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Showing posts from December, 2018

Another Monday!

Now school

Another Monday!

Now school

New IFTTT service: Griddy

Griddy Griddy Applets let you automate your devices based on the wholesale price of electricity so you can stay on top of your usage, maximize your savings and help save the planet. Published December 21, 2018 at 09:00AM View Griddy Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Griddy

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Griddy just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2Aanxag

New IFTTT service: Caavo

Caavo [Caavo Control Center](https://www.caavo.com) is an entertainment hub and universal, voice-controlled remote that unites everything connected to your TV. Control Center seamlessly searches, discovers and manages your content across live TV, DVR, streaming services and web content. Using IFTTT, you can create a connected ecosystem for smart home products on your TV using Control Center as a hub. Published December 20, 2018 at 09:14AM View Caavo Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Caavo

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Caavo just launched on IFTTT! https://ifttt.com/caavo

New IFTTT service: MOTION Blinds

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MOTION Blinds just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2A4JibP

New IFTTT service: MOTION Blinds

MOTION Blinds Make your MOTION blinds even smarter by connecting services. Discover a world where blinds are perfectly adapted to the way you want to live. Published December 17, 2018 at 12:00PM View MOTION Blinds Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Agile Octopus

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Agile Octopus just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2CifVnH

New IFTTT service: Agile Octopus

Agile Octopus Save money off your energy bill by making things work when energy prices are low. Published December 17, 2018 at 10:54AM View Agile Octopus Applets on IFTTT

Another Monday!

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Wikipedia article of the day for December 16, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 16, 2018 is Interstate 470 (Ohio–West Virginia) . Interstate 470 (I-470) is a 10.63-mile-long (17.1-kilometer) auxiliary Interstate Highway of I-70 that bypasses the city of Wheeling, West Virginia, in the United States. It is the only auxiliary Interstate Highway in West Virginia. The western terminus of I-470 is an interchange with I-70 in Richland Township, Ohio. Passing southeast through rural Belmont County, I-470 crosses the Ohio River on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, entering Ohio County, West Virginia, at a complex three-level diamond interchange with concurrent highways U.S. Route 250 and West Virginia Route 2. After turning east towards Bethlehem, it terminates at I-70 in West Virginia near Elm Grove. The freeway was built between 1975 and 1983. On average, between 25,500 and 37,840 vehicles use the highway daily. The West Virginia portion of I-470 has been named the USS West Virginia Memorial Highway since December ...

Picture of the day for December 16, 2018

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Baroque domes of Stroganov Church in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.. Learn more .

Picture of the day for December 16, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 16, 2018: Baroque domes of Stroganov Church in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. https://ift.tt/2UOqEO7

prototype: Word of the day for December 16, 2018

prototype , n : An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models. An early sample or model built to test a concept or process. (computing) A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code. (semantics) An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 15, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 15, 2018 is Nothomyrmecia . Nothomyrmecia, the dinosaur ant, has the most primitive body structure among all living ants. First described by the entomologist John S. Clark in 1934, the genus's rediscovery in Poochera, South Australia, in 1977 attracted scientists from around the world. It nests in old-growth mallee and Eucalyptus woodlands. A medium-sized ant, Nothomyrmecia macrops measures 9.7–11 mm (0.38–0.43 in). Mature colonies are very small, with only 50 to 100 individuals. Workers are nocturnal, solitary foragers, collecting arthropod prey and sweet substances such as honeydew. The ants rely on their vision to navigate; there is no evidence that they use chemicals to help them forage. The queen produces just one generation of ants each year, and initially joins the workers in foraging. Colder temperatures aid the ants by inhibiting their competitors and predators, and climate change poses a threat. The International Union ...

Picture of the day for December 15, 2018

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Thudufushi, formerly one of the uninhabited islands of Alif Dhaal Atoll (South Ari Atoll), Maldives, was developed into a 70 room 4 star plus resort in 1990.. Learn more .

sinew: Word of the day for December 15, 2018

sinew , n : (anatomy) A cord or tendon of the body. A cord or string, particularly (music) as of a musical instrument. (figuratively) muscular power, muscle; nerve, nervous energy; vigor, vigorous strength. (figuratively, often in the plural) That which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting factor or member; mainstay.

