First General Purpose Electronic Computer

 

ENIAC, 1946

Regarded as the first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was initially commissioned for the use in World War II, but not completed until one year after the war had ended . Installed at the University of Pennsylvania, its 40 separate eight-foot-high racks and 18,000 tubes were intended to help calculate ballistic trajectories.

 

ENIAC (pronounced [ˈɛniæk]), short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.

ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, but its first use was in calculations for the hydrogen bomb. 

When ENIAC was announced in 1946 it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain". It boasted speeds one thousand times faster than electro-mechanical machines, a leap in computing power that no single machine has since matched. This mathematical power, coupled with general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The inventors promoted the spread of these new ideas by teaching a series of lectures on computer architecture.

Camelicious Milk Chocolate

If those bars of Valrhona Manjari 64% and Noir 85% from Michel Cluizel are seeming passé, you might want to try Al Nassma Chocolate, a Dubai-made confection which is the first brand of chocolate made with camels' milk. Hand-milked camels' milk no less, from the camel farm Camelicious, which is Al Nassma's sole supplier.

The company, which is in Umm Nahad, makes chocolate bars flavored with spices, dates, oranges, and macadamia nuts, as well as whole (camels') milk chocolate, 70% cacao bars, and filled pralines.

The most popular item is a hollow chocolate camel, wrapped in gold and available in two sizes.

If you can't make it to Dubai, where the chocolates are for sale in the shop opposite the camel farm, at local hotels and a herbal center across from Wafi Hospital, and at the duty free shop at Dubai's airport (terminal three), don't worry. Al Nassma intends to expand into larger Arab markets, Japan and to the US soon.

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500-Carat Largest Diamond

One of the biggest diamonds ever found has been discovered at a mine in South Africa.

The rough 507-carat white stone was unearthed at the historic Cullinan mine - where the famous Cullinan diamond, the largest in the world, was discovered in 1905.

A spokesman for mining firm Petra Diamond said the gemstone found last week was among the world's 20 largest diamonds ever discovered. He added: 'Initial examinations indicate that it is of exceptional colour and clarity, and most likely to be a Type I diamond.

'At 507 carats (just over 100 grams) the diamond, which has yet to be named, is considered to be amongst the top 20 largest high quality rough diamonds ever found worldwide. It ranks alongside other illustrious diamonds recovered at the celebrated Cullinan mine.

The stone was unearthed on September 24 and was today being analysed in Petra's laboratories. Further details, including colour grading and clarity, will be released once the analysis is complete. The diamond was found alongside three other valuable diamonds, with miners also unearthing a gemstone of 168.00 carats and two other stones of 58.50 and 53.30 carats.

Petra confirmed the rocks were discovered during digging at the huge Cullinan mine, around 25 miles outside Pretoria in South Africa's mineral-rich Gauteng province. The original 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond became the largest rough diamond ever discovered when it was found on January 26, 1905 by miner Frederick Wells.

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