Hello.
I beat the water temple without a guide, but stuff still happened.
So what's up?
Sitting US Senator Dianne Feinstein, who once told a group of literal children to sit down and shut up about climate policy, is dead at the age of 90.
This is not particularly surprising to anyone who follows US politics.
She has been in really bad condition and basically receiving public hospice care for quite some time,
all while still being in one of the highest seats of power in the country.
Her political career is long and storied, and while once she was a go-getter who was breaking through the norms,
she then retained power until she was literally 90 and dying in office.
This has put her center stage during an ever-increasing discussion about how old should our politicians be.
She was right there with Mitch McConnell, who is one of the most powerful Republicans in the country,
and has had multiple mini-strokes on live television, so much so that he's become a meme,
all while making decisions that will affect us for the rest of our lives.
Rip.
Because Google cannot help themselves, they are killing off many more products this week.
Yes, this is your biannual reminder that if you're using a Google product, it's probably gonna be gone in a year.
Starting off with Google Podcasts.
They're shitcanning the app because they're rolling it into YouTube,
because YouTube has to do everything media-related that Google does, but just half as well.
Following that is YouTube Premium Lite, which was a Europe-only subscription offering on YouTube
that only gave you the ad removal part of YouTube Premium, but it was cheaper,
and that- I mean, why wasn't that everywhere?
After that is Gmail's Basic HTML View, which is a super lightweight version of Gmail,
great for older computers or just not having a whole bunch of extra cruft.
They haven't updated it recently because it doesn't allow them to do as much snooping on you when you use it,
so why would they?
And they're citing the fact that it's super old and outdated for the reason they're getting rid of it,
rather than updating it.
And lastly on the chopping block, literally just so many things, Google Jamboard is going away.
It was their collaborative whiteboarding app thingy, the app online is going away,
and the physical Jamboard things that you could purchase for enterprise offices,
it's just going to become a paperweight.
So that's cool.
I'm still mad that they got rid of Google Music and Inbox and Reader and the original Hangouts.
There's actually an entire website dedicated to all of the projects that Google has killed,
killedbygoogle.com.
Hey, do you like tacos?
Well, so do bears.
Footage has emerged of a black bear just ruining a picnic by showing up
and eating all the food.
A woman in Mexico and her son were just out having some tacos and enchiladas
when a black bear jumped up onto their picnic table and just went to town
in a display that's not unlike me when I get back from my local taqueria.
Now, while black bears are well known to be kind of scaredy cats,
you still don't want to mess with them.
And this was just a woman out with her son who apparently has Down syndrome,
and she chose to just remain calm, sit still, and tuck her son's head into her chest.
She actually did a really good job and no one was harmed, which is sick,
except for, I mean, the tacos were definitely harmed.
The United States government may shut down as soon as October 1st.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the U.S.
has a razor-thin majority, which means that the far-right flank
basically has a stranglehold on the party.
If the farthest right people are not on board, then they can't really pass anything.
Otherwise, they would have to work with the Democrats,
which would be a death blow to any reelection chances.
So the far-right flank basically is saying,
we are refusing to sign on to any spending bill that would keep the government open,
unless there are massive cuts to spending.
And otherwise, we're just going to tank the country.
If it feels like the U.S. government is shutting down a lot recently,
that's because it has been.
There have been shutdowns in 2013, 2018, and 2019.
All of those cases were Republican-led.
It has never really been a political victory,
and as much as it's nice to think about a government shutdown,
it really just results in all of us getting screwed over.
The only people who really get screwed are the people who are working low-level federal positions
and just trying to, you know, make a living and keep the country moving.
A bunch of important services that people depend on will go away or be threatened,
or their future will be unknown.
It can get pretty messy, literally.
Like, services are services.
We kind of need services.
The Senate has already passed a bipartisan resolution to keep the government open,
so if the House is able to get their shit together in the next 24 hours,
it might be avoided.
But it's not looking particularly likely.
On this day, I would recommend that you don't fly in an aircraft constructed by Lockheed Martin,
because on this day, in both 1959 and 1981,
Lockheed-built aircraft crashed, killing dozens of people.
In 1959, a Lockheed L-188 Electra was described as having been disintegrated in midair,
killing all 34 people on board.
And in 1981, an Iranian Air Force aircraft, also built by Lockheed,
crashed into a firing range, killing 80 people, including several high-ranking military officials.
So you're probably fine.
Like, you're probably not affected by this.
But today is a cursed day for Lockheed aircraft.
Lightning round.
The U.S. soldier who fled to North Korea has been returned to the United States.
It's gonna be a rough one for the guy.
Reddit is removing the option to opt out of targeted ads that use your data.
They called this a positive change.
In the world of first-person shooters, Counter-Strike 2 has released, replacing CSGO.
It's got mixed results so far, but...
Pew pew!
Epic Games has announced that they're laying off 18% of their staff,
and they're also already divesting Bandcamp, selling it to Song Trader,
which is a music licensing company.
Oofa doofa.
And finally for today, just in time, X slash Twitter has cut half of their election integrity staff
and have removed the option to report political misinformation.
Neat.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening.
Head to stuffkeepshappening.online for sources, bonus content,
and a free back massage to help get rid of that crank in your neck.
I'm so sorry.
It's gotta be real painful.
I know how it feels.
My name is Endeavorance.
I'll be back on Monday.
Take care and be well.
Hello, dear podcast listeners.
It's Endeavorance back on a different microphone.
Again, how are you doing?
I'm doing a post-show credits thing.
Thank you so much for listening.
I just wanted to say that Stuff Keeps Happening is so much fun to produce,
and I'm thrilled that y'all are enjoying it in podcast form.
It would help a ton if you're enjoying the show to give it a rating on whatever app you are listening on.
I would very much appreciate it.
Anything at all helps.
And sharing it with your friends as well is extremely, extremely helpful.
I couldn't do this without all of you.
Thank you so much.
I'll see you on Monday.
Again, I still won't see you because this is an audio format,
and also it's an asynchronous format.
There's no sort of direct feedback, and certainly no visual feedback.
But I'm getting off topic.
Take care.
Be well.
Here comes the next podcast on your feed probably.
Okay, bye.