Location: Main Library- BP130.4.K87 2002

Is Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS falling apart? How bright will it likely get? We try to answer those questions and more.

The post Status Report and Expectations for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A new brightness forecast for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS whets our hopes for a fine appearance in late September and early October.

The post Update: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Might Outshine Predictions appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

An updated forecast predicts observers across the northern and central U.S. may see the aurora two nights in a row — on Oct. 4th and 5th — in the wake of one of the Sun's most powerful flares this solar cycle.

The post Second Chance: Solar Flare Might Spark Aurora Friday and Saturday Night appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Moon starts the week low in twilight with Venus and Spica, then steps eastward past Antares and the Sagittarius Teapot. Meanwhile, the recurrent nova in Corona Borealis is still keeping us waiting.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 6 – 15 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Moon occults Saturn before dawn on Tuesday morning, then the Moon skims the edge of Earth's shadow for a partial lunar eclipse that evening. Meanwhile, Jupiter and Mars shine in fine view late at night.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 13 – 22 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In this dark-of-the-Moon week, the Cygnus Milky Way crosses the zenith, and Arcturus, Capella, and Fomalhaut come to a certain balance.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 20 – 29 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

On these moonless evenings, Cassiopeia shows some of its inner workings. The Circlet of Pisces offers a very red star next to a little-known cross. From Vega, Lyra points away from the head of Draco.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 27 – October 6 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waxing crescent Moon passes Venus, then Antares, in the western twilight. Several days later, Comet Tsuchinshan starts stealing the twilight show for everyone in the world's north temperate latitudes!

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 4 – 13 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS enters its week of glory for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Don't let any clear twilight slip by!

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 11 – 20 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has delighted observers already, but its morning run was only a warm-up — wait till you see what's coming.

The post Get Ready for Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS — The Best Is Yet to Come! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Treat yourself to a comet bright enough to see plainly even in moonlight. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS beckons at dusk!

The post Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Climbs, Brightens and Delights! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS fades and shrinks as it rises high into a darker sky. Venus passes Antares. The waning Moon passes the Pleiades, Jupiter, and Mars. Arcturus becomes the Ghost of Summer Suns.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 18 – 27 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

We check in with the brightest comet of the year and see what's next, plus an update on Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1), which still shows signs of life.

The post Grab Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS by the Tail appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Fading Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS poses high in a moonless sky for its fans with binoculars and telescopes, even as we wave farewell for at least a hundred thousand years, maybe forever. Meanwhile four brighter, more permanent members of the solar system await attention.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 25 – November 3 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The thin crescent Moon pairs beautifully with Venus low in Monday's twilight. And be on the lookout for any Taurid fireballs this week!

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 1 – 10 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have identified a distant stellar tagalong to the binary system V404 Cygni.

The post Newfound Stellar Companion May Explain Black Hole System appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Scientists have found possibly the oldest and largest crater on Venus — and it's like none they've ever seen on our sister planet.

The post Oldest and Largest Impact Crater Found on Venus appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Take a flight through Grus, one of the famous “southern birds” constellations.

The post Get to Know the Southern Constellation Grus, the Crane appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Exotic magnetars make brief, powerful flashes of radio waves — but a new discovery suggests there may be more than one way to make a magnetar.

The post A Radio Burst from a Giant "Dead" Galaxy appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The stars betray that we've tipped from the season of warm evenings to the cold (or at least crisp). And the Moon this week skims Saturn, then the Pleiades.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 8 – 17 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

[First published on Antiwar.com.]

[“I have an amendment at the desk.” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan introduces a proposal from the Selective Service System to automate draft registration in the House Armed Services Committee, May 22, 2024.]

Under fire for proposing an ill-considered amendment to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to “automatically” register all young men in the U.S. for a possible military draft, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) has issued a statement that casts more doubt on her understanding of the current draft law and on the wisdom of her proposed changes to Selective Service registration.

Rep. Houlahan starts by claiming that “This new legislation saves taxpayers significant money.” But there’s absolutely no evidence to support this claim.

[I'm often asked, "Why should we care about draft registration if there isn't going to be a draft?" In the article below, which was first published earlier today on Antiwar.com, I look at what war planners say about why draft registration is an important weapon in the arsenal of military strategy, even if there isn't going to be a draft -- and what that says about why draft registration ought to be equally important to antiwar activists, even when an actual draft isn't active or likely.]

[Stages of mobilization for war. Image from CNAS report based on Department of Defense mobilization plan. Note the absence of a Congressional declaration of war at any stage up to and including total military mobilization.]

A new report released 18 June 2024 by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) provides a remarkably candid window into the flawed and dangerous thinking of military strategists who support continual "readiness" for an on-demand military draft, even while they claim -- perhaps truthfully -- not to prefer a draft, even as Plan B, but only as Plan F for "Fallback" in case of prolonged and total war. (Thanks to longtime anti-draft activist Eric Garris of Antiwar.com for bringing this report to my attention.)

The CNAS report is intended to show supporters of the current bipartisan mainstream U.S. foreign policy and military consensus why the U.S. should step up planning and preparation for a draft as a tool of deterrence. But for those outside that consensus who think current U.S. policy is already bellicose enough, especially those who assume that opposing draft registration and other steps toward readiness for a draft should be a low priority for antiwar activists because the U.S. will never again (or at least not soon) activate a draft, the CNAS report provides an important lesson in how preparedness for a draft is itself a tool of war, even in "peacetime".

