Right after impact the two riders on the left went down hard.

And then on a subsequent stage it happened again. This time with a white dog:

In both cases riders went over the dogs, tumbled and took other riders out. In the photo below you can see the point of impact. Look at what happens to this rider’s front carbon fiber wheel which folds in on itself.

The dogs ran off and the commenters said that the dogs looked okay but after getting run over by a bike going 20+ miles an hour I’m not so sure.

If you don’t follow cycling and are confused then let me give you a more American analogy. I’d be like taking your dogs to the NASCAR races and having them jump out and chase the cars.

If you are a dog lover you do two things. You keep them from harm’s way and you do not go to Atlanta Falcons games.

tour de france

dog

… the film (“300″) has sparked outrage in modern Iran, which denounced the blockbuster’s depiction of the ancient battle as “hostile behavior which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare.” According to Reuters, poor-quality pirated DVDs are already circulating in Iran and a broad spectrum of government leaders and bloggers have denounced the movie as portraying the Persians as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks. Some elected officials in Iran are urging other Muslim countries not to show “this anti-Iranian Hollywood movie.”

- Los Angeles Times

In related news, France announced a plan to freeze-dry a corps of attorneys, who will awaken 2,500 years from now to file defamation suits against anyone describing that country as insufferable or self-important.

Experts say the likely reaction in 4500 will be surprise that western Switzerland was once an independent nation.

No word on whether the cryo-lawyers will be equipped with French-Mandarin dictionaries.

Technorati Tags: France, Iran, movies

This trend imported from America would really gall Charles de Gaulle; the French are getting fatter by the year. In fact according to NPR, the rate of obesity in France has doubled in recent years, to 12 percent — a figure approaching U.S. fat stats.

For a country whose populace generally considers itself a cut above the rest of the world, this must be the one thing that is tough for them to swallow.

Of course the Americans are to blame for all of France’s ills including the now-porky Parisians. The French are spending more time watching television (no doubt bad American TV shows) and drinking sodas (Cokes and Pepsi’s). They are also eating more fast food (McDonald’s and Burger King). They’ll no doubt even blame us for French Fries.

Not surprisingly, they’re still in denial. NPR reports that it’s rare for a French high-end clothing manufacturer to make dresses larger than size 14. However 40% of Frances ever-fattening female population is now larger than that. This is what France wants us to imagine when we picture a French woman (click on picture for more of Melissa Theuriau):

However, this is a you’ll likely see as you stroll the Champs-Elysees:

And expect to see more French “cankles” (defined as the “fat that fills in and eliminates the curve between the calf and the ankle.”)

Bonus: Here’s a tip for you would-be bloggers. Do not type “fat women” into Google unless you preselected safe search. You’ve been warned.

french fat people cankles

1. Most importantly, Armstrong is cleared of all allegations of steroid use as was widely reported in the French media.

2. The tests on urine samples were conducted improperly and fell so short of scientific standards that it was “completely irresponsible” [for the WADA, the French laboratory, the French Ministry of Sport, L'Equipe, and the Tour de France organizers to] suggest they “constitute evidence of anything.”

3. The French laboratory that handled the samples and the World Anti-Doping Agency “violated applicable rules on athlete confidentiality by commenting publicly on the alleged positive findings.”

Sorry France looks like Lance just whipped you yet again. You should be used to it by now.

tags: lance armstrong

In the interest of helping Insider improve Franco-American relations I offer this video of Smokin Hot French Anchor Woman Melissa Theuriau.

Ignore the cheesy soft porn music and the fact that you can’t understand a word she says.

The same site has the Smokin Hot Univision Host Sofia Vegara for your viewing pleasure.

Say what you want about the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, or Parisian street cafes, but for many Internet searchers Melissa would be #1 on any trip taken to Gaul. Even clothed she is a site worth remembering (forever). The fact that she appears to enjoy walking around and being photographed sans coverings makes puts her up on a near-goddess level. I can now relate to the love, respect and devotion that the ancient Greeks had for their goddess Bastardly has 8 pages of the latest photos of naked Melissa Theuriau, we’ll just show you 3 of our favorites.

Chad seems to think that the photos came from Voici but we don’t know French and the few French friends we had long ago stopped talking to us after reading this part of our blog.

* Yes we understand the difference between “naked” and “topless” but Bastardly used the former and since we were linking to them we used it as well for consistency.

tags: melissa theuriau

The United State’s has one of the most admired university systems in the world and one of the most deplored k-12 systems. Could the difference have something to do with the fact that universities operate in a competitive market with lots of private suppliers while k-12 is dominated by monopolistic, government provided schools?

