Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Coronavirus News (237)

 What Two Billion People Pay Attention to Is Still in the Hands of a Few Companies

Microsoft Had a Crazy Idea to Put Servers Under Water—and It Totally Worked

Three Steps for Creating a More Equitable Workplace


Are You Ready for the Quantum Computing Revolution?  Quantum physics has already changed our lives. Thanks to the invention of the laser and the transistor — both products of quantum theory — almost every electronic device we use today is an example of quantum physics in action. We may now be on the brink of a second quantum revolution as we attempt to harness even more of the power of the quantum world. ......... Although quantum theory is over a century old, the current quantum revolution is based on the more recent realization that uncertainty — a fundamental property of quantum particles — can be a powerful resource. ............  In the quantum world, we must use the language of probability, rather than certainty. ......... the revolutionary idea behind quantum information processing is that quantum uncertainty — a fuzzy in-between “superposition” of 0 and 1 — is actually not a bug, but a feature. It provides new levers for more powerful ways to communicate and process data. .............. While mathematical encryption techniques are vulnerable to being cracked by powerful enough computers, cracking quantum encryption would require violating the laws of physics. ............  quantum computers are fundamentally different from current classical computers. The two are as different as a car and a horse and cart. A car is based on harnessing different laws of physics compared to a horse and cart. It gets you to your destination faster and to new destinations previously out of reach. ............ quantum teleportation, where information encoded in quantum particles disappears in one location and is exactly (but not instantaneously) recreated in another location far away. While that sounds like sci-fi, this new form of data transmission could be a vital component of a future quantum internet. .............  A particularly important application of quantum computers might be to simulate and analyze molecules for drug development and materials design. ..........  solving complex optimization tasks and performing fast searches of unsorted data ............  Given the current state of the field, it’s not clear when or if the full power of quantum computing will be accessible. ............ Nobody could have predicted the myriad ways that classical computers impact every aspect of our lives. Predicting quantum applications is equally challenging.  




Coronavirus cabinet concludes: Full lockdown beginning Friday Blue and White ministers accuse PM of using closure to mute protesters · Nearly 7,000 people diagnosed in one day ............  The country is heading back into a complete lockdown which is to begin Friday and is likely to last until at least the end of the holidays. .......... The lockdown is expected to be more stringent than the one in March, and should include shuttering synagogues, reducing the number of people who can protest, closing all nonessential businesses and markets, reducing public transportation routes and allowing citizens to gather only within their nuclear families. ........... The decision comes on the day that almost 7,000 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in a 24-hour period – unprecedented numbers. ...........  The closure will cost an estimated NIS 35 billion ($10b.) if the lockdown lasts three weeks. .............  There were 6,948 people diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday, the Health Ministry showed Wednesday evening – some 11.7% of the 61,165 people screened. Israel has now had 203,136 cases since the start of the pandemic ........... new restrictions to stop the coronavirus from burning across the country ............   “I am fighting for the lives of the citizens of Israel... We are at war – wake up!” 



Coronavirus News (236)

China must deliver on opening up promises ahead of Xi Jinping’s ‘last chance’ EU virtual summit next week President Xi Jinping is expected to take part in a virtual summit with European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Monday The talks are seen as key as Beijing tries to convince Europe it is sincere about opening its markets and free trade ahead of the US presidential election

Coronavirus: Chinese vaccine ready for use in November, top scientist says Clinical trials have been progressing smoothly and preparations are being made to go into mass production, CDC’s chief biosafety expert Wu Guizhen says Wu says she was inoculated herself in April and ‘has felt quite good’ since

What the World Can Learn From Life Under Tokyo’s Rail Tracks

Nepal’s remittance villages New book on overseas labour migrants details the good, bad and ugly about dependence on money they send home

नेपालकाे रेल यातायातमा अर्काे यात्रा शुरु (फाेटाे फिचर)

Sagoon

NASA Has Figured Out a New Way to Safely Land on the Moon How to land on the Moon without a human pilot.

Ford VP Disses Cybertruck, Calling Electric F-150 a “Real” Work Truck Ford has no interest in "competing for lifestyle customers."

WHO SAYS EUROPE IS HEADED INTO ANOTHER POTENTIAL PANDEMIC CRISIS "WE HAVE A VERY SERIOUS SITUATION UNFOLDING BEFORE US."  ...... “pandemic fatigue” is causing numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to surge in parts of Europe ....... Numbers are rising in both France and Spain. In some instances, the number of new cases is outpacing peak numbers back in April. Both countries even surpassed the per capita-adjusted numbers in the US. .............  this autumn could look especially bad, considering the fast-approaching flu season

A BRAZILIAN CITY MAY HAVE HAD ENOUGH COVID-19 CASES TO REACH HERD IMMUNITY IS THIS IN STORE FOR ALL OF US? ...... Coronavirus cases in the city of Manaus, Brazil are on the decline — and experts suspect it’s because so many people already caught COVID-19 there that it’s now too hard for the virus to spread to new people. ......... about 66.1 percent of residents of Manaus were infected with COVID-19 at some point, which falls in line with the percentages that epidemiologists previously predicted would be necessary to establish herd immunity.