CNSA

The temperature on the hidden face of the moon was
recorded at - 190C, colder than that on the other. Probably
because the soil composition is different, according to the
Chinese Space Agency (CNSA).

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2019/01/31/97001-20190131FILWWW00146-les-nuits-lunaires-plus-froides-que-prevu-selon-la-sonde-chinoise.php

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Nathalie Loiseau claims France is prepared for a no-deal Brexit. There
would be spot-checks on trucks at Calais, and large parking areas have
been set up. Nothing excessive…

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/01/30/nathalie-loiseau-c-est-aux-britanniques-de-dire-ou-ils-veulent-aller_1706482

No Harm

How could you possibly gain 50 pounds in a year?
In point of fact, the smart-ass asking probably put on
that much his/herself. Difference being smartA might
be loosing it right back. Anybody who 'does doughnuts'
will soon store fat - anything over 2000 calories, which
is short-term muscle storage capacity. But not every day
starts clean; someone who has gone over needn't sink in
the slough of despair (I'm sooo nil etc...). It's time to eat clean,
and at the very least one will feel better before too long. And
 when one deals with it  day 2, there is an end in sight. A day or
two, no harm done. 💦

Salad

Overnight tariffs work through the economy in insidious ways.
The small can of crushed pineapple I could usually pick up for 1$
now costs 2$; I am assuming because cans are now more expensive
to produce in North America. So I picked up a larger can imported from
Thailand at 1.69$. Statistically, nothing has changed in my food
basket, but the taste is different.

I have also stopped buying fresh strawberries in favour of frozen. Here,
I am actually winning on taste because the strawberries are smaller,
if a bit mushy as they thaw. A change in texture, then.

Overall,  prices are wild at this time of year,and lettuce skips to 4$ only to
come down to 2$ the week after in some chain's Specials offerings. Compound
that with the difficulties of getting produce home in good shape when the
temperatures go below -10°C, and salad's a job!👵

Morbid

Are the morbidly obese malnourished? I googled it to
find out. The tone was a little stiff, but the answer is:
in terms of calorie deprivation, of course not; with respect
to protein malnourishment, it would be very hard to achieve
because the body synthesizes protein from other foods;
micronutrient malnourished: might well be true. Because
people who have had bariatric surgery often are and digging
deeper, researchers have found they were before the surgery.
Well, thanks for digging, guys...

The various micronutients help the body perform different functions.
The B vitamins, for instance, are either precursors - building blocks for
proteins - or enablers for enzymes (which metabolize foods).

Bottom line, it's not just brocoli tonight, it's sweet potatoes tomorrow
and spinach day after. And don't even get me going on almonds... and
pine nuts...and chia seeds! Don't starve, eat different foods!!

The Dress

On the Bebe Rexa issue.

The happy Bebe, recently nominated for a Grammy, has
complained that designers have refused to dress her for
the ceremony because she is a size 6 - 8. (Models tend to
run a 4).

I doubt very much if anyone refused to sell her a dress. One
needs to understand that designers often just send a dress to
performers who best exemplify their brand for such events. It is
publicity for them.

Frankly, Bebe has nothing to worry about in the looks department.
I wouldn't take the current situation as an insult either. The one designer
dreaming her way might be Kanye West.

The fact that Bleta has been working as Bebe first made me think she
was claiming filiation from Brigitte Bardot, France's 'BB nationale/bébé national'. I
ead on Wikipedia she identified as 'fluid'. As my daughter's friends might
say, "That's fucked up", (but in a good way).

Origins

It is widely admitted that the French language emerged from
the vulgar Latin of the time. It is complicated to express the actual
truth of the relationship, because language is what we communicate
with. Who is to say how Latin itself came to be formed.
This is also all the more enigmatic because the first written
document in actual French is the transcrition of an
oath of mutual defense between two brothers against a too
ambitious third. Each recites an oath in the language of the
other, and to make sure everything is clear, there is a separate
oath for the men of each brother, in their own language. Now,
that's a deal!

All three brothers are grandsons of Charlemagne, 'roi des Francs...'

For linguists, the Serments de Strasbourg are a rich find because we have
the same general idea/thing expressed in two different languages, one 'romane'
and the other 'germanique'(from germanus, of the same germ). 'Latin' comes
from 'Latium', and the ancient goddess Lati (liquor, or lust!?).

source: Wikipedia

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Below, the city of Strasbourg (and my current wallpaper. A very charming place,

and the whole region has wonderful pastries...):

                                    *     *     *

By medieval times, there is a distinction made for le français ou françois

between langue d'oïl in the North and the langue d'oc in the South. The first

to use this distinction is believed to be the Italian poet Dante (1265-1321), who had

a third langue di si for nascent Italian.

Oil  itself is what later became oui (yes), and brings together the latin hoc (this) and

sic (thus).

The langue d'oil came to predominate over the French territory over time,

while the langue d'oc retreated to Spain. The first is more Germanic than the 

second and has Celtic elements.

