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The distinctive blue bubble appearing to encircle WR 31a is a Wolf–Rayet nebula — an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other gases. Created when speedy stellar winds interact with the outer layers of hydrogen ejected by Wolf–Rayet stars, these nebulae are frequently ring-shaped or spherical. via NASA http://ift.tt/1oEvGez

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NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is photographed at her desk at Langley Research Center in 1966. Johnson made critical technical contributions during her career of 33 years, which included calculating the trajectory of the 1961 flight of Alan Shepard. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Nov. 24, 2015. via NASA http://ift.tt/1QgSqsn

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Expedition 46 crew member Tim Peake of the European Space Agency (ESA) shared a stunning image of a glowing aurora taken on Feb. 23, 2016, from the International Space Station. Peake wrote, "The @Space_Station just passed straight through a thick green fog of #aurora…eerie but very beautiful. #Principia" via NASA http://ift.tt/1Qyiuyk

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This image, acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows the glaciers of Sierra de Sangra on Jan. 14, 2015. Snow and ice are blue in these false-color images, which use different wavelengths to better differentiate areas of ice, rock, and vegetation. via NASA http://ift.tt/1T4g2qg

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Before the NSA deletes this post, we’ll be clear: We’re talking about a model of a nuclear reactor, not the real thing. Using Legos, [wgurecky] built a point kinetic reactor model that interfaces with the reactor simulator, pyReactor.

Even without the Lego, the Python code demonstrates reactor control in several modes. In power control mode, the user sets a power output, and the reactor attempts to maintain it. In control rod mode, the user can adjust the position of the control rods and see the results.

If things get out of hand, there’s a SCRAM button to shut the reactor …read more

from Hackaday http://ift.tt/1LDBfiH
via IFTTT

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LAST MONTH, I met Edward Snowden in a hotel in central Moscow, just blocks away from Red Square.

More via: Edward Snowden Explains How To Reclaim Your Privacy

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We're just a few days from the 10th anniversary of Kitzmiller v Dover, the case that declared teaching intelligent design in science classrooms an unconstitutional imposition of religion.

More via: An evolutionary analysis of anti-evolution legislation

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Didn't get tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Can't wait until Thursday to find out what happens? Here's seven spoiler-ish guesses about the new movie that's got everyone clicking-mad online (thanks for stopping by ;-):

1. Kylo Ren‬ & ‪Finn‬ are ‪‎General Leia‬'s sons by ‪Lando Calrissian‬ and ‪Rey‬ is her daughter by ‪Han Solo‬.

2. What if, in the new #StarWars film, ‪#‎LukeSkywalker‬ introduces a new generation to the ‪#‎Jedi‬ way, then dies like ‪#‎ObiWonKenobi‬?.

3. ‪After fixing the ‪#‎MillenniumFalcon‬ reactor core Han Solo dies‬ inside it with his hand on the glass door waving to #LukeSkywalker.

4. What if, in the new #StarWars film, #Finn & #Rey's search for Crystal Skull of ‪#‎DarthVader‬ takes them to Peru w/ a whip, fedora & pistol?

5. In ‪#‎StarWarsForceAwakens‬ #Finn & #Rey race spare-part jalopies across the post-apocalyptic dessert of Jakku chased by fuel-hungry mauraders.

6. In #StarWarsForceAwakens Han & Chewie "get the gang back together" to strike one last Kessel Run off their bucket list before retirement.

7. #StarWarsForceAwakens is a coming-of-age rom-com about ‪#‎BB8‬ exploring existence while his owner #Rey falls in love w/ Steve Guttenberg.

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After a year spent in the eye of a storm of protests across America, the activist talks about the new civil-rights movement he helped launch, the conspiracy theories he’s inspired, and that blue vest.

