This Week in Google 797: Nil Coin: It's Good For Nothing

Summary

Podcast Summary: This Week in Google 797: Nil Coin: It's Good For Nothing

Podcast Information:

• Title: All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)
• Host/Author: TWiT
• Episode: This Week in Google 797: Nil Coin: It's Good For Nothing
• Release Date: December 5, 2024

Overview: In Episode 797 of "This Week in Google," hosted by Leo Laporte, the discussion centers around the emergence of a new cryptocurrency meme coin called Nil Coin, Australia's recent legislation banning social media access for individuals under 16, Amazon's legal challenges in delivering to low-income areas, and the term "brain rot" being recognized as the word of the year. The episode features guest Paris Martineau and Micah Sargent filling in for Jeff Jarvis.

---

1. Nil Coin: The Cryptocurrency Meme Fiasco

Discussion Highlights: The episode delves into the phenomenon of Nil Coin, a cryptocurrency birthed from a viral meme. Originating from a TikTok video by Haley Welsh, Nil Coin aims to capitalize on meme culture but has been met with skepticism regarding its legitimacy and purpose.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [05:01]: "Now she is a cryptocurrency meme coin."
• Paris Martineau [05:41]: "I'm glad you are explaining."
• Micah Sargent [07:53]: "Invest in nothing. Nilcoin."

Insights:

• Origins: Nil Coin emerged from a viral TikTok, leveraging Welsh's sudden fame to create a token supposedly aimed at protecting her community from scammers.
• Legitimacy Concerns: The coin operates on the Solana blockchain, with claims of not being a cash grab. However, industry players like Andreessen Horowitz criticize it for undermining the long-term vision of crypto.
• Market Impact: The discussion reflects broader concerns about the proliferation of meme coins with questionable value propositions, contributing to market volatility and skepticism.

Conclusion: Nil Coin exemplifies the trend of meme-driven cryptocurrencies that may lack substantial utility, raising questions about sustainability and investor protection in the crypto space.

---

2. Australia's Social Media Ban: Implications and Enforcement

Discussion Highlights: Australia has enacted a law prohibiting individuals under 16 from accessing social media platforms. The panel examines the feasibility, enforcement mechanisms, and potential loopholes of this legislation.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [29:04]: "Australia has passed a law banning everyone under 16 from social media."
• Paris Martineau [30:00]: "Users will not be forced to provide government ID."
• Micah Sargent [32:09]: "They have to personally check you in."

Insights:

• Enforcement Challenges: Without requiring government-issued ID, enforcing age restrictions poses significant difficulties, as minors can easily bypass the ban by providing false information.
• Legislative Background: The law was influenced by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which campaigned under the slogan "Let them Be Kids," highlighting concerns about social media's impact on youth mental health.
• Effectiveness: The panelists express skepticism about the law's ability to prevent underage access, likening it to past attempts where technological restrictions were easily circumvented.

Conclusion: Australia's attempt to curb social media access for minors faces considerable practical challenges, questioning the law's effectiveness and the underlying motivations tied to media influence and public perception.

---

3. Amazon's Lawsuit Over Delivery to Low-Income Zip Codes in D.C.

Discussion Highlights: Amazon is being sued by the District of Columbia's Attorney General for allegedly discriminating against low-income zip codes by providing slower delivery services to Prime subscribers in these areas.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [12:57]: "Amazon is now being sued by the District of Columbia's Attorney General."
• Micah Sargent [14:04]: "It is a form of redlining saying we're not going to."

Insights:

• Allegations: Amazon is accused of deliberately hindering its fastest delivery services to approximately 50,000 Prime members in low-income areas, resulting in significantly slower deliveries compared to higher-income zones.
• Amazon's Defense: The company claims it has collaborated with the Attorney General's office to enhance crime prevention and driver safety, denying any discriminatory intent.
• Broader Implications: The lawsuit highlights ongoing concerns about service equality and potential discriminatory practices by major corporations, drawing parallels to historical redlining practices.

Conclusion: The legal action against Amazon underscores the importance of equitable service delivery across socioeconomic landscapes, potentially setting precedents for how tech giants manage operations in diverse communities.

---

4. "Brain Rot" Declared Word of the Year

Discussion Highlights: The term "brain rot" has been recognized as the word of the year, encapsulating societal concerns about the cognitive impact of excessive consumption of low-quality online content, particularly social media.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [54:56]: "Brain rot is the word of the year."
• Paris Martineau [55:22]: "It describes our dissatisfaction with the online world."

Insights:

• Definition: "Brain rot" refers to the perceived deterioration of mental or intellectual faculties due to the overuse of trivial or unchallenging online material.
• Cultural Reflection: The term's popularity reflects widespread anxieties about the effects of digital media on mental health and intellectual engagement.
• Historical Context: Interestingly, the phrase dates back to Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" (1854), illustrating long-standing concerns about societal influences on the mind.

Conclusion: "Brain rot" serves as a linguistic marker for contemporary debates on digital consumption and its ramifications on mental well-being, mirroring historical apprehensions about societal change.

---

5. Meta's Undersea Cable Initiative: The W Cable

Discussion Highlights: Meta (formerly Facebook) plans to invest up to $10 billion in the W Cable, a 40,000-kilometer subsea cable aiming to enhance connectivity to India while avoiding geopolitically sensitive regions.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [98:47]: "Meta is building a round the world subsea cable. Cable could cost as much as $10 billion."
• Micah Sargent [100:26]: "He would have to figure out a way to age." (Regarding cable routing)

Insights:

• Strategic Routing: The W Cable is designed to circumvent areas prone to geopolitical tensions like the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, ensuring safer and more reliable connectivity.
• Ownership and Usage: Meta will retain sole ownership and usage rights, primarily supporting its platforms and future metaverse developments, raising questions about monopolistic control over global internet infrastructure.
• Global Implications: The initiative reflects Meta's ambition to secure its data transmission channels amidst rising concerns about internet security and foreign interference.

Conclusion: Meta's substantial investment in the W Cable signifies a strategic move to control and secure its digital empire's backbone, amidst global geopolitical uncertainties and increasing scrutiny over big tech's infrastructural dominance.

---

6. FTC and Antitrust Investigations Against Microsoft

Discussion Highlights: An unexpected revelation emerged regarding the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiating an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, echoing the historical scrutiny the company has faced.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [78:08]: "The FTC had opened an antitrust investigation against Microsoft."
• Paris Martineau [78:34]: "News Corp spent about $1.9 million lobbying on topics that included the bill."

Insights:

• Nature of Investigation: Unlike prior legal actions, this investigation appears to focus on Microsoft's current market practices, particularly in areas like cloud computing and potential monopolistic behaviors.
• Corporate Lobbying: News Corp's involvement indicates a complex interplay of media influences and corporate lobbying in shaping and responding to regulatory frameworks.
• Implications for Microsoft: The investigation adds pressure on Microsoft to reassess its strategies in a highly competitive tech landscape dominated by rivals like Amazon and Google.

Conclusion: The FTC's antitrust probe into Microsoft underscores ongoing regulatory vigilance over major tech firms, reflecting concerns about market dominance and the need for competitive fairness in the evolving digital economy.

---

7. Data Privacy and Data Brokers: Selling Social Security Numbers

Discussion Highlights: The podcast addresses alarming practices by data brokers, highlighting the legality of selling sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers and the potential risks involved.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [79:54]: "Users can't be compelled to provide government ID."
• Paris Martineau [81:11]: "I always had access to a service called LexisNexis."

Insights:

• Legality and Risks: Data brokers legally sell sensitive information without stringent regulations, posing significant privacy risks and facilitating identity theft and scams.
• Regulatory Efforts: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is contemplating banning the sale of Social Security numbers, but political opposition, especially under administrations seeking to dismantle such agencies, impedes progress.
• Government Use: Agencies like the FBI and ICE utilize data brokers to circumvent surveillance restrictions, raising ethical concerns about privacy and civil liberties.

Conclusion: The unregulated sale of personal data by brokers represents a critical vulnerability in privacy protection, necessitating comprehensive legislative actions to safeguard individuals against exploitation and unauthorized data dissemination.

---

8. FTC's Revised Telemarketing Rules: Combating Tech Support Scams

Discussion Highlights: The FTC has updated its Telemarketing Sales Rules to address the loophole that allowed tech support scams to thrive by targeting consumers who initiated contact rather than unsolicited outbound calls.

Notable Quotes:

• Leo Laporte [88:25]: "They're going to remove technical support services from a list of services that are exempt."
• Micah Sargent [89:03]: "Fake Geek Squad calls topped the list of fraud in 2024."

Insights:

• Rule Changes: By removing exemptions for technical support services, the FTC can now penalize scammers who pose as legitimate tech support, irrespective of who initiates the contact.
• Impact on Scams: This shift empowers the FTC to more effectively pursue and dismantle scamming operations, particularly those mimicking reputable brands like Geek Squad.
• Consumer Protection: Enhanced regulations aim to reduce financial losses and protect vulnerable populations, especially older consumers who are disproportionately targeted by such scams.

Conclusion: The FTC's proactive revision of telemarketing rules marks a significant step towards curbing tech support fraud, enhancing consumer protection, and closing previously exploited regulatory gaps.

---

Final Thoughts: Episode 797 of "This Week in Google" provides an insightful exploration of contemporary issues ranging from the dubious rise of meme cryptocurrencies like Nil Coin to significant legislative and legal developments impacting tech giants and data privacy. The discussions underscore the evolving challenges in the digital landscape, emphasizing the need for robust regulatory frameworks and informed consumer practices.

---

Note: The summary excludes advertisements and non-content segments, focusing solely on the substantive discussions and insights presented during the episode.

Transcript

[Leo Laporte]

It's time for Twig. This Week in Google. Paris Martineau's here. Jeff Jarvis has the week off. But hey, good news. Micah Sargent joins us. We'll talk about Australia's social media ban. How is that going to work? Meta's private Internet, cable and why brain rot is the word of the year. Strikes me as two. But hey, we'll talk about that more when Twig comes next. Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is this is Twit. This is Twig. This week in Google. Episode 797 recorded Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Nilcoin it's good for nothing.

[Ad Voiceover]

Got great ideas but no idea how to build a website. Get bluehost. With their AI design tool, you can quickly generate a high quality, fast loading WordPress site instantly. Once you've nailed the look, just hit enter and your site goes live. It's really that simple. And it doesn't matter whether you're a blogger, influencer or just starting your side hustle, bluehost has you covered with built in marketing and e commerce tools to help you grow and scale your website for the long haul. And when you upgrade to Bluehost Cloud, you get 100% uptime and 24. 7 support to ensure your site stays online through heavy traffic. Bluehost really makes building your dream website easier than ever. So what's stopping you? You've already got the vis vision. Make it real. Visit Bluehost.com right now and get started today.

After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and AT&T. @T mobile.com keepandswitch up to four lines.

Via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible and timely redemption required Card has no cash access and expires in six months.

[Leo Laporte]

It's time for Twig. This week in Google the show, we cover the latest news from Google, the Google Verse, the Twitterverse, the X verse and the inverse and the obverse. And joining us today, Paris Martineau from the weekend edition of the Information the information dot com. Hello Paris.

[Paris Martineau]

Hello Leo.

[Leo Laporte]

You're back from Florida.

[Paris Martineau]

I know, they let me leave.

[Leo Laporte]

Thankfully we have video of the turkey that is in the fryer.

[Paris Martineau]

My dad has been asking did your friends online have any comments on the turkey?

[Leo Laporte]

And I'm like just wait, you mean your grandpa's online? Well, the grant one grandpa is in San Francisco right now doing a speech at the Commonwealth Club, so he couldn't be with us. Fortunately, Micah Sargent has agreed to fill in, so it's great to see you, Micah, my old friend.

[Micah Sargent]

Hi. It's been a while.

[Leo Laporte]

Tech News Weekly and Hands on tech. Yes. I kind of miss doing the tech guys with you every Sunday morning, but I like having my Sunday mornings free, so that's nice. I can go to church, temple, synagogue, and the mosque. I do that all at once.

[Paris Martineau]

Busy morning?

[Micah Sargent]

It's very busy. Just popping into each one.

[Leo Laporte]

But you know how devout I am.

[Paris Martineau]

Entirely a man of many faiths, none of them strong.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow. Jack of all faiths.

[Leo Laporte]

Jack of all faiths. I like it. That's me. Wow. Let's see. Should we start. Okay, so here's the question. Should we start heavy or light? Should we start with the big news or the little news? Little.

[Micah Sargent]

Little. I'm actually waiting for Paris to blow my mind with some weird coin that has some.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, we got. Oh, I got a story for you with that.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, good.

[Leo Laporte]

So, first of all, I have to confess, I've never seen the Hawk to a video.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, it's pretty simple. It's a girl who says hawk. Well, I don't know if I'm going to describe it.

[Leo Laporte]

Don't. Don't describe it because then people want to know what it means. And then.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, listen, don't search it unless you're.

[Micah Sargent]

Willing to sexual in nature. I have not seen it either. I just thought it was somebody who was just spitting. I didn't realize that it was.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, think about it.

[Paris Martineau]

They're spitting on that thing. Is what it's described as.

[Leo Laporte]

That thing. Okay, that's.

[Paris Martineau]

That's the full phrase. Hawk, do a spit on that thing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for whoever has to bleep this out. I don't know what you would believe from there.

[Leo Laporte]

It was a meme in the summertime. Was it even. How. How recently was it. It was a while ago.

[Paris Martineau]

Like this summertime. It was a while. The girl behind it has turned what was a small video clip into a huge brand. Has podcasts, she has a merch, she has a costume line. All they have.

[Leo Laporte]

She's actually had Mark Cuban on her.

[Paris Martineau]

Podcast and yeah, she had a whole Halloween costume. You could be hocked to her for Halloween. Now she is a cryptocurrency meme coin.

[Leo Laporte]

What?

[Micah Sargent]

Oh. Oh, no. What's it called?

[Paris Martineau]

You know, that's a great Question. I can't see it because there's a paywall.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, I'm not going to pay for Fortune just to see this, but she said it's on the Solana blockchain. She says it is not a cash grab.

[Paris Martineau]

It's the Hawk token.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, the Hawk. Good, good.

[Leo Laporte]

We live in such a weird world. I don't know if our fore fathers and mothers could have grasped what has happened to the world.

[Paris Martineau]

Here's a statement shared with CoinDesk. She says, who doesn't love a good meme? Becoming part of meme culture interested me in the world of crypto, and I've learned so much along the way. Launching my own token feels like the perfect next step. Not just to create something meaningful for my fans, but to also protect my community from scammers.

[Leo Laporte]

In her distinctive southern twang, Fortune writes, Welch explains she wants to change the public's view on crypto through her manager, there's the key, Johnny Forster. Oh. Though her manager, Johnny Forster interceded when asked about hawks valuation and legal uncertainty. And we don't want to break security laws, he told Fortune. We would just say that. We're almost like tokenizing, in a sense. Haley's fan base. How do you pronounce that name, by the way? H A, L I, E, Y. I assume Haley. Haley Welsh, but it should be pronounced she's hawking Crypto. The world of meme coins seems a fitting place for Welsh fortune rights, whose TikTok video describing, well, you just use your imagination. Garnered millions of views and vaulted her to sudden stardom. After an her initial burst of fame, she stayed in the news with acts like throwing out the first pitch at a Mets game. And through her podcast, oh, now I'm Just gonna kill myself, which debuted as the third most popular on Spotify.

[Paris Martineau]

Okay, debuted though. Anybody can debut as a popular podcast. You gain a lot of followers at first because you're going from zero.

[Leo Laporte]

Just going to just kind of retire right now.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, sort of. What? Velocity. Right.

[Paris Martineau]

Higher on that thing.

[Micah Sargent]

As a fun. As a fun thought exercise, I have a question for the two of you. If you were to release your own meme coin, what would your meme coin be called?

[Leo Laporte]

Well, I've got twitcoin, obviously.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, yeah, for twits.

[Leo Laporte]

Only for twits.

[Paris Martineau]

I guess it would be something about nihilism. Maybe it could just be like nil coin.

[Micah Sargent]

Nilcoin. I love it.

[Leo Laporte]

That's good. I'd buy Nilcoin.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah. She told nothing. And the line could be invest in nothing.

[Micah Sargent]

Invest in nothing.

[Paris Martineau]

And it's true, you will be investing enough.

