P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #484
🇺🇸 Freedom
my story 🚀
🏦 On Ashland Ave, I snapped this photo of “Chicago’s First NFT Gallery”. I zoomed into the photo to see if I could notice anything cool in the window. No luck. I turned to the internet where I found their social profiles that hadn’t been updated since promoting an event in 2024. It seems the storefront’s lease outlasted the collective attention span for NFTs. Yet, I think we can cheer on the gallery’s owner for having taken a risk and tried something new!
🎆 I was talking to my uncle recently, who explained to me in Russian why life in America was so much better than the Soviet Union we left. He was searching for the right English word to capture his thoughts, and I suggested his examples all tied back to ‘freedom’. He thought about it for a moment then wholeheartedly agreed. In this great country and land of endless opportunity, we have the freedom to live where and how we want, the freedom to try things, and the freedom to pave our own path. It’s a great pleasure to be here — Happy 250th Birthday America!
fun facts 🙌
We’re on version 27 of the US flag. “That’s how many different versions of Old Glory have been officially recognized since the nation began.” The stripes briefly grew to 15, then Congress reverted to 13 in 1818 and let the stars track new states instead. ~ learn more
100 Miles of abandoned railroad on e-bike micro camper. “Matt Spears explores a remote, abandoned railway with a custom electric rail bike camper. Navigating through heavy snow and numerous fallen trees, he must repair damaged tools to continue the journey across towering trestles.” Top comment: “This guy just makes me feel like an asshole for ever getting mad at anything.” ~ learn more
Wiki spy. “An infinite I-Spy of Wikipedia” Comprised of 43,815 images. It’s fun to click around and explore. ~ learn more
oh, austin 🤠
Teen on parole with a GPS ankle monitor was the getaway driver for a robbery. “The Austin teenager accused of shooting four people in a downtown mass shooting in March 2025 was arrested again this month on allegations that he helped carry out an armed robbery — after being released from jail on a separate felony arrest less than two months prior.” How’d they find him this time? “Detectives obtained GPS records from the ankle monitor and alleged the data placed Tanksley in the immediate area of the robbery during the time it occurred.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Boston Dynamics is now fully owned by Hyundai. You might remember this firm for their advanced robotics demos over the years. “Hyundai Motor Group is acquiring SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, completing its full ownership of the robotics company.” Whether humanoid or another shape, robotics will be a growing part of our human experience. ~ learn more
Physical AI for next-generation robotics. A friend went to the Automate robotics trade show in Chicago and shared his impressions with me. While the humanoid concepts were eye-catching, the real workhorse of automation remains the robotic arm. He told me to look up FANUC. The Japanese company boasts over 40 million industrial robotics products installed worldwide. Their latest tech: “FANUC robots can recognize voice commands in multiple languages, automatically generate Python programs using generative AI, and execute the resulting tasks while perceiving their surroundings. Users provide instructions verbally, and the robot interprets the language, generates the appropriate program and carries out the requested action.” ~ learn more
Babylon is on a quest to cure Alzheimer's. From the Relentless podcast: “My first interview with Sacha Schermerhorn, Founder & CEO of Babylon Bio.” The first ~30 minutes of this are a fast-paced overview of the history and state of research into AD. ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Discovery needs dialogue. The piece argues that isolation helps you implement decisions, but conversation is where problem understanding and new thinking actually get made. ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
FDA drops enforcement against Whoop. After the FDA issued a warning letter in 2025, Whoop decided to put up a fight to protect their blood pressure estimation feature. The agency backed off after Whoop tweaked the feature in a change so minor that I must believe it was just so the FDA could save some face. ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Guy in garage lab testing a new Alzheimer’s drug. “I designed and synthesized PAC-832 in a chemistry lab I built in my garage.” Douglas Yao walks through PAC-832, “the world’s first selective GalR1 antagonist,” plus why targeting galanin signaling might help Alzheimer’s and how tools like robotics and LLMs sped up the work. ~ learn more
What if humans could regrow tissue? “[The genes are] already there -- you just need to learn how to get them to behave the way you want.” Texas A&M researchers used a two-step sequence of growth factors to regrow mice digits. Their intervention pushes normal healing away from scarring and toward rebuilding bone, ligaments, and joint structures. ~ learn more
The cancer Alzheimer’s disease paradox. “paradoxically, the risk of AD in patients with cancer is reduced by 25–35%. Conversely, the risk of cancer in patients with AD is halved.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
140 firms gang up on USDC. “This is an industry supergroup teaming up to own the default rails for the internet economy.” Open Standard’s Open USD says it will let businesses mint and redeem for free and keep the interest themselves, a direct squeeze on the Coinbase-Circle USDC revenue split. ~ learn more