Kyle Shanahan’s playcalling accelerates Jimmy Garoppolo’s progress – NFL Nation- ESPN – ESPN

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CINCINNATI -- Believe it or not, perhaps the most difficult throw San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made in Sunday's win against the Cincinnati Bengals was the one in which his intended target was the most open.

On the Niners' fourth play from scrimmage, wideout Marquise Goodwin leaked down the left sideline and suddenly found himself with a whopping 13.2 yards of separation from the nearest defender, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Garoppolo didn't need one of his best throws for a walk-in touchdown -- he just needed not to blow the layup.

"It's not hard, but it's just nerve-racking," Garoppolo said. "Because you're like, 'If I miss this one, I'll be on SportsCenter Not Top 10.'"

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Garoppolo managed to hit Goodwin for a 38-yard touchdown, which is the most open score by an NFL receiver this season and the most open touchdown for a 49er since 2016.

It would also be far from the last layup Garoppolo was able to make in the 41-17 blowout. In fact, it was a harbinger of things to come, as Niners coach Kyle Shanahan pressed all the right buttons, got a strong performance from his offensive line and watched his offense explode for 572 yards, the most for the Niners since Oct. 7, 2012. They averaged 8.41 yards per play, the most since Nov. 6, 2016.

There are many things that can make Garoppolo's return from the torn left ACL that cost him 13 games in 2018 easier, but Sunday's game offered a resounding reminder that Shanahan can play a key role in making that happen.

"It makes my job very easy," Garoppolo said. "His mind is incredible, just how he thinks. He's two plays ahead while we're running the current play and it makes everything so easy. And when he gets in a rhythm like that, it just puts everyone in a good position."

A week after a disappointing offensive performance against Tampa Bay in which Shanahan didn't ask much of Garoppolo, the head coach -- along with assistants Mike LaFleur and Mike McDaniel -- dialed up a creative, balanced game plan.

What followed was a series of big plays that left Bengals defenders scratching their heads and gasping for breath. The 49ers finished with six pass plays of 20-plus yards and nine runs of 10-plus yards. Bengals cornerback William Jackson said the Niners "used every trick in the book" and noted that San Francisco "clearly plays some Madden."

While Shanahan didn't hesitate to reach into his bag of tricks -- including a throwback pass from receiver Dante Pettis for a 16-yard gain -- the Niners really didn't do all that much different. They just did what they ordinarily do extraordinarily well.

"When he gets in a rhythm, whatever personnel is out there -- even if we havent game planned to go that many plays in a row -- he just keeps it out there and he keeps it going," fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. "He likes to keep his foot on their throat."

In Garoppolo's second regular-season game back since the injury, he finished 17-of-25 for 297 yards with three touchdowns and one interception for a passer rating of 131.2, his best since arriving in San Francisco in 2017.

The key to it all? Success on early downs. The 49ers rarely found themselves facing third-and-long, or third down at all. They were 5-of-9 on third down and compiled 500 of their 572 yards on first and second down, averaging 8.5 yards on those plays. The offensive line didn't allow a sack, yielded just two quarterback hits and opened holes for a running game that finished with 259 yards on a robust 6.2 yards per carry.

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Avoiding third down or third-and-long allowed Shanahan to avoid becoming one-dimensional. Garoppolo and the offense reaped the benefits.

"When you stay in front of the chains like we did today, Kyle gets to use his whole book, which is dangerous for everybody else in the NFL," right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. "We controlled the chains today, we controlled the ball, we controlled the line of scrimmage, and that's all we want to do. We were able to stay in our base stuff and didn't have to panic or anything like that and that's why we had a lot of success today is because we came out on first and second down and executed well and got the job done."

That's not to say that Garoppolo didn't offer encouraging signs that he's recovered from the torn ACL and poised for further improvement. In a day full of big plays, none stood out more than the first offensive snap of the second half.

On the play, Garoppolo took the snap and dropped back as the Bengals generated some rare pressure. As Cincinnati defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow bore down on Garoppolo, he took a step forward and fired a dart to receiver Deebo Samuel, who gained 39 yards on the play. Garoppolo took the hit, bounced back up and the Niners scored six plays later.

In a day full of bigger, fancier plays, it was a notable moment in Garoppolo's recovery.

"It's good to get hit, I guess," Garoppolo said. "It sounds weird to say, but it's moving in the right direction."

With Shanahan at the helm, Garoppolo's progress might accelerate faster than expected.

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Kyle Shanahan's playcalling accelerates Jimmy Garoppolo's progress - NFL Nation- ESPN - ESPN

Scientific progress could result in human extinction – The Conversation – UK

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Our present moment is characterised by a growing obsession with the long term. The study of climate change, for example, relies on increasingly long-range simulations. Sciences predictions are no longer merely hypotheses for validation or invalidation but are often grave threats of growing scope and severity that must be prevented.

Predicting oncoming peril demands a proactive response. This means that, increasingly, the pursuit of technoscience tends towards not only passively investigating the natural world but also actively intervening in it. In the case of the climate, one thing this has spawned is the proposal of geoengineering the large-scale harnessing of Earths natural systems in order to counteract climate changes deleterious consequences.

Our anticipations of natures perils motivate us to attempt to intervene in it and reinvent it for our own purposes and ends. Accordingly, we increasingly reside within a world of our own making, in which the divide between the natural and artificial is collapsing. We see this from genome editing to pharmaceutical breakthroughs to new materials. And it is at the heart of the idea of the Anthropocene, which acknowledges that the whole Earth system is affected for better or worse by human activities.

While some of these technologies are rightly considered the pinnacle of progress and civilisation, our pursuit of anticipating and preventing disaster itself generates its own perils. This is, indeed, what got us into our current predicament: industrialisation, which was originally driven by our desire to control nature, has perhaps only made it more uncontrollable in the form of snowballing climate degradation.

Our efforts to predict the world tend to change the world in unpredictable ways. Alongside unlocking radical opportunities such as new medicines and technologies, this poses novel risks for our species at ever greater scales. It is both a poison and a cure. Though awareness of this dynamic may seem incredibly contemporary, it actually dates surprisingly far back into history.

It was back in 1705 that the British scientist Edmond Halley correctly predicted the 1758 return of the comet that now bears his name. This was one of the first times numbers were successfully applied to nature to predict its long-term course. This was the start of sciences conquering of the future.

By the 1830s, another comet Bielas comet became an object of attention when an astronomical authority, John Herschel, hypothesised that it would one day intersect with Earth. Such an encounter would blot us out from the Solar System, one popular astronomy book sensationally relayed. Edgar Allen Poe even wrote a short story, in 1839, imagining this world-ending collision.

On the other side of the world, in 1827, a Moscow newspaper published a short story envisioning the effects of an impending comet collision on society. Plausible mitigation strategies were discussed. The story conjured up giant machines that would act as planetary defensive positions to repulse the extraterrestrial missile. The connection between predicting nature and artificially intervening in it was already beginning to be understood.

The short story had been written by the eccentric Russian prince, Vladimir Odoevskii. In another story, The Year 4338, written a few years later, he fleshes out his depiction of future human civilisation. The title came from contemporary calculations which predicted Earths future collision with Bielas Comet 2,500 years hence.

Humanity has become a planetary force. Nonetheless, Odoevskiis vision of this resplendent future (complete with airships, recreational drug use, telepathy, and transport tunnels through the Earths mantle) is relayed to us entirely under this impending threat of total extinction. Again, scientists in this advanced future plan to repel the threat of the comet with ballistic defence systems. There is also mention of hemisphere-spanning systems of climate control.

This perfectly demonstrates that it was the discovery of such hazards that first dragged and continues to drag our concerns further into the future. Humanity only technologically asserts itself, at increasingly planetary levels, when it realises the risks it faces.

It is no surprise that, in the appending notes to The Year 4338, Odoevskii provides perhaps the very first methodology for a general science of futurology. He lays claim to being the first proper, self-conscious futurologist.

