December 25th in the air

Once again, Christmas has been marked by a dramatic event with the terrorist attack in the Amsterdam-Detroit flight. In 2004, a Tsunami left Indonesian islands devastated with more than 200 000 victims. In 1999, France was blown up by a very strong storm causing the death of several hundreds of people.

I don’t know why but Christmas time is often marked by dramatic events.

The terrorist attack of this year occupies a particular place to me as it is something that could have been avoided if security rules have been applied correctly. I am not a specialist but I make a difference between natural events unpredictable for which the best we can do is being prepared and know how to behave to protect oneself.

The terrorist attack was a surprise to me when we know the efforts deployed by the airport security to manage the risk. Obviously it was not enough or there was a flaw in the system that terrorist had identified and used to execute their plan.

I cannot understand how this Nigerian man on a watch list has been able to take this flight to the United States and why the detectors have not been able to detect the explosives concealed under his under wears.

Does that mean that the stressful and long security controls we are submitted to are useless?

I talked about that with my mom who knows the detection technology to try to understand the situation and above all if the dramatic event that happen on the Delta flight 253 was just an isolated case or if there is really a risk.

I will not expose the theory of the explosive detection, but from what I understood, there are two technologies available that could screen passengers and detect explosives but there are debates about them related to privacy violation as they show details of the body.

Obviously, terrorists are well aware of that point and used it to develop their plan.

My mom travels a lot in Europe and I worry a lot about this event as I realize that flying conditions are not completely safe and I hope that decisions will be made soon to allow the use of the techniques able to protect us.

Apple

I was in Apple store during Christmas week, looking for a new charger (because my cat ate the wire of the other one) for my MacBook and thinking that I would never have enough money to buy an iPhone to my mum for her Christmas present, when my attention was caught by a child eating an apple right next to me. I started to think about this child eating an apple and the Apple logo. Is there link between both? What is the origin of the logo for Apple Inc? Why the apple has been so many times used as a symbol?

I did a couple researches about Apple loge story and its symbolism.

A lot has been said about the logo, its origin and symbolism.

Originally the logo was a hand drawn logo featuring Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree and it is said that the apple was referring to the discovery of the gravity. As the initial logo was too complicated, a colored bitten apple has almost immediately replaced it.

There are several other theories. The first one refers to Alan Touring, a famous mathematician known for his discoveries in artificial intelligence and father of computing technologies. To escape criminal prosecution and discrimination due to his homosexuality, he committed suicide by biting in an apple poisoned with cyanide. The rainbow would be a reference to the rainbow flag used by the Gay community in the United States. The other theories are much simpler, though a little bit extravagant, but more largely accepted.

The apple would refer either to the fact that Job and Wozniak (the creator of Apple) were eating a lot of apples, as they did not have a lot of money at the beginning. That would be one of the reasons why they named their first computer Macintosh, which is a variety of apples.

Some others say that the apple has been chosen because they were both fans of the Beatles whose label was Apple Corps…

The rainbow color symbolized the fact that Apple was the first to propose images in color while others were still monochrome.

With the new iMac, Apple decided to discontinue the rainbow sign to stop the speculations running about the topic.

The paradox of the story came up when Apple entered in the music market with the iPod and iTunes and was sued by Apple Corp (Beatles) for using Apple logo to promote iPod. The Beatles firm finally lose the court challenge and paid a big amount of money to Apple.

Should Turkey enter European Union?

The question to see Turkey integrate European Community has been subject to several discussions in Europe since 2002 and the negotiations that have started in Brussels this month to decide its adhesion have reactivated the divided opinions.

Today Ankara still does not meet all the requirements needed for the adhesion. The problem is not here. Since 2001 Ankara has started an intensive democratic program focused on Human Rights, the Kurd identity, Woman rights, Armenian genocide…

The problem is elsewhere. So far, countries joining European Union were from the core of the Europe. It is the first time European Union has to think about the risk and opportunity to have a border country from Middle East under muslin influence joining the community.

Turkey has a population of 70 million people, mainly muslin, having borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Would that be a risk for Europe to be exposed to those countries? The opinion is divided on this point. Some people say that it would be an open door to Al-Qaeda to enter Europe more easily. Other people say that European Union can not succeed without a muslin ally.

How be partner with a country having trade with Iran and Iraq?

How be allied with a country condemned for Armenian genocide and which does not respect Human rights?

European people ask for a referendum to be able to express their own opinion.

As a French and European citizen, I feel concerned by the topic and follow the news regularly about the topic.