Supercomputers Break Petaflop Barrier, Transforming Science
November 20th, 2008Can Kurzweil’s consciousness be raptured into one of those things now?
Via: Wired:
A new crop of supercomputers is breaking down the petaflop speed barrier, pushing high-performance computing into a new realm that could change science more profoundly than at any time since Galileo, leading researchers say.
When the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was announced at the international supercomputing conference in Austin, Texas, on Monday, IBM had barely managed to cling to the top spot, fending off a challenge from Cray. But both competitors broke petaflop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 quadrillion floating-point calculations per second, the first two computers to do so.
These computers aren’t just faster than those they pushed further down the list, they will enable a new class of science that wasn’t possible before.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
November 20th, 2008In response to my note that earnings were sharply lower this month, several readers sent contributions. Even though I specifically addressed that message to the 99% of people who read Cryptogon and do nothing to support it, most of the people below are longtime contributors. I was glad to see a few new people pitch in to help out.
Thank you all very much.
MW $20
TB $25
MB $75
KM $50
MI $20
GT NZ$30
CS £10
CM €5
MS CA$20
ES €20
OR €25
HC €20
HF CA$40
AM AU$20
DR NZ$100
Statement From G-20 Summit: In English
November 20th, 2008Via: Solari:
The Editor of Expresso in Portugal wanted my take on the recent G-20 communique. Here is my “translation” of the official statement:
1. Now that the growth of debt and derivatives bubbles has stalled, we are committed to using governmental-central bank mechanisms to cover the positions of any of the large private financial institutions whose profits are at risk due to their management of these bubbles and who can use this opportunity to squeeze and acquire smaller rivals at low cost.
2. Our commitment to use derivatives and market interventions to shift investment from the real economy and commodities into a paper economy is firm. We will continue to use centralized governmental mechanisms to subsidize and manage this process.
3. All of the organizations and players who reaped a fortune engineering the debt and derivatives bubbles will be allowed to keep their winnings.
4. We will use this period of consolidation to further centralize the global financial system by enforcing greater centralization of the standards, practices and control of enforcement and regulatory bureaucracies. This increased governmental centralization will be presented as the “fix” for our “problems.”
5. We will continue the move toward one world government and one world currency.
6. We are prepared to use coordinated inflation of global money supplies and fiscal stimulus to protect our control and positions.
7. We are committed to the Slow Burn (see my blog post on this subject).
8. This process will continue to be managed to protect large insurance and risk positions.
9. The net result will be to continue to exercise growing control over the real economy by a handful of private families and institutions designed to protect and grow intergenerational wealth.
G-20 are silent on the military and covert action that will be required to make this stick. They are also silent on how they are going to manage this much inflation. For example, the most recent figures from the St. Louis Fed indicate that the aggregate monetary base is growing at an annualized rate of almost 800%.
Watch for a new focus on “green investing” as the trick in all of this will be how to create new productivity when the absence of real prices mean there is no market to provide the necessary signals and financial incentives.
Research Credit: Pookie and GH
New Affiliate: Swanson Health Products
November 20th, 2008I have noticed that readers are increasingly helping Cryptogon by ordering their nutritional supplements through Amazon. I went looking for a dedicated health products company to offer you more variety and value when it comes to making your choices in this area.
I am extremely impressed with Swanson Health Products, and feel proud that they allowed Cryptogon to join their affiliate program.
I would encourage you to read through the Swanson Health Products About section… and then start checking prices. Prepare to be impressed.
The goal behind the Swanson brand is simple: The best quality at the lowest price. There’s no middle man to pay when you buy Swanson products. They’re the manufacturer. If you prefer a national brand, however, Swanson Health Products almost certainly sells it at a deep discount compared to other vendors.
How about service?
Lee Swanson, President of Swanson Health Products, has this to say:
“At Swanson Health Products, we treat every customer like we would treat a good friend or neighbor, and I think most people appreciate that. When you shop with Swanson, you can expect fast, friendly, personal service every time. Unlike most other companies, when you call Swanson, you get to talk to a real person, not a machine. That means if you have questions, you get answers. If you have a problem with your order, you get the personal attention you need to solve it promptly. It’s hard to put a dollar value on service like that, but I think it makes a huge difference. When all is said and done, our affordable prices are probably the main reason most of our customers first start shopping with Swanson, but our outstanding customer service is the main reason they keep coming back. It’s like my dad said back at the beginning, ‘the satisfaction and goodwill of our valued customers is our most important asset’.”
There’s no need to pinch yourself. You’re not dreaming. They have been doing this for nearly 40 years.
U.S. Dollar Index Shows Strong Divergence Pattern
November 19th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
There’s potential for a sharp move lower on the dollar in the near term. Indicator trends should be moving with the index trend, but the trends on the indicators have turned down. The shooting star-type candle is more evidence that we’re seeing divergence.
Dollar holders: Watch out.
I’ve reduced my dollar holdings (again) by going back into DBA for now.
