UK's Prime Minister David Cameron states, "Mexico joining global elite of world economic powers"
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Travel with the 'D' around the world, Vol. 26
Going on a trip? Take along the Olde English D, snap a photo and upload it at Freep.com.
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Pupils ‘travel world’ as school embraces Games
Last updated at 14:00, Thursday, 28 June 2012
A BARROW school embraced the Olympics to learn about countries from across the world.
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Pupils at Cambridge School, in Barrow, took part in an Olympic flag procession on Monday. (25/6)
The event was aimed at boosting the childrens international awareness and pupils from all years joined in the fun.
Flags on display included those of Jamaica, Cyprus, Trinidad and Tobago, France and the USA.
Headteacher Linda Dean said: It was the launch of our involvement and interest in the London 2012 Olympics.
A flag procession was one of the suggested activities and we thought it would be a good way to get involved.
The pupils designed and made flags from different countries and we did a procession through the school, outside into the street, back through the playground and into the main hall.
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How To Build a Gaming Computer 2012: Parts Overview and Buying Guide [Part 1] – Video
27-06-2012 12:55 Be sure to subscribe to stay tuned for my further uploads and updates to this series! Thanks Guys! Parts: i7 2600k Corsair H100 Corsair 650d Case 1 tb Seagate Barracuda 240gb Mushkin SSD 120gb Corsair Force SSD Samsung Blu Ray Drive DVD Drive GTX 680 Superclocked Edition G. Skill Sniper RAM 16gb Corsair Hx750 NZXT Cable Extensions Asrock Z77 Professional Silenx Effizio Fans -Ben
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How To Build a Gaming Computer 2012: Parts Overview and Buying Guide [Part 1] - Video
Obama Campaign Outsources Outsourcing Attack to Super PAC
President Obama’s campaign already has an ad accusing Mitt Romney of “outsourcing” jobs. Then The Washington Post ran a story that said while Romney ran Bain Capital, the firm invested in companies that were “pioneers” of shipping jobs overseas. While the Romney campaign debated the...
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Supermicro® FatTwin(TM) Takes Center Stage at International Supercomputing Conference …
New 4U, 8/4 Node FatTwin(TM) Joins Supermicro's SuperBlade, GPU Platforms, SuperWorkstation, 4-Way and Twin Architecture Solutions Highlighting Supermicro's Supercomputing Solutions for HPC
HAMBURG, Germany- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and green computing, will debut its newest innovative architecture, FatTwin(TM) at ISC, giving the public its first hands-on look at the future of power-efficient supercomputing. The FatTwin is a new 4U high-performance, high-capacity platform that offers versatile configurations for HPC with multi-node models that support dual 135W Intel Xeon E5-2600 processors, up to 8 hot-swap 3.5" HDDs in 1U and up to 8 GPUs in 2U. This new architecture is also designed to operate in high ambient temperatures providing greater performance while reducing cooling infrastructure costs.
"Many factors affect the successful implementation of scalable supercomputing solutions, and obtaining maximum performance within budget and power constraints is the most challenging task," said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. "At Supermicro, we emphasize not only the highest-performance in our HPC solutions, but also the overall energy efficiency and optimal power-usage effectiveness (PUE) of our complete systems. Supermicro's new architectures such as FatTwin integrate the latest CPU, GPU and storage technologies with advanced high-efficiency digital switching power supplies and free-air cooling designs for maximum performance and increased operational temperature ranges up to 47 degrees C that eliminate costly air conditioning. Our expertise in server design and thermal management reduces our customer's TCO and offsets operating expenses providing more budget for mission critical compute performance."
