USA, credibility ground zero.
It has finally been confirmed the american army used white phosphorus during the assault on Falluja in 2004, not only as it was alledged to illuminate battlefields but also as a chemical weapon .
For those who maybe don't know it, white phosphorus is a chemical weapon which provoques really important burnings when it makes contact with skin, then it's absolutely irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone... It is of course banned by the geneva convention. To add to the horror of this information, few Civilians were still in the city when the assault began, including women and children.
But who cares ?!... certainly not the mainstream medias, which ignored shameless the cries of the victims...
After months of persistent rumors, an italian TV finally made its job: a documentary on the subject! In some weeks they found witnesses, victims, american soldiers who participated to the assault...
The truth was still there, in the streets of Falluja, but no one until those last days wanted to hear it.
What was this war about already ?... O yes topple the bad Sadam who didn't respect human rights... The ugly despot who used chimical weapons against his own people...The dictator who jailed indefinitely and without jugement his opponents...The one who didn't hesitate to torture...
Does it remind you anything uncle Sam?!...
Let me refresh your memory.
Guantanamo, Abuh Graib, Falluja...

If ever a journalist asks the question to G.W.Bush about the use of chemical weapons in Irak(what i doubt !), he will certainly answer that there were bad guys there, really bad guys as he did to justify the existence of Guatanamo.
Who are the bad guys today Mister President ?!...

On BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk

2 days ago the new york times made an editorial on the subject.
http://www.nytimes.com

Press, Crisis and liberty

Last week the French government asked the parliament to vote for the application of the law about "state of emergency" for a period of 3 weeks. This Law has not been used in France since the Algeria war in 1955.

This is an extract of this law
«Prendre toutes mesures pour assurer le contrôle de la presse et des publications de toute nature ainsi que celui des émissions radiophoniques, des projections cinématographiques et des représentations théâtrales.»
Following the translation
"Take all measures to get control of the press and publications of any kind, as well as radio broadcasting, cinema and theatrical performances"

We have to prize the French government for its restraint(!) in times of crisis. Without any doubt, muzzling the press was certainly the first and best measure to take in a country which wants to be a model of freedom and human rights…

Litt om opptøyene i Frankrike…

Det er helt sprøyt å hevde at opptøyene i Frankrike har noe som helst med islam å gjøre: jeg tviler sterkt på at mer enn 10% av disse ungdommene har sett innsiden av en moské på lang tid! Og de fleste har Antakeligvis fransk statsborgerskap... Prøv heller å se hele bildet: her har vi et land hvor det bor mange folk som stammer fra land som tidligere var franske kolonier (helt til begynnelsen av 60-tallet) i Afrika. Enten trengtes de som arbeidskraft, eller så måtte de flytte fra land som ikke lenger var franske, og stort sett preget av fattigdom, korrupsjon og diktatur, vanstyrt av regjeringer som ofte ble støttet av Frankrike. I dette landet ble de i årevis nektet adgang til høyere stillinger, enten i arbeidslivet, politikk eller sosialt. De ble sett ned på og mer eller mindre steng inne i en stadig dårligere drabantbytilværelse. Hverken politikerne eller befolkningen ellers brydde seg. Vel, det var for 30 år siden at man skulle gjort en skikkelig innsats vedrørende deres integrering. Frankrike, et forbildet for integreringspolitikk? Tvert imot.

(Free lance Norway)

This is why I am a vegeterian!...

Stanford in your living room.
For people who want to learn at home, the university of Stanford offers free online videos and audio documents of faculty lectures. We hope that other prestigious universities in the world will follow soon the example of Stanford. If you know other universities which propose the same service don't hesitate to contact me, I will put the links on my blog.
To know more about this service, you must visit this website.
http://itunes.stanford.edu/

You must have itune installed on your computer.

No Comment...
According to an opinion pool of the Pew Research Center published this week, almost half the American people thinks that torturing terrorists to get information is legitimate.

It's all right...
According to the French authorities the situation is quiet in French suburbs, only 100 cars/night have been torched the last days... 100 is also the average of cars torched each day in France when there is no riots.

A laptop at 100$ to help education...
Tunis, Tunisia. Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab, unveiled at the U.N. World Summit on the Information, the first working prototype of the "$100 laptop. This is also the first laptop ever built with an electricity-generating crank. This laptop is intended mainly for children of developping countries.
I let you watch the press conference with Nicholas Negroponte.
rtsp://196.203.134.60/archives/pc-051116-1900-en.rm?start=00:01:26

I Have A Dream"
by Martin Luther King, Jr,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This speech was delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
If you want to get the whole speech http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html

What about making yourself a real puff pastry?!...

As a lot of people interested in cooking, I’ve always refused to buy prepared pastries in the supermarket to make pies. Unfortunately the puff pastry has a reputation to be really challenging: it is long process, some hours, and requires precise manipulations. Furthermore all those manipulations are quite difficult to explain in a recipe book even when pictures are included (and I know what I am talking about!)
I have found for you a great website with a video of the preparation where a real chief shows you in detail all the manipulations and stages to prepare yourself a real puff pastry: watching the video makes the preparation much easier. I have been using this recipe a few times the last months; the result was always great, incomparably better of any pastry you could buy in a supermarket.
Bon appetit!

The website with the recipe : http://www.cuisine-french.com
You need to have quicktime installed on your computer to see this video

Winter is comin'...
According to Daglabadet, one of the national norwegian newspapers, Winter will be here tomorrow... There is unfortunately no more information about the weather in the rest of the world in the article. I concluded from it that if you live anywhere except Norway it will still be summer there.
My advice is:

• For Norway, don't forget to wear warm socks tomorrow.
• For the rest of the world, t-shirt and sun glasses will be a good idea

I will try to give you regular updates the coming weeks about the weather.

