Revue de presse

Obama : La victoire des nerds

2012-11-20T11:56:00.000+01:00

Une longue enquête du magazine américain The Atlantic raconte comment, en 2012, la campagne d'Obama s'est (enfin !) jouée sur Internet. Aux côtés de codeurs barbus et binoclards, elle a intégré l'infrastructure et l'esprit du réseau.

à lire ici

en v.o. : When the Nerds Go Marching In

Slavery Still Exists

2012-09-27T04:44:00.000+02:00

It was 130 degrees when I was first introduced to the brick kilns of Nepal. In these severe temperatures, men, women, and children -- whole families, in fact -- were surrounded by a dense cloud of dust while mechanically stacking bricks on their heads, carrying them, 18 at a time, from the scorching kilns to trucks hundreds of yards away.

These are slaves. Deadened by monotony and exhaustion, they worked without speaking, repeating the same task 16 hours a day. They took no rest for food or water, no bathroom breaks -- although their dehydration suppressed their need to urinate.

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The day I confronted my troll

2012-09-27T03:19:00.000+02:00

He drove me off Twitter, hacked my Facebook, and abused and terrified my family. Yet the biggest shock of all was meeting him.

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Religion, Science And Easy Answers

2012-09-26T02:27:00.000+02:00

Heaven and Hell. God and the Devil. For many folks these polar opposites are what religion is all about. And for many folks in science who consider themselves atheists, this is what makes religion so impossible to bear. How can the nature of the world be seen in such simplistic terms? How can such beliefs co-exist with the technologies on which we've built our everyday lives?

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Three Burning Questions Answered About Salt

2012-09-26T01:00:00.003+02:00

Salt — it's the ultimate condiment. It's the only rock we eat, and it makes our food taste better. There are dozens of varieties, from hand-harvested Himalayan pink to plain-old kosher, to various herb-infused blends. But, as we report a lot around here, when we eat too much, it can be bad for our health.

We named our food blog The Salt because of all these fascinating and contradictory elements embodied in one humble little crystal. So in honor of our first birthday today, we thought we'd help clear up some of our burning questions about this versatile rock.

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Trafic d'ivoire : mafias et groupes armés font un carnage

2012-09-25T03:01:00.000+02:00

Le trafic des défenses d'éléphants est devenu une filière de crime organisé qui a pour principal client la Chine. Guérillas armées, militaires corrompus et mafieux se partagent une "ressource" qui pourrait bientôt ne plus exister.

Enquête.

en v.o. : Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits

The Rich Haven’t Always Hated Taxes

2012-09-25T01:38:00.000+02:00

Mitt Romney has proclaimed, “I pay all the taxes that are legally required, not a dollar more.” While most Americans may not agree with his tax rate (14%), few would disagree with his sentiment. Almost no one willingly pays more taxes than required. Yet there was a time when elites willingly acknowledged that they should pay far higher rates than others. In fact, when the income tax was first regularly put into place in 1913, the well-off were the only ones required to pay it.

Dans le secret des failles informatiques

2012-09-24T10:25:00.000+02:00

Le business des Zero Day est des plus opaques. Des Zero Day ? Ce sont les failles de sécurité dont l'existence n'a pas été encore révélées et se vendent dès lors à prix d'or, comme le raconte le Washington Post. Un marché dans lequel une boite française, Vupen, tient une bonne place. Non sans s'attirer de nombreuses critiques.

à lire ici

Le Washington Post a consacré une série d’articles sur les Zero Day ici

Des enregistrements secrets de conversations de John Kennedy révélés

2012-09-24T07:11:00.000+02:00

Nous sommes en 1963, dans le Bureau ovale, et John Kennedy vient d'apprendre en lisant la presse que des conseillers militaires ont pris l'initiative de faire construire, pour 5.000 dollars, une salle d'accouchement pour sa femme Jackie sur la base de Cape Cod (elle donnera naissance en août à un petit garçon qui mourra à l'âge de deux jours).

