Short Takes – 3-28-24

Requests for Comments; Clearance of a Renewed Approval of Information Collection: Unmanned Aircraft Remote Identification Message Elements. Federal Register FAA 30-day ICR renewal notice. Summary: “The collection involves electronic information that is broadcast directly from certain unmanned aircraft, specifically standard remote identification unmanned aircraft and unmanned aircraft equipped with a remote identification broadcast module. The collection of this information in the remote identification message elements is necessary to comply with the FAA's statutory requirement to develop and implement standards for remotely identifying operators and owners of unmanned aircraft. The collection of this information will also provide airspace awareness to enable the FAA, national security agencies, and law enforcement entities to distinguish compliant airspace users from those potentially posing a safety or security risk.” Comment deadline: April 26^th, 2024.

Water isn’t normal. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “We have worked out innumerable uses (and occasional abuses) of water’s unique properties, but it’s an irony of the universe that one of the most familiar substances in our world is simultaneously such a bizarre chemical outlier. Science shows us that our normal experience is only a tiny slice of reality: we’ve lived our entire lives at the bottom of a gravity well, to the point that it defines our notions of direction – ‘up’ and ‘down’ have no meaning in most of the universe. But thinking of water as the usual sort of liquid is one of our bigger misconceptions.”

HOW DOES TIME WORK ON THE MOON? HackADay.com article. Interesting article, but misses phases of Earth as a lunar time construct. Pull quote: “It’s easy to imagine overlaying local Moon time and a home Earth time zone on a calendar or planning app of some kind. Thus, if you know you’re heading to a given region at Moon midday, local Moon time, you know you’ve got at least 8.125 Earth days of sunlight before you get to the local dark time. Converting between this and the astronaut’s chosen 24-hour home time zone would become a perennial bugbear, but a necessary part of living and working on the Moon.”

Key Bridge Was Also Hit by a Ship in 1980, With Limited Damage. NYTimes.com article (free). Much larger ships provide much larger threat. Pull quote: “Benjamin W. Schafer, a professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told Scientific American this week that the accident would most likely hold lessons for protecting bridge support structures from shipping traffic.”

Reestablishment of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee. Federal Register DHS committee charter notice. Summary: “The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that the reestablishment of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee (HSSTAC) is necessary and in the public interest to support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) in the performance of its duties.” New charter expires March 3^rd, 2026.

Emergency Response Standard. Federal Register OSHA comment extension notice. Summary: “OSHA is extending the period for submitting comments by 45 days to allow stakeholders interested in the NPRM on Emergency Response additional time to review the NPRM and collect information and data necessary for comment.”

Cyber gangs stealing loads from US truckers, double brokering. NewsNationNow.com article. Pull quote: “If a shipper needs a load delivered to a warehouse or store, a scammer intervenes as the middleman and either holds the load for ransom or doesn’t deliver it. It’s significantly impacting the supply chain, trickling down to consumers as they may face price hikes or shortages of essential items such as food, electronics, building supplies and cars.”