Pure magic: Direct counterfactual communication via quantum Zeno effect

Not really, it's just science (or physics)...

PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) published a manuscript titled "Direct counterfactual communication via quantum Zeno effect" by Cao et al.

The article's significance, submitted in August 2016, is given as:

"Recent theoretical studies have shown that quantum mechanics allows counterfactual communication, even without actual transmission of physical particles, which raised a heated debate on its interpretation. Although several papers have been published on the theoretical aspects of the subject, a faithful experimental demonstration is missing. Here, by using the quantum Zeno effect and a single-photon source, direct communication without carrier particle transmission is implemented successfully. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of direct counterfactual communication with the current technique. The results of our work can help deepen the understanding of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, our experimental scheme is applicable to other quantum technologies, such as imaging and state preparation."

(Credit: Cao et al)

How help you grok the article, here are some links:

• Article from Science Alert
• Wikipedia: Quantum Zeno Effect 
• Wikipedia: Zeno's Arrow Paradow
• ResearchGate: Yuan Cao

Be warned, these will take a while to read (and believe) if you are not a physicist.

Speck of dust... Mostly harmless...

Space.com posted a few new images from Cassini probe that highlight our relative size/position/importance in the universe.

Note that these pictures are taken inside the solar system, basically close ups. Have you seen the moon, next to the earth?

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Visit the first two links below for more eye-pooping images.

Related:

• http://www.space.com/36562-earth-moon-through-saturn-rings-cassini.html
• Cassini: The Grand Finale, mission ends in September 2017
• Mostly harmless

NASA's Education Program in Latest US Budget Proposal

The Verge lists current budget cuts to NASA in a new article.  The following paragraph is giving me a heartburn:

"[NASA's education program] is the area that’s hit hardest by Trump’s budget request. In fact, NASA education, which received $115 million for fiscal year 2016, would be completely eliminated for fiscal year 2018."

This is not the final budget, just a request. Let's see what the congress will do with these requests to cut multiple NASA programs.

Read the details at Verge.


Related:

• 2016 Federal Budget: Where the Money Really Goes [from Motley Fool]

Another self-driving car video

Tesla web site now has a (yet another) video of a self-driving Model S. It is really fun to watch. Don't forget to keep an eye on the side frames, the magic displayed on those frames:

2MASS J23062928-0502285, yeah!

Not one, not two, but seven potential planets around a single small star!
Here is a clip from NASA:

 

And, here is the info on TRAPIST-1 from Wikipedia.

Zcoin bug and the fix(?)

So, Zcoin code had a bug in it (See http://www.businessinsider.com/typo-bitcoin-rival-zcoin-attacker-steals-400000-2017-2 or similar articles) and it has been patched 5 days ago (See https://github.com/zcoinofficial/zcoin/commit/b20c177032de3c4bfae62b5ada768a5dc2b4fa67)

The nerd in me is crying for the lost test cases! The engineer is screaming bloody hell! Where are the fracking test cases?!

(image from github)

There is more to this bug than this simple change. See first link below for more info, and updates. And, of course, subsequent fixes has no unit nor integration tests associated with them. Yep, src/test folder hasn't been touched for 6 months.


Related:

• https://makebitcoingreatagain.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/is-the-zcoin-bug-in-checktransaction

• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13672117
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13673214

One (master) key to rule them all!

Here are two articles (there are many more) that describe the 'root signing ceremony' for the internets. This ceremony is used to unclog the pipes, as you may already know...

• Business Insider: The internet is still actually controlled by 14 people who hold 7 secret keys
• The Guardian: Meet the seven people who hold the keys to worldwide internet security

If you want more details you can read it an IANA's (internet Assigned Numbets Authority) ceremony page. Also, this page from Cloudflare explains 'How DNSSEC Works.'

Fascinating reading for some of you.

While you're at it, please join me in a round of applause for the individuals who endure a 5+ hour ceremony in close quarters, going over a very tedious list of actions so that you can spend countless hours reading fake articles on facebook.