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PARIS: From the grand complexes of Seine-Saint-Denis to the beautiful neighborhoods of Paris, those living at the forefront of events at the 2024 Olympics are showing little enthusiasm six months before the event, but rather a sign of daily constraints .

At the northern entrance to Paris, the only Saint-Denis canal separates the Stade de France from the slums of Franc-Moisin, but its grand towers, currently undergoing renovation, are currently at odds with the Olympic dream.

Samia Achoui, who tries to save money on travel every summer, had simply forgotten that the event, awaited since her assignment in Paris in 2017, would finally take place from July 26th to August 11th. “I completely ignored the fact that the games existed,” says the 61-year-old accounting secretary with a smile.

She wouldn't mind attending events, but “given the price of admission is too high,” she adds without rancor, she'll be content with “the applause.”

“Not at all» leave…

Jean-Pierre Bagassien won't miss the cheers at athletics events: he lives in a building between the stadium and the highway.

Escape the crowd that he can no longer endure at his age? “I would like to go, but I don’t have the means,” breathes the 64-year-old.

With his hat pulled halfway over his face, 24-year-old Achraf hangs around in the town of Franc-Moisin, which is plagued by drug trafficking. “If the games are close, maybe I could find work,” he hopes, stretching his arm towards the stadium.

In the city center of Saint-Denis, 70-year-old restaurateur Antoine Bento is hoping for the same dynamic as during the Rugby World Cup in autumn 2023: the animations and huge screens had boosted his sales. “Hiring extras, paid by the week” is already his plan.

To a friend at the table who complained in advance about too many people gathering on public transport, he replied that the event “will make France and the neighborhood shine.”

Nordine doesn't want to hear about the games anymore. “Let’s get rid of it as quickly as possible!” asserts the native of Saint-Denise, who did not want to give his last name.

The sixty-year-old fears that gentrification around the capital will accelerate. “The new apartments that are being built in Saint-Ouen (sports village, editor's note) will not be for the local people,” complains Nordine against “the wounds (…) that daily increase the prices for have increased everything.” .

… “Everyone will go”

In the heart of the capital, a much more upscale district, Paris's 7th arrondissement, is also preparing to become the center of the world for two weeks.

Several events take place on the Champ-de-Mars: beach volleyball in a purpose-built stadium at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, judo and wrestling at the Grand Palais Ephémère. Further east, archery takes place on the Esplanade des Invalides.

But the enthusiasm around the Iron Lady is waning.

“I won't be there, it's the middle of summer,” says Zoe Ben Amar, sales manager for events, for whom the Olympics won't change “much” from their usual vacation.

Like many others, she regrets the ticket prices. “Parisians are there to pay taxes, but not to be associated with this event,” criticizes the 48-year-old, convinced that “everyone will leave.”

Wearing a blue hat and coat, Catharina Wulf announces in a delicious German accent that she will be renting out her accommodation to people she knows… The Olympics? “I don’t care,” says this elegant Parisian who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years.

Skepticism also infects the youngest. “It’s already a bit of a hassle to take transport every day, so…” says Guillaume, 19, a business school student.

In this right-wing district under the leadership of Rachida Dati, the opponent of PS mayor Anne Hidalgo, the AFP has, unsurprisingly, collected almost exclusively hostile opinions.

Antoine Heslot, 32, a real estate investment fund manager, is almost an exception when he says he will spend “maybe a weekend here” during the Olympic fortnight.

“Scarlet” traffic

Even in the 7th century, the tone among the traders was logically somewhat better. “We expect more people” than in a normal summer, when Paris is a “dead trading zone,” said Benjamin Perronnet, a 37-year-old wine merchant.

But the main fear remains the same: traffic restrictions.

If the renowned restaurants are “happy” because they are full, “we will deliver, but it will be difficult,” summarizes Jean-Marie Boëdec, owner of a butcher shop, who fears that the “scarlet” zones where cars happen, be banned. unless exempted.

