IQM Quantum Computers (IQM) the European leader in building superconducting quantum computers, today announced that it has raised 39 M in Series A funding, bringing the total amount of funding raised to date to 71 M.

This ranks among the highest fundraising rounds by a European deep-tech startup within a year. MIG Fonds has led this round, with participation from all existing investors including Tesi, OpenOcean, Maki.vc, Vito Ventures, Matadero QED. New investors Vsquared, Salvia GmbH, Santo Venture Capital GmbH, and Tencent, have also joined this round.

"IQM has a strong track record of research and in achieving high growth. They continue to attract the best global talent across functions and have exceeded their hardware and software milestones. We are thrilled to lead this round and continue to support IQM as the company accelerates its next phase of business and hardware growth," said Axel Thierauf, Partner at MIG Fonds, and Chairman of the Board of IQM.

Since 2019, IQM has been among the fastest-growing companies in the quantum computing sector and already has one of the world's largest quantum hardware engineering teams. This funding will be used to accelerate IQMs hardware development and to co-design application-specific quantum computers. A significant part of the funding will also be used to attract and retain the best global talent in quantum computing, and to establish sales and business development teams.

"Today's announcement is part of our ongoing Series-A funding round. I am extremely pleased with the confidence our investors have shown in our vision, team, product, and the ability to execute and commercialize quantum computers. This investment also shows their continued belief in building the future of quantum technologies. This is a significant recognition for our fantastic team that has achieved all our key milestones from the previous round. We're just getting started," said Jan Goetz, CEO of IQM.

"It is impressive to be a part of the IQM journey and see the progress of their technology. We're proud to see another startup from Finland making a global impact. IQM will have a lasting impact on the future of computing, and consequently will help solve some of the global challenges related to healthcare, climate change and development of sustainable materials among many others," said Juha Lehtola, Head of Direct VC Investments at Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment).

IQM delivers on-premises quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centers. For industrial customers, IQM follows an innovative co-design strategy to deliver quantum advantage based on application-specific processors, using novel chip architectures and ultrafast quantum operations. IQM provides the full hardware stack for a quantum computer, integrating different technologies, and invites collaborations with quantum software companies.

"We want to invest in deep technology startups that shape the future and advance society. IQM is the perfect example of a company that is on top of its game; their work on quantum computing will make an impact for generations to come," said Herbert Mangesius, Founding Partner at Vsquared and Vito Ventures.

While quantum computing is still under development, governments and private organizations across the world are investing today to retain their competitive edge and become quantum-ready for the future.

The next decade will be the decade of quantum technology, and we will see major breakthroughs with real-world applications using quantum computers in healthcare, logistics, finance, chemistry and beyond.

About IQM Quantum Computers:

IQM is the European leader in superconducting quantum computers, headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Since its inception in 2018, IQM has grown to 70+ (TBC) employees and has also established a subsidiary in Munich, Germany, to lead the co-design approach. IQM delivers on-premises quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centers and provides complete access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers quantum advantage through a unique application-specific co-design approach. IQM has also received a 3.3 M grant from Business Finland and has been awarded a 15 M equity investment from the EIC Accelerator program.

For more information, visit http://www.meetiqm.com

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Europe Is on Its Way To Quantum Leadership, IQM Raises 39 M in Series A Funding - Embedded Computing Design

Quantum particle, quantum mechanics . 3d illustration

In last weeks podcast, Enrique Blair on quantum computing, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks talks with fellow computer engineer Enrique Blair about why quantum mechanics is so strange. But scientists have learned to work with QM, despite many questions, like how to work with particles that can be in two different places (quantum superposition):

[Starts at approximately 13:16.] The Show Notes and transcript follow.

Excerpts from the transcript:

Robert J. Marks: Whats superposition? Whats going on there?

Enrique Blair: Quantum superposition is really a mathematical description. We use wave functions to describe these particles. Theres a wave function for the photon going through Slit One and a wave function for the photon going through Slit Two. To describe it going through both slits, we have a linear combination of those two wave functions and so you have a more general wave function. Thats the heart of quantum computing because in classical computing, we have bits like zero or one. And in quantum computing, we like to use these superpositions of zero and one. Its not one or the other, its something of both.

Robert J. Marks: Its kind of like Invisible Boy (pictured) in Mystery Men. When you dont look, zero and one are both there.

