Short Takes – 9-10-24

GOP opposition stacks up against Johnson’s spending plan. Politico.com article. Pull quote: “Johnson could get a tiny bit more wiggle room if Democrats have absences. But he’ll likely have some convincing to do if he hopes to pass the bill through the House, which many Republicans saw as an opening offer to the Senate. If it can’t even clear the lower chamber, Democrats will feel even more emboldened to push through their plan, a more straightforward CR that kicks a shutdown deadline into mid-December — setting up another year-end spending fight.”

GOP opposition appears to doom Speaker Johnson’s initial plan to avert shutdown. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Some of those Republicans are warning that the opposition is likely to grow. Mills — who called deficit spending “the existential threat” to American democracy and suggested the SAVE Act portion of the package was “messaging at its finest” — said “quite a few” more Republicans are planning to vote no.”

55% of OT Environments Contain Four or More Remote Access Tools, Greatly Expanding Attack Surface and Operational Complexity. Claroty press release. Pull quote: ““Since the onset of the pandemic, organizations have been increasingly turning to remote access solutions to more efficiently manage their employees and third-party vendors, but while remote access is a necessity of this new reality, it has simultaneously created a security and operational dilemma,” said Tal Laufer, VP Products, Secure Access at Claroty. “While it makes sense for an organization to have remote access tools for IT services and for OT remote access, it does not justify the tool sprawl inside the sensitive OT network that we have identified in our study, which leads to increased risk and operational complexity.”” Article link.

Polaris Dawn Astronauts Launch on Ambitious Private Mission. NYTimes.com article.  Pull quote: “The Polaris Dawn mission carries limited amounts of air, food, and other supplies. “Unlike an I.S.S. mission, we don’t have the option to delay long on orbit, so we must ensure the forecast is as favorable as possible before we launch,” Mr. Isaacman explained on X, referring to the International Space Station.”

Polaris Dawn Flight Day 1 Update. X.com post. Pull quote: “Most excitingly, during its first orbit, Dragon reached an apogee of approximately 1,216 kilometers, making Polaris Dawn the highest Dragon mission flown to date. Following a healthy systems checkout, the crew and mission control will monitor the spacecraft ahead of the vehicle raising itself to an elliptical orbit of 190 x 1,400 kilometers at the start of Flight Day 2.”

NASA to Test Telemedicine, Gather Essential Health Data with Polaris Dawn Crew. NASA.gov article. Pull quote: “To test this technology during the mission, crew members will compare vital sign collection from the device with data gathered from standard periodic health status exams. The technology’s telemedicine feature, which relies on SpaceX’s Starlink communications system to connect with doctors and specialists on Earth, will also be tested during a simulation. During the test, the device will attempt to offer an appropriate diagnosis based on crew inputs and available documentation.”

Extremists keep trying to sabotage the electrical grid. What would happen if they succeed? TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““The actual evidence doesn’t bear that out, there was no widespread like uptick in violent criminal activity among the Black people of New Orleans after Katrina. That didn’t actually happen,” she said. “But at a societal level, the average person probably does believe that … the idea that [after a disaster] people are murdering and raping and stealing just because that’s what they always wanted to do, but now they have the opportunity to do it.””

Atlantic Hurricane Lull Puzzles Scientists. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “That work showed that Saharan dust can reduce the amount of precipitation in a hurricane, yet Wang suspects it could also reduce the formation of hurricanes in the first place. “I think it’s very possible the dust plays a role in this year’s drought hurricane season,” he says, although that explanation remains speculative. “I think we still need very rigorous scientific research to do some attribution analysis.””

Kids Should Be Taught to Think Logically. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “For careers such as electrical engineering and computer science, the value of symbolic logic, usually taught in sophomore year discrete mathematics courses, is incontrovertible. The fundamental building blocks of modern digital computers are circuits representing “AND” and “OR,” which are as common in symbolic logic as the plus sign or division bar in grade school arithmetic. Almost every computer program contains similar “if-then-else” logical conditions. Professional programmers must routinely write and troubleshoot such statements.”