In case you didn’t catch it the first few hundred times I’ve made this point: The commodities move opposite to the dollar. So, if we get a break in the dollar… The oil chart will really have my attention.
U.S. Dollar Index, daily interval
Of course, this analysis is invalidated if the USDX moves over 88.
Consumer Prices in U.S. Decline 1%, the Most Ever
November 19th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Is Helicopter Ben getting ready to make another drop? I think so.
From Confusion reigns: A crisis-driven global rush to dollar liquidity is not deflation:
In the crisis stage of a debt deflation, defined by Fisher and Minsky as a reduction in debt financing, credit and money market panic causes banks to stop lending and borrowing from each other, pay off existing loans to shore up their balance sheets, and build reserves against expected future losses. This creates a short term spike in demand for the currency in which the debt is denominated, in the current case dollars. To the uninitiated, this looks like monetary deflation. A strengthening currency and falling interest rates also characterizes monetary deflation. That can in time produce commodity price deflation, so the confusion is understandable. But don’t be fooled.
Via: ABC – AP:
Consumer prices plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline pump prices dropped by a record amount.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices fell by 1 percent last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February 1947. The drop was twice as large as the 0.5 percent decline analysts expected.
In other economic news, the Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments fell by 4.5 percent in October to an annual rate of 791,000 units. That was the slowest construction pace on records going back to 1959 and underscored that housing remains caught in a severe slump.
The big drop in inflation reflected not only a huge fall in gasoline and other energy costs, but widespread declines in other areas. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, fell by 0.1 percent last month, the first drop in core prices in more than a quarter-century.
There were price declines for clothing, new and used cars, and airline fares. Analysts predicted further declines in the months ahead as retailers struggle to attract consumers who are being battered by rising unemployment and the weak economy.
“This report clearly reflects the crunch in discretionary consumers’ spending which is likely to persist for the foreseeable future,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
The big retreat in consumer prices represented a remarkable turnaround from just a few months ago when a relentless surge in energy prices raised concerns that inflation could get out of control.
Since that time, the economy has been jolted by the most serious financial crisis in seven decades with all the turbulence expected to push the country into a severe and prolonged recession.
The U.S. troubles have quickly spread overseas, depressing growth around the world and cutting into demand for oil and other products, a development that has resulted in sharp declines in the price of crude oil and other commodities.
War Criminal and International Fugitive, Henry Kissinger, Says Hillary Clinton Would Be Outstanding Secretary of State
November 19th, 2008Can you feel the Hope and Change yet?
I wonder… At what point will the Obama woowoos experience the, “Oh shit” moment?
Via: Bloomberg:
Henry Kissinger said Hillary Clinton, a leading contender to be the Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, would be an “outstanding” appointment.
“She is a lady of great intelligence, demonstrated enormous determination and would be an outstanding appointment,” Kissinger, who served in the post from 1973 to 1977 under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, told the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit in New Delhi today.
New York Senator Clinton appears to be President-elect Obama’s leading choice for the job, according to a Democrat familiar with the matter. Clinton, who lost to Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, flew on Nov. 13 to Chicago, where the two met.
Texas: Vice President Dick Cheney and Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Indicted
November 19th, 2008Via: Houston Chronicle:
A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers.
The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position.
Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra himself had been under indictment for more than a year and half before a judge dismissed the indictments last month. This flurry of charges came in the twilight of Guerra’s tenure, which ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.
Cheney’s indictment on a charge of engaging in an organized criminal activity criticizes the vice president’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.
Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment.
The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.
New York: “Doomsday Budget” Plans for Cuts to Subway Service
November 19th, 2008Via: New York Daily News:
The MTA’s doomsday budget will wipe out the W line, zap the Z line and ax more than 1,500 NYC Transit jobs, the Daily News has learned.
The list of bus and subway cuts the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil at its monthly board meeting Thursday is extensive and potentially bruising, sources said.
Riders can expect longer waits, more-crowded rides and having to make additional transfers to get to their destinations if the draconian moves are put into effect.
…
According to sources, the cuts include:
– Elimination of at least a handful of bus and subway routes, including the W and Z subway train lines.
– Fewer transit workers in the subways because 600 or so station agent positions will be axed and about 350 administrative posts.
– Longer gaps between scheduled trains at midday and between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.
– Expanded subway loading guidelines to allow for more crowding of trains.
– Eliminating bus service during late nights and weekends on dozens of routes that have low ridership.
China Passes Japan as Biggest U.S. Treasuries Holder
November 18th, 2008Via: Bloomberg:
China surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, as foreign investors sought the relative safety of government debt as stocks plunged 9.1 percent that month.
Total net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds increased a net $66.2 billion in September from $21 billion the previous month, the Treasury said today in Washington. Including short-term securities such as stock swaps, foreigners bought a net $143.4 billion, compared with net buying of $21.4 billion the month before.
China led all foreign official investors in September by posting a net increase in U.S. Treasuries for the sixth month in the past seven, bringing its total ownership close to $600 billion. Japan was a net seller of Treasuries for the fourth month in the past six.
