Google respects the private lives of cows

Google's famous Street View gadget has been reprimanded, from time to time, for displaying roadside individuals who are easily identifiable. A jealous husband might discover, say, that his wife was photographed in a conversation with a male neighbor further down the road. And that might create problems. So, people's faces are blurred, to make them as unrecognizable as possible. In most cases, this technique works well.

Google seems to have decided that the same process should be applied to dairy cows, so that no jealous bull would ever see red.

Fitzroy, who often roams around the neighborhood to visit his lady friends, told me that he would feel more at ease if Google were to extend their privacy blurs to cover, not only cows, dogs and cats, but the entire range of four-legged creatures. I suspect that, from time to time, my dog might be boring into attractive young wild boars, and he doesn't want this news to spread around Choranche and Pont-en-Royans.

Question that no longer concerns me

Prostate gland. Do you see where it is, just between the bladder and the penis? Where it was, as far as I'm concerned. I lost mine a few years ago. An excellent surgeon removed it. He even left me with a perfectly operational nerve that enables me, for what it's worth, to sport an erection like a donkey. (Well, not quite. I was never—not even at the summit of my sporting career—in the donkey category.)

Click here to access an article, in a distinguished medical publication, suggesting that my above-mentioned brilliant surgeon should not necessarily be praised for having saved my life. Be that as it may, I'm still alive. That's all that really matters.

Abbott tells Europeans how to run the world

The Sydney Morning Herald tells us that former PM Tony Abbott addressed an Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists in Prague on Saturday night. If you want to see everything he said, don’t hesitate to click here. Otherwise, I can give you the gist of his words, which didn’t impress me greatly… to say the least. He expressed his opinions concerning Europe's treatment of unwanted immigration… as if all European nations were looking upon this phenomenon in the same way. He said that it looked like “a peaceful invasion”. I wonder what Abbott really suggests by his juxtaposition of those two unrelated terms. It's murky Down Under English, along the lines of his rough-and-ready "Look, I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin ... you bet I am."

France is happy to have earned a lot of cash by selling submarines to Australia. We’re grateful for that business, of course. And we don’t expect Australia to be more generous towards France by telling us (or any other European nation) how to handle the delicate and difficult problem of out-of-hand immigration. If France wanted to put a brutal end to such immigrants, Tony Abbott surely knows that the French navy could use one of our submarines. So, why doesn't he simply shut up?

Names and photos of 238 victims of terrorism in France since “Charlie”

Click here to access a block of 238 photos, in alphabetical surname order, with links to brief descriptions of victims of terrorism in France since the massacre at the Charlie offices in Paris on January 7, 2015.

Beautiful song by Francis Cabrel

Click YouTube for a full-screen version

Francis Cabrel was the object this evening of a wonderful documentary on French TV. It's amusing to discover the extent to which this intelligent and sympathetic fellow exists far away from the usual throng of media and music-hall people. He seems to be totally devoid of "skills" enabling him to become a selfish arsehole imbued by his talents and popularity. He remains as pure (and shy) as on the first day he ever sang in front of an audience. So, those beautiful kids who are accompanying Cabrel in the song "Il faudra leur dire" (They Must be Told) are on a perfect par with the great songwriter and singer. He is truly one of them, and the children seem to "know" that this is the case.

Click here for a streamed version of this song

Since early this morning at Gamone, this music—which mesmerizes me—has been playing non-stop on my Macintosh. Light rain is falling, and my dog Fitzroy is sleeping alongside my desk. Meanwhile, I spent much time this morning by trying to tell one of my Australian sisters that I look upon her Wordpress blogging activities as puzzling, to say the least. Click here to judge for yourselves. I keep saying to her: Why don't you write an Australia-based blog along the same lines and in the same kind of spirit and style as my France-based Antipodes ?

PAROLES DE CABREL

Si c'est vrai qu'il y a des gens qui s'aiment 

Si les enfants sont tous les mêmes 

Alors il faudra leur dire

C'est comme des parfums qu'on respire


Juste un regard 

Facile à  faire
Un peu plus d'amour que d'ordinaire

Puisqu'on vit dans la même lumière
Même s'il y a des couleurs qu'ils préfèrent

Nous on voudrait leur dire
C'est comme des parfums qu'on respire
Juste un regard
Facile à  faire
Un peu plus d'amour que d'ordinaire

Juste un peu plus d'amour encore
Pour moins de larmes

 

Pour moins de vide
Pour moins d'hiver
Puisqu'on vit dans les creux d'un rêve
Avant que l’amour ne touche nos lèvres
Nous on voudrait leur dire
Les mots qu'on reçoit
C'est comme des parfums qu'on respire
Il faudra leur dire
Facile à  faire
Un peu plus d'amour que d'ordinaire

Si c'est vrai qu'il y a des gens qui s'aiment
Si les enfants sont tous les mêmes
Alors... il faudra leur dire
Les mots qu'on reçoit
C'est comme des parfums qu'on respire
Il faudra leur dire
Facile à  faire 

Europe ready to discuss Britain's departure

At the Bratislava meeting, European nations revealed that they would like to start discussions with the UK as soon as possible on the subject of Britain's departure from Europe. Click here to listen to Donald Tusk, president of European Council.

