4096^4096 ns: time taken by a 1GHz Turing machine (executing 1 instruction every 1ns) with 6 states to write all the 1s it can write, according to the Busy Beaver Problem. Busy Beaver problem: given a halting Turing machine, how many 1s can it write
or 64^64 seconds: time taken by a supercomputer (performing 1 iteration of the algorithm every 1ns) to solve the Longest Path Problem (LPP) between 64 cities (for the Shortest Path Problem n^2 iterations with Dijkstra’s algorithm, 1959, are sufficient)
Switzerland. Credit Suisse is acquired by rival UBS. This merger brings together two of the world’s largest wealth management firms. The two companies have operations worldwide, and UBS has stated that the merger will make it the world’s second-largest wealth manager, with over $5 trillion
Silicon Valley Bank files for bankruptcy. SVB’s collapse is the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis: it was the sixteenth-largest bank in the United States, holding approximately $342 billion in customer funds and $74 billion in loans.
The first new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years has been approved by regulatory authorities in the United States. Aducanumab targets the underlying cause of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, rather than its symptoms. However, scientists are divided over its potential
The company’s shareholders’ meetings have approved Stellantis, the new automotive giant formed from the merger of FCA and PSA. It is the world’s fourth-largest carmaker. Its headquarters are in the Netherlands. Its largest shareholder is Exor (owned by the Agnelli family), followed by the Peugeot
After seven years of intense and complex negotiations, European Union and Beijing negotiators have reached a political agreement allowing foreign investment in manufacturing, including electric vehicles, telecommunications, and private hospitals. The announcement was made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese President
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a last-minute agreement (actually, after the deadline) on trade terms at the end of the Brexit transition period, which ends on 31 December 2020.
The great magician, science communicator, occult expert, and skeptic, James Randi (James Hamilton Randall Zwinge, aka The Amazing Randi), has died at 92. He was best known for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, a million-dollar prize offered by his foundation, the James Randi Educational
The agreement proposed by FCA (Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles) to PSA is signed. The world’s fourth-largest automotive giant, with a turnover of €190 billion, is born, behind Volkswagen, Toyota, and Renault-Nissan. Among the brands represented are FIAT, Chrysler, Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia,
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia has sentenced two Khmer Rouge officials to life imprisonment. They are Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, and Nuon Chea, 92, his right-hand man. They were convicted of genocide for the extermination of Cham Muslims and
After the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church severed ties with the Church of Constantinople. The move is obviously politically motivated, as the Russian Orthodox Church works closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is
Sirte, Libya. The United States carries out air strikes on the IS-held area, at the request of Tripoli-based Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serra. Fighter-bombers and Apache helicopters take off from aircraft carriers and the Wasp helicopter carrier cruising in the Mediterranean.
Syria. An American drone strike kills ISIS leader Tariq bin Tahar-Al-Awni-al-Harzi. He oversaw the organization’s logistics. He was a person of interest in the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. The day before, his brother Ali was killed by another drone
Norrebro Station, Copenhagen. During a debate on freedom of expression, featuring Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks (under police protection for years for his Muhammad cartoons), a bomber bursts in, kills a man, and wounds three officers. He then flees and kills a Jewish person in front
ISIS emailed the family of the death of Kayla Mueller, 26, who had been kidnapped by ISIS two years earlier. In August, several testimonies revealed that Abu Sayyaf and the Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had repeatedly raped her and that she had been
Fotokol, Cameroon, on the border with Nigeria. Boko Haram militants invade Cameroon and kill 91 villagers, wounding over 500, and burning churches and mosques. The regular army intervenes. Within days, a contingent of over 8,000 soldiers from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger is formed.
Comet Lovejoy passes by. It’s a Kreutz sungrazer (a sun-grazer), and at perihelion it reaches a speed of 536 km/s (0.18% the speed of light!), coming within just 140,000 km of the Sun’s surface (less than half the Earth-Moon distance!)
The UN documents the kidnapping by ISIS of at least 2,500 civilians, mostly women belonging to minorities living in the regions of Sinjar, Tal Afat, Shirkan and the Nineveh Plains.
Bird watchers in Lebanon and Israel reach a historic agreement (which politicians are far from achieving): in the fall, Lebanese bird watchers notify Israeli airport authorities as soon as they spot the first flocks of eagles migrating from Europe to Africa for the winter, and
An agreement has been reached between Serbia and Kosovo on the management of Serb-majority territories in northern Kosovo.
