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- Words From Webster: Daily News Round-Up 5.18
- Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy
- FINCANN Unveils The Cannabis Industry’s First Fully Compliant Merchant Processing Program
- Here are the 6 biggest announcements from Google I/O 2021
- Rising energy demand for cooling
- Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line
- Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic
- Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition
- Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling
| Words From Webster: Daily News Round-Up 5.18 Posted: 18 May 2021 09:36 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster   Compiled By Daniel Webster, dWeb Internet Cowboy
The post Words From Webster: Daily News Round-Up 5.18 appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy Posted: 18 May 2021 08:13 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  Fields of opium poppies once bloomed where the Zurich Opera House underground garage now standsEstimated reading time: 4 minutes UNIVERSITY OF BASEL  Through a new analysis of archaeological seeds, researchers at the University of Basel have been able to bolster the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers throughout the Alps participated in domesticating the opium poppy. Although known today primarily as the source of opium and opiates, the poppy is also a valuable food and medicinal plant. Its seeds can be used to make porridge and cooking oil. Unlike all other previously domesticated crops, which are assumed to have been domesticated in south-west Asia (various grains, legumes and flax), experts believe that the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) was domesticated in the western Mediterranean, where its presumed progenitor Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum (DC.) Arcang is native and still grows wild today. Using a new method of analysis, researchers from the universities of Basel and Montpellier have now been able to strengthen the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers living in pile dwellings around the Alps began to cultivate and use the opium poppy on a large scale from about 5500 BCE. By doing so, they contributed to its domestication, as the team reports in the journal Scientific Reports.  CREDIT Raül Soteras, AgriChange Project “When and where the opium poppy was domesticated has been impossible to determine exactly until now,” says the study’s leader, Dr. Ferran Antolín of the University of Basel and the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. “There were no methods of identifying archaeological findings of poppy seeds either as domesticated or as a wild subspecies.” This has now been achieved thanks to a method developed by archaeologist Ana Jesus as part of her doctoral work. The method involves measuring the number of cells and the size and shape of the seed using contour analysis in order to capture the subtle differences between the domestic and wild variants. The researchers tested their method using 270 seeds from a total of nine poppy species (30 seeds per species) taken from the seed collections of the University of Basel and the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris. These tests showed that classification of the seeds as the wild or domestic variant of the opium poppy was reliable in 87 percent of cases. Finally, the team applied the method to archaeological findings of seeds discovered during the excavation of the 5,000-year-old pile dwelling site at Zurich Opera House‘s underground garage. The analysis of the poppy seeds showed that about half were the wild form and the other half domesticated. “There are two possible explanations for this,” says Jesus. “Farmers could have mixed these two variants, or the pressure of selection due to cultivation led to the opium poppy gradually becoming the variant we now know as the domesticated opium poppy.”  CREDIT Raül Soteras, AgriChange Project The latter explanation would mean that the opium poppy still had wild-type seeds when it came to central Europe, and that the farmers – knowingly or unknowingly – contributed to the changes in seed size and shape, i.e. to the domestication process. The researchers now want to apply the method to other archaeological finds of sufficiently well-preserved poppy seeds. The international team’s goal is to reconstruct the full domestication process of the opium poppy. This may make it possible to draw general conclusions about plant domestication and to identify the role played by cultivation in climate regions other than the plant’s native area. Spread your news across the net. | 24-7PressRelease.com The post Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| FINCANN Unveils The Cannabis Industry’s First Fully Compliant Merchant Processing Program Posted: 18 May 2021 07:37 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster   Estimated reading time: 2 minutes Fincann Eliminates Dispensaries' Need to Use Fraudulent and Illegal Payment Processing WorkaroundsNew York, NY – Fincann, a leading provider of essential financial services including compliant bank accounts and payment processing solutions for the cannabis industry, recently launched the industry's first fully compliant merchant processing program. "With Fincann's fully compliant merchant processing program, bank and credit card network bans on cannabis transactions no longer impact dispensaries," said CEO, Nathaniel Gurien. Credit card networks like Mastercard and Visa have made clear that they will not support federally illegal cannabis transactions in any capacity. Nothing but federal legalization is likely to change that policy. That means that despite finding access to banking, state-legal cannabis businesses