The protected area in which the movement of motorized vehicles must be encouraged – the blue zone – covers half of the district, while the red zone concerns the immediate surroundings of the Eiffel Tower.

The presentation of receipts for entry into the latter causes unrest among traders and residents alike: “The QR code is very scary because it is a little reminiscent of the containment of Covid-19,” emphasizes Zoe Ben Amar.

The Korean brand has reportedly developed a cheaper version of its upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 6 to better withstand strong Chinese competition.

Samsung is no longer number 1 in smartphones in the world, but the manufacturer remains the leader in folding smartphones, except in China. To remedy the situation, the company is reportedly working on developing a cheaper and thinner Galaxy Z Fold 6.

A cheaper and thinner Galaxy Z Fold 6

Foldable smartphones have come a long way in just a few years, but are still far from “mainstream”. This is explained in particular by the predominantly high-priced price positioning. Some brands, like Motorola with its Razr 40, are starting to reduce prices. In China, brands like Xiaomi, Honor and OPPO are very aggressive in pricing foldable smartphones without compromising on design.

According to The Elec, Samsung is focusing on the penetration rate of its book-sized folding smartphones in the Chinese market, where the Korean brand is being challenged. This is explained by various factors such as the high price of the Galaxy Fold, but also by the lack of finesse of the product, which cannot compete with the offers of competitors (Honor Magic V2, OnePlus Open, etc.). As you can see in the table below, the Samsung smartphone is the thickest in its class.

Source: Omdia

If Samsung plans a cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 6 in 2024, the weakening smartphone market could delay the company's plans. In fact, customers are increasingly turning to high-end products, which has allowed Apple to take first place in 2023.

No cheaper Galaxy Z Flip 6 in sight

Samsung's considerations for cheaper models do not seem to affect the “Z Flip” series. In fact, the manufacturer believes that the Flip series is well established (by far the brand's best-selling folding phone) and should therefore focus on solutions to boost its book-sized smartphones.

Drew Blackard, vice president of marketing for Samsung's mobile division, said foldable device prices will drop at some point in 2023, but the company will initially focus on improving product design. The Elec report therefore contradicts this statement. Samsung's plans for 2024 may have changed.

On the same topic: The Galaxy Z Fold 6 would not be the star of the next Galaxy Unpacked

Now that the Galaxy S24 is official, we should receive more information about the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. Like every year, Samsung's future folding phones are expected in the summer.

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Source: The Elec

In Iceland, people are preparing to drill into a volcano's magma reserve to extract heat from it. This is the very principle of geothermal energy, but in a new location.

Geothermal energy is, in fact, the energy that we obtain thanks to the heat of our planet. Typically, a fluid is circulated to a certain depth – for example, water injected into a crack. The liquid heats up and rises, charged with thermal energy that can be converted into electricity.

Proximity to warmth

Because Iceland has no shortage of volcanoes to warm the underground, geothermal energy provides 90% of the heating and more than 25% of the electricity.

But so far, drilling has only aimed to penetrate to a sufficient depth to extract this heat, and the proximity of the volcanoes' magma did the rest.

In the Krafla Magma project, which is officially scheduled to begin in 2026, we have decided against drawing magma directly from a “pocket” or “chamber”. When it reaches the surface, this fully or partially molten rock “empties” as lava – sometimes in spectacular fashion.

Lenovo seems determined to push Motorola into the smartphone market in the coming years. Matthew Zielinski, president of international markets at Lenovo, admits to being confident in the future of the brand, which was purchased by Google for $2.91 billion in 2014.

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, held January 15-19, 2024, the official told CNBC that Lenovo's efforts to turn around Motorola's business are now paying off. Matthew Zielinski also has big ambitions for the brand: “I bet that in three years we will be number three in the world.”

Although, according to the latest figures from Counterpoint, the Motorola/Lenovo duo is in eighth place in the smartphone market with a global market share of 4%, CNBC indicates that Motorola is in the US, where it is in third place, and in Latin Good results are achieved by America, where it is in second place.

