HEALTHY SEAFOOD
Jika kita berbicara soal seafood, yang ada di pikiran kita tentunya akan ada tiga hal besar yang menghalangi kita menikmati makanan sehat ini. Pertama jelas alergi yang tidak mungkin dihindari, karena tidak semua orang dapat bertahan menikmati makanan dari laut ini. Kedua tentunya kita memikirkan bagaimana bahan makanan tadi diambil, kondisi laut yang sudah tercemar, dan tentunya yang ketiga, kolesterol.
Kandungan kolesterol di beberapa bahan makanan seafood ternyata sangatlah tinggi, dan cukup membuat orang berpikir dua kali menikmati makanan dari laut ini. Tapi ternyata, dari sekian banyak makanan laut yang mungkin bisa memberi dampak kurang menyenangkan, ada beberapa yang sangat bisa Anda nikmati dengan aman, karena ternyata beberapa jenis makanan dari laut di bawah ini luar biasa sehat, apalagi penuh dengan mineral dan asam lemak omega 3 yang sangat membantu kesehatan kita.
Sardin
(c) sustainablesushi
Ikan ini adalah salah satu makanan yang kaya dengan nutrisi. Mengandung banyak sekali asam lemak omega-3, yang menurut American Heart Association akan membantu mengatur dan menurunkan kolesterol dalam darah dan memperbaiki kesehatan darah. Sardin juga adalah makanan yang baik bagi otak, omega-3 akan membantu memperbaiki fungsi otak dan memori.
Makanan sehat ini adalah salah satu ikan yang dapat dimakan seluruhnya, sehingga akan memberikan kalsium, zat besi, dan vitamin D yang bagus untuk kesehatan tulang. Sardin juga mengandung ko-enzym Q10 (CoQ10) yang membantu memperbaiki kesehatan peredaran darah dan energi fisik. Kandungan merkuri dan pestisida atau bahan kimia berbahaya dalam tubuh ikan ini sangat kecil, karena ukuran badan yang kecil dan usia mereka yang tidak terlalu tinggi, maka ikan ini hanya menyerap sedikit sekali bahan berbahaya.
Jika Anda memilih jenis sardin dalam kaleng, usahakan pilih tipe sardin dalam air atau saus tomat, hindari jenis sardin yang dikalengkan dalam minyak.
Mackerel 
(c) alibaba
Ikan kecil ini diam-diam banyak sekali mengandung nutrisi luar biasa. Ikan ini adalah sumber terbaik asam lemak omega-3 (dua kali lipat kandungan asam lemak omega-3 dalam Salmon) dan Mackerel adalah sumber selenium (yang membantu sistem kekebalan tubuh) secara luar biasa.
Selenium bekerja sama dengan protein dalam tubuh untuk membentuk enzym antioksidan dan dapat melindungi tubuh dari efek merkuri. Rasa dari ikan ini juga membuatnya sangat mudah dimasak dalam berbagai cara, baik di panggang atau bahkan dapat dipotong mentah sebagai sashimi. Usahakan memilih ikan Mackerel kecil karena semakin besar ikan Mackerel, kemungkinan tercemar merkuri semakin tinggi.
Tilapia
(c) fishingcy
Tilapia adalah ikan yang mudah didapat di mana-mana, sedangkan rasa dan harganya juga tidak mengecewakan. Selain itu, ternyata ikan ini sangat sehat! Ikan ini tumbuh dengan sangat cepat dan usianya pendek, sehingga tidak terlalu banyak menyerap merkuri.
Jumlah kolesterol dalam dagingnya rendah, demikian juga kandungan natrium dan lemak jenuh yang ada. Tilapia juga mengandung asam lemak omega 3 yang baik bagi kesehatan jantung, peredaran dan tekanan darah darah, serta perkembangan mental dan otak. Jika mungkin, pilih ikan tilapia yang berasal dari alam liar, dan bukan dari tambak ikan.
Haddock
(c) omegafish
Jika Anda pernah mendengar menu fish and chips ala Inggris, hampir bisa dipastikan ikan yang digunakan adalah ikan haddock ini. Ikan ini ternyata sangat populer dengan kandungan magnesium, vitamin B6 dan niacin yang sangat tinggi. Ikan ini juga memiliki kandungan fosfor yang tidak bisa diremehkan, dan merupakan komponen utama pembentukan tulang dan gigi. Selain itu, fosfor juga akan membantu dalam penyediaan energi tubuh, jadi fosfor akan ditemukan di tulang, saraf, baik dalam aktivitas oksigen maupun tanpa aktivitas oksigen.
Fosfor juga akan membantu tubuh untuk menggunakan vitamin larut lemak seperti vitamin A, D, E dan K. Dengan kata lain, ikan haddock ini adalah pengganti daging sapi yang jauh lebih murah, tapi mampu memberikan protein yang hampir sama seperti daging sapi.
