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Most Powerful Computer in Canada - for a Day
An anonymous reader writes "On Nov. 4, 18 Canadian universities and will create the most powerful computer in Canada for a day to solve an important computational chemistry question in one day -- a task that would normally take six years to complete." Here is more information on the temporary supercomputer available at the project's home page and at UofG's News.
Considering the project starts tomorrow, and this story has two completely different links (including one to the official site which has a FAQ with answers to what people posted on Slashdot), no, it is not a duplicate. A followup, perhaps.
I go to SFU and i'm taking some chemistry classes there and never heard a word about this. I thought it would make the school newspaper at least. We are on the list though. :S
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Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Ah yes, good old-fashioned Canada bashing. It seems to be the American national sport these days doesn't it? Ever heard of Steven Cook (the guy who originated the concept of NP-completeness, FYI)? He's at the university of Toronto. Or how about Jack Edmonds (you've probably never heard of the Edmonds-Karp algorithm either). He's at University of Waterloo. I could go on, but why waste my breath. Granted, Canadians are waaay too smug about not being American, but fools like you give them a reason to be.
With all due respect, and I'm a Canadian and I have served in our nation's armed forces, I think this is past tense. The logic of keeping piles of generals handy to suddenly recruit and train a whack of soldiers is kind of broken, given the nature of modern conflicts.
Not sure if I agree with that. Real conflict still generally build up over time. Even for the Iraq situation the US took quite a few months (a year?) to build up its forces surrounding Iraq before it began the offensive.
The constant criticism of the Canadian military, and calls for multi-billion dollar budget increases, might have some of its roots in the arms industry- An industry that wants to make us believe that we need loads of high tech equipment to sit rotting in warehouses, ready for multi-billion dollar upgrades 5 years down the road. Military equipment comes at a cost to social programs, healthcare, etc, or alternately higher taxes. Our individual soldiers are paid quite well (I was surprized when a friend recently joined to see the pay rates), have fantastic personal equipment and good bases.
While we hear constant cries about the "dangerous new world", the reality is that the classic militarism of yesteryear is a bygone thing: The US has nominated itself, and achieved by default, global policeman. Though this role is costly to her, it was a self-pursued role, and comes with a healthy bonus of being able to promote and pursue her own self-interests. Of course, simpleton morons like Pat Buchanan would try to cast such a role not as a self-serving role, but as a role which we should all send a cheque in the mail.
I *wish* we could actually help out some of the places that really need help right now. But we can't even keep a thousand guys in Afghanistan for a year, let alone buy those guys some appropriate camouflage fatigues in a timely fashion. And don't get me started on the Sea King or its replacements....
I think the camouflage issue was more of a political red herring: There isn't an armed forces on the planet, except perhaps the US, that has camo for every possible battlefield situation. The Afghan conflict came up just as a prior batch was destroyed and the new batch was on order. It happens. Personally I think, given the nature of the military, that some of the elite teams showed true military gumption and they quite literally made their own, creating some of the best camo possible. The Sea King is indeed an unfortunate reality, but again compared with the acquisition of a fleet of modern subs, missile frigates, and cormorant helicopters, it's amazing how much attention the Sea King garners. Again, take a close look at the $ vested interests who are looking at lining up at the trough.
We are a relatively small country, and the simple reality is that our military will always pale aside the US', just as the military of every other NATO countries does. I'm perfectly fine with that. We went into Afghanistan with troops that were perfect for the non-conventional modern warfare (i.e. snipers), did a great job, and got out after the situation had pretty much settled. Actually the causative factor for us leaving Afghanistan was probably the death of 4 soldiers by friendly fire: Given that the conflict was pretty much resolved, such a needless loss couldn't be repeated.
The stuff on South Park isn't real Canada bashing. Often it is in fact making fun of Americans' Canada bashing. In the case of the South Park Movie and its song "Blame Canada", it is mocking the tendency of parents to blame the bad behaviour of their children on anything and everything but themselves - even on something as obviously harmless (from an American's point of view) as Canada.
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
hey, no canada bashing here.
mad props to Canada. all the time.
we kid because we love.
I mean really Canada is just about the only place on Earth an American can visit without fear of being blown up, kidnapped, or er.. blown up.
lived in Canada for a month. best people on Earth. talk funny though. and you folks do say "eh" alot. don't deny it. you do. I heard "eh" roughly 40 times in one 10 minute conversation.
it just sounds funny. love you anyway.
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I used in to be an officer in the Army. Life as an officer is quite fun, but well-paid? I remember i was making $23K as a 2nd LT, and that was with a degree from a very well-regarded school.
:-)
Most of my enlisted soldiers that had families qualified for food stamps. In addition, they lived in houses that were in desparate need of repair and were treated with medical practices that would generally invoke malpractice suits in the civilian sector. All this for a life where you spend most of your life away from your family in some god-forsaken country to persue some foreign policy that you really don't care about. But for the most part they don't complain about a lifestyle that starts at 4:45 in morning and doesn't end until 7:00 at night.
People seem to forget that the last people that want to go to war are soliders, because they are actually the ones whose lives are affected.
I'm not a big fan of expensive weapon expenditures and expensive weapons research designed for a cold-war era. I think operations tempo is too high as well.
In my personal opinion, we reduce new weapons expenditure and procurement by about 50%. In addition, reactivation of two infantry divisions, conversion of one regular infantry division to full operational funding, renovation of enlisted housing, and more training for personnel.
But then again, why do I bother posting this. Everyone here seems to be a conspiracy theorist.