All posts tagged: smaller

Bridgerton star to have smaller role in Netflix series after being cast in Only Murders in the Building: ‘I had an epic run’

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter When Bridgerton returns for a new season, it will be without one of its original stars in the main ensemble, in what they’ve called a “bittersweet” development. While each season focuses on a different couple, Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington has been an active presence on the Netflix show since its very first episode in 2020. However, she’ll have a reduced role in season five after being cast in comedy series Only Murders in the Building opposite Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in ‘Bridgerton’ (Netflix) “I feel very lucky – it’s the best of both worlds, because I’m currently filming on Only Murders, but I still get to pop back to Bridgerton now and then and see everybody, and it’s just like coming home,” the Irish star told E! News. “You’re like, ‘Oh, hey guys, how …

Pentagon Weighing Permanent Smaller US Presence In Gulf (Just Don’t Call It Retreat)

Published by Jenni Sidey

Already US officials have signaled they may just abandon hard-hit bases in the Middle East altogether, in the wake of Iran’s retaliation as a result of Operation Epic Fury, and a conflict that’s dragged on for nearly six months. On Tuesday The Washington Post reviews the damage control underway, as the Pentagon ‘evaluates’ its future military footprint. All of this is framed as if Washington has a choice and full control over the matter, when it seems that all along the Trump administration was woefully underestimating what an Iranian response would look like. “The Pentagon is evaluating its military footprint in the Middle East in an early sign of the Iran war’s potential to transform the U.S. presence in the region, according to eight people, including officials and others familiar with the matter,” Washington Post writes. Air Force file image “One of the key areas the Defense Department is assessing is whether to pull back troops from the Persian Gulf, where America’s large overseas military bases have been battered by months of Iranian strikes, two …

Diamond surface electrons could power smaller, cooler electronics

Published by Jenni Sidey

Hydrogen-terminated diamond-like carbon becomes more electrically responsive near its surface, unlike silicon, which weakens at the edge. The unusual boost appears to come from nearly free electrons that extend beyond the carbon surface and shift easily in an electric field. Atomic-scale maps could help researchers design thinner electronic materials, although the link between these surface electrons and the electrical boost still needs more study. The surface of diamond may hold a hidden electrical advantage that could shape future electronics. Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications have developed a new way to map how materials respond to electric fields in three dimensions, down to the atomic scale. Using that method, they found that diamond-like carbon films behave in a surprising way near their surface. Most materials lose some dielectric strength at their outer edge. Silicon, the material used in many computer chips, follows that pattern. But hydrogen-terminated diamond-like carbon showed the opposite effect. Its surface response increased beyond the value expected from bulk diamond. That unexpected boost came from unusual surface electrons. These electrons behave almost …

Ultrathin ruthenium dioxide discovery could enable faster, smaller and more efficient computer devices

Published by Jenni Sidey

Researchers at Rice University found that ultrathin ruthenium dioxide, or RuO2, can display spin patterns consistent with unconventional magnetism, even though its bulk form has shown little evidence of magnetic behavior. The effect appears to be driven by lattice strain created when the roughly 2-nanometer-thick RuO2 film is grown on titanium dioxide, suggesting strain could be used as a way to switch on or control altermagnetism. The discovery could help advance spintronics and next-generation computer memory by giving researchers a potential method for creating faster, smaller and more energy-efficient devices based on electron spin. A material at the center of a major physics debate may have revealed its hidden magnetic side. Researchers at Rice University and their collaborators found that ultrathin ruthenium dioxide films can show spin patterns linked to unconventional magnetism. The finding could open new paths for future computer memory and spin-based electronics. The study focuses on ruthenium dioxide, also called RuO2. In its bulk form, the material has not shown clear evidence of magnetism. But when prepared as an ultrathin film only …

I spent years trying to get smaller. Until I decided to get bigger | Well actually

Published by Sam Flores

I had been casually lifting weights for a few years when several things changed in quick succession. First, my boyfriend proposed. This wasn’t a surprise – he had already told me he wanted to get married, and I had told him exactly how I wanted him to propose: somewhere public but not crowded, not in a restaurant. Since I spend most of my waking hours hunched over my computer looking like an extra from The Walking Dead, I also wanted to be nicely dressed for the occasion. double quotation mark Over the years I had constructed an image of the bride I wanted to be, and that woman was skinny He gamely followed instructions and got down on one knee in a quiet gallery of my favorite museum. My cute outfit – an orange wrap dress coupled with dainty purple heels – was only slightly undermined by the fact I cried so hard that my eyes puffed up and snot dripped from my nose. Then came the unexpected part. Planning our wedding sent me into …

