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Started by aa1234779, August 20, 2017, 07:35 AM

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scarface

Here is an article about Paris, in French, which might pique the interest of the users of the forum like aa1234779. But it's not very positive.

Paris étouffe, même sans canicule
Paris paralysé, Paris pollué, Paris enlaidi. Ce n'est ni un hasard ni une nécessité. Seulement le résultat de décisions politiques aberrantes.



Il n'y a pas si longtemps, on venait vivre en ville parce que c'était mieux qu'à la campagne : plus de confort, de loisirs, de services, de soins… Ces perspectives décidaient des ruraux à s'installer dans les capitales, qu'elles soient régionales ou nationales. C'est toujours le cas, du moins en grande partie. De fait, les grandes villes de France demeurent, dans l'ensemble, agréables à habiter.

Sauf Paris. Le quotidien y a viré à l'enfer. Les malheureux résidents de cette cité, qui fut autrefois Ville Lumière, subissent l'entrelacement de  transports publics bondés , de  travaux sur la chaussée en nombre démesuré , d'embouteillages interminables, d'une pollution de l'air croissante, d'une insécurité sans précédent de la circulation, mêlant dans le plus anarchique désordre trottinettes, vélos, motos, voitures, bus et piétons… Le tout, en ce moment, par 40° à l'ombre. Evidemment, personne n'est responsable de  l'actuel pic de chaleur . Mais la cause de ce chaos urbain est directement politique.

Car ce n'est pas un effet du hasard si cette ville joyau est à présent invivable, encombrée, polluée, laide et vulgaire. Il n'y a là aucun effet du destin, aucune nécessité. Rien que des erreurs, des entêtements absurdes, des fantasmes idéologiques, des décisions contre-productives. Bref, une gestion délirante et néfaste. La liste détaillée des bourdes funestes de la maire de Paris au cours de son mandat occuperait plusieurs volumes. Les principaux exemples suffiront.

Il est urgent de purifier l'air de Paris, tout le monde en convient. Or il n'existe pour y parvenir qu'une seule méthode immédiatement efficace : commencer par rendre la circulation automobile la plus fluide possible. C'est le premier pas. Ensuite, on peut s'efforcer de diminuer le trafic, comme l'ont fait Londres ou Rome. A Paris, au contraire, la mairie s'est appliquée à paralyser systématiquement le trafic en bloquant le souterrain du Louvre, en fermant les voies sur berges à la circulation, en multipliant les voies cyclables et les chantiers. Résultat : les temps de trajet doublent, et surtout les taux de pollution augmentent. Est-ce cela qu'on appelle le sens de l'écologie ? Et de la gestion publique ?

Il est souhaitable de rénover la cité, là aussi tout le monde est d'accord. Pourtant, la multiplication de mobiliers urbains disparates et hétéroclites, la dissémination de nouvelles poubelles hideuses, le remplacement des kiosques à journaux stylés par des cubes de plastique sans grâce ne semblent pas aller dans ce sens. Ni les aménagements pseudo-festifs qui fleurissent un peu partout. Pas question de souhaiter que tout reste identique, mais il faut éviter que tout ne devienne abject.

Parce que cette ville n'est pas un amas de distractions. Elle fut aussi, et peut-être avant tout, un spectacle étonnant et sublime, une esthétique, un univers de détails innombrables et infimes en corrélation. Au lieu de respecter ces traits, d'améliorer le quotidien en tenant compte de leur existence, on les néglige, les détériore, les détruit. Si je tiens à le dire, c'est que je suis né à Paris, que ma mère y était née, et que j'aime ce lieu du monde. Pour en connaître pas mal d'autres, j'ai la faiblesse de croire celui-ci singulier entre tous. Mais fragile, éminemment. Et en péril, à présent.