Jika dibandingkan, dalam jumlah yang sama, 200 gram daging sapi mengandung 18% protein, dan 80 kalori, sedangkan daging ikan haddock memiliki jumlah protein yang sama, dengan jumlah kalori yang jauh lebih sedikit. Untuk ikan ini, usahakan pilih yang dimatangkan dengan cara rendah lemak seperti dipanggang, dan bukan digoreng.
Rumput Laut 
(c) wordpress
Pasti Anda mengenal makanan ini sebagai salah satu komponen utama dalam maki sushi (sushi yang dibungkus). Rumput laut kaya vitamin C, seng dan yodium. Rumput laut Red Dulse, yang banyak ditemukan di lautan Atlantik Utara, dapat memberikan 100% kebutuhan vitamin B6, zat besi dan fluorida yang dibutuhkan oleh tubuh dan gigi yang kuat.
Demikian juga untuk kalsium untuk tulang yang sehat, dapat ditemukan dalam jumlah yang berlimpah di rumput laut ini. Anda mungkin tidak akan menyangka bahwa kandungan protein yang ada dalam rumput laut ini tinggi sekali. Karbohidrat kompleks yang berada di angka 40% dari berat total rumput laut ini berarti bahwa Anda akan mendapat energi cepat tapi dengan angka indeks glikemik yang rendah. Anda juga akan relatif lebih lama kenyang karena rumput laut karena kandungan serat yang tinggi, sehingga sangat baik bagi pencernaan dan diet.
Jadi setelah membaca beberapa jenis makanan laut tadi, apakah Anda masih ragu menikmati seafood? Kekayaan ikan Indonesia siap menanti Anda dan menyumbangkan kesehatan kepada Anda! Tunggu apa lagi?
Claiming the Sky: The Dawn of Pilotless Flight
With eagle eyes, albatross wings and the speed of a swift, UAVs are changing the course of flight as we know it. Anthony Beachey looks at the dawning of the UAV era and the turns it promises to take next.The rapid growth of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector was demonstrated at the recent Paris Air Show, where a number of new vehicles were launched, and further underlined by Boeing's announcement in June 2009 that it was launching a new unmanned airborne systems division to group the company's drone projects to better compete for military contracts.
Boeing estimates the UAV market could be worth $160bn over the next ten years and plans to become a major player in the sector. Meanwhile Northrop Grumman estimates that in the skies over Iraq alone, the number of these robotic aircraft has jumped to more than 1,000 in the past few years.
US aerospace giants such as Northrop Grumman and General Atomics currently dominate the UAV sector with systems such as Global Hawk and Predator, and Israeli firms including Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems have also been successful. But some of the most interesting developments in the sector are emerging at small companies.
Aeroart of France, a startup company focused on the design and manufacture of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), officially launched the Featherlite, a low-cost and high-safety UAS, at the Paris Air Show in June. The Featherlite system, including the aircraft, ground control station and payload such as a video camera, costs just €7,900 and weighs only 1.5kg. Aeroart business development director Serge Versillé says interest in Featherlite systems has been much greater than Aeroart anticipated, with much of it coming from the civilian sector, although Featherlite does have military potential in terms of providing a low-cost training solution for operators.
Versillé says Featherlite has a wide range of civil applications in areas such as agriculture (the UAS is able to monitor crops and animals) and mining. The vehicle can also be used for firefighting. Critically, not only is Featherlite cheap, it is also safe, according to Versillé. He says even if the aircraft does crash, its low speed and weight mean it is unlikely to cause much damage.
Featherlite has almost certainly opened up new markets for unmanned aircraft, particularly in the civilian sector, where it may have fuelled interest in very low-cost and light vehicles.
Military potential
In the military sector, the pace of technological progress is just as astonishing. In April 2009, Californian company Aerovironment said the US Defense Department had extended its research contract to design and build a flying prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) programme. In June, Aerovironment said its Mercury NAV, a demonstrator that imitates winged creatures, had accomplished a technical first: the controlled hovering flight of an air vehicle system with two flapping wings that carries its own energy source and uses only flapping wings for propulsion and control.
The NAV programme is focused on developing an extremely small (less than 7.5cm), ultra-lightweight (less than 10g) air vehicle system with the potential to perform indoor and outdoor military missions, such as military reconnaissance in urban environments. Aerovironment's small UAS products, including Dragon Eye, Raven, Wasp and Puma, are already used by the US military.
UAVs are already playing a critical role supporting ground forces in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the next few years, however, their use is likely to become even more widespread. The US Navy rolled out its first combat UAV earlier in 2009. The ability of UAVs to provide 24-hour reconnaissance is clearly as appealing to the US Navy as it is to the US Army and Marines. UAVs will provide another layer of protection to the Navy's carriers and enable carrier-borne aircraft to strike targets much further away.
Meanwhile, the US's next-generation heavy bomber is likely to be a UAV. The 2018 Bomber, now being developed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will be a long-range penetrating aircraft that is flown autonomously by ground personnel. Such a bomber will have obvious advantages in terms of avoiding pilot fatigue. Development of the 2018 Bomber will continue under a bill passed in July 2009 by the Senate Armed Services Committee, despite the Obama administration's plan to end the programme.
