Elastocaloric materials are a class of materials that exhibit a big change in temperature when exposed to mechanical stress. This could potentially make them useful as solid-state replacement for both vapor-compression refrigeration systems and Peltier coolers.
The entire assembled elastocaloric device. (Credit: Guoan Zhou, Nature, 2026)
So far one issue has been that reaching freezing temperatures was impossible, but a recently demonstrated solution (online PDF via IEEE Spectrum) using NiTi-based shape-memory alloys addressed that issue with a final temperature of -12°C achieved within 15 minutes from room temperature.

In the paper by [Guoan Zhou] et al. the cascade cooler is described, with eight stages of each three tubular, thin-walled NiTi structures. Each of these stages is mechanically loaded by a ceramic head that provides the 900 MPa mechanical stress required to transfer thermal energy via the stages from one side to the other of the device, alternately absorbing or releasing the energy with CaCl₂ as the heat-exchange fluid.

NiTi alloys are known as about the ideal type of SMA for this elastocaloric purpose, so how much further this technology can be pushed remains to be seen. For stationary refrigeration applications it might just be the ticket, but we’ll have to see as the technology is developed further.

hackaday.com/2026/03/05/using-…

Guitar pedals are designed to take in a sound signal, do fun stuff to it, and then spit it out to your amplifier where it hopefully impresses other people. However, [Liam Taylor] decided to see what would happen if you fed video through a guitar pedal instead.

The device under test is a Boss ME-50 multi-effects unit. It’s capable of serving up a wide range of effects, from delay to chorus to reverb, along with compression and distortion and a smattering of others. [Liam] hooked up the composite video output from an old Sony camcorder from the 2000s to a 3.5 mm audio jack, and plugged it straight into the auxiliary input of the ME-50 (notably, not the main guitar input of the device).

The multi-effects pedal isn’t meant to work with an analog video signal, but it can pass it through and do weird things to it regardless. Using the volume pedal on the ME-50 puts weird lines on the signal, while using a wah effect makes everything a little wobbly. [Liam] then steps through a whole range of others, like ring modulation, octave effects, and reverb, all of which do different weird things to the visuals. Particularly fun are some of the periodic effects which create predictable variation to the signal. True to its name, the distortion effect did a particularly good job of messing things up overall.

It’s a fun experiment, and recalls us of some of the fantastic analog video synths of years past. Video after the break.

youtube.com/embed/WG0KVxWWH18?…

hackaday.com/2026/03/04/runnin…

Fra un'ora circa parto per Zurigo con il mio fratellino e nostra madre. Mio fratello dovrà sottoporsi all'ennesima operazione, questa volta per sostituire gli stent cardiaci. L’intervento è previsto per domani mattina presto; oggi ci toccano le visite di controllo, il colloquio con l’anestesista e il resto della trafila (cose che ormai sappiamo a memoria).

Ho cercato di elaborare una strategia (grazie Papi per questa eredità 🖤 ) per il viaggio, la permanenza, i turni in ospedale e l’alloggio della mamma e dell’altro mio fratello+compagna... visto che io dovrò rientrare in Ticino già domani sera e l’organizzazione pratica non è proprio la miglior dote della mia famiglia 🤨

Sono preoccupata? Sì, parecchio.

#ospedale #zurigo #famiglia #stentinsertion

Corso di percussioni brasiliane

CSA Magazzino 47 - via industriale 10 Brescia
(mercoledì, 11 marzo 20:30)

lasitua.org/event/corso-di-per…

Hacklabbo

Vag61 - Via Paolo Fabbri 110
(miércoles, 11 marzo 20:00)

hacklabbo.indivia.net/

hacker.convoca.la/event/hackla…

Hacklabkelo espazioa

La Kelo Gaztetxea - Mahastiak / Las Viñas 63, 48980 Santurtzi
(miércoles, 11 marzo 20:00)

Hacklabkelo espazioa teknologiarekin, softwarearekin, hardware librearekin, sistema eragileekin, sareekin, birtualizazioarekin, DIY, etab. erlazionatutako guztiarekin esperimentatzeko

Espacio Hacklabkelo para experimentar con todo lo relacionado con la tecnologia, software y hardware libre, sistemas operativos, redes, virtualización, DIY, etc.

hacker.convoca.la/event/hackla…

A-Distro e SeriRiot

Federazione Anarchica Torinese - corso Palermo 46
(mercoledì, 4 marzo 18:00)

Distro e SeriRiot

ogni mercoledì

dalle 18 alle 20

in corso Palermo 46

(A)distro – libri, giornali, documenti e… tanto altro

SeriRiot – serigrafia autoprodotta benefit lotte

Vieni a spulciare tra i libri e le riviste, le magliette e i volantini!

