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Here's some data related to your claim. http://piketty.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/01/09/of-productivity-in-france-and-in-germany/. Note that the blog post is January 2017 for data ending in 2015, and that the publication is French.

In summary: The US, France, and Germany are close to equally productive (money per hour), but Germany and especially the US make more (dollars per person) because they work more hours.

This whole diversity/gender debate thing is getting and more into an absurd territory of epic proportions. It's quite some time ago that I've been able to take larger parts of mainstream contributions to this debate seriously.

To me a very welcome addition of reason and level-headedness was the open letter of ~100 women of influence and fame in France speaking out against #MeToo, it's totalitarianism and a false pretense of feminism published two days ago in Le Monde (basically the French nyt) that went largely unnoticed/uncovered by mainstream media. These ladies deserve a medal or something and they deserve to be heard, despite mainstream media trying to ignore them.

Can you back that claim? Because on the other side of the spectrum, Mélenchon has also been criticised for openly praising the achievements of the Dassault companies, for instance, such as their CAD software CATIA (source: http://gauche.blog.lemonde.fr/...)

Of the 3 "western democracies" you mentioned. None of them have a similar election system to the U.S., and Great Britain doesn't even have primaries. And from what I can tell France doesn't either. So of your examples 2/3 don't publicly fund primary elections, because they don't even have primary elections.

Your ignorance is showing...
http://www.independent.co.uk/v...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://ecpr.eu/Events/PaperDe...
http://www.lemonde.fr/politiqu...
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ésidentielle_socialiste_de_2017

OK so now that it has been clearly established that you say things easily exposed as ignorant but are still sufficiently enamoured of your opinions to continue attempting to present them as better than the status quo, it's time to sign off. You're just a fringie attempting to warp the system too your benefit.

Given the French and German success with their own advance maths, domestic network security and crypto would it not be better to consult nations with a global track record in network access that remains hidden?
NSA surveillance: Merkel's phone may have been monitored 'for over 10 years' (Sunday 27 October 2013)
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
If the best in Germany cant even keep one phone safe, the only phone they really had to keep safe, something is very lacking.
France had its entire diplomatic communications network full reconstructed by the US and UK into the 1950's after failing to protect its FMT diplomatic code and later code use.
France in the NSA's crosshair : phone networks under surveillance (21.10.2013)
http://www.lemonde.fr/technolo...
e.g. under DRTBOX and WHITEBOX

There was a nice comic about pre-security last summer after the Thalys train shooting. (In French, but self-explanatory.)

http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2016/03/04/projet-de-reforme-penale-le-point-sur-les-mesures-votees-en-premiere-lecture-par-les-deputes_4876328_1653578.html

"Contre l’avis du gouvernement, les députés ont adopté un amendement Les Républicains (LR) qui vise à pénaliser les constructeurs de smartphones qui refuseraient de coopérer avec la justice dans des enquêtes terroristes".

It was adopted by the Parliament. Of course, this may still change later in the legislative process.

There's this comic in French. References are also in French, from a cycle of conferences about the climate before COP21.

Basically, bird communities are moving North with the climate warming, about 100km in 20years, which means they're not moving as fast as the climate is warming (they should have moved 250km North). But the whole food chain should move North and/or adapt to the temperature. Plants and invertebrate adapt immediately (basically, a target temperature is the trigger for spring), but laying eggs happens 40 days before hatching, so they have to make a bet. If eggs hatch at the wrong time, chicks are going to starve (too early because the food is not here yet, and too late is not explained, but from the study it's not happening). Temperature fluctuations also aren't helping.

I know, I reside in France. Also, the "state of emergency" is planned to become permanent and even be made part of the constitution. Insanity. Source: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/...

Actually, replacing coal is happening already.

No. What are your sources? Here are mine, from BP 2015 :
http://lecentiemesinge.blog.le...

Why would you assume that they're succumbing to US Pressure?

This is fucking France, which spent most of the Cold War technically out of NATO, and didn't come back until it was safe in '09. They actively supported Rwanda's genocidal government because they thought the English-speaking rebels were lying about the genocide, to the point of sending troops to try to protect the fleeing government troops. Their response to PRISM was to condemn it as 'espionage' the very fucking day their biggest paper announced they'd been doing the same damn thing to their citizens for years.

They support Assange and Snowden in public, solely because idiots like you will mistakenly assume this means they actually support Assange and Snowden. In private they will do their best to get those guys fucked over, because if those guys are fucked over they can't do interesting things like tell Le Monde about the DGSE. Which is why, despite their PR as privacy advocates, neither guy has actually asked for Asylum. It's not a surprise they were one of the countries that got Morales' plane stopped, and that of the four involved they were the only one that had clout with the other three (Portugal, Spain and Italy were all in the midst of EU-recovery programs at the time, and guess whose the most important economy in the Euro not named Germany?).

So they have a long history of fucking privacy activists over, and then letting the US take the blame.

All those billions of dollars are from only 10k accounts so the % of shady customers probably is reaching 100.

The leak actually concerns 106k accounts from 203 countries and totalling 180 billion euros (strangely the BBC claims only $118bn), with half of them actively trying to evade taxes (accounts in tax havens) and the rest at least hiding money. That said not all of them are really shady: there are really a number of accounts that the current holders inherited and never got the courage to declare to their country's revenue service. But if you know what percentage of the accounts that is you're better informed than me.

Factually incorrect. Treaty was changed. The only ones I ever heard claiming otherwise are the rabid anti-EU parties well known to simply ignore facts when they don't suit their populist needs.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who was the lead writer of the EU constitutional treaty, told us Lisbon treaty was equivalent. You can trust him, he is not an anti-EU populist.

Here's another.

http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/...

And yet Medecins sans Frontiere who work in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria are not infected with the Virus

Well, no.

So far it appears that 16 MSF workers have been contaminated, of whom 9 have died.

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2014/10/09/les-combattants-de-msf-sur-le-front-ebola_4502950_3244.html

Not even so...

It's just a blog post written by a lady who doesn't understand a thing about how things work in France (I've read the original post from this person).

Here is a link from "le Monde", another French newspaper, debunking this crazy idea: http://www.lemonde.fr/les-deco...

I'm simply amazed by the amount of people actually "believing" or giving credit to this. Just one question though: HOW ON EARTH would they actually enforce this so-called "law"?
It would seem that what is said of the "majority" of US citizens is actually true... How sad to have have such a shining proof.

There is no major news agency in Europe reporting about this outside of Turkey.

Apparently reading newspapers is becoming a lost art.
France
Germany
Belgium
The Netherlands
Great Britain

I think many people are missing the point.

People are not pissed because the NSA was spying on France.

People are pissed because the NSA was spying on the French, i.e. on massive numbers of ordinary citizens -

the "DRTBOX" program intercepted 62.5 million telephone calls in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2013/10/21/comment-la-nsa-espionne-la-france_3499758_651865.html

(And, hey, calling it "Dirtbox", WTF guys!)

Here's their own English Translation, just the graphics are only in the french version.

http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/07/04/revelations-on-the-french-big-brother_3442665_3224.html

France too. It was reported in Le Monde this morning but hasn't hit the international press yet in full force. Here is an English article from a local French paper. Apparently the whole assembly (congress) knew about it and was on board.

With this kind of stuff going on?

The least I can say is that this paper is not neutral. Chavez is called "populist and authoritarian" by the journalist, and nothing is said why Lopez fraud charges could be irelevant

Being banned from election because of fraud is not extraordinary. A french court just decided that for former Paris mayor Jean Tiberi.

The previous government about a year and a half ago published a memo pretty much saying that foreign students should be given a hard time if they express interest in staying to work after their studies.

This was published, completely unwarranted by the government. Granted Gueant isn't known for his openness, but still, literally no-one was asking for this.

French unis and grandes écoles want foreign students, french companies are more than willing to hire foreign students (when they're highly skilled and seem to be willing to work hard). Like I said, no one asked for this.

Le Monde had an in depth article on Bitcoin just a few days ago. I think if you really researched it you'd find the same to be true for most countries. Bitcoin has entered public consciousness.

http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2012/11/29/payer-et-vendre-sans-les-banques_1798066_1650684.html

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/dollar-less-iranians-discover-virtual-currency
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628925.200-virtual-economy-looms-as-digital-cash-grows-up.html?full=true
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20510447
http://www.ftd.de/finanzen/maerkte/:kunstwaehrung-das-bitcoin-virus/70118697.html

150e doesn't cover the expenses generated by the proceedings though.

Yep, only 5 orders of magnitude are missing.
HADOPI cost 12M€ last year.

