Russian roulette: the amazing history and further fate of the creator of Chatroulette – hi-Tech.ua

21.12.10

It was on this home computer that Andrey wrote ChatRoulette in two days

In November 2009, a new entertainment appeared on the World Wide Web Chat Roulette. This is a video chat in which you can accidentally meet anyone an American fan, Chinese schoolgirls, an Indian poet For full communication in the chat, you need a video camera through which the interlocutor can see you. Next, everything is simple. Go to the site, click on the start button and see a random interlocutor on your screen. You have a few seconds to start chatting with him, or click on the next button and see another random face (sometimes its not a face at all, but something indecent, so dont let your children on this chat roulette).

One American user, talking about his experience working on ChatRoulette (www.Chatroulette.com), found it funny that in one session he was able to contemplate several people drinking liquor; two girls who were doing makeup; many guys who immediately switched as soon as they saw that I was not a girl; several girls who passed out as soon as they saw my face, and so on.

An ordinary schoolboy Andrei Ternovsky lives with his parents in an unremarkable 16-story building in a residential area of Moscow

Andrey Ternovsky, talking about the birth of the project, said that he is an ordinary teenager and knows what his peers love. The impetus for the creation of Chatroulette was video conferencing on Skype, where he often hung out with friends, but they quickly got bored with it. As Andrei himself said: Its boring when you know exactly who youre going to talk to. Having searched Google for a video chat that would work in random mode, Andrey did not find one, and was surprised. So he sat down and in two days wrote a program for the first version of Chatroulette on his old computer. In creating the site, he was helped by his knowledge of programming (he has been on the Internet since he was 11 years old and his father taught him something).

The name was also invented spontaneously just before this, Andrei watched the famous film The Deer Hunter. In it, prisoners of war played Russian roulette. The name for the newly created service was born by itself, by analogy.

At first, the service did not have advertising as such. Andrey showed it to his friends, but they began to criticize the site and said that no one would use it. But the guy did not despair he went to several forums and asked people to test the service, which is how he got the first 20 users. Then the audience began to double every day, and people started talking about the service in the virtual world. Popularity literally fell on his head. As Andrey himself says, I woke up one morning and saw all these articles about Chatroulette. I called my mother to come and take a look. At first she was very nervous and didnt understand what was happening, then she asked why I wasnt going to school today.

Real popularity came to Chatroulette almost immediately in February 2010, the site was talked about in the media of different countries. In the USA in the program Good Morning America and in the press (New York Times, New York Magazine), in the UK on Newsnight and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In addition, the service was parodied in the cartoon South Park (season 14, episode You Have 0 Friends). And what do we see today? Now site traffic fluctuates between 0.5-1.5 million people per day (!). The numbers sound especially impressive compared to the starting 500 visitors.

Everyone finds their own way to use the site. For some it is a game, for others it is a whole unknown world, for others it is a way of meeting people. I think its great that such a simple thing can be useful to many, Andrey explained the reason for the popularity of his resource.

Media experts believe that the reason for the popularity may be the mesmerizing expectation of something unusual when you press the next button (although what you see on the screen at first can be shocking and almost crushing). Or this is entertainment of a new generation, incomprehensible to those who are accustomed to sorting information on the Internet and limiting themselves to certain boundaries.

Andrey plans to get an education, although he may put it off until later. Now he is engaged in programming, learning foreign languages and developing his brainchild

The American press is now comparing the Moscow schoolboy with nothing less than 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the Facebook network (www.facebook.com) and the youngest billionaire in the world. And popular American bloggers such as Asylum (http://theasylum.wordpress.com) and The Frisky (www.thefrisky.com) said that the site that Ternovsky came up with is their favorite since the advent of YouTube and even the holy grail of all internet entertainment.

But in the 11th grade of Moscow gymnasium No. 1519, the young talent has problems, despite the full support of his classmates and the sympathy of his teachers. The fact is that because of the site, Andrei has no time left to study, and since January he has stopped going to school. Whether he will receive a certificate is also a big question. This is due to the popularity of Chatroulette.com as soon as visitors began to arrive, the service required improvements. One day Andrei Ternovsky sat at the computer for almost two days.

