#backaction | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

michelles-garden-of-evil · 4 years ago

Text

Episode 39 Review: Pirates of the Caribbean

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 | 3 }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

Hello and welcome again to my Garden of Evil, today with what I believe may be my shortest entry since last July. This time around, I want to focus on the Raxl and Vangie scenes set in the crypt, because, in my not-so-humble opinion, they’re the only interesting scenes in this entire episode. With even more recap than the average Thursday episode, this one is mostly boring. Hell, even the Lost Episode summary for this one is not that interesting:

If Rev. Matt Dawson refuses to attend Vangie's next séance, he may doom the girl he loves.[1]

I mean, it’s pretty clear that Holly is already doomed, based on the accident in Episode 30, the slashed portrait, and Vangie’s association of her with the Nine of Swords. But I digress.

In the second half of this episode, we do have a telling new revelation about the message that appeared in Raxl and Quito’s writing box following the disastrous séance three episodes ago. It connects to a period of Jacques’ past that the show left mostly unexplored. Yes, today we will be exploring Jacques’ career as a pirate, which was alluded to in Episode 6 and confirmed in this episode, only to never again be brought up on television. So, without further ado, let’s explore what we know of this chapter of the past of THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES!

*sting and lightning flash*

The original message in the writing box, from Episode 36.

To recap: At the end of the séance, Raxl discovered a message left in the sand of the writing box that she and Quito use to communicate with spirits. She tried to preserve the message with the hopes that the Conjure Woman Vangie Abbott would be able to interpret it once she recovered from the cataleptic trance that Jacques put her in by dropping a chandelier on her during the séance, but this was not to be, because Jacques found the box and obscured the message before Vangie could recover. Now that she has recovered thanks to the potion that he mixed for her, Quito delivers fresh sand to the two priestesses so that Raxl can try to recreate the message from memory for Vangie to read.

Raxl: "When you were in the séance, you did not know when you were in a trance and you did not know that the spirit had warned us that there was an evil presence at that séance. But it was written here." Vangie: "In the ancient language and symbols?" Raxl: "Oh, you know them so well. I read so little. They spoke of the conjure doll and the silver pin which would destroy the Devil and return him to the eternal flame! Where they were hidden, I could not tell. I could not read!" Vangie: "Do you remember the symbols? Try to write them!" Raxl: "May the Great Serpent guide my hand well."

Next scene, after the commercial break:

Raxl: "The first I remember well. I have long known it." Vangie: "A man. Not a real man. A doll, an effigy. An instrument." Raxl: "Symbols have many words, but one meaning." Vangie: "A piercing instrument, but not a weapon. The silver pin!" Raxl: "The first message was left to us by a friendly spirit who came to the séance to save us all." Vangie: "What spirit? I don't remember. I felt only the Devil." Raxl: "What spirit? Perhaps Erica Desmond, whom we sought to summon. Who, at the next moment, might have spoken, had not the Devil interfered." Vangie: "Yes, Erica might well have been there, within a hand's touch of the husband who sought to call on her through me with such agony and grief. I've never felt vibrations of such love and sorrow. There would have to be a response. Erica would be compelled to reply. Raxl, now write the symbols you could not read."

Raxl tries to remember the remaining symbols, but can’t. Vangie tells her to remember, so she searches her memory banks while Holly tries unsuccessfully to convince Matt to quit ministry and become an engineer. Finally, she remembers--or thinks she remembers--something:

Raxl: "Can you read it yet?" Vangie: *shakes head* "Perhaps it was like this?"

Raxl: "I cannot tell." Vangie: "That would be fire. Fire, an all-consuming fire." Raxl: "From Hell? Then it would destroy us all!" Vangie: "No, no, that makes no sense. We must be wrong. We must try again. Think, Raxl!"

Vangie: "No! Raxl, no!" Raxl: "It-It WAS like this!" Vangie: "A vessel of the sea, a great vessel with weapons. A ship that destroys." Raxl: "The pirate vessel of Jacques Eloi des Mondes, when he seized this island centuries ago!" Vangie: "The conjure doll that doomed him wouldn't be on the ancient ship of Jacques Eloi des Mondes."

Athough they rule out this possibility and decide to search the supply boat--unsuccessfully--for the doll and pin instead, this revelation is important. This right here is confirmation not only that Jacques stole the island from someone else back in the 17th century, but that, during his lifetime, he lived as a pirate. And a successful and ruthless pirate he must have been! Back in Episode 6, Jacques told Alison not only that he was a “free looter” (likely a misreading or mispronunciation of “freebooter”) in life, but that “he was the beginning of the family’s true wealth. Legend has it that in the coral caves beneath the island of Maljardin, he buried a king’s ransom, which still lies hidden.”