Airplane seats really are getting smaller

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Airplane seats can feel ridiculously small. It’s gotten to the point where I, a small woman of average height, have trouble even reaching under the seat in front of me. But have airplane seats always been so dang squished? The short answer, which we explore in a new episode of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast, is a resounding no. Ask Us Anything answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions—from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. So, yes, there’s a reason why most people are right handed and no, not all cats hate water and that’s okay. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too silly or simple. This …

I added 512GB to my Android phone with a USB-C gadget smaller than my thumbnail

Published by skeptic

Smartphone storage is a struggle, especially on older models that may feature only 64GB or 128GB of space on-device. In fact, your phone’s official capacity on the spec sheet is different from the actual usable capacity you get in the real world. The Android operating system and system files alone can account for 10GB or 20GB of space, and your Android phone will slow to a crawl if you even get close to filling up your storage. The solution isn’t to pay for cloud storage services like Google Drive or to max out your next phone’s storage configuration at checkout. Instead, I added extra storage to my phones and laptops using a small USB-C drive, and I’m glad I did. I remember the days when I was lucky to have a 1GB flash drive, but we now live in a world where 1TB flash chips can fit inside a microSD card. The game has changed, and you can add an incredible amount of storage to your phone with a miniscule flash drive that barely inconveniences …

iPhone 18 Pro Max Rumors: Smaller Dynamic Island Cutout

Published by skeptic

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is poised to deliver one of the most notable advancements in smartphone design in recent years. With a smaller Dynamic Island and potential integration of under-display Face ID, Apple continues to refine its vision of a seamless, all-screen device. These updates, while subtle at first glance, reflect the company’s commitment to blending innovative technology with sophisticated design principles. This flagship model not only builds on the legacy of its predecessors but also sets the stage for future innovations in smartphone technology. Smaller Dynamic Island: A Step Toward Minimalism One of the standout features of the iPhone 18 Pro Max is the rumored smaller Dynamic Island, a design element that first debuted with the iPhone 14 Pro series. This refinement is expected to remain exclusive to the Pro lineup, reinforcing Apple’s strategy of reserving premium features for its high-end devices. By reducing the size of the Dynamic Island, Apple aims to create a more immersive display experience while maintaining the functionality that users have come to appreciate. The smaller Dynamic Island …

Xiaomi’s HarnessX rewrites its own AI scaffolding mid-task — and smaller models gain the most

Published by skeptic

As enterprise AI agents take on increasingly complex, long-horizon tasks, their performance is often restricted by their harness, the software scaffolding that connects the backbone LLM to its environment. Currently, harnesses are largely static and hand-crafted. Improving them is largely manual and they do not automatically improve based on the execution data they collect from their environment. To address this engineering bottleneck, researchers at Xiaomi introduced HarnessX, a framework that treats the AI harness as a composable object and autonomously applies improvements to its code. In real-world enterprise applications, this automated adaptation enables AI systems to dynamically adjust to application-specific requirements. Practical tests showed HarnessX delivering substantial performance gains across domains like software engineering and web interaction. The results demonstrate that scaling the foundation model is not the only path to more capable AI — and for smaller models, it may not even be the best one. HarnessX’s harness evolution yielded an average +14.5% performance gain across 15 model-benchmark combinations; for the open-weight Qwen3.5-9B, gains reached +44% on embodied planning tasks. The challenges of harness …

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All posts tagged: smaller

Bridgerton star to have smaller role in Netflix series after being cast in Only Murders in the Building: ‘I had an epic run’

Pentagon Weighing Permanent Smaller US Presence In Gulf (Just Don’t Call It Retreat)

Diamond surface electrons could power smaller, cooler electronics

Ultrathin ruthenium dioxide discovery could enable faster, smaller and more efficient computer devices

I spent years trying to get smaller. Until I decided to get bigger | Well actually

Airplane seats really are getting smaller

I added 512GB to my Android phone with a USB-C gadget smaller than my thumbnail

iPhone 18 Pro Max Rumors: Smaller Dynamic Island Cutout

Xiaomi’s HarnessX rewrites its own AI scaffolding mid-task — and smaller models gain the most