Douze Lunes
27 f�vrier 2003
 
Introvert
Caring for Your Introvert
Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is "too serious," or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands�and that you aren't caring for him properly.

 
Probl�me provisoirement r�solu
Le probl�me des voyelles qui s'affichent en charabia est temporairement r�solu (en partie en tout cas mais �a suffit pour rendre ce blog lisible en fran�ais de nouveau ) gr�ce � un usager de Blogger Pro, si vous avez besoin de l'appliquer �crivez moi.
[UPDATE]: Le probl�me semble �tre d�finitivement r�solu chez Blogger: "This problem was related to the "getting lots of new machines all at once" issue I mentioned yesterday. One of the new publishers needed a small change in order to render the special characters correctly. The meta tag workaround isn't a bad idea to have, but shouldn't be necessary now."

26 f�vrier 2003
 
Blogger deconne
Hier pas moyen de poster quoi que ce soit, aujourd'hui des problemes avec les voyelles accentuee qui n'apparaissent plus comme telles, et ce, seulement en Fevrier, pas pour les autres mois archives! Esperons que ca s'arrange rapidement. Si quelqu'un a une idee d'ou vient le probleme qu'il me le dise.
 
50 songs of my life (so far)
50 non-french songs that I love (in no particular order):


24 f�vrier 2003
 
Shut up?
You should read this: Just Shut Up by Neal Pollack
"Nobody gives a shit what anti-war or pro-war writers think. Really. So shut up. That goes double for poets. Shut the hell up, poets. Everybody just shut up."

And, well, I should listen to this sound advice, and speak and link to other things. Anyway, I'm fed up with this mess already!...
23 f�vrier 2003
 
Weblogs

 
31 songs
Wot? No Gene Vincent? (The Observer) - About Nick Hornby's new book: 31 songs. By the way, if you haven't yet read High Fidelity you're missing a very engaging novel.
 
The West Wing
The tale of Rob Lowe's wild ride - Rob Lowe quits this week the TV show "The West Wing" (A La Maison Blanche). Interesting story about TV industry. Read also : Duct and coverage: Fiction, reality blurred further as more dramas weave current events into plot lines
(via Jemisa)
 
News


 
Jon Carroll, for the defense
Perfidious Gaul, how sharp is thy barb

People who had never had an opinion about France before, people who had previously confined their attacks to Bill Clinton, Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and, oh yes, Bill Clinton, are now brimming with expertise on the morale-sapping nature of French culture.

.../...

Two letter writers in the past week have suggested that, if I don't like it here, I should move to France.

Oh please, massa, don't throw me in that briar patch.

Imagine: condemned to eat amazing produce and linger over fine coffee in a bistro or a boite. Banished to the twisty streets of Montmartre or the sun- washed fields of Arles. Just me and the other craven hypocrites, eating at long tables in the apple orchard and singing Gypsy songs by firelight. And to think, I could have been back home buying duct tape and plastic sheeting.

