Abordant enfin un sujet très sensible qui divise à l’ONU les pays occidentaux et les pays du Sud, François a dénoncé « la colonisation idéologique » qui impose aux « peuples » des « modèles de vie anormaux » et, « en dernier ressort, irresponsables ».

Il s’agit d’une allusion implicite à la théorie du genre et au mariage gai, qui a beaucoup de défenseurs dans la ville de New York où séjourne le pape jusqu’à ce soir.

Ces styles de vie « sont étrangers à l’identité des peuples ». Il a demandé à l’ONU de reconnaître « une loi morale inscrite dans la nature humaine elle-même, qui comprend la distinction naturelle entre homme et femme ».

Ces propos risquent d’avoir un écho particulier aux rencontres mondiales des familles catholiques, que le pape va clôturer samedi et dimanche à Philadelphie.

Agence France-Presse : “Le pape François demande à l’ONU des accords sur le climat”.

  #christianisme  #genre  #homophobie

Farid in the West, by Steve Anthopoulos, with Robert Rabiah, Adele Vuko and Bev Killick.

[YouTube.]

  #cinéma  #islam

In the Inuit regions of Labrador, the word “son” is written as “Innik.” Cross the border into Arctic Quebec and the word becomes “Irniq.” Skip across Hudson Strait onto Baffin Island, and the word is now a series of syllabic symbols that—to non-Inuit—might look like a triangle, a whistle and several elevated squiggles.

It’s all the same Inuktitut word. But in the linguistic maze of the Canadian Arctic, the roughly 40,000 speakers of the Inuit language use no fewer than nine different writing systems and two alphabets.

“Linguists have told us Inuktitut is one of the hardest languages to learn as a second language,” said James Eetoolook, vice-president of Nunavut Tunngavik, the corporation governing the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

And it’s why — after decades of planning — Canada’s Inuit are now hammering out a plan to unite the entire Arctic under a single Roman-lettered language.

“There’s been talk of this for years; it’s not new,” said Jeela Palluq-Cloutier, the Inuit-language coordinator for ITK, the organization representing all Canada’s Inuit.

But it’s only recently that ITK has formed Autausiq Inuktut Titirausiq, a task force of eight representatives — two from each of Canada’s four Inuit regions — to figure out a common standard to be understood from Inuvik to Labrador.

Just last month, the task force made news in the Arctic by recommending the system abandon Inuit syllabics and stick strictly to Roman orthography.

“With language erosion, we have to figure out a better way for young people to read and write in our language,” said Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, one of two Nunavut representatives on the task force.

National Post, Tristin Hopper: “With nine written versions and two alphabets, Inuit language finally getting much needed makeover.”

  #canada

On avait enterré un peu trop vite le livre-objet, le vrai livre en papier qui peut durer des décennies face au numérique jetable à obsolescence plus ou moins programmée. Le marché du lecteur dédié s’effondre après un succès de curiosité. Le réseau et la logistique de distribution du livre classique se sont aussi modernisés comme jamais.

Five years ago, the book world was seized by collective panic over the uncertain future of print.

As readers migrated to new digital devices, e-book sales soared, up 1,260 percent between 2008 and 2010, alarming booksellers that watched consumers use their stores to find titles they would later buy online. Print sales dwindled, bookstores struggled to stay open, and publishers and authors feared that cheaper e-books would cannibalize their business.

[…] But the digital apocalypse never arrived, or at least not on schedule. While analysts once predicted that e-books would overtake print by 2015, digital sales have instead slowed sharply.

Now, there are signs that some e-book adopters are returning to print, or becoming hybrid readers, who juggle devices and paper. E-book sales fell by 10 percent in the first five months of this year, according to the Association of American Publishers, which collects data from nearly 1,200 publishers. Digital books accounted last year for around 20 percent of the market, roughly the same as they did a few years ago.

E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing, while not immune to technological upheaval, will weather the tidal wave of digital technology better than other forms of media, like music and television.

