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Mallard Bay is an Airbnb where you can enjoy guided hunting and fishing

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A study by the U.S. Fish and Hunting Administration found that in 2022 alone, Americans spent over $144.8 billion on fishing and hunting. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Guided hunts and fishing tours make up a big a part of the industry, but have largely remained offline. Reservations are made by phone and paid by check or money. Mallard Bay wants to vary that.

The Houston-based startup is a marketplace for hunting and fishing consumers who can find and book guided trips the identical way they book a hotel online. Mallard Bay is also a vertical SaaS platform that enables providers themselves to maneuver their facilities online and provide additional services comparable to marketing.

The startup announced a $4.6 million Series A this week led by Soul Venture Partners with participation from existing investor Acadian Capital Ventures and other angel investors. Logan Meaux, co-founder and CEO of Mallard Bay, told TechCrunch that he got here up with the thought for the corporate after a failed hunting trip together with his dad when he was still in college. He thought he had booked a three-day guided duck hunt in Oklahoma. When they showed up, they found that the hunt was double-booked and the one option was to hunt for sooner or later with 13 other people. Meaux never fired a single shot.

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At the time, Meaux was working for his father’s startup Waitr, which had raised $24 million in enterprise capital before leaving in 2018, and thought he could start his own company. In 2019, he and two other co-founders started working. The original idea was to easily create a marketplace like Airbnb where people could book guided hunts. When the corporate began asking outfitters and guides what they thought in regards to the idea, they realized they would wish to bring along more people to get guides to sign the contract. This led them to begin creating Guidetech, Mallard Bay’s back office solution for equipment suppliers.

“(Equipment dealers) were open to the idea, they knew they wanted to keep up with the times, but by nature, equipped people are not business owners first and foremost,” Meaux said. “They began as guides, do what they love and construct a business based on passion. (Because) we’re keen about not only the outside and hunting and fishing, but in addition the software space, we sort of brought that knowledge to them in that space to inform them, ‘Hey, if you’re going to make this modification, we’ That’s what guys are for.”

After the corporate invited Toby Brohlin, a hunting influencer, to the platform, more outfitters began signing up. Meux said Brohlin has booked greater than $1 million in gross bookings. The platform as an entire enabled over $6 million in gross bookings in 2023 and is on course to succeed in $30 million to $35 million in 2024.

Despite the corporate’s market size and popularity, Meaux said it was difficult to persuade investors to sign on – the corporate spoke to greater than 270 investors to take part in this round – because investors didn’t understand the category or its potential. The startup also needed to take care of people’s negative perception of hunting and assure potential sponsors that it was not a platform for booking exotic hunting trips to Africa. Another key point the founders desired to share with investors: ethical hunting and fishing actually helps protect nature, which is something the corporate is keen about.

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“The only thing about hunting and fishing is being a conservationist,” Meaux said. “It just comes with the territory because ultimately, once our parents have shown us how to do something, we want our children to be able to do the same things. If there are no sustainable practices, sustainable wildlife management, overpopulation is detrimental to wildlife overall.”

Mallard Bay co-founders, from left: Wyatt Mallett, Logan Meaux, Joel Moreau and Tam Nguyen. Image credits: Mallard Bay

While I’m not a hunter myself and only fish occasionally, Mallard Bay’s offering caught my eye because I can’t say I often hear about hunting or fishing within the startup and tech ecosystem. Hunting SaaS is an interesting concept! And it isn’t even the one hunting-related company to boost funding recently: HLRBO, an online platform that makes it easier to seek out hunting land leases, raised a $1 million seed round in February.

What’s also notable is how much Mallard has been in a position to grow since its 2021 launch. Bookings at Mallard Bay are up 600% year-on-year, which is impressive in any category, but notable in a category like hunting and fishing that seems relatively area of interest. As I said earlier, wealth is present in niches – probably because area of interest markets are never as small as they may initially seem.

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People within the US spent over $394 billion for outdoor activities – including hunting and fishing, but in addition mountain climbing, bird watching and more – but a lot of these industries still largely operate offline or depend on low-quality and difficult-to-navigate technology. I experienced this last month once I was trying to seek out parking to go on a hike to Sedona, Arizona’s extremely popular Devil’s Bridge Trail. I had to assemble information from multiple blogs to see if I even needed a parking permit.

There are also case studies outside Mallard Bay that show outdoor applications are in high demand from customers. Strava, an application aimed toward runners and cyclists, boasts over 100 million users. Apps that connect individuals who share outdoor activities, comparable to fishing, are also seeing a number of traction. Fishbrain, a social app for fishermen, has recorded over 14 million fish catches in its 12-year history.

As for Meaux, he knows how big this area can be and despite the progress to this point, he believes there is still a number of market to capture and more opportunities to construct into Guidetech.

