Football: what the f*** happened to Zidane
It was going to be a perfect evening. The old french football stars were to give the best of them, Zinedine Zidane, a world championship in his last match.
It wasn't going to happen this day. Let's forget French lost from Italy after penaltys. Zidane wasn't even in the game anymore. He got red after headbanging to the chest of an Italian defender. No ball around, no reason at all, but on purpose for sure. Even the reporter at his personal website cocludes: ,,An obvious red card.'' But the important question is: what went wrong in the brains of the Marseille born star?
Update 12.30: Libération reports the international press has chosen Zidane as best player of the tournament. I guess it will not make him feel any better.
Update 19.30: Brasilian lip lip readers have found the answer, according to the Nouvel Observateur: Materazzi said Zidanes sister is a prostitute. It's a known fact Zizou has one sister (36 year old Lila), of whom he is very fond. The Nouvel Obs also makes clear Materazzi is no sweetheart either. In Italiy, the magazine found a movieclip with the 5 rudest tackles made by the Italian.
Posted by Peter at 12:01 AM [3 reactions]
No dance, but singing ont the bridge of Avignon
It's almost sure there never were round dances held on the Bridge of Avignon, whatever the old song 'Sur le pont' says. The bridge is to narrow for round dances.
This simple fact didn't keep generations all over the world from singing 'Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse'.
Now, the french heve made something to make some profit from this fact. At the bridge, they founded a small museum about french songs, the 'chansons'. Top attraction, mix your own video-clip. Of course, you are the star while singing 'Sur le pont d'Avignon' on the bridge of Avignon.
No doubt this will be a success. Patroness is nobody less then Mireille Mathieu, the singer who got famous way back in 1965 after she was introduced as 'the girl from Avignon.
Posted by Peter at 07:08 AM [What do you think?]
Google Earth, the French way: Geoportail
After some technical problems, due to unbelievable amounts of visitors, the French now have their own version of Google Earth: Geoportail. For the time being it only has flat pictures. 3D-images will be inserted next autumn. The site only shows France, including overseas colonies.
Having said this, we must conclude it's possible to view your favourite holiday resort in advance.
Though a contest isn't really fair while 3D is not available on Geoportail, I compared to random places.
- At the Tour Eiffel in Paris, Google wins easily. You may zoom in further and discover real people like little dots on top of the tower
- In Marseille, both Google and Geoportail give a lousy image of the Notre Dame de la Garde. Again, Google Earth allows more zooming, but in this case zooming only makes the quality worse.
In both cases, Nasa World Wind does a very bad job.
Posted by Peter at 07:01 AM [1 reaction]
Free internet in Paris
Internet addicts have a new reason to go to Paris. Before the end of 2007, the city of Paris wants to install no less then 400 free wifi internet access points. The idea is part of a larger plan to give the city broadband internet in order to compete better. The free access points meanwhile have a second goal to serve, as the Nouvel Observateur reports. According to mair Bernard Delanoë, te sight of people with laptops will make squares and gardens more lively.
Posted by Peter at 07:14 AM [What do you think?]
Bad weather warning
For those travelling to France today or tomorrow: Meteo France issued a bad weather warning for the west of the country. At temperatures above 30 degrees celsius (86 degrees fahrenheit), thunderstorms pass by. They will bring lots of hail and heavy rainfall (up to 50 millimeters).
L'Express advises car drivers to reduce their speed as the high temperatures will result in less attention.
Meanwhile, France 2 has a sad story about a little boy (3) in the Savoie area, who climbed into his grandfathers car, that was parked in the burning sun. He could not get out and died from the heat.
Posted by Peter at 07:54 PM [What do you think?]
