#array detector

[ctniu2leyy]

https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/electromechanical--circuit-protection--tvs-diodes/sznup2105lt1g-onsemi-9035383

What is a transient voltage suppressor diode, TVS surge protection diode

SZNUP Series 350 W 32 V Surface Mount Dual Line CAN Bus Protector - SOT-23

[jcmarchi]

With inspiration from “Tetris,” MIT researchers develop a better radiation detector

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/with-inspiration-from-tetris-mit-researchers-develop-a-better-radiation-detector/

With inspiration from “Tetris,” MIT researchers develop a better radiation detector

The spread of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in 2011 and the ongoing threat of a possible release of radiation from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex in the Ukrainian war zone have underscored the need for effective and reliable ways of detecting and monitoring radioactive isotopes. Less dramatically, everyday operations of nuclear reactors, mining and processing of uranium into fuel rods, and the disposal of spent nuclear fuel also require monitoring of radioisotope release.

Now, researchers at MIT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have come up with a computational basis for designing very simple, streamlined versions of sensor setups that can pinpoint the direction of a distributed source of radiation. They also demonstrated that by moving that sensor around to get multiple readings, they can pinpoint the physical location of the source. The inspiration for their clever innovation came from a surprising source: the popular computer game “Tetris.”

The team’s findings, which could likely be generalized to detectors for other kinds of radiation, are described in a paper published in Nature Communications, by MIT professors Mingda Li, Lin-Wen Hu, Benoit Forget, and Gordon Kohse; graduate students Ryotaro Okabe and Shangjie Xue; research scientist Jayson Vavrek SM ’16, PhD ’19 at LBNL; and a number of others at MIT and Lawrence Berkeley.

Radiation is usually detected using semiconductor materials, such as cadmium zinc telluride, that produce an electrical response when struck by high-energy radiation such as gamma rays. But because radiation penetrates so readily through matter, it’s difficult to determine the direction that signal came from with simple counting. Geiger counters, for example, simply provide a click sound when receiving radiation, without resolving the energy or type, so finding a source requires moving around to try to find the maximum sound, similarly to how handheld metal detectors work. The process requires the user to move closer to the source of radiation, which can add risk.

To provide directional information from a stationary device without getting too close, researchers use an array of detector grids along with another grid called a mask, which imprints a pattern on the array that differs depending on the direction of the source. An algorithm interprets the different timings and intensities of signals received by each separate detector or pixel. This often leads to a complex design of detectors.  

Typical detector arrays for sensing the direction of radiation sources are large and expensive and include at least 100 pixels in a 10 by 10 array. However, the group found that using as few as four pixels arranged in the tetromino shapes of the figures in the “Tetris” game can come close to matching the accuracy of the large, expensive systems. The key is proper computerized reconstruction of the angles of arrival of the rays, based on the times each sensor detects the signal and the relative intensity each one detects, as reconstructed through an AI-guided study of simulated systems.

Of the different configurations of four pixels the researchers tried — square, or S-, J- or T-shaped — they found through repeated experiments that the most precise results were provided by the S-shaped array. This array gave directional readings that were accurate to within about 1 degree, but all three of the irregular shapes performed better than the square. This approach, Li says, “was literally inspired by ‘Tetris.’”

Key to making the system work is placing an insulating material such as a lead sheet between the pixels to increase the contrast between radiation readings coming into the detector from different directions. The lead between the pixels in these simplified arrays serves the same function as the more elaborate shadow masks used in the larger-array systems. Less symmetrical arrangements, the team found, provide more useful information from a small array, explains Okabe, who is the lead author of the work.

“The merit of using a small detector is in terms of engineering costs,” he says. Not only are the individual detector elements expensive, typically made of cadmium-zinc-telluride, or CZT, but all of the interconnections carrying information from those pixels also become much more complex. “The smaller and simpler the detector is, the better it is in terms of applications,” adds Li.

While there have been other versions of simplified arrays for radiation detection, many are only effective if the radiation is coming from a single localized source. They can be confused by multiple sources or those that are spread out in space, while the “Tetris”-based version can handle these situations well, adds Xue, co-lead author of the work.

In a single-blind field test at the Berkeley Lab with a real cesium radiation source, led by Vavrek, where the researchers at MIT did not know the ground-truth source location, a test device was performed with high accuracy in finding the direction and distance to the source. 

“Radiation mapping is of utmost importance to the nuclear industry, as it can help rapidly locate sources of radiation and keep everyone safe,” says co-author Forget, an MIT professor of nuclear engineering and head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Vavrek, another co-lead-author, says that while in their study they focused on gamma-ray sources, he believes the computational tools they developed to extract directional information from the limited number of pixels are “much, much more general.” It isn’t restricted to certain wavelengths, it can also be used for neutrons, or even other forms of light, ultraviolet light, adds Hu, a senior scientist at MIT Nuclear Reactor Lab.

Nick Mann, a scientist with the Defense Systems branch at the Idaho National Laboratory, says, “This work is critical to the U.S. response community and the ever-increasing threat of a radiological incident or accident.”

Additional research team members include Ryan Pavlovsky, Victor Negut, Brian Quiter, and Joshua Cates at Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory, and Jiankai Yu, Tongtong Liu, Stephanie Jegelka at MIT. The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

[nasa]

Navigating Deep Space by Starlight

On August 6, 1967, astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a blip in her radio telescope data. And then another. Eventually, Bell Burnell figured out that these blips, or pulses, were not from people or machines.

The blips were constant. There was something in space that was pulsing in a regular pattern, and Bell Burnell figured out that it was a pulsar: a rapidly spinning neutron star emitting beams of light. Neutron stars are superdense objects created when a massive star dies. Not only are they dense, but neutron stars can also spin really fast! Every star we observe spins, and due to a property called angular momentum, as a collapsing star gets smaller and denser, it spins faster. It’s like how ice skaters spin faster as they bring their arms closer to their bodies and make the space that they take up smaller.

The pulses of light coming from these whirling stars are like the beacons spinning at the tops of lighthouses that help sailors safely approach the shore. As the pulsar spins, beams of radio waves (and other types of light) are swept out into the universe with each turn. The light appears and disappears from our view each time the star rotates.

After decades of studying pulsars, astronomers wondered—could they serve as cosmic beacons to help future space explorers navigate the universe? To see if it could work, scientists needed to do some testing!

First, it was important to gather more data. NASA’s NICER, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a telescope that was installed aboard the International Space Station in 2017. Its goal is to find out things about neutron stars like their sizes and densities, using an array of 56 special X-ray concentrators and sensitive detectors to capture and measure pulsars’ light.

But how can we use these X-ray pulses as navigational tools? Enter SEXTANT, or Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology. If NICER was your phone, SEXTANT would be like an app on it.  

During the first few years of NICER’s observations, SEXTANT created an on-board navigation system using NICER’s pulsar data. It worked by measuring the consistent timing between each pulsar’s pulses to map a set of cosmic beacons.

When calculating position or location, extremely accurate timekeeping is essential. We usually rely on atomic clocks, which use the predictable fluctuations of atoms to tick away the seconds. These atomic clocks can be located on the ground or in space, like the ones on GPS satellites. However, our GPS system only works on or close to Earth, and onboard atomic clocks can be expensive and heavy. Using pulsar observations instead could give us free and reliable “clocks” for navigation. During its experiment, SEXTANT was able to successfully determine the space station’s orbital position!

We can calculate distances using the time taken for a signal to travel between two objects to determine a spacecraft’s approximate location relative to those objects. However, we would need to observe more pulsars to pinpoint a more exact location of a spacecraft. As SEXTANT gathered signals from multiple pulsars, it could more accurately derive its position in space.

So, imagine you are an astronaut on a lengthy journey to the outer solar system. You could use the technology developed by SEXTANT to help plot your course. Since pulsars are reliable and consistent in their spins, you wouldn’t need Wi-Fi or cell service to figure out where you were in relation to your destination. The pulsar-based navigation data could even help you figure out your ETA!

None of these missions or experiments would be possible without Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s keen eye for an odd spot in her radio data decades ago, which set the stage for the idea to use spinning neutron stars as a celestial GPS. Her contribution to the field of astrophysics laid the groundwork for research benefitting the people of the future, who yearn to sail amongst the stars.  

