viernes, 11 de septiembre de 2009

French / On line radio

On Line French Radio
http://multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-french.html

Testing this site by students

France 24 / News in French

France 24 * Audio/Video News in French
http://www.france24.com/fr/
Auudio News in French about September 11th
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"Le temps qui passe ne pourra pas atténuer la douleur", dit Obama
Vendredi 11 septembre 2009
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Huit ans après les attaques contre le World Trade Center, le président américain a rendu hommage aux victimes du 11-Septembre. Il a réaffirmé le bien-fondé de la lutte anti-terroriste.

Tel un rituel, les noms des quelque 3 000 personnes qui ont perdu la vie dans les attaques contre le World Trade Center (WTC) ont été égrenés par des proches et des bénévoles, huit ans après les attentats du 11-Septembre. En présence du vice-président américain, Joseph Biden, et du maire de New York, Michael Bloomberg, plusieurs minutes de silence ont ensuite été observées, sous une pluie battante, afin de marquer les crashs successifs des deux avions et l’effondrement des tours jumelles
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France 24 / News in English
http://www.france24.com

LISTEN MORE NEWS IN ENGLISH
http://www.france24.com/en/20090910-serbia-france-world-cup-suicides-france-telecom-total-burma-s%C3%A9gol%C3%A8ne-royal-flyers

Jean-Paul Belmondo / France

Jean-Paul Belmondo in saga of love, death threats and lap-dancing clubs
French star's once quiet private life takes unexpected twist with new-found love for former Playboy model 43 years his junior

With his craggy face and cigarette dangling from his lips, he was once known as the French Bogart – one of France's best loved film stars adored for his 1960s art-house performances and a string of action roles depicting a murky world of rogues, gangsters and crooked cops.
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But now, aged 76, Jean-Paul Belmondo's once quiet private life has unexpectedly turned into a high drama that rivals his most far-fetched on-screen plots. The actor, who is recovering from a stroke, is embroiled in a complex real-life saga dubbed the Belmondo Affair.
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Its twisted plot involves his new-found love for a former Playboy model 43 years his junior, a financial investigation into Belgian lap-dancing clubs, and anonymous threats that the actor's six-year-old daughter's severed head will be mailed to him in a shoe-box. The French celebrity press can't get enough of the disturbing affair that is unfolding against a backdrop of flash holiday villas and fast cars.
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This weekend Belmondo, who is under police protection due to death-threats, gave his first French TV interview to defend himself and his new girlfriend, insisting: "I'm very happy".
In 2001, when Belmondo suffered a stroke that initially left him unable to speak, France assumed he would quietly drift out of the public eye.
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In 2003, he fathered his fourth child, Stella, with his second wife. But last year, the couple divorced. Out for dinner on the Côte d'Azur, the newly single Belmondo spotted Barbara Gandolfi, 33, a Belgian former Playboy model. Soon, the actor, once protective of his privacy, was posing for the cameras with Gandolfi at exclusive soirées and sporting events and inviting magazines to photograph them together.
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From the start, Gandolfi insisted in the press that she was no bimbo: she worked with her ex-boyfriend, Frederic Vanderwilt, running an empire of night-spots in Flanders, including lap-dancing venues, a swingers' club and various business interests ranging from an energy drinks company to exclusive car-hire in Dubai.
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In June, Belgian police investigating possible money-laundering raided a nightclub Gandolfi co-owns with Vanderwilt, in the Belgian port of Ostend. Police raided her villa, freezing bank accounts and seizing items including two of Belmondo's luxury watches.
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Gandolfi and Vanderwilt gave a press conference declaring their innocence. Belmondo was questioned as a witness after police found a written contract for a €200,000 loan from him to Gandolfi. His lawyers said a project had been drawn up but no money had been paid. The investigation continues, and no one has been charged so far.
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On French TV on Sunday a frail but suntanned Belmondo said he was giving his last ever interview in order to defend Gandolfi. He said their relationship of over a year had brought him great joy and he flatly denied any knowledge or part in suspect financial dealings, adding that Gandolfi was innocent. "No one manipulates me," he said.
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Gandolfi proceeded to show the cameras around her bling-bling Belgian mansion, with her dogs named after luxury fashion labels and posters of Belmondo plastering her bedroom. She described their relationship as "unconventional", "not the love of 16-year-olds, it's about values, like kindness, tenderness, trust and calmness".
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She still shares the Belgian villa with Vanderwilt, the father of her two young daughters, and Belmondo still shares his Paris home with his ex-wife — the two wings separated by a staircase.
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But Belmondo's happy front for the TV cameras was marred by his concerns at the latest twist in the saga: death-threats against his six-year-old daughter.
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Several members of the Belmondo clan are under police protection since anonymous letters were received, warning that if Belmondo didn't leave Barbara, "we'll send you your daughter's head in a shoe-box." Belmondo's ex-wife described the threats as a "living nightmare".
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Belmondo told French TV he stood by Gandolfi. "Just because she works at night doesn't mean she's a bad girl," he said.
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Asked about the inevitable comparisons with his film roles alongside gangster femme fatales, he shrugged and whispered: "They were never as beautiful as her."

