Home Blog Page 2

The weekend science ticket. After the pandemic, will we be able to revitalize digital education?

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0


How to revitalize the education system through digital technology after the pandemic? Millions of young people are currently out of school around the world. Drawing
How to revitalize the education system through digital technology after the pandemic? Millions of young people are currently out of school around the world. Illustration (SOLSTOCK / E + / GETTY IMAGES)

For this third International Day of Education, UNESCO and the United Nations are turning to innovation with the theme “Relaunch and revitalize education for the Covid-19 generation”.

The stakes are high, since the health crisis is also an educational crisis for 12 million students in France. Around the world, 260 million young people are currently out of school, a situation made worse by the pandemic. UNESCO is organizing this Monday, January 25, the #LearningPlanetFestival, or Festival of Learning, intended to share and finance new distance education tools.

Since March 2020, digital technology has become a central tool in education. While it has ensured pedagogical continuity, “all-distancing” also has its disadvantages. Many teachers and students were not prepared for such a digital acceleration in school.

Those who were already teaching digitally innovated and adapted to the situation. But in the urgency of a climate of precipitation, developing distance learning methods from scratch was a big challenge for others.

Many schools remain closed during the pandemic. & Nbsp;
Many schools remain closed during the pandemic. (CHARLI BANDIT / E + / GETTY IMAGES)

Opposite, students oscillate between the risk of dropping out of school and psychological isolation, and 70% of students are now worried about their mental health.

After the attraction to tools phase, the students became a bit disillusioned and showed some fatigue, a sort of exhaustion. The students were also deprived of social relations.

Pascal Huguet, research director at CNRS

Directed by Pascal Huguet, director of the Clermont-Ferrand social and cognitive psychology laboratory, the “e.P3C” study (Plurality of learning contexts) on the effects of digital technology in student learning was finalized just before the start of the health crisis, to review the use of digital tools at ‘school.

Over two years, 8,000 middle and high school students experimented with intelligent tutorial systems, which complement the learning process, in eight subjects. “For learning you need at least two things: attention and feedback, in order to retain what works, and eliminate what does not work”, emphasizes the researcher.

Teachers should not be excluded from building this technology. It allows students to access content, while sending them feedback, i.e. the student knows if he made a mistake, if he was wrong, if he must go back.

Pascal Huguet, research director at CNRS

And add: “For students with more difficulty, the software offers more fun paths. The goal is to bring them to the same level of learning as others, but through different paths.”

Ensuring that the digital divide does not widen the social divide is also the educational issue after the pandemic. Drawing
Ensuring that the digital divide does not widen the social divide is also the educational issue after the pandemic. Illustration (IZUSEK / E + / GETTY IMAGES)

Yet the digital divide, a consequence of the social divide, occurs through lack of electronic equipment, or a reliable Internet connection. Pascal Huguet highlights another social role of digital technology. According to him, with equal equipment, technological tools make it possible to reduce inequalities between social levels: “When we make students from less advantaged social backgrounds work with these intelligent tutorials, they climb to the same level as students from more advantaged backgrounds in traditional education. “

One thing is certain: technology will never completely replace the human presence, especially in education. Many teachers are also alarming the young generation’s dependence on technologies and wish to return to learning without screens.

The full interview with Pascal Huguet, research director at CNRS

“We Europeans”. The good and the animal – France 3 – January 24, 2021

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0

Major report, guests and European news are included in the magazine “We Europeans“(Twitter), presented by Francis Letellier and broadcast on Sundays at 10:45 am on France 3. For this new issue of season 2, direction l ’Germany, which has the ambition to become one of the leaders in the world in terms of animal welfare with many initiatives: investments to improve farm structures, renunciation of non-curative interventions, ban on the elimination of male chicks , development of alternatives to the castration of piglets, reduction in the use of antibiotics, commitment at European level to reduce animal transport times, etc.

In France, a bill soon to be examined by the National Assembly looks at animal abuse and solutions to limit it. Animal welfare now appears to be a growing concern of the French, two thirds of whom, for example, are opposed to the presence of wild animals in circuses.

Three unique initiatives in the world for animal welfare

> THE BIG REPORT
Three initiatives in Germany in favor of animal welfare > The Roncalli circus has decided not to present a number with live animals anymore. He replaced them with spectacular giant holograms. > In the Baden-Württemberg region, Thomas Mayer invented a mobile slaughterhouse to enable the slaughter of animals on the farm, in order to avoid stressful and sometimes painful transport for livestock. > A German company has developed a unique process for determining the sex of egg embryos. It will save millions of animal lives because today, in laying hen farms, only females are kept. The males, considered unprofitable, are gassed or crushed alive at birth …
A report by Sandrine Feydel, Michel Anglade and Catherine Dubois.