Keep up with the latest NICER news by following NASA Universe on X and Facebook and check out the mission’s website. For more on space navigation, follow @NASASCaN on X or visit NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation website.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[drabblesandimagines]

Dove (part seven)

Leon Kennedy x female reader (bodyguard trope and the slowest, slow burn I swear)

Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part five. Part six. Part seven.

---

A tense knot has formed right between Leon’s shoulder blades – can feel it pull when he tilts his head side to side, but it doesn’t seem to be loosening. Can’t even blame it on sleeping on the sofa cos he hasn’t laid down to sleep since the call with Hunnigan, stays sat up right. He’s athletic, he can jump up to his feet from horizontal but it’ll add a second or so to his reaction time and he’s not taking the risk.

He's on edge and he doesn’t like it. The ball of anxiety in his gut has saved his life more times than he can count, but it shouldn’t be necessary in this situation, should it? He’s set up in a safe house, literally off some beaten track in the middle of nowhere – location chosen and distributed by encrypted software so, technically, no-one in the DSO knows where he is either. It’s rigged up to the heavens with security measures - cameras, alarm systems, motion detector - explosion-proof windows, reinforced doors, all topped off with his favourite array of weapons in the duffel bag, currently resting by his still booted feet.

The objective of his mission hasn’t changed after the intel he’s received, that some foreign agency has had access to the CCTV feed for who knows how many hours before they were cut off. He should feel reassured that the quality of the footage was awful – it was only by how many times he’s encountered Lickers that he could even tell that’s what the creatures were when he’d be presented with the grainy images. He didn’t see the footage of you being rescued, but it would be a cruel kick in the gut to find that feed had been HD.

He lifts an arm – his left, keeping his right arm free, his accuracy is better by millimetres with his right – and rubs the knot, hoping to relieve the tension. It's not 100% confirmed they are looking or will be looking for you either, but why would anyone link up to the CCTV circuit if not to check on the outcome of their operation?

His immediate thought had been to up the frequency of his perimeter checks, one every two hours. He could do that at night, sure – military training taught him the correct and most efficient techniques to power nap – but in the day it would be harder without worrying you about what’s changed.

You wanted updates. Hell, you were entitled to updates. But he wants to give you good news, doesn’t wanna add to the weight on your shoulders with what could be nothing. It’s stupid, he knows it’s stupid, but in these sweet domestic moments the two of you have been sharing, he’s been pretending it’s something else – friends watching television, cooking a meal together – the sweet smiles the two of you exchange, but it’s all ripped apart the moment he has to do his checks. He can see the worry settle on your face then, a reminder of where you are with the flick of the safety off his gun and the twist of the lock as he goes outside to conduct surveillance.

Speaking of, his phone beeps for his next circuit on the building and he’s up on his feet in the blink of an eye. He pats his cargo pocket out of habit for the keys on the walk over to the garage door, but finds himself pausing outside your bedroom, his eyes focusing on the handle. You should still be pretty under with those sleeping pills – note to self, he’ll need to start weening you off them from now on, far too easy to get addicted. It wouldn’t hurt to just… check you were okay, would it?

No – that’s what you’re here, why he’s here – to protect you.

It would just be doing his job.

He presses down on the handle and slowly opens the door, breath caught in his throat. It takes his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark, the lamp in the living room not quite reaching as far as your bed, but eventually he can make out your face – as peaceful as he’s ever seen it.

You’re on your side. The position doesn’t look like it would be comfortable with your arm still strapped up in the sling, but it’s testimony to how well the sleeping pills are working. Your other arm is up by your face, hand clenched in a tight fist around something. He steps forward without thinking, curious what it could be.

Your fingers are gripped tightly around his watch.

And there’s a pain in his chest that feels like they’re gripped around his heart as well.

That settles it - he’s not gonna tell you about the hacked CCTV feed. He will tell you that Hunnigan hasn’t searched your place yet, that they’ve restarted the surveillance department – she’d asked him to ask you if you knew anything about the servers since they were appeared to be working from square one – but that was it.

Leon steps back with unnecessary caution, leaving the bedroom as silently as he entered and shuts the door with a soft click. He takes a deep breath, pats down his pockets again and heads out to circle the perimeter.

And, just like after you kissed his cheek, he does it twice.

--

You wake up after another peaceful and dreamless sleep, though it still takes a moment to remember where you are as you stare up at the unfamiliar ceiling. You wonder if tomorrow you’ll not experience that flicker of panic, just get up and accept that you’ll be picking today’s outfit out of a selection of clothes that you’re not sure if anyone’s worn before you.

You feel sore, as seems to be becoming the norm, but with unusually stiff fingers on your good hand. It seems you’ve clutched Leon’s watch all night. You’d fallen asleep quite quickly – all thanks to those sleeping pills – but you remember looking at it when you’d first got in the bed, the seconds ticking by lulling you to sleep. The fact that you’ve held it for so long reminds you of when you were a kid and snuggled up with a stuffed toy for comfort, except instead of something soft and cuddly, it’s what appears to be a top of line timepiece. There’s a lot of information contained on the face of the dial but there’s the time is the only one you really care about – 0906.

You get to your feet, raising your good arm to a grunt of protest as you try and run your fingers through your hair in lieu of a mirror. Huh, that pain’s new. Your hair is definitely due a wash now, but that’s an issue for later. You pull on a pair of sweatpants one-handed – you’ll be a pro soon, you’re sure of it – and put Leon’s watch in the pocket for safekeeping. It’d be difficult to try and navigate the door handle with it still gripped in your good hand and you’d hate to scratch it up.

You open the door cautiously – you hadn’t seen Leon asleep yet, but he must do at some point. Maybe you should offer to alternate the sofa and the bed? Though you have a feeling that he’s far too much of a gentleman to accept.

Or there’ll be something in the rules that prohibits that.

There’s no danger of waking him though - the agent in question is performing sit-ups in the middle of the living room floor, facing the other way. Muscular arms behind his head as he lets out little puffs of exertion at the exercise, alternating sides as he twists.

Wary that you don’t want to be caught staring, you shut the door with more force than necessary behind you and greet him with a smile when he looks over his shoulder.

“Morning, Leon.”

“Dove!” He doesn’t even sound out of breath. “Morning. Sleep okay?” He jumps up to his feet before taking a couple of steps over in your direction. There’s a grin on his face at the sight of you – makes you feel giddy.

“Yeah, thanks. How about you?”

“That’s good. Yeah, I slept fine.” He nods. It’s not a lie – he did sleep fine for the position he forced himself to maintain all night, despite the slight crick in his neck.

“Is that how you usually start your mornings?”

One of the arms you’d been admiring goes up to rub the back of his head again. “Kinda. I usually go for a run, but…”

“But you can’t leave me on my own.” You finish, smile dropping a little. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be - I’m not.” He drops his arm back down, casting an eye over a watch that’s not there. “Hey, you hungry? I can get breakfast started. Oatmeal again?”

“Sure.” You nod, fishing his watch out of your pocket and holding it out to him. “Thanks again for this. It was nice to wake up and know the time this morning.”

“Don’t mention it. You can, er, you know, keep it. If you like.” He can’t get the image of you fast asleep last night, clutching it close to your face. He knows it was most likely the sleeping pills meaning you’d just passed out with it in your hand more than anything deeper, but, hey, a guy can pretend.

“I’ll be okay, I can get the time off the TV during the day.” You hold it out again with insistence. “But maybe… maybe I could have it for the night again?”

“Deal.” Leon hastily agrees, his fingers brushing yours as he takes back the watch before fastening it around his wrist. “Breakfast coming right up.”

You take the opportunity to duck into the bathroom as he heads towards the kitchen – your heart warmed once more by the sight of the blob of toothpaste sat ready and waiting on your toothbrush.

--

“And, finally, oatmeal.” He places it down on the coffee table, alongside your coffee, a glass of water and your morning dose of painkillers.

“Thank you.” You lean forward to pick up the spoon, smiling back at the face that Leon’s drizzled in honey atop your breakfast again.  

