Nature

‘Soil is exhausted and harvests fluctuate if we do nothing’ | NOW

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In the morning podcast This will be the news we update you on the most important news of today and we discuss the news of the day.

This podcast is about an advice from the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) about the vitality of Dutch agricultural, forest and natural soils. Because of intensive use, hazardous substances and climate change, everything is under great pressure, with all its consequences.

The Rli has denounced the problem of soil in this advisory report and they also give recommendations on how we can combat this worrying development. We will discuss this with the committee chairman and council member Krijn Poppe.

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You can also subscribe for free de This will be the news-podcast. iOS users can do that via Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you have an Android phone, you can listen to the podcast by searching NU.nl in a downloaded podcast app. For questions or feedback send an email to: Podcast@nu.nl.

You can find the This will be the news podcast every Monday through Friday in the morning and afternoon on NU.nl.

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For or against nature

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This is a torrent of mud and other balls stink media has descended on the proposals of the ‘Convention’ for the climate and its authors. This outburst says a lot : we note the power of an idea to the violence that it causes. But what is it that is causing the problem ?

→ FORUM. Convention on climate change : “The pressure has been intense on the citizens “

Own with social networks, the culture clash has taken hold of mainstream media. On the board of JT to an hour of great listening, no one has taken the gloves against this initiative. It is true that it is an easy argument to reach the president. It is also true that she dares to tackle the sacred cows of the system operating current : consumption and advertising. It’s going to take a lot of love. I hope that these one hundred and fifty citizens caught in a tornado pestilentielle. And I thank them.

→ FOLDER. The ‘Convention’ for the climate : our special file

I want to believe in their story : the story of a French company lucid, resilient, capable of making sacrifices even when insufficient. Ready for the adventure of a rewriting of the whole. To know the result. Even if it’s imperfect, even if all you want to. Citizens learned the fate, who do not belong to nothing, have learned, debated, and resulted in a corpus of 600 pages, and 149 proposals to try to deal with a reality that is only beginning to reveal itself. Sunday, thirty-eight degrees to Verkhoïansk in Siberia, this means sunny terraces in Paris. Let’s dance… for now. Yes, I find it hard to understand how one can despise an initiative dedicated to the general interest, except to feel in danger, attacked. But by who or what ?

→ CRITICAL. “Back on Earth” : the manifest ecological intellectuals

Take one of the arguments against the very existence of these proposals : France representing less than 1 % of the world’s population, it would not matter that the people ” consent to work “. It would have nothing to do, because the other ” do nothing “. This would mean that the carbon footprint would be deliciously spread over the globe.

When I think of dealing with the eco-friendly of care bears… The carbon footprint is a marker of social injustice. The two large forks yoke of humanity, poverty, inequality and environmental emergency, walk hand in hand toward the chaos, exacerbated. Ten percent of the richest would represent 43 % destruction environmental when 10% of the poorest would be responsible for 5 % of them (source : Nature, June 2020).

Since La Grande Bouffeno one has also entered the delirious consumerism and the emptiness that it conceals : the banquet of humanity, some have decided to eat until death. Regardless of the finesse of the dishes, it is a deep hatred of life and of this, those who embody it. It would be giving up our “privileges” for the survival of the species. To go against… nature. If interested in this vacuum that devours us. “Do not be so great, Freud said. You are not so small. “

This first half of 2020 has shown how the individual action, sometimes intimate, was essential. How we were then, to rely on the courage and commitment of a few, of persons of flesh and blood. Of choice. It is more a matter of dignity than of the potential impact. What to do with his life “self” ?

For subsequent operations, it would be good to stop seeing the whole thing, an outcome, a solution, a tipping point, the thing that will change everything. Everything counts, because everything is part of a movement. But nothing is enough. It is important to accept this process of learning, of trial and error to a new operating system, maybe, to happen. We live in a great experiment. It is important to try to learn. And start by living it.

→ TO READ. ‘Convention’: “Our proposals are more than ever useful and necessary “

The Covid has revealed to our system its profound vulnerability to the humans of their finitude and interdependence, the world its incredible beauty. It questions us on the essentials, our relationship to time, space and other. Maybe some of us will come out of it stronger. Because the more aware of our fragility. This shutdown will return. We give up too quickly on the masks, and the world reaches half a million dead. Recognize contradictions and errors, to accept our vulnerabilities, fall off the ladder, the magisterium, to admit that we are only a small essential part of a huge learning curve, that maybe it will never be enough, it is to die a little. It is growing also. Not everything depends on us, but everything goes through us. There should be a barrier from his body in order to maintain this curve, it embeds the maximum number of people. Become a mass.

