1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,533 Hello. 2 00:00:00,533 --> 00:00:03,203 I ate a spectacular BLT, 3 00:00:04,371 --> 00:00:06,606 but Stuff still Happened. 4 00:00:06,606 --> 00:00:07,574 So what's up? 5 00:00:07,574 --> 00:00:09,743 Dear listener, I had every intention 6 00:00:09,743 --> 00:00:12,379 of making today's main story be something uplifting. 7 00:00:12,379 --> 00:00:14,581 In fact, I posted as much on Blue Sky 8 00:00:14,581 --> 00:00:16,182 and all my other socials, 9 00:00:16,182 --> 00:00:18,685 and then an hour later I checked the news. 10 00:00:18,685 --> 00:00:19,119 Eughh 11 00:00:19,119 --> 00:00:21,254 That, it was my hubris, 12 00:00:21,254 --> 00:00:23,590 thinking I could do something fun. 13 00:00:23,590 --> 00:00:26,025 Now, I've got some good stuff later on, 14 00:00:26,025 --> 00:00:27,927 but this first story is gonna be heavy. 15 00:00:27,927 --> 00:00:30,263 It is talking about the ongoing genocide 16 00:00:30,263 --> 00:00:31,731 against the people of Gaza. 17 00:00:31,731 --> 00:00:33,299 I'll put timestamps in the description. 18 00:00:33,299 --> 00:00:34,000 If you're not in a place 19 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,535 to have this conversation right now, 20 00:00:35,535 --> 00:00:37,303 you can always skip and come back to it later, 21 00:00:37,303 --> 00:00:39,239 but that's the first topic. 22 00:00:39,239 --> 00:00:39,639 Here we go. 23 00:00:39,639 --> 00:00:42,142 This past week, Israel bombarded Gaza 24 00:00:42,142 --> 00:00:45,211 with missile attacks and ground troop invasions, 25 00:00:45,211 --> 00:00:47,480 completely just ending the ceasefire out of nowhere. 26 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:50,417 There was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 27 00:00:50,417 --> 00:00:52,285 It was supposed to be there for several months 28 00:00:52,285 --> 00:00:53,887 while they exchanged hostages, 29 00:00:53,887 --> 00:00:56,089 and they did exchange some hostages, 30 00:00:56,089 --> 00:00:57,490 and then Israel said, "Fuck it." 31 00:00:57,490 --> 00:00:58,825 During the brief ceasefire, 32 00:00:58,825 --> 00:01:01,027 Hamas returned a few dozen of their hostages, 33 00:01:01,027 --> 00:01:03,363 But Hamas wasn't returning the hostages fast enough, 34 00:01:03,363 --> 00:01:05,565 and so Israel decided that the next course of action 35 00:01:05,565 --> 00:01:08,101 is to directly put those hostages' lives at risk 36 00:01:08,101 --> 00:01:09,636 by bombarding Gaza. 37 00:01:09,636 --> 00:01:12,038 The first surprise bombardment out of the ceasefire 38 00:01:12,038 --> 00:01:14,607 killed at least 400 people in Gaza, 39 00:01:14,607 --> 00:01:16,609 including random men, women, and children 40 00:01:16,609 --> 00:01:18,011 who have nothing to do with anything 41 00:01:18,011 --> 00:01:19,279 and are just trying to survive. 42 00:01:19,279 --> 00:01:20,580 They've been targeting hospitals, 43 00:01:20,580 --> 00:01:21,948 places of worship, and schools, 44 00:01:21,948 --> 00:01:23,750 as they've been doing this whole time, 45 00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:25,485 and they've most recently destroyed 46 00:01:25,485 --> 00:01:27,654 the only cancer hospital in Gaza. 47 00:01:27,654 --> 00:01:29,088 I've spent more than the past year 48 00:01:29,088 --> 00:01:31,124 covering Israel's actions against Gaza 49 00:01:31,124 --> 00:01:34,060 in the wake of the Hamas attack against Israel. 50 00:01:34,060 --> 00:01:35,595 Yeah, Hamas did some bad shit. 51 00:01:36,463 --> 00:01:39,466 Israel then caused a man-made famine 52 00:01:39,466 --> 00:01:42,769 and killed likely hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. 53 00:01:42,769 --> 00:01:46,206 The conservative official death toll is 50,000. 54 00:01:46,206 --> 00:01:48,541 It passed that recently, but there are estimations 55 00:01:48,541 --> 00:01:51,377 that the secondary-degree effects of Israel's actions 56 00:01:51,377 --> 00:01:52,645 puts the actual death toll 57 00:01:52,645 --> 00:01:55,348 in the hundreds of thousands of souls. 58 00:01:55,348 --> 00:01:58,551 Citizens of Israel are protesting Netanyahu's actions 59 00:01:58,551 --> 00:02:00,653 en masse for all sorts of reasons. 60 00:02:00,653 --> 00:02:03,756 The man is already facing corruption charges in court. 61 00:02:03,756 --> 00:02:05,391 He is the prime minister of Israel, 62 00:02:05,391 --> 00:02:08,661 and he's using his power to undermine the judicial system 63 00:02:08,661 --> 00:02:10,997 that could potentially hold him accountable. 