continent:north america

Obama reassures Israel, while taking a step back from the Middle East - Obama visits Israel Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/obama-visits-israel/obama-reassures-israel-while-taking-a-step-back-from-the-middle-east.premium-1.510888/obama-reassures-israel-while-taking-a-step-back-from-the-middle-east.premiu

The region is still important to the United States, but less so than it was a decade or two ago; meanwhile, Israel’s dependence on the U.S. continues to grow.

The visit comes at a time when the United States is withdrawing from its deep involvement in the Middle East, amid the growing fear of Israel and other regional allies that America will abandon them to radical Islamic forces.

America entered the region with all its might, as its dependence on oil imports increased. But following the development of new oil and natural gas production methods in North America, the United States is gradually freeing itself of reliance on external energy sources.

In a few years it will become an oil exporter. The Middle East is still important, but it is less vital than it was a decade or two ago.

America has tired of the wars in the Middle East that consumed its resources and robbed its attention in the past decade, without resulting in a decisive victory. Obama has already pulled the U.S. Army out of Iraq, and will take it out of Afghanistan this term. The old regional order, with its reliance on secular military dictatorships and pro-American monarchies, has collapsed under the revolutions of the Arab Spring and the strengthening of the region’s Islamic movements.

The United States has discovered it cannot control these upheavals, and it doesn’t want to get involved in civil wars like the one in Syria. It prefers to stand by and see who wins.

Under these circumstances, pressure on Israel will increase. Until now, Israel has benefited from American safeguards in the region that have bolstered its deterrence capability, helped to safeguard the peace accords with Egypt and Jordan, and protected it from distant regional powers like Iran and Iraq. And when Israel is worried, or when it feels that its security concerns are not being given the attention they deserve in Washington, it has a tendency to take risks and use military force to perpetuate the strategic status quo.

Obama is projecting very different images domestically and overseas: He is trying to draw his country inward while telling his allies in the Middle East that, despite what they may be witnessing, the United States is just as committed to them as ever.

This attitude is reminiscent of Richard Nixon. In 1969 Nixon laid out the American foreign policy strategy that came to be known as the Guam Doctrine or the Nixon Doctrine, which made it clear that Washington would no longer undertake the defense of the free nations of the world. That was the first step toward an eventual American withdrawal from Vietnam, and Nixon, who had to sell the idea to his allies in Asia, assured them that everything would be fine.

The best way for Israel to ensure that the Americans remain committed is to threaten some unilateral action that would drag in the United States. That’s exactly what Netanyahu did Wednesday in his public appearances with Obama. He kept on talking about Israel’s right to defend itself. In rough translation from diplo-speak, that means, “If you don’t take action to get Iran to thwart its nuclear project, we will be forced to act alone − and you’ll suffer the consequences as much as we will.”

https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/b51abf40686dd3ce0d2d867adb3a4cc5/tumblr_mjk74f3vAx1s4ewl8o1_1280.png

Arming Sisters…not with weapons, but with the courage and knowledge to fight back.

Upon working with Tahrir Body Guard (a group dedicated to ending sexual harassment in Egypt) setting up compact women’s self defense courses across Cairo, it hit me. Literally, mid joint lock, a light bulb flashed above my head. Sexual assault rates across North America towards indigenous women are at a sickening high.

For every 1,000 indigenous women in a district, 330 of them will be assaulted.

1 in 3 will be raped.

2 in 5 will experience domestic violence.

3 in 5 will be physically assaulted.

The most unique thing about these statistics? 88% of the time, the perpetrator is non indigenous. Meaning one thing: We’re being targeted. Targeted to flawed laws, racism, and deep rooted corruption in the institutions set up to protect and serve the public. Up until recently, 7 March 2013 recently, when the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized including tribal provisions, tribal governments had no authority to properly address cases.

Keep in mind, while the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is a huge step, it only covers our indigenous sisters in the United States, leaving our indigenous sisters in Canada on the same continuing path. Aside from legal protection not being able to cover the indigenous women across Turtle Island, a signed bill, regardless of borders, will not bring down the rate of assault for years to come, or delete the racism and corruption from society.