Read more: The end of the world: a history of how a silent cosmos led humans to fear the worst

In 1799, the German philosopher Johann Fichte anticipated our present megastructure of planetary forecast. He foresaw a time of perfect prediction. Gleefully, he argued that this would domesticate the whole planet, erase wild nature, and even entirely eradicate hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanoes. What Fichte did not foresee was the fact that the very technology that allows us to predict also itself creates novel and unforeseen risks.

But Odoevskii appreciated this. In 1844, he published another story entitled The Last Suicide. This time, he envisioned a future humanity which had again become a planetary force. Urbanisation has saturated global space, with cities swelling and fusing into one Earth-encompassing ecumenopolis a planetwide city.

Yet Odoevskii warns of the dangers that come with accelerating modernity. This is a world in which runaway technological progress has caused overpopulation and resource depletion. Nature has become entirely artificial, with non-human species and ecosystems utterly obliterated. Alienated and depressed, the world welcomes a demagogue leader who convinces humanity to wipe themselves out. In one last expression of technological might, civilisation stockpiles all its weapons and proceeds to blow up the entire planet.

Odoevskii thus foreshadows contemporary discussion on existential risk and the potential for our technological developments to trigger our own species extinction. Right back in 1844, his vision is gloomy yet shockingly prescient in its acknowledgement that the power required to avert existential catastrophe is also the power requisite to cause it.

Centuries later, now that we have this power, we cannot refuse or reject it we must wield it responsibly. Lets hope that Odeovskiis fiction doesnt become our reality.

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Scientific progress could result in human extinction - The Conversation - UK

British Pound Recovers on Brexit Deal Progress after BOE Rate Cut Warning – DailyFX

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Its not a Super Thursday, but it sure feels like one. The September Bank of England policy meeting produced the dually surprising yet unsurprising remark from BOE Governor Mark Carney that the Monetary Policy Committee may need to cut interest rates thanks to the uncertainty around the US-China trade war and the outcome of Brexit. Rates markets, however, are not convinced: there is only a 37% chance of a 25-bps rate cut through August 2020.

The more important news on the day was the recent development that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has submitted to the European Union a framework of a deal that would allow the UK to leave the EU on October 31, 2019 as planned. This may not be a false start either.

Signs of hope for a deal breakthrough emerged on Wednesday when European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that I had a meeting with Boris Johnson that was rather positive. I think we can have a dealI dont like the idea of no-deal because I think this would have catastrophic consequences.

It would thus follow that: if the BOE is considering cutting interest rates due to Brexit uncertainty; and Brexit uncertainty is dropping thanks to positive commentary from European Commission President Juncker; then the BOE may not be incentivized to cut rates as soon as they were otherwise indicating this morning. In the current environment of the race to the bottom among G10 currencies central banks, this may help provide further scope for Sterling rates to recover.

The bullish outside engulfing bar in the first week of September was a sign that there existed greater upside potential; follow through to the topside last week saw GBPUSD rates break above the descending trendline from the May and June 2019 highs. Now, the weekly 21-EMA envelope is being tested as resistance, while weekly MACD has turned higher (albeit in bearish territory), while Slow Stochastics have pushed the median line into bullish territory. There are still technical reasons to expect GBPUSD rates to trend higher.

In our last GBPUSD technical forecast update, it was noted that A break above 1.2380/85 a key band of support/resistance dating back to 2017, including the January 2019 Japanese Yen flash crash low and the July 2019 swing low would suggest that the trend has indeed turned in a more reliable fashion. To this end, GBPUSD rates have maintained their elevation through 1.2380/85 suggesting that a turn has indeed occurred; a low may be in place for GBPUSD barring a no-deal, hard Brexit.

With GBPUSD rates above the daily 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope in bullish sequential order, Slow Stochastics in overbought territory, and daily MACD rising through its signal line into bullish territory, it still holds that the path of least resistance is to the topside. Only a close below the daily 8-EMA would suggest that the recent uptrend has been exhausted.

GBPUSD: Retail trader data shows 60.9% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 1.56 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-long since May 6 when GBPUSD traded near 1.3096; price has moved 4.7% lower since then. The number of traders net-long is 0.6% lower than yesterday and 10.6% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 0.5% higher than yesterday and 10.5% higher from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests GBPUSD prices may continue to fall. Yet traders are less net-long than yesterday and compared with last week. Recent changes in sentiment warn that the current GBPUSD price trend may soon reverse higher despite the fact traders remain net-long.

At the start of September, GBPJPY rates established a bullish outside engulfing bar/key reversal on the weekly timeframe. Last week, there was follow through to the topside after breaking the downtrend from the May and July 2019 swing highs, with GBPJPY rates rising through all the way to the weekly 21-EMA in the process. Likewise, the decisive return back into the channel from the 2018 high suggests a near-term bottom has been established and there is greater scope for recovery.

In our last GBPJPY technical forecast update, it was noted that GBPJPY rates broke above 130.70 on Thursday, September 5, clearing out the descending trendline from the May and July 2019 swing highs in the process. Now that GBPJPY rates are comfortably above the daily 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, and that both daily MACD and Slow Stochastics have risen into bullish territory (the latter is overbought), it would stand to reason that the criteria for a short-term bottom have been met.

In a sense, nothing has changed; the bullish momentum profile for GBPJPY rates persists. Key levels to the topside remain 135.92 (January 2019 Japanese Yen flash crash close) and 136.94 (61.8% retracement of the 2018 high/low range). It still holds that the call for a short-term bottoming effort would be invalidated on a return below 130.70.

GBPJPY: Retail trader data shows 57.1% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 1.33 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-long since May 6 when GBPJPY traded near 146.67; price has moved 8.1% lower since then. The number of traders net-long is 3.4% lower than yesterday and 13.6% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is unchanged than yesterday and 11.2% lower from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests GBPJPY prices may continue to fall. Yet traders are less net-long than yesterday and compared with last week. Recent changes in sentiment warn that the current GBPJPY price trend may soon reverse higher despite the fact traders remain net-long.

In our last EURGBP technical forecast update, it was noted that thus far in September, EURGBP rates have continued to find follow through lower after the inverted hammer in August. EURGBP rates hit a fresh weekly and monthly low just yesterday, and on the monthly timeframe, momentum is starting to shift to the downside. Monthly MACD is nearing a sell signal (albeit in bullish territory), while Slow Stochastics have already turned lower (in bullish territory as well).

There has been follow through to the downside below recent range support around 0.9016. EURGBP rates remain below the daily 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA in sequential bearish order. Daily MACD continues to trend lower in bearish territory, while Slow Stochastics are holding in oversold territory. Per the last EURGBP technical forecast update, it was noted that a drop below the July 25 swing low at 0.8892 would suggest a deeper pullback is likely to occur. With EURGBP trading at 0.8848 at the time of writing, the conditions are in place for more losses in the very near-term.

EURGBP: Retail trader data shows 42.3% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 1.37 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-short since May 9 when EURGBP traded near 0.8648; price has moved 2.3% higher since then. The number of traders net-long is 4.6% lower than yesterday and 23.7% higher from last week, while the number of traders net-short is unchanged than yesterday and 6.8% lower from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests EURGBP prices may continue to rise. Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger EURGBP-bullish contrarian trading bias.

Under a no-deal, hard Brexit outcome, traders should expect further losses by the British Pound, with EURGBP likely to trade closer to parity (1.0000), GBPJPY could trade towards 120.00, while GBPUSD could fall towards 1.1000 during the first 12-months of a no-deal, hard Brexit (keeping in mind that the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve would likely cut interest rates to prevent Brexit shocks from impacting either the Eurozone or US economies too significantly, thereby capping potential gains by the Euro and the US Dollar versus the British Pound).

But this would not be the worst case scenario for the British Pound; in the event that Scotland holds a second independence referendum, its likely markets will be facing down the threat of disintegration of Great Britain as we know it. Under a no-deal, hard Brexit coupled with a Scottish vote to leave the UK, traders should expect EURGBP to climb towards 1.0500, GBPJPY to fall towards 112.50, and GBPUSD to drop closer to 1.0500.

