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If you spend as many hours a day pondering cake as I do most thoughts are of the "I could really eat a slice of sponge right now" variety. Some however, are slightly more creative, take root and won't allow themselves to be forgotten. This recipe is such an example.
I came across a recipe for old-fashioned coconut macaroons – the sort of macaroons that ruled the bakery/patisserie counter before the more glamorous upstart macarons came on the scene. Much as the photo made me drool, I knew I didn't want to make just macaroons…but, as a cupcake decoration….that was a different story!
Coconut and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations and I wanted the flavours represented in both the sponge and Swiss meringue buttercream. Being a coconutophile (I have invented a word) I boosted the flavour in my cupcakes by adding coconut extract, but it's optional.
The delicate pink of the buttercream contrasts beautifully with the macaroon decorations. While the flavours can be enjoyed by everyone, I think the finished look is rather girly!
Here are the sponges before they were decorated:
I piped a flat layer of buttercream onto the cake and pushed the raspberry into it; this was to ensure that the buttercream filled the cavity of the raspberry. I could've stopped here as they looked stunning...:
...but I didn't, as that's not my nature! I piped more buttercream to enclose the raspberry:
The raspberry added good support for the macaroon topping!
For the coconut macaroons (this will make more than you need to decorate the cupcakes – if you only want enough for decorations with no spare consider halving the quantities):
100g caster sugar
2 egg whites
200g desiccated coconut
For the cupcake sponge (this will make 12 cupcakes):
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons milk
150g fresh raspberries (if you prefer, you could put some raspberry jam into the cupcake batter after you've spooned it into the paper cases)
Swiss meringue buttercream (enough for 12 cupcakes):
4 egg whites
250g caster sugar
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 heaped tablespoon raspberry jam (seedless)
Optional: 12 raspberries
Start by making the coconut macaroons: preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
Whisk together the sugar and egg whites until fluffy; you don't need peaks but just something that is starting to hold its shape and look a bit whippy.
Stir in the coconut until the mixture is well combined.
Spoon teaspoon sized amounts onto the baking sheet, leaving a small gap between them. You can use the teaspoon and a knife to shape them into little balls.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the macaroons are just starting to brown, then remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack (remove the macaroons from the tray when cool - if you try beforehand they might break).
To make the cupcakes, increase the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
Line a cupcake pan with paper cases.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, flour, desiccated coconut, coconut extract and milk.
Fold in the raspberries – some might break down but don't worry.
When the mixture is smooth and well combined, spoon into the paper cases.
If you're using raspberry jam instead of fresh raspberries, spoon a scant teaspoon into each cupcake and smooth a little batter over the surface so the jam won't burn.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Mine took 13 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wire rack and remove from the tin when cool enough to handle. (You can make up to this point a day before serving – simply store the macaroons and cupcake sponges in an airtight container. Make the Swiss meringue buttercream on the day you wish to serve the cupcakes)
Now make the Swiss meringue buttercream: Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir pretty much constantly to prevent the egg from cooking.
After 5-10 minutes, when the sugar has dissolved (when you cannot see any crystals on the back of the spoon), remove the bowl from the pan of simmering water and whisk until the meringue has puffed up and is cool.
Add the butter and coconut extract to the meringue and whisk until the butter is completely incorporated into the meringue. At first it will look a disaster – it will collapse and look curdled but don't worry – just keep going! Stop when the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.
Beat in the jam.
Pipe the Swiss meringue buttercream over the cupcakes in glamorous swirls.
If using, push the raspberries into the buttercream and cover with more piped buttercream.
Set the macaroons gently into the buttercream so that they will hold their position.
Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.


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| 10°C Dublin
LENNOX Lewis revealed he had given West Ham a pre-match prep talk ahead of their clash with fellow Barclays Premier League strugglers Norwich - and it was James Collins and Mohamed Diame who delivered the late knockout blows that settled this contest.
The Canaries would have won the tentative battle on points after creating most of the better openings in the game but Collins arrived just in time to head home an 84th-minute chance - with Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy culpable of coming to collect the delivery and getting caught out.
With the visitors chasing a late equaliser they were then exposed at the back, allowing second-half substitute Diame to wrap up the win late in stoppage time.
Former undisputed world heavyweight champion and Hammers fan Lewis was paraded to the supporters before the game, with both sides then sparring for the majority of the 90 minutes as not losing the game became paramount to their respective survival bids.
It was Norwich, and striker Gary Hooper, who passed up a number of gilt-edged chances to secure the three points, with Hammers goalkeeper Adrian again in top form.
Robert Snodgrass and Alex Tettey also found the Spaniard in the way as they looked to secure a third away league win of the campaign, with West Ham rarely able to trouble Ruddy in the Canaries' goal.
Sam Allardyce's side were lacking the spearhead of Andy Carroll and only Diame truly tested Ruddy before the England goalkeeper went missing for Collins' late show.
The win takes Sam Allardyce's side up to 10th in the table as they won three consecutive games in the top flight for the first time since the end of the 2006/07 season.
Hooper, whose first league goal for Norwich came in their 3-1 win over the Hammers back in November, came close to opening the scoring on nine minutes as his header from Nathan Redmond's cross forced Adrian to push the ball away and it was cleared behind for a corner to the visitors.
It was Adrian who once again came to West Ham's rescue as Snodgrass timed a forward run to perfection and was found by the busy Redmond.
But the Scotland winger took a heavy touch, giving the goalkeeper time to narrow the angle and keep out the resulting shot.
The Norwich defence then almost paid for their collective inability to clear the ball as Matt Jarvis curled an effort towards goal but it proved simple for Ruddy to collect.
The Canaries were finding gaps in the final third on regular occasions, with Hooper creating another chance after chasing a seemingly lost cause.
He played the ball across to Redmond, with Snodgrass picked out on the overlap and his cross only just evading the onrushing Bradley Johnson as the home fans became increasingly restless.
The slow-starting Hammers were reduced to looking for spectacular ways to beat Ruddy and it was Mark Noble who was next to send a long-range effort straight at the England man.
As the half wore on the hosts started to enjoy more sustained pressure on the Norwich goal as Stewart Downing fired over before delivering a teasing cross that was well cleared by Norwich skipper Sebastien Bassong.
Adrian was again on hand to keep the scores level, this time pushing Tettey's shot behind for a corner as the visitors worked their way through the West Ham backline.
Hooper spurned another chance to open the scoring early in the second half, this time collecting Tettey's speculative effort but only managing to roll a tame effort into the gloves of Adrian when free on the edge of the penalty area.
The former Celtic striker was the man who looked most likely to provide a winning goal for the visitors but he was thwarted by Adrian yet again as he shot from an acute angle after being picked out by Johnson.
Ruddy made a great save moments later as Kevin Nolan slipped the ball through to substitute Diame, whose low effort was turned behind by the Norwich goalkeeper.
West Ham, on the ropes for much of the contest, then came out fighting at the death as a short free-kick to Diame was crossed towards Collins and, with Ruddy rushing out and getting nowhere near the ball, the Wales defender steered the ball home to put West Ham ahead.
As Chris Hughton's side searched in vain for a dramatic, and deserved, equaliser, Diame was freed into a barren Norwich half and turned the ball home courtesy of a heavy deflection to send the home fans into raptures at the final whistle.
Online Editors

subset: commoncrawl


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Utah to Appeal Gay Marriage Case to Supreme Court
Utah's attorney general plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling Wednesday that found states must allow gay couples to marry.
Republican Sean Reyes' office said in a statement Wednesday it will file a petition to have the country's highest court review the decision by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
The office also left open the possibility of requesting a review from the full panel of judges at the 10th Circuit.
The attorney general's office says even though the 10th Circuit ruling went against Utah, the state is pleased that it moves the important issue one step closer to the Supreme Court.


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examines how Frank Richman of Columbus, Indiana, and Curtis Shake of Vincennes, Indiana, both served with distinction as members of the Indiana Supreme Court. By early 1947 both justices had stepped down from the court to begin new phases in their profession. Shake resumed his law practice in Vincennes, and Richman planned to teach law. World events intervened when both men were called to serve as civilian judges in tribunals convened in Nuremberg to try secondary Nazi war criminals. Shake and Richman sat on the bench in the trials of leading German industrialists for crimes against humanity, applying international law according to American concepts of fairness.More and hat tip.
Despite lingering doubts about the legitimacy of American judges having jurisdiction over German nationals, Richman and Shake responded with grace, competence, and high ethical standards, along with a little controversy. The book highlights the role two leading citizens of Indiana played in events that, more than sixty years later, still resonate across the world.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Hoosier Justice in Nuremberg
The Indiana Historical Society Press has published, in its Indiana Supreme Court Legal History Series, Hoosier Justice at Nuremberg, by Suzanne S. Bellamy. According to the Historical Society, the book
Labels: International Law and Foreign Affairs, War
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Quick Book can be used to book a service for a vehicle that has not been previously serviced at Warranty Recall Booking - Essendon. Enter the registration number of the vehicle and the approximate kilometres in the fields below then click on Book Service to proceed with the booking.
If you're in a hurry and just want to quickly book a service, or this is your first time visiting our service centre, simply enter your vehicle registration and kilometres to start booking your service.
Registered customers can login here to manage vehicle services and view or print past service invoices details. Existing dealership customers who have not registered can register by selecting the register link.