Interesting tweets

I like these tweets from

@boldatheism

 

 Click to enlarge slightly

Silly ideas form in my imagination

Two days ago, I was working calmly on my iMac when the electricity suddenly disappeared, just after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. There were no vehicles on the road down alongside the River Bourne. An hour later, the electricity had not reappeared in my house. Crazy ideas started to form in my imagination. I wondered if terrorists might have blown up a nuclear power station. Frankly, I was quite worried. I strolled down the road with my dog, but this didn't ease my mind at all, since the neighborhood was in total silence. Finally, I heard the church bells of Châtelus ringing at 6 o'clock. I dashed back into the house, where I was relieved to find the electricity restored.

Yesterday, my neighbor Jackie told me that a road-works machine, further up along the valley, had accidentally destroyed an electricity pylon, causing an extensive blackout.

All the news I hear about terrorists has twisted my mind...

Proud to be British

Diane James—a businesswomen and healthcare professional—has just replaced Nigel Farage as the new leader of the UK Independence Party. They look liberated. Don’t they just?

Australian magpies

I've always been surprised by the fact that French people seem to know nothing at all about our Australian magpies.

Our birds Down Under look a litle like the French bird referred to as a pie, pronounced pee.

So, French people imagine that they're basically the same creature. Few people know that our Australian magpies, in their nesting season, attack children on bicycles by diving down at their heads. This kind of attack used to terrify me when I was a boy in South Grafton.

An Australian child on a bicycle, when attacked by a wild magpie, is capable of bending his head, looking down at the road, and maybe running into an approaching vehicle. If the bird uses its heavy beak to hit a child on the skull, this can cause a nasty wound

For French readers : The name in French of our possibly-vicious Australian magpie is the Cassican flûteur (Gymnorhina tibicen).

Dinosaur for sale in France

An American owner has decided to put his excellent dinosaur up for sale in France. Before the auction takes place, the skeleton is on display in a French railway station. The future auctioneer believes there'll be a big crowd of prospective buyers, because it's rare to find a top-quality dinosaur up for sale in this corner of the world.

I would like to put in a bid. I'm sure that my dog Fitzroy would love to have such a friend at Gamone. But the dinosaur is surely above my budget. I'll make a point of providing readers with details when the sale takes place. And, if ever I raked up enough cash to clinch the deal, Fitzroy and I will throw a dinosaur party at Gamone.

Going, going… gone

David Cameron, 49, ex-PM of the United Kingdom, has announced his intention to abandon his current job as a Tory parliamentarian. He explains that it’s not possible for a former PM to become an efficient political representative (of the everyday variety). Cameron resigned on June 24 following the Brexit vote.

Google's latest voice is not bad at all

Click here to access a short French-language article about Google's latest achievements in synthetic voices. Samples start with well-chosen words: "aspects of the sublime".

Do dolphins use an advanced language?

The Russian scientist Vyacheslav Ryabov, of the Crimean marine station in Karadag, affirms that the language of dolphins is just as complex as human language. Click here to access his article on this subject in the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University Journal: Physics and Mathematics. This specialist in marine biology and animal communication draws attention to the fact that dolphins have existed on the planet Earth for a much greater period of time than humans. So, they've had sufficient time to become as smart as us. I don't know whether that reasoning is valid, but it sounds good to me. I would be thrilled to discover that dolphins—even though they don't appear to publish books, set up scientific laboratories or carry out political elections—are as bright (?) as the brightest humans.

My readers might not know that the French region in which Gamone is located is known as the Dauphiné. That term is related to the French word for "dolphin", and it's closely linked to the word dauphin, designating the eldest son of a French king.

Arms of the Dauphin of France

But why would dolphins be evoked in the name of a region so far from the sea, and in the nickname of a prince? If you're interested, I'll make a point of telling you—one of these days—my "theory" on this question...

World butchery championship in Australia

A short news article in the French press reveals that the world butchery championship was held in Australia, but it indicates neither the date of the event nor the name of the city in which it took place. Guess who won. France, of course. Here’s a photo of the French entry for the preparation of beef, the preparation of lamb, and minced beef rolls. The French team was composed of three butchers from the Loire region.

Plantu cartoon

Click to enlarge slightly

French police-woman

Dramatic interview of a brave young French police-woman, Magali, who was obliged to fire back at a terrorist at the wheel of a big truck in Nice on July 14, 2016. Clearly, Magali is still suffering deeply, and it's not certain that she'll be able to carry on her career.

Today, as the world looks back at September 11, and relates that terrible day to more recent happenings in Europe and elsewhere, I realize more than ever that the lives and thoughts of countless human beings throughout the world have been changed forever by our awareness of the horrors of terrorism. We must never forget.

Egodates

An egodate is a political candidate with no chances of being elected, who's purely on an ego trip. In France, they're rampant at present. In French, such a person would be called an égodat. Let me introduce you to two outstanding French egodates: Nadine Morano and Jean-François Copé.

