NEWSWORTHY
Takes one to know one. Speaking of Facebook, or former Facebookers, to be precise, co-founder Chris Hughes, who left the company in 2007, is starting a $10 million "anti-monopoly fund." Also with backing from George Soros' Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the Omidyar Network, the fund will invest in research and advocacy projects to oppose big tech as well as big pharma and other highly concentrated industries.
They paved paradise. They're not actually selling any electric cars yet, but the good folks at Ford want you to know that when they do (a sporty-looking electric crossover SUV is coming in 2020), they will also have a vast network of charging stations nationwide to rival Tesla's Supercharger network. The actual stations will be run by Greenlots and Electrify America, which also allow charging of multiple brands' vehicles, unlike Tesla.
All for the best. Maybe there was a reason room-sharing startup Airbnb decided not to go public this year. The company's net loss in the first quarter doubled to $306 million while its revenue increased 31% to $839 million.
Kinky boots. And you thought the Equifax settlement stunk? Shoe-seller Zappos will give the 24 million customers affected by its data breach...a 10% off coupon. Come to think of it, though, that could be worth more off a high-end pair of kicks than the ever-shrinking Equifax payout.
One small step for...people. As you read this, the first all-female space walk may still be ongoing. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch were scheduled to step out of the International Space Station just before 8 a.m. ET and work for five or six hours to replace a faulty battery unit. An earlier plan for a two-women space walk had to be postponed in March because of a lack of spacesuits to fit the astronauts. Check out the live feed on YouTube.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few longer reads that I came across this week that may be appealing for your weekend reading pleasure:
Kevin Smith Isn't Done Being Ridiculous Just Yet (Fortune)
More than a year after a near-fatal heart attack, the iconic indie filmmaker lovingly throws his backwards ball-cap in the satire ring with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
The Lines of Code That Changed Everything (Slate)
Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.
The Untold Story of the 2018 Olympics Cyberattack, the Most Deceptive Hack in History (Wired)
How digital detectives unraveled the mystery of Olympic Destroyer—and why the next big attack will be even harder to crack.
The Art of Sticking Around in the NBA (The Ringer)
How do you carve out a decade-long career without superstar talent? Kendrick Perkins, Jared Dudley, and a bunch of other longtime veteran players reveal their secrets to lasting in the NBA in six easy lessons.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If you listened only to the speeches of some financial regulators and bank CEOs, you might think that the whole point of digital currencies was to facilitate crime, terrorist financing, and other bad things. According to some recent law enforcement actions, however, digital currency leaves a trail that can lead to locking up the bad guys in ways that old-fashioned cash-based crimes never did. Lily Hay Newman explains in a piece for Wired how a child-porn ring was brought down by tracing bitcoin transactions across the Internet.
Law enforcement agents worked with the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis to map user transactions with Welcome to Video wallets and attempt to trace individuals who interacted with the site. Chainalysis says that during the three years it operated, Welcome to Video received almost $353,000 worth of bitcoin from thousands of transactions. By charting the web of Welcome to Video users' assigned wallets and the bitcoin wallets or exchanges they used, officials identified several US-based cryptocurrency exchanges that users had gone through to pay for their Welcome to Video viewing. US law requires cryptocurrency exchanges to collect customer information and verify their identities, meaning law enforcement can subpoena exchanges for these records.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Green, Nuclear and Crowdfunded: One Startup's Unconventional Route to Building a Novel Reactor By Mark Halper
Meet the Executive Leading Facebook's Big Augmented and Virtual Reality Push By Danielle Abril
Where Are the Boring EVs? By Andrew Moseman
TheMaven, the Media Company that Slashed Sports Illustrated, Lacks 'Sufficient Resources' By Scott Nover
Earnings Season Is Off to a Strong Start. Here Are This Week's Winners and Losers By Kevin Kelleher
Plant-Based Burgers May Be on the Rise, But Meat Consumption Is Higher Than Ever By Katherine Dunn
BEFORE YOU GO
We're still debating in our house when it's appropriate to start getting excited for various holidays. August and September are too early for pre-Halloween and there's certainly no turkey talk until after the candy and costume'fest. One former marker of the arrival of fall, Starbucks's pumpkin spice latte, must be ignored this year, as it arrived a week before Labor Day. Still, no sign of fading in the pumpkin spice category, which topped $500 million this year. Have a great weekend–and maybe try a cinnamon-flavored beverage.
Aaron Pressman
On Twitter:@ampressman
Email: aaron.pressman@fortune.com
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