Frogsmoke

Dutch site TheMagical has created ride-simulators for four of the best rides at Disneyland Paris.
These aren't 3D ride-throughs – they're simulators for the control-systems for the rides! You are the god of the ride, in charge of opening the doors to different load-systems, dispatching maintenance personnel, and operating the lights and so forth.
The [...]

Gallic pride at stake as Italy grows oysters
France, Europe's biggest oyster grower, supplies 90 per cent of bivalves eaten by Italian enthusiasts. But that may change. With the French oyster industry under fire for its unorthodox health and safety rules and for growing skinny specimens, the Italians are setting up their own oyster farm. Worse [...]

The machine can detect fires, check on criminals, and locate lost people.
Bye bye drones and helicopters: here's the remote control police in the sky.
It looks like a UFO, but it's man-made. No less than 240 engineers and researchers worked on it. It can fly at a speed of 80 km/h, at altitudes up to 9,000 [...]

Not for creationists: 'The World Before the Deluge' by Louis Figuier (1862)

"The object of "The World before the Deluge" is to trace the progressive steps by which the earth has reached its present state, from that condition of chaos when it "was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the the [...]

If you're in reading mode, here are some interesting articles:
'Alexis de Tocqueville': the first French critic of the US
French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville's aristocratic family suffered greatly during France's revolution, with many of his relatives and friends guillotined, so it's no surprise that Tocqueville was left with a deep fear of majority rule. However after [...]

Society and the law aren't ready for it, but the disabled have a need for change
During a colloquium, held this week at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, handicapped French expressed the need for a change in attitudes and legislation regarding their sexual needs. Associations for disabled people want "sexual aid workers" who can kiss, stroke [...]

Not for vegetarians…
New York Times reporter Mark Brittman went to Paris to find the best Steak Frites – and found it.
My current favorite — and it should be understood that this changes just about every time I go to Paris — is Le Sèvero, a tiny joint of about 30 seats in the 14th Arrondissment [...]

Scenes from the video, now removed from YouTube.
What's more stupid than driving too fast? Bragging about it on the Internet.
A 25-year old French man decided it was fun to drive at 225km/h (140 mph) on a road where the speed limit was 110km/h (68mph). For even more fun he filmed the event, and posted it [...]

Can you guess who this is?
She sings in French, but she's not a Francaise, and she's not even a singer. Today, she's 30 years older. Click the YouTube link below to reveal her name.
YouTube

Tim Burton, Anais, Nick Nolte, Audrey Tatou
Discover the stunning portraits of famous people, by French photographer Denis Rouvre.
On the same site: Broken Faces, portraits of bruised, grimy, bandaged rugby players after the match – and before the shower.
Denis Rouvre

In The Telegraph: a quick guide to Le Touquet, the Parisians' favorite beach
Sea breezes and walks on the beach, seawater spa treatments and stylish French cooking – there is no better place to blow away the cobwebs than Le Touquet. Just 45 miles south of Calais, the resort was invented by the British 100 years [...]

The new surgery technique is named Anubis, after the Egyptian god.
French doctors have for the first time removed a gallbladder without making an incision in the patient's body.
The medical team used a flexible 1.3 meter long endoscope, which was inserted through the woman's vagina. Using remote-controlled tools as small as 2 mm, and a [...]

French chef: "I know pigs very well. It's my life, It's my passion."
Pork is the world's most widely eaten meat – and an obsession for French chef and restaurateur Stephane Reynaud who relishes the tradition of raising pigs and the festive atmosphere of a slaughter.
Reynaud shares his affection for pigs and 150 ways to cook [...]

Cecilia Sarkozy and Francois Hollande: not keen on living in the Elysee.
In the New York Times: A ‘First Spouse’ in France? Not Any Time Soon.
No matter who wins the presidency of France on May 6, life in the grand, presidential Élysée Palace is destined to change.
Unlike Bernadette Chirac, who has admitted that she's going [...]

Poll reveals: The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them.
The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French.
Only 14 [...]