[B]Alexandre Grothendieck[/B]

[B][QUOTE]Considéré comme le plus grand mathématicien du XXe siècle, Alexandre Grothendieck est mort, jeudi 13 novembre, à l'hôpital de Saint-Girons (Ariège), non loin de Lasserre, le village où il s'était secrètement retiré au début des années 1990, coupant tout contact avec le monde. Il était âgé de 86 ans. Apatride naturalisé français en 1971, également connu pour la radicalité de son engagement pacifiste et écologiste, ce mathématicien singulier et mythique laisse une œuvre scientifique considérable.[/QUOTE]

[/B][URL]http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2014/11/14/le-mathematicien-alexandre-grothendieck-est-mort_4523482_3382.html[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;387605][B]Alexandre Grothendieck[/B]

[B]

[/B][URL]http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2014/11/14/le-mathematicien-alexandre-grothendieck-est-mort_4523482_3382.html[/URL][/QUOTE]

I believe that one will find a very strong consensus that he was indeed the greatest mathematician
of the 20'th century.

[url=http://links.reuters.com/r/BJHVE/FMWF7/ZGUF4B/ZB6WX1/DXU5GI/YT/h?a=http://links.reuters.com/r/BJHVE/FMWF7/ZGUF4B/ZB6WX1/T173WY/YT/h]Scandal-plagued former Washington mayor Marion Barry dies[/url]: [i]Marion Barry, the scandal-plagued former mayor of Washington, D.C., who was jailed for smoking crack cocaine before making a surprising return to office, died early on Sunday aged 78.[/i]

Some choice "best of" quotes [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/11/links-112414.html#comment-2359582]compiled here[/url]. Risible, hilarious stuff.

An obituary of Alexander Grothendieck written by David Mumford and John Tate for non-specialists.
[URL]http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/mumford/blog/2014/Grothendieck.html[/URL]

RIP [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cocker"]Joe Cocker[/URL]

[QUOTE=Batalov;390761]RIP [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cocker"]Joe Cocker[/URL][/QUOTE]

Sigh. Yes. RIP. :sad:

I've never been a fan, but he was one of the most successful German speaking/singing entertainers: Udo Jürgens
[URL]http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/udo-juergens-ist-tot-a-1009835.html[/URL]

All those assassinated in Paris this morning.
My thoughts are with them, their families and friends, as well as with all the champions of free speech and freedom of press.
No words to express my horror and disgust.

[QUOTE=lycorn;391890]All those assassinated in Paris this morning.
[/QUOTE]

I am quite impressed with how the world at large has responded. Granted I was too young to remember much of anything on September 11 2001 but I feel like this may be the one event which has most strongly united the world.

The people who died were French but this was an attack against the entire free-thinking world and the entire free-thinking world has responded swiftly and as one (where the message is more or less "F[SPOILER]uck[/SPOILER] you"). Lots of new cartoons came out early enough for the newspapers of the next day showing that the pen is also mightier than the gun.

I don't believe in God, Heaven or Hell, but this is a time where I would be okay with the existence of Hell.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;392010]I am quite impressed with how the world at large has responded. Granted I was too young to remember much of anything on September 11 2001 but I feel like this may be the one event which has most strongly united the world.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I look at the way the "free world" and its so-called "free press" have changed since 9/11 and I am dismayed.

But hey, I'm sure a few further rounds of curtailment of civil liberties in the "free world", a couple dozen more "wars on Terra" and few thousands of innocents slaughtered by those "precision drone strikes" will fix things right up.

I am in no way condoning the acts of the 3 gunmen, but consider the numerous ways oh-so-free France has been openly hostile to its Muslim citizenry - from proposal/enactment of religiously discriminatory laws (headscarf bans, anyone? Now imagine if a similar law banning e.g. nuns from wearing habits in public were proposed) to eager participation in all the recent US-led killing campaigns in Muslim countries.

As for the French "free press", well, [url=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/11/mish-fined-8000-euros-for-quoting_20.html]here is just one counterexample[/url] featuring one of the handful of economic blogs I regularly follow.

Here is the [i]Moon of Alabama[/i] blog on the attacks:

[url=www.moonofalabama.org/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-the-chickens-come-home-to-roost.html]Charlie Hebdo - The Chickens Come Home To Roost[/url]
[quote]In 2011 the magazine [i]Charlie Hebdo[/i] was one of those that printed the Mohammed caricatures, a crude and insulting attempt to smear the prophet and all Muslim as terrorists. In 2012 the magazine continued the campaign [url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-charlie-hebdo-affair-laughing-at-blasphemy]depicting[/url] the prophet Mohammed as naked, attention seeking gnome.

Unlike U.S. "liberals" most of the world does not consider free speech as an absolute right. Indeed like screaming "fire" in a filled theater, insulting the believe [sic] of other people is likely to get you hurt in most parts of the world. To claim such insults should not matter is itself an insult in that it declares one culture, that of absolute free speech rights, to be superior to other values. It is indecent.

That the [i]Charlie Hebdo[/i] satire was indecent and insulting does not justify the murderous attack, but explains the probable motivation of the attackers. It is deeply wrong to kill people for their speech. But it is also wrong to insult others for no good reasons, be it profit or "free speech" worship.

The attackers in Paris are believed to be militants who pretend to be true Muslims fighting for their believes. The state of France under its presidents Sarkozy and Hollande has empowered and supported such pretenders in their attacks on the people and governments of Libya and Syria. In Syria Jihadi fighters of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra are using U.S. supplied anti-tank missiles. A German air defense regiment is defending their areas of retreat in Turkey against Syrian government attacks. While it supports Jihadis in Syria France is now [url=http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/mideast-africa/2015/01/06/report-france-deploy-aircraft-carrier-gulf-fight/21361061/]deploying[/url] an air craft carrier to the Persian Gulf to attack the Islamic State in Iraq. The last point could also be the actual motive of today's attack.

The fundamentalists were cheered on by "western" politicians when they attacked civilians in Tripoli and Aleppo. When they attack in countries which cater to "western interests" or within "western" countries these attacks are seen as hostile and used to justify another lurch to the extreme right, to war and towards more totalitarian states.[/quote]
How many innocents were killed by US drone strikes this past week? And where is the hue and cry about that?

[QUOTE]How many innocents were killed by US drone strikes this past week? And where is the hue and cry about that? [/QUOTE]

A very good question, in context. While multiple wrongs don't add up to Right, I think that it is important to remember the principle of Blowback. If one person, or group, keeps beating on other persons or groups, the parties of the first part should not be terribly surprised if the negative energy comes back to bite them.

Of course, if the parties of the first part are convinced that anything they do is virtuous by definition, then they are in for a shock when the realities of human responses to abuse sink teeth into their derrieres. This does cut both ways, being the driving force behind vendettas.