A new book on the death of Lady Di, (and a television
documentary), reveal that the car being driven that evening
should not have been on the road. In effect, it had been badly
damaged three years before, and was later sold to the Limousine
Service being used that night.
Been looking at dresses which seem genuinely new in inspiration.
What is interesting about these is that the indefinite length makes them
attractive for women regardless of height.
At Cannes, ‘The look of French actresses is less cartoonish than that
of Americans’
In contrast to American stars well accustomed to the Red Carpet exercise,
our actresses hold out, on the steps of the Cannes Festival, for a count-down style,
spontaneous and more ironical.
To illustrate, the last episode of the series Dix pour cent is both funny and eloquent.
Close-up on a fitting room and the voice of Juliette Binoche (playing herself):
‘I can’t make sense of this dress’, she says while wiggling around. ‘There is nothing to
understand. One doesn’t choose the garment, the garment chooses you’, answers back
her stylist. ‘Not sure this dress chose me, jokes the star opening the drapery to
the cabin. I think this is the first time it has seen breasts. It is in shock.’ Then
Binoche is shown in an entirely nude sheath dress with integrated sequins and boa
feathers: I feel this is perhaps too sophisticated for me. By the way, this year, I would
appreciate not having endless hours of commentary on my attire.’ The scene ends, this
is the thing: while Red Carpet season is ending nicely on the steps of the Festival, a good
number of our actresses are showing a certain distance (not to mention irony)
with respect to the power of the Red Carpet, necessary rite and fashion pageant
(or not) for the stars of cinema shown the world over.
‘We wanted to tone down this extravagance, and Juliette quite enjoyed poking fun
at this tired-out ‘Cannes Princess’. I am struck myself by this decorum which becomes
more carnival-like every year, explains Fanny Herrero, the lady behind the
successful series. The rules, the requirements that are imposed on actresses are
becoming crazy. Long hours of fittings, make-up and hair but also weight loss,
complicated dresses and high-heeled shoes the height of stilts...’
Red Carpet culture and tyrants’s rule
This culture (not to say tyranny) is a by-product of Hollywood. Already, during
the Golden Age of Hollywood studios, the power of costumer designers, who
were not then yet known as stylists recognized as stylists for their work in front
and away from the camera, was limitless - one but remembers the names Edith Head,
Adrian but also Hubert de Givenchy. Today, the stakes in terms of image and money
of these appearances are sky-high, discussed with great care and a good deal of cynicism
by networks or dedicated programs. ‘It is a virtuous circle. On the one hand a great dress
and a good picture up the value of an actress. On the other, decision-makers for
luxe enterprises, beauty companies and media bank on the aura of actresses they find
chic and «cool», explains Kate Young, stylist for Nathaly Portman, michelle Williams
and Dakota Johnson. For each of these, my role is to build as a function of their
personalities a coherent image to be projected in their public appearances.’ Without
belittling them or turning them into human billboards. Thanks to her strong eye and strict recommendations (‘never wear small prints because they do not show up well on the screen’;
‘always appear as classy as one’s dress on a picture’), this ex-assistant to Anna Wintour
has given an avant-garde look to her protégées, constantly cited as some of the best-dressed
women of Hollywood ( listing almost as important as that of Oscar winner).
In the United States, everything is a product of prior deals
So what of our homegrown stars? ‘The look of French actresses is less cartoonish,
less mannerist than that of Americans’ remarked Saif Mahdhi, director of the Next
agency and purveyor of image for Adèle Exarchopoulos and Leïla Bekhti but also for
the Sweedish actress Noomi Rapace seen in the latest Alien. Here the collaboration is
more organic. The two universes, that of the actress and that of the Couture establishment,
must meet. An actress should not appear costumed. While Chanel and St-Laurent will
not do business with a celebrity they do not resonate with, even someone highly
bankable. Karl Lagerfeld or Anthony Vaccarello have a very precise image in this
respect and prefer dressing people who inspire them.’ This view is given confirmation
by Laure Orset, Parisian fashion editor with client Elodie Bouchez for important occasions,
such as member of the jury this year on Camera d’Or. ‘In the US,
everything is liable to deal-making worth millions of dollars, from hair ornament to
pointed-toe shoe. In Paris, it is up to designers to approve or not dressing this or that one.’
