my story 🚀
🔬 In the year 2025, the FDA seems to have emerged from hibernation. Finally ruling on a Pre Market Tobacco Application from 2020, the FDA is giving Zyn nicotine pouches their regulatory blessing, securing a place in the market for the ‘lip pillows’. The FDA have also deemed now the appropriate time to start restricting Red Dye No. 3 in food (yay), calling for extra nutrition facts labeling on packaged foods (questionable impact). I can only imagine what the vibe shift has been in their offices since they’ve learned about the upcoming change in leadership.
fun facts 🙌
Torpedo juice. “As of the beginning of World War II, American torpedoes utilized 180-proof ethyl alcohol as fuel for the miniature steam engines that drove them toward their targets. Lacking consistent access to liquor, opportunistic sailors occasionally drained the torpedoes of their alcohol and mixed it with something to cut the strength.” Click thru for tons of fun history about creative boozing. ~ learn more
The feather heist. This is kind of an insane story of a museum heist in the UK by an American kid with a obsession for creating fly fishing lures. “He was only 20 when he stole the birds, 299 of them. And not just any dead birds, they were from one of the most important collections in scientific history. And also, their feathers would fetch about a million dollars if he took them apart and sold them to salmon fly tyers-- which he did, some of them.” ~ learn more
The invention of the laff box. “Charley Douglass was the first guy who could make anyone laugh at the push of a button. The sound engineer invented the laff box and the laugh-track technique, which was quickly adopted by television in the 1960s and named "sweetening." ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Humanoid bot market - player milestones. Newly added to the list is EngineAI who released the SE01 bot. ~ learn more
A great interview with Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox. I did not expect this to be anything beyond generic, but was very pleasantly surprised. “And then, there's this experience of one day I am standing on stage talking about how Carousel, and Mailbox, and everything are the future of the company. Less than a year later, Google Photos launches. And not only does it provide a lot of the same value, and in many ways very inspired by what we had done, but they also gave you free unlimited storage for life. Not just photos, but video.” ~ learn more
Asking 100 AI agents to judge an advertisement. Here’s a neat idea. Program 100 different agents to play the roles of different demographics, then use them as a sounding board. “What’s more, this technique scales: If you need more accurate responses, you can add more detailed information for the personas to take into account, or you could even supply your own personas.” ~ learn more
The future of diagramming and visual collaboration. I just learned what Mermaid Charts are. “Mermaid Chart is a diagramming tool that allows you to create diagrams using text.” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Recorded coaching session with Misha Glouberman. This was very cool. Misha works as a coach specializing in helping people have better conversations. Listening to this real session was uniquely great and I hope he publishes more of them!“In this recording, you will hear real-life coaching sessions between Misha and Tanya. Tanya then goes away, has the difficult conversation with Jack, and comes back to discuss how Misha’s coaching and recommendations helped shape the end result.” ~ learn more
Parenting is about keeping your cool when chaos reigns. “To be patient in the face of endless waiting, resilient in the face of frustration, and to hold ourselves to the highest standard, even when no one else seems to.” ~ learn more
The best tacit knowledge videos on every subject. This is where the coaching session link above came from. “Tacit knowledge is knowledge that can’t properly be transmitted via verbal or written instruction, like the ability to create great art or assess a startup. This tacit knowledge is a form of intellectual dark matter, pervading society in a million ways, some of them trivial, some of them vital. Examples include woodworking, metalworking, housekeeping, cooking, dancing, amateur public speaking, assembly line oversight, rapid problem-solving, and heart surgery.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Does your morning cup of tea contain plastic? After a recent revelation that many teabags were spewing plastic particles into my hot tea, I admit I was a bit unnerved. The good news is I checked and my bags are made of paper. “The list compiled below is based on information available at the end of 2022 and it seems promising that more manufacturers will be transitioning away from plastics in the years to come.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
Walgreens fridge fight bodes poorly for the future of retail. “Even though Cooler Screens resumed servicing Walgreens stores after the judge’s order, its smart doors continued to crash. When a set of fridges went dark at a Walgreens in Joliet, Illinois, in early 2024, an employee taped photos of the interior shelves to the exterior of each blanked-out display.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Cement with net zero CO2 emissions. “While traditional cement production gets its necessary calcium carbonate from limestone that releases carbon dioxide when heated in a kiln, the U-M researchers can make the calcium carbonate through an electrochemical process that captures CO2 from the air and binds it with abundant minerals or recycled concrete.” ~ learn more
The soul in the stomach. This is more story than science. “How a 17th-century physician followed his ‘gut feeling’ and proposed a link between the emotions and the stomach, which seemingly echoes the latest medical research on the brain–gut connection.” ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
10 new US cities. Tomas Pueyo has written a lot of insightful articles on cities around the world. Now he’s taking on a challenge proposing 10 new US cities to get us back to building and growth. “So I asked myself: Where could we build ten new cities? The US became the obvious place because it has both space and the will to do expand. And for me, the most inspiring city in the US would be to turn Guantanamo Bay into Singapore.” ~ learn more