Daily Archives: June 4, 2021

In the world of physics, a singularity is a concept that shifts the laws of physics as we know them. The theories on singularity came about when people first discovered black holes. The unusual nature of black holes has made scientists ask the question - what lies beyond?

Singularity, in this context, serves as a theoretical framework to explain the Big Bang, and gravity becomes the focus of the exploration.

Physicists have proposed the idea of the so-called gravitational singularity. From this type of standpoint, a gravitational singularity is an occurrence or an object where common laws of physics do not work. This type of singularity is a specific point in space-time, a construct that views the notions of time and space like they are almost glued together.

This gravitational singularity is a hard one to measure, at least in a traditional sense of the word. In fact, a space-time singularity becomes virtually independent of the coordinate system, or space, where it is observed. The data that is measured becomes, in a way, infinite. Because of this, a singularity creates a system where time and space no longer affect each other and practically become one thing. That is why the phrase space-time is so essential because the two entities stop having self-governing properties.

It does not come as a shock, how Albert Einstein, arguably one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, is the person responsible for this hard-grasping concept. After Einstein came out with his Theory of General Relativity, it was possible to discuss singularities. It could be said that the black holes themselves were, in a way, predicted by Einstein and that he created a theoretical frame from where scientists could start to unveil the mysteries that lie beyond the event horizon.

The theory of how black holes, and therefore singularities, are possible, is not that hard to conceptualize. When a particular star becomes to approach a certain point of its mass, it creates a force of gravity that is so strong that the star collapses into itself. This breaking point is called the Chandrasekhar limit. This limit is exactly 1,39 solar masses, which means mass that is 1,39 times bigger than the mass of our own Sun. When a star collapses, nothing, not even light, can escape it. When that happens, we are talking about something called the event horizon.

There are two distinct types of singularities that exist if the event horizon covers them. The first one is known as Curvature singularity. It got its name because of what happens inside the black hole. At the very center, a black hole holds up enormous amounts of mass. Because of this, gravity becomes infinite, which leads to the, also infinite, curving of space-time.

The other type that goes by Conical singularity happens when the singularity reaches a point where all the variables are finite. In this scenario, the space-time is not infinite, but it looks more like a cone, with the Conical singularity at its very top.

Another type of singularity is the one that does not depend on it being covered up by the event horizon. In this case, we are talking about Naked singularity. The Naked singularity does not stay hidden behind the event horizon. In theory, this type of singularity existed before the Big Bang.

Original post:

What Is A Singularity? - WorldAtlas

Singularity

Extreme Mobility of Compute

Singularity containers let users run applications in a Linux environment of their choosing.

Possible uses for Singularity on Biowulf:

Web sites

Additional Learning Resources

Example definition files written by the NIH HPC staff

These definition files can all be found on GitHub, and the containers built from them are hosted on Singularity hub.

Additionally, a large number of staff maintained definition files and associated helper scripts can be found at this GitHub repo. These are files that staff members use to install containerized apps on the NIH HPC systems.

Please Note: Singularity gives you the ability to install and run applications in your own Linux environment with your own customized software stack. With this ability comes the added responsibility of managing your own Linux environment. While the NIH HPC staff can provide guidance on how to create and use singularity containers, we do not have the resources to manage containers for individual users. If you decide to use Singularity, it is your responsibility to build and manage your own containers.

Creating Singularity containers

To use Singularity on Biowulf, you either need to create your own Singularity container, or use one created by someone else. You have several options to build Singularity containers:

You can find information about installing Singularity on your Linux build system here for 2.x and here for the current 3.x series.

In addition to your own Linux environment, you will also need a definition file to build a Singularity container from scratch. You can find some simple definition files for a variety of Linux distributions in the /example directory of the source code. You can also find a small list of definition files containing popular applications at the top of this page.Detailed documentation about building Singularity container images is available at the Singularity website.

Troubleshooting containers that hang when they run out of memory

A few containers have caused issues on Biowulf by triggering a kernel level bug described in detail here and here. These include fmriprep and nanodisco. The problems follow a predictable pattern:

Binding external directories

Binding a directory to your Singularity container allows you to access files in a host system directory from within your container. By default, Singularity will bind your $HOME directory (along with a few other directories such as /tmp and /dev). You can also bind other directories into your Singularity container yourself.The process is described in detail in the Singularity documentation.

