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[Fox News] Who is Galileo Galilei? Italian philosopher who shaped our understanding of the stars
Few figures shine as brightly as Galileo Galilei, an Italian philosopher whose contributions to astronomy revolutionized the understanding of the stars.
“Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) has always played a key role in any history of science, as well as many histories of philosophy. He is a – if not the – central figure of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century,” reads the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Born in Pisa, Italy on Feb. 15, 1564, Galileo’s insatiable curiosity and relentless pursuit of knowledge propelled him to the forefront of scientific inquiry during the Renaissance era.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JANUARY 7, 1610, GALILEO DISCOVERS THE MOONS OF JUPITER
Galileo’s journey began in Renaissance Italy at the University of Pisa, where he initially studied medicine but soon found his true calling in mathematics and natural philosophy.
His need for learning led him to explore diverse fields, including physics, engineering and astronomy. However, due to financial constraints, he left the University of Pisa without completing his degree, says History.com.
Galileo continued his self-directed studies and expanded his knowledge in various fields.
Despite facing financial challenges, Galileo’s pursuit of knowledge and passion for science set the stage for his later achievements.
In 1609, Galileo constructed his first telescope, where he made a series of astonishing discoveries that forever altered our perception of the universe.
On Jan. 7, 1610, Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter — making it the first observation of this planet.
He utilized his telescope to identify four of Jupiter’s orbiting moons, examine Saturn, observe the varying phases of Venus, and scrutinize sunspots on the surface of the sun. The four moons, and Jupiter’s largest satellites, are lo, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
“In observing the sun, Galileo saw a series of ‘imperfections.’ He had discovered sunspots. Monitoring these spots on the sun demonstrated that the sun in fact rotated. Furthermore, later observations by Francesco Sizzi in 1612 suggested that the spots on the sun actually changed over time,” says The Library of Congress.
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Galileo was ordered to appear before the Holy Office to face charges related to his advocating for the Copernican theory and his belief in the Earth’s movement around the sun, a stance the Catholic Church deemed heretical.
This marked Galileo’s second confrontation for rejecting the Church’s doctrine that positioned the Earth as the unmovable center of the universe.
“In 1616, Galileo had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs. In the 1633 interrogation, he denied that he ‘held’ belief in the Copernican view but continued to write about the issue and evidence as a means of ‘discussion’ rather than belief,” according to History.com.
Undeterred by persecution, Galileo continued his astronomical inquiries, publishing “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” in 1632. The book presented a vigorous defense of heliocentrism and provoked the anger of Church authorities.
In 1633, Galileo faced the Inquisition and was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to house arrest by Pope Urban VIII for the remainder of his life, says History.com.
ITALY MUSEUM TO DISPLAY FINGERS, TOOTH BELIEVED TO BE GALILEO’S
Galileo’s contributions to physics, mathematics and astronomy echo across the ages, earning him a rightful place among history’s greatest minds. Nearly 70 at the time of his trial, Galileo lived his last nine years under comfortable house arrest, while writing a summary of his early experiments.
In 2018, U.K. researchers said they found a long-lost letter written by Galileo that shows he engaged in a little deception to fend off the Inquisition.
Galileo wrote to a friend in 1613 saying he believed the Earth revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. He got sneaky and asked his friend for the original back, so he could soften it after a friar forwarded it to the Inquisition.
“He died in Arcetri near Florence, Italy on Jan. 8, 1642, at the age of 77 after suffering from heart palpitations and a fever,” says History.com
As we gaze upon the stars, let us remember the man whose dedication to truth reshaped the course of scientific questions for centuries to come.
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[Fox Business] Alexandra Dorda-Marcu, founder of Kasama Rum, details what it is to be a woman in the spirits category
Rum has a rich history that steals a commanding portion of the alcohol beverage industry.
The dark and stormy past of rum dates back to the 15th century B.C., when sugarcane was discovered. Christopher Columbus is alleged to have brought rum to the Americas. At the time, the sugarcane was named “Kill Devil” for the unexpected feeling it gave to those who consumed it when fermented.