Originally, we would have learned more about this secret history of Jacques Eloi des Mondes on the show. This Lost Episode summary for Episode 42 describes Jacques as “a French buccaneer,” implying that this detail become important starting in that episode:

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer (November 7, 1969). I plan on discussing this in more detail in my Episode 42 review.

In 1975, five years after the show’s cancellation, Ian Martin wrote a script for CBS Radio Mystery Theater called “To Die is Forever,” with a premise and characters nearly identical to those of Strange Paradise. (A transcription of the radio play can be found here.) In the introduction, the announcer states that the piece’s villain, Richard the Red-Hand “bought [his family’s island] with the blood money and booty of a hundred pirated ships.” While this method of acquisition differs from Jacques’ alleged conquest of Maljardin, his characterization otherwise remains mostly the same. (Richard does come across as less refined than Jacques and talks more like a stereotypical pirate, but those are minor differences.)

Still, no Strange Paradise-related media provides more backstory about the pirate career of Jacques Eloi des Mondes than Dorothy Daniels’ Paperback Library novels, especially the final installment of the trilogy, Raxl, Voodoo Priestess. Published in August 1970, the novel centers around an attempted invasion of Maljardin by a crime boss named Vidran, which Jean Paul and Jacques team up to stop. The novel draws parallels between this and a similar incident in 1681 when a Spanish armada attempted to take the island:

"It was in August, 1681. Ah, this Jacques was a sly devil. He knew the Armada was on its way. Word had been brought by fishermen who spotted it. Jacques then made haste to transfer from the mainland to Maljardin all of the gold and gems. He buried them secretly and no one was the wiser. He had a friend named Emile, a young man about Jacques’ age. Emile helped him prepare for the invasion and bombardment which was certainly coming. But, according to Jacques’ own writing, Emile was not the strongest man in the world--speaking in terms of character, not physical strength. He was also enamored of a young lady taken prisoner during one of the pirate raids.”[2]

Ian Martin himself later re-used the trope of a wealthy family descended from pirates in his first novel, Nightmare's Nest, published in 1979 under the name of his second wife Joen Arliss. The novel's villain, Jason Greaves, is an illegitimate descendant of the reclusive and aristocratic Rensevelt family who, like the des Mondes, live in a castle on an island and acquired their wealth through pillaging and plundering. According to him, the 17th-century Rensevelts were "pirates, usurers, thieves, murderers, [and] despoilers of women".[3] Later, the family’s kind-hearted heir Ted mentions "the history of my family and the pirates who began and perpetuated it. The lure of gold, the thirst for money, that's the Rensevelt tradition!" (p. 232). Like Jacques, Jason is also tall and dark, oozes sex appeal, and has "that open, free, untrammeled laugh of a man whose conscience is untroubled" (p. 209). So, while there aren’t enough similarities to warrant a full review series for Nightmare’s Nest the way I did for Shadow Over Seventh Heaven last year, it does show some clear SP influence.

There is one other interesting part of this episode that I think I should mention. Raxl seems to have become disillusioned with her partnership with Matt and now wonders if he and his religion are a “disruptive force” on the island:

I know it looks like she’s talking to Vangie in the second screencap, but she’s actually backacting with Matt. Also, “end” in the last image’s subtitle is supposed to read “and.” I’ll never understand why the automatic captions have such trouble with her accent, because I can usually understand her just fine.

Coming up next: Jean Paul and Matt argue over the next séance and I use clues from multiple Lost Episode summaries to determine what happened in the original script for Episode 40.

{<- Previous: Episode 38 || Next: Episode 40 ->}

Notes

[1] Minneapolis Star (November 6, 1969).

[2] Dorothy Daniels, Raxl, Voodoo Priestess (New York: Paperback Library, 1970), p. 108.

[3] Joen Arliss, Nightmare's Nest (New York: Popular Library, 1979), p. 212.

#strange paradise #ian martin #maljardin arc #week 8 #episode 39 #foxless episodes #review #analysis #cbsrmt #dorothy daniels #ian martin's novels #lost episode summaries #nightmare's nest #paperback library #sign of the great serpent #sp and religion #speculation on ian martin's original story #unexplored plot point #the writing box

1 note · View note

quantum-computing-techinsync · 3 years ago

Text

A Master Equation To Advance Quantum Technology.

Weird quantum phenomena like quantum tunnelling, superposition, and entanglement become more evident as the size of current technology decreases down to the nanoscale.

An open quantum system and a detector with a limited bandwidth are used to illustrate a typical measurement and feedback configuration.

An arbitrary system observable is continually measured by the detector. Measurement backaction is determined by measurement strength.

Utilizing the measurement result D, continuous feedback is used to regulate the system's Liouville superoperator L(D).

The time traces show the trajectories of the measurement record D(t) and the system state S(t):

This ushers in a new age of quantum technology that allows for the exploitation of quantum effects.