[…] The surprising resilience of print has provided a lift to many booksellers. Independent bookstores, which were battered by the recession and competition from Amazon, are showing strong signs of resurgence. The American Booksellers Association counted 1,712 member stores in 2,227 locations in 2015, up from 1,410 in 1,660 locations five years ago.

“The fact that the digital side of the business has leveled off has worked to our advantage,” said Oren Teicher, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association. “It’s resulted in a far healthier independent bookstore market today than we have had in a long time.”

Publishers, seeking to capitalize on the shift, are pouring money into their print infrastructures and distribution. […]

Penguin Random House has invested nearly $100 million in expanding and updating its warehouses and speeding up distribution of its books. It added 365,000 square feet last year to its warehouse in Crawfordsville, Ind., more than doubling the size of the warehouse.

“People talked about the demise of physical books as if it was only a matter of time, but even 50 to 100 years from now, print will be a big chunk of our business,” said Markus Dohle, the chief executive of Penguin Random House, which has nearly 250 imprints globally. Print books account for more than 70 percent of the company’s sales in the United States.

The company began offering independent booksellers in 2011 two-day guaranteed delivery from November to January, the peak book buying months.

Other big publishers, including HarperCollins, have followed suit. The faster deliveries have allowed bookstores to place smaller initial orders and restock as needed, which has reduced returns of unsold books by about 10 percent.

Penguin Random House has also developed a data-driven approach to managing print inventory for some of its largest customers, a strategy modeled on the way manufacturers like Procter & Gamble automatically restock soap and other household goods. The company now tracks more than 10 million sales records a day, and sifts through them in order to make recommendations for how many copies of a given title a vendor should order based on previous sales.

[…] Other independent booksellers agree that they are witnessing a reverse migration to print.

“We’ve seen people coming back,” said Arsen Kashkashian, a book buyer at Boulder Book Store in Boulder, Colo. “They were reading more on their Kindle and now they’re not, or they’re reading both ways.”

The New York Times, Alexandra Atler: “The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead.”

  #livre

Publicité FFRF pleine page parue dans le Washington Post, le New York Times, USA Today et le Philadelphia Enquirer.

  #christianisme  #pol-usa

« Mon but, c’est de s’assurer qu’on trouve cet équilibre entre les besoins de la communauté et le vélo. » [Denis Coderre.]

La Presse, Daphné Cameron : “Piste cyclable Brébeuf : bisbille autour d’un terre-plein”.

Ça a le mérite d’être clair, les cyclistes ne font pas partie de la communauté, sont en marge, en opposition. La communauté, c’est quand même les vraies gens qui roulent en char, tsé…

  #montréal  #vélo

Tendances coiffure hommes 2015-2016, au salon Mondial Coiffure Beauté, Paris. Photographie magazine Biblond.

(Merci Guy.)

  #insolite

Via les Archives de Montréal, “Chronique Montréalité n^o 43 : Les Jeux olympiques de 1976.”

  #graphisme  #montréal

Montreal is fast becoming a Franglais city in which most of its young people are proficient in both French and English – and their music is a reflection of that.

[…] For a genre [rapping] in which fun and sophisticated wordplay are so important, having the sounds, rhythms and vocabulary of two languages at your disposal caters for enormous lyrical creativity, especially in terms of rhymes. “We match rhymes from different languages all the time,” says Loud, one of the two MCs in Loud Lary Ajust. “There are only so many rhymes in one language and everyone uses them all the time, but when you make words from different languages rhyme, those are probably being used for the very first time.”

The Guardian, Huw Oliver : “Parlez-vous Franglais? Montreal’s bilingual rappers speak their own language”.

  #langue  #montréal

Sunday marked the official retirement of an esteemed ship’s officer in Halifax, RCO Erik the Red, and a large group gathered to help him celebrate.

The Canadian Press: “Erik the cat gets retirement party after 15 years as ‘rodent control officer’ aboard CSS Acadia.”

YouTube, CTV News: “Erik the Red: Ship’s first-mate cat gets retirement party.”

His tag says “I live at 1675 Lower Water. I know my way home. Please put me down.” Photography Glenn Euloth, 2013.

