This article originally appeared on VICE India.

The most jarring visual of a crisis in any part of the world is always its human face. And the bigger the scale of a disaster, the more devastating the image. Over the last couple of months, as the coronavirus pandemic swept across Asia, it revealed consequences of not just the pandemic, but also how a virus can instantly change life as we know it.

In India, the worlds harshest lockdown manifested in the loss of livelihood and displacement of hundreds of thousands of informal labourers and migrantswhich some say saw an exodus bigger than the one during the India-Pakistan partition (which saw the displacement of 15 million people). Now, as we approach the end of the lockdown (May 3though this is tentative in many parts of the country which are seeing high numbers of positive cases), analysts and researchers are predicting the same demographic will possibly face even more exploitation as workplaces rush to meet the rising demands and make up for lost time and money.

Trinanjan Radhakrishnan, the project coordinator for private sector engagement at Oxfam India, an international non-profit that works towards issues such as women empowerment and inequality, told VICE that this scenario is very likely primarily because Indias informal workforcewhich stands at almost 93 percent of the total population (according to the Economic Survey of 2018-19)already work under a system where they have no legal protection and are thereby exploited because of that. Think of folks who are a part of the supply chain or construction workers they have lost three months of work, they have to make up for the lost time. There will be increased work hours, he said. In supply chains, the margins are already slim, so there will be more pressure or more hours at lesser wages.

This trend, adds Radhakrishnan, will be especially prevalent in textile supply chainsa trend that is currently unfolding in Bangladesh right now. Owing to the pressures from international brands to meet export deadlines and piling orders, many Dhaka factories opened this week despite a nationwide lockdown. In some Western countries, factories have reopened. In others, like in India, there are attempts to open up the economy to restore its broken supply chain because of the lockdown. Experts feel that the unorganised workers will face not just the dangers of coronavirus infection, but also an increased burden of work.

You have to choose between either losing your job, or working doubly hard, says Radhakrishnan. Their consignments still have to be made up for. There will be lesser breaks. If eight hours is the law, the norm is 12 hours, and now, it will increase further. They will probably see 18-hour shifts. This could be worse for some people more than others.

In India, such work conditions and its exploitative nature put the country quite high up on the Global Slavery Index 2018, where modern slavesthose who are severely exploitated for personal or commercial gainmade up of 7.9 million people (as of 2016). Workers in informal and unregulated sectors, owing to a lack of strict labour laws and regulations, often fall under this bracket. The United Nations has condemned this, and calls it contemporary forms of slavery. The majority of those who suffer are the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised social groups in society, says the UN statement. Fear, ignorance of ones rights and the need to survive do not encourage them to speak out.

Over the last few weeks, the lockdown has also increased the risk of jobless informal workers resorting to loans, which will sink them deeper into modern slavery. In fact, there are concerns that those stuck in brick kilns and rice mills are already overworked and exploited. Owners of these facilities have pushed up deadlines for work to be completed, knowing that the workers will ... (go) home once the lockdown is opened, Jaba Prince, a social worker for the International Justice Mission in southern Tamil Nadu, told Reuters.

India is not the only country where experts have predicted exploitation of vulnerable workers even after the pandemic. UK-based charity Focus on Labour Exploitation, which works to end human trafficking for labour exploitation across the world, recently came out with a study that highlights this risk in low-paid and insecure employment in the UK. Struggling to make ends meet, low-paid workers are at high risk of falling into debt and facing destitution, reads the report.

There have also been concerns about women in the labour force facing even more exploitation owing to gendered, cultural and structural issues, such as discrimination related to pregnancy and maternity, gender-based violence and sexual harassment at work. The burden on them will increase at work along with the unpaid care work at home, said Radhakrishnan.

At the same time, there are reports of the pandemic and ensuing lockdown changing the labour market considerably. In India, this analysis has come after witnessing mass displacement of migrant workers, and them struggling to go back home even now. Now, experts say that this has taught workers that distance matters. The Indian economy is functioning at not more than 25 percent capacity and most of the unorganized sector has shut down leading to migration back to the rural areas. Consequently, in states like, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, demand for work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has increased dramatically, Arun Kumar, one of the leading authorities on black economy, tells VICE. This shows that workers dont have work and because of the fear factor, they will more or less not return to urban areas in the near future and look for work in rural areas. Kumar also predicts that owing to these factors, businesses will function way below capacity, which will lead to more unemployment. Poverty will increase all around.

Its also been argued that though Indias lockdown may have been successful in minimising the spread of the virus, it has also paralysed the markets along with its people. And if the unorganised sector is forced to get back to their unsafe and exploitative workplaces again, it might just lead to something bigger than we have now. A second wave of the pandemic is being predicted by the experts, especially because we do not have enough testing, said Kumar. Big businesses are being shortsighted in demanding an immediate restart of the economy because if the disease flares up again, the poor will be hit hard due to lack of adequate medical facilities and another lockdown would be required. And experts say that a second lockdown will be even more painful than the first. And if the poor continue to be unprotected, there can be chaos in society.

