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adh0c.bsky.social
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@adh0c.bsky.social
17 followers 27 following 140 posts
quintessential nexus of intellectual perturbation & cerebral tumult, wherein the most labyrinthine, intricately convoluted, configurations & architectures of probabilistic uncertainty & stochastic ambiguity, coalesce & converge, to manifest their most...
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adh0c.bsky.social
www.afr.com/world/north-...
Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade’ Venezuela
The popular prediction market disputes US raid amounted to an invasion in fight over more than $15.5 million in wagers.
www.afr.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:40 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
finance.yahoo.com/news/polymar...
Polymarket Withholds Payouts on Venezuela Invasion Bets, Sparking Backlash
The online prediction platform Polymarket has ignited controversy after saying it will not settle millions of dollars’ worth of wagers tied to a potential Venezuela invasion by the United States, draw...
finance.yahoo.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:39 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
3. "Code is Law" Until the House Disagrees The most controversial part involves how these platforms resolve disputes. While they claim to be decentralized, the resolution of the "Invasion" market shows that semantics can be used to protect the house or specific interests. The Semantic Trap: Polymarket has refused to pay out "Yes" bets for a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, arguing the event was a "raid" or a "capture operation" rather than an "invasion" because U.S. forces did not "establish control over territory" indefinitely. Rules Lawyering: Critics argue this is a "lawsuit engine" where the house can use narrow, technical definitions to avoid large payouts, even when the President of the United States publicly states the U.S. is "in charge" of the country. 4. A New Era of "Assassination Markets" The sources suggest that the normalization of betting on war and regime change leads to a darker logical conclusion. Incentivizing Violence: There are concerns that these platforms could eventually function as "assassination markets," where individuals can bet on a leader's death or a specific date for a strike, effectively placing a bounty on human lives. Direct Conflict of Interest: If a President or their inner circle can bet on an outcome they entirely control—such as a military strike or a policy shift—the distinction between governance and a "rigged casino" disappears.
January 8, 2026 at 6:38 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
Prediction markets like Polymarket are not just vulnerable to insider trading—they are fundamentally designed to incentivize it. While traditional financial markets view trading on non-public information as a crime, prediction markets often frame it as a "feature" that powers a "truth machine". 1. Insider Trading is the "Product" The core utility of a prediction market is to aggregate information to produce an accurate forecast. The sources reveal an uncomfortable reality: for a market to be perfectly accurate, it requires people with classified or "inside" knowledge to bet. The Incentive: Polymarket’s CEO has explicitly stated that the platform creates a "financial incentive for people to go and divulge" new information. Breaking the Law for Profit: Leaking classified military info for personal gain is a felony, yet the anonymous, blockchain-based nature of these platforms allows insiders to bypass typical oversight. Accuracy vs. Fairness: While insiders make the market more accurate (e.g., predicting Maduro's fall hours before his arrest), they do so by "stealing" from "average Joes" who are betting based on public information and symmetrical data. 2. The "Maduro Trade" as a Smoking Gun The recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela provided a stark example of this dynamic. Perfect Timing: A mystery trader used a newly created wallet to place a series of wagers totaling roughly $33,000 on Maduro’s ouster. The bets were placed between December 27 and January 3, aligning perfectly with the classified operation’s timeline. The Payoff: This trader netted over $400,000 in profit when the "yes" position was trading at just 7 cents, implying a mere 7% likelihood of success to the general public. Suspicious Origins: Many users in the sources speculate the bettor was likely a White House staffer, a member of the military (such as Delta Force), or even a member of the Trump family, given that Donald Trump Jr. serves as a strategic advisor for such platforms.
January 8, 2026 at 6:37 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/985a...
Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade’ Venezuela
Prediction market disputes US raid amounted to an invasion in fight over more than $10.5mn in wagers
www.ft.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:36 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Gambling platform Polymarket not paying bets on US invasion of Venezuela
Gamblers who placed wagers totalling $10.5m angered after capture of Nicolás Maduro deemed not to qualify
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:36 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
byteshape.com/blogs/Qwen3-...
A 30B Qwen Model Walks Into a Raspberry Pi… and Runs in Real Time
ByteShape's device-optimized release showing superior TPS-quality tradeoffs across edge and datacenter hardware.
byteshape.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:09 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.forbes.com/sites/nancyh...