“I like to say we’ve had some success, but we’re not there yet,” Meaux said. “And that’s what I learned along the way from my dad. In his companies, even after he left, there was still work to be done.”

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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Black Memphis Community claims that she is besieged from the pollution emitted by the new supercomputer Elon Muska

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The new Elon Musk project in the amount of $ 6 billion in artificial intelligence in Memphis, Tennessee raises the fears of some residents and environmental supporters who claim that it reflects wider tensions between the rapid expansion of the technology industry and its impact on local communities.

According to residents and conservators in the south -western Memphis, where the object – Nicknamed “Colossus” – is positioned, positioned, Expressed worries The website emissions can affect each public health and the surrounding environment.

Although Musk, through his company, XAI, promised to cut back dangerous emissions, the approach to power supply doesn’t leave room for such limits that ought to be used, local experts say.

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Gas turbines, which largely supply the object, emit various nitrogen and formaldehyde oxides as by -products, together with other substances that help weaken the exhausting ozone layer, and the inhabitants largely black, mainly the staff’ Boxtown community in Boxtown, say, they are saying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8RU4DV2W8Q

Similar to reporting from the data center of 4 million square feet planned for construction Virtually in the Alabamian courtyards, who had nothing to say of their construction, the Musk project was carried out no matter the inhabitants of Memphis and is based on Luce for temporary turbines, whose environmental groups will not be really applicable to the Musk company, and the inhabitants are increasingly nervous that lack of take care of their health and well -being.

As Sarah Gladney, a resident living three miles from the extensive object and has a state of lungs, said: “Our health has never been taken into account, the safety of our communities has never been, never, was never considered.”

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Memphis, like many other communities throughout the country – including rural counties in Alabama – is challenges related to environmental protection after regulatory changes during Trump’s administration, which alleviated the control of pollution and moved specializing in the issue of environmental justice. At the same time, support for emerging technologies was increased, akin to artificial intelligence, an area particularly interesting by Elon Musk.

Mayor of Memphis Paul Young He expressed support In the case of a Muska project, emphasizing the potential economic advantages and tax revenues. However, some residents are concerned about the environmental risk that development may be for the community.

“We look, it’s an opportunity to completely transform our economy,” said Young. This “the game is changing.”

This characteristics attracted the anger of the open representative of Tennessee Justin Pearson, a democrat who lives near the object. Rep. Pearson criticized each the lack of necessities for permission to the object and the proposed economic advantages for the inhabitants of Memphis in his comments to CNN.

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“It’s a real gas plant in the middle of the neighborhood and you don’t need any permission?” Rep. Pearson said. “Something drastically and significantly disappointed in our control system and balances.”

He continued: “If you look at where these data centers support, it is always in poor communities”, in keeping with the legislator, there is no “hope” that the federal government will help them protect them.

(Tagstranslate) memphis

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Why the new Porn Law Anti-Revenge disturbs experts on freedom

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Proponents of privacy and digital rights increase the alarms over the law, which many would expect to support: federal repression of pornography of revenge and deep cabinets generated by AI.

The newly signed Act on Take IT Down implies that the publishing of unjustified clear photos-vigorous or generated AI-I gives platforms only 48 hours to follow the request to remove the victim or face responsibility. Although widely praised as an extended win for victims, experts also warned their unclear language, loose standards for verification of claims, and a decent compatibility window can pave the way for excessive implementation, censorship of justified content and even supervision.

“Large -scale model moderation is very problematic and always ends with an important and necessary assessment speech,” said India McKinney, Federal Director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a corporation of digital rights.

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Internet platforms have one 12 months to determine a means of removing senseless intimate images (NCII). Although the law requires that the request to be removed comes from victims or their representatives, he only asks for a physical or electronic signature – no photo identifier or other type of verification is required. This might be geared toward reducing barriers for victims, but it could possibly create the possibility of abuse.

“I really want to be wrong in this, but I think there will be more requests to take photos of Queer and trance people in relationships, and even more, I think it will be consensual porn,” said McKinney.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a co-person of the Take IT Down Act, also sponsored the Safety Act for youngsters, which puts a burden on platforms to guard children from harmful online content. Blackburn said he believed Content related to transgender individuals It is harmful to children. Similarly, the Heritage Foundation – conservative Think Tank behind the 2025 project – also has he said that “keeping the content away from children protects children.”

Due to the responsibility with which they encounter platforms, in the event that they don’t take off the image inside 48 hours of receiving the request: “By default it will be that they simply take it off without conducting an investigation to see if it is NCII or whether it is another type of protected speech, or whether it is even important for the person who submits the application,” said McKinney.

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Snapchat and Meta said that they support the law, but none of them answered TechCrunch’s request for more information on how they’d check if the person asking for removal is a victim.