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I so excited it's ridiculous!
Jim has in his website a behind the scenes, exclusive clip of the movie Mr. Popper Penguins.
Where is it? Simple people... Follow the Penguin
Really! I mean it! Follow the Penguin!
I love it!!!
I have to admit... He has a pretty good aim.


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Dear colleagues,
As part of a project examining lab methods in vertebrate paleontology, I've put together a quick survey to get a general sense of what kind of and how much information we record about lab methods. If you are associated with an institution responsible for the preparation and conservation of fossils, three minutes of your time to answer the 8 multiple choice questions would be greatly appreciated. An analysis of the completely anonymous answers may be included in reports to committees or via the paleo literature. At minimum, I'll post the results on a blog in a few weeks.
The survey will be open for 10 days, simply click the link below, answer the eight questions, and click Done. That's it!
Thanks in advance for your time.
Black Lives Matter
3 weeks ago


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Textbook Win
Tonight's Lineup. No change from Tuesday, except behind the plate and on the mound:
Rollins, ss
Victorino, rf
Utley, 2b
Howard, 1b
Burrell, lf
Werth, cf
Feliz, 3b
Coste, c
Myers, p
Textbook win.
Kyle Kendrick gave up 3 first-inning runs and then shut the door until Charlie Manuel's bullpen committee took over. Romero to Gordon before the bridge to Lidge.
Offense produced the runs on nine singles and four doubles. No homers. All eight starters had at lest one hit. Got to win games without the long ball and everyone contributing.
Brad gave up his first run of the season, which was OK because of the two-run lead. Mariano Ramirez gave up his first run of '08 and it was a game-loser in Tampa last night.
Jayson Werth had a big night at bat, getting key hits. Yes, he misjudged a ninth-inning fly ball but in the end it didn't cost us the game.
Dollar Dog Night produced the ninth sell out in 19 home games this season. We should thank the 62,361 hot dogs who contributed to the big attendance number.
A reader yesterday predicted "two out of three from Atlanta and Ryan Howard will break out." You are off to a good start.
Player Journal
LHP Joe Savery, last year's number one selection for the Phillies, does an occasional journal for MilB.com, the minor league website. Check out his latest effort that was posted on Tuesday:
Minors News
Two Reading Phillies, left fielder Javon Moran and RH closer Pat Overholt are the Phillies minor league player and pitcher of the week for last week:
National TV
Phillies fans living outside the Philadelphia market can watch tonight's game on ESPN TV.


text: As many here know from B&M I am sure, for me, PRS made the ultimate electric guitar when he came up with the semi hollow with trem guitars. These things give me tones that I have beem unable to achieve with any other guitar. When coupled with my old Dumble or the clone of it I had Quinn amps build for me, I am in tonal Nirvana. Here are a few clips showing what I think are very unique tones, and for my taste, give me the best tones I have ever had. The Arttist 3 semi hollow trems can do rock and even metal all day long, but in the neck pup, can give me jazz archtop type tones so authentic, I fool myself sometimes if I do not label the tracks. That's really amazing. I could never even do that with my old 335s or 339s. These tones are more on the rock/blues side of things. Hope you dig them half as much as I do, and consider checking one of these bad boys out if you get a chance! The older production Artist 3s sound just as good with the semi hollow/trem option. Here is the production CU22 semi hollow, which may be my favorite of all. My first private stock Artist 3 chambered BRAZ neck clean into Quinn amp. Nice deep archtop like tone from basically a CU22 body! Here is a sloppy, out of tune first take of jamming on the ClassicsV "Spooky" backing track. (PS Artist 3 semi hollowtrem) Here is the same guitar into an ethos overdrive pedal into a Bruno Cowtipper amp. The guitar is on the lead pup (Dragon 2) with the coils split. I dont like overdrive boxes, but the ethos is excellent! ORIGINAL PRS ARTIST 3 INTO Fuchs SLX


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Hadi Rangin, Information Technology Accessibility Specialist for Accessible Technology Services (ATS) at the University of Washington, discusses the importance of accessibility testing in the technology procurement process.
Brook McCall, Director of the Tech Access Initiative at United Spinal Association, discusses the workplace technology challenges that people with mobility disabilities face.
Shane Kanady, Vice President of Workforce Development at Source America, discusses challenges people with disabilities face around finding work, including technology concerns.
George Karalis, Senior Product Manager at STRIVR discusses the value of Virtual Reality for Training and Employee Development and STRIVR's commitment to making VR training accessible.
Assistive Technology Specialists Chris Baumgart and Meagan Little of Imagine! Colorado discuss how they have worked with employers to create successful virtual reality (VR) workplace training programs for people with disabilities.
Josh Christianson, Co-Director of PEAT, the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology, discusses how employers can make the virtual workplace accessible.
Steve Feyer, Director of Product Marketing for Eightfold AI, a leading HR technology company focused on talent acquisition and management, discusses their approach to reducing algorithmic bias and the steps that employers can take.
Alexandra Reeve Givens, Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Technology, Law and Policy at Georgetown University, discusses how employers need to be aware of both the benefits and potential liabilities associated with using AI in the hiring process, particularly regarding the recruitment and interviewing process for people with disabilities.
Many employers and employees have shifted to telework. PEAT is here to help with the transition to ensure your digital communications and platforms are as accessible as possible for everyone, including people with disabilities.
Gregg Vanderheiden, Executive Director of the Trace R&D Center at the University of Maryland and Co-Director of Raising the Floor, discusses how employers can find and select accessible workplace technology. Gregg also introduces us to Morphic, an innovative operating system extension that makes assistive technologies and settings show up on any computer a person needs to use.
Reyma McDeid, Executive Director of the Central Iowa Center for Independent Living (CICIL), discusses how employers can address their business needs and meet those needs by hiring a diverse workforce, including people with disabilities.
Joel Ward, Technology Strategist and AR Product Manager for Booz Allen Hamilton, discusses the current and future impact of XR on workplace training and how the XR Access initiative is working to make virtual, mixed, and augmented realities accessible.
Throughout 2020, PEAT is exploring the role that technology can play in breaking down barriers to employment and ensuring accessibility, equality, and opportunity for all. Please join us!
Accessibility means that everyone can use the exact same technology as anyone else—regardless of whether they can manipulate a mouse, how much vision they have, how many colors they can see, how much they can hear, or how they process information. Accessible technology adds layers into computer operating systems, mobile phones, and more to allow people with disabilities to access the same information as everyone else.
X-Reality (XR), also known as extended reality, is an umbrella term to describe virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies. X-Reality is changing the way we interact with the world around us and will, undoubtedly, shape the future of work.
Autonomous vehicles (AV), also referred to as driverless or self-driving vehicles, have the potential to revolutionize transportation and make sweeping changes to the way people interact with the world around them. AV technology can alter the where, when, and how of transportation, for both personal and commercial purposes. Already being used in some cities, technology corporations and manufacturers are planning for the wide-spread production and use of these vehicles within the next few decades.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated technologies is changing workplaces. Although data analytics and automation are not new, AI technology has advanced rapidly in recent years alongside innovations in algorithms, data volume, and computing power. AI-powered platforms are now used to screen job applicants, streamline the application process, and provide on-the-job training. AI is also powering exciting innovations in assistive technology for people with disabilities.
Technology educator Chancey Fleet discusses where the future of assistive technology going and what HR workplace leaders need to do to make their workplaces and businesses more inclusive and accessible.
Check out PEAT's takeaways from a recent workshop hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that explored strategies for aligning XR platforms with inclusive design principles.
HR Tech is one of the top global events showcasing emerging technologies and tools transforming the human relations (HR) industry. This year, platforms utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) continued to trend, with new focus on mitigating bias and ensuring that AI tools can align with corporate goals for diverse and inclusive hiring.


