New-look Panthers hold off Sharks in Vegas thriller
New-look Panthers hold off Sharks in Vegas thriller
Life without Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris is off to a great start for defending premiers Penrith, who wrapped up the NRL’s second Las Vegas visit with a thrilling 28-22 win over Cronulla.
The Panthers had their wobbles at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (AEDT) as they took their first steps without Luai and Fisher-Harris – undoubtedly the two most important players they have lost in five years as NRL heavyweights.
But against a Sharks side tipped as genuine title contenders, early signs were that Penrith will be competitive as long as Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo are on deck.
Down by six points in the final two minutes of a game that featured several momentum shifts, the Sharks had one last chance to level the scores in the final two minutes.
But on the fifth tackle, centre Jesse Ramien opted not to pass right to an unmarked Sam Stonestreet and found himself stopped short by a horde of Panthers.
The Sharks had dominated a clunky Penrith in the opening stages and had the first try thanks to a double-pump from Nicho Hynes, before Yeo came up with a big play.
On the last tackle and with Cleary out of play in the ruck, Yeo sized up wrecking ball recruit Addin Fonua-Blake and ran around him to the tryline at close range.
Only minutes later, Cleary threaded a pinpoint kick past the defence for a flying Izack Tago and the Panthers looked on top at 12-4.
Later in his Sharks debut, veteran Fonua-Blake would find his own try by burrowing through Dylan Edwards, Scott Sorensen and Yeo.
Braydon Trindall took on the bulk of kicking duties for the Sharks after off-season speculation as to how he and Hynes would share playmaking duties.
He put the Sharks back into the game with a kick for Briton Nikora to score, and then sent a beautiful flat ball to Kayal Iro in the second half.
Cronulla looked their best attacking a makeshift left edge featuring Jack Cole, Luke Garner and Daine Laurie, who came on when teenage winger Casey McLean suffered a head knock in the opening minutes.
But the Panthers constantly found a way to strike back, with tries to wingers Laurie and Paul Alamoti a product of their well-oiled system when shifting wide.
Cleary had his hands on the ball again in the second half as the Panthers shifted wide for another Laurie try that ultimately proved the difference.
Cleary would have sent a scare through the Panthers’ camp when he keeled over in backplay following a tackle, but a trainer attended him and he played on, appearing only to be winded.
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Rocket Lab Debuts Satellite Model That Could Compete With Starlink
Rocket Lab Debuts Satellite Model That Could Compete With Starlink
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Launch provider Rocket Lab is introducing a new satellite model that could help it and other companies operate space-based internet systems to rival Starlink.
Rocket Lab’s Flatellite satellite is designed to be mass-produced for large constellations. The company aims to launch the satellites through its upcoming Neutron reusable rocket, a competitor to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle.
Like Starlink satellites, Flatellites can be packed on top of each other, enabling a single rocket to carry a whole batch into Earth’s orbit. “Flatellite enables secure, low-latency, high-speed connectivity, and remote sensing capability,” Rocket Lab says.
“The industry is hungry for versatile satellites that are affordable and built fast in high volumes. This is why we created Flatellite,” CEO Peter Beck said in the announcement.
Interestingly, Rocket Lab describes the satellite as a “bold, strategic move” toward the company one day operating “its own constellation and delivering services from space,” similar to SpaceX and Starlink.
The Long Beach-based company remains mum on the full details of its satellite ambitions. But in an earnings call, Beck added: “We’ve developed Flatilite after many years of working closely with constellation operators and getting to deeply understand their needs of today and, of course, into the future.”
A key question is if Rocket Lab has already secured customer orders for Flatellite, but the company notes the satellite was designed for “national security, defense, and commercial markets.”
In the meantime, Rocket Lab previously received a subcontract to help Canada’s MDA design and manufacture 17 satellites to refresh the constellation for Globalstar, which has been powering satellite iPhone features for Apple.
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FINAL 2025 Oscar Predictions in all 23 Categories – AwardsWatch
FINAL 2025 Oscar Predictions in all 23 Categories – AwardsWatch
FINAL 2025 Oscar Predictions in all 23 Categories AwardsWatchOscars 2025: How to watch Academy Awards and who is nominated BBC.comOscar nominations 2025: See list of nominees and categories for 97th Academy Awards USA TODAYHow to Watch The Oscars® 2025: See When & Where to Stream the Academy Awards, Red Carpet Shows & More! ABCHow to Watch the Oscars 2025: Date, Time and Streaming The New York Times
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Tactical FPS Set in Post-Apocalyptic America Will Be Playable Again Soon
Tactical FPS Set in Post-Apocalyptic America Will Be Playable Again Soon
Small Indie Company has revealed that We The People will be playable during Steam’s Zombie Fest event, which starts on May 26 and runs to June 2. We The People is a tactical first-person shooter that has been in development for a few years at Small Indie Company. It’s inspired by games like Escape from Tarkov, Fallout, and Rainbow Six, and at first blush, it looks great.
I was fortunate enough to put the team at Small Indie Company to a few questions back in 2023. What I learned about We The People excited me, and in the latest devlog, the squad revealed the innovations and enhancements applied to the developing title over the last few months.
Evolving
We The People will launch on Steam in early access when it’s ready. There’s no date for the game to hit the market just yet, but a playable demo will surface on May 26, giving gamers a limited window in which to test out the latest upgrades.
In a devlog posted on March 1, which was the first posted since April 2024, the team revealed what it had been working on for almost a year.
The key upgrades to We The People are centered around immersive in-game elements like recoil, weapon malfunctions, and suppression mechanics. The team has also fine-tuned throwables and the inventory menu, as well as optimised environments and tweaked movement mechanics.
This is all based on feedback secured during the last playtest.
We The People is set in a post-apocalyptic rendition of the United States, and that wasteland, you’re ‘one of the few left amongst the living dead’. I learned how all this would work when I caught up with Small Indie Company in 2023:
In many ways, we acknowledge we’re standing on the shoulders of giants like EFT and DayZ, and want to pay homage to them, show a level of irreverence for the work they’ve done and continue moving the extraction genre forward in a meaningful way.
We’re looking at We The People as a love letter to the genre, something that people will get to watch grow over time. We know what we want to provide in terms of a minimum viable product leading to our Early Access launch on Steam, as well as long-term plans for the game’s evolution over time.
Back then, I learned that the plan is to host in-game auction houses that operate on a peer-to-peer level, as well as vendors, dedicated questlines, and progression systems. There are desires to build out a safe zone which acts as a ‘hub’ central to the extraction shooter formula.
We The People can be wishlisted on Steam ahead of the next playable demo going live.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that an AI-based Guitar Hero Mobile ad has appeared online
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Smylie thrilled for fellow Aussie Peake to win NZ Open
Smylie thrilled for fellow Aussie Peake to win NZ Open
The talent-packed stable of Ritchie Smith now has another big tournament winner in Ryan Peake.
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U.S. federal workers hit with second wave of emails demanding job details – CNBC
U.S. federal workers hit with second wave of emails demanding job details – CNBC
U.S. federal workers hit with second wave of emails demanding job details CNBCThe one thing you needed to do last week Financial TimesFresh Musk emails to workers lead to renewed pushback at federal agencies The Washington PostOPM’s second email to federal employees asks what they did last week — and adds a new requirement: report Fox NewsFederal workers receive second email requiring list of week’s accomplishments NBC Washington
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Kane Cornes reveals his top 50 players in the AFL
Kane Cornes reveals his top 50 players in the AFL
Channel 7 commentator Kane Cornes is counting down the top 50 players in the AFL as we head into the new season.
Who makes the cut? Who’s unlucky to miss?
Check out the players ranked No.50 to No.11 before Cornes reveals the top 10 on Monday and Tuesday night’s news bulletins.
50. Jack Sinclair
49. Max Holmes
48. Brayden Maynard
47. Andrew Brayshaw
46. Patrick Dangerfield
45. Lachie Whitfield
44. Noah Anderson
Camera IconGold Coast’s new skipper Noah Anderson. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West ***********
43. Jai Newcombe
42. Aliir Aliir
41. Charlie Cameron
40. Dylan Moore
39. Luke Davies-Uniake
38. Dan Houston
37. Callum Wilkie
36. James Sicily
35. Sam Walsh
34. Connor Rozee
33. Harris Andrews
32. Jake Waterman
31. Hugh McCluggage
30. Will Day
Camera IconWill Day is Hawthorn’s No.1, according to Kane Cornes. Credit: Getty
29. Tom Papley
28. Harry Sheezel
27. Max Gawn
26. Sam Taylor
25. Zach Merrett
24. Sam Darcy
23. Nick Larkey
22. Jordan Dawson
21. Hayden Young
20. Jason Horne-Francis
19. Caleb Serong
18. Izak Rankine
17. Jacob Weitering
16. Jeremy McGovern
Camera IconJeremy McGovern remains one of the AFL’s premier defenders. Credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
15. Nick Blakey
14. Tom Stewart
13. Toby Greene
12. Errol Gulden
11. Jesse Hogan
Tune into the 6pm news bulletins on Monday and Tuesday night as Cornes reveals his top 10.
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***, Ukraine sign loan agreement after ‘meaningful and warm’ visit – The Hill
***, Ukraine sign loan agreement after ‘meaningful and warm’ visit – The Hill
***, Ukraine sign loan agreement after ‘meaningful and warm’ visit The HillZelenskyy meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London following Trump Oval Office clash Fox NewsUK gives royal welcome to Zelenskyy after White House meltdown The GuardianStarmer to Urge Europe to Face New Reality After Zelenskiy Talks Bloomberg
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So near yet so far as Aussie aces lose WTA semi-finals
So near yet so far as Aussie aces lose WTA semi-finals
Daria Saville and Ajla Tomljanovic are quickly recapturing their best form, but both fell just short in their bid to make the final of their respective WTA tournaments.
After missing plenty of tennis over the past couple of years because of injuries, the two *********** veterans pushed their opponents to the limit on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), but lost their semi-finals in three sets.
At the WTA 500 hardcourt event in Texas, Tomljanovic pushed top-seeded Jessica Pegula all the way but fell just short of reaching the Austin Open title decider.
The American looked to be cruising to victory after comfortably claiming the first set for the loss of just one game.
However, Tomljanovic fought back to claim the second set and force a decider, with Pegula eventually closing out the match 6-1 4-6 6-3.
Pegula exploited 11 double faults from the Aussie and converted seven of 16 break points in the match, which lasted one hour and 58 minutes.
“We were a little hit or miss with our serves today,” Pegula said after the match.
“It was pretty hot today, the ball was kind of flying.”I always want to show that I’m one of the best Americans, one of the best players in the world, so being able to do that on home soil is always special.”
The American had plenty of patriotic support from the crowd, including Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey.
Pegula’s victory set up an all-American final against McCartney Kessler, who beat Belgian Greet Minnen 7-5 6-4.
It is Pegula’s 16th final and second of the year after her runner-up finish to compatriot Madison Keys at the Adelaide International in January.
Tomljanovic, currently No.111, will return to the world’s top 100 when the next rankings are released.
At the Merida Open Akron hardcourt event in Mexico, Saville would have liked her chances against Colombian qualifier Emiliana Arango.
The 30-year-old Saville, who had to qualify for the event at the Yucatan Country Club in Merida, lost the first set to the world No.133.
Saville rallied to claim the second set, before Arango comfortably won the decider, clinching the match 6-3 4-6 6-2.
Arango’s reward was a place in the final against American Emma Navarro, who beat Armenia’s Elina Avanesyan 6-3 6-3 in their semi-final.
Saville, who has been ranked as high as No.20 in the world, is set to improve at least 10 places on her current No.121 ranking.
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Samsung's midrange Galaxy A56 has AI photo editing and a bump for its buttons – Engadget
Samsung's midrange Galaxy A56 has AI photo editing and a bump for its buttons – Engadget
Samsung’s midrange Galaxy A56 has AI photo editing and a bump for its buttons EngadgetSamsung Marks a Step Forward With AI for Everyone with New Galaxy A56 5G, Galaxy A36 5G, and Galaxy A26 5G SamsungSamsung’s Affordable Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 Will Get 6 Years of Software Updates WIREDSamsung Broadens AI Phone Lineup With $300 5G Galaxy Models Yahoo FinanceForget the $599 iPhone 16E: Samsung’s New Galaxy A Phones Are Truly Affordable CNET
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WA election 2025: Libby Mettam rules out review but Labor says abortion debate is not over
WA election 2025: Libby Mettam rules out review but Labor says abortion debate is not over
Roger Cook has launched a fresh attack on the ‘alarming’ character of some Liberal candidates, but was forced to concede not all Labor MP’s agreed with his Government’s abortion reforms.
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Russian cargo ship docks at space station with science, spacesuit and supplies – Space.com
Russian cargo ship docks at space station with science, spacesuit and supplies – Space.com
Russian cargo ship docks at space station with science, spacesuit and supplies Space.comNASA to Provide Coverage of Progress 91 Launch, Space Station Docking NASARussian Soyuz-2.1a rocket put Progress MS-30 spacecraft into orbit Prensa LatinaBelyayev’s ‘candle’: ISS cargo ship lifts off with logo for cosmonaut’s centennial collectSPACE.comCargo Spacecraft Heads for Space Station in First Baikonur Launch of 2025 Times of Central Asia
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Saul Eslake: Chief hater of WA’s GST deal floated to help carve up the tax revenue
Saul Eslake: Chief hater of WA’s GST deal floated to help carve up the tax revenue
The loudest critic of Western Australia’s GST deal has put up his hand to join the body carving up the tax revenue — but Saul Eslake concedes he might only get the job to shut him up.
