thewayne: (Default)
and 50 investigators assigned to find out what happened, it is likely that the cause of the fire was due to construction, but we'll find out for sure. The investigation is likely to take quite some time to perform. I've been on lots of construction sites and I know how easy it would be for a fire to start: an angle grinder, torch mishap, or electrical short and *poof*.

The fire was extinguished about 8am GMT, 2am EST, after it burned for 15 hours. Firefighters were able to get into the main body of the cathedral, which helped save the main structure. Our Beloved Leader helpfully tweeted that they should have used wildfire water bombers, which would have probably collapsed the roof.

Overall, it could have been much worse. While the spire was lost, the bell towers survived and most of the art treasures as did the stained glass windows. There's structural damage, and as of right now restoration experts are not being allowed in until after structural engineers deem it safe.

Air France is going to provide free flights to people involved in the restoration. All of the money thus-far pledged is from French corporations and rich families.

It is a tragic thing, but it looks like it will get a complete rebuild, so a quite magnificent Phoenix will rise from the ashes.

This BBC article has photos of the post-fire interior. It's not as bad as you might think.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47943705
thewayne: (Default)
I wonder if it might be a demonstration sport at the Olympics there in five years!

From the article: "Combatants fight inside a circle marked in tape on the floor. Strikes to the head or body are worth five points; to the arms or legs, three points; on hands, one point. The winner is the first to reach 15 points or, if they don’t get there quickly, the fighter with the higher score after three minutes is the victor. If both fighters reach 10 points, the bout enters a “sudden death” stage, in which the first to land a head or body blow wins."

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/19/light-saber-duelling-official-sport-france-star-wars
thewayne: (Cyranose)
He is a Parisian based in London, but as it happened he was on holiday when the attacks happened. He picked up a pencil and started sketching when he heard the news, and an icon was born.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/jean-jullien-peace-for-paris/


In other news, France bombed the hell out of an Isis stronghold with ten planes dropping twenty bombs. And Anonymous has vowed that they're going to cyber-rip ISIS apart.
thewayne: (Cyranose)
When we were going to Prague from Berlin last June, as we crossed the border on our train I happened to look out the window and saw a large building, a warehouse or industrial something or other, with Je Suis Charlie on it. It was quite moving, though I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps because it was strategically graphittied so that mostly only people on the train would see it.

Yesterday afternoon I was reading Ars Technica, a story about the Paris Orleans airport being shut down because a computer running Windows 3.1 crashed. Very amusing, until someone in the comments mentioned that Paris had been attacked. Sort of drained all the comedy of a 25 year old operating system running a critical part of an airport.

I have a friend whose cousin survived the first World Trade Center bombing, he was an armored car driver or guard and was in the basement when the bombs went off. As it happened, he was at Ground Zero when the planes hit. He did not survive. Another person that I know had a ticket to go to the top of the WTC on 9/11, fortunately she partied too hard the night before and missed the scheduled tour. And she lived. Likewise, the Asian martial arts film star and comedy legend Jackie Chan was filming a movie on the WTC and they had some technical issues that prevented them from filming that day. That movie was abandoned.

There can be no doubt that the 9/11 attacks on the United States were horrible, especially for the people in New York City and that were on the planes. But this is somehow more gruesome, even with the much lower body count. Because France will be happy to provide ISIS with a real war, complete with some of the best-trained military forces in the form of the Foreign Legion knocking on their proverbial door. ISIS has been wanting to drag the USA in to a ground war to validate their narrative for forming their caliphate that The Crusaders are there to kill them, to justify their killing others. And the USA has to a limited degree avoided giving ISIS that, which I think is the best thing to do. This is an Arab/Muslim problem, and the Arab/Muslim countries in the area should have taken care of it, they cumulatively outnumber ISIS by probably 100 to 1. Saudi Arabia by itself has an army that outnumbers ISIS by a good 20 to 1.

Well, it looks like France will be paying them a visit in the very near future.


(What's really sad is that as I entered TER to get the terrorism tag, the names Terry Gilliam and Terry Pratchett also came up. It's sad that two masters of comedy and entertainment should be so proximate to such a horrible thing.)
thewayne: (Cyranose)
They don't allow discounters like Amazon to cut the price of books more than 5%, plus the Paris government buys buildings in high-rent districts to give book stores affordable rents. France is in the process of passing a law that prohibits the 5% discount and adding free shipping on top of it.

I wonder if Jeff Bezos is crying to his Congressional friends that this is anti-capitalism. It is, it's blatant market protection to help small businesses be competitive to ensure diversity and to help employment, otherwise Amazon would swoop in and most of those small bookstores would shutter very quickly.

I always get depressed when I go in to a mall and there are no bookstores. There are three bookstores in a 75 mile radius of my house: a used one infested with cats, a tiny one with a very limited selection, and a Hastings which rarely has what we're looking for. I appreciate Amazon in that it's our only option without driving 75+ miles, I just hate that they drove/are driving out of business the big box stores that drove so many of the small bookstores out of business.

The article also notes that France has a much lower adoption rate for ebooks, which I also appreciate. They have their place, but they are no substitute to a printed copy (a lot of the time). I have a friend who practically lives off ebooks as she has fibromyalgia and weak hands and cannot hold large hardbacks for extended periods of time.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/25/240766585/little-libraires-that-could-french-law-keeps-amazon-at-bay?sc=17&f=1001

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