“Nah, pleasure’s all mine.” He calls over his shoulder as he picks up his own bowl from the kitchen. He hesitates for a second, before choosing to sit the other end of the sofa to you, rather than the opposite one.

“You know, I don’t get to do this very often. It’s nice.”

“Mm,” you swallow a spoonful of oatmeal. “Thought you said you’d been in lots of safe houses.”

“A fair amount. But, no, not that part. I mean, eating breakfast with someone.” “So…” You stir the spoon around the bowl, hoping it might prove a perfect segway into something you’d been wondering. “..there’s no-one at home for you?”

“Me?” He seems to scoff at the idea. “Nope.”

“Me neither.”

“Yeah, I figured.” He replies casually, before his blue eyes widen in alarm at how it might come across. “

“I mean, just by the fact that you hadn’t mentioned anyone at your apartment that morning and you hadn’t asked any of those sorta questions, you know, if they’d been told about what happened, where you are...”

He’s flustered, feels like he’s really putting his foot in his mouth this morning. He can take the lead in the interrogation of some of the world’s most despicable humans, for goodness’ sake, he should be able to talk to a pretty girl.

“Yeah, I figured.” You tease back and he swears he feels the weight lift off his shoulders.

The two of you eat in silence for a moment when curiosity gets the better of you. “So, you didn’t eat breakfast with the… others?”

“Nope.” His tone is firm as he recalls some of his previous charges. “Certainly didn’t make them it either. Trust me – they were nowhere near as nice or as deserving of my protection as you are, Dove.” The comment makes your head tingle.

“It’s all been people ‘realising’ how deep they’d sank but only grew a conscience to save their own skin. Hell, you might have even performed surveillance on some of them. A lot of criminals finally show backbone when they realise their time is running out.”

“Well, I’m glad to make a change – both for sharing breakfast and …safe house occupancy with.”

“A nice change,” he mumbles, but you still hear.

--

After breakfast, you go to shower and Leon sets himself to task with the dishes once again, says he did his last perimeter check before nine. Removing the sling proves trickier than yesterday – when you go to tug off the Velcro your opposite shoulder smarts with a similar pain of that morning, causing you to hiss through your teeth, something which the painkillers from breakfast don’t seem to have alleviated.

You step into the cubicle after undressing – the hot water immediately somewhat soothing on your bruised shoulders but you still struggle to get what you now deem as your good arm high enough to even entertain the possibility of washing your hair.  

You try and avoid your reflection in the mirror when you dress, though you know you’ll have to confront your hair at some point. Unfortunately, you catch a glimpse – a greasy mop sat upon your head that makes your heart sink.

There must be a trick to it – other people must wash their hair one-handed all the time, but maybe they can lift an arm above their head. If you were home, you’d go to a salon, you think – an expensive you would deem necessary for your sanity.

A thought flashes across your mind – a ridiculous one. Leon is already doing so much for you, surely this would be completely over the line.

But you could… ask, couldn’t you? The worst he could do was say no, it would be awkward, and maybe there’s a hat in the duffel bag you’ve yet to discover.

You open the bathroom door, but don’t make to step over the threshold. Leon looks over from the sofa – dishes now drying in the rack besides the sink - and clocks your hesitation.

“Need a hand with the sling?”

Are you really going to ask him this?

You’ll break at some point - you know you will, so why not get it over with now? You’re a regimented two-day wash kinda girl and it’s day three. Not to be completely vain, but you’re covered with bruises and cuts, dressed in less than flattering clothes that aren’t yours and it would be nice to feel somewhat decent about something in your appearance.

Especially with the handsome company you’re keeping. Hell, Leon could be a model, a hair model too. There’d been shampoo and conditioner in the shower and you certainly hadn’t used it.

“Dove?” You’ve taken too long to reply again, getting stuck in your spiralling thoughts.

“I know this isn’t what you’re here for.” The words tumble out of your mouth before you can think further.

“Okay…” Leon's eyebrow is raised, a curious smile now fixed on his lips as he gets to his feet.

“And say no, obviously. Please. Just… I’d like to wash my hair.” You drop your eyes then – maybe it’ll be easier if you talk to your feet rather staring into his kind eyes?

"Right."

“And I’d… You know, I’d go to a salon and get it done there if we weren’t… here.”

“You’d like me to help you wash your hair?” There’s a tone of amusement or maybe disbelief in his tone.

Hearing him say it aloud makes you doubt the entire exercise, your heart begin to pound at your stupidity. “Sorry. No, I don’t know what I was thinking. It was stupid to ask-“

“Hey, no, it makes sense.” He soothes, immediately wanting to ease your frustrations. “You can’t lift your arm above your head, right? My fault for not thinking about that.”

You look up then, seeing the sincerity on his face – like it truly was his fault that you couldn’t wash your own damn hair.

“I can do that, Dove. I don’t see why not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mm-hm. As you said, if you were anywhere else right now, you could go to a salon and whilst I can’t promise their quality, I seem to do all right with my own.” He shrugs. “You thinking over the sink?”

He doesn’t know why he asks – it’s hardly like you’re going to ask him to get in the shower with you.

Is it?

“I think so.” You look around the living area, though you’re well acquainted with what feels like every square inch of it now. “Though it might be a little awkward since we don’t have any chairs.”

He snaps his fingers. “Nah, there might be one in the garage, actually. Lemme check.”

He barely makes it into the garage when his cell vibrates in his pocket – one new message from Hunnigan.

Any server information for me?

Leon finds the folding chair nestled at the side of the washer and dryer and hesitates over the text back.

He’ll wash your hair – seeing how torn up you’d been about even asking him had made him feel awful - then he’ll give you the updates and ask about the servers.

He picks up the chair and tucks it under one arm, swiftly typing out a message on his cell and clicks send.

Not yet – Dove’s still asleep.

---

Masterlist . Requests welcome . Commissions/Ko-Fi

Comments, follows, likes and reblogs make my day!

Part eight.

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 could sneak into a denied area, get the take and leave before our enemy even knew we were there 🇺🇸🇺🇸

The SR-71 was never successfully intercepted by surface-to-air missile or aircraft.

It had a state-of-the-art electronic defensive system which would defeat an incoming missile’s homing and steering. Some of these techniques are still highly classified.

Detectors on board would alert the crew of a missile launch instantly and, since the SR-71 did not normally fly at its maximum speed or altitude, the aircraft’s defense was simultaneously to jam the missile’s guidance while accelerating, climbing, and turning with 45º of bank.

No surface-to-air missile could out-turn, thus hit, an SR-71, a fact demonstrated many times, especially during the Vietnam War. Attempts to shoot down an SR-71 continued until August 25, 1981, which was the last time an enemy (North Korea) fired a surface-to-air missile at an SR-71; that mission was flown by Maury Rosenberg, pilot, and Ed McKim, Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO).

We carried an array of sophisticated sensors and recorders which could glean reconnaissance data with cameras capable of high-quality photographs horizon-to-horizon. We also had radar imagery capable of one-foot resolution. This was the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System (ASARS), which could deliver readable radar pictures night or day, bad weather or clear.

The SR-71 also carried electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems which are still classified. We advertised that the SR-71, within 24 hours notification, could be over any target on earth and be capable of surveying 100,000 square miles of terrain each hour. It was no idle boast.

I’ll summarize the importance of the SR-71 missions by quoting Paul Crickmore, noted aviation historian and Blackbird author, in a letter to me.

“In theatre, the SR-71 proved the concept of high-Mach, high-altitude flight, to obtain vital aerial reconnaissance. The SR-71 regularly conducted reconnaissance missions in the skies over North Vietnam – particularly around Hanoi in 1968-70 which at the time, was the most highly defended area on the planet.”

“The Blackbirds provided superior flexibility compared to satellites, time after time, specific examples—Yom Kippur War 1973, Yemen 1979, Cuba 1977—1990, Lebanon October 1983 (following the truck-bomb attack killing over 240 US Marines), Libya 1986, The Persian Gulf 1987, but perhaps most importantly, the on-going monitoring of Soviet nuclear submarine fleets for the US Navy—particularly the Northern Fleet with their submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), capable of hitting large areas of the United States, as well as all Allied Countries.”