One should note that, in the City of Lights, there is greater movement between fashion
and cinema. Proof of this very French approach, celebrities who embody the values of a
brand and find themselves front row at the showings, without ever taking part in the
publicity campaigns. ‘The other side of the medal is that work is done in a more
spontaneous fashion, on a project basis, adds the stylist. Until recently, our actresses
with a more artistic and less entertainment culture, rarely spoke of this aspect of their
craft, with many without so much as an Instagram account.’
The American experience of Marion Cotillard
Nonetheless, here as well, mindsets are changing. Under the important influence of
Marion Cotillard who has shown how this is done thanks to her American experience
(in particular in the campaign for the 2008 Oscars) without jeopardizing one’s career
choices. ‘She showed she could play the game without loosing her integrity. Wearing
Dior and playing someone unemployed for the Dardenne brothers, cites admiringly
Mrs Orset. And then, in a very tense economic climate where budgets for films are put
together with some difficulty, producers and directors have come to admit it was a good
way to go in everyone’s interest.’
Giving the lead to someone under contract with a luxury establishment ensures there
will be magazine coverage and sometimes unhoped for media coverage for films.
‘Before Léa Seydoux and Marion Cotillard, there was Deneuve and Adjani, recalls Olivier
Nicklaus, creator of the documentary Red Carpet, who remembers this now unavoidable
moment. They always wore and thus created publicity for fashion houses. While Catherine
Deneuve was married to photographer David Bailey, she became conscious of the Warholian
aspect her work: if fashion and cinema are very different worlds, they are both part of society’s spectacle business, a way of acting upon the collective unconscious. Andy Warhol was the
first to show there was a form of art in this view of celebrity, in the fact of becoming an
icon - a popular one.’
Demonstrating French style
This Fortnight 2017 is a perfect illustration of a national uniqueness: French actresses
will bend to the mores and customs of Cannes willingly enough...but in their own way.
Like a few days ago as Adèle Haenel, a stock value from auteur cinema in official
competition for 120 Battements par minute (Robin Campillo), went up the stairs in a
magnificent sheath dress by Atlein, the label for the young French creator AntoninTron.
When Jeanne Balibar gave simon Porte Jacquemus his first Cannes rush. Or other stars
take back with a healthy dose of cool the hooped and sequined dresses of Christian Dior
couture, Elie Saab and Armani Privé. With discreet make-up and loose hair a must: ‘They
often ask me for less sophisticated upward hairdos, as if they had done these themselves,
they want the marking of the hairdresser to disappear, attests Stéphane Lancien, hair
stylist for l’Oréal Paris for which Leïla Bekhti is the muse. They appreciate a few
accidents (reigned-in), a few strands running wild to balance out these great dresses
and large jewels.’ A demonstration of French style which many envy.
‘Americans adore the unique look of French women, concludes Kate Young.
This mix of fashion and beauty is part and parcel of life in your country, which we do
Making sense of fusion and fission helped me understand
a bit more about the current standard model of particle physics;
the nomenclature and behaviour of subatomic particles. Below,
information about protons and neutrons, two actors in the weapons
story.
I already knew that nuclei contain both protons and neutrons, but
I was surprised to learn that protons do not decay on the human scale, but
neutrons do, in about 10 minutes. In fact, they are somewhat heavier than
protons and neutron decay yields a proton, ( a W- boson, which turns into)
an electron and an electron antineutrino.
(A proton can become a neutron, but one must give it energy under
extraordinary circumstances. The Curies worked on this discovery).
