New Titan Supercomputer Named Fastest in the World

New Titan Supercomputer Named Fastest in the World | Department of Energy Skip to main content Energy.gov Find information about your town or city. Search form Search Energy.gov Public ServicesTax Credits, Rebates & SavingsHomesVehiclesBuilding DesignManufacturingNational Security & SafetyEnergy EconomyFunding OpportunitiesState & Local GovernmentScience & InnovationScience & TechnologyScience EducationInnovationEnergy SourcesEnergy UsageEnergy EfficiencyMissionNews & BlogMaps & DataAbout UsFor Staff & ContractorsOfficesAll OfficesProgram OfficesStaff OfficesLabs & Technology CentersField SitesPower Marketing AdministrationOther Agencies You are hereHome » New Titan Supercomputer Named Fastest in the World New Titan Supercomputer Named Fastest in the World November 12, 2012 - 11:04am Addthis NEWS MEDIA CONTACT(202) 586-4940

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced that Titan, a new supercomputer located at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been named the world’s most powerful according to the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Ten times more powerful than its predecessor, the Jaguar system, Titan will provide unprecedented power to accelerate scientific discoveries using technologies first developed for video game systems like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The Department now has five systems out of the fastest 20 in the world, with Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, in second place; Mira at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, in fourth place; Cielo, located in Los Alamos, New Mexico and operated jointly by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, ranked 18th; and Hopper at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, ranked 19th.

“The nation that leads the world in high-performance computing will have an enormous competitive advantage across a broad range of sectors, including national defense, science and medicine, energy production, transmission and distribution, storm weather and climate prediction, finance, commercial product development, and manufacturing,” said Secretary Chu.  “Titan joins the Department’s top-ranking supercomputers in equipping our nation’s researchers with the tools needed to keep the United States on the cutting edge of innovation.”

Titan uses a combination of traditional central processing units (CPUs) and a family of processors called graphic processing units (GPUs) that were first created for computer gaming and have a unique capacity to perform the same operation simultaneously on multiple pieces of data. In video games, this capacity enables them to update the pixels on a display to make the imaging more realistic. For Titan, the combination of CPUs and GPUs help the system perform parallel processing operations at blinding speeds.  Titan reached a speed of 17.59 petaflops (quadrillion calculations per second) on the Linpack benchmark test – the specific application that is used to rank supercomputers on the Top500 list.  Titan is capable of a theoretical peak speed of 27 petaflops.  Additionally, because the CPU-GPU combination provides more processing per watt of power, Titan occupies the same space as Jaguar while using only marginally more electricity.

Scientists will use Titan’s computing power for a wide range of research, including developing the next generation of materials used to manufacture U.S. goods; for nuclear research to model the behavior of neutrons in a nuclear power reactor; to model the combustion of fuels in an internal combustion engine to improve engines for cars and trucks; and to simulate the atmosphere at new levels to help researchers better understand future air quality.

Earlier this fall, 61 science and engineering projects were selected for access to 1.84 billion core processing hours on Oak Ridge’s Titan and 2.83 billion hours on Argonne’s Intrepid and Mira computers through the Department’s Innovative & Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. INCITE grants scientists and engineers at universities, national laboratories, industry and other research organizations access to lightning-fast high-performance computing systems not commonly available in academia or the private sector. For a complete list of the 61 projects, visit: http://www.doeleadershipcomputing.org/awards/2013INCITEFactSheets.pdf.

For more information on the Energy Department’s supercomputers, visit http://energy.gov/science-innovation/science-technology/computing.

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The Future of the World Depends on Failure of the EU - Human Freedom and Liberty Needs It to Fail

Yes, I'll admit that title is a little hard-hitting and in your face, but what better way to get the point across. Now then, you are going to want my explanation for such a harsh reality type statement like that, and I believe you are justified in your inquiry, so, let's get right into the meat of this debate, and then you can contemplate on this argument, whether you agree or disagree is immaterial, my objective is purely to get you to think about it all.

Now then, if you will recall Greece is world of financial hurt, mostly due to their over expenditures on socialist type government give-aways, and rather than going to austerity measures to re-align themselves with the rest of Europe, they elected a more left-leaning socialist leader. What did France do? Well, they are not without their own challenges although far better off than the PIIGS - Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Ireland. But what did France do, well, they too voted in a more left leaning President recently.

All these left-leaning socialist methods are what has caused all these problems, and rather than fixing them, they decide to add more fuel to that fire and dig a bigger hole, rather than digging their way out of the one they'd created. If the ECB becomes an entity with the same power as the Federal Reserve and attempts to borrow its way out of things without changing this socialist mindset, it only will blow the balloon up bigger for one less hoorah before the big pop and implosion in the years ahead.

Worse, in the meantime it gives other nations a model to follow, and they too will reach the same potential eventuality and drive off a similar future cliff. And, let's not forget our own nation's problems, isn't our current leadership also following socialist theory and borrowing so many bad economic habits from Europe already? If the governments of the world become the parents and nannies of their citizenry, then what happens when the parents can no longer provide.

Perhaps you will recall when you were young and your parents took care of you? You didn't have that much freedom, and you always wanted more, but those were the rules right? Well, if the government is your new parents and you live as a socialist subject then you will not have any freedom or liberty, and then may I ask what you intend on doing when your parents lose their home, and leave you all alone? Freedom and Liberty come with responsibility my friends.

Of course, I am utterly amazed that the US voters would elect a regime that promised them such a socialist dream, something that goes against everything this great nation stands for. It's time to understand that socialism does not work, and maybe it is time for the European Union's experiment to fail before other nations follow it into the same abyss. Mexico is about to elect a left-leaning socialist, and many nations in South America already have. History shows this to be unwise, and it will surely cause those economies an early demise.

