Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s broadcast of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse has won an Emmy Award for Excellence in Production Technology.
At the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on Dec. 4, in New York City, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the win. Walt Lindblom and Sami Aziz accepted the award on behalf of the agency. For the broadcast, Lindblom served as the coordinating producer and Aziz served as the executive producer.
“By broadcasting the total solar eclipse, this team brought joy and wonder for our Sun, Moon, and Earth to viewers across America and the world,” said Will Boyington, associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Congratulations to the production team, whose efforts demonstrate the hard work and dedication to the sharing the marvel that makes our solar system something we strive to understand.”
NASA’s live broadcast coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse was the most complex live project ever produced by the agency. In total, NASA’s eclipse broadcasts garnered almost 40 million live and replay views across its own distribution channels, including on NASA+, the agency’s free streaming service. Externally, the agency’s main broadcast was picked up in 2,208 hits on 568 channels in 25 countries.
“Our unique place in the solar system allows us on Earth to witness one of the most spectacular science shows nature has to offer. NASA’s production team captured the action every step of the way across the path of totality, including the rare glimpse of the Sun’s corona,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “Congratulations to the NASA team for successfully showing the 2024 total solar eclipse through the eyes of NASA for the whole world to experience together.”
The broadcast spanned three hours, showcasing the eclipse across seven American states and two countries. From cities, parks, and stadiums, 11 hosts and correspondents provided on air commentary, interviews, and live coverage. Viewers tuned in from all over the world, including at watch parties in nine locations, from the Austin Public Library to New York’s Times Square. An interactive “Eclipse Board” provided real time data analysis as the Moon’s shadow crossed North America.
Live feeds from astronauts aboard the International Space Station and NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft were brought in to provide rare and unique perspectives of the solar event. To make this possible, NASA deployed and enabled 67 cameras, 6 NASA Wide Area Network control rooms, 38 encoders, and 35 decoders. The team coordinated 20 live telescope feeds which represented 12 locations across the path of totality.
NASA’s eclipse broadcast won another Emmy award earlier this year at the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Live News Special. Additionally, the show received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Show Open or Title Sequence – News. NASA’s eclipse communication and broadcast efforts also won two Webby Awards and two Webby People’s Voice Awards.
On April 8, 2024, North America's last total solar eclipse until 2045 moved across the continent. It made landfall in Mexico, crossed the United States from ...
With 2025 almost over, the Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson, and the broader crypto market are looking ahead to 2026 with renewed optimism for the ecosystem and the ADA price. Hoskinson has shared a strategic game plan for 2026 that could significantly transform the Cardano ecosystem and potentially even influence the value of its native token. Although ADA’s price has underperformed other top altcoins so far this year, upcoming developments and shifts in 2026 could create a better environment for a potential recovery.
Cardano 2026 Game Plan Offers Hope For ADA Price Recovery
In a recent video posted on X, Hoskinson shared his thoughts on Cardano, offering a glimpse into the blockchain’s vision for 2026. According to the crypto founder, Cardano is preparing to enter the new year with a plan to become a powerful and exceptional blockchain network and the most relatable distribution system humanity has ever created.
Hoskinson emphasized that achieving this vision will require significant time and effort, acknowledging that setbacks are part of building a complex system. He noted that bugs and mistakes are inevitable, but what distinguishes a successful project is how well and fast it responds and recovers.
The Cardano founder also highlighted the importance of learning from errors and improving processes, suggesting that future obstacles will be overcome more quickly and effectively. While perfection is unattainable, Hoskinson’s statements reflect confidence in Cardano’s approach to problem-solving, adaptability, and its ongoing progress toward becoming a leading blockchain network.
While the blockchain prepares to advance, it remains uncertain if an ADA price recovery will follow. Currently, the cryptocurrency is trading at $0.449, reflecting a 63% decline this year and a 16.6% drop over the past month. Compared to other altcoins like Ethereum and Solana, which reached new all-time highs earlier this year, ADA’s underperformance has been somewhat of a puzzle, especially given its previous ecosystem developments and strong community.