Le président décroche son téléphone et demande à ce que les responsables de ce couac soient transférés en Alaska, puis admoneste son conseiller pour l'armée de l'Air, le général Godfrey McHugh («Qu'est-ce qui vous a pris de laisser entrer des reporters là-dedans? Vous venez juste de couler le budget de l'armée de l'Air»), et s'emporte à propos d'un assistant qui apparaît en photo dans l'article («Je ne le laisserais même pas gérer un bordel!»).

la suite ici

en v.o. : Kennedy Tapes Book Showcases Personal Reactions, Fears Of Impeachment, Importance Of Moon Landing

Tracking your body with technology

2012-09-24T04:04:00.000+02:00

Inside Larry Smarr's refrigerator this week was a stool sample that he planned to ship to a laboratory, which will send back a report of information about what's going on inside Smarr.

This monthly test is not part of his doctor's orders, nor is the plethora of mobile technologies that Smarr uses to track what's going on inside his body. But Smarr believes everyone should take charge of monitoring their own health, given how little time people tend to spend actually talking to their doctors.

Smarr may be an extreme example, but many people are turning to available technologies to gain knowledge about their bodies that they can use to optimize their health, beyond what information annual doctor's visits might bring.

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Femen's topless warriors start boot camp for global feminism

2012-09-24T01:12:00.000+02:00

In a chaotic and crumbling former public washhouse in a rundown district of northern Paris, Inna Shevchenko was explaining how a large leather punchbag hanging from the rafters might be used by the foot soldiers of a new generation of feminists.

As she prepared to welcome recruits to the Ukrainian-based feminist group Femen's first "international training camp", it was clear that the instruction would not be all ideological. The talk was of "war", "soldiers", "terrorism" and "enemies". Was it not curious, one French journalist asked, that Inna and her warriors had adopted the language of combat, traditionally a male domain, to describe their mission?

Was it not also inconsistent, another asked, that the new feminists were using nakedness to rail against female exploitation? In a week that had seen the banning of photographs of a topless Duchess of Cambridge, it was certainly topical.

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Why Some Musicians Last

2012-09-22T02:37:00.000+02:00

The mists of eternity wafted over my Twitter feed the other night. Okay, not quite — but talk of eternity, or at least of the pop scene in thirty years, did make for a lengthy and spirited group exchange. It started when a friend who's not fond of singing competitions asked whether Kelly Clarkson will be remembered in 2042. The conversation rolled on from there, with some mounting passionate defenses of Clarkson's commercial impact and vocal talent; others casting alternate votes (Kanye West and Beyonce got the most hugs, Justin Bieber the loudest groans); a few stumping for sideways icons like The Velvet Underground or rehabilitated ones like Duran Duran; and still others rightly questioning the question itself.

à lire ici

China's Brainwashed Youth

2012-09-22T01:13:00.000+02:00

The protests against Japan didn't get us our islands back, but they made one thing clear: The people are puppets of the Chinese Communist Party.

à lire ici

Londres et l’UE proches du point de non-retour ?

2012-09-21T13:13:00.000+02:00

José Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy et aujourd'hui, un groupe de onze ministres des Affaires étrangères, tout le monde semble considérer que la solution pour sortir de la crise passe par une plus grande intégration. La Grande-Bretagne, elle, continue de faire bande à part, et le fossé qui la sépare de l'UE risque bien de devenir infranchissable, écrit le spécialiste des questions européennes du Guardian.

à lire ici

en v.o. : That cross-Channel gap is becoming too wide to bridge

Meet the New Boss: Big Data

2012-09-21T01:24:00.000+02:00

When looking for workers to staff its call centers, Xerox Corp. used to pay lots of attention to applicants who had done the job before. Then, a computer program told the printer and outsourcing company that experience doesn't matter.

The software said that what does matter in a good call-center worker—one who won't quit before the company recoups its $5,000 investment in training—is personality. Data show that creative types tend to stick around for the necessary six months. Inquisitive people often don't.

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For More Weight Loss, Exercise Less?

2012-09-21T00:03:00.000+02:00

As with so many other things in life, exercise may work best if you follow the Goldilocks rule: exercise neither too little nor too much, if your goal is to shed extra weight, a new study finds.