For Matthew Zielinski, the goal for Motorola's “stable” growth is to achieve a 10% market share in countries where the brand is already established. We also learned that some of the growth will be concentrated in the high-end segment, which has so far been dominated by the world's two largest smartphone sellers: Apple and Samsung. The manager also defines Motorola's entry into the folding world (with the Razr) as an “attempt to penetrate the high-end market”.

Note that at the end of last week, more precisely on Friday, January 19, 2024, the media MSPowerUser shared a first image of Motorola's next Flip model. Known internally as the “Glory,” this foldable phone would, at first glance, adopt the codes of the Razr 40 Ultra, except for its new gray color.

In addition to the premium segment, Matthew Zielinski adds that Lenovo wants to intensify its efforts in India, “by far one of the most strategically important countries” for the company.

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Solar-powered GPS tracking devices attached to giraffes' ears allow conservationists to track them from a distance and know when they move away from protected areas. (© Michael B. Brown/Giraffe Conservation Foundation)

Thanks to technology, wildlife specialists in Africa are able to better protect endangered giraffes and reintroduce them to areas where they had disappeared.

According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation*, there are approximately 117,000 giraffes in the wild, and some species are at serious risk of extinction due to poaching and habitat loss. But thanks to new technologies, including artificial intelligence software, scientists can recognize people based on their spots with unique characteristics. And satellite images help conservationists find suitable habitats for these animals.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation supports wildlife conservation in 21 African countries, including Rwanda, where the giraffes pictured above were photographed in Akagera National Park. (© Michael B. Brown/Giraffe Conservation Foundation)

“It gives us a little insight into the lives of giraffes that we didn't have before,” explains Michael Brown, an ecologist at the foundation. “These findings (…) flow into nature conservation management. »

The Namibia-based foundation and its partners protect giraffes across 40 million hectares in 21 African countries*. Giraffes live in areas ranging from lush savannahs to relatively desert-like areas, wildlife sanctuaries and areas where the animals live in close contact with humans.

Together with its partners, including the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute based in Virginia (USA), the foundation uses GPS to track giraffes. EarthRanger software, part of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based nonprofit, quickly transmits data to local partners, alerting them when an animal has left a protected area or is no longer moving and may need help.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Jennifer Littlejohn (fifth from left) visits the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle. (State Department) At right, Michael Brown, GCF Foundation Environmentalist (Courtesy of Michael B. Brown)

In August 2023, Jennifer Littlejohn, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, met with scientists working on EarthRanger in Seattle. She emphasized the importance of conservationists, engineers and governments working together to advance the use of artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to solve the problems facing humans and nature.

The ability to detect the specificity of a spot on an animal, which has required dozens of volunteers in the past, allows researchers to accurately count giraffe populations and better understand the animals' behavior, says Michael Brown. In the United States, scientists are using similar technology to identify North American brown bears based on their facial features.

“If we know them individually, we can understand much better” how giraffes interact with their habitat, continues Michael Brown. With this information, researchers can better determine where giraffe populations are likely to increase over time.

Satellite data influences scientists' conservation decisions. Above: Giraffes are being relocated to Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda. (© Michael B. Brown/Giraffe Conservation Foundation)

Conservationists have successfully resettled giraffes in new areas, including areas where they had disappeared. NASA and US Geological Survey databases provide information from satellite images that can be used to determine whether giraffes are thriving in a particular area. Online tools such as Google Earth also help with this type of analysis.

“The rapid advances made in the use of GPS technology and satellite imagery over the past decade are motivating environmentalists to continue their efforts, concludes Michael Brown.

*in English

When we write, it is generally in the hope of being read. In the physical world, the barriers to publication are relatively high, but on the Internet it is accessible to everyone. Let's see how it works and what it can bring.

Writing is a creative process that requires skill and effort. The same applies when it comes to writing for the web, but with different specifics.

