676: Gay Nuclear Frogs

Saturday, September 26th. Two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide. Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God Romero. Plus the Bare Knuckle Middleweight Championship of the World is on the line when the reigning champ Dave the Redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger Jack the Meat Cleaver Colon.

BKFC 94. Till vs. Romero. Watch it live only on DAZN. Sign up now at DAZN.com. Grumpy Old Geeks. A weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the internet and who's to blame.

Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. We got some breaking news, Jason. Come on. Break it to me, Brian. Fresh off the internet tubes. The TikTok ban has been upheld in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied TikTok's petition to review the law after both sides asked for a ruling by December 6th before the Nationwide's ban, which is scheduled for a January 19th start date.

We'll see if that actually happens. TikTok and creators on the app sued the federal government in an effort to halt the ban, which forces TikTok to either divest from Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or else be banned from U.S. app stores. TikTok has argued that the ban infringes on the company's First Amendment rights and divesting from ByteDance is not possible technologically, commercially, or legally.

While the government maintained the ban was essential for national security, although they have put that evidence under seal and not publicly released it, which is what you do if it's national security. We'll see what happens next. But yeah, it's all coming up quick.

We'll see what happens. All right. China! Yeah. Oh, this is going to be interesting to see what he does. Well, yeah, it is going to be interesting, right? Because initially he was – Trump did want to ban TikTok. He was all for it, basically, to basically, you know, force them to use U.S. companies and get some money.

But he also seems to be very much against anything Biden did. So he could very well be fucked up. Yeah. That's the thing. We don't know. And we don't know if Elon's going to say, hey, it's good for us, man. You've got truth. I've got X. You know, between us, we've got 50 users. We should be able to make some more money if this thing goes away.

And that assumes that Elon is in the good graces at that point, which is not a guarantee anymore. It's not a guarantee, but he's lasted longer than I thought he would. Well, he's not even in office yet. I know. I love every article that comes out and says that he's like the shadow MAGA president. Makes me smile because the more light that he takes away from the big DT, the faster he is going to get out of there.

Because nothing pisses Donald off more than somebody getting in his spotlight. That's true. That is true. Yep. So that'll be fun to watch. I'm excited. I'm excited. I hope you didn't burn your hands because that was so hot off the press. I burned my eye tubes. I did burn my little fingers this weekend on some Thanksgiving dinner.

So I did put out a Thanksgiving rerun episode because we had an ad. We had to put something out. And I'm poor. I need money. So I put out the Tim Ferriss episode from episode 36. Wow. 36, Brian. That was a long time ago.

I did not have a kid. No. No. I think, Jesus, I was still, no, you were in your thirties. Yep. I think still. Wow. God, we're old. But David Finley over on Blue Sky wrote something very funny. He's like, geez, you both got way more cynical in the last 10 years.

I'd feel like if you were doing that interview now, you'd both be eviscerating him on so many issues, ideas that he promoted then. Probably, but my response to David was, you know what shit we've seen in the last 10 years? Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Look, it's an occupational hazard of doing this podcast.

It is actually making us really, really fucking cranky, which is one of the reasons that I do demand we occasionally take a week off because I need to recharge some happiness in my life. Sit down and watch some Disney videos. This doesn't make me cranky anymore. I just smile at it because I know how the game is played, but it's still just like, what can you do?

This too shall pass, Brian. This too shall pass. Yes. Well, speaking of passing, we have some follow-up on the story about the ship that supposedly dragged the anchor to cut undersea data cables. European investigators now believe it was a Chinese-owned commercial ship that deliberately dragged its anchor to sabotage the two undersea telecommunication cables cut in the Baltic Sea earlier this month.

Western law enforcement, however, and intelligence officials have told the Wall Street Journal they don't believe that the Chinese government was involved. Instead, the probe is focused on whether Russian intelligence persuaded the vessel's captain to carry out the operation. For the past week or so, NATO warships from Denmark, Germany, and Sweden have surrounded the 225-meter-long Yiping-3.

The ship's Chinese owner is reportedly cooperating with investigators, and the shipper has allowed the commercial vessel to be stopped in international waters. So they are negotiating with the owner to access the ship and its crew. I think they need to send Tom Hanks, from what I remember about that movie.

Yeah. International maritime laws prevent NATO from forcing the vessel to sail into one of its ports. So they've basically got surveillance and satellite footage of the ship, which used to never even leave Chinese waters until this.

And they basically see it going really slowly over 100 miles along the Baltic seabed, which would correspond with dragging an anchor and doing some weird zigzaggy stuff and all over the place. So, I mean... Serpentine! Serpentine! It's about as red-handed as you can get.

So, now it's just... Platican's comrade. Yeah. Now it's trying to just figure out who pulled the trigger on this one. So, in addition to Tom Hanks, I think we need the diplomat. We need Kerry Russell in here. Yeah, seriously. Yeah. Oh, this is a good one. Okay.

Yep. Never would have seen that coming. Now, see, my theory all along was it was the Russians, because we know Elon Musk has been talking to Putin. And guess who would benefit from all these cables going away? Why Starlink would. Starlink. Yep. Hmm. That's what you said before. Yep. Yeah.

If we were that kind of show. Yeah, if we were that kind of show, making those kind of accusations. Well, we might want to be that kind of show, because those kind of shows make that kind of money. That's true. So, let's just make them. Fuck it. Elon did it. Yep. Elon did it. But speaking of not making any money, Elon Musk's massive multi-billion dollar Tesla pay package was blocked by a judge again.

Wah, wah, wah. Well, he's a government employee now. I'm sure he'll be rolling in the bucks. Oh, get that Doge money. Yep. That's right. Yes. The Delaware court has once again rejected Elon's massive pay package valued at $101 billion. Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathleen McCormick, who is my new favorite person, ruled it was unfair to shareholders, even though they voted on it again and said, give him the money.

That's because they're all yes men. Yes. Yeah, yeah. She's like, she's being the parent in the room saying, I'm doing this for your own good. You must eat your vegetables and here, keep the money. Well, I've got a story later on in the show about the Tesla Cybertruck that maybe will make you think he does not deserve any sort of pay package.

Yeah. But we'll get to that later. Well, then let's get on with the news, Brian. Okay. In the news.

It's been a hot minute since we've talked about any crypto bros getting in trouble, but we've got it now. I think it's going to be a long four years, Brian. As long as, look, they can talk about crypto all they want. As long as they don't bring back NFTs, please. Can we all agree NFTs were a really stupid idea?

GM. F you. Well, former cryptocurrency leader Alex Mashinsky has pleaded guilty to two fraud charges. The founder and CEO of Celsius Networks was indicted on seven criminal counts in 2023, including charges of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation.

He entered a not guilty plea at the time, but in the hearing today, he changed his mind to about two of those original counts. The first is commodities fraud. And the second is a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of his company's in-house crypto token cell. Reporters, Reuters. Wait, wait, wait. If that's an in-house token called cell, does that mean it's an in-cell?

Ooh, nice. Move on, move on. As part of the plea deal, he has agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less. And I didn't put this in the news, but I did see it breaking. A hot to a girl did a cryptocurrency and then immediately cashed out 90% of her holdings, which was almost all of it, and it immediately crashed.

And there are now calls for her to be sent to jail. So we might have a crypto girl in the news by next week. Oh, man. How will she do her number one podcast from jail, Jason? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, what's his name? Oh, the Death Row Records guy.

Who is that? Shub Knight. Shub Knight has a podcast from jail. Every three minutes you get that thing from the jail. This call is coming from. It's in there, too. Yeah. They seriously need to hire me, though. It sounds terrible. Well, good luck. Come on, guys. Landlines, man. Yeah, come on, Shug. Come on, Shug. Send me some of that sweet money.

