Select Page ::

NASA Warns Of Airburst-Causing Asteroid Arriving This Week – International Business Times

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

KEY POINTS

An asteroid following an Earth-intersecting orbit is about to approach Earth in a couple of days. Based on the data collected by NASA, the asteroid is big enough to create a violent explosion in the atmosphere if it ends up colliding with the planet.

The approaching asteroid if currently being monitored by NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNOES). According to CNEOS, the asteroid, which has been identified as 2020 EF, is currently moving towards Earth at a speed of over 10,000 miles per hour.

CNEOS estimated that the asteroid has a diameter of about 98 feet, making it slightly longer than the distances between baseball diamond bases.

According to CNEOS, 2020 EF is an Aten asteroid, which means it follows a natural orbit that crosses Earths path. As indicated in NASAs orbit diagram for 2020 EF, the asteroid follows a very wide orbit around the Sun and almost follows the same path as Earth. Aside from intersections, the diagram also shows multiple near-approaches between 2020 EF and the planet.

Due to its size, 2020 EF will most likely not cause an impact event on Earth during a collision. Instead, the asteroid will probably break apart upon entering the atmosphere and cause an explosion in the sky.

Unfortunately, this does not automatically mean that a collision with 2020 EF will not be dangerous for Earth. As shown during the 2013 meteor explosion over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, mid-air explosions caused by asteroids can be very dangerous.

Depending on their sizes, the blast from space rocks can release energy equivalent to multiple atomic bombs. Although much of the explosion will be absorbed by the atmosphere, the remaining energy would still be powerful enough to damage buildings and injure people on the ground.

Fortunately, CNEOS noted that 2020 EF is not in danger of hitting Earth during its upcoming near-intersection with the planet. The asteroid is expected to approach Earth on March 18 at 11:15 p.m. EDT. During this time, the asteroid will fly past Earth from a distance of 0.04241 astronomical units or roughly 3.9 million miles from the planets center.

Image: Artist illustration of an asteroid heading for the Earth Photo: Pixabay

Read this article:

NASA Warns Of Airburst-Causing Asteroid Arriving This Week - International Business Times

Nasa and SpaceX mission to find space gold – CBBC Newsround

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Nasa has asked Elon Musk, who owns the rocket company SpaceX, to help with a new mission.

The aim of it is to explore a giant metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche. It's often called the 'golden asteroid' because it contains metals worth A LOT of money.

Gold isn't the only metal it has lots of - large quantities of platinum, iron and nickel also make it very valuable.

It's thought that if all the metal on the asteroid were valued, it would be worth a gigantic $15.8 quadrillion (that's 15.8 followed by 17 zeros!).

But even if the spacecraft does successfully reach the asteroid, there are currently no plans for mining or to remove the metal.

Nasa says the trip is simply a research mission to examine what the asteroid is made of.

The Psyche mission will be Nasa's first time investigating a world of metal, rather than rock and ice.

In a statement the space agency said: "The asteroid is considered unique, as it appears to largely be made of the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet - one of the building blocks of our solar system."

To enjoy Newsround at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on.

If you can't see this quiz, click here.

The giant rock, which measures about 140 miles across, is found in an asteroid belt in our Solar System between Mars and Jupiter.

Nasa scientists believe 16 Psyche is a survivor of collisions between planets, which were common when the Solar System was forming.

That means it could tell us how Earth's core and the cores of the other planets were formed.

If everything goes to plan, Musk's rocket-building company SpaceX and Nasa will launch an un-crewed spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2022, with the spacecraft arriving at the asteroid in 2026.

Nasa spots bizarre alien ‘tiramisu’ pattern on the surface of Mars – Metro.co.uk

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Theres a very tasty explanation for the existence of this unusual pattern (Image: Nasa)

Nasa has released pictures of a bizarre natural formation on Mars which (apparently) resembles a tasty slice of tiramisu.

The pattern was spotted in an ice cap near the Martian North Pole and could reveal the secrets of climate change on the Red Planet, which was once covered in water but is now dead and barren.

The Martian ice cap is like a cake with every layer telling a story. In this case, the story is one of climate change on Mars, Nasa wrote.

This image of an exposed section of the north polar layered deposits (NPLD) looks much like a delicious slice of layered tiramisu. The NPLD is made up of water-ice and dust particles stacked one on top of the other. However, instead of icing, layers are topped with seasonal carbon dioxide frost, as seen here as lingering frost adhering to one of the layers.

It added: These complex layers might encapsulate tiny air pockets from the atmosphere which, if sampled, could be studied to understand linkages to previous climates.

In the end, its not always a piece of cake studying NPLD on Mars but, where there is cake, there is hope.

Earlier this month, Nasa released pictures of a mysterious hole on Mars which leads to a cave in which life could survive.

The hole was discovered by analysing images of the dusty slopes of Mars Pavonis Mons volcano, which were snapped by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter craft thats currently orbiting Mars.

Nasa wrote: The hole appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right.

Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep.

Why there is a circular crater surrounding this hole remains a topic of speculation, as is the full extent of the underlying cavern.

Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life.

These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

Scientists recently revealed thatNasa is losing water more quickly than previously estimated, which could affect its chances of hosting alien life.

A new study has found that water vapour is accumulating in large quantities and unexpected proportions at an altitude of over 80 km in the Martian atmosphere.

Parts of its atmosphere are in a state of super-saturation which means they contain more vapour than thought possible, meaning the capacity of water to escape would greatly increase during certain seasons.

What this means is that Mars could be drier than believed and therefore less likely to host life.

In a statement, theCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique wrote: The small red planet is losing water more quickly than theories and past observations would suggest.

The gradual disappearance of water (H2O) occurs in the upper atmosphere of Mars: sunlight and chemistry disassociate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms that the weak gravity of Mars cannot prevent from escaping into space.

Once upon a time, Mars was a beautiful world of lakes, rivers and oceans.

But today its red, dead and appears to be totally devoid of extraterrestrial life.

Now Nasa has discovered evidence of a beautiful aurora on the Red Planet which will help scientists understand the processes which made it so inhospitably barren.

On Earth, the most famous auroras take place near the poles and are known as the Northern Lights.

But on Mars, they take place during the day and give off ultraviolet light, which means they cannot be seen by the naked eye.

However, Nasa has a spacecraft called MAVEN ((Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiting the Red Planet which is equipped with an instrument called theImaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) capable of detecting the aurora.

Its thought that the aurora is generated by hydrogen from Martian water thats currently escaping into space a process which has been happening slowly for a very long time.

Nasa believes that understanding the aurora could shed light on the long process of water loss which is responsible for transforming its climate from one that might have supported life to one that is cold, dry, and inhospitable.

Andra Hughes of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Hughes is the lead author of a paper on about the latest discovery.

She said: Perhaps one day, when interplanetary travel becomes commonplace, travellers arriving at Mars during southern summer will have front-row seats to observe Martian proton aurora majestically dancing across the dayside of the planet (while wearing ultraviolet-sensitive goggles, of course).

These travellers will witness firsthand the final stages of Mars losing the remainder of its water to space.

And if we understand where the water went, we might be able to work out if Mars was ever hospitable to Earth or if its always been a lifeless world.

Rapid screening test being developed in Halifax to quickly detect COVID-19 – Global News

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

A new rapid screening test being developed in Halifax could help detect COVID-19 within minutes.

Researchers at Sona Nanotech Inc. are working around the clock to develop the lateral flow tests, which see samples taken from the mouth or nose.

Dr. Darren Rowles, president and CEO of Sona Nanotech Inc., says it would then work similar to a pregnancy test, producing results in five to 15 minutes.

You dont have to wait four, six, 10, 24 hours in some cases for a result, said Rowles.

Lateral flow tests are not as sensitive as the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention-approved molecular tests. But Rowles says Sonas nanorod technology has been able to bring the sensitivity level down even further.

On some occasions to even peak at ground-levels, which is down to levels of molecular tests, he said.

Story continues below advertisement

Once tested, patients will still need to have their results confirmed. But its hoped the lateral flow tests will act as a screening tool to quickly determine if someone is potentially positive for coronavirus or potentially negative.

By triaging people in that way, thats a very, very good and established method to be able to help contain, [prevent] any spread of future contamination, said Rowles.

It will not only give patients peace of mind, but also help health care professionals.

If youre a frontline worker and you have the ability to be able to deploy that technology, I think that certainly takes a lot of pressure off you, added Rowles.

As the COVID-19 outbreak intensifies, Rowles describes the global scientific community as having a collaborative culture that is helping Sona expedite development.

We recently signed a collaboration agreement with a team in GE, and their lab in Germany is poised to receive materials from us and start a program of work that will cut our workload here by a good third, said Rowles.

Rowles says discussions are already underway with the FDA to potentially fast-track authorization once these tests are ready for market.

2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Originally posted here:

Rapid screening test being developed in Halifax to quickly detect COVID-19 - Global News

The 72 businesses with a five star food hygiene rating in Flintshire – Daily Post

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

These are the restaurants, cafs, pubs and hotels across Flintshire which have a food hygiene rating of five stars, who were last inspected in the last six months.

A five rating is the highest number given by the Food Standards Agency, meaning the business was found to have very good hygiene standards.

The food hygiene inspector will look at how hygienically the food is handled, the cleanliness of the building, and how it manages, secures and records food.

The list of five star rated premises were obtained from the Food Standard agency website and confirmed as correct with the local council as of March 6, 2020.

A spokesperson for Flintshire County Council confirmed that the information gathered from the FSA is correct.