[Leo Laporte]

Wait a minute. Get Jamie Forster on the line.

[Paris Martineau]

I think we.

[Leo Laporte]

I think we've got something. I think you need to represent this young lady. She's got a future. She said other celebrities, like rapper Lil Pump. Is there a rapper named Lil Pump?

[Paris Martineau]

Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Introduced her to crypto. She scored an invite to the Crypto powered Fighting league. Karate Combat. She used to think of. I don't know. Crypto is just a scam. What? I don't know. I don't.

[Micah Sargent]

They eat crypto coins. That's how they gain their power.

[Leo Laporte]

I got karate coin. It's. Oh, interesting. They've exploded in popularity as a form of social gambling. And actually, Andreessen Horowitz, who has invested in real crypto, says we don't like it because it's undermining the long term vision of crypto.

[Paris Martineau]

Wow.

[Leo Laporte]

No, it's exactly what crypto is. It's bunk.

[Micah Sargent]

It's nil. It's all Nilcoin.

[Leo Laporte]

It's all Nilcoin. Oh, I love that. Invest in nothing Nilcoin. I love that.

[Paris Martineau]

Anyway, someone.

[Leo Laporte]

Her 15 minutes of fame has really expanded dramatically.

[Paris Martineau]

I will say it's been astounding to me her ability to maintain some sort of relevancy despite the fact that she did literally nothing.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, it's a capitalist, literally.

[Paris Martineau]

Also launched an AI powered dating app called Spooky Tools, which is a reference to another Internet meme we're not going to get into.

[Leo Laporte]

But she. You know, I think about my son who's, you know, all into this culture, and I think, you know, that's. I could totally see him going, oh, yeah, that's. That's good. By the way, at least give her credit. She's got the good taste to be using a Heil PR40 with the appropriate pop filter, so.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, you know, who's probably responsible for that? I believe she's part of Jake Paul's podcasting company. You can thank the Paul brother for that.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, of course she is. Okay. Nice looking house, though. That's good. All right. There you go. We did start with a light story. I can't. I don't blame her. Right.

[Micah Sargent]

You.

[Leo Laporte]

What? I mean, no.

[Paris Martineau]

Get every step.

[Leo Laporte]

You can get it. Go. You go get it, girl. Yes.

[Paris Martineau]

What would your son's cryptocurrency be called?

[Leo Laporte]

Hank Coin or Sando Coin, something like that.

[Paris Martineau]

Sando Coin could be good.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Salt coin. Good news. He got. He acquired his lease to the Salt Hank Deli. You're gonna be able to Go to it in New York City later this in early 2020.

[Paris Martineau]

Leo, get me an invite to the opening.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, I will. I totally will get you an invite to the opening. That is. That is a done deal. He's gonna have a little studio in the back. It's in, it's in my favorite part of New York City, just near Washington Square Park. Oh, in Grant Village. Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

So is he gonna work there?

[Leo Laporte]

He's gonna be the executive chef. Yeah, he's gonna move to New York.

[Paris Martineau]

That's awesome.

[Leo Laporte]

He's taken over the. The play. The Slutty vegan shop. Oh, you know where slutty vegan is?

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, do I know where slutty vegan is? I didn't know there was one in Manhattan. There is one in Brooklyn. And I forgot if we've talked about this in the show, but Slutty Vegan is a honestly fantastic vegan fast food place in New York City. But I've discovered they have one downside, which is anytime somebody walks in the door, all the one of the employees has to go. Another slut just walked in. And then all employees have to go, hey, slut. And it's awful. It's terrible. It's a nightmare every time. So it's a public good that he's taking over that spot.

[Leo Laporte]

I think maybe you should get Haley Welch at the grand opening and they could say hawk to it. Everyone walks in the door.

[Micah Sargent]

I don't know if you want to think about spitting while you're eating food.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, yeah. Greenwich Village. Nice area. I love the Village. And so it's on Bleer street, just so you know. And watch for it soon. Opening probably mid year next year. They gotta, you know, build it and stuff.

[Paris Martineau]

That's exciting.

[Leo Laporte]

I know, Very exciting. Here's an interesting story. Amazon is now being sued by the District of Columbia's Attorney General because they won't send prime delivery to certain zip codes there. They as low income zip codes there. Maybe they're afraid, I don't know. They say, oh, let the postal service do it. Amazon deliberately and secretly stopped its fastest delivery service to the 50,000 prime subscribers in low income zip codes in D.C. that gave him slower deliveries. I wonder why, if that's why my little bottle brush Christmas trees aren't coming to Friday.

[Micah Sargent]

I think you aren't in one of these places.

[Leo Laporte]

I am in a bad zip code.

[Micah Sargent]

Now, of course this is, this is the accusation, right? It's not proven right yet.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, they'll go to, they'll go to trial like this. Exactly.

[Micah Sargent]

Go to trial for.

[Leo Laporte]

We're suing to stop this deceptive contact. Make sure district residents get what they're paying for. I'm not surprised. And I'm sure Amazon wasn't doing it to discriminate, but was thinking, oh, we don't want to send our drivers into the hood.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah. Amazon said that it disagreed, that it had deceived customers and that it had told prime subscribers in those areas during each stage of the delivery process. And it said it's worked with the Office of the Attorney General to support crime prevention and improve safety for drivers in those areas.

[Leo Laporte]

I can, you know, I understand that, but you know, it's kind of sad that they're saying you let the postal service do it.

[Micah Sargent]

Right?

[Leo Laporte]

I mean, there.

[Micah Sargent]

Anyway, I guess at first I didn't think this was, it's like, what? But now I understand because these are prime paying members. They, they. And yeah, it is a form of redlining.

[Leo Laporte]

It's redlining saying we're not going to.

[Micah Sargent]

Worth less than the other. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

In 2013, for example, the New York Times writes the rest of the city's prime members receive their packages within two days of checkout 75% of the time. But subscribers and these affected zip codes receive their packages within two days only 24% of the time, according to the suit.

[Leo Laporte]

It feels to me this is what Amazon's doing globally. I don't know about you, but every time I buy something on Amazon I say it'll be here tomorrow. It'll be here day after tomorrow. Like these little bottle brush Christmas trees which I ordered two days ago. They're now not going to come till Friday. They promised they'd be here today. This happens again.

[Micah Sargent]

They don't do the under promise over deliver at Amazon, do they? They do the over promise under deliver at Amazon.

[Leo Laporte]

Of course we've been beating them up over driving their delivery people crazy with, you know, demands. The last thing was the Amazon delivery trucks were being equipped with cameras to keep drivers.

[Paris Martineau]

It's worth saying delivery people in quotes because while these people are held to all these extremely high standards by Amazon and like you're saying, have cameras installed in there that are have Amazon employees watching them, the actual drivers are not legally considered Amazon employees. They're third party contractors hired for full time work by Amazon so they can be paid less.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, they don't actually work for the company. Yeah, right. They don't have to give them benefits. Here's the story from September in Jalopnik. Amazon drivers complained their ability to sing along with the radio is being stifled.

[Paris Martineau]

Their God given right to sing.

[Leo Laporte]

Along with the radio singing they went again. Amazon has kind of a good reason. They say it it's a cause of distracted driving and it causes more accidents.

[Micah Sargent]

So was it what they can't turn the volume up or that they can't.

[Leo Laporte]

There's a camera in the. There's always been for the last three years a camera in these trucks watching them. Now Amazon says Amazon's never issued guidance or communications to delivery service partners that prohibit singing in the vehicle.

[Paris Martineau]

I can understand how this might ding them because this camera system, it's very precise. It will often it's precise but also inaccurate in what it does. It tries. It will sometimes ding people for having their eyes closed when really they are Asian or non white in some way that the camera is not reading their eyes correctly. It's also in the past I've seen examples of people getting dinged for potentially distracted driving when they yawned once in the cab while driving.

[Micah Sargent]

Yikes.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, that's right how singing might flag the same sort of things.

[Leo Laporte]

Somebody posted on Reddit saying yesterday was the last straw. I quit after my last my route last night. Why at the morning safety briefing. Now remember these guys are contractors. Probably the briefing isn't an Amazon employee. Right. So this is why Amazon can plausibly say oh well we don't tell them that, somebody else does. We go through all the normal remember to stop at stop signs stuff. The guy, the Redditor writes. Then they tell us Amazon's really trying to cut down and distracted driving. So we can't be singing along to the radio because the camera will ding you for distracted driving. We were told a lot of mouth movement will set off the camera. So keep mouth movement to a minimum.

[Micah Sargent]

Probably it was programmed to see if somebody was taking a call or something while they were driving. And then it's being, it's, it's not being paid close enough attention to, to say to audit it and go oh no, this is just singing in the car. Which arguably is not.

[Leo Laporte]

Amazon says look, the cameras are there so if there is an accident we can roll back and see if there if the driver did something dumb.

[Micah Sargent]

But see that's the other problem with if you have a third party then you sometimes get these rulings in place that aren't actually there.

[Leo Laporte]

But it's happens all the time.

[Micah Sargent]

Manager thinks that that's what they're supposed to do.

[Leo Laporte]

Apple didn't used to have that problem. Right. With the companies that were making iPhones would be you know, very hard, draconian. But Apple would say, well, hey, it's not us. They finally got. All right, you've been waiting for it. You deserve it. Now, ladies and gentlemen, little drum roll, please. Paris's dad deep frying.

[Paris Martineau]

Frying a turkey in the driveway.

[Leo Laporte]

Should I turn the audio on? Is your dad gonna. My dad down for this?

[Paris Martineau]

No, he will not. He's thrilled.

[Leo Laporte]

All right. This is the moment we've all been waiting for. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone across the world. We're gonna.

[Paris Martineau]

People are playing Cornhole in the back.

[Micah Sargent]

Very Western.

[Leo Laporte]

Across the world. He knows he has fans in. Where is it? Brazil.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, he's got fans in Brazil. He's thrilled to.

[Leo Laporte]

Who is this guy who's decided he wants to be on camera? Is this your grandfather?

[Paris Martineau]

He's a local pastor that my parents play tennis with. His name's Kim.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, that looks right. Was it delicious?

[Paris Martineau]

It was delicious. It was.

[Leo Laporte]

How long had it been in there for?

[Paris Martineau]

45 minutes.

[Leo Laporte]

That's a bird. We're gonna take it and let it rest for about 10 minutes, and then.

[Micah Sargent]

We'Re gonna carve it up.

[Leo Laporte]

Is it greasy at all? It looks this good.

[Micah Sargent]

I hope it's better, but that's gonna.

[Leo Laporte]

Be very hard to do. This is a perfect bird.

[Micah Sargent]

Happy?

[Paris Martineau]

Thanks.

[Leo Laporte]

Doesn't your dad look like a movie star? Micah?

[Micah Sargent]

Yes, absolutely.

[Leo Laporte]

He's a total movie star.

[Micah Sargent]

Ponytail and everything. Yeah, yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

He decided to grow up his hair during the pandemic, and it's really led to an entire change in his Persona.

[Micah Sargent]

Well, he is rocking the person.

[Leo Laporte]

You saw the. You saw him in Brazil, right, being chased by fans.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, there's a great video. I'll. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

No, I saw that. I thought that was amazing.

[Leo Laporte]

It's put him in a tux, give him a couple of security guys and sunglasses, talking into their sleeves. I'd be convinced he's indistinguishable from any major celebrity in the world.

[Paris Martineau]

That's true.

[Leo Laporte]

I noticed you posted that on Blue Sky. Is that your new.

[Paris Martineau]

I've really been enjoying Blue Sky. I mean, it's just been a lovely week. There's so much more engagement I found on Blue Sky.

[Leo Laporte]

Inevitably, they are now, because X is really. Is it fair to say X.com is tilted slightly to the right?

[Paris Martineau]

Inevitably, as a result, Washington Post analysis has found that. Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay. So. So actual studies show. So naturally, people are saying, well, that means Blue sky must be left leaning.

[Micah Sargent]

In comparison, I guess.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. 10 million new users since the election, and I think it's more than that by now this story came out a couple of days ago. So it's maybe it's that that's roughly right. Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang says we are not anti musk and we are not politically left leading. It's a U S centric left leaning. To say that it's U S centric left leaning is not correct. Well, we know there are a lot of Brazilians in there since when X kind of had a problem in Brazil. Blue sky plants I will say.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean obviously the CEO can speak to this more than I can. So some of somewhat discounted to say there is one of the many feeds I subscribe to on Blue sky which I love that I have custom feeds is one called most liked that claims to just. I haven't checked out the GitHub code code but it just claims to list the posts with the most likes on Blue sky over the last 24 hours. And I will say whenever I do look at that it is almost exclusively left leaning posts that are getting the most likes. But perhaps that is like an English centric metric. I'm not entirely sure but I do think there is some perception that is perhaps accurate that a lot of the recent users joining seem to have a bit more of a left bent than a right wing.

[Leo Laporte]

Here's the real question. Yeah, but the real question is if you went in there as a conservative, would you be, you know, shadow banned and and yelled at and would you be chased off the platform? I don't think so.

[Paris Martineau]

People would probably block you, but you would be blocked.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

They'D probably do that on Twitter too.

[Leo Laporte]

But so it's the MSNBC of social networks is what you're saying.

[Paris Martineau]

That seems a little too far in the sense that that indicates to me that all of the posts are of one, you know, political persuasion. I certainly don't think that's the case. Like we said before, there are a wide array of commun communities across the political and geopolitical spectrum on Blue Sky. It does seem like the posts that get the most numeric likes all at once are often like American left leaning posts. But I don't think that those two things are like totally mutually exclusive.

[Leo Laporte]

I mean, I don't know why it even matters.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, yeah, we're not having this conversation about like Parlor or Gab or.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, or Truth Social President's own social network which despite the fact that it's losing money, bleeding money because it has so few users, is valued in the billions of dollars.

[Paris Martineau]

And I mean similarly like what we just talked about Twitter, like independent analyses of how Twitter ranks posts and promotes posts, has found that it, since Musk's takeover, seems to favor American conservative politicians over, you know, more left leaning posters. And it's also owned by a close advisor of the incoming Republican president. So I would say that that makes it right leaning.

[Leo Laporte]

Do you worry? Because she also said Blue sky plans to launch a subscription service by the end of the year, which is only three weeks off. They will charge for services like higher quality video uploads and profile customizations. I think it's probably good because I don't. How do they make money otherwise?

[Micah Sargent]

Exactly. You've got to keep it going and especially if it's going to continue to grow. How do you. How do you make money? And if it's, it's, it's the concern, of course, of the eventual insertification, that always takes place. But we're still in that those early days. But yeah, you've got to make money somehow. And if that's.

[Leo Laporte]

Do they have ads? Have you seen ads on. I haven't seen any ads. I haven't seen ads, no. Well, one of the things the CEO.

[Micah Sargent]

Has to say, hey, we're not any. We're. We're neutral. We're Neutral Milk Hotel, because we want you all to come here. Everybody should be able to be on this platform. So, like, it's within the CEO's best interest to not try to label.

[Leo Laporte]

Right.

[Micah Sargent]

I'm not in a box because I want to attract as many users as possible so that I can get that daily active user count up. And at the same time, we saw a lot of positive response to the incoming presidency for the sake of making sure that everybody's big businesses are not targeted in any way. And I think there's an aspect there too, where it's like, oh, no, no, no, please don't look at us as the left leaning social network that's not now. Yeah, exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

Don't put us on that list. Hey, have you ever stayed at the Neutral Milk Hotel? I'm just curious if it's a good place. Is it a three star, four star? Did you say the Neutral Milk Hotel?

[Micah Sargent]

Did you actually say that?

[Paris Martineau]

That's a band.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, okay.

[Micah Sargent]

I was hoping Paris would.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, I got it. I at first thought Leo was doing a joke, but that's how much I got it. But no.

[Leo Laporte]

And you should understand, Micah, that Paris works with her two grandpas and a lot of this show is Paris and now you explaining that's true. What the little joke is.

[Paris Martineau]

And I love that. Yeah, I've had to explain what Yossified means to Leo multiple times on the show.

[Micah Sargent]

I'm glad that you are explaining.

[Leo Laporte]

He keeps forgetting that was Micah's job. So he, he's glad to hand it off.

