There are celebrities who are growing up before our eyes. These children run the rest of Hollywood very often in baby teeth before they even reach the majority between the drug and the rest.
Natalie Portman is an exception relentless. Outstanding intelligence, she studied psychology at Harvard University in parallel while multiplying outstanding performance as an actress. Today it is the overwhelming favorite Oscar 2011 for The Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky.
I settled on this video or, at the dawn of his 21 years, she was visiting David Letterman on his talk show.
It already noted his maturity, his repartee (even if these shows are often very scripted), but what strikes me most about this little chat is that you can see a Natalie Portman jokingly saying she looks forward to "taste alcohol for the first time" (no under 21 years in California). The irony is palpable and it is obvious that this will not be his first drink. This little actress discovered while she was still a child grew and grew, but this video really sums up obsolete is the whole paradox of the United States in terms of relationship with alcohol . That's bad faith in American paraxysme her!
This is not a scoop: U.S. rail transport are at best outdated and certainly not the height of the level of development.
many already know, but in California, the project of a train linking north-south axis including the San Francisco / Los Angeles / San Diego is on the carpet for a very long time. For over 10 years been talking about and that referendums on financing or the terms of this project appear on the ballots at each election. But in 2009, the Obama administration has granted 2.25 billion to California through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (see this ). The overall cost is estimated at 43 billion.
Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, our California senators have written a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood last December to ask that the funds of the states that have abandoned the project of high speed trains are transferred to California. They claimed that no other state is also determined ready and able to develop this infrastructure in the near future.
A tender is expected this year, and the SNCF, which already operates the bullet train from Washington DC and Virginia, is well on in the race.
are many obstacles, however: The lobbies and in particular those of air transport that would have much to lose on flights from California are doing their work on this issue as they know so well. But beyond the lobbies, the billionaire Warren Buffet is also a piece of the puzzle because it is owners of kilometers of railway lines. This project can not be done without him.
heads gondolas stores never lie! United States is simple: Thanksgiving barely finished, they will celebrate the Christmas, then, of December 26, theme is New Year's Eve hangovers and parties of New Year has barely healed, those same heads gondolas stores are pink and populated heart-shaped balloons for Valentine's Day! It helps not to lose the Northern San Francisco or we do not have very pronounced seasons. And time goes so ...
and now Valentine's Day "is fast approaching! For some, finding the perfect gift is a stress elsewhere. So what are your options besides the traditional bouquet of roses? and although there are chocolates, dinner by candlelight, or the pillow fight was here .
But other options are available on the web, and I came across this one recently: he is paying to name a star in the sweet name of your sweetheart! For those who are interested: here.
Happy Valentine! but if you want my opinion, the bouquet of roses is a sure timeless!
State of the Union: the new master stroke of the Obama campaign
When you follow American politics year after year, it comes right even to ask what is the address on the state of the union today. It is the opportunity (the only annual opportunity) to both sides Democrats and Republicans and for all parliamentarians to meet in a somewhat pompous and over-formalized.
We know already that the analysis that follows is always the same in the U.S. political context and present regardless of the content of presidential speeches. Those who have decided to get Obama will do, other ecstasies. It does not advance the Schmilblick. This is a predictable! I do not know if I'm getting older but I find it tiring and very little "inspirational".
And yet, there has been a small turnaround this year. The presidential camp has opted for a format that breaks with tradition. It is of the form, you might think that this is not essential, yet we can only welcome this media coup obamanesque:
In the hearing of the speech on the State of the Union Democrats and Republicans were not all on their side, they were mixed. It's so simple yet so essential. This changes everything especially for a media event also. It really geniuses Organizing for America and the Obama camp!