While rum is often associated and accessorized with pirates, like the one on Captain Morgan’s logo, chilling sea creatures like the twisted octopus draped across Kraken Rum, or the ever-evolving bat logo on Bacardi bottles, newer rum brands are taking a unique approach to the distilled spirit.
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One brand, Kasama Rum, founded in 2021 by Alexandra Dorda-Marcu, is making waves in the rum category with heritage-inspired bottles nodding to her Philippine roots.
“When I started it, a few people told me nobody wants a rum that looks like that, nobody wants a rum that maybe has a pink sticker on the front,” she told FOX Business. “But I think the pirate rum market is very well-covered.”
While Jack Sparrow’s right hand is attached to a bottle of rum, and the spirit does have a history with pirate undertones, the fresh approach to the beverage category is imminent.
“I’ve always loved flowers and plants, and I’ve always loved my Philippine culture,” Dorda-Marcu said. “To me, making a brand out of that was something that felt so natural.”
Rum production in the Philippines started in the 1800s. Philippine rum blends are often regarded as smooth and well-rounded. Tanduay Distillers, the leading Filipino rum brand, is headquartered in Manila – the capital of the Philippines.
As a Filipino herself, it was important for Dorda-Marcu to draw from her roots. Kasama Rum bottles feature native plants and flowers, and though there were attempts to dissuade her from tying florals into her branding, it certainly sets the bottles apart on shelves.
“I quite literally grew up in this industry visiting my family’s vodka distillery from a very young age,” Dorda-Marcu said. Her father, Tad Dorda, is the founder of Belvedere and Chopin Vodka. Dorda-Marcu’s childhood surrounded by the food and beverage scene helped position her autonomous spirit.
“While there are a lot of challenges with being a woman in this industry, it also means that there’s a lot of opportunity because there are so few female-founded spirits,” she said.
She added, “There are so few women in high positions within this industry that it means that there are lots of gaps that are waiting to be filled, since half the people who drink alcohol are women.”
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In 2023, vodka was the most popular spirit, followed in line by whiskey, tequila, rum, then gin, according to NielsonIQ. In 2022, 23.3 million nine-liter cases of rum were consumed in the U.S. which was a 3% decrease from the year prior, according to Statista.
However, as of 2023, there is a growing demand for the spirit in all types, including gold, white, dark and spiced rum. By 2033, rum sales are anticipated to increase by over $17.5 million, according to Persistence Market Research. This figure indicates that consumers are expected to spend over $35 million on rum less than a decade from now.
Certainly, now is an ideal time to break into the rum market.
“Lean into whatever makes you, you and whatever really lights you up,” Dorda-Marcu said. “And start investing in your idea. I think a lot of businesses die before they ever get started because people never actually give it a go.”
[Fox Business] Tara Hankinson, LeAnn Darland, founders of Talea Beer Co, see success in taproom and online sales
In recent years, beer sales have maintained gradual growth since they took a nosedive in 2020.
In 2019, beer revenue in the U.S. was over $120 billion, according to Statista. Then, COVID-19 impacted businesses, big and small, and beer sales plummeted over $20 billion and produced only $98.4 billion in revenue.
Since then, the market has grown less than $10 billion on an annual basis. This year, beer revenue is projected to be $126.6 billion, and revenue by 2027 is expected to be upward of $145 billion, according to Statista.
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However, there is more to selling beer than just bottling it and purchasing shelf space. More and more, consumers are looking to buy direct-to-consumer – including beer enthusiasts.
Since the pandemic, online retail has seen a subtle ascent due to consumer shopping preferences. From 2015-2019, online retail sales globally increased less than 2% on an annual basis. In 2019, 13.6% of all retail sales worldwide were done online. Then, in 2020, online retail sales increased to 18%. From there on, e-commerce has steadily increased and is not projected to revert to figures documented prior to the pandemic.
Wine and spirits are much more accessible to consumers online. However, the beer industry has recently been confronted with the impact of lack of direct-to-consumer accessibility.
Talea Beer Co. is a craft brewery that is meeting consumer’s requirements and selling online.
Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland are the co-founders and co-CEOs of Talea Beer Co., based in New York City. The company is the first and only beer distillery in NYC owned by women. And though customers can visit them in-house, Talea also offers a variety of craft IPAs, pilsners, sours and more on their website.