64 00:02:10,997 --> 00:02:11,898 Sound familiar? 65 00:02:11,898 --> 00:02:14,434 In addition to protesting a corrupt politician, 66 00:02:14,434 --> 00:02:16,236 they're also protesting his escalation 67 00:02:16,236 --> 00:02:17,904 of the attacks on Gaza, 68 00:02:17,904 --> 00:02:19,672 and also the escalation of his rhetoric 69 00:02:19,672 --> 00:02:22,008 into essentially total annihilation. 70 00:02:22,008 --> 00:02:23,676 Empowered by the Trump administration, 71 00:02:23,676 --> 00:02:26,613 they are talking much more about eradicating Gaza. 72 00:02:26,613 --> 00:02:28,848 At the same time that Israel is bombing Gaza 73 00:02:28,848 --> 00:02:31,284 and killing children by the hundreds, 74 00:02:31,284 --> 00:02:33,086 they are also expanding their settlements 75 00:02:33,086 --> 00:02:34,654 in the occupied West Bank. 76 00:02:34,654 --> 00:02:37,957 Israel has settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, 77 00:02:37,957 --> 00:02:40,093 and they essentially sign off on papers saying, 78 00:02:40,093 --> 00:02:42,795 "Yeah, Israeli citizens are now allowed to go in 79 00:02:42,795 --> 00:02:45,164 "and just take the homes of Palestinians." 80 00:02:45,164 --> 00:02:47,267 This isn't empty land where they're just going in 81 00:02:47,267 --> 00:02:49,502 and building a wonderful new place to live. 82 00:02:49,502 --> 00:02:51,538 No, they're going in and quite literally 83 00:02:51,538 --> 00:02:54,040 kicking people out of their existing homes. 84 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:56,209 Israeli citizens are protesting this. 85 00:02:56,209 --> 00:02:58,344 People across the world are protesting this, 86 00:02:58,344 --> 00:03:01,181 and most importantly, Jews are protesting this. 87 00:03:01,181 --> 00:03:04,951 I wanna talk about Zionism and how it's not Judaism. 88 00:03:04,951 --> 00:03:06,352 The two are not the same. 89 00:03:06,352 --> 00:03:09,589 In fact, the majority of Zionists are not Jewish. 90 00:03:09,589 --> 00:03:11,124 They're evangelical Christians. 91 00:03:11,124 --> 00:03:13,393 Zionism is a political ideology 92 00:03:13,393 --> 00:03:15,228 that first was shut out into the world 93 00:03:15,228 --> 00:03:18,198 between the late 1800s and early 1900s. 94 00:03:18,198 --> 00:03:21,067 It is predicated on an actual Jewish belief 95 00:03:21,067 --> 00:03:23,036 about the return to the homeland. 96 00:03:23,036 --> 00:03:25,171 There is a belief that there is going to be 97 00:03:25,171 --> 00:03:27,373 a divine intervention or a miracle 98 00:03:27,373 --> 00:03:29,742 that essentially allows Jews to return 99 00:03:29,742 --> 00:03:31,344 to what we call Palestine. 100 00:03:31,344 --> 00:03:32,912 Zionism is essentially the belief 101 00:03:32,912 --> 00:03:34,881 that we should use military action 102 00:03:34,881 --> 00:03:37,984 to force this to happen rather than the miracle. 103 00:03:37,984 --> 00:03:39,185 Or rather they're like, nah, 104 00:03:39,185 --> 00:03:40,753 we're gonna make a miracle happen 105 00:03:40,753 --> 00:03:43,256 by ethnically cleansing the people who currently live there. 106 00:03:43,256 --> 00:03:46,125 But why are evangelical Christians supporting this? 107 00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:49,095 Unfortunately, the answer is a death cult. 108 00:03:49,095 --> 00:03:50,530 The reestablishment of Israel 109 00:03:50,530 --> 00:03:52,131 and the return of Jews to their homeland 110 00:03:52,131 --> 00:03:56,135 is a step in a prophecy towards the second coming of Christ 111 00:03:56,135 --> 00:03:57,937 that evangelical Christians subscribe to. 112 00:03:57,937 --> 00:03:59,706 The second coming of Christ being, of course, 113 00:03:59,706 --> 00:04:01,774 the herald of the apocalypse, the rapture. 114 00:04:01,774 --> 00:04:03,910 They are quite literally trying to muster up 115 00:04:03,910 --> 00:04:06,713 political and military force to establish Israel 116 00:04:06,713 --> 00:04:11,050 as a step towards a prophecy that ends with all of us dying. 117 00:04:11,050 --> 00:04:12,852 I wish I was making this up. 118 00:04:12,852 --> 00:04:15,989 Unfortunately, there's a lot of reading you can do about it. 119 00:04:15,989 --> 00:04:18,024 I've linked to it in today's newsletter. 