Monthly Archives: June 2017

Books to read on escape, or help you escape – San Francisco Chronicle

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On Melissa: Club Monaco Dacko romper, $229, http://www.clubmonaco.com; and Zero + Maria Cornejo Luna sandals (on ground), $595, http://www.zeromariacornejo.com. On Amaryon: Club Monaco Connor stretch chino, $98.50, http://www.clubmonaco.com; Welcome Stranger lilac T-shirt with pocket, $55, Azalea, and Givenchy camo slides (on ground), $295, Saks Fifth Avenue, 384 Post St.

On Melissa: Club Monaco Dacko romper, $229, http://www.clubmonaco.com; and...

For those who can escape to a beach or some other retreat this summer, here are a few page-turners to keep your mind from atrophying from too much relaxation. For those who cant get away, Style offers a few beautiful books to make you feel like youre off on a dream vacation.

The beach reads:

Party Girls Die in Pearls: An Oxford Girl Mystery Vogue contributing editor Plum Sykes third novel, Party Girls Die in Pearls is a rollicking romp through 1980s Oxford University with plenty of glamour, gossipy prose and a murder! Sykes heroine, Ursula Flowerbutton, has one of the best character names since Tennessee Williams Blanche DuBois, and her love of Dynasty-era fashion and antics keep the style high and the morals decadently low in this juicy tome. Crisp and quip-filled, perfect with a cup of tea. (Harper Collins, $26.99)

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan The authors third novel chronicling super-wealthy Chinese and Chinese Americans (following the Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend), Rich People Problems takes us to the deathbed of a wealthy matriarch and lets the sparks fly as her greedy relatives compete for her fortune and any heirloom not nailed down. The novel takes readers from private schools to private islands and shows that no matter the bank balance, everyone has problems. ( Penguin Random House, $14.62)

Apprenticed to Venus: My Secret Life With Anas Nin by Tristine Rainer (Arcade Publishing, 384 pages, $25.99)Imagine being an inexperienced 18-year-old college girl from the San Fernando Valley and suddenly being thrust into the sophisticated big leagues when you find suddenly find yourself suddenly in the orbit of controversial writer and diarist Anas Nin. In Apprenticed to Venus, Tristine Rainer shares her experiences with the author of the erotic bestseller The Delta of Venus and lover of Henry Miller as she came into her own sexuality and womanhood. Nin comes across as a slightly sinister, taboo-breaking Auntie Mame, but undoubtedly one with a lot to teach. (Arcade Publishing, $25.99)

The escape books:

The Seaside House: Living on the Water If you dont have a house on the shore, flipping through Nick Voulgaris IIIs coffee-table tome is the next best thing. Douglas Friedmans photographs bring readers into some of the most jaw-dropping homes on the water, including Martha Stewarts famed Seal Harbor residence (Stewart also wrote the books foreword) and Donna Karans Zen hideaway in the Hamptons, and shows off interiors by noted designers including Steven Gambrel and Ken Fulk. (Rizzoli, $55)

House Style: Five Centuries of Fashion at Chatsworth edited by Hamish Bowles, foreword by the Duke of Devonshire, text by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell and Charlotte Mosley, introduction by the Countess of Burlington Chatsworth is one of the most famous historic houses in England, and House Style features it magnificently alongside contemporary and historic fashion in an exquisite setting. The Cavendish family and the hereditary dukes of Devonshire have called the Derbyshire site home since Elizabethan times. Editor Hamish Bowles tells the stories of some of its most famous residents, including the scandalous Georgiana, the Dduchess of Devonshire; Kick Kennedy; and Mitford sister Deborah, the duchess of Devonshire who saved the house post-WWII. A lush feast for the eyes for anyone missing Downton Abbey or awaiting the return of The Crown. (Rizzoli, $45)

Ibiza Bohemia Riche but rustic hippie chic is the signature aesthetic of this Mediterranean hot spot that has attracted artists, musicians and decadent partygoers for decades. From the local characters to the scenic cliffs and indoor-outdoor homes that are envy-inducing escapes, Renu Kashyaps Ibiza Bohemia captures a slice of the lifestyle thats inspired numerous brands and resort collections. (Assouline $85)

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com

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Books to read on escape, or help you escape - San Francisco Chronicle

How Are New Ecclesial Movements Changing the Church? – Commonweal

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Priests incardinated within new ecclesial movements would not be subject to local ordinaries, that is, diocesan bishops. For the Vatican this would mean acknowledging something about how these movements have evolved from around the time of Vatican II. Originally, they were supposed to have helped renew the laity. But with the substantial reduction in the number of diocesan priests and the shrinking of religious orders worldwide over the last three decades, they instead now seem to be a source of new priests. While this could help alleviate the shortage of clergy in the short term, it might also introduce a new set of problems.

The issue is not ideological, as there is a great diversity among these fraternities: seminarians and priests from SantEgidio, for example, are more conciliar and ecumenical than those from Communion and Liberation or the Neo-Catechumenal Way. Rather, its structural: in order to replace or replenish diocesan seminaries and diocesan parishes that are short on clergy, the territorial Churchthe bishops, including the bishop of Romeare making allowances for priestly vocations coming from non-territorial organizations: the movements.

This raises four interesting considerations. The first is Church politics: the movements are not, in the eyes of Francis, the special elites for the new evangelization as they were under John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Francis has been clearly critical of any sectarian tendencies he detects. But even he realizes that these movements are producing new, desperately needed priests in a Catholic Church that still needs the clergy to function. In this sense, the move, if approved, would signal that the Church finds it much easier to change the relationship between the territorial and personal dimension in the Church than to ordain married men to the priesthood (viri probati) or ordain women deacons.

Then theres the ecclesiological consideration. Reversing the relationship between the territorial or geographical dimension of Church aggregations (parish, diocese) to the personal dimension (membership in a group not defined by geographical location) would overturn a system that dates from the early centuries of Christianity (dioceses were the successors of the provinces of the Roman Empire) and that was solidified in the second millennium, especially by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). It would also pose a challenge to the ecclesial concept of the local church that is in dialogue and tension with the universal the Church.

The third consideration is theological. The whole idea of enculturation of the Christian message is connected to the ecclesiology of the local church. It remains to be seen what kind of formation (and where) priests from new movements would receive, or whether they would be priests for the entire Church (including Franciss peripheries) or only for their movement. This issue was raised by John Paul II in the apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992), the apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (1994), and the apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata (1996). The relationship between some movements and the local churches has in many cases been less than collaborative; for example, local bishops have long complained to Rome about the modus operandi of the Neo-Catechumenal Way in their own dioceses and even on a national level.