Sostieni l’autoproduzione e l’informazione libera dallo stato e dal mercato!

Informati su lotte e appuntamenti!

gancio.cisti.org/event/a-distr…

Apertura CdL Felix

CDL FELIX Asti - Via XX Settembre 112 Asti
(giovedì, 5 marzo 17:00)

Come ogni giovedì, il CDL sarà aperto dalle 17 alle 20 nel cortile di via XX settembre 112. Birra fresca, giornali, libri in prestito, consultazione e vendita!

Abbiamo un sacco di nuovi arrivi, passate a trovarci!

gancio.cisti.org/event/apertur…

Journalists covering the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran should be telling their audiences not only what they know but what they were prevented from finding out, and by whom. That doesn’t just mean an occasional editorial bemoaning threats to press freedom. Those are valuable, but on their own, they turn speech suppression into a side issue. The reporting itself should include acknowledgment and explanation of how censorship impacts what the public sees and reads.

The censorship infrastructure surrounding this war is extraordinary. On the American side, self-proclaimed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has virtually eliminated press access to the military and limited press credentialing to journalists who pledge to remain official stenographers. As a result of his policy, the press corps covering the Pentagon is composed of Trump-aligned outlets like One America News, Turning Point USA’s Frontlines, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s LindellTV streaming service.

It’s arguably not the worst outcome for serious reporters to get their time back so they can dig through public records instead of listening to Hegseth’s lies and weird pep talks. But if they try, they’re sure to run into problems caused by the Trump administration’s widespread gutting of public records and transparency mechanisms, elimination of government websites, and blatant noncompliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of the same outlets excluded from the Pentagon are likely to face harassment from Brendan Carr’s Federal Communications Commission and others within the administration eager to use their leverage over corporate transactions to deter criticism.

Trump has claimed that kitchen cabinets threaten national security during peacetime — imagine what he’ll say about investigative journalism while at war.

The administration’s war on leaks is sure to accelerate as whistleblowers seek to expose the embarrassing mistakes and awful human rights abuses that the war is almost certain to bring. After the raid of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home over her source’s alleged Espionage Act violations, further intrusions on newsgathering seem inevitable. Trump has reportedly been looking for an opportunity to take it one step further and prosecute a journalist under the same archaic law.

The congressional subpoena of journalist Seth Harp, for identifying a military official leading Trump’s attack on Venezuela, likely foreshadows what’s to come for journalists who publish news the administration seeks to conceal about the war.

The administration’s efforts to distort the concept of “doxxing” to criminalize reporting on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s abduction spree may prove to have been a practice run for tactics to silence war correspondents. President Donald Trump has claimed that kitchen cabinets threaten national security during peacetime — imagine what he’ll say about investigative journalism while at war.

Attacks that don’t silence critics directly are apt to lead to self-censorship. Sources won’t come forward at risk of federal investigation. Corporate news moguls will tone down their coverage to avoid government threats to their more lucrative holdings. Smaller outlets and independent journalists will hesitate to risk incurring life-altering legal fees.

Sure, some journalists and whistleblowers are courageous enough to risk everything to tell the truth, but we shouldn’t be dependent on heroism for uncensored reporting.

On the Israeli side, the censorship is often even more direct. Israel’s military censor, which reportedly banned publication of 1,635 articles and partially censored another 6,265 in 2024, will be back at it — likely emboldened by U.S. backsliding under Trump. Journalists who disobey the censor — which also prohibits them from reporting they’ve been silenced — risk arrest.