In the military sector, air-to-air combat appears to be the only area where the subject of UAVs remains taboo. Given the rapid pace of technological change in this area, it cannot be long before UAVs that are able to outfly and outfight piloted aircraft are in the skies. Predictions that human pilots will soon be obsolete have been around for decades. The rise of the UAV suggests that the dawn of pilotless flight has already broken.
Apa-an sih Combi Brake itu?
Combi Brake adalah suatu teknologi mekanis untuk mendistribusikan kekuatan pengereman antara roda depan dan roda belakang dengan hanya menekan satu tuas rem sebelah kiri saja.
Dengan teknologi Combi Brake ini, sepeda motor akan berhenti dengan jarak pengereman yang lebih pendek secara lebih maksimal dengan pengereman yang merata pada kedua roda depan dan belakang secara bersama-sama. Intinya Bobot kekuatan pengereman akan terbagi secara otomatis antara roda depan dan belakang sesuai kebutuhan pengereman pada motor.
Nah Combi Brake ini sangat cocok digunakan oleh pengendara pemula maupun kaum hawa. Dimana dengan adanya teknologi Combi Brake ini akan membantu pengendara pemula untuk melakukan pengereman layaknya pengendara motor yang sudah Pro. Combi Brake akan mengambil alih kemampuan pengendara yang pro pada saat melakukan distribusi pengereman pada roda depan dan belakang, sehingga pengendara pemula-pun akan sangat terbantu oleh Combi Brake.
Bagaimana cara Combi Brake bekerja ?
Nah Intinya justru ada di mekanisme Equalizer yang akan mendistribusikan gaya berdasarkan momen gaya akibat adanya perbedaan panjang lengan tuas kabel di equlizer.
Dengan segala kelebihan Combi Brake tadi, apakah lantas Combi Brake sangat ampuh dan tidak memiliki kekurangan sama sekali? tentu saja tetap ada kelemahannya, yaitu penyetelan rem belakang (drum brake) yang harus bener-benar PAS agar Combi Brake dapat benar-benar bekerja dengan baik.
Nah, jika di Thailand motor Matic Honda sudah menggunakan Combi Brake mengapa justru motor Matic Honda Indonesia tidak ada yang mengadopsi sistem yang bagus ini?
Apa alasan AHM melepas fitur ini pada motor Matic Honda yang beredar di Indonesia? Pertama mungkin alasan menekan harga. Kedua mungkin AHM menganggap biker-biker di Indonesia sudah dianggap canggih dan Pro, jadi gak perlu lagi perlindungan sistem pengereman yang canggih ini lagi.
Kalau masih belum puas dengan kedua jawaban di atas, mari kita bikin Combi Brake sendiri aja setelah tahu cara kerjanya. gampang kok!!! Bahkan bisa diterapin di Vario, Beat, maupun product matic di luar Honda macam Mio, Soul, Spin dan Sky-Wave.
Beli Minuman Dengan Menggunakan Sidik Jari
Did an ice age boost human brain size?
- 29 July 2009 by Bob Holmes
- Magazine issue 2719. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
- For similar stories, visit the The Human Brain , Evolution and Human Evolution Topic Guides
IT IS one of the biggest mysteries in human evolution. Why did we humans evolve such big brains, making us the unrivalled rulers of the world?
Some 2.5 million years ago, our ancestors' brains expanded from a mere 600 cubic centimetres to about a litre. Two new studies suggest it is no fluke that this brain boom coincided with the onset of an ice age. Cooler heads, it seems, allowed ancient human brains to let off steam and grow.
Cooler heads, it seems, allowed ancient human brains to let off steam and grow
For all its advantages, the modern human brain is a huge energy glutton, accounting for nearly half of our resting metabolic rate. About a decade ago, biologists David Schwartzman and George Middendorf of Howard University in Washington DC hypothesised that our modern brain could not have evolved until the Quaternary ice age started, about 2.5 million years ago. They reckoned such a large brain would have generated heat faster than it could dissipate it in the warmer climate of earlier times, but they lacked evidence to back their hypothesis.
Now hints of that evidence are beginning to emerge. Climate researcher Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, modelled present-day temperature, humidity and wind conditions around the world using an Earth-systems computer model. He used these factors to predict the maximum rate at which a modern human brain can lose heat in different regions. He found that, even today, the ability to dissipate heat should restrict the activity of people in many tropical regions (Climatic Change, vol 95, p 405).
If keeping cool is a problem now, Kleidon says, it would have been even more challenging - perhaps too challenging - 2 or 3 million years ago when temperatures were a few degrees warmer than today and air-conditioning units were harder to come by.