We as Americans know better, or at least most of us used too, today, it appears that the majority may not know better - nevertheless, maybe it's time that everyone see the light. It might be much better off for the future of mankind, for freedom and liberty worldwide, if the EU simply fall apart and those nations which are less socialistic are allowed to succeed on their own accord and those which aren't are allowed to pay for their foolhardy mistakes, then we might see a rebirth of freedom and liberty, yes, with responsibility, as that is the nature of things on this planet, it's always been that way, no matter what a politician might say.

Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Economics and Politics. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

K Street Insiders: A Brave New World on Capitol Hill?

If you poke your head into any coffee shop, restaurant, or bar on Capitol Hill, you'll hear (and overhear) fervent chatter about lobby reform. Every Washington lobbyist knows his or her business is changing - it's a matter of how and when, rather than if. What are the implications for those who live in a political world, whether it's lawmakers and their staffs or my clients?

For lobbyists, there will be more paperwork and different rules to follow. We will adapt, as we have before. And, as before, 99.9 percent of us will play by the rules. That isn't to say the transition will be a completely smooth one.

Some Americans think lobbyists mislead Congress to get desirable results from themselves and their clients, but I know different. A lobbyist's worth is measured by his or her reliability when supplying lawmakers with the facts underlying an issue. Providing sub-par data, engaging in deceitful practices, or putting a member in an untenable position leads to exile from the lobbying community.

Rather, a lobbyist's job is to bring balance to issues by providing legislators and their staffs with the pros and cons of an idea or action. Lawmakers cannot be experts on every issue - they rely on specialists to parse the minutiae of legislation to make informed votes. With overzealous reform proposals, lawmakers will be cutting out of the legislative process specialists who deliver the detailed information members need to make informed decisions. Any changes in the current working environment should be to improve the system, rather than harm it. Information is power, and lobbyists provide legislators and their staffs with the information they need to make sound policy decisions that are ultimately good for the legislator, their state and this country.

In the 109th Congress alone, more than 10,000 bills and resolutions were introduced (excluding a myriad of agency regulatory changes or compliance issues), according to Thomas.loc.gov. Some actions were simple, such as naming a post office, but others were much less so, touching on such complex concerns as border security, immigration, and small-business healthcare.

Lawmakers and their staffs confront information overload: The volume of communication that a single congressional office receives in any given week is astounding. A recent Congressional Management Foundation study found that Congress receives close to 200 million mail and e-mail contacts in a single year. Add to those communiqués the millions more phone calls and faxes offices on the Hill receive, and it translates into thousands of communications each week at every congressional office.

How do the staffs and legislators separate the wheat from the chaff? With the advent of point-and-click constituent advocacy, the value of a trusted lobbyist who provides solid information helps those legislators and staffs make educated decisions on vital issues for the country and our fellow citizens.

With the complexities of any significant piece of legislation, at least one (and often more), association, organization, coalition or lobbyist advocates on behalf of or against certain components of most actions. Without the input of credible lobbyists, associations, organizations and John Q. Public, legislators and their staffs would be left to make critical decisions without detailed background information, points and counterpoints or consideration of the economic and political realities to their states. Lawmakers' decisions affect millions of Americans every day, and warrant educated input.

Lobby reform proposals surely will impact our community and, going forward, many direct lobbyists may employ grassroots lobbying techniques or other strategies to supplement their face-to-face work. More than likely, congressional staffers will be meeting more in cafeterias, hallways and in their cramped offices, and will be taxed with cramming more meetings into their day due to the possible future bans on outside meetings.

Members will be able to claim victory by passing a reform package, but most will still rely on the lobbying community for the timely, accurate information they need to make decisions. And, over time, the public outside of the Beltway may come to understand the role we all play in ensuring that all legislative issues have an informed voice on Capitol Hill. We must remember that the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and petitioning of Congress for redress of grievances. To quash those rights leads us to a place where the common person, business or association had no voice. Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of that voice and we must be careful, with extreme reform proposals, to not impinge on these inalienable rights of every American to petition our government.

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The Rarest Most Exclusive Garment Wool in the World Is Not for Sale

For centuries the famous weavers of Kashmir have gathered and produced shawls from the rarest fiber in the world, Shahtoosh. These fabulous, prized shawls are so exclusive that the name Shahtoosh, meaning "king of fine wools", is synonymous with exclusivity. The Kings of Persia were especially partial to this most unique wool, thus the name Shahtoosh.

The rare Tibetan antelope called the Chiru is the only animal that produces Shahtoosh fibers. The chiru is exceedingly rare, lives in the most remote geography on the planet and is now on the international endangered species list. It is against the law to buy or sell new Shahtoosh shawls or woven products. Shahtoosh is still an object of great desire, and an even more interesting story.

The hair of the chiru is so exceedingly fine that it is considered impossible to weave, except by the Kashmiri weavers. Chiru wool fibers measure between 9 and 11 micro-meters in size. A completed Shahtoosh shawl can be passed through the inside diameter of a wedding ring. The finished pieces are exceedingly rare, priced for potentates purses only and lustily sought after.

The chiru lives at an altitude of over 5000 meters. The chiru's very light down fur is incredibly light, soft, strong and warm. For centuries the nomads of the Himalaya's hunted the chiru for meat and skins. They had no use for the wool fiber. They could never figure how to weave it.

It wasn't until the British Raj that appreciation and demand for the luxury and beauty of Shahtoosh and Pashmina was popularized. The British spread stories of the unique qualities of shawls made from Shahtoosh and the drive to harvest chiru was on. The chiru cannot be domesticated and the fiber is so difficult to handle that the only source of the animal's wool was hunting, and ultimately over-hunting.

The harvesting of chiru for their fine wool was fortuitous for Kashmir's skilled weavers. Only they possessed the skill and patience to handle and produce shawls from the micro-fibers. Their fame spread worldwide. They prospered as demand for these loftily prices shawls boomed among the world's elite.

Unfortunately for the Kashmiri weavers the laws of supply and demand cannot be suspended. As the chiru population became near extinct, and the animal became a protected species, the work of weaving Shahtoosh shawls disappeared. The fiber has virtually disappeared as international trade has been suspended.

Today, the prime market for Shahtoosh shawls is in estate and private sales. The kashmiri weavers have not worked with the fiber for so long, that their weaving skills have atrophied and disappeared. There is a small bit of poaching of chiru occurring but not enough to sustain a commercial enterprise. The Shahmina fiber, a 13 micro-meter wool, is the nearest legally produced wool to approximate Shahtoosh. However, it is not considered as exotic or unique, though still expensive.

The world's rarest, most highly prized wool fiber is not for sale, at least legally. The demand would boom if supply could be maintained, and critically, there were artesian craftsmen like the Kashmiri weavers who could manage and control the impossibly difficult chiru wool. "The King of fine wool" is now but a great legendary exotic chimera.

Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.

After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.

Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

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Is The World Growing More Dangerous?

We hear claims about the state of the world all of the time. We hear statements about ever increasing violence, and those claims are usually backed up with whatever recent tragedy or terrorist act is being reported on in the media. But are those claims true? Is the world more or less violent than in other times in our history? Are events such as 9/11, 7/7, and the more recent case of Anders Behring Breivik who murdered 77 people in Norway, "proof" that world is more dangerous than ever?

The events in Norway and even the 9/11 terrorists attacks are anecdotal evidence. Anecdotes are not real evidence and should never be used to make a case about the state of the world. If we apply a bit of critical thinking to such claims we can see where they fall short. Citing single, isolated, events - events that are so shocking because they are so rare - prevents us from seeing the actual historical trends. And those historical trends are telling us something completely different.

Steven Pinker, the famed Harvard scientist, recently released an excellent book entitled The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking, 2011), in which he has laid out a mass of evidence that shows violence has been decreasing for centuries. Pinker, who is renowned for making amazing insights into human nature, gives us a wealth of information by mixing psychology and history. Far from bombarding us with anecdotes the book is full of data, which can fly in the face of what we hear on the nightly news or from the talking-heads that analyze the news for us.

Examining the 20th century with its two world wars and the genocides and all of the other conflicts, Mr. Pinker shows us that about 0.7% of all people that lived during that century died from war. In the year 2005 less than 0.8% of all Americans died from domestic violence and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Compare the murder rates in Middle-Ages era London with now, 110 per 100,000 people in the 14th century to the less than 1 per 100,000 of today. 14th century Londoners were more than 100 times more likely to die from murder than they are today!

It is always important to examine blanket claims about the state of the world with a healthy sense of skepticism. If a claim is backed up with anecdotes then you can usually be confident that it rests on bad logic. There are experts that study the world around us for a living and with zeal and passion. Many of them are scientists with years of academic training, and their claims must withstand scrutiny from their peers - peers who are often the harshest critics. Those experts are qualified to tell us about the world and give us the evidence to review on our own. We should also remember that our attitudes can be influenced by the media. Certainly the news outlets can be looked at as a contributing factor if we feel the world is going down hill but yet the facts say differently.

Robert K Ethridge is a guest blogger for several websites. He enjoys writing about skeptical and critical thinking, science and pseudoscience, and many other diverse topics. This month Rob begins a new blog series at SentientCouchPotato.com

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Has The US School System Really Fallen Behind the Rest of the World?

We sure hear a lot of talk about the US School System being broken, and yet, just because something is repeated over and over again does not mean it's true. So, is our nation's school system broken? Perhaps not, and yet, improvement is always wise regardless of the area of human endeavor, as we must always work to improve. But let's not be so quick to judge, okay so, let's talk about this for a moment shall we?

As a whole our country has not fallen behind the average, at least not that far. Furthermore, with all of the illegal aliens that we have to teach, and the "no child allowed to advance" rules, we are preventing students from moving forward who should. Also we are throwing kids that don't even speak English, and don't speak it at home, and have a hard time taking the tests in with the mix of students in the classrooms - this is driving down the averages.

That is not fair to the regular kids, or the ESL kids, especially considering many of these kids will drop out of high school, I think the rating California something like 50% of the ESL kids drop out of high school before completion. However while they're in school, they are inadvertently holding back the classrooms, and all the other kids from getting a decent education.

We allow the political correctness to skew the statistical basis for the argument that the US schools are lacking or falling behind the rest of the world. If we separate out the ESL kids, our kids are doing about the same as all the other first world nations with similar ethnic demographics, so I am not a "doom and gloomer" on the issue or charge that; US Schools are Falling Behind.

Indeed, despite popular belief, I would submit to you that throwing more money at our nation's schools is not the way to fix them because much of that money never makes it into the classrooms. It appears that the leadership at so many levels is busy infighting on what to do about a problem that is fairly nonexistent. In their haste to fix the stated problem, they've drown our schools in bureaucracy.

Further, I can see a point in the future where we won't necessarily need the types of schools we have today due to the Internet, and free-flowing information. Maybe we need to think a little deeper before we go when chastise our nation's schools, or fall to this false belief that the American school system is so far behind the rest of the world, it isn't. And when I talk to folks on the Internet from around the world, it is rather obvious to me that they didn't have the strong education that I did when I was a kid.