A pacemaker is a prime example of a common technology that often employs feedback control since it must continuously monitor the user's heartbeat and only apply electrical impulses to regulate it when necessary.

However, quantum feedback control is still not fully understood by physicists.

The "master equation" that scientists have now created will aid engineers in comprehending feedback at the quantum scale.

Physical Review Letters, a publication, has published its findings. According to co-author Björn Annby-Andersson, a quantum physicist at Sweden's Lund University, "It is crucial to investigate how feedback control can be used in quantum technologies in order to develop efficient and quick methods for controlling quantum systems, so that they can be steered in real time and with high precision."

Quantum error correction is an illustration of an important feedback-control procedure in quantum computing.

A quantum computer stores information on actual qubits, which might be, for example, atoms or light photons.

However, due to the qubits' delicate quantum characteristics, it is possible that if they are jarred by vibrations or fluctuating electromagnetic fields, the encoded information will be lost.

Therefore, physicists must be able to recognize and fix such mistakes, for example, by using feedback control.

By monitoring the qubits' state and using feedback to rectify any deviations from expectations that are found, this error correction may be put into practice.

However, because of the fragility that physicists are attempting to counteract, feedback control at the quantum level poses special difficulties.

Due to its fragile nature, the system might be destroyed even by the feedback process.

According to Annby-Andersson, "it is crucial to only interact weakly with the measured system, keeping the qualities we wish to exploit."

Therefore, it is crucial to build a complete theoretical knowledge of quantum feedback control in order to determine its basic bounds.

However, the majority of the theoretical models for quantum feedback control now in use rely on computer simulations, which normally can only provide precise findings for certain systems.

Drawing broad, high-quality conclusions is challenging, according to Annby-Andersson.

Only a small class of feedback-controlled systems—often referred to as linear feedback—may benefit from the few models that can provide qualitative comprehension.

A "Quantum Fokker-Planck equation," created by Annby-Andersson and his associates, allows physicists to follow the development of any quantum system over time with feedback control.

According to Annby-Andersson, "the equation may explain circumstances that go beyond linear feedback." In instance, solving the equation without the use of computer simulations may be done using paper and a pen.

The group put its equation to the test by using it with a simple feedback mechanism.

This revealed how energy may be captured in tiny systems via feedback control and proved that the equation yields physically plausible outcomes.

The equation, according to Annby-Andersson, "is a good starting point for future investigations of how energy may be modified with the use of information on a microscopic level."

The team is now looking on a technique for controlling energy in "quantum dots"—tiny semiconducting crystals about billionths of a meter across—by using feedback.

The development of innovative feedback protocols that may be applied to quantum technologies using the equation as a tool is one significant future avenue, according to Annby-Andersson.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References And Further Reading:

Björn Annby-Andersson et al, Quantum Fokker-Planck Master Equation for Continuous Feedback Control, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.050401

#Quantum Computing #Quantum Computing Equation #Quantum Research #Quantum System #quantum physics #physics

1 note · View note

49ersgermany · 4 years ago

Text

Alle Moves und Contracts in der Übersicht

Die San Francisco 49ers waren aktiv in der Free Agency und haben vor allem eigene Free Agents zum Team zurückgebracht. Dazu verstärkte man sich punktuell über die Free Agency. Im Draft wählt man nach einem Uptrade mit dem 3rd Overall Pick Quarterback Trey Lance. Nun geht es mit dem Offseason Programm in der kommenden Woche los in Richtung der Saison 2021.

Überblick über die Moves in der Offseason

Nach Abschluss der Saison 2020 gingen die San Francisco 49ers mit zahlreichen Baustellen in Richtung Free Agency und Draft. Das Front Office konnte mit zahlreichen eigenen und wichtigen Free Agents Verträge für die Zukunft aushandeln. Unter anderem sorgte man mit dem Monster-Vertrag für Left Tackle Trent Williams für Aufsehen. Dazu fädelte man mit den Miami Dolphins einen Uptrade für den 3rd Overall Pick im diesjährigen Draft ein, was wochenlange Spekulationen auslöste, welchen Spieler man damit auswählen wurde. Es ist schlussendlich Trey Lance, Quarterback, von der North Dakota State University geworden. Es folgt ein Überblick über die gedrafteten Spieler, Free Agency und Spieler, welche nicht zu den 49ers zurückkehren werden.

