Short Takes – 8-8-24

CDC issues new guidelines for RSV vaccines, citing side-effect concerns. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “For a vaccine with no associated risk of [Guillain-Barré syndrome] GBS, you'd expect to see about 2 cases per 1 million doses administered, whereas the Pfizer vaccine was tied to about 5 cases per 1 million, Live Science previously reported.”

Massive Criminal Online Platform Disrupted. CourtWatch.news article. Pull quote: “The FBI was able to determine the IP addresses of the WWH Club site’s administrators after obtaining a search warrant for the US-based Cloud company Digital Ocean. From there, according to the complaint, computer scientists working for the FBI coded the WWH site’s data to give agents administrative privileges and the ability to see tens of thousands of emails, passwords, and activity registered to accounts. Agents noted that the administrative view of the website was in Russian, requiring them to use Google to translate much of the data.” What, the FBI does not have Russian speaking programmers?

Swiss cow and calf dead after ransomware attack on milking robot. CyberNews.com article. Pull quote: “Due to the inability to monitor pregnant animals, the farmer was unable to identify the emergency situation in time. One calf died in the womb. The farmer tried to save the cow, but, unfortunately, it was too late, and the cow had to be put down.”

Your AC habits aren’t unique. Here’s why that’s a problem. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “A growing number of technologies do just this [cooling systems that can act as their own batteries] - the goal is to charge up the systems using electricity during times when demand is low, or when renewables are readily available. Then they can provide cooling during these peak-demand hours without adding stress to the grid. Check out my full story for more on how they work, and how far along they are.”

WHO may declare new, deadlier mpox outbreak an international emergency. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “The ongoing outbreak in Africa features a new branch of the clade 1 family tree, dubbed clade 1b. Genetic analyses suggest that this new branch emerged in September 2023 in the DRC. The virus has been spreading through households and within sexual networks, and its fatality rate has been estimated between 3% and 6%, according to CIDRAP News, which is published by the University of Minnesota.”

Congress limps toward the end of a disappointing session, with just 78 laws to show. GovExec.com article. Pull quote: ““There’s enough work for individual senators to do seven days a week if you want to work,” Grassley said. “But you can’t solve this country’s problems until you get 100 people together, and they’ve got to be together for more than two-and-a-half days a week.””