BC Bredette B C Thomas

Posted by Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[five-rivers]

My Kingdom of Fish poll fiction! Continued from here.

.

After a small amount of dithering, Danny took the cameras. He was here to show his parents the library, and he couldn't do that if they couldn't see it. The ambient array could collect data here as well as anywhere else. The Fenton Finder's 23rd iteration was as buggy as the first. He'd actually done a small amount of sabotage to the ‘self-defense system’ to make it safe to carry around, so… Yeah.

The only things he felt at all bad about leaving were the medical monitors and the environmental safety detectors. Both of those had helped him in the past. The Lost Library was supposed to be safe, though. It wasn't a truce zone or anything, but people didn't go there to fight, and the librarians were supposed to take care of any environmental dangers that popped up (mostly because things that could endanger ghosts could certainly endanger books). The Library of Tongues did that, anyway.

He did have to rearrange and remove some of the cameras, especially the redundant ones and the ones that weren't taking his amplified aura well, so that they fit on his much-reduced frame, but they were made to be serviceable, and soon he was ready.

The coat room, as it turned out, was right behind the reception desk.

“There are doors that aren't visible or that won't open for you unless you're a member or have a badge,” the librarian explained as she put the equipment on a shelf. “Another reason not to lose yours.”

“Where's the way in?” asked Danny.

“This way.”

The librarian led him back around, then to the side of the desk. Here, again, the wall had folded back into a set of doors, this one more ornate.

“The copyist's room attendants will meet you down the hallway,” said the librarian, sitting back down at her desk.

Danny nodded. “Thank you.”

The hallway forked right sharply. A ghost woman with bronze skin and dark hair was waiting there, not far from the corner. There was a spiral on the center of her forehead in what looked like gold wire under her skin. The outside end of it disappeared under her hairline.

“Oh my,” she said, hiding her mouth behind a pair of bell-like sleeves, “you’re so cute. Iphigenia didn’t tell me you were cute.”

Danny made a face.

“Ah! Precious! How old are you?”

“I was fourteen when I died,” said Danny, flatly. “I don’t know why places like this make me tiny, but I’m not.”

“You must be young at heart.”

Danny squinted at her.

“Mm? Are you looking at this?” she asked, pointing at her spiral. Danny shrugged, then nodded. He hadn’t been, not really, but in the interest of changing the subject… “It’s what members of the library have instead of another alteration. It’s like the fires you get at the Library of Tongues.” The spiral moved, retreating, unwinding, vanishing under her hair and then spiraling out onto the palm she offered up to Danny. “It’s called the Lìshǐ Yánxù De Jīn Xiàn, although ghosts from western cultures call it Ariadne’s String. No sense of pride for their work, I swear.” She shook her head. “So, if you get lost, or need help finding something, find someone with one of these, okay? We have a pretty big children's collection, believe it or not.”

“I'm not really a child.”

“Oh! So mature!” She poked his cheek, then stood up and opened the door behind her. “Let’s get you situated.”

The copyist’s room was large and brightly lit, lined with beehive-like cubbies that served as shelving for scrolls. There were several work tables spread throughout the room, and a mid-sized manual printing press. There were two other ghosts in the room. One, a stressed-looking larger man with a curly, box-cut beard, and the other a severely thin, angular man with a long, looping tail.

Both wore guest badges, and both had features that did not seem to match the rest of their appearances. The severe-looking man had large, fluffy, soft-looking wings with feathers that twitched and shifted near constantly. He had a quill badge clipped to the belt of his tunic. The other, larger man had moth antennae and wings, but also enormous, ribbed bat ears. He had not one but two badges attached to his robe-like wrap, the candle and the gong.

“Now,” said the attendant, “I know you said that you wanted to do Ancient Greek to English, and when people say Ancient Greek, they mean Ancient Greek from Life, not old Zone dialects, but the Mausoleum of Macaria tipped into the Acheron a few weeks ago, and were swamped with Elysian, Asphodelian, and Tartarian Greek. Especially Tartarian Greek. Would you mind doing something from one of those? It would be much shorter than what we'd give you in regular Ancient Greek, only a few pages.”

She looked at him hopefully.

“It would really help if you knew any of them,” she added.

[mysticstronomy]

ASTRONOMERS HAVE DETECTED A NEW GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE??

Blog#316

Saturday, July 22nd, 2023

Welcome back,

After nearly two decades of listening, astronomers are finally starting to “hear” the rumbles of gravitational waves they believe emanate from the behemoths of our universe: supermassive black holes.

The result comes from a National Science Foundation–sponsored initiative known as the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav).

Since 2004 NANOGrav has monitored metronomelike flashes of light from a Milky Way–spanning network of dead stars known as pulsars. Forged from the hearts of exploding massive stars, these city-size orbs weigh as much as an entire sun and can spin thousands of times per second. This makes them remarkably accurate timekeepers—and ideal sentinels for the especially large ripples in spacetime predicted to emerge from merging supermassive black holes.

Such gravitational waves are distinct from the kinds that were previously reported from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and other Earth-based detectors. For one thing, the waves spotted via pulsars wouldn’t all be traceable to individual merger events: they would form the so-called gravitational-wave background, the ambient rustling of spacetime built up from cumulative mergers throughout the cosmos.

Another important distinction is that in their crest-to-trough span, each of these waves should be approximately the size of our solar system—which counterintuitively makes them much harder to detect. Washing over pulsar-strewn space, these gargantuan swells in spacetime could betray their presence via minuscule offsets to the dead stars’ spins, allowing observers to glimpse them through painstaking measurements. In a collection of five papers released today, that is essentially what NANOGrav claims to have done.

“It’s incredibly exciting because we think we’re starting to open up this new window on the gravitational-wave universe,” says Sarah Vigeland, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a member of NANOGrav.

(The collaboration’s work to date hasn’t quite met the statistical gold standard of how physicists evaluate the robustness of a finding.)

(So for now, scientists working on the project are modestly claiming “evidence for” the gravitational-wave background, not a full-fledged detection. But they’re confident that milestone will come with additional observations.)

NANOGrav is just one of several different pulsar timing array projects underway around the globe. All these endeavors follow the same basic blueprint: they use radio telescopes to monitor dozens of superpredictable pulsars for years on end to catch tiny variations in their rhythmic spinning.

Originally published on scientificamerican-com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, July 26th, 2023)

"WHAT IS STAR NIBIRU??"

[spacecatdraws]

where have you been isekaid to?

wheel of fate

You are either human or the main species.

I’m gonna die.

taaaaaags: @rat-detector @mrmorphea @candieduranium @rateater2000 @spinkleponkle

@rusticguts @mxmorbidmidnight @irishfry @cactus-with-boobs @unnamedboxvoid

@mildlybizarrecorvid @blairthebword @imonthenoflylist @et3rnal-dr3am3r @handdeliveredinternet

If it’s not working, put this list in the wheel

Hotel (DOORS)

Mines (DOORS)

The Backdoor (DOORS)

The Rooms (DOORS)

Hadal Blacksite (Pressure)

Hell (ULTRAKILL)

Dog Pen (Wobbledogs)

Space (Nova Drift)

Outskirts (Rain World)

Industrial Complex (Rain World)

Chimney Canopy (Rain World)

Five Pebbles (Rain World)

Shaded Citadel (Rain World)

Shoreline (Rain World)

Looks To The Moon (Rain World)

Garbage Wastes (Rain World)

Farm Arrays (Rain World)

Subterranean (Rain World)

Outer Expanse (Rain World)

Potion Shop (Potion Craft)

Riverclan (Warriors)

Shadowclan (Warriors)

Thunderclan (Warriors)

Windclan (Warriors)

Skyclan (Warriors)

Kittypet (Warriors)

Pyrrhia (Wings Of Fire)

Pantala (Wings Of Fire)

Abyss (Abyssal)

Heaven (ULTRAKILL)

The Regretevator (Regretevator)

Antarctica (Expedition Antarctica)

The Mountain (Getting Over It)

Dealer’s Den (Buckshot Roulette)

Alaska (The Red Lantern)

British Town (Untitled Goose Game)

Spore

Moonwood Mill (The Sims 4)

Brindleton Bay (The Sims 4)

Cult (Cult Of The Lamb)

Infinity Cool (Placid Plastic Duck Simulator)

Quacking The Ice (Placid Plastic Duck Simulator)

Hippospace Download (Placid Plastic Duck Simulator)

The Stanley Parable

Forest Colony (Cattails)

Mountain Domain (Cattails)

Mystic Colony (Cattails)

Dressing Room (Dress To Impress)

The Tulpar (Mothwashing

Copper-9 (Murder Drones)

Gravity Falls

The Backrooms

The SCP Foundation

Paldea (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet)

The Amazing Digital Circus

[nightmaree-eyess]

Orange is the last of us

A tlou fic based on orange is the new black

Summary: you are going to prison and you’re new cellmate is abby anderson

Tags: MDNI 18+, prison AU, femme reader, y/n, smut, making out, fingering, oral, dom!abby, angst

Word count: 2,368

Divider @cafekitsune

You never thought in a million years you'd be naked in a cold, lifeless room, squatting and coughing for a police officer. But you guess there's a first for everything right? After you're done humiliating yourself you get dressed in stiff linen scrubs, walk through the metal detector with your belongings the officer gave you, and prepare yourself for your new life for the next 15 months.

