What you see here is the new M51 nuclear ballistic missile literally getting out of the swimming pool. For some reason, the French military--like everyone else, really--thinks that it is a good idea to spend five billion dollars developing new and more effective methods to destroy the planet as the world itself keeps going to hell on its own. Because what humanity needs right now is a Mer-Sol-Balistique-Stratégique missile, oh le missile, loaded with six independently targetable TN 75 thermonuclear warheads with "penetration aids" (yes, they are French. Pervs).

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France's Senate just passed a law proposed in mid-summer that would cut the families of illegal fileswappers off from broadband internet access for a year. This makes France the first country to pop anti-piracy legislation against users, and it's probably not going to be the last.

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Here's a piece of advice: when riding a high-speed train with a toilet that uses super-high powered suction to flush, keep your hand out of there. One unlucky Frenchman learned the value of this advice the hard way when he dropped his phone into the toilet of a TGV train. When he reached in to retrieve it, the suction kicked in, and it all went downhill from there.

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French cable provide Canal+ teamed up with touted OLPC and Jawbone designer Yves Behar to produce "Le Cube," their new, ultra-stylish HD cable box with DVR and Video on Demand functions Looking like a Wii all dressed up for a formal event, Le Cube blends simple geometry with simple colours to create something that's visually striking.

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We were surprised to see the HTC Diamond just coming in white, but those in France now have the opportunity to pick up the Diamond in one of seven colours: White, blue, brown, fuchsia, yellow, purple or rose. Unless you're packing up to move abroad, chances are you'll never see most, if any of these Skittlesfied options. But we thought we'd show you just to rub it in. Happy Monday! [Phone and Phone via NowhereElse]

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Watchmaker Tag Heuer has put up a teaser video for their forthcoming Meridiist phone, and boy is it a slap in the face to everyday Joe Sixpacks like you and me.

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Research into invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around 2D objects, could end up protecting offshore rigs and vulnerable coastlines from water. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France said that established cloaking principles can be applied to ocean waves, and built a 10cm model to show how carefully placed concentric pillars make objects in the centre "invisible" to the sea.

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One of the croissant-snarfing editors at Gizmodo France passed along this article that alleges the Mac Pro's gives off toxic vapors. Translating from the language of love to the language of guns, soccer mums and hot dogs results in a bit of discombobulation, but the gist is that a CNRS lab researcher got a Mac Pro, and after his eyes and respiratory tract were repeatedly agitated by a "stench," decided to break down the noxious vapor coming off the Mac Pro. They found "seven volatile organic contaminants." Though the worst they do inhaled is cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation—ingested is another story—benzene is the most troublesome, since inhaling it eight hours a day over could affect one's bone marrow. Apple's response?

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No matter the fuss about RFID hacking, France's national train operator SNCF is trialling a single-user RFID payment system for journeys on its network. The Weneo card is no flimsy card with a simple embedded chip however: it's a thick gizmo with 4GB aboard and a USB plug. Shoving it into a PC takes the user directly to SNCF's website, where they can charge up the card's credit. Sounds all very groovy, but since the card also contains a chunk of personal data, like status as a student or senior citizen or "amount of money the cardholder has available for purchases" (why the heck is that there?) it strikes me as something that'd be pretty worrying to lose/get hacked. On trial for 1,000 users currently. [RFIDJournal via Nowhereelse—in French]

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This tiny GPS system from Kapten shuns the current preoccupation for large, high-detail touchscreens... it has, in fact, no screen at all. There're a bunch of led-lit icons at the top, indicating car-, pedestrian-mode and so on, but that's it. All navigation requests and instructions are made by you talking to the Kapten and it talking to you. It's apparently aimed mainly at pedestrian users, and measuring 7.4 x 4.3 x 1.3 cm is small enough to slip onto a key ring. Somehow there's a Bluetooth chipset in there, alongside an MP3 player and FM radio, and it packs 4GB of internal memory. Sadly, the only instructions it'll utter will sound like "Tournez à droite, dans 100 metres" since it's being released in France next month for around US$220, and there's no info on whether it'll move outside the land of the moody pout. [Navigadget]

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