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United States: Breakdown: Penetration of Renewable Energy in Selected MarketsPublished at May 17, 2013
source: Renewable Energy World
The penetration of renewable energy into the electricity supply mix has been much in the news recently. During the first quarter, Portugal generated three-quarters of...
United States: Marine Energy Projects Pick Up MomentumPublished at Oct 1, 2012
source: The New York Times
Despite the still relatively high costs of tidal energy and wave power energy, these two are considered promising technologies in the future, particularly due to...
United States: German solar boom strengthens critics of subsidiesPublished at Jan 9, 2012
source: Reuters
New solar installations reached a fresh record of 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in Germany in 2011, playing into the hands of advocates for steeper cuts in...
United States: Plans for Maine's first offshore wind turbine moving quicklyPublished at Dec 14, 2011
source: Bangor Daily News
The US division of the Norwegian energy company, Statoil ASA, has proposed a deep water wind farm off the coast of Maine. The project would...


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I have a little bit of time to think about generating as many ideas for online learning activities. This list of course is not exhaustive, and I will probably benefit from the contributions of colleagues, at work and not at work.
Click to view larger image.
I'm trying to keep these activity ideas simple and as 'familiar' as possible. Not all stakeholders are open to newer forms of learning online. Whenever introducing a strange or unfamiliar tool or technique (for example: using synchronous chat or Twitter to facilitate discussion) I try to pair it with a similar or analogous term use for traditional or face to face training.
In my past experience, I found that designing learning opportunities is only the first part of good online learning design. Facilitator preparation and training is the next key piece to achieving success. In my last position I was fortunate enough to work with a crack team of Instructional Designers who worked hard not just to create the training materials, LMS (Learning Management System) simulations, and activities to prep our facilitators by helping them adjust to the 'culture' of working online.
Last week I was able to quickly develop a slide set that covers my take on successful online facilitators based on what I've learned from my experience. You will have to download the presentation via Slideshare to view my notes.


