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SuperGaming launches Indus Battle Royale mobile esports game

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Indus Battle Royale has launched on mobile devices.

Indus Battle Royale has launched on mobile devices.


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Y Combinator-backed fintech CapWay has shut down

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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MAY 20: Sheena Allen, Founder and CEO, Capway attends HOPE Global Forums Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets Summit at Atlanta Marriott Marquis on May 20, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Operation Hope)

CapWay, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that sought to bring financial services to those in so-called “banking deserts,” has been shut down, according to its founder Sheena Allen. 

Allen wrote about it on LinkedIn and confirmed to TechCrunch.

“I am proud of the work we were able to accomplish, but honestly disappointed that we couldn’t complete the mission,” she wrote. “I feel strongly that there is still much work to be done in the financial inclusion space, so it won’t be the last you hear of me in regard to fighting for economic equality.” 

Allen told TechCrunch the company started to wind down last year and waited this long to announce after a possible acquisition fell through. 

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Banking deserts are people in communities, often rural, that have no nearby physical bank branch to obtain a checking account. The term is also extended to people who have difficulty going to a bank, such as lower-income, older, or disabled individuals. 

Allen (pictured above) launched CapWay in 2016 after realizing the impact that not having a bank account has on some communities, such as depending on high-interest payday loans or high-fee cash checking services, as CNN reported

CapWay’s company planned to address this population by teaching financial literacy and offering online banking solutions. Pitchbook shows the company raised just under $800,000 in funding, from investors including Backstage Capital, Fearless Fund, and Khosla Ventures. It was part of the Summer 2020 cohort of YC, as TechCrunch reported at the time.

Allen told us there were a few reasons why she shut the company down. She cited the fact that the fintech industry took a huge reputational hit after the hacking of Evolve Bank & Trust and the collapse of Synapse, the latter of which saw hundreds of millions of dollars of consumer funds frozen. 

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After that, many banks that looked to partner with fintechs required the fintech to have a certain amount of money in the bank. 

“It takes money to play in a highly regulated industry because you can’t control the changes,” Allen said. “You just have to have enough money and time to survive the adjustments.” 

CapWay had to find a new banking partner during this time but needed to raise more money to meet potential partners’ money-on-hand requirements, which it struggled to do. Some investors turned her away by citing that the company lagged too far behind its competitor.

But she also pointed out the challenge that has pained many Black founders this past year. 

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“Fundraising itself was down for everyone, but it was and is extremely down for Black founders,” she said. Crunchbase found that Black founders raised only 0.3% of the $79 billion that went to U.S.-based startups in the first half of the year. 

Allen often felt like she was in competition with other Black-founded fintechs for that smaller piece of pie. She wrote in her post that some investors turned her down by telling her that they had already invested in another Black-founded debit card fintech.

“Some investors like to group all Black fintech companies into one box, [even] when we don’t all do or operate the same or have the same target audience,” she told us. “It’s unfortunate, but that was a factor in us being told no a few times.” 

Allen thanked her team and some of her investors in her LinkedIn post, pointing out that there were investors who “still called and not only checked on the business and me as a founder but me as a human.” She also thanked her fellow founders who “listened to me rant and called to simply check on my mental state through this process.” 

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But, one failed startup – which is almost a badge of honor in the startup world – has not deterred her from her love of building companies. She still wants to work in the financial inclusion space and is pondering her next startup idea. She’s currently looking at some potential entrepreneur-in-resident opportunities at venture firms. 

“It’s a rough time to wind down your company,” she said. “But I’ve learned there’s beauty in the journey even on cloudy days when things seem dark.”

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White blobs washing up on Newfoundland beaches stump experts and worry resident beachcombers

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White blobs washing up on Newfoundland beaches stump experts and worry resident beachcombers


Toronto — Beaches across Canada’s far northeast Newfoundland and Labrador province have increasingly been littered with mysterious white blobs. Their appearance has so far befuddled scientists, and led Canadian officials in the region to launch an investigation.