Reading on the internet vs. reading on paper

Reading on the Internet differs significantly from reading on paper in several ways:

• Fast Scanning: On the web, readers tend to scan content quickly rather than reading word by word. You search for keywords, titles, subheadings, and highlights to quickly find the information you want.
• Multiple distractions: Reading online is often accompanied by multiple distractions (ads, hyperlinks, notifications) that can interfere with concentration and deep understanding of the text.
• Non-linear navigation: Unlike a book or a printed document, where reading is generally linear, readers on the web can jump from one link to another. This results in a more fragmented reading experience.
• Visual fatigue: Reading on a screen can cause visual fatigue more quickly than reading on paper. Due to screen lighting, contrast between text and background, and screen flickering.
• Rich Media: Web content often offers interactive elements such as videos, animations or interactive graphics that are not available in print media.
• Length of texts: Texts on the web tend to be shorter and more segmented to enable quick reading. Printed documents may contain longer and denser text.
• Less depth: Due to the speed of reading online, the depth of topics is often less than when reading on paper, where readers engage with the content more intensively.
• References and Hypertext Links: Online reading is enriched by hypertext links that provide easy access to additional information.

What is web writing?

Web writing is the art and technique of creating content specifically for online platforms. It differs from traditional writing due to the specifics of reading on the Internet and the requirements of search engines. Here are some important aspects:

• Adaptation to screen reading behavior
  Web writing takes into account that readers often scan content on the Internet rather than read it in detail. Therefore, it's about organizing information clearly and hierarchically, using headings, subheadings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs to facilitate quick reading.
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
  Web writing includes search engine optimization (SEO) to improve the visibility of content in search results. This includes strategic use of keywords, creating meta descriptions, and optimizing titles.
• Engagement and interactivity
  The goal is to engage the audience and often encourage action, whether through calls to action (CTAs), internal links, or by encouraging comments and sharing on social media.
• Multimedia content
  Web writing can also include the integration of multimedia content such as images, videos and infographics that enrich the text and make it more attractive.
• Adaptability and accessibility
  Web content should be adaptable to different devices (computers, smartphones, tablets) and accessible to a wide range of users, including those with specific accessibility needs.
• tone and style
  The style of web writing is often more conversational and direct in order to connect with the reader. Personalization and tone vary depending on the target audience.
• Update and relevance
  Web content needs to be updated regularly to stay relevant and accurate, especially in rapidly evolving areas.
• Credibility and reliability
  Web editors must ensure their content is credible and reliable by citing reliable sources and providing verified information.

How do you learn to write for the web?

To learn how to write for the web, it's important to develop specific skills and understand the nuances of digital writing. Here are some steps and tips to master this discipline:

Writing for the web causes the editor to learn

When writing for the web, the author must go through a learning process. Writing requires a thorough understanding of the subject at hand, which often requires researching and synthesizing complex information. Each new article or piece of content becomes an opportunity to delve into a new area or deepen your knowledge on a specific topic.

The author can incorporate technological advances as they come into their writing process. This applies, for example, to the emergence of generative AI.

Writing on the web requires staying up to date with the latest trends in SEO and search engine algorithms, which leads to constant development of SEO skills.

This involves understanding the target audience and knowing how to communicate effectively with them, which requires a sense of cultural and social nuances.

Writing on the Internet allows you to share your knowledge and enrich it thanks to the feedback of other Internet users.

Finally, and probably the most fulfilling aspect: publishing articles or even status reports allows me to meet people with the same interests, initiate conversations and exchange viewpoints.

Keyboard

Although beginning writing can be intimidating for some, the experience is so intellectually and relationally enriching that it's worth giving it a try. Publishing content also allows you to develop your personal brand, which has great benefits for both teachers and employees or freelancers.

Other sources used:

Readings on screen, readings on paper, speeches and presentations by 15-year-old students

How can I make reading on the screen easier?

