Hydrogen-powered drone

Click here to access an article on a fabulous hydrogen-powered drone.

Problems of Richard Dawkins (and me)

Click here to discover a letter from Richard Dawkins.

Having fallen down the stairs at Gamone last year, I can better understand the present health problems of Richard Dawkins (who did not fall down stairs), and I even have the physical possibility of sympathizing with him to a certain extent. I must nevertheless point out that, unlike Dawkins, I did not in fact suffer any kind of cerebral attack. But my fall damaged various elements (nerves) in the vicinity of my right eye and cheek, and I consider that I still haven't reached the end of a lengthy period (over seven months) of convalescence.

During my stay in Brittany, I realized (with great joy) that everything in my brain appeared to be perfectly intact when I discovered that I could build and update the following website on my Macintosh:

http://chatelus.free.fr/english.html

Funnily enough, since this was a state-of-the-art website of the HTML5 kind, it was quite impossible for me to inform anybody that I had indeed discovered proof that my software aptitudes were totally unharmed. Certain people, hearing me talk enthusiastically of my successful development of this Châtelus camping website, may have thought that I might in fact, on the contrary, be demonstrating nasty brain damage...

When did the stethoscope come into existence? And who was the inventor?

Nobody imagines a medical doctor, today,without a stethoscope.

I've just noticed that today happens to be the inventor's birthday. He was a Breton, named René Laennec, born in Quimper on 17 February 1781. Apparently he made his discovery of this device while watching children in Paris, who were playing with a long wooden beam. One child would simply scratch one end of the beam with the point of a nail, while another child would plac his ear against the other end of the beam, enabling him to hear the scratching sounds.

Laennec rolled up stiff paper to form a cylinder which could be held against the patient's chest, enabling the doctor to listen clearly to the patient's breathing and heart beats.

French singer Jain

Jain (real name Jeanne Galice) is an exceptional 24-year-old French singer who writes her own words and music. Her exotic style is partly due to the fact that she lived for a while in the Congo when her father moved there as a French military officer. As for her visual appearance, she decided upon the standard straight dark dress in order to avoid any conflicts with her music.

Reactions of Dawkins to his cerebral attack

Click here to access interesting remarks from Richard Dawkins concerning his recent cerebral attack. Then click the Play button.

Who's the American presidential candidate called Watson?

Click here to access a website that's designed to promote an American presidential candidate named Watson. You'll soon discover (if you don't know already) that this Watson candidate happens to be an AI: that's to say, an artificial intelligence. In other words, of a more down-to-earth nature, Watson is merely a complex piece of computer software, capable of tackling problems (answering questions, above all) that used to be handled exclusively by bright human beings.

This AI software became famous when it succeeded in defeating a human contestant to win America's favorite quiz show, Jeopardy.

Since then, there has been a steady US buzz of superlatives aimed at convincing the people of the world (well, let's say, the people of God's Own Country) that this software tool is... well, awesome.

Personally, I got to know IBM quite well, having started my professional career in programming with that company in Australia, in the years 1957 to 1961, before working with their programming teams in Paris and London, in 1962 and 1963. Since then, I've also become quite familiar with the field of artificial intelligence. Well, in my humble opinion, much of what we hear from IBM as far as AI is concerned can be brushed aside as pure marketing buzz, business-oriented hype.