  #maritime  #miaou

When I visited Chernobyl for the first time 7 years ago, I didn’t think that a similar disaster could take place anywhere ever again, and certainly not in Japan. After all, nuclear power is safe and the technology is less and less prone to failure, and therefore a similar disaster cannot happen in the future. Scientists said this, firms that build nuclear power stations said this, and the government said this.

But it did happen.

Arkadiusz Podniesiński : “Fukushima”.

  #japon  #photographie

New York City rat taking pizza home on the subway, by Matt Little.

[YouTube.]

  #mignon

Publicité officielle du Bloc québécois.

[YouTube.]

Ce dimanche soir, le candidat du Bloc québécois dans la circonscription Montcalm, Jacques Tremblay, a pris la décision de se retirer après le tollé suscité par son soutien à Marine Le Pen et au Front national, exprimé avec chaleur sur Facebook : “Digne d’un chef d’État, davantage qu’Hollande ou Sarko ! Vivement le FN et vive la France patriote.”

Défense officielle du Parti : “Le candidat n’a jamais voulu cautionner de quelque façon que ce soit le FN. Il n’avait pas conscience de ce que ça représentait”. Pardonnez-moi cette familiarité anglo-saxonne, mais, en l’occurrence, je me permets un LOL puissant. — J’ai déjà tant peine à imaginer qu’un candidat sérieux aux élections fédérales puisse ne pas avoir connaissance de ce que représente le Front national en France, qu’il m’est probablement inutile de noter que le message de M. Tremblay était dénué de toute ambiguïté. Depuis, Gilles Duceppe a corrigé le tir lors d’une conférence de presse à Longueuil : “Je pense que ce sont des propos inacceptables. (…) Il n’y a aucune communion d’idées entre le Front national et le Bloc québécois.”

La veille, la candidate du Bloc québécois dans la circonscription Ville-Marie/Le Sud-Ouest/Île des Sœurs, Chantal Saint-Onge, s’excusait d’avoir écrit sur Facebook être de “de tout cœur” avec le groupuscule islamophobe PEGIDA Québec.

Défense officielle du Parti : “C’est une erreur de bonne foi. C’est une méconnaissance des réseaux sociaux”, par la voix de Mathieu Saint-Amand, attaché de presse de Gilles Duceppe. La dame a ajouté qu’elle présentait ses excuses, elle ne savait pas ce qu’était PEGIDA. Nous lui laisserons le bénéfice du doute et l’encourageons vivement à apprendre le maniement d’outils gratuits comme Google Search et Wikipédia.

Ces deux épisodes en une seule fin de semaine sont désastreux pour l’image du Bloc québécois, car, comme partout, la xénophobie est le revers fatidique du nationalisme. Un parti qui de bonne foi défend des thèses nationalistes positives et constructives se doit d’être absolument irréprochable sur ce plan ; c’est pourquoi la publicité qui démarre ce billet me paraît être des plus mal avisées, donnant inutilement des armes aux adversaires. Si l’exploitation pétrolière est un sujet politique important, autant en termes économiques qu’environnementaux, le niqab présenté comme enjeu national de même portée procède à mes yeux du plus bas niveau de la politicaillerie, d’un nationalisme négatif et identitaire. Nous mettrons cela sur le dos de la maladresse teintée d’incompétence, plutôt qu’y voir un appel du pied délibéré à une certaine frange (pour ne pas dire fange) de l’électorat.

Ces derniers mois, on ne compte plus les candidats qui ont connu des embarras avec leur présence sur les réseaux sociaux… De la candidate libérale dans une circonscription de la Colombie-Britannique, Joy Davies, à qui on a reproché, entre autres, de lier consommation de cannabis et diminution de la violence domestique, à la charmante candidate bloquiste VirJiny [sic] Provost à qui on a fait un procès pour pas grand-chose, la machine médiatique n’a pas manqué de matière première.

Mon bon conseil à deux cennes d’expert en communication sur les Interwebs : si tu t’engages en campagne électorale, ferme tes comptes personnels sur Facebook et Twitter (car l’activité favorite des journalistes et opposants politiques consiste maintenant à les surveiller et disséquer, y compris les messages anciens), et ouvre de nouvelles pages officielles dont le contenu sera alimenté exclusivement par des pros, ou, au minimum, relu par plusieurs paires d’yeux avant publication.

