The return to JFK is focused on the premium and business travelers between the east and west coast of the United States. It is a move that now allows the airline to provide air travel service from all three of the major New York airports.

“United’s return to JFK reflects not only our strong commitment to the New York City area, but also to increasing service to and from the places our customers want to fly,” said Ankit Gupta, Vice President of Domestic Network Planning and Scheduling. “With the addition of JFK, United now offers unmatched service, greater convenience, more choice and a best-in-class product for travelers throughout the New York City region as they return to the skies.”

This new service currently offers one round-trip flight, five days a week to each West Coast airport. United says that passengers can expect to see the number of flights double in the near future as the demand increases.

The premium cabins on these United Airlines flights feature flat-bed seats on all flights. This is similar to the current flight to Los Angeles and San Francisco from its hub in Newark.

According to the airline, amenities onboard the trans-con flights include the signature cooling gel pillow along with the Saks Fifth Avenue day blanket and pillow. Meal on the flights, offer seasonal menus crafted by renowned chefs and distinctive amenities.

These offering are available to travelers in United Business and United Premium Plus sections who enjoy a complimentary hot entrée, mixed nuts, salad and dessert, as well as complimentary alcoholic beverages.

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In recent reports, some dogs have been trained to literally sniff out individuals infected with COVID-19. Now, a tech company is using the power of artificial intelligence to do the same thing with an “artificial nose” handheld device.

In a recent test, BrainChip Inc. and NaNose Medical were able to successfully detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath in much the same way a breathalyzer detects alcohol.  Their COVID-19 testing results are reportedly fast and highly accurate.

BrainChip is a leading provider of ultra-low power high performance artificial intelligence technology. In a press release, the company wrote, “Using the NaNose Medical artificial nose, and Akida’s artificial brain, is a potential breakthrough in accurate, fast, inexpensive, widespread (COVID-19) testing with the potential to control outbreaks and reduce this disease’s death toll.”

This NaNose Medical technology is based on the artificial nose developed at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, by Prof. Hossam Haick, and has the same sensitivity to minute quantities of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as a dog’s nose.

While it’s use as an instant or rapid COVID-19 test are new, the device has been used in tests to identify diseases including Parkinson’s, cancers, kidney failure, and multiple sclerosis for several years.

For the recent trials testing COVID-19, NaNose Medical collected samples from 130 patients and used that data to train its Akida neuromorphic processor. The system has now learned to recognize patterns of VOC biomarkers associated with an COVID-19 infection within seconds with a high level of accuracy.

According to a study in China, this type of breath sensor data is more accurate than current COVID-19 tests using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Additionally, sensor testing like this reduces the risk to healthcare workers because the tests does not rely on saliva or mucus samples.

“Artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare is an emerging field and one in which we are eager to contribute with our edge AI processing solution at the Edge, for the benefit of science and humanity,” said Louis DiNardo, BrainChip CEO.

Both Louis DiNardo, Brainchip CEO and Orit Marom Albeck, NaNose Medical CEO said: “Using the NaNose Medical artificial nose, and Akida’s artificial brain, is a potential breakthrough in accurate, fast, inexpensive, widespread testing with the potential to control outbreaks and reduce this disease’s death toll.”

The post Artificial Nose – a Breakthrough for Rapid COVID-19 Testing appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

Below is the first of several color images sent back from Mars by the Perseverance Rover.

This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021.

In this next image, a high-resolution color Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) captures an image of one of the six aluminum wheels aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

For this mission, NASA mounted a total of 23 cameras on Perseverance and the landing craft to provide some unprecedented views of the landing.

One of the cameras mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of NASA’s Perseverance rover falling thorough the Martian atmosphere with its parachute trailing behind.

Finally, in this high-resolution still image, you can see the rover being lowered to the surface of Mars. This image is part of a video taken by a camera aboard the descent stage as it performed what NASA calls the sky-crane maneuver.

The full hi-definition videos of the landing, taken by all of the various cameras will be released by NASA in the coming days.

The post First Color Photos from Mars Perseverance Rover released by NASA appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

While the video stream will broadcast live, because of the time delay between the Earth and Mars, by the time we start seeing the feed of the beginning of the landing phase, Perseverance will actually already be on the surface of Mars – hopefully.

Unlike missions to Mars of the past, this one will provide a number of incredible videos of various stages of the landing. Taking a cue from SpaceX, NASA has equipped Perseverance and the landing vehicles with a number of High-Definition cameras.

Watch Live Video Stream of Perseverance Rover Landing on Mars:

A little while after the Perseverance Rover has completed its landing, that video footage will be beamed back to earth. NASA will then release the various high-definition videos of the landing for the public to enjoy.

Many of us have already enjoyed the spectacular videos from recent SpaceX launches here on Earth. Similarly, the cameras mounted on the Perseverance lander will give the world an unprecedented view of a spacecraft entering the atmosphere and landing on another planet – Mars.

Perseverance is the “biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated robotic geologist ever launched into space,” according the NASA. The rover will search the Jezero Crater on for signs of ancient life on Mars. It is equipped with a drill that will collect complete core samples which will be returned to Earth by a future mission vehicle.

