Michel Delpech, died today, aged 69
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Thinking rationally about terror
Here's a brilliant short New Yorker article on the subject of urban terrorism by the exceptional US physicist Lawrence Krauss.
His conclusion is sobering but appeasing:
His conclusion is sobering but appeasing:
... a mass killing like that which occurred in Paris would not significantly affect the death toll from guns in the USI take this opportunity of reminding my Antipodes readers that Krauss is the author of a momentous book on physics and philosophy: A Universe from Nothing. It reflects upon humanity's biggest question (which has often driven me crazy... at least for a moment or so): Why is there something rather than nothing at all?
Champion Frenchman at the wheel
This 41-year-old Frenchman, Sébastien Loeb, is the most successful automobile driver in the history of the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won it nine times in a row.
Having retired from WRC competitions, Loeb has decided to compete in this year's Dakar trial, which starts today from Buenos Aires. At the wheel of a Peugeot, he is accompanied by his faithful co-driver Daniel Elena. He should find the local road familiar, since Loeb happens to have won the Argentina rally eight times in a row!
I once spent twenty minutes or so watching a video created from inside Loeb's vehicle, along a quite ordinary mountain road. I soon had the distinct impression that Sébastien Loeb is infinitely more than a normal human animal like you or me. His visual system is surely some kind of extraordinary space computer coupled to his brain.
Having retired from WRC competitions, Loeb has decided to compete in this year's Dakar trial, which starts today from Buenos Aires. At the wheel of a Peugeot, he is accompanied by his faithful co-driver Daniel Elena. He should find the local road familiar, since Loeb happens to have won the Argentina rally eight times in a row!
I once spent twenty minutes or so watching a video created from inside Loeb's vehicle, along a quite ordinary mountain road. I soon had the distinct impression that Sébastien Loeb is infinitely more than a normal human animal like you or me. His visual system is surely some kind of extraordinary space computer coupled to his brain.
Manchester moments
This fascinating news photo has stunned the Internet world:
It looks like a staged image with actors, maybe a sequence from a movie in the making. In fact, it's simply a photo of an ordinary alcoholic scene of Manchester by night. Click on the word series to access photos of an interesting kind in the website of the Manchester Evening News. Scroll to the second gallery in this website, which is quite funny.
I've never set foot in that big British city, but I have the impression that it's not the kind of place where I would like to settle down.
It looks like a staged image with actors, maybe a sequence from a movie in the making. In fact, it's simply a photo of an ordinary alcoholic scene of Manchester by night. Click on the word series to access photos of an interesting kind in the website of the Manchester Evening News. Scroll to the second gallery in this website, which is quite funny.
I've never set foot in that big British city, but I have the impression that it's not the kind of place where I would like to settle down.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Let's start the year at the Moulin Rouge
On French TV during this festive season of the year, we can see a lot of French cancan, often with dancers from the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
Click here if you feel like watching a 6-minute presentation of a couple of authentic and delightful cancan girls from the famous "red windmill" going through their steps.
Trivial little places like that seem to have acquired a more intense and wonderful meaning since our discovery of the mad mob of terrorists who would surely wish to destroy all that. On the contrary, we'll destroy all those Islamic arseholes before they let themselves loose in France for another tragic operation.
Click here if you feel like watching a 6-minute presentation of a couple of authentic and delightful cancan girls from the famous "red windmill" going through their steps.
Trivial little places like that seem to have acquired a more intense and wonderful meaning since our discovery of the mad mob of terrorists who would surely wish to destroy all that. On the contrary, we'll destroy all those Islamic arseholes before they let themselves loose in France for another tragic operation.
Wishes from the French president
Click here to access the New Year 2016 speech from the French president François Hollande.
"My first duty is to protect you. I am proud of you. In spite of the drama, France has not given in. In spite of the tears, she remained upright. Faced with hatred, she revealed the force of her values, those of the République. I owe you the truth. We have not reached the end of terrorism. The threat is still present, at the same level."The president made his speech from the Napoléon III Room of the Elysées Palace. This was the same place from which he had spoken last January, after the attack against Charlie Hebdo, then in the middle of November, when a wave of terrorist crimes killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)