In this metling pot democratico Republican (or is it vice versa?), The two Johns (s): Kerry and McCain with Republican Michael Burgess of Texas in the middle or Joe Lieberman on the right
To conclude on the discourse of the State of the Union of POTUS 2011 the performance of speaker Obama is undeniable, his willingness to unite seemed sincere with or without a teleprompter he saying things with his heart and with conviction, he has shown great respect in relation to recent events in Tucson ... Everything was. It was a lesson in form and class. Personally, I'm much more inspired when I see the president concluded with the signing of parliamentary bills concrete (even if they are fatally flawed 99.99% of the time). At least it is not so much rhetoric. It was very nice speech on the State of the Union, and I will not say that it was hollow, but it's still great lines. But broadly that abound in the sense of team spirit and unity, and this is no small matter, it is much more useful than one might think!
And I can not help but parallel it with the discourse of the State of the Union in 1972 that Nixon called him as a unit (a note in passing: there were very few women in Congress has the time!): here
It is from this that a small start-up San Franciscan who preaches environmentalism and including the installation of solar panels has released a ranking of U.S. states on its site history to speak of her . A very good idea and a great way to discover the United States.
We discover that the state produces more wheat (Kansas), who has the highest consumption gasoline per capita (Wyoming), the youngest (Utah with an average age of 28) or more obese (Mississippi). Surprise! The state uses the most marijuana is not California, is the state of Rhode Island. He's got taped!
Nevada multiplies the sordid statistics: the highest consumption rate of meth, highest rate of home foreclosures, the highest rate of teenage pregnancies.
If Illinois is the state that has the highest rate of gang membership (8 to 11 per thousand), Minnesota has the largest shopping center, Hawaii's most expensive electricity in the United States and Massachusetts is the champion of fines for speeding.
And the state has the highest suicide rate in the country (23.1%) also local taxation the lighter (and local taxes WIDE state are the lowest): it s 'acts of the State of Sarah Palin! Alaska!
And a little statistic to complete unusual: Pennsylvania is the state in which insurance companies refer the most accidents of collision with deer.
I spoke recently in 2004, Willie Brown ancient mayor of San Francisco had publicly stated that the problem of homelessness in San Francisco was perhaps these problems we can not solve see this.
This month, after almost seven years as mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom takes office as "Lieutenant Governor" of the state of California. If it has not solved the problem of paperless SF, his fight to remove the homeless from the street is regarded by many as one of his greatest successes as mayor.
Since 2004, 12.210 SDFS San Franciscans are no longer officially to the street, and, statistically, it is especially that which would have placed most of SDFS in public housing. As for the census (difficult to confirm in my opinion) the number of people officially living in Golden Gate Park, it would be from 200 to 25 since 2007.
Moreover, 20% of homeless patients and would regularly end up in hospital emergency rooms San Franciscans already overbooked. Yet, paradoxical as it may seem, Gavin Newsom has promoted many measures unpopular in associations for the homeless. His approach was never one of assistance.
It started when he was District Supervisor in 2002: he had campaigned for a measure by referendum called "Care Not Cash" and reduced the amount of subsidies SDFS for transfer to housing and services for the homeless. This program would provide housing for 3,296 homeless people since its inception.
San Francisco has used a controversial measure that has been seen in other major U.S. cities also: give money to the homeless for a ticket they "go home" if somebody has committed itself to accommodate them when they arrive at their destination. Homeward Bound is the project that is in my opinion a true symbol of the pragmatic way of doing politics in the U.S.! 5.518 people and go home with Homeward Bound.
Hello everyone! Here are some of the new little family Christol:
Augustine nearly 10 months. It grows at a rapid pace, and already has 6 tiny teeth that came out! It's a little guy smiling, greedy (he loves soups and house accounts!) And pickpocket! It is kept week by a nurse, who lives close to home and with whom it works very well.
Julien is full of partial examinations. Geography courses of interest and he himself teaches specific to a girl. Blandine is
CSD as a counselor at job center since late November. He likes it but she perseveres in her job search in hopes of getting a CDI!
