Some splendid animals, once wild, are entering human society

I wrote a very dismal blog post here, which I now regret a little (but I’ll leave it untouched for the moment). It was simply far too simple for a naïve observer such as me to deplore the fact that a huge proportion of wild animals are going into oblivion. In writing that blog post, I was behaving in just as stupid a manner as Marie-Antoinette when she said that the starving people of Paris should simply eat cake. One has no right to boast about his lucky childhood when wild beasts could be observed roaming freely through the jungle. We must never forget that the vicious fellows who destroy free animals are indeed depraved human cousins, biologically closer to us than any so-called wild animal.

From now on, the only approach that would be worthy of a serious observer consists of concluding that, since magnificent wild animals are no longer capable of surviving in the jungle, where they are likely to be destroyed by vicious humans, then the only noble solution is to protect them as best we can, by whatever means we can imagine, including the idea of inviting as many beasts as possible into sanctuaries in the heart of our human societies.

Thoiry, in France, has been doing a splendid job in taking care of many beautiful beasts, and inviting visitors to see them up close.

Alongside these big beasts running around in liberty, click here to glimpse Thoiry’s Ark of small creatures.

Television is playing a role in making us aware, if need be, that so-called wild animals have always been our fabulous cousins. This awareness creates an atmosphere in which sanctuaries can obtain necessary funds. A few days ago, for example, I was one of millions of TV-viewers who watched a group of devoted young carers handling a female bonobo who needed to provide a blood sample. I felt the same sense of drama as if we were watching a surgical intervention upon a sick child.

Software for people who can’t handle traditional verbal culture

A Dutch software manufacturer named Assistiveware has created a tool named Proloquo2go for people who are incapable of handling traditional verbal culture. The tool incorporates a virtual on-screen keyboard with pictograms, and it is only offered, for the moment, to users of English, Spanish or French. Here’s an example of a typical pictogram phrase:

As soon as the user enters a set of pictograms, a speech synthesizer produces an audio version of the phrase.

This tool belongs to the domain of AAC [Alternative and Augmented Communication], which facilitates the life of people with elocution problems : autistic individuals, those with trisomy (including Down Syndrome) and victims of strokes or Parkinson’s disease. In France, about 1.3 million people suffer from such sensory handicaps.  In the special case of the Proloquo2go product, most users happen to be less than 11 years old.

Georges Brassens died 35 years ago

Click the loudspeaker icon to unmute

Jean-Pierre Darroussin : "J'ai rendez-vous avec vous"
Karin Viard : "Mourir pour des idées"
Michèl Fau : "Le pornographe"
Guillaume Gallienne : "La prière"
Audrey Tautou : "La mauvaise réputation"
Pierre Richard : "Les passantes"
Michel Bouquet : "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux"
Catherine Frot : "La complainte des filles de joie
Lionel Abelanski : "Je me suis fait tout petit"
Roger Dumas : "Auprès de mon arbre"
Julie Depardieu : "Le gorille"
Léa Drucker : "Les amoureux des bancs publics"
François Morel :"La non-demande en mariage"
François Berléand : "Le temps ne fait rien à l'affaire"
Valérie Bonneton : "Chanson pour l'Auvergnat"
André Dussolier : "Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète"

In France, this evening, everybody's thinking about the time of day

During the night, at 3 am, French clocks that still have old-fashioned "hands" will be expected to have them turned back an hour, to indicate 2 am. In other words, if I wake up tomorrow morning and climb out of bed in an accustomed manner, after what would appear to have been a good night's sleep, my Apple computer will inform me that it's earlier than what I might have expected... if only I hadn't read all the advice that has been appearing throughout the day in French news about switching back to winter daylight hours. It's not a big problem here at Gamone, since I only have my old watch and two wall clocks to wind back. Here's a good French reminder :

Opening of the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem

As far as big news goes, this is really Big News. For the first time in centuries, the tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem is being opened.

It goes without saying (but I’ll nevertheless say so) that there is nothing whatsoever inside this time-honored hole in the ground. Besides, I can’t understand why Christians dare to even speak of the alleged “tomb” of their hero. Click here to access a National Geographic website that proposes a short video on the exposure of Christ’s so-called “burial place”. Here again, it’s time for somebody to inform that respected magazine that, in theory, Jesus was never buried anywhere. Everybody agrees that Jesus died on an atrocious wooden torture instrument. (Well, most people agree... except for those who consider that the alleged individual simply never even existed.) But Christians consider that he didn't stay dead for more than a few days, and was certainly never buried. I'll terminate my brief explanations there, because readers are surely familiar with that tale.

Negative judgment for Roybon project

This legal decision could be a major negative step in the Center Parcs project at Roybon (Isère).

Base jumping at Choranche

I have the impression that the following YouTube videos are composed of base-jumps from a site in Presles located above the Rochemuse estate in Choranche. Often you glimpse a small lake: the electricity dam located between Châtelus and Choranche.

Je serais content de recevoir des informations précises

sur ces vidéos de la part de spécialistes locaux.

+

Max Moret tombé à Choranche le 30 avril 2011

Corsican who changed the existence of my Australian cousin

In the early 1970s, in Paris, my good friend Jean-Paul Pagès, an ex-professor of medecine, invited me to lunch with one of his former students, a Corsican doctor named Xavier Emmanuelli. I brought along my cousin Peter Hakewill, a young Australian doctor who happened to be visiting Paris at that moment. Xavier Emmanuelli was starting to acquire a reputation through his role in the creation of the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders].

By the end of the luncheon, my cousin was making plans with Emmanuelli to join his organization for work in Thailand. And that was the start of a lengthy experience for both my cousin and his brother Mitchell Smith.

