A few items collected over the past week or so while I was away from the keyboard.
- Highlights from Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines
- Burt Kwouk (1930-2016)
- Trailers for Star Trek series & new MacGyver series
- Hugo Awards, how to foil the Puppy slates
- Cybercrime
2007 OR10: Largest unnamed world in the solar system (Astronomy Magazine)
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, May 27 – June 4
May through June: Have you been watching the Mars-Antares-Saturn triangle change shape? It’s stretching as Mars moves westward away from the head of Scorpius. This will continue until the end of June. Then Mars will start to slingshot back to fly right between Antares and Saturn in late August. Plan to watch this slow summer drama!
As darkness arrives these evenings, look south about halfway between Jupiter and Mars. One star there stands out: Spica, in Virgo. High above it shines brighter Arcturus in Bootes. Half as far to Spica’s lower right is the constellation Corvus, the Crow, eyeing Spica to steal it from Virgo’s hand as she looks the other way. (complicated way to find Spica, IMO, esp since Jupiter and Mars move around. Better to use this tried and true method: Find the Big Dipper. Use the handle to “Arc to Acturus, then spike down to Spica. You can’t miss Arcturus, it’s bright orange. –CPL)
Thursday, June 2: Now it’s Saturn’s turn at opposition. It’s the second-brightest point in the area of Mars, 16° to Mars’s lower left.Finding Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars
Friday, June 3
• For much of the spring at mid-northern latitudes, the Milky Way lies right down out of sight all around the horizon. But watch the east now. The rich Cepheus-Cygnus-Aquila stretch of the Milky Way starts rising up all across the east late these nights, earlier and higher every week.
Cassiopeia inches along sideways low in the north at dusk.
Saturday, June 4
• New Moon (exact at 11:00 p.m. EDT). A new lunar month begins. Unlike a calendar month, which averages 30.437 days long, a lunar month (from one new Moon to the next) averages 29.531 days. So, on average, you’ll see the Moon in the same phase about 1 day earlier every month bu the calendar.
Burt Kwouk (1930-2016)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/05/24/burt-kwouk-actor–obituary/
Best know for his role as Cato in Pink Panther Films, but also had genre roles in the Curse of the Fly and various TV series. Hop over to IMDB for a full listing.
Trailers for Star Trek series & new MacGyver series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE
At the CBS Upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall in New York on May 18, CBS unveiled the logo for the new STAR TREK television series within the first-ever promotional video for the highly-anticipated program. (Only the premiere will be available on CBS, after that it goes to streaming.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt8E6X6-744
IMBD http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399045/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
A reimagining of the television series of the same name, following a 20-something MacGyver as he creates a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening. – Written by CBS
Hugo Awards, how to foil the Puppy slates (or any other kind of slate)
The whole messy Puppies/Hugo situation– this is a thread on File 770 in which various ideas on how to stop slates from screwing up the Hugo awards are discussed and dissected. Last year, there were 5 no awards because those 5 categories were owned by Puppies.
Cybercrime
Since Steven’s presentation on cybercrime and the series, CSI Cyber, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the subject. It’s worth checking into blogs such as this one from the Norton Community Forum
Cybercrime in Canada is growing. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/cc-strategy-strategie-cc-eng.htm
Cybercrime: an overview of incidents and issues in Canada is the RCMP’s first report on cybercrime, and focuses on aspects of the cybercrime environment that affect Canada’s public organizations, businesses and citizens in real and harmful ways.
