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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

WeChat advances e-commerce goals with $250B in...

WeChat continues to advance its shopping ambitions as the social networking app turns 10 years old. The Chinese messenger facilitated 1.6 trillion yuan (close to $250 billion) in annual transactions through its “mini programs,” third-party services that run on the super app that allow users to buy clothes, order food, hail taxis and more. That is double the value of transactions on WeChat’s mini programs in 2019, the networking giant announced at its annual conference for business partners and……

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Fintech startup Vise brings on Andrew Fong...

Vise, a fintech firm that focuses on helping financial advisors rather than automating them out of existence, has today announced that its bringing on Andrew Fong as its Chief Technology Officer. Fong hails from Dropbox, where he served as VP of Infrastructure Engineering. He actually started out as a Site Reliability Engineer at Dropbox back in 2012 climbing the ranks to Engineering Director, and then Senior Director of Engineering – Head of Infrastructure before becoming to vice president. Before……

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Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing Shi, China

Located at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain in Nanjing, Xuanwu is a scenic location near Nanjing railway station. Xuanwu Lake is one of the “Three Great Lakes of Jiangnan,” which contains five islets and was the largest imperial lake garden in China‘s history. According to legends, Emperor Sun Quan settled in the Nanjing area and had the lake created. The lake was then named for a black dragon, believed to be a water god. The dragon was said to resemble a……

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Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan

The Gilmore Car Museum is located between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is considered the largest auto museum in North America. The museum was created by Donald S. Gilmore, who began collecting antique automobiles in the 1960s.  The museum is a must-see for any car enthusiast, history buff, or those looking for something interesting to do while in the area. The museum features more than a dozen buildings, each displaying cars, motorcycles, bicycles, hood ornaments, and other antiques……

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The Careful Work of Breathing Life Into...

This story was originally published on Undark and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than 300,000 people viewed it online. But despite the corpse flower’s fame, its future is……

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PPRO nabs $180M at a $1B+ valuation...

The pandemic has hastened a shift of most commerce becoming e-commerce in the last year, and that has brought a new focus on startups that are helping to enable that process. In the latest development, PPRO, a London-based startup that has built a platform to make it easier for marketplaces, payment providers and other e-commerce players to enable localised payments — that is, make and take payments in whatever form local customers prefer to use, which extend well beyond……

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3 Questions: Daron Acemoglu on the “dangerous...

Two stunning events on Jan. 6 — rioters invading the U.S. Capitol, and roughly 140 GOP members of Congress voting not to certify the presidential election results in certain states — have intensified national concern about the future of American democracy. To extend the discussion, MIT News spoke with MIT economist and Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu, who has written extensively about democratic institutions, political dynamics, and the way democracy increases economic growth. Acemoglu’s most recent book, “The Narrow Corridor,”……

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Transforming quantum computing’s promise into practice

It was music that sparked William Oliver’s lifelong passion for computers. Growing up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, he was an avid keyboard player. “But I got into music school on voice,” says Oliver, “because it was a little bit easier.” But once in school, first at State University of New York at Fredonia then the University of Rochester, he hardly shied away from a challenge. “I was studying sound recording technology, which led me to……

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Singapore-based Volopay raises $2.1 million seed round...

Volopay, a Singapore-based startup building a “financial control center” for businesses, announced today it has raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, and included participation from Soma Capital, CP Ventures, Y Combinator, VentureSouq, the founders of Razorpay, Antler and other angel investors. The funding will be used on hiring, product development, strategic partnerships and Volopay’s international expansion. It plans to launch operations in Australia later this month. The company currently has……

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Niokolo Koba Park in Senegal

For visitors traveling through Senegal and desire to catch a glimpse of wildlife in their natural environment, the National Park Niokolo Kobe located in the eastern section of the country is the ideal place to visit.  The park was established as a reserve in 1925 and was declared a national park in 1954. The park runs along the upper region of the Gambia River and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1980s. A wide range……

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Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in...

Carl Sandburg was a highly accomplished poet and journalist with three Pulitzer Prizes to his name. He was also very active during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1945, Sandburg moved from Michigan to a 265-acre estate in Flat Rock, North Carolina for the weather, solitude, and land for his wife to raise her prized goats. The house was originally owned by a Confederate politician and other Confederate veterans until it was ultimately purchased by Sandburg and his wife. He……

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Newton's Apple Tree, Trinity College in...

Mention the name of Sir Issac Newton and most people will think of the discovery of gravity under an apple tree. However, the actual story has been embellished a bit over the centuries to ferment a narrative that has roots in reality. What few people are aware of is that the aforementioned tree actually exists. This “Flower of Kent” apple tree, which grows outside the entrance to Trinity College, was originally grafted from the actual tree that resides at……

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Norchia Necropolis in Viterbo, Italy

It’s hard to describe the wilderness and abandonment of this spectacular archaeological site. Norchia was a satellite settlement of the powerful Etruscan city of Tarquinia, which dominated the coast of northern Lazio during the 4th-century CE. Norchia was likely established as one of the city’s outposts inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea, which also crossed several important overland trade routes. Even today, Norchia’s impressive landscape is a testimony to its strategic position. The plateau is marked by the ruins of a……

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Franz Sederevičiaus Sculpture Ensemble in Kudirkos Naumiestis,...

Known as one of the more impressive art displays in Lithuania, this garden contains 21 large scale sculptures made of cement, concrete, and metal. Artist Pranas Sederevičius created these statues in the yard of his home between 1951-1979. Pranas was fascinated by horses, therefore many of his works showcase horses, deer, and other mystical animals. He also added busts of prominent figures that he admired to the collection. They mostly consist of local figures and politicians, such as John……

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Yandle gets100th NHL goal, Panthers beat Blackhawks...

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Keith Yandle got his 100th career goal, Chris Driedger made 23 saves and the Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Sunday night. Eetu Luostarinen scored his first NHL goal, and Aaron Ekblad, Patric Hornqvist, and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for Florida, which had three goals in the third period to pull away in its delayed opener. The Panthers were to have played Dallas last week twice, games that were called off because of…

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