If you are interested in finding E.T., a cure for cancer or AIDS or help predicting the climate change you should continue reading this post.
I am sure some of you might have noticed this little graphic with some cryptic stats at the bottom of my blog. It's my stats for BOINC.
BOINC is an open-source software platform for computing using volunteered resources on PC's/Mac's/Linux/Solaris/... systems.
The basic idea behind this project, thats been going on for a few years already, is that there is a lot of unused computing resource thruout the world. These computers could be used to do something useful while on idle or while not being used.
All started with a project called SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). A giant radio telescope produced so much data that it was not posible for the scientists to go thru all of it. So they came up with the idea of involving the public by having them download parts of the data and having their computer do the work for them and then submitting the results back to the scientists. This is the basic concept that stands behind BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). BOINC has almost 565,000 active computers (hosts) worldwide processing on average 1.287 PFLOPS as of December 2008, which tops the processing power of the current fastest supercomputer system (IBM Roadrunner, with a sustained processing rate of 1.026 PFLOPS).
With this enormous computer power it is possible to calculate very complex things like climate change or physic theories.
By now there are plenty of projects in which BOINC users can participate. From searching for ET to a cure for cancer and AIDS or the prediction of climate change or ... or...
All you need to support them is a computer with internet connection and their software running in the background.
It's safe, secure, and easy:
Choose projects
Download and run BOINC software
Enter an email address and password.
Or, if you run several projects, try an account manager such as GridRepublic or BAM!.
Currently there are 88 people registered for Kuwait. Unfortunately they are not all active.
Here are some of the results of various projects run by BOINC.
Hope you'll participate and give your free computer time to science! :)
Not only that I passed 30 for sure now, but there are other signs that make me go hmmm...
1. Losing hair...
Seems to be an unstoppable process that's been going on for quite a while now. I keep my hair very short so you don't see it that much. But I hate pictures of me from behind or from above... looks like I am bald, specially when taken with flash light! So please don't do that to me! :)
2. Grey/White hair...
I don't really mind that... It's not taking over and it makes me look mature and wise. (I hope!)
3. Driving slower!!
That's probably the scariest part yet! I used to race everywhere and kinda took it personal if somebody overtook me... now I drive (almost) normal... 130 on the highway / 60 (if possible) anywhere else...
4. Music
I remember tracks coming out in the years some of my friends were BORN! And also I tend to say:"The original is much better and it was performed by... in ...".
5. Movies
See 4...
6. Knowledge / "Wisdom"
Some of my friends refer to me as ****pedia (first part removed to protect the authors anonymity). But this is actually something I really enjoy! Too bad I can't put it to use in the last board game I was gifted (UK Edition of Trivial Pursuit... too much crap asked for that is too UK specific).
And then there are these moments when you watch news or something and go: "Hold on!!! Didn't this happen before?? Ohh yes!! That was in 19xx in ...!".
7. Stories
The older you get the more stories you can tell... and I fear that my friends have to listen to too many stories of my life! :P
Also a lot of the stories I hear from others I've heard already...
8. School friends
Isn't it amazing what some of your school or even Kindergarden friends are doing now?? Some of them are in senior positions, others made it big and probably retired already and A LOT will have children that are almost legal of age (or at least think they are already). I recently got in touch with a lot of them on something like a German 'Facebook" site... It's amazing what some my friends from back then are doing now or have done in the years between!
9. ...
There are plenty of other things that make my recognice how 'old' I am... some small... some big ...
However... you are always as old as you feel! So I am somewhere in my 20ies... :)
Are you getting old as well?
I've been tagged by NEOARK
Honest Tag
The rules are simple: write 10 things honestly about your self and tag 7 blogger to do the same.
The rules might be simple but the tag ain't. Anyways... here we go:
1- On a flight from New York to Boston in a tiny ass prop jet I fell asleep drooling right next to one of the hottest women I ever met. Since then I was never lucky again with my seat neighbor on a flight!
2- In front of my boss I pretend to work much more then I really do. Not only to look good and to hope for a raise, but also to have more time to goof off at work!
3- I was afraid of losing my life several times. Once or twice while driving and two times when I was in the military stationed in Croatia and had to go on a convoy thru Bosnia in 1996. But I never feared flights! Even tho I had a near crash experience on a military flight in a C-130. I always start smiling when everyone else in the plane starts to panic.
4- I started smoking Cigarettes in complete secrecy. Not even my closest friends knew for over one year. Now everyone knows I am smoking (too much).
5- I was as tall as I am now when I was 15. 192cm ...
6- I had no clue about Kuwait when I signed the contract to come here other then the amount of money I was going to make and that it was right next to Iraq. It was a pleasant surprise when I walked into the arrival hall at the airport and saw all the fast food and Starbucks. It got even better when I was driven to my apartment with 170km/h listening to RKFM and my Boss telling me that speeding as a foreigner working for the US military is not a really an issue in Kuwait...
7- I don't drink alcohol! Never did (except once in school i took a sip out of a champagne bottle to celebrate the birthday of a girl I had a crush on)! Was never tempted... I have other things that make me happy and smile. But I will drink together with my dad when he will retire. A small beer!
8- When I am out of Kuwait I start missing it after a few days. When I am in Kuwait I complain about it almost every day!
9- The fastest I was ever driving was 318 km/h in an Aston Martin Vanquish S owned by a Kuwaiti who had no clue that I am driving it! Funny enough it was in Kuwait and not in Germany where speeds like this would be legal on some highways. To be exact, it was on Highway 51.
10- I sometimes wish I could turn back time to do things different. Still, I don't really regret the things I did in my life.
I should tag 7 people... fell free to be tagged!
Who I would really like to see doing this is Flaming Carrot! Feel free to do it in comments (traffic fines)...
HA!!!
We had a few drops coming down in the last few days ... the first rain drop actually hit me last Friday at the British Embassy at around 22.30 during the "Kuwait Stock" ...
But now... PROPER RAIN with thunder and lightning !!!
I went outside to take my car out of the shaded area to have it naturally cleaned ... :P
Looks like the rain is moving from here towards Salmiya... :)
In Germany I get this all the time:
"You live in Kuwait?! WOW! I have something for you!!! There is this project... it's an investment of x Million Euro ... do you know someone!?".
Well ... yes ... I do know some people... but what do they think??? That every Kuwaiti has a few million in his night desk ready to be spent??
I got offered: Concrete, Computers, Fonds, Cars, Landscaping services, ...
During my last visit I had an intersting offer... a Hotel in Switzerland for ONLY 13 million swiss francs. It's in the middle of nowhere and almost ready for business... It's got it's own mineral water spring... drinking water spring... pools (indoor and outdoor)... 30 something rooms... chalets... restaurant... meeting center...
So if you are interested... let me know! :)
Everything you see here is yours if you decide to buy it ... :)
'We' are on Mars again searching for new signs of life.
Also they believe they can find out more about Mars climate history thru drilling into the ice.
Please read the blog entry from Caleb Bardeforte first before continuing to read this one.
China - expected toll so far: 50.000 dead (more to come)/ 5 Million without a home / Hundred thousands with no food, water, medical supplies.
Myanmar - expected toll so far: over 100.000 dead (more to come)/ Hundred thousands without home, food, water, medical supplies / first deadly diseases spreading.
Is that all that is happening?!? By far not! There are little, medium and big things going on all around the world causing death, terror, destruction, injustice, fear, pain, etc. etc. on a daily basis! Do we notice... not really... we are waiting for the weather report at the end of the news and the sports results and local news just before the weather!
Yes... we humans are strange at times. We know so much and do so little about it!!
We are aware of all the injustice on this planet, yet we seem not to care. We know that probably one of our neighbors is suffering from a deadly disease or doesn't have enough food or maybe he's beating and raping his maid... yet... we don't do shit!
Is this all wrong?!? Yes and No!
A natural disaster like in China or Myanmar is terrible, we all agree upon this! But is it something that we can change or even stop from happening?!? No way! We can build stronger houses and we can send Aid workers and doctors (if the ruling government lets us), but we will never be able to stop nature from killing our own kind. It has been like that since the first form of life formed on this planet. Mother nature is cruel and doesn't care too much if one, ten, thousand or a billion of us die. Even if we all disappear from this planet ... she doesn't care!
The thing is, we assist Mother Nature in getting rid of us! We build in places we should not, we life in areas that get flooded frequently, we poison the atmosphere, we reroute rivers, we exterminate other living creatures, we kill the rainforest's, etc. etc. If you believe in evolution (and I do) there are plenty of examples in the very early stage of this planet where little one cell creatures kinda did exactly this! They killed themselves! Thru either exploiting their food source till there was nothing left or thru poisoning their own habitat to a point where even they could not survive anymore... or by just being eaten or killed by something bigger, 'better', 'meaner', smarter... Did Mother nature care?!? Nope ... she moved on ... and finally she came up with this new experiment called Human. So yes... terrible thing that happened there!!! Really!!! But... such is life...
Now what about all the other bad things... what happened to our neighbor, his maid, the child in Africa, the Dodo?
Should I really care if a sack of rice turns bad in China and a family starves to death because of this? Should I really care about my neighbors maid? Should I? Isn't that Mother Nature again?!?
What should I worry about? Why should I worry about it? Where to start? What to do?
Mother Nature gave the human experiment something that other experiments most likely do not have (to the extend that the human race has)! Sense, feelings (other then pain), consciousness!!
All the things that we do to us... injustice, wars, sectarian violence and terror, crimes, exploitation of nature, etc. etc ... THAT is something we should really worry about since it is caused by US!
You need to worry about this since YOU could make a big or small difference! Yes... YOU! Start with yourself!!! See if there is anything happening in YOUR home that is not the way it is supposed to be! Then start to make that circle bigger and bigger! See if you can help friends! Your neighbor! His maid! Your district! Your local government! Your country! Your continent! The world!
You will not be able to bring peace and harmony and all this to the world if it is not happening around you!
I wish I could make MY circle bigger already!!!