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Guitar Hero Mobile Ad Appears on Activision’s Instagram With Obvious AI Art
Guitar Hero Mobile Ad Appears on Activision’s Instagram With Obvious AI Art
It was recently noticed that an advertisement for a new ‘Guitar Hero Mobile’ title had been surreptitiously uploaded to Activision’s official Instagram channel. While the post has since been hidden, it can still be accessed if you have the link. The ad, which bears shockingly obvious AI art, claims that a new Guitar Hero Mobile game will be released in 2025.
Fans of the franchise were quick to criticise the use of AI art, which is staring you in the face from the post on Instagram. This isn’t the first time, even in the last few weeks, that Activision has drawn criticism for using AI art in games.
Play Your Way
In a post on Instagram, Activision revealed Guitar Hero Mobile with the tagline:
‘Play your way – Guitar Hero goes mobile’
Everything about the image just smacks of generative AI, sucking the soul of Guitar Hero clean out of the proposal. It leads us to question how long it would have taken for a human artist to create the same image, which is just a band on a stage with the traditional Guitar Hero prompt bar beneath it.
Bizarrely, the image shows a band featuring four guitarists, no drummer, no vocalist, and the prompt bar has two blue paths.
It’s like they want us to hate them.
In September 2024, I reported on Phil Spencer’s revelation that he regrets passing on Destiny and Guitar Hero many years ago. The industry veteran revealed that he could have pulled an exclusivity deal on these titles, but he didn’t believe Guitar Hero, the arcade game with plastic instruments, would ‘work’.
Since Guitar Hero disappeared from the market, Fortnite Festival has stepped up to fill the void. Released in 2023, Fortnite Festival is a Guitar Hero-styled game that invites users to enjoy a similar experience, complete with licensed soundtracks. From 2024 onwards, peripheral companies started manufacturing plastic guitars to be used in Fortnite Festival.
What do you think about the Guitar Hero Mobile ad? Does the obvious AI art get under your skin? Let me know in the comments.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that the Twisted Metal reboot would have been a battle royale game.
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Protestors stand with NPS in South Minneapolis – KARE11.com
Protestors stand with NPS in South Minneapolis – KARE11.com
Protestors stand with NPS in South Minneapolis KARE11.comBeneath Yosemite’s Beauty, Anger and Anxiety Over Trump’s Job Cuts The New York TimesHundreds protest against park ranger cuts as the administration moves to shrink the government Yahoo‘Protect the parks’: Protesters in Yosemite, Bay Area blast Trump’s firings San Francisco Chronicle
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Casey Stoney: Ex-England captain on rebuilding after San Diego sacking and becoming Canada boss
Casey Stoney: Ex-England captain on rebuilding after San Diego sacking and becoming Canada boss
Stoney, who won 130 caps for England and captained Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, had been in charge of San Diego Wave for nearly three years after resigning as Manchester United manager in 2021.
The NWSL club were a new franchise when she became head coach and she led them to third place and then top spot during the first two seasons.
They twice reached the semi-finals of the end-of-season play-offs, which crowns the league’s champions, but her third season had not continued on the same trajectory with just three wins after 14 games.
She saw the job as a long-term project. She had experienced a painful spell apart from her partner, Megan, and three children – twins Teddy and Tilly and youngest child Willow – when she first moved to the US but they had eventually resolved their visa issues, enabling them to be reunited, and set up their family home in California.
“It took 22 months to get them out there, we were 22 months apart, we weren’t even out there a year [together] and I lost my job,” she says.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t think I deserved to lose my job either, so that made it even tougher, with the successes that we had, we just had a little dip. It wasn’t even anything major.
“So to be treated in that way, after everything that had been done and sacrificed and everything that had been achieved, it was really, really hard to ******** on a personal level, but it was more what happened to my family.
“I have three young children, they were nine and six at the time, they didn’t have a home. So that, for me, is inexcusable to do to a family.”
The day her children were supposed to be back at school in August in San Diego following their summer break came and went, so Stoney took on home-schooling herself.
It was a ******* she describes as “one of the hardest times in my life”.
She says: “It did make me question if I wanted to stay in the game because if the game chews you up and spits you out like that, after everything that we had sacrificed to be there, and after what I had achieved in a short space of time, and what we had achieved as a club, it did make me question the game.
“I got offers quite quickly after the announcement and I said no to all of them, whether they were right or wrong, because I wanted to take time. I needed to make sure I sorted our lives out.
“My priority was my family [and] how do we get back to San Diego.”
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Machac opens his ATP account by claiming ******** title
Machac opens his ATP account by claiming ******** title
Czech tennis player Tomas Machac has won his first title on the ATP Tour, beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets in the final of the ******** Open.
Eighth seed Machac, who won gold in the mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics, became the third player from his country to win an ATP 500 title, following Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.
“It feels amazing,” Machac said after lifting the silver gourd-shaped trophy following his 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 win on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
Ranked 25th in the world, Machac was the superior player on serve, landing seven aces in a tightly contested first set where neither player could get a break.
Spain’s Davidovich Fokina was on the verge of winning the set when he led 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but Machac held his nerve to win the next three points and claim the set.
The 24-year-old stepped up in the second set, getting the first break of the match to go up 3-2.
Davidovich Fokina struggled to keep up as Machac won every subsequent game to seal the victory.
Machac, who beat Novak Djokovic in last year’s Geneva Open to reach his first ATP Tour final, where he lost to Casper Ruud, fell to his back after securing the championship point in Acapulco as Davidovich Fokina’s return got stuck in the net.
“Congratulations for your first title,” Davidovich Fokina told Machac at the presentation ceremony. “I don’t know how you feel right now, I never won a title, but for sure it feels amazing.”
The Spaniard has now lost three finals, including at this month’s Delray Beach Open.
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NFL combine 2025 takeaways: Grades for top WR prospects, plus other winners and losers from on-field workouts – CBS Sports
NFL combine 2025 takeaways: Grades for top WR prospects, plus other winners and losers from on-field workouts – CBS Sports
NFL combine 2025 takeaways: Grades for top WR prospects, plus other winners and losers from on-field workouts CBS SportsBest NFL combine workouts, draft standouts: QB3 emerging? Speedy receivers and running backs rising? ESPNNFL combine: What We Learned during Saturday’s activities in Indianapolis NFL.comAfter four days and 59 interviews, we’re back from Indianapolis NBC SportsNFL combine live updates: 40-yard dash for QBs, WRs, RBs plus more drills Yahoo Sports
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Why shoppers can expect steeper discounts on their booze as Dan Murphy’s, Liquorland owners vie for dominance
Why shoppers can expect steeper discounts on their booze as Dan Murphy’s, Liquorland owners vie for dominance
West Australians can expect ******* discounts on their booze as the companies behind the nation’s major bottleshops vie for dominance amid the cost-of-living crunch.
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Wobbly galaxies help shine a light on the universe’s strangest stuff
Wobbly galaxies help shine a light on the universe’s strangest stuff
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An illustration shows a pulsar within a cloud of dark matter. | Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)
Dark matter, widely known as the universe’s most mysterious stuff, is rarer on Earth than gold — and that’s despite the fact that dark matter outweighs “ordinary matter” by a staggering ratio of five to one.
The finding came courtesy of scientists who propose a novel way to map dark matter using the “wobble” of the Milky Way. That wobble is due to the influence of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, like the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and rapidly rotating neutron stars, or “pulsars.” Fascinatingly, pulsars act like “cosmic lighthouses” in the cosmos, sweeping beams of light across vast distances.
The team’s previous work has in fact used these extreme stars, when orbited by stellar companions in systems called “binary pulsars,” as dark matter probes. The scientists’ new research, however, further suggests solitary pulsars could be used in such an investigation, too.
“When we first began this work in 2021 and did the follow-up publication last year, our sample was composed of pairs of millisecond pulsars – binary millisecond pulsars,” Sukanya Chakrabarti of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) said in a statement. “However, most pulsars are not in pairs. Most of them are solitary. In this new work, we show how to effectively double the number of pulsars we can use to constrain dark matter in the galaxy by rigorously using solitary pulsars to measure galactic accelerations.”
By “constraining dark matter,” Chakrabarti means limiting the possible properties and characteristics of dark matter.
As more neutron star data is collected, the gravitational acceleration measurement of binary pulsars and their single counterparts could shine a light on the gravitational field of the Milky Way and, thus, the shape and distribution of dark matter in our galaxy.