[Micah Sargent]

Although I feel like if anybody, John Ashley is the like knowledge guy when it comes to online meme culture. Every time depends on the meme names. I'm going, I have no ide idea who he's talking about. And he's like, yeah, that that guy's pretty bad. Or that gal.

[Leo Laporte]

Have you, have you ever heard of the rapper? What was it? Little Ropper, little hopper, little robber. What was his.

[Micah Sargent]

We're talking about little pumpkin on he is a stain on the earth. Pump is don't look it up.

[Leo Laporte]

Don't bother. Terrible name.

[Micah Sargent]

Lil followed by anything. And there is a rapper somewhere with that name.

[Paris Martineau]

Soundcloud rapper.

[Micah Sargent]

He's a South Cloud rapper who is a huge. I'm going to go political. He's a very huge Trump fan.

[Leo Laporte]

All right, he's right leaning then.

[Micah Sargent]

He's very right leaning. He's very into crypto.

[Leo Laporte]

He's his first hit was called Gucci Gang.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, it's not worth talking about. That's all I'm gonna say.

[Leo Laporte]

All right. But I now know that Hock Tua learned about crypto from Lil Pump and I can't believe I said that sentence. You're watching this week in Google with an old guy and two young people. That's a switch. Used to be a young person and two old guys. Jeff has the week off. If you are in the San Francisco Bay area, don't forget he's speaking tonight from his book the Web We Weave at the Commonwealth Club. And I think tickets are still available if you go to the Commonwealth Club and search for Jeff Jarvis. Go see him in person if you want or online. They have online only tickets.

[Ad Voiceover]

Got great ideas but no idea how to build a website? Get bluehost. With their AI design tool, you can quickly generate a high quality, fast loading WordPress site instantly. Once you've nailed the look, just hit enter and your site goes live. It's really that simple. And it doesn't matter whether you're a blogger, influencer or just starting your side hustle, bluehost has you covered with built in marketing and e commerce tools to help you grow and scale your website for the long haul. And when you upgrade to Bluehost Cloud, you get 100% uptime and 24. 7 support to ensure your site stays online through heavy traffic. Bluehost really makes building your dream website easier than ever. So what's stopping you? You've already got the vision. Make it real. Visit bluehost.com right now and get started today.

At&T customers. Switching to T Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com carrierfreedom to switch today.

Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid MasterCard in 15 days. Free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax qualifying port and trade and service on go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance and required finance agreement is due.

[Leo Laporte]

This week in Google continues with one of the big stories of the week. We talked about it a lot on Sunday. Australia has passed a law banning everyone under 16 from social media. How is neutral milk, hotel or little pump going to get out there with the Youngs if you don't have social media?

[Paris Martineau]

This can they even enforce access YouTube? So isn't that weird?

[Leo Laporte]

Wait a minute. They ban social media but they allow.

[Micah Sargent]

You to categorize it because they said.

[Paris Martineau]

It can be educational.

[Micah Sargent]

So, okay, hold on, hold on. Does that mean that there is a team of five or six people, I'm guessing, who their sole responsibility is to go through the list of continually adding social media networks or online sites and say that one goes, that one can stay, that one goes, that one can stay. How are they deciding between what is what? Because yes, there's a social media aspect to YouTube and you could also argue that people learn a lot on TikTok. There's a lot of educational content there, of course, is TikTok.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay, why is TikTok different than YouTube? Maybe because it's Chinese? I don't know. Here's a funny little bit in the law. This is from the New York Times. After privacy rights came up, the law specifies users will not be forced to provide government identification. So social networks have to ban people under 16, but they can't ask for ID.

[Micah Sargent]

Good luck.

[Leo Laporte]

I guess that this is good for Yachty.

[Paris Martineau]

Forced, I think it says. I'm interested to see whether or not.

[Leo Laporte]

Users can't be compelled to provide id.

[Paris Martineau]

Can't be compelled.

[Leo Laporte]

Users will not be forced to provide government id. So somehow this is really a lot of hand waving from the Australian Parliament saying, well, we don't know how you're going to do it. We don't even know what platforms will be covered. The Prime Minister said Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X will be included. But YouTube and messing and messaging X apps are expected to be exempt. I don't. I. By the way, this is a Rupert Murdoch joint. This is because Rupert Murdoch newspapers in Australia started a campaign to get this law, to get this law passed in the summer to protect the youngs.

[Micah Sargent]

What do you think the real reason was? Why? What?

[Leo Laporte]

Well, I think Rupert is for a long time and he certainly pursued this agenda in the Wall Street Journal and his other newspapers. Not liked the Internet because it takes away readers. Read his eyeballs.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, yeah. So they'll come.

[Leo Laporte]

Doesn't like Google because Google gives you search results and then you don't ever read the Wall Street Journal or the sun or any of his other newspapers. I think he just doesn't. He just does not like the Internet. Of course, it also. And is the case that teenagers will immediately get around it.

[Micah Sargent]

Exactly. Because even in the US where Facebook and other platforms have for a long time had an age restriction, we all just put a different date of bir birth in in order to be on those platforms. So they'll just do that here. It doesn't really have an impact, but they get to claim that they've made a change and they've done it for the, for the youth and, you know, they're making the world a better place because of it. And it's just ridiculous. It's not. Especially if you're not going to enforce it at all by not requiring some sort of identification. What's really happening here other than, as you said, some hand waving?

[Paris Martineau]

I bet what's going to happen is Instagram or Meta and TikTok are going to end up using facial age verification, which they already have in place currently. Like Yodi, the company we spoke about last week, because it doesn't require an id, but it's slightly more, you know, it's more. More accurate than just putting in your date of birth. And that could have unintended consequences because.

[Leo Laporte]

I think there should be an.

[Paris Martineau]

They have small differences for people who are not white and are not male. And while they're only a couple tenths of a percentage point, if you trust the data from Yodi, even if that's true on a massive countrywide scale, that could have a considerable impact on the population.

[Leo Laporte]

So I'll give you two points of view quoted by the New York Times that both kind of add to this conversation. One adult said, look, it's obvious, you know, an adult with teenagers said it's obvious this isn't going to stop everybody, but what it is going to do is kind of take away the magic of social media so that parents. It'll change. This is a. Danny alacki who has five children between the ages of seven and 15. We know what Danny has not been doing, said the law would help change the norms around social and media usage so that many parents concerned about the harmful effects who feel they have no choice but to let their children use it, won't feel that pressure. And that's probably the case. Even if it doesn't stop everybody, at least it will make it less buzzy among young people. But then they also quote a 17 year old who runs a news site in Australia, Leo Pugliesi. And he says first of all that his 14 year old brother will easily find a way around it. But I think this is a really good point. None of the harmful content will be removed, he says he just kicks the can down the road and throws you into the deep end at 16. That's an interesting point too, which is.

[Micah Sargent]

Sort of the argument to be made about like sex education for example, the abstinence teaching. That is in the same, in the same vein of tell them don't do it or you'll die and see what happens.

[Leo Laporte]

It hasn't worked, has it?

[Micah Sargent]

Education. Exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

You come from an area of the country where that's probably how they taught.

[Micah Sargent]

It was when I grew up. I don't know if that's still the same way. It definitely was for my next generation. And guess who, who had me at 16 years old? My mother. So that stuff doesn't.

[Leo Laporte]

I know you should be pretty glad actually that they're. Yeah, I am very glad that they're pitching abstinence. Yeah, it's a good thing.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, no, I, it's a really good point.

[Leo Laporte]

I mean it abs, you know, it's.

[Micah Sargent]

Like, it's, it's like abstinence teaching. It does. I can't.

[Leo Laporte]

Don't look, don't look, don't look. Okay, now look. That's terrible thing. Plus it also ignores the fact that, you know, they're, they're going off of Jonathan Haidt and other I think pretty specious writing saying that there's a mental health crisis among teenagers and it's all down to social media, which makes sense, I guess. You know, if you don't think about it kind of. Well, I guess that sounds reasonable. But those kids are not necessarily isolated. For many kids, that's their social. We can't judge it because it wasn't that way when we were growing up. But that's their social network, right? Right. Are you guys young enough that you had in your teen years a social network online?

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, I remember using Facebook towards when.

[Micah Sargent]

I was older, I guess mine would have been like MySpace, Zanga sort of era.

[Leo Laporte]

My 32 year old daughter Abby used Neopets.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, Neopets. But I don't know if that was the social.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, it wasn't social for you. How about MySpace? Did you create a MySpace page?

[Micah Sargent]

And definitely I have MySpace and my friends were all there. But yeah, yeah, it was a clubhouse. Social media. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

I also take umbrage with the parent who was in, who was quoted in this because that really smacks of I don't want to talk to my kid and explain things. I just want to say, well that's the law, kid. And I don't like that, that parenting style of trying to avoid any sort of let me have a real conversation with you and explain the possible consequences and treat you like a human being. Instead I'll just go, ah, it's the law so we don't need to worry about it. I get the idea that there's less social pressure but I don't like the idea of just saying, okay, well the only reason, yeah, I don't make the rules. I don't know, I don't make the rules is kind of a copy out. In my opinion.

[Leo Laporte]

The government made that rule. Government, by the way, says companies have 12 months to figure it out. You can't use, you can't use id, but you'll figure it out. They quote Julie Inman Grant who is Australia's E safety commissioner. She said, I have no doubt the tech giants will find a way to comply. They've got financial resources, technology and some of the best brain power. If they can target you for advertising, they can use the same technology and know how identify and verify the age of a child. Is that reasonable? I think maybe that is actually.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean I do think it's reasonable that tech companies can reasonably estimate that Most people under 18 are probably under 18 or like are under 21 at least. You know, like I think that they can make broad assumptions through minor technical and privacy intrusions. As we've seen so far, what we.

[Leo Laporte]

Really need is a technology that understands the emotional age of these people, whether social media is appropriate, not the physical chronological age. But there are some people who are older than 16 who aren't emotionally ready for social media and there's some people under 16.

[Paris Martineau]

Speaking of people who are perhaps a little emotionally immature. Reuters had a good point in their article on this which said the ban could however strain Australia's relationship with key ally the United States, where ex owner Elon Musk, a central figure in the administration of President elect Donald Trump said in a post this month it seemed a quote, backdoor way, way to control access to the Internet by all Australians, end quote. I mean, I think we could certainly see Elon Musk trying to push for this to be a public policy priority of the US to kind of.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, he would, he would be affected. I mean X is one of the social networks they're talking about. He would have to figure out a way to age.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, yes, but Also, how many 13 to 16 year olds are on Twitter?

[Leo Laporte]

No, they don't care. Not that many. It's really snap and insta. Those are the big two. I watch TikTok. Yeah. Oh well, you will watch with great interest as Australia tries to figure this one out.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, I read somewhere it's been a long time, I think it may have been a New York Times piece, but it talked about how Australia is in many ways a testing bed for eventual US legislation and that at times through the work of lobbying efforts and some other means, they can kind of let loose some of these, especially in big tech, let loose some of these laws and see how it's impacted there and use that to shape what goes on elsewhere. And I've always found that fascinating from that point that I read that on seeing what Australia pushes through and doesn't and how it's impacted there.

[Leo Laporte]

It could be as simple as Rupert Murdoch using Australia as a test could be. So the Australian social media ban, this is from Reuters, started with a call to act by a politician's wife. The spark that ended that was when the wife of the leader of Austria's second smallest state read the Anxious Generation. There's Jonathan Hyde's book, okay. And told her husband, husband, we've got to do something about this. I remember precisely the moment she said to me, her husband said, you've got to read this book and you've got to do something about it. He's the South Australia Australia premier Peter Melansalk Melanowskas. I didn't reasonably anticipate it would take on so quickly. So part of it though was because the Rupert Murdoch News Corp. And the country's biggest newspaper publisher began an editorial campaign in May to ban children under 16 from social media, calling it their campaign Let them Be Kids. Through the middle of the year. News Corp mastheads and the parliamentary inquiry aid aired emotional accounts from parents whose children had taken or lost their lives as a result of bullying and body image problems tied to social media. It was a big propaganda campaign and I feel for those parents. But, but that, but they were being used by Murdoch.

[Paris Martineau]

It is interesting though because Murdoch has been so vocally in favor of stuff like this in Australia. Meanwhile in the US News Corp has spent like $2 million lobbying against Cosa and similar like provisions.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh really? Have they? I didn't know that.

[Paris Martineau]

This was disclosed in a Wall Street Journal article the other week about just lobbying efforts on the kids online safety bill. And I found it so fascinating. I was like, wow, what did it explain? Yeah, they said it. The only, the only line in the story is this non tech company, they're talking about objections to cosa. Non tech companies are also objecting for reasons including concerns about determining the age of users. News Corp. Which owns the Wall Street Journal has spent about 1.9 million lobbying in the past two years on topics that included the bill. That's it. Very sparse but interesting.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, but that's interesting. Topics related to the bill, not the bill itself.

[Micah Sargent]

Does that mean against it also? Or does that.

[Paris Martineau]

But I mean why would it be. I feel like the Wall Street Journal people will probably have an accurate estimation of what News Corp is whether they are lobbying for or against. Why would they include it in the non tech companies are objecting section?

[Micah Sargent]

That's true, that's true. I missed that part. Hmm, hmm. See and that's where I'm going. What's the actual motivation? What is it? Because it's not, it's not what, it's not your first thought of what it is, it's not the second thought of what it is. There's other 4D chess going on here.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean it could be as simple as the Australian law specifically targets social media companies. Coso char targets Internet service providers generally. So it would potentially implicate or require companies like the Wall Street Journal to make sure that its users are above 16 or something. Not that I feel like many 14 year olds are reading the Wall Street.

[Leo Laporte]

Journal and if they do encourage them because that's a good thing. You want your 14 year old to read the Wall Street Journal. What was the Family Ties was the one with Michael J. Fox and he was, he was wear a suit and he was very serious and his parents were hippies.

[Paris Martineau]

Was this another 60s sitcom?

[Leo Laporte]

You don't remember that show?

[Paris Martineau]

Do you remember the 80s?

[Micah Sargent]

I don't. Yeah, I Don't know.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh my God. I thought I was being young and hip and referring to that.

[Micah Sargent]

I, I, I, I know, I know that show.

[Paris Martineau]

Referring to a young. To a show that aired.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, my God.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. I'm only 30.

[Paris Martineau]

Stephen and Elise Keaton, once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in a Reagan era America trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton is an ambitious young Republican and his sister Mal Mallory is a shallow victim of the corporate culture.

[Leo Laporte]

And I'm pretty sure Alex P. Keaton read the Wall Street Journal. I'm pretty sure he did. All right, you're watching the old guy and two young people on this weekend.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, how the turntable.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, I feel like I now understand how you feel being in Paris. Being like.

[Micah Sargent]

That was a reference. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Was it?

[Micah Sargent]

That was a reference to the office.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, how the turntables. Yeah. Did Michael Scott say that? I bet he good.

[Micah Sargent]

Very good.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, how the turntables. That's good.

[Paris Martineau]

We're proud of you.

[Leo Laporte]

You know, Micah used to do an office podcast.

[Micah Sargent]

I did watch it.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

It is called Somehow I Manage.

[Leo Laporte]

That's just a great name for a show.

[Paris Martineau]

That is really good.

[Leo Laporte]

Wonderful name. I might steal that from Office Podcast.

[Paris Martineau]

D and D Podcast. What can't you podcast about?

[Leo Laporte]

He does it all.

[Micah Sargent]

I did a podcast on sleep, science and dreams at one point called Lucid, you can do it all.

[Leo Laporte]

I. This is completely parenthetical, but I have for years not been able to sleep through the night. I'd wake up and buy stuff on Instagram, as you know.

[Paris Martineau]

As you well know, that's probably the Ambien you take.

[Leo Laporte]

I don't take anything to go to sleep at all. I just have a hard time falling back asleep if I wake up. And it's usually around three or four in the morning. But over the last two weeks it stopped and I started taking a magnesium supplement. I wonder if it's that.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes, I was gonna, I was. Oh, wow, that's wild. I was literally going to suggest if you're weird about melatonin or anything else, try magnesium. I'm so glad you're doing that. Yeah. It makes me wonder if in the middle of the night, what's happening while you're still asleep has to do with some form of restless muscles or even aches in the body that are waking you up. And magnesium hurts to calm your muscles down.