Maybe everyone should stop pointing fingers at education, and trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist using politically correct methodology by the same people that proclaimed the problem in the first place. That's just my opinion, but I can back it up, if you care to shoot me an e-mail.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Theme of a World Traitor

Under the influence of the highest offices of America: FBI, CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Oval Office, and conglomerate of other offices and individuals, America, since the late 1950s, has become the world manufacture, contriver and embellisher of what might be pleasing to the eye, if not graceful with its mysteries. In this small brief, details, adjustments are lacking, but the history is there, perhaps not all revealed, but dimly perceived, if you look for it. The actions of America transpire in oil rich countries, oppressed and stubborn countries, in countries that are united with America, such as NATO countries, etcetera; we even deal with our enemies. We are the executioner, the inventor, the dramatist. Let us say for purposes, since the middle half of the 20th Century, we've been this and more-the best actors in the world. I will be the narrator.

America, the Promised Land, also the biggest conspirator the world has yet to produce; a secret and glorious government, for the people but no longer by the people. Yet she is victorious-with all its premeditated and conjured deletions, generalizations, and distortions-to find her scrupulous destiny, to fool, redeem and condemn her taxpayers. The circumstances of her crimes are unknowable, but far reaching-deeds of her own improvisation, like a popular drama unfolding day by day, every word she says is prearranged.

She presently is engaged in compiling a stack of heroes, to cover up her indecipherable mysteries, assassinations (her violated blood)-and the world is her theater.

With all her resources, who could scarcely articulate between the bloods she sheds, and the blood she needs to shed, it is all under the umbrella of National Security. Hopefully in the future, people might realize the truth of her dealings, her plans. She now keeps silent her discoveries, her deeds. But no doubt, as the world turns and minds mature, it can be foreseen, the glory of her heroes are the publishers of comics, more so than real heroes.

Let me put this plain and simple: nobody is a hero into day's wars. They are simply a staggered series of bloody acts between them and us: we point fingers, but that is for a purpose, to take attention off our evil thoughts.

For example the murder of JFK and the failure of the police, FBI, CIA to bring anyone thus far to neither justice nor do they have any intentions to. If the government can cover that up, what can't they cover up?

Another example is our space program, what do we really know about them? Are they really war programs?

We have two wars going on simultaneously as I write. Iraq has cost us so far, $700-billion dollars. Look at our hero's remains-guess their identity, none of us know them. If they died for anything it is the adventurer in them they die for. America doesn't need anymore corpses for those two wars; and for Iraq, they never did. Our boys are sent to a colorless desert, to a hateful people, with beards and grey eyes and we will never please them.

Our presidents are like Julius Caesar's-treason, or is it traitor -they say one thing and do another; they collaborate with the devil men while we are sleeping. There is no need to look for the guilty, the beast is already split open, it has a deep stab would, we all know, as they all know, reality may be avoided, we are the beast, you and I and them. Here lies dead so and so, now we got our oil, a purely ill-humouredly explanation but it will do, the president says "It is for the interest of the United States!" And with the American flag, and bright lights, and a well written speech, they capture man, as they stab him in the back, and everything is unknown, secret, National Security, and believe it or not, they sleep well-like the lion who has no God.

Likened to the Senate, who produce false and anonymous rumors throughout our land (the media is pretty good at that also),and the movie stars that runs to the United Nations to put on their show, that know so little about what they are doing on that political stage, act as part of the divine nomenclature of the Pentateuch.

On the other hand, Congress repeats itself over and over, they have the character of Hesiod, trying to make gold out of iron, or is it oil out of sand, to buy gold with? In the process, transmigration of their souls, likened to the Britannic Druids. They put the common American into a labyrinth, tell him he is safe and saved in America, as they at the same time plunge him deeper into the inextricable abyss beneath the labyrinth, where no one understands anyone, as at the Tower of Babel; but all the better for the powerful. Now they got the common person, into their way of thinking, their hypotheses, at the same time, saying to the people: "I'm only a poor Christian like you!"

The crimes of America belong to the history of the world, the very timid world that surrounds her. There is no answer to this paper; therefore I shall leave you with the following inconclusive sentence:

The name of the guilty country has been spoken (and there are many more among her that has not been spoken to...)

No: 834 (11-6-2011)

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Will The World As We Know It End On December 21st 2012?

If I type in '2012 blogs' to Google, it brings up a staggering 261,000,000 items. Now they may not all be individual blogs, but it would be safe to say if you hadn't heard about all the gloom and doom merchants you're probably 'living under a rock!' So the big question is:- "Will it happen?" I've got to say straight up that I don't know anymore than anyone else. It may all happen Dec. 21, 2012, or it may happen May 6, 2010, or Jan. 4, 2025 or April 12, 2130. But the odds on it or any other 'end of world' scenario being correct are infinitesimally small.

So let's examine the main claim together: that of the Mayan calendar. Wikipedia has an exhaustive article on the Mayan calendar, that falls in the 'too much information' basket, but it does say and I quote:- " Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is the basis for a New Age belief that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. Dec. 21st is simply the last day of the 13th b'ak'tun. But that is not the end of the Long Count, because the 14th through 20th b'ak'tuns are still to come. Sandra Noble, executive director of Mesoamerican research...considers the portrayal of Dec 2012 as a doomsday or cosmic shift event to be 'a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in'." Elsewhere I read that the modern day Mayans consider this claim to be laughable and ridiculous and just an example of Western society hijacking their history.

So mathematically speaking there is no basis at all to speculate on the odds of this because the data is incorrect. But that doesn't stop people speculating. Remember when those planes were going to fall out of the sky when all the computers failed on Jan. 1, 2000? Or the myriad previous end of world scenarios. The only part of this that is correct is that on Dec. 22, 2012 those blogs will either disappear or produce some new date.