A new study by Schwartzman and Middendorf suggests that a small drop in global temperatures may have made a big difference. The pair used basic equations of heat loss to estimate how fast the small-brained Homo habilis would have been able to cool off. Assuming overheating limited the size of H. habilis's brain, they then calculated what drop in air temperature would have been needed for Homo erectus to be able to support its bigger brain
Given the timescales involved, it may be near-impossible to match definitively the onset of an ice age with speciation, but a 1.5 °C drop is consistent with the cooling climate of the time, says Middendorf.
"In principle, I'm receptive to the hypothesis," says Dean Falk, a palaeoanthropologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, "but I need the data." She says that if measurements showed that people living in tropical countries today have smaller brains relative to their body size than people in temperate climates, this would go against expectation and lend support to Kleidon's model.
Being able to cool bigger brains can only be part of the story, however. It would have lifted the brakes on expansion, says psychologist David Geary at the University of Missouri in Columbia, but there has to be something driving the increase.
Over the years, researchers have come up with three broad reasons why bigger brains might have been advantageous: to give their owners the ability to cope with changing climates by exploiting technologies such as shelter, fire and clothing; to deal with the cognitive demands of hunting and gathering; or to help people outsmart their neighbours.
To help narrow this down, Geary collected data from 175 fossil hominin skulls, from 1.9 million to 10,000 years old. Then he looked to see whether brain size was best correlated with climatic variability - a crude measure of biodiversity which could indicate the complexity of hunting and gathering - or the human population size at the time, which could reflect the complexity of social interactions.
Geary's analysis found that population size was the best predictor of brain size, suggesting that our ancestors' need to outcompete their neighbours in order to survive may have been the strongest driver of brain growth (Human Nature, vol 20, p 67).
The case is far from closed - Geary's study does not demonstrate cause and effect, for one thing - but the picture beginning to emerge suggests that an ice age set the stage for a socially driven brain boom. And from that time on, it was the brainiacs who stole the show.
Greenhouse brains
If global cooling allowed humans to evolve their big brains, will today's global warming take them away again? "I'd hate to think that a difference of 1.5 °C might mean the end of humans because our brains cook," says George Middendorf of Howard University in Washington DC, "but I guess it's a scenario that might play out."
It probably won't, though, thanks to what those big human brains made possible: culture.
"When culture comes in, it layers itself on top of the biological constraints," says Tyler Volk, an Earth-systems expert at New York University. Thanks to culture and technology, we now have ways of buffering ourselves against hot climates, not only with air conditioning, but also with basic tools such as fans, thick-walled buildings and reservoirs to ensure we have plenty of water.
Only one thing could destroy that buffer - a total breakdown of society.
Warming Arctic could teem with life by 2030
"Teeming with life" may not be the description that springs to mind when thinking of the Arctic Ocean, but that could soon change as global warming removes the region's icy lid.
A study of what the Arctic looked like just before dinosaurs were wiped off the planet has provided a glimpse of what could be to come within decades.
Alan Kemp of the UK National Oceanography Centre in Southampton and colleagues used powerful microscopes to inspect cores of mud extracted from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. They found successive layers of tiny algae called diatoms. The pattern of the layers and the distribution of the diatoms provides strong evidence that the Arctic was free of ice during the summer and, contrary to recent studies, frequently covered in ice during the winter.
Hot summer
Ice-free summers and icy winters are precisely what glaciologists fear could happen in the Arctic within decades. Over the past few years, wind pattern and warm temperatures have been gradually thinning Arctic sea ice, making it less and less likely to survive the summer. Some believe the Arctic could be ice-free during the summer as soon as 2030.
The researchers say that the sheer number of diatoms locked in the mud suggests that when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth the Arctic Ocean was biologically very rich during the summer, on a par with the most productive regions of the Southern Ocean today. Since diatoms are at the very bottom of the food chain, waters rich in diatoms can support a lot of larger life forms as well.
"On the basis of our findings, we can say that it is likely that a future Arctic Ocean free of summer sea ice will also be highly productive," says Kemp. Arctic fauna today is limited by the region's harsh conditions. The ocean is home to very few species of fish – such as the Arctic cod – which in turn support seals, whales and polar bears.
Summer migration
While more diatoms during the summer does not mean that larger animals will spontaneously appear in the Arctic over the coming decades, it could give species that currently live further south an incentive to move into the region by providing them with food. The most likely scenario is one in which larger species migrate to the Arctic in the summer to feed on the enriched summer food chain, then move back south during the dark winters.
"The outcome would depend on organisms at all levels of the food chain moving in to exploit this potential," says Kemp. "What is unpredictable is what species from elsewhere may migrate in to fill the new ecological niches."
A study of fossils and fossilised faeces carried out around Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, suggested last year that the regions may once have been home to a rich gathering of larger fish and possibly even sharks during the late Cretaceous (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0801). Presumably, these animals would have been supported by Kemp's diatoms.
Journal reference: Nature (DOI: 10.1038/nature08141)
Shocking cancer treatment may also yield weapon
A technique thought to be a promising cancer treatment is also being investigated as the basis for a Taser-like weapon that stuns for longer, New Scientist has learned.
The technology involves short, nanosecond-long pulses of extreme voltage.
Microsecond pulses have been used for years to punch temporary holes in cell membranes, to shove genes or drugs into cells. But the nanosecond pulses have similar effects on individual organelles inside a cell, such as the nucleus.
For reasons as yet unknown, this can cause a cell to destroy itself in a process known as apoptosis, something being investigated as a cancer treatment. But the nanosecond pulses are also being researched as a way to temporarily disable human muscles.
Incapacitating effects
Much research to date on nanosecond pulses has come from the Frank Reidy Research Centre for Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where some research is sponsored by the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) of Quantico, Virginia.
"Efforts are ongoing as part of our Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation bio-effects research," confirms David B Law, technology division chief at the JNLWD.
"The short-pulse simulations and research appear to be demonstrating a degree of voluntary muscular impairment or inhibition, that remains in effect for durations longer than the exposure period," he adds.
Existing Taser use multiple electric shocks of a few microseconds over a five-second cycle. The shocks are delivered to the body through twin electrodes fired in a dart.
The pulsing electric field created inside the body disrupts the electrical activity of nerve cell membranes. These are responsible for carrying instructions and feedback around the body.
The effects wear off almost immediately, according to Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle, so that a suspect is incapacitated for just long enough to make an arrest.
Stunned for longer
Even shorter, nanosecond pulses have the potential to cause similar but longer lasting stunning, research from the Frank Reidy centre suggests.
One study on cells in vitro indicated that 60-nanosecond pulses caused "profound and long-lasting loss" of the electrical activity in the membranes of cells similar to nerve cells. The effect lasted fifteen minutes.
So far, research investigating the potential to disable muscles using nanopulses has been limited to tests on tissue samples in vitro and theoretical studies that claim the ultrashort shocks should be able to disable a whole animal.
However, Law says that plans for testing on live subjects are "proceeding at appropriate institutions." He declined to be more specific or say when human testing might take place.
"The medical and biological effects of such ultra-short electrical shocks in such a weapon are presently unknown," highlights Amnesty International researcher Angela Wright, saying the organisation is already concerned that evidence is emerging that Tasers and other shock devices have long-term health effects.
She thinks that the different effects of even shorter pulses may also have unpredicted effects.
The Intel®Xeon®processor
essor 7400 series, offers the industry's highest virtualization performance so you can do more with less. With key platform innovations built-in, the Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series offers more headroom, reliability, and the highest expandability for large-scale server consolidation.
Product information
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Product brief: Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series
File Type/Size: PDF 2.11MB
* Flash demo: Innovations in data traffic optimization
* Video white paper: quad-core is changing virtualized data centers
* View performance benchmarks
* Gain access, share ideas, and discuss topics with leaders in the IT community on Intel's Open Port
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IDC White paper: Choosing the right hardware for server virtualization
File Type/Size: PDF 196KB
Best-in-class performance
With enhanced 45nm Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, the new Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series is best-in-class for demanding enterprise workloads with almost 50% better performance in some cases and up to 10% reduction in platform power compared to previous generation expandable servers.◊¹ Designed and optimized for IT, these 6-core processors provide industry-leading multi-core processing and greater computing performance without increasing footprint and power demands.
With 16MB shared L3 cache, scalability beyond four sockets, 1066 million transfers per second (MT/s), and support for up to 256GB of RAM, the Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series is the ideal choice for your data-intensive, business-critical performance requirements.
Headroom and scalability built in
Offering more low voltage options including 65W 6-core and 50W 4-core processors, Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series for blade and ultra-dense platforms reduce cooling requirements, lowering IT costs. In addition, these processors are designed with Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), enabling an ecosystem of software-based virtualization from industry leading software providers.
See how Intel® Xeon® processors provide data traffic optimization.
ROI estimator
Find out the potential savings of switching to servers and workstations with Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series.
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Real solutions, real success
See what Intel® products and technologies businesses like yours are using, and how they are succeeding.
Intel Live Chat Archive
Check out the transcripts from our recent past live chat Q&A sessions and see what our experts and your peers had to say about the latest Intel® technologies.
Features and benefits
Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series
* Leading scalable performance with decreased footprint and power demands
* Industry's lowest watt per core platform with available 65 watt processor
* Based on 45nm Intel® Core™ microarchitecture enabling low voltage options for ultra-dense deployments
* Compatibility with previous generation Intel® Xeon® processor 7300 series
Hardware-assisted virtualization technology
* Highest virtualization performance, leading on all industry standard virtualization benchmarks¹
* More virtual machines on all servers
* Investment protection and flexibility with Intel® Virtualization Technology FlexMigration (Intel® VT FlexMigration)¹
* More efficient disaster recovery and high availability through virtualization
* Broadest ecosystem support with virtualization software providers and leading OEMs
Up to16 MB, shared L3 cache
* Keeps more needed data closer to the cores for access faster than off-chip memory
Intel® 64 architecture²
* Enables extended memory addressability for server applications
Enhanced reliability and manageability
* Many memory controller features, together with PCI Express* RAS features combine for outstanding platform reliability
* Error Correcting Code (ECC) system bus, new memory mirroring and I/O hot-plug
¹ Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT), and Intel® 64 architecture require a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, enabling software and/or operating system, device drivers and applications designed for these features. Performance will vary depending on your configuration. Contact your vendor for more information.
² 64-bit computing on Intel® architecture requires a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, operating system, device drivers, and applications enabled for Intel® 64 architecture. Processors will not operate (including 32-bit operation) without an Intel 64 architecture-enabled BIOS. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software configurations. Consult with your system vendor for more information.
Performance gain claim based on TPC-E Benchmark details Intel® Xeon® processor X7350 based platform details Fujitsu Simens* Primergy RX600 S4 server platform with four Intel® Xeon® processors X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 cache, 128GB (32x4GB) memory, Microsoft SQL Server* 2008 Enterprise x64 Edition, Microsoft Windows Server* 2008 Enterprise x64 Edition, TPC-E 492.32; Price/Performance: USD 559.88. Availability Date 1/1/09; Processors/Cores/Threats - 4/16/16; application benchmark performance certified on Sept 10, 2008 by Fujitsu Simens. Intel® Xeon® processor X7460 based platform details IBM* System x 3850 M2 server platform with four Intel® Xeon® processors X7460 (2.66GHz, 16MB L2 cache, 6 cores), 128GB memory, Microsoft SQL Server* 2008 Enterprise x64 Edition, Microsoft Windows Server* 2008 Enterprise x64 Edition, TPC-E 729.65; Price/Performance: USD 457.27. Availability Date 10/31/08; Processors/Cores/Threats - 4/24/24; application benchmark performance certified on Sept 15, 2008 by IBM.
Reduced platform power claim based on vConsolidate Benchmark on VMware ESX Server* results comparison between Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 and 7300 series based on vConsolidate benchmark result measured on Vmware ESX Server* v3.5.0 by Intel corporation in September 2008. Intel® Xeon® processor X7460 and X7350 based platform details: Intel server software development platform (Foxcove) with four Intel® Xeon® processors X7460 (2.66GHz, 16M L3 Cache, 6-cores) or X7350 (2.93GHz, 8M L2 Cache, 4-cores) 1066 MHz system bus, 8MB L2 cache, Clarksboro chipset, 16x2GB memory FBD PC2-5300F, maximum performance achieved using five CSUs for X7350 and 6 CSUs for X7460. vConsolidate version 2.0 profile 2. Platform power measured as part of the performance measurement showed a 11% reduced power consumption while delivering peak performance.
Obama_cadillac_limo
General Motors has once again built the First Limo, which isn't so much a car as an armored personnel carrier wrapped in Cadillac bodywork. It is code-named "Stagecoach" but given its weight, wheelbase and bunker-like level of protection, Caddy One has been nicknamed "the Beast."
The limo that carries President Obama down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House today is the latest in a long line of Cadillacs to join the First Fleet over the years. Although GM and the Secret Service jealously guard the vehicle's specs and secrets, you can bet Obama's ride is the toughest, most sophisticated car anywhere. Think of it as the road-going equivalent to Air Force One.
"Although many of the vehicle's security enhancements cannot be discussed, it is safe to say that this car's security and coded communications systems make it the most technologically advanced protection vehicle in the world," Nicholas Trotta, assistant director for the Secret Service Office of Protective Operations, said in a statement (.pdf).
GM had even less to say, noting "one of the specifications is we don't talk about the specifications." But spokesman David Caldwell says the redesigned car "is a fresh, more modern, more expensive" version of the Cadillac DTS that has carried President Bush since his second inauguration in 2005. Obama's car, he says, is "a little bit more vibrant, if you will."
Even if no one's got anything to say about what's under all that armor, there are some things widely believed to be known about Caddy One's security measures.
The car is one of a small fleet of what is believed to be no more than 25 presidential limos General Motors built for the Obama administration, according to the Detroit News. Although presidential limos have a lifespan of about a decade, the Commander in Chief gets a new one about every four years. Hand-me-downs are used to carry the vice president and visiting heads of state.
GM says the car occupies the "same footprint" as the current presidential ride, but it is a little taller and the windows a little bigger to improve visibility. Limo One is believed to weigh between seven and eight tons, and spy shots suggest it rides on a GM medium-duty truck chassis propelled by a diesel engine. The body is sheathed in military-grade armor as much as 8 inches thick on the doors (each of which weighs as much as the cabin door on a Boeing 747, Motor Authority says). The armor reportedly is a mix of dual-hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and ceramic. The windows are ballistic glass said to be 5 inches thick, and Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times says there's probably a woven Kevlar mat covering the floorboard to protect the car from blasts. The cabin is believed to feature a sealed air recirculation system to protect its occupants from chemical attacks.
