RAMSES — A Collabo Between JAXA — Watching 2029 Apophis Close Flyby — From Space!

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We will (as a global planetary science community) learn much — both about the asteroid itself, which poses no collision threat to Earth — and about planetary defense, here — come 2029.

Heres’ the ESA.int update, on this 2029 mission:

. . .Apophis, a 375-metre-wide asteroid, will safely pass Earth at a distance of less than 32 000 kilometres. For a few hours, Apophis will be closer than satellites in geostationary orbit and visible to the naked eye from Europe and Africa.

Space agencies have sent a number of spacecraft to asteroids, but we have never had a mission at an asteroid as it sweeps past a planet. This grand natural experiment offers a unique opportunity to study in real time how an asteroid responds to a strong external force – and the European Space Agency aims to have a front-row seat.

To this end, ESA’s Space Safety Programme has proposed the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). If approved, Ramses would launch a year ahead of the Apophis flyby, travelling through space to rendezvous with the asteroid months before its encounter with Earth.

Ramses would use a suite of scientific instruments to measure Apophis’s size, shape, composition, rotation and trajectory as it is pulled and stretched by Earth’s gravity. It would also deploy two smaller spacecraft at the asteroid to study Apophis up-close.

Apophis poses no danger to Earth during the flyby, but an asteroid of this size passes this close to our planet only once every roughly seven thousand years. By seizing this exceptionally rare opportunity to study an asteroid before, during, and after a planetary encounter, Ramses would help us prepare for the day that we may need to deflect a hazardous object on a collision course with Earth….

Go now,and be kind to your mother — the Earth:

नमस्ते

17 US Hondius/Hantavirus Ship Passengers To Isolate In… Nebraska.

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I think we now have an archive of about seven stories on this narrative — in just the past two weeks. The rapidly unfolding viral outbreak — coupled to the lethality of it all — has made for a tragic and compelling throughline here, all in one.

Here is the latest from the Wa Po:

…Public health officials in the U.S. outlined their plans to transport and monitor the 17 American passengers set to disembark from a cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak, indicating on Saturday that the goal is to send them home to self-isolate after an initial assessment at a federal quarantine facility in Nebraska.

Three cruise passengers who were aboard the polar expedition ship Hondius have died in recent weeks. As of Saturday, eight cases of the hantavirus linked to the ship are suspected, with five cases confirmed by testing. The ship is on its way to dock in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands….

Now you know — back in the Chi’s warmth, and a happy Mother’s Day, to all… smile.

नमस्ते

No Cases In US Yet, But Additional Air Passenger In Spain Now Has Hantavirus, After Being Seated Near Another Case…

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Anyone who was seated withing three rows of the Hantivirus passenger who flew to Joberg, SA — and then died… needs to be contacted, and tested. . . and possibly isolated.

So far — no one in the three US states of Arizona, California and Georgia (where all US passengers landed into) have shown symptoms — but they too are being monitored by health authorities. Here’s the latest:

…More details have emerged about the latest suspected case of hantavirus, announced by the Spanish health minister on Friday afternoon.

According to Reuters, Spain’s Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters that the woman was a passenger on the same flight as a patient who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship and contracting the virus.

Padilla said the pair were seated two rows apart and that contact between them was brief.

The woman’s symptoms were described as coughing and fatigue. Padilla said that she was now isolating in a hospital and authorities were tracking down people she had come into contact with….

“The Dutch flight attendant on the flight, who had reported symptoms and was tested, has tested negative for hantavirus,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said at a briefing Friday. “So that’s very good news….”

Now you know — flying back out of the high mountains mid-morning tomorrow. Grin… do be careful in your Summer / Fall European jet travels. Onward.

नमस्ते

The Saudis Have Denied US Airspace Access — Due To Tangerine’s Endless Gaffes, And Flip-Flops…

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Today, Scott Johnson wondered aloud how we’d ever know what really might be the deal, in Iran.

A few days earlier, Paul Mirengoff too wondered “what Trump was thinking”.

It turns out… he wasn’t.

Thinking, that is.

And it is plain he hasn’t a single competent foreign policy advisor — or equally probable, he’s not listening to anyone who is competent.

Exhibit A for this proposition is… That our most steadfast ally in the region aside from Israel — the Saudis — have now denied US war planes access to Saudi airspace. This effectively makes relatively safe operations over Iran nearly impossible. It becomes nearly impossible to safely support longer range bombers — with the more agile, but shorter range jet fighters — unless we have access to Saudi airspace.

It takes a colossal amount of stupidity to ruin a relationship in the Gulf of this magnitude.

So thanks again, Donald Trump.

And I’ll note again, that none of these hard right racist frothy liars will call him out for what he’s done and doing, here: he is actively turning the entire region into a quagmire.

Purely as a result of malign idiocy.

“Heck of a job, there Brownie.”

Out.

Keytruda® Is Global Dollar Revenue King, No More — It Is Now The Lilly GLP-1 Weight-Loss Franchises… [Power Alley]

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Welp. It seemed inevitable, as there are far more people who need to lose weight (with money), than there are people with serious cancers (also with means), in the world.

To be sure, Merck will still rake in over $22 billion a year — for many years, yet — from the immuno-oncology franchises.

Congrats, Eli Lilly. Even so, I wonder about the long term effects of being on the GLP-1 franchises, for weight loss — and what happens whene someone on them for a decade or so. . . stops taking them. Here’s a bit:

…Mounjaro®: $8.66 billion in quarterly revenue, up 125%, fueled by international expansion, including the addition to China’s National Reimbursed Drug List….

Zepbound®: $4.16 billion in U.S. revenue, up 80%….

Volume across the business climbed 65%, even as realized prices fell 13% on rebates and access deals….

[So…] Keytruda® is King, no more….

