While French newspapers are shocked, US newspapers want to thank Jérôme Kerviel as an unlikely hero.

1) The fraud was discovered last friday, then Jérôme Kerviel was questionned during the week-end.
2) SocGen ended up unwinding all the misbegotten trades on Monday.
3)Traders see the plunge in futures amid massive and mysterious selling, and even though the U.S. markets are closed for Martin Luther King Day, they start selling everything else.
4) To head off the worst of the disaster, Ben Bernanke (from the FED) steps into the breach with a 75 basis point rate cut Tuesday morning.
5) Et voila, Jerome Kerviel is a friend of overstretched borrowers all across the US.

Another fun fact is the digital identity of Jérôme Kerviel. When Jerome Kerviel in Facebook’s Banque Société Générale group was named in the media as the man who has cost French bank €4.9bn (£3.7bn) he still had 11 friends.

One hour after his name was published on news sites, four friends had already deserted the 31-year-old. And today, if you check his profile, he has just one friend. Many groups are created relating this story or simply for fun, and a lot of impostors created profiles in order to take advantage of the story.

Kerviel will at least be thankful that he chose to post a closed profile on the social networking site. He also took the wise decision - or maybe he was just lucky enough not to get round to it - not to post a picture.

Instead, he has a question mark in the picture space - just one of the many questions being asked today about the world’s biggest rogue trader.

Official website: http://www.thamesfestival.org/

Enjoy:

After several small interviews of my friends and co-workers, here is the result of this study (!):

- “If people in England would go on strike, all the rest of the population would kill them” (from a co-worker)

- “We don’t see the right to go on strike as a right to annoy people, like French do, but a right to express a difference of point of view. Instead of paralysing a whole country, why not paralyse the company? By letting the tube users in, free of charge for example.” (from a friend)

- “As we already know, trough the clichés, in France, going on strike is a national sport. Maybe that’s why the Parisians are so unfriendly after all.” (from a friend who “lost” his mobile phone in Paris)

- “C’est la galère !” (from a friend who was in Paris last week)

- “In England we have strikes too. I understand the French and their rights. The last strike in London for example, was from the Royal Mail. But it never lasts more than 1 week…” (from a friend who has a girlfriend in Paris and uses email)

Generally, English are surprised by the magnitude of French strikes. It is not in their culture to go on strike so often, but perhaps some of their Unions wish they could go on strike longer…

3. Because they don’t know how to cook good French fries
French cuisine is the best in the world, so why English used the word “French” in such a crap meal?

4. Because they buy beautiful houses in the French Countryside
And as a consequence, they are a reason why the prices are so high.

5. Because people speak English everywhere in the world, not French
This point stresses the French complex of inferiority.

6. Because English live one hour before the French
Dover is just 70 kilometers far from Calais. So is there a scientific reason to have one hour less than everybody else?

7. Because English don’t use the Euro currency
So each time French go to London, they have to look for a Bureau de change.

8. Because English don’t have good doctors
A lot of English women go to France in order to deliver their babies.

9. Because they have 5 airports for London
Whereas Paris just has 2.

10. Because London is the seventh biggest French city
Why so many young French leave their country in order to work in London?

11. Because their London night buses are useful
But what about the Noctambus in Paris??

12. Because they are sarcastic
They are friendly with everybody very quickly, but that doesn’t mean they are your friend.

13. Because they eat Fish and Chips!!!
No comment.

14. Because they beat France in the 2007 Rugby World Cup
This was pure luck.

15. Because they think they are the center of the world
But they’re not. They’re the center of themselves.

16. Because computers speak English
That’s why French find error messages very rude.

17. And even the French speak English
French are secretly using a lot of English words in their day-to-day life such as: week-end, meeting, planning, PC…

18. Because they always have a bad weather
It is raining all the time.

19. Because they don’t make good cars
Jaguar and Rolls Royce are the only companies making cars over there.

20. Because they hate the French but they love France
The Cote d’Azur, the French Riviera, the ski resort etc are very appreciated by the English.