"I think he will be surprised about how when he's in the limo, it's a cocoon," Joe Funk, a retired Secret Service agent who served as President Clinton's driver, told CNN. "The everyday noises will be gone, and he will be totally isolated in this protective envelope.
Still, despite being at least as secure as a hardened missile silo, GM says Caddy One features the same hand-sewn leather interior you'd find in the CTS at your local dealership, and supposedly it's got a 10-disc CD player. And, of course, it's packed with the latest communications technology.
"I think he will be surprised at the communication capabilities, how the phones, the satellites, the Internet - everything is at his fingertips," Funk said. "So at one end, you are totally removed from society. The other side of the coin is that he can have any communications worldwide at a moment's touch."
Obama's limo is the latest in long line of presidential cars Cadillac has built in the 100 years since Congress approved funding for a presidential motor pool. President Wilson rode in a Caddy during a parade marking the end of World War I. President Coolidge sported a lavish 1928 Cadillac Town Car, which was among the first Caddys parked at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It featured a 341 cubic inch engine and a robust (for the time) 90 horsepower.
In 1938, the US government received two Cadillac convertibles, each 21.5 feet long and weighing nearly 8,000 pounds. They were dubbed the "Queen Elizabeth" and the "Queen Mary" after the ocean liners. Each featured back-up generators, two-way radios and an arsenal of weapons. They served presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower and were replaced by the Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mary II, which remained in service until 1968.
Cadillac returned to the White House in 1983, when President Reagan rode around in a Fleetwood famous for being the last equipped with the Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 3-speed automatic transmission. President Clinton rode in a Fleetwood Brougham powered by a 454 cubic inch (7.4 liter) V8.
The largest collection of presidential limos is held by the Henry Ford Museum, but President Bush's limo will not appear in it. The Secret Service has since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, required that presidential limos be destroyed upon retirement to preserve their secrets.
Photo: General Motors.
ON 12 October 2000, the destroyer USS Cole hove into port at Aden in Yemen for routine refuelling. As the vessel took on fuel oil, a small boat drew alongside it. Suicide bombers inside the boat detonated a cache of explosives, blasting a 20-metre hole in the destroyer's hull and killing 17 of its crew. The attack was a stark reminder of the risks the crews of naval ships face when they are forced to put in at potentially unfriendly ports. Now some members of Congress believe they have a way to keep ships out of harm's way and prevent similar incidents happening in the future. A bill recently passed by the House of Representatives aims to make many more of the ships in the US naval fleet nuclear powered, including amphibious assault ships that carry troops into combat. The benefit will be two-fold, argue proponents of the bill. Rocketing oil prices make nuclear power an economic way of funding naval expeditions, and thanks to the slow burn of the highly enriched nuclear fuel in marine reactors, ships will have no need to pull into potentially hostile ports to refuel. However, critics claim the presence of a nuclear reactor on a ship would make it a terrorist target. "It beggars belief in these days of heightened terrorism alerts that people are seriously suggesting building nuclear-powered assault ships," says Ben Ayliffe, head of anti-nuclear campaigns at Greenpeace in the UK. The new bill represents an escalation of recent efforts to get the navy to use more nuclear fuel. The rising cost of oil means it is getting close to the point at which it will be more economic for the navy to use nuclear power, says Representative Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican, who backs the proposed measures. "A 2007 study by the navy on alternative energy for ship propulsion indicated that the break-even price for nuclear propulsion for amphibious ships was an oil price of $178 dollars per barrel. We're now creeping up to that number - oil hit a new record of $133 a barrel today," he said in a statement on 21 May. There is also the question of securing the military's energy supply, says Bartlett. Ninety-six per cent of the world's oil reserves are owned by countries other than the US. "Many of these countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, Iran and Nigeria, are unstable and ambivalent or outright hostile to America and our allies," he says, pointing again to nuclear propulsion as the answer. "It offers greater power and unparalleled safety and operational endurance without the vulnerabilities of fossil fuel refuelling," he says. The move towards a navy that relies more heavily on nuclear power is also being driven by the increasing use of ever more powerful radar and radio links. These are turning ships into energy guzzling data-processing centres, said a report by the US Defense Science Board task force on energy strategy in February. In its report, entitled "More Fight, Less Fuel", the task force said that a major reason nuclear power is being seen as an option for surface ships is because not enough is being done to ensure electronics and radar systems are energy efficient. This is forcing the navy to look for new power sources to ensure ships have a steady supply during combat, it says. Congress upped the ante on the use of nuclear power across the fleet last year, when it passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, an annual piece of legislation that tells the Pentagon how it should spend its budget. Under the act all future aircraft carriers, submarines and battle cruisers have to be built with a nuclear power system at their heart. The risk of a nuclear disaster does not necessarily increase significantly because such ships do not tend to get close to combat zones. But the National Defense Authorization Bill for 2009, which the Senate has still to pass, aims to shift the process up a gear by adding various types of amphibious assault ships to the list of those that must be powered by nuclear reactors in the future. "We're dedicated to ensuring that the future forces of the navy are not hampered by access to, or the cost of, fossil fuels," says Representative Gene Taylor, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee on sea power and expeditionary forces, which drafted the relevant section of the bill. Amphibious ships come in various forms, from those that incorporate a dock for landing craft, to undersized aircraft carriers for helicopters and vertical take-off aircraft - or a mixture of both. The vessels' position in combat can also vary - from a "stand-off" over-the-horizon location to being moored to a pier in a combat zone. A US navy website confirms that such ships "are designed to get in harm's way".
