Jingle Bells

Want to learn a Christmas song?

Biofuels May Not Be Answer To Climate Change

According to the New Scientist biofuels are supposed to save our planet from climate catastrophe, but they could be doing more harm than good!!! 12 million hectares are currently devoted around the world to biofuel cultivation - such as maize, rapeseed and palm oil. This figure will grow as oil becomes more costly and biofuels supposedly emit fewer greenhouse gases. But new studies are beginning to question the logic of jumping on the biofuel bandwagon.

“Big Brother Is Watching You”

As a journalist and writer of autobiographical narratives, George Orwell (1903-50). was outstanding. But he will be remembered primarily for two works of fiction that have become 20th-century classics: 'Animal Farm', published in 1944, and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four' in 1949).
George Orwell is a pen name. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair,
What Orwell feared when he wrote his novel in 1948 was that [...] conformity would catch hold and turn the world into a totalitarian prison camp.
A film was made by Michael Radford, starring Richard Burton in 1984

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" (sometimes referred to as 1984) is an allegorical political novel. The story takes place in a nightmarish dystopia where the omnipresent State enforces perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present all-seeing Big Brother, Room 101, the Thought Police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language of control, Newspeak. Some commentators have drawn parallels between today's society and the world of 1984, suggesting that we are starting to live in what has become known as an Orwellian society.
The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations that are thought to be reminiscent of the society depicted in the novel.

"Farenheit 451" a film by Truffaut inspired by a novel by Ray Bradbury, a famous science fiction writer, also shows the pressure of a totalitarian regime through interactive TV screens that spy upon everyone’s moves and doings.

Bush presides over relaunch of Middle East peace talks.

Xavier told us about the Annapolis summit which took place on November 28. Bush presided over the formal relaunch of peace talks, inviting the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas to the White House.
Here is his opinion:
"So the initiative of President Bush can come as a surprise because it is the first one since his selection. That’s why the Islamic Jihad general secretary thinks that Bush is trying to use the Israeli-Palestinian problem in order to counter the Iranian nuclear development.In fact, the true success of American diplomacy is to have united 14 Arab states. Behind the appearance of an Israeli-Palestinian meeting, the conference is also aimed at confining Iranian ambitions in the region. It is rather paradoxical yet their common interest is to isolate Iran and Islamists, particularly Hammas, which can eventually pave the way to negotiation."

The lost discs and the surveillance society

Here is an interesting report about "the Surveillance Society" we live in, its traps and tricks. How can we avoid fraudsters, phishing, identity theft?

This echoes Maxime's article called "Government offers reward in hunt for lost data"

"Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost computer disks containing the confidential details of 25 million child benefit recipients. The data, not encrypted, was were on a two computer disks sent from an HMRC office in Newcastle to the Insurer's headquarters in Edinburgh. But the disks, containing names, national insurance numbers, dates of birth and pension data never arrived. (...)

Today, Two CD's have been lost but it should be stressed that it's not an isolated case and I have found on the BBC website two other examples of mistakes of HMRC like that happened last month: HMRC sent some personal details to the wrong people in October, two months ago, and a laptop holding sensitive information was stolen in a car belonging to an HMRC worker, putting hundreds of people under the risk of fraud.

It's all the more paradoxical as Great Britain is well-known to be uncompromising in matters of security and safety. The number of video cameras in the streets of London testifies for it.

As far as I'm concerned, I would say that, finally, Big Brother is nothing more than a giant with feet of clay. "


Are you personally afraid that your data might be used by criminals ?

Mr.Bean and I wish you a merry Christmas

Watch this video to give you a taste of Christmas to come..Have fun!

Jena

Thousands of people marched in Washington to call for prosecution of hate crimes, following tough charges against six black high school students.

In December 2006 some black teenagers had sat under the tree at school, breaking the "whites only" rule. Nooses had then appeared in the tree. This triggered a lot of violence culminating in one of the black teenagers being sentenced to 22 years of prison for beating a white boy.Incredible?

The noose is a terrible symbol of race hatred, reminding everyone of the lynching period.

The FBI said that hate crimes had increased by 8% in 2006.

