Jingle Bells

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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!