Michio Kaku

His own family mirrors the history of the nuclear age. From 8:45 if you can't spare 13 minutes now. Otherwise, watch it later!

Let's educate ourselves.

Carl Sagan [ˈseɪ.ɡən] 1934-1996 Professor at Cornell University "We live in an age of science and technology with formidable powers. If we, the general public don't understand it, then who is making all the decisions about science and technology?" He also quotes Thomas Jefferson, the US Prez at the beginning of the 19th century who laid stress on the fact that it was not enough to enshrine some rights in the constitution and the bill of rights. People have to be educated and they have to practise their skepticism and their education. Otherwise, we don't run the government, the government runs us.

Help Father Christmas

The arctic is in danger.

ACLU vs NSA's unlawful spying programs

The NSA is Coming to Town dressed in Father Christmas outfits. The American Civil Liberties Union has had a lot to do lately... Don't you like this video? Making fun of that dreadful reality? Why not? A very human thing to do: laugh! Hope it raises public awareness to this crucial issue.

Brands are not gods

The Bullying Experiment

Wrong is being committed in front of your eyes. What do you do? I've always hated the phrase: "Don't be a hero." It's not being a hero. It's just being human to at least say something. What do you think? update: Thanks Cecile for her comments and this link: http://www.maentis.com/

Mmmm...

I think Ben has something here. I mean below.
 

Thanks @JoeMomasNuts for the great link(s). Your avatar rocks twitter

Truth is the 1st casualty of war.

British Soldier Slams fighting for Queen And Country                                                             Benjamin Griffin (born 1977) is a former British SAS soldier who refused to return to Iraq and left the Army, citing not only the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces but also that the invasion itself was contrary to international law

 Here is how he ends Benjamin ends his truly heroic words.
"I am a human being. My allegiance is not to Queen and country but to the whole of humanity.
I no longer accept the lies that perpetuate war.
I no longer accept that violence can lead to peace.
Never again will I be complicit in the killing and torture of my brothers and sisters.
Never again will I accept the vile religion of patriotism.
I refuse to pull on that rancid uniform and I refuse to fight for Queen and country"

Thanksgiving 2013 #transparency

Grace': PETA's Banned Thanksgiving Ad                                                                                                                                  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ...
And a video to show you what she's talking about. That's #transparency
http://vimeo.com/73234721

Japanese legislators make a wrong move.

BBC Japanese Secrecy Bill
The lower house of the Japanese parliament has approved a state secrecy bill that imposes stiffer penalties on civil servants who leak secrets and journalists who try to obtain them.Japanese people protest in the following video:

Another Banksy-oriented post

And if you want these other posts, type Banksy in the searchbar of the blog!
And visit http://banksy.co.uk/ and to follow Banksy's October NYC tour,
you can go to this interactive map: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/interactive-map-banksy-tour-of-nyc.html?mid=twitter_nymag or keep updated here: http://animalnewyork.com/
Don't you love it?

#REMEMBERDAIICHI

Six and a half thousand times higher in 2 days ... 6,500 times higher...
You may know that my precious daughter arrived in Tokyo on Saturday. Wish her well...
And there is a another typhoon coming.
Watch this and pay attention to the above figure at the beginning of the video.
Indeed... "Two and a half years to admit the painful truth: JAPAN NEEDS HELP"

Ex NSA Edward Snowden

KMSP-TV

Malala with Jon Stewart

You may remember  this post: http://bilien.blogspot.fr/2013/01/malala-inspired-children-worldwide.html
 She was shot a year ago. Look at her now and visit her website:http://www.malalafund.org/

Oral expression - great new site

Learn or revise your American English pronunciation. http://www.youtube.com/user/rachelsenglish?feature=watch
Thanks loads Rachel. I'm sure this will be very useful for all English learning students!
Students, have a look at this video and watch many others for your own good.
Remember, 15mn of English a day if you really want to improve.

Oral expression

Train your accent! Listen, read and repeat.
http://www.trainyouraccent.com/

Back to school!

Dear future students, in this blog's extension, read this before getting back to school:

http://www.myhaikuclass.com/elibilien/english/cms_page/view/7339593

See you soon! Your next teacher!