Finally, theres a historical consideration. In 1513, prior to the council of Trent and the Reformation, the Venetian Camaldolese monks Paolo Giustiniani and Pietro Querini presented to Pope Leo X Libellus ad Leonem X, the most important set of reform proposals in the immediate pre-Reformation period. Giustiniani and Querini proposed, among other things, a radical reduction in the number of religious orders (with just three typologies of rules for religious life: Augustinian, Benedictine, and mendicant) and a more centralized, reformist church under the leadership of the pope and the bishops. But what happened after Trent was exactly the opposite: a proliferation of new religious orders (Capuchines, Barnabites, Jesuits, etc.).

Something similar has unfolded since Vatican II, which envisioned a Catholic Church under the leadership of the bishops and the pope, and less autonomy for religious orders and personal, non-territorial Church structures. Instead, theres been a crisis in the episcopacy bishops now function more as CEOs than as pastors; they are called on to act collegially with the pope and synodally with their flock; and they face a fixed retirement age seventy-fiveand a shift in how it is expected to work alongside a successful papacy. This comes along with the spread of ecclesial groups and movements tied to intentional communities that claimand obtainautonomy from local ordinaries. It all would seem to be yet another example of how the living body of the Church undoes the best-intentioned and most well-thought-out reform projects of enlightened theologians.

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How Are New Ecclesial Movements Changing the Church? - Commonweal

Chemistry Communications Uses PulsePoint To Make Content … – AdExchanger

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As Chemistry Communications clients created more content and more ambitious distribution plans, manually distributing that content to dozens of native and social platforms became untenable.

Chemistry turned to Story by PulsePoint to make content distribution more cost- and time-efficient. The agency serves clients not only in content marketing, but through media buys across digital, video and radio.

The platform allows Chemistry to buy across more than 25 platforms, including social media platforms Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, native platforms like Sharethrough and TripleLift and content discovery tools Outbrain and Taboola.

With the platform, Chemistry Communications can buy media and optimize campaigns based on a metric it cares about: cost per engagement, with 15 seconds spent on a site post-click.

Our platform has been built from the ground up to focus on what happens once the reader arrives at the domain, said Andrew Stark, PulsePoints SVP of content solutions. The platform tracks details like scroll depth and scroll velocity and uses those metrics to feed optimization.

Because of the focus on post-click engagement, Chemistry saw its clients results improve when it switched to the platform.

What was shocking was that we were seeing lower CPEs and lower CPMs than all the direct platforms we were using in the past, said Jason Dille, VP of media at Chemistry Communications.

The platform which PulsePoint recently redesigned for self-service clients also improves the workflow and automates more processes.

For example, adapting images, headlines and text for 10 stories across 30 platforms adds up to at least 300 creative variations. PulsePoints platform automatically builds ad creative for each platform, which a campaign planner can immediately approve, automatically optimize or adjust either through PulsePoints suggestions or manually.

The platform also can yield qualitative insights about the clients content. A top-performing alternate headline could become the main one. And looking at how different stories resonate with audiences informs future content creation.

Although Chemistry initially used PulsePoints managed services, it has since migrated to the software-as-a-service platform to improve the workflow.

We prefer to stay away from managed service because transparency can be an issue and margins can be there, Dille said. And the agency prefers to be more hands-on. We want to make the changes for our clients.

However, the managed service did let the agency test out the solution with smaller budgets, Dille said.

Though Chemistry handles all forms of media for its clients from digital video to radio Dille believes that content marketing will evolve like the DSP landscape, as technologies emerge to deliver more strategic placements.

They are adding targeting thats similar to what we have in the DSP space, like ISP targeting, that will further evolve what performance looks like, he said. In addition, Story by PulsePoint clients can upload their own data for targeting, or use an individual platforms targeting definitions like how Facebook defines women 35-44.

As targeting and automation improve, more budgets will shift to content distribution, Dille predicted. This is going to be the future of digital advertising, he said. Content is where we are going to see higher engagement rates in the future.

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Wooster high schooler honored in national chemistry competition … – Danbury News Times

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Daniel Michael

Daniel Michael

Wooster high schooler honored in national chemistry competition

DANBURY - An 11th grade student at Wooster School was recognized with honors in the National Chemistry Olympiad Exam, according to a release.

The student, Daniel Michael, had the best performance on the test from the western Connecticut region, the release said.

I cannot even begin to stress how difficult this exam is for even chemistry teachers, said Chris Priedemann, a chemistry teacher at Wooster School, in a prepared statement. Daniel's performance was truly exceptional. It's an extremely challenging test and Daniel performed exceptionally well.

The national test, given to 1,000 student finalists across the country, is designed to stimulate interest and excellence in chemistry, according to the release.

Michael qualified for the national test by placing in the top 10 in the regional chemistry contest, the release said.

The contest is sponsored by The American Chemical Society.

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Wooster high schooler honored in national chemistry competition ... - Danbury News Times

REVIEW: JEFF the Brotherhood impresses with garage rock chemistry at Gasa Gasa – LSU Now

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When two or more musicians play together for an extended period of time, they develop what fellow music snobs call chemistry. Good chemistry on stage is undeniable, manifesting in an artists sound, movement and expression.

The more chemistry musicians share, the more natural and impressive their performance. Such is the case with Jake and Jamin Orrall, two brothers from Nashville, Tennessee that make up garage rock outfit JEFF the Brotherhood.

JEFF the Brotherhood descended into New Orleans on Tuesday for the bands first show at Gasa Gasa. Fans filled the small venue despite the evenings rainy forecast, and many were delighted by the rock n roll that followed.

The band is on tour promoting its 2016 album Zone, but the Orrall brothers have been playing music together for over 15 years. They formed JEFF the Brotherhood in 2001 while still in high school.

The duo draws inspiration from some rocks most fervent sub-genres, including punk, garage rock, psychedelia and heavy metal. Zone is both a guitar-driven onslaught and the product of honest, relatable songwriting.

JEFF the Brotherhood opened its set with Toasted, a pulsing track laden with Jake Orralls heavy muffled guitar. Jamin Orralleffortlessly kept pace on the drums and didnt slow down until the sets fourth song, Zone.

Any mellow vibes in the room quickly melted as JEFF the Brotherhood moved into its fifth tune, Staring at the Wall from 2012s Hypnotic Nights. Played live, the song hits like a ton of bricks and shows the brothers punk roots.

The performance often leaned on the walls of sound radiating from guitar amplifiers. Heavy distortion and flanger effects filled the gaps and allowed the guitarist room to experiment.

Jake Orralls guitar tone is uniquely recognizable. Its sharp, yet distorted and likely took years to perfect. Low tones and the perfect amount of fuzz are enough to make some forget the band lacks a bass player.

The pair continued to shine on two of the new records heaviest tracks, Roachin and You. Jake Orralls dark progressions and vocals made for the sets most cynical sounds, while Jamin Orrallproduced some of the nights most violent drumming.

JEFF the Brotherhood brought a third member onto the stage for its final two numbers. By adding a second guitarist from the shows opening act The Detail, Jake Orrallhad more room to dance around his fretboard. The guitarists traded squealing solos, giving the audience a collective second wind.

As a whole, JEFF the Brotherhoods showing was loud and tight. Each song was tinged with raw energy and emotion.