Supermicro's new FatTwin expands on their widely adopted 1U and 2U Twin SuperServer lines and adds a new series of 4U systems that offers the industry's best capacity and efficiency in a standard 19" rack ready solution. The FatTwin is now shipping in high-compute density 4U 8 and 4 node configurations supporting dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 processors, up to 512GB of 1600MHz memory and up to 12 hot-swap 2.5" SAS/SATA HDDs per U in the 8 node or up to 8 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA HDDs per U in the 4 node configuration. These systems also offer PCI-E 3.0 expandability and optional 56Gbps ConnectX-3 FDR InfiniBand or 10GbE connectivity. The real highlights of these systems reach beyond their high-performance and capacity with an earth friendly focus on energy efficiency and resulting cost savings. The FatTwin is designed to operate in extreme ambient temperature range (0 degrees C to 47 degrees C), free-air cooled environments, effectively eliminating the need for costly air-conditioning. The Twin architecture based multi-node solutions feature shared power and cooling resources reducing costly components and cabling, resulting in optimized air-flow and maximizing energy utilization. Combined with Supermicro's redundant Platinum Level high-efficiency (95%+) digital switching power supplies, the FatTwin delivers maximum compute density and energy efficiency for today's most demanding supercomputing needs. FatTwin is a versatile platform and additional models will be released in early Q3 2012 offering solutions optimized for GPU supercomputing and Big Data/Hadoop analytics.
Exhibits at the show include Supermicro's wide range of X9 Intel Xeon E5-2600 based platforms optimized for HPC. SuperBlade offers various blade configurations with a 56Gb FDR InfiniBand switch for high-speed interconnectivity. The GPU Blade SBI-7127RG provides the highest compute density with 20 GPUs and 20 CPUs in 7U and the double-density TwinBlade SBI-7227R-T2 provides 20 DP (dual-processor) server nodes with 40 CPUs in 7U. The SYS-1027GR-TQFT offers an extreme 4 GPUs in 1U and the 2U 6 GPU SYS-2027GR-TRF is ideal for scalable cluster computing. The SYS-7047GR-TRF SuperWorkstation accommodates up to 5 GPUs and recently received NVIDIA Maximus(TM) certification making this system a powerhouse for engineering, design and simulation applications. Supermicro's advanced 4-Way MP (multi-processor) systems targeting mission-critical, data-intensive applications will be represented with the SYS-8047R-7RFT+.
In addition Supermicro will display its A+ line of AMD Opteron(TM) 6000 servers including the 4U rack mountable quad-processor AS-4042G-TRF and the 2U Twin(2) AS-2022TG-H6IBQRF offering four hot-pluggable dual-processor 16/12/8-Core nodes in a 2U form factor. Supermicro A+ Blade solutions include the 4-Way SuperBlade SBA-7142G-T4 with ten hot-pluggable quad-processor 16/12/8-Core nodes in a 7U blade enclosure and the double-density TwinBlade SBA-7222G-T2 with 20 DP 16/12/8-Core nodes in a 7U blade enclosure. Supermicro offers complete computing solutions with its 10G/1G Ethernet switches including two new models that also support free-air cooling operation in ambient temperatures of up to 47 degrees C.
Visit Supermicro at ISC'12 in Hamburg, Germany at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH), booth #520 or browse Supermicro's total line of high performance, high-efficiency server and storage solutions at http://www.supermicro.com.
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions for Data Center, Cloud Computing, HPC, Enterprise IT and Embedded Systems worldwide. Supermicro is committed to protecting the environment through its "We Keep IT Green" initiative and provides customers with the most energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly solutions available on the market.
SOURCE Super Micro Computer, Inc.
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Supermicro® FatTwin(TM) Takes Center Stage at International Supercomputing Conference ...
Super Micro Computer Turns More Into Less
Margins matter. The more Super Micro Computer (Nasdaq: SMCI) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Super Micro Computer's competitive position could be.
Here's the current margin snapshot for Super Micro Computer over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 16.3%, while operating margin is 5.5% and net margin is 3.5%.
Unfortunately, a look at the most recent numbers doesn't tell us much about where Super Micro Computer has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.
Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.
Here's the margin picture for Super Micro Computer over the past few years.
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.
Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right -- the TTM figures -- aren't always comparable to the FY results preceding them. To compare quarterly margins to their prior-year levels, consult this chart.
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.
Here's how the stats break down:
With recent TTM operating margins below historical averages, Super Micro Computer has some work to do.