The notion of spin is somewhat problematic if approached from ideas from
classical physics( see the otherwise charming vido below). In fact, one needs to
consider a virtual world where particles exist for a brief moment under the measurable
limit of Eisenberg Uncertainty (Zitterbewebung). So Quantum Physics is other than
Particle Physics, more narrative than descriptive.
Reports from the NATO meeting held May 25 put the accent on
financing. The countries did agree on NATO joining the fight in Syria, but
many individual members are already in on it as individual states. Upping the
contribution to Defense to 2% of GNP also appears arduous for some countries.
The decision taken at the 2014 summit with respect to 2% of national
wealth to be reached by 2024 seems to have seen some implementation.
According to NATO, cumulated budgets have gone up by 3.8 % for 2016,
some 10 billion additional Euros. For 2017, between 7 and 10 countries
should attain the desired 2%. And NATO now has, for the first time in
a long time, means to meet objectives for equipment.
'If Canada and European countries were to go to 2 %, they would end up
spending 100 billion more per year for Defense, argues early May before
l'Institut français des relations internationales, Camille Grand, assistant
secretary general. It would be a real game changer, with Germany liable
for one third of the 100 billion.' Germany(1.2%) plans to spend more, but
refuses to go to 2 %, citing it already spends a great deal on development.
Difficult for me to comment on the funding question.
Gérard Collomb, Interior Minister, declared Thursday that a penalty
system to curb drug uses would be put into place in the coming
‘three to four months’, replacing an eventual prison sentence after
a court appearance.
A high risk subject which has stumped a number of ministers. Gérard Collomb,
Interior Minister, made the announcement without prior warning, a fine
will replace the court to curb drug use and its imprisonnement before the
end of the year. An announcement sure to create apprehension within the
government. Because in the context of his presidential program, Emmanuel
Macron had maintained a certain ambiguity on the question but put forth
this measure as the best way to ensure sanction and effective execution
toward all daily offenses which poison the life of the average French citizen
from shoplifting up to crimes of the road running through the taking of illicit drugs.
Thus ‘tolerance zero’, according to En Marche.
Gérard Collomb has then slightly changed the given by announcing a simple fine
for drug use but also for possession.
In the minds of those who had drafted the Emmanuel Macron policy, the idea was
not to quit the area of penal law and the role of the court for that of the police
but rather a way of simplifying procedures by a system of immediate fines and
complementary sentences. An approach which had the virtue of preserving the tortious
character for these offenses. Thus, in case of impossible enforcement or non-payment,
the author of the violation would find himself in court or perhaps even in jail.
Providing a way of avoiding procedures that are not pursued or excessive delays
and thus breaking with the feeling of untouchability of offenders and hopelessness
in the population or police forces.
With respect to illegal drug use, on 170 000 charges to users in 2014, only
30 000 cases ever made it to court. ‘If this can permit a better enforcement of justice,
we are not opposed, said Jacky Coulon, national secretary for the Union syndicale des
magistrats (USM). But we would not want to see this lower the level of enforcement,
because there are infractions which warrant being fully pursued and let us do that under
the control of a judge.’ which is what is being recommended. In effect, these fines would
be overseen by the public prosecutor’s office and a judge.
Proper Decriminalization
The coming of a simple fine amounts to proper decriminalization which many will
want to oppose. Moreover the Minister of the Interior wants to incidentally extend this to
possession as well. ‘This becomes technically and politically more complicated. If only
because up to now the inclusion of a charge of possession gave the judge the possibility of pronouncing a sentence more severe than for mere use if he deemed this necessary.
And the question of what constitutes possession will become problematic.
'Three grams of cannabis is someone’s pocket is not the same as 50 or 100 grams, even more’,
argues this magistrate with long experience who doubts the usefulness of a simple ‘ticket
pad’ approach. Can one expect these fines to be given by the forces of order and paid off by offenders?
NATO is inaugurating - Thursday, May 25 - its new Brussels headquarters.
Cost: 1.1 billion Euros. No one actually moves in until December.
A number of countries, including the US and Canada, looked after the construction
of their locales from fear of bus being installed. Only American workers worked on the US sector.
