The Four-eyed Journal » China

Watchword: Braggadocio

jhay — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:54:41 +0000

A break from a blogging hiatus and blogging about tech related topics, one word has caught my fancy while catching up on the latest local news which centers on two hot issues: the stand-off between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough shoal and the recent brawl between Raymart Santiago and mediaman Ramon Tulfo.

One word that connects the stories – braggadocio.

Merriam-Webster defines it as braggart, empty boasting, arrogant pretension or cockiness.

After the airport brawl between Raymart Santiago and Ramon Tulfo, you all know the story so I’ll skip those details, the other Tulfos: Erwin, Raffy and Ben in an episode of “T3 Kapatid Sagot Kita” on Monday night virtually vowed to exact revenge on Santiago for what happened to their elder brother. Which was no surprise at all knowing that the Tulfo brothers are known for, what else, being braggadocio.

It seems that PNoy is no different from the Tulfos in his handling of the Scarborough shoal stand-off between China.

Journalist and former Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Presidential Spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao explained how PNoy blew away the chance of peacefully resolving the Scarborough stand-off by sending the Philippine Navy’s flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar to scare off unarmed Chinese fishing vessels in the Panatag shoal.

Tiglao points out that the move gave the Chinese the opportunity the moral high ground that it was the Philippines who sparked the now volatile situation in the West Philippine sea. It was PNoy who escalated the situation and with his officials from the Cabinet and the Armed Forces blabbering regularly how the United States would come to aid us in case of an outbreak of armed conflict is nothing else but, you guessed it: braggadocio.

With the Tulfos facing a possible sanction by the MTRCB over their tirades on TV and the United States having said no word that it will side with the Philippines on the Scarborough shoal stand-off, it was only our own Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin who interpreted it that way, we will soon see how long this braggadocio will last. More importantly, where it would lead us all.

World’s Fastest Supercomputer Now in China - Tianhe-1A beats US XT5 Jaguar

jhay — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:33:58 +0000

What is the world’s fastest supercomputer? It can no longer be found in American soil as that title has been bagged by the Chinese with their newest supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A aka “Milky Way.”

The behemoth of computing power has more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips. It can perform more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second or 2.5 Petaflops per second.

In contrast to the former world number one supercomputer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s XT5 Jaguar which can only perform at 1.75 per second, Tianhe-1A is 47% faster according to Prof Jack Dongarra from the University of Tennessee.

He told the BBC News:

This is all true. I was in China last week and talked with the designers, saw the system, and verified the results.

I would say it’s 47% faster than the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s machine, 1.7 Pflops (ORNL system) to 2.5 Pflops (Chinese system).

Tianhe-1A is kind of unique for it draws on the power of graphics cards made by nVidia and processors by Intel, the two now becoming rivals in the chip-making industry.

The nVidia chips are used for simple calculations while the task of crunching complicated mathematical operations are given to the Intel chips.

The supercomputer is now being used to serve the Chinese weather service and the National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Looking at the Top500 list of supercomputers, the top 10 as of June 2010 are 7 US-made supercomputers, 2 from China and 1 from Germany.

I wonder when will a supercomputer made by Filipinos will be included in the list?

28 products that tested negative for melamine

jhay — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:32:32 +0000

From the Inquirer 28 products that tested negative for melamine are:

1. Anchor Lite Milk
2. Anlene High Clacium Low Fat Milk U.H.T. (recombined)
3. Bear Brand Instant
4. Chichok Milk Chocolate
5. Farmland Skim Milk
6. Jinwei Drink
7. Jolly Cow Pure Fresh Milk
8. Kiddie Soya Milk Egg Delight
9. Lactogen 1 DHA Infant Formula
10. M&M’s Milk Chocolate Candies
11. M&M’s Peanut Chocolate Candies
12. Milk Boy
13. Nestogen 2 DHA Follow-up Formula
14. Nestogen 3 DHA Follow-up Formula
15. Nido 3+ Prebio with DHA
16. Nido Full Cream Milk Powder
17. Nido Junior
18. No-Sugar Chocolate of Isomaltooligosaccharide (Cocoa Butter Substitute)
19. Nutri Express Milk Drink
20. PURA UHT Fresh Milk
21. Snickers Fresh Roasted in Caramel & soft Nougat in Thick Milk Chocolate
22. Vitasoy Soya Hean Milk
23. Wahaha Orange
24. Wahaha Yellow
25. Want-Want Milk Drink (Red Can)
26. Windmill Skim Milk Powder
27. Yinlu Milk Peanut
28. Yogee Yoghurt Flavor Milk Drink