22 f�vrier 2003
 
La balade du blogueur le Samedi soir

19 f�vrier 2003
 
Another brick in the wall
Chirac a provoqu� un beau toll� avec ses d�clarations aux futurs membres de l'Union Europ�enne. J'ai un peu cru qu'il avait encore eu un des ses acc�s d'enthousiasme, mais non �a semble �tre quelque chose de r�fl�chi (enfin, de mal r�fl�chi visiblement!) puisque Michelle Alliot-Marie (notre Rumsfeld � nous!) en a remis une couche sur le m�me ton. Voici ce qu'en disait Mercredi, Lib�:
Qui a �perdu une bonne occasion de se taire� ? R�ponse : Jacques Chirac, qui a morig�n� lundi soir les gouvernements des pays sur le point d'adh�rer � l'Union europ�enne pour leur alignement instinctif sur le bellicisme de George W. Bush. En leur reprochant publiquement leurs prises de position, Chirac a commis la m�me erreur que les dirigeants am�ricains s'en prenant � la �vieille Europe� et sommant leurs partenaires d'�tre �avec [eux] ou contre [eux]� pour attaquer l'Irak. L'arrogance n'est jamais de bonne politique. Le pire est qu'il ne semble pas s'agir d'un d�rapage verbal, puisque Mich�le Alliot-Marie s'est mu�e en Jeanne d'Arc, mena�ant de bouter les proam�ricains hors du territoire sacr� de l'Union � coups de non-ratification des trait�s d'adh�sion, et que Villepin avait ouvert le feu en parlant de �maladresse�...
et ce qu'en dit Le Monde:
Ces pays, en faisant fi de la position commune laborieusement adopt�e par l'Union sur la crise irakienne, se sont montr�s d�sinvoltes envers ceux qui s'appr�tent � les recevoir parmi eux. Mais ce n'�tait pas une raison pour les consid�rer avec plus de d�sinvolture encore en les traitant comme des Europ�ens de seconde zone, tout juste bons � ob�ir en silence aux diktats de leurs anciens. C'�tait, de la part de Jacques Chirac, faire preuve d'un grand m�pris � l'�gard des futurs membres de l'Union que de leur reprocher s�chement d'"avoir perdu une bonne occasion de se taire" lorsqu'ils ont exprim� ouvertement leurs d�saccords avec le trio franco-germano-belge.M�me s'ils n'appartiennent pas encore � l'Union, les nouveaux adh�rents m�ritent d'�tre plac�s sur un pied d'�galit� avec ceux qui les ont pr�c�d�s. On ne peut qu'�tre choqu� par la distinction qu'ont �tablie Jacques Chirac, puis Mich�le Alliot-Marie, entre ceux qui font vraiment partie de la famille et ceux qui n'en sont que les cousins �loign�s. Comme l'a dit �loquemment Chris Patten, le commissaire charg� des relations ext�rieures, l'Union n'est pas le pacte de Varsovie. Ses membres gardent toute leur libert� de parole, qu'ils soient grands ou petits, anciens ou nouveaux.
Bon, regardons les circonstances: pour la deuxi�me fois en moins de douze mois, le pr�sident a 83% de l'opinion d'accord avec lui, les gens ne descendent plus dans la rue pour vilipender sa politique mais pour l'approuver � grands cris et pas seulement � Paris mais dans le monde entier et par dizaines de millions, son ministre des affaires �trang�res sauve la paix tous les vendredi apr�s-midi � l'ONU, les Am�ricains le vouent aux g�monies comme son mod�le, le grand Charles, les chefs d'�tats Africains lui rendent gr�ce (sauf Gbagbo!), sans parler des chefs d'�tats Arabes, on le propose pour le Nobel de la Paix! C'est beaucoup pour un seul homme!
18 f�vrier 2003
 
Excit�
Lors de la r�union des 15 � Bruxelles, hier soir lundi 17 f�vrier, une violente altercation a oppos� Silvio Berlusconi et Jacques Chirac. Le pr�sident de la R�publique fran�aise, d�fendant sa position oppos�e � celle de l'Italien, s'est emport� violemment et n'a cess� d'argumenter en invoquant la mort de milliers de civils innocents qu'entra�nerait les bombardements am�ricains sur l'Irak. A son tour, le chef du gouvernement transalpin furieux, s'est mis a hurler, reprochant � Chirac d'�tre moins autrement moins sensible aux milliers de morts des Twin Towers.
(Proche-orient Info)

Les anciens pays de l'Europe communiste avaient manifest� un fort m�contentement apr�s les vives d�clarations du pr�sident fran�ais, Jacques Chirac, leur reprochant leur alignement sur Washington � propos de la crise irakienne. Le pr�sident Chirac avait estim�, lundi soir � Bruxelles, que les anciens pays de l'Europe communiste aspirant � entrer dans l'UE, avaient "manqu� une bonne occasion de se taire" en annon�ant leur soutien � la politique am�ricaine. "Ces pays ont �t� � la fois, disons le mot, pas tr�s bien �lev�s et un peu inconscients des dangers que comportait un trop rapide alignement sur la position am�ricaine", avait d�clar� M. Chirac, apr�s un sommet extraordinaire cens� rapprocher les Europ�ens.
(Le Monde)

Il p�te les plombs, Chirac, ou quoi?
17 f�vrier 2003
 
Un r�ve de pi�ton devient r�alit�
Contre les embouteillages, Londres exp�rimente le "p�age �lectronique" - Attention automobilistes Parisiens ! J'attends avec impatience que Bertrand Delano� fasse de m�me � Paris!
Depuis lundi matin 17 f�vrier, Londres vit une r�volution. Il faut d�sormais payer pour circu-ler dans le centre de la capitale britannique. L'entr�e en vigueur d'un syst�me de "p�age �lectronique" complexe et ambitieux, d'une ampleur in�dite dans le monde, vise � r�duire les embouteillages cauchemardesques dont souffre Londres.

