fun facts
Hot tub of despair.
“This stagnant brine pool at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is so toxic it kills and embalms any crabs and amphipods that are unlucky enough to stumble into it.” ~ learn more
under the microscope
Scientists created the lightest and strongest nanomaterial ever.
“An AI algorithm was taught to produce the lightest and strongest possible geometric structure for a nanomaterial (depending on what it was made of). The result was a carbon nanolattice that is light enough to sit on a soap bubble […]
under the microscope
How disorder toughens materials.
“In a new paper in PNAS Nexus, researchers … found that adding just the right amount of disorder to the structure of certain materials can make them more than twice as resistant to cracking.” ~ learn more
retail therapy
Beer distributors’ ‘total beverage’ power.
The booze market is both heavily regulated and fragmented by state, which makes for interesting market dynamics. “The middle tier is the crucible of the American bev-alc industry, and California, a frequent harbinger of its broader tectonic shifts. So it’s […]
to your health
What 30 days of junk food did to Scott’s gut.
Two founders in Austin teamed up for a health experiment. Cheryl Sew How of Tiny Health provided the lab tests and Scott Hickle of Throne was the n=1 subject. “For one month, he swapped his balanced, high-protein meals for an […]
tech, startups, internet
The bitter lesson in scaling.
This is a story about Grok 3, which has come from behind not because of the constraints (see: Deepseek), but because of their huge fleet of the latest GPUs. The author’s point is that constraints breed creativity, but its still […]
tech, startups, internet
The deep research problem.
Ben Evans does a lot of research, and would like to use OpenAI’s Deep Research, but he can’t really. Here, he explains why: “This table looks great – hours of work compiling this data all done for for me by […]
tech, startups, internet
Anthopic’s tips for building AI agents.
First, they helpfully clarify that most things people call agents are really just workflows. Also, they were not able to reference actual agents in production yet. Yet, I think there remains cause for hope. “Anthropic’s Barry Zhang (Applied AI), Erik […]
fun facts
Photographs of the Old West from the late 1800s.
“As you look through his images below, you may find yourself realising that all of those faces once belonged to people whose lives were as rich and varied as your own. It may occur to you that nothing besides remains […]