You can find more articles by this author here

The late Hubert Reeves repeatedly stated that at the beginning of his scientific studies in the 1950s and a few years after his doctorate in nuclear astrophysics, the world scientific community was rather skeptical about what we now call the theory of the Big Bang, proposed and developed by the Belgian Georges Lemaître, then by the Russian physicist George GamowGeorge Gamow and his associates.

The majority of cosmologists stood behind Fred Hoyle, who in 1948, together with Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold, proposed the now no longer valid stationary cosmological model, a model that negated the Big Bang theory of Lemaître and Gamow.

Everything changed in 1965 when Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson “accidentally” discovered the now famous fossil radiation, also called cosmic microwave background waves.

Unfortunately Penzias has just passed away…

The two men actually worked as engineers for the famous Bell Telephone Laboratories or AT&T Bell Laboratories – better known as Bell Labs or Les Bell Labs and now called Nokia Bell Labs. They were dealing with satellite telecommunications problems and had to use a radio antenna, which has now become history. Not wanting to know where the seemingly mysterious background noise in the antenna used came from, Penzias and Wilson discovered that it was actually a mysterious radio radiation of cosmic origin.

The From the Big Bang to the Living website has information about fossil radiation, such as this video from a documentary available on DVD. © ECP Group .© Dubigbangauvivant

Princeton, a mecca of relativistic physics and cosmology

By chance, they were also able to quickly talk about it with a group of theorists at Princeton University, including James Peebles and around Robert Dicke, who was working in the 1950s to 1960s after work in atomic physics and quantum optics (his MQ course remains notable) had been with experimental work began to test the general theory of relativity. Dicke understood that they had just been outpaced in their own research into the fossil radiation of the Big Bang, which Gamow and especially his collaborator Ralph Alpher had predicted.

A background radiation that behaves like so-called black body radiation and whose temperature has been constantly cooled by the expansion of space since the Big Bang was in fact a specific prediction of the theory of Lemaître and Gamow and will increasingly contradict the old cosmological model without Big Bang from 1965.

For this discovery, Penzias and Wilson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978. There are many videos/interviews/documentaries about this whole story and we are only mentioning some of them.

Futura had the opportunity to obtain several explanations on fossil radiation with the Planck mission Planck mission, accompanied by Laurence Perotto and the late Cécile Renault.

We can also read the 1965 paper by Princeton researchers before that of Penzias and Wilson, which is also available afterwards and published in the Astrophysical Journal, and that is why we give the presentation:

“Measurements of the effective zenith noise temperature of the 20-foot horn reflector antenna (Crawford, Hogg and Hunt 1961) at the Crawford Hill Laboratory, Holmdel, New Jersey, at 4080 Mc/s gave a value about 3.5 K higher than expected.” This excess temperature is, in the context of our observations, isotropic, non-polarized and free of seasonal fluctuations (July 1964 – April 1965). A possible explanation for the observed excessive noise temperature is provided by Dicke, Peebles, Roll, and Wilkinson (1965) in a letter accompanying this issue.

Embark on a cosmic journey and listen to how Bell Labs researchers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which provided the first experimental evidence for the Big Bang theory of life. Origin of the universe. They used the famous horn antenna to collect data. To get a reasonably accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. English subtitles should then appear. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then click on “Subtitles” and finally “Auto-translate”. Select “French”.© Nokia Bell Labs

A Jewish child saved from the Holocaust

About Arno Penzias himself: He was born on April 26, 1933 in Munich, Germany, into a family of Jewish origin (his grandparents had come to Munich from Poland and were among the leaders of the Reichenbachstrasse synagogue). He and his parents will escape the Nazis, especially he and his brother, who were among the Jewish children evacuated to Britain in 1939 as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation. Some time later, in 1940, he and his family found themselves in the Garment District of New York in the United States.