I'll fix it. I cannot believe somebody got to talk to a girl. She seemed to have such good counsel up until this point. Who the fuck got to her and said, you know what would be a really good idea? Security's fraud because you're not making enough money so far. Let's do it, girl.

Jesus. It would have been better off with OnlyFans. Yeah. Anyways, some Canadian news. A coalition of Canadian news outlets sued OpenAI on Friday for copyright infringement. The joint lawsuit accuses the company of capitalizing and profiting from the unauthorized use of their content for ChatGPT.

Plaintiffs include CBC, Radio Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Canadian Press. They are seeking punitive damages from OpenAI, payments for any profits the ChatGPT creator made from using their news articles, and a ban on further use of their content. OpenAI has noted that its news content partnerships and opt-out process, while voicing a belief that its practices are covered under fair use.

And we all know how well opt-out processes work, particularly for these black boxes. Yeah. And they're also, of course, saying that it's all fair use, which it's not. Just because I heard a song playing on the radio does not mean I can sell it. Yes. Yeah. It doesn't mean I can take it, put it into my for-profit organization that makes money, and reuse the content.

No, it doesn't work that way. Otherwise, I'll just go Spotify is all fair use, so I'm just going to grab all those things and slap a new package on the front of it. Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of OpenAI and Elon, Elon Musk has asked the court to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit, because he's allowed to tell other companies what they should do.

Yeah. Keep going. Keep going. I got follow-up on this article. Please keep going. His attorneys have filed an injunction against OpenAI and Microsoft on Friday, accusing the two of anti-competitive practices and seeking to stop OpenAI's highest conversion to a for-profit company. He first sued OpenAI earlier this year for allegedly violating its founding mission of building AI for the benefit of humanity, but withdrew the lawsuit a few months later because it was patently fucking stupid.

He then filed another lawsuit against OpenAI in the California federal court in August and recently added Microsoft as the defendant. The new motion accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of telling investors not to fund OpenAI's competitors, such as Musk's ex-AI, of benefiting from wrongly obtained competitively sensitive information or coordination through its relationship with Microsoft and other alleged antitrust violations.

In a statement shared with Engadget in response to Musk's latest filing, an OpenAI spokesperson said, Elon's fourth attempt, which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit. Oh, Elon, Elon, Elon. Now, here's the funny one that came out this week was Sam Altman is, I don't know what he's thinking at this point, but he came out saying at a conference, at a New York Times conference, that he may turn out to be wrong,

but he strongly believes that Elon will do the right thing going forward. And he says, it would be profoundly un-American to use political power to the degree that Elon has it to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses. And I don't think people would tolerate that. I don't think Elon would do it.

Let me explain to you, Sam. Elon is not American. He's South African. Also, what do you think he did with X, which he bought? He used it to unfairly help his friend and destroy the competitor.

We know this now. He basically bought the election for $250 million, plus the however many billions he bought X for. Yeah. And he didn't buy it for $44 because that wasn't all his money. Yeah. The Saudis still want some of that back and everybody else. Or, you know, at least some favors. Yeah.

When he gets in office. Yes. That's what that whole thing where Elon said, I'm fucked if he doesn't win. That's what he meant. It wasn't that, like, people were going to be mad at him. All the favors that he promised to the other governments that were going to get. Once I get into office, once I buy X, use that to win the election.

Get in office. Then you'll have the ear of the president. That's what he was alluding to, that he was fucked if he didn't win. Yes. So, we are turning into that show. Fuck. But we're not wrong. Oh, no. Some SpaceX news here. I'm sorry.

Starlink news. Indian authorities have uncovered a massive drug smuggling operation involving SpaceX Starlink satellite internet. Police in Andaman and Nicobar Islands seized 13,000 pounds of meth valued at $4.25 billion from Myanmar-based boats.

So, the deal here is, on those boats, they found Starlink mini devices, which is what they used to communicate because nobody's looking. Nobody's looking at Starlink right now because it's so small. This is where all the criminals have gone. The criminals are using Bitcoin.

Crypto and Starlink. And Starlink. That's it right now. Yep. And one more story of why Elon Musk just can't let us have nice things, and hopefully the last one for this show. There's been another legal complication that may have surfaced in the Onion's bid to buy the InfoWars empire from bankrupt conspiracy media mogul Alex Jones, which I think the majority of this planet agrees is one of the only feel-good stories that came out of last year.

We all like this. They filed a limited objection to the transfer of InfoWars X accounts to the satirical media empire in a federal bankruptcy court on Monday, claiming that as part of the terms of service, the trustee cannot sell, assign, or otherwise transfer such license absent X-Corps consent, according to court records.

If I were X, I'd just give it to them and hope that they stayed on because most people will just say, ah, fuck it, we don't need an X account anymore. Because that's what most people have done. Yeah, they're going to lose a couple of users over this one. They need to keep everybody they can get. Yep. But they're also opening a can of worms because every corporation out there is going, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. You own it? Hmm. Let me think about that for a moment. Yep. That might not be the best move here. This is very, very, very short-sighted. Yes. Very short-sighted. I mean, we all know it's true. We've been staying on this show from day one. Don't build your house in somebody else's backyard, and that's what you're doing.

But you don't spell it out loud to people. Yeah, you don't hold your hand over the nozzle on the sprinkler saying, I'm turning it on now. Yeah. Get out. Fucking idiot. Speaking of fucking idiots, Amazon is under fire for allegedly slowing deliveries in certain zip codes while misleading customers about delays.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has filed a lawsuit claiming the tech giant concealed its decision to exclude some areas from in-house delivery services, citing driver safety concerns. Let me guess what areas these might be. Yeah. Let me guess.

Instead of transparency, Schwalb alleges, Amazon misled users suggesting delays were due to unrelated issues. Amazon denies the allegations, calling them categorically false. Spokesperson Kelly Nantel stated that delivery adjustments were made to protect drivers in areas with targeted threats.

She also claimed the company is upfront with customers about delivery times during checkout. However, the lawsuit points to customer complaints that were reportedly met with evasive responses from Amazon support. Schwalb insists Amazon owes impacted customers clarity and compensation, arguing that prime subscribers in these regions rarely receive the fast shipping that they pay for.

So, yep. Go for it, man. Go for it, man. Yep. Yeah. So, and honestly, everywhere on the planet right now is a target for Amazon delivery drivers. I mean, you weren't here because you had moved to Candanadia by then. But there was a time during the pandemic where roves, these roving bands of robbers were robbing Amazon trains and just ripping the trains apart, taking all the stuff.

Then they would get arrested. And because crime is legal in California, they were out by the afternoon back on the train track. Some people were getting arrested twice in one day for the same crime. And it was all because of Amazon had no security on those trains. And they're like, ah, whatever. Right.

So, in California, you're fine. But in D.C., apparently, they're going to slow the delivery for you. Yeah. Because, yeah. Great. Yes. All right. It's got some meta news. Apparently, I forget what the ecological animal was that Zuckerberg got shut down from last time when he tried to do his nuclear plant.

Was it badger or a butterfly, a frog? I don't know. Something like that. So, Meta is doubling down on nuclear energy, issuing a request for proposals to developers to build a one to four gigawatts of nuclear-powered electricity capacity in the U.S. And to that, I say... 1.21 gigawatts!

Wait, stop! What? What the hell is a gigawatt? The company plans to share early development costs and commit to purchasing power once reactors are operational, targeting the early 2030s. So, they're planning ahead.

Look, if you're not donating to our show for these amazing production values that we're throwing in these days, I tell you. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you. You know how much work that took? I had to use my SetApp account. So, go to gog.show.setapp to go get your SetApp account today and get Downey for free with your subscription.

Anyway, didn't think of that one through. Anyway, this is... They're on the bandwagon. Everybody is going nuclear. Nuclear. Nuclear. Well, I mean, you kind of got to. Nuclear power is pretty safe. It's pretty clean. It's more bang for your buck.

