US plays cards poorly with China: Nobel laureate

By Li Xing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-14 07:41

This October 9, 2006 file photo shows Edmund Phelps at Columbia University. [columbia.edu]

 TANGIER, Morocco -- "The United States did not play its cards very well with China," American economist and Nobel Prize laureate Edmund Phelps said on Saturday in New York, during a live video conference with participants of the 2010 MEDays in Morocco's northern coastal city of Tangier. 

Phelps made the remark while responding to a question whether the US was somewhat isolated during the G20 summit in Seoul.

China has been showing serious efforts in reducing its dependence on exports, said the economist. "China is moving in the right direction."

China needs time to adjust its economy and cut down its reliance on exports, Phelps said. But both the US and Europe try to beat up China, placing China in a tight space, he said.

The real problem is the conflicts between Europe and the US as they fight to export more. And Obama came up with "unpopular solutions", Phelps said.

Phelps is the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics.

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Global Biz G20 refuses to back US push on China's currency: positive results

 G20 refuses to back US push on China's currency

(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-12 18:54

SEOUL, South Korea - Leaders of 20 major economies on Friday refused to endorse a US push to get China to let its currency rise, keeping alive a dispute that has raised the specter of a global trade war.

At the end of their two-day summit, the leaders of the Group of 20 rich and developing economies -- including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao -- issued a statement that only said they agreed to refrain from "competitive devaluation" of currencies.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets US President Barack Obama as part of the G20 Summit in Seoul, Nov 11, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Such a statement is of little consequence since countries usually only devalue their currencies in extreme situations like a severe financial crisis. Using a slightly different wording favored by the US -- "competitive undervaluation" -- would have shown the G20 taking a stronger stance on China's currency policy.

Special coverage: G20 Summit in Seoul Related readings: President Hu leaves for Japan after G20 summit G20 Summit promotes innovative finance models for SMEs  US panelists pessimistic about G20 fruit G20 leaders convene in Seoul as summit kicks off

The crux of the dispute is Washington's allegations that Beijing is artificially keeping its currency, the yuan, weak to gain a trade advantage. But the US position has been undermined by its own recent policy of printing money to boost a sluggish economy, which is weakening the dollar. 

Many countries are irate over the Federal Reserve's plans to pump $600 billion into the sluggish American economy. They see that move as a reckless and selfish scheme to flood markets with dollars, driving down the value of the US currency and giving American exporters an advantage.

Some critics warn that US interest rates kept too low for too long could inflate new bubbles in the prices of commodities, stocks and other assets. Developing countries like Thailand and Indonesia fear that falling yields on US government bonds will send money flooding their way in search of higher returns. Such emerging markets could be left vulnerable to a crash if investors later decide to pull out and move their money elsewhere.

Still, the leaders vowed to fight protectionism.

"Recognizing the importance of free trade and investment for global recovery, we are committed to keeping markets open and liberalizing trade and investment," the joint statement said.

The G20 leaders also said they will pursue policies to reduce the gaps between nations running large trade surpluses and those running deficits.

The G20 Seoul Summit has confirmed the 6-percent shift of quota shares to emerging economies in the International Monetary Fund, according to the joint communique.

"Today, we welcomed the ambitious achievements by the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors at the Gyeongju Meeting and subsequent decision by the IMF, on a comprehensive package of IMF quota and governance reforms," said the communique.

The reform are an important step toward a more legitimate, credible and effective IMF, by ensuring that quotas and Executive Board composition are more reflective of new global economic realities, it said.

The IMF reform, it said, would continue the dynamic process aimed at enhancing the voice and representing of emerging market and developing countries, including the poorest, through a review of the quota formula by January 2013.

And the next general review of quotas would be completed by January 2014, it said.

