The US Black List

Here is the infamous black list, that most administrations use/refer to in this country (I read on lemonde.fr that a guy, whose middle name was the same as one of the aliases of a potential son of Saddam Hussein, was refused a loan by his bank, we might add that we are not even sure this Hussein's son exists by the administration's own admission). Randomness is the key word these days lol

Bon, I checked, I am not on the list, I feel better...

Top 10 Apple Flops

It is pretty funny...

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_10_apple_products_which_flopped.php

What a week!!!!

For once, I am going to post something more personal, to give some news since a lot of change came this week!!
Both my roommates are moving out, Daniel left last evening, and Mike at the end of the week, I have been living with Daniel Over a year and Mike almost two. Two new roommates are moving in this week. A french girl named Jordane and a guy named Xavier. I am going to be taking over Daniel's room, way bigger than mine, I am finally going to be able to breathe!
In the list of huge events this week: Jo & Nico are moving back to the States!!! Today actually! They are going to be living in Carmel at first but ultimately will find their way back to our beloved neighborhood.
Also... Axelle and Julien are coming to visit for two weeks, among the karaoke/drinks nights, we re going to Death Valley, we are really excited!
Let's also mention the upcoming "events", like Jo & Nico's wedding for example, Nas and Patrick Bruel in Concert... :)
Hope all is well for everybody!

RIAA v. a little girl and her disabled mother

The Recording Industry Association of America is suing a 7yo and her disabled mother for copyright infrigement, supposedly of 1046 copyrighted elements , wanted to check but the complaint is not available in those documents.
here is the story from Recordingindustryvspeople.com:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#964459867713969746
that is the gizmodo article that lead me to that story (though it was sadly very funny)
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/riaa-sues-10+year+old-girl-with-a-disabled-mom-puppy-next-247077.php

About the free publicity generated by the Iphone!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/iphone-generated-400-million-in-free-publicity-243222.php
They are arguing in the comments about the amount, but the idea itself of Apple getting free publicity is insane!
http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2007/3/2007-3-19-iPhone-Generates-400.html
"gross profit margin of 50% on every I phone" ouch!

Smart technique , let s hope that the product will be good, but we had previous experiences with I pods !!

the 12 candidates

Our 12 candidates to the presidential elections:
François Bayrou, Olivier Besancenot, José Bové, Marie-George Buffet, Arlette Laguiller, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Frédéric Nihous, Ségolène Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gérard Schivardi, Philippe de Villiers et Dominique Voynet

Laws regulating euthanasia

Here is a map of the laws regulating euthanasia throughout the world (note the strong influence of religion in most of the countries where euthanasia is totally banned)
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/infog/0,47-0@2-3210,54-630254@51-880355,0.html
The doctor and the nurse in France who are being tried right now will most cretainly get probation instead of a jail sentence. Euthanasia will hopefully be one of the "hot" subjects of the new president/governement in France. It's high time somebody dealt with it!

French Presidential Elections...

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/panorama/0,11-0@2-823448,32-877664@51-841384,0.html
That's an infography about the intentions of vote fopr the upcoming elections.
2 scary things to notice:
1)More intentions to vote LePen than in 2002
2)People who intend on voting for him are pretty damn sure of their choice, so we can predict the other candidates' electorate's level of uncertainty to help him as well.
What if ...

We already knew that peanut butter was bad but...

The FDA issued a warning not to eat peanut butter from the brands Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Great Value Peanut Butter purchased after May '06 because there is a chance those have been contaminated with Salmonella.
Here is the warning:
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01563.html
If you eat a lot of peanut butter and get paranoid here is a Q&A:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/pnutbuqa.html
Salmonellosis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonellosis#Symptoms

Could this be more wrong??

CNN.com published today a list of US most admired companies i.e. the ones with the best reputations.
The fact that GE is the first of the list made me want to go and have a look on Knowmore.org (great website that was recommended to me by Remi)
and the response is a question: why would you admire them, it is not as if they were doing great thing for the society ...The votes came from "Business People" whatever that means!
Here is the list:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2007/index.html
Ratings (I just put the most striking ones) :
General Electric #1: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/General_Electric_Company
Starbucks #2: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Starbucks_Corporation
Apple Inc. #7: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Apple_Computer%2C_Inc. (good globally compared to the others though except for business ethics...)
Microsoft #12: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Microsoft_Corporation
Target #13: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Target_Corporation (breaks my heart lol)
Costco # 18: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/CostCo
And the winner is.......
Walmart (yes walmart you read well) #19: http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Wal-Mart_Stores%2C_Inc.

The Swiss "Genocide" Trial

A turkish nationalist leader is on trial for denying the Armenian Genocide, pursuant to a Swiss Law making a crime to deny a genocide (Somebody should take Le pen on vacation to Switzerland then). Answer of the guy: "I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide"
Here is the Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6424025.stm
Here is thw Wikipedia plage on the Armenian Genocide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia#World_War_I_and_the_Armenian_Genocide