Hopefully not a real bang. And, you know, they're under fire right now about the ecological damage that they're doing with all the AI shit. Like, there's only so much water on this planet and we can't use it to cool your data centers. We need power from somewhere else. We need to figure things out.

And, honestly, what's the AI going to use to eradicate humanity if they can't blow up the nuclear reactors once it gains sentience? That's true. I mean, this is all part of the master plan. Well, look. All you got to do is you got to make sure all the servers are actually in the nuclear power plants. Yes. That's it.

That's it. Yep. And don't put a fucking Starlink thing there because then they're going to get out. Yeah. Mutually assured destruction here. Come on. Exactly. I just finished the Rings of Power season two last night. So I'm thinking this is all Sauron's plan right here.

Come on. Build the nuclear stuff. We'll get to that in media candy in a minute. But come on. This makes sense that AI is running the show already. He's behind the scenes. It's the puppet master. One reactor to bind them, Jason. Yeah. And, I mean, Mark Zuckerberg is a robot.

So he's already been co-opted by the machines. Oh, man. We're going into gay frog territory on this podcast now. I know. But, no, they protected gay frogs. That's why he couldn't build his last reactor. We need more gay frogs. Get them out there. Get out the gay frogs.

A lawsuit filed in California accuses Apple of spying on employees through personal iCloud accounts and devices. Amar Bhakta, distant cousin to Hakatua Girl, an Apple employee since 2020, claims the company's policies force workers to sacrifice personal privacy, allowing Apple to surveil them at home and even after leaving the company.

Bhakta says Apple used these policies to restrict his career opportunities, including banning him from public speaking on digital advertising and altering his LinkedIn profile. That's what you sign up for when you join the mothership at Apple, man. Come on. Look, if they're company-owned devices, the company can do whatever the fuck they want.

Go buy your own phone. Yeah. They were saying that it was his personal devices, too, that they were going after because he was with his iCloud account and things like that. Yeah. It's basically – he's got a good case, I think. I wonder who he pissed off. You've got to have some cojones to go straight head-to-head against Apple.

So, alone. You know, this isn't a class action. This is one dude. I mean, the most shocking thing to me in this whole story is that somebody would even notice that his LinkedIn profile was altered.

Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide. Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God Romero. Plus, the Bare Knuckle Middleweight Championship of the World is on the line when the reigning champ Dave the Redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger Jack the Meat Cleaver Colon.

KFC 94, Till vs. Ramiro. Watch it live only on DAZN. Sign up now at DAZN.com.

Media Candy. I watched A Man on the Inside, the new Netflix show with Ted Danson from the creators of The Good Place. And it's no good place, but it was fun. Okay. I was waiting for your review before I dove in because I was sketchy on it.

It's not bad. There's a couple episodes that were a little slow. It kind of meandered a bit. It didn't have the big feels or the big belly laughs. But it was good. If you're out of something to watch, it's fun. And I left it satisfied.

And I do hope that they don't bring it back. Okay, okay. See, The Good Place had one thing that I really, really enjoyed every season or every episode. Jameela Jameel. I really enjoyed Jameela on that show. And I don't think that she's going to be making an appearance on this one to an old folks home, I'm guessing.

She did not make an appearance, nor did Kristen Bell. The other thing I really enjoyed on The Good Place. Yeah. And we are now three episodes into Dune Prophecy. And it's fine. I like it. I don't mind it.

It's a little, it's hewing too. See, I have the opposite complaint that I had with Foundation. It's hewing too close to the horrible Brian Herbert books. I was kind of hoping that they would explore more interesting ideas and make up their own stuff, which they're not really doing.

It certainly looks good. It is a beautifully shot show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, especially I watch it on my 75-inch 4K TV, and I feel like I'm there. Yeah. It's beautiful for that. I don't mind the story, even. I'm kind of enjoying it. It's fine.

You don't know the story. Yeah, I don't have that same. Exactly. Here's the deal, though. I didn't know Foundation before I started watching the show. And Foundation still sucked without knowing the books. Then I read Foundation, and I'm like, what is this? This is truly garbage.

Yeah. So on your recommendation, I finally finished The Rings of Power. Okay. I actually finished it last night so I could be ready for the show today. It's fantastic. It's good, right? Yeah. I really, really enjoyed it. Yeah. I don't understand all the people shitting on it because I think it's just great.

Of course, it's not The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition, and then the other two movies, extended edition, and 42 hours later, you're huddled in the corner crying. But it's good. Yeah, I really, really enjoyed it. And I didn't think it was as slow as everybody said. It probably helped to binge it because it is released weekly.

So that seems to put a break on it, and it makes it feel like it's longer. But yeah. Yeah. Could be. Could be. Now, the actor that played Aaron Deer, Ismael Cruz Cordova, he's what's his nuts in what you call it, that show that I've been trying to get you to watch.

What's his nuts. What's his nuts. In whatchamacallit, with starring Jameel Jamal. I give up. Oh, God. I have no idea what show you're talking about, obviously. Actually, I might be wrong. Never mind. I thought he was in Interview with a Vampire.

Oh, okay. I am trying to watch that. I got to get on that. God damn it, I am wrong. It's not even him. It's not him. It's Jacob Anderson. They look very similar. They look extraordinarily similar. They've got the same eyes, the same. I just thought that the first guy bulked up for Lord of the Rings, and then he slimmed down for Interview.

To play the gay vampire, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, trust me. They look very similar. They both have striking. They both are very striking. So, I thought he was Louie. It's like, oh, crap. He's not Louie. But I tell you what, the guy who plays Louie is awesome, and the guy who plays Erendir is awesome.

So, you know, it was easy. It was easy. This is the one where there was so much time in between watching both of them that I thought it was the same guy. Now, there was a problem with Lord of the Rings, Ring of Power, where they, since I did watch it back to back to back, they changed up the actor that played Adar.

I did not notice that because I waited a year and a half between seasons. That's what I'm saying. See? So, memory is a fickle little bitch. It is. Yeah. Actor Joseph Maoli, he quit after season one. And here's the thing.

So, now, when I hear these things, my radar goes up. And he basically said on, he left his goodbye post on, back then it was Twitter, I believe. He says, I loved my time exploring Middle-earth and diving into Tolkien's mythology.

I'm so honored that the character was liked. He cared deeply about telling you his story. Though, as an actor, it remains my wish, my job description, to explore new characters and worlds. Wishing all the best to cast and crew for season two. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines.

X. Bullshit. So, I reached out. Now that I have friends who are real, like, A-list professional actors, I called a few. And said, give me this skinny here. What happened? Did this guy get caught diddling an intern? And they said, possibly.

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I understand leaving a show after it's been running for about 10 plus years. Nobody leaves a successful show after the first season. No way. Christopher Eccleston. Well, he's an idiot. Chris Eccleston left Doctor Who. He was a total idiot.

Total idiot. And he knows it. He knows it. But this one, so, when, with something of this caliber and this budget, this guy was locked into a, basically, an indentured servitude contract that he couldn't fart without production's approval. Yep. For three years.

Or at least two years, if you're watching at this point. So, this is not something that was, this is mutually agreed. He's like, I'm just going to leave and go explore my actordom. He was either shown the door because he was a pain in the ass to work with and nobody wanted him around. He did get caught diddling an intern and they decided to sweep it under the rug.

Yeah, that's about it. Okay. One of two possibilities. Fair enough. Yeah. He was either an asshole to work with or he just, they're just like, okay, please get out of here. Because production is generally not going to switch up actors in the middle of a series unless it is a really big issue, period.

And, you know, this, this, this little blurb on Twitter does not have the ring of truth at all. He did not, he did not quit to go spend more time with his family. We all know that's not true. So anyway, moving on, moving on show though. Yeah, it is a great show. I like to watch some of the, the seasonal baking shows that come out on food network with the kid and the whole family.