Les automobilistes circulant, du lundi au vendredi � sauf les jours f�ri�s � de 7 heures � 18 h 30, dans un p�rim�tre de plus de 20 km2, acquittent une "taxe d'embouteillage" de 5 livres par jour (environ 7,5 euros). La zone � p�age couvre en gros West End, la City et le sud de la Tamise. Elle va de King's Cross, au nord, � Elephant and Castle, au sud, de Tower Bridge, � l'est, � Hyde Park, � l'ouest. Plus de 800 cam�ras sophistiqu�es, install�es aux entr�es et � l'int�rieur de ce secteur, "lisent" les plaques d'immatriculation et, reli�es � un puissant ordinateur central, v�rifient dans une banque de donn�es si la taxe a bien �t� pay�e.

 
Wesley Clark for president!
Hier soir dans "Late Edition", un des plus important talk-show politique de CNN, diffus� sur CNN International. L'ex-g�n�ral Wesley Clark �tait invit�. Wesley Clark a eu son heure de gloire par ici, en tant que commandant en chef de l'op�ration de l'OTAN en Yougoslavie qui a aboutit � la lib�ration du Kosovo. Il para�t que Wesley Clark a l'intention de se pr�senter en tant que candidat D�mocrate aux prochaines �lections primaires pour la pr�sidentielle de 2004. Il a dit, hier soir, une chose int�ressante (entre autres):
CLARK: Well, look, we have to be very clear on the facts. European public opinion is against the war not just in France and Germany, but throughout Europe. It is against it. It's a question how far the governments can depart from their public opinion that determines how they can support us.
We have to give them the evidence they need, the ammunition, the analysis, the commitments, the follow through that let these governments mold their own public opinion so they can come on our side.

Le g�n�ral Clark �tait invit� aussi � Meet the Press sur NBC, voici des extraits de son intervention:
GEN. CLARK: One thing I learned in the Kosovo campaign is that if you�re going to have allies, the unfortunate thing is they have their own opinions. And if you really want allies, you got to listen to their opinions, you�ve got to take them seriously, you�ve got to work with their issues. Every one of our allied leaders is an elected leader, at least in Europe. And that means they have domestic politics and political factors at home and economic factors at home that influence their opinions. And those have to be respected just like we would expect them to respect us for our political system in the United States.
If we deal with our allies on a basis of respect, if we give them the opportunity and the evidence and the arguments and the analysis that�s needed to help shape their public opinions, then we can expect them to go along with us.
.../...
MR. RUSSERT: What should the administration have done differently? What other strategy could they have embarked on a year ago where we�d have a different result today?
GEN. CLARK: Well, I think you have to go back really�let�s start with 9/11; 3,000 dead in this country underscore the deadly threat of al-Qaeda. Somehow, we got that tied in with Iraq. From the beginning, people were saying Iraq must have been behind it. Well, they weren�t behind it. Why not? Have focused exclusively on al-Qaeda, said, �Here�s our target, set Iraq aside, strengthen containment. OK. We don�t want them dealing with terrorists. They�re a potential proliferant.� But then so is Iran. They actually have a more active terrorist network. They also have weapons of mass destruction, and then here�s North Korea that even has nuclear weapons, and they do sell.

So you have three potential major proliferants, and then you have al-Qaeda. Why not focus on al-Qaeda and then work that very intensively, work it diplomatically? Go into the United Nations and start with indicting Osama bin Laden as a war criminal. That way, you can use international legitimacy and pressure against some of these so-called coalition partners like Syria and others that are sort of sitting on the fence and playing both sides. And then go to NATO. Take NATO and multifunctionalize it. Say to NATO, �Look, you used to be a military alliance. That was appropriate for the Soviet threat. But now, you know, terrorism�s much more complex. We�ve got to harmonize our laws, got to have a standard definition of what is terrorism, got to know what are the elements of proving terrorism is a crime, got to standardize our rules of evidence. If we give you a wiretap and we say, �This guy is guilty of conspiring to blow up the Eiffel Tower,� we don�t want you to say that�s not admissible in your court.�

And so we could have used NATO that way. We could have brought our allies into it in a much more constructive, powerful way, so that when it comes time for a French election or a German election, the issue isn�t about America. It�s about how that country is doing in its war on terror. This is what we did during the Kosovo campaign by using NATO. As Prime Minister Blair told me during our one-on-one meeting on the 20th of April, �99, he said, �The future of every government in Western Europe depends on the successful outcome of the campaign that NATO is waging against Slobodan Milosevic.�

But, you know, that�s not what�s happened in Europe today. Somehow, we�ve become divided from Europe. So I would have focused on al-Qaeda. I would have used the United Nations and NATO against al-Qaeda. Then I would have drawn NATO into it. Then when it comes time to work against Iraq, or Iran, or North Korea, you�ve got a strong, committed group of allies. As long as the United States stands with Europe, we can move the world. When we become at odds across the Atlantic, everything becomes more difficult.

