SpaceX is teaming up with the maker of a space tugboat, which would nudge satellites around, clean up space junk, and do other orbital housekeeping.
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WATCH: Nia Long, Corinne Foxx, Shaun Robinson and more light up the red carpet for ’47 Meters Down: Uncaged’ premiere
The stars were out for the premiere of 47 Meters Down: Uncaged last week and theGrio caught up with several celebs we spotted on the red carpet.
The highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s 47 Meters Down stars Nia Long, Corinne Foxx and Sistine Rose Stallone among others and the action-packed thriller is not to be missed.
Scary films featuring strong Black characters are having their moment, and if you’re a fan of thrillers, Entertainment Studios’ latest offering, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a must see that is sure to get your blood pumping.
CELEB PHOTO GALLERY: ’47 Meters Down: Uncaged’ red carpet premiere
The star-studded red carpet welcomed guests like super proud papas, Jamie Foxx and Sylvester Stallone, who couldn’t stop gushing about their daughters’ performances in the film.
Tommy Davidson and Shaun Robinson were all smiles at the movie’s premiere and could hardly contain their excitement before the big reveal.
The shark movie isn’t all bites and blood, according to Entertainment Studios CEO, Byron Allen. “The talent in this movie is just absolutely phenomenal. They deserve all the support we can give them and more. They went through the wall.”
Peep the official synopsis:
47 Meters Down: Uncaged follows the diving adventure of four teenage girls (Corinne Foxx, Sistine Stallone, Sophie Nélisse, and Brianne Tju) exploring a submerged Mayan City. Once inside, their rush of excitement turns into a jolt of terror as they discover the sunken ruins are a hunting ground for deadly Great White Sharks. With their air supply steadily dwindling, the friends must navigate the underwater labyrinth of claustrophobic caves and eerie tunnels in search of a way out of their watery hell.
Check out the video above.
The post WATCH: Nia Long, Corinne Foxx, Shaun Robinson and more light up the red carpet for ’47 Meters Down: Uncaged’ premiere appeared first on theGrio.
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A more intelligent system for the scooter wars
Startups racing to deploy rentable electric scooters around the world seem to be following Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s famous motto for disruption: Move fast and break things. Unfortunately for those startups, the things that break most often are their scooters.
Vehicle maintenance, repair, and turnover have forced scooter operators to stomach huge financial losses in their two-wheeled quest to rule the road.
When the so-called “scooter wars” began a couple of years ago, MIT spinout Superpedestrian was enjoying strong sales of its first product, an adaptive, electric powertrain for bicycles called the Copenhagen Wheel.
But the natural boost riders get as they pedal with the Copenhagen Wheel is only half the story. Within the wheel’s distinctive red hub are sensors and microcomputers that allow it to autonomously diagnose problems and even take steps to protect itself against common hazards in a matter of nanoseconds. If the system identifies an issue it can’t correct, it takes itself offline and reports back detailed information to scooter operators for quick repair.
Superpedestrian calls the system its Vehicle Intelligence platform. As relatively low-tech scooters began appearing on street corners everywhere, the company saw an opportunity to partner with their operators. Now Superpedestrian has unveiled its new electric scooter designed for fleet operators. The scooter features Superpedestrian’s Vehicle Intelligence platform to improve safety and run time, and drastically reduce maintenance costs.
“When this [micromobility] industry was born, we said ‘We have the perfect solution for optimizing safety while also completely transforming the economics of running these things,” founder and CEO Assaf Biderman ’05 says. “So instead of having vehicles that can run for a month or two, now you can have vehicles that can run for a year or longer, because they’re not damaged as much by things that damage other scooters, while the cost of charging and maintaining them is cut to a fraction.”
Superpedestrian already has orders in the books for their new scooters and the data they produce. Within a matter of months, they will be whizzing down roads across North America, Europe, and parts of Asia.
From prototype to product
Since its inception in 2004, Biderman has served as the associate director of MIT’s Senseable City Laboratory. The group’s research identified several factors that are straining cities’ traditional transportation networks, including a growing global population, increased urbanization, and automakers’ incentives to sell larger cars even though most people commute to work alone.
“All of this puts immense pressure on transportation,” Biderman says. “Your downtown street is not going to double in width anytime soon. … Most studies predict that by the middle of this century, we’ll have around three times more people wanting to move on urban roads. The only way we’re going to address this demand is by making smarter use of our existing roads.”
In 2009, the lab started building a prototype electric bicycle that could help address some of those issues. The result was the Copenhagen Wheel. The wheel’s hub stores energy every time a rider brakes, then provides a power boost when they push down on the pedals. The wheel can also monitor the rider’s speed, torque, and calories burned, as well as an array of environmental parameters.
In 2013, Biderman decided to start Superpedestrian, with the idea of combining intelligent software with all of the things that make electric vehicles go.
The Vehicle Intelligence system the company eventually designed uses on-board microprocessors to monitor and control all the mechanical, electrical, and thermal aspects of the vehicle. It can also infer problems with the vehicle based on outliers in the data it collects — including higher temperatures in battery cells or slight changes in motor current. If such data appear, the system can take steps to compensate for the problem, protecting both the rider and vehicle within nanoseconds.
For example, if a capacitor in one of Superpedestrian’s scooters is damaged as the result of a crash or fall, the Vehicle Intelligence system will detect the problem immediately. The vehicle will then measure how much capacitance is left in the system, and, if there’s enough capacitance to continue operating safely, it will simply reduce the scooter’s speed limit and send a nonurgent service request to the cloud that could be addressed the next time the vehicle is picked up for charging.
The Copenhagen Wheel, the company’s first product to feature its Vehicle Intelligence system, was released at the beginning of 2017, quickly becoming one of the best selling e-bikes in the U.S, according to the company. As the system was used in various conditions and climates, Superpedestrian came to fully appreciate its power.
“Because the vehicles communicate rich data about their own functionality in real-time to our servers, we realized in about a year that more than 55 percent of technical issues were addressed without human intervention,” Biderman says. “That’s got no parallels in the electric bike, micromobility, or automotive industries.”
Scooters come to town
As the Superpedestrian team was gearing up for a focused launch of the Copenhagen Wheel in Europe, rentable e-scooter companies like Bird and Lime started appearing in cities around the world. The scooters quickly became a popular — if controversial — way to get around.
It soon became clear, however, that scooter operators had put more thought into finding new markets and attracting customers than designing sophisticated transportation vehicles. One common problem is that different scooter subsystems, such as batteries, motors, and controllers, are made by different manufacturers. That can negatively impact both performance and operators’ ability to gather higher-level insights into their vehicles. The dearth of self-protection and diagnostic capabilities in these vehicles, along with their nonconnected components, make maintenance and repair efforts so time consuming that many operators resort to throwing out damaged vehicles rather than repairing them.
Superpedestrian, on the other hand, builds every component of its platform. Having anticipated building other vehicles in addition to bikes, the company designed its Vehicle Intelligence system to work with any vehicle that has a power output under 3 kilowatts.
“When this [e-scooter] industry was born, we said, ‘Let’s pause; we’ll come back to the European consumer market, because we’re still bullish on that, but this industry is booming now. It’s here, it’s a large market, and it really needs what we have,” Biderman says.
Now Superpedestrian is in the final stages of shipping its scooters to some of the largest operators in the world. Although Biderman cannot disclose specific partnerships, he says orders are currently being fulfilled and expects them to be on roads in the next few months.
With a slightly wider platform and handlebar stem than other scooters, it feels and looks more rugged than what’s on the road today. The company also says the vehicles have a much longer range than other scooters thanks to “the industry’s most efficient powertrain.” And, with its Vehicle Intelligence system, the company says the scooters are safer and much cheaper to maintain than anything the industry has seen.
Biderman believes e-scooters are just the beginning of a revolution in urban mobility, and thinks Superpedestrian has positioned itself well to accelerate that transformation: “We’ll see scooters and e-bikes and mopeds and enclosed vehicles and multiwheel vehicles. It’s about minimizing the number of miles that cars drive while maximizing access to mobility for people. That’s where we think we contribute.”
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To divide or not to divide?