“y/n this is where you’re assigned.” the officer says sternly

You look into the cell and no one is there. At least you'll get some alone time to compose yourself before your cell mate comes back. In the meantime you make your bed and get yourself comfortable. All of a sudden you feel a presence standing behind you. You whip around and…

“y/n? Holy shit I can't believe it's you.”

You know that voice and it sends chills down your spine. Abby. Fucking. Anderson. The person who got you into this mess in the first place.

“I don't even wanna look at you right now”

In the back of your mind you were actually relieved she was here. That you knew someone in this shit hole and that you weren't completely alone.

“Oh come on you didn't miss me just a little bit?” she says smugly

You turn around and she's standing in the doorway. She's still as beautiful as the day you met but you don't know if you'll ever forgive her for getting you tied up in the drug smuggling business. She still wears the glasses you helped her pick out all those years ago.

“Ok fine maybe a little”

She walks over to sit next to you on your bed and your hands almost touch. There is still some electricity there even if you deny it.

“So they finally caught up to yeah huh?”

“Yeah thanks to you”

“What does that mean?”

“If it wasn't for you getting me caught up in the drug business shit I wouldn't even be here in the first place.”

“Oh please, I didn't force you to do shit. You could've left whenever you wanted. I didn't make you stay.”

She's not entirely wrong but it does sting a bit. She gives you the rundown about how things work so you're not completely clueless. You only pick up on bits and pieces because you can't stop staring at her piercing blue eyes and the way her top lip curls a bit when she talks. You hate that you find that cute.

“Lights out ladies” the guard yells

The next day you're in the cafeteria. You had to work electrical in the morning and it feels good to sit for a bit.

“Hey hot stuff looking lonely” abby says jokingly

“Shut up” you roll your eyes. A smile creeps at the corner of your mouth.

She sits across from you while eating her lunch

“So how's your first day so far?”

“Exhausting but I guess the routine is good for me. And I at least know one person in here so it makes it less scary.”

“Oh really? Who? Have I met them?” Abby says sarcastically

“Wow jail made you an ass huh?”

“Yeah.” she sighs

You catch a wave of sadness go over her face for a split second but it disappears as quickly as you catched it.

“What does the rest of your day look like?” she asks

“Well I got a couple more hours of work and then I'm free why?”

“I wanna catch up some more, is that a crime?”

“I mean you're in jail right? Was that the crime they got you for? And not smuggling drugs?”

“Now you're being the ass” abby laughs

After work you meet Abby in the chapel like you planned at lunch. Why would she wanna meet in the chapel if none of us are religious? When you walk in, Abby is sitting on the stage waiting for you. The light from the stained glass window behind her illuminates her in an array of colors that accentuate her beauty. She looks the same as the day you met, just a little older.

“Why did you wanna meet in the chapel?” you asked your arms folded across your chest

“Because it's quiet and people usually don't come in here when there's no service.”

Abby pulls you up onto the stage with her muscular arms and her sandy braid falls in front of her face. As she does so you think am I holding this grudge for nothing? Or is Abby only being nice to me to make up for the shit she's done? Either way I don't think I can realistically hold this grudge for the 15 months I'm in here so might as well just play nice with her. It's nice to have someone by my side in this hell hole.

Abby presses a button on her portable radio attached to her hip and it starts playing love somebody by maroon 5.

“God, radio has gone to shit” Abby says and you both laugh

“So how long have you been in here?”

“3 years.” you see a heaviness blanket over her

“Do you know when you're getting out?”

“I think in like 2 years? After the second year here you kinda stop keeping count. It gets depressing.”

You don't egg her on anymore about this. At least she'll be here for the duration of your stay. You sit in silence for a while until Abby breaks it.

“I'm sorry for ratting you out, at the trial. I thought maybe they'd shorten my sentence if I did so. I feel so shitty about it.”

“I'm not gonna lie, I'm still pissed at you for that. But you're lucky I only got 15 months and that I'm not the one to hold grudges.”

She's staring at you with wetness in her eyes. You stare back and you realise she really does feel bad. You thought she was only apologising to make peace. She's sitting closer to you now and she still smells the same. How she still smells like her pine soap in prison is confusing but she must trade for it on the down low. Her smell brings on a wave of nostalgia and comfort and you feel her soft lips against yours. You grab her hair and deepen the kiss and feel her tear drop roll down your cheek. It brings you back to ten years ago. The kiss is now frenzied and hungry. You need her like you need oxygen but Abby breaks the kiss.

“Follow me.” she whispers in your ear. Sending a shiver down your spine.

She leads you under the wide podium just behind you for cover.

—----------------------------------

She rips off your shirt and dingy sports bra and cups your breast in her hand. She places kisses all down your neck and jaw.

“Fuck I missed you” she whispers

And a part of you missed her too.

She moves her hand from your breast and cups your cunt outside of your pants. You tilt your head back and stifle your moans. She rubs your clit on the outside of your pants with the heel of her palm. You're already so wet.

“Abby please fuck me.”

“You're begging me?” her voice like velvet

“Yeah” you moan breathly

She kisses you deeply and trails kisses all the way down to your happy trail. She shimmies your pants off.

“Wow you're already so wet for me baby.”

You bite your lip to quiet your moans.

Abby takes two fingers and teases your entrance. She slides one finger in and you squirm at her touch. Then the second finger enters you and you moan. Loud. Abby cups her other hand around your mouth to shut you up so you don't get caught. Abby moves her fingers in a “come here” motion slowly at first. You can feel the pressure build inside you as she goes faster. And faster. She stops and moves her head between your legs.

“You gotta promise me you'll be quiet because I can't reach from down here. One peep and I'm stopping.”

You nod your head and hers dip between your legs. She takes her nose and rubs it across your clit with ease. While her tongue ghosts your vagina, you feel your wetness drip down her face and it turns you on even more.

“Abby I- fuck, I- need you inside me”

“How do you ask?”

“Please abby” you beg

“Atta girl”

She takes her fingers again and enters you while she sucks your clit. You're biting your bottom lip so hard it might be bleeding but you don't care. You grab a handful of her braided hair and it's still as soft as you remember.

“Abby im- im gonna” you moan before you can finish the sentence and you feel your walls tighten around her girthy fingers. Abby laps you up and comes up for a kiss making you taste yourself. Then she kisses your cheek.

“As good as I remember it” Abby kisses you again cupping your face in her hands.

You get dressed and get ready to go to dinner.

—----------------------------------------

A couple weeks go by and you're really settling into your routine. Prison sucks but it sucks a little less with Abby. You guys are hanging out like no time has passed at all. And even though you're in prison, you’re happy. You didn't realise you weren't happy with your current fiance and he's gonna be pissed that Abby is in here with you. But right now you don't care. You just worry about surviving in here and if Abby by my side means I'll live to see another day then so be it. Sex is just a bonus.

Today though, Abby seemed to be acting a little weird. She was quiet all day and that's not like her. You asked her all day if something was wrong and she would just shrug her shoulders or not look you in the eyes. You let it go because you didnt wanna pester her too much.