So they are in no hurry to set him up as an example to other students. I think that Ternovsky is not acting very thoughtfully by betting only on this site, says one of the teachers. What if everyone gets bored with its development and people stop using this service? Who will he be then? He wont be able to get into university without a certificate. Colleagues confirm him: The boy is a very average student. He does not participate in Olympiads, much less in scientific projects. We think that among our guys there are those who will definitely become famous in the future.

Indeed, the gymnasium where Andrei studies is one of the best. A few years ago, a youth design bureau was opened here, where teachers from the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Design Bureau named after them come to give lectures. Sukhoi. Another pride of the director is the students, who last year received nine grants from the capital authorities of 30 thousand rubles each.

But can this amount be compared with the millions that can be offered to Ternovsky for the site, classmates say. They themselves learned about their friends success from the Internet: Although he is a very sociable, he is still a modest guy. He didnt boast about his success. We, of course, knew that he was making such a site; he worked on it almost all day long. He said he doesnt do it for money, but for fun.

Andrey became interested in computer programming at the age of 11, when his father gave him a computer. Mom recalls that even in elementary school, her son could give out a couple of computer terms. Computer science, as you might guess, was Andreis favorite subject in the gymnasium. Friends say that somewhere in the 7th or 8th grade, he himself made a computer virus and installed it on the school computer. True, I fixed everything later. He also helped the girls: he taught them how to hack passwords from boys email accounts. He doesnt have any bad habits, his classmates laugh.

In addition to programming, Andrey is interested in learning foreign languages. Now he is learning English and Chinese and plans to become a translator, although he has no plans to give up programming. True, Andrei is not yet thinking about finishing school according to him, he can postpone this in order to devote himself entirely to what he loves. But he is going to continue his education in any case probably, the opinion of conservative (as he himself claims) parents plays an important role here.

Like any large resource where visitors accumulate, trolls graze on Chatroulette. Often they just scare other users

Despite the fact that the rules of the resource prohibit the broadcast of indecent images, Chatroulette is often used by exhibitionists due to the lack of registration. A study of 2883 communication sessions showed that every eighth connection violates this particular point of the rules.

Andrey himself says that he wanted to create a fairly free, unmoderated resource, but some people take advantage of this and come to the site with disgusting intentions. And exhibitionism and voyeurism are prohibited in the rules. The system itself blocks violators, counting the number of times the Report button is pressed by those who do not like it.

However, this fashion continues. Some users make it a kind of sport out of counting naked people and body parts, then broadcast their statistics on the Internet.

By the way, one of the possible investors, Fred Wilson, among the shortcomings of the resource names sexual overtones, since the site is already filled with numerous exhibitionists and voyeurs, but they can show you not only naked parts of the body: someone will sing, someone will read poetry to -We urgently need to talk for life. The Internet is a huge space used by more than a billion people from all over the world. Chatroulette can become a very convenient way to travel on the Internet, allowing you to expand the possibilities of meeting and communicating between people, the businessman said in his blog (www.avc.com).

This pianist became a real star thanks to Chatroulette

Some celebrities claim to have used Chatroulette, such as Kelly Osbourne and Nicole Richie. There are those who were photographed on the site, but did not confirm their presence there for example, Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, the pop-rock group Jonas Brothers and Jessica Alba. Although, as for the Jonas Brothers, they directly stated on their Twitter that all the personalities similar to them on Chatroulette are fakes.

Additionally, on February 27 at the Soundwave festival in Melbourne, Australia, Faith No More streamed their performance live on Chatroulette.

Another user named Merton used video chat as a platform for musical improvisation. Sitting at the piano, he played music to random video interlocutors, composing the theme and lyrics as he went.

A recording of improvisations on YouTube, posted by Merton on a specially created channel PianoChatImprov (www.youtube.com/user/PianoChatImprov), collected 1.3 million views in five days. The channel itself, on which the musician promised to post more videos, has collected over 45 thousand subscribers.

Little is known about Merton. He is self-taught and has not taken any music lessons. He also claims to be not multi-instrumentalist Ben Folds, whom he bears a slight resemblance to in appearance.

