Short Takes – 6-12-25

Tear gas and pepper spray: What protesters need to know. CEN.ACS.org article. Originally published in 2020. Pull quote: “Get away from the area, and wash with copious amounts of water—especially your hands and face, Blum says. Kaszeta also recommends “flapping your arms like a chicken” to shake off loose particles and help evaporate volatile components. Water accelerates the breakdown of CS via hydrolysis to malononitrile and o-chlorobenzaldehyde. Alkaline water (pH 9) substantially accelerates that reaction, though JK cautions against using high-pH water on your eyes. Hong Kong protesters have used water saturated with baking soda, which creates a basic solution, to treat exposure to tear gas.”

Bitsight Identifies Thousands of Security Cameras Openly Accessible on the Internet. BitSight.com article. Pull quote: “These cameras—intended for security or convenience—have inadvertently become public windows into sensitive spaces, often without their owners’ knowledge. No matter the reason why one individual or organization needs this kind of device, the fact that anyone can buy one, plug it in, and start streaming with minimal setup is likely why this is still an ongoing threat.” Full report link. Big question, do they provide network access?

Experimental retina implants give mice infrared vision. ArsTechnica.com article. No external power source needed. Pull quote: “And on top of that, they gained a superpower. Tellurium meshes respond to a wider range of the light spectrum than the normal human visual range. They’ll generate current when exposed to near-infrared wavelengths that a healthy human or rodent eye can’t see. Healthy mice excelled at the tasks the team threw at them when the lighting was kept in the standard visual range, but when lights were switched to infrared, they scored no better than chance. The implanted mice, on the other hand, scored very well—a bit worse than in the visual range, but not by much.”

Social media algorithms boost L.A. protest misinformation in ‘combustible’ environment. CNN.com article. Pull quote: “Russian state-controlled outlet Sputnik, meanwhile, circulated a photo, also shared by the actor Woods, purporting to show “pallets of bricks” at a protest site. But that photo is actually from a construction site in New Jersey, according to X’s “community notes” feature.”

Dawn Aerospace sells Aurora suborbital spaceplane to Oklahoma. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Dawn has also been working to identify who would want to fly payloads on Aurora. Powell said one set of payload customers are those interested in doing suborbital research, possibly as a precursor to orbital microgravity projects. Another set of customers are those who want to test hardware in the space environment. Such customers, he said, are attracted by the low cost and high flight rate of the vehicle.”

NASA indefinitely delays private astronaut mission, citing air leak in Russian module. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The vestibule (where the leak is located) is sealed off from the rest of the station when crews don’t need to access Progress cargo spacecraft when docked there. When the vestibule is opened, NASA astronauts have taken steps such as closing the hatch between the American and Russian segments of the station.”