Cells in the body proliferate at different rates. Some divide constantly and throughout life, like the ones that line the gut. Others divide only rarely, sometimes resting for several years in a non-dividing state. Now, a study led by scientists at MIT's Whitehead Institute sheds light on the molecular mechanisms that help control this cellular hibernation, termed quiescence, revealing how cells can purposefully choose to retain the capacity to divide. The team’s findings, which appeared online Aug. 15 in the journal Developmental Cell, hold significance for understanding not just cell division and cell state, but also the dynamics of the cellular machinery that supports these processes, including a group of proteins at a critical structure called the centromere that ensure that chromosomes are properly inherited every time a cell divides.
During cell division, each resident chromosome gets duplicated and then equally apportioned, ensuring that both cells receive a complete set of genetic instructions. The unsung hero of this careful choreography is the centromere, a small chromosomal region that anchors the rope-like fibers that separate chromosomes during cell division. Chromosomes that lack a centromere cannot be transported to their rightful places. That leaves cells with a jumbled mess of DNA — a steppingstone toward disordered growth and, potentially, cancer.
“Our study offers a new perspective on cell identity and cell state,” says senior author Iain Cheeseman, Whitehead Institute member and a professor of biology at MIT. “The key centromere protein, named CENP-A, was widely thought to be static, but is in fact replenished at a slow, yet continuous, rate. This serves not only to refresh and maintain the apparatus required for cell division but also to provide a marker of the cells’ future capacity for proliferation.”
In most organisms, centromeres are not defined by DNA sequence but instead by the assortment of proteins that gather upon them. That is to say, centromeres are spelled out in epigenetic terms. And within the epigenetic lexicon of the centromere, a protein called CENP-A is particularly indispensable. If it is lost, centromeres can never regain the protein and they will malfunction. For that reason, it has been widely believed that CENP-A acts like a boulder — once it lands on the centromere, it never leaves.
“Once you accept the fact that centromeres are demarcated by proteins, you start to imagine the full diversity of situations in which those proteins must remain biologically intact,” says Cheeseman. “And there are some really mind-blowing ones — like human oocytes, which must maintain their centromeres for decades. How does that happen?”
Oocytes, the female reproductive cells, first form in humans during embryonic development and remain dormant until after puberty — representing a decade or more of inactivity. So, does that mean CENP-A just sits there, hanging out on the centromeres, for all those years? That would be a tall order because proteins, just like the parts of a car, tend to wear out and need replacement.
First author Zak Swartz, a postdoc in Cheeseman’s lab, set out to answer this question. Instead of analyzing human oocytes, which are challenging to obtain and cultivate, he devised the methods needed to study sea star oocytes. Remarkably, he and his colleagues discovered that CENP-A is gradually but continuously incorporated into the oocytes’ centromeres over a period of several weeks, reflecting a plodding protein swap that serves to change out old CENP-A proteins for new ones. Notably, when this process is blocked, the centromere proteins are lost and the chromosomes fail to properly position themselves later during oocyte development, a telltale sign of centromere dysfunction that can severely disrupt embryonic development.
“By studying sea star oocytes, with their particular experimental strengths, we were able to reveal a fundamental aspect of biology that had been difficult to notice but is clearly occurring in a wide range of organisms,” says Swartz. “Our findings are a testament to the power of basic science and expanding the diversity of organisms studied in the lab.”
Swartz, Cheeseman, and their colleagues observed a similar CENP-A exchange when they examined other types of quiescent cells, including human cells. But when they studied mature muscle cells — a cell type that has lost its capacity to divide and is therefore at the end of its developmental journey — they uncovered a very different scenario. In these cells, the levels of CENP-A at the centromeres are drastically reduced, particularly when compared to the cells’ younger brethren. The researchers hypothesize that this difference reflects distinct needs to maintain their centromeres, which in turn signals disparate capacities for cell division.
“This suggests that CENP-A is an indicator of proliferative potential,” says Cheeseman. “You could look through the trillions of cells in the body, and if it is there, then cells will be able to segregate their chromosomes; if it isn’t, then they’ll never be able to do so.”
