About: blatcho

Every so often, our star fires off a plasma bomb in a random direction. Our best hope the next time Earth is in the crosshairs? Capacitors.

Swetha Gopinath / Bloomberg: UK-based CloudNC, which seeks to automate manufacturing using AI, has raised a $45M Series B led by Autodesk, with Lockheed Martin and others participating  —  UK startup CloudNC has clinched the backing of two large US firms, software company Autodesk Inc. and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., in a fresh funding […]

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Munich-based Personio, maker of cloud-based HR and recruiting software for SMBs, has raised a $200M Series E extension at a $8.5B valuation  —  Personio — a startup out of Munich, Germany that styles itself as a Workday and ServiceNow focused on the small and medium businesses of the world …

Ben Thompson / Stratechery: An analysis of how Apple’s approach to ATT is anti-competitive and harms legitimate targeted ad businesses integral to the new internet economy  —  Note: I’ve covered everything in this Article across a number of other Articles and Updates; however, over the course of conversations about ATT …

Bruce Willis’s recent announcement that he was retiring from acting brought widespread public attention to the neurological condition aphasia. While everyone struggles occasionally with finding the right word or tripping over their sentences, aphasia patients can lose the ability to comprehend language entirely. Though Willis hasn’t confirmed it, some doctors suspect that he may have […]

Hyper-realistic virtual worlds have been heralded as the best driving schools for autonomous vehicles (AVs), since they’ve proven fruitful test beds for safely trying out dangerous driving scenarios. Tesla, Waymo, and other self-driving companies all rely heavily on data to enable expensive and proprietary photorealistic simulators, since testing and gathering nuanced I-almost-crashed data usually isn’t […]

Quantum sensors, which detect the most minute variations in magnetic or electrical fields, have enabled precision measurements in materials science and fundamental physics. But these sensors have only been capable of detecting a few specific frequencies of these fields, limiting their usefulness. Now, researchers at MIT have developed a method to enable such sensors to […]

A conversation about creating a healthy, effective culture of debate in the workplace.

Sponsor content from UL.

Five research-backed principles to cultivate stronger workplace relationships.

Calling San Francisco and other places “failed” cities for liberal policies is bad journalism. At worst, it exacerbates harm.

This high-end, German-designed e-MTB delivers more power, more range, and way more fun on steep and rocky terrain.

Remote sensing systems can struggle to spot high waters, especially in stormy weather or at night. Synthetic aperture radar offers a shot in the dark.

Andrew Rummer / The Block: BlockFi CEO Zac Prince says the crypto lending service has secured a $250M “revolving credit facility” from FTX  —  – BlockFi secures $250 million revolving credit facility from crypto exchange FTX.  — The crypto lender says the deal ‘bolsters our balance sheet and platform strength.’

Yogita Khatri / The Block: Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden announces a $130M Series B led by Electric and Greylock at a $1.6B valuation, following a $27M Series A in March 2022  —  – Magic Eden has scored a $1.6 billion valuation in its latest funding round.  — The Solana-based NFT marketplace plans to launch […]

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Singapore-based neobank Stashfin, available in India, raised a $270M Series C, with $70M equity and $200M debt, at a $700M-$800M valuation to expand in Asia  —  Singapore-based Stashfin has raised $270 million in a new funding round as the neobanking platform, which currently only serves customers in India …

Fireflies that light up dusky backyards on warm summer evenings use their luminescence for communication — to attract a mate, ward off predators, or lure prey. These glimmering bugs also sparked the inspiration of scientists at MIT. Taking a cue from nature, they built electroluminescent soft artificial muscles for flying, insect-scale robots. The tiny artificial […]

Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: London-based Instanda, which offers insurance providers a no-code core infrastructure to deploy products easily, has raised a $45M Series B led by Toscafund  —  Led by Toscafund, no-code insurance products management and distribution software maker Instada now shifts into high gear …

FinSMEs: New York-headquartered Wahed, a fintech which allows Muslims to invest in line with their faith, has raised a $50M Series B led by Wa’ed Ventures  —  Wahed Inc., a New York-headquartered global Islamic fintech company, raised USD50m in Series B funding.  —  The round was led by Wa’ed Ventures …

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura add an Automatic Verification option, which lets users bypass CAPTCHAs on websites and in apps that support the feature  —  Tapping on images of traffic lights or deciphering squiggly text to prove you are human will soon be a much less common nuisance for […]

A temporary graphene tattoo that monitors blood pressure has been awarded the highest possible accuracy grading for such a monitoring device

Cancer cells can have thousands of mutations in their DNA. However, only a handful of those actually drive the progression of cancer; the rest are just along for the ride. Distinguishing these harmful driver mutations from the neutral passengers could help researchers identify better drug targets. To boost those efforts, an MIT-led team has built […]

Three steps to put your plan into action.