Radhakrishnan looks at this as a critical juncture for how to treat the marginalised and the poor, a response that even the UN is advocating for right now through their build back better campaign. This is not the economy for the 1 percent, he says. Whenever many people think of the economy, they think of that section of the newspaper with words like GDP or mergers or interest rates, and so on. But when the lockdown happened, you saw the other face of the economy. Thats the human face of our economy, and this is the time for us to refocus ourselves and relook at our priorities. We need a human economy that works for everyone and not just a select few.

Follow Pallavi Pundir on Twitter.

View original post here:
Experts Worry That the Post-Lockdown World Could See a Surge of Exploitation and Modern Slavery - VICE

Tweets irreverent of Jameela Jamil directed to other famous to promote a body image not harmful have become their hallmark. The actress and tv presenter british broke their anonymity in the u.s. industry in 2016, with his role as Tahani Al-Jamil in the series The Good Place of the NBC (also on Netflix). But despite the success of the show, which recently renewed its fourth season, and his recent signing to present the program Misey Index (TBS), the name Jameela is hogging headlines for having been erected as a representative of the activism body attacking strong wherever the tag appears #sponcon (sponsored content) and it advertises some product that promises miracle diets, such as smoothies laxatives or polemics lollipops saciantes promoted by Kim Kardashian. As a twist to the character that has lifted, girl well obsessed with his image, his real self based his talk on defending a positive image of the body, free of charges, pressures or Photoshop. I was the teenager who was killed from starvation during years, they spent all their money on these miracle cures and laxatives and tips from celebrities on how to maintain a weight lower than my body wanted. I was sickshe wrote in a tweet, explaining the origin of their struggle.

Their ultimate aim of trolling vigilante has been Cardi B. The rapper posted on Instagram a video announcing a drink detox and Jameela went to Twitter to point out bluntly: God, I hope that all these celebrities do shit over in public the same way that the poor women who buy these trifles thanks to your recommendation. As if the reality of what to take. Its just that they need more money, satirised. And the response of Cardi B was soon in coming: Im Never going to do that because there are public restrooms and oh, the bushes. Jamil, demonstrating that we do not impose the unwritten rule that getting involved with a celebrity with more followers than you is not a good idea if youre trying to build your personal brand on the internet, threw up a video that is already viral in the that parody explicitly the reality of who consume these slimming products high-fiber content, which in many cases leads to an addiction to laxatives, an eating disorder, about which little is said.

Before that Cardi B came Iggy Azalea or the Kardashian, Kim and Khloe. Both in networks and in interviews, Jameela Jamil had already set his goal in the sisters pointing to the clan as the axis of evil, on question of body image and influence. A title that he has already been granted previously to promote an image of the woman, unreal and unattainable in the guise of empowerment frustrates the other women. No. That you are given. No. You are an influence terrible and toxic for young girls. I admire the ability of your mother to do mark, is a genius, exploitative but innovative. However, this family really makes me feel desperate when I see that reduce women, wrote in may to Kim Kardashian when she starred in the controversial campaign of the lollipops saciantes Flattummy Co. And recently collected several pictures of all these celebrities to denounce in the same line, the promotion of products of this type: Give us the codes off of your nutritionists, cooks, personal, personal trainers, makeup artists and plastic surgeons fucking lying, he wrote.

This entire complaint has been channeled through your project I weigh, an account on Instagram that arose as a critical response to a publication stars again (though not voluntarily) by the Kardashians. Tagged in an image of a profile of Instagram that indicated in the photo the weight of each one of the sisters to mode ranking, Jameela generated the countertrend: posing in the picture with labels that indicate the skills, characteristics, or passions of the person in question and not your weight. The profile sum of 250,000 followers, and collects most of photos posted under #iweigh by people not famous who want to participate in the project.

With his next move has gone further. Already he had proclaimed before his desire not to be retouched in the images published in magazines and campaigns, defending that saw their stretch marks the natural way of reclaiming the harassment to which she was subjected by the british press, when years before winning international fame sharply increased in weight by the consumption of steroids to treat asthma. Now, in a letter published in the BBC, same media that has been included in its list of the 100 women of the year, and through various tweets, requests that the airbrushing of the images is declared to be illegal. It is a lie to the consumer, is harmful to the person of the image or is even more damaging to the public, especially for young womenthese are some of the arguments that the british brings.

