See how Priceline and Webex compare: PCLN lost all of their partial recovery, while WEBX has been bouncing quite strongly. And did you notice people are now starting to make fun of the Sept. 11 events (like the fake picture of a tourist posing on top of the WTC, unaware of the plane coming behind him - 29/11/01 update: here's the true guy)? I guess it takes two weeks before folks believe it's ok to do so.

As memories fade and people get back to work, I'm wondering whether businesses will change their practices so much that they'll trade travel for videoconferencing. (08/23/02 update: I didn't take pseudo-security hassle into account.) No matter how much some think life will never be the same, it's not the first time in history people felt that way.

My family on the side of my mother is from Lorraine, in eastern France. My mum was born in Metz in 1947, a city annexed by the Germans from 1870 to 1914 and from 1940 to 1944. My uncle André lives in the region, about 50 kilometers from Verdun, and 5 kilometers from Thiaucourt's American Cemetery where 4,153 soldiers lie. Believe me, this forest of crosses makes a lasting impression (I first saw it when I was a kid). We called WWI - a butchery that hacked so much into the population that you can see it in the age pyramid - "la der des der" (the last of the last), but that didn't prevent WWII just 30 years later.

Some villages around were 100% razed during the war. We've kept the road signs so that we can remember, and it's an eery feeling to drive through what should be a city, but is only a bunch of green, bumpy hills. People still dig out bombs from fields and gardens every year. Well, after 1870, WWI and WWII, it looks like peace between France and Germany is durable. By the way, the intertwined history of the two countries is found in other familial factoids: my sister was born in Baden-Baden in 1975, because my father is a (now retired) officer who was at the time stationed in Germany.

I'm thankful for the Americans that lost their lives to help free my country twice. I also know things don't usually change that much once grief recedes. Whatever we do to defend ourselves from terrorism must be done in the perspective of building sustainable peace.