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From an elegant mansion in Kyivs government quarter, Tamila Tasheva is planning what the Ukrainian takeover of Crimea might look like.

Tasheva, president Volodymyr Zelenskiys top representative for Crimea, and her team spend their days discussing issues such as how many Ukrainian teachers or police should be sent to the peninsula if Kyiv regains control, and what else would be required to help reverse eight years of Russian rule.

No serious military analyst is suggesting that Ukraine is close to being in a position to regain Crimea, but the idea feels much less fanciful than it did a year ago.

This is moment X. Right now everything is happening in a way that it feels inevitable, said Tasheva. It may not happen tomorrow, but I think it will be much quicker than I thought a year ago.

Even as Russian President Vladimir Putin lays claim to more territory, with his attempted annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Friday, the mood in Kyiv is that a full victory ought to involve not just taking things back to how they were before the February invasion, but regaining all of Ukraines territory.

Before, Ukrainian officials said Crimea would be theirs again more out of hope than a firm belief it would actually happen. The same went for most western officials and diplomats, who privately suggested there was little chance of Kyiv ever restoring control.

Now, as Russia struggles on the battlefield in southern and eastern Ukraine, and cracks of dissent appear over president Putins unpopular mobilisation drive, some in Kyiv hope the writing is on the wall. Everything began with Crimea and everything will end with Crimea, said Zelenskiy, in an August speech.

The Crimea office was opened by Zelenskiy last year as part of a strategy known as the Crimea Platform, which is aimed at envisioning eventual Ukrainian control over the territory. Sculptures by Crimean artists dot the gardens: one emits the sounds of waves and dolphins to evoke the seaside resorts of the peninsula. Inside, large photographs of spectacular Crimean landscapes and activists jailed by Russian authorities hang from the walls. Tasheva, a former rights activist who is Crimean Tatar, has been in the role since April this year.

Ukrainian officials say targeting Crimea is key to stopping the Russian war machine in other parts of occupied Ukraine, and Kyiv appears to have done so several times in recent months, most notably in early August, when several explosions rocked the Saky airbase.

Crimea is the key base for their army reserves. Its where they have their bases for ammunition, hardware and soldiers, so of course destroying these bases is a major part of de-blockading our territory, said Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Zelenskiy.

He said the attitude of Kyivs western partners, particularly the US, had changed over the summer. Until the middle of the summer our partners really had doubts that Crimea could be a legitimate target. Now they accept that given the intensity of this war its absolutely a legitimate target, said Podolyak.

Currently Kyiv did not have enough Himars missiles to use on Crimea, said Podolyak, and the systems could not reach much of the peninsula from Ukrainian positions with their range in any case. So for now we are working mainly through diversionary groups, and using the local partisans, the local partisan mood has grown significantly in the past few months, he said.

The US has so far declined to deliver ATACMS systems that have an even longer range than Himars, but if it does, Crimea is likely to be one of the first targets. I think soon were going to see the Ukrainians pushing long-range rocket launchers into position to start hitting targets in Crimea, and this will really cause a problem for the Russians, it could make Crimea untenable for them, said Ben Hodges, formerly the commander of the US Army in Europe.

Inside the peninsula, Russian authorities have stepped up a crackdown on dissent, and Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-installed leader of Crimea, went as far as to threaten that anyone who sang pro-Ukrainian songs would be prosecuted.

People who chant slogans, sing songs or nationalist hymns will be punished according to the criminal code, he said earlier this month, after six guests at a Crimean Tatar wedding were arrested when footage was shared of guests dancing to a song that calls for Ukraine to be freed from Muscovite shackles.

People who behave like this are traitors if you dont love our country then leave and go to the place you do love, said Aksyonov, who was a marginal local politician before Moscow installed him as leader in 2014.

Gauging the public mood in Crimea is difficult. Ukrainians say a number of surveys in recent years purporting to show that a majority of Crimeans are happy under Russian rule should be taken in the context of the Kremlins lack of tolerance of dissent and the exodus of large numbers of pro-Ukraine Crimeans after annexation. There is some anecdotal evidence that support for Russia could be waning.

Of course there are loads of people who are staunchly pro-Russian, but there are also many people who feel theyve been cheated over the past eight years, and feel increasingly uncomfortable with life under Moscow, said one Crimea resident who has fled the peninsula to escape Putins mobilisation decree.

In 2014 the Kremlin launched a lightning invasion of little green men, who wore no insignia and who Moscow initially denied were Russian special forces. Later, they disabled the TV stations, threatened Ukrainian military installations on the peninsula and co-opted much of the Ukrainian law enforcement, judicial and other infrastructure.

This will be one of many thorny issues for Ukraine should it ever win back control of Crimea. Who should face punishment for working with Russian authorities, and who should receive an amnesty?

Officials say that after so many years of occupation, that decision will be different from those that will have to be made in the territories occupied by Russia since the February invasion.

Crimea is a different case. Our laws will not have a retrospective aspect, said Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraines deputy prime minister. People believed Russia was there for ever, and you could not function there without interacting with Russian authorities.