Later on that night when it was lights out you finally got your answer.

“They're letting me out early for good behavior.”

You shoot up out of bed and look at her in disbelief. She got you in here in the first place and now she gets to leave early? A part of you resents her for that.

“What the fuck? Why didn't you tell me this? Is this why you were acting weird today?” you say this a little too loud and a girl from a couple bunks over tells you to shut the fuck up.

“I didn’t wanna tell you cause I knew you'd flip your shit”

“What, so you were just gonna leave me and not tell me? You think I wouldnt notice that my bunk mate / girlfriend was fucking missing?”

The silence is deafening

“When are you getting out?” you say defeated

“Tomorrow morning.” she says shyly avoiding eye contact

“TOMORROW MORNING?!?!” I yell

“Will you shut the fuck up already?” the same woman yelled

“You waited till the last fucking second to tell me you’re leaving?”

“Isn't that what you did to me? When I wanted you to come to my mothers funeral you didn't come with me. Instead you left. Broke up with me and left me in a city I barely even knew.”

“Is this like your payback or something? Putting me in this fucking place wasnt enough pay off? Well congrats Abby you win. You win the petty off.”

You sit on the edge of your bed with your head hung between your legs. Now that you think about it, it was a dick move to break up with her while her mother just passed away. You don't know why you did it. Maybe a part of you thought she was lying so you would stay with her? You don't know. But you feel like a piece of shit now.

“I'm sorry I left when I did. You needed me to be there for you when your mom passed and instead I was a dick and broke up with you. Nothing will ever make up for that and you have every right to be mad at me. I deserve it.”

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was getting out.”

“Promise you'll still visit or at least write to me?” you lay on your back as a tear rolls down your face

“I promise” abby says flatly

You don't know when but you fell asleep and when you woke up there was a note by your pillow. The bed next to you stripped and empty. You open the note that reads

y/n,

I'm sorry again for not telling you about my release date. The weeks I spent with you were the best weeks of my life in this fucking pit and those are the days I wanna look back on. I'll miss hearing your laugh from down the hall and the way your tongue sticks out when you concentrate when we play jenga. I hope when you get out you'll find me and we can play jenga on the couch and have sex in an actual bed again and not on the chapel floor. I'll write to you as much as I can but I don't think I can visit. I'm afraid if I come back that my release was all a dream and they'll put me back in (which is stupid but it's still a fear of mine). I love you and I never stopped loving you to be honest. Even though you broke my heart.

Talk to you soon,

Abby xoxo

You feel a heaviness on your chest and your eyes begin to sting. You hold the note to your chest while you cry and then tuck the note away under your pillow, wipe away the tears, and start your daily routine.

Pt 2

[girlactionfigure]

🇮🇱SOME ISRAEL->IRAN ATTACK INFO, ACCIDENTAL EARTHQUAKE - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🚨ISRAEL RETALIATORY ATTACK ON IRAN.. The IDF carried out Friday night a retaliatory operation for the ballistic missile barrage about a month ago.  They destroyed factories for the production of missiles, launchers of surface-to-surface missiles and air defense systems.

.. Simultaneous attack against Iran and sites in Damascus, Syria.

.. Sites in capital Tehran and nearby city of Karaj, among others.

.. 20 military targets were struck across Iran in three waves.

.. Iran's Fars news agency says several military bases near Tehran hit.

.. Reports of use of Israeli loitering munitions as well as jet airstrikes.

.. Air defense sirens in Tehran sounded.

.. IDF statement: "The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil," the military says.   Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.  The reprisal strike was completed, and its objectives were achieved.”

.. IDF also targeted Iran’s surface-to-air missile arrays and Iranian aerial capabilities that were intended to restrict Israel's aerial freedom of operation in Iran. Israel now has broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran.

.. Syrian opposition sources reported that Israeli jets attacked radar systems at "Tel al-Kalib" in southeast Suwayda (southern Syria) and the 19th battalion of Syria’s air defense in Homs, central Syria.

.. Dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers, and spy planes, participated in the strikes some 1,600 kilometers from Israel. The aircraft safely returned to Israel following the “complex” operation.

.. RUSSIA reportedly shared intelligence & warned Iran hours before the Israeli strikes.

.. US officials now believe that Iran will retaliate for the retaliation “in a subdued way.”

.. Iran is making significant efforts to downplay the impact of the Israeli attack in their media.

♦️LEBANON - Israeli fighter jets also struck Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut overnight, 8 attacks.

♦️LEBANON - IDF captures four truck-mounted rocket launchers, loaded with 160 rockets. Separately, around 130 Hezbollah launchers were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the past week.

♦️GAZA - The IDF says it has expanded the designated "humanitarian zone" in southern Gaza , where the vast majority of the Palestinian population in the Strip currently resides.  The zone is where most humanitarian aid is directed, and where several field hospitals were established. 

♦️GAZA - IDF attacking heavily in the north of the Gaza Strip - the echoes of the explosions can be clearly heard in many areas in the south of the country.

♦️SAMARIA, TULKARM - A Hamas operative planning an "imminent" terror attack was killed by special forces, following a firefight.  He was found with weapons and bomb parts.

▪️ACCIDENTAL EARTHQUAKE.. on Shabbat morning 6:30 AM, the IDF demolished a large underground Hezbollah Radwan invasion force base in southern Lebanon using 400 tons of explosives.  That huge explosion set off earthquake detectors in northern Israel, which set off Home Front Command EARTHQUAKE alarms across the northern 1/3 of Israel - sirens and alert apps going off in over 100 towns and cities.  Oops.

Story and photos of the base: IDF finds huge Hezbollah base primed for invasion https://www.timesofisrael.com/under-a-lebanese-border-village-idf-finds-huge-hezbollah-base-primed-for-invasion/

⭕HEZBOLLAH ROCKET STRIKE KILLS 2, injures 13+ (some critical) in northern Israeli Druze town of Maid al-Krum.

⭕HEZBOLLAH ROCKET STRIKE injures 9 in Nahariya.

⭕DRONE FROM SYRIA intercepted in the Golan on Shabbat.

❗️END OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME TONIGHT in Israel, at 2:00 AM go back to 1:00 AM.  Computers and phones should auto-adjust.

▪️ON THE IRAN ATTACK - ESCALATION OR NOT?

.. Foreign sources: 

…. Israel destroyed at least 12 special mixers - a critical component in the production of the solid fuel for Iran’s ballistic missiles. 

…. 4 - S-300 Russian advanced anti-aircraft batteries were attacked and disabled. 

…. Secret facility in Parchin where research and development activities related to the nuclear program were carried out in the past was attacked.

.. Videos shared by civilians in Iran show Israeli jets low-flying over areas in Iran, making their presence known.

.. According to Sky News, Iran told Israel that it would not respond to the attack. In Russia, some say that this is a type of "dogburniak", a Russian word that cannot be directly translated and means - a type of secret agreement between enemies who are not interested in uncontrolled escalation and secretly guard communication channels.

.. Prime Minister's Office: The report (above) is false and absurd. Israel did not inform Iran before the attack - not about the time, not about the targets, not about the strength of the attack.

.. Following Israel's attacks on military targets in the Islamic Republic, at 3:40 in the morning, the citizens of Tehran took to the streets and formed long lines at gas stations throughout the city.

.. The Saudi news site "Ilaf" reports that in attacks on Iran, Israel hit a factory for the production of solid fuel used to propel the ballistic missiles. It was also reported that the price of each solid fuel mixer that was in the factory is estimated to be at least 2 million dollars. "About 20 of them were destroyed," it was claimed. Sources familiar with the Iranian missile industry said that it would take at least two years for the plant to return to capacity, and that Israel had significantly disrupted Iran's ability to produce missiles.

.. AFP report: sources in Iran claim that only a radar array was damaged in the Israeli attack.

.. US President Biden responded to the attack in Iran: "I hope this is the end.”

.. German Chancellor Schulz: "My message to Iran is clear - we cannot continue with widespread reactions of escalation, it must end now."

.. The media in Iran: Significantly minimize the Israeli attack on the one hand, on the other hand and in the same breath they claim there will be an unlimited response.

