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submitted by Drunk_Grandpa [link] [77 comments]

Physicists at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands were able to successfully "teleport" information over a distance of 10 feet, reports the New York Times.

There's a lot going on in that idea, so let's break it down.

The rules for the subatomic world are totally unlike the rules for our macroscopic world. A particle can be in multiple places at the same time, and can even disappear on one side of a barrier and reappear on the other side without actually traveling through it. This comes from quantum theory, and while it sounds totally nonintuitive, it's one of the most successful models physicists have for understanding our world.

Many scientists around the world today are working to develop "quantum technology," which is simply any technology that hinges upon these totally "abnormal" properties of the super-small stuff that makes up our world. The Mount Everest of quantum technology would be to build a quantum computer that could quickly solve problems that would leave our classical computers stumped. Instead of the standard bits we use in computers today — ones and zeroes — quantum bits, or "qubits," can describe a one, a zero, or any value in between.

If this all sounds crazy or hard to understand, you're in good company with a lot of smart people. Hang in there. A legitimate, functional quantum computer (it's debatable as to if one has actually been built yet) would be absolutely bursting with computational potential.

Back to our Dutch scientists — they trapped qubits in diamonds and were able to establish a measurement of the qubits' spin. This measurement is the acual information that was "teleported," by way of a process called quantum entanglement. To simplify this idea a lot, entanglement is essentially what happens when one particle copycats another, even over a distance. Change the spin of one particle, the other instantly changes its spin to match.

Einstein famously decried entanglement, calling it "spooky action at a distance." But repeated variations of this experiment only lend more credence to it as a completely valid natural phenomena that we are slowly learning to manipulate.

Forget Google Fiber. Once this stuff is perfected, a quantum internet that's built upon it could mean instantaneous transmission and receipt of data around the world or even the universe! In 1964, an Irish physicist named John Bell predicted that this could be used to transmit data across light years of distance.

While 10 feet is no light year, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

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by gyorossyerno

submitted by TankTheTurtle [link] [2293 comments]

[via]

This is the United States of Embarrassing, a map depicting the strangest Google searches for each state. It was created by Estately after running "hundreds of search queries through Google Trends to determine which words, terms, and questions each state was searching for more than any other." You can see the other unusual top queries at their blog HERE. For example, the full list for California reads, ""Alcoholics Anonymous / Bros Before Hos / Dandruff Cure / Food Poisoning / Google Glass / Kim Kardashian / Meat is Murder / Paris Hilton / Pokemon / Rogaine / What does Siri look like?" That sounds accurate. Those are all a big part of my life. Thanks to Argon, hands down my favorite of the noble gasses (just don't tell helium, neon or krypton).

You can upload replays to Mario Kart 8's Mario Kart TV mode to a site where others can watch and share your videos. That site is called mariokart.tv, and it's up right now.

Hitting the site lets you watch the most recent videos uploaded by players, but logging into the system with your own account lets you watch your own videos. From there, you can link out to social networks if you'd like. Oh, and it works nicely on a mobile phone, too. 

I'm glad I didn't save any replays from my matches against my friend from this past weekend. You've never seen someone fly off track so much.

Screen Junkies host Hal Rudnick shares clips and photos that show what Game of Thrones actors are like in real life and revisits some of their previous acting roles.

(spoilers) [screenjunkies]

Voice actor H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Bob’s Burgers) stopped by “Late Night Basement,” a live comedy show based in Brooklyn, NY.

While there, he obliged the audience by tackling the voice of the HAL-9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

The result is so blatantly genius, I can’t believe this hasn’t happened before now.

[via io9]

Rob Scallon covers classic metal tunes on such instruments as the ukulele, the banjo, the cello, and the 8-string guitar.

His latest endeavor features a banjo (& spoons!) cover of Slayer’s hit “Raining Blood.”

[via Metal Injection]

Sneaky Nintendo—at the end of a video advertising their upcoming Smash Bros. tournament at E3 in two weeks, the house of all things Mario just announced a GameCube controller adapter for the Wii U.

Read more...

For those times when you really only want, or can really only handle, half a pint of hooch, these modified beer glasses leave no doubt that you're drinking with a little moderation. Because instead of being shorter, thinner, or modified in shape, they look like a standard pint glass that's been bifurcated with a guillotine.

Read more...

I guess you are supposed to have a nice game of Lawn Darts with these after cooking and before eating.