jeudi 2 juin 2005

Actualités 2

26 commentaires:

Flocon a dit…

As-tu entendu parler de cette histoire Anijo?

Anonyme a dit…

Oui, bien sure j'en ai entendu parler. C'est à la une.

Anonyme a dit…

oof... pas bien sure, mais bien sûr

Ned Ludd a dit…

This topic has been dead for quite a while now, but I am going to restart it.

As you may know, several months ago Christopher Hitchens passed away. I was very surprised to see that two members of congress, one a Republican!, paid tribute to him.

The Late CH was wrong on somethings, like the Iraq war, but he was generally right. It is surprising to hear the Republican mention the word "atheist" in a dignified way.

Of course there are multiple links you can enjoy of him demolishing sacred cows.

Flocon a dit…

"The Late CH was wrong on somethings, like the Iraq war

It may be that "wrong" that gained him some sympathy among some Republicans.

Also, it is one Rep, David Dreier, who may have had some personal links with Hitchens (other than the fact that he's gay of course)

And also it may be that all Rep. are not inebriated with religion.

Now, I shall be very surprised when, say, SemperFidelis mourns over Chirac's death...

Flocon a dit…

So there has been another shooting spree with 12 casualties and 60 wounded or so. The police have checked and the guy wasn't related to terrorism (like he wasn't a terrorist of his own anyway). Wew! what a relief.

So had he been a "terrorist" (what is a terrorist by the way? Drones killing randomly in Afghanistan?) there would have been a raise in the anti-terrorist measures and arsenal?

In the same time, the Brits are scrambling like mad in London in order to "protect" the Games from any terrorist attack with airships and dozens of thousands troops on the ground and al. Have you read The Tartar Steppe?.

Ah! I've always loved British humor! Maybe 10 or 20 or 30 people will be raped, maimed, killed in London during these two weeks but it will not be like theyl be victims of indiscriminate killing...

Isn't the world so funny in the end?

(in order to avoid any misunderstanding, I laugh at the British and American and French whatever authorities, not at the tragedy in Colorado)

Flocon a dit…

Two interesting reads in the NYT, one from Frugman and the other one about the shooting.

There are over 2,500 comments by the readers! As usual, I am impressed with the high intellectual level of these comments.

The comparison with the French newspapers' readers' comments is beyond pathetic.

It may be that there exists in the anglophone world a tradition to write and communicate with newspaper that simply doesn't exit here.

Also one has to subscribe and pay in order to have the "right" to post a comment in Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération etc. Anoher French oddity.

Flocon a dit…

Remember when Lance Armstrong was a regular winner of the Tour de France how all american media was enthusiatic about the American hero who had won the greatest cycling competition in the world which also was the biggest sporting event in the world (their word)?

Today it a a British who's won and naturally the British media and their readers are all enthralled about it (The guardian).

Now, I've looked at the NYT to see what they do say about the greatest sporting event in the world. Not much apparently.

The Wapo perhaps?

Nope sir.


This is called (very) selective information and another example of how less we can know about the outside world if we rely and trust the media.

Flocon a dit…

Among the casualties in the Colorado shooting is a young woman who escaped a similar attack in Canada just one month ago. Coincidence?

Another woman who escaped the 9/11 attack died when the plane she was on crashed one month or so later. Coincidence?

These are just two well publicized cases but we all have learned of similar cases haven't we?

And we all come to the same conclusion that no one can escapes one's fate.

For those who are interested, there has been an essay at understanding what lies beyond the word "coincidence" which of course is used lack of other interpretation of these seemingly bizarre cases.

It's here and in Spanish because some Spanish speaker was as fascinated by the work as much as I am.

Although I don't speak one word of Spanish I may some time in the future engage into a translation.

Flocon a dit…

Mitt Romney in London

Flocon a dit…

Julia Child remembered in le Monde

Flocon a dit…

This passage is for you Ned and it lasts only a few seconds so just enjoy.

Flocon a dit…

Here is an interview of Russell Banks in Le Monde.

