Latest news with #CixinLiu
Malay Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Malay Mail
How reading physical books beats screen-reading
JUNE 4 — Last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called on Malaysians to strengthen the nation's reading culture, stressing that knowledge is essential to national progress. He also said that books are a source of true knowledge, not social media. That kind of struck home for me because I totally know the feeling. Last year, with all the hype about The Three-Body Problem on Netflix, I decided to buy Cixin Liu's first book of his trilogy. When I shared a photo of the book on WhatsApp, I was duly reminded of how rare a species I seem to be. At least two of my friends said they quit buying physical books and only read books on Kindle or download them to read on their devices. Now I'm perfectly cool with that. At least people are still reading monographs instead of merely FB comments. But I must say that the gradual (?) and eventual (?) fading away of physical books irks me to no end. The situation is even more pronounced when it comes to non-fiction. At my university where I've been working almost three years, I swear I have not seen a single physical textbook being held by any student. A staff member arranges books at the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2025 at the World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur May 25, 2025 — Picture by Raymond Manuel This is nothing short of amazing considering how, decades ago, folks like me used to queue up at the college library to reserve books on the Required Reading list. Ergo, textbooks in the past were as critically important as water, today they're as non-essential as phone booths! Yes yes yes, no doubt 100 per cent e-books are more convenient to 'transport', you can store a million titles in just one device, you can perform those magical word searches, you can copy and paste tons of words and, of course, many of these can be obtained free (but don't ask me how). But physical books still have a wonder about them. There is something inexplicably delightful about holding Colleen Hoover's It Starts With Us in your hands, no matter how cheesy its cover. A physical book 'takes up space' (in a good way!) in your life and schedule in a way that a PDF cannot; every bookworm reading this knows that feeling of proudly taking a photo of your paperback next to your latte in Starbucks. Hey, if you're gonna show off what you're reading, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — compared to sharing a photo of a page from Neil Gaiman's Twice Cursed to your friends, is there? And no word search can beat the joy of flipping back and forth through, say, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow trying to find that reference on anchoring bias or loss aversion. Or peeling away the price tag and cleaning the 'sticky' area so the entire back cover looks nice. Or nonchalantly glancing at the inside flaps right after finishing chapter 3. Or removing the dust jacket of a hardcover book so it doesn't get damaged from the frequent flipping; and enjoying the touch (and smell!) of the now 'naked' book. Or inserting a pretty book-mark, before later removing it and repurposing it as a marker because otherwise it's so damn hard to focus on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song. Those tactile sensations are, to many people, not a trivial thing. It can be the difference between scrolling through your phone and, uh, staring at your phone whilst your friend scrolls through it for you. Nobody would be caught dead wanting the latter experience even though you're 'seeing the same thing'. A physical book thus playfully reminds us that a work of writing extends beyond the sum of its words i.e. the 'packaging' or 'container' of said words can matter. One problem with reading PDFS is that such books, existing ethereally as they do in one's laptop or iPad, sometimes give the impression you haven't fully read the book. That's why some friends I know end up buying the physical book if they enjoyed the Kindle version; just to actually 'own' the product. In a world already dominated by screens, it's worth bearing in mind that realia still has its unique privileges. The written word, printed in real ink and bound with real glue and between real covers, remains a source of much enjoyment which PDFs can't hold a candle to.