Although its defenders, among them media as the feminist The Cut from where the journalist Mariah Smith wrote: I have never been more happy to see someone threatening my livelihood with this tracking the lies of the celebrities, asking them to sit and be honest for once, the detractors are also there. Users social networking question not to get retouched in the photos that she herself published with messages anti Photoshop but appears made-up, and brightly beautifulsomething that labeled, paradoxically, as very own of the Kardashian-Jenner or his character in The Good Place, Tahani Al-Jamil. Media like the american Vox go further by including it in the sack of the feminism of the cool girls with Jennifer Lawrence. Jamil, as stress makes constant use of expletives and like Lawrence, he boasts of not having been sexy in its adolescence as it represents and perpetuates, in reality, the stereotype of beauty prevailing and will benefit from it: For very good who are the celebrities, the privileges that offers the beauty, wealth and status are simply too great, writes Elisabeth J. Dickson. And Jamil defends himself by appealing to the difficulties for its origin of pakistan and the color of their skin by constantly rinsing without my permission.

I know that I am being a bit extravagant in all of this, but the war against the bodies and the general image of women is ongoing and out of control. Surgery for adolescents, eating disorders and self-harm are on the rise. So the counter attack is going to involve a lot of noise. Do you not like? Cllame challenges from the field of battle tweeter.

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So trolea Jameela Jamil to other celebrities by the activism body | Celebrities, Vips - OI Canadian

Do you think about heaven and hell?

Most people at some point weigh the merits of preparing for a potential afterlife, and for those in the Western world who ultimately believe in such things, conceptions of heaven and hell tend to follow a basic, traditional script: A reward awaits good people perhaps a reunion with loved ones or face time with a deity and punishment awaits the bad. The perks and punitive measures in these respective camps are said to last an eternity.

Folks often disagree about the path one takes to these final destinations. People of different religious faiths and cultural traditions argue over who sends whom where, and why. In certain circles, conversations about the afterlife can turn testy on a dime. Passing on, it seems, is no laughing matter.

That is, unless youre Michael Schur, the Emmy-Award winning writer and producer behind The Office, Parks and Recreation and, most recently, The Good Place, the just-wrapped NBC sitcom about heaven, hell and the many train stops in between.

Schur has a knack for wringing laughter out of otherwise mirthless topics (e.g., office politics, existential anxiety) and delivering some breathtaking moments of clarity along the way.

The Good Place, which concluded its fourth and final season in January, follows four lost souls as they wake up in what they think is heaven, known simply as The Good Place. This young, attractive quartet consists of Eleanor Shellstrop (played by the irresistible Kristen Bell), a self-described hottie who has perfected the art of uncharitable ego; Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), a moral philosophy professor suffering from analysis paralysis; Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto), a sincere but hapless drug dealer and wannabe DJ; and Tahani Al-Jamil (British actress Jameela Jamil), a socialite and philanthropist with jealousy issues.

Immortal being Michael (the ageless Ted Danson) helps them acclimate to their new eternal surroundings, but neither Michael nor The Good Place are what they seem.

This hit show proves endlessly inventive, with a flourish of comedic gimmicks including the prohibition of swearing for Good Place residents. Eleanor persistently attempts to flout this rule, but her four-letter words always come out wrong, generating such head-turning T-shirt slogans as Holy Motherforking Shirtballs. (NBCstore.com sells the shirts for $20.95.)

These types of philosophical fart jokes grease the skids for some of the headiest material ever to appear in a network television sitcom.

Indeed, the shows greatest achievement is its ability to make viewers laugh while engaging them in a focused discussion of what makes people fundamentally good or bad.

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In each episode of The Good Place, the moral of the story is never in doubt because Chidi, the ethics professor, literally spells it out on a chalkboard.

The long list of intellectual luminaries from whom the shows writers quote and borrow material includes French philosopher and writer Jean Paul Sartre (Schur says he drew inspiration for the first season of The Good Place from Sartres play No Exit, which famously asserts hell is other people); Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard; German philosopher and poet Friedrich God is dead Nietzsche; and especially Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century German philosopher who tried to cement the bond between reasoning and morality.

The series wades into some stout metaphysical territory by noting that what happens in The Good Place, over time, starts to look more like what happens in The Bad Place.

The show addresses the notion that eternity gets old, and always getting what you want is its own form of torture. Wanting for nothing kills passion, fun and even love. We recognize joy only because we can experience its absence, which cant happen in The Good Place.

Depicting heaven as a joyless prison takes brass, especially in a predominantly Judeo-Christian America desperately clinging to its nominal moral authority.

Regardless of whether NBC executives knew what they were signing on to with The Good Place, the show paid dividends in viewership. Millions of loyal fans tuned in every week (and still do; the show is available on Netflix and Comcast OnDemand), indicating some in the general population are ready to entertain challenges to their traditional views.

In the end, The Good Place not so subtly suggests we create afterlife mythology to give ourselves more time with the people we love. In life, time blows by too quickly and we need, if not eternity, then at least a reasonable extension to make good on our relationships.

If The Good Place writers are right, and heaven is just a myth, our time on Earth becomes especially important because it is the only time we get.

What an incredible responsibility that would be: No future prizes or penalties, just this fleeting, fragile now, and its up to us to make it heaven or hell.