FDA, Michelle Obama and the good resolutions of 2011
With the coming new year's resolutions for many but it will be almost a year since the first lady of the United Etas started the project "Let's Move!" (Last February). She has since toured regularly in schools to promote physical activity, salads and healthy meals for the youngest age.
Photo Miami has taken 22 November 2010.
Still on the subject, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has passed new rules to be laid at Congress this month. In the SF Chronicle this Sunday, January 2, 2011, columnist and author of "Food Politics" Marion Nestle announces more firmness on the part of the FDA 2011 Food Standards in the United States.
There will be more lawsuits against false advertising for food, more control at the labels with perhaps a simple visual symbol which will serve as a quick reference on the nutritional value of food. Another fight between the industrial agri-food and the FDA is ongoing because the FDA has even suggested adding a small packaging of lights with color corresponding to categorize products according to their effects on health. The industry does not want to hear about it. According to Marion Nestle, the lobby will be at its height in the new year, and actively directed at associations who fight in the sense of new rules for consumer rights. Huge groups were preparing food has already chopping a sudden check.
For those who still believe in all that relates to traffic and cars is on the U.S. we should take example in Europe, think again.
Everyone (almost) knows the configuration of the typical American city: a perfect grid with perpendicular streets, intersections and, in most cases: the fires. This has the advantage of providing easy navigation but it is neither ecolo nor conducive to optimizing traffic. And although the U.S. is trying to draw on the old continent on this point.
The export product is the hottest European roundabout. While in France we have over 30,000, the United States, there are only 2,000 for the time being, but a figure that is increasing dramatically.
The only small problem according to a recent New York Times is that the roundabout is much misunderstood in the United States. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on how it is still perceived by many Americans reveals that 34% of drivers on average are against roundabouts and convinced that they create accidents. The same survey in areas where a roundabout has been built recently gave 57% positive rating.
Besides the fact that Obama would have successfully quit smoking for 9 months according to the LA Times, a survey of Wall Street Newspaper claims another victory for the latter this week.
is the "tax cut deal." Obama leaves the rich their tax advantages in exchange for an extension of unemployment for those not lucky enough to be rich. It is also a Republican blackmail which he sold. And where is the victory in all this?
Well you will be struck to know that in spite of those who cried foul and outrage that the decision has provoked among many senators or members of the House Democrats, 61% of the U.S. population supports the deal and believes it was a good compromise in a study NBC / Wall Street Journal. Are in favor of Democrats, Republicans, and not only moderates but also apparently the extremes on both sides. The survey also reveals that 47% of Republicans in the U.S. would be against the compromise in politics, but the majority of Democrats prefer their leaders get results through compromise rather than maintaining their positions do not perform any results.
So yes, this deal is also a sad symbol of what is reduced in American politics. It mixes everything in a bill, and as we negotiate the contract when buying fruits and vegetables: I'll leave the unemployment benefits if you leave me my way taxation George Bush. Seen from the outside if you do not follow too much the reality of legislative politics in the U.S., it's really dramatic to happen there, and yet ...
This deal has the advantage of being concrete, to make things happen in this country where unemployment remains high (it is still at 10% in California which is completely wrong for the United States). Obama has just proved once again that it is not nearly as left as what some (tea partyers and others) like to think.
Another figure of this new poll: whatever their endorsement of his policies, 72% of Americans "like" Obama. After the midterm elections difficult for the Obama campaign, it is he trying to follow the same cycle as Bill Clinton comeback re-election and has the key?
Sitting or lying on a sidewalk San Franciscan became illegal
In 2004, when Willie Brown was about to give up her seat to Gavin Newsom as mayor of San Francisco, he publicly stated that the problem of undocumented shelters in San Francisco was perhaps these problems can not be solved.
"Inhabitant" has Golden Gate Park or elsewhere, they would be 6.514 according to the latest census date of 2009 (and again, it decreased for 7 years).