Listen to John Mellencamp's song : JENA

Two sets of standards, doubles standards, two yardsticks = "deux poids, deux mesures"?

Veto or No Veto

Bush Veto gor Child Health Bill

"US President George W Bush has vetoed a bill to expand a children's healthcare insurance scheme, after it was passed with a large majority in the Senate.
Mr Bush argues it takes the programme beyond its original purpose of insuring children from low-income families.
The vetoed bill proposed higher tobacco taxes to provide an extra $35bn (£17bn) to insure some 10 million children.
Children's health insurance is set to be a campaign issue in next year's elections, analysts say.
Eighteen Republican senators joined Democrats last week in passing the legislation by a 67-29 vote.
But the House of Representatives, which approved the bill by 265-159, was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
It is only the fourth time Mr Bush has used his veto power in the course of his presidency."

This is an excerpt from an article to be read on the BBC news website.

US Congress overturns Bush veto

"The United States Congress has for the first time overturned President George W Bush's veto, on a bill authorising spending on water projects.
The Senate voted 79-14 to overturn the veto, after the House of Representatives voted 361-54, well over the two-thirds majority required.

The last time a veto was overridden was in 1998, under President Bill Clinton.

The bill authorises billions of dollars-worth of local projects, many of which Mr Bush says are unnecessary.

It includes funding for coastal restoration in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, improving the Florida Everglades and fisheries in the Great Lakes.

Many local projects, such as dams, sewage plants and beach restoration, are considered important to local communities and therefore to politicians' electors. "

For further information, read the article.

Carbon footprints

Visit the PCSI site to calculate your carbon footprint and decide how you will offset it.

Point/counterpoint : on climate change

Here is a link to an article which maintains that 'To fight climate change try prosperity".

This is the headline under which the New York Times article was published in the Saturday-October-27-2007 Le-Monde supplement.

Original headline: 'Feel good'vs.'Do good' on climate.

What do you think?

Ominous, Blackwater ?

Did you know that between 25,000 and 40,000 of what we believed were regular US soldiers in Iraq were in actual fact mercenaries hired by the Blackwater firm? Learn more in this video.

RFID

What you always wanted to know about RFID-radio frequency identification device- can be found on Wikipedia in English or in French.
Siemens offers a video ad which explains what RFID is.
Some examples of RFID tags.

DNA testing for migrants

Here is Vincent Lapierre's opinion about the article he chose to talk about in class: from the International Herald Tribune, called "Plan to test DNA of some immigrants divides France":"The idea of testing people to prove their right to enter France, sometimes to find a job or just to join family is for me just undemocratic. France is a country where anybody could live and try his chance like every "natural" French. Of course, this way of thinking is perhaps too easy and impossible but I still think that we don't want to install this kind of discrimination in our country. Maybe I'm wrong which wouldn't surprise me because our government succeeded in the creation of the minister of immigration and national identity…"

Vincent is expecting your comments.

Al Gore and scientists

Another interesting video on youtube.

An Inconvenient Truth? An Inconvenient Nobel Prize?

Watch the trailer of the movie to form an opinion.

Here is the article which inspired Nicolas: Gore wins Nobel Prize for climate change

October 2nd 2007

Jean-Baptiste's and Simon 's choices mostly deal with the environment, a vital issue. As this is the first 'issue' posted on this blog, they haven't had time to write their own articles. You, rest, will, don't worry
Here are the headlines and links .
JB's:
A hot topic about the US commitment to dealing with climate change
Bush seeks flexible CO2 targets
A thorny dimplomatic issue
Iran sanctions decision delayed

Simon:
Amazonian forest more resilient
Controversial scientific evidence on the effect of drought
Darfur attacks kills peacekeepers
Tragedy in Darfur
Explanations about the origin of the tragedy in French
Comments expected down below.

A Star Is Born : Welcome to your blog, PSIs!

Welcome to this new baby: this blog will be filled by you, PSI students, and your teacher. It is aimed at being a reminder of what happened during the year 2007-2008. I am sure it will be a valuable asset in your preparation for the oral competitive exams in June 2008.