Exactly!

Lire la transcription de Late Edition
Lire la transcription de Meet the Press
16 f�vrier 2003
 
Vaclav Havel
Exit Havel - Portrait de Vaclav Havel par David Remnick dans le New Yorker.
The power of totalitarian ideology, he wrote, is that it acts as "a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. . . . It is rather like a collection of traffic signals and directional signs, giving the process shape and structure. This metaphysical order guarantees the inner coherence of the totalitarian power structure. It is the glue holding it together, its binding principle, the instrument of its discipline."

Havel describes dissent not as an alternative political ideology but, rather, as an individual's insistence on his own humanity, on thinking and doing things, even the smallest things, honestly. In the mid-seventies, Havel had to make his living by working in a brewery, and, in "The Power of the Powerless," he recalls a dispute at the plant. A worker there spoke out to his bosses about ways to improve production. He was not an intellectual or a political rebel, just someone with an idea on how to produce beer more efficiently. But he had dared defy his bosses, and that could not be tolerated. All too often, Havel wrote, living normally "begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society."

And so it did with Havel. As an analyst, he wrote that the system could not tolerate even the slightest challenge, because its existence depended for its survival on unanimity. (Read on...)

 
"Male American voice of motels and freeways and love derailed"...
Other voices, other rooms - Portrait de Richard Ford dans le Guardian
Ford is now at work on the third Frank Bascombe novel. It is a complex process. He hauls out a large cardboard box from a cupboard in his study. It is filled with tiny scraps of paper - backs of envelopes, corners of notepaper from the University Club and the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood, scrawled with his tight, knotty handwriting. He pulls out a few at random. "I used to wear an appliance, but I lost it..." "Weather is all we really have of real experience in the suburbs... standing out in rain..." "Going to the male clinic... having seen blood on the sheets..."

"And then I just pick at them," he says, "very patiently, and I mean it takes months, and I know what I'm writing, because part of the collation of these notes indicates that I think I'm writing something. And then I start making files." He has a file for Frank and a file each for Paul and Clarissa, Frank's children, and a file for Thanksgiving, when he plans to set the novel. He has a file for real estate and one for carryovers - the things from the other books which may re-emerge in this one, and he has a file for what he calls the permanent period, which is how Frank will define this period of his life, following on from the existence period of Independence Day .

A lot of the files have duplicate entries, phrases he doesn't know whether to attribute to one character or another. He prints up all the notes and puts them into ring-bound notebooks. And then, he says, "I like to put them in the freezer, so if the house burns down, the freezer won't. I probably have more things I want to write about in this book than I had in the other two," he says. "But I hope this book is going to be shorter than Independence Day ." (Read on...)

 
Utiles
Newsquake et Infobreakfast (low fat news!), deux autres fa�ons de pr�senter les news sur le web: sur une carte du monde ou par grands th�mes.
(via Bruce Sterling)
 
Winners and Losers
Chris Bertram wrote:
Who knows where this will lead? Here's a tentative prediction: the extreme anti-European elements in the US will use the hostility to put in place various restrictions on free trade, to the detriment of the EU and especially third world producers. The Franco-German axis in the EU will use anti-American sentiment to bolster European protectionism, especially the Common Agricultural Policy. The big losers (a) nearly all of us through higher prices and unemployment (b) Tony Blair (c) millions of the poorest people on the planet. Winners: (a) some US farmers (b) some French farmers (c) Donald Rumsfeld and (d) Jacques Chirac. Sorry, I'm feeling cynical and pessimistic today.
D'accord avec lui...
 
Googled!
Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time - Google, le moteur de recherche g�ant vient de faire l'acquisition de Pyra Labs, la compagnie qui chapeaute Blogger et Blog*Spot.
 
Guerre et paix
Worlds apart on war: un passionnant r�cit de deux jours intenses: (Guardian)
It was earlier than usual for President George W Bush. At 9pm on Friday, after a final briefing from his officials in the Oval Office, Bush retired to bed. It had been a difficult, awkward, infuriating 24 hours.

A few hundred miles to the north, Dominique de Villepin was enjoying a glass of red wine at the French ambassador to the UN's residence in New York. The French Foreign Minister, who a few hours earlier had electrified the UN Security Council when he said that 'war is always the consequence of defeat', was enjoying a sumptuous four-course dinner and relaying to appreciative French government officials just how he had held the Security Council in the palm of his hands. The view from the high moral ground was certainly a powerful one.

