YVRGeek - Slashdot User

Submission + - Saturn's rings will vanish for a time in six months

Submitted by YVRGeek on Wednesday September 04, 2024 @04:42PM

YVRGeek writes: Earth.com has an interesting article about the temporary "disappearance" of Saturn's rings in about six months. From the article:
A fast-approaching and significant cosmic event will soon dramatically alter our view of this magnificent planet. Come March 2025, Saturn’s majestic rings will become virtually invisible to earth-based observers.

This phenomenon occurs due to the unique tilt of Saturn’s axis, which will position the rings edge-on to our line of sight.

As a result, this is a rare opportunity for citizens and astronomers alike to witness this celestial transformation, while also reminding us of the ever-changing nature of our universe.

Thankfully, this isn’t a permanent change. It’s a fleeting cosmic event that recurs every 29.5 years, which is how long it takes Saturn to orbit the Sun. After March 2025, Saturn’s axial tilt will bring the rings back into view, then vanish again in November 2025.

Submission + - Medtronic co-founder who created wearable pacemaker dies at age 94 (www.ept.ca)

Submitted by YVRGeek on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @05:22PM

YVRGeek writes: Earl Bakken, an electronics repairman who created the first wearable external pacemaker and co-founded one of the world’s largest medical device companies, Medtronic, has died. He was 94.

Bakken, who also commercialized the first implantable pacemaker in 1960, died Sunday at his home in Hawaii, Medtronic said in a statement. It didn’t give a cause of death. Bakken and his brother-in-law, Palmer Hermundslie, formed Medtronic in 1949 and turned it from a struggling company they ran out of the Hermundlie family’s Minneapolis garage into a multinational medical technology powerhouse.

Submission + - Searchable DB of 1.4 billion stolen credentials found on dark web (itworldcanada.com) 2

Submitted by YVRGeek on Monday December 11, 2017 @08:40PM

YVRGeek writes: A security vendor has discovered a huge list of easily searchable stolen credentials in cleartext on the dark web which it fears could lead to a new wave of cyber attacks.

Julio Casal, co-founder of identity threat intelligence provider 4iQ, which has offices in Calfornia and Spain, said in a Dec. 8 blog his firm found the database of 1.4 billion username and password pairs while scanning the dark web for stolen, leaked or lost data.

He said the company has verified at least a group of credentials are legitimate.

What is alarming is the file is what he calls “an aggregated, interactive database that allows for fast (one second response) searches and new breach imports.” For example, searching for “admin,” “administrator” and “root” returned 226,631 passwords of admin users in a few seconds. As a result, the database can help attackers automate account hijacking or account takeover.

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