Normandy is somewhere near Germany and I don't know what the Holocaust was - US college students and World War II history

Hitler was leader of Amsterdam, Normandy is near Germany and the Holocaust was 300 years ago - just some of the answers Rhonda Fink-Whitman received from Pennsylvania students when she asked them about World War II and matters relating to it, in her video.

Rhonda Fink-Whitman (screenshot from "94 maidens - the mandate video)

Fink-Whitman's goal was to show how big a gap there was in students' knowledge of modern history, and in particular those who had gone through the public school system - not matter how bright and articulate" they might appear.


She didn't set out with the intention to "embarrass, humiliate or shame anyone" but rather to show how public schools in the United States are failing to teach pupils about the Holocaust.

On the evidence of the answers given in the video, Fink-Whitman seems to have a point.

She doesn't say whether there were students around who could answer the questions.

But there were more than enough who gave what can only be viewed as jaw-dropping responses or simply claimed ignorance with an "I don't know".

Admittedly the video is a bit long and becomes somewhat predictable, but still...these are today's young American adults who've clearly not been taught the rudiments of modern history.

And it's not their fault - it's all down to the education system...or lack thereof.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4bmm6yJMw#t=760

Full speed ahead M. le Président - François Hollande filmed speeding

So François Hollande is normal! Well, in presidential terms anyway.

He was filmed speeding on his way from Paris to Normandy on Wednesday, and the French media is having a light-hearted field day with the story.

François Hollande's route (screenshot BFM TV report)

All right, Hollande wasn't actually at the wheel. But the car in which he was being driven (très normal, n'est-ce pas?) was clocked going at almost 140 kms per hour in a zone where the speed limit was set at 70 kms per hour.

And that apparently wasn't the only "misdemeanour".

His car reached speeds of almost 180 kms per hour on the motorway (the limit in France is 130) and failed to stop at the toll booth to pay.

François Hollande at D-Day landing ceremony (screenshot BFM TV)

Hollande, who's not exactly known for his perfect timekeeping, was on his way to attend a ceremony to mark the D-Day landings in 1944 and, in true paparrazi-style befitting the coverage of a president's movements, several reporters went along for the ride.

Not in the same vehicle mind you, but on motorbikes and cars trying to keep pace with Hollande.

Hence they knew exactly what speed his car was going.

Among them was a team from the rolling news channel BFM TV, happy to be one of the first to report the "scoop" that Hollande had been setting an example to the rest of us which was far from being "exemplary".

At this point it's probably worth remembering a particular clause in that "code of conduct" Hollande had all the newly-appointed government ministers sign when they took office: "to respect the rules of the road when they were driving or being driven."

  
BFM helpfully calculated what sort of punishments we more "ordinary" citizens would face if caught

They include a €3,750 fine, the immediate suspension of a driving licence for three years, six points lost and expropriation of the vehicle.

Thank goodness Hollande isn't quite as "normal" as the rest of us.

Hervé Morin's historic error - a trip back in time

Fancy a spot of time travel? Then French presidential candidate Hervé Morin seems more than willing to oblige.

Hervé Morin (screenshot from announcement of candidature video)

Morin isn't making life easy for himself.

His campaign launch squeaked into gear last November much to the annoyance of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) which has been urging the leader of the smaller centre-right Nouveau Centre (NC) to put aside any stately ambitions he might have and throw his weight his behind the current president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Morin, who served as Sarkozy's - sorry that should of course read prime minister François Fillon as he's supposed to be the head of the government - defence minister from May 2007 until November 2010, was having none of it though and has so far doggedly stuck to his proverbial guns (ooh a bit of a pun there).

Not that it seems to be doing him much good as his poll ratings rarely climb above one (that really need to be spellt out) percent, as impersonator Nicolas Canteloup is of so fond of reminding listeners to his radio slot in the mornings on Europe 1 and viewers to his TV sketch in the evenings.

Then there's the case of François Bayrou - who used to be a buddy of Morin when both were members of the (not quite, but to all intents and purposes now defunct or at least on paper) centre-right Union pour la Démocratie Française (UDF).

Are you following? This is French politics where allegiances are built on the shiftiest of sands.

Morin supported Bayrou when the latter became the so-called Third Man in the 2007 presidential race, but the two men fell out shortly afterwards with Morin joining the government and Bayrou setting up a new centre party Mouvement démocrate or MoDem.

In stark contrast to Morin, Bayrou's announcement of his candidature in December was judged by most political pundits as a success in terms of pushing him up the polls and into double figures. Bayrou was on a roll and for some still is, faring better than he did at the same stage last time around.

Not content with being an also also-ran (will he last the course and is anyone really bothered?) Morin has now made a complete fool of himself and provided everyone with a classic bit of political nonsense.

It happened at a meeting last weekend in the southern French city of Nice with Morin coming over all emotional as he recalled the Allied landings on the Normandy coast in 1944.

Only during his speech the 50-year-old (important bit of information that) managed an HG Wells kind of moment as he literally travelled back in time to give the impression that he had been present when the Allies landed.

"You, some among you, with grey hair, witnessed the storming of the Provence beach," he said.

"I saw the landing of allied troops in Normandy," he continued without hesitating at the absurdity of his statement.

Morin was born in 1961.



Journalists, humorists and of course Internauts were quick to pick up on the mistake and Twitter was abuzz with moments from the past at which Morin could claim to have been impossibly present.

Cruel.

But at least Morin had the guts to face up to his mistake (did he have any other choice?) by Tweeting his own "Congratulations on your humour" and saying that "The French were full of creativity."

French lorry driver wins lottery, saves company and employs his former boss

What would you do if you won the lottery? Buy a house? A new car? A boat?

Splash out on a dream holiday perhaps? Or squirrel the money away and continue life as usual?

Or would you have a good, long think about things and after you had finished "shopping", buy the company you worked for?

That's what one former lorry driver in his fifties from northwestern France did after he hit the jackpot.

Screenshot from La Française des Jeux commercial

"Alexandre", the man who prefers to "guard his anonymity" as the national daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien puts it, won €10 million in the French Loto last September.

When the road haulage company for which he worked was threatened with liquidation, he stepped in and bought it, becoming the new CEO and therefore the boss of his former boss.

Into the bargain he also saved the jobs of more than a dozen employees.

"I had the means to invest and save jobs, and it's a world I know well. In fact it has been my life," he said

"That's not something you can give up from one day to another."

His decision was not a rash one based on sentimentality.

He only took over the assets of the company as well as a portfolio of clients and a dozen lorries, and not the liabilities or debts.

"If I see we're losing too much money, then I'll quit," he warns.

But for now he wants to "develop business and create more jobs."

As well as an apparent "nose for business" he also threw in a little retail therapy for good measure, buying a couple of houses and a 4X4.

That was the extent of his spending spree though, as he has also taken on an investment advisor and continues to play the Loto "just in case".

La Française des Jeux, the operator of the Loto, told Agence France Presse that as far as it knew this was the first time a winner had bought the company for which he or she had previously worked.

Alexandre was one of two men from the same part of France who had separate wins in two different lotteries last September.

The other man, also in his fifties and a lorry driver, picked up €15 million in the pan-European lottery EuroMillions.

Once a lorry driver, always a lorry driver - albeit a wealthy one.