www²

Comprendre la Dette Publique en 10 minutes

2011-11-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Fascinant. Comment avons nous fait pour en arriver là? Et l'Allemagne qui ne veut toujours pas autoriser l'utilisation de ce robinet monetaire que sont les banques centrales... Et donc nous allons continuer à payer des creanciers privés pour une resource a la fois abstraite et naturelle... Ca donne le vertige :$

Dénonciation des réunions secrètes du Bilderberg group

2011-10-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

- 12 septembre 2011 - L'euro-député Gerard Batten du parti UKIP de Nigel Farage au parlement de Strasbourg, accuse le groupe Bilderberg de constituer secretement une forme de gouvernement anti-démocratique. Cela dure depuis plus de 50 ans.

Bilderberg - Bruxelles (Juin 2000) par insoumi175

Working with automated computers rather than having pets

2011-08-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

I love that one, it reminds me my work with my computers and my automated test-scripts that seem to have a life of their own...

Source: http://xkcd.com/350/

The right time for stuying, working and retiring...

2011-08-02T00:24:00.000-07:00

At 20:

– A job? ... But you did not study long enough!

At 30:

– A job? ... But you don't have enough work experience!

At 45:

– A job? ... But you are too old!

At 70:

– A retirement pension? ... But you didn't work for long enough!!!

Roms, et si François Fillon avait dit non à Nicolas Sarkozy?

2010-09-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Lire l'article de Rue89 – Intéressant scénario.

http://www.rue89.com/2010/08/28/roms-et-si-francois-fillon-avait-dit-non-a-nicolas-sarkozy-164210

Oh, bah oui, il aurait pu...

How far does your creativity go?

2010-09-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

Clever advertisement:

To give someone the slip

2009-10-15T05:31:00.001-07:00

*** semer quelqu'un
[sens figuré] Se défaire de quelqu'un d'importun.

*** give someone the slip
[figuratively] to escape from a pursuer

(eg. "We were on his tail until he gave us the slip.")

Mafia thrives on Financial Crisis

2009-02-05T03:05:00.000-08:00

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg Europe) -- Revenue raked in by Italy’s mob surged 40 percent last year, turning crime into the nation’s No. 1 business, Eurispes said in its annual report.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aJtXWLHPau0Y

What girls want

2008-12-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

This list was compiled by a girl called Hayley from Essex (UK). At first I though she was Leo, but she is not and I know nothing about women.

1. Ask her to dance.

2. On windy days, brush wayward strands of hair from her eyes and mouth.

3. When she’s coming down the street, across the room, or up the stairs to meet you, walk towards her as soon as you see her.

4. Kiss her between her shoulder blades when she turns her back to you to go to sleep.

5. Put your arm around her when you introduce her to your friends and family.

6. Grasp her hand when a scantily dressed, beautiful woman walks by.

7. Call her when you’re feeling sad.

8. Kiss her eyelids.

9. Ask to see a picture of her when she was a child.

10. Wash her from head to toe in the shower.

11. If she’s crying on the phone, go over to her place. Immediately.

12. Stand her naked on a sturdy chair and lick between her legs.

13. Occasionally call her by her first and middle names.

14. Buy her your favourite rock album of all time on vinyl.

15. Order coffee for her, remembering exactly how she likes it.

16. Undress her and put her to bed when she falls asleep in the car.

17. Mention your upcoming anniversary before she does.

18. Send her something in the mail. Anything.

19. When she’s feeling insecure, stare into her eyes and tell her there is no-one in the world who could be as right for you as she is.

20. Call her just before you get on the plane.

21. Pick her clothes up off the floor.

22. Try desperately to make her laugh when she’s feeling down.

23. Take her to see your favourite sport live. Pay more attention to her than to the game.

24. Touch her arm when you leave the table to go to the bathroom. Touch her again when you come back.

25. Shave just before you see her. She’ll notice.

26. Hug her when she gets jealous. Hug her hard.

27. Worship her breasts.

28. Give her jewellery.

29. Hand her two towels when she gets out of the shower. (The second one is for her hair.)

30. Ask her specific questions about her work.

31. Keep her favourite cereal on hand.

32. In the middle of a conversation, tell her you love her.

33. Send her very expensive flowers when you screw up.

34. Take her to a cabin with a fireplace. Build her a fire.

35. Moan her name when she goes down on you.

36. Read her a story when it’s her turn to drive during a long road trip.

37. Offer to fix something at her place that you realise is broken.

38. Notice when she’s wearing something new.

39. Make love to her standing up, against a wall.

40. Kiss her hand in front of your most die-hard bachelor buddies.

41. If she’s too stressed to want sex...

a. Run a bath for her.

b. Give her a full-body massage.

c. Ask if she wants to wrestle.

42. Some fun ..........................................................

Blackbirds Hitchhiking on a Hawk.

2008-06-06T10:20:00.001-07:00

The exact title is "Red-Winged Blackbirds Hitchhiking on a Red-Tailed Hawk".

Amazing!

Lucy Kellaway - FT.com podcast - The battle is lost, going forward

2008-03-02T19:42:00.001-08:00

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.
– MARK TWAIN.