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Off-topic: Your humble correspondent will be incorporated in the next edition of the Holy ScriptureOne aspect of quantum mechanics that makes beginners – including permanent beginners – feel uncomfortable is the fact that its "space of possible states" seems too large to them. The Hilbert space may seem large and if we want to describe composite systems, we need to employ a tensor product of the smaller Hilbert spaces. This product seems both large and mathematically complicated.
For example, a user named Joe asked a would-be historical question that made is sound as if the tensor products in quantum mechanics were very unnatural and they had to be randomly encountered after some long history of trials and errors.
This ain't the case. The tensor products are completely natural, inevitable, and they were known to be relevant for the description of systems with many degrees of freedom from the beginning – when Werner Heisenberg and pals wrote their first papers about quantum mechanics.
What's going on here?
As I have mentioned many times, the "plus sign" in the sum of several terms that make up a wave function or a density matrix roughly means "OR". When the state vector is\[
\ket\psi = 0.6 \ket{\rm red} + 0.8i \ket{\rm blue},
\] it is in a particular state and both the absolute values of the amplitudes as well as their relative phase(s) matter. If you neglect the phases for a while, the numbers \(0.6\) and \(0.8\) are probability amplitudes. By squaring them, you get numbers \(0.36\) and \(0.64\), respectively. These are probabilities, 36% and 64%, that the system is red or blue, respectively.
The superposition doesn't mean that there is a red system and there is a blue system. There is only one system and its properties are determined in the probabilistic manner.
Quantum mechanics, and not just Windows 8, is as mean as a wolf, as sharp as a tooth, as deep as a bite, as dark as the night, as sweet as a song, as right as a wrong, as long as a road, as ugly as a toad. Quantum mechanics is all I wanna be. "Everything At Once" (Lumo-enhanced audio: lenka-once3.wma) by Czech-dadded Australian singer Lenka Křipač[ová] (who doesn't even know the right diacritical signs in her own surname) got to #2 in the Czech radio hitparades during the last week even though it's fundamentally a 2-year-old song.
The intuitive reason why beginners – including permanent beginners – tend to interpret the "plus sign" as having "many objects" is that adding many objects is the simplest operation with objects they may imagine (2 apples and 3 apples are 5 apples) and addition is the simplest operation they may think of. So these two simplest things have to be the same.
That wouldn't be a waterproof argument but it would have some logic. What's primarily wrong about the argument is that the elementary entities that are being "quantified" in quantum mechanics aren't objects themselves. The elementary entities that are being quantified are propositions about observables and the truth values or probabilities that such propositions are true. And this makes a difference.
In classical physics, we may also discuss whether some propositions are true or false. Is the distance between the Earth and the Sun greater than 100 million kilometers? Yes, it is. But these propositions are propositions about objects and the objects are fundamental. In classical physics, the objects objectively exist and the true or false propositions about them just reflect the underlying, more fundamental reality: the objective reality in a classical world.
It ain't the case according to quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics discusses the truth value – and its continuous generalization, the probability – of propositions directly. The truth value and probability of propositions isn't derived from any auxiliary player such as "objectively existing objects". There aren't any objectively real objects with objective properties such that the validity or probability of propositions would be a mere reflection of them. According to quantum mechanics, such objects would be just parasitic intermediaries that would steal some "money" when we want to achieve a well-defined goal, namely to decide whether a proposition is true. We don't need such intermediaries. Quantum mechanics gives you the engine that relates the truth values and probabilities of various propositions about Nature directly, without any intermediaries. In fact, it bans any objective intermediaries.
So one must understand that \(\ket\psi\) or \(\rho\) aren't mathematical representations of some classical objects and their properties. They're not classical fields, they're not classical degrees of freedom of any type. They're not even observables according to the definition (observables in quantum mechanics have to be linear operators whose eigenvalues may be measured) and they're not even observable according to the colloquial meaning (we can't measure the values of a wave function or a density matrix by making one measurement in one repetition of the situation).
As Niels Bohr used to say, the physics research can't be described as the search for answers "how things in Nature are" but the search for the "true propositions we can make about Nature". In classical physics, we ultimately did the latter as well but we could always imagine that the true propositions were corollaries of the former. In quantum mechanics, we can no longer assume such a thing.
Instead, we must literally accept that \(\ket\psi\) and \(\rho\) describe something like the probabilities of various statements. They're "slight" generalizations of the concept of the probability distribution in classical physics, not a "slight" generalization of a classical field of a sort! And this makes a difference. A lot of them.
First, it immediately follows that the addition means "OR". Just to be really clear about this point, let me mention that "OR" is an operation with two truth values that is also known as the logical sum, \(p \lor q\). The special symbol is written as \(\backslash {\rm lor}\), "logical or". You adopt rules such as \(0\lor 0=0\), \(0\lor 1=1\lor 0=1\), and... \(1\lor 1=1\), sorry for that. The last formula means that using \({+}\) instead of \(\lor\) would be misleading. But in the example of "red" and "blue" above, it can't happen that the object is simultaneously red and blue (these two states are orthogonal to one another) so this problem is inconsequential.
Instead, if we want the word "AND" in between two propositions, the logical values simply get multiplied. That's why "AND" is known as the logical product and in this case, it may be written as \(p\cdot q\) without any problems. We have \[
0\cdot 0 = 0,\\
0\cdot 1 = 0,\\
1\cdot 0 = 0,\\
1\cdot 1 = 1.
\] These rules – which are identical to the rules for multiplication of integers \(0\) and \(1\) – say that \(p\) AND \(q\) is a valid proposition (\(1\)) only if both \(p\) is true (\(1\)) and \(q\) is true (\(1\)). Well, the previous sentence is worse than just a tautology; it is a tautologically written tautology. ;-) At any rate, the word "AND" inserted in between objects such as \(\ket\psi\) and \(\rho\) must be naturally interpreted as multiplication because these objects contain the information about the truth values and "AND" means a logical product.
While the truth values \(p\) may be \(0\) (false) or \(1\) (true), quantum mechanics also needs to use the generalized truth values, the so-called probabilities. Probabilities \(p\) are between \(0\) and \(1\) and the extreme values \(0,1\) still mean "false" and "true" while the values in between mean various degrees of "maybe". The product of probabilities still corresponds to the word "AND". By this statement, I mean that if we have two propositions about independent – uncorrelated – systems and their probabilities are \(p\) and \(q\), then the probability of "statement 1 AND statement 2" is simply equal to \(p\cdot q\). We often write \(p\cdot q\) as \(pq\) because multiplication is so important, omnipresent, and natural. Despite some people's feelings, it may be said to be a more elementary or more natural method to join two objects or propositions than addition. That's why \(pq\) means \(p\cdot q\) and not \(p+q\).
Fine. What about the tensor products in quantum mechanics?
We must first understand what the tensor products mean mathematically. Let's start with a different type of a product of vectors, the "inner product" (or the "dot product" or the "scalar product" because the result is a scalar):\[
\vec x\cdot \vec y = x_1 y_1 + x_2 y_2+ x_3 y_3.
\] We had two objects, vectors \(\vec x\) and \(\vec y\), that had three components (each) labeled by the index whose value was \(1,2,3\). When we try to multiply these vectors, we a priori don't know what it means because we only know how to multiply numbers. But each of the vectors has three components (this number gets generalized in many contexts when we talk about more abstract and general vectors, e.g. state vectors in quantum mechanics) so we may get \(3\times 3 =9\) different products of the components \(x_i y_j\) where the indices \(i,j\) are independent of each other.
The inner product above takes the sum of the three products \(x_i y_i\) for \(i=1,2,3\). The cross product is something that has three components by itself – it is a vector – and each of these three components is some combination of products \(x_i y_j\) for various values of \(i,j\).\[
\vec x \times \vec y = (x_2 y_3-x_3 y_2,x_3 y_1-x_1 y_3,x_1 y_2-x_2 y_1)
\] Now, the tensor product is a different, in some sense simpler, version of the product of two vectors because we simply keep all \(3\times 3 = 9\) components:\[
(\vec x\otimes \vec y)_{ij} = x_i y_j.
\] It looks simpler than the previous two products, doesn't it? We don't need to remember which indices must be written down and which summations have to be performed. We just keep all the products of components. The pair of indices \(ij\) of the tensor product object goes from \(11\) to \(33\), over nine possible combinations. We may just relabel them as \(1,2,\dots ,9\) according to some more or less natural rule. This rule is a pure convention, of course. You can decide that \(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9\) means\[
\] but it may also mean\[
\] or any other permutation, for that matter. In fact, you may choose a convention – very important for real-world calculations in physics – in which you don't write these 9 components in any order. Instead, you write some 9 linear combinations of these components, combinations that are independent of each other. Sometimes you may prefer a convention in which some of the components get repeated, and so on.
Whatever you do, the list of all the products still remembers some "structure" from the vector indices. The most general tensor – the object with 9 components \(T_{ij}\) – transforms in the same way as the tensor product of two vectors.
Up to this moment, I may have convinced you that the tensor product is a natural product of two vectors. If the two vectors have more than \(3\) components – for example \(N\) components where \(N\) is the dimension of the appropriate Hilbert space – the rules for the tensor product may still be easily written down (unlike, for example, the rules for cross products which are special operations done on 3-dimensional vectors only).
What is the real psychological obstacle isn't the question how two particular vectors are tensor-multiplied which is a rather natural operation. The real problematic question for beginners – including permanent beginners – is why the tensor product of the whole Hilbert spaces is the right mathematical object to describe composite systems.
But this is really inevitable, too. At the beginning, I mentioned an example and declared that the numbers \(0.6\) and \(0.8i\) were related to probabilities that an object (a flag) was red or blue, respectively. You may consider a composite system composed of a flag and a cat. The cat may be dead or alive. The point is that there had to be state vectors in the Hilbert space that describe a red flag or a blue flag; an alive cat or a dead cat. And because we want to describe a composite system whose two objects must a priori be allowed to be independent, there must be four basis vectors describing all conceivable arrangements of the properties of the flat and the cat:\[
\ket{\rm red,alive},\ket{\rm red,dead},\ket{\rm blue,alive},\ket{\rm blue,dead}.
\] More generally, if the first subsystem has \(d_1\) possible mutually exclusive states and the second subsystem has \(d_2\) possible mutually exlusive states (these are the dimensions of the subsystems' Hilbert spaces, often infinite), the Hilbert space describing the tensor product must have \(d_1d_2\) basis vectors because all the arrangements of the properties must be allowed. We just want the systems to behave independently. It must be possible for the systems to exhibit no correlation so no states may be missing.
I just said that "independence" implies that we need the tensor product Hilbert space. We can be more "algebraic" about this point. What we really want is for the observables \(F_m\) describing the flag and the observables describing the cat \(C_n\) to commute with each other:\[
\forall m,n: \quad F_m C_n = C_n F_m
\] This condition means that measurements of the flag don't affect the cat and vice versa. They may be done independently and the order of the measurements doesn't matter. At this point, I have to emphasize that this assertion holds even when the flag and the cat are replaced by two entangled particles. Despite hugely widespread misconceptions and misinterpretations, it's still true that the measurement of one entangled photon doesn't influence the other photon and vice versa! The two photons are just prepared in an entangled i.e. correlated state but the correlations are (i.e. entanglement is) due to the common past of the two photons, not due to any disruptions caused by the measurements. The measurement of one entangled particle doesn't do anything to the other particle. Their observables commute with each other so there's no "uncertainty principle" applying to them. The measurements only pick some results whose character reflects the (quantum probabilistic) state that the two particles have had before the measurements. But because the measured operators commute with one another, one doesn't "disturb" the other and the ordering doesn't matter.
Let me return to the flag and the cat.
Because the flag observables and the cat observables have to commute with each other, we learn something about the (composite system's) Hilbert space on which these observables act. Note that \(F_m\) may be pretty much any matrix whose size is \(d_{\rm flag}\times d_{\rm flag}\). In the same way, \(C_n\) is any matrix whose size is \(d_{\rm cat}\times d_{\rm cat}\). We want these observables to commute with each other. How do we achieve that?
It's obvious that we need a much larger Hilbert space. On the larger Hilbert space, the observables are represented by tensor products with the unit matrix:\[
F_m\to F_m\otimes {\bf 1},\\
C_n\to {\bf 1}\otimes C_n.
\] Note that both types of operators, flag operators and cat operators, were upgraded to operators acting on a larger Hilbert space, the tensor product of the original two spaces. In particular, the operators themselves are the tensor products of the original operators acting on the appropriate "factor" in the larger (tensor product) Hilbert space and the identity operator (unit matrix) acting on all the other factors. Using a mathematical jargon, the tensor product linear space is the smallest representation of the mutually commuting operators for the flag and for the cat (or their algebraic relations, if you wish).
The identity operators are needed to preserve all the algebraic relationships between the operators. For example,\[
(F_m\otimes {\bf 1})\cdot (F_k\otimes {\bf 1}) = (F_m\cdot F_k)\otimes {\bf 1}.
\] This simple rule says that when it comes to relationships between the flag operators (identities saying that the product of two particular operators is a third one), it doesn't matter whether we add the "tensor multiplied by the unit matrix [acting on the cat space]" portion to each or not. The same identity applies to the cat operators:\[
({\bf 1}\otimes C_n)\cdot ({\bf 1}\otimes C_\ell) = {\bf 1}\otimes (C_n\cdot C_\ell).
\] Needless to say, the same identities would hold if the \(F_m\) or \(C_n\) operators were added rather than (matrix) multiplied. We want to preserve the algebraic relationships between the observables i.e. operators acting on the flag's Hilbert space and/or the cat's Hilbert space. And we want these two sets to commute with each other. The minimal way to achieve so is to promote the Hilbert space to the tensor product – which has a basis vector for each pair of basis vectors of the flag's Hilbert space and the cat's Hilbert space. And the operators themselves are promoted to tensor products of the original ones with the unit matrix (identity operator).
Note that this construction implies, among other things, that if you describe two particles by their wave functions as a function of the position, the wave function for two particles has to be a function of 6 coordinates (more generally \(3N\) for \(N\) particles):\[
\ket\psi\leftrightarrow \psi(x_A,y_A,z_A,x_B,y_B,z_B).
\] One function of 3 variables or two functions of 3 variables just isn't the right thing to consider. The operators – observables – must act on a single wave function because it must be possible to multiply (compose) the operators. If they were acting on different spaces, you couldn't multiply them e.g. as in \(x_A z_B\). But a smaller Hilbert space of wave functions than the tensor product just couldn't respect the a priori independence of the subsystems (individual particles). I stress that \(x_B\) is as independent a coordinate in the phase space (and configuration space) from \(x_A\) as \(y_A\) is independent from \(x_A\). There's really no mathematical difference here and because a particle in 3 dimensions needed a function of 3 spatial variables, it's clear that two particles in 3 dimensions need a function of 6 spatial variables. Those things were clear to Werner Heisenberg and others from the beginning although they focused on the operators themselves and not on the wave functions upon which the operators ultimately act.
On his blog, Scott Aaronson has discussed a crackpot paper, one of the millions of 19th century-style anti-quantum delusions attempting to replace the rules of quantum mechanics by classical solitons and pretending that everything could be fine except that it's totally obvious that nothing whatsoever may continue to work. In the discussion under Scott's blog entry, the authors of the crackpot paper as well as tons of other assorted nuts offer their preposterous "wisdom" that everything could still work. In some cases, the "wisdom" boils down to the folks' misunderstanding of the relationship between the Shannon and von Neumann entropy (and the logarithm of the volume of a region of the phase space) and similar rudimentary ignorance about basic maths and physics.
But the authors didn't want to write just a random nonsensical model that has no chance to work. They also added some (indefensible) claims such as the claim that quantum computers can't work because the quantum mechanical description of the 5 qubits is already wrong, and so for, and it only randomly works for up to 3 or 4 qubits. This is a totally preposterous statement because quantum mechanics has been tested for huge systems that often have as many as \(10^{30}\) qubits and it always works. Quantum mechanics isn't just a theory of one or two elementary particles. It's demonstrably the theory of Nature as such. It's been tested for small systems and large systems, too. For large systems, we may often use a simpler theory, the classical limit, but quantum mechanics still works!
And quantum mechanics is actually essential for us to understand the structure (and calculate the properties) of metals, superconductors, and all other materials, too. In all similar cases, we are ultimately trying to find the ground state of the Hamiltonian and a certain number of low-lying excitations (energy eigenstates with energies just slightly above the ground state energy). But aside from their having a low energy, these states are just some general elements of the Hilbert space, generic superpositions of its basic vectors. By experimentally demonstrating their relevance, we're really demonstrating that we need all the superpositions.
A lab system of 5 or 8 qubits is such a mundane, low-energy, not-at-all-new example of quantum mechanics that it's absolutely implausible that something about quantum mechanics could break down for such systems. Quantum mechanics has been tested for diverse systems that are very similar to this one – both smaller systems as well as larger systems – and the errors of quantum mechanics were found to be zero within the error margins. It's preposterous to believe that the errors could suddenly be of order 100 percent for just another system.
In that thread, I argued that it has never happened in the history of physics – and it will probably never happen – that a self-consistent and verified (compatible with experiments) theory would be replaced, as a description of a non-extreme, well-defined physical situation, by a newer description whose "space of allowed states" would be qualitatively smaller. At most, the newer theories deform the older ones; add new degrees of freedom that were invisible; add quantization rules or uncertainties that are negligible in the non-extreme real-world situation; or change other things that are demonstrably inconsequential and may only become important in an extreme regime defined by extreme values of some observables.
Various people repetitively show their stupidity when they try to offer various would-be counterexamples. Of course that there are no counterexamples.
The tensor product Hilbert space looks too large to those people. I think that the whole discussion of the basis vectors of the tensor product Hilbert space has to be ultimately accepted by these folks. If the first subsystem has \(d_1\) mutually exclusive states and the other subsystem has \(d_2\) mutually exclusive states, we simply need \(d_1 d_2\) mutually exclusive states of the composite system – all the possible pairings – if we want to preserve the a priori independence of the subsystems.
What's really uncomfortable for these folks is the superposition principle, namely that not only the \(d_1 d_2\) basis vector are allowed but arbitrary complex superpositions of these basis vectors are allowed, too. The whole linear Hilbert space just looks too large to them.
For the system I just discussed, the Hilbert space has \(d_1 d_2\) basis vectors so we need \(d_1 d_2\) complex amplitudes to describe a wave function. Each of them is a complex number. Their real parts and imaginary parts are between \(-1\) and \(+1\). Imagine that these parts are written down with the precision \(0.002\). So there are roughly \(1,000\times 1,000=1,000,000\) possible values of each complex probability amplitude so the number of vectors in this pixelated Hilbert space is something like\[
1,000,000^{d_1\cdot d_2}.
\] It's an exponentially large power of a million and this number simply looks too large (especially because both \(d_1\) and \(d_2\) are numbers of the type \(10^{26}\times\infty\) for macroscopic objects) to those quantum mechanical beginners – including permanent beginners. Their inherent mathphobia always wins. They are really imagining the Hilbert space as the classical phase space and it shouldn't be this insanely high and multi-dimensional.
However, the Hilbert space isn't the classical phase space (space of classical states) and quantum mechanics isn't classical physics, stupid. The fact that we must allow arbitrary complex linear superpositions isn't making the theory any more complicated because all the laws of the theory (e.g. the evolution operators) must be linear. So it's always enough to know how an operator (observable and/or the evolution operator) acts on a basis – and we immediately know how it acts on any vector in the Hilbert space.
So the intuition that the "Hilbert space is insanely large" coming from the pixelation above is bogus. The freedom for the probability amplitudes to be arbitrary continuous (complex) numbers is just a (complex) version of the rule that probabilities may be continuous numbers. The wave function (or density matrix) are "slight" quantum generalizations of probability distributions in classical physics. And no one has been surprised that the values \(\rho(x,y,z,p_x,p_y,p_z)\) of a probability distribution could have been arbitrary continuous numbers. So why are people so stunned by the totally analogous fact in quantum mechanics?
The answer is that they're trying to imagine the wave function as a counterpart of a classical field, e.g. \(\vec E(x,y,z)\), instead of a probability distribution. They're doing so because they know that \(\ket\psi\) or \(\rho\) is "sort of fundamental" and they just (totally incorrectly) believe that fundamental things should have the same interpretation as the classical fields!
Just to be sure, quantum mechanics isn't equivalent to a classical theory with a phase space probability distribution. In quantum mechanics, interesting operators still refuse to commute with each other – in classical physics, they always commute. The probabilities aren't quite fundamental, they are calculated by squaring the absolute values of more fundamental complex probability amplitudes but it is a technical detail of a sort. The nonzero commutators combined with the complexity of the amplitudes (the latter actually inevitably follows from the former – it's enough to realize that we often have \([A,B]=C\) and if \(A,B\) are Hermitian operators, one may prove that \(C\) is an anti-Hermitian operator so at least some of the entries of at least one of the three operators have to be complex, at least if \(C\) is diagonal!) implies many intrinsically quantum phenomena such as the interference of the wave functions.
But the counting of the "number of values stored in the wave function" isn't too much different from the counting in classical physics with a probability distribution on the phase space. The exponentially large ensemble of these values is self-evident because for each mutually exclusive state (basis vector of the Hilbert space), we must allow a (complex) probability amplitude.
The fact that the composite system may be prepared in different states than the simple tensor product of some basis vectors\[
\ket{f_m}\otimes \ket{c_n}
\] is known as entanglement. In general, we need linear superpositions of such tensor products of basis vectors:\[
\ket\psi = \sum_{m,n} a_{mn}\ket{f_m}\otimes \ket{c_n}
\] But this freedom to mix different tensor products of the basis vectors of two subsystems isn't "qualitatively different" from the classical counterpart of this statement, namely that two subsystems may be correlated with each other. If \(p(m,n)\) quantifies the probability that the first classical subsystem is found in the \(m\)-th state and the other is found in the \(n\)-th state, then \(p(m,n)\) that don't factorize\[
\nexists p_1(m),p_2(n):\quad p(m,n) = p_1(m) p_2(n)
\] simply describe two subsystems whose properties have become correlated (due to their common origin or mutual interactions sometime in the past – that's the only way how correlations may arise). Entanglement is nothing else than the most general correlation describable by the quantum state vectors – whose probability amplitudes are allowed to be complex, not just real (one novelty) and that describe observables that don't commute with each other (another novelty, the key one).
Due to the novelties, quantum mechanics allows much tighter correlations (violating Bell's inequalities etc.) than classical physics and many things contradict our classical intuition (and any attempt to invent a "classical model" of Nature). However, the essence is still the same. The general superpositions of the basis vectors on the tensor product Hilbert space just correspond to the fact that subsystems may become correlated in a general way. In quantum mechanics, non-commuting observables may acquire correlations of a general kind which forces us to admit that the probability amplitudes \(a_{mn}\) are complex numbers. But as I said, it's just a technicality.
Now, if some people – like Mr Ross Anderson and Mr Robert Brady – think that they may severely cripple quantum mechanics by denying that a simple system of 8 qubits is described by a 256-dimensional complex Hilbert space i.e. it needs at least 256 independent complex probability amplitudes to describe the general state and if they believe that their alternative theory's "much more narrow" space of states won't pose any problems for the compatibility of their alternative theory with the observations, then they are displaying a complete lack of knowledge of physics and intuition about physics (and maths).
This just ain't possible. The relevance of the tensor product Hilbert spaces as well as the legality of all complex linear combinations of state vectors (the superposition postulate of quantum mechanics) have been verified in millions of diverse, very different situations with a few particles, many particles, intermediate numbers of particles and it has always worked, often with the \(10^{-10}\) relative accuracy (or better). The idea that a mundane, low-energy system with 8 qubits – no physically meaningful characteristic quantity is extreme in any way (the speed of heavy components doesn't approach the speed of light, the entropy density per unit are is far from Planckian, the angular momenta and actions are close to Planck's constant but it's OK because we do use quantum mechanics) – will suddenly contradict quantum mechanics by errors of order 100% is as "reasonable" as the belief that a 30-kilometer inflated version of Elvis Presley will be found by a satellite on the other side of the Moon once we look there again. One can't "rigorously" prove that it's impossible – nothing in natural sciences can be quite rigorously proven to be impossible – but it's just preposterous, a failure of scientific thinking and intuition.
People who try to deny quantum mechanics – the tensor product structure of the composite Hilbert space and/or the superposition principle – for objects as simple as those with 8 qubits constructed from low-energy, intermediate size collections of elementary particles are hopeless cranks.
And that's the memo.


