About: blatcho

Posts by blatcho:

Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter appears to be about preserving Twitter as a means for himself and others to continue influencing vast audiences without interference (Kyle Chayka/New Yorker)

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Kyle Chayka / New Yorker: Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter appears to be about preserving Twitter as a means for himself and others to continue influencing vast audiences without interference  —  The world’s richest man seems intent on preserving Twitter as a means for himself and others to continue influencing vast audiences without interference.

Apple warns it will remove apps from the App Store that haven’t been “updated in a significant amount of time” and is giving developers 30 days to update them (Emma Roth/The Verge)

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Emma Roth / The Verge: Apple warns it will remove apps from the App Store that haven’t been “updated in a significant amount of time” and is giving developers 30 days to update them  —  Wiping apps that haven’t been updated in a ‘significant amount of time’  —  Apple may be cracking down on apps […]

Leaked images seem to show a Google Pixel Watch testing model left at a restaurant in the US, with a minimalist design in black and a proprietary Google band (Shruti Shekar/Android Central)

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Shruti Shekar / Android Central: Leaked images seem to show a Google Pixel Watch testing model left at a restaurant in the US, with a minimalist design in black and a proprietary Google band  —  If this is the final design of the Google Pixel Watch, then many of the rumors have come true.  —  […]

Tackling chemical synthesis and advocacy

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Azin Saebi was born and raised in Iran, emigrating to the U.S. with her family at 18 after graduating from high school. Now a fifth-year graduate student in chemistry, Saebi never intended to stay permanently; she initially expected to go back to Iran to attend university. With that in mind, when leaving for the U.S., […]

Streamers are acting like network TV, as they pull back on edgy content and seek “elevated broadcasts”, like sitcoms, under financial pressure and competition (Joy Press/Vanity Fair)

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Joy Press / Vanity Fair: Streamers are acting like network TV, as they pull back on edgy content and seek “elevated broadcasts”, like sitcoms, under financial pressure and competition  —  Desperate for subscriber eyeballs, streamers are pulling back on edgy content—and acting more like the networks they trounced in the revolution.

Stockholm-based Planhat, which provides customer relationship management software to companies, raises a $50M Series A after seven years of bootstrapping (Mimi Billing/Sifted)

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Mimi Billing / Sifted: Stockholm-based Planhat, which provides customer relationship management software to companies, raises a $50M Series A after seven years of bootstrapping  —  Previously bootstrapped Planhat raises one of the Nordics’ largest Series A rounds of 2022  —  Planhat ends bootstrapped journey with $50m Series A

Documents show wide-ranging opposition from Twitter and others to Canada’s online harms proposals, which the government recently said it will delay implementing (Bill Curry/Globe and Mail)

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Bill Curry / Globe and Mail: Documents show wide-ranging opposition from Twitter and others to Canada’s online harms proposals, which the government recently said it will delay implementing  —  Newly released documents reveal Twitter Canada told government officials that a federal plan to create a new internet regulator …

Interview with Dave Limp, Amazon’s head of devices and services, on why he thinks ambient computing will enhance the real world, Fire phone’s failure, and Astro (Dave Lee/Financial Times)

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Dave Lee / Financial Times: Interview with Dave Limp, Amazon’s head of devices and services, on why he thinks ambient computing will enhance the real world, Fire phone’s failure, and Astro  —  When Amazon launched Alexa — its voice-activated virtual assistant — in 2014, it was met with scepticism.

Despite lockdowns and tech crackdowns, China remains the best option for electronic manufacturers due to a comprehensive supply chain ecosystem and lower costs (Debby Wu/Bloomberg)

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Debby Wu / Bloomberg: Despite lockdowns and tech crackdowns, China remains the best option for electronic manufacturers due to a comprehensive supply chain ecosystem and lower costs  —  Stringent tech regulations and Covid Zero lockdowns are challenging tech’s ties to China.  But first…

China-based Q&A service Zhihu closed down 23.6% in its Hong Kong trading debut, after raising $106M in a secondary listing; Zhihu faces a potential US delisting (Reuters)

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Reuters: China-based Q&A service Zhihu closed down 23.6% in its Hong Kong trading debut, after raising $106M in a secondary listing; Zhihu faces a potential US delisting  —  Question and answer website Zhihu Inc’s (2390.HK) shares ended down 23.6% on Friday in Hong Kong, making it one of the worst ever secondary listing debuts in […]

The NLRB rules that 21 QA employees at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software unit are allowed to have a union election; they have until May 20 to submit ballots (Ash Parrish/The Verge)

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Ash Parrish / The Verge: The NLRB rules that 21 QA employees at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software unit are allowed to have a union election; they have until May 20 to submit ballots  —  The employees have until May 20th to submit their ballots  —  Twenty-one Raven Software QA employees have until May 20th …

As of Friday’s close, Netflix had a $99.2B market cap, down from $300B+ in November 2021; Meta had a $532.6B market cap after passing $1T in June 2021 (Kif Leswing/CNBC)

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Kif Leswing / CNBC: As of Friday’s close, Netflix had a $99.2B market cap, down from $300B+ in November 2021; Meta had a $532.6B market cap after passing $1T in June 2021  —  – The tech market has plunged since its peak in November, and Netflix and Facebook have been hit particularly hard.

