A quantum trick implied eternal stability. Now the idea may be falling apart

A quantum trick implied eternal stability. Now the idea may be falling apart

Charlie Wood writes: It is a truth of both physics and everyday experience that things fall apart. Ice melts. Buildings crumble. Any object, if you wait long enough, gets mixed up with itself and its surroundings beyond recognition. But beginning in 2005, a series of breakthroughs made this death march seem optional. In just the right quantum setting, any arrangement of electrons or atoms would stay put for all eternity — even uneven arrangements thrumming with activity. The finding flew…

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‘What would I do if my country was committing genocide? The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now’

‘What would I do if my country was committing genocide? The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now’

US serviceman Aaron Bushnell, who set fire to himself outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC saying he was protesting against the genocide of Palestinians, has died in hospital from his injuries ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/oGXEjDVdB9 — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 26, 2024 I can't believing I'm saying this, but Aaron Bushnell's last words were just read live on CNN. pic.twitter.com/wdbbBsTHgW — Read Let This Radicalize You (@JoshuaPHilll) February 26, 2024 Aaron Bushnell. We see you. We know your name. We…

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The trauma experienced in Gaza is beyond PTSD

The trauma experienced in Gaza is beyond PTSD

Yara M. Asi writes: “We will die. All of us. Hopefully soon enough to stop the suffering that we are living through every single second.” Those words were sent in a text last week by a physician working for Doctors Without Borders in the southern Gaza Strip. And it is far from an uncommon feeling shared by those struggling to survive and care for one another in Gaza these days. What would we call this feeling from the perspective of…

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Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ‘ruled out’ in the future, Macron says

Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ‘ruled out’ in the future, Macron says

The Associated Press reports: French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” in the future after the issue was debated at a gathering of European leaders in Paris, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into a third year. The French leader said that “we will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war” after the meeting of over 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials….

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Blow to Putin as Europe breaks free of Russian oil for good

Blow to Putin as Europe breaks free of Russian oil for good

The Telegraph reports: Western Europe has broken free of direct Russian oil imports for good in a blow to Vladimir Putin, research by the European energy consultancy Rystad suggests. Analysts found that the UK and much of Europe have reversed a years-long rise in reliance on Russian oil and gas before the Ukraine conflict, shifting instead to other suppliers such as the US and Canada. Jorge Leon, Rystad’s senior vice president for oil markets, said: “I think people underestimated how…

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I went to CPAC as an anthropologist to understand Trump’s base − they believe, more than ever, he is a savior

I went to CPAC as an anthropologist to understand Trump’s base − they believe, more than ever, he is a savior

A person signs a bus wrapped with an image of former President Donald Trump during the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 22, 2024. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images By Alexander Hinton, Rutgers University – Newark What is happening in the hearts of former President Donald Trump’s supporters? As an anthropologist who studies peace and conflict, I went to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, to find out. I wanted to better understand the Make…

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Trump’s plan to use Judge Cannon to block Judge Chutkan and avoid trial

Trump’s plan to use Judge Cannon to block Judge Chutkan and avoid trial

CNN reports: Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers see a major opportunity this week to use his criminal document mishandling case in Florida to create an impasse on his calendar for the two federal judges overseeing his major criminal cases. Juggling his campaign and court calendar and playing his cases off one another is a key part of Trump’s legal strategy. The ultimate goal, his team has said openly, is to prevent Trump from being tried in federal court before voters…

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A single Antarctic heatwave or storm can noticeably raise the sea level

A single Antarctic heatwave or storm can noticeably raise the sea level

By Edward Hanna, University of Lincoln and Ruth Mottram, Danish Meteorological Institute A heat wave in Greenland and a storm in Antarctica. These kinds of individual weather “events” are increasingly being supercharged by a warming climate. But despite being short-term events they can also have a much longer-term effect on the world’s largest ice sheets, and may even lead to tipping points being crossed in the polar regions. We have just published research looking at these sudden changes in the…

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Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here’s how

Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here’s how

Mehdi Hasan writes: Picture the scene. An Israeli prime minister launches airstrikes on an Arab population. Civilians are killed in their thousands. An American president, stunned and shocked by the scenes of carnage on his TV screen, makes a call to his Israeli counterpart. And … within minutes … the bombing is over. Sound crazy? Or maybe simplistic? Perhaps naive, even? Yet, the year was 1982. What was supposed to have been a limited incursion into southern Lebanon by the…

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In shameless displays of social depravity, Israeli soldiers are looting Gaza homes en masse

In shameless displays of social depravity, Israeli soldiers are looting Gaza homes en masse

Oren Ziv reports: Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza have not been shy about posting videos on social media gleefully documenting their wanton destruction of buildings and humiliation of Palestinian detainees. Some of these clips were even exhibited in South Africa’s presentation at the International Court of Justice last month as evidence of genocide. But there is another war crime being readily documented by Israeli soldiers that has garnered less attention and condemnation despite its prevalence: looting. In November, the Palestinian…

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Doctors Without Borders slams U.S. on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die

Doctors Without Borders slams U.S. on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die

Reuters reports: The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that medical teams in the Gaza Strip have come up with a new acronym: WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. “Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too,” MSF International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the 15-member council. “There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing…

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Russia’s war machine runs on Western parts

Russia’s war machine runs on Western parts

Amy Mackinnon reports: Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park. Fragments of the…

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Warren Buffett’s son Howard has given $500M to Ukraine — he warns the U.S. is making a historic mistake by pulling its support

Warren Buffett’s son Howard has given $500M to Ukraine — he warns the U.S. is making a historic mistake by pulling its support

Business Insider reports: Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the embattled nation needs its friends more than ever. Russia celebrated a landmark victory when it captured the eastern town of Avdiivka last week, and it is running low on artillery ammunition. Meanwhile, a $60 billion military aid package is snarled up in Congress due to opposition from some Republican Party lawmakers. But Howard Buffett, the elder son of Warren, the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, has no…

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Beyond shock and awe: Inside Trump’s potential second-term agenda

Beyond shock and awe: Inside Trump’s potential second-term agenda

Politico reports: An increasingly detailed picture of former President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is emerging — one that would make the near-daily shocks of his norm-shattering first White House tenure look tame. Some of the particulars have already blown up into campaign furors, thanks to Trump’s public remarks about abandoning NATO allies and serving as a “dictator” on “day one,” as well as leaks of his private musings on a 16-week abortion ban. His supporters’ policy manifestos have yielded headlines…

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