Il faudrait appeler à la rescousse François Villon et Clément Marot, Rabelais et Montaigne, Balzac et Hugo, Benjamin et Aragon, et tant d'autres, tous amoureux de Paris, tous piétons, tous poètes et paroliers. Qu'ils empêchent, si possible, la ville de n'être plus que l'ombre d'elle-même, et d'étouffer de mille manières. Certes, les meurtres d'âme ne figurent pas au Code pénal, mais il est urgent de délivrer Paris des forces qui la minent , et de commencer à la réparer, avec l'allégresse qu'elle mérite.

Si ce n'était pas le cas, la grande kermesse olympique qui s'annonce devrait s'agrémenter d'épreuves inédites. On inaugurerait le slalom géant en trottinette électrique, le marathon immobile sans respiration, la compétition d'extase à Paris-plage. On tenterait de battre le record de la piste cyclable la plus longue et la moins fréquentée. On se vanterait de cent mérites et de mille vertus. Et l'on remporterait la médaille d'or du pire. Avant cela, s'il est encore temps, mieux vaudrait se souvenir de ce que Pierre de Coubertin n'a pas dit : en matière d'enfer, d'étouffement et de chaos, l'important est de ne pas participer.

scarface

Tonight, I'm going to talk about Maurice.



Maybe some of you know Maurice. It's a rooster.

Maurice was Thursday put on trial in western France, in an unusual case that has come to symbolize the divide between urban and rural communities.
The copper-feathered cockerel is the defendant in a court battle stemming from a long-running neighborhood dispute over his early morning crowing.
His owner Corinne Fesseau told CNN that neighbors in the village of Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron, on the Isle of Oléron, first complained in April 2017, asking her to keep Maurice quiet.

"I've lived here for 35 years, it's never bothered anyone," she said.
However the neighbors accuse Maurice of causing noise pollution and the case was heard by the court in Rochefort, Charente Maritime on Thursday.
After the trial, Fesseau told CNN she was pleased with the developments and hopeful a solution could be found.
"I hope these people will understand the meaning of rurality," she said.
While a verdict is not expected until September 5, the trial has already ignited debate in France.
The neighbors in question are city dwellers who only visit Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron a few times per year, according to Fesseau.

scarface

#192
Tonight, I'm going to hold a conference about Sissi City, "a mirage under construction" according to an excellent article of the newspaper "Le Monde".

In the desert, East of Cairo, President Al-Sissi's dream of greatness is becoming a reality: to build a new capital, a showcase for the Egypt of the future. The exorbitant cost of the project in a context of serious economic crisis compromises its realization, and its ultra-security focus creates controversy.

Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque, inaugurated on January 6th, is the first completed building of the Egyptian "new capital".


Planted in the sand, the imposing Al-Fattah Al-Alim mosque flanked by its four minarets stands out on the horizon like a mirage in the desert. Covered with white marble and rich ornaments, able to accommodate 12,000 faithful, it must mark the entrance to the future Egyptian administrative capital. It is one of the first buildings of Egypt's flagship project, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, to have sprung up from the ground, with the Coptic Cathedral "Birth-of-Christ", the largest in the country, that is standing desperately empty  too. Between the two, a desert stretch of 16 kilometers, punctuated by construction sites and a few completed buildings.
It is here, about fifty kilometers east of Cairo, towards the strategic city of Suez, that an armada of workers, engineers and soldiers are working night and day, since May 2016, to build, on a portion of desert the size of Singapore, the showcase of the Egypt of tomorrow. "Sissi-City", as the Egyptians call it, was designed to be modern, sanitized, secure, sustainable and connected; a center of power capable of competing with the world's largest capitals. "Egyptians have the right to dream and realize their dreams" says an official who organizes the site visit. A vain project, retort his detractors, like his designer, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, who, since his accession to the presidency, in 2014, following the military coup against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, could, thanks to a constitutional reform endorsed in April, remain in power until 2034. As a diplomat sums it up, "this mirage is taking shape, it is Sissi's legacy to his country ".
Faced with controversy, the authorities favor a pragmatic discourse. Cairo, with its 23 million inhabitants, and 40 million by 2050, has become a sprawling megalopolis dying under the pollution, traffic jams and anarchic construction of informal settlements. With the population explosion, which sees every year 2 million inhabitants added to the 100 million that it currently has, Egypt needs to expand its inhabited area - 7% of the territory - by nibbling the desert. "Forty years ago, the state was already thinking about an administrative capital, which shows that we need it urgently," says Khaled Al-Husseini, spokesperson for the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), which carries the project. At the time, President Anwar Al-Sadat had thus imagined "Sadat City". Even more modest, this project had ended in failure.

