vendredi 18 septembre 2009

Thriller Obama

Voici un exemple des documentaires qui cherchent à semer le doute quant aux origines du président Obama. Regardez-le car il résume bien une affaire dont les grands médias ne veulent pas parler.

lundi 14 septembre 2009

Mauvais journalisme

Je viens de lire dans Le Point cette information :

Le changement climatique ouvre une voie maritime en Arctique

Le changement climatique ouvre une voie maritime en Arctique

La compagnie allemande Beluga Shipping GmbH a entamé le premier voyage sans l'assistance de navire briseur de glace par le Passage du Nord-Est, que le changement climatique rend plus praticable. L'éclatement de la calote glaciaire arctique, résultat du réchauffement de cette partie du globe, a permis à Beluga de lancer ses navires de transport commerciaux sur cette route qui passe au nord de la Russie, après avoir reçu l'autorisation de Moscou.

Deux cargos de la compagnie allemande Beluga Shipping GmbH ont entamé vendredi le premier voyage sans l'assistance de navire briseur de glace par le Passage du Nord-Est, que le changement climatique rend plus praticable, a déclaré son directeur général.

Les cargos MV Beluga Fraternity et Beluga Foresight ont quitté le port de Vladivostok, dans l'extrême est de la Russie, pour rallier l'Europe avec une cargaison sud-coréenne, pour un trajet historique, a dit le P-DG Niels Stolberg dans un entretien à Reuters.

L'éclatement de la calote glaciaire arctique, résultat du réchauffement de cette partie du globe, a permis à Beluga de lancer ses navires de transport commerciaux sur cette route qui passe au nord de la Russie, après avoir reçu l'autorisation de Moscou, a-t-il expliqué.

Le Passage du Nord-Est, aussi appelé route maritime du Nord, est long de 4.000 milles nautiques (7.400 km), près de trois fois moins que les 11.000 à parcourir pour relier l'Asie à l'Europe en empruntant le canal de Suez. Stolberg en attend des gains considérables sur le plan financier et en termes d'émissions de gaz à effet de serre.

"Les sous-marins russes et les briseurs de glace ont emprunté la route maritime du Nord dans le passé mais elle n'était pas ouverte au trafic commercial régulier jusqu'à maintenant parce qu'il y a de la glace épaisse en beaucoup d'endroits", a-t-il dit.

"Les images satellitaires ont révélé seulement l'année dernière que la glace fondait et un petit couloir s'est ouvert, qui pouvait permettre le trafic commercial dans le Passage du Nord-Est, si toutes les circonstances s'y prêtaient."

La compagnie allemande souhaitait profiter dès l'année dernière d'une fenêtre de six à huit semaines entre août et septembre, qui voit la température atteindre 20 degrés dans cette région et favoriser l'ouverture d'une voie navigable. Mais elle n'avait alors pas obtenu l'autorisation des autorités russes.

Beluga Shipping GmbH est coutumière des initiatives liées au changement climatique. La compagnie a ainsi utilisé des voiles géantes sur certains de ses navires afin de tirer profit de l'énergie éolienne et réduire à la fois ses coûts et émissions polluantes.

"Le réchauffement climatique est évidemment un développement aux effets négatifs. Toutefois, la fonte de glace dans le Passage du Nord-Est et la possibilité d'y transiter a des effets positifs. Les compagnies de transport peuvent réduire leur consommation de carburant et réduire les émissions de CO2", a conclu Stolberg.


Or, cette «première » ne me semblait pas une car j'avais le souvenir d'autres navires parcourant la même toute.

La site europhobe, mais bien informé, EU Referendum a publié un article qui met en lumière les manipulations d'une presse obsédée par le changement climatique.


The pictures tell the story

We were not going to return immediately to the "Northeast passage" but the temptation proved too great when we found the photograph shown above. It depicts an SA-15 type multipurpose icebreaking cargo ship of the Norilsk class. Nineteen were built for the Soviet Union between 1982-1987 at Finnish shipyards Wärtsilä and Valmet.

The significance of the picture is that it was taken in 1984 when the 20,000-dwt ship made the first of several shipments of pipes from Japan to the Ob' estuary via the "impossible" Northeast passage. It was following exactly the same route, to exactly the same destination as the much-lauded Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight. Furthermore, the ship made the journey without an icebreaker escort.

From the same source, we also learn that ships plying this route have been visiting Vancouver since 1979.

In 1986 three made homeward passages with grain after the end of the normal navigation season. The last cleared Vancouver on 12 November, and with minimum assistance reached Arkhangelsk on 2 December. Grain shipments from Vancouver to Arctic ports were continuing up to 1992, when the Ivan Bogin cleared Vancouver on 27 August 1992 for Murmansk.

As to European ships making the passage, the Germans have been there before, beating the Beluga fleet by nearly 70 years. This they did with the 3,287-ton converted merchantman Komet.

She left Germany on 3 July 1940 with a crew of 270, sailed up the Norwegian coast and then, with the assistance of the Soviets, navigated the northern route, crossing the Bering Straits into the Pacific Ocean in early September. She returned safely to Germany on 30 November 1941, after sinking seven ships.