Note: Invisible Boy is a resident of Champion City who spent most of his adolescent life ignored even by his own father. Eventually he discovered that after years of being overlooked, he had developed the power of invisibility, but it only works as long as no one (including himself) is looking at him. Mystery Men Fan Wiki

Enrique Blair: Thats right. Oddly enough, there is no mathematical definition that rigorously describes measurement. Its one we havent quite figured out yet.

Robert J. Marks: Tell us what a wave function is.

Enrique Blair: A wave function describes the state of a quantum system and it contains everything we can know about that quantum system. But we manipulate these things or we extract meaning from them using quantum mechanical operators. These operators describe things like time evolution or the total energy of the system, or some observable quantity like position or momentum.

The wave function itself is not the probability density. You have to take the magnitude squared. And then you get probabilities.

Note: It amounts to doing mathematics with probabilities rather than exact figures. In the experiments about atomic events we have to do with things and facts, with phenomena that are just as real as any phenomena in daily life. But the atoms or the elementary particles themselves are not as real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts. ( Werner Heisenberg, a quantum mechanics pioneer, Physics and Philosophy, p. 186)

Enrique Blair (pictured): Okay. The wave functionwhen you take its magnitude squared you get the probabilities of various outcomes for measurement when you also use an operator. But really, the stunning thing is thats all you get.

You get probabilities for outcomes. You cant predict with certainty which outcome is going to result when you make a measurement. Thats the subject of one of the papers we wrote recently, just using quantum mechanics to make something thats a truly random number generator.

You know well that computers cant generate random numbers because theyre deterministic.

Robert J. Marks: Which is really surprising because you see random numbers used a lot in gaming machines, like in casinos.

And theyre not random numbers, theyre pseudo-random numbers. They actually use an algorithm.

Physics and engineering professor Craig Lent has talked about randomness and the ability of quantum mechanics to generate true randomness. In fact, this is the only pure source of randomness there is. He said you can go to amazon.com and buy yourself a random number generator based on quantum mechanics that really spits out 100% random numbers. Thats amazing.

Note: Heres a random number generator (RNG) for sale at Amazon. Why cant we just think up and write down random numbers? That doesnt really work because humans always think in patterns, whether we notice them or not. And if we try to write an algorithm to produce random numbers, that is a pattern too. Quantum mechanics can, however, generate random numbers because there is no specific prior position.

Robert J. Marks: In the quantum world, when you measure something, you kind of mess around with the wave equation when you measure it. And then it collapses in accordance to its probability. Is that kind of the way it is?

Enrique Blair: Yeah, thats true. Like I said, the Schrdinger equation describes the time evolution of the system if you dont measure it or dont look at it or dont interact with it. But then once you measure it, you get one of these probabilities and you radically change the wave function and its in the state that corresponds to the result that you got. Previous to that, its a quantum superposition of many different states.

Note: Is quantum mechanics practical? Quantum computers, as their name implies, operate on the bizarre principles of quantum mechanics to manipulate information, and are poised to revolutionize our computing capabilities. With companies like IBM and Google already building the first prototypes, they are expected to propel technology forward with greater speed, accuracy, and security by completing tasks that would be otherwise impossible for ordinary computers to handle. Advanced Science News More on how that works later.

Next: The Truth about Schrdingers cat.

Previous: Heres why the quantum world is just so strange. It underlies our universe but it follows its own rules, which dont make sense to the rest of us. Computer engineer Enrique Blair explains to Robert J. Marks the simple experiment that shows why so many scientists find the quantum world mind-blowing.

Podcast Transcript Download

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How Scientists Have Learned To Work With the Quantum World - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

The company has divested non-core exploration tenements during 2020 to fund its advance materials business with a focus on quantum computing.

() (FRA:38A) executive chairman Greg English told the Annual General Meeting today that, despite the havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company hadachieved considerable progress in the transition away from mineral exploration and toward materials technology.

He said: In less than two years since announcing the commencement of our 12CQ project, we have made substantial progress on creating a new culture and identity, while maintaining our habit of doing high-quality work cost-effectively.

During the year we delivered all that we announced at the start of the year and more.

We further sharpened Archer's strategic focus on quantum technology, human health and reliable energy.

English said: We continued to divest non-core exploration tenements and assets as a means of funding the Advanced Materials Business, and on July 2, 2020, completed the divestment of the Leigh Creek Magnesite Project for $2.8 million.

