THE president's entourage pays attention whenever Chantal Jouanno gets up to speak. Nicolas Sarkozy's junior environment minister is probably the only one among them who can kill with a single blow. Jouanno is a karate black belt and winner of nine national championships, an unusual distinction in the corridors of French power. It has also helped her into the limelight. After the fall from favour of other "Sarkozettes", Jouanno, a 40-year-old mother of three, is being described in the French press as his latest "pet". She laughs at the epithet, blushing slightly, but is clearly pleased by it. "We cannot spend the whole time in government asking if we are loved or not loved," she said in an interview. "There are much more serious things to worry about."
THE president's entourage pays attention whenever Chantal Jouanno gets up to speak. Nicolas Sarkozy's junior environment minister is probably the only one among them who can kill with a single blow.
Jouanno is a karate black belt and winner of nine national championships, an unusual distinction in the corridors of French power. It has also helped her into the limelight.
After the fall from favour of other "Sarkozettes", Jouanno, a 40-year-old mother of three, is being described in the French press as his latest "pet".
She laughs at the epithet, blushing slightly, but is clearly pleased by it. "We cannot spend the whole time in government asking if we are loved or not loved," she said in an interview. "There are much more serious things to worry about."
Mandela birthday party in New York sees singer make first public performance since becoming France's first ladyShe spoke in her trademark husky drawl and sported the centre-parting of a 70s folk singer, but there was still something unmistakably sober about Carla Bruni-Sarkozy when she stepped in front of a star-studded crowd for her first public performance since becoming France's first lady.Dressed in a plain black trouser suit and standing almost immobile next to British songwriter Dave Stewart, the supermodel-turned-musician was faced with the tricky balancing act of being both a president's wife and pop star as she serenaded the audience at a concert for Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday.Informing New York's Radio City Music Hall that she was "gonna play ... a little French song and a little English song" in honour of the anti-apartheid hero, Bruni-Sarkozy began her performance with a dreamy ballad called Quelqu'un m'a dit. It was, she explained, "not very good for dancing but very good for dreaming".
She spoke in her trademark husky drawl and sported the centre-parting of a 70s folk singer, but there was still something unmistakably sober about Carla Bruni-Sarkozy when she stepped in front of a star-studded crowd for her first public performance since becoming France's first lady.
Dressed in a plain black trouser suit and standing almost immobile next to British songwriter Dave Stewart, the supermodel-turned-musician was faced with the tricky balancing act of being both a president's wife and pop star as she serenaded the audience at a concert for Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday.
Informing New York's Radio City Music Hall that she was "gonna play ... a little French song and a little English song" in honour of the anti-apartheid hero, Bruni-Sarkozy began her performance with a dreamy ballad called Quelqu'un m'a dit. It was, she explained, "not very good for dancing but very good for dreaming".
Impact mark on Jupiter, 19th July 2009
Observation Report I started this imaging session on Jupiter at approximately 11pm local time (1300UTC). The weather prediction was not promising, clear skies but a strong jetstream overhead according to the Bureau or Met. The temperature was also unusually high for this time of year (winter), also a bad sign. The scope in use was my new 14.5" newtonian, in use now for a few weeks and so far returning excellent images. I was pleasantly surprised to find reasonable imaging conditions and so I decided to continue recording data until maybe 1am local time. By 1am I was ready to quit, and indeed I had hovered the mouse over the exit button on my capture application (Coriander for Linux) and then changed my mind and decided to carry on for another half hour or so. It was a very near thing.
I started this imaging session on Jupiter at approximately 11pm local time (1300UTC). The weather prediction was not promising, clear skies but a strong jetstream overhead according to the Bureau or Met. The temperature was also unusually high for this time of year (winter), also a bad sign.
The scope in use was my new 14.5" newtonian, in use now for a few weeks and so far returning excellent images.
I was pleasantly surprised to find reasonable imaging conditions and so I decided to continue recording data until maybe 1am local time. By 1am I was ready to quit, and indeed I had hovered the mouse over the exit button on my capture application (Coriander for Linux) and then changed my mind and decided to carry on for another half hour or so. It was a very near thing.