Marginal Revolution next asks “what would our university system look like if it operated like the k-12 system? It turns out that France has a university system very close to what our high school monopolistic system is. To no one’s surprise, it is a disaster akin to our public schools. Read their post for more.

tags: education france

Mediagrove pointed us to this interview with our favorite newscaster, Melissa Theuriau. Google’s translation may be suspect …

TV-leisures: You are very young. How did you fall into the bath from the presentation?

Mélissa Theuriau: The antenna was offered to me, very naturally. However, I had never dreamed some. Three years ago, I worked with LCI, the desk, when Jean-Claude Dassier proposed to me to carry out tests. Here how, at 25 years, the shortly after my birthday, I discovered the adrenalin of the direct one. Difficult to happen some once one tasted there!

“… I do not want to explode in full vol. I would initially like to turn over on the ground to enrich my luggage and to still gain of credibility.”

… but we’ve sent Insider to Paris to learn more about this falling into the bath. And to seek pictures.

Technorati Tags: melissa Theuriau

Skype is now bigger than France.

Skype just passed 100 million registered users, a milestone reached in roughly 30 months. Even more remarkably, it has nearly doubled in size since last September.

Meanwhile, France which has been around for several hundred years longer than Skype has just 68 million users and is barely growing. If not for users migrating over from North African countries, its total user base would in fact be shrinking.

For those of you not familiar with Skype or France, Skype provides free, unlimited worldwide voice and video calls over the Internet, while France is a stuffy, old European country trying to hold on to its welfare state policies in the face of a stagnant economy and changing demographics.

tags: skype VoIP france

This goes a long way toward explaining why students in a country with chronically high unemployment are protesting legislation making it less costly for businesses to hire employees — they’re too stu … the concept is simply beyond them.

- The Times of London on why French President Jacques Chirac and three ministers left an EU summit meeting. The real reason appears to be that Chirac was offended when a French businessperson began a presentation … in English. According to the article:

When M Seillière, who is an English-educated steel baron, started a presentation to all 25 EU leaders, President Chirac interrupted to ask why he was speaking in English. M Seillière explained: “I’m going to speak in English because that is the language of business.”

Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers, leaving the 24 other European leaders stunned. They returned only after M Seilière had finished speaking.

Sounds like at least one of those protesting French students is learning valuable skills — the one who, forty years from now, will be President of France.

Evidently French politicians don’t think it’s fair that Apple has put out a superior product that consumers have been happy to purchase. The way to correct this situation is to unfairly target Apple and force them out of the market.

You have to love those French.

tags: apple iPod france

We take our obligation to cover Southern California news seriously. So when we learned that there are topless photos of French news babe Melissa Theuriau in the new edition of the French magazine Voici, we thought about our mission statement, our strategy, and the photos’ complete irrelevance to them. How could we fit the new pictures in?

Then we decided to stop with all the thinking and tell you how to find them. After all, aside from being a blog about Southern California, we’re the #8 English-language Google result for Melissa Theuriau. And that brings with it an obligation to report news about our favorite French person as fast as we can.

What you need to know is that Wizbang Pop has thumbnails with strategically located black rectangles …. but each of those thumbnails is a link to an uncensored version like this (but much, much larger):

Thank Wizbang Pop for somehow obtaining the scans.

—
Others on this story:

The Jawa Report

LLama Butchers

Technorati Tags: melissa Theuriau, topless

You just have to understand, what you saw wasn’t rioting, it was … umm, barbecue?

The recent rioting that scarred the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, leaving about 9,000 vehicles and many suburban buildings burned, prompted a drop in tourism, Transport Minister Dominique Perben told the National Assembly.

… French officials have complained that foreign television coverage, using terms such as “Paris Burning” and “Intifada in the Suburbs”, had given a distorted picture of the unrest.

—
More France items here

Technorati Tags: France, tourism, riot

From the Financial Times (UK)

France’s employment minister on Tuesday fingered polygamy as one reason for the rioting in the country.

Gérard Larcher said multiple marriages among immigrants was one reason for the racial discrimination which ethnic minorities faced in the job market. Overly large polygamous families sometimes led to anti-social behaviour among youths who lacked a father figure, making employers wary of hiring ethnic minorities, he explained….

The minister, speaking to a group of foreign journalists as the government stepped up efforts to improve its image with the foreign media, said: “Since part of society displays this anti-social behaviour, it is not surprising that some of them have difficulties finding work … Efforts must be made by both sides. If people are not employable, they will not be employed.”

