Details of the performance, capabilties, physics and scaling of the state of the art in superconducting circuits for quantum computers

Superconducting Circuits for Quantum Information: An Outlook – The performance of superconducting qubits has improved by several orders of magnitude in the past decade. These circuits benefit from the robustness of superconductivity and the Josephson effect, and at present they have not encountered any hard physical limits. However, building an error-corrected information processor with many …

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Chromebook made big gains in marketshare in 2013 . . . the days of Microsoft Windows laptops seem to be numbered

Year to date through November 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, leading to a 25.4 percent increase over 2012, according to The NPD Group’s Distributor Track and Commercial Reseller Tracking Service. This stellar performance follows the 3.1 percent sales increase experienced in 2012. Chromebooks, and Android tablets collectively …

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Hybrid cargo airships for moving up to 2000 ton objects

Multiple airships can be used to transport larger objects as shown here Igor Pasternak wants to be the first to harness helium for multi-ton deliveries. He envisions thousands of 500-foot-long zeppelins capable of traversing the U.S. at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, ferrying mining equipment to roadless stretches of Alaska and bringing …

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Warren Buffet owns railroad and tank car company and is a big Obama supporter. Obama blocks pipeline which boosts oil shipped by rail

The Keystone pipeline expansion is still being stalled. Canadian Ambassador Doer observes that Obama’s “choice is to have it come down by a pipeline that he approves, or without his approval, it comes down on trains. Increased rail capacity is moving more oil from Canada’s oilsands More oil is moving by rail from North Dakota …

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1-Femtojoule Optical Interconnect Paves the Way for Low-Power, High Performance Chips and eventual exaflop and zettaflop supercomputers

Michael Watts and pals at MIT have designed and built the first photonic modulator that operates at an ultralow 1 femtoJoule power level. “We propose, demonstrate, and characterize the first modulator to achieve simultaneous high-speed (25 Gigabits per second), low voltage (0.5 peak-to-peak Voltage) and efficient 1 femtoJoule per bit error-free operation,” they say. The …

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ASEAN economy and Intra ASEAN trade and trade with China

The Asean economy is expected to double by 2020, with the nominal gross domestic product of the regional bloc increasing from US$2 trillion in 2012 to US$4.7 trillion. ASEAN Purchasing power parity per capita GDP almost doubled since 2000 Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in ASEAN, taking into account differences in purchasing power …

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Pacemaker that is ten times smaller can be implanted without surgery

Pacemaker surgery typically requires a doctor to make an incision above a patient’s heart, dig a cavity into which he can implant the heartbeat-regulating device, and then connect the pulse generator to wires delivered through a vein near the collarbone. Such surgery could soon be completely unnecessary. Instead, doctors could employ miniaturized wireless pacemakers that …

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US Army mounts high energy laser on a big truck for anti-mortar and anti-drone defense

The Army used a vehicle-mounted high-energy laser for the first time to successfully engage more than 90 mortar rounds and several unmanned aerial vehicles in flight. The Army High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, or HEL MD, underwent multiple test events between Nov. 18 and Dec. 10, at White Sands Missile Range. This was the first …

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One new physics theory suggests no Big Bang and another suggests that the Higgs could change and start a Big Crunch at any moment

1. There is a theory called “rainbow gravity,”. It posits that gravity’s effects on spacetime are felt differently by different wavelengths of light. Rainbow gravity was first proposed 10 years ago as a possible step toward repairing the rifts between the theories of general relativity (covering the very big) and quantum mechanics (concerning the realm …

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Senior Fusion researchers give major endorsement to Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Dense Plasma Focus Fusion Work and say they expect feasibility will be shown within two years with adequate funding

In a major endorsement of the fusion energy research and development program of start-up Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP), a committee of senior fusion researchers, led by a former head of the US fusion program, has concluded that the innovative effort deserves “a much higher level of investment … based on their considerable progress to date.” …

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China nearing the world average in corruption where Italy and Kuwait are at the average

China has made modest improvements in perceived corruption and has moved up to a corruptipon level of 40 on the Transparency.org index. 0 is the most corrupt and 100 is the least corrupt. 43 was the global average in corruption in 2013. So China is just short of the global average in corruption. China is …

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