Source : http://vidberg.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/09/13/hadopi-la-premiere-condamnation/

Judge : You'll be punished for your crimes. You'll get a 150€ fine.
Defendant : 150 only? But I downloaded way more than that!
Judge : You don't get fined for downloading, but for being stupid enough to get caught. 150€it is! And stop downloading, I mean, stop getting caught!

Here's a French article with the same video, but subtitled in English : http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2012/06/22/l-ordinateur-en-lego-inspire-par-alan-turing_1723058_1650684.html

Sarkozy is just pandering to the extreme right in an election year.

This law would not be applicable given the French constitution, and in fact would also violate EU law. Any law which limits free expression must have a very specific target, and simply saying "terrorism" or "hate speech" is way too vast.

Child pornography is illegal because it can be easily and precisely defined, but what would define terrorist or hateful speech ? And what is the difference between genuine political speech and hate speech ? It's all very subjective. It would also lead to some interesting consequences, like that Mein Kampf would be legal to sell in print but not viewable on the Internet.

Article (in French)

...and they keep coming in...
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,813224,00.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2012/02/03/anonymous-met-en-ligne-une-conversation-du-fbi_1638768_651865.html
Le Monde has real trouble to hide the giggles :P

I agree, I can't find any actual reference to that either. What I did find is the following:

Celui-ci note que les militants ont été repérés lorsqu'ils ont franchi le premier grillage, équipé de caméras de sécurités. Les gendarmes du peloton spécial de protection de la gendarmerie (PSPG), affecté à la surveillance du site, auraient alors identifié les intrus comme d'inoffensifs militants et décidé de les interpeller sans usage excessif de la force, ni précipitation.

So basically, they were identified as soon as they were over first, security camera equipped fence. The security personnel in charge then figured out that they were harmless militants and decided to arrest them without haste or excessive force. Which sounds like a reasonable reaction to me, but nothing says that the activits called ahead..

Actually this anouncement was preceded by one strenghtening the existing anti-piracy laws (HADOPI). Currently, sites that stream movies or music without a license are of course illegal, but it is not illegal for a user to access these sites. The new law proposes the prosecution of internet users who visit such sites, and/or setting up a national blocking mechanism.

Article in French

The problem is that these types of issues are very rarely discussed in France. Forget the national TV stations for obvious reasons, but even anti-Sarkozy or left leaning sites and newspapers rarely cover such topics prominently.

Funnily, that's more or less what I experienced a few days ago reading a French newspaper which is considered as one of the most serious sources in France.

He's quoted as an "'intellectual property' specialist" in http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2011/08/02/les-constructeurs-de-terminaux-android-sont-en-premiere-ligne-de-la-guerre-des-brevets_1555488_651865.html

Talk about a lobbying frenzy...

I'm sure the president has the ability to veto this though. Surely he will?

"Because Obama was in France for meetings of the Group of Eight nations, he directed that an autopen machine, which holds a pen and replicates his signature, be used to sign the bill, the White House said."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/26/bloomberg1376-LLTGQ90YHQ0X01-03RT0Q7C05LIS1S0GM1FIG4797.DTL

Also on another article, in French It is said that the white house declared this law as "crucial for the security of USA). It is not the first time that Obama do not care about it but it is the first time I see him endorse it fully. That is now official : even a progressive democrat in power is a threat to privacy. What are we suposed to do now ?

This happened recently for a French TV : the guy who coded the video player called one of his function, "visible" to the client (at least, for true geeks), is called "piegeacouillons()", which means "dummytrap()".
Actually it's activated when the user want to see the advertisement...
article (in french), or google translation

The (French) version I read there : http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2010/09/01/prise-d-otage-au-siege-americain-de-discovery-channel_1405582_3222.html says he is a disgruntled employee...

France reprocesses some, probably around 15%, of its nuclear waste. Most of it is just stockpiled here or was sent to Russia to be stockpiled there (Article in French). The 96% figure pushed by the French industry is the amount that could possibly be reused in hypothetical 4th generation burner reactors, supposed to be there around 2040, just like when fusion will be there too. :-(

Please stop that bullcrap about reprocessing being the panacea for nuclear waste and French success with it. Just today Le Monde published an article (sorry, French) showing that France is processing not more than 20% of its waste, probably less. The rest was simply sent to Russia to be piled up there, up to a recent scandal. The hundreds of tons of nuclear waste produced yearly are currently only sitting there, waiting for someone to take care of the problem. Nuclear industry claims that it will eventually be used in hypothetical 4th generation reactors, which are exactly as likely to become a reality as economically viable fusion reactors are.