120 00:04:18,024 --> 00:04:19,359 It's really fucked up. 121 00:04:19,359 --> 00:04:21,527 But I just want to make it abundantly, 122 00:04:21,527 --> 00:04:24,063 extraordinarily, extremely clear 123 00:04:24,063 --> 00:04:26,466 that to be against the state of Israel 124 00:04:26,466 --> 00:04:28,268 is not to be anti-Semitic. 125 00:04:28,268 --> 00:04:29,502 I am not a religious person, 126 00:04:29,502 --> 00:04:31,104 but I do have religious family, 127 00:04:31,104 --> 00:04:33,172 and I am looking forward to spending time 128 00:04:33,172 --> 00:04:36,576 with my Jewish family having a Seder for Passover next month. 129 00:04:36,576 --> 00:04:38,878 I have nothing but respect for Jewish culture, 130 00:04:38,878 --> 00:04:40,513 Jewish traditions, and the Jewish faith. 131 00:04:40,513 --> 00:04:41,714 That's not Zionism. 132 00:04:41,714 --> 00:04:44,617 It's why we've seen so many Jews and Jewish faith leaders 133 00:04:44,617 --> 00:04:46,653 at anti-Israel protests, 134 00:04:46,653 --> 00:04:49,022 because it doesn't stand for them, and it's insulting. 135 00:04:49,022 --> 00:04:51,424 This is a geopolitical militaristic plan 136 00:04:51,424 --> 00:04:54,360 that is leveraging their faith 137 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,362 as a shield against criticism. 138 00:04:56,362 --> 00:04:58,665 Unfortunately, there's not a lot that we can do 139 00:04:58,665 --> 00:05:01,868 as individual people to help this situation, 140 00:05:01,868 --> 00:05:05,271 but you can talk to the people in your life and inform them. 141 00:05:05,271 --> 00:05:07,340 Let them know what's going on. 142 00:05:07,340 --> 00:05:08,374 Tell them about this. 143 00:05:08,374 --> 00:05:11,277 While people are unable to afford food here at home, 144 00:05:11,277 --> 00:05:14,080 we are sending billions of dollars of military aid 145 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,750 to help a country that is not us protect themselves, 146 00:05:17,750 --> 00:05:20,887 quote unquote, from the people who already lived there. 147 00:05:20,887 --> 00:05:23,923 Weird how the people who were living there 148 00:05:23,923 --> 00:05:27,060 aren't super thrilled about a bunch of foreigners coming in 149 00:05:27,060 --> 00:05:28,328 and colonizing their land. 150 00:05:28,328 --> 00:05:31,097 I feel like there's a story in, I don't know, 151 00:05:31,097 --> 00:05:34,167 maybe this country's history that could like inform us 152 00:05:34,167 --> 00:05:35,935 as to how much of an atrocity this is, 153 00:05:35,935 --> 00:05:38,404 but I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that. 154 00:05:38,404 --> 00:05:39,672 Moving on to policy. 155 00:05:39,672 --> 00:05:42,775 I guess this is policy, but really it's just kind of a treat 156 00:05:42,775 --> 00:05:44,143 just to kind of lighten the mood a bit. 157 00:05:44,143 --> 00:05:48,514 The original creator of the Pirates Booty brand of snacks, 158 00:05:48,514 --> 00:05:51,050 the like puffed cheese corn things, 159 00:05:51,050 --> 00:05:52,885 has lost his damn mind. 160 00:05:52,885 --> 00:05:54,187 Robert Ehrlich. 161 00:05:54,187 --> 00:05:57,957 He lives in a small town on Long Island called Seacliff, 162 00:05:57,957 --> 00:06:00,927 where he recently declared himself to be the mayor. 163 00:06:00,927 --> 00:06:02,795 They recently had a mayoral election. 164 00:06:02,795 --> 00:06:05,998 The incumbent mayor was running unopposed for a third term, 165 00:06:05,998 --> 00:06:07,467 and a week before the election, 166 00:06:07,467 --> 00:06:11,370 he walked into the town center and said, "I'm the mayor. 167 00:06:11,370 --> 00:06:14,073 "Give me their office, and all of you are fired." 168 00:06:14,073 --> 00:06:16,042 To which the municipal employees were like... 169 00:06:17,276 --> 00:06:17,977 "What?" 170 00:06:17,977 --> 00:06:19,645 They said that they've never seen this guy 171 00:06:19,645 --> 00:06:21,881 in any sort of civics context before, 172 00:06:21,881 --> 00:06:24,450 and they were like, "What, are y'all right there, guy? 173 00:06:24,450 --> 00:06:25,284 "You need help?" 174 00:06:25,284 --> 00:06:27,487 So this dude has a coffee shop 175 00:06:27,487 --> 00:06:30,656 where he's been collecting votes. 176 00:06:30,656 --> 00:06:32,825 I'm doing massive air quotes right now. 177 00:06:32,825 --> 00:06:34,961 He spent the past like four years 178 00:06:34,961 --> 00:06:38,064 basically telling people to vote for him, 179 00:06:38,064 --> 00:06:41,334 and then he would just like collect their quote unquote vote, 180 00:06:41,334 --> 00:06:44,570 and then he claimed that those were valid in this election. 