The ‘Convention’ has done his part. This should be our role at all. I return to my remarks last week : allow. That is, we are, in a wave. You will write to me that I see signs everywhere. But here, if we judge the violence of the reactions and the demolition in rule proposals or even the exercise itself, the dam begins to crack.

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The nature at the reach of children

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If one proposes the children to watch, observe, feel, make, play, they become aware of all that nature gives us. From a young age, explain to them that not everything you eat and do not touch it, because there are plants ‘poison’.

They assimilate very well all of these parameters, and make the difference between a wild strawberry and a bay-toxic. Offer a mini-plot in the garden, or a box on the balcony – it is a way to connect urban children and the children of the fields -so they sow and plant what they prefer.

A mini garden just for them

Once, in the countryside, we picked up a small piece of a vegetable garden by the children. Now, we offered them a square of wood ! Very playful, a square allows them to take ownership of the place that they will cultivate, by finding themselves in front of a small space and their height. In gardening, they are going to understand the rhythm of the seasons, take confidence in them, to have the joy and pride of the harvest.

The taste of the good things

Adults, they will remember fragrance, successes and failures and have learned the taste of good things. With their range, leave the seeds, pots, a few tools without danger, catalogs, highly illustrated, books selected according to their age. They eat very little vegetables and don’t appreciate the herbs ? If they grow them themselves, they are proud to present them at the table… and the taste. The children “crack” for certain perfumes. They especially like the mints to smell Ricqlès, the lemon balm smells of lemon.

A herbarium, to learn

Among the workshops in which our dear little may be exercised, as well in the garden than in forest, at edges of way, and even in the city, it is the preparation of a herbarium. There is no better school to have good basics in botany, noting the name, the family, and the characteristics of each plant. Over the blooms of the garden, random walks, plants are everywhere !

For the identification, indispensable, it takes a good flora. Teach them that no one picks ever a plant protected or endangered : we just photographed ! It is a morning of fine weather, when the dew is evaporated, that you have to cut the stem chosen, with the flowers and the leaves. Let them ask the plants gathered on a paper towel. Help them for the future. Identify the plants, then put, flat, between the paper journal, with leaves and flowers, and then place this assembly under a considerable weight (Atlas, encyclopedia). You can also use a special press. Wait two weeks before placing them in the herbarium, on boards in stock. Secure each plant with the help of a small bit of scotch. Record all the information collected, and then close the herbarium, so that the colors do not deteriorate too fast.

The small fauna

Tell them why bees and other pollinating insects are essential for the production of our fruits and vegetables. Follow with them in the course of the ants, give them a magnifying glass, so that they detect the larvae and how they develop into adults. Install a “building” to insects, to manufacture with hollow stems close to the logs.

In order to better observe the birds

Attract birds by gluttony, it works every time. Let your little ones prepare for an ornamental edible, to be hung near a window… out of the reach of cats ! Make available to the wire, a large needle and fruit : raisins, dried apricots, nuts (without the shells !), slices of apples etc…. They should just put each fruit, by inserting, after having been soaked in warm water for one hour, to form a garland. Impossible, then, not to be hypnotized by the incessant ballet of birds who come to feast on. A cup of water placed on the rim completes the feast.

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Daughter Pugacheva undressed for candid shooting

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Grandson Of Alla Pugacheva Nikita Presnyakov for three years happily married. His wife Alena Krasnov is a rare beauty, what I am always convinced its followers of Instagram. Alena – model, often removed in photo shoots. Footage from the last shooting she decided to share on his page. The pictures were unexpectedly spicy: the 23-year-old wife Presnyakov posing in her panties, covering her Breasts a wide-brimmed hat.

– I am not given to display such pictures, but do not go for the sake of art, especially when on the scale of 6 kg during the quarantine – coyly said Alena.

Subscribers, however, no extra pounds in the pictures could not see: she looks slim, toned and very sexy. Beautiful photos of the couple appreciated and Nikita Presnyakov.