Draft

SpielerPositionUniversityPickTrey LanceQuarterbackNorth Dakota StateRound 1, Pick 3Aaron BanksOffensive GuardNotre DameRound 2, Pick 48Trey SermonRunning BackOhio StateRound 3, Pick 88Ambry ThomasCornerbackMichiganRound 3, Pick 102Jaylon MooreOffensive TackleWestern MichiganRound 5, Pick 155Deommodore LenoirCornerbackOregonRound 5, Pick 172Talanoa HufangaSafetyUSCRound 5, Pick 180Elijah MitchellRunning BackLouisiana-LafayetteRound 6, Pick 193

Undrafted Rookie Free Agents*

SpielerPositionUniversitätDraftstatusAustin Watkins Jr.Wide ReceiverUABUndraftedJustin HilliardLinebackerOhio StateUndraftedElijah SullivanLinebackerKansas StateUndraftedJosh PedersonTight EndULMUndrafted * Undrafted Rookie Free Agents sind von den 49ers noch nicht bestätigt.

Free Agency: Rückkehrer

SpielerPosition 2020VertragBriean Boddy-CalhounCornerbackPractice Squad2021Daniel BrunskillOffensive LineActive RosterERFA, 2021Tom ComptonOffensive LineActive Roster2021River CracraftWide ReceiverActive RosterERFA, 2021Ross DwelleyTight EndActive RosterRFA, 2021Marcell HarrisSafetyActive RosterRFA, 2021Daniel HelmTight EndActive Roster, Practice Squad2021Dontae JohnsonCornerbackActive Roster2021D.J. JonesDefensive TackleActive Roster2021Kyle JuszczykFullbackActive Roster2025Emmanuel MoseleyCornerbackActive Roster2022Kai NacuaSafetyActive Roster, Practice Squad2021Taybor PepperLong SnapperActive RosterRFA, 2021Josh RosenQuarterbackActive RosterERFA, 2021Jaquiski TarttSafetyActive Roster2021Jason VerrettCornerbackActive Roster2021Austin WalterRunning BackActive Roster, Practice SquadERFA, 2021Ken WebsterCornerbackActive RosterERFA, 2021K'Waun WilliamsCornerbackActive Roster2021Trent WilliamsOffensive LineActive Roster2026Jordan WillisDefensive EndActive RosterUFA, 2021Jeff Wilson Jr.Running BackActive RosterERFA, 2021

Free Agency: Neuverpflichtungen

SpielerPositionehemaliges TeamVertragSamson EbukamLinebackerLos Angeles Rams2022Wayne GallmanRunning BackNew York Giants2021Nathan GerryLinebackerPhiladelphia Eagles2021Maurice Hurst Jr.Defensive TackleLas Vegas Raiders2021Zach KerrDefensive TackleCarolina Panthers2021Arden KeyDefensive EndLas Vegas Raiders2021Alex MackCenterAtlanta Falcons2023Mohamed SanuWide ReceiverDetroit Lions2021Trent SherfieldWide ReceiverArizona Cardinals2021Nate SudfeldQuarterbackPhiladelphia Eagles2021Tavon WilsonSafetyIndianapolis Colts2021

Free Agents: Neues Team / retired

SpielerPositionneues TeamVertragC.J. BeathardQuarterbackJacksonville Jaguars2022Kendrick BourneWide ReceiverNew England Patriots2023Tevin ColemanRunning BackNew York Jets2021Kerry HyderDefensive EndSeattle Seahawks2023Jerick McKinnonRunning BackKansas City Chiefs2021Jordan ReedTight Endretired-Solomon ThomasDefensive TackleLas Vegas Raiders2021Ahkello WitherspoonCornerbackSeattle Seahawks2021

Unrestricted Free Agents

SpielerPosition BemerkungEzekiel AnsahDefensive EndSaisonende auf IRTony Bergstrom Offensive LineBen GarlandOffensive LineSaisonende auf IRHroniss GrasuCenterDion JordanDefensive EndNick MullensQuarterbackRFA, aber kein TenderMark NzeochaLinebackerOption nicht gezogenRichard Sherman CornerbackJamar TaylorCornerbackSaisonende mit ACL auf IRTrent TaylorWide ReceiverJoe WalkerLinebacker

Entlassene Spieler

SpielerPositionneues TeamAdonis AlexanderCornerbackMatt ColeWide ReceiverNew York JetsRonald BlairDefensive EndJosiah CoatneyDefensive LineChris EdwardsSafetyObi MelifonwuDefensive BackChris ThompsonWide Receiver

