Ninjazzon

Physicists have discovered a new phase of matter, dubbed "half ice, half fire," that could open the door to new advancements in fields such as quantum computing.

The new phase combines a number of "up" spins of electrons within an atom, which are highly ordered and referred to as cold cycles, with a number of "down" spins, which are highly disordered and referred to as hot cycles — lending the phase its nickname, "half ice, half fire."

"Half ice, half fire" is a significant discovery not only because of its novelty but also because it can produce sharp switching between phases at reasonable temperatures. It's the twin of the "half fire, half ice" state first observed by the same team at Brookhaven National Laboratory — physicists Weiguo Yin and Alexei Tsvelik, alongside their then intern, Christopher Roth — back in 2016.

These discoveries provide insight into some of the central questions in physics and the materials sciences, according to the team, as well as advance the ability to identify new states of matter with exotic properties and manipulate the transition between those states.

MAME 0.276 has arrived just in time for the end of March, and it’s full of emulation goodness! Remember that 64-bit ARMv8 recompiler we added a few months ago? Well now it’s even faster! This release fixes graphical issues in Konami GX arcade games and Philips CD-i software. We’ve added several IGS gambling games, as well as Chinese versions of some Dynax mahjong games. The LinnDrum percussion synthesiser is now working with interactive controls and sound output. And speaking of sound, audio emulation issues in several arcade games have been fixed.

PC-88VA emulation is progressing, with fixes for multiple graphics modes. A few more peripherals for the TI-99 computer family are now supported. There have been a few CPU/DSP fixes that should improve Sega 3D arcade game emulation. Psion hand-helds now correctly detect more memory configurations and give better-looking video output. We’ve also fixed some issues with CHD creation, floppy disk image handling, and XML system information output. Windows users now get an option to have debugger windows appear in the taskbar and window switcher.

In many countries, websites, social media and blogs are controlled by oppressive leaders. Young people, in particular, are forced to grow up in systems where their opinion is heavily manipulated by governmental disinformation campaigns.

But even where almost all media is blocked or controlled, the world’s most successful computer game is still accessible. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) uses this loophole to bypass internet censorship to bring back the truth – within Minecraft.

Until a few years ago, any app you installed on an Android device could see all other apps on your phone without your permission.

Since 2022, with Android 11, Google removed this access from app developers. Under their new package visibility policy, apps should only see other installed apps if it’s essential to their core functionality. Developers must also explicitly declare these apps in the AndroidManifest.xml file - a required configuration file for all Android apps.

So I downloaded a few dozen Indian apps I could think of on top of my head and started reading their manifest files. Surely they will be respectful of my privacy and will only query apps essential to their app's core functionality? 🙃

Most verification systems that ask for "just send a photo" are officially obsolete.

Until now, sending photos of documents was considered "good enough proof" for many verification systems. That era is OVER.

With the right prompt, AI can generate photorealistic documents that are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing when viewed on screens.

The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.

The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers. Of the 690 postgraduate researchers who responded, 548 were considering leaving; 255 of 340 PhD students said the same.

Mission: to disprove the idea that technology is either repairable and open or integrated and closed.

Features:

RK3588 SoC Motherboard
    CM3588-based
    USB-C USB3.1 Gen 1
    ESP32-S3 embedded controller

Powertrain
    ESP32-S3 embedded controller
    ~60Wh Li-ion battery pack

Peripherals
    Wireless mechanical keyboard
    Glass-topped multi-touch trackpad

4K AMOLED 13.3" display
Anodized aluminum CNC chassis

Retro Boy is a cycle-accurate Game Boy emulator written in Rust. It uses wasm-pack to translate the Rust code into WebAssembly so it can be played on the web. The web frontend then uses Web Audio API and HTML Canvas for audio and graphics. It also leverages the browser's local storage to persist cartridge RAM data for battery-backed MBC cartridges. Try it here

Global sea level rose faster than expected in 2024, mostly because of ocean water expanding as it warms, or thermal expansion. According to a NASA-led analysis, last year's rate of rise was 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) per year, compared to the expected rate of 0.17 inches (0.43 centimeters) per year.

"The rise we saw in 2024 was higher than we expected," said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Every year is a little bit different, but what's clear is that the ocean continues to rise, and the rate of rise is getting faster and faster."

In recent years, about two-thirds of sea level rise was from the addition of water from land into the ocean by melting ice sheets and glaciers. About a third came from thermal expansion of seawater. But in 2024, those contributions flipped, with two-thirds of sea level rise coming from thermal expansion.

Russia is using cryptocurrencies in its oil trade with China and India to skirt Western sanctions, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

While Russia has publicly encouraged the use of crypto and last summer passed a law to allow digital currency payments in international trade, its use in the country's oil trade has not previously been reported.

Some Russian oil companies are using bitcoin, ether and stablecoins such as Tether to smooth the conversion of Chinese yuan and Indian rupees to Russian roubles, the sources said, adding that it is a small but growing part of Russia's overall oil trade, which according to the International Energy Agency was worth $192 billion last year.

A bill proposed to the Ohio statehouse will make male ejaculation without intent to have a baby, a fineable offense of up to $10,000.

The bill has been proposed by State Representatives Anita Somani and Tristan Rader, who wrote it to point out what they see as the absurdity of rules that control women's bodies but do not control men's. It has not been formally introduced to the House Floor yet.

Per Somani and Rader, men would face a $1,000 first offense, $5,000 second offense, and $10,000 subsequent offense fine to "discharge semen or genetic material without intent to fertilize an embryo."

Google Chrome is now encouraging uBlock Origin users who have updated to the latest version to switch to other ad blockers before Manifest v2 extensions are disabled.

As uBlock Origin lead developer and maintainer Raymond Hill explained on Friday, this is the result of Google deprecating support for the Manifest v2 (MV2) extensions platform in favor of Manifest v3 (MV3).

"uBO is a Manifest v2 extension, hence the warning in your Google Chrome browser. There is no Manifest v3 version of uBO, hence the browser will suggest alternative extensions as a replacement for uBO," Hill explained.

"uBO Lite (uBOL) is a pared-down version of uBO with a best effort at converting filter lists used by uBO into a Manifest v3-compliant approach, with a focus on reliability and efficiency as has been the case with uBO since first published in June 2014."

Google Chrome users are also warned to remove or replace the uBlock Origin ad blocker with similar extensions.

A "Find alternative" link also sends them to this Chrome Web Store page, which advises them to switch to uBO Lite, Adblock Plus, Stands AdBlocker, or Ghostery.