Jake and Jamin Orrallseemed just as comfortable on stage as they would be jamming alone in their garage, and thats probably because they are. Watching them, it became obvious the Orrall brothers werent just playing a show or working on a Tuesday night. They were having fun.

Listen to JEFF the Brotherhoods album Zone below.

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REVIEW: JEFF the Brotherhood impresses with garage rock chemistry at Gasa Gasa - LSU Now

Global $92.9 Billion Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical Services … – PR Newswire (press release)

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The global biotechnology services outsourcing market is expected to reach USD 92.9 billion by 2025

Pharmaceutical industry has been adaptive of the function of outsourcing certain clinical and corporate functions as early as 2002. Among the services outsourced, clinical trial management and contract manufacturing were the forerunners. For instance, Johnson & Johnson was the first pharmaceutical company to outsource its applications development and maintenance (ADM).

In 2015, over USD 50.0 billion was spent on pharmaceutical R&D activities majorly on oncology, diabetes, and autoimmune therapy classes, which is expected to propel the biotechnology services outsourcing market growth over the forecast period.

Shrinking profit margins coupled with rising competition in the market space, and augmenting regulatory burden are other vital impact rendering factors. The pharmaceutical services outsourcing market is expected to register growth at a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period. On the other hand, pending immigration legislations in the U.S. may hinder business economics and outsourcing risks.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in Europe are significantly investing in R&D in the recent year owing to rising demand for advanced medicines. This may be attributed to increasing aging population, incidence of chronic diseases, and communicable diseases.

Further key findings from the study suggest:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Research Methodology

2 Executive Summary

3 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market Variables, Trends, & Scope 3.8 Service pricing analysis

4 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market: Service Estimates & Trend Analysis 4.1 Pharmaceutical/biotechnology services outsourcing market: Service movement analysis 4.2 Consulting services 4.2.2 Regulatory compliance 4.2.3 Remediation 4.2.4 Quality management 4.2.5 Other 4.3 Auditing & assessment 4.4 Regulatory affairs services 4.4.2 Clinical trial applications & product registration 4.4.3 Regulatory writing & publishing 4.4.4 Legal representation 4.4.5 Other 4.5 Product maintenance services 4.6 Product design & development 4.7 Product testing & validation 4.8 Training & education 4.9 Other services

5 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6 Competitive Landscape

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5b9f3q/biotechnologyphar

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-929-billion-biotechnologypharmaceutical-services-outsourcing-market-analysis-by-service-and-segment-forecasts-2014---2025---research-and-markets-300470992.html

SOURCE Research and Markets

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

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Global $92.9 Billion Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical Services ... - PR Newswire (press release)

North Forsyth grad plans to study biotechnology – Winston-Salem Journal

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As if the stress of senior year isnt enough of a headache, Michael Vega began his final chapter of high school with a serious concussion.

A soccer injury in May 2016 had mandated three months recovery time, stealing a summer of soccer training from the North Forsyth graduate.

It hit me hard that I couldnt play, coming in with a big concussion, said Vega, a two-time all-conference award recipient. I had to jump right back into it.

Vega, 17, was cleared to play in the final round of the Forsyth Cup last year, helping his team secure a victory in the championship round for the second year in a row, making school history.

Vega, who spent three years on the varsity team, said one of his favorite high school moments was scoring the conference-winning goal against Asheboro High School as a sophomore.

It was a great experience; theres nothing like it, said Vega, who plays goalie and center back. I knew half the guys from growing up, so its hard to say good-bye.

While Vega said he will not play soccer in college, he will continue playing with the Hispanic League.

Graduation is bittersweet, but Vega said he is glad to have AP Biology and AP Chemistry behind him and is applying to Forsyth Tech to study biotechnology.

Ive learned to surround myself with the right people and never give up, Vega said. Im excited for graduation.

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North Forsyth grad plans to study biotechnology - Winston-Salem Journal

iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) Shares Sold by Neumann Capital Management LLC – The Cerbat Gem

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iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) Shares Sold by Neumann Capital Management LLC
The Cerbat Gem
iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index logo Neumann Capital Management LLC decreased its position in iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (NASDAQ:IBB) by 44.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and ...
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iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) Shares Sold by Neumann Capital Management LLC - The Cerbat Gem

HPE’s next frontier: Space travel & memory-driven computing – IT Brief Australia

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56 years ago, President Kennedy issued his famousmoonshotaddress to Congress. Just over 8 years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the surface of the Moon with the help of technology no more powerful than a calculator.

Weve improved a lot since thenthe smartphone in your hand would have been considered a super computer beyond any rocket scientists dreams back then. But when we think aboutexploring our next frontiers, our excitement must also be tempered with reality.

While computing technology has improved exponentially since the Moon landing, the fundamental architecture underlying it all hasnt actually changed much in the last 60 years.

Andthatis quickly becoming a problem. As a computer engineer and researcher,thisis the thing that keeps me up at night: the idea that our current technology wont be able to deliver on our expectations for the future.

Blame it on the data. More datahas been created in the past two years than in the entire history of the human race. And yet,less than 1% of that data is ever analyzed.

By the year 2020, our digital universe will contain nearly as many bits of data as there arestars in the universe, with at least 20billionmobile devices and 1trillionapplications creating and transmitting information.

Well have smart cars, smart homes, smart factories, even smart bodies. As a species, well create staggering amounts of data every day.

The question is what are we going to do with it all?

Before we can answer that question, its important to understand our current limitationsand why were pushing up against them now, after 60 plus years of progress.

Starting around the 1950sin business and in sciencewe began automating the dreary job of number crunching. Think of a business doing payroll at the end of the month or closing the books at the end of the quarter.

Computing made this hand-to-pencil-to-ledger process faster, more efficient and automatic. It was accurate and reliable, but it sometimes took a few days or weeks to complete.

But then the 1990s gave us the web. And the 2000s gave us mobile. The amount of data we created grew exponentially, and our appetite for real-time, always-on information grew to match.

That 24x7 access stretched networks and infrastructure to new limits, so we pulled out all the stops to scale. We consolidated, moved to the cloud and eked out the last nanometers of transistor efficiency.

Now we are on the cusp of an entirely new era, driven by the Internet of Things and what we callthe Intelligent Edge.

In this new era of smart everything, we will demand much more from our computing systems. We will expect them to process and learn from zettabytes of sensor data and take action immediately. Speed, accuracy, reliability and security willallbe mission critical. A millisecond delay or a minor miscalculation could genuinely mean the difference between life and death.

But the fact is, right now, the incremental increases we are seeing in our computing power will not meet the exponential demands of our future challenges. We need Memory-Driven Computing.

Themission to Marsis a perfect way to illustrate the magnitude of this problem.