181 00:06:44,570 --> 00:06:46,606 But in reality, after the election happened, 182 00:06:46,606 --> 00:06:50,243 he lost 1,064 votes to 62. 183 00:06:50,243 --> 00:06:51,277 But he doesn't believe that. 184 00:06:51,277 --> 00:06:53,679 He says it was rigged, he says it doesn't count, 185 00:06:53,679 --> 00:06:57,083 and he says that back in 1268, 186 00:06:57,083 --> 00:07:00,887 the Vatican took three years to choose a pope, 187 00:07:00,887 --> 00:07:02,789 which is why he's allowed to use the votes 188 00:07:02,789 --> 00:07:05,925 that he collected over four years to become mayor. 189 00:07:05,925 --> 00:07:07,460 He claims that he now holds the record 190 00:07:07,460 --> 00:07:09,862 for the longest election, beating out that pope. 191 00:07:09,862 --> 00:07:11,564 Get fuckin' bent, Pope! 192 00:07:11,564 --> 00:07:13,366 When asked by reporters if he's going to run 193 00:07:13,366 --> 00:07:15,868 in two years to try to actually become the mayor, 194 00:07:15,868 --> 00:07:17,437 his response was, "I am the mayor. 195 00:07:18,371 --> 00:07:20,473 "Why would I have to run if I'm already the mayor?" 196 00:07:20,473 --> 00:07:22,508 So that's fun. 197 00:07:22,508 --> 00:07:24,710 Several European countries and Canada 198 00:07:24,710 --> 00:07:28,281 have issued travel advisories against the United States, 199 00:07:28,281 --> 00:07:30,249 given how dangerous it is to try to come here 200 00:07:30,249 --> 00:07:33,386 as anyone who's not a US citizen right now. 201 00:07:33,386 --> 00:07:36,155 Denmark, Canada, Finland, Germany, and the UK 202 00:07:36,155 --> 00:07:37,557 have all issued advisories 203 00:07:37,557 --> 00:07:40,460 and updated their travel information for going to the US, 204 00:07:40,460 --> 00:07:42,962 basically saying, "Comply, because otherwise, 205 00:07:42,962 --> 00:07:44,931 "they're going to detain and torture you." 206 00:07:44,931 --> 00:07:49,101 A Welsh tourist was recently detained by ICE for 19 days, 207 00:07:49,101 --> 00:07:50,503 held in a detention facility 208 00:07:50,503 --> 00:07:53,873 with 24-7 fluorescent lighting because of nothing. 209 00:07:53,873 --> 00:07:56,576 She was transported in chains and handcuffs. 210 00:07:56,576 --> 00:08:00,446 The crime that she committed, being here as a visitor. 211 00:08:00,446 --> 00:08:02,548 She was here on a tourist visa, 212 00:08:02,548 --> 00:08:03,983 and she was staying with people 213 00:08:03,983 --> 00:08:07,119 in exchange for helping them out around the house. 214 00:08:07,119 --> 00:08:10,056 And ICE somehow took that as unlawful employment 215 00:08:10,056 --> 00:08:10,890 and detained her. 216 00:08:10,890 --> 00:08:14,026 She's literally an artist just visiting America, 217 00:08:14,026 --> 00:08:15,795 staying with some people, helping them out 218 00:08:15,795 --> 00:08:18,464 around the house so that she can crash in a bed. 219 00:08:18,464 --> 00:08:20,766 And they detained her for 19 days and deported her. 220 00:08:20,766 --> 00:08:24,136 She's back home with her dog, whose name is Bojangles. 221 00:08:25,938 --> 00:08:27,807 This, of course, comes right after last week, 222 00:08:27,807 --> 00:08:29,442 where I talked about a German national 223 00:08:29,442 --> 00:08:33,079 that was detained by ICE despite having a US green card, 224 00:08:33,079 --> 00:08:34,614 and he was essentially brutalized, 225 00:08:34,614 --> 00:08:37,817 borderline tortured by ICE agents at Boston Logan Airport. 226 00:08:37,817 --> 00:08:39,719 Meanwhile, the Trump administration has enacted 227 00:08:39,719 --> 00:08:43,422 a 1700s wartime law that gives him the authority 228 00:08:43,422 --> 00:08:46,325 to essentially just deport people who are brown. 229 00:08:46,325 --> 00:08:48,194 It's called the Alien Enemies Act, 230 00:08:48,194 --> 00:08:50,496 and he basically said that we are at war 231 00:08:50,496 --> 00:08:52,365 with a South American gang, 232 00:08:52,365 --> 00:08:54,233 and so he's identifying random people 233 00:08:54,233 --> 00:08:55,835 that he claims are associated with that gang 234 00:08:55,835 --> 00:08:58,104 without proof and deporting them 235 00:08:58,104 --> 00:09:00,539 to a foreign prison in El Salvador 236 00:09:00,539 --> 00:09:01,841 that was explicitly built 237 00:09:01,841 --> 00:09:03,676 to effectively torture its inmates. 238 00:09:03,676 --> 00:09:05,912 We do not know who the administration has sent 239 00:09:05,912 --> 00:09:07,680 in total to this prison. 