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Diabetes breakthrough: UBC scientists reverse disease in mice using stem-cell transplants
VANCOUVER -- For the first time ever, University of B.C. scientists have used human embryonic stem cell transplants to reverse Type 1 diabetes in mice with the disease, giving hope to about 300 million people around the world who suffer from the chronic disease.
A 13-member team, whose milestone work is published in the journal Diabetes, shows that after transplantation, the stem cells matured into insulin-secreting, pancreatic beta-cells. The cells automatically sensed blood sugar levels to release the right amount of insulin and a few dozen diabetic mice were gradually weaned off insulin given to them over a period of months.
Insulin is produced by beta-cells to to help the body absorb sugar and use it for energy.
Essentially, the mice were cured of their diabetes by placing the body back in charge of regulated insulin production as it is in healthy, non-diabetics, said lead author Timothy Kieffer.
It took about four to five months for the [stem] cells to become functional in our experiments and the mice were able to maintain good blood glucose levels even when fed a high-glucose diet, said Kieffer, a UBC professor in the department of cellular and physiological sciences.
Type 1 diabetes otherwise known as juvenile diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a patients immune system kills off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. About 10 per cent of diabetics are Type 1 and typically, they must inject themselves with insulin or use pumps to control their blood glucose levels.
While pancreatic islet cell transplantation pioneered at the University of Alberta several years ago has been shown to be an effective way of reducing dependence on insulin injections, the treatment is costly and cumbersome as it requires donor cells from cadavers, which are always in short supply. As well, islet cell transplant patients must forever take anti-rejection drugs that can cause organ damage.
In the study methodology, mice were anesthetized and then injected with millions of cells derived from stem cells which were placed under the left kidney area.
Although the research showed that stem cells may one day provide a cure for diabetes, it also revealed hurdles to overcome before agencies like the Food and Drug Administration in the United States or Health Canada can approve the therapy.
For example, some mice developed bone or cartilage in areas where the cells were inserted, an unacceptable side-effect that future experiments must resolve.
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Diabetes breakthrough: UBC scientists reverse disease in mice using stem-cell transplants
Retreat looking for volunteers
VOLUNTEERS are needed to operate Mary MacKillop House (pictured) in Richmond from August to October.
Set in beautiful grounds, the historic "House of Spirituality" which used to be the old St Joseph convent, is now used as a place for contemplation, prayer and spirituality workshops, according to the director of the Western Ministry for Spirituality, Terry Lees.
"This year we've been running it with the help of volunteers who live in and coordinate the daily activities and operations of the house, cook meals if there are guests, provide cups of tea for visitors and show them around.
"We have daily prayer sessions and workshops scheduled and the position is a live-in one," Mr Lees said.
The house looked out over the lake at Richmond, and Mr Lees said it had a "million dollar view".
The volunteer/s would also be in charge of maintaining the gardens.
Mary MacKillop House was administered by the Catholic Diocese of Townsville.
Anyone interested should contact Terry Lees on 0419 729 225 or by email at Patterle@bigpond.net.au
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Ripples in the sky: Space Station astronaut captures mysterious 'night shining' clouds over Tibetan plateau
By Rob Waugh
PUBLISHED: 06:37 EST, 28 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:31 EST, 28 June 2012
Space Station astronauts captured images of rare 'night shining' clouds as the craft passed over the Tibetan Plateau - high-altitude clouds which appear as delicate, shining threads against the darkness of space.
The clouds can only be seen from aircraft in flight, from the Space Station, or rarely from the ground at twilight - and shine at night because the ice crystals are lit up by the sun from beneath the visible horizon.
The clouds can only be seen from aircraft in flight, from the Space Station, or rarely from the ground at twilight - and shine at night because the ice crystals are lit up by the sun from beneath the visible horizon
The clouds - called 'polar mesospheric' clouds or 'noctilucent', night-shining clouds were photographed on June 13 by the crew of the ISS using a Nikon D2X.
In both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, during their respective late spring and early summer seasons, polar mesospheric clouds are at the peak of their visibility.
On June 13, 2012, when this image was taken from the ISS as it passed over the Tibetan Plateau, polar mesospheric clouds were also visible to aircraft flying over Canada.