250 000 m² au total, piscine, salle de gymnastique, magasins, banques ou salon de coiffure compris
Thermonuclear weapons are very much more powerful than nuclear ones.
It takes the heat of a nuclear explosion to generate a thermonuclear one.
Below, a few bits from Wikipedia that shed light on the process:
From the Fusion article:
From Nuclear binding energy:
From Nuclear weapon:
When the fission bomb is detonated, gamma rays and X-rays emitted first compress the fusion fuel, then heat it to thermonuclear temperatures. The ensuing fusion reaction creates enormous numbers of high-speed neutrons, which can then induce fission in materials not normally prone to it, such as depleted uranium. Each of these components is known as a "stage", with the fission bomb as the "primary" and the fusion capsule as the "secondary". In large, megaton-range hydrogen bombs, about half of the yield comes from the final fissioning of depleted uranium.[10] ... Fusion reactions do not create fission products, and thus contribute far less to the creation of nuclear fallout than fission reactions, but because all thermonuclear weapons contain at least one fission stage, and many high-yield thermonuclear devices have a final fission stage, thermonuclear weapons can generate at least as much nuclear fallout as fission-only weapons.
It's grey and really windy out , and I'm trying to be good and not venture outside
but it's giving me a headache.
Made a really nice brunch breakfast sandwich, with banana, jam and Cooki Notti
butter. A bit odd, and sweet. Trying to figure out how to serve this new spread.
Won't stand it for much longer; I'm going out. I remember last week walking behind
a petite woman on a very windy day. She would let herself be pushed to the side of the
sidewalk, then venture back to the center. So I've got a strategy.
Below, a quite fascinating TEDtalk by Pierre Collet, a computer scientist(Strasbourg),
about the coming computer revolution: AI and evolutionary algorithms
brought together in the development of autonomous computers.
There is a recent interview as well, in the Nouvel Obs. Translation to come.
* * *
source: Le Nouvel Observateur
interviewer: Sophie Fay
translation: doxa-louise
‘Computers are capable of darwinian evolution’
Pierre Collet has developed in his laboratory ‘evolutionary motors’
that make possible for computers to create industrial objects of
higher performance value than those made by engineers. Interview.
directed by Pierre Collet, is one of the French Centers of Excellence for
research on Artificial Intelligence. Interview with a researcher on a fascinating
subject.
You teach Artificial Intelligence (AI). What is this about?
There are many forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In general, one
defines AI with the use of the Turing Test: when a man interacts with a computer and
cannot tell with certainty whether he is dealing with a human or a machine, the
program is considered intelligent.
This is the ‘chatbots’ principle, dialogue applications. But it is also possible
to make Artificial Intelligence that is non-human. This is what we are up to at
Strasbourg: artificial evolution. That mechanism which makes for nature finding
solutions to adapt to its environment and survive, we use that on computers
who in this way become creative.
So this is evolution, in the Darwinian sense?
Precisely. One confronts the machine with a problem, which finds solutions, cross-
breeds them, discards the less promising, selects the best. With spectacular results.
In 2006, NASA created a micro-satellite the size of a basketball. It needed
an emission mechanism that would consume little energy, to service a given
radio telescope.
No one could solve it, the antennae designed by engineers were all ten meters long.
Unusable. NASA asked computer scientists to have a look and apply their programs.
They came up with a mini-antenna, and a physical concept that no one could have
imagined and which no one has reproduced since. To find another antenna for another satellite, one has to resubmit the problem to machines along with the new parameters,
and make new plans. It’s all possible, but no one is quite sure how.
Thus, in 2206, NASA sent the first bit of non-human technology into space.
Does this mean computers now possess a creative form of intelligence?
For decades people thought that computers were super calculators, doing what they
were asked to do, capable of resolving equations more quickly but that was all.
Yet beginning in the aughts, computers have become creative. They put forward
things humans never suggested to them. Sometimes we are dealing with completely
novel solutions, which we cannot even control. To get an additional solution to a
similar problem with different parameters, one has to ask again. Now computers can
image things on their own.