“Because it’s a larger sample, we now have a breakthrough,” Chakrabarti said. “We are able to measure the local dark matter density using direct acceleration measurements for the first time.”
The team found that there is less than 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of dark matter in a volume equivalent to that of the entire Earth.
“If you compare that to millions of kilograms of gold produced every year — you can see that pound-for-pound, dark matter is more valuable than gold!” Chakrabarti said.
Dark matter glue and wobbly galaxies
Dark matter, which makes up about 85% of the total matter in the universe, has been sort of a problematic phenomenon for scientists because it doesn’t interact with light — or, if it does, that interaction is too weak to be detected with current technology.
That tells researchers that dark matter can’t be made of atoms like everyday matter is, because the particles that comprise atoms — electrons, protons, and neutrons — do interact with light.
Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)
The only way we can know whether dark matter exists at all is via its interaction with gravity and the influence this interaction has on light and everyday matter. In fact, this influence is crucial.
If galaxies weren’t packed with invisible dark matter, the gravitational influence of their “everyday matter” — stars, planets, dust clouds, and so on — would not be sufficient to prevent them from flying apart as they spin.
Galactic dark matter content is thought to be heavily concentrated in the centers of galaxies, but it’s believed the substance also extends out to form a spherical shell that extends far beyond the limits of a galaxy’s visible matter.
That explains how dark matter can be less common in an average sphere around the size of Earth than gold is here on our planet — but still vastly outnumber atoms of all types. Space is vast, and dark matter is way more spread out across the universe than gold or other elements are.
An artist’s impression of the dark matter halo (blue) that is believed to surround the Milky Way galaxy. | Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
Chakrabarti explained that in her earlier work, she used computer simulations to show that, as the Milky Way interacts with its satellite galaxies, the stars in our galaxy feel a very different tug from gravity depending on whether the stars are located above or below what is known as the “galactic disk.”
The LMC is one of the Milky Way’s larger dwarf galactic satellites, for instance. As it orbits our own galaxy and passes near to the Milky Way, it can pull some of the mass in the Milky Way’s galactic disk towards it, leading to a lopsided galaxy with more mass on one side. As a result, Chakrabarti said that gravity is felt more strongly on one side of the Milky Way.
“It’s almost like the galaxy is wobbling — kind of like the way a toddler walks, not entirely balanced yet,” she continued. “So this asymmetry or disproportionate effect in the pulsar accelerations that arises from the pull of the LMC is something that we were expecting to see.
“Here, with the larger sample of pulsar accelerations, we are actually able to measure this effect for the first time.”
Cosmic lighthouses
Pulsars, like all neutron stars, are born when stars at least eight times as massive as the sun run out of their fuel supply needed for nuclear fusion and can no longer support themselves against the inward push of their own gravity.
As the cores of these stars crush down, the stars’ outer layers, and most of their masses, are blown away in tremendous core-collapse supernovas.
This leaves a stellar remnant with between one and two times the mass of the sun condensed into a width of around 12 miles (20 kilometers). This means neutron stars are composed of the densest matter in the known universe.
If a teaspoon of neutron matter were scooped up and brought to Earth, for context, it would weigh 10 million tons. That is equivalent to stacking 85,000 blue whales onto a teaspoon.
One teaspoon of neutron star matter equals about 85,000 blue whales. | Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)
The rapid reduction in size of the massive stars’ cores has another consequence: it speeds the neutron star up to rates of rotation that can reach 700 turns per second. Think of this as being like the cosmic equivalent of an ice skater drawing in their arms to increase their rate of spin.
Luckily for scientists, this rapid spin and its precise frequency make pulsars excellent timing mechanisms.
Pulsars and other young neutron stars are also notable for possessing some of the strongest magnetic fields in the known universe.
“The incredibly strong magnetic field of the pulsars will twist and coil on itself as the pulsar spins, which leads to a kind of friction, like rubbing your hands together,” team member and UAH postdoctoral associate Tom Donlon said in the statement. “Pulsars also emit particles at very high speeds, which beams away energy. These effects [known as magnetic braking] lead to the pulsar spinning more slowly as time goes on.”
An illustration shows a magnetar surrounded by green magnetic field lines | Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)
The magnetic field of a pulsar captures ejected particles and then flings them away as the neutron star rotates. These particles, dispersing as “stellar wind,” also carry away angular momentum, slowing the spin of the pulsar, or causing it to spin down. The spin-down process is key in the team’s research.
“Because of this spin down, we were initially forced to use only pulsars in binary systems to calculate accelerations because the orbits aren’t affected by magnetic braking,” Donlon said. “With our new technique, we are able to estimate the amount of magnetic braking with high accuracy, which allows us to also use individual pulsars to obtain accelerations.”
