š Welcome back to P.S. You Should Know⦠probably the best newsletter published on Sundays between 6-7
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February 21 · Issue #204 · View online |
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š Welcome back to P.S. You Should Know⦠probably the best newsletter published on Sundays between 6-7am CST, and definitely the best one published by me. Now in its fifth year!
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š As is true for so many in Texas, this week didnāt go exactly as planned. Thank you to everyone who reached out to check on us. We did not have to make our own candles from oranges, though Iām glad to learn itās an option.
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Design assumptions meet reality. In Texas, as in much of the south, builders often install water heaters outside homes. Itās great, saving on installation cost and interior space. Water heaters use a feature called āfreeze protectionā to keep safe when conditions get too cold. But if the power suddenly turns off, as we experienced this week, the feature doesnāt help. The freezing weather led to power failures; the cold + power failures led to water heater failures. Itās not wild to suspect itāll happen again, too. Will builders and property owners do anything different next time?
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Just when you need it the most. For the second time in a year, Iāve experienced a large scale supply shortage. Itās both obvious and remarkable how people tend to need the same resources at the same time. Whether itās toilet paper in March 2020 or hotel rooms with heat in Austin last Monday, thereās always a crunch when the demand rises sharply. But doesnāt demand always seems to rise sharply when it rises?
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Protecting your capital during a war. This is hopefully completely useless to all of us. āWars are one of the greatest destroyers of capital⦠The book chronicles the experience of investors during World War II: whose wealth was destroyed and why. And what you could have done to protect your wealth.ā | learn more
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The long hundred. āThe long hundred, also known as the great hundred or twelfty, is the number that was referred to as "hundredā in Germanic languages prior to the 15th century, which is now known as 120ā¦ā | learn more
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The DMV can be a frustrating placeā¦
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Felony bond court ā
Off-duty Chicago cop, on restricted duty and barred from carrying a firearm, is charged with having a gun and causing a disturbance at NW Side driver's license office by (here comes some extra irony) refusing to stop taking pictures and video in the office.
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Missed the internet wave. āIn the interview [Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress] talks about how early in his career he felt like he missed the wave of the Internet revolution.ā | learn more
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SpaceX wants to be a phone company too. SpaceXās petitioned the FCC, āaiming to offer cheaper phone plans for people with lower incomes through Starlink.ā Theyāre thinking $9.25 per month for broadband and $5.25 for phone service. Move over, AT&T! | learn more
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How to get better introductions. Troy Henikoff of MATH Ventures explains in this 3-minute video. āThe best way to get that introduction? The forwardable email.ā | learn more
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Bus factor 1. āA company dependent on a single personās work has a single point of failure. In tech jargon, they have low Bus Factor, the number of people who would have to get hit by a bus for the project to fail. The higher your Bus Factor, the greater your institutional resilience.ā | learn more
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The best-case outcomes are statistical outliers. āThereās nothing wrong with hoping for the best. But the best-case scenario is rarely the one that comes to pass. Being realistic about what is likely to happen positions you for a range of possible outcomes and gives you peace of mind.ā | learn more
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Breathing and your immune system. Iām just now learning about how breathing impacts our bodies beyond the obvious. Iām fascinated. If anyone has insight or personal experience on this topic, Iād appreciate a chance to learn from you. | learn more
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Former Eaze CEO to be charged for illegal cannabis payment processing. I managed to uncover this scheme in July 2019, so it clearly wasnāt well-hidden. They used a shell company in Cyprus and websites like (no longer online) easy2udelivery.com and ezdeliveryshop.com to masqueraded as delivery services for innocuous products. āFederal prosecutors reportedly plan to charge a former CEO of California cannabis delivery platform Eaze in connection with a case accusing two businessmen of deceiving banks into processing $100 million worth of credit and debit payments for marijuana products.ā | learn more
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The meltdown of Ample Hills, Brooklynās hottest ice cream company. In short: ops matterāa lot. āAmple Hills had $19 million in funding, a deal with Disney, and dreams of becoming the next Ben & Jerryās. Then everything fell apart.ā | learn more
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New skin patch promises comprehensive health monitoring. A game changer for health if this makes it out of the lab. āScientists have developed a thin, flexible skin patch, worn on the neck, that can provide all-in-one health monitoring capabilities, including the wearerās heart rate, blood pressure and glucose levels.ā | learn more
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Drug brings significant weight loss in obese patients. This already-approved drug [Semaglutide] just showed remarkable results. āNearly 2,000 participants, at 129 centers in 16 countries, injected themselves weekly with semaglutide or a placebo for 68 weeks. Those who got the drug lost close to 15 percent of their body weight, on average, compared with 2.4 percent among those receiving the placebo.ā | learn more
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The science behind intermittent fasting. This is an excellently thorough yet approachable summary of the research into intermittent fasting. Well-sourced and cited. | learn more
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New concept for 10x rocket thrusters. ā[The] new plasma thruster concept can generate exhaust with velocities of hundreds of kilometers per second, 10 times faster than those of other thrusters.ā Thatād help us get to Mars faster! Much faster, in fact, because the gains of faster acceleration are compounding. | learn more
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Chicago, IL 60622
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