If you look at the photo below you must be wondering where it is.
It's a view of Cairo from the citadel.
The Citadel was built on top of a hill during the 12th century by Saladin, the ruler of the city, to protect it from Crusader attacks.



Note that this conference might be undermined by grammatical mistakes. If it's the case I hope humbert or Vasudev will warn me.

scarface

#193
Tonight, I'm going to hold another conference. aa1234779 must be wondering if I'm going to talk about Maurice, the rooster. Actually, I will talk about Maurice if I have more news about the trial. Currently, I'm going to talk about Qalqilya, the biggest town of Palestine and secondarily the town of the administrator of the forum.

Here you can see a few photos of the town.

The road network seems to be in excellent condition.


A big mosque


The local market. It seems poverty does not exist in this country. You can't see any beggar. They must be hiding in the sewers or in the subway stations, like in New York.


It's hard to know the population of Qalqilya. Some sources say 40 000 inhabitants, others say 90 000. As you can see on the photo, it's a major town in the Middle East.


It looks like the X games spot.



Qalqilya is a memorable city for many reasons, but there is surely no other city in the world as completely cut off from its suburbs. The Israeli division wall strangles this large and lively city, hemming it in on three sides. But it is still an attractive place once inside, and very green comparatively. There are palm trees and small orchards in abundance. The only zoo in the West Bank is to be found in Qalqilya, serving as its main attraction. But the market â€" much smaller than that of Nablus and Jerusalem â€" is a quirky and interesting place to stroll, where friendly vendors will welcome a foreigner with open arms.
Qalqilya is also famous for another reason. There are documentaries about skaters and their misfit gang, the x-games.

Note that I made a mistake: the fourth photo is not Qalqilya but Cairo. Some of you probably noticed it.

scarface

Tonight, I'm going to hold another conference about climate change.

Note that I found the original article in French here: https://www.boursorama.com/bourse/actualites/le-dereglement-climatique-proche-du-point-de-non-retour-def5022e7536b0f4de69632f18f43756



With study-after-study showing climate impacts from extreme weather to polar melt and sea level rise outstripping initial forecasts, negotiators have a fast-closing window to try to turn the aspirations agreed in Paris into meaningful outcomes.

“There’s so much on the line in the next 18 months or so,” said Sue Reid, vice-president of climate and energy at Ceres, a U.S. non-profit group that works to steer companies and investors onto a more sustainable path.

“This is a crucial period of time both for public officials and the private sector to really reverse the curve on emissions,” Reid told Reuters.

In October, the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned emissions must start falling next year at the latest to stand a chance of achieving the deal’s goal of holding the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

With emissions currently on track to push temperatures more than three degrees higher, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is working to wrest bigger commitments from governments ahead of a summit in New York in September.

Telling world leaders that failing to cut emissions would be “suicidal,” the Portuguese diplomat wants to build momentum ahead of a fresh round of climate talks in Chile in December.

By the time Britain convenes a major follow-up summit in late 2020, plans are supposed to be underway â€" in theory at least â€" to almost halve global emissions over the next decade.

“In the next year-and-a-half we will witness an intensity of climate diplomacy not seen since the Paris Agreement was signed,” said Tessa Khan, an international climate change lawyer and co-director of the Climate Litigation Network.

“REVOLUTION OR COLLAPSE”

As the diplomatic offensive intensifies, the latest scientific studies have offered negotiators scant comfort.