Back to the light bulb. Compact self defense courses. If they could be set up in Egypt, and laid out to the point where any woman could walk away with valuable information to save her life in the span of a 6 hour class, why not do this across Turtle Island? I couldn’t find a single reason as to why this couldn’t / shouldn’t be done, so I set out with the following aim…

Crowdfunded. Non-profit.
2 day compact women’s self defense course talking on awareness and mentality as well the physical application of 10 moves that could save a woman’s life…they have mine.
Top 20 most populated reservations across Turtle Island. 10 stops in the United States, 10 stops in Canada spanning the late Summer months / early Fall.

Should this goal be completed, we will directly reach 2,000 women, and thousands more as they share their knowledge. Since this project is run from funding, should funding go over the set goal, courses will continue to move forward as there over 900 reservations throughout Turtle Island, the stops are, to a degree, infinite.

Help us protect our sisters. Because an act of violence against

women anywhere, is an act of violence against women everywhere.

About Arming Sisters

▻http://telecomixda.tumblr.com/post/45200213754/opthunderbird-arming-sisters-not-with-weapons

Canadian PM to meet First Nations leaders after protests | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/06/canadian-pm-first-nations-protests

The Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, has agreed to a meeting with First Nations leaders following indigenous protests sparked by a hunger strike.

Since 10 December there have been road and rail blockades across Canada, flash mobs and solidarity events as far away as New Zealand, in the biggest grassroots social movement in North America since Occupy.

#Canada #peuples_premiers

Early death ’more likely in solo artists’
►http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20784457

Successful solo artists are twice as likely to die early compared to those in bands, the journal BMJ Open reports.

The study looked at the careers of 1,400 European and North American rock and pop stars who were famous between 1956 and 2006.

The chances of a European solo artist dying young was one in 10 - and twice as likely for those in North America.

Experts suggest that peer support from band mates may be protective.

How the #smartphone boom could damage your health and the environment - The Ecologist
►http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1596133/how_the_smartphone_boom_could_damage_your_health_and_the_environment.h

Known for their beauty, aspens have been in decline across North America, with some dramatic losses in recent years. Aware of the rapid growth of radiofrequency (RF) #radiation, particularly from mobile-phone ‘towers’, Colorado researcher Katie Haggerty had an inspiration: she planted three test plots of aspen seedlings. Carefully matched in all other respects, one plot was shielded from a nearby town’s RF radiation, one was ‘mock’ shielded, and the other was left unprotected. The difference, recorded in the International Journal of Forestry Research, was startling: the fully shielded saplings were vigorous and healthy, but both the ‘mock’ shielded and the exposed plants were small, lacked pigments, and had sickly leaves.

#santé #environnement

A Global Energy Shift

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198-natural-resources/52101-a-global-energy-shift.html

By James Parker
The Diplomat
November 28, 2012

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published the World Energy Outlook report in which a large shift in global energy production through 2030 is predicted. North America will undergo a “supply boom”, leading to lower global energy prices, following the extraction of shale gas and unconventional oil. However, these extraction processes, including oil from tar sands, raise environmental concerns. Simultaneously, in China, Japan and India the demand for natural resources will soar. This monumental shift in the world’s energy supply and demand could increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific and in the Middle East as the world’s largest economies are shifting their geopolitical focus according to their energy needs.

Moshé Machover: On Israeli Apartheid
►http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-10-24/moshe-machover-on-israeli-apartheid

Zionist colonization and the Israeli settler state differ in a fundamental respect from apartheid in its original, South-African sense. South-African colonization and its settler state were based on exploiting the labour power of the indigenous people. These people were harshly oppressed and severely discriminated; but their presence was vital for the political economy of the settler state. They were an asset. Zionist colonization, in contrast, is more like the colonization of North America and Australia: based not on keeping the natives as a source of exploitable labour power but on excluding them by various forms of ethnic cleansing. The natives are not a source of surplus for the settlers; instead, they themselves are surplus to requirement.

This is much worse for the indigenous people than South-African apartheid, because it is much more difficult to undo.

Stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know!
–------------------------------------------
Men can read smaller
print than women can; women can hear better.
–-------------------- --------- --------- ----

Coca-Cola was originally green.
–-------------------- --------- --------- ----

It is impossible to lick your elbow.
–-------------------- --------- --------- ----

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work:

Alaska
–-------------------- --------- --------- ----

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
(now get this...)