There is scope for a short-term recovery for the British Pound if it appears that a no-deal, hard Brexit is delayed. This could come in the form of a general election that replaces Brexit hardliner Boris Johnson as UK prime minister. The vote on Tuesday, September 3 should be watched closely to see if the UK parliament is able to retake control of its schedule and avoid prorogation. In the event of a delay in the Brexit process, EURGBP could fall back towards 0.8600, GBPJPY could trade towards 133.00, while GBPUSD could rise towards 1.2600

The only hope that the British Pound has for a significant recover is if Brexit is avoided altogether: after all, it will be impossible to replace the economic activity lost endured from leaving the EU, the worlds largest single market. In the event that the next UK prime minister has a change of heart and takes steps to avoid Brexit (e.g. a second referendum or withdrawing Article 50), EURGBP could fall back towards 0.8300, GBPJPY could rally back towards 145.00, and GBPUSD could climb back towards 1.4000; a full-scale recovery back to pre-June 2016 Brexit vote levels is highly unlikely in the immediate aftermath of the cancellation of Brexit.

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--- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Currency Strategist

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British Pound Recovers on Brexit Deal Progress after BOE Rate Cut Warning - DailyFX

GOP senator calls Google antitrust probe ‘great progress’ | TheHill – The Hill

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A former Missouri attorney general who launched the countrys first investigation into Googlepraised a recent multi-state investigation into Google and Facebook over possible antitrust violations.

This is great, great progress, Sen. Josh HawleyJoshua (Josh) David HawleyGOP signals unease with Barr's gun plan Hillicon Valley: Zuckerberg to meet with lawmakers | Big tech defends efforts against online extremism | Trump attends secretive Silicon Valley fundraiser | Omar urges Twitter to take action against Trump tweet Zuckerberg to meet with lawmakers to discuss 'future internet regulation' MORE (R-Mo.) told Hill.TV on Tuesday in reference to the bipartisan effort. It shows what happens if youre willing to take a stand.

Hawley noted the shifting political winds in recent years, sayinghe received pushback from tech companies and lawmakers alike when he initially tried to launch an investigation as state attorney general.

When I launched an antitrust investigation this has been two years ago now I couldnt get a single state to come on board, he said. So now to have almost all 50 is absolutely outstanding.

His comments come as a coalition of 50 state attorneys general moves to investigate Google and Facebook over potential antitrust violations, alleging that the tech giants have amassed too much market power and exhibit anti-competitive behavior.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has lead the charge and announced the investigation earlier this month.

While consumers believe that the internet is free, certainly we know from Googles profits of $117 billion that the internet is not free, Paxton said at a press conference. This is a company that dominates all aspects of advertising on the Internet and searching on the internet.

House lawmakers, meanwhile, areramping up their own antitrust investigationinto Silicon Valley.

Bipartisan leaders on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee sent letters to Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google last week asking for internal communications and documents over pertaining to market dominance.

The companies were given anOct. 14 deadline toprovide the materials.

Tess Bonn

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GOP senator calls Google antitrust probe 'great progress' | TheHill - The Hill

Online tool tracks progress of Austins bicycle network – KXAN.com

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AUSTIN (KXAN) Austin Transportation has launched an online tool to track the progress of the All Ages and Abilities Bicycle Network project.

The All Ages and Abilities Bicycle Network Progress Tracker offers a status map showing the existing network, completed projects and projects in progress. Users can also view more information for projects which are underway.

Theres never been a clearer moment in Austins transportation history than now for the need for a complete network of high comfort bikeways to serve the growing mobility demand, said Laura Dierenfield, Division Manager with Austin Transportations Active Transportation and Street Design Division. This tool helps communicate all of the projects that will knit together the All Ages and Abilities bicycle system to better serve everyone in Austin, whether you choose to ride a bike, ride a scooter, walk, drive, or take transit.

The 2014 Bicycle Plan included the All Ages and Abilities Bicycle Network which was updated in 2019 with the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, a network of streets and trails for cycles, scooters and other micro-mobility devices. The goal of the project is to increase bicycle and micro-mobility use promoting the 50/50 mode share; 50% of people driving alone to work and 50% using other modes like walking, bicycling and transit.

The project is funded in part by the 2016 Mobility Bond for City of Austin projects and by the Texas Department of Transportation, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, Travis County and Capital Metro.

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Online tool tracks progress of Austins bicycle network - KXAN.com

Trump Says He Fully Expected to Have Zero Miles of Wall Built After Almost 3 Years, Promises 400-500 More – Mediaite

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President Donald Trump was asked if hed expected more progress on his promised border wall, of which zero miles have been completed, and said this is exactly where he anticipated the project to be when he made the promise in 2016.

During a lengthy photo op at a section of replacement border fence in Otay Mesa Wednesday, Trump was asked: Did you expect to have more of this done when you were talking about it in 2016?

No, Trump replied, then said hed envisioned 500 new miles of wall, but would consider stopping at 400 and reevaluating.

So the number I heard was 500, what were going to do is were going to stop at anywhere from 400 to 500, and were going to see where else we may need something, and we can add pieces to that, but you really wont know until you stop because you going to have tread paths, you know where they going to go, where are they going to walk, Trump said.

So were going to get up to about 400, and then were going to look and see whether or not we have to go much more than 475, 500. It could be at maximum I would say 550, Trump added.

As Maxwell Smart might say, Trump has thus far missed it by that much. Trump has completed exactly zero miles of new wall/fence, a fact that he even copped to later in the event.

Asked where the funding for the border fence was coming from, Trump went on an extended riff about Congress trying to stymie us by saying 1.6 billion, but only for renovation, and adding that if we have even a small piece of steel going around thats called a renovation, because we take the piece of steel out and we put up a 30-ft wall. And so in many ways, that works very much to our advantage.

And Mexico is still not paying for it.

Watch both exchanges above, via The Washington Post.

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Trump Says He Fully Expected to Have Zero Miles of Wall Built After Almost 3 Years, Promises 400-500 More - Mediaite

Lions’ offense is a work in progress, but the signs are pointing up – Detroit Lions Blog- ESPN – ESPN

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DETROIT -- Its by no means complete. It's not even close to where the Detroit Lions would like it to be. But after two weeks running Darrell Bevells offense, the signs are there for what it could be in the future.

Theres less predictability than in prior years under former coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. The play design, many times, has been innovative. It has worked to the strengths of players and opened up things for bigger plays -- evidenced by the throw fake to the left on Matthew Staffords screen pass to the right that turned into a 36-yard Kerryon Johnson touchdown during Sundays 13-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Its something the Lions are still growing into something Bevell is growing into too, despite 13 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator. But so far the Lions can at least feel confident in what they have been doing and building toward.

I go into every game really comfortable, quarterback Matthew Stafford said. I know what hes going to call, and now Im just learning more and more when hes going to call it. That just comes with experience, but Ive had a lot of fun playing in this system for two games.

Got a lot to clean up, can obviously play better, but Im enjoying it.

He should, because the Lions have been more prolific throwing the ball than they were a season ago under Cooter. Last year, Detroit averaged 223.5 passing yards per game. This year, through two games, Stafford is throwing for 303 yards per game and the offense appears to have more rhythm as a result.

Some is due to the playcalls. Some is due to the players coming up with bigger plays at crucial times, like the Lions conversion of a 4th-and-1 in the fourth quarter Sunday on a pass from Stafford to Marvin Jones Jr. The next play, Stafford hit Kenny Golladay for a game-winning 31-yard touchdown pass on a post route.

The post was one of the many explosive plays the Lions have had over the first two weeks of the season and a sign the offense is willing to take chances. Last year, the Lions had 54 plays of 20 yards or more on offense. This year, through two games, they already have 11.

The flow, it does flow, Jones said. Even if you see that we get in a little lull, which all offenses do, theres no panic just because theres so much confidence that we have in what were doing.

The Lions have bought into Bevells system and theyve seen it work. When running back J.D. McKissic -- one of two players on the Lions who have played in a Bevell system before -- went back to watch Arizona film after last week, he said, Everything was there. Im not kidding you. Everything was there. When the Lions made mistakes, it was often more the result of player error than a poor decision or call.