Nadine Morano in the company of Alain Juppé [photo AFP]

It's not very honest of me to refer to Nadine Marano, today, as a genuine egodate, for she was knocked out of the race a week ago, at La Baule, by her right-wing parliamentarian brothers and sisters, who refused to endorse her candidacy. Now, why would they? There's no way in the world that she could ever receive more than a handful of votes at next year's presidential election. I assume therefore that Nadine has been on a purely selfish ego trip. So good riddance, my dear lady. You're no longer needed here.

Jean-François Copé might be described as an outstanding professional egodate, with lengthy experience and laurels on his head. In athletic terms, he's a champion marathonian. In boxing terms, a punching bag. No matter how hard he's hit next year, and how few votes he collects, Copé will be back for more. No determined egodate ever gives up. That wouldn't be cricket. Above all, that wouldn't be Copé.

I nevertheless wonder why dull individuals of this ilk are letting off personal steam constantly in our complex world dominated by terrorism, poverty, racism, etc. Since they have nothing to say (apart from rambling on about their personal careers), why don't they simply remain silent ?

BREAKING NEWS: Copé has just stated that his successful election next year would give rise to a “true rupture”. He wasn’t talking about some kind of nasty medical attack that might affect him. He was simply saying that he would destroy all contacts with “the band of four”. Was he referring to leaders in some remote Communist nation? No, he was simply using flamboyant egodate’s language to designate four fellow-politicians: Sarkozy, Juppé, Fillon and Le Maire. Regardless of what they actually say (which doesn't matter greatly), egodates need to be good at loud talking.

MORE BREAKING NEWS: Copé lost little time before making another attack upon Sarko.  « Il est un colosse qui dispose de tous les pouvoirs et de tous les moyens, un colosse réputé invisible, lance-t-il. Ceux-là ont oublié la belle histoire de David contre Goliath. Il est des colosses dont les pieds sont en argile. »  Copé's hatred of Sarko is virulent. In comparing himself with the biblical David, Copé demonstrates that he has a screw loose. This has been my personal impression for ages.

STILL MORE BREAKING NEWS: Nadine refuses to keep her silly mouth shut. Admire this extract from Le Point. She, too, seems to have a screw loose. I have the impression that this weakness is common to egodates such as Nadine and Copé. They see themselves as God's gift to society. They simply cannot imagine that they bore most folk.

Click to enlarge slightly

The Falling Man

This silent image of a single individual dropping to earth, taken by the news photographer Richard Drew, symbolizes every human being who died that day. The Falling Man has never been identified.

Fitzroy is back outside, in the dark

Last night, I was happy to go to sleep with Fitzroy lying on the bedroom floor, in his elegant little sleeping bag, which I had withdrawn from his kennel. The house adventure didn't last for long. This afternoon, Fitzroy made it perfectly clear to me that he did not intend to repeat the in-house procedure. I have my house, and Fitzroy has his... his own little private residence. And there's no sense in trying to combine them. It's amazing that a dog can get this complex message across in a perfectly clear manner, without the slightest word.

There's a wonderful story about a talking donkey, the friend of a little boy. The child wants to demonstrate the donkey's extraordinary talents to people in the village, but the animal refrains from uttering a single word. Afterwards, when the village people have stopped making fun of the child, and they've all gone home, the boy asks the donkey: "Why did you refuse to speak in front of the village people?" The animal explains: "I don't like to speak with all those dull folk, who wouldn't understand me. They bore me. I only take pleasure in rambling on with you."

I often feel that Fitzroy is a bit like that donkey. One of these days, my dog will inform me that he doesn't mind listening to my voice, but that the things he might say to me are so extraordinary that a fellow like me simply wouldn't understand.

France has all kinds of exotic things

Even genuine Communists. Here's a typical specimen: Pierre Laurent, 49, French journalist and politician, senator, former editor-in-chief of the newspaper L'Humanité, and national secretary of the PCF (Parti communiste français) since June 2010.

Crowds of dinosaurs are gathered together this weekend, with their friends, at the Fête de L'Humanité : a time-honored festival organized by the French Communist newspaper. I hardly need to stress the fact that all these nice folk are perfectly respectable. They wouldn't use a hammer and sickle to hurt a flea. I don't know whether they're aware of the state of Communism in other parts of the world, including Russia. They probably don't care too much about such matters. Please don't hurt their feelings by bringing up subjects like that. On the other hand, I'm sure they collect Soviet postage stamps, postcards of Moscow, and antique editions of books by Marx (Karl, not Groucho). And they surely love to sip vodka while listening nostalgically to balalaika music.

An ordinary day, September 11, 2001

With no warning, Hell descended upon our lovely planet Earth.

The Devil and his evil archangels are still here.

But we'll soon eliminate the mad buggers.

An enormous responsibility: juror's job

Last night, on the Public Sénat channel, I watched a lengthy replay on a huge task that might fall upon any French citizen: becoming a member of a jury for a major criminal trial. Here's an interview with a French lady, Sarah Lebas, who made a documentary on this subject.