"Les démocrates sont là où Reagan se trouvait il y a vingt ans. Il faut avoir mon âge pour se souvenir qu'aujourd'hui Nixon serait presque à l'extrême gauche, et qu'Eisenhower ne pourrait pas faire partie du Parti républicain.

Flocon a dit…

Err... Where does the State Department rank according to the BBC?

Anonyme a dit…

I'm ashamed to say that until now I had never heard of Macau.

Flocon a dit…

And I don't know the 10000th of what they say about Macau on the wiki page you link to ;-)

Had you been born Portuguese or Brazilian you would know without having had to learn...

There must have existed some Hollywood productions centred around Macau in the 30s (with Gene Tierney or her likes).

At least that is the case in France with this movie whose marketing coined title is a guarantee for attention catching...

It reminds me of a post SF wrote on his blog where he used the word "abbhoring" instead of what you know and Mark intervened to say that was the first time he read something incorrect from SF.

The funny thing is that I too noticed the mistake and I too was surprised since for whatever reason I happened to know the term "abhorrent".

Personally, I remember France and the French under heavy attack at the time of the Iraq war because "we" had been accomplice of the Rwandan genocide between the Hutus and the Tutsis in 1994.

Hell! I'm not even sure I had ever heard of that African country by then and even less of its inhabitants or about the genocide.

My guess is that an overwhelming part of the French (95%? or is it more?) was in the same situation. Still, I would have difficulties to spot Rwanda on a map but I learned that the French were responsible for that massacre.

Bon, ben j'ignorais c'est comme ça. Probably was the French media coverage of that incident insufficient or maybe is it only me who didn't care (I favor the second option while not totally discarding the first one).

Anonyme a dit…

The French wiki page on Macao is interesting and led me to this movie.

The Immortal Story (French: Une histoire immortelle) is a 1968 French film directed by Orson Welles and starring Jeanne Moreau.

In 19th century Macao, Mr. Clay (Orson Welles) is a wealthy merchant at the end of his life.


The Immortal Story was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival in June 1968.[5] The film had its U.S. premiere at the 1968 New York Film Festival. In February 1969, it had its U.S. theatrical release on a double feature bill with Luis Buñuel's Simon of the Desert.

Anonyme a dit…

Oh, what an excellent animated map from the French Wiki.

Anonyme a dit…

Bon, ben, Macao (1952) - Robert Mitchum - Jane Russell

Live and learn...

Flocon a dit…

Je connais le titre une histoire immortelle mais je n'ai pas vu le film.

Re the film with Mitchum, is it how you welcomed SF when he paid you a visit ?

Anonyme a dit…

I welcomed SF by buying him a Margarita at The Cantina, which is located inside the La Posta Restaurant in Mesilla. Afterwards he bought me lunch in this room at the Double Eagle restaurant in Mesilla. In fact the table shown is precisely where we sat.

Flocon a dit…

Anijo,

You may be interested in learning that something happened on the Wikipage dedicated to Mesilla in the culture section.

Alas, It didn't take one minute before someone deleted this important piece of information. I just had the time to screen capture the image.

Here is the culprit, Tgeaim...

Anonyme a dit…

lol Flocon! ☺ You have me smiling and enjoying that little mention of me.

Tgeaim is a Senior Editor II and he's on the ball. I recently donated some money to Wikipedia to help them along with this sort of thing. ;)

Flocon a dit…

As a matter of fact, I wanted to add one one your pictures but then I had one alternative:

#1 Are you the owner of the picture? Then you autorize everyone to use it etc. Well, of course I discarded this option

#2 If you're not the owner of the pic you must provide an autorization to use it. Err...

Andy Warhol mentioned the 15 minute fame everyone is entitled to, well you had your 45 seconds on Wiki:en... ☺ ☺ ☺

Flocon a dit…

he's on the ball.

What does that mean?

Anonyme a dit…

Flocon,

You have authority to use my pictures whenever you choose. Of course, I'm not sure about being the 'founder' of such a school though, lol. I'm pretty much a hermit. I just have two close friends who are artists:
Joseph Ireland mentioned here as this artist's instructor, and Tony Pennock.

I was using the phrase, 'on the ball' to mean
'to be alert'.