In the same city, Hans Blix, the head of the UN inspection team in Iraq, was preparing for another round of meetings with UN officials. He needed to brief them on the nuances of what he had said that morning during his presentation on Saddam Hussein's compliance with the inspection regime and on his next steps to try to acquire 'immediate and full co-operation' from Iraq on disarmament. It was late at night before he left the UN headquarters building.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, on the other side of the Atlantic, Tony Blair sat alone in his first floor room of the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh and started on the final rewrite of one of the most important speeches of his career. The Prime Minister had arrived in the Scottish capital that morning. The short flight from Leeds, where he had just held a business breakfast, had given him a little under an hour to think about the message he had to give the Labour Party at its annual spring conference in Glasgow.

The first draft had circulated around Downing Street officials on Wednesday. But Blair now needed a different tone. Blix's remarkable 30-minute presentation had made sure of that. It was time for the Prime Minister to announce that he was willing to put his political reputation - and his very popularity - on the line.

On the same day, across the country thousands of people were already preparing for the journey to London to demand 'No to War'. Up to a million or more gathered in the capital and Glasgow to say that they were opposed to the government line. De Villepin appeared to speak for world opinion when he said that the case for a military attack on Iraq had not yet been made. Everywhere the mood was against war. Bush was contemplating going it alone against Saddam. Blair was hopelessly isolated. (Lire tout...)

13 f�vrier 2003
 
My own beautiful Pazz & Jop
le Village Voice Pazz & Jop 2002 est sorti! Voici, mon classement personnel des CD class�s dans le P&J, avec entre parenth�se leur rang original (me fais-je bien comprendre?)
 
Phobie?
Interesting conversation on Ken Layne discussion board, about the recent bout of french-bashing in America. With bloggers Emmanuelle and Merde In France.
12 f�vrier 2003
 
"Links" du jour
Trois choses � voir, rapidement, je reviens bient�t � un mode plus consistant, merci de votre patience:

09 f�vrier 2003
 
Michael Going
Gallerie de photos polaro�des alt�r�es, par Michael Going. A voir particuli�rement la collection de photos de Paris et celle sur le m�tro de L.A., ainsi que celle sur New York.
(via Speckled Paint)
 
48 heures pour vivre
Le Telegraph est-il bien inform�, ou est-ce une pure sp�culation?
Britain and America are drawing up plans to give Saddam Hussein as little as 48 hours to flee Baghdad or face war, if UN weapons inspectors report this week that the Iraqi dictator is still refusing to disarm fully.

The proposals will form the framework of a long-awaited second resolution, which could be put before the Security Council by next weekend.

The deadline would be just long enough for Arab neighbours to make a last effort to persuade Saddam to leave the country, according to US officials, or for a coup to take place. The shortest timeframe to emerge from private diplomatic discussions has been two days.

US and Britain give Saddam just 48 hours to leave Iraq (The Daily Telegraph - enregistrement gratuit exig�)
 
"Paradoxal pacifisme"
Pour lire deux avis diff�rents mais �quilibr�s et intelligents sur la question de la guerre en Irak, il faut lire dans Le Monde ce court papier de Pascal Bruckner, (merci � Mangeclous) et cet autre sign� par Bernard Kouchner et Antoine Veil.
08 f�vrier 2003
 
Paxman vs. Blair
Tony Blair interrog� par Jeremy Paxman (avec le concours du public). Ou plut�t contre-interrog�! Paxman a la r�putation non usurp�e d'�tre particuli�rement dur et incisif avec les gens qu'il interroge et ce, quelque soient leurs titres ou leur importance. Je ne suis pas s�r qu'on interroge les hommes politiques avec autant de pugnacit� de ce cot�-ci de la Manche, je me souviens toutefois d'un Emmanuel Chain ou d'un Michel Field assez insolents avec Chirac, mais ce n'�tait qu'une fois. Imaginez Chirac ou Rafarin � qui on parlerait comme �a:
JEREMY PAXMAN: Has not Colin Powell demonstrated yesterday, quite conclusively, that a regime in which those weapons inspectors are back in Iraq is one in which it is impossible for Saddam Hussein to continue developing weapons of mass destruction?

TONY BLAIR: No, because what he is doing is engaging in a systematic campaign of concealment and what Colin Powell was doing yesterday was giving evidence, for example, intelligence evidence and other evidence, of direct conversations which are evidence of the concealment is happening.

We still don't know, for example, what has happened to the thousands of litres of botulin and anthrax that were unaccounted for when the inspectors left in 1999. So, you know, the idea that -

JEREMY PAXMAN: And you believe American intelligence?