Sugar Industry Quashed Link Between Sugar And Heart Disease Over 50 Years Ago, Says Report
In the 1960's, the sugar industry paid for and influenced research that shifted blame for heart disease away from sugar and onto dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, says a new paper in JAMA Interna...
www.forbes.com
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
How the sugar industry paid experts to downplay health risks
Researchers have discovered documents showing that the sugar industry paid researchers to downplay the health risks of sugar and play up the risks of saturated fat in the 1960s. Gwen Ifill speaks with...
www.pbs.org
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/society/2016...
Sugar lobby paid scientists to blur sugar's role in heart disease – report
New report highlights battle by the industry to counter sugar’s negative health effects, and the cushy relationship between food companies and researchers
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2026 at 5:37 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
3. Institutional Fraud is Self-Protecting A significant aspect of academia is that universities are perversely incentivized to ignore fraud to protect their prestige and funding. Internal Investigations: One description of a university as being "unable to prove intentional wrongdoing" in a fraud case because the institution is incentivized to never admit fraud occurred, as doing so might force them to return grant money. Professional Suicide: In the mid-20th century, researchers like Ancel Keys (who was allegedly influenced by industry) made it "academic suicide" to research the links between sugar and disease, effectively silencing dissent for decades. 4. The Cynical View of Public Longevity The state has no vested interest in the long-term health of its citizens. The Retirement Factor: One commenter bluntly states that the "state does not need you to live past your retirement age," and from a cold, fiscal perspective, it is "preferable if you don't". Propaganda in Schools: Several contributors recall being taught the Food Pyramid in school as "nutrition facts," characterizing it as government propaganda that children were forced to conform to before they could become informed consumers. 5. Nutrition "Science" May Not Be Science At All Long-term nutritional claims often lack the rigor of "real science." Pseudoscience: Due to the difficulty of maintaining long-term dietary compliance and the overwhelming number of confounding variables, some argue that most long-term nutritional claims should be viewed as pseudoscience or "protoscience" akin to alchemy. The "Everything in Moderation" Trap: This common advice is labeled a fallacy used to encourage people to "just keep doing whatever you’re doing" rather than making the hard choices necessary to avoid chronic disease.
January 8, 2026 at 5:34 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
Public health guidelines, scientific "truth," and government policy are often commodities purchased by the highest bidder rather than reflections of objective reality. The underlying theme is a systemic failure of trust across institutions. 1. The Price of "Truth" is Shockingly Low While the public expects scientific consensus to be a fortress of integrity, the sources suggest it can be redirected for relatively small sums. Buying the Narrative: In the 1960s, the sugar industry paid Harvard researchers the equivalent of roughly $50,000 (in 2016 dollars) to produce a literature review that criticized studies linking sugar to heart disease while ignoring the limitations of studies on dietary fats. Political Bargains: Commenters note that a "seat at the table" with a sitting senator or congressperson can be secured for as little as $10,000 to $20,000, and the "going rate" for a member of Congress in 2015 was cited as approximately $43,000. Departmental Origins: The very first nutrition department at Harvard was established with a $2 million grant from Kellogg's, implying that the field of nutrition science has been "corrupt since its birth". 2. Public Guidelines Often Prioritize Economics Over Health Recommendations like the Food Pyramid were never intended solely to optimize human health. Economic Strategy: The traditional food pyramid, with its grain-heavy base, was a tool of economic efficiency, designed to keep the population "well fed and reasonably healthy" using cheap, shelf-stable calories that don't require refrigeration. Regulatory Capture: Current guidelines like "MyPlate" are described as being crafted by individuals with strong financial ties to the meat, dairy, and egg industries. This leads to the inclusion of "unnecessary" categories, such as dairy, because excluding them would clash with the "predominant culture" and the interests of the dairy lobby.
January 8, 2026 at 5:33 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents
Early warning signals of the coronary heart disease (CHD) risk of sugar (sucrose) emerged in the 1950s. We examined Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) internal documents, historical reports, and statements relevant to early debates about the dietary ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
January 8, 2026 at 5:32 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.ucsf.edu/news/2016/09...
Archive: Sugar Papers Reveal Industry Role in Shifting National Heart Disease Focus to Saturated Fat
A newly discovered cache of industry documents revealed that the sugar industry began working closely with nutrition scientists in the mid-1960s to single out fat and cholesterol as the dietary causes...
www.ucsf.edu
January 8, 2026 at 5:31 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
mashable.com/article/unsk...