Business shark Fred Wilson is still one of the most likely investors in Chatroulette if Andrey agrees to new investments

Andrey admits that he has no entrepreneurial spirit. He had no idea that the project would bring him money. But when the service began to grow rapidly, the guy had to borrow $10 thousand from his parents, although he soon repaid the debt. At first, Andrey used AdSense (a contextual advertising service developed by Google). Then I worked with Mamboo.com for several weeks. Now the service, according to its creator, brings in about $1,500 a day.

Chatroulette employs 4 programmers, although the site does not have its own office. Andrey found all of them on the Internet, and one of them works in the USA, in Virginia, and the other in Belarus.

In addition, about 200 venture capital companies from Silicon Valley contacted Andrey. ChatRoulette has attracted the attention of businessmen and investors from all over the world, including giants such as Google, Skype and Facebook. In Russia, Andreys site is monitored by local trendsetters Yandex and Digital Sky Technology (http://dst-global.com/), whose founder and president, Yuri Milner, is the only Russian entrepreneur who owns a stake in Facebook. Yu. Milner (www.snob.ru/profile/about/5240) offered Ternovsky a deal to acquire a stake in ChatRoulette.

Another promising investor, Yuri Milner, also remains out of work for now. Andrey is currently thinking about the future of his service

However, Ternovsky has serious plans for the United States. The Internet is my world, my connection with the West. I dream of opening my own company in Silicon Valley, Andrei told the German magazine Der Spiegel. A few days after meeting with Yuri Milner, who claimed that the young man had more prospects in Russia than in the United States, Andrei still applied for an American visa to go to the United States for reconnaissance. He was invited to negotiations: American business angel, first Twitter investor Fred Wilson in New York, and the eVenture fund (www.eventureinternet.com) in San Francisco.

As Andrey says, his head is full of different ideas. He doesnt know if he wants to work for a well-known company. On the one hand, I would like to live in the USA for some time, and this requires money. I would like to work and develop my project at the same time. But Im not in a hurry to decide anything yet, since it may well be that Chatroulette will feed me too. I dont have any clearly thought out plan for life. Its all rather like some kind of crazy journey, he says. At the same time, the young man names the approximate cost of his project, which his friends from Silicon Valley guided him to, $50 million.

But Andrey developed a little intrigue around possible changes to the Chatroulette concept. Moreover, he does not say unequivocally whether these will be just partial innovations or a global change in concept. But he doesnt plan to leave his brainchild, even if the fashion for it passes: Nothing lasts forever, and I understand that people will get tired of roulette. When I feel a decline, I will change and improve the concept to support fashion.

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Introducing Mistral-Large on Azure in partnership with Mistral AI – Microsoft

The AI industry is undergoing a significant transformation with growing interest in more efficient and cost-effective models, emblematic of a broader trend in technological advancement. In the vanguard is Mistral AI, an innovator and trailblazer. Their commitment to fostering the open-source community and achieving exceptional performance aligns harmoniously with Microsofts commitment to develop trustworthy, scalable, and responsible AI solutions.

Today, we are announcing a multi-year partnership between Microsoft and Mistral AI, a recognized leader in generative artificial intelligence. Both companies are fueled by a steadfast dedication to innovation and practical applications, bridging the gap between pioneering research and real-world solutions.

Build intelligent apps at enterprise scale with the Azure AI portfolio

This partnership with Microsoft enables Mistral AI with access to Azures cutting-edge AI infrastructure, to accelerate the development and deployment of their next generation large language models (LLMs) and represents an opportunity for Mistral AI to unlock new commercial opportunities, expand to global markets, and foster ongoing research collaboration.

We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Microsoft. With Azures cutting-edge AI infrastructure, we are reaching a new milestone in our expansion propelling our innovative research and practical applications to new customers everywhere. Together, we are committed to driving impactful progress in the AI industry and delivering unparalleled value to our customers and partners globally.

Microsofts partnership with Mistral AI is focused on three core areas:

Introducing Mistral Large, our most advanced large language model (LLM)

In November 2023, at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft unveiled the integration of Mistral 7B into the Azure AI model catalog accessible through Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning. We are excited to announce Mistral AIs flagship commercial model, Mistral Large, available first on Azure AI and the Mistral AI platform, marking a noteworthy expansion of our offerings. Mistral Large is a general-purpose language model that can deliver on any text-based use case thanks to state-of-the-art reasoning and knowledge capabilities. It is proficient in code and mathematics, able to process dozens of documents in a single call, and handles French, German, Spanish, and Italian (in addition to English).

