A woman whose workout video went viral after it accidentally captured Myanmar's military carrying out a coup says she was totally unaware what was going on behind her.

On Monday, civilian leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained along with hundreds of MPs as top generals overthrew the country's elected government.

Khing Hnin Wai, 26, was carrying out a colour morning routine in front of the road to parliament, oblivious to the serious political situation unfolding in the background.

In the video, a stream of military vehicles can be seen driving towards a tightened security checkpoint as the aerobics instructor dances and punches the air in a neon yellow and black outfit.

When the bizarre footage first emerged, many viewers questioned if it was real.

The PE teacher was totally focused on her routine and unable to get updates from the outside world due to a mobile signal blackout in the capital Naypyidaw, which lasted for nearly eight hours.

"I didn't know. I had no mobile signal and was not aware of what was happening behind me," Khing said.

An exercise enthusiast, she said she usually carries out her morning routine at the same location from 7am to 8:30am in order to compete in an aerobics competition organised by the education ministry.

The video she was filming was her entry, which she uploaded to social media.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

"I teach an aerobics class to my school children, and I am also joining the competition," Khing explained.

"During the pandemic, we can't go to an in-person class, so I am teaching them via online videos."

She wrote on her Facebook page (prior to the military government blocking access to the platform) that she knew those members of the security forces personally as she always exercises there.

"They even greeted me after the exercise on that day," she said.

Despite the popularity of the clip, Khing said she was worried people may wrongly believe that she was celebrating.

"That's why I wrote, please don't copy the video," she said.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

On Wednesday, police filed charges against de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who they claim illegally imported several walkie talkies.

If found guilty, she could face a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

She and President Win Myint, who faces charges relating to breaking COVID-19 rules, are currently due to be detained until 15 February.

Continued here:

Myanmar coup: Aerobics instructor 'not aware' of military takeover behind her in viral video - Sky News

MIGHTY TRENDING

Sandboxx

An aerobics instructor filming her exercise routine accidentally caught the beginning of a military coup in Myanmar earlier this week. The video shows a convoy of black military vehicles headed for the parliament complex in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmars capital city, as she goes about her workout.

The footage shows fitness instructor Khing Hnin Wai working through an aerobic routine as more than a dozen blacked-out SUVs and armored vehicles approach a roadblock behind her. Those vehicles reportedly carried troops who went on to capture Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected State Counsellor of Myanmar, as well as other members of the nations elected government.

In an ironic twist, the music playing in the background of Khings video includes lyrics that translate to,They are coming, one by one, to fight over the throne.

Initially, many online assumed this video was a fake, since the framing of the dance and the convoys appearance behind Khing seems more like an SNL skit than the serious military coup thats taking place. Khing has continued to post on social media about the video, and was contacted byThe BBCin order to confirm the validity of her video.

I wasnt dancing to mock or ridicule any organization or to be silly. I was dancing for a fitness dance competition, wrote Khing on her Facebook. As it isnt uncommon for Nay Pyi Taw to have an official convoy, I thought it was normal so I continued.

The military of Myanmar hastaken overthe country and declared a year-long state of emergency following an election that saw Suu Kyi win in a landslide. The military is demanding a repeat of the election, citing unconfirmed reports of widespread voter fraud.

Suu Kyi first garnered international attention in the 1980s as she campaigned for her nation to restore democratic rule. After organizing protests and rallies that called for free democratic elections, she was captured and held in detention from 1989 until her release in 2010. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which she accepted while serving a portion of her sentence under house arrest.

In 2015, Suu Kyi helped her National League for Democracy party secure victory in the nations first open elections in a quarter-century, propelling the former captive into the role of State Counsellor, a role similar to that of Prime Minister in other nations. Not all of Suu Kyis media exposure has been positive, however, as many cite Myanmars policy of treating the nations Rohingya minority group as illegal immigrants when criticizing Suu Kyi. Allegations of a military-led genocide of the Rohingya people forced Suu Kyi to answer for her nations actions at the International Court of Justice in 2019, though she denied any wrongdoing.

While there are no hard figures on how many Rohingya people have been killed, an estimated 700,000 have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since the military crackdown began in 2017.

Now, according to Myanmars military, control of the nation has been handed over to Min Aung Hlaing, who serves as the commander and chief for the nations forces. The European Union, UK, and United Nations have all already condemned the military takeover of Myanmar, and President Joe Biden has already threatened to restore previously ended sanctions on the nation.

Protests have reportedly erupted around the nation, with many citizens honking their car horns or taking to the street to bang on pots and pans to voice their displeasure with the military take-over.

The curse of the coup is rooted in our country, and this is the reason why our country still remains poor. I feel sad and upset for our fellow citizens and for their future, Suu Kyitoldthe press.

Katie Foley

photo credit: M1kha

Today there are over 40,000 nonprofits that focus on military and veteran issues, according toCharity Watch.

Most of those registered as nonprofits are chapters of larger organizations, but some of them are single chapter projects that focus on specific needs within the veteran community.

Here at We Are the Mighty, we wanted to explore some of those advocacy groups you might not have heard ofin a bit more depth.

Community Solutions is a nonprofit devoted to ending homelessness, and one of itsprojects, Built for Zero, is committed to eradicating veteran homelessness.

A report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments HUD Exchangeestimates that there are slightly more than39,000 homeless veterans (both in shelters and without shelter). While still a significant number, that number has seen huge decreases in the last few years thanks in part to partnerships with programs like Built for Zero.