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While everything is looking smoother, theres no doubt Detroit can get better in some areas, especially facing teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys that have put up big offensive numbers. The Lions didnt run the ball particularly well Sunday, averaging only 3.4 yards per carry, but through two games, Detroit is averaging 105 yards a game rushing, slightly up from last years season-long average of 103.8 yards per game.

So no, it isnt perfect yet. Not close. But the Lions have something to build on offensively, which bodes well for Detroit as the season goes along and as everyone within the offense grows more comfortable with one another.

Were always trying to learn each other better, what I like, what he likes. You know, what our players are best at, Stafford said. At the end, Im just the guy back there trying to get the ball to our playmakers and let those guys do their thing, and hes drawing up great plays to try and get them open too.

So its been a good experience so far.

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Lions' offense is a work in progress, but the signs are pointing up - Detroit Lions Blog- ESPN - ESPN

Latest inspection shows progress on violations at Northland apartment complex – KSHB

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. A second re-inspection by health officials revealed progress in fixing violations uncovered at a Northland apartment complex in Kansas City, Missouri.

City health inspectors returned Monday to the Englewood Apartments, where earlier this month they found 115 violations that included cockroaches, backed-up sewage and mold.

This week's re-inspection at the property in the 5400 block of Northwest Waukomis Drive revealed that the number of units with infractions is down from 33 to 16. It's an improvement from the first re-inspection, which showed few issues were resolved.

The building that was initially vacated due to health hazards still isn't fit for tenants to return, but the sewage back-up inside has been cleaned.

Still, inspectors continued to find cockroaches, mold and missing carbon monoxide detectors in other units.

The Millennia Companies CEO Frank Sinito met Tuesday with Kansas City Health Department officials. During that meeting he committed to fixing the remaining violations and to drafting a long-term corrective action plan.

Environmental Public Health Program Manager Naser Jouhari said he is optimistic Millennia will "do the right thing" based on the meeting and corrections made so far.

The Ohio-based company took ownership of the complex in 2015. A spokeswoman cited rising construction costs, a shortage of tradespeople and uncertainty surrounding tax reform as challenges that slowed the preservation and rehabilitation process nationwide since Millennia acquired the property.

According to the Missouri Housing Development Commission, Englewood was approved in 2018 to receive $7.4 million in federal tax credits over the course of 10 years. That funding is being used for a $10.5 million renovation, which is currently underway.

"We believe that initiatives such as the Healthy Homes program will help to prevent affordable housing developments from deteriorating over decades, and we share in the same goal to provide quality and affordable housing to deserving residents of the community," Millennia spokeswoman Valerie Jerome wrote in a statement to 41 Action News.

The health department will return for a third re-inspection early next week. Occupied units where violations remain may be vacated at that time.

Meanwhile, Millennia continues to incur fees through the Healthy Homes program. Monday's re-inspections cost around $3,000.

Millennia owns four other apartment complexes in Kansas City.

The KCMO Health Department told 41 Action News it has also received a few complaints at those locations, but violations were quickly resolved.

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Latest inspection shows progress on violations at Northland apartment complex - KSHB

Former Bloomington Kmart Property May See Progress As Early As Next Year – Indiana Public Media

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Former Bloomington Kmart Property May See Progress As Early As Next Year - Indiana Public Media

Why Week 3 is so crucial for Mitch Trubisky’s progress – The Athletic

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This is not what the Bears envisioned.

Mitch Trubisky certainly didnt expect a Week 3 game in Washington to carry any more weight than a Monday Night Football game in September would or should.

Alas, here we are. Trubisky needs to have a good game. No more game manager. He has to show he can take care of one of the leagues worst passing defenses.

We shouldnt still be talking about a litmus test for a third-year quarterback (second in this system) entering his 30th start. But an offense that ranks 30th in yards per pass play (4.56), and a quarterback that looked overwhelmed in Week 1 and shackled by his head coach John Fox-style in Week 2, has brought us to this point.

A Week 3, out-of-division game for a 1-1 Bears team becomes a hallmark moment for Trubisky. No one in the franchise will publicly bill it that way. Trubisky is even-keeled, though his tumultuous start has tested that. Matt Nagy has championed staying steady. But the...

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Why Week 3 is so crucial for Mitch Trubisky's progress - The Athletic

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Progress Toward Diagnosis and Treatment, Finally? – American Council on Science and Health

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Some medical conditions are especially frustrating to physicians because they lack not only effective treatments but even a reliable means of diagnosis. One of the most common of these is variously known as myalgic encephalomyelitis orchronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).As the name suggests, it is asyndrome, a group of symptoms that seem to characterize, or define, an illness, even if we dont know how theyre related or what causes them. Thats different from better-understood illnesses such as solid tumors, rheumatoid arthritis, or stroke, for example.

The signs and symptoms may include fatigue, loss of memory or concentration, sore throat, swelling of neck or armpit lymph nodes, unexplained muscle or joint pain, headaches, unrefreshing sleep, and extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical exercise or mental stimulation (post-exertional malaise). People with ME/CFS are often incapable of performing ordinary activities, and sometimes become completely debilitated, unable even to get out of bed. The symptoms can persist for years.

The cause(s) of ME/CFS is not known. Some people may be born with a genetic predisposition for the disorder, which is then triggered by a combination of factors. Those precipitants may include viral infections; immune system dysfunction; or imbalances in hormones produced in the hypothalamus, pituitary glands or adrenal glands. Complicating the clinical picture is that ME/CFS may not be a single entity, but a spectrum of different diseases that we are currently unable to differentiate.

ME/CFS is surprisingly common. According to an Institute of Medicine (IOM)reportpublished in 2015, an estimated 836,000 to 2.5 million Americans suffer from ME/CFS, most of whom have not been diagnosed. That could change if the very preliminary report from Stanford University researchers of a diagnostic test is confirmed.

As described in the Stanfordpress release, the test employs a nanoelectronic assay, which measures changes in minuscule amounts of energy as a proxy for the health of immune cells and blood plasma.

"The diagnostic technology contains thousands of electrodes that create an electrical current, as well as chambers to hold simplified blood samples composed of immune cells and plasma. Inside the chambers, the immune cells and plasma interfere with the current, changing its flow from one end to another. The change in electrical activity is directly correlated with the health of the sample.

The idea is to stress the samples from both healthy and ill patients using salt, and then compare how each sample affects the flow of the electrical current. Changes in the current indicate changes in the cell: the bigger the change in current, the bigger the change on a cellular level. A big change isa sign that the cells and plasma are flailing under stress and incapable of processing it properly. All of the blood samples from ME/CFS patients created a clear spike in the test, whereas those from healthy controls returned data that was on a relatively even keel. The test has been applied to blood samples from 40 people, half of whom have ME/CFS and half of whom who dont. The investigators report that the test clearly identified [all of] those with ME/CFS but was negative in healthy controls."

These results are very preliminary, and it is important to note that the test measures only a proxy, or surrogate, for what is actually happening in immune cells and blood plasma. The next step should be to investigate the specificity of the test by applying it to patients with a spectrum of diseases, including some whose symptoms overlap with ME/CFS, including fibromyalgia, mononucleosis, and myofascial pain syndrome.

The researchers are also attempting to use the assay to screen for drug-based treatments, by running it before and after adding measured doses of various candidate therapeutic drugs to the patients blood samples. The theory is that if the blood samples taken from ME/CFS patients still respond poorly to stress and generate a spike in electrical current, then the drug likely didnt work. However, if a drug seems to suppress the spike in electrical activity, that could mean it is having a positive effect on the ability of the immune cells and plasma to process stress.

A different approach, by a biopharmaceutical start-up, is based on the thesis that ME/CFS could arise from the up-regulation of a specific receptor (CRF2) in the parts of the brain that govern the sensitivity of the stress response. That would, the theory goes, cause an exaggerated response to a minor stimulus, ultimately leading to the various signs and symptoms, described above, that are commonly observed in ME/CFS.Although there is no good animal model of ME/CFS, overstimulating CRF2 in healthy rats induces signs and symptoms consistent with the disease in humans; while down-regulating it, with an experimental, synthetic peptide called CT38, eliminates the ability to elicit these signs and symptoms.