OK, now what has all this got to do with Life Cycles? Why do I care? The answer is I only care because my carefully assembled research means the complete reverse to the 2012 theories. Namely the possibility of my case histories happening by chance alone is equally infinitesimally small!

Read about just some of my research for 2009. I welcome you to check and double check what I say (because that's exactly what I do before I write). Now if I say to you that for many people (but obviously not for all) there is a very significant Revolution Year when they are 36, then I must be able to point to examples (and sometimes examples of age 24 and age 48 revolutions). I have previously taken famous historical figures and produced evidence of significant life and career change at ages 24, 36 and even 48. I can show you how this applies un the cases of Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Winston Churchill, Hitler and JFK. I didn't comb through a list of dozens or hundreds to get these I just read one summary after another. That's right every single case I studied is in there. Think about it. Do you think it a mere coincidence that Alan Alda began the MASH series at 36 or Jerry Seinfeld began The Seinfeld Show or Edward Woodward began Callan? Or David Frost who was at a major crossroads as shown in Frost/Nixon or Jerry Lewis who filmed his number one movie "The Nutty Professor" or Frank Sinatra whose career got resurrected from the ashes and I could go on and on and on.

Come on: "you do the maths!" What chance do I have of being correct? Is it 1 year out of 70 (the biblical allotment)? Or 1 out of 30 (an average number of adult productive years)? Or is it simply 1 out of 12 (because I say every 12 years there is a revolution in your life)?

I don't care what you pick because I've just listed 15 consecutive examples and the chances of me getting it right by guesswork would be 12 to power of 15 or 1 in 1,540,702,160,000,000. Now the chance of getting dealt a Royal Flush in spades in a 5 card game of poker is 1 in 2,598,960. A lot smaller but still pretty big (as a poker player I've never been dealt one). What do you want to put your money on?:- Dec 21, 2012 (with immeasurably small odds) or something that is 592,814,880 times more certain than the possibility of getting dealt a Royal Flush?

I rant like this because I care that you should not be led by the nose. I'm the first person to say exactly this, but just because I'm a small voice doesn't mean you shouldn't listen. I'll be back soon with arguably the mightiest single Revolution Year of all. Don't miss it and until then: "May the cycles always bring you good fortune".

See author's two blogs:- Life Cycles-The Truth and The Evidence http://www.lifecycles-by-neil-killion.blogspot.com/ and The Story Behind Life Cycles http://www.lifecyclesstory-neil-killion.blogspot.com/ Fascinating follow-up book 'The Life Cycles Revolution' will be ready for publication soon.

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A New World Order

As I sit back and ruminate about the world and recent events I am struck by the interconnectedness of all things. Nothing, and I mean nothing, happens in a vacuum. Everything is always acting on everything else. Seemingly disconnected events are actually small tributaries feeding the much larger river that makes up the flow of history. And maybe, if you feel that flow, you can change the river's course. Or not. I have tremendous faith in individuals but very little in humanity as a whole.

Today I'm catching a glimpse of that river. There are four big stories over the last couple of years; the movement and consolidation of wealth from the American middle class to the wealthy, the effect of social media on the world, the loss of American civil rights, and the revolutionary wave sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East. I think I see how these events are connected, and by understanding that we may be able to have a profound influence on the future.

Let's start with the effects of social media. By intimately connecting large groups of people in real time the world not only becomes smaller, it becomes more politically homogeneous. It's no coincidence that oppressive regimes shut down the internet as soon as there's unrest. They know it's a threat, they just don't understand that it's already too late at that point. Social media allows personal contact across borders and the free flow of seemingly innocent information. It allows every day people to really experience the exact way people in other countries are living. No government propaganda, no hollywood idealization, just what your cousin does on Tuesdays. The exchange of all this personal information breeds unrest in a way that can't be countered by all the propaganda in the world.

It's pretty easy to see how this would lead to the waves of unrest in the unbelievably repressed Middle Eastern states. The west has had a straight forward and evil deal with Arab despots; keep the oil flowing, keep it cheap, don't attack Israel, and we won't care what you do to your people. Go ahead, steal from them, torture them, keep them stupid, poor and repressed. It's worked well for both sides until now. We get oil, they get rich, and their people were easy to keep in line. Control the media, shut down the newspapers, preach hate in the Mosques, and kill any opposition. If you control the message you can get people to believe anything. Until Twitter ad Facebook screwed it all up. It was suddenly obvious that you were being lied to because Uncle Achmed in Michigan was telling a different story without meaning to. He was just telling you what he ate for lunch. And it all unraveled. Quickly.

But what, you ask, does that have to do with TSA sexual assaults and our shitty schools? Perhaps everything. I've been fussing for months about the redistribution of wealth in the good old US of A. There's been a systematic looting of the middle class by the rich. By continually lowering the top tax brackets, eliminating inheritance taxes and loosening corporate regulation we've allowed most of our wealth to be concentrated in a very few hands. Those hands now control the media and most of the government. The Citizens United decision might make it impossible for true democracy. Cities and states are cutting things that were once considered essential services and no one dares point out that the real problem is that rich people aren't taxed highly enough. Instead unions and firefighters are blamed for having pensions after they retire. The rich have managed to convince us that those wealthy teachers and nurses are at fault for our shitty schools and healthcare system. Right now they're trying to dismantle unions in Wisconsin because unions probably represent the last hold out of middle class power. What a joke. We're already living in something close to a third world economy with a few very rich people, a lot of poor people, and no one in between.