China sees positive results at G20 Seoul summit

SEOUL - The Group of 20 (G20) summit that ended Friday has achieved positive results with concerted efforts from all participating nations, Chinese delegation spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

Special Coverage: G20 Summit in Seoul Related readings: G20 refuses to back US push on China's currency  G20 summit agrees on trade, currencies  Hu presents 4-point proposal at G20 summit  G20 leaders convene in Seoul as summit kicks off

Ma said that the world economy is gradually recovering, but uncertainties still remain, and that the Seoul summit witnessed the framework of G20 shifting its focus from emergency response to long-term economic governance. 

Firstly, all member countries vowed to strengthen the role of the G20, and properly deal with the new risks and new challenges in the international financial sector so as to jointly boost the positive, sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy, Ma said.

Secondly, G20 leaders agreed to further promote reform of international financial institutions, and confirmed the 6-percent shift of quota shares to emerging economies in the International Monetary Fund, he said.

Thirdly, G20 leaders for the first time listed the issue of development as a major topic, and the summit endorsed the Multi-year Action Plan on Development over the medium term, Ma said.

And fourthly, based on the achievements made in previous summits, G20 leaders pledged continuous efforts to intensify financial regulation and combat trade-protectionism, and put forward a series of new measures and steps which will be conducive to the long-term healthy and steady development of the world economy, he said.

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Jaguar's supercomputing reign coming to an end?

A timeline of supercomputing speed.

(Credit: AMD)

 

The Jaguar supercomputer, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the University of Tennessee, has been the fastest supercomputer on the planet for almost a year. But is it about to lose that title and place atop the podium?

Every six months, the Top500 project releases the rankings of the most powerful supercomputers. The current pace of technology development means the list does tend to reorder every half a year or so. But Jaguar has been poised at the top of the food chain for almost a year. Though the Top500 list doesn't get released until next week, it's been widely assumed that Jaguar will be taken down by a supercomputer built by China's National University of Defense Technology, located at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin.

Jaguar narrowly avoided being overtaken in June, the last time the rankings were released. The Nebulae supercomputer, located at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, came in second, achieving 1.271 petaflops/s (1.271 quadrillion floating point operations per second) running something called the Linpack benchmark.

But it appears that Jaguar's lead has been overcome this time. There have been reports about it over the last few weeks, and President Barack Obama even mentioned it during a speech last week:

"And we just learned that China now has the fastest supercomputer on Earth--that used to be us. They're making investments because they know those investments will pay off over the long term," he said.

The supercomputers are ranked on many factors, but the the Top500 list is ordered based on the results of the Linpack benchmark. Even if it places the Tianjin supercomputer above Jaguar, it doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. is getting bumped from its perch atop supercomputing, argue two scientists who work at Oak Ridge.

"What you find historically with these supercomputers is they become the normal machines 5 or 10 years later that everybody uses."

--Jeremy Smith, Center for Molecular Biophysics

"China might have the largest number of cores in one computer, so theoretically they have the most powerful computer. But they maybe don't have the most powerful scientific codes yet that use that computer," said Jeremy Smith, director of the Center for Molecular Biophysics at the University of Tennessee, in an interview. "So from that perspective, they may not be at the same level as Oak Ridge."

Jaguar is comprised of more than 250,000 AMD Opteron cores, running extremely sophisticated computer programs that try to answer complex questions like why ribosomes (components of cells that create amino acids) are dependent on magnesium, how to simulate making more environmentally-friendly ethanol out of plant material, and how to predict climate change. Jaguar's specialty is getting all those cores running together extremely efficiently, which is a separate and perhaps harder task than just building a really powerful computer.

Smith says that the projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory run extremely efficiently on Jaguar, and the scientific value of the computing is therefore very high.

While China's supercomputer is based on GPUs (graphics processing unit) (in this case, built by Nvidia), and it's faster technically because the CPU (central processing unit) uses the GPU to accelerate its speed. But if you don't get the software to run on it properly, it's actually harder to use, Roland Schultz, graduate student at the University of Tennessee's Center for Molecular Biophysics, said.

