Amazon's Cloud Built a 17,024-core, 240-Teraflop Cluster Manifold Creating the 42nd Fastest Supercomputer in the World. The Number 42 is the Answer to the Universe Right? Well at the Very Least it can be Your Answer to Owning One of the Top 500 Fastest Computers Today!

""The list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers came out yesterday with a top 10 that was unchanged from the previous ranking issued in June. But further down the list, a familiar name is making a charge: Amazon, with its Elastic Compute Cloud service, built a 17,024-core, 240-teraflop cluster that now ranks as the 42nd fastest supercomputer in the world.

Amazon previously built a 7,040-core, 41.8-teraflop cloud cluster that hit number 233 on the list, then fell to 451st. But Amazon submitted an updated Linpack benchmark test with the addition of a new type of high-performance computing instance known as "Cluster Compute Eight Extra Large," which each have two Intel Xeon processors, 16 cores, 60GB of RAM and 3.37TB of storage. The full cluster on the Top 500 list is Linux-based, with 17,024 cores, 66,000GB of memory, and a 10 Gigabit Ethernet interconnect.

For less than $1,000 per hour, with the purchase of 290 HPC instances, Amazon said customers can create their own 63.7-teraflop cluster, which would be fast enough to make the Top 500 list.""

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/amazons-cloud-is-the-worlds-42nd-fastest-supercomputer.ars

New - Elastic Network Interfaces in the Virtual Private Cloud

""If you look closely at the services and facilities provided by AWS, you'll see that we've chosen to factor architectural components that were once considered elemental (e.g. a server) into multiple discrete parts that you can instantiate and control individually.

For example, you can create an EC2 instance and then attach EBS volumes to it on an as-needed basis. This is more dynamic and more flexible than procuring a server with a fixed amount of storage.

Today we are adding additional flexibility to EC2 instances running in the Virtual Private Cloud. First, we are teasing apart the IP addresses (and important attributes associated with them) from the EC2 instances and calling the resulting entity an ENI, or Elastic Network Interface. Second, we are giving you the ability to create additional ENIs, and to attach a second ENI to an instance (again, this is within the VPC).

Each ENI lives within a particular subnet of the VPC (and hence within a particular Availability Zone) and has the following attributes:

• Description
• Private IP Address
• Elastic IP Address
• MAC Address
• Security Group(s)
• Source/Destination Check Flag
• Delete on Termination Flag

A very important consequence of this new model (and one took me a little while to fully understand) is that the idea of launching an EC2 instance on a particular VPC subnet is effectively obsolete. A single EC2 instance can now be attached to two ENIs, each one on a distinct subnet. The ENI (not the instance) is now associated with a subnet.

Similar to an EBS volume, ENIs have a lifetime that is independent of any particular EC2 instance. They are also truly elastic. You can create them ahead of time, and then associate one or two of them with an instance at launch time. You can also attach an ENI to an instance while it is running (we sometimes call this a "hot attach"). Unless the Delete on Termination flag is set, the ENI will remain alive and well after the instance is terminated. We'll create a ENI for you at launch time if you don't specify one, and we'll set the Delete on Terminate flag so you won't have to manage it. Net-net: You don't have to worry about this new level of flexibility until you actually need it.

You can put this new level of addressing and security flexibility to use in a number of different ways. Here are some that we've already heard about:""

http://aws.typepad.com/aws/amazon_ec2/

Secrets of the 'Levitating' Slinky: Simple 1940s-Era Toy Has Physicists Holdiay Gitty Over Striking Phenomenon & Video

""Spurred by a wave of recent Web videos showing the bottom of a dropped Slinky hovering dramatically in midair , physicists have provided new insights into this phenomenon, from the existence of shock waves in the falling Slinky, to a remarkably universal "levitation" time for a Slinky on other planets or moons despite their different gravitational fields.

In February 2000, the late science writer Martin Gardner posed a simple question intended for physics students, but also triggering a new round of papers and videos on the much-studied toy. Gardner wrote: "If you hold one end of a Slinky, letting it hang down and then drop it, what happens?"