Built for Zero is an intense national program that helps communities develop and implement drastic plans to addressthe issue of veteran and chronic homelessness, and the conditions that create it. The motivation is two-fold: homelessness costs local economies more money by sustaining shelters and emergency medical care, andthat veterans whove defended this country shouldnt be homeless in it.

Homelessness is a manmade disaster, and it can be solved, Community Solutionspresident Rosanne Haggerty wrote in the nonprofits2015 Annual Report.

Built for Zero partners with communities and teaches them how to come up with ways to pool and managetheir resources, tapping into previously non-traditional homelessness-fighting resources, like businesses, churches, and even real estate companies in order to address some of the conditions that impact homeless veterans.

Employment, transportation and healthcare are just some of the issues that the project addresses when fighting homelessness.

Community Solutions works upstream and downstream of the problem by helping communities end homelessness where it happens and improve the conditions of inequality that make it more likely to happen in the future, Haggerty wrote in the report.

Rather than make homelessness just a crime-fighting task, Built for Zero makes it a community task.

The techniques Built for Zero utilize have been proven to work. Earlier this week, a community in Wisconsin announced that it had eliminated veteran homelessness. To date, Built for Zero has housed over 40,000 homeless veterans, and helped 5 communities to accomplish their goals of eradicating veteran homelessness.

In 2015 alone, Community Solutions raised over $9 million through donations and grants. That money assisted in housing over 20,000 homeless veterans in 75 communities- and it saved tax payers an estimated $150 million doing it.

Check outhow you can get involved with Built for Zero and impact veteran homelessness in your community.

Ben Weaver

One thing thats great about being in the military is you get legitimate, professional license to practice sneaking up on people. Its the ten year olds dreamand no adult has ever, in the history of maturity, grown out of it.

Try this.

Google search sneak up gif.

Got it?

Great. See you in ten hours.

(gif from rebloggy.com)

Pictured above is Creeping With Intent To Scare Someone Crapless, a perennial favorite. Note that it isnt actually the raptor costume that makes this effective. This can be perpetrated to equal or greater effect eu naturale.

(gif via reactiongifs.com)

And never underestimate the joys of the Tip-Toe-Tail-Tip-Tug, as demonstrated here. Be very, very careful who you do this to.

(gif via imagur)

And heres an example of the classic game, Whos Hunting Whom? Watch closely. Which dog do you most identify with? Your answer to this question will force irrevocable conclusions to be drawn about your personality.

For instance, Max is Dog #1, the hunter of the hunter of the hunted.

He makes it seem like hes working his core when in fact, hes lying in wait (Go90 Max Your Body screenshot)

Why is he Dog #1?

Because this is Max. Max doesnt sneak. Kids sneak. Max stalks. Stalks like a fox. His prey? Other jocks. And he doesnt wear socks. Max wears stalkings.

In this episode, Max gets down and dirty with the core-connected muscles that make it possible for you to low crawl toward your target and then lay down some suppressing fire from the prone position.

But admit it. You thought youd sneak out today without doing PT. Well, sorry, but Max has been hunting your ass since lunch break. Hes got you in his crosshairs and theres nowhere to run. Because he can take anything you cherished during childhood and turn it into a regimen for self-improvement (for example, rope swings).

Remember how you loved Spider-Man?

Oh the crawliness that is me! (gif via smosh.com)

Yeah, about that:

This is the crawliness thats about to be you. (Go90 Max Your Body screenshot)

Watch as Max ignores your pleas for mercy, in the video embedded at the top.

The U.S. Navy has suspended its search for nine missing sailors from the USS John S. McCain after looking in vain for more than 80 hours.

Despite help from other countries, the Navy was unable to find the nine sailors within a 2,100-square mile area. However, the Navy will continue to look for any sailors who may have been trapped inside the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, which collided with a Liberian merchant vessel Aug. 21 east of the Malacca Strait.

In the aftermath of the collision, divers recovered the body of another one of the sailors, Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, a 22-year-old from New Jersey.

Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith. (Photo courtesy U.S. Navy)

Here are the nine missing sailors,according to a release from the 7th Fleet(All photos courtesy of the U.S. Navy):

(no official photo available)

The Navy is still investigating the collision, and following the crash, the commander of the 7th Fleet Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoinwas dismissed Wednesday, a rare event.Notably, Aucoin was set to retire in just a few weeks.

Rear Adm. Phil Sawyer has subsequently assumed command.

An investigation is still underway into the incident, buta Navy official told CNNthat the USS John S. McCain was hit by a steering failure and the backup steering system was not activated.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson stated Monday that theresno indication that a cyber attack knocked out the USS John S. McCains steering capabilities, but nevertheless the possibility of an attack will be investigated.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contactlicensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

United States Army

From working at McDonalds, to attending Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), to serving more than 18 years each in the U.S. Army Reserve identical twin master sergeants are mobilized together for the third time.

Master Sgt. Bryant Howard and his identical twin brother, Master Sgt. Joseph Howard, motor transport operators, 450th Movement Control Battalion (MCB), are currently deployed together to Kuwait marking the third time they have deployed together.

Bryant decided to join first.

I was in high school, (and) I was also working at McDonalds, and my mom called me lazy. he said. I figured I wasnt, so I was going to get her mad and join the Army.

For Joseph, the decision to join the Army was much easier after he found out that his brother was joining.

