Record Roller Babies
It’s official: the Evian Roller Babies video has beaten all records on YouTube, DailyMotion and other video sites. By 9 November the video had been viewed over 45 million times (45,166,109 to be exact), which earns it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Med Food beats Prozac
It’s published in the British Journal of Psychiatry so it must be true: British shrinks give the thumbs up to the Mediterranean diet. We knew it was good for the body, but now we know it’s also good for our mental health. People who have a tendency for depression see more light at the end of the tunnel if they drop fried food, meat, cereals and chocolate, and eat fruit, vegetables and fish instead.
What is beauty?
The BBC starts a new series about the beauty of art, and the Telegraph writes about it, with a picture of the famous Millau bridge in the south of France I don’t see what that bridge has to do with art, but beautiful it is.
French town cannot let bookstore die
“Just off the town square, a few hundred feet down La Grande Rue, a bookstore has been dispensing culture and entertainment to the people of Poligny for 150 years. Over the generations, residents said, it has become part of the landscape, a place where children tarry on the way home from school and their parents duck in to pick up the latest novel.That’s why, when the shop looked as if it would have to close this spring, a group of townspeople put up cash to form a little corporation, capitalized at $70,000, and bought the lease to keep it running. As a result, the New Bookstore reopened two weeks ago with a coat of fresh paint but a familiar mission: to be a haven where people feel welcome dropping by to buy a ballpoint pen or browse for books.” Full story.
Anti-Spank law in the making?
French parents believe that a good smack on the buttocks (une fessée) keeps kids under control. One politician (who also happens to be a pediatrician) wants to outlaw the habit, just like it has become illegal in 18 other European countries. He doesn’t intend to send spanking parents to prison, but wants the rule to be explained to people who get married before they produce babies.
A slightly displaced universe
What would happen if you were struck by a 150,000 ton meteorite? This happened one evening to Henry. Yet he is not dead or even injured. He is always there. Well, not really “there”, but 91 centimeters next to himself. It’s not easy to live in that slightly displaced universe…
This 13-minute short movie (English subtitles) by Jeremy Clapin won many awards.
About the bridge: Architecture has been one of the seven arts since the ancient Greeks. Clearly a bridge such as this one is a showcase of what our generation of architects is able to achieve. It’s a modern day equivalent of the Pont du Gard. That it happens to be pleasing to the eye (very pleasing actually), is a nice extra, but it’s the architectural prowess that gives it its art credentials.
Just wondering: le sixième art is cinema if I’m right. What was the sixth art for the ancient Greeks?
I believe you may be mistaken here. Cinéma is le Septiéme art. (Wikipédia comfirms).
In the old Greek classification, Architecture is the first and foremost form of art (probably because it is so integrated). Then follow Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry and Dance.
Lately Film, Photography and even “Bande Déssinée “have been added to the list. (I like my Astérix as much as the next man, but to call BD an art form in itself goes a bit too far for me.
Ah well… At least cinema is a Greek word! Does the art of cooking fall in the top 10?