> THE GUESTS

– William Kerwich, director of the Cirque Royal Kerwich, denounced in a column in the press the “genocirque” and animal defense associations that want to ban animals from wild fauna in circuses.

– Jacques Guérin, President of the National Council of the Order of Veterinarians, delivers the definition of animal welfare as specified by the health authorities. He considers that we must have an appropriate response for each species and promote a gradual change in behavior.

– Patrick Violas, founder of the zoo-refuge “La Tanière” which welcomes animals weighing from forty grams to several tons on a twenty hectare site near Chartres. It fights against abandonment, abuse, animal trafficking, forced detention and exploitation of animals.

> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.

data: image / gif; base64, R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw ==

report. Collect the testimonies of a free speech on incest

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0


Incest, a subject that is coming to light at the start of 2021 with Camille Kouchner’s book, “La Familia grande”, and with the #metooinceste movement. Illustration (JERRY CHEN / GETTY IMAGES)

The hashtag #MeTooIncest paved the way for many testimonials on social networks. The associations which work in silence, often indifferent for years, have found a media space to recall the figures of a Ipsos study /Facing incest published last November: 6.7 million people in France are victims of an incestuous crime.

There remains the weight of guilt in denouncing his father, his uncle, his grandfather, a weight which the executioners abuse, taking advantage of the immaturity of children. And later, in the victims, the tear is marked. On the one hand, the desire to end suffering, to protect oneself, and on the other, not to see one’s parent thrown in prison by an act of denunciation; the fear of shame, the fear of seeing the family unit disintegrate by the accusations made.

In a striking report, the franceinfo reporter, Sandrine Etoa, delivers a series of testimonies on this psychological pressure: the fallacious importance of secrecy, the confusion around feeling, the blurring of benchmarks.

And when the word is freed, it first takes refuge in privacy, very often a loved one, or an association. But whether it is the premises of an association, a police station, a legal office, the words remain confined within four walls, and are sometimes transcribed on a sheet of paper or a document. Word.

Accepting to speak into the reporter’s microphone is the awareness of being heard in the public space. The journalist will broadcast the word. As Sophie Parmentier, a journalist from France Inter, who collected Maud’s testimony this week, explains, we must first listen.

Questions should not be intrusive in the story.

Sophie Parmentier, reporter at Radio France

And then there is the editing. The fact that in a morning radio, the words heard can shock the listener who is not warned and who listens to a flow of information. If the details of the assaults are not requested by the reporter, the victim may feel the need to name them. Should it be broadcast?

Going through the crude terms is not essential to understand what the child went through. But situations can enlighten. In Maud’s case, “his grandfather bought his silence with money“, at Juliette’s, her father spoke to her “overflowing love”. The way to buy or negotiate silence must be said to inform. Thus described, these situations can be recognized by other victims locked in silence.

In the editing, the other responsibility of the journalist – and this applies to all subjects – is not to betray the words collected, nor to water down it. The victim who took a long time to testify should not regret it for a montage that would not be faithful to the comments made. For this reason, the bond between transmitter and receiver / broadcaster must remain strong even after registration.

Sometimes the victim needs to list details, to tell them, if only for themselves, but then, they also may not want the said details to be released. The conversation must then continue between the journalist and the victim of the incest.

And above all, the priority of disseminating such testimonies is to encourage people who are silent no longer to be silent. It is also all the strength of hashtag : #MeTooIncest

Children and adolescents victims of violence, as well as witnesses of such acts, can contact 119, a national telephone number, free and anonymous. This listening and advice platform is open 24 hours a day, every day. Other information is also available on the site Allo119.gouv.fr.



Social networks: these relaxation videos that make the buzz

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0



Tap, bite, whisper, strange videos circulating on the Internet in order to relax. Manon Rohautstudent watching videosASMR that relax her. She discovered these videos four years ago during her insomnia, today impossible to fall asleep without these whispers that rock her. Florian produces videos ofASMR for the Internet, it uses microphones but especially objects of all kinds that allow him to relax his audience. He seeks to trigger wellness videos to the point of thrill.

Pierre Marquis is a neurologist, he recommended these videos to patients to appease them, “we see the pulse which slowly slows down, she is in a state a bit like under hypnosis or close to falling asleep“. American studies have shown that some people make endogenous hormones like dopamine and morphine.

