September 25, 2026
Good Morning. Google to launch a satellite built to answer this question: can a server survive in space? Plus, free coffee* , low-tension training, and the Norm Macdonald documentary(first time here? Join 523,000 Betterists ).
Yesterday’s most clicked link : Meta drops camera from $349 RayBans
TOP STORY TODAY
White House Press
A federal judge ordered the White House yesterday to restore press access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico , six days after Trump banned them. The order lasts 14 days while their lawsuit proceeds.
The judge, a Trump appointee, wrote that the credentials were revoked without notice or a chance to respond, and that the outlets are likely to win on those grounds. Journalists were still turned away Thursday morning before being admitted at noon.
This is the same judge who ordered a CNN reporter's pass restored in 2018. The administration says it began restoring badges at 7 a.m. Three reporters were later denied entry to the state dinner for China's president. The 2018 case that set the pattern .
NY Sues Polymarket
New York sued Polymarket yesterday, calling the prediction market an unlicensed gambling operation . The state wants a court to shut it down in New York, order restitution to users, and impose fines equal to three times its gains.
The state says the platform never got a gaming license, skipped the taxes licensed casinos pay, and let people aged 18 to 20 bet, below the state's legal age of 21. Polymarket says it will fight for its users.
Prediction markets argue federal regulators, not states, oversee them, and the federal commission has sued several states over it. New York has filed similar suits against Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini this year. The state's own filing and claims .
Servers in Orbit
Google will launch a prototype satellite carrying its AI chips on October 1, its first test of whether computing can work in orbit . It carries four chips, roughly the power of one data center server.
Fans don't work in a vacuum, so the chips can run about 15 minutes before shutting down to cool. Radiation can flip bits and corrupt data. Solar panels supply about a kilowatt, enough to answer simple queries from space.
The pitch: sunlight instead of the power grid, since AI data centers strain electricity and water on the ground. Google says nothing useful will be operational for years, comparing it to driverless cars, which took 15 years. The launch moved up by months .
TOGETHER WITH TRADE COFFEE
The Best Roaster in America Doesn't Ship to You
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What Christopher Nolan Teaches Us About Obsession
Christopher Nolan's films have earned over $5 billion. Seven habits behind that, from the Founders podcast breakdown of his career:
- Let ideas sit. He had the idea for Inception at 16 and started shooting 23 years later.
- Give your brain space. As a kid he'd lie in the dark after lights out, listening to film scores, thinking.
- Work around your job. He shot his first feature on weekends for a year while working full-time.
- Use constraints. Tight deadlines and budgets, he says, ramp up his creative process.
- Plan for failure. He's a pessimist who imagines every disaster, then works to prevent it ( more on fear-setting here ).
- When stuck, cut ruthlessly. Don't trim 20 songs to 10. Cut to three, then add back.
- Aim impossibly high. He starts every film believing it could be the best ever made.
The Founders Podcast breaks down this obsession
The Art of Soft Training
Nsima Inyang rolled with a D1 football player in jiu-jitsu, tapped him twice, and finished barely breathing hard. The bigger, stronger man was gassed. His question afterward: how?
Inyang's answer is that most guys only train in one gear. Hard, tense, gripping, muscling everything. Your nervous system has two settings, and most training only ever uses one.
His fix is low-tension movement: rope flow, swinging a light club, throwing your body into the tool instead of forcing it. It's still resistance. It just decompresses you instead of beating you up ( beginner rope here ).
The payoff, he says: the soft work made his hard work easier, and his pain went away. At a recent event, people in their 50s and 60s told him they woke up without shoulder pain after one session.
Nsima explains low-tension training | Tim Ferriss interview
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TOGETHER WITH OTTERBOX
A Cracked Screen Costs More Than the Case
Apple charges $100s to replace a broken iPhone screen. An OtterBox starts at $39.99.
That's the whole math. OtterBox has been making phone cases since 1998 and is the most trusted case brand in America, with drop protection rated up to 7X the military standard on its Defender Series Pro. Slimmer options like the Lumen Series and Commuter Series still take a 3X rating without the bulk.
Cases are ready now for the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, and select models fit the 17 Pro too. Add OtterBox Glass and the screen is covered as well.
Protect your phone starting at $39.99
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Fun Links
Norm Macdonald documentary [ Trailer ]
Pumpkin spice syrup for Fall lattes [ Recipe ]
Vikings celebrate w/Mickey dance [ Video ]
Jeff Gordon pranks a car salesman [ Video ]
Free Halloween Lego build for kids [ Event ]
Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen [ Video ]
…and Hanson’s response to it [ Video ]
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