In my history in May 2025
On May 24 and 25, I was at the Journées du logiciel libre (litt.: free software days) in Lyon. I attended great conferences (in particular IA, Philosophie du Libre et Féminisme by Khrys), saw some friends, but most of all, I replenished my motivation.
Less than an hour after I arrived, I was talking with the local Wikipedia contributors group about starting making meaningful contributions to Wikipedia again, instead of just fixing some typos from time to time. I've been wanting to do this for years, but I never took the time. Seeing a Wikipedia stand was just what I needed!
On a similar topic, I've been using Gmail since 2006, and even if I don't use my gmail address directly anymore, I've used this webmail to gather all my custom email addresses for the last 20 years. Which made me completly dependent on Google. I've been wanting to tackle that for months, but as usual, laziness and the temptation to do something more rewarding in the short term instead got the best of me. The JdLL motivated me to do it now, instead of draging it on another 2 years, so I finally took the time to detangle my custom domains emails from my Gmail, to configure it with Imap on my computer and phone, and most importantly, to reorganize 20 years of archives (~18k emails). Even with automatic rules, it took some time 🥲.
I'm far from « de-GAFAM-ised », or even just « de-google-ised », but it's a first step in the right direction!
Let's start with my ‘top 10’, the gems you shouldn't miss if you don't have the time to read everything!
#1
Quote –« One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this »
#2
Architecture – Have I ever told you about my undying love for Grand Designs? It's an English TV show that's been around since 1999, presented by Kevin McCloud since the beginning, and which presents in each episode a project to build or renovate a residential building somewhere in the UK. I don't say ‘house’, because the series has presented a significant number of projects in mills, water towers, abandoned factories, a cave and even a real castle!The projects are very varied, ranging from self-builds with no resources whatsoever (I'm thinking in particular of a couple who built their house over more than 10 years, with a budget of just a few thousand pounds in total, and an absolutely magnificent result, especially the living room with its cathedral ceiling and entirely glazed wall), to builds with no budget limit but with very strong constraints (for example, renovating a water tower in the heart of London, with a 3-month deadline that was absolutly non negociable), as well as projects where the main constraint was not to damage the land on which the house would be built, and to be as environmentally friendly as possible, both during construction and once the house was occupied. This was not as prevalent in the first few seasons, but since then almost all the projects have a strong ecological component, with many passive houses, experimental heating methods, the use of cutting-edge materials or, on the contrary, ancestral methods.
What do almost all the projects have in common? Passion. Passion for an old building that people fell in love with when they first saw it (like the 15th-century mill lovingly renovated), passion for a piece of land that has sentimental family value (many old farms, grandparents' houses, etc.), or passion for a magnificent region that needs protecting.
Grand Designs takes the time to follow the building sites over 2, 3, sometimes 5 years (or 6 months, for the happy few who meet their self-imposed deadlines :D), so you really follow the projects from start to finish (at least the end of the strucutral work), or sometimes, but rarely, to failure.
I've mentioned the name of the presenter, because he has a lot to do with the quality of the show: he's obviously interested in the subject and happy to be there, and I think he's struck a very good balance in getting people to talk about their project, what it means to them and their family, without intruding unnecessarily on their private lives. Kevin McCloud brings an outsider's viewpoint that is usually more experienced than that of the builders, and he discusses issues such as budgets and deadlines in a very realistic way. The show manages to get emotional and intimate without ever feeling inappropriate, and I don't think I've seen that anywhere else. In the most recent seasons, he also does a number of “revisits”, going back to people a few years after their episode was aired and seeing if the project has been finished in the meantime, how the building has blended into the landscape, or if they are using it in the way they envisioned... And in a few cases, he returns to much older builds, including the one of the very first episode. It's really cool to see the same people and the same house literally 25 years later. It's a show that takes its time, and that extremely rare on the TV.
I can't choose my one favorite project, but I really love those two:
I also like a lot the London tiny house with a huge glass ceiling in the kitchen.
I've watched about half of the 26 existing seasons, and so far I haven't found a single episode that I didn't like. Some of the projects spoke to me more than others, of course, and some of the builders didn't seem very nice, but I got something out of every episode. Grand Designs is unfortunately not broadcast in France, a few seasons are available on the show's official YouTube channel, you'll have to be imaginative to watch the rest (👀 dailymotion 👀), but I guarantee it's worth it!