A small, early-stageclinical trialin which the primary endpoint was an assessment of functional parameters following cardio-pulmonary exercise tests, conducted pre- and post-treatment, has been performed with CT38, but the results have not yet been reported.

Additional parts of the ME/CFS puzzle were provided by researchers at an Aprilconferencesponsored by the National Institutes of Health: new evidence of cardiopulmonary and nervous system abnormalities in patients with ME/CFS, which could be the etiology of their exercise intolerance.

Its early days, but we seem to be closing in on understanding, diagnosing, and maybe even treating one of our species truly awful afflictions.The glacial pace of progress serves as a reminder that we need to pursue a variety of research approaches and to get expeditious regulatory reviews of treatments once they reach clinical trials.

Henry I. Miller, a physician, is a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. He was a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health and the founding director of the Office of Biotechnology at the FDA. Please follow him on Twitter: @henryimiller.

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Progress Toward Diagnosis and Treatment, Finally? - American Council on Science and Health

Michigan’s offense remains a work in progress, and Wisconsin looms – MLive.com

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ANN ARBOR Jim Harbaugh spoke of the need to take better care of the football and fix some of the offenses sloppy play.

That was after Week 1.

Then came Michigans second game of the season, against Army, and many of the same problems creeped back up. More fumbles. More penalties. Missed opportunities.

The next thing the 11th-ranked Wolverines knew, they were headed to overtime against unranked Army, at home, facing the possibility of starting the season with a 1-1 record.

We know how it finished, Michigan escaping with a 24-21 victory thanks to a 43-yard field goal and defensive turnover on the final drive of the game. And then came a pivotal bye week.

I wouldnt say we lost any confidence at all, starting left guard and offensive captain Ben Bredeson said Monday. I think the great thing that these weeks showed is the things that we need to work on. So far, through the bye and and now rolling over, we can really carry on some of the smaller details that we need to correct.

- MORE: Michigan spent bye week tackling fumbles, penalties

That correction is required given the opponent that looms. Michigan opens Big Ten play against No. 13 Wisconsin on Saturday (noon, FOX), with the 2-0 Badgers having outscored their first two opponents 110-0.

They, too, are coming off a bye, and still possess the No. 1 defense in the country after three weeks. Wisconsin is only allowing 107.5 yards per game, aided by the 58 gained by Central Michigan in a 61-0 smashing on Sept. 7.

Michigan is not CMU of course, nor is it South Florida, which mustered just 26 yards on the ground at home against the Badgers in Week 1. But a tough, rugged Wisconsin team awaits.

The challenge of this game is big, Jim Harbaugh told reporters Monday. "Weve played Wisconsin now three times, (and) going on the fourth. Theyre just good every year. They seem to be every time we face them. A really talented, veteran, well-coached football team.

And playing at Camp-Randall (Stadium), thats a tough venue. Thats a tough win to get. We havent won in four or five tries, so its a big game for us. A big challenge.

Michigan has not won a football game in Madison since 2001, a stretch of four straight games (the two teams did not play there from 2010 to 2016) that includes a 24-10 loss in 2017, a season that first went off the rails with an ugly Big Ten loss at Penn State.

In both of those games, the Wolverines defense was unable to get the big stop, while their offense failed to keep up. If they are not careful on Saturday, it could be a repeat performance.

Now, not all is lost. Michigan (2-0) can clean up the turnovers (6) and penalties (10) like it did early in the season in 2018, and its likely to happen. Harbaugh-led Michigan teams rarely go long stretches making the same mistakes over. Especially with such a veteran-laden group on the offensive side of the ball.

And when you peel back the fumbles and penalties through the first two games, theres plenty of good. Plays developing as they should. Throws being made like they should. Receivers getting open.

If you watch the tape like we did, the explosive plays were all there, Bredeson said. There was always just one thing wrong. Like one thing that was wrong. Like one thing that was holding everything back.

That sentiment is shared amongst players and coaches. First-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis emphasized the missed opportunities last week during the bye, making it a point of saying the mental mistakes would get corrected.

- MORE: Harbaugh coy on Michigans injured players ahead of Wisconsin

Its plausible to presume that they will. But will it come in time? Just this week, Bredeson admitted that Michigans new shotgun-style, RPO-injected spread offense is a complicated one. Theres a lot of moving parts and plenty to pay attention to.

Which is why, when asked this week about Shea Patterson (credited with four fumbles in the first two games this season) and the improvement hed like to see out of his senior quarterback, Harbaugh flipped it to the offense.

Just everybody on that side of the ball, that unit, more efficient, Harbaugh said. "Just cohesion. Everybody playing efficiently and with good ball security. Taking advantage of big plays when theyre there.

But also the efficient factor of run and pass, what we do as an offense. Consistently move the ball.

Harbaugh likes the number of first downs Michigan has obtained (49) through the first two games, and at times his team has been able to move the ball without trouble. But explosive plays have been few and far between.

Which brings us to this Saturday, the first road game of the season for an eager Michigan team looking to show everyone what it really can do offensively. Because there have been glimpses, like the first half of the opener against Middle Tennessee State: Shots down the field. Multiple receivers targeted. Holes opening along the offensive line.

- MORE: Michigan opens as slight underdog at Wisconsin

Were tired of (talking) ourselves, saying the things were going to change, tight end Nick Eubanks said. Actually doing it so people get a chance to see that, thats the one thing were working on.

But Wisconsin is not Middle Tennessee State, nor Army. The Badgers are big up front and faster than both teams in the secondary. Plus Michigan is tasked with having to deal with the crowd noise of 80,000-plus spectators, majority Wisconsin fans. For a team still learning how to run a shotgun-only offense, it wont be an easy task.

Factor all of that in including the mistake-filled first two games and its probably why the oddsmakers in Las Vegas list Michigan as an underdog on Saturday for the first time in over a year.

While the Big Ten race certainly wont be decided on Saturday, the game will go a long way in determining where this Michigan offense stands. Another off-kilter performance, and loss, puts the pressure on Gattis and Harbaugh. A well-oiled machine, as Harbaugh likes to describe it, could put the rest of the conference on notice.

This weekend, we get the first real glimpse into what kind of team Michigan really is. Not only do the Wolverines have to figure themselves out on offense, but the defense will have its hands full with all-Big Ten running back Jonathan Taylor, who has 237 yards and five touchdowns rushing on 35 carries.

The importance of being good, Harbaugh said. Thats what Ive always thought of with road games. The best way to win them is be a good team.

More Michigan football coverage:

Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football: Cash is flowing but the trophy case is empty

U-M football found its backup RB during the bye week

Kickoff time, TV announced for Michigan footballs game vs. Rutgers

Michigan drops again in AP Top 25 poll

Zach Charbonnet has always been a beast, former teammate says

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Michigan's offense remains a work in progress, and Wisconsin looms - MLive.com

Progress or window dressing? New Ferguson-inspired report analyzes police reforms – STLtoday.com

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ST. LOUIS A report released Monday seeks to answer whether police departments are making real progress toward racial equality or just checking a box.

The anti-bias training that comprises 1.4% of all training time for Webster Groves police officers is entirely online and costs $4.99?

Furtado, along with organization co-chair Rebeccah Bennett and lead catalyst David Dwight IV, presented the groups second report, titled The State of Police Reform, at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being.

They plan to host three town hall meetings throughout the area to discuss the report, which concluded, St. Louis is in desperate need of effective and holistic public safety that doesnt rely on the failed arrest-and-incarcerate model.

The groups report focused on three departments. Here are some of the findings:

Ferguson: A consent decree issued by the U.S. Department of Justice is a legal mandate forcing the department to change, but the restrictive procedures of that mandate also can slow things down. The group also noted that Ferguson has had seven police chiefs in the past five years.

Ferguson is an eye-opening example of ... extreme volatility in leadership and how that degree of upheaval can impede reform, according to the report.

St. Louis: The size of the department leads to particularly complex dynamics including a larger leadership structure that often precludes a strong, consistent and clear commitment to one platform, according to the report. The department is the largest in the region, with about 1,100 commissioned officers, and it is governed by a police chief, a mayor and a public safety director, who, if you look at their actions, are misaligned, Furtado said.

