A call to arms

Twelve people were brutally murdered in Paris today; most of them members of my own profession. What happened was a cold, calculated act of war. It was not terrorism.

In a show of solidarity, many people are posting or tweeting ""Je suis Charlie Hebdo".  Others are joining park vigils where they hold up pencils or pens in defiance.  I am doing neither because the time for gestures and hashtags is long, long past.  Instead, I ask people to call on the governments of the West to openly recognise that we are at war with not only the Jihadists, but also their sponsors and those who support their ends, if not their means, within and without our borders.

We must defeat these monsters and their ideology or we well end up dead or enslaved.

Citroen U55 Cityrama Currus

Dark Roasted Blend looks at the career of the greatest bus ever.

Theatrophone.

Stuck in Paris without your iPod?  And it's 1892? Then you're in luck!  Try the Theatrophone.

Au Votre Sante

If you're in Paris this weekend (and who isn't? I have no idea what that means, but it sounded cool) They're uncorking a bottle of Perrier-Jouët Vintage 1825; the oldest drinkable champagne in the world that is so rare that the monetary value cannot be calculated.

In other words, you really don't want to take a bottle of this to a party and see it vanish into a punchbowl full of sangria.

The Fly Sings!

An opera based on David Croenenberg's 1986 film version of The Fly debuts in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet on Wednesday.

This use of cinematic material as a basis for... WHAT!?!?!

Shadow Riots

Paris is again burning as "youths" attack policemen and set cars alight.

As per form, the BBC shows its hard-hitting get-to-the-bottom-of-things journalism by stalwartly refusing to identify the "youths" in any way shape or form; including running a series of photos that make it appear as if the riots are being conducted by invisible men.