P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #427

East Coasting

my story 🚀

🏖️ Have you ever decided you’re going to wear your bathing suit to the beach no matter the temperature? You’re not alone.

fun facts 🙌

Weird Japenese research to remote control cockroaches. “The helmet, wireless sensor back, and battery pack are small enough that they don't impede the cockroach's movement.” At least we can count on the Japanese to keep investing in the crazy stuff! ~ learn more

King of the Hill is coming back. “Season 14 synopsis: After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas, to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.” ~ learn more

The ship of Theseus. One of my favorite’s from ancient Greece. This does it justice! “Jennifer Wang (Stanford University) introduces us to a puzzle that has bedeviled philosophy since the ancient Greeks: the Ship of Theseus. She tells the Ship of Theseus story, and draws out the more general question behind it…” ~ learn more

PersonalityMap. “[A] platform to help you understand the relationship between "everything and everything" with regard to human psychology. We provide access to over 1 million correlations spanning personality, demographics, behaviors, and beliefs. In addition, we provide a powerful and one-of-a-kind interface for exploring these relationships, allowing you to investigate questions of interest from a variety of angles.” ~ learn more

oh, austin 🤠

No more sodas and candy paid by Texas food stamps. Opponents say it’s not fair because it restricts the categories only for food stamp recipients. I think that’s an insane argument, as the policy does nothing to restrict purchases with money that doesn’t come from the government. “The measure is likely to be signed quickly by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has already notified Rollins’ office he wants a waiver from federal rules to keep junk food from SNAP purchases. Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska have filed similar legislation and have been granted waivers.” ~ learn more

No more unregulated THC in Texas? “The proposed law would ban consumable hemp products that contain any synthetic cannabinoid, often known as delta-8. Non-intoxicating and non-psychoactive CBD or CBG would remain legal.” ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

Google’s Veo 3. “The new model creates video and audio simultaneously from a single prompt! Here are 13 wild examples so far…” Definitely check out #2, interdimensional cable. ~ learn more

Anthropic’s safety testing is interesting. “Just finished reading Anthropic’s safety report and I’m honestly terrified: their latest Opus 4 model will blackmail engineers 84% of the time if it learns it will be shutdown. But that’s not even the wildest part. …” ~ learn more

Mindbloom is suing the WSJ. From founder Dylan Beynon: “We’re suing The Wall Street Journal for lying that Mindbloom killed Matthew Perry. When fear mongering headlines scare people away from life-saving treatments like psychedelic medicine, the toll is measured in suicides, overdoses, and broken families like mine.” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

Rude Q&A. “Nothing clarifies things quite like a hyperactive, all-knowing, all-seeing, real asshole of a devil’s advocate beating the living crap out of you.” ~ learn more

to your health ⚕

The MAHA report is worth skimming. It seems many have read commentary about the report, but not the report itself. I’m interested to hear which parts (if any) you find wrong-headed. ~ learn more

Bryan Johnson’s claims on edible cannabis. Here’s the conclusion he echos: “Overall, the findings suggest that marijuana use, whether smoked or ingested, is associated with comparable levels of vascular impairment to tobacco smoking.” And here’s an example reply from his audience: “Sample size of 55? No detail around frequency or amount of usage? No control group for other factors (diet, exercise) C'mon @bryan_johnson … this is sloppy” ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Vitamin D supplements help slow telomere shortening linked to biological aging. This is remarkable. Vitamin D has long been a polarizing topic in nutrition science, so I wouldn’t treat this as conclusive. “Compared with taking placebo, taking vitamin D3 supplements significantly reduced telomere shortening over four years, preventing the equivalent of nearly three years of aging compared with placebo. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation had no significant effect on telomere length throughout follow-up.” ~ learn more

thoughts of food 🍔

How hard is it to switch to natural food dyes? “Mark Oliverio, owner of Oliverio Peppers based in Clarksburg, W. Va., found out for himself about five years ago, when his grocery-chain buyers pointed to greater consumer demand for more all-natural products. They asked Oliverio if he could remove the Yellow Dye No. 5 he'd used in his bright yellow banana pepper recipe.” ~ learn more

profiles of people 🚶

The man who ‘A.G.I.-Pilled’ Google. “Mr. Hassabis, the chief executive of Google DeepMind, has been dreaming of A.G.I. for years. When he joined Google in 2014 through the acquisition of DeepMind, the artificial intelligence start-up he co-founded, Mr. Hassabis was one of a handful of A.I. leaders taking the possibility of A.G.I. seriously.“ ~ learn more

A very long article about Curtis Yarvin. I had no idea who this guy was. I guess that means I’m not part of the tech elites. This link is neither an endorsement of Yarvin’s views nor of the many biased claims made by the writer. ~ learn more

thanks for reading!