While $HOME is bound to the container by default, there are several filesystems on the NIH HPC systems that you may also want to include.Furthermore, if you are running a job and have allocated local scratch space, you might like to bind mount your lscratch directory to /tmp in the container.

The following command opens a shell in a container while bind-mounting your data directory, /fdb, /scratch, and /lscratch into the same path inside the containerIf you have access to shared data directories, you'll want to add them to the list as well (for example, /data/$USER,/data/mygroup1,/data/mygroup2,/fdb,...).

NIH HPC Staff recommendations for bind mounts on Biowulf

When building containers for use on Biowulf, there are two steps you should take to ensure that users of the container can read and write data to all normal directories. These are the same steps that NIH HPC staff take when containerizing applications for general use.

Step 1. Add directories and symlinks at build time

Data directories hosted on the GPFS file system rely on a series of symbolic links. Singularity can't follow these symlinks if they don't exist within the container, so you need to create them at build time. Other data directories can be automatically created within the container by recent versions of Singularity, but it's still a good idea to create them.

Include the following lines in the %post section of your definition file.

Step 2. Set the --bind option or the SINGULARITY_BIND variable appropriately at run time

Use the following option/argument pair when you run your container.

Singularity as an Installation Medium: faking a native installation

One use case of Singularity is to transparently use software in a container as through it were directly installed on the host system.To accomplish this on our systems, you need to be aware of the shared filesystem locations and bind mount the corresponding directories inside the container, which is more complicated than it seems because we use symbolic links to refer to some of our network storage systems.As a result, you will need to specify some directories in addition to the ones you use directly to ensure that the symbolic link destinations are also bound into the container.

If you wanted to take advantage of a Debian package this way and use it to install software into your home directory, for example samtools and bcftools, you would use a definition file, Singularity, with these contents:

After finalizing the definition file, you can proceed to build the container (of course, on a system where you have sudo or root access):

You can then set up your installation prefix (here, it's $HOME/opt/hts) as follows, making use of symbolic links and a wrapper script:

So if you have added the installation prefix $HOME/opt/hts/bin to your PATH, then calling samtools or bcftools will run those programs from within your container.And because we have arranged to bind mount all the necessary filesystems into the container, the path names you provide for input and output into the programs will be available to the container in the same way.

Interactive Singularity containers

Singularity cannot be run on the Biowulf login node.

To run a Singularity container image on Biowulf interactively, you need to allocate an interactive session, and load the Singularity module. In this sample session (user input in bold), an Ubuntu 16.04 Singularity container is downloaded and run from Docker Hub. If you want to run a local Singularity container instead of downloading one, just replace the DockerHub URL with the path to your container image file.

Expand the tab below to view a demo of interactive Singularity usage.

Singularity interactive container demo

Singularity containers in batch

In this example, singularity will be used to run a TensorFlow example in an Ubuntu 16.04 container. (User input in bold).

First, create a container image on a machine where you have root privileges. These commands were run on a Google Cloud VM instance running an Ubuntu 16.04 image, and the Singularity container was created using this definition file that includes a TensorFlow installation.

Next, copy the TensorFlow script that you want to run into your home directory, or another directory that will be visible from within the container at runtime. (See 'binding external directories' above). In this case, this example script from the TensorFlow website was copied to /home/$USER, and the container was moved to the user's data directory

Then ssh to Biowulf and write a batch script to run the singularity command similar to this:

Submit the job like so:

After the job finishes executing you should see the following output in the slurm*.out file.

Expand the tab below to watch a quick demo of Singularity in batch mode.

Singularity containers in batch demo

Singularity containers on GPU nodes

With the release of Singularity v2.3 it is no longer necessary to install NVIDIA drivers into your Singularity container to access the GPU on a host node. If you still want the deprecated gpu4singularity script that was used to install NVIDIA drivers within containers for use on our GPU nodes you can find it on GitHub.

Now, you can simply use the --nv option to grant your containers GPU support at runtime. Consider the following example in which we will download some TensorFlow models to the user's home directory and then run the latest TensorFlow container from DockerHub to train a model on the MNIST handwritten digit data set using a GPU node.

Expand the tab below to see a demo of installing and using GPU support in a Singularity container.

Using the GPU demo

Using Docker containers with Singularity

Singularity can import, bootstrap, and even run Docker images directly from Docker Hub. For instance, the following commands will start an Ubuntu container running on a compute node with no need for a definition file or container image!And, of course, we remember to set SINGULARITY_BINDPATH appropriately to be able to access all our files.

