think the Post might return to its previous experiments in hyperlocal news.
One way this would be possible is if the news is personalized. And this is where the new Post could combine elements of Amazon and Facebook.
Let us hypothesize. If you are a Kindle owner, chances are Amazon already knows far more about you than Facebook, because it knows what you buy. That’s the real information gold. Facebook has clumsily been trying to get at your purchase history for years with browser-spying gimmicks like Beacon. But Amazon doesn’t need to violate your privacy. It already knows all about you.
NSA lexicon: How James Clapper and other U.S. officials mislead the American public without lying. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/07/nsa_lexicon_how_james_clapper_and_other_u_s_officials_mislead_the_american.ht
A lexicon for understanding the words U.S. intelligence officials use to mislead the public.
#Lifehacking is just another way to make us work more. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/07/lifehacking_is_just_another_way_to_make_us_work_more.single.html
Two new books offer some curious, if indirect, perspectives on lifehacking. Autopilot by Andrew Smart surveys some recent research in neuroscience (particularly the puzzling discovery that our brains seem to be doing a lot of previously undetected work while at rest) to argue that dedicating time to do nothing—literally sitting still and daydreaming—is absolutely necessary if we are to use our mental faculties and stumble upon new and original insights.
To innovate, argues Smart, we must learn how to be idle—at a time when most corporations see idleness as a vice. By Smart’s logic, one way to subvert modern capitalism is to simply get as busy as possible: Your creativity will suffer— and you’ll be not much better than a robot, only far less productive. (It’s also a sure way to get fired!) “Business destroys creativity, self-knowledge, emotional well-being, your ability to be social,” he argues, as he sets out on a quest to “offer bullet-proof scientific excuses for laziness.”
Smart’s celebration of idleness might seem like a perfect fit with the spirit of the “lifehacking” movement, as both seek to free up some time in our already busy days. Instead, he argues that “technology, for all its advantages, is actually taking away our leisure time” and complains that “we are now wired 24/7.” He also lambastes David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done and a lifehacking role model, for rarely, if ever, asking the obvious question: What if we need so many productivity apps simply because we have far too much to do—and not because we are naturally born slackers?
(...)
Another thinker concerned with the 24/7 lifestyle is Jonathan Crary, a distinguished art historian at Columbia University who has just published a book titled, well, 24/7. Crary sees sleep as one of the few remaining areas that have resisted colonization by the ominous forces of that faceless chimera, neoliberalism. “The huge portion of our lives that we spend asleep, freed from a morass of simulated needs, subsists as one of the great human affronts to the voraciousness of contemporary capitalism,” he writes. (Yes, Crary’s prose can be sleep-inducing. In his defense, it’s a book about the virtues of sleep!)
Many fascinating anecdotes and statistics follow. The Pentagon, always in the vanguard of innovation, is spending millions to free soldiers from the burden of sleep altogether. We are almost there anyway: According to Crary, today the average North American adult sleeps approximately six and a half hours a night, compared with eight hours a generation ago and 10 hours a century ago. What’s not to like about Crary’s message? Yes, even you can subvert modern capitalism: by sleeping more! #Occupythebedroom.
Oddly, Crary says nothing about lifehacking—a glaring omission, when one of its many branches, “sleep hacking,” is specifically dedicated to tinkering with one’s sleep. A common goal for many “sleep hackers” is to spend less time in a phase known as “light sleep,” shifting it to high-quality phrases such as “deep sleep” or “rapid eye movement sleep.” (The staying-awake phase right before you fall asleep is prized by Crary but apparently dreaded by many “sleep hackers.”)
Sleephackers go to bed with sensors on their wrists and foreheads and maintain detailed electronic sleep diaries, which they often share online. ...”
...
Zimmerman acquittal : Blame Florida for Trayvon Martin’s death. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/07/zimmerman_acquittal_blame_florida_for_trayvon_martin_s_death.html
Here’s the problem: To convict Zimmerman of murder, the six women of the jury had to find that he killed Martin out of ill will, hatred, or spite, or with a depraved mind. The law didn’t account Zimmerman’s fear or feeling of being physically threatened.