US considers nuclear-powered assault ships
Solar Cells Solar cells (as the name implies) are designed to convert (at least a portion of) available light into electrical energy. They do this without the use of either chemical reactions or moving parts. History By 1927 another metalÐsemiconductor-junction solar cell, in this case made of copper and the semiconductor copper oxide, had been demonstrated. By the 1930s both the selenium cell and the copper oxide cell were being employed in light-sensitive devices, such as photometers, for use in photography. These early solar cells, however, still had energy-conversion efficiencies of less than 1 percent. This impasse was finally overcome with the development of the silicon solar cell by Russell Ohl in 1941. In 1954, three other American researchers, G.L. Pearson, Daryl Chapin, and Calvin Fuller, demonstrated a silicon solar cell capable of a 6-percent energy-conversion efficiency when used in direct sunlight. By the late 1980s silicon cells, as well as those made of gallium arsenide, with efficiencies of more than 20 percent had been fabricated. In 1989 a concentrator solar cell, a type of device in which sunlight is concentrated onto the cell surface by means of lenses, achieved an efficiency of 37 percent due to the increased intensity of the collected energy. In general, solar cells of widely varying efficiencies and cost are now available. Structure The first of these three layers necessary for energy conversion in a solar cell is the top junction layer (made of N-type semiconductor ). The next layer in the structure is the core of the device; this is the absorber layer (the P-N junction). The last of the energy-conversion layers is the back junction layer (made of P-type semiconductor). As may be seen in the above diagram, there are two additional layers that must be present in a solar cell. These are the electrical contact layers. There must obviously be two such layers to allow electric current to flow out of and into the cell. The electrical contact layer on the face of the cell where light enters is generally present in some grid pattern and is composed of a good conductor such as a metal. The grid pattern does not cover the entire face of the cell since grid materials, though good electrical conductors, are generally not transparent to light. Hence, the grid pattern must be widely spaced to allow light to enter the solar cell but not to the extent that the electrical contact layer will have difficulty collecting the current produced by the cell. The back electrical contact layer has no such diametrically opposed restrictions. It need simply function as an electrical contact and thus covers the entire back surface of the cell structure. Because the back layer must be a very good electrical conductor, it is always made of metal. Operation Then with one term at zero these conditions (V = Voc / I = 0, V = 0 / I = Isc ) also represent zero power. As you might then expect, a combination of less than maximum current and voltage can be found that maximizes the power produced (called, not surprisingly, the "maximum power point"). Many BEAM designs (and, in particular, solar engines) attempt to stay at (or near) this point. The tricky part is building a design that can find the maximum power point regardless of lighting conditions. For solar cell selection and comparison information, see the solar cell section of the BEAM Reference Library's BEAM Pieces collection. Also see the Starting Block article on solar cells.
The development of the solar cell stems from the work of the French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel in 1839. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution; he observed that voltage developed when light fell upon the electrode. About 50 years later, Charles Fritts constructed the first true solar cells using junctions formed by coating the semiconductor selenium with an ultrathin, nearly transparent layer of gold. Fritts's devices were very inefficient, transforming less than 1 percent of the absorbed light into electrical energy.
Modern solar cells are based on semiconductor physics -- they are basically just P-N junction photodiodes with a very large light-sensitive area. The photovoltaic effect, which causes the cell to convert light directly into electrical energy, occurs in the three energy-conversion layers.
Diagram courtesy U.S. Department of Energy
Solar cells are characterized by a maximum Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) at zero output current and a Short Circuit Current (Isc) at zero output voltage. Since power can be computed via this equation:
EPA's engine research focuses on developing engines that are simultaneously clean, efficient, and cost effective, and which have high potential to produce real-world benefits. Clean Diesel Combustion technology is one example of these innovative engine concepts. EPA's testing suggests the potential for a diesel engine design, using innovative air, fuel, and combustion management and conventional particulate matter aftertreatment, to achieve lower NOx levels without the need for NOx aftertreatment. EPA is developing this technology as a potential alternative with other diesel emissions control approaches (e.g., NOx adsorbers, urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR), etc.). Clean Diesel Combustion technology shows the potential to meet NOx levels "engine-out" over the entire engine operating range, to a level required for future diesel emissions standards. EPA has partnered with several automotive and engine manufacturers to evaluate the production feasibility of this technology. Using clean diesel combustion technology in conjunction with the full hydraulic drive is projected to improve fuel economy more than using either technology alone.Engine Research