In addition to mapping CENP-A dynamics in different cell types, Cheeseman and his team also uncovered molecular evidence that helps explain how new CENP-A is laid down, particularly in cells that are not actively dividing. As an epigenetic mark, the CENP-A protein forms part of a nucleosome, the unit of bobbin-like histone proteins around which DNA is tightly wound, like thread on a spool. That structure poses some logistical challenges when it comes to incorporating new CENP-A.
The Whitehead Institute team discovered that in quiescent cells, CENP-A deposition requires transcription — the process by which DNA is unspooled from its histones and copied into a chemically similar, single-stranded form. The researchers propose that this chemical conversion provides a destabilizing force that helps to dislodge histones bearing old CENP-A, which allows cells to refresh the old CENP-A molecules by carving out space for their newer counterparts.
Taken together, the team’s findings illuminate the centromere as a carefully groomed structure, even in cells that divide infrequently. The new work has broad implications for the understanding of epigenetic inheritance in normal development and disease, and suggests that defects in centromere maintenance could underlie a range of conditions, from infertility to cancer.
This work was supported by The Harold G & Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, the NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, American Cancer Society, and the Scott Cook and Signe Ostby fund.
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Custodian becomes head principal of Colorado school
Michael Atkins turned a deferred dream into a reality when he went from a custodian of a middle school to its head principal.
—Philly police chief resigns as sexual harassment and discrimination claims roil department—
Growing up in Park Hill, Colo., Atkins said he didn’t get the grooming that kids sometimes do since there were no positive influences around. But he’s looking to give back by becoming a role model, especially for Black males, as principal of Stedman Elementary School in Denver, reports The NY Daily News.
“A lot of my African-American male students remind me of me,” Atkins said. “Not to say that they’re coming from the same situation that I came from– a household of a single mother, only engaging with my father once in my life. So not really having that rock, but needing that rock often in that time.”
Atkins said he always loved working with kids but at first never thought he’d be in the field of education.
He picked up a part-time job as a custodian and his interactions with students and the staff ignited a deeper love for his job.
“There were times where I got comfortable within my custodial position, and I love the work. I love the people that I met. I was still able to be in front of youth. But I knew that was just the first chapter of my journey,” Atkins said.
He eventually become employed full-time and that’s when his journey began and a new path was carved out. While Atkins never thought he’d end up on the side of being and administrator he says he was inspired to write a new story for himself based on advice from his grandmother.
“Don’t let someone write your story, make sure you write your own story,” Atkins recalls his grandmother saying. “And if someone has something to do with your story, let them edit it, do not let them create it.”
The post Custodian becomes head principal of Colorado school appeared first on theGrio.
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Petty #ChickenWars brewing online between Wendy’s, Popeyes and Chick-fil-A and the internet loves it
So who you got?
A battle has been brewing online over which fast-food chain has the best chicken sandwiches after Popeyes rolled out a crispy chicken sandwich that had Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s chiming in by trash-talking in a #ChickenWars that trended on Twitter.
—Why 50 Cent’s beef with Wendy Williams extended to his Tycoon pool party—
(I even got a taste yesterday to see what the hoopla was about.)
Chick-fil-A, which dubs their restaurant as the home of “the original” chicken sandwich, took jabs on Monday at Popeyes for trying to copy their style by offering a chicken sandwich with their signature pickles.
Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the ❤️ for the original. pic.twitter.com/qBAIIxZx5v
— Chick-fil-A, Inc. (@ChickfilA) August 19, 2019
Popeyes took a shot back stirring the pot with a simple, “… y’all good?” which got folks instigating and retweeting the diss which got more than 300k likes, The Ny Daily News reports.
Wendy’s which is known for its gangsta Twitter replies to McDonald’s, jumped into the fray by placing their chicken sandwich in the number one position:
“Y’all out here fighting about which of these fools has the second best chicken sandwich,” Wendy’s wrote.
Popeyes hit back:
“Sounds like someone just ate one of our biscuits. Cause y’all looking thirsty,” Popeyes tweeted.
To which Wendy’s responded:
“lol, guess that means the food’s as dry as the jokes.”
lol, guess that means the food’s as dry as the jokes https://t.co/aX3XnRunNW
— WENDY'S SPICY NUGGETS ARE BACK!!! (@Wendys) August 20, 2019
Comedian Roy Wood Jr. chimed in to tell Wendy’s to cool it since Popeyes might choose to step on their toes and make Frostys next.