There are other tricky questions. Between 500,000 and 800,000 Russians have moved to the peninsula since 2014, according to Ukrainian estimates. Technically, they have all entered the territory of Ukraine illegally. Then there is the question of property transactions since 2014. Should Ukrainian law recognise any of them?

Tasheva said the important thing was to ensure that these issues were dealt with ahead of time, not on the hop. Back in 2014, Russia was ready to implement its rule in Crimea. We need to be ready too, she said.

Read more here:
It feels inevitable: Ukraine starts to believe it can win back Crimea - The Guardian

Why do these volunteers dedicate so much time to updating pages? Its fairly simple, really. If you make small insightful edits, its possible that if youre on ahighly trafficked article, your work is going to be read by aton of people, says Rauwerda. Plus, we all like the buzz of being the first to do something, dont we? Its just like chipping into the Twitter discourse with afresh, spicy take.

But on Wikipedia you tend to be anonymous, which makes the pursuit of editing its pages amore noble trade. You dont get glory. You dont get recognition beyond asmall community of media editors, says Rauwerda. You certainly dont get money. But there are alot of very smart, selfless people that spend alot of time writing history in real time.

One of these is Steven Pruitt, the most prolific (English language) Wikipedia editor of them all. Pruitt goes under the username Ser Amantio di Nicolao, which is borrowed from aminor character in Giacomo Puccinis opera Gianni Schicchi. Hes made over five million edits to Wikipedia and created well over 30,000 articles, so youve almost certainly read his work at some point. Given how prolific his edits are, hes also dipped across afew categories of wiki editor during the roughly twenty years in which hes been avolunteer. Atrue Jack of all WikiFauna, in aReddit AMA, Pruitt himself said, Wikipedias afree community it wouldnt feel right asking for money to edit. Its ahobby. One that has taken over my life abit, but ahobby nonetheless.

And yes, anyone can edit Wikipedia thats why were told not to rely on it too much for university assignments or whatever. But the people doing so are generally diligent and accurate, updating and creating pages out of the kindness of their hearts. Without them, youd still be quietly seething after not being able to prove you were right about whatever sparked your last pub debate. Wikipedia, what awonderful world.

Read more from the original source:
Inside the world of Wikipedia's deaditors - The Face

Wikipedia has changed the status of Taiwan as a country to "partially-recognised" on October 1, China's National Day. The edit on the article was reversed later that day though.

On Saturday morning, Wikipedia user "Genabab" changed Taiwan's status from country to "partially-recognised country" claiming that "Other countries such as West Sahara or Kosovo have similar formal recognition to Taiwan yet are identified as partially recognised states in their articles."

The anonymous editor then concluded that "I see no valid reason to not also include the status of a partially recognised country to Taiwan.

Nearly seven hours later, user "Helen Montecchio" undid Genabab's edits and wrote "F*** off wumao." The term "wumao" is used to describe China's legions of internet commentators recruited to spread disinformation on social media.

However, user "Slatersteven" restored Genab's edits within a few minutes, calling on Montecchio to make her case on the talk page, where editors can discuss changes to the article.

Nearly two hours later, user "LVTW2" restored the original reference to Taiwan as a country and wrote that before a consensus can be reached through talk, "the previous longstanding version stands still, no change is permitted before any consensus is reached."

Over the years, the Wikipedia entry for Taiwan has frequently been a target of vandalism by Chinese nationalists seeking to demote Taiwan's status as a sovereign, independent country.

In a request for comments (RFC) page created to debate the proper status of Taiwan in its Wikipedia entry, editors in May 2020 fiercely debated the merits of referring to Taiwan as a "state" or a "country."

After a month of heated back and forth, the RFC was closed for discussion on May 24, 2020 and a vote was cast. In a summary of the exchange posted on June 4, a numeric majority was reached with 33 editors voting in favor of "country," 10 opting for "state," and five others choosing a variant of "state."

READ MORE: When Ancient Greece and Ancient China went to war over 'heavenly horses'.

Read more:
Wikipedia Writes That Taiwan Is A "partially Recognised Country" On China's National Day - GreekCityTimes.com

Elon Musk has gotten into a Twitter tussle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the tech billionaire floated a divisive proposal to end Russia's invasion.The Tesla CEO, soon facing a court fight over his attempt to abandon a $44 billion offer to buy Twitter, argued in a tweet Monday that to reach peace Russia should be allowed to keep the Crimea Peninsula that it seized in 2014. He also said Ukraine should adopt a neutral status, dropping a bid to join NATO following Russia's partial mobilization of reservists.

Musk also crossed red lines for Ukraine and its supporters by suggesting that four regions Russia is moving to annex following Kremlin-orchestrated "referendums" denounced by the West as a sham should hold repeat votes organized by the United Nations.

Musk noted Crimea was part of Russia until it was given to Ukraine under the Soviet Union in 1950s and said that a drawn-out war will likely not end in a resounding Ukrainian victory.