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A lire sur: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/we-will-end-disability-by-becoming-cyborgs/
Neural interfaces and prosthetics will do away with biology's failingsBy Eliza Strickland, Posted
Hugh Herr is a living exemplarof the maxim that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. At the age of 17, Herr was already an accomplished mountaineer, but during an ice-climbing expedition he lost his way in a blizzard and was stranded on a mountainside for three days. By the time rescuers found him, both of his legs were doomed by frostbite and had to be amputated below the knee. Once his scars healed, Herr spent months in rehab rooms trying out prosthetic legs, but he found them unacceptable: How could he climb with such clunky things? Surely, he thought, medical technologists could build replacement parts that wouldn't slow him down.
Today, three decades after his accident, Herr walks on bionic limbs of his own creation. As director of the biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab, Herr developed advanced prosthetics that he uses to walk, run, and even rock climb. And now, as he works with his colleagues to establish MIT's new Center for Extreme Bionics, Herr is setting out not just to reinvent himself but the whole of society. "Fifty years out, I think we will have largely eliminated disability," he declares, adding that he's referring not just to physical disabilities but to many emotional and intellectual infirmities as well.
Herr believes the solutions lie not in biological or pharmacological cures but in novel electromechanical additions to our bodies. He gestures to his own artificial limbs to make the point. "My legs weren't grown back; I wasn't given a total limb transplant," he notes. "If you eliminate the synthetics, all I can do is crawl. But with them," he says with a slow smile, "I can more or less do anything."
The MIT scientists are part of a movement aimed at ushering medicine into a cyborg age. All over the world, engineers are building electronics-based systems that communicate directly with the human nervous system, promising radically new treatments for a variety of ailments and conditions, both physical and mental. While Herr's team focuses on giving people better control of their prosthetic limbs, other researchers are trying to give patients better control of their emotions. One promising experiment targets depression with deep brain stimulation (DBS), in which electrodes implanted in the brain send steady pulses of electricity to certain problematic neural areas. Others are developing gear to compensate for intellectual deficits, such as a California project to build a memory-augmenting prosthetic.
In all of these projects, researchers started with the notion that a surprising range of afflictions can be most effectively treated by learning the electrical language that the brain uses to govern our movements, moods, and memories. By 2064, it's entirely possible that neural engineers may be fluent enough to mimic those instructions, allowing them to repair a human being's faulty systems by rewiring them.
The body is electric. We've known that since the 18th century, when Luigi Galvanitouched a charged scalpel to a nerve and made a dead frog's leg kick. Neurons in the brain send out pulses of voltage when they "fire," and the patterns of their pulses make up our sensations, our musings, and our actions. The electric signals generated in the brain also travel through the spinal cord and along the peripheral nerves to instruct the body's muscles and organs. Medicine in the 20th century relied primarily on pharmaceuticals that could chemically alter the action of neurons or other cells in the body, but 21st-century health care may be defined more by electroceuticals: novel treatments that will use pulses of electricity to regulate the activity of neurons, or devices that interface directly with our nerves.
Herr's lab focuses on advanced prosthetic legs, and it is developing systems that will allow amputees to control a titanium-and-plastic limb as naturally as they would a flesh-and-blood leg. The goal is to record and understand the brain's commands and then to send those instructions to the prosthetic. Herr has already tested an early version of such an integrated device. In that setup, he flexed the muscles around his knee as if he were taking a step; then an electromyograph captured the electric signal in those muscles and translated it into a digital signal that made sense to the microprocessors in his artificial foot. Just like that, he stepped.
Even more direct connection between brain and machine will be possible, Herr says, when he succeeds in connecting prostheticsdirectly to the peripheral nerves in amputees' residual limbs. Not only could such a system relay more precise commands to the prosthetic, it could also send sensory information back up the nerves. And when amputees actually feel the grass beneath their prosthetic toes, Herr says, it will change the way humans view this technology. "When that happens it will not matter what [the prosthetic] is made of, it will be you," he says. "I feel, therefore I am."
People with bodily disabilities typically have a moment that marked the onset of their troubles—for example, Hugh Herr's ill-fated climbing excursion. In contrast, people with the crushing emotional difficulty of depression often don't know when it started, nor do they necessarily define themselves as disabled. Depression is just the state of mind they live with daily, stripping the present of all pleasure and the future of all hope.
Neuroscientists discovered years ago that this existential dread can be treated by using electricity to alter the activity of neurons, and they are now putting that knowledge to use.DBS, one of the most exciting experimental treatments for depression, uses an implanted "brain pacemaker" that sends steady pulses of electricity to certain brain regions. It's a technology that was pioneered to stop Parkinson's patients' tremors, but it's now being explored for a dizzying array of neural and psychiatric disorders, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and PTSD. "Right now we're at the beta testing stage of DBS for psychiatry," says Helen Mayberg, a neurology professor at Emory University and an authority on DBS for depression.
More than 100 000 Parkinson's patients have had electrodes implanted in the motor control regions of their brains, where the stimulator's pulses reduce the activity of neurons that are misfiring. But for disorders like depression, both the target for treatment and the mechanism of action are considerably less clear. "The limiting factor is actually the neuroscience, not the engineering," Mayberg says. She used brain imaging studies to pinpoint a particular region, Brodmann area 25, as overactive in depressed patients, and she has implanted the DBS device in this region of the brains of about two dozen patients who haven't responded to a slew of medications and therapies.
These test subjects are desperate, so overwhelmed by depression that they're willing to undergo experimental brain surgery. And the results have been remarkable. While antidepressant medications typically take weeks to kick in, many patients in the DBS experiments have reported a shift in mood instantly—literally the moment that the device is turned on. One patient reported an immediate sense of social connection; another expressed a desire to go bowling, a pastime she hadn't enjoyed for years. Most patients have chosen to keep their DBS systems activated after the formal experiments ended, and Mayberg says she's seen ample evidence that their improved lives can't be chalked up to a placebo effect. "When my patients' batteries die, they know it," she says.
Despite the dramatic results in DBS depression treatment, there was a setback in the field last year when a major clinical trialwas halted. The device manufacturer, St. Jude Medical, announced that the trial it had funded failed a "futility analysis," but it hasn't explained exactly what went wrong. Mayberg notes that there are many variables that can influence the effectiveness of DBS; for example, even if the trial had targeted the correct region, the timing of the pulses may have been off. St. Jude may have rushed ahead too quickly, she says, trying to create a commercial product before the basic science of how such devices work is truly understood.
The good news for all would-be brain engineers is that massive neuroscience initiatives have recently been launched in the United States and Europe. The BRAIN Initiative, announced by U.S. president Barack Obama in 2013, will dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to developing new tools that can better record and analyze brain activity. In Europe, meanwhile, the Human Brain Project is using supercomputers to simulate a complete human brain so as to better understand how it functions. It's very possible that in 50 years, DBS and other electrical techniques will be part of mainstream psychiatry, Mayberg says. But that will require scientists to know as much about the workings of a neuron as engineers do about the workings of an electrode.
Once physical and emotional disabilities have been conquered, the intellectual failures associated with aging will be a natural next target, says Theodore Berger, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. In fact, by 2064, going cyborg may simply be the sensible and economical thing to do. "We're living longer, so aging problems, and cognitive problems in particular, are going to be more and more prevalent," Berger says. "The cost of a cognitive prosthetic will pale in comparison to taking care of a person with dementia for 20 years."
It's quite possible that Alzheimer's patients of the future will be equipped with memory prosthetics derived from the devices being invented in Berger's lab today. His work began with delicate electrodes inserted into a rat's hippocampus, the brain structure responsible for encoding memory. Berger first deciphered the relationship between the input signals from neurons that process a brief learning experience—for example, which lever a rat should press to gain a sip of sugar water—and the output signals from neurons that send the information on to be stored as a memory.
Once he had mapped the correlations between the two electrical patterns, Berger could record an input signal and predict the output signal—in other words, the memory. He didn't need to know which part of the input pattern coded for the dimensions of the lever or for the taste of the sweet reward. He simply mathematically generated the output signal and sent it to the memory-storage neurons. "It's like translating Russian to Chinese when you don't know either language," Berger says. "We don't want to know either language; we just want to know how this pattern becomes that pattern."
Berger proved that he could implant the memory of the lever-and-reward test in a rat with a damaged hippocampus that was unable to form memories on its own. Even more remarkable, he implanted the memory in a rat that had never before undergone the test or seen the levers. The rat entered the test chamber for the first time, pressed the correct lever, and sucked down the sweet nectar.
With the knowledge of how to record and store memories, Berger can imagine a prosthetic device that encodes memories on a chip. He and his colleagues have already advanced to primate experiments, and he expects to proceed to the first human trials in the coming years. "It will absolutely happen," he says. In 50 years, he says, elderly people could have devices that they switch on to remember something as trivial as where they put their car keys or as meaningful as their grandchildren's names.
Berger optimistically believes his technology will be embraced, but it's easy to imagine a backlash against such synthetic additions to our fleshy bodies. Back at MIT, Hugh Herr says he's heard from plenty of people who are frightened by his predictions of physical, emotional, and intellectual augmentations. He echoes their typical refrain: "Will we change humans so much that they cease to be human?" But Herr believes that such philosophical questions will fall by the wayside as broad swaths of patients begin to benefit from their machined parts. He imagines a world in which amputees gain freedom, depressed people find joy, and the elderly hold on to their life stories. "People are suffering horribly now," Herr says, "and that's going to end."
This article originally appeared in print as "The End of Disability."


