] So ladies, instead of heading out to the same old smoky
] bars for happy hour this week, consider working it at the
] supercomputing conference.

Don't call them geeks - PittsburghLIVE.com

] Misconception #1: The Spike in Oil Price is Due to
] China's Insatiable Demand
]
] The past year's sudden increase in oil prices to all-time
] highs (and generational highs in real terms) has led many
] analysts to conclude that the rise in oil prices is due
] to the fact that China has moved from consuming 2
] millions barrels per day a decade ago to 5 (or more
] today).
]
] But while this makes intuitive sense, it does not really
] correspond to reality

China Misconceptions

Way too much Bandwidth in Pittsburgh today.

SC2004 WAN Weather Map

] IBM's still-incomplete
] Blue Gene/L system, which will be installed at Lawrence
] Livermore National Laboratory Latest News about Lawrence
] Livermore National Laboratory, achieved a sustained
] performance of 70.72 trillion calculations per second
] using a standard test program, the Department of Energy
] said on Thursday.

Its ON for next week

Technology News: News: IBM Supercomputer Claims New Record

] The iMac G5 is completely user serviceable. With its
] simplified, modular interior, the machine was designed to
] make it easy for consumers to perform their own repairs.
]
] If something goes wrong, Apple dispatches a spare part,
] and the owner performs the do-it-yourself repair, from
] swapping out a faulty hard drive to installing a new flat
] screen.

The first iMac was a big step for computers, when Apple demonstrated that people would pay a premium for a non-upgradeable desktop -- manufacturers were killing themselves over PCs that the saavy customer would just keep self-upgrading. Apple sold people laptops for the desk.

Now they are trying to demonstrate that the superior case designwork they do (and we just took a couple of Dells apart -- functional to service but no G5 joy) can save on customer service too. Interesting.

Wired News: You Broke It, You Fix It

] We have brains for you in Brains, Other Brains, and
] Celebrity Brains.

Clever little parody there.

Brains4Zombies.com -- Your online home for Brains and Brain-Related Products

] The World Series win will fatten their wallets as all of
] New England rewards them for leading the Red Sox to
] victory after almost a century of bitter defeats. Right?
] Wrong.

Forbes.com: No More Curse, But No Windfall Either

] Since we received a large amount of mails from people
] around the world, here is a chart describing the
] availablitily of georgewbush.com. We will update the list
] as we get more entries.

Technically impressive that they have succeeded at the scale of F-Secure Blog's readership. GeorgeWBush.com /is/ actually only accessible from the US and Canada, apparently. How bizarre -- I guess overseas ballots were already sent, and so all the traffic is likely bad or something. Or something.

F-Secure : News from the Lab

] Adults are roughly an inch taller than they were in the
] early 1960s, on average, and nearly 25 pounds heavier,
] the government reported Wednesday.

Men: 5'9.5", 191 pounds
Women: 5'4", 163.4 pounds

The younger weight categories are even more disturbing.

Yahoo! News - Americans Getting Taller, Much Heavier

] Tuesday's election will probably be decided in 11 states
] where polls currently show the race too tight to predict
] a winner. And, assuming the other states go as predicted,
] a computer analysis finds no fewer than 33 combinations
] in which those 11 states could divide to produce a 269 to
] 269 electoral tie.

OMG

Electoral College Calculus (washingtonpost.com)