In addition to the still image above, the ISS crew took a time-lapse image sequence of polar mesospheric clouds several days earlier (June 5) while passing over western Asia. It is first such sequence of images of the phenomena taken from orbit.
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Space Station Science at a Critical Point, NASA Says
DENVER It's time to get serious about science in space, and the International Space Station is the perfect place to start, NASA officials said Tuesday (June 26).
"We are in a position in space research and space exploration where we have to push the ball and advance forward or we're about ready to retreat from space," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told a crowd of researchers here at the first annual ISS Research and Development Conference.
Science experiments on the space station have been under way since the outpost's early days, of course. Construction of the orbiting laboratory began in 1998, and there has been a continuous human presence on the station since 2000. Now, however, there is little left to build and many opportunities to exploit, according to NASA speakers, who encouraged scientists to spread the word.
"We need to really reach out and push and use that same creativity and innovation that we used to build this wonderful facility to actually utilize it," Gerstenmaier said. [Infographic: The International Space Station Inside and Out]
In May, SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule successfully docked with the space station, becoming the first commercial spacecraft in history to do so. With SpaceX and other private companies providing transportation, private research companies will have the routine access they need to commit to space research, Gerstenmaier said. Meanwhile, upgrades like Earth-compatible power outlets and wireless internet connectivity will make it easier for terrestrially bound scientists to create experiments that will work in space, said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS Program Director.
Keeping humans in space
The human component to space exploration was at the forefront in NASA officials' messages. Human experimenters can be part of experiments, making observations in a way that an automated system never could, said NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati. And human perseverance can also yield surprising results.
For example, now-retired astronaut Shannon Lucid was once conducting a fluid physics experiment on the Russian research satellite Mir, Gerstenmaier said. Her job was to shake a container of liquid in an attempt to form a bubble in a certain spot. Based on computer models, researchers were certain that the experiment was physically impossible but Lucid didn't know that. With communications temporarily interrupted between Mir and Earth, she kept at the experiment for over an hour. Finally, she got the bubble to form.
"It blew away their theory," Gerstenmaier said. "They believed their computer analysis. She didn't know that and really pushed that boundary."
Space station research can have applications for humanity on Earth one experiment performed on the station uncovered immune system changes that can predict shingles, a painful skin disorder caused by the chickenpox virus, Suffredini said as well as for future space travel and basic science.
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Colorado Wildfires Seen From Space in Astronaut Video
The vast scale of wildfires raging across parts of Colorado and the western U.S. has been captured on camera by astronauts on the International Space Station.
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Space Pictures This Week: Mickey Mouse Craters, More
Suspended Stars
Image by Rolf Olsen, Your Shot
Seen from a New Zealand observatory, the young star cluster NGC 6193 (center) appears suspended within the nebula NGC 6188. The nebula itself is littered with thousands of dimmer, colorful stars in this image recently submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.
NGC 6188 is a large-emission nebula some 4,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ara. (See more nebula pictures.)
Published June 28, 2012
Photograph courtesy DLR
The German Aerospace Center's unmanned SHEFEX II spacecraft takes off from the Andya Rocket Range in Norway on June 22. Ten minutes later the 43-foot-tall (13-meter-tall) rocket landed safely west of Spitsbergen, Norway.
As it re-entered the atmosphere, SHEFEX (SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment) endured temperatures over 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 degrees Celsius), and its 300 sensors sent measurement data to a ground station.
"The SHEFEX II flight takes us one step further in the road to developing a space vehicle built like a space capsule but offering the control and flight options of the space shuttle much more cost-effectively," project manager Hendrik Weihs said in a statement.
(See "SpaceX Launches for Space Station-Like 'Winning the Super Bowl.'")
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Va. space flight authority names new exec director
The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority has named a new executive director ahead of legislative changes aimed at boosting the group's efforts to promote commercial space activity, economic development and aerospace research at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
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UPDATE 9-Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis
* Wall Street extends losses after Supreme Court decision
* Euro zone deeply divided over how to battle debt crisis
* Coming up: U.S. consumer confidence survey, Friday
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell as much as 3 percent o n T hursday, heading for the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial debacle, on worries that an EU summit will not find durable solutions to the euro zone crisis, stifling global growth prospects.