When he became a citizen of the United States, Arno Penzias began studying chemistry, but after serving as a radar officer in the American army for two years, he returned to civilian life and got a job as a research scientist at the Radiation Laboratory of Columbia UniversityColumbia , who was working intensively on microwave physics at the time. He worked there under the direction of the later Nobel Prize winner in physics Charles Townes, known for his work on laser lasers and maser masers, and ultimately received a doctorate in physics in 1962.

The rest is history…

CUNY TV Digital Series presents the first season of “CUNY Laureates,” a documentary web series chronicling the lives and achievements of thirteen City University of New York graduates who went on to become Nobel Prize winners. The first episode of the series, “Arno Penzias – The Sound of Creation”, tells the story of Nobel Prize winner Arno Penzias and the accidental discovery of cosmic background radiation (CBR) in 1965. For a sufficiently faithful French translation, click on the White rectangle at bottom right. English subtitles should then appear. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then click on “Subtitles” and finally “Auto-translate”. Select “French”. ©CUNY TV Digital Series

Back is the name of a monkey born on July 16, 2020 in China. It appears to be a normal specimen of Macacus rhesus, but in reality it is a clone. Remarkably, this is the first cloned monkey of this species to survive healthy into adulthood. To announce it in the journal Natural Communications, it was the Chinese Academy of Sciences that achieved this result by perfecting the technique that led to the birth of the first cloned mammal in 1996 Dolly the sheep. The technique used by the Chinese team is called Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). But what is it made of and what possible uses does it have in the medical field?

The somatic cell nuclear transfer technique for cloning

THE Somatic cell nuclear transfer This is the process that consists of the transplantation of adult cell nuclei into eggs or blastocysts, which, stimulated to develop by electrical or chemical inputs, produce pluripotent cells. The resulting embryo is genetically identical to the donated nucleus and has been used primarily for two purposes: therapeutic and for purposes reproductive. If the embryo is used for tissue development in vitro, the purpose is considered therapeutic, while if it is implanted in a uterus, a clone and the goal will be the reproduction of an individual identical to the donor.

The problems with this technology

In one of the previous cloning experiments using the SCNT technique, only one monkey out of a total of 35 implanted fetuses was born alive, but unfortunately it died the next day. What's happened? Subsequent histological examinations revealed Malformations of the placenta of cloned embryos, particularly noticeable hyperplasia and calcification. In addition, reduced or absent DNA methylation was found in embryos. Imprinting on the genes passed on from the mother by day 17 of embryonic development. What does that mean? In the case of hypomethylation, i.e. a loss of methyl groups in the DNA, instability of the embryo's genome can occur. As for the lack of maternal imprinting, the explanation is somewhat more complex.

Imprinting is an epigenetic process that does not change the sequence of genes, but rather their expression in the individual's phenotype. Imprinting occurs both maternally and paternally and requires that one of the two alleles (expressions, variants) of the same gene be excluded from activation, depending on the sex of the parent from which the chromosome in question comes. If the imprinting is of maternal origin, the maternal allele is silenced and the paternal allele is expressed and vice versa. The loss of maternal imprinting suggested to experts the inheritance of epigenetic abnormalities of somatic cells during SCNT cloning.

The SCNT-TR technique used to clone the retro monkey

To address these issues, researchers incorporated a strategy called Trophoblast Replacement (Throphoblast Replenishment TR) into the SCNT protocol, thereby obtaining the SCNT-TR technique. THE TR method consists of injecting the inner cell mass of embryos obtained using the SCNT technique into the blastocele (from which the cell mass is extracted) of embryos that have undergone intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a medically assisted reproductive technique that is already regularly used in human conception. With this methodology, Retro was born.

What are the effects?

The news of the birth and continued existence of Retro for more than two years is fundamental for at least two reasons: the first is the previous one No M. rhesus monkey has been cloned using the SCNT technique, the same as for Dolly the sheep. The second reason is thismedical application of the TR technique, which would repair damage to the developing trophoblast by replacing dysfunctional cells with healthy cells, thus preventing the development of fertilized embryos. This would be a promising strategy to improve the success rates of assisted reproduction.