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I'm offering Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan of the I've Had It Podcast an opportunity to prove themselves right. They said that homeschooling is for "dumb people" who, for some reason, want to be around their kids. So, LET’S PUT IT TO THE TEST. If homeschoolers are taught by a bunch of weird, dumb parents, it should be EASY for you to outsmart them. I challenge you to debate a 15-year-old homeschooled kid from my audience. I'll host it live on my show. It should be an easy win, right?

I've been enjoying Victoria Whitworth's new work, The Book of Kells: Unlocking the Enigma. I've actually never seen the Book of Kells in person, somewhat to my embarrassment. I've been doing some reading about the origins of Christianity this year, however, and I figured I should know something about the most famous Irish manuscript. (Perhaps the most famous manuscript, full stop.) Reading the book, I was struck by how much the contents have suffered over the past ~1200 years (enduring everything from water damage to reckless malfeasance in attempted nineteenth century restoration), and I wondered whether AI could help give a sense for how the work might originally have appeared. I downloaded the Internet Archive's PDF and asked my friendly neighborhood agent to use gpt-image-2 to render each page the way it imagines it might have originally appeared. Remarkably, this all worked with a single prompt, with the agent spinning up 48 workers, since each page took a minute or two. (I'm sure that someone wiser than me could prompt the model better, ensuring somewhat more historical accuracy in color restoration and so forth. There is no gold leaf in the Book of Kells!) This part of the project went from conception to completion before I'd finished my morning coffee. I then wanted some easy way to view the results online, so I asked Stripe Projects ( to host the result on Vercel. That also worked in basically a single prompt: I also figured that people might want an easy way to download the full PDF of updated images, but it's a large (~200MB) file, so I decided that I should charge $0.10 to cover bandwidth costs using @MPP. I asked my agent to set this up, and it basically worked smoothly, though I had to tell it what MPP is (I guess it's not yet in the pretrain) and also manually set up the Cloudflare account that actually hosts the PDF and configure the API key. (Vercel seemingly has a 100MB limit.) The purchases now show up in my Stripe account alongside all other activity. The site now has a ready-made agent prompt for anyone who wants to download the whole thing. I'm guessing that we'll see a lot more UIs like this in the future. I remain pretty intrigued by the intersection of agents, micropayments, and stablecoins. I don't know much about managing crypto wallets from the CLI, but now AI can do that for me, while Stripe seamlessly handles turning it all back into fiat. So what is the moral of the story? • Whitworth's book is very good, and you should buy it. • The Internet Archive continues to be wonderful and a civilizational treasure. • While there are rough edges, setting up third-party services via the CLI now basically works. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered with any of this if I couldn't have outsourced almost all of the work to AI. • The image models have gotten very good. • There will probably continue to be all kinds of interesting applications of AI to history. (The Vesuvius Challenge of course being a shining pioneer.) • These days, I often find myself building single-use sites for things I'm learning or for books I'm reading. I think this is a cool new category of software.

