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In This Week’s Newley’s Notes: Space Archaeology (!), Notebook Nerdery, Plus-Size Male Models and More

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Hi friends,

Thanks for reading Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter where I share my WSJ stories, posts from my blog, and various interesting links.

I’m back after an excellent week off that included seeing friends, lounging on the beach, and reading some fantastic books — real, old-fashioned, paper books! Among them: Jonathan Franzen’s newest novel, “Purity,” which I absolutely loved for its vivid characters and plot lines that span decades.

On to this week’s update:

What I wrote in The Wall Street Journal:

Blackstone to Buy HP Enterprise’s Stake in Mphasis — HP Enterprise stands to make about $825 million on the deal, selling its stake in the Indian outsourcer. Private equity titan Blackstone, meanwhile, is showing their optimism in outsourcing even as the industry faces big challenges.

Singapore’s Garena Raises New Funds, Valuing It at $3.75 Billion — In this exclusive, I wrote about the Southeast Asia-focused online gaming and e-commerce company’s newest fundraising, showing investors’ confidence that it will continue to grow. Click through a video, narrated by yours truly.

Online Auctioning Made Easier With Asia-Based Apps — My colleague and I wrote about the rise of consumer-to-consumer shopping apps, like Singapore’s Carousell and Shopee and Japan’s Mercari. This one also has a video.

5 items that are worth your time this week:

1. Various non-fiction filmmakers tell The Guardian about their favorite documentaries. There are fifty interesting films on this list, many new to me.

2. A graffiti artist in Cairo recently unveiled a fascinating piece that spans dozens of buildings. Very cool.

3. I am a huge notebook nerd, and I enjoyed this roundup of 16 well-known designers displaying photos of their favorite notebooks. (Via the always-fun Notebook Stories blog.)

4. A space archaeologist — yes, you read that right — at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined high-altitude infrared images, discovering what might be the “holy grail” of Viking landmarks: a second settlement in North America.

5. Quote of the week: “Men want to see normal-looking guys modelling their clothes.” That’s from plus-size male model Zach Miko, the first such model signed to IMG. (Thanks, Anasuya!)

Have a great week!

— @Newley

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