Forum, Nov. 26: Thanks to everyone who supports nonprofits – Valley News

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Published: 11/25/2021 10:00:27 PM

Modified: 11/28/2021 10:00:03 AM

At this time of year we give thanks, and we thank by giving. Here in the Upper Valley are numerous local organizations that receive support of work and money from those who are able.

Organizations often print an annual list of donors to recognize the support from larger donors and individuals with more limited means. It heartens me that many volunteers and donors recognize the importance nonprofits have in nurturing our community. This year, I am thankful that my neighbors participate in helping organizations such as Red Logan Dental Clinic, the Upper Valley Land Trust and the Lebanon Opera House.

Nov. 30 is this years Giving Tuesday. This day is a way to balance the materialism celebrated on Black Friday with care for the world and those in need. Thank you to all who support others and work to preserve and protect the Earth, which is our home.

INGRID CURTIS

Etna

Thank you, Valley News, for highlighting folks shopping locally this year (Shoppers thinking outside the box, Nov. 22).

We are fortunate to live among so many talented craftspeople. Shopping locally directly benefits the community by supporting local businesses and crafters. It also benefits our community in a less direct way when the local craft fair is associated with a fundraiser for social services. As one example, the Bugbee Senior Center is hosting a craft fair Dec. 3 and 4 at the center in White River Junction.

Revenue from the event supports the center, which provides a variety of services to Upper Valley seniors. This past year we served more than 25,000 meals through Meals on Wheels and daily lunch at the center. We provided local seniors with fitness and health programs, including fall prevention. Seniors who came back to the center after the isolation of COVID-19 are so grateful. Now they are back to their card games, crafts, trips, educational activities and, of course, bingo. Please keep local craft fairs in mind when shopping for your loved ones, some of whom might even frequent the Bugbee Senior Center.

SUSAN MANLEY

Wilder

The writer is volunteer and activity coordinator at the Bugbee Senior Center.

This holiday season, please add the Hanover Garden Club to your list of organizations doing things differently! In addition to our traditional in-person sale, we are offering items via an online order format: https://form.jotform.com/212916992795170. (Payment is made at the time of pick up or delivery.)

The clubs sale is one of the last of the season, so our products are fresh for holiday gatherings. They include tabletop boxwood trees, mixed green centerpieces, English cracker/poppers (very fun!) and gift boxes of cookies. All items are made by club members. The traditional holiday sale will take place at the RW Black Community Center, 48 Lebanon St., Hanover, on Dec. 11, from 9 a.m. to noon. The above-mentioned items will be available, along with the clubs Gardeners Nook, Attic Treasures and jewelry tables. While shopping, enjoy some free coffee, tea and homemade treats.

All proceeds from this sale are used to plant the 13 gardens around the town of Hanover. Thank you for keeping the gardens alive for all to enjoy.

BETSY EATON and MARY WAUGH

Hanover

The writers are co-chairs of the Hanover Garden Club holiday sale.

Suzanne Lupiens Perspectives column in the Sunday Valley News touched my heart (Weve forgotten how much we really need each other, Nov. 21). I agree with her when she says people dont have a choice about getting the vaccine, and I too believe that the actions of individuals affect us all.

But take heart, because people are still giving and concerned about their neighbors. Two years ago, my husband was struck with an illness that put him in the hospital for a week and left him unable to perform the many chores that we do on our farm in Grantham.

One of these chores is throwing in wood for my woodstove. Yes, I still cook on a woodstove, and we put in our own wood, just like we did in Cornish when I was a child. Hearing of our situation, neighbors, friends and relatives all came on a Sunday afternoon, some from many miles away, to throw wood into our cellar.

Yes, the ancient golden rule of the countryside was being observed at our farm in Grantham that Sunday, and it was not just elderly but young and old who came to help. The only thing that could have made that day more wonderful would have been a platter of Bernice Johnsons wonderful doughnuts, which I have been lucky enough to have shared with her.

CINDY TOWLE

Grantham

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Forum, Nov. 26: Thanks to everyone who supports nonprofits - Valley News

Premier League golden goose isnt cooked governing bodies will sit on English football review – The Offside Rule

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Fans cant trust that the report recommendations will be swiftly implemented while top-flight clubs are profiting from a broken system, writes Laura Lawrence.

Less than 12 hours after the government commissioned review into English football was released, Aston Villas chief executive Christian Purslow said the following on the BBC Radio 4 Today show:

The Premier League has always really been the source of funding for the rest of football and the danger here is of course, as you said, killing the golden goose if we over-regulate a highly successful financial and commercial operation.

Nothing to see here. Just the free-market economy working so well for the few and not the many. The Premier League sucked up all the money long ago so clubs further down the pyramid had no choice but to rely on begrudged handouts.

Of course, the golden goose doesnt want government intervention. Whats in it for them when the system has been weighted to their advantage?

Former Sports Minister and chair of the review panel Tracey Crouch, believes the answer lies in a new independent regulator. While the governing bodies (The Football Association, Premier League and English Football League) acknowledge changes need to be made they believe they can solve the problems between themselves. I give a hearty laugh to that one. Especially at the FA who have been as useful as a chocolate fireguard as English football goes up in flames.

The report laid out 47 recommendations to stop the industry from lurching from crisis to crisis. The report itself is sound. Recommendations include changes to the Owners and Directors Tests and assessments of the flow of money through the leagues.

The protection of clubs from free-market economics has also been addressed in the review. The heritage of clubs should be taken into account and guarded. The recommendation is to introduce into legislation a golden share for supporters so they would have a say over major plans such as moving grounds. These protections are needed but the report doesnt address how situations like Newcastle Uniteds ownership would be addressed.

Villas CEO doesnt believe that a government appointee is the right person to take on the issues within football. We killed the Super League in 48 hours. Itll take her (Crouch) 48 weeks to appoint someone.

While I agree with the sentiment that it may move at a glacial government pace, if members of the Premier League hadnt attempted the Super League coup in the first place this intervention wouldnt be as high on the government agenda.

If it was anyone other than this government, I might trust that the findings of this report would be implemented but they have just voted for the free-market privateers to sit on NHS primary care trust panels. Footballs governing bodies will sit on this report for as long as possible. Dont expect quick changes. The few are making money from the broken system. That will sound familiar to this government.

Follow Laura on Twitter@YICETOR

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Premier League golden goose isnt cooked governing bodies will sit on English football review - The Offside Rule

Community Voices: What is the correct stance? – The Bakersfield Californian

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On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, a case in which the state of Mississippi is seeking to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Pro-choice advocates see it as a challenge to Roe v. Wade, which permits abortions so long as the fetus is not yet viable, which amounts to considerably more than 15 weeks.

Which side is correct, and why? Each side has its strengths and each its weaknesses. Is there a compromise?

Pro-choice advocates point to the influential Turnaway Study, which followed 1,132 women seeking an abortion at 30 abortion clinics in 22 states over a 12-year period. Half got the abortion they sought, while half were turned away. The Study was designed to compare the long-term effects on women in the two groups. Writing about the Study in The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot found that there were no long-term differencesin depression, anxiety, PTSD, self-esteem, life satisfaction, drug abuse, or alcohol abuse among the two groups. She underscored the finding that only 5 percent of the aborters regretted their decision five years later and that there was little evidence to support the claim by pro-lifers that a large percentage of aborters are wracked with guilt later in life. She concluded that the evidence was welcome news for anyone who supports reproductive justice. She also pointed out, ingenuously, that the vast majority of women whod been denied abortion were glad five years later that they hadnt been able to get one welcome evidence that a 5-year-old child will almost always capture the heart of a mother.

The Turnaway Study makes a strong case for the advantages of getting an abortion, but it doesnt address the sticky moral issue of ending the life of a future human being, much less an already existing one.

The strength of pro-life, by contrast, is that it tackles this issue head on. This is not to say that its position is correct, only that it doesnt shirk the moral question. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the union of sperm and egg at conception produces a new living being that is distinct from both mother and father. Modern genetics demonstrated that this individual is, at the outset, distinctively human, with the inherent and active potential to mature into a human fetus, infant, child and adult. Catholic teaching declares that the presence of an immaterial soul created by God and placed in its fleshly receptacle gives it an inherent dignity possessed uniquely by a human person. It rejects an old theory that the receptacle must reach fetal status before it can be ensouled.

The weakness of the Catholic position is that it cannot demonstrate that an immaterial soul is implanted in this new being or that it even exists. At best it can claim, according to its pro-choice opponents, that the fetus is on a trajectory toward becoming a person, and that to claim more is a matter of faith that is not shared by everyone. Thus, for pro-choice, an abortion does not constitute murder, and the well-being of the mother is justifiably the first consideration, in fact the only consideration that is relevant.

Ancillary factors might come into play. The decision to deny human life to a fetus that is well on the way to becoming a person cannot be easy. Pro-choice parents, female and male alike, have only to ask what would have happened to them if their parents had chosen to abort them. The Golden Rule, we would hope, would weigh heavily in their decision. Couples with money and support who choose to abort because they hadnt planned on a child and dont want to be bothered with one dont usually earn our admiration.

On the other hand, there might be good reason for those inclined not to abort to question their resolve. Most of us can imagine circumstances we would dread being born into. Would we choose life if we knew our mother was on crack or lived in dire poverty with no father to help raise us? Heartless though it might sound, some of us can even say about people we know that it would have been better for them not to be born.

In the final analysis, is there a compromise position? Ultimately it would seem not: either the fetus is a person or it is not. If not, a person is not being killed. If so, a person is being killed, and we can justifiably call it murder. How can we decide?

President Biden, a Catholic, has made it clear that he personally cannot condone abortion but will not condemn those who do. He justifies his position by pointing out that as president of the nation he has no right to condemn those who disagree with him: he was elected to represent all, whatever their personal views. He feels justified in receiving Communion in his Church, and he has the Popes support. But what about Catholics who dont feel the burden of representing a large constituency? Should they think of pro-choice advocates as murderers?

On the other hand, should pro-choice advocates denounce pro-lifers as gullible, perhaps stupid victims of an unsupportable superstition required by their Church?

My answer is no to both questions. For me it is impossible to decide based on the evidence at hand. I would choose not to abort if an unwanted pregnancy showed up, but my decision would not be based on a certainty. I would bear in mind that what happens at conception is unknowable, and this uncertainty would keep me from condemning those who abort. I believe that a compassionate agnosticism is the correct position to take.

Of course, the Supreme Court will not have such a luxury. The justices will have to decide, and both sides will probably find a lot to dislike. Nevertheless, the rancor that divides the nation over this issue should find no place in our hearts. Whatever our view, we should remember that the other side has its reasons, and they should be respected.

Stafford Betty is professor emeritus of religious studies at Cal State Bakersfield.

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Community Voices: What is the correct stance? - The Bakersfield Californian

Quantum mechanics – Wikipedia

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Branch of physics describing nature on an atomic scale

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.[2]:1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.

Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.[3]

Quantum mechanics differs from classical physics in that energy, momentum, angular momentum, and other quantities of a bound system are restricted to discrete values (quantization), objects have characteristics of both particles and waves (wave-particle duality), and there are limits to how accurately the value of a physical quantity can be predicted prior to its measurement, given a complete set of initial conditions (the uncertainty principle).

Quantum mechanics arose gradually from theories to explain observations which could not be reconciled with classical physics, such as Max Planck's solution in 1900 to the black-body radiation problem, and the correspondence between energy and frequency in Albert Einstein's 1905 paper which explained the photoelectric effect. These early attempts to understand microscopic phenomena, now known as the "old quantum theory", led to the full development of quantum mechanics in the mid-1920s by Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrdinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born and others. The modern theory is formulated in various specially developed mathematical formalisms. In one of them, a mathematical entity called the wave function provides information, in the form of probability amplitudes, about what measurements of a particle's energy, momentum, and other physical properties may yield.

Quantum mechanics allows the calculation of properties and behaviour of physical systems. It is typically applied to microscopic systems: molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles. It has been demonstrated to hold for complex molecules with thousands of atoms,[4] but its application to human beings raises philosophical problems, such as Wigner's friend, and its application to the universe as a whole remains speculative.[5] Predictions of quantum mechanics have been verified experimentally to an extremely high degree of accuracy.[note 1]

A fundamental feature of the theory is that it usually cannot predict with certainty what will happen, but only give probabilities. Mathematically, a probability is found by taking the square of the absolute value of a complex number, known as a probability amplitude. This is known as the Born rule, named after physicist Max Born. For example, a quantum particle like an electron can be described by a wave function, which associates to each point in space a probability amplitude. Applying the Born rule to these amplitudes gives a probability density function for the position that the electron will be found to have when an experiment is performed to measure it. This is the best the theory can do; it cannot say for certain where the electron will be found. The Schrdinger equation relates the collection of probability amplitudes that pertain to one moment of time to the collection of probability amplitudes that pertain to another.

One consequence of the mathematical rules of quantum mechanics is a tradeoff in predictability between different measurable quantities. The most famous form of this uncertainty principle says that no matter how a quantum particle is prepared or how carefully experiments upon it are arranged, it is impossible to have a precise prediction for a measurement of its position and also at the same time for a measurement of its momentum.

Another consequence of the mathematical rules of quantum mechanics is the phenomenon of quantum interference, which is often illustrated with the double-slit experiment. In the basic version of this experiment, a coherent light source, such as a laser beam, illuminates a plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate.[6]:102111[2]:1.11.8 The wave nature of light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to interfere, producing bright and dark bands on the screen a result that would not be expected if light consisted of classical particles.[6] However, the light is always found to be absorbed at the screen at discrete points, as individual particles rather than waves; the interference pattern appears via the varying density of these particle hits on the screen. Furthermore, versions of the experiment that include detectors at the slits find that each detected photon passes through one slit (as would a classical particle), and not through both slits (as would a wave).[6]:109[7][8] However, such experiments demonstrate that particles do not form the interference pattern if one detects which slit they pass through. Other atomic-scale entities, such as electrons, are found to exhibit the same behavior when fired towards a double slit.[2] This behavior is known as wave-particle duality.

Another counter-intuitive phenomenon predicted by quantum mechanics is quantum tunnelling: a particle that goes up against a potential barrier can cross it, even if its kinetic energy is smaller than the maximum of the potential.[9] In classical mechanics this particle would be trapped. Quantum tunnelling has several important consequences, enabling radioactive decay, nuclear fusion in stars, and applications such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and the tunnel diode.[10]

When quantum systems interact, the result can be the creation of quantum entanglement: their properties become so intertwined that a description of the whole solely in terms of the individual parts is no longer possible. Erwin Schrdinger called entanglement "...the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought".[11] Quantum entanglement enables the counter-intuitive properties of quantum pseudo-telepathy, and can be a valuable resource in communication protocols, such as quantum key distribution and superdense coding.[12] Contrary to popular misconception, entanglement does not allow sending signals faster than light, as demonstrated by the no-communication theorem.[12]

Another possibility opened by entanglement is testing for "hidden variables", hypothetical properties more fundamental than the quantities addressed in quantum theory itself, knowledge of which would allow more exact predictions than quantum theory can provide. A collection of results, most significantly Bell's theorem, have demonstrated that broad classes of such hidden-variable theories are in fact incompatible with quantum physics. According to Bell's theorem, if nature actually operates in accord with any theory of local hidden variables, then the results of a Bell test will be constrained in a particular, quantifiable way. Many Bell tests have been performed, using entangled particles, and they have shown results incompatible with the constraints imposed by local hidden variables.[13][14]

It is not possible to present these concepts in more than a superficial way without introducing the actual mathematics involved; understanding quantum mechanics requires not only manipulating complex numbers, but also linear algebra, differential equations, group theory, and other more advanced subjects.[note 2] Accordingly, this article will present a mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics and survey its application to some useful and oft-studied examples.

In the mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum mechanics, the state of a quantum mechanical system is a vector {displaystyle psi } belonging to a (separable) complex Hilbert space H {displaystyle {mathcal {H}}} . This vector is postulated to be normalized under the Hilbert space inner product, that is, it obeys , = 1 {displaystyle langle psi ,psi rangle =1} , and it is well-defined up to a complex number of modulus 1 (the global phase), that is, {displaystyle psi } and e i {displaystyle e^{ialpha }psi } represent the same physical system. In other words, the possible states are points in the projective space of a Hilbert space, usually called the complex projective space. The exact nature of this Hilbert space is dependent on the system for example, for describing position and momentum the Hilbert space is the space of complex square-integrable functions L 2 ( C ) {displaystyle L^{2}(mathbb {C} )} , while the Hilbert space for the spin of a single proton is simply the space of two-dimensional complex vectors C 2 {displaystyle mathbb {C} ^{2}} with the usual inner product.