Nuclear waste is a real issue, the fact that some pro-nuclear nerds feel good laughing away any concern about it as illiterate idiots' fears doesn't make it less so. Parrotting French industry's lies about them having found or being close to find a magical solution about it doesn't make them more of a reality either.

• French nuclear industry claims 96% of waste can be reprocessed;
• Currently reprocessing allows to conserve 12% of consumed U, expected to raise to 17%;
• France has to dispose each year of 220,000 tons of depleted U, 120 tons of used fuel and 330 tons of reprocessed but unused fuel;
• Nuclear industry claims this material will eventually be useable in 4th generation breeder reactors (which, like fusion reactors, are the technology of the future - currently 2040, out of their ass - and always will be).

You're not concerned.
Contrary to what the summary said, it's not a tax for artist.

The problem is twofold :
- Google France declares to the french IRS 40 000 000 of revenues, while 800 000 000 coming from french companies are declared in Ireland to evade french taxes. Basically, if french money is good enough for Google to open some offices in France, they should pay taxes.
- Content providers (the like of Slashdot lemonde.fr whatever) have seen their ad revenue decrease. There is doubts on whether it comes from Google abusing it's more thant 65% market share on internet ad network.

Some info in french :
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/01/08/nicolas-sarkozy-souhaite-que-google-paye-plus-d-impots-en-france_1289051_651865.html#ens_id=1280818
(Though, they're wrong on the practice being legal, it's just really hard to prove and estimate for the state)

I just looked at the UK Amazon site.

They list it at £199. According to Google, this is $324.569 and some zeroes. A more realistic comparison is $400 if the exchange rate was actually set at the true relative value of £ and $.

I just checked this in France and the Amazon home page lists the kindle as being available on "amazon.com". So apparently it's priced at $259 + tax which should add up to $309.80 (+ shipping). So until they sell it on their local pages with the "usual" exchange rate ($1 for a bit more than a euro), I suppose it's some sortof a good deal for people who want one.

There doesn't seem to be much localised content (although Le Monde seems to be available) which may or may not be a problem for the early adopters here (if there are any).

This new legislation may also be declared unconstitutional.

This time they try with a special court consisting of one judge to decide cases. The judge may not hear the parties involved, but is only allowed to give his decision solely based on a report from the new state antipiracy office. He is supposed to work expediently and not use more than 45 minutes per case.

Also language has been changed in the new law text possibly making it legal to eavesdrop private communications like email for antipiracy purposes.

The law text passed the senate wednesday, and is expected to pass the national assembly soon.

Links in french: Numerama Le Monde

There was a great line from one of the commenters cited in an article in Le Monde. Since the Conseil Constitutionnel invalidated the penalties envisaged in the law, but said it was OK to send warnings to illegal downloaders, "the only thing that's left is a giant spam machine for the entertainment industry, paid for by taxpayers."

"Il ne reste qu'une immense machine à spams pour les industries du divertissement et payée par le contribuable"

In Soviet France also... (link in French, about smart ads in subways...)

http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/01/28/des-elus-reclament-le-retrait-des-ecrans-de-pub-animes-dans-le-metro_1147803_3224.html#ens_id=1147813

...whether or not e-bay should be considered a "courtier" (broker), with the legal obligations attached to it, among which the verification of the legality of the goods.

E-bay position is that they are just a website which helps people connecting together with no strings attached, the court position is that e-bay should be considered a courtier (a legal entity running auctions) with the rights and obligations attached.

Whether this is a good decision or not is an other issue, but at least, in some french articles, such as http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2008/07/01/ebay-est-condamne-par-le-tribunal-de-commerce-de-paris-a-verser-38-millions-d-euros-a-lvmh_1064965_3234.html, this is much clearer.

That should clarify it for some of the trolls...