[Paris Martineau]

And if you want to get that supplement listener, go to infowars.com supplements.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, wait a minute. I'm going to get even more detailed because it's got some name like brain Magnesium because it is a form. Magnesium can come in a variety of forms and this one is designed to pass through the blood brain barrier.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, brain magnesium.

[Leo Laporte]

It's Brain Mag. In fact, let me just pull it up so you can see it. I'm looking for it now on my. It's called Neuro Mag. Neuromag. L Threonate. Magnesium. Magnesium.

[Micah Sargent]

L Threonate. They attach it to some sort of, what is it? Second generation or first generation antihistamine so that it'll actually cross the blood brain barrier.

[Paris Martineau]

Wow.

[Leo Laporte]

Here's the. Here's the problem. I started reading the supplements subreddit.

[Paris Martineau]

Don't do that.

[Leo Laporte]

No, I'm.

[Micah Sargent]

I don't know. But now it's working.

[Leo Laporte]

What's weird is and I didn't associate the two. It wasn't like I thought, oh, now I'll sleep well. But I didn't realize that that's the timing. And I have heard that magnesium is helpful and sleep.

[Micah Sargent]

Yep. You were biphasic before and now you're back.

[Paris Martineau]

Now you're sleeping through the night.

[Leo Laporte]

I literally sleep like a little baby. I sleep through the night.

[Paris Martineau]

Two things. One, that's great. People should use supplements if they feel like it's good. But also everyone be aware that supplements could contain anything. They're not regulated by the fda. Three, when I was at right as I was about to film my dad taking the turkey out of that pot in our driveway, I was really tired. Tired. I realized later because I had been drinking on the non drinking antibiotics. That's beside the point. I was really tired. I was like, man, I'm so tired. And my dad was like, oh, have you tried Joe Rogan's Neurogum? No.

[Micah Sargent]

And I was like, oh, were you being tried?

[Paris Martineau]

No. And so. And I thought I was like, well, one in Florida, I guess. And so I did try. It's not by Joe Rogan. I guess he just promoted it once. I wouldn't recommend it. It didn't really do anything for me. But I thought that's where you're going when you said neuro D something.

[Leo Laporte]

But no, God, Neurogum.

[Paris Martineau]

It didn't taste good and it didn't really make me that much more awake. But I just the phrase have you tried Joe Rogan's Neurogum forever? Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, have you tried Joe Rogan's Neurogum?

[Paris Martineau]

I was like, you know, I haven't.

[Leo Laporte]

But oh yeah, this is the future of gum and mints.

[Paris Martineau]

You know, you may, you may have wondered what is the future of gum?

[Micah Sargent]

And I've always wondered what the future of gum and mints is.

[Leo Laporte]

There's a science to the science. There you go. That's a phrase that really encourages you.

[Micah Sargent]

Are you kidding me? There's a science to the science.

[Leo Laporte]

And you know what the science is? We've gone through dozens of formulations, processes, and tests to ensure each gum and mint we make delivers on the promise of getting you in the right state at the right time. Trademark.

[Micah Sargent]

Which one did you have? Energy and focus. Sleep at Recharge or Coleman Clarity, I think.

[Paris Martineau]

Energy and focus. It had caffeine. I looked at it like caffeine in it. It was caffeine.

[Leo Laporte]

This guy's been chewing it so long, he stopped wearing clothing. So that's impressive.

[Micah Sargent]

It warms about too much. Joe Rogan probably has lion's mane in it or something.

[Paris Martineau]

Endorsed it for energy and focus.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, okay. I might as well reveal that now that we don't have ads anymore, I am going to start selling gum and mint. Gum and mints. No.

[Micah Sargent]

I love the idea that you reach into the package and you don't know if you're gonna pull out.

[Leo Laporte]

Is it a mint?

[Paris Martineau]

I know.

[Leo Laporte]

Should I chew it? Should I suck it?

[Paris Martineau]

The thing is. The thing is, Micah, you. I did that. I reached in and I pulled out what looks like a mint. It's like one of those big circular, like, white, flat things. And I was like, oh, I guess this isn't a gum. It's a mint. But no, it was. It was. It was. No, it was. It was gum.

[Leo Laporte]

It was gum.

[Paris Martineau]

Rating is a rating as a minute. Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay. So I think we should probably say at this point, as you started to. Do not listen to us.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Do not buy this crap.

[Paris Martineau]

I will say I had it. Wouldn't recommend it. I mean, it was fun for a moment to just live in the uncertainty of will this do anything for me? It didn't.

[Leo Laporte]

We haven't used science in our science.

[Micah Sargent]

There are science.

[Leo Laporte]

And as you point out, you're really. You're right when you say the FDA does not regulate supplements. It's exempt.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, there could be anything in there, especially if you're buying them from Amazon. Leo. There could be anything in there. I don't buy even, like, toiletries from Amazon because there could be anything in there.

[Leo Laporte]

I could be sleeping. It's got a new. It's made from poppies.

[Micah Sargent]

Micro sing. Poppy seeds.

[Leo Laporte]

We don't know. Know. Yeah, we don't know.

[Paris Martineau]

Feeling something.

[Micah Sargent]

But where do. Where do we draw the line, we gotta trust somewhere people.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, that's actually the question of the.

[Paris Martineau]

Era and facts, all a myth, the human language made up.

[Leo Laporte]

But don't you think that you have to, at some point, as an adult, kind of make a decision about what sources to trust and what sources not?

[Ad Voiceover]

Yes, I.

[Micah Sargent]

This gets frustrating for me. Talking to other people. This frustrates me. Talking to other people? No, talking. Talking to other people who will just decide that they don't trust anything unless they've discovered it or figured it out themselves. But the problem with that is they then won't go discover it or figure it out themselves, so they just are left not trusting and believing in anything. And so it's like science is out the window, research studies are out the window. Well, they could have lied about this, because one time I was part of this thing where we were supposed to be collecting data and all of the data was fudged. So, obviously, all data must be fudged across everything. That's. It's.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, it might be. It's true. Eric Duckman, in our YouTube chat, says he trusts Mayo Clinic, WebMD and maybe Healthline. Those all have been, in the past, reasonably trustworthy sources of medical information. Right.

[Micah Sargent]

I think it's about how you use those. Right. Because WebMD can very easily tell you you've got a brain tumor when you don't, depending on what symptoms you, you know, you pop into it. And so it's about what you do when using them. And for me, I tend to. If I. If it's an article from one of these sites, I will look at the person who wrote this article and at least do a little bit of clicking and searching, due diligence, to kind of try to find where they came from. And if they've got, you know, their hand in the cookie jar of big sugar or whatever it happens to be whenever it's a story about, you know, sugar replacements. But, yeah, you pay.

[Leo Laporte]

I trust you, actually.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. I am one person you listen to.

[Leo Laporte]

I listen to you because you do look into all this stuff.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

But I think increasingly it's difficult for us, all of us, to know who to trust. You know, the minute private equity buys WebMD, or. Or, you know, the Mayo Clinic starts using AI to generate its articles, and, you know, that both things could happen, happen, and then all bets are off.

[Micah Sargent]

Then we have to just. I don't know what we do at that point.

[Leo Laporte]

This brings me to our word of the year, ladies and gentlemen, which is brain rot.

[Micah Sargent]

Which is not. I guess. I guess it Counts as a compound word.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, it's not a word. First of all, Oxford University Press. It's two words.

[Micah Sargent]

Those should be phrase of the year, right?

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, I would argue that brain rot should be spelled without or.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, just.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, it's one word. Brain. Brain rot, they call it. It's the phrase or word of the year. It's a term that captures the concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low quality online content, especially social media.

[Micah Sargent]

The usage podcast. Brain rot. How dare you.

[Leo Laporte]

This is from the BBC. The usage saw an increase. The usage of the term brain rot saw an increase of 230% in the last year. It's a symptom of the times we're living in, says a psychologist and Oxford University professor. Brain rot beat five other phrases on the dictionary publisher short list, including. Are you ready for this? You're gonna have to explain it to me. Demure.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, God. Very mindful.

[Paris Martineau]

That's very mindful.

[Leo Laporte]

Demure and mindful. That's the tick tock meme that they're suing. Somebody's suing somebody else over stealing.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, that's the clean girl lifestyle suit.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, that's the clean girl lifestyle Romantasy.

[Paris Martineau]

Brain rot, actually, romantic is romantic fantasy novels. It's based on book talk. It's a subgenre.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay. Is it a commonly used phrase?

[Paris Martineau]

I've heard it actually a lot in the last six months.

[Leo Laporte]

Dynamic pricing. I've heard that one.

[Micah Sargent]

What is that?

[Paris Martineau]

Clearly two words. Not even close to one word.

[Micah Sargent]

Price changing. Dynamic pricing is just a price changing.

[Leo Laporte]

It's. It's the flip side of surge pricing. Right. It's just the pricing changes depending on demand.

[Paris Martineau]

Okay, so I don't like that that was included anyway.

[Leo Laporte]

They crossed those off. Brain rot is the winner, defined as the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Like this show, Henry David Thoreau actually included the phrase in Walden in 1854.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow. They were worried about brain rot even back then. He wrote, although it was very real, back then, it was a disease.

[Leo Laporte]

While England endeavors to cure the potato rot will not any endeavor to cure the brain rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally.

[Micah Sargent]

I still think that he could have been talking about a disease.

[Leo Laporte]

It could be actual brain rot, is what you're saying. Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

Some sort of amoeba.

[Leo Laporte]

There is. There is no evidence of brain rot actually being a thing. Says the same professor. Instead, it describes Our dissatisfaction with the online world. Oh, it's a meta world.

[Micah Sargent]

That's true. Because it is. It's people complaining about the things they don't like online.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a word we can use to bundle our anxieties that we have around social. Social media that psychologist Knox for university professor Andrew Przeby. Przbielski. Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

The other two words on the short list were lore and slop, which I both think are good.

[Micah Sargent]

Those are good words.

[Paris Martineau]

I feel like has a Bing has been a big one this year. Slop as in like L O R E Lord. Yeah, but. But used in like the sense of. Of I've got lore. Or let's like talk about our lore. Like your background history, anything. Like kind of just as a shorthand for a lot of information.

[Leo Laporte]

So last year's word was Riz.

[Micah Sargent]

I hate that.

[Paris Martineau]

I do remember having to explain that to you guys.

[Leo Laporte]

You explained rising up and all of that stuff. And I'm glad you did because I've been seeing it a lot in.

[Paris Martineau]

I showed the baby Gronk, Livy, Riz Pitt, Leo. Which still to this day is means nothing. That's brain rot.

[Micah Sargent]

That is total.

[Leo Laporte]

That's funny. It's because Riz and brain rock kind of go hand in hand, don't they?

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Demure dynamic pricing lore a body of supposed facts. Background lore is a real word. Okay. Romantic, not. What is slop?

[Paris Martineau]

AI Slop.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

Art, writing or other content generated using AI.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay.

[Paris Martineau]

That's low quality stuff.

[Leo Laporte]

This is from the Oxford University Press who publish the oed, which is widely considered the definitive volume I have.

[Paris Martineau]

The OED is fantastic. Honestly, the online is phenomenal too. You can look up the etymology of words.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

Crazy.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, that's what I have the 25 volume set on my. My. My library manifest was the winner last year. Last month, according to Cambridge Manifest. Manifest. Cambridge Dictionary.

[Micah Sargent]

It just means. Yeah, it's like not manifest like a plane manifest, but to bring something about. You're saying, oh, I am manifest this year.

[Paris Martineau]

I'm manifesting more advertisers for next week.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Dua Lipa manifested her performance at Glastonbury.

[Paris Martineau]

No, that would be a more traditional sense use of the word. I'd say you could say she.

[Micah Sargent]

She. She manifested a great performance. I guess would be a little bit more. Yeah, or like manifested rave reviews of her.

[Leo Laporte]

They say manifested her headline slot at Glastonbury as an example.

[Micah Sargent]

Well, I. They're wrong.

[Leo Laporte]

They're wrong. Okay. Collins in English dictionary last month said the word of the year was brat. I think brat.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, wait, last month.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. They announced that in November that brat was the word of the year.

[Micah Sargent]

I don't. Is this a different dictionary?

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, Collins, that is. These are all the other. Yeah. These for the.

[Paris Martineau]

For the year. That's wrong. Brat was the word of the summer. Summer, Brat. Summer. But it is not a year.

[Leo Laporte]

And once Kamala Harris lost the election. No. Everybody denies any knowledge of the word brat. Sorry. Sorry. Character.

[Micah Sargent]

We actually started pronouncing it brought.

[Leo Laporte]

Brought.

[Micah Sargent]

Short for bratwurst. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Demure took off after content creator Jules Lebron posted on TikTok about her demure work outfit and mindful makeup.

[Paris Martineau]

Very demure, Very mindful.

[Leo Laporte]

Very mindful. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, the latest in etymology. What is the study of words? Words. Etymology is a study word Dictology. Dictology. The latest in dictology. On this week, Google Dictology. I have one thing to say to that. Hock to a. Thank you.

[Micah Sargent]

Very good, very good. Very demure. Very Lexicology.

[Leo Laporte]

Running away from the podcast, Lexicology.

[Micah Sargent]

No brain rot here.

[Leo Laporte]

Not dictology.

[Micah Sargent]

I have so much brain. Listening to you all talk about all.

[Leo Laporte]

This created brain rot.

[Micah Sargent]

I'm manifesting that as the word of the year next year. Dictology.

[Leo Laporte]

Dictology. Could we. I mean, if we, you know, really created a campaign, could we create a word of the year? No, because the people even who create it don't have any control over it. It just kind of becomes a life of itself.

[Micah Sargent]

Right. Like, got to go viral.

[Leo Laporte]

Demure and so forth. Yeah, it's got to go. And no one. Does anyone yet know how to make something go for viral?

[Micah Sargent]

Right? I don't know that it's possible. I mean, they come close. There are some who, you know, work their formulas.

[Leo Laporte]

Mr. Beast tries really hard, but I don't know if that.

[Micah Sargent]

But part of that is just building on what fan base you already have. Right. And so it's different from just coming up out of nothing and suddenly Demure, Mindful is on the waves.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. All right. You're watching this week in Dictology, Twid. It's a new show. Show. It's very exciting. This week in Google, Micah Sargent filling in for Jeff Jarvis. Great to have you, Micah. Thank you.

[Micah Sargent]

He's good to be here.

[Leo Laporte]

Tech News Weekly. Hands on technology. When's the next crafting corner coming up?

[Micah Sargent]

That will be December 19th. We're doing a special early episode because I heard from some European folks who said, please let me tune in. So 9am on Thursday, December 19, you'll all be able to join me for Crafting Corner and we'll continue working on Jason's Kitchen, which is the name of the little mint. Wow. I'm breaking it apart. Little miniature that we're building together.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, geez.

[Paris Martineau]

Let's get into the new.

[Leo Laporte]

So you're not doing crew work now, you're building.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, that's one that I made. It is plugged in, so I can't really bring it over, but it's coffee shots. Yes. It's got little lights in it. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Do you play lo Fi music out of it just to.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, exactly. Lo fi coffee music.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

I ended up. So basically I was building it for. I was building one. Jason's Kitchen for Crafting Corner. And I was enjoying it so much that I said, I just want to get one to do on my own time. And I ended up getting sick. And so while I was not feeling well, I just sat there at the kitchen counter, like, wrapped in a blanket, building for hours. I had so much fun. It was great.

[Leo Laporte]

Perfect.

[Paris Martineau]

That's lovely.

[Leo Laporte]

I've been staying up late doing advent of code coding challenges and common lists.

[Micah Sargent]

And you're doing it on stage.

[Leo Laporte]

That's in real time. Yeah, Real people watching me make stupid mistakes.

[Micah Sargent]

That. This is your practice for finally just saying I'm going to do Jeopardy, isn't it?

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, God, no.

[Micah Sargent]

If you can do this, then you could do.

[Leo Laporte]

I could do Jeopardy. Yeah. Jason Snell, by the way, we need.

[Paris Martineau]

To finally do our Baldur's Gate £3.

[Leo Laporte]

And now says we're going to do a marathon network marathon game.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay, hold on, hold on. You said.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, you backed it up immediately.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, I'll participate. I didn't say I an atchis. What is marathon, though? Because I.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, it's a very old game. Predates you. It was big in the mid-90s. It was the folks who did that.

[Micah Sargent]

Folks who did that in 94.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay, well, that's about when it came out.

[Micah Sargent]

I came out in 92.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, okay. So you were 2 years old when you played marathon. Exactly.

[Paris Martineau]

It does predate me.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, it does predate her. It was the folks who did it were Bungie. Who eventually were acquired by Microsoft. Did Halo. Halo. Oh, okay. Halo really was the descendant of Marathon and was one of the first multiplayer online games. You could do it at a LAN party kind of thing. And we used to do it on the site on msnbc back when I was working.

[Paris Martineau]

When you were dev null.

[Leo Laporte]

When I. Yes, very good. And it turns out Carsten Bondi, who was part of the Dev Null team and a producer at the show, told me much later, he said, yeah, we all hated you. And so we all decided to gang up on you and hate Halo and. Or a marathon and frag you with the rocket launchers.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow. What did you do? You're just annoying because you were Dev.

[Leo Laporte]

No, I guess I was annoying. Yeah. I don't know.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, Dev no did seem. He was a tough gig.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. You. He wouldn't. You wouldn't. You wouldn't offer Dev Noel any of your drugs if you had them?

[Leo Laporte]

No. Give me some magnesium. Now.

[Micah Sargent]

You're not hanging out with us.

[Leo Laporte]

I will do. I think I'm going to do some Valheim too. I think it's just, you know, it's a very easy thing for me to do to. When I'm. I'm doing this anyway, turn on the camera and chat with people. The coding has been a lot of fun. Been really, really rewarding for me. I really enjoy it. Also here. Paris Martino. That's, by the way. That's my kind of crafting. Paris.

[Paris Martineau]

What?

[Leo Laporte]

Do you have a craft that you do you. Besides pruning trees?

[Paris Martineau]

Not right now. I'm kind of craftless. I've been doing some painting, knitting.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, that's neat.

[Paris Martineau]

Kind of fun. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

You seem like a knitter.

[Paris Martineau]

I know I do, but I. I'm not. I wish I was. I would like to specifically be an embroiderer because I make a lot of very silly hats and if I knew how to embroider, then I could cut out the middleman for making my hats.

[Leo Laporte]

What's your latest?

[Paris Martineau]

What is my latest?

[Leo Laporte]

You wear one to Thanksgiving.

[Paris Martineau]

One of the latest ones I got. I got a strange joke embroidered on a baby onesie from my friend who's having.

[Micah Sargent]

I'm glad you finished that.

[Leo Laporte]

I'm thinking brain rot on a hat would actually be pretty good.

[Paris Martineau]

Brain rot in a hat would be kind of good.

[Micah Sargent]

I think also gum and mints would be good.

[Paris Martineau]

Gum and mints.

[Leo Laporte]

Very demure, very mindful.

[Paris Martineau]

This is the thing is, once you start thinking of things that would be good hat ideas, you just have too many good hat ideas.

[Micah Sargent]

You're right. We do need to learn to embroider. We can all work on it while we're podcasting.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

This is this week in Google.

[Paris Martineau]

This week in gum and mints.

[Leo Laporte]

That could be Twiggy. Twig them. Twig them. Somebody said you can't have twit. It's already reserved for this weekend. Donuts oh that's right, Keith Donuts got.

[Ad Voiceover]

Great ideas but no idea how to build a Webster Website get bluehost with their AI design tool, you can quickly generate a high quality, fast loading WordPress site instantly. Once you've nailed the look, just hit enter and your site goes live. It's really that simple. And it doesn't matter whether you're a blogger, influencer or just starting your side hustle, bluehost has you covered with built in marketing and e commerce tools to help you grow and scale your website for the long haul. And when you upgrade to Bluehost Cloud you get 100% uptime and 24. 7 support to ensure your site stays online through heavy traffic. Bluehost really makes building your dream website easier than ever. So what's stopping you? You've already got the vision. Make it real. Visit bluehost.com right now and get started today.

At&T customers Switching to T Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com carrierfreedom to switch today.

Pay off up to 650 via virtual prepaid MasterCard in 15 days. Free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax qualifying port and trade in service on Go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance and required finance agreement is due.

[Leo Laporte]

So big shock earlier this week when Intel's CEO so I'm going to put this in air quotes, Retired Pat Gelsinger, who had been hired just a few years ago to turn the ailing chipmaker around, announced that he was retiring, effective immediately. In other words, the board fired him. Early Monday, the board brought him in to try to save the company. Pat Gelsinger's plan with intel was to kind of focus on two different businesses. Instead of being an integrated shipment maker that both designed and built its chips, separate out the design and foundry business, build chips for other people, he said at one point. We want to build Apple's chips. We want to build everybody's chips. Intel did in fact get almost $8 billion in funding from the Chips act to build those fabs in the United States. But their stock has been very weak over the past year. Their profits have been down and just a few months ago they were delisted from the Dow, replaced by Nvidia. And that's one of those kinds of things the board doesn't like at all. So Gelsinger is out, clearly fired because they didn't have an immediate replacement. There was nobody groomed to take over. Really sad to see this dominant, what was in my time, in my day, a dominant chipmaker on its back foot.

[Micah Sargent]

How long do you think the company has, has recognized that it was on its back foot? Do you think it was caught off guard by its own? You think it knew the writing was on the wall?

[Leo Laporte]

I think it's the innovator's dilemma. Where you're so successful in a certain area, it's very hard for you to start over. They really, they realized early on that mobile processors, low power, low heat mobile processors were the future. They created something called X scale. Didn't take off as an army based mobile processor. Didn't take off. They've been so successful with their x86 chips that it's been hard for them to turn the corner. In fact, it was interesting. There was the autobiography of the guy who founded tsmc, the Taiwanese chip maker who's been eating Intel's lunch came out a couple of days ago. And in it one of the things he said is I met with Tim Cook. As early as 2011, Apple came to TSMC and said can we help you develop chips for our phones and our computers? So as early as 2011, 13 years ago, Apple said, the writing's on the wall. Intel's not going to deliver what we need to move forward. We're going to have to do it ourselves. They started the conversation with TSMC and kind of in some ways a self fulfilling prophecy because they also poured so much money into TSMC to develop new technology technologies like EUV to develop these chips. They in effect gave them a head start, they kind of pushed them forward and intel as a result has really suffered. It's a sad end to a company that for many, many years was synonymous with computing.

[Micah Sargent]

Is it still in the computer builder space? I mean, do you have anyone else you can turn to?

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, there's AMD, but AMD is also x86 and it's, it's a, it's a fraction of the size of Intel. Yeah, the thing, I think the writing on the wall with Apple's success with its, its M series chips and now Microsoft really pushing its Qualcomm chips, its ARM based chips. In fact, I don't know if you've seen the ads in the, this past week Microsoft's pushing their copilot pus PCs based on Snapdragon, not Intel saying they're the smartest fastest computers they've ever made. It's a real kind of kick in the pants to Intel. Gelsinger said leading intel has been the honor of my lifetime. This group of people is among the best and the brightest in the business. I'm honored to call each and every one a colleague. And now I'm going to take my little cardboard box and go home. He's 63. It's a little early to retire, but I bet you he's a little relieved.

[Paris Martineau]

I'm sure he's getting a golden parachute, probably.

[Leo Laporte]

He certainly made some money, but it really is kind of a. He's like, we were talking about this on Windows Weekly. It's like when Yahoo brought in Marissa Meyer to save the company. There's a point beyond which you can't save a company. Right. Nobody can be. Nobody's magical enough to turn a company around. And I think it's not Pat Gelzinger's fault. He was. He's been an intel forever. He studied under Andy Grove, Intel's legendary CEO. He was a chip engineer himself, so he knew the technology. He just could not make it work. So, yeah, Lava Being says in our discord, me and my boatload of money are going to take some time to plan our future. They always say, spend more time with our family.

[Micah Sargent]

Right.

[Leo Laporte]

It's got to be, you know, a little bit of a relief when things like that happen. You know, it's just I've been pushing and pushing and we're just not making any progress. It's getting worse and worse. And you go into the meeting and they say, say, you know, Pat, we appreciate everything you've done, but this is your last day here. We're going to put out a press release that you're retiring. It's got to be at first, like.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, there's a part you're like, oh, thank goodness, I no longer feel like Atlas.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, I think that's not unusual when you get fired to have that. It depends on how it's been going. If it's completely out of the blue. No, but for a lot of people, I think it's like, ah, free at last. Right. I can now.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, a lot of people have the financial security of a CEO. Certainly.

[Leo Laporte]

That's true. That's true. Have you ever been fired, Paris?

[Paris Martineau]

Nope, never. I've been laid off twice, though.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, yeah, that is very different. Right. If you're laid off with other people because of financial downturns and in your business, that's not unusual, sad to say. Mike, have you ever Been fired?

[Micah Sargent]

No. Laid off though. Once.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, yeah, I was fired once. At least once. I worked at. When I was a young guy in my 20s, I worked at a record store. And I came into the record store and the guy said, don't take off your jacket.

[Micah Sargent]

Whoa, whoa.

[Paris Martineau]

What?

[Micah Sargent]

So you didn't get to work one day?

[Leo Laporte]

He said, well, I didn't get to work that day. I'd been working there.

[Micah Sargent]

You had been working.

[Leo Laporte]

Okay, I had been working there.

[Paris Martineau]

What did you do?

[Leo Laporte]

I said, oh. And he. So he fired all. This is a little, I don't know, you couldn't do this in this day and age. He fired all the male employees and hired attractive young women to replace them.

[Micah Sargent]

In the record store.

[Leo Laporte]

Boy. So I didn't, I didn't feel like I didn't take it too personally.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, that was in college. I had a, a really wealthy roommate. Like one of those people who would just at the end of every semester would like buy a whole new wardrobe rather than carrying it to and from her parents house. But she told me one day she oh, I'm going to get my first job. I'm going to work at Boba Guys. The hot new like pop up tea shop. Yeah, a Boba tea place. And I was like, good for you, man. She goes in for a first date, comes back a few hours later. I'm like, how was it? And she was like, oh, I was there for like an hour or two and they told me they just don't need me anymore, that they have enough. And I was like, oh, you got fired for being so bad in your first hour.

[Micah Sargent]

First hour.

[Paris Martineau]

I never figured out exactly what she did.

[Leo Laporte]

What are these things at the bottom of the tea? Do I leave those in or take those out?

[Paris Martineau]

And I was like, that's classic. I've never had a job before being here.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, that is incredible. You almost think there should be awards for things like that.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Shortest. That's, that's less than a Scaramucci.

[Paris Martineau]

That is less than a Scaramucci.

[Leo Laporte]

That's darn fast. We also talked on Windows Weekly today about this was an interesting weird story. And you know, I didn't talk about it on Sunday on Twitter because I have felt a little stranger about it. The ap, Bloomberg, the New York Times and others reported that the FTC had opened an antitrust investigation against Microsoft. Of course, Microsoft was famously sued in the late 90s by the Department of Justice, which effectively won that. That suit went on for years. And I thought, oh, this should be a big story. Except that the FTC and Mike did not confirm. Would not confirm. Confirm it.

[Micah Sargent]

That's weird. Oh, and usually, usually correct me if I'm wrong. A government agency that gets caught out. Well, okay. A non clandestine government. Government agency that gets caught out doing a thing. They admit it if they're asked directly in the U.S. yeah, like that.

[Leo Laporte]

They're not required to say when the company's under investigation.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay.

[Leo Laporte]

Microsoft declined to comment. The FTC declined to comment. Here. This is the AP story. I mean a lot of people ran with it. I didn't because first of all, it's an investigation, not a lawsuit. They didn't actually take action. And it was a report that there was an investigation. But given that the FTC would refuse to confirm it.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, but I wonder what's going on there.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's the AP story. FTC opens Microsoft antitrust investigation.

[Micah Sargent]

Maybe because it's, we're in the middle of, you know, changing of the guard.

[Leo Laporte]

So that's what I think.

[Micah Sargent]

It's going to be that way down the road.

[Leo Laporte]

That's what I think. Yeah. I just don't, I don't know what it means. I mean it's got to be the case because there were so many different sources reporting it. But I just, I feel like that's not a story until it's a story. Story.

[Micah Sargent]

Exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

You know what I'm saying? Hey, here's some good news.

[Micah Sargent]

Trust us.

[Leo Laporte]

Here's some good news. Did you know that it's legal for data brokers to sell your Social Security number? Did you know that that's legal? That they, if they could get it, they could sell it. So the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is thinking of maybe banning them from selling your Social Security number.

[Paris Martineau]

Maybe, maybe consumer protection.

[Leo Laporte]

I should point out that the cfpb, which was started by Elizabeth Warren is one of the agencies Elon Musk has announced is going to delete. Because we don't want to protect consumers. We don't want to do that. So they're proposing a rule limit. I. This stunned me. Limiting data brokers ability to sell Americans sensitive personal and financial information. Their income, their credit history, their credit score, their debt, payments. Payments or Social Security. And if they did sell that information, they'd be required to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting act, which of course they don't want to do. They'd be treated like, you know, experian, Equifax and TransUnion. They'd be a credit bureau instead of a data broker.

[Paris Martineau]

I always. So in our, in newsrooms I've worked at over the last decade. I have always usually had access to a service called LexisNexis.

[Leo Laporte]

Right.

[Paris Martineau]

It's often used by legal professionals. And one thing I always found wild about that is you could look up anybody's name and get, like, the last four of their social. Obviously, you know, it's not the other numbers, but I was like, how can I obtain this about anybody's name that I put in here? It's crazy.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

And yet it's legal. And it's been legal to sell the entire Social Security number. And meanwhile, Congress is saying, well, we got to ban Tik Tok because they could be spying on us. But all the Chinese have to do is go to National Public Data or one of the other data brokers and say, hey, I'd like some information on Paris Martino. And they'll sell it to them for not much, by the way. It's cheap.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, I assume part of the reason why something like this hasn't passed before is because there's been a lot of reporting showing that law enforcement all around the U.S. use this.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE and the FBI both rely on data brokers, and they do it because they can get around surveillance restrictions, laws preventing them from surveilling people. Oh, we don't have to surveil them. We'll just buy it. We'll just buy it anyway. This is, of course, one of those. I think there's. You're seeing all this stuff. You're going to see it for next couple of months, and then there'll be inauguration, and then I don't know what's going to happen after. In the new administration. It may well be that Elon Musk gets his way and the CFPB gets deleted. There are a lot of people who would like to delete it. Actually, I think Trump has just nominated for the SEC a pro crypto.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes. A crypt bro.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, bro. Let me just look up this name, because I just saw that as we were starting the show, Paul Atkins thought that he would be much more pro crypto than the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler. Trump announced that this morning Atkins was an. Was an SEC commissioner under Bush, George W. Bush. So he's not a crypto, bro. He has worked in the SEC during Republican and Democratic administrations, but he has, according to the New York Times, been seen as a strong advocate for looser regulation of crypto assets. Shortly after his term as an SEC Commissioner ended in 2008, he founded a financial services consulting firm, more recent, that provides advisory Services to banks and investment firms. More recently, the firm has advised clients on issues related to crypto and digital assets. So he's, I think, widely believed to.

[Paris Martineau]

Be pro crypto stand with crypto.org group that's been tracking crypto electoral victories. Has it that 278 pro crypto candidates have been elected to the House of Representatives and 20 to the Senate?

[Leo Laporte]

Yes. So this is going to be a good year for crypto. In his post, Mr. Trump said Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations. He recognizes that digital assets, assets and other innovations are crucial to making America greater than ever before. Oh, that's a new Magteb magic one. Yeah. The Hawk Coin crypto industry spent tens of millions of dollars during this year's presidential campaign to promote softer regulation. Biden was seen as cracking down on crypto. Gensler especially was seen as a enemy of crypto because he advocated for regulating it like a secure security. And they didn't want that.

[Micah Sargent]

God forbid.

[Leo Laporte]

Paul, a former colleague says Paul will embrace technological innovation, especially crypto and digital finance, after years of SEC hostility and regulation by enforcement. All right, well, we'll see what that means. Should you go out and buy more Bitcoin? Yeah, I'm not going to make any.

[Micah Sargent]

Recommendations, but what, what I wonder what that does mean because Hawk Coin can exist right now. So it's not as if there it's, I don't know, it's already seems very free. Like the market seems real open and available for anybody to plunder. So the idea that, you know, we're putting someone in charge who is going to somehow make it even more open. It seems pretty open right now.

