Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a success for the IMF

The idea here is not to judge what is widely discussed everywhere. An investigation is running and will probably be the reflection of what really happened.

We have no knowledge of the facts so we will only focus ourselves on what Mr Strauss-Kahn did when he was the head of the IMF.

1/ The achievements

The reform of the voting rights:

Six months were necessary for DSK to make members reach an agreement. The voting rights have been recalculated and now give more power to emerging countries. The IMF reached a consensus on the new distribution of votes that is much closer to what the world’s economy is like today.

The improvement of the finances:

The accounts of the IMF were in such a bad shape in 2007 that it was necessary for DSK to make them sell some of their gold reserves. Budget cuts were also established and a lot of executives were fired. The organization has never been as rich as it is today! For that reason, members decided in April 2009 to triple IMF’s resources and in November 2010 to double their own contribution to the capital of the organization.

Interest-free loans for poor countries:

It is under Strauss-Kahn that, for the first time in its history, the IMF decided in July 2009 to cancel the interests of the poorest countries for a period of two and a half years; period that can be extended.

The modernization of the loans’ instruments and surveillance:

Facing the world economic crisis, the IMF looked for ways to protect countries that were not necessarily in a desperate situation. He invented in 2009 a "flexible" credit line for the countries that are well managed. A report will also be issued by the IMF this summer and will study the cross-border repercussions of the different “big savings” policies that have been put in place in China, United States, Great Britain, Japan and in the Euro zone.

2/ What he was still working on

The reform of the international monetary system:

Few member states are satisfied how the system works and DSK wanted to place the IMF at the top of the upcoming reform. He resigned after having only drawing the directions to follow.

The restoration of the image of the IMF in countries facing difficulties:

Strauss-Kahn was often delighted to notice that thanks to his changes, the IMF was better considered now than before in countries where the institution had left a disastrous souvenir (South Korea, Indonesia,…). African countries, Brazil and India had always seen the IMF as being one of the tools of the developed nations against them but this image was also deeply changing. DSK wanted now to tackle the bad feeling countries where he had to intervene and impose draconian rigorous programs have towards the IMF. He will not have the time to and therefore the IMF will remain particularly unpopular in countries such as Romania, Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

The change of the institution’s world vision:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, coming from the political world, has pronounced speeches on the disparities and the damages of the financial globalization that have been widely acclaimed. However, he didn’t have the time to transform his words into actions and the IMF remains an example of the domination of the western countries over the rest of the world.

No one needs to be pro Strauss-Kahn to notice that he has done a great job for the institution and that he followed perfectly what he had in mind. He has been appointed by Western countries and he has served them well. He even managed to “clean” the IMF by improving its finances and renew its image around the world.

Everybody knew he was one of the greatest economists of these times and he proved it everyday acting as one of the most influential person in the world.

Now, countries are fighting and are proposing their own candidates. We are talking a lot about having someone from an emerging country but it seems that Europe, Japan, US and Russia are particularly reluctant.

Mrs Lagarde will probably be the candidate of the countries of the G8 and we will see if, in the case she is appointed, she brings the same spirit and energy Mr Strauss-Kahn did.

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Rob Summer's miracle

An electric stimulation on the spinal cord permits to Mr Summers to stay up on his legs and walk on a tapis roulant for a few minutes after 5 years.

This new experimental treatment has been done in USA and is going to give a real hope to any person that, like Mr Summers, have lost the capability to move their body.

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Janice Tunnicliffe, forced to be without technology

Janice Tunnicliffe is a 55 years old woman, mother of two, from England,

Everything started after she did a chemio therapy three years ago, the treatment has been successful but unfortunately it left another disease… the disease for technology (better known as electrosensitivity).

What is Electrosensitivity?

A unhealthy sensitivity (or sensitivities) to a particular source of electricity, for example mobile phones, computers, power lines or even minor electrical equipment. Symptoms are wide-ranging and can include skin problems, headaches, fatigue, fainting, light sensitivity, heart problems and much more. Electrical HyperSensitivity is a name given to those who are severely affected.

From http://www.electrosensitivity.org

Miss Tunnicliffe is forced to stay at home without any kind of technology, no phone, no internet, no common utilities, and she has special windows to prevent electromagnetic waves to come into the house,

This disease, in a way, is taking her back to 1800's and unfortunately the government is not helping her, there are few hospital that could treat her but all of them are private.