Thought Experiments at http://www.bryanappleyard.com/ - stuff that makes you think by the writer and journalist Bryan Appleyard. Feed = http://www.bryanappleyard.com/atom.xml
Nigeness - http://nigeness.blogspot.com/ - acute observation and a connoisseur of many forms of art, a welcome port in the verbiage-strewn seas of the net. Feed = http://nigeness.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
The Lumber Rood at http://elberry.wordpress.com/ - why moan about the end of the world and the collapse of civilization when you can enjoy them instead? This blog will show you how. Feed = http://elberry.wordpress.com/feed/
Oie de Chine at http://chine.blog.lemonde.fr/ - a photo-blog of daily life in China from a hugely talented French photographer. Feed = http://chine.blog.lemonde.fr/feed/

Thought Experiments at http://www.bryanappleyard.com/ - stuff that makes you think by the writer and journalist Bryan Appleyard. Feed = http://www.bryanappleyard.com/atom.xml
Nigeness - http://nigeness.blogspot.com/ - acute observation and a connoisseur of many forms of art, a welcome port in the verbiage-strewn seas of the net. Feed = http://nigeness.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
The Lumber Rood at http://elberry.wordpress.com/ - why moan about the end of the world and the collapse of civilization when you can enjoy them instead? This blog will show you how. Feed = http://elberry.wordpress.com/feed/
Oie de Chine at http://chine.blog.lemonde.fr/ - a photo-blog of daily life in China from a hugely talented French photographer. Feed = http://chine.blog.lemonde.fr/feed/

And ... right on cue , a little background here. Last time I checked, 1.6 million is not a majority, but they're holding the the rest of the country to ransom (again).

For those who don't speak French, basically the Rail Unions are on strike for better pensions. All well and good, except for ther fact that it's all the other workers (especially in the private sector, many of whom have considerably worse pension arrangements) who'll foot the bill.

So much for Nazlfrag's "democratic republic in action". He probably couldn't even point to France on a map.

And ... right on cue , a little background here. Last time I checked, 1.6 million is not a majority, but they're holding the the rest of the country to ransom (again).

For those who don't speak French, basically the Rail Unions are on strike for better pensions. All well and good, except for ther fact that it's all the other workers (especially in the private sector, many of whom have considerably worse pension arrangements) who'll foot the bill.

So much for Nazlfrag's "democratic republic in action". He probably couldn't even point to France on a map.

Actually Deezer is still negociating with major and indie record companies, according to an article from mainstream newspaper Le Monde (in french). The deal with SACEM was just the beginning of a long process, IMO. In addition, a flaw in the streaming system has been discovered, allowing users to directly download mp3 from the site, according to the same article. Bet this is not going to help the negociations.

SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musiques) have been working with the RIAA to shut down allofmp3.com in Russia. SACEM's boss claimed that the Russian's only had rights to exploit the RAO catalogue on Russian territory. Presumably SACEM only has rights to exploit their member's catalogue and then probably only on French soil. According to another article the agreement will be signed in the next few days. As France is a part of the WTO etc. I assume the RIAA will take Deezer/SACEM to court if the agreement exceeds their rights.

SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musiques) have been working with the RIAA to shut down allofmp3.com in Russia. SACEM's boss claimed that the Russian's only had rights to exploit the RAO catalogue on Russian territory. Presumably SACEM only has rights to exploit their member's catalogue and then probably only on French soil. According to another article the agreement will be signed in the next few days. As France is a part of the WTO etc. I assume the RIAA will take Deezer/SACEM to court if the agreement exceeds their rights.

Some violence began just after election: (Yahoo's Article). (All the links will target French content, use translators, or learn french)
Here are the links to see major points of his program :
First, his ideas on genetics : Suicide, pedophilia and homosexuality are genetic, if one of your parent is pedophile, you are a criminal too.
Sources :
http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/politiques/2467 52.FR.php/ ,
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,3 6-892092,0.html?xtor=RSS-3208/,
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/09042007/202/genes-les-pr opos-de-sarkozy-pas-scientifiquement-fondes-pour-l es.html/,
http://www.france.qrd.org/actualites/article.php3? id_article=2976/.
On civil liberties, the Human Rights League has announced that democracy is in great danger with Sarkozy :
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/26042007/202/la-ligue-des -droits-de-l-homme-attaque-le-bilan.html/
Since 2 years now (Sarkozy was in the Government), since you are seven year old, the police can take your DNA if you are caught in a fight (even in the school yard) or any reprehensible act. Exemple of new criminal act : be more than 3 people in front of a building (that was to prevent suburbs criminality)!.
Sarkozy wanted a law to drug to calm restless children, since they are 3 years old. There was too much opposition at the time and the law was temporarily abandoned, but in an interview he said his delinquency prevention laws will be activated if he becomes president (http://www.senat.fr/leg/pjl05-433.html/).
Wish us good luck, no more civil or human rights in France.