I_am_a_Pixel

Odd forecast concerning France. The right candidate is caught up in a legal scandal, same for the far right (though people care less) and the far right candidate loses to every serious candidate in the polls if she makes it to the second round which admittedly she likely will. The overwhelming favourite in the french election is more of a social democrat candidate who's close to the right on economic topics but on the left concerning social issues.

I'm an avid photographer and love sharks and scuba diving is my favourite "hobby" (although I don't practice it as much as I'd like to) so what you did here by combining both would be a dream of mine. How would someone without a photography diploma go about making something like this his job? It's not like other trades where you can just intern for a summer or something so what would you advise? Do another job and use spare time to try and build a portfolio like this?

Anyway love your work in general, any plans to do more underwater stuff, maybe with an apnea diver like guillaume nery or something? (your picture of the man with the lantern reminded me of his cenotes video).

Congrats on the adventure! I've met several people doing similar things and all loved it and it just makes me want to try it too! (not there yet financially though). Anyway I have a couple of questions:

• One of the people I know went from France -> French Polynesia via Panama and told me he was a bit disappointed with the Galapagos because everything is so controlled, you can't go where you want with your boat, you have to pay ridiculously expensive fees etc (I understand since it's basically all of its revenue), did you have the same experience of not being able to stop where you want around there?

• You said you would need some income sometime this year. Do you plan on going back to the USA to work as a mech engineer again, or do odd jobs in port cities around the world and move on each time you save up enough?

• Any preconceived notions you had which were blown away (either about the destinations or the travelling itself)

• Any plans to go west and go through polynesia, cook islands, fiji, australia etc?

Anyway thanks for sharing this amazing trip and good luck in your future endeavours!

Thanks!

In the The Big Short what surprised me the most is how "complicit" rating agencies were in causing the crash. My understanding is that toxic products still received good ratings in order to keep selling these products and therefore artificially maintaining the system afloat. In the movie we see an analyst from S&P say they have to give good ratings because otherwise banks will go to Moody's to obtain better ratings on their products.

So if my understanding is correct, could you explain to me if anything was done to alter this sort of dependence that exists between rating agencies and banks, because if ratings are based off the needs or desires of banks, I would think this whole ordeal could repeat itself no?