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E. coli Outbreak Linked to Organic Carrots
November 17, 2024
CDC and public health officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O121 infections linked to multiple brands of recalled organic whole bagged carrots and baby carrots sold by Grimmway Farms.
Carrots on store shelves right now are likely not affected but may be in people's homes.
If you have any recalled carrots in your home, throw them out or return them to the store.
Cases: 39
Hospitalizations: 15
Deaths: 1
States: 18
https://www.grimmway.com/grimmway-farms-recalls-organic-whole-and-select-organic-baby-carrots-that-may-be-in-consumers-homes-due-to-potential-e-coli-contamination/
https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreaks/e-coli-o121.html
Space tech giant Maxar confirms hacker accessed employees’ personal data
5:50 AM PST · November 18, 2024
U.S. space technology and satellite giant Maxar has confirmed a data breach involving the personal information of its employees, according to a filing with state regulators.
The Colorado-headquartered Maxar operates imaging satellites and manufactures spacecraft, and claims to operate one of the largest commercial satellite constellations on orbit.
Maxar has long been a significant provider of commercial satellite imagery to the U.S. government, which uses the imagery for mission-critical planning, intelligence gathering, and disaster response.
In a required data breach notice filed with California’s attorney general last week, Maxar said a hacker using a Hong Kong-based IP address compromised its network on October 4 to access files containing employee’s personal data.
It’s not yet known if the alleged hacker is located in Hong Kong, or used a server in Hong Kong to hide their real location.
Maxar said it discovered the breach a week later on October 11 and took “immediate action” to prevent further unauthorized access to the system.
“Nevertheless, according to our investigation, the hacker likely had access to the files on the system for approximately one week before this action was taken,” Maxar said in the disclosure.
The information contained within the compromised files includes employees’ names, gender, physical addresses, Social Security numbers, business contact information, employment status, employee number, and job information, according to Maxar.
According to the company’s website, Maxar has 2,600 employees — more than half of which attained U.S. security clearances.
These are required to perform classified work for the U.S. government, such as national security missions.
Maxar, which last year completed its $6.4 billion sale to private equity giant Advent International, hasn’t said how many of its employees were impacted by the breach.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/18/satellite-giant-maxar-confirms-hacker-accessed-employees-personal-data/
https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-594961
Texas A&M Breaks Ground on New Space Institute
November 18, 2024
Officials from Texas A&M University and NASA gathered next to the Johnson Space Center on Friday to break ground on a new $200M Space Institute.
The 32-acre facility will be located in the Johnson Space Center’s Exploration Park, a 240-acre development of underutilized federal land adjacent to JSC.
Out of this world: The Space Institute intends to put Texas at the forefront of the new space age, providing facilities to assist on future missions to the Moon and Mars, while encouraging more Texas students to join the space industry.
“Everything in the past with regard to NASA has been about orbiting, but all the sudden there’s something different that’s a mission…colonizing the South Pole of the Moon, colonizing Mars, and so you need a place where robots can roam free, where you can test all your facilities,” John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University system, said at the ceremony.
The Space Institute will include lab and office space, classrooms, an auditorium, as well as two football-field sized landscapes that simulate the lunar and Martian surfaces.
Officials at A&M envision a wide range of use cases for the Space Institute, including:
Engineering design and development: The facility will have spaces to help scientists develop and test tech, such as spacesuits, extraterrestrial landers, habitats and energy systems.
Science curation and mission development: Researchers at the facility will be able to conduct planetary and extraterrestrial atmospheric studies, materials science, biological research, and space instrument development.
Human health and space medicine: The building will also support astronaut testing and training, human-systems integrations, and space medicine research.
Not just for kids: “We are already committed to the idea of space as a major part of the future of Texas A&M; this will allow us to offer new degree programs…new educational pathways for our students, and experiences they couldn’t get anywhere else,” said Texas A&M President Mark Welsh.
While the facility will be home to Texas A&M’s growing engineering and space-based curricula, it will also help to push forward the ambitions of the entire space economy, including industry and international partners, said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
https://payloadspace.com/texas-am-breaks-ground-on-new-space-institute/
Rolls-Royce is in talks to use its compact nuclear reactors to power data centers and space missions
Nov 18, 2024, 7:17 AM PST
Rolls-Royce is in early-stage talks with potential customers for its compact nuclear reactors, which are designed to power data centers on Earth and one day to be sent into space, the Financial Times reported.
The so-called microreactors have a much smaller power output than traditional small modular reactors but are more transportable due to their smaller size.
Jake Thompson, the company's director of novel nuclear and special projects, told the FT the reactor could provide energy solutions for data centers, mining, and remote communities.
A spokesperson for Rolls-Royce confirmed to Business Insider that it is in early-stage talks with potential customers.