This latest addition of Mistral AIs premium models into Models as a Service (MaaS) within Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning provides Microsoft customers with a diverse selection of the best state-of-the-art and open-source models for crafting and deploying custom AI applications, paving the way for novel AI-driven innovations.

We have tested Mistral Large through the Azure AI Studio in a use case aimed at internal efficiency. The performance was comparable with state-of-the-art models with even better latency. We are looking forward to exploring further this technology in our business.

After exploring Mistral Large during its early access period, weve been impressed by its performance on medical terminology. As we continue to innovate in healthcare, were open to collaborations that can help us and our partners grow together. Mistral AI represents an exciting opportunity for mutual advancement in artificial intelligence, both in France and internationally.

The Mistral AI models have been crucial in enhancing productivity and collaboration at CMA CGM. Their advanced capabilities have significantly improved the performance of our internal personal assistant, MAIA. Employees are now able to quickly access and engage with information like never before. We are confident that Mistral AI on Azure is the right choice to support our employees and drive innovation across our organization.

Microsoft is committed to supporting global AI innovation and growth, offering world-class datacenter AI infrastructure, and developing technology securely to empower individuals with the skills they need to leverage AI effectively. This partnership with Mistral AI is founded on a shared commitment to build trustworthy and safe AI systems and products. It further reinforces Microsofts ongoing efforts to enhance our AI offerings and deliver unparalleled value to our customers. Additionally, the integration into AI Studio ensures that customers can utilize Azure AI Content Safety and responsible AI tools, further enhancing the security and reliability of AI solutions.

Visit the Mistral Large model card and sign in with your Azure subscription to get started with Mistral Large on Azure AI today. You can also review the technical blog to learn how to use Mistral Large on Azure AI. Visit Mistral AIs blog to get deeper insights about the model.

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Introducing Mistral-Large on Azure in partnership with Mistral AI - Microsoft

NATO says Bild article about war between Russia and Alliance is war game scenario – Yahoo News

The story by the German tabloid Bild, which says NATO is preparing for war with Russia, is based on a training scenario document.

Source: Jnis Srts, Director of the NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communications on Twitter; European Pravda

Details: Srts noted that Bild has a training scenario, which is always a fictional situation.

It is aimed at testing military capabilities in a particular area, Srts added.

"Previously, scenarios were completely invented with non-existent countries and geographical regions. Now it is more appropriate to use existing countries and geographical regions," Srts commented.

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Sweden seeks to tighten NATO’s grip in Baltic Sea with 2 new submarines – POLITICO Europe

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KARLSKRONA, Sweden Theyve been on the drawing board for more than a decade, but in the heart of a vast assembly hall in a shipyard on the Baltic Sea coast, Swedens two new A26 attack submarinesare finally coming together.

Set for launch in 2027 and 2028, the 66-meter-long diesel-electric subs, named Blekinge and Skne after two Swedish counties, are designed to patrol NATOs eastern reaches under the Baltic Sea, tracking and countering Moscows maritime moves amid ever worsening relations between Russia and Europe.

The two are Swedens first new subs to be built since the mid-1990s and will join four older vessels in the Nordic states fleet.

We have a long history of building submarines, said Mats Wicksell, the head of Kockums, a business area of Swedish military equipment manufacturer Saab which is building the A26s. But this is still a big step forward for us.

The looming Swedish launches underscore a nascent subsea renewal in Northern Europe, where the Norwegian navy recently ordered four new submarines from Germanys ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The Netherlands has received bids from TKMS, Saab Kockums and Frances Naval Group to build four submarines, while Denmark, which disposed of its fleet in 2004, recently suggested itmightreverse that move.

This expansion will partially bridge the gap to NATOs biggest European fleets, which are set for slight growth this decade, according to a report by Swedens Defense Research Agency. Six new French Barracuda class submarines are entering service and two further Type 212 subs will join an existing German fleet of six. The U.K.s fleet of Astute class submarines will total seven by the end of the decade and the Italian Todaro class submarines eight.

The European upgrades come amid a Russian PR drive about additions to its own fleet. In December, President Vladimir Putin posed on the dockside at Russias White Sea submarine production hub at Severodvinsk alongside two new vessels, the Krasnoyarsk and Emperor Alexander the Third.

