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Behind the rise of the funeral livestreaming industry in the US, where an estimated 20% of funeral homes offer livestreaming services (Paris Martineau/Wired)

Paris Martineau / Wired: Behind the rise of the funeral livestreaming industry in the US, where an estimated 20% of funeral homes offer livestreaming services  —  It was early enough in the morning that Natalie Levy probably shouldn’t have been awake—she had recently left a high-stress job at a private-equity firm in San Francisco …

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UK financial watchdog finally decides which cryptocurrencies it wants to regulate

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulatory body tasked with overseeing the country’s financial markets, has clarified its stance on crypto assets, stating which tokens it’s responsible for. Today’s policy statement is a response to a consultation paper published by the FCA in January, which prompted 92 responses from several financial services entities, including cryptocurrency

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Harver, which offers pre-hire assessment software for high-volume hiring in enterprises, raises $15M Series B from Insight Partners (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Harver, which offers pre-hire assessment software for high-volume hiring in enterprises, raises $15M Series B from Insight Partners  —  The robots are coming to steal our jobs, or so the popular narrative goes, but the reality of automation’s impact on the workforce is somewhat more nuanced. Harver, which offers pre-hire assessment

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Sources: Chinese importers in Russia buy ~$30M worth of tether, a USD pegged crypto coin, every day, to send large sums of money back home (Anna Baydakova/CoinDesk)

Anna Baydakova / CoinDesk: Sources: Chinese importers in Russia buy ~$30M worth of tether, a USD pegged crypto coin, every day, to send large sums of money back home  —  The Takeaway  —  Chinese importers in Russia are buying up to $30 million a day of tether (USDT) from Moscow’s over-the-counter trading desks. Sources: Chinese

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Earth’s ocean was stagnant and stinking for a billion years — here’s why that’s exciting

Geologists have dubbed Earth’s middle age the “boring billion”. Occurring some 1,800 to 800 million years ago, it has long been considered a period when little happened on Earth in terms of biological evolution, climate, or the chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere. But emerging evidence now suggests that the “boring billion” may have been

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Lightricks, which makes the popular selfie editing app Facetune, raises $135M Series C led by Goldman Sachs at a post-money valuation of $1B (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: Lightricks, which makes the popular selfie editing app Facetune, raises $135M Series C led by Goldman Sachs at a post-money valuation of $1B  —  Facetune, a photo editing app that empowers users to cover their gray hairs, refine their jaw lines, and reshape their noses … Lightricks, which makes the popular

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Spotify Q2: 108M paying subscribers, up 31% YoY, and operating loss of €3M on revenue of €1.67B, up 31% YoY (Tim Ingham/Music Business Worldwide)

Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide: Spotify Q2: 108M paying subscribers, up 31% YoY, and operating loss of €3M on revenue of €1.67B, up 31% YoY  —  Spotify closed its second calendar quarter this year with 108m paying subscribers and 232m total Monthly Active Users (MAUs).  —  In a new financial update today … Spotify

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New Android ‘sex simulator’ ransomware spreads via SMS messages

If you’re using an Android phone, there’s a new family of ransomware attack that leverages SMS to spread, according to new research from Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET. The ransomware — referred to as Android/Filecoder.C and active since July 12 — uses victims’ contact lists to spread further via SMS messages containing malicious links. The malware was distributed via

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Tiny ThinkPad Plays Tiny Games

[Paul Klinger] can’t seem to get enough of building tiny, amazing gaming rigs, and we love him for that. They combine two of our favorites: miniatures and portable gaming. His newest creation honors the form of the formidable ThinkPad. Of course it has the red nipple and lid LED—wouldn’t be a ThinkPad without ’em. ThinkTiny’s

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Review of DJI's RoboMaster S1 programmable robot tank toy: nice camera, supports both Python and Scratch, but it's pricey at $500 and it lacks module options (Will Greenwald/PCMag)

Will Greenwald / PCMag: Review of DJI’s RoboMaster S1 programmable robot tank toy: nice camera, supports both Python and Scratch, but it’s pricey at $500 and it lacks module options  —  Editors’ Rating:  —  4.00  —  EXCELLENT  —  PCMag reviews products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Review

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