Many often come from across the United States and underestimate from the fact that it is not necessarily always easy to start a new life in a city (and that life is much more expensive). San Francisco is one of the few American cities where many people do not drive or there are many pedestrians in the streets, it has also become a mecca for the homeless, many of whom end up on sidewalks and has to beg solicits passersby.
One of the referenda that were on the ballot in November with the last midterm elections, was the principal Proposition L. The latter have revealed many people in the street if she was not even a draft proposal in France: it is prohibited from sitting or lying on a sidewalk San Franciscan between 7 am and 11 hours, and provides for fines administered by the police or the prison in case of recurrence.
Actively defended by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the proposal went through L 54.3% 45.7% cons. All small businesses were also in favor because they think the degree of solicitation of San Franciscans took SDFS significant extent, created a lot of hostility and even threatened tourism. The exception list printed on the official documentation of Proposition L provides all the same that you can be sitting or lying on sidewalks in San Francisco if you're a child in a stroller! Other exceptions: medical emergencies, people in wheelchairs, expressions of opinion, traders who are within the law (ie they have a license to sell something on the sidewalk), public benches (which are not so many San Francisco), or customers who would line up to some thing.
economic indicators are followed and do not look alike so that no one knows how often a way to turn!
in real estate sales have exceeded expectations in October, but despite the promotion of Black Friday, the statistics of in-store sales in November were below what was expected. And as bad news never comes alone, this month we learned that the unemployment rate has just re-grow to 9.8% expected.
must, according to analysts, a job creation of about 125,000 a month for the balance of the labor market remains positive, and that the U.S. has enough positions for everyone including those who enter the labor market. The U.S. economy had created 172.000 jobs in October, and this figure dropped to only represent 39.000 creations in November largely because in many areas, there have been layoffs. Another problem: large groups, for the most part, make new profits sometimes solid, but they save instead of creating jobs.
While the United States has a deficit of over $ 13 trillion, the economy shows that it remains fragile and that even if it seems necessary to start worrying about the runaway deficit, this is not the time for the state to adopt initiatives to continue the reboost.
the end of this weekend, the U.S. Congress out of intensive negotiations on the 'Bush tax cuts' and Obama tax cuts'; Bush tax reliefs (for very rich) and Obama. Democrats and Republicans have reached a compromise: Democrats reneged on their immediate desire to get rid of tax breaks for the wealthy, and Republicans have reversed their decision to prevent an expansion of subsidies for the unemployed 2011. Given the critical situation of the job market, subsidies will be maintained for one year.
Wikileaks: when there is no difference between tabloid journalism and political
Again, the press and the journalistic press people mingle with the scandal this week Wikileaks.
"Cables diplomatic" This is a new expression that has the monopoly of attention. It means that this info has leaked on Wikileaks by thousands and show how the Obama administration is working on "sensitive issues". We do not know where and especially that they come but this is still the one.
First, know that it seems to excite much the French press that the American press as other information such as make a salary freeze federal regulations. And then, I would add that, once the tabloids and gossip festers policy. It's like when the Express is three pages to speculate on the jealousy of Sarkozy vis a vis Obama.
same time, it's us the primary culprits, since it reacts, it titillates us, and we are unable to ignore this kind of info, we want to know more. It's irresistible.
All I want to say is that this kind of internal communications has obviously always existed. We live in times when such things can not remain secret. The fact remains that it Agenda not gossip and political journalism.
Moreover, gentlemen and ladies french journalists, know that when you start your sentences with "Americans this" or "American ca" is the level "preparatory course. It just will not say anything. The United States is a country completely divided, the notion of "American" was perhaps a sense in 45 or the second part of the twentieth century, but today it has no place. In the case of the scandal Wikileaks is ridiculous because the leaks emanating from the White House and the Obama administration, but it is representative of what "Americans" think of this or Such political and personality does not mean more than any of his staff members are necessarily unanimous.