Leaving

Legal experts in Brussels are wrestling with something
of a problem. What if the UK wants an extension on the
Brexit departure date, currently set for the end of March.
27 of Britain's 73 seats have been allocated to other countries,
to take demographic developements into account, and
elections for a renewed Parliament are end of May. Could
the UK stay in without representation? A - in legal terms - difficult
question!


https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2019/01/23/un-brexit-repousse-le-casse-tete-institutionnel-avant-les-elections-europeennes_5413335_4355770.html




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source: Le Monde; Les Décodeurs

author: Pierre Breteau

translation: doxa-louise

A postponed Brexit? The institutional puzzle looking to the EU elections

Having already reassigned Brtitain’s Parliamentary seats, what should be done if Brexit is re-scheduled? Will Brussels be obligated to accept leaving elected officials from across the Channel?

The view from London is that Brexit is on ice:  Prime Minister Theresa May has not succeeded in having her accord for leaving the European Union (EU) endorsed by the House of Commons. Nor has she managed to present a ‘Plan B’ as the British Representatives have demanded of her.  All that while the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU is slated for March 29, thus in less than ten weeks.

On May 26, the 340 million citizens of voting age in the EU must elect 705 Representatives. The latter numbered 751 including those from the United Kingdom at the last European elections in 2014, but 27 of the 73 British seats have been given to other member States to better reflect the demographic evolution within the 27 member States. Let us see how this is important.

On Tuesday January 15, Emmanuel Macron suggested that perhaps the British could ‘take more time’ and ‘maybe leap over the European election’. In other words, in the context of a delicate political situation, the United Kingdom could ask to remain in the EU a bit longer after the elections of May 26, and even beyond the opening of the new Parliamentary session scheduled for July 2. But this poses something of a difficulty: can one even be a member of the EU - even a departing one - without having Representatives in Brussels?

On this question, ‘ work from a judicial point of view(...)is currently underway’, Tells us Michel Barnier, chief negotiator on Brexit for the European Union. But a few threads might help us see more clearly.

No more than 750 representatives in Brussels

The number of Parliamentarians in Brussels and Strasburg cannot go beyond 750 elected officials plus the President (article 14-2 of the Treaty on the European Union).

Moreover, no member can claim more then 96 Representatives - Germany, the most populous country, gets 96 in the next Assembly. The floor number is six, as is the case for Malta or Cyprus.

In point of fact, in 2019, 705 Representatives will be elected, and not 750 (+ a President) as was the case for the 2014-2019 legislature; 705 because 27 of Britain’s 73 seats have been reassigned (+5 to France or Spain, +3 to Italy or the Netherlands, etc), and the others are being held in reserve pending the arrival of new members (there are five official candidates including Serbia, Albania or Montenegro).

Demographic rebalancing and departure of the United Kingdom

The departure of 73 British representatives has thus made possible for the European Council - made up of the Chiefs of State of the Twenty-eight - to rebalance the

number of European Representatives to follow europe’s demographic evolution, country by country.

This is no different than the situation in 2013,  with the arrival of Croatia.  The number of Parliamentarians had gone up to 766 before the election of 2014. In order to make this possible, ther had to be enacted a derogating measure to the Treaty on the European Union.

Idem in 2007 with the arrival of Romania and Bulgaria. The Parliament went up to 788 members until the following election, in 2009, with a new breakdown coming in under 751 elected members, at 736.

From 410 to 788 European Representatives

This graph shows the number of European Representatives sitting in Parliament since its inception in 1979 to 2018 (see original for interactive numbers).

No clear guideline in European Law

No European law-maker or Brussels jurist had foreseen the present situation until now

within which a Member State wants to leave the EU but changes its mind at the last moment just before an election to postpone the moment of departure. In this context,

and awaiting a decision from London on a postponement and on Brussels on how this might be done, all the hypothesis are mere interpretations of law.

• Postpone, yes, but only for a few weeks

The first option, the simplest from a legal point of view, would be to postpone Brexit 

to no later than the end of June, thus after the election, but before the new session of the European Parliament. It follows automatically that London would not need to organize new elections, nor send elected Representatives to Brussels.

• Prolong but without British Members

It would also be possible, according to Legal Services to the Parliament, as we have had access to, that Parliament be legally constituted even if London cannot manage to run elections within prescribed time limits. In this case, the United Kingdom would be derelict in meeting its obligations, from the perspective of European treaties which impose elections of Members so as to ‘participate in the democratic life of the Union’.

In this scenario, each Member State would keep its current number of Members, and the United Kingdom would have...unoccupied seats. We would thus find ourselves with a Parliament of 678 Members. Here, there is no redistribution of British seats.

• Prolongation with derogation

This procedure has, at the moment, not been considered: a scenario which inverses the last new membership, that of Croatia. Instead of adding seats before an election to later

redistribute them between Member States, would it not be possible to temporarily assign seats to the United Kingdom, going through a derogatory measure ‘to the maximum number of seats as per article 14, paragraph 2, first subsection’, these seats becoming vacant on the day of the effective departure of the United Kingdom?