Good Morning. Today marks 25 years. This year, for the first time, the ceremony pauses for the people who died after (first time here? Join 523,000 Betterists).
Yesterday’s most clicked link: Are you hunting antelope or field mice?
TOP STORY TODAY
25 Years Since 9/11
The nation marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks today, with ceremonies at the Pentagon, at ground zero in Manhattan, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 came down. Nearly 3,000 people died that morning.
This year the ground zero ceremony adds a seventh moment of silence, for those who died of illnesses linked to the dust. For 25 years there were six, each marking a moment the attacks unfolded.
More than 140,000 people from all 50 states are enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program. Eligibility covers anyone who lived, worked or attended school in lower Manhattan through July 2002, and enrollment never closes.
Trump’s $5,000 Promise
President Trump told the first Republican midterm convention on Wednesday that he will send every adult citizen a $5,000 dividend if his party keeps both the House and the Senate in November.
There are roughly 270 million adults in the country, putting the cost above $1 trillion. The money would have to be spent inside the United States. No enforcement method was described, and Congress would have to approve the payment.
Republicans split on it within a day. Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio said he would draft the legislation after the election. Representative Chip Roy of Texas said he wants to know how it gets paid for. How the checks might actually work.
The 30G Protein Myth
A rule repeated for decades says the body can use only about 30 grams of protein per meal to build muscle. Muscle researchers now say that if a ceiling exists, nobody has located it yet.
Thirty grams is roughly a three-ounce chicken breast. In the most striking trial, men who drank 100 grams of milk protein after full-body lifting showed higher muscle protein synthesis than men who drank 25.
This report says the daily baseline is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, but for lifters, the working range runs 0.7 to 1 gram per pound daily. The gym rule of a gram per pound sits at the top of that range, not outside it, as was assumed for years.
The move: hit 0.7 to 1 gram per pound daily and stop policing the per-meal number | Why a gram per pound came back
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The $15,000 secret hiding in your blood
Your annual physical checks about 30 biomarkers. There are executives and pro athletes quietly running 100 more every year, tracking heart, hormones, thyroid, liver, kidneys, heavy metals, and inflammation before anything becomes a problem.
That level of testing used to cost around $15,000. Function members get 160+ annual lab tests for $365, reviewed by licensed clinicians and translated into plain language. Add an advanced MRI that scans for signs of cancer in the brain, thyroid, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, prostate, and more, plus signs of prior stroke, aneurysms, and hundreds of other conditions for $899. No insurance. No referrals. HSA/FSA eligible.
One dashboard. Every result. Trends you can actually act on.
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Cal Newport: How to fix brain rot
Cal Newport thinks we track everything about our bodies and nothing about our brains. Mile time, max squat, resting heart rate. No equivalent number for whether you can still think. So he built one.
Pick up nonfiction with real ideas in it, something you understand but have to work at
Start a timer and read until your focus genuinely breaks
No phone, no email, no getting up mid-chapter
Five minutes or less is brain rotted. Fifteen is distractable. Thirty is roughly the pre-smartphone average. Seventy-five is impressive
You cannot train what you refuse to measure, and you probably already know which line you are going to land on. Teddy Roosevelt read a book a day. Set the timer anyway.
Also in this episode: The test Nietzsche could run for eight hours straight (15:08), the skill Cal thinks AI will destroy first (20:11), and why detoxes and grayscale mode do nothing (25:47).
How an NFL lineman does recovery
Zion Johnson says playing a game feels like being in multiple car accidents. His recovery starts the second it ends, and almost none of it requires a training facility.
Water and sodium first. He replenishes electrolytes before he eats anything
Protein at every meal, leaning toward chicken, salmon and leaner red meats. He skips steak and pork
Berries with dinner for the antioxidants. Spinach for the greens. Potatoes for the carbs
Ankles and knees daily, because that is where his position takes the beating. Wobble board, toe and heel walks, slant board for the calves, then ankle bands
The soreness does not arrive after the game. It arrives that night and the next morning, which is when he attacks it hardest
Most of that list costs nothing.
Also in this video: why his massages are not the relaxing kind (3:30), the knee routine he runs after a rough game (5:54), and the underwater treadmill trick for the day after (6:43).
TRENDING
5 Stories
▲ Anthropic shut down several research efforts this year that could have advanced biological weapons development | The report's full catalog of misuses
▲ Iran's military posted footage claiming it hit an unmanned American vessel near the Strait of Hormuz
▲ Elon Musk's lawyers threatened legal action over Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary days before its Venice premiere
▲ Side hustles climbed from 19% of Americans in 2017 to 27% in 2025, with middle earners leading
▲ Congress has four session days left before Election Day, and the only AI bill scheduled covers data centers
TOGETHER WITH T-MOBILE
iPhone 18 Pro On Us, Even for the Phone in Your Drawer
Trade in an eligible device in any condition on a qualifying plan and the iPhone 18 Pro is on us, delivered as up to 36 monthly bill credits.
Any condition is the part most people miss. Cracked screen, dead battery, six years untouched. Trading an iPhone 14 saves $930 and trading an iPhone 6 saves $500, so the drawer is worth opening before you decide anything.
All of it runs on the best mobile network in the U.S. Pre-orders open September 12, phones arrive September 18, for a limited time.
Fun Links
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Auction: Princess Diana’s “Revenge Dress” [Blog]
Who won the first 26/27 NFL game? [Blog]
How work stress leads to ED [Blog]
Sell yourself, not just the idea [Video]
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