I would like to recommend this podcast about "Jargon fighting". When it comes down to fighting jargon and pomposity, LUCY KELLAWAY does it better than anyone else!

This podcast is about the use and abuse of the expression "going forward" among the English economists and businessmen; a bit like the expression "au jour d'aujourd'hui" is a disgraceful lingustical abberation spread by journalists in France. Finally, this is a podcast about those people who try to look smart, and who end up looking stupid.

Listen online:

http://podcast.ft.com/
Lucy Kellaway
November 06, 2007 (The battle is lost, going forward)

Read the transcript:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3cb5f0fa-8965-11dc-b52e-0000779fd2ac.html

And here is a downloaded/duplicated version:

Keywords: English, French, Jargon fighting, Lucy Kellaway, Podcast

Looking forward to hearing from you

2007-04-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

Q: What is the correct form, "looking forward to hear from you" or "looking forward to hearing from you"?

R1: "to" is a preposition here, not a marker of the infinitive, and all prepositions require the "ing" form if a veb is to be used:

I'm dreaming of buying a boat. ("of" is a preposition)

What I always tell my students is if they can use a noun instead of a verb after to, then that's a preposition, and they need to use ing. Of course I don't mention deverbal nouns and other complicated stuff, they don't need to know that crap, which is delightful to us, but a bane of any normal person's existence.

R2: "to" is a part of the multi-word verb "to look forward to".

"I look forward to the party."
"I look forward to dancing with you."
"I look forward to drinking you under the table."
"I look forward to hearing your Tom Jones karaoke."

[Source: yourdictionary.com]

Eastern Markets: newly opened and highly profitables! (Part 2)

2007-04-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

[Picture left: "I Stay in Poland, see you all there"]

I heard a few times the following point of view: "too many people are coming from East Europe and stealing our jobs".

Well, as a matter of fact, a government is not a charity: if a country opens its border to another country it means that a profitable outcome is ahead. For instance, this is what happened at the begining of the last century: foreign workforce was needed to work in the coal mines; that's also what is happening in the United Kingdom now.

I mentioned in a previous post that the prices are very high in East Europe (don't go there expecting to fill your pockets with cheap stuff... you would be disappointed) but what I didn't tell is how quickly the big multinationals invaded the market: Supermarkets and Gas stations have flourished within a decade (in the 90's).

I was amazed to see in Wroclaw that there was at least one Gas station per intersection! I even saw three Gas stations on a single crossroad: each had its customers coming from a different direction. Same thing with the supermarkets: the French firm Carrefour was first to step in East Europe (before Wal Mart did; aka. ASDA in the UK); idem for the German Lidl and the Swedish IKEA. Of course those supermarkets provide a lot of jobs within the country but they also sell a big quantity of foreign goods and they keep a big part of the profits.

If you wander around in a Polish City you might be surprised not to see any TRABANT, old FIAT, neither any Soviet Car (a piece of steel with wheels?): the cars you will see are the same than the ones on the French or English roads.

Let me resume (I'll speak to the French who are very scared of the Polish Plumber; but the same can be said to the English): it is allright when a country buys your Renaults or your Danone yogurts from your Carrefour supermarkets but it is a tragedy when some of its workforce comes in your country.

As a final word, I would like to say "Thank You" to all the French who voted "No" at the referendum for the European Constitution in 2005: they did it for some very good reason indeed.

Turkey should be part of a Secular EU

2007-03-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

I'm quite pleased to see that some people share my point of view:

Jean Portante supports Turkey's EU accession (Luxembourg - Le Jeudi)

"(...) And yet it is because Turks do not want to fall prey to the radical Islamism looming large on its doorstep that they are dreaming of our Europe and our European values. We are for Turkey what we were previously for Poland and Hungary: the means of escaping an undesired domination. This is why, strategically speaking, Turkey's place is within the EU." [Source: Eurotopic, 08/03/2007]

I respect our history and our ancestors: I was born Christian, a Polish Christian actually, at the time of the pope Jan Pawel II (John Paul II) which means you couldn't be any more Christian than that. I'm very thankful to our religion for the cultural enlightenment it brought centuries ago through books, art, buildings, paintings (sure, it also brought the darkness of the Inquisition and the Crusades, but that's another story...). Despite all this respect, I never supported the idea of a christian EU, I do want it Secular. And, as a matter of fact, the Democratic Turkey has always been a Secular State.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk [Source: Wikipedia]

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a military man, "created" Turkey giving to the army the duty to protect the Constitution. The Turkish army always fought all Religious extremism.

The military has traditionally been a politically powerful institution, considered as the guardians of Atatürk's Republic. The protection of the Turkish Constitution and the unity of the country is given by law to the Turkish Armed Forces, and it therefore plays a formal political role via the National Security Council (NSC) as the guardian of the secular, unitary nature of the republic and the reforms of Atatürk. Through the NSC, the army contributes to recommendations for defense policy against any threat to the country, including those pertaining to ethnic separatism or religious extremism. (...) The military owns strong unequivocal support from the nation and is considered to be the country's most trusted institution. [Source: Wikipedia]

Last but not least, Turkey was one of the first countries to apply for a partnership with the EEC: it first applied for associate membership in the European Economic Community in 1959.