Beachgoers first noticed the unusual blobs on the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador in September. People quickly started sharing photos of the gelatinous clumps on a Facebook group with more than 40,000 members that is dedicated to exploring the region’s coastal areas.

“Anyone know what these blobs are. They are like touton dough and all over the beach,” wrote Philip Grace on the Beachcombers Facebook group, comparing the finds to a regional dish. “These were in sizes ranging from dinner plate size right down to a toonie [Canadian 2-dollar coin].”

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Some people speculated online that the mystery blobs could be the result of ships dumping substances into the ocean. Others suggested they could be whale sperm, whale vomit or even ambergris, a byproduct of sperm whales that’s valued for its use in perfumes and other products. 

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Mysterious white blobs have been reported on Canada’s Newfoundland beaches.

Environment and Climate Change Canada


But the experts weren’t to be dragged into the speculation.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada, the government agency responsible for investigating the mystery, simply referred to the blobs as “a mystery substance” when asked by CBS News on Tuesday.

Newfoundland resident David McGrath told The Guardian newspaper that he’d seen hundreds of the items scattered across his local beaches.

“They looked just like a pancake before you flip it over, when it has those dimpled little bubbles. I poked a couple with a stick and they were spongy and firm inside,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve lived here for 67 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Never.”

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A closeup of the mysterious white blobs that have been washing up on Canadian beaches.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada


“They sent the Coast Guard over and I asked them how bad it was. They told me they had 28 miles of coastline littered with this stuff and had no idea what it was,” McGrath said. “Is it toxic? It is safe for people to touch?” 

Samantha Bayard, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CBS News the agency was first informed about the “mystery substance” on beaches on Sept. 7. Environmental emergency officers visited sites at least three times to assess the situation and collect samples.

“To date, ECCC has conducted several aerial, underwater and manual surveys of the beaches and shorelines in the area to determine the extent of the substance, what it is and its potential source,” she said. “At this time, neither the substance nor its source has been identified.”

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Bayard said a preliminary laboratory analysis by the agency suggested the material “could be plant-based,” but stressed that additional analysis was required “before a final determination can be made on the substance and its potential impacts.”

Stan Tobin, a local environmentalist, told CBS News’ partner network BBC News that he’d found “hundreds and hundreds of blobs — big blobs, little blobs.”

“Somebody or somebodies know where this came from and how it got there, and knows damn well it’s not supposed to be here,” Tobin told the BBC.

Bayard said the ECCC was committed to addressing pollution incidents and environmental threats with urgency.

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“If enforcement officers find evidence of a possible violation of federal environmental legislation, they will take appropriate action in accordance with the applicable Compliance and Enforcement Policy,” she told CBS News.



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JD Vance thinks monarchists like Curtis Yarvin have some good ideas

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JD Vance thinks monarchists like Curtis Yarvin have some good ideas

JD Vance is, by his own admission, “plugged into a lot of weird right-wing subcultures.” His much-mocked comments about childless cat ladies and unassimilated Italian immigrants were made on a “masculinist” podcast. He doesn’t eat seed oils, a dietary restriction du jour on the extremely online right. When he was nominated to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate, his X following list included Bronze Age Pervert and Raw Egg Nationalist, two pseudonymous right-wing bodybuilders who often promote eugenics and the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. But perhaps no one online has shaped Vance’s thinking more than the neoreactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin, a former programmer with ties to Vance’s friend and benefactor Peter Thiel.

Yarvin — who blogged under the name Mencius Moldbug in the aughts and is now on Substack — has been a far-right public intellectual of sorts for a long time. His oeuvre includes musings about the correlation between race and IQ, calls for a “benevolent dictator” to run the US, and posts like “Why I Am Not A White Nationalist” (because white nationalism is “a very ineffective political device for solving the very real problems about which it complains”). He once wrote that the neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed dozens of people in a series of attacks in Oslo, Norway, was ineffective because he “didn’t even make triple digits.”