You know, they do the Halloween ones, Halloween wars and all that. And they do the Christmas cookies and Christmas baking competitions, et cetera, et cetera. And then, you know, a perfect confluence of things came together to make the best show ever that my son enjoys the most out of all of them. And actually the production values on it are so high.

It is pretty striking. Uh, son is a huge fan of Harry Potter and they have unleashed this year, Harry Potter wizards of baking. And it's phenomenal. It's all done on the sets in London that they kept up that you can tour. We went to see them when we went to London two years ago.

I had a great time there. Um, and it's just very well done there on the third episode. Now it's airing on food network. And then the day after it airs, it comes out on max streaming, which is how we watch it. And, uh, boy, it's a lot of fun. It's a great show to watch. It's a, they just have a blast doing it and they're all like super fans that are involved and it's really cool.

That's a good time. And, um, is, is JK involved in any way? Cause I'm best guessing there's going to be no trans fats involved. Absolutely not. No, she has nothing to do. Look, Max has bought the, uh, IP rights to this and they have wasted no time in making, putting out these shows.

Cause, uh, the other thing that we discovered that had also just come out is Harry Potter Hogwarts tournament of houses, which is basically just a trivia game that they put out. And, uh, it's, it's also a lot of fun. And my kid fucking nails it. Like he's only, well, he gets any, everything that's like through book five.

Cause that's where we're at right now. Cause your kid's in college now I'm guessing. Cause it's been that long, right? Feels that long. Mike. Yeah. Third grade dude. Oh man. It feels, it feels like he should be in college at this point. Jeez. Pink. I'm not, I'm not financially ready to pay for that yet.

I've got a, I've got some investing to do before that. GOG. Show slash donate. Yes, please. Oh, that sounds fun. Sounds fun. I'm not a bacon show kind of guy, but, uh, I've been going back and watching the food star, uh, next food star network star, whatever it was.

Um, do you remember that? It was, they ran for 14 seasons and I never got into it because I wasn't watching the food network then. Right. And it's, it's just one of those shows. I was never a big Bobby Flay fan. Uh, it all of, it turns out it was really fun show. So we're kind of binging those.

They don't have them all up there on max, but they've got a bunch. Oh, and I did forget to mention that Helen Mirren is actually hosting the trivia tournament show. Guess what I'm watching tonight. Exactly. It's worth it just for her, man. I love Aaron, Ellen Mirren. Me too. Oh, great.

Uh, the traders Canada season two just wrapped up this week. Uh, solid season, solid season. It, out of all the traders, it is definitely the most polite. Of course it is. It's Canada. So there's so fucking polite, it's ridiculous, but they do have the, the worst faithfuls of any traders season across the globe.

And if, if you go to the traders website, it is ridiculous. How many countries this show is in, it's in like 25 countries at this point. It is a juggernaut, but, uh, it was good. It was really good. I enjoyed it. I can't wait for, uh, England and the U S are coming up in January. So, um, um, I'm, I'm, I got my popcorn.

I'm ready to go. I hear the U S version will be hosted in the white house. That's survivor, dude. It's both. What traders will survive? Oh, wait, no, there's another show I'm watching that actually is, is even better for that one.

House of villains is another reality competition show. I think that's definitely more white house. Ups and doodads. I have a bone to pick this week, Brian. I guess I have a bone to pick every week.

I, uh, some financial issues have been going on lately and just, it's been rough times. And I was looking at my, my bank statement this morning, trying to, you know, figure out what I can cut, what I can't cut. And I just noticed there were a couple of charges that were like, those are very large and very unexpected.

And the first one was for like $120 from Descript. And I'm like, wait a minute. I didn't get a notice that they were going to rebuild me for this next year. And I didn't get a notification after they build me that they had build me. And then I found a couple other ones, a couple of other different software packages.

If I'm tempted to just call and cancel just for that alone, because that is some seriously unethical shit. I love it when I get a notification from a company that says, Hey, your, your subscription's coming up. It's going to end next month. If you would like to change your subscription or update it, here's a link to do that.

Yes. It's how one should do business. Yes. Yeah. And Descript, I, I, I still keep going back to it. It was, uh, I think one of the founders of Descript was one of the guys who started Groupon. So you know that there's not a whole lot of ethics going on there already, but, um, don't quote me on that one.

I just have a feeling that that was one of the guys in Descript. And I just, I'm not a huge fan of the service, but it does what it does somewhat decently. So I still use it every now and again, but, uh, now I'm just pissed off at them. I'm just really pissed off at them. But, uh, yeah, there's so many of those.

Just check your bills folks, because there are things that you set up ages ago that are still going to rebuild you on a yearly cycle that they never tell you about. And if you're not looking, you can miss. Yeah. Especially if you don't have a lot of, uh, disposable income at the moment, that's why I miss. I'm like, wait a minute. That was my, yeah, that was my health insurance bill that you guys just canceled.

Thank you. Thank you. Assholes. But who weren't assholes this week were Adobe, Adobe, Adobe of all people. I think they're, I think they see the writing on the wall that they need to like, you know, turn a new leaf over. Right. I got a, I got a new gig that I have to use premiere on and I don't have premiere because I was getting the bare bones, Adobe deal that I could get for the photography and the podcast tools, which was still like $28 a month, $29 a month.

And I'm just like, Jesus, that's a lot. Yeah. I know for Photoshop Lightroom and the podcasting tools that they just came out with. They're just the podcasting tools at 10 bucks a month. I'm like, Jesus Christ. But thank you cyber Monday, because I actually got all of the Adobe suite now with the podcast tools and Photoshop and everything for $2 less a month than I was paying currently.

So I, I had to, I re-swizzled and I saved $24 over the year. I'm very happy about that. Well, Adobe did something right. It's a miracle. That's what I mean. And they, yeah, they did all the refunds in real time. You know, before that was one of the things that they were getting dinged in court for was that, okay, when you do a refund, it took forever to get back.

And sometimes you didn't get your money. They do that shit in real time right now. They're like Johnny on the spot. We're like, we do not like the department of justice. So here's your $24, right? Like, I mean, prorated to the scent, like the minute that you want to, you get a refund. They're like, they got these guys with abacuses in the back going, Oh, give them an extra scent just in case we're a little late.

Yeah. So that was nice. I still like the affinity tools. I use those for half of my work, but there's some things that you just need Photoshop and Premiere for. So, all right. That's what I got to say about that. Open AI's Shipmas. Have you heard about this, Brian? I have not. So for the 12 days of Christmas, they're actually releasing new products every day.

So on the first day of Shipmas, Sam Altman gave to me ChatGPT Pro, which will cost you like $240 a year or no, it's $240 a month or something like that. Let me see here. It's a lot of money. Yeah, it's a lot. $200 a month. It's $200 a month.

Yeah. But they finally released their first, the names are so stupid, O1 is now out of beta and out of preview. So that is now available for the general public. And I'm not a pro user. I guess I'm a paid user.

I don't know what tier I'm at now because they keep changing shit up. All right. So, yeah. But yeah, every day for the next 12 days, we got new stuff. I think next one should be dropping here pretty soon. So there we go. There you go.

Well, going back to your complaint at the beginning of this segment, the FTC is now investigating Uber for its subscription policies. There have been a lot of complaints about the Uber One subscription program. Customers are alleging that the company signed users up for the service without their consent and made it difficult to cancel their subscriptions.

Uber representative Noah Edwardson told Bloomberg that we will continue to answer any questions the FTC may have about our cancellation policies. The Uber One cancellation process follows both the letter and the spirit of the law. Uber One members can easily cancel their membership in the app. In fact, the majority of those cancellations take 20 seconds or less.

So that's probably a relatively new thing because the FTC click to cancel rule that's coming into play. But we'll see. Being signed up without consent seems a bit fucking odd to me, though. So we'll see. Yep. Yep. Hmm. Okay.

Thank God I haven't used Uber in years now. Check them credit cards. Oof. Yeah. Check those credit cards for sure. When was the last time you had to use Uber? We use it occasionally here when we don't feel like when like we have like a dinner with some friends that's a little bit further away and it's kind of off off the beaten track of public transport, but not very often.

Usually it's to the airport back. That's about it. All right. All right. Well, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has a net worth of four point nine billion dollars, surpassing every musician in history, including billionaire artists like Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Jay Z.

Yep. Ek ranks 646th on Forbes billionaire list, far ahead of musicians whose fortune often come from ventures outside of music. Critics highlight Ek's massive wealth as a sign that disrupting music is more profitable than creating it.

I said that all along. Yeah. Yep. Now, I found this article from my friend Coop over on Blue Sky, and he said, where's our friend in the hoodie when we need him? This is in response to the story that we're going to cover in In the Dark Side with Dave coming up shortly about the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, I mean, it certainly bolsters the argument that they're not paying out enough. Yeah. No doubt. I saw in, I forget where I saw it. Somebody was showing their Apple Music payout versus their Spotify payout. And it was like 477 plays versus like over 5,000 plays on Spotify, like 477 on Apple Music, 5,000 on Spotify.

And they got more money from Apple Music from those 477 plays than they did from the 5,000 plays on Spotify. Yep. Yeah. And they've got, and don't forget, Spotify has that new 1,000 stream limit now that you have to do before you get even a cent. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's one of the reasons we've switched Apple Music in the house.

So, yeah. Oh, I didn't know you did. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. All of our streaming devices now do Apple Music. Awesome. Yeah. I've been using them for a while. It's just my go-to. So, fuckers. Anyway. Walmart has officially closed its $2.3 billion all-cash acquisition of TV maker Vizio.

Now, I've had a ton of Vizio TVs over the years. And why have I had a ton of them, Brian? Because they suck. Because they're basically disposable. That's right. Shit quality, cheap price point, falls apart at like about 15 seconds after the warranty expires.

They're garbage TVs. But they're cheap. They're cheap. And why did Walmart buy them? Well, because it's Walmart. They want to be able to reach their customers more easily. Because what do people go to Walmart to buy? Big fucking TVs.

So, it does not surprise me one bit. I thought somebody else was buying them previously. But I guess that fell through. And now they've gone to Walmart. All right. Yeah. All right. And it is wintertime here, Jason.

I had to shovel for the first time this winter, this morning. But this is absolutely my favorite story of the week. Cybertruck owner complains about snow blocking his headlights. Tesla's Cybertruck, the most obnoxious trend to emerge in America's current midlife crisis epidemic, is most famous for just being hideous to look at.

The latest TikTok video to go viral about Elon Musk's baby might be the most ridiculous yet. And, yes, the Cybertruck design has basically a shelf right in front of the headlights. And when it snows, the snow builds up in front of the headlights, thus blocking them.

And if it ices over, it ain't falling off when you're driving. Fun. This is amazing. There ain't no snow in Elon's land, maybe. Well, that's the thing. I was wondering, was it ever even... It would never would have had this test because, you know, Texas.

That's it. Texas, Southern California. Well, he's mostly pulled out of SoCal now, right? So... I think so. I think it's mostly in Texas. But, yeah, this is pretty awesome. You should Google it or take a look at the story. It is unbelievable. There is a big shelf right below where the headlights are, and it just fills up with snow.

Man, I was sitting next to one at a stop sign or a stoplight the other day. You can see from, like, you know, from several feet away how misaligned those panels are. They're just... They're cockeyed. Those... Like, the seams are not straight at all.

And I'm like, quality control just is non-existent. What a piece of shit. And it's really... It's really jarring to see them here in Toronto. There's, like, a handful of them around. Because it snows in Toronto. Well, yes. I haven't seen them on the road since it started snowing. I'll tell you that. Yeah. But, yeah, they're so big and ugly.

And people tend to have smaller cars here, especially in downtown Toronto, because the streets weren't built for SUVs. They're a lot smaller. And when you see one tooling around, you just go, god damn, what an asshole that person must be. And it's a visual trick, too, because I've got a Jeep.

And my Jeep is bigger than a Cybertruck. Granted, I have a big Jeep. You have a big Jeep. Yeah. But it's not the biggest Jeep. It's not like a Gladiator. Those are bigger than mine. Right. I've just got, I've got a four-door Wrangler. And it is, like, I look down on the Cybertruck, literally and metaphorically when I drive by.

So, yeah, it's, they're just, they're just garbage, man. They're everywhere here. When you come back, you wouldn't believe it. I see, like, 10 a day now. Great. It is, yeah. Welcome to, welcome to Doucheville.

Saturday, September 26th. Two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide. Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God, Romero. Plus, the Bare Knuckle Middleweight Championship of the World is on the line.

When the reigning champ, Dave the Redneck Mundell, defends against undefeated British challenger, Jack the Meek Pleaver Colon. KFC 94, Till vs. Romero. Watch it live, only on DAZN. Sign up now at DAZN.com. At the library.

Well, now that people are on Blue Sky, myself included, and it isn't just a John Scalzi novel in and of itself, I took your recommendation and got his latest book, Starter Villain. And what a delight that was. Wasn't it delightful? It was a truly delightful book. I highly recommend this to everybody.

It was fun. Yeah. That's how you could, that's really all it is. It was just a fun, short novel. I loved it. It was fun. And it was short, so it was a quick read, which was great. Which means, with having the week off, I've actually read two books for this one. I went back to the Trusted First Contact series by Peter Cowderon, and I read one called Cold Eyes.

And I have to say, I think this has been my favorite one of them all. This was a little bit longer than most of his are, but it was definitely a really enjoyable sci-fi book. Wow. How are you not done with these yet? They're all different. They're all completely different.

No, but I mean, how does he keep making them? He's got so many of them. I don't know. He lives in Australia. He just sits there and writes in beautiful weather and doesn't worry about snow building up on a cyber truck. There you go. All right. Because it was mentioned twice on the show, Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey.

I grabbed the audio book of it. Yeah. I don't know how they would have gotten two seasons of a show out of this either. Right? Yeah. It's kind of like, okay. It was decent. It was short. It was fine. It was a nice little story. Not too much meat on the bones. No, not at all.

Definitely not enough for more than two seasons of a series. No. That's for sure. I mean, like, yeah, one season I can see, but two? Well, look, I looked at the synopsis of the show online where you see, you know, all the different episodes and there's an awful lot more people in it.

There are people in different beacons that are nearby and they're flying back and forth between the beacons and they're talking to each other and they, hey, neighbor, how's it going in your beacon over there? And none of that's in the book at all. They turned it into a universe. Okay. Yeah. It's a dude by himself going crazy. Yeah. Talking to his rock friend.

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Well, Oxford word of the year for 2024 is brain rot. And I love this. Over on Discord, Gabriel Pagan said, that's two words. Whereas the fourth guy immediately wrote back, pedantic is only one, though.

So I would like to say burn is also one word. I did laugh out loud when I saw that exchange. I did, too. I did, too. The Dark Side. Ha! With Dave. Welcome to the Dark Side with Dave.

Podcast superhost Dave Bittner decodes all things cyber on Cyber Wire daily, exposes deception with Joe Kerrigan on hacking humans, dives deep into privacy with Ben Yellen on caveat, breaks down industrial cybersecurity on Control Loop, and even brings the laughs on only malware in the building. Hello, Dave.

Hello. Happy post-Thanksgiving. Good to have you back. Well, thank you. I am well stuffed with Thanksgiving food and at least a week's worth of leftovers. So I'm feeling pretty comfortable, ready for a nap. But here we are. Awesome.

Our leftovers are long gone. We did the thing that we – this is – me personally, what I look forward to for Thanksgiving is you take your stuffing, your – I like sweet potatoes. Some people like mashed potatoes. Basically, you make a ball with some turkey in it and turn it into a thing and you put it in your waffle press and then you make a sandwich out of it.

Oh. Use that – use that bun for the sandwich and put some gravy on it. Oh, my God. I love it. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The post-Thanksgiving waffle is – So are you using the dressing as the – the bread part? Oh, that's the mayonnaise. Yeah, you basically – you make the – you make the – the waffle is the bread and you put some turkey in between, put some gravy on it, and then chomp it like a big old sandwich.

Okay. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. Yeah, we have a little mini waffle maker that's about the size of a hamburger bun. So make a couple of those and then – so good. Yeah, that does sound good. I could go for that. Mm-hmm. If you got some leftovers, just hanging around. Hit it. See, I like the Thanksgiving meal so much I don't feel the need to change the form.

I just continue to have the same exact meal a couple times in a row. I like variety. I like variety. Mm-hmm. Well, Star Wars Skeleton Crew came out. I think we're two episodes in at the moment. Yes. Did you get a chance to see it, Dave? I watched them last night with my family.

All right. Yeah. What did you think? I very much enjoyed them. Very much enjoyed them. How about you? I'm kind of torn a little bit. I kind of feel the same way about it that I felt about Star Trek Prodigy in that I'm not sure exactly who it was made for. It's not kiddie enough for the kid market that they're kind of going after, but it's not adult enough for not kiddie market.

So it's kind of trying. It's only two episodes in. I got to give them time to get their footing here, I guess. I'm not entirely sure what's happened yet. I liked what I saw. It looks good. You know, the kids aren't as annoying as they could be. It was interesting to see a planet in the Star Wars universe that is such an affluent suburb.

Apparently, the entire planet is an affluent suburb. Right. I liked the meta references of the kid is playing with what is obviously a Sith and what is obviously a Luke Skywalker-esque toy. Yeah, it was interesting.

So I'm curious to see where it goes to. Obviously, you know, the first two episodes were set up. We're getting to the meat of the show now. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. I think, to me, it's just such a Spielbergian nostalgia trip.

Like, there's so many nods to that kind of storytelling and that era of storytelling. And it just works for me. It pushes those buttons and I'm having fun. For some reason, I can dial myself back to, you know, watching Elliot in E.T. when I watch these kids.

It's very much that sort of thing. One of the things that struck me as I was watching it were all of the potential connections to Captain EO. Have you noticed this? I don't know.

I don't know. It did not come to mind. So, in point. Okay, so people noticed in the trailer that the little fuzzball creature from Captain EO with the little butterfly wings that flies around. Okay. That is in this universe.

Those creatures are in this universe. Okay. They're there. And it is that creature. The other thing is Captain EO, if we sort of take Michael Jackson out of it, himself out of it, he appears to be a light-skinned African-American or mixed-race person who has a best friend who is an elephant-like creature.

And in Skeleton Crew, the young boy is a light-skinned black kid or mixed-race who has an elephant-creature best friend. Captain EO also has the droid member of his ship's crew is a peg-legged droid.

And Skeleton Crew has a peg-legged droid. Okay. I see it now. Yes. Right? Why do you say it like that? Well, I mean, Disney owns the IP to Captain EO. It does. Along with Lucas. And George Lucas didn't direct it, but he produced Captain EO.

So I just, I wonder if anything more will come of this or if they're just having fun and winking to us about this. But it seems like a number of things that are more than just a coincidence, but I guess we'll see. Yeah, I guess we'll see.

Maybe the LLM that was used to write the Skeleton Crew was also trained on Captain EO. Right. Well, if you start streaming episode one and then at the same time play the Captain EO soundtrack. That's right. You gotta smoke a doobie first and then it all ends up.

Yeah. Yeah. But I'm enjoying it. I, I, this is the kind of Star Wars that I'm having fun with these days. Like I think we, we've talked about it before. It's low, low stakes Star Wars. Yeah. It looks great. There's nothing cheap about it to take you out of the story.

I like the subtle ways that it expands the universe. Like even the way that, um, there are vehicles on this planet that aren't completely hover vehicles, but they're kind of are, they're kind of are. And then, and even like the kids bicycles are, you can see they're in the same evolutionary pathway as the speeder bikes and Jedi.

Like there's all these things that rhyme and, uh, I don't know. I like that. It's very comforting and I'm having a good time. So I will be watching. Yep. Where on the timeline does this take place? That's a good question. I don't, I mean, it's, it's after, it says it's after the fall of the empire.

Yeah. It's, it's before, you know, it's, it's, it's in between. So it says shortly after the fall. It's like when the Mandalorian is taking place, that kind of thing. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Jason. I have not seen it yet. No, I was busy watching. I was busy. I was busy watching Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power and, uh, Silo.

Sorry. All right. Oh, and the day of the jackal. That was the other one I forgot in media candy. The day of the jackal is phenomenal. Phenomenal wraps up next week. I think you can watch it on Peacock. I've been getting them from England, but, uh, oh my God, it's so good. Okay. Okay. Highly, highly recommend the day of the jackal.

Uh, but I will get to it this week. I promise guys. So that's what I was just, I'm just, I'm listening, taking it all in. Now, now I'm just going to have Captain EO stuck in my head. So I'm gonna have to go watch that before I watch this so I can see the connections. I can't tell you how many times I saw Captain EO as a Disney local back in the day.

So many times. Yeah. I've seen it twice when I was 18. So it's been a while. I've seen it at least a dozen times, but you know, I never had the, uh, ability to just stroll down the street and walk into the Captain EO theater like some of us did. Yeah.

If it wasn't for those pesky tourists, I would have seen it a lot more often too. That's right. Yeah. Uh, so Christmas is coming up and I saw this, this has been in the news this morning. So I thought this is right up your guys' alley. More, more Dave than I think Brian. Radioactive most dangerous toy in history has gone on sale on the auction block.

The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory. Uh, yes, it's, uh, it's up for auction and it looks so cool. I just thought, man, if they just made toys like this back in the, you know, nowadays. Reportedly, Iran is trying to buy 50 of them.

Exactly. That's right. They're currently the highest bidder on eBay. So it was discontinued in 1951 over safety and material concerns. You think? Experts say it's radiation risk is comparable to a day in the sun. Yeah. It's just because it said uranium on it and they, you know, this was the fifties.

They were going a little crazy. Look, we can't have lawn darts. We probably shouldn't have uranium. I'm just saying. I want my jarts back. Damn it. But what's, you know, there's the whole thing with, um, there's all that glassware that is radioactive and there's, um, it was used in clock faces to make them glow in the dark.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, it wasn't, it wasn't uranium. It was something else. It was, it was, uh, it was, uh, it was radium. Radium. Yeah. That's what it is. Radium. Yeah. Yeah. It was radium. Right. And these on gun sites too. Uh, I just remember you can get a Glock with, uh, those on the gun site so you can sight at night. Right.

And the ladies who worked in the factory where they put the, yeah, they died because they were licking their paintbrushes that were used to put the radium on the clock faces. But I have seen reports that if you have a radium clock, uh, don't put it too close to your bedside because they, they do emit, uh, in not insignificant amounts of, of, uh, radiation.

And I guess, you know, the inverse square law is your friend when it comes to these sorts of things, but, uh, it's funny how they, um, I keep my phone stuck to my head at night though. So my phone will block all the radiation from the clock. I'm sure. Right. What? As you slowly microwave your brain.

Exactly. Yeah. You know. Sure. What the heck? It's in degrees. It's a race against time as to which one of these things are going to kill you first. Look, I'm just going to say that Jason and I have, have dabbled in self, uh, much, much more self-damaging behavior by choice than we will ever get from these things.

Yeah. It reminds me, uh, when I was, oh gosh, probably a teenager. Um, my grandfather who worked in the steel mills, um, was a collector of many, many things and kind of a bit of a pack rat. And, um, one of the things that he had somehow collected through his work in the steel mill

was little bottles, uh, let's say a little bottle that's three inches tall and inch and a half in diameter, a little clear bottles with black caps on them, but they weren't plastic because these went back before plastic.

They're probably, you know, Bakelite or something like that. Um, but each bottle had a different metallic element in it from the steel mill, um, and they were hand labeled. So it was like, you know, iron and right.

But then you get to things like mercury and, and it was just, and so, and he gave this to me, so I had them sitting on my shelf for a long time. Uh, and some of those metals are very reactive and probably should not have been sitting on the shelf of a young teenage boy's bedroom back in the day.

Uh, look, you could die, you could become Spider-Man. Who knows? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My dad used to do all sorts of chemistry experiments in, in, uh, my grandparents' basement and he blew it up one time because there was something that was burning.

He's like, I wonder what happens if you put water on it and he spit on it and blew up the basement and he had no, no eyebrows and things like that because he was into rocketry. So he would, they were trying to make, literally make rocket fuel out of all this stuff down there. Wow. Yeah. It's back in the day, man. Like the, yeah. Sometime in the same time, fifties probably.

My father, uh, has a toy from his childhood that he still has. Um, it's a little, I guess the best way to describe it is it's a steamroller. Um, but it's probably two feet long, probably a foot and a half tall.

It's a steamroller on the front and it has two big, like old timey farm wheels on the back, like old farm tractor wheels. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about? Right. Yeah. But it is a steam powered engine in there.

And my father tells me the story about how they used to put water in this thing and then they take old newspapers and stuff them in the little, the little fire box, light it on fire, create steam and ride it around the living room. Yeah.

What's wrong with that? Simpler times. When he was like seven. What could possibly go wrong? Right. Fire, superheated water, you know, not to mention the thing weighs probably 75 pounds. Uh, but, uh. Run over the baby, you know? Right.

That's all you got to know. Yeah. You still have, I guess this is why you had lots of kids back then. Let's go play trolley problem. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. It's a neat little toy. I suppose someday it'll be mine. I don't know. Yeah. I saw a thing. The thing about this is, this reminded me of something I saw on one of the social platforms.

It's like, back in the old days, they taught us how to, you know, fix a carburetor. And now they say the labels on the card, don't drink the battery juice, you know? Don't eat. Yeah. Yeah. So. Right. It was a greater time. It was a greater time, I think. Anyway, moving on.

So I'm sure you guys have seen this everywhere in the news. UnitedHealth CEO, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot outside a Manhattan hotel. And the manhunt is on for the guy. And who we mentioned earlier about, in the story about Daniel Ek. So the thing about this that brings it home to tech is, my God, the people of the internet are vicious.

They're vicious. And if you go to the, I'm going to see what the new numbers are on the UnitedHealthcare. Oh my God. So the first time I saw this, it was on the news, right? The afternoon after it happened in the, the UnitedHealthcare Facebook group post where they say, you know, we are saddened by the loss, blah, blah, blah, had 13,000 laughing emojis.

And people thought that was newsworthy because they are such a hated company. So I checked it yesterday and it was 46,000. I just looked right now, we are now up to 81,000 people laughing at the death of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. Now, I think Chris Rock probably put this best when he said, And I'm not saying he should have killed her, but I understand.

So that seems to be, that seems to be the consensus of the internet. Now, some of the, some of the comments that they had to take down because they, they left the Instagram post with the comments open somewhere. Sorry, but my insurance and medical don't cover thoughts and prayers.

My empathy is out of network for this one and our apologies, but bullet wounds are only covered under our platinum plus package. So, yeah, yeah, I saw one that said, uh, all jokes aside, it's really effed up to see so many people on here celebrating murder. No one here is the judge of who deserves to live or die.

That's the job of the AI algorithm, the insurance company designed to maximize profits on your health. Bingo. Look, uh, I, I was very frustrated this morning when I had to get up and actually, um, shovel snow because it fucking snowed and it's cold and I had to go shovel it.

And then I went, Oh yeah, I have healthcare that I don't hate. Right. What a joy it is to be in Canada, shoveling snow and know if I get a heart attack, I will be taken to a hospital and I will be treated free of charge and I will be perfectly okay. And I will not have to worry about all these things that are obviously coming to a head.

This is definitely a sign of frustration and anger as if Trump getting elected wasn't enough. I mean, holy shit. People are pissed. So here's what I wonder about this. I've been thinking a lot about this and obviously, you know, it's a terrible thing that this person got murdered and you know, you feel for his family, especially.

Yeah. So what I wonder what this makes me think of is Columbine in that when Columbine happened, it opened the world to the idea of school shootings and ever since school shootings are a plague.

Yeah. And they were not before and now they are and it's just a normal thing. And so what I can't help wondering is with people's frustrations at not having any power against these companies that keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, um, is this going to be the relief valve of society's frustrations that people are going to just, it's going to be

a thing that people start taking shots at CEOs. Watch out. Head of Verizon. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just companies. This, this could be a full on the first shot in a class war easily. People are pissed off at billionaires. They're pissed off at these people who have everything and they have nothing, you know, it is, it is difficult to live with nothing and you're powerless.

And if you can get some kind of, some little modicum of power back, killing the CEO is not going to change the policies of that company, but it's going to make one guy feel better. You know, that's all it made an awful lot of people feel better, which is a sign a little bit, it made them feel a little bit better.

Like there was a little justification in the universe, but it's not going to change anything is the problem except for the worst. You know, like Dave said, I, I, I think that this, this very well could be, you know, everybody's beefing up their security. There are, there are articles about all of the healthcare sites taking down the board pictures and all the bios.

All these people are going underground right now. Because like you said, this could be, you know, this could be a sign of things to come. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And we're the gun country. Well, it's Christmas time, guys. Yeah. Yeah. Woo-hoo. And, uh, oh God, how do I even transition here?

You don't. So you just go for it. Um, I noticed that of course, if you just, these songs are number one with a bullet. Oh, nice. Ah, well, I, I'm just, uh, let's take it back to Daniel Ek. I noticed that Daniel Ek's Spotify streaming playlists, which, you know, he's a billionaire now and worth more than any of the musicians he profits from.

I'm just saying, um, that's about it. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Anyways. Every other record executive, but I noticed all the, uh, if you just tell your, your streaming provider to play a Christmas playlist, it's basically the same songs. That we've been hearing all of our lives. It gets a little boring.

So in the show notes this week, I've included some alternative playlists that are out there, including the 80 ish alternative Christmas playlist, Indie Christmas, the no alternative nineties alt rock Christmas, a classical Christmas, which is all classical music. It's very good in the morning. One for you, Dave, that I'm sure you listen to all the time.

A Christmas together, John Denver and the Muppets playlist. Of course, the standard chipmunks play and Christmas playlist. And there are a bunch more out there for all types. There's a punk one. I know too, as well, that Jason probably has bookmarked somewhere. So yeah. Yeah. No, this is good.

I, I, uh, I'm not there yet, but I'm hoping to get into the Christmas spirit this year. It's hit or miss some, some years, you know, some, some years it comes more easily than others. Yeah. But, uh, I'm hoping it'll be a good year this year. So we'll see.

Time will tell. So before we go, uh, I thought it would be nice to do a little ham radio update. And, uh, as our listeners know, I recently got my amateur radio license and I've been very much enjoying that. I've been learning a lot and turns out there is a lot to learn.

Um, so that's been fun and I've been having fun getting the gadgets and figuring out things like antennas and cables and batteries and radios and all that fun stuff. But one of the things that has happened that I didn't really think about ahead of time was I have dropped myself into a preexisting community and the opportunity for personal growth that

that provides because the ham radio community, not surprisingly, is old. What? Old. Hmm. Like 30? Are you saying it's because it is an old community or is it a community made up of old people?

Yes. Yes. I just saw a statistic this week. The average age of someone who gets their technician license, which is what I just got, the average age is 58. Okay.

And we know that curve is blown by the kid who got one at the same time as you. So there was a, when I got my test, there was a 13 year old kid who was there getting it at the same time. So, um, it's, so the community is old, it is white, it is male.

Uh, and in my desire to learn, I have dropped myself into some online chat groups and forums and things like that. And, and, and by that, I mean, you tend to, you, you, over time, those of us who've been online for a long time, we self-select to be in groups that align with our beliefs, but

also align with are the style of discourse that we prefer. And some people are really good at that, but a lot of people just don't understand how to communicate effectively online through the written word.

And so it's just really frustrating to see people, um, dig in, right? Like they'll write, for example, someone will write something, uh, and, uh, it violates, uh, a rule of the group and it gets deleted.

So they write again, why was my last post deleted? It gets deleted. Why do the moderators keep deleting my post? It gets deleted. Four times I've been deleted. Now these moderators suck deleted, right? Like, like, like what, what do you think is going to happen here?

You know, what, and you can say, you know, all your, I mean, look, I know it's, uh, the stereotype about, um, boomers and, um, Karens and, you know, boomers, can I talk to the manager and all that kind of stuff.

And so it's really been good for me as a reminder, uh, of the nice little comfortable bubble that I've created for myself to get outside of it sometimes and realize that something that I'm genuinely interested in as part of that, I'm going to have to recalibrate how I respond and react and, and just my level of acceptance of people who are not like me.

In the way they choose to communicate and the things they believe and of course, politics and all that kind of stuff. So, uh, I thought that might be an interesting point of conversation. Well, you know, it does make me think of like, I very much, obviously we, you and I, Dave, both very much enjoy Star Wars and Jason, you and I both very much enjoy Star Trek.

Not in a million years would I ever go to a conference or go on one of these fucking cruises. Okay. So, I think you can find joy and, and like something and just do it in a solitary fashion that I don't necessarily need to be around other people who enjoy the same thing that I do.

I just don't. That's a great point. The, the, the wisdom of dialing it in. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that, that's my thought on it, Jason. That's about it. Yeah. Yeah.

How about you, Jason? How does this community compare with the furry community? I'm not a part of the furry community, so I would not know. I do not believe the Venn diagram touches. No, that, that is for sure. Oh my gosh. Now, that would be funny if I showed up to a ham radio meeting with my wolf mask on and just ask them.

No, you would have to be a boar. Come on. I'd be a boar. Right, right. Oh, man. Now. Yeah. I'm with you. There are many communities that I am, I am a fan of that I do not want to be a part of. You know, and from a distance is where I'm at.

Right. Yeah. And I, I do think that the older white male demographic, even though I am of it, I do not have much in common with it. So. Yeah, exactly. We, we, we are, but are not, you know? Yes.

I still, I'm still like a 15 year old anyway. So yeah, I do not identify. Yeah. I get, I mean, but it is interesting to me how much it shifts between the generations. Like when you hit Gen X, something does change. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So.

All right. Well, I will continue to be on the air and studying for my next level of amateur radio license. So I can talk to more people all around the world and looking forward to that. But be careful what you ask for and do the wisdom of dialing it in.

Well, and Dave, you have the patience of a saint. That helps. Not always. You see, my, my impatience tends to, uh, come out when I'm alone. Right. Right. So I'll take it out on myself. I will bang my head against the desk when no one else is around.

I don't take it out on other people. I'll go and scream into my pillow. Right. And then, and then I'm fine. And then I'm fine. Yeah. We sort of understand that. But then again, Jason and I started the show primarily to do it in public. So, yeah. Yeah. Right. It's good.

It's, it's, it's, uh, it's good to have a place to let it out. Yes. Closing shout outs. Over on Patreon, we've got some new subscribers, Jesse, Lucas, and JSM1955. And a big bump from Wayne and a very nice letter, Wayne.

Thank you very much. And from the legacy 10, as we're calling it now, I guess, Brian, Paul, Lonnie, Joe, Terry, Michael, Andy, Darth Cat, Mike, Marie, and Robert. Thank you all so much. Thank you all so much. And over at PayPal, we've got Jens, David, Judge, Levi, Charlie, Jonathan, Florian, Thomas, Nicola, Simon, and Kendall, who gave us a big old 200 buck donation.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Kendall, Roy. Thank you. I appreciate that, brother. And over at the tip jar, we've got Gabriel, Sarah, Matthew, and Adam. And over on merch, Kareem bought some stuff over at shop.gog.show. And just so everybody knows, over on Patreon, if you sign up for a little teeny bit of money, three bucks a month, you get the show early, ad-free, and in high definition.

And if you want to sign up for the whole year, you get a few percentage points off. So hit that up and buy some of our stuff over at shop.gog.show. There will be new shirts coming soon. I'm almost done with my next round. All right. I've got to get on that, too. I've been lazy. Yeah, you've been saying that for a month.

I know. It's Christmas time's coming up. I'll have some downtime. We'll see. And Wayne from Patreon did mention he sent us a review. So we got a five-star review a long, long time ago in Los Angeles, far, far away. It's a dark time for technology. Although box tops has been destroyed, technology has driven developers from their hidden bases.

Evading the narcissistic tech bros, a small group of freedom finders led by Jason DeFillippo, Brian Schulmeister, and Dave Bittner have established a podcast in a desperate search for sanity and cash. Let's not forget the cash. The evil lord Dick Musk, obsessed with destroying everything good about technology, has dispatched billions of dollars into the far reaches of the internet.

This podcast is funny and on point for tech news, neat gadgets, books, films, and TV. Plus, they got Dave Bittner, super host, for like seven minutes a week. Hey, good half hour. If you don't listen and support, then I would guess you are an agent of the tech bros. So thank you so much, Wayne. Thank you so much. And a big thank you to Terry.

Terry sent us basically a guerrilla version of the Shatner short, which we asked for with the correct music in it. Yep. This is Terry from Essex, England. He says he's been a listener since we were grumpy young geeks. And he's an audio geek. And thank you so much, Terry. You replaced all the proper feels where they belonged.

Yeah, I watched it. And basically, if I would have seen that the first time around, I would have had chills. And perhaps they might have gotten a little dusk, musky in the room, a little not Elon musky. That would make me cry, too, to be fair. But yeah, with the right music, it was so fucking spot on.

It was great. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. I wonder if we can get in trouble if we post that on Patreon. I mean, they'd have to pay to know. Well, guess what, Patreon subscribers? You're in for a treat until the lawyers show up. Unless any of you happen to work for Paramount.

In which case, shut the fuck up. Yeah. Cop didn't see it. We didn't do it. There you go. Until next time, I'm Brian Schulmeister. And I'm Jason DePhilophobe. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from today's episode at GOG.show slash 676.

Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG.show slash donate. Every penny helps keep the show on the air. And we mean that quite literally. Love the show? Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between.

We'll love you for it. And swing by GOG.show to join our Discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts, feedback, cool links? Hit us up at GOG.show slash contact. And hey, don't forget to leave a five-star review at GOG.show slash review. And we'll read it on the show. Oh, and guess what?

We've got GOG merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at shop.GOG.show. Stay grumpy. I don't like them putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay. Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide.

Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God Romero. Plus, the Bare Knuckle Middleweight Championship of the World is on the line. When the reigning champ Dave the Redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger Jack the Meat Cleaver Cullen.

KFC 94, Till vs. Romero. Watch it live only on DAZN. Sign up now at DAZN.com.