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Category: Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends 

The newest members of the $100M ARR club

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the grey space in between. Today we’re taking stock of a cohort of special companies: still-private startups that have reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Our goal is to understand which startup companies are actually exceptional. This late in the unicorn era, hundreds of companies around the world have reached a valuation of $1 billion, making the achievement somewhat pedestrian. Reaching $100 million in ARR, however, still stands out. We explored the idea…

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Odds and Ends 

The Golden State Killer, The Cleveland Stranger, and The Gardner Among The Serial Killers Caught This Decade

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The Golden State Killer The man known as the Golden State Killer and the East Area Rapist committed was the first to report on the killers alleged identity, just a few months after the publication of the late Ill Be Gone in the Dark investigating the case. The book was finished by journalist Billy Jensen, researcher Paul Haynes, and McNamaras husband, the comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, after McNamaras sudden death. Over the decades it took to track down the alleged killer, his victims received several taunting phone calls. The…

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Commercial space is going mainstream in 2020

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2019 was a packed year for commercial space and space startups, but 2020 isn’t likely to see any kind of slowdown. In fact, it’s going to get a lot busier in a few key ways that could have the effect of driving even more enthusiasm, energy and funding into the emerging space tech industry. The biggest thing happening in space next year is easy to pick out already: NASA’s Commercial Crew program. Both of the partners the agency selected to work with it on returning human launch capabilities to American…

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Plundervolt attack breaches chip security with a shock to the system

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Today’s devices have been secured against innumerable software attacks, but a new exploit called Plundervolt uses distinctly physical means to compromise a chip’s security. By fiddling with the actual amount of electricity being fed to the chip, an attacker can trick it into giving up its innermost secrets. It should be noted at the outset that while this is not a flaw on the scale of Meltdown or Spectre, it is a powerful and unique one and may lead to changes in how chips are designed. There are two important…

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Odds and Ends 

People Are Accidentally Poisoning Themselves With Essential Oils

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Essential oils may smell great, but orally ingesting them can cause all sorts of problems. Recent studies have found that essential oil poisonings are becoming more frequent and more severe in Europe and the US, and the latest figures from Australia show a similar trend Down Under. Appearing in the Medical Journal of Australia, the new study analyzes data from the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre (NSWPIC), which deals with about half of all calls to Poisons Informations Centres across the country. Between July 2014 and June 2018, the…

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Michelle Williams Is Pregnant & Engaged – Months After Getting Divorced! – Perez Hilton

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A warm, holiday congrats is in order for Michelle Williams! Not only is the Oscar nominee officially engaged to Hamilton director Thomas Kail, the two are expecting a baby together, according to Us Weekly! The Dawson’s Creek alum and her future baby daddy worked together on FX’s Fosse/Verdon, which he both directed and produced earlier this year. The exciting engagement news comes months after the actress split from husband Phil Elverum in April 2019. The former couple secretly wed in July 2018 in upstate New York in front of family,…

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Britney Spears Will Fight For Increased Custody Of Her Kids In 2020! – Perez Hilton

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Britney Spears is ready to do whatever it takes to spend more time with her kids. According to Us Weekly, the entertainer has big plans to return to court at the top of the coming year and plead her case to a judge for a change in her custody agreement with ex Kevin Federline. A source who spoke to the outlet said the Baby One More Time singer hopes to even the playing field when it comes to spending time with her two children, Preston, 14, and Jayden, 13. Right…

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Bill Gates Played Secret Santa For A Lucky Person On The Internet Here’s Everything She Got In Her 81-Pound Package

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A Michigan woman named Shelby received an 81-pound secret Santa package from the billionaire Bill Gates. Gates has been participating in the annual r/SecretSanta gift exchange on Reddit for years and makes it a point to find thoughtful gifts for each recipient. Shelby said Gates’ most impactful gift was a donation to the American Heart Association in honor of her mother, who died earlier this year. A Reddit user from Michigan was the lucky recipient of a massive holiday package from Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. A Detroit-area woman named Shelby signed…

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Individuals With Psychopathic Traits Dont Lack Empathy, They Just Dont Care

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Humans are a social species and empathy, the ability to feel for others is key to how we work. There is a belief that people that score highly in tests on psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism (the “dark triad” of psychological traits) lack empathy. New research suggests that this is not the case. They can feel for others but they simply choose not to. In a study published in Personality and Individual Differences, researchers asked 278 international participants to complete an anonymous online survey to measure their dark triad levels and cognitive…

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FintechOS raises $14M to help banks launch products as fast as fintech startups

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Over the last few years, we’ve seen the rise of fintech startups like N26 and Monzo to challenge the incumbents with new products like challenger banks. But what if the big banks wanted to compete in that game themselves? This is the aim of FintechOS, a Romanian startup that actually aims to help incumbents compete in this brave new, competitive, world. FintechOS allows banks and insurance companies to act and react faster than the new upstarts on the scene with plug and play products. It’s announcing today that it has secured $14 million (£10.7 million)…

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