Big Tech companies — including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft — have expressed interest in nuclear power to meet AI's high energy demands.
Rolls-Royce believes the growing international interest in nuclear power will increase the demand for microreactors for both Earthbound and space applications, the FT reported.
Thompson told the FT that Rolls-Royce's focus has been on building a reactor that is "really small, small enough so you could load it onto a rocket and send it into space."
The company has been working on the technology for over three years, first collaborating with the UK Space Agency in 2021 to study how nuclear power could support space exploration.
In July 2024, Rolls-Royce was awarded funding from the agency's National Space Innovation Programme, or NSIP, for space nuclear power.
The company said in a statement at the time that the ÂŁ4.8m award from NSIP would help to advance the development and demonstration of key technologies in the space nuclear microreactor market.
The company said the NSIP's project had a total cost of ÂŁ9.1 million ($11.5 million) and aimed to progress the microreactor's "overall technology readiness level."
https://www.businessinsider.com/rolls-royce-micro-nuclear-power-space-missions-data-centers-2024-11
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14087049/space-force-commanders-dei-training-military-biden-harris-agenda.html
Space Force commander vows to end DEI training in military after being fired for criticizing Biden-Harris agenda
Updated: 15:18 EST, 17 November 2024
A former space commander is on a mission to root out DEI training so American soldiers 'can simply be focused on warfighting in a relatively apolitical workplace.'
Lt Col Matt Lohmeier led the 11th Space Warning Squadron in the Space Force in 2020 before being fired a year later for criticizing the Biden-Harris administration agenda, which also resulting in a loss of pension.
But last month Lohmeier was surprisingly rehired by Donald Trump.
The position came during a rally in North Carolina where Lohmeier thanked the now elect-president for saying that he 'would fire those few woke generals who are a big problem.'
He then asked Trump if he would 'setup a special task force office or position to ensure that these monsters never return to the Defense Department.'
Trump instantly responded: ''They're gone! I'm gonna put you on that task force.'
Lohmeier told DailyMail.com that the encounter was 'unscripted and unplanned.'
'I didn't know at the time what that meant,' he said.
'I didn't know if I'd simply join a larger team of people working on it, if I'd be put in charge of a task force, and I suppose all of that remains to be seen, and there's nothing to say about it publicly just yet.'
He is now thinking of ways, 'in which I might get involved in trying to restore accountability in the military and to eliminate the DEI diversity equity, inclusion training I was critical of. '
Lohmeier believes the Trump-Vance administration will energize the Space Force, driving cooperation with private enterprise in space exploration and the return to the moon.
In the wake of his encounter with Trump, he revealed that many troops in uniform have since reached out to him - including former colleagues in the Space Force.
'They are very excited about the change in the administration and about the potential for the new Secretary of Defense,' Loheimer said.
'They've expressed excitement about, hopefully, a return to a simple sole focus on warfighting and not about politics and race discussions and political activist agendas.'
Lohmeier was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Space Force in the summer of 2020, and the aftermath of George Floyd's death and the dawn of the Black Lives Matter.
He described the events as 'a period of unrest where activists and political agitators and race hustlers used a man's death as an event that they could leverage for their revolutionary political purposes.'
Lohmeier highlighted that the impact on military culture was visible and 'immediate'.
'You had leaders in uniform, as well as young followers in uniform, seizing that politically fraught moment for purposes of their own political worldview, purposes of spreading their own political worldview,' he said.
'You had, for example, at my base, a base commander, a colonel who is black, say things to his troops, like, 'No one at my base will stand in the way of the Black Lives Matter movement.' Well, of course, at once that was terribly polarizing.
'I saw the demonization of the sitting commander-in-chief by that same base commander.
'It's illegal in the military to publicly criticize, especially from your official capacity, your sitting commander-in-chief or your chain of command.
'I recognized that a lot of the roots of our current social justice activism were found in Marxist thought and ideology.'
Lohmeier wrote a formal complaint and was dismissed from Space Force during the transition to the Biden administration.
His book, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military,' was published in May 2021.
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Lohmeier appeared on a podcast to promote the book and said: ''The diversity, inclusion and equity industry and the trainings we are receiving in the military…is rooted in critical race theory, which is rooted in Marxism.
'Since taking command as a commander about 10 months ago, I saw what I consider fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be.
'That wasn't just prolific in social media, or throughout the country during this past year, but it was spreading throughout the United States military. And I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature.'
Lohmeier told DailyMail.com: 'The following week, I was fired from my command for two reasons that were both false. The first reason was it was alleged that I was politically partisan while acting in an official capacity. That was false.'
'Since taking command as a commander about 10 months ago, I saw what I consider fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be.
'That wasn't just prolific in social media, or throughout the country during this past year, but it was spreading throughout the United States military. And I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature.'