In this example, we will create a Singularity container image starting from the official continuumio miniconda container on Docker Hub. Then we'll install a number of RNASeq tools. This would allow us to write a pipelinewith, for example, Snakemake and distribute it along with theimage to create an easily shared, reproducible workflow. This definition file also installs a runscript enabling us to treat our container like an executable.

Assuming this file is called rnaseq.def, we can create a Singularity container called rnaseq on our build system with the following commands:

This image contains miniconda and our rnaseq tools and can be called directly as an executable like so:

After copying the image to the NIH HPC systems, allocate an sinteractivesession and test it there

This could be used with a Snakemake file like this

Expand the tab below to see an example of creating a Singularity container to be used as an executable from a Docker image on DockerHub.

Singularity with Docker demo

Follow this link:

Singularity - NIH HPC Systems

Screen Media has nabbed all North American rights to Naked Singularity, a heist thriller with John Boyega and Olivia Cooke. The film marks the feature directing debut of Chase Palmer, best known for co-writing the screenplay for It, the 2017 horror blockbuster.

Bill Skarsgrd, who played Pennywise in that film, co-stars in the movie along with Ed Skrein, Linda Lavin and Tim Blake Nelson.

Heres the official logline: Naked Singularity centers on Casi (John Boyega), a promising young NYC public defender whose idealism is beginning to crack under the daily injustices of the very justice system hes trying to make right. Doubting all he has worked for and seeing signs of the universe collapsing all around him, he is pulled into a dangerous high-stakes drug heist by an unpredictable former client (Olivia Cooke) in an effort to beat the broken system at its own game.

The screenplay was adapted by Palmer and David Matthews from the PEN-prize winning book, A Naked Singularity, which was written by public defender Sergio De La Pava. The film recently premiered in the opening night slot at the San Francisco Film Festival, where it won the audience award for Best Narrative Film. Screen Media will release the film theatrically in August.

I cant be more excited that well be getting this film, anchored by John Boyegas wonderful performance, in front of audiences this summer, said Palmer. Screen Medias passion for Naked Singularity was loud and clear from the start and I know we will be in good hands.

Naked Singularity is produced by Tony Ganz, Kevin J. Walsh, Ryan Stowell, P. Jennifer Dana and Ross Jacobson, and executive produced by Ridley Scott, Dick Wolf, Sebastien Raybaud, Francois Callens, John Zois, Mark Roberts, Tony Pachella, Deborah Roth, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Anton is a co-financier of the film and represents the foreign sales rights.

We are very excited that Screen Media will be bringing Naked Singularity to theaters, said Cecile Gaget, president of international production and distribution at Anton. For a long time, they have distributed unique titles, particularly over the last couple of years. We feel that Naked Singularity is right at home with the great team of Screen Media.

The deal was negotiated by Seth Needle, SVP of global acquisitions and co-productions, on behalf of Screen Media with Endeavor Content representing the filmmakers.

Naked Singularity is the perfect movie for this moment, said Screen Media in a statement. Were excited to bring this unique, thought-provoking legal thriller to audiences nationwide this summer.

Screen Media has been active on the acquisitions front, nabbing the Megan Fox thriller Till Death and Jimmy Giannopolouss mob crime drama The Birthday Cake starring Shiloh Fernandez. The company recently released Willys Wonderland with Nicolas Cage and the acclaimed military drama The Outpost.

Link:

'Naked Singularity,' Thriller With John Boyega, Sells to ...

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Singularity 6 (S6), the new game developer dedicated to the idea of delivering more meaningful online game experiences, has revealed its first game - Palia. Set in a beautiful and inviting fantasy world, Palia is a community simulation massively multiplayer online (MMO) game where players can build a home and life, meet and befriend a compelling cast of characters, and experience an evolving narrative with other players.

S6s mission is to forge alternate worlds that deepen players' lives. The Los Angeles-based developer is made up of a diverse group of game industry veterans from leading companies such as Blizzard, Epic, Riot, Zynga and Sony. Inspired by their personal stories of identity, friendship, and online social experiences, S6 is putting together an immersive online world where players can feel like they truly belong.

We started Singularity 6 to make games that bring people together, said Aidan Karabaich, co-founder and game director, Singularity 6. Were so excited to invite players into Palia for the first time. Inspired by some of our favorite titles, our game lets you forge your own destiny, exist in a beautiful setting, and give you a sense of being at home. We expect the players to be a huge part of shaping the game, and we cant wait to see what they do in Palia.