Freedom?

While Julian Assange has been more than a year in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Edward Snowden in transit zone in Moscow... words such as bugs, spying and surveillance are much in use.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/hidden-microphone-ecuador-embassy-assange

And then, a petition in favour of the freedom of the press that was signed by our Minister of Education's brother, the journalist Antoine Peillon.
http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/la-redaction-de-mediapart/110713/we-have-right-know-join-appealalready-25000-signatures

The SOUNDS of English!

Revise your pronunciation of the SOUNDS of English with the BBC for free and right here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/

And here, the same sounds, from a U.S. University: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Work well during the summer. 15 mn a day is the best!

Creating messages.

You think I took that picture?
In a way... I just created it through  http://www.says-it.com/ !
Choose your sign, choose the message. Have fun!

Great new site...

... to improve your English.
Thanks very much to its creator: Annette Porte. Fabulous job !

The idea is simple. You have a text that is recorded. You also have the script (remember it's better to listen to the audio or video several times without the script.).

Then, you have access to a pdf doc with vocabulary pertaining to the script in an exercise and then, you can fill in the blanks of the text.

I'm gonna add it below the oral comprehension label on your left. Use it!
https://tinytexts.wordpress.com/

Rolihlahla: Tugging at the branches of a tree

As Nelson Mandela is preparing for transition, I enjoyed discovering the meaning of his real name:  Rolihlahla: Tugging at the branches of a tree.                                                                                     He was tugging at the branches of the tree of life to yield its fruits: Liberty, peace and justice for all. Let his patience inspire us all. Here are the final words in his four-and-a-half-hour-long speech at the Rivonia Trial. 

"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve but, if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." 

He wasn't sentenced to death but spent 27 years in prison...

He must have read Henry David Thoreau: "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." 

The Wiki page in French refers to the CIA's involvement in Mandela's arrest in 1962.
It doesn't appear in the English Wiki page. A little research about the subject is very enlightening, especially these days. Let's tug at the branches! 

 "It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world." he declared at a Johny Clegg's concert in 1999.http://youtu.be/BGS7SpI7obY

Revelation: we're in the abyss

By now, you've all heard of the Edward Snowden and about the documents he leaked to the Guardian's journalists that proved the existence of an extensive  US NSA (National Security Agency)’s spying program called PRISM, which was designed to collect information about digital communications, allowing real-time online surveillance of US citizens.
That is of course absolutely unconstitutional and unacceptable. U.S. citizens can be disappointed.
This is sensational news in MSM (Main Stream Media.) Please learn more about it
and see how a Gallup poll shows most Americans oppose NSA surveillance programs, and are evenly split on the rightness of Snowden's actions:http://www.gallup.com/poll/163043/americans-disapprove-government-surveillance-programs.aspx

The following video is as worrying as the news because this is Orwellian double talk. 



There was this very interesting series by the Washington Post in 2010 that I had reported here:
http://bilien.blogspot.fr/2010/09/top-secret-america.html
And I suggest you also read this http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/ and this http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10067

Learning Language Tips

How to become fluent
You'll love the video above. ChulyDarlyn gives you advice on 'How to become fluent in any language you want!' She has many views and it is well-deserved.

Here is what she advises you to do. And I couldn't agree more. Thanks for your great tips ChulyDarlyn. Your  convincing vid is fabulous. I wish you the best!

Tip 1. Be motivated and try to learn by yourself!
Tip 2. See learning as something entertaining!
Tip 3. It's ok if you don't understand everything!
Tip 4. Make sure to deal with the targeted language everyday!
Tip 5. The beginnings are tough but don't give up!
Tip 6. Spend some time in a country talking the targeted language.

CO-OPOLY

I've just ordered the Co-opoly board game after reading this article: 

Teach Your Children Well: Don't Play Monopoly

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16512-teach-your-children-well-dont-play-monopoly
...I love board games. Don't you? We might play a game in class some day.

Oral Comprehension sites

updated November 2016...

Hello English learners!! The Oral Comprehension label in the column on your right with its list of links is active again. :-)
I hope you'll use it 15mn everyday. Listening is the key to improving your English!