A new Silicon Valley in the center of the United States
This video has something a little "propagandesque" but it's pretty funny. Adobe companie legendary Silicon Valley (where I worked one year as a freelancer), has opened offices in a state unlikely: Utah, the state founded by Mormons misunderstood. Adobe has poached a lot of people out of Silicon Valley in California, pushing them to change their lifestyle to choose this place they never even considered and that was pretty negative connotations.
These employees have put away their a priori to find a new Silicon Valley. All the elements are there for those who know the jargon: VCs, Tech, Biotech ... And beyond the high-tech, Utah would have welcomed 40 new companies and $ 2 billion investment in less than two years.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, many Americans will fly to join their families and do the same time experience the new airport security measures that have created controversy since more than a month.
is an issue that is putting in danger the airlines. In many U.S. airports, passengers now have the choice between a passage in the scanner that you undress completely, or strip searching textbook that strikes the puritanism of many. I'll let you make your choice (wink has French Biscuit).
The Dream Act: Hope for the children of illegal immigrants in the United States
There was a manifestation of a hundred people with banners and cameras before my office in San Francisco about ten days ago.
Whoever crystallizes so much passion in the Bay of San Francisco (especially within the community of Asian American) for two weeks called Steve "Shing Ma Li, a student at university in San Francisco exemplary results and also the child of Chinese illegal immigrants. For two weeks, it became the symbol of the debate on those cases in the United States.
Steven was incarcerated in Arizona for two months pending deportation. His parents fled the one-child policy in China and took refuge Peru and Steven was born before coming to the U.S. when the latter was 12 twelve years. Their family was allowed to stay in the U.S. until 2002 but remained illegally before being arrested last September. Parents are being monitored with electronic bracelets and will have to return to China but Steven, who is officially Peru should be deported to Peru where he has no roots and no contact.
is Diane Feinstein, California Democrat Senator who came to her aid with a single piece of legislation which has resulted and will allow Steven to release. Only a small proportion of individual measures of this type lead as a rule but Diane Feinstein argues, referring in particular the political context with the Dream Act that would change everything. This bill had failed in September, worst time to legislate on anything in Washington because there was the impending elections on 2 November 2010. This debate is coming up in the Senate next month and would provide that all children of immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 15 can stay if they are enrolled at the university.
USA: Marion Jones, the redemption of an ancient sport that has boosted
Her name is Marion Jones, is a former Olympic champion at 100m and 200m including and is now a former prisoner. Twenty-five years, his triumphant passage to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was crowned with three gold medals and two bronze medals and had marked the American people.
She has since announced his official retirement in 2007 and spent six months in jail for having doped. His testimony stated that his coach had given him substances during his years as champion, and she had not understood that the substance was an illegal substance. She was convinced that it was a dietary supplement as there are many in the United States in various forms.
When the case broke, things got complicated because she instinctively lied to a federal investigator on the use of dopants. That was in 2000, during an interview a few minutes that she was frightened and At the end of which she became in the eyes of U.S. law, a "felony". You automatically become a "traitor" if you lie to a federal agent. It is the legal status of one who has committed a serious crime punishable by gravity, jail or penalty Death!
Because the status of "Felon," she could not vote for several years and particularly missed, to his great regret, the election of Obama. Today flourished and mother of three, she published an autobiographical work and promotion is to share her experience, hoping to help other athletes.
How co-founder of Facebook, has revolutionized forever Democracy in the United States
Two years Obama was elected in 2008 with 66,882,230 votes and a score of 53%.
I talked a lot about the media-political revolution had shown using Twitter, Facebook and social networks during the 2008 season and victory for Obama (see this ).
What I have not mentioned is the one that revolutionized forever the participatory democracy and American politics: Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook.
young man of 24 years, Chris Hughes was the man who had been on the Origin of the intensive use of social media techniques to the presidential campaign of Obama, thus initiating a radical change. Hughes is also behind the creation of Voteforchange.com site, which offers such local connections to potential voters who are not registered. Thus, through the optimization of these virtual vehicle, that participatory democracy has reached its climax. Never did the policy be like before.
