Travis Smith

[Interesting things @awkwardgoogle]

Packing thousands of straws together basically creates a low-tech pixel screen.

Each straw acts as an independent light pathway, perfectly mimicking how data channels work.

[BlueCollarInvestor @BlueCollarInvr]

Facebook Tree Climber groups are a gold mine for how not to do business.

Blue Collar individuals can be a bit rough around the edges.

Hide just a bit of it lol. My guys call it my salesmen voice.

[Amiri King @AmiriKing]

This is the craziest card trick I’ve ever seen in my entire life and there’s not a soul out there that can explain how he did this.

🤯

[Enezator @Enezator]

A diver places his gold ring beside the water ring he created and watches the energy transfer unfold.
It is genuinely mesmerizing to watch

[Travis Smith @JustPickOne4Me]

@JoshuaBarzon 2

[Travis Smith @JustPickOne4Me]

@JakeFleshner Takeoffs & Deliveries

[Serkan Tanyildizi @srkntnyldz]

Cesur bir anne, çiftliğine giren dağ kaplanına attığı tekme ile keçisini kurtarıyor! 💪

[Walter @walt_russell02]

Putting these in envelopes and having employees give to clients at end of job.

Cannot understate the impact this has had on our business.

Results:

Average .6 referrals per client using referral discount.

Majority of clients become repeat (don’t track as well but look at repeat names in CRM)

Our blended CAC on meta ads (110) LSA (140) ppc (90-150 ish).

Doesn’t take a mathematician to understand how important repeats and referrals are for monthly sales goals

[Michael Girdley @girdley]

NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: The rise and fall of Topgolf: the $1.5 billion mistake

At one point, Topgolf was called the best thing to happen to golf since Tiger Woods. But in January 2026, the entire business was sold to a private equity firm in what many considered a fire sale. The price was $1.1 billion, less than half of what the company had been worth just five years earlier.

Here’s the surprising part: during those five years, the business never stopped growing. Topgolf kept opening new locations, attracting new customers, and generating more revenue.

So how does a company with growing sales, expanding locations, and a popular brand lose so much value?

What went wrong? Was it bad management, changing consumer habits, or something deeper hidden in the business model?

This is the rise and fall of Topgolf, version two.

[Travis Smith @JustPickOne4Me]

@Shadabshs @cursorclip I will take you up on that.

[Nicolas Hulscher, MPH @NicHulscher]

STUDY FINDS 96% REMISSION RATE OF ALPHA-GAL SYNDROME WITH AURICULAR ACUPUNCTURE

With nearly 500,000 Americans now affected by tick-induced meat allergy, a peer-reviewed study reports almost unbelievable results using a little-known form of ear acupuncture.

Researchers evaluated 137 patients with alpha-gal syndrome treated with Soliman Auricular Allergy Treatment (SAAT).

Among patients with follow-up data, 96% reported remission of symptoms after treatment.

Many who previously could not tolerate beef, pork, dairy, or other mammalian foods were reportedly able to reintroduce them without allergic reactions.

The procedure is unusual. Patients do not ingest or get injected with alpha-gal.

Instead, they simply touch a vial containing the allergen while clinicians identify a reactive point on the ear using electrical detection.

A tiny acupuncture needle is then placed in a specific auricular zone and left in place for about three weeks.

Even among patients with a prior history of anaphylaxis, 93.1% reported no subsequent symptoms after accidental—or in some cases intentional—exposure following treatment.

No adverse reactions to the acupuncture procedure itself were reported.

This was a retrospective case series, not a randomized controlled trial.

But with AGS cases exploding and no accepted treatment beyond avoidance, a reported 96% remission rate is difficult to ignore.

[Darshak Rana ⚡️ @thedarshakrana]

The Woodpecker is the only proof that God really exists.

And I'm going to prove it to you right NOW:🧵

[Mia @Mia1430797]

Middle School was the shit when it came to stuff like this😂

[0xDipper @Dipper_pol]

Nassim Taleb on a bet most people would take: 70% chance to win $1, 30% chance to lose $1 - should you bet?