Analyst Says ADA Price Will Be Mega Bullish If It Breaks This Level
The Cardano price has been trending downward for months; however, analysts remain bullish on the cryptocurrency. According to crypto analyst ‘Sssebi’, ADA’s next key milestone is the $0.50 resistance level. If the altcoin can successfully breach this threshold, he predicts that Cardano could enter a “mega bullish phase.”
Sssebi’s analysis highlights that despite Cardano’s price being significantly undervalued, its underlying structure still shows hints of bullishness. Breaking $0.50, therefore, could act as a psychological trigger that helps the altcoin overcome current bearishness and signal a much-anticipated recovery.
The analyst suggested that ADA’s current price of $0.44 may represent a bottom level. As a result, he recommends that traders view this low level as a potential opportunity to enter the market ahead of a potential upward surge.
How do you top a highly detailed scale model of NASA’s new moon-bound rocket and its support tower? If you’re Lego, you make it so it can actually lift off.
Lego’s NASA Artemis Space Launch System Rocket, part of its Technic line of advanced building sets, will land on store shelves for $60 on January 1, 2026, and then “blast off” from kitchen tables, office desks and living room floors. The 632-piece set climbs skyward, separating from its expendable stages along the way, until the Orion crew spacecraft and its European Service Module top out the motion on their way to the moon—or wherever your imagination carries it.
“The educational LEGO Technic set shows the moment a rocket launches, in three distinct stages,” reads the product description on Lego’s website. “Turn the crank to see the solid rocket boosters separate from the core stage, which then also detaches. Continue turning to watch the upper stage with its engine module, Orion spacecraft and launch abort system separate.”
Tens of thousands of blue-collar Defense Department workers are slated to receive their long-delayed 2024 pay raises. The raises were stalled for nearly a year after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s purge of advisory committees halted the DoD Wage Committee’s ability to authorize new wage schedules.
The DoD Wage Committee met last week for the first time this year to approve publication of 2024 updates to about 1,600 wage schedules covering 250 wage areas.
These raises will match the General Schedule locality increases, and they will be applied retroactively according to when they should have taken effect last year. DoD workers could see the pay bump reflected in their next paychecks.
“It will probably be in the next paycheck, or possibly a separate check. It will depend on which payroll processor is being used,” Jacqueline Simon, American Federation of Government Employees’ director of public policy, told Federal News Network.
“There might be some other agencies, like the Bureau of Prisons, Social Security, even the Department of Veterans Affairs that might be more delayed. But I’m told the Defense Finance and Accounting Service says it will be the next paycheck,” she said.
For blue-collar federal employees under the Federal Wage System, the process of getting a pay raise is more complex than for most General Schedule employees. While the GS base pay schedule is adjusted annually each January with an across-the-board pay increase set by the president or Congress, FWS adjustments are based partly on that overarching raise and partly on wage surveys conducted by the DoD Wage Committee, which then votes to implement new schedules region by region throughout the year.
But in March, Hegseth launched a review of all advisory committees, requiring them to justify their existence. He instructed the committees to explain how their advice “benefited the DoD, the federal government, and the United States,” and how it aligned with President Donald Trump’s goals and the department’s priority of “restoring the warrior ethos.” Hegseth dismissed all members of the advisory committees in April.
The DoD Wage Committee — made up of three agency officials and two union leaders, and whose sole function is to approve wage schedules for FWS employees — has been unable to meet since then.
“We don’t provide advice per se. We look through all the data, at the way the calculations were done, make sure everything was done right, and then you vote that yes, this is okay. And sometimes it’s not okay. Sometimes there are errors and they’re found. But that’s what the DoD wage committee is,” Simon said.
“The surveys happened, the calculation and the new wage scales and wage rates were determined, but none of them could be actually implemented or paid because of the pause on the advisory committees. Everything was ready to go. So people who were due their raise in March and April and May, in June, July, August, September, none of them got their raises when they were supposed to,” she added.