TONY BLAIR: Well I do actually believe this intelligence -

JEREMY PAXMAN: Because there are a lot of dead people in an aspirin factory in Sudan who don't.

TONY BLAIR: Come on. This intelligence is backed up by our own intelligence and in any event, you know, we're not coming to this without any history. I mean let's not be absurdly na�ve about this -

JEREMY PAXMAN: Hans Blix said he saw no evidence of hiding of weapons.

TONY BLAIR: I'm sorry, what Hans Blix has said is that the Iraqis are not cooperating properly.

JEREMY PAXMAN: Hans Blix said he saw no evidence, either of weapons manufacture, or that they had been concealed.

TONY BLAIR: No, I don't think again that is right. I think what he said was that the evidence that he had indicated that the Iraqis were not cooperating properly and that, for example, he thought that the nerve agent VX may have been weaponised.

And he also said that the discovery of the war heads might be - I think I'm quoting here - may be the tip of an iceberg. I think you'll find that in that report.

07 f�vrier 2003
 
Lassitude momentan�e
Les posts se sont faits rares ces jours-ci. Ce blogueur exp�rimente une de ses lassitudes passag�res. Le retour est � esp�rer incessamment.

�crire dans ce weblog est un hobby. J'aime �a. Mais j'ai une vie avant et apr�s le blog et il n'y a que 24 heures par jour, dont au moins huit sont pass�es � travailler (sans bloguer), un certain nombre d'heures (entre 6 et 8) pass�es � dormir ou du moins � essayer, le reste est consacr� aux multiples t�ches exig�es par le quotidien, � un peu de vie sociale, quelques lectures, de la t�l�vision un peu, d'autres loisirs (fl�neries, photo), surfer le web et enfin �crire dans ce blog.

Je me demande comment font les gens qui nous pondent deux dissertations par jour dans deux langages diff�rents ;-), qui alimentent leur blog avec une prolixit� et une constance sans d�fauts. Ils doivent s�rement couper dans une des activit�s d�crite ci-dessus ou alors ils ont un truc.

Je suis un laborieux et j'ai mes mar�es, d�sol�!
05 f�vrier 2003
 
Equilibre
Richard Perle, Pr�sident du Bureau de Conseil Politique du Pentagone, a d�clar�: "France is no longer the ally it once was" [La France n'est plus l'alli�e qu'elle �tait dans le pass�]. Pour les r�actions dans la blogosph�re (pas toujours brillantes loin s'en faut!) voyez Daypop.

Mod�ration? Equilibre? R�flexion? Tiens chez Netlex par exemple, ou alors dans cet �dito de Jean-Marie Colombani.
03 f�vrier 2003
 
Retournements
Il y a quelque chose de bizarre dans The Observer, l'�dition du dimanche du Guardian! La semaine derni�re un �ditorial non sign� rangeait le journal du cot� d'une intervention am�ricano-brittanique en Irak, cette semaine c'est Julie Burchill, pourtant ancienne militante anti-am�ricaine qui appelle � l'action et David Aaronovitch, transfuge de The Independent qui s'y met aussi (encore qu'avec plus de mod�ration)!

Quelque chose me dit que l'attitude de la France envers Tony Blair y est pour quelque chose et que l'invitation de Robert Mugabe en France le 19 f�vrier (nous n'avons d�cid�ment aucun scrupule � caresser les dictateurs dans le sens du poil du moment que �a irrite les Brittishs, et on dit que c'est eux qui mettent l'Europe � mal!) n'est pas faite pour arranger les choses.

De son cot� la position de la "vieille Europe" semble avoir souverainement port� sur les nerfs de Thomas Friedman du New York Times pourtant assez mod�r� d'habitude. Dans un �ditorial cinglant intitul� "Ah, Those Principled Europeans" il stigmatise notre volont� de s'opposer envers et contre tout aux �tats Unis pour les plus mauvaises raisons qui soient...!
"So pardon me if I don't take seriously all the Euro-whining about the Bush policies toward Iraq � for one very simple reason: It strikes me as deeply unserious. It's not that there are no serious arguments to be made against war in Iraq. There are plenty. It's just that so much of what one hears coming from German Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der and French President Jacques Chirac are not serious arguments. They are station identification.
They are not the arguments of people who have really gotten beyond the distorted Arab press and tapped into what young Arabs are saying about their aspirations for democracy and how much they blame Saddam Hussein and his ilk for the poor state of their region. Rather, they are the diplomatic equivalent of smoking cancerous cigarettes while rejecting harmless G.M.O.'s � an assertion of identity by trying to be whatever the Americans are not, regardless of the real interests or stakes."