The CNAS report shows how its authors want to use readiness for a draft, and the circumstances in which they think it should be used.

The fundamental argument of the CNAS report is that a "credible" capability to quickly activate a draft is an important deterrent, especially to other great-power military "peers" and potential adversaries.

As with nuclear weapons, to speak of readiness for a draft as a deterrent is another way to speak of preparation for a draft as a threat. As also with nuclear weapons, that threat is itself a weapon.

Preparation for a draft is used as a weapon when it is used to threaten escalating war to another level of death and destruction, even when that threat isn't carried out. The "credibility" of U.S. readiness to implement a draft -- stressed repeatedly in the CNAS report -- is relevant only to the use of that readiness for a draft as a threat.

Proponents of draft registration and readiness for a draft such as the authors of the CNAS report argue that if, and only if, the great-power enemies of the U.S. believe that we are able and willing to activate a draft, we can use that threat of draft-enabled rapid and total military escalation and total war as a tool of diplomatic and military policy.

Resistance to planning and preparation for a draft is thus a way to rein in those policies that are based on the ability to rush into total war, and the threat to do so.

[Originally published by Responsible Statecraft, the journal of the Quincy Institute]

How did this suddenly become the summer of “the draft”?

There are a number of proposals in the annual defense policy bill (National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA) that deal with the subject. There is one to expand Selective Service registration to women. Another that would make Selective Service registration for American men "automatic."

Still another proposed amendment to the NDAA, which has also been introduced as a freestanding bill, S. 4881, would repeal the Military Selective Service Act entirely. Meanwhile, the Center for a New American Security just published an exhaustive blueprint for modernizing mobilization, including readiness to activate conscription.

All this talk has compelled “fact checkers” to insist that no, the U.S. government isn’t suddenly "laying the groundwork" for a draft.

But saying the U.S. isn’t preparing for a draft is like saying it isn’t preparing for nuclear war. Just as the Department of Defense is tasked with maintaining readiness to initiate nuclear strikes whenever the Commander-In-Chief so orders, the Selective Service System has the sole mission of maintaining readiness to hold a draft lottery within five days and start selecting draftees and sending out notices to report for induction whenever Congress and the President so order.

As such, there are currently ten thousand draft board members who have been appointed and trained to adjudicate claims for deferment or exemption. As recently as this month, states have been openly seeking volunteers to fill empty slots. And both the SSS and hawkish think-tanks have been war-gaming the government’s contingency plans to activate a draft.

[Timeline for a draft, counting from “Mobilization Day” (M=0), from SSS Agency Response Plan (ARP) Workshop (September 7, 2023)]

There’s room for argument about how likely it is that the U.S. would launch nuclear missiles or activate a draft. But there’s no question that it’s planning and preparing for both, as it has been for decades. It would seem that after years of atrophy, the government is stepping up its attention to military mobilization and readiness for a draft.

Maybe it’s time to ask whether more easy and efficient ways of tapping into human capital for war make it easier to get into one and whether it is in our best interest to do so.

Library - Art Library, Location - OSIZ, Call number - FOLIO ND621.V5 H63 2015

Library - Art Library, Location - OSIZ, Call number - FOLIO NA2890 .V55 2008

Library - Art Library, Location - OSIZ, Call number - FOLIO N6538.N5 C654 2016

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - N6888.A56 A4 2016

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - N6604.M37 C33 2015

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - Video record 43520 DVD

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - BF789.C7 P3813 2009

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - ND237.M41183 A4 2016

Library - Art Library, Location - LIB, Call number - N7153.T33 A4 2016

Project Description:We are seeking a skilled PCB designer for a project involving the design and layout of a PCB that will incorporate Solid-State Relays (SSRs) for AC and DC voltage control. This board will not include any FPGA components or software; it will strictly focus on SSR relays for machine operations.Project Scope:Design a PCB containing SSRs, intended as part of an ongoing machine project.Collaborate with an internal team working on an existing machine that currently operates with...

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Location: Sciences Library Library- RC78.7.D53B56 2012

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After the widely-heralded circulation and revocation of one AACS key, Ed Felten ran a satirical integer sale on his Freedom-to-Tinker blog. Now it seems one of the commenters decided to hide another processor key there, BoingBoing reports.

Of course, the odds are basically zero if the number was chosen at random. You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot four days in a row. So, for more than a week, everyone who read the comment assumed that it was just another joke. But one thing about it was different: the cryptic hint to arnezami, a "uv" number, a pointer to a specific key within the AACS keyspace.

You can probably guess the rest of the story. Eventually someone tipped off arnezami about the strange comment, and he tried using the 45 5F … number to decrypt the new discs. It worked! It really is the new processing key. As a result, all HD-DVDs are open to the public again, at least until new titles can be updated once more.

Should blog-owners start to worry that their comment forums will earn them takedowns? I don't think so, but the law is remarkably unclear, as I wrote in a piece, Anticircumvention Takedowns, LinuxWorld just published, describing the last round of AACS-key purges:

Note that this claimed contribution to circumvention is a degree further removed from underlying copyright harm than a contributory infringement. The claim is not that hosts assisted in unlawful copying, but that they assisted in distribution of a component of a tool with which others might circumvent technological measures and thereby access copyrighted works or infringe copyright. That's a lot of layers of indirection, and courts have never yet adopted a “contributory circumvention” claim.

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