Are Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft ‘Digital Warlords’?

EFF special consultant/blogger/science fiction writer Cory Doctorow warns in Locus magazine about the dangers of what Bruce Schneier calls “feudal security”: Here in the 21st century, we are beset by all manner of digital bandits, from identity thieves, to stalkers, to corporate and government spies, to harassers… To be safe, then, you have to ally yourself with a warlord. Apple, Google,…

Researchers achieve on-demand storage in integrated solid-state quantum memory

Researchers from CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have demonstrated on-demand storage of photonic qubits in an integrated solid-state quantum memory for the first time. This work was published in Physics Review Letters. …

Chinese researchers obtain the most complete type Ia supernova template

Type Ia supernovae, as cosmological distance indicators, have led to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe. Nevertheless, the nature of their progenitors and explosion mechanisms remain unsolved mysteries. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-chinese-ia-supernova-template.html…

US Bans WeChat Pay, Alipay and Six More Chinese Payment Apps

The Trump administration says that Chinese payment apps, including WeChat Pay, are a threat to national security. By Executive Order, all US transactions with these apps must cease within 45 days. AppleInsider reports: President Trump has issued an Executive Order banning US transactions with a range of Chinese payment platform apps from February 18, 2021. The order says this “aggressive action”…

The world’s first integrated quantum communication network

Chinese scientists have established the world’s first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country. The team, led by Jianwei Pan, Yuao Chen, Chengzhi Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei,…

NYSE Abruptly Reverses Plan To Delist Three Chinese Telecoms

The New York Stock Exchange has abruptly reversed plans to delist three major Chinese telecommunications companies after consulting regulators about an investment ban ordered by President Donald Trump. From a report: Coming days before the companies were to be delisted — and just over two weeks before Trump is to leave the White House — the U-turn avoids a step that…

Jack Ma’s Disappearing Act Fuels Speculation About Billionaire’s Whereabouts

Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s absence from public view in the past two months, including missing the final episode of a TV show on which he was to appear as a judge, has fueled social media speculation over his whereabouts amid a Chinese regulatory clampdown on his sprawling business empire. From a report: China’s highest-profile entrepreneur has not appeared in a public…

3-D simulation helps revealing accretion process in progenitor of tycho’s supernova

Dr. JIAO Chengliang from Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborating with Prof. XUE Li’s group from Xiamen University, performed three-dimensional (3-D) simulations of the accretion flow in the progenitor of Tycho’s supernova, which helps identifying the physical properties of the accretion process. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-d-simulation-revealing-accretion-progenitor.html…

Recovering Samples From the Moon, China’s Chang’e-5 Team Used Exoskeletons

AmiMoJo quotes Universe Today: Other worlds aren’t the only difficult terrain personnel will have to traverse in humanity’s exploration of the solar system. There are some parts of our own planet that are inhospitable and hard to travel over. Inner Mongolia, a northern province of China, would certainly classify as one of those areas, especially in winter. But that’s exactly the…