Matters of Life and Death is a monthly column that examines issues associated with death and dying. It runs the first Sunday of the month in the Living section. Michael Long is a staff editor and writer for LNP | LancasterOnline. Email your stories, comments and suggestions to mlong@lnpnews.com.

Continued here:
Matters of laugh and death: Imagining 'The Good Place' [column] - LancasterOnline

While most of the great economies are preparing themselves to enter the fourth industrial revolution led by artificial intelligence, India still has not been able to resolve its differences without violence. Over 50 peoplelost their lives in the deadly Delhi communal riots. Its high time now for Indians to track down reasons why these riots happened at the very heart of the nation.

The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 by the Indian parliament and the following violent resistance to the legislation has been painful. It is disappointing to witness that the conflict resolution mechanism in India has still remained to be colonial, which is resorting to violence. In the recent case, the government, as well as the citizens both, have miserably failed to preserve the constitutional values that India needs to uphold.

The only reason for this failure is that we are more emotional rather than being more rational. Emotions, since colonial times, have been channelised by the state to run the daily affairs of the system. The sowing of the seed of communal hatred, rigidifying of the fluid caste system amongst the Hindus and the notion of martial race that still exists in our society are a few examples of it.

Although it is interesting to note that the founding fathers of modern India have utilised emotions of Indians based on rationality in throwing the British out of India, and later on leveraged it to lay the foundations of modern-day India. However, they also failed to use rationale to prevent partition based on flawed principles and the bloodshed that followed. Back then, letting emotions get swayed away through political propagandas was not exceptional, but what is the reason that we are letting them influence our emotions and behaviour even today?

Madness is rare in individualsbut in groups, parties, peoples, ages, it is the rule Friedrich Nietzsche

Keeping in mind what German scholar Friedrich Nietzche once said, it becomes our responsibility to identify the madness that is not uncommon particularly in groups and parties in the context of the politics in contemporary India. We need to keep emotions and behaviour aloof from this madness. Most importantly, what is expected to be the fourth pillar of the democracy media, has turned out to be the propaganda machine of these political groups and parties. Hence, while reading or watching news reporting you must be careful while shaping an opinion.

Throughout history, propaganda has been used as persuasion to mould the emotions, beliefs and behaviour of the individuals. When these individuals collectively act on the notions of protecting their community or religion as against those attacking it, often, it has been observed that it will end up inculcating violence and eventually will burn our own houses, similar to what happened in Delhi.

It is crucial to note that our founding fathers have already constituted one of the most beautiful and comprehensive contracts between the state and the citizens called the Constitution of India. It is not you but the constitution through its limbs of the state that is conferred with the responsibilities of protecting your community. If any one limb of the state fails to obey the mandate issued by the constitution, then the other one will check it so that nobody can harm you as well as your community.

In the end, if the citizens breach the faith in the giant contract, India will turn to chaos filled with immense hatred and absolute destruction. To prevent catastrophe, we all just need to be rational, keeping aside our emotions and not letting our behaviour oscillate because of the madness that several political groups and parties possess today.

Originally posted here:
Why Indians Need To Be More Rational Than Emotional When It Comes To Politics - Youth Ki Awaaz

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Impact of Covid-19 on Cold Chain Tracking and Monitoring Systems Market Research Report 2020, Thrives the Global Industry Growth at Impressive CAGR...

Its always interesting to hear backstories on our favorite television programs or films and the Today Show is no different.

Recently, former Today co-anchor Katie Couric revealed how she got wind that ultra right-wing conservative Ann Coulter was scheduled to be interviewed by Ann Curry, and the steps Couric immediately took.

Its well known at this point that Ann Curry was basically booted from Today, with the most popular rumor being that her co-anchor, Matt Lauer, had allegedly requested that Curry be shifted from the show.

To make matters worse, Good Morning Americas ratings were skyrocketing, sending Todays producers and higher-ups into a panic.

The New York Times reported in 2013 about an anonymous assessment by Todays senior staffers and talent after Currys dismissal. One person wrote, our sense of family is broken, and another said, Matt is being blamed, and some in our audience see Savannah as the younger replacement wife.

Gayle King asked Ann Curry on CBS This Morning in 2018 if she would agree that Matt Lauer had derailed her career. Curry replied, You should ask someone else, Im not the one to ask about that I dont know what was all behind it. I do know that it hurt like hell.

In an interview with the Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino podcast this week, Couric addressed how often she stays in touch with her former colleague.

I havent seen her, Couric said. Once in a while, Ill run into her at things, but I think shes working on a PBS show or something. You know, I always liked Ann, but we werent really very close friends. So I havent kept up with her, but I hope shes doing well, I really do.

Pellegrino asked Couric if she ever switches on the Today Show on weekday mornings.