The JT

The other subjects of the news

“A radical but necessary decision”, according to the mayor of Brussels

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0

Belgium has decided to ban its population from non-essential travel outside its borders from Wednesday January 27 and until March 1 due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic and concerns raised by the English variant virus. “There was a certain indiscipline in the way people were tested”, explains on franceinfo, Saturday 23 January, Philippe Close, mayor of the Belgian capital who considers that it is“a radical but necessary measure”. Brussels is already subject to a curfew from 10 p.m., the rest of the country from midnight.

franceinfo: What is the situation in your city?

Philippe Close: It is very weird, like in many large European municipalities. We have the shops that are open but not the restaurants or cafes. We have telework which is widely used, higher education which only works remotely and by video.

“We have a city that is alive but is semi-drowsy.”

Philippe Close, mayor of Brussels

to franceinfo

It is therefore very strange for a city like Brussels, especially in the European district. We are really not in the Brussels we usually know.

It’s semi-confinement, do you have a curfew like in France?

Yes, we have a curfew, in Brussels until 10 p.m. and in the rest of the country at midnight. You know that in the first wave, Belgium failed to master this first wave. We have therefore taken very strict measures.

“In Belgium, in December there are places where we had to evacuate patients to Germany in particular, but this time it is the opposite, there are Brussels hospitals which welcome patients from other countries. . “

Philippe Close

to Franceinfo

We have no overruns [concernant l’occupation des hôpitaux] but we remain extremely vigilant and mobilized in our hospitals. We are paying particular attention to other diseases for which interventions had to be postponed because of Covid-19 and we do not want the population to suffer the consequences.

Is the English variant present in your home?

Yes, there are cases, he was mainly present in the province of Antwerp, probably after returning from vacation. What prompted the federal government to take this radical decision to no longer allow [à partir de mercredi les voyages non-essentiels hors des frontières] departures until early March. There was a certain indiscipline in the way people got tested. This is a very radical measure, but it was necessary to avoid relapse into an epidemic when we are in the process of mass vaccination. We hope that those over 65 will be vaccinated by the end of March and by then we will have reached the bulk of the population at risk. We must hold on until then. We are all dependent on vaccine suppliers, our centers are ready. We just have to have enough doses.

how Bernie Sanders, his mittens and his parka (almost) stole the show from Joe Biden during his inauguration

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0



He was not invested but he managed to capture the light, Wednesday, January 20, in Washington. On that day, while taking the oath on the enormous Douai bible, Joe Biden officially became the 46th President of the United States, Bernie Sanders, one of his rivals in the Democratic primary, caused a sensation .

In the stands, with his down jacket, his arms crossed, his hand-knitted mittens and his jaded air, the senator from Vermont immediately became a meme, an element taken up, declined, diverted and parodied on the internet.

The choice of comfort rather than style

The investiture ceremony is often synonymous with a competition of elegance. The participants put on their 31 and sometimes take the opportunity to pass messages. Joe Biden’s nomination was no exception to the rule since Democrats Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton had chosen to adorn themselves in purple to make a nod to the American two-party system – the mixture of the red of the Republicans and the blue of the Democrats – and the suffragette movement.

Bernie Sanders was the opposite in style to Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, with well-cut coats and leather gloves. The senator from Vermont arrived in a down jacket and eco-friendly knitted mittens. For a very simple reason: it was cold in the American capital, barely 6 ° C with a light wind. A good reason to bundle up well, which the singer did not fail to point out Dionne Warwick, performer of What The World Needs Now in 1966. “It looks hot”, she tweeted.

Bernie Sanders explained about this dress choice on CBS News. “You know, in Vermont we dress warm, he smiled. We know the cold, and we don’t really bother with fashion. ”

His wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, backed him up by tweeting: “Down jacket from Vermont, mittens from Vermont, common sense from Vermont”. Indeed, this jacket and these mittens were manufactured in the State of Vermont. The parka comes from snowboard brand Burton, headquartered in Vermont. Jane O’Meara’s son Sanders, Dave Driscoll, worked there and bought it for him for Christmas.

The mittens were made by one of her constituents. They’re made from wool from old sweaters and stuffed with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles, according to the fashion magazine. Vogue (in English), and testify, writes the magazine, of his deliberately anti-fashion style.

A photo that has become iconic and transformed into a meme

Bernie Sanders prostrate, it did not take more for the internet to ignite. The photo taken by AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski, showing him sitting, legs and arms crossed, with his hand-knitted mittens in full view, was immediately picked up by netizens, who used it at all times. sauces by superimposing it on other known clichés. On iconic American rap album covers for example.

We can see the senator, 79 years old, as well on the majestic Iron Throne of the hit series Game Of Thrones that sat on a bench next to Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump, in scenes of Star wars or in the famous photo of the 1930s, sitting on a joist, overlooking the void, with the workers of a skyscraper under construction during their lunch break. He also appears alongside Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in Yalta in 1945, among the apostles in The Lord’s Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, or on the Moon, with an astronaut helmet.

