Latest news with #Noël
Irish Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
This €0 holiday hack is making Irish tourists more welcome abroad
Summer has officially begun. This means many Irish holidaymakers are now counting down the days until they board a flight to sun-drenched hotspots in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy or beyond. In addition to relaxing on the white sandy beaches, they will also sample the cuisine and visit the sights. Before booking, most will do extensive research on hotels in the area, where to enjoy the best nightlife, and the top things to do, but only a handful will learn any of the local language. The Irish Mirror spoke to Noël Wolf from the language learning app Babbel about why picking up some words and phrases before jetting off can enrich and improve a trip. The linguist explained: 'Learning even just a few phrases in the local language can completely transform your travel experience. It helps you connect with people in a much more authentic way, allowing you to dive deeper into the culture. 'This often leads to conversations and discoveries you wouldn't find in any guidebook while also helping you break free from the usual tourist traps. 'Beyond that, it makes everyday challenges like avoiding getting lost, navigating public transport, or ordering a meal in the local language feel much less daunting, so you can explore with greater confidence, less stress, and a sense of adventure.' She added: 'Knowing the language - even just the basics - can turn simple moments into opportunities to learn and engage, making your journey not just about the places you visit, but about the people you meet and the stories you share, not to mention delving deeper into a new culture. 'Imagine arriving in Rome and being able to order your gelato in Italian, or saying Merci, bonne journée!' (Thank you, have a good day!) as you leave a café in Paris. People open up more when you try, and often those little exchanges become your favourite travel memories." Noël said tourists who want to learn some of the local language should start their learning journey with words or phrases they will actually need. These include friendly basics, such as 'Hello,' 'Please,' 'Thank you,' and 'Excuse me.' Navigational help: 'Train,' 'Bus,' and 'Where is…?', 'How do I get to…?' Daily essentials: 'How much does this cost?', 'I'd like one ticket, please.' 'Please can I have a…' Social phrases: 'Do you speak English?', 'Do you recommend…?'. Emergency phrases: 'Where is the bathroom?', 'I need help,' 'I'm allergic to…' Noël also said learning a bit of local lingo—like toasting with 'Prost!' in Germany or 'Salud!' in Spain—also helps tourists join in on celebrations and feel part of the community. When asked if she had any tips for language learners who are afraid to mess up, Noël said: 'Making mistakes is a natural stage in the interlanguage process as your brain constructs a bridge between your native tongue and the target language. 'You will make mistakes; everyone does, but these moments often lead to friendly connections with locals, not judgment. 'We encourage learners to embrace the process. Think of errors not as setbacks, but as stepping stones. The most important thing is to try. 'A little courage often leads to meaningful cultural exchanges, and the fear fades when you realise no one's expecting perfection.' Noël also made clear that language learners don't need years of practice and deep understanding of grammar. She continued: 'With just 10-15 minutes a day over a few weeks you can start feeling comfortable in basic conversations. The secret? Consistency and relevance. 'Focus on practical language skills, not perfection. That means learning what you'll actually use, not just what's grammatically correct. 'Even a little language know-how can reduce stress and help you feel in control - especially in tricky spots like airports, train stations or bustling local markets.' She said locals really appreciate when tourists attempt to speak the language. The linguist explained: 'Even the smallest effort is often met with the biggest smiles. Whether you're in Paris or rural Croatia, the response is almost always warm and positive. 'In Sweden, for example, just saying 'Tusen tack' (Thank you very much) can warmly change the tone of an interaction. It's never about perfection - it's about transforming routine moments, like ordering coffee or asking for directions, into memorable connections. 'Language carries powerful symbolic meaning. It's a gesture of effort, a crossing of boundaries. When you speak the local language, even just a little, you're honouring that culture's values.' Noël's top tips 'Make it fun and culturally relevant. Tie your learning to local experiences - like ordering paella in Spain or asking where to find the best fika (coffee break) in Sweden. "Most importantly, be curious, be kind, and don't be afraid to laugh at yourself. That's how real conversations - and real memories - start. 'Also, make it meaningful to you. If you're into food, learn how to order local dishes or ask for recommendations, like: 'Cosa mi consiglia?' ("What do you recommend?") in Italy. "If you love nature, learn how to ask about hiking routes or weather, like: 'Wie wird das Wetter heute?' ('How's the weather today?') in Germany. 'Language is a doorway, not a test. It's one of the few things you can pack that will genuinely enrich your travel.' Babbel is a subscription-based language-learning app that offers courses in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Danish, and Indonesian.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Coating satellites with super-dark Vantablack paint could help fight light pollution crisis