September / Eleven

Obama leads US in September 11 commemoration

By Stephen Collinson (AFP) – 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama led a moment of silence Friday to launch eighth anniversary commemorations of the September 11 attacks in 2001 when 3,000 people died in the world's deadliest terror strike.
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At exactly 8:46 am (1246 GMT) when the first plane piloted by Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the North tower of New York's World Trade Center, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stood with heads bowed outside the White House.
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On a rain-swept day so different than that crisp September morning eight years ago, ceremonies were also being held in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field where a fourth plane crashed short of its target.
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The solemn ceremonies were marred by a security scare in Washington after a Coast Guard training event on the Potomac River prompted unfounded reports that a suspicious boat had been fired on.
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It was the first time that Obama, who was driving to work as a state senator in Illinois when he learned of the attacks on the radio, had led the national remembrance ceremonies as president.
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At New York's Ground Zero, all that is left of the two huge towers that were toppled in wave of fire and debris by fuel-laden planes, volunteers read the names of the 2,752 people killed in the strike at the heart of US might.
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Obama stepped out in front of the South Portico of the White House, with First Lady Michelle Obama, who was wearing a black dress.
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After three chimes played by a US Marine in ceremonial dress, the first couple bowed their heads and observed the moment of silence, joined by around 150 members of the White House staff.
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Obama raised his head, and put his hand over his heart as a Marine bugler played a haunting rendition of Taps, the military lament played over soldiers' graves.
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For hours before the ceremony, rain had sluiced Washington, but moments before Obama and the First Lady appeared the rain tapered off and they were able to stand bare-headed.
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The President later headed to the Pentagon to lay a wreath and make remarks at the spot where another hijacked airliner crashed, on a day which sent shock waves around the world and left a political legacy Obama is still trying to master.
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One US cable news network, MSNBC, marked the anniversary by replaying the terrifying minute-by-minute video of the first moments of the attacks when planes hit the world Trade Center.
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The Pentagon memorial is the only major official monument to the victims of the September 11 attacks, with plans for similar sites in New York and Pennsylvania held up in part by financial and legal wrangling.
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In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in an open field after passengers overwhelmed the hijackers, tributes begin Friday with a reading of victims' names.
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Many believe the hijackers intended to crash the plane into the Congress building in Washington.
Prayer services and interfaith remembrances are scheduled throughout the day, with a candlelight "peace vigil" closing out the commemorations.
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In a message carried on the front page of the New York Daily News, Obama declared "we are all New Yorkers" and that the attacks "will be forever seared in the consciousness of our nation."
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The president wrote that his controversial and increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan was part of his strategy "to take the fight to the extremists who attacked us on 9/11."
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Washington, he said, was committed to preventing nuclear weapons proliferation and to ensuring that all "loose nuclear weapons" be accounted for and secured within four years.

miércoles, 9 de septiembre de 2009

Así funciona Google News

Así funciona Google News
09/09/2009.