Arten der Free Agents

Bei der Unterteilung der Free Agent Arten ist weder die Position noch die Qualität der Spieler entscheidend, sondern es geht vielmehr um die Zugehörigkeit zur NFL. Hierbei sind die zentralen Punkte eine Accrued Season (angefallene Saison) und Credited Season (angerechnete/gutgeschriebene Saison). Eine Accrued Season bekommt ein Spieler angerechnet, wenn er sich mindestens sechs Wochen in der Saison auf einem Roster befunden hat. Auf dem Roster bedeutet in diesem Fall „Full Pay“ (volle Bezahlung). Das heißt, der Spieler muss auf dem Active Roster geführt sein, kann aber an Gamedays „inactive“ sein oder sich auf der Injured Reserve List geführt werden. Spieler, die sich auf der Practice Squad, Physically Unable to Perform List (PUP-List), Non Football Injury List (NFI List) oder der Commissioner Excampt List befinden, fallen nicht unter den Status „Full Pay“. Um eine Credited Season angerechnet zu bekommen, braucht es dagegen nur drei Spiele im „Full Pay“ Status. Bei der Zuordnung, in welche der drei Arten von Free Agents die Spieler gehören, kommt es auf Accrued Seasons an. Diese müssen nicht am Stück absolviert werden, sondern es zählt einfach die Gesamtzahl der absolvierten Accrued Seasons. Die Credited Seasons sind wichtig für die Minimal-Gehälter und verschiedene Benefits. 1. Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) Ein Spieler fällt in die Kategorie des Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFA), wenn er weniger als drei Accrued Seasons in der NFL absolviert hat. Diese Spieler können nur mit ihrer aktuellen Mannschaft vor dem Start der Free Agency verlängern, wenn sie vom Team mit einem Tender belegt werden. Die ERFAs haben keine Möglichkeit mit einem anderen Team zu verhandeln, wenn das aktuelle Team sie mit einem Tender belegt. Die Teams können einen ERFA mit einem Vertrag zum Liga-Minimum an sich binden, ohne dass sich der Spieler dagegen wehren. Es sei denn, der Spieler entscheidet sich die kommende Spielzeit auszusetzen. Geben die Teams einem ERFA keinen Tender, wird er mit dem Beginn des neuen Liga Jahres automatisch zum Free Agent und kann bei jedem Team einen Vertrag unterschreiben. 2. Restricted Free Agents (RFA) Restricted Free Agents sind Spieler, die drei Accrued Seasons in der NFL gespielt haben und deren Vertrag ausläuft. Sie haben ein Angebot von ihrem bisherigen Team erhalten, können aber mit anderen Teams zu verhandeln. Akzeptiert der Spieler ein Angebot eines anderen Teams, so kann das bisherige Team mit diesem Angebot gleichziehen, um den Spieler zu halten. Ist dies nicht der Fall, so gibt es für das alte Team eine mögliche Kompensation, abhängig vom gewählten Tender. Read the full article

#Offseason

0 notes

kathleenseiber · 5 years ago

Text

Could Schrödinger’s cat exist in real life?

By Stefan Forstner, University of Queensland

Have you ever been in more than one place at the same time? If you’re much bigger than an atom, the answer will be no.

But atoms and particles are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics, in which several different possible situations can coexist at once.

Quantum systems are ruled by what’s called a “wave function”: a mathematical object that describes the probabilities of these different possible situations.

And these different possibilities can coexist in the wave function as what is called a “superposition” of different states. For example, a particle existing in several different places at once is what we call “spatial superposition”.

It’s only when a measurement is carried out that the wave function “collapses” and the system ends up in one definite state.

Generally, quantum mechanics applies to the tiny world of atoms and particles. The jury is still out on what it means for large-scale objects.

In our research, published in Optica, we propose an experiment that may resolve this thorny question once and for all.

Erwin Schrödinger’s cat

In the 1930s, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger came up with his famous thought experiment about a cat in a box which, according to quantum mechanics, could be alive and dead at the same time.

In it, a cat is placed in a sealed box in which a random quantum event has a 50–50 chance of killing it. Until the box is opened and the cat is observed, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time.

In other words, the cat exists as a wave function (with multiple possibilities) before it’s observed. When it’s observed, it becomes a definite object.

youtube

After much debate, the scientific community at the time reached a consensus with the “Copenhagen interpretation”. This basically says quantum mechanics can only apply to atoms and molecules, but can’t describe much larger objects.

Turns out they were wrong.

In the past two decades or so, physicists have created quantum states in objects made of trillions of atoms — large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Although, this has not yet included spatial superposition.

How does a wave function become real?

But how does the wave function become a “real” object?

This is what physicists call the “quantum measurement problem”. It has puzzled scientists and philosophers for about a century.

If there is a mechanism that removes the potential for quantum superposition from large-scale objects, it would require somehow “disturbing” the wave function — and this would create heat.

If such heat is found, this implies large-scale quantum superposition is impossible. If such heat is ruled out, then it’s likely nature doesn’t mind “being quantum” at any size.

If the latter is the case, with advancing technology we could put large objects, maybe even sentient beings, into quantum states.

This is an illustration of a resonator in quantum superposition. The red wave represents the wave function. Christopher Baker, Author provided

Physicists don’t know what a mechanism preventing large-scale quantum superpositions would look like. According to some, it’s an unknown cosmological field. Others suspect gravity could have something to do with it.

