724: Sam Altman’s Boutique

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. How you doing, Brian? How was your turkey? My turkey? My turkey was okay. Well, that's it? It was sufficient. I don't like turkey, so what do you want me to say? Oh, man. I look forward to the Thanksgiving meal all year, and I didn't even do it this year.

It was fine. You know, I gave thanks. Let's move on. I actually went on LinkedIn on Thanksgiving morning. I don't know why. I saw. Well, I go around, and since we started posting on LinkedIn, just that we have a podcast and the new episodes out and all that.

So I do the rounds. Like, I look at YouTube. I check for comments and stuff like that. So I went on LinkedIn. We get no traction there whatsoever, and it's a vast wasteland, so that's not surprising. But yeah, there's a whole bunch of fucking people, because it's LinkedIn, which is a shithole, that have to post.

And they're posting about, oh, it's Thanksgiving. It's a time to decompress and get offline and relax. And I'm like, you're posting on LinkedIn right now, as we speak. Idiots. Anyways. You're not offline, and you're not decompressing. No.

Yeah. Yeah. So you didn't do any of that. It's been a week here. There's a virus going around. It's also bitingly cold. Christmas has definitely come. It's freezing outside. The kid was home for three days, so that was awesome. Yeah, I take it. That's facetious.

So, yeah, we're just sliding into Christmas now. The music is at play, and we put up our decorations. I think you did, too, as well, right? I started to put up the interior decorations. The exterior decorations go up tomorrow, including our eight-foot dreidel that goes in the front yard.

And yeah, we have a very culturally diverse house when it comes to our decorations. All are welcome. You're woke. I am. I am. We couldn't find any good Kwanzaa blowies yet, though. We've got blowies for everything. I mean, we've got black Santas. Like I said, we've got an eight-foot dreidel.

It's more fun if you call them blowies. I didn't get a good Kwanzaa blowie yet. I haven't had a good blowie in a very long time, so that's okay. All right. All right. Got a little follow-up here. Malaysia is the latest country with plans to limit social media use by age.

As of last Sunday, the country's cabinet approved a ban on social media accounts for anyone under the age of 16. This will reportedly go into effect next year, 2026. The country already requires social media and messaging platforms with more than 8 million local users to have a license.

These companies must take steps like age verification and safety measures. They are looking at countries like Australia to see the success of electronic ID verification checks, as I think we all are. That will be interesting. Starting, what is today, the 28th. As of December 10th, Australia will enact the world's first blanket social media ban for anyone under 16 years old.

All social media companies will have to ensure compliance or face a fine of up to $32 million. Platforms infected include X, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch. And in case you don't remember or haven't been listening to the show earlier this month, Denmark also announced it was taking steps towards a social media ban for anyone under 15.

And in the U.S., some states have tried to enact their own restrictions, including Utah, which requires parental consent to make a social media account. And in Texas, there's a bill that would have banned social media for anyone under 18 years old, but it failed to pass because Texas, while a Florida law requires consent for under 16s and banning under 14s, passed but is held up in court because of Florida.

So, the tide seems to be turning, Jason. It does, it does. The funny thing is, speaking of Florida, I saw a meme that came through my grams yesterday because I, too, was not taking the day off and decompressing. If you take Florida and turn it upside down, it's the Grinch.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's been running around for a while. It's good. I've never seen that one. That was a good one. That was a good one. That was a pretty good one. And I also was just kind of scrolling about on my phone the other day because why not? And my kid's home and he's watching TV. And I rarely, I had to go into Apple Photos for something.

And we're doing, let's, like, home improvement stuff. So, like, you know, you snap pictures when you're at Home Depot of the lights you think you like. So, you have to go through and find the light. And is that still the one that we want for the bathroom? Or should we move that to the master bath? Who knows? Got to find the goddamn light. Bring it up.

And Apple Photos AI pops up. And, you know, they have their suggested stuff. One caught my eye because it was me holding my son. My son was probably two or three years old. And if you're a long-time listener to the show, cast back your mind. I've lived in California almost my entire life.

My son was born in California. We didn't move to Toronto until my son was, like, four years old. And so, it's a picture of me and my son. My son's one or two years old. And it says, first time in California. What? What? Now, okay, you could maybe get away with that if it was a picture of, like, at my son's birth.

That was his first time in California. He'd never been there before. But shouldn't the AI be smart enough to know that, like, for four years, there's pictures of that kid and me in California? Well, context windows, Brian. It was outside the tokens.

You did not have enough tokens to have your son actually born in California. That costs extra. If you want to have your son born where he was born, you have to pay for the plus-plus package and get all those extra tokens so that it can go through all of your photos and give you accurate. It was just hallucinating, Brian.

It was just hallucinating. Again, AI, not ready for prime time, Jason. That's all I'm saying. In the news.

Brian, mark your calendars. Doge is officially dead. I don't believe it. I don't either. But, well, in its Doge-iness, it's also like Twitter is dead. Now it's just X. This is like there haven't been Sith. There haven't been Sith in years.

And, you know, then you find out one's running the fucking show. Oh, there you go. That's it. That's it. Do we have to talk about midichlorians then? No. No. Okay. Okay. So it's saying Doge is officially shut down eight months early. The Office of Personnel Management confirmed the Department of Government Efficiency doesn't exist, in quotes, as an active entity with its remaining functions absorbed by the OPM.

Several former staff have moved into other agencies or the National Design Studio. That sounds fancy. Reuters reports the program has now formally ceased operations. We talked about the National Design Studio. That was, they were going to kind of bring all government websites into check and all that sort of stuff.

And it was ran by somebody who has never run a design company in his entire life. We talked about that a while back. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, apparently Doge realized that it wasn't efficient to exist and has wiped themselves out, went back to the OPM, which is where all this stuff should have been in to begin with.

Where's big balls? That's all I want to know. Where's big balls? I want to do a quick breakdown of the damages that Doge has caused since we started this. Right. All right. The Department of Government Efficiency caused significant reputational and humanitarian shockwaves before its quiet disbandment in November 2025.

By targeting foreign aid and federal agencies with aggressive funding removal, specifically the effective shutdown of USAID, researchers estimated that Doge-driven cuts contributed to approximately 300,000 to 600,000 immediate deaths globally, with projections suggesting a toll of up to 14 million by 2030 due to the cessation of critical vaccine and malaria prevention programs.

Look, one can argue that the world is more efficient when it has less people in it. You could, unless you're one of the 14 million people. Well, it just sucks. You know, sometimes the dice doesn't roll the way you want it to, Jason. That's true. That's true. So domestically, the initiative slashed the federal workforce and contractor pooled by an estimated 290,000 jobs, creating administrative chaos and sparking lawsuits that critics describe as a reign of terror,

which severely undermined the stability and functional reputation of the United States civil service. Financially, the initiative's results were highly contentious and ultimately fell short of its trillion-dollar goals. While Doge officially claimed to have saved taxpayers approximately $214 billion through contract cancellations and fraud reduction, independent analysis painted a starkly different picture.