Friday evening, Xavier Emmanuelli made an uncommon appearance on French TV.

Much muddy water has flowed under the bridges of distressed nations (not to mention wealthy countries such as Australia) since that chance encounter in Paris between Emmanuelli and my cousin some 45 years ago. As for Xavier Emmanuelli, he had a short political career, and published a biographical book, S'en fout la mort [Don't give a damn about death].

Biggest marine show on Earth

Australia will be seated in the front row, as close as possible to the animals. The world’s greatest marine park will be located in Antarctica, just a short boat trip to the south of my native land. After years of difficult negotiations, the 25 members of the Commission pour la conservation de la faune et de la flore maritimes de l'Antarctique adopted unanimously the creation in Ross Sea of a marine sanctuary of a million and a half square kilometres.

Vertebrates are disappearing fast

The greatest show on Earth—the world’s populations of mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles—is disappearing like melting snow. In the short space of 42 years, between 1970 and 2012, over half their number has disappeared. Clearly, the show will soon grind to a halt, because the artists will no longer be there to keep it running. A few specimens will remain in zoos.  But that’s not Nature. We present-day spectators of wild life in natural surroundings will be thought of, by sad descendants of our children’s children, as the last lucky members of a disappearing world: a planet that is about to lose most of its spectacular inhabitants.

More powerful than a Japanese robot

Click here to see a spectacular video of a four-year-old Russian genius. I have no idea how they make kids like that. Have the manufacturers published a technical manual on this amazing product?

Healthy ecumenical breakfast food

from Think Atheist

Beginning of the end of the Cuban embargo

 

For the first time since the UN embargo against Cuba came into existence, 54 years ago, the USA has refrained from voting in favor of continuing the embargo. It’s not yet an all-out vote in favor of Cuba, but it’s no longer an expression of determined opposition. It’s as if the USA said “no problems”. For Obama’s nation, that’s almost like saying OK.

Let them eat cake

People who grew up in English-speaking countries often remember a school story about the French princess Marie-Antoinette. Hearing that poor people in France had no bread, the young lady said they should be told to eat cake. In the French version of this tale, "cake" is replaced by "brioche". Historians then inform us that the story is probably apocryphal.

The right-wing presidential candidate Jean-François Copé started the ball rolling recently.

Answering a journalist’s mundane question, Copé revealed that he was no longer aware of the price of the familiar children’s pastry known as a pain au chocolat (chocolate pastry roll).

I'm not suggesting for a moment that the execution of the Austrian lady on 16 October 1793 might have been connected in any way whatsoever with her words about bread or cake or any other kind of pastry.

But, just to clarify all possible misunderstandings, I take the liberty of strongly advising Copé to drop into a bakery shop and update his knowledge of current prices.

Darling little devil

A scientific report from Sydney University on the carnivorous marsupial known as the Tasmanian devil [Sarcophilus harrisii], found only in that Australian island state, reveals that the milk of this endangered animal contains an impressive antimicrobial arsenal. We humans possess a single variety of such a substance, whereas the charming little Tasmanian animal has six varieties. This means that its immune system is considerably more powerful than ours, and might even be used to guide future human-oriented research in this domain.

If the Tasmanian devil has developed such a powerful immune system, it’s because they’ve had to learn to survive in a particularly dirty environment in which its food comprises varieties of dead animals, mammals, fish and insects. Since baby devils are born prematurely, researchers simply couldn’t imagine how they managed to survive on such nasty food… and that’s why they decided to study their milk.

These days, the development of powerful bacteria capable of defending us against Staphylococcus is a major goal in medical research. The Review of Antimicrobial Resistance states that, in 2050, deaths from bacterial infections might occur at the rate of one every three seconds… which would be more than cancer deaths.

Dreamworld in Australia turns into a tragedy

A mortal accident took place in Dreamworld, the major aquatic theme park on the Gold Coast in Queensland. (Many years ago,  my grandfather from Burleigh Heads took my children and me to see a dolphin pool in an early version of the site.)  A few hours ago, four people—two 25-year-old couples—died at Thunder River Rapids in circumstances that remain unexplained.

Here’s a recent video of the pleasant raft ride, apparently far more dangerous than what innocent people imagined:

"Attention, riders : Please keep your hands

and arms inside the boat at all times."

Jungle at Calais is losing its people

The French government's plan to remove the so-called Jungle at Calais seems to be working well. Here are images from the early stages of the evacuation:

On Tuesday morning, observers had the impression that the evacuation had been carried out in excellent conditions. While it's still too early to know whether the evacuation process has been totally successful, I feel that French government authorities deserve congratulations on the professional harmonious handling of this affair.

It is indeed quite a big place

Click to enlarge slightly
Hubble Space Telescope view of thousands of galaxies made
during the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey.
Credit M. Giavialisco/University of Massachusetts, Amherst and NASA

The more we learn about the universe, the less we grasp. It’s simply too big and too complicated to understand… and I’m not even sure that the words I’ve just written make any sense. In any case, the central premise of William’s Treatise on the Cosmos is that we humans were not designed to understand what it’s all about. We shouldn't even try to do so.  So let’s simply forget about that would-be question, best described as a non-question…

Phil Collins is alive and kicking

Next spring, he’ll be carrying out a small tour of France, Germany and England, accompanied by his son on drums. “I want to do some concerts. If the public’s happy, then me too.” Click here to access a French-language video.

Political opinion of a distinguished intellectual

Jean d'Ormesson, 91, believes that Alain Juppé will indeed be the next president of France, but that his presidency will not go down in history as a remarkable era. In a nutshell, nothing much will happen in France. The brilliant and alert member of the French Academy considers Juppé as a kind of Jacques Chirac. I tend to agree.