May 12, 2004

The United States Department of Energy announces plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer, capable of a sustained performance of 50 trillion calculations per second (compared to 36.5 trillion for Japan's Earth Simulator and less than 8 trillion for the USA's ASCI White). The computer, to be federally funded to the tune of USD 50 million, will be built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (AP)
The Mexican Air Force releases a video of eleven UFOs filmed over the state of Campeche. The lights were filmed on March 5 by pilots using infrared equipment. UNAM scientists say the phenomenon was probably caused by pockets of atmospheric gas. (CNN) (AP)
War on Terrorism: An al Qaeda manual sets a hierarchy of terrorism targets: first, U.S. citizens, followed by Britons, Spaniards, and Australians. (ABC AU)