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For the past week or so you might have heard a lot about Google+, it was launched on 28th June and opened for invites shortly thereafter. However, for over a week, Google stopped accepting new users and also denied existing users from inviting new ones.
If you have been mystified with Google's new take at social networking, here is some Google news. Google+ is now officially open to anyone with a Google account. All you have to do is to go to https://plus.google.com and Sign in with your account and you will be in. Existing and new users will also be able to invite anyone they want to join the service. So no need to ask anyone for invites anymore and also can finally get rid of those spammy Google+ invites.
By the way, we have been using Google+ for over a week and you might want to read through our series of articles which will be helpful to you when it comes to using and understanding Google+.
- Google Plus For Dummies: Setting it Up For The First Time
- Google+: What It is And How it Works [Screenshot Tour]
- Everything+: How Google+ Changes (And Will Change) The Social Landscape [Editorial]
- Google Offers Virtually Unlimited Storage on Picasa Web Albums for Google+ Users
- Bring Facebook Like Looks to Google Plus and Bring Google Plus Features on Facebook
- Google Plus After One Week: Can it Challenge Facebook? [Editorial]
Have fun with Google+.
Update: Looks like there is some glitch, but the signups have definitely opened up and so have the invites. Please sign in in next few hours to get in. This is very much apparent because earlier Google did not allow users to Sign In, also invites are definitely back on.