No, I dont, shhhh, Couric said laughing. Not really, not too much. . . I really get most of my news on my telephone. I think Ive just changed the way I consume news and information.

In her interview with Pellegrino, the topic of Courics 2002 infamous interview with Ann Coulter came up.

Courics response to Coulters name? Oh God, she was awful.

Couric continued, I find her to be a fascinating character, a lot of it is bravado and theater. I think shes probably extremely conservative, but I also feel like her whole schtick is . . . shes a provocateur.

The mother of two thanked Pellegrino for bringing her testy conversation with Coulter up, as she wants to include it in her memoir, which she is hoping to publish by 2021.

Im writing my memoir and that reminds me, I definitely have to write about that interview, which was just so intense. . . Some people think she ate me alive and some people think that I ate her alive.

The New York City resident then dropped the bombshell that it was actually Ann Curry who was slated to interview the contentious political personality that day.

Couric doesnt explain why she insisted on handling the conversation. But its most likely because Coulter, in the book she was promoting, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, labeled Couric as the affable Eva Braun of morning TV and Couric wanted the author to explain what she meant by the stinging remark.

The former Today host perhaps also wanted to spare Ann Curry from what would have probably been a bloodbath of an interview with only Currys bones figuratively left afterward.

Ann Curry was scheduled to do that interview, Couric told Pellegrino, and I told the woman who books authors [on Today], because Ann Coulter had a book coming out, I said, No no no no no, I need to do that interview.'

See the rest here:

Katie Couric on How She Spared Ann Curry From an Interview with 'Provocateur' Ann Coulter - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

As you can well imagine, my mailbox has been overflowing with questions about the coronavirus from precisely ZERO readers. So I decided to write my own questions. I know this is what youwouldbe asking if you were not standing in line, outside, 6 feet apart, to purchase a quart of milk.

What do you think of the medias coverage of the Wuhan virus?

Its like a nonstop War of the Worlds broadcast, which in 1938 panicked more than a million Americans into believing Martians had landed in New Jersey, sending people fleeing to the mountains, loading their shotguns and barricading their homes. And that was a single radio broadcast!

Today we have nearly all of media which I notice are doing fantastically well during the crisis terrifying the public about an apparently indestructible, omnipresent virus.

You dont think the China virus is as dangerous as they say?

Well, it is a virus capable of eliminating all human life, which would be bad, but notallbad because then youd never have to see another TV commercial with some company saying they consider you family.

So you think its safe to start lifting the stay-at-home orders?

Of course. I ask again: What was the purpose of telling everyone to stay home? Arent we all Wuhan-free now? More than 90 percent of the country has been self-quarantining for more than a month. Either we had it and didnt know it, or never had it at all. But in any eventwe dont have it now.

Or was that whole stay-at-home mandate just for fun?

What about threats of a resurgence?

Luckily the hospitals are half-empty, waiting for the gusher of coronavirus patients.

So we do nothing?

No, not at all, but now that 90 percent of us are Wuhan-free, these are the only things we need to do:

1) A real immigration moratorium, like this country had from 1924 to 1965. (Id also recommend that the other 49 states shut down flights from New York, but Ill leave that up to them);

2) Concentrate all protections on the elderly/immunocompromised;

3) No more handshaking, and liberal use of surgical masks in confined spaces.

Other than that, WERE DONE NOW.

But we know virtually nothing about this virus: why it kills, what stops it, how its transmitted.

Actually, we know one very important thing: By total serendipity, the Wuhan virus mostly kills people over the age of 70. Nearly 80 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the U.S. are of people over 70 years old.

What about Italy?

About 80 percent of the dead were over 70.

That sounds a little callous.

Not at all. Its a stroke of good luck! Wed be lucky if the virus targetedanyspecific group the nearsighted, left-handers, golfers because that would allow us to concentrate protections on that one group.

But its doubly good news because the Wuhan targets people who are mostly out of the workforce anyway. And we already have their names and addresses! How about the feds send a box of masks along with Social Security checks every month?

How will you get Democratic governors to go along with that?

Liberals can triple down on all their fascist stuff as long as its limited to the vulnerable.

Over 65? You need a note from the governor to leave your home!

Fine! But let the rest of us get back to work.

Why havent they done this already?

Because that wouldnt have the effect of wrecking the economy before the election.

Apart from the election, why would the media want to impoverish the nation?

1) Reporting on disasters is fun!

2) Their ratings are terrific and, of course,theyrestill being paid.

3) Liberals enjoy controlling people, especially with enragingly nonsensical rules.

I thought Trump was the authoritarian!

No, hes the lazy, narcissistic blowhard.Liberalsare the authoritarians.

The shutdown is airport security for the whole country. Nineteen Muslim immigrants flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and suddenly little old ladies from Oklahoma had to be goosed at airports.We have to be safe!

A horrible Chinese virus sweeps the planet, which is devastating to older people but virtually harmless to the young and the entire country has to be shut down.We have to be safe!