cannot secure merchant accounts for processing debit and credit card transactions. As a result, cannabis entrepreneurs employ numerous tactics to offer their customers card-based transactions, ranging from deceptive and illegal workarounds like cashless ATMs, digital wallets, and obscure company names on bank accounts. Since the Fincann MC | Visa | Discover | ATM debit card program is fully and transparently sponsored by an experienced cannabis-friendly bank, it allows you to add all major credit cards without changing your equipment or merchant ID number once appropriate federal regulations are enacted. Meanwhile, all the major debit networks endorse and approve Fincann's merchant processing program. Gone are the days of rounded-up sales, customer fees, and disguised DBAs and addresses. This system allows for exactly-priced sales without fear that your illegal cashless ATM workaround will be pulled from underneath you at any moment or worse. With Fincann's merchant processing there are NO early termination fees, NO application fees, and NO annual fees, plus you can cancel at any time without penalty. Fincann keeps their fees at the industry standard, too: their pricing is roughly 3.3% + 35¢ per transaction, which is only a bit more as most mainstream businesses pay around the U.S. You'll also pay only $30 per month for PCI, online reporting, and account statements. Any state-legal, plant-touching entity can use Fincann's merchant processing solution. That includes medical and adult-use dispensaries, processors, cultivators, extractors, and delivery. The post FINCANN Unveils The Cannabis Industry's First Fully Compliant Merchant Processing Program appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 07:18 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  Grape genetics research reveals what makes the perfect flowerEstimated reading time: 5 minutes CORNELL UNIVERSITY  When today’s growers cultivate new varieties – trying to produce better-tasting and more disease-resistant grapes – it takes two to four years for breeders to learn whether they have the genetic ingredients for the perfect flower.ITHACA, N.Y. – Wines and table grapes exist thanks to a genetic exchange so rare that it’s only happened twice in nature in the last 6 million years. And since the domestication of the grapevine 8,000 years ago, breeding has continued to be a gamble. Females set fruit, but produce sterile pollen. Males have stamens for pollen, but lack fruit. The perfect flower, however, carries both sex genes and can self-pollinate. These hermaphroditic varieties generally yield bigger and better-tasting berry clusters, and they’re the ones researchers use for additional cross-breeding. Now, Cornell University scientists have worked with the University of California, Davis, to identify the DNA markers that determine grape flower sex. In the process, they also pinpointed the genetic origins of the perfect flower. Their paper, “Multiple Independent Recombinations Led to Hermaphroditism in Grapevine,” published April 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “This is the first genomic evidence that grapevine flower sex has multiple independent origins,” said Jason Londo, corresponding author on the paper and a research geneticist in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Grape Genetics Unit, located at Cornell AgriTech. Londo is also an adjunct associate professor of horticulture in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS), part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  Now, Cornell University scientists have worked with the University of California, Davis, to identify the DNA markers that determine grape flower sex. In the process, they also pinpointed the genetic origins of the perfect flower. “This study is important to breeding and production because we designed genetic markers to tell you what exact flower sex signature every vine has,” Londo said, “so breeders can choose to keep only the combinations they want for the future.” Today, most cultivated grapevines are hermaphroditic, whereas all wild members of the Vitis genus have only male or female flowers. As breeders try to incorporate disease-resistance genes from wild species into new breeding lines, the ability to screen seedlings for flower sex has become increasingly important. And since grape sex can’t be determined from seeds alone, breeders spend a lot of time and resources raising vines, only to discard them several years down the line upon learning they’re single-sex varieties. In the study, the team examined the DNA sequences of hundreds of wild and domesticated grapevine genomes to identify the unique sex-determining regions for male, female and hermaphroditic species. They traced the existing hermaphroditic DNA back to two separate recombination events, occurring somewhere between 6 million and 8,000 years ago. Londo theorizes that ancient viticulturists stumbled upon these high yielding vines and collected seeds or cuttings for their own needs – freezing the hermaphroditic flower trait in domesticated grapevines that are used today. Many wine grapes can be traced back to either the first or second event gene pool. Cultivars such as cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and Thompson seedless are all from the first gene pool. The pinot family, sauvignon blanc and gamay noir originate from the second gene pool.  “The more grape DNA markers are identified, the more breeders can advance the wine and grape industry.”Bruce ReischWhat makes chardonnay and riesling unique is that they carry genes from both events. Londo said this indicates that ancient viticulturalists crossed grapes between the two gene pools, which created some of today’s most important cultivars. Documenting the genetic markers for identifying male, female and perfect flower types will ultimately help speed cultivar development and reduce the costs of breeding programs. “The more grape DNA markers are identified, the more breeders can advance the wine and grape industry,” said Bruce Reisch, co-author and professor in both the Horticulture and the Plant Breeding and Genetics sections of SIPS. “Modern genetic sequencing technologies and multi-institutional research collaborations are key to making better grapes available to growers.” Spread your news across the net. | 24-7PressRelease.com The post appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Here are the 6 biggest announcements from Google I/O 2021 Posted: 18 May 2021 06:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Jacob Siegal  Google I/O 2021 has just wrapped up, and as expected, it was packed with new information and exciting announcements. After all, Google was forced to skip the developer conference last year due to the pandemic, so it’s no surprise that COVID-19 was a key focus of the event. In fact, Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off I/O 2021 with an update on Workspace, which has kept many companies organized over the past year. That was just one of the big announcements, though, and you can check out the rest below. Today’s Top DealThis automatic jar opener went mega-viral on TikTok – now everyone’s flooding Amazon to get one on sale!Price: $19.99 Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: Your biggest stimulus payment ever is coming soon – and you might not even know about it The post Here are the 6 biggest announcements from Google I/O 2021 appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Rising energy demand for cooling Posted: 18 May 2021 06:38 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  Keeping it cool despite climate changeEstimated reading time: 5 minutes SWISS FEDERAL LABORATORIES FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (EMPA)  Due to climate change, the average global temperature will rise in the coming decades. This should also significantly increase the number of so-called cooling degree days. These measure the number of hours, in which the ambient temperature is above a certain threshold, at which a building must be cooled to keep the indoor temperature at a comfortable level. The rising values may lead to an increased installation of AC systems in households. This could lead to a higher energy demand for cooling buildings, which is already expected to increase due to climate change and population growth. Air conditioning in homes may account for up to one third of electricity use during periods in the summer when the most energy is required in large cities, according to a study carried out in Spain. The research attempts to determine not only the amount of energy that is consumed, but also its environmental impact.  To stay comfortable and save money this summer, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends setting your thermostat to 78F (26C) when you are home. Setting your air conditioner to this level will allow you to stay cool and avoid an unusually high electricity bill. Nip-and-tuck race between heating and cooling To get a better understanding of how massive this increase will be in Switzerland, Empa researchers analyzed the heating and cooling requirements of the NEST research and innovation building. “By including ambient temperatures, we were able to make a projection of the future thermal energy demand of buildings based on the climate scenarios for Switzerland. In addition to climate change, we also took population growth and the increasing use of AC devices into account,” explains Robin Mutschler, postdoc at Empa’s Urban Energy Systems lab. The results forecast a significant increase in the demand for cooling energy: In an extreme scenario where the whole of Switzerland would rely on air conditioning, almost as much energy would be needed for cooling as for heating by the middle of the century. In figures, this corresponds to about 20 terawatt hours (TWh) per year for heating and 17.5 TWh for cooling. The required cooling energy was calculated without regard to the technology. If this is provided by reversing a heat pump process, e.g. with COP 3 for cooling, the electricity demand for 17.5 TWh cooling energy is about 5.8 TWh. The heating demand of the residential units of NEST is comparable to a modern apartment building. These figures are therefore representative if is assumed that the average Swiss building is comparable to the NEST building. When this will be the case depends on the renovation rate. However, even in a more moderate scenario, the cooling demand in Switzerland will increase significantly. The researchers assume an additional energy demand of five TWh per year in this scenario. Strong impact on the Swiss energy system The energy demand of Swiss buildings today accounts for around 40 percent of the total energy demand. The main part of this is used for heating. This will probably remain this way until at least the middle of the 21st century, while the energy demand for cooling buildings is expected to increase significantly. If thermal energy is provided by heat pumps that can also cool, this potentially has a strong impact on the overall energy system and especially on electricity as an energy carrier. It is assumed that only a small amount of Swiss households currently own an AC unit or system. However, the number of houses with heat pumps is growing. The Empa researchers estimate that the number of households with cooling systems could rise to over 50 percent due to the increase in cooling degree days. This could lead to significant demand peaks on hot days. An additional five TWh of energy demand for cooling would be equivalent to about two percent