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The origin of heavy metal is a very fuzzy thing, but most historians and fans can agree that Black Sabbath's eponymous 1970 debut was the first true metal album. Its thunderous drums, sinister riffs and downright evil lyrics left little to be debated, but what we at Guitar World wanted to know was this: What was the heaviest song before Black Sabbath?
We ranked these songs based on a variety of factors: distortion/fuzz, speed, darkness, volume and shock value. Most importantly, however, the song had to have been released before 1970. It would have been easy to list the first two Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix albums and call it a day, but we dug deep to find some hidden heavy gems from the era of peace and love.
The Full List
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #50-41
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #40-31
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #30-21
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #20-11
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #10-1
10 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (1968)
Whether he was riding his E, bending his G or laying into his wah-wah pedal, the legendary southpaw conjured pure magic from his Strat in this Electric Ladyland classic. Kenny Wayne Shepherd once said of the track, "There are things Jimi did on the guitar that humans just can't do." We couldn't have said it better, Kenny.
09 - Cromagnon, "Caledonia" (1969)
Think Throbbing Gristle laid the groundwork for industrial in the late 1970s? Think again. This song features all of the trademark techniques that would later be integral to industrial metal: samples, screamed vocals, machine-like drums and … bagpipes? Fun fact: Much of this song was recorded in the bathroom of a hotel-turned-studio in Manhattan's Upper West Side. (Note: skip ahead to around the 1:10 mark if you're thrown off by the weird, sampled intro)
08 - The Beatles, "Helter Skelter" (1968)
It's safe to say Ringo Starr wasn't the only Beatle with "blistahs" on his "fingahs" after jamming ceaselessly on this White Album standout, the heaviest tune in the band's catalog. This song was meant to one-up the Who after Paul McCartney read an interview with Pete Townshend where he called "I Can See for Miles" the loudest and dirtiest song the Who had ever recorded.
07 - Jacula, "Triumphatus Sad" (1969)
For the most part, Jacula spent most of their time crafting dark, gothic, and somewhat cheesy prog rock that was probably very confusing to audiences who were listening to Genesis at the time. The band was founded by Antonio Bartoccetti, better known as the leader of cult band Antonius Rex, who surrounded himself with the latest technology and some very talented sound engineers to create an album that seemingly defies time. "Triumphatus Sad," from the band's 1969 album
In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum
, put the prog-cheesiness aside for a minute to deliver a jolt of Iommi-esque guitars and haunting organ sounds that wouldn't sound out of place in the '80s doom metal scene. Fun fact: Rumor has it that only 333 copies of the album were pressed and only sent to religious groups.
06 - Bitter Creek, "Plastic Thunder" (1967)
Think you hear the sound of thunder? Nope -- it's only Bitter Creek's 1967 "Plastic" version. But with its cavernous bass and Yardbirds-on-acid fuzz guitar, this song is almost as heavy as the real thing. Surprisingly little is known about Bitter Creek; the consensus is that they were from Georgia and that "Plastic Thunder" was the only 45 they ever issued.
05- Edgar Broughton Band, "Evil" (1969)
In this scene from a psycho-blues nightmare, Edgar Broughton found the perfect vehicle for his Howlin' Wolf meets Captain Beefheart vocal style. In an odd turn of events, original guitarist Victor Unit left the band after this album, when they went from a more mellow blues to a heavy, psychedelic sound, calling them "sell-outs."
04 - Pink Floyd, "The Nile Song" (1969)
David Gilmour's blistering, bendy solos guide this Roger Waters-penned rocker menacingly downstream. Gilmour's vocals never sounded so sinister as they do on this track, barking over a chugging, churning riff that may even slip into the proto-punk category at times. Forget Dark Side; we'd like to see this put to a laser light show!
03 - High Tide, "Death Warmed Up" (1969)
Whoever it was who said "Death is a dish best served cold" never heard this noisy little number by England's High Tide. Grab a ringside seat as Tony Hill's guitar battles it out with Simon House's electric violin -- for nine minutes. High Tide took a great deal of influence from surf guitar, using washes of reverb almost as a type of distortion. Scott Ian would later cite surf guitarists -- Dick Dale in particular -- as being a big influence on the alternate picking techniques of thrash players.
02 - MC5, "Kick Out the Jams" (1969)
"Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" So begins this ditty -- nearly three minutes of Detroit-fueled madness -- which delivered a spirited kick in the crotch to a world where the Bee Gees were starting a joke and the Foundations were building up butter cups. Among those who didn't seem to "get it" was Rolling Stone reviewer Lester Bangs, who called the album "ridiculous, overbearing [and] pretentious." That's right: Before heavy metal had even begun, he had missed the entire point of it.
01 - Led Zeppelin, "Dazed and Confused" (1969)
Jimmy Page started performing this tune, originally composed by folk singer Jake Holmes, live with the Yardbirds in that band's final days. But it didn't become a dark, powerful masterpiece until John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant turned up in a London studio in October 1968 to help Page cajole this sleeping giant into thunderous new territory. This song was also among Zeppelin's most famous live numbers, featuring Page's trademark violin bow solo. Fun fact: Some live versions clocked in at 45 minutes long.
The Full List
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #50-41
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #40-31
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #30-21
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #20-11
The 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath: #10-1


