Disappointed With Europe, Thousands of Iraqi Migrants Return Home - NYT
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/world/middleeast/europe-migrant-crisis-reverse-migration.html
Disappointed With Europe, Thousands of Iraqi Migrants Return Home - NYT
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/world/middleeast/europe-migrant-crisis-reverse-migration.html
#Hillary_Clinton, ‘Smart Power’ and a Dictator’s Fall - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/hillary-clinton-libya.html
Anne-Marie Slaughter, her director of policy planning at the State Department, notes that in conversation and in her memoir, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly speaks of wanting to be “caught trying.” In other words, she would rather be criticized for what she has done than for having done nothing at all.
“She’s very careful and reflective,” Ms. Slaughter said. “But when the choice is between action and inaction, and you’ve got risks in either direction, which you often do, she’d rather be caught trying.”
Syria Truce Comes With Price, but Not for Assad
By DAVID E. SANGER FEB. 26, 2016
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/world/middleeast/syria-truce-comes-with-price-but-not-for-assad.html
Une #partition de la #Syrie oui, mais pas n’importe laquelle (ne dit pas l’article),
Mr. Gordon noted that the cessation of hostilities agreement may “effectively start to develop into a de facto partition of the country, whereby different ethnic groups control the regions they are currently holding.” That is what worries the Israelis, who see a Syrian-Russian-Iranian axis developing on their border, a group that already has the support of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Over time, European and Israeli officials say, the cease-fire may give Mr. Assad lasting control of the string of major cities — Damascus to Homs to Aleppo — that are now increasingly in his control, thanks to Russian and Iranian support. And it begins to etch out other territory for the Sunni opposition groups backed by Washington and the Arab states, while giving a sliver in the north to the Kurds.
John Kirby, Mr. Kerry’s spokesman, disputes the idea that the agreement would carve Syria along the existing battle lines. “You need to look at the text,” he said. “Every document includes explicit commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, and you could argue that we’ve actually made a stronger commitment against partition than ever before, because all of the parties have signed on to that notion.”
A senior administration official, who would not speak on the record about the internal White House deliberations, argued that the separate enclaves were temporary and would make it possible for negotiations on a political settlement to get started.
Trial in Firebombing of Refugees Exposes Far-Right Grip in Germany
But more hostility toward refugees since the start of a year that began with sexual assaults linked to migrants in Cologne has also hardly discouraged the arsons, the latest of which occurred early Sunday in the Saxon town of Bautzen. There, a drunken crowd cheered as a hotel that had been converted into a refugee shelter burned, and tried to obstruct firefighters from dousing the flames. No one has been arrested.
Film: Zero Days, by Alex Gibney
▻https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php
In his new film, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme.
However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably. Although to this day officially denied, Stuxnet was created by two allied forces who were each pursuing their own agendas, and in doing so opened up the Pandora’s box of cyber warfare …
In Gibney’s film, insiders chronicle the development of a programme code-named ‘Olympic Games’ – a malware which can paralyse the infrastructure of entire states in a split second without leaving any trace of those responsible. This story of a source code that caused severe damage outside cyberspace becomes a cautionary tale about the dangers of unfettered technologies and uncontrolled political power.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUQExJ0aOYA
During the reporting of “Zero days”, the existence of another programme was uncovered: Nitro Zeus:
U.S. Had Cyberattack Plan if Iran Nuclear Dispute Led to Conflict
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/middleeast/us-had-cyberattack-planned-if-iran-nuclear-negotiations-failed.html
The plan, code-named Nitro Zeus, was devised to disable Iran’s air defences, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled.
Nitro Zeus was part of an effort to assure President Obama that he had alternatives, short of a full-scale war, if Iran lashed out at the United States or its allies in the region.
From Cholera to Zika — by Sonia Shah
►http://visionscarto.net/from-cholera-to-zika
Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious diseases have either newly emerged or re-emerged into territory where they’ve never been seen before. A few weeks after the end of the Ebola crisis, the Zika virus is just the latest example. Each health crisis yields promises of new approaches and learning from our mistakes. And yet, we continue to fight global contagions in a similarly reactive, incremental fashion.