I can well understand that many ordinary citizens might be terrified and driven crazy by this frightening responsibility. The selected citizen knows nothing about the crime in question, the personality and background of the alleged perpetrator nor even the French system of justice. That's exactly how he/she is supposed to be: an ordinary citizen, totally uninformed, with no prejudices brought about by prior knowledge of the crime, the victims or the criminals. But this "ordinary citizen" is going to be asked whether the individual on trial was guilty or not. And, if guilty, how many years must that culprit spend in prison? A truly terrifying task, which might haunt jurors for the rest of their lives. Is there no more "professional" way of dealing with such questions? Surely not. We've got the finest and most time-honored system that can possibly exist: trial by jury. Those words seem to be understandable... up until you take a close look at what they mean at a practical level.

Excellent US cartoon

I'll let you read the text in the lower left-hand corner (if you can) to discover whom we should thank for this delightful political cartoon.

Click to enlarge slightly

Johnson looks as if he has just crawled out of a hole in a log. Clinton is trying desperately to suppress an approaching fart. Meanwhile, Trump is a happy as a contented toad. Does America really need to make one of these individuals their future president?

Late morning dream

Late yesterday afternoon, I prepared my old cylindrical vacuum cleaner for an evening attack upon the horrible Pyrale moths. Tineke and Serge had informed me that this technique works well, and it's less troublesome than using buckets of soapy water. Everything was in place, and I'd even protected the device and the power cables from a possible nocturnal shower of rain. I decided that it would be preferable for Fitzroy to spend the night inside the house, instead of in his kennel. I liked this decision, because I'm always happier for no clear reason) when my dog is near me, rather than out in the dark.

Everything was ready for the moths... but they simply failed to appear. If I understand correctly, their annual season is nearing the end.

Early this morning, Fitzroy used his snout gently to wake me up, and I took him out for a pee (which didn't take place). Then we came back into the house and I went to sleep again.

A hour or so later, I was awoken by one of my familiar computer-programming dreams, which are sufficiently unpleasant to be labeled nightmares. Unless you happen to be a computer programmer, it's hard to understand the gist of such dreams. In my nightmare, I have the impression that I've installed an arithmetic counter that needs to be constantly updated by newly-obtained numeric values. This counter is in fact installed, but it's clearly not functioning correctly. Instead of increasing regularly, it remains stuck at its initial value, as if there were a bug in the code. In real computer programming, this kind of error would be commonplace and easy to correct. In my nightmare, on the other hand, the presence of this bug troubles me considerably, because I can't understand how the error has occurred, or how I might trace it and fix it. Finally, I'm immensely relieved when I awake from my nightmare. First, I need a minute or so to grasp that no such bug exists. That I was merely dreaming. Then I'm in fine form. For a computer programmer, there's nothing better than knowing that your software is clean, free of bugs. That's how I was this morning, when I took Fitzroy out a second time.

Unfortunately, I'm not likely to chase such dream themes from my mind. It's already many years since I wrote code to update arithmetic counters, but all this experience has remained apparently in my brain. I wonder if I could do some kind of a reboot...

Autumn at Gamone

The piles of brown leaves at Gamone have fallen, not from my lovely old linden trees, but from a couple of maple giants. A few years ago, I thought of cutting down these trees, for I'm afraid at times that they could be blown over towards the house. But it's probably preferable to let them live.

Click to enlarge slightly

The next photo shows my apple tree, which has provided me with small fruit this year.

Fitzroy has found a tiny apple, which he is keenly inspecting.

These apples are tender and sweet, and free of insects and worms.

Stepping back towards devils and witches

I wonder at times whether our advanced societies might not be stepping backwards, inexorably, towards devils and witches. In particular, the ancient theme of witches has appeared in my mind. Last Sunday, in the early hours of the morning, an unusual terrorist affair was revealed in Paris. In the vicinity of the great cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (where Victor Hugo had invented and placed Quasimodo, better known as the Hunchback), inside an old vehicle without number plates, six bottles of gas were discovered. Five young women have been arrested, and there are no doubts that they were planning some bad work. They were described in French as "radicalisées, fanatisées”. That  means, to call a spade a spade, that these women were determined terrorists, on the point of committing serious crimes.

Now, I don’t intend to delve further into the details of this affair, which is still the most prominent news story this evening. What I wish to do is to reflect upon the possible evolution of thinking in France on such an affair, and the possibility that our society might be faced with the birth of very nasty attitudes towards terrorists.

Is my thinking influenced by the fact that the culprits were women, that they were determined to cause severe damage, and that their project for murder used material (gas bottles) that can be purchased at the local supermarket ? Yes, you can say that I was biased by those simple facts.

I wish to add an additional opinion, which is terribly grave. I believe that, to put it bluntly, there is no hope for such individuals. The possibility that these women might be magically “improved” is practically zero. In other words, it would be preferable, from many viewpoints, if these women were to simply disappear from our society. We have no place for them. For the moment, the only legal way of making them disappear from our society consists of putting them in prison, and making sure they stay there. No matter what their crime, there is no death sentence in France. So, they are likely to survive in prison for many years, and there is little likelihood that their years of suffering will have any positive benefits upon anybody, neither the women themselves, nor most members of our society.

