IBM has launched three Power8 Linux servers designed to accelerate artificial intelligence, deep learning, and advanced analytics applications. The new systems tap the Nvidia NVLink technology to move data five times faster than any competing platform, said Stefanie Chiras, an IBM vice president, in an interview with VentureBeat. These systems and their operating systems are part of a larger business group that generates about 2 billion a quarter for IBM. And the A.I. markets they're going after have exploded in the past couple of years. IBM claims that the combination of Power8 processors and Linux software results in systems that deliver 80 percent more performance per dollar than the latest x86-based (Intel or AMD) servers.

A universal condition of future U.S. armed interventions is the dizzying amount of data that American forces will have thrust upon them at, each level of war and in every dimension of combat. The single most important thing the U.S. military can do to adapt to the Information Age is to channel the impending torrent of information, from a multiplicity of data sources, to relevant decision makers in useful forms. The face of battle in this era will still be defined by blood and hardship, endured by small groups of people surviving their way to the next objective, but in a much more complex context. That complexity will be apparent, often paralyzing, when flooding through a cornucopia of sensor systems. Computers will help stem the tide, but distributed human innovation, in the space between information and knowledge, is the only force that can contextualize the flow.

ARMONK, NY - 08 Sep 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today revealed a series of new servers designed to help propel cognitive workloads and to drive greater data center efficiency. Featuring a new chip, the Linux-based lineup incorporates innovations from the OpenPOWER community that deliver higher levels of performance and greater computing efficiency than available on any x86-based server. The three new systems are an expansion of IBM's Linux server portfolio comprised of IBM's specialized line of servers co-developed with fellow members of the OpenPOWER Foundation. The new servers join the Power Systems LC lineup that is designed to outperform x86-based servers on a variety of data-intensive workloads. Early testing with Tencent, one of the world's largest Internet service providers based in China, has shown that a large cluster of the new IBM OpenPOWER servers was able to run a data-intensive workload three times faster than its former x86-based infrastructure.

Today, NASA will launch its asteroid-sampling mission, OSIRIS-REx, from Cape Canaveral. It's the beginning of a seven year-long mission for the spacecraft, during which it will execute a number of death-defying stunts--including a slingshot around Earth that will send it toward its target, the carbonaceous chondrite asteroid Bennu. NASA is prone to anthropomorphizing its rovers and spacefaring robots, so we decided to go a step further and make OSIRIX-REx (Rex, for short) the star of his own comic strip.

Three military veterans once involved in the U.S. drone program have thrown their support behind a Yemeni man's legal fight to obtain details about why his family members were killed in a 2012 strike. The former soldiers' unusual decision to publicly endorse the lawsuit against President Obama and other U.S. officials adds another twist to Faisal bin Ali Jaber's four-year quest for accountability in the deaths of his brother-in-law and nephew, who he believes needlessly fell victim to one of the most lethal covert programs in U.S. history. The former enlisted service members told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a recent filing that they believe the 2012 drone strike serves as a case study of how mistakes frequently occur in the nation's targeted-killing program, where life-or-death decisions are based upon top-secret evidence. The veterans say they "witnessed a secret, global system without regard for borders, conducting widespread surveillance with the ability to conduct deadly targeted killing operations." Though the veterans did not disclose any personal knowledge of the strike that is alleged to have killed Jaber's relatives, they claim the military frequently labels the deaths of unknown victims as "enemy kills."

The House Oversight Committee released an email exchange Wednesday between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State Colin Powell in which he advised her on the use of personal email. The exchange between Clinton and Powell took place two days before the start of her tenure as secretary of state. According to The Wall Street Journal, Powell told Clinton that he used a personal computer to conduct government business and took steps to ensure his digital correspondence wasn't "going through the State Department servers." Powell said he had "a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line ... so I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts."

Gov. John Kasich says manufacturing is still important to Ohio, but high-tech is the future. Kasich was the keynote speaker at tonight's annual meeting of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the area's chamber of commerce. Gov. Kasich started off his address by praising Cleveland for recent successes like the Republican National Convention, the Cavalier's championship and the city's growth as a tourist and convention destination. He moved on to talking about the entire state. He says he's working with artificial-intelligence and information- technology experts on ways to help Ohio advance.

In New Mexico, state Rep. Alonzo Baldonado, a Republican whose district includes Los Lunas, said Wednesday he had not heard of any developments out of Utah. He reiterated his support for the project, saying construction of a data center in New Mexico could have a beneficial ripple effect for the economy.

Michigan already has a hand in self-driving technology, but a motion from the senate may take the Great Lake State one-step further. The state senate unanimously voted to let firms and researches test self-driving cars on Michigan roads without a person at the wheel. The new bill explains humans would'promptly' take control of the vehicle's movements remotely or the vehicle must be designed to stop or slow on its own. Michigan already has a hand in self-driving technology, but a motion from the senate may take the Great Lake State one-step further. The state senate unanimously voted to let researchers test self-driving cars on Michigan roads without a person at the wheel.

A new report outlines a scientific roadmap for the White House's cancer "moonshot" initiative -- urging research to harness the power of immune-based therapy, and to better tailor treatment by helping more patients get their tumors genetically profiled. Those are among a list of recommendations issued Wednesday by a panel of cancer experts and patient advocates advising the moonshot project on ways to speed progress against the nation's No. 2 killer. Also on the list: Learning what drives childhood cancer, finding ways to minimize the side effects of treatment, and making better use of some proven anti-cancer strategies. For example, about 3 percent of colorectal cancers are fueled by certain inherited genetic mutations -- and the report proposes a pilot project to test all newly diagnosed patients so the relatives of those who harbor the defects could learn if they, too, are at risk. The recommendations mark "a bold but feasible scientific proposal," said Dr. Doug Lowy, acting director of the National Cancer Institute, who will send the panel's report to Vice President Joe Biden's cancer moonshot task force.