At 20 light-minutes away, Mars is too far to rely on communication from Earth for real-time support. Where ground control once helped guide Armstrong and Aldrin to the Moon, Mars astronauts will be guided by a computer capable of performing extraordinary tasks:

In short, the Mars spacecraft will be a smart city, an intelligent power grid, and a fleet of autonomous vehicles all-in-one. And it will be controlled bythe most powerful computing system the world has ever seen.

But heres the rub. Right now, with existing technology, wed need a massive data center attached to a nuclear power plant to achieve the computing power a Mars mission would demand, and thats never going to fit in the cargo hold! What weve got today is just too big, too heavy, too slow, too inflexible and too power hungry.

We need a 21st century computer to solve 21st century problems. At Hewlett Packard Enterprise, weve spent the past three years developing exactly that.

Memory-Driven Computing is the answer

In 2014, we introduced the largest and most complex research project in our companys historywith the goal of creating an entirely new kind of computer:

One that wasnt constrained by traditional trade-offs. One that eliminated performance bottlenecks. One that threw off 60 years of convention and compromise.

We call itThe Machine research projectand its mission is to deliver the worlds firstMemory-Driven Computingarchitecture. Its more than an idea, it is the way the world will work in the future.

Without getting into too many of the technical details, let me quickly explain.

As much as90 percentof the work a computer does is simply moving information between memory and storage. That busy work wastes time and energy. And the more information we try to process, the slower the system gets and the more energy it consumes.

A huge amount of science and engineering effort has gone into working around this problem.It has to change. If youre familiar with Moores Law, you know that up until now we could count on chips to get better year after year, but that era is over.

For 60years we focused on running a tiny bit of data through a faster calculator. With Memory-Driven Computing we end the work-arounds by inverting the model. Breaking down the memory wall, accessing all the data, and bring just the right compute.

Last November, we delivered the worlds firstMemory-Driven Computingprototype. In just six months, we scaled the prototype 20-fold.

Today, Im thrilled to tell you thatHPE has created a computer with the largest single-memory system the world has ever seen, capable of holding 160 terabytes of data in memory.

To put it in context, thats enough memory to simultaneously work with the data held in approximately 160 million booksfive times the amount of books in the Library of Congress. And its powerful enough to reduce the time needed to process complex problems from days to hours. No computer on Earth can manipulate that much data in a single place at once.

But thats only the beginning of Memory-Driven Computings potential. Were engineeringMemory-Driven Computerswith up to 4,096 yottabytes of data. Thats more than 250,000 timesthe size of our digital universe today.

When we can analyze that much data at once, we canbegin to discover correlations we could have never conceived before. And that ability will open up entirely new frontiers of intellectual discovery.

The implications for an endeavor like the mission to Mars are huge.

Now think about the mission to Mars as a metaphor for life here on Earth.

In a world where everything is connected and everything computesour cars, our homes, our factories, our bodieswere going to need to take that computing power with us everywhere we go. And were going to want to discover those correlations that were never before possible.

To do that, we needMemory-Driven Computing.

That is our mission at HPE: to enable a world where everything computes.

To bring real-time intelligence to every edge of the Earth and beyond. To help the world harness that intelligence to answer some of our biggest questions. To solve some of our toughest challenges and help us better understand the world around us.

Memory-Driven Computing will benefit us, our children and their children.

It's a new world. It's here now. Welcome!

Article by Kirk Bresniker, chief architect, Hewlett Packard Labs

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HPE's next frontier: Space travel & memory-driven computing - IT Brief Australia

Singularity and Docker | Singularity

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Singularity is good friends with Docker. The reason is because the developers use and really like using Docker, and scientists have already put much resources into creating Docker images. Thus, one of our early goals was to support Docker. What can you do?

You can shell, import, run, and exec.

The core of a Docker image is basically a compressed set of files, a set of .tar.gz that (if you look in your Docker image folder on your host machine, you will see. The Docker Registry, which you probably interact with via Docker Hub, serves these layers. These are the layers that you see downloading when you interact with the docker daemon. We are going to use these same layers for Singularity!

The Docker engine communicates with the Docker Hub via the Docker Remote API, and guess what, we can too! The easiest thing to do is create an image, and then pipe a Docker image directly into it from the Docker Registry. You dont need Docker installed on your machine, but you will need a working internet connection. Lets create an ubuntu operating system, from Docker:

Note that the default size is 768MB, you can modify this by adding the --size or -s argument like:

If you arent sure about the size? Try building into a folder first.

Next, lets import a Docker image into it!

Just like Docker has the Dockerfile, Singularity has a file called Singularity that (currently) applications like Singularity Hub know to sniff for. For reproducibility of your containers, our strong recommendation is that you build from these files. Any command that you issue to change a container with --writable is by default not recorded, and your container loses its reproducibility. So lets talk about how to make these files! First, lets look at the absolute minimum requirement:

We would save this content to a file called Singularity and then issue the following commands to bootstrap the image from the file

but just those two lines and doing bootstrap is silly, because we would achieve the same thing by doing:

The power of bootstrap comes with the other stuff that you can do! This means running specific install commands, specifying your containers runscript (what it does when you execute it), adding files, labels, and customizing the environment. Here is a full Singularity file:

In the example above, I am overriding any Dockerfile ENTRYPOINT or CMD because I have defined a %runscript. If I want the Dockerfile ENTRYPOINT to take preference, I would remove the %runscript section. If I want to use CMD instead of ENTRYPOINT, I would again remove the runscript, and add IncludeCmd to the header:

Did you know that you can commit this Singularity file to a Github repo and it will automatically build for you when you push to Singularity Hub?. This will ensure maximum reproducibility of your work.

Docker has two commands in the Dockerfile that have something to do with execution, CMD and ENTRYPOINT. The differences are subtle, but the best description Ive found is the following:

A CMD is to provide defaults for an executing container.

and

An ENTRYPOINT helps you to configure a container that you can run as an executable.

Given the definition, the ENTRYPOINT is most appropriate for the Singularity %runscript, and so using the default bootstrap (whether from a docker:// endpoint or a Singularity spec file) will set the ENTRYPOINT variable as the runscript. You can change this behavior by specifying IncludeCmd: yes in the Spec file (see below). If you provide any sort of %runscript in your Spec file, this overrides anything provided in Docker. In summary, the order of operations is as follows:

In the example above, you probably saw that we referened the docker image first with the uri docker:// and that is important to tell Singularity that it will be pulling Docker layers. To ask for ubuntu, we asked for docker://ubuntu. This uri that we give to Singularity is going to be very important to choose the following Docker metadata items:

When we put those things together, it looks like this:

By default, the minimum requirement is that you specify a repository name (eg, ubuntu) and it will default to the following:

If you provide a version instead of a tag, that will be used instead:

You can have one or the other, both are considered a digest in Docker speak.

If you want to change any of those fields, then just specify what you want in the URI.