"It turns out the bottom stays suspended, levitating in air for some period in time," said Shimon Kolkowitz, a physics graduate student at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. As an undergraduate at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2007, Kolkowitz wrote a paper now posted online for a class taught by his professor, physics Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin.

And recently, Bill Unruh, a physics professor at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, heard some colleagues in the faculty lounge discussing a video of the levitating Slinky. As a result, Unruh, a world expert in black hole radiation, became captivated with Slinky physics.

Making calculations over a couple of days, Unruh wrote and posted a paper on the falling Slinky at the website arXiv.

Inspired by Gardner's riddle and earlier Slinky studies while putting together his paper, Kolkowitz calculated that the bottom of his metal Slinky would remain suspended for approximately three-tenths of a second. And only recently he made a surprising realization: the levitation time of the toy would be exactly the same if it were dropped on the moon, Jupiter or Mars, even with their vastly different gravitational fields.

Unruh found that the falling Slinky creates a shock wave through the toy, analogous to the blast wave of a bomb or a sonic boom created by aircraft.  

What in the world is going on?

"A Slinky is a simple spring, with the unique attribute that the spring in its natural resting state has all the coils touching one another," Unruh said.

"It's what's called a pretensioned spring," Kolkowitz added. "If you just leave it sitting on a desk on its side it'll actually be fully compressed."

Held from midair, the Slinky stretches out, quickly reaching a condition known as "equilibrium." in which the downward force of gravity is balanced by the upward tension of the coils above it.  When the top is released, the bottom stays suspended. The top of the Slinky collapses, so that the coils slam into each other. That collapse travels down as a wave through the Slinky. The bottom coils remain at rest until the top crashes into them.

And that's the key to understanding how the bottom of the Slinky remains suspended in midair for a short while.

"The bottom part of the Slinky hasn't deformed in any way," Kolkowitz explained. "Until that compression reaches the very bottom it won't move."

This levitation time -- approximately 0.3 seconds for Kolkowitz's own Slinky  -- would be the same on any planet or moon. Gravity and tension of the spring effectively cancel each other out.

Kolkowitz  said that one way of understanding this is that on the moon, the weaker gravitational field wouldn't stretch the Slinky as much, so the spring would compress more gently towards the bottom when dropped, taking the same 0.3 seconds to travel there. On Jupiter, the stronger gravitational field would stretch the suspended Slinky to a greater degree, so that the spring would have a larger distance to compress. But the more stretched-out top would snap back faster toward the bottom, resulting in the same levitation time.

As Kolkowitz pointed out, however, the Slinky's center of mass -- which shifts, but is always located somewhere in between the top and bottom of the toy -- still accelerates according to gravity all the way down to the ground from the moment it's released. So there's no violation of any of Newton's laws or Galileo's observations about falling objects.

The levitation time would only increase with a heavier Slinky and decrease if the coils were stiffer. The spring's mass and stiffness, Kolkowitz said, are the only two factors that affect the duration of levitation.""

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-secrets-levitating-slinky-viral-web.html

Anonymous: Night Raid Equipment-Maker Lobbied for NDAA, Singles Out Sen. Rob Portman. For Receiving a Particularly Large Sum from Companies and PACs Lobbying For the (NDAA) National Defense Authorization Act.

""The geeks at Anonymous probably think they are having more fun publishing the Twitter handles of the 83 senators who approved the NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, last Thursday, on Bill of Rights Day, which okays indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial.  But buried in the information dump is truly amazing information, which could have been put together from public records, but which Anonymous actually brought to the fore.

First, Anonymous singles out Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) for receiving a particularly large sum from companies and PACs lobbying for the NDAA.  From the RT report:

Robert J. Portman...we are truly disturbed by the ludicrous $272,853 he received from special interest groups supporting the NDAA bill that authorizes the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.

Even in Washington terms, over a quarter million is a ridiculous amount of money from special interest groups supporting an issue to any single legislator.  Congressmen have been bought for far less, with around $50,000 considered a serious ante at anyone's table, and much less merely keeping you in the game.

Then RT reports:

"Among the supporters of NDAA are California-based manufacturer Surefire, L.L.C., who won a $23 million contract from the Department of Defense three months ago.""