Physical quantities of interest position, momentum, energy, spin are represented by observables, which are Hermitian (more precisely, self-adjoint) linear operators acting on the Hilbert space. A quantum state can be an eigenvector of an observable, in which case it is called an eigenstate, and the associated eigenvalue corresponds to the value of the observable in that eigenstate. More generally, a quantum state will be a linear combination of the eigenstates, known as a quantum superposition. When an observable is measured, the result will be one of its eigenvalues with probability given by the Born rule: in the simplest case the eigenvalue {displaystyle lambda } is non-degenerate and the probability is given by | , | 2 {displaystyle |langle {vec {lambda }},psi rangle |^{2}} , where {displaystyle {vec {lambda }}} is its associated eigenvector. More generally, the eigenvalue is degenerate and the probability is given by , P {displaystyle langle psi ,P_{lambda }psi rangle } , where P {displaystyle P_{lambda }} is the projector onto its associated eigenspace. In the continuous case, these formulas give instead the probability density.

After the measurement, if result {displaystyle lambda } was obtained, the quantum state is postulated to collapse to {displaystyle {vec {lambda }}} , in the non-degenerate case, or to P / , P {displaystyle P_{lambda }psi /{sqrt {langle psi ,P_{lambda }psi rangle }}} , in the general case. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics thus stems from the act of measurement. This is one of the most difficult aspects of quantum systems to understand. It was the central topic in the famous BohrEinstein debates, in which the two scientists attempted to clarify these fundamental principles by way of thought experiments. In the decades after the formulation of quantum mechanics, the question of what constitutes a "measurement" has been extensively studied. Newer interpretations of quantum mechanics have been formulated that do away with the concept of "wave function collapse" (see, for example, the many-worlds interpretation). The basic idea is that when a quantum system interacts with a measuring apparatus, their respective wave functions become entangled so that the original quantum system ceases to exist as an independent entity. For details, see the article on measurement in quantum mechanics.[17]

The time evolution of a quantum state is described by the Schrdinger equation:

Here H {displaystyle H} denotes the Hamiltonian, the observable corresponding to the total energy of the system, and {displaystyle hbar } is the reduced Planck constant. The constant i {displaystyle ihbar } is introduced so that the Hamiltonian is reduced to the classical Hamiltonian in cases where the quantum system can be approximated by a classical system; the ability to make such an approximation in certain limits is called the correspondence principle.

The solution of this differential equation is given by

The operator U ( t ) = e i H t / {displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/hbar }} is known as the time-evolution operator, and has the crucial property that it is unitary. This time evolution is deterministic in the sense that given an initial quantum state ( 0 ) {displaystyle psi (0)} it makes a definite prediction of what the quantum state ( t ) {displaystyle psi (t)} will be at any later time.[18]

Some wave functions produce probability distributions that are independent of time, such as eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. Many systems that are treated dynamically in classical mechanics are described by such "static" wave functions. For example, a single electron in an unexcited atom is pictured classically as a particle moving in a circular trajectory around the atomic nucleus, whereas in quantum mechanics, it is described by a static wave function surrounding the nucleus. For example, the electron wave function for an unexcited hydrogen atom is a spherically symmetric function known as an s orbital (Fig. 1).

Analytic solutions of the Schrdinger equation are known for very few relatively simple model Hamiltonians including the quantum harmonic oscillator, the particle in a box, the dihydrogen cation, and the hydrogen atom. Even the helium atom which contains just two electrons has defied all attempts at a fully analytic treatment.

However, there are techniques for finding approximate solutions. One method, called perturbation theory, uses the analytic result for a simple quantum mechanical model to create a result for a related but more complicated model by (for example) the addition of a weak potential energy. Another method is called "semi-classical equation of motion", which applies to systems for which quantum mechanics produces only small deviations from classical behavior. These deviations can then be computed based on the classical motion. This approach is particularly important in the field of quantum chaos.

One consequence of the basic quantum formalism is the uncertainty principle. In its most familiar form, this states that no preparation of a quantum particle can imply simultaneously precise predictions both for a measurement of its position and for a measurement of its momentum.[19][20] Both position and momentum are observables, meaning that they are represented by Hermitian operators. The position operator X ^ {displaystyle {hat {X}}} and momentum operator P ^ {displaystyle {hat {P}}} do not commute, but rather satisfy the canonical commutation relation:

Given a quantum state, the Born rule lets us compute expectation values for both X {displaystyle X} and P {displaystyle P} , and moreover for powers of them. Defining the uncertainty for an observable by a standard deviation, we have

and likewise for the momentum:

The uncertainty principle states that

Either standard deviation can in principle be made arbitrarily small, but not both simultaneously.[21] This inequality generalizes to arbitrary pairs of self-adjoint operators A {displaystyle A} and B {displaystyle B} . The commutator of these two operators is

and this provides the lower bound on the product of standard deviations:

Another consequence of the canonical commutation relation is that the position and momentum operators are Fourier transforms of each other, so that a description of an object according to its momentum is the Fourier transform of its description according to its position. The fact that dependence in momentum is the Fourier transform of the dependence in position means that the momentum operator is equivalent (up to an i / {displaystyle i/hbar } factor) to taking the derivative according to the position, since in Fourier analysis differentiation corresponds to multiplication in the dual space. This is why in quantum equations in position space, the momentum p i {displaystyle p_{i}} is replaced by i x {displaystyle -ihbar {frac {partial }{partial x}}} , and in particular in the non-relativistic Schrdinger equation in position space the momentum-squared term is replaced with a Laplacian times 2 {displaystyle -hbar ^{2}} .[19]

When two different quantum systems are considered together, the Hilbert space of the combined system is the tensor product of the Hilbert spaces of the two components. For example, let A and B be two quantum systems, with Hilbert spaces H A {displaystyle {mathcal {H}}_{A}} and H B {displaystyle {mathcal {H}}_{B}} , respectively. The Hilbert space of the composite system is then

If the state for the first system is the vector A {displaystyle psi _{A}} and the state for the second system is B {displaystyle psi _{B}} , then the state of the composite system is

Not all states in the joint Hilbert space H A B {displaystyle {mathcal {H}}_{AB}} can be written in this form, however, because the superposition principle implies that linear combinations of these "separable" or "product states" are also valid. For example, if A {displaystyle psi _{A}} and A {displaystyle phi _{A}} are both possible states for system A {displaystyle A} , and likewise B {displaystyle psi _{B}} and B {displaystyle phi _{B}} are both possible states for system B {displaystyle B} , then

is a valid joint state that is not separable. States that are not separable are called entangled.[22][23]

If the state for a composite system is entangled, it is impossible to describe either component system A or system B by a state vector. One can instead define reduced density matrices that describe the statistics that can be obtained by making measurements on either component system alone. This necessarily causes a loss of information, though: knowing the reduced density matrices of the individual systems is not enough to reconstruct the state of the composite system.[22][23] Just as density matrices specify the state of a subsystem of a larger system, analogously, positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) describe the effect on a subsystem of a measurement performed on a larger system. POVMs are extensively used in quantum information theory.[22][24]

As described above, entanglement is a key feature of models of measurement processes in which an apparatus becomes entangled with the system being measured. Systems interacting with the environment in which they reside generally become entangled with that environment, a phenomenon known as quantum decoherence. This can explain why, in practice, quantum effects are difficult to observe in systems larger than microscopic.[25]

There are many mathematically equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics. One of the oldest and most common is the "transformation theory" proposed by Paul Dirac, which unifies and generalizes the two earliest formulations of quantum mechanics matrix mechanics (invented by Werner Heisenberg) and wave mechanics (invented by Erwin Schrdinger).[26] An alternative formulation of quantum mechanics is Feynman's path integral formulation, in which a quantum-mechanical amplitude is considered as a sum over all possible classical and non-classical paths between the initial and final states. This is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of the action principle in classical mechanics.

The Hamiltonian H {displaystyle H} is known as the generator of time evolution, since it defines a unitary time-evolution operator U ( t ) = e i H t / {displaystyle U(t)=e^{-iHt/hbar }} for each value of t {displaystyle t} . From this relation between U ( t ) {displaystyle U(t)} and H {displaystyle H} , it follows that any observable A {displaystyle A} that commutes with H {displaystyle H} will be conserved: its expectation value will not change over time. This statement generalizes, as mathematically, any Hermitian operator A {displaystyle A} can generate a family of unitary operators parameterized by a variable t {displaystyle t} . Under the evolution generated by A {displaystyle A} , any observable B {displaystyle B} that commutes with A {displaystyle A} will be conserved. Moreover, if B {displaystyle B} is conserved by evolution under A {displaystyle A} , then A {displaystyle A} is conserved under the evolution generated by B {displaystyle B} . This implies a quantum version of the result proven by Emmy Noether in classical (Lagrangian) mechanics: for every differentiable symmetry of a Hamiltonian, there exists a corresponding conservation law.

The simplest example of quantum system with a position degree of freedom is a free particle in a single spatial dimension. A free particle is one which is not subject to external influences, so that its Hamiltonian consists only of its kinetic energy:

The general solution of the Schrdinger equation is given by

which is a superposition of all possible plane waves e i ( k x k 2 2 m t ) {displaystyle e^{i(kx-{frac {hbar k^{2}}{2m}}t)}} , which are eigenstates of the momentum operator with momentum p = k {displaystyle p=hbar k} . The coefficients of the superposition are ^ ( k , 0 ) {displaystyle {hat {psi }}(k,0)} , which is the Fourier transform of the initial quantum state ( x , 0 ) {displaystyle psi (x,0)} .

It is not possible for the solution to be a single momentum eigenstate, or a single position eigenstate, as these are not normalizable quantum states.[note 3] Instead, we can consider a Gaussian wave packet:

which has Fourier transform, and therefore momentum distribution

We see that as we make a {displaystyle a} smaller the spread in position gets smaller, but the spread in momentum gets larger. Conversely, by making a {displaystyle a} larger we make the spread in momentum smaller, but the spread in position gets larger. This illustrates the uncertainty principle.

As we let the Gaussian wave packet evolve in time, we see that its center moves through space at a constant velocity (like a classical particle with no forces acting on it). However, the wave packet will also spread out as time progresses, which means that the position becomes more and more uncertain. The uncertainty in momentum, however, stays constant.[27]

The particle in a one-dimensional potential energy box is the most mathematically simple example where restraints lead to the quantization of energy levels. The box is defined as having zero potential energy everywhere inside a certain region, and therefore infinite potential energy everywhere outside that region.[19]:7778 For the one-dimensional case in the x {displaystyle x} direction, the time-independent Schrdinger equation may be written

With the differential operator defined by

the previous equation is evocative of the classic kinetic energy analogue,

with state {displaystyle psi } in this case having energy E {displaystyle E} coincident with the kinetic energy of the particle.

The general solutions of the Schrdinger equation for the particle in a box are

or, from Euler's formula,

The infinite potential walls of the box determine the values of C , D , {displaystyle C,D,} and k {displaystyle k} at x = 0 {displaystyle x=0} and x = L {displaystyle x=L} where {displaystyle psi } must be zero. Thus, at x = 0 {displaystyle x=0} ,

and D = 0 {displaystyle D=0} . At x = L {displaystyle x=L} ,

in which C {displaystyle C} cannot be zero as this would conflict with the postulate that {displaystyle psi } has norm 1. Therefore, since sin ( k L ) = 0 {displaystyle sin(kL)=0} , k L {displaystyle kL} must be an integer multiple of {displaystyle pi } ,

This constraint on k {displaystyle k} implies a constraint on the energy levels, yielding

E n = 2 2 n 2 2 m L 2 = n 2 h 2 8 m L 2 . {displaystyle E_{n}={frac {hbar ^{2}pi ^{2}n^{2}}{2mL^{2}}}={frac {n^{2}h^{2}}{8mL^{2}}}.}

A finite potential well is the generalization of the infinite potential well problem to potential wells having finite depth. The finite potential well problem is mathematically more complicated than the infinite particle-in-a-box problem as the wave function is not pinned to zero at the walls of the well. Instead, the wave function must satisfy more complicated mathematical boundary conditions as it is nonzero in regions outside the well. Another related problem is that of the rectangular potential barrier, which furnishes a model for the quantum tunneling effect that plays an important role in the performance of modern technologies such as flash memory and scanning tunneling microscopy.

As in the classical case, the potential for the quantum harmonic oscillator is given by

This problem can either be treated by directly solving the Schrdinger equation, which is not trivial, or by using the more elegant "ladder method" first proposed by Paul Dirac. The eigenstates are given by

where Hn are the Hermite polynomials

and the corresponding energy levels are

This is another example illustrating the discretization of energy for bound states.

The MachZehnder interferometer (MZI) illustrates the concepts of superposition and interference with linear algebra in dimension 2, rather than differential equations. It can be seen as a simplified version of the double-slit experiment, but it is of interest in its own right, for example in the delayed choice quantum eraser, the ElitzurVaidman bomb tester, and in studies of quantum entanglement.[28][29]

We can model a photon going through the interferometer by considering that at each point it can be in a superposition of only two paths: the "lower" path which starts from the left, goes straight through both beam splitters, and ends at the top, and the "upper" path which starts from the bottom, goes straight through both beam splitters, and ends at the right. The quantum state of the photon is therefore a vector C 2 {displaystyle psi in mathbb {C} ^{2}} that is a superposition of the "lower" path l = ( 1 0 ) {displaystyle psi _{l}={begin{pmatrix}1\0end{pmatrix}}} and the "upper" path u = ( 0 1 ) {displaystyle psi _{u}={begin{pmatrix}0\1end{pmatrix}}} , that is, = l + u {displaystyle psi =alpha psi _{l}+beta psi _{u}} for complex , {displaystyle alpha ,beta } . In order to respect the postulate that , = 1 {displaystyle langle psi ,psi rangle =1} we require that | | 2 + | | 2 = 1 {displaystyle |alpha |^{2}+|beta |^{2}=1} .

Both beam splitters are modelled as the unitary matrix B = 1 2 ( 1 i i 1 ) {displaystyle B={frac {1}{sqrt {2}}}{begin{pmatrix}1&i\i&1end{pmatrix}}} , which means that when a photon meets the beam splitter it will either stay on the same path with a probability amplitude of 1 / 2 {displaystyle 1/{sqrt {2}}} , or be reflected to the other path with a probability amplitude of i / 2 {displaystyle i/{sqrt {2}}} . The phase shifter on the upper arm is modelled as the unitary matrix P = ( 1 0 0 e i ) {displaystyle P={begin{pmatrix}1&0\0&e^{iDelta Phi }end{pmatrix}}} , which means that if the photon is on the "upper" path it will gain a relative phase of {displaystyle Delta Phi } , and it will stay unchanged if it is in the lower path.

A photon that enters the interferometer from the left will then be acted upon with a beam splitter B {displaystyle B} , a phase shifter P {displaystyle P} , and another beam splitter B {displaystyle B} , and so end up in the state

and the probabilities that it will be detected at the right or at the top are given respectively by

One can therefore use the MachZehnder interferometer to estimate the phase shift by estimating these probabilities.

It is interesting to consider what would happen if the photon were definitely in either the "lower" or "upper" paths between the beam splitters. This can be accomplished by blocking one of the paths, or equivalently by removing the first beam splitter (and feeding the photon from the left or the bottom, as desired). In both cases there will be no interference between the paths anymore, and the probabilities are given by p ( u ) = p ( l ) = 1 / 2 {displaystyle p(u)=p(l)=1/2} , independently of the phase {displaystyle Delta Phi } . From this we can conclude that the photon does not take one path or another after the first beam splitter, but rather that it is in a genuine quantum superposition of the two paths.[30]

Quantum mechanics has had enormous success in explaining many of the features of our universe, with regards to small-scale and discrete quantities and interactions which cannot be explained by classical methods.[note 4] Quantum mechanics is often the only theory that can reveal the individual behaviors of the subatomic particles that make up all forms of matter (electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, and others). Solid-state physics and materials science are dependent upon quantum mechanics.[31]

In many aspects modern technology operates at a scale where quantum effects are significant. Important applications of quantum theory include quantum chemistry, quantum optics, quantum computing, superconducting magnets, light-emitting diodes, the optical amplifier and the laser, the transistor and semiconductors such as the microprocessor, medical and research imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and electron microscopy.[32] Explanations for many biological and physical phenomena are rooted in the nature of the chemical bond, most notably the macro-molecule DNA.

The rules of quantum mechanics assert that the state space of a system is a Hilbert space and that observables of the system are Hermitian operators acting on vectors in that space although they do not tell us which Hilbert space or which operators. These can be chosen appropriately in order to obtain a quantitative description of a quantum system, a necessary step in making physical predictions. An important guide for making these choices is the correspondence principle, a heuristic which states that the predictions of quantum mechanics reduce to those of classical mechanics in the regime of large quantum numbers.[33] One can also start from an established classical model of a particular system, and then try to guess the underlying quantum model that would give rise to the classical model in the correspondence limit. This approach is known as quantization.

When quantum mechanics was originally formulated, it was applied to models whose correspondence limit was non-relativistic classical mechanics. For instance, the well-known model of the quantum harmonic oscillator uses an explicitly non-relativistic expression for the kinetic energy of the oscillator, and is thus a quantum version of the classical harmonic oscillator.

Complications arise with chaotic systems, which do not have good quantum numbers, and quantum chaos studies the relationship between classical and quantum descriptions in these systems.

Quantum decoherence is a mechanism through which quantum systems lose coherence, and thus become incapable of displaying many typically quantum effects: quantum superpositions become simply probabilistic mixtures, and quantum entanglement becomes simply classical correlations. Quantum coherence is not typically evident at macroscopic scales, except maybe at temperatures approaching absolute zero at which quantum behavior may manifest macroscopically.[note 5]

Many macroscopic properties of a classical system are a direct consequence of the quantum behavior of its parts. For example, the stability of bulk matter (consisting of atoms and molecules which would quickly collapse under electric forces alone), the rigidity of solids, and the mechanical, thermal, chemical, optical and magnetic properties of matter are all results of the interaction of electric charges under the rules of quantum mechanics.[34]

Early attempts to merge quantum mechanics with special relativity involved the replacement of the Schrdinger equation with a covariant equation such as the KleinGordon equation or the Dirac equation. While these theories were successful in explaining many experimental results, they had certain unsatisfactory qualities stemming from their neglect of the relativistic creation and annihilation of particles. A fully relativistic quantum theory required the development of quantum field theory, which applies quantization to a field (rather than a fixed set of particles). The first complete quantum field theory, quantum electrodynamics, provides a fully quantum description of the electromagnetic interaction. Quantum electrodynamics is, along with general relativity, one of the most accurate physical theories ever devised.[35][36]

The full apparatus of quantum field theory is often unnecessary for describing electrodynamic systems. A simpler approach, one that has been used since the inception of quantum mechanics, is to treat charged particles as quantum mechanical objects being acted on by a classical electromagnetic field. For example, the elementary quantum model of the hydrogen atom describes the electric field of the hydrogen atom using a classical e 2 / ( 4 0 r ) {displaystyle textstyle -e^{2}/(4pi epsilon _{_{0}}r)} Coulomb potential. This "semi-classical" approach fails if quantum fluctuations in the electromagnetic field play an important role, such as in the emission of photons by charged particles.

Quantum field theories for the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force have also been developed. The quantum field theory of the strong nuclear force is called quantum chromodynamics, and describes the interactions of subnuclear particles such as quarks and gluons. The weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force were unified, in their quantized forms, into a single quantum field theory (known as electroweak theory), by the physicists Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg.[37]

Even though the predictions of both quantum theory and general relativity have been supported by rigorous and repeated empirical evidence, their abstract formalisms contradict each other and they have proven extremely difficult to incorporate into one consistent, cohesive model. Gravity is negligible in many areas of particle physics, so that unification between general relativity and quantum mechanics is not an urgent issue in those particular applications. However, the lack of a correct theory of quantum gravity is an important issue in physical cosmology and the search by physicists for an elegant "Theory of Everything" (TOE). Consequently, resolving the inconsistencies between both theories has been a major goal of 20th- and 21st-century physics. This TOE would combine not only the models of subatomic physics but also derive the four fundamental forces of nature from a single force or phenomenon.

One proposal for doing so is string theory, which posits that the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries gravitational force.[38][39]

Another popular theory is loop quantum gravity (LQG), which describes quantum properties of gravity and is thus a theory of quantum spacetime. LQG is an attempt to merge and adapt standard quantum mechanics and standard general relativity. This theory describes space as an extremely fine fabric "woven" of finite loops called spin networks. The evolution of a spin network over time is called a spin foam. The characteristic length scale of a spin foam is the Planck length, approximately 1.6161035 m, and so lengths shorter than the Planck length are not physically meaningful in LQG.[40]

Unsolved problem in physics:

Is there a preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics? How does the quantum description of reality, which includes elements such as the "superposition of states" and "wave function collapse", give rise to the reality we perceive?

Since its inception, the many counter-intuitive aspects and results of quantum mechanics have provoked strong philosophical debates and many interpretations. The arguments centre on the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, the difficulties with wavefunction collapse and the related measurement problem, and quantum nonlocality. Perhaps the only consensus that exists about these issues is that there is no consensus. Richard Feynman once said, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."[41] According to Steven Weinberg, "There is now in my opinion no entirely satisfactory interpretation of quantum mechanics."[42]

The views of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and other physicists are often grouped together as the "Copenhagen interpretation".[43][44] According to these views, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is not a temporary feature which will eventually be replaced by a deterministic theory, but is instead a final renunciation of the classical idea of "causality". Bohr in particular emphasized that any well-defined application of the quantum mechanical formalism must always make reference to the experimental arrangement, due to the complementary nature of evidence obtained under different experimental situations. Copenhagen-type interpretations remain popular in the 21st century.[45]

Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, was troubled by its apparent failure to respect some cherished metaphysical principles, such as determinism and locality. Einstein's long-running exchanges with Bohr about the meaning and status of quantum mechanics are now known as the BohrEinstein debates. Einstein believed that underlying quantum mechanics must be a theory that explicitly forbids action at a distance. He argued that quantum mechanics was incomplete, a theory that was valid but not fundamental, analogous to how thermodynamics is valid, but the fundamental theory behind it is statistical mechanics. In 1935, Einstein and his collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published an argument that the principle of locality implies the incompleteness of quantum mechanics, a thought experiment later termed the EinsteinPodolskyRosen paradox.[note 6] In 1964, John Bell showed that EPR's principle of locality, together with determinism, was actually incompatible with quantum mechanics: they implied constraints on the correlations produced by distance systems, now known as Bell inequalities, that can be violated by entangled particles.[50] Since then several experiments have been performed to obtain these correlations, with the result that they do in fact violate Bell inequalities, and thus falsify the conjunction of locality with determinism.[13][14]

Bohmian mechanics shows that it is possible to reformulate quantum mechanics to make it deterministic, at the price of making it explicitly nonlocal. It attributes not only a wave function to a physical system, but in addition a real position, that evolves deterministically under a nonlocal guiding equation. The evolution of a physical system is given at all times by the Schrdinger equation together with the guiding equation; there is never a collapse of the wave function. This solves the measurement problem.[51]

Everett's many-worlds interpretation, formulated in 1956, holds that all the possibilities described by quantum theory simultaneously occur in a multiverse composed of mostly independent parallel universes.[52] This is a consequence of removing the axiom of the collapse of the wave packet. All possible states of the measured system and the measuring apparatus, together with the observer, are present in a real physical quantum superposition. While the multiverse is deterministic, we perceive non-deterministic behavior governed by probabilities, because we don't observe the multiverse as a whole, but only one parallel universe at a time. Exactly how this is supposed to work has been the subject of much debate. Several attempts have been made to make sense of this and derive the Born rule,[53][54] with no consensus on whether they have been successful.[55][56][57]

Relational quantum mechanics appeared in the late 1990s as a modern derivative of Copenhagen-type ideas,[58] and QBism was developed some years later.[59]

Quantum mechanics was developed in the early decades of the 20th century, driven by the need to explain phenomena that, in some cases, had been observed in earlier times. Scientific inquiry into the wave nature of light began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when scientists such as Robert Hooke, Christiaan Huygens and Leonhard Euler proposed a wave theory of light based on experimental observations.[60] In 1803 English polymath Thomas Young described the famous double-slit experiment.[61] This experiment played a major role in the general acceptance of the wave theory of light.

During the early 19th century, chemical research by John Dalton and Amedeo Avogadro lent weight to the atomic theory of matter, an idea that James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann and others built upon to establish the kinetic theory of gases. The successes of kinetic theory gave further credence to the idea that matter is composed of atoms, yet the theory also had shortcomings that would only be resolved by the development of quantum mechanics.[62] While the early conception of atoms from Greek philosophy had been that they were indivisible units the word "atom" deriving from the Greek for "uncuttable" the 19th century saw the formulation of hypotheses about subatomic structure. One important discovery in that regard was Michael Faraday's 1838 observation of a glow caused by an electrical discharge inside a glass tube containing gas at low pressure. Julius Plcker, Johann Wilhelm Hittorf and Eugen Goldstein carried on and improved upon Faraday's work, leading to the identification of cathode rays, which J. J. Thomson found to consist of subatomic particles that would be called electrons.[63][64]

The black-body radiation problem was discovered by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1859. In 1900, Max Planck proposed the hypothesis that energy is radiated and absorbed in discrete "quanta" (or energy packets), yielding a calculation that precisely matched the observed patterns of black-body radiation.[65] The word quantum derives from the Latin, meaning "how great" or "how much".[66] According to Planck, quantities of energy could be thought of as divided into "elements" whose size (E) would be proportional to their frequency ():

where h is Planck's constant. Planck cautiously insisted that this was only an aspect of the processes of absorption and emission of radiation and was not the physical reality of the radiation.[67] In fact, he considered his quantum hypothesis a mathematical trick to get the right answer rather than a sizable discovery.[68] However, in 1905 Albert Einstein interpreted Planck's quantum hypothesis realistically and used it to explain the photoelectric effect, in which shining light on certain materials can eject electrons from the material. Niels Bohr then developed Planck's ideas about radiation into a model of the hydrogen atom that successfully predicted the spectral lines of hydrogen.[69] Einstein further developed this idea to show that an electromagnetic wave such as light could also be described as a particle (later called the photon), with a discrete amount of energy that depends on its frequency.[70] In his paper "On the Quantum Theory of Radiation," Einstein expanded on the interaction between energy and matter to explain the absorption and emission of energy by atoms. Although overshadowed at the time by his general theory of relativity, this paper articulated the mechanism underlying the stimulated emission of radiation,[71] which became the basis of the laser.

This phase is known as the old quantum theory. Never complete or self-consistent, the old quantum theory was rather a set of heuristic corrections to classical mechanics.[72] The theory is now understood as a semi-classical approximation[73] to modern quantum mechanics.[74] Notable results from this period include, in addition to the work of Planck, Einstein and Bohr mentioned above, Einstein and Peter Debye's work on the specific heat of solids, Bohr and Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen's proof that classical physics cannot account for diamagnetism, and Arnold Sommerfeld's extension of the Bohr model to include special-relativistic effects.

In the mid-1920s quantum mechanics was developed to become the standard formulation for atomic physics. In 1923, the French physicist Louis de Broglie put forward his theory of matter waves by stating that particles can exhibit wave characteristics and vice versa. Building on de Broglie's approach, modern quantum mechanics was born in 1925, when the German physicists Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan[75][76] developed matrix mechanics and the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrdinger invented wave mechanics. Born introduced the probabilistic interpretation of Schrdinger's wave function in July 1926.[77] Thus, the entire field of quantum physics emerged, leading to its wider acceptance at the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927.[78]

By 1930 quantum mechanics had been further unified and formalized by David Hilbert, Paul Dirac and John von Neumann[79] with greater emphasis on measurement, the statistical nature of our knowledge of reality, and philosophical speculation about the 'observer'. It has since permeated many disciplines, including quantum chemistry, quantum electronics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. It also provides a useful framework for many features of the modern periodic table of elements, and describes the behaviors of atoms during chemical bonding and the flow of electrons in computer semiconductors, and therefore plays a crucial role in many modern technologies. While quantum mechanics was constructed to describe the world of the very small, it is also needed to explain some macroscopic phenomena such as superconductors[80] and superfluids.[81]

The following titles, all by working physicists, attempt to communicate quantum theory to lay people, using a minimum of technical apparatus.

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Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia

What We Will Never Know – Gizmodo

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There is a realm the laws of physics forbid us from accessing, below the resolving power of our most powerful microscopes and beyond the reach of our most sensitive telescopes. Theres no telling what might exist thereperhaps entire universes.

Since the beginning of human inquiry, there have been limits to our observing abilities. Worldviews were restricted by the availability of tools and our own creativity. Over time, the size of our observable universe grew as our knowledge grewwe saw planets beyond Earth, stars beyond the Sun, and galaxies beyond our own, while we peered deeper into cells and atoms. And then, during the 20th century, mathematics emerged that can explain, shockingly welland, to a point, predictthe world we live in. The theories of special and general relativity describe exactly the motion of the planets, stars, and galaxies. Quantum mechanics and the Standard Model of Particle Physics have worked wonders at clarifying what goes on inside of atoms.

However, with each of these successful theories comes hard-and-fast limits to our observing abilities. Today, these limits seem to define true boundaries to our knowledge.

On the large end, there is a speed limit that caps what we can see. It hampers any hope for us to observe most of our universe first-hand.

The speed of light is approximately 300,000,000 meters per second (or 671,000,000 miles per hour, if thats how your brain works). The theory of special relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1905, forbids anything from traveling faster than that. Massless things always travel this speed in a vacuum. Accelerating massive objects to this speed essentially introduces a divide-by-zero in one of special relativitys equations; it would take infinite energy to accelerate something with mass to the speed of light.

If, as a child, you hopped on a spaceship traveling out of the solar system at 99% the speed of light, you might be able to explore other parts of the galaxy before succumbing to age, but because time is relative, your friends and family would likely be long gone before you could report your observations back to Earth. But youd still have your limitsthe Milky Way galaxy is 105,700 light-years across, our neighboring galaxy Andromeda is 2.5 million light-years away, and the observable universe is around 93 billion light-years across. Any hope of exploring farther distances would require multigenerational missions or, if using a remote probe, accepting that youll be dead and humanity may be very different by the time the probes data returns to Earth.

The speed of light is more than just a speed limit, however. Since the light we see requires travel time to arrive at Earth, then we must contend with several horizons beyond which we cant interact, which exist due to Einsteins theory of general relativity. There is an event horizon, a moving boundary in space and time beyond which light and particles emitted now will never reach Earth, no matter how much time passesthose events we will never see. There is also the particle horizon, or a boundary beyond which we cannot observe light arriving from the pastthis defines the observable universe.

Theres a second kind of event horizon, one surrounding a black hole. Gravity is an effect caused by the presence of massive objects warping the shape of space, like a bowling ball on a trampoline. A massive-enough object might warp space such that no information can exit beyond a certain boundary.

These limits arent static. We will see further and further as time goes on, because the distance light travels outward gets bigger and bigger, said Tamara Davis, astrophysics professor who studies cosmology at the University of Queensland. But this expanding perspective wont be permanentsince our universe is also expanding (and that expansion is accelerating). If you fast-forward 100 billion years into the future, all of the galaxies that we can currently see will be so far, and accelerating so quickly away from us, that the light they emitted in the past will have faded from view. At that point, our observable universe would be just those nearby galaxies gravitationally bound to our own.

Another boundary lives on the other end of the scale. Zoom in between molecules, into the center of atoms, deep into their nuclei and into the quarks that make up their protons and neutrons. Here, another set of rules, mostly devised in the 20th century, governs how things work. In the rules of quantum mechanics, everything is quantized, meaning particles properties (their energy or their location around an atomic nucleus, for example) can only take on distinct values, like steps on a ladder, rather than a continuum, like places on a slide. However, quantum mechanics also demonstrates that particles arent just dots; they simultaneously act like waves, meaning that they can take on multiple values at the same time and experience a host of other wave-like effects, such as interference. Essentially, the quantum world is a noisy place, and our understanding of it is innately tied to probability and uncertainty.

