TIME TRAVEL STORIES always run the risk of falling into a gaping plot hole so big that it totally destroys the narrative. Between paradoxes and nuanced theories of space-time, things can go off the rails rather easily — even more so in video games.

Remedy Entertainment’s 2016 game, Quantum Break, assumes that the past cannot be changed, incorporating the Novikov self-consistency principle. This foundational theory leads to some of the most satisfying and airtight time travel rules ever represented in a video game.

Quantum Break follows a young man named Jack Joyce as he assists his friend Paul Serene in a time travel experiment at a university that goes completely wrong. Paul’s time machine malfunctions, causing a Fracture that randomly desynchronizes time itself and produces Stutters, where time becomes frozen for short periods.

The resulting explosion from the time machine infects both Paul and Jack with Chronon particles, giving them different time-based abilities. Paul gets flung into the far future into “The End of Time” where time has collapsed into a singularity because of the Fracture.

Yeah. It’s a lot. ...

Quantum Break has incredibly consistent time travel rules that make its story believable.

Shortly after, Paul returns to the present day notably older and with full control over his time travel powers. This older version is also the founder of Monarch Solutions, a corporation that specializes in time-travel technology, and its soldiers are Jack’s enemies throughout the game.

Armed with the knowledge of the past, present, and future, Paul accepts that the End of Time is inevitable. In contrast, Jack believes that he can change events in the past to prevent the End of Time from ever happening.

Jack and Paul spend the entire game at odds with one another as they travel through time in search of the Countermeasure, a device that can theoretically repair the Fracture or even counteract the effects of The End of Time.

“IT PROVES THAT THE GAME'S WRITERS HAD A HARDCORE APPRECIATION FOR REFLECTING ON SOME OF THE MOST MIND-BENDING THEORIES IN PHYSICS.”

Quantum Break does a fantastic job dramatizing the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment about quantum superposition where unperceived objects exist in a state of flux, meaning that unless we confirm whether or not a cat inside a box is dead, said cat is both at the same time.

In one of the game's biggest twists, Quantum Break presents a major character's presumed death, but if we don’t perceive it, does it really happen? We won't spoil the details here, but rest assured it's a compelling use of the concept for storytelling purposes. It proves that the game's writers had a hardcore appreciation for some of the most mind-bending theories in physics...

https://www.inverse.com/gaming/quantum-break-time-travel

He nearly did what the last 20 contestants couldn’t do, take down the current “Jeopardy” champion. Mott Community College history instructor, Aaron Gulyas, was a contestant on the game of questions and answers airing on Friday, May 27.

Gulyas has been a history instructor at the community college in Flint since 2006. He is also a podcast host of Great Lakes Lore which features weird history and the paranormal in the Great Lakes region, as well as The Saucer Life, a podcast about UFO history and culture. He also has written multiple books on the paranormal.

Here’s how his “Jeopardy” match, which came down to the Final Jeopardy clue, played out.

JEOPARDY ROUND

Gulyas got out to a big early lead and looked to expand on that when he landed on the round’s only Daily Double. However, he answered the clue wrong, losing $1,000 taking him down to $3,800, but still with a commanding lead.

The 10-day champion, Ryan Long from Philadelphia, made a bit of a comeback to shorten the lead headed into Double Jeopardy, trailing Gulyas’ $6,400 by only $1,800. Srimal Choi from Virginia had $800 in third place.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY ROUND

Choi had a nice run early, landing on the first Daily Double and answering the clue correctly to get her back into the game. However, after that, it was mostly Gulyas and Long going back and forth. Long took the lead at one point before Gulyas took it back.

Gulyas had a chance to take a commanding lead after landing on the second Daily Double, but wagered a conservative $2,000. He got the clue correct, expanding his lead by $5,400 over Long.

Going into Final Jeopardy, the Mott Community College instructor had a narrow lead over Long with $14,800 to Long’s $13,000. Choi was in third with $7,000.

FINAL JEOPARDY

The clue: Sports and Entertainment.
The answer: In 2021, this Hall of Fame athlete launched Omaha Productions.
Who is Peyton Manning?
Choi answered Tiger Woods and lost $2,000, taking her to $5,000.

Long answered Peyton Manning correctly, wagering $12,999, taking him to $25,999.

Gulyas guessed Ric Flair incorrectly, but wagered $0 and would have lost regardless. Long is now the 11-day champion with cash winnings totaling $209,300.

https://www.mlive.com/life/2022/05/mott-college-instructor-takes-lead-into-final-jeopardy-against-10-day-champ.html

Elon Musk's Hand-Picked Twitter Investors Confirm Some of His Critics' Worst Fears

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has corralled a group of 19 billionaires, firms, and funds to invest more than $7 billion to finance his takeover of Twitter, which he’s said he pursuing in the name of “free speech.” Musk is on the hook for $44 billion to buy the platform, which he won’t be able to afford unless he pledges his Tesla shares for a loan. With these new investors, though, he’ll only have to personally put up half that amount.

Musk’s purchase has been cheered by figures on the right and far-right and who insist that Twitter persecutes them out of political bias, and Musk—whose politics aren’t entirely clear-cut—hasn’t dissuaded the notion, even been criticizing the left for being too extreme. At the same time, his bid has worried researchers and users who’d prefer that Twitter not roll back efforts to keep the worst of the worst—Nazis, QAnon boosters, extreme anti-vaxxers—off the platform. Musk hasn’t gotten into many specifics about alter he’d change about the company’s policies. He also may not be able to dramatically change how moderation works on Twitter given restrictions like the European Union’s forthcoming Digital Services Act, which will require social media sites to more forcefully regulate content.

But his choices of co-owners may be telling. In addition to a fairly typical assortment of Silicon Valley venture-capital firms and heavyweight foreign investors, there are a number of prominent Donald Trump supporters as well as advocates for looser moderation policies on social media and a major crypto exchange, who are surely thrilled to be in businesses with the planet’s most prominent booster of Dogecoin. Maybe they’re all there to make a buck: Musk pitched these investors on ambitious plans to grow Twitter by cutting down on costs and monetizing tweets. Just as likely, they want to make Twitter the social network they’d like to see in the world. Here’s a guide to the investors who may soon own a piece of Twitter.

Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust

Larry Ellison—the multibillionaire founder of Oracle and Donald Trump supporter —pledged to invest $1 billion in Musk’s purchase. Ellison claims to be a close friend of Musk’s and joined Tesla’s board in 2018. Ellison’s Oracle almost got to take over part of TikTok’s U.S. operations in what appeared to be a sweetheart deal during the Trump administration. It withered after Trump lost re-election, but now Ellison may get another bite at the social-media apple.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/elon-musks-hand-picked-twitter-investors-confirm-some-of-his-critics-worst-fears/ar-AAX022f