Restaurants / Cafs:

Alexander's - 52 High Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1BH

Cafe at Asda Living - 17 Broughton Shopping Park Chester Road Broughton Flintshire, CH4 0DP

Carmelo's Cafe - 23 Brunswick Road Buckley Flintshire, CH7 2ED

Cherry Pie - Cherry Pie Inn Nannerch Flintshire, CH7 5RH

CJ's Diner - Clwyd Auctions Holywell Road Ewloe Flintshire, CH5 3BS

Cliffy's Cafe - 25 Engineer Park Babbage Road Sandycroft Flintshire, CH5 2QD

Deadwood Smokehouse - Clifton House 18 Wrexham Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1ES

Doherty's Cafe Bistro - 63 Wrexham Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1HQ

Eastern Red - Grosvenor Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1EJ

Gather & Gather UK Ltd - Llaneurrgain House Northop Country Park Northop Flintshire, CH7 6WD

Gladstone's Library - St Deiniol's Library Church Lane Hawarden Flintshire, CH5 3DF

Good Time Charlies Chester Ltd - Runaround Play Centre Chester Road Broughton Flintshire, CH4 0DH

Greggs A55 - A55 Westbound Little Chef Halkyn Flintshire, CH8 8DF

Hawarden Estate General Stroe & Cafe - Broughton Shopping Park Chester Road Broughton Flintshire, CH4 0DP

Holiday Inn - Ewole Flintshire, CH7 6HB

Just Steak - 56 High Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1BD

Kathleen & May Heritage Centre Cafe - Former Sea Cadets Hall Dock Road Connahs Quay Flintshire, CH5 4DS

Mcdonalds Restaurant - Gorsedd Flintshire, CH8 8RF

Mcdonalds Restaurants - King Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1LA

Nandos - Unit 18 Broughton Shopping Park Chester Road Broughton Flintshire, CH4 0DE

Neuro Therapy Centre - C1-C4 Brymau One Industrial Estate River Lane Saltney Flintshire, CH4 8RG

Northop Hall Country House Hotel - Northop Hall Flintshire, CH7 6HJ

On The Corner - Compton House Shop South Street Caerwys Flintshire, CH7 5AL

Pizza Express - Unit 20 Broughton Shopping Park Chester Road Broughton Flintshire, CH4 0DE

Primo Amore Ltd - 33 New Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1NY

Quay Cafe - The Quay Health Centre Fron Road Connahs Quay Flintshire, CH5 4PJ

Rosiez Cafe - Holywell Leisure Centre North Road Holywell Flintshire, CH8 7TQ

Roxy Diner - Iceland Foods Plc Second Avenue Sealand Flintshire, CH5 2NW

Sodexo - 2 Sisters Poultry Ltd Glendale Avenue Sandycroft Flintshire, CH5 2QP

Starbucks Coffee - Deeside Industrial Park Parkway Sealand Flintshire, CH5 2NS

Station Cafe - 1 Chester Road East Shotton Flintshire, CH5 1QA

Strikes Daleside Garden Centre - Daleside Garden Centre Gladstone Way Hawarden Flintshire, CH5 3HF

Sue's Tea room - Sealand Manor Manor Road Sealand Flintshire, CH5 2SB

Thai Dee - 8 Chester Street Flint Flintshire, CH6 5NR

The Old Court House Cafe - 34 Church Street Flint Flintshire, CH6 5AE

The Old Grocery - 68 The Highway Hawarden Flintshire, CH5 3DH

The Old Stores Motorbike Cafe - New Inn Corwen Road Pontblyddyn Flintshire, CH7 4HR

The Royal Oak - Greenfield Road Greenfield Flintshire, CH8 7QB

The Wizz Kidz Ltd - Unit 3a Interlinq Trade Park Ffordd Y Pentre Pentre Flintshire, CH5 2DW

Takeaways / Sandwich shops

Cheeky Chicken - Cheeky Chicken And Pizza Utica House 11 Whitford Street Holywell Flintshire, CH8 7NJ

Club Spice - 80 High Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1BH

Crystal's Fast Food - 83 High Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1BQ

Ewloe Pizza and Kebab House - 1 Holywell Road Ewloe Flintshire, CH5 3BS

Golden Fry - 19 Central Drive Shotton Flintshire, CH5 1LR

Great Wall - 56 High Street Caergwrle Flintshire, LL12 9LL

Korahi Kitchen - 69 Wrexham Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1HQ

New City - 111 High Street Connahs Quay Flintshire, CH5 4DF

Pizza Magic 8 - 2 Chester Street Flint Flintshire, CH6 5NR

Presthaven Sands Cooks Fish & Chip Shop - Presthaven Sands Holiday Park Gronant Flintshire, LL19 9TT

Presthaven Sands Papa John's - Presthaven Sands Holiday Park Gronant Flintshire, LL19 9TT

Quay Fish and Chips and Quay Fine Dining - Unit F1 Quay Shopping Centre Ffordd Llanarth Connahs Quay Flintshire, CH5 4UP

Savoy Catering - Flat 9 New Shop Parade Greenfield Ro Greenfield Flintshire, CH8 7QS

Shamol Tandoori - 46 High Street Caergwrle Flintshire, LL12 9LL

Talk of the Town - 1-3 High Street Holywell Flintshire, CH8 7TD

The Crescent Fish and Chip Shop - 48 Chester Road Flint Flintshire, CH6 5DT

UK Fried Chicken - 27 Chester Street Flint Flintshire, CH6 5BL

Wok Asia - 1 South Lane Buckley Flintshire, CH7 2NL

Pubs and bars:

Connah's Quay Cricket Club - Connah's Quay Cricket Club Cable Street Connahs Quay Flintshire, CH5 4DZ

Crown Inn - Crown Inn London Road Trelawnyd Flintshire, LL18 6DN

Glan Yr Afon Inn - Glan Yr Afon Inn Milwr Flintshire, CH8 8HE

Masonic Hall (Mold) Company Ltd - Masonic Hall Earl Road Mold Flintshire, CH7 1AX

Plough Inn - Plough Inn Aston Road Queensferry Flintshire, CH5 1TJ

Presthaven Sands Carousel Bar - Presthaven Sands Holiday Park Gronant Flintshire, LL19 9TT

Red Lion - Red Lion Inn Rhosesmor Flintshire, CH7 6PF

Swan Inn - Swan Inn 41 Main Road Higher Kinnerton Flintshire, CH4 9AJ

The Central Hotel - Wetherspoons 2-4 Chester Road West Shotton Flintshire, CH5 1BX

The Gold Cape - The Gold Cape 8 Wrexham Street Mold Flintshire, CH7 1ES

The Hollybush - Hollybush Inn Llay Road Cefn-Y-Bedd Flintshire, LL12 9UD

The Millstone - Millstone Inn Hawarden Road Penyffordd Flintshire, CH4 0JE

The Piccadilly Inn - Piccadilly Inn North Street Caerwys Flintshire, CH7 5AW

The Queens Head - 134 Chester Road Mold Flintshire, CH7 1UQ

Hotel, B&B's and guest houses:

Springfield Hotel - Springfield Hotel & Country Club Pentre Halkyn Flintshire, CH8 8BD

The rest is here:

The 72 businesses with a five star food hygiene rating in Flintshire - Daily Post

‘InfoWars’ Host Alex Jones Arrested for DWI in Texas – The Union Journal

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

1: 33 PM PT According to cops docs police officers were contacted us to Jones house for a family members disruption. When they showed up, his partner declared they had a spoken run-in that was physical earlier in the day. She purportedly informed the police officer Jones removed in his automobile and also was perhaps alcohol consumption.

Cops overtook him soon later at some point after 10 PM Monday evening and also drew him over. The apprehension record claims the police officer spotted a solid smell of alcohol originating from Jones.

Jones purportedly confessed he consumed alcohol a container of benefit while he and also his partner went to a sushi dining establishment a pair hrs previously, and also they entered a debate. Jones informed the police officer he strolled house, yet the disagreement proceeded there so he entrusted to most likely to one more house to escape her.

According to the record Jones showed some disability throughout area soberness examinations, such as persuading and also shedding his equilibrium, yet he did impact a little listed below a.08 on the Intoxilyzer two times.

It must be kept in mind its uncertain that the wife is in the record. Jones separated his previous partner in 2015, and also regarding we understand he has actually not remarried.

Alex Jones has a fresh DWI situation deep in the heart of Texas the previous InfoWars host was broken early Tuesday early morning in the Austin- location.

Jones was scheduled around 12: 30 AM according to the Travis County SheriffsDepartment He was back on the roads by 4 AM, after uploading a $3,00 0 bond and also as you may anticipate, Jones is informing his very own variation of occasions.

He took place his Alex Jones Show podcast and also claimed he blew under the lawful restriction of.08 so he believes the entire cost will certainly disappear. InfoWars is currently drifting a conspiracy concept, claiming Jones was captured in a DWI sting targeted at enhancing the Sheriffs Departments variety of apprehensions.

So much, the Sheriffs Department isnt claiming what Jones BAC was when he was arrested. Worth keeping in mind that in Texas you can be arrested for DWI also if youre under the restriction IF the police officer believes your driving capacity suffers.

Jones has actually been billed with offense DWI.

Originally posted here:

'InfoWars' Host Alex Jones Arrested for DWI in Texas - The Union Journal

View: The morbid dance of coronavirus is holding up a mirror to who we really are – Economic Times

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen Vladimir Lenin

A pandemic can be a threat to humankind. As for the macabre dance of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) across the globe, its also throwing up a lot of material to reflect on, holding up a mirror to who we really are, as well as teachable moments in leadership, sacrifice, arrogance, human frailty and abounding, harmful stupidity.

Im thinking about the entitled folks who returned from Italy and, when taken to an army quarantine facility in Manesar, protested that material comforts were inadequate. When told the facility complied with protocols and this was going to be it, they made an offer they thought nobody would refuse: We can pay.

They did not pause to think what such an offer would mean back in Italy, which went from 322 cases to 12,462 in about two weeks. Faced with a tsunami of incoming patients, overwhelmed doctors and healthcare workers must resort to a warlike medical triage system they have to decide who among their patients gets a shot at life. An account from Lombardy describes heartrending scenes hospital corridors filled with patients with acute distress, a clogged system unable to help people literally gasping for breath. Money is futile if you are the first patient to come in after all the emergency beds are taken.

Shocking instances of civic negligence are reported from across India patients running away from quarantine, attendants who discharged a patient against medical advice and took him to multiple private hospitals, folks concealing their travel history for fear of extended stay in a government hospital. They are probably unaware of the gravity of their actions. South Korea, which did very well in controlling the outbreak early on, was brought to its knees by one individual who ignored the doctors advice. A so-called superspreader, Patient 31 travelled widely, coming into contact with over 1,000 people since being advised to get herself tested.

Such behaviour jars against the sacrifice of the medical staff who are working to exhaustion around the world, reminded of their vulnerability by colleagues periodically succumbing to the disease.

The virus is proving to be a terrible inconvenience by disregarding well-established human boundaries of wealth and social class. It is also showing a knack for grounding arrogance. NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive days after making a joke of touching reporters microphones. He must have felt invincible, which is easy when you are a sports star used to a $100 million salary contract. Coronavirus rolled its non-existent eye.

Australias home minister and stridently anti-immigrant politician Peter Dutton has tested positive, and will presumably be looked after well by immigrant nurses.

US President Donald Trump, who dismissed the concern over the virus as a hoax by the Democrats during a recent campaign rally, and his guest at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, who said the virus was a fantasy, have both been jolted after the latters press secretary, present at the summit, tested positive. Brazils ambassador in Washington, who sat at Trumps table at dinner, has also tested positive, and so has Miami mayor Francis Suarez, who met the Brazilian delegation separately.

Rather sneaky of the virus to have got to sniffing distance of the worlds most powerful man within weeks of departing the national boundaries of China.

In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has taken an enormous risk by following a markedly different strategy from every other country, following the advice of chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, who is a proponent of the idea of herd immunity. Other countries are working on the idea of flattening the curve, meaning slowing the spread of infection so that the public health systems are not overwhelmed. England is going to let the cases soar as it wants the population to develop immunity to the virus. The country believes this is the only lasting solution because while social distancing and lockdowns will slow down the spread of the virus, it can spread again when the restrictions are lifted.

