FEAST OR FAMINE

  The Australian Embassy in Paris is hosting the ‘Eureka! Scientific Australia’ exhibition from  3 March to 30 June 2022. Science, technology, and innovation in the Australian government, as well as in business and research, are displayed to showcase international partnerships, such as with France.  The exhibition focuses on three projects in Australia related to the environment and the Universe: 1) the development of low emissions technologies, 2) protecting the Great Barrier Reef, and 3) astronomy.    MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite   Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website Flower Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES  MARTINA NICOLLS   is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author    of:  The Paris Residences of James Joyce   (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015),...

The Intergalactic Interloper (2020) is set in New York City in 1995.    An alien vessel lands on the roof of a New York building in the shape of a water tower. In the command chair sits a turtle-like creature with two heads. It has scaly skin, four yellow eyes, four arms, and two long antennae protruding from its bald skulls.    The extraterrestrial’s name is AxzleProva: Axzle is the male head and Prova is the female head. AxzleProva is cautious, venturing out of its space ship only at night to do its job for the Amalgamation: to identify intelligent life on planet Earth, according to specific criteria.    Ollie works in a bookstore and is a musician, a guitarist, living in his tiny New York studio. He hears something crashing down onto the rooftop. In a panic, he searches for his cat Pirate.   It was regrettable that AxzleProva had been ‘conspicuously visible to that human male [Ollie] for a brief moment.’ Ollie, on the other hand, was trying to make...

The sixth edition of the Night of Ideas, coordinated by the Institut Français, will be held on Thursday, 28 January, 2021 on the topic “Close(r).” It will be conducted digitally with the creation of “24 hours of ideas.”   More than 200 Nights of Ideas are expected internationally, from Finland to South Africa and from Fiji to Peru, with increased resonance between countries and geographical areas. In Sydney as well as in Mexico City, Seoul, Beirut, Lomé or Toronto, it is essentially local voices that will come to explore the “Close(r) ” theme.   The 2021 edition will take on special significance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme “Close(r)” was chosen to question the transformation of people’s relationships to space and mobility, the new forms of solidarity that the crisis in economic and social models calls for, and the place of digital technology in our societies, which is increasingly shaping people’s relationship with the world. “Close(r)” also invites people...

On the railing (grids) of the perimeter of the Jardin du Luxembourg—the Luxembourg Garden in Paris—a photographic exhibtion of space exploration will be on display from 21 September 2019 to 19 January 2020. The exhibition is called "Un voyage dans l’Universe"—"A Journey into the Universe." The exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary since man set foot on the moon for the first time - and for the last time in 1972. On July 21, 1969 at 3:56 am, French time, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped out the space craft that landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon, and set foot on lunar ground, uttering, "It is a small step for a man, a giant leap for humanity."  In 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins made history during the Apollo 11 mission, fulfilling NASA’s goal, announced a few years earlier, to send a man to the moon and bring him back to Earth. Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate, said that ...

There is a new exhibition of gems and minerals in Paris, called ‘Treasures of the Earth’ which includes amazing Giant Crystals.  The Mineralogy collection of the Natural History Museum (MNHN) in Paris contains about 770,000 specimens. It began in 1793 with the Royal collection, with some samples from 1626 under the reign of King Louis XIII. The collection includes giant and microscopic samples of raw minerals, as well as polished gemstones. The exhibition has 340 gems and minerals on display. The museum gained the Giant Crystals in 1987 and there are many of them. The collection also includes several meteorites.  The exhibition is in a neoclassical building with a two-columned portico.    Agate Quartz Jasper Quartz Amethyst Quartz, Brazil Quartz Agate, Uruguay Graphite Limestone, Italy Fossilized Marine Cephalopods in Limestone, Madagascar Giant Crystals Giant Crystals Meteroite (1.11 kilograms), A...