Just over a year ago, VinePair's Emily Bell reported on Tito's Vodka and its aptly named founder, Bert Beveridge II. Beveridge? Beverage? That's why he's "aptly named." But I digress:

quote A multi-billion-dollar “small batch” brand, Tito’s has grown to become the best-selling vodka and distilled spirit in the country. Its founder, Bert Beveridge II, currently resides at No. 622 on Forbes’ richest people list with a net worth of $4.6 billion, though Bloomberg estimates his fortune at $9.68 billion.

Corporate philanthropy is big with Tito's. Or so it would seem. I'm not here to question their commitment, or compare it against other private sector companies and corporations. But right at the top, on the Tito's website page, it says that Tito's has pledged $420,000 over two years to support the B612 Foundation's Asteroid Institute:

quote The Asteroid Institute is working to protect our planet from asteroid impacts. When an asteroid hits the Earth, not only are people at potential risk but there can be long negative impacts on our atmosphere. To keep that from happening, the Asteroid Institute is informing other organizations on how to best protect our planet and Tito's is lending a hand. By helping fund The Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM)—a platform to create a dynamic four-dimensional map of our solar system—Tito's is supporting researchers, educators, and one-day folks like you [sic], to find asteroids and deflect if needed, their journey to Earth.

That's followed by a long list of other scientific, medical and public services projects that Tito's has pledged to support, financially.

And there's more:

quote Last week, [the B612 Foundation] announced that it had received $1.3 million of gifts to finance further work on cloud-based computational tools for asteroid science. The foundation also received a grant from Tito’s Handmade Vodka that will match up to $1 million from other donors.

Researchers are using Artificial Intelligence-powered computer algorithms to scan archives of photographic data from the world's astronomical observatories. The purpose is to identify previously unknown asteroids and characterize their orbits, using photographic data that was originally created and archived for other purposes.

"Killer Asteroids Are Hiding in Plain Sight. A New Tool Helps Spot Them."
Kenneth [What is the Frequency?] Chang for the New York Times; May 31, 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/202...anetary-defense.html


Trajectories of asteroids discovered by scientists using an algorithm that studies astronomical images; Earth is in the foreground. B612 Asteroid Institute/University of Washington DiRAC Institute/OpenSpace Project.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 05-31-2022).]