Carbon-reduction plans rely on tech that doesn’t exist Scifi writer Arthur C. Kopjes: “Any insufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Science — that is to say, Euro-American science — has long been held as our model for rationality. Scientists frequently accuse those who reject their findings of being irrational. Yet depending on technologies that do not yet exist is irrational, a kind of magical thinking. That is a developmental stage…

‘Change is coming’: Meet the happy doomer prepping for climate apocalypse in an old German barracks Living in expectation of the apocalypse is no longer a minority position. A YouGov survey carried out at the start of the coronavirus pandemic found almost a third of respondents in the US anticipate a life-changing disaster in their lifetime. A separate poll of five countries in 2019 found that…

The Ukrainian First Lady in Vogue “I have always known that Ukrainian women are the best. Finally, the world will see the face of a Ukrainian woman,” said Olena Zelenska, wife of the president of Ukraine, in a recent interview. Zelenska’s biggest public event to date was her interview and photo shoot for Vogue magazine’s October 2022…

In Taiwan, as in Ukraine, the west is flirting with disaster. Can't we play something else? Arguments in the foothills of war are always the same. Those for war shout loudest and beat their chests, eager for tanks to rumble and jets to roar. Those against are dismissed as wimps, appeasers and defeatists. When the trumpets sound and the drums beat, reason runs for cover. The west…

‘I hate them’: Dmitry Medvedev’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk | The Guardian Joe Biden is a “strange grandfather with dementia”. The EU leadership are “lunatics”. Russia will ensure that Ukraine “disappears from the map” in the near future. Welcome to another week as seen through the eyes of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, and currently the deputy head of the…

Strange new phase of matter created in quantum computer acts like it has two time dimensions By shining a laser pulse sequence inspired by the Fibonacci numbers at atoms inside a quantum computer, physicists have created a remarkable, never-before-seen phase of matter. …