Mastodon, a decentralized platform, which hosts his own flagship server, to which others can join, told Techcrunch that he could be inclined to remove if he was too difficult to confirm the victim.

Mastodon and other decentralized platforms, comparable to blues or pixfed, could be particularly exposed to the cold of the 48-hour removal rule. These networks are based on independently supported servers, often run by non -profit organizations or natural individuals. Under the law, FTC may treat any platform that is just not “reasonably consistent” with demands of removal as “unfair or deceptive action or practice” – even when the host is just not a business subject.

“It’s disturbing on his face, but especially when he took the FTC chair unprecedented Steps to politicize The agency and clearly promised to make use of the agency’s power to punish platforms and services on ideologicalIn contrast to the rules, the basics, “cyberspace initiative, a non -profit organization dedicated to the end of pornography of revenge, she said in statement.

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Proactive monitoring

McKinney predicts that the platforms will start moderating content before distribution, so in the future they’ve fewer problematic posts.

Platforms already use artificial intelligence to observe harmful content.

Kevin Guo, general director and co -founder of the content detection startup, said that his company cooperates with web platforms to detect deep materials and sexual materials of kids (CSAM). Some of the Hive clients are Reddit, Giphy, Vevo, BlueSky and Bereal.

“In fact, we were one of the technology companies that supported this bill,” said Guo Techcrunch. “This will help solve some quite important problems and force these platforms to take more proactive solutions.”

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The HIVE model is software as a service, so starting doesn’t control how the platforms use their product to flag or delete content. But Guo said that many shoppers insert the API Hive interface when sent to monitoring before anything is distributed to the community.

Reddit spokesman told Techcrunch that the platform uses “sophisticated internal tools, processes and teams for solving and removal”. Reddit also cooperates with the NON -SWGFL organization in an effort to implement the Stopncia tool, which scans live traffic seeking matches with a database of known NCII and removes accurate fittings. The company didn’t share how it is going to be sure that the person asking for removal is a victim.

McKinney warns that this kind of monitoring can expand to encrypted messages in the future. Although the law focuses on public or semi -public dissemination, it also requires the platforms “removing and making reasonable efforts to prevent” senseless intimate images from re -translating. He claims that this will likely encourage proactive scanning of all content, even in encrypted spaces. The law doesn’t contain any sculptors for encrypted services of encrypted messages, comparable to WhatsApp, Signal or IMessage.

Meta, Signal and Apple didn’t answer TechCrunch for more details about their plans for encrypted messages.

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Wider implications of freedom of speech

On March 4, Trump provided a joint address to the congress, wherein he praised the Take It Down act and said he couldn’t wait to sign it.

“And I also intend to use this bill for myself if you don’t mind,” he added. “There is nobody who is treated worse than I do online.”

While the audience laughed at the comment, not everyone considered it a joke. Trump was not ashamed of suppressing or retarding against unfavorable speech, no matter whether it’s the mainstream marking “enemies of individualsExcept for Associated Press from the oval office despite the court order or Financing from NPR and PBS.

Trump administration on Thursday Barred Harvard University From the reception of foreign students, the escalation of the conflict, which began after Harvard refused to follow Trump’s demands to make changes to his curriculum and eliminate, amongst others, content related to Dei. In retaliation, Trump froze federal funds at Harvard and threatened to repeal the status of the tax exemption from the university.

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“At a time when we see that school councils are trying to prohibit books and see that some politicians very clearly deal with the types of content that people do not want to ever see, regardless of whether it is a critical theory of breed, or information about abortion or information about climate change …” McKinney said.

(Tagstotransate) Censorship

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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PO clarous Director General Zoom also uses AI avatar during a quarterly connection

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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan

General directors at the moment are so immersed in artificial intelligence that they send their avatars to cope with quarterly connections from earnings as a substitute, a minimum of partly.

After AI Avatar CEO CEO appeared on the investor’s conversation firstly of this week, the final director of Zoom Eric Yuan also followed them, also Using his avatar for preliminary comments. Yuan implemented his non -standard avatar via Zoom Clips, an asynchronous company video tool.

“I am proud that I am one of the first general directors who used the avatar in a call for earnings,” he said – or fairly his avatar. “This is just one example of how Zoom shifts the limits of communication and cooperation. At the same time, we know that trust and security are necessary. We take seriously the content generated AI and build strong security to prevent improper use, protect the user’s identity and ensure that avatars are used responsibly.”

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Yuan has long been in favor of using avatars at meetings and previously said that the corporate goals to create Digital user twins. He just isn’t alone on this vision; The CEO of transcript -powered AI, apparently, trains its own avatar Share the load.

Meanwhile, Zoom said he was doing it Avatar non -standard function available To all users this week.

(Tagstranslat) meetings AI

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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