Boson de Higgs: le Cern fait sa présentation en Comic Sans MS. Temps de lecture: 2 min De nombreux articles sont consacrés au boson de Higgs et à la découverte par le Cern d'une 25e particule. Mais beaucoup sont passés à côté du vrai scoop de la présentation: l’utilisation du Comic sans ms comme police d’écriture. C’est le site The Verge qui a repéré l’horrible information. Sur Twitter, les réactions n’ont pas tardé. Alastair Houghton a été choqué par cette utilisation: «Vous n’avez pas de goût. Vincent Connare est encore plus radical: «Qu’est-ce qu’il se passe avec ces diapo de m****?»
Comme le remarque PC Inpact, c'est toute la présentation qui semblait datée d'il y a dix ans: «Globalement, la présentation rappelle un peu trop le web des années 1990 avec des structures aléatoires de blobs colorés aux contrastes improbables. Faut-il pour autant être si dur avec le Cern? L'utilisation du Comic Sans MS est aussi bannie des entreprises: «Merci de laisser la porte fermée !!!» Builder with a global view. Key tests for Skylon spaceplane project. 27 April 2012Last updated at 06:52 ET The pre-cooler demonstration is a major step in proving the Skylon concept UK engineers have begun critical tests on a new engine technology designed to lift a spaceplane into orbit.
The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway. Its major innovation is the Sabre engine, which can breathe air like a jet at lower speeds but switch to a rocket mode in the high atmosphere. Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements. This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase. "We intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond. "The message is that Britain has the next step beyond the jet engine; that we can reduce the world to four hours - the maximum time it would take to go anywhere.
In Middle East, Democracy Deficit Has Roots in History. One year after it captured the world's imagination, the Arab Spring is looking less appealing by the week. The promise of a new birth of freedom in the Middle East has been followed by a much messier reality, particularly in Egypt, where there have been attacks on Christians, Western aid workers and women. And now, as Egypt's presidential election approaches, we see the rise of two candidates from Islamic parties, Khairat al-Shater and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. The former is often described as a moderate, the latter as a radical. Much of what we're seeing might well be the tumult that accompanies the end of decades of tyranny and the rise of long-suppressed forces, but it raises the question, Why does it seem that democracy has such a hard time taking root in the Arab world?
As it happens, a Harvard economics professor, Eric Chaney, recently presented a rigorous paper that helps unravel that knot. There are less medieval factors. 18 mars 1965 : Leonov, le premier piéton de l'espace a failli rester coincé dehors.