Picture of the day for December 15, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 15, 2018: Thudufushi, formerly one of the uninhabited islands of Alif Dhaal Atoll (South Ari Atoll), Maldives, was developed into a 70 room 4 star plus resort in 1990. https://ift.tt/2Qz8CRs

New IFTTT service: Wattio SmartHome

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Wattio SmartHome just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2Qx2toV

New IFTTT service: Wattio SmartHome

Wattio SmartHome [Wattio](http://www.wattio.com) allows you to be comfortable, happy and secure in your house in a simple way. Wattio GATE is the central hub where you can check and control all your Wattio appliances in an easy way. Published December 14, 2018 at 09:04AM View Wattio SmartHome Applets on IFTTT

Giant Black Hole Powers Cosmic Fountain

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Before electricity, water fountains worked by relying on gravity to channel water from a higher elevation to a lower one. In space, awesome gaseous fountains have been discovered in the centers of galaxy clusters. via NASA https://ift.tt/2EjJGWF

Swimming on Jupiter

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On October 29, the Juno spacecraft once again dove near the turbulent Jovian cloud tops. Its 16th orbital closest approach or perijove passage, brought Juno within 3,500 kilometers of the Solar System's largest planetary atmosphere. These frames, recorded by JunoCam while the spacecraft cruised 20 - 50 thousand kilometers above the planet's middle southern latitudes, seem to follow a swirling cloud shaped remarkably like a dolphin. Swimming along Jupiter's darker South South Temperate Belt, this dolphin is itself planet-sized though, some thousands of kilometers across. Juno's next perijove passage will be December 21. via NASA https://ift.tt/2QuVigJ

Picture of the day for December 14, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 14, 2018: Sadhu sitting in the ground of Janki Mandir, Janakpurdham Nepal. https://ift.tt/2SLsfCl

Picture of the day for December 14, 2018

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Sadhu sitting in the ground of Janki Mandir, Janakpurdham Nepal.. Learn more .

defervesce: Word of the day for December 14, 2018

defervesce , v : (intransitive, medicine) To experience an abatement or resolution of fever. (intransitive, figuratively) To become less agitated; to cool down.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 14, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 14, 2018 is SY Aurora's drift . The drift of the Antarctic exploration vessel SY Aurora was a 312-day ordeal during the Ross Sea section of Ernest Shackleton's expedition between 1914 and 1917. It began when the ship broke loose from its anchorage in McMurdo Sound during a gale. Caught in heavy pack ice, Aurora was carried into open waters with eighteen men aboard, leaving ten men stranded ashore with meagre provisions. With first officer Joseph Stenhouse in command, the ship suffered severe damage, including the loss of its rudder and anchors. It was finally freed from the ice in March 1916 after it had drifted north of the Antarctic Circle. It was able to reach New Zealand for repairs and resupply before returning to Antarctica to rescue the surviving members of the shore party. Stenhouse was removed from command by the organisers of the Ross Sea party relief expedition, but was later appointed an Officer of the Order of the Bri...

NASA TV to Air International Space Station Crew Landing

Three residents of the International Space Station, including one NASA astronaut, are scheduled to wrap up their stay aboard the orbital laboratory Wednesday, Dec. 19. December 13, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2GeAFk9 via IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Spar Nord

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Spar Nord just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2C9ySc2

New IFTTT service: Spar Nord

Spar Nord Personliggør din bankoplevelse med IFTTT. Spar Nord er en bank, der søger at kombinere nærværende personlig rådgivning og service med tidssvarende og innovative digitale tilbud. Den personlige bank i en digital verden. Published December 13, 2018 at 09:09AM View Spar Nord Applets on IFTTT

Astronauts Anne McClain and Serena Auñón-Chancellor Work Aboard the Station

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NASA astronauts Anne McClain (background) and Serena Auñón-Chancellor are pictured inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory module aboard the International Space Station. via NASA https://ift.tt/2SFSutQ

