"La principal virtud de la democracia es que deja obsoleta la revolución"
"La revolución consiste en imponer tu fantasía política a todos los demás"
"Los científicos deberían ir a donde les lleve su ciencia, no sus ideas políticas"
"Pensar suele reducirse a inventar razones para dudar de lo evidente"
"No es una de las dos Españas la que nos hiela el corazón, sino la atroz semejanza entre quienes creen que hay dos"
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi anti-government protesters tore down walls and poured into the capital's heavily-fortified Green Zone on Saturday, where they stormed parliament in a major escalation of a monthslong political crisis.
Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holding demonstrations and sit-ins for months to demand an overhaul of Iraq's corrupt and ineffective political system, but Saturday was the first time they broke into the Green Zone, home to most government ministries and foreign embassies.
Iraqi security forces fired tear gas at one entrance of the zone but appeared to be largely standing down as protesters marched through the area, chanting and waving Iraqi flags. Hundreds were still pouring into the Green Zone as night fell.
BREITBART NEWS.- In 2016, Clinton has received 12,437,734 votes so far. In the states that have already voted this cycle, when she ran and lost back in 2008, Clinton received 12,727,221 votes.
Specifically, the data shows, Clinton has seen a decline of 273,321 votes from 2008 to 2016 among states that have already voted this cycle. That 2.15 percent decrease nationally is exacerbated in several key states that Clinton would need to win to secure the presidency in a general election, suggesting that she’s extraordinarily weak on the electoral college scale nationally—and that whoever wins the GOP nomination will likely be able to thump her in the general in November.
This year, Clinton has seen declines versus her own 2008 vote totals in the following states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Washington State, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska.
FRANCE BLEU.- Le tribunal de grande instance de Perpignan a refusé de dissoudre le comité pour l'auto-détermination de la Catalogne-Nord en se déclarant incompétent. C'est la préfecture qui avait saisi la justice en 2014 pour empêcher la tenue d'un référendum privé sur l'indépendance des Pyrénées-Orientales.
C'est une victoire pour les catalanistes. La préfète des Pyrénées-orientales avait saisi en 2014 la justice pour obtenir la dissolution d'une association qui voulait organiser un référendum local sur l'indépendance, mais ce jeudi, le tribunal de grande instance de Perpignan a refusé de dissoudre l'association en se déclarant incompétent.
Dans ses conclusions, le tribunal a estimé que la consultation qui devait être organisée est une manifestation de la liberté d'expression et que le comité n'appelle pas au démantèlement du pouvoir républicain.
L'État français, partie perdante qui avait invoqué l'intégrité du territoire, a été condamné à payer la somme de 1500 euros correspondant aux frais de justice. S'il veut poursuivre la procédure, le dossier devra maintenant être inscrit à l'ordre du jour du conseil des ministres, en vue d'une dissolution de l'association.
D'ici là, le comité pour l'auto-détermination de la Catalogne-Nord a la possibilité d'organiser son référendum privé à tout instant et son président ne cache pas ses intentions. La date n'est pas encore choisie, mais Robert Casanova souhaite organiser le vote au même moment qu'en Catalogne-Sud où un nouveau référendum pourrait se tenir d'ici début 2017.
Le comité pour l'auto-détermination de la Catalogne-Nord assure avoir bouclé son budget de 300 000 euros avec des dons attendus de Catalogne-Sud et d'Ecosse.
Las sequías no están empeorando y no están causando guerras
CLIMATE RESEARCH.- Claims that droughts are getting worse are not supported in the scientific literature. This is true for both on a global level and for the UK, where historical records indicate much longer and more severe droughts occurred long before human carbon dioxide emissions became significant.
Moreover, claims that “climate change” was behind the conflicts in Darfur and Syria are shown to be based on highly partisan scientific studies that ignore a host of conflicting evidence.
Andrew Montford, the author of the paper said:
“Records of drought provide very little support for the idea that dry places are getting drier and this is true both of the UK and the world as a whole. Still, green activists are never going to spurn the opportunity to exploit every failure of the rains by blaming it on climate change.”
“Droughts are bad news for those who have to endure them. But for politicians to indulge environmentalists’ wild claims is dishonest.”
La actividad volcánica explica mejor el cambio climático que el CO2
NoTricksZone.- ...Anthropogenic CO2 emissions were flat and low (~1 GtC [gigatons carbon] per year) during the 1915 to 1945 warming period, and they rose dramatically (up to ~5 GtC per year) between the 1940s and 1970s. This means that as CO2 emissions increased significantly, surface temperatures cooled significantly (1940s to 1970s) – the opposite of what should have been occurring if rising CO2 emissions are largely responsible for global warming.
A more recent depiction of large-scale volcanic eruptions for the last 1,500 years comes from a new paper (Liu et al., 2016) linking global-scale precipitation patterns (monsoons) to large volcanic eruptions. Notice that the dramatic post-Medieval Warm Period centennial-scale ocean cooling described above (Rosenthal et al., 2013, Ocean2k) corresponds closely with frequent clusters of volcanic eruptions. Also, notice how volcanically quiescent the last 80 years of the 20th century have been, which has, on net, allowed more solar radiation to heat the oceans and contribute to global warming.
Las eurpciones volcánicas facilitaron el desarrollo del imperio romano
NEW SCIENTIST.- You won’t find it in history textbooks, but the Roman Empire’s rise to dominance in Egypt and the Middle East may have been influenced by a series of volcanic eruptions that reduced rainfall.
These eruptions could have contributed to the sabotage and destruction of the Ptolemaic Kingdom on the Nile, paving the way for the rise of Cleopatra and the Roman Empire – and, ultimately, the modern Western world.
The Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt and North Africa in the final three centuries BC, known as the Hellenistic period. Now, teamwork between volcanologists and historians has revealed a close match in timing between volcanic eruptions and domestic unrest, revolts and uprisings that led to the kingdom’s downfall.
Hallan documentos que probarían que el ISIS vende petróleo a Turquía a cambio de armas
RT.- Diez días después de la liberación de la ciudad de Shaddadi en el Kurdistán sirio RT Documental encontró documentos que mostraban una relación directa entre los combatientes de Turquía y los de Estado islámico que operan en Siria. El papeleo yihadista incluye un montón de pasaportes extranjeros con sellos de entrada de Turquía y folletos llamando a la yihad contra el gobierno sirio, impresos en Turquía.
Pero lo más importante, entre las pilas de documentos encontraron montones de facturas detalladas utilizadas por los terroristas para calcular y reportar sus ingresos diarios de tráfico clandestino.
"Por supuesto, no recibirían ningún tipo de armas de Turquía si no les enviaban petróleo", asegura un trabajador de la refinería de petróleo a RT. "Ellos... iban con el petróelo y volvían con las armas de fuego. Y así, íban y volvían, íban y volvian".
En Francia mueren dos niños cada día por maltratos
LE MONDE.- En France, deux enfants meurent chaque jour de maltraitances infligées par leurs parents et 45 % des Français soupçonnent un cas dans leur entourage, selon un sondage réalisé en 2015 par l’association l’Enfant bleu. Et si, pour beaucoup, donner une fessée n’équivaut pas à frapper son enfant, selon un rapport de l’Unicef de 2003, il existe un « risque que la punition physique débouche rapidement sur des formes plus graves de violence ». En effet, la limite entre « punition raisonnable » et maltraitance est variable.
Une interdiction est nécessaire pour faire évoluer les mentalités, selon Mme Dumonteil-Kremer qui note que « la plupart des parents estiment que la fessée n’est pas taper ». « Mais pour la plupart des parents, c’est très difficile, estime-t-elle. Beaucoup sont remontés contre cette loi parce qu’ils sont démunis et se sentent menacés. Ils ne savent pas comment faire autrement. » Il s’agit donc aussi de faire un travail de formation et d’information quant à des solutions, pas uniquement d’interdire.
Le Défenseur des droits, Jacques Toubon, est du même avis. Dans son rapport remis en février au comité des droits de l’enfant de l’ONU, il note que de nombreux parents perçoivent encore la fessée et la gifle comme « un moyen éducatif ». Il recommande que l’interdiction des châtiments corporels soit « inscrite dans la loi » et préconise « des actions pédagogiques pour sensibiliser le public à une éducation sans violence ».
PACIFIC STANDARD.- Chances are, you probably think your mind works pretty well. It might lead you astray now and then, but usually it helps you make good decisions and remember things reliably. At the very least, you’re probably confident that it doesn’t change depending on the time of day or what you had to eat.
But you’d be wrong. Our brains fool us all the time. And we typically have no idea that it’s happening.
Let’s look at some of the wacky things our minds make us think and do. And then we’ll examine how graphics, including charts, interactives, and other visual tools, can help show us our mind’s shortcomings. LENA GROEGER
Neurociencia y magia. Definitivamente, nuestro cerebro nos engaña
La magia interesa a la Neurociencia, al menos por dos cuestiones relacionadas con la atención y la memoria. Es por eso que algunos investigadores –como estos del instituto Barrow- se han interesado por los trucos ilusionistas de los magos y de ellos han extraído algunos hechos que interesan a la Neurociencia.
Probablemente todo procede de un hecho fundamental: el aluvión de estímulos que recibimos por cada fracción de tiempo es tan intenso que necesitaríamos un cerebro del tamaño de un edificio para poder computar a todos ellos. Es por eso que nuestro cerebro opera a través del descarte. desdeñamos aquellos estímulos que no son importantes y nos dedicamos a dirigir nuestra atención a aquellos que nos parecen relevantes. Este hecho junto con algunos otros que proceden de nuestra memoria: como los recuerdos falsos o la confabulación, contribuyen hacer la tarea más fácil para los ilusionistas.
REASON.COM.- Bernie Sanders thinks the U.S. should look to Sweden and other Scandinavian countries to "learn what they have accomplished for their working people." The Vermont senator has said so repeatedly throughout his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, prompting GOP rival Marco Rubio to say, "I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president—of Sweden."
As a native of Sweden, I must admit this makes me Feel the Bern a bit. Sanders is right: America would benefit hugely from modeling her economic and social policies after her Scandinavian sisters. But Sanders should be careful what he wishes for. When he asks for "trade policies that work for the working families of our nation and not just the CEOs of large, multi-national corporations," Social Democrats in Sweden would take this to mean trade liberalization—which would have the benefit of exposing monopolist fat cats to competition—not the protectionism that Sanders favors.
In fact, when President Barack Obama visited Sweden in 2013, the three big Swedish trade unions sent him a letter requesting a meeting. Their agenda: a discussion of "how to promote free trade." The chairman of the largest Social Democratic trade union scolded the American president for his insufficient commitment to the free flow of goods.
This reality will not endear my home country to American socialists, but it's better to be hated for the right reasons than to be loved for the wrong ones, as the saying goes. Being more like modern Sweden actually means deregulation, free trade, a national school voucher system, partially privatized pensions, no property tax, no inheritance tax, and much lower corporate taxes. Sorry to burst your bubble, Bernie. JOHAN NORBERG