This quantum-ness means that if you try to peer too closely, youll run into the observer effect: Attempting to see things this small requires bouncing light off of them, and the energy from this interaction can fundamentally change that which youre attempting to observe.

But theres an even more fundamental limit to what we can see. Werner Heisenberg discovered that the wonkiness of quantum mechanics introduces minimum accuracy with which you can measure certain pairs of mathematically related properties, such as a particles position and momentum. The more accurately you can measure one, the less accurately you can measure the other. And finally, even attempting to measure just one of those properties becomes impossible at a small enough scale, called the Planck scale, which comes with a shortest length, 10^-35 meters, and a shortest time interval, around 5 x 10^-44 seconds.

You take the constant numbers that describe naturea gravitational constant, the speed of light, and Plancks constant, and if I put these constants together, I get the Planck length, said James Beacham, physicist at the ATLAS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider. Mathematically, its nothing specialI can write down a smaller number like 10^-36 meters But quantum mechanics says that if I have a prediction to my theory that says structure exists at a smaller scale, then quantum has built-in uncertainty for it. Its a built-in limit to our understanding of the universethese are the smallest meaningful numbers that quantum mechanics allows us to define.

This is assuming that quantum mechanics is the correct way to think about the universe, of course. But time and time again, experiments have demonstrated theres no reason to think otherwise.

These fundamental limits, large and small, present clear barriers to our knowledge. Our theories tell us that we will never directly observe what lies beyond these cosmic horizons or what structures exist smaller than the Planck scale. However, the answers to some of the grandest questions we ask ourselves might exist beyond those very walls. Why and how did the universe begin? What lies beyond our universe? Why do things look and act the way that they do? Why do things exist?

The unobservable and untestable exist beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. Alls well and good to write down the math and say you can explain the universe, but if you have no way of testing the hypothesis, then thats getting outside the realm of what we consider science, said Nathan Musoke, a computational cosmologist at the University of New Hampshire. Exploring the unanswerable belongs to philosophy or religion. Its possible, however, that science-derived answers to these questions exist as visible imprints on these horizons that the scientific method can uncover.

That imprinting is literal. Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman first predicted in 1948 that some light left over from an early epoch in the universes history might still be observable here on Earth. Then, in 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working as radio astronomers at Bell Labs in New Jersey, when they noticed a strange signal in their radio telescope. They went through every idea to figure out the source of the noiseperhaps it was background radiation from New York City, or even poop from pigeons nesting in the experiment? But they soon realized that the data matched Alpher and Hermans prediction.

Penzias and Wilson hadspotted the microwave radiation from just 400,000 years after the Big Bang called the cosmic microwave background, the oldest and most distant radiation observable to todays telescopes. During this era in the universes history, chemical reactions caused the previously opaque universe to allow light to travel through uninhibited. This light, stretched out by the expanding universe, now appears as faint microwave radiation coming from all directions in the sky.

Astronomers experiments since then, such as the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), and the Planck space observatory have attempted to map this cosmic microwave background, revealing several key takeaways. First, the temperature of these microwaves is eerily uniform across the skyaround 2.725 degrees above absolute zero, the universes minimum temperature. Second, despite its uniformity, there are small, direction-dependent temperature fluctuations; patches where the radiation is slightly warmer and patches where its slightly cooler. These fluctuations are a remnant of the structure of the early universe before it became transparent, produced by sound waves pulsing through it and gravitational wells, revealing how the earliest structures may have formed.

At least one theory has allowed for a scientific approach to probing this structure, with hypotheses that have been tested and supported by further observations of these fluctuations. This theory is called inflation. Inflation posits that the observable universe as we see it today would have once been contained in a space smaller than any known particle. Then, it underwent a burst of unthinkable expansion lasting just a small fraction of a second, governed by a field with dynamics determined by quantum mechanics. This era magnified tiny quantum-scale fluctuations into wells of gravity that eventually governed the large-scale structure of the observable universe, with those wells written into the cosmic microwave background data. You can think of inflation as part of the bang in the Big Bang theory.

Its a nice thought, that we can pull knowledge from beyond the cosmic microwave background. But this knowledge leads to more questions. I think theres a pretty broad consensus that inflation probably occurred, said Katie Mack, theoretical astrophysicist at North Carolina State University. Theres very little consensus as to how or why it occurred, what caused it, or what physics it obeyed when it happened.

Some of these new questions may be unanswerable. What happens at the very beginning, that information is obscured from us, said Mack. I find it frustrating that were always going to be lacking information. We can come up with models that explain what we see, and models that do better than others, but in terms of validating them, at some point were going to have to just accept that theres some unknowability.

At the cosmic microwave background and beyond, the large and the small intersect; the early universe seems to reflect quantum behaviors. Similar conversations are happening on the other end of the size spectrum, as physicists attempt to reconcile the behavior of the universe on the largest scale with the rules of quantum mechanics. Black holes exist in this scientific space, where gravity and quantum physics must play together, and where physical descriptions of whats going on sit below the Planck scale.

Here, physicists are also working to devise a mathematical theory that, while too small to observe directly, produces observable effects. Perhaps most famous among these ideas is string theory, which isnt really a theory but a mathematical framework based on the idea that fundamental particles like quarks and electrons arent just specks but one-dimensional strings whose behavior governs those particles properties. This theory attempts to explain the various forces of nature that particles experience, while gravity seems to be a natural result of thinking about the problem in this way. Like those studying any theory, string theorists hope that their framework will put forth testable predictions.

Finding ways to test these theories is a work in progress. Theres faith that one way or another we should be able to test these ideas, said David Gross, professor at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics. It might be very indirectbut thats not something thats a pressing issue.

Searching for indirect ways to test string theory (and other theories of quantum gravity) is part of the search for the theory itself. Perhaps experiments producing small black holes could provide a laboratory to explore this domain, or perhaps string theory calculations will require particles that a particle accelerator could locate.

At these small timescales, our notion of what space and time really is might break down in profound ways, said Gross. The way physicists formulate questions in general often assumes various givens, like spacetime exists as a smooth, continuous manifold, he said. Those questions might be ill formulated. Often, very difficult problems in physics require profound jumps, revolutions, or different ways of thinking, and its only afterward when we realize that we were asking the question in the wrong way.

For example, some hope to know what happened at the beginning of the universeand what happened before time began. That, I believe, isnt the right way to ask the question, said Gross, as asking such a question might mean relying on an incorrect understanding of the nature of space and time. Not that we know the correct way, yet.

Walls that stop us from easily answering our deepest questions about the universe well, they dont feel very nice to think about. But offering some comfort is the fact that 93 billion light-years is very big, and 10^-35 meters is very small. Between the largest and the smallest is a staggering space full of things we dont but theoretically can know.

Todays best telescopes can look far into the distance (and remember, looking into the distance also means looking back in time). Hubble can see objects as they were just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, and its successor, the Webb Space Telescope, will look farther still, perhaps 150 million years after the Big Bang. Existing galactic surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey have collected data on millions of galaxies, the latter having recently released a 3D map of the universe with 300 million galaxies. The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will survey up to 10 billion galaxies across the sky.

From an astronomy point of view, we have so much data that we dont have enough people to analyze it, said Mikhail Ivanov, NASA Einstein Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. There are so many things we dont understand in astrophysicsand were overwhelmed with data. To question whether were hitting a limit is like trolling. Even then, these mind-boggling surveys represent only a small fraction of the universes estimated 200 billion galaxies that future telescopes might be able to map.

But as scientists attempt to play in these theoretically accessible spaces, some wonder whether the true limit is us.

Today, particle physics seems to be up against an issue of its own: Despite plenty of outstanding mysteries in need of answers, the physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have found no new fundamental particles since the Higgs Boson in 2012. This lack of discovery has physicists scratching their heads; its ruled out the simplest versions of some theories that had been guiding particle physicists previously, with few obvious signposts about where to look next (though there are some!).

Beacham thinks that these problems could be solved by searching for phenomena all the way down to the Planck scale. A vast, unknown chasm exists between the scale of todays particle physics experiments and the Planck scale, and theres no guarantee of anything new to discover in that space. Exploring the entirety of that chasm would take an immense amount of energy and increasingly powerful colliders. Quantum mechanics says that higher-momentum particles have smaller wavelengths, and thus are needed to probe smaller length scales. However, actually exploring the Planck scale may require a particle accelerator big enough to circle the Sunmaybe even one the size of the solar system.

Maybe its daunting to think of such a collider, but its inspiration for a way to get to the scaleand inspiration to figure out how to get there with a smaller device, he said. Beacham views it as particle physicists duty to explore whether any new physical phenomena might exist all the way down to the Planck scale, even if there currently isnt evidence theres anything to find. We need to think about going as high in energy as we can, building larger and larger colliders until we hit the limit. We dont get to choose what the discoveries are, he said.

Or, perhaps we can use artificial intelligence to create models that perfectly explain the behavior of our universe. Zooming back out, Fermilab and University of Chicago scientist Brian Nord has dreamed up a system that could model the universe with the help of artificial intelligence, constantly and automatically updating its mathematical model with new observations. Such a model could grow arbitrarily close to the model that actually describes our universeit could generate a theory of everything. But, as with other AI algorithms, it would be a black box to humans.

Such issues are already cropping up in fields where we use software-based tools to make accurate models, explained Taner Edis, physicist at Truman State University. Some software toolsmachine learning models, for examplemay accurately describe the world we live in but are too complex for any individual to completely understand. In other words, we know that these tools work, but not necessarily how. Maybe AI will take us farther down this path, where the knowledge we create will exist spread over a civilization and its technology, owned in bits and pieces by humanity and the algorithms we create to understand the universe. Together, wed have generated a complete picture, but one inaccessible to any single person.

Finally, these sorts of models may provide supreme predictive power, but they wouldnt necessarily offer comfortable answers to questions about why things work the way they do. Perhaps this sets up a dichotomy between what scientists can domake predictions based on initial conditionsand what they hope these predictions will allow them to dolead us to a better understanding of the universe we live in.

I have a hunch that well be able to effectively achieve full knowledge of the universe, but what form will it come in? said Nord. Will we be able to fully understand that knowledge, or will it be used merely as a tool to make predictions without caring about the meaning?

Thinking realistically, todays physicists are forced to think about what society cares about most and whether our systems and funding models permit us to fully examine what we can explore, before we can begin to worry about what we cant. U.S.legislators often discuss basic science research with the language of applied science or positive outcomesthe Department of Energy funds much particle physics research. The National Science Foundations mission is To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense; and for other purposes.

Physicists hoping to receive funding must compete for resources in order to do research that promotes the missions of these organizations. While many labs, such as CERN, exist solely to fund peaceful research with no military applications, most still brag that indirectly solving bigger problems will lead to new techthe internet, or advances in data handling and AI, for example. Private funding organizations exist, but they, too, are either limited in their resources, driven by a mission, or both.

But what if answering these deep questions requires thinking that isnt driven by anything? How can scientists convince funders that we should build experiments, not with the hope of producing new technology or advancing society, but merely with the hope of answering deep questions? Echoing a sentiment expressed in an article by Vanessa A. Bee, what if our systems today (sorry, folks, Im talking about capitalism) are actually stifling innovation in favor of producing some short-term gain? What if answering these questions would require social policy and international collaboration deemed unacceptable by governments?

If this is indeed the world we live in, then the unknowable barrier is far closer than the limits of light speed and the Planck scale. It would exist because we collectivelythe governments we vote for, the institutions they funddont deem answering those questions important enough to devote resources to.

Prior to the 1500s, the universe was simply Earth; the Sun, Moon, and stars were small satellites that orbited us. By 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the universethe Sun sat at the center, and Earth orbited it. It was only in the 1920s that Edwin Hubble calculated the distance of Andromeda and proved the Milky Way wasnt the whole universe; it was just one of many, many galaxies in a larger universe. Scientists discovered most of the particles that make up todays Standard Model of particle physics in the second half of the 20th century. Sure, relativity and quantum theory seem to have established the size of the sandbox we have to play inbut precedent would suggest theres more to the sandbox, or even beyond the sandbox, that we havent considered. But then, maybe there isnt.

There are things that well never know, but thats not the right way to think about scientific discovery. We wont know unless we attempt to know, by asking questions, crafting hypotheses, and testing them with experiments. The vast unknown, both leading up to and beyond our boundaries, presents limitless opportunities to ask questions, uncover more knowledge, and even render previous limits obsolete. We cannot truly know the unknowable, then, since the unknowable is just what remains when we can no longer hypothesize and experiment. The unknowable isnt factits something we decide.

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What We Will Never Know - Gizmodo

The Future of Quantum Computing – The Business Standard

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Quantum computing could be the solution to the challenges that are faced by quantum physicists. It has the power to change our fundamental understanding of reality, and it could soon become a reality.

Quantum computing is an area of research in which engineers, scientists, and technologists are trying to build a computer where information is represented at the quantum level.

Quantum computers would be able to solve problems that are not possible with classical computers or solve them much more quickly. Today's silicon-based computer chips use binary digits (bits) with values of either 0 or 1 for storing information. These bits exist in two states at any given time and can't represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously like qubits which can represent all values at once thanks to the quantum mechanics principle called superpositioning.

Classical Computers VS Quantum ComputersTo understand how quantum computing works, it's important to know the difference between the old (classical) way of computing and the new (quantum) way.

On classical computers, information is encoded into binary digits called "bits." These bits can be in one of two states: 0 or 1. A qubit also has two possible states - 0, 1, or both at once (superposition). This means that it can encode much more information than a binary digit. The physical world behaves according to quantum mechanics. So theoretically, if we want to simulate physical phenomena on a computer, we should use quantum mechanical principles as well

Now that we have made the switching and memory units of computers, known as transistors, almost as small as an atom, we need to find an entirely new way of thinking about and building computers. Quantum computers are not intended to replace classical computers, they are expected to be a different tool we will use to solve complex problems that are beyond the capabilities of a classical computer. A problem that requires more power and time than today's computers can accommodate is called an intractable problem. These are the problems that quantum computers are predicted to solve.

When you enter the world of atomic and subatomic particles, things begin to behave in unexpected ways. It's this ability that quantum computers take advantage of. By entering into this quantum area of computing where the traditional laws of physics no longer apply, we will be able to create processors that are significantly faster than the ones we use today. Sounds fantastic, but the challenge is that quantum computing is also incredibly complex.

That's precisely why the computer industry is racing to make quantum computers work on a commercial scale.

Quantum computers are different from traditional computers because they use quantum bits (qubits) instead of binary bits. One qubit can be in two states at the same time, which solves many problems that current computers don't. Moreover, quantum computing can solve highly complex problems by using "parallelism" to process many calculations at the same time. The downside to this technology is that it needs an enormous amount of energy for operations to work properly. For instance, IBM has said that qubits need about 100 milliwatts of power per operation whereas regular processors need about 10 kilowatts

The Quantum Revolution

The practical uses of quantum computers are still being researched and tested. In the future, it is possible that quantum computers will be able to solve problems that have been impossible to solve before. For example, they have the potential to be used for modelling molecules or predicting how a molecule will behave under different conditions.

We should also remember that a quantum computer is not faster than a regular computer - it's just more powerful. That means that "running" a program on a quantum computer will take just as long as on a regular computer - but with much better results because of their increased power.Quantum computers will allow for the storage and processing of data in ways that we cannot even comprehend today. They also offer more complex calculations than traditional computers and therefore can easily solve problems that would take years to solve on a traditional computer.

Some experts believe that they could be used to calculate complex formulas with no time limit, which will make them an invaluable tool in medical science, AI technologies, aeronautical engineering and so on. So far, quantum computing has been used to solve optimization problems, which are too complex for traditional computer models. It's also been used to study protein folding and drug interactions within the body.