In ancient societies, women of this kind might have been considered as witches, and they would have been put to death without too many questions being asked. That is the technique being used today by the USA to combat Daesh devils. I have the impression that, as more and more terrorists emerge, approaches for removing them might soon merge. But I don’t see how intelligent humans could ever survive in such a harsh new world.

Village festival

Saint-André-en-Royans is just across the hill from Gamone. Their annual village festival will soon be taking place.

If could be accompanied by a charming rural miss, with a taste for this stuff, I would be happy to get dressed up and go. But I don't have any misses in mind. So, without a miss, I'll have to make a miss.

President Hollande's Wagram speech

 

Christophe Ena / AP

The French president speaks wonderfully well. Often, people in the Wagram hall broke into applause, interrupting the speaker. It's reassuring to see, once again, that our president has the oratorical talents of a great theatrical actor playing a kind of Shakespearean role. I believe that this Wagram discourse will go down in French history Here are some extracts of his great speech.

Le président commence son discours avec cette phrase forte. "Malgré la peur, malgré la souffrance, nous vaincrons. La démocratie sera toujours plus forte que la barbarie qui lui a déclaré la guerre" poursuit-il.

 "Au terme de la lutte, la démocratie triomphera."

 François Hollande s'en prend à l'Etat islamique, qu'il décrit ainsi : "Voilà l'ennemi, nous le nommons, il est redoutable. Et même s'il recule en Syrie et en Irak, il s'installe sur d'autres terrains. cette ennemi est cruel, il endoctrine, il enrôle, il est insatiable."

 "Partout, les musulmans ont été les victimes des islamistes, y compris en France", poursuit François Hollande, qui explique les raisons de l'engagement de la France contre le terrorisme. 

Dès le début de son intervention, François Hollande pose le cadre: c'est par la "liberté" que nous vaincrons le "terrorisme islamiste". La liberté vue comme un atout dans cette lutte, face à une partie de la droite qui envisage de restreindre les libertés pour mener cette lutte. 

 Le chef de l'Etat embraie désormais sur la réponse que doit apporter la France face au terrorisme.

"Je fais tout pour protéger les Français mais je leur dois aussi la vérité. La menace va durer. Nous devons donc l'affronter avec sang-froid. Nous ne devons jamais nous laisser emporter par la déraison."

François Hollande s'en prend, en les énumérant, aux mesures prônées par la droite pour contrer le terrorisme. "Ces reniements seraient autant de renoncements sans nullement assurer la sécurité des Français, tranche-t-il. Est-ce que l'adoption du Patriot Act ou le camp de Guantanamo ont protégé les Etats-Unis ? Non", tranche-t-il. 

 D'emblée, le président l'a proclamé : "Nous vaincrons. La démocratie sera toujours plus forte que la barbarie qui lui a déclaré la guerre".

Le président vise directement Nicolas Sarkozy, qui parlait cet été d'"arguties juridiques", quand le gouvernement a rejeté sa proposition de centres de rétention préventive. "Les principes constitutionnels ne sont pas des arguties juridiques", lui répond-il.

Après une attaque en règle contre Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande donne sa conception de l'action du gouvernement contre le terrorisme. "Nous avons fait en sorte d'agir avec le droit. Nous ne menons aucune opération de guerre préventive. Qui peut dire avec un peu de sincérité que nous n'avons pas tout fait pour protéger nos policiers, nos gendarmes et nos militaires ?"

"C'est parce que nous sommes forts, que nous pesons dans le destin du monde, que nous sommes attaqués", affirme le chef de l'Etat, défendant la démocratie face à "l'état d'exception". 

"Ce qu'il nous faut réussir, c'est la construction de l'islam de France", dit François Hollande, qui défend la création d'une Fondation pour l'islam. 

François Hollande appelle les musulmans de France à "prendre leurs responsabilité de citoyens". "Je leur demande, pas plus qu'à d'autres concitoyens, de le faire", précise-t-il. 

"Il est faux de prétendre que l'état de droit entraverait la lutte antiterroriste ou que les démocraties seraient impuissantes face à la menace", a martelé le chef de l'Etat. 

Le discours de François Hollande prend un tour plus politique. Le chef de l'Etat attaque la droite : "Ils pensent que l'élection c'est la primaire, que les Français viendront juste signer au bas de la page !"

Dans ce discours consacré à la cohésion nationale, François Hollande se pose en garant du "modèle social" français. Selon lui, il doit cependant être "modernisé, réformé, complété, pour pouvoir être adapté".

François Hollande s'en prend maintenant aux "extrémistes", qui "prétendent incarner le peuple contre les élites, dont ils sont généralement issus". 

Clin d'oeil appuyé aux échéances électorales à venir et à ceux qui en rêvent. "Ah, ce n'est pas facile l'élection... Il faut la mériter. Il faut s'y préparer. Et il faut respecter les citoyens." 

"La Ve République, face à la menace, donne les moyens d'agir. S'il n'y avait pas eu cette possibilité au président de la République d'intervenir au Mali, en Syrie et en Irak, il eût été trop tard", affirme François Hollande.

"Je mets en garde ceux qui voudraient remettre en cause la fonction présidentielle."