'Since taking command as a commander about 10 months ago, I saw what I consider fundamentally incompatible and competing narratives of what America was, is and should be.
'That wasn't just prolific in social media, or throughout the country during this past year, but it was spreading throughout the United States military. And I had recognized those narratives as being Marxist in nature.'
He explained the second reason claimed he had publicly criticized his chain of command, to which he told DailyMail.com: 'That wasn't true either.'
'I was never found guilty of either of those things, and I separated from the military after a little over 15 years of service in the fall of 2021 without my pension,' Lohmeier said.
The Space Force noted it had removed Lohmeier 'due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead' after comments he made in a podcast while promoting his book.
Lohmeier said he was not surprised by the 'cowardly' response of senior defense officials.
'They were afraid of the political climate we had created for ourselves in the country, and they were afraid to stand by a straight white male who was criticizing some of the race based political activism that was occurring,' He said.
'I'm talking about the three and four star generals.'
Lohmeier had a long and distinguished military career before becoming embroiled in controversy over the DEI influence within the armed forces.
He graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 2006 and was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. He completed two Master's degrees, one in military strategy.
Flying F-15C fighter jets and working as a T-38 jet instructor pilot, Lohmeier transferred into US Air Force Space Command after seven years.
When Trump's administration launched the Space Force in 2019, Lohmeier knew he was a 'natural fit.'
'I was one of the first officers, and my unit was one of the first units that transitioned into the new Space Force,' he said.
'And so I was as of 2020, and 2021, a commander in the Space Force of a space-based missile warning squadron.'
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SpaceX NSIL GSAT-N2 Mission
SpaceX is targeting Monday, November 18 for Falcon 9’s launch of the NSIL GSAT-N2 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The two-hour window opens at 1:31 p.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Tuesday, November 19 during a two-hour window that opens at 4:33 a.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.
You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This will be the 19th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 13 Starlink missions.
After stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=gsat-n2
>Deitz Nuutzen
Map shows UFO sightings as 17 reported in Northern Ireland
19:17, 16 NOV 2024
A new map shows the locations of UFO sightings in the UK as 17 have been reported in Northern Ireland since 2021.
Sightings of UFOs are not uncommon in the UK, although they occur more frequently in the US, with hundreds being reported in the past few years which range from bright lights moving quickly across the sky in a strange manner to reports of a UFO travelling between Belfast and Dungannon every evening.
In Northern Ireland, Belfast has the highest number of reported UFO sightings, with four since 2021.
Each UFO sighting is different with some reporting seeing a triangle shape in the sky with others seeing star-like shapes and others seeing bright orbs.
The most recent UFO sighting in Northern Ireland took place on October 9, 2023, in Lurgan and was described as a
"Dark triangular UFO with dull white lights in each 'rounded' corner, streaked very fast West to East across the clear night sky."
Last year the British spotter group UFO Identified documented a total of 395 sightings in the UK in 2023.
That was a 20% drop from 497 UFO sightings in 2022 and also lower than in 2021 (413) and 2020 (484).
https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/map-shows-ufo-sightings-17-30381018
Alisha Lehmann poses with an ALIEN in bizarre Nasa-themed adidas shoot alongside Juventus star boyfriend Douglas Luiz
Updated: 15:02, 16 Nov 2024
ALISHA LEHMANN has posed with an ALIEN in a bizarre Nasa-themed Adidas photoshoot.
The Juventus star featured in the promotion alongside boyfriend Douglas Luiz.
Lehmann, 25, swapped the Women's Super League for the Serie A Women in the summer.
She moved to Juventus at the same time Luiz made his transfer from Aston Villa.
The couple were both involved in the shoot, which included alien Lil Mayo.
The character has a massive following on Instagram of 1.5million followers.
The account of the extraterrestrial has the bio "I am alien".
The shoot was done to promote Juventus' new Nasa-inspired clothing collection.
The full video included Lehmann and Luiz among other Juventus stars from the men's and women's teams.
It showed an astronaut walking around the Allianz Stadium in Turin during which they spot Lil Mayo.
The alien has multiple viral posts on its Instagram account as it travels around planet Earth.
This includes a visit to the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles and the Oktoberfest in Germany.
He has also been pictured cruising in a boat in Miami Bay and visiting a 7-Eleven.
He posed for pictures with Lehmann in which she kissed it on the cheek.
Luiz also had a couple of snaps with the alien but the Brazilian seemed more suspicious of the extraterrestrial.
But of course Lil Mayo is not a real alien and is actually an old movie prop created by Alex Martyn.
He started the account in order to be able to create his own "spicy memes".
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/31758850/alisha-lehmann-alien-adidas-lil-mayo-juventus-douglas-luiz/
https://www.instagram.com/lilmayo/