During the war US-built lend-lease vessels, including liberty ships handed over to the Soviets, made 120 voyages with cargoes from the American west coast via the Bering Strait to northern ports, following routes similar to that followed by the Beluga fleet. Navigation by Soviet vessels continued after the war but, in the early stages of the Cold War, the route was closed to Western vessels – not by ice but by politics.

The first offer to open the Northern Sea Route to international shipping was made early in 1967, when it was argued that it could save thirteen days between Hamburg and Yokohama as opposed to the conventional link via Suez. To demonstrate the viability of the route, Soviet cargo carriers made three demonstration voyages from north European ports and Japan.

That the project went no further again was nothing to do with ice. In 1967, after the Six Day War, the Suez Canal was closed. The Soviets did not wish to offend friendly Arab governments – and particularly Egypt - by offering an alternative to the Suez Canal and the invitation for international shipping on the NSR was quietly withdrawn.


Twenty years later, the USSR was shifting its economic enterprises to a self-financing system. In 1989 shipments between western Europe and Japan were made in the new generation of SA-15 freighters, one on charter to a German firm.

The following year space was offered to foreign shippers in eight SA-15s trading between Europe and Japan via the Arctic. In 1991 there were fifteen such voyages with 210,000 tons of cargo (one pictured above). That year, the Northern Sea Route was again declared open to foreign shipping.

To test the route, the French Arctic supply vessel "L'Astrolabe" left Le Havre on 27 July 1991 and successfully navigated the NRS, arriving in Japan in early September.

Yet another European vessel followed in her wake. In the summer of 1997, the Finnish-flag tanker Uikku (pictured, below right) sailed the length of the NSR. beginning in Murmansk 3 September, and discharged fuel along a number of Russian Arctic ports. It arrived in Pevek on the 12th to discharge fuel and then sailed through the Bering Strait on 15 September.

After picking up more fuel in the Pacific the ship sailed back along the NSR. discharging fuel at several ports and reaching Murmansk on 14 October. It was reported by the Russian NSR authorities that a Latvian-flag tanker also completed a full transit of the NSR in 1997.

And yet The Independent has the nerve to claim that, "No commercial vessel has ever successfully travelled the North-east Passage," while The Times in an updated version of its story, is still telling us that "the voyage was considered impossible until a few years ago."

As for Niels Stolberg, founder and president of the Beluga Group, when he tells us that, "We are all very proud and delighted to be the first Western shipping company to have successfully transited the legendary Northeast Passage," why is the media taking him seriously?

dimanche 13 septembre 2009

La longue route de l'humanité

Le grand voyage de l'humanité.

Dans mon précédent post j'ai évoqué l'hypothèse d'une origine extra-africaine de l'hominisation. Il ne s'agit pour le moment que d'une hypothèse qui reste à élaborer. Pour le moment, la théorie qui explique le mieux la diffusion de l'homme sur notre planète s'appuie à la fois sur des preuves matérielles (ossements, AND) et immatérielles (linguistique).

L'excellent magazine National Geographic, toujours prudent, consensuel et très politiquement correct, publie un dossier qui fait le point sur nos connaissances. Une lecture conseillée.

Une Etude Historique du Parcours Humain D'où venez-vous vraiment ? Et comment êtes-vous arrivé là où vous vivez aujourd'hui ? Les études d'ADN suggèrent que tous les humains actuels descendent d'un groupe d'ancêtres africains qui ont commencé il y a environ 60 000 ans un voyage incroyable.


Le projet Genographic cherche à enregistrer de nouvelles connaissances sur l'histoire des migrations de l'espèce humaine en utilisant des laboratoires sophistiqués et l'analyse informatique de l'ADN apporté par des centaines de milliers de personnes du monde entier. Dans cet effort de recherche sans précédent en temps réel, le projet Genographic comble les vides dans ce que la science sait aujourd'hui sur l'histoire des migrations humaines anciennes.

Le projet Genographic est un partenariat de recherche de cinq ans mené par le Docteur résident et explorateur de National Geographic, Spencer Wells. Dr Wells et une équipe de scientifiques internationaux renommés et de chercheurs d'IBM utilisent des technologies statistiques à la pointe de la génétique pour analyser les modèles historiques d'ADN des participants du monde entier pour mieux comprendre nos racines génétiques humaines. Les trois composants du projet sont : rassembler des données de recherche sur le terrain en collaboration avec les peuples indigènes et traditionnels du monde entier; inviter le public général à se joindre au projet en achetant un kit de participation publique au projet Genographic; et utiliser les recettes des ventes du kit de participation publique au projet Genographic pour faire avancer la recherche de terrain et le Fonds d'héritage du projet Genographic qui à son tour soutient les projets de conservation et de revitalisation indigènes. Le projet est anonyme, non médical, non politique, à but non lucratif et non commercial, et tous les résultats seront du domaine public suite à la publication par des pairs scientifiques.
Découvrez une vidéo sur le projet de recherches génétiques Genographic Project