His answer: in most cases no. Not because of risk aversion. Because it's a bad strategy in multi-period reality

Same Kelly Criterion math that powers Shannon's information theory - there's a sweet spot, and most behavioral finance papers ignore it

Bet too much and the law of large numbers ruins you. Bet too little and you leave returns on the table

this is what every quant learns before they touch capital

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇺🇸 A CIA officer got caught with $40 million in gold bars at home.

David Rush had a Top-Secret clearance, a senior management position at the CIA, and apparently a very interesting storage situation. Federal agents raided his house last week and walked out with 300 gold bars worth over $40 million, $2 million in cash, and 35 luxury watches, mostly Rolexes.

His explanation for the gold? "Work-related expenses."

It gets wilder. The man spent nearly 20 years lying about his entire background, fake degrees, a Navy pilot career that never happened, none of it was real. He applied to the CIA three times before finally getting in, adding more fake credentials each time until something stuck.

The CIA caught him through an internal investigation and handed it to the FBI.

The real question nobody wants to answer is how someone with a completely fabricated resume held Top-Secret clearance for two decades without anyone noticing.

Source: NBC NEWS

[Chubby♨️ @kimmonismus]

One injection, 62% lower LDL - permanently. Gene editing for cholesterol is here.

.@cremieuxrecueil is correct. Besides GLP-1 antagonist like Ozempic or, more recently, Retatrutide, this is probably the next breakthrough that is almost impossible to put into words.

Verve Therapeutics (Eli Lilly) just published Phase 1 results for VERVE-102 in the NEJM.

It's a single-infusion base-editing therapy that inactivates PCSK9 in the liver. At the highest dose, PCSK9 dropped 88% and LDL cholesterol fell 62%. Reductions held for at least a year.

35 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia or premature coronary artery disease. No dose-limiting toxicities. Main side effects: mild infusion reactions and transient liver enzyme elevations.

Still Phase 1, still small, no cardiovascular outcome data yet. But the proof of concept for permanent, one-shot LDL reduction via gene editing is real.

This is an absolute game changer and im not exaggerting.

Elevated LDL cholesterol is responsible for an estimated 4.4 million deaths every year worldwide and remains the single biggest modifiable driver of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death globally.

[UI/UX Savior @UiSavior]

Sites on the internet for design inspiration.

Web Design → https://t.co/IDTg0fRObK
Landing Pages → https://t.co/ulUYJp3EDf
Saas Websites → https://t.co/EacR7Liy9H
Navbar → https://t.co/1YHU4yfOxW
CTA Sections → https://t.co/bFOrpIgWIW
Animation → https://t.co/VfRAI7e5Ch
Mobile Apps → https://t.co/gxq43FqLG3
Brands → https://t.co/Q38cExyN5c
Icons → https://t.co/RyMj2EzdSM
Design Systems → https://t.co/s4MyCFjQSD

[Anticommie @QueenAnticommie]

I think some kid played this trick on me in the 8th grade

[Alex B @bprintco]

Let me tell you about an almost unknown business that prints money.

A while back, we got our skid steer buried bad. I called every tow company I could find. Nobody could help.

But every single one of them said the same thing:

“You need to call this one guy.”

So I did.

He shows up with a rollback, a skid steer, and an attachment I’d never seen before.

15 minutes later, we were out. He charged us $800 and rolled off to the next job.

I’m a fan of those heavy equipment/off-road recovery channels on YouTube, so I couldn’t help asking him:

“Why do those guys have millions of dollars in trucks and machines when you’re doing this with a skid steer attachment?”

He laughed and said:

“They don’t need all that shit. They need this.”

So I asked the obvious question.

“Then why don’t they have one?”

He said:

“Because I make these myself. They don’t know about them.”

WHAT?

So I looked it up. He was right.

The only thing even close is a much weaker version used for dragging logs.

This guy built his own recovery attachment.

It runs off the skid steer’s hydraulics, controls a massive winch, and has a blade that digs deep into the ground to anchor the machine.

The pulling power is insane, almost nobody knows it exists, and he'll sell you one.

So now he just runs around town doing the impossible jobs.

When equipment is stuck too bad for everyone else…

When the normal tow companies can’t touch it…

They call him.

Tiny niche.
Huge problem.
No competition.
Premium pricing.

Pretty freaking cool.

If you want to see some wild recoveries, look up ZTR Winch Box on Facebook.

[Evan Luthra @EvanLuthra]

🚨THE FBI CREATED A FAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY.. LISTED IT ON UNISWAP.. HIRED MARKET MAKERS TO PUMP IT.. THEN ARRESTED EVERYONE WHO SAID YES..

THIS IS THE CRAZIEST LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATION IN CRYPTO HISTORY!!!

The FBI built an actual ERC-20 token on Ethereum called NexFundAI.. 100 billion token supply.. A professional website.. Whitepapers promising "passive income through AI-powered investing"..

It looked exactly like every other crypto project.. Because that was the point..

Undercover agents posed as the founding team.. Then reached out to professional market-making firms and said "we need you to fake our trading volume"..

Every single firm said yes..

Here's what they recorded..

Gotbit.. A firm run by a 26-year-old Russian who publicly bragged in 2019 that he built a business faking trade volumes.. His team kept internal spreadsheets with columns literally labeled "fake volume" vs "market volume"..

When asked how fast they could pump NexFundAI's volume to $1 million per day.. They said "6 hours.. It will cost about $200"..

$200 to fake $1 million in daily trading volume..

MyTrade.. Run by a guy who called himself "the mastermind".. He explained the exact psychology of the scam on camera..

"We make the chart look like a really nice roller coaster ride.. That's where people jump in.. We have to make them lose money in order to make profit"..

He said that on a recorded FBI video call..

CLS Global.. A Dubai-based firm.. Their bots generated 98% of NexFundAI's total trading volume.. When the FBI asked if they could sync fake volume spikes with fake news announcements.. They said absolutely..

ZM Quant.. Bots executing 10 to 20 trades per minute through dozens of wallets to look organic..

All of them knew it was fraud.. All of them did it anyway.. All of it was recorded..

And the clients were even worse..

Saitama.. A meme coin that hit $7.5 billion market cap.. The founders coordinated buys through private Telegram chats.. Sent "pump it" memes while manipulating the price.. Then dumped on retail investors..

$7.5 billion.. Built entirely on fake volume.. Every penny of real money came from retail investors who thought the momentum was organic..

One founder left Saitama and started Robo Inu.. Used Gotbit again.. Another launched VZZN.. Same playbook..

Lillian Finance.. Founder claimed to be a defense contractor who addressed Congress.. Marketed the token as funding children's hospitals.. Pocketed everything..

When the FBI shut it down.. They seized $25 million in one day.. 18 people indicted across the US, UK, and Portugal.. The CEO of Gotbit was arrested in Portugal and extradited.. Sentenced to 8 months plus $23 million forfeiture..

But here's the part that broke my brain..

Real people bought NexFundAI..

The FBI's fake token.. With zero utility.. Zero real developers.. Created solely to catch criminals.. Attracted real retail investors because the fake volume made the chart look bullish..

When the FBI pulled the liquidity to end the operation.. Those people lost real money.. On a government-issued token..

The FBI had to set up a restitution portal to pay them back..

And it gets worse..

Within 24 hours of the DOJ announcing the sting.. Someone cloned the FBI's exact smart contract.. Launched a copycat token.. Rode the viral momentum.. And made $127,000 in a single day..

Using the exact same manipulation tactics the FBI just arrested 18 people for..

Then in 2026.. The FBI did it again.. New token called Lexobit.. 10 more arrests.. Including operators extradited from Singapore..

IRS forensics showed that in one firm's trading.. 1,209 out of 1,221 consecutive transactions went straight back to wallets the firm controlled.. 99% circular..

The FBI proved what everyone in crypto suspected..

The volume is fake.. The charts are painted.. The momentum is manufactured..

And every time you buy a token because "the chart looks bullish".. You might be the exit liquidity.