Stories that aren’t killed by the censor are deterred with the threat of being blown to bits. Israel has systematically targeted news outlets and individual journalists in Gaza, as well as Iran. There’s no reason to assume Iran will be any different — an Iranian state media complex has reportedly already been bombed. Add to that the “accidental” killings of journalists resulting from unwillingness to take basic measures to protect civilians.

And then there’s Iran itself, which, to paraphrase Hegseth, didn’t start this war but is sure going to censor it. The remnants of the regime are likely to lash out to violently stifle all sorts of dissent, including journalism that doesn’t parrot their narratives.

Stories that aren’t killed by the censor are deterred with the threat of being blown to bits.

Iran — which ranked 176th out of 180 on Reporters Without Borders’ global Press Freedom Index last year — is intolerant of adversarial journalism during peacetime and will surely escalate censorship now, as we saw during the Israel-Iran war last year.

Since the start of the current war, Iran has already blacked out phone and internet access, as it did during its horrifically violent suppression of January’s uprisings. It will almost certainly continue to do so, thereby severely limiting the information that comes out of the war’s primary battleground, and leaving journalists and news consumers to gauge the credibility of competing government narratives.

None of this is unprecedented in isolation — the George W. Bush administration used highly restricted embed access in Iraq as a propaganda tool, subpoenaed reporters, and floated prosecuting them under the Espionage Act. The Obama administration pursued more Espionage Act cases against whistleblowers than all prior administrations combined. The Biden administration extracted a plea deal from Julian Assange over WikiLeaks’ exposure of Iraq war crimes. But all of that is going to be on steroids now, in terms of both scale and brazenness.

Journalists will find a way to report the news and investigate government abuses and lies, despite it all. Lawyers and activists will do what they can to help. But it’s unrealistic to expect reporters to overcome this multipronged attack entirely.

What they can and should do, even if it feels awkward, is let the public in on the obstacles they are dealing with and how the lack of reliable information during modern conflicts harms us all, allowing politicians to lie their way into wars that enrich their friends while killing schoolchildren.

If reporters are going to quote Pentagon spokespeople or news releases, the public deserves to know who the reporter was not allowed to interview and what documents they were not permitted to review. It’s vital context without which the reporting is arguably misleading. And reporters from the U.S. — which is somehow still the least censored of the three main parties to this war — may be the only ones who can provide it.

It might not fix the secrecy surrounding this war, but it could lead to greater demand for transparency and greater skepticism of official narratives in the run-up to the next “forever war.” Maybe it could even help avoid the next one altogether.

freedom.press/issues/the-publi…

L’Unione dei Comitati è nata per essere più forti contro l’inceneritore. Per tutti noi è stato quindi normale decidere di fare il ricorso al TAR insieme raccogliendo unitariamente i fondi necessari. Oggi diamo avvio alla raccolta fondi per impugnare il provvedimento autorizzatorio unico regionale (PAUR) ma fatto con ordinanza da Gualtieri grazie ai poteri straordinari e con la complicità della Regione a guida Rocca. Chiediamo a tutti di sostenere la nostra raccolta fondi a difesa della terra dove viviamo. Le vostre donazioni saranno preziose, ogni contributo, anche piccolo, è importante.
Per tutta l’Unione dei Comitati raccoglierà i fondi il Comitato per le future generazione che sarà quindi l’unico soggetto autorizzato a raccoglierli per la nostra Unione. Nella locandina allegata trovate IBAN sul quale versare e la causale. La nostra regola sarà la massima trasparenza con pubblicazione settimanale dei contributi ricevuti (data e importo). Fate girare il nostro messaggio. Contiamo sul sostegno di tutti!

𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐀 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐥'𝐈𝐁𝐀𝐍:

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨: 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐈 (𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐨-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭)

𝐈𝐁𝐀𝐍: 𝐈𝐓𝟗𝟐𝐖𝟎𝟖𝟗𝟓𝟏𝟑𝟗𝟏𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟑𝟔𝟗𝟒𝟕𝟏

𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞: 𝐑𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐨 𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐢𝐥 𝐏𝐀𝐔𝐑

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐈𝐄!

#Roma #Gualtieri #NoInceneritore #EmergenzaRifiuti #Politica #RifiutiZero #CittadiniEsasperati #Termovalorizzatore #perte #fyp #foryou