Sources: Crypto.com saw a 30%-40% reduction in headcount between June and August, with 2,000+ employees leaving the company, mostly due to layoffs (Asa Hiken/Ad Age)

Asa Hiken / Ad Age: Sources: Crypto.com saw a 30%-40% reduction in headcount between June and August, with 2,000+ employees leaving the company, mostly due to layoffs  —  The cryptocurrency exchange has been dramatically downsizing its marketing deals and headcount in the wake of crypto winter  —  May 7 was a joyous day at Crypto.com.

Amazon stops working on Scout, its autonomous home delivery cooler-sized robot in testing since 2019; source: ~400 people were working on the project globally (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Amazon stops working on Scout, its autonomous home delivery cooler-sized robot in testing since 2019; source: ~400 people were working on the project globally  —  Amazon.com Inc. is abandoning its home delivery robot, the latest sign that the e-commerce giant is starting to wind down experimental projects amid slowing sales growth.

Pew: 6% of US adults regularly get news on BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram, or Truth Social, but no one site drew over 2% of those seeking news (Tiffany Hsu/New York Times)

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times: Pew: 6% of US adults regularly get news on BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram, or Truth Social, but no one site drew over 2% of those seeking news  —  The appeal of platforms like Parler, Truth Social and Telegram is another symptom of the partisan divide in media, […]

Filing: a judge grants Elon Musk’s request to halt the Twitter trial and says that if the deal doesn’t close by 5pm on October 28, the trial begins in November (Richard Lawler/The Verge)

Richard Lawler / The Verge: Filing: a judge grants Elon Musk’s request to halt the Twitter trial and says that if the deal doesn’t close by 5pm on October 28, the trial begins in November  —  The pending trial between Elon Musk and Twitter is suddenly on hold, as Judge Kathaleen McCormick granted the Musk […]

What drives ecosystems to instability?

Trying to decipher all of the factors that influence the behavior of complex ecological communities can be a daunting task. However, MIT researchers have now shown that the behavior of these ecosystems can be predicted based on just two pieces of information: the number of species in the community and how strongly they interact with […]

Global VC funding in Q3 2022 was $81B, down 53% YoY from $171B and 33% QoQ from $121B, the lowest level since $70.6B in Q1 2020 (Gené Teare/Crunchbase News)

Gené Teare / Crunchbase News: Global VC funding in Q3 2022 was $81B, down 53% YoY from $171B and 33% QoQ from $121B, the lowest level since $70.6B in Q1 2020  —  The big global venture capital pullback we were all expecting is truly here.  —  Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled …

Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf, which offers cybersecurity tools and on-site experts, raised $401M in debt, after raising $150M at a $4.3B valuation in July 2021 (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Minnesota-based Arctic Wolf, which offers cybersecurity tools and on-site experts, raised $401M in debt, after raising $150M at a $4.3B valuation in July 2021  —  In a sign that pure equity financing is getting harder to come by, cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf, which last July raised $150 million …

Amazon plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, the same as in 2021, ahead of the holidays; Walmart plans to hire 40,000, down from 150,000 in 2021 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Amazon plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, the same as in 2021, ahead of the holidays; Walmart plans to hire 40,000, down from 150,000 in 2021  —  Amazon.com Inc. plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, about the same as last year despite slowing sales and predictions of a lackluster holiday shopping season.

Simulating neutron behavior in nuclear reactors

Amelia Trainer applied to MIT because she lost a bet. As part of what the fourth-year nuclear science and engineering (NSE) doctoral student labels her “teenage rebellious phase,” Trainer was quite convinced she would just be wasting the application fee were she to submit an application. She wasn’t even “super sure” she wanted to go […]

Minneapolis-based NetSPI, which offers penetration testing and attack surface management services, raised $410M from KKR, bringing its total funding to $500M (Chris Metinko/Crunchbase News)

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News: Minneapolis-based NetSPI, which offers penetration testing and attack surface management services, raised $410M from KKR, bringing its total funding to $500M  —  Although venture funding in cybersecurity has taken a slight dip this year—as it has in most sectors—that does not mean large growth rounds do not exist.

