Image caption,Ghanaian lawmakers are heavily divided over the proposed levy
A brawl has broken out in Ghana’s parliament during a late-night session over a contentious government-proposed levy on electronic transactions.
MPs shoved, pushed and threw punches at each other, while others tried to stop the fighting.
The chaos started after opposition MPs rushed forward to prevent Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu from leaving his seat to vote, local media reports.
He was chairing the session, which was then adjourned because of the disorder.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the proposed levy of 1.75% on electronic transactions, which includes mobile-money payments.
It says it will hit low-income people and those outside the formal banking sector.
But Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Artta has said it is necessary to widen the tax net, arguing that it could raise an extra 6.9bn Ghanaian cedi ($1.15bn; £870m) next year.
The parliamentary session began on Monday morning and broke up after midnight, the local Graphic newspaper reports.
Studying how and why rhythm evolved in these primates could help unravel the mysteries of human musicality.
PHOTOGRAPH: AGAMI/GETTY IMAGES
THE INDRI IS a lemur, a primate with opposable thumbs; a short tail; and round, tufted, teddy-bear-like ears. They share a branch of the evolutionary tree with humans, but our paths diverged some 60 million years ago. Still, one very striking similarity has stuck around: Indris are one of the few mammals that sing. Family groups create choruses in the treetops of their rain forest home in Madagascar; their voices ringing out for miles. Those songs—which biologist Andrea Ravignani describes as sounding like a cross between several jazz trumpeters jamming, a humpback whale, and a scream—are also the only songs other than those made by humans to be structured with regular, predictable rhythms.
In fact, indri rhythm can be the same as human rhythm, says Ravignani, who studies bioacoustics at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. He is part of an international team of researchers whose recent paper in Current Biology is the first to document rhythm in lemurs.
Analyzing how, and when, the lemurs’ songs use a rhythmic structure could help researchers understand musicality in humans, the evolutionary purpose of which remains mysterious. Traits like color vision, bipedal ambulation, and prolonged infanthood have all been attributed to evolutionary pressures that favored the people who carried certain genes. But music, which is so pervasive across human cultures, is unexplained. “As a music lover I am fascinated by the beauty of music,” says Ravignani. “As a biologist, I’m puzzled about why we still haven’t found an answer when many other things are so obvious in human evolution.”
Ravignani’s team’s work on the indris’ rhythm is just beginning. In addition to their morning announcement song, the animals also sing when they’re lost, as a warning, or as a threat, so De Gregorio is curious about whether those songs also have these rhythms.
Next, Ravignani wants to apply these research techniques to other singing primates, like gibbons, and then to marine animals like seals. “And then who knows?” he asks. “Every year or so, we discover that at least one animal species has something that we previously thought was uniquely human. So I think we’re up for a lot of surprises.”
PRESS RELEASE — VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland announced today that the country’s first operational 5-qubit quantum computer is up and running. Together with the quantum computing hardware startup IQM, VTT has taken its first steps to enable the building of quantum computers that will be both scalable and easier to manufacture, allowing more companies to begin their quantum computing journey.
The incredible computing performance of quantum computers makes it possible to solve problems that are beyond the capabilities of modern high-performance computers. In the future, quantum computers will be used, for instance, to accurately model viruses and drugs or used to design materials that are challenging to design with today’s technology.
“The development of quantum computing will affect all industries. Our experience in building the quantum computer, and our know-how in developing quantum algorithms will help us develop quantum foresight to, for example, identify future trends and support companies in understanding how and when their business will be affected,” says Pekka Pursula, Research Manager at VTT. “The best way to do this will be for companies to work together with VTT, and actually use our new hardware.”
The now-unveiled 5-qubit quantum computer is located at Micronova, part of OtaNano, the national research infrastructure for micro and nanotechnology, jointly run by VTT and Aalto University.
The big challenge in quantum computing is scalability. Quantum physicists and engineers around the world are trying to figure out how to scale quantum computing hardware to include hundreds and thousands of qubits, scale up the production in an economically efficient way, and scale algorithms and use of quantum computing in real-life applications.
VTT has 30 years of expertise in quantum technology research and excellent facilities to work on hardware scaling. The scaling of the use requires VTT to work hand-in-hand with the companies to develop algorithms for specific applications.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for IQM and for the European quantum initiatives. With the completion of this phase, IQM will become one of the very few quantum companies that can deliver an on-premises quantum computer to a customer. I congratulate our partners, VTT and also the entire IQM team who has managed to deliver this ambitious milestone during the pandemic. This is just the first phase of the delivery and because of our ability to upgrade the systems, we are looking forward to working with VTT on delivering the 20-qubit and the 50-qubit systems,” says Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM.
The 5-qubit quantum computer is part of a larger initiative. VTT and IQM aim to build together a much more powerful 50-qubit quantum computer by 2024 and further develop Finland’s long-lasting technology and expertise in quantum computing.
The country already has an active research community called InstituteQ – of which VTT, Aalto University, and Helsinki University are the founding members – which is focused on developing world-class quantum expertise. BusinessQ network supports companies in incorporating quantum technology into their business, enabling growth for the Finnish society.