There’s a tendency to not take people like Yarvin seriously. He and other far-right bloggers like Bronze Age Pervert position themselves as provocateurs and couch their work in absurd metaphors — it sounds inherently ridiculous to issue warnings about a guy who writes long essays about dark elves. And if you do take them seriously, they’ll say they were just trolling. But if you look past his edgelord posture and baroque prose, Yarvin has spent the better part of a decade clearly describing what he wants: a dictatorship.

Yarvin is most commonly associated with the neoreactionary movement, whose adherents believe — as Thiel wrote in 2009 — that freedom and democracy are incompatible and that democratic governments and bloated federal bureaucracies should be replaced by enlightened autocratic regimes.

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Until relatively recently, Yarvin’s name was not brought up in mainstream political discourse. But his ideas about undercutting democratic checks on authoritarian power have struck a chord with the current Republican ticket. While Vance hasn’t espoused Yarvin’s more extreme ideas — and likely won’t — he clearly holds parts of the neoreactionary creed in high regard.

If you look past his edgelord posture and baroque prose, Yarvin has spent the better part of a decade clearly describing what he wants: a dictatorship

In a July Substack post, Yarvin denied that he’s had a “significant influence” on Vance. Yarvin referred to Vance as a “random normie politician whom I’ve barely even met.” (He has a penchant for italics.) “While I admire the senator and I think he has some potential,” Yarvin wrote, “he is hardly a ‘friend’ of mine and I can’t imagine I have influenced him.”

Years before he was the Republican vice presidential nominee, however, Vance openly touted that influence. “So there’s this guy Curtis Yarvin who has written about these things,” Vance said on a right-wing podcast in 2021. Vance didn’t stop at a simple name-drop. He went on to explain how former President Donald Trump should remake the federal bureaucracy if reelected. “I think what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, and replace them with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

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This “piece of advice” is more or less identical to a proposal Yarvin floated around 2012: “Retire All Government Employees,” or RAGE. 

As described by Yarvin, RAGE’s purpose is to “reboot” the government under an all-powerful executive, a sort of debugging. Yarvin sees elections as ineffective methods for political change because, while the head of state and their political appointees may change, the career bureaucrats (who, in Yarvin’s view, are really calling the shots) stay put. “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictatorphobia,” Yarvin said in the 2012 speech in which he described RAGE. Yarvin has since toned down the dictator rhetoric (he more recently called for a “monarchy of everyone”), but the underlying principle remains unchanged. For Yarvin, democracy is an illusion: elections make people think they have a say in what happens, but the Cathedral, his catchall term for journalistic institutions and elite universities, runs everything. Monarchy, in this theory, is the only honest government. 

RAGE bears obvious parallels to Trump’s war against the “deep state” of federal bureaucrats. In October 2020, Trump signed an executive order that stripped employment protections from certain federal positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating chapter.” Federal agencies would also be encouraged to hire staffers who pledged loyalty to the president. The new policy was called Schedule F, after the new employment category it would have created had Biden not canceled the order shortly after taking office.

Schedule F was a radical idea cloaked in the sanitized language of the federal bureaucracy. Its goal was to concentrate power in the presidency and undercut what Trump (and others on the far right) refer to as the deep state and what Vance has repeatedly referred to as “the regime.” The regime goes beyond liberals or Democrats — it includes mainstream politicians from both parties whose primary goal is to uphold our current political order.

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Yarvin’s Cathedral takes this argument a step further, extending the cabal beyond Congress, the White House, and the courts; the media and elite universities are part of it, too. Where other right-wingers back efforts to take over universities and elite institutions and dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, Yarvin has written that these tactics will likely only “reinforce progressive cultural power.” He’s kind of an all-or-nothing doomer; his ultimate vision is an American monarchy run by a “national CEO,” or in Yarvin’s own words, “a dictator.” (Trump, famously, has said he would not be a dictator in office “except for day one.”)

And if Trump wins, Yarvin’s RAGE proposal could be back on the table. Schedule F is among the dozens of policy proposals buried in the 2025 version of the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page Mandate for Leadership. If carried out, it could affect tens of thousands of federal employees. Schedule F is legally dubious, but as Politico has explained, the current makeup of the Supreme Court could allow for it to go forward anyway.