  #pol-canada

On dit souvent que la réalité dépasse la fiction. Nous ajouterons que l’actualité dépasse parfois les Gorafi, The Onion et consorts. Ainsi, le titre du jour est “L’Arabie saoudite prend la direction du panel du Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU”.

Après, forcément, tu vas vérifier l’information. Parce que RIA Novosti/Russia Today — dans ce monde, rien ne m’étonne — s’est peut être lancée sur les traces du Gorafi. Mais… non, c’est bien réel et déjà un peu ancien, et vérifiable dans un PDF discret sur le site du Haut-commissariat aux droits de l’homme.

2. The members of the Consultative Group for the selection of mandate holders to be appointed at the thirtieth session of the Human Rights Council are: H.E. Mr. Alexandros ALEXANDRIS, Permanent Representative of Greece; H.E. Mr. Boudjemâa DELMI, Permanent Representative of Algeria; H.E. Ms. Marta MAURÁS, Permanent Representative of Chile; H.E. Mr. Rytis PAULAUSKAS, Permanent Representative of Lithuania (since 1 August 2015) and H.E. Mr. Faisal TRAD, Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia.

3. For this selection cycle, the Consultative Group decided that H.E. Mr. Faisal TRAD would continue serving as Chairperson and H.E. Mr. Alexandros ALEXANDRIS as Vice-Chairperson of the Group.

Après, vous pouvez argumenter comme quoi le Groupe consultatif est secondaire dans le fonctionnement du Conseil des droits de l’homme, mais même si c’était vraiment le cas, le symbole est important. On ne se privera pas d’ironiser.

  #actualité  #ironie

Pour bien démarrer le lundi.

箱のなかの猫, Shironeko シロネコ.

[YouTube.]

  #miaou

In every way, Johnny is physically and biologically male. But, astonishingly he did not grow a penis until he hit puberty. He is one of many children who live in Salinas, an isolated village in the southwestern Dominican Republic, who are seemingly born female, only to become men in their teenage years.

Although Johnny’s story may seem extraordinary, cases of little girls turning into boys are so prevalent in the village that it is no longer considered abnormal. The children are simply referred to as the ‘guevedoces’ – which literally translates as ‘penis at 12’^*.

[…] The rare genetic disorder occurs because of a missing enzyme which prevents the production of a specific form of the male sex hormone - dihydro-testosterone - in the womb.

All babies in the womb, whether male or female, have internal glands known as gonads and a small bump between their legs called a tubercle. At around eight weeks, male babies who carry the Y chromosome start to produce dihydro-testosterone in large amounts, which turns the tubercle into a penis. For females, the tubercle becomes a clitoris.

But some male babies are missing the enzyme 5-α-reductase which triggers the hormone surge, so they appear to be born female with no testes and what appears to be a vagina. It is not until puberty, when another huge surge of testosterone is produced, that the male reproductive organs emerge. What should have happened in the womb happens around 12 years later. Their voices deepen and they finally grow a penis.

[…] Many decide not to change from their female names, so some men in Salinas have names like Catherine.

The guevedoces were first discovered by a Cornell University endocrinologist Dr Julianne Imperato in the 1970s who travelled to Dominican Republic after hearing strange rumours about girls turning into boys. Further cases have since been seen in the Sambian villages of Papua New Guinea although the Sambians view the children as flawed males and they are often shunned, unlike the Dominicans who welcome the transformation with widespread celebration.

[…] “Guevedoces are also sometimes called “machihembras” meaning “first a woman, then a man”.

[…] Around one in 90 children in Salinas are guevedoces and although they resemble sexually normal males, subtle differences do still exist in adulthood. Most have decreased amounts of facial hair and smaller prostate glands relative to the average male.

The Telegraph, Sarah Knapton: “The astonishing village where little girls turn into boys aged 12.”

(*) In fact, the meaning is “testicles at 12” (“huevos — testículos — a los doce”).

  #genre  #insolite