Weaker U.S. equities on Wall Street after the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding key elements of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law added to the day's pressures on crude futures.
Despite recent gains, Brent crude futures were on track to end the second quarter with a drop of about 25 percent, the worst since the last quarter of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis after the collapse of Lehman Bros.
U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, were poised to see a fall of about 24 percent, also the biggest quarterly loss since the last quarter of 2008.
Trading on Wall Street was volatile, with healthcare stocks hit after the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece "individual mandate" provision of the Obama healthcare overhaul. Equities were already lower on skepticism that the European Union Summit will result in concrete measures.
"It's the euro zone problems, the strength of the dollar and the weak equities, said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group in Villanova, Pennsylvania, commenting on the reasons for the day's price drop.
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Sacramento Rapid Response Team Heads To Florida
Sacramento rapid response team heads to Florida
A six-person rapid response team from Sacramento's Red Cross departed for Florida, where residents have been flooded out of their homes.
"We are high and dry here and we are able to help, so we are," said Tami Martin, a Red Cross team leader.
The all-volunteer team will assist in setting up temporary shelters in areas hardest hit by Tropical Depression Debby.
"We are hearing that hotels and motels where people had been evacuated to are now being evacuated even further back," said David Kennedy, a spokesman for Sacramento's Red Cross chapter.
Tropical Depression Debby has flooded more than 100 homes, sparked dozens of water rescues and been blamed for several deaths.
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UPDATE 10-Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis
* Wall Street extends losses after Supreme Court decision
* Euro zone deeply divided over how to battle debt crisis
* Coming up: U.S. consumer confidence survey, Friday
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell as much as 3 percent on Thursday, and are on track for the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial debacle, on worries that an EU summit will not find durable solutions to the euro zone crisis, stifling global growth prospects.
Lower U.S. equities following the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding key elements of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law added to the day's pressures on crude futures.
Despite recent gains, Brent crude futures were on track to end the second quarter down about 25 percent, the largest drop since the last quarter of 2008, which was the height of a financial crisis.
U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, were headed for drop of fall about 24 percent, also the biggest quarterly loss since the last quarter of 2008.
Trading on Wall Street was volatile, with large health insurers hit, after the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece "individual mandate" provision of the Obama healthcare overhaul. Equities were already lower on skepticism that the European Union Summit will result in concrete measures.
U.S. equities later ended with pared losses on talk that EU finance officials were working on urgent measures to ease financial pressure on Spain and Italy.
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Oil heads for worst quarter since 2008 crisis
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell as much as 3 percent on Thursday, and are on track for the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial debacle, on worries that an EU summit will not find durable solutions to the euro zone crisis, stifling global growth prospects.
Lower U.S. equities following the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding key elements of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law added to the day's pressures on crude futures.
Despite recent gains, Brent crude futures were on track to end the second quarter down about 25 percent, the largest drop since the last quarter of 2008, which was the height of a financial crisis.
U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, were headed for drop of fall about 24 percent, also the biggest quarterly loss since the last quarter of 2008.
Trading on Wall Street was volatile, with large health insurers hit, after the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece "individual mandate" provision of the Obama healthcare overhaul. Equities were already lower on skepticism that the European Union Summit will result in concrete measures. (.N)
U.S. equities later ended with pared losses on talk that EU finance officials were working on urgent measures to ease financial pressure on Spain and Italy.
"It's the euro zone problems, the strength of the dollar and the weak equities," said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group in Villanova, Pennsylvania, commenting on the reasons for the day's price drop.
The euro fell against the dollar on doubts about the outcome of the EU summit, denting investors' interest in buying riskier assets such as oil and other commodities. (USD/)
In London, Brent crude oil futures for August settled $2.14 lower at $91.36 a barrel, after a session low of $90.88.
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NASA Experiences in Prog.
27-06-2012 15:37 The GSFC connection in the multi-mission spacecraft management field is explored. Released January 1989.
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