Short Takes – 12-27-24

GOP rep on backing Johnson as Speaker: ‘I’m going to keep my options open’. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Johnson cannot afford more than one Republican defection on the House floor in the Jan. 3 Speakership election, assuming all members are present and voting. Republicans are set to have 219 Republicans taking the oath of office on Jan. 3, and all 215 Democrats are expected to vote for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).”

Bird flu virus in Louisiana patient likely mutated to be more transmissible, CDC says. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on X that in the “low probability scenario” bird flu develops into a widespread outbreak, the “U.S. will have only itself to blame. Agricultural officials did just about everything wrong over last year, hoping [the] virus would burn out and it didn’t.””

Lindsey Vonn Thinks Her New Titanium Knee Could Start a Trend in Skiing. MedPageToday.com article. Pull quote: “"There was not a lot of research out there with high-level athletes and partial knee replacements," Knight said. "It is a new frontier. But so far everything's working really well... And I would not be surprised if other people do it because the results that Lindsey's had, with no pain and no swelling, have been unbelievable."”

NASA's Parker Solar Probe phones home after surviving historic close sun flyby. It's alive! Space.com article. Pull quote: “The spacecraft is programmed to send home a more detailed status update on New Year's Day, Jan. 1. It's only then that scientists will know whether the spacecraft indeed collected the expected observations of the sun from the flyby, Michael Buckley, a spokesperson at JHUAPL, which oversees the Parker Solar Probe mission, told Space.com in an email. "This gives the team a better picture of overall spacecraft and subsystem/instrument health, including whether Parker's data recorders are full."”