Muttroxia

After a full day, we had been driving for 7 hour straight to get as close to Paris as we could for the end of the trip. At 11:00 pm, we finally pulled over at a highway hotel. They were full up, and pointed us across the way. We shambled over to the front door and went in. Or at least we tried to. The door was locked. There was no apparent way to open it. (We took this picture the next day, imagine it in the dark with heavy mental fatigue.)

We could not figure out what to do. We pressed every button and nothing worked. What kind of crazy hotel has no one on duty and no way to contact anyone? These crazy French people!? We gave up. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the ATM… and gradually realized what it was.

The hotel was automated at night. You paid with a credit card at the “ATM”. It gave you a code number that was good for 24 hours. You could use the code number to open the door and get to your room. As you might imagine, a hotel that thinks having a single employee at night is too much is rather spartan. Our room:

There were no pictures on the wall, nothing that could be stolen. It was basically a stripped down, bare bones dorm room. The next morning we got up and went on our way.

The highway exits for each town had graphics telling you something about the town. We loved this. Many of them were beautiful images. And we got a good laugh out of towns that couldn’t muster anything better than a hill.

On one strech of road, for no reason we could ever figure out, there were large statues of mushrooms. Statues of small children would be playing near them.

(And yes, those are dead french bugs on the windshield.)

The heavy metal piece is serrated on the inside. When you pull on the toilet paper, the motion pushes the metal piece out of the way. When you stop pulling, it falls back, and the serration cuts the toilet paper. You don’t have to rip it off, it naturally cuts itself just how you want it.

I think having the cross symbol on the stop light instead of a solid color is confusing.

Paris is a biking city. They have velo stations every couple of blocks. You can rent a bike for 30 minutes and it only costs one euro. We loved it. Despite the scarcity of space Paris has bike lanes everywhere. Some of them even go against traffic! This is a stop sign that is only for the bike lane that goes against automotive traffic. You have to have a lot of faith in the system to proceed on green. (Actually, that’s not true. Parisian drivers are extremely aggressive, but are also extremely aware of their surroundings, and the net result is a scary but safe environment.)

Floor zero is the lobby. The basement is the “-1” floor. I was very confused the first time I saw this, but it makes a lot of sense.

I loved this sign. You don’t need to be French to understand that the speed limit is 130, 110 if it’s raining. Very simple and effective design.

I liked this innovation. Each product has a digital pricetag. That way all the prices can be updated automatically. I assume it is integrated with the cash register technology so that it always scans the right price. I’ve heard this is done in some places in the USA, but I’ve never seen it. A further idea is to automatically update the price based on market conditions. CVS headquarters could increase the price of some products because it’s a hot day, or it’s rush hour, or a competitor just opened up, etc.

Rick Sanchez got fired for anti-semitic comments. His sins appear to be:

• Saying Jon Stewart was bigoted. Which he later amended to “prejudicial”. He claimed the Stewart is bigoted towards people that aren’t from his wealthy suburban background.
• Saying that even though Latinos and Jews are both minorities, they are worlds apart in terms of their relative power.

I’m not sure I agree, but both of those are reasonable points. Neither seems particular bigoted to me.

(I can’t find the full transcript, but the first part is here, and the full video is here.)

Jon Stewart should be laying into CNN for their actions. It is sad that they don’t see a distinction between talking about minorities, discrimination, and power, and actual bigotry. Getting outraged about things like this takes away from outrage when truly bad things occur.

This picture is really just to annoy my Dad. Yup, the French still think Noam CHomsk is all that and a side of imperialism.

Germany has finally finished paying off World War I reparations

The Goodfellas guys reminisce, 20 years later.

The US Treasury has turned a healthy profit from the Citibank bailout. Total cost of TARP program approaching zero.

Court Hijinx

Ouch

Growing up

That’s what friends are for

This guys obituary is going to be awkward

Watermelon to the face

Maps of Europe by stereotypes

Together forever

Funny Iphone configuration

That’s not gravel, that’s dead fish

How to Rock

Allright, that is impressive

Kurt Vonnegut posters

Ultimate combover

Internal footage of a cruise ship in very stormy seas

The party

How to climb a transmission antenna. I get vertigo just watching.

This receipt from a brasserie (restaurant) points out one of the oddities of French economics. Coke is a luxury item. Their marketing and sales team is on the ball. A regular Coke with dinner costs 3.70 euros, a little over $4. Notice that the beer costs only one dime more.