About: blatcho

Now that the writer-director’s new horror flick Men is about to hit theaters, it’s time to revisit one of his lesser-known movies.

Bloomberg: Singapore-based Grab reports Q1 revenue rose 6% YoY to $228M, beating analyst estimates, as its net loss narrowed to $435M; Grab stock is down 70%+ from its IPO  —  Grab Holdings Ltd. said revenue rose 6% in the first quarter after the ride-hailing and delivery company won back consumers as the pandemic receded in […]

Frank Chaparro / The Block: FTX.US launches FTX Stocks, a zero-commission stock trading feature available through the FTX app, rolling out in the US over the coming months  —  – The news comes shortly after Sam Bankman-Fried’s acquisition of a 7.6% stake in retail trading giant Robinhood.

Reuters: Sources: TikTok is testing in-app games in Vietnam as part of a push into gaming; TikTok says it has tested HTML5 games in partnership with Zynga and others  —  TikTok has been conducting tests so users can play games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, part of plans for a major push into gaming […]

An autonomous spacecraft exploring the far-flung regions of the universe descends through the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet. The vehicle, and the researchers who programmed it, don’t know much about this environment. With so much uncertainty, how can the spacecraft plot a trajectory that will keep it from being squashed by some randomly moving obstacle […]

Back in April 1994, the world watched a remarkable event: South Africa’s first democratic election with universal suffrage. The country whose Apartheid system had legalized racial segregation since the late 1940s went to the polls and elected a new national assembly. In turn, that assembly picked a Black president: Nelson Mandela, who, after decades in […]

Takeaways from a survey of 5,600 mid-career workers.

The way people buy automobiles is changing—so Honda and other manufacturers are adapting in kind.

Elon Musk’s method for tracking down bots may be useless, but finding a better formula is tougher than you think.

Many life-limiting conditions can only be detected 12 weeks into pregnancy—but some US states are planning to set to the abortion limit much earlier.

Emma Roth / The Verge: Report: subscribers who have been with Netflix for over three years made up 13% of cancellations in Q1 2022; Netflix hit 3.6M total cancellations last quarter  —  Users subscribed to Netflix for more than three years represented 13 percent of total cancellations

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India says cloud providers and VPN operators that don’t comply with its cybersecurity rules, which go into effect in late June, “will have to pull out” of India  —  India is pushing ahead with its new cybersecurity rules that will require cloud service providers and VPN operators …

MK Manoylov / The Block: N3TWORK Studios, a blockchain gaming startup that incorporates features like NFTs into their mobile games, raises a $46M Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners  —  Blockchain gaming startup N3TWORK Studios announced Wednesday that it closed a $46 million Series A funding round.

An amphibious drone that can attach itself to other objects with a suction cup could be used to track marine animals such as whales

A robotic drone that can travel through air and water, and also attach itself to larger objects with a suction cup, could be useful for tagging wild animals

Members of the MIT community gathered on the steps of the Stratton Student Center on May 17 to support each other in the wake of yet another mass shooting targeting the Black community, this time in Buffalo, New York. As MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote in his letter to the community about the violence, […]

Sponsor content from UAE.

One major cause of supply-chain headaches may be easing.

To build company resilience, CEOs must prioritize relationships with suppliers.

This little gadget tries to perfect the tried-and-true ball head, but it’s too expensive and has a few too many quirks.

Tools used to find child abuse material could be wielded in the US to protect “unborn children” if the EU bans end-to-end encryption.

A raft of recent films like Everything Everywhere All at Once highlights the complicated relationships between immigrant Asian women and their mothers.

Financial Times: Filing: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund takes a ~5% stake in Nintendo, worth $2.98B; the PIF disclosed a 5% stake in Japan’s Nexon and Capcom in February  —  Sovereign wealth fund has already bought into Japan’s Capcom and Nexon  —  Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has acquired …

Amelia Isaacs / AltFi: Dutch BNPL service in3 raises a $85.3M Series B in debt and equity, partners with Dutch payments company Mollie, and says it supports over 130K merchants  —  Mollie’s millions of consumers will now have access to ‘socially responsible’ BNPL services with in3.