Using this technique and the excess data it provides, researchers should be able to better determine how dark matter is distributed through our galaxy as more data is gathered.
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“In essence, these new techniques now enable measurements of very small accelerations that arise from the pull of dark matter in the galaxy,” Chakrabarti said. “In the astronomy community, we have been able to measure the large accelerations produced by ****** holes around visible stars and stars near the galactic center for some time now.
“We can now move beyond the measurement of large accelerations to measurements of tiny accelerations at the level of about 10 centimeters per second each decade, 10 centimeters per second is the speed of a crawling baby.”
The team’s research is available as a pre-peer-reviewed paper on the paper repository site arXiv.
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Top Takeaways From Wide Receiver and Running Back Workouts at the NFL Combine – Patriots.com
Top Takeaways From Wide Receiver and Running Back Workouts at the NFL Combine – Patriots.com
Top Takeaways From Wide Receiver and Running Back Workouts at the NFL Combine Patriots.comBest NFL combine workouts, draft standouts: QB3 emerging? Speedy receivers and running backs rising? ESPNNFL combine: What We Learned during Saturday’s activities in Indianapolis NFL.comNFL combine live updates: Quarterbacks, receivers, running backs run 40-yard dash and more Yahoo SportsAfter four days and 59 interviews, we’re back from Indianapolis NBC Sports
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Olympian, Colombian athlete among NRL’s combine winners
Olympian, Colombian athlete among NRL’s combine winners
American rugby sevens player Adam Channel says making an NRL debut would be on par with featuring at the Olympics after he was selected among four winners at the league’s Las Vegas combine.
Channel, Marcus D’Acre, Renee Gonzalez and Maria Isabel Arzuaga Gonzalez were hand-picked from 50 entrants at the combine held in Vegas as part of the NRL’s second trip to the US.
Each is in the running to receive a development deal at an NRL or NRLW club for 2025.
No combine winner went on to train with a club in 2024, but there is a sense this year’s recruits are better prepared because all have an elite rugby pedigree.
********* D’Acre has played top-level rugby in Canada, Singapore and New Zealand, while Arzuaga Gonzalez and Gonzalez respectively play for Colombia and Canada in sevens.
Channel, meanwhile, featured in the USA’s sevens campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The NRL has also introduced financial incentives to sway clubs into helping develop the fledgling pathway from the US to Australia.
Any development deal for combine winners will be exempt from the club’s salary cap, and the NRL will foot half the bill.
If clubs choose to take the player on for 2026, they will need to include their salary in the cap.
D’Acre and Channel are also poised for easy transitions to life in Australia.
Channel, 28, has New Zealand heritage, and 20-year-old D’Acre’s father is from Melbourne, so neither is likely to face visa issues if signed to an NRL club.
Both men are dreaming of playing in the outside backs at NRL level, with D’Acre already approached by North Queensland.
“If you ask anyone who went to the Olympics, they’ll say it’s the greatest sporting achievement of their life, and it was, 100 per cent,” said Channel, who hails from Long Beach, California.
“Knowing the grand scale of the NRL, and the presence that it has in Australia, having the opportunity to hopefully debut one day in an NRL side is close to par with that feeling of playing in the Olympics, in my opinion.
“I’ve got such a massive love for the game of rugby league. If one day I get the opportunity to debut, it’d mean the absolute world to me.”
The two men follow rugby league, but the two women have come to league a little later.
Renee Gonzalez only began learning the ins and outs of the rules during the week, but has found an unlikely teacher in Russell Crowe.
The Oscar-winning actor narrates the video the NRL produced to educate Americans about rugby league’s rules ahead of the 2024 Vegas games, and Gonzalez has watched it many times.
“It’s just studying the game. I’ve watched a few Jillaroos games actually, which was helpful,” said Gonzalez, who hails from Vancouver Island.
“I’m a visual learner, so I have to be on the field doing the game. I’ve still a lot to learn, but I’m excited about this opportunity.”
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Bitcoin’s volatile sell-off is ‘very natural’: Anthony Pompliano
Bitcoin’s volatile sell-off is ‘very natural’: Anthony Pompliano
Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) recent sell-off has caused concern among many investors as the cryptocurrency dropped by over 25% since it’s record high in January.
Professional Capital Management founder and CEO Anthony Pompliano sits down with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi at Bitcoin Investor Week to reassure crypto investors of the digital asset’s volatile nature and that bitcoin has historically seen several drawdowns of 30% or more during previous bull markets.
