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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.

A method to interpret AI might not...

As autonomous systems and artificial intelligence become increasingly common in daily life, new methods are emerging to help humans check that these systems are behaving as expected. One method, called formal specifications, uses mathematical formulas that can be translated into natural-language expressions. Some researchers claim that this method can be used to spell out decisions an AI will make in a way that is interpretable to humans. MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers wanted to check such claims of interpretability. Their……

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The Joy of Third-Culture Cooking

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE OCTOBER 14, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. A Brazilian feijoada brimming with Chinese sausages and lap yuk (cured pork belly). A lasagna layered with the tongue-tingling, Sichuan pepper–loaded sauce for dan dan mian. Congee made with the remains of an American Thanksgiving. The dishes in Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen (which comes out October 31), the work of LA-born, Hong Kong-raised,……

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Mary Shelley's Grave in Bournemouth, England

This family tomb, in a small churchyard in Bournemouth town center, is best known as the final resting place of Mary Shelley, author of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. But in this small plot, you will find an entire literary dynasty. It was Mary’s wish to be buried with her parents. After her death from a brain tumor in 1851, her son arranged for them to be exhumed and moved to a family plot at St…….

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Ovelgönne Bread Roll in Hamburg, Germany

In May 1952, during an archaeological dig at the loam mine of Ovelgönne, Buxtehude, a Helms-Museum staff member Willi Rühland discovered the remains of a charred bread roll in what appeared to be an ancient rubbish pit. Later dated to the early Iron Age, circa 800-500 BCE, the bread roll is the oldest surviving formed bakery product in Europe. Subsequently the ancient bread roll underwent a lot of examinations, from microscopy to radiography. Evidences revealed that it was kneaded thoroughly……

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Study: Deep neural networks don’t see the...

Human sensory systems are very good at recognizing objects that we see or words that we hear, even if the object is upside down or the word is spoken by a voice we’ve never heard. Computational models known as deep neural networks can be trained to do the same thing, correctly identifying an image of a dog regardless of what color its fur is, or a word regardless of the pitch of the speaker’s voice. However, a new study……

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The Elk on the Trail in Florida,...

Richard Sears, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, visited Whitcomb Summit during the winter of 1922-23 and was taken with the area’s scenic beauty. Sears proposed the location as a site for a memorial to members of the order, known as Elks, who died during World War I. The Massachusetts Elks Association fundraised for the memorial to be erected on donated land. The eight-foot-tall bronze elk sculpture was designed by Eli Harvey, who specialized in……

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Japan criticizes Russian ban on its seafood...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan criticized Russia’s announcement that it’s joining China in banning the imports of Japanese seafood in response to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant. Russia said it will start implementing import restrictions on Japanese seafood on Monday, nearly two months after the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the ocean. The wastewater discharges, which are expected to continue for decades, have…

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For 4 rising NBA stars, about $1...

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton got questions about the same topic more often than he could remember this summer: The money, the money, the money. As NBA salaries grow, so too does the spotlight for those who get the biggest paychecks — a club that players like Haliburton, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball and Memphis’ Desmond Bane will soon be entering for the first time as their rookie deals wind down. Those four players all signed extensions this summer that…

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Horse and Human Drinking Fountain in Welcome,...

Whether you are a horse or a human, you’re always welcome to have a drink of water in Welcome, Minnesota. The town is home to one of the few remaining hybrid fountains in America, and almost certainly is the one to make the biggest deal of that fact. This drinking fountain dates to 1914. At the time, access to potable water in rural areas. was an even bigger issue than it is today. Clean water was often a luxury,……

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Vicolo dei Libri (Book Alley) in Lovere,...

Vicolo dei Libri is a narrow passageway in the village of Lovere that dates back to the Middle Ages. Due to its strategic position, the history of Lovere is eventful, to say the least. What is worth mentioning is that during the 15th century CE, the Republic of Venice took possession of the territory and ensured long-lasting peace in the area. The local population devoted their time to trade instead of warfare, and the village experienced a protracted period……

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The Twisty Tale of the BBC Show...

It was 1985, and Chris Perry wanted to see something scary. But not just anything scary, he wanted something very specific. Perry and his friend and fellow vintage TV collector, Richard Down, had spotted an ad in the pages of one of England’s hefty 1980s media catalogs. It offered a single episode of an old BBC2 show, on a 16 mm reel, recorded way back in the 1960s. They ran to the nearest phone. The collectors just had to……

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When You Die, Your Necrobiome Recycles You

This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. Each human body contains a complex community of trillions of microorganisms that are important for your health while you’re alive. These microbial symbionts help you digest food, produce essential vitamins, protect you from infection, and serve many other critical functions. In turn, the microbes, which are mostly concentrated in your gut, get to live in a relatively stable, warm environment with a steady……

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Podcast: Nasothek Noses

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we get up close and nosey about a peculiar exhibit in Copenhagen that reveals a lot about what artists and society have considered beautiful throughout the years. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some……

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The Atlas Obscura Crossword: Monster Mashup

This themed crossword comes from Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel, who grew up in Xi’an, China, before moving to the United States in 2001. She’s the author of Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords. You can solve the puzzle below, or download it in .pdf or .puz. Note that the links in the clues will take you to Atlas Obscura pages that may contain the answer. Happy solving!…

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MIT design would harness 40 percent of...

MIT engineers aim to produce totally green, carbon-free hydrogen fuel with a new, train-like system of reactors that is driven solely by the sun. In a study appearing today in Solar Energy Journal, the engineers lay out the conceptual design for a system that can efficiently produce “solar thermochemical hydrogen.” The system harnesses the sun’s heat to directly split water and generate hydrogen — a clean fuel that can power long-distance trucks, ships, and planes, while in the process……

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