Computers have become creative and competitive with humans.
But such computers do not pass the Turing Test (wherein a human cannot tell the
difference between an answer given by a computer or one of his peers), because
their form of reasoning is non-human.
Has Strasbourg come up with an analogue to the NASA antenna?
Yes, we have for example found a new zeolite thanks to Artificial Intelligence:
it is a porous crystalline structure. About one hundred variants are currently known
in the world. Each zeolite has applications with respect to filtration. They can be
used for cat litter, for example.
How have other forms of AI evolved?
Artificial intelligence that is historically embedded, using what is called deep l
earning andneural networks, gives computers a reasonable understanding of their
environment: if you show a picture of where we are presently to a computer, it will
respond: you are in a bar. Eventually, it will claim more precisely that we are in
Alsace, in Strasbourg, because it recognizes this pan for kuglof and certain elements
of decoration etc...
But it is not yet autonomous. If it detects a problem, it will not know to organize
itself to solve it, unless it has been programmed to do so. For that to happen, we would
have to link deep learning and artificial evolution. This is what we are working on in my
laboratory: linking up comprehension of the environment and evolutionary motors.
So what happens when you succeed in creating such a link?
Then we will have autonomous robots: once they have identified a problem and
created a model, they will switch to AI mode which will find a novel solution.
What are evolutionary motors called?
We are simulating Darwinian evolution with a computer. It’s a PC. We have in our
lab a supercomputer, with an enormous capacity for computation. and this enormous
capacity will generate millions of possible solutions which will evolve over generation
upon generations as with Darwinian generations. This involves mutations, cross-breeding.
Artificial evolution is a complex system, which is faster than random searches. It is a
highly productive creative process.
How do you know the machine has found something?
We incorporate an evaluation function, which evaluates the quality of each new
individual created. As evolution proceeds, the best individual of his generation -
as a function of its value in resolving the given problem - is selected. After many
iterations of cross-breeding and selection, we end up with an individual that does
a good job of resolving the problem.
Are there already industrial applications for this?
Yes, a great deal of work has been done on the design of airplane wings. There
is no other way to work on this than through trial and error. Engineers design forms,
test them, cross-breed them, all intuitively. The computer, for its part, starts with a
population of airplane wings and makes them evolve until it finds the best design.
Evolution proceeds by trial and error, but not in a random way, but by taking objects
with worked rather well. The yield on this is the creation of new forms which no one
had imagined.
How long did it take to find your zeolite, for example?
We use machines in parallel. In this case, it would have taken a PC 11 years of
continuous calculation, we used many machines in parallel and it took a mere 34
hours. This is an important research node. Since 2005, all computers are in parallel
mode. When you buy a PC there are many cores and there are two sensors. The
graphics card can have up to 3 000 cores. Your telephone has two cores in the processor.
These computers are linked and one can make thousands of cores work in parallel. To
do that one uses algorithms inspired by nature because in an inherent and intrinsic way,
nature works in parallel.
Not everyone does the same thing at the same time. Everything gets done in an
asynchronous fashion. This is the essence of complex systems, which allows us to
direct interactions between a great number of autonomous entities, to obtain a desired
result.
Aristotle had foreseen the power of this interaction, when he said that the whole is
more than the sum of its parts.
The 100 billion neurons in our brains, so many autonomous entities, interact to produce
a decision in one thousanth of a second. That is cognition.
Certain researchers have heralded that there is exponential progress in AI?
I would be prepared to say there are thresholds. Starting in the aughts, machines
became creative, repetitively so. There is a book by John Koza which shows that, starting
in 2003, with respect to many quite different problems, computers were regularly generating solutions competitive with those proposed by humans. These
solutions can be better than those hit upon by engineers.
In the interval 2010-2012, another threshold was crossed, that of deep learning:
computers were able to recognize cats in an image, than everything else in that image.
