earth simulator

The Earth Simulator (ES) was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004. The system was developed for NASDA, JAERI, and JAMSTEC in 1997 for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid earth geophsyics. It has been able to run holistic simulations of global climate in both the atmosphere and the oceans down to a resolution of 10 km.

Located at the Earth Simulator Center (ESC) in Kanazawa, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, the computer is capable of 35.86 trillion (35,860,000,000,000) floating-point calculations per second, or 35.86 TFLOPS.

Built by NEC, the ES is based on their SX-6 architecture. It consists of 640 nodes with eight vector processors and 16 gibibytes of computer memory at each node, for a total of 5120 processors and 10 tebibytes of memory. Two nodes are installed per 1 metre x 1.4 metre x 2 metre cabinet. Each cabinet consumes 20 kW of power. The system has 700 terabytes of disk storage (450 for the system and 250 for the users) and 1.6 petabytes of mass storage in tape drives. The ES is almost five times faster than ASCI White. Construction started in October 1999, was completed by February 2002, and the site officially opened on March 11, 2002. The project cost 7.2 billion yen.

Earth Simulator's capacity was surpassed by IBM's Blue Gene/L prototype on September 29, 2004.

The ESC has several special features that help to protect the computer from natural disasters or occurrences. A wire nest hangs over the building which helps to protect from lightning. The nest itself uses high-voltage shielded cables to release lightning current into the ground. A special light propagation system utilizes halogen lamps, installed outside of the shielded machine room walls, to prevent any magnetic interference from reaching the computers. The building is constructed on a seismic isolation system, composed of rubber supports, that protect the building during earthquakes.

The ES OS operating system is based on SUPER-UX.

photo session: nebulas

cone nebula

triangulum nebula

rotten egg nebula

ant nebula

gomez's hambuerger

erupting Io

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft snapped this image of Jupiter's moon Io in February as it passed within 1.4 million miles of the planet. The smoky cap hovering over Io is one of its volcanic plumes, the gas from which extends as high as 330 kilometers (200 miles) above its surface. Io is the most geologically active body in the solar system.

storm season: sepat

Super Typhoon Sepat came ashore in Taiwan on August 17, 2007, after bringing torrential rain and flooding to the Philippines the day before. Flights to and from Tapei, the island’s capital, were canceled and Chinese authorities were calling all ships at sea to come back to shore in anticipation of the powerful typhoon crossing the Taiwan Strait and coming ashore on the mainland, said news reports. The typhoon was classified as Category Five typhoon, at the very top of the scale, with sustained winds of 184 kilometers per hour (114 miles per hour), according to CNN.
At 10:25 a.m. local time (02:25 UTC) on August 16, 2007, when the MODIS on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image, Super Typhoon Sepat was still well away from its coming encounter with the Philippines and Taiwan. Winds were measured at a sustained speed as high as 257 km/hr (161 mph) at the time of this image, according to the University of Hawaii’s Tropical Storm Information Center.
The storm’s strength is evident in this image from its large size, well-defined spiral structure, and obvious large eye. Some clouds are present in the central eye: a completely clear eye is a tell-tale sign of the most powerful storms, though some clouds can be present in the eye of a powerful storm as is the case here.

fly me to the moon

This photo shows a U. S. Airways airliner, with attending twin contrails, appearing to pass in front of the first quarter Moon. In my experience this type of occultation occurs more often than people might think. In Albany, Missouri, from where this picture was snapped, commercial jets tend to follow "preferred" routes across the sky, and when the Moon happens to be in the vicinity of such a fly-over route, then a composition like the one above is possible. As an observer and photographer, you just have to be mindful, patient and prepared.

Photo details: taken with a 6" f/12 Maksutov Cassegrain telescope using a Nikon 995 digital camera. Photo captured on June 2, 2006.

copyright: Dan Bush, Missouri Skies

robotic sensibility

shadow robot

© Copyright Shadow Robot Company Ltd.

one small step for robot, one giant leap for robotickind

ASIMO (アシモ, ashimo) is a humanoid robot created by Honda Motor Company. Standing at 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches) and weighing 52 kilograms (119 lbs.), the robot resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack and can walk on two feet at speeds up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph). ASIMO was created at Honda's Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan. It is the current model in a line of eleven that began in 1986 with E0.
Officially, the name is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility". Honda's official statements indicate that the robot's name is not a reference to science fiction writer and inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics, Isaac Asimov. In Japanese, the name is pronounced ashimo and, not coincidentally, means "legs also" (from Japanese "脚も").
As of 2007, there are 46 ASIMO units in existence. Each one costs less than $1 million to manufacture, and some units are available to be hired out for $166,000 per year.

aerogel

Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. The result is an extremely low density solid with several remarkable properties, most notably its effectiveness as an insulator. It is nicknamed frozen smoke, solid smoke or blue smoke due to its semi-transparent nature and the way light scatters in the material; however, it feels like expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) to the touch.
Aerogel was first created by Steven Kistler in 1931, as a result of a bet with Charles Learned over who could replace the liquid inside a jam (jelly) jar with gas without causing shrinkage.

