Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, coucher de soleil, 26/12/2011

« Gardez bien en vous ce trésor de gentillesse. Sachez donner sans retenue, perdre sans regret, acquérir sans mesquinerie. »


"Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness."


George Sand, nom de plume de / pen name of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, écrivain / novelist (1804-1876)

Beauty is truth, truth beauty...is that all ye need to know?

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” 


Marilyn Monroe, actress, model, singer, film producer (1926-1962), Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words.

What was I thinking of on that day?

Something I unearthed from a long, long time ago. / Quelque chose de très, très vieux que je viens de déterrer.

Merry Christmas to you all. Joyeux Noël à toutes et à tous.

Strong gale at sunset

All pictures taken by the seaside, Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, 23/12/11, around 6:30 pm

2011 already costliest year for natural disasters

Copied/pasted directly from MSNBC.com, which can be found here (there are pictures too, and the rest of the article). Their "share" options should have been better designed, there was no way I would post what they proposed to me.


By Miguel Llanos
Updated 7/12/11


Natural disasters across the globe have made 2011 the costliest on record in terms of property damage, and that's just six months in, according to a report released Tuesday by a leading insurer that tracks disasters.

Moreover, that record builds on a trend of recent costly years — which means more expensive insurance for consumers over the long haul.

The first six months saw $265 billion in economic losses, well above the previous record of $220 billion (adjusted for inflation) set for all of 2005 (the year Hurricane Katrina struck), according to Munich Re, a multinational that insures insurance companies.

Japan's earthquake and tsunami last March account for the biggest chunk ($210 billion), as well as most deaths (15,500 dead with 7,300 still counted as missing), but even without that cost factored in, overall losses still exceed the 10-year average, the company stated in its half-year review (PDF file).

After Japan, the costliest disasters so far this year were New Zealand's earthquake in February ($20 billion), the twister outbreak in the U.S. Southeast ($7.5 billion), and Australia's flooding in December-January ($7.3 billion).

2011 is "one for the record books," Bob Hartwig, head of the Insurance Information Institute, told reporters being briefed on the study. "We are rewriting the financial and economic history of disasters on a global scale."

The rest is to be found on the website.

Shades of grey and the things in between

 Ciel au-dessus de la baie de Bourgneuf, Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, le 21/12/11, fin d'après-midi.

  Baie de Bourgneuf, vue du port de Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, le 22/12/11, fin d'après-midi.

 Pin parasol, rue du port, Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, le 22/12/11, soir.

 Chenal du nord, vu de Saint-Marc-sur-mer, le 23/12/11, matin.

 Chenal du nord, vu de Saint-Marc-sur-mer, le 23/12/11, matin.

 

Rare lenticular clouds over West Yorkshire

Here's the link to the pictures. Enjoy!

A NEW PARTICLE!

Here's the link to this short article describing the discovery of a new subatomic particle thanks to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. Here's the latest BBC article on the topic.

Still no news of the Higgs boson...*sigh*...

UPDATE: Reuters' article on the subject.

Shakespeare and I

As unexpected as this may sound, my Master's thesis has been published by the Editions Universitaires Européennes. Here is the link!

Aussi inattendu que cela puisse paraître, mon mémoire de DEA vient d'être édité par les Editions Universitaires Européennes. Voici le lien !