What Schultz says he is much more interested in is the Gordon Bell Prize, which is awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery to the most innovative scientific application of supercomputing. Teams from Oak Ridge have won most recently in 2008 and 2009 for research into high-temperature superconductivity, or sending electricity over long distances in high temperatures with no loss of transmission.

But do we make too much of who's faster? Smith put it in perspective.

"What you find historically with these supercomputers is they become the normal machines 5 or 10 years later that everybody uses," said Smith. "The Jaguar machines that we're so amazed at right now, it could be every university or company has one" eventually.

We'll know exactly how things have shaken out next week when the Top500 List is released. But even if Jaguar does get hunted down by a Chinese supercomputer, it's not as if the folks at Oak Ridge are sitting still. The Department of Energy, which owns Oak Ridge's supercomputer, is already looking at moving from the current peta-scale computing (a quadrillion floating point operations per second) to exa-scale computing (a quintillion floating point operations per second), a speed one thousand times faster than Jaguar is currently capable of processing at.

"To get there in the next 5 to 10 years, to get to 10 million cores in one room, is a major technical challenge," noted Smith. "It's going to be fundamentally different than before. It's a hardware problem, and getting the software working is a major challenge indeed."

Erica Ogg

Full Profile E-mail Erica Ogg

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) (4 Comments)

by Otto Holland November 11, 2010 5:50 PM PST

The article mentioned 250,000 cores of AMD Opteron. I am curious to know if those processors are the 4 cores or the new Barcelona 12 cores on 32 NANO. If they are the older 4 or 6 cores, they can be swaped out for the new 12 cores, because they use the same ZIFF socket. Just wondering....

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by rip_saw November 11, 2010 6:19 PM PST

Durr, who has the most cores and flops is meaningless now. Last I checked, Folding@home trumps the crap out of anything in China, and google's servers totally destroy any supercomputer, although they are not being used for that purpose. I understand the use of a single computer, but for many projects, it's just not needed.

Like this Reply to this comment

by dralw65 November 11, 2010 6:42 PM PST

This a good article that is very informative, however, the statement about ribsomes appears incorrect: ribosomes synthesize proteins from amino acids. Amino acids are not made by ribosomes.

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by realityenigma November 11, 2010 7:46 PM PST

When I first read this (on slashdot.org) I was concerned myself. However, I was directed to an interesting link about a supercomputer (US built) that will be ready in 2012: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/ibms-sequoia-supercomputer-to-shatter-speed-records/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sequoia I am sure you guys can find more articles if you are interested;nevertheless, I think we can rest easy if we are worried about speed records.

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'Superb' Apple 1 on the block for £100k-£150K

1976 Jobs garage tech can be yours

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

12th November 2010 01:16 GMT

Forgotten Tech An original Apple 1 made by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Jobs parent's garage goes on the auction block in London this month.

The Apple 1 was designed by Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. Just 200 were made, according to the website Old Computers, and up to 50 are thought to survive.

At the time they cost £666.66, but Lot 65 is expected to fetch £100,000- £150,000, according to Christies, which says it is in superb condition.

Lot 65 has its original packaging, with the garage's return address on the typed label. Also included are the original manuals, a letter from Steve Jobs and an invoice dated 12/7/76.

Apple 1 - It could be yours

According to Christies, the Apple 1 was the first pre-assembled PC - no soldering required. As you can see from the picture above there was no casing, monitor, power supply, or keyboard. But in principle, it worked out of the box.

We have lifted the picture of an Apple 1 with lovely wooden casing from Wikimedia, so you can see what it looked like in anger.

Apple 1 - lots of lovely wood

The website Old Computers has more about the Apple 1 spec.

Christies has assembled a strong list of works - composed by iconic names from the science and technology worlds - and another rare bit of kit for the Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts auction on November 23.