I tried joining the National Guard. The recruiter didnt take me seriously. Joseph said. I was going to back out, then I found out my brother was joining the Reserve, so I went ahead and joined too.

From left to right Master Sgt. Joseph Howard, S-3 (operations) noncommissioned officer in charge (NCOIC), 450th Movement Control Battalion (MCB), and Master Sgt. Bryant Howard, Trans-Arabian Network (TAN) NCOIC, 450th MCB, stand back to back at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Oct. 24, 2019.

(Photo by Spc. Dakota Vanidestine)

Once their decision to join was finalized, Bryant and Joseph needed to pass through Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) before leaving for basic training.

We were still in high school, just turned 18. We were trying to get on the battle buddy system, but something happened at MEPS and Bryant wasnt able to join the same time I did. Joseph said. He had to go back four months later. Because of that, they couldnt get us to Basic (Training) together, even though we went at the same time. I went to Fort Jackson; he went to Fort Sill.

Although the buddy system was not possible for Basic Training, the brothers were reunited at Advanced Individual Training (AIT).

We did go to AIT together at Fort Leonard Wood though. It took the drill sergeants a month to realize there was twins in the unit. They threw a fit because they thought we were just one super high-speed person Joseph said.

Confusion on the brothers identities, like at AIT, has allowed them to play pranks all of their life.

Our last day of high school, we switched classes. Bryant said. We had a different style uniforms in school I had a pullover, and he had a button up shirt. Josephs teacher could tell us apart, even though she didnt know me but my teacher didnt recognize him.

After high school, the military was not the only time that Bryant and Josephs paths have crossed.

We both worked at one time at Direct TV Joseph said. Also, we both had some sort of experience in law enforcement. I became a police officer, he worked in a jail he was a corrections officer. The weird part about that was if I dropped somebody off at jail, they might run into him and think he was me. We dont necessarily try to follow each other thats just the way things happen. It really is a small world.

Even today their civilian careers have brought them not only to the same state, but the same location.

Now were both mill-techs. Joseph works in the RPAC (Reserve Personnel Action Center) and I work for a unit Bryant said.

From left to right, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Howard, Sgt. Michael Howard, motor transport operators, 498th Transportation Company, and Sgt. 1st Class Bryant Howard, motor transport operator, 850th Transportation Company, pose for a photo as Bryant prepares to redeploy back to the U.S. at Kandahar Airfield, April. 28, 2014.

We actually work in the same building two different units. I work for the 88th Readiness Division, he works for the 383rd Military Intelligence Battalion Joseph added.

When Bryant and Joseph heard about an opportunity to deploy together with the 450th MCB, they took full advantage.

We deployed together in 2003 and 2009 to Iraq Bryant said.

He deployed to Afghanistan at the end of 2013, and I deployed there in the beginning of 2014 so we were actually at the same place Joseph added. Our older brother actually deployed with me.

Currently, Bryant is the Trans Arabian Network Noncommissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC).

I am the NCOIC over all the movement within Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, and the surrounding locations. Bryant said.

While Joseph serves as the S-3 (operations) NCOIC by taking care of the personnel, administrative, and operational aspects.

Once this deployment is complete, the brothers may finally part ways. Joseph is considering retirement from the Reserve.

Originally posted here:

Aerobics instructor catches Myanmar coup kicking off in workout video - We Are The Mighty

As a woman was practicing her routine training and broadcasting it live to her followers outside in Naypidu, the capital of Myanmar, a group of military vehicles suddenly appeared behind her on their way to Parliament.

According to a Twitter user Embed a Tweet, Who identifies himself as Angel Marads, a political scientist graduated from the University of Salamanca, the video was posted on Burmese Facebook account.

Marad even shared the video with another user who is an expert in video editing concluded that it was real, although it couldnt be supported by additional sources.

Myanmars armed forces launched a coup on Monday and arrested prominent political figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, dealing a major blow to the countrys important and irregular progress toward democracy, which was achieved after five decades of military rule.

The military television channel, Mayawadi, announced that the Armed Forces will rule the country for a year. He stated that this measure was necessary because the government did not take any action on the fraud allegations raised after the November elections (in which Suu Kyis ruling party won a majority of parliamentary seats at stake) and because that government convened for that election despite the coronavirus epidemic.

LS

Bacon advocate. Certified creator. Twitteraholic. Tv junkie. Beer fanatic. Internet nerd. Passionate thinker. Reader.

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Viral: Aerobics teacher captures "by chance" the coup in Myanmar - Sunday Vision

Apparently, the young woman was so focused on her work that she did not realize that there was a coup detat orchestrating behind her

| 02/02/2021 | ionicons-v5-c10: 23 | Francisco Trejo |

Myanmar.- In recent hours, a video emerged that quickly became viral, as a woman appears doing aerobics in Myanmar despite the fact that behind it, a strong military presence appears while the coup in that nation was taking place.

The protagonist of this video was identified as Khing Hnin Wai and posted the video on Facebook on Monday where she performs about three minutes of exercises in front of what appears to be an army truck convoy and a barricade.

The woman, who identifies herself as a physical education teacher and has a large following on Facebook, where she regularly posts exercise videos, doesnt skip a beat when military vehicles are seen buzzing behind her in the background.

Despite some questioning whether the video was legitimate, the woman previously posted several other clips of her top workouts from the same location, which she noted in a follow-up post after the original went viral.