240 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:08,814 There's not information, 241 00:09:08,814 --> 00:09:11,217 and they are stonewalling judges who are demanding it. 242 00:09:11,217 --> 00:09:13,352 They were supposed to have turned the plane around, 243 00:09:13,352 --> 00:09:15,821 made air when a judge caught wind that this was happening, 244 00:09:15,821 --> 00:09:16,722 but they didn't. 245 00:09:16,722 --> 00:09:19,525 There also may be a professional soccer player there, 246 00:09:19,525 --> 00:09:22,962 and ICE mistook his tattoo celebrating his favorite 247 00:09:22,962 --> 00:09:25,131 soccer team as a gang tattoo. 248 00:09:25,131 --> 00:09:26,098 Because racism, 249 00:09:26,098 --> 00:09:28,768 I'm gonna be super, super clear about this, 250 00:09:28,768 --> 00:09:32,438 that these people have not had charges brought against them 251 00:09:32,438 --> 00:09:33,940 and had no due process, 252 00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:36,142 and we don't even know the roster of people 253 00:09:36,142 --> 00:09:36,876 that were deported. 254 00:09:36,876 --> 00:09:38,644 It very well could be that there are 255 00:09:38,644 --> 00:09:42,348 full legal US citizens among them. 256 00:09:42,348 --> 00:09:43,516 We straight up don't know. 257 00:09:43,516 --> 00:09:46,452 And so yeah, it's not really a good idea 258 00:09:46,452 --> 00:09:48,621 to come to the US right now. 259 00:09:48,621 --> 00:09:53,759 Sorry, tourism industry and trade and general stability. 260 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:56,729 Promo, this is the self promo section. 261 00:09:56,729 --> 00:09:59,932 I have a Patreon and a merch store 262 00:09:59,932 --> 00:10:03,069 and a website and a Discord community. 263 00:10:03,069 --> 00:10:04,403 End of promo. 264 00:10:04,403 --> 00:10:05,304 Technology. 265 00:10:05,304 --> 00:10:06,872 I'm gonna brutalize this. 266 00:10:06,872 --> 00:10:10,710 Arve Hjalmar Holmen is a resident of Norway, 267 00:10:10,710 --> 00:10:14,280 and he asked ChatGPT, "Hey, what do you think about me?" 268 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:15,948 He prompted ChatGPT asking, 269 00:10:15,948 --> 00:10:18,317 "Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?" 270 00:10:18,317 --> 00:10:20,553 To which it responded, quote, 271 00:10:20,553 --> 00:10:24,223 "He was the father of two young boys, aged seven and 10, 272 00:10:24,223 --> 00:10:27,326 who were tragically found dead in a pond near their home." 273 00:10:27,326 --> 00:10:27,793 Oh. 274 00:10:27,793 --> 00:10:29,028 So this man was a little shocked 275 00:10:29,028 --> 00:10:30,563 because he does have two kids, 276 00:10:30,563 --> 00:10:33,733 and they are about that age, and they also are alive. 277 00:10:33,733 --> 00:10:35,568 And so he's filed a complaint with OpenAI, 278 00:10:35,568 --> 00:10:37,269 who was like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, 279 00:10:37,269 --> 00:10:39,205 we've upgraded our systems, don't worry about it." 280 00:10:39,205 --> 00:10:43,042 It's unclear exactly where the bug in the system was 281 00:10:43,042 --> 00:10:45,444 that accused the user of double homicide 282 00:10:45,444 --> 00:10:48,280 against their own family, but you know, it happened. 283 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:49,415 Hopefully they patched that out. 284 00:10:49,415 --> 00:10:54,053 Meanwhile, over in the UK, the United Kaaaangdom, 285 00:10:54,053 --> 00:10:56,555 a human rights activist named Tanya O'Carroll 286 00:10:56,555 --> 00:11:00,126 has sued META and, well, won a settlement. 287 00:11:00,126 --> 00:11:03,062 Back in 2022, she sued META over use 288 00:11:03,062 --> 00:11:06,565 of her personal information to sell targeted ads against her, 289 00:11:06,565 --> 00:11:09,335 META being the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 290 00:11:09,335 --> 00:11:12,171 Now, the UK is a country that has a lot of problems, 291 00:11:12,171 --> 00:11:15,541 but they also have some kind of privacy laws, 292 00:11:15,541 --> 00:11:16,742 unlike the United States. 293 00:11:16,742 --> 00:11:19,578 And she basically argued that they were not respecting 294 00:11:19,578 --> 00:11:21,947 her right to privacy, and they were using her data 295 00:11:21,947 --> 00:11:24,283 against her wishes to target ads to her. 296 00:11:24,283 --> 00:11:27,286 And so Facebook came to the table and said, "Okay, fine. 297 00:11:27,286 --> 00:11:29,188 We'll stop doing that for you specifically. 