XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday 23 December 2011

Amazon Builds World’s Fastest Nonexistent Supercomputer - atop its Elastic Compute Cloud -

Amazon Builds World’s Fastest Nonexistent Supercomputer - atop its Elastic Compute Cloud - 


The 42nd fastest supercomputer on earth doesn’t exist.


This fall, Amazon built a virtual supercomputer atop its Elastic Compute Cloud — a web service that spins up virtual servers whenever you want them — and this nonexistent mega-machine outraced all but 41 of the world’s real supercomputers.


Yes, beneath Amazon’s virtual supercomputer, there’s real hardware. When all is said and done, it’s a cluster of machines, like any other supercomputer. But that virtual layer means something. This isn’t a supercomputer that Amazon uses for its own purposes. It’s a supercomputer that can be used by anyone.


Amazon is the poster child for the age of cloud computing. Alongside their massive e-tail business, Jeff Bezos and company have built a worldwide network of data centers that gives anyone instant access to all sorts of computing resources, including not only virtual servers but virtual storage and all sorts of other services that can be accessed from any machine on the net. This global infrastructure is so large, it can run one of the fastest supercomputers on earth — even as it’s running thousands upon thousands of other virtual servers for the world’s businesses and developers.


This not only shows the breadth of Amazon’s service. It shows that in the internet age, just about anyone can run a supercomputer-sized application without actually building a supercomputer. “If you wanted to spin up a ten or twenty thousand [processor] core cluster, you could do it with a single mouse click,” says Jason Stowe, the CEO of Cycle Computing, an outfit that helps researchers and businesses run supercomputing applications atop EC2. “Fluid dynamics simulations. Molecular dynamics simulations. Financial analysis. Risk analysis. DNA sequencing. All of those things can run exceptionally well atop the [Amazon EC2 infrastructure].”


And you could do it for a pittance — at least compared to the cost of erecting your own supercomputer. This fall, Cycle Computing setup a virtual supercomputer for an unnamed pharmaceutical giant that spans 30,000 processor cores, and it cost $1,279 an hour. Stowe — who has spent more than two decades in the supercomputing game, working with supercomputers at Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell — says there’s still a need for dedicated supercomputers you install in your own data center, but things are changing.


“I’ve been doing this kind of stuff for awhile,” he says, “and I think that five or 10 years from now, researchers won’t be worrying about administering their own clusters. They’ll be spinning up the infrastructure they need [from services like EC2] to answer the question they have. The days of having your own internal cluster are numbered.”


Read more -
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/nonexistent-supercomputer/

A Car Seat That Authenticates the Driver With Butt Recognition - confirms the correct hiney is in the driver’s seat -

A Car Seat That Authenticates the Driver With Butt Recognition - confirms the correct hiney is in the driver’s seat - 


Biometric security is often focused on the more boring anatomical parts, like the pads of the fingers (ehhh) or the eyes (who cares). So little attention has been paid to the security possibilities of the butt. Well, not anymore: researchers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo have come up with a car seat that measures the precise contours and pressures left by your posterior.
Apparently measuring buttprints, or rear-pressure (none of the terms I just used, or will use, have been approved or sanctioned by the researchers) is a pretty decent way to identify people. The seat is comprised of a system of 360 separate sensors, which measure pressure. Those sensors communicate with a laptop to put together a precise map of the seated person. The researchers say the seat can correctly identify people with 98% accuracy--not bad at all.
The team is hoping to work with Japanese car manufacturers to implement the system as an added security measure, possibly in as few as two or three years.
Read more -
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-12/car-seat-recognizes-your-butt-security-and-fun

Dog's life saved by VIAGRA... - veterinarian recommended Viagra to help her heart keep beating -

Dog's life saved by VIAGRA... - veterinarian recommended Viagra to help her heart keep beating - 
Ingrid the dog with her new family (credit: Jodi Record/Little Shelter)
A dog on Long Island that was facing death is alive today thanks to the drug Viagra.