If the courts don’t side with Trump, Vance has suggested as recently as this year, he should proceed anyway. “If the elected president says, ‘I get to control the staff of my own government’ and the Supreme Court steps in and says ‘You’re not allowed to do that’ — like, that is the constitutional crisis. It’s not whatever Trump or whoever else decides to do in response,” Vance told Politico months before becoming Trump’s vice presidential nominee.

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts sees the think tank’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism” and is a friend of Vance, whom he’s referred to as “one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.” Under Roberts, Heritage has shed its former identity as a home for free trade fanatics and Reagan Republicans and has fully leaned into an ultranationalist MAGA ethos. Vance wrote the foreword to Roberts’ book Dawn’s Early Light, whose publication date was pushed back from September until November — after the election. 

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Heritage isn’t alone in this transformation. The right-wing think tank ecosystem has been completely remade in Trump’s image since 2016. The far-right fringes have now taken over the mainstream, putting forth an exclusionary vision of America and who belongs in it — one in which nuclear families are led by an all-powerful executive who is accountable to nothing and no one. The Claremont Institute, once fairly traditional, is now the self-styled intellectual MAGA brain trust. Michael Anton, a former Trump administration official and Claremont fellow, wrote about Bronze Age Pervert’s book for the Claremont Review of Books; his review noted he had been gifted a copy by Yarvin. 

Yarvin is by no means Vance’s only influence. As Politico’s Ian Ward has written, Vance’s worldview has been shaped by a variety of right-wing thinkers, including Catholic intellectual Patrick Deneen and French philosopher René Girard, but it’s also been affected by people like Thiel and Yarvin. If you strip away the veneer of respectability provided by Heritage and Claremont, the layers of irony behind which Yarvin hides his views, and the academic credentials of Vance’s other influences, the extreme nature of their proposals becomes impossible to ignore.

Vance is smart enough not to cite Yarvin in public now that he’s the vice presidential nominee, and he hasn’t publicly supported some of the blogger’s more repugnant views. But that doesn’t mean he’s not plugged in.

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This tiny Ryzen 9 PC can drive three, yes three, 8K monitors thanks to a low profile video card with a proper Geforce RTX 4060 GPU – but the best part is that it costs less than $1000 with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD

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Minisforum 790S7

Minisforum has launched a new lightweight mini ITX PC packed with powerful features and a sleek design.

The 790S7 is a seriously powerful bit of hardware – and what it boasts in features it more than matches in its compact design.

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Best refurbished laptop deals: How to find cheap computers

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Best refurbished laptop deals: How to find cheap computers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There is so much stuff that needs access to a computer these days that it’s almost necessary to have one to be able to do anything. Of course, not everybody wants to spend a ton of money on the newest and best laptops, which is why refurbished laptops are a great alternative. Not only are they generally cheaper, but most of the time, the worst thing about them is cosmetic damage, so it’s something that’s easy to overlook, especially if you aren’t going to be using it 24/7. Also, most refurbished laptops come with some form of guarantee, so even if there is some kind of issue, you can send it back and get a refund.

To that end, there are really great refurbished laptop sales that you can check out as part of Best Buy laptop deals, Dell laptop deals, HP laptop deals and Lenovo laptop deals. Alternatively, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, take a look at these refurbished MacBook deals, or if you still want to go for something new, you could consider checking out these laptop deals instead.

Best Buy refurbished laptops — starting at $120

Best Buy’s refurbished laptops are — you guessed it — Geek Squad Certified and while they may not be free and clear of absolutely all cosmetic scuffs they are still exceptionally clean and always in working order. Some of them even come with additional software like virus tools, streaming access, like Apple TV+, and much more. Of course, the best part is that you can get a premium and fully upgraded model for less, often with more storage, more power, and more features than you would when buying a base model brand new. You’ve got some great options from Lenovo, Acer, HP, Dell, Gateway, and even Apple to choose from. The cheapest models start around $120 and increase from there. The best way to know what’s available is to head over and browse for yourself.

