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Teenager Finds Classical Alternative to Quantum Recommendation Algorithm | Quanta Magazine

18-year-old Ewin Tang has proven that classical computers can solve the “recommendation problem” nearly as fast as quantum computers. The result eliminates one

Click to view the original at quantamagazine.org

Hasnain says:

Cue impostor syndrome in...

“For quantum computing, Tang’s result is a setback. Or not. Tang has eliminated one of the clearest, best examples of a quantum advantage. At the same time, Tang’s paper is further evidence of the fruitful interplay between the study of quantum and classical algorithms.”

Posted on 2018-08-01T16:37:19+0000

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How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions

Jerome Jacobson and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers won almost every prize for 12 years, until the FBI launched Operation ‘Final Answer.’

Click to view the original at thedailybeast.com

Hasnain says:

This was a really interesting human interest story.

"The colorful court case, held in Jacksonville, Florida, started September 10, 2001, the day before terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. The stunned news media quickly forgot about the McDonald’s trial, which explains why so few Americans remember the scandal, or how it ended. During the trial, jurors watched defendants celebrating in McDonald’s commercials, including the fake one filmed by the FBI. Glomb recalled that the victim of the McSting, Michael Hoover, told him that he thought Amy Murray “kind of liked me,” before learning she was part of an FBI operation."

Posted on 2018-07-29T21:44:39+0000

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Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here's why | Robert Reich

America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a ‘good jobs’ crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid

Click to view the original at theguardian.com

Hasnain says:

"The shift from factory to office and other sedentary jobs created other social upheaval. The more recent shift in bargaining power from workers to large corporations – and consequentially, the dramatic widening of inequalities of income, wealth, and political power – has had a more unfortunate and, I fear, more lasting consequence: an angry working class vulnerable to demagogues peddling authoritarianism, racism, and xenophobia."

Posted on 2018-07-29T16:41:47+0000

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San Francisco Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at Facebook and other tech companies

It's no secret that Facebook employees love their free meals. But this fall when the tech giant moves to its new office complex in Mountain View, California, that perk will no longer exist because of a new city rule. And San Francisco may follow.

Click to view the original at businessinsider.com

Hasnain says:

I'm all for regulation that makes living standards and competition fair for all workers and companies, big and small.

But this law in mountain view, and the proposed law in SF, confuse me. I don't see how they make things better, and only see ways they make things worse.

I'd love to be convinced that I'm wrong.

Posted on 2018-07-26T23:33:33+0000

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Zildjian: The Cymbals Maker, Where Avoiding Layoffs Is a Priority

This small Massachusetts factory has avoided layoffs for years by retraining workers and offering incentive pay. It's a trust thing.

Click to view the original at cnbc.com

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Hasnain says:

“Why would Jews — or Hindus, or Buddhists, or agnostics, or atheists — be good if they don’t believe in heaven? That’s the sort of religious illiteracy we should be worried about, not unfamiliarity with evangelical names for Christ — religious illiteracy that assumes features of one’s own tradition are essential to ethical behavior. It will never be eradicated if religious literacy is defined in terms of uncritical familiarity with a single tradition.”

Posted on 2018-07-22T17:13:20+0000