Oh, It Goes Much Much Deeper, Read The Conclusion of the Report:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Anonymous-Night-Raid-Equi-by-Ralph-Lopez-111220-589.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/Anonymous-Night-Raid-Equi-by-Ralph-Lopez-111220-589.html

Oldest Obsidian Bracelet Reveals Amazing Craftsmen's Skills in the Eighth Millennium BC: Dated to 7500 BC, the Obsidian Bracelet Studied by the Researchers is Quite Unique.

""Dated to 7500 BC, the obsidian bracelet studied by the researchers is unique. It is the earliest evidence of obsidian working, which only reached its peak in the seventh and sixth millennia BC with the production of all kinds of ornamental objects, including mirrors and vessels. It has a complex shape and a remarkable central annular ridge, and is 10 cm in diameter and 3.3 cm wide. Discovered in 1995 at the exceptional site of Asıklı Höyük in Turkey and displayed ever since at the Aksaray Archeological Museum, the ring was studied in 2009, after Mihriban Özbasaran, Professor at the University of Istanbul's Department of Prehistory, resumed excavations.

Laurence Astruc, a CNRS researcher and her colleagues analyzed the bracelet using extremely powerful computer technologies developed by LTDS researchers Hassan Zahouani (ENISE) and Roberto Vargiolu (ECL). Developed for industry in order to characterize the 'orange peel effect' on painted car bodywork, these methods, known as multi-scale tribological analysis, have been adapted for the study of micro-topographic features on archeological artefacts. They seek to identify every single operation performed on the surface of these objects.

This process has revealed that the bracelet was made using highly specialized manufacturing techniques. The analyses carried out showed that the bracelet was almost perfectly regular. The symmetry of the central annular ridge is extremely precise, to the nearest degree and nearest hundred micrometers."" 

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-oldest-obsidian-bracelet-reveals-amazing.html

Coders Are Already Finding Ways Around SOPA Censorship Of Internet. Alternative: Less Liberty and More Robo-Justice For All Otherwise.

""A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn't have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he's built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA. The Firefox add-on is stunningly simple as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would block specific domain names (e.g. www.thepiratebay.com) of allegedly infringing sites, T Rizk's lightweight tool allows you to revert to the bare internet protocol (IP) address (e.g. 194.71.107.15) which takes you to the same place. “I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe," T Rizk told the site TorrentFreak -- and you can pretty easily guess whose side they're on. If that doesn't work, TorrentFreak points to another developer-made anti-SOPA solution that's also in the works. Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa is busy rallying developers behind his transparent laboratory for digital democracy, as Reddit-types continue to flood the Internet with protest memes (like the one above).""

""As the number of acronyms and parentheses in our intro suggest, the technical details of SOPA are, well, pretty technical. And with the exception of anti-SOPA folks like Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, most of the members of Congress now considering the legislation are not tech experts. On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee decided to table SOPA until 2012, citing the need to speak to some Internet experts, to balance out the so-far overwhelmingly Hollywood-centric testimonies we've heard so far. Civil rights groups hailed the decision as a victory, at first. That is, until committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith scheduled a last minute hearing on Wednesday morning in an attempt to push the bill to the floor. Not long before he scheduled the hearing -- which may or may not happen depending on whether or not the larger Congress decides to break for holiday recess on Tuesday -- pro-SOPA lobbyists sent out a press release with the misleading title "Markup Shows Strong Support for SOPA." It quotes Smith, a Republican from Texas: "The criticism of this bill is completely hypothetical; none of it is based in reality. Not one of the critics was able to point to any language in the bill that would in any way harm the Internet. Their accusations are simply not supported by any facts."""