Sur FB ou j’ai signalé cette contribution, Sy Morin signale ceci qui est très impressionnant :
▻http://collapse-thedivisiongame.ubi.com
« Vous avez été contaminé par une souche inconnue de la variole. Vous êtes le patient zéro. A cause de vous, une pandémie mondiale est sur le point d’éclater »
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2k4SdwCY9g
on parle un peu de #google_flu_trends dans les questions à la fin, et des #antibiotiques dans l’élevage, des #pharma, des #moustiques…
discussion entre Sonia Shah et son éditrice Sarah Crichton
▻http://www.thoughtmatters.co/2016/03/superbugs
intervention dans ce film publié par Motherboard
▻http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-scientists-are-fighting-a-zika-outbreak-in-the-us
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2gQ_Y30EaM
Seas Are Rising at Fastest Rate in Last 28 Centuries
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/sea-level-rise-global-warming-climate-change.html
... in the absence of human emissions, the ocean surface would be rising less rapidly and might even be falling.
Décryptage : #Bill_Gates soutient les autorités face à Apple
▻http://techno.lapresse.ca/nouvelles/mobilite/201602/23/01-4953607-decryptage-bill-gates-soutient-les-autorites-face-a-apple
Le cofondateur de Microsoft Bill Gates s’est dissocié du soutien apporté par la Silicon Valley à Apple au sujet du différend l’opposant au gouvernement américain, en affirmant que les géants technologiques devraient être forcés à coopérer avec la police dans les enquêtes sur le terrorisme.
Bah en même temps il faut bien qu’il défende Windows 10 ;-)
en fait il dit que c’est pas ça qu’il a dit et qu’il soutient Apple
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/technology/bill-gates-apple.html
The Crisis of Minority Unemployment
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/opinion/sunday/the-crisis-of-minority-unemployment.html
The outrage is that there are strategies, which Congress has rejected, that could help rescue a generation of young men from failure and oblivion. Among these is the employment subsidy program that was passed as part of the Recovery Act in 2009. It created more than 260,000 temporary jobs for young people and adults. Governors and employers were ecstatic. But Republicans in Congress denounced the program as useless a year later and blocked proposals that would have extended it.
#chomage #emploi #travail #afro_americains #minorités #Etats-Unis #discrimination
Volkswagen Memos Suggest Company Misled U.S. Regulators - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/business/volkswagen-memos-suggest-emissions-problem-was-known-earlier.html
According to the documents reviewed by The Times, a confidant of Mr. Winterkorn wrote to him in May 2014, warning that regulators might accuse the carmaker of using a so-called defeat device — software that recognized when the car was being tested for emissions and activated pollution-control equipment. At other times, the cars produced up to 35 times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide emissions, which are linked to lung ailments and premature deaths.
It was not until last September, more than a year after the letter of warning to Mr. Winterkorn, that Volkswagen admitted publicly that 11 million diesel vehicles, including about 480,000 Volkswagen cars in the United States, were equipped with defeat devices. The number of cars in the United States has since risen to include about 100,000 Audi and Porsche cars with diesel engines.
[…]
In May 2014, for example, Bernd Gottweis, a veteran Volkswagen executive who had come out of retirement to help deal with the emissions problem in the United States, wrote Mr. Winterkorn a memo saying the company would not be able to give officials “a sound explanation for the dramatically elevated” nitrogen oxide emissions. United States officials were likely to investigate whether Volkswagen cars were equipped with “a so-called defeat device,” the memo said.
Mr. Gottweis was known inside Volkswagen as the #Red_Adair_of_quality_control, a former Volkswagen executive said, for his ability to deal with emergencies. Red Adair, a Texan, was famous for his ability to extinguish extremely difficult oil-well blazes.
Pas vraiment surprenant, mais les documents commencent à sortir…
Ceci dit, je me suis laissé dire que chez un concurrent de VW, ça fait très longtemps que dans les réunions internes sur les émissions des diesels, il est formellement interdit de prendre des notes…
#Derbent as Russia’s Oldest City ? Think Again, Moscow Says - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/world/europe/derbent-as-russias-oldest-city-think-again-moscow-says.html
Not so many years ago, Derbent buzzed with plans to celebrate its 5,000th anniversary, envisioning the day when it would claim the title of “Russia’s oldest city.”
Not so fast, came the response from Moscow. Like a plastic surgeon with a supernatural touch, the central government peeled away centuries. Out went the plans to commemorate 5,000 years, in came a grand fete to mark the city’s 2,000th birthday.