of today’s electricity demand if cooling is provided by heat pumps. In the more extreme scenario, the electricity demand for cooling could even approach ten percent of today’s total demand. However, this will not be evenly distributed throughout the year, but will correlate with hot periods, which can lead to demand peaks. On a positive note, cooling demand is relatively well matched by electricity production from photovoltaic systems. The impact of cooling residential buildings will be significantly higher compared to office buildings, as they account for about two-thirds of the building area. Based on these findings, it is evident to the researchers that these developments must be taken into account when constructing new buildings and that the possibilities of passive cooling must be fully exploited. “Building architecture should no longer focus only on optimizing heat losses, especially in winter, but also on reducing heat gains in summer,” says Mutschler. This could be achieved, for example, through urban planning measures for climate adaptation at district level, the implementation of programs for heat reduction, or the reduction of glazing in buildings. “Moreover, it is crucial that policymakers also address this development and investigate ways to best meet the increasing cooling energy demand while minimizing the impact on the future decarbonized energy system,” Mutschler adds. One possible contribution to cooling buildings could come from district cooling systems, which have already been successfully implemented in Switzerland – for example in Geneva. Others are emerging, for instance in Zug. Instant online visibility. News direct to consumers, journalist, & bloggers. | 24-7PressRelease.com The post Rising energy demand for cooling appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line Posted: 18 May 2021 05:09 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  In the field of international business research, lobbying is considered a legitimate and legal political action conducted in a developed economy. Bribery, on the other hand, is seen as an outright corrupt practice in an emerging economy.Estimated reading time: 4 minutes  UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS  In a study published in the March issue of the journal Business & Society, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas examined the gray area between lobbying and bribery among multinational companies, especially in countries where lobbying is not regulated strongly or institutional development is insufficient. The analysis found that firms based in developed countries, as opposed to developing countries or transition economies, are more likely to influence the institutional environment of host countries through lobbying, even when bribery is expected to be a more prevalent way of doing business in many of these countries. “We wanted to address this and call for more attention to the issue of lobbying as an equally important issue as bribery in firm activities to influence the institutional environment in the international business context. For example, addressing institutional constraints overseas by shaping regulatory and policy environments in a more favorable way can increase performance benefits,” said study author Dr. Seung-Hyun Lee, professor of organizations, strategy and international management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. “Moreover, while bribery has been largely seen as what firms from transition economies do, there has been little discussion of the lobbying attempts that firms from more developed economies are doing. We wanted to shed light on this, too.” In the study, Lee and co-author Dr. Jisun Yu of Concordia University in Montreal investigated what determines a multinational enterprise’s propensity to engage in lobbying and bribery in countries where the overall institutional development for market exchanges is insufficient and overall country governance is relatively weak. A transition economy is one that endeavors to change from a planned economy to a market economy. Examples include China and Vietnam. For the study, the researchers focused on the transition economies of central and eastern European countries and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional organization of countries from the former Soviet Union. “While transition economies are full of uncertainty due to structural transitions and the uneven development of adequate institutions, these very characteristics are also a source of opportunities, such as low-cost production, highly educated labor forces and easy access to the European market,” Lee said. Using data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey conducted in transition economy countries by the World Bank, the researchers aimed to further discussions concerning the ethical and social implications of corporate activities conducted to influence institutions. Their analysis found that multinational enterprises based in a country with a strong governance system are less involved in bribery but have a higher tendency to lobby their hosts in transition-economy countries. The researchers found that this tendency holds true even when these enterprises rely on the host country’s local market for much of their sales. The study also found that firms from a home country with more developed governance also attempt to change the laws to a greater extent in host countries with weaker institutional development. “Multinational enterprises behave consistently in host countries and tend to stick to the way business was done in their domestic markets, even when dependence on local sales in host countries increases,” he said. “It is a good thing to find that multinational enterprises from countries with a stronger governance system