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.

Iraqi forces enter Mosul

The Iraqi army announced today that their forces have entered Mosul.

 

Lifeboats leaving a doomed ship

No !
We’re not boat people looking for a new land.
We’re simply abandoning a sinking ship.

In this political cartoon by Plantu, which appeared in L’Express, the captain of the red vessel is François Hollande, whose regard is directed constantly towards the heavens. The big ship in the foreground is a French Navy vessel, whose sailors are recognizable because of red pompons on their caps. The red vessel is about to crash into an iceberg whose summit has the same shape as Hollande's head. In the lifeboat, a tattered flag carries the rose symbol of Hollande’s Socialist party.

Electrician who worked for Picasso

In theory, when an electrician such as Pierre Le Guennec works well for a painter such as Pablo Picasso [1881-1973], it’s quite likely that he’ll receive a few paintings. The expression “a few” is vague. To be more precise, let’s say that the lucky electrician received a  bag full of 271 Picasso paintings. The electrician’s wife Danielle Le Guennec confirmed that they were a gift from the artist.

Some observers have never really believed this story about a gift from Picasso. That’s why the electrician and his wife were condemned in February 2015 for the concealment of stolen goods. Today, an appeals trial has started at Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône).

Precious little bottles marked V and H

Once upon a time, a con man in France made money by flogging little bottles marked V (vinaigre) and H (huile) to naive tourists, telling them that they once belonged to the great writer Victor Hugo.

Concerning vinegar, one might imagine that everything in France that can be said and done is a thing of the past. Imaginative rural sisters in the Beaujolais region, Lucie and Chloé (what charming names!) have demonstrated that there’s still room for innovation in this traditional domain. Using their grandmother’s ancient recipe, they created a new variety of vinegar, and they’ve already put 100,000 nice little bottles of their product onto the market. Several big distribution channels have jumped upon their offer. Also a celebrated French chef in Lyon. To say the least, their business doesn’t really have a bitter taste of vinegar.