Constraints on economic growth must also be playing on the minds of UKs leaders. There is a real risk that lower economic growth due to reduced activity will bring greater misery to peoples lives than the virus itself. Thats something for all leaders to keep in mind, especially in poorer nations where daily wagers and those on the margins will suffer when economic activity is frozen.

Nonetheless, UKs strategy hinges on being able to manage the peaks of the epidemic make sufficient intensive care beds available for those who need it. Once you run out of beds, bodies will start piling up. It could also end up being a terribly discriminatory policy as the viruss morbidity is disproportionately high in those above 60 years. Some virologists have contested the herd immunity theory, saying theres little evidence that people develop sustained immunity to the coronavirus family. Depending on the outcomes, Johnson will either be damned as a killer or hailed as a genius who saw what no other country could. Its a leadership test with potentially thousands of lives at stake.

The march of the virus is also bringing stories of hope, cheer and wonder. If you havent, you must watch (on YouTube) the videos of Chinese drones enforcing the lockdown in Wuhan. The drones swoop down on people who are out and about, and an operator, unseen to the person, scolds them through the machines speakers. Why are you not wearing a mask? Go back home! it chides an astonished little kid, who promptly turns around and scampers home.

It has brought heartening evidence of state capacity, as states like Kerala and Karnataka have started publishing detailed route maps of infected individuals. In Kerala, state workers are delivering midday meals home to anganwadi children. From the same state has emerged the story of a shop that has sold 5,000 masks for Rs 2 each, after procuring them for Rs 10. A video from Italy, showing people in a locked down neighbourhood together singing Sicilian songs from their balconies, is a tribute to human resilience.

The virus has also reminded us of our collective frailty. Who could, after-all, have fathomed that in 2020, the year from science fiction that was supposed to be about flying cars, uploading our brains to the cloud and nudging immortality, we would instead see supermarket riots over toilet paper?

Visit link:

View: The morbid dance of coronavirus is holding up a mirror to who we really are - Economic Times

Churches Grapple With Whether To Suspend Worship Services – WUWF

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Churches around the country are weighing whether to suspend worship services in response to the coronavirus, with their decisions dependent on their size, their proximity to an outbreak, and perhaps even their political leanings.

In the most aggressive response, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have temporarily suspended "all public gatherings" of church members worldwide. According to a church statement, members are encouraged "to care for one another" in lieu of attending worship services.

Roman Catholic and Episcopal leaders are generally leaving the decision of whether to suspend worship services to local diocesan authorities. The Catholic archdioceses of Washington, D.C., and Seattle have both ordered the cancellation of public masses, for example, while other dioceses have not yet done so, opting to mitigate the threat of virus contagion by limiting physical contact or modifying Communion practices. All Episcopal churches in Maryland and D.C. have canceled services, at least temporarily.

In some cases, church decisions are being dictated by local government decrees. After Utah Gov. Gary Herbert asked for an end to all public gatherings of more than 100 people, church leaders across the state agreed to suspend worship services temporarily. In response to a similar request from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, many churches in that state also announced a suspension of services, though some church leaders are resisting the governor's call.

Aaron Harvie, senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, told The Washington Post that he has no plans to cancel services at his church, which has 7000 members in three campuses.

"If we shut down services, it would add to fear," Harvie said. He told the Post he would like to tell the governor that he is treading into an area where "you don't actually have direct responsibility or authority."

Some church leaders close to the Trump administration have been especially resistant to any pressure to suspend worship services.

Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor at First Baptist in Dallas, Texas, and one of Trump's most outspoken admirers, told his congregation he wanted to avoid "pandemic panic."

"I know some people are saying, 'The NBA is canceling games, why don't you cancel church services?'" Jeffress said in an interview with the Dallas TV station KDFW. "Respectfully, what we do is more important than what the NBA is doing. That's entertainment, and that's optional. Worship is essential."

Jeffress, however, may be forced to adjust his church's worship plans after Dallas County on Thursday evening issued a "public health emergency," ordering a ban on public gatherings of more than 500 people.

The decree does not affect Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, located in a neighboring county. Though Prestonwood is one of the largest churches in America, with 45,000 members spread across three campuses, Senior Pastor Jack Graham, another fervent Trump admirer, initially refused to suspend mass worship services.

"We're not going to shut down with the current information that we have," Graham told his congregation.

On Friday, however, Graham and his associates changed their mind.

"After much discussion and prayer and given how quickly the coronavirus pandemic is evolving in our communities," Graham announced, "we have made the difficult decision not to meet in person for services this weekend."

In the Seattle area, home to the most serious coronavirus outbreak, church leaders have willingly agreed to suspend worship services.

"Obviously, there's no substitute for meeting in person, but we know that's not wise," says Ryan Falls, pastor at Westminster Chapel in Bellevue, which has closed its doors indefinitely. The church is just a 10-minute drive from Kirkland Life Care Center, the senior living facility where 26 residents have died so far as a result of the coronavirus.

Falls is continuing to deliver sermons, but without facing his congregation. He films the sermons in a media room at the church for uploading via the church website.

Another church in the Kirkland area, Overlake Christian, has not yet locked its doors, but is considerably scaling back its worship services.

"We are strongly encouraging people to stay home and worship with us online," says associate pastor Phil Chenery, "but we tell people that we are here if you want to join us." Though weekly church attendance averages 1,500, only about 100 worshippers showed up last Sunday, Chenery says.

The suspension of worship services is likely to affect churches across the country differently, depending on their size and available resources. Megachurches, generally defined as having more than 2,000 members, are best positioned to withstand extended closures, largely because of their extensive online operations.

"Megachurches have gone into high tech, rather than high touch," says Scott Thumma, who studies the megachurch phenomenon at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. "So in many ways they're exceptionally well adapted to meet the challenges of not gathering for a couple of weeks."

Almost all megachurches raise revenue through online giving, Thumma says, and are using it to their advantage.

"If [members] give online and then agree to do it monthly," Thumma says, "you are going to get more money than if you just plead with people face to face."

Smaller congregations, in contrast, are likely to depend more on weekly offerings collected in church and are less able to turn to online worship and are therefore more vulnerable to extended suspension of worship services.

Another factor affecting how churches will weather the coronavirus storm, Thumma says, is their age profile.

"Megachurch congregations tend to be significantly younger, and thus less likely to be in that high risk category than smaller, more traditional mainline congregations," Thumma says.

In U.S. Episcopal churches, Thumma notes, almost half the membership is age 65 and older, making them especially vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak.

See the original post:

Churches Grapple With Whether To Suspend Worship Services - WUWF

8 Big Takeaways From Donald Glovers Surprise Collection of New Music – Complex

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

The aisles of grocery stores are barren. All major concerts and sporting events are canceled. The stock market is crashing. Citizens across the world have been encouraged to stay inside. Thousands of people are dying. Even Americas dad has tested positive for adeadly virus thats now responsible for a worldwide crisis.

But in the middle of these bleak, unprecedented times, one thing that we can stay positive about is new music. In the past 48 hours alone, weve been blessed with a second collection of songs from Lil Uzi Vert in as many weeks, an exceptional debut album from Don Toliver,Jay Electronicas long-fabled debut album (featuring JAY-Z!)and more.

As if that wasnt enough, Donald Glover returned in the very early hours of Sunday with a surprise new project that streamed in a loop on his new website, donaldgloverpresents.com,until it mysteriously disappeared later in the evening. As of now, the project has no title, although some have pointed out that Donald Glover Presents is also the name given to his adidas partnership. It appears to consist of 12 tracks, including guestfeatures from 21 Savage, SZA, and Ariana Grande.

Without further ado, lets get into it. As with everything Donald Glover creates, whether from his Childish Gambino persona or not, this one will take more than just one day to completely unpack, so well do that in the coming weeks. But for now, I wrote down some initial thoughts aftera few spins. Here are eight big takeaways from Donald Glovers surprise collection of new music.[Note: All song titles referenced below are placeholder names being commonly used by fans until an official tracklist is revealed.]

The context that surrounds an album always influences the way its received by listeners, and theres no doubt in my mind that Donald Glover was intentional about sharing this collection of music exactly when he did. In the midst of a global pandemic, he chose to present these songs alongside hand-drawn artwork depictingsociety in the throes of hysteria. And although its likely that most of this music was recorded long before words like COVOID-19 and social distancing were inescapable, these songs reflect the chaotic, unpredictable feeling of the day. One moment, Donald delivers sweet, sunny melodies onSweet Thing / Thank You, before things turn apocalyptic on Algorythm, where he growls over dystopian electronic production:Humans dont understand, humans gon sell a lie/Cause humans gotta survive, we know we gon die.

Even though its probably beenon a hard drive somewhere for months (or years), Donald had to have known this line would hit different right now: Why go to the party/Why go to the party/Why go to the party at all. Hes always had an anxious perspective on the future of humanity, and this comes through vividly on a song like Time where he sings, Seven billion people/Tryna free themselves/Said a billion prayers/Tryna save myself/I can see it coming/But it'smovingfast. Can you think of a better refrain for March, 2020? Its still unclear exactly what the plan was behind the release of this music, but it feels like Donald was sitting on music that he realized was naturally aligned with the tone of a global pandemic, and decided to share it with the world. With the recent news that the third season of Atlanta has been put on hold due to coronavirus outbreak concerns, we know Donald is feeling firsthand anxiety from this pandemic. It wouldnt be a stretch to think he hand-picked a collection of unreleased songs from his stash, with the specific goal of soundtracking a moment like this.

Instead of uploading these songs to traditional streaming platforms, Donald chose to share them in one continuous loop on his website until Sunday evening. When listeners arrived at the site, they were plunged into the middle of a stream, wherever it happened to be at the time,with no knowledge of where they were in the tracklist. There were no song titles, no credits, no explanations at all. Not only was this a unique, refreshing way to experience music in 2020, completely void of context,it also acted as a unifying way to hear an album for the first time. No matter where you were in the world, you were hearing the same song at the same time as everyone else who was tapped in. Considering the fact that everyone is similarly unified by the same life experiences right now (being locked down in isolation), this feels like a deliberate choice from an artist who has a fondness forexperimental, collective listening events. RememberPHAROS?

A couple years ago, Donald Glover kept telling everyone hewas planning on retiring Childish Gambino.Now, it seems that may have just happened, considering this project was shared as Donald Glover Presents, without any mention of his Childish Gambino alias. After listening tothis music, which isstylistically miles away from the rap-centric material he was making when he used a Wu-Tang Clan name generator to come up with Childish Gambino, this decision makes a lot of sense. Donald isnt the same artist as he was back then. Gone are the days of the punchline raps we heard all over Camp. Now, he wants to sing. Hed rather make genre-defying, melodic music than stick to just one style. Fortunately for fans, it seems a complete retirement from music isnt imminent. Instead, its the beginning of a new erathe Donald Glover era.