#justice #Etats-Unis #milice #racisme #trayvon_martin
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Trayvon_Martin (la page #wikipedia n’a pas encore été mise à jour)
Me rappelle cet autre acquittement : ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/146121
D’autres liens via @mona et @supergeante :
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/156167
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/156193
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/156177
George Zimmerman, not guilty: blood on the leaves
▻http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/george-zimmerman-not-guilty-blood-on-the-leaves.html #plo
O’Mara’s statement echoed a criticism that began circulating long before Martin and Zimmerman encountered each other. Thousands of black boys die at the hands of other African Americans each year, but the black community, it holds, is concerned only when those deaths are caused by whites. It’s an appealing argument, and widespread, but it’s simplistic and obtuse. It’s a belief most easily held when you’ve not witnessed peace rallies and makeshift memorials, when you’ve turned a blind eye to grassroots organizations like the Interrupters in Chicago, who are working valiantly to stem the tide of violence in that city. It is the thinking of people who’ve never wondered why African Americans disproportionately support strict gun-control legislation. The added quotient of outrage in cases like this one stems not from the belief that a white murderer is somehow worse than a black one but from the knowledge that race determines whether fear, history, and public sentiment offer that killer a usable alibi.
Conservatives celebrate, race-bait and taunt in the wake of news that Trayvon Martin’s killer will walk free
▻http://www.salon.com/2013/07/14/most_disgusting_reactions_to_zimmerman_acquittal
Prayer, Anger and Protests Greet Verdict in Florida Case
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/us/debate-on-race-and-justice-is-renewed.html?pagewanted=all
Within moments of the announcement of the verdict Saturday night and continuing through Sunday, demonstrations, some planned and some impromptu, arose in neighborhoods in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and Atlanta. There were no reports of serious violence or arrests as the day went on, a contrast with the riots that swept Los Angeles after the verdict in another race-tinged case, the 1992 acquittal of white Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black construction worker.
pas vraiment des #émeutes, donc, à Los Angeles
▻http://berthoalain.com/2013/07/15/zimmerman-acquitte-affrontements-a-los-angeles-14-juillet-2013
President Obama’s remarks on Trayvon Martin (full transcript)
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-full-transcript/2013/07/19/5e33ebea-f09a-11e2-a1f9-ea873b7e0424_story.html
So — so folks understand the challenges that exist for African- American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it or — and that context is being denied. And — and that all contributes, I think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.
et ►http://blog.emceebeulogue.fr/post/2013/07/29/Trayvon-Martin-et-le-discours-d-Obama,-le-Blanc-dissimul%C3%A9-de
The Act of Killing essay: How Indonesia’s mass killings could have slowed the Vietnam War. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/07/the_act_of_killing_essay_how_indonesia_s_mass_killings_could_have_slowed.sing
The Act of Killing opens with questions about historical amnesia. Is it possible to forget about (or to condone) the deaths of 1 million people? It is much easier for us, probably, to imagine such a thing happening in a developing nation. But what started with a story about Indonesia became for me a story about America. About the deep link between Indonesia, Vietnam, and the United States. And our ability to forget.
La cyberutopie est-elle vraiment une mauvaise chose ?- Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/06/cyberutopianism_should_not_be_a_dirty_word.html
Pour Ethan Zuckerman, extrait de son livre « Rewire », la cyberutopie est intrinsèque au développement de nouvelles technologies. L’arrive d’une nouvelle technologie apporte toujours avec elle une vague d’enthousiasme visionnaire qui anticipe l’avènement d’un ordre social utopique. Mais, reconnaît Howard Rheingold, il nous faut des utopies pour faire changer les choses. Taxer de #cyberutopisme le fait de croire que l’internet conduit inexorablement à une meilleure compréhension globale entre les (...)
