another government lie detected...

The person who was the center of the riots in Paris this past week got upset after he jumped the turnstile and was contrôlé by the RATP and then police. The police and the (new, very young, very bold) minister of the interior said that Angelo Hoekelet was an illegal immigrant. In fact, as reported in this latest article in Le monde, he arrived in France in 1985 at age 11 as part of the (very commonplace) family reunification migration flow. Since then, he had received a deportation notice, which he appealed and won in September 2006 and he missed his meeting for a carte de séjour on 5 April (he was still detained then). So he has the right to be in France. Basta! Fin d'histoire! According to the cops, the mistake was because the system hadn't been updated (no apology given). The ministry has yet to issue a response (and probably won't).

French elections - 1

my first comment... In reading a bit of the foreign press (nice site btw) on the presidential elections in France, I find that the UK is bashing socialism, the US is bashing democratic choice and is anti-feminist. All in all, they find the election process humorous and love to take a jab at the French (isn't it getting old already??).

The latest article sent me in a fury - thank you Stephen Clarke of the NYT ("No Sex, Please, We’re French" 23 March 2007). Funny how Ségolène Royal's marital status (not married, in long term relationship with the father of her 4 children) takes precedence over the fact that Nicholas Sarkozy had several lovers (while married, not even separated at the time).

Forbes shouldn't get in the business of fortune-telling - seems no more reliable than looking into a crystal ball: Sarkozy likely to win French election. How do they know more than we (the French people and press) do?

And you thought the US was obese?

If you are a woman older than age 15 AND from a small Pacific island (eg Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Samoa) OR from parts of the Middle East (Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, UAE), THEN you are highly likely to be OBESE... Yep, 1/3 of women in these countries are way too heavy (based on BMI) and Nauru wins the super size me prize - nearly 80% of women are obsese! And, the US is doing well - only 1/5th of adult women are unsightly.

Three important questions:
- Any causal effect? Does hiding your body under a hijab or a sarong make it easier for women to get fat?
- Can this information kill tourism in the Pacific Islands?
- Are Samoa girl scout cookies responsible for the fact that 2/3 of adult women are obsese in Samoa?

Source: WHO, 2006, http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2006_riskfactors.pdf

drumroll...

so no one is reading my blog except me. that's pathetic. no visitors. i need to do a better job of being smart, witty, funny, insightful, endearing, interesting, independent, free, critical, persuasive, etc. boy-o-boy. i am certainly off to a bad start today! maybe tomorrow.

plants running

the heat is off, the sun is out and kosmo found his pillow heated by the sun. my african daisies survived the winter and the parisian pollution. one branch is white lilac, another dark purple. the dna must have gotten split somehow. weird.

my new sport for 2007 - running. been trying to make it out for a 10k run per week + several small ones in between. ça marche pour le moment. last weekend was the foulées du tertre. didn't run but looks manageable. most people arrived under one hour - the fastest was probably around 25-30 minutes. serious marathon prep - 3 weeks to go. will i ever run one?

my mood today

birthday for the babe

go a little crazy today!

more of where i have been in 2007

la suisse

le train suisse

le mont cervin - ze matterhorn

Zermatt - noon

where i have been recently...

the beaches, toronto

niagara falls, canada

niagara on the lake

i like americans, really...

... but this is 6 minutes of great fun at their (our) expense. It could be done probably for other countries, but isn't. Why is that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE