Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher

If you are looking for all the most powerful supercomputers in the world, here is the list put together by the BBC News website:

1. Cray XT Jaguar 1.8 PetaFLOPS with 224,000 cores
2. Dawning Cluster 1.3 PetaFLOPS with 56,000 cores
3. IBM Cluster 1 PetaFLOPS with122,000 cores

To give you a comparison, the Intel’s Core i7 980 XE has  a speed of 0.0001 PetaFLOPS

The whole list of the fastest, baddest supercomputers in the world is available here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm

And here is a picture of the winner, the Cray XT Jaguar:

A very impressive arc hits the ground in super slow motion:

Makes you wonder about the physics behind these doesn’t it? Check this website out: http://regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys03/alightnin/

great extra-credit submission by robin.

think of the scenario, acting, movie editing and music skills involved in making this. this is a great one-man show.

Drinking soda will make you fat. It is a fact which is well depicted in this video:

This video was submitted for extra credit by Chaendo, it is an example of a rube goldberg machine, a machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

Other examples can be found here:

- Honda commercial “The Cog” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

- OK Go music video for “This Too Shall Pass” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

A great video created by the website http://good.is and submitted by Malishka for extra-credit. It will explain to you how much potable water is available in the world (a teaspoon full) and demonstrate how much water is used in the western countries compared to the rest of the world. Don’t get fooled by the old style, this was made for world water day in 2008 so all the numbers are recent and accurate. Great find!

This is Jane McGonigal explaining how the skills learnt while playing video games can help you fix bigger problems in real life:

The three games which according to her will change the world are:

Evoke – http://www.urgentevoke.com/

World without oil – http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/start.aspx

SuperStruct – http://www.superstructgame.org/

Mnemonics is the art of assisting your memory by using artificial aid such as rhymes, songs, or acronyms. In this example, you will learn how to count in French until the number six:

“Un.. deux.. trois.. – cat sank!” (oh cease, please!)
(un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six…)

You can find a lot of other examples of mnemonics technique for math, physics, astronomy, etc. at http://www.eudesign.com/mnems/_mnframe.htm.

I certainly wish they paid more heed to this advice in dushi Curacao!

you don’t want to lose everything at the flick of a switch…

All my students have had a chance to look at this incredible animation of the universe as we know. This is a full blown 3D map of the Universe to scale and with exact coordinates. You will be able to follow your ascent from the Himalayas, through the solar system, pass the Milky Way and beyond the afterglow of the original light from the Big Bang.

From this video, we also talked about:

How to spot the Milky Way – From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way: From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7774287.stm

The Voyager I and II explorations – More information from the NASA website: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/fastfacts.html

Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence as a screen-saver – SETI@Home from University of Berkeley: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Amrit also found a related series of videos which you could be interested in:

The Naked Science series from National Geographic: YouTube channel

This video was taken in one shot from a camera phone and made without using any special effect. Can you figure out how they did it?

If you were wondering where your Christmas decorations went, see them running away with the sheep:

This was submitted for extra-credit. Great find!

You can celebrate Thanksgiving with National Geographic:

• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Thanksgiving-traditions

Or with Kaboose:

• http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-games.html

For the boys to dream this weekend:

If  only I could have seen this video before embarking onto my chemistry classes, I would have fared much better! This anthropomorphic video is an hilarious study guide:

Anthropomorphic:  Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Here, the elements are represented by humans at a party. This representation is anthropomorphic. Etymology — From the Greek anthropos “human being” and morphe “form”.

Ever had any hesitation about apostrophes? Here is the conclusion of a great lesson by The Oatmeal:

Visit the whole website for a beautifully illustrated revision of the life of the apostrophe

If you are interested in the world of small, and I mean very small things, check out this mesmerizing animation from the University of Utah about the size and scale of cells:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

This smash hit from The Sounds of Science will remind you of all the procedures for lab safety!

Please click on the image and complete the survey: