DOE INCITE Program to Allocate Titan, Mira Compute Resources

(HPC Wire) 2013 promises to be a landmark year for Department Of Energy’s (DOE’s) Leadership Computing Program and INCITE: two new systems, Titan and Mira, will be available to researchers. Titan, a Cray XK6 located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Leadership Computing Facility, features a CPU/GPU hybrid architecture that will be capable of at least 20 petaflops by 2013...5/16

Feds tally payback time for hybrids; instant for some

(USA Today) A government fuel-economy website now calculates payback for hybrids vs. lower-price but similarly equipped gasoline models. It's the "similarly equipped" part that's often missing, the feds say. The new feature is the work of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It maintains and operates the fueleconomy.gov website that publishes the Environmental Protection Agency's official mileage ratings for cars and trucks...5/17

Previous ORNL Stories

DOE

Ex-DOE computing exec Michael Strayer indicted on 13 federal counts; ORNL ties to allegations

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Michael Strayer, a former Senior Executive Service official at the U.S. Department of Energy who once held prominent positions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been indicted by a federal jury on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, conflict of interest, false statement and money laundering...5/18

State & Regional

Tennessee's drug testing plan for welfare recipients faces constitutional hurdles

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Yolanda Powers is willing to take a drug test in order to qualify for welfare. But she doesn't think people struggling to get back on their feet should have to pay for it...5/16

Video shows 'cruel and inhumane practice' used to train horses

(CNN) An undercover video shows horses being struck with sticks and subjected to "soring," an illegal process in which chemicals are placed on their lower legs in an effort to induce the signature Tennessee Walking Horse high-stepping gait.

National

Investors brace for Facebook debut on Wall Street

(Reuters) Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut on Friday after the world's No.1 online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history...5/18

Cops, Witnesses Back Up George Zimmerman's Version of Trayvon Martin Shooting

(ABC News) Two police reports written the night that George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin said that Zimmerman had a bloody face and nose, according to police reports made public today...5/17

East Tennessee

TVA says lack of spring rains has reservoirs low

(CBS News) The Tennessee Valley Authority says a lack of rainfall has hydroelectric generation running 12 percent below normal. Hydro is TVA's cheapest source of electricity, but accounts for only about 8 percent of the power the federal utility produces. The lower water level in the reservoirs might have more effect on recreation, including boating and fishing...5/17

energy & science policy

FY 2013 Appropriations Committee Reports: Nuclear Waste Provisions

(AIP) House and Senate appropriators have completed work on the FY 2013 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill. The House and Senate reports outline contrasting approaches to the difficult issue of handling domestic nuclear waste...5/17

science & technology

The Rhine Is Five Million Years Older Than First Thought: Age of the River Corrected Based On Fossils

(Science Daily) Scientists at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology (HEP) at the University of Tubingen and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt have examined the age of the Rhine based on fossils...5/16

Giant Galaxy-Packed Filament Revealed

(Science Daily) A McGill-led research team using the Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe...5/17

Out there

The Stinkiest Places on Earth: Photos

(Discovery News) If Gunrunners ever tours Rotorua, New Zealand, they'd sing, "Take me down to the Sulfur City, where the air is smelly and the geysers are pretty." Rotorua was built atop highly active geothermal vents that constantly belch the rotten-egg scent of sulfur, so much so that the town's nickname is Sulfur City.