P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #360
American optimism
my story 🚀
🖊️ I had a chance to visit the Tactile Turn pen and pocket knife factory where they machine quality US-made products from metals ranging from aluminum to zirconium. This brand started almost a decade ago with a kickstarter campaign and continues to delight customers with high quality US-made products. What was on the minds of the machinists? Tolerances, expressed as a number of thou, increments of 0.001 inch. Tolerances are the allowed room for error in size, above which the part won’t fit right. The first thing I did with my new pen when I came home? Draw this extra-long cow, with very liberal tolerances.
Mooooooving on…
i’ve been thinking 💭
The scientific news I read this week, some of which made it into the Under the Microscope section below, has me overflowing with optimism. I even had to hold back a mind-boggling link because I didn’t want to overdo it. Please take a moment to digest some of the amazing work being done by the world’s scientists to explore the frontiers of biology and medicine.
fun facts 🙌
Anchovy sex is a force of nature. ““Every night and without any apparent reason, we were seeing very, very high levels of turbulence,” says Castro, a physical oceanographer at England’s University of Southampton. Castro and his colleagues eventually traced the source of all this mixing: the frothing free-for-all of an anchovy orgy.” ~ learn more
The euthanasia coaster. Umm… “The Euthanasia Coaster is the name given to a hypothetical steel roller coaster designed with the sole purpose of killing its passengers: a euthanasia device.” ~ learn more
Chernobyl’s mutant wolves have developed cancer resistance? “The researchers discovered that Chernobyl wolves are exposed to upwards of 11.28 millirem of radiation every day for their entire lives - which is more than six times the legal safety limit for a human. Dr Love found the wolves have altered immune systems similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment, but more significantly she also identified specific parts of the animals' genetic information that seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Don’t worry about AI-based disinformation this election cycle. “It's possible to make fake videos of politicians that will fool some people, at least some of the time. But a disproportionate share of this content will be consumed by people who have already made up their minds. Platforms are dialing back political content generally, which will affect the fakes as well as the real ones. And the most effective deepfakes will be the ones that are close to plausible, making them a modern version of the age-old practice of trial balloons.” ~ learn more
Entropy theory. Several years ago Packy McCormick explained his theory of industry: “Entropy Theory explains industry evolution as a story of ever-increasing chaos and suggests that the most successful businesses are those that use the latest technology to wrangle that chaos, until entropic forces unleash the next set of opportunities.” I’m a sucker for all things entropy, so this is cool. I am not yet sure how useful it is beyond the existing concept of the bundling-unbundling cycle. Open to hearing your opinions! ~ learn more
A quant winter’s tale. This might include the best explanation of factor investing I’ve seen yet. “If you throw a rock anywhere in AQR’s surprisingly dowdy headquarters in Greenwich, chances are high you’ll hit a University of Chicago graduate, and at least decent that they’ll have a PhD or MBA from the high cathedral of financial economics.” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Just keep coming back. This is about tennis, and also about more than tennis. “The key to successful tennis is to just keep coming back to the moment, no matter what! You cannot think about the mistake you just made or worry about the future. You have to just focus on precisely what you are doing in the moment and nothing else.” ~ learn more
Your calendar doesn’t lie. “In short, he [Marcus Aurelius] was like a lot of us who claim that our family comes first, that there’s no one more important to us…but then we promptly put so many other things before them. Sometimes that stuff is life or death or matters of making a living. Sometimes it’s not nearly so essential (although we tell ourselves it is).” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
The future 100: 2024 edition. “Be future-ready and dive into 100 micro trends spanning culture creativity and connection. Join us as we take you on a journey into tomorrow’s world; a world where in the face of a bewildering amount of new technology, people are craving authentic human interaction more than ever before.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Scientists see hope for curing autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, the body attacks its own cells. That poses a problem because stopping the attack also comes with lowering the body’s immunities against foreign invaders. Some recent understanding of cellular function, supported by clinical trial results, is promising. “If scientists could calm or eliminate the malfunctioning cells — restoring tolerance to specific antigens — they could treat the disease without hampering the immune system’s ability to respond to real threats.” ~ learn more
CAR-T cells as senolytics to fight aging. It’s hard not to get excited about the cutting edge lab results that the ability to edit DNA has unlocked. “If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate. If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this,” says Amor Vegas. ~ learn more
A protein to restore memories lost to Alzheimer’s. There’s a protein that’s found in the kidney and brain that’s cleverly called KIBRA. “Kauwe, Pareja-Navarro et al. identify a KIBRA-dependent mechanism to repair the plasticity at synapses that is dysregulated in neurons underlying the loss of memory in tauopathy.” And from the researcher: “Our work supports the possibility that KIBRA could be used as a therapy to improve memory after the onset of memory loss, even though the toxic protein that caused the damage remains.” ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
Algae cooking oil. This seems novel. It’s supported by Chef Daniel Humm, the chef behind Eleven Madison Park who turned his restaurant vegan and managed to keep his three Michelin stars. “Cooking oils are comprised of different fats, but not all fats are equal. Algae cooking oil has the highest composition of healthy Omega-9 fat, equivalent to that of one avocado per serving.” ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
The unstoppable rise of batteries. Six charts that tell a story about batteries. Sales are growing on an S-curve as costs keep falling, enabling new use cases and fueling further increases in demand and decreases in cost. The report concludes that this trend will reduce fossil fuel demand — faster than we expect. ~ learn more
Palmer Luckey makes his point. “How far might we be if supposedly learned elites didn't use the power of words to attack the power of technologist-driven technology?” ~ learn more
profiles of people 🚶
WSJ profiles the Glucose Goddess, Jessie Inchauspé. “More of a philosophy than a diet, the Glucose Goddess approach consists of “hacks” meant to minimize blood-sugar spikes. Proponents say that following its guidance can help people think more clearly, have more energy and reduce cravings. Crucially, the method isn’t about losing weight, says its creator, a French biochemist named Jessie Inchauspé. Followers don’t need to cut out carbs or count points. Instead, they’re advised to consider food groups and the order in which they consume them.” ~ learn more
excellent stuff, as always, Pavel. 🙏