 EVERY DAY. EVERY SINGLE DAY!
1. Choose one audio documents in any of the suggested links.
2. Listen to the audio doc at least three times. (LISTEN x 3 minimum) It doesn't matter if you don't understand everything. 
3. Try to answer the quiz when available.
4. Listen to the document once again with the script IF you want to and if it is provided.

ORAL COMPREHENSION sites

http://howjsay.com/ Comment prononcer un mot ?(how d'ya say ... how do you say?)

esl-lab.com: Randall's site made me begin that blog. Thank you so much Randall! 

http://www.newsinlevels.com/

On the top bar, you see Level 1, 2 and 3. You can even test your level before you choose.Put your mouse on it and choose a subject you like.

The British council made something just for you teenagers
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/
Go there, http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break  and elsewhere! 

And for you, whatever your age is!

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/

and more particularly here with very varied documents, audio or video

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch

Here is an example here about Dating. Interested students ?

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/big-city-small-world/series-2-episode-10-date

One more site, just discovered.
http://www.engvid.com/

A colleague's website
http://www.franglish.fr/COBAC/

https://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm

A great youtube page here :

http://www.youtube.com/user/australianetwork/videos?flow=list&view=0&sort=dd&query=learning+English+series

Another youtube page with mini lessons (1mn or less!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsiqK8jGEWo&list=ECF8F4F464C322BFFF&index=1

http://elllo.org The best with Randall’s but all of it is not free anymore. Too bad, I loved ELLLO (English Language Listening Lab Online) 
Still, some lessons are still here for free! 
There used to be more than a thousand short audio documents, with vocabulary help, comprehension exercises and the script. The script is only here for you to check your comprehension after you’ve listened to the audio for at least three times... Teaching is repeating.

Many documents. The page has been archived and is not updated anymore but the audio / video documents and the exercises are still available. Use them!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm

http://www.agendaweb.org/ 

This is grammar mainly but useful!

This one will ask you to evaluate yourself and do some easy exercises and the site will memorize you. you'll like it!

http://lp.babbel.com/d/FRA_index.html?l1=FRA&l2=ENG&ch=SEM

http://www.manythings.org/listen/

OOPS

UPDATE here is what prevents me from refilling the OC list  after my careless move. Still, Blogger seems to be having problems: I found that here: http://knownissues.blogspot.fr/ 
Known issues for Blogger: 
The latest on what's still a problem, what's getting fixed, and what's been taken care of, direct from the Blogger team.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
We're investigating reports of users not being able to edit the Link List gadget. We'll update this post as soon as we have more information. Thanks for your patience.

Today is March 30th ... so that makes 3 days for Blogger to try and fix and fail.  But hey! Let's be patient.
And I say Thank You Blogger guys and gals for your hard work. 
.................................................................................................................................................................
Wow wow wow, I've just made a big mistake and deleted the LABEL with the Oral Comprehension great sites I've found on the marvellous Web.

SITES FOR YOU TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH FOR FREE!

(Am I making myself clear dear pupils?)
So I'm going to have to put it up again and I will begin with Randall's site. http://esl-lab.com/
I started this blog because of this site. It made me realize how useful a blog could be for my pupils. Just to show them they had free access to many English recordings and that by listening to them EVERYDAY, they would get better and better at English.
Since then, I've made many other discoveries on the web.Enjoy! And sorry when the links are no longer valid. I was actually trying to remove the Macao link in the label OC sites when I deleted the whole bunch.

What is Wealth really like?

Too big for trial... An honest politician! Kuddos to Elizabeth Warren

Senator Elizabeth Warren embarrasses Bank Regulators at first hearing :

« What I want to know is, tell me a little bit about the last few times you’ve taken the biggest institutions on Wall Street all the way to a trial. …. Anybody ? »

Well, after the answers she got, repeating the same questions twice, she concludes : « You know, I just want a note on this : There are District attorneys and U.S. attorneys who are out there everyday squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking them to trial in order to ‘make an example’ as they put it. I’m really concerned that too big to fail has become too big for trial. » 

Japan's Prime Minister on 3/11: Naoto Kan

Naoto-san, thank you so much for speaking out.
My Experiences as Prime Minister during the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster from Cinema Forum Fukushima on Vimeo.