 
Columbia FAQ
STS-107 "Columbia" Loss FAQ, tr�s complet et tr�s int�ressant.
(via Linkmachinego)
 
Digital madness
Funny and true! John Naughton writes about the dubious popularity of digital cameras: for him digital photography is expensive and of poor quality, but there is a reason why people like it so much.
Read on: The secret of digital success (The Guardian)
 
Schisme au Mont Athos
"Athos est une survivance, une parcelle de Byzance enclose en notre �poque". Ainsi Jacques Lacarri�re d�crit-il le Mont Athos dans son beau livre "L'�t� Grec". Le Mont Athos est une presqu'�le de la Gr�ce du Nord qui s'�tire dans la mer �g�e, elle fait 57 kilom�tres de long et une dizaine de kilom�tres de large. C'est une enclave de l'Orthodoxie dans le territoire de l'Etat Grec, avec ses propres r�gles et le contr�le de ses visiteurs, parsem�e de vingt monast�res anciens et d'ermitages.

Le monast�re d'Esphigmenou a d�cid� de se s�parer de l'�glise Orthodoxe, jugeant h�r�tique ses tendances oecum�niques et en particulier son rapprochement avec Rome dont le Pape est jug� par les moines r�fractaires comme "l'Ant�christ". A la demande du patriarche de Constantinople, dirigeant de l'Eglise Orthodoxe, la police grecque a pour mission d'expulser les 107 moines schismatiques de ce monast�re, mais ceux-ci ne l'entendent pas de cette oreille. Le monast�re est litt�ralement assi�g� et les moines disent qu'ils ont assez de r�serves pour tenir plusieurs ann�es.

Les moines du mont Athos contre "l'Ant�christ" de Rome. (Le Monde)
 
Beck
Le CD qui tourne le plus en ce moment chez moi est Sea Change de Beck. Z�ro d�faut! Une poign�e de morceaux calmes, m�lancoliques et planants. Beaucoup d'instruments acoustiques, de belles m�lodies pas trop commerciales, beaucoup de charme, arrangements impeccables... R�gal!
02 f�vrier 2003
 
Bill Atkinson Nature Photos
Bill Atkinson est un photographe naturaliste mais aussi un des pionniers du Macintosh:
"Although Bill is now a full time nature photographer, his name is also well known in the field of software design. Years ago, as a member of the original Macintosh team at Apple Computer, he designed much of the initial Macintosh user interface, and wrote the original QuickDraw, MacPaint and HyperCard software. After years of designing software tools to empower other creative people, Bill is now being empowered in his own art by the accuracy and fine control made possible with the digital printing process."
Ses photos de nature dans la grande tradition des photographes de paysages naturels am�ricains sont magnifiques.

Bill Atkinson Nature Photography.

(via Sore Eyes)
 
La lettre des huit
J'ai lu pas mal d'avis autoris�s au sujet de la soi-disant tra�trise des huit pays d'Europe qui, la semaine derni�re, se sont oppos�s � la position franco-allemande sur l'Irak en publiant une tribune dans le Wall Street Journal. Un aspect qui semble avoir �chapp� � la plupart des observateurs est que c'est tout simplement une r�action � l'OPA de la France et de l'Allemagne sur l'Europe.

On remarque souvent que la "lettre des huit" est un coup de la Grande Bretagne et de l'Espagne, un "coup en douce", sournois et risquant d'endommager l'Union Europ�enne. Comment pourrait-on appeler la d�cision franco-allemande de parler au nom de l'Europe? Est-ce qu'avant de se congratuler et de pr�tendre parler au nom de tous MM Chirac et Schr�der ont consult� leurs partenaires? Bien s�r que non. Il est parfaitement clair que la Grande Bretagne, l'Espagne et l'Italie et les pays de l'est qui frappent � la porte de l'Europe craignent la collusion franco-allemande qui pr�tend diriger l'Union Europ�enne. Ces derniers pays sont plus attir�s par l'OTAN pour leur protection sachant pertinemment et par exp�rience (Yougoslavie) que l'Union Europ�enne n'a aucune solution de protection efficace. Il n'est pas �tonnant qu'ils affirment leur fid�lit� aux �tats Unis.

Le titre de Lib� vendredi: "Bush et ses huit mercenaires" est idiot et m�prisant et totalement d�plac�. Il ne tient pas compte de la r�alit�. La r�alit� est que la diplomatie fran�aise accumule les erreurs et les maladresses ces temps-ci et pas seulement envers nos partenaires europ�ens, voyez en C�te d'Ivoire! Ces erreurs pourraient avoir de graves cons�quences en nous marginalisant encore plus dans les d�cisions sur les affaires du monde.
 