"Many truck drivers mount stuffed animals on the grilles of their vehicles. But why?"

I didn't resist showing you the cover of the New York Times of this Sunday.
I was a bit worried when I woke up this morning. Between the war in Iraq, the global warming, the terrorism, a dummy at the White House... I really had all the reasons to be in a bad mood. And no reason to think that my mood will improve in any way soon.
Thanks God! I had a look on the New York Times online: something I like to do the morning to get an overview of what happened during the night. That's the article I have found on the first page of one of the most influential newspaper in the world today. I guess they didn't find any news more important to talk about today.
I think I go back to sleep, no reason to be worried today: according to the NYT nothing serious happened in the world this night, this week, this year...

Be Cool...
I don't think I will have the money to buy an Ipod this year. I know it is a really cool object, some will say gadget of the century. It is difficult for me to imagine that I could put half of my cd collection in this little box ( I have a really big collection !!). Music everywhere all the time, it is certainly how I was imagining the 3th millennium when I was still a child. The Ipod has also a beautiful design in two colors white or black that makes it an object you want to show. They really made a beautiful job at Apple. It is not difficult to understand why this object is so popular around the world (I am talking here about the rich part of the world, so you won't need to walk all around to see it !!)
Good to have! Good to show! Good to listen!
Nevertheless I think the price is still indecent.
Have you ever thought about what you could do for the price of an ipod 60gig in Africa? How many vaccines you could buy for those children? The price of a water pump for a village maybe...
Ok It's soon Christmas and you’ve maybe thought buying one. I don't want to waste your pleasure... Music is important in life and it's maybe worth it.


For my part I've found a cheaper way to keep cool one more year without an ipod: I got a new hair cut!

Have you been in lofoten ?

You've said equality?!...
This week in Bergen, Norway a 24 years old woman has been convicted for the rape of a 31 years old man. The rape took place in January last year during a visit in the apartment of the victim: the convicted woman practiced a fellation on the victim while he was sleeping. Because of the particularity of the case, the trial got a lot of attention from the media nationally like internationally. It was indeed the first time in the history of this little country of 4.5 million of people that a woman was tried for the rape of adult male. Despite the concept of equality between men an women, which is so important in the Nordic democracies, a lot of people are still convinced, even in Norway, that the rape of a man by a woman is technically impossible and that any sexual relations between opposite sex can only be consentient from the man side. It was also this line of defense which was used by the defendant lawyers: the male victim was for them necessarily consentient.
Yesterday the 10 juries didn't agree with that prejudice and convicted the rapist to 9 months of jail and a 30 000 kr fine. Many believe that the publicity made around this trial will push more men, in the future, to report such crimes to the authorities.
Equality is not only a concept in Norway, it is today a reality.

Find the error in this picture and win a stay at Disneyland Paris !!!

This night I had a dream...

The dream to see sausages in hot-dogs longer and skirts shorter.
The dream that fried onions will be in abundance.
That ketchup won't run as always on my shirt.
That hot-dogs will cost 5 kr everywhere as at Ikea.
The dream that I were not vegetarian and could eat hot-dogs!

I would like to thank my dear friend Cécile who has a passion for pølser, and gave me the idea for this post.

"+9..."

After 9 days of violence, cars are still burning in France...
1295 vehicles have been torched only this night!


Will the destruction of those potential sources of pollution have a good effect on global warming this year?!...

Let me talk !...

In 1980, Mitterrand is candidate for the 1981 presidential election. Balavoine, then a young popular singer, speaks frankly about the problems of the youth in France...

25 years after the problems seem to be the same or maybe worse in France. The recent explosion of violence is only one manifestation of this chronic discontent among the younger generation.

This video is of course in french !!

Paris Brûle-t-il ?....
6th night of riots in Paris suburbs .
The riots began last week after the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted into a power sub-station while they were apparently trying to evade the police, after a control of identity.
According to the police, more than 500 vehicles have been burnt since the beginning of the violences. So far, police and government have not been able to restore order.

I will try to talk more about the reasons of those riots soon...

The hot joke of the day
Two guys immigrate to America. On their first day off the boat they are wandering around New York City seeing the sights. As lunch time approaches they decide they are hungry. They then come up to a street vendor selling hot dogs. One says to the other in a shocked tone, "My God. Do they eat dogs in America?" "I don't know!" says the other, equally appalled. "Well," says the first, "we're going to be Americans, so we must do as they do." They approach the vendor bravely. "Two hot dogs, please." The vendor hands them their food in a pair of paper sacks. The two immigrants sit on a park bench to eat their lunch. One looks inside his sack, hesitates and turns to his partner and says, "Uh, which part of the dog did you get?"

Logblue, let's start the Diving Revolution !
Soon, we are going to launch our new internet website logblue.com about diving. This project is still really secret, but we can already tell you that it will be a real revolution in the idea you have about diving: new innovative diving tools, best information ever and a lot more…
Before the official launch of this website, we wish to recruit people who have a strong interest in diving for being part of our Beta test program.
We need today your assistance and expertise of diver to build the best internet service about diving ever!

If you think you can help us to build our new website logblue.com and want to be part of the diving revolution, send us your email today with your name and your diving level. Tell about us to your friends who share the same interest for diving and invite them to contact us.

Best regards,

Marc & Olivier
The logblue team.
contact-RemoveMe-@logblue.com