Online abuse, disinformation, fraud and other malicious content is growing and getting more complex to track. Today, a startup called ActiveFence, which has quietly built a tech platform to suss out threats as they are being formed and planned, to make it easier for trust and safety teams to combat them on platforms, is coming […]
Pandemic gives respite to Greek island sea turtles – but returning tourists could wreck it
With a new study suggesting endangered loggerhead turtles reclaimed empty shores to breed during Covid, conservationists fear the return of mass tourismNikoletta Sidiropoulou and her colleagues in the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece (Archelon) …
Solarisbank raises $224M at a $1.65B valuation to acquire Contis, expand API-based embedded banking tech in Europe
The round comes about a year after Solarisbank’s last round of $67.5 million, but as a sign of the times, what is perhaps more notable is that its valuation has nearly quintupled since then.
Sproutl is an online marketplace for gardeners founded by former Farfetch executives
Meet Sproutl, a marketplace for gardeners living in the U.K. The startup founded by former Farfetch executives has raised a $9 million seed round. It wants to make gardening more accessible by providing a curated list of items, relevant advice as well as inspiration. Index Ventures is leading the round in the startup with Ada […]
China Roundup: Kai-Fu Lee’s first Europe bet, WeRide buys a truck startup
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. Despite the geopolitical headwinds for foreign tech firms to enter China, many companies, especially those that find a dependable partner, are still forging ahead. For this […]
Racism In European Football Kicked Into Spotlight
The lid has come off of Euro-football after Italian fans insisted on making racist monkey gestures/sounds directed to AC Milan star-player, Kevin-Prince Boateng, in a ‘friendly’ game Jan 2 against team Pro Patria. (here) It seems that the German-Ghanai…
Permanent Blue Eyes In 20 Seconds
If you were not fortunate at birth, like actress Reese Witherspoon (pictured), science just might give you another shot at blue eyes, but caution is advised. Gregg Homer PhD., a Los Angeles area research scientist, is working on a procedure, dubbed Lum…
Blue Eyes, Blacks And Occular Albinism
Photographs of this lad have been making the rounds, with what I believe to be a poor explanation of his blue eyes, on top of all the people who claim that it is a case of blatant photoshopping (forgery). He is from Zimbabwe and the photographer was Va…
Letter to a future Republican strategist regarding white people
The Following post in italics is from Eric Garland (here): To whom it may concern regarding the United States federal elections of 2014, 2016 and beyond: Allow me to introduce myself to you, the existing (or aspiring!) strategist for the Republican Pa…
What About Lance Armstrong?
This is the same look that Bill Clinton gave America when it was clear that Monica Lewinsky repeatedly polished his chrome in the White House. Lance wasn’t just a doper – he was the Al Capone of dopers. In fact, all past, present, and future dopers wil…