Subsequently, fact-checkers verified the authenticity of this video and managed to position itself in the Twitter trends block, in several countries.

SpaceX to launch first tourist rocket into space in late 2021

The army of Myanmar announced on Monday that it had taken control of the democratically elected government and declared a state of emergency for one year.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Ky and other top leaders of her National League for Democracy party were detained in morning raids as part of the coup.

Read more from the original source:

Myanmar teacher teaches aerobics class with coup behind her back - Explica

A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have teamed up to develop a new device that has big implications for quantum computing. The single chip can operate 40 times colder than deep space, and it is capable of controlling signals for thousands of qubits, which are the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers.

The results were published in Nature Electronics.

Professor David Reilly is the one responsible for designing the chip. He has a joint position with the University of Sydney and Microsoft.

To realise the potential of quantum computing, machines will need to operate thousands if not millions of qubits, said Professor Reilly.

The worlds biggest quantum computers currently operate with just 50 or so qubits, he continued. This small scale is partly because of limits to the physical architecture that control the qubits. Our new chip puts an end to those limits.

One of the main requirements of an efficient quantum system is qubits to operate at temperatures around zero, or -273.15 degrees. The reason for this temperature requirement is so that the qubits do not lose their character of matter or light, which is required by quantum computers to perform specialized applications.

One of the reasons quantum systems often involve many wires is that they operate based on instructions, which come in the form of electrical signals sent and received.

Professor Reilly is also the Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS).

Current machines create a beautiful array of wires to control the signals; they look like an inverted gilded birds nest or chandelier. Theyre pretty, but fundamentally impractical. It means we cant scale the machines up to perform useful calculations. There is a real input-output bottleneck, said Professor Reilly.

According to Dr. Kushal Das, Microsoft Senior Hardware Engineer and joint inventor of the device, Our device does away with all those cables. With just two wires carrying information as input, it can generate control signals for thousands of qubits. This changes everything for quantum computing.

The new chip was invented at the Microsoft Quantum Laboratories, which is located at the University of Sydney. The partnership brings together the two different worlds to come up with innovative approaches to engineering challenges.

Building a quantum computer is perhaps the most challenging engineering task of the 21st century. This cant be achieved working with a small team in a university laboratory in a single country but needs the scale afforded by a global tech giant like Microsoft, Professor Reilly said.

Through our partnership with Microsoft, we havent just suggested a theoretical architecture to overcome the input-output bottleneck, weve built it.

We have demonstrated this by designing a custom silicon chip and coupling it to a quantum system, he said. Im confident to say this is the most advanced integrated circuit ever built to operate at deep cryogenic temperatures.

The newly developed chip could play a major role in advancing quantum computers, which are one of the most revolutionary technologies within our grasp. Quantum computers are extremely advanced in their abilities to solve problems that classical computers cannot, such as those within the fields of cryptography, medicine, AI, and more.

More:

Newly Invented Device Controls Thousands of Qubits - Unite.AI

In late 2019, Google, in partnership with NASA, said that its quantum computer performed in 200 seconds a computation that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer thousands of years. Even so, quantum computers need quantum networks to communicate, and todays internet doesnt cut it.

In hot pursuit of a quantum internet is the University of Arizona in Tucson, which the National Science Foundation selected last summer to receive a five-year, $26 million grant to establish the Center for Quantum Networks. CQNs director and principal investigator, Saikat Guha, a professor in the universitys College of Optical Sciences, will lead a team that brings together leading researchers from Howard University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Oregon, Northern Arizona University, the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University.

One of the CQN projects will involve building a test bed in Tucson a quantum network spanning six buildings and 10 laboratory sites on campus. On the East Coast, CQNs partner universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will build a Boston-area test bed to explore quantum communications in a conceptually simple network setting over metropolitan-scale distances, Guha says.

Whenever it arrives, the quantum internet will not replace the classical internet. Instead, users will see an upgrade with a new service: that of quantum communication. The quantum internet would initially be used for research and targeted applications by government, academia and industry users, including national defense, banking and finance, the cloud computing industry, and pharmaceutical research and development, Guha explains. A biomedical researcher could use the quantum internet to simulate a new synthetic molecule. Eventually, a student could open a quantum cloud computing app on a handheld device to perform computations.

The biggest impact on academia that I foresee is creating a transdisciplinary bridge and collaboration among researchers in disciplines that would not have otherwise worked together, Guha says.

Quantum internet research could spawn a new generation of IT innovation. Source: University of Arizona

Other teams across the globe are similarly exploring quantum networking. The European Quantum Internet Alliance, formed in 2018 from 12 universities in eight countries, announced a major development from the Sorbonne University team in October in achieving the scalability of a quantum internet. And in the U.S., the collaboration between Stony Brook University in New York and Brookhaven National Laboratory recently demonstrated that quantum bits (qubits) from two distant quantum computers can be entangled in a third location.

There will be new apps that use this new service for things we do not know today, Guha says. The quantum internet, when available to the average home, will spawn a whole new generation of IT innovators and app developers who will come up with new ways the powerful new service of quantum communication can be used.

See the rest here:

Universities are Building the Future of Quantum Internet - EdTech Magazine: Focus on Higher Education

Security experts have long worried that advances in quantum computing could eventually make it easier to break encryption that protects the privacy of peoples data. Thats because these sophisticated machines can perform calculations at speeds impossible for conventional computers, potentially enabling them to crack codes previously thought indecipherable.