Donald Glover took a sharp stylistic left turn on his 2016 album, Awaken, My Love!which veered away from his hip-hop origins in favor of R&B, psychedelic soul, and funk. On this new collection of music, he continues that evolution. Here, Donald leans even harder into his R&B influences, but this time, hes a little more in line with 2020 pop music. Where Awaken, My Love!was criticized by some as being a pastiche of bygone eras, these songs feel more fresh. This time, he injects his influences with distinctly modern furnishingsplaying with forward-thinking electronic production techniques, vocal effects, and contemporary songwriting methods. And the addition of guest vocals from 21 Savage, Ariana Grande, and SZA doesnt hurtto make this thing feel more current. After being overshadowed by his influences the last time around, Donald is now coming into his own and bending these sounds into a form of his own making. The evolution of Donald Glover just took another step forward.

Whether its writing surreal storylines on Atlanta or dramatically switching genres without warning, Donald Glover has always liked experimentinga tendency that isnt lost with these new songs. Midway through the opening track (or at least whats being commonly referred to as the opener) Warlords, he hits us over the head with jarring electronic production and nearly indecipherable lyrics, creating an unsettling mood. Its as if hes telling fans, If you were expecting an album full of straightforward pop songs after the release of Summertime Magic and Feels Like Summer, think again. Im still going to fuck with you a little. But unlike some of his experimental moments in the pastthink Riothes figuringout how to execute on these ideas in a more effective way. The moments of experimentalism feel more intentional now. On songs like Algorythm, he deliberately makes use of an abrasive electronic beat to convey a feeling of paranoia and unrest. Alternatively, a cut like Sweet Thing / Thank You takes on a calming, euphoric feeling thanks to a kaleidoscope of diverging sounds. Either way he takes it, the experiment works.

Donald Glover and 21 Savage first connected in late 2018 on i am > i was standout, Monster, a song that featured Donald rapping harder than wedin years. Now, on Vibrate, theyve connected again, with results that are just as thrilling. After Donald bounces aroundall over the beat, flipping from nimble raps to soaring falsettos, Savage anchors the song with a typically menacing verse, highlighted by lines like, Got a girl in Harvard, I talk proper when I call her/Baby, I'm a baller, ain't no way that I can rob ya. Theyre two for two. Forget that long-rumored Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino collab project. We need a joint album from 21 and Donald!

In early 2016, Donald Glover became a father for the first time when he and his partner, Michelle White, had a son named Legend. Now, hes including his children in the creative process for the first time. On the outro of, Dont Worry About Tomorrow (The Violence), we hear the voice of one of his sons, who playfully sings along with the melody of his father. Then Donald asks his son, Who do you love? Me and his son responds, Yeah. Any one else? Glover asks. Mom and Hulalo. And Santa/And I love-and I love Roland/And I love myself, his son says. Its a sweet look into the family life of a notoriously private figure,and an early glimpse at Donald Glover, family man.

My biggest takeaway from a first listen of these new songs is that Donald Glover is improving as a musician. As a working actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director, he has never been able to dedicate 100% of his time to music. So at times, he hasnt been able to properly execute his most ambitious musical ideas on Childish Gambinoprojects. Thats beginning to change on this project. Here, his skills as a vocalist have improved noticeably, as has his knack for overall songwriting. Hes leaning on his influences less,taking more calculated risks, and at 36 years old, his worldview has matured. His skills are still sharpening with age. We may never see the day that Donald Glover quits ever other creative pursuitand focuses all his attention on music, but for now, hes still somehow finding time to advance himself as a musician. Weve all beenrewarded with a new collection of songs that are, on first listen anyway, a marked improvement on Awaken, My Love!

See original here:

8 Big Takeaways From Donald Glovers Surprise Collection of New Music - Complex

The workers Compensation Fund software is failing the people of South Africa – Daily Maverick

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

We write to you today to put it to you that, regardless of what you have been telling the public in recent weeks, the Compensation Fund is still technically dysfunctional, injured workers are suffering and no counter-arguments or deflections can change this devastating fact. Your new CompEasy (4Si) software system is failing the people of South Africa.

This protracted dysfunctionality is having a direct impact on the lives of real workers who have been injured on duty (IOD) across South Africa. The Compensation Funds own 2018/2019 annual report quotes 632 adjudicated claims per day of injured workers this excludes claims from the Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company (FEMA), Rand Mutual Assurance Company Limited (RMA), as well as those claims reported, but not yet adjudicated. So we now have to consider the possibility that well on close to 150,000 workers would have needed to claim since September 2019 and that the vast majority would not have been able to do so.

The collateral damage to our society more broadly is considerable. The situation is causing devastation to the medical carers and practices who have been forced to treat and rehabilitate these workers out of pocket. It is causing great distress to the multitude of employers in this country who are caught between a rock and a hard place as they grapple, on the one hand, with the Funds failure to pay for the medical care of their workers so that they can return to work, and surviving an economic recession on the other. This is not to mention the impact felt by so many other affected parties, from families and communities to support service providers who are coming to the aid of the claimants and their doctors in these most trying of times.

It is time for you all collectively to stop making excuses, cease sugar-coating the situation and above all, to stop attacking the victims of this monumental systemic breakdown in the Compensation Fund system. Lest we need to remind you Minister, you have a duty to fulfil in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Act, No 61 of 1997.

Let us look at some of the recent statements you have made about the situation and how these stack-up against reality:

Firstly, claims that the migration from the old uMehluko system to the new CompEasy system between August and October 2019 has been successful, is patently untrue. We are aware of meetings between Compensation Fund officials, the Britehouse project lead and various stakeholders, including national hospitals groups, professional bodies and administrators in which they admitted two things: that the migration is incomplete, causing many issues, and that many of the claims that were accepted in the old system are still stuck there and could not yet be migrated, which is preventing accounts from being paid. Thus, the fundamental question needs to be asked: When exactly will these be paid?

Secondly, Britehouse told the media that the system is operational and processing claims and the number of claims processed continues to increase daily. We would contend that this statement is just smoke and mirrors. Other organisations representing employers tell us that only 5% of their members have been able to get onto the CompEasy system to date. Furthermore, we are informed that only 2,200 of the estimated 600,000+ employers across SA have been able to register on CompEasy and only 8,000 of the potential 150,000 claims have been registered in the past six months, as per the figures recently provided by the Labour Department themselves. By definition, you certainly cannot classify the system as operational yet.

Thirdly, Minister Nxesi, you recently told Parliaments Labour Portfolio Committee that 80% of claims had been paid, and that fraudulent claims and incomplete paperwork were to blame for the non-payment of claims. Where exactly did you derive these figures and narrative from?

We have absolute proof that more than 98% of our members current, valid claims are not being paid, even though all the correct submission channels were followed. Our reality is that IOD medical service providers (MSPs) are experiencing a multitude of ad hoc system errors, and as you know, they are reporting these to both the Compensation Fund and Britehouse. All of the claims and medical reports that cannot be uploaded are now being emailed to your officials. They are overwhelmed by the volumes and cannot match the reports to the accounts, even though we have provided all the required information.

If your statement to the Portfolio Committee is true, then the obvious and burning question is when will the medical service providers be paid for the 80% that has been processed as alleged? The inconvenient and unpalatable truth is that you have not provided a system which allows all legitimate medical service providers to upload patient reports, and now you blame those same medical service providers for not supplying the paperwork or and this is even more insulting supposedly uploading fraudulent claims.

If the Fund is now paying only about 2% of what it used to pay out under the old system, are you now stating that the other 98% of accounts that were submitted are fraudulent? Or are you really saying that the non-payment to the 98% can prevent fraud purely because it makes all claims submissions, whether legitimate or fraudulent, virtually impossible? If for a second we supposed that you have now managed to eliminate fraud, you are surely obliged to state exactly where the fraud existed and what targeted controls you are putting in place. System failure does not constitute a fraud prevention tool.

We often hear reports that the Funds staff have been accused of fraud, yet you have only publicly announced a handful of medical providers who have been caught submitting fraudulent claims. The public has a right to know how many of your officials and medical service providers have been prosecuted for fraud perpetrated against the Fund to date? Give us the facts.

As a fifth point, Mr Gassner, your spokespeople told the media that Britehouse was one of a number of parties and service providers who were involved in the development and deployment of the CompEasy system, and in this regard, delivered on its responsibilities in line with the requirements provided. Can you please clarify which part of the job you were responsible for and who should, in fact, be held accountable for the broken parts of the system? Even if Britehouse was responsible for only certain aspects of this enterprise technology deployment, one would expect an international group such as Dimension Data/Britehouse to advise the client, irrespective of the fact that the client did or did not sign off, that deploying any system untested without running it parallel to the old system is a recipe for disaster. In this instance, it could be seen as a major contributing factor to the pain and suffering of injured workers not receiving treatment.

Finally, Minister Nxesi, you recently said that you would like to present three proposals to healthcare professionals, namely:

iii) possibly setting up a forensic investigation. We take this opportunity to respond.

We are not aware that a formal meeting invitation has been issued yet, but neither Iwag nor any of its members have been invited to any such meetings. There have, however, been many meetings in the past which have all proven to be fruitless, and many more unanswered meeting requests, but if you are willing to listen to our concerns diligently, responsibly, in good faith and with an open-mind, we hereby accept your offer to meet.

Parliamentary Committee members can visit the Compensation Fund offices, but unless these Honourable Members can process and pay claims or switch on the new CompEasy system, the visit will not improve the life of a single injured worker. We also doubt whether the Honourable Committee Members will really be able to see if the offices are functional during a guided tour.

In this regard, could you please supply us with accurate statistics per your regional offices regarding how many medical invoices have been distributed per region, how many are in the queue to be processed, how many have been processed since 1 October 2019 and the reasons why payments are not flowing to MSPs?

In terms of the suggestion of a forensic investigation, it is unclear how one would conduct such an investigation of something that has never really worked. But assuming you do order a forensic investigation, will its terms of reference focus only on the causes of the problem, or will it also attempt to calculate the cost to real injured workers whose rights have been denied simply because they could not get a claim number, or if they could, could go no further due to the software freezing on them, or sending back erroneous error messages? Will your forensic audit look into how many workers never received the timeous critical care and rehabilitation they needed because of these issues and how their recovery paths are harmed? Will you Minister, look into the eyes of the 150,000 workers and their families who have been prejudiced by the failure of the Compensation Fund and CompEasy and explain their plight?

In addition to the inhuman treatment of workers, will your proposed forensic investigation include an analysis of how many physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other practices have either had to retrench staff or close down, or how many skilled and specialised IOD doctors have left the country because of the CompEasy situation?

Conclusion

We also read your media release about the Compensation Funds visit to Marquard in the Free State on 25 February with interest. While we wont go into details about it now, the claims you make in that release warrant further scrutiny by whoever is investigating the CompEasy debacle.

The country needs answers. We need answers. We need accountability. The workers of South Africa need a compensation system that works, as is their right. The power and the responsibility is in your hands Minister. Recall the words of President Ramaphosa in a previous state of the nation address, Thuma Mina, send me. Workers across the length and breadth of South Africa are calling out to you for help Minister. Dont let them down in their hour of need!

Yours in workers health,

The Injured Workers Action Group (Iwag)

Members: South African Private Ambulance and Emergency Services Association, (SAPAESA); Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa (OTASA); South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP); South African Medical and Dental Practitioners Association (SAMDP); Relay EMS; Jgerhof Game Lodge; IOD account administrators and aggregators representing 2,000+ medical practices; CompSol; MedSol Debtors Management; and CIRC. DM

Please note you must be a Maverick Insider to comment. Sign up here or if you are already an Insider.

See the article here:

The workers Compensation Fund software is failing the people of South Africa - Daily Maverick

MCU: 10 Characters We Want To See In The Falcon And The Winter Soldier – Screen Rant

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Its an exciting time to be a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the films are now meant to go hand in hand with the TV series. Within Phase Four, well be seeing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier be the first show to play out.

RELATED:The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: 5 Rumors We Hope Are True (& 5 We Hope Aren't)

Since this will be given the same level of importance as the films, theres always a chance we might see characters from the movies show up here. If youre wondering who that could be and how the story would play out, then check out these 10 characters we want to see in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Ross returned to the MCU after a gap of eight years, only to become a mainstay once more as hell be seen in Black Widow next. However, it would make more sense to see him in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier for the antagonistic role he played toward the titular characters.

As Ross was responsible for bringing the accords forward - something that kickstarted the Civil War arc - theres enough to go on here for him to resume his negative influence. Plus, theres still hope we might see him become the Red Hulk in the MCU canon as well.

It turned out we didnt actually get to see Maria Hill at all in Spider-Man: Far From Home, and her future is still up in the air. Still, we wouldnt count the chances out for Maria to show up here, as her background as an agent makes her perfect for the series.

The explanation for the Skrulls assuming her identity could be explained away as Maria being busy with the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.Theres always been the feeling that she hasnt fulfilled her potential evenafter eight years in the MCU; this series could be her chance to live up to that potential.

With The Winter Soldier set to be given an additional characterization, his past in the MCU deserves to be seen. The best flashbacks would be set during the time he was fighting in the war, and Peggy Carter was at the center of things back then.

Sure, she had a great ending in Avengers: Endgame, but its important to remember that she was the Peggy from an alternate timeline. We can still see the main universe Peggys history explored, and what better way than having her interact with Barnes in the past?

Notice how weve mentioned Bruce and not Smart Hulk, and that would be because the latter version would be too out of place in this series. However, having him revert to Bruce Banner would make things interesting once again. His presence would make sense too since we last saw him Falcon and Winter Soldier.

RELATED:Falcon And Winter Soldier: 5 Reasons Why U.S. Agent Could Be The Villain (& 5 Why Hes Actually A Good Guy)

Most think he was done wrong in Avengers: Endgame for essentially becoming a comic relief, so we think this series could make him out to be a serious character by setting him up for the potential appearance in the She-Hulk series.

It would feel unfair to have Everett be solely associated with the Black Panther films, more so because he made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. Plus, we last saw Helmut Zemo speaking with Everett, meaning theres an established hostility there.

With Zemo back, and Everett always amid missions, theres really nothing stopping him from appearing in the series as far as the story is concerned. He could even be placed as the next Phil Coulson in that Everett can pop in between films and shows.

It was a surprise to see Zola as a machine in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but fans have come to the consensus that weve seen the last of the villain. This sense of security would mean wed be shocked once again if Zola were to reappear.

Ideally, it should be the supercomputer version of him rather than the actual Zola, as him uploading his conscience as an A.I. was an intriguing twist that never got explored. With The Winter Soldiers past seemingly coming to haunt him, Zola can represent his HYDRA days.

Wherever theres The Winter Soldier, Howard Stark doesnt seem to be too far behind. These two have had their stories intertwined some way or another, and it always has some kind of interesting revelation for fans.

While we wouldnt mind more secrets of Howard coming out in the open, it would be more intriguing if Howard appears as a manifestation of Barnes guilt. The series didnt dive much into him being Howards killer, and this show can go about in exploring that.

An underrated friendship was that of Rhodey and Sam Wilson, and the former was even seen distraught when searching for Sam in Avengers: Infinity War after the Snap. Theres also the matter of Falcon being partly responsible for Rhodey losing his ability to walk.

With such potential for drama, wed prefer to see Rhodey as himself over being active as War Machine. It would not only update us on Rhodeys happenings after losing Tony but also detail his relationship with Sam in the process.

Like it was with Maria Hill, Nick Fury is also someone whose status is shrouded in mystery. His is even stranger as he was last seen heading somewhere in space. However, that could simply have been left in the film as a joke.

Falcon & Winter Soldier: 5 Things We're Excited About (& 5 That We're Not)

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Fury was seen nearby Maria and Thaddeus Ross, and this could be shown as a conflict waiting to happen in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. If nothing else, wed just like to see Fury contact the titular heroes in order to make clear of both his whereabouts and the status of the Avengers initiative.

You knew this was coming the whole time, and Steve Rogers will remain on everybodys minds throughout the series. Even if he doesnt show up, fans will still be holding out hope for something to point toward the character.

Although the actor has claimed hes done with Steve Rodgers for now, theres still a chance we might see Rodgers cameo either in flashbacks or as the old man he was in Avengers: Endgame. Whatever might be the case, the show just wont feel complete if Falcon and Winter Soldier dont have the original Captain America at least for a little while.

NEXT:Falcon and Winter Soldier: Bucky Barnes Top 10 MCU Moments So Far

Next10 Game Of Thrones Vs Lord Of The Rings Memes That Are Too Hilarious

Saim Cheeda is an entertainment writer covering all of Film, TV, Gaming and Books. He's been a writer for Valnet since 2017, contributing 500+ articles for The Gamer, The Things, Game Rant, Comic Book Resources and Screen Rant. Apart from freelance writing, Saim is a lifestyle blogger, co-owning the blog 3 States Apart.http://3statesapart.com

View post:

MCU: 10 Characters We Want To See In The Falcon And The Winter Soldier - Screen Rant

SETI@Home Is Over; The Fight Against COVID-19 Is Just Beginning – Forbes

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

SETI@Home gave rise to an active online community of volunteers and enthusaists.

After more than 20 years of searching for extraterrestrial radio signals, the SETI@Home project is going into hibernation mode on March 31. But just as SETI@Home winds down, another distributed computing project is asking for help in the fight against the coronavirus COVID-19.

Searching For Extraterrestrial Life At Home

For the last 20 years, volunteers have donated their computers processing power to help astronomers search radio telescope data for signals from alien civilizations. SETI@Home tackled the kind of computational heavy lifting that usually requires a supercomputer, but the project did it with thousands of ordinary internet-connected desktop and laptop computers and even some Android mobile devices. By parceling out bits of computing work to all those individual computers, SETI@Home created a virtual supercomputer capable of processing massive amounts of astronomical data.

The idea was that most computers have a lot of downtime, when their processing power isnt being used, and that could be put to work to comb through data from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, sorting through the proverbial haystack of radio noise from astronomical sources, telescope electronics, and human-made radio signals for anything that looked more interesting. In this context, more interesting means signals whose transmission power rises and falls or spikes abruptly, or signals that pulse regularly.

SETI astronomer David Gedye proposed the idea in 1995, and it was up and running by May 1999. In 2005, SETI@Home migrated to a new platform, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC), which was designed to distribute data analysis work to networks of computers. The idea SETI had pioneered had spread to medical research, physics, and other fields. A few years later, in 2008, SETI@Home officially claimed the world record for the largest computation in history. Since 2016, SETI@Homes virtual supercomputer has also helped crunch data from the Breakthrough Listen project.

But now the work is done or at least the first step, the kinds of analysis that require the combined computer power of [number] personal computers, is done. Basically, weve analyzed all the data we need for now, explained the projects organizers. We need to focus on completing the back-end analysis of the results we already have and writing this up in a scientific journal paper.

Fight COVID-19 Without Lifting A Finger

If youre a SETI@Home alum, or if youre just hearing about the project and wish you could have gotten in on it, dont despair; theres lots more work for your computers spare processing power, including helping medical researchers fight COVID-19. Folding@Home (a program similar to SETI@Home that focuses on disease research specifically how proteins fold) just rolled out an initial wave of projects that simulate how proteins from SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) work and how they interact with human cells.

Our specialty is in using computer simulations to understand proteins moving parts, explained Folding@Homes Greg Bowman in a recent blog post. There are many experimental methods for determining protein structures. While extremely powerful, they only reveal a single snapshot of a proteins usual shape. But proteins have lots of moving parts, so we really want to see the protein in action. The structures we cant see experimentally may be the key to discovering a new therapeutic.

In particular, the new batch of research projects are interested in how SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV (the related virus that causes Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS) interact with a chemical receptor on human cells, called ACE2. Both coronaviruses seem to latch onto ACE2 as a way of getting into the cell.

To get involved, start by downloading the Folding@Home application.

Anyone Need A Spare Virtual Supercomputer?

If protein folding isnt your thing, SETI@Homes home at BOINC also has a lengthy list of about 30 research projects in need of computer time. BOINC lets you sign up for multiple projects and decide how you want to prioritize your computers spare processing power. As with Folding@Home, theres an application to download in order to get started.

In the spirit of SETI@Home, you can sign up for Asteroids@Home to help model the shape, rotation, and other physical properties of thousands of asteroids, Cosmology@Home to help figure out which models of the universe best match the available data, Einstein@Home to help search for weak signals from pulsars, Milkyway@Home to map the structure of our galaxy, or Universe@Home to simulate star formation. Other projects focus on mathematics, climate modeling, earthquake detection, and medicine.

Technically, you can still sign up for SETI@Home on the BOINC website. The projects organizers say theyre not taking it down or disconnecting accounts; theyre just not assigning any new computing work.

That could change eventually, however. We hope that other UC Berkeley astronomers will find uses for the huge computing capabilities of SETI@Home for SETI or related areas like cosmology and pulsar research, wrote the programs organizers. If this happens, SETI@Home will start distributing work again.

So far, SETI@Home hasnt found any conclusive evidence of anyone other than humanity sending radio signals into space, but organizers say theyve found some interesting targets for future study.

See the original post here:

SETI@Home Is Over; The Fight Against COVID-19 Is Just Beginning - Forbes

‘Devs’: Every Question (and Theory) We Have for Alex Garland’s Sci-Fi Series – Collider.com

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Spoilers ahead through Episode 3

Devs, the new sci-fi series from up-and-coming paragon on the genre on the big and small screen Alex Garland, is poised to be the next big water-cooler drama in an era of post-water-cooler television. Episodes of the heady show are available to stream now thanks to the newly launched FX on Hulu streaming channel, but weve already got a ton of questions that we hope Devs will answer. Stay tuned to this post because well be updating it with answers, more questions, and a validity check on our theories along the way.

