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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.

Building equity into vaccine distribution

Two of the studies described in this article have been published on a preprint server but have not yet been peer-reviewed by experts in the field. As the U.S. speeds up distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, the question of equity keeps surfacing. Who gets priority? If the pandemic is hitting certain communities harder, can they be adequately supplied with vaccine doses? What’s the best way to balance the needs of different groups within society? MIT economist Parag Pathak’s work emphasizes……

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Singer Morgan Wallen suspended from label after...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country star Morgan Wallen has been suspended indefinitely from his label and seen his music pulled by radio stations and streaming services Wednesday after video surfaced of him shouting a racial slur. Big Loud Records said in a statement that Wallen’s contract has been suspended indefinitely. Republic Records, which he is co-signed to, said it agreed with Big Loud’s decision and said “such behavior will not be tolerated.” The video, which was first published by…

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Doncic, Mavericks snap 6-game skid, hold off...

ATLANTA (AP) — Luka Doncic scored 27 points and dished out 14 assists as the Dallas Mavericks snapped a six-game losing streak, defeating Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks 122-116 on Wednesday night. Kristaps Porzingis added 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Mavericks, including a crucial tip-in of a miss by Doncic with 32 seconds remaining that helped Dallas hold off a furious Atlanta comeback. Doncic clearly won the individual matchup between two of the NBA’s brightest young…

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Antetokounmpo gets triple-double as Bucks top Pacers...

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter and still had a triple-double while helping the Milwaukee Bucks roll to a lopsided victory. The reigning two-time MVP had 21 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists in the Bucks’ 130-110 rout of the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. Antetokounmpo shot 7 of 8 from the floor and 7 of 8 from the line. “He’s playing really, really unselfishly,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “He’s seeing…

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The Blacksmith Turning Decades of Chinese Bombs...

For the first 20 years of his life, Wu Tseng-dong lived in a war zone. Growing up on Kinmen Island, a small Taiwanese territory four miles off the coast of mainland China, bombs were a constant threat. “It was terrifying. We were always panic-stricken,” Wu says. “We had to scout out places to hide when the bombs dropped. A big tree is good because it can block the impact, but the best place to hide was inside a gutter.”……

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What Does the Title 'Esquire' Mean, Anyway?

The minor debate over First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s title, which came up shortly after her husband’s election, may seem completely ridiculous and insulting, which it is, but it’s also the latest in a line of kerfuffles relating to how people in power in the United States present themselves. The extensive intricacies of British titling, and the power those titles conferred (and to a lesser extent, still confer), have left a lasting residue in some of the empire’s former……

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Tower Bridge in Sacramento, California

While it’s hard not to miss this bright, golden structure while speeding by on US 50, it’s what visitors don’t see that makes this bridge unique. Constructed in 1935, the center section of this bridge lifts 100 feet above the Sacramento River, allowing large watercraft to pass below. Unlike typical vertical lift bridges, the towers were shrouded in steel to conceal the inner-workings. Beneath the gleaming facade are the counterweights for the 1,150-ton center span. Two 100 horsepower electric……

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Scientists as engaged citizens

The classroom in fall 2020 looked very different than it did when WGS.160/STS.021 (Science Activism: Gender, Race, and Power) ran for the first time in 2019. Zoom and virtual breakout rooms had replaced circles of chairs, but the shifts made the class no less immersive and urgent for its students. In fact, the pandemic context made the core questions of this new survey class all the more vivid: What roles have U.S. scientists and technologists played as activists in……

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Njupeskärs Vattenfall in Älvdalen S, Sweden

Being home to “the “largest” anything in a country can be a great honor for locals and a boom for tourism. The Njupeskär waterfall is one such place and is one of the more popular attractions in the region. Thousands of people visit the falls each year and many trails lead to the top. Its beauty and size often draw people in, however, it’s not actually the tallest waterfall in the country. While most sources list Njupeskärs as the country’s……

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Epigenomic map reveals circuitry of 30,000 human...

Twenty years ago this month, the first draft of the human genome was publicly released. One of the major surprises that came from that project was the revelation that only 1.5 percent of the human genome consists of protein-coding genes. Over the past two decades, it has become apparent that those noncoding stretches of DNA, originally thought to be “junk DNA,” play critical roles in development and gene regulation. In a new study published today, a team of researchers……

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Netflix once again dominates Golden Globe TV...

NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix built on its recent dominance at scooping up Golden Globe TV nominations Wednesday, getting 20 nods — nearly three times as many as its closest competitor, HBO. Netflix, which beat its own record of 17 TV nominations from last year, secured three out of the five nominations for best drama TV series — “The Crown,” “Ozark” and “Ratched” — and four of the five acting nods for best actress in that category for Olivia…

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So many events in Melbourne, until COVID...

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Erima Nishimura sure picked a decent day to bring her 9-year-old son, Yoshiharu, to Melbourne Park for the first time to see some tennis. So much tennis: There were 89 matches on the schedule Wednesday, featuring Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Stan Wawrinka and eight other Grand Slam singles champions. It’s all part of a six-tournament setup meant to help players who had to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine prepare in short order amid a…

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COVID case at Australian Open hotel cancels...

MELBOURNE (AP) — All competition at six Australian Open tuneup events scheduled for Thursday was called off after a worker at one of the tournaments’ Melbourne quarantine hotels tested positive for COVID-19. Players preparing for the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, which is supposed to begin Monday, must isolate at their hotels until they test negative for the illness caused by the coronavirus. “We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible,” Tennis Australia said…

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‘Mank’ leads Golden Globe nominees with 6;...

NEW YORK (AP) — After a year where the pandemic nearly emptied movie theaters, Netflix dominated nominations to the 78ths Golden Globe Awards on Wednesday, with David Fincher’s “Mank” leading film nominees with six nods and “The Crown” topping all television series. The Globes, delayed about two months due to the coronavirus, tried to muster some of the awards’ usual buzz on Wednesday in a largely virtual awards season bereft the kind of red-carpet glamour the Globes annual feast…

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Orchard Heritage Park in Sunnyvale, California

Sunnyvale, a Silicon-Valley city chockablock with tech and aerospace companies, once looked very different. Stone fruit orchards once covered its landscape and employed its citizens, and old-timers still speak fondly of oceans of pink-and-white flowers in the springtime and the summer fruit stands selling sweet apricots and cherries. There aren’t too many orchards left. But the city has preserved one 800-tree swath of the sweet, delicate Blenheim apricots that were once the local pride and joy. The orchard wraps……

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