Palia is a gorgeous, cozy world thats constantly evolving and features deep customization systems, a compelling cast of non-playable characters, and a robust Neighborhood system that allows players to forge communities of their own. Combining the welcoming atmosphere of a community sim with a massively multiplayer online experience, the game gives players the chance to be part of a global community of gamers as they collaborate, explore and progress. Palias innovative social matchmaking system ensures that friends and neighbors can always be close by.

Palia also offers a robust set of character creation options that allow players to show off their unique style and creativity. This includes a diverse set of face and skin tone options, hairstyles that can go on any character, and a flexible fashion system. Players can mix and match different components, customize colors and patterns, and save their favorite outfits. So whether they want to be an award winning cook, or the best gardener in the world, its all up to them. New features will be continually added to expand players options.

In Palia, humans are the legendary race, having disappeared thousands of years ago at the height of their grandeur and mastery of magic. Nobody in modern times knows why. Players awaken as human characters without explanation in a quaint village on Palias southern coast where theyll make their home and forge a new future for humanity. Together with a massive online community, players will uncover the secrets to humanity's past through an evolving narrative that will take years to fully unveil.

To learn more about the game, Singularity 6 or to register for Palias Pre-Alpha, coming later this summer, visit http://www.palia.com. Players can join the Palia community on Discord, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to stay up to date on the games progress.

ABOUT SINGULARITY 6

Singularity 6 is a game development studio based in Los Angeles, California. The developer is made up of a diverse group of game industry veterans from leading companies such as Blizzard, Epic, Riot, Zynga and Sony. The studios mission is to forge alternate worlds that deepen players' lives. Inspired by their personal stories of identity, friendship, and online social experiences, Singularity 6 is putting together an immersive online world where players can feel like they truly belong. For more information, please visit https://www.singularity6.com/

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Singularity 6 Reveals First Game, Palia, a Genre-Defining ...

Singularity is a biotic talent in Mass Effect. This gravitational power sucks multiple enemies within a radius to a single area, leaving them floating helplessly and vulnerable to attack. It can also attract objects from the environment, such as crates or pieces of furniture; enemies will take damage if they collide with other solid objects in the Singularity field.

These classes have access to the Singularity talent:

Singularity is a biotic power in Mass Effect 2.

The power launches a dark energy sphere to create an intense mass effect field. The field creates a warp in the space around it, creating a gravity well akin to a black hole. Enemies are drawn into the Singularity and held briefly helpless in orbit while protected enemies are held in place. The singularity will drain any shields, armor, or biotic barriers of enemies over time. Unlike singularity in Mass Effect, any enemy wandering into the gravity well of a singularity after it has been created will also be pulled into orbit.

Note: This power travels in the direction of the cross-hair, arcing towards the target. Upon impact, it will create the Singularity. Liara's Singularity travels in a straight line, instantly creating a singularity at the targeted location.

Rank 4

Choose to evolve the power into one of the following,

Create a sphere of dark energy that traps and dangles enemies caught in its field.

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

Increase Singularity's hold duration by 20%.Increase impact radius by 20%.

Duration

Increase Singularity's hold duration by 30%.Additional enemies can be lifted before Singularity fades.

Radius

Increase impact radius by 25%.

Lift Damage

Inflict 20 damage per second to lifted targets.

Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 30%.

Expand

Expand the Singularity field by 35% for 10 seconds.

Detonate

Detonate Singularity when the field dies to inflict 300 damage across 5 meters.

Create a sphere of dark energy that traps and dangles enemies caught in its field.

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

Increase damage by 20%.

Duration

Increase Singularity's hold duration by 150%.

Radius

Increase impact radius by 35%.

Lift Damage

Inflict 50 damage per second to lifted targets.

Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 35%.

Damage

Increase damage by 50%.

Detonate

Detonate Singularity when the field dies to inflict 500 damage across 7 meters.

More here:

Singularity | Mass Effect Wiki | Fandom

Singularity 6 is a new game developer made up of industry veterans from some of the most well-known names in the business. The team can boast former employers such as Blizzard Entertainment, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Sony. So, youll be forgiven for getting hot under the collar for Singularity 6s first game, Palia, an immersive MMO community simulation game.

Palia is set in a fantasy world that is picturesque and inviting. Youll be able to build a home and a life in the lush green meadows nestled between mountain ranges. Palia will have an evolving narrative that you will be able to experience with other players, as you would expect from an MMO. And, as you explore the world, you will meet and interact with a compelling cast of characters.

