Category: Uncategorized

As Was True With Ebola In 2018-19, US CDC Will Screen Arriving Passengers From Rwanda For Marburg, On Entry To US — Starting Next Week… Safety First.

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Well — this should not be a big surprise. It is the best — and least intrusive — way, to keep a country with no cases of Marburg’s… free of the viral vector, in humans.

It is — to be fair — a bit of an imposition, on the travelers’ personal liberties, but the benefit of protecting the nation outweighs that smallish imposition. And as I say, the CDC had the same protocol, during the 2013-14 Ebola outbreak, as well as during the 2018 one, if memory serves.

Here’s that latest update, via CBS.com:

…In response to an unprecedented outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now plan to screen arriving international travelers for their risk of bringing the deadly Ebola-like disease into the country.

The stepped-up screenings will start the week of Oct. 14 for arriving travelers who have been in Rwanda during the past three weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday.

“To keep Americans safe, we are implementing additional precautions for a small, select group of travelers arriving in the United States from Rwanda, including additional public health entry screenings,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement Monday.

Savett said that passengers recently in Rwanda will be redirected “to certain U.S. airports for public health entry screening and follow up measures….”

Now you know. Onward, to a busy week, with various campaigns for “¡Si Pueda!” ahead!

नमस्ते

Update: Hurricane Milton Explodes To Cat. 5 — NASA Wisely Scrubs This Week’s Europa Clipper Launch From Cape Canaveral…

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It is oddly prophetic. . . that the name of the category five hurricane bearing down on the pan-handle (and the second — in two weeks!) is named… Milton. Odd… indeed.

In any event, the wise course is to move far inland, and batten-down all the property that you can, before bugging out — everywhere in central Florida. NASA is now doing the same. Here’s the latest — but it could be a few weeks before another launch date appears:

…NASA [is] standing down from the Thursday, Oct. 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area. Hurricane Milton is expected to move from the Gulf of Mexico this week moving east to the Space Coast. High winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast. Launch teams have secured NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in… hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the severe weather, and the center began hurricane preparations Sunday.

“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program….

While Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10, the window provides launch opportunities until Wednesday, Nov. 6….

Onward, resolutely, while Milton’s own ample road — paved with stars… still lies ahead. Smile. [And I’ve excised all references to Elon Musk’s private space company above, as his odious repeated belching of deeply-racist lies — about the current presidential electoral cycle is… enough to label him… (like Martin Shkreli!) a deplorable. Now you know.]

नमस्ते

Good News: A Collaboration Clinical Trial, With ABL Bio’s ABL103, And Merck’s Keytruda®… But Immaterial Overall.

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To be certain, this is a piece of material good news — for ABL Bio — and a nice validation of the Grabody-T approach. We shall see how the clinical trial turns out, but it will be definitively immaterial, to Merck’s overall trajectory, up or down.

Here’s the scoop, from The PharmaLetter — and a bit:

…ABL Bio – whose shares rose 4% on the news -will conduct a phase Ib/II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ABL103 in combination with Keytruda. In this combination study, MSD will supply Keytruda.

ABL103 is bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets B7-H4 and 4-1BB. ABL103 is one of the pipeline programs in which ABL Bio’s 4-1BB based bispecific antibody platform ‘Grabody-T’ has been applied. Grabody-T is designed to activate T cells only in the tumor microenvironment, reducing the liver toxicity of conventional 4-1BB monoclonal antibody and enhancing the antitumor activity….

Now you know — and onward to a big upset of K-State this Saturday night, in the cool Boulder air! Woot woot! Grinning… let it be so.

नमस्ते

The Mistreatment Of Children Seeking Asylum Outside San Diego… Continues. Awful.

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As regular readers only too well know, we have been covering all this for over a decade. And here, Democrats should shoulder some blame — but the culture of blatant lawlessness at the border, by federal agents was really created under Tangerine. And it largely persists.

Even so, no matter who is next in the White House — this is wrong. It violates our laws, and our international treaties — on the treatment of putative asylum-seekers. Especially as to children. The wholesale (and unchecked) violence has mostly ended — as has the shocking refusal to provide soap and blankets and toothbrushes — but at the temporary staging areas, like Whiskey 8, below — very disturbing conditions persist, in the hot Southern California summer months. See below.

We must do more — once Kamala is in charge, after November. [Sadly, it is unrealistic to expect Mr. Biden will do much of anything, now.]

