Sugar Slowly Killing Us? Hmm Siri + Google Gemini

Todays news letter is rather Environment heavy, of course the good part. May be Autumn sun made me care more about the environment this week…..read on if you are on the green wagon, are thinking of it or….

While Washington D.C. has apparently forgotten how to function, Silicon Valley has been busy facing its own judgment day: earnings. The big question, is the AI boom paying the bills? The answer was... kinda. Alphabet (Google) posted a stunning $100B quarter, but Meta and Microsoft shares slipped as investors squinted at their massive AI-spending bar tabs.

The real winner? Amazon, which not only had strong earnings but also inked a massive $38 billion cloud deal with OpenAI. It seems building the digital plumbing for the AI revolution is the new gold rush, even as Amazon simultaneously announced 14,000 corporate layoffs. A perfect summary of tech: the future is bright, but the present is kinda brutal.

Back in the real world, the US government shutdown has officially entered its second month. This means key economic data (like jobs reports) is MIA, and 42 million Americans are seeing their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits evaporate. New York even had to declare a state of emergency to fund its food banks.

This self-inflicted chaos has the Federal Reserve in a bind. After a rate cut last week, Fed Chair Powell warned everyone not to expect another one in December. It's hard to steer the economic ship when the crew is busy drilling holes in the hull.

In news that is refreshingly not terrible, scientists just built a "Google Map" for the developing human brain. This "BrainSTEM" atlas is one of the most detailed ever, and it's a huge leap forward for researchers trying to grow high-quality neurons in a lab. This could be a game-changer for finding therapies for Parkinson's and other neurological diseases.

And as it leaves our solar system forever, the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS made its closest pass to the sun. It's now on its long journey back to... wherever it came from, having successfully ignored all our earthly drama. Smart.

While the US was busy not governing, President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, resulting in a surprise deal. The US will reportedly cut tariffs by 10% in exchange for China cracking down on fentanyl chemicals and lifting restrictions on rare-earth mineral exports.

Elsewhere, the news was grim. Typhoon Kalmaegi slammed the Philippines, killing 26, and Hurricane Melissa left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. And in a somber note, former US Vice President Dick Cheney passed away at the age of 84.

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If you invested $100 at the start of the week, you'd be roughly $2.77 richer with the S&P 500, about even with the DAX, but taking a $5 loss if holding Bitcoin.

Imagine your phone battery as a swimming pool. Inside it, tiny swimmers called ions splash from one side to the other, creating the electricity that powers your TikToks, emails, and existential crises. The problem? The pool is full of liquid, and if it leaks, overheats, or catches fire (hello, exploding scooters), things get messy fast.

Now imagine we drain that pool and replace the liquid with a solid, something like a slab of smooth glass or ceramic. The swimmers still move, but now they’re skating across a super-slick ice rink instead of floundering in water. That’s basically what a solid-state battery is, same players, same game, just a much fancier stadium.

This tiny tweak, swapping the gooey middle for a solid one, sounds small, but it’s the kind of change engineers lose sleep over because it could rewrite the rules of energy storage. A solid-state battery can pack more energy into less space, which means slimmer phones, longer-range cars, and maybe even electric airplanes that don’t need a nap every few hours. It’s also safer, because there’s no flammable liquid waiting to throw a tantrum.

Car makers are drooling over this tech. Imagine charging your EV in ten minutes instead of forty, and driving from Berlin to Milan without hunting for a charging station that actually works. Toyota, QuantumScape, and a dozen others are pouring billions into making this dream solid - pun absolutely intended.

But (and there’s always a but), making these batteries isn’t easy. It’s one thing to whip up a coin-sized prototype in a pristine lab, and another to mass-produce millions of them that don’t crack, crumble, or cost a small country’s GDP. Think of it like baking, the first cupcake might be perfect, but scaling it to feed an entire stadium is where the chaos begins.

Still, we’re inching closer. Prototypes are improving, manufacturing kinks are getting ironed out, and the idea that our next car or gadget could run on something sturdier than liquid goo feels more real than ever.

If today’s batteries are the nervous teenagers of the energy world, moody, leaky, and unpredictable, solid-state ones are the cool, collected adults who just get things done. It’s not a revolution that’ll arrive overnight, but when it does, we’ll wonder how we ever lived with batteries that occasionally caught fire while charging next to our beds.

