Good life

Not really a big surprise

This morning, at the Campus des métiers et de l'entreprise in Bobigny, Emmanuel Macron stated that he was a presidential candidate. The name of his political party is two words followed by an exclamation mark : En marche ! That means they’ve set foot. Since I’m more or less bluffed by this smart fellow, you might consider me as a potential Enmarchiste ! It sounds smarter than "Socialiste". Infinitely less Trumpian than "Républicain". I think it's the sign at the end that adds all the sexy smartness to Macron's ethereal party. Besides, his surname makes him sound in English like a piece of smart software. In fact, I think he is.

Deux touristes français meurent en Australie

#Australia

Un homme et une femme, tous les deux plus de 70 ans, sont morts mystérieusement au cours de plongées touristiques à Michaelmas Cay prés de Cairns.

Il y avait probablement des fautes au niveau de leur équipement technique. Cliquer ici et ici pour des articles dans la presse locale.

It can be chilly here in France

A recent survey reveals that 75% of French people say that their homes are excessively cold in winter.

Well, this is not the case for me at Gamone. My installation of a large wood-burning stove has proven to be ideal. I hasten to point out that this success is based upon several additional factors:

• I’ve got into the habit of ordering a stock of high-quality firewood in summer.

• I store this firewood in a large and sturdy woodshed alongside my house.

• I’ve learnt the skill of lighting up the stove of an afternoon, using a tiny quantity of pine wood chips.

• Finally, the cold stove must be cleaned of ashes the following morning.

My house is well insulated on all sides. Besides, if ever the presence of snow made it difficult to go outside to fetch firewood, there’s a stock inside the old stone cave behind the ground-floor level of the house.

In my upper-floor bedroom, study and bathroom, electric radiators switch themselves on automatically when the temperature drops. The use of firewood as my principal fuel means that I would not be in danger in the case of an electricity blackout. And I’ve got a stock of candles. So, the general situation at Gamone is comfortable and reassuring. This is a must when you live on the edge of the French Alps.

Adam Cohen speaks of his father

Ma sœur et moi venons juste d’enterrer notre père à Montréal avec seulement la présence de la famille proche et de quelques amis. Il a été porté en terre dans un cercueil en pin sans fioritures près de son père et de sa mère, exactement comme il l’avait demandé.

Alors que j’écris cela, je pense à mon père, à son mélange unique d’autodérision, de dignité, d’élégance et de charisme naturel, à sa distinction à l’ancienne et à l’œuvre qu’il a forgée de sa main.

Il y a tellement de choses pour lesquelles je pourrais le remercier. Je le remercie pour ce confort dont il nous a pourvus et cette sagesse qu’il nous a transmise, pour ces  conversations marathons, pour sa vivacité d’esprit et son humour. Je le remercie pour m’avoir appris à aimer Montréal et la Grèce et pour la musique, celle qui m’a séduit alors que j’étais un petit garçon, celle qu’il m’a encouragé à composer et celle que j’ai eu le privilège de faire avec lui. Merci pour tous vos messages, vos témoignages de sympathie et l’amour que vous portez à mon père.

Gamone super moon

Gamone, Choranche (France). November 15, 2016 at 20 h 15.

It's hardly spectacular, but I've done my best...

Moon-watchers

Today, many people all over the globe are looking up at the Moon, because it's exceptionally close to our planet. Never before has a still-existing human seen the Moon at such a short distance. That's why it's referred to as a Super Moon.

Unfortunately, I live at a place on the edge of the French Alps that is not particularly good for moon-watching. At the present moment, when I look upwards, all I see is a super-damp sky full of super-gray clouds. So, instead of showing you any super photos, let me take advantage of the fact that I'm talking about the Moon to skip to the interesting subject of lunatics, who have strange ideas about our heavenly neighbor.

Certain lunatics believe that earthly clouds can drift behind the Moon.

 

In former times, Moon-Watchers (as imagined by Stanley Kubrick) made fabulous discoveries. Some things—such as the arrival of a metal slab from space—don't seem to have ever happened again. Other things discovered by the Moon-Watchers—such as murder—have remained with us forever.