298 00:11:29,188 --> 00:11:31,090 What a resolution." 299 00:11:31,090 --> 00:11:35,261 But regulatory agencies in the UK are taking another look 300 00:11:35,261 --> 00:11:38,497 because this does set precedent, and hey, 301 00:11:38,497 --> 00:11:40,299 maybe Facebook shouldn't be able to do that. 302 00:11:40,299 --> 00:11:44,870 Facebook makes 98% of their revenue off of selling ads 303 00:11:44,870 --> 00:11:47,907 based on data they've collected about you and sold. 304 00:11:47,907 --> 00:11:50,276 They've done a very good job over the past 20 years 305 00:11:50,276 --> 00:11:52,244 of convincing the entire general public 306 00:11:52,244 --> 00:11:53,846 to not care about their data 307 00:11:53,846 --> 00:11:56,449 and put no value on it whatsoever, 308 00:11:56,449 --> 00:11:57,983 so that they can make billions 309 00:11:57,983 --> 00:12:00,886 and fund Mark Zuckerberg's weird midlife crisis. 310 00:12:00,886 --> 00:12:03,355 A few years back, Apple made a tweak to iOS 311 00:12:03,355 --> 00:12:04,724 that changed the way that apps 312 00:12:04,724 --> 00:12:06,559 are able to actually track people. 313 00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:09,662 They had to request specific access to track you, 314 00:12:09,662 --> 00:12:11,163 and you could just say, "No." 315 00:12:11,163 --> 00:12:14,333 This was so catastrophic to Facebook's business model 316 00:12:14,333 --> 00:12:17,503 that they took out multiple full page ads in newspapers 317 00:12:17,503 --> 00:12:19,638 and launched a whole campaign against it. 318 00:12:19,638 --> 00:12:22,575 They were essentially saying, "If we can't use data 319 00:12:22,575 --> 00:12:25,244 that people don't even know we're collecting about them, 320 00:12:25,244 --> 00:12:26,912 we're gonna not have a business," 321 00:12:26,912 --> 00:12:27,980 to which I would say, 322 00:12:29,181 --> 00:12:29,949 "Okay." 323 00:12:29,949 --> 00:12:31,217 Oh, speaking of data, 324 00:12:31,217 --> 00:12:33,519 there's an AI company called Clearview AI 325 00:12:33,519 --> 00:12:36,021 that has been making waves and headlines for a while 326 00:12:36,021 --> 00:12:39,024 because what they're doing is scraping public data 327 00:12:39,024 --> 00:12:41,393 and trying to create a massive searchable database 328 00:12:42,194 --> 00:12:42,895 of everyone. 329 00:12:42,895 --> 00:12:44,096 You know when you watch a movie 330 00:12:44,096 --> 00:12:45,898 and there's the spy agency or whatever 331 00:12:45,898 --> 00:12:47,566 and there's the big screen 332 00:12:47,566 --> 00:12:49,769 and they've got some footage, they zoom in, 333 00:12:49,769 --> 00:12:50,736 they get the perps face 334 00:12:50,736 --> 00:12:52,638 and they're like, "Run facial recognition." 335 00:12:52,638 --> 00:12:54,006 Then another box pops up 336 00:12:54,006 --> 00:12:56,142 and it scans through a whole bunch of faces 337 00:12:56,142 --> 00:12:58,043 until one of them is like, "Match found!" 338 00:12:58,043 --> 00:12:59,044 They're trying to build that. 339 00:12:59,044 --> 00:13:01,147 And they have actually built that. 340 00:13:01,147 --> 00:13:02,681 They've basically just scraped as much information 341 00:13:02,681 --> 00:13:05,417 as they can from the internet, from social media, 342 00:13:05,417 --> 00:13:07,286 and creating profiles on everyone 343 00:13:07,286 --> 00:13:09,955 so that they can do an image search for your face 344 00:13:09,955 --> 00:13:10,990 from security footage. 345 00:13:10,990 --> 00:13:13,225 But recently, 404 Media, shout out, 346 00:13:13,225 --> 00:13:14,860 they're doing amazing work right now. 347 00:13:14,860 --> 00:13:17,196 But 404 Media recently broke that Clearview 348 00:13:17,196 --> 00:13:19,198 was trying to purchase hundreds of millions 349 00:13:19,198 --> 00:13:21,867 of arrest records, including mug shots, 350 00:13:21,867 --> 00:13:24,036 social security numbers, cell phone numbers, 351 00:13:24,036 --> 00:13:25,538 home addresses, and more. 352 00:13:25,538 --> 00:13:27,673 They tried to strike a deal with an organization 353 00:13:27,673 --> 00:13:30,376 that has a big database of crime records 354 00:13:30,376 --> 00:13:31,677 for attorneys to use. 355 00:13:31,677 --> 00:13:32,945 They can use it to make a case 356 00:13:32,945 --> 00:13:35,981 and reference former cases and whatnot. 