Thursday, October 6, 2016
Winter vaccination in France
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Aussie speech going uphill
Most often, I believe that Australian news is going downhill, in the sense that nothing much is ever happening in that remote country, and the outside world rarely receives news from Australia about anything at all. On the other hand, whenever I succeed in hearing Australian voices, generally about totally uninteresting subjects, I’m amazed to see that they’ve totally adopted an unpleasant new vocal accent. The end of every sentence soars upwards into the sky, as if they were asking lots of big questions. Even a run-of-the-mill policeman seems to be asking you questions all the time. Click here to listen to a good demonstration of this ascending intonation in a short and boring news video from South Grafton, my home town.
Trump stands a chance of winning a Nobel
Click here to see some of the 376 candidacies for the Nobel Prize for Peace. I would be thrilled if Donald Trump were to win. This victory would have no effect whatsoever on peace and war in the world, but it might blow up Trump’s head to such a point that it would burst. That explosion would keep him out of the forthcoming presidential election. I hope the members of the Swedish Academy read my blog.
Three Europeans win the chemistry Nobel
In the domain of molecular machines, the Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University of Strasbourg, France), J Fraser Stoddart (an Englishman working at Northwestern University, Evanston, USA) and Bernard Feringa (University of Groningen, the Netherlands).
Time to leave
Diane James has nothing to say, and she knows it. She has no authority, and she can’t count upon the esteem of her colleagues. So, after merely 18 days in charge of Britain’s xenophobic Ukip party, Diane James has bowed out. The English call such a departure “taking French leave”. The French say “filer à l’anglaise”.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Amazing documentary on Australia
This evening, France 2 showed an amazing documentary, shot in Australia, on the subject of animal intelligence. We saw baby kangaroos being reared in a clinic, a female crocodile examined by echography, clouds of fruit bats in the sky (a familiar scene in Grafton, my place of birth), horses that communicate with humans through emotions, a huge snake being captured in a suburban house, the glorious movements of dolphins, giant turtles and rays, a presentation of the extraordinary cuttlefish...
This was one of the most intelligent and exhilarating documentaries from Australia that I've ever seen, totally different to the general touristic rubbish that emerges regularly from Down Under. There wasn't a single shot of koalas, Aborigines, opal mines or Uluru. We didn't even get a glimpse of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. Not even Taronga Park. And no surfers or lifesavers. Viewers were simply presented with a land whose animal diversity surpasses that of all other places on the planet. Australia has 378 species of mammals, 828 bird species, 4,000 fish species, 300 lizard species, 140 snake species and 2 species of crocodiles. 80 % of these creatures are endemic, which means that they don't exist anywhere else in the world.
This documentary, created by a team of friendly and intelligent French people, was the 13th in a series designated as The Extraordinary Powers of the Human Body, directed by Michel Cymès and Adriana Karembeu.
This documentary, created by a team of friendly and intelligent French people, was the 13th in a series designated as The Extraordinary Powers of the Human Body, directed by Michel Cymès and Adriana Karembeu.
Michel Cymès et Adriana Karembeu (Crédit photo : Philippe Doignon / FTV)
Don't get screwed!
This message is powerful.
It's from an American talking
to young Americans about America.
He tells them to vote, and to vote for Clinton.
But the message can be understood by
young people throughout the world.
It's from an American talking
to young Americans about America.
He tells them to vote, and to vote for Clinton.
But the message can be understood by
young people throughout the world.
I hope that young Brits listen.
The young generation of the UK know now
that the Brexit was a gigantic mistake.
A blunder made by oldies for oldies.
The mistake cannot be corrected,
but it might be attenuated.
No such mistake should
ever be made again.
Pope Francis seems to think the French are idiots
QUESTION : What do you want to be when you grow up?
LITTLE BOY : I want to be a little girl.
Pope Francis seems to think that we really teach young French kids to behave like that.
Personally, I think that Pope Francis needs to get his papal head read.
Nobel Prize for Physics
Three British scientists: David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz. They "revealed the secrets of exotic matter". The biggest surprise of the announcement was that it didn't go to the team behind the discovery of gravitational waves.
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