A slide deck from Slow ventures that’s worth reading quickly, as it’s already a year old. “Industries will be transformed by software via new players competing on the basis of proprietary technology/IP. For many founders building vertical-specific software, combining with a incumbent to compete is the best way to capture value from their innovation/product.” ~ learn more
“Signs of the river’s better health include visits from “Chonkosaurus,” a giant snapping turtle who’s a global social media sensation. Chicago is so optimistic about the river’s improvements that the city plans in a few weeks to hold its first open water swim downtown in nearly a century. The tradition halted in the 1920s due to sewage polluting the water.” ~ learn more
I certainly am not yet ready to trust LLMs with my spreadsheets. “However, Microsoft specifically warns not to use it for "any task requiring accuracy or reproducibility," like numerical calculations. Microsoft also advises against using the feature for "financial reporting, legal documents, or other high-stakes scenarios," so basically most of the things people turn to Excel for.” ~ learn more
Here’s a race I don’t have a horse in. “Padel, for the uninitiated, is like pickleball’s cooler, jet-setting cousin. It’s a racket sport played on a turf or carpet court about the size of doubles tennis — except here, the walls are fair game. Think tennis meets squash with a dash of pickleball thrown in. The ricochets alone make it a whole new ballgame. … Hotels have clocked the trend,…
And yet they did! ~ learn more
“These 20 lessons, when taken together, provide a great framework for understanding just about every single issue on the global menu today. They also provide some warnings for how things might evolve and clues for how we might solve some of our most intractable problems.” ~ learn more
I’ve long believed that humanity has all the technology we need, but humans so far lack the will. It’s great when someone else spells it out more clearly than I ever could. “If you hear anybody complaining about how we can’t stop climate change, show them this. If they start complaining about nuclear, capitalism, grinding mountains, or irrational fears of acid rain, tell them to study these solutions, or they’re…
Researchers have unearthed a potent compound from a rare Taiwanese fungus that could block inflammation and halt cancer cell proliferation. “It's a new discovery from a treasured fungus that has long been used in indigenous and traditional Chinese medicine for liver problems, fatigue, poisoning and more.” So, old news if you’re into Eastern medicine, but now with a lab-coat-wearer’s stamp of approval. ~ learn more
“In their search for a new obesity treatment strategy, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California have used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to closely examine an understudied class of molecules once thought to be junk: microproteins. They’ve presented their findings in a recently published study.” ~ learn more
“The trick is to move on to the next must-have before the existing one goes mainstream. But smaller brands lack the capital to scale up quickly and keep innovating. A newcomer’s invention only has a year before big brands march in on its turf, a fraction of how long it used to take, according to Bernstein analyst Luca Solca.” ~ learn more