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Piedmont is an attractive region which lies in the northwest of Italy at the foot of the Alps sharing its borders with France and Switzerland. With cities, rich in art and culture as Torino, the capital of Piedmont; the Royal Residences, like the Venaria Reale, a unique treasure recognized as world heritage by UNESCO; unforgettable mountains with 2,000 km of ski slopes for winter sports that turn into summer trekking heaven; national parks, gardens and lakes, such as Lake Maggiore, to feel surrounded by nature; a heritage of unique food traditions in the world among which the White Truffle of Alba, appreciated wines - Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Asti Spumante.
This is Piedmont - Discover it, live it, taste it!
Cuneo > Racconigi
Easily accessible by the Train des Merveilles from the French town of Nice (2h47 trip), Cuneo, a city surrounded by an imposing alpine panorama and deserves a careful visit in order to enjoy its colours and fragrances. Its name Cuneo derives from the wedge-shaped plateau where it is located, at the confluence between the Gesso stream and the Stura river. Founded in 1198 in a militarily strategic position, it was besieged several times over the centuries.
A basic itinerary winds across the wide square called Piazza Galimberti, core of the town and site of the well-known Tuesday market that extends to Via Roma, the main street of the old town, with its medieval arcades. Just beyond the square is the Cathedral, the old church of Santa Maria del Bosco dating back to the times of the town foundation. Walking down Via Roma visit the church of Santa Maria and the church of Sant'Ambrogio, jewels of the baroque style. Among the civil buildings that deserve a visit, are the Town Hall, the Civic Tower, the Vescovado (Bishop's Palace), Palazzo Lovera, Palazzo d'Andonno and Palazzo S. Giovanni, the former Brotherhood Church.The former church and monastery of San Francesco rise in the square called Piazza Virginio. It was completely restored in 2011 and houses the historical and ethnographical collections of the Civic Museum. The church is a unique example of piedmontese gothic style and nowadays hosts cultural events.
One of the most attractive places in Cuneo is Contrada Mondovì - the ancient district of the Jews - a promenade loved by citizens and tourists who can walk admiring the small palace traditionally considered to be the first town hall, as well as the synagogue and the beautiful church of S. Sebastiano founded in 1320. The arcades house several fashion shops, craft workshops and a seasonal flea market. A walk around the modern quarters of Cuneo finally leads the visitor to the green promenade of the town called Viale degli Angeli.In the afternoon take a train to Racconigi (44 min trip) to see the Royal Castle in Racconigi, an elegant summer residence of the Savoy family. It was originally a fortress, and then it became a hunting residence. It is possible to visit the first floor and the residential floor upstairs, the big kitchens and the royal chapel. Do not forget to visit the wonderful park with its greenhouses and the neo-gothic Margherie Reali, typical examples of the evocative taste of the 19th century. Spend the night in Racconigi at the end of the day.
Our tip: Do not miss the chance to taste the flavourful chocolate and rum pralines called Cuneesi (which were also highly appreciated by Ernest Hemingway, as he came to Cuneo in 1954), Cuneo salami, all the P.D.O (protected designation of origin), piedmontese cheeses, chestnut creams, marron glacé, chestnut Cuneo cakes and smoked trouts.
Racconigi > Torino
Take the morning train from Racconigi to Torino (28 min trip), Italy's first capital. It is known as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, with its marvelous Royal Residences - a UNESCO World Heritage site, its museums rich in art and history, and its backdrop of snowy alpine picks.
Have a guided walking tour of the city starting from the beautiful Piazza Castello - the heart of Torino, where you will admire Palazzo Reale with the famous Galleria Sabauda, Palazzo Madama, the Royal Library and Armoury, the Teatro Regio and the Church of San Lorenzo. Passing along the porticoes of Via Po you will reach the Mole Antonelliana, the symbol of the city, hosting the National Cinema Museum, considered among the most important museums in the world for its rich heritage.
As Torino is the capital of chocolate and the place where the food of the gods was first made in solid form, a chocolate tasting is mandatory. Passing through elegant streets and squares like the Piazza San Carlo, you will reach some of Italy's most elegant baroque buildings such as Palazzo Carignano and Accademia delle Scienze.If you want to see one of the largest royal palaces in the world, take the bus to Venaria Reale and visit the beautiful Reggia di Venaria Reale including the complex of the Royal Palace and its spectacular gardens, faithfully restored to their past splendor.
On the second day take the guided walking tour starting from the Roman area to the picturesque and colourful Porta Palazzo, the biggest open air market in Europe. A few steps away reach the Piazza della Consolata with its Basilica of La Consolata and the smallest historical café in the world. Continue to Al Bicerin, for a tasting of the typical local drink, the Bicerin. On the way back to Piazza Castello you won't miss the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista, hosting the Holy Shroud. Have a visit to the Egyptian Museum, one of the two museums in the world entirely devoted to the Egyptian art and culture.Visit the Parco del Valentino, the beautiful public park, with the Medieval Village and the Castello del Valentino. Near the Parco del Valentino, board one of the boats, Valentino II or Valentina II, dedicated to the cruises on the River Po to reach the National Automobile Museum, which boasts one of the rarest and most interesting collections of its kind, with nearly 200 original models of 80 different constructors, from the 1769 to the most recent prototypes.
Head to the Lingotto area where you will find the first FIAT factory which which houses a shop-gallery, multiplex cinema and the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli art gallery. Finally, visit Eataly, the megastore dedicated to enogastronomy and the Museo Carpano, to discover the formula of the Vermouth, the spiced white wine invented in Turin by Benedetto Carpano.
Our tip: Buy the Torino+Piemonte Card to have free entrance in more than 180 museums of the Piedmont region. Take the hop-on, hop-off City Sightseeing tour to enjoy the major attractions.
Torino > Vercelli > Novara
After a 46 min trip from Torino by train, get off at Vercelli. Rich in history, art and culture, Vercelli offers a surprising and fascinating experience.
The historical centre is characterised by an incredible concentration of extraordinary masterpieces. Its three museums are remarkable: the Borgogna, the second picture gallery in Piedmont; the Leone, with its important historical and archaeological finds; and the Duomo's Treasury Museum that guards precious and sacred objects.
Its churches are also precious and ancient, among which the Sant' Andrea's Basilica, a rare example of a fusion of Romanesque and Gothic styles; the Duomo, with the majestic silver and gold plated wooden crucifix. Of particular artistic relief is the San Cristoforo Church, with internal valuable frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari. And after your visit, have a nice lunch in a typical restaurant, where you can taste traditional dishes such as panissa, the most typical risotto of Vercelli. The rice from which the risotto is made of, comes from region's rice fields.
After lunch get to Novara (12 min trip), to admire the Basilica of San Gaudenzio with its Dome, the Cathedral and the ancient Baptistery, the medieval courtyard of Broletto with the Modern Art Gallery Giannoni. Don't forget to taste the typical biscuits of the town at the Pastry Camporelli.
Novara > Lake Maggiore (Stresa)
On the last day, take the train to Stresa (1h13 trip). It is a town of about 5,000 inhabitants on the shores of the Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Like other locations on Lake Maggiore, it benefits from spectacular views as well as areas of historical and architectural interest.
The territory of Stresa is divided into four parts: the coastal side, the Borromeo Islands, the hilly part and the mountains which includes the popular ski resort of Mottarone, the pastures below the east side of the mountain and the Botanical Garden Alpinia.
Spend the day exploring the beautiful islands in the heart of Lake Maggiore. The connections between Stresa and the islands are guaranteed by a private and a public boat service.
Isola Bella hosts a monumental Baroque palace and majestic scenic gardens, which have made the island famous and which to this day bear witness to the splendours of an era. Isola Madre, the largest of the Borromeo Islands, leaves the visitor with a feeling of extreme elegance, thanks to the care and attention paid to the gardens and to the interiors of the palace. As for Isola Pescatori, it offers a beautiful interlacing of picturesque lanes lined with the typical white houses and takes its name from the century-long traditional occupation of its inhabitants.
Our tip: If you have time for a walk we recommend a visit to the park of Villa Pallavicino and a cable car ride to discover of the Botanical Garden Alpinia (intermediate stop) or until the top of Mottarone from which you can admire the spectacular panorama of 7 lakes, the Po Valley and the summit of Monte Rosa.


text:
Year 2014
Make Chevrolet
Model Traverse
Body 4d SUV FWD LT1
Mileage 108,236
Engine V6 3.6 Liter
Fuel Type Gasoline
Transmission Automatic 6-Spd
Drivetrain 2WD
Ext. Color White Diamond
Interior Color Titanium
Stock Number SEC5136
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A bill recently introduced in the state Legislature would permit school districts to end summer vacation before Labor Day, in effect repealing a law enacted in 2006.
It seemed to many then that the kids lost when the industry prevailed on the Legislature to require school districts to start the school year after the holiday, the traditional end to summer.
The reasoning seemed simple: The industry claimed its members were losing business late in the season when some schools started up late in August. Proponents also said ending summer vacations after Labor Day would give teenagers an opportunity to work at tourist-oriented business as long as possible.
The new bill, introduced with some bipartisan support in the House by Lansing Democrat Andy Schor, would return scheduling flexibility to school districts. Schor said educators support the measure.
'Local educators know best what works for their students, and if being in school prior to Labor Day is a better option in some schools, then they should have that option.'
The language contains a nod to state tourism. If a district chose to start school in August, it would be required to close schools on the Friday before Labor Day.
Some opponents in 2006 thought that it might have been better for state tourism to mandate a winter break.
Summer vacation, however much it enables tourism, is educationally unsound.
The 8-10 weeks away from school means teachers will spend the first few weeks in the fall reviewing what the kids have forgotten.
The existing law does contain a waiver process for schools that choose to end vacation early. We assume that's in use in those few schools which are switching to something closer to year-round education by substituting several shorter breaks for the longer one.
We felt in 2006 that the then-new law would have little effect on tourism. The bill is before the House Tourism Committee.
We'll be interested to hear what state tourism advocates have to tell that committee about its impact in the years since, years which include a major recession.
Whatever they have to say, whether they were able to measure the impact or not, we think the bill deserves to become law.