The next stage, the one we are working on, is to unify the two to yield autonomous
computers.
Is this exponential? All evolution is exponential!
You are a signator to the principles of Asilomar, which is a kind of ethics document for researchers in Artificial Intelligence, co-produced last February.
Please explain.
Thins are accelerating quickly. In the near future, computers will become autonomous.
Once this happens, we will be able to task them and in an autonomous fashion, they will
find what needs to be done to accomplish the task. They will have a goal, and they will
accomplish it.
This can become dangerous in a number of ways. Even if given a ‘sweet’ goal, the
computer might well imagine actions that could hurt people. The real problem is that
we might build armed robots.
Currently in China, there are in transport hubs robots armed with tasers (The AnBot robot). That raises a number of questions. It can aim for the wrong target. There are still many errors occurring in recognition. Computers make mistakes.
At the moment, there are not many autonomous things that make decisions and can
interact with humans, so we are not aware of the dangers. But we must prepare ourselves, put up barriers, agree on a code of behavior. Decide, for example, that
we will not arm them. We have so many more useful things to aim for: bettering
education, medication, care...
What will be the first autonomous decision in your estimation?
In fact, it is already here. You bank account for example is managed by a computer.
It will tell the bank whether we should loan you money or not. Banks go through
your payments. If you buy gas, they know whether you own a small or large car.
Everything you do is gone through to decide if you are ‘bankable’.
Already computers are very autonomous, but there is often an element of human
control. And we have not yet integrated these to robots. When drones take off
to kill the Taliban, today it is with planes direct by humans. Tomorrow we will
be able to assign the task to a computer. do we wish to move in this direction?
No, this is what the principles of Asilomar specify.
Lyse is between student apartments, and bunking with a friend
in Le Plateau. Very Trendy!! Below, embarrassing myself at a
24 hour Poutine restaurant, La Banquise. Had the one with
meat and onions, and changed the sauce for tomato.
One important safety measure on computers is the practice of sandboxing ie isolating new code from the existing one, and explicitly asking permission from the user to access or make changes. Anyone who has updated Java has had this experience. Indeed, the below explanation mentions that web browsers themselves run in sandboxed environments. So the criminal ransomware Wanna code had somehow breached these security features.
And it could be stopped by registering a domain name, which contained kill code. Once the domain name was activated, the ransomware would contact it and desactivate itself.
I am including a link to Le Monde's Pixel feature, a tech blog on the daily from which I got the Huss copy of the kill code.
Gluten refers to the two proteins found in wheat. (Someone with celiac disease
can eat chicken). They form molecular structure that is particularly rigid - a mesh -
making it harder for the body to break down. There is a genetic aspect
to celiac disease as well, so only some people will be adversely affected
by foods with gluten. Celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder.
* * *
The word on Pizza Crust from Châtelaine: The water needs to
lukewarm to activate the yeast; too warm will cook the yeast, too cold
will take a loooong time.
One is also advantaged by choosing the right kind of flour product.
Not all flour is the same: that meant for breadmaking will contain
13 or 14% protein, and produce a stong gluten. It is the preferred flour for pizza
making. All purpose contains 12% and will get the job done, while that called
cake flour with 9 or 10% is unsuitable.
Les protéines naturellement présentes dans le blé ont la particularité de s'unir lorsque la farine est mélangée avec un liquide. La réunion de ces protéines crée un réseau collant et élastique appelé « gluten ». C'est lui qui donne de la structure et de l'élasticité aux pains (une bonne chose !), mais qui peut rendre les gâteaux et muffins caoutchouteux et les pâtes brisées dures (une moins bonne chose !). La réussite d'une recette dépend presque autant du choix de la farine que de la technique de préparation.
Christina Blais, dept of Nutrition, U de M.
It's Mother's Day and it's raining. Found out yesterday that Britain's NHS
employs over 1.5 million people and is the fifth largest employer in the world
( Le Nouvel Obs). That seems like a lot to me, although it's hard to get comparable
statistics for other countries. Like what do these people do, offer manicures?
