H5N1 2.3.4.4b D1.3 in Ohio-Indiana Poultry Outbreak with
Associated Undisclosed Human Sequence Data. HogVet51.Substack.com article.
A tad bit geeky, but interesting discussion. Pull quote: “I don’t want to drone
on. We have a relatively new zoonotic H5N1 2.3.4.4b D1.3 genotype that has
killed over 19 million chickens on 84 farms in a small area in less than 2 1/2
months! It put one poultry worker in the hospital. No one has even bothered to
publicly announce the new genotype to my knowledge! CDC has likely sequenced it
from the hospitalized human patient yet has failed to deposit the sequence or
even inform the public of its findings.”
Isar Aerospace sets date for first launch after receiving
license. SpaceNews.com article.
Pull quote: “The launch attempt will be a major milestone for both the company
and the European space industry as it seeks to expand its launch capabilities.
“In today’s geopolitical climate, our first test flight is about much more than
a rocket launch: Space is one of the most critical platforms for our security,
resilience and technological advancement,” Daniel Metzler, chief executive and
co-founder of Isar Aerospace, said in a statement. “In the next days, Isar
Aerospace will lay the foundations to regain much needed independent and
competitive access to space from Europe.””
Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting.
Others should follow. Freedom.press article.
Pull quote: “We commend Wired for tipping the balance that all for-profit media
outlets must strike between public interest and business more toward the public
interest. We hope others will follow its lead (and shoutout to outlets like 404
Media that also make their FOIA-based reporting available for free).”
A method to assess 'forgivable' vs 'unforgivable'
vulnerabilities. NCSC.gov.uk article.
Pull quote: “We know many vulnerabilities are complex and hard to avoid. But
vulnerabilities that are trivial to find (and that occur time and time again)
are ones the NCSC are aiming to drive down at scale. These ‘unforgivable
vulnerabilities', a phrase coined by Steve Christie in his 2007 MITRE paper, ‘are beacons of
a systematic disregard for secure development practices. They simply should not
appear in software that has been designed, developed, and tested with security
in mind’.”
Europe funds inflatable satellite drag sail demonstration.
SpaceNews.com article.
Pull quote: “A growing number of satellites rely on onboard propulsion to
maneuver and lower their altitude for deorbiting. However, this method requires
the satellite to be functional at the end of its mission and consumes fuel that
could otherwise be used for operational tasks.”
US reviews chemical incident prevention planning rules.
ChemistryWorld.com article.
Pull quote: “California-based environmental non-profit group Earthjustice
voiced concerns at the review. ‘This is the second time the Trump
administration targets safeguards against chemical disasters. Any rollback of
health and safety protections from chemical disasters will face legal
challenges.’ Earthjustice asserts that fatal or life-threatening chemical
incidents occur at chemical facilities on average every 2.5 days, and over $5
billion in damages have resulted from these disasters.” Includes quotes from
me.
Farewell, Blue Ghost! Private moon lander goes dark to
end record-breaking commercial lunar mission. Space.com article.
Pull quote: “"We battle-tested every system on the lander and simulated
every mission scenario we could think of to get to this point," Blue Ghost
Chief Engineer Will Coogan said in a Firefly statement today (March 17) that announced the
end of the mission.”
Snubbed Vaccine Committee Members Lament FDA's Flu Shot Actions. MedPageToday.com article.
Pull quote: “He told MedPage Today that an additional value of VRBPAC is that
its discussions and reasoning are "open to the public" -- and that
they include a "post-mortem on how we did the previous year and whether we
could have done better" in terms of matching strains with those that end
up circulating.”
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