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A new type of super-black, highly resistant satellite paint promises an affordable fix to the satellite light pollution problem that has marred astronomical research since the recent advent of low-Earth-orbit megaconstellations. One of these, the internet-beaming Starlink constellation, has been a matter of controversy since the launch of the first batch of its satellites in 2019. The constellation's thousands of spacecraft orbit so low that the sunlight they reflect outshines many stars from our perspective on Earth. And while the sight of a Starlink satellite train might thrill skywatchers, it's a true nightmare to astronomers worldwide. When the $1.9 billion Vera Rubin Observatory opens its telescopic eyes to the sky later this month, astronomers expect that up to 40% of its images will be degraded or completely ruined by satellite streaks. It's a costly problem that will only become more serious as the number of satellites in orbit is expected to grow to tens of thousands within the next few years. But a new paint being developed in conjunction with astronomers might help. The paint, called Vantablack 310, could reduce the amount of light reflected by satellites in orbit down to just 2% of what is reflected by uncoated satellites, virtually erasing the pesky streaks from telescope images. According to Noelia Noël, an astrophysicist at the University of Surrey, these satellite streaks will significantly reduce the scientific return on investment that the taxpayer-funded Vera Rubin telescope represents. Noël, who is expected to take part in Rubin's ten-year mission to map the sky in unprecedented detail, has been concerned about the loss of the pristine dark sky for years. A native of Argentina, Noël grew up in awe of the star-studded southern sky and has been painfully aware of its deterioration. Those concerns led her to establishing a partnership with a University of Surrey spin-off, Surrey NanoSystems, who has been developing ultra black coatings for scientific instruments on satellites. The partnership has now produced a new type of blacker-than-black space paint, which reflects less light than available alternatives and can be easily applied by satellite makers in their clean rooms. "Over the past five years, humankind has launched more satellites into space than it has done over the previous 60 years," Noël told "It's a real problem for astronomy, especially for telescopes like Vera Rubin, which had to significantly change its observing strategy to avoid satellite clusters. So, I wanted to do something about it." Surrey NanoSystems' previous coatings, although exquisite at reflecting light (the flagship Vantablack High Performance coating absorbs 99.9% of incoming sunrays), were based on delicate nanotechnology that required a technically complicated application process. Once applied, the coating couldn't be touched by a human hand or it would lose its anti-reflective properties. "The previous coating was based on a carbon nanotube structure that can't be touched because it would collapse," Kieran Clifford, a materials scientist at Surrey NanoSystems, told "We needed something that can be easily handled by engineers at their own facilities." The new coating is based on a proprietary blend of carbon black, a soot-like form of carbon, mixed with special binders that make the paint resistant against the harsh conditions in near-Earth space. In tests, the new coating outperformed other similar paints currently on the market not just in terms of its light absorption ability but also durability in space, Clifford said. "We conducted tests that simulated three years in orbit and our coating withstood it with negligible changes whereas other types of space paints completely eroded," said Clifford. "Our coating also offers a better optical performance. Where competitor coatings reflect about 5% of the incoming light, the Vantablack 310 coating only reflects 2% of the light across the visible and near infrared spectrum." SpaceX has previously experimented with dark paint to reduce the brightness of its satellites, but those experiments provided mixed results. In some cases, the satellites began to overheat due to the amount of absorbed light. The new paint should not cause such problems, Clifford believes, and will make the satellites much less visible than the current Starlinks. "We know from some simulations that we have done that our coating should make satellites invisible to the naked eye," Clifford said. "That's about magnitude 7 in terms of brightness while Starlink satellites range from magnitude 3 to magnitude 5." Magnitude is a measure of luminosity of astronomical objects, which is inverse to the object's actual brightness. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object is. The magnitude scale is logarithmic, meaning the observed brightness increases exponentially with the decreasing magnitude number. Surrey NanoSystems and the University of Surrey will test the Vantablack 310 coating in space on the student satellite Jovian 1, which will carry a range of payloads built by British universities to low Earth orbit next year. "The rear of the satellite's deployable solar panel will be coated with Vantablack 310, and we will be rotating the satellite while making ground-based measurements to observe the changes in brightness," Clifford said. The company is already in talks with satellite manufacturers. They hope that the ease of the paint's application, its exquisite durability and ability to reduce brightness will inspire them to use it on their satellites in the future. "I don't want to be too optimistic, but I hope that with this new solution, we might be able to inspire some policy changes," Noël said. "Satellites are an amazing technology, but we also want to make sure that the sky remains accessible to everyone. Large telescopes represent a huge investment, and we want to make sure that it doesn't go to waste."