Now, a Swiss technology company says it has made a breakthrough by using quantum computers to uncover vulnerabilities in commonly used encryption. The company believes its found a security weakness that could jeopardize the confidentiality of the worlds internet data, banking transactions and emails.

Terra Quantum AG said its discovery upends the current understanding of what constitutes unbreakable encryption and could have major implications for the worlds leading technology companies, such as Alphabet Inc.s Google, Microsoft Corp., and International Business Machines Corp.

Don't miss: ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota warn EU of risks of weakening encryption

But some other security experts said they arent nearly ready to declare a major breakthrough, at least not until the company publishes the full details of its research. If true, this would be a huge result, said Brent Waters, a computer science professor who specialises in cryptography at the University of Texas at Austin. It seems somewhat unlikely on the face of it. However, it is pretty hard for experts to weigh in on something without it being published.

IBM spokesman Christopher Sciacca said his company has known the risks for 20 years and is working on its own solutions to address the issue of post-quantum security. This is why the National Institute of Science & Technology (NIST) has been hosting a challenge to develop a new quantum safe crypto standard, he said in an email. IBM has several proposals for this new standard in the final round, which is expected in a few years.

Brian LaMacchia, distinguished engineer at Microsoft, said company cryptographers are collaborating with the global cryptographic community to prepare customers and data centers for a quantum future. Preparing for security in a post-quantum world is important not only to protect and secure data in the future but also to ensure that future quantum computers are not a threat to the long-term security of todays information.

Google didnt reply to a message seeking comment.

Terra Quantum AG has a team of about 80 quantum physicists, cryptographers and mathematicians, who are based in Switzerland, Russia, Finland and the US What currently is viewed as being post-quantum secure is not post-quantum secure, said Markus Pflitsch, chief executive officer and founder of Terra Quantum, in an interview. We can show and have proven that it isnt secure and is hackable.

Also read: Heres how an encrypted, locked Android and Apple phone gets bypassed

Pflitsch founded the company in 2019. Hes a former finance executive who began his career as a research scientist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Terra Quantums research is led by two chief technology officers Gordey Lesovik, head of the Laboratory of Quantum Information Technology at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Valerii Vinokur, a Chicago-based physicist who in 2020 won the Fritz London Memorial Prize for his work in condensed matter and theoretical physics.

The company said that its research found vulnerabilities that affect symmetric encryption ciphers, including the Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES, which is widely used to secure data transmitted over the internet and to encrypt files. Using a method known as quantum annealing, the company said its research found that even the strongest versions of AES encryption may be decipherable by quantum computers that could be available in a few years from now.

Vinokur said in an interview that Terra Quantums team made the discovery after figuring out how to invert whats called a hash function, a mathematical algorithm that converts a message or portion of data into a numerical value. The research will show that what was once believed unbreakable doesnt exist anymore, Vinokur said, adding that the finding means a thousand other ways can be found soon.

Read more: Chinese scientists make world's first light-based quantum computer: Report

The company, which is backed by the Zurich-based venture capital firm Lakestar LP, has developed a new encryption protocol that it says cant be broken by quantum computers. Vinokur said the new protocol utilizes a method known as quantum key distribution.

Terra Quantum is currently pursuing a patent for the new protocol. But the company will make it available for free, according to Pflitsch. We will open up access to our protocol to make sure we have a safe and secure environment, said Pflitsch. We feel obliged to share it with the world and the quantum community.

The US government, like China, has made research in quantum computing research an economic and national security priority, saying that the world is on the cusp of what it calls a new quantum revolution. In addition, technology companies including Google, Microsoft, and IBM have made large investments in quantum computing in recent years.

More:

A Swiss company claims it used quantum computers to find weakness in encryption - HT Tech

Scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have developed a device that can handle thousands of qubits. To put things in perspective, the current state-of-the-art quantum computer can control only 50 qubits at a time.

Scaled-up quantum computers require control interfaces to manipulate or readout a large number of qubits, which usually operate at temperatures close to absolute zero (1 Kelvin or -273 degrees celsius).

The complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology has its limitations due to high thermodynamic dissipation, leading to heating of the fragile quantum bits. Overheating of quantum bits compromises its quantumness, the property of being in two states at the same time (also called superposition).

The current architecture uses multiple connections as every qubit is controlled by external circuitry with a separate electrical connection, generating a lot of heat.

The scientists from the University of Sydney built a CMOS interface between the qubits and the external circuitry, in such a way that the CMOS chip can generate control pulses for multiple qubits, with just four low-bandwidth wires, at 0.1 Kelvin, a temperature 30 times colder than deep space, with ultralow power dissipation.

The interface consists of four low-bandwidth wires at room temperature to provide input signals to the chip, which then configures 32 analogue circuit blocks to control the qubits that use dynamic voltage signals.

Analogue circuit boards use the low leakage of the transistors to generate dynamic voltage signals for manipulating qubits, consuming significantly less power.

Quantum computers are at a similar stage that classical computers were in their 40s when machines needed control rooms to function.

However, this chip, according to the scientists, is the most advanced integrated circuit ever built to operate at deep cryogenic temperatures.

The quantum computers that we have now are still lab prototypes and are not commercially relevant yet. Hence, this is definitely a big step towards building practical and commercially relevant quantum computers, said Mr Viraj Kulkarni, But I think that we are still far away from it.