 

Silly Twitter word

#Trending #TrendingTopics #Milkanoël

This morning, when I opened up my Twitter account, I discovered a reference to a certain US multinational famous for its milk and cocoa products, Milka.

The Twitter message I read indicated that a certain Milka hashtag was "trending”. I imagined for a moment that the proverbial cow was, at last, coming home. I wondered immediately why this item of world-shaking news about a dullish Trumpland company had hit the Twitter headlines. The answer was elementary. The purple cow was being fed on a variety of green grass called dollars. But what interested me far more than the state of the Milka cow was the linguistic absurdity of the the verb “trending”. Popular among French folk who like to give the impression that they understand English, this silly verb appears to have originated on the other side of the Atlantic.

Click the text block to enlarge it slightly

Once upon a time, even innocent kids in English-speaking communities would have known that a trend can be either up or down, positive or negative. It doesn't necessarily imply that things are getting better. For example: “There’s a nasty trend among children in slum schools to become bullies.” Or, more succinctly: “In slum schools, bulliness is trending.” Just like Milka. Or Trump, on that fateful election day.

Like a candle in the water

Yesterday evening, at a ceremony in remembrance of the terrible events of 13 November 2015, a fleet of tiny blue-white-red candles glided slowly—softly and silently—across the dark waters of the Saint-Martin Canal in the neighborhood of the Bastille in Paris.

Patrick Jardin had lost his daughter Nathalie, in charge of lighting at the Bataclan. But he was absent from yesterday’s ceremonies. His explanations were terse: “One doesn’t react to kalashnikovs with candles on the water and plaques on the wall.”

He was right in some ways, but wrong in others. Of course we have to track down terrorists and prevent them from harming our societies. This means the use of deadly weapons, not candles. But it doesn’t mean pure vengeance. In any case, yesterday, the people of Paris were not searching for terrorists to be eliminated. Nor were they thinking of criticizing Paris authorities who had not been able to protect all the citizens of the City of Light, including the young lady of the Bataclan lighting. They were simply celebrating in dignity and silence, by means of lit candles, the memory of Nathalie and the other innocent victims of 13 November 2015.

#13Novembre2015 #ParisAttacks

Anti-Trump America wakes up

Their slogan is ludicrous: "Not my president". No matter what they say, Donald Trump is indeed their president, whether they like it or not. At least for a while...

But they seem to be waking up all over the land, as if they're emerging from a nightmare. In fact, they are... even though the nightmare is still going on.

Elections don't affect God's inexistence

Thank Goodness God can't be elected in or out !

New signpost in Paris

The attacks of 15 November 2016 killed 130 people,
89 of whom died at the Bataclan.
7 attackers were destroyed.

#13Novembre2015 #ParisAttacks

Tsunami in the Antipodes

An earthquake of 7.4 magnitude has just struck New Zealand, 90 km away from Christchurch, causing a tsunami. For the moment, no victims have been found. The tremor occurred on Sunday evening at 23 hours, three and a half hours ago.

New Zealand is located near the edge of the tectonic plates of Australia and the Pacific, at a place known as the Ring of Fire, where 15,000 earthquakes are recorded every year.

Click images to enlarge slightly

#NouvelleZélande #NewZealand #earthquake

Plot of earth in Montreal

Cohen family plot at the Shaar Hashomayim
Cemetery on Friday in Montreal. 

(Giovanni Capriotti / for the Toronto Star)

Cohen at home, Los Angeles. September 24, 2016.
No more touring ahead. Cohen now concentrates
upon his family, friends and the work at hand. 
[photo by Graeme Mitchell for The New Yorker]

Sting has reopened the Bataclan

We shall always remember the
victims of 13 November 2015.

#Bataclan

La culture sera la plus forte !

Click to enlarge slightly

For whom is this blog written?

That’s a good question, and I thank you very much for asking it. On Saturday, 9 December 2006, my very first blog post asked a similar question.

Why have I created this blog?

I often find myself saying more or less the same everyday things in e-mails to several friends. Consequently, this blog could be a good way of avoiding such repetition. This doesn't mean that I intend to abandon the idea of sending e-mails to friends. It merely means that certain stuff can be outlined here publicly in my blog, and I can then talk about specific behind-the-scenes things in my personal e-mails. Another down-to-earth reason for this blog is that some of my friends have faulty e-mail systems, which often block my messages because they're judged to be spam. [This is notably the case for Australian customers of Big Pond.] Finally, another good reason for this blog is the possibility of my being able to express freely my feelings in domains that some of my friends judge to be taboo: for example, Aussie politics. So, I'm hoping that this new vector of expression (new for me, that is) will prove to be effective and pleasant to use.

Alas, I didn't have the courage at that time to provide my forthcoming readers with the proverbial truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It's not easy for me to reply, but let's see if I can be a little more honest today. First, I'll give you a hint. A few nights ago, I was intrigued by an unexpected early-morning dream. I found myself informing my readers that the name of my Antipodes blog would be replaced by a new title : The Notebook of William de Gamone. Readers who know me well will recognize instantly what's behind this choice.

• It's pure Rilke, associated with The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge.

• The author's name has been mildly Frenchified in a noble fashion by the addition of "de Gamone".

Let's no longer beat around the bush. Right from the start, ten years ago, my Antipodes blog has always been written primarily for myself. It's simply my on-screen notebook, for saving various ideas, and testing my ability to say various things in certain ways. Readers may have noticed that I've rarely gone out of my way to attract readers and their comments. Often they annoyed me, especially when I found them quarrelsome.

So, let me be perfectly clear. For whom is this blog written? Primarily, for a French-speaking fellow named William who lives at Gamone. Who has always been enchanted by the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke.

You merely wanted to catch a plane

In fact, you ended up catching a nasty bacterial infection at the level of your tail end. According to a study conducted by researchers of the University Hospital of Münster, that kind of affliction is a likely possibility in the toilets of 136 airports in 59 countries. Traces of Staphylococcus aureus were found on 5.5 % of samples from 400 door handles of toilets. To put it bluntly, disgusting data like that is enough to give you the shits.

Cohen song that's hard to understand

Leonard Cohen, 1976, in France

                                                           [photo Istvan Bajzat/Alliances]

The Cohen song Hallelujah was started in 1980, but wasn’t finally written until 1984. Naive listeners might fail to understand that it’s a highly erotic song.

An explicitly sensual version was brought out by Jeff Buckley.
Switch to YouTube to access the original Buckley's performance.

It's a song inspired by the singer's sexual relationship with a lady.

Democracy is leaving the USA

It's weird that Leonard Cohen should leave us at a moment when US democracy seems to be heading in the wrong direction. It's weird, too, that I'm celebrating memories of this great man on a public holiday in France: the 11th day of the 11th month, Armistice Day.

Towards the end of my Israel-inspired novel All the Earth is Mine [lookup in Amazon], I included an excerpt from Cohen's song. In my tale, the entire land of Israel is transformed by modern technology into a gigantic floating island, which spends its new existence sailing around the planet Earth.

Sail on, sail on, oh mighty ship of state

To the shores of need, past the reefs of greed


Though the squalls of hate


Sail on, sail on, sail on...

     

— Leonard Cohen, Democracy

Two angels and a holy man

The holy man has just left us in painful solitude.

Many years ago, in a Paris concert hall, I had the privilege of seeing
blonde Julie Christensen and dark Pearla Batella

accompanying Leonard Cohen.

They appeared to me as a pair of female angels surrounding a holy man.

Leonard Cohen on Chelsea Hotel

Like a bird in the sky

Leonard Cohen [1934-2016]

We were waiting to say farewell, dear Leonard.

We knew you were ready to leave.

You left us so elegantly, in your usual style, with no more

than a few words... for those who had already gone.

Presidential duration

I don’t like to behave like an old fortune-teller who reads magic stuff from all around him.

Over the last day or so, my mind has been invaded constantly by a conviction that President Trump will not last for very long. My imagination comes to a halt well before the New Year, probably even before Christmas… but my mind balks on what might happen to him.

Meanwhile, let me turn to an old friend, Noam Chomsky. A journalist asked him: What effect would electing Donald Trump have?

