Hello. I solemnly floated through the eddies of time, but stuff still happened.
So what's up? We live in interesting times where tech companies are doing everything they can
to do the dumbest bullshit possible. Let's start with Microsoft. You're the ones that make windows.
That's an operating system. Microsoft announced a new AI-powered Windows feature called Recall,
which records everything you've ever done on your computer and feeds it into an AI so that you
can be like, hey, what did I type like eight days ago? The thing, you know, I'm always wondering
what I typed eight days ago, and I've never once been able to open up, you know, the history
of my browser and searched, got to have an AI reading everything I do. Obviously, this didn't
go over well. Microsoft is not synonymous with user trust. So they were like, hey guys, we're
rolling out a new feature that's going to record everything you do and feed it into an AI. Pay us
money to which security researchers were like, what the fuck? What? This is my impersonation of a
security researcher hearing about this. What? So security researchers are obviously not into it,
but here's the thing. Neither is anyone else. Also, a group has already put together a tool
to hack and exploit this feature. Already, not even out yet, but you can hack it. Anyway,
they've already backtracked a bit and they're like, hey, okay, you'll have to enable the feature,
and we'll encrypt the database that has the everything in it. That'll fix it. Now will you
pay us money? Before we move on to the other tech company that did a big dumb, Microsoft has another
little thing, just a little treat, a little bonus. So Microsoft is pushing co-pilot. They're
AI branding thing, and they're trying to ship laptops that are branded as like AI laptops,
and it's like co-pilot plus PC or something like that. Get at it. Stop it. I just need to write an
email. Come on, guys. Anyway, Intel and Nvidia have been pushing their new laptop lines that are
capable of all these AI things, and the AI features aren't there. Quite literally, these laptops
don't actually have AI in them. They're being sold as AI laptops. They don't have AI in them.
That will be coming in a future software update eventually, but here's the thing though. Pay us
money. I want that money. I want the dollars. But anyway, business. The other one, Adobe.
They fucked up real bad. So Adobe, they make Photoshop and other creative software. They recently
popped up a new notice about their terms of service that clarifies that quote, they can access your
content through both automated and manual methods such as for content review, as well as you guessed
it, AI. So people got big mad. Like obviously, why are you able to access and consume and possibly
train AI models or review the content of my professional work? Like this is industry standard
software, and now they're like, also, hey, industry, hey, come here, huddle up. We own you. And guess
what? Wouldn't you know it? They've also backtracked, kind of. They put out that classic blog post
that's like, no, y'all are making a big deal out of this. It's not a big deal. Let us clarify.
It's exactly what you thought it was, but shut up. So that fixed it. Let's move over to France.
But not in a car. 1600 cops were deployed to queller protest against the expansion of a
roadway in southern France. According to the protesters, there were about 7,000 people there.
They're protesting the roadway because it would fuck up natural habitats, farmland aquifers,
you know, the usual. And it very much seems like the local authorities just kind of rubber
stamped this project all the way through. Just make it happen. Aquifers? I don't know. I can't see that.
It's probably not important. So the protesters showed up and they did protests as the French do.
So there was fire. Yeah, okay. But the state referred to these people as radical individuals who
performed extremely violent attacks with catapults. More of a trebuchet guy myself. The state went on
to say that these people quote clearly come to cause damage with no link to the issue.
You know, no link to the to the issue that they're protesting at their protest. And further,
while the activists counted their numbers at around 7,000, the state says that there was only 1600
protesters as a reminder of the state deployed 1600 cops. That would be one cop per protester.
If that were true. So which L would you like to take the state of France? There were a few
people injured in the protests, including one cop that was hit by a Molotov. Neutral expression.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Here's my impression of Elon Musk. I want money. Give it.
Apparently, Elon Musk needs about $50 billion to stay motivated. He's still seeking a massive
compensation package of somewhere between like $46 and $56 billion, depending on which way the
wind's blowing. Elon has been trying to get this compensation package from Tesla for years now.
It's already been blocked once in courts for being outlandishly overpriced. Here is a quote
from the original ruling that struck down the attempted payment the first time. This payment
would be quote, the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in the public markets
by multiple orders of magnitude, 250 times larger than the contemporaneous median peer
compensation plan and over 33 times larger than the plan's closest competition,
which was Musk's prior compensation plan. Said in other words, that's a lot of fucking money.
That's more money than anyone's ever been paid for anything. And the second closest payout was
you. And this is 33 times bigger than that. But hey, maybe Elon Musk just wants to be able to order
DoorDash. But we're back and there's now another vote happening for this compensation package.
