Everyman’s supercomputer

The third fastest computer in the world has been built by Virginia Tech. According to Engineering School Dean Hassan Aref, “An underdog in the competition, Virginia Tech, landed the number three position by building a machine in less than three months–utilizing 1,100 dual-processor Macintosh G5 PCs–that cost one-fifth to one-tenth the average price.”

The Virginia Tech machine clocked 10.28 teraflops; that is, 10.28 “trillion floating point operations per second.”

Go Hokies.

Top 100 albums

The Recording Industry Association of America has a chart listing the top 100 best-selling albums, starting with The Eagles “Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975″ at 28 million.

The social life of the mind

Readerville is a gathering place for anyone and everyone who has an interest in books — readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, teachers, students, booksellers, librarians, etc, etc.

Every intelligent, articulate, book-minded person I know wishes he or she knew more avid readers. The readers I know thrive on the exchange of book recommendations, love to brag about their recent acquisitions and wish publishers paid more attention to what readers actually want. The writers I know like nothing better than having discerning readers to talk to about their work and other writers to talk to about the traumas and joys of the craft. In other words, the people I know who love books love to talk about books and about the ideas contained within them.

Which is why I launched Readerville. Readerville is founded on the idea that literature — and discussion thereof — is one of life’s finest pursuits. The Readerville Forum provides a broad and flexible space for readers, writers, librarians, publishers, critics and anyone else who loves books to have thoughtful and engaging discussions about everything from favorite books and authors to why they buy what they buy to current writing conundrums to the latest literary news. Our reading groups — Fresh Ink, Young Adult, Biography and more — organize lively discussions on varying schedules…And Forum members are able to start new discussions about any book-related subject that interests them. It’s a welcoming, challenging, entertaining and endlessly fascinating environment that has proven deeply addictive to avid readers from around the globe.

But Readerville is more than just the Forum. Readerville Events bring visiting authors and industry insiders to Readerville for week-long discussions of their work. Our Author Gallery affords you the opportunity to discover writers you might not have heard of, and to learn more about those you already know and love. In our Features section, you’ll find Mignon Khargie, DG Strong and me singing the praises of the Most Coveted Covers, as well as thoughtful reviews of recent books from astute members of the Readerville community. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Registration (free) is required.

Thanks to Veronica for the link.

Tour of Duty

Easterblogg has some interesting takes on the Democratic race concluding with this.

Brace yourself for a week of think-pieces on why Kerry is doing so well. One reason being missed by the big-deal media is the Douglas Brinkley book Tour of Duty about Kerry’s years in Vietnam. The big-deal media decided to ignore this book–an exception, ahem, being Easterblogg, which said in November that Tour of Duty was “about to make big news.” Tour of Duty is selling well and being much-talked-about on radio, which I think is influencing the campaign. The book depicts Kerry as honorable, as serving his country, as horrified to find himself in a bad war–and as having said so at the time. Middle Americans respect honorable military service, and Kerry’s views on Vietnam, written down in the late 1960s while he was in his twenties, reflect the middle-American consensus on why Vietnam went wrong. As the story this book tells increasingly gets out, voter admiration for Kerry can only rise.

And why did the big-deal media ignore the book? Cynicism alert! Most in the big-deal media don’t respect honorable military service. They flipped the pages looking for inflammatory passages that could be pumped up, and instead found the story of man’s struggle to reconcile his conscience with his duty to country. The big-deal media aren’t interested in that. Voters are.

Yesterday Easterblogg noted that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero.” Make that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero with a popular book extolling his military service.”

Presidential Match

On the web site AOL Presidential Match you answer a series of questions about your policy preferences. Then the site gives you a percentage for how you match each candidate (the Democrats and George W. Bush, if you leave the “party preference” box unchecked).

Thanks to Jill for the link.

Imperial Palace: Tokyo

The current Imperial Palace (Kokyo) is located on the former site of Edo Castle, a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls in the center of Tokyo, a short walk from Tokyo station. It is the residence of Japan’s Imperial Family.

NewMexiKen photos, 1992