–-------------------- --------- --------- ----

The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
–-------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------------

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven:

$ 16,400
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour:

61,000
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

The first novel ever written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer.
–- ------------ --------- --------- --------- ---------

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David

Hearts - Charlemagne

Clubs -Alexander, the Great

Diamonds - Julius Caesar

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn’t added until 5 years later.

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?

A. Their birthplace

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?

A. Obsession
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Q.. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter ’A’?

A. One thousand
–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?

A. All were invented by women.

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Q. What is the only food that doesn’t spoil?

A. Honey

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?

A. Father’s Day

–-------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...’Goodnight , sleep tight’

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them ’Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.’

It’s where we get the phrase ’mind your P’s and Q’s’

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill , they used the whistle to get some service. ’Wet your whistle’ is the phrase inspired by this practice.

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

–-------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2012 when...

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list.

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Go on, forward this to your friends. You know you want to!
Go lick your elbow.

China’s Cyber-Attack Fears to Spark Massive Defense Spending

LONDON, UK (GlobalData), 13 September 2012 - China’s concerns over the safety of its power infrastructure will result in astronomical security spending over the next decade, states the latest report by international business analysts GlobalData.

The new paper* says that China’s cyber security market will expand remarkably in the coming years, from a valuation of $1.8 billion in 2011 to $50 billion by 2020, representing a dramatic compound annual growth rate (CAGR) increase of 44.7%.

The study describes the country’s cyber security market as an ‘anomaly’, due to the scale of expenditure when compared with that of other regions - Europe and North America combined are predicted to spend a comparatively modest $16 billion during the same period.

The Asian giant has a strained relationship with a number of nations in relation to cyber security, with the US in particular often accusing Chinese hackers of attempting to breach their power systems, although this has never been confirmed by Chinese government. Such accusations may have fostered an environment of mistrust in which the Chinese authorities expect retaliatory cyber-attacks on their own power infrastructure.

However, as GlobalData explains, for a country experiencing rapid urbanization and undertaking smart grid construction on a vast geographical scale, the cost of protecting all available access points will be huge. The smart grid building phase is expected to be complete by 2015, at which point tens of thousands of homes will be securely connected at an approximate cost of $1,000 per household.

The #Stuxnet computer worm, discovered in 2010, was a major example of the vulnerability of power grids to malicious cyber-attack. The worm focused on five Iran-based organizations and was believed by many to be a deliberate attempt to disrupt the Iranian nuclear power program.

* Cyber Security in Smart Grid – Market Size, Key Issues, Regulations and Outlook to 2020

(communiqué de presse, l’étude elle-même coûtant un bras je n’en sais pas plus)

#chine #cyberguerre #grid #électricité #sécurité

Christian priest bears witness to Syrian bloodbath

A Jesuit priest thrown out of Syria for criticizing Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy forces is visiting North America and will be in Toronto Friday and Saturday. He’s bringing a message for fellow Christians and others: It’s un-Christian and immoral to be fretting only or mostly about the possible plight of the Christian minority in post-Assad Syria, while doing little to save the overwhelming majority of Syrians being massacred by the Assad regime.

Rev. Paolo Dall’Oglio says the regime is “ethnic cleansing” those who oppose it, and is sowing sectarian divisions much the same way Slobodan Milosevic did in Bosnia in the 1990s.

Father Paolo is no ordinary priest. He’s world renowned for having dedicated his life to restoring a 6th-century desert mountain monastery in Syria.
►http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1231830--christian-priest-bears-witness-to-syrian-bloodbath

He did so inspired by a Canadian expert on Byzantine and Islamic art.

more;

Letters on North America
►http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/committees/academic-freedom/intervention/letters-north-america.html

Most significantly, the advertisement in question lists 14 professors by name, describing them (in most cases without any specific accusations) as people who “should be publicly shamed and condemned for the crimes their hatred incites.” It thereby suggests that these scholars are complicit in hate crimes merely for expressing their support for the BDS campaign. The advertisement also encourages members of the public to call university presidents to complain about these faculty members. We regard such action as a threat to the academic freedom that is so crucial to the integrity, autonomy and, indeed, viability of our institutions of higher education.