The Russian navy will have 50 submarines in 2030, according to the Swedish report.

The U.S. submarine fleet is set to shrink slightly in numerical terms to 57 by 2030, but the continued introduction of the new Virginia class will serve to maintain and even widen America's technological advantage over its rivals during the same period, the Swedish report said.

Visited on a recent weekday, the Saab shipyard in the southern Swedish naval town of Karlskrona was humming with activity.

The partially built Blekinge was shrouded in scaffolding, while metal workers prepared further steel hull sections for highly skilled welders to later stitch together into a whole capable of withstanding blasts from mines and impact with the seabed. In another area, electricians threaded seemingly endless reams of wiring into high-tech interiors.

For Sweden, the long delayed new submarines they were initially supposed to enter service in 2018 and 2019 will be a shot in the arm in a rapidly deteriorating security environment.

Sweden has seenincursionsby an unidentified submarine in its territorial waters as well as explosions crippling the Russian-built Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in its maritime exclusive economic zone in 2022 and the severing of a subsea communications cable linkto Estoniain 2023.

Sweden reinstated conscription and remilitarized its strategically placed Baltic Sea of Gotland in the wake of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. Since the Kremlins full scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, it has boosted defense spending by 30 percent between 2023 and 2024 and applied to join NATO.

In early January, the Swedish government and the head of its armytoldcitizens to prepare themselves for war.

Theplan tolaunch the A26s has been a key pillar in Stockholms claim that it cancontributeto NATOs military strength,and isnt applying to join the alliance solely to benefit from its mutual defense guarantees.

Since the accession to NATO of the Baltic States in 2004 and Finland last April, the alliance has faced a headache over how to protect maritime supply lines to those states and restrict access to Russia in the event of conflict with the Kremlin.

Carl Gyhlenius, a Swedish former submarine commander and now a planner for the countrys navy, said he felt that NATO was getting a missing jigsaw piece with Sweden's NATO accession delayed by foot-dragging from Turkey and Hungary.

The Baltic Sea is hard to deal with if you don't have the necessary experience, and the fact that another country is joining NATO which has this as its backyard, with that regional expertise, that should ease operational problems, Gyhlenius said.

The Baltic is widely seen as a tricky operating environment because its varying salt levels affect sonar. It is also shallow and heavily trafficked, which increases collision risk.

On a recent visit to Stockholm, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Swedens defense industry saying it offered advanced technology across a range of branches addingthat the NATO accession of the Nordic statewill be a big advantagefor the alliance as it seeks to maintainits technological edgeoveritsrivals.

Swedens first submarine, called the Shark, was launched in 1904, and over the decades that followed the Swedish navyexpanded its underwater capabilities as part of its broader effort to mount a credible national defense as a neutral state betweenEast andWest.

Toward the end of the last century,Swedish engineers achieved a technical breakthrough with a system called air independent propulsion (AIP) which allowed Swedish submarines to operate for longer periods without surfacing, aiding their ability to evade detection.

Following the end of the Cold War, Sweden cut back on defense spending and its submarine program was largely on hold foradecade until 2010, when Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors announced a plan to build the A26.

Through this significant renewal, we are ensuring that the Swedish submarine fleet will continue to maintain the highest international class, he said. Modern submarines represent a significant obstacle to any actor who wants to use the Baltic Sea for anything other than peaceful shipping.

In the years since, the A26 project has been criticized for delays and cost overruns.

But its defenders say the wait and extra cost will be justified by the delivery of vessels tailor-made for Baltic Sea conditions at a time when control of that waterway is geopolitically vital.

In its promotional material, Saab notes that the dimensions of the A26 as well as its updated AIP system and new sonar-defeating hull design make it ideally suited to the Baltic.

It also has a new modular design, which will allow obsolete technology to be replaced with new systems more easily and a new portal toward the front of the boat will also allow easier interaction between the crew inside the vessel and divers or unmanned vessels operating outside, Saab says.

Kockums chief Wicksell said the A26 represents value for money because its combination of stealth and advanced weapons systems can help ward off foes and reduce the risk of a costly future conflict.

If I know there is something out there but I dont know where it is and I cant defend myself against it, that is a deterrent, he said.

