Beloved NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation," starring Amy Poehler, returned Thursday during the coronavirus outbreak for a special to benefit Feeding America.

Manchester United fans are desperate to see Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes play together at Old Trafford.

INVERNESS Caley Thistle brought Celtic’s perfect Premiership start to a shuddering halt with a last-gasp leveller in the Highland capital.

NEGRONIS are a popular Italian cocktail and a great way to toast the sunshine or enjoy as an aperitif. Here's how to make a classic Negroni.

"I know he is going to do a great job of continuing to move Indiana athletics in the right direction," Steve Alford said of Scott Dolson.

George Faerber still holds 17 records from his high school career, including a game with 52 points and 32 rebounds.

Chef Jonathan Brooks knows his new restaurant Beholder has a big act to follow. Milktooth put Indianapolis' food scene on the map.

8 Tips To Make Your Listing Picture Perfect

Sheltering in Place? Keep Your Business Humming with...

• As the coronavirus-led economic shutdown drags on, many investors have started counseling startups to have more than a years' worth of "runway" to avoid having to raise funding on poor terms.
• But VCs are split on how much startups should be socking away. Some have estimated 18 months oof reserves could suffice, while others say as much as 3 years' worth of runway is ideal.
• The different time frames depends on the age of the startup along with which industry they operate in. Younger startups typically have fewer overhead expenses, while older startups likely have more employees and pricey office leases.
• Also, those companies that may be able to resume work as essential services may need less cash if they are able to generate revenue.
• VCs are uniformly bracing for an economic slowdown, but the severity of downturn is still up for debate. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Startups are facing what could become the worst economic downturn in several decades, and VCs are begging them to take drastic measures to improve their chances of making it through. 

Most Americans who lived through the 2008 financial crisis will know that a savings stockpile or rainy day fund can mean the difference between surviving and thriving during tough times, but as recent studies have shown, many tech startups and VC firms don't have a similar first-hand experience; many have only known boom times and are now venturing into uncharted waters.

One thing VCs agree on is that startups need to quickly rein in growth plans — ideally as soon as yesterday — and start scrutinizing expenses. Anything nonessential should be cut or suspended indefinitely, headcount should be reduced, and pricey office leases eliminated if possible, all with the goal of extending a startup's "runway."

In Silicon Valley, runway refers to how much cash a startup has on hand to put against its operating expenses. If, for example, a startup has roughly $100,000 in monthly operating expenses and has $1 million in the bank, they are looking at a 10-month runway, assuming revenue stays roughly flat.

In the days before the coronavirus pandemic, a startup's runway dictated when it had to start looking for additional funding. Instead of cutting expenses, the popular solution was to simply put more VC money in the bank. This helped high flying startups like Uber and Airbnb expand at a breakneck pace — VC dollars kept pouring in and the companies remained unprofitable as they chased growth at all costs.

But now, VCs are saying that's no longer an option. Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois said on a podcast recently that profitability is now being rewarded much more than high-growth. 

For startups that aren't profitable, that means hunkering down and ensuring there are enough reserves to last through the crisis.

So how long does the runway need to be? 

Many VCs that Business Insider has spoken to are advising their startups to have at least 18 months of runway. But some VCs say startups should have upwards of 3 years' of expenses saved up. 

The length of time can vary depending on the startup, one investor told Business Insider, pointing to the startup's age and industry as important factors. An early-stage company with a handful of employees and low-overhead costs might easily stretch a $500,000 seed check, whereas a growth-stage biotech startup with hundreds of employees, expensive hardware, and pricey office space might struggle to make tens of millions of dollars in funding make it through 12 months. Those that can't cut costs will be forced to fundraise with poor terms and risk the dreaded downround. 

"You can always easily dial back up the aggressiveness and risk profile if we get more optimistic visibility, but if you don't take action right away — to preserve capital, cut your burn rate, have fundamentally attractive unit economics, edit the product to make more sense in the new world order — if you don't do those right away, the opportunity to do those things and survive is probably lost forever," Rabois said in the April Talkshow broadcast.

Rabois is in the camp of pessimists, generally speaking, who think the economic downturn will not only drag on through 2020, but could eventually turn into an economic depression the likes of which could rival the Great Depression of the 1930s. He said that his VC peers are starting to rein in the freewheeling deal-making that has defined the last two decades of the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, and are now treading cautiously. It's time that startups do the same, he said.

SEE ALSO: Lower valuations and a long wait for funding: Two top early-stage VCs dish on how they are counseling startups to withstand long-term economic uncertainty

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

Zoom has become a way of life for some people as of late (despite, uh, some safety concerns), especially when it comes to work meetings. Whether it's a company-wide all hands or a team check-in, it's likely that if you're working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, you've had to see your coworkers' shining faces in a video call. 

Actor, writer, and Groundlings comedian Caitlin Reilly perfectly encapsulated that one co-worker you just can't stand during these video meetings:

It's so relevant it hurts. Who hasn't heard the phrase "to piggyback off of" during one of these calls?