♦️LEBANON - During the last day, the Air Force attacked more than 70 terrorist targets of Hezbollah, some of them directed by the Northern Command, among the targets that were attacked: anti-tank positions, military buildings, ammunition depots, terrorist squads and military headquarters.

⭕SAUDI SHIA TERROR GROUP.. claims to fire a suicide drone at Israel.

🔹Report in Lebanon: American envoy Amos Hochstein is expected to visit Israel tomorrow.

▪️3 HERO SOLDIERS HAVE FALLEN.. in battle in Gaza:

Barak Israel Sagan, 22, from Petah Tikva

Ido Ben Zvi, 21, from Shomrat

Hillel Ovadia, 22, from Jerusalem (we previously reported, but didn’t have age or city)

May their families be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge their blood!

▪️WOMAN DIES RUNNING FOR SHELTER.. elderly woman passes away in Beit HaEmek.  May her memory be a blessing.

▪️CORRECTION - MAJD al-KRUM.. we said Israeli Druze town, we are told it is a majority Israeli Arab town.  13+ injured, 2 killed by a Hezbollah rocket strike - may the dead receive mercy.

[ctniu2leyy]

https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/electromechanical--circuit-protection--tvs-diodes/sznup2105lt1g-onsemi-9035383

What is a transient voltage suppressor diode, TVS surge protection diode

SZNUP Series 350 W 32 V Surface Mount Dual Line CAN Bus Protector - SOT-23

[teru-byte-dev]

Introducing @teru-byte, the sockpuppet detector (among other things)

Something I've always hated about online forums is trolls repeatedly making new accounts to continue their mayhem with impunity.

They're everywhere. It does not matter if you're on Tumblr or Discord or Reddit or a dedicated forum, they will keep coming back well after they ought to be shooed off.

There are many different kinds of trolls. Some are just nuisances. Some spam. Some try to get a reaction. Some are much more crafty about trying to get a reaction. Some will do and say and send and post deplorable things.

Some enjoy their reputation as troublemakers. Some take refuge in anonymity. It is the latter type that @teru-byte was made to address.

Over some 3am brainstorming sessions and showers, my brain combined some disparate facts I knew to form an amazing discovery in language analysis. Sadly I cannot share the discovery publicly because it is what gives power to @teru-byte.

@teru-byte is a bot I have worked for a long time to bring to life, and it's finally ready. Given sufficient data, it can accurately determine the author of given writing. No, it does not use “AI.”

I waited until I was very confident in its ability before going public, because a single misfire could be ruinous. It still errs on the side of caution, by design. The false negative rate of approximately 50% is worth the near complete erasure of false positives.

Some might say this is “feeding the trolls.” If I believed it was, I would not be doing this. I counter that if a troll is hiding behind an array of alternate accounts, it is because they are terrified of reputation. Even a troll who does not immediately reveal themself in order to further their chaos will readily do so when they are found out, if they enjoy the spotlight. If they do not enjoy the spotlight, the prospect of reputation is horrifying.

In addition, knowing it's the same user can aid in learning other patterns, even more so on the administrator side of things. Extra punishment or deterrents are available when a user is provably evading bans or blocks.

I am debuting this project on Sysblr because I hardly know of a more ideal environment. There are dozens (not hundreds or a handful) of active users here who consistently keep coming back to write hundreds or thousands of words weekly, with easily accessible and very expansive account histories. And indeed, some trolls to catch.

Presently, @teru-byte has 1 publicly accessible command: revealing some statistics about a specified user, as proof of work in lieu of being able to publicly discuss the algorithm running the sockpuppet detection, for it is very easy to circumvent given knowledge of how it works.

I suspect these blogs will rarely be visibly active by next week. @teru-byte is designed more to strike like a bolt of lightning upon unsuspecting lowlifes.

The name is half pun and half a reference to the Death Note character Mikami Teru, who traded half his lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes which allow the user to see the true name of anyone they look at.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Anatomy of a Dalek

A Dalek is primarily made from Dalekanium and polycarbide and is technically a cyborg. To understand how a Dalek is created, see How Do Daleks Become Daleks?

Some Daleks will have variations on the below, but these aspects of a Dalek's anatomy are broadly applicable to most.

The Dome (aka dome section, head section, head dome) is attached to the neck via a docking clamp.

Eyestalk (aka eyepiece, eye antenna, tele-eye, eye-stick, optical stalk, sensory antenna, eyeball unit). The eyestalk is attached to the dome via a lens attachment, sitting on a pivot in a cowl. The eye itself is known as an eyelens. The eyestalk is covered in multiple insulator discs to protect it from radiation.

Luminosity dischargers (aka headlamp, radiation valve, dome light, vocaliser light, sound disc). It's not quite known how or why the luminosity dischargers sync up with Dalek speech, but they could be energy compensators, translation units, safety valves to release excess energy, or just lights to indicate when a Dalek's speaking.

Neck (aka grating section, upper grating section). Attached to the weapons platform via another docking clamp, or 'catch'.

Neck rings support the neck grille.

Neck grille (aka audio receptor grill, sensor grille, sensor mesh, sensor grid louvres) cover the mutant Dalek within.

Weapons Platform (aka shoulder platform, shoulder section).

Slats (aka solar power collection slats, solar slats, solar cells, shoulder slats, armour slats, sensor plates) are effectively solar panels that absorb energy to power the Dalek.

Gunstick (aka radiation gun, gun-rod, ray-gun, exterminator, blast-gun, energy gun, Dalek neutraliser, neutraliser, beam distributor, Dalek beam gun, Dalek gun, ruby ray blaster). Sits on a balljoint, controlled by armament circuits. Can be set to non-lethal, causing temporary paralysis, but maximum settings can split atoms apart. Some Daleks deliberately reduce the power of their gunstick so that the beam burns away the central nervous system outside inwards, so victims die within 2-3 seconds in complete agony.

Manipulator arm (aka tactile arm, arm-stick). Usually sits on a balljoint. Attachments can be swapped out for various tools depending on the needs of the Dalek. Some attachments include the plunger, flamethrower, seismic detector, electrode unit, sieve, syringe, blow torch, cutting tool, another gunstick, or a claw, or basically anything they need.

Base Unit (aka travel unit). Contains the motive unit, the elevation unit, and thrusters.

Sense spheres (aka sensor globes, sensor arrays, bumps) can do pretty much whatever you want them to, including detecting emissions, monitoring the surrounding environment, and acting as self-destruct mechanisms. They can also function as sockets for cables and wires, and some say the sensor globes are capable of free flight, allowing them to provide remote battlefield intelligence.

Bumper (aka fender). Possibly containing proximal alert systems to detect other Daleks, but more likely just softening collisions.

Gallifreyan Dalek Biology for Tuesday by GIL

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features:⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[mariaofdoranelle]

The Courtship Deception - Part 1: Morning

Fic masterlist

Written for @throneofglassmicrofics

EEEEEE I’M SO EXCITED!!!

Warnings: none?

Word count: 983 words (I got it under control in the next parts, I promise 😅)

The wind in Aelin’s hair brought a rare sense of freedom, and it only got better the more she picked up speed. Tipping her head back, she felt weightless in this quaint little avenue—

“You’re supposed to be watching the road!” Fenrys shouted in the passenger’s seat. He was usually much cooler than this, but her favorite Personal Protection Officer was being handsomely paid to ensure not only her safety, but her dad’s convertible’s too.

“I’m feeling the road, Fen!” Aelin said, head tipped back into the tangled mess her hair became in this drive.

“That’s not— Fuck. We’re here!”

She slammed her foot on the breaks, tires screeching while their bodies were thrown forward. The force in which the seatbelt pressed against her collarbone was near bruising, but Aelin was laughing when the car stopped.

“How did I do?”

Fenrys threw his head back, cackling. “Fucking awful, Princess.”

Aelin’s father never allowed her to have driving lessons because he believes it’s an unnecessary waste of her time. Now, at the ripe age of 21, she finally convinced one of her babysitters to cross Rhoe’s orders, and her skills were getting less lethal each day.

