14 Quantum Bits: Physicists Go Beyond the Limits of What is Currently Possible in Quantum Computation

Quantum physicists from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) have set another world record: They have achieved controlled entanglement of 14 quantum bits (qubits) and, thus, realized the largest quantum register that has ever been produced.

With this experiment the scientists have not only come closer to the realization of a quantum computer but they also show surprising results for the quantum mechanical phenomenon of entanglement.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-quantum-bits-physicists-limits.html

Genetically Modified Cows Produce 'Human' Milk

The scientists have successfully introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.  Human milk contains high quantities of key nutrients that can help to boost the immune system of babies and reduce the risk of infections.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8423536/Genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk.html

Conservatives Now Outnumber Liberals in Deep-Blue States

That conservatives outnumber liberals nationally is not exactly news. But this is: according to a new poll from Gallup, even traditionally liberal states are drifting rightward.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/conservatives-now-outnumber-liberals-in-deep-blue-states

GOP to P $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts

The assault on Medicaid is about to begin. GOP sources have told Politico's Jonathan Allen that House Republicans will propose $1 trillion in cuts from the program. Exactly what form those cuts will take is not entirely clear.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/02/962431/-GOP-to-propose-$1-trillion-in-Medicaid-cuts

Michele Bachmann Takes in More Donations than Any Other Republican

The Minnesota conservative raised $1.7 million for her congressional reelection fund and an additional $500,000 for her federal political action committee. 

Her donation total slightly exceeds the $1.8 million former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney announced Thursday that he brought in via his Free and Strong America PAC in the first quarter. Candidates can transfer money from their personal campaign committee to a presidential account but not from a political action committee.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/michele-bachmann-takes-in-more-donations-than-any-other-republican

Tennessee Pushes Legislation to Safeguard Anti-Evolution Teachers

Tennessee is an infamous hotbed of rhetoric attacking the merits of researching evolution and teaching what scientists have learned.  Returning to a long history of legislative efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution, state representatives are trying to push a bill through the House that would allow students to reject evolutionary teachings in the schools and not comply with testing, assignments, and examinations on the topic.

http://www.dailytech.com/Tennessee+Pushes+Legislation+to+Safeguard+AntiEvolution+Teachers/article21279.htm

More than 1,000 killed in Ivorian town

Unknown attackers wielding machetes and guns killed more than 1,000 civilians in the neighborhood of an Ivory Coast town controlled by forces fighting to install the internationally recognized president, the Catholic charity Caritas told The Associated Press Saturday. 

The U.N. mission in Ivory Coast said it has a team investigating the alleged mass killings in western Duekoue. It said most of the nearly 1,000 peacekeepers based there were protecting about 15,000 refugees at a Catholic mission in the town at the time.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/02/international/i025845D60.DTL&tsp=1

PBS Hires Ann Coulter: Levin and Lohan to Co-Host Series

 I'm assuming this is just a gag for April fool's.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today, in the first of a series of stunning announcements, that its television subsidiary the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) will be replacing the defunct Bill Moyers Journal with a new weekly program, Ann Coulter's Far Out Journey.
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/01/pbs-hires-ann-coulter-levin-an

SEDS Presents Letter from Students on Future of Human Spaceflight

"At 3:30pm EST today(03.31.11), SEDS-USA Chairman Rick Hanton sent our letter to many congressional staffers, the white house, and a variety of media outlets from over 250 students stating their belief in the promise of commercial spaceflight in the United States.
The letter was organized and sent out by students from SEDS,... that wanted to make their voice heard in the conversation about commercial spaceflight on capitol hill.
If you are a student who did not already sign this letter, we invite you to take a look at what we have written and sign to show your support if you agree with the points we have made." - Press release c/o SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.)

Excerpts from the letter:
"Over the past year, many groups have offered their opinions on the best way for the US government to foster space exploration. However, one critical perspective has been missing from this conversation: that of the next generation.
"Everyone wins when NASA partners with the commercial spaceflight industry.
NASA always has been and, we hope, always will be the world’s leader for human spaceflight. No other organization can boast of the accomplishments or the institutional legacy of NASA. However, NASA need not be the only way for people to get to space.
"Allow NASA to explore the solar system again by embracing commercial spaceflight.
The International Space Station (ISS) is an amazing and unprecedented laboratory. With ISS just beginning to fully deliver on its promise, it is critical that we keep the station in orbit and in service. We are united in believing that, by embracing commercial spaceflight and thereby reducing costs, NASA can refocus its exploration program to look beyond Earth’s orbit.
"Commercial companies will help grow tomorrow’s workforce through inspiring STEM outreach and hands-on training.
Many people have spoken about the need to encourage more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As students, we believe that commercial companies—benefiting from the promotional resources and public attention that private firms command—will do a spectacular job of inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals. After all, what could be more inspirational than telling America’s youth that they will have the opportunity to go to space themselves; not just a handful of the most talented and fortunate, but all of them who desire to do so?
"...in the late 1960s, the average age in NASA’s Mission Control was only about twenty-eight. People not much older than we are now played an enormous role in one of the crowning achievements in the history of the world. We believe that if NASA is refocused on developing new technology and on operating in partnership with the emerging commercial spaceflight sector, the youthful energy and excitement that allowed the Apollo missions to inspire the world and to reach unprecedented success will be rekindled."
For the full text of the letter, and other information on SEDS, check out the SEDS website.