This is because of the Error Correction. Any computing device always has errors in it and no electronic device can be completely perfect. There are various techniques that computers use to correct those errors.

Now the problem with quantum computing is that qubits are very fragile. Even a slight increase in temperature, vibrations, or even cosmic rays can make qubits lose their quantumness, and this introduces errors. So the key question of whether we can really control these errors is still relevant.

Nivedita Dey, research coordinator at Quantum Research and Development Labs, said the qubit noise is still a roadblock in developing quantum computers.

One of the biggest challenges in implementing a quantum circuit in this Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) era is qubit noise, which causes hindrance in commercial availability of fault-tolerant full-scale quantum computers, said Ms Dey.

This approach can be well suited for practical quantum applications and might reduce the number of error-correcting qubits to be associated with noisy qubits, she added.

If quantum computing does prove to be commercially viable, it will open up completely new avenues.

A plane is not just faster than a car, it can also fly, said Mr Kulkarni, drawing an analogy between quantum computers and conventional computers. The idea is that quantum computers are not just faster, but at the same time will provide us with solutions that are better, especially in AI.

Hence, many applications in AI including complex mathematical equations, drug discovery by enabling chemical simulations, or building financial applications to come up with a better strategy will be solved in a faster and efficient way.

In the end its a tool, so any function a conventional computer can achieve, quantum computers will be able to do it faster and better.

Original post:

Microsoft Scientists Build Chip That Can Handle Thousands Of Qubits - Analytics India Magazine

In the past, investment control law has been continuously tightened (see the Amendments to the Foreign Trade an Payments Act (AWG-Novelle) as well as the 15th and 16th Amendment Ordinance of the AWV. The draft of the 17th Amendment Ordinance to the AWV has been eagerly awaited, as publication has been repeatedly postponed due to the intensive and lengthy process of interdepartmental coordination.

The 17th Amendment Ordinance to the AWV, which is now available in draft form, completes the adaptation to the amendment made to the AWG (Foreign Trade and Payments Act) and the EU Screening Regulation 2019/452 (EU Screening Regulation), which was adopted in March 2019. The amendment particularly massively expands the catalogue of critical sectors and technologies. Further amendments are derived from the inspection practice of the authorities and serve to strengthen the effectiveness of the investment inspection. In the following, the amendments are presented in more detail, as well as where ambiguities exist and what further effects on practice are to be expected.

Highlights of the changes:

The new Section 55a AWV-E

For the sake of clarity, the sectors and technologies previously listed in Section 55 (1) sentence 2 AWV and the newly added sectors and technologies relevant to the audit are now presented in a new Section 55a AWV-E (Section 55a (1) nos. 1-27 AWV-E). If the activity of a target company is listed there, an impairment of public order or security is particularly obvious. In such cases, the draft bill speaks of an indication of special security relevance of the target company. For the listed areas, restrictive orders (conclusion of a contract under public law up to a prohibition) can be considered.

Expansion of audit-relevant companies Section 55a (1) No. 13 27 AWV-E

The new areas introduced by the German legislator, which are largely based on the list in Art. 4(1) of the EU Screening Regulation, can be divided into different categories.

Artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors (Section 55a (1) nos. 13, 15, 16 lit. a AWV-E)

As a new category of companies with special relevance for public security or order, the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics and semiconductors find their way into the new catalogue. Thus, goods are to be subject to the investment protection regime that solve concrete application problems by means of artificial intelligence processes and are capable of independently optimising their algorithms and can be used for certain abusive purposes. The abusive purposes are:

It should be emphasised that the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has restricted the scope of application of the use of AI to the extent that it must be possible to use AI for misuse purposes. Against the background that a large number of companies use AI in their software programmes, the restriction makes sense. Nevertheless, the possibility of misuse for the purposes mentioned above is sufficient. According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, an obligation to report already applies if the overall circumstances make misuse as a result of the acquisition appear possible (draft bill, p. 27).

Nos. 15 and 16 lit. a) serve to particularly protect industrial robots and integrated circuits. Not only since the purchase of the industrial robot manufacturer Kuka has this field been one of the key technologies worth protecting. In addition to the developers and manufacturers of such robots, there is a particular audit relevance with regard to the companies that provide specific IT services for the aforementioned companies.

The legislator understands the generic term semiconductor to mean integrated circuits on a substrate as well as discrete semiconductors, i.e. circuit elements located in their own housing with their own external connections. The circuit element is a single active or passive functional unit of an electronic circuit, e.g. a diode, a transistor, a resistor or a capacitor (draft bill, p. 27). Practice will show whether the companies that are particularly relevant to the audit can be sufficiently delimited on the basis of the definition given.

Cyber security, aerospace, quantum and nuclear technology (Section 55a (1) Nos. 17-20 AWV-E)

Explicit protection is also afforded to the IT security and forensics sector if companies manufacture or develop IT security products. This serves to concretise the cyber security mentioned in the EU Screening Regulation. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy points out that products for the physical protection of IT systems (such as server room doors or on-board protection foils) are not covered. Applications that have IT security functions in addition to their main purpose are also not covered. However, virus protection programmes or firewalls, for example, are covered.