Here is the full sworn statement — and a bit of it:

…Beginning on August 1, 2024, the water tank at Whiskey 8 toppled over when the base it rested on was crushed from the water tank’s weight, rendering it unusable. On approximately September 10, 2024, service workers replaced the water tank, but they did not repair or replace its base. On the evening of September 29, 2024, I noted that the water tank hoses were disconnected, and the tank has not been replaced and its base has yet to be replaced or repaired. When the water tank was operational, Border Patrol did not provide any drinking cups. Upon information and belief, the only water available to non-citizens detained at Whiskey 8 since August 1, 2024, was provided by volunteers, except for the short period in September 2024 when the water tank was replaced, but Border Patrol also did not provide water cups then. During the entire month of September 2024, I never once saw any person at Whiskey 8 drink water obtained from the water tank.

There is no shade or shelter at Whiskey 8 except for a small tarp attached to the border wall which has since been removed. Border Patrol did not provide this tarp. This small tarp is pictured on page 9 of the CBP Juvenile Coordinator’s September 6, 2024, Interim Report as Photograph 6 [Doc. # 1466-1].

Over the summer, temperatures at Whiskey 8 ranged from 75 to 90 degrees during the day. I often saw people, including children, trying to take cover from the sun in a 1-foot space between the secondary border wall and the base of the water tank. People also attempted to take cover under the small tarp that was attached to the border wall. I witnessed the parents crowding the children under the limited shade from the tarp….

[For example, on September 15, 2024] between 7:15 p.m. and 3 a.m., at least three other groups of noncitizens arrived. At approximately 3 a.m. on September 16, 2024 — over seven hours after the group first arrived at Whiskey 8—Border Patrol agents arrived to prepare approximately 39 people for transport. During the time between 7:15 p.m. and 3 a.m., Border Patrol drove by several times. On two separate times, Border Patrol parked with lights dimmed over 30 minutes on the road in front of the gate at Whiskey 8, close to the humanitarian aid station. At about 1 a.m., a Border Patrol agent instructed everyone to sit by the border wall, west of the gate, to wait for transport, which did not take place until 3 a.m. . . . During the time these groups waited at Whiskey 8, Border Patrol agents did not provide water, food, or shade. It is not their practice to provide any of these items while noncitizen children and adults are waiting to be transported. The only water and food provided to the people detained at Whiskey 8 was from volunteers….

To be certain, things have greatly improved since Tangerine lost in 2020. But there is much more work to do. And there is so much lying going on in MAGA/GOP circles, about what is actually going on — the task of righting it will be… monumental.

But we will move forward resolutely, next term. We will make it better — and more humane. That much is certain, under a Harris Administration. Out.

नमस्ते

Vaccinations Have Finally Begun, On The Ground, In Bas-Uélé Province, DRC: Mpox Update, Oct. ’24.

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We applaud the effort, but remain troubled that there was no “ready-reserve”, for WHO to deploy to DRC and other African nations, for this Mpox outbreak ordeal.

As we noted throughout last month, logistical delays (largely transport via cold storage means) have hampered delivery of even the vaccine stock hurriedly assembled and delivered to Kinshasa’s N’djili International Airport. In any event, here is the latest, out of Congo:

…Congolese authorities Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.

Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases.

Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week….

Now you know — and onward, to post card writing and mailing for the campaign at left — into battleground state mailboxes by the thousands, now. Smile.

नमस्ते

Thesis: The World’s Richest Man… Is A Sad Caricature — Of Human Banality…

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Elon Musk now (as a deeply autistic sociopath) regularly amplifies “known-to-be-lies” memes and racist tropes on his Sh!tter (a/k/a X-itter) service.

He appears onstage with a demented, incontinent, and dodderingly-evil moron, who can barely offer a single coherent thought, without revisiting his own perceived injuries. He is a collapsed narcissist. [And Musk is a mere decade or two away from… being the same.]

Yet the Powerline boys… revere him for all of it.

Why?

Because they have to.

They’ve sold their souls to the dark one.

D A M N A T I O N.

Soon enough — his, and their — times will be over. Onward.

Europa Clipper — Launching This Week: Then, At Decade’s End, Cataloging Potential Life — Out By Jupiter…

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We have waited a decade already, for the follow up mission to Juno — and a closer study of the water vapors venting from cracks in the ice, on Europa. This is likely the best place in our local system to seek out evidence of non-terrestrial life. [Just one of dozens of my prior backgrounders, here.]

But to be clear, due to a fuel-conserving trajectory, the mission won’t even enter orbit around Europa until this decade is at an end. I will guarantee, however, whatever we learn then, and there — will have been worth the nearly 20 year wait, here.

Watch the launch NASA-TV on Thursday, October 10, 2024 (weather permitting, of course, with another hurricane, this one called Milton, due into Florida by the night before):

…Europa Clipper will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) to reach Jupiter in April 2030. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa. On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in the dangerous radiation zone near Europa before zipping back out….

