Chirac unveils his grand plan to restore French pride. Msr Chirac has clearly lost his mind. He thinks he can get into the seach engine game now and defeat Google? I can only don my cynics hat and assume he knows this isn't going to work but he has to do something and pumping money into the IT sector may do something positive. He says he wants to "raise the global profile of French industry and avoid a future in which France was known only as a 'museum country'."

Um, check the present. You're already a country of museums and monuments and one film festival.

When I was in college, our French exchange students were aghast that France didn't have a reputation for being market leaders in either technology or engineering. We got a map and showed them where Japan and Germany were. They were not amused. I sure thought it was funny.

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