Simon said the Office of the Secretary of Defense never offered any explanation of why the committee could not be exempted. “They just wouldn’t do it. They were not permitted to meet with us,” she said.
It appears that pressure from lawmakers eventually pushed the department to reverse its course.
“We certainly talked to a lot of lawmakers, and we talked to as many people in the administration as we possibly could and tried to put some political pressure on the secretary, and I guess he finally relented,” Simon said.
The delay, Simon said, has been deeply frustrating for workers. “Across the board, people were absolutely furious. There’s no way to overstate how angry and resentful people were that this was happening. And, of course, there was a hardship, of course there was the shutdown, and then this on top of it, and it was a terrible outrage.”
AFGE estimates that more than 118,000 DoD employees are paid through the Federal Wage System.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.
When I was a kid, I was interested in a number of professions that are now either outdated, or have changed completely. One of those dreams involved checking out books and things to patrons, and it was focused primarily on pulling out the little card and adding a date-due stamp.
Of course, if you’ve been to a library in the last 20 years, you know that most of them don’t work that way anymore. Either the librarian scans special barcodes, or you check materials out yourself simply by placing them just so, one at a time. Either way, you end up with a printed receipt with all the materials listed, or an email. I ask you, what’s the fun in that? At least with the old way, you’d usually get a bookmark for each book by way of the due date card.
As I got older and spent the better part of two decades in a job that I didn’t exactly vibe with, I seriously considered becoming a programmer. I took Java, Android, and UNIX classes at the local junior college, met my now-husband, and eventually decided I didn’t have the guts to actually solve problems with computers. And, unlike my husband, I have very little imagination when it comes to making them do things.
Fast forward to last weekend, the one before Thanksgiving here in the US. I had tossed around the idea of making a personal library system just for funsies a day or so before, and I brought it up again. My husband was like, do you want to make it tonight using ChatGPT? And I was like, sure — not knowing what I was getting into except for the driver’s seat, excited for the destination.
Vibing On a Saturday Night
I want to make a book storage system. Can you please write a Python script that uses SQL Alchemy to make a book model that stores these fields: title, author, year of publication, genre, and barcode number?
So basically, I envisioned scanning a book’s barcode, pulling it up in the system, and then clicking a button to check it out or check it back in. I knew going in that some of my books don’t have barcodes at all, and some are obliterated or covered up with college bookstore stickers and what have you. More on that later.
First, I was told to pip install sqlalchemy, which I did not have. I was given a python script called books_db.py to get started. Then I asked for code that looks up all the books and prints them, which I was told to add to the script.
Then things were getting serious. I asked it to write a Flask server and a basic HTML front end for managing the books in the system. I was given the Flask server as app.py, and then some templates: base.html to be used by all pages, and index.html to view all the books, and add_book.html to, you know, add a new book. At that point, I got to see what it had created for the first time, and I thought it was lovely for a black and white table. But it needed color.
Yeah, so I’ve been busy adding books and not CSS color keywords to genres lately.
Check It Out
This is a great book, and you should read it whether you think you have a problem or not.
I asked the chat-thing for features and implemented them piecemeal, as you do if you’re not a masochist. First up was a cute little trash-can delete-button for every entry. Then it was time to set up the CheckoutEvent. Each of these events records which book it belongs to, whether it’s a check-out or check-in event, and the timestamp of said event. Of course, then it was time to get the checkout history wired to the front-end and accessible by clicking a book’s title.
All I really had to do was add a history route to app.py, update index.html to make the titles clickable, and create the book_history.html it spat out. Then I had it add the buttons for checking in and out on the new checkout history page, which involved adding routes to app.py as well as a helper to compute the current status.
Then it had me modify the history route and update book_history.html with the actual buttons. And they’re super cute, too — there’s a little red book on the checkout button, and a green book on the check-in.
Barcode Blues
On the index.html page, can you add a barcode number-based search box? And when the user searches, redirect them to the book page for that barcode?
Now it was time to get the barcode scanning situation up and running. I was sure at some point that ChatGPT would time me out for the night since I use the free model, but it just kept helping me do whatever I wanted, and even suggesting new features.