Columbia (II)
Encore la gueule de bois de la trag�die d'hier.

Claudie Haigner�, notre ministre de la recherche et astronaute fran�ais, a fait une belle d�claration sur France 2 hier soir. Encore tr�s secou�e, elle a trouv� des mots tr�s doux et tr�s forts pour rendre hommage � ses coll�gues astronautes. C'est une femme remarquable.

Des d�bris de la navette ont �t� retrouv�s �parpill�s sur tout le nord-est du Texas et m�me un peu en Louisiane. �parpill�s sur une immense surface. La ville de Nacogdoches (Texas) semble avoir re�u beaucoup de d�bris, certains sont tomb�s sur des maisons. Le corps d'un astronaute a, semble-t-il, �t� retrouv�.

The Observer rapporte dans son �dition d'aujourd'hui ces paroles d'un des astronautes, Michael Anderson, � bord de Columbia:
'When you launch in a rocket, you're not really flying that rocket. You're just sort of hanging on. You're really taking an explosion and you're trying to control it. You're trying to harness that energy in a way that will propel you into space.

'And we're very successful in doing that. But there are a million things that can go wrong.'


Ces astronautes, ces aventuriers, sont morts en faisant ce qu'ils aimaient pour la science et la conqu�te spatiale, ils m�ritent honneur et respect. Le plus grand hommage � leur m�moire serait de poursuivre le programme spatial apr�s que l'enqu�te ait fait la lumi�re sur ce qui a cloch� sur Columbia. N'oublions pas qu'il y a des astronautes � l'heure actuelle dans l'ISS, il faudra les relayer � un moment ou un autre et je doute que les Russes soient en mesure de le faire. Ca serait dommage d'abandonner l'ISS pour de bon, apr�s l'argent et les efforts consentis pour la construire.

Et je laisse conclure William Gibson dans son weblog hier.
Broken up and vanished. In the sky over Nacogdoches County. And I�m sad all the way back to the little boy with his stiff black book and his Bonestell rockets.

But Willy was right, and nobody ever said it would be risk-free.

If it were, it wouldn�t be glorious.

And it�s only with these losses that we best know that it really is.

01 f�vrier 2003
 
Columbia
La navette spatiale Columbia s'est d�sint�gr�e en phase de rentr�e dans l'atmosph�re au dessus du Texas. Il y avait 7 membres d'�quipage � bord.
SpaceFlight Now
CNN
Yahoo News

MISE A JOUR: 1600 H GMT: Shuttle Columbia lost: "The space shuttle Columbia has broken up in the skies over Texas. Its crew of seven astronauts had no chance of survival. Mission control lost contact with the shuttle around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), about 16 minutes before its planned touchdown in Florida. Emergency proceedures are in effect and search and rescue teams have been alerted in the north and east areas of Texas, where any debris might have fallen."

MISE A JOUR: 22h20: La perte de Columbia et de son �quipage est une grande tristesse pour tous ceux qui croient � l'aventure de l'Homme dans l'espace. L'une de derni�res grandes aventures de nos temps modernes. Depuis l'enfance je suis en admiration devant les exploits des astronautes de la NASA. Je me rappelle la fantastique aventure des premiers pas de l'homme sur la Lune, le sauvetage d'Apollo XIII, l'histoire fantastique de la conqu�te spatiale depuis le programme Mercury. Je suis toujours b�at d'admiration quand j'assiste � la t�l�vision au lancement d'une navette. Esp�rons que cet accident n'incitera pas la NASA � abandonner son programme spatial habit�.

Un grand nombre d'informations sur ce weblog.
 
Comment l'Europe diverge
Fracture Europ�enne face aux Etats Unis? Cette carte (PDF) tr�s bien faite du Guardian fait le point sur les positions de chacun des pays de l'Union Europ�enne.
How Europe divides on war
 
Weasels?
Lib� traduit "axis of weasels" par "axe des sournois". (Voir ce post et les commentaires de Tehu)
"Apr�s la prise de position commune des deux pays (�Rien ne justifie la guerre�), les esprits des conservateurs se sont �chauff�s. Pour d�signer le couple europ�en, une expression, Axis of Weasel, fait flor�s ; Weasel d�signe une belette, mais aussi, au sens figur�, un personnage sournois, une planche pourrie. Le New York Post en a fait sa manchette le 24 janvier."

Assauts am�ricains contre �l'axe des sournois� (Lib�ration)

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