CHOMSKY: It’s hard to say because we don’t really know what he thinks. And I’m not sure he knows what he thinks. He’s perfectly capable of saying contradictory things at the same time. But there are some pretty stable elements of his ideology, if you can even grant him that concept. One of them is: “Climate change is not taking place.” As he puts it: “Forget it.” And that’s almost a death knell for the species. Not tomorrow... but the decisions we take now are going to affect things in a couple of decades. In a couple of generations, it could be catastrophic.

How is Trump going to deal with US technological giants?

The new president dreams of a friendly relationship with the smart guys in charge of Google, Apple, Facebook... who would tell him how to catch Islamic terrorists. It’s a nice idea, but those fellows might not necessarily rush out rapidly to assist Trump. Why would they? Up until now, they’ve never manifested any enthusiasm for Trump's “ideas”. In any case, computing and the Internet are such intricate phenomena that the reptilean brain of Trump would encounter huge problems in trying to understand them. Obama was smart enough to oversee correctly the elimination of Osama bin Laden. We’ll see if Trump is smart enough to catch devils that remain at large. I hope he is (with a little help from his friends), but I have my doubts.

Intelligence will inevitably prevail over idiocy

We shouldn't be too worried about Trump's victory. He might be able to earn dollars in real estate; but human beings need more than their personal wealth to change the world. They need intelligence. And Trump doesn't seem to have much of that. He will go down rapidly in world history as an American mistake. #Trump

Certain countries might take advantage of Trump's victory

Countries such as Canada and Australia might take advantage of Trump's win to attract high-level US scientists. In France, too, we might make an effort to attract various bright specialists in domains such as the development of military drones and artificial intelligence. Maybe Trump could do more for France, indirectly, than its current chief.

Decline in France of a great British firm

This morning, Marks & Spencer announced their intention to close more than a hundred of their shops throughout the world, including seven in France.

Their losses here for the financial year 2015-16 amounted to more than 26 million euros. That’s a lot of lot of butter biscuits in the tin box. The famous shortbread name is not appropriate. It's rather a case of being “short of bread”. They were delightful shops. So, what went wrong?

USA probably ends today

                                                           [photo Daniel Leal-Olivas AFP]

The marathon between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was worse than anything that most observers would have expected. Its only merit was that it didn’t end in death. If one of the two candidates had been genuinely and globally meritorious, the other could never have survived for more than a few days. So, the fact that the two candidates have carried on right up until today suggests that both of them had huge faults. Dark Ages are about to begin in the USA.

No new airport for Nantes

The construction of a new airport for Nantes at Notre-Dame-des-Landes seems to have crashed.

Archaic French beast

Next Wednesday in Paris, presidential candidate NKM (Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet) will be holding a major meeting, announced by means of a nostalgic old poster.

Certain candidates think that life in the old days was better.

Why don't we rather get together to design France Tomorrow ?

Are there really any presidential candidates who believe that life in France was better back in the good old days when our most powerful communications device was the Minitel? That would surprise me. It’s a fact that this gadget was once looked upon as a good invention, of which France could be proud. I remember a TV interview in which a journalist asked Laurent Fabius what he thought of personal computers. His reply included a curious phrase : “Yes, I use a Minitel.”

I was shocked by the words of Fabius, which fell like a stray hair in the soup. Most serious computer specialists always knew that this French invention (based in fact upon British research) was overrated, and did not deserve to be looked upon as any kind of genuine computer.

Be that as it may, people who continue to be a bit nostalgic about their Minitel days are offered a good solution today. Click here to see how you can use a product named AliStel to simulate the old Minitel gadget on a modern Apple iMac computer.

I haven't tried to test this application personally,
because I've never been a Minitel fan.

As for NKM’s suggestion of constructing together the new France, it would indeed be a good idea if in-depth projects in advanced computer science were to arise in France. But I don't think they have anything to do with the archaic Minitel. So, let it rest in peace.

Humble but extraordinary fish

In a living-room aquarium, in spite of its five horizontal blue stripes from head to tail, the zebrafish [Danio rerio], about 5 cm long, is not an exotic creature. Males have faint gold stripes between the blue, and females, silver. But these colors do not make the fish any more exciting.

Although it can neither change its stripes nor work in a circus or a zoo, the zebrafish can nevertheless perform one of the most extraordinary tricks in the entire animal kingdom. If ever its spinal chord were to be broken, the zebrafish is capable of repairing the damage, almost by magic. Click here to access a Wikipedia article on this animal.

The US Science magazine has just published an article [here] that indicates a fabulous research project that might be derived from this humble fish: namely, the possibility of finding out how to repair broken spines in humans.

Mac-based psychotherapy experience

Over a year ago, in July 2015, inside my house at Gamone, I suffered a severe accident. After consuming a little too much tasty white wine in the warm weather, I fell down the stairs and bumped my head. As a doctor told me later, I could have easily killed myself. My son François assumed the harsh task of taking a train from Brittany down to my region, and then driving me and my dog back up to Brittany. There, I was housed and cared for, not only by my son, but also by his mother Christine and her companion Michel. It was rough work for them, for several months, since I wasn’t an easy patient. To cut a long story short, I finally survived, thanks to my family and several skilled medical specialists, who patched me up remarkably well.

Since I was accompanied to Brittany by my Macintosh computer, I tried as best I could to manipulate it… but some of my previous Internet skills had been bumped into the backwoods by my accident. Personally, I was totally convinced that my basic technical intelligence—that’s to say, my computer skills—was intact…. which corresponded to official medical evaluations of the patient. Little by little, through playing around with my faithful Macintosh, I was able to confirm, slowly but surely, that most of my former Internet functionality was indeed operational, although there were several technical zones in which I continued to behave a little shakily.

Over the months that followed, right up to and including today, I have been able to use my hardware (including a new iMac and several external disks) to confirm that I know what I’m doing in the Internet domain. It’s not an exaggeration to say that my friendly Mac world has been playing a significant role as a psychotherapy guide and yardstick. For example, since the accident, I found it impossible to link a powerful external disk to either of my two iMac computers. It was only yesterday that I played around with this external disk long enough to discover that it must have been screwed up a little by contacts with somebody’s PC environment, and that I would have to reformat and reinitialize it. I lost no time in doing so, and everything returned to normal… as it had been before my accident.

The most amazing thing of all is that I am now tackling various aspects of my familiar Macintosh world in a more rigorous manner than before my fall down the stairs. The therapy challenges have made me an even better Mac user than I used to be.

Tough times for Samsung

After the problems of their Galaxy device with exploding batteries, the South Korean Samsung company is now faced with complaints about 34 models of washing machines, some of which were manufactured in China and Thailand. If they succeed in surviving, they're stronger than what I imagined.

Super Moon

Super Moon photographed in September 2015

(VLADIMIR ASTAPKOVICH / RIA NOVOSTI)

The most voluminous Super Moon of the 21st century will be visible on Monday 14 November 2016. Seen from France, the Moon will be biggest at 14h52. That’s not of course an ideal time to get involved in Moon watching, but it will remain spectacularly big throughout the evening. Our celestial neighbor hasn’t been closer to the Earth since 1948. And it won’t be getting any nearer to us for a very long time. So, this is your sole chance to see the Moon at such a small distance that you could truly lean out and touch its surface with a stick no more than 350,000 km in length... if only you could wield such a long stick.

Michel Drucker found the right words

French TV is supposed to be in color.  I prefer to say it's black and white: either incredibly lousy or splendid. The time-honored TV celebrity Michel Drucker had harsh words concerning a nitwit named CH who would make me vomit if ever I were obliged to watch him for any length of time. Drucker has been around for decades, and his TV credentials are the finest in French media history.

Concerning the vomit guy, Drucker came up with a delightful formula:

It was impossible for me to do that kind of bad TV work. My mother would have been disgusted. She wouldn't have let me come home. She would have changed the door locks to keep me out in the cold.

Latest map of Mosul

This map has just appeared on the French Internet :

Click to enlarge slightly

How many days, weeks or months will it take

for the black zone to disappear... forever ?

In an upside-down world, roles change

Hollande has unleashed a terrible truth

In the book Un président ne devrait pas dire ça by Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, the most outlandish « ça » consisted of admitting that a chief of state might decide, outside any kind of legal framework whatsoever, that it is better for the nation that a particular extremely dangerous individual should simply cease to exist.

[photo Martin Bureau / AFP]

Many observers consider that Hollande was a nincompoop in enabling the publication of this secret information. One might imagine that, in doing so, he discarded his moral right to remain at the head of France.