And the chairperson at Tesla wrote an unhinged letter to investors saying like,
Elon needs this money. Otherwise, he won't be motivated. And we need to make sure that Elon
is motivated. And that costs $50 billion, $50 billion to a man child to tweet like his bloggers.
Now, obviously, Elon is rallying for this. He's pushing back against anybody who
criticizes it. And he referred to shareholders that aren't going to vote for it as
oath breakers, which is weird, but also weird. A bunch of investment firms who are invested in
Tesla are like, hmm, this seems like a bad idea. They must just not know how important it is
to make sure that Elon is motivated. Last week, Israel bombed a school in Gaza,
killing 33 civilians, most of them women and children. After doing this, the Israel military
did the thing they always do. They were like, there was Hamas there, we promise. They took
a photo of the school and they pointed to it and said, see, look, that's where we think Hamas was.
So we bombed it. Evidence? Why do you need that? When asked what they're going to do about the
civilian casualties, they're like, we don't know anything about that. This is obviously egregious.
They bombed a school and killed dozens of civilians that were sheltering there. And so the
US took a very strong response by turning around and passing a bill that would sanction the ICC.
Context, this bill is not going through, but the US House of Representatives has passed with
bipartisan support, a bill that would sanction the ICC for calling for Netanyahu's arrest.
The United States of America is beefing with the International Criminal Court because the
International Criminal Court wants Netanyahu to stop doing a genocide. Again, bipartisan support,
plenty of Democrats voted for this. Again, it's also probably not going anywhere. It's going to
die in the Senate and it would otherwise die at Biden's desk. That doesn't mean the Senate is good.
That doesn't mean Biden is good. This is dumb. This was a bunch of representatives seeing an
opportunity to signal where they lie and where their values are, but they knew this wasn't going to
go anywhere, but they also knew this is going to piss off a lot of people, but they knew, knew, knew
it was basically safe. They can make their investors happy with the vote, not have to deal
with the outcome, and they don't give a shit about the constituents. That's a non-factor.
But beyond that, we are inviting Netanyahu to come speak to a joint session of Congress on July 24th,
because we love inviting international war criminals to come talk to us, share your wisdom,
hell of a TED talk, anyway. Game it. Destiny 2, the final shape is out and no spoilers. I haven't
played the campaign yet. I'm going to do it this week. I've just been busy. Final Fantasy 14's
Dawn Trail expansion is coming out soon. Hype. Something, something, play for free, something,
something award-winning expansions. Quick aside, if you haven't really looked into Final Fantasy 14
and you're looking for like a good MMO to play, it's a really solid option. It's a lot of dialogue,
but it's a solid option. And this update is like a big overhaul update, like a big visual
overhaul and whatnot, modernizing and shit. So it's a good time to get into it. I'm sorry
if this is the catalyst of me breaking your life though. So, Larian Studios will be adding official
modding support to Baldur's Gate 3 later this year. That might seem silly if you've been modding
for a while now, but this is going to be like official built-in support and hopefully have
more possibilities. Summer Games Fest is going on. There's a ton of announcements more than it
makes sense for me to call out here so you can click through to the links in my newsletter and
find all that stuff. Sid Meier, Civilization 7 has been announced and will be released next year.
Can't believe that we've had seven whole civilizations. I only followed the one lightning round.
After passing an executive order that shuts down the border and caps asylum request much like
Trump was doing, Joe Biden is now dealing with the fallout of that. Joe Biden, the Democrat
president who's closing the border and deporting people, is dealing with the fact that we don't
have enough flights to deport everyone. Great. MrBeast is now the most subscribed YouTube channel,
taking over T-Series after a long battle. He's approaching 300 million subscribers.
Can I have like one of those? I'm just joking. I'm glad you're here. You're my favorite.
I genuinely cannot imagine posting to 300 million people. My God. Spotify is raising their prices
again. Deal with it. The Humane AI pin, the one that flopped super, super, super hard,
they're already trying to sell the company and apparently the wireless charging case
catches fire. Instagram is testing ads that will force you to stop scrolling and watch the ad.
Steve Bannon has been ordered to report to prison by July 1st. It's going to be a good month.
Dolly Parton has announced a new Broadway musical. She said you're going to laugh and cry.
Those are the two emotions. Some group in Wyoming is trying to run an AI as mayor.
They think they're really clever. It's just chat GPT. And also that's dumb and also you
can't do that. And finally for today, happy pride. Pat Seijak is finally retiring from Wheel of Fortune.
Would you like to buy a vowel or perhaps a less shitty person to be your game show host?
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to
SKH.News for sources, bonus content, and tips and tricks for keeping Elon Musk motivated.
My name is Endeavorance. I'll be back on Monday. Take care and be well.