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A bit of fun: Amusing laws that have never been revoked!

We wanted to share with you a few amusing laws that still exist around the world:

In Florida, try not to have a too big argument with your loved one. It is stipulated by law that if you break more than three plates a day because of an argument; you could end up in jail!

In Kentucky, a law says, “no woman can be seen wearing a bathing suit unless she is with two police officers or equipped with a club”. An amendment has been added later saying that the law doesn’t apply to women who are less than 27kgs or more than 90kgs.

In Kansas it is against the law to ask for ask ice cream if you are eating a cherry pie!

In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.

In Minnesota, law forbids you to hang out male and female underwear on the same clothesline!

In Kentucky, if a man pushes his wife out of the bed because she has cold feet, he could end up in jail!

In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.

In the UK, a few funny laws have never been revoked:
- it is against the law to allow a boy who is less than 10years old to watch a naked dummy.
- It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
- a man who feels the need to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.
- a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants; even, in a policeman’s helmet if she requests to.
- It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.
- if you are a woman, you are not able to eat chocolate in public transports, says a law of 1800.
- In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.
- In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

In Island, it is forbidden to blow on a streetlamp.

In Hawaii, you cannot laugh loudly in public after 10pm.

What is really funny is to try to imagine what people had in min

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Gentlemen, to your coffee maker! It is for your own good!

An American scientific study has been published yesterday Tuesday. It shows that men who drink coffee in high quantity have fewer risks of developing a prostate cancer.

From what we can understand of this study, men who drink six cups of coffee a day or more see the risk of having the most lethal type of prostate cancer decrease by 60%!

The study has been published by the Harvard School of Public Health and demonstrates that it has been done seriously.

Lorelei Mucci, the Harvard associated professor, asserted that "Few studies studied in detail the association between the consumption of coffee and the risk of developing a lethal cancer of the prostate”.

She then underlined that “Our study is the most important one because it properly observed if coffee lowers the risks of prostate cancer or not".

More than 47.911 American men between 1986 and 2008 have been examined. 5.035 cases of cancer have been observed, among which 642 were lethal.

We can notice that the positive effects coffee has on this type of cancer are the same whether the coffee is decaffeinated or not. It means that the benefits are coming from its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory values.

This research is definitely a breakthrough as the cancer of the prostate is the most lethal one in the United States and one man out of six is subject to develop one throughout his life.

Maybe no one will refuse a coffee after dinner anymore. Gentlemen, to your coffee maker!

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Russia: the Kremlin explains to children why a country needs a political opposition.

The Kremlin launched yesterday on its website a section dedicated to Russian children. The goal is to make them understand why a country needs a “political opposition”. The section has been designed child-friendly and is full of coloured animations.

Doing that, Russian administration wants to show that they highly consider the opposition and that it is not as marginalized as other countries think it is.

The section is available on kids.kremlin.ru and is entitled “what is an opposition and why do we need it”. Kids can find a lot of questions-answers forms explaining the positive role of independent media or the importance of listening to political opponents even if sometimes it is “unbearable and they don’t make any sense”.

To the question “ why the political power needs to listen to its opponents”, the Kremlin answers that it is “to protect the power of making errors and to protect the population of its potential abuse”. The Kremlin concludes its report by saying that “in a democratic country, the power is organized in a way that even its opponents are useful for the State”.

The author of this project is Grigori Oster and is one of the most famous Russian write for children. He made it because “we tried to explain to children that in a normal democratic state, the opposition should not slow down the government but on the contrary be of a great help”.

This project is definitely very interesting, especially in a country like Russia that is often reduced to a non-democratic entity by Europe and the US.

In one year, new presidential elections will take place in Russia and for the moment the discussions are focused on who will run for the ruling party. This is for sure a very good communicational tool and maybe a proof that the situation in Russia is not as bad as we imagine it over here.

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Bill Gates wants to “save 10 million lives before 2020”

This Tuesday, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the biggest living philanthropists asked the world leaders to make vaccines’ research a priority in order to “ save 10 million lives" before 2020.

He made this announcement during the 64th Health World Assembly, which gathers in Geneva about sixty Ministers and 1.800 delegates representing 193 members of the WHO.

Bill Gates, in his speech, was speaking to donor countries and told them to invest more and more in vaccines and immunizations "even if you have to face budgetary crisis"..