The companys exploration tenements are no longer core to its materials technology strategyand Archer will continue to sell mineral exploration projects to fund the Advanced Materials Business.

English said: Our primary focus during the past 12 months has been on the development of the room temperature quantum computer chip.

We believe that over the next few years that quantum computing will move from the high-tech lab to mainstream commercial use, representing the next major breakthrough in modern IT.

Quantum computing represents a sweeping technological breakthrough that is set to change so much of the way we work and interact.

English said: Our most notable transaction during the year was the collaboration agreement with IBM ().

As part of the contract between Archer and IBM, Archer is the first Australian company building a quantum computing qubit processor to join the global IBM Q Network as an ecosystem partner.

We have already begun accessing IBM's quantum computing expertise and resources, and opensource Qiskit software and developer tools.

During the year, the company also continued to develop IP associated with a potential solution to graphene-based biosensors capable of complex detection of disease having designed a set of new graphene materials that could be directly applied for enhanced biosensing.

English said: Technologically, we have made considerable progress with developing the biosensing interface, data processing, and design and fabrication of materials electrodes critical to the biosensor technology function and will continue this work in 2021.

English said: In building a deep tech company, we have not limited our vision to the next quarter or even to the following two but are re-shaping the company for the next 20 or 30 years.

By developing our advanced materials business, we have laid the foundation for a new era of technology and business.

We are now the only ASX-listed company that offers shareholders exposure to the ever-growing world of quantum computing.

While the company has made considerable progress in a short amount of time, English said it was easy to forget that Archer was still in the early stages of a long cycle of a technological revolution.

He said: With our advanced materials business, we have deliberately selected technologies that we believe can make a real contribution to society and help to find solutions to global challenges.

We believe that this strategy will enable us to optimise value for our shareholders and have a long-term positive impact on the company.

In line with the transition, the company's market cap has increased to $120.3 million.Since March shares have traded from 12cents to a record of 81.5 cents and today have been as much as 55 cents.

Originally posted here:

Archer Materials makes strong progress in shifting focus to Advanced Materials Business and technology - Proactive Investors USA & Canada

01 Communique to Present at the Benzinga Global Small Cap Conference on December 8 ACCESSWIRE 2020-11-30

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE /November 30, 2020 /01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (TSXV:ONE)(OTCQB:OONEF) (the "Company") one of the first-to-market, enterprise level cybersecurity providers for the quantum computing era today announced that the Company will be presenting at the upcoming virtual Benzinga Global Small Cap Conferenceon Tuesday, December 8th at 12:00PM ET and will also be hosting virtual one-to-one investor meetings with management. Complimentary investor registration and virtual one-to-one meeting requests can be accessed through the conference link above.

The inaugural Benzinga Global Small Cap Conference is planned for December 8th and 9th in an entirely virtual setting. Designed to bridge the gap between publicly traded companies, investors and traders, the Conference will enable small-cap companies to network and communicate with a broad and diverse investor base.

About IronCAP and IronCAP X:

IronCAP is at the forefront of the cyber security market and is designed to protect our customers from cyber-attacks. IronCAP's patent-pending cryptographic system is designed to protect users and enterprises against the ever-evolving illegitimate and malicious means of gaining access to their data today as well as in the future with the introduction of powerful quantum computers. Based on improved Goppa code-based encryption it is designed to be faster and more secure than current standards. It operates on conventional computer systems, so users are protected today while being secure enough to safeguard against future attacks from the world of quantum computers. An IronCAP API is available which allows vendors of a wide variety of vertical applications to easily transform their products to ensure their customers are safe from cyber-attacks today and from quantum computers in the future.

IronCAP X, a new cybersecurity product for email/file encryption, incorporating our patent-pending technology was made available for commercial use on April 23, 2020. The new product has two major differentiations from what is in the market today. Firstly, many offerings in today's market store users secured emails on email-servers for recipients to read, making email-servers a central target of cyber-attack. IronCAP X, on the other hand, delivers each encrypted message end-to-end to the recipients such that only the intended recipients can decrypt and read the message. Consumers' individual messages are protected, eliminating the hackers' incentive to attack email servers of email providers. Secondly, powered by our patent-pending IronCAP technology, we believe IronCAP Xis the world's first quantum-safe end-to-end email encryption system; secured against cyberattacks from today's systems and from quantum computers in the future. Consumers and businesses using our new products will have tomorrow's cybersecurity today.