I wanted the barcode handling to be twofold: one, it should definitely pull the checkout page if the book exists in the system, and it should also definitely go to the book-entering page if not.
Yes — that’s a great workflow feature. We’ll add a barcode search box to your index page, and when someone submits a barcode, the app will:
Look up the book by barcode
Redirect straight to that book’s checkout history page
Show a nice error if the barcode doesn’t exist
I did what it told me, adding a barcode search route in app.py and updating the index() route to use it. I then added its barcode search form to index.html. It was at this point that I had to figure out a way to generate barcodes so I could make little stickers for the books that lack them entirely, or have otherwise obliterated ones.
I have a pretty basic 1D barcode scanning gun, and it won’t scan everything. As I soon found out, it prefers fake EAN barcodes to UPCs altogether. I finally found an online barcode generator and got to work, starting with a list of randomly-generated numbers I made with Excel. I decided I wanted all the fake barcodes to start with 988, which is close enough to the ISBN 978 lead-in, and happens to use my favorite number twice.
We took a brief detour as I asked the chat-thing to make the table to have ascending/descending sorting by clicking the headers. The approach it chose was to keep things server-side, and use little arrows to indicate direction. I added sorting logic to app.py and updated index.html to produce the clickable headers, and also decided that the entries should be color-coded based on genre, and implemented that part without help from GPT. Then I got tired and went to bed.
The Long, Dark Night of the Solo Programmer
I’m of a certain age and now sleep in two parts pretty much every night. In fact, I’m writing this part now at 1:22 AM, blasting Rush (2112) and generally having a good time. But I can tell you that I was not having a good time when I got out of bed to continue working on this library system a couple of hours later.
There I was, entering books (BEEP!), when I decided I’d had enough of that and needed to try adding more features. I cracked my knuckles and asked the chat-thing if it could make it so the search works across all fields — title, author, year, genre, or barcode. It said, cool, we can do that with a simple SQLAlchemy or_ query. I was like, whatever, boss; let’s get crazy.
Can you make it so the search works across all fields?
It had me import or_ and update the search route in app.py to replace the existing barcode search route with a generalized search using POST. Then I was to update index.html to rename the input to a general query. Cool.
But no. I messed it up some how and got an error about a missing {% endblock %}. In my GPT history it says, I’m confused about step 2. Where do I add it? And maybe I was just tired. I swear I just threw the code up there at the top like it told me to. But it said:
Ah! I see exactly why it’s confusing — your current index.html starts with the <h1> and then goes straight into the table. The search form should go right under the <h1> and before the table.
Then I was really confused. Didn’t I already have a search box that only handled barcodes? I sure did, over in base.html. So the new search code ended up there. Maybe that’s wrong. I don’t remember the details, but I searched the broader internet about my two-layer error and got the thing back to a working state many agonizing minutes later. Boy, was I proud, and relieved that I didn’t have to ask my husband to fix my mistake(s) in the morning. I threw my arms in the air and looked around for the cats to tell them the good news, but of course, I was the only one awake.
Moar Features!
I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted more. I asked it to add a current count of books in the database and display it toward the top. After that, it offered to add a count of currently-checked-out vs. available books, to which I said yes please. Then I wanted an author page that accepts an author’s name and shows all books by that author. I asked for a new page that shows all the books that are checked out. Most recently, I made it so the search box and the column headers persist on scroll.
I’m still trying to think of features, but for now I’m busy entering books, typing up check-out cards on my IBM Wheelwriter 5, and applying library pockets to the inside back covers of all my books. If you want to make your own personal library system, I put everything on GitHub.
On the Shoulders of Giants (and Robots)
I couldn’t have done any of this without my husband’s prompts and guidance, his ability to call shenanigans on GPT’s code whenever warranted, and ChatGPT itself. Although I have programmed in the past, it’s been a good long time since I even printed “Hello, World” in any language, though I did find myself recalling a good deal about this and that syntax.