2025 was the perp DEX volume war. 2026 is the perp DEX product/infrastructure war. I filtered the most important updates so you can save time researching every perp DEX yourself. This should help you quickly see who is building what, how they differ, and which DEX fits your needs best. Perp DEXs used to compete mainly on volume, liquidity, fees, and execution. This year, the battle is expanding across several new product layers. ❯ Permissionless markets @HyperliquidX is pushing this through HIP-3, letting builders deploy their own perp markets and choose the oracle, leverage, and market parameters. @standx_official is taking a similar direction with Universal Markets, with more focus on community liquidity for new markets. ❯ TradFi / RWA markets @variational_io stands out with Swaps, bringing TradFi liquidity and financing logic into onchain derivatives. @edgeX_exchange, @OstiumLabs, @tradexyz, @OndoPerps, and @gmtrade_xyz are expanding across equities, FX, and commodities. The battle here is around pricing, liquidity, and funding for global markets. ❯ Productive margin @grvt_io, @extendedapp, and @Aster_DEX are making collateral more useful. The same balance can earn yield, act as margin, and support multiple markets. ❯ Privacy @paradex, @Aster_DEX, and @hibachi_xyz are turning private execution into a core trading feature. Position data, wallet activity, order flow, and trading intent can all gain an extra privacy layer, especially for whales and institutional flow. ❯ Emerging challengers @pacifica_fi, @nadoHQ, and @perpltrade are the names I’m watching here. Strong distribution, chain-native communities, and a clear product wedge can help newer venues capture market share quickly. If I had to simplify it: Hyperliquid: permissionless markets Variational / edgeX / TradeXYZ / Ondo Perp: TradFi & RWA GRVT / Extended / Aster: productive margin Paradex / Hibachi : privacy Pacifica / Nado / Perpl: emerging challengers 2026 is turning the perp DEX market into a race around specialization. Market leaders can keep scaling liquidity and distribution, while challengers can own specific niches. The next perp winner may win a specific market first.

🚨 NOW: Trump-backed Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy just went on national TV and EXPOSED Amy Acton (D) for REFUSING to debate him "I ACCEPTED a debate from 2 well-known networks: CNN and NBC!" "She wants to HIDE from her record, all the nasty and crazy things they've said. To my opponent...I challenge you to SHOW UP. Defend your positions!" "She came out and said she's refusing to debate." "If you are not willing to debate, you can't lead a state!" @VivekGRamaswamy

just so you guys know, some companies offer people $$$ to hold a token and write a thesis on it i think that's one of the stupidest fucking things on the planet, i have many descriptive words for it, but it's a peaceful sunday so ill refrain as you move, look at people's ideas you respect, but also do a double take sometimes, move cautiously ALSO some teams that do it, their token will still actually go up lol, so dont always fade it but personally, ill always buy my own shit if im doing a trading challenge. if i get airdropped anything im fshing immediately. ethical hoops