Ingrid has been popping the little blue pills for five years. When the pit bull first arrived at the Little Shelter in Huntington, she was on the brink of death and a veterinarian recommended Viagra to help her heart keep beating. It worked.


“What a lot of people do not know is that Viagra was originally developed as a heart medication,” said spokesperson Jodi Record. “Now, it is used for something else, but it is what has kept her alive.”


And there’s more good news for the pooch. She was adopted and her new owners say they have no problem giving her the Viagra every day.


Read more - 
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/23/long-island-dogs-life-saved-by-viagra/

Did Tampa-area police tie down, pepper-spray, and eventually kill a man who was arrested for public intoxication? -

Did Tampa-area police tie down, pepper-spray, and eventually kill a man who was arrested for public intoxication? - 


Florida Cops strip man naked, tie him to a chair, cover his face, and then pepper spray him repeatedly, until he died
Did Tampa-area police tie down, pepper-spray, and eventually kill a disturbed man who was arrested for public intoxication?


That’s the account and accusation relayed by Reason.com. Over two years ago, 62-year-old Ohioan Nick Christie was detained for public intoxication while on a trip in the Tampa, Florida area.


The man’s wife asked that he be taken to the hospital, but Lee County cops allegedly decided instead to “strip Christie naked, tie him to a chair, cover his face, and then pepper spray him repeatedly, until he died.”


His death was ruled a homicide because he was restrained and repeatedly pepper-sprayed by law enforcement officers. But to this day, no one has been charged with a crime, and the state attorney cleared the sheriff’s office of criminal fault in the case.


Read more -http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/investigates/photo-shows-pepper-sprayed-prisoner-12142011

Google Paying Mozilla $900M in Search Deal - to feature its search engine in its Firefox Web browser -

Google Paying Mozilla $900M in Search Deal - to feature its search engine in its Firefox Web browser - 


Google will pay Mozilla $300 million a year for the next three years in a search deal it renewed earlier this week. The deal will give Mozilla much-needed cash to grow its business.


The Christmas holiday isn't the only thing Mozilla employees have to be cheerful about these days.


Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is paying the software maker $300 million a year over the next three year to feature its search engine in its Firefox Web browser, AllThingsDigital learned Dec. 22.


If true, Mozilla will take in nearly three times as much in 2012 as it took in 2010, when nearly $100 million of its $123 million in revenues came from its previous search deal with Google.


AllThingsDigital said Mozilla was able to command such a handsome sum by including Google search rivals Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) in the bidding process for the coveted slot in Firefox, which has anywhere from 22 to 25 percent market share, or hundreds of millions of users worldwide.


Google and Mozilla declined to comment on the financial terms of the new agreement, which Mozilla announced Dec. 20 and confirmed was good for at least the next three years.


In the arrangement, Mozilla drives searches to Google.com from the search box in Firefox and Google pays Mozilla a portion of ad revenues generated from those searches.


The arrangement is certainly interesting because it's not without some tension. Google launched its Chrome Web browser in September 2008, when Firefox was on its way to garnering 25 percent share by nibbling away at Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet Explorer share.


Chrome commands anywhere from 18 percent to 25 percent market share, depending on whether you believe the more conservative number from Net Applications, or the loftier number from StatCounter.


By tripling its revenue with Google's search deal alone, Mozilla is the big winner in this deal. The company gets the cash to fund other projects beyond Firefox, which, while popular and steadily improving, is no longer growing.


Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher identified some of those projects as Boot2Gecko, a Firefox OS for smartphones; the identity-based BrowserID alternative to Facebook Connect and Google Account credentials; and Apps initiative, which is intended to help developers write programs that work on all devices.


Google wins on multiple fronts. One, it benefits from millions of searches driven by millions of Firefox users. Two, it keeps those searches away from Bing , which at only 15 percent market share is more desperate to have them.


Read more - 
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Paying-Mozilla-900M-in-Search-Deal-ATD-890475/

Shoplifting Rises in Weeks Leading up to Christmas - up to its highest level in four years in 2011 -

Shoplifting Rises in Weeks Leading up to Christmas - up to its highest level in four years in 2011 - 


Theft in retail stores was up to its highest level in four years in 2011, and it seems shoplifters picked up the pace in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud and organized retail crime cost the U.S. retail industry $119 billion in 2011, or 1.45% of sales. That rate is 6.6% higher than the previous year, and represents the highest percentage recorded by the survey since in began in 2007.
The figure averages to about $435 per family, and about 47.8% of all U.S. retailers, according to The Global Retail Theft Barometer, a survey of more than 1,187 retailers worldwide.
Much of that theft, or 36% of the losses, included shoplifting by regular people, while employees stealing supplies represented about 44% and the loss from professionals stealing large quantities added up to about 3%.
In the four weeks leading up the Christmas, an estimated $1.84 billion in merchandise will be shoplifted, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer. That’s up 6% from $1.7 billion in 2010.
"They shoplift for Christmas gifts, they steal for themselves, for their family," Joshua Bamfield, executive director of the Centre for Retail Research and author of the survey, told the Associated Press.
The amount of retail theft grows around the holidays due to the sharply higher volume of shoppers, busy stores that make it more difficult to keep track of items and winter clothing such as coats and sweaters that make it easier to hide a product undetected.




Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/12/23/shoplifting-rises-in-weeks-leading-up-to-christmas/

Seafood 10,000 Times Over Safe Limit for Carcinogenic Contamination, FDA Says to Eat it Anyway -

Seafood 10,000 Times Over Safe Limit for Carcinogenic Contamination, FDA Says to Eat it Anyway - 


Despite seafood showing extremely high levels of contamination, the FDA still deems the food safe for consumption.


The FDA not only falsely softened the risk of seafood consumption due to carcinogenic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the seafood supply, but also ignored individual FDA staff members who called for higher levels of contamination protection.


The oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was one of the largest offshore oil spills in history. One recent study conducted by researchers at the Natural Resources Defense Council found that FDA Gulf seafood “safe levels” actually allowed 100 to 10,000 times more carcinogenic PAHs in seafood than what is safe. This move by the FDA is not only only irresponsible for environmental and human safety, but puts those who are more vulnerable at a higher risk, such as pregnant women and children.


FDA Says Yo Don’t Need to Remove Your Overly-Contaminated Seafood


Researchers who conducted the study, which was published in the top peer-reviewed environmental health journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found the information from snatched internal emails and unreleased assessments from the FDA under the Freedom of Information Act. The FDA argues that the reason they downplayed the risk is biased on the side of safety.


The director of the FDA has been reported stating “overly conservative estimates would lead you [to] remove a great deal of food from our refrigerators and pantries than is needed”.


Seeing as consuming highly contaminated seafood is completely opposite of safe, this kind of response of course suggests that the FDA’s decision had little to do with safety, and was likely driven by political factors.


This wouldn’t be the first time that the FDA falsified or presented manipulated data. The agency also ignored the fact that mercury, an element that is highly toxic in all forms, was found in a large number of brand-name processed foods. But  instead of addressing this major public health concern, the FDA decided to focus their time on crushing beneficial supplements through ridiculous NDI regulations that threaten the entire infrastructure of the nutraceuticals industry.


In addition, the Food and Drug Administration has known for years that asthma drugs actually kill more patients than asthma itself, but they simply ignored this information. Similarly, data indicates that through the combination of rays from the sun and ingredients found in sunscreen, the skin can be damaged so much that lesions and tumors can be the end result. But of course the US Food and Drug Administration has allegedly been aware of this critical information for the past ten years, but has done absolutely nothing to warn people about it.