“I’m watching people drink my beer,” Hankinson told FOX Business as she sat and looked fondly upon her customers. “On a daily basis, we know our product is reaching thousands of people.”
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The homebrewers turned business owners each have unique backgrounds, but their mutual passion for home brewing is what harvested their need for crafting a beer brand themselves.
After graduating from the Naval Academy, Darland served in the Navy for five years. Then, while living in San Diego, she kick-started a career in finance at Google while also taking in the world of craft beer as a consumer herself.
Hankinson graduated from NYU with a business degree. From there, she enrolled in wine classes and realized the craft beer industry was skimping on the beloved winery experience.
“I started home brewing and had a full-time job in management consulting,” Hankinson said. Within three months of the women meeting, they caught sight of their mutual passion for craft beer.
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“Finding a co-founder is really important because entrepreneurship can be really lonely,” Hankinson said. “Especially if you’re a woman.”
Hankinson and Darland have maintained their zealous for craft beer and found success in the market. Since 2021, the duo has opened four taproom locations in various pockets around NYC.
“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress,” Hankinson advised. “It’s okay if not everything is perfect, because sometimes progress is more important than being type A all the time.”
[Fox Business] Shirley Leigh-Wood Oakes, partner and CEO of Mezcal Campante on traditional spirits and being a business woman
True mezcal, much like tequila and champagne, only comes from designated areas around the globe.
When it comes to traditional mezcal, it must derive from one of the nine designated states in Mexico: Durango, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luís Potosí, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. And while both spirit types are made from agave, there is a distinctness in the aroma that any spirit connoisseur could spot immediately upon breathing in.
The process for fermenting and distilling mezcal is unique from that of tequila. Mezcal is roasted and an ensemble of wood-like smoky flavors are lucid upon smell and taste. Sometimes, depending on the brand or the distilling process, the roasted agave flavor may even be overpowering to some.
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However, mixologists typically undercut the notes of smoke with sweet and earthy flavors like pineapple, oranges or berries such as strawberries and blackberries.
In recent years, consumers have become increasingly interested in mezcal.
In 2012, around 770,000 liters of mezcal were imported from Mexico worldwide, according to Statista. In 2022, among nearly 400 traditional mezcal brands, 8.54 million liters of mezcal were imported from Mexico, a 1009% increase in imports.
“We talk a lot about how it takes the heart of the mezcalero and the heart of the agave, the piña, to make mezcal,” Shirley Leigh-Wood Oakes, partner and CEO of Mezcal Campante, told FOX Business. “When making mezcal, especially artisanal mezcal, it really is a craft product. It’s made by hand.”
Mezcal Campante, founded in 2019, is a premium, small-batch mezcal forged in Oaxaca, a city in Mexico. Oakes says considerable craftsmanship and expertise go into making the product and Campante’s mezcalero is fourth generation.
“There’s a huge amount of heritage,” she said.
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And while the 400-year-old tradition of artisanal mezcal making is embodied in the product, Oakes and team took a modern approach to the branding, while still offering a human element to consumers.
“The word campante really resonated with us,” she said. “It’s a word that’s used to describe someone. It means to be happy, unconcerned, content. And to be happy and unconcerned is a wonderful place to be.”
And the world is clearly thirsty for an uninterrupted experience with mezcal.
Oakes is celebratory of her place in the mezcal industry and recommends more women be honest while identifying weaknesses and shortcomings in their own entrepreneurial journeys.
“If you identify them, then you can address them,” she said. “Figure out what you’re not good at and then go and hire the right people to support you in that area. You will thank yourself for that, because it will take such a weight off your shoulders. And as an entrepreneur, or a founder, you really need to be focusing on the key things that are gonna make this successful.”
She also recommends asking for help and seeking mentorship with professionals who will challenge you.
“We as women, I think, often want to be able to do everything, we want to be super women,” Oakes said. “We can’t do it all ourselves.”
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Recipe for Campante Spritz by Mezcal Campante:
Ingredients for Campante Spritz:
Recipe for Camante Spritz:
[Fox Business] Carrie Kellar, co-founder of Baxus, on being on the cutting edge of AI and the alcohol market
In late 2022, Microsoft’s launch of deep learning technology, ChatGPT, was released to the public and took the internet by storm. In just six months of its groundbreaking introduction, ChatGPT saw 3.86 million downloads across the U.S. market.
