Gems

Yes, yezzzz, it’s true — twitter is a cesspool of maladroit, flat out imbecilic, cretinous and half-witted posts and commentary (and that’s just the president!) BUT there are real gems to be found too!

Fer instance:

Scientists used IBM's quantum computer to reverse time, possibly breaking a law of physics.

Reversing time?! Can we go back and prevent Preznint Shit for Brains from stealing (with Russia’s strong help and the electoral college's stone idiocy) the election? Think of all the lives that would be saved and how much horror and insanity for which the US would NOT be responsible!

How positively Star Trek-ian. How Galaxy Quest-ish (Omega 13, duh!) I MUST know more!

"The universe is getting messy. Like a glass shattering to pieces or a single wave crashing onto the shore, the universe’s messiness can only move in one direction – toward more chaos and disorder. But scientists think that, at least for a single electron or the simplest quantum computer, they may be able to turn back time, and restore order to chaos. This doesn’t mean we’ll be visiting with dinosaurs or Napoleon any time soon, but for physicists, the idea that time can run backward at all is still a pretty big deal."

Yup, the tweet was total click-bait. Interesting, once my expectations were lowered to beagle height. I’m no science whiz, not by a long shot, but I sure as hell enjoyed the twitter comments.

From a scientist:

"This is deeply embarrassing and you should retract it. All quantum computer operations are reversible. The second law of thermodynamics doesn't preclude an operation from *keeping entropy equal*, as long as the operation does no work.The quantum computer is probably not a closed system because it is plugged into the electricity grid. You can decrease entropy by expending energy (increasing entropy elsewhere). And if they can only reverse the process 80% of the time it isn't even a stable indefinite process"

I only understood about half of that (need hand puppets and crayon drawings for more clarity and shit) BUT it’s prompting me to read more so that I can understand.

And then there are the comments more in line with my brand of thinking:

I knew I hadn't eaten that ice cream yet! Now I'm going to have another. Or, wait…

*turns back time for a Butterfingers bar for the 82nd time*

and

What could possibly go wrong?

I think I gotta watch Galaxy Quest again now.

And then there's the snark. See!? Like I said, there's gems in that there mountain of poo.