This year’s Nobel Prize winner for physics, Roger Penrose, thinks it could be a consequence of living beings’ consciousness.

Chasing miniscule movements

Over the past decade or so, physicists have been feverishly seeking a trace amount of heat which would indicate a disturbance in the wave function.

To find this out, we’d need a method that can suppress (as perfectly as is possible) all other sources of “excess” heat that may get in the way of an accurate measurement.

We would also need to keep an effect called quantum “backaction” in check, in which the act of observing itself creates heat.

In our research, we’ve formulated such an experiment, which could reveal whether spatial superposition is be possible for large-scale objects. The best experiments thus far have not been able to achieve this.

Finding the answer with tiny beams that vibrate

Our experiment would use resonators at much higher frequencies than have been used. This would remove the issue of any heat from the fridge itself.

As was the case in previous experiments, we would need to use a fridge at 0.01 degrees kelvin above absolute zero. (Absoloute zero is the lowest temperature theoretically possible).

With this combination of very low temperatures and very high frequencies, vibrations in the resonators undergo a process called “Bose condensation”.

You can picture this as the resonator becoming so solidly frozen that heat from the fridge can’t wiggle it, not even a bit.

We would also use a different measurement strategy that doesn’t look at the resonator’s movement at all, but rather the amount of energy it has. This method would strongly suppress backaction heat, too.

But how would we do this?

Single particles of light would enter the resonator and bounce back and forth a few million times, absorbing any excess energy. They would eventually leave the resonator, carrying the excess energy away.

By measuring the energy of the light particles coming out, we could determine if there was heat in the resonator.

If heat was present, this would indicate an unknown source (which we didn’t control for) had disturbed the wave function. And this would mean it’s impossible for superposition to happen at a large scale.

Is everything quantum?

The experiment we propose is challenging. It’s not the kind of thing you can casually set up on a Sunday afternoon. It may take years of development, millions of dollars and a whole bunch of skilled experimental physicists.

Nonetheless, it could answer one of the most fascinating questions about our reality: is everything quantum? And so, we certainly think it’s worth the effort.

As for putting a human, or cat, into quantum superposition — there’s really no way for us to know how this would effect that being.

Luckily, this is a question we don’t have to think about, for now.

Stefan Forstner, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Could Schrödinger’s cat exist in real life? published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

0 notes

cherryfields27 · 6 years ago

Photo

Happy Thursday💯💯 #InTheseDFWStreets #happylife #Success #home #saloncuttitup #salonsuites #ArlingtonStylist #personalable #BackAction (at Ikandy Hair Lounge) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6QEZyEj6fP/?igshid=1hzulzxxn6vde

#inthesedfwstreets #happylife #success #home #saloncuttitup #salonsuites #arlingtonstylist #personalable #backaction

0 notes

todaysciencology · 5 years ago

Text

Physicists develop a method to improve gravitational wave detector sensitivity

Gravitational wave detectors opened a new window to the universe by measuring the ripples in spacetime produced by colliding black holes and neutron stars, but they are ultimately limited by quantum fluctuations induced by light reflecting off of mirrors. Researchers have conducted a new experiment to explore a way to cancel this quantum backaction and improve detector sensitivity. https://ift.tt/eA8V8J for more information go to https://ift.tt/3bgFIf3

#Technology

0 notes

michelles-garden-of-evil · 5 years ago

Text

Episode 32 Review: Sea Fever

{ Not available on YouTube }

{ Full Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

I apologize for the delay in posting this review. Once again, I’ve been busy in real life and didn’t have enough time to work on it last week. (And so soon after starting my Shadow Over Seventh Heaven review series!) But now I’m back and I have enough time to write about my favorite show again--and, in a week or so, hopefully enough to continue my other review series as well.

This is the first episode to differ completely from the Lost Episode summaries published in various U.S. and Canadian newspapers--and therefore probably the point at which the original outline and the final one began to diverge. Episode 30′s summary described an event that happened in the episode, but whose cause appears to have been changed during forced rewrites; last episode’s was still accurate after revisions; but this one’s summary is the first to describe a scene absent from the final, aired episode. (More on that later.)

Shall we begin this review? This episode features some of the darkest Jean Paul (yes, Jean Paul!) dialogue thus far, along with many entertaining facial expressions as multiple characters feast on the scenery. It’s a wild ride with a genuinely scary scene, and, if you like those things, I think you’ll enjoy it.

We open right where last episode left off, with Elizabeth reacting to Jacques’ little comment about Holly and how he would stake her life in a bet that Vangie couldn’t contact Erica in the planned séance. ”Jean Paul,” she shouts, “your inference that I would harm my daughter to take her fortune for my own is insulting and in bad taste: something I’d never expect of you!”

