The Astrophysics Data System is an online NASA database of over
7,000,000 astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and
non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for
almost all articles, and full scanned articles are available in GIF and
PDF format for older articles. New articles have links to electronic
versions hosted at the journal's webpage, but these are typically
available only by subscription (which most astronomy research
facilities have). It is managed by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics. ADS is an extremely powerful research tool, and has had a
significant impact on the efficiency of astronomical research since it
was launched in 1992. Literature searches which previously would have
taken days or weeks can now be carried out in seconds via the
sophisticated ADS search engine, which is custom-built for astronomical
needs. Studies have found that the benefit to astronomy of the ADS is
equivalent to several hundred million US dollars annually, and the
system is estimated to have tripled the readership of astronomical
journals. Use of ADS is almost universal among astronomers worldwide,
and therefore ADS usage statistics can be used to analyze global trends
in astronomical research.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics_Data_System>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1513:
War of the League of Cambrai: Swiss mercenaries defeated the French in
Novara, present-day Italy, forcing them to withdraw from Milan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Novara_%281513%29>
1523:
Gustav Vasa became King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar
Union.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_I_of_Sweden>
1844:
The YMCA, today a world-wide movement of more than 45 million members
from 124 national federations, was founded in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA>
1933:
The first ever drive-in theater opened in Pennsauken, New Jersey, USA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/drive-in_theater>
1982:
A war in Lebanon began when Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon to
root out members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Lebanon_War>
2005:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its landmark legal decision in
Gonzales v. Raich, allowing the U.S. Congress to ban medical marijuana
even in states that approve its use.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
let the cat out of the bag (v):
To disclose a secret; to let a secret be known, often inadvertently
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let_the_cat_out_of_the_bag>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to
live without honor.
--Pierre Corneille
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Corneille>