Short Takes – 8-6-24

Drinking Too Much Water Can Actually Be Dangerous. WSJ.com article (free). Pull quote: “Drinking too much water essentially makes it difficult for the body to keep up healthy levels of sodium, an electrolyte that helps balance the fluid in cells. A person’s kidneys can typically manage about one liter of water per hour, said Thunder Jalili, a professor of nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah.”

Alarmism about Terrorism Is Risky and Unjustified. HomelandSecurityNewswire.com article. Pull quote: “Unfortunately, government security analysts see no downside in making wrong predictions. Congress doesn’t rake you over the coals if you predicted something that didn’t happen, only if you fail to predict something that did. In the intelligence community, it is considered a failure if something bad happens and you miss the call. But if you make a call and nothing happens, then the mistake will be forgotten. But as every warning analyst knows, “crying wolf” too often reduces trust in predictions—and that makes sense.”

NASA Adjusts Crew-9 Launch Date for Operational Flexibility. Blogs.NASA.gov article. Pull quote: “This adjustment [no earlier than September 24^th, 2024] allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory. Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth. NASA and Boeing continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s readiness, and no decisions have been made regarding Starliner’s return.”

CISA Releases Secure by Demand Guidance. CISA.gov news release. Pull quote: “This guide [link added] provides organizations with questions to ask when buying software, considerations to integrate product security into various stages of the procurement lifecycle, and resources to assess product security maturity in line with secure by design principles.”

These Pathogens Could Spark the Next Pandemic, Scientists Warn. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Forrester-Soto says that the list of pathogens is reasonable given what researchers know about the viruses. But “some pathogens from the list may never cause an epidemic, and one we have not thought of may be important in the future,” she says. “We have almost never predicted the next pathogen to emerge”.”