The handsome devil replies, “Your strong defense against a simple query lends credence to a simple supposition”--which is just a fancier, less archaic way of saying “the lady doth protest too much.”

She flounces and runs into Vangie at the door--figuratively, not literally, although that would be amusing. “You interrupted Mrs. Marshall’s romantic exit from which there might be no return,” Jacques comments, which sounds suspiciously like foreshadowing.

The conversation drifts to the séance and how Jacques is most definitely not going to back down because he’s not a coward, and then, suddenly,

Vangie SCREAMS!

Apparently, every time a female character other than Raxl screams, she has to try eating her hand immediately afterwards.

She’s screaming because she can sense that someone is tampering with the cryonics capsule. And, at the same time that this happens, Jacques also de-possesses Jean Paul:

I’ll let these headache faces speak for themselves.

Jean Paul who threatens to kill anyone who tampers with the capsule. Very nice (not)! Normally, I find his concern for Erica romantic, but this is going too far. He reminds me of the captain in the CBS Radio Mystery Theater episode "Sea Fever" (also by Ian Martin) who…well, I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say that he is even crazier in love than Jean Paul. It isn’t one of the best CBSRMT dramas, but it will likely chill your bones. It certainly chilled mine.

Love this shot of Colin Fox backacting while Paisley Maxwell and Angela Roland stare at him with wide-open eyes. This episode is full of unintentionally funny facial expressions.

Jean Paul hurries back to Maljardin with Elizabeth and Vangie, and heads to the crypt immediately to see Raxl about the capsule. She recaps to him about the capsule tank’s malfunctioning in the previous episode. He asks who discovered it; she tells him Dan, which only makes him more suspicious of him. SHe also recaps to him about how Alison and Dan are searching for the cyanide that he stole from the lab. “Everyone questions my changes of mood,” he shouts. “Now I must question changes in others!...There is danger hiding everywhere on Maljardin. It has a history that has plagued the family, that will plague all who pry into my affairs!"

While Vangie questions the sincerity of Elizabeth’s devotion to Jean Paul above, Jean Paul leaves red flowers on the cryocapsule and announces his planned next moves to his love: “Erica, my dove, now [there] are some people here on our island who would destroy the process by which you will be returned to me and fill my arms again, but I promise you, no one, no one under any consequences [line flub], will live again if he or she causes you to remain forever dead!"

A beautiful shot of Jean Paul with flowers for Erica.

When Raxl next joins Jean Paul in the crypt, she tells him that “only the priestess of the Serpent knows what is really on their minds.” Jean Paul mentions that she has told him before about the human sacrifices that the priestesses used to perform on the island--which is not recap (as we have only heard her tell Matt about them so far), so she must have told him sometime before Erica’s death. She insists that, although that was true long ago, their altar has not been used for them since Jacques's time.

“But, if his evil can rise again, as you fear,” he begins, implying that he wants to start making blood sacrifices.

“No! Please, M’sieu, no!” Raxl interrupts.

“I will do what has to be done, Raxl. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Raxl draws the Sign of the Great Serpent in the air and the same Great Serpent symbol that's in the Temple appears on screen. It’s a cool effect and not something that’s ever seen in any other episode.

She leaves the crypt, looking back at Jean Paul a few times, probably in complete disbelief that he wants her, daughter of the unseen Priestess of the Serpent, to sacrifice Dan and any other troublesome guests to protect against THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES. This is a shocking new low for Jean Paul Desmond, and shows the darker side of his character. This is a man who, even without a curse and even when he is not possessed, is capable of murder because of his obsession with his love interest. This is a male yandere.

She sees Matt in the Great Hall, who tells her that he’s searched all over Maljardin and that there must be many hidden rooms there. It turns out they have both searched in every room they know about and still have found neither the missing cyanide nor the conjure doll and silver pin. He demands that she tell him the legend of Maljardin and that old black magic. And so we learn from her some very important background information, some of which is never brought up again:

Where there is evil, there is magic. Where there is magic, strange things happen, but first there must be evil, and there is!...Before the time of Jacques Eloi des Mondes, when this house first stood, it was a palace of kings and there were many people here until this island became his!…Only the greedy and foolish [natives] remained, and none who left ever returned.

There is a curse here, Reverend: him, that devil!

The implication is that Jacques did not build the château, but took it from someone else, which connects to his revelation about a month earlier that he was a “free looter”--or, in other words, a pirate. Matt argues that Jacques cannot still hold control over Maljardin because he died three hundred years ago, but Raxl says that “for some of us, three hundred years is but the span of a single lifetime,” indirectly revealing her true age to him.

She smiles at him right after she reveals to him that she’s centuries old. I think this is the first time Raxl smiles on the show, and the only time in the entire Maljardin arc.

