Tootfinder

Financial capitulation: Why the ruble collapsed and China controls Russia’s banks: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/18/financial-capitulation-why-the-ruble.html

Endra, whose AI tools automate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings, raised a $20M seed led by Notion (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/endra-ai-startup-automating-mep-design…

Exclusive: Swedish startup automating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings raises $20 million in seed round
Notion Capital is leading the seed round for Endra, which says reduces the time to design buildings' electrical systems from months to hours.

Pardoned Capitol rioter tried to bribe child sex victim with promise of Jan. 6 payout, officials say (NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pardoned-capitol-rioter-tried-bribe-child-sex-victim-promise-jan-6-pay-rcna244627
http://www.memeorandum.com/251118/p155#a251118p155

Just me and my trusty phone going up against Western imperialism and its trillion-dollar propaganda machine.
#Anarchism #Capitalism #Fediverse

The EU is considering a two-step EU membership for Ukraine.
The first step/level would allow Ukraine to gain access to the EU market, subsidies, and development funds.
Not everyone is keen on the idea though:
https://unn.ua/en/news/eu-de…

EU is developing a new two-tier system to accelerate Ukraine's accession, but the plan frightens European capitals - FT
Brussels is considering a revision of the EU accession system, proposing a two-tier model that could accelerate Ukraine's entry. This plan raises concerns among some member states about its implications for the Union.

We desperately need to figure out how to flip this: how to lift up the creators of wonderful things, instead of rewarding whoever can acquire power over their creations.
I don’t think we know how to do this. There’s a vast spectrum of schemes for fixing this, ranging from capitalist versions of “intellectual property” to Marxist “just end capitalism” notions to various versions of “easy, society should just be different.” I find them all lacking, both in theory and in practice. This is a problem that’s existed for millennia, not decades, and I’m not convinced we have a clear solution.
4/

It always starts with talk about millionaires and billionaires and ends with a 36% unrealized gains tax on the handful of assets you bought to try and get a stake in the economy and claw your way out of financial insecurity and maybe be able to retire some day. Meanwhile, the unfathomably rich remain forever unfathomably rich. These people are the allies of capital, and creators of a permanently dependent underclass. They do this to ensure there is always a job for them. If they really cared…

Adaptive Security, which uses AI to simulate social engineering attacks and help companies prevent them, raised an $81M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures (Chris Metinko/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-d…

Exclusive: Adaptive Security raises $81M to stop social-engineered attacks
Bain Capital Ventures led the Series B round.

Sources: top VC firms operating in India are expected to commit investments ranging from $300M to $500M each to India's AI ecosystem at the AI Impact Summit (The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indi…

Major VCs line up top dollars for coordinated AI capital push in India
Top venture capital firms in India are set to invest $300–500 million each into the country’s AI ecosystem, covering infrastructure, enterprise applications and sector-specific solutions. Global and domestic VCs, including Khosla Ventures, Accel India and Lightspeed, are participating. Combined, these commitments could exceed $1 billion, surpassing last year’s startup funding.

Benchmark hires Jack Altman, the founder of Alt Capital and Lattice, as its fifth general partner; three Alt Capital team members will join him at Benchmark (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/benchmark-hires-jack-altman-newe…

Benchmark Hires Jack Altman as Newest General Partner
Benchmark on Tuesday said it had hired Jack Altman , the founder of early-stage firm Alt Capital and HR software company Lattice, as its fifth general partner. Benchmark—known for backing Uber and Snap in its early years—has kept its fund sizes relatively small and continued to operate as an equal partnership , even as its Silicon Valley competitors have raised multi-billion dollar funds and