For both import and bootstrap using a build spec file, by default we use the Docker Registry index.docker.io. Singularity first tries the call without a token, and then asks for one with pull permissions if the request is defined. However, it may be the case that you want to provide a custom token for a private registry. You have two options. You can either provide a Username and Password in the build specification file (if stored locally and there is no need to share), or (in the case of doing an import or needing to secure the credentials) you can export these variables to environmental variables. We provide instructions for each of these cases:

You can simply specify your additional authentication parameters in the header with the labels Username and Password:

Again, this can be in addition to specification of a custom registry with the Registry parameter.

You can export your username, and password for Singularity as follows:

If you are having trouble, you can test your token by obtaining it on the command line and putting it into an environmental variable, CREDENTIAL:

This should place the token in the environmental variable TOKEN. To test that your token is valid, you can do the following

The above call should return the tags list as expected. And of course you should change the repo name to be one that actually exists that you have credentials for.

Why wont my image bootstrap work? If you cant find an answer on this site, please ping us an issue. If youve found an answer and youd like to see it on the site for others to benefit from, then post to us here.

This entire process will hopefully change in two ways. First, we hope to collapse the image creation and bootstrapping, so you have the option to do them both in one full swing. Second, we hope to eventually figure out some kind of solution to import Docker containers without needing sudo.

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Singularity and Docker | Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation 2.3 update adds a new campaign today – PC Gamer

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Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, Stardocks gargantuan RTS, has a new update out today. Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation v2.3 fattens up the game with a new campaign, new ships and tweaks to improve game balance.

The update chucks a pair of Juggernaut-class bruisers into the fray, both of which can level up indefinitely, getting bonuses to health and damage every time that they do. The Leonidas is a PHC ship that boasts an incredibly powerful weapon that can tear Dreadnoughts apart. The Substrate get The Nest of the Queen, a vessel capable of summoning a fleet of frigates to lend it a hand.

We're really excited to introduce the Juggernauts," writes Stardock CEO Brad Wardell. "Fans of the game have been asking about them since we teased them several months ago, and we know these won't disappoint them. These warships are pricey to buildyou won't see them in quick matchesbut the cost is worth it. It takes some serious firepower to stop one of these guys once they hit the field."

The new campaign, Genesis, continues the Ashes story and comes with six missions. Stardock says that its increased the challenge of the higher difficulty level to please more advanced players, so that probably doesnt include me.

Stardocks also tweaked the previous campaigns. Ships and orbitals that previously werent available have been added to missions, while the maps have been tweaked and AI improved.

The update is free and available to all owners of Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation today.

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Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation 2.3 update adds a new campaign today - PC Gamer

Deloitte and Singularity University Extend Their Relationship To … – PR Newswire (press release)

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A prime example of the strong collaboration between Deloitte and SU is this week's Exponential Finance Conference taking place in New York City. Over 700 global executives, entrepreneurs, financial advisors, insurance and banking executives, and venture capitalists are convening over three days in New York City to explore and create the future of the financial services industry. Participants will learn how disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, Blockchain, robotics, nanotechnologies and crowdfunding, among others, can be leveraged for exponential growth, and to help address the global challenges the world is facing.

Deloitte and SU continue to expand their alliance to empower a global community with the mindset, skillset and network to embrace exponential opportunities, including topics of global importance such as Smart Cities and the Future of Work.

"We live in a time where unprecedented change is disrupting nearly every way we work and live. Our personal and professional lives are shifting in response to new technologies and business models that are changing what's possible and calling for us to respond and adapt, or fall behind. Since 2014, over 1,300 Deloitte clients have participated in SU programs around the world, empowering them to envision and realize significant exponential growth and efficiency opportunities," said Andrew Vaz, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's Global Chief Innovation Officer. "The Deloitte/SU alliance is critical to our joint mission of helping organizations recognize and embrace opportunities to grow and differentiate themselves during an era of significant disruptions, while making the world a better place."

"We are gratified that our long-term alliance with Deloitte is being renewed and welcome their expanded involvement in new global events and programs," said Rob Nail, CEO and Associate Founder of Singularity University. "Together we bring the technical expertise, global networks, business acumen, and future vision to help organizations of all sizes innovate and grow exponentially."

To learn more about any of the SU programs and events and Deloitte innovation resources, go to http://www.su.org and https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/strategy/topics/innovation-consulting.html.

ABOUT DELOITTE Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies.Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to deliver measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to make their most challenging business decisions with confidence, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY (SU)Singularity University is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world's biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU's collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Peter H. Diamandis and has partnered with leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, Genentech, and UNICEF. To learn more, visitSU.org, join us onFacebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download our SingularityU Hub mobile app from theApp Store.

MEDIA CONTACTS Anna Roubos, singularityu@ogilvy.com 774-232-2460 Jodie Stern, jodiestern@deloitte.com 414-702-0167

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deloitte-and-singularity-university-extend-their-relationship-to-foster-innovation-worldwide-300471082.html

SOURCE Singularity University; Deloitte

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Quantum Computers Will Analyze Every Financial Model at Once – Singularity Hub

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In the movie Office Space, Peter Gibbons has a stroke of genius. Confronted with the utter mundanity of a life slaving away at his office park software company, he convinces his friends to make a computer virus to skim a fraction of a cent off transactions into a shared bank account.

This, of course, goes horribly wrong. But the concept is actually pretty solid.

In the real world, where there are literally billions of transactions crisscrossing the globe every day, you can make a big profit buying and selling securities whose prices barely differ.

But heres the key. You have to be fast. Inhumanly so. Enter physics and computers.

Computerized high-frequency trading was born from a collision of rapidly growing computing power and an influx of math and physics PhDs into finance. These wonks worked out complex quantitative buy-sell strategies, built them into algorithms, and set their software loose.

While the practice is nothing if not controversialand there are quantitative strategies that work over longer time frames tooits impact on the market is undeniable. In any given year, high-frequency trading is responsible for up to half or more of all trades. And of course, notoriously, such algorithmic trading was also involved in 2010s infamous Flash Crash.

But all this is only the beginning of how physics and computers can flip finance upside down.

At Singularity Universitys Exponential Finance Summit this week, Andrew Fursman said quantum computers, which harness natures most basic laws, are coming sooner than you think. And while digital computing was an evolution, quantum computing will be a revolution.

Fursman is CEO and cofounder of 1Qbit, a quantum computing software startup focused on making quantum computing applications practical for industry.

Quantum computing, he said, is just in its earliest stages, more akin to the hulking special-purpose computers of the 40s and 50s instead of the sleeker personal digital machines of recent decades. But he thinks its about to get practical, and itll pay dividends to those paying attention.

In finance, computing power is really a bit of an arms race, Fursman said. And as you all know, in many of these situations, it's winner takes all.

The next revolution has been a long time coming. It began with physicist Richard Feynman.

When modern digital computers were just gaining momentum, Feynman looked far down the roadhe was a genius theorist after alland noted the most powerful computers would not be digital, theyd be quantum. That is, theyd harness the laws of nature to compute.

Its counterintuitive to think of the world as a computer, said Fursman, but its an instructive analogy if you want to grasp the speed and simultaneity of quantum computers.

