P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #403
A festive time of year
my story 🚀
fun facts 🙌
2015-2020 F150 headlight bulb replacement. I want to upgrade the bulbs for our truck, and a friend told me it is easy and I can just watch a youtube video to learn. I watched this video. I found this comment very relatable: “Video was great. In no time at all you taught me I need to take my truck and have someone else do it.” ~ learn more
Inside a Flexport 747. Air freight containers are not the same as shipping containers. Ryan Peterson, founder of Flexport, is on a roll making cool content. ~ learn more
Is this skiing’s e-bike? This is divisive, just like e-bikes were! “It works with a powertrain, a rubber tread system that runs under the ski, and a lightweight battery pack, giving backcountry skiers a boost as they schlep uphill. The relevant gizmos are attached before you head uphill. Then, when it’s time to ski, you throw those gizmos in your pack.” ~ learn more
oh, austin 🤠
Texas local governments are scamming property tax payers. “Public property isn’t taxed. And, he said, there are several under-the-radar government agencies across the state that, for a few hundred thousand dollars, will attach their name to a building deed, deleting its entire tax obligation overnight. All Kelley had to do was promise to reserve some housing units as “affordable” – a flexible term that, thanks to a flattening market, might even mean keeping rents close to regular rates.” ~ learn more or try here if paywalled
tech, startups, internet ⚡
An open source AI agent framework. “Eliza is a powerful multi-agent simulation framework designed to create, deploy, and manage autonomous AI agents. Built with TypeScript, it provides a flexible and extensible platform for developing intelligent agents that can interact across multiple platforms while maintaining consistent personalities and knowledge.” Released by the DAO ai16z, unaffiliated with the VC firm a16z. ~ learn more
The Google Willow thing. You may have seen the announcement about Google’s latest quantum computer. “Scientifically, the headline result is that, as they increase the size of their surface code, from 3×3 to 5×5 to 7×7, Google finds that their encoded logical qubit stays alive for longer rather than shorter. So, this is a very important threshold that’s now been crossed.” ~ learn more
Tesla’s Optimus robot — still wow. “These runs are on mulched ground, where I’ve myself slipped before. What’s really crazy here is that for these, Optimus is actually blind! Keeping its balance without video (yet), only other on-board sensors consumed by a neural net running in ~2-3ms on its embedded computer.” ~ learn more
Online travel industry deep dive. “So, in this update, I focus on 3 fundamental questions: How has the travel industry changed since June? What works in Organic Growth for OTAs right now? What are newcomers doing well?” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
An open letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Several very good and critical points within. “I have been selling on Amazon for over 10 years, my company has paid yours well over $24 million dollars, and your attorneys have deposed me for 8 hours. The problem with Amazon turning to shit is that you're taking us and countless other Amazon sellers down with you...” ~ learn more
The strategy that brought Adidas back from the bring. “Adidas has mounted one of the more remarkable turnarounds in recent memory after facing a crisis two years ago from the end of its Yeezy business. BoF spoke to chief executive Bjørn Gulden and other members of Adidas’ leadership to unpack how a series of bold decisions on products like its Samba sneaker, a move to refocus the brand on athletes and internal shifts brought Adidas back from the brink.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Fish have a brain microbiome. “Recently, a study published in Science Advances provided the strongest evidence yet that a brain microbiome can and does exist in healthy vertebrates — fish, specifically. Researchers at the University of New Mexico discovered communities of bacteria thriving in salmon and trout brains. Many of the microbial species have special adaptations that allow them to survive in brain tissue, as well as techniques to cross the protective blood-brain barrier.” Two implications: 1) we may have one too; 2) those microbes may be influencing our actions (like our gut microbes already do). ~ learn more
Don’t throw away your printed books. “Although the current results suggest that paper-based reading should be favoured over digital-based reading, it is unrealistic to recommend avoiding digital devices. Nevertheless, ignoring the evidence of a robust screen inferiority effect may mislead political and educational decisions, and even worse, it could prevent readers from fully benefiting from their reading comprehension abilities and keep children from developing these skills in the first place.” ~ learn more
How much faith should you put into light therapy? I am generally slow to come around on newfangled popular wellness fads, which include infrared/red light therapy. “In this study we present the up-to-dated evidence about the effects of PBMT, i.e., low-intensity laser therapy and red and/or infrared low-intensity light-emitting diode therapy, on pain control of the most common musculoskeletal conditions.” ~ learn more
teaching the kids 👩🏫
The goal is to raise kids who can figure things out. “It’s tempting to give them the answers. Sometimes, it’s even fun. It makes everything go faster, smoother, and lets you get back to what you were doing. But you can’t. You just can’t.” ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
Lying for a climate crusade. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission is on a mission that has nothing to do with safety… This was a clear-cut case of science being brandished for activism, and judging by the paper’s reception in the popular press and on social media, this obviously slapdash and compromised work was happily received.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
Tether, the preferred money laundering tool of drug traffickers. “A money laundering organization allegedly connected to large seizures of cocaine inside the United States and works with cartels in Mexico and Colombia has moved at least tens of millions of dollars using a string of front businesses, cash drop-offs, and massive transfers of cryptocurrency, according to recently unsealed court records reviewed by 404 Media.” ~ learn more