Singularity 6s mission is to create more meaningful online experiences with immersive online worlds that make players feel like they truly belong. A social home builder that has you exploring a new world with friends and friends-to-be sounds spot on when it comes to delivering on that mission.

One of the features Singularity 6 noted in the announcement for Palia is that it offers deep customization systems. Starting with the character creation where you will be able to choose from a diverse range of face and skin tones and hairstyles that can go on any character. Character fashion is incredibly flexible. You can mix and match different clothing items and customize colors and patterns.

Who this character youre creating? You play as a human, which doesnt sound particularly special. However, in Palia, the human race disappeared thousands of years ago. The race was at its highest point, having mastered magic. So, what caused the disappearance is a mystery.

As you can see from the trailer above, theres an impressive amount of customization you will be able to do to your new home too. Once, youve built it that is. It looks like youll need to harvest wood, mine ore, and plant a garden to feed yourself. Once youve got some solid walls up, youll be able to furnish it with everything from couches and beds to ornamental lutes.

The game begins with your character waking up in a quiet village on Palias southern coast. Together with the rest of the online community, you will forge a new destiny and build a new home for humanity. As you play, you will uncover the secrets of humanitys past. Singularity 6 says this story will take years to play out. So, buckle in for a long, and probably very pleasant, ride.

Palia also features a Neighborhood system that allows you to create a community of your own within the broader community. Theres also a social matchmaking system that ensures friends and neighbors are always nearby for a mission or chat. You know, social stuff.

If you would like to learn more about Palia or register for the Pre-Alpha coming later this summer, you can visit the games website.

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Singularity 6 reveals friendly MMO community sim Palia as ...

Weve seen countless MMORPGs all vying to be the one that excels in terms of giant raids, precision combat, and engaging progression. Singularity 6s first game, Palia, taps into a different kind of loop. Instead of being focused on character progression by means of weapons, armor, and dragonslaying, Palia aims to get players invested in the charms of farming, relationship building, and decorative finesse. If Palia sounds like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing meets MMO to you, youre not far from the mark. Pre-alpha access is scheduled to land this summer, and you can sign up here. Check out the announcementtrailer!

In Palia, you play as a human in a fledgling world ready for you to shape. And how can you shape it? It starts with your living space, naturally. Every player has their own plot to advance and customize, with over a thousand decoration items available at launch. Naturally, you can invite your friends over to hang out and take in the scenery. Whereas traditional MMORPGs have guilds or clans to join, Palia has neighborhoods. In Neighborhoods, you can group up with other players to take on bigger tasks and objectives and reap the rewards.

While the focus is absolutely on the various tasks of fantasy life like bug catching, hanging out around the campfire, and fishing, there are opportunities for adventurers to go out and mess around with more dangerous fare in the areas outside the complete safety of the village. How deep the battles or hunts with the denizens outdoors go is up to players to decide, but its safe to say that the core focus of Palia lies within the social structures and cozy customization options that are in place for a more relaxed playstyle. There may be a wolfor some other nasty causing trouble far outside town, but you wont have to worry about one of those critters coming in and messing up Smore night with the gang.

Right now, the pre-alpha access is only scheduled for PC, and well have to wait to see if it will come to any other platforms as it gets on a path to release.

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Singularity 6s Palia Is A Relaxing MMO - Game Informer

Game development studio Singularity 6, led by former Riot Games execs Anthony Leung and Aidan Karabaich, has revealed its first game: Palia, a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) community simulation experience.

Humans a the legendary race in the game, having disappeared thousands of years ago without explanation. Players awaken in a quaint, cozy village to discover the secret to humanitys past and engage in a deep narrative. Along the way, they must build a home and forge friendships in a fantastical, Breath of the Wild-like setting that also features a neighborhood system, customization options and a cast of non-playable characters.

We started Singularity 6 to make games that bring people together, said Karabaich, who also serves as Palias game director. Were so excited to invite players into Palia for the first time. Inspired by some of our favorite titles, our game lets you forge your own destiny, exist in a beautiful setting, and give you a sense of being at home. We expect the players to be a huge part of shaping the game, and we cant wait to see what they do in Palia.

Palias pre-Alpha mode will be available later this summer.

Singularity 6 was founded in 2018 and includes developers who formerly worked at Blizzard, Epic Games, Zynga and Sony.

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Palia, New MMO Sim From Singularity 6, Revealed The ...