Reports from nonpartisan groups indicated that the initiative may have actually cost taxpayers an estimated $135 billion in the short term due to the expenses associated with paid leave, severance, rehiring wrongfully terminated staff, lost productivity, and legal defenses.

Consequently, critics argued that the savings were largely illusory, driven by political theater rather than fiscal prudence. So let's just put it this way. Brian, who ran Doge? Elon Musk. Yes. Okay? Now, let's just cast your mind back to, I don't know, this guy, Hitler, who, you know, Elon did the fancy wave for.

Yeah. How many people, how many Jews did he kill? Six million. A lot. Elon is now up to 14. Well, I mean, he's amortized the 14 over time. So he'll be able to claim them on his tax returns next year. On a cost basis analysis. Look, we haven't even talked about the costs involved in starting a war with the Trade Federation and raising the clone army.

I know. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And how many starships have exploded? How much was that cost to taxpayers, too? So we've got to factor all of that in, Brian. So I'm just saying, every time I see a Tesla with new dealer plates, fuck you.

Agreed. I mean, this was such a clusterfuck. What a fucking waste of time. What a fucking waste of money. And it's setting back human rights and the human condition. Generations. Unbelievable. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. One fucking asshole. One fucking asshole did that.

What did Bush say to that poor guy that couldn't run FEMA during the hurricane? Good job, Brownie. Good job. Oh, and just a, just a, just a, let's just hammer this one, just a little bit more. According to a new Politico report, current and former Doge staff are worried that their work under Elon Musk could boomerang back at them in the form of criminal prosecution.

Wah. Their anxiety spiked once Musk and Trump had their spectacular breakup, leaving Doge employees feeling like the safety net just got yanked out from under them. Just like everybody else felt when Doge came into existence. And took their jobs and their lives.

Yes. Some of the so-called tech bros even moved out of the GSA building they were living in, no longer betting their futures on Musk's hotline to the Oval Office or the fantasy of a presidential pardon if things turn sour. I'm going to guarantee you that Trump is not signing a pardon for big balls.

No, not going to happen. No. Insiders now describe dread, splintering loyalty, and a final word of wisdom from one senior voice. Get your own lawyer because billionaire guardianship has an expiration date. With Musk gone, the shield is gone, and they're left with a sinking realization that revolution is fun only until the blowback arrives.

Which makes me say, hmm, yeah, to everybody else who, you know, hits their horse to that wagon, this shit ends. Yeah. Your little party comes to a fucking end. Yeah, and by the way, you have—it's been proven time and time again in court that we have agency and we are expected to use it.

Following orders, if you're in the military or if you're in civilian jobs, does not get you off the hook. You can say, I was just following Musk's orders or I was just following Trump's orders. It doesn't fucking matter. If you broke the law and you did bad shit, you're going to be held accountable for it.

We are coming for you. Yeah, eventually. We're not right now. No, we can't yet. But someday. Nope. There are a lot of unemployed people with notepads taking a lot of notes and writing a lot of people's names down. And eventually, it will boomerang back and somebody will just say, hey, remember that guy that took all the social security data and put it on a thumb drive and then put it in his pocket and took it home so he could just check it out and run it through Grok to see who everybody is and then Grok trained on all that data?

Yeah, that person might be in trouble someday. So, yeah, sleep tight, asswipe. That's right. Well, as we alluded to earlier, it is tis the season. We're starting to put up our Christmas decorations and, again, long-time listeners to the show know this is also pink slip season and they're starting to roll in, Jason.

I got mine. Did you get yours? Oh, I got mine a couple of years ago, I think, at this point. I got fresh ones this year, so, hey. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Apple has laid off dozens of employees across its sales teams to streamline the organization and eliminate overlapping roles, according to Bloomberg.

To connect with even more customers, we're making some changes in our sales team that affect a small number of roles, the company told Gurman, although they didn't say how many people were affected. Apple also said it's hiring for new sales roles and that laid off employees can apply for them instead of just transferring them because they're sales people and you know how they work already.

Anyways, they have until January 20th to secure a new position within the company or they will be let go with a severance package. So, they said the internal reason was to streamline its organization. The layoffs were primarily driven by its plan to shift more sales towards third-party resellers. In other words, let's get rid of people and hire outside.

By relying on third-party channels further, Apple could lower costs like spending for people's salaries, especially since it's eliminated long-time employees with those higher salaries. Sounds like something a company should do when they're the second biggest company in the entire fucking world.

Because they're broke, Brian. They need the money. Yep. They reportedly fired managers and other staff members who've been with the company for 20 to 30 years. So, again, if you're around our age and you have a job, be fucking happy and thankful. Hold on to it for dear fucking life.

This world does not like to keep people around with big salaries who've been around a long time. They do not. Yeah, even though we have all the institutional knowledge, we know how everything works. And we keep the fucking trains moving. We keep the trains moving. Yeah. But no, let's just get the, yeah, let's not do that.

Again, as noted in the article, the layoffs have taken place in the middle of a record-breaking period. After posting $102.5 billion revenue for the quarter ending in September, it's now on track to make $140 billion in sales for the quarter ending in December. We're $140 billion in sales, and we're going to fire salespeople.

Makes sense. And computer maker Hewlett-Packard is joining the growing list of companies that are conveniently announcing company-wide AI initiatives and job cuts at the same time.

HP shared on Tuesday that it expects to scale artificial intelligence within the company and lay off about 4,000 to 6,000 employees by the end of 2028. With roughly 56,000 employees and still the complete inability to make a printer that works, that comes up to a 10% workforce reduction.

Looking forward to it. I was going to say, Brian, when was the last time you bought anything from HP? Period. I'm looking at an HP printer right now. Oh, I'm all Epson. I'm still Epson, but. Yeah. Per the Guardian, cuts will be centered around product development, internal operations, and customer support teams for those printers that you need the support for because they don't.

Fucking work. Is AI going to lower your ink costs? Absolutely not. It's going to increase them now. Yeah. So what are you going to do? You're out of ink. Oh, sorry. Our bad. The AI is going to figure out how to use more ink to print that report, that TPS report that you really need.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, let's pivot on over to social media. I kind of alluded earlier that the tide seems to be turning, and it does seem to be that way. Social media is an overwhelming part of our lives these days, but the pew, pew, pew, pew. There goes Alderaan.

Research Center provided an in-depth look at just how much we rely on these platforms. In a 2025 report that looked at social media usage with American adults, the think tank revealed some details like year-to-year changes, age gaps, and most importantly, frequency of youth. Youth.

Youth. Youth. At the number one spot, YouTube holds a dominant position with 84% of the 5,022 adults surveyed saying they use Alphabet's video sharing platform. That's probably why we're on camera right now. Yeah. Meta gets a silver and bronze since 71% of adults say they use Facebook, while 50% responded when it came to Instagram use.