François Hollande dresse maintenant une liste de réformes institutionnelles à accomplir. Il annonce ainsi vouloir limiter le cumul des mandats "dans le temps". 

François Hollande liste les enjeux, selon lui, de la prochaine campagne présidentielle : "la protection des Français, la cohésion nationale, le modèle social, la conception de la démocratie, la place de la France en Europe et dans le monde."   

Que retenir de ce discours de François Hollande ?
• Le chef de l'Etat a livré sa vision de la démocratie face au terrorisme. Et défendu "l'état de droit" face à "l'état d'exception".
• Avec une tonalité très politique, il a beaucoup critiqué les propositions de la droite, se posant en garant des valeurs de la République et de la démocratie.
• Sans se déclarer candidat, il a laissé entendre qu'il pourrait ne pas en rester là en 2017. "Je ne laisserai pas la France être abîmée, réduite, son Etat de droit contesté, son éducation réduite et sa culture amputée. C'est le combat d'une vie", a-t-il déclaré.
• Se projetant vers 2017, le président sortant a décliné les thèmes qui, selon lui, seront l'enjeu de la campagne présidentielle. "La protection des Français, la cohésion nationale, le modèle social, la conception de la démocratie, la place de la France en Europe et dans le monde."

Genetic tucker

The term "tucker" is Aussie slang, meaning food for humans.

Click to enlarge slightly

Several earlier posts in my blog have mentioned the CRISP-Cas9 system of gene editing. Click here to access a Wikipedia article on this subject. Well, for the first time ever, an edible green plant has been created by genetic editing using the CRISP-Cas9 system. It looks great. I hope it’s tasty. I’m sure it is. I’m a genetic optimist.

Accidents that should no longer happen

I wanted to cry in horrible sadness, a few minutes ago, when I heard that a young Rom girl of 14 was mortally electrocuted in Grenoble, in an insalubrious building, when a wire dropped into a basin of water in which she was bathing herself. [news from the 20 minutes website]

Certain weird Aussies won't admit that I exist

The behavior of the Australian book-sales business is unique. They don't seem to function in the same way as ordinary civilized bookshops elsewhere in the world. In a nutshell, they behave as if their country still lived in the days of bushrangers. For example, when a prospective customer attempts to purchase books that I've written and published, Amazon Australia simply tells the would-be customer that no such author or publisher exists.

It's amazing! When I discovered this state of affairs, a few days ago, I was utterly shocked. The primitive bastards don't seem to realize that, beyond the shorelines of their Antipodian island, a vast new world exists. To be honest, I don't know exactly why a few Australian Internet book shops behave in this weird manner.

I suspect, though, that it's because they discovered that I was an independent publisher, with my own successful business named Gamone Press, Choranche. What they dislike about me, I would imagine, is the fact that my book-printing platform is Lightning Source. Maybe there's some kind of gang warfare going on between Aussie bookshops and this platform. I'm merely guessing, because nobody seems to be able to tell me what's happening in the Antipodes. In any case, the situation Down Under truly sickens me... like many things, these days, that emerge from my land of birth.

Imagining the future in God’s Own Country

It’s perfectly possible that Trump could become the next US president. For the moment, polls put the two contenders in a dead heat. (What an ugly and somewhat terrifying expression!)

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I’m troubled by a not-impossible consequence of the not-impossible victory of Trump, particularly when I learn that Texas is against the candidate. In the USA, many brave folk would not accept his election as the president. And many of those citizens carry weapons. Put two and two together… I’m surely not the only observer who thinks that way. I hope my thinking is merely an empty nightmare. Not an empty charger.

To put it bluntly, this man has a screw loose

Click here to see Nicolas Sarkozy raving on about his "passion de la France". I'm convinced that French people—who aren't idiots—are going to wake up massively to the insane egocentric behavior of the ex-president. Let me remind readers that this man is currently faced with a possible trial for the illegal financing of his last electoral campaign. In my native Australia, we used to have nice expressions (rarely understandable) for such a fellow (rarely for a famous polly):

• "He's all over the road like a mad woman's shit."

• "He's as mad as a cut snake."

It's fascinating to study Sarko's facial movements. They offer such a pile of explicit psychiatric indications that a simple untrained observer like me can detect the presence of clues to the man's mind.

Pebble in Sarkozy’s shoe

That’s the metaphor invented by Le Monde to designate the suggestion that Sarkozy should be brought to trial.

The magistrates handling the Sarkozy case are not obliged to respect any kind of time delay before deciding whether to bring him to trial, or whether to establish what is termed an “ordonnance de non-lieu” : a ruling that simply states the absence of grounds for pursuing the affair. With respect to the presidential primaries to be held in November, this decision could be announced either before or after that time.

The journalist of Le Monde used the verb “pollute” to designate the possible effects of the Sarkozy affair upon those primaries.

Lawrence Durrell's Greece

Lawrence Durrell

Click the YouTube icon to see the video in a larger format

If Sarko is tried, how might it end?