3. Because they believe that their Eiffel Tower is more beautiful than our Big Ben
But the Eiffel Tower is useless, thanks to Big Ben we don’t need a watch.

4. Because they have a bad English accent
People from Germany and the Netherlands have a better accent.

5. Because they make love more than anyone else
On average, that’s 137 times a year; we only manage 119 times.

6. Because everyone believes they’re great lovers
But when asked about Napoleon’s love-making, French good-time girl Marguerite Josephine Weimer remarked that the Duke of Wellington was “beaucoup le plus fort”. Today, just 23 per cent of French people are happy with their sex lives compared to 25 per cent of Brits.

7. Because they love yappy dogs
More than nine per cent of French dog owners have a poodle.

8. But they won’t clean up after them
French dog owners refuse to pick up the 5,840 tonnes of dog-doo dropped on their streets each year.

9. Because they’re allergic to customer service
In London eateries, it takes an average 3.4 minutes to get a glass of water once a waiter has been alerted; in Paris it takes 17.9 minutes.

10. Because they’re rude
The “Paris Syndrome” is a medically recognised type of depression which afflicts foreign visitors, caused by the sustained rudeness of French people to outsiders.

11. Because they can’t wait
Many French men still prefer the convenience of a trottoir to the public WC.

12. Because they lack humour
Before the Revolution, the French spoke of l’esprit (wit), or la farce (joke) but the word “humour” had no equivalent. Not until 1932 did the French Academy allow l’humour into the language.

13. Because English have been allowed to believe that French women don’t get fat
Current diet books claim that French women are thin because they eat only fresh produce, and slowly. However, French obesity rates are exploding and one in four French women is on some kind of mood-altering medication. Of course they’re not hungry – they’re stoned.

14. Because they do things the wrong way
The French take more suppositories than the rest of Europe combined. In 2006, they shoved 235 tonnes of pharmaceuticals up themselves. That’s equivalent to 1,850 Gérard Depardieus (approx.).

15. Because they think their cooking is the best in the world
They boasted 26 three-starred restaurants in the 2005 Michelin Guide. However, the guide is a French institution. Could that be why the UK had only three? Coincidence, non?

16. Because they patented the kiss
In fact, there is no actual word for “French Kiss” in French. It is simply embrasser avec la langue (literally, to kiss with the tongue). Colloquially it is referred to as rouler une pelle (to roll the spade). Only in Quebec is it “frencher”.

17. Because the French health service is the best in the world
However, during a 2003 heat wave, the French health services, rated as a “world best” by the WHO, failed to prevent the deaths of 16,300 elderly people.

18. Because their country doesn’t work
Employers have to pay social security taxes equal to 48 per cent of each employee’s salary, so they take on fewer people, and France’s unemployment rate has hovered around 10 per cent for a decade.

19. Because they get up English noses
Forty per cent of French men, and 25 per cent of women, do not change their underwear daily – and only 47 per cent bathe every day (compared to 70 per cent of the British).

20. Because it’s taken them a thousand years to admit English are better than them
“The standard of life of the British is higher than that of the French,” said M. le President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his 2006 autobiography. Finally.

But, it is also the symbol of life industrialization, because all of us are barcodes finally. We are identified by thousands of codes in our lives (post code, bank account code, gender code, dress code…), that are not only numbers, but attitudes and behaviors.

So, what is your code? How would you look like if you were a barcode?
Here is mine:

To barcode yourself, you can use Scott Blake website.
Just enter information about yourself (age, country etc) and it will generate your own barcode.
The algorithm is based on real world facts, you will be barcoded as if you were a product…

That’s it? Are you barcoded? How do you feel now in front of your barcode?