#3
HIV – Bruce Richman: "U = U is the most powerful tool we have to fight serophobia". Undetectable = Untransmittable means that if the viral charge is undetectable (if the person living with HIV is taking appropriate meds to fight the virus), it is impossible to transmit HIV.To say it more bluntly: having sex with an HIV-positive person who has an undetectable viral charge present absolutly no risk of transmission of HIV. This cannot be said of all the guys who don't know their HIV-status but swear to God that they're « clean » (thanks for the serophobia…) so they can avoid having to use a condom.
#4
AI – How the tech companies force us to us AI, an excellent investigation by Limites Numériques, that I recommand wholeheartedly.« Jamais une fonctionnalité n'aura autant été poussée en si peu de temps, à la fois spatialement, graphiquement, interactivement et de manière autant répétée. »
(litt: Never before has a feature been pushed to such an extent in such a short period of time - spatially, graphically, interactively and repeatedly.
)
#5
Hostage – I'm calling you from Evin prison, a difficult but precious testimony gathered over three months during Olivier Grondeau's detention in Iran.#6
Reading – This month, I tried to read a lot of things, but I didn't end up liking anything :/- Les féministes t’encouragent à quitter ton mari, tuer tes enfants, pratiquer la sorcellerie, détruire le capitalisme et devenir trans-pédé-gouine (litt.: Feminists encourage you to leave your husband, kill your children, practice witcraft, destroy capitalism and become queer) by Alex Tamécylia. The title is by far the best part. It's very shallow and definitly not as funny as the preface sold it to be. It reads like a compilation of catchphrase that could pass as witty on Twitter, but definitely don't bring anything to the table. Last but not least, the chaotic layout feels gimmicky as fuck. Emptiness in a pretty ribbon.
- So let them burn by Kamilah Cole. Too YA for me, I didn't finish it. The setup is cool (a Jamaïca-inspired island, post-colonial war, the reconstruction of society after the independance was conquered), but everything is too childish for my taste. The dragons and mecha-drakes interested me in theory, but it wasn't enough to get me interested in a bunch of kids and a story that wasn't very coherent.
- White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I tried to read it in english and in french, I just really don't like his style. It's well written, but it's not my cup of tea.
- Le Quai de Ouistreham by Florence Aubenas. I loved L'inconnu de la poste when I read it a few years ago, so I was confident and started reading this one without even checking the summary. I should have. I'm deeply disturbed by Florence Aubenas approach, and the way she describes her interactions with the people she met in Caen during her « experiment » disguts me. It changes the way I look at her previous book, and I don't think I'll read anything else by her.
- I hope this finds you well by Natalie Sue. What I was promised:
a wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy
; what I got: an adious main character that I want to slap, and no trace of the beginning of a smile 50 pages in. I don't have time for that. - A few comics: Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano, All my friends are ghosts by S. M. Vidaurri, S'enfuir, récit d'un otage by Guy Delisle, Fatale by Cabanes and Manchette
#7
History – Fascinating interview of Patrick Boucheron on l'Huma#8
Genocide – Gaza, inside the war, a interactive website by Doctors without borders, to take stock of what happened in Gaza from October 7, 2023 and February 1rst, 2025.#9
Vocabulary – Why do we keep using the words of the oppressors years after their defeat? Why do we surrender to them the power to shape reality with their vocabulary, their point of view? These Are Words Scholars Should No Longer Use to Describe Slavery and the Civil War focuses on a specific period in American history, but the point is valid for every fight, at all times, and in all countries.« Why should we continue to employ wording that is biased, false, or laden with myth? Compromise, plantation, slave-owners, Union v. Confederacy, etc.: these phrases and many others obscure rather than illuminate; they serve the interests of traditionalists or white supremacists; they do not accurately reflect our current understanding of phenomena, thus they should be abandoned and replaced. I call upon historians in all fields to reexamine their language and terminology. Let us be careful and deliberate with our wording; though we study the past, let us not be chained to it. »
#10
Craft – A really cool DIY project to make a book lamp, with next to nothing. I'm really tempted to build it 👀
- Nom nom nom – I recently discovered that I loooooove blueberries, so I tried blueberry muffins, and it was absolutly delicious!
- Wood working – On Mastodon, a short thread to admire the restauration of a wooden table.
