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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.

This touchy-feely glove senses and maps tactile...

When you pick up a balloon, the pressure to keep hold of it is different from what you would exert to grasp a jar. And now engineers at MIT and elsewhere have a way to precisely measure and map such subtleties of tactile dexterity. The team has designed a new touch-sensing glove that can “feel” pressure and other tactile stimuli. The inside of the glove is threaded with a system of sensors that detects, measures, and maps small changes……

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How authoritarian leaders maintain support

How do authoritarian regimes sustain their popularity? A novel study in China led by MIT scholars shows that anticorruption punishments meted out by government authorities receive significant support among citizens — who believe such actions demonstrate both competence and morally righteous leadership. The findings help explain how authoritarian governments endure, not merely based on domination and fear, but as regimes generating positive public support over time. “What we find is that not only does the punishment of corrupt officials……

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How the 'Boston Cooler' Became a Classic...

In August 1924, a reader contributed a recipe to the Detroit Free Press for “a nectar that the Olympians pined for but didn’t know how to make.” The cool summer drink consisted of sarsaparilla (a sassafras soft drink) poured over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and stirred until smooth. The name of this sweet, godly elixir? The Boston Cooler. It makes sense that a Detroiter would wax poetic about the Boston Cooler: Motown has become synonymous with the……

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Daily Crunch: Second-day trading surge launches Robinhood...

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 4, 2021. It’s been hectic: Robinhood’s stock lost its mind. Facebook made another chunk of the internet mad. And a new unicorn wants to go public? It’s been a great day for tech news. But before we get on with it, we’re excited to announce that TechCrunch is……

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The Biophysicist Transforming Asparagus Into Medical Implants

His lab is filled with apples, asparagus, broccoli, celery, mushrooms, red peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes. “Honestly, it looks like a farmers market,” says Andrew Pelling. “I’m not joking … the students just go to the grocery store and buy whatever.” Around 10 years ago, Pelling, a biophysicist, started thinking with his team about materials that could be used to reconstruct damaged or diseased human tissues. Surrounded by a rainbow of fresh fruits and vegetables at his University of Ottawa……

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Finding common ground in Malden

When disparate groups convene around a common goal, exciting things can happen. That is the inspiring story unfolding in Malden, Massachusetts, a city of about 60,000 — nearly half people of color — where a new type of community coalition continues to gain momentum on its plan to build a climate-resilient waterfront park along its river. The Malden River Works (MRW) project, recipient of the inaugural Leventhal City Prize, is seeking to connect to a contiguous greenway network where……

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Cimitero di Guerra di Milano (Milan War...

In the Cimitero di Guerra di Milano (Milan War Cemetery), 421 soldiers from Commonwealth nations (27 of whom are unidentified) who participated in the Italian Liberation War and died during World War II are buried. The small cemetery, in the typical British style, is immersed in the greenery of the Aniasi Park and is surrounded by a hedge and protected by large trees. It is made up of white plaques all the same on an English lawn. At the……

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The Curious Past and Uncertain Future of...

The water begins its 400-mile journey gushing from a spring tucked in a rocky Anatolian slope. Following the narrow channel, it rushes past grazing lands and olive groves, and then through a steep, half-moon canyon carved by the currents before it. The water then enters a flat valley that stretches to the Aegean Sea. Across this wide plain, it curves and curls like a dark snake. Along the way, smaller tributaries feed the flow. Other things enter the river:……

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Grandad's Magical Wonderland in Broadmeadow, Australia

There once was a patch of public land in a Newcastle suburb that lay neglected and forgotten. Where others saw overgrown grass and untamed brambles, a man named Merv Moyle saw a wild jungle of exotic flowering trees and mythical creatures hiding in the foliage. A lifelong gardener, Moyle began to transform the neglected patch, planting palms and azaleas and ferns, stringing up garlands of roses, and laying winding stone pathways through his little oasis. As the garden grew……

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Using graphene foam to filter toxins from...

Some kinds of water pollution, such as algal blooms and plastics that foul rivers, lakes, and marine environments, lie in plain sight. But other contaminants are not so readily apparent, which makes their impact potentially more dangerous. Among these invisible substances is uranium. Leaching into water resources from mining operations, nuclear waste sites, or from natural subterranean deposits, the element can now be found flowing out of taps worldwide. In the United States alone, “many areas are affected by……

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'Morgondagens Väder' ('Tomorrow's Weather') in Stockholm,...

When walking through Stockholm’s central station visitors will see a beautiful amalgamation of modern and 18th-century architecture. Parts of the station are kept in their original state, while others are modernized or decorated with art. These art pieces are sometimes more elaborate than one might imagine, such as this hidden weather display by Bigert & Bergström. “Morgondagens Väder,” which means ‘Tomorrow’s Weather,” is an abstract representation of Sweden by means of a cluster of “hanging atmospheric molecules.” Each of these molecules is……

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Next up on Synapse’s fintech services platform:...

When Sankaet Pathak co-founded Synapse in 2014, he had a vision of doing more than just building a platform that enables banks and fintech companies to easily develop financial services.  He wanted to build a company that helped provide greater access to financial services to a larger pool of people — regardless of their net worth or their country of origin.  Over the years, San Francisco-based Synapse has steadily grown its Deposit Hub, its product that is aimed at……

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'Big Fella' in Silloth, England

Silloth is a small town in north Cumbria, on the coastline of the Solway Firth. Its seaside promenade looks across the Solway Firth to the hills of Southern Galloway in Scotland. This part of England’s west coast is renowned for its spectacular sunsets and was an inspiration for the famous 19th-century British landscape artist, J.M.W. Turner. The impressive view along this coastline was also a favorite of a local Silloth businessman, Peter Richardson, who would regularly walk his dog……

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Obama curtails 60th birthday bash after delta...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The party for the nation’s 44th president will go on, but only for family and close friends. Former President Barack Obama has scaled back his 60th birthday bash set for this weekend at his Martha’s Vineyard home off the Massachusetts coast due to the surge of infections blamed on the delta variant of the coronavirus, his office said Wednesday. Attendance is now limited to family and close friends. Published reports had said hundreds of celebrities, politicos…

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Neobanks’ moves toward profitability could be the...

The global venture capital bet on neobanks is massive. London-based Starling Bank has raised more than $900 million, per Crunchbase. The same data source indicates that Chime has raised $1.5 billion. Monzo has raised nearly $650 million. And the list goes on: E-commerce-focused neobank Juni raised $21.5 million last month. Novo, an SMB-focused neobank, raised $41 million in June. Nubank has raised $2.3 billion. And FairMoney has locked down more than $50 million. On and on and on. The……

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