The inspiration behind the 'tok was experiences Reilly had sitting in Zoom meetings on behalf of her boss. "I had actually never been in a zoom meeting before, so it was funny for me to see all the different 'personality' types in a situation like that," Reilly told Mashable. "And so it popped in my head one day and I just made the video." Read more...

6 May 2020

6 May 2020

Consider these scenarios. Scandal A: A prominent politician gets caught sleeping with a campaign aide and plunges himself into an ugly paternity dispute -- all while his cancer-stricken wife is fighting for her life.

London : D. Bogue, 1881.

Paris : Baudouin, 1803.

Sarat B. Moka, Dirk P. Kroese.

Source: Bernoulli, Volume 26, Number 3, 2082--2104.

Abstract:
We present a perfect sampling algorithm for Gibbs point processes, based on the partial rejection sampling of Guo, Jerrum and Liu (In STOC’17 – Proceedings of the 49th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing (2017) 342–355 ACM). Our particular focus is on pairwise interaction processes, penetrable spheres mixture models and area-interaction processes, with a finite interaction range. For an interaction range $2r$ of the target process, the proposed algorithm can generate a perfect sample with $O(log(1/r))$ expected running time complexity, provided that the intensity of the points is not too high and $Theta(1/r^{d})$ parallel processor units are available.

A doctor on Manitoulin Island is encouraging seasonal residents to stay home and not to come visit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where are they from? Why are they there? Crates full of steel-toe boots showed up at the Yellowknife dump last week. Now they're almost gone.

OM Mexico meets with young people seeking to serve God in missions during Expomision in Sonora, Mexico.

Professional experience as a teacher and personal relationships on the field equipped one long-term worker to teach at a start-up English-speaking school.

Property index exchange-traded fund Proptrax is a cheap and easy way to gain exposure to the property market, says an analyst.

One of the loveliest towns in Italy is the walled city of San Gimignano, an hour’s drive from Florence. When I first visited it was bleak midwinter and all but a few shops and cafes were shuttered against the sleet. Its claim to fame is a profusion of medieval towers, hence its hyperbolic label as the Manhattan of Tuscany. When I arrived these fortresses soared overhead, making shadowy streets even darker.

Amazon still has some nice deals right now on Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets — up to $30 off, plus $5 in ebook credits on select purchases, and 3 months of Kindle Unlimited for $0.99.

While lockdown has seen some people turn to DIY, it doesn't all have to be on the home or garden.

Apple doesn't release products early; it releases them when supporting technologies are ready.

David’s role on the Riverboat is to act as a homeless man. In reality, he is acting out a familiar life he used to lead.

For UEFA European Under-17 Championship tournament ambassador John O'Shea, winning this competition with the Republic of Ireland in 1998 paved the way for a glittering career.

All you can do is opt for chia seed pudding, a healthier alternative to the regular puddings; and to up your game, add some summer fruits to it.

With the country remaining under a lockdown due to coronavirus, the supply chain of essential goods has been disrupted, but, the same has also presented the government with an opportunity to identify and plug those gaps.

MapmyIndia says it has a solution that tells the exact range of an electric car, as it is being driven

There are a number of other hill-stations, excluding the popular ones, which you can consider if you are looking for a perfect weekend getaway. These places, being less travelled, will keep you away from the hustle-bustle and possibly give you the relaxation you have been looking for.

In other words, the book espouses a clear philosophy of hope that Panagariya holds dear and an action plan for sustained growth in the years ahead, in a manner that seems internally consistent.

It’s always good to hear what real users think of products. Here is a very detailed review (~4000 words) by an Anonymous user, nick named Ant-Man (from the movie). Overall it’s a very strong endorsement of Perspec, and summarize...(read more)

Given the diverse benefits that microgrids provide – reductions in energy costs, business risk, and carbon emissions, and increases in resiliency and power reliability – one wonders why discussion of microgrids has only started to take off recently.

Given the diverse benefits that microgrids provide – reductions in energy costs, business risk, and carbon emissions, and increases in resiliency and power reliability – one wonders why discussion of microgrids has only started to take off recently.

Care Technology provides technological solutions to the needs of customers through innovations like energy-efficient LED lighting and transportable heat sources that operate without power racks or induction heaters. We spoke to co-founder Belinda Wong about the production of their sustainable offerings and the benefits of green technology.

Given the diverse benefits that microgrids provide – reductions in energy costs, business risk, and carbon emissions, and increases in resiliency and power reliability – one wonders why discussion of microgrids has only started to take off recently.

Finding your .com for your business is easier than you may think! You want a .com domain name for your business, right? That’s really not surprising to hear, considering that marketing and branding experts agree that the .com top-level domain (TLD) is still the best to build your brand.1 Wonder why that is? For more […]

The post 5 Simple Tips to Finding Your Perfect .com Domain Name (Plus 2 Bonus Ones!) appeared first on Verisign Blog.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Set in 1954, “Liberty Heights” is the fourth and final installment of Levinson’s “Baltimore movies,” which began with “Diner” in 1982 and includes both “Tin Men” (1987) and “Avalon” (1990).

Baristas normally aim to grind coffee finely to maximise surface area and extract the most coffee compounds, but a mathematical analysis has found that coarse grounds are better as they reduce clogging

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos