A startup set out to fight climate change — it did it by helping plumbers

The founders of HERO Software didn’t start out to help small tradespeople in construction with a platform. They started out to fight the climate crisis. But in doing so, they stumbled on a way to help the whole business. Now, the company has closed a €40 million Series B financing round, and plans to expand […]
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Why Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ superconducting magnet sale is more than it seems

Fusion power may still be a few years away, but one startup is laying the groundwork for what it hopes will become a bustling sector of the economy.
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Bellingham set to be new EA FC 25 cover star according to leak

In news that shouldn’t really surprise many people, it seems EA has decided on the footballer that will grace the cover of the new EAFC 25 game due out at the end of September.
After Erling Haaland’s breakout Premier League season saw him bag the FC24 cover slot, it is increasingly looking like FC25 will have La Liga’s breakout star this season, England’s Jude Bellingham. Bellingham, who is currently preparing for Sunday’s European Championship final with Spain, where the Real Madrid star will come up against many of his teammates and weekly opponents, has got the gig and will adorn the cover of the Standard Edition of the game according to leaks on X.
Bellingham’s trademark arm-out goal celebration would seem the logical choice for a cover image with the pose being so recognizable as the footballing prodigy from Stourbridge near Birmingham having shot to fame at Borussia Dortmund before his big-money move to Madrid at the start of last season.

| BREAKING: Jude Bellingham is the cover star for EA FC 25.
[@FutSheriff, @LeanDesign_] pic.twitter.com/xLMdAlNBxh
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) July 11, 2024

Nobody predicted the impact he would have on Spanish football where he has shot to megastar status playing 42 games, scoring 23 times and adding a further 10 assists to those numbers.
The dates and prices for EA FC25 were recently leaked and we will be able to bring you much more information on the game shortly as we have spent the last two days in Vancouver with EA Sports and FC25 getting the lowdown on all the game’s new features and changes from last year’s version.
At this stage, the Bellingham news is only rumor and leak and is yet to be confirmed by Electronic Arts but it would be a major surprise if he is not in the reckoning given the season he has had, and may yet still cap off with an International trophy this weekend.
Featured image courtesy of Operation Sports
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Boston VCs are pleased that HubSpot will remain an independent company

For months, rumors persisted that Google, and perhaps others, were interested in buying HubSpot, a Boston-based CRM and marketing software company. HubSpot’s market cap ballooned as the rumors persisted, eventually reaching over $30 billion. But this week, Bloomberg might have finally put an end to the madness when it reported that the parties had parted […]
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CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage from August 5

Bytedance’s video editing app CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage to host creative assets starting August 5. In the past few days, users have received notifications about Capcut changing its terms for the free tier. Until now, the company used to have 1 GB of free cloud storage — this is going away. You […]
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Elon Musk’s X deceives users and breaches online content rules, EU says

Elon Musk’s X is in breach of EU online content rules as the social media platform uses “dark patterns” to deceive users, the European Commission said Friday.

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AT&T says criminals stole phone records of ‘nearly all’ customers in new data breach

The stolen data includes 110 million AT&T customer phone numbers, calling and text records, and some location-related data.
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Elon Musk’s Neuralink prepares for another human implant

In a live-streamed update on the tech company this week, Elon Musk revealed that Neuralink, of which he is CEO, plans to perform the second human implant trial sometime within “the next week or so.”
The surgery was originally meant to take place in June but the intended trial participant experienced some health problems which delayed the procedure.
The update, which consisted of Musk and other Neuralink executives live streaming on X, also mentioned Neuralink’s current sole human participant. Although the implant in Noland Arbaugh suffered a hardware failure when several small wires retracted, causing a reduced capacity of the device, it has been described by the company as “more or less very stable.”
Arland gave a rave review about the implant and described it as like having “an aim-bot” for gaming in his head.

Improved version of @Neuralink update pic.twitter.com/zk3cdbMtEC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2024

Making improvements to mitigate the risk of failure
Executive Dongjin ‘DJ’ Seo said during the live stream that “once you do the brain surgery it takes some time for the tissues to come in and anchor the threads in place, and once that happens, everything has been stable.”
After the detachment, Arbaugh saw some reduction in capacity through the device. However, Neuralink was able to make some software adjustments to increase its functionality, modifying the algorithm used by the device and restoring the lost capacity.
The team discussed new mitigation measures they will take to reduce the risk of this thread retraction occurring in future trials. “In upcoming implants, our plan is to sculpt the surface of the skull very intentionally to minimize the gap under the implant … that will put it closer to the brain and eliminate some of the tension on the threads,” said Neuralink’s head of neurosurgery, Matthew MacDougall.
Though there has only been one participant in the trial so far, with another planned soon, Musk stated during the Neuralink update that he hopes to see numbers in the high single digits by the end of the year.
After the live-streamed update, Musk went on to make some more outlandish claims in posts on X. He said during the update that the device would enable “people who have lost limbs will be able to move their new prosthetic limbs faster than they could have ever been able to before they lost the limb,” later adding in a post “I think cybernetic superpowers are likely in the future”.
He also stated that paralysis is a “tough problem, but ultimately solvable,” and that controlling epilepsy is “one of the future applications” of Neuralink. It is unclear at present what, if any, research has been done into these applications of the device.
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Stamp collecting might become a thing again with the launch of these new D&D stamps in the UK

Long before your Pokemon or sports trading cards were a thing people used to collect stamps. Now that may sound as alien to you as the time when nobody had mobile phones and had to make calls attached to a wire in the wall in the hallways of their homes but they did.
Stamps from around the world be cut off old envelopes and would be prized assets in a collection. Some shops even used to sell random packs of stamps in the UK. So why the history lesson?
The UK’s Royal Mail, which issues new stamps regularly to honor special occasions is to release a super-cool set of Dungeons and Dragons stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D&D.
A set of Dungeons and Dragons First Day Covers from the Royal Mail
Now whether you play D&D in the traditional tabletop style or partake in video games such as Baldur’s Gate 3, the fantasy RPG has played a major role in all corners of the gaming spectrum for decades.
The artwork for the stamps features iconic characters from D&D and has been created by Dungeons and Dragons artist Wayne Reynolds.
The Royal Mail is selling a variety of collector’s editions, framed sets, and even signed artwork by Reynolds which you can pre-order before the stamps go on sale on 26th July. Many of these are limited editions and you might need to move quickly to secure this unique gaming merch,
People may not really collect stamps anymore but there is still something beguilingly analog about sticking a stamp on a letter and mailing it and wondering if it will ever get to its destination!
Some of the framed, signed artwork is especially nice and if you are looking for that unique gaming memorabilia, which will definitely improve in value over time you should check out the Royal Mail’s pre-order webpage and get ordering before the deadline.
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EU’s AI Act gets published in bloc’s Official Journal, starting clock on legal deadlines

The full and final text of the EU AI Act, the European Union’s landmark risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence, has been published in the bloc’s Official Journal. In 20 days’ time, on August 1, the new law will come into force and in 24 months — so by mid-2026 — its provisions will […]
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