Gates stated that thanks to these new investments " Effective systems of immunization will put an end to polio and will allow all children to enjoy five or six new vaccines".

The President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the promise that “We can save four million lives before 2015, and 10 million lives before 2020".

Knowing that a leadership is "essential" to realize his vision, Bill Gates announced that from 2012, his foundation would offer a prize to the person or the organization that would make an innovative and exclusive contribution to the next decade that he named the “decade of vaccines”.

He ended his speech by saying that "The best systems of immunization work when the leaders feel responsible for results".

Calling for world leaders to contribute more and try to make them invest more in research is a very good initiative indeed. But Bill Gates, as being one of the most influential people in the world, probably knows better than no one how things work and move.
He personally benefited from a system that puts profits and assets before anything else. The problem here is not to ask governments to do more efforts especially in a time of important economic recession.

Populations in developed countries are obviously touched by the awful situation in Africa and other parts of the world but are far more concerned by their own problems now.

Instead of calling for governments again and again, Bill Gates and his wealthy contributors should be better try to talk to the big organizations that are actually making profits on this situation.

Big pharmaceutical companies owned by banks prefer to waste vaccines and medicines instead of selling them at a lower price to countries that need them more than anything else.

This is the business they are into and the economical logic they are following is clear and indisputable. Good luck to everyone trying to make them understand that their business model should be changed in order to become philanthropic organizations…

Maybe this is on what governments could act by changing some laws and policies…

But who will pay for the more and more expensive political campaigns afterwards?

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Alaina Giordano got a premature death sentence

Mrs Alaina Giordano is a strong woman, her life is tough and she is fighting to have what she deserves.

The next fight for Alaina will be to have the possibility to take her sons with her even if she is struggling with her medication to fight cancer.

The explanation of the decision was: “children deserve a normal childhood and it’s better for them to stay with the wealthiest parent”.

Are we saying that being ill is not normal? Do we want to raise our children under a cup of glass or do we want them to have an overview of what the life could, can and will be?

The childhood is the most important period of everyone's life and all of us should have the opportunity to spend our time with our parents in equal proportion to be well educated on what life can present us and to be loved.

Do you think that a mother that unfortunately has got a cancer cannot have the possibility to share her love?

The childhood is an important period not only for babies but also for the parents especially for mothers; they can enjoy their time with them and give their footprint to the education of their “little angels”.

Unfortunately the cancer will take Mrs Alaina with him but Alina has got a premature death sentence once the judge decide to take off her child.

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Facebook is now inspiring parents… sad or funny?

Looking for an original first name for their daughter, an Israeli couple was inspired by Facebook and named their baby " Like ", reported the daily paper Maariv today.

The parents chose this first name according to the icon " Like " from the popular social network, which the Internet users use to mean that they appreciate the information posted by someone else.

" We named our daughter Like because it is modern and innovative ", declared in the Israeli newspaper the father of the baby, Lior Adler. "I verified that the first name existed nowhere else in the country because it was the priority for me ", he explains. " In our opinion, it is the modern equivalent of the first name Ahava (love in Hebrew) ".

As you can imagine, the birth was announced on Facebook and the parents were delighted to notice that the news received 40 Likes.

It is not the first time they give an unusual first name to one of their children. Fascinated by cooking, they wanted to share their taste and called their first two daughters "Pie" and "Vash" (honey in Hebrew).

Let’s hope for the girls that people won’t be too harsh to them. Parents might have forgotten that kids are pretty mean in school..

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Breaking news: 20 years old Australian dies tragically while “planking”.

Following our first article on the new trend called “planking”, our team wanted to share with you this tragic news.

Acton Beale, 20 years old Australian living in Brisbane, died when he fell from a seventh-floor balcony while having his picture taken.

We said before that the police was getting very concerned with people planking in Australia and what happened yesterday sadly proves them right.

Ross Barnett, Queensland state police deputy commissioner, told reporters that Beale fell from a balcony railing while a friend was taking his picture on Sunday morning in Brisbane. The railing is believed to have been two inches wide.

Because of this, Julia Gallard, Australian prime minister has called today for an end to the Internet phenomenon and described Acton Beale’s as “being really tragic”. She urged the so-called plankers to “consider the safety implications of their pastime”.

We hope that this death will force people to think a bit more but human nature is so particular that it will probably increase the interest people have for this new trend.

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ICC delivers an arrest warrant against Gaddafi

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced today that he has asked for international arrest warrants against Libyan leader Mouammar Gaddafi, his elder son Seif Al-Islam and the leader of the intelligence service Abdallah Al-Senoussi for crime against humanity.

"On the basis of the proofs we have collected so far, the office of the prosecutor has asked the preliminary chamber to deliver international arrest warrants against Mouammar Gaddafi, Seif Al-Islam and Abdallah Al-Senoussi ", declared Luis Moreno-Ocampo, during a press conference in The Hague, city where the ICC sits.

Now, the judges of the ICC have different choices. They can either decide to accept the request of the prosecutor, to reject it or to ask the prosecutor’s office for additional information.

The United Nations Security Council referred the matter to Luis Moreno-Ocampo on February the 26th. He decided to file a case for crime against humanity and open an investigation on March the 3rd. Eight persons were aimed by the investigation, among whom Colonel Mouammar Gaddafi and three of his sons.

Since the beginning of the revolt in Libya, the spiral of violence caused thousands of deaths according to the prosecutor of the ICC, and urged 750.000 persons to run away.

International pressure is getting stronger and an end has to be reached, as the population is the one caught in the middle of a political chess-game designed by the international coalition.

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The Cyberspace, a vital concern

The American presidency office has announced yesterday that the White House is ready to reveal this week its propositions regarding the international cooperation in the cyberspace.

The document, which will be revealed today, is entitled " US International Strategy for Cyberspace" and has been long-waited by the International Community.

It is the "first political document of this kind showing our global vision on the future of the international cooperation concerning the cyberspace", has explained the White House in a statement.

The idea of the document is to show how America wants to emphasize several "partnerships with other countries and other people to insure prosperity, security and the openness the United States are looking for in a more and more interconnected world".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made the freedom on the Internet one of her priorities, will talk about this this week. Mrs Clinton's points will discuss the potential role of the cyberspace into defending American interests.

The speech will also talk about the importance of having an international cooperation that will put the cyberspace at the centre of attentions in foreign policy discussions.

Obama’s administration said that the President will attend the event with his special adviser for the antiterrorism, Mr John Brennan. The Minister of Justice Eric Holder and the Minister of Internal Security, Mrs Janet Napolitano will also be attending.

This announcement intervened just after the presentation by the White House of the main parts of a project that aims to strengthen the power the administration and the private sector have against cyber attacks. The White House plans to ask the main actors of the energy, transport and financial sectors to work out how to improve the security on their networks.

The US seem to be determined to move fast. Once again Europe and the others have to decide if they just want to follow or if they want to be a proposal force..

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Lampedusa, another European dissension?

The Italian Police has announced a few hours ago that “Eight boats coming from North Africa and transporting approximately 1.300 migrants reached the Italian island of Lampedusa”, which is located between Tunisia and Sicily.

This new arrival brings up the total of migrants currently living on the island to the number of 1.800. Since the beginning of the year more than 35.000 Africans, (24.000 from Tunisia), reached the Italian coast. Several thousands of them were already transferred to “reception” centres of the peninsula.

" Europe does not keep its promises", declared yesterday evening the Italian Minister of the Interior, Roberto Maroni. The member of the Ligua Norte reminded that Rome had asked for help to its European partners.

We have witnessed lately the willingness by several European countries to find solutions in order to face this influx of immigrants that came after the Tunisian revolution and the civil war in Libya.

Roberto Maroni added that "There is a war in Libya and, as long as this war is not finished we shall have refugees who will try to come live here”.

He however considered that the agreements concluded with Tunisia a couple of weeks ago to stop this influx were already helping a lot.

Europe is facing a difficult situation because we have to choose to understand or not the need for other people to come to our countries. People are risking their lives trying to reach us and are often mislead by what is waiting for them here.

Should we close our borders? Should we carry on to accept everyone? This is one of the most important debates that our governments have to lead. Sensibilities are very different among the population and tensions are noticeable.

With the elections coming in a lot of European countries, are the governments ready to have this debate? This is the question. What is sure is that the population is waiting for them to act…in a way or another..

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Feel like playing? Be one of the Navy Seals… a bit too soon?

Having thrown Osama Bin Laden’s body in the sea like a vulgar pair of socks wasn’t apparently enough.

