BBC
The US government is once again trying to relaunch one dollar coins. Maybe instead of doing the same thing over again they should mint more of the one dollar coins they already have so that they become as ubiquitous as one dollar bills and not some novelty that no one uses.
Or maybe it's a brilliant ploy to get people to save more by getting people to "collect" them.
WEF
In other news, the WEF has released it's ranking of nations according to gender equality. The top four are all Nordic nations with Denmark falling behind the rest at a lowly eighth.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
Fox News Comedy
Hollywood Report
Fox News is planning to create its own right-leaning satire news show to counter the Daily Show. This just begs the questions, does satirical news have anyplace on a 24-hour news channel, why does Fox News feel the need to counter a show on Comedy Central, has Fox News finally conceded that it is not fair and balance, and since is just countering to an existing show considered "cutting edge"?
As I've heard someone quip before, isn't amazing how Fox News is always railing against the kind of immorality that takes place on regular Fox?
Fox News is planning to create its own right-leaning satire news show to counter the Daily Show. This just begs the questions, does satirical news have anyplace on a 24-hour news channel, why does Fox News feel the need to counter a show on Comedy Central, has Fox News finally conceded that it is not fair and balance, and since is just countering to an existing show considered "cutting edge"?
As I've heard someone quip before, isn't amazing how Fox News is always railing against the kind of immorality that takes place on regular Fox?
Sunday, November 19, 2006
In a World without Change
BBC
Argentina minted too few coins and is now facing a severe coin shortage. Stores are now demanding exact change or giving cheap objects as change. It's quite an interesting situation, and would seem to be one that could be easily fixed. So why isn't Argentina minting more coins?
Argentina minted too few coins and is now facing a severe coin shortage. Stores are now demanding exact change or giving cheap objects as change. It's quite an interesting situation, and would seem to be one that could be easily fixed. So why isn't Argentina minting more coins?
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Building Them Faster and Stronger
Top 500
Top 500 is a ranking of the 500 fastest supercomputers that is updated ever six months. Since last year, I've been keeping track of how much faster the computers on the list are getting. Of course it would take too long to look at all the computers. What I do is find the average speed of the top 10 and bottom 10 and compare it to the previous year.
Up until this year, both were averaging speed increases of 40% every six months, however, the June '06 list showed poor performance, with the top 10 increasing their speed by only 8%, the worst performance since the list started in '93. November's list shows improvement, but it's still below the average, with the top 10 increasing by 18% and the bottom top increasing by 35%.
Part of the reason for the low growth, at least in the top 10, is that it is usually driven by the speed of the top computer, but the current top computer, Blue Gene, was completed in November '05. I've heard mention that a computer to overtake Blue Gene is being built, but I think it was several years away from completion.
Because of the growth slowdown, my prediction for when the top 10 average exceeds 1 petaflop has been moved from June to November 2010. By 2012, the bottom 10 computers should be faster than the current top 10.
Also, apparently a 2GHz computer can calculate more than one GFLOPS, which would make my laptop comparable to the top 100 supercomputers of June '93.
Top 500 is a ranking of the 500 fastest supercomputers that is updated ever six months. Since last year, I've been keeping track of how much faster the computers on the list are getting. Of course it would take too long to look at all the computers. What I do is find the average speed of the top 10 and bottom 10 and compare it to the previous year.
Up until this year, both were averaging speed increases of 40% every six months, however, the June '06 list showed poor performance, with the top 10 increasing their speed by only 8%, the worst performance since the list started in '93. November's list shows improvement, but it's still below the average, with the top 10 increasing by 18% and the bottom top increasing by 35%.
Part of the reason for the low growth, at least in the top 10, is that it is usually driven by the speed of the top computer, but the current top computer, Blue Gene, was completed in November '05. I've heard mention that a computer to overtake Blue Gene is being built, but I think it was several years away from completion.
Because of the growth slowdown, my prediction for when the top 10 average exceeds 1 petaflop has been moved from June to November 2010. By 2012, the bottom 10 computers should be faster than the current top 10.
Also, apparently a 2GHz computer can calculate more than one GFLOPS, which would make my laptop comparable to the top 100 supercomputers of June '93.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Say No to Cluster Bombs
New Scientist
Swedish delegates are going to propose banning cluster bombs at arms talks in Geneva. Apparently 98% of cluster bomb casualties have been civilians. Sounds like a good reason to ban them.
Swedish delegates are going to propose banning cluster bombs at arms talks in Geneva. Apparently 98% of cluster bomb casualties have been civilians. Sounds like a good reason to ban them.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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