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/12/coders-are-already-finding-ways-around-sopa-censorship/46425/

QuakeForge 0.6.0 Open Source Game Engine Released by The QuakeForge Project Team Just in Time For the Holiday Season Foray

""On the 12th anniversary of the release of Quake's source code comes the release of QuakeForge 0.6.0. The only update from 0.5.99 Beta 4.1 is to add support for many more keys in the X11 clients (-glx and -x11). There are some issues with the windows clients, and certain configurations of Linux and other UNIX based systems, but these will be fixed as soon as possible (sooner if patches come ;). Happy birthday, GPL Quake. Merry Christmas, Quake fans.""

http://quakeforge.net/   

""QuakeForge and Quake2Forge are always in constant development. Our development versions have the latest features, but they change rapidly as bugs are fixed and features are added. Stable versions do not change significantly once released, though we sometimes make revisions of the stable branch to fix known bugs. Note: the game data is still non-free; you need either the shareware data (see below) or the registered data.""

http://quakeforge.net/files.php 

 

MIT Launches Online Learning Initiative 'MITx' - Will Offer Courses Online and Make Online Learning Tools Freely Available!

""MITx will offer a portfolio of MIT courses through an online interactive learning platform that will:

• organize and present course material to enable students to learn at their own pace
• feature interactivity, online laboratories and student-to-student communication
• allow for the individual assessment of any student’s work and allow students who demonstrate their mastery of subjects to earn a certificate of completion awarded by MITx
• operate on an open-source, scalable software infrastructure in order to make it continuously improving and readily available to other educational institutions.

MIT expects that this learning platform will enhance the educational experience of its on-campus students, offering them online tools that supplement and enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences. MIT also expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world.""

MIT will couple online learning with research on learning:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-education-initiative-1219.html

New 'FAN MADE' Dark Knight Rises Movie Posters Hitting the Internet Street. Looks Like Folks Are Getting Excited After Viewing Teasers And Leaked Photos Of the Much Anticipated Batman Finale Due Out July of 2012!

 

 

Italian Scientists Say Shroud of Turin is Supernatural: High-Intensity Ultra Violet Directional Radiation Only Way to Reproduce Similar Image Imprint Results

""Italian government scientists have claimed to have discovered evidence that a supernatural event formed the image on the Turin Shroud, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

After years of work trying to replicate the colouring on the shroud, a similar image has been created by the scientists.

However, they only managed the effect by scorching equivalent linen material with high-intensity ultra violet lasers, undermining the arguments of other research, they say, which claims the Turin Shroud is a medieval hoax.

Such technology, say researchers from the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Enea), was far beyond the capability of medieval forgers, whom most experts have credited with making the famous relic.

"The results show that a short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can colour a linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin," they said.""

And in case there was any doubt about:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-say-turin-shroud-is-supernatural-6279512.html

National Defense Authorization Act 2012 to Place National Guard Bureau Chief on Joint Chiefs of Staff. In Crisis Situation The National Guard Will Be Knocking on You Door to Confiscate Your Weapons Under N.D.A.A. (H.R. 1540)

HR 1540

112th CONGRESS

1st Session
H. EAS

In the Senate of the United States,

December 1, 2011.

Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 1540

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 6, 2011

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

AN ACT
T) entitled ‘An Act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2012 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.’, do pass with the following

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h1540/text

"""The Guard now will have a voice and a policy role suited to the vital role the Guard has assumed in our security structure," Leahy said. "The Guard has grown to become a front-line, 21st Century force, but it has been trapped in a 20th Century Pentagon bureaucracy.  These reforms go a long way toward fixing that problem.  I am pleased that we have come so far in recent years, but much more remains to be done.  I thank my partner and my friend Lindsey Graham for all of his hard work on this effort, and we appreciate the many senators on both sides of the aisle who have helped make these advances possible."

Graham said, "We stand on the verge of historic change as the National Guard takes its rightful place as a full, permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Since 9/11, the Guard and Reserve have been indispensable to fighting the War on Terror and protecting the homeland.  They have been called up to duty, taken away from their work and families, and sent to far-away lands for long tours to protect our nation.  Their voices need to be heard and they have earned a seat at the table where our most important military decisions are made.  This long-overdue change in policy is a fitting tribute to our citizen-soldiers and the sacrifices they have made on our nation's behalf."

Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), who helped include the provision in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) along with Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), said placing the Guard chief at the level of the Joint Chiefs would ensure that the Guard is properly manned and equipped for its missions abroad and at home.

"Today, the National Guard serves this nation with distinction as it has throughout history," Miller said in a statement Wednesday. "I have long advocated empowering the Chief of the National Guard to be that voice by giving them a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  This would allow the Chief of the National Guard to directly advocate on their behalf regarding their challenges, training, manpower and equipment needs."