Les #Google Maps ne peuvent tuer l’espace public - Cyborgology
▻http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/06/05/google-maps-cant-kill-public-space-a-belated-reply-to-evgeny-morozo
David Banks répond à la tribune d’Evgeny Morozov dans Slate - ►http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/google_maps_personalization_will_hurt_public_space_and_engagement.html . Si les cartes sont toujours politiques, le processus de sélection a toujours été à l’origine des cartes. Si Banks reconnait que l’imprévisibilité est nécessaire dans l’espace urbain, il soutient que Google ne fait pas assez pour que la personnalisation de ses cartes lui permette de s’intégrer à nos vies (...)
Même problème et même solution que pour toute autre source d’information : don’t hate the media, be the #media ! Hier et aujourd’hui avec la #Toile, aujourd’hui avec #Openstreetmap les utilisateurs ont la possibilité de d’opter pour la liberté - reste à savoir si c’est ce qu’ils choisiront.
Abortion and birth control: A global map. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2013/05/abortion_and_birth_control_a_global_map.html
Reproductive Rights Around the World
The complete global map of laws governing abortion and birth control.
By Chris Kirk, Charanya Krishnaswami, Katie Mesner-Hage, and Skye Nickalls
Je ne sais pas pourquoi l’Irlande est classé comme pays autorisant l’avortement sur cette carte avec la même couleur que le Royaume Uni !
En bref, en Irlande, tu n’as pas le droit à l’avortement sauf si tu risques de te suicider, car même en cas de viol, l’avortement est interdit.
Et le Monde pudipond de titrer « L’Irlande interdit un peu moins l’IVG »
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2013/03/29/l-irlande-interdit-un-peu-moins-l-ivg_3150495_3210.html
et
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2013/05/01/l-irlande-sur-la-voie-d-une-liberalisation-limitee-de-l-ivg_3169181_3214.htm
La Cour européenne des droits de l’homme avait condamné l’Irlande en 2010 pour avoir contraint une femme atteinte d’un cancer et qui craignait qu’une grossesse n’aggrave son état à aller subir un avortement à l’étranger. Quelque 4 200 Irlandaises, selon les estimations, se rendent ainsi chaque année au Royaume-Uni et sur le continent pour une interruption de grossesse.
Mes cartes ou les vôtres ? - Slate.com
►http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/google_maps_personalization_will_hurt_public_space_and_engagement.html
Evgeny Morozov revient sur la personnalisation des Google Maps annoncée récemment par Google. Annoncent-elles la fin de l’espace public ? La meilleure façon de conserver la publicité comme pilier de son activité, pour Google, « est de nous transformer en créatures hautement prévisibles en limitant artificiellement nos choix ». Mais l’enjeu n’est pas que sur les cartes, avec les voitures autonomes et les lunettes de réalité augmenté, Google s’apprête à modifier profondément la façon dont nous faisons (...)
Big Data dans la Big Apple - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/03/big_data_excerpt_how_mike_flowers_revolutionized_new_york_s_building_inspecti
Un extrait du livre de Viktor Schönberger et Kenneth Cukier revient sur comment le responsable des données de la ville de New York, Mike Flowers, a transformé l’inspection des immeubles de la ville grâce à l’analyse de données en ordonnant les 25 000 plaintes annuelles que reçoivent les 200 inspecteurs du service des bâtiments qui appartiennent à la ville. La solution : un cocktail de données permettant de trouver une corrélation avec les signalement aux services d’urgences et notamment aux pompiers, (...)
President Obama can shut Guantanamo whenever he wants to. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2013/05/president_obama_can_shut_guantanamo_whenever_he_wants_to.html
The real issue here, of course, is that Congress has given the president a convenient excuse for not doing something he doesn’t really want to do anyway. The public wants to keep Guantanamo open.