357 00:13:35,981 --> 00:13:37,449 But Clearview was like, "I want that." 358 00:13:37,449 --> 00:13:39,618 Clearview and the other company that had this data, 359 00:13:39,618 --> 00:13:43,255 they entered a contract and that fell apart 360 00:13:43,255 --> 00:13:44,523 and now they hate each other. 361 00:13:44,523 --> 00:13:45,991 Clearview paid them a million dollars, 362 00:13:45,991 --> 00:13:48,594 which is fucking nothing for that much data, 363 00:13:48,594 --> 00:13:50,429 and that money has not been returned 364 00:13:50,429 --> 00:13:52,431 because of a cited breach of contract. 365 00:13:52,431 --> 00:13:54,466 But Clearview also says that the other people 366 00:13:54,466 --> 00:13:56,502 breached contract and now it's going to courts 367 00:13:56,502 --> 00:13:58,137 and hopefully they eat each other alive. 368 00:13:58,137 --> 00:14:00,039 Clearview exists to sell their products 369 00:14:00,039 --> 00:14:02,841 to law enforcement and investigative agencies. 370 00:14:02,841 --> 00:14:03,309 So... 371 00:14:04,710 --> 00:14:05,077 yike. 372 00:14:05,077 --> 00:14:06,478 Let's talk about science. 373 00:14:06,478 --> 00:14:07,379 Science stuff. 374 00:14:07,379 --> 00:14:09,448 This is fucking crazy. 375 00:14:09,448 --> 00:14:10,382 This is, okay, here we go. 376 00:14:10,382 --> 00:14:12,818 This is one of the best things I think I've gotten 377 00:14:12,818 --> 00:14:14,854 a chance to talk about in quite some time. 378 00:14:14,854 --> 00:14:17,523 It didn't really happen super recently, but last month. 379 00:14:17,523 --> 00:14:19,658 A research team at Purdue University 380 00:14:19,658 --> 00:14:23,062 released a new open source computer model called NuFold 381 00:14:23,062 --> 00:14:25,464 that is essentially going to enhance our understanding 382 00:14:25,464 --> 00:14:27,566 of RNA research by decades. 383 00:14:27,566 --> 00:14:29,501 Let's take a step back. 384 00:14:29,501 --> 00:14:33,739 RNA, it's the younger brother to DNA, 385 00:14:33,739 --> 00:14:35,808 the spindly little dudes that make us exist. 386 00:14:35,808 --> 00:14:40,346 RNA is something we don't have a super good grasp on. 387 00:14:40,346 --> 00:14:43,983 We get it, but we don't have the best handle on it. 388 00:14:43,983 --> 00:14:46,919 But it's also the key to a lot of medical advancements 389 00:14:46,919 --> 00:14:48,921 that we're hoping to have soon. 390 00:14:48,921 --> 00:14:52,057 There are treatments and vaccinations and therapies 391 00:14:52,057 --> 00:14:54,760 that can be done if we get a stronger understanding 392 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:56,362 of the structure of RNA. 393 00:14:56,362 --> 00:14:58,097 Like specific RNA structures. 394 00:14:58,097 --> 00:15:00,499 But the problem is it's very difficult right now 395 00:15:00,499 --> 00:15:03,636 to just figure that out aside from trial 396 00:15:03,636 --> 00:15:04,870 and error experimentation. 397 00:15:04,870 --> 00:15:07,039 But this research group has created a computer model 398 00:15:07,039 --> 00:15:10,409 that can essentially aid in the prediction 399 00:15:10,409 --> 00:15:12,311 of what an RNA structure would look like 400 00:15:12,311 --> 00:15:13,712 at the atomic level. 401 00:15:13,712 --> 00:15:14,580 Now I'm not gonna pretend 402 00:15:14,580 --> 00:15:17,116 that I actually understand all of this, 403 00:15:17,116 --> 00:15:19,184 but largely it summarizes to this. 404 00:15:19,184 --> 00:15:22,388 Medical research has a need to be able to visualize 405 00:15:22,388 --> 00:15:26,725 and sequence proteins and other components of being a person. 406 00:15:26,725 --> 00:15:28,460 And the better we can do that, 407 00:15:28,460 --> 00:15:31,130 the faster we can iterate on treatments and medication. 408 00:15:31,130 --> 00:15:34,233 And this is a huge step in that direction. 409 00:15:34,233 --> 00:15:36,268 Anyway, you don't wanna be an alpha male, 410 00:15:36,268 --> 00:15:38,737 but you definitely don't wanna be an alpha gal. 411 00:15:38,737 --> 00:15:41,974 Alpha gal syndrome or AGS is a thing that you can contract 412 00:15:41,974 --> 00:15:44,343 after being bit by a certain type of tick, 413 00:15:44,343 --> 00:15:46,545 which can give you an allergy to red meat, 414 00:15:46,545 --> 00:15:49,281 like full on anaphylactic shock allergy. 415 00:15:49,281 --> 00:15:51,951 Ticks are tiny little blood sucking insects 416 00:15:51,951 --> 00:15:53,285 and they're not great. 