Diversions in all situations, but which have ended up boring Internet users. And still there, there was a tiny gap, in which MarkBrooksArt rushed by emphasizing the overdose of this meme while feeding it.

Photographer, Brendan Smialowski, interviewed by Rolling Stone (in English), recognizes that “l‘image itself is not so beautiful.

“It’s not a large composition. I’m not going to put this in a portfolio.”

Brendan Smialowski, AFP photographer

to “Rolling Stone”

He was also overwhelmed by the scope of his shot, but according to him, “the senator has an image and is a very well defined brand of politics”. “This photo is a beautiful moment, he notes (…) but it depends on who is being photographed. If it was someone else and everything was the same, I don’t think it would have had the same impact. “

Clothes that had already been spotted and hijacked

If no one has taken gloves to divert these mittens since Wednesday, they had been spotted for a year, says The world. PDuring the campaign for the Democratic primary and for the 2020 edition of the Women’s March in Portsmouth (New Hampshire), the 79-year-old senator wore them and they had already caught the eye of Internet users. A parody account had emerged on Twitter with a “biography” explaining that “only these mittens are capable of controlling the untimely movements of Bernie’s hands “.

The parka was worn by the senator in a video posted on December 31, 2019. He launched: “I’m once again asking for your financial support “(” I am once again asking for your financial support “), calling for the generosity of its activists for the financing of its campaign, recalls The world. The formula had been taken up and diverted and a site allowed to generate its own meme. She was again

Unexpected fallout

But the story does not end there. Bernie Sanders used this uproar for a good cause. On his website, he sells a sweatshirt with the photo of Washington’s inauguration for 45 dollars (around 37 euros). The total income from the sale of this sweater “organic cotton fleece” is donated to an association, Meals on Wheels Vermont, which provides hot meals to people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.

The mittens, they put in the spotlight a voter of Bernie Sanders, Jennifer Ellis. It is in the creator. She never met him and was leading until Wednesday “a quiet life”, as she assures AFP. But this investiture ceremony changed everything. She was teaching her CE1 students online when her phone began to emit a series of “dings”. Worried, she interrupted her class to check the messages: “Bernie Sanders wears your mittens to the nomination”, they announced to him in substance.

Fan of the socialist senator, convinced ecologist, Jennifer had sent him a pair of mittens after her defeat against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary for the 2016 presidential election, to console him. Then last year, when “Bernie” tried again for the presidential election, she learned that he had loaned the mittens to someone with cold hands. “I was so touched that I sent her 10 more pairs”, she smiles. Since Wednesday, she claims to have received “about 13,000 emails from people “ ready to buy him the same mittens, “and not just a pair, they want a lot”.

Little risk that this sudden notoriety and this influx of requests will turn his head. She would never be able to meet the demand, with her 30-year-old sewing machine and teaching job, and doesn’t even want to. “It would spoil all the beauty of the thing, she assures, I wish everyone more joy, if you give something to someone (…) and it explodes, and the whole world has joy, that’s great. “



75 years of the Italian Republic

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0

The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella with the Prime Minister, Guiseppe Conte during a meeting in Rome in 2019.
The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella with the Prime Minister, Guiseppe Conte during a meeting in Rome in 2019 (JACOPO LANDI / HANS LUCAS / AFP)

With 84,674 deaths from Covid-19, Italy is one of the countries most affected by the epidemic in Europe, with 60 million inhabitants, with 2,441,854 confirmed cases today (source Worldometers).

As pointed out by our guest, the daily Paris correspondent Avvenire, Daniele Zapalla, politically, the President of the Council (the Prime Minister) Giuseppe Conte has, we can say it, saved his head or, at least, his government, during a vote of confidence in the Senate, on Tuesday January 19 . Giuseppe Conte’s government is made up of the alliance of the Democratic Party, the center-left, and the Five Star Movement, an anti-system movement.

Even if the President of the Italian Council refuses to compromise with the sovereignists, or the “anti-systems”, his coalition with the 5-Star Movement raises questions, because it was also a coalition government with the League, the nationalist party of Matteo Salvini. Italian surrealism exists, it is not only Belgian.

Faced with a high debt, the future of the government was numbered, and yet the President of the Italian Council obtained the confidence of both chambers, which does not bode well for a good future for his government, because neither the Democratic Party, even less the 5-star movement have the capacity to be able to govern, even less with a President of the Council, Giuseppe Conte, many of whom are Italians, and still wonder who this man is… But the institutional crisis fomented by Matteo Renzi, did not have the desired effect, and Renzi withdrew its support for Conte’s government, which has emerged from this government crisis very weakened.

