Hello. I did a verb to a random noun, but stuff still happens.
So what's up? You're green.
Dab-a-dee-dab-a-di. That's not the lyrics.
After years of holding out, Apple has finally announced that they will be adding RCS support to iMessage.
But what does that mean?
You know how if you're using iMessage and somebody on Android texts you, it's green bubble bad times?
Well, that's gonna be a little less painful now, because RCS is like a text message, but it allows, like, rich content.
So while texting people on Android from iOS, you'll now get, like, typing indicators and reactions and better media support.
It won't feel so trash.
However, Apple has announced that they will still be green.
They're still gonna single them out, because frankly, it's an extremely good marketing campaign.
Single people out who aren't like you buy our product so you can be cool, he said, holding an iPhone.
Slightly interesting and maybe related, the company Nothing, who makes some like cell phones and earbuds and stuff, they're like hipster device company.
They recently announced Nothing Chats, which was going to work on Android and allow you to message iMessage people.
So they were gonna, they just announced that they were gonna fix the problem themselves.
And how were they going to do that?
Partnering with a company who has a giant server farm of Mac Minis somewhere that log into iCloud on your behalf and perform actions.
So like literally give us your login information and we'll log in for you and like route your messages on your behalf.
That's kind of weird.
So it's not great.
And I hope that Apple's update makes that less of a thing.
Sorry to the people who built that, but no.
Shock and horror and who could have seen this coming.
Elon Musk is an asshole and like continues to show us just how much as Elon has recently tweeted in strong support of a deeply anti-semitic take.
I'm not going to show the original post because it is gross, but he essentially responded to a like anti-semitic great replacement theory type post by saying,
You speak the actual truth.
And then after receiving criticism for the anti-semitism he's fostering, he lashed out at his critics.
He continues to claim that anti-semitism on the platform is being like made up by media organizations that are out to get him while also then posting direct anti-semitism.
It does not take a whole lot of scrolling through his replies to see just how happy he has made literal Nazis.
And so in response, a whole bunch of personalities and companies are pulling out of Twitter.
Finally, I mean, they've been doing that, but there's still a lot of holdouts.
Hell, even IBM has pulled all of their ads from Twitter saying that they quote,
suspended all advertising on X while they investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.
If you weren't aware, IBM collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.
And this is still too much for them.
I know that people like to say that they're on Twitter because of the porn.
I know people like to say they're on Twitter because they have their network there and it's hard to move.
I know if someone came to me and told me you should get off TikTok, I'd be like, no, but you should really get off of Twitter.
It is a sinking ship that is on fire and being piloted by a bunch of hate.
Now, I understand that simultaneously every single social network has major, major issues, but it's just Twitter.
And if you think it's an act of defiance to stay on Twitter, I don't know what to tell you.
It's really not what I can tell you to try to make this a little easier to hear is that if you are on Twitter and you're hesitant to move,
I can tell you that everyone on threads and Macedon and everywhere else that I have seen people moving to have been like, oh my God,
my interactions are much better here.
Like literally everyone's just like, I don't understand.
I have like half the followers I used to have, but I'm getting way more engagement.
What's going on?
The answer is people aren't just fucking mad and hating everything.
Well, they are moving on.
This is a reminder that Democrats suck too.
This is a secondary reminder.
I am not a centrist.
This past Wednesday, there was a peaceful protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza staged out front of the DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Footage of the protest shows protesters locking arms, singing songs, wearing shirts, saying ceasefire now and calling for a ceasefire.
Cops then showed up and attempted to disperse the crowd by beating them,
dragging them, running over them with bikes and pepper spraying them.
The cops showed up and began becoming violent.
And when the crowd was trying to not get hurt by the cops, the cops were then like, oh, the crowd is violent.
Politicians, cops, and the media are joining hands in making this out to be a thing where the protesters were horrible and violent.
The Democrats inside of the DNC headquarters likened this situation to January 6th.
I have read multiple articles that go at length about how six police officers were injured with scrapes and bruises and one of them got pepper sprayed.
Meanwhile, over 90 protesters were injured by the cops, the protesters that have been called violent,
and likened to January 6th by the own representatives that they were trying to plead to, pleading to the representatives to call for peace in Gaza.
Here's a third reminder.
Under the leadership of Democrats, we have lost abortion rights.
They have rolled back queer rights across the country.
They expanded Trump's border wall.
They are funding a genocide in Gaza.
Marriage equality, both interracial and queer marriage, are at risk.
This isn't to say that things wouldn't be worse under Republican leadership,
but this should show you that Democrats are not fighting for the people.
They are fighting for your votes so they can continue to take as much money as possible from lobbyists.
Lobbyists who then decide what they vote for.
We're already in a situation where robots are deciding our fate.
According to a lawsuit filed against United Health, which is the biggest health insurance company in America,
they're using an AI to determine who gets and does not get coverage, and it doesn't work very well.
Well, if you ask them, it probably works great.
The AI that they are using is called NHPredict, and is apparently supposed to look at case files
compared against a big database of, I guess, previous case files,
and then determine whether or not they still get coverage for what they're asking for.
This is most prevalently affecting elderly patients who are in elderly care facilities
and getting help with elderly care things.
While they're supposed to be insured to be able to stay at nursing facilities and receive aid and whatnot,
assisted living, the AI says,
Eh, nah, I don't think so, actually.
The AI is apparently not quite up to snuff in terms of navigating the intense complexity of human health,
and it ignores stuff like comorbidities.
You know, that little thing.
Routinely, doctors are saying that the coverage is just randomly stopping well before it's medically recommended,
and they can't actually get any insight into the decisions being made
because the company just says, oh, the AI information is proprietary.
We can't share it with you.
We can't explain to you why this machine says that you have to go bankrupt for your medical expenses.
But of course, this is deeply unsurprising.
Health insurance companies are for profit,
and their goal is to deny as much coverage as possible while still legally being considered health insurance.
That is the optimization that they're going for, and that is what this AI does,
and this allows them to say, don't blame us, it's the AI.
Making all those tough decisions about how to optimize who does and doesn't get health care
so that we can maximize profits.
Not maximizing the health and well-being of the nation, maximizing profits.
On this day in 1810, Sweden declared war on Great Britain,
sparking a two-year-long war called the Anglo-Swedish War of 1810 to 1812.
That's just math, baby.
The war was extremely bloody and...
Actually, never mind. There was no battles.
It was a bloodless war.
They didn't really do anything about it.
They were just like, ah, we're at war!
And then they forgot, I guess.
English ships remained docked at Swedish ports because they still had to do trade and whatnot,
and no one really did anything about that.
In fact, the only people who died in this quote-unquote war
were farmers who were uprising against conscription efforts from Sweden.
They declared war, did nothing about it, except killing some of their own citizens
because they didn't want to go to war.
Great governing.
Lightning round.
Snoop Dogg has announced that he is giving up smoking,
and he asks for privacy in his life around that decision.
YouTube has launched a feature where you can tell an AI to create a fake song
in the style of a famous singer.
I don't like it.
Online pet store Chewy has laid off 200 employees.
This past Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of Starbucks employees walked off the job
in protest of horrible working conditions, despite massively increased sales.
Derek Chauvin, the murderer who murdered George Floyd,
is once again seeking to have his murder charge overturned.
An artist in Russia did a protest against the ongoing war against Ukraine,
and has now been sentenced to seven years in prison.
In America, life expectancy for men is now six years less than for women.
This is the largest the gap has been since the mid-90s.
The Super Mario RPG remake is out today.
Yahoo!
That was terrible.
And finally for today, after sweeping the awards, including Game of the Year,
Baldur's Gate 3 developers Larian Studios are like super excited about how well their game is doing,
and terrified about trying to uphold that legacy.
They're excited to talk about new games, but they're also like,
ah, that was a big release.
A programming note for you from me.
I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks off from Stuff Keeps Happening.
My plan is to return to this show December 6th.
The reason for that is I have a lot of irons in the fire,
and an upcoming trip to Pax Unplugged in Philadelphia December 1st through 3rd.
I would love to see you there.
I am launching a new podcast alongside the incredible Diana of the Rose,
and that's happening like very, very soon.
So I want to be able to focus on that,
focus on a few other projects that I have going on,
and get ready for Pax without having to also juggle making Stuff Keeps Happening,
and I don't want to compromise quality if I don't have to.
So instead, I'm hitting pause for a few weeks.
I'll be back on the 6th, and I hope to see you then.
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 dental care.
My name is Endeavorance.
This show will be back on December 6th, but I will not be gone.
Head to endeavorance.camp to find all of the stuff that I am doing.
But regardless, I will see you on the 6th, take care, and be well.