Quantum computers are powerful computers that work on the principles of quantum mechanics. They use qubits, not bits to represent data and they can access potentially more than two values at the same time. Quantum computers will be able to break all of the encoding and encryption we have today. Quantum computing is changing the world of cybersecurity. Quantum computers are capable of running sophisticated simulations in parallel, making them much faster than classical computers. The ability to run simulations in parallel means that quantum computers can quickly find solutions to difficult problems. Quantum computers will disrupt many industries like finance, healthcare, and education.

While it's still unclear how big of an impact quantum computing will have on marketing in the future, there are already some significant uses happening now. One example is in ad targeting where companies can analyze customer behaviour with astounding precision by processing large amounts.

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Einsteins notes on theory of relativity fetch record 11.6m at auction – The Guardian

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Albert Einsteins handwritten notes on the theory of relativity fetched a record 11.6m (9.7m) at an auction in Paris on Tuesday.

The manuscript had been valued at about a quarter of the final sum, which is by far the highest ever paid for anything written by the genius scientist.

It contains preparatory work for the physicists signature achievement, the theory of general relativity, which he published in 1915.

Calling the notes without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever to come to auction, Christies which handled the sale on behalf of the Aguttes auction house had estimated prior to the auction that it would fetch between 2m and 3m.

Previous records for Einsteins works were $2.8m for the so-called God letter in 2018, and $1.56m in 2017 for a letter about the secret to happiness.

The 54-page document was handwritten in 1913 and 1914 in Zurich, Switzerland, by Einstein and his colleague and confidant Michele Besso, a Swiss engineer.

Christies said it was thanks to Besso that the manuscript was preserved for posterity. This was almost like a miracle, it said, since Einstein would have been unlikely to hold on to what he considered to be a simple working document.

Today the paper offered a fascinating plunge into the mind of the 20th centurys greatest scientist, Christies said. It discusses his theory of general relativity, building on his theory of special relativity from 1905 that was encapsulated in the equation E=mc2.

Einstein died in 1955 aged 76, lauded as one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time. His theories of relativity revolutionised his field by introducing new ways of looking at the movement of objects in space and time.

In 1913 Besso and Einstein attacked one of the problems that had been troubling the scientific community for decades: the anomaly of the planet Mercurys orbit, Christies said.

This initial manuscript contains a certain number of unnoticed errors, it added. Once Einstein spotted them, he let the paper drop, and it was taken away by Besso.

Scientific documents by Einstein in this period, and before 1919 generally, are extremely rare, Christies said. Being one of only two working manuscripts documenting the genesis of the theory of general relativity that we know about, it is an extraordinary witness to Einsteins work.

Einstein also made major contributions to quantum mechanics theory and won the Nobel physics prize in 1921. He became a pop culture icon thanks to his dry witticisms and trademark unruly hair, moustache and bushy eyebrows.

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Einsteins notes on theory of relativity fetch record 11.6m at auction - The Guardian

To find extraterrestrials, we have to think like extraterrestrials – Massive Science

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Over lunch one day in 1950, the Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi posed a question that would reverberate through parts of astronomy for decades.

Where is everybody? he mused.

He and a few other physicists had been discussing technological extraterrestrials, and Fermi appeared to be making the innocuous argument that since no aliens had landed on Earth, interstellar travel must be a tall order.

Seventy years later, his question has morphed into something else a case against the very existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and an implication that astronomers are wasting their time looking the infamous Fermi Paradox. Its continued occupation of the popular consciousness tends to make the researchers doing this work salty.

There is no Fermi Paradox, says Sofia Sheikh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Berkeley SETI Research Center . You cant say something about why there isnt something there if you havent searched for it. (Others point out that the academic argument does not actually belong to Fermi, and is not a paradox.)

Despite decades of talk, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been a field of comparatively little action largely starved of federal funding due in part to Fermi Paradox-influenced thinking. SETI pioneer Frank Drake spent four months in 1960 scanning two stars for radio signals. More than a half century later, SETI researchers have made only modest progress. The privately funded Breakthrough Listen project is currently conducting one of the most exhaustive searches to date, listening to nearby stars for roughly fifteen minutes each. Preliminary results suggest that of our closest couple hundred neighbors, no star system harbors a civilization that broadcasts a powerful radio signal in our direction all the time. That leaves a couple hundred billion stars in the galaxy yet to be searched.

In 2012, Jill Tartar, a foundational SETI astronomer and inspiration for Carl Sagans novel Contact, likened the search for signals that could arrive from any direction at any time to hunting for marine creatures in a volume as vast as the Earths oceans. She estimated that SETI efforts had, collectively, sampled roughly one glass of water. An academic calculation suggested that, as of last year, SETI astronomers were up to perhaps a large hot tub of water.

To speed the cosmic trawl, researchers are increasingly leaning on a concept first articulated in of all places economics. Due to the current limits of technology, the modern SETI enterprise is mainly a search for potential civilizations that want to be found. Extraterrestrial intelligences would, by definition, be rational agents, and might intentionally beam out signals indicating their presence, shouting We are here! into the void. If so, astronomers could turn our common intelligence to their advantage, working out how to cooperate even without communicating. All they need to do is think like aliens.

This is clearly the way we should think about how to design things, says James Davenport, an astronomer at the University of Washington. Its a natural framework to think about how you might communicate with an unknown actor.

A galactic game of seek and dont hide

Stripped of its science-fiction trappings, the challenge of making contact looks like a special kind of game in economic theory: two players share one goal, but they cant communicate as they attempt to achieve it.

While such an exercise might initially seem futile, Thomas Schelling, an iconoclastic and Nobel prize winning economist who popularized the Cold War concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, realized that games where players cant communicate are still games. They may lack sure-fire paths to victory, but some strategies beat others. In Schellings 1960 book The Strategy of Conflict, he described how to identify such focal or Schelling points; focus on what you suppose your counterpart might know and what your counterpart supposes you might know.

A classic example is two strangers tasked with finding each other in Manhattan. An organized, but rather hopeless plan might be to walk the streets in a grid from Battery Park to Inwood, from the Hudson to the East River. Rather, Schelling reasoned, canny players might consider unique places and times that jump out to both parties as special, such as Grand Central Terminal at noon. Schellings theory has been born out in real demonstrations. In 2006, ABC staged just such a game, dropping off six pairs of people at random spots in the city. Within hours, the teams converged on two spots: Time Square and the observation deck of the Empire State Building. All six groups independently choose noon as their meeting time.

As technology improves and bigger astronomical data sets become available, SETI astronomers are rolling out a wide variety of novel searches based on the same principle. But its easier said than done. What, if anything, can SETI researchers hope to have in common with alien civilizations? What do we know extraterrestrials know, and what do they know we know?

Weve got to pick some signal strategy or signal reception strategy that will match with what someone else comes up with, Sheikh says. Otherwise, the task is hopeless.

Special frequencies

Human astronomy remains, for the time being, firmly attached to Earth. Presumably, other civilizations have a home base from which they broadcast too. In SETI, the question of where to meet often becomes a question of what frequency to chat on. After all, even just here on Earth humans reach each other on a dizzying array of radio channels, microwaves, and with beams of visible and infrared light.

In a foundational SETI publication appearing in Nature in 1959, physicists Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison proposed that 1420 MHz or thereabouts would be a good place to start the conversation. Hydrogen gas buzzes at precisely this radio frequency, and since hydrogen is the most common element in the galaxy (and the universe), this channel might be of particular interest. Schelling himself called out the frequency as an example of a Schelling point the next year in The Strategy of Conflict, writing in a footnote, In the most favored radio region there lies a unique, objective standard of frequency, which must be known to every observer in the universe.

The hydrogen line has since fallen out of favor in SETI, partially because all that hydrogen makes the channel rather noisy, and partially because astronomers no longer need to spend months turning the radio dial by hand as Drake did. In the first SETI searches youd look at a channel at a time, Sheikh says. Now we're doing billions of times that with a single observation with a single instrument.

Yet researchers continue to think about special frequencies. When analyzing a billion signals at once, there are a billion chances for the algorithm to mistakenly flag one channel as artificial. Identifying the most promising candidates ahead of time could lend confidence to future detections.

Jason Wright, a Penn State astrophysicist, described a novel set of Schelling point frequencies last year in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Using base ten numbers and the units of Hertz to measure radio frequencies are merely conventions of human culture, so Wright sought culture-independent frequencies in fundamental physics. He found inspiration in research from the pioneer quantum physicist, Max Planck, who in 1900 wrote about physical quantities that remain meaningful for all times, and also for extraterrestrial and non-human cultures, and therefore can be understood as natural units.

These fundamental constants of nature describe the speed of light, the strength of gravity, and the relationship between a photons energy and its frequency. Any civilization capable of building a radio beacon would likely be able to measure these numbers as humans have, and by mixing them together could find a particular frequency a universal frequency specified by fundamental physics. If you know those three things, you say huh, something funny happens at that frequency, Wright says.

Plancks constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light define a unique duration of time the Planck time which Wright used to build up a set of universal frequencies.

Electromagnetic radiation with the fundamental frequency would be impossible to detect, so Wright added the fundamental charge of atomic particles to the mix and used the four constants to construct a base like we use the number 10 as a base to formulate a list of more reasonable frequencies in both radio waves and visible light, a frequency comb, that SETI researchers could use to sift through the haystack of radio channels.

Special times

As some SETI researchers ponder how aliens might reach out, others wonder when. Transmitting beacons take energy, and civilizations may not transmit all the time. (We certainly dont. Our highest profile message lasted for three minutes in 1974, a powerful blast from the recently ruined Arecibo radio dish in Puerto Rico.)

To get picked up during Breakthrough Listens 15-minute scans, for instance, our nearest neighbors would need to be beaming out an all-directional signal using around a trillion watts of power, according to Wright, or about five percent of humanitys total energy consumption. Thats an expensive porch light to leave on all the time. To hear from cultures on a budget, researchers may need to work out the cosmic equivalent of noon a universal hailing time.

Sheikh reasons that any civilizations engaged in sending interstellar messages are likely to be at least as good at astronomy as we are. In recent decades, astronomers have spotted thousands of exoplanets, often by looking for stars that regularly dim as planets pass in front of them. Any aliens doing the same could already know Earth is here.

That knowledge could focus their efforts to make contact by specifying a unique time to say hello the moment when Earth eclipses the sun, dimming our star and revealing our presence. Sheikh is moving to the SETI Institute in California in January, and for her first project there she plans to use the institutes Allen Telescope Array to sweep the night sky directly overhead when the sun is positioned behind the Earth from the perspective of any inhabitants of star systems in view.

The Arecibo Radiotelescope in Puerto Rico, before its destruction

Via Wikimedia

She estimates that the survey will be sensitive to radio broadcasts from an extraterrestrial dish analogous to Arecibo transmitting within about 220 light years. Weaker signals, or signals coming from deeper in the galaxy which spans 100,000 light years would go unnoticed.

Sheikh admits that her plan might seem like a long shot, but argues that it beats scanning the sky from one side to the other the celestial equivalent of wandering Manhattan south to north. You have to start somewhere, she says. Why not start somewhere you think is more likely?

Another Schelling-inspired lesson is to test out as many Schelling points as possible. If your counterpart doesnt show up at Grand Central at noon, try Times Square at midnight. In that spirit, Sheikh is collaborating with Davenport, at the University of Washington to study another temporal landmark.

Nearly 35 years ago, astronomers witnessed a star just outside the Milky Way explode like a bomb. SN 1987a quickly became the subject of more academic papers than any other supernova. Its the only supernova thats gone off in our neighborhood in the last 100 years, Davenport says. Its kind of a big event. Its rare, visible, and outshone the entire galaxy.

If any civilizations were poised, waiting for a special galactic moment to announce their presence, SN 1987a would have been a great opportunity, suggested Argentinian astrophysicist Guillermo Lemarchand in 1994. Now Sheikh and Davenport, together with undergraduate physics and astronomy student Brbara Cabrales at Smith College, are working out the math to look for signals that would just be reaching Earth now, had they been sent in response to SN 1987a.

As light from the supernova reaches new stars, and potential signals from those stars ripple out through space, the zone of the sky to search changes. Using data from NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which watches for stars being eclipsed by exoplanets, the group is developing an algorithm to look for stars that dim or flash at precisely the right moment. They dont expect to find a smoking gun with TESS, which keeps tabs on hundreds of thousands of stars. Their main goal is to get the software tools ready for the upcoming Vera Rubin Telescope, which will monitor 10 to 20 billion stars on a weekly basis.

Further down the line, other SETI researchers could tweak the software to search for radio signals, rather than looking only for civilizations with the technology to make their star flicker. Were looking at signals now in [visible light] because thats where the data is, Davenport says. Were scavengers. Were taking what is already available to us. Astronomers have to be crafty.

Shy Civilizations

The central conceit of seeking Schelling points in modern SETI is the assumption that both sides are playing the same game. But with more powerful instruments, researchers might be able to start looking for more bashful civilizations. In that case too, crafty astronomers are already thinking about what common behaviors might give an inhabited planet away, even if its not actively broadcasting.

Humanity, for instance, has benefited from putting television, radio, and weather satellites in high enough orbits that they continuously face the same part of the Earth. These spacecraft in geosynchronous orbits form an artificial ring around our planet roughly 22,000 miles above the ground. If another planet sported a thick enough artificial ring, it might block the light from its star in a peculiar way that astronomers could spot.

Our ring is sparse today but gets slightly denser every year. In 200 years, the satellite belt would become notable enough to be seen by extraterrestrial astronomers at a distance of ten light years using current telescopes, astrophysicist Hector Socas-Navarro calculated in 2018.

Another proposal assumes that civilizations have a vested interest in their long-term survival and may develop the technology to watch out for catastrophic asteroid collisions. As Carl Sagan reportedly quipped, If the dinosaurs had had a space program, they would not be extinct."

Some of the loudest radio pulses humanity has sent out into space have been for exactly this purpose, with much of the responsibility of monitoring the trajectories of asteroids falling to Arecibos 2.5-million-watt radar beam, before its destruction. Most of that radio signal bounced back to Earth carrying vital information about its target, but some would spill past the asteroid into the galaxy. Similar signals from another world would come sporadically. But since the orbits of asteroids and planets form a flat disk, any radar signals originating from a planet and directed toward an asteroid would always spill outward from the plane of the disk. Future eavesdropping attempts could use this fact to prioritize systems that are oriented edge on to Earth, rather than top down.

Some researchers recoil from efforts to get into the heads of extraterrestrial beings, considering them too outlandish, and Sheikh understands the instinct to avoid assumptions. Nevertheless, since coming to view SETI through a Schelling-tinted lens, she has realized that every project assumes some shared attributes between humanity and whomever else could be out there. Even the fact that many SETI searches target stars betrays a presumption that other lifeforms, like us, are more likely to live on planets than in deep space.

Everything is a Schelling point, Sheikh says. You can't get away from it.

Seeking universality

The more Schelling-inclined researchers can intuit commonalities between terrestrials and hypothetical extraterrestrials, the better their odds of success. And the only commonalities likely to span light years are going to be potential universalities, like knowing how fast sunbeams travel, or not wanting to be taken out by an asteroid. In the interest of ferreting out such universalities, some researchers point out that Earth might hold more than just one example to learn from.

Human cultures have risen and fallen for millennia,and have a long history of misinterpreting each others legacies. Spanish conquistadors, for instance, mistook the Great Pyramid of Cholula (the worlds largest pyramid by volume) for a hill and built a church on it. . Looking at the full sweep of human behaviors, anthropology-style, is useful for shaking us out of our own cultural biases, Kathryn Denning, an anthropologist at York University in Toronto.

She goes even farther, suggesting that observing how dolphins, whales, birds, and other social animals interact while sharing or dividing up territory would be a good way to broaden our thinking beyond the human.

Penn States Wright conceives of Schelling points in a similar way. The goal isnt to get into an aliens head per se, but rather to decipher the essential behaviors of all intelligent beings, starting with animals here on Earth. They have to use energy. They have to move around. At some point they have to interact with each other. They have to eat. And so, we hope that there are similar fundamental things the alien species out there might be doing, he says.

Perhaps in another 70 years, equipped with more sensitive instruments and smarter searching algorithms, SETI astronomers will have checked enough galactic Schelling points to start to answer Fermis question. If we show up at enough interesting landmarks at enough unique times and fail to connect, well have to conclude that no one else is trying to meet up. Or, if they are, theyre going about it in a way thats truly alien.