Devs follows the story of a young software engineer, Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno), who investigates the secretive development division of her employer which she believes is behind the murder of her boyfriend Sergei (Karl Glusman). Devs also stars Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny and Alison Pill. The new limited series, produced by FX Productions, will attempt to do all this in just eight episodes. But first

*Spoilers ahead*

Image via Miya Mizuno/FX

Our entry point into the world of Devs is Sergei, a gifted programmer who finds himself in way over his head as he gains access to the highly secure and secretive Devs program within the company he works for, Amaya. Sergeis exemplary work had to do with mapping the behavior of a simple nematode into a computer program, to the point that the A.I. was able to predict the creatures behavior to nearly 100% without any direct connections between the two to give feedback. The impressive feat was only hampered by the limitation of a 30-second predictive window, but that was good enough for Forest to invite Sergei into Devs.

However, that wasnt good enough for security chief, Kenton (Grenier). His xenophobic paranoia proved to be correct since Sergei turned out to be a Russian spy tasked with recording whatever was going on in the Devs program. And what exactly that was, well, we still dont know, but Sergeis watch and phone captured enough footage of the code streaming across the Devs monitors to not only entice the Russians but to sign Sergeis death warrant. Its not long at all before Sergei is suffocated to death on the companys campus by Kenton, with Forest and Katie (Pill) complicit in the murder. But why?

Image via Raymond Liu/FX

While waiting for Sergei to come home, Lily can be seen reading a copy of D.F. Jones 1966 sci-fi novel Colossus. And that should be a big, big clue for just whats going on beneath the surface here. The novel tells of the titular super-computer that is given oversight and control of the American nuclear missile armament. Colossus soon links up with a similar super-computer in the Soviet Union, but its using increasingly devious manipulations of human behavior to do so. In the end, Colossus and the super-computers rein supreme even as the humans attempt to subvert them in a multi-year plan, but it seems certain that the computers will out-last them. In the end, the computers final message suggests the futility of humankinds efforts from here on out: In time you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love. Is the point of the Devs program actually a cold war arms race of sorts between humans and super-advanced A.I.? The Devs facility itself resembles a super-sized version of a computer processing unit, so the visuals and the narrative clues certainly point towards this possibility.

My colleague Adam Chitwood has his own theory on this one; it is as follows:

Another possible theory is that the Devs program has discovered that life on Earth is actually a simulation. When Sergei first reads the code, he is tremendously upset. Like, try-to-rip-your-eyes-out-of-your-skull-and-vomit upset. After Forest has Sergei killed, theres a scene in which he and Katie are sitting outside Devs having a conversation. At first it seems like theyre just upset about having to kill Sergei, but the conversation is laced with something deeper. Even more troubling.

What are we supposed to do? Unravel a lifetime of moral experience? Unlearn what has always seemed true? Katie says to Forest. These things, they run deep. Its like whatever we know, the things we feel are still locked inside us. She goes on to draw a parallel to an atheist whose child gets hurt and starts praying, which we learn later relates to Forest having lost his daughter. But could she be talking about how theyre finding it difficult to unlearn this lifetime of moral experience now that they know nothing matters because theyre in a simulation? Did they really kill Sergei if Sergei didnt actually exist to begin with?

Image via Raymond Liu/FX

This thread continues when Forest is talking to Kenton about how he doesnt care about money or the environment anymore. Again, if he knows theyre in a simulation, that would explain why these things dont matter to him right now.

As this theory relates to the end of Episode 2, the backward projection project, are they trying to basically pull up a screengrab from an earlier experience from the simulation? We see them conjure a fuzzy image of Jesus of Nazareth being crucified. What if this isnt a painting or a time travel device? What if its literally like the highlights section on a video game? Adam Chitwood

But theres another possibility. At one point, before Sergeis demise, Forest asks him why he thinks his predictive program falls apart after 30 seconds. Sergei supposes that perhaps the calculations are just too great, that the numbers literally go insane after a certain point; Forest is on board with this theory. When Sergei suggests a separate hypothesis, that this might be a multi-verse problem in which the predicted behavior and the observed behavior actually line up perfectly, just not in this universe, Forest is more skeptical. However, this might be a misdirection. Garland talked about just what scientific concepts interested him in developing the Devs story:

In this case, it was about determinism, but it was specifically about quantum physics. It was about some elements and some implications of quantum physics, to do with interpretations of some strange things, like particles having super positions and one of those interpretations relating to many worlds. To me, those ideas are not dry scientific ideas. Theyre rather poetic, philosophical ideas. As soon as you can get that, then suddenly, the story feels naturally a part of it.

So the whole thing might just be about quantum states after all. Forest comes clean to a senator in the third episode, saying theyre using their quantum system to develop a prediction algorithm of sorts, predicting the weather and things like that. Clearly theres more going on than meets the eye here. And yet, the question remains

Image via FX

The problem with the people who run tech companies they become fanatics and end up thinking theyre messiahs. ~ Lily

Forest is the CEO of Amaya and the lead for the Devs program, but he often feels as if hes resigned to being led along his own invisible tram line rather than fighting against it. For all his quirky charm, he seems very human, vulnerably so. Hes got a visual style that shares much more in common with Pete, the homeless man who lives on Lily and Sergeis apartment steps, than any of his employees or colleagues. He drives an outdated, ecologically insulting car; he lives in a rather pedestrian home that belies just how much hes worth; and he holds onto his traumatic past despite his protests to the contrary. He seems constantly unsure of himself, of what to do next, of what to say, for fear of giving away too much or revealing that, perhaps, he doesnt really know whats going on himself.

Theres a scene between Forest and Katie, after the murder of Sergei, in which he tells her that shes not just smarter than he is, shes wiser, too. (It may be worth mentioning that Katie is often reflected in one of the gold columns in this scene while Forest is seen in the real world.) Later, security chief Kenton checks in on Forest and updates him on the cover-up of Sergeis murder. Kenton shows concern for his own health as he smokes a cigarette and says he should quit, while also showing concern for Forest and his mental state. Forest, however, seems cynically apathetic about both of these things, saying that they simply arent worthy of concern anymore. That lends some more credence to Adams theory. These interactions also paint Forest as an emotional, somewhat irrational, and irreducible man, while Katie and Kenton are, by comparison, rather cold, distant, and calculating, as if theyre trying to understand Forests motivations or control them. For what purpose? Forests own well-being or the success of the Devs program, whatever that may be?

In the backward projections, we get glimpses of Forests daughter Amaya blowing bubbles, the crucifixion of Jesus, the burning of Joan of Arc at the stake, a primitive person leaving a handprint on a cave wall, a shot of the pyramids under construction, a medieval army on the march, a sexual dalliance between Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, and even Lilys latest act of rebellion against those who are watching her. But what does it all mean? And whats the purpose of it all?

Image via Raymond Liu/FX

Heres where we get a little more Westworld with the whole thing.

The somewhat bloody and quietly brutal fight between Kenton and his Russian counterpart Anton ends with the latters spine-crunching death. The scene itself also puts a wrinkle in our theory that perhaps Kenton is an artificial human in synthetic flesh, so to speak, since he appeared to be wounded and vulnerable in a very human sense. Perhaps, owing to Adams theory, Kenton is actually a security program who is responsible for the integrity of the system and will occasionally have to clash with either rogue programs or invading threats like Anton. Put more simply, perhaps Kenton is the systems anti-virus software.

Katie feels like something different entirely. Or at least she did, up until the third episode. If shes a program, shes a rather human one. Dont break the rules? Coming from her? asks Stewart, incredulously, after Katie catches them watching a very expensive version of nostalgia porn. But Katie is a no-nonsense, by-the-book exec, willing to accept and allow the murder of a spy if it means preserving the integrity of their project. The question remains, however: Is Katie a solid right-hand woman to Forest, just as Kenton is his right-hand man? Or is she actually in charge of more than were being led to believe?

Image via Raymond Liu/FX

Garlands feature debut Ex Machina explored a number of interesting sci-fi themes: Artificial intelligence and whether or not its detectably different from human intelligence at the highest levels, the possibilities and dangers of said A.I., and what a civilization of humans living alongside android A.I. might just look like. Its a showcase of Garlands interests and curiosity at its core; Devs is the evolution of that exploration.

The end of Ex Machina was open-ended: The advanced A.I. unit known as Ava manages to disguise herself convincingly as a human and merges into an unknown city. In our timeline, that was back in 2014, but neither Ex Machina nor Devs has a hard date for its storyline. Could Ava be not just the scaffolding that Amaya was based on but the literal entity behind the scenes of the whole thing?

Were thrown into Devs in the midst of Amayas cutting-edge research without much backstory on just how they got to be where they are. Weve already posited that Katie, Kenton, and the like might be more than meets the eye. Its entirely possible that Garlands Ava will be the Eve to this next generation of synthetic humans. It just remains to be seen whether or not Garland and FX want to go that route and tie the two titles into a shared universe. After three episodes, were not holding our breath for this one, but we are hoping for a brain-twisting reveal that the people we see and the world they live in is much more than it appears so far.

Well be updating this article as the season rolls on, but feel free to share your theories and questions below!

See the original post:

'Devs': Every Question (and Theory) We Have for Alex Garland's Sci-Fi Series - Collider.com

University of Tennessee researchers hoping to cure coronavirus – 247Sports

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Two researchers from the University of Tennessee have discovered a chemical compound that soon will be further testedand ultimately couldlead to a possible cure for coronavirus.With the help of Summit, the world'smost powerful supercomputer,through a partnership between the University of Tennessee and the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researcherstested how more than 8,000 chemical compounds interacted with the virus, according to a report this week from Knoxville's WBIR-TV.

Jeremy Smith and Micholas D. Smith, a post-doctoral fellow and soon-to-be research professor at UT, began searching for molecules that could be used to stop thecoronavirus from binding and infecting healthy cells, according to Knoxville's WATE-TV.Their experiments found 77 compounds that had the potential to help with future research on the virus.

Jeremy Smith, Governors Chair at theUT and director of the UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics, told WBIR that the supercomputer made the recent research possible. Summit canoperate as fast as 100,000 laptop computers working at the same time.

Summit was needed to rapidly get the simulation results we needed," Jeremy Smith told the TV station. "It took us a day or two, whereas it would have taken months on a normal computer."

Jeremy Smith told WATE that thisquick, digital testing has workedin the pastin finding treatment for diabetes and osteoporosis.

The chemicals they researched stick to the part of the virus that connects with cells, interfering with the virus's ability to bind to cells and spread.Although the researchers' findingsmight not be a cure, they will help to guide future experiments on the virus.

The coronavirus is part of the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which surfaced in 2002, causing an international outbreak that resulted in hundreds of deaths. The researchersdecided to experiment with compounds, according to WBIR, by looking at chemicals that researchers used in the fight against SARS.

They ranked compounds of interest that could have value in experimental studies of the virus, according to a report from the Oak Ridger, and published their results on ChemRxiv.