Stay out this Wendy’s. Before Popeyes mess around & start selling Frostys too https://t.co/fQ9fPWQWoy
— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) August 19, 2019
—Kelly Rowland uses real life holiday debacle as basis for Lifetime Christmas movie—
We’ll keep watch of this online roast.
The post Petty #ChickenWars brewing online between Wendy’s, Popeyes and Chick-fil-A and the internet loves it appeared first on theGrio.
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Cardi B cusses out NYPD for allegedly shutting down a friend’s back-to-school event
Cardi B launched into a verbal “F*ck the police” attack against the NYPD for shutting down a friend’s back-to-school event schedule for August 27.
—Cardi B thinks Jay-Z has the ‘power’ to get Colin Kaepernick back in the NFL—
The “Money” rapper posted a video on Instagram Tuesday night, tearing into the authorities for apparently “scaring off” and bullying the principal of a Brownsville school where the event was supposed to be held to give school supplies to students. Cardi said her friend Star Brim came out of her own pockets to pay for supplies.
The principal apparently called off the event and Cardi is pissed and squarely blamed the NYPD for interfering, Page Six reports.
“I find that s–t so f—ked up by the NYPD … it’s like this is really for the kids; Shorty was really coming out her pockets, just to help the community, and it was for kids to have a fun, positive day,” Cardi said ranting.
“I just find that s—t so f—ked up. And f—k you and motherf—king suck a fart and suffocate on it. F—k you!” she said and flipped the bird at the camera. Somebody apparently told Cardi to cool it because the video has since been deleted but not before TMZ got hold of it.
Earlier this week, Cardi promoted the event as a “Gansta Giveway”. Today there is a giveaway scheduled in Highbridge held by held by her sister Hennessey Carolina and rapper A Boogie.
—Why 50 Cent’s beef with Wendy Williams extended to his Tycoon pool party—
The post Cardi B cusses out NYPD for allegedly shutting down a friend’s back-to-school event appeared first on theGrio.
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President L. Rafael Reif announces office hours for 2019-20
President L. Rafael Reif has announced office hours for the 2019-20 academic year.
Since his inauguration in 2012, as a way to connect with members of the MIT community, Reif has reserved blocks of time for office hour sessions with interested MIT faculty, students, and staff. During these sessions, participants have discussed a variety of topics, viewpoints, and ideas.
Starting in September, Reif will again hold 15-minute office hour sessions during two-hour blocks throughout the academic year. Due to the high demand, sessions are typically in a small-group format, but one-on-one sessions are also available.
To sign up, interested parties should visit president.mit.edu/office-hours.
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Video shows terrifying aftermath when four Atlanta HBCU students are shot at block party
Gunfire erupted Tuesday night near Clark Atlanta University injuring four students, two were shot and two others were wounded.
The shooting happened at a college block party ahead of today’s first day of classes for students.
Two students from Spelman College and two from Clark Atlanta were reported injured.One student was shot in the chest, one in the leg and bullets grazed the two other girls, reports WSBTV.
The shooting happened at a library which is shared by Clark Atlanta, Spelman and Morehouse students, according to police.
The frantic moments after 4 students were shot in front the AU Library caught on cell phone video. Police think two separate groups were targeting each other. The shooting happened during a block party. 2 CAU students, 2 Spelman students were taken to Grady. #MorningRushATL pic.twitter.com/mGolmKVc04
— Nick Sturdivant (@N_SturdivantTV) August 21, 2019
Police reported that a confrontation that went south and ignited the shooting.
“It appears there were two separate groups that were targeting each other and the students in the crossfire,” Atlanta Police Capt. William Rucker told WSB.
—Philly police chief resigns as sexual harassment and discrimination claims roil department—
Police are reviewing the video near the shooting scene to see if the incident was caught on tape.
Many students are unable to get home because their dorms are inside the crime scene pic.twitter.com/58j2ZHeZi3
— Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) August 21, 2019
The post Video shows terrifying aftermath when four Atlanta HBCU students are shot at block party appeared first on theGrio.
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