How can the entropy of the universe be decreased?

2007-02-28T06:15:00.000-08:00

I invite you to read The Last Question (Isaac Asimov): this is an interesting short novel and it takes only a few minutes to read.

Ban on feeding cows dope

2007-02-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Switzerland's Agriculture Ministry has called on the country's farmers to stop feeding their cows cannabis.

Several recent adverts have promoted feeding hemp to farm animals even after a March 2005 law banning its use. The Agriculture Ministry has now warned that farmers doping their cows will be prosecuted.

Farmers consider the cheap and easy to grow plant is good for their cows. They believe the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, makes cows happy and produce more milk, but the Agriculture Ministry say THC can get into the milk and create a health risk. They also said that there was a risk that Swiss cheese products could be contaminated. [Source: Ananova]

Une video incroyable!!! / Un amazing movie!!!

2007-01-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

Eastern Markets: newly opened and highly profitables!

2006-12-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

[Picture left: "Veto", drawing from Raczkowski appeared in "Przekroj" , Varsovie]

I just went on a week-end to Poland. Would you believe that the prices there are higher than in England or France?!! Of course, I don't talk about food which is in average much cheaper, but imagine that in this country where people earn in average 2 or 3 times less than in England or in France, the price of clothes and the price of electronic devices is higher than in West Europe... I saw for example an iPod shuffle at almost 500 zlotys -- 100 pounds, or 150 euros -- which is twice the price you would pay for the same iPod if you buy it in London!! Unbelievable...

The reason for such a situation?

First, the governments are probably applying some taxes that are making imported goods more expensive (and, often, too expensive for somebody who earns only a couple of hundred pounds per month).

Second, the companies exporting in Poland are not reducing their margins in order to sell more... Actually, they are even increasing their margins! At the moment, I can see a few reasons for this:

For a long time, the big companies focused on the Western markets (West Europe, United States) and their production capacity isn't big enough to provide the necessary amount of products in the East European countries.... this results in a soaring price because offer is smaller that demand.

The competition might also be much smaller in East European markets as they opened quite recently: this allows companies to push the prices up.

Last but not least, the Social Classes in the East European Countries might be discontinuous (no middle class?) and those clever rabbits, out there, understood that they will sell (more/less) the same amounts of goods whether they sell their iPod shuffle at £50 or at £100?

Burning Monk

2006-11-22T17:41:00.001-08:00

I've been recently very shocked by a picture I saw for the first time: it's called the "Burning Monk". What a courage! But also what a Message! I wish that today's terrorists could see this picture and wonder if their acts are really as heroic as they probably think they are...

According to David Halberstam, "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound".

Milton Friedman, economist, dies aged 94

2006-11-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Extracts from the Financial Times:

The book in which he tried most fully to demonstrate money's active role was A Monetary History of the US, 1867-1960, published in 1963 and written jointly with Anna Schwartz it was one of Friedman's skills that he always found the right collaborator for a particularwork. The Monetary History is Friedman's masterpiece.

Some economists would argue that Friedman's most important contribution to macroeconomics lay, not in his technical monetary work, but in his 1967 presidential address to the American Economic Association. Here he demonstrated that the idea of a stable trade-off between inflation and unemployment which held sway under the name of the Phillips curve and which seemed to give policymakers a menu of choices was invalid. Suppose that a Government or central bank tried to raise output and employment at the expense of accepting higher inflation. Once market participants started to take into account inflation in their behaviour, the economy would eventually end up with the same rate of unemployment as before but a higher rate of inflation. If the authorities none the less persisted in trying to achieve an over-ambitious target unemployment rate, the result would not be merely inflation, but accelerating inflation, with which no society could live for long.

This family of Friedman doctrines was sometimes called the vertical Phillips curve, sometimes the accelerationist hypothesis and sometimes the ‘natural rate' of unemployment.The latter was the level at which the economy would settle once any stable rate of inflation had been established. The name was later changed by some users to the Nairu the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment to banish the idea that there was anything natural or inevitable about it

Nato fears Russian plans for 'gas Opec'

2006-11-22T17:25:00.000-08:00

Extracts from the Financial Times:

Nov 13, 2006 - FT.com

Nato advisers have warned the military alliance that it needs to guard against any attempt by Russia to set up an 'Opec for gas' that would strengthen Moscow's leverage over Europe.

On Monday night, Dmitry Peskov, deputy Kremlin spokesman, insisted there was “no substance at all” to the suggestion that Russia was seeking a gas cartel. “I think the authors of such an idea simply fail to understand our thesis about energy security,” he said.“Our main thesis is interdependence of producers and consumers. Only a madman could think that Russia would start to blackmail Europe using gas, because we depend to the same extent on European customers.”

Big gas exporters such as Norway, Qatar and Nigeria appear reluctant to join any cartel. Gas is also traded very differently to oil, with long-term contracts – often linked to oil prices – still the norm. Analysts say Gazprom relies heavily on Europe, since domestic Russian prices are capped and there is no other market to enter at present.