Tootfinder

AI-powered virtual physical therapy startup Sword Health raised $40M led by General Catalyst at a $4B valuation, up from its $3B valuation from June 2024 (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/17/sword-h…

Sword Health nabs $40M at $4B valuation, pushes IPO plans to at least 2028 | TechCrunch
The digital health startup says it secured the fresh capital to update its valuation and finance acquisitions.

If Trump embodies the theory of the “unitary executive,” it’s because conservative jurists like John Roberts and Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have
— along with their Republican-appointed colleagues
— effectively rewritten the Constitution to allow for the exercise of virtually unaccountable power by Republican presidents.
Yes, you can attribute some of the worst of this administration to the specific authoritarian vision of Trump and his allies.
But a good deal of…

Opinion | Now Can We Stop Talking About What a Maverick Trump Is?
The president is a normie Republican. Stop thinking otherwise.

On the Virtual Euler Characteristic of the Moduli Space of Stable Pairs on Surfaces
Ana Pavlakovi\'c
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23531 https://

On the Virtual Euler Characteristic of the Moduli Space of Stable Pairs on Surfaces
We study the stable pair theory on toric surfaces and determine the virtual tangent space over the fixed point loci. Further, we present a program to compute the virtual Euler characteristic, illustrated by the case of the projective plane. As an application, conjectures regarding rationality and symmetry are supported by verification of a special case.

Thinking in Character: Advancing Role-Playing Agents with Role-Aware Reasoning
Yihong Tang, Kehai Chen, Muyun Yang, Zhengyu Niu, Jing Li, Tiejun Zhao, Min Zhang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01748

Thinking in Character: Advancing Role-Playing Agents with Role-Aware Reasoning
The advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) has spurred significant interest in Role-Playing Agents (RPAs) for applications such as emotional companionship and virtual interaction. However, recent RPAs are often built on explicit dialogue data, lacking deep, human-like internal thought processes, resulting in superficial knowledge and style expression. While Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) can be employed to simulate character thought, their direct application is hindered by attention diversi…

Bad Hindelang, Allgäu, Bavaria Germany, June 2025 pics from a hike
#Silentsunday

I can't stop thinking of 'The Running Man' whenever I see articles about virtual (animal) fences:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4229k744lo

Cambridge cows get GPS collars to stop them falling in river
A council says two to four fall into the water in a city centre during grazing season each year.