“Really what we’re seeing is just what has always happened, bitcoin is a volatile asset. That’s what people are buying — it’s buying volatility. So if you want bitcoin to go up, you’ve got to be okay with it going down sometimes, and these kind of cooling off periods, or these consolidations, are very natural,” Pompliano tells Yahoo Finance.
Regarding the broader market, Pompliano notes that bitcoin’s current decline is tied to global liquidity: “Bitcoin just happens to be the asset that is most sensitive to global liquidity. Whenever you get that sensitivity, if liquidity is contracting, bitcoin will go down.”
Additionally, the conversation shifts to where Pompliano talks about the potential impact of the US buying bitcoin as part of a strategic bitcoin reserve, suggesting that it could drive prices much higher.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
This post was written by Josh ******
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Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont ******: LIVE round-by-round updates – MMA Fighting
Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont ******: LIVE round-by-round updates – MMA Fighting
Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont ******: LIVE round-by-round updates MMA FightingGervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Lamont ****** Jr. live updates, results and analysis ESPNGervonta Davis keeps title after disputed draw with Lamont ****** Jr The GuardianGervonta Davis vs Lamont ****** live updates, time, fight card results TennesseanTank vs. ****** Results: Live updates of the undercard and main event MMA Fighting
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NSW Premier Chris Minns announces return of Parklea Correctional Centre to public ownership
NSW Premier Chris Minns announces return of Parklea Correctional Centre to public ownership
One of Australia’s largest and most controversial prisons is returning to public ownership.
NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed on Sunday his government would assume control of the Parklea Correctional Centre in northwestern Sydney, marking an end to a 15 year experiment in private management of the jail and making it the second facility to shift from private to public hands after Corrective Services NSW took over the Junee centre in April this year.
Mr Minns, speaking at a press conference alongside Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong, said the government should provide “fundamental, frontline, basic services” such as rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.
“The truth of the matter is, a Labor government was responsible for outsourcing the management for Parklea jail, and it was a mistake,” he said.
“We need to be in a position where we are providing good, rehabilitative services for people in NSW who fall foul of the law.
“And the public has to have confidence that if someone is arrested and goes through the criminal justice system, they will be securely in confinement, keeping the community safe.
“We believe the best way of doing that, is to ensure we are providing public correctional services in NSW.”
Camera IconThe NSW government will assume control of the Parklea Correctional Centre in 2026. NewsWire / James Gourley Credit: News Corp Australia
The move to take control of Parklea forms another link in the government’s rollback of privatised services in the state, which Mr Minns said would benefit taxpayers over the long-term.
“We’ve had a strong line against privatisation since we were elected two years ago and we’ve done it based on evidence,” he said.
“Not based on feelings or ideology, but based on facts. We looked at the amount of money motorists had to pay based on privatised motorways, the amount of money people had to pay in electricity, because of privatised energy companies … we don’t want to nationalise individual services that are in the private economy, but when it comes to fundamental, frontline, basic services, they need to be provided by NSW government employees.
“It is the best way of ensuring taxpayers get value for money.”
The government will take control of the 1500-bed jail in October 2026, Mr Minns said, following the end of MTC Australia’s contract in 2026.
US -based MTC took control of the jail in 2019 with a $1.3bn contract to run it for seven years.
Mr Chanthivong said the jail’s 300 jobs would be preserved in the handover and public control would deliver value to taxpayers, security guards and prisoners.
“By bringing in Parklea back into public lands, it means the highest focus is not on the highest profit to shareholders, but the greatest value to the taxpayers of NSW,” he said.
“Being part of an integrated network of 31 other facilities means our officers and our inmates will have access to the whole suite of government services.
Camera IconNSW Premier Chris Minns said the move away from the privatisation of correctional services was based on ‘facts’ and not ‘ideology’. NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia
“Education, training, skills and the great work of justice health to ensure our focus is on rehabilitation, reducing reoffending and keeping our communities safe.”
Independent investigations into Parklea’s management have exposed allegedly inadequate inmate care and inmate-on-inmate violence.
Mr Minns said concerns around the facility’s management had partly propelled the change.
“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” he said.
“We’ve seen parliamentary inquiries and independent analysis of the management of Parklea over a number of years, realising that what looks to be on the sticker price like a lower figure paid by taxpayers, it the long run you end up paying a lot more.”
He said the initial cost of ownership would be “about the same”, but taxpayers would likely enjoy lower costs over the long-term.
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