In response to the Horowitz Center’s advertisement, 151 faculty members signed a Letter to the Editor protesting what they regard as a slanderous attack. Unfortunately, the Times chose not to publish that letter.

Australian billionaire to build Titanic II
►http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/04/201243084229253178.html

A billionaire in Australia has announced plans to build an “unsinkable” version of the Titanic, 100 years after the original ship sank after hitting an iceberg.

The Titanic II, announced on Monday, is expected to retrace the steps of its predecessor with a maiden voyage from England to North America in late 2016.

“It is going to be designed so it won’t sink”, Clive Palmer, a mining and tourism tycoon told reporters.

“It will be designed as a modern ship with all the technology to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Pas con. Un peu comme les centrales nucléaires qui ne peuvent pas avoir d’accident, les avions qui ne s’écrasent pas, et les tankers qui ne peuvent pas laisser échapper de pétrole. Moi j’y crois.

The Formerly Advanced Economies - New Left Project
►http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_formerly_advanced_economies

Just as the European settler economies in North America grew to eclipse the economic power of “Old” Europe during the twentieth century, at least some of the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – were already on a trajectory to rise relative to both North America and Europe in economic power during the twenty-first century. However, a natural process that would have taken five decades or more may now be shortened to only a decade or two as the elites in charge of economic policy in the North Atlantic region seem hell bent on committing economic suicide.

#économie

15th october 2011: birth of a global anti-capitalist movement?
►http://libcom.org/library/15th-october-2011-birth-global-anti-capitalist-movement
Adam Ford argues that the #Occupy movement represents a historic moment in the fight against austerity.

In my opinion, it is very likely that the historians of the future will look upon yesterday as the day a truly global anti-capitalist movement was born. Following the example of Occupy Wall Street, Los Angeles, Boston, and hundreds of US towns and cities, a huge number of small and large occupations began on every continent except Antarctica (see Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America

Posted: Visualizing US expansion through post offices. « Derek Watkins
►http://derekwatkins.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/posted

This visualization shows how formal US territorial control expanded in North America from 1700 to 1900, as seen through changes in the spatial distribution of post offices:

The Near-Extinction Of American Bison In The 1800’s - All That Is Interesting
►http://all-that-is-interesting.com/post/5631232781/the-near-extinction-of-american-bison-in-the-1800s

Once numbering in the hundreds of millions in North America, the population of the American Bison decreased to less than 1000 by 1890. Thanks in large part to conservation efforts undertaken by Theodore Roosevelt and by the US government, there are now over 500,000 bison in America.

http://i.imgur.com/HITYk.jpg

il faut commencer à faire des réserves, après le peak oil voici le :
Peak coffee : A cup of trouble - The Globe and Mail
►http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/latin-american/peak-coffee-a-cup-of-trouble/article2038050

Brazil and Colombia are the top two producers of Arabica, but experts say the crops are not keeping up with skyrocketing demand in emerging markets like China, India and South America, as well as among consumers in Europe and North America.

In the face of strong demand, coffee inventories have fallen to their lowest levels on record.

#café #agriculture #consommation #chine

#Netflix Now Biggest Source Of #Internet Traffic In North America
►http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/biggest-source-of-us-inte_n_863474.html

Sandvine concludes Netflix is now the “unquestioned king of North America’s fixed access networks,” noting that, even when averaged over a 24-hour period and when both upstream and downstream traffic are accounted for, Netflix tops charts as the largest source of web traffic, making up 22.2% of traffic, ahead of BitTorrent’s 21.6%

And This Is What History Looks Like in Mexico (The Field)
►http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4372/and-what-history-looks-mexico

Yesterday, multitudes took to the streets in more than 40 Mexican cities - and in protests by Mexicans and their friends at consulates and embassies in Europe, North America and South America - to demand an end to the violence wrought by the US-imposed “war on drugs.”
What? You haven’t heard about this? Or if you have heard something about it, did you know that it is the biggest news story in the Mexican media, on the front page of virtually every daily newspaper in the country?
What? You haven’t heard about this? Or if you have heard something about it, did you know that it is the biggest news story in the Mexican media, on the front page of virtually every daily newspaper in the country?