[Paris Martineau]

What are you talking about, Micah? Hawk Coin is secure and highly regulated secure securities project.

[Leo Laporte]

Really? Does it say that in the prospectus?

[Micah Sargent]

No, I'm just playing the lawyer for October Gal.

[Leo Laporte]

It is demure and mindful though.

[Paris Martineau]

That is true.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Canada is going after Google. Canada's antitrust watchdog. This just in. Is suing Google alleging anti competitive conduct in particular in advertising, which is the same thing that Google, Google's been in trouble for here in the States, in fact lost. They lost that court case in the States. Canada's Competition bureau suing Alphabet, saying, let's see, asking to Google to sell 2 of its ad tech tools. It's also seeking a penalty from Google to promote compliance with Canada's competition laws. One more country that Google's in trouble. Monday, the closing arguments in the US Case were made. The judge, I think has a few months now to decide how to Penalize Google. Remember that the government wants them to sell Chrome, among other things. Earlier this year, Google offered to sell the ad Exchange, its ad exchange to end an EU antitrust investigation. But European publishers rejected the proposal as insufficient. Oh, it's starting to warm.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, it really is. I think especially now we're seeing these different countries all hop on board, just. Yeah, these big tech companies have to be sweating a little bit.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, I mean, you could say, oh, well, once Trump is in office, in a month and a half we're going to, things will be a little bit better for Google. Remember that President Elect Trump said Google, he liked Google now because they're scaring the China Chinese. But it's not just the us. You got the EU and you.

[Micah Sargent]

Exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

You've already got a car case you lost. It's.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, there's precedent now. There's precedent.

[Leo Laporte]

One more FTC story. They have changed. This is wild. They've changed their telecommunic, their telemarketing rules to go after tech support scam calls. Now here's the thing, they've always been able to go after you after a tech support scam call. If they call you. If they call you and say, hey, your computer is running. Is your computer running? We'll go catch it. They can, they can go after him. But that's why most of the scams now involve getting you to call them. They put a pop up on your Windows machine that says you've got a virus, call this number. And I didn't know this, but the regulations say if you call them, the FTC can't go after them. The FTC could already go after them if they called you, but not if you called them. They're going to change that rule.

[Micah Sargent]

That's good. Yeah. What they're doing is finding some other way to reach out to get you to call that number. And so up to that point, yeah, they were kind of using that little gray area there, that loophole where. Well, it's your fault because you called them. No, now that's.

[Paris Martineau]

Sorry, you're out of luck.

[Leo Laporte]

The loophole was put there by the Supreme Court which ruled in the 2021 one case called AMG Capital Management versus the FTC, they ruled that they limited the FTC's ability to go after scammers if the, if you called them. So the FTC had to rewrite rules because they weren't able to go after outbound calls. Now the tsr, that's the name of the rule, the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The TS has Been changed to remove technical support services from a list of services that are exempt. Great. The FTC says older consumers over the age of 60. Why that's just a spring chicken. Those are youngsters. We're five times more likely to be victims of these scams. $175 million in losses this year. This year the big one was the fake Geek squad call. Did you ever get a text from the geek Squad squad?

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, absolutely.

[Leo Laporte]

I get a lot of them say, hey, there's a geek squad call us. Well, now you know why they want you to call them. Fake Geek squad calls topped the list of fraud in 2024. $15 million in losses.

[Paris Martineau]

How many people Geek Squad in 2024?

[Micah Sargent]

You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. If you want a nice feel good, maybe make you tear up a little bit. Movie that involves some of this. I'm telling you, go to Hulu and watch Thelma. You can also buy the movie or rent the movie, but it's called Thelma.

[Leo Laporte]

Is this after she and Louise drove off the cliff? It's her story.

[Paris Martineau]

No, that's what I assumed.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

No, it's. It's about. The basic plot is 93, 93 year old grandmother loses some money to one of these con artists and then decides to try to get it back. And it is delightful and sweet.

[Leo Laporte]

Do not. We do not recommend that, by the way. Do not.

[Micah Sargent]

No, no, no. But watch the movie. We do recommend that.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

Thelma.

[Leo Laporte]

Thelma. Good. I will. Does it have a happy ending?

[Micah Sargent]

It does, yeah. I don't want to. I will spoil it for the sake of that.

[Leo Laporte]

Because most of the time there is not a happy ending.

[Micah Sargent]

Right. And in this case there is. And it's just.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a scooter X says I'm helping an older customer right now who lost about $6,000 in one of those scam popups. She's not been able to recover her Apple ID either because the recovery number and email were changed. And Apple says we can't help you. They can help the other people. They can help the bad guys. I guess they can't help you. That's too bad. That's too bad.

[Micah Sargent]

It's really frustrating. And there's no good answer for or how to correct things after the fact other than trying to use one of these, you know, huge agencies and so often they're not available to help out.

[Leo Laporte]

With that they're not gonna help you. Yeah, you're really at a lot. I know so many people. Not so many, but I know a Number of people who've been bit by these lost thousands of dollars. And it's just, it's understandable. There was a story on TV in our local news, woman up the road appeared piece. I don't know why, how it made it to the local news, but she was scammed by somebody who called claiming to be her grandson, saying he was in jail and he needed bail money.

[Micah Sargent]

That's literally what the Thelma plot is.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, really? Yes. Wow. Well, this happens a lot because. And this, by the way, this goes back to the data brokers because they get this information, you know, from a variety of places. They learn who her grandson is, what his name is, and then enough facts that they can convince her that, oh, I'm calling from jail, grandma, I got arrested. If you could just wire me of $6,000 for bail, I'll pay you back. She did, by the way, lost the money. And all you could do is go to the police and say, hey, it happened to me and there's not much they can do about it. Yeah, they're not gonna get your money back. What a world. What a world. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, you are watching this week in Google. So glad we get Micah Sargent in for the day. We appreciate it. I don't like to ask Micah too much because he has a full time job, you know, but every once in a while.

[Micah Sargent]

But when I can, I do enjoy joining you all.

[Leo Laporte]

Really appreciate it. Paris Martino has a full time job too, but it's not doing podcasts. Yes. Do you do any other podcasts?

[Paris Martineau]

No, I do not. This is my one and only.

[Leo Laporte]

You want to do The Balers Gate 3 podcast though. I know you want to do that.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean that would be a vodcast, but Yeah, I guess this is a podcast as well, but that would be.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow. Vodcast.

[Leo Laporte]

Is that what the kids call it?

[Micah Sargent]

That's brain rot.

[Leo Laporte]

I'm gonna do a vod. Let's do a vod.

[Paris Martineau]

A vod. A video podcast.

[Leo Laporte]

A lot I want to. Well, people call them pods, right? I hate that.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, they do, by the way.

[Paris Martineau]

Uhuh.

[Leo Laporte]

Really? It bothers me. I don't know why podcast bothers me.

[Paris Martineau]

Don't like pod. Seems wrong. It's a podcast.

[Leo Laporte]

I had.

[Paris Martineau]

The pod is being cast.

[Leo Laporte]

I had Paris and Mike on the pod. Today was great.

[Paris Martineau]

I do say that sometimes, but I'm usually being kind of facetious. On the pod today. Specifically on the pod today.

[Leo Laporte]

That is.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, that's the one use. I will use it.

[Leo Laporte]

Hey, we do think you may notice There the ads on this show, if you're hearing ads are, are inserted, which can be painful, but that's because we were unable to sell any ads on the show for this episode. And it's really not a reflection on this show. I hope it's not a reflection on our network. It's really what's going on in the podcast industry these days. There are the big hits, they're the Call Her Daddies and the Joe Rogan's but the Long Tail. There's. There are far fewer advertising dollars than there ever has have been. And we've been in this business 20 years. We've been able to see it come and go. It's why we started the club a few years ago and boy, it's been a success. We really love our club twit members. 12,000 strong. That's a good group of very smart, interesting people who like Twit enough to pony up $7 a month. There are benefits. You don't get those inserted ads. You don't get any ads. If you pay ad free versions of all of our shows. You also get, of course, the special stuff like we were talking about Micah's crafting corner and we have the coffee show, the photo show, photography show. I've been doing the coding, the late night coding, live streams. Stacy's book club's coming up in a couple of weeks. That's the new James S.A. corey novel I'm reading. It's quite good, Very interesting. So, so many good things go on in the club. We want to make it fun for everybody. And of course there's the Club Twit Discord where you can hang out any time of the day or night. There's always somebody in there, something going on, talking about all kinds of things, including of course, our shows. If you're interested, find out more at Twitter TV Club TWiT. There's a two week free trial if you want to see what it's like before you sign up. There's also a referral code. Everybody who signs up gets a referral code. They can post on their socials or wherever they, you know, with their church newsletter or whatever. Get other people to join the club. And everybody who joins using your referral code gets you a free month. I think that's a pretty good deal. Help us keep doing the job we do. I think it's really important. I really, I love the job we do. I want to keep doing it. And we think that we give you value for money. So if you think seven bucks is worth it, please go to TWiT TV Club TWiT and join the club and we thank you so much. Streaming thanks to club members streaming on eight different platforms including Discord, YouTube, Twitch Kick, TikTok, X.com, facebook and LinkedIn. It is a bonanza. Twit TV Club Twit got great ideas.

[Ad Voiceover]

But no idea how to build a website? Get bluehost with their AI design tool, you can quickly generate a high quality, fast loading WordPress site instantly. Once you've nailed the look, just hit enter and your site goes live. It's really that simple. And it doesn't matter whether you're a blog, blogger, influencer or just starting your side hustle, bluehost has you covered with built in marketing and e commerce tools to help you grow and scale your website for the long haul. And when you upgrade to Bluehost Cloud, you get 100% uptime and 24. 7 support to ensure your site stays online through heavy traffic. Bluehost really makes building your dream website easier than ever. So what's stopping you? You've already got the vision. Make it real. Visit bluehost.com right now and get started today.

After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan vs Verizon and at&t@t mobile.com keep.

And switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card allowed 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.

[Leo Laporte]

You're watching this week in Google. You know Meta, some years ago I don't remember they wanted to start something called Internet.org, which was basically their own Internet which they would provide at low cost to developing nations. That would feature a few public Internet things, mostly Facebook, Instagram. Yeah, maybe a little Wikipedia thrown in. I know India turned it down a few years ago saying we already know what colonization is like and thanks but no thanks. Well now Met has got a plan. This is from TechCrunch to build a round the world subsea cable. A cable that will carry a 40,000 kilometer cable. Cable could cost as much as $10 billion.

[Paris Martineau]

Critically, Meadow will be the sole owner and user of this cable.

[Leo Laporte]

Ah, it is literally the meta Internet starts in Virginia beach, goes to Cape Town, Durban, Mumbai, Chennai, India is very important. Darwin in the in Australia, then Eureka, California. It's they call it the W cable. Can you see why it looks kind of like a W?

[Micah Sargent]

I see that. Sort of.

[Leo Laporte]

Sort of.

[Micah Sargent]

It means wow.

[Paris Martineau]

I was going to. When you first started reading this article, I was like, oh, I'm always amazed and awe. In awe by undersea cables carrying the Internet. But I don't know, this doesn't interest me that.

[Leo Laporte]

Because it isn't the Internet, it's just.

[Paris Martineau]

It's just metaphor.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, it's kind of a bummer.

[Leo Laporte]

According to TechCrunch.

[Paris Martineau]

Carrying features they've copied from other apps.

[Leo Laporte]

Right. According to Ingrid Lundgren of TechCrunch, she's writing about it. The reason they want to do this. Well, there's two reasons. The first reason is. Let me see here. Sole ownership of the root and cable will give meta first dibs in capacity to support traffic on its own properties. And don't forget, it's not just Meta and Instagram because eventually the metaverse will ride on this. Right. That. This is.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, all those legs.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. If you're building a 3D virtual society, you're going to have to need a lot of bandwidth to make it work. But that's only one reason. The other is geopolitical. Several times in recent years, subsea cables have been taken down as a collateral or direct damage from warfare.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay, so then yours will just be another one of them that can be taken down. That's kind of silly.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, that's why it's a W. They are trying to avoid areas of geopolitical tension.

[Micah Sargent]

I see.

[Leo Laporte]

They're avoiding the Red Sea, the South China Sea, Egypt, Marseille, the Strait of Malacca and Singapore. Okay.

[Micah Sargent]

That's why it's a W. I guess Llama told them. Llama AI said these are the places where you should put it to stay out of trouble.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, it's just, you know, it's. It's amazing they have that. That kind of world conquering. He's kind of an Alexander the Great for the digital world, isn't he?

[Micah Sargent]

Don't let him hear that. Come on.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a new T shirt. He'll have a new T shirt. India is actually the biggest market for Facebook. 375 million users. 363 million Instagram users. 536. More than half a billion billion users of WhatsApp.

[Micah Sargent]

I forget about WhatsApp. So. I know that's weird to say, but I do.

[Leo Laporte]

It's part of their portfolio.

[Paris Martineau]

I do forget about WhatsApp. And that's definitely our American centric.

[Micah Sargent]

But that actually makes more sense. When it comes to having this undersea cable more than anything else, in my opinion, given that, and not that it's any better, but the fact that there's such a huge swath of the world elsewhere that is using it as a communications platform, that is kind of good.

[Paris Martineau]

And their primary communication.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. That there's going to be one that will hopefully not be disturbed by wartime nonsense. In theory. And that way, I kind of see the good of this, even though it's got, you know, the underlying tang of Zuckerberg.

[Leo Laporte]

The. Of course, this is. This was all done before this recent cable cutting. Two Internet cables cutting the ball. Baltic, they think, by a Chinese flagship that had just left Russia and dragged its anchor for 100 miles. Intentionally, perhaps.

[Micah Sargent]

Question mark.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, intentionally to cut those two cables from Lithuania to the rest of the world. It is. Seems like the kind of thing Russia might want to do. So I understand, you know, really what Meta is building is a direct cable. A direct safe cable to India.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Avoiding the Middle east, avoiding any danger areas. Wow.

[Micah Sargent]

I wonder if that could mean, though, in places where the Internet is far more, you know, censored, that having Meta be in charge, assuming that it chooses to take a lighter hand, if that could be a positive thing as well. You know, hard to say for sure, but that would be interesting.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

And potentially positive in that way.

[Leo Laporte]

This. This is kind of an ironic story. US Intelligence officials are urging Americans to use encrypted apps. You know, you are to start using Signal or WhatsApp, says the FBI and CE. And this is because Chinese hackers are in our phone system. We've talked about Salt Typhoon, and they say, until we can secure the phone system, why don't you use those encrypted apps we've been trying so hard to break over the last 20 years? Oh, now you want encryption, huh?

[Micah Sargent]

Or it's just. I don't get this. This is the second time today whenever we're going against what you would expect from. From. From whatever organization. In this case, the officials saying this is it. Is it? Because that's the. They're saying that as the only quick way for people to.

[Leo Laporte]

They're saying your telecommunications are not safe because Chinese hackers are sitting. Not. They're not Chinese hackers. Let's face it. Chinese intelligence officers are sitting in our phone networks monitoring whatever they want to monitor because it's not. Not encrypted. Two officials. In a call on Tuesday, a senior FBI official asked not to be named in Jeff Green, who's assistant director, Executive assistant director. For cybersecurity at cisa, both said use encrypted messaging apps. Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally is not new here. Encryption is your friend. Wait a minute, what? Whether it's on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication, even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it's encrypted, it'll make it impossible. That's Jeff Green from cisa. The FBI person said people looking to further protect their mobile device communications a benefit from considering using a cell phone that automatically receives timely operating system updates. Responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant. They've changed their tune, huh?

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Or maybe it's. You know, this is. This is actually how the NSA was where there was. Half of the NSA was spending its time telling people how to stay secure using encryption. The other half was trying to figure out how to break encryption.

[Micah Sargent]

Or maybe they've just. They've got it so far into the future, they've got quantum computing working there that they don't care. They're like, yeah, you know, encryption for everybody else. Because we're good, we can get.

[Leo Laporte]

You're not far wrong there, young Micah, because remember, the NSA built that giant data center in the Midwest. Their plan was, and I think it still is, to gather all electronic transact transmissions, knowing that many of them are encrypted, but also knowing down the road they might have the tools to decrypt it. So best just store it all.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, that's.

[Paris Martineau]

Hang out in the Midwest.