If you want to make a similar type of niche system for your eyes only, I’d say this could be one way to do it. Wait, that’s pretty non-committal. I’d say just go for it. You have yourself and the broader Internet to check mistakes along the way, and you just might like some of the choices it makes on your behalf.
Ethereum’s price is displaying signs of bullish momentum once again as the leading altcoin reclaims the $3,000 mark following a rebound across the broader cryptocurrency market. While the price has picked up pace, the ETH derivatives market is heating up, with futures demand rising sharply compared to the spot market.
Futures Appetite Surges Ahead Of Spot Buying
With the price of Ethereum displaying renewed upward strength, the altcoin appears to be changing its tempo, and this change is not coming from where most traders typically look. A recent report from CryptoQuant, a leading on-chain data analytics platform, has revealed a notable divergence between the futures and spot markets.
In the quick-take post, market expert and author with the pseudonym Crazzyblockk highlighted that the futures markets have accelerated significantly while spot activity continues to lag behind. Simply put, demand for futures is surging ahead of spot buying, indicating a shift among ETH investors or traders.
When this key trend emerges, it often serves as an early tremor that frequently precedes more significant developments in Ethereum’s narrative. It suggests that individuals betting on tomorrow may write the next chapter of ETH price action instead of accumulating today.
Over the last several days, ETH’s futures-to-spot ratio has steadily moved higher from the mid-5 range to nearly 6.9 on the most recent reading. Crazzyblockk stated that the rising multiple shows there is a fast increase in speculative interest around Ethereum than spot market participation. What this means is that traders positioning through leveraged markets are expanding rather than acquiring through spot.
In comparison to other major digital assets in the dataset, ETH currently holds the most robust futures demand relative to its spot volume. While Bitcoin and Solana maintain stable ratios in the 3.5–4.5 zone, the altcoin remains the leader and is widening the gap.
ETH Traders Are Choosing Directional Exposure
The divergence points to an environment where traders are opting for directional exposure in ETH more aggressively than in other large assets. Meanwhile, the increase in futures participation could be a sign of impending catalysts or growing expectations for volatility unique to the Ethereum ecosystem.
According to the market expert, the consistency of this upward trajectory is important to the market. When market players expect greater short-term price movement, a rising futures multiple usually arises. Currently, the data indicates that Ethereum traders are sharply positioning ahead of potential trend acceleration.
However, whether this development leads to a persistent upward momentum or short-term volatility, the path remains clear. The behavior reflects heightened conviction and a noticeable change in Ethereum’s trading dynamics toward those driven by derivatives.
At the time of writing, the ETH price was trading at $3,007, demonstrating a 0.73% decline in the last 24 hours. Its trading volume has sharply dropped in the past day by more than 33%, indicating waning sentiment among ETH investors.
The breach highlights the persistent threat of state-sponsored cybercrime on global financial systems, emphasizing the need for enhanced security measures.
If you want to protect a system from being hacked, a great way to do that is with an airgap. This term specifically refers to keeping a system off any sort of network or external connection — there is literally air in between it and other systems. Of course, this can be limiting if you want to monitor or export logs from such systems. [Nelop Systems] decided to whip up a simple workaround for this issue, creating a bespoke one-way data extraction method.
The concept is demonstrated with a pair of Raspberry Pi computers. One is hooked up to critical industrial control systems, and is airgapped to protect it against outside intruders. It’s fitted with an optocoupler, with a UART hooked up to the LED side of the device. The other side of the optocoupler is hooked up to another Raspberry Pi, which is itself on a network and handles monitoring and logging duties.
This method creates a reliable one-way transmission method from the airgapped machine to the outside world, without allowing data to flow in the other direction. Indeed, there is no direct electrical connection at all, since the data is passing through the optocoupler, which provides isolation between the two computers. Security aficionados will argue that the machine is no longer really airgapped because there is some connection between it and the outside world. Regardless, it would be hard to gain any sort of access through the one-way optocoupler connection. If you can conceive of a way that would work, drop it down in the comments.
Login