Fast Company brings its site back online after eight days offline, saying a cyberattack hit its CMS and “no customer or advertiser information was disclosed” (Brendan Vaughan/Fast Company)

Brendan Vaughan / Fast Company: Fast Company brings its site back online after eight days offline, saying a cyberattack hit its CMS and “no customer or advertiser information was disclosed”  —  Eight days.  That’s how long FastCompany.com was offline after we were targeted in a cyberattack, first on the afternoon of Sunday …

Dutch chip manufacturer STMicroelectronics plans to invest €730M to build a chip materials plant in Italy to create a self-reliant supply chain amid shortages (Lauly Li/Financial Times)

Lauly Li / Financial Times: Dutch chip manufacturer STMicroelectronics plans to invest €730M to build a chip materials plant in Italy to create a self-reliant supply chain amid shortages  —  Factory in Italy will help region become more self-reliant in key semiconductor market  —  STMicroelectronics …

Elon Musk’s revived $44B Twitter acquisition could rely on $12.5B from banks at a time when offloading risky debt is difficult, potentially leading to losses (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Elon Musk’s revived $44B Twitter acquisition could rely on $12.5B from banks at a time when offloading risky debt is difficult, potentially leading to losses  —  Elon Musk’s shock proposal to proceed with his acquisition of Twitter Inc. for the original offer price poses a headache …

A report by Senator Warren’s office: fraud and scams are occurring more often on P2P payments app Zelle, with banks only reimbursing ~47% of defrauded customers (Ken Sweet/Associated Press)

Ken Sweet / Associated Press: A report by Senator Warren’s office: fraud and scams are occurring more often on P2P payments app Zelle, with banks only reimbursing ~47% of defrauded customers  —  Incidents of fraud and scams are occurring more often on the popular peer-to-peer payment service Zelle, according …

LA County arrests election software maker Konnech’s CEO Eugene Yu over the alleged theft of data on poll workers and says some data was found stored in China (Stuart A. Thompson/New York Times)

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times: LA County arrests election software maker Konnech’s CEO Eugene Yu over the alleged theft of data on poll workers and says some data was found stored in China  —  The executive, Eugene Yu, and his firm, Konnech, have been a focus of attention among election deniers.

A factory for FrEDs at MIT

MIT is famous as a factory of ideas. You could also call MIT a factory for learning. But for one group of students over the past year MIT has been, in fact, a factory. The team of graduate students designed and built — entirely within an MIT lab — an assembly factory for a low-cost, […]

Elon Musk says buying Twitter “is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”; Musk previously teased launching X.com as a social media site (Jeremy C. Owens/MarketWatch)

Jeremy C. Owens / MarketWatch: Elon Musk says buying Twitter “is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”; Musk previously teased launching X.com as a social media site  —  Entrepreneur’s first big hit was with X.com, an online bank that was acquired by PayPal; he re-acquired the rights to the website …

Amazon is discontinuing Glow, its video calling device aimed at kids, amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior, after debuting it last year (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Amazon is discontinuing Glow, its video calling device aimed at kids, amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior, after debuting it last year  —  Amazon.com Inc. is discontinuing its pandemic-era kids’ video calling device amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior.

Meta debuts Instagram ads on the Explore page and tests ads in profile feeds, letting creators earn extra income, and a shorter ad format for Facebook Reels (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Meta debuts Instagram ads on the Explore page and tests ads in profile feeds, letting creators earn extra income, and a shorter ad format for Facebook Reels  —  Following another quarter that saw marketers pull back on their ad spending, Meta today announced it’s increasing its ad load on Instagram with […]

A diploma, a discovery, and an historic legacy

History and the future joined forces on Friday at a campus event honoring Robert Robinson Taylor, MIT’s first Black graduate and the first accredited Black architect in the United States. The gathering also highlighted new collaborations between MIT and Tuskegee University. The event featured remarks from former White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is Taylor’s […]

Four from MIT receive NIH New Innovator Awards for 2022

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to four MIT faculty members as part of its High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The program supports unconventional approaches to challenges in biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. Each year, NIH Director’s Awards are granted to program applicants who propose high-risk, high-impact research in areas relevant to the […]