I nesoi directly to display such pictures, but do not go for the sake of art, especially when the scales -6 kg during the quarantine Thanks MoEI lubimoi @nastyaafed for such frames Which picture do you like best?

– Missed wife, of course – he wrote in the comments.

It is unknown whether saw Frank shooting the grandmother Nikita Alla, and what she said about spicy photo shoot Alena. “Alla is in shock,” just kidding followers. In the comments they throw a young wife Presnyakov compliments and I assure you that the photos look beautiful and brand does not matter.

– Life is a moment! While you are young and you have from God such beauty, let everyone look and envy! – said one of podeschi.


Alena posing Topless. Photo: Instagram.

Alena posing Topless. Photo: Instagram.

During the quarantine, Nikita and Alena lived in the suburban house, owned by Pugacheva. However, no matter Presnyakov Jr. sat In may he released the video for new single “Shadow” (Nikita, recall, lead singer of the Multiverse). The Prime Minister was supported by his famous grandmother, boasting talents grandson in social networks.

Last year Nikita Presnyakov became the hero of the program Lera Kudryavtseva “The secret to a million” the musician told the presenter about his family life quite intimate things – for example, about the first sex with his future wife. Nikita was the first love of Alena, which ended legal marriage. Pair got married after four years of relationship.


Fans pelted the wife of the grandson Pugacheva compliments. Photo: Instagram.

Fans pelted the wife of the grandson Pugacheva compliments. Photo: Instagram.

Nikita started Dating Alena Krasnova, when she was only 17 years old, she was still in school. Presnyakov waited two years for the moment when his girlfriend is ready for an intimate relationship. For a young lover Nikita, who is older than Alena for six years, voluntarily refused to have sex – he believed that they all must happen at the moment when the girl herself is ready for it.

– In terms of sex I waited until she said ready. Two years we suffered, – told the grandson Pugacheva. – I have a very big will power and if I put some goal, I achieve it, – said Nikita. – We with Alena for the first time it happened-planned, carefully and romantic. Alena was very nervous!

We are already a month in the country in isolation And this is definitely something there

Alain initially doubted his feelings for Nikita. It seemed to her that they all happen too fast. Besides her troubled six-year age difference. Grandson of Alla Pugacheva and his future wife met, that is, neighborly: villas their families are located nearby, Alena from a wealthy family. Like Nikita, his beloved was a creative soul: I was fond of gymnastics, dancing in the Studio Alla Brass “Todes” and studied at a music school.

Nikita also explained why he was in no hurry to do Dolly parton’s great grandmother: according to the musician, they Alena in no hurry to have children, because while I want to stand up and live for yourself.

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Prado overturned at the entrance to the miner. 12.06.2020. News SOCOM. Uglegorsk. Sakhalin.Info

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16:03 12 June 2020

Edition of IA Sakh.com received photographs of an accident in Uglegorsky district. According to witnesses, the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado turned over and lay on the roof near the outskirts of Shakhtersk. What exactly was the cause of the accident is unknown, because the road to this place is almost perfect.

Also witnesses said that the driver is alive. About the injuries not reported. It is only known that it had been taken away from the scene.

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Svetlana Nemolyaeva destroyed the love of Lazarev Jr. to Amalia Mordvinova

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Svetlana Nemolyaeva lived with folk artist Alexander for more than 50 years Lazarevwho passed away in 2011. For more than 30 years, the only son of the stars has been happy in marriage – Alexander Lazarev Jr. But few people know that being married he literally lost his head from Amalia Mordvinova.

A few years ago Alexander Lazarev Jr. and his wife Alina were on the verge of a divorce. Rehearsing and performing on stage “Lenkoma“with the play” Royal Games “, Alexander was carried away by his partner Amalia Mordvinova.

She was then married for the first time. Her chosen one was sound engineer Igor Zorin.

Learning about the affair of his son, Svetlana Nemolyaeva went to the theater’s artistic director Mark Zakharov. They say that the actress asked to take measures so that the family where Pauline’s little daughter grew up does not collapse.

Soon Amalia suddenly left the troupe and divorced her husband. Probably, the actress hoped that Lazarev Jr. would do the same. But parents were able to keep Alexander from this step, writes “Express newspaper”.

