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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.

Edward D. Baker Memorial Stone in Leesburg,...

Edward Dickinson Baker was a politician, lawyer, and military leader. Baker served in both houses of Congress in Illinois and later in both houses on a federal level —first on behalf of Illinois in the House of Representatives and later as a Senator from Oregon. He was a long-time friend of President Abraham Lincoln and served as a United States Army Colonel in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.   It was during the Battle of Balls Bluff that……

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Budding coders create apps aimed at real-world...

How can computer science be used to help make the world a better place? It’s a lofty question, but one that drives the team behind MIT App Inventor, a virtual programming platform that allows budding programmers of all ages to create their own apps. Following a year of disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the App Inventor team hosted its second annual virtual Appathon for Good this summer, a marathon-like event during which over 1,000 coders used the App……

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Minas dos Carris in Portugal

Minas dos Carris is a former mining complex located in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, on the border with Spain. It has been abandoned since the 1970s. The complex was composed of several mining concessions, the main ones being Salto do Lobo, Corgas das Negras, and Lamalonga. Mining in the area began in the 1940s, tungsten was a metal that was widely exploited and mined in Portugal in the mid-20th century. Exploration in the Gerês mountains reached its peak in……

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St. Mawes Castle in St Mawes, England

This four-story artillery fort was constructed under Henry VIII’s rule between 1540-1542. It is situated in a prime position overlooking the Carrick Roads, the name given to the wide estuary of the River Fal. This is one of the widest natural harbors in the world, making it a prime spot for the passage of ships going to and from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The anchorage of many ships in this area made it a vulnerable area……

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Long Meg and Her Daughters in Penrith,...

With a diameter measuring 340 feet (100 meters), the formation known as “Long Meg and her Daughters” is the second-largest stone circle in England, and the sixth-largest in northwestern Europe. In addition to being one of the largest, it is also thought to be one of the oldest stone circles in England, dating from between the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age period. The titular Long Meg is the tallest of the stones at about 12 feet (3.6 meters). She……

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MIT brings Campaign for a Better World...

MIT has announced the conclusion of its Campaign for a Better World, which raised $6.24 billion to support the Institute’s work on some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Altogether, 112,703 individuals and organizations contributed to the campaign, which was publicly launched in 2016 and formally ran from July 2011 to June 2021. Sixty-four percent of all donors were MIT alumni, while more than 56,000 donors made their first gift to MIT during the campaign. “Everywhere I traveled throughout……

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Podcast: Magical Summer Memories, Vol. 4 –...

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. All summer on The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we’ve been asking you to send us your travel stories. And in this final installment of summer stories we tackle a topic that transcends the seasons—the captivating magic of water during travel. We have a new book coming out! It’s called Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide, a whirlwind tour of the world’s edible wonders. Pre-order your copy, and……

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Freedom Dreaming: Calvin Williams Answers Your Questions...

Freedom Dreaming: Calvin Williams Answers Your Questions on Afrofuturism Sep 29, 2021 How can we think about the future outside the social construct of time? How can we create narratives that imagine new possible realities rather than offer escapist fantasies? Where can you learn more about Afrofutures? On Thursday, August 12th, IFTF hosted a Foresight Talks webinar with Afrofuturist Calvin Williams, Founder of Wakanda Dream Lab, who spoke about freedom dreaming and the methods of Afrofutures (you can find……

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Remembering a Daring Escape Beneath the Berlin...

“I was a bean in a saucepan,” says Andreas Springer, smiling. Now 78, he has only recently begun speaking openly about a night more than half a century ago. In October 1964, Springer, then just 21, was one of the last people to escape East Germany via Tunnel 57, the deepest and longest subterranean passage beneath the Berlin Wall. His story is a real-world Cold War thriller, complete with code words: In the secret network of people helping escapees……

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Jurong Hill in Singapore

The highest point in the city, Jurong Hill was previously known as Bukit Peropok. It has an absolute view of sunrise or sunset, a peaceful resort in the west of Singapore, and a peaceful view from the highest point in the west. However, not many people have visited this place. At the hill, there is a three-story spiral lookout tower which is the most iconic structure in the area. It was built and opened in 1970. Next to the……

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The language of change

Ryan Conti came to MIT hoping to find a way to do good things in the world. Now a junior, his path is pointing toward a career in climate science, and he is preparing by majoring in both math and computer science and by minoring in philosophy. Language for catalyzing change Philosophy matters to Conti not only because he is interested in ethics — questions of right and wrong — but because he believes the philosophy of language can……

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Oroville Train Tunnel in Oroville, California

Built in 1909, this was the lowest elevation tunnel on the Feather River Route through the Sierra Nevada mountains. For riders on the Western Pacific Railroad California Zephyr passenger train, this tunnel marked the entrance to the breathtaking Feather River Canyon, billed as the most scenic train route in the United States. In 1957, construction of the Oroville Dam meant that 15 miles of track had to be rerouted to bypass what was to become Lake Oroville. The abandoned……

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3 Questions: Paula Hammond and Tim Jamison...

Launched in June, the MIT Ad Hoc Committee on Graduate Advising and Mentoring is aimed at delivering a strategic plan to guide and inform the development of effective mentoring policies and programs that would be implemented at the Institute. Made up of 10 graduate students and 11 other members representing staff and faculty, the committee plans to include elements of the recommendations provided in a 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) on the……

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'Encore' in Washington, D.C.

The highlight of Ellington Plaza in the Shaw neighborhood is “Encore,” a beautiful sculpture cast in stainless steel and granite that pays tribute to one of Washington, D.C.’s favorite sons, Duke Ellington. Born Edgward Kennedy Ellington, “Duke” was born and raised in the city. He started taking piano lessons at the age of seven, a natural path for a child of two pianists. By the mid-1920s, Ellington was an established regular with his own orchestra at the famous Cotton……

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