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☆ A Pedigreed Rail Magnate Is Pouring Millions Into Electing Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-28 | by ( Alexandra Berzon | Mike Mcintire | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Timothy Mellon, a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, has reached the stratosphere of American political influence as the top supporter of Donald J. Trump, doling out millions to try to elect the former president and his allies. But to his neighbors in a Rhode Island beachfront enclave, he is better known as the prime suspect in the Narragansett Runestone Affair. It was the stuff of local lore and attracted visitors at low tide — to the consternation of Mr. Mellon, the pedigreed businessman whose home looked out on the rock. Mr. Mellon refused to talk and hired a former state attorney general as his lawyer. Nearly a year later, the matter was resolved quietly: Mr. Mellon agreed to return the stone, and prosecutors agreed not to bring charges.

Persons: Timothy Mellon, Donald J, Trump, Mellon Organizations: Viking Locations: Rhode, Narragansett, Narragansett Bay

☆ How Science Went to the Dogs (and Cats)
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-30 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This article is part of our Pets special section on scientists’ growing interest in our animal companions. Every dog has its day, and July 14, 2004, belonged to a boxer named Tasha. “And everything has kind of exploded since then,” said Elaine Ostrander, a canine genomics expert at the National Human Genome Research Institute, who was part of the research team. In the 20 years since, geneticists have fallen hard for our canine companions, sequencing thousands upon thousands of dogs, including pedigreed purebreds, mysterious mutts, highly trained working dogs, free-ranging village dogs and even ancient canine remains. (“I didn’t want to study dogs,” said Alexandra Horowitz, who has since become a prominent researcher in the field of canine cognition.)

Persons: Tasha, ”, Elaine Ostrander, pedigreed, Monique Udell, Alexandra Horowitz Organizations: National Institutes of Health, Human Genome Research, Oregon State University, “

☆ Scientists studied 8,000 cats to determine which breeds live the longest, and it could help you become a better pet owner
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-08 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

They may also be one of the cat breeds that live the longest. Most cat breeds are less than 150 years old, and there isn't a lot of information on how differences between the various types affect their lifespans. To help change that, a recent study compared 12 common cat breeds to determine which ones live the longest. Predicting the life expectancy of catsBirman cats were among the longest-lived cats in a recent study on breed life expectancies. AdvertisementFor example, siamese and mixed-breed cats' life expectancies were over 11.5 years, whereas others — Norwegian Forest, Maine Coon, Russian, and British — were over 9.5 years.

Persons: —, Dan O'Neill, Shirlaine Forrest, Maine Coons, expectancies, Norwegian Forest , Maine Coon, Leslie Lyons, Birmans, Lyons, it's, Pulsub Organizations: Service, Business, London's Royal Veterinary College, Chung Hsing University, Maine Coon, University of Missouri, of Feline Medicine Locations: Taiwan, Maine, Ragdolls, Norwegian Forest , Maine, British, Bengal, Russian

☆ ‘Franklin’ review: Michael Douglas can’t quite catch lightning as Benjamin Franklin in new Apple TV+ series
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“Franklin” comes from “John Adams” writer-producer Kirk Ellis, with Howard Korder (“Boardwalk Empire”), director Tim Van Patten (“The Sopranos”) and former HBO programming chief Richard Plepler joining him among the executive producers with pedigreed connections to that network. Michael Douglas and Ludivine Sagnier in "Franklin." Yet unlike “John Adams,” it lacks the level of supporting players and driving tension related to the Adams-Thomas Jefferson dynamic to provide a strong sense of narrative momentum. But even those attributes, and Douglas’ interpretation of them, don’t quite prove inventive enough to compensate for its shortcomings. “Franklin” premieres April 12 on Apple TV+.

Persons: “ Franklin ”, “ John Adams, ”, Michael Douglas, Benjamin Franklin, “ John Adams ”, Kirk Ellis, Howard Korder, Tim Van Patten, Richard Plepler, Franklin, Tom Wilkinson, Douglas, Temple, Noah Jupe, Ludivine, Madame Brillon, John Adams, “ Ray Donovan’s, Eddie Marsan, “, ” Douglas, Liberace, –, Stacy Schiff’s, Adams, Thomas Jefferson Organizations: CNN, Air, Apple, HBO, Continental Army, Franco, ” Locations: France, it’s, Paris, American, Great Britain, Franklin

☆ A VC firm has built an AI-powered pitch deck generator for startup founders — and is giving it away for free
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Growth Warrior Capital is launching a new tool Elevo, an AI-powered pitch deck generator. For Phelon as an investor, the sheer amount of pitch decks that she was sorting through began to become overwhelming. Elevo will then generate a pitch deck for them with the key details that VCs are looking for. Elevo's interface allows founders to input details about their startup and generate a short pitch deck. Growth Warrior CapitalThe designs are typically simple and the slide numbers are short, but that's oftentimes what investors who see dozens of decks a week prefer.

Persons: Phelon, Ashley Pilipiszyn, TapInfluence, Lizzie Widhelm, Elevo's waitlist, Elevo, I'm Organizations: Morning, OpenAI, Growth

☆ San Diego State Joins a Men’s Final Four Field That Is Missing the Marquee Brands
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Laine Higgins | Robert O Connell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

San Diego State Aztecs players celebrate after beating Creighton to advance to the Final Four. San Diego State, a No. 5 seed, on Sunday defeated sixth-seeded Creighton 57-56 in a thriller that came down to a string of controversial calls in the final moments. They join a Final Four that already includes a No. The winner of a Texas-Miami game in the Midwest regional final later on Sunday will join them at the Final Four in Houston next week.

Miami celebrates after their win against Texas in the Elite Eight. At this time last year, a collection of college basketball’s royalty—Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova—was preparing to gather for one of the highest-pedigreed Final Fours in men’s tournament history. This season, the glamor teams are out, replaced by a trio of lesser-known underdogs from beach communities—Miami, San Diego State and Florida Atlantic—plus the northerners from Connecticut, who are by far the most familiar basketball power in the pack. It is the first time since 2011 that none of the tournament’s No. 2 seeds reached the Final Four.

☆ The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank foreshadows a bigger reckoning for the tech industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In the days since the stunning collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, I've seen the tech world point a lot of fingers. Silicon Valley Bank imploded in part because it was a repository for the riskiest behaviors of the industry it serviced. In spite of this reality, there has been little self-reflection on the part of the industry that was so closely tied to Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank thrived on these trends. But to grow at the breakneck speed of its clients, Silicon Valley Bank executives had to change things in Washington.

☆ Venture Capital Investors Are Trying to Take Over Pandemic Response
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Private capital has been eyeing public health for years. Several founders and investors told me that the failure of Kleiner's fund made Silicon Valley wary of investing in pandemic preparedness. Venture investors love that kind of thing. Public health and private industryWhen COVID hit, Charity Dean was the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health. In the end, almost every pandemic-related product created by Silicon Valley will ultimately require the government as a primary customer.

☆ The unraveling of fintech darling Vise
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

It was April, and more than two dozen salespeople who worked for the fintech startup Vise had been ordered to a multiday off-site at the W Hoboken hotel in New Jersey to share exhaustive reports on their performance. Even salespeople at bigger, established, top-tier investment-management firms typically wouldn't close $250 million in a year, multiple sales employees said. (K-means clustering is an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm often referred to as a form of AI, Vise's founders said). (Vise's founders disputed this, saying the company received updated financial data only once a day for its portfolio-construction engine.) And to address its "leaky funnel" of overestimating prospective sales, Vise was to stop outreach to new clients while it onboards and upsells to existing clients, the document said.

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