In 2000, the Lazarevs had a second child – a son, Sergei. Two years ago Alexander and Alina got married in one of the temples Georgia.

Now Nemolyaeva continues to anxiously protect her son’s marriage from all adversities. She admitted that she specially arranges gatherings at the cottage, to which she invites the heir and daughter-in-law. “By nature, I’m a diplomat … I always put out fires in our family, and it happens that I speak as a goodwill ambassador between Sasha and Alina. Although they are both wise … “, the star of the screen admits.

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A picture of naked Alexander Tsekalo appeared on Instagram of his young wife

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The new wife of Alexander Tsekalo is a creative nature: 29-Darina Erwin is an artist, and she paints only men. And exclusively without clothes. After the producer married a spectacular brunette, fans wondered: how soon would his “naked” portrait decorate the wall of their matrimonial bedroom? And now, it seems, this day has come. On her Instagram page, Darina posted a photo of naked Alexander. The artist captured the beloved in her creative workshop.

Although the 59-year-old Tsekalo physique is by no means Apollo, he nonetheless boldly poses for his chosen one without clothes. In the photo, the showman is halfway to the camera next to the canvas, on which Darina has already begun to paint a picture. The producer gently touches the wife’s creation, clearly enjoying her talent.

His wife Tsekalo posted his nude picture. Photo: Instagram.

Spouses now live in USA and, like everyone else, they observe self-isolation. Apparently, relaxing in quarantine, Tsekalo began to walk around the house without clothes. The other day, Darina shared a picture on Instagram demonstrating how her naked husband is preparing breakfast. By the way, the artist herself admitted that she is a mediocre cook. But, according to her, her mass of other advantages.

“I’m terribly cooking.” But I completely compensate for this in bed, ”she said once in the social network.

By the way, Darina also prefers to draw her paintings without clothes – she works topless. Apparently, in the Tzekalo house in LosAngeles the spirit of complete freedom and creativity reigns. Producer himself during quarantine in America busy writing scripts.

– I’m self-taught. And she received education in other specialties: acting and law … And I draw only a few years. Therefore, please do not judge me harshly, ”Darina Erwin told her subscribers.

Showman’s fourth wife hails from Of Kazakhstan (her real name Saparova), but she has been living in the States since childhood. Darina has a wealthy stepfather, who paid for her studies and a law degree. However, the girl was always attracted by Hollywood – and she decided to become an actress. Erwin completed acting classes and starred in extras. It was thanks to the movie party that she met Tsekalo.


The producer and his fiance live in the United States.

The producer and his fiance live in the United States.

Alexander and his bride quietly signed in the USA last spring. The wedding took place in Beverly Hills. After Tsekalo married Darin, he practically stopped visiting in Russia. His ex-wife Victoria Galushka and two children live in Moscow. With heirs – 7-year-old Misha and 11-year-old Sasha, the producer communicates only via video link.

After the divorce from Alexander Victoria, I had to abandon the surname Tsekalo and return my maiden name Galushka. They say that the producer himself insisted on this, wishing that only his new wife should bear his name. The showman’s entourage also says that Tsekalo forbade the children to speak about his mother in his presence. Victoria herself with the ex-spouse after the dissolution of the marriage does not communicate.

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when plants replace concrete

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It is a popular place for tourists, who like to sail on the Mayenne and admire its bucolic shores. The Grez-Neuville canal, north of Angers (Maine-et-Loire), has been the subject of rather rare experimentation on this scale for two years: restoring its banks by preferring plants to stones. “We had observed their degradation during periods of low water, says Gwennaël Cordier, technician in aquatic environments in the department. To restore them, two options were available to us: resort to civil engineering, with masonry or riprap, or else to plant engineering, by focusing on the capacities of plants to fix and consolidate the banks. We chose the second. “

To select the best species to implant, the department relied on the expertise of the Fresne Agricultural High School, near Angers. “They had to resist the water, the waves caused by the boats, the erosion and the nutria which dig galleries, explains the technician. They also had to develop slowly and require little maintenance. “

Nature-based solutions

The choice fell on the plantation of earth sausages surrounded by coconut fibers, sown with helophyte plants such as irises or rushes. “They have the particularity of having their feet in the water and their heads in the sun”, describes André Evette, engineer and researcher at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae), which closely monitors plant engineering projects in France (1). “These nature-based solutions are not new and date back to Antiquity, he recalls. But we lost sight of them from the 1950s and the transition to all-concrete. It was the era of the Thirty Glorious Years, and we didn’t have the same way of seeing the world as today … “ In the 1970s and 1980s, Austria and Switzerland brought these techniques up to date, followed by Germany and the Netherlands. In France, they have reappeared for ten years.

“Their major advantage is to favor the ecological restoration of the banks, high places of biodiversity, explains the researcher. The plants filter the pollutants that arrive in the water, provide a welcome shade and recreate a whole habitat in the air as in the water: insects, dragonflies, crayfish, freshwater shrimps, fish … “ A virtuous circle, which saves money. “Not only is it better to work with living things, but it’s also cheaper, confirms Gwennaël Cordier. Our plant site costs around € 40,000, when a “hard” development can amount to millions of euros, taking into account the difficulties of access to the site for construction machinery. “ Finally, if its effectiveness is not as immediate as a concrete installation, over time, “Plant engineering is becoming stronger than civil engineering”, he continues.

→ READ. Microplastics, nitrate: World Bank investigates invisible water pollution

Work on the Grez-Neuville canal was carried out in October 2018, testing two techniques. For the first 75 meters, a strip of local herb seeds has been planted above the helophyte sausages in geotextile. “It is a good alternative to the plastic sheet because it degrades naturally. “ Over the next 75 meters, a bed of willow plants has been added. The most effective technique will be reproduced on the 650 meters of remaining banks. A year and a half later, the first assessment is already positive: “The plants are well anchored to the ground and the willows have grown very well, greet the technician. But we must wait until spring 2021 to draw our conclusions. “

Only 5% of rivers in good ecological condition

In this department concentrating 7,000 kilometers of rivers, of which only 5% are in good ecological condition, the restoration of the banks and, ultimately, the recovery of the quality of the water prove to be crucial. “With plant engineering, we try to repair the mistakes of the past”, explains Marc Helbert, head of the water service in the department, which coordinates an Observatory of water quality in Anjou. “What weighs most on us is the fish index, he comments. It will replenish when they can circulate more freely in our waterways. But these actions will take time to produce their effects… ”

Especially since these techniques inspired by nature are not so simple to implement. “They require multidisciplinary skills and strong field experience, comments André Evette. It is not enough to follow technical rules like in civil engineering. Living things are impossible to model. How to predict that a beaver will eat the willow that has been planted? “ If plants can solve a multitude of problems – maintaining agricultural land in the face of erosion, preventing avalanches in the mountains, cleaning up soil, phyto-purification, wind or noise barrier – they cannot always be enough . “When you have a torrent near a school, you may not be going without concrete to secure the site, comments the researcher. In an urban environment, you don’t always have a choice. But mixed solutions are developing. “

→ REPORTAGE. At the Paris Aquarium, fish grow tomatoes

Nor is it easy to convince of the economic profitability of these developments. The establishment of hedges or buffer zones not cultivated in agricultural zones, for example, requires educational work. “Obviously, the financial gain is not necessarily demonstrated for a productivist agricultural model”, recognizes André Evette.

Last merit of plant genius: embellishing the landscape. “In front of our work on the canal, we have a very busy towpath, notes Gwennaël Cordier. Walkers are delighted with the new plantations. “ What hardly surprises André Evette: “Plants have a positive influence on humans: our blood pressure decreases in the forest, seeing a tree from its window facilitates healing in the hospital like concentration in a classroom. Putting plants back, in the end, is no longer disjoining man and nature … “

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Not enough fish, too many pesticides

The balance sheet drawn up in 2018 by the Observatory of water quality in Anjou over the last ten years draws up an unquestionable observation: too much nitrates, presence of 151 pesticide molecules (glyphosate, atrazine…), average or even bad fish population.

However, two indicators experience improvement (phosphorus, nitrogen) linked to
progress in wastewater treatment.

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Confinement, generalized tests and contact tracing, the formula to stop COVID-19

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Madrid

Updated:

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A new model that predicts the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, using data from the outbreak in that country, shows that the restrictive social distancing measures adopted are necessary and effective and must be applied quickly at the earliest stage. But he warns that these measures of social distancing should be combined with generalized tests among the population, as did some countries where infection has been controlled, such as Germany, and contact tracing to end the current COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries, such as Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom, did not implement these measures in the first week and their situation is worse.