One month later, downloads more than tripled. In November 2023, ChatGPT downloads reached over 20 million.
The steady increase in want and need to understand artificial intelligence and machine learning has caused both fear and excitement in technology users across the nation.
In 2023, AI start-ups raised nearly $50 billion, according to Crunchbase. In January 2023 alone, OpenAI raised $10 billion to continue evolving and reshaping generative AI products, including ChatGPT and DALL-E, an image and art generator that uses natural language processing to produce styles.
Additionally, while publicly owned companies like Microsoft and privately owned companies like xAI are working to understand the true nature of the universe, other start-ups, like Baxus, are looking to understand a smaller but exciting class of people – alcohol drinkers.
“I just got so excited about how many opportunities there are in the alcohol space,” Carrie Kellar, co-founder and CTO of Baxus, told FOX Business. Baxus is a digital marketplace dedicated to peer-to-peer wine and spirits trading. “There is so much that women can bring to this industry. Women are a massive consumer in this space. Women are using tech, and they like alcohol as well.”
Baxus uses blockchain technology that provides users with a fairly priced way to access proof of ownership, authentication and safe storage of their bottles.
“We’re not trying to create an application that only technical people can use,” Kellar said. “It’s very normal and Facebook or eBay-like. We’re delivering this very manageable experience.”
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Kellar is a graduate of Columbia University. She specializes in machine learning and AI and has previously worked in finance and software engineering. She met her co-founder, Tzvi Wiesel, when she acted as head TA for a database course at Columbia.
“I love my job,” Kellar said. “It’s just so much fun to be on the cutting edge. You’re always evolving, always changing, always trying to keep up with what’s new. It’s such a big challenge and problem that you can never get bored.”
Recently, Baxus came across two bottles of alcohol selling for $93,000 and $110,000, respectively.
“When I first got into this space, and I first started learning about whiskey, I didn’t understand,” Kellar said. “And now I understand. There’s a piece of history that’s time locked in this bottle. There’s never going to be another one like it.”
[Fox Business] Americans increasingly upside down on auto loans as used car values fall
Used car prices are starting to edge down after soaring for years after the pandemic hit, and while the trend is a much-welcomed relief for buyers, it is also causing trouble for some consumers who purchased their vehicles at higher prices.
Edmunds’ latest used vehicle report found a growing number of Americans are upside down on their auto loans as used prices decline, and the average amount consumers are underwater is at an all-time high.
The report found the average transaction price (ATP) for all used vehicles declined to $28,371 in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 4.4% decrease from the same quarter the year before, when the ATP sat at $29,690.
At the same time, the percentage of new vehicle sales that had a trade-in with negative equity jumped to 20.4%, up from 17.7% in 2022 and 14.9% in 2021.
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Now, the average amount consumers owe on upside down loans is at a record high of $6,064, up from $5,347 in fourth-quarter 2023 and $4,143 in 2021, the data found.
“A storm is brewing in the used market as incentives and inventory continue to trickle back into the new vehicle market,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights.
“With demand for near-new vehicles on the decline, used car values are depreciating similarly to the way they did before the pandemic, and negative equity is rearing its ugly head,” he added.
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Edmunds analysts found the consumers most vulnerable to falling underwater on their auto loans are those who purchased new vehicles for above sticker price, because those newer trade-ins are seeing the steepest decreases in value.
The data shows that compared to the third quarter of 2022, when used vehicle values were at their peak, the ATP for 1-year-old vehicles last quarter was down $6,763 to $38,720. Two-year-old trade-ins fell to $32,583, a $3,294 decline.
For comparison, the ATP for a decade-old trade-in fell to $12,477, a $1,304 decrease.
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“During the last few years, consumers could jump into new car loans and their trade-ins were shielded from negative equity because some dealers, desperate for used inventory, were willing to pay near original purchase prices,” Drury said.
He added, “These days, consumers need to be more careful — especially if they’re trading in newer vehicles — because near-new cars are being hit the hardest by depreciation.”