The department also has a nearly constant flux of legal action both spurring and slowing change, as well as an oftentimes oppositional police union, according to the report.

North County Police Cooperative: The group called the department, which is based in Vinita Park, organically grown with community-oriented roots. The department formed in 2015 as several municipalities consolidated their police departments in north St. Louis County.

There have been advances in programs that help foster racial equality, but not as much progress on the departments policies, according to the report.

Looking at the region as a whole, the group called for devoting more resources toward addressing the root causes of crime.

Rebeccah Bennett, co-chair of Forward Through Ferguson, speaks during the organization's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Audience members listen during Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Audience members listen during Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Amber Norris, from St. Louis, looks at poster boards explaining information released in a new report following Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Becky Patel, 41, from Clayton, asks a question during Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Audience members listen during Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Karishma Furtado, research and data catalyst at Forward Through Ferguson, speaks during the organization's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

Chelesa Holden, 30, asks a question during Forward Through Ferguson's press conference held at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 North Vandeventer Ave., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Members of Forward Through Ferguson spoke about a newly released report that focuses on the state of St. Louis area police reform efforts. Photo by Christine Tannous, ctannous@post-dispatch.com

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Progress or window dressing? New Ferguson-inspired report analyzes police reforms - STLtoday.com

Poulsbo Police drone captures burglary in progress – Kitsap Daily News

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One suspect was arrested after being caught in the act of a burglary at Advanced Sales and Rentals on Viking Avenue by a Poulsbo Police Department UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) device scoping out the area.

According to a press release from Poulsbo PD, over the course of the last week, the shop had been burglarized twice. In each case, the suspects had cut through the chain-link fence and entered the rental yard taking unspecified items.

As a result, Poulsbo officers have been conducting frequent checks of the business.

Just before midnight on Sept. 12 Poulsbo Police Sergent Howard Leeming was checking on the business, but rather than doing it on foot, he piloted the UAS device to check the site from above, to which his timing could not have been better.

Sgt. Leeming was able to locate two suspects in the process of burglarizing the business a third time.

Additional officers responded to the scene to set up a containment area including a K-9 Unit from the Kitsap County Sheriffs Office.

Officers ordered the suspects to exit the location and surrender. After several orders to comply with the officers, the K-9 unit made up of Deputy Aaron Baker and K-9 Heiko were deployed. The team captured one suspect while the other got away on foot.

The captured suspect was identified ad 38-year-old Christopher Baker of Poulsbo.

Its a great example of how this technology, paired with teamwork and initiative, is so beneficial to law enforcement, Poulsbo Police Chief Dan Schoonmaker said.

The investigation into this case is still ongoing and anyone with further information regarding the burglaries is encouraged to contact Poulsbo PD.

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Poulsbo Police drone captures burglary in progress - Kitsap Daily News

This One Experiment Reveals More About Reality Than Any Quantum Interpretation Ever Will – Forbes

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Today, we conceive of all particles, from the massive quarks to the massless photon, as have a dual wave/particle nature. Light was originally considered to be a particle (or corpuscle) by Newton, but experiments performed in the late 1790s and early 1800s revealed wave properties as well. Today, all quanta appear to exhibit a dual wave/particle nature, and exploring where and how these properties appear can lead us to truly approach an understanding of how our quantum Universe behaves.

Imagine asking the biggest, most fundamental question of all: what is reality? How would you go about answering it? If you took the scientific approach, you'd go down to the smallest indivisible quantum of matter or energy possible, isolate it as much as possible, and then measure its behavior under every bizarre scenario your mind can concoct. The experimental results should provide a window into reality unlike any other, as it compels the laws of physics to reveal themselves.

As bizarre, confusing, and controversial as quantum physics can be, this is the approach taken by the experimental physicists who study the quantum rules behind our Universe. Despite all the attention the different interpretations draw, they don't reveal the nature of our quantum reality nearly as well as a single experiment the double-slit experiment can. Here's what all the fuss is about.

Imagine, before you ever start thinking about particles, that you had a continuous fluid at your disposal in a large tank: something like a pool full of water. At one end, you start generating waves that propagate down the length of the tank, evenly spaced with regular peaks and troughs. In the middle of the pool, however, is an obstacle: a barrier that blocks the waves from propagating any further. The only exception is that there are two holes, or vertical slits, cut into the barrier to allow a tiny fraction of that water through.

What will happen to those water waves? They behave exactly as you'd predict from classical mechanics and the wave equation: two wave sources make it through, one at the site of each slit. As the peaks and troughs reach each other from the two sources, they interfere both constructively and destructively. As a result, at the far end of the tank, you'll get an interference pattern from those two wave sources.

This diagram, dating back to Thomas Young's work in the early 1800s, is one of the oldest pictures that demonstrate both constructive and destructive interference as arising from wave sources originating at two points: A and B. This is a physically identical setup to a double slit experiment, even though it applies just as well to water waves propagated through a tank.

On the other hand, what if you didn't have a continuous fluid, but a slew of discrete particles instead? You'd do the same experiment, except instead of filling your large tank with water, you'd leave it empty. You'll leave the barrier with two vertical slits in place, but this time you'll throw a large number of pebbles down towards the far end of the tank.

Overwhelmingly, the majority of the pebbles will strike the barrier and fail to go through; they won't arrive at the far end of the tank. Only a few pebbles will arrive, and they'll be clustered in two regions: one for the pebbles that slipped through the slit on the left and another for the pebbles that slipped through the slit on the right. A few pebbles might strike the edge of the slit or another pebble, and hence you won't get all the pebbles arriving at the same two locations, but rather they'll be distributed in two straightforward bell curves.

The classical expectation of sending particles through either a single slit (L) or a double slit (R). If you fire macroscopic objects (like pebbles) at a barrier with one or two slits in it, this is the anticipated pattern you can expect to observe.

These are the two classical outcomes you'd expect for a two-slit experiment: one set of results for where you have waves, and a disparate set of results for where you have particles. Now, let's imagine the same experiment, but instead of macroscopic objects like water waves or large numbers of pebbles, we're going to use the fundamental quantum entities provided to us by the Universe.

The first time any human ever did such an experiment, unbelievably, was right at the turn of the 18th century. (Really! The hints of quantum physics are really hundreds of years old!) In the late 1790s and early 1800s, a scientist named Thomas Young was experimenting with light, when he had the brilliant idea to do two things simultaneously:

The results were immediately astonishing.

Double slit experiments performed with light produce interference patterns, as they do for any wave you can imagine. The properties of different light colors is understood to be due to the differing wavelengths of monochromatic light of various colors. Redder colors have longer wavelengths, lower energies, and more spread-out interference patterns; bluer colors have shorter wavelengths, higher energies, and more closely bunched maxima and minima in the interference pattern.

You see, since the 1600s, scientists had followed physics as Newton had laid it out, and Newton insisted that light was not a wave, but was a corpuscle: a particle-like entity that moved in straight, ray-like lines. His treatise on the subject.Opticks, correctly described a large number of phenomena like reflection and refraction, absorption and transmission, how white light was composed of colors and how light rays bent when they transitioned from traveling through one medium (like air) to another medium (like water).

Newton's contemporary, Christiaan Huygens, concocted a wave theory of light, but it couldn't account for Newton's experiments with prisms. The idea that light could be a wave fell out of favor more than 100 years earlier, but Young's double slit experiments brought them back. Unambiguously, light passed through a double slit exhibited wave-like, not particle-like, properties.

Schematic animation of a continuous beam of light being dispersed by a prism. Note how the wave nature of light is both consistent with and a deeper explanation of the fact that white light can be broken up into differing colors.

Subsequent experiments with light confirmed its wave-like properties, and Maxwell's formulation of electromagnetism allowed us to finally derive that light was an electromagnetic wave that propagated atc, the speed of light in a vacuum. But what's going on with light at a fundamental level?

