Excitement about a possibly revolutionary new material has continued to grow – even without any firm proof that it exists. Last week, two new papers published by researchers in South Korea claimed that they had been able to create a room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor. Until now, all superconductors have required cold temperatures and high pressure, and their practical use has been limited as a result. Such a breakthrough would achieve one of the holy grails of engineering and physics. It would allow for vastly more efficient energy transfer and the development of products such as powerful maglev trains. But almost as soon as the paper was released, experts urged caution about its findings. The claims in it could represent a significant breakthrough – but they were still far from confirmed, and similar reports have been released in the past that were later debunked. And there is still no clear indication that the breakthrough described in the original paper is definitely real. And despite numerous attempts to replicate the study, none have yet done so convincingly. Some new work has suggested that the findings could at least be possible. In a new paper published on Monday, Sinéad Griffin from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory simulated the material and suggested that it was at least theoretically possible. She shared the paper in a tweet accompanied by a “mic drop” gif. And it immediately had what was presumably the intended effect: leading to an increase in discussion of a topic that had already generated tremendous excitement. Around the same time, new videos appeared from China that claimed to show the work of a team who had successfully replicated the material. That showed the levitation effect that happens with superconductors – but not the low resistance that is required for the claims to be verified, and the material to be useful. Work to verify whether the original paper is correct and the material is actually as claimed is ongoing. But each of those videos only served to make the claims of a new breakthrough become louder, even as there was no firm proof that it had actually happened. For a period on Tuesday, the betting markets implied that the most likely result was that the papers would be replicated. Polymarket, a prediction market that lets people bet on a wide array of events, suggested that people tended to think there was a roughly 60 per cent chance the result would be replicated – but a couple of hours later it slid back, and more bets had been placed on the outcome that the superconductor is not real.

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REDONDO BEACH, Calif. & LAFAYETTE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2023--

MENLO PARK, Calif. & ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2023--

Yellen said the U.S. wants a dynamic and healthy global economy “that is open, free, and fair,” not one that forces countries to take sides.

Thousands of Reddit communities are planning a widespread blackout next week that will impact millions of users. The revolt comes in response to proposed charges for third-party app developers, which they claim will make the social media platform inaccessible for a significant proportion of users. On 12 June, many of the site’s biggest subreddits, including r/videos and r/gaming and r/bestof, will go dark for 48 hours in an effort to prevent the new pricing from coming into force. Reddit launched in 2005, but did not develop its own app until 2016. This meant that for the firs decade third-party apps became a popular way to access the platform, with many still preferred over the official app due to the user experience. These third-party apps need an API – which stands for Application Programming Interface – in oder to access the site’s information so that it can display it in the app for users. “Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing,” a popular third-party app called Apollo announced in a post to Reddit. “Bad news for third-party apps, their announced pricing is close to Twitter’s pricing, and Apollo would have to pay Reddit $20 million per year to keep running as is.” According to Apollo, Reddit plans to charge $12,000 for 50 million API requests. “I’m deeply disappointed in this price,” Apollo wrote. “For reference, I pay Imgur (a site similar to Reddit in user base and media) $166 for the same 50 million API calls. “I don’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable. I hope it goes without saying that I don’t have that kind of money or would even know how to charge it to a credit card.” The Independent has reached out to Reddit for comment. Despite being owned and operated by Advance Publications, Reddit forums are controlled by volunteer administrators, who have organised the protest. One moderator named Toptomcat wrote in a post that the proposed pricing changes would make it “impossible” to keep operating in the way many Reddit users are used to. “Many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy,” the user wrote. “Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren’t able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app.” Read More Reddit founder says 90% of games will pay you to play them in 5 years Reddit boss calls TikTok 'fundamentally parasitic' for its privacy flaws Elon Musk responds to bizarre AI images of him as baby Apple finally fixed one of the most embarrassing things about typing on an iPhone Apple Vision Pro $3,499 VR headset unveiled at WWDC 2023 heralds ‘new era’

(Reuters) -Apple Inc has acquired Mira, a Los Angeles-based AR startup that makes headsets for other companies and the U.S.

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS Google will provide more information on targeted advertisements and give researchers more access

Elon Musk has dismissed speculation that he might step down as Tesla's CEO

xQc slammed the new policy on Twitch after the streaming platform introduced a new guideline that content creators do not agree with

Numerous Reddit forums have filled up with pornography and other adult images in the latest protest against the companies management. The site has been swept by a variety of bizarre protests in recent days, amid a fallout between Reddit’s leadership and those who use the site. The disagreement began when Reddit announced that it would start charging fees for access to its data. That change meant that many third-party apps said they would become unsustainable owing to the high prices, and would opt to shut down. That in turn led to outrage from moderators of the site, who felt that their unpaid work would become more difficult and that the changes reflected a lack of respect from Reddit’s leadership. In protest against those changes, most Reddit moderators took their forums “dark”, meaning that they were inaccessible to the outside world. In the time since, many have since come back online – but with even more bizarre new restrictions, such as only allowing posts that are pictures of comedian John Oliver. Now some of the site’s biggest forums, or subreddits, have labelled themselves not safe for work, or NSFW. That is a setting intended for “mature content”, which not only includes pornography but other kinds of images or posts that might not be suitable in public settings. The tool is intended to protect people from sensitive content. But it also puts a host of restrictions on those forums, such as requiring users to be logged in, and confirm that they are over 18. It also means that Reddit does not receive money from showing those pages, since it does not place advertising on those forums. In line with the switch to being NSFW, many of the world’s biggest subreddits have begun to be filled up with pornographic images. That included previously relatively traditional subreddits, including those devoted to Formula One and Apple’s smart home devices. Some of those posts are particularly extreme and obscene, with users seemingly competing to post the most offensive NSFW content they are able to find. Others have simply switched to being labelled as NSFW but not posting content that fits in line with that restriction. The “videos” subreddit has a rule that everything must include John Oliver, for instance – but during its time as a NSFW forum it continued posting normal videos of the comedian. Many of the posts that claim to be NSFW are actually jokes about the switch to pornography. On the Garmin forum, for instance, users posted “nudes” that actually showed the company’s smartwatches without their usual case on. Read More Reddit user’s protests against the site’s rules have taken an even more bizarre turn Reddit says people will get over outrage and causes further outrage Reddit hit by outage as fight over its future escalates

Forza Motorsport comes out today! Some players are wondering how they can track all of the game's bugs.