Furthermore, Nos. 18 to 20 protect dual-use goods from aerospace and nuclear and quantum technology. With regard to aerospace, in addition to aviation companies, companies whose product portfolio includes dual-use goods from the field of aviation electronics and navigation (subcategory 7A, 7B, 7D or 7E of Annex I to the Dual-Use Regulation) or aviation, space and propulsion (subcategory 9A, 9B, 9D or 9E of the Dual-Use Regulation) are also covered. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy defines nanotechnology as goods of category 0 or of list items 1B225, 1B226, 1B228, 1B231, 1B232, 1B233 or 1B235 of Annex I to the Dual-Use Regulation. Quantum technology includes quantum computing, quantum computer, quantum sensing, quantum metrology, quantum cryptography, quantum communication and quantum simulation.

Autmated driving or fyling, optoelectronics and additive manufacturing (Section 55a (1) No. 14, 16 lit. b), 21 AWV)

The areas of automated driving and flying are not explicitly mentioned in the EU screening regulations catalogue of examples. However, in view of the highly dynamic technical progress, the German legislator sees a considerable risk to public safety in these areas. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has already focused on products that can be used for autonomous driving in the past. The protection of additive manufacturing must also be understood in the context of technological progress.

Colloquially, this area is known as 3D printing. The possibilities offered by the 3D printing process can also be used for military product development or for the production of spare parts for sensitive goods. In this respect, the legislator has deemed this area worthy of protection.

Supply-relevant key infrastructures (Section 55a (1) Nos. 22-24 AWV-E)

The new case group number 22 is intended to protect network technologies to strengthen the security and defence industry. The case group serves to implement the German governments strategy paper on strengthening the security and defence industry from February 2020 as well as the EU Commissions 5G Toolbox, which has explicitly pointed out that investment control is one of the means to ensure a safer 5G roll-out in Europe. Network technologies are security-relevant IT and communication technologies that are to be used, for example, in the expansion of 5G technology. Intelligent metering systems (smart meters) are also protected in number 23. In the wrong hands, control over smart meters could endanger data security and the energy supply as a whole.

In No. 24, the legislator also provides special protection for companies that provide services in the field of information and communication technology for the Federal Republic of Germany. The inclusion of the regulation is to be seen against the background of the establishment and operation of digital radio.

Critical raw materials, secret patents or utility models and agriculture and food industry (Section 55a (1) Nos. 25-27 AWV-E)

In addition, the catalogue also covers companies that extract or produce goods or substances of particular relevance. Therefore, companies that extract critical raw materials or ores as well as companies that are of fundamental importance for food security and cultivate an agricultural area of more than 10,000 hectares were included in the catalogue. Critical resources and strategic assets are thus to receive special protection and the food supply is to be ensured. Also, the protection of goods to which the scope of protection of a secret patent or utility model extends is to be included in order to protect sensitive information.

Legal consequences for the acquisition of shareholdings in target companies

The legal consequences remain essentially unchanged if the target company is named in the catalogue of Section 55a (1) AWV-E. The obligation to report the conclusion of a contract under the law of obligations for the acquisition of a domestic enterprise specified in the catalogue is now found in Section 55a (4) AWV-E. The report must be made immediately. Until the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy issues the release, enforcement is prohibited (section 15 (4) sentence 1 AWG). A violation constitutes a criminal offence or, in the case of negligence, a administrative offence.

Clarifications from the practice of the authorities

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is using the amendment to include clarifications for partial questions that have arisen in the practice of the authorities in recent years.

h2. Circumvention transactions and additional purchases of shares

The circumvention transactions regulated in Section 55 (2) AWV are expanded in the new Section 55 (2) AWV-E. Such transactions now also explicitly include acquisitions of shareholdings in the same domestic company that are coordinated in such a way that, when considered separately, none of the acquisitions constitute a reportable shareholding.

Notifiable voting rights are specified in the new paragraphs 2 and 3 of section 56 AWV-E. Any further acquisition of shareholdings above the limit of 10 per cent of the voting rights in an enterprise within the meaning of Section 55a (1) AWV-E or 25 per cent of the voting rights of another enterprise are also subject to the notification requirement. This was already the practice of the authorities and has now been clarified by the inclusion in the AWV.

The acquisition of an effective participation in any other way in the management or control of the domestic company also triggers the reporting obligation under the new Section 56 (3) AWV-E. Since the filling of strategic positions in companies can go hand in hand with rights to information with regard to knowledge worthy of protection, such constellations are equated with an acquisition of voting rights. With this adjustment, the legislator is rounding off the reporting obligation and wants to exclude circumvention constellations as far as possible.

The addition of the voting rights of third parties can now be found in section 56 (4) AWV-E. The obligation to report is already triggered if it can be assumed that voting rights are exercised jointly due to the other circumstances of the acquisition. This also applies if the agreement on the joint exercise of voting rights is only concluded after the acquisition of the shareholding. Other circumstances are presumed if the acquirer and at least one third party from the same third country directly or indirectly hold an interest in the domestic company.

h2. Release of acquisition

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has clarified that in the case of the existence of a notification obligation pursuant to Section 55a (1), an application for clearance is excluded (Section 58 (3) AWV-E). In cases of doubt regarding the obligation to report, the acquirer may combine the report with an alternative application for a clearance certificate.

Extension of the sector-specific examination to all military equipment within the meaning of Part I Section A of the Export List

For the sector-specific assessment, the previous notion of risk is replaced by the assessment criterion of probable impairment in accordance with the new legal situation for the cross-sectoral investment assessment. However, the essential security interests remain the criterion for assessment. According to the newly formulated case group number 1, such interests are already probably impaired if the enterprise develops, manufactures or modifies goods within the meaning of Part I Section A of the Export List or has actual control over such goods. A company that at least also has contact points with goods from Part I Section A of the Export List is therefore to be covered by the new Section 60 (1) No. 1 AWV-E. Previously, only certain sub-sectors of the Export List were covered by the sector-specific examination. Its scope of application is thus considerably expanded.