The mix of Muslims, Christians and Jews who live here along the Caspian Sea reacted collectively with a baffled “What?!” and continued to cherish the older date.
“Throughout the Soviet period they said it was 5,000 years old, and then suddenly they changed it,” groused Alex Abdulfez, a young tour guide at the ancient fortress called Naryn-Kala, which dominates the town. “I don’t recognize any other date. I don’t accept it; nobody does. Everybody in Derbent says it’s 5,000 years old.”
[…]
This being Russia, the date issue spawned an elaborate conspiracy theory. In brief: Mr. Putin is a history buff. After he annexed Crimea in 2014, he startled historians by christening Chersonesus, founded some 2,500 years ago, the historic root of Russia, as holy as Jerusalem.
In addition, Derbent’s cast of Arab, Persian and Turkish rulers long appreciated its role as the choke point preventing the marauding nomads in what became Russia from plundering the far more civilized empires of the Middle East.
In other words, many Derbent residents are convinced that it was denied its full age because it clashed with various founding myths that Mr. Putin wanted for Russia.
Visite en vrac (et en russe)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1qRmHzI3s
On avait référencé un site qui suit les modifications dans les articles mis en ligne des grands journaux, permettant de repérer ce qui a été (généralement discrètement) modifié après coup. Je ne me souviens plus de quoi il s’agit.
Seenthis, peux-tu retrouver ça ?
Et voir si on y trouve cet article : Apple Fights Order to Unlock San Bernardino Gunman’s iPhone (il paraît qu’un paragraphe concernant la Chine a disparu)
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/technology/apple-timothy-cook-fbi-san-bernardino.html
La misère sexuelle du monde arabe.
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/la-misere-sexuelle-du-monde-arabe.html?_r=0
Le sexe est un tabou complexe. Dans des pays comme l’Algérie, la Tunisie, la Syrie ou le Yémen, il est le produit de la culture patriarcale du conservatisme ambiant, des nouveaux codes rigoristes des islamistes et des puritanismes discrets des divers socialismes de la région.
Forging Every Link in the Afghan Opium Chain, Taliban Become a Cartel - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/asia/afghanistan-opium-taliban-drug-cartel.html
In many respects, Mullah Rashid embodies the evolution of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. As a hardened insurgent, most notorious for planning a mass suicide attack in Nimruz during the holy month of Ramadan, he had become among the most powerful drug smugglers in all of southern Afghanistan.
Tasked With Combating Opium, Afghan Officials Profit From It - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/world/asia/afghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban-helmand.html?login=email
The United States spent more than $7 billion in the past 14 years to fight the runaway poppy production that has made Afghan opium the world’s biggest brand. Tens of billions more went to governance programs to stem corruption and train a credible police force. Countless more dollars and thousands of lives were lost on the main thrust of the war: to put the Afghan government in charge of district centers and to instill rule of law.
But here in one of the few corners of Helmand Province that is peaceful and in firm government control, the green stalks and swollen bulbs of opium were growing thick and high within eyeshot of official buildings during the past poppy season — signs of a local narco-state administered directly by government officials.
The Many Mideast Solutions - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/opinion/the-many-mideast-solutions.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Tout arrive, signalé par Juan Cole je renvoie directement à l’article de Thomas Friedman, qu’il faut prendre pour ce qu’il est naturellement, un homme dont les avis sur la région sont marqués au coin d’un indéfectible soutien à Israël. Avis qui, justement pour cette raison, sont intéressants à connaître. Ses prévisions sont juste apocalyptiques. Et en cette fin de journée, je partage, non pas ses idées, ni même ses analyses mais sa noirceur qui ajoute aux nombreuses craintes qu’on se formule depuis longtemps.
Tout de même, constater que même Friedman ne fait plus semblant de croire à la solution à deux Etats, c’est un signe à prendre en compte... Pour le reste, c’est terrifiant à lire parce que cela représente l’opinion d’une élite US qui s’intéresse aux questions internationales (par le biais israélo-US of course).
... with candidates spouting the usual platitudes about standing with our Israeli and Sunni Arab allies. Here’s a news flash: You can retire those platitudes. Whoever becomes the next president will have to deal with a totally different Middle East.
It will be a Middle East shaped by struggle over a one-state solution, a no-state solution, a non-state solution and a rogue-state solution.