If you're going to economically repress a large group of people you have to make sure they don't get too feisty or start thinking too much. The best way to do this is through fear and humiliation. TSA anyone? Terrorists are coming to get you and we have to take your civil liberties and your sense of personal power in order to protect you. Just give us your constitutional rights and we'll keep you safe. Throw in your right to collectively bargain too. Oh, and we need to do it for the children. There now, don't you feel better? No, I fucking don't. They stole our money and our way of life and now they're stealing our rights so that we can't fight back.

Do you see how this begins to all come together? The whole world is heading to a new political average. As Americans we like to see ourselves as the shining light of freedom. We'd like to see the Middle East as becoming free like us, and they are. But at the same time we're becoming less free like them. Naively we thought the new world order would be reached by getting repressive regimes to grant civil rights. In fact, it looks like we're going to meet them somewhere in the middle. They'll get a few more rights and their poor will get a few more services and we'll lose a few rights and whole lot of quality of life.

This is absolutely not their fault, it's ours. They're heading the right way. Freedom and civil rights aren't finite. They can have them without us losing a thing and anyone who suggests otherwise is a racist and a moron. It's easy to see how the rich and powerful in their countries need to be reined in in order for the great masses to live a little better. They've figured it out. We haven't. We have exactly the same issues but it isn't as clear because we're heading in the other direction.

Social media has made the world a much more intimate place. The universality of knowledge brought on by that intimacy is fueling a new political homogeneity. Our actions will determine where that new average settles in. I, for one, think we need to go back to the role of being a shining example of freedom and civil rights. Even if it means peril from terrorists. Even if means taxing the rich back to the pack. Even if it means revolution here too. Or you can settle for police state light and a better kind of poverty. The choice is ours. Via con Dios and Viva la Revolucion.

- Archbishop Angus

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Musings on the Ugly Beauty of the World Trade Center

Let's face it, the World Trade Center, actually a complex of seven buildings with the centerpieces the towers which once stood majestically in Lower Manhattan, wasn't exactly an architectural beauty.

They were even called ugly.

The two primary towers, one rising to 1,368 feet, the other to 1,362 feet, dominated the landscape and were a source of boundless pride and tributes to the supremacy of American commerce for politicians and builders even as most New Yorkers regarded them as impressive but essentially unattractive oblong boxes reaching into the skies.

My family and I visited the World Trade Center in 1988 along with an aged uncle from Ireland. My uncle, terrified of heights, stood petrified against the back wall of the Top of the World observatory and understatedly remarked that the view was "very nice."

Soaring a full hundred feet above the Empire State Building, the WTC did indeed provide a "very nice" panorama, remarkable, breathtaking views for miles in every direction, in fact, even if the design of the towers was less than pleasing. Those vistas and the pride New Yorkers and all Americans felt for the World Trade Center fully compensated for the towers' stark severity, described by one architect as "glass-and-metal filing cabinets."

Despite all their architectural and aesthetic flaws, I still miss the strange, symmetrical elegance of those "filing cabinets" and, despite the passage of ten years, I freely admit that I still weep over the events of September 11th, 2001.

None of us could have anticipated the devastation wreaked on America on that brilliantly-bright morning.

What happened that day didn't simply involve the destruction of human life and of buildings. It didn't merely represent a shocking, unprovoked attack on our homeland. It involved much more than the resultant phenomenal costs, disruptions, and upheavals.

Obviously, the greatest loss was the 2,753 lives snuffed out but not to be forgotten either was the loss of Americans' illusory senses of invulnerability and indestructibility, the loss of our collective national innocence.

Those attributes were barely shaken by the failed attempt to knock down the towers in 1993 primarily because they failed. Eight years later they succeeded. What could never happen, happened.

The incomprehensibility of 9/11 was perhaps best illustrated in the reaction of a WTC survivor. Amid all the stories that flowed out of the horror of a decade ago, one was especially striking as emblematic of the end of American innocence.

As cited in "3 Retrospectives on the World Trade Center:" "An anonymous woman who had fled the burning but still standing towers had sought refuge in a local retail store a distance away from the infernos.

"Still in shock, seated on a dirty floor, she listened to the distant thunder and watched through the store windows as crazed people continued to race past. She buried her face in her hands until a stranger said to her, 'They're gone.'

"Confused and distraught, she was unable to make sense of the stranger's cryptic words, and asked in a shaky voice, 'What do you mean they're gone?' "

"The towers. They're gone."

"Still unable to fathom, or unwilling to accept the meaning of four simple words, she blinked and grimaced as she asked again, incredulously, 'What do you mean, they're gone?' "

They, the towers, were inexplicably "gone," collapsed in a fiery conflagration of smoke and ash, in the detritus of concrete and steel, in the residue of human remains.

No one knows the ultimate reaction of that survivor and no one knows what will be the ultimate reaction of our government. We have gone to war, suffered tens of thousands of casualties, and killed Osama bin laden. Yet, we are nowhere near eradicating the source of that woman's grief.

Purely by happenstance, I didn't lose any family members on 9/11 and I wasn't in New York to personally witness the horrors although my son was.

In disbelief, he watched the towers crumble from the safety of his office three miles uptown. He described the sight later as, "surreal," nightmarishly irrational. He couldn't see from that distance the worst nightmare of all, hundreds of people electing to leap to their deaths a thousand feet below instead of choosing their only other option of being incinerated.

In the apparent belief Americans are too squeamish to handle the truth, the media to this day refuses to show the pictures of those brave men and women, those "jumpers," as the media referred to them.

I have a message to the media: After September 11th, 2001, Americans can handle virtually anything. What we may not be equipped to deal with is a 9/11 redux, a scenario for which our president and other leaders seem to be preparing us, a repeat cataclysm that could very well dwarf the horrific events of ten years ago and render those bitter memories moot.