This Saturday, Kuma Games has decided to launch a game where the player can be of one of the Navy Seals during the attack of the military complex in Abbottabad. Kuma Games is offering its players the opportunity to repeat the assault made by the Navy Seals on a specially designed “map”.

The only difference with what happened last week is that Osama Bin Laden’s position changes at the beginning of every new game, allowing people to play it as much as they want.

The development and the implementation of the game have been done following the different elements that have been published in the media.

It is not Kuma Games’ first tendentious production. They have built their image on editing special games and maps retracing real life military operations.

Players have already had the possibility to play different missions like the assault against Saddam Hussein, military drones’ attack in Afghanistan or several battles in Iraq.

If you feel like watching how it looks like, check this video:



Everyone is entitled to its own opinion of course but releasing such a game a week after seems a bit tendentious especially if we look at the way the whole situation has been dealt with by American officials.

For sure an amazing communication boost for the editor… and probably a lot of players in the couple of days along with a torrent of misplaced hatred…

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iPhone 5! are they giving us technology in pills?

In a few months Apple will launch the new iPhone 5. Already a lot of rumours are going on the web, but how is it going to be?

This fantastic product is being developed really quickly and in a way we can say that its development is beating the normal “consumerist timing”.

Indeed, the technology is getting easier and faster almost everyday; and people are now submerged by new information, product and trends.

The problem comes out if you want to keep yourself updated on every single new development. Today, it is getting almost impossible to do so.

In two years, already three different types of iPhone, two different types of iPad have been released plus plenty of updates. For a normal middle-class consumer, it is getting very hard to follow buying the latest product almost every three months.

One day, Bill Gates said that if Microsoft was developing cars we would nowadays drive for a 100 km with a litre of petrol and we could buy a car for 10$.

If we accept this assumption we should get an iPhone for one penny or maximum 2. We would have then the possibility to have the latest product every time we would like to!

Going back to the iPhone, hopefully it will be thinner, lighter and with a better camera but this is the least Apple could do..

What do we really want to see included in the iPhone 5? Do we really need a new product or do we just need another update?
By buying it, are we satisfying a real need or are we feeding our “thirst to appear”?




Your call.. THE iPHONE5 OR YOUR OLD ONE WITH UPDATES?

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Do you want to lose weight? “Big Brother nutritionist!”

Yes, if you want to loose weight hopefully in a few month you will be helped by the new version of the Big Brother… the Nutritionist one!

This is the ambitious project supported by the American first lady, Michelle Obama.

This project cost $2 million and it consist on installing cameras in the refectory of 5 primary schools in Texas,

These cameras will take pictures of the trays of all the students when they take food and after the meal when they leave the trays in the apposite space.

This new system will match the taken information and thanks to the bar code of the packages and an accurate analysis of the food left in the trays of each student will calculate the numbers of calories that any student has got.

Then this new software will give advices according with all the analyzed info and the type of student to improve his/her specific diet and let them have a better alimentation.

This program has been widely accepted by the 90% of the parents of the students attending these 5 specific “test” schools in Texas.

All the schools in Texas will use this system if proven to be successful.

Surkld’s point of view:  unfortunately in US the obesity is a big problem, it cost million every year and obese have a really bad life style.

The health care is struggling with the debt and only rich people can afford specific medical expenses.

The idea of the “big brother in the refectory” is not bad.  Ok for sure someone will complain for privacy, etc..  

But anything done to prevent a disease as to be analyzed carefully hoping that it will finally works.

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Breaking News: Gaddafi is now a “legitimate target”

Libyan leader, Mouammar Gaddafi, is now a legitimate target for the NATO that is leading airstrikes in the country.

Moustapha Abdeljalil, The President of the Libyan National Council of Transition, has made this announcement a few hours ago in London.

Mr Abdeljalil, who represents Libyan opposition, has declared during a press conference, “As Gaddafi is the commander in chief of armed forces, he is the one who encourages everybody to fight. It is therefore logic to consider him a legitimate target of the NATO”.

The Atlantic Alliance has been present in Libya since end of March in order to, according to the officials; dismantle the military devices used against the civilians by Colonel Gaddafi.

The Alliance has not directly aimed Gaddafi for the moment but has only warned him according to the official reports.

But this morning, the vast residential complex owned by Gaddafi has been hit by airstrikes, making 6 deaths declared a Libyan official earlier on.