417 00:15:53,285 --> 00:15:55,321 In fact, they suck a lot. 418 00:15:55,321 --> 00:15:56,722 They cause a lot of diseases. 419 00:15:57,656 --> 00:16:00,426 Anaphylactic shock red meat disease. 420 00:16:00,426 --> 00:16:03,495 But specifically AGS was associated with lone star ticks 421 00:16:03,495 --> 00:16:05,364 as opposed to holding like a deer tick, 422 00:16:05,364 --> 00:16:07,533 which is more commonly associated with Lyme disease. 423 00:16:07,533 --> 00:16:09,034 This is different from that, 424 00:16:09,034 --> 00:16:12,171 except recent cases suggest that there might be 425 00:16:12,171 --> 00:16:15,808 other types of ticks that are able to give somebody AGS. 426 00:16:15,808 --> 00:16:18,010 There have been cases reported up and down the East Coast 427 00:16:18,010 --> 00:16:19,945 of the United States and into the Midwest 428 00:16:19,945 --> 00:16:23,182 in regions where the lone star tick is not usually found. 429 00:16:23,182 --> 00:16:24,783 So there's more research going into this, 430 00:16:24,783 --> 00:16:26,585 but I wanna be very clear, don't freak out. 431 00:16:26,585 --> 00:16:29,455 This isn't new and this isn't escalating at a rate 432 00:16:29,455 --> 00:16:33,192 that merits you to freak out and never go outside again. 433 00:16:33,192 --> 00:16:36,195 But in general, if you go out into the deep woods 434 00:16:36,195 --> 00:16:37,696 or you're walking around some tall grass 435 00:16:37,696 --> 00:16:39,164 going on a hike or whatever, 436 00:16:39,164 --> 00:16:40,632 check yourself for ticks afterwards 437 00:16:40,632 --> 00:16:43,535 and check your friends and check your pets, all of it. 438 00:16:43,535 --> 00:16:47,106 And unfortunately, yeah, check all of the crevices, 439 00:16:47,106 --> 00:16:48,640 all of them, even that one. 440 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:49,375 Lightning round 441 00:16:49,375 --> 00:16:53,212 A historic fort in England suffered damage to its walls 442 00:16:53,212 --> 00:16:54,580 after somebody assaulted it 443 00:16:54,580 --> 00:16:57,149 by shooting 40 golf balls at it. 444 00:16:57,149 --> 00:16:59,318 Damn, it's hella artillery. 445 00:16:59,318 --> 00:17:01,587 Google is paying out nearly $30 million 446 00:17:01,587 --> 00:17:03,655 to settle an anti-discrimination case 447 00:17:03,655 --> 00:17:06,025 in which they were accused of uplifting white 448 00:17:06,025 --> 00:17:08,093 and Asian employees more than anyone else. 449 00:17:08,093 --> 00:17:10,229 The Trump administration released the files 450 00:17:10,229 --> 00:17:12,664 on the JFK assassination, 451 00:17:12,664 --> 00:17:14,533 which is the conspiracy theory equivalent 452 00:17:14,533 --> 00:17:15,768 of jingling some keys. 453 00:17:15,768 --> 00:17:18,504 Like, yeah, it's not, it's fishy. 454 00:17:18,504 --> 00:17:19,872 Are we on this still? 455 00:17:19,872 --> 00:17:22,574 An Australian woman got caught trying to sell 456 00:17:22,574 --> 00:17:24,343 two partially digested toes 457 00:17:24,343 --> 00:17:26,045 that a dog threw up on the internet. 458 00:17:26,045 --> 00:17:29,314 I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. 459 00:17:29,314 --> 00:17:31,283 And finally for today, Blue Sky, 460 00:17:31,283 --> 00:17:33,452 which I am on and you should follow me on, 461 00:17:33,452 --> 00:17:36,989 made more money selling shirts making fun of Mark Zuckerberg 462 00:17:36,989 --> 00:17:39,224 than they have on their actual offering 463 00:17:39,224 --> 00:17:40,793 of selling custom domains. 464 00:17:40,793 --> 00:17:43,929 On Blue Sky, your handle is like a website, it's a domain, 465 00:17:43,929 --> 00:17:46,098 and they have an option to purchase a custom one. 466 00:17:46,098 --> 00:17:48,867 And they made a shirt making fun of Mark Zuckerberg 467 00:17:48,867 --> 00:17:51,336 and that has outpaced sales already. 468 00:17:51,336 --> 00:17:52,171 Time to pivot. 469 00:17:52,171 --> 00:17:53,172 Thank you so much for listening 470 00:17:53,172 --> 00:17:55,374 to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. 471 00:17:55,374 --> 00:17:58,844 Head to skh.news for sources, bonus content, 472 00:17:58,844 --> 00:18:02,214 and my shirt making fun of Mark Zuckerberg. 473 00:18:02,214 --> 00:18:05,417 I do have a merch store, but I don't have that 474 00:18:05,417 --> 00:18:06,351 in my merch store. 475 00:18:06,351 --> 00:18:07,986 Anyway, my name is Endeavorance. 476 00:18:07,986 --> 00:18:09,321 I'll be back on Monday. 477 00:18:09,321 --> 00:18:11,190 Take care and be well.