The Senate Armed Services Committee held the only hearing on the subject on Nov. 10, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff uniformly express their admiration for the chief of the National Guard Bureau but flatly dismissed the idea that he should join their ranks.

Among the reasons for rejecting the idea, the top officers of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps, along with the Joint Chiefs chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, argued that National Guard forces already were represented on the Joint Chiefs as part of the total force for both the Army and the Air Force. They contended that the National Guard Bureau chief had no real budget authority and placing him on the Joint Chiefs would create confusion as to the Army and Air Force chain of command.""

http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/today-s-news-analysis/single-article/defense-authorization-act-to-place-national-guard-bureau-chief-on-joint-chiefs-of-staff/e1717bcf046b72412673310462915f97.html

Julian Assange: WikiLeaks Boss Can Appeal Against Extradition To Sweden, Request For An Appeal Has Been Granted by the UK Supreme Court

""WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request for an appeal has been granted by the Supreme Court.

The two-day appeal begins in February, which means Assange is safe from extradition until at least next year.

A statement from the court said it had “decided that seven justices will hear the appeal given the great public important of the issue raised, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority”.

Assange’s legal team argue that police and prosecutors should not have the right to order extraditions because they are not a proper judicial authority.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/16/julian-assange-wikileaks-_n_1153375.html

Attention! Obama Will Not Veto National Defense Authorization Act 2012, It's Official! Provisions Sections 1031-1032-1033 Remain In the Bill!!! Fundamental American Principle That Our Military Does Not Patrol Our Streets Is Technically VOID. The House Approved the Final Version Bill by a 283 to 136 Vote...

The White House on Wednesday said it would not veto the controversial National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

""President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said lawmakers who crafted a compromise version from rival Senate and House versions of the legislation had addressed his worries about proposed tough rules on detainees.

The legislation has been the subject of considerable criticism.

At one point the bill contained a provision that would have authorized the U.S. to use military force anywhere there were terrorism suspects, including within the U.S. itself. The American Civil Liberties Union described it as authorizing a “worldwide war without end.”

The section was removed from the bill in July.

But other controversial provisions, Sections 1031 and 1032, remained. The provisions would have authorized the U.S. to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists anywhere in the world without charge or trial, and hold them in military custody.

Democratic senators tried amend the provisions, but failed. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned the provisions “put every American at risk” of being sent to Guantanamo Bay. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) said it violated the Constitution because U.S. citizens could be apprehended on U.S. soil and held without a trial.

Obama threatened to veto the entire bill because of the provisions, which he said were “inconsistent with the fundamental American principle that our military does not patrol our streets.”

The latest version of the bill, drafted by the House-Senate conference committee, kept both provisions. But it exempted U.S. citizens from the requirement for terror suspects to be held in military custody and included language stating that the bill did not extend new authority to detainee U.S. citizens.""

""The bill forces federal agencies to treat non-citizen terrorism suspects as enemies waging war against the U.S. rather than criminals. FBI Director Robert Mueller said the provisions would disrupt, rather than strengthen, efforts to fight terrorism in the U.S.

“The statute lacks clarity with regard to what happens at the time of arrest,” he explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It lacks clarity with regard to what happens if we had a case in Lackawanna, New York, and an arrest has to be made there and there’s no military within several hundred miles.”""

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/14/white-house-will-not-veto-national-defense-authorization-act/

""The National Defense Authorization Act of FY2012 (NDAA) has taken the nation by storm with its intended application of the keyword “authorization.”  The Act enables military force against American citizens, presumably on American soil, while further allowing indefinite detention of citizens without first applying the due process of law.  Conservatives led the outcry against the Senate’s bi-partisan plan to remove rights from the people by drawing attention to sections 1031, 1032 and 1033 of the Act that specifically authorize military detainment of civilian personnel subjectively linked to al-Qaeda and Taliban terror efforts.  The NDAA sections encompassing indefinite detention contradict themselves on the bearing the Act will actually have on American citizens; to which a waiver policy ensures anyone selected by government can be apprehended by both an increasingly militarized police force and the U.S. military itself.  The implications on the NDAA are far more reaching then most realize.

