http://www.euronews.com/ We have all heard the warnings about screens being bad for children – but now a French study from the influential Academy of Sciences claims that playing with computers, touchpads and video games can actually be good for even young children, if a few simple rules are followed.

Televisions, tablets and other screens surround many children and the majority appear to love watching and playing on them.

To find out about the effects, children were monitored while playing video games. We watched one such sessions and saw that the rear area of a child’s brain – the part that controls movement – was active, but the frontal lobe was also active – that is the area of the brain controlling abstract thinking and problem solving.

Researcher Olivier Houde explained what that means: “This is the key message: if you educate the child to use video screens, that child is going to learn how to use different parts of his brain.”

Researchers said parents need to explain that a touchpad or a computer is just a means to learning or having fun.

Mr Houde added: “It is only because it is a medium of exchange that it allows the child to discover not only what we can do with the internet, but also it allows him to name what he sees, to learn how to interact, to learn to understand. A child doesn’t do this spontaneously. No touchpad by itself can help a child to do anything”.

But the report stresses that screen-based activities must be suitable for the age of the child; while TV is not advised for under two year olds, scientists said there is nothing wrong with tablets and similar devices – in moderation – to introduce even the smallest children to our digital world.

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🔴 UN scientists publish key report on pace of climate change.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) holds a press conference on a key scientific report on the pace of climate change that will inform policymakers ahead of this year’s international climate conference in Glasgow.

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http://www.euronews.com/ Dams that protect urban areas from flooding sometimes fail, resulting in catastrophic damage. But what can be done to prevent such disasters?

Robert Meijer, a Professor of Applied Sensor Networks, at the University of Amsterdam, who is coordinating the Urbanflood project said: “There are 48 sensors constantly telling us how this dam is feeling and how it’s behaving. This technology makes this the smartest dam in the world.”

The underground sensors, developed within a European Union research project, transmit measurements to data centres in several countries.

Boston, on the east coast of England, is one of the main test sites for the new technology. Its river rises dramatically with the sea tides, putting local citizens at risk.

Mark Robinson a Senior Coastal Advisor, at the UK Environment Agency said: “Boston has some good sea defences, but they’re not high enough. So when the surge comes through it means the walls can get over-topped, and potentially could fail. So it’s at significant risk.”

Engineers involved in the study have designed several types of sensors, reliable and affordable enough to be put in damp soil embankments.

Robert Meijer explained: “A sensor is a measuring device that has electronic components inside a stainless steel container. It has a tiny opening through which water can enter. This device measures the amount of water in the dam and many other parameters such as the underground temperature, and the movement of the sensors inside the dam.”

These indications can be followed in real time using any internet-enabled device. A touch screen panel installed in a Boston café allows the public to see how the system works.

If the artificial intelligence anticipates a breach, it sends a warning to the responsible services that may otherwise be unaware of the weakening within the flood defences.

Mark Robinson said: “Currently we use a visual walkover. It means probably two or three times a year we got people viewing the asset [the dam] from a visual point of view. This technology allows us to actually understand how the bank is performing, so it looks at how it’s moving under pressure, whether we’ve got leakages through the defence, and also we can see if there’s an incident in real time what’s happening.”

The software calculates how fast the site will be flooded if the dam fails, and even suggests the best ways to move citizens into safer areas.

Alexandra Topple, a Senior Flood Management Engineer, at HR Wallingford, said: “This system will allow to show you the outline of the flood mapping; we can then run a life safety model which will show the evacuation process that people can take – this can be used by emergency planners, for them to be able to test various scenarios of evacuation to find the best evacuation procedure in the event of the failure.”

If proved reliable, this system could be deployed in many urban areas in Europe and across the world to protect vulnerable cities from the imminent effects of climate change.

“http://www.urbanflood.eu“:http://www.urbanflood.eu

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A community of artists in Vitebsk, Belarus, is creating unusual pieces using glowing paints….

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http://www.euronews.com/2013/11/28/art-in-the-dark-the-secret-behind-glowing-installations
A community of artists in Vitebsk, Belarus, is creating unusual pieces using glowing paints.
The installations provide the viewer with a dual experience, as the artwork changes once it’s plunged into darkness.

Working in total darkness is the only way artists Alexander Vyshka and Denis Pravda can create their paintings.

They use special luminous paints, which make their works come alive in the dark. Vyshka explained the reason behind their unusual choice of style:

“We look at a painting and see it in one way, get used to it and start travelling in a direction which is guided by one light. Then the light changes and suddenly we step into an absolutely different world within the same painting.”

The paint will appear differently, depending on the colour of the lights used – for example, white or ultraviolet. It seems as though the artworks spring into life once they are denied light.

Artists put their works on display in a small gallery and invite visitors to ‘ walk towards the light’. Their aim, they say, is to enlighten people so they can find new meanings in paintings and will discover something new within themselves.

One gallery visitor seemed to agree:

“In the beginning I felt sheer amazement and then the pure delight of self-discovery. So, at first we went into the room, which seemed to represent the fuss of the external world, the external things that we see. And then the light was switched off and everything lit up with new colours.”

Vitebsk was the centre of the Russian avant garde art movement in the 1920s. Its art traditions and spirit of innovative ideas are still alive today. Artist Denis Pravda is an expert in the luminous painting technique and is able to make each piece of work look unique.

He mixes traditional paints with luminescent ones to get the depth and effects he wants, then “charges” them with light.

“Some layers subside, while others appear, so the painting changes by itself,” explained Pravda. “When we direct an ultraviolet light at this painting, we see this bright painting. When we direct a bright white light on it, some colours, which we don’t see with ultraviolet light, appear.”

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