These include:

• An Enigma Machine used to code break German messages in the second World War (estimate £30K-£50K)
• A collection of offprints by Allan Turing (estimate £300k-£500K)
• A paper by Charles Babbage 'On a method of expressing by signs the action of Machinery (£10k-£15K).
• THE IMPORTANT FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DISCOVERY OF DNA, SIGNED BY WATSON, CRICK, WILKINS, AND STOKE (£50k-£80K)
• patent specification for ENIAC, the world's first electronic computer (£6k-££9K),
• a manual co written by Grace Hopper (£1,200 -£1,500)

Happy bidding. ®
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Related stories

• This Old Box The forgotten, fat generation of Mac Portables (9 November 2010)
• Legendary steampunk computer 'should be built' - programmer (5 October 2010)
• Brown apologises for 'appalling' treatment of Turing (11 September 2009)
• Part One 25 years of Macintosh - the Apple Computer report card (18 November 2008)
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Asian Games glittering opening, Guangzhou shines!

Glittering opening to Asian Games
Chinese prime minister declares the games open after a spectacular opening ceremony in Guangzhou. Last Modified: 12 Nov 2010 22:03 GMT
The Asian Games officially opened with a glitzy ceremony featuring more than 6,000 performers  [AFP] China promised another spectacular opening event and delivered it to mark the start of the Asian Games. Two years after the Beijing Olympics in the Chinese capital, the southern city of Guangzhou - which for a long time served as China's window to the world - opened the world's second-biggest multi-sports event on Friday, with an aqua-themed ceremony. Athletes were ferried on 45 boats to an island venue shaped like the bow of a ship for an extravaganza of light, water and flames. More than 10,000 athletes from 45 countries or territories are competing in 42 sports starting on Saturday and finishing on November 27. Brightly illuminated in bulbs of different colours, the boats were decorated with Asian landmarks - including Japan's Mount Fuji, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Jordan's Petra and India's Taj Mahal. China was represented by the Temple of Heaven, the Bird's Nest and the country's pavilion from the recently concluded Shanghai World Expo. Logistical issues The massive scale of the opening ceremony posed logistical issues for the Chinese organizers. Except for members of the public who won a lottery for tickets to the show, most residents in the city of 10 million had little choice but to watch on TV. The downtown area was locked down near the stadium and residents within a one-kilometer radius were ordered to leave their homes for the night - apparently to eliminate the threat of sniper fire. Many downtown subway stations were closed Friday for security sweeps and streets in the vicinity of the opening ceremony were unusually quiet for a bustling city of more than 10 million. Wen Jiaobao, the Chinese Premier, attended, and was joined by Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president; Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister; and other dignitaries from the region. There will be 28 gold medals awarded on Saturday, the first day of full competition, with finals in shooting, swimming, triathlon, judo, weightlifting, gymnastics and in dance sports, which is making its debut at the Asian Games. India has a good chance in the shooting, with Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang in action. Japan has the leading contenders in the women's triathlon and judo, but China is again expected to lead the way from the start in the overall medal count. Newscribe : get free news in real time

Two years after dazzling the world at the Beijing Olympic Games, China gets another chance to show off its economic and sporting might when the 16th Asian Games to open in the Southern city of Guangzhou on 12.11.2010

(Chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2010-11-08 10:51.   

Light shoots out from the Liede Bridge into the night sky, illuminating Guangzhou, the host city of 16th Asian Games on Nov 7, 2010. Dazzling light displays for the upcoming Asian Games have been installed in some public places and high-rise buildings in Guangzhou to make the city more charming for the games. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 610-meter-high new Guangzhou TV Tower is illuminated and decorated for the upcoming Asian Games in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province on Nov 7, 2010.   [Photo/Xinhua] Commercial buildings and green belt along the Pearl River shine at night in Guangzhou, host city of the 16th Asian Games, Nov 7, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua] Buildings along the Pearl River have been decorated with various lights displaying images to light up Guangzhou, the host city of the 16th Asian Games, Nov 7, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's lunar probe: Bay of Rainbows reveals varied details of moon's surface

Expert: Image of Bay of Rainbows reveals varied details of moon's surface

Watch Video

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A black and white photo of the moon's Bay of Rainbows was unveiled Monday morning. The high quality photograph is expected to reveal the landscape details of the area, the proposed landing site for Chang'e 3.
The image of the Bay of Rainbows, snapped 18.7 kilometers from the moon's surface, shows a rather flat area covered with basalt soil. It is also scattered with craters of various sizes. The picture shows the landscape of the Bay.