The information published in « Nature Medicine»Shows that in a less restrictive confinement scenario there would be 70,000 deaths in the first year, while, with stricter measures, the number of deaths per year would be 25,000 deaths.

The report underscores that confinement measures can only be safely relieved in the presence of widespread diagnostic tests and contact tracing.

This data could provide control policy makers in Italy, and in other countries, with a tool to assess the consequences of possible strategies, including confinement and social distancing, as well as testing and monitoring contacts.

In a less restrictive confinement scenario there would be 70,000 deaths in the first year, while with stricter measures the number of deaths per year would be 25,000 deaths.

Ending the global pandemic of COVID-19 requires the implementation of multiple strategies for the entire population, but the effectiveness of such strategies and their ability to “flatten the curve” remains uncertain.

Giulia Giordano and her colleagues from the University of Trento (Italy) describe in their work a new epidemiological model for the COVID-19 pandemic, called “SIDARTHE“, which distinguishes between detected (diagnosed) and undetected (undiagnosed) cases and between different stages of infection.

Researchers have classified the population based on eight stages of infection: susceptible (uninfected); infected (asymptomatic or with few symptoms, infected, not detected); diagnosed (asymptomatic infected, detected); sick (symptomatic infected, not detected); recognized (symptomatic infected, detected); threatened (infected with life-threatening symptoms, detected); cured (recovered); and extinct (dead).

Researchers have classified the population based on eight stages of infection.

The authors used data collected in Italy from February 20, 2020 (day 1) to April 5, 2020 (day 46) to show how progressive restrictions, including confinement imposed since March 9, 2020, have affected the spread of the pandemic in Italy.

They also modeled possible longer-term scenarios of the effects of various countermeasures, including social distancing, contact tracing, and testing across the population.

The model predicted that the maximum number of people actually infected simultaneously would occur around day 50, with 0.19% of the infected population; however, the maximum number of people detected with concurrent infection would occur approximately one week later.

The findings confirm the hypothesis that diagnostic testing campaigns among populations can reduce the peak of infection and help control the pandemic faster.

However, the model does not contemplate a precarious situation in medical care due to the fact that the health system does not reach or is even exceeded in its capacity; but the authors point out that these analyzes can be carried out indirectly. For example, when the number of severely affected people is high, the death rate will increase due to an insufficient number of intensive care units (ICUs).

The findings confirm the hypothesis that diagnostic testing campaigns among populations can reduce the peak of infection and help control the pandemic faster.

Finally, the authors also found that partial implementation of confinement measures would cause a delay in the peak of simultaneously infected people and patients admitted to the ICU, but with a moderate decrease in the total number of infected people and admission to the ICU.

Conversely, implementing very restrictive social distancing strategies would result in a lower peak of infected people and patients admitted to the ICU, with a marked decrease in the total number of infected people and ICU admissions due to the disease.

The authors estimate that, in the first scenario – a less restrictive closure – there would be 70,000 deaths in the first year, while in the second case – a stricter closure – the number of deaths per year would be 25,000 deaths.

And they conclude that their results demonstrate that restrictive social distancing measures will need to be combined with widespread testing and contact tracing to end the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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1799: Jeanne-Geneviève Labrosse combines the female parachute

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Every week with RetroNews, the BNF press site, back on a sports story as told by the press of the time. This Saturday, the story of the first female parachute jump, in October 1799.

It’s not easy for a man and a woman in 1799 to get laid. In the proper sense of the term. André-Jacques Garnerin and a young citizen notice this. No question for the “central office”, the Paris police, to allow two people of the opposite sex to jointly reach the first sky aboard a balloon. No matter the reputation of André-Jacques Garnerin. He is the “balloonist of public holidays”, the one who offers the barges a moment of excitement tinged with funk by offering them a little balloon ride. He is also, and above all, the first man to have made a parachute jump in history. It was October 22, 1797 (1er Brumaire, year VI of the republican calendar) above the Parc Monceau (in Paris).

Garnerin is as obstinate as daredevil. He challenges the police decision and wins, as stated the Universal Chronicle June 15, 1798. “Citizen Garnerin announces that the defense which had been made to him to rise in the air, with a person of another sex, has just been lifted by the department of the Seine […]. The letter from the central administration to citizen Garnerin reads as follows: “Citizen, according to the complaint you addressed against the decree of the central office, which prohibits you from traveling in an aerostat with a young citizen, we consulted the Minister of the Interior and that of the general police, who both agree with our opinion, and think that it is no more scandal to see two people of different sexes rise together in the air, only to see them get into the same car, and that besides we can not prevent a woman of full age from doing in this respect what we allow men, and to give by rising in the airs a proof of both confidence in the processes and fearlessness […]. “” Garnerin explains to the newspaper that during the flight, he will not only be accompanied by a young citizen “With an extreme joy to see the day of the journey approaching”, but also animals, which will be dropped hanging on a parachute.

“The great aerostatic experiments continue, written the Gazette November 7, 1798, and women who no longer need men in this respect, will make observations on their own which they have not yet been aware of. “ The next daring are the citizens Henry and Labrosse, “Students in ballooning of citizen Garnerin”. “They will take an air balloon trip on the 20th of this month to the Garden of Apollo […]. They will make meteorological observations and various interesting experiences; when they reach an elevation of 300 toises [soit environ 600 mètres, une toise équivalant à 1,949 mètre, ndlr] they will launch a Garnerin-style parachute. ”

Following this first exclusively female flight, the Universal Chronicle November 17, 1798 proposes the “Report from citizens Henry and Labrosse on their air travel”. “We will not repeat here what the first air navigators described delightful sensations which one tastes while leaving the ground ground, and of the ecstasy which inspire the beauty and the grandeur of the picture of nature, tell the intrepid. We will say that we were penetrated by it, that we gave ourselves over entirely, until a very cold cold awoke us from our distraction. So we waved the tricolor, always signal of triumph and victory! Citizen Labrosse wrote a post containing these words: “Our fate is pleasant, we are without fear and without worry.” We tied him to the neck of a turtledove that we locked in a cage and we made him descend with a parachute that we had built, according to the method of Citizen Garnerin; our message has arrived safely. ”


Read also All the articles in the Retro Sports section

We don’t stop Jeanne Labrosse. The Courier of shows September 30, 1799, announces a “Extraordinary experience”. “Today, parachute descent of the citizen Labrosse (between 2 and 4 hours). It will rise up to 1,200 meters: from this immense height it will separate from its aerostat, and descend to the ground. “

It was not until October 13, 1799 that Jeanne Labrosse became the first woman to perform a parachute jump. His mentor, André-Jacques Garnerin, confesses to Friend of Laws from the next day the emotion that this feat gave him. “Yesterday, the experiment with the balloon ascent and the parachute descent of Citizen Labrosse was a complete success; I’ve never seen anything so impressive. The courage, skill and presence of mind of this kind and interesting person is second to none. I will always be proud to have trained a student whose beginning in my art will mark an epoch in the history of the century. “ Especially as we understand that the attempt was the subject of serious controversy: “His triumph immortalizes him, continues Garnerin, it confuses wickedness, crushes the serpent which dictated against it the abominable pamphlet with which Paris has just been flooded. Never has the slanderous monster exercised its rage with such fury and daring; surely people’s magistrates will believe in their dignity to have the perpetrators searched for and punished. ” We disclose: Jeanne-Geneviève Labrosse and André-Jacques Garnerin will marry a little later.

Read also Maryse Bastié, a very high-flying career and life; 1915-1935: Alice Milliat, activist in women’s sport; Virginie Hériot, life and death of “Madame de la mer”.

The rest of the story belongs above all to Garnerin who multiplies the exploits aboard hot air balloons. In October 1803, he made the first long distance air journey, 300 km between Moscow and Polova in Russia. Four years later, in November 1807, he took off from Paris and flew amidst thunderstorms before running aground seven hours later and 395 kilometers further in a German forest. The balloon made the glory of André-Jacques Garnerin, it will cause his death, in the stupidest of ways, at 54 years old, on August 18, 1823 in Paris. On the site of a new balloon prototype, he was killed by the fall of a beam. Jeanne-Geneviève Labrosse, his widow, survived him for twenty-four years and died in 1847 at 72 years of age.

Gilles Dhers

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