Complexity is nothing to nature. Just imagine how quickly and effortlessly glass breaks, he said.

In far less time than it takes to blink your eye, the laws of nature instruct the atoms in the glass to fracture into a massively complex spider web. Not unlike a computer, the laws of physics are the underlying logic allowing the glass to compute its complex demise in an instant.

Quantum computers similarly harness natures power to compute. Instead of using 1s and 0s to calculate things, they use the rules of quantum mechanics to compute with 1s, 0s, and both simultaneously. This means they can rapidly solve massively complex problems.

[Go here to learn more about how quantum computers work.]

But todays machines, like D-Waves adiabatic quantum computers, arent like your laptop, which is whats called a universal computer due to its ability to do many tasks. Instead, quantum computers today are specialized, complicated, difficult to program, and expensive.

Fursman thinks well get universal quantum computers in future, but well before then, in something like three to five years, he thinks early quantum computers will get practical. And because they can do things no other computer can, theyll be powerful.

In finance, its often about optimization. And todays quantum machines excel at optimization.

Consider building a portfolio out of all the stocks in the S&P 500, Fursman said. Given expected risk and return at various points in time, your choice is to include a stock, or not. The sheer number of possible portfolio combinations over time is mindboggling.

In fact, the possibilities dwarf the number of atoms in the observable universe.

To date, portfolio theory has necessarily cut corners and depended on approximations. But what if you could, in fact, get precise? Quantum computers will be able to solve problems like this in a finite amount of time, whereas traditional computers would take pretty much forever.

The work is already underway to make this possible.

Fursman noted a paper written by Gili Rosenberg, Poya Haghnegahdar, Phil Goddard, Peter Carr, Kesheng Wu, and Marcos Lpez de Prado in which they outline a new way to solve for an optimal portfolio. Instead of finding the best portfolio at discrete times in the future, they outline a way to find the best portfolio overall through time. Such a portfolio would reduce the transaction costs of rebalancing portfolios and potentially save the industry billions.

To be clear, this isnt ready for prime time yet. But Fursman thinks it will be shortly. The key? Their proposed portfolio optimization method is compatible with existing quantum computers. Specifically, they looked at D-Waves adiabatic machines, and according to the paper, they believe it can scale up in complexity as the underlying technology improves.

It's something that has real ability to impact what's possible within your industry and to make money doing all the things you already dobut in completely new ways, Fursman said.

Exponential Finance, according to Fursman, is a bit ahead of the curve. The event has focused on the possibility of quantum computing in finance for the last several years.

But now, its poised to make an impact. Google recently announced they expect to achieve quantum supremacy by the end of this year. That means theyll have shown a quantum computer capable of solving a problem no conventional computer can.

Fursman thinks the slowing of Moores Law may be lulling some into complacency. Whereas at one point you could barely keep pace, even if you bought a new computer every year; these days, the computer you bought four years ago is basically stillable run whatever you want today.

But for businesses, the pace of progress is about to speed up again.

The quantum computing industry [today] is just [the] spark. Its just the very, very beginning of whats going to be possible, Fursman said. Those sparks are going to turn into a huge explosion, and all of a sudden, youre going to be faced with incredible amounts of computing capabilities that directly tackle the types of problems most relevant to what youre doing.

This isnt going to take 20 years, he said, or even ten years. Itll be here in three to five years. So, now is the time to start thinking about what quantum will do for you.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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The anatomy of trade deficits – The News International

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In the first 10 months of the outgoing financial year (FY 2017), a $19.93 billion trade deficit was registered on account of exports worth $17.91 billion and imports that amount to $37.84 billion. Trade deficit during the same period of the preceding financial year was $14.61 billion, with exports worth $18.14 billion and imports amounting to $32.75 billion. As a result, during FY 2017 (July 2016 till April 2017), trade deficit has increased by 36.41 percent compared with the previous year.

Trade deficit, along with fiscal deficit, has been a perennial feature of Pakistans economy as in the case of most other net petroleum-importing developing countries. The reasons for this stem from both economic and cultural factors. These economies need to import a great deal of capital equipment and industrial raw materials to maintain or accelerate the growth momentum.

Culturally, the people living in such societies are strongly inclined towards imitating a lifestyle that is prevalent in rich countries even though they lack the corresponding productive capacity which encourages the import of luxury goods. On the other hand, owing to severe supply-side constraints, coupled with a relatively large population, exports cant keep pace with imports.

It may be useful to compare Pakistans foreign trade performance with that of two other countries in the region over last three years. In FY 2014, Pakistans trade deficit was $16.59 billion (exports amounting to $25.07 billion and imports worth $41.66 billion), which went up to $17.20 billion in FY 2015 (exports worth $24.08 billion exports and imports amounting to $41.28 billion). The deficit further increased to $18.48 billion in FY 2016. The exports worth $21.97 billion while imports stood at $40.45 billion.

India registered a trade deficit worth $141.82 billion in 2014, with export amounting to $317.54 billion and imports worth $459.36 billion. The deficit came down to $126.36 billion ($264.38 billion for exports and $390.74 billion for imports) in 2015 and fell further to $96.37 billion in 2016 (exports worth $260.32 billion and imports amounting to $356.70 billion). Likewise, in the case of Sri Lanka, trade deficit stood at $7.94 billion (exports amounting to $11.29 billion and imports worth $19.24 billion) in 2014. It went up to $8.52 billion (with exports worth $10.43 billion and imports at $18.96 billion) in 2015 and rose further to $8.95 billion (exports amounting to $10.54 billion and imports worth $19.50 billion) in 2016.

It is evident that all the three countries are running an adverse trade balance and its scale is understandably relative to the size of the economy the biggest for India and the smallest for Sri Lanka. Trade deficit has gone up for both Pakistan (11.4 percent) and Sri Lanka (12.7 percent) over last three years. But in the case of India, it has come down. Imports have come down for both Pakistan (marginally by 2.9 percent) and India (largely by 22.3 percent), with a small increase for Sri Lanka. Exports have come down for each of the three countries: 12.4 percent for Pakistan, 18 percent for India and 6.6 percent for Sri Lanka. These figures reflect a reduction in global trade from $18.9 trillion in 2014 to $15.86 trillion in 2016.

The increase in trade deficit during FY 2017 (between July 2016 and April 2017) over the corresponding period of the preceding year may be explained by looking at both imports and exports. Total imports have gone up from $32.75 billion to $37.84 billion by 15.5 percent. Category-wise, the largest increase occurred in the transport sector by 39.2 percent, followed by the petroleum group (15.5 percent), food items (18.9 percent), machinery and capital equipment (16.1 percent), textiles (7.7 percent), chemicals (4.3 percent) and metals (1.7 percent).

Likewise, the total exports have gone down slightly from $18.14 billion to $17.91 billion by 1.3 percent. Exports fell in almost all important categories: textiles (3.2 percent), food items (4.5 percent), other manufactures, such as leather, sports and surgical goods (5.8 percent), petroleum (7.6 percent) and engineering goods (17.3 percent). However, the export of chemical and pharmaceutical products went up by 4.3 percent.