Time of India
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
3 Body Problem season 2 on Netflix confirmed or cancelled?
Netflix took the audience by storm after they dropped the sci-fi series 3 Body Problem in early 2024. Since the show came out, there have been speculations whether fans will get any new season or not. However, the OTT-platform platform has officially announced the return of the show. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack The groundwork before India mounts a strike at Pakistan India considers closing airspace to Pakistani carriers amid rising tensions Cold Start: India's answer to Pakistan's nuclear threats The show, which is based on Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, will return to complete the adaptation of the remaining novels, including The Dark Forest . Production to begin in Hungary in July 2025 A Collider report cited the filing made with the Hungarian National Film Office that produces 3 Body Problem Seasons 2 and 3 will happen consecutively. Reportedly, the shooting for the next two seasons will begin on July 8, 2025 and continue until August 2, 2027. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Living in Pune? Don't Buy Hearing Aids Before Reading This Learn More Undo The series is expected to move from their original UK base to Hungary since the country gives a 30 per cent tax rebate incentive. This shift will likely save the production millions and, thereby, increase the budget's reach. The budget for both seasons is estimated at $267 million and roughly $80 million were recovered through indirect subsidies. The first season cost around $160 million and was filmed across the UK, Spain, Panama, and the United States. Although the specifics have not been disclosed, the filming of the show is expected to be shot at international locations again. Live Events Also Read : US influencer, who once sold fart in jars, is leaving US after breakup with senator boyfriend Back-to-back filming aims to avoid delays The streaming platform reasoned that they will be shooting seasons 2 and 3 consecutively to maintain momentum and avoid gaps between seasons, something which have plagued other large-scale productions. This move will allow for a smoother post-production schedule and potentially quicker release timelines. The Season 2 of the show will likely be released in late 2026. Showrunners tease a 'bonkers' season ahead Showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, who are also the makers of the epic drama Game of Thrones , promised that Season 2 would ratchet up the stakes. Weiss said that the story gets 'really wild' and in the best way. He added that working with the conceptually complex novel like The Dark Forest was a challenging task, but the team was determined to stick to the essence of Liu's vision without being an overwhelming watch. Also Read : 'Most tortured relationship': Here's how Christie Brinkley found out about ex Peter Cook's affair with teenager FAQs 1 . Is Season 2 of 3 Body Problem cancelled? No. Netflix has formally announced 3 Body Problem will be back for Season 2 and a third and last season. 2 . When will 3 Body Problem Season 2 come out? Production starts in July 2025 and will continue until August 2027. Based on this schedule, Season 2 might be anticipated by late 2026.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Potentially Found a Three-Body Problem in Space—but the Mystery Is Just Beginning
The Kuiper Belt is a band on the outer edge of the Solar System made up of space's odds and ends: comets, dwarf planets, and other miscellaneous chunks of rock and ice. Astronomers just spotted what they think might be a third object in a Kuiper Belt system known as Altjira, which would make it a triple system instead of a binary. If confirmed, it would mean Altjira is subject to a conundrum commonly known as the three-body problem. Floating around at the edge of the Solar System are leftovers from its formation. This is the Kuiper Belt, which is composed of chunks of rock and ice like comets, dwarf planets, and random objects that failed to become planets. And this already-weird frontier of space billions of miles from the Sun just got weirder. Anyone who's binged 3 Body Problem on Netflix might recognize that the sci-fi series (based on a novel series by Cixin Liu) was inspired by an actual conundrum in space. Triple systems of planets, stars, and other objects are all over the universe, ut because of how complicated the physics of these systems can be, experts don't actually know how exactly three bodies orbit each other. This problem has now come up again after scientists—using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory—observed that the Kuiper Belt system Altjira could be a triple system. If Altjira really is a triple system, it would be the second one to surface in the Kuiper Belt (the first one being a system known as Lempo). It first appeared as a binary, but further observations revealed something peculiar. On Hubble's camera, a space between the inner objects of a proposed triple system 3.7 billion miles away would only show up as a fraction of a pixel. Researchers trying to figure out whether this system has two or three objects needed to look to its outer orbit for answers. 'Over time, we saw the orientation of the outer object's orbit change, indicating that the inner object was either very elongated or actually two separate objects,' researcher Darrin Ragozzine from Brigham Young University said in a NASA press release. The team—led by astronomer Maia Nelsen, also from BYU—found that Altjira could give further backing to a theory about how Kuiper Belt objects formed, which sees a triple system as the result of gravitational collapse. Just like stars form from clouds of gas collapsing in on themselves, binary systems can emerge from clouds of dust and debris with significant angular momentum. Some of this angular momentum is transferred to each of the objects in a nascent binary, which is how they start to orbit each other. What ends up forming might not always be a binary, however. It is thought that there are sometimes more than two objects in the cloud, and they receive so much angular momentum that at least one pair ends up being a secondary binary within the original system. This results is an outer and inner binary that make up a triple system. Lempo is the only confirmed example of this in the Solar System, but Altjira might be hiding an unresolved inner binary—which could, if we're lucky, turn out to be a contact binary much like another Kuiper Belt object known as Arrokoth. The bizarre shape of Arrokoth challenged theories about how planets formed, with its double lobes suggesting that the objects that formed it slowly merged instead of smashing into each other. Analysis of observations by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft suggested that Arrokoth was a contact binary that resulted from two space rocks orbiting each other closer and closer until they finally stuck together. While Arrokoth has moved out beyond an observable distance, Altjira belongs to the same population of Kuiper Belt objects and could offer answers that Arrokoth is now to far away to provide. 'By going beyond [assumptions], we open a new window into the shapes and spins of the components, including the 'inner' binaries,' the researchers said in a study recently published in the Planetary Science Journal. Because there is no mission currently set to observe Altjira up close, and no existing telescope can resolve it entirely, the alleged triple system cannot be imaged in as much detail as Arrokoth once was. Therefore, which of its many hypothetical orbits will prove to be its actual orbit remains unknown. The most likely shape for it seems to be a triple system, but that is still debatable. That said, all hope is not lost. Altjira is now in an eclipsing season, during which its outer body will pass in front of its inner body (or bodies). This might shed some light on the mystery. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
