Short Takes – 1-2-24

4 ways the government funding fight could play out in January. TheHill.com article. The author misses an important 5^th option: government shutdown. Pull quote: ““I think we’re going to end up with one of two things: either an omnibus or a yearlong CR,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), an appropriator, said. “And I’m not sure that an omnibus that would be put together by [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)] and his team will get 10 Republican votes.””

Florida State & Georgia Just Killed the College Football Bowl Game. Original.NewsBreak.com article.  Pull quote: “The case of Florida State in the 2023 Orange Bowl exemplifies a broader trend in college football, where the playoff system's importance overshadows the traditional bowl system. This shift reflects a changing landscape where the emphasis on professional careers and player well-being is taking precedence over historical college rivalries and bowl game appearances.”

Air Weapons: Ukrainian Strategic Attack UAV. StrategyPage.com article. A look at historical development of UAV weapons. Pull quote: “Meanwhile aerial warfare power continues to evolve, as unmanned, and often robotic, aircraft are replacing those with crews. UAVs have been around for over half a century as cruise missiles, and in that time, they have become a lot cheaper, reliable, and capable. UAVs now do most of the reconnaissance work and will begin replacing fighters and bombers in the next decade or so. Without being recognized as such, smart bombs and UAVs are the most revolutionary developments in air power since World War II. Air power will never be the same because of these two innovations the current extensive use of UAVs demonstrates this evolution in action.”

Chemical synthesis using titanium dioxide: An eco-friendly and innovative approach. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “TiO2 as a photocatalyst for driving organic reactions has captured the attention of synthetic chemists for a while now. However, many such processes require ultraviolet light to trigger the reaction. In this study [link added], however, the research team found that under anaerobic conditions, sulfur-containing organic compounds like thioanisole derivatives, when hit with blue light, reacted with maleimide derivatives to form dual carbon–carbon bonds, yielding a new heterocyclic organic compound.”

JN.1 Now Accounts for Nearly Half of U.S. Covid Cases. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “There are signs that Covid cases are once again creeping up. There were just under 26,000 hospitalizations due to Covid the week of Dec. 10, a 10 percent increase from about 23,000 hospitalizations the week prior. But Covid hospitalizations are still far lower than they were during the peak of the first Omicron wave in January 2022, and so far only about half as high as they were during the peak of the tripledemic last winter, when Covid-19, flu and R.S.V. cases all surged at the same time.”

House GOP majority to shrink to 2 with Ohio lawmaker’s early resignation. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Johnson’s office on Tuesday confirmed the congressman’s new official resignation date of Jan. 21, after he was expected to resign to take a job as president of Youngstown State University before mid-March.”

Two Space Stories In 2024 Will Determine The Future Of Humanity. Forbes.com article. Pull quote: “This time around, the incentives are different. There’s still a fair number of people who don’t understand the point of spending so much on the trip, but the world has changed in the last half-century. The climate crisis and a number of inter-related questions around our natural resources make it a salient time to get more serious about broadening our horizons to search for new means (and perhaps even new locales) to sustain life as we know it.”