Alright, I'm kidding; the system is rumoured to be 'on the verge of implosion'.
But it does show how things like health services can come to grow in unstopable
ways.
On the plus side, only 4.7% of the NHS is still on WXP; and they are being
patched. So things should get better.
It goes on... this Saturday, French automaker Renault reports having
been hit by ransomware. France had already experienced an attack on some
300 firms in April, 2017.
Was considering just using my non-windows machines: an old McBook Pro
and my go-for-coffee Samsung tablet, but apparently I am protected because
I accept Microsoft updates and run the free anti-virus program.
Read yesterday - on Wired - that the patch was server-level!?
Also read that the spread of the virus is helped along by code produced
by the NSA. So not only did they not report the vulnerability to Microsoft,
but they made things worst. So, President Trump, if you feel like firing
someone...Just saying. (Srsly, they were meant to protect against this
kind of thing).
In fine, those still running Windows XP are vulnerable. And computers
on networks all go out together.
The controversy about the thinness of fashion
models is all rather silly. The fact that women drool
fashion photos is testimony to the success of what the industry
is doing: showing busy young women in eccentric takes
wearing expensive clothes. Because not only are the models
thin for the norm, the clothes presented are distortions
as well.
Below, Anna Wintour of Vogue, being honored by the Queen:
she is wearing this year's Chanel spring suit (recognizable
by the high belt).
source: Le Figaro
Here is what that collection looked like on the runway:
The models are very young women, and they are tall. One might want to
consider that very tall people are often very thin in adolescence.
They grow at the expense of filling out, but it is temporary.
Things are as they should be, and good luck with that 18.5 BMI.
17 is more likely the norm in that population!!
Decided to investigate an interesting cooking fact this morning, one that Chef John has alluded to in some of his cooking videos: for some purposes, sugar is considered a wet ingredient. How could this be?
Clearly, white sugar is a solid. But in baking, it interacts with flour to promote the formation of gluten (sticky starch). If, when assembling a baked good such as muffins, one mixes the sugar with the liquid ingredients, it will be less likely to form this gluten, and the resulting pastry will be lighter.
Emmanuel Macron was undoubtedly congratulated by our Prime
Minister for his solid victory in the French Presidential election.
I can only add my own good feeling about a handsome young
President - from Sciences Po, a school I attended - with a fashionable
spouse.
Yet there were interesting aspects to the results. The polls were
predicting a 60 % take for Macron, and he scored 66%. Were they
off again (as they were on the Trump win the US)? Arguably not.
In effect, there were a record number of so-called 'white' votes
where electors returned a blanc envelope, as well as a number
of nulls (for Miskey Mouse, whatever...). Plus an increase in the
number of abstentions.
Prior to the election, many Mélenchon supporters
argued for le blanc, as away of marking opposition to Macron's election.
This strategy was followed by many, and the 10 % overrun on blancs
and nulls does seem to be coming from ridings that were for Mélenchon
in the first round of voting. .9 x .66 = .594 so Macron did hold to his 60%
predicted support.
This is guerilla voting. The whole idea of a second round is to force a clear
winner, with candidates forming alliances and adjusting their positions to
a useful choice. The level of support for the winner is the number eventually
deemed significant, because President and legislators in Parliament - elected 5
weeks later - will form the governing group. So goes the Vth Republic.
Mélenchon (France Insoumise) is the one candidate open to moving on to a
VIth Republic. He is of that Left which courts some of the same nationalist electors
as Marine Le Pen, although he picks up recent conservative immigrants as well. He
wants to nationalize the banks. Surely someone to watch as the Legislative elections
loom.