[Micah Sargent]

Lots of nation states apparently have held on to lots of encrypted data for this particular reason, that one day there may come a tool that can actually break it. And so when new, better encryption is made available, we're supposed to hop on it as quick as possible.

[Paris Martineau]

To that note, Signal. The president of Signal, Meredith Whitaker, had said this week the company is planning to support encrypted backups in 2025, which, I mean, for anybody uses. Signal is a feature that people have been clamoring for for a bit. So, I mean, that's one way to have your data stored in the big security cloud, be at least encrypted.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, in fact, it's important because we know that WhatsApp, if you weren't paying attention, would back itself up unencrypted to Apple's cloud. And so Apple, and we actually know that law enforcement has used that data by subpoenaing Apple. Even if you're using WhatsApp and the transmissions aren't encrypted. It's being backed up unencrypted to Apple's cloud. So that's why it's important. That signal says, no, no, our backups are going to be encrypted as well.

[Micah Sargent]

I wonder if that's part of the reason why Apple jumped so quickly onto having more of icloud be encrypted. You know that that was a major factor in them doing so because they introduced that in enhanced encryption for icloud that would help with that situation.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, this is the Utah data center that was completed in 2014 at pretty vast cost. I think it was one and a half billion dollars with huge capacity. NSA has always said, no, don't worry, we don't spy on. We're not spying on you. But it has, it has the capability of storing all electronic emails, cell phone calls, Internet searches, personal data trails, parking receipts, travel itineraries, brickstore purchases. Some have said it will be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens. NSA says, no, no, no, we're not allowed to do that.

[Paris Martineau]

However, if we've never done anything, we're not allowed.

[Leo Laporte]

Never done that. If a U.S. citizen is communicating with a foreign national, then those communications can be saved anyway.

[Micah Sargent]

Huh. So if I'm talking to Rosemary, then.

[Leo Laporte]

That's right. She's a foreign national. National. Who knows, she could be a terrorist cell.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, don't say that.

[Leo Laporte]

No, she's not. I'm sorry, did I say that? She's not.

[Micah Sargent]

This just got saved into the NSA's bank in Utah or whoever it is.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, right. Let's see what else. Paris, you put some stories in. Let me see here. No one's talking about chat GPT any anymore. It's so boring. Is that true?

[Micah Sargent]

All they're all talking about, what instead?

[Paris Martineau]

Sherwood Media, Sherwood Williams did analysis of monthly mentions of Chat GPT earnings and conference transcripts and it has gone quite a bit down. This is data from Fact sec.

[Leo Laporte]

Huh?

[Paris Martineau]

I don't know. Interesting. I do feel like this is something I've noticed. It's been about, you know, two years since Chat GPT.

[Leo Laporte]

That's true. We spent the whole show talking about AI in the first few months, didn't we?

[Paris Martineau]

Yes.

[Micah Sargent]

I wonder.

[Paris Martineau]

We're all like, in one to two years, it's going to be crazy. The world's going to be so different and it's pretty much the same, except for you sometimes see people using Chat GPT out in the world.

[Micah Sargent]

Do we wonder if part of it is just. It's. It's going to reach sort of proprietary eponym stage where. Or I guess not that. Because that, in that case that would work, but it's more standard. I used AI for this. I used AI for that as opposed to going.

[Leo Laporte]

Right, that's the thing. We're not saying chat GPT, we're just saying.

[Paris Martineau]

I suppose that's right. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

It could be AI and soon we won't even say AI, which is, you know, I don't know, I generated this or something. My little pal.

[Paris Martineau]

When I was on a flight back from Florida this weekend, there were three children in the row in front of manhunts like G. And they spent the entire flight crying and screaming. I realized halfway through that their father was sitting on the row across from them, but he was furiously typing something in his computer. And I looked over because I'm a nosy person. And he had chat GPT open on his phone, an empty word doc on his laptop, and was just curly typing whatever was on his phone.

[Leo Laporte]

He was transcribing it.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah. And he got a good couple pages done by the end of the flight. But those kids who were not happy about it.

[Micah Sargent]

It was some legal brief, I'm sure.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, I'm sure. I was like, oh, I don't know.

[Leo Laporte]

Why doesn't he know about cut and paste? I mean, that's.

[Paris Martineau]

I know. I was just like, come on, the other thing.

[Micah Sargent]

Come on, people.

[Leo Laporte]

He's typing.

[Paris Martineau]

Maybe at first he was trying to paraphrase, but then by the end he was clearly just like writing it right down.

[Micah Sargent]

And he's probably somebody who works for the FDA and is writing up about why they should use some new chemical. Why magnesium supplements should never be regulated.

[Leo Laporte]

That's it. That's it. How often do you think of the Roman Empire? Daily?

[Micah Sargent]

Well, I'm not Mark Zuckerberg, so very rarely. Although I do see those memes. My Roman Empire is this.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

I still don't really understand what people.

[Leo Laporte]

Mean by I think about Empire a lot. I do.

[Paris Martineau]

There was a like viral post of some sort that was like, men think. Ask the nearest man in your life.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

How often they think of the Roman Empire and the answer will surprise. And so it was all these tick tocks of people asking their boyfriends and husbands, like, do you think about the Roman Empire? Like, when's the last time you thought about the Roman Empire? And they were like, today. And so now it's taken off of. What is something you think about regularly is your Roman Empire?

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, got it. Thank you.

[Leo Laporte]

I think that's kind of Charming. I don't have any problem with that.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, no, that is charming. And thinking about the Roman Empire.

[Leo Laporte]

Very evanescent. They come and go. They don't last. These little memes. They're kind of fun, like demure and whatever. They're fun.

[Paris Martineau]

How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, Lots. Frequently.

[Paris Martineau]

I was going to say you fit the bill. Who would be thinking with the Roman Empire?

[Leo Laporte]

Maybe it's because I was in Rome last year, maybe it's because I read a lot of books about the Roman Empire, but I just. It's. I find it fascinating. Maybe it's because I take a sauna every day. I don't know. There's something. Maybe it's my magnesium pills.

[Micah Sargent]

What do you do on your way to the Forum?

[Leo Laporte]

Well, here's your chance to spend the night in the Coliseum.

[Micah Sargent]

Ooh.

[Leo Laporte]

How'd you like to be a gladiator for a night? Some Romans, according to the New York Times, are up in arms. Get it? Airbnb is planning a night in the Coliseum.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow.

[Leo Laporte]

A few people have a chance to unleash their inner gladiators. The most at the most visited site in the Italy. Two nights in May, a total of 32 people will learn the art of gladiator fighting inside the Coliseum, taught by Roman history buffs who specialize in historical reenactments.

[Micah Sargent]

Hang on. They're just buffs. They're not professionals.

[Paris Martineau]

They're not guys that really like Roman history. That's very true.

[Micah Sargent]

They're the ones who think about the Roman Empire all the time.

[Leo Laporte]

The aim Airbnb says was to they could. They donated a one and a half million dollars to spruce up a permanent exhibit inside the arena. The inside of the Colosseum. I was there a year ago. Is pretty ratty because Romans for centuries used the marble from the Coliseum to build their houses.

[Micah Sargent]

Lovely.

[Leo Laporte]

So it's all kind of. It's all kind of crumbling down. Airbnb put that money in to support the Coliseum's ongoing conservation work to find new ways to inspire and educate. Educate visitors on the historical significance of this bygone era.

[Micah Sargent]

I want to do this. This is cool.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, you. You would not be a massimiliano. SM says. A member of the Rome City Council, responsible for culture says, we are against transforming the Coliseum into a theme park. For Micah. He said he would soon meet with Airbnb to try to get the company to change its mind. Mind.

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, part of this is all about Rome is one of the many cities that has had a deluge of short term rentals pop up, displacing residents.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a real problem. Exactly.

[Paris Martineau]

And so a lot of the anger from the average people is oh, here's Airbnb, who's already made it impossible for me to afford to rent a place in the city where I work putting on a show in a coliseum for a million dollars dollars for a bunch.

[Micah Sargent]

Does it help though that they are also, you know, rehabbing the Coliseum itself.

[Leo Laporte]

Though they say that's a good thing. But it said, you know, it's greenwashing. It's not. It's just trying to get their corporate reputation. Apparently they really don't like Airbnb. In Rome, they passed a law last month, the interior ministry issued a regulation that requires guests be physically identified when they check in, somewhat like they are in a hotel. So that Airbnb lockbox that you're your. Your landlord leaves outside, that does not comply, they have to personally check you in.

[Micah Sargent]

So we still have to be there. Minimum citizen, right?

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, yeah. No, there has to be a person there checking you in, being like, here's your keys, Micah.

[Micah Sargent]

Which requires the person who owns the Airbnb to be local as opposed to being able to be across the country and just making money in. Yeah, that, that, that incentivizes having. Well, it doesn't. Incentivize requires having to actually be there and contribute to the extent economy, which I think is good.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, certainly the last time Romans were this upset was when Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage match in the coliseum. Why? You know, I would prefer the reenactors to Musk and Zuck mixing it up.

[Paris Martineau]

Micah, if you do want to live out your gladiator draw dreams, may I direct you to Gladiators NYC which is the website of a New York City group. I've mean they describe themselves the oldest and most premier league school and team slash club of armored combat in New York City. If you scroll towards the bottom of the page, you can see a video.

[Leo Laporte]

Of people what we recommend a 9 inch Berhart AX of high carbon steel.

[Paris Martineau]

Scroll down, it'll make a little bit more. More sense.

[Leo Laporte]

Keep going or don't bring that to.

[Paris Martineau]

Your up a little bit more.

[Leo Laporte]

I brought an ax to a gunfight. This one.

[Paris Martineau]

Go to one of the. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, here they are. LARPing.

[Paris Martineau]

They're LARPing in Central Park. Looks like a medieval fight and it's.

[Micah Sargent]

A little bit more than larp. Right? Because those look.

[Leo Laporte]

No, those are real swords.

[Paris Martineau]

They're teaching people how to use swords. They do a whole thing. Yeah, it's complicated.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, this looks intense.

[Paris Martineau]

It does seem kind of intense. They all make their own chainmail. They fight for, you know, it's full.

[Leo Laporte]

Contact MMA with steel weapons. I don't know if that's such a good idea. And don't do that on this floor of the coliseum. Look at these weapons. You've got your battle ax, your Viking ax, your carbon steel ax. You got your handmade sword, you got your imagine sword.

[Micah Sargent]

Just how many people died just regularly because they were all going at each other with swords and axes and stuff.

[Leo Laporte]

Not nice.

[Micah Sargent]

Like just so many people. So many humans wiped out from these.

[Paris Martineau]

Stabbed with a bayonet or something.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, just, you know, and, and like cavalry charges and stuff. All of that is just so brutal.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, now you can relive it in Central Park. Have you ever seen these guys?

[Paris Martineau]

No, but I follow them on Instagram and I've been wanting to go for a while. It's just annoying to get out to Central park from where I am, but it seems really fun to watch. I don't know.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, cheer and then you could maybe get. They, they. You could pull out like the handkerchief and hang it on there.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, that could be fun.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. Or whatever.

[Leo Laporte]

What do you mean she's going to be in the suit? She's going to be.

[Paris Martineau]

I would like to be in the suit. I ideally. Although I don't.

[Leo Laporte]

So. I mean, they are wearing full armor.

[Paris Martineau]

You have to make kind of custom chain mail, basically.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. They're like, you can't buy chain mail. If you want to be.

[Leo Laporte]

You better know what you're doing. Look at this guy's got a huge axe. He's swinging at him.

[Micah Sargent]

Leah, don't objectify him. Come on.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, it could be a woman. Is that what you're saying?

[Micah Sargent]

No, no, no. But.

[Leo Laporte]

Let'S see what else? Anything else? I think we've covered a lot of the stories.

[Paris Martineau]

Exchange log.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, yeah, Scooter exchange.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, there is. Who put this in? Oh, John, thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you're watching. We're gonna take a break. We come back this week in Google. Micah Sargent, Paris Martino. And coming up next, the Scooter X change log.

[Micah Sargent]

The Google change log.

[Leo Laporte]

Google Chat is rolling out. Audio huddles powered by meat.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, that's how every. Every update Google makes sounds to me.

[Leo Laporte]

M E E T What's strange is I would have assumed that Google Chats audio huddles were powered by a Google Meet, but I guess not. What is we do huddles. We do huddles, but they're slack. Hu Huddles.

[Micah Sargent]

I know it's a huddle.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a huddle.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, got it.

[Leo Laporte]

Which is basically a video call, right?

[Micah Sargent]

But quick apparently.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. You don't want huddles integrate audio.

[Paris Martineau]

Huddles are audio. They're not.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

Not video. But you could turn on video if you wanted.

[Leo Laporte]

Nice. Wow. We've gotten more into this than I really expected. I'm just going to suggest you not spend so much time because there are a lot of entries in Scooter X.

[Micah Sargent]

Here we go.

[Leo Laporte]

Google change law. Google Maps app showing incident reports from Waze again. Surprised that this hasn't been going on along Google acquired ways 10 years ago. Now it's finally showing the ways incident reports in Google Maps.

[Micah Sargent]

Huh.

[Leo Laporte]

This started in mid September. That's. I mean that's the reason you, you, you do Waze, right? So that you can know what's going to happen. There is a from Ways Drivers attribution. So when you see, you know, one of those little like here's a policeman and they are they still there? Question with a large yes or no button, the panel disappears automatically after you pass by it. Police reported ahead from Ways drivers. Are they still there? Yes or no? I. That's one of the reasons I love Ways. So I. But I thought that was already in Google Maps. I. I guess not. It's also happening on Android Auto. That's nice.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh Leo, can I recommend you don't spend too much time on these because.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah Leo, keep it, keep it moving please.

[Leo Laporte]

Gemini app rolling out make calls and send message without unlocking.

[Micah Sargent]

Woohoo.

[Leo Laporte]

It's about time.

[Micah Sargent]

Yay.

[Leo Laporte]

Woo. We all love this Google wallet for Wear OS. Adding corporate badges, campus IDs and now that is cool.

[Micah Sargent]

I want Apple to do that in the Apple Wallet.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh for like a lock so you know where you're going.

[Micah Sargent]

So like if you're on campus and you have access to the school's gymnasium through your ID to be able to just tap your watch instead is a pretty cool thing. Plus wouldn't it be cool if we still had a studio? I could use my Apple watch to get in instead of in this case my wear OS watch to get in instead of having to use the little.

[Leo Laporte]

RFID tag you and John Ashley is getting in on it there he's put the note. Don't spend too long on these Leo. Pixels 6 through 9 now let you check device temperature. How hot is it in there?

[Micah Sargent]

Nice.

[Leo Laporte]

Nice. There are Four color coded labels. Cold, normal, warm and elevated.

[Micah Sargent]

This. This is my problem with this. I get so many questions on hands on tech about battery management and battery health and this is just going to make people more anxious about their battery.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh my God. My phone is slightly warm. Warm.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh no. You feel like a fever. Please, keeping moving.

[Paris Martineau]

If they had this for iPhones, my phone would just be stupidly hot. Anytime I charge, I don't know what I do. It's just too warm.

[Leo Laporte]

You have a new iPhone or an older iPhone?

[Paris Martineau]

Newish iPhone, not the newest. Listen. I know, I know. It shouldn't be hot. It is regardless.

[Micah Sargent]

I wonder if you've got like a weird charger. Are you using wireless charging or wired charging?

[Paris Martineau]

Wired.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, that's weird.

[Paris Martineau]

It's. I mean, not.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, mine's as cold as ice. Just doesn't have any temp. Google is now adding video generators to business customers, actually. Is it v? V?

[Micah Sargent]

They beat open AI to the table. Ah. Open AI was supposed to come out with whatever called the name escapes me at the moment. Yeah. Sora first and Google ended up coming out with their version first, with its version first. And then right after that, Sam Altman was like, we're going to do the 12 days of.

[Leo Laporte]

Yes, 12 announcements.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, of announcements, exactly. And said Sora would probably be one of those. So yeah, Google got there first, which I thought is interesting. Only for businesses though.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Yeah. It's a limited release. The AI model impact though.

[Micah Sargent]

It really could.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. VEO will generate short clips from images and prompts. It'll be available in private preview for customers using Vertex AI. One customer. The launch will enable one customer, Quora, to bring Veo to its PO Chatbot platform and another Oreo owner, Mondale International, to create marketing content with its agency partners.