- Vocabulary – When we consider the extent to which apparently similar words can have completely opposite meanings, or how replacing one word with another that is apparently its synonym can change the meaning of a sentence completely, it is very pretentious to believe that our modern translations of ancient texts from other cultures are faithful to their original meanings. A few examples: horseplay vs pony play, butt dial vs. booty call, Bless me father for I have sinned vs sorry daddy, I've been naughty and hand job vs manual labor.
- Sample – Great video on « the six seconds that changed music forever » (via Shiki)
- Publishing – WhoISBN, an app that allows you to scan a book ISBN, to know who owns its publishing house. Useful to avoid giving money to one of the billionaires that own half the publishing houses and medias in France, and are busy trying to buy the other half.
- Quid – When I was a kid and I had a question my parents didn't know how to answer, they told me to look in the Quid. I was fascinated by this book which, in my eyes, brought together all the knowledge of humanity. Then the Internet came along, and for all my subsequent questions, I searched the Internet. Ok, but for people who don't have access to Internet? There's a landline atAuburn University in Alabama, where students have been answering all kind of questions for 70 years.
About 13 million people in the US and 2.6 billion people globally don’t use the internet, whether for reasons of availability, desire, cost, or religion. Some may have it but don’t feel confident using it. To their callers, who dial from all over the world, these students are the internet. And lucky for callers, these students are remarkably non-judgmental when it comes to the questions they’re asked.
- Work – The Filipino workers at the sharp end of artificial intelligence.
- Conservatism – In the US, censorship is stronger than ever. More than 10,000 books where banned in 2023—2024.
- AI –
« Using AI in education is like using a forklift in the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you. »
- the L word – a cool video with 9 lesbians who answer a lot of questions.
- Game – Tested et approved, Mystères, a great party game.
- Trash – Thanks to the newsletter Curious about everything, I read a fascinating text about compost.
- Las Vegas – On Reddit, a 3D printing project for an automatic card dealer, with the files so you can rint it yourself 👀
- Protest – I'm pretty proud of my two-sided sign for the International Worker's day protest. It made a few people laugh, my mission is complete 😊
They mean « More work? » (like the peasants in Warcraft III), and "Retirement at 40 (leftist Overton window)"
- Music – There's little I love more in the world than listening to Black Sabbath's self-titled album again and again when there's a storm. The sounds of rain and thunder at the beginning of the album mixed with the real life ones is the perfect immersion to enjoy this masterpiece. Black Sabbath is one of those rare albums that I find perfect from the first note to the last, and I listen to it with as much pleasure today as I did when I was 15 and my mother introduced me to it one stormy night. Seriously, the bass of the intro to NIB is engraved in my memory. If you've never heard Black Sabbath's first album, do yourself a favour and give it a listen; and if you already know it, you already know it's worth listening to again and again, so what are you waiting for?
- Hope - Roseline and Nassera, an unthinkable friendship.
Roseline is the sister of Father Hamel, murdered in 2016 in his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Nassera is the mother of one of the two young people responsible for the hostage-taking. For months, the two women are immersed in grief, until one day Roseline calls Nassera.
Despite the difficult subject matter, this is a very beautiful and optimistic programme.
Still, I am deeply shocked by the way in which both families were informed of the two deaths. This lack of humanity is unacceptable. - Bureaucracy – A reminder that standards and authorisations of all kinds aren't there for show, and that ‘bureaucracy’ literally saves lives every day.
- Theater – I watched the mini-series Ceux qui rougissent (litt. Those who blush), on Arte (8 ten minutes episodes). It follows a group of high school students as they go through their last drama lessons of the year, with a substitute teacher arriving to turn everything upside down. I don't really know how to talk about it, because I really enjoyed it, but I'm not quite sure why. There are some very apt, touching moments, others less so, but overall I was drawn in. It's gentle, sensitive and poignant.
- Apple – Are Pride wallpapers and a watch band enough in 2025? No.
- Misogyny – Why so few men read books by women?
For the top 10 bestselling female authors, only 19% of their readers are men and 81%, women. But for the top 10 bestselling male authors, the split is much more even: 55% men and 45% women.
- TV Show – I haven't seen Paris Police 1900 yet, but the show definitly joined my watchlist!
- Technicalities – For trans people, online transitionning can be a nightmare.
- Vaccines – Defeating a virus that killed half a billion people, a very good video about smallpox and how we managed to eradicate it (it's currently the only infectious disease to have disappeared entirely). I learnt that the word vaccine comes from vache (cow in french) 🤯. Be careful, it shows people sick with smallpox, including kids.