Guantanamo Poll Finds Most Favor Detainee Trials, But Not Prison Closure ▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/03/guantanamo-poll_n_3210409.html
Requiem pour notre monde merveilleusement inefficace - Slate.com
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/04/senor_based_dynamic_pricing_may_be_efficient_but_it_could_create_inequality.s
L’été dernier, Momentum, une agence de marketing espagnole, a fait parlé d’elle en proposant un distributeur de boisson qui modifiait le prix des boissons selon la température extérieure, en baissant le prix des boissons fraiches quand il faisait trop chaud. Bien sûr, cet exemple n’avait pas d’autre vertu que marketing, souligne Evgeny Morozov : toute entreprise normalement constitué ne pourrait faire que l’inverse... Mais Momentum a surtout montré que la prolifération de capteurs bons marchés (...)
#consommationcollaborative #algorithme #tarificationprogressive #politiquespubliques #politique
Comment le Bitcoin pourrait détruire l’Etat (et me rapporter un peu d’argent) | Courrier international
▻http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2013/04/09/comment-le-bitcoin-pourrait-detruire-l-etat-et-me-rapporter-u
Un #Bitcoin se contente d’exister, comme de l’or.
Bon, pas tout à fait comme de l’or, parce que contrairement à l’or, le Bitcoin n’est pas une chose matérielle. Vous ne pouvez pas en tenir un dans le creux de la main. Un Bitcoin, c’est une ligne de code flottant dans le cyberespace. En théorie, cela n’en fait toutefois pas une simple arnaque façon système de Ponzi, du moins ça ne devrait pas. Pourquoi ? Voilà qui est plus difficile à expliquer, mais grosso modo, c’est mathématique. Un Bitcoin est un chiffre, et vous ne pouvez pas créer un nouveau chiffre comme ça en claquant des doigts, parce que – suivez bien le raisonnement – ces chiffres existent en nombre limité. Il faut découvrir de nouveaux chiffres mais cela n’est possible qu’à un certain rythme. Cela peut vous rapporter gros, ou vous coûter cher, parce que l’opération nécessite d’énormes capacités de calcul. Et le système étant décentralisé [c’est ce que l’on veut dire par peer-to-peer], le logiciel qui sert à faire ces calculs est simplement partout. Vous ne pouvez pas l’éteindre, pas plus que vous ne pourriez éteindre l’Internet.
▻http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/hugo-rifkind/8874321/how-bitcoin-could-destroy-the-state-and-perhaps-make-me-a-bit-of-money
Will Bitcoins Make Me Rich ?
A dispatch from inside the digital currency bubble.
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/04/how_to_buy_bitcoins_a_dispatch_from_inside_the_digital_currency_bubble.html
I’ve been on the Internet forever and have been well-schooled in frauds that begin with the instruction, “First, wire your money to an out-of-state account …” Yet here I was doing exactly that. If LocalTill was a scam, I’d have no recourse. So why was I willing to take such a risk?
Thankfully, my wire transfer to LocalTill went through; after taking its $21.51 processing fee, the firm transferred my $1,000 to Bitfloor, one of the many online bitcoin exchanges where people trade bitcoins for cash. I immediately put in a purchase order, and within seconds the deal was done. I was the proud owner of 7.23883 bitcoins, which I’d purchased for about $138 each.
l’hypothèse c’est que cette grosse presse autour de bitcoin va permettre de mettre un peu d’ordre dans le « cauchemar logistique » que c’est pour l’instant pour l’auteur - qui a un #intérêt dans l’affaire
at the moment, it’s a logistical nightmare to turn dollars into coins. You’ve got to take several leaps of faith, trusting sites that look like they were put together by teenagers. I initially tried to buy coins using MtGox, the largest trader, but the cash-processing service it uses refused to accept deposits greater than $500. What’s more, last week, shortly after bitcoins hit $142, MtGox was hit by a denial-of-service attack that took it offline for several hours. The site I used, Bitfloor, is hardly any safer. Last fall it was hit by an epic hack that resulted in the theft of 24,000 coins
Alors « on » dit « miner du bitcoin » plutôt qu’"extraire" ?