Control of orders and the obligations regulated in a public law contract

Within the framework of the amendment to the AWG, the possibility has been introduced to commission third parties to monitor the obligations assumed by a public law contract or imposed by orders (Section 23 (6b) AWG). This procedure allows the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy to use personnel resources for inspection activities and to outsource monitoring. The ordinance regulates who may perform this monitoring activity as a third party. These are persons who are competent, reliable and independent of the obligated parties and the other parties involved in the acquisition (Section 59 (4) AWV-E).

Change of procedure in the examination procedure pursuant to Section 62a AWV-E

Section 62a AWV-E is to be inserted in a new subsection. If it becomes apparent in a cross-sectoral review procedure or a sector-specific review procedure that the requirements for a prohibition or the issuing of orders via the respective other procedure are met, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy may continue the respective review procedure on the basis of the requirements of the provisions of the other procedure. Consequently, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy can react flexibly to new findings in the ongoing procedure.

Conclusion

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energys attempt to concretise the scope of application of companies relevant to public order or security is to be welcomed in principle. However, the new Section 55a AWV-E leaves many questions of detail open. It must therefore be assumed that in practice, in case of doubt, a report must be made in order to avoid committing an administrative offence or even a criminal offence. The amendment of the AWV will therefore lead to a considerable expansion of the number of cases subject to reporting and auditing. This will be accompanied by a significant increase in the workload for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The expanded sector-specific audit will also contribute to an increase in audit cases. Furthermore, the additional workload caused by the EU cooperation mechanism is hardly foreseeable. According to the explanatory memorandum, Germanys previous practice of only reporting cases for which an in-depth examination was carried out is no longer valid. Within the framework of the cooperation mechanism, cases that are to be decided within the two-month period must therefore also be reported. Due to the new extension of the scope of application of investment control, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy assumes at least 180 new reportable acquisitions per year. These would be in addition to the 159 cases examined by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2020. Furthermore, the EU cooperation mechanism will conservatively estimate that a further 140 cases will have to be examined. Overall, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy therefore expects about 500 cases next year. Consequently, 30 additional civil servants are to be recruited across departments.

On the whole, however, the new AWV shows a distrust of foreign direct investment. It is therefore likely to be of considerable importance that the application of the new AWV does not lead to an excessive restriction of free trade in order to keep Germany attractive as an investment location. Restrictions or prohibitions should therefore remain the exception and not degenerate into a political instrument.

More here:

The draft bill of the 17th Amendment Ordinance of the AWV (Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance) - a first analysis - Lexology

The Cape Ann Museum will be hosting three outdoor walking tours throughout the month of February.

"During a time of continued concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the one-and-half hour tours offer participants a safe and engaging way to learn about the rich history of Cape Ann" Ashley Elias, for the Museum, said.

The tours will explore the life and careers of artists Edward Hopper and Fitz Henry Lane in Gloucester and the evolution of religious and spiritual life on Cape Ann.

Saturday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m.: A guided tour through the Lane Gallery to the Lane House

Saturday, Feb. 20 at 1 p.m.:The evolution of spiritual communities walking tour

Saturday, Feb. 27 at 1 p.m.:"Hopper's Houses" Walking Tour

Each tour is led by a knowledgeable Museum docent who will guide participants along a route through the city focusing on the chosen topic.

Tours are held rain or shine and participants are required to wear face masks. Cost, which includes museum admission, is $10 for CAM members and $20 for non-member.

Register at capeannmuseum.org/events.

A leafy welcome

Backyard Growers haswelcomed Jessica (Jess) Reid to take on the role of program coordinator as they seek to connect peopleand communities through access to healthy food.

"We are elated to welcome Jess to the team at Backyard Growers," said Program Director Corrine Lippie. "She is a dynamic new addition with deep food systems and farming experience. As we grow the Backyard Growers team, we will also be able to deepen our work and impact in the community."

Reid is a Massachusetts native who has worked on agricultural projects everywhere from Vermont to Madagascar. She graduated from Saint Michaels College after studying anthropology with a focus on farming and food systems. Looking to pursue work that combined these interests, she joined the Peace Corps as an Agriculture Extension Agent in Madagascar in 2018.

After two years working abroad, Reid will manage Backyard Growers' garden sites, which includes nine community and partner gardens and nine school garden sites from preschool through high school. She will develop and deliver trainings, workshops and outreach to support a diverse service population of children, seniors, and families as they grow their own food through the organizations community and backyard garden programs.

Working with Lippie, she will also build upon a strong foundation of existing programs and expand the organization's capacity to connect low- to moderate-income individuals and families through new initiatives.

Backyard Growers was founded by Executive Director Lara Lepionka in 2010. Now based at 3 Duncan St. in downtown Gloucester, the organization manages vegetable gardens in all Gloucester Public Schools and connects students from pre-K through high school to experiences that help them shape healthy behaviors. Backyard Growers has also built 400 raised garden beds across Gloucester, providing the resources and training for low- to moderate-income children, families, and seniors to grow their own food.

See the rest here:
Talk of the Times: Touring the rich history of Cape Ann - Gloucester Daily Times