'The work is in three parts, clearly delimited by theme and method. The
first, given over to memory and mnemonic phenomena, is under the guidance of
phenomenology in the Husserlian meaning of the term. The second, dedicated to
history, falls under the epistemology of historical sciences. The third, whose high point
is a meditation on forgetting, finds place in a hermeneutics of the historical condition
we humans fall under. But these three parts do not make for three books. Although
the three masts carry intertwined wings still distinct, they belong to the same
vessel, and are destined to a same and unique journey. A common problem traverses
the phenomenology of memory, the epistemology of history, the hermeneutics of the
historical condition: that of apprehending the past. I am disturbed by
the troubling spectacle given by too much memory here, too much forgetting
elsewhere, not to mention the influence of commemorations and abusive uses
of memory - and forgetting. The search for a policy of adequate memory
remains in this respect one of my explicit civic goals.' Paul Ricoeur
translation: doxa-louise
* * *
Ricoeur found Protestant theology interesting. Having been
schooled in both Catholic and Protestant institutions, I can add
a very practical account of how adequate memory plays out in both
cultures. If Catholics are prone to take on the guilt of their ancestors
and excuse their acts as too zealous faith, Protestants take a quite
different tack. Yes, your ancestors did such and so, but the moral failing
at issue would be your not acknowledging it, or choosing to remain
ignorant that this really happened. In the first, complicity is guilty;
in the second, ignorance is.
I am beginning to think that Brexit - and now the possibility of Frexit
with Marine Le Pen - may have more to do with EU design features than
with electoral discontent. Below, the electoral maps for the European
Parliament for both England and France. Each country is free to elect
its representatives as it sees fit, but both England and France have created
regions thar are not those of elections to the home Parliament. And
they consult the constitutents that have elected them. In effect, the
country has two governments!!
Odder still, European Parlimentarians belong to European Parties and
working coallitions, including a eurosceptic one. National representatives
all attend European Commission gatherings as true overseers - or not at all,
as Britain, currently - but European Parlimentarians are allowed all manner of
'seditious' positions on Europe. An inevitable stage, in a process of unification,
many might think. In effect, perhaps a deadly design virus to the institution itself.
There does seem to be a working logic to threatening withdrawl in a debate within
the EU, but surely this can never be binding one.
So here we are, 300 million years ago; southern Quebec, France and England near
neighbors.
Been reading about Gault (150 million years ago) clay deposits, which often contain
bivalves. Over the years, I have actually seen two (smallish) bivalve imprints in rock,
one in the Baie des Chaleurs in Gaspésie, one on the banks of the Richelieu river...
We have a lovely picture of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, for her second
birthday. But, poor child is wearing blue. Srsly. Models and show business stars
wear the colours of their eyes and hair in their clothing; it's part of branding.
Found a La Redoute dress which accents her natural colouring. With stitch work.
Tim Horton's is opening a first outlet in Glasgow, UK and possibly later
trying for the London market. Fot those who may not appreciate
why Tim's is popular in Canada, do try to remember we have a climate of
extremes: impossibly cold in Winter, wet as anything in Spring anf Fall, scorching
in Summer. Tim's is always open (24 hours,on Christmas Day...), comfortable
and clean. In the night, it is where shift workers from hospitals and the like
can escape.
What's great about Tim's: coffee is at perfect warmth, actually good
black if your pants tug, fresh (no pot sits for more than 1/2 hour), cheap
(you can always afford a Tim, and it's okay to just drink coffee), the calorie
count on the donuts won't challenge your math skills (hello, 50 calorie Timbits).
As for the fresh food aspect, I, as a retirement shopper don't really dine there
but working men and women both do, which is in it's favour. And they occasionally
will put out something festive like a Nutella donut at Easter. So, me on a healthy
diet might 'just try one' just because. There are rarely any children, but the occasional
Saturday parent will take someone an teach'em the ropes on baked goodies.
Here in Canada, it is drive-through, take-out and eat-in. No pretty girl goes
through without an acknowledgement, but an outside worker will be asked
how things are going, by the dediciated regulars. Their staff is as varied as their
customers.
Alright, I'm not funny. But apparently, Kim Jong Un's father didn't let himself
be photographed, and KJU is donning a historical haircut and doing the work.
