Tootfinder

🏗️ One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/07/one-startups-paper-thin-stainless-steel-could-change-how-bridges-are-built/

Exclusive: One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built | TechCrunch
By coating regular rebar with a thin layer of stainless steel, Allium Engineering could reduce the amount of concrete needed to build a bridge while also prolonging its life.

Noisy Creek, owner of Seattle's The Stranger and the Portland Mercury, is acquiring the Chicago Reader and also plans to expand its ticketing service to Chicago (Hanaa' Tameez/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/noisy-cr

Noisy Creek, owner of alt-weeklies in Seattle and Portland, acquires the Chicago Reader
After years of financial struggles and narrowly avoiding closure at the start of 2025, the Chicago Reader is getting another lifeline. On Tuesday, the nonprofit alt-weekly known for covering arts and culture in the city announced it had been acquired by Noisy Creek, a media company founded last …

Ravens RB Derrick Henry 'still pissed' after third fumble in three weeks: 'It's testing my faith' https://www.nfl.com/news/ravens-derrick-henry-still-pissed-third-fumble-three-weeks-testing-my-faith

#BikeDiary update: I just passed 2000 miles (and 3200km shortly before that) on the Tern, after 11 months.
I rode it through the Minnesota winter, with the exception of just a few days, and it went pretty well (another thread!). It's held up to the heavy usage just great; the only really significant work was that I wore through the brake pads at around 1700 mi.
It's still my primary transportation. It's still displacing the vast majority of my driving. It is still a daily joy.

Escaping Saddle Points via Curvature-Calibrated Perturbations: A Complete Analysis with Explicit Constants and Empirical Validation
Faruk Alpay, Hamdi Alakkad
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16540

Escaping Saddle Points via Curvature-Calibrated Perturbations: A Complete Analysis with Explicit Constants and Empirical Validation
We present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of first-order methods for escaping strict saddle points in smooth non-convex optimization. Our main contribution is a Perturbed Saddle-escape Descent (PSD) algorithm with fully explicit constants and a rigorous separation between gradient-descent and saddle-escape phases. For a function $f:\mathbb{R}^d\to\mathbb{R}$ with $\ell$-Lipschitz gradient and $ρ$-Lipschitz Hessian, we prove that PSD finds an $(ε,\sqrt{ρε})$-approximate second-order st…

Bummer. I was looking forward to discovery.
“Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC allegations it duped customers into enrolling in Prime”
https://apnews.com/article/amazon-prime-ftc-bezos-online-shopping-a3aa849de1279e3675a162ec6815…

Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC allegations it duped customers into enrolling in Prime
Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission which said the online giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships, and made it difficult to cancel after they did so. The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest fine in FTC history, and $1.5 billion will be paid to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions.

Seattle's Iconic Starbucks Reserve Roastery Among Stores Closing - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/seattle-capitol-hill-starbucks-reserve-roastery-iconic-store-closing-2025-9

Seahawks-Cardinals on 'Thursday Night Football': What We Learned from Seattle's 23-20 win https://www.nfl.com/news/seahawks-cardinals-on-thursday-night-football-what-we-learned-from-seattle-s-23-20-win

Fox News reports DEI still ravaging US military - National Zero
https://nationalzero.com/2025/10/26/fox-news-reports-dei-still-ravaging-us-military/

Raiders' Jakobi Meyers requests trade after contract talks stall; Las Vegas has no plans to deal WR https://www.nfl.com/news/raiders-jakobi-meyers-requests-trade-after-contract-talks-stall-las-vegas-has-no-plans-to-deal…