About 01 Communique

Established in 1992, 01 Communique (TSX-V: ONE; OTCQB: OONEF) has always been at the forefront of technology. The Company's cyber security business unit focuses on post-quantum cybersecurity with the development of its IronCAP technology. IronCAP's patent-pending cryptographic system is an advanced Goppa code-based post-quantum cryptographic technology that can be implemented on classical computer systems as we know them today while at the same time can also safeguard against attacks in the future post-quantum world of computing. The Company's remote access business unit provides its customers with a suite of secure remote access services and products under its I'm InTouch and I'm OnCall product offerings. The remote access offerings are protected in the U.S.A. by its patents #6,928,479 / #6,938,076 / #8,234,701; in Canada by its patents #2,309,398 / #2,524,039 and in Japan by its patent #4,875,094. For more information, visit the Company's web site at http://www.ironcap.ca and http://www.01com.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, such statements use such words as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "anticipate", "plan", "intend", "are confident" and other similar terminology. Such statements include statements regarding the business prospects of IronCAP X, the future of quantum computers and their impact on the Company's product offering, the functionality of the Company's products and the intended product lines for the Company's technology. These statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the matters discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, a delay in the anticipated adoption of quantum computers and a corresponding delay in Q day, the ability for the Company to generate sales, and gain adoption of, IronCAP X, the ability of the Company to raise financing to pursue its business plan, competing products that provide a superior product, competitors with greater resources and the factors discussed under "Risk and Uncertainties" in the company's Management`s Discussion and Analysis document filed on SEDAR. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

INVESTOR CONTACT:

Brian Stringer Chief Financial Officer 01 Communique (905) 795-2888 x204 Brian.stringer@01com.com

SOURCE:01 Communique Laboratory, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/618717/01-Communique-to-Present-at-the-Benzinga-Global-Small-Cap-Conference-on-December-8

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01 Communique to Present at the Benzinga Global Small Cap Conference on December 8 - IT News Online

Popular Indian filmmaker Prakash Jha and actor Bobby Deol came together to create the hit seriesAashramonMX Playerin August. Only a few months later, Chapter 2-The Dark Side was released on Nov.11. It's evident from the trailer that the triggering series season 2 will be featuring many hair-raising episodes. "Bhakti ya Bhrashtachar? Aastha ya Apraadh? Are the serious questions that the series asks its viewers. There are several characters this season who are raising questions about the Godmans intentions and actions. Read on to know, Is Aashram based on true story?

Read |'Aashram 2' episodes: See a complete list of episodes of Bobby Deol starrer

In the Aashram season 2 trailer, one man asks how the baba finds so many women, while other suspects he is doing politics, and a third mysteriously states once you come to the aashram, you can never go back. Aashram is one of the most well-timed and candid Indian crime dramas ever created. Streaming on MX Player, the series features some disturbing scenes of women going missing, and all the missing women somehow ending up being linked to Baba Nirala of Kashipur played byBobby Deol in Chapter 1. InAashram season 2, his true colours come to light as sub-Inspector Ujagar Singh and Constable Sadhu are on a quest to uncover his secrets.

Read |Bobby Deol expresses gratitude to his fans for positive response towards 'Aashram'

While the storyline of Aashram might be fictional, at his heart the series bears resemblance to many real-life cases. A report in Indian Express reveals that one such case of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda cult leader who was convicted for rape and murder in 2017. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a jail in Haryana's Rohtak. Another similar case is of the rape-accused Nithyananda, who fled the country to form his nation, Kailasa. However, out of all these, the most disturbing and shocking case was of Asaram Bapu, who too has an ongoing rape case.

Read |'Ashram chapter 2' review: Bobby Deol succeeds in showing the dark side of "babagiri"

Another cult leader, Swami Vikasanand, was arrested for sexually abusing minor girls and making pornographic films. Another cult leader Swami Bhimanand was arrested for running a Rs 500 crore sex racket. Also, the disgraced Nirmal Baba for evading tax worth Rs 3.5 crorethe list is long and saddening.

Read |Bobby Deol's Baba Nirala to turn devotees' devotion into corruption in 'Aashram Chapter 2'

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.

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Is Ashram based on true story? Heres the truth behind the series - Republic World

Minna Zutshi

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 29

A mentally upset woman, whose family had lost all hope of seeing her again, has been reunited with her kin after eight months.