No headlines on the ongoing nuclear disaster -update

Still no headlines around Fuku Nuke plant. Not even for the anniversary of the big Tohoku earthquake.
Holy smoke! What a shame!

No headlines on the ongoing nuclear disaster

« Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Ongoing Disaster » doesn’t make the headlines though it should.

Still, here are some of the articles I was able to find today that feebly commemorate the accident, the man-made disaster that took place after the huge Magnitude 9 earthquake and the following tsunami.

Maybe it's too early in the U.S. and real HEADLINES will appear on the sites I've visited this morning.

I thought I'd see something like:
                     
           ONGOING DISASTER IN FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI

Anyway, I've found these articles on different issues:

NBC Rare tour of Fukushima reveals colossal decontamination efforts                   http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/08/17234000-rare-tour-of-fukushima-reveals-colossal-decontamination-efforts?lite

CNN  DEBRIS IN HAWAII

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2013/03/11/pkg-lah-japan-tsunami-debris.cnn

ABC  EMPTY SCHOOL in Namie, Japan

http://abcnews.go.com/International/fukushima-school-limbo-years-nuclear-disaster/story?id=18695762

WASHINGTON POST   A personal fight against nuclear power in Japan                http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-personal-fight-against-nuclear-power-in-japan/2013/03/09/ff64d5e4-882e-11e2-999e-5f8e0410cb9d_video.html


This video is from NBC news from last year... It ends with 'Consequences go on.' Indeed...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The day begins in Japan. REMEMBER 3/11

JAPAN and FRANCE have at least one crucial thing in common. Both are nuclear nations.
Let us demand  transparent information on the ongoing nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The rest will follow.
Monday March 11, 2013 begins in Japan.  In less than a hour.
                         GANBATTE NIHON!

Impressive.

From the Guardian  Wednesday 6 March 2013 20.04 GMT

"General David Petraeus and 'dirty wars' veteran behind commando units implicated in detainee abuse."

Meet U.S.colonel James Steele, a Fascinating video

Advice from Stéphane Hessel

FOIA

"The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a U.S. law that gives U.S. citizens the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government."

Here is a fascinating read that exemplifies the interest of the FOIA so very vividly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/long-ago-wiretap-inspires-a-battle-with-the-cia-for-more-information/2013/03/02/8ebaa924-77b0-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html


FOIA and its French equivalent: CADA.fr

Rosa was the spark..

President Obama helped unveil a bronze statue of activist Rosa Parks, whose 1955 refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in segregated Alabama was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. Parks became the first African-American woman to be honored with a full length statue in National Statuary Hall.

Changing the world is not easy and it takes times and many men and women like Rosa parks to change the world for the better.
From a great PBS article (and there's a video interview too) about a book called "The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks" by Jeanne Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Extract: Moreover, the Montgomery bus boycott did not transform America overnight. It took 382 days and hundreds of volunteers to force change, and that was years before the March on Washington. Parks and her husband Raymond lost their jobs and would not regain economic security until they moved far away, to Detroit. Parks would readily admit that she was hardly the first working black woman to refuse to give up her bus seat. It is important that the story get told well -- not, as "a romantic fable."

We're all one!

« What interesting to me about that is regardless of where I am, anywhere, every audience get that. It doesn’t matter. It’s the pentatonic scale for some reason. » Bobby McFerrin

Better food = more food

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/audioslideshow/2013/feb/15/india-rice-revolution-audio-slideshow

Old truth

It's a documentary from 2011 but it will remain a topical issue for decades to come. And spent fuel for many more centuries... Extract from the video :

Sixto Rodriguez

Searching for Sugar Man  A documentary I really really want to see. What a great musician and man. 
Here is the trailer and watch him talk in the second video saying: "I don't think there's anything that can't be and is not political."

Words and meanings.

Words and meanings.
Language is really fascinating, perpetually evolving, unfolding.
We are constantly learning from it.
I've heard you, dear pupils, use a word I'd never heard before: "Beeatch".
????????????? What was that?
I looked it up and here's what I found: No less than 5 very varied and even opposed meanings.
urbandictionary.com/beeatch

Nuclear testing

Ambassador Susan E. Rice is the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of President Obama's Cabinet. She reacts to North Korea 3rd nuclear test.
http://usun.state.gov/leadership/c31461.htm

Yoko Ono-Lennon about Assange

Phobos is hollow?