Long unskippable ads will reportedly be illegal in one country next month
Not a bad idea...
mashable.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:46 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
Aggressive Digital Interruptions and Dark Patterns Platforms employ increasingly aggressive interruptions that border on malware-like behavior to force interactions. Layout Reflows: Some apps and websites are designed to "reflow" their layout seconds after loading, causing buttons to move just as a user is about to tap, thereby forcing a "misclick" on an ad. Fake Close Buttons: Advertisements frequently use fake "X" buttons that are actually part of the ad's image asset; clicking them redirects the user to the advertiser's site rather than closing the window. Succession Model: When one unskippable ad ends, platforms may immediately trigger another, or require users to click "X" on multiple short ads in a row to return to their content. Deteriorating Quality and Erosion of Privacy The pursuit of "high-engagement" metrics has led to the deterioration of ad-supported services and a systematic erosion of digital privacy. Exploiting "Sleepers": Some suspect YouTube of detecting "sleepers"—users who have left the video running unattended at night—to serve ultra-long, high-profit ads (sometimes over 20 minutes) with the certainty they will not be skipped. The Surveillance Economy: The current model relies on the "annihilation of individual privacy" to fuel personalized ad targeting. Corporate Greed: Platforms are often accused of allowing fraud and scam ads to persist because they generate "rent" for the platform through every transaction. Regulatory Responses In response to these hostile patterns, regions like Vietnam have introduced Decree No. 342, which aims to reclaim the baseline of respect for user experience. This law mandates that skip buttons must appear within five seconds for all video ads and forbids "false or vague symbols" designed to confuse viewers. It represents a shift toward forcing platforms to be more responsible for the "conduit of garbage" they point at users.
January 8, 2026 at 4:45 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
Major platforms and creators increasingly employ hostile design patterns and attention engineering to prioritize engagement metrics over a respectful user experience. These tactics, often described as a form of "enshitification," leverage psychological triggers and data-driven testing to hijack human attention, particularly targeting younger, more impressionable audiences. Deceptive Progress Bars and Time Manipulation One of the most criticized predatory tactics is the use of deceptive progress bars. In digital advertising and even within content, these bars are often programmed to start quickly—giving the viewer the illusion that an interruption will be brief—only to progressively slow down as they reach the end. False Hook: This creates a "trick" that lures the user into staying for what they think is a ten-second ad, only to realize at the 20-second mark that they are barely halfway done. Widespread Use: This is not limited to ads; major apps like Uber have been accused of using deceptive bars to lower perceived wait times, and developers admit to being forced to program bars that reach 90% instantly but stall for the final 10%. Creator Complicity: High-profile creators like MrBeast have been specifically identified as using these types of manipulative progress bars to keep audiences locked in. Data-Driven Attention Engineering Creators like MrBeast have moved beyond traditional entertainment into mathematical attention hijacking. According to the sources, every detail of his content is extensively A/B tested—including colors, thumbnail facial expressions, sound effects, and the length of scene cuts—to find the slightest edge in grabbing and holding attention. The "Uncanny" Thumbnail: The "weird creepy face" and "uncanny smoothing" seen in thumbnails are not accidents; they are calculated to trigger curiosity or horror. Motivation vs. Pleasure: These tactics exploit dopamine, which functions more as a "motivation hormone" than a pleasure one. By triggering an evo…
January 8, 2026 at 4:43 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us-str...
Vietnam to force YouTube and other platforms to allow skipping ads after 5 seconds starting February 15 - The Times of India
US Streamers News: The government of Vietnam has recently rolled out a new law known as Decree 342/2025 that forces YouTube and other digital platforms to enable users t.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:41 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
saigoneer.com/vietnam-news...
Vienam Bans Unskippable Ads, Requires Skip Button to Appear After 5 Seconds | Saigoneer
If things go our way, YouTube’s notorious unskippable ads might be a thing of the past come this February. ...
saigoneer.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:39 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
How specific passages from Plato’s Symposium directly conflict with the Texas A&M Academic Ideology and Advocacy Policy.
January 7, 2026 at 10:59 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
How specific passages from Plato’s Symposium directly conflict with the Texas A&M Academic Ideology and Advocacy Policy.
January 7, 2026 at 10:59 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
How specific passages from Plato’s Symposium directly conflict with the Texas A&M Academic Ideology and Advocacy Policy.
January 7, 2026 at 10:59 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...
Professor Reinstated After Being Fired For Charlie Kirk Post
Professor Darren Michael has reportedly been reinstated and given $50,000 after being fired over posts about assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
www.mediaite.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:56 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
reason.com/volokh/2026/...
Texas A&M Removes Plato from Introductory Philosophy Class
The department chair reported to him that the "College leadership team" had decided that the section, including the Plato readings, would have to be excised from the class. If Peterson did not do so, ...
reason.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:56 PM
adh0c.bsky.social
January 7, 2026 at 9:56 PM