Onward — smiling on a sparkling Rocky Mountain morning… as the “breakfast club” dropped by again this AM.

नमस्ते

Several MV Hondius Cruise Ship Passengers Being Monitored In Three States — For Hantavirus.

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This is a prime example / case study — as to why realistic, and evidence-based, viral/epidemic bioscience must be at the forefront of all public health decisions.

Overnight, The New York Times is reporting that people in California, Arizona and Georgia are being monitored, after they disembarked from the Dutch cruise ship — and flew home. Here’s that story — and a bit of it:

…American officials said on Wednesday that residents in three states were being monitored for potential hantavirus infections after being aboard a Dutch cruise ship where there was a deadly outbreak of the virus. None of the people being monitored have shown signs of illness, the officials said.

Since April 11, three passengers who were aboard the MV Hondius have died and five other people have been sickened after showing symptoms of the hantavirus, a rare family of viruses carried by rodents….

In the United States, at least three states are monitoring residents who were aboard the ship but have since returned home….

The C.D.C. tracks hantavirus cases in the United States. There were 26 cases in 2023, the most recent year with available data. The center has tracked cases since 1993 and has counted a total of 890 in the country since then….

Now you know — and the single reason there is no data after 2023 here in the US… is due to Donald Trump 2.0.

He has essentially suppressed the reporting out of the federal government on all public health/pandemic issues. Dammit.

In better news, my baby girl (flying out of Mexico City!) — up, into the mountains with me, by tonight. Woot!

Clear skies and the melting of ~16 inches of snow, up next! Excellent.

नमस्ते

And Paul… Is (Huge Surprise!) Cluless, Overnight — On Trump’s Late Night Lunacy.

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Although this post by Paul preceded in time the one I just commented on, about Scott Johnson, I post the Paul one at the top — as it is far more important than Johnson’s nonsense about Ted Turner.

Overnight, we see Paul Mirengoff thinks that a sitting US president should spend hours every day criticizing entertainment figures, and keeping close watches on their “ratings“. [Yikes — what a clown show the entire hard right has become.]

And yet, in the immediately previous paragraph, Paul expects that we will forget that the only reason Gavin Newsom speaks so sarcastically about Donald Trump… is because Donald Trump is not a serious fully-formed human being, and Gavin has decided the best way to combat this venial, small handed, whiny coot… is to give him a large set of repeated doses — of his own medicine.

Paul is right about this much: no Republican will be president next time around. And he can blame — or more likely — credit… Trump for this, as he likes.

Out.

Scott Again Proves He Knows “The Price” — But Not “The Value” — Of Everything…

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Scott Johnson this morning once again proves that, like most hard right frothy conservatives, he well-knows the price of just about everything… But entirely misses the value… of it all.

He would rather fuss about Ted Turner’s supposed “liberal” politics later in life, than admit that the man single-handedly reinvented what it meant to be a “media mogul”. And by and large, in ways that improved the arts-appreciation / spectating that most ordinary Americans could afford to consume, on a regular basis.

His former spouse, Jane Fonda, offered a much better take on him and his outsized life — than Scott’s accountant / commenter could / did (huge surprise!).

I will close by simply saying “travel well Ted Turner, but travel light”….

More “Auditing” Underway, In Chicago — Of Whether ICE/DHS Is Complying With 2018 Consent Decree — On Protected Immigrants…

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Here’s the latest overnight update, from Judge Cumming’s docket in Chicago.

Bovino is long gone — but the damage he did is still being documented. He essentially “kidnapped” people who already had USDC Court ordered-protections, agreed to by Trump 1.0. That’s deplorable — and the “auditing” of ongoing compliance is now being conducted, here:

…MINUTE entry before the Honorable Jeffrey I Cummings:

In light of [Tangerine 2.0] defendants’ agreement to conduct a randomized sampling of the arrest records of the individuals whose arrests were designated as “targeted” and to “accept plaintiffs’ suggestion to select every third A−number from a descending list,” [387], plaintiffs’ motion to clarify [386] is terminated as withdrawn….

Now you know — and, about a foot down already here — and still coming down — but moderating. Grin — time to break out the shovel….

नमस्ते

Spain Will Screen The ~150 Passengers — At The Canary Islands, But Now A Dozen Or So Are Considered Exposed…

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This is, indeed, the only humane course of action — the passengers must be checked and released.

And the Canary Islands provide a nice, and natural hard limit — on how far any “contacts” infection might be spread. Good epidemic abatement bio-science.

Kudos to the Spanish government, for stepping up. The Hondius will now make port at Spain’s Canary Islands… and there the passengers will be screened, as they disembark. Here’s the latest from CBS:

…Spain has agreed to welcome the cruise ship at the center of a rare hantavirus outbreak, with three people now dead after coming down with the illness, according to the World Health Organization.

[A] Dutch woman, whose husband died onboard two weeks earlier, got off the boat with “gastrointestinal symptoms” on April 24 and died two days later, after her condition “deteriorated during a flight to Johannesburg,” the WHO said. “Contact tracing for passengers on the flight has been initiated,” it added.

On Tuesday, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, Maria Van Kerkhove, told journalists Spanish authorities “have said that they will welcome the ship to do a full investigation, a full epidemiologic investigation, full disinfection of the ship and of course… assess the risk of the passengers that are actually on board. . . .”

The agency said Tuesday that it’s current plan is to evacuate two sick passengers to the Netherlands, then for the ship to continue on to Spain’s Canary Islands….

This is nice progress — and backed by solid bio-science. Onward. Eighteen inches of new snow expected here by midday tomorrow — Woot! [Though often these Late Spring Rockies Blizzards Die out, and turn to rain — so we shall see. But we are. . . ready — either way. Smile.]

नमस्ते