Autrement, les frères Winklevoss sont non seulement riches, mais riches en bitcoin :
Never Mind Facebook ; Winklevoss Twins Rule in Digital Money ►http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/as-big-investors-emerge-bitcoin-gets-ready-for-its-close-up
non c est pas bitcoin qui te rendra riche c est ton cerveau, ton travail et ton investissement qui te rendront peut etre riche.
sinon oui on dit miner du bitcoin, comme on dit miner de l or
les freres winklevoss sont des petits nouveaux dans le monde bitcoin, pas des « early adopters »
Compilation de billets récents autour du nouveau #livre de Evgeny Morozov
Une tribune dans le NYT
The Perils of Perfection
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/the-perils-of-perfection.html?pagewanted=all
Commentée sur @iactu
►http://www.internetactu.net/2013/03/28/la-technologie-est-elle-toujours-la-solution-22-le-risque-du-solutionn
La première partie du billet :
La technologie est-elle toujours la solution ? (1/2) : le biais de l’internet-centrisme
►http://www.internetactu.net/2013/03/27/la-technologie-est-elle-toujours-la-solution-12-le-biais-de-linternet-
Une autre, traduite par le Framablog
Ouvert et fermé
►http://www.framablog.org/index.php/post/2013/03/25/open-closed-morozov
Série en cours sur Slate.com (j’aime bien les papiers de ce Farhad en général)
– Farhad Manjoo and Evgeny Morozov debate Morozov’s new book on “the folly of technological solutionism.”
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/features/2013/to_save_everything_click_here/to_save_everything_click_here_farhad_manjoo_and_evgeny_morozov_debate_morozov
– What Farhad Manjoo gets wrong about my book. ▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/features/2013/to_save_everything_click_here/to_save_everything_click_here_what_farhad_manjoo_gets_wrong_about_my_book.htm
Blowing up Morozov’s « To Save Everything, Click Here »
▻http://boingboing.net/2013/04/14/blowing-up-morozovs-to-sav.html
la recension de Tim Wu dont il est question, et qui n’a pas trop aimé :
►http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-to-save-everything-click-here-by-evgeny-morozov/2013/04/12/0e82400a-9ac9-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story_1.html
Does Morozov have an alternative vision of technology’s future? Generally, he decries the search for perfect, efficient solutions and admires an inefficient, organic chaos of the kind favored by Jane Jacobs in urban design. Funny, that’s exactly what the Internet’s protocols brought to communications, as a response to the big TV networks and AT&T’s “perfect” network. The ideology behind the Internet’s protocols accepts greater inefficiency to allow for the organic life and death of applications and firms. Hence, if you had to name one technology that best serves the principles Morozov believes in, it would be easy: It is called the Internet.
How to cure cancer: Time magazine’s April 1 cover is wrong and cruel. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/03/how_to_cure_cancer_time_magazine_s_april_1_cover_is_wrong_and_cruel.html
in all-caps on the cover of the magazine’s April 1 issue: “HOW TO CURE CANCER.” It’s followed by an asterisk that directs you to a subtitle, just to make sure you get the point: “Yes, it’s now possible, thanks to new cancer dream teams that are delivering better results faster.”
Which, of course, is completely, utterly, inarguably false
#cancer #april_fool #presse via @opironet
L’intéressante féminisation (et la concomittante dé-syndicalisation) de la profession de barman à Las Végas par la stricte application des théories du management et de la création de valeur ▻http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/03/las_vegas_bartender_went_from_a_male_to_a_female_job.html
Toi aussi, viens mettre une fleur sur les tombes des projets #Google abandonnés : ▻http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/map_of_the_week/2013/03/google_reader_joins_graveyard_of_dead_google_products.html
The Italian Elections Prove That Austerity Is Not Working for Europe
▻http://www.scoop.it/t/my-day-by-day-interests-via-my-scoop-it-contacts/p/3998143878/the-italian-elections-prove-that-austerity-is-not-working-for-europe
The outcome of the Italian elections should send a clear message to Europe’s leaders: the austerity policies that they have pursued are being rejected by voters. The European project, as idealistic as it was, was always a top-down endeavor.