Appropriate Loss in Obama Administration Trust

The sense of trust lost with the Obama Administration has come with good reason.  Many were alarmed when President Obama stood before the U.S. Constitution and very succinctly declared how he would seek to circumvent the U.S. Constitution in order to essentially legalize indefinite detention.  The Obama Administration raised even more concerns when defining Right Wing Extremists to include military veterans and further linking the two with word “terrorist.”[i]  Conservatives, embracing personal liberty were taken back by the back-room tactics utilized by the Obama Administration in the “transparent” handling of the Patient Protection and Affordable Patient Care Act.[ii] For many, America was rapidly spiraling into a nation whose Constitution was a mere afterthought.  Concerns were raised over the Pentagon’s program providing local law enforcement agencies with military grade equipment.[iii]  Thursday, the White House released its new homegrown terror strategy that further blurs the authority of local law enforcement missions and that of full blown militarization.[iv]  The NDAA only validates suspicions harbored against the Obama Administration.""

http://www.examiner.com/libertarian-in-phoenix/national-defense-authorization-act-the-threatening-affront-2

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 - Section 1031 AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT- Bill Moving Forward in Congress, Are We About to Witness the Most Profound And Ultimate Reversal in the History of the American Right to Be Inoccent Until Proven Guilty in a Court Of Common/Judicial/Maritime Law?

""The fiscal 2012 authorization bill would allow $662 billion in spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a host of other defense programs and acquisitions, along with national security activities at the Energy Department.

The legislation had included several contested components, including language on handling of combat detainees and sanctions on non-U.S. entities that conduct business with Iran's central bank. The Obama administration had argued that instituting such punitive measures as a means of curbing Iran's nuclear program could damage the global economy and required cooperation with Washington's partner governments.

A conference committee was formed to address differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, with the Democratic and Republican heads of each chamber's Armed Services Committee meeting behind closed doors last week.

It was not immediately clear how the negotiators had dealt with differing language related to the U.S. nuclear force.

The House version could limit the administration's capacity to reduce deployed or nondeployed nuclear weapons below levels set by the U.S.-Russian New START nuclear arms control pact, unless required by another treaty or authorized by Congress.

The agreement, which entered into force in February, caps each side's fielded strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, down from a ceiling of 2,200 dictated by an earlier treaty. The agreement also limits deployed strategic nuclear delivery systems at 700, with an additional 100 platforms permitted in reserve.""

Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress

But here's what the Media Moguls are not talking about, Concealed to be hidden from Public Eye:

Subtitle D--Detainee Matters

SEC. 1031. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:1:./temp/~c112bUjGS6:: 

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.1867:

A coincidence that this section in particular is hidden from the main index???

"""(b) Applicability to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens-

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States."

there's the key word: requirement, meaning they don't have to detain american citizens, but can under their discretion.""

https://billstclair.com/blog/ndaa-sss.html

  

""As soon as December 13, the President will sign NDAA Section 1031 into law, permitting citizen imprisonment without evidence or trial. The bill that passed Congress absolutely DOES NOT exempt citizens. The text of Section 1031 reads, "A covered person under this section" includes "any person who has committed a belligerent act". We only have to be ACCUSED, because we don't get a trial.

- Confusingly, Obama threatened a veto for 1032, but NOT 1031. 1032 is UNRELATED to imprisoning citizens without a trial. He has never suggested using a veto to stop Section 1031 citizen imprisonment -- in fact, it was requested by the Obama administration. Watch the video for proof.

- The Feinstein Amendment 1031(e) is dangerously misleading. Don't be fooled: In the text of 1031(e), "Nothing in this section shall be construed...", the only word that matters is "construed" because the Supreme Court are the only ones with the power to construe the law. The Feinstein Amendment 1031(e) permits citizens to be imprisoned without evidence or a trial forever, if the Supreme Court does not EXPLICITLY repeal 1031.

- Any time you hear the words, "requirement for military custody" this refers to 1032 NOT 1031. We MUST not confuse these two sections. In its statements, the Obama administration has actually contributed to the confusion about 1032's "requirement for military custody", which is COMPLETEY UNRELATED to Section 1031 citizen imprisonment without trial. These tricky, misleading words appear even in major news stories. Don't fall for it!

