Short Takes – 1-11-25

Heading for orbit at last: Track Blue Origin’s countdown to New Glenn rocket’s first launch. GeekWire.com article. Pull quote: “Company executives acknowledge that success isn’t guaranteed. “This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” Jarrett Jones, senior vice president for New Glenn, said last week. “But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine and apply that knowledge to our next launch.””

The unexpected effects of GPS spoofing on aviation safety. PenTestPartners.com blog post. Pull quote: “We are increasingly reliant on GPS; many ground based navigation and approach aids are being retired for reasons of cost, in favour of GPS. A great example of this would be an instrument landing system. These are expensive to maintain and are being retired and replaced by GPS approaches. This is fine, except when GPS can no longer be relied upon. An incident occurred at Tartu airport in Estonia where GPS interference resulted in some commercial airlines not being able to land there for a month or so.” Interesting discussion of unexpected side effects, including out-dating certs.

Republicans, enjoy ineffectual control of Congress while you have it. WashingtonPost.com commentary. George Will’s take on 119^th Congress. Pull quote: “Because of such self-diminishing actions by many previous Congresses, the new one is less central to American governance than any of its 118 predecessors. In his 2009 book, “Madison’s Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy,” Peter M. Shane, a constitutional and administrative law scholar at Ohio State University, wrote: “Adopted as an ethos of government, aggressive presidentialism breeds an insularity, defensiveness, and even arrogance within the executive branch that undermines sound decision making, discounts the rule of law, and attenuates the role of authentic deliberation in shaping political outcomes.””

Coffee Drinking Tied to Better Survival, but Timing Matters. MedPageToday.com article. Pull quote: “It appeared that survival was particularly improved with morning consumers drinking moderate (>1 to 2 cups and >2 to 3 cups/day) and heavy (>3 cups/day) amounts of coffee rather than lesser amounts, reported Lu Qi, MD, PhD, epidemiologist of Tulane University in New Orleans and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues in European Heart Journalopens in a new tab or window.”

What We Know About HMPV, the Common Virus Spreading in China. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: ““The clinical features are really difficult to distinguish from other viral illnesses, and we don’t routinely test for HMPV the way we do for Covid, flu or R.S.V.,” Dr. Howard said. “So most infections go unrecognized and are chalked up to whatever respiratory thing is going around.””

Japan firm plans to take on SpaceX with winged reusable ‘rocket’ spaceplane. InterestingEngineering.com article. Pull quote: “The Japanese firm aims to perform a technology demonstration, dubbed WIRES, as soon as next year. In 2028, it aims to launch a suborbital science mission called FuJin. By 2030, its goal is to perform suborbital space travel missions. Finally, by the 2040s Space Walker is looking to run operational point-to-point orbital space travel.”