The next step in the process is to test the digital remedy on an actual sample. That step includes an expert at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis, Colleen Johnson, according to WATE. The testing would be conducted on an actual coronavirus sample in the coming days in a controlled environment, according to the report.

According to WATE, theresearch has been slowed, ironically, because Johnsonand Micholas D. Smith both have been battling the flu throughout their work.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared a state of emergency Thursday as coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world, including Tennessee. The World Health Organization announced Wednesday that COVID-19 had become a global pandemic.

The virusresulted in the cancellation ofthe remaining games ofthe SEC men's basketball tournament in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday. The SEC also has suspended regular-season competition in all sports through March 30.

View post:

University of Tennessee researchers hoping to cure coronavirus - 247Sports

JUSTUS 2 Supercomputer from NEC Deployed at University of Ulm – insideHPC

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

NEC has deployed a new supercomputer at the University of Ulm in Germany. With a peak performance of 2 petaflops, the 4.4 million euro JUSTUS 2 system will enable complex simulations in chemistry and quantum physics.

JUSTUS 2 enables highly complex computer simulations at the molecular and atomic level, for example from chemistry and quantum science, as well as complex data analysis. And this with significantly higher energy efficiency than its predecessor, said Ulrich Steinbach. The new high-performance computer will be available to researchers from all over Baden-Wrttemberg and is therefore particularly with regard to battery research a very sensible investment in the future of our science and business location.

JUSTUS 2 is one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. With 33,696 CPU cores, the system is expected to deliver a five-fold increase in performance compared to its predecessor.

The combination of HPC simulation and data evaluation with methods of artificial intelligence brings a new quality in the use of high-performance computers and NEC is at the forefront of this development, added Yuichi Kojima, managing director of NEC Deutschland GmbH.

Weighing 13 tons in total,JUSTUS 2 has 702 nodes with two processors each. Named after the German chemist Justus von Liebig, JUSTUS 2 was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the state of Baden-Wrttemberg and the universities of Ulm, Stuttgart and Freiburg.

High-performance computing is essential, especially at a science and technology-oriented university like Ulm, said computer science professor and university president Professor Michael Weber. Therefore, JUSTUS 2 is a significant investment in the future of our strategic development areas and beyond.

Read the original:

JUSTUS 2 Supercomputer from NEC Deployed at University of Ulm - insideHPC

We May Be Living in a Simulation, but the Truth Still Matters – The New York Times

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Wednesday night, in no particular order in the space of an hour: The N.B.A. suspended its season. Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife have the coronavirus. President Trump, who had spent time hate-tweeting Vanity Fair magazine earlier in the day, banned travel from Europe. And, of course, the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, wearing a pink, fluffy bear outfit, sang Sir Mix-A-Lots Baby Got Back on The Masked Singer. Correction: Badly sang it.

In perhaps the most accurate assessment of the night, Josh Jordan tweeted: We are living in a simulation and it has collapsed on itself.

I do not believe in the simulation hypothesis, which he is joking about here. For those not familiar, it posits that what we think of as reality is not actually real. Instead, we are living in a complex simulation that was probably created by a supercomputer, invented by an obviously superior being.

Everythings fake news, if you will, or really just designed as a giant video game to amuse what would have to be the brainiest teenagers who ever lived.

Crazy, right?

But while most people think they actually do exist, wouldnt it be nice to have a blame-free explanation to cope with the freak show that has become our country and the world? (I vote yes, even if some quantum computer just made me type that.)

It would be, which is why the idea of the simulation hypothesis has been a long-running, sort-of joke among some of Silicon Valleys top players, some of whom take it more seriously than you might imagine.

Some background: While the basic idea around the simulation hypothesis really goes back to philosophers like Descartes, we got a look-see at this tech-heavy idea in the 1999 movie The Matrix.

In the film, Keanu Reevess character, Neo, is jarred out of his anodyne existence to find that he has been living, unaware, in a virtual world in which the energy from his body, and everyone elses, is used as fuel for the giant computer. Neos body is literally jacked with all kinds of scary-looking plugs, and he finally becomes powerful enough to wave his hands around real fast and break the bad guys into itty-bitty bytes.

The idea that were all living in a simulation took off big time among tech folks in 2003 when Oxford Universitys big thinker of the future, Nick Bostrom, wrote a paper on the subject. He focused on the likely amazing computing abilities of advanced civilizations and the fact that it is not too crazy to imagine that the devices they make could simulate human consciousness.

So why not do that to run what Mr. Bostrom called the ancestor simulation game? The ancestors, by the way, are us.

My mind was blown again a few years later on the topic. During an interview that Walt Mossberg and I did in 2016 with the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, an audience member asked Mr. Musk what he thought of the idea. As it turned out, he had thought a lot about it, saying that he had had so many simulation discussions its crazy.

Which was not to say the discussions were crazy. In fact, Mr. Musk quickly made the case that video game development had become so sophisticated that it was indistinguishable from reality.

And, as to that base reality we think we are living in? Not so much, said Mr. Musk. In fact, he insisted this was a good thing, arguing that either were going to create simulations that are indistinguishable from reality or civilization will cease to exist. Those are the two options.

Oh my.

I would like to tell you that was not the last time I heard that formulation, or one like it, from the tech moguls I have covered. The Zappos founder Tony Hsieh once told me we were in one after we did an interview, as we were exiting the stage. I think he was kidding, but he also went over why it might be so and why it was important to bend your mind to consider the possibility.

After hearing the simulation idea so many times, I started to figure out that it was less about the idea that none of this is real. Instead, these tech inventors used it more to explain, inspire and even to force innovation, rather than to negate reality and its inherently hopeless messiness. In fact, it was freeing.

At least that is my take, giving me something that I could like about them, since there was so much not to like.

To my mind, tech leaders do not use the simulation hypothesis as an excuse to do whatever they want. Theyre not positing that nothing matters because none of this is happening. Instead, it allows them to hold out the possibility that this game could also change for the better rather than the worse. And, perhaps, we as pawns have some influence on that outcome too and could turn our story into a better one.

Perhaps this optimism was manifesting in the hopeful news that the Cleveland Clinic may have come up with a faster test for the coronavirus. Or that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the coronavirus task force, exists as a scientific superhero to counter all the bad information that is spewed out to vulnerable citizens like my own mother by outlets like Fox News.

In fact, it felt like a minor miracle when the tireless Dr. Fauci popped up on Sean Hannitys show this week to kindly school him on his irresponsible downplaying and deep-state conspiracy mongering of the health crisis. Pushing back on the specious claim that the coronavirus is just like the flu a notion also promoted by Mr. Trump Dr. Fauci said, Its 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, to a temporarily speechless Mr. Hannity. You got to make sure that people understand that!

I sure have Dr. Fauci to thank for saying that, which he repeated in congressional testimony too. In all this mess, it felt like a positive turn in the game. But just in case a game it is, Ill also raise a simulated glass to those teenagers somewhere out there pushing all the buttons to make it so. Not so much for Sarah Palins singing, but Ill take that too.

View post:

We May Be Living in a Simulation, but the Truth Still Matters - The New York Times

In four years of a national mission, total supercomputers built: three – The Indian Express

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Written by Anjali Marar | Pune | Updated: March 12, 2020 12:46:54 pm Param Shivay, the supercomputer at IIT-BHU. (File Photo)

INDIA HAS produced just three supercomputers since 2015 less than one a year on average under the National Supercomputer Mission (NSM), a dedicated programme aimed at boosting the countrys overall computing facilities and launched that year, according to information obtained under the Right to Information Act from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The MeitY and DST handle the National Supercomputer Mission, and the missions nodal agencies are the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. According to the RTI reply, monetary grants to the tune of Rs 750.97 crore, or just 16.67 per cent of the total budget of Rs 4,500 crore, was disbursed during the last four-and-a-half years to these two agencies. The NSM was conceived as a seven-year mission ending in 2022.

The NSM envisaged setting up a network of 70 high-performance computing facilities. These were to be installed at many of Indias top academic institutions and scientific establishments like IITs, the Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research (IISERs), National Institute of Technology (NITs) among others. It was also an effort to improve the number of supercomputers owned by India viz-a-viz the global leaders.

However, skewed funding for the NSM during the initial years slowed down the overall pace of building supercomputers.

In the initial years, funds were limited and the mission was making slow progress. That has improved now and the mission has gathered momentum now with government support, said an official involved in the NSM, who did not wish to be named.

The initial phase, experts say, took additional time as they had to design newer systems in the complete absence of any readily-usable one to assemble softwares on. As the technology was not available, a lot of work had to be done during the initial months. Later, the servers and networks were built after which the softwares were stacked on to them, thus putting together a supercomputer, the official explained.

Globally, China continues to lead the supercomputer race. It added eight more supercomputers in the last six months taking its existing numbers to 227. This giant leap helped China retain its top position, followed by the US (119 supercomputers), as per the TOP500 report of November 2019. Other countries in this league are Japan (29), France (18), Germany (16), The Netherlands (15), Ireland (14) and the United Kingdom (11). All other countries, including India, own only one top performing supercomputer, the report said.

NSMs first supercomputer PARAM Shivay installed in IIT-BHU, Varanasi, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2019, nearly four years post the mission-launch. This 837 TeraFlop capacity HPC was built at a cost of Rs 23.50 crore, the RTI reply said.

The second supercomputer with a capacity of 1.66 PetaFlop was installed at IIT-Kharagpur, and cost Rs 47 crore. The third system, PARAM Brahma, installed in September last year at IISER-Pune, has a capacity of 797 TeraFlop, and cost Rs 23.50 crore, the RTI reply said.

This Rs 94 crore has been spent so far for three advanced computing facilities. The balance allotted budget, experts said, was used in building assembly for components and developing indigenous systems to put together these massive High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, officials involved in the NSM, said.

The budget disbursement by both DST and MeitY towards this mission has been uneven during the last four years, the RTI reply revealed. Twice during the last four-and-a-half years, DST failed to sanction any budget either to IISc (2015-16) or C-DAC (2017-18).

So far, C-DAC has received Rs 144.47 crore between 2015 and September 2019 while IISc has been awarded Rs 265.50 crore by DST alone during the period. MeitY has sanctioned Rs 341 crore to C-DAC alone.

There will soon be 11 supercomputers; expected to be installed by 2020 or latest by March 2021. All will be indigenously manufactured. Besides, the next phase will involve developing capability building, which is an ongoing process, the official said. Three supercomputers are expected to be installed in the near future, one each in IIT-Kanpur; Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru and IIT-Hyderabad, the RTI reply said.

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Technology News, download Indian Express App.

Go here to read the rest:

In four years of a national mission, total supercomputers built: three - The Indian Express

Quantum Computing for Everyone – The Startup – Medium

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Qubits are exponentially faster than bits in several computing problems, such as database searches and factoring (which, as we will discuss soon, may break your Internet encryption).

An important thing to realize is that qubits can hold much more information than a bit can. One bit holds the same amount of information as one qubit they can both only hold one value. However, four bits must be used to store the same amount of information as two qubits. A two-qubit system in equal superposition holds values for four states, which on a classical computer, would need at least four bits to hold. Eight bits are needed to store the same amount of information as three qubits, since a three-qubit system can store eight states 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, and 111. This pattern continues.

The below graph provides a visual for the computing power of qubits. The x-axis represents the number of qubits used to hold a certain amount of information. The blue lines y represents the number of bits needed to hold the same amount of information as the number of qubits (x-axis), or 2 to the power of x. The red lines y represents the number of qubits needed to hold the same amount of information as the number of qubits in the x-axis (y=x).

Imagine the exponential speedup quantum computing can provide! A gigabyte (8E+09 bits) worth of information can be represented with log(8E+09)/log(2) = 33 (rounded up from 32.9) qubits.

Quantum computers are also great at factoring numbers which leads us to RSA encryption. The security protocol that secures Medium and probably any other website youve been on is known as RSA encryption. It relies on the fact that with current computing resources, it would take a very, very long time to factor a 30+-digit number m that has only one solution namely, p times q, where both p and q are large prime numbers. However, dividing m by p or q is computationally much easier, and since m divided by q returns p and vice versa, it provides a quick key verification system.

A quantum algorithm called Shors algorithm has shown exponential speedup in factoring numbers, which could one day break RSA encryption. But dont buy into the hype yet as of this writing, the largest number factored by quantum computers is 21 (into 3 and 7). The hardware has not been developed yet for quantum computers to factor 30-digit numbers or even 10-digit numbers. Even if quantum computers one day do break RSA encryption, a new security protocol called BB84 that relies on quantum properties is verified safe from quantum computers.

So will quantum computers ever completely replace the classical PC? Not in the forseeable future.

Quantum computing, while developing very rapidly, is still in an infantile stage, with research only being conducted semi-competitively by large corporations like Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Much of the hardware to accelerate quantum computing is not currently available. There are several obstacles to a quantum future, of which a major one is addressing gate errors and maintaining integrity of a qubits state.

However, given the amount of innovation that has happened in the past few years, it seems inevitable during our lifetimes that quantum computing will make huge strides. In addition, complexity theory has shown that there are several cases where classical computers perform better than quantum computers. IBM quantum computer developers state that quantum computing will probably never completely eliminate classical computers. Instead, in the future we may see a hybrid chip that relies on quantum transistors for certain tasks and classical transistors for others, depending on which one is more appropriate.

Go here to read the rest:

Quantum Computing for Everyone - The Startup - Medium

UC Riverside to lead scalable quantum computing project using 3D printed ion traps – 3D Printing Industry

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

UC Riverside (UCR) is set to lead a project focused on enabling scalable quantum computing after winning a $3.75 million Multicampus-National Lab Collaborative Research and Training Award.

The collaborative effort will see contributions from UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, with UCR acting as project coordinator.

Scalable quantum computing

Quantum computing is currently in its infancy but it is expected to stretch far beyond the capabilities of conventional computing in the coming years. Intensive tasks such as modeling complex processes, finding large prime numbers, and designing new chemical compounds for medical use are what quantum computers are expected to excel at.

Quantum information is stored on quantum computers in the form of quantum bits, or qubits. This means that quantum systems can exist in two different states simultaneously as opposed to conventional computing systems which only exist in one state at a time. Current quantum computers are limited in their qubits, however, so for quantum computing to realize its true potential, new systems are going to have to be scalable and include many more qubits.

The goal of this collaborative project is to establish a novel platform for quantum computing that is truly scalable up to many qubits, said Boerge Hemmerling, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside and the lead principal investigator of the three-year project. Current quantum computing technology is far away from experimentally controlling the large number of qubits required for fault-tolerant computing. This stands in large contrast to what has been achieved in conventional computer chips in classical computing.

3D printed ion trap microstructures

The research team will use advanced 3D printing technology, available at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to fabricate microstructure ion traps for the new quantum computers. Ions are used to store qubits and quantum information is transferred when these ions move in their traps. According to UCR, trapped ions have the best potential for realizing scalable quantum computing.

Alongside UCR, UC Berkeley will enable high-fidelity quantum gates with the ion traps. UCLA will integrate fiber optics with the ion traps, UC Santa Barbara will put the traps through trials in cryogenic environments and demonstrate shuttling of ion strings while the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be used to characterize and develop new materials. The project coordinator, UCR, will develop simplified cooling schemes and research the possibility of trapping electrons with the traps.

We have a unique opportunity here to join various groups within the UC system and combine their expertise to make something bigger than a single group could achieve, Hemmerling stated. We anticipate that the microstructure 3D printed ion traps will outperform ion traps that have been used to date in terms of the storage time of the ions and ability to maintain and manipulate quantum information.

He adds, Most importantly, our envisioned structures will be scalable in that we plan to build arrays of interconnected traps, similar to the very successful conventional computer chip design. We hope to establish these novel 3D-printed traps as a standard laboratory tool for quantum computing with major improvements over currently used technology.

Hemmerlings concluding remarks explain that many quantum computing approaches, while very promising, have fallen short of providing a scalable platform that is useful for processing complex tasks. If an applicable machine is to be built, new routes must be considered, starting with UCRs scalable computing project.

Early quantum technology work involving 3D printing has paved the way for UCRs future project. When cooled to near 0K, the quantum characteristics of atomic particles start to become apparent. Just last year, additive manufacturing R&D company Added Scientific 3D printed the first vacuum chamber capable of trapping clouds of cold atoms. Elsewhere, two-photon AM system manufacturer Nanoscribe introduced a new machine, the Quantum X, with micro-optic capabilities. The company expects its system to be useful in advancing quantum technology to the industrial level.

The nominations for the 2020 3D Printing Industry Awards are now open. Who do you think should make the shortlists for this years show? Have your say now.

Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter for the latest news in additive manufacturing. You can also stay connected by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

Looking for a career in additive manufacturing? Visit 3D Printing Jobs for a selection of roles in the industry.

Featured image showsUniversity of California, Riverside campus. Photo via UCR.

See the original post here:

UC Riverside to lead scalable quantum computing project using 3D printed ion traps - 3D Printing Industry

Top AI Announcements Of The Week: TensorFlow Quantum And More – Analytics India Magazine

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

AI is one of the most happening domains in the world right now. It would take a lifetime to skim through all the machine learning research papers released till date. As the AI keeps itself in the news through new releases of frameworks, regulations and breakthroughs, we can only hope to get the best of the lot.

So, here we have a compiled a list of top exciting AI announcements released over the past one week:

Late last year, Google locked horns with IBM in their race for quantum supremacy. Though the news has been around how good their quantum computers are, not much has been said about the implementation. Today, Google brings two of their most powerful frameworks Tensorflow and CIRQ together and releases TensorFlow Quantum, an open-source library for the rapid prototyping of quantum ML models.

Google AI team has joined hands with the University of Waterloo, X, and Volkswagen, announced the release of TensorFlow Quantum (TFQ).

TFQ is designed to provide the developers with the tools necessary for assisting the quantum computing and machine learning research communities to control and model quantum systems.

The team at Google have also released a TFQ white paper with a review of quantum applications. And, each example can be run in-browser via Colab from this research repository.

A key feature of TensorFlow Quantum is the ability to simultaneously train and execute many quantum circuits. This is achieved by TensorFlows ability to parallelise computation across a cluster of computers, and the ability to simulate relatively large quantum circuits on multi-core computers.

As the devastating news of COVID-19 keeps rising at an alarming rate, the AI researchers have given something to smile about. DeepMind, one of the premier AI research labs in the world, announced last week, that they are releasing structure predictions of several proteins that can promote research into the ongoing research around COVID-19. They have used the latest version of AlphaFold system to find these structures. AlphaFold is one of the biggest innovations to have come from the labs of DeepMind, and after a couple of years, it is exhilarating to see its application in something very critical.

As the pursuit to achieve human-level intelligence in machines fortifies, language modeling will keep on surfacing till the very end. One, human language is innately sophisticated, and two, training language models from scratch is exhaustive.

The last couple of years has witnessed a flurry of mega releases from the likes of NVIDIA, Microsoft and especially Google. As BERT topped the charts through many of its variants, Google now announces ELECTRA.

ELECTRA has the benefits of BERT but more efficient learning. They also claim that this novel pre-training method outperforms existing techniques given the same compute budget.

The gains are particularly strong for small models; for example, a model trained on one GPU for four days outperformed GPT (trained using 30x more compute) on the GLUE natural language understanding benchmark.

China has been the worst-hit nation of all the COVID-19 victims. However, two of the biggest AI breakthroughs have come from the Chinese soil. Last month, Baidu announced how its toolkit brings down the prediction time. Last week, another Chinese giant, Alibaba announced that its new AI system has an accuracy of 96% in detecting the coronavirus from the CT scan of the patients. Alibabas founder Jack Ma has fueled the vaccine development efforts of his team with a $2.15 M donation.

Facebook AI has released its in-house feature of converting a two-dimensional photo into a video byte that gives the feel of having a more realistic view of the object in the picture. This system infers the 3D structure of any image, whether it is a new shot just taken on an Android or iOS device with a standard single camera, or a decades-old image recently uploaded to a phone or laptop.

The feature has been only available on high-end phones through the dual-lens portrait mode. But, now it will be available on every mobile device even with a single, rear-facing camera. To bring this new visual format to more people, the researchers at Facebook used state-of-the-art ML techniques to produce 3D photos from virtually any standard 2D picture.

One significant implication of this feature can be an improved understanding of 3D scenes that can help robots navigate and interact with the physical world.

As the whole world focused on the race to quantum supremacy between Google and IBM, Honeywell silently has been building, as it claims, the most powerful quantum computer yet. And, it plans to release this by the middle of 2020.

Thanks to a breakthrough in technology, were on track to release a quantum computer with a quantum volume of at least 64, twice that of the next alternative in the industry. There are a number of industries that will be profoundly impacted by the advancement and ultimate application of at-scale quantum computing, said Tony Uttley, President of Honeywell Quantum Solutions in the official press release.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a panic globally and rightfully so. Many flagship conferences have been either cancelled or have been moved to a virtual environment.

Nvidias flagship GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which was supposed to take place in San Francisco in the last week of March was cancelled due to fears of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Whereas, Google Cloud also has cancelled its upcoming event, Google Cloud Next 20, which was slated to take place on April 6-8 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Due to the growing concern around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities, Google Cloud has decided to reimagine Google Cloud Next 20, the company stated on its website.

One of the popular conferences for ML researchers, ICLR2020 too, has announced that they are cancelling its physical conference this year due to growing concerns about COVID-19. They are shifting this event to a fully virtual conference.

ICLR authorities also issued a statement saying that all accepted papers at the virtual conference will be presented using a pre-recorded video.

comments

Top AI Announcements Of The Week: TensorFlow Quantum And More - Analytics India Magazine

Select Page ::