European Space Agency Indicates Mars’ Moon Phobos is Hollow and Artificial

Extract from the abstract here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2009GL041829/abstract

"We conclude that the interior of Phobos likely contains large voids. When applied to various hypotheses bearing on the origin of Phobos, these results are inconsistent with the proposition that Phobos is a captured asteroid."

Read and see more here: WEIRD STUFF!!

Introverts, extroverts and ambiverts

Idle No More: a spreading Canadian grassroot movement

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/01/04/prime_minister_stephen_harper_to_meet_first_nations_leaders_jan_11.html

"We need to make this a blockbuster!"

Ongoing nuclear disaster

Children and radioactive contamination. Thyroid disease rate spiked to 43.7%, “About 1 in 2 children have nodule or cyst in Fukushima city”

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/09/thyroid-disease-rate-spiked-from-35-8-to-43-7-about-one-in-two-children-have-nodule-or-cyst-in-fukushma-city/

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch (pron.: /ˈkɒtʃ/

Ed Koch was a famous New York City mayor from 1977, 1981 and 1985... and did many other things. He died yesterday. As a Democrat,  he was in favour of pro-gays and pro-lesbian rights. It is to be noted since today, the French 'Assemblée Nationale has said yes to homosexual marriage.

In 1989, Koch declared, "it happens that I'm a heterosexual" during a radio interview about a book he co-authored with Cardinal J. O'Connor. The interviewer wanted Koch to clarify his views on homosexuality relative to O'Connor.
Koch refused tocomment on his sexual history,and he wrote:
"What do I care? I'm 73 years old. I find it fascinating that people are interested in my sex life at age 73. It's rather complimentary! But as I say in my book, my answer to questions on this subject is simply "Fuck off." There have to be some private matters left."  At the same time, he supported death penalty and was a hawkish supporter of Israel. He crossed party lines to endorse Rudi Giuliani for mayor in 1993, Michael Bloomberg in 2001, and George W. Bush in 2004. If you want to know more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/01/us/ed-koch-obit/index.html

Heatwave down under

Indeed, it's very hot in Australia: 122°F = 50°C.

Malala inspires children worldwide

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Pakistan. She is known for her education and women's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where theTaliban  had at times banned girls from attending school. On the 9th of October 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus.The young Pakistani girl struggles to stay alive after an attack by gunmen. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/10/world/asia/pakistan-malala-one-month/index.html

http://tribune.com.pk/story/499016/malala-has-inspired-children-worldwide-un-campaigners/

Video link for 1Si

Response to false allegations in "Caught in Micro Debt" -- Jobra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGBQnrC-cw

Obama II

Barack Obama has officially been sworn in for his second term as US president in a small ceremony at the White House.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21106159 

UFO Disclosure

After several National Press Club conferences on UFO disclosure, a new one is scheduled:



The first conference was on May 9th 2001. Bad timing, no effect although very compelling!.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyVe-6YdUk
The second was on November 12th 2007
The third on September 27th, 2010.
Here is a new one in April 2013.
Being stubborn might well lead to disclosure, some day in April?

A young girl in a Delhi slum.

For my 2nd form:







Watch this other more interesting video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIsoZgpuSko

Creationists vs Evolutionists.

Some people in the U.S. are passionate creationists.
Passionate enough to pay money for this kind of billboard!

Life in the Arctic sea. Ex: Marrus Orthocanna

This is not a UFO! Just an example of Life in the Arctic sea.
Have a better look and read what we know about it here: http://www.arcodiv.org/watercolumn/cnidarian/Marrus_orthocanna.html

We have a nice saying in French: La réalité dépasse la fiction.
In English, you can say "Facts are stranger than fiction." or "Truth is stranger than fiction!".
 

Howard Zinn

Reading

Global warming ok, but what now?

Transparency. Not bad for a start. Einstein said, (he died in 1955): "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." See what the rational mind did?

THINK UTOPIAN!

And a Happy New Year!