Politicians estimate there are 10,000-20,000 polygamous families in France, most from North and sub-Saharan African countries such as Algeria, Mali and Senegal, where the practice is legal.

Polygamy is a taboo subject for most mainstream French politicians.

A sharp rebuke is expected from the state of Utah.

Seriously, for France this is a big deal. The employment minister was able to finger French Muslims without mentioning them by name. The commenters of Dhimmi Watch added a few other ways of alluding to the problem without actually saying it:

“Its mandatory ritual butchering of sheep/goats that leads to violent tendencies among some immigrant youth…”
“Its mandatory 5 tmes a day work interruption that’s leading to unemployability …”
etc.

Some lighter comments from LGF:

Monogamy is reason enough for me to riot. But that’s another story.
They won’t take a polygamy test!
Sheesh, can’t these people wait until the afterlife to get their 72 virgins?
Who in his right mind would want more than one wife?
That’s a relief. For a moment there, I thought he said pygmies.
Could the fact the Muslims would love to destroy the west be the real problem.
Yeah, I’ve noticed those polygamists in Southern Utah are going around torching cars, burning schools, setting cripples on fire and stuff like that too.

Also posting: But That’s Just My Opinion, Clear and Present, Daily Pundit and Pigilito

BTW Pigilito says:

“These are children of the Republic, making the father figure… Jacques Chirac. Reason enough to complain, in my estimation.”

h/t: GOPinions

technorati: polygamy

photo source: Ridiculopathy

That’s terrific but what will happen to these “trained” individuals once they are out looking for jobs if there is nothing done to create new job opportunities? It appears that Chirac wants to add 50,000 jobs on to the public sector which will probably result in a similar # of jobs being squeezed out of the private sector–with French Muslims bearing the disproportionate share of those job losses.

If there was ever a time that France needed to be looking at ways of creating job opportunities is is now, but it appears that France is simply not there yet.

Of course the French can do somethings right.

Trackbacked: Captain’s Quarters Jawa Report

technorati: france paris chirac

Independent Sources is a serious (and well-written) blog covering current events, California politics, and economics. We have recently had two very well received posts (one on hot lesbian Carolina Panther cheerleaders and the other on smoking hot lingerie modeling for homeless youths). While both of these fell within our editorial focus we thought it important to follow up with a serious journalistic work–say mainstream media critiquing.

Normally, we critique the Los Angeles Times, but this time we thought we would take advantage of the riots in France to look at broadcast media there since they have been accused of under-reporting of the damage being caused in their own country by rioting Muslims.

Our investigation of these allegations took us to French broadcaster LCI and in particular Melissa Theuriau. We selected her because she is smoking hot to look at. Say what you want about the French 35-hour work week or their immigration policy, but when it comes to how the news is delivered, France is unparalleled.

Here is her official web site is here (with hundreds of photos, I’ve just picked a few).

Mélissa Theuriau presents “LCI Matin” (LCI Morning) and the news of 6:40 on TF1 from Monday to Thursday and the “Voyages” (travels) show on Wednesdays at 13:55 on LCI.

This French eye candy gives us all a reason to watch the news. Mélissa Theuriau was born on the 18th of July 1978 in Grenoble ( a town in the south-east of France):
- Mélissa Theuriau est entrée au “desk” de LCI en janvier 2003.
- Elle fut titularisée dans l’équipe du matin en septembre 2004.
- Depuis septembre 2005 Mélissa Theuriau présente LCI Matin avec à ses côtés Thierry Gilardi.

Some of you will question Melissa’s journalistic abilities and accuse the network of employing her on the basis of her physical appearance alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anything this hot looking, basically bordering on celestial goddess, is bound to be skilled at reading a teleprompter or whatever it is that broadcast journalists do. When one’s looks are off the chart, as hers are, we think it petty jealously to question her qualifications.

Others will consider our obsession with her as sexism. Come on. If there were no women in broadcast news, that would be sexism. Her station management should be commended for stepping out on a limb and taking a shot with a unbelievably smoking hot newscaster like Melissa Theuriau.

So that is Independent Sources hard-biting critique of the French media’s handling of the riots. We hope that your appreciate our “pull no punches” approach. And as a special thank you for reading Independent Sources, please accept the special “wallet size” photos of Melissa Theuriau so she will always be with you.

Click here for a video montage of Melissa Theuriau in a variety of outfits. All she needs is the cheerleaders outfit! If you want to see all of her outfits go here or here or here or here or here.

In our next media review we’ll make sure to have some nice glamor shots of Michael Hiltzik, Paul Krugman, and Kevin Roderick–that ought to shut-up the “treat the sexes the same” crowd.