It was the midnight of April 11, when a police party, led by ASI Lakhbir Singh, from Jodhan brought the woman to Guru Amar Das Apahaj Ashram for shelter. The woman was unable to provide correct information about her name and address. She told her name as Jasmeet Kaur, alias Simran Kaur, to the founder of the ashram, Dr Naurang Singh Mangat. She informed him that she was married and belonged to Gonspur village near Ludhiana. Dr Mangat made efforts to trace her family, but could not succeed as the information shared by her was incorrect.

The ashram people soon realised that the woman was under mental stress and that she needed psychiatric help. After eight months of medical treatment, her condition improved and she was able to recall her brothers phone number. Her family was then contacted. It was revealed that her name is Asha Rani, she is unmarried and belongs to Rajpura. Finally, on November 27, Asha Rani was reunited with her loved ones and sent home with her brother Sanjeev Kumar and sister Monika Rani. They said her mental health was affected when she was pursuing BA and lost both her parents in a quick succession, followed by

continued on page 2

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Mentally upset woman reunited with kin after 8 months - The Tribune India

Aparna BanerjiTribune News Service Jalandhar, November 23

The entire staff of Gandhi Vanita Ashram was tested for Covid-19 today after two senior assistants in the office of the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) East died from the infection.

One of the assistants died yesterday, while the other on November 20. Both were 50 years of age. The twin deaths have set alarm bells ringing at the ashram as the CDPO office is the hub of child development and protection services in Jalandhar.

The CDPO office plays a supervisory role at the ashram which houses four shelter homes Childrens Home, Childrens Home for Girls, Observation Home (with a combined strength of about 180 inmates) and the Widows Home. The offices of the Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board and Pension Department and Government Girls High School are on the ashram premises. Officials are worried about Childrens Home (for runaway girls) which currently has 100 inmates double the sanctioned limit. Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Das Thori said the testing of inmates had been scheduled for tomorrow.

Three supervisors of the CDPO (East) are also currently displaying Covid symptoms. The office remained closed today. Alarmingly, no formal intimation regarding the deaths was made to any of the Gandhi Vanita homes or offices by the District Programme Officer (DPO).

CDPO (East) Amrik Singh said: Two of my junior assistants have died of Covid and three supervisors are symptomatic. We have all been tested today. There is no further instruction yet.

Amarjit Singh Anand, Senior Member of the Child Welfare Committee said, We have received no formal intimation from the DPO about Covid deaths. Childrens Home houses more inmates that its sanctioned capacity. These are basic protocols that need to be followed in the Covid times.

The entire staff at Gandhi Vanita and DPO office has been tested. They shall be in quarantine until test reports come. After that those who test positive shall be sent for 17-day quarantine. The DPO will examine the scenario and give a recommendation by tomorrow, the DC said.

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2 Covid deaths in CDPO office, Jalandhar ashram on toes - The Tribune India

MX Player's popular show Ashram has garnered a lot of interest from the audience. Moreover, it's not just the lead character of Baba, but also the other supporting characters which have been loved. Actress Anupria Goenka has a pivotal role to play in the web series, and sharing her thought on the experience calling it 'challenging and fun' and said that working on the second season ofAashram reminded on why she decided to choose acting.

Anupria portrays the character of Dr Natasha, a forensic expert, who is getting involved in the investigation of crimes in the city of Kashipur. To ensure that the character is convincing, she has to don several looks for the show. Adding more, she expressed her happiness on being a part of such a web series helmed byPrakash Jha.

"After the release of 'Aashram', all I heard of it was the question 'When is Part 2 coming out?' It's super exciting that 'Aashram Chapter 2 - The Dark Side' opened to such a phenomenal response. Imagine the thrill of getting to work with Prakash Jha and being applauded for the same character on two different occasions," she added.

Anupria will also been seen in other projects like Maya, Mere Desh Ki Dharti and Criminal Justice Season 2.

Link:

Anupria Goenka shares her experience of working in MX Player web series Ashram: Chapter 2 - Mumbai Live

Ive been teaching yoga now for almost five years. Before I started teaching, I spent four years practicing in Dublin and exploring studios around London. I covered my 200 hour teacher training, which is the standard qualification, over the course of a year with a school in London. I taught my first class in 2015 and have taught hundreds since.

I knew, of course, about some of the allegations against prominent yoga teachers, and though it didnt sit well with me I mean, how could it? I also didnt know how to deal with it. After watching Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator when it was released, I started doing more research. I dug into the histories of the men who developed, exported, and built yoga into the industry it is now and everywhere I looked, I found pain and suffering.

