As has been pointed out already, there's been quite a bit of discussion/speculation that this 12.5 minutes may be part of a larger news moment. Personally, that is not my interpretation. I am just another schmuck contributing to the discussion and providing additional data (that probably doesn't support the big-news-is-coming line of thinking).
WRT to payment, I suppose I would be incrementally more disappointed if QMC (or Torrey Hills) did pay for it, but that is irrelevant because the topic is the quality of UPTICK and the companies they promote. IMO, a company that doesn't want to be perceived as a typical penny stock might want to avoid hanging out with unimpressive penny promoters.