Matt asks about the natives who stayed on the island, and Raxl says of them, “They died very soon. It was the curse on Maljardin. Have you ever seen a man who has lost his soul, Reverend? Their eyes down, the fishermen no longer fish, the children cease to play. They do no more than sit and wait [for death]...Since then, no native has ever tried to settle on Maljardin.” Only Vangie, the Conjure Woman, can go back and forth to and from the island “on the wings of the Great Serpent,” but she, too, is destined to die someday on Maljardin.

At the end of this scene, Vangie enters and adds that she doesn’t know when she’ll die, because the tarot cards did not (and cannot?) give her an exact date. This would seem to make her death on the show a foregone conclusion, but that may or may not be the case. (I say that not only to avoid spoilers, but also because the show and the original scripts give the Conjure Woman radically different fates, as we shall explore in future reviews.)

Meanwhile, down in the crypt, Jean Paul is still talking to Erica about how he is determined to kill anyone who interferes with the cryonics process when Jacques starts intruding on his mind. Like in Episode 27, the special effects team illustrates this by superimposing Jacques’ face from the portrait over that of Jean Paul when he is talking to him:

The best example from this episode.

None of Jacques’ lines in this scene are as funny as those of the old, pre-Lost Episode era Jacques, even if Fox-C still delivers the devil’s lines with the same amount of sarcasm and relish as before. His best line this time around is, in my not-so-humble opinion, “Suppose we just whisper so dear Erica may sleep.” I miss early Jacques’ jokes already--yes, even the ham-handed, cornball puns--and it hasn’t even been a week’s worth of episodes since the last.

We cut to Raxl and Vangie in the Great Hall, discussing the upcoming séance. Vangie says that she wants to find out if Erica’s spirit genuinely wants Jean Paul to continue mourning her and keeping her frozen. She insists that Raxl let her touch the cryocapsule before the séance, most likely to get a sense of Erica’s energy before they perform the ceremony.

Jean Paul: “What are you doing!”

Raxl: “Please, M’sieu. The Conjure Woman is trying to help.”

Jean Paul: “Only for a séance, Vangie. Erica must remain undisturbed.” Vangie: “And if you don’t like what you learn?” Jean Paul: “I’ll face that--when the time comes!”

The Lost Episode summary indicates that, at some point in the original draft, Raxl and Vangie had a conversation about Jacques, and Raxl would have told her how she can tell him and Jean Paul apart. As I’m sure many of you have realized, Raxl and Vangie oscillate between knowing that Jean Paul is being possessed and merely suspecting, depending on the episode. In the original Episode 32, Raxl would have known when Jacques is controlling Jean Paul’s body and Vangie would have only suspected until after Raxl explained. Ruling out all obvious non-diegetic clues such as the vanishing portrait shots and Jacques’ theme music, she could have said any number of things, including:

His energy/aura changes (although, logically, Vangie would notice that, too).

He wears the ring from the portrait (which we know is diegetic, because Elizabeth commented on it in Episode 13).

He opens his eyes really wide and makes silly faces.

He makes corny puns Never mind, we’re not doing that anymore.

He acts far too cheerful for a man who is supposedly mourning his dead wife.

He talks about kippers.

Etc.

I suppose we’ll never know which one(s) she mentioned, but I suspect #1, #2, and/or #5. Anyway, Jean Paul leaves to return upstairs and Vangie continues whatever she started doing with the capsule. He orders Jacques to “stop turning people against [him],” which he refuses to do, threatening to keep Erica dead if he doesn’t shut up about it.

“When we really get into the battle, someone has to die,” quips Jacques.

“Perhaps it will be you!” shouts Jean Paul in response.

“Or you, Jean Paul Desmond,” the handsome devil replies. “Or will you be preceded by one of our guests? Now let me see. A likely candidate could be...”

Jean Paul turns away from the roars of laughter, and the episode ends before Jacques can name the guest(s) he plans to murder.

Could it be Vangie? Or Holly? Dan? Alison? Even Elizabeth?

This episode was a fun one to watch, and probably the first review I’ve completed in only one day since sometime last winter. Jean Paul’s willingness to put everyone’s life on the proverbial line to save Erica shows a dark side to his nature that mostly vanishes at the end of this story arc--which is a shame, because I find morally ambiguous antihero Jean Paul the most interesting version of his character. I recommend this one, if you have access to it.

Coming up next: A Quito-centric episode where the detained guests learn shocking truths about Jean Paul’s manservant.

{ <- Previous: Episode 31 || Next: Episode 33 -> }

#strange paradise #maljardin arc #ian martin #week 7 #episode 32 #review #genuinely scary episodes #cbs radio mystery theater #creative line interpretation #cryonics capsule #diegesis #hand staple mouth #headache faces #kippers #lost episode summaries #scenery chewing #sign of the great serpent #smiley raxl #yandere

3 notes · View notes