Live video coverage of the Perseverance Rover landing, including commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) begins at 2:15 p.m. EST on Thursday Feb. 18, 2021.

In addition to the online live streams, the rover landing will also air on the NASA TV Public Channel. Online video sources to watch the Perseverance Rover Mars Landing include: NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and THETA.TV.

Perseverance is scheduled to touchdown on the surface of Mars at 3:55 p.m. EST.

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If you’ve ever dreamed of flying on a rocket into space, this is literally your chance. In addition to providing this once in a lifetime opportunity, the proceeds from the sweepstakes will provide funding to an incredibly worthy charity – the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Jared Isaacman. founder of Shift4 Payments has committed $100 million as a donation to St. Jude’s and is providing 2 of the 4 seats on the SpaceX capsule for this fund raiser.

Isaacman and another billionaire will occupy seats one and two. Seat 3 will be awarded to a St. Jude mission ambassador, to be selected, who will exemplify the mission pillar of Hope.

The fourth seat will go to one lucky winner of the sweepstakes fundraiser drawing. To enter the drawing, simply go to this Prizeo web site (the company organizing the drawing), and make a donation to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The goal is to raise an additional $100 million for the noble charity.

As can be seen, there are a variety of donation levels, and each will provide you with about 10 sweepstakes tickets for every dollar donated – starting at 100 tickets for a $10 donation.

There is also a variety of merchandise, including mission patches, shirts, and even a ride in a Mig-29, which are given to those who donate at various levels.

St. Jude’s is celebrating its 59th anniversary. Over the years they have achieved a 94% survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease once considered incurable.

Recently they have launched St. Jude Global, a mission to dramatically improve pediatric cancer outcomes for all children, including those in low- and middle-income countries where survival rates lag far behind the U.S.

So, if you were planning to donate to charity this year, and every dreamed about going into space, now is the perfect time to donate to save children from cancer.

The post Win a Ticket to Space on SpaceX Inspiration4 Mission appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

According to new research, the number of people who will suffer as a result of extreme droughts is expected to increase to more than 2 times its current levels in the latter half of this century.

This new information comes from research performed by a global network of scientists begin led by a team at Michigan State University. More than 20 helped to author the results.

Currently about 3 percent of the world population is greatly impacted by severe drought. Much more than just a lack of clean water, the drought conditions lead to food shortages for those in the areas.

The new research predicts that this number will increase to around 8 percent by the late 21^st century. The results were recently published in Nature Climate Change.

“More and more people will suffer from extreme droughts if a medium-to-high level of global warming continues and water management is maintained in its present state,” said Yadu Pokhrel – civil and environmental engineer and lead author of the research paper.

“Areas of the Southern Hemisphere, where water scarcity is already a problem, will be disproportionately affected. We predict this increase in water scarcity will affect food security and escalate human migration and conflict.”

Additionally, the scientists are projecting that two-thirds of the planet will see a large reduction in natural land water storage. This includes the water which normally accumulates in snow and ice, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, wetlands, soil and groundwater. All of which is being driven by climate change.

This land water storage, represents critically important components of the world’s water and energy supply. “Our findings are a concern,” Pokhrel said.

“To date, no study has examined how climate change would impact land water storage globally. Our study presents the first comprehensive picture of how global warming and socioeconomic changes will affect land water storage and what that will mean for droughts through the end of the century.”

The post Suffering from Extreme Droughts will Double appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

Bordeaux is well known for its structured, age-worthy red wines, made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with few other varieties as supporting actors, including Petit Verdot and the rarer Malbec and Carménère.

Although Bordeaux may not want to change its ways, global warming is real, and that means adapting or death. With increasing temperatures during the grapes’ growing season, the future does not look bright for Bordeaux producers.

Early January 2021, the INAO, the department in charge of French wine’s quality, finally authorized a set of new grapes for Bordeaux: Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan and Touriga Nacional. Two white grapes were included as well, Alvarinho and Liliorila.

While this may not sound like much to the average person, this is a very big deal. For wine purists, this is like saying Italians will now make pizza with apple puree instead of tomato sauce. What does this mean for Bordeaux wines? It means survival trumps tradition, and that climate change affects us in more ways than we thought.

Wine books will have to be rewritten, and wine lovers will need to reassess their knowledge about classic wine regions and their grapes, starting with Bordeaux.

The world of wine is ever-evolving, and nothing is set in stone. Do you think you know Bordeaux? Think again.

The post How Climate Change may Change Your Wine appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

You can watch the complete Mars Perseverance Rover mission overview video below, but read on as we describe the key mission events as well.

The Mars Perseverance Rover will use a landing system much like that of the Curiosity rover. As it enters the atmosphere a parachute will help to initially slow the descent vehicle carrying Perseverance to the surface.

Next, the descent vehicle will use it engines to continue decelerating as it nears the surface. Finally, the descent vehicle will lower the Perseverance Rover the final few feet to the Martian surface before cutting its cables and flying away – referred to as a “skycrane maneuver.”

According to NASA, this type of landing system enables the agency to land much larger and heavier rovers without damaging them. Smaller, earlier rovers like Pathfinder essentially bounced the final few meters to the surface surrounded by airbags.

Once on the surface, Perseverance will begin what is planned to be at least a one year mission of exploration. The rover will be searching for signs of past microbial life on Mars. This time the rover has a drill and will collect and store core samples and soil samples.

Perseverance will also test a new technology – a way to extract oxygen from the 96% carbon dioxide Martian atmosphere. This is a very exciting test as it could be a big step forward for a human presence on Mars.

Another exciting moment will occur during the mission when the Perseverance rover unveils the new Mars Helicopter. That’s right, NASA will be testing its first powered flight vehicle on Mars.

We will provide a live stream of the Mars Perseverance Rover landing to allow our readers to watch the Mars landing play out live on February 18, 2021 – be sure to come back to watch that event here.

The post NASA’s Perseverance Rover close to Mars Landing appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

The $100/kWh price was registered on e-bus batteries for the Chinese market. Although this was the lowest reported price, the volume-weighted average price did not strand too high either, setting at $105/kWh.

The recorded drop in price has been consistent, as the electric vehicle battery pack prices revolve around the $126/kWh mark for volume-weighted averages. However, when considering prices reported at cell-level, battery electric vehicle (BEV) prices were down to $100/kWh. Consequently, this show that 21% of the total price of a BEV is drawn by the battery pack.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) results on the 2020 Battery Price Survey is predicting an average battery pack price of $101/kWh by 2023 for all electric vehicle categories. This includes electric passenger vehicles, e-buses, commercial electric vehicles such as trucks, as well as stationary batteries.

The importance of $100/kWh batteries

It is obvious that as battery pack prices drop, electric vehicles will follow suit, becoming cheaper and  more affordable for the public. However, the $100/kWh marks a turning point for the electric automotive industry. It is by this point that automakers should be able to break even between combustion and electric vehicles.

In other words, by 2023 automakers should be able to build and sell both combustion and electric vehicles at the same price and with the same margin, allowing for a more balanced market.

Why Electric Car prices are dropping

Lower prices on battery packs are definitely a good sign. The main reasons for which battery packs are being sold at lower prices per kWh have to do with newer manufacturing technologies, but rather with demand.

Thus, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide batteries and their cobalt aluminum oxide counterparts are cheaper to the obsolete Li-Ion relatives. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are expected to pull prices even lower, down to $80/kWh.

On the other hand, the constant increase of demand for battery packs also helps prices to keep on going on their descending slope.

Long-term expectations

If the $101/kWh by 2023 looks certain, even though some ups and downs may arise on the way, estimates show that by 2030 battery packs should reach a historical $58/kWh minimum. Compared to 2013, that is an 11.5-fold drop in price.

The post Electric Car Prices may Equal Gas Cars by 2023 appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.

For those not familiar, the Starship is the next evolution of SpaceX’s fleet of rockets and spacecraft. This one will eventually take us to Mars and beyond. Yesterday’s test flight was a high-altitude test of the Starship spacecraft (serial number 8 or SN8). The test did not include the booster rocket which will eventually be used when a Starship blasts off to leave the earth.

Watch the full Video replay of the SpaceX Starship test flight below in this article.

The Starship is 160ft tall and has the ability to carry over 100 tons of payload. During a mission launch, Starship will sit atop a SpaceX Super Heavy booster rocket capable of 16 million pounds of thrust. With the two stacked for launch, the complete Starship System stands 394 feet tall.

“SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.” – SpaceX.com

The test flight yesterday was to see if the Starship spacecraft could complete a number of important functions for flight and re-entry. As you can see in the video replay below, it started with a launch of Starship and a high-altitude climb. Next the vehicle transitioned into a landing phase.

Part of the landing phase included a spectacular transition from vertical flight into horizontal flight, using its wing-like fins for maneuvering.

As it neared the ground, the Starship transitioned back to a vertical position and initiated its landing burn.

Although the engines fired to execute the landing, the final descent rate at touchdown was a little higher than planned. The result was the explosion of the SpaceX Starship which has been the focus of video streamed online and on news broadcasts.

On its YouTube page SpaceX talks about the test flight. “On Wednesday, December 9, Starship serial number 8 (SN8) lifted off from our Cameron County launch pad and successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and performed its landing flip maneuver with precise flap control to reach its landing point.”

“Low pressure in the fuel header tank during the landing burn led to high touchdown velocity resulting in a hard (and exciting!) landing. Thank you to all the locals supporting our efforts in Cameron County and beyond. Congratulations to the entire Starship and SpaceX teams on today’s test! Serial number 9 (SN9) is up next – Mars, here we come!”

The company, and its founder Elon Musk, were very pleased with the test flight despite the explosion. All phases of the flight went extremely well, proving that the system works.

The pressure issue in the header tank has now been identified and will be corrected. As any engineer will tell you, you often learn a lot more from a system failure than from a success. That’s why the call them ‘test’ flights.

The post Video Replay: SpaceX Starship Test Flight a Success despite Explosion on Landing appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.