I do not intend to say publicly whether or not I share these opinions.

I've changed the sense of Antipodes

Looking out upon an upside-down universe

Many voyagers have imagined for ages that the word "Antipodes" refers to a land on the other side of the globe. So, ever since the day I started this blog, I saw this term as a suitable title, since the blogger was born in Australia, which is roughly (very roughly indeed) an Antipodal location with respect to my new home place, France. Besides, that blog title gave me a pretext for popping in fragments of Australian news.

But, in recent years, the challenge of incorporating into my blog the theme of my land of birth has become hard and tedious. First, there's not really a lot of interesting stuff that happens in, or can be said about, Australia. Second, above all, I have fewer and fewer communications with Australia, even through the Internet. So, I was finding it more and more difficult to write anything at all on that subject.

So, I've finally decided that it would be preferable to eliminate altogether the subject of Australia from my Antipodes blog.

Maybe not the nice novel I need

I don't often read novels, and I'm not really looking for one at the present moment. Still, I thought it might be worthwhile glancing at a description of the novel that has just won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in Paris. Well, the author is Leïla Slimani. The theme of her novel Chanson douce [Sweet Song] sounds about as charming and soothing as a kick in the balls from a guy wearing football boots. She deals with the assassination of two children by their nurse. I'm sure I should read it... but I fear I won't. There's so much exciting news on the Internet and television about killings of all kinds.

Now kids, if you'll calm down, put your pyjamas on, and jump into bed, I'll read you a few pages of a nice story about children. And I'll give you a handful of cyanide lollies.

Is the big bugger still in town ?

Click here to access an article in The Independent suggesting that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might be hiding these days inside the city of Mosul. This information comes from "a senior Kurdish official" who spoke to The Independent. Let's hope the USA can quickly find the big bugger and drone him. There's an even better idea. Iraqi soldiers might simply find him in hiding, and put him in a bag bound for Baghdad.

Zombie in the Elysées Palace

In The New York Times, the journalist Adam Nossiter has written an article [here] about the French president François Hollande.

The author looks upon Hollande as a living dead specimen who seems to be politically alive. Our president “still occupies the magnificent gilded Élysée Palace, still gives speeches attended by important people and still attends ribbon-cuttings”, whereas nobody believes for an instant that he’ll survive the forthcoming presidential election.

Hollande’s most unexpected recent attack—not only on his enemies, but on his former friends and associates—was a book of “secrets” published by two journalists, Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme. It's title in English : A President Shouldn't Say Such Things.

In earlier days, François Hollande could only be bruised by a very tough opponent. Nowadays, he succeeds in doing the job all on his own.

Beginning of the end of the liberation of Mosul

Elite Iraqi soldiers moved into the north of Mosul yesterday, in the neighborhood of Gogjali. A few hours later, the general Taleb Cheghati Al-Kenani, in command of Iraqi counter-terrorist troops, said it was the beginning of the end of the liberation process that had started a fortnight ago. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of other Iraqi soldiers are encircling the city from the east, the north and the west, while the US-commanded coalition controls the air space.

Wounded Iraqi soldier
[Photo by French photographer Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde]

Experts believe that Daesh would have between 3,000 and 5,000 individuals in the city, striving to defend to the bitter end the place where their chief Abou Bakr Al-Baghdadi had proclaimed a caliphate over Iraqi and Syrian territory taken in 2014.

Moving into Mosul

Click here to see dramatic footage from Mosul. The journalist Arnaud Comte and his cameraman are working in a nasty environment.

Halloween without laughter

Dressed up to kill

In the centre of Toulouse, at 3 o’clock in the morning, police found a Halloween prankster disguised in black and khaki military wear, and carrying a fake assault weapon.

They picked up the 26-year-old idiot, who had already terrified several people in the street where he had been strolling along casually. In the scuffle, his fake gun was broken. The fool, already known to the police, couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to do whatever pleased him on Halloween night. He was taken back to the police station, where he was charged with using a weapon to threaten people and presenting an apology for terrorism. Then he spent the night in solitary confinement.

I think he deserves some kind of special Halloween prize for poor taste.