If we act urgently to tell our friends, family, and colleagues, we may still be able to prevent this. Here is what we can do:

1) Americans must know about this to stop it. Urgently pass this petition as widely as possible: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-ndaa-section-1031-citizen-imprisonment-l

2) Spread this C-SPAN video evidence. People deserve to watch this before he signs it.

3) Write and call your Representative and Senator telling them to stop NDAA Section 1031 and the dangerously misleading Feinstein Amendment 1031(e).
Contact your Representative: http://writerep.house.gov/writerep/
Contact your Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

4) Write and call the White House to tell the President you won't sit by and watch NDAA Section 1031 and the dangerously misleading Feinstein Amendment 1031(e) become law:"" http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/obama-watch/obama-strips-language-shielding-americans-from-bill.html

Source:
http://wacptv.ning.com/video/proof-obama-will-sign-ndaa-1031-citizen-imprisonment-law-in-a-few?xg_source=activity

House Floor Activities
Legislative Day of December 12, 2011
Watch Session
Floor Proceedings Bills Votes

http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx?day=20111212&today=20111214

High-Energy Physicists Set Record for Network Data Transfer With a Sustained Data Rate of 186 Gigabits Per Second, High-Energy Physicists Demonstrate the Efficient Use of Long-Range Networks to Support Cutting-Edge Science

""Researchers have set a new world record for data transfer, helping to usher in the next generation of high-speed network technology. At the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle during mid-November, the international team transferred data in opposite directions at a combined rate of 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) in a wide-area network circuit. The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks—each with a complete movie and all the extras—in a day.

The team of high-energy physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers was led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Victoria, the University of Michigan, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), Florida International University, and other partners.

According to the researchers, the achievement will help establish new ways to transport the increasingly large quantities of data that traverse continents and oceans via global networks of optical fibers. These new methods are needed for the next generation of network technology—which allows transfer rates of 40 and 100 Gbps—that will be built in the next couple of years.

"Our group and its partners are showing how massive amounts of data will be handled and transported in the future," says Harvey Newman, professor of physics and head of the high-energy physics (HEP) team. "Having these tools in our hands allows us to engage in realizable visions others do not have. We can see a clear path to a future others cannot yet imagine with any confidence."

Using a 100-Gbps circuit set up by Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) and BCNET, a non-profit, shared IT services organization, the team was able to reach transfer rates of 98 Gbps between the University of Victoria Computing Centre located in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Washington State Convention Centre in Seattle. With a simultaneous data rate of 88 Gbps in the opposite direction, the team reached a sustained two-way data rate of 186 Gbps between two data centers, breaking the team's previous peak-rate record of 119 Gbps set in 2009.""

The fast transfer rate is also crucial for dealing with the tremendous 

amounts of data coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN:

http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13477

*The Protester* Person of the Year! 2011's Time Life Magazine Unveils Cover. Looks Like at Least a Few Editors in the World of Financial Gain See the Importance Behind the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Every Day Joe is Top-Dog.

""The magazine unveiled the choice on Wednesday morning. Managing editor Richard Stengel also revealed the decision on the "Today" show. Stengel said that finalists included Kate Middleton, Admiral William McRaven and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Steve Jobs and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords did not make the short list because they appeared elsewhere in the magazine. "It's not a lifetime achievement award," Stengel said of the award.

Time has bestowed the famous distinction on one person (or group of people, or, in the case of such choices as "The Earth" and "You," an idea) every year since 1927. Last year's choice was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The cover of the magazine mentions protesters from all over the world, ranging from the masses who fueled the Arab spring to the anarchists in Greece to the Occupy Wall Street movement. In Time's cover story, journalist Kurt Andersen wrote,""

"It's remarkable how much the protest vanguards share. Everywhere they are disproportionately young, middle class and educated. Almost all the protests this year began as independent affairs, without much encouragement from or endorsement by existing political parties or opposition bigwigs. All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries' political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt — sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/the-protester-time-person-of-the-year_n_1147328.html