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Seizing the multiverse opportunities the hybrid way – The Times of India Blog

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Implementation allows businesses to integrate elements physical and virtual and bank on the combined advantages. With proper strategy, a hybrid environment has the potential to deliver the benefits of the core business systems, public and private cloud without the need for massive investment. These future-ready applications offer portability and robustness to businesses for having a competitive edge in deploying high-quality solutions and services.

Power of DevSecOps

Analysing the future of business growth, say in the next 20 years, the hybrid vision must be in close alignment with the present business model and technology disruption capabilities driven by AI/ML, real-time analytics, and automation prowess. The future of adopting a hybrid environment aims at achieving enhanced user experience and agile deployment of solutions that a public cloud can provide across all environments (traditional and cloud). It also allows for the increased protection of data and assets, deciding the storage mode and cover best suited to its requirements. The rise of DevSecOps or secure DevOps has ensured seamless application security at the beginning of the software development lifecycle. Enhanced security automation throughout the delivery pipeline reduces the risk of data breaches and allows quicker turnaround on deploying solutions. It has become critical to ensure the cyber resilience capabilities in todays challenging landscape and protect data, identities, and applications by integrating cyber security in every layer of product delivery. The hybrid environment boosts security capabilities in the workforce allowing unhindered performance and elevated customer experience.

Seize the hybrid future

In the post-pandemic world with an evolved work base, hybrid is the way to go. Optimizing workloads, ensuring cyber resiliency, and minimizing costs on resources sets the business on an upward growth trajectory. Quicker data management with DevOps, cloud-native applications, cybersecurity capabilities, and increased sync within the organization transforms the business into a next-gen powerhouse. As the cloud complexity intensifies, enterprises must make sound investment today in building a strong hybrid IT foundation to capitalize on the multiverse opportunities for a future focused on innovation. Our universe and its possibilities are limitless, with millions and trillions of galaxies spinning through space. Sci-fi movies and years of research have brought to us the concept of the multiverse the probability of multiple and diverse universes exiting parallelly to ours or distant due to the Big Bang. But the real question lies in, is it all there? The mysterious ways in which our universe evolves, and the various quantum physics theories might make us want to believe in the existence of multiple universes or scourge for more evidence. However, while scientists debate this theory, the world of emerging technologies has brought the cloud multiverse at our disposal for endless opportunities in the digital era.

The pandemic-induced digital acceleration has revolutionized business operations today, transforming the pathway to determine growth and success. Businesses have been relooking to rewire their old strategies and underlying framework to achieve an agile and nimble workflow with higher revenue. They now have the bandwidth to evaluate their investment plans, growth goals, and requirements to focus on innovation through deploying niche technologies like AI/ML, IoT, cloud, etcetera. As we move ahead in this digital journey, remote working has pushed companies to shift their base to cloud environments to staying relevant in the present market landscape. Basis the customer demand and the future goals, IT leaders can choose to adopt private cloud, public cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, or be on edge. The future is truly cloudy!

Exploring the hybrid order

As IT frameworks integrate these technologies to ensure flexibility in operations, the cloud multiverse stands ready to be explored by organizations to attain the next generation of transformation. Setting foot in the cloud journey as per the requirements, most organizations are looking at adopting a hybrid cloud approach. According to IDC, 70% of companies by the year 2022 will integrate public and private clouds by deploying hybrid management technologies, tools, and processes. As the industry matures at a fast pace, it has become critical to focus on integrating the right mix of solutions customized for each set of applications cost-effectively while ensuring a higher scale of reliability, resiliency, and agility.

The hybrid cloud architecture allows businesses to manage their core business system while embracing the newly adopted cloud framework. It presents the best way for organizations to optimally move their business-critical assets to the cloud and ensure business continuity as the pressure of the changing IT landscape grows.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Across the Divide: Using guns for self-gratification undermines the 2nd Amendment | Opinion – pennlive.com

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By Becky Bennett

The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal and the arrival of hunting season are making guns a topic around rural holiday tables.

Ive written about how guns are a normal, even necessary part of everyday rural life. But gun owners need to think hard about our reaction to the debacle in Kenoshain which Rittenhouse, a teenager with an AR-15, went looking for trouble and found it. Rural people who revere the Second Amendment, but feel joy, or improbably, vindication in the verdict, are in danger of undermining any legitimate place for guns in our society.

We all know theres a line between murder with a gun and self-defense. But the Rittenhouse verdict explodes that line into a vast gray area of twisted law, exploitative pundits, and rural conservatives hungry for any kind of victory over left-wing media.

So lets talk about the line and the need to etch it in granite before its too late (or later than it is already).

A refrain you hear when rural people talk about why they have guns, other than for hunting, is you never know. . .

There was a stretch in late October-early November when I was having construction work done on my house. It involved removing my garage doors and covering the opening with only a tarp for about five days.

I was concerned about security, and the contractor, whom Id known since high school, asked if I had a gun. I told him, no, but I had a cordless drill. He replied in all seriousness that I needed a gun because . . . you never know.

He recounted a local incident where a man in his seventies shot an intruder in his home. And he told me about getting a handgun for a female family member. Its not uncommon for men in rural areas to buy handguns for women in their families and teach them to shoot. Its part of taking responsibility for yourself and your loved ones. (Imagine if wed tapped into this sense of responsibility around vaccination.)

Because you never know, acquaintances often urge me to carry a gun while hiking. Its why, during an office security check after the mass shooting at a newspaper in Maryland, one of my colleagues gestured meaningfully toward her purse and assured me she was prepared.

The problem with Rittenhouse was that he knew exactly what might happen because his behavior provoked the attacks he then defended himself from.

Theres a difference between reasonable defense and a parade. Parades are intended to impress spectators and to make the parader feel big. In the past, no one bragged about owning guns or flaunted them outside a shooting range. They bragged only about hunting prowess.

Rittenhouse loved a parade. If he wasnt just feeding his egoif he sincerely believed that waving an assault-style firearm in a chaotic situation improved securitythen whoever taught him to behave this way with a gun damaged him immeasurably. No credible rural gun owner would teach children that guns are playthings or props (they teach constant awareness of a guns capacity for harm).

Unfortunately, in our presently unhinged society, allowing guns for responsible defense also opens the way for self-gratifying and provocative displays. Not to mention for exploiters like Gun Owners of America, which intends to award Rittenhouse an AR-15 like the one he killed with, as a thank-you for being a warrior for gun owners and self-defense rights across the country!

When pro-gun organizations and gun owners conflate self-defense and self-aggrandizement, they affirm the weak-minded and guarantee tragedy.

Rural residents, who claim to have their heads on straight about guns (unlike hand-wringing liberals), should know, and do, better. Anyone who cheers the Rittenhouse debacle betrays their rural values of respect for guns, responsible use, and responsibility for yourself and others.

They also risk undermining support for the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association, untroubled by contradiction or nuance, quoted the amendment after the Rittenhouse verdict. Of course, well-regulated militia and security were the antithesis of the Kenosha debacle.

Similarly, gun-toting congresswoman Lauren Boebert hailed a great day for the Second Amendment and the right to self-defense. . . Glory to God! (although nobody ended up covered in anything like glory).

Rural gun owners used to take the Second Amendment seriously as the underpinning of responsible self-protection and the freedom that security brings. If we no longer believe these things, why should our urban counterparts support the right to bear arms?

Becky Bennett lives in south-central Pennsylvania and is a freelance writer and editor. She was editor of the Public Opinion newspaper in Chambersburg for 18 years and a journalist for 40. Across the Divide examines rural perspectives on issues facing Pennsylvania and the nation. Email her at rbenn135@yahoo.com.

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Across the Divide: Using guns for self-gratification undermines the 2nd Amendment | Opinion - pennlive.com

Is the US 2nd Amendment a major contributor to US Mass Shootings? – The Speak Easy – BleepingComputer

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> Because the right to bear arms pertains to anything from a sword to a rifle. Anything and everything can be used as a weapon to kill and to inflict massive harm. A good example is a car that was recently driven into a parade killing 6 and injuring more than 50.

Agreed. Just about anything can be used to kill - even a bag of cotton balls if shoved into someone's throat to the point where their airway is blocked and they suffocate. But that's not the point.

You can not seriously argue that it's not far easier to kill using a gun, particularly a semi-automatic and from a distance to boot. A lunatic wielding a sword may be able to kill several people before being overpowered but put an AR-15 with 30 rounds of ammunition into the same lunatic hands, and the potential death rate goes up tenfold.

I take your point about the recent tragedy where an idiot drove a car through a parade and killed people in America, but that's not comparable to gun-related crime year after year.

If nothing changes and the second amendment isn't revised to suit modern times and living conditions, then when or how can gun-related violence end?

Making guns even more readily available than they already are so that people can defend themselves only exacerbates the problem, so simple logic dictates that the removal of guns from the streets and regulating to force people to have to show justification for obtaining (and continue keeping) firearms makes perfect sense. Wouldn't you say that would be a massive step in the right direction?

In other words, revisit the second amendment and bring it back into line with 21st Century living.

> My son or daughter could easily take a knife to school to inflict pain or use a pair of readily available scissors to kill students that have bullied them.

No doubt, but their opportunity to kill multiple kids instead of just injuring a few would be severely restricted, and that's the whole point. A knife or a pair of scissors can kill, yes. So can a fork, but none of those things are designed for that purpose.

A gun, on the other hand, is specifically designed for that purpose. To kill and maim as quickly and efficiently as possible. It makes sense to have strict laws about how available they are, not just to kids but also to the American population in general. Guns have no logical place in society.

> People are the cause not the second amendment.

But that's only half the story, Dan.

Of course it's people that pull the trigger, but it's the second amendment that gives them the means to obtain deadly weapons in the first place. It's a vicious circle and given that you can't police people who will harm 24/7, it logically follows that the ease of gun availability has to be addressed. How to start doing that? By revisiting the need and value of the second amendment.

That amendment is well overdue to be revised or cut out of the American constitution entirely in my opinion. Remove and severely restrict the ability for people to obtain guns and the people problem (relating to guns) takes care of itself. At a minimum, the people who slaughter others through yearly mass shootings no longer have easy access to the weapons they need to cause the carnage you guys must live with every year.

> The anarchist cook book protected by the first amendment details how to make a simple pipe bomb. Also don't forget that in chemistry classes one can learn how to make a simple bomb.

Sure, the info can be found on the Internet as well. But how often have you heard of kids being slaughtered at school because someone made use of a pipe bomb? Now, how many times have you heard of mass shootings resulting in slaughtered kids?

> So your argument is very moot with regards to guns killing people.

On the contrary, I've just shown you why it's your argument that fails the logic test and is moot.

> So what is worse guns or obesity?

Guns. Because an obese person primarily harms himself through his own choice. A gun, on the other hand, harms others. But you're just trying to deflect from the real issue again.

This discussion isn't about how many Americans die and from what. It's about the value and worth of an outdated second amendment that has a direct cause and effect on the number of yearly gun-related deaths in America. Remove that second amendment protection and gun availability is immediately curtailed. Combine that with a buy-back scheme to get guns back off the streets, and America could finally start making some headway in putting a stop to mass shootings.

It's logic that can't be argued, and countries (just like Australia) have already shown that such steps are both effective and doable.

Edited by achzone, 27 November 2021 - 12:53 AM.

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Is the US 2nd Amendment a major contributor to US Mass Shootings? - The Speak Easy - BleepingComputer

Giving Thanks this Thanksgiving: Family, Freedom, the Second Amendment and Hunting – America’s 1st Freedom

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Traditionally, the Wisconsin gun deer season launches the weekend before Thanksgiving and runs through the Sunday following the national holiday. This years opening weekend found me on family property in north-central Wisconsin with my back to a huge oak tree and a lever-action rifle sitting across my lap. My blaze-orange coat was zipped up tight in the below-freezing temperature, but I know I had a satisfied smile on face.

Thanksgiving and Wisconsin deer hunting are state traditionsa time to celebrate family and friends, and to give thanks for all that we have in this country. This tradition is founded on the ideals of self-determination and freedom. Perhaps most crucial among the freedoms we enjoy is the Second Amendment, which, in a sense, is well celebrated during this week by Wisconsinites and by millions more around this great nation.

For many Wisconsin families, Thanksgiving itself starts with deer hunters getting out the door in the chilly pre-dawn and making their way to their hunting areas. They then, somehow, get back home early enough to enjoy the bird and all the trimmings with the family. After the meal, these hunters may take a quick nap on the couch while the football game plays on the television, and then itss up and back out for the later afternoon hunt.

Wisconsin is home to nearly 700,000 deer hunters, and those participating in the gun deer season are often called the orange army. While it is legal to use a bow during this season, most volunteers in the orange army head afield with the firearm of their choice. It may be grandpas lever-action or a new semi-automatic; whatever the choice, the experience is the same.

Those who are opposed to our Second Amendment rights have a different idea about the decisions we make as gun owners in a free nation. All too often these same anti-gun types have tried to divide gun owners at this time of the year by saying someone doesnt need this or that type of firearm to hunt deer with.

As A1F.com Editor in Chief Frank Miniter recently wrote: Anti-Second Amendment groups and politicianssuch as President Joe Biden (D) and former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry (D)have tried to divide and conquer gun owners by going hunting or mentioning hunters and then claiming true sportsmen and women dont need this or that type of gun.

Were not going to take away your hunting guns, these anti-gunners claim, just the bad ones that no real hunter would use. You know, those scary black rifles, or some other guns they wish to villify.

This tactic implies that the Second Amendment is essentially a hunting right. And since these anti-gun individuals and organizations arent targeting our hunting guns, well, they think we should be okay with their desired restrictions and bans.

The Second Amendment was written to stop government from infringing on our inherent right to keep and bear arms, as self-defense and self-determination are critical elements of actual freedom.

That said, would we have the hunting culture we do today in the United States and Wisconsin without the Second Amendment? I dont see how.

This deer season, I am using a Henry Arms Big Boy All-Weather Sidegate chambered in .357 Magnum. I like lever-actions, and wanted to try this particular rifle with new .357 mag. hunting ammunition.

Actually, though, my favorite hunting rifle is one of those scary black rifles the anti-gunners despise. Its an AR-10, specifically a DPMS GII Hunter chambered in .260 Rem., and Ive used it to great success on many deer and hog hunts.

Anti-Second Amendment types will tell you no one uses an AR-style rifle for huntingthese people are either misinformed or are intentionally spreading a falsehood. All sorts of American hunters like myself use AR-style rifles for hunting game, large and small, and its their choice to do so.

A vibrant Second Amendment provides somewhere between 14 and 20 million Americans with the right to go afield toting the firearms of their choice (state and local hunting regulations dependent, of course). The hunting we do is an important cultural force in this nation; this is so even though most of us dont need to hunt to feed ourselves and our families.

Hunting connects us to the self-sufficiency of the past. Hunting further connects us to the land and to nature, and every Thanksgiving week, tens-of-thousands of Wisconsin hunters and their families share the hunt as an annual tradition.

And for all that, Wisconsin deer hunters like myself very much give thanks.

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Giving Thanks this Thanksgiving: Family, Freedom, the Second Amendment and Hunting - America's 1st Freedom

NRA celebrates 150th anniversary: Americans’ ‘guardians’ of the Second Amendment – Fox News

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The National Rifle Association has notched a big milestone: its 150th anniversary.

"For 150 years, millions of Americans from all walks of life, races, colors, and creeds have been proud members of the National Rifle Association of America. From Presidents of the United States, military heroes, those with household names to rank and file Americans like us, all have entrusted the NRA to be the guardians of their Second Amendment, their self-defense and hunting rights, and indeed their freedom as Americans," NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre exclusively told Fox News.

"That is a solemn duty that all of us at the NRA take seriously. That is why the NRA never has and never will shrink from a fight."

Wayne LaPierre, NRA vice president and CEO, speaks to guests at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum at the 148th NRA Annual Meetings Exhibits on April 26, 2019, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) ()

The NRA was officially founded on Nov. 17, 1871, by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate. The pair launched the group after they became disheartened by the lack of marksmanship among their troops during the war. Church explained in an op-ed at the time that the NRAs primary goal was to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis."