Read more - 
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Seafood_10%2C000_Times_Over_Safe_Limit_for_Carcinogenic_Contamination%2C_FDA_Says_to_Eat_it_Anyway/17134/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Facebook wants you to get off Facebook - new feature "Suggested Events" nags you into actually interacting with others -

Facebook wants you to get off Facebook - new feature "Suggested Events" nags you into actually interacting with others - 


Are you bored and have no friends? Do you spend an inordinate amount of time online? Facebook is here to help. It wants you to go outside and play.


A new feature called Suggested Events does exactly what Suggested Friends seems to do -- nag you into expanding your social circle and actually interacting with others in real life.


Whenever you check in somewhere using Facebook, Suggested Events gathers the information and then kicks back ideas based on your interests and where you like to go. It’s kind of like having a personal concierge that you don’t have to tip.


A little creepy, maybe? Some might find it a cool way to check out new places. But for all you people who check in everywhere you go, like work, and the gas station, be prepared. We're not saying Facebook would ever suggest going to a staff meeting for fun, but just the idea of it is kind of weird. 


Read more - 
http://www.hlntv.com/article/2011/12/23/facebook-suggested-events?hpt=hp_c1

US war woe: Suicide kills more soldiers than combat - 2nd year in row more soldiers killed themselves than were killed -

US war woe: Suicide kills more soldiers than combat - 2nd year in row more soldiers killed themselves than were killed - 


When guns fall silent and ceasefires are agreed, wars live on in the minds of the men and women who fought them. And a killer still stalks them, more deadly than the enemies they once faced.
Being in a conflict environment is killing US soldiers. But surprisingly, the biggest killers are not enemy combatants.
For the second year in row, more US soldiers killed themselves than were killed in combat. In 2010, 468 soldiers took their own lives, compared to 462 killed in fighting.
And even off the battlefield, suicide rates continue to soar.
Matthis Chiroux is an Afghanistan war veteran turned anti-war activist.
“I unfortunately inhabit the demographic in the United States that kills itself, pretty much more than any other out there,” he told RT. “We come home feeling terrible, despicable about what we did and what we saw.”
 Chiroux is one of thousands returning from deployment feeling detached and conflicted.
“The laws of decency don't apply to soldiers in combat and when you go back to having to apply those laws to yourself all the time that, for many, leads either to the grave or to jail,” he explains. 
An average of 18 veterans per day commit suicide and many more attempt it. Last year, 20 per cent of America’s 30,000 suicides was a soldier or veteran. 
Dr. Jan Kemp, a director of the National Mental Health Program, says many soldiers come back feeling disconnected from the world in which they once lived.  
“It kind of accumulates in disaster. You really start to wonder if you're ever going to be who you were again,” she explained to RT. “Then all of a sudden, they're back. Things happened in their families while they were gone. The situation they come back to is often not the same as when they left.”
In fact, many come back to bleak situations.
A quarter of the homeless in America are military veterans. The unemployment rate among vets hovers above 12 per cent.
Meanwhile, campaigns such as “Army Strong” glorify life as a soldier, and aim to entice America’s young men and women to enlist.


Read more - 
http://rt.com/news/us-soldiers-suicide-combat-487/

Finland 'Finds 69 Patriot (US company Raytheon) anti-missile missiles' on China-bound ship - marked "fireworks" -

Finland 'Finds 69 Patriot (US company Raytheon) anti-missile missiles' on China-bound ship - marked "fireworks" - 




The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.


Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.


Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".


The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.


Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks".


The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.


Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.


Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.


'Quite unusual'
The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa.


Patriot missile systems are supplied to US allies
It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.


Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed.


"Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.


Interior Minister Rasanen said she had not heard of a similar case.


"Of course, there are legal transports of weapons or defence material [through Finland] but in this case the cargo was marked as containing fireworks," she told Finnish media. "That is quite unusual."




Mr Lounatmaa said customs officials and police had launched a joint investigation into a possible breach of Finnish export and weapons trading laws.


He said that the crew of about 32 were being questioned.


Patriot missiles, designed by the US company Raytheon, are supplied to "US and allied forces", according to the company's website. South Korea is among states which deploy them.


Read more - 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16292244