What about polls showing a majority of Americans want to keep the restrictions in place?

The media have frightened gullible suburban woman into a state of hysteria. (Talk about whipping up your ignorant base!) Kids could basically mainline coronavirus and theyd be fine. But soccer moms dont want their kids going back to school.

Whether its rational or not, people arent going to go out like they used to.

My entire life, liberals have said, Dont like abortion? Dont have one. Dont like pornography? Dont look at it. And so on.

I say: Dont want to leave your home? Dont leave your home!

So you recommend going out again?

Sure, whats the worst that could happen? Sure, you could die, but you probably wont.

.

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Ann Coulter: Q & A on the Wuhan Virus - Breitbart

When the bizarre world of quantum physics where a "cat" can be both alive and dead, and particles a galaxy apart are connected is merged with computer technology, the result is unprecedented power to anyone who masters this technology first.

There is an obvious dark side. Imagine a world where online bank accounts could be easily hacked into and robbed. But this power can also be turned to good, allowing new drugs to be designed with unprecedented speed to cure disease. To prepare for such a future, many countries are investing billions to unlock the potential of what is called quantum computing. With an eye toward the future, a group of researchers at Fermilab,a particle physics laboratory in Batavia, Ill., has worked with high-school teachers to develop a program to train their students in this emerging field.

This program, called "Quantum Computing as a High School Module," was developed in collaboration with young students in mind. But it's also a perfect diversion for science enthusiasts of any age who suddenly have a lot of time on their hands.

This online training course introduces students to quantum concepts, including superposition, qubits, encryption, and many others. These additional concepts include quantum measurement, entanglement and teleportation; students will also learn and how to use quantum computers to prevent hacking. The course is also appropriate for community college or undergraduate students in areas outside of physics, such as computer science, engineering or mathematics, as well as a science literate public. One of the course's teachers, Ranbel Sun wrote, "It was great to work with a couple of America's smartest researchers to make sure that the science was right. Combining their knowledge and our teaching experience, we have developed an understandable learning program which bridges the gap between popular media and college textbooks."

Related: 12 stunning quantum physics experiments

Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum physics, which were developed in the early 1900s. Quantum physics describes the tiny realm of atoms, where the laws of nature seem to be very different from the world we can see. In this microcosm, electrons and particles of light called photons simultaneously act as both waves and particles a seeming absurdity, but one that is well accepted among scientists.

This non-intuitive quantum behavior has been exploited to develop powerful technologies, like the lasers and transistors that form the backbone of our technological society. Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman was the first to suggest that computers could be built to directly exploit the laws of quantum mechanics. If successful, these quantum computers could solve incredibly important and difficult problems that are too complex for even the most powerful modern supercomputers to solve. Last year, Google used a quantum computer called Sycamore to solve a problem thought to be virtually unsolvable by conventional computers; a calculation that would take the most powerful supercomputers 10,000 years to finish was solved in just 200 seconds by Sycamore.

The familiar computer on your desk uses a vast array of objects called bits to operate. Bits are basically simple switches that can be either on or off, which is mathematically equivalent to ones and zeros. Quantum computers rely on qubits, which can simultaneously be both on and off at the same time. This peculiar feature is common in the quantum world and is called superposition: being in two states at once. Researcher Ciaran Hughes said, "The quantum world is very different from the familiar one, which leads to opportunities not available using classical computers."

In 1994, Peter Shor invented an algorithm that revealed the power of quantum computing. His algorithm would allow quantum computers to factorize a number enormously faster than any classically known algorithm. Factorizing numbers is important because the encryption system used by computers to communicate securely relies on the mathematics of prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by one and themselves.

In a standard encryption algorithm, two very large prime numbers are multiplied together, resulting in an even larger number. The key to breaking the security code is to take the large number and find the two prime numbers that were multiplied together to make it. Finding these prime numbers is extremely hard for ordinary computers and can take centuries to accomplish.

However, using Shor's quantum algorithm, finding these prime factors is much easier. A working quantum computer would make our standard method of encryption no longer secure, resulting in the need for new encryption methods. Fermilab researcher Jessica Turner said, "Quantum computing is a very new way of thinking and will be revolutionary, but only if we can develop programmers with quantum intuition."

Obviously, any nation state or individual who is able to crack encryption codes will have a huge information advantage. The competition to develop working quantum computers is the new space race.

Quantum computing has the potential to overturn how computers securely communicate: from health care, to financial services and online security. Like it or not, the future is quantum computing. To fully reap the rewards of this quantum revolution requires a quantum fluent workforce. This new program is a very helpful step towards that goal.