NRA founders Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate (Provided by the NRA)

Its history also includes arming Americans so they could fight back against the Ku Klux Klan, and the organization touts that some of its first members were Black Americans looking to defend themselves against Klan members. Nine of its 10 first presidents were also Union veterans who fought to defeat slavery.

NRA INSTRUCTOR TRAINS THOUSANDS OF INNER CITY WOMEN 'TO ENSURE THEYRE NEVER VICTIMS'

The association has repeatedly come under fire from liberals who say it is rooted in racism, which LaPierre also shot down earlier this year at CPAC.

"The fact is, before the color barrier was broken in professional sports, before it was broken in schools, lunch lines, water fountains, in the media, or in Hollywood, before all of that, and since our founding 150 years ago, the National Rifle Association of America has not only welcomed all Americans. We've fought for civil rights and constitutional freedom for all Americans!" LaPierre said at the time.

Through the years, the NRA has remained on target with its founders goal: training Americans.

During World War II, the NRA opened its ranges to the government and developed training guidelines. After the war, it focused on training hunters and established the first hunter education program, which has since spread from New York to across the country and Canada. In 1957, local North Carolina NAACP leader Rob Williams chartered an NRA-affiliated club to help residents of Monroe fight the KKK. And by 1960, the NRA became the only national trainer of law enforcement officers with its Police Firearms Instructor certification program.

The various training courses continue to today. One NRA instructor recently touted that he has trained thousands of women from Detroit on how to safely protect themselves with guns "to ensure theyre never victims."

The group also has also celebrated the many U.S. presidents throughout history who were NRA members, including John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

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Conservative political leaders also celebrated the NRAs birthday on social media, heralding the group as one protecting freedom.

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NRA celebrates 150th anniversary: Americans' 'guardians' of the Second Amendment - Fox News

‘Tyrants and Traitors Need to Be Executed,’ Said the Army-Vet-Conspiracy-Theorist – Newsweek

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In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

On November 27, San Clemente, California, yoga practitioner, wellness and New Age leader Alan Hostetter, 56, who would later be indicted for his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, posted a video of himself on his own American Phoenix Project YouTube channel talking about his attendance at the November 14 "Million MAGA" March in Washington.

"People at the highest levels need to be made an example of with an execution or two or three," Hostetter said. "Because when you commit treason against this country and you disenfranchise the voters of this country and you take away their ability to make decisions for themselves, you strip them of their Constitution rights. That's not hyperbole when we call it tyranny, that's fucking tyranny. And tyrants and traitors need to be executed as an example ..."

Hostetter, who had previously served with law enforcement for more than a decade, rising to be Chief of Police for La Habra, California, had turned to the southern California spiritual side, proselytizing peace and tranquility before 2020, when COVID lockdown seems to have radicalized him. He started to embrace conspiracy theories, speaking at a QAnon conference.

Soon he started saying that California Gov. Gavin Newsom should be hanged and that traitors to the country "need to be executed as an example."

In a sworn Grand Jury statement, the FBI later said that Hostetter "used the American Phoenix Project as a platform to advocate violence against certain groups and individuals that supported the 2020 presidential election results." He argued on YouTube that votes for Donald Trump had been "switched" to Joe Biden and otherwise "stolen"; he appeared as a speaker at "Stop the Steal" protests. He was highly regarded by the right-wing movement as an Army veteran with a long career in law enforcement.

Upcoming protests, he said in November, were going "to be a shot across the bow of the deep state when they see a million Patriots surrounding that shit hole of a citythe swamp." The Patriots, he threatened, were going to surround the city if the election wasn't resolved "peacefully and soon ..."

At one point, according to NPR, Hostetter and others gathered outside the house of Democratic Mayor Katrina Foley of Costa Mesa, California, to protest what Hostetter called a "dictatorship" and an "unlawful, unscientific, ineffective and dangerous mask mandate."

After the election, according to prosecutors, Hostetter spoke about a stolen election and became involved with the Three Percenters (%ers, III%ers, and Threepers). A 2014 NYPD intelligence division report says the Three Percenters are a modern counterpart to a mythical three percent of American Revolutionary-era patriots who fought and are also the alleged percent of the population of American gun owners who will not disarm. A New Jersey 2015 report says the anti-government group, which justifies the use of violence to counter perceived threats to the Constitution, was one of the leaders of the militia movement.

In August 2017, Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, was caught in an FBI sting while attempting to bomb a BancFirst building in Oklahoma City. Varnell, who subscribed to the Three Percenter ideology, planned the attack for months, watched as a 1,000-pound bomb was assembled, drove it in a van to an alley next to the BancFirst building, and then twice dialed a cell-phone number in order to detonate it before being arrested. "'Three Percenters,' who were counted among attendees at the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville ... believe that, as patriots, they must protect against a tyrannical government, particularly regarding infringement on Second Amendment rights," the NYPD said in a 2017 report.

On December 19, when President Trump tweeted that the upcoming protest in Washington, D.C., would be "wild," Hostetter posted on his American Phoenix Project Instagram account: "I will be there, bullhorns on fire, to let the swamp dwellers know we will not let them steal our country from us. I hope you can join me!"

Before January 6, Hostetter replied to a message from other group members who were planning to go to Washington as whether he was "brining firearms" to the capital. According to prosecutors, he replied: "NO NEVER (Instagram now monitors all text messages ... this has been a public service announcement)" and three added three crying/laughing emoji.

On January 5, Hostetter spoke at the Rally To Save America in front of the Supreme Court, wearing his patent fedora with an American flag bandana around the base. "We are at war in this country, we are at war tomorrow," Hostetter told the crowd.

During the protests on January 6, Hostetter posted a video from the Capitol steps, saying: "The people have taken back their house! I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful sight in my whole life."

Hostetter was arrested by the FBI on June 10, 2021. His Grand Jury indictment says he conspired "to obstruct, influence, and impede" the January 6 joint session of Congress. He plead not guilty to four charges, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. His attorney at the time, Bilal Essayli, pointed out that Hostetter was not charged with entering the Capitol, nor did the FBI claim that he engaged in any acts of violence or possessed any weapon. "He was there to protest and exercise his First Amendment Right," Essayli said. "He was charged with multiple felony counts and I think it's just very troubling as an American citizen."

At a public town hall event held on Zoom after January 6, Hostetter said prosecutors "connected me to Three Percenters in the indictment that I don't believe I've ever even met or had any contact with whatsoever." Hostetter announced last month that he was going to represent himself at trial. When the judge insisted that he at least accept a legal advisor to assist, Hostetter, according WUSA9 television in Washington DC, he said he wanted a legal advisor with no association with Skull & Bones, Free Masonry "or any other organizations that require oaths or vows of secrecy."

"Secret Societies (Freemasonry/Yale's Skull and Bones/Kabbalah, etc) are Luciferian death cults corrupting every aspect of our lives," Hostetter says on LinkedIn. "They must be destroyed so humanity might be saved. Grateful to God for my awakening."

When contacted last month, Hostetter declined to be interviewed by Newsweek, calling it "fake news."

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'Tyrants and Traitors Need to Be Executed,' Said the Army-Vet-Conspiracy-Theorist - Newsweek

Right flight and the ‘Gunshine State’ – Washington Times

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OPINION:

Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Plaque placed at the Statue of Liberty in 1903

Americans tired of riots and woke politics, poorer from high taxes and increasingly unconstitutional regulations, huddled together as they flee crime and COVID-19 lockdowns, and yearning to breathe free from masks and mandates are pouring into Florida.

A recent study in the Sunshine State-based James Madison Institutes (JMI) Journal noted that almost 1,000 people a day are moving to Florida at least in part to escape high taxes, spiking crime rates, and coronavirus craziness elsewhere. Moreover, the JMI study found, the states GOP voter registration just hit a historic high relative to Democrats, a hint these new Floridians probably arent bringing their former states politics along with them.

After all, Florida made headlines the way it pushed back against the riots last yearriots that helped to put at least six million more guns in Americans hands. That means those who move to the state have something else to lose in voting for leftists besides their money.

At one time, not very long ago, Florida was at the forefront in protecting the right to keep and bear arms, becoming one of the earliest states and the largest at the time to move away from may issue concealed carry to a shall issue model. Today, more concealed weapon permits have been issued in the Sunshine State than any other state in the Union over two million. That, and the fact that its sort of shaped like a gun, helped earn Florida the moniker the Gunshine State.

Second Amendment opponents charged that the increase in Floridas gun ownership led to higher numbers of firearm deaths but mysteriously (to them), the overall murder rate actually dropped to the second-lowest murder rate recorded since the state began keeping statistics in 1971. (In fact, the JMI study reports, Floridas crime rate has dropped for an astonishing 50 straight years.)

But

After the 2018 Parkland, Fla. school massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a deranged student who committed a startling 58 school infractions, generated 20 police visits to his home and violated the terms of President Obamas PROMISE program (and who somehow avoided the judge he should have appeared before for his misbehavior), the state responded withgun control.

Specifically, Florida imposed a statewide three-day waiting period for purchasing a gun, even though the Parkland murderer bought his AR-15 a full year before the shooting and to top it off, Broward County already had a five-day waiting period in place. Florida also responded by raising the age from 18 to 21 to own a rifle or shotgun, thus denying young adults the means to defend themselves.

The state also enacted a so-called red flag law, granting the government the power to seize firearms from those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, despite the fact the Parkland killer was declared no threat to anyone or himself by a therapist in a September 28, 2016 police report.

Today, the Gunshine State boasts a Republican supermajority and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who said he would have vetoed the post-Parkland gun-grabbing legislation. Yet this year alone, six pro-Second Amendment measures died in the Republican-controlled legislature. Of course, one of the bills that died was a repeal of the post-Parkland gun-grabbing legislation signed into law back in 2018.

Likewise, while 21 other states have moved beyond licensed concealed carry to Constitutional Carry, Florida now lags behind. In most cases, open carry is generally prohibited in Florida, except in narrow instances. And the law, in this regard, is more restrictive than even Massachusetts or Connecticut and most other states.

Thus, two other business moves made headlines in the last six weeks without ending up in Florida. First, legendary firearm maker Smith & Wesson fell back from its historic 165-year-old headquarters in maniacal Massachusetts to a new, more politically defensible position in Tennessee.

Then on Monday, another icon, Remington Firearms, announced it would end 205 years based in gun-grabbing New York, investing $100 million in a new facility in Georgia, hiring 856 people over the next five years. To add further insult to injury, Taurus, one of the largest multi-national firearm companies globally, recently left their Miami, Florida Headquarters for the greener pastures of Bainbridge, Georgia.In particular, Remington has just emerged from bankruptcy after leftist lawsuits and corporate cave-ins following the spate of mass shootings sweeping the country, despite those shootings painfully obvious link to the Lefts letting the insane out of insane asylums for decades, as well as Democrats refusal to discipline the dangerous.

Florida should hold out a hand of friendship not just to firearm manufacturers but Second Amendment supporters as well. Governor DeSantis should push his GOP supermajority to repeal the states gun control regime.

After all, tempest-tost new Floridians are pouring into the state through freedoms golden door, hoping to find Lady Liberty there.

John Velleco is the executive vice president of Gun Owners of America, a national grassroots lobbying organization with more than two million members and supporters.

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Right flight and the 'Gunshine State' - Washington Times

Time to end trial by media – Washington Times

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OPINION:

Our Constitutional crises in America are many and garner great debate. Theres the explosion of executive power in the federal government, the abandonment of states rights, the erosion of religious liberties and assaults on second amendment rights, among others.

Perhaps no other, however, is more ignored than how our ravenous digital society is diminishing the rights of the accused.

We seldom have the foresight to think about how new technologies could be abused to the detriment of Constitutional freedoms. The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is the latest example of the kind of trial by media that cuts against fair administration of justice. In our digital society, those concerns should not stop at the courtroom doors.

States should act now to end or severely limit the practice of television cameras in the courtroom. The Bill of Rights is primarily dedicated to the rights of the accused. How our communications and technology impact those rights must be considered and deserves action to protect further injustice.

Trials were never intended to be made-for-tv events or Twitter bonanzas. They are not entertainment. Real lives hang in the balance.The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, extended to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, provides for an individuals right to a public trial of ones peers. Certain state constitutions go beyond that definition to include, as in the case of Virginia, the right to an impartial jury of his/her vicinage.

Thomas Jefferson believed that the public trial by jury was the best of all safeguards for the person, the property, and the fame of every individual. The Founders saw a jury of those from their locality as the fairest way to protect them and their fame or reputation.

They could never have imagined that an accused individual would be subject to constant video surveillance, 24 hr. commentary, and gratuitous vilification on a national or even global scale.

The addition of rabid cable news, toxic social media, and ubiquitous mobile technology has only eroded the system further. The innocent, like Kyle Rittenhouse, pay a heavy price. They are defamed at will by millions of armchair analysts, prognosticators, and provocateurs, few if any who have the full record of evidence before them.

It leaves the accuseds reputation to the whims of the mob, not carefully guarded by those peers in their local community, as was once envisioned.

Trials were once viewed in person and by a very limited number of folks interested enough and fortunate enough to grab a seat on a wooden bench in a cramped local courthouse. The media was permitted to report on the days events without being intrusive to the process. MSNBCs behavior during the case alone is good reason to reassess our current voyeuristic fascination with these cases.

Thanks to trial by media and an outdated Supreme Court Times malice precedent regarding libel and slander, todays innocent defendants can be acquitted only to find their reputation outside the courtroom destroyed to the point they live like a criminal for life. They are free but in a prison of societys making for them.

If a defendant is found guilty and goes on to pay his debt to society, should he not be entitled to a second chance in our system?

Not only have the risks to a defendants reputation been ignored by the government for too long, but in an era when violent activist groups like Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA are allowed to operate with impunity, the need to shield the accused is even greater.

People today are not interested in understanding a proceeding as much as commenting on it or using it to fuel their own agendas.

The Supreme Courts old standard in Estes v. Texas should form the rationale for legislation that limits courtroom cameras and other live reporting from court proceedings: [a] defendant on trial for a specific crime is entitled to his day in court, not in a stadium, or a city or nationwide arena.

Justice Earl Warrens concurrence, in that case, is equally relevant today, stating, televising a trial diverts the trial from its proper purpose in that it has an inevitable impact on all the trial participants; detracting from the dignity of court proceedings and lessening the reliability of trials.

Perhaps its enough not to show the faces of defendants and witnesses as we do now with juries. Making live audio recordings available could be a middle ground. Without video, visual mediums may dedicate less time to sensationalizing these cases. There are good arguments for maintaining some broader access, but its time to reign in this insanity.

Tom Basile is the host of America Right Now and Wake Up America Weekend on Newsmax Television, author and former Bush Administration official.

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Time to end trial by media - Washington Times

Letters to the editor – Boston Herald

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James suspension

LeBron James, who instigated the dirty hit on Detroit Pistons player Isaiah Stewart, got only a one-game suspension and Stewart, who was severely injured, got two games? We all know because its drama queen James NBA and the gutless league office didnt have the guts to do the right thing and suspend James for more games since he started the whole thing. If it had been the other way around James would have got off scot-free and Stewart would have received five games. Guess the NBA had to confer with their friend in the Chinese government to see what they need to do.

Paul J. Baranofsky, Waltham

It is time for a big change in this country (It was carnage. 11/23/21). All Americans need to stand up against any judge and politician that continues to dismiss any criminal with a lengthy criminal record.

How often do we have to see carnage, destruction and constant crime only to be followed by those now common words lengthy criminal record?

Every time you see those words, which seems to be every time something like this happens, reach out to Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and ask them why judges keep doing this. You will not get an answer because neither one of those senators ever gave an answer in their life and also they are part of the problem, but if we keep on them maybe, just maybe something will change and we can live in a safe society!

Michael Westen, Malden

As a retired police officer with 28 years on the job, I couldnt agree more with the editorial Leave policing to law enforcement, Boston Herald, Nov. 23.

The question asked at the beginning of this editorial, Who will be the next Kyle Rittenhouse? is definitely worth asking.

I agree with the Boston Herald that Rittenhouse had no business walking around Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, offering protection from BLM/Antifa rioters upset over a jury verdict that didnt go their way. There was no need for a 17-year-old with a big gun in hand walking around the craziness on the streets that night. He was lucky and could have easily been killed that night when he met his three adversaries on the street.

