P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #367

Camping out

my story 🚀

^{⛺️ I introduced our youngest child to the wonderful world of outdoor living (and sleeping) on her very first camping trip, and I’m pleased to report that she loved it!}

fun facts 🙌

When a Tesla robot learns to snowboard. What a world the future could be. ~ watch this

It’s amazing how many Americans think they live in the midwest when they don’t. I feel very ‘in group’-y for being from a place that’s unambiguously midwest. ~ learn more

The Phoenix burns trash down to ash. “The Phoenix can thermally reduce 4-8 tons of unsorted municipal solid waste – plastic, Styrofoam, food waste – into 3% ash every 24 hours. It operates without using fuel or producing toxic emissions, and at less than half the cost of landfill tipping fees.” ~ learn more

California’s giant redwoods thriving in the UK. “The trees, which were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California. The scientists believe the UK trees are also outnumbering the ones in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.” ~ learn more

oh, austin 🤠

Historic footage of Austin’s most popular swimming pool. Barton Springs Pool in the 1940s. ~ learn more

A wild decades-old idea for a futuristic city just east of Austin. “Is this developer's grand plan crazy? It depends who you ask. Nonetheless, bitcoin miners are in new buildings, dirt is turning and tenants are lining up at this massive site. Here's a bird's-eye view of the latest development.” ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

A super popular Linux library had a backdoor. “When your home has been broken into, you may not initially comprehend all that has been taken, or the damage that has been done. This is the state of apprehension the Linux community now feels with the recently-unearthed xz backdoor security vulnerability.” ~ learn more

Can Michael Dell cash in on the AI boom? This is a nice profile of the low-key tech CEO who’s been in the game longer than anyone. “If Dell isn’t a dynamic, headline-making speaker, it may be because he’s built this four-decade run on listening—deploying his analytical skills and deep curiosity to recognize what his customers need and to navigate his industry’s twists and turns.” ~ learn more

Negativity drives online news consumption. The researchers had access to a giant dataset of 22,743 randomized controlled trials thanks to headline A/B testing on Upworthy. “Although positive words were slightly more prevalent than negative words, we found that negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates).” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

20 years of experience or 1 year repeated 20 times? “How does one make sure that you do not end up as a one trick pony, a person with limited experience that you have simply repeated?” ~ learn more

Warren Buffett, Harry Bottle and the story of Dempster Mill. I have been reading Buffet’s early letters (pre-Berkshire) and this value investing story was in there. “In 1956, the Buffett Partnership began acquiring Dempster Mill Manufacturing Co., a producer of windmills and farm equipment in Beatrice, Nebraska, about 100 miles south of Omaha. The investment was recorded as a "general" because the stock was selling at $18 a share but had a book value of about $72.” ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Memories are made by breaking DNA and fixing it. What a breakthrough! This builds on the researcher’s 2021 finding that linked DNA breaks with learning. “When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows.” ~ learn more

The baffling intelligence of a single cell. “An individual E. coli has no brain, obviously, and is even many orders of magnitude simpler than a human cell, and yet already it possesses something like a sense of smell, drive, even a memory. Chemotaxis recasts E. coli not as some aimless gut-pest but rather as an exquisitely sophisticated physical computer.” ~ learn more

big ideas 📚

MethaneSAT. Oh, the things you can do from space. “The revolution of MethaneSAT is its ability to precisely measure methane levels with high spatial resolution over wide areas, allowing it to track all methane escaping from the production of oil and gas, including smaller, diffuse sources that account for most emissions in many regions – data essential to determine emission rates from a given geography.” ~ learn more

thanks for reading!