3D Bennu

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Put on your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 101955 Bennu. Shaped like a spinning top toy with boulders littering its rough surface, the tiny Solar System world is about 1 Empire State Building (less than 500 meters) across. Frames used to construct this 3D anaglyph were taken by PolyCam on board the OSIRIS_REx spacecraft on December 3 from a distance of about 80 kilometers. Now settling in to explore Bennu from orbit, the OSIRIS-REx mission is expected to deliver samples of the asteroid to planet Earth in 2023. Samples of dust from another asteroid will streak through Earth's atmosphere much sooner though, when the Geminid meteor shower peaks in predawn skies on December 14. The parent body for the annual Geminids is asteroid 3200 Phaethon. via NASA https://ift.tt/2QOL766

Picture of the day for December 13, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 13, 2018: Phimeanakas, Khmer temple constructed in the 10th century, but underwent important modifications as it became the official site of king Suryavarman I, located in the ancient city of Angkor, today Cambodia. https://ift.tt/2QNsQpT

Picture of the day for December 13, 2018

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Phimeanakas, Khmer temple constructed in the 10th century, but underwent important modifications as it became the official site of king Suryavarman I, located in the ancient city of Angkor, today Cambodia.. Learn more .

New IFTTT service: Brilliant Smart

Brilliant Smart The Brilliant Smart range covers top popular models of Brilliant Lighting Products, Electrical Products, Air Movement Products and new Home-Security Products. The Brilliant Smart is based on Amazon Cloud support. You can access and control Brilliant Smart devices anywhere on earth as long as there is internet connection. As a part of IoT, all Brilliant Smart devices perfectly integrate with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT and can work with other IoT products. Published December 12, 2018 at 02:54PM View Brilliant Smart Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Brilliant Smart

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Brilliant Smart just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2PAdLDh

plaque: Word of the day for December 13, 2018

plaque , n : (countable) Any flat, thin piece of clay, ivory, metal, etc., used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a dish, plate, slab, etc., hung upon a wall; also, a smaller decoration worn by a person, such as a brooch. (countable) A piece of flat metal with writing on it, attached to a building, monument, or other structure to remind people of a person or an event. (countable, biology) A clearing in a bacterial lawn caused by a virus. (countable, music) In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system: any flat, thin musical instrument. (countable, pathology) A broad patch of abnormal tissue distinguishable from surrounding tissue, especially a broad papule (“inflamed, irritated patch”) on the skin. (countable, uncountable, pathology) An abnormal accumulation of material in or on an organ of the body, often associated with disease. (countable, uncountable, pathology) An accumulation in artery walls made up of macrophage cells and debris containing lipids, (cholesterol ...

Wikipedia article of the day for December 13, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 13, 2018 is Pah Wongso Pendekar Boediman . Pah Wongso Pendekar Boediman (Malay for Pah Wongso the Righteous Warrior) is a 1941 detective film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It follows the schoolmaster and social worker Pah Wongso as he investigates a murder to clear his protégé's name. The first release by Star Film, it featured camerawork by Cho' Chin Hsin and was produced by Jo Eng Sek, who had previously produced Si Tjonat. It stars Pah Wongso (born Louis Wijnhamer), Elly Joenara, and Mohamad Arief. The first film of its genre to be produced in the Indies, Pah Wongso Pendekar Boediman was made to capitalize on the popularity of Wijnhamer and Hollywood characters such as Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto. Released in April 1941 to popular acclaim, it had a mixed critical reception; the reviewer Saeroen suggested that its success was entirely because of its star's renown. Pah Wongso Tersangka, a sequel, was released late...