As AI becomes ever more embedded in people’s lives, effective communication with stakeholders can define a product’s success — or failure.

It’s good to honor Juneteenth or Pride month, but how are you showing up the rest of the year?

Sure, it’s known as a text-based platform. But it has some unique features and tools that can help visual artists share their work.

Meet the Cosmo, an all-metal electric ax with pickups that can be repositioned to create custom sounds.

Climate change and natural variability are making this a year of big weather events—so get ready for more heat waves, droughts, and hurricanes.

Wall Street Journal: JD.com reports revenue from its June 18 shopping festival rose 10.3% to $56.6B, the slowest growth since 2017, as China’s lockdowns dampen consumer demand  —  Consumers hit the brakes in latest indication of damaged sentiment from macroeconomic headwinds and lengthy lockdowns

Celsius Blog: After pausing withdrawals last week, Celsius asks for more time to stabilize its liquidity and operations and halts Twitter Spaces and AMAs  —  It has been one week since we paused withdrawals, Swap, and transfers.  We want our community to know that our objective continues to be stabilizing our liquidity and operations.

Abel Rodriguez / Built In Chicago: Chicago-based Elevate K-12, which helps school districts alleviate teacher shortages by virtually connecting teachers to classrooms, has raised a $40M Series C  —  As the country has dealt with teacher shortages brought by unsafe work conditions due to the pandemic and burnout, among other reasons …

It’s late, but not too late. Hurry up and snag a killer gift on these smartwatches, headphones, and more.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Telegram surpasses 700M MAUs and unveils Telegram Premium, which will let users follow up to 1,000 channels, send files up to 4GB, and more for ~$5/month  —  Telegram has amassed 700 million monthly active users and is rolling out a premium tier with additional features as the instant messaging platform makes […]

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post: Interviews with members of Peter Thiel’s inner circle describe how he came to the decision to leave Meta’s board, a departure that was years in the making  —  Inside the billionaire investor’s journey from Facebook board member to an architect of the new American right

Wall Street Journal: The total value of all cryptocurrencies has gone down by roughly $2T, or two-thirds, since bitcoin hit its all-time high in November 2021  —  The cryptocurrency industry was built on swagger, enthusiasm and optimism.  All three are in short supply these days, as losses and layoffs mount.  —  1x

Stop fumbling for cables in the dark. These WIRED-tested stands and pads will take the hassle out of recharging your iPhone or Android phone.

Jared Duker Lichtman proved a long-standing conjecture relating prime numbers to a broad class of “primitive” sets. To his adviser, it was a “complete shock.”

Without it, it would be impossible to inflate a balloon or a tire. But understanding how it works requires a little bit of physics and chemistry.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India lifts ban on Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit, or prepaid cards after it demonstrated “satisfactory compliance” with the local data storage rules  —  India has lifted business restrictions on Mastercard, nearly a year after imposing the ban, once again allowing …

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: A look at the safety and economics of autonomous trucks as Aurora and TuSimple say they plan to have commercial-trucking services in the US by the end of 2023  —  Autonomous trucks that mostly stick to highways could make sense, both technologically and economically, in ways robotaxis have not.

New York Times: Apple employees at a store in Towson, Maryland vote 65-33 to unionize, making it the company’s first US store where employees voted in favor of unionization  —  Roughly two-thirds of employees at the store in Towson, Md., voted to join the union.  — Give this article- – – Read in app

It’s late, but not too late. Hurry up and snag a killer gift on these smartwatches, headphones, and more.

A good service is the easiest way to save your memories and share files. These are the best WIRED-tested ones for personal use.

Plus: Firefox adds new privacy protections, a big Intel and AMD chip flaw, and more of the week’s top security news.

Kishan Vyas / XDA Developers: WhatsApp widely rolls out new privacy control settings to give users more control over who can see their Profile Photo, About, Last Seen, and Status  —  WhatsApp is rolling out new privacy control settings to provide users greater control over who can see their profile photo, “About,” “Last seen,” and […]

Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News: Postscript, which helps Shopify merchants reach customers via SMS, has raised a $65M Series C led by 01 Advisors and says it now works with 8K+ Shopify brands  —  SMS marketing startup PostScript has raised $65 million in a Series C round of funding, the company said Wednesday.

Rest of World: Despite a cratering crypto market, many traders in Latin America still see crypto as a way to circumvent unstable or stagnant economies where they live  —  Caught between rocketing inflation and a cratering crypto market, many stick with Bitcoin.  —  • MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

WIRED spoke with the Environmental Protection Agency to learn more about the government’s energy efficiency program.

Hurricanes, heat, fires, smoke, drought. Is it time to stop making the hottest part of the year seem cool?

The thing about identity is, it changes over space and time.