U.S climatologist Michael Mann believes emissions need to fall even more drastically than the IPCC assumes since the panel may be underestimating how far temperatures have already risen since pre-industrial times.

“Our work on this indicates that we might have as much as 40% less carbon left to burn than IPCC implies, if we are to avert the 1.5 Celsius warming limit,” said Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Mann has urged governments to treat the transition to renewable energy with the equivalent urgency that drove the U.S. industrial mobilisation in World War Two.

So far, no major economy has taken heed.

Although Britain boosted the Paris Agreement in June by committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the country, preoccupied by Brexit, is far from on a climate war footing.

Likewise, a push led by France and Germany for the European Union to adopt a similar target was relegated to a footnote at a summit in Brussels after opposition from Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

U.S. President Donald Trump remains committed to pulling the world’s second biggest emitter out of the Paris deal altogether.

Given the uncertain prospects for international cooperation to stabilise the climate on which life on earth depends, some are starting to steel themselves for the unravelling of the world they once knew.

“Either we radically transform human collective life by abandoning the use of fossil fuels or, more likely, climate change will bring about the end of global fossil-fuelled capitalist civilization,” wrote U.S. author Roy Scranton, in an April essay in MIT Technology Review.

“Revolution or collapse â€" in either case, the good life as we know it is no longer viable.”


A cow in India

scarface

I'm sure that some of you are reading some newspapers like Le Monde or Le figaro, even if they are newspapers in French (I'm thinking about humbert, usman or Maher).

If it's the case I recommend this app (for Android): https://mega.nz/#!wBsFwYgB!-97zo4zRXsc0NYpUYa_q_uh2JbAG4YS-8Zx9hlIdz_w
With it, you'll be able to have full access to every article of Le Figaro.



Here is a selection of interesting articles:

Brexit: la perspective d’un «no deal» fait chuter la livre sterling
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/boris-johnson-secoue-l-economie-britannique-20190801


Désertification des centres-villes: est-il trop tard pour réagir?
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/desertification-des-centres-villes-est-il-trop-tard-pour-reagir-20190801


Afghanistan: que veulent vraiment les talibans?
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2019/03/24/01003-20190324ARTFIG00057-afghanistan-que-veulent-vraiment-les-talibans.php



Le Japon autorise la création d’embryons mi-homme mi-animal
http://sante.lefigaro.fr/article/le-japon-autorise-la-creation-d-embryons-mi-homme-mi-animal/

scarface

#196
Here are other interesting articles published recently in Le Figaro (in French).
Note that I sent a letter to Generali yesterday, 2 rue Pillet Will, Paris 9 and I tried to found the location of the building.
I realized that there were offices of Le Figaro just in front of this building, 1 rue Pillet Will.


Guerre commerciale: Trump provoque un séisme
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/guerre-commerciale-trump-provoque-un-seisme-20190802



Derrière les suicides de policiers, le malaise de CRS surmenés
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/derriere-les-suicides-de-policiers-le-malaise-de-crs-surmenes-20190802



And 2 articles of Le monde here:

Quand les sangliers arrivent en ville.
https://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2019/07/30/quand-les-sangliers-arrivent-en-ville_5494965_4832693.html



La calotte glaciaire fond trois fois plus vite qu’en temps normal, impactée par le réchauffement climatique.
https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2019/08/03/en-une-journee-onze-milliards-de-tonnes-de-glace-ont-fondu-au-groenland_5496303_3244.html

scarface

Tonight, I'm going to talk about Bruno Patino's new book, titled "the civilization of the red fish".



The goldfish is turning in its fish bowl. It seems to rediscover the world every turn. Google engineers have managed to calculate the maximum duration of its attention: 8 seconds. These same engineers evaluated the attention span of millenials generation, the one that grew with connected screens: 9 seconds. We have become goldfish, locked in the fiish bowl of our screens, subject to the carousel of our alerts and our instant messages.