New York Times: A profile of Do Kwon, the trash-talking founder of Terraform Labs, which raised $200M+ to build LUNA and UST; many investors avoided losses by cashing out early  —  Do Kwon, a South Korean entrepreneur, hyped the Luna and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies.  Their failures have devastated some traders …

Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) student Sarah Cen remembers the lecture that sent her down the track to an upstream question. At a talk on ethical artificial intelligence, the speaker brought up a variation on the famous trolley problem, which outlines a philosophical choice between two undesirable outcomes. The speaker’s scenario: Say a […]

The government will fund a project to help humanitarians on the ground and gather evidence of war crimes.

After the InSight lander studied the strongest marsquake ever detected, scientists gave the space robot a negative prognosis because of its dwindling solar power.

Researchers found a way to exploit the tech that enables Apple’s Find My feature, which could allow attackers to track location when a device is powered down.

Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times: Thought Machine, provider of cloud-based banking infrastructure for 35+ banks globally, raises a $160M Series D at a $2.7B valuation, up from $1B+ in November  —  Unicorn brings Morgan Stanley on board as client and investor  —  London-based fintech Thought Machine has doubled its valuation …

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google Cloud launches new software supply chain and zero trust tools, including one that gives governments and enterprises access to vetted open-source packages  —  Google Cloud is holding its annual Security Summit this week and unsurprisingly, the company used the event to launch a few new security features.

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal: As startups face potential drops in valuation and VCs demand lower spending and higher margins, some companies turn to cutting staff, marketing, and projects  —  Funding is suddenly scarce as venture capital firms grow stingy, forcing young companies to get frugal and focus on breaking even

Quantum-encrypted messages sent through cables over long distances are sensitive to tiny vibrations, suggesting a possible by-product of a future secure network

The value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has plummeted in recent weeks, but the computer power devoted to the industry continues to rise

Even as rapid improvements in artificial intelligence have led to speculation over significant changes in the health care landscape, the adoption of AI in health care has been minimal. A 2020 survey by Brookings, for example, found that less than 1 percent of job postings in health care required AI-related skills. The Abdul Latif Jameel […]

The daughter of an American diplomat, Eleanor Freund spent most of her childhood living abroad in such places as Madagascar, Ghana, South Africa, and Austria. These experiences, she explains, led to an early interest in politics and international relations. “Whether in South Africa, which was emerging from decades of racial discrimination and violence under apartheid, […]

For years, organizations have taken a defensive “castle-and-moat” approach to cybersecurity, seeking to secure the perimeters of their networks to block out any malicious actors. Individuals with the right credentials were assumed to be trustworthy and allowed access to a network’s systems and data without having to reauthorize themselves at each access attempt. However, organizations […]

A study illustrates how they harm both individuals and teams.

A leading political scientist outlines the challenges we face and explains what we can do about them.

Making new connections — and reviving old ones — doesn’t have to feel awkward.

Ring in their special milestone with useful gadgets, outdoor gear, subscriptions, and modern conveniences.

We were promised jetpacks that never arrived. But you know what’s finally here? Big, honking drones you can ride on.

This high-powered gaming phone will satisfy all the playing needs of obsessive gamers. The rest of us should look elsewhere.

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: Apple announces several accessibility features, including Watch improvements and a live captioning tool for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, rolling out later in 2022  —  Apple has released a bevy of new accessibility features for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac, including a universal live captioning tool …

Washington Post: A look at tech political advocacy group American Edge, funded solely by Meta, as it tries to create the appearance of grassroots opposition to antitrust reform  —  Records show Facebook-funded American Edge backed minority interest groups, conservative think tanks and small business groups …

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Unit, a banking-as-a-service startup, raises a $100M Series C led by Insight at a $1.2B valuation, following a $51M Series B in June 2021  —  Unit, a banking-as-a-service startup, has closed on a $100 million Series C round of funding led by Insight Partners.

No one likes sitting at a red light. But signalized intersections aren’t just a minor nuisance for drivers; vehicles consume fuel and emit greenhouse gases while waiting for the light to change. What if motorists could time their trips so they arrive at the intersection when the light is green? While that might be just […]

With today’s staffing shortages, the usual solutions just won’t cut it.

The US government is sending 8 more at-home tests to every household. Here’s how to get yours, and how to troubleshoot common problems.

A growing number of people on the platform claim to have a perceptual condition that lets them smell colors, see music, or taste sounds. But do they really?