These positions are anathema for Zelenskyy, who considers them pro-Kremlin. The Ukrainian leader has pledged to recover all the terrain conquered in the war and considers Crimea as Ukraine's to reclaim as well.

Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking whether "the will of the people" should decide if seized regions remain part of Ukraine or become part of Russia.

In a sarcastic response, Zelenskyy posted a Twitter poll of his own asking "which Elon Musk do you like more?": "One who supports Ukraine" or "One who supports Russia."Musk replied to Zelenskyy that "I still very much support Ukraine, but am convinced that massive escalation of the war will cause great harm to Ukraine and possibly the world."Andrij Melnyk, the outgoing Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, responded to Musk's original tweet with an obscenity.

"Russia is doing partial mobilization. They go to full war mobilization if Crimea is at risk. Death on both sides will be devastating," Musk wrote in another tweet. "Russia has (over) 3 times population of Ukraine, so victory for Ukraine is unlikely in total war. If you care about the people of Ukraine, seek peace."

The Kremlin itself chimed in, praising Musk for his proposal but warning that Russia will not backtrack on its move to absorb the Ukrainian regions.

"It's very positive that such a person as Elon Musk is trying to look for a peaceful settlement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday. But, "as for the referendums, people have voiced their opinion and there could be nothing else."

Ukraine and the West have said that the hastily organized votes in four occupied regions were clearly rigged to serve Putin's purpose to try to cement his loosening grip on Ukrainian terrain.

Musk's ideas seemed to get little support on Twitter, including from Russian chess great and anti-Putin political activist Garry Kasparov, who bashed the plan."This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage and sacrifice, and puts a few minutes browsing Crimea on Wikipedia over the current horrific reality of Putin's bloody war," Kasparov tweeted.

In the first weeks of the invasion in early March, Musk came to Ukraine's aid when his SpaceX company shared its Starlink satellite system that helps deliver internet access to areas that lack coverage. At the time, Zelenskyy thanked Musk for the equipment that he said would help maintain communications in cities under attack.

However, in April, Musk said that as a "free speech absolutist" Starlink would not block Russian state media outlets that spread propaganda and misinformation on the war in Ukraine.

Read this article:
Elon Musks Plan To End Russian War Infuriates Ukraine on Twitter - NowThis

Another record has been broken on the way to fully operational and capable quantum computers: the complete control of a 6-qubit quantum processor in silicon.

Researchers are calling it "a major stepping stone" for the technology.

Qubits (or quantum bits) are the quantum equivalents of classical computing bits, only they can potentially process much more information. Thanks to quantum physics, they can be in two states at once, rather than just a single 1 or 0.

The difficulty is in getting a lot of qubits to behave as we need them to, which is why this jump to six is important. Being able to operate them in silicon the same material used in today's electronic devices makes the technology potentially more viable.

"The quantum computing challenge today consists of two parts," says quantum computing researcher Stephan Philips from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. "Developing qubits that are of good enough quality, and developing an architecture that allows one to build large systems of qubits."

"Our work fits into both categories. And since the overall goal of building a quantum computer is an enormous effort, I think it is fair to say we have made a contribution in the right direction."

The qubits are made from individual electrons fixed in a row, 90 nanometers apart (a human hair is around 75,000 nanometers in diameter). This line of 'quantum dots' is placed in silicon, using a structure similar to the transistors used in standard processors.

By making careful improvements to the way the electrons were prepared, managed, and monitored, the team was able to successfully control their spin the quantum mechanical property that enables the qubit state.

The researchers were also able to create logic gates and entangle systems of two or three electrons, on demand, with low error rates.

Researchers used microwave radiation, magnetic fields, and electric potentials to control and read electron spin, operating them as qubits, and getting them to interact with each other as required.

"In this research, we push the envelope of the number of qubits in silicon, and achieve high initialization fidelities, high readout fidelities, high single-qubit gate fidelities, and high two-qubit state fidelities," says electrical engineer Lieven Vandersypen, also from the Delft University of Technology.

"What really stands out though is that we demonstrate all these characteristics together in one single experiment on a record number of qubits."

Up until this point, only 3-qubit processors have been successfully built in silicon and controlled up to the necessary level of quality so we're talking about a major step forward in terms of what's possible in this type of qubit.

There are different ways of building qubits including on superconductors, where many more qubits have been operated together and scientists are still figuring out the method that might be the best way forward.

The advantage of silicon is that the manufacturing and supply chains are all already in place, meaning the transition from a scientific laboratory to an actual machine should be more straightforward. Work continues to keep pushing the qubit record even higher.

"With careful engineering, it is possible to increase the silicon spin qubit count while keeping the same precision as for single qubits," says electrical engineer Mateusz Madzik from the Delft University of Technology.

"The key building block developed in this research could be used to add even more qubits in the next iterations of study."

The research has been published in Nature.

More:
There's a New Quantum Computing Record: Control of a 6-Qubit Processor in Silicon - ScienceAlert