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SYDNEY - Researchers in Australia have found a new way to build quantum computers, which they say would make them dramatically easier and cheaper to produce at scale. Quantum computers promise to harness the strange ability of subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at a time to solve problems that are too complex or time-consuming for existing computers. Google, IBM and other technology companies are all developing quantum computers, using a range of approaches. The team from the University of New South Wales say they have invented a new chip design based on a new type of quantum bit, the basic unit of information in a quantum computer, known as a qubit. The new design would allow for a silicon quantum processor to overcome two limitations of existing designs: the need for atoms to be placed precisely, and allowing them to be placed further apart and still be coupled. Crucially, says project leader Andrea Mello, this so-called “flip-flop qubit” means the chips can...

Brittney Speck woke up Wednesday to police lights and the sound of her dachshund “going crazy” in the back yard, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She went to check on the dog and saw a tiger in her neighbor’s yard. The tiger had been spotted about 6 a.m. on a highway in an Atlanta suburb, according to the Henry County Police Department. Police followed the big cat to Speck’s neighborhood, where it ran toward the back of a house and jumped a fence. After the tiger jumped on the dog, the officers fired shots, Speck said. (Her dog, Journey, is okay.) Police said in a statement that “with the tiger in close proximity to a school bus route in a densely populated area, officers made the decision to put the animal down with gunfire fearing that occupants of the home could be in danger as well as others in the area.” How the tiger had gotten there would remain a mystery for most of the day. “Tigers are not an indigenous species to Georgia,” said Gerri Yoder, director of ...

To mark yesterday’s global launch of online shooter Destiny 2, developer Bungie teamed up with Japanese dance choreographers Furitsuke Kagyou Air:man to deliver three minutes of subculture appreciation in the form of an extended and increasingly ludicrous Guardian dance-off. The video starts off with what looks like a passable live-action television trailer, like the very one Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts produced for Bungie’s English-language marketing launch last week. But it very quickly sheds its air of seriousness as elaborate breakdance moves bleed into a giant, contagious dance battle between Destiny’s magic space warriors. If you’re wondering what this has to do with shooting aliens with fancy firearms, as Destiny 2 mostly revolves around, it helps to know a little bit about what are known as in-game emotes. As is the case in a number of other online shooters like Blizzard’s Overwatch, emotes are special signature moves your character can perform to expres...

Total mortgage application volume increased 3.3 percent, from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Volume is still 23 percent lower than a year ago, when rates were even lower. After pulling back for the last few weeks, more homeowners applied for a refinance, sending volume 5 percent higher for the week. Mortgage applications finally moved slightly higher last week, spurred by refinancers, as interest rates moved decisively lower. Total mortgage application volume increased 3.3 percent, from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted report. Volume remains 23 percent lower than the same week one year ago, when rates were even lower. After pulling back for the last few weeks, more homeowners applied for a refinance, sending volume 5 percent higher for the week. Refinance volume has been relatively stagnant, even as rates edged lower, but last week rates took a bigger step backward. Th...

Since the launch of the  Knights of the Frozen Throne  expansion ,  competitive  Hearthstone  play has been in a bit of a turbulent state, mostly thanks to the  overwhelming (and often rage-inducing) dominance  of the game’s Druid class. Well, Blizzard has heard the community’s complaints, and Druid nerfs are  finally on their way . But they’ll come with a few other balance tweaks that have some players scratching their heads. In response to  criticism  from high-profile players including Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk, Blizzard is adjusting the effect of the class-defining Druid card Innervate. Instead of giving a player two free mana crystals for a turn, now it’ll only give one. This means that Innervate now effectively works the same as  The Coin , or the Rogue card  Counterfeit Coin . The change will make the reigning Jade and Ramp Druid decks less flexible in the early game, and it’ll make early game-oriented Aggro Dr...

An exhausted Rohingya helps an elderly family member and a child as they arrive at Kutupalong refugee camp after crossing from Myanmmar to the Bangladesh side of the border, in Ukhia, on Sept. 5, 2017. Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, fleeing the latest round of violence to engulf their homes in Myanmar, have been walking for days or handing over their meager savings to Burmese and Bangladeshi smugglers to escape what they describe as certain death. Aid agencies were struggling to cope with a nonstop flood of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, where some 146,000 have arrived hungry and terrified after fleeing renewed violence in Myanmar — a crisis the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, dismissed as a misinformation campaign. With the influx pushing existing Rohingya refugee camps to the brink, Bangladesh pledged to build at least one more. The International Organization for Migration has pleaded for $18 million in foreign aid to help feed and shelter tens of thousands ...

Character rank and stats matter when going head to head in a competitive scene. If you know how to utilize a character’s ability to the upmost during dire times you will emerge victorious. Well, Bandai Namco updated Arc System Works’ Dragon Ball FighterZ website to show off even more character ranks and stats, so you’ll have an idea of how each character will stack up in a fight. If you recall the last character update during August, Bandai Namco released a batch of short character bios, ranks and stats for Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s. This can be seen over on the game’s official website as “new” hovering over the “character” portal. Following up on last month’s character ranks and stats info, which provides fans and gamers alike a nice look at upcoming content well ahead of the official launch, Bandai Namco added Android 18, Android 16, Super Saiyan Blue Goku, and Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta to the “character selection screen” on dba.bn-ent.net. The stats, much like the stats revealed...

Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes looked super adorable catching some twilight sun in the sand in Malibu, California, on Monday. The stars have been a rumored couple for years, but they have typically kept their romance pretty private. However, the super secretive pair were spotted holding hands and smiling like love birds while dipping their toes in the warm waters of the surfing hotspot in the early evening. Holmes, 38, wore a billowy blue and white patterned dress while Foxx, 49, strolled across the beach in exercise pants and a dark T-shirt. The stars both rocked wide-brimmed fedora-style hats and dark shades. Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes in Malibu Photo: Backgrid WATCH: How Did Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes Meet? A Look Back at The Long-Rumored Romance An eyewitness tells ET, "The pair were on a public beach in Malibu. They were visiting a friend's house and came out onto the beach for a walk around 7 p.m." The happy twosome chatted and smiled for 20 minutes as...

Seventeen-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos was slapped and punched by one of three men when he refused to accept from them what looked like a gun wrapped in a face towel, a 13-year-old girl said in a statement submitted to the Senate. “No, no,” the witness quoted Delos Santos as saying to the three men in civilian clothes who seized him as he was on his way home in Barangay 160 in Caloocan City on the night of Aug. 16. The three men turned out to be Caloocan police officers. They claimed Delos Santos was a drug runner and they shot him when he fired at them with a .45-caliber pistol. But the testimony of the girl and that of another child, a 16-year-old girl, confirmed fears that Delos Santos was killed in cold blood — another victim of police killing in President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. The two children testified on what they saw on the night of Aug. 16 to members of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs during a closed-door session on Tuesda...

History is within reach for Demetrious Johnson, but the reigning flyweight champion has designs on more than simply surpassing a record – he wants to shatter it. When “Mighty Mouse” faces Ray Borg in the UFC 215 headliner at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on Saturday night, he will be going for his 11th straight successful title defense. That would give him sole possession of a record he currently shares with pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva. But while it’s trendy these days to talk of super fights and holding championships in multiple divisions, Johnson would rather raise the bar so high at 125 pounds that no one else can reach it. “A friend of mine once said, ‘10 that's attainable, 11 that's attainable.’ He goes, ‘15 is f----ing legendary.’ He goes, ‘Why don’t you just go to 15?’ I said, ‘you know what? Why not?’ I mean I'm 31 years old and I feel good and you've got a lot of new young up and coming guys coming into the division so why not just k...

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks during a press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s call to the U.S. Congress to pass protections for some undocumented immigrants is stirring interest among his fellow Republicans in Congress, despite the party's longstanding divisions over immigration that were on display on Wednesday. Trump, who fashioned his 2016 presidential campaign around a pledge to clamp down on illegal immigration, has now turned the political landscape on its head. On Tuesday, he angered business groups and Democrats with his announcement that he was terminating former President Barack Obama's executive order protecting from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were illegally brought to the United States as children. But he also urged legislative efforts to permanently protect those youth, despite long-held opposition from some of the most conservative members of the Repu...

U.S. military vehicle moves as South Korean police officers try to block residents and protesters who oppose to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, in Seongju, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. Seoul's Defense Ministry on Thursday said the U.S. military has completed adding more launchers to a contentious U.S. missile-defense system in South Korea to better cope with North Korean threats. The deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system has angered North Korea but also China and Russia, which see the system's powerful radar as a threat to their own security. (Lee Sang-hak/Yonhap via AP)  less SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Dozens of people were injured in clashes between South Korean protesters and police Thursday as the U.S. military added more launchers to the high-tech missile-defense system it installed in a southern town to better cope with North Korean threats. Seoul has hardened its stan...

SEATTLE — Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett said he was a victim of excessive force and racial profiling by Las Vegas police during an incident Aug. 27, adding that he was held on the ground with a gun to his head. “It was a traumatic experience for me and my family,” Bennett said Wednesday before practice at the Seahawks’ facility in Renton. “It sucks that the country we are living in now sometimes you get profiled for the color of your skin.” Bennett was in Las Vegas to attend the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight on Aug. 26. (Source)

From left, Manson followers Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten walk into a morning court session in 1970. When Manson carved an "X" into his forehead during the trial, his "family" members followed suit. Leslie Van Houten, who was convicted along with other members of Charles Manson's cult in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, was granted parole Wednesday by a panel of state commissioners in Chino. It was the 21st time that Van Houten, 68, has appeared before a parole board, and the second time that commissioners found her suitable for release. “She’s very thankful and relieved,” said Van Houten’s attorney, Rich Pfeiffer. “She’s going home. There’s no question she’s going home. The only question is when.” Gov. Jerry Brown must now once again decide whether to release her after more than 40 years in prison. Brown rejected her parole last year, concluding that Van Houten — the youngest member of Manson’s so-calle...

Storm guard Sue Bird, center, looks to pass as Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi, left, defends during the first half. Seattle shoots a season-low 34.9 percent from the field and falls in the first-round elimination game for the second consecutive season. TEMPE, Ariz. — The Storm could petition for a new postseason format. For the second straight year, the two-time WNBA champion was eliminated in the winner-take-all first-round game. Breanna Stewart had 23 points and eight rebounds but the eighth-seeded Storm could not overcome a season-low 34.9 shooting percentage in a 79-69 loss to the Phoenix Mercury in a game played at Arizona State’s Wells Fargo Arena on Wednesday. The Storm trailed by 12 late in the third quarter before chipping away, and Stewart’s steal and layup brought the Storm within 64-59, with 3:44 remaining. Sue Bird’s jumper brought the Storm to 67-63 before Diana Taurasi expanded the lead to 70-63 on a three-pointer with 1:12 left. Featured Video Mariners closer ...