Boston. Late in the evening, the second brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was also captured, wounded but alive, inside a sailboat that had been pulled ashore during the winter, sealed in cellophane, and parked in the yard of a house on Franklin Street. One of the
Chinese companies win most contracts for oil fields in Iraq and mines in Afghanistan (Iron, Neodymium, Uranium).
Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. In a series of coordinated attacks involving bombs and automatic weapons fire, militants from the fundamentalist Islamic sect Boko Haram have devastated the city of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State. At least a hundred people have been killed and several hundred
Colombia, southeast. During a bombing by government forces in a forest area, 63-year-old Alfonso Cano, leader of the FARC guerrilla movement, which he had led since 2008, is killed. The bombing followed a ten-hour firefight with government soldiers, resulting in the discovery of several bodies,
China launched the Shenzou 8 spacecraft aboard the Long March 2F rocket, which will attempt China’s first rendezvous and docking with a module already in orbit: this is a fundamental step towards the construction of a space station.
Kourou, French Guiana: The first two satellites of the European Galileo constellation are launched by a Soyuz rocket, joining the other two Global Navigation Satellite System, the American GPS and the Russian GLONASS.
Sirte, Libya. A convoy of vehicles attempting to leave the rebel-held city is targeted by NATO aircraft. Several vehicles catch fire. Among the fugitives is revealed to be Muammar Gaddafi and several family members. They take refuge in sewer pipes. They are quickly tracked down
Syria. Government troops kill a peace activist. He is 42-year-old Ziad al-Obeidi, a staunch supporter of nonviolent protest.
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, inventor of the C language and the Unix operating system, dies; printf(“Dennis Ritchie: %d-%d”, 1941, 2011); /* RIP */
The Herschel Space Observatory reveals that comet Hartley 2, a comet from the Kuiper Belt, is largely composed of water with the same composition (chemical signature) as Earth’s oceans. Hartley 2 is the first Kuiper Belt comet to be investigated for its composition. Other comets
Yemen: Anwar al-Awlaki, Al-Qaeda’s No. 3, an American citizen, was killed by a drone strike near Khashef, east of Sanaa, in Yemeni territory. He had been under observation by the CIA for two weeks. The strike also killed Khan, another American network expert, and two
Jiuquan Range, China. The Long March rocket launches China’s first space station, Tiangong-1 (天宫一号”Heavenly Palace 1″)
Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic is arrested by Serbian police near Belgrade. He is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for the killing of thousands of people in Srebenica, Bosnia.
Waziristan, Pakistan. A CIA drone kills 17 men. Drone strikes continue after the killing of Bin Laden. In the days immediately following the Abbotabad raid, Khaled Hathal al-Qahtani, 32, one of the men at the top of Riyadh’s wanted list and already listed among Interpol’s
Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden is killed by Navy SEALs. The operation is carried out using several Black Hawk helicopters, which transport dozens of soldiers to the compound where the al-Qaeda leader is believed to be based. Five PCs, dozens of USB drives, and optical
United States. A series of more than 130 tornadoes (some as large as a mile in diameter) that devastated the southern part of the country has claimed 337 lives. 246 deaths were recorded in Alabama alone.
Deraa, Syria. Tanks also intervene in Deraa. Soldiers open fire on the crowd. More than 50 people are killed, some sources say 65.
Marrakech, Morocco. An attack in a popular bar in the city center leaves 15 dead, including six French and two Russians.
Syria. During a series of demonstrations across the country, the army opened fire on crowds. At least 112 people died.
Rare Earth Elements (rare earths including Neodymium, Samarium, Dysprosium) reach a peak: 42,000 USD for the REE bundle, against 10,000 USD in 2010. In 2017, thanks to a series of policies (reopening of mines, research into new ones, substitution with other technologies, Chinese reconsideration of
China. Jack Ma (Ma Yun is his real name), skillfully and ruthlessly, uses regulations and political support to downsize his two majority shareholders: the American Yahoo! and Japan’s SoftBank.
Ivory Coast. The army supporting former President Gbagbo, who refused to relinquish power after the opposition’s victory, was attacked first by troops loyal to the new government, then by UN helicopters and French special forces. He was eventually forced to hand over power to the
Libya: Rebels go on the offensive and, with allied air cover, capture the city of Ajdabiya.
Syria is in chaos, with 25 residents of Daraa, southern Syria, dead following a crackdown by Damascus security forces on anti-regime protesters. In a week, 150 people have died due to military intervention, mostly in the south of the country.
