Frogsmoke

I don't think [tag]Carla Bruni[/tag] will be allowed in a French bar next year.

French cartoon character [tag]Obelix[/tag] in a [tag]photoshop[/tag] creation on Worth1000.

Pure gold… Not everybody in France is complaining: cereal growers double their income The publication of the average agricultural income for 2007 creates an illustration of the consequences of the absurd Common Agricultural Policies (CAP) reform of 2003. Farmers’ income supposedly increased by 12% in the year of 2007. But the income of cereal growers, [...]

In 1838, a man made history by having his boots polished. The man, in the lower left, was the only thing standing still when Louis [tag]Daguerre[/tag] took this photograph of a busy Parisian street. Because the film was exposed for 10 minutes, the rest of the traffic blurred into nothing — and the anonymous man [...]

This non-average French family owes the state a bit more: 200,000 euros. France ends the year with a national debt of over 1.2 trillion euros, or 65.9% of GDP (gross domestic product) The figure is higher than allowed according to the Maastricht treaty, which puts a ceiling of 60% to the national debt of each [...]

"Bad television reception" — 3rd prize winner Today’s Bouguereau rip-off comes from FreakingNews. This [tag]photoshop[/tag]ped version (view full size) is based on William [tag]Bouguereau[/tag]’s original 1899 work Douleur d'Amour (Elegy — see thumbnail). It was one of the entries in the contest “To pay a tribute to good old CRT (cathode-ray tube) TV technology which [...]

The best of the web and the international press, collected for you by Frogsmoke. Happy reading! Je t’aime: Sarkozy’s girlfriend to record love album. Far from giving up her guitar to play the discreet presidential consort, Nicolas Sarkozy’s girlfriend Carla Bruni is working on a new album of love songs to be released next year [...]

Paris, 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 104 x 98.25 in. 264.2 x 249.6 cm. Paula Scher is a New York artist who specializes in painting maps. From a press release: Through an acute understanding of the powerful relationship between type and image, Scher harmonizes witty with tragic, the methodical with the intuitive, and the personal with [...]

This is an ad or poster (view large size) for a French regional railway operator. Maybe I'm brain dead, but I have no idea what they're trying to sell me.

Today’s Bouguereau rip-off comes from Worth1000. This [tag]photoshop[/tag]ped version (view full size) is based on William [tag]Bouguereau[/tag]’s original 1875 work Au Bord du Ruisseau (At the Edge of the Brook). It was one of the entries in the contest “Update any artwork with a character from the world of children's entertainment.” The cartoon character is [...]

I've never watched Futurama, so I don't know how funny it is. But looking at this image it's fairly stereotypical: the French wear berets and stripy shirts, wave baguettes, and smoke. The screen shot is from an episode about the 3004 Olympic Games, which I found here. [tags]Futurama[/tags]

High heel sneakers: How Nicolas Sarkozy is becoming a tall act to follow. According to this photo report on 20minutes, Sarkozy is "complexé" by his short stature, and imposes flat shoes on the women who accompany him. The gallery has many more images of Sarko’s unique style, including his love for Ray-Ban Aviator shades, oversized [...]

An analysis from Christian Lambert, a former French ambassador, writing at Les 4 Vérités, predicts a terrible fate for Europe. He titles his essay, "The Inexorable Suicide of Europe." The Brussels administration admits officially that each year some 550,000 immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and China, plus South America, enter the European Union. In [...]

A team of French engineers has for the first time ever successfully test-flown an electric plane. The aircraft, equipped with a 25 HP electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries, conducted a flight of 48 minutes from an airport in southeastern France. The plane is a single-sitter with an unmanned weight of 155 kg and a wingspan [...]

After glossy ladies' magazines and pink cameras, here's the latest girly gadget: the women-only credit card. The card offers a number of extra's, such as SMS alerts for paying goods in three installments, extended warranties and discounts in certain shops. The standard card has a silky finish, the gold card looks and feels like leather. [...]