Out of the car, she waited for Fenrys to parallel park—the spot was small, and Aelin was still getting the hang of it—and took in the charming residential street. An array of colorful little houses facing a park. It was Orynth in June, so the cool breeze brought the freshness of blooming trees, the late morning sunlight burning into Aelin’s skin and feeding into her soul, much like the flowering scene around her. Her bodyguard mentioned to a white and green house with a tiny but well-kept garden up front.

When Fenrys said they’d meet his secret tech guy, she expected something a lot more sketchy than this.

He said a few things to a camera by the front door, and it automatically opened. Um, rude? She didn’t expect a butler, but even in mafia movies there’s someone to answer the door.

After locking the front door and going through the living room, Fenrys led her into another one, and the amount of screens was far from being the most surprising thing.

“Rowie Bowie!” the bodyguard called, arms up, happy to greet his friend.

The mysterious man looked up, and it knocked Aelin’s breath out of her lungs. Holy rutting Mala. When Fen told her about this ‘grumpy tech guy’, she expected a weird-looking smelly nerd, not a scary-looking tattooed hottie. She immediately straightened, one hand subtly attempting to realign the bird’s nest that her hair became after the drive.

“Don’t bother,” scary-looking tattooed hottie said, piercing green eyes briefly assessing her before they were back on the screen. “You look pretty disheveled like this.” And he smirked. Her poor panties.

“So…” she trailed, leaning on the nearest desk. Smooth. Be smooth. “Rowie—“

“Please, don’t call me that.”

“It’s Rowan,” Fenrys added, “But Rowie is much better.”

He rolled his eyes. “Absolutely not—“

“Rowan.” Aelin cleared her throat. “Did you get past the security system?”

Of her own house, she meant. Her father was strict, so it was easier to get an illicit second phone than to get past all the monitoring her official phone was under. But Aelin had just bought a new iPhone, which meant she needed someone to make this phone fly under her dad’s radar—Mala forbid if someone finds an undetected wireless device within the walls of her mansion.

“All six of them, yes.”

“SIX?” Fenrys’ eyes were wide, caught by surprise.

“Yes,” Rowan replied, “Wireless detectors, frequency scanners, NLJDs, all six of them. And my job would be a lot easier if you knew your own workplace before hiring me.”

Poor Fen. His main job was to guard Aelin, he never got into the thick of Rhoe’s security system.

Rowan extended the new phone towards her, but took it back when she reached out. “I took the liberty to download something to get around your…” a small wince. “security cameras. You can crop some previously-recorded footage make make it look like it’s live. You’ll see it in the tutorial.”

How sweet of him. Aelin smiled. “You didn’t need to, but thanks.”

Her dad had security cameras installed in her bedroom—not in her closet or bathroom, but it was still annoying. Lorcan, one of her father’s men, was in charge of it, but Aelin terrorized the guy out of watching her footage. After a stunt she pulled a year ago, it’d take a nuclear explosion to get him to check the cameras on her bedroom.

“How much was it again?” Fenrys asked, his eyes widening when he saw the price, then complained, “That’s not what we settled for.”

“Agreed.” Rowan’s eyes, aimed at the bodyguard, were hard as steel. “You made my work sound much simpler than it actually was.”

She frowned. “How much is it?”

Fenrys sent her an apologetic look. “Half the Hermès we were buying after this.”

It’s not that money was a problem for Aelin, but her access to it was rather bureaucratic. She couldn’t go out, spend money on a “shopping spree”, and come back without shopping bags.

She waved him off. “What’s the point of getting a new purse if I don’t have a phone to put in it?”

Still upset, Fen turned around to focus on the payment. With his back to her, Aelin got closer to Rowan, both hands on his desk.

“I might have some trouble with this new setup on my phone,” Aelin lied.“So, I was wondering if you could give me your number, in case I have any questions.”

“Sure.” Rowan’s eyes sparkled, not leaving Aelin’s as he got her phone back. “Anything else?”

“Actually, yes.” She tilted her head, a fake helpless look from under her lashes. “I’m not as good with online instructions, so you might need to come find me sometime.”

The dark look Rowan gave her sent a shiver down her spine. “Let’s say I do. Does your guard dog come in the package deal?”

Aelin smirked, not bothering to keep up with the naïve facade anymore. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

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The results from our detector – an array of rapidly spinning neutron stars spread across the galaxy – show this gravitational wave background may be louder than scientists previously thought. We have also made the most detailed maps yet of gravitational waves across the sky … and we found an intriguing “hot spot” of activity in the Southern Hemisphere. Pulsars spin hundreds of times a second. As they rotate, they act like lighthouses, hitting Earth with pulses of radiation from thousands of light-years away. For some pulsars, we can predict when that pulse should hit us to within nanoseconds. Our gravitational wave detectors make use of this fact. If we observe many pulsars over the same period of time, and we’re wrong about when the pulses hit us in a very specific way, then we know a gravitational wave is stretching or squeezing the space between the Earth and the pulsars. However, instead of seeing just one wave, we expect to see a cosmic ocean full of waves crisscrossing in all directions: the echoing ripples of all the galactic mergers in the history of the universe. We call this the gravitational wave background. The pattern – which represents how space and time between Earth and the pulsars changes due to gravitational waves passing between them – is more powerful than we expected. This might mean there are more supermassive black holes orbiting each other than we thought. If so, this raises more questions, because our existing theories suggest there should be fewer supermassive black holes than we seem to be seeing.

results i offhandedly predicted years ago -- given that we've never observed any direct evidence of supermassive merger, i'm not saying it's impossible but i do think we are underestimating the amount of time dilation in that environment, to the degree that it's difficult to speculate about whether any will have merged in the age of the universe so far. this may not be the ultimate reason we have an arrow of time at all but i think it's what defines the pace of time we experience. i also think it's crucial to resolving hubble tension

that hotspot also doesn't bode well for the cosmological principle, and i have always thought it's poor methodology to axiomatically assume homogenous isotropy. so did vera rubin btw. but this is an 80 pulsar array so it's probably going to take another century of data to fully disprove that

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 could sneak into a denied area, get the take and leave before our enemy even knew we were there 🇺🇸🇺🇸

The SR-71 was never successfully intercepted by surface-to-air missile or aircraft. It had a state-of-the-art electronic defensive system which would defeat an incoming missile’s homing and steering. Detectors on board would alert the crew of a missile launch instantly and, since the SR-71 did not normally fly at its maximum speed or altitude, the aircraft’s defense was simultaneously to jam the missile’s guidance while accelerating, climbing, and turning with 45º of bank. No surface-to-air missile could out-turn, thus hit, an SR-71, a fact demonstrated many times, especially during the Vietnam War. Attempts to shoot down an SR-71 continued until August 25, 1981, which was the last time an enemy (North Korea) fired a surface-to-air missile at an SR-71; that mission was flown by Maury Rosenberg, pilot, and Ed McKim, Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO).

We carried an array of sophisticated sensors and recorders which could glean reconnaissance data with cameras capable of high-quality photographs horizon-to-horizon. We also had radar imagery capable of one-foot resolution. This was the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System (ASARS), which could deliver readable radar pictures night or day, bad weather or clear. I’m no photo interpreter, but even I could tell what was pictured. The SR-71 also carried electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems which are still classified. We advertised that the SR-71, within 24 hours notification, could be over any target on earth and be capable of surveying 100,000 square miles of terrain each hour. It was no idle boast.

I’ll summarize the importance of the SR-71 missions by quoting Paul Crickmore, noted aviation historian and Blackbird author, in a letter to me.

“In theatre, the SR-71 proved the concept of high-Mach, high-altitude flight, to obtain vital aerial reconnaissance. The SR-71 regularly conducted reconnaissance missions in the skies over North Vietnam – particularly around Hanoi in 1968-70 which at the time, was the most highly defended area on the planet.”

“The Blackbirds provided superior flexibility compared to satellites, time after time, specific examples—Yom Kippur War 1973, Yemen 1979, Cuba 1977—1990, Lebanon October 1983 (following the truck-bomb attack killing over 240 US Marines), Libya 1986, The Persian Gulf 1987, but perhaps most importantly, the on-going monitoring of Soviet nuclear submarine fleets for the US Navy—particularly the Northern Fleet with their submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), capable of hitting large areas of the United States, as well as all Allied Countries.”

BC Bredette B C Thomas

Posted by Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X