To show you what a funny world we live in, blogger 8763 Wonderland is obsessed with Micky Kaus as much as we are obsessed with Melissa Theurian. Hmmmm.

Hat Tip: Ace of Spades (ps: merci beaucoup)
and a pass-thru h/t to The Derb @ National Review Online

Fresh 99 is a multimedia site with nice photos of Melissa.

technorati: Melissa

Others on this hot story: Politiburo Diktat Right Hand of God Decision 08 The Llama Butchers

Addition: The Jammy suggests that we not forget Dominique Sachse who does Texas traffic. They are right, she’s smokin’ too.

[Update: for info on the March 2006 topless photos, go to this post.]

Update: Link to Melissa on video. God bless YouTube.

Update: What is this? Melissa caught on camera without her clothes again? Damn!

Update: Unrelated by Meliss Theuriau fans might also be fans of Denise Richards, and if so you will definitely want to hear about what she thinks of her soon-to-be-ex in our posting: “Under Threat of Perjury Charlie Sheen’s Wife Calls Him a Delusional, Drugged, Paranoid, Conspiracy Theory Believing, Gay Porn Site Visiting Abuser”

trackbacks: Captains Quarters

…Ahmed Meguinia, a political activist who saw some of the Paris region’s hardest-hit areas during the past week, said…that there was a lack of media coverage explaining why ethnically segregated inhabitants of some of France’s poorest cities have been driven to riot. Instead, the world repeatedly sees CNN images of burning cars and shops, he said.

That’s a good point Ahmed, TV should stay away from showing the damage rioters are causing and focus instead on how they have been driven riot. Le dumb.

technorati: paris

trackback: Captains Quarters

With every night of violent rioting that scars France’s rundown suburbs, more and more French say their distinctive model of integration, based on the revolutionary ideal of equality for all, has failed.

But President Jacques Chirac and his conservative (! – ed.) allies are unlikely to join the critics, as that would mean accepting the approach France considers superior is no better than integration policies abroad.

Ignored: the only major French politician who thinks there is a problem:

When (Interior Minister Nicolas) Sarkozy says the best social system is the one that produces jobs and that the French model is not doing that, his comments are met not with approval but retorts that the French model is fine and needs only to be better applied.

“Flexible” and “adaptable” were originally French words; but it seems only rigide is left.

The riots began Oct. 27 after the accidental deaths of two teenagers hiding from police. But that incident now seems little more than a trigger for an explosion of anger and alienation that has accumulated for years in France’s poor, predominantly Muslim neighborhoods.

Of course many have and will continue to blame the French economic model which institutionalizes stagnation and high unemployment. That said, exactly how many of the “angry and alienated young men” tossing gas bombs have really tried to integrate into the country they live? Do they consider themselves Muslims first and French a distant second? They live in a country not torn by war in one of the most generous social systems in the world yet appears to be guilty of being non-Muslim. Do these young men view a secular France as something that must be destroyed? Are car bombs the next step?

Living in a country, America, that has been improved for centuries by immigrants that bring their labor, know-how, and desire to integrate, the experiences of Western Europe are hard for me to comprehend. It’s hard to imagine an America without Italians, Irish, Mexicans, Chinese, etc., etc. I’m not sure the same can be said about a France and its North African immigrants. Have they “improved” France or are they remaining distant from it only now to be burning down everything they can?

And how about the many French immigrants from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe? Are they running around tossing Molotov cocktails at cars? I don’t think so.

Of course the mainstream media have a different take. From the AP (today):

The violence has escalated from an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects into a nationwide show of disdain for French authority from youths and minorities, most French-born children of Arab and black Africans angered by years of unequal opportunities.

Notice that they didn’t say “perceived” unequal opportunities? I guess that settles it then.

Google Maps Europe 2015?

Update: A moment of irony: schools and businesses are being targeted as part of the protest against lack of education and jobs.

Update: Captain’s Quarters reports that both American and French media sources warned of coordinated Islamist action against France in the weeks before the riot. Agence France Presse even had a quote from the maligned Nicolas Sarkozy noting the imminent nature of the threat in its 9/27 dispatch. (The “elephant” in the room just got bigger.)

Update: If you search Google’s French site for keywords “banlieues” (suburbs) and “émeutes” (riots), you will supposedly find an ad for the French conservative ruling party, of which Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the president. When I tried to replicate it nothing came up so I’m not sure if the ads have been pulled because of political pressure or because they hit their Google Adwords spending limit for the month. (Reminds me of a certain Hans Island spat).

photo sources: f***france.com

technorati: france