Great! A bunch of us here wanted it. Now it exists. 👍

It's a "dark archive" of the arXiv - a non-public backup to save the data in case of attack by hackers or the US government. The arXiv, I hope you know, is the biggest source of modern math and physics papers.

Who got the job done? The TIB: the Technische Informationsbibliothek, run by the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, in Hannover, Germany.

They write:

"The TIB has now set up a so-called dark archive for the arXiv content in order to be able to make the backed-up data accessible if the data stored in the USA is lost. The archive functions as a silent reserve: the complete copy of the content is stored decentrally at the TIB, but is not publicly accessible. This means that the data stock – almost 10 terabytes – is protected against potential outages and can be activated in an emergency.

The TIB is currently working on processes to keep the archive up to date: new submissions and updated versions must be backed up regularly in order to preserve the state of research as completely as possible.

“Building a Dark Archive is an expression of our longstanding commitment for a reliable, international academic provision, and as a partner of arXiv. Even though the Dark Archive today only works in the background, it is a key element in safeguarding digital research contents in the long term, because in case of a crisis, we could open the archive,” explains Dr Irina Sens, Deputy Director of the TIB."

We should call it the darXiv.

More details here:

https://blog.tib.eu/2025/05/14/protecting-science-tib-builds-dark-archive-for-arxiv/

"Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to auction anywhere from 600 to 800 megahertz of spectrum without specifying protections for scientific research, despite concerns from scientists who say access to certain bands allows unique observations in astronomy and atmospheric science."

https://www.aip.org/fyi/spectrum-auctions-raise-concerns-for-scientists

#Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #RadioSpectrum #FCC #Policy

Wow. This looks great. If it had been available 2 months ago my summer holidays would look a bit different!
Next time...
https://mastodon.social/@stefanlindbohm/114733502859245671
[email protected] - Today we’re quietly (and finally!) opening up Railfinder to the public! This is our beta version and - hopefully - the first step towards that one booking site for trains across Europe that we all dream of.

Lots of work has gone into this and equally lots still to do before reach that vision, but if you’d like to try what we’be built you can now just go to https://www.railfinder.eu and have a go!

Any and all feedback more than welcome 🙏

I like to informally ask my students about halfway through a course what they like and don't like about the course. It doesn't take much more than 10 minutes: I give groups of 3-4 students a single piece of A4 that I divide into four sections (positives, negatives, suggestions for improvement, other comments).

It's always insightful. And not just for me: They often realise that they disagree on some things (e.g., too much or too little of something, too slow or too fast, etc.) and they frequently suggest things that are easy to implement, but can really improve things. And so I've just set up a collaborative document to collect useful shortcuts and a glossary of important #Rstats functions which I've called "Class Cheatsheet". #HigherEd #teaching

La pillada que le acaban de hacer a Meta espiando y desanonimizando a usuarios de Android es tremenda. Ojalá se lleven una multa descomunal, pero dudo que eso pase o si pasa dudo que valga para cambiar nada. Poca opción nos queda como usuarios más allá de dejar de usar aplicaciones de este tipo de empresas y bloquear todos los trackers que podamos en las webs que visitemos.

https://localmess.github.io/

#privacidad #facebook #localmess #meta #android