Quantum computing is a type of computation that harnesses the collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement, to perform calculations. The devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though current quantum computers are too small to outperform usual (classical) computers for practical applications, they are believed to be capable of solving certain computational problems, such as integer factorization (which underlies RSA encryption), substantially faster than classical computers. The study of quantum computing is a subfield of quantum information science.
Robbie Knievel is the son of the late, great American Daredevil Evel Knievel. He continued on the family tradition of jumping motorcycles over wide swaths of buses and other obstacles.
The Grand Canyon jump on May 20, 1999 was one of Knievel’s most famous jumps. The jump was partially based on Robbie’s father’s desire to perform a Grand Canyon jump, yet would end up doing the rocket-propelled Snake River Canyon jump. On May 20, 1999, Robbie jumped his motorcycle for a personal record of 228 feet. However, Knievel lost control of the bike on landing and broke his leg in the ensuing crash.
The Grand Canyon is on average five miles wide from rim to rim, so Jumping that far was pushing it beyond the limit. So they found a spur in the canyon that was very narrow. So Robbie didn’t really jump the Grand Canyon, he jumped a small spur on the periphery of the canyon. But it was bloody good nevertheless.
A showman just like the Old Man.
To pay homage to his father, Knievel jumped the Caesars Palace fountains in 1989. The jump took place 22 years after Evel Knievel failed to clear the fountains in 1967. Knievel landed safely and became the first to successfully jump the fountains. Following the jump, Knievel stated, “that was for you, Dad”.
According to the official Weibo account for the Shenxianju Scenic Area, construction on the Ruyi bridge began in 2017 and was finally opened in September of 2020. In a second post, the park explained that the bridge spans 100 meters across the east and west gorges of Shenxianju. A rough translation of the post read: With a total length of 100 meters and a vertical height of more than 140 meters, it spans the east and west gorges of Shenxianju. Intertwined into an undulating bridge body, visitors have a sense of experience when they pass. The rigid and soft shape is perfectly integrated with the natural scenery of the Fairy House, just like a jade ruyi in the sky, and like a fairy draped silk. The painting is like a screen, and when seen from a distance, the mountains are full of movement, and they also carry beauty and auspiciousness.
I can’t lose with the stuff I use (Don’t you just know it) Baby, don’t believe I wear two left shoes (Don’t you just know it)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Hey, pretty baby, can we go strollin’ (Don’t you just know it) You got me rockin’ when I wanna be rollin’ (Don’t you just know it)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Baby, baby, you’re my blue heaven (Don’t you just know it) You got me pushin’ when I wanna be shoving (Don’t you just know it)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)The older the woman, the more she teases (Don’t you just know it) The younger the Couple, the tighter they squeeze (Don’t you just know it)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba (Gooba, gooba, gooba, gooba) Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha)Ah ha ha ha (Ah ha ha ha) Ey eh, oh (Ey eh, oh)
Give me back my wig Honey now let your head go bald. Give me back my wig Honey now let your head go bald. Really didn’t have no business Honey buyin’ you no wig at all.
Takin’ me downtown Say four forty nine, When I get down there I swear, nine ninety nine.
You just give me back my wig Honey now let your head go bald. Really didn’t have no business Honey buyin’ you no wig at all.
Yeah my Mama told me And your good friend too, When you get that wig That’s the way you gonna do.
You just give me back my wig Honey now let your head go bald. Really didn’t have no business Honey buyin’ you no wig at all.
Goodbye little one All I got to say. Give me back my wig and be On your merry way.
You just give me back my wig Honey, now let your head go bald. Really didn’thave no business Honey buyin’ you no wig at all
The Odd Couple (titled onscreen Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple) is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970 to March 7, 1975 on ABC. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into the 1968 film The Odd Couple. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share a Manhattan apartment and whose opposite personalities inevitably lead to conflict and laughter.
Help Me Somebody Help Me I Wonder Where I Am I See My Future Before Me I’ll Hurt You When I Can It Seems Like I’ve Been Here Before Confusion Sprung Up From Devotion A Halo That Covers My Eyes It Sprung From This First Estrangement No One Have I Ever Despised Is This The Way That You Wanted To Pay Won’t You Show Me Please Show Me The Way Is This The Way That You Wanted To Pay Won’t You Show Me Please Show Me The Way
My promise could be your fiend A given end to your dreams A simple movement or rhyme Could be the smallest of signs We’ll never know what they are or care In it’s escapable view There’s no escape so few in fear Give in a changing value
To be given your sight Hid in a long peaceful night A nervous bride for your eyes A fractured smile that soon dies A love that’s wrong from your life and soul A savage mine had begun Hello, farewell to your love and soul Hello, farewell to your soul
Now I know what those hands would do No looking back now, we’re pushing through We’ll change these feelings, we’ll taste and see But never guess how the him would scream But never guess how the him would scream But never guess how the him would scream
The MarkoZen Blog 