The poor man (?) has just been told that he'll normally face a court trial. So, let's give him time to get himself organized for that ordeal. And above all, in the excellent time-honored French tradition, let us assume totally (I stress that adverb, seriously: totally) that Nicolas Sarkozy is indeed, for the moment, innocent. In other words, let us suppose that the man has been accused wrongly, unjustly... and that he will surely find ways of demonstrating, beyond any doubts whatsoever, that it was an error for people to drag him into a court of law. If events were to turn out in that way, then the case against Nicolas Sarkozy would be dropped, as it were. If I correctly understand French legal jargon (which is not necessarily the case), we would avoid saying that he was acquitted or shown to be innocent, because both those expressions might leave vague doubts suspended in the air above Sarkozy's head. The politically correct way of expressing such an outcome would consist of saying that it was decided by the parquet to abandon all pursuits against the man brought to trial.

If I make blunders in my understanding of French legal terminology, it would be nice if an educated reader were to put me on the right path.

Learning the facts of Sarkozy's future trial

I'm making an effort to master the facts of Nicolas Sarkozy's future trial... which could possibly take place next year. It seems to me that the very idea of trying a former president is enormous, which means that we should look gravely upon this future trial. It will be a most exceptional event. Besides, Sarkozy has been hoping to become the president of France for a second time. Instead of awaiting the results of a presidential election, he'll be awaiting the verdict of a court of law.

Sarkozy's lawyer is 60-year-old Thierry Herzog, who is a personal friend of the former president.

Already, this afternoon, Herzog has surprised observers by making erroneous statements. Up until now, Sarkozy has been subjected to a single legal operation, designated as an examination (mise en examen), which took place last February. The motive for his being examined was the illegal financing of an electoral campaign, and five facts were retained against Sarkozy. The examination was carried out by a body known as the parquet of Paris. The examination came to an end on August 30. The original motive and facts might have been totally replaced by new entities, but this was not entirely the case. In deciding that Sarkozy should be brought to trial, the parquet retained the same motive: namely the illegal financing of an electoral campaign. On the other hand, the parquet abandoned the first two facts, and only retained the last three :

1. Sarkozy had exceeded the ceiling of electoral expenses.
   
2. He had failed to respect the rules for establishing his campaign's accounting.
   
3. He had inserted, in the accounting, some elements that were deliberately understated.
   

Now, Herzog suggested today that the parquet, in moving from the examination to the present réquisitoire, had committed legal errors. Clearly, this is untrue, because no new elements whatsoever have been inserted. We have seen, above all, that the motive for sending Sarkozy to trial is strictly identical to the motive for examining him. So, it appears that Herzog was trying to pull the wool over our eyes when he suggested the existence of legal irregularities.

Copé reacts to an announced trial for Sarko

"This new element confirms my innocence in that affair,

wrongly designated as the Bygmalion Affair.

That affair concerns solely the campaign accounting of Nicolas Sarkozy."

What exactly did Jean-François Copé have in mind when he spoke of "this new element" ? I see no new elements thrown recently into what we designate, rightly or wrongly, as the Bygmalion affair. We simply learnt that the parquet has decided that Nicolas Sarkozy, deemed for the moment to be innocent, must face a court trial. And the motive for Sarkozy's being brought to face this future trial was the illegal financing of an electoral campaign. In other words, the trial is expected to determine whether or not Sarkozy did in fact finance illegally his electoral campaign. Now, that is not exactly what might be called a "new element" in this affair. It's merely the normal down-to-earth unfolding of ordinary French processes of law.

Once upon a time, they were friends

The smaller friend, on the right, is Nicolas Sarkozy, who used to be the French president. His friend on the left is Jean-François Copé, who used to be in charge of Sarko’s political party, the UMP. Then there’s an excellent news magazine, Le Point.

Last but not least, there's a mysterious French communications company named Bygmalion.

• In February 2014, Le Point said that Copé had favorized the Bygmalion agency, enabling it to pocket some 8 million euros during Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2012. Copé was obliged to resign, and the legal system of Paris opened an enquiry.

• Bygmalion revealed a ghost system of accounting.

• On April Fool’s Day 2015, Sarkozy was dragged into the affair.

• On September 4, 2015, Sarko blamed Copé for the mess.

• A member of Bygmalion, Jérôme Lavrilleux, counter-attacked Sarko, who was examined by legal authorities (along with 13 other individuals) for illegal financing of his political campaign.

And that’s about where we are today. You'll certainly be hearing more about this affair, in the French press, in the near future.

Remake of a famous French movie

Everybody in France loves Les Valseuses of Bertrand Blier, with Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou and Jeanne Moreau. John Turturro, who acted in Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski, is working on an updated version of the great French cult film. That explains—so I hear—last night’s crazy new hairdo of Audrey Tautou.

Is it really true that Audrey will be taking over the Miou-Miou role ?

Rope net dropped around Sarko

The Bygmalion affair has just been dropped onto Sarko's head. If he can succeed in escaping from that mess between now and the presidential election, he's a Houdini. But the guy is as cunning as an educated ferret. So, he'll possibly succeed...

Cartooning for Peace

A nice tweet from an admirable organization: @CartooningPeace

 

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For  reasons I don't understand, it took me some messing around to include both the Twitter name of the organization and the cartoon. Everything on the Internet is becoming more and more difficult...

