Tootfinder

Drift Protocol secures $147.5M in funding, including $127.5M from Tether, to replace Circle stablecoin with USDT after a $270M exploit linked to North Korea (Will Canny/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.co…

Drift gets $148 million rescue fund and Tether will replace Circle's USDC for settlement after massive exploit
The money will be used by Drift to recover user funds after more than $270 million in funds were exploited this month, and will relaunch Drift as a USDT-based perpetuals DEX on Solana.

Today in the drizzle I stopped by the Living Library, a beautiful native plant garden near SF's Balboa Park at the San Jose/Seneca intersection. Highly recommend a visit to see some #ceanothus in bloom and California poppies and island mallows beginning to, and much more.

Preliminary Nucleus Size Estimate for #Kreutz Sungrazer C/2026 A1 (MAPS): https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae5220 -> "JWST imagery of the approaching Kreutz sungrazer C/2026 A1 (MAPS) appears sufficient to distinguish the comet’s nucleus from the surrounding dust. Coma model fitting indicates the morphology is compatible with a ∼0.4 km diameter nucleus—likely larger than those of the minor Kreutz fragments routinely discovered with coronagraphs, and comparable to or slightly smaller than that of C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). However, since C/2026 A1 is the only Kreutz sungrazer whose nucleus has been directly observed, these comparisons should be treated with caution" -> https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/message/35035 / https://scicomm.xyz/@qicheng@cometary.org/116245251072721081

Crypto trading firm GSR says it is acquiring Autonomous and Architech for $57M, expanding into token advisory and capital markets services (Krisztian Sandor/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/03/17/c…

Crypto trading firm GSR expands token advisory with $57 million in acquisitions
The firm, best known for being one of the oldest crypto market makers, acquired Autonomous and Architech to combine token launch services, trading and treasury management tools.

Was haben Influenza, Influenzer und Künstliche Inteligenzia gemeinsam? (2004)
#sociolgy

Universal behavior in a generalized model of contagion
Models of contagion arise broadly both in the biological and social sciences, with applications ranging from the transmission of infectious diseases to the diffusion of innovations and the spread of cultural fads. In this Letter, we introduce a general model of contagion which, by explicitly incorporating memory of past exposures to, for example, an infectious agent, rumor, or new product, includes the main features of existing contagion models and interpolates between them. We obtain exact sol…

TIL that WB0RLJ Jim posts videos of his POTA activations keyed by time, so you can find your call in his video description with a link straight to the time in the video. Very cool!
I also read his QRZ page and discovered that I did something that he dislikes. I've heard other ops say that if someone gives a partial call, you should reply with your sign twice to cut down on back-and-forth, and now I kn…

The RAND Corporation is sunsetting two major gun violence research initiatives
as funding has shrunk under the Trump administration.
Experts lamented the closures as a significant loss for policymakers, advocates, and researchers who have relied on the think tank’s work to prevent shootings.
🔸The Gun Policy in America project,
an initiative that evaluated how researchers conducted their studies and what they found,
concluded with a final update to its Science of…

RAND Is Sunsetting Its Gun Violence Research Initiatives Amid Trump’s Cuts
Experts lamented the think tank's closures as a loss for policymakers, advocates, and researchers who have relied on the data to prevent shootings.

Candex, which helps large companies pay small, one-time, or irregular vendors, raised a $40M Series C, bringing its total funding to more than $120M (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/fintech-startup-candex-raises-4…

Exclusive: Candex Extends Series C To $40M+ To Help Enterprises Easily Onboard Global Vendors
New York-based Candex, a startup that helps large companies pay small, one-time, or irregular vendors without the administrative headache or risk that comes with onboarding them, has grown its July Series C raise to $40 million via a strategic investment from HSBC.

Filing: Gemini says its COO, CFO, and chief legal officer are leaving; Cameron Winklevoss will take on many of the COO's duties; GEMI falls 10% (Olivier Acuna/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/02/

Gemini ousts COO, CFO and Chief Legal Officer after international exit and 25% staff cuts
Newly public crypto exchange Gemini Space Station Inc. said Marshall Beard, Dan Chen and Tyler Meade are departing effective immediately, days after the company announced plans to shut down U.K., EU and Australia operations and refocus on the U.S. and prediction markets.

Meta and Broadcom announce an expanded partnership to co-develop multiple generations of Meta's MTIA chips; Broadcom CEO Hock Tan plans to leave Meta's board (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/14/meta-commi

Meta commits to one gigawatt of custom chips with Broadcom as Hock Tan agrees to leave board
Meta commits to deploying 1 GW of custom in-house MTIA chips co-designed with Broadcom in sweeping new multiyear deal announced Tuesday