More via: In Conversation With DeRay Mckesson

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Web Poets’ Society: New Breed Succeeds in Taking Verse Viral - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/business/media/web-poets-society-new-breed-succeeds-in-taking-verse-viral.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Touchscreen Raspberry Pi Music & Print Server With Volumio & CUPS

I picked up a Raspberry Pi Model B+ a while back and had been looking for a project to build with it. We moved into a new office around the time the new official Touchscreen debuted. Combining the two into a touchscreen office music and print server seemed the perfect project.

This build is based on the standard Raspbian Jessie OS, and includes ssh and vnc for remote management, the CUPS print server, and the awesome Volumio audiophile player.  Volumio is typically distributed as it's own stripped-down Raspbian-lite image, but given the other things I'm asking the Pi to do, I went with the full Raspbian OS, removed space-consuming apps I didn't need, then installed the Volumio app on top. The hardware I used includes:

  1. Raspberry Pi Model B+ - obviously
  2. 7" Touchscreen - new from the official Pi Swag store
  3. Two 5v 1Amp power supplies - one for the PI and one for the Touchscreen. I used a matching pair from old cellphones
  4. PNY 32Gig USB Thumbdrive - chosen for it's small physical size; I found one for $15 at a local office supply store
  5. SanDisk 16Gig MicroSD - from the spare bin, but new costs only $8 or so
  6. Brother HL-L2300D printer - black&white & USB-only, but it's high-speed, small footprint, and prints double-sided. I got it for $45 in a 1-day Amazon sale
  7. DKight MagicBox speaker - We have several of these and they sound great in small spaces like our office
  8. GMYLE USB Keyboard - Optional since you'll remote in via ssh and vnc most of the time

The two power supplies are crucial (I learned). You could daisy-chain the Pi to the graphics board of the Touchscreen and power them from one AC plug, but there won't be enough amperage left to reliably power the USB hub. I assembled the whole server four or five times before I realized that plugging the keyboard or the printer in could knock the thumb drive holding the music offline. By powering the Touchscreen and Pi separately, the Pi has enough power for the thumb-drive, speaker, keyboard, and printer connection (the printer powers itself, naturally).

Along the way, I also tried a lot of software build instructions online. The build steps below and their related links represent the best of what I found. Following these steps should get your system up and running in about three hours depending on the speed at which you can download disk images and updates. The steps are:

  1. Assemble the Pi and Touchscreen hardware per these instructions, add USB devices, plug in an Ethernet cable
  2. Prepare the MicroSD card w/ the Raspbian Jessie OS image; format the USB thumbdrive as FAT32 and copy your music collection to it
  3. Insert the MicroSD chip in the Pi, power it on, then:
    1. change the default password via the command: sudo passwd pi
    2. set the root password via the command: sudo passwd root
  4. The current OS vertically inverts the display by accident, but you can fix it in three simple commands: https://github.com/remonlam/rpi-touch-display-fix
  5. Setup vnc so remote GUI access is available at boot: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/
  6. Remove space-consuming programs you may not need via four commands (strung together using &&): sudo apt-get remove --purge minecraft-pi -y && sudo apt-get remove --purge wolfram-engine -y && sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice -y && sudo apt-get autoremove
  7. Configure locale, timezone, and resize the filesystem to use the entire capacaity of your MicroSD: sudo raspi-config
  8. Update the OS and firmware via three commands: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo rpi-update
  9. Install the Iceweasel browser and full-screen plugins that will serve as Volumio's GUI: http://www.vatofknow.com/?p=932
  10. Install & setup Volumio: http://rataks.com/blog/volumio-on-raspberry-pi-2-with-sainsmart-7-inch-touch-screen-lcd.html BUT:
    1. ignore instructions for setting up touchscreen (they refer to a different hardware component)
    2. Replace fstab entries with those appropriate to your USB devices
  11. Setup CUPS: http://www.howtogeek.com/169679/how-to-add-a-printer-to-your-raspberry-pi-or-other-linux-computer/

That's it. If you do this build, let me know what I left out or what you learn in the process.

 

- digittante