The possibility of going back in time only to kill your ancestors and prevent your own birth has posed a serious problem for potential time travelers, not even considering the technical details of building a time machine. But a new theory proposed by physicists at MIT suggests that this grandfather paradox could be avoided by using quantum teleportation and “post-selecting” what a time traveler could and could not do. So while murdering one’s relatives is unfortunately possible in the present time, such actions would be strictly forbidden if you were to try them during a trip to the past.

The model of time travel proposed by Seth Lloyd, et al., in a recent paper at arXiv.org arises from their investigation of the quantum mechanics of closed timelike curves (CTCs) and search for a theory of gravity. In simple terms, a CTC is a path of spacetime that returns to its starting point. The existence of CTCs is allowed by Einstein’s general relativity, although it was Gödel who first discovered them. As with other implications of his theories, Einstein was a bit disturbed by CTCs.

In the new paper, the scientists explore a particular version of CTCs based on combining quantum teleportation with post-selection, resulting in a theory of post-selected CTCs (P-CTCs). In quantum teleportation, quantum states are entangled so that one state can be transmitted to the other in a different location. The scientists then applied the concept of post-selection, which is the ability to make a computation automatically accept only certain results and disregard others. In this way, post-selection could ensure that only a certain type of state can be teleported. The states that “qualify” to be teleported are those that have been post-selected to be self-consistent prior to being teleported. Only after it has been identified and approved can the state be teleported, so that, in effect, the state is traveling back in time. Under these conditions, time travel could only occur in a self-consistent, non-paradoxical way.

Read more: PhysOrg

Check out this UFO spotted in the skies over Fresno, CA over the 4th of July weekend. The news station covering the story got several confirmations of the lights in the sky, and even some amateur video. So, what do you think?

Thanks to: Weird Things

A large and mysterious creature is ripping apart cattle in a small village of Ecuador. Although the original article is in Spanish, Google translation tries its best to translate it to English, but fails. So I will paraphrase.

The small community of “La Cuadra” (The block) has seen multiple cattle mutilated and torn apart by something powerful. The ghastly findings are out of the ordinary, even for local known predators. The residents concluded that what ever it is that has killed steer and cows, it’s powerful enough to rip them apart and leave huge, deep prints with large claws in the mud. cuadra-gente

Arming themselves with machetes, guns and flashlights a search party was rounded up in order to capture the creature. Upon investigation the residents saw a ‘large black animal move through brushes”. Nearby they found some cattle remains. What are the residents of La Cuadra dealing with?

Talks from the residents point to a possible escaped cougar. Others say that this is just another attack by the infamous Chupacabra.

No photographs of the paw prints have been released, although photographs of the mutilated cattle speak for the shocking attacks. What is stalking the cattle in Ecuador? In order to inflict that kind of damage seen in the photographs, I would have to say that a large cat is on the lose, or a pack of canids are attacking the cattle.

Read more and see the pics: Ghost Theory

A semi-comatose Saudi man has been chained in a basement apartment for more than six years because his father believes he is possessed by an evil female genie.

‘When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white,’ said the father of the 29-year-old man who has been identified only as Turki.

‘Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him.’

When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him.

‘But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no-one can exorcise her unless Turki dies,’ his father said.

One cleric advised him to shackle his son’s arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him.

‘We did this. My son became quiet but is totally unaware of what is happening around him. He does not talk and is now unable to harm anyone,’ Turki’s father told Arab News, an English language Saudi daily.

Read more: Daily Mail