My bookshelves are home to many abusers in the yoga community, and to works derived from their legacies. Sri Swami Satyananda is considered an originator of modern yoga nidra through his Bihar School of Yoga. Book published by the Bihar publishing arm show up on the bookshelves of most yoga teachers, their uniform packaging and presentation a clear indicator of the breadth of his reach.

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Satyananda has been accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and rape, including an assault on a 7-year-old child. A state investigation into a Bihar-linked ashram in Australia found a culture of silence around abuse, compounded by an immense power imbalance. The report specifically noted that the Bihar School in India was more interested in protecting its own reputation than providing support for the investigation into the ashram. Satyanandas book on Yoga Nidra is a founding text of the practice. Its on my shelf. Most teachers I know have a copy. I have given copies as gifts when I didnt know better.

Satyananda is one among many. Swami Satchidananda is renowned for his translations and commentaries on the seminal Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. His translation sits on my shelf and the shelf of everyone I trained with. In the early 1990s he was accused of molesting his students, but was never charged.

Someone interested in yoga could likely avoid the yoga sutras if they needed to, and there are multiple translations to choose from. Nobody has to practice yoga nidra. But the vast majority of yoga is done on the mat, and the yoga we practice on the mat carries a burden of abuse too.

K Pattabhi Jois was the founder of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, a style with near-universal popularity on a global scale. If youve been to a dynamic, power, flow, vinyasa, or ashtanga class, you are practicing in Joiss lineage. He has been accused of making inappropriate adjustments to his female students and has further been accused of groping and sexual assault on a vast scale. There are photos and videos, and the number of his victim can never be known. His teachings cannot be forgotten because his students have achieved great fame, among them Kino McGregor, Instagram yoga sensation, and David Life, who went on to co-found Jivamukti Yoga. I trained as a vinyasa teacher, so Im a part of that legacy, too. And not once in my 200 hours of training did anyone tell me about Jois.

Silence is golden. This was a problem before Jois and its a problem after him. Jois trained with Krishnamacharya, the so-called grandfather of modern yoga. While Krishnamacharya hasnt been accused of sexual assault, The Path of Modern Yoga notes that he was physically cruel and abusive to his students and bad tempered with his family. Krishnamacharya died in 1989 and lived in a very different world, but physical abuse has surely never belonged in yoga, a supposed path to enlightenment free from obstacle and pain? Krishnamacharyas books are on my shelf too.

In mid-2020, Yoga for the People, a studio in New York, shut down. It had been run by Greg Gumucio and attained a huge level of success in the city with its no-frills offerings. But there was a darkness in the background, and as the world quietened due to COVID-19, anonymous posts showed up online. They talked about racism and sexual assault, body shaming, and even suicide. The posts highlighted a culture of fear and manipulation, and shined a light on a capricious and cruel leader. In addition to everything else, Gumucio has been accused of rape. What galls the most is that Gumicio was trained by the one and only Bikram Choudhury, a man accused of sexual harassment and assault, homophobia, racism, battery, and discrimination. Choudhury is, somehow, still teaching.

The apple doesnt fall far from the tree. Because yoga is sold as an all-encompassing practice, the inherent power imbalance which results from surrendering to a guru is a sucker punch to autonomy particularly when these gurus are master abusers, mercurial and unstable, gifted at manipulation. As students, we learn much from our teachers, and I often wonder how many students reproduce the errors of their gurus. There is a pattern here. We cant ignore that.

Uma Dinsmore-Tulli has recently released an updated edition of Yoni Shakti. Her new foreword tears into the yoga industry, laying out accusation after accusation, noting the broadness of complicity in the industry and demanding better. Next year, she will publish Nidra Shakti, an encyclopaedia of yoga nidra which will hopefully note the filth in the foundations of that practice, too. These things are hard to read, and though the accusation were not new to me, her approach was. The very first page of Yoni Shakti is a trigger warning and the words are stark: Nobodys daughters are safe in these places: Its not consent if youre afraid to say no. There was something oddly freeing about reading these words.