As we can see, the situation in Libya is still very hard to read and nobody really knows what will happen in the next couple of weeks.

More information to follow on our blog….

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“Planking", the new trend on social networks!!

A new trend has appeared on social networks lately and Surkld wanted to share this story with you as we had a good laugh hearing it.

This new wave, called “planking” consists of lying down on the stomach in unusual and sometime dangerous places. Someone has then to take a picture and post it online on social networks’ accounts.

Watch this great compilation:



From our point of view, it sounds quite fun and seems to be harmless but apparently not to everyone.

Michael Brannon, 20 years old Australian, got arrested by the police while he was performing his “planking” on one police car.

Yesterday, the police of the State of Queens land in Australia arrested him and decided to pursue him for “being on police equipment without any prior authorization”.

Michael Brannon, on his side, wrote on Facebook “quite frankly, I think it is absolutely ridiculous for them to arrest me. We were just having harmless fun and they waste both my time and theirs instead of running after criminals”.

In Australia, “planking” Facebook page counts around 10,000 fans and displays hundreds of pictures of people lying down on rails, escalators, fire hydrants and other unusual places.

This is why Australian police decided to monitor closely planking activities.

Matthew Russell, from the police of Gladstone, declared that” planking can be dangerous and its followers take the risk of exposing themselves to further legal proceedings”. He explains it by the fact that “people are putting themselves in danger by always trying to do more than their neighbour”.

Whether you find it stupid or not, we have to admit that some people really have a limitless imagination.

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Glamour is back to Cannes for 11 days!!

Bernardo Bertolucci, first " Palm d’Honneur" of the Cannes film festival, opened yesterday evening the 64th edition of the most glamorous film festival in the world. This legend of the industry launched it during the traditional opening ceremony, just before the projection of Woody Allen's latest movie " Midnight in Paris ".

" I waited a little but I will finally have my Palme d’Or ", declared the 70 years old Italian film director. Bertolucci, in a wheelchair on the stage of the Palais des festivals, appeared to be particularly moved.

He received his Palme d’Or from the hands of the president of the festival, Gilles Jacob. This distinction was handed for the first time and intended to reward a director deprived until then of the Palme d’Or.

Welcomed by a powerful " standing ovation”, Bertolucci dedicated this distinction to " all the Italians who still have forces to fight, to criticize and to get indignant".

A bit before, French actress Mélanie Laurent, in a beautiful black dress made of tulle, had launched the festivities by celebrating " these eleven days which are worth one hundred".

Legend actor Robert de Niro, who is this year’s President of the Jury, was also greeted by a long standing ovation.

He was anxious to express himself in French: "Thank you for inviting me here, for the 75th… sorry 64th Cannes film festival ". " I hope that I will make a good job and thank you again”, De Niro said while the audience was cheering.

Frédéric Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture has been seen in the audience next to legend actress Claudia Cardinale. The Minister was also with a delegation of Tunisian film directors, as well as Antonio Banderas, Woody Allen and the team of " Midnight in Paris ", but also Faye Dunaway, Emir Kusturica, Gong Li, Michel Piccoli, and Salma Hayek.

Glamour and fame are back to Cannes for the next eleven days and Surkld will obviously keep you posted!

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From Movie to Reality…They are watching you!

If you have ever seen the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise or read 1984 by George Orwell this will sound familiar.

A big step has been made by police forces in the UK today.

The Metropolitan Police has announced that they have bought a new software called GEOTIME which will allow them to map suspects’ digital movements!

This software, already used by US Military, is a security programme that shows an individual’s movements and communications with other people.

All information gathered from social networking sites, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs can be put together using GEOTIME and show the results on a three-dimensional graphic!

Obviously a few concerns have been rising already and lawyers are worried that this software could be used to monitor innocent parties also, and not only suspects or criminals.

Campaigners for Privacy, freedom of speech, assembly and movement, have called the Metropolitan Police to have more information on how this software will be used by them.

The Met said that they are not using it yet as it is still in the testing period. The Ministry of Defense is also investigating on the software.

For the moment GEOTIME is only assessed as part of research for the Met and the Ministry of Defense but we can bet that it will be used very soon and that we will soon have our own three-dimensional graphic in a few official offices…

We will of course keep you updated on the evolution of the investigations but watch out for the big eye…

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