A study by the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology estimated at 30 minutes the maximum time for exposure to social networks and Internet screens beyond which a threat to mental health appears. According to this study, my case is desperate, as my daily practice is that of an addiction to the signals that clutter the screen of my phone. We are all on the path of addiction: children, young people, adults.

For those who have believed in digital utopia, of which I am a part, the time of regret has arrived. Thus Tim Berners Lee, the "inventor" of the web, who is now trying to create a counter-Internet to annihilate his first creation. Utopia, however, was beautiful, which brought together, in an identical communion, followers of Teilhard de Chardin or Californian libertarians under acid.

Digital servitude is the model built by the new empires, without anticipating it, but with relentless determination. At the heart of the reactor, no technological determinism, but a project that reflects the mutation of a new capitalist: the economy of attention. It's about increasing the productivity of time to extract even more value. After reducing the space, it's about extending time while compressing it, and creating an infinite snapshot. The general acceleration has replaced habit with attention, and satisfaction with addiction. And algorithms are today the machine tools of this economy ...
This economy of attention destroys, little by little, our bearings. Our relationship to the media, public space, knowledge, truth, information, nothing escapes the economy of attention that prefers reflexes to reflection and passions to reason. Philosophical lights are extinguished in favor of digital signals. The market of attention is the society of fatigue.
Regrets, however, are useless. The time of the fight has arrived, not to reject the digital civilization, but to transform its economic nature and make it a project that abandons the transhumanist nightmare to find the human ideal ... "




If you see all grey, move the elephant (Indian proverb)

aa1234779

Hi

For a while now, I haven't visited the site much, not even the usual of reading posts in Chit Chat.

I've been diving into many rabbit holes the past few months on reddit & many documentary clips & films on Youtube when not doing work.

Here is an interesting short clip on Alex Jones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8wwPAVNVn8

A person with lots of knowledge on military/intelligence Psy-Ops had told me around 2005 that Alex Jones was an CIA scare-agent, or a 'shill' if you prefer, that spreads disinformation in order to discredit 'thinking out of the box'.
I don't consider myself a 'conspiracy theorist' but keeping an open-mind has and will always come in handy in the near & far future, unless it has to do with reptilians, gay frogs, or flat earth.

The ODD TV channel that published the above video is not bad at all.

Here are two other channels that are worth exploring:

Mark Howitt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEC3OJo1iOuWVD_D4NHTGXQ

Construuct
https://www.youtube.com/user/Construuct/videos

Peace
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said “Surah (chapter of) Hud and its sisters turned my hair gray"

Hud (11)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiqxo4UDVfU

scarface

#199
Quote from: aa1234779 on August 06, 2019, 01:27 AM
Hi

For a while now, I haven't visited the site much, not even the usual of reading posts in Chit Chat.
You're wrong.
Quote from: aa1234779 on August 06, 2019, 01:27 AM
Here are two other channels that are worth exploring:

Mark Howitt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEC3OJo1iOuWVD_D4NHTGXQ

Construuct
https://www.youtube.com/user/Construuct/videos
It's not about Bin Salman, I'm relieved.
But I'm also disappointed. Frankly I think these are not videos that are worth listening to. And you say a bit later: "I'm not a conspiracy theorist". And yet you are watching this.
For instance I found this video in the first link, titled "Hitler's Escape From Germany" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owN5ZBarMfs
I'm sure that makes Vasudev and usman laugh. They even found his teeth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYfhv6vaZNU

I prefer real documentaries.
For example, about the Dikkop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFAOnPvNyQI

If you are asking Maher what a dikkop is, I'm pretty sure he won't be able to answer before watching this video.
Or the videos of "Bald and bankrupt". Fortunately, I'm neither bald nor bankrupt but the guy in these videos, in spite of his predicament, always releases good videos. For example the cheapest food in Europe. You may think you'll find it in London or in Paris. It's not the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642qAOTKcxc
Or the videos in French of Insolentiae TV, about the economy. For exampe this one which is about the..."economic collapse". Maybe it's better if you don't understand after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jc_aJdx7_w