NASA Contracts for Engineering, Technical Support Services

NASA has selected Analytical Mechanics Associates in Hampton, Virginia, and New Horizons Aeronautics in Chantilly, Virginia, to perform engineering and technical support services (ETSS) for the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. December 12, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2SGOyZV via IFTTT

NASA Awards Contract for Programmatic, Institutional Assessment Capabilities

NASA has awarded a contract to Booz Allen Hamilton of Houston to provide independent programmatic and institutional assessment capabilities at the agency’s Johnson Space Center, also in Houston. December 12, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2LdflKR via IFTTT

Spirit of Apollo - 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8 at the Washington National Cathedral

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The Washington National Cathedral is seen lit up with space imagery prior to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Spirit of Apollo event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. via NASA https://ift.tt/2RWygvR

Picture of the day for December 12, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 12, 2018: Madonna (1895–1902) is the usual title given to a composition by the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944). Color lithograph from Munch Museum. https://ift.tt/2EgIQdd

Picture of the day for December 12, 2018

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Madonna (1895–1902) is the usual title given to a composition by the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944). Color lithograph from Munch Museum.. Learn more .

fard: Word of the day for December 12, 2018

fard , v : (transitive, archaic) To paint, as the cheeks or face. (transitive, archaic) To embellish or gloss over.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 12, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 12, 2018 is Laurence Olivier . Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also played more than fifty roles in a long film career. In 1930 he had a West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970). Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later fi...

New IFTTT service: Smart Home Solution

Smart Home Solution Control your home system with the Smart Home Solution provided by A1 Telekom Austria Group. It is the first smart system for homes that senses with a geo-aware app when the last person leaves the house arms the alarm system and turns down the temperature to save energy. With its fully automatic and self-learning control mechanism, Smart Home Solution not only makes everyday life easier, it makes your home more safe and comfortable. Published December 11, 2018 at 01:10PM View Smart Home Solution Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Smart Home Solution

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Smart Home Solution just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2zX62dz

ICESat-2 Reveals Profile of Ice Sheets

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Less than three months into its mission, NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is already exceeding scientists’ expectations. via NASA https://ift.tt/2QrCRJM

New IFTTT service: BroadLink Smart Home for EU

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BroadLink Smart Home for EU just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2SCSmv6

New IFTTT service: BroadLink Smart Home for EU

BroadLink Smart Home for EU BroadLink Smart Home for EU lets you control and customize your home experience. With BroadLink smart gadgets including smart plug, smart bulb, universal remote etc. you can manage every home appliance seamlessly. Use the triggers, actions and voice control with Alexa/Google/IFTTT to tune anytime from anywhere. Published December 10, 2018 at 07:20PM View BroadLink Smart Home for EU Applets on IFTTT

Wikipedia article of the day for December 11, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 11, 2018 is Benjamin Tillman . Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918) was the Democratic Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894 and a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A white supremacist who opposed civil rights for blacks, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. One of his legacies was South Carolina's 1895 constitution, which disenfranchised most of the black majority and ensured white rule for more than half a century. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he frequently ridiculed blacks, and boasted of having helped to kill them during the 1876 campaign. He was known as "Pitchfork Ben" after he threatened to use a pitchfork to prod that "bag of beef", President Grover Cleveland. He was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act (1907), the first federal campaign finance reform law, which banned corporate contributions in federal political campa...

Picture of the day for December 11, 2018

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Post Tower, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Learn more .

Picture of the day for December 11, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 11, 2018: Post Tower, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany https://ift.tt/2C2ms5X

elevenses: Word of the day for December 11, 2018

elevenses , n : (Britain, informal) A short mid-morning break taken around eleven o'clock for a drink or light snack.

New IFTTT service: Bucky

Bucky Bucky is an educational toy to learn basics of robotics, programming and the Internet of Things (IoT) Published December 10, 2018 at 12:01PM View Bucky Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Bucky

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Bucky just launched on IFTTT! https://ifttt.com/Bucky

NASA’s Newly Arrived OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Already Discovers Water on Asteroid

Recently analyzed data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu. December 10, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2zSpNCZ via IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Hive View Outdoor

Hive View Outdoor Hive View Outdoor is our smart outdoor security camera, with automatic night vision, HD live streaming and person detection. Published December 10, 2018 at 09:06AM View Hive View Outdoor Applets on IFTTT

New IFTTT service: Hive View Outdoor

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Hive View Outdoor just launched on IFTTT! https://ift.tt/2C2wwf6

Media Invited to News Conference, Interviews with Next Space Station Crew

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Hammock Koch will discuss their upcoming mission to the International Space Station in a news conference at 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 12, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. December 10, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2QIQ6W1 via IFTTT

Viewing the Approach of SpaceX's Dragon to the Space Station

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International Space Station Commander Alexander Gerst viewed SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft chasing the orbital laboratory on Dec. 8, 2018 and took a series of photos. via NASA https://ift.tt/2Qpx8nM

NASA’s Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space

For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. December 10, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2L6qgpC via IFTTT

Another Monday!