Ancient history of my paternal family

It's a long time since I've mentioned my ancient ancestors in the Leicestershire village of Skeffington. I devoted considerable energy to the publication of my books A Little Bit of Irish and They Sought the Last of Lands. Today, I'm tremendously proud of both books, but I believe that I should no longer remain attached to such subjects. Nevertheless, I remain intrigued by ancient paternal genealogy, particularly since I persist—for reasons of genealogical genetics—in seeing myself as a rare survivor of the earliest imaginable patriarch in Leicester. If I were particularly energetic (which I'm not, particularly since falling down the stairs a year ago), I would pursue an interesting line of my paternal genealogy: namely, research into the identity of the Norman fellow who settled in the English place that came to be known as Skeffington.

When I left this subject, prior to falling down the stairs a year ago, I was particularly intrigued by the case of an ancient Norman family called Verdun, who were closely attached to the village of Skeffington. There's even a chance that my earliest male ancestor in Leicestershire might have been a member of this Verdun family.

So, I am still interested in contacting living descendants of this ancient family, to see if they have any Y-chromosome data they could show me (so I could compare it with mine). But there's a major unexpected hitch. The most prominent living Verdun descendant happens to be the husband of... Christine Dupont de Ligonnès. And I don't intend to start asking those people if they might assist me with DNA research.

Two different young politicians with a similar viewpoint

Click here to see François Baroin talking about Manuel Valls on the subject of Islamic head attire for females. It’s reassuring to find youthful French politicians, on opposite sides of the fence, sharing similar views concerning the challenge of chasing obscurity from modern France.

Just a star away

A stone’s throw ? Not exactly. A little bit more. Aim your stellar pebble in this direction.

Jeanne Moreau sings “Le tourbillon” on March 2, 1969

I don’t know whether this movie clip loads easily. It probably takes time, but it's worth waiting. When Jeanne Moreau recorded this song, my son was still a six-months-old fœtus in his mother’s womb. The man alongside Jeanne was the former journalist Pierre Lazareff, who had become a press baron and producer of variety performers.

Weavers all gone

Fred Hellerman, 89, the last member of The Weavers folk group, has finally left the stage forever. In this old video, he's the seated chap.

Trivial sad story

Male penises are never totally tamed. No matter how we try to teach them refined behavior and nice manners, they have a habit of remaining wild and savage, hard-headed, ready to attack their owners. They can become as mad as a dog with rabies. If the worst gets to the worst, a rabid penis may have to be lobotomized or even euthanized. In most cases, fortunately, they can be tranquillized by pharmaceutical drugs.

François Bayrou (à gauche) et Robert Rochefort,

le 19 mai 2014 à Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). (GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)

A distinguished French political fellow was found masturbating publicly, last Wednesday, near children. Robert Rochefort, 60, is a political companion of the president of the MoDem party, of François Bayrou, mayor of Pau. The alleged wrongdoer—who apparently recognized his act, but then claimed that the words were untrue—has been asked to resign. It’s terrible to observe the career of Rochefort stagnating, if not culminating forever, in this sad fashion. But such is life. Such are mad penises.

Festival of drones on the Champs-Elysées

Tomorrow (Sunday), more than 100,000 spectators are expected to attend the inaugural Paris Drone Festival on the Champs-Elysées.

photo signed DR from Le Parisien

Dozens of tiny aircraft, piloted by their ground-based owners, will race up and down the famous Paris avenue beneath a gigantic canopy, 140 metres long and 17 metres wide. This big “tent” will be located near the top of the Champs-Elysées. At the same time, the entire avenue, 2 km from Concorde to Etoile, will be closed to road traffic, and no doubt protected by massive police forces.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note that big brothers (or rather American cousins) of these elegant little Parisian drones will continue to work in faraway places, attempting to shoot to death Islamic criminals.

Ratification of the COP21 treaty

This morning, we've heard that both China and the USA have finally ratified the COP21 treaty. Laurent Fabius will be happy, of course. And so will everybody.

Identity of Banksy

A new theory has arisen. Maybe the street artist Banksy is in fact the leader of the Massive Attack group, Robert “3D” Del Naja.

France’s political establishment has always been constipated

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte seem to be exerting a wonderful laxative effect upon many French groaning and farting observers. They do things that most serious French political figures never dream of doing. For example, they smile. Not a Sarkozy grin. Nor a Hollande giggle. Nor a Le Pen smirk. And certainly not a sinister Balkany baring of the teeth to bite you. No, believe it or not, the Macron couple actually smile, as if they’re happy. My God, there must be something wrong with them. Are they crazy? We must be careful!

French presidential face book

Everybody on the planet Earth (and maybe beyond) knows what a face book is. Did you know that this kind of document (a collection of face portraits of class students or business colleagues) is referred to in French as a trombinoscope ? That word comes from trombine, a modification of bobine, meaning a human face. Click here to access the trombinoscope of all the 82 current candidates for next year’s French presidential election.

It's a little too early to print out and frame this beautiful array of splendid heads. It's more than likely that I'll soon be publishing a revised version, both bigger and better.