Google ha difundido un vídeo en el que explica los criterios fundamentales que utiliza su servicio agregador de noticias, Google News, para recolectar y mostrar contenidos de diferentes publicaciones.

El servicio agregador de noticias Google News ha tenido problemas en diferentes ocasiones con periódicos y otras publicaciones digitales, que se quejan de ser los que generan los contenidos para que luego Google los recoja y se beneficie del trabajo ajeno.

El último incidente ha ocurrido en Italia, donde una asociación de editores ha denunciado a Google por prácticas contra la competencia, acusándola de falta de claridad en sus criterios a la hora de ordenar la información y de abuso de posición dominante en el reparto de los ingresos publicitarios. Ante estas críticas, Google se ha defendido argumentando que sus criterios son transparentes, y que cualquiera puede elegir libremente si desea o no estar incluido en el servicio agregador de noticias.

Además, recuerda que es un gran generador de tráfico para los medios online, ya que cada mes envía 1.000 millones de visitantes a las publicaciones electrónicas. Para dejar todo más claro, acaba de difundir un vídeo en el que una programadora, Maile Ohye, explica los criterios principales que utiliza Google News para ordenar la información, y ofrece algunos consejos para lograr mayor visibilidad.

Este es un resumen de algunos de los criterios empleados para recolectar y –más importante- jerarquizar la información:

Es importante citar la fuente original, porque da más confianza a los lectores. En esto Google, como en la clasificación de los contenidos por secciones, aprende de los periódicos. También los artículos nuevos tiene preferencia sobre los antiguos.

Hay que prestar atención a los titulares, de manera que sean muy indicativos del contenido del artículo. La etiqueta HTML correspondiente (la que aparece en la URL) también debe ser representativa, e incluir las palabras clave.

Los usuarios no están interesados sólo en las últimas noticias. Por eso, Google News acaba de estrenar la sección Spotlight (aún no disponible en la versión española), que agrupa artículos de opinión, investigación y otos temas de interés.

A Google no le gustan los saltos de texto ni los espacios en blanco, por lo que lo mejor es incluir bloques de texto compactos en una misma página. Si se introducen saltos o enlaces externos, es mejor hacerlo al final del texto.

Es recomendable dar de alta un mapa de la web, y que éste contenga enlaces actualizados a las diferentes secciones. El mapa proporciona metadatos relevantes para la clasificación de los contenidos, como la fecha de publicación y las palabras clave.

El PageRank de una página no es relavante a la hora de obtener una posición destacada en Google News. Más importante que éste son factores como la relevancia local o la temporalidad.

Para indexar el contenido multimedia (vídeos o fotos), es necesario acompañarlo de una descripción en texto o una trascripción del contenido, en el caso de los vídeos. Es recomendable incluir las imágenes en formato .jpeg y no hacerlas clicables.

Con respecto a los vídeos, Ohye recomienda crear un canal propio en YouTube y darlo de alta en Google News.
También se presta atención a los videos alojados en otros servicios, pero YouTube se considera un sitio más fiable y conocido.

Añadir el nombre de una localidad al título de la publicación no ayuda a destacar el contenido local, ya que Google extrae la información relacionada con la ubicación geográfica y la localización directamente del contenido del artículo.

martes, 8 de septiembre de 2009

They finish high school but do not know Math

EDUCATION / MEXICO
Salen del bachillerato sin saber matemáticas
CONOCEN SÓLO LAS OPERACIONES BÁSICAS; RANGOS BAJOS EN LECTURA
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Luego de permanecer 12 años en el sistema educativo, ocho de cada 10 jóvenes egresados del bachillerato en México sólo saben hacer operaciones básicas —sumar, restar y multiplicar números enteros— y uno de cada dos tiene niveles bajos de lectura, reveló la Evaluación Nacional de Logro Académico en los Centros Escolares (ENLACE).
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LEER LA NOTICIA COMPLETA EN ESTE ENLACE