Now school

Sound and Light Captured by Mars InSight

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Your arm on Mars has unusual powers. For one thing it is nearly 2 meters long, has a scoop and grapple built into its hand, and has a camera built into its forearm. For another, it will soon deploy your ear -- a sensitive seismometer that will listen for distant rumblings -- onto the surface of Mars. Your SEISmomet-ear is the orange box in the foreground, while the gray dome behind it will be its protective cover. Your arm is attached to the InSight robotic lander that touched down on Mars two weeks ago. Somewhat unexpectedly, your ear has already heard something -- slight vibrations caused by the Martian wind flowing over the solar panels. Light from the Sun is being collected by the solar panels, part of one being visible on the far right. Actually, at the present time, you have two arms operating on Mars, but they are separated by about 600 kilometers. That's because your other active arm is connected to the Curiosity rover exploring a distant crater. Taken a week ago, rusty so...

Wikipedia article of the day for December 10, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 10, 2018 is Enrico Fermi . Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) was an Italian-American physicist who was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics. He created the world's first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and is one of 16 scientists who have elements named after them. One of the few physicists to excel in both theoretical and experimental work, he made significant contributions to quantum theory, statistical mechanics, and nuclear and particle physics. He helped formulate the Fermi–Dirac statistics for particles that obey Wolfgang Pauli's exclusion principle, called "fermions". His theory of beta decay correctly predicted that a particle he named the "neutrino" would be emitted along with an electron, satisfying the law of conservation of energy. He left Italy in 1938 to escape Italian Racial Laws that affected his Jewish wife Laura, and emigrated to the United States. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World Wa...

Picture of the day for December 10, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 10, 2018: Interior of Neuberg Abbey Church in Neuberg an der Mürz, Styria, Austria https://ift.tt/2EaGw7w

Picture of the day for December 10, 2018

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Interior of Neuberg Abbey Church in Neuberg an der Mürz, Styria, Austria. Learn more .

deperm: Word of the day for December 10, 2018

deperm , v : (transitive, chiefly nautical) To degauss or demagnetize; especially, to degauss a ship by dragging a large powered electrical cable along its side.

Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash

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Some night skies are serene and passive -- others shimmer and flash. The later, in the form of auroras and meteors, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on 2009 December 13. This 30 second long exposure records a shimmering auroral glow gently lighting the wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, the image also captures the sudden flash of a fireball meteor from the excellent Geminid meteor shower of 2009. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini, off the top of the view. Both auroras and meteors occur in Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so, but aurora caused by energetic charged particles from the magnetosphere, while meteors are trails of cosmic dust. Nine years after this photograph was taken, toward the end of this week, the yearly 2018 Geminids meteor shower will peak again, although this time their flashes will compete with the din of a half-lit f...

Picture of the day for December 9, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 9, 2018: A typical courtyard on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. https://ift.tt/2GjCwEH

Wikipedia article of the day for December 9, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 9, 2018 is Brachiosaurus . Brachiosaurus (from Greek for "arm lizard") was a sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Jurassic, about 154–153 million years ago. The genus was first described by American paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Colorado River valley in western Colorado. Only a few other specimens of Brachiosaurus are known to exist, making it one of the rarer sauropods of the Morrison Formation. It was probably between 18 and 21 meters (59 and 69 ft) long; weight estimates range from 28.3 to 58 metric tons (31.2 to 63.9 short tons). Like other sauropods, it was a large dinosaur with a long neck and small skull; atypically, it had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, a steeply inclined trunk, and a proportionally shorter tail. It was a high browser, possibly cropping or nipping vegetation up to 9 meters (30 ft) off the ground. Initially thought to be one of the l...