- Vaccines, again – I'd also like to recommend the excellent Primum Non Nocere video on the diseases the compulsory vaccines protect us against. Thanks to vaccines, we no longer (or hardly ever) see these diseases, so we tend to forget that they are serious, even when they are not fatal. Knowing the theory and knowing that it's important to be vaccinated is one thing. Seeing purpura fulminans (linked to meningococcus) or a person in the throes of a tetanus attack is a reminder of the reality behind the somewhat abstract names of diseases. I first saw this video when it came out in 2018, and I still haven't forgotten what a newborn baby in the throes of whooping cough looks like. Vaccinate yourself, vaccinate your children.
- Vaccines, third – While we're at it, a joke I love:
Why is the antivaxxer's toddler crying? Midlife crisis.
- Accessibility – Subtitles, Closed Captions, and Open Captions: What's the Difference?
- Animation – Godzilla vs. Paul Bunyan, a cool animated short.
- Ecology – These associations of ‘barefoot dancers’ and ‘seed-eaters’ that bother the President of the Rhône region. So an old boomer with an ego wound is going to take active action against biodiversity because he can't stand being told what to do for once in his life. Great, just great.
- Popular education – Politics and ecology, the comeback of popular education. A summary of 80 years of movements, institutionalisation and (de/re)politicisation… The conclusion echoes the article quoted above.
- Practical – How could women bike in the Victorian era? Easy, they could wear convertible dresses! If you're curious, you can see them on Bikes and bloomers, with a book by Kar Jungnickel, and 6 free sewing pattern to make them for yourself!
- Vocabulary – My new cool english words of this month: « cantankerous » and « cantankerousness », and « kiboshed »
- Sociology – Yet another good video by Ost & Modiie
- Litterature –
« Jane Austen's works are timeless classics because she knew the real horrors in life are having to listen to men who think they're better than you and receiving unannounced visitors. »
- Ecology – What is the real environmental impact of Shein, the ultra fast fashion giant? You probably won't be surprised by anything in this article, but it's always useful to have figures to fall back on. And to continue on the subject, « The more clothes you buy, the more you kill the made in France », an interview with Julia Faure, co-founder of Loom and co-president of the Impact France Movement in Bon Pote.
- Graphism – The history of album art
- Capitalism –
« The wrong ICE is melting — the wrong Amazon is burning »
- Monopoly – Festivals, concerts, artists: how billionaires are taking over the music industry.
Which fan is aware that he pays Vincent Bolloré twice when he goes to see Juliette Armanet at L'Olympia in Paris?
- Reading – The book Multinationales — une histoire du monde contemporain (litt.: Global corporations - a history of the contemporary world) looks very interesting!
- Road safety – Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again. Finally!
- Sabotage – You've probably already heard of the sabotage manual written by the ancestor of the CIA during the Second World War for civil servants in Nazi-occupied countries? The site Specific suggestions — Simple sabotage for the 21st century is a modernised variant, adapted to our times and its digital tools. (via the fabulous newsletter Absolument tout, by Martin)
- AbusEthics – In the article Ground control to Major Trial, we learn that « a semi-governmental US company that sends stuff into space and has annual revenue of around $130 million » has been abusing the free trial periods of an open source software for over 10 years. They have the option of paying for the packaged version of the software, or installing the fully open-source version for free (which means reading the documentation and managing updates from time to time), but no, they prefer to use a new email address every 30 days to continue to benefit from the turnkey version and support (!) without paying. Who's surprised by this total lack of face? I'm not.
- Systemic racism – A new serie of articles on Les Jours, A racist crime — justice for Djamel Bendjaballah:
« On 31 August 2024, near Dunkirk, Djamel Bendjaballah was crushed to death under the wheels of his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, Jérôme Décofour. The latter, a far-right activist, had been hurling racist abuse at him and harassing him for years, as Djamel's complaints show. But the complaints were dismissed and, to date, the courts have not ruled that the murder was racially motivated. Incomprehensible. As is the relative silence surrounding this case. Les Jours investigates. »
- Illegals – Two articles on the « illegals » program, those KGB spies who lived for years under false identities in the US and other western countries: On the Real-Life Story of Deep-Cover Russian Spies Living As American Families and ‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son. If you're interrested by this, I really suggest you watch The Americans, a great TV show that is unjustly underrated.
- Movies – Another great video from The Nerdwriter:
Funny pics