The researchers have made their training program freely available.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Online course trains students in the bizarre world of quantum computing - Livescience.com

By Rowan Hooper

BBC/FX Networks

TV Devs BBC iPlayer and FX on Hulu

Halfway through episode two of Devs, there is a scene that caused me first to gasp, and then to swear out loud. A genuine WTF moment. If this is what I think it is, I thought, it is breathtakingly audacious. And so it turns out. The show is intelligent, beautiful and ambitious, and to aid in your viewing pleasure, this spoiler-free review introduces some of the cool science it explores.

Alex Garlands eight-part seriesopens with protagonists Lilyand Sergei, who live in a gorgeous apartment in San Francisco. Like their real-world counterparts, people who work atFacebook orGoogle, the pair take the shuttle bus to work.

They work at Amaya, a powerful but secretive technology company hidden among the redwoods. Looming over the trees is a massive, creepy statue of a girl: the Amaya the company is named for.

We see the company tag line asLily and Sergei get off the bus: Your quantum future. Is it just athrow-away tag, or should we think about what that line means more precisely?

Sergei, we learn, works on artificial intelligence algorithms. At the start of the show, he gets some time with the boss, Forest, todemonstrate the project he has been working on. He has managed to model the behaviour of a nematode worm. His team has simulated the worm by recreating all 302 of its neurons and digitally wiring them up. This is basically the WormBot project, an attempt to recreate a life form completely in digital code. The complete map of the connections between the 302 neurons of the nematode waspublished in 2019.

We dont yet have the processing power to recreate theseconnections dynamically in a computer, but when we do, it will be interesting to consider if the resulting digital worm, a complete replica of an organic creature, should be considered alive.

We dont know if Sergeis simulation is alive, but it is so good, he can accurately predict the behaviour of the organic original, a real worm it is apparently simulating, up to 10 seconds in thefuture. This is what I like about Garlands stuff: the show has only just started and we have already got some really deep questions about scientific research that is actually happening.

Sergei then invokes the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics conceived by Hugh Everett. Although Forest dismisses this idea, it is worth getting yourhead around it because the show comes back to it. Adherents say that the maths of quantum physics means the universe isrepeatedly splitting into different versions, creating a vast multiverse of possible outcomes.

At the core of Amaya is the ultrasecretive section where thedevelopers work. No one outside the devs team knows what it is developing, but we suspect it must be something with quantum computers. I wondered whether the devssection is trying to do with the 86 billion neurons of thehuman brain what Sergei has been doing with the 302 neurons of the nematode.

We start to find out when Sergei is selected for a role in devs. He must first pass a vetting process (he is asked if he is religious, a question that makes sense later) and then he is granted access to the devs compound sealed by alead Faraday cage, gold mesh andan unbroken vacuum.

Inside is a quantum computer more powerful than any currently in existence. How many qubits does it run, asks Sergei, looking inawe at the thing (it is beautiful, abit like the machines being developed by Google and IBM). Anumber that it is meaningless to state, says Forest. As a reference point, the best quantum computers currently manage around 50 qubits, or quantum bits. We can only assume that Forest has solved the problem ofdecoherence when external interference such as heat or electromagnetic fields cause qubits to lose their quantum properties and created a quantum computer with fantasticprocessing power.

So what are the devs using it for? Sergei is asked to guess, and then left to work it out for himself from gazing at the code. He figures it out before we do. Then comes that WTF moment. To say any more will give away the surprise. Yet as someone remarks, the world is deterministic, but with this machine we are gaining magical powers. Devs has its flaws, but it is energising and exciting to see TV this thoughtful: it cast a spell on me.

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Devs: Here's the real science behind the quantum computing TV show - New Scientist News

A discovery that long eluded physicists has been detected in a laboratory at Princeton. A team of physicists detected superconducting currents the flow of electrons without wasting energy along the exterior edge of a superconducting material. The finding was published May 1 in the journal Science.

Researchers at Princeton have discovered superconducting currents traveling along the outer edges of a superconductor with topological properties, suggesting a route to topological superconductivity that could be useful in future quantum computers. The superconductivity is represented by the black center of the diagram indicating no resistance to the current flow. The jagged pattern indicates the oscillation of the supercurrent, which varies with the strength of an applied magnetic field.

Image courtesy of Stephan Kim, Princeton University

The superconductor that the researchers studied is also a topological semi-metal, a material that comes with its own unusual electronic properties. The finding suggests ways to unlock a new era of "topological superconductivity" that could have value for quantum computing.

"To our knowledge, this is the first observation of an edge supercurrent in any superconductor," said Nai Phuan Ong, Princeton's Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and the senior author on the study.Learn more about topological materials in thisessayby Ong.

N. Phuan Ong, Princeton's Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics

Photo by

Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications

"Our motivating question was, what happens when the interior of the material is not an insulator but a superconductor?" Ong said. "What novel features arise when superconductivity occurs in a topological material?"

Although conventional superconductors already enjoy widespread usage in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and long-distance transmission lines, new types of superconductivity could unleash the ability to move beyond the limitations of our familiar technologies.