[Micah Sargent]

See, that's what I'm saying. Suddenly they're not needing people to make marketing content anymore.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, you saw, we talked about it. I thought the, the Coca Cola commercial, the Christmas commercial this year is all AI.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh boy.

[Leo Laporte]

Have you seen it?

[Micah Sargent]

No, no.

[Leo Laporte]

Did we do it on this show or did we do it on.

[Paris Martineau]

But people just aren't watching commercials regularly, Leo. Yeah, this happened last week. They were like, paris, have you seen the new Coke commercial? You've seen it, right? And I was like, no, why would I have seen?

[Leo Laporte]

I saw it in the football game the other day and I thought it was good. It was beautiful. They got a pale polar bear and the whole thing. It was cute. See?

[Micah Sargent]

And I've heard you've described it perfectly. I don't need to see it.

[Leo Laporte]

I don't know why businesses would want the ability to generate short video clips in there.

[Paris Martineau]

Because they don't want to pay to do it.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

Make it.

[Micah Sargent]

And everybody needs to have short video clips because that's literally the Internet. Short video clips. Cat of your cat climbing your shoulders of my cat. I have to stay on the shot as a cat.

[Leo Laporte]

We might get containers.

[Paris Martineau]

We can't. She's really trying, but I can't let it happen.

[Leo Laporte]

Google. You know what I say to that? Google's beefing up Android's app security, but not everybody's going to be happy. Says Android authority. Play integrity is getting a shot in the arm, but power you users may end up butting heads with it. They must be talking to Gizmo.

[Micah Sargent]

They're mad because it's going to be more nanny state like Apple.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh. Apps will be able to make sure your phone is not rooted, for instance, or that you're not running a custom rom, which a lot of Android users do. I do. I like. Well, I did. I don't do it anymore because I'm old. Google Photos is rolling out. Undo advice backup setting.

[Micah Sargent]

No, device backup. Not advice.

[Leo Laporte]

Undo advice.

[Micah Sargent]

That's what I say to my therapist whenever.

[Leo Laporte]

Please. That advice. Undo device backup setting.

[Micah Sargent]

I would want to undo your device backup, wouldn't you?

[Leo Laporte]

Okay.

[Micah Sargent]

Would you not want it to back up?

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, okay. So you know that when you open up your. You know, when you have a Pixel, say, or even an iPhone, and you open up Google Photos, it backs up those photos. Maybe those photos don't belong in the cloud. So now you can say, do not. Do, do, don't delete them off my device, but please delete them off the cloud. Do not.

[Micah Sargent]

Got it.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, that actually makes sense. All right.

[Micah Sargent]

If you're. If you're somebody out there who needs that feature, let me know.

[Leo Laporte]

So I can not send you any pictures.

[Micah Sargent]

I just am curious what that. Yeah. Oh, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Oh, I get.

[Leo Laporte]

You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying?

[Micah Sargent]

You don't want it on Google Photos.

[Leo Laporte]

Right?

[Paris Martineau]

That's true.

[Micah Sargent]

Undo device backup and undo advice.

[Leo Laporte]

What do you think?

[Micah Sargent]

Can we undo the advice of trying to hawk two on that thing, please?

[Leo Laporte]

What do you think that tells us, though, about what people are doing with their camera phones? It seems to me that a large percentage of people have pictures on their camera phones they do not want their grandmother to see. Am I right?

[Paris Martineau]

Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

How common is that?

[Micah Sargent]

I am. I am an exception, as Far as speaking to other people, I am an exception in that I do not have those things. Same.

[Paris Martineau]

I have anything on my phone that I wouldn't be comfortable with leaking online.

[Leo Laporte]

That's smart.

[Micah Sargent]

But I think it might be by the nature of the work that we do.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, I'm paranoid.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

You think most normal people.

[Micah Sargent]

Paris short for paranoid.

[Paris Martineau]

That is true. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

I really want your Nil coin is what I know. The more I think about that, the more I.

[Micah Sargent]

Nothing.

[Leo Laporte]

The crypto.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, it exists. The. You can just send the money right to my Venmo and I'll get you some nice right now.

[Leo Laporte]

Send you some milk coin.

[Micah Sargent]

Amend some milk coin for you.

[Leo Laporte]

And that's the Google change log brought.

[Micah Sargent]

To you by Scooter X.

[Leo Laporte]

That wasn't by. Thank you, Scooter X for those fabulous suggestions.

[Micah Sargent]

We got there. We were quick.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah. Thanks for not spending too long on those, Leo.

[Leo Laporte]

No, I moved along. I followed your advice. TikTok. Have you noticed on Tik Tok there are adverts? Every third TikTok now is trying to get me to buy. Well, for a while it was that. That credit card device that records conversations and AI processes them. The plod. Have you noticed that your TikTok is definitely. It's not normal.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah. Wait, what devices have you ordered from Instagram Ads that you haven't gotten. You definitely haven't gotten the AR glasses that were supposed to come in April.

[Micah Sargent]

No listening. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Never got the recording pin.

[Micah Sargent]

That's so sad. Oh, wow.

[Leo Laporte]

Fairly sad.

[Micah Sargent]

To Paris.

[Leo Laporte]

Here's an ad because we.

[Paris Martineau]

This is like the seventh AI thing.

[Leo Laporte]

Month for a bicycle wheel that doesn't roll.

[Micah Sargent]

I've always wanted one of those.

[Leo Laporte]

It's called a stationary bike from Rock Bros. Okay, that's one. Let's see.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, no, those are TikTok shop things. So they are.

[Leo Laporte]

That's right.

[Paris Martineau]

Posted by individual TikTok creators. They're not sponsored posts like ads, but they are things.

[Leo Laporte]

But you see, the shop get.

[Paris Martineau]

They get an affiliate link and you. If you click and buy them through Tik Tok.

[Micah Sargent]

What's that?

[Leo Laporte]

That's what you're supposed to ask. It is. Can you believe that a small fan has so much power? Powerful small fan.

[Paris Martineau]

What?

[Leo Laporte]

What now? That was. And then 1. 1. I just went one more buy. And then I have some sort of calendar thing also. A Tik Tok shop, dear. Most of my Tik toks are shops.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, do you.

[Micah Sargent]

Are you.

[Paris Martineau]

Have you bought anything on Tik Tok Shop?

[Leo Laporte]

No. Oh, maybe.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, so you're yeah, they're like, oh, we can get him.

[Leo Laporte]

So you. So you don't see this? This is not your.

[Paris Martineau]

I. I'm looking right now.

[Micah Sargent]

Let me go through.

[Paris Martineau]

I've got a professional cheesemonger. I've got an ad for Oreos. I've got a veterinarian sketch about cats. I've got someone talking about birds. Birds.

[Leo Laporte]

This is a Tick Tock Shop.

[Paris Martineau]

Ocean videos.

[Leo Laporte]

But that's what's interesting about. These are like tick tocks created by creators, but they're selling something on the Tick Tock Shop.

[Micah Sargent]

So, like, it's Etsy but for Tick Tock.

[Leo Laporte]

No, they don't. They're not creating. They're not.

[Paris Martineau]

They're not.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, they're not.

[Leo Laporte]

They're a middleman. Basically.

[Paris Martineau]

Basically, they are hawking products, but getting an affiliate link.

[Micah Sargent]

Do we have.

[Paris Martineau]

It's literally just an affiliate. Affiliate. Oh, yeah. Hock doing products.

[Leo Laporte]

This is. Sorry, we should pipe in there. A membrane water filter. A lot of these things.

[Micah Sargent]

Why would I need this?

[Paris Martineau]

I mean, why wouldn't you a.

[Micah Sargent]

Wait, hold on. What's it called? Leo's looking down and he really does need.

[Paris Martineau]

You really have to see it.

[Leo Laporte]

That's a weight belt.

[Paris Martineau]

Or is that a unitard?

[Micah Sargent]

It is. Men's adjustable strap. Oh, it's shapewear. Oh, okay.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a girdle for men.

[Micah Sargent]

It's a. It's a. Yes, it's a myrtle.

[Leo Laporte]

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is TikTok has been huge for Black Friday. It tripled. It tripled its Black Friday sales in The TikTok shop. $100 million in just the US on one day.

[Paris Martineau]

Wow.

[Leo Laporte]

So whatever they're doing is working. That's why I was surprised that you guys don't see all of those posts, but, boy, I see a lot of them.

[Micah Sargent]

Well, I definitely need this tapestry.

[Paris Martineau]

Whoa.

[Leo Laporte]

It's Jesus and the devil.

[Micah Sargent]

Basketball against the devil.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, he's playing hoops.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, you got to get that.

[Leo Laporte]

He's one on one. Jesus. One on one.

[Micah Sargent]

And it's only $7.19 to $17.99. Don't know which one.

[Paris Martineau]

If I do go on the Tik Tok Shop, it's trying to show me a T shirt of a weird photo of a cat that says Benadryl on it.

[Leo Laporte]

I like it. I mean, your hat.

[Paris Martineau]

It does kind of go with my hats. A bunch of supplements, a zine about.

[Leo Laporte]

No, I've never done what you just did. You actually went to the TikTok shop. Those are in my regular feed My four.

[Paris Martineau]

I was going to say, I've never. I've never opened the TikTok.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, that was my first time opening the shop.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, it looks a lot like Alibaba or Temu.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. You had to have bought.

[Paris Martineau]

There's a dress that would make you look like a Christmas tree. I don't know if you can.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, I should own that.

[Paris Martineau]

You should. You could match Leo's tiny Christmas trees.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, yeah. That'd be a good holiday thing. All right. Well, anyway, it's a success now. A top court in Washington is expected to rule this week on the bill to divest or ban. There is also some speculation that Trump could step in and try to thwart a ban. This is from Bloomberg. Oh, yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

Remember that, the whole ban.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. They have till January 19 to find a buyer or else they'll be banned in the US that's still the law that's going on.

[Micah Sargent]

That's happening.

[Leo Laporte]

While a third of the user purchases on shop between. Oh, this is November 13th to December 2nd. I thought that was Black Friday. Were from small and medium sized businesses. Household names like Crocs, Fenty Beauty and Estee Lauder were among the top selling brands.

[Micah Sargent]

Huh.

[Leo Laporte]

This is. This was huge in China years. A few years ago, remember, we would see these Chinese influencers trying to sell something on Du Yin or whatever they were using. That's really fascinating.

[Paris Martineau]

So it is quite interesting.

[Leo Laporte]

This is for the two days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Seven billion views of posts that include the hashtags TikTok Shop Black Friday or TikTok Shop Cyber Monday.

[Micah Sargent]

I just don't know if I'd want to buy. I would feel concerned about my financial information being popped into TikTok. I don't want to.

[Leo Laporte]

More so than Facebook, Instagram.

[Micah Sargent]

I don't do it for a lot of Instagram either.

[Paris Martineau]

For a lot of young people, TikTok's how they make money. Their bank account information is on there because they need to get their TikTok shop payments from selling you those goods or their creator fund payments.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, it's also one of the reasons I use Apple Card whenever I can. Or the Apple Pay.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Because they don't give any information over to this seller. Although the seller does get your address. Right. They have to ship it to ship it to you.

[Micah Sargent]

In theory, they ship it to you.

[Leo Laporte]

All right. Yeah, they may ship it. I. I'm trying to remember. I think I did buy a life organizer, which I've never opened up off the Tik Tok Shop.

[Paris Martineau]

Is your. Do you Feel like your life is organized.

[Leo Laporte]

Let me show you. Let me show you.

[Micah Sargent]

Because he was already organized. There's life hyphen organizer do and we.

[Paris Martineau]

Never saw him again.

[Leo Laporte]

I'm so excited le everybody that I've never opened it. It's still sealed.

[Paris Martineau]

You can do an unboxing. You want to do the little tap. Tap noises.

[Micah Sargent]

Tap it with your nails.

[Paris Martineau]

Tap it with your nails.

[Leo Laporte]

It was. It was pitched as.

[Paris Martineau]

He doesn't know what we're talking about.

[Leo Laporte]

M. Oh, what did you say?

[Micah Sargent]

Tap it with your nails.

[Paris Martineau]

You got. You're going to do an ASMR unboxing you.

[Micah Sargent]

There you go. That's part of the ex. Yeah. If you've ever watched a modern.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, yeah. That's a big. That is a big part of.

[Leo Laporte]

I really like the fabric binding.

[Micah Sargent]

Is this the one that has like the documents for your when you die and.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, I thought it was. That's how it was advertised.

[Paris Martineau]

You bought a holder for death documents on TikTok.

[Micah Sargent]

But it has them in there already, right? Or.

[Leo Laporte]

No, it has nothing.

[Micah Sargent]

It's just a. Oh no, Leo, it's just a binder.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh no.

[Micah Sargent]

On Instagram I've seen this really cool ad for. It's a. It's a box and inside the box it has all of your past life documents.

[Leo Laporte]

That's what I thought I was buying.

[Micah Sargent]

And instead you bought a scrapbook.

[Leo Laporte]

Well, basically it's a binder with manila folders in it and it comes with stickers.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh no.

[Leo Laporte]

So the stickers you put on the manila folder say things like bucket list. Social Security cards.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, no.

[Leo Laporte]

Like how many Social Security cards do I have? Do I need a whole folder for that to file? Travel passports, holiday pass. This is a very low effort product.

[Micah Sargent]

This had to have been an ambient purchase that you had to be.

[Paris Martineau]

Did you buy this before or after you got your death date from that AI thing?

[Leo Laporte]

Before. But as at my age, you start to think about these things and I.

[Micah Sargent]

See what I saw on instead I.

[Leo Laporte]

Saw what you saw. But this is what it is.

[Micah Sargent]

That is not the thing that I would want.

[Leo Laporte]

It's very disappointing.

[Paris Martineau]

What does it say on the edge?

[Leo Laporte]

The folio. Not my life documents. Not like open this when I Life and death.

[Paris Martineau]

I think I guess mash potato on the. On the Discord chat go lead.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes, the.

[Leo Laporte]

It's F A U X L E O. Yeah.

[Micah Sargent]

The knock box is the one that I was talking about and maybe.

[Leo Laporte]

I must have confused those and then I can't remember if I got my. My Instagram gum On Instagram or Tick Tock, I think it was. Maybe.

[Micah Sargent]

Is it gum or mints?

[Paris Martineau]

It's a good crust. Question.

[Micah Sargent]

Thank you.

[Paris Martineau]

Wow. I love that the knock box says, are you leaving a scavenger hunt for your next of kin?

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, well, that was.

[Leo Laporte]

That was the thinking was I. I wanted to.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. And this always happens anytime someone passes in your life and you are stuck.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, this is much better. Maybe. Maybe I should get this instead. It's only $99, but it has like.

[Micah Sargent]

All of the documentation already in there. And so it has like these little workbooks that you can fill out and so. And it's not just. I don't know why I'm trying to sell this to you. I just thought it was really cool because it has stuff like your. Your pet.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, all the stuff your. All the stuff you need the next of kin to know. Yeah. Okay. But the box, is it just a plastic.

[Micah Sargent]

No, that's the thing. It's different from that.

[Leo Laporte]

Is it fireproof?

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, I wish it was. I don't.

[Paris Martineau]

They have a fireproof one for $169.

[Leo Laporte]

Here it is. Fireplace.

[Paris Martineau]

I think you could just probably make all these files yourself.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, well, yeah, you can, but who's going to do it?

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, I did buy this though. The prepared hero fire blanket.

[Micah Sargent]

Fire somewhere.

[Leo Laporte]

And you could throw it over the. Oh, look, you can also just get the base kit. Oh, 499. Oh, that's a five.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, so you could give them out to people.

[Leo Laporte]

Yes. Oh, here's one. I need this in case you go missing.

[Paris Martineau]

Here's all the people I think did it.

[Leo Laporte]

The list contains things like height, eye color, identifiable body markings, where to find your dental records, et cetera.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, wow.

[Leo Laporte]

You really have to be planning something if you think you might be going miss missing. Wow. All right.

[Paris Martineau]

I don't think. Little baggie for your hair. This little clip.

[Micah Sargent]

So that little DNA.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah, there you go. Patrick said after his pop died, he was able to figure out most of it, but behind, he left behind a large tray full of keys. And they have no idea what any of the keys do?

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, no.

[Paris Martineau]