It follows that the fundamental cause of the substantial growth of trade deficit is the increase in imports rather than the decrease in exports. At the same time, it is exceedingly difficult for the government to check the growth in imports for one reason or another. The import basket can be divided into three categories: essential items, such as food and petroleum products; capital equipment and raw materials necessary for economic growth; and luxury goods.

Restricting the import of the first two categories is not desirable for obvious reasons. The government can restrict the import of luxury goods by raising the customs duties. Like other developing countries, Pakistan has a considerable gap between its bound (WTO) and applied import tariffs. However, the problem is that the demand for the luxury goods comes either from the government itself or the politically powerful affluent class. As a result, restricting their imports is a difficult proposition in a political sense.

Increasing exports is the right way to narrow the trade deficit. Obstacles to export promotion are of three types: market access, the high cost of doing business and structural constraints. The focus of the government and the private sector has been on overcoming the first and second obstacles. Over the last decade, Pakistan has been on a spree to conclude preferential trading arrangements (PTAs). However, most of the PTAs have caused imports to grow at a faster pace than exports. This has driven up trade deficits with PTA partners.

Bringing down the cost of doing business includes seeking exemptions from internal and border taxes, duty drawbacks, reducing interest rates, providing electricity at subsidised rates and keeping wages from increasing. From time to time, the government declares zero-ratings for the key export-oriented sectors and thereby exempts them completely from the GST. Earlier this year, a hefty export package, in the form of duty and tax remissions, was announced by the prime minister.

Lowering the cost of doing business and securing preferential access in foreign markets is important. But without addressing the structural constraints, an appreciable increase in exports is not possible. Unfortunately, the latter has been short-shrifted by both the government and the businesses.

Pakistan has a narrow export base. It is essentially an exporter of either primary products such as rice and fruits or of semi-manufactured goods such as textiles, garments and leather products. Not only are exports deficient in value addition, but they are also sold to the low-end of the market. The export basket being agro-based is subject to the vagaries of weather. A bad cotton crop as was witnessed during the current year can impact export receipts. The export profile reflects the dismal state of industrial development.

Another major structural problem is low labour productivity, mostly because human resource development has traditionally been a neglected area in Pakistan. The corporate sector works under the misconception that low wages are the key to competitiveness. Instead, what really matters is high labour productivity.

The corporate culture is markedly deficient in entrepreneurship one of the principal drivers of economic growth and export promotion. Most of the businesses are family-owned. They believe in playing it safe and making quick profits. These businesses are averse to innovation and venturing into new areas and have little commitment to improving quality. There is a culture of quality, which must be embedded into all the key processes of an enterprise: procuring supplies, putting together the factors of production, manufacturing products, marketing and sales. Making improvement in quality must be a continuous process.

Not surprisingly, Pakistan d
eficient as it is in both entrepreneurship and culture of quality continues to be an exporter of a narrow mix of low quality, low priced products.

The writer is a freelance countributor.

Email: [emailprotected]

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The anatomy of trade deficits - The News International

All the Awesome Awards the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Stars Have Won – Wetpaint

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By now, were familiar with the Greys Anatomy casts victories at the Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the Peoples Choice Awards. (The people, in particular, love them some Greys.)

But those high-profile award shows aside, the actors have also earned their own unique honors, and those are the ones were celebrating in this photo gallery!

Greys Anatomy returns for Season 14 this fall on ABC.

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The Grey of Greys Anatomy has won three Peoples Choice Awards over the years, but she also won the Special Achievement in Entertaining honor from the National Italian American Foundation in 2007. Ciao bella!

For his work in Season 10, when Alex reconnected with his drug-addict father, Justin received the 2014 PRISM Award for Performance in a Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline.

The awards show recognizes the accurate depiction of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use and addiction in film, television, interactive, music, DVD, and comic book entertainment.

Chandra won a PRISM Award the same year as Justin and she also has three Image Awards, two BET Awards, and a SAG Award under her belt.

But this actress also won a Theatre World Award way back in 1991 for her performance in the Off-Broadway play The Good Times Are Killing Me.

James won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the Image Awards in 2012, and hed been nominated in that category for seven consecutive years by that point.

In 1998, a decade before setting foot in the hospital then known as Seattle Grace, Kevin won the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor for his role as a cuckolded husband in the film The Acid House.

Jesse was honored with the 2016 BET Humanitarian Award, and his impassioned speech captivated the audience and had America talking (and cheering) for days afterward.

In case you werent aware, Camilla is the latest voice of Lara Croft, and her work on Rise of the Tomb Raider won her a Behind the Voice Actors Award in 2016 in the Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in a Video Game category.

Caterina won a PRISM Award, too accepting the award in 2012, back when she was starring on Greys spin-off Private Practice and plumbing the depths of Amelia Shepherds addiction.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation bestowed Debbie with the Lifetime Achievement Award at their Gracie Awards on June 6 and even better, real-life daughter Vivian Nixon and TV son Jesse Williams presented the honor.

[Women] have a real purpose and a real point of view thats very different, she told Variety at the event. By nature, we are the ones that nurture, stand up, and fight.

By now, were familiar with the Greys Anatomy casts victories at the Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the Peoples Choice Awards. (The people, in particular, love them some Greys.)

But those high-profile award shows aside, the actors have also earned their own unique honors, and those are the ones were celebrating in this photo gallery!

Greys Anatomy returns for Season 14 this fall on ABC.

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All the Awesome Awards the 'Grey's Anatomy' Stars Have Won - Wetpaint

Revisit historical sites in Ascension – Weekly Citizen

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If you're a history buff, Ascension Parish has no shortage of historical sites to visit. According to the National Register of Historical Places database, the Parish has 20 landmarks, ranging from churches to plantations to schools. Over the next two weeks, we will explore each of these sites. Whether your looking for something to do for the day, or wanting to take a historical tour of the parish, Ascension has much history to offer.

Evan Hall Slave Cabins: La. 405, three miles west of Donaldsonville in McCall. Built in 1840, the remaining structure includes a single cabin and double cabin.

Landry Tomb: Located in the cemetery of the Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church in Donaldsonville. The family tomb was built in 1845 by James Dankin and has 24 vaults, one of which is U.S. Representative Joseph Landry who died in 1814 and was relocated in 1845.

Tezcuco: La. 44, Burnside, one mile north of the Sunshine Bridge. The Greek Revival architectural style plantation was built in 1855, but burned down in 2002. All that is left is a few columns.

Robert Penn Warren House: 16381 Old Jefferson Highway, Prairieville. The Colonial Revival architectural style home was built in 1941 as the private residence of author Robert Penn Warren.

The Hermitage: La. 942, one mile south of Marchandville and 1.75 miles east of Darrow. The Greek Revival mansion was built in 1812 as a wedding gift for Marius Pons Bringier's son Michel Dourdou. It is said Andrew Jackson and his wife visited the house in the 1820's.