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Learning The Importance Of Customer Focus In The Business World

The really neat thing about Into to Business is that the course encompasses a multitude of business-related subjects. That is because the professor would like for the student to explore the most essential elements of business foundation. These various components are essential because they can either make or break a business. One of the core subjects that might be taught in the class is customer focus.

Students taking the course may learn that in the free enterprise system, the customer is king. Those who cater to customer needs usually have a successful business. Those who do not can fail. Consequently, customer focus is key to maintaining success and growing a business. The following customer focus strategies may be reviewed in your Intro to Business course. They can help a future business owner devise a strategy plan for his or her business.

Keep in touch with the needs of the customer. The best way to do this is by asking. Find ways to touch base with a broad spectrum of customers to get a balanced view. This can be done by conducting prior and post purchase surveys. Be ready for the good news and the bad news. Vocal customers will usually complain more than compliment. Listen and respond to legitimate criticisms.

Put yourself in the customer's shoes. It is a good idea to look at things from the customer's point of view. Think about what you would expect if you were your own customer. What price would you be willing to pay for quality service or a product? What would be the top things you would complain about? As a customer, would you expect a call back when promised? These are the questions that the business owner should be able to answer in a positive way in relation to his or her company.

Make a point to design and arrange whatever you do from the viewpoint of your customer first. A big mistake would be to design and arrange what you do from your viewpoint. Remember, you are not the customer, so everything should be designed with the customer's needs in mind. Follow this rule, and the business will have a good chance to thrive.

Think of yourself as a satisfied customer. Write down all of the satisfactory things that have happened to you as a customer - good value, prompt service, courtesy, and follow-up phone calls. Compare them to our own business. Are your customers experiencing this same satisfaction? Rate successful customer transactions and then use them as a model for all to follow.

Play detective. Check out the work flow and processes at high customer venues, like airports, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and government services. Observe customer service process and determine if they can be duplicated at your place of business.

These are but a few customer service remedies that may be reviewed in business college courses. As you can see, it is a valuable topic for those entering into the business world as a company owner or high level manager. Before enrolling in the class, try to get a copy of the course syllabus to see if customer focus is one of the topics covered. All big universities usually have more than one instructor who teaches the intro class.

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How to Create a Greater Amount of Freedom in Your World

Waking Up To The Bigger Picture [The World Around You]

Image by Starlight Express VIP Services via Flickr

Have you ever noticed how much struggle and suffering occurs in your own life when you attempt to change the people and circumstances in your life as they are happening in a moment of now?
Yet, for a few moments maybe you can just remember that great freedom comes from learning how to accept people and circumstances just as they are. In essence, through acceptance, you begin to release your need to control or change people or life situations that are not yours to control.

You don't have to even think about what I'm saying, because truth be told, the state of Peace comes from allowing things to happen just as they are happening. And it is through this acceptance that you become free to embrace every situation and every person that you encounter in the spirit of Love, Joy and Peace.

And I really don't know just what you're thinking now but the most important person for you to accept is you. Take a few slow, deep, relaxing breaths and as you continue to do so visualize yourself as a child of God who is now following a divinely inspired path. In this moment, feel free to let go of self-criticisms as you allow yourself to trust in that Divine wisdom that is within you.

Again, feeling a renewed sense of freedom and peace, you can begin to accept the people and circumstances in your life with the power of unconditional love and as you do so you might even begin to give thanks for all of the blessings that they bring.

Wipe away all thoughts of wonder and understand, just understand that when it comes to experiencing the freedom of Love, Joy and Peace through the spirit that is within you, it can be experienced when you start to meditate on a daily basis.

More than that, when you meditate on a daily basis you might begin to notice how it is actually helping you to create and make life-supporting decisions that ultimately lead you to all of the Love, Joy and Peace that you can imagine.

I noticed that the practice of Yoga Nidra which is a guided meditation technique helped bring back that spark of enthusiasm that seemed to be missing from my life and more than that it continues to take me to even deeper states of Love that I didn't even know where possible.

In the end, now that you have become aware of the fact that there is a tremendous amount of greater freedom waiting for you when you can begin to accept people and circumstances just as they are you will find that meditating on a daily basis is one of the most effective ways for you to create the kind of transformations in your own life that lead to the freedom of mind.

Thaddeus Ferguson has dedicated himself to the cause of helping people heal themselves first in order to help heal the world during this amazing time of transformation.

The practice of Meditation and/or Yoga Nidra is just one of the many powerful tools that you can use in order to help Heal You First.
Discover many of the Benefits of Meditation Now!
Join Thaddeus in a state of Being LOVE at http://www.yogibiglove.com/ Now!

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World condemns deadly N. Korean artillery attack - CNN International

S. Korean President Lee Myung-bak -- pictured talking at the Seoul G-20 summit -- said the provocation was like an invasion.South Korea threatens to punish North Korea "through action," not wordsThe United States calls the shelling "belligerent action"Japan, Indonesia, Russia and China also criticize the shelling

(CNN) -- Nations reacted swiftly Tuesday in condemning a North Korean artillery attack that South Korea said killed two marines and wounded 15 soldiers and civilians.

The strongest reaction came from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who ordered his military to punish North Korea "through action," not just words, the official Yonhap news agency said.

"The provocation this time can be regarded as an invasion of South Korean territory," Lee said during a visit to the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in central Seoul. "In particular, indiscriminate attacks on civilians are a grave matter."

The United States also offered quick comment, with the White House saying it "strongly condemns" the "belligerent action" by North Korea.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Defense Secretary Robert Gates was scheduled to speak with his South Korean counterpart Tuesday morning.

