Ecological Homeostasis

Are We Short of Water and Food ??

http://www.lovinghut.com/
Since the vegetarian diet is the most effective solution to global warming, under Supreme Master Ching Hai's guidance, members of The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association recently opened a chain of Loving Hut vegetarian restaurants around the world, in the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Au Lac and Formosa. These places provide affordable and high-quality vegetarian delicacies to the public, bringing a positive impact on the food and beverage industry...
Meat or vegetables? Independent online (SA)
A recent study has revealed that giving up meat could drastically reduce one's carbon footprint. A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year (as many) greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car for 4,758 km, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said last week. But the food a vegetarian consumes in (the same period of time) is responsible for generating (gases only) as driving for 2,427km, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch...
Vegetarian Shoes And Bags
The term pleather ("plastic leather") is a slang term for synthetic leather made out of plastic, a portmanteau of plastic and leather, the term can be either descriptive, or derogatory, depending upon the user (the derogatory use implies use as a substitute for genuine animal hide leather to cut costs)...

From All Corners of the Galaxy

Which Stars Are You From?
  • Galactic Highway - The Wormhole
  • Wormholes are a valid consequence of Einstein's general relativity view on the universe. A wormhole, in theory, acts as a shortcut or tunnel through space and time. There are several versions on the same theme (i.e. wormholes may link different universes; they may link the two separate locations in the same universe; they may even link black and white holes together), but the physics is similar, wormholes create a link two locations in space-time, bypassing normal three dimensional travel through space. Also, it is theorized, that matter can travel through some wormholes fuelling sci-fi stories like in the film Stargate or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

    If wormholes do exist however, it is highly unlikely that you'll find a handy key to open the mouth of a wormhole in your back yard, they are likely to be very elusive and you'll probably need some specialist equipment to travel through them (although this will be virtually impossible).

    Alexander Shatskiy, from the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, has an idea how these wormholes may be observed. For a start, they can be distinguished from black holes, as wormhole mouths do not have an event horizon.

    Secondly, if matter could possibly travel through wormholes, light certainly can, but the light emitted will have a characteristic angular intensity distribution. If we were viewing a wormhole's mouth, we would be witness to a circle, resembling a bubble, with intense light radiating from the inside "rim". Looking toward the center, we would notice the light sharply dim. At the center we would notice no light, but we would see right through the mouth of the wormhole and see stars (from our side of the universe) shining straight through.

    Source:http://www.universetoday.com/

  • Stream of Time
  • Plato argued that time is constant - it's life that's the illusion. Galileo shrugged over the philosophy of time and figured out how to plot it on a graph so he could get on with the important physics.

    Albert Einstein said that time is just another dimension, a fourth one to go along with the up-down, side-side, forward-back we move through every day. Our understanding of time, Einstein said, is based on its relationship to our environment.

    Weirdly, the faster you travel, the slower time moves. (Is it truely weird? Not quite!!) The most radical interpretation of his theory: Past, present, and future are merely figments of our imagination, constructs built by our brains so that everything doesn't seem to happen at once.

    Source: http://www.socialtext.net/

2007-08-30

NPU is the future

眾人皆知 Intel 向來以 CPU (Central Processing Unit,中央處理器) 著稱,多年來無不是以以下幾種方式來提升運算效率:1. 提升工作時脈; 2. 加大快取記憶體; 及 3 . 使指令儘可能同時平行執行。

當然,藉由半導體製程技術的精進所獲得的助益也是不可或缺。尤其時脈的提升、快取記憶體的增加,都是以更先進的製程技術為基礎才能實現。

這些在執行傳統的「本機型應用程式」時相當管用。所謂「本機型應用程式」是如 Word、Excel、Photoshop 等程式,在 PC 機內運算執行,僅部分情況下才會連上網路,最成功的執行環境要算是 Windows 作業系統。

不過,現在愈來愈多的軟體程式,例如瀏覽器、電子信件收發器、線上遊戲、P2P 軟體等,都一定要有網路才能執行。

更有甚者,程式是完全在網路另一頭的伺服器上執行,例如部落格、電子相本、維基百科、網路信箱、WebHDD (網路硬碟) 等,而且通常一部伺服器可以同時處理數百人的存取服務。例如同一時間可能會有 900 人同時在收信、100 人同時在發信、和 200 人同時在刪信的情況發生。 這就是所謂的網路型應用程式;執行這種應用程式的伺服器即是網路型運算機;此種運算的最成功執行環境是 Internet。

本機型運算只需完成一個使用者的工作,而網路型運算是同時執行多個人的工作。本機型運算的 threads (執行緒) 少,但每個執行緒需要較多的的運算,且各執行緒間有較高的關連性。相對的網路型運算的執行緒多,但每個執行緒多不需要運算,且各執行緒間的關連性甚低。

然而很明顯的,網路運算將愈來愈多,本機運算將逐漸減少,以前還會在自己 PC 上收發信件,現在愈來愈多人直接在 Web 上收發信件,還可以減少中毒的機會。

雖然網路型運算是趨勢,但現有用來執行 Internet 服務的伺服器多是使用 x86 架構的 CPU,較適合執行本機型應用程式。 x86 CPU 的特質是執行核心少、可執掌的執行緒少、運算結構適合執行負荷較重的執行緒,且很倚賴快取記憶體來加速,因為本機端程式的重複執行性高、重複抓取資料的機率也高,所以快取記憶體確實可以發揮加速之效。

但是,多年來 x86 CPU 的技術發展過度朝本機端運算的特質來專精,這對 PC 而言還可以,但對Server 而言就不行,不過很不幸的,今日絕大多數的 Web 伺服器都是使用 x86 CPU。幸好,有一群新興的晶片業者已看準網路運算日益重要,所以正在積極地發展網路型處理器。

Note: NPU (Network Processing Unit): 網路處理器

Source: CNet

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