Palo Alto Plantation: 33534 La. 944, Donaldsonville. The Greek Revival plantation was built in 1850 and is a one-and-a-half story building on more than 6,000 acres.

Fort Butler: Mississippi River levee in Donaldsonville. A Civil War site, it was built to guard the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche. It is now used for an annual re-enactment and open to guided tours by appointment.

St. Emma: 1283 S. La. 1, Donaldsonville. Built in 1847, the plantation was originally owned by Charles A. Kock, one of the biggest sugar planters in the state. It is opened by appointment only.

St. Joseph's School: La. 75 and 44 in Burnside. It is now the Cabin Restaurant. The school was established in 1867 by the Roman Catholic Church to provide elementary school to newly freed slaves. It was originally located in Convent, though was relocated to Ascension in 1985.

Ashland: La. 75 two miles south of Geismar. Also known as the Belle Helene or Ashland-Belle Helene Plantation. Built in 1841, the antebellum Greek Revival architectural style building served as a former sugar plantation. It is owned by Shell Chemical Company.

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Revisit historical sites in Ascension - Weekly Citizen

A 3D-printed rocket engine just launched a new era of space exploration – The Independent

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The rocket that blasted into space from New Zealand on May 25 was special. Not only was it the first to launch from a private site, it was also the first to be powered by an engine made almost entirely using 3D printing. This might not make it the first 3D-printed rocket in space that some headlines described it as, but it does highlight how seriously this manufacturing technique is being taken by the space industry.

Members of the team behind the Electron rocket at US company RocketLab say the engine was printed in 24 hours and provides efficiency and performance benefits over other systems. Theres not yet much information out there regarding the exact details of the 3D-printed components. But its likely many of them have been designed to minimise weight while maintaining their structural performance, while other components may have been optimised to provide efficient fluid flow. These advantages reducing weight and the potential for complex new designs are a large part of why 3D printing is expected to find some of its most significant applications in space exploration, with dramatic effect.

One thing the set of technologies known as additive manufacturing or 3D printing does really well is to produce highly complicated shapes. For example, lattice structures produced in exactly the right way so that they weigh less but are just as strong as similar solid components. This creates the opportunity to produce optimised, lightweight parts that were previously impossible to manufacture economically or efficiently with more traditional techniques.

Boeings microlattice is an example of taking this to the extreme, supposedly producing mechanically sound structures that are 99.9 per centair. Not all 3D printing processes can achieve this, but even weight savings of a few percent in aircraft and spacecraft can lead to major benefits through the use of less fuel.

3D printing tends to work best for the production of relatively small, intricate parts rather than large, simple structures, where the higher material and processing costs would outweigh any advantage. For example, a redesigned nozzle can enhance fuel mixing within an engine, leading to better efficiency. Increasing the surface area of a heat shield by using a patterned rather than a flat surface can mean heat is transferred away more efficiently, reducing the chances of overheating.

The techniques can also reduce the amount of material wasted in manufacturing, important because space components tend to be made from highly expensive and often rare materials. 3D printing can also produce whole systems in one go rather than from lots of assembled parts. For example, NASA used it to reduce the components in one of its rocket injectors from 115 to just two. Plus, 3D printers can easily make small numbers of a part as the space industry often needs without first creating expensive manufacturing tools.

In orbit

3D printers are also likely to find a use in space itself, where its difficult to keep large numbers of spare parts and hard to send out for replacements when youre thousands of kilometres from Earth. Theres now a 3D printer on the International Space Station so, if something breaks, engineers can send up a design for a replacement and the astronauts can print it out.

Astro printing (Barry Wilmore/NASA)

The current printer only deals with plastic so its more likely to be used for making tools or one-off replacements for low-performance parts such as door handles. But once 3D printers can more easily use other materials, were likely to see an increase in their uses. One day, people in space could produce their own food items and even biological materials. Recycling facilities could also enable broken parts to be reused to make the replacements.

Looking even further ahead, 3D printers could prove useful in building colonies. Places like the moon dont have much in the way of traditional building materials, but the European Space Agency has proven solar energy can power the production of bricks of lunar dust, which would be a good start. Researchers are now looking at how to use 3D printing to take this idea further and develop complete printed buildings on the moon.

To make many of these applications a reality, well need to research more advanced materials and processes that can manufacture components to withstand the extremely harsh conditions of space. Engineers also need to work on developing optimised designs and find ways of testing 3D printed parts to prove theyre safe. And then theres the irritating issue of gravity, or rather the lack of it. Many current processes use powders or liquids as their raw materials so were likely to need some clever tricks in order to make these function safely in a low or microgravity environment.

Some of these barriers may even require entirely new materials and techniques. But as research goes on, 3D printing is likely to be used more and more in space, even if a fully printed space vehicle isnt going to launch any time soon. The sky is no longer the limit.

Candice Majewski is a lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.conversation.com)

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A 3D-printed rocket engine just launched a new era of space exploration - The Independent

Belarus’ drive for peaceful space exploration underlined – Belarus News (BelTA)

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MINSK, 8 June (BelTA) Belarus is ready for international cooperation in peaceful space exploration. Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), Academician Sergei Kilin made the statement during the 60th session of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna, the NASB press service told BelTA.

In his speech the NASB official noted that after Belarus joined the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in 2014, the country has been open and ready to join international integration and cooperation in this field. The policy in favor of peaceful exploration and uses of outer space fully conforms with Belarus' national interests and is being implemented through the relevant measures and projects in Belarus. We are proud that three cosmonauts Piotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalenok, and Oleg Novitsky are natives of Belarus, noted Sergei Kilin.

The official stated that the year 2017 has been declared the Year of Science in Belarus. Fundamental and applied research projects in the area of space exploration are in progress as well as the development of the accompanying technologies. For the sake of consolidating the country's scientific, technical, and industrial potentials space exploration projects and measures are stipulated by the government program on peaceful space exploration till 2020. The program includes several main directions: the development of the Belarusian system for the remote sensing of Earth using the already operational Belarusian satellites BKA and Canopus-B; the development of navigation, geodesy, and cartography projects using space technologies; the development of programs for training scientific personnel, for providing scientific, technical, organizational, and legal support for space exploration projects in Belarus.

Sergei Kilin noted that this year Belarus has started creating a new satellite for the remote sensing of Earth. It will boast a higher resolution ability (0.5m) in the panchromatic mode.

Sergei Kilin reminded that in September 2018 Belarus will host the 31st Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers. Preparations are already afoot. The congress will be properly organized. We invite representatives of all the Association countries to participate in the congress, said the academician.

The 60th session of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria on 7-16 June. The agenda includes the development of cosmonautics for peaceful purposes, space technologies as part of the UN system, long-term sustainable development of space industry, and a number of other areas.

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Belarus' drive for peaceful space exploration underlined - Belarus News (BelTA)