Chris Reed: Breakthroughs as big as COVID-19 vaccines possible in 2021

2020 saw a staggering achievement: the use of a new technology to develop not one but two extremely effective vaccinations for COVID-19 in less than a year’s time, potentially saving millions of lives. Instead of vaccines which release a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies to spur an immune response, messenger RNA vaccines get cells to make a protein that causes an immune response in bodies. For months, researchers have said messenger RNA vaccines have enormous potential to treat other diseases — and last week, the Academic Times reported a breakthrough on malaria, which kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children in Africa. Human tests have not begun yet, but co-inventor Richard Bucala, a Yale physician, and other experts say lab results suggest the vaccine… Source link

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches on Wagtail CMS

Torchbox was engaged to help define the technical architecture and content model, ensuring the best use of Wagtail, as well as augmenting JPL’s sprint team to develop features from the backlog, including integrating with third party systems and migrating content from legacy platforms. Additionally, Torchbox took an initial design concept forward, developing it into the look and feel that you see on the site today. Torchbox and JPL worked as part of a fully remote multi-agency/client project team, split across Pasadena (UTC -8), Chennai (UTC +5:30) and the UK (UTC), focused on a hard launch date in time for Perseverance’s arrival on Mars. The JPL site is headless. The front end is built in Vue using NuxtJS, and connects to Wagtail via GraphQL, using the increasingly popular Source link

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches on Wagtail CMS | News

CHARLBURY, England, March 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The eyes of the world turned to JPL last week as the Perseverance Rover touched down on Mars. They did so via jpl.nasa.gov, the Lab’s new digital home for missions, science news, images and videos, recently redesigned and rebuilt on Wagtail with the help of Torchbox. Following Caltech’s lead, JPL chose Wagtail to replace their content management infrastructure and enlisted Torchbox to help them do it in time for the Mars landing. Torchbox was engaged to help define the technical architecture and content model, ensuring the best use of Wagtail, as well as augmenting JPL’s sprint team to develop features from… Source link

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches on Wagtail CMS

CHARLBURY, England, March 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The eyes of the world turned to JPL last week as the Perseverance Rover touched down on Mars. They did so via jpl.nasa.gov, the Lab’s new digital home for missions, science news, images and videos, recently redesigned and rebuilt on Wagtail with the help of Torchbox. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches on Wagtail CMS (PRNewsfoto/Torchbox) Following Caltech’s lead, JPL chose Wagtail to replace their content management infrastructure and enlisted Torchbox to help them do it in time for the Mars landing. Torchbox was engaged to help define the technical architecture and content model, ensuring the best use of Wagtail, as well as augmenting JPL’s sprint team to develop features from the backlog, including integrating with third party… Source link

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Staples girls basketball players leave their mark on the court and downtown

WESTPORT — Though they continue to make their mark with their playing on the court, the Staples High School girls basketball teams made a different kind of mark downtown Friday afternoon. The Main Street storefront window of Cold Fusion — a new specialty gelato and sorbet store opening this spring in the old Papyrus space — was the canvass for a creative gathering. “I like how it’s a way for us to come together,” said Scarlett Siegel, 16, a sophomore. “It’s a really good bonding exercise.” Siegel was among the 22 players from both the varsity and junior varsity teams who took markers in hand to do some window decorating in celebration of their squads, and to enjoy some fun, artistic together time off the court. … Source link

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It’s not just Texas, the entire US grid system is broken. More will die if it’s not redesigned

Okay, reality check. This month in Texas, a severe weather event followed by extreme cold overstressed the grid to the point of failure. Last year in California, abysmal system maintenance led to catastrophic and deadly wildfires. During the PJM polar vertex of 2014, the current Texas scenario happened, but the system kind of survived. And during the Enron scandal in California in 2000, a company manipulated and exploited a recently changed market and caused rolling blackouts. These aren’t just unfortunate coincidences. The entire system is broken. The issue is not a market issue, and it is not a technical issue. The issue is that the whole system — inclusive of the state laws, state regulations, state oversight, federal laws, federal regulation, federal oversight, monopoly… Source link

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Political juice wins in airport renaming vote | STEVE SEBELIUS

The Clark County Commission’s Tuesday debate over renaming McCarran International Airport for former Sen. Harry Reid perfectly crystallized the divide between political insiders and the public. If the question had been put to the voters, it very likely would have failed. (Almost all of the people who emailed, called or tweeted to me about it preferred the simpler “Las Vegas International Airport.”) But behind the dais at the Government Center, it passed the all-Democrat commission unanimously. All that remains now is the Federal Aviation Administration’s sign-off. The result was forecast in advance, as most every elected Democrat in the state issued a statement in support, from Gov. Steve Sisolak to Reid’s sometimes-adversary, Rep. Dina Titus. The head of Culinary Local… Source link

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Harry Collins on acquiring and using scientific knowledge

In search of inspiration for his master’s thesis in sociology at the University of Essex in 1970, Harry Collins wandered around the school’s scientific laboratories. He ended up writing about a research group that was trying to replicate a new type of laser. Collins focused on the tacit transfer of knowledge among scientists. “Science is more about learning a language or culture than about transmitting discrete bits of information or following formulae,” he says. Credit: Susan Collins For his PhD, at the University of Bath, and then at various institutions around the world, Collins continued studying scientists. He has published more than 20 books on topics ranging from the discovery of gravitational waves to developments in artificial… Source link

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Retro Looks Meet Safari Style

An adorable retro-inspired electric vehicle got a lot of attention a few weeks ago. The Alpha Motor Ace, an electric coupe with an aesthetic that can only be described as mid-century modern European, seemed to capture the full potential of EVs to break out of contemporary car styling and explore unusual and interesting forms. With fewer constraints from packaging hardpoints, EVs—and in particular, skateboard-chassis ones—are ripe for this sort of thing. The Ace’s cartoonish (in a good way) proportions communicate fun in a way no Nissan Leaf can. Carrying that to its next logical extreme, there’s the Jax, an off-road inspired variant (that still only exists in digital form), and a sleeker Ace Performance Edition. See all 34 photosfalse It must be said that we were hoping the next time… Source link

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Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl Pairs KFC Fried Chicken with Champage

“There was once, when we were in Australia…” How many great stories start that way? It’s the “one time, at band camp” for musicians. This particular yarn comes from Foo Fighter’s frontman, Dave Grohl — rock god and pulled pork pitmaster — about the origin of his obsession with pairing KFC Original Recipe chicken and champagne. The tale comes from the latest episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, featuring Grohl. The whole interview is a delight; Dave Grohl is sunshine in human form, after all. But the first ten minutes shine the brightest, as the megastar waxes poetic on the magical combo of fried chicken and champagne. The gist of the story is this, O’Brien and the Foo Fighters have the same tour manager, Gus Brandt. While commiserating comically about… Source link

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