However, not all of Meta's social media outlets are doing well. Threads may have hit 400 million active users this summer, but only 8% of adults surveyed say they use it. Rounding out the bottom of the list, only 21% of adults say they use X, while 4% of adults say they're on Blue Sky, and that's mostly Scalzi, and 3% are on True Social.

Besides popularity, the Pew Research Center also explored frequency, which they use platforms, in a separate survey with 5,123 adults. The report covered that 52% of adults go on Facebook daily, with 37% of them logging on several times a day. Wait, wait, wait.

So did they get all these people from the retirement home? How many people do you know that go on Facebook daily anymore? Only old, like boomers. Like us. This is a boomer range. Yeah, boomer. No, we're Gen X, man. Boomers, man. Well, you're off.

You're off of it completely. You and Dave are. I'm still on it. A bunch of my friends still are. But yeah, it's mostly, my mom probably updates like 50 times a day. Yeah. 48% of adults use YouTube daily, including 33% of the demographic watching videos on the platform several times a day.

Age gaps. The starkest difference is found with 47% of adults between 18 and 29 using TikTok at least once a day, while only 5% of those age 65 or older use TikTok every day. And YouTube and Facebook have largely maintained stable usage and even some growth since 2021.

So to your point, even though it feels like Facebook has begun to stagnate, the report shows it has a loyal user base that's still growing at a consistent rate. Yeah, people are getting older and they go back to it. They're aging into Facebook. That's true. We aged out of the tech market and now people are aging into Facebook.

Yes. And it's great that Meta's products are doing so well because Meta allegedly suspended internal research into the mental health effects of its products after it showed that people who stopped using Facebook experienced less depression, anxiety, and loneliness. These are unredacted court filings in a lawsuit filed by multiple U.S. school districts.

The suit alleges that the company's had knowledge of the health risks posed by these platforms, but intentionally hid this from this user. From this user. Well, and all the other users as well. From you. Brian, they specifically hid it from you. God damn it. Damn it. They know that you're going to bitch about it and they just said, don't give that guy the...

No, no, not that guy. Not that guy. They opened up Meta AI and I said, is using this making me depressed? And they fucking hid it from me, Jason. Fucking Zuckerberg. They started this research project, which they dubbed Project Mercury, back in 2020. They worked with survey firm Nielsen to investigate what effect, if any, deactivating Facebook had on its users.

And basically it found out that people were a lot happier. And then they stopped funding this project and said, well, never mind that. You're fired. Yeah. AI, you're fired. We don't like what you're coming back with, so we're not going to do any more research on this.

Yeah. And a British youth charity called Onside surveyed 5,035 young people between the ages of 11 to 18 for the Generation Isolation Report, which sounds like a really fucking banging song by an industrial band in 1990 that you and I would have been dancing on blocks to in a club.

I know. I know. The results paint a rather bleak picture. The survey found that two in five teams turned to AI for advice, company, or support, with 20% of those do saying that talking to AI is easier than talking to a real person. Shock.

Yeah, real shocker there. AI support is instant, but no substitute for the trust, empathy, and understanding of a human conversation, Onside Chief Executive Jamie Massriff said at the report. Over half of the young respondents say that they turned into AI specifically for advice on things like clothes, friendship, mental health, or to have AI help them through emotions like sadness and stress.

That's what we use the cure for. People. Depesche mode. Depesche mode. One in 10 said that they were choosing AI because they just wanted someone to talk to. That's what we use the phone for. The study and its findings show a generation that is lonely and one that has unrestricted access to technology that is addictive in nature.

According to the study, 76% of young people spend their free time on screens, and that 34% report feeling high are very high feelings of loneliness. So, yeah, all this shit is bad, and we got to start fucking, we got to start doing something about it.

This is not good for us people. I'm going to keep my kid off this shit as long as I can. Yeah, yeah, and I don't know if you've noticed, now that OpenAI has moved the voice interface for ChatGPT into the same interface as the regular ChatGPT, it's actually very easy to have a conversation with ChatGPT now, and it's disturbing how you can, like, doom chat now.

Doom chatting is definitely going to overtake doom scrolling. Right. And I was having a research conversation with it, and then I'm just like, I looked at my clock, and I'm like, I just spent 20 minutes talking to ChatGPT. What the fuck is wrong with me? This shit is bad. This is very, very bad.

And here's, you know why I spent 20 minutes doing it? It could have been a five-minute Google session, but it kept getting everything wrong, and I have to keep going back to it and saying, that doesn't sound right. Can you please do a little bit more research? Well, you're correct. I was wrong. That's what most of a ChatGPT chat is, is you telling it it's fucking wrong.

So if you don't know that it's wrong, it's just going to sit there and spew bullshit at you the entire fucking time. Yeah. Here's some good news, Brian. Okay. Sam Altman's allies are discovering that friendship isn't a hedge fund. SoftBank has tanked 40% since October, and Oracle erased its AI halo gains completely.

SoftBank dumped NVIDIA and T-Mobile just to cough up the $30 billion for its open AI stake. Thank you, Microsoft, for capitulating and giving them the fucking runway to do that, which now makes up 36% of SoftBank's portfolio.

And investors aren't impressed because the stock is trading at a 32% discount. So that's not good for them. Oracle somehow is in deeper. It pledged $300 billion in compute capacity starting in 2027, while sitting on $105 billion in, wait for it, Brian, not cash, debt.

Wow. And OpenAI is projected to make only $60 billion by then, if everything goes perfectly, which it never does. And meanwhile, Alphabet just rolled out Gemini 3 with rave reviews and $150 billion in yearly cash flow to fuel it.

The takeaway is SoftBank and Oracle are betting on magic while Google is buying chips with pocket change. Google is going to eat OpenAI's lunch. Yeah. Hands down. They've just got the pockets. They've got it. Yeah. You know, and I think we said that a while ago when Google was like falling behind and ChatGPT was running.

I'm like, just you wait. Just you wait. Just you wait. Fucking Hamilton. OK, well, OpenAI has apparently penciled in more than $1.4 trillion for data centers over the next eight years. One small problem, Brian. They don't have $1.4 trillion or even revenue close to that.

I also penciled in $1.4 trillion for me, Jason, in the next couple of years. So, you know. Yeah. I'll take it. So, HSBC ran the numbers and says that if OpenAI wants to keep the lights on and continue losing money at scale, all it needs is a casual $207 billion more of investment by 2030.

Wow. They need. So, it was a Herculean effort to get that $30 billion from SoftBank. Remember everything that they had to do to do that. Microsoft had to let them go for profit. And now Microsoft owns most of them. And, well, Microsoft owns a huge chunk. SoftBank owns a huge chunk.

NVIDIA now owns a huge chunk. I don't think Sam's going to be left on a little tiny life raft with like a popsicle pretty soon. Because there's not going to be anything left to divvy up. Yeah. So, it's just, it's getting ridiculous. Getting. So, well, yes, it has been ridiculous.

What am I saying? We're just adding, we're adding zeros on the end at this point. Like, it was ridiculous if you chopped off a zero. And now we've got more zeros on the end. Yeah. And here's the funny thing. HSBC thinks OpenAI could rake in about $215 billion a year by 2030.

Which is, I don't know, a long ways away. Yeah. OpenAI's own estimates were only $200 billion. And that's, that's their, it's OpenAI's estimates, the people who just make shit up whole cloth. And they're saying, well, we might make $200 billion. HSBC was being extraordinarily generous.

Yeah. So, yeah. Emperor Altman's clothes are really starting to fray. They're really starting to fray. One more win for OpenAI. OpenAI has been temporarily barred from using the word cameo to describe a feature in its Sora app. Following a restraining order issued by a federal judge after Cameo, the celebrity video marketplace, filed a trademark lawsuit.

The order lasts until December 22nd. In Sora, Cameos are AI-generated videos built from likenesses users upload. While Cameos, Cameos, say that 10 times fast, are paid recordings from celebrities delivered through its platform. I used to buy Cameos for people all the time. I remember.

Yeah, they were some of the greatest Christmas gifts. I'm actually surprised that I haven't been seeing ads for them. They must not be doing great because this is the time of year that I remember we would always see ads for Cameo. Here's the problem with Cameo. They're not doing great because piss poor leadership.

Piss poor leadership. I know some people who are on Cameo, some celebrities that are on Cameo, and they used to spend a ton of time there. And the tech support that they needed, they originally had great tech support. They were sending, like, celebrities laptops and stuff to be able to do all their stuff themselves.

A celebrity can't afford a fucking laptop? Well, some of them don't know how to use a laptop, Brian. Well, sending them a laptop isn't going to help. Preconfigured with, like, you know, the login software and remote desktop and stuff like that. But, yeah, Cameo argues that OpenAI's terminology creates confusion, especially since some personalities like Mark Cuban and Jake Paul exist on both services.

Yeah, and separately, Overdrive, I don't know who Overdrive is, but they filed a trademark suit over similarities in Sora's app icon, adding another legal challenge for OpenAI. You can sue somebody because of their trademark challenge over their icon now, so. Look, you only get 128 by 128 pixels here, people.

This isn't Windows 3.1, dude. They get a few more than that. I still optimize mine down to 16 by 16. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. 32 colors, you know. If you can't do it in MS Paint, it ain't an icon. I'm right.

Well, following its licensing deal with Udio, the Warner Music Group has also reached an agreement with Suno that will let the platform license its artist, music, and likenesses and end the company's ongoing litigation. I'm a little sad by this because I feel like all the music companies are giving in, but I also kind of understand what else you're going to fucking do here.

WMG was previously one of several record labels suing Udio and Suno for allegedly infringing on copyrighted works on a massive scale. As part of the agreement, artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are now used in AI-generated music.

WMG explains in a press release for the announcement. Now, that is going to be a big division at most of these record label companies now, unless, of course, they decide AI can handle all this. We'll see. They don't spell out exactly how this is going to work for musicians impacted by the deal, but it does appear that participation will be opt-in rather than anything being shared by default, which is good.

And we'll see how the finances work on this. But in a weird part of this partnership, because this is the Suno and Udio deals are happening with everybody, but Suno is also acquiring WMG's Songkick concert discovery platform. The company plans to continue running it, and WMG claims that the combination of Suno and Songkick will create new potential to deepen the artist-fan connection, which is a load of horse shit, but okay.

That is totally a load of horse shit. It's just creating new AI-driven middlemen. Yeah, it's an app for finding nearby concerts if you're not aware of what Songkick is. And I don't really understand how it's going to roll into Suno, but whatever. I think probably it was losing money and Warner didn't want to fucking fund it or staff it anymore.

Yeah, they just... We'll make the deal, but you take care of this shit. Exactly. Yeah, that was just taking out the garbage. They're just like, oh, can you guys take this and just help us out, and then we'll help you out? It's just a little quid pro quo going on there. Yeah, that's about all I can figure as well, so...

Yeah. And Pro-AI Superpack is investing millions into creating an AI-friendly regulatory environment in the United States called Leading the Future. The Superpack is backed by a venture capital firm, of course, Andreessen Horowitz. Open AI president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lunsden, and the AI search engine company Perplexity.

It's a rogues gallery of assholes. It is supervillains all the way down. It launched in August, reportedly armed with more than $100 million, which they could turn over to open AI, but I guess that's just a splash in the proverbial bucket that they need over there. So instead, let's try to get pro-AI wins across the country in the midterm elections.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Superpack is emboldened by the success of crypto Superpack Fairshake, which counted significant pro-crypto wins in the 2024 presidential and local elections, obviously not paying too much attention to what's happened since then, which is most of these people going to jail.

Sure, they got pardoned, but the companies are fucking dead. Okay? Yeah. Anyways, so watch out for these assholes, and if they're donating to your favorite congressman, write them a letter. Well, X has rolled out a feature called About This Profile, giving users a clearer look at account histories, including username changes, join dates, and most notably, real account locations.

This was the best thing that happened on the internet this week. Oh, my God, this was just, I could, this was my Thanksgiving. I just eat this up more than my turkey. It was awesome. I mean, it was awesome. The tool is already revealing that many accounts presenting themselves as American political voices aren't based in the United States at all.

Examples include large MAGA-branded profiles located in Eastern Europe, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, as well as family fan accounts for Trump relatives operating from abroad. Maybe it's just everybody in the family that got deported, and they're just logging on from wherever the fuck they got sent.

The issue isn't limited to conservative-tagged accounts, either, with at least one high-follower pro-Democrat account traced to Kenya before being deleted. X says the goal is to help users evaluate authenticity, and the platform can flag VPN-masked accounts when location data may be inaccurate.

GOG.show.vpn for all of your VPN needs. Still, the feature gives users a way to spot clusters of accounts posting similar content from the same region, which could signal bot farms or organized influence operations. Analysts warn that misrepresented locations may indicate coordinated foreign interference designed to sway opinion or fuel political polarization.

You think? You think? You think? Again, if you want to disrupt democracy and if you're in a foreign national country, gog.show.vpn. Get at it. There you go. Get at it. No, I can't believe that this rolled out on X, of all places, because the one platform that it actually would harm is X.

I want this on every platform. I'm sure people were banging on the door and Musk was in a ketamine-fueled fucking haze going, Oh, it's great. It's great. We'll turn it off later. Transparency. Transparency. We'll turn it off later. Oh, yeah.

This was just—they had to have had meetings, Brian. Somebody had to beta test this. Somebody had to have beta tested this. It boggles the mind. It boggles the mind that this fucking happened. I love it. It's a fucking win, but I don't understand how it happened.

Media candy. Steven wrote in after last week when he had sent the episode of The Rest is History, which was basically just the Bob Iger blowing smoke up Disney's asses thing, and said that he didn't mean the Bob Iger episode on The Rest is History.

He meant the two programs before, episode 614, Walt Disney, The Great American Storyteller, and episode 615, Disneyland, The Modern American Utopia. So I did go and listen to both of those as well. Fun. Definitely fun. Much more interesting than Bob Iger talking CEO bullshit.

So, yeah, if you're unfamiliar with the Disney story and Disneyland itself and how it came to be, these are great ways to discover it. So, very interesting stuff. And actually, I got to check out some more of the rest of the history's back catalog because those guys kind of get into it.

So, interesting. Cool. Things have gotten so bad, Jason, so bad in U.S. politics that Dan Carlin has emerged like the groundhog on February 2nd to present us with a new common sense. Who's the boss?

Somebody has exhumed the corpse of Dan Carlin, reanimated it, and said, make another podcast. Now, we're not sure it's not an AI, Dan Carlin, but actually, we're pretty sure because he's pretty angry. And it was pretty good. Yeah, he's pretty angry. Yeah. And he should be. So, highly worth a listen. Yeah, I was just so amazed.

I'm like, really? Dan? Dan's back? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I haven't listened to a Hardcore History in, like, half a decade. Well, he's been working on one for, like, eight years now, apparently, which is why he was pissed. He was like, can you guys stop fucking around?

I'm trying to waste my life doing another Hardcore History, and now I have to come out here and call you guys idiots. I can't believe that that supports him anymore. Hardcore History is just, it's like two years between episodes. I know, and they're so long now that I literally can't even do it.

I can't. Like, I try, but, like, I can't. Look, I'm somehow making it through, like, the whole American Revolution thing, which is, like, fucking 16 hours. But a 45-hour set on, like, fucking Iwo Jima, I can't do it, Dan. I can't do it, man.

Can't do it. Well, I did find a new podcast this week, Once We Were Spacemen, with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, which, two of my favorite people. And they basically just talk about, so far, I'm two episodes in, and it's fun.

It's just two friends who used to be on the same show, shooting the shit, and they are funny. They are very funny. And the second episode, I think, had Jules Stadon, who was from Firefly as well. And it was great. It's just, it's kind of the show I need right now.

It's not, it just has no, no political shit whatsoever. And they're both just gems of humans, you know. I got to meet Alan pretty recently and hung out with him for a bit. And he is just as cool and nice as you think he would be, period.

He is the same guy that you see everywhere else. So, I'm very happy for them. And, yeah, I highly recommend it. If you need something light for the holidays that's not the shit that's going on on regular news or even this show, check it out. Right. Cool.

Well, unless you're dead, you're probably aware of the fact that the final season of Stranger Things has dropped on Netflix because it's unavoidable anywhere. There's just article after article and story after story and press release and conferences and interviews and blah, blah, blah. And it's just everywhere.

And I really, like, I'm two seasons behind and I think I've pretty much decided to call it on Stranger Things. I'm just not that interested in going back. But then I was starting to question it because there was so much brouhaha about the last season being out right now until I read this article that's over on Slate called How Stranger Things Lost the Plot.

And there's a paragraph in there. I'm just going to read the one sentence from the paragraph that sealed the deal for me that fuck it. I'm not going back and watching any of this shit. The Duffers have never had either a master plan or may fatally the skill to write themselves out of the corners in which their ad hoc storytelling leaves them stranded.

Nope. Been there. That's lost. That's the end of Battlestar Galactica. Fuck that shit. You're not getting me again. You didn't have a plan when you started. You only did five seasons. You did them over 50 fucking years as far as I can tell. And you couldn't figure out a plan?

I'm enjoying it. I finished the last of the first four episodes last night because I was just I was in a I don't know what kind of haze. I was in a stuffing induced dementia and I couldn't sleep after like two Benadryl. I couldn't even fall asleep. So I finished watching it. Maybe that's why I like it so much because I was like, you know, just out of my gourd on antihistamines.

I enjoyed season four and I'm enjoying season five. You know, is it the greatest storytelling? No, it's not. But is it fun? Sure. It's good. I enjoy it. That's all that's that's all I'm there for. You know, I'm not there for war and peace or, you know, anything phenomenal that's going to blow my mind.

It's popcorn that is going to kill a couple hours of my life until my inevitable death. And it's perfect for that. Absolutely perfect for that. That is a cheery review. Happy holidays, Brian. I did watch Being Eddie this week. The Eddie Murphy documentary on Netflix.

Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It is a puff piece because it is all just basically. Produced by Eddie Murphy. Exactly. Produced by Eddie Murphy. I was OK with that. I'm like, OK, they're not going to talk about the trans people on Santa Monica that he got busted trying to pick up.

No, that was completely washed over. None of that stuff. But as far as a talented human being and all of the crap that he's done, it was great. It was absolutely great to watch that. And it culminated with him going back on Saturday Night Live. Well, look, I mean, Eddie Murphy's Raw is a defining document for my life.

That stand-up was unbelievable. I'm Gumby, damn it. Hot Tub. Like, there's the list of things that Eddie Murphy has done that are legendary that I'm still quoting 40 years later. You know what I mean? No. It's insane. All of the old Saturday Night Live bits that, you know, they played, I saw those all live.

And I was like 10 years old when those were playing. And I remember where I was when I saw them. You know, that's how impactful they were. I remember where I was when Buckwheat got shot. It was so good. So good. But it's a nice walk down memory lane.

It really is. And I did find out that he's going to be the new Inspector Clouseau. So that should be kind of fun. That's cool. I did watch another show, a six-part or eight-part miniseries called The Beast and Me. Now, this has Claire Danes being Claire Danes.

So, angry, pained face. Yeah. It's produced by the same people that did Homeland. So they're like, do that Homeland face that you did in Homeland. Do that a lot. And it'll be good. And it had, what's his name from the Americans? Jerry Russell's husband. Jerry Russell's husband.

He's great. I love him. He was so good in this. I mean, he was phenomenal in this. He was definitely worth watching. It was a great story. Kind of should have been six, but they pulled it to eight. I had no notes besides that. It was great. It was a great, just, you know, psychological thriller, murder thing.

All right. That's what it was. Well, my wife wanted to watch The Roses. So I watched The Roses, Jason. What the fuck is The Roses? This has got Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberjohn-Jingleheimer-Smith. His name is my name, too.

In it, it is a modern take on The War of the Roses. So it's a dark comedy, and it was really good. It was really funny and dark.

And I would say that, I mean, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are note-perfect. The only downside to this movie is the supporting cast, which includes Andy Samberg and some other people. They are fucking horribly written and horribly acting, and anytime the supporting cast is on it, they suck.

But Benedict and Olivia, and most of the movie is just them, are phenomenal, and this laugh-out-loud dark comedy. Okay. I might check it out. I like Mr. Cumberbatch. And, you know, we have him to thank for Deliveroo, because, remember, it was when he jumped out of the cab to go rescue the Deliveroo driver.

That's right. I'm like, that was the genesis of Deliveroo. Right. Cumberbatch and his cumberbitches. It's good. It's worth watching. I think you'll enjoy it, Jason. Okay. And I was reading the local news, and I'm not a big ASMR guy.

I really don't know if you are or not, but I did see this article. Toronto's most unusual new spa has opened up, where you can enjoy an hour of having your hair, face, and back touch gently with various implements, from wooden forks to rubbery bongos, for $139 an hour.

For $50 more, you can book in for a soft-spoken role-play session that simulates a soothing scenario, such as a doctor's visit. It's called Tingles Bar, and it's a brick-and-mortar space that offers clients the chance to experience AMSR stuff.

And I can't believe this thing fucking exists. Yeah, I don't know if you can see the video, but my back is actually very tight right now, because anytime anybody mentions ASMR, I have problems. I have misophonia, which can cause a violent reaction to things like ASMR.

And yeah, so I put in a link, since you put in a link to this, I put in a link to the documentary called Quiet, Please! That explores the emotional and psychological ramifications of a neurologically-based disorder called misophonia. One of my tenets as a professional podcast editor is that I have misophonia protection built into all of my edits to get rid of all mouth noise.

And, you know, it is a selling point. And so if you need somebody to get rid of your mouth noise in your podcast, give me a call, because I need some work, please. But go check out the documentary and stay the fuck away from that bar in Toronto. That's just an evil, evil, evil place.

No, no, I'm not going to do any role-playing or have my hair combed with a fork. I wonder if they do it as, like, The Little Mermaid.

Cups and doodads! So, Brian, a couple weeks ago I talked about the open dialogue problem I was having on the new version of macOS, where I couldn't actually open anything. Then I had to spend a day creating a new account to move everything over. All of that work that I did, turns out, was for naught, because it was a system-level bug that they eventually fixed.

There was nothing I could do, no matter what, except for create the new user account. And when I found out that it was fixed, I'm like, okay, well, I just threw away the old... It was just... It was a shit show. And that all just comes back to the fact that I was using the beta version of the new macOS.

And, yeah, I have reverted all my machines back to stable versions now. That's a good idea. I'm too old for this shit. I am just too old for this shit. So, yeah, everything is running on stock now. I don't need to be on Bleeding Edge anymore.

I'm tired of being people's beta testers. Screw that. Give me shit that works. That's all I want anymore. Yeah, and what's funny is it's like all of my current machines that I actually do work on, like this one right here that I'm talking to you on, I'm staying on Sequoia. Fuck the new one. I'm staying on this as long as humanly possible.

So, I'm not upgrading anything. I'm going to be a Windows Bob guy. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going back to Bob. Mac OS Bob. MS-DOS podcasting live from Clippy. I don't know how that's going to work, but we'll see. Well, Spotify has been making some moves.

They've unveiled an upcoming interactive feature called SongDNA designed to show you samples, collaborators, and covers included in the given track the company announced, and lawyers started salivating. As part of that update, Spotify also revealed that it has acquired WhoSampled, the company behind the SongDNA technology.

So, let's see. The SongDNA feature will show up in the now playing view. It's described as a way to see connections between songs, showing collaborators, samples, and covers all in one place, which is kind of cool. I actually like it. Not that I ever look at the Spotify interface while I'm playing music, because I like to just listen to music.

You know, you really want to make me happy? Give me large artwork and fold-out sleeves. That would be great. Thank you. That would be fantastic. You know, I actually wouldn't mind checking out Smack My Bitch Up for that Who Sampled. Right. Did you ever see the YouTube video of the guy that recreated the intro to Smack My Bitch Up?

Yeah. Yeah. There were like 35 samples in like 10 seconds of music in there. It was insane. Oh, if you want to blow your mind, load this up with this feature and go listen to Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. It's entirely built out of samples. Entirely. Yeah, that's right.

Like, you could not make that album today. You couldn't. No. You'd owe money. You'd be like OpenAI. Sam Altman's Boutique. Oh, show title. Oh, it's so funny.

And I can't even check it out. I killed my Spotify account because when they were running the ads for Ice, I said that no more. I'm not going to do it. So I canceled. Oh, and Spotify also has new AI-powered audiobook recaps that will remind you where you left off.

Oh. Now, this is actually a pretty good feature, I think, because, you know, I wish Audible had this because, you know, I've got like 10 audiobooks that I'm listening to at any given time and I'll forget where I'm at in the book. So if I could just pop it up and say, you know, give me 20 seconds of where the fuck I am, that would be helpful.

But, yeah, no, that's the only thing I just hate. You know what I would actually use this for? I wouldn't even use this for a book that I forgot about and left behind and then came back to, although I would use it for that as well. I would use this for the gazillions of books that I've already read and don't fucking remember what they were about anymore.

It's like the Cliff Notes version. It was just like instead of going back and rereading it yet again, I could just listen to the recap. Yeah, because we've done – I mean, this show is almost 14 years old. We have done hundreds and hundreds of books on this show.

And I went back to series that I forgot we read. What's the Long Earth series? Remember that one? I've read that entire series twice because I forgot I read it the first time because it was so long ago. Great series, though, if you're going to read. It's a great series. I know people write in every now and then are like, I'll give us some suggestions.

There's one. Go read it. Yeah, go read the Long Earth series. That was fantastic. Fantastic. Well, Amazon's getting in on the game, too. They're going to launch AI-powered series recap videos. I have a problem with this one, though. Okay. Because the thing about Spotify, it's like it will give you a recap of where you left off.

It's like, oh, up until this point, it will do something. Now, what Amazon's trying to do is they're just replacing the people that did the previously on videos. Right. That's it. You know, it's like, how fucking much money do you need, you greedy fucks? Pay somebody to do a proper previously on video because AI is not going to hit all the nuance.

They're not going to hit the nuance, period. I mean, of course, they're starting with shows like Reacher or shot somebody on the previous episode. Okay, great. I mean, I'm not bagging on Reacher. I love that series. But come on. Just pay somebody to do the fucking work.

It's going to be better. The recaps for Frasier. There was a misunderstanding. Same with Three's Company. That's not his boyfriend. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Amazon is, speaking of Amazon, has revealed that its devices and services event back in September was Alexa Home Theater is coming, a surround mode for select Echo speakers.

They've now confirmed to Engadget that it's ruling out Alexa Home Theater broadly starting this week, which can make your Echo speakers a more budget-friendly, shittier alternative to a Sonos setup in some consumers' eyes or a soundbar. So you'll be able to connect up to five of the company's new Echo Studio or Echo Dot Max speakers plus a subwoofer to a Fire TV Stick 4K or 4K Max, which means for me, I never listen to or watch TV off the Fire TV Stick, so it's useless unless it works with other things.

And also Echo Studio, pretty good sound. Echo Dot Max, throw those things in the trash. Yeah. Yeah, and it's not even going to come anywhere close to a Sonos. Sonos are just beautiful for a reason, because they cost a fortune and they weigh a ton. Shame about their operating system.

Oh, God. It's still terrible. I don't know if you've tried it recently. It's horrible. No, I don't have any Sonos at home. I used to have it at the office. But, you know, since I got pink-slipped, bye-bye, Sonos. Yeah, yeah. No, I've got seven Sonos around the house plus a Ray that's hooked up to my Fire TV, which, surprisingly, because the Fire TV is the only thing that can actually control the volume on the Ray.

Otherwise, you have to use the app to control the volume. And I'm like, I'm not going to go to the Sonos app to try and control the volume on my fucking TV. The show's going to be over by the time it loads. Anyway, I've got a couple of gear recommendations here. So, I'm talking to you now on my ancient, ancient Nikon Z6.

Okay. Now, I had this camera in the studio when I had my studio. And this dancer came in. We were doing Deshaun No Sade, that show. And this guy came in and thought he could dance. And he started to do a spin and a dip. And he knocked the camera off the tripod, broke it, broke the HDMI connector.

Didn't even apologize, dickhead. But then the camera's been sitting there for years, you know, unused. I finally, since I'm poor and I have to go back to old technology, I figured out how to make it work again. With tweezers and a lot of patience, I fixed the HDMI port.

So, now I'm using it to talk to you. But I'm like, okay, well, I also sold all of my video gear. I used to have an ATM Mini Pro that was beautiful for bringing in the video from the camera and converting it to digital and doing all this other switching and stuff like that. Had to sell that for gas and food.

So, I'm like, what do kids use these days? So, I went and I found the GearMock video capture card 4K USB 3.0 HDMI to USB-C capture card for streaming 1080p 60fps. Compatible with iPad, macOS, Windows, Quest 3, Questlove, OBS, PS5 and 4, Switch 2, 1, Xbox camera, paren, silver.

So, it's a dongle that I just plugged the HDMI into from the camera straight into my computer. And guess how much it cost, Brian? How much? $19.99. Ah, but Black Friday deal, $15.79, Jason.

Okay. So, the thing is, it's like, back in the day to get a video capture card from HDMI, you had to remember. I mean, dude, back in the old days. It was expensive. You had to get the PCI card to go in your PC and then you had to get the audio card to go with it and do all that stuff.

It was like, it's $20 now, but Black Friday, cheaper. Yeah. It's amazing. It's an amazing little dongle and it works. I'm talking to you on it right now. I did have to use OBS and some crazy, crazy shit to make it sync up properly, but that's what OBS is for. And OBS is free.

I'm going to be talking more on the show lately, coming up in the coming weeks, about how to use old tech to get the same fucking result as the new shit on a budget. But the problem was, I also sold all my lenses for gas and food, so I had to go find something that would work.

And, you know, everybody's buying all the fancy new lenses for their Sony Alphas and their Nikons and their Canons. I found a Mikey 35mm F2 autofocus full frame STM stepping motor lens compatible with Nikon Z-mount cameras. Beautiful lens, as you can see.

Razor sharp, crystal clear, $179. So, for, you know, under what it would cost for the cheapest ATEM, I got this thing back on track and I'm just happy as a pig in shit. That's all I got to say. Oh, also, the other thing that I had to use was Rogue Amoeba's Loopback, which is very important.

So, if you have a Mac, you know, Brian, that is a critical piece of software. Sure is. Well, since it is Black Friday, I had to throw this stuff in because, you know, shopping on a budget is all that most of us can do anymore. I'm going to put a link in the show notes about scientists reveal what Black Friday is doing to your brain.

Let's just say a lot. Go check it out. But I am going to give you Jason's Holiday Gift Guide and Stocking Stuffers from Gifts for under $20 for the nerd that you love. So, Brian, I think we agree on a lot of this stuff because I think we've bought most of this stuff together at some point or another.

So, and yes, I will put pictures in the video for the people who are just like, why don't you put pictures of the stuff you're talking about in the video? I will put pictures in the video if you go to YouTube.com and check out Grumpy Old Geeks because we're not doing this for fun. Although we're also not doing it for affiliate links because Amazon killed all of us.

I get like pennies. Pennies now. Yeah. If you don't just get canceled, they just take all the money. So, here's the first thing that every nerd needs to have. Velco brand, 150-pack cable ties value pack, 8-inch stocking stuffer gifts for tech lovers, for wire management, and cord organization.

Replace zip ties with reusable straps and reduce waste because I just love Amazon titles. This is $12.96. Your price may vary depending on when you listen to this, but it's 150-pack of Velcro zip ties for cables. Got that. You got to have these.

Yep. Get them for everybody. Like, seriously, put these in every person you know's stocking and they will love you for it. Unfortunately, because you're the tech guy, you're the one that's going to actually have to do all the wiring for them and use that. So, yeah. Yeah, but then you just save yourself having to buy an actual gift that they're never going to use. So, you get to use it and it makes your life easier.

See what I did there, Brian? Yep. And this is just, I have an iPad mini and the case always, it doesn't fit right. I don't like the cases that have the backstrap on it because it's always in the wrong position and whatnot. So, I just found literally a hand strap that you just stick to the back of the iPad wherever you want to stick it so it's more comfortable.

This is the hand holder strap for iPad tablet. Hand holder strap, universal handle grip for iPad Kindle mini tablets and cases, paren black. This is $8.99 and it's literally a piece of, like a, yeah, just a piece of elastic band with a sticky on it that you stick to the back of it.

It has made my iPad mini experience a million times better. Do not have adding to cart. And after I got the Mac G4 or was the MacBook G4 Air that we both have, I just realized that, oh, wait.

I was coming from a MacBook Pro which had all the ports. Now, I have none of the ports. So, I went out and bought the Anker USB-C Hub 7-in-1 multi-port USB adapter for laptops. 4K at 60 hertz USB-C to HDMI splitter. 85 watt max power delivery.

3X USB A and C. 3.0 data ports. SD-TF card for Type-C devices. Whopping cost, $19.99. Unbelievable. I've had multiples of these. They've never been this cheap. It's ridiculous how cheap they are and how useful these things are.

Yep. Get a couple of them and just put them everywhere. They're just handy as hell. And I think when I first bought this, it was like $80. Yeah, at least. And now it's $20. Okay. And in my favorite travel mug, which I use every day, I've got a cheap-ass one here.

This is one that I got from Bulletproof Coffee back in the day when I worked on Jordan Harbinger's show. Right. But it's a Contigo. Contigo, this, oh, by the way, if you bought this back then, this is a $70 mug. Now you can get the Contigo Auto-Seal West Loop Vacuum Insulated Stainless-Seal Travel Mug with Easy Clean Lid 20-ounce version for $19.99.

Again, get them cheap. It lasts forever. It looks an awful lot like something that would have been in your gift guide about 12 years ago, the Auto Blow 2. It very much looks like the Auto Blow 2. Oh, if you want to hear the story of that one, go back a couple episodes.

And also for the nerds of your life and anybody who has a home that has stickers or children that you want to take things off of, the Scotty Peeler Label and Sticker Remover. Single pack metal peeler, SP2, $8.99. Everybody should have a Scotty Peeler. I've, you know, championed them on the show many times.

Do you have any, Brian? I do. I do. And it's very useful. Extraordinarily useful. Especially this time of year as you're getting your Christmas gifts all wrapped up. Yep. And you need to take the price tag off from, you know, and you don't want to do the old El Marco, like rub it out in black because it's still, you can still see the price behind it.

Yeah, you want that. The last two things I have here, well, almost the last two, slip drives. Slip drive, portable hard drive sleeve for laptops. These are the little stickers with a little elastic pouch on it that you can stick on the back of your laptop and stick your, you know, your thumb drives in.

I actually have one, I put a big one on mine for my glasses. So I have my reading glasses on the back of my laptop. So wherever I go, I just pull out my reading glasses and it's like, oh, why didn't I think of that before? So there's two different sizes. Yeah, it's, you know, that's why it's a gift guide, Brian.

I'm not selling them shit that sucks. Come on. So go check these out. The big one is $13.42 and the small one is $12.63. I got the small one on the side next to the HDMI or the USB-C ports. So I just plug in my four terabyte drive because you don't want to spend like real money on a big hard drive on an Apple laptop because they just kill you on prices for those.

So that's that. Now, Brian, I do have one final fun one that I just love. Now, this one comes in at $29.99. But for the person in your life that has a whimsical sense of humor, these are the car lashes, 1001 UB Classic Black.

They're basically eyelashes for your car. I bought these for my roommate and put them on her Bronco and they're hilarious. They're literally eyelashes for your car. Just go look at the page and you'll go, I, huh? And then you get them and then you just laugh.

I have PTSD, though. It just makes me think of the early days of Uber and Lyft when they had the mustaches on the cars. Oh, the mustaches. No. Yeah. This is not. These are subtle, though. And you can find your car a lot easier. They're subtle.

Okay. Trust me, in real-world use, you notice them, but you don't. Okay. But you can find your car really easy in the parking lot during the holiday shopping. All right. At the library.

Now, Brian, I've talked about my friend Fab Moravon from Milli Vanilli a couple times on the show. I used to do his website and he's a beautiful guy. Just so much fun. So sweet. And he's got a new book out called You Know It's True, The Real Story of Milli Vanilli. Now, the irony here is he narrated this book and he's got nominated for a Grammy for his reading of the book about the story of Milli Vanilli, who had to give back.

They didn't have to give back. They gave back voluntarily their Grammy. It wasn't stripped from them. That's a common misconception. They gave it back before anybody said anything. But, yeah. Very funny. He was in town not too long ago and I saw him on KTLA and they were talking about it.

And then the next day he posted on Instagram. He's like, it is like 26 years to the day that we gave back our Grammy to the Grammy board. And it's like such full circle, such full circle. So I'm really happy for him. I don't need to read the book because I've heard the story from the horse's mouth many times.

So, but I'm sure it's phenomenal. It's an amazing story because if you hear the real story, it's like, oh, my God, these people were just the people that took advantage of them were just horrible, horrible people. But that's the music industry for you, I guess. That's the music industry. Yep. I found one for you, Brian.

This is the Time Traveler's Passport. Six short stories, infinite possibilities. Embark on a mind-bending journey through time with six of today's most visionary authors, brimming with humor and heartache. This collection of short stories maps the roads we took to get here and the paths that lie ahead.

The present may be a gift, but the future and the past both come with a price. Curated by John Joseph Adams, New York Times bestselling anthologist. So, I found this because I got, I follow John Scalzi and every now and again, Amazon will tell me when somebody that I follow writes something new.

It's very random. It doesn't happen all the time. But every now and again, it will tell me when somebody that I follow writes a book. And this is a short story. It's called Three Days, Nine Months, and 27 Years by John Scalzi. It's the first book in the anthology. Oh, my God, it's so good.

It's so good. And this is not audible, so you can't yell at me. It's all Kindle. I get this free with my Kindle unlimited subscription. No, this is great. This is great because I've been having a really hard time getting into a couple books recently. So, some short stories might just be what I need, and I'll read them over the holiday break.

That looks awesome. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, I can't wait to hear what you think of this one. This, the Scalzi story is one of the most inventive time travel stories that I've heard in a very, very long time. I really enjoyed it. And finally, I read the book, The Courage to be Disliked, How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kashimi and Fumatake Koga.

This is a book you do not need, Jason. You need no more courage to be disliked. You have no issues with this whatsoever. None. You can write this book. I could have probably written this book. Actually, I couldn't have written this book because this book was just pop-side bullshit.

This has sold 13 million copies, and it is a TikTok favorite to be quoted. Oh, right. And, you know, for a long time, for many years, I loved to debunk personal self-help bullshit like Tony Robbins and all those guys.

You know, that was just, I love doing that. It was just one of my jams. It's like, no, no, no. You didn't write that. Seneca wrote that a couple thousand years ago. That's epic tea. You're just stealing shit and repurposing it. You know how it goes, Brian. Well, this one deals with Alfred Adler in a bastardization of all of his teachings.

And you are a psych major. So what do you think of this, Brian? You know, I feel like Alfred Adler has not aged well. I think it was very popular teachings at the time, and I just don't think that it's there anymore.

So, but, you know, whatever. Hey, you know, they sold a bunch of books. Good for them. They sold a bunch of books. Yeah. And it's funny. When I was originally, it splits in the middle, but a lot of it feels very Ayn Randian at the beginning.

You know, very much about self-determination. But then where she goes off into, you know, it's all about being the individual and fuck everybody else. They're more like, oh, well, you can be an individual, but you still want to do more about community. And it's about, you know, community relationships and interpersonal relationships while still being a dick and only caring about yourself and being completely selfish.

So basically, yeah, don't put that one in the stocking. Over at Patreon, we've got some new Patreon subscribers, Rick, Hank, and John.

Thank you all so much. And with the continuing Patreon subscribers, we've got Cody, Gordy, Daniel, Andrea, Stephen, Christopher, Robert, Mike, Brett, and Nikki. Thank you all so very much for continuing to support our show. Thank you. Thank you. Over at PayPal, we've got Jens and Charlie.

Thank you, guys. Over at the tip jar, we've got Bennett, Sean, and Adam. And if you do want to help support the show, and why wouldn't you? It's the holiday season. It is the time of giving. And we really need it. Please go to GOG.show slash donate or go to patreon.com slash GOG.

As little as $3 a month can get you all the shows early, ad-free, and in high definition. And yeah. And if you sign up for the year, you get a discount. But in the $3 is the minimum. But you can give as much as you want. We even have the golden monkey package, which one person actually signed up for.

So we appreciate you very much. And thank you for keeping the show going. Well, no merch, no reviews, no nothing. Happy Thanksgiving. Until next time, I'm Brian Schulmeister. Everybody, enjoy your Black Friday. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks.

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