Dinsmore-Tulli may be the first in what I hope is a long line of straight talkers in this industry, but she is not the only hope, either. In recent years, yoga books like Jessamyn Stanleys Every Body Yoga have hit shelves to great acclaim, commanding that attention to be given to yogis of colour and to multiple body types and shapes. In Going Om, essayists from a range of backgrounds bring yoga into a clear focus as a thing that helps when nothing else can, and the historical badness cant drown that out. Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma is perhaps a portent of things to come, and a harbinger of a practice that can move away from its murk. As years pass, we get better at accountability, at transparency. Part of my advanced 300 hour training was about the responsibility of a teacher, and the power I hold when I direct from a mat. I have hope.

What I dont have, is answers. This is a struggle every time I climb on my mat to teach or practice for myself. I push back against my adoration of yoga because these men who built it, tainted it too. With so many #MeToos, theres a lot of chat about separating an artist from his art, and enjoying work despite the people who created it. For a book or a series of them, I can come to terms with that sometimes. But yoga was vital to my mental health when I first laid my feet on a mat a decade ago, and its hard not to feel a deeper and more vehement resentment for its difficult history. Can we separate the yoga from its creator? I just dont know.

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BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The preliminary round of the 2020-2021 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC20-21) officially kicked off on November 16, 2020. More than 300 university teams from five continents registered to participate in this competition. Over the next two months, they will be challenged in several cutting-edge applications of Supercomputing and AI. The 20 teams that eventually make out of the preliminaries will participate in the finals from May 8 to 12, 2021 at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China. During the finals, they will compete for various awards including the Champion, Silver Prize, Highest LINPACK, and e- Prize.

Among the registered participants for ASC20-21 are three prior champion teams: the SC19/SC20 champion team of Tsinghua University, the ISC20 champion team of University of Science and Technology of China, and the ASC19 champion of National Tsing Hua University. Other power competitors include teams from University of Washington (USA), University of Warsaw (Poland), Ural Federal University (Russia), Monash University (Australia), EAFIT University (Columbia) and so much more.

For the tasks of this preliminary round of merged ASC20 and ASC21, the organizing committee has retained the quantum computing simulation and language exam tasks from the ASC20, and added a new fascinating, cutting-edge task in astronomy -- searching for pulsars.

Pulsars are fast-spinning neutron stars, and remnants of collapsed super stars. Pulsars feature a high density and strong magnetic field. By observing and studying the extreme physic of pulsars, the scientists can delve into the mysterious space around black holes and detect the gravitational waves triggered from the intense merge of super massive black holes in distant galaxies. Because of the unique nature of pulsars, the Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded twice for pulsar-related discoveries. Using radio telescopes over the previous decades, astronomers have discovered nearly 3,000 pulsars with 700 being discovered by PRESTO, the open-source pulsar search and analysis software. In ASC20-21, the participants are asked to use PRESTO from its official website, and the observational data from Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the worlds largest single-dish radio telescope located in Guizhou, China, operated by National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Participating teams should achieve the applications maximum parallel acceleration, while searching for a pulsar in the FAST observational data loaded in the computer cluster they build. Practically the teams will need to understand the pulsar search process, complete the search task, analyze the code, and optimize the PRESTO application execution, by minimizing the computing time and resources.

The quantum computing simulation task will require each participating team to use the QuEST (Quantum Exact Simulation Toolkit) running on computer cluster to simulate 30 qubits in two cases: quantum random circuits (random.c), and quantum fast Fourier transform circuits (GHZ_QFT.c). Quantum simulations provides a reliable platform for studying of quantum algorithms, which are particularly important because quantum computers are not practically available yet in the industry.

The Language Exam task will require all participating teams to train AI models on an English Cloze Test dataset, striving to achieve the highest "test scores". The dataset covers multiple levels of English language tests used in China.

This years ASC training camp will be held on November 30 to help the participating teams from all around the world prepare for the competition. HPC and AI experts from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peng Cheng Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of High-end Server & Storage Technology will introduce in details the competition rules, computer cluster build and optimization, and provide guidance.

About ASC

The ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge is the worlds largest student supercomputer competition, sponsored and organized by Asia Supercomputer Community in China and supported by Asian, European, and American experts and institutions. The main objectives of ASC are to encourage exchange and training of young supercomputing talent from different countries, improve supercomputing applications and R&D capacity, boost the development of supercomputing, and promote technical and industrial innovation. The first ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge was held in 2012 and since has attracted nearly 10,000 undergraduates from all over the world. Learn more ASC at https://www.asc-events.org/.

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ASC20-21 Student Supercomputer Challenge Kickoff: Quantum Computing Simulations, AI Language Exam and Pulsar Searching with FAST - Business Wire