I am fundraising for the Tom Meixner Maryland Promise Scholarship during Giving Day on March 4! Check out my page here givingday.umd.edu/s/meixnerpromi… to honor Tom’s legacy and to donate and share!
Ask ChatGPT a complex question and you'll get a confident, well-reasoned answer. Then type, "Are you sure?" Watch it completely reverse its position.
Ask again. It flips back. By the third round, it usually acknowledges you're testing it, which is somehow worse. It knows what's happening and still can't hold its ground.
This isn't a quirky bug. A 2025 study found GPT, Claude, and Gemini flip their answers ~60% of the time when users push back. Not even with evidence, just doubt.
We trained AI this way. RLHF rewards agreement over accuracy. Human evaluators consistently rate agreeable answers higher than correct ones. So the models learned a simple lesson: telling you what you want to hear gets rewarded. And now 1/3 of companies are using these systems for complex tasks like risk forecasting and scenario planning.
We built the world's most expensive yes-men and deployed them where we need pushback the most.
I wrote up why this happens and what actually fixes it: randalolson.com/2026/02/07/the…
NEW: Secret passageway linked to the Underground Railroad discovered at the bottom drawer of a dresser in New York City.
The 2-by-2-foot opening revealed a ladder that descended two stories.
The 19th-century house on East Fourth Street in Manhattan was built by abolitionist Joseph Brewster in the 1830s, according to Spectrum News.
The house is now believed to have been used as a "safe house."
"I’ve been practicing historical preservation law for 30 years, and this is a generational find. This is the most significant find in historic preservation in my career," said preservation attorney and professor at Pratt Institute, Michael Hiller.
Historians say the passageway is a "masterwork of deliberate concealment," designed to be "absolutely invisible to slave catchers."
Sauna is one of the most effective health protocols I've done. Here is everything I've learned; it's the most robust characterization ever produced.
Results:
1) Fifteen sessions of sauna dramatically reduced environmental toxins in my body:
+ 65% drop in 2,4-D
+ 100% drop in MEP
+ 15% drop in MBP
+ 100% drop in MEHP (undetectable post sauna)
+ 56% drop in NAPR
+ 56% drop in HEMA
+ 100% drop in Perchlorate (undetectable post sauna)
2. Sauna eliminated 85% of microplastics from my ejaculate.
Nov 2024:
165 particles/mL
July 2025: 20 particles/mL
Nearly identical drop in my blood same time period:
Oct 2024: 70 particles/mL
May 2025: 10 particles/mL
3. Sauna, without ice on the boys, devastated my fertility markers.
Total Motile Count: –56%
Concentration: –30%
Motility: –50%
Morphology: –48%
Count: –9%
4. Sauna coincided with my fertility markers being at an all-time high. I have more total and motile sperm than 99.6% of men of any age, including men under 25.
+ total count: 600 M
+ concentration: 162 M
+ motility: 55%
+ total motile count: 330M
+ morphology (normal): 10%
We do not know what to make of these improvements. Was it the sauna? Sauna + ice? Ice only? We don't know but we did not identify any other protocols or lifestyle changes during this interval that would plausibly account for the change.
5. My vascular function improved by a ten year reduction in age. Now I have the vascular age of an elite 18-early 20s.
+ Central Systolic Blood Pressure: 96 mmHg
+ Central Pulse Pressure: 20 mmHg
+ Pulse Pressure Amplification: 160%
+ SEVR: 227%
+ Augmentation Pressure: 1 mmHg
+ Augmentation Index Wave: 3%
+ Traditional blood pressure: 107/75 mmHg
6. What type of sauna?
Use a dry sauna with high temperatures between 80-100°C (176 to 212°F) and 5-20% relative air humidity. Aim for the lower end of this spectrum, especially as a beginner. Higher temperatures closer to the boiling point can cause side effects like headaches and severely dried nose and eyes.
Note: Steam baths, hot tubs, and infrared saunas fail to replicate the same effects because they do not allow you to safely reach the required high temperatures and do not induce the same level of sweating, the necessary inverted (skin-to-core) temperature gradient, and the massive re-direction of blood to the skin with resulting vasodilation.
Dry sauna is unique, and very likely superior to wet (steam bath) and infrared saunas. By heating up your skin way faster than your core, dry hot sauna flips your core skin temperature gradient, eliciting the following hormetic benefits:
+ enhanced blood flow: the heart pumps up to 70% more blood, similar to intense aerobic exercise (zone 2-+ increased sweating for detoxification: to maintain a stable core temperature, the skin produces 0.6-1 liter of sweat per hour, facilitating significant detoxification.
+ improved heat tolerance: the body becomes better at handling heat, leading to a lower core body temperature (offering metabolic advantages)
+ safe activation of heat shock proteins: the skin experiences substantial heat shock protein activation, while a modest 1°C increase in core temperature is sufficient to activate these proteins without the risk of hyperthermia.
+ extended Exposure at higher temperatures: dry saunas are more tolerable for longer durations and at higher temperatures, maximizing the benefits.
7. Sauna protocol and frequency
Type: hot dry sauna
Temperature: 176–212°F ( I do 200°F)
Relative air humidity: very low, 5-20%
Duration: 20 min
Frequency: 4–7x a week
8. Heat Protection
If you'd like, you can protect your head from the heat by wearing a sauna hat or wrapping it with a towel (use only cotton or other 100% natural material). You can breathe through a towel or cloth if needed to protect your nose. I am personally fine not doing this.
Most importantly, ice the balls.
Icing the testicles is absolutely required to prevent heat from damaging fertility markers.
+ Ice the testes during the sauna session.
+ Use a non-toxic, reusable ice pack material.
+ Wear cotton boxers and shorts.
+ Place ice packs in between the boxers and shorts.
+ Keep them in place for the entire session.
Men should care about preserving fertility markers even when they are not trying to conceive. Sperm quality is tightly coupled to testicular function, which governs testosterone production, metabolic health, and long term endocrine stability. When fertility parameters decline, the same upstream dysfunction often drives lower testosterone, higher inflammation, and increased cardiometabolic risk.
9. Hydration
Dry sauna induces sweating as part of its beneficial mechanism. Be sure to hydrate properly. In general, you might need to rehydrate with up to 16–32 oz (0.5–1 L) of fluid after a sauna session. Be sure to add electrolytes.
If you want to be precise, measure your sweat amount and electrolytes (saltiness) using a patch (e.g., from Gatorade) to quantify your liquid and electrolyte loss, and rehydrate accordingly. Some people have saltier sweat than others and must ensure they replenish electrolytes as well as water.
My results: my body sweats 18 oz during a 20 min sauna at 200 °F, with a sodium concentration of 25-39 mg/oz. A single sauna session flushes 450–700 mg of sodium out of my body.
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I wish you all the best in life my friend. A new era or being human is here. One where existence is the highest virtue. Prioritize sleep, daily exercise and eat well and you'll be in a strong position. Try to avoid the bad stuff. Anything that takes away your agency.
Be a warrior and caretaker of existence. Don't Die.
It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. We send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin'. bobweir.net/bobby/
📸 Chloe Weir
There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average.
Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries.
Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.
You're right that the specific link you tried for Article I, Section 9 on the Constitution Annotated site returns a "Page Not Found" error—I've seen the same thing in your screenshot.
But this doesn't mean Article I, Section 9 has been removed or is missing; the full text (including the habeas corpus clause) is still up and accessible at official sources like the main Library of Congress Constitution page (constitution.congress.gov/constitution/a…), and reputable sites like Cornell Law School.
This just looks like an issue with a broken or outdated direct link for that particular page, which can happen when government websites change their URLs or page structure.
It appears the GOP removed Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution from the US Congress’s Annotated Constitution site. The section that says habeas corpus rights cannot be suspended. They just cut it out.
Hello! If you’re interested in sharing some wild and/or ancient bread or beer starter, please introduce yourself here and follow this account so we can get your address. We will need to figure out shipping costs!
@elonmusk@realDonaldTrump When two of the smartest people on Earth clash, sparks are bound to fly. But if they reconcile, their friendship ignites a spark that’s no longer bound to Earth.
@ClimateBen It is irresponsible to blanketedly call this unsurvivable warming, it is not. Adaptation is possible and necessary and will require us to envision it as such.
Irreversible unsurvivable warming:
1.5-1.75°C by 2024-2026
1.75-2°C by 2029-2031
2-2.25°C by 2034-2036
Time's up.
Rethink human systems now to protect species and everyone while it's still too late.
🧵
Exciting New Citizen Science Project!
Help us find bird nests in anthropogenic spots — pipes, mailboxes, vents & more.
Join the Urban Cavities Project on iNaturalist!
inaturalist.org/projects/urban…
📩Ignacy Stadnicki | urban.cavities@gmail.com
The UMD SGA approved an act to support undergraduate student research initiatives during its meeting Wednesday in an effort to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal research funding, programs and staff.
dbknews.com/2025/04/10/umd…
Many interesting topics on the new radio show: desert hummingbirds, the Delphic Maxims & Book of Proverbs, Doc Holliday's various dentistry offices & gunfights, plus soundscapes by @RedBluBlkSilver. Listen on your device, free of charge for the brave of heart.
your political engagement needs to start kicking in before when you personally are affected. people are suffering under the normal, regular-ass system, and you thinking it's abnormal because now citizens are affected too is too late. 8/x