Le Monde

Le Monde (French pronunciation: ​[lə mɔ̃d]; English: The World) is a French daily evening newspaper founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry and continuously published in Paris since its first edition on 19 December 1944. It is one of the most important and widely respected newspapers in the world.

It is one of two French newspapers of record along with Le Figaro, and the main publication of La Vie-Le Monde Group. It reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website since 19 December 1995, and is often the only French newspaper easily obtainable in non-French-speaking countries. It should not be confused with the monthly publication Le Monde diplomatique, of which Le Monde has 51% ownership, but which is editorially independent.

The paper's journalistic side has a collegial form of organization, in which most journalists are not only tenured, but financial stakeholders in the enterprise as well, and participate in the elections of upper management and senior executives. In the 1990s and 2000s, La Vie-Le Monde Group expanded under editor Jean-Marie Colombani with a number of acquisitions. However, its profitability was not sufficient to cover the large debt loads it took on to fund this expansion, and it sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company out of bankruptcy. In June 2010, investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper.

M. Pokora

Matthieu Tota (born 26 September 1985), commonly known as M. Pokora or Matt Pokora, is a French singer and songwriter.

Early life

Matthieu Tota is the son of professional footballer André Tota and Brigitte Tota. His parents divorced in 1998 when he was 13 years old. As a child, he studied in an elementary school in Hohberg, and later at Collège Paul-Émile Victor in Mundolsheim, and Lycée Aristide Briand in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. When he was younger, football was his first ambition and he wanted to become a professional player. However, he later opted for music.

Matthieu Tota explained the origin of his stage name Matt Pokora in an interview during the documentary Mise à jour broadcast on 26 August 2010 on NRJ 12 TV channel. He said he was searching for an artistic name and happened to be talking to his grandmother of Polish origin and the importance of humility came up. He asked her "how do we say 'humility' in Polish language," and she said "pokora". Tota immediately decided to adopt the word as his stage name, and shortened his first name to Matt.

The Mirror Conspiracy

The Mirror Conspiracy is the second studio album by Thievery Corporation released in August of 2000. All songs on the album were written, recorded and produced by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, although Pam Bricker contributed vocals to "Air Batucada", "The Mirror Conspiracy" and "Lebanese Blonde", which was also on the soundtrack to Zach Braff's 2004 film Garden State. The track "Indra" was used in a scene of the film Vanilla Sky.

Track listing

Offensive

Offensive may refer to:

See also

Offensive (military)

An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'.

The offensive was considered a pre-eminent means of producing victory, although with the recognition of a defensive phase at some stage of the execution.

A quick guide to the size or scope of the offensive is to consider the number of troops involved in the side initiating the offensive.

Offensives are largely conducted as a means to secure initiative in a confrontation between opponents. They can be waged on land, at sea or in the air.

Naval offensives, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, can have wide-ranging implications for national strategies, and require significant logistical commitment to destroy enemy naval capabilities. It can also be used to interdict enemy shipping, such as World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. Naval offensives can also be tactical in nature, such as Operation Coronado IX conducted by the United States Navy's Mobile Riverine Force during the Vietnam War.

Socialist Alternative (Netherlands)

Socialist Alternative (Dutch: Socialistisch Alternatief) is a Trotskyist political party in the Netherlands. It is affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International.

The party was involved in the Occupy movement in the Netherlands.

History

Socialist Alternative was founded as Inter in 1977. The name was shortly after changed to Forwards (Voorwaarts) and from the early 1980s to 2010 it was called Offensive (Offensief). The party has gone by its current name since September 2010, "to clearly put forward the need for a socialist alternative, in a period when the crisis of capitalism is ever more central".

Originally part of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), in 1998 Socialist Alternative (then still called Offensive) left the PvdA and joined the Dutch Socialist Party (SP), operating in an entryist fashion. Its members were banned from the SP in February 2009, on the grounds of being "a party within a party", since which time it has operated as an independent organisation.

Tout

In British English, a tout is any person who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner (generally equivalent to a solicitor or barker in American English, or a spruiker in Australian English). According to the American Bar Association, touting occurs when a person advertises, promotes, or otherwise describes a security for sale without disclosing that the person is being paid to do so.

An example would be a person who frequents heavily touristed areas and presents himself as a tour guide (particularly towards those who do not speak the local language) but operates on behalf of local bars, restaurant, or hotels, being paid to direct tourists towards certain establishments.

Types of touts

In London, the term "taxi touts" refers to a kind of illegal taxicab operation which involves taxi drivers (or their operator) attracting potential passengers by illegal means—for instance, calling out travellers, or fetching them and their luggage, while parked in an area where taxi drivers must wait in their vehicle. They may charge exorbitant fees upon arrival, possibly using threats to ensure payment.