The job of protecting Kenosha and its citizens belongs to police forces and they neither requested or sought a self-professed posse trying to aid law enforcement. The very idea of teens walking around carrying large guns or in the case of the father-daughter AR-15 team carrying that much firepower isnt a good thing by any account.

I support the Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, but the idea of armed militias roaming our streets during a crisis doesnt help public safety but rather imperils it.

As the Boston Herald ended its editorial, Leave law enforcement to the good guys with badges.

Sal Giarratani, East Boston

Now that Mayor Wu is divesting the city from any investment in fossil fuels, I can only assume that she will be cutting off the oil or gas heat to City Hall and her house. Also, she will be getting rid of her electric or gas stove at home?

When are the windmills being installed on City Hall Plaza?

James J. Walsh, North Andover

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Letters to the editor - Boston Herald

Winter session of Parliament to begin today; Farm Laws Repeal, other key bills on agenda – Business Today

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Winter session of the Parliament is all set to begin today. The winter session is expected to conclude on December 23. Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha is slated to be held at 10 am today. Lok Sabha's Business Advisory Committee (BAC) is scheduled to meet at 10:30 am today.

This will be a busy session as 26 bills are on the legislators' agenda. Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 will be taken up on priority. The bill aims to repeal the three farm laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. Farmers have been agitating against these laws on Delhis borders since November 2020.

Governments agenda includes the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021. This bill seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology and its uses. It will also allow a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

Meanwhile, the Congress has issued a whip to its MPs to be present in both the Houses on November 29 while the BJP has asked all its Rajya Sabha MPs to be present in the House on November 29. Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge has also called on a meeting of all Opposition parties to create consensus over the issues to be raised in the Parliament. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) will not attend this meeting, news agency ANI reported.

KEY BILLS FOR WINTER SESSION OF PARLIAMENT

1. Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 20212. Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 20213. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Second Amendment) Bill4. Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill5. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Amendment) Bill6. Metro Rail (Construction, Operation and Maintenance) Bill7. The Chartered Accountants, Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill8. Electricity (Amendment) Bill9. The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 202110. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 202111. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 201912. The High Court and Supreme Court (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill13. Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill14. The Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 202015. Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill16. Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill17. Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill18. Narcotics Drug and Psychotic Substances Bill19. The Cantonment Bill, 202120. Personal Data Protection Bill21.National Anti-Doping and Mediation Bill22. National Transport University Bill23. Indian Antarctica Bill24. Indian Maritime Fisheries Bill25. National Dental Commission Bill26. National Midwifery Commission Bill

(With agency inputs)

Also read: Facebook executives likely to depose before parliamentary panel on Monday

Also read: Winter Session of Parliament to begin on Monday

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Winter session of Parliament to begin today; Farm Laws Repeal, other key bills on agenda - Business Today

Cody Gunmaker Fights To List Its Products On State Website – Cowboy State Daily

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By CJ Baker, Powell Tribune

Firearms manufacturers are not able to sell their guns and ammo on the states Shop Wyoming website and a Cody lawmaker wants the attorney general to take action against what she sees as illegal discrimination.

Last month, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, asked Attorney General Bridget Hill to use a new law to sue the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network, which operates the online marketplace.

Williams made the request after complaints from Big Horn Armory of Cody, which has been unsuccessfully fighting for the better part of a year to list its guns on ShopWyoming.com.

The issue stems from the two large payment processors used by the site, Stripe and PayPal, as neither processor will handle sales of firearms and ammunition. But Big Horn Armory President Greg Buchel and Williams charge that the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network itself run by the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council and the U.S. Small Business Administration is also discriminating against the firearm industry.

The group that controls the Shop Wyoming website has free choice over what platform is used, they are culpable for that choice, Williams wrote to the attorney general on Oct. 29, echoing an earlier email from Buchel. The payment processor for Shop Wyoming and by association, the Wyoming Small Business Development Center and its directors employed by the University of Wyoming are in clear violation of W.S. 13-10-302(a).

The law in question which generally prevents financial institutions from discriminating against firearms-related businesses was passed by the Wyoming Legislature and enthusiastically signed by Gov. Mark Gordon in early April.

Earlier this month, AG Hill said her office will look into the issue. However, its unclear whether Hill could bring suit against the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, as the new law appears to only apply to financial institutions and not their customers or clients. Thats a point thats been raised by the director of the Wyoming SBDC Network, Jill Kline.

Emails provided by Buchel indicate theres also been some uncertainty as to whether out-of-state payment processors like PayPal and Stripe are subject to the law. The legislation also says that financial institutions can choose not to provide services to gun companies for a business or financial reason.

While the attorney generals office has only agreed to look into the issue, Buchel called it the most positive action Ive seen so far.

In an interview, Director Kline said the SBDC has nothing against guns, and only realized the underlying ecommerce platform prohibited firearm sales after subscribing to the service.

we thought we had made a great selection, Kline said in an interview. As many of the what if questions we asked, we obviously didnt get them all in.

She said the intent was never to exclude anyone.

Were trying to just do a program thats going to help businesses here in Wyoming in this difficult time, Kline said.

Publicly launched

The Wyoming SBDC Network, which is based at the University of Wyoming, publicly launched the Shop Wyoming marketplace in February. The site was developed in partnership with an Iowa-based company that powers similar marketplaces across the country, with all of the funding provided by the federal CARES Act.

Businesses can freely sign up to offer their products on the site, which the SBDC has pitched as a place for customers to find products from numerous Wyoming-grown businesses in a single location.

Kline said it gives businesses a place or another place to sell their goods online, particularly as foot traffic may be lagging amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, as a result of the program, weve helped so many businesses actually even get a website up and running, she said.

Around 107 vendors were using the Shop Wyoming platform as of earlier this month, she said, with the site drawing nearly 65,000 pageviews through October. Thats translated to 63 orders and just less than $5,000 in sales. Its an average of only about $50 per vendor, but Kline says the platform is still growing and SBDC is hoping for a boost this holiday season.

Buchel applied to be a seller back on Feb. 1, looking to offer Big Horn Armorys unique big bore lever guns and semi-auto rifles. However, the request was soon rejected.

Unfortunately, the payment [processor] for our site does not allow for sales of firearms or ammunition so we are unable to let you list those, explained Shop Wyoming Project Manager Audrey Jansen. However, if you would like to sell firearm accessories such as holsters, slings, or cuffs you may do that.

Other retailers sell such accessories on the Shop Wyoming platform including leatherwork made for holding bullets and businesses can include a link back to their full site. However, Buchel said hes not interested.

We want to sell the guns themselves, he said in an interview. All of the accessories are ancillary to the whole operation we sell guns, we build guns. Thats the deal.

Buchel quickly brought the issue to the attention of state lawmakers.

Days after Big Horn Armorys denial in February, state Rep. Tom Walters, R-Casper, asked Director Kline if the SBDC could find a different payment processor one that would allow the states firearm manufacturers to sell their products through Shop Wyoming.

Wyoming has worked hard to recruit these manufacturers, Walters wrote, so it only makes sense for Wyoming to offer them the same opportunities as [it] offers other [businesses] in the state.

However, Kline said the Shop Where I Live ecommerce platform, created by Member Marketplace Inc. of Iowa, came with only PayPal and Stripe as payment options and that building an alternative would be cost-prohibitive.

Cody Regional Health

Kline again noted that Big Horn Armory could list its non-firearm products and link back to its full site, saying that alternative was offered to all the businesses that have run into this challenge.

We want to see all of our retailers statewide be successful and we are happy to assist this individual, Kline wrote in late February, referring to Buchel. Unfortunately, this project will not work perfectly for every business.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers took up House Bill 236.

HB 236

The legislation generally prohibits financial institutions defined as payments processors, financial institutions defined in state law and national banking associations from discriminating against entities who are engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition products.

If a business faces such discrimination, the law says they can file a lawsuit and seek actual, treble and punitive or exemplary damages from the institution, along with recouping their costs.

It also empowers the Wyoming Attorney Generals Office to file a suit against institutions who violate the law. Under the bill, the AG can ask a judge to issue a temporary restraining order or permanent injunction against a financial institution that discriminates against firearm entities. The attorney general can also seek a civil penalty of up to $20,000 per violation for repeated discrimination and the state could sever its business relationship with any offenders.

The final version of HB 236 passed the House on a 44-13 vote, while clearing the Senate 23-6. Gordon signed it into law April 8.

I will relentlessly defend our Second Amendment and the Wyoming businesses involved in the firearms industry, the governor said at the time.

In August a month after the new law took effect Buchel reapplied to join the Shop Wyoming platform. When he was turned down again, he charged that the Shop Wyoming processors, the Wyoming SBDC Network and its directors at the University of Wyoming were violating the law.

Kline responded by noting that UW is not a payment processor and not a financial institution.

We simply subscribe to the ecommerce platform that hosts the site, and as a subscriber, we must comply with the terms and conditions provided by the platform, she wrote in the email conversation, which included a few lawmakers.

Buchel, however, said it seemed that the organizations were culpable for their choice of platform.

We again ask you to reconsider your decision regarding this matter before further action is necessary, he wrote.

Rep. Williams took up the cause in the late October email to Attorney General Hill, asking for action under the new law, and she denounced the Wyoming SBDC Networks actions in a news release earlier this month.

I am appalled that they are not abiding by the new law, Williams said, praising Wyomings firearms industry and Big Horn Armory, which is in the process of expanding its operation.

Working through the law

Hill did not respond to a message seeking comment, but the attorney generals office is apparently now working to determine whether the law is being followed. As it sorts through the complaint, the office will likely have to consider a number of issues. For instance, while the law prohibits discrimination against firearm companies, financial institutions can choose not to provide service if they have a business or financial reason.

Stripe prohibits weapons and munitions; gunpowder and other explosives as part of a category of banned items it describes as regulated or illegal products or services. Additional items in the category include products containing tobacco, marijuana or CBD, prescription-only drugs, fireworks and toxic, flammable and radioactive materials.

(Gambling services, adult content, bankruptcy lawyers, psychic services and door-to-door sales are also banned, among other things.) PayPal prohibits its services from being used on a smaller, but similar list of transactions.

On their websites, neither PayPal nor Stripe specifically explain why they ban firearm and ammo-related sales. A general Stripe FAQ on its restricted businesses offers that, for now, due to various reasons, including requirements that apply to Stripe as a payment processor, requirements from our financial partners, and the potential risk exposure to Stripe, were currently not able to work with certain industries.

In Buchels discussions with state officials, some questions have been raised about whether Stripe and PayPal are subject to the law. An attorney in the Legislative Service Office indicated to Rep. Walters that they likely are, though he called the question a tricky one within a considerably complicated field of law.

For his part, Buchel thinks the situation with the Shop Wyoming platform is clear.

Theyre discriminating, he said in an interview, adding, Theyre taking a hard line and, you know, theyre wrong.

If the attorney general ultimately declines to file a suit, Buchel continues to have the option to hire a private attorney and take legal action himself.

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Cody Gunmaker Fights To List Its Products On State Website - Cowboy State Daily

2D Perovskite Nanosheet-Based Drug-Delivery Platform for Cancer Therapy – AZoM

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The latest research in the Chemical Engineering Journal focuses on a sophisticated two-dimensional (2D) photonic drug-delivery technology based on PEGylated WO2.9 nanosheets (a substoichiometric version of WO3) (NSs).

Study:Oxygen-deficient tungsten oxide perovskite nanosheets-based photonic nanomedicine for cancer theranostics.Image Credit: Love Employee/Shutterstock.com

Photothermal therapy (PTT), a non-invasive technique of tumor treatment that employs photothermal agents (PTAs) to create local hyperthermia using near-infrared (NIR) laser light, has been extensively researched and has garnered considerable focus.

Perovskite nanosheets offer several appealing traits as 2D nanomaterials, including surface area features, mechanical flexibility, strong light-matter interaction, minimal trap-state density, and higher adsorption efficacy. Some perovskite nanosheets exhibit high photoluminescence.

However, because of the restricted tissue depth of penetration of the typical NIR-I bio-window (650950 nm), most PTT mediated by NIR-I is still insufficient for the effective treatment of big or severe tumors, contributing to an elevated remnant and recurrence rate.

In comparison, the NIR-II (10001700 nm) bio-window had a higher maximum permitted exposure (MPR), decreased photon scattering, increased penetration depth, and reduced tissue background, allowing NIR-II PTT to significantly enhance tumor treatment efficiency. Unfortunately, in comparison to the PTA active in the NIR-I region, the advancement of NIR-II materials is still behind.

The materials used by the researchers for the experiment included Sodium tungstate monohydrate (Na2WO4H2O), nitric acid (HNO3), chloroform (CHCl3) sodium borohydride (NaHB4), doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), calcein-AM, Propidium Iodide (PI), 4,6-diamidino-2- phenylindole (DAPI), and CCK-8.

Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (pH 7.4), cell culture medium, fetal bovine serum (FBS), penicillin-streptomycin, and trypsin-EDTA were also utilized during the research study.

Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy was utilized for the research study.

First, 200 mg of Na2WO4H2O were scattered in 300 mL of HNO3 solution (5 M). The combined mixture was then swirled for three days at room temperature (RT) for bulk production of WO3H2O. Two rectangle porcelain crucibles with a volume of 5.0 cm 2.0 cm 1.5 cm were used. Firstly, 10 mg of WO3H2O NSs was placed in one of them, NaBH4 (5 mg) was placed in the other one. Two porcelain crucibles were then placed in a tubular furnace, and the porcelain crucibles containing WO3H2O NSs were held on top of the other with a rotation angle of 20.

To make PEG-coated WO2.9 NSs, WO2.9 NSs (10 mg) were combined with 25 mg DSPE-PEG dissolved in CHCl3 solution in 30 mL CHCl3 solution. The CHCl3 solution was removed using vacuum rotary evaporation after 30 minutes of ultrasonic treatment.

Different concentrations of DOX were dissolved in PBS solution (pH 7.4, 10 mM) and further mixed with [emailprotected]2.9 NSs. The final concentration of DOX was 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 mg mL 1, respectively.

In the DMEM medium, 4 T1 cells, HUVEC cells, NCM-460 cells, and Hela cells were incubated. FBS (10%) and streptomycin/penicillin (1%) supplements were administered to all of the DMEM media for the generation of cell cultures.

The latest study showed that WO3H2O NS exhibited the typical Raman-active peaks at 120, 267, 326, 684, 810, and 960 cm 1. The PEGylated WO2.9 NS ([emailprotected]2.9 NS) still retained good dispersity and stability in the PBS and medium even after 24 h incubation, indicating that the dispersity and stability are significantly bet.

When the quantity of [emailprotected]2.9 NSs was 200 mg mL 1, the greatest temperature generated by 2.0 Wcm2 NIR-I irradiation was only 32.2 C. Under 808 nm and 1064 nm irradiation, the photothermal conversion efficiency of [emailprotected]2.9 NSs is determined to be 18.7 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively. These findings imply [emailprotected] NSs have a high potential for use as a photothermal agent for PTT against tumors in the NIR-II window.

The medication loading capacity of [emailprotected] NSs was then examined using a UVvis absorption spectrum. The concentration of DOX loaded onto [emailprotected] increased with the addition of the concentration of DOX, and the maximum drug load efficiency was approximately 102 percent at our studied parameters, which is significantly higher than most nanoparticle-based delivery platforms with drug-loading capacities of 10%30%.

In all cases, four T1 cells were co-cultured. There was no evident cytotoxicity in the groups that simply received NIR-II or [emailprotected]2.9 therapy. Hence, both nontoxicity and biocompatibility were confirmed.

Keeping in view the incredible findings, the WO2.9-based nanoplatform may open the way for a novel method to use more effective perovskite theragnostic nanomedicines for the cure of diverse solid cancers.

In short, 2D perovskite nanosheet drug delivery has been proved to be not only biocompatible but also quite effective for cancer treatment, revolutionizing biomedical applications of such materials and improving the health care treatment quality for people.

Zhang, L., Zhao, S., Ouyang, J., Deng, L., & Liu, Y. N. (2021). Oxygen-deficient tungsten oxide perovskite nanosheets-based photonic nanomedicine for cancer theranostics. Chemical Engineering Journal.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385894721048488

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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2D Perovskite Nanosheet-Based Drug-Delivery Platform for Cancer Therapy - AZoM