Here are three of the most thoroughly considered options:

In the early 1900s, experiments began to discriminated between these options. Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect was decisive, as it demonstrated that only light of a short-enough (i.e., blue enough and energetic enough) wavelength was capable of knocking loosely-held electrons off of a metal.

The photoelectric effect details how electrons can be ionized by photons based on the wavelength of individual photons, not on light intensity or any other property. Above a certain wavelength threshold for the incoming photons, regardless of intensity, electrons will be kicked off. Below that threshold, no electrons will be kicked off, even if you turn the intensity of the light way up.

Since electrons were particles, photons had to behave as particles, too. But that double slit experiment sure made it seem like these photons were behaving as waves. Somehow, both of these properties of light that it behaved as a wave when it passed through a double slit but that it behaved as a particle when it struck an electron must simultaneously be true and mutually compatible.

Whenmost people first learn about this, their minds immediately run in a bunch of different directions, trying to make sense of this bizarre and unintuitive aspect of reality. From a physicist's perspective, this translates into imagining what sorts of experiments (or modifications to this one double-slit experiment) one could do to probe reality deeper. The first thing you might think of is to switch out photons, which act as both waves and particles, for something that's known to behave as a particle: an electron.

The wave pattern for electrons passing through a double slit. If you measure "which slit" the electron goes through, you destroy the quantum interference pattern shown here; if you don't measure it, it behaves as though each electron interferes with itself.

So you fire a beam of electrons at a barrier with two slits in it, and look at where the electrons arrive on the screen behind it. Although you might have expected the same result you got for the pebble-experiment earlier, you don't get it. Instead, the electrons distinctly and unambiguously leave an interference pattern on the screen. Somehow, the electrons are acting like waves.

What's going on? Are these electronsinterfering with each other? To find out, we can change the experiment again; instead of firing a beam of electrons, we can send one electron through at a time. And then another. And then another. And then another, until we've sent thousands or even millions of electrons through. When we finally look at the screen, what do we see? The same interference pattern. Not only are the electrons acting like waves, but each individual electron behaves as a wave, and somehow manages to create an interference pattern only by interacting with itself.

Electrons exhibit wave properties as well as particle properties, and can be used to construct images or probe particle sizes just as well as light can. Here, you can see the results of an experiment where electrons are fired one-at-a-time through a double-slit. Once enough electrons are fired, the interference pattern can clearly be seen.

If this bothers you, you're not alone. Upon observing this phenomenon, physicists repeated it with photons, sending them one-at-a-time through the double slit. The result? Same as it was for electrons: the photons interfere with themselves as they travel through the experiment.

So what else can we do to learn more? We can set up a "gate" at each of the two slits, and ask which one the electron (or photon) actually goes through. The way you do this is to cause an interaction (through a photon interaction or by measuring an electromagnetic effect of a charged particle passing through the slit)if the particle you're firing passes through your slit.

You do the experiment. Electron #1 goes through the right slit. So does electron #2. Then electron #3 goes through the left slit. #4 goes right, #5 and #6 go left, etc. After thousands of electrons, you record them all. And your screen, instead of showing an interference pattern, shows two non-interfering piles.

If you measure which slit an electron goes through, you don't get an interference pattern on the screen behind it. Instead, the electrons behave not as waves, but as classical particles.

It's as though the act of observing or forcing an energy-exchanging interaction destroys the wave-like behavior and forces particle-like behavior instead. You can then apply all sorts of tweaks, and see what happens. For example:

A quantum eraser experiment setup, where two entangled particles are separated and measured. No alterations of one particle at its destination affect the outcome of the other. You can combine principles like the quantum eraser with the double-slit experiment and see what happens if you keep or destroy, or look at or don't look at, the information you create by measuring what occurs at the slits themselves.

This is fascinating stuff, and is really just the tip of the iceberg for quantum physics.If you set up your apparatus in a particular configuration, you can measure the outcome of any such experiment you perform. What happens if you force the interaction between a photon and the electron as it passes through the slit, but never record the information? What happens if you don't look at the information you do record, but look at the screen before you ever look at the information? If you then go and destroy the information and look at the screen again, does anything change?

Each experimental setup will give you a unique set of results, and each result you get provides you with a little piece of information about the quantum picture of our Universe. If you want to know what reality is, it's this: what we can observe, measure, and predict about nature under every combination we can dream of setting up. To learn more, we have to look to experiments and observations. Those results, rather thanwhich quantum interpretation you accept, show us what's truly real.

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This One Experiment Reveals More About Reality Than Any Quantum Interpretation Ever Will - Forbes

In ‘Something Deeply Hidden,’ Sean Carroll Argues There Are Infinite Copies Of You – NPR

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Everyone knows we live in a partisan age. It's hard to find any issue these days that people aren't ready to square off on, with sharp, snarky barbs.

While no one will be surprised to find these kinds of arguments playing out about immigration or the importance of NATO, finding it among staid physicists and about the nature of physical reality might not be so expected. But all too often over the last 100 years, this has been the case, as scientists have disagreed sharply over the meaning of their greatest and most potent theory known as quantum mechanics.

That's the fraught territory best-selling author and physicist Sean Carroll dives into with his new book Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. What makes Carroll's new project so worthwhile, though, is that while he is most certainly choosing sides in the debate, he offers us a cogent, clear and compelling guide to the subject while letting his passion for the scientific questions shine through every page.

Quantum mechanics, the study of molecules, atoms and even smaller stuff, is the theory behind computer technology and other modern miracles. But while physicists are experts at using the equations of quantum mechanics to make predictions or build things, they have no experimentally verified agreement about what those equations say about reality. In the face of that dilemma, most physicists have chosen to ignore the problem by "shutting up and calculating," while a small handful have battled over quantum interpretations.

The problem with "interpreting" the equations lies in the many ways quantum mechanics violates our common sense about the world. Carroll's book focuses on one of the basic most forms of quantum weirdness called "superposition." In the standard view of the field called the Copenhagen interpretation a quantum particle like an electron can be in many places at once. That's what superposition means. It's only the act of making a measurement looking at the electron that forces the particle to take on an existence at just one place.

If that seems weird to you, welcome to the club.

Sean Carroll, however, doesn't like the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In particular, Carroll doesn't like vague ideas of observers "collapsing" the smeared out superposed electron into a single position just by looking at it. Early on in the book, Carroll asks a series of pointed questions: What precisely do you mean by a "measurement?"; How quickly does it happen?; What exactly constitutes a measuring apparatus?; Does it need to be human or have some amount of consciousness ...?"

The idea that measurements somehow change reality introduces a "spookiness" onto discussions of quantum physics that Carroll thinks is both unnecessary and wrong. Instead, his intention is to prize "clarity over mystery" which leads him, and his readers, to what's known as the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. The bulk of Something Deeply Hidden is a really carefully reasoned argument for taking the Many Worlds interpretation seriously as the true path to understanding nature's deepest structures.

But what sets Many Worlds apart from the Copenhagen way of looking at quantum mechanics? It all goes back to that basic weirdness of superposition. The Many Worlds interpretation also begins with the electron superposed, existing many places all at once. But when a measurement is made, it's not the other, unobserved versions of the particle which disappear. Instead, it's the universe branching off into multiple parallel copies of itself.

These copies are the "many worlds" of the Many Worlds interpretation and each world has an observer in it seeing the electron in a different position. After the split occurs, each of these cosmic copies (with its own copy of the observer) goes on its merry way with new branches occurring each time something quantum mechanical happens. But zillions of quantum mechanical events are occurring zillions of times a second throughout the universe. That means there are a lot of copies of you, me and everything else out there all living parallel lives and all continuously branching off into new parallel versions.

Now if that seems weird to you, welcome to the club.

I count myself among those who find the Many Worlds interpretation a solution to quantum weirdness that's worse than the problem. And, I'm sad to admit, on a bad day I would be a snarky partisan. What makes Something Deeply Hidden so excellent is that, in straight-forward language, Carroll keeps his justification for the Many Worlds view grounded in principles like simplicity and economy of description that scientists should all agree on.