"Obviously we're in close contact with U.S. forces, Korea and our allies there in monitoring the situation," Lapan said.

U.S. forces in the area have taken no additional measures, he said.

"Right now it is too soon," Lapan said, adding, "At this point it is premature to say we are considering any action on this.

"Any incidents like this we view with concern. They certainly increase tensions on the (Korean) Peninsula."

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet is to meet Tuesday night to discuss the regional situation.

"The artillery attack carried out by North Korea today was unpardonable and the Japanese government strongly condemns North Korea," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in a statement.

"This provocation by North Korea compromises the peace and security of not only South Korea, but also the entire region of North East Asia, including Japan," the official said. "Japan demands North Korea to stop such action immediately. Based on prime minister's orders, Japan will take appropriate measures in close coordination with [the] U.S. and South Korea, as well as other related countries."

Indonesian Foreign Minister R.M. Marty M. Natalegawa also expressed his nation's "deep concern."

"Indonesia calls on both sides to immediately cease hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation of tension," Natalegawa said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had taken note and expressed its concern.

"Relevant facts need to be verified and we hope both parties make more contributions to the stability of the peninsula," he said.

Russia's Interfax news agency said Russia condemned North Korea's artillery shelling, pointing out that "those who initiated the attack on a South Korean island in the northern part of the inter-Korean maritime border line assumed enormous responsibility."

CNN's Charley Keyes contributed to this report.

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Commission Leaders Say Cutting Deficit Will Hurt - U.S. News & World Report

WASHINGTON — Voters who demanded Washington rein in the nation's spiraling debt are getting a message from President Barack Obama and leaders of his deficit commission: It'll hurt.

A proposal released Wednesday by the bipartisan leaders of the commission suggested cuts to Social Security benefits, deep reductions in federal spending and higher taxes for millions of Americans to stem the flood of red ink that they say threatens the nation's very future. The popular child tax credit and mortgage interest deduction would be eliminated.

Interest groups on the right and the left squealed, predictably, about the plan, which would cut total deficits by as much as $4 trillion over the next decade — much of it from programs long considered all but sacred.

The full commission has yet to make recommendations, and the chairmen acknowledged their plan was dead on arrival — but said it would prompt a more realistic national debate about what it'll take to solve the nation's fiscal woes.

[Read more about the deficit and national debt.]

Obama, in Seoul, South Korea, declined to discuss the specifics of the chairmen's work but said Thursday, "We're going to have to take actions that are difficult and we're going to have to tell the truth the American people." He said there has been a lot of rhetoric about the nation's debt and annual budget deficits but "a lot of the talk didn't match up with reality."

"We need to be straight with the American people," the president said. "We can't just engage in political rhetoric."

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the White House commission, said the nation faces the real possibility of becoming a "second-tier economic power" if it fails to address the trillion-dollar-plus deficit. He said simply cutting waste and fraud will not solve the problem, and insisted changes to Medicare and Social Security were needed because both programs are headed toward insolvency.

"People can say we want to keep what is. What is is not affordable," Conrad said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Under the chairmen's proposal, Medicare spending would be curtailed. Tax breaks for many health care plans, too. And the Pentagon's budget would suffer as well in a plan that attaches $3 in spending cuts to every $1 in tax increases.

For all the pain, the deficit still would approach $400 billion in 2015 under the proposal, released by deficit panel's co-chairmen, Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former Clinton White House chief of staff, and Republican Alan Simpson, a former senator from Wyoming.

The plan arrived a week after congressional elections in which voters demanded action on the $1 trillion-plus budget deficit.

"This debt is like a cancer that will truly destroy this country from within if we don't fix it," Bowles warned.

Current deficits require the government to borrow 37 cents out of every dollar it spends.

The entire 18-member commission is supposed to report a deficit-cutting plan on Dec. 1, but panel members are unsure whether they'll be able to agree on anything approaching deficit cuts of the size proposed. And even if they could, any vote in Congress this year would be nonbinding, Simpson said.

During the campaign, neither political party talked of spending cuts of the magnitude offered Wednesday, with Republicans proposing $100 billion in cuts to domestic programs passed each year by Congress — but with no specifics.

The plan would gradually increase the retirement age for full Social Security benefits — to 69 by 2075 — and current recipients would receive smaller-than-anticipated annual increases.

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China bids farewell to successful Shanghai World Expo - Xinhua

by Xinhua writers Wu Chen, Liu Jie and Xu Xiaoqing

SHANGHAI, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China staged a series of performances, parades and forums here Sunday to celebrate the end of the Shanghai World Expo, which International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) President Jean-Pierre Lafon called an "astounding success."

The first of its kind staged in a developing country, the event attracted 246 participating countries and international organizations and 73 million visitors. Both figures are records in the history of expos, the first of which was held in London in 1851.

On an area of 5.28 square kilometers, the Expo Site has become a global village where people can not only see rare cultural treasures from around the world -- the bronze chariot and horse sculpture from China's Warring States period, the statue of Athena from Greece and French impressionist masterpieces, for example -- but also get a taste of the diversity of the world's cultures through more than 20,000 cultural events.

The gala is eyed in China as another event of national splendor after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games showcased China's status as an economic and political power to the world.

It is also a milestone in both economic and social terms, bringing attention to the future of the planet, which is battling with poverty, war, pollution and energy shortages.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao declared the closure of the Expo at a ceremony Sunday evening. Before that, he said at the Summit Forum on the sidelines of the Expo the success of the Expo has boosted China's confidence and resolve to pursue reform and opening up.

"The Expo has brought together the Chinese people wishing to learn more about the world and foreign friends wishing to know more about China. Thanks to the Expo, they have forged a strong bond of friendship," said the Premier.

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