Aerogels are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly drawn off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation. The first aerogels were produced from silica gels. Kistler's later work involved aerogels based on alumina, chromia and tin oxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the early 1990s.

liquid spikes

A ferrofluid (from the Latin ferrum, meaning iron) is a liquid which becomes strongly polarised in the presence of a magnetic field.
Ferrofluids are composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid, usually an organic solvent or water. The ferromagnetic nano-particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration (due to van der Waals and magnetic forces). Although the name may suggest otherwise, ferrofluids do not display ferromagnetism, since they do not retain magnetisation in the absence of an externally applied field. In fact, ferrofluids display paramagnetism, and are often referred as being "superparamagnetic" due to their large magnetic susceptibility. True ferromagnetic fluids are difficult to create at present

portuguese f-16a

An F-16A from the Portuguese Air Force prepares to refuel from a KC-10 while deployed to a forward location in the European theatre on March 19th, 1999. This mission is in direct support of Joint Task Force 'Noble Anvil'.

napalm death

A simulated Napalm explosion is set off on the Flight Line of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point during a Marine Air ground Task Force demonstration at the 2003 MCAS Air Show on May 3, 2003. Official USMC photo by LCpl Andrew Pendracki. Released. Submitted by MCAS Cherry Point.

uss bataan in lisbon

USS Bataan in the port of Lisbon, summer 2003

avrocar

The VZ-9- AV Avrocar was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft as part of a secret US military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for more advanced USAF fighter and US Army tactical combat aircraft. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor." Thrust from the rotor was diverted out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project ended ignominiously with the program cancellation in 1961.

Type: experimental "proof-of-concept" vehicle
Manufacturer: Avro Aircraft Ltd.
Designed by: John Frost
Maiden flight: 12 November 1959
Introduced: 1958
Retired: 1961
Status: experimental
Primary users: United States Air Force (intended)United States Army (intended)
Produced: 1958-1959
Number built: 2
Unit cost: Project cost: $10 million (USD)

Raining Perseids

Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies in the annual Perseid meteor shower. While enjoying the anticipated space weather, astronomer Fred Bruenjes recorded a series of many 30 second long exposures spanning about six hours on the night of 2004 August 11/12 using a wide angle lens. Combining those frames which captured meteor flashes, he produced this dramatic view of the Perseids of summer. Although the comet dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous constellation Perseus. The radiant effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance. Bruenjes notes that there are 51 Perseid meteors in the composite image, including one seen nearly head-on.

Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes

cigarrete beetle

This critter is probably Lasioderma serricorne, a cigarette beetle. It is very small, about a sixteenth of an inch in length. Like most anobiids, the head is deflexed and concealed by the hoodlike pronotum. It can be a household pest, infesting dry foods and spices. It is particularly fond of tobacco products. This beetle is about 2.5 millimeters long.

Copyright © 1996-2000 Tina (Weatherby) Carvalho...MicroAngela

http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/microangela/cigarbug.htm

hubble sucessor

NASA has unveiled the new telescope that will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in Washington D.C. called the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST]. Currently, NASA has a life-sized model on display to the public which is as tall as a two story house and weighs several tons.
Researchers at NASA say that the Webb telescope will be able to see farther than Hubble "to the beginning of time."
"It will find the first galaxies and will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System," said a statement posted on NASA's website. It will be sent into space where it will orbit nearly 2,000,000 miles from Earth.
JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court.
Northrop Grumman is contracted to build the telescope and will be jointly operated by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It is scheduled to launch in 2013 from Arianespace's ELA-3 launch complex at European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana.

remember hiroshima

Hiroshima 6-8-1945

And the question is, how can the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons against another country, killing about 140.000 people and exposing and killing hundreds between 1950 and 1990, critize other countries for using nuclear energy ?

i really think it's kind of ironic, isn't it?