Let’s think about it…about what makes you special and different from others, what makes your code unique…

I live in London since one year! I first went to London the 15th of October 2006, to work in the city. Then, a lot of things happened and I changed a lot. I think it is a good time for a questions and answers debriefing. Here are the questions people (English and/or French) ask me when they realize that I live in London since one year:

Q: Do you have a perfect accent when you speak English today?
A: I improved a lot since I am in London. But, I still have a slight French accent when I speak English. French people struggle to notice it, but English people can tell. When I first came to London, I believed that after 3 months I would have a perfect accent. I was wrong, in fact it is very difficult to get the English accent. I can lure a French when I speak English, but not an English.

Q: If you can bring one thing from Paris, and put it in London, what would you take?
A: Paris Plage.

Q: If you can bring one thing from London, and put it in Paris, what would you take?
A: The Thames festival. My perfect city would host Paris Plage and the London Thames festival

Q: Do you prefer London or Paris?
A: I like both. I prefer Paris for its food restaurants but I prefer London night life.

Q: Where are your best places in London and Paris?
A: Paris: Quartier Latin. London: South Bank.

Q: What do you hate in London?
A: The prices. Everything is ridiculously expensive, from your rent to your meal.

Q: What do you hate in Paris?
A: I hate Chatelet tube station. Full of scum.

Q: What makes you laugh in London?
A: The tube shape. It is very difficult to stand next to the doors when the tube is packed, you have to curve your body! Maybe that’s why they say “Stand Clear of the Doors”…

Q: And in Paris?
A: Gad El Maleh

Anyway. My life in London is more dynamic than in Paris and I feel more informed than ever on a lot of subjects because of the conferences we are in London and that don’t exist in Paris. Everything that comes from the US in Europe first goes to London.

This is not only true for innovation but for entertainment, movies and new products.

What is the average time for a US product to reach France trough the UK?

I’ll take an example. Prison Break. A famous TV series coming from the US and available in the UK and France. Last week, the Season 3 premiere took place in the US, today it is the turn of the UK.
And what about France? This week season 2 episode 7 will be available on TV.

We can notice the same delays for the iPhone for example.

Furthermore, you have technology delays. What is very surprising is the fact that with the Internet you can be aware of everything, everywhere, but in spite of that early adopters of a new technology or website are the US, then the UK and then France.

A good example can be Facebook: they have 7 millions users in the UK but only 300 000 in France.

Finally, on of the main reason which triggers delays is the language. Because new things coming from the US are in English, few French people come to use it or to become an early adopter.

It is an event organized somewhere by a Facebook developer with some sponsors. It aims at explaining how to make a good use of the Facebook Platform and it is a networking event as well.

It exists since July 2007 (the Facebook Platform exists since June 2007). Here was the schedule of the last event:

6.30 Introduction
6.40 Keynote Speaker - Chamath Palihapitiya, VP Product Development, Facebook
7.00 Technical Q&A - Learn how to maximize your apps impact on the news feed
7.30 App Showcases
8.00 Close - eat, drink, socialize and network further as required

I learned that the UK is the second fastest growing country in Facebook and that we now have 3000+ applications in it.
Facebook begins to be popular in France, but the Facebook platform is not -yet- used by French developers. This is mainly because Facebook is only available in English (in the future the site will be multilingual).

The next Facebook steps (according to Chamath Palihapitiya):
- They are working with applications creators to make a guide explaining how to create a profitable business with Facebook, based on existing success stories
- They will release a more comprehensive guide and more tutorials about the Facebook platform (what we have today is really not enough)

You can find the presentation showed during this Facebook Garage here.

The next Facebook event will take place in October, between the 10th and the 13th, the main subject will be: Monetize your Facebook app.

Very interesting, and I’ll be there.

A closed mouth catches no flies.

It means that it is often safer to keep one’s mouth shut. There is an equivalent in French. I prefer the French proverb because it’s more beautiful.

In French we say: “The word is silver but silence is gold”.

By the way, in fact this proverb comes from an Arabic one but is very used in France.