Previous research has shown that exercise alone doesn’t reliably lead to weight loss — without accompanying restrictions in diet — a dismaying fact that many hopeful weight-losers know firsthand. But a recent Danish study suggests that physical activity can indeed help shrink your pants size, so long as you hit the sweet spot — perhaps somewhere around a half-hour a day, at least for young men.

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Today, the Emoticon Turns 30 :-)

2012-09-20T02:31:00.000+02:00

Today, at 11:44 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the emoticon will likely experience a jolt of joy. Today, at 11:44 a.m., the emoticon will likely experience a pang of angst. Today, at 11:44 a.m., the emoticon will likely take a moment to consider where it is, where it's been, and where it's going. Today, at 11:44 a.m., the emoticon will turn 30.

First of all: Happy birthday, emoticon! Here's to you!!! :-) :-) :-) ;-)

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Google’s restricting of anti-Muslim video shows role of Web firms as free-speech arbiters

2012-09-20T01:06:00.000+02:00

Legal experts and civil libertarians, meanwhile, said the controversy highlighted how Internet companies, most based in the United States, have become global arbiters of free speech, weighing complex issues that traditionally are the province of courts, judges, and occasionally, international treaty.

“Notice that Google has more power over this than either the Egyptian or the U.S. government,” said Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor. “Most free speech today has nothing to do with governments and everything to do with companies.”

Wanna Build a Supercomputer? You’ll Need Legos and Raspberry Pis…

2012-09-19T05:08:00.000+02:00

Wanna build your own supercomputer? All you need is some Legos and a few dozen Raspberry Pis.

That’s Raspberry Pis — no “e.” If you can build a supercomputer with raspberry pies, do let us know. We mean those super-small Linux PCs cooked up by some brainy researchers in Britain. Yes, you’ll need Legos too — and maybe some help from the closest 6-year-old.

That’s how Simon Cox and a team of engineers at Britain’s University of Southampton built their supercomputer, and they’ve the published instructions so that you can build one too. The total cost was about £2,500 — or $4,031 U.S. — not including network gear, but you can build a smaller version with four Raspberry Pis for just a few hundred dollars.

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What Americans Actually Do All Weekend, In 2 Graphics

2012-09-19T03:38:00.000+02:00

Last month, we published a post showing what people with full-time jobs do on days when they work.

That post made us curious: What do those people do on the weekends, when they're not working?

Here's the answer.

Urban Planet: How Growing Cities Will Wreck the Environment Unless We Build Them Right

2012-09-19T02:30:00.000+02:00

More and more people are moving into cities around the world—and those cities are getting bigger and bigger. The urbanization shift could wreck the environment—unless we can plan the transition.

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Are Hospitals Less Safe Than We Think?

2012-09-18T02:59:00.000+02:00

Bad doctors. Prescription errors. Surgical slips. Medical mistakes injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. Why patients are kept in the dark.

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The CIA’s Secret Weapons

2012-09-18T01:53:00.000+02:00

In an unauthorized account of the raid on Osama bin Laden, a Navy SEAL revealed that the intelligence analyst who led his team was a woman—and there are plenty more like her in the ranks. Eli Lake reveals the world of the superstar female agents of the CIA.

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Does Listening to Music While Working Make You Less Productive?

2012-09-13T05:26:00.000+02:00

In a previous column about the stress of working in an “open” office, I suggested that the popular practice of listening to music with earbuds or headphones not only cuts down on background noise but may also give employees a sense of control over their aural environment. But does having a constant soundtrack to your day also distract you from the task at hand? That depends on the task. Research shows that under some conditions, music actually improves our performance, while in other situations music makes it worse — sometimes dangerously so.

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The Contradictions of Diplomacy

2012-09-13T04:03:00.000+02:00

A U.S. embassy statement condemning an American film that had infuriated Egyptians reveals the challenging, and sometimes competing, expectations placed on diplomats to the Middle East.

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more : Don't Give Up on the Arab Spring
Why America did the right thing in Libya -- and freedom will eventually win.