Two to three weeks later, it will repeat the process. The spacecraft carries nine science instruments, and a gravity experiment that uses the telecommunications system. All science instruments will operate simultaneously on every pass….

Now you know — and despite the severity of hurricane seasons increasing due to our own (and still reversible) contributions to climate change, we hold great optimism — for the probability that by 2030, we will have definitive signatures of biological activity, in the liquid water oceans below the ice of Europa. Onward, smiling… ever, smiling.

नमस्ते

Yep — Bill Otis Cannot Read The English Language — For Its Plain Meaning.

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Overnight, Bill falsely suggests that Mr. Biden wants to “protect Iran’s nukes”.

Spoken like a man who has never served on any front line. Ever.

More precisely, there are oceans full, of salty lies here, to wit:

(i) Iran does not possess any nukes.

(ii) The notion that Mr. Biden is wisely-reticent to use US troops, to attack Iran pre-emptively, over a program it likely still doesn’t possess the full on the ground ops sophistication for, is all Mr. Biden said. He won’t start WW III for Bibi, or at Bibi’s behest (as Otis would hope he would do).

(iii) If Netanyahu decides to try to militarily eliminate Iran’s nukes efforts — by killing civilians and scientists… that is on him. And him, alone. [But the people of Israel will die because of his decisions. By the thousands, too.]

(iv) Consequently, he will have to answer to ALL the people of Israel (including the Israeli Diaspora!), when Iran’s mullahs eventually purchase a nuke or two (that Putin will sell them, for some price — to be sure)… and then… obliterate Israel.

(v) I support Israel — but I deplore the hard right US GOP’s efforts to demonize the US’s attempts to defuse the wider war there.

(vi) Thus Bill Otis is an irresponsible…lying sack of dung, here.

Out.

Scott’s Knickers Are In A Twist… Because People Genuinely Like Kamala… “¡Si Pueda!”

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This morning, Johnson is burping up bile… because Alan Page and Magic Johnson and dozens of other storied athletes are voting for Kamala. “¡Si Pueda!”

Funny thing — Scott stayed silent on Thursday past, when — in Ripon, Wisconsin (the place where the GOP was created shortly before the Civil War)… both Dick Cheney (43’s Veep) and Liz Cheney (former GOP stalwart and legislator out of ruby red Wyoming) endorsed Kamala — “to save our nation”.

Instead, he mocks athletes and pop icons like Taylor Swift for expressing their view — that she’s more capable than Tangerine.

Charmingly… dictatorial are these Powerliners.

“Dark” doesn’t begin to convey Trump’s latest lying rhetoric. And these frothy hard right wing nuts, they endorse it all.

Yikes!

What “Centaur 29P” Teaches Us, About Early Solar System Bodies…

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New data from the JWST suggests at least some, and perhaps many of these small icy primordial bodies may be the product of ancient “mash ups” — that is, two or three different body-types — which were smashed together, billions of years ago.

And now, as they spew out their subsurface volatiles, we see the evidence for perhaps three separate world-lettes, long ago all mushed together. Here’s the latest from NASA:

…[The “Centaurs”] are former trans-Neptunian objects that have been moved inside Neptune’s orbit by subtle gravitational influences of the planets in the last few million years, and may eventually become short-period comets. They are “hybrid” in the sense that they are in a transitional stage of their orbital evolution: Many share characteristics with both trans-Neptunian objects (from the cold Kuiper Belt reservoir), and short-period comets, which are objects highly altered by repeated close passages around the Sun….

Centaurs’ distant orbits and consequent faintness have inhibited detailed observations in the past. Data from prior radio wavelength observations of Centaur 29P showed a jet pointed generally toward the Sun (and Earth) composed of CO. [JWST] detected this face-on jet and, thanks to its large mirror and infrared capabilities, also sensitively searched for many other chemicals, including water (H2O) and CO2. The latter is one of the main forms in which carbon is stored across the solar system. No indication of water vapor was detected in the atmosphere of 29P, which could be related to the extremely cold temperatures present in this body.

The [JWST] telescope’s unique imaging and spectral data revealed never-before-seen features: two jets of CO2 emanating in the north and south directions, and another jet of CO pointing toward the north. This was the first definitive detection of CO2 in Centaur 29P….

So it is that much of the star stuff that became… us, and all we see here on Earth, is the product of lots of little differences – brought together.

And so also, the darkness of ignorance too — is pushed backward, one discovery at a time. Let it be so, in our electoral politics as well… for we cannot afford, as a nation, to go backward.

Onward, to “the undiscovered country” Will Shakespeare called the future.

नमस्ते