If the epidemic has hit Italy hard, coupled with a government crisis, it is the Italian economy that is under strain. While Fiat is still “controlled” by the Agnelli family, Fiat has joined an international automotive group. So the company is becoming a little less Italian, and it is perhaps the swansong of this Italian industry which formerly consisted of large groups such as Fiat and Olivetti.

The fact remains that Italy has retained its structure of family industries. Tuscany or Emilia-Romagna, rich Italian regions which saw, for Tuscany, the birth of the first bank in the world, Monte Paschi di Sienna, these two provinces are the reality of Italian daily life, rather founded on a more local than national. Italy was the first country in the world to create the concept of a cooperative, and today like yesterday, the Italian economy, as well as industry, is based on family industry, therefore less affected by stock market fluctuations. .

It is not uncommon, during international fairs and exhibitions, that Italy’s space is the largest. Because the exhibitors arrive by the hundreds, once again, from family-owned Italian companies producing a quality part, an element, which, joined to others by a consortium will produce a machine. In fact, Italy must be the only country in the world where family companies produce silk knots, fabrics that will be bought for special occasions. And whether it is Ferrari, Maserati or Barilla, they are still family businesses.

The same goes for Italian agriculture which is making a leap towards “organic”, a leap initiated in the 80s, when “Slow Food” was created, a very intellectual and gastronomic association, which put a point of ‘honor to enhance food products.

If Italy will take over the presidency of the G20, which will be held on October 30 and 31, 2021 in Rome, the Italian commemorations will follow one another throughout the year. First, the 700 years since the death of Dante Aligieri, the author of the Divine Comedy, Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, wish that paradise returns to Italy. Then the 160th anniversary of Italian unity, the 150th anniversary of Rome as the capital of Italy, and the 75th anniversary of the Italian Republic will be celebrated.

Thus 2021 will be a year of celebrations and historical memories, but above all a year of hopes, awaited by all the Italian people who are in great need of it, and who, today, are gathered around its president, Sergio Mattarella, who will celebrate its 80th spring next July, and which alone assumes the unity of the country. Vast program …

New world. Quantum computers have nothing to do with today’s computers

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0


“The idea is to design new generations of computers that will be based on the physics of the infinitely small called quantum mechanics.” (GETTY IMAGES)

Emmanuel Macron this week announced a plan of 1.8 billion euros over 5 years for quantum in France. The American IBM already has the embryos of quantum computers and is in the line to participate in the development of quantum computers of the future in France.

franceinfo: What is a quantum computer?

Olivier Hess, responsible for IBM’s Quantum Hub in France: The idea is to design new generations of computers that will be based on the physics of the infinitely small that we call quantum mechanics. Instead of classical bits, it uses qubits, that is, quantum bits, which have the ability to address problems that classical computers cannot address.

What could this be used for very concretely?

This could ultimately solve problems in the field of life sciences, the design of new drugs or in the field of logistics. There is also a great dynamic around finance with very complicated problems for classic machines, not to mention the development of new materials for batteries of electric vehicles, for example. In short, wherever it would take tens or hundreds of hours of calculation, or even more, with traditional machines.

What does a quantum computer look like?

It has nothing to do with the machines we know today. These famous qubits must be isolated and cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. IBM machines are cooled to -273 degrees. Seen from the outside, it looks like a big hot water balloon, inside of which is all the quantum electronics.

Where is quantum computing at IBM?

In 2016, we announced a development plan. We have about 20 systems available in the cloud, with 65-qubit physical systems. And what is interesting is that we announced in September 2020 the possibility of extending the size of our systems to 121, 433 and 1121 qubits by 2023.

Digitization: from AI to super intelligence?

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0



Armed drone

Computer researchers warn against the development of an uncontrollable “super intelligence”. The dangers of AI lie in completely different areas.

Corona warning app: which functions would you like? – digital

By
Patrick Lawson
-
0


Reader discussion

:

Corona warning app: which functions would you like?

The ABC of the crisis year 2020

The app is still essentially the same as it was in the spring.

(Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa)

The app’s green messages have been gone for weeks. The reason is an update that the users were not informed about. A general overhaul is necessary to prevent many people from uninstalling the app, comments SZ author Philipp Bovermann.

You can find out here how you can register for the discussion and which rules apply.

Do you have any suggestions or feedback? Email to debatte@sz.de or tweet at @SZ. You can find all contact options here.

© SZ.de/mdc

To the SZ homepage

Read more on the subject

123...250Page 2 of 250

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

©