Picture of the day for December 9, 2018

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A typical courtyard on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia.. Learn more .

dame: Word of the day for December 9, 2018

dame , n : (Britain) Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight. (Britain) A matron at a school, especially Eton College. (Britain, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag. (US, dated, informal, slightly derogatory) A woman. (archaic) A lady, a woman. English actress Dame Judi Dench was born on this day in 1934. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988.

Tiny Planet Timelapse

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You can pack a lot of sky watching into 30 seconds on this tiny planet. Of course, the full spherical image timelapse video was recorded on planet Earth, from Grande Pines Observatory outside Pinehurst, North Carolina. It was shot in early September with a single camera and circular fisheye lens, digitally combining one 24-hour period with camera and lens pointed up with one taken with camera and lens pointed down. The resulting image data is processed and projected onto a flat frame centered on the nadir, the point directly below the camera. Watch as clouds pass, shadows creep, and the sky cycles from day to night when stars swirl around the horizon. Keep watching, though. In a second sequence the projected center is the south celestial pole, planet Earth's axis of rotation below the tiny planet horizon. Holding the stars fixed, the horizon itself rotates as the tiny planet swings around the frame, hiding half the sky through day and night. via NASA https://ift.tt/2PoHhfe

Wikipedia article of the day for December 8, 2018

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The Wikipedia article of the day for December 8, 2018 is Japanese battleship Nagato . Nagato was a super-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, completed in 1920 as the lead ship of her class. She carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. The ship briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but did not participate in the attack itself. Apart from picking up survivors after the Battle of Midway, the ship spent most of the first two years of the Pacific War training in home waters. She was attacked by American aircraft in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, but did not fire her main armament against enemy vessels until the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. She was lightly damaged during the battle, but the navy was running out of fuel and did not fully repair her. The only Japanese battleship to survive World War II, the ship ...

Picture of the day for December 8, 2018

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Winged altar at the pilgrimage church Maria Gail, municipality of Villach, Carinthia, Austria. Anonymous master of the Villach Workshop, around 1515.. Learn more .

Picture of the day for December 8, 2018

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Wikipedia picture of the day on December 8, 2018: Winged altar at the pilgrimage church Maria Gail, municipality of Villach, Carinthia, Austria. Anonymous master of the Villach Workshop, around 1515. https://ift.tt/2G4peLZ

irregardless: Word of the day for December 8, 2018

irregardless , adj : (nonstandard, proscribed, sometimes humorous) Irrespective, regardless.

NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which touched down on Mars just 10 days ago, has provided the first ever "sounds" of Martian winds on the Red Planet. A media teleconference about these sounds will be held today at 12:30 p.m. EST (9:30 a.m. PST). December 07, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2rpbWiW via IFTTT

Astronaut Anne McClain's First Voyage to the Space Station

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"Putting this journey into words will not be easy, but I will try. I am finally where I was born to be," said astronaut Anne McClain of her first voyage to space. via NASA https://ift.tt/2Qi3MaR

NASA TV to Air ‘Spirit of Apollo’ Tribute from National Cathedral

This month marks the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 8 mission, which was the first to bring humans to another world as they orbited the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. December 07, 2018 from NASA https://ift.tt/2L0J9dq via IFTTT

December s Comet Wirtanen

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Coming close in mid-December, Comet 46P Wirtanen hangs in this starry sky over the bell tower of a Romanesque church. In the constructed vertical panorama, a series of digital exposures capture its greenish coma on December 3 from Sant Llorenc de la Muga, Girona, Catalonia, Spain, planet Earth. With an orbital period that is now about 5.4 years, the periodic comet's perihelion, its closest approach, to the Sun will be on December 12. On December 16 it will be closest to Earth, passing at a distance of about 11.6 million kilometers or 39 light-seconds. That's close for a comet, a mere 30 times the Earth-Moon distance. A good binocular target for comet watchers, Wirtanen could be visible to the unaided eye from a dark sky site. To spot it after dusk on December 16, look close on the sky to the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. via NASA https://ift.tt/2REMj9j