So next time someone mentions solid-state batteries, just tell them it’s the same electricity, but finally wearing its grown-up pants.

Why it matters: With this secret sauce, your next “Hey Siri” might actually yield a useful answer, all while Apple maintains its privacy halo. It’s also a rare plot twist: two historic rivals quietly teaming up to take on OpenAI, Amazon, and anyone else dreaming of being the next voice in your pocket.​

What MVP thinks: If this works, Siri might finally graduate from comedy relief to actual assistant, just in time for Apple’s 50th birthday and a fleet of new gadgets. Watch out, Alexa.

Honduras declared its absolute independence, seceding from the United Provinces of Central America.

The liquid battery era is ending! (Check out this weeks thought piece) BMW, in partnership with Solid Power and Samsung SDI, is pushing closer to the solid-state EV battery of the future. This is a game-changer, replacing the flammable liquid electrolyte with a simpler, safer sulfide-based solid material. While we’re still waiting on performance specs, the imminent arrival of a BMW demonstration vehicle officially launches the next big EV technology race.

Now, let’s get to the important part: what does this mean for your life, beyond just cool car specs? A truly scalable solid-state battery is the "game over" button for both range anxiety and, frankly, for the internal combustion engine. The jump in performance and longevity means we can stop treating EVs like a fun but slightly restrictive lifestyle choice. They become the effortless option.

Economically, a battery that relies on readily available materials instead of hyper-rare, high-cost ones is a win for your wallet, promising to bring the price of a truly premium EV down to Earth over time. Socially, the elimination of fire risk—no liquid electrolyte, no thermal runaway—is a monumental sigh of relief for anyone who has side-eyed the idea of plugging a massive lithium block into their garage wall. We’re talking about safer roads, safer homes, and car ownership that doesn't feel like a compromise. Politically, a simple, domestically sourced supply chain (Solid Power is U.S.-based) reduces dependence on complicated, often ethically dubious, international sourcing. It transforms the global battery race from a resource war into a manufacturing sprint, which is a competition we can all get behind.

So, when do we get to stop carrying our gas cards 'just in case'?

Oh, here’s a story that gives “Gone with the Wind” a whole new meaning, literally. The world’s largest cargo sailboat just pulled off its first Atlantic crossing, proving that clean shipping isn’t just a fantasy for climate conferences. This wind-powered giant, run by French startup Zephyr & Borée, carried commercial cargo the old-fashioned way, with sails, not diesel fumes. Sure, it’s slower than a regular cargo ship, but it slashes emissions and makes a pretty poetic statement: maybe progress sometimes means looking back.

Imagine that, the future of shipping might just lie in rediscovering the wind.

🎙️Gary Taubes: Is sugar killing us?

This episode of The Knowledge Project dives deep into the world of nutrition myths with Gary Taubes, the journalist who’s been poking holes in the “fat is bad” dogma for decades. Taubes argues that we’ve been blaming the wrong culprit for obesity and metabolic diseases; it’s not fat, it’s sugar and refined carbs pulling the strings. He explains how bad science, politics, and wishful thinking created decades of confusion, and how real nutrition research is finally catching up. It’s a fascinating, slightly maddening conversation that makes you question every “healthy” label in your fridge.

IN OTHER NEWS

Uber, NVIDIA, & Stellantis Team Up On Robotaxis & AI Uber has been big on the idea of robotaxis for several years. Remember when former CEO and founder Travis Kalanick wanted to buy half a million robotaxis from Tesla? But the company has made a big step forward on this matter this week. Partnering with NVIDIA and Stellantis, they are looking to accelerate development in this arena. (Who isn’t these days?)

Powell says that, unlike the dotcom boom, AI spending isn’t a bubble: ‘I won’t go into particular names, but they actually have earnings’

Why Atom, Brackets, and OpenOffice Failed, And the Legacy They Left Behind. I was actually an Atom Editor user

Google Maps for Android prepares 'Power saving mode': Google Maps is preparing a new “Power saving mode” behind the scenes on its Android app, which does away with color and only shows the absolutely essential details in exchange for improving your battery life.

Did you know that the word "trivia" actually comes from the Latin term trivium?

The trivium (meaning "three ways" or "three roads") referred to the three lower liberal arts taught in medieval universities:

Later, the plural form "trivia" started being used for unimportant details or common knowledge, which is how we use it today!

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