All posts tagged: real

A golden opportunity for a real financial education for all

A golden opportunity for a real financial education for all

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Financial education has been on the national curriculum for secondary schools in England for a decade, yet research shows less than half of young people receive it at school, and over half of teachers aren’t even aware it’s on the curriculum. Currently, only 20 per cent of secondary schools are required to follow the national curriculum, but with the government’s review set to expand this mandate to all state schools, we’re on the brink of a  golden opportunity to underscore the importance of financial literacy and rethink how it is taught and assessed. Rather than limiting financial literacy to standardised tests, project-based and practical assessments offer a more flexible, relevant approach. Young Enterprise supports these reforms to make financial education engaging and practical, preparing young people for real-life financial decisions. With 23 million people in the UK considered to have poor financial literacy, stronger support for teachers and students to ensure every young person receives essential financial knowledge before leaving school is vital to a fairer, more equitable future …

Mandelbrot’s fractals are not only gorgeous – they taught mathematicians how to model the real world

Mandelbrot’s fractals are not only gorgeous – they taught mathematicians how to model the real world

Published by skeptic

At the beginning of my third year at university studying mathematics, I spotted an announcement. A visiting professor from Canada would be giving a mini-course of ten lectures on a subject called complex dynamics. It happened to be a difficult time for me. On paper, I was a very good student with an average of over 90%, but in reality I was feeling very uncertain. It was time for us to choose a branch of mathematics in which to specialise, but I hadn’t connected to any of the subjects so far; they all felt too technical and dry. So I decided to take a chance on the mini-course. As soon as it started, I was captured by the startling beauty of the patterns that emerged from the mathematics. These were a relatively recent discovery, we learned; nothing like them had existed before the 1980s. Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010). Wikimedia, CC BY-SA They were thanks to the maverick French-American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who came up with them in an attempt to visualise this field – with help …

Gisèle Pelicot is a non-stereotypical rape survivor – her case could make a real difference to others

Gisèle Pelicot is a non-stereotypical rape survivor – her case could make a real difference to others

Published by Sam

The mass rape trial that shook France is entering its final phase after ten weeks. But its implications for how we think about sexual violence and who experiences it will last much longer. Gisèle Pelicot, 72, testified to her ex-husband’s repeated, long-term sexual abuse. Dominique Pelicot admitted in November 2020 to drugging his then wife over nearly a decade, and recruiting dozens of other men to rape her. There are 50 other men on trial beyond Pelicot’s ex-husband. Gisèle Pelicot decided to waive her right to anonymity, which victims of sexual offences are entitled to in France. In doing so, she has opened the door on a tough conversation about rape in relationships and marriages. As this case exemplifies, the realities of sexual violence can be very different from what people consider to be “typical”. The stereotypical rape (and other sexual offences broadly) involves a lone, young, attractive, female victim being attacked by a male stranger, at night, in a public place. The attacker may use a weapon, and the victim resists the attack physically. …

‘A Real Pain’ gets achingly close to the real quandaries of Holocaust remembrance

‘A Real Pain’ gets achingly close to the real quandaries of Holocaust remembrance

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — After arriving in Poland for a weeklong Holocaust “roots” tour, Benji, one of two Jewish American cousins whose trip is depicted in the new movie “A Real Pain,” has a meltdown in the first-class section of the Warsaw-Lublin train. Benji (Kieran Culkan) wrestles with an eerie sense that as he walks in the footsteps of Jews put on cattle cars on the way to concentration camps, his privilege obscures the real horror of the Shoah. It’s a feeling many American Jews experience when they encounter Holocaust sites: the sense that their existence is an unintended consequence of this catastrophe and to return means to explore the violent rupture that destroyed the world that could have been. Benji’s cousin David (Jesse Eisenberg) watches this outburst and is horrified. But Benji is insistent: If a Holocaust tour isn’t the time to grieve, then when is? “A Real Pain,” about the cousins’ trip to Poland to honor their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, after her death, builds on a host of earlier movies about the Holocaust, adding …

Real Dogs’ Reaction to Robodogs is Terrifying

Real Dogs’ Reaction to Robodogs is Terrifying

Published by José

It’s the pupper singularity. Dog Days The internet is flooded with videos of AI-powered robot dogs meeting real furry puppies, who often seem horrified to have come across what they seem to perceive as a canine abomination.  In one clip recently posted to X-formerly-Twitter, a large unlucky dog encounters what seems to be Unitree’s Go2 robot. It walks around using LiDAR, and it can flip, stretch, and roll partly thanks to AI-fueled simulation training. Adding up all this technology, we get a creature that looks like a tin can, but moves with a natural spontaneity.  But the big dog wasn’t impressed by science. It began barking at Go2, which made a freakish pounce in reply, causing the real hound to skitter backwards.  This tense interaction is pretty much replicated in every viral robodog clip online — real dogs growl, bark, and lunge at their impersonator while their human companions film on their phones and smile. Animals don’t find the whole robot thing amusing at all — though it’s possible that soon, they won’t have a choice.  …

Can the Real King Arthur Be Identified as Athrwys of Gwent?

Can the Real King Arthur Be Identified as Athrwys of Gwent?

Published by skeptic

  The search for the real King Arthur has occupied the pages of countless books. Often, this investigation is focused on any hidden traces of Arthur’s existence. A method used by some other researchers, however, is to try to identify the legendary figure of Arthur with a known historical person. Athrwys of Gwent, the son of King Meurig, is one such historical person. In the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth century, he was an extremely popular candidate for the real King Arthur. Is this old theory worth another look?   Who Was Athrwys of Gwent? Wooden sculpture of Tewdrig grandfather of Athrwys, St Tewdric’s Church, Mathern, Wales. Source: Shortwalkslongpaths.com   Athrwys of Gwent was the son of a king named Meurig. This dynasty ruled over much of southeast Wales. Although the borders were not always consistent it generally included the historic regions of Glamorgan and Gwent.   Athrwys also inherited the kingdom of Ergyng, since he was the eldest son of Onbrawst, the daughter of that kingdom’s ruler, Gwrgan the Great. The kingdom …

‘A Real Pain’ is a real triumph

‘A Real Pain’ is a real triumph

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — You will go to see “A Real Pain” because of the all-star cast of Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed it), Kieran Culkin (whom many of us loved in “Succession”) and Jennifer Grey (welcoming her back to the big screen). You will go to see this movie because it is the story of the relationship between David Kaplan and Benji Kaplan, two Jewish cousins, each with their own quirks. If you had watched the series “Succession,” you will nod knowingly, as Kieran does a great job of reprising the personality traits of Roman Roy, his character from that show. You will go to see this movie (or, at least, I did) because it takes place in Poland and is the story of those two cousins and a tour group seeing various Jewish sites in Poland. During the tour, Benji and David take a side trip to a small town in Poland to find their late grandmother’s old house. (This is based on a trip that Jesse and his now-wife took to his …

Science says superstitions can have a very real impact on your life

Science says superstitions can have a very real impact on your life

Published by skeptic

What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show.  FACT: Science says superstitions can be very real By Laura Krantz If you’ve ever avoided walking under a ladder—or jumped over a crack so you didn’t step on it, or worn a lucky sweater to give a presentation—then you are likely superstitious. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Humans have held a variety of superstitions for thousands of years—we have evidence of superstitious behavior going as far back as the 4th century BCE. A book from that time period written by the philosopher Theophrastus contains a series of character sketches, one of …

‘A Real Pain’: A Holocaust Movie With No Lessons

‘A Real Pain’: A Holocaust Movie With No Lessons

Published by Sam

The very last shot of Jesse Eisenberg’s new film, A Real Pain, is identical to its first: a close-up of the tortured, weary face of Benji Kaplan, played by Kieran Culkin with a frenetic intensity familiar from his work on Succession. That his sad eyes remain static despite all he has seen is significant, because this is, ostensibly, a Holocaust film, and everyone is supposed to be changed by the end of a Holocaust film. Popular art about the Holocaust has long been a series of lesson plans, a conduit for catharsis. Most directors, by peering into a gas chamber or the maw of an oven, mean to remind us, as the actor-director Roberto Benigni once obscenely put it, that Life Is Beautiful. This pattern was set only a few years after the Holocaust itself, from the moment “Anne Frank” stood on a Broadway stage in 1955 and redeemed her audience by telling them, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are truly good at heart.” Even Schindler’s List, that paradigm of Holocaust …