As of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. government is officially shut down. The good news — it won’t really affect you. As many as 800,000 government employees could be furloughed, or sent home without pay, but all necessary functions will continue. Traffic lights still work, the mail still goes out, comptrollers still direct planes into landings. If the shutdown drags into a week or longer, it could start to create delays in flights or passport processing. But for now, the most you might be missing are few creature comforts.
— No more astronaut tweets: NASA’s Twitter account is well known for its breathtaking photos and livestreams of space walks, and went viral in August when its account for the moon (@NASAMoon) blocked @NASASun for the eclipse. While astronauts will continue to perform spacewalks to conduct maintenance on the International Space Station, social media staff isn’t considered “necessary” during a shutdown.
— No approvals for new breweries: The Hunter-Gatherer, a restaurant just a block from the Horseshoe, opened its own brewery on Friday near the Columbia airport. The opening was just in time — under the shutdown, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau won't be processing requests for labeling, recipes or breweries. The official Columbia website lists 22 breweries, so the city is in no danger of going thirsty.
— No live panda cam at the National Zoo: While the Smithsonian has said it will remain open Monday, it doesn’t have the funds to stay open longer than about a week. That means the two cameras live-streaming Mei Xiang and her children, which often have over a million viewers per month and maxed out bandwidth with the birth of panda twins Tian Tian and Bei Bei in 2015, could turn to black. Panda enthusiasts don’t have to be too worried — the San Diego, Atlanta and Memphis panda cams will continue to broadcast.
— Federal grant applications aren’t processed: On a more serious note, most requests for federal research funding will be put on hold. The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, among other federal organizations, won't give out any new grants or grant payments. USC professors or students who were looking to get money could face an even longer wait than typical.