That is, a one-state solution in Israel, a no-state solution in Syria, Yemen and Libya, a non-state solution offered by the Islamic caliphate and a rogue-state solution offered by Iran.
Start with Israel. The peace process is dead. It’s over, folks, so please stop sending the New York Times Op-Ed page editor your proposals for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. The next U.S. president will have to deal with an Israel determined to permanently occupy all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including where 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live.
(...)
So my advice to all the candidates is: Keep talking about the fantasy Middle East. I can always use a good bedtime story to fall asleep. But get ready for the real thing. This is not your grandfather’s Israel anymore, it’s not your oil company’s Saudi Arabia anymore, it’s not your NATO’s Turkey anymore, it’s not your cabdriver’s Iran anymore and it’s not your radical chic college professor’s Palestine anymore. It’s a wholly different beast now, slouching toward Bethlehem.
Atrophies crâniennes et virus Zika : suspicion autour d’un produit chimique
▻http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Des-medecins-suspectent-un-produit-chimique-de-Monsanto-912875
Des médecins argentins et brésiliens écartent le virus Zika dans l’apparition de graves malformations crâniennes chez les nouveaux-nés au Brésil. Et mettent en cause l’utilisation d’un insecticide fabriqué par un partenaire de #monsanto censé protéger de la dengue.(Permalink)
Théorie « complotiste » ?
Lire aussi : ▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/americas/conspiracy-theories-about-zika-spread-along-with-the-virus.html
Disparity in Life Spans of the Rich and the Poor Is Growing - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/health/disparity-in-life-spans-of-the-rich-and-the-poor-is-growing.html
The poor are losing ground not only in income, but also in years of life, the most basic measure of well-being. In the early 1970s, a 60-year-old man in the top half of the earnings ladder could expect to live 1.2 years longer than a man of the same age in the bottom half, according to an analysis by the Social Security Administration. Fast-forward to 2001, and he could expect to live 5.8 years longer than his poorer counterpart.
New research released on Friday contains even more jarring numbers. Looking at the extreme ends of the income spectrum, economists at the Brookings Institution found that for men born in 1920, there was a six-year difference in life expectancy between the top 10 percent of earners and the bottom 10 percent. For men born in 1950, that difference had more than doubled, to 14 years.
For women, the gap grew to 13 years, from 4.7 years.
#Inégalités #pauvres #riches #pays_riches #Etats-Unis #espérance_de_vie
Microsoft project "Natick": an underwater datacenter
Main target: cost-efficient cooling.
The pilot consists of giant steel tubes linked by fibre optic cables placed on the seafloor.
A Microsoft research project to manufacture and operate an underwater datacenter. The initial experimental prototype vessel, christened the Leona Philpot after a popular Xbox game character, was operated on the seafloor approximately one kilometer off the Pacific coast of the United States from August to November of 2015. Project Natick reflects Microsoft’s ongoing quest for cloud datacenter solutions that offer rapid provisioning, lower costs, high responsiveness, and are more environmentally sustainable.
▻http://news.microsoft.com/natick
▻http://www.projectnatick.com
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2oJw1a_qEM
Article in New York Times:
►http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/technology/microsoft-plumbs-oceans-depths-to-test-underwater-data-center.html
Even if putting a big computing tube underwater seems far-fetched, the project could lead to other innovations, he said. For example, the new undersea capsules are designed to be left in place without maintenance for as long as five years. That means the servers inside it have to be hardy enough to last that long without needing repairs.
Note: in 2013 Google already came in the news with its plans to build a datacenter on a ship
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYNwIfCb440
▻http://www.cnet.com/news/is-google-building-a-hulking-floating-data-center-in-sf-bay
So far, the only official link between Google and the sea, it the 2011 seawater-cooled datacentre of Hamina in Finland.
▻http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/09/15/google-using-sea-water-to-cool-finland-project
▻https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/hamina
Step by Step on a
Desperate Trek by Migrants Through Mexico
Two days with 10 men who left Central America in early November to embark on an exhausting journey, made riskier by the Mexican authorities’ crackdown on migrants.
Mexico is confronting a ’refugee crisis’ of its own
Mexico needs the money; the US needs the labor. In Mexico, Pope Francis is addressing the topic of northward migration, which has also become a hot topic in the US campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
▻http://www.dw.com/en/mexico-is-confronting-a-refugee-crisis-of-its-own/a-19048256