8/20/2026 Daily Recap: Materials set to lead? - $XLB has been building a 6 month base and we are already seeing signs of materials trying to fly up the right side. - $GLD $GDX $SLV $SILJ $NEM we have gold and silver continuing to push and the US dollar doesn't look ready to go higher anytime soon. - $XLE took a well earned breather today $XOM $VLO $MPC - $BTC $ETH explosive day 2. Both back above the 200sma so I am welcoming all @saylor posts as I own $IBIT. - $MRVL $MU $PLTR a few growth names which are really standing out amongst the crowd. - Cyber security continues to come under pressure. $CRWD $PANW $NET very quickly into the 50sma. Now we wait to see if there is a positive reaction to that area. Otherwise we do nothing. - After $MRNA cured cancer we get a gap down and follow through in the biotech sector $XBI. Truth be told that group also needed a breather. - $QQQ resting against the follow through day low and tomorrow would be as great of a day as any for the markets to bounce from this spot. - Software still looks like a group worth watching going forward $NOW $TEAM $SHOP $MDB - As much as I dislike the positioning in copper it is impossible to ignore the multi month base that has been built in $FCX $SCCO $COPX

Vertical Aerospace's Valo electric air taxi made its first public take-off flight at the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow, aiming to fly up to 100 miles on a single charge. More here:

This week's Memecoin Narrative Radar 👀 One meme has been getting a lot of attention in the Chinese crypto community this week: “Chinese People Can Fly” (#中国人能飞#) But what exactly is it, and why did it suddenly take off? The meme originally came from a freestyle by Chinese rapper Lambo, featuring the line: “Chinese people can fly, yellow skin is the way, speak Chinese and you can fly, China is beautiful.” The melody was so catchy that it quickly became a viral meme in China. Basically, whenever something “takes off,” this BGM fits. But what really brought the meme back this week was MediaStorm. On Sep. 21, they announced a special livery for an upcoming rocket launch: From a distance, it reads “Chinese People Can Fly.” Up close, every pixel is made from real photos submitted by the community. A meme that started online is now, quite literally, going to space. The on-chain market reacted fast too, with a same-name Meme launching on BSC and quickly gaining attention across the Chinese crypto community. Why did it spread so fast? Viral internet meme + real-world event + community participation + ongoing Chinese Meme momentum From a freestyle, to internet remixes, to a real rocket, and finally on-chain. That’s the story behind this week’s “Chinese People Can Fly” narrative. Narrative ≠ investment thesis. Stay curious, stay careful. 👀

Now that serious industrialization of space in the name of data centers is within the Overton window, it feels like time to bring up Rotovators again. Even if Starship completely meets all design goals with low overhead orbital reusability, it isn’t the end-all of cost effective access to space. Momentum exchange tethers could substantially reduce propellant consumption and operational challenges. The idea is that you have a tapered cable a few hundred km long attached to a substantial dead weight, and you set it spinning like one spoke of a wheel as it orbits earth. A rocket could fly up to space at much less than orbital velocity and grab onto the end of the rotating tether, then get pulled up to a faster speed and fling the payload off into a stable orbit. Falcon precision landings (with suicide burns!), and now SuperHeavy catches demonstrate that big rockets can precisely dock with infrastructure, and doing it in space is generally easier than doing it on the ground. The big win is in electrodynamic tethers, where you can theoretically use (lots and lots of) solar panels to raise the tether orbit after it has pulled itself lower while picking up a payload. That would be a game changer, but it hasn’t been unequivocally demonstrated to be practical. Even without that, just using chemical propulsion, it could still give significant efficiencies. Only the mass of the payload that is actually flung off the top of the tether needs to have the velocity made up by engine burns. The rest of the mass of the rocket “gives it back” when it drops back off at the bottom several rotations later over the launch site. Because the pickup and dropoff happen at much less than orbital velocity, there is no terrible reentry heating challenge. The vehicle gets simpler and more robust. So, you could rebalance a two stage rocket to be more propellant efficient, or you could make a reusable single stage to tether rocket. A SSTT might still use more propellant per kg of payload than Starship, but the operational advantages would be large. You lose lots of flexibility with tether systems compared to conventional rockets, but it would be like putting deep water harbors in key places.

🚨 Flock safety cameras are expanding to surveillance drones “Flock just got wings — The same company behind the cameras are now putting autonomous surveillance drones in the sky” “Now the company's automated license plate readers have spread across the country, creating one of the nation's largest interconnected video surveillance networks. After partnering with aviation software company Aerodrome, Flock launched Flock Alpha, an autonomous police drone built to respond to emergencies before officers even arrive. The drone sits inside a waterproof docking station waiting for a call, and when a 911 report comes in, the drone can launch automatically and fly up to 60 miles per hour. Officers don't even have to be standing nearby — And this thing isn't just flying overhead. It's got thermal imaging, high-definition cameras, and powerful optical zoom. And while according to Flock, It can even read a vehicle's license plate from 2,000 feet away. That's not terrifying at all….” These drones are being marketed specifically as a “Drone as First Responder” used to respond to emergency calls But that’s not really all they’re being used for. I’ve shared a video of leaked San Francisco footage of flock drones that are very clearly just roaming around looking for crimes, in other words mass surveillance This is the surveillance state

I am the Director of Seat Merchandising at United, and I sell you a window seat that does not have a window. You know the upgrade. You are in basic economy, the map opens, and there is the good seat, the one against the wall, the one that costs more than $50 because you want the light and the armrest and the small dignity of choosing where your body goes for four hours. You paid it. Most of you paid it. I am counting on the fact that you paid it, because the seat you bought, on certain rows of certain 737s and A321s, is a solid blank wall where the glass should be. A woman named Brenman took us to federal court in San Francisco over exactly this. Our lawyers stood up and said the thing I would never let myself say out loud. They said a window seat only means a position. It tells you where you sit relative to the aisle. It promises you nothing about the glass. The judge, a man named Donato, did not buy it. He let the case go forward. More than 1 million of you are in the class. I read the ruling the way I read a fuel-hedge report, which is to say I noted the number and I priced it. The wall is not a defect. It is air-conditioning duct, or an electrical run, or the plug where a door used to be, and it has been there since the plane was built. We did not remove your window. We simply never installed one, and then we labeled the seat in front of it a window seat, and then we charged you the window premium, and then we declined the refund, because the refund is a leak and my entire job is to seal the leaks. We have a name for those seats. Internally they are wall-adjacent inventory, and they are the most profitable window seats in the fleet, because they cost United nothing and they sell for the same premium as the ones that see the sky. I did not hide them. I did something better. I let the seat map do the hiding. The map is the product. The window was always just the fine print. Here is the part I am proudest of, and it is the part that survived the lawsuit intact. I do not sell you the window. I sell you the belief that there is a window. The belief is cheaper to manufacture than glass, it fits in every airframe, and it does not fog at altitude. You buy it at checkout, one green button, and you do not learn what you actually purchased until you are at 30,000 feet, buckled in, facing a wall the color of a hospital hallway, with nowhere else to go. You will lean toward it anyway. Out of habit, because you paid for a window and your body still believes the map, you will lean toward where the window should be. That lean is the purest thing I sell. That lean is worth more than $50. I fly up front, and I do not choose my seat from the map, because I know which rows are walls and that list is not something we surface. There is always a real window somewhere on the plane. I just did not put it where you would look for it. Do not switch to Delta, either. Delta is in the same building down the hall, sued on the same theory, defending the same sentence. Every carrier flying a 737 or an A321 has a wall pretending to be a window, and every one of us charges you for the pretend. The standard is industry-wide. I helped write it. That is what merchandising is. So keep buying the window. The suit will settle for a number smaller than what the wall earned while the case was open, the seat map will not change, and next quarter I will find a new feature to charge you for the absence of. A window seat is a location. I never said you would get the view. I said you would get the seat. You are in it. Enjoy the wall.

Japan is now using very cheap cardboard drones built for large group attacks and missions where they can be lost after use. The main body is made from thick cardboard with a water-resistant coating. Each one costs about 2,000 to 2,500 US dollars, lower than many home gaming computers. The drones come flat like folded boxes, so many can ship in one big container. Anyone can assemble one in about 5 minutes with no special tools. >The drones can fly up to 150km at speeds between 45 and 120 kmph. >They stay in the air for one to 2 and a half hours and can carry small items like cameras or tools to block enemy signals. Japan can build and deploy hundreds quickly. The cardboard also makes them harder for enemy radar to detect. The low price means the drones do not need to return safely and work well for training, decoys, scouting, or swarming enemy defenses. Japan is investing more in these simple, mass-produced drones. One 2,000-dollar drone can force an enemy to waste a much costlier missile.

This was the first time I ever saw the next-gen Tesla Roadster in person. It was May 19, 2021. I was walking inside the Petersen Automotive Museum, and I remember just staring at it thinking… This is the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen. I couldn't stop staring at it. I looked at my significant other and told her: “One day, I’m going to own one.” She laughed at me. At the time, it probably sounded crazy. But deep inside, I meant it. And I know a lot of people always laugh at me in the beginning bc things sound crazy and they also can’t see what I see yet. Five years later, I’m looking back at these photos knowing that owning the next-gen Roadster isn't a distant dream for me anymore. I'm going to make it happen... I can’t wait for the day I finally pull up in one and think back to standing in that museum telling her I’d own it someday. And considering what Elon has been saying about the next Roadster… Maybe “pull up” isn’t even the right phrase anymore... maybe I’ll "fly up". Either way, I already know one thing. The same people who laughed, doubted me, or told me what I couldn’t do are going to have a front-row seat. Dream big enough that people laugh, then go make it real. I can't wait for the 10/1 Tesla Roadster unveil.