As his previous books have demonstrated, Carroll is an excellent guide through the frontiers of physics for interested laypeople. Those skills are on ample display in the new book as well. Carroll expertly takes his readers through the conundrum quantum mechanics dumps into the laps of scientists in terms of superposition (as well as another form of weirdness called "entanglement"). Then he lays out the argument for why the Many Worlds offers not only a resolution to those difficulties but also a path forward to solving some of physics' most vexing challenges like the nature of space and time.

It is worth noting, however, that this book does not seem aimed at folks who are entirely new to the subject. It works at a slightly higher level and might prove challenging for those who've never seen the topic at all.

I'd like to be able to say that I came away convinced of Carroll's argument that the Many Worlds interpretation is the right way to view the world. But that didn't happen. I remain someone who believes that quantum physics is trying to teach us that we, the experimenters, are always part of the story (I lean towards what's called Quantum Baysianism or QBism for short. This theory states that the equations of quantum mechanics are always about our knowledge of the electron not the electron by itself).

But convincing people is not Carroll's only intention which is the books' greatest charm. In a remarkable chapter, Carroll presents a number of the Many World's competitor interpretations (including QBIsm) in a wonderfully fair and balanced way. Most important, though, Carroll wants readers to see how remarkable the questions quantum mechanics poses are in-and-of-themselves. In my favorite chapter, Carroll imagines a gentle debate between a philosopher of science and her physicist father. The skeptical dad wants his daughter to explain why anyone would believe in the Many Worlds interpretation. After doing an admirable job of countering her father's criticisms, Carroll puts these words in her mouth:

"...whether or not I've convinced you of anything at all, this [problem quantum mechanics poses] is what all thoughtful physicists should be talking about. What matters to me is not that everyone [accept the Many Worlds interpretation] but that people take the challenge of understanding quantum mechanics seriously"

I couldn't agree more. If you read Something Deeply Hidden, you will too.

Adam Frank is an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester and author of Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth. You can find more from Adam here: @adamfrank4.

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In 'Something Deeply Hidden,' Sean Carroll Argues There Are Infinite Copies Of You - NPR

Physicists race to develop room-temperature quantum chips – The Next Web

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A team of physicists from Stevens Institute of Technology recently unveiled the worlds most complex and accurate method for coaxing individual particles of light into interacting with one another. While bullying photons might not sound like a breakthrough, the teams research is blazing a trail towards the Holy Grail of physics: room-temperature quantum computing chips.

The Stevens team, led by associate professor of physics and director of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering Yuping Huang, developed a method for forcing photons to interact by etching a quantum-sized micro-cavity in the shape of a racetrack into a lithium niobate crystal compound. They then fired a precision laser into the compound which interacted with the individual photons in a manner that allowed the researchers to tune it forincredibly specific results.

Credit: Chen et, al.

Creating the micro-cavity was no small feat, it required the development and use of entirely new tools and techniques. According to a press release from Stevens, the precision with which the group can now force single-photon interactions sets them squarely on the path towards room-temperature quantum computing:

Theyre closing in on a system capable of generating interactions at the single-photon level reliably, a breakthrough that would allow the creation of many powerful quantum computing components such as photonics logic gates and entanglement sources, which along a circuit, can canvass multiple solutions to the same problem simultaneously, conceivably allowing calculations that could take years to be solved in seconds.

Were not quite there yet. Its one thing to merely cause interactionsat the single-photon level and another to wield the god-like power that would allow us to reliably control these interactions. What makes this experiment such an eureka moment is that it clearly demonstrates that we can achieve room-temperature quantum computing, and the Stevens team has already figured out some things they can try out to improve their accuracy in the next experiments.

There are other teams, around the globe, trying to solve these very same problems. We may be years or decades from seeing the fruits of their labors manifest as full-fledged room-temperature quantum communications systems, but the path to the Grails been revealed and the quest has begun.

Credit: Chen et, al.

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Physicists race to develop room-temperature quantum chips - The Next Web

Sean Carroll: Universe a ‘tiny sliver’ of all there is – PBS NewsHour

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Hari Sreenivasan:

The term "quantum mechanics" describes the strange doings of the tiniest particles in the universe, where, for example, two objects can occupy the exact same space at the same time, or affect each other even though they're millions of miles apart.

But if that sounds outlandish, hold on to your hat.

Within the realm of quantum mechanics, there is a highly abstract and controversial theory known as "many worlds." It describes the idea that with every decision you make, an entirely new universe springs into existence containing a new version of yourself!

As bizarre as it sounds, some theoretical physicists believe that "many worlds" is an exact description of reality. Sean Carroll has staked his reputation on it. He's a bestselling author and a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.

NewsHour Weekend's Tom Casciato recently visited him at Caltech to discuss his latest book and its implications not just for physics, but for all of us.

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Sean Carroll: Universe a 'tiny sliver' of all there is - PBS NewsHour

IBM cuts ribbon on quantum computing centre wherein a 53-qubit monster lurks – The Register

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IBM has opened a quantum computing centre in Poughkeepsie, New York, which adds 10 quantum systems to Big Blue's fleet.

The company claims its customers have run 14 million experiments using its quantum cloud computers and published 200 research papers since 2016.

"The fleet is now composed of five 20-qubit systems, one 14-qubit system, and four 5-qubit systems," Big Blue beamed. "Five of the systems now have a Quantum Volume of 16 a measure of the power of a quantum computer demonstrating a new sustained performance milestone." The systems promise 95 per cent availability.

"Within one month, IBM's commercially available quantum fleet will grow to 14 systems, including a new 53-qubit quantum computer, the single largest universal quantum system made available for external access in the industry, to date. The new system offers a larger lattice and gives users the ability to run even more complex entanglement and connectivity experiments."

Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, said the plan was to make quantum computing from the lab accessible via the cloud to tens of thousands of users. "In order to empower an emerging quantum community of educators, researchers, and software developers that share a passion for revolutionizing computing, we have built multiple generations of quantum processor platforms that we integrate into high-availability quantum systems. We iterate and improve the performance of our systems multiple times per year and this new 53-qubit system now incorporates the next family of processors on our roadmap."

Quantum physics promises to change computing by ditching the traditional zeroes and ones of computing states in favour of quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement where separate particles influence each other and wave interference.

Keeping qubits stable is no mean feat, and the hardware does this by operating at super-cooled temperatures of 10 millikelvin (-273.14C).

In research terms, it promises to allow fundamentally different approaches to research in fields from chemistry and physics to financial analysis.

IBM is working with CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider, to help solve computing challenges created by its upgrade. By 2026, it will need somewhere between 50 and 100 times more computing power. Part of the solution might be the ability to directly mimic quantum physics on a quantum machine. But quantum computing could also use quantum applications and algorithms to change the way that data is analysed and classified.

Financial services have also demonstrated use of quantum systems to reduce errors in pricing options.

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IBM cuts ribbon on quantum computing centre wherein a 53-qubit monster lurks - The Register

Iran to open first quantum physics lab in a year: AEOI head – Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

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He added that the country has a bright future in quantum physics as more research centers and labs are being built to encourage young Iranians to enter the field.

Related experts and managers are working day and night to finish this job as soon as possible, said Salehi while addressing a summer course on quantum sciences and technology in Tehran, according to Press TV.

The official said Iran had compiled its own roadmap for development of quantum technologies, saying the document would come into force once it is ratified by the parliament and other related government bodies.

He said Iran was willing to keep its pace with a fast-growing quantum science in the world, saying expert groups had been formed in the AEOI to focus on various fields where quantum sciences are increasingly applied, including in communication, imaging, and in making new computers and sensors.

Salehi said his organization had also launched a public information campaign about quantum physics and its role in the future of the world, saying textbooks were being prepared for schools and universities with a special focus on quantum mechanics.

He said a successful entanglement experiment for photons carried out by AEOI scientists last summer had hugely boosted the morale in the field.

The senior official said that a large research center focused on new fields of science like the stem cells and quantum physics will be built by the AEOI in a near future.

Salehi said Iranian scientists could replicate the quick progress achieved in the field of nuclear technology in the country over the past years.

The quantum technology is moving so fast that if we dont act well regret it, said the official.

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Iran to open first quantum physics lab in a year: AEOI head - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source