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Russian Foreign Ministry dismisses Bild claims that Russia is preparing for war with NATO – Yahoo News

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova characterized a recent article in German newspaper Bild as last year's horoscope for Pisces in Cancer, in a Telegram post on Jan. 15.

The article alleges that Bild obtained a secret document from the German military that details how a conflict between Russia and NATO might arise, with events unfolding month by month. The culmination involves deployment of hundreds of thousands of NATO soldiers and the start of war in the summer of 2025.

No aspect of this alleged document has been confirmed by either official or independent sources.

Read also:

KSF experts assess Ukraine's EU and NATO prospects in 2024

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Putin will only trigger World War Three if he feels Nato are unprepared, ex-commander of US forces in Europe warns – LBC

16 January 2024, 06:59 | Updated: 16 January 2024, 07:04

Vladimir Putin will do the unthinkable if he feels Nato are unprepared, a former commander of US forces in Europe has warned.

Ben Hodges, who was commander of the US army in Europe between 2014 and 2018, said another world war would only happen if Russia felt Nato was not prepared or united.

He said plans leaked from the German Ministry of Defence may seem "scary" but it shows the threat is being taken "seriously".

The documents, which emerged on Monday, show how Nato could respond to World War Three, with a step-by-step plan showing how the West would resist aggression launched by Putin.

"[Russia] only respect strength. If they sense any weakness then they will continue to move forward," Mr Hodges said, according to the Mail.

"If they did it, it would be because they made the assessment that we were not ready or unified inside the alliance or that we did not have adequate ammunition or the ability to move fast enough.

"But if we are prepared, they still have a long way to go."

Read more: Cyber attacks, riots and lies: Leaked documents show step-by-step plan for how Putin could trigger World War Three

Read more: UK to send hundreds of air defence missiles to Ukraine as Sunak condemns Putin's revenge attack

Mr Hodges went on to say the best way to prevent a war is to "be prepared for it".

"The UK has always been aware of the threat from Russia but now Germany are realising that this is something thats only going to get worse if theyre not prepared," he said.

"So readiness - with all the right equipment and capabilities - is exactly what nations should be doing. And Germany is doing that."

The ex-commander added: "If the civilian leadership doesnt think theres a threat, they wont be able to move quickly enough. Our leaders should talk to us like adults.

"It doesnt mean you're a scaremongerer, it means you're taking precaution, which is exactly what we should be doing."

The "Alliance Defence 2025" plans are not an early warning of how events will go - but a hypothetical scenario for decision-makers to consider.

The scenario looks at Russia mobilising 200,000 more men as its forces are bogged down in Ukraine.

Putin uses them to launch a spring offensive, winning the war in June in a nightmare scenario for Europe.

Hybrid attacks are then launched on the West, before Russia builds up forces on the border with Nato countries Poland and Lithuania.

After stirring up tensions in the Baltics, Nato deploys 300,000 soldiers east on "Day X" as they stare down Russian forces over the Suwalki gap, the region between Moscow's satellite Belarus and its Kaliningrad enclave.

A spokesperson for the ministry said: "Basically, I can tell you that considering different scenarios, even if they are extremely unlikely, is part of everyday military business, especially in training."

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Putin will only trigger World War Three if he feels Nato are unprepared, ex-commander of US forces in Europe warns - LBC

Nazi-Looted Painting Returned to Collector’s Heir | Smart News – Smithsonian Magazine

The painting is attributed toDutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem. Kaye Spiegler

A painting stolen by a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II has been returned to the original owners heir, reports the Observers Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly.

The official in question is Hermann Gring, who held many powerful positions in the Nazi party. According to ARTnews Angelica Villa, Gring acquired the artworkalong with some 1,100 other piecesfrom the collection of Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in Amsterdam in 1940.

Some of the looted pieces were eventually returned to the Dutch government, which gave 200 paintings to Goudstikkers family in 2006 after a lengthy legal battle. Many of the works, however, are still missing.

Art historians think the newly returned artwork, titled Adam and Eve, was painted by Dutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem in the 16th century. It recently resurfaced when a private collector tried to donate it to the Muse Rolin, an art museum in Autun, France.