source URL: ▻http://www.slate.com/articles/business/project_syndicate/2013/03/italian_elections_results_show_that_european_austerity_is_not_working.html
Argo fuck yourself: Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage movie is the worst. - Slate Magazine
▻http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/down_with_argo_ben_affleck_s_iran_hostage_movie_is_the_worst.html?wpisrc=most
Perhaps my disgust wouldn’t be as intense if it weren’t for the potentially great film suggested by Argo’s opening sequence: a history of pre-revolutionary Iran told through eye-catching storyboards. The sequence gives a compelling (if sensationalized) account of how the CIA’s meddling with Iran’s government over three decades led to a corrupt and oppressive regime, eventually inciting the 1979 revolution. The sequence even humanizes the Iranian people as victims of these abuses. This opening may very well be the reason why critics have given the film credit for being insightful and progressive—because nothing that follows comes close, and the rest of the movie actually undoes what this opening achieves.
Instead of keeping its eye on the big picture of revolutionary Iran, the film settles into a retrograde “white Americans in peril” storyline. It recasts those oppressed Iranians as a raging, zombie-like horde, the same dark-faced demons from countless other movies— still a surefire dramatic device for instilling fear in an American audience. After the opening makes a big fuss about how Iranians were victimized for decades, the film marginalizes them from their own story, shunting them into the role of villains. Yet this irony is overshadowed by a larger one: The heroes of the film, the CIA, helped create this mess in the first place. And their triumph is executed through one more ruse at the expense of the ever-dupable Iranians to cap off three decades of deception and manipulation.
▻http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/2013/02/oscar-prints-the-legend-argo.html
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Affleck went so far as to say, “I tried to make a movie that is absolutely just factual. And that’s another reason why I tried to be as true to the story as possible — because I didn’t want it to be used by either side. I didn’t want it to be politicized internationally or domestically in a partisan way. I just wanted to tell a story that was about the facts as I understood them.”
For Affleck, these facts apparently don’t include understanding why the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun and occupied on November 4, 1979. “There was no rhyme or reason to this action,” Affleck has insisted, claiming that the takeover “wasn’t about us,” that is, the American government (despite the fact that his own film is introduced by a fleeting - though frequently inaccurate1 - review of American complicity in the Shah’s dictatorship).
Wrong, Ben. One reason was the fear of another CIA-engineered coup d’etat like the one perpetrated in 1953 from the very same Embassy. Another reason was the admission of the deposed Shah into the United States for medical treatment and asylum rather than extradition to Iran to face charge and trial for his quarter century of crimes against the Iranian people, bankrolled and supported by the U.S. government. One doesn’t have to agree with the reasons, of course, but they certainly existed.
L’Oscar décerné à « Argo » : « Un succès politique et immérité », selon des Iraniens | Nouvelles d’Iran
▻http://keyhani.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/02/26/loscar-consacre-a-argo-vu-par-des-iraniens-un-succes-politique-
Nous l’avons bien compris : les politiques iraniens et les médias proches du régime sont en colère contre l’Academy Awards américaine qu’ils accusent d’avoir couronné le film « anti-iranien » Argo, de Ben Affleck. Mais qu’en pensent des intellectuels, réalisateurs et militants qui ne sont pas proches du régime ?
CIA’s Work With Filmmakers Puts All Media Workers at Risk | FAIR
►https://fair.org/home/cias-work-with-filmmakers-puts-all-media-workers-at-risk
(2016)
Vice’s Jason Leopold (4/6/16) has uncovered documents showing the CIA had a role in producing up to 22 entertainment “projects,” including History Channel documentary Air America: The CIA’s Secret Airline, Bravo‘s Top Chef: Covert Cuisine, the USA Network series Covert Affairs and the BBC documentary The Secret War on Terror—along with two fictional feature films about the CIA that both came out in 2012.
The CIA’s involvement in the production of Zero Dark Thirty (effectively exchanging “insider” access for a two-hour-long torture commercial) has already been well-established, but the agency’s role in the production of Argo—which won the Best Picture Oscar for 2012—was heretofore unknown. The extent of the CIA’s involvement in the projects is still largely classified, as Leopold notes, quoting an Agency audit report: