SATURDAY NIGHT THE SMITHS, STILL CORNERS.

The Smiths with Well I wonder. Album Meat is Murder (1985).





Possibly the best The Smiths song, Johnny Marr outdoing himself with wondrous guitar work and sound effects, and the ballad fittingly concluded with the sound of falling rain. The images are from the 1958 French crime thriller Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) featuring, a.o., young and pretty Jeanne Moreau.



Still Corners with The Trip. From the album Strange Pleasures, released in 2013.





British/American dream pop duo, formed in 2007 and consisting of songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Greg Hughes and vocalist/keyboardist Tessa Murray.


Nite.



MFBB.

CHINA'S ZUCHONGZHI-3 BASED QUANTUM COMPUTER OUTPACES GOOGLE'S SYCAMORE BY SIX ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE.

🇨🇳CHINA’S NEW QUANTUM COMPUTER CRUSHES GOOGLE—BY A MILLION TIMES

China just pulled ahead in the quantum race, unveiling Zuchongzhi-3—a 105-qubit machine that makes Google's Sycamore processor look slow.

Researchers say this quantum beast performs calculations one million times… https://t.co/qhKsd2H9p3 pic.twitter.com/gCgCuk5h7S

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 8, 2025

Via SciTechDaily:

"...A new quantum computing breakthrough has sent shockwaves through the tech world. Researchers at USTC unveiled Zuchongzhi-3, a 105-qubit machine that processes calculations at speeds that dwarf even the most powerful supercomputers. It marks another leap forward in the quest for quantum supremacy, with the team demonstrating computational power orders of magnitude beyond Google’s latest results.


Breakthrough in Quantum Computing with Zuchongzhi-3

A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with its partners, has made significant progress in random quantum circuit sampling using Zuchongzhi-3 — a superconducting quantum computing prototype equipped with 105 qubits and 182 couplers. Zuchongzhi-3 operates at an astonishing speed, performing computations 1015 times faster than the most powerful supercomputer available today and one million times faster than Google’s latest published quantum computing results. This achievement marks a major breakthrough in quantum computing, building on the success of its predecessor, Zuchongzhi-2. The study, led by Jianwei Pan, Xiaobo Zhu, Chengzhi Peng, and other researchers from both China and abroad, was published as a cover article in Physical Review Letters.


The Road to Quantum Supremacy

Quantum supremacy, the ability of a quantum computer to perform tasks beyond the reach of classical computers, has been a key goal in the field. In 2019, Google’s 53-qubit Sycamore processor completed a random circuit sampling task in 200 seconds, a feat estimated to take 10,000 years on the world’s fastest supercomputer at the time. However, in 2023, USTC researchers demonstrated more advanced classical algorithms capable of completing the same task in 14 seconds using over 1,400 A100 GPUs. With the advent of the Frontier supercomputer, equipped with expanded memory, this task can now be performed in just 1.6 seconds, effectively challenging Google’s earlier claim of quantum supremacy.


Pushing the Boundaries: Jiuzhang and Zuchongzhi Milestones

Subsequently, using the optimal classical algorithm as its benchmark, the same team at USTC achieved the first rigorously proven quantum supremacy with the Jiuzhang photonic quantum computing prototype in 2020. This was followed in 2021 by a superconducting demonstration using the Zuchongzhi-2 processor. In 2023, the team’s development of the 255-photon Jiuzhang-3 demonstrated quantum supremacy that surpassed classical supercomputers by 1016 orders of magnitude. In October 2024, Google’s 67-qubit superconducting quantum processor, Sycamore, demonstrated quantum supremacy by outperforming classical supercomputers by nine orders of magnitude.


Zuchongzhi-3: A Leap in Quantum Performance

Building upon the 66-qubit Zuchongzhi-2, the USTC research team significantly enhanced key performance metrics to develop Zuchongzhi-3, which features 105 qubits and 182 couplers. The quantum processor achieves a coherence time of 72 μs, a simultaneous single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.90%, a simultaneous two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.62%, and a simultaneous readout fidelity of 99.13%. The extended coherence time provides the necessary duration for performing more complex operations and computations.To evaluate its capabilities, the team conducted an 83-qubit, 32-layer random circuit sampling task on the system. The results demonstrated a computational speed that outpaces the world’s most powerful supercomputer by 15 orders of magnitude and surpasses Google’s latest quantum computing results by six orders of magnitude, establishing the strongest quantum computational advantage in a superconducting system to date..."

MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENESIS, LED ZEPPELIN.

Genesis with Hairless Heart. From the album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974).





English rock band Genesis formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. In their heyday, the band's line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford, drummer/singer Phil Collins, singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett.



Led Zeppelin with Immigrant Song. Found on Led Zeppelin III (1970).





Legendary English rock band, formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page (ex-Yardbirds), singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham.


Nite.



MFBB.

PRAGER UNIVERSITY: THE WRAP UP , JANUARY 11, 2025.

NEW: Los Angeles is devastated by massive wildfires, as criticism of California’s leaders heats up.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media company is abandoning third-party fact-checkers.

Nations across the world are making digital IDs mandatory.

And McDonald’s… pic.twitter.com/NjfgmnAwc8

— PragerU (@prageru) January 11, 2025

As regards the havoc being wrought on LA, while there is certainly a lot of blame to go around, it is worth giving some serious thought to Leighton Woodhouse's POV. Give it a read please.


Good night.



MFBB.