Researchers at Princeton and elsewhere have been exploring the connections between superconductivity and topological insulators materials whose non-conformist electronic behaviors were the subject of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics for F. Duncan Haldane, Princeton's Sherman Fairchild University Professor of Physics.

Topological insulators are crystals that have an insulating interior and a conducting surface, like a brownie wrapped in tin foil. In conducting materials, electrons can hop from atom to atom, allowing electric current to flow. Insulators are materials in which the electrons are stuck and cannot move. Yet curiously, topological insulators allow the movement of electrons on their surface but not in their interior.

To explore superconductivity in topological materials, the researchers turned to a crystalline material called molybdenum ditelluride, which has topological properties and is also a superconductor once the temperature dips below a frigid 100 milliKelvin, which is -459 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Most of the experiments done so far have involved trying to 'inject' superconductivity into topological materials by putting the one material in close proximity to the other," said Stephan Kim, a graduate student in electrical engineering, who conducted many of the experiments. "What is different about our measurement is we did not inject superconductivity and yet we were able to show the signatures of edge states."

Stephan Kim, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, conducted experiments demonstrating supercurrents in a topological material.

The team first grew crystals in the laboratory and then cooled them down to a temperature where superconductivity occurs. They then applied a weak magnetic field while measuring the current flow through the crystal. They observed that a quantity called the critical current displays oscillations, which appear as a saw-tooth pattern, as the magnetic field is increased.

Both the height of the oscillations and the frequency of the oscillations fit with predictions of how these fluctuations arise from the quantum behavior of electrons confined to the edges of the materials.

"When we finished the data analysis for the first sample, I looked at my computer screen and could not believe my eyes, the oscillations we observed were just so beautiful and yet so mysterious," said Wudi Wang, who as first author led the study and earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 2019. "It's like a puzzle that started to reveal itself and is waiting to be solved. Later, as we collected more data from different samples, I was surprisedat how perfectly the data fit together."

Researchers have long known that superconductivity arises when electrons, which normally move about randomly, bind into twos to form Cooper pairs, which in a sense dance to the same beat. "A rough analogy is a billion couples executing the same tightly scripted dance choreography," Ong said.

The script the electrons are following is called the superconductor's wave function, which may be regarded roughly as a ribbon stretched along the length of the superconducting wire, Ong said. A slight twist of the wave function compels all Cooper pairs in a long wire to move with the same velocity as a "superfluid" in other words acting like a single collection rather than like individual particles that flows without producing heating.

If there are no twists along the ribbon, Ong said, the Cooper pairs are stationary and no current flows. If the researchers expose the superconductor to a weak magnetic field, this adds an additional contribution to the twisting that the researchers call the magnetic flux, which, for very small particles such as electrons, follows the rules of quantum mechanics.

The researchers anticipated that these two contributors to the number of twists, the superfluid velocity and the magnetic flux, work together to maintain the number of twists as an exact integer, a whole number such as 2, 3 or 4 rather than a 3.2 or a 3.7. They predicted that as the magnetic flux increases smoothly, the superfluid velocity would increase in a saw-tooth pattern as the superfluid velocity adjusts to cancel the extra .2 or add .3 to get an exact number of twists.

Wudi Wang, the first author on the study, led the study and conducted many of the experiments. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 2019.

The team measured the superfluid current as they varied the magnetic flux and found that indeed the saw-tooth pattern was visible.

In molybdenum ditelluride and other so-called Weyl semimetals, this Cooper-pairing of electrons in the bulk appears to induce a similar pairing on the edges.

The researchers noted that the reason why the edge supercurrent remains independent of the bulk supercurrent is currently not well understood. Ong compared the electrons moving collectively, also called condensates, to puddles of liquid.

"From classical expectations, one would expect two fluid puddles that are in direct contact to merge into one," Ong said. "Yet the experiment shows that the edge condensates remain distinct from that in the bulk of the crystal."

The research team speculates that the mechanism that keeps the two condensates from mixing is the topological protection inherited from the protected edge states in molybdenum ditelluride. The group hopes to apply the same experimental technique to search for edge supercurrents in other unconventional superconductors.

"There are probably scores of them out there," Ong said.

Funding: The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office (W911NF-16-1-0116). The dilution refrigerator experiments were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE- SC0017863). N.P.O. and R.J.C. acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative through grants GBMF4539 (N.P.O.) and GBMF-4412 (R.J.C.). The growth and characterization of crystals were performed by F.A.C. and R.J.C., with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF MRSEC grant DMR 1420541).

The study, "Evidence for an edge supercurrent in the Weyl superconductor MoTe2," by Wudi Wang, Stephan Kim, Minhao Liu, F. A. Cevallos, Robert. J. Cava and Nai Phuan Ong, was published in the journal Science on May 1, 2020. 10.1126/science.aaw9270

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New Princeton study takes superconductivity to the edge - Princeton University