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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old Frenchman from Reims, is the
world champion at mental arithmetic. Normally the record is
judged by the speed at which the challenger can work out in
his head the 13th root of a 100-figure number, supposed to
be the most difficult possible exercise in mental arithmetic.
It takes Lemaire less time to do this than it takes the rest of
us to understand the question: 3.625 seconds.
Last December 11 in New York, he excelled himself by
working out in his head the 13th root of a 200-figure number
in 70.2 seconds. The University doctoral student, studying
artificial intelligence, intends to use his extraordinary
memory to learn more than 39 different languages in due
course.
You can see Alexis, who practises for three hours every
day, doing his amazing stuff, in French, on
www.dailymotion.com/video/x3f3kz_calcul-mental-alexislemaire-
sur-sc_tech.
Or you can hear him in English demonstrating that his
language skills are lagging behind his maths on
http://revuedeweb.blogs.nouvelobs.com/tag/Alexis+Lemaire
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
A 39-year-old North African from Pessac (Gironde) was
more than a little surprised when he received the password
for his new mobile phone from Orange. The letter itself was
polite enough ending with the usual civilities “Merci de votre
confiance" etc etc but the password was ‘salearabe’.
“It was an enormous shock,” he said. It seems that he had
difficulty in connecting his new phone and that exchanges
with the hotline were “tense but respectful”.
The management of Orange was naturally distraught. A
spokesperson said: “Passwords are normally generated
randomly by machine. And they can only be personalised at
the request of the client.” In this case, she said, “We cannot
exclude that it was an act of deliberate malice. We will be
able to trace whoever is responsible.” She then added with
rather less certainty: “If the culprit is found we will initiate
disciplinary proceedings that will go as far as dismissal.
There is no question of ignoring the sort of thing.”
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
The French government has announced
that it is to add another 2,000 radars
on the roads. The aim is to cut road
deaths to below 3,000 by the year 2012.
The road death toll for 2007 was
around 4,600, which is 40% down on
2002. However, there have been worries
recently that numbers might be creeping
up again. There are currently 1,600
roadside automatic radars in operation in
France. They have generated some legal
controversy but have been credited with
saving many lives where they have been
installed.
Controls on drink driving and
motorcycle safety are to be stepped up.
The Ministry of Ecology and sustainable
development is to revise the rules on
driving licences.
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
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A British woman has become the French women’s national
champion in the controversial sport of live game shooting
and will represent France in world championships in
Croatia next year.
Jess Strudwick, who has
been game shooting for
only a year, stunned the
shooting establishment by
scoring 86 points out of a
possible 100 when she
bagged the maximum of a
brace of pheasants.
The cock and hen were
flushed from cover and
retrieved by her gundog
Sacha within minutes of the
start of a 20-minute time
limit. Her eventual score was
second only to the winning
men’s total.
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Read more...
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Thursday, 10 January 2008 |
Until 02/02 Pau ‘Se faire des amis’: A video made up of seven
sequences of meetings between humans and animals, questioning
social norms and the rapport between the species. Artist and
philosopher Laetitia Bourget explores human life and the sympathy
felt between all living creatures.
www.laetitiabourget.org. At Video K.01 Mail du Centre Leclerc Université Avenue
Louis Sallenave 64400 Pau France Tél: 05 59 80 80 65
Until 24/02 Pau Exceptional exhibition of the collection of
drawings of Pau château. The national museum of the château of
Pau has collected some 300 drawings from the 17th to the 20th
century, of which more than 80 of these rarely-seen works are now
exhibited. From the Baroque to the Romantic age and the
Enlightenment, it forms a powerful portrait of Henri IV, who
inspired so many artists. Also on show are some interesting
representations of Pau château. Conferences and special events
run throughout the exhibition.
Tel: 05 59 82 38 02
Until 30/01 Biarritz. Technology workshops over 2007 have
created some innovative music and sound clips, premiered here
and hosted by Sébastien Delgado.
Every Wednesday from 4pm-6.30pm (not 02/01)
Médiathèque de Biarritz Tel:05 59
22 58 60/ email:
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06/01 Biarritz Thé dansant, with entertainment from the
Tatoom orchestra.
3pm-6pm Casino Municipal, 4 av de la Gare 1, avenue Edouard-VII.
Tel 05 59 22 77 77
25/01 Biarritz Theatre evening: Wine, tapas and poetry with
Bertrand Leyris and Jean-Pierre Vinit.
Théâtre du Versant, 11 rue Pelletier, Lac Marion €10 /€5 Tel: 05 59 23 10 00
26/01 Serres Castet A trio from the Avisto company offers circus
tricks, dance, nostalgia and laughter.
9pm Centre social Alexis Peyret de Serres Castet. Tel: 05 59 33 11 66
www.avisto.fr
22-27/01 Biarritz FIPA: Festival International de Programmes
Audiovisuels. Biarritz’s annual television festival airs some 150
television programmes under five categories: fiction, series,
documentaries, reporting and society features; music and shows.
Round-table discussions, interviews, meetings with professionals,
student shows and talent contest add some eye-to-eye contact to
this important industry event.
Many venues throughout Biarritz, programme to be announced. www.fipa.tm.fr
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