This is an impressive newspaper interview by @WilliamClouston, the SDP's candidate in Clacton. William and I would probably disagree on some of the economics, but on everything else he is spot on. Intelligent, sober, grown-up politics. Why would you be a good MP to the people of Clacton? The Social Democratic Party (SDP), is the only national political party with a developed policy platform standing against Reform in Clacton. We’re the party of the patriotic state, which is exactly what Clacton’s electorate demands: we support strong control of the borders and national pride, while also believing in a robust government that nationalises utilities, invests in infrastructure, and brings industry back to Britain. Whereas Reform lacks political direction, we are crystal clear on our plans for government and want to fix the long-term, structural challenges facing our country: migration, under-investment, a degraded public realm, and deindustrialisation. What are the main issues Clacton faces? The caricature we see of Clacton in the press is completely inaccurate – both in terms of the idea of it being economically destitute or socially atomised, and in terms of the idea of there being just one “Clacton”. Clacton-on-Sea is the biggest town in the constituency at 55,500 people, but there are another 30,000 people living in adjacent towns like Frinton-on-Sea, Walton-on-the-Naze, and Jaywick. These are all very distinct towns, with their own needs and issues. In terms of issues common to the whole constituency, I think there’s an underinvestment in the public realm, poor economic connectivity with the rest of the country, and a shortage of consistent, quality social care. Firstly, on the public realm, there’s some real work to be done on making sure public spaces are consistently well-maintained and orderly. The landscapes of the area is stunning, and it has a lot of beautiful housing stock. However, it’s undermined by the road and streets they often lead on to. Often there’s not been too much thought put into the basics like planting trees on the streets for shade and beatification, or on properly planning the road network out to stop congestion. These are subtle things, but for a tourism-heavy constituency it’s critical that Clacton gets this right. Secondly, on economic connectivity, the town is really underserved in terms of road and rail links. If you want to travel to or from Clacton by a main road, your only option is through the A12-A120 junction near Colchester- that means a route that’s usually riddled with delays. On rail, all but a couple of trains a day are the same hourly service to London Liverpool Street. This lack of options makes Clacton too inconvenient for many tourists and commuters – the first resulting in reduced income for the hospitality firms the constituency relies on, and the second resulting in a real shortage of dentists, doctors, and nurses for many of Clacton’s residents. The lack of dentists, doctors, nurses, and carers has been told to me consistently on the street and the doorstep during this campaign. Social care is particularly worrying to many people, given the patchiness in quality and coverage that’s available – Clacton’s would be a great beneficiary for one of the SDP’s proposed policies, a National Care Service that guarantees national resourcing for comprehensive social care. How would you sum up your campaign in three words? “You already agree.” The SDP’s mix of economic and social policies is pretty much bang-on the position of the average Brit. We believe in a strong state that takes on crime and criminals, controls the border, and takes real pride in our country. But we also believe the government must roll up its sleeves and invest in infrastructure, ensure care for the sick and old, and make sure that Britain protects its manufacturing sector and industry. What do you think of Andy Burnham as PM? I have no idea what Andy Burnham wants to achieve as PM. He’s not explained what he wants to do in real terms, and only speaks in terms of fuzzy platitudes and folksy PR spin. I think the Labour party is in a bind, and is incapable of fixing the troubles facing this country. Since 1997, the Migration Observatory has noted that total net migration has stood at 9.5mn people. That’s nearly 1 in 7 of the official population count. Simply put, you can’t have a social democratic state – or a nation-state with a basic sense of a shared culture or trust – if you allow mass migration of this scale to continue. The moment you suggest this, however, you’re met with shrill rage from the Labour backbenches. Open-border utopianism – and seeming contempt for their own constituents – seems to be a prerequisite for the Parliamentary Labour Party. But another prerequisite is an inability to do basic maths. Government debt is on an unsustainable trajectory, and one of the main drivers of this is an exploding entitlements bill. In real terms, the amount spent on the state pension per claimant has soared from £6,000 in 1997 to £10,800 in 2024. Spending on disability and incapacity benefit jumped from 1% of GDP in 1991 to over 2.5% of GDP in 2025. As a result, public sector net debt has exploded from 36% of GDP in 2007 to 95% in 2025 – it’s costing us up to £130bn per year just to service the interest of this higher debt, and that’s going to only grow unless we pull down unsustainable spending. But the Labour Party will not hear this, even if you’re suggesting reallocating this spending to things that will generate growth like railways, roads, or power stations. You can’t govern with such immature, unserious people. How do you differ from other candidates in Clacton? We’re the only national party with a developed political programme who are standing in this election, with a full manifesto at the last general election. We also have fully developed green papers on some of the major political topics of our time, like energy or the state of the public finances. Our main project is to offer real, fully-formed solutions to the challenges facing the country – motivated by our principle that the country should be led by a patriotic state. What are the main policies you would look to implement if you were the MP for Clacton? I’m under no illusion: as a single MP, you can’t really do much in a legislative sense in terms of bills passed. And neither can Nigel Farage, given his party currently has only a handful of MPs in the Commons. My job as MP Clacton would be to champion the policies that the people of Clacton voted for and that are in the SDP manifesto. However, the most important thing as an MP would be to hold the government’s feet to the fire at parliamentary debates, challenging their de facto uncontrolled system of mass migration, failure to invest in infrastructure, spinelessness to our radicalised judiciary, and inability to get the basics right on things like energy, water, and rail. In terms of particular policies, Clacton stands to benefit significantly from the SDP’s proposed National Care Service: a universal, comprehensive care service that will provide access to acute, nurse-led intermediate, and long-term care. For Clacton, with its larger share of older residents, a National Care Service would offer significant peace of mind for many households. What’s the best night out in Clacton? I’ve really enjoyed my meals at the Mangiare Ristorante at Frinton-on-Sea. It’s a great Italian restaurant: the food is fantastic and the team is incredibly friendly. In terms of drinking at the pub, I’ve had a lovely time at the Old Lifeboat House at Clacton-on-Sea. What would you tell President Trump if you could speak to him directly? I think he must ask himself what his priorities are and what he wants to achieve from his presidency. The Iran War is one of the worst disasters in American military history, and it happened entirely because of a complete failure by him to look at his intelligence brief or consider how it might impact the rest of his presidency. His failure and flip-flopping on tariffs is another case in point, as was his idiocy around the Greenland Annexation push. Trump seems to just do things because it feels good in the moment for his ego – if I had his ear for a moment, I’d tell him that if he wants any sort of legacy then he must reign this in immediately. What would your dream role be if you were asked to join the government? I’m campaigning as leader of the SDP party, so my dream role would be to serve as Prime Minister so we had full latitude to implement our policy platform. But if the SDP were asked into a coalition, and if the terms were right, then I would probably choose Housing Minister. I’ve enjoyed a forty-year career in town planning and commercial property development, so Housing would allow me to put my expertise to best possible use – and allow me to ideally oversee a proper resurrection of state housebuilding capacity. If you could change one thing about the UK more broadly, what would it be? An end to short-termism in public life. Building and maintaining a country is hard, and requires you to think in timeframes beyond a single election – it can take decades for the consequences of a decision to be felt. Mass media and social media both have compressed our timelines down to the order of weeks, days, and hours. Many people in public life aren’t interested in making the country better, but in taking part in a vapid never-ending circus of outrage and “gotchas”. These people must go.

Making AI "reason about space in words" might be backfiring 🧭 Here's a new approach that lets it imagine unseen viewpoints instead. Title: Imaginative Perception Tokens Enhance Spatial Reasoning in Multimodal Language Models URL: 🧭 Overview This work proposes Imaginative Perception Tokens (IPT) to strengthen spatial reasoning in vision language models (VLMs). Rather than forcing spatial logic through language, it keeps "what could be perceived under a different arrangement" as an intermediate perceptual representation. ❓ Challenges Solved VLMs struggle with spatial reasoning: inferring unobserved viewpoints, reasoning through occluded paths, and integrating partial observations. Prior work pushed this into textual chain-of-thought, but forcing visual reasoning through language alone hit a ceiling. 💡 Methodology & Proposed Approach ・Uses the unified VLM backbone BAGEL, trained with IPT supervision ・Formulates three tasks: Perspective Taking (PET), Path Tracing (PT), Multiview Counting (MVC) ・Builds a ~20,000-example dataset with ground truth, answers, and metrics The core idea is treating the perception itself ("if I moved here, I'd see this") as an intermediate representation. 📊 Experimental Results ・IPT improved Multiview Counting (MVC) accuracy by 3.4% ・Path Tracing (PT) reached performance competitive with closed-source models ・IPT supervision outperformed textual chain-of-thought training ・Conversely, textual CoT substantially degraded spatial reasoning #SpatialReasoning# #MultimodalLLM#

The founder of Pinterest on what surprised him the most when starting a company “It can take a really, really long time to build things that are worthwhile.” Ben Silbermann describes just how demoralizing things were in the beginning of building Pinterest: “In March 2010, we launched Pinterest and were at 3,000 accounts. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t started building Pinterest in November 2009. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t left my job to start a company in May 2008.” A lot of people will compare startups to running a marathon, but Ben disagrees: “The part of the analogy that’s right is that it’s long. But it’s actually really different. When I think about my experience, it’s more like going on a roadtrip in a car that doesn’t have very good headlights and you don’t have much gas and you think you’re going to Toledo, but you find out you’re supposed to be in Miami and if you really have to buy gas you might have to buy gas from someone who might just kick you out of your own driver’s seat.” He continues: “That uncertainty and the fact that every single day you’re dealing with a lot of choices and you don’t have perfect information is the lesson for me that was hardest to learn and continues to be a real challenge in doing a startup today.” Source: @ycombinator (Oct 2012)