Dr. Mu Lingli, Research Fellow of National Astronomical Observatories, said, "Of all the strip images that the camera took, this one reveals the varied details of the moon's surface. It contains old craters, and new ones with rays that extend 800-kilometers."

The photo's taken October 28th with the main camera on the lunar probe. A CCD stereo camera is designed to capture images 17 times clearer than that of the Chang'e one. The design of 96 sensors and scanning technology allows for an enhanced definition and resolution.

He said, "The resolution of Chang'e one's camera was 120 meters. The Bay of Rainbows area looks very smooth. But the new camera from Chang'e two shows the site scattered with craters. It does provide a much clearer image."

With the Bay of Rainbows images, the Chang'e 2 successfully completed its mission to scout out a landing location for its successor Chang'e 3. The satellite will continue its scientific objectives including investigating the lunar landscape and exploring the geological structure of the moon.

CCTV reporter Zhang Nini said, "This is the first batch of photos relayed back from Chang'e 2 and it's only a start. In the next five months, Chang'e will continue to send back more high resolution pictures, which will give scientists a more accurate understanding of the moon's geology and topography, and pave the way for China's future lunar programs.

Related stories

• Chang'e-2 photographs Bay of Rainbows 2010-11-08
• Close look at Bay of Rainbows 2010-10-28
• Significance of Bay of Rainbows images 2010-10-27
• China's lunar probe ready to photograph Bay of Rainbows 2010-10-27

 

China Unveils First Moon Photos From New Lunar Orbiter
By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 08 November 2010
04:24 pm ET

This photo, taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010, shows a crater in the moon's Bay of Rainbows. The image is one of the first released to the public by China's space agency. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]

This photo, taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010, shows a three-dimensional map of part of the moon's Bay of Rainbows. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]

This 3-D map view of the moon's Bay of Rainbows was taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010. The mission is China's second robotic mission to explore the moon. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]

Accountants have vital , more strategic role in value creation

Tuesday November 16, 2010

More strategic role for accountants

By ELAINE ANG
elaine@thestar.com.my

This is due to ethical integrity and accountability becoming increasingly vital

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance professionals are expected to take on a more strategic role in corporates in the future with ethical integrity and accountability becoming increasingly important, said Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) chief executive Helen Brand.

“The core technical skills of accountants are recognised and valued but what really matters going forward is the ethical dimension of the profession and the rounded sustainability that professional accounting can bring to business and economies globally.

“In particular, we are looking at issues around risk management and internal control. Businesses are focusing more on this and see professional accountants providing value in that sphere,” she told StarBiz.

Brand said that according to ACCA’s recent report, The value creation model for business: 2010 and beyond, business leaders believed that accountants helped to improve the ethical standards across an organisation.

Helen Brand says business leaders believe that accountants help to improve the ethical standards across an organisation.

 

Some 58% of the respondents believe this guardianship role will become more important in the future.
The research also noted that the role of the finance professional was now more visible and more responsible since the global financial crisis and this visibility and responsibility would grow in the future.

In addition, business leaders expect accountants to bring greater oversight and supervision in an increasingly global regulatory environment and help organisations manage risk more effectively.

Two-thirds of the respondents placed risk management and internal control among the top skills required of accountants going forward.

The survey, which was launched at the World Congress of Accountants 2010 last week, sought the opinions of over 500 senior business people in nine countries.