Dell Latitude — starting at $239

Dell sometimes discounts laptops and machines, for varying reasons, including clearance deals of the week to make way for new stock. That’s pretty much the case with Dell’s Latitude models with the cheapest coming in around $189 up to $229 and above. There are a lot of different models, each with individual specifications and features, so you’ll have to sift through the list, especially if you know what you’re looking for already.

Amazon Renewed laptops — starting at $75

Like most other e-tailers, Amazon offers a host of renewed and refurbished systems, but here’s where it gets juicy. Amazon typically runs them through a proprietary renewal process which allows them to offer many laptops and computers at an even lower discounted price. This is another instance where you’ll have to head over and browse for yourself just because Amazon’s inventory is so absolutely massive. You have Chromebooks and older machines starting around $30 to $70, with some more powerful laptops in the running beyond $200 or so. Definitely take a look before you buy new, at the very least.

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Should you buy a refurbished laptop?

A refurbished laptop can be fantastic value for your money, but you need to look out for a few key things to make sure you don’t get ripped off. For instance, it’s vital that the refurbished laptop deals you check out are all factory refurbished, meaning the actual manufacturer repaired them. You’ll also want to make sure that the refurbished laptop has at least a 12-month warranty and that the refurbished laptop sales are from a reliable and reputable retailer.

If you stick to these things, then you should be safe. By following such ideals, you’ll ensure your refurbished laptop has been repaired by a company employee using factory parts, and the warranty means that if the same (or a different) issue pops up, you can have it repaired for free.

If you come across something that hasn’t been reconditioned in the same factory in which it was made but is still listed as certified refurbished, it’s still good to go. That tends to mean that it’s been as good as factory repaired by a professional who knows what they’re doing.

It’s sensible to stick to trusted retailers with a warranty and some form of guarantee as it avoids any chance of you accidentally buying stolen stock.

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As always, remember to use common sense. If the refurbished laptop deals you’re checking out look too good to be true, they probably are. Make sure you buy from a reputable seller so you won’t be disappointed by your purchase.

Finally, as with all laptops, it’s a good idea to know what to look for. Check out our laptop buying guide and take a look at 11 common laptop buying mistakes you can easily avoid.



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Google Flights gets new tab to find ‘Cheapest’ airfare

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Google Flights gets new tab to find ‘Cheapest’ airfare

Google Flights has received a new “Cheapest” tab. As the name suggests, it will allow Google Flights users to search for the lowest prices of airfares.

How to use the ‘Cheapest’ tab in the Google Flights app?

Google Flights is one of the most popular web destinations and apps to look for flights. Available for domestic and international air travel, Google Flights even shows the flights that are currently in the air.

Google allows travelers to hunt for flight tickets and airfares on the Google Flights app. Moving forward, users could quickly zero in on the cheapest airfares. In an official blog post, Google has confirmed that the Google Flights app is getting a new “Cheapest” tab.

Usually, when users search with Google Flights, the best options appear at the top of the results. This result is typically based on a mix of price and convenience. Needless to say, many travelers would prefer to compromise on convenience if it means cheaper flight tickets.

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Starting this week, Google Flights users will get a new ‘Cheapest’ tab. Travelers can enter their trip details into the app and tap on “Cheapest” tab to show more options with even lower prices.

How will Google offer the cheapest airfare?

Google Flights attempts to find a balance between good prices and other aspects that define air travel. Needless to add, dozens of conditions collectively decide the price of a flight ticket.

By optimizing these conditions, third-party booking sites can offer a lower price than the airline itself. Travelers can even save if they accept to return to a different airport (in the same city) from where they flew.

Some of the other aspects that Google Flights will consider include longer layovers, self-transfers, or purchasing different legs of the trip through multiple airlines or booking sites. In other words, Google will try to offer the lowest possible airfare by deprioritizing comfort, convenience, and other luxuries.

Travelers can look out for the ‘Cheapest’ tab in Google Flight starting this week. It appears Google has timed this feature to benefit travelers during the holiday season.

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