are less likely to bribe in transition economies, compared to their counterparts with weaker governance.” Lee said it is important for policymakers to understand that home country governance can be an effective mechanism in controlling a multinational enterprise’s illegal political activities, even outside its home boundaries. “When it comes to host countries, governments there may want to make sure that lobbying is effectively governed and bribery is curbed to incentivize multinational enterprises hailing from stronger governance systems to invest in their countries,” he said. Policymakers might also consider strengthening their country’s governance system as a way of reducing their multinational enterprises’ unwanted involvement in corruption overseas, Lee said. The post Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic Posted: 18 May 2021 04:44 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
 BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER BOSTON – In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced higher rates of heart disease and cerebrovascular disease deaths, relative to the corresponding months the previous year. While a large body of evidence has shown that Black and Hispanic communities have borne a disproportionately high burden of disease and death from COVID-19, little is known about whether the rise in cardiovascular deaths during the pandemic has been disproportionately concentrated among racial and ethnic minority populations. A new study led by clinician-researchers at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) characterized heart disease and cerebrovascular deaths by race and ethnicity during the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic and evaluated whether the relative increases in deaths were more pronounced among racial and ethnic minority groups, compared with non-Hispanic white persons. The team found that the year-over-year increase in deaths due to heart disease and cerebrovascular disease was significantly more pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian populations in the United States than in the non-Hispanic white population. The study was published today in the journal Circulation. “Although the direct toll of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minority groups has been substantial, our findings suggest that Black, Hispanic and Asian populations have also been disproportionately impacted by the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said corresponding author Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, a cardiologist in the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at BIDMC. “Disruptions in access to health care services during the pandemic may have had a larger impact on the health outcomes of Black and Hispanic individuals, as these populations have a higher burden of cardiovascular risk factors and disease, due in part to structural and systemic inequities. In addition, social determinants of health associated with cardiovascular risk, such as poverty and stress, have worsened in these communities as a result of the pandemic.” Wadhera and colleagues obtained monthly cause-of-death data from the National Center for Health Statistics from March 2020 — when many states began to experience a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases — through August 2020. Next, the team identified deaths caused by heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases during this period as well as for the corresponding months in 2019.
The researchers suggest a number of factors may have played a role in the disproportionate rise in cardiac and cerebrovascular deaths among racial and ethnic minorities, including disruptions in healthcare delivery in minority communities especially hard-hit by COVID-19. Although the use of telemedicine increased during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to bridge gaps in care, Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients have also experienced unequal access to video telemedicine. In addition, avoidance of health care systems may have also played a role. A recent survey by the American Heart Association found that Hispanics and Black Americans were most likely to stay home if experiencing a heart attack or a stroke, to avoid the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the hospital. Racial and ethnic minority groups also disproportionately experience poverty in the United States, a gap that only deepened after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent survey, 60 percent of Black and 72 percent of Hispanic households reported serious financial problems during the pandemic, compared with only 36 percent of white households. Public policies may have also contributed to worse cardiovascular outcomes during the pandemic. In early 2020, the Trump administration revised immigration rules, leaving some documented immigrants in poor health at risk of being denied permanent residency status. As a result, Hispanic and Asian immigrant families may have avoided seeking care for cardiovascular disease. “The extent to which disruptions in health care delivery, avoidance of care due to fear of contracting COVID-19 and/or immigration policy, and worsening inequities in social determinants of health have contributed to the increase in heart disease and cerebrovascular deaths remains an important area for future research,” said Wadhera. “These data highlight that public health and policy strategies are urgently needed to mitigate the short- and long-term adverse effects of the pandemic on the cardiovascular health of minority populations.” The post Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
| Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition Posted: 18 May 2021 04:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Mike Lewis  Amazon Spheres. May 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Amazon, which one year ago barred police from using its facial recognition software, is extending that moratorium indefinitely. The extension of the ban on police use of Amazon's facial identification software called Rekognition, first reported by Reuters, comes after a year of growing public concern about privacy, government surveillance, and the extent of policing powers in the U.S. The online retail giant first withheld use of the software by law enforcement last year when waves of protests erupted in cities across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest. Amazon, which previously had partnered with law enforcement in the use of Rekognition technology, came under attack by civil rights advocates who said the software unfairly targeted the wrong people for arrest and amounts to an invasion of privacy. At the time, Amazon spokespeople said it would suspend law enforcement's use of the software for one year. Reuters reported that the company declined to comment on the moratorium extension. Rekognition is part of the company's web services division, AWS. But the law enforcement ban didn't extend to all users. At the time of the ban, Amazon reported that organizations searching for human trafficking victims still had access to the technology. Around the same time, Microsoft also imposed a similar ban on the sale of its facial recognition technology to police. Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company isn't selling or supplying facial recognition technology to any U.S. police department. "This is a moment in time that really calls on us to listen more, to learn more, and most importantly to do more," Smith said during a Washington Post virtual event last June. Amazon, which one year ago barred police from using its facial recognition software, is extending that moratorium indefinitely. The extension of the ban on police use of Amazon's facial identification software called Rekognition, first reported by Reuters, comes after a year of growing public concern about privacy, government surveillance, and the extent of policing powers in the U.S. The online retail giant first withheld use of the software by law enforcement last year when waves of protests erupted in cities across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest. Amazon, which previously had… Read MoreAmazon, Civic, Microsoft, Amazon Rekognition, Brad Smith, facial recognition The post Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling Posted: 18 May 2021 04:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Alan Boyle  Artwork shows Orbit Fab's "Gas Stations in Space" tanker in orbit. (Orbit Fab / Benchmark Space Illustration) Starfish Space, a startup founded by veterans of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, is teaming up with Vermont-based Benchmark Space Systems to work on a precision-guided orbital refueling system for satellites. The strategic collaboration calls for Starfish — which has its home base not far from Blue Origin's HQ in Kent, Wash. — to test its Cephalopod docking software with Benchmark's Halcyon thruster system. The Halcyon thrusters use non-toxic hydrogen peroxide as their propellant. The setup would get its first on-orbit demonstration during Orbit Fab's Tanker 1 mission, which is due for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next month. "This Cephalopod mission is an exciting step for Starfish Space," Trevor Bennett, Starfish's co-founder, said today in a news release. "Our RPOD [rendezvous, proximity operations and docking] operations will validate our novel capabilities and set the stage for a new era of affordable and available satellite servicing." On-orbit servicing and refueling could extend the operating lifetimes of satellites, or allow for new spacecraft designs that wouldn't need to carry so much fuel into orbit for in-space maneuvering. San Francisco-based Orbit Fab has already tested its refueling technology on the International Space Station. The Tanker 1 spacecraft, built by Astro Digital, is designed to demonstrate on-orbit maneuverability. Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber said he was "thrilled to see the enthusiasm and expertise" that's driving collaborations like Starfish's partnership with Benchmark. "The more partnerships there are, pushing new ideas and innovations, the sooner the broader space industry will catch the wave of new in-space services like our Orbit Fab Gas Stations in Space tanker, set to launch RPOD maneuver demonstrations in a matter of days," Faber said. Orbit Fab and Starfish Space are also exploring further integration of Cephalopod and Orbit Fab's Spark RPOD hardware kit. Starfish plans to use Cephalopod aboard its own small space tug known as the Otter, which is designed to support satellite servicing missions such as life extension and orbital debris removal. Starfish Space, a startup founded by veterans of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, is teaming up with Vermont-based Benchmark Space Systems to work on a precision-guided orbital refueling system for satellites. The strategic collaboration calls for Starfish — which has its home base not far from Blue Origin's HQ in Kent, Wash. — to test its Cephalopod docking software with Benchmark's Halcyon thruster system. The Halcyon thrusters use non-toxic hydrogen peroxide as their propellant. The setup would get its first on-orbit demonstration during Orbit Fab's Tanker 1 mission, which is due for launch on a SpaceX Falcon… Read MoreSpace, Benchmark Space Systems, Orbit Fab, Starfish Space The post Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy  |
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