6:46 a.m. Italian time: Northeast Japan: A 9.0 earthquake and tsunami cause approximately 20,000 deaths, reaching as far north as the Tokyo region. The devastating tsunami that follows the earthquake causes even greater damage throughout the area. Ten nuclear power plants automatically shut down. The
Cholera is raging in Haiti, already devastated by the earthquake. Rumors are circulating, denied by the government, that it was imported by UN soldiers from Nepal, part of the earthquake relief effort. However, a study of the Haitian cholera genome, conducted by Matthew Waldor of
Geneticist Craig Venter’s team assembled the genome of a simple bacterium from pieces of synthetic DNA and then inserted the DNA into another empty bacterium. The team, which also included biologists Hamilton Smith and Clyde Hutchinson, rebooted the system, and the cell literally came to
NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team has published a study based on the last seven years of observations from the WMAP satellite. The results define several constants in greater detail, including: the age of the Universe (13.75 billion years +/- 110 million), the Hubble
Craig Venter’s group is developing the first artificial cell in the laboratory, controlled by a synthetic genetic heritage. Venter had already conceived the Human Genome Project in the race to sequence our DNA, arriving first, and had previously chemically synthesized the genome of a bacterium
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the head of the central bank, and the entire military leadership died in the plane crash of the presidential Tupolev which crashed on landing in Smolensk in western Russia, where they were going to commemorate the Soviet massacre committed at Katyn.
Two female suicide bombers detonated their own bombs in two Moscow metro stations, killing 40 people. One of them was identified as 17-year-old Dagestan native Dzhannet Abdullayeva, the wife of a militant killed by Russian soldiers a few months earlier.
The corvette Cheonan is sunk off the coast of South Korea, killing 46 sailors. A few weeks later, the wreck is recovered, and after an analysis of the hull, the cause of the sinking is identified as the explosion of a North Korean 200-kg torpedo.
Earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale off the coast of Chile
23-year-old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to detonate an explosive device on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight. Only part of the explosive detonated, causing a small fire. The man was restrained by a passenger and the flight crew. The flight, with 278 passengers on board, arrived
US President Barack Obama’s plan has also been approved by the Senate: it will provide health care coverage to the 30 million Americans who previously lacked it. The plan will have an estimated cost of $1 trillion over 10 years.
After 22 days of bombing and fighting in Gaza, Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire. Palestinian deaths number over 1,200, while Israelis number 13. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert declares that the offensive has achieved its goals.
Barack Obama takes the train journey from Philadelphia to Washington that Abraham Lincoln had made before him.
The fierce and anticipated Israeli counteroffensive against Gaza begins: a series of air raids hit the port and nearly all police posts. Hundreds died, thousands were injured.
Samuel Huntington, the American political scientist famous for writing the essay “A Clash of Civilizations,” has died. He was often invoked in the wake of 9/11. Known for his analysis of the relationship between civilian government and military power, his studies of coups d’état, and
Hamas breaks the truce with Israel and begins daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. One of the rockets, which escaped control, lands in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters, aged 5 and 13.
Global Financial Crisis. The Federal Reserve, in a surprise move, today decided to lower the cost of borrowing to an all-time low, within a range of 0% to 0.25%, depending on the needs that arise.
The Indian tricolor has landed on the Moon, making India the fourth country in the world to touch the lunar surface. At 8:31 PM Indian time (4:01 PM CET), the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), the lunar module released from the Chandrayaan-I mother probe, touched down
The Phoenix probe, after exceeding its planned mission by 3 months (for a total life of 5 months), succumbs to the winter at the Martian North Pole and ceases communications with planet Earth.
Barack Obama, in a historic victory and by a wide margin, is the new President of the United States of America. A man with an African father and a white mother, who in Bolivar’s time would have been called a “half-caste,” is elected President of
An American drone carries out a targeted attack in North Waziristan, a tribal region in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, killing 21 people, including the likely target of the strike: al-Qaeda’s Abu Kasha. In October alone, nine such strikes by unmanned aircraft were carried out in Pakistani
In Somalia, a 13-year-old girl, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was stoned to death in a stadium with 1,000 spectators in Kismayo. She was accused of adultery, but she claimed to have been raped by three men. Kismayo had returned to the control of Islamic militias a
Four American Black Hawk helicopters carry out an operation in Syrian territory in which Al-Qaeda commander Badran Turki Hashim al-Mazidih, also known as Abu Ghadiya, is killed.
Global Financial Crisis. Oil prices at $64 a barrel (it was nearly triple just three months earlier).
Global Financial Crisis. The financial crisis wipes out a total of $17 trillion. The crisis was triggered by subprime mortgages likely at risk of default, which caused a loss of confidence and a contraction in the housing market, with a positive downward feedback loop. The