Sources detail how Elon Musk convinced Morgan Stanley and 11 other banks to back his Twitter bid, including ideas on how to run the business and boost revenue (Bloomberg)

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Bloomberg: Sources detail how Elon Musk convinced Morgan Stanley and 11 other banks to back his Twitter bid, including ideas on how to run the business and boost revenue  —  Publicly, Elon Musk has said he doesn’t care about the economics of owning Twitter Inc.  —  But during a hectic …

Five MIT PhD students awarded 2022 J-WAFS fellowships for water and food solutions

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The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) recently announced the selection of its 2022-23 cohort of graduate fellows. Two students were named Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellows for Water Solutions and three students were named J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellows. All five fellows will receive full tuition and a stipend for one semester, and […]

What choices does the world need to make to keep global warming below 2 C?

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When the 2015 Paris Agreement set a long-term goal of keeping global warming “well below 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, it did not specify how its nearly 200 signatory nations could collectively achieve that goal. Each nation was left to its own devices to reduce […]

The UK’s Department for Transport outlines rules for self-driving vehicles, including letting drivers watch TV on the go, ahead of a full framework in 2025 (BBC)

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BBC: The UK’s Department for Transport outlines rules for self-driving vehicles, including letting drivers watch TV on the go, ahead of a full framework in 2025  —  People using self-driving cars will be allowed to watch television on built-in screens under proposed updates to the Highway Code.

Investigation details Binance’s efforts to build ties with the Russian government, including handing over data on opposition leader Alexei Navalny in April 2021 (Reuters)

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Reuters: Investigation details Binance’s efforts to build ties with the Russian government, including handing over data on opposition leader Alexei Navalny in April 2021  —  In April 2021, Russia’s financial intelligence unit met in Moscow with the regional head of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

As the EU prepares its third landmark tech law in the last few years, the US has enacted just two narrow federal tech laws in the past 25 years (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)

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Cecilia Kang / New York Times: As the EU prepares its third landmark tech law in the last few years, the US has enacted just two narrow federal tech laws in the past 25 years  —  Federal privacy bills, security legislation and antitrust laws to address the power of the tech giants have all failed […]

At Climate Grand Challenges showcase event, an exploration of how to accelerate breakthrough solutions

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On the eve of Earth Day, more than 300 faculty, researchers, students, government officials, and industry leaders gathered in the Samberg Conference Center, along with thousands more who tuned in online, to celebrate MIT’s first-ever Climate Grand Challenges and the five most promising concepts to emerge from the two-year competition. The event began with a […]

How crypto investors are pushing for semi-autonomous crypto zones in Central America, as they risk repeating the region’s long history of corporate colonialism (Laurie Clarke/MIT Technology Review)

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Laurie Clarke / MIT Technology Review: How crypto investors are pushing for semi-autonomous crypto zones in Central America, as they risk repeating the region’s long history of corporate colonialism  —  A new class of crypto investors have bold plans to rebuild society from scratch.  But their pet projects risk repeating the region’s long history of […]

Indian government data: Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe have a combined 80%+ share in India’s mobile payments market, WhatsApp has a 0.02% share (Megha Mandavia/Wall Street Journal)

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Megha Mandavia / Wall Street Journal: Indian government data: Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe have a combined 80%+ share in India’s mobile payments market, WhatsApp has a 0.02% share  —  India will be a crucial market for Meta’s global e-commerce ambitions, but multiple missteps there are holding it back

In a speech on disinformation, Obama said social media firms’ design choices contribute to polarization, and called for more transparency and Section 230 reform (Lauren Feiner/CNBC)

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Lauren Feiner / CNBC: In a speech on disinformation, Obama said social media firms’ design choices contribute to polarization, and called for more transparency and Section 230 reform  —  – Former President Barack Obama criticized social media companies for contributing to polarization through design choices on their platforms.

A community approach to improving the health of the planet

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Earlier this month, MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) hosted a Health of the Planet Showcase. The event was the culmination of a four-year long community initiative to focus on what the mechanical engineering community at MIT can do to solve some of the biggest challenges the planet faces on a local and global scale. […]

Strengthening students’ knowledge and experience in climate and sustainability

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Tackling the climate crisis is central to MIT. Critical to this mission is harnessing the innovation, passion, and expertise of MIT’s talented students, from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. To help raise this student involvement to the next level, the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) recently launched a program that will engage MIT […]

Providing hands-on photonics education across Massachusetts

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Photonics — the science of guiding and manipulating light — enables applications ranging from telecommunications, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing to medical imaging, lidar, and augmented reality displays. But despite the importance of this growing field, the nation faces a shortage of photonics and electronics technicians and engineers. The Lab for Education and Application Prototypes […]