When Agathe Mathiaut-Legros, the museums curator, and Axelle Goupy, her assistant, inspected the piece, they discovered a label bearing Goudstikkers name, reports Meriem Souissi of the French newspaper Le Journal de Sane-et-Loire. They began researching the paintings provenance and determined it was one of the works stolen from Goudstikkers collection during World War II.

The museum then notified Marei von Saher, Goudstikkers daughter-in-law and only living heir, to let her know about the discovery. The New York law firm Kaye Spiegler helped facilitate the return.

The identity of the donors has not been revealed. According to the law firm, they did not know the piece had been looted.

The museum really acted in the way that you want museums to be acting; they flagged it, they contacted the family, they were doing the right thing to resolve this in a fair and correct way, says Yal Weitz, an attorney who worked on the case, to the Observer. They handled it in a way that we hope other museums will going forward.

Roughly 800 pieces looted from Goudstikkers collection still have not been returned to the family, though a few have made their way back in recent years. In 2022, the German city of Trier returned a painting called Ice Skating, created by Dutch artist Adam van Breen during the 17th century.

Still, not all Von Sahers efforts to retrieve the familys stolen paintings have been successful. For example, a San Francisco court ruled in 2018 that the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, could keep two looted 16th-century paintings created by Lucas Cranach the Elder. In 2019, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

Last month, the Muse Rolin held a ceremony to mark the return of Adam and Eve.

I am deeply appreciative of the efforts that led to the recovery of this piece of our familys history, says Von Saher in a statement from Kaye Spiegler. It is so gratifying to see justice achieved and have this painting returned to its rightful owners.

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University of Stuttgart picks HPE for 115 million exascale supercomputer – DatacenterDynamics

The University of Stuttgart has ordered two supercomputers from HPE for its High Performance Computing Center (HLRS).

The two systems, called Hunter and Herder, will cost 115 million ($127m), and take the HLRS up to exascale level in two stages by 2027, leading to a massively parallel GPU-accelerated system.

"The expansion will strengthen Stuttgart's outstanding position in computer simulation and artificial intelligence research," explains Professor Wolfram Ressel, Rector at the University of Stuttgart.

The systems will be used for simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance data analysis, within computational engineering and applied science.

Hunter, a transitional supercomputer based on HPE's Cray EX400, will begin operation in 2025, replacing HLRSs current flagship supercomputer, Hawk, and taking HLRS from its current peak performance of 26 petaflops, to 39 petaflops,

It will have 136 HPE Cray EX4000 nodes, each with four HPE Slingshot high-performance interconnects. Hunter will also use the next generation of Cray's ClusterStor storage system.

Hunter will begin the move away from CPU processors, adding in more energy-efficient GPUs. It will be based on the AMD Instinct MI300A accelerated processing unit (APU), which combines CPU and GPU processors, with local unified memory the processors can access quickly.

As well as boosting performance, Hunter will use 80 percent less energy than Hawk, the University says.

Herder, a true exascale system, will arrive in 2027. It is projected to provide speeds on the order of one quintillion (1018) flops. Its final architecture will use accelerator chips but won't be fully determined till the end of 2025.

The 115 million budget will be jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the State of Baden-Wrttemberg's Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts, through the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS), which is an alliance of Germany's three national supercomputing centers.

Elsewhere in Germany, the GCS is funding the Jupiter supercomputer at the Jlich Supercomputing Centre which, 2025, is scheduled to be Europe's first exascale system in Europe in 2025. The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre is planning an exascale system for widescale use in 2026.

The move to GPUs will save power, says the University. "Energy efficiency with optimal support for cutting-edge science is of paramount importance for us at the University of Stuttgart," said Anna Steiger, Chancellor at the University of Stuttgart.

"With Hunter and Herder, we are responding to the challenges of reducing CO2 emissions, while also enabling both improved computing power and outstanding energy performance."

"As part of the University of Stuttgart, HLRS has a key role to play it is not just the impressive performance of the supercomputer but also the methodological knowledge that the center has assembled that helps our cutting-edge computational research to achieve breathtaking results, for example in climate protection or for more environmentally sustainable mobility," said Petra Olschowski (Baden-Wrttemberg Minister of Science, Research, and Arts).

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University of Stuttgart picks HPE for 115 million exascale supercomputer - DatacenterDynamics