CSI Auvers-sur-Oise: The van Gogh Case

CBS “60 Minutes” just re-broadcast a story about a claim that painter Vincent van Gogh was murdered in 1890, and did not commit suicide as believed. Authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith write that the artist was shot by two teenagers. Their theory is based on century-old accounts, not forensic evidence. Art world authorities who are not selling books on the topic discount the theory.

Vincent van Gogh was found shot in a field in Auvers-sur-Oise on July 27, 1890, died two days later, and is buried in the small town.

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Image (“Night Shift, after van Gogh”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Adieu, Minitel

On June 30th, its 30th birthday, France Télécom is hanging up on the Minitel videotexting system, whose monitors have been a fixture in French homes, offices, and post offices since 1982. The “France-Wide  Web” text-over-phoneline system replaced phone directories, displayed online news and information, and allowed electronic bill payments and other transactions (even virtual sex). Cellphone MSM texting and e-commerce on the Web now serve many of the same functions. Still, there is some mélancolie as the French say “Adieu Minitel, ami fidèle.”

Shocking New Discovery of Oldest Cave Art

Scientists have determined that a big block of rock in southern France is engraved with the earliest example of prehistoric wall art. Research indicates that the limestone carving is 37,000 years old and shows what Early Aurignacian human artists were thinking about.

The carvings are of prehistoric lady bits. This is important for art historians and huge news for standup comic/archeologists.

More:

“Engravings of Female Genitalia May Be World’s Oldest Cave Art,” Michael Balter, ScienceNOW

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Le passé français de Mitt Romney

While America wrestled with Vietnam, when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were shot, young Mormon missionary Mitt Romney was knocking on doors in Bordeaux and Paris. What do the French have to say about that?

“Le candidat à l’investiture républicaine pour l’élection présidentielle américaine a été missionnaire mormon en France entre 1966 et 1968. Un passé parfois encombrant alors que les médias attisent les rivalités entre prétendants pour entretenir le suspense.”

Read it in English here:

“Mitt Romney, The French Years,” Philippe Bernard, Le Monde via Worldcrunch

Cure for Electro-Hypersensitivity: Live in a Cave

Allergic to WiFi? Are cellphone transmissions making you ill? There’s a cure: live in a cave. That’s the solution for Anne Cautain and Bernadette Touloumond, anyway. The two suffer from Electro-Hypersensitivity (EHS) but have found respite underground, in a cave outside the small town of Beaumugne in Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur, France. If you visit, turn off your iPhone.

Happy Birthday Joan!

France went wild yesterday. January 6th was Joan of Arc’s 600th birthday.

Or maybe not:

“France Celebrates Joan of Arc’s (Fake) Birthday,” Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News.

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Image (“Joyeux anniversaire Jeanne, after Ingres”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Le Grand Frère Vous Regarde à Paris

Tourists aren’t the only ones in Paris with cameras; les flics have them as well. 200 new surveillance cameras now spy on the streets of the French capital, and by spring there will be 1200 more. Police at video monitors will be on the lookout for crime, terrorists, traffic jams, and inappropriate tutoiement. You have been warned.

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Image (“Le Grand Frère Vous Regarde à Paris, after Caillebotte”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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What Mitt and Newt Have in Common

Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have something in common. France.

Teenaged Newt Gingrich and his family lived in Orleans where his father Robert, a U.S. Army officer, was stationed. They appear to have lived there from 1958 to 1960, after a posting in Stuttgart.

Young Mitt spent 30 months (July 1966 to December 1968) in France as a Mormon missionary.

The two Republican presidential contenders may spend the next few months tearing each other apart, but they’ll always have Paris France.

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Adieu Minitel

France Télécom is hanging up on the Minitel videotexting system, whose monitors have been a fixture in French homes, offices, and post offices since 1982. It’s a text-over-phoneline system that also replaced phone directories, displayed online news and information, and allowed electronic bill payments and other transactions (even virtual sex). Cellphone MSM texting and e-commerce on the Web now serve many of the same functions. Still, there is some mélancolie as the French say “Adieu Minitel, ami fidèle.” FT will keep Minitel service running until its 30th birthday, June 30, 2012.

Pigeons: Smarter Than You Think

Pigeons are smarter than you think. Feral urban pigeons. Rock Doves, Columbia livia, aka “rats with feathers.”

French pigeons, anyway, les pigeons sauvages française de Paris.