Conversational AI is pushing deeper into enterprise with Workfit, a new startup promising to make conference call follow-ups and mid-meeting CRM updates as easy as playing a song or checking the weather on Google Home or Amazon Echo. Battery Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Salesforce Ventures and a number of angels joined …
Read More »Data.world raises $18.7 million to remedy our post-fact society
As our society continues to devalue facts and statistics, Data.world, a two year old data collaboration startup out of Austin, Texas, is fighting back with its passionate community of data nerds. Today the company is announcing a $18.7 million Series B led by Pat Ryan’s family investment group to further build out its platform …
Read More »Paleontologists Find 450-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Trilobite Eggs
A research team led by Western Illinois University scientist Thomas Hegna has announced the discovery of two pyritized, egg-bearing specimens of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni. Left: ventrally preserved specimen of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni showing nine eggs in the specimen’s left genal angle; scale bar – 5 mm. …
Read More »More than 30 million ‘voice-first’ devices in US homes by year end [Report]
There are now 8.2 million US homes with Amazon Echo/Alexa devices according to one estimate. And voice analytics company VoiceLabs says that Google has sold somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 of its Google Home devices since launch. Echo and Home thus make a market approaching nine million “voice-first devices,” according …
Read More »Paleontologists Find Collagen in 80-Million-Year-Old Brachylophosaurus Fossil
A team of paleontologists led by North Carolina State University researchers has isolated collagen peptides from the fossilized femur of Brachylophosaurus canadensis, a duck-billed dinosaur (hadrosaur) that lived what is now Montana around 80 million years ago. The research is published in the Journal of Proteome Research. This is a …
Read More »Uber fined $20 million for lying about driver earnings, predatory financing
Uber, the San Francisco ride-sharing company, has been in the news of late over its game of chicken with the city of San Francisco over a $150 license fee for self-driving vehicles (which it lost) and for losing an estimated $3 billion dollars in 2016. Now the company has been …
Read More »Trumps taxes on his $50 million golf course
He’s currently suing Ossining to try to lower the taxes on one of his golf courses, Trump National Golf Club Westchester. “He pays [his taxes] every year with a stamp that says ‘paid under protest,’” said Gloria Fried, Ossining’s receiver of taxes. Trump has been fighting Ossining in court, contesting …
Read More »Laugh.ly grabs $2.25 million for its stand-up comedy streaming service
A streaming service for stand-up comedy called Laugh.ly, which publicly launched this past August, has now closed on $2.25 million in seed funding led by New York Angels, the company announced today. Available for both iOS and Android devices, Laugh.ly is the first to offer an extensive library of comedians’ stand-up …
Read More »Retroviruses Originated in Ocean 450 Million Years Ago, New Study Says
Retroviruses (Retroviridae) — a family of viruses that includes pathogens such as HIV, feline leukemia, and several cancer-causing viruses — have an ancient marine origin and originated together with, if not before, their jawed vertebrate hosts nearly 450 million years ago in the Ordovician period, according to a new study …
Read More »Millionaire retirees: Here’s what’s even better than saving $1 million
It’s all about your perspective, and the demands on that money. Someone expecting to retire early, live long and spend big — or even just do one of those three — may need more than $1 million, Keckler said. Health costs and expectations of leaving a financial legacy can also …
Read More »