Walker Administration will Comply with Judge's Order

The state's new law to dramatically limit collective bargaining for public workers has not been published and is not in effect, a judge said Thursday.

"While I believe the budget repair bill was legally published and is indeed law, given the most recent court action we will suspend the implementation of it at this time," Huebsch said. "DOA will continue to abide by the court orders, like the department has done all throughout this process."

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0abe773a-5ba2-11e0-a42c-001cc4c03286.html

FOX News Has Lost 21% Of Its Audience This Year

Fox News has the top 12 most-watched shows so far this year.   Which is perhaps not totally surprising since this marks the network's ninth straight year as the number one channel in cable. 

That is not to say it's all rainbows and unicorns.  (Or cupcakes and caliphates.) All of Fox's top shows posted double digit losses year over year.

http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-beck-ratings-fox-q1-2011-3

70,000 New Victims for RepubliCare

If you are not super rich or a criminal corporation, you do not matter to the Republican party.  That explains their response upon hearing that their financial policy will kill 70,000 children.  They changed the subject.

http://www.politicsplus.org/blog/?p=4464

 

Guantanamo is an Evolutionary Experiment

On March 7, when president Barack Obama signed an executive order (E0) that varnishes the framework of indefinite detention without trial, he put the final nail in the coffin of his day-two promise to close Guantanamo.  

Those detainees who, in the government's view, can not be tried but are too dangerous to release will continue to be subject to "law of war detention" because they are deemed by official reviewers "in effect, [to] remain at war with the United States."

This means that Guantanamo can remain open as long as the "war on terror" continues. Not only is there no end in sight, no one is even speculating about what the end might look like.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201132712390105734.html

House Votes to Direct $ 100 M in Taxpayer Dollars to Religious Private Schools

the U.S. House of Representatives (many of whom were elected on promises of cost-cutting and budget-slashing) voted to direct $100M of your taxpayer dollars to prop up private religious schools in Washington, DC.  In a 225 to 195 vote, the House approved H.R. 471, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act.

This legislation reauthorizes and expands the Washington, D.C. Federal private school voucher pilot program, under which millions of Federal taxpayer dollars — $100M per year over the next five years — are funneled into a voucher system which favors private religious schools over public and charter schools. 

More than 80 percent of students in the D.C. voucher program attend private religious schools, which, under this program, are allowed to discriminate in hiring and enrollment on the basis of religion.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/03/31/house-votes-to-direct-100m-in-taxpayer-dollars-to-religious-private-schools

Christian Conservatives Turn Political Judas on Christ's Teachings

Prior to 1979, religion in America was a private enterprise, and although it influenced people’s daily lives, it certainly was not used as the driving force in governing. Christians worshiped in their homes, churches and in meditative silence, and only occasionally would a Christian impose their beliefs on anyone else.

Since the ascendance of the Moral Majority at the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the religious right has steadily incorporated Christianity into all forms of government and national policy decisions.

If Christian Conservatives represented Christianity as taught by their namesake, Jesus Christ, America would indeed be the greatest country in the world. However, the vile, fallacious Christianity practiced by social conservatives is the polar opposite of Christ’s teachings and is a detriment to every living person in America. Whether the so-called Christians in Congress allow the oil and coal industry to poison the Earth, air, and water, or promote war and gun ownership, they are not following the tenets of Christ’s teachings.

http://www.politicususa.com/en/christian-conservatives-judas

Why Photoshop for iPad Marks the End of the Desktop Computing Era

The real Photoshop for iPad exists. Adobe showed it yesterday and it looks like a solid digital darkroom. But, more importantly, it marks another step in the ongoing evolution that is changing the way humans interact with machines. One that, in fact, is putting back our human nature into computing. 

The new Adobe app just confirms the paradigm shift that is already happening, another piece towards something that I predicted even before the iPad was announced: We are witnessing the beginning of a new computing era, after the punch cards, the mainframe, the command line PC and the mouse with its graphical user interface.  And, thankfully, there's no way to stop it.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5787574/why-photoshop-for-ipad-marks-the-end-of-the-desktop-computing-era

Was Sarah Palin's Reality TV Show Government-Subsidized?

Self-styled Tea Party queen Sarah Palin is probably the last person you'd expect to line up for a government handout. But it has emerged that her reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," received a $1.2 million subsidy from the state, covering almost a third of the show's Alaskan production costs.

The state subsidy was signed into law by Palin herself in 2008.

http://theweek.com/article/index/213730/was-sarah-palins-reality-tv-show-government-subsidized