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Big Tech &
Startups
Dating app Bumble preparing for an IPO above $6 billion (1 minute read)
Bumble is preparing for an Initial Public Offering early next year, possibly seeking a valuation of between $6 billion to $8 billion. No plans have been finalized and the timing of the IPO could change. The pandemic forced several companies to postpone their debuts earlier this year, but the US capital markets have made a stunning recovery.
Why Whole Foods is trying out a 'dark store' as part of its vision for the future of grocery shopping online (3 minute read)
Whole Foods is opening its first online-only store in New York. The store will not be open to the public. Instead, Amazon delivery drivers will collect orders from the shop and deliver them to customers. Amazon had converted a few of its stores to temporary online-only stores to help meet demand but has since reverted four of them. While demand for grocery delivery has risen since the pandemic, plans for the online-only location were made pre-COVID-19. Amazon recently launched its first Amazon Fresh supermarket in Los Angeles.
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Science &
Futuristic Technology
NuScaleβs small nuclear reactor is first to get US safety approval (2 minute read)
Small modular reactor designs could mean safer, cheaper, and easier to install nuclear facilities. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved its first small modular reactor design. A two-minute video is available in the article that explores NuScale's design. The basic design is conventional and uses a passive cooling system. It has passive features that ensure that the plant shutdowns safely and remains safe under emergency conditions.
Engineers Build Tweezers So Tiny They Can Pick Up Individual Molecules (2 minute read)
Engineers at Vanderbilt University have built optical tweezers that can pick up individual proteins and DNA molecules without damaging them. The opto-thermo-electrohydrodynamic tweezers use a laser to trap and lift individual objects as small as ten nanometers. It does this without exposing the objects to high-intensity light or heat. The technology could help doctors diagnose diseases like Alzheimer's sooner.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
Machine Learning from Scratch (Book)
Machine Learning from Scratch is a book that covers the building blocks of the most common methods in machine learning. It covers the concepts, construction, and implementations of Ordinary Linear Regression, Linear Regression Extensions, Discriminative Classifiers, Generative Classifiers, Decision Trees, Tree Ensemble Methods, and Neural Networks. The book was written for readers interested in seeing machine learning algorithms derived from start to finish. It does not review best practices or discuss in depth when certain models are more appropriate than others.
handcalcs (GitHub Repo)
handcalcs renders Python calculation code to look like it was written in pencil. It writes the symbolic formula, followed by numeric substitutions, and then the result. A basic GIF demo is available.
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Miscellaneous
Airline Pilots Landing At LAX Report "A Guy In Jetpack" Flying Alongside Them (2 minute read)
Airline pilots landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday reported seeing 'a guy in a jetpack' flying about 300 yards off their wing while on final approach to landing. The airliner was descending through 3,000 feet when the man showed up next to them. There are a low number of known jetpack designs capable of such a feat. It is unlikely that this was one of them.