mercredi 9 septembre 2009

Adam l'Africain ? Pas certain

Les bonnes âmes ont mis en avant les théories élaborées par les paléontologues d'une origine africaine de l'humanité pour conforter leur discours lénifiant.
En se fondant sur les analyses génétiques tout comme sur les restes des hominidés trouvés en Afrique, les chercheurs ont imaginé que les premiers humains ont quitté un jour le continent africain pour peupler l'ensemble de la terre où progressivement se sont fait jour les différentes races humaines.
A partir des années 1970, cette théorie de l'origine africaine de l'humanité est sortie de son champ d'application pour entrer de plain pied dans celui de l'imaginaire collectif et de la construction sociale. Des grands magazines comme Time ont publié des couvertures sur l'Eve africaine pour combattre le racisme et dans les manuels scolaires, cette théorie servait de véhicule à des programmes moralisateurs.
Les chercheurs qui ont avancé d'autres points de vue ont été marginalisés durant longtemps, comme par exemple les chercheurs chinois, car on soupçonnait leurs thèses d'avoir en réalité une motivation « raciste ».
Même si à ce jour, la théorie de l'origine africaine de l'humanité reste la plus solide, d'autres points de vue commencent à parvenir au grand public. A titre d'exemple, l'article de Steve Connor publié dans les colonnes de l'Independent, un des grands représentants du conformisme intellectuel et de l'intelligentsia de gauche, qui a publié un intéressant compte rendu de la conférence du grand paléontologue géorgien David Lordkipanidze sans pousser des cris d'orfraie.


A skull that rewrites the history of man

It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia...

The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man.

The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia – before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man.

Experts believe fossilised bones unearthed at the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses, and dated to about 1.8 million years ago, are the oldest indisputable remains of humans discovered outside of Africa.

But what has really excited the researchers is the discovery that these early humans (or "hominins") are far more primitive-looking than the Homo erectus humans that were, until now, believed to be the first people to migrate out of Africa about 1 million years ago.

The Dmanisi people had brains that were about 40 per cent smaller than those of Homo erectus and they were much shorter in stature than classical H. erectus skeletons, according to Professor David Lordkipanidze, general director of the Georgia National Museum. "Before our findings, the prevailing view was that humans came out of Africa almost 1 million years ago, that they already had sophisticated stone tools, and that their body anatomy was quite advanced in terms of brain capacity and limb proportions. But what we are finding is quite different," Professor Lordkipanidze said.

"The Dmanisi hominins are the earliest representatives of our own genus – Homo – outside Africa, and they represent the most primitive population of the species Homo erectus to date. They might be ancestral to all later Homo erectus populations, which would suggest a Eurasian origin of Homo erectus."

Speaking at the British Science Festival in Guildford, where he gave the British Council lecture, Professor Lordkipanidze raised the prospect that Homo erectus may have evolved in Eurasia from the more primitive-looking Dmanisi population and then migrated back to Africa to eventually give rise to our own species, Homo sapiens – modern man.

"The question is whether Homo erectus originated in Africa or Eurasia, and if in Eurasia, did we have vice-versa migration? This idea looked very stupid a few years ago, but today it seems not so stupid," he told the festival.

The scientists have discovered a total of five skulls and a solitary jawbone. It is clear that they had relatively small brains, almost a third of the size of modern humans. "They are quite small. Their lower limbs are very human and their upper limbs are still quite archaic and they had very primitive stone tools," Professor Lordkipanidze said. "Their brain capacity is about 600 cubic centimetres. The prevailing view before this discovery was that the humans who first left Africa had a brain size of about 1,000 cubic centimetres."

The only human fossil to predate the Dmanisi specimens are of an archaic species Homo habilis, or "handy man", found only in Africa, which used simple stone tools and lived between about 2.5 million and 1.6 million years ago.

"I'd have to say, if we'd found the Dmanisi fossils 40 years ago, they would have been classified as Homo habilis because of the small brain size. Their brow ridges are not as thick as classical Homo erectus, but their teeth are more H. erectus like," Professor Lordkipanidze said. "All these finds show that the ancestors of these people were much more primitive than we thought. I don't think that we were so lucky as to have found the first travellers out of Africa. Georgia is the cradle of the first Europeans, I would say," he told the meeting.

"What we learnt from the Dmanisi fossils is that they are quite small – between 1.44 metres to 1.5 metres tall. What is interesting is that their lower limbs, their tibia bones, are very human-like so it seems they were very good runners," he said.

He added: "In regards to the question of which came first, enlarged brain size or bipedalism, maybe indirectly this information calls us to think that body anatomy was more important than brain size. While the Dmanisi people were almost modern in their body proportions, and were highly efficient walkers and runners, their arms moved in a different way, and their brains were tiny compared to ours.

"Nevertheless, they were sophisticated tool makers with high social and cognitive skills," he told the science festival, which is run by the British Science Association.

One of the five skulls is of a person who lost all his or her teeth during their lifetime but had still survived for many years despite being completely toothless. This suggests some kind of social organisation based on mutual care, Professor Lordkipanidze said.