Brand said one of the ways that accountants could add value was by looking at the investment and financial aspects that would provide a sustainable future to businesses.

“Another issue is governance. Many chief financial officers (CFOs) have a higher profile in the boardroom now and this adding of sound financial accounting advice and good governance framework will help businesses develop,” she said.
 

Brand said accountants had been taking on a strategic role for a long time and it was basically the recognition of that role and the integration of the financial and strategic aspects that would be emphasised going forward.
“CFOs are being brought more firmly into the centre of decision-making.

“We are seeing more CFOs becoming CEOs in many markets. This used to be a myth as CFOs do not have the appropriate profile to become the CEO,” she said.

Brand said accountants would play a critical role in ensuring that the world would not be hit by the same problems that resulted in the recent financial crisis again and that the right financial information and strategies were pursued.

“We see it as a golden age for accountants going forward, where their value will be truly understood,” she added.

On the roles of accountants in the next decade, Brand sees the profession becoming more dominated by women.

“The majority of new members in ACCA are female. Research has shown that if women entered the boardroom then there is diversity of approach that strengthens the business,” she said.

 By ELAINE ANG
Elaine@thestar.com.my

Panellists: They are moving away from traditional accounting practices

KUALA LUMPUR: Accountants have an important role in assisting their organisations create value and sustain long term growth, industry experts said.

Panellists at the World Congress of Accountants 2010 plenary session, entitled Accountants: Sustaining Value Creation in the Borderless Economy, said accountants were moving away from traditional accounting practices and playing a more active strategic role in their organisations and in turn help economic growth.

China’s Ministry of Finance vice minister Dr Wang Jun said the global accountancy profession should constantly play a more active role in driving economic recovery and growth.

Dr Wang Jun

“In doing so, the profession continuously creates value for society,” he said at the session yesterday.

He said accountants and accounting bodies globally should bring fuller into play the supervising and alerting role to promote economic recovery and assist the economy to meet challenges post crisis.

In addition, Wang said the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) should actively participate in international economic affairs and help the accountancy profession to make greater contributions to the world economy.

“Accountants in all jusrisdictions must further strengthen cooperation in the accountancy profession and improve the competitiveness of the accounting industry,” he said.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar highlighted three key points – trust, relevance and leadership - to enable accountants to create value sustainably in their organisations and the economy.

“We need to go back to the basics and rebuild the trust in the profession. From the investor standpoint, we need information that is relevant, reliable and understandable.

“Once we regain the trust, then we can look at how to chart the way forward,” he said.

London School of Economics (Department of Accounting) Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) professor of accounting and financial management Professor Wim A. Van der Stede said that according to a global survey by CIMA, momentum towards greater responsibility was likely to continue for accountants the world over although the degree might differ geographically.

“The results underscore that there remains significant pressure for financial professionals to move into roles that add more value to their organisations and broaden their responsibility beyond traditional accounting tasks.

“Keeping the numbers in order do not span the entire extent of an accountant’s reach as major corporations need financial professionals who understand risk, financial instruments and other complex functions and be able to offer strategic guidance to executives and enter boardrooms as peers,” he said.

AICPA certified public accountant Olivia Faulkner Kirtley said it was key to embed sustainability into the DNA of a company.

“The accounting profession has a role to play. They need to present the business case to senior management, to help develop a reporting system and processes and influence the mindset of the people in the organisation,” she said.

The session was chaired by IFAC president Robert Bunting.

Meanwhile, at a press conference later, Bunting said one of the key challenges for the accounting profession post financial crisis was a greater examination of the role of the accountants and its future.

On fair value accounting and its usefulness, Kirtley said it was the accountants’ role to help investors gain an understanding of it and help investors to make decisions.

Van der Stede said the important role for an accountant was to produce reliable information in a fair value environment.

Azman had questioned the relevance of fair value accounting in today’s reporting system.— ENDS-