Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

Bertrand Lenôtre (podemus.com) announces seed financing

And another video and audio podcasting company announces financing today: podemus.com's founder & CEO, Bertrand Lenôtre, was with me today on French TV LCI. We had a quick chat before the show, and he confirms the already widely spread rumor among the French blogosphere that he has raised some business angel money recently.

He won't reveal the numbers, but confirms that Isabelle Bordry (former managing director of Yahoo! France) or Marc Perrin (CEO of wine & co) have become shareholders. He did confirm other names off camera, but you'll have to ask him ;)

The Vatican vs. Dan Brown

Very amusing post on Boing Boing. I heard the story on the radio this morning as well. The Vatican is now on a crusade against the 'Da Vinci Code' ?

Is this cardinal saying he is afraid of a book ?

1. I thought the Index of forbidden books had disappeared about a 100 years ago ? (funnily enough, former forbidden books ere mentionned in Dan Brown's books). It this is not a hint that the Roman Catholic Church is slightly retrograde... then what is ? Is it the Church's obligation to decide what people can read and not read ? Can't people decide for themselves ? Dictatorships used to travel down that road...

2. is the Roman Catholic Church, probably the largest church in the world, afraid about the writings of a single author,  writing about FICTION ? Reminds me slightly of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie that the Catholic community was so eager and fast to condemn... How can one single book shatter the foundations of a 2000 year old dogma ? It's worse than the forbidden books of Nostradamus ...

This week in Paris, the French episcopate asked for a court injunction agains 2 fashion designers, promoting an ad using the Last Cene with female apostles. Blasphemous they said, a display of contempt against religious beliefs! excuse me. What is wrong about using female apostles ? does is change the gospels? no. Does it challenge the Church ? no. Is it a sign of contempt ? I don't belive so. France has laws that protect the religious beliefs of a person, ie the right of a person to have religious beliefs, not the religious beliefs per se. This is a laic country.

Folks of the cross, you should focus on building on the good values of your institutions: care for the needy, proper education, moral values. Well, I'm not sure about that last one... In January, Spanish bishops declared the use of condoms as immoral. They should do a reality check with the 10 commandments: Thou shall not kill, which is exactly what they are doing by saying that.

Were the Church to support proper prophylactis to protect young people from AIDS, and not be afraid of airport paperback books, then the world would probably be a better place already...

Disclosure: I'm a fully registered agnostic. Please don't flame me with religious debates. My post is not about religion, it is about a retrograde church, built upon a religion: it is very different.

Merry Christmas

To all those who believe in its spirituality and to the others who enjoy the fine dining & presents sharing, ho ho ho ho... Merry Christmas!

(pix from South Florida.com)

Update: the Coca-Cola company has an interesting history of Santa-Claus. Interestingly, I've been to the places mentionned in the note in Turkey...

Draft book for the Da Vinci Code

I seldom get the impression of reading the same book again. Even weirder when you read the 'sequel' before the current book.

Half-way into one of Dan Brown's (the author of the Da Vinci code) other opuses, Angels & Demons, and into 3 murders already (out of 5 supposedly), the similarities are striking:

• the main character is Robert Langdon, the - same - Harvard professor running around Paris in the Code. He is assisted - again - by a lovely lady, daughter - again - of the first murdered character - again - and very knowledgeable about her father's work (Vittoria here is some kind of particle physicist...)
• the plot deals with an -again- obscure brotherhood from medieval times (the Illuminati - traces all over the web...), trying to destroy the Vatican -again-; followers of the brotherhood are very well connected (read infiltrated into the upper ranks of society), with links to the Masons, and almost brain-washed followers. Both brotherhoods use expert killers, and descriptions of both brotherhoods are said to be factual in the preface.
• Langdon is woken up in the middle on the night -again- and is supposed to follow a plot, and like in a mistery trail -again-, follows hints found in art; each new discovery leads to the next (here it starts somehow at the Vatican Archives)
• murders are committed with a complex symbological set up
• etc. I'll update this post when I finish the book, but coincidences are all over

And if you are into conspiracy theories, a very similar story can be found in the cartoon series "Le Triangle Secret" (8 volumes). Another very disturbing book is close to the plot in this story: 'In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I' - many unswered questions and details with a background of conspiracy by Banco Ambrosiano, Masonic Lodge P2, Opus Dei, etc...

I am sure these stories are going to make great action/suspense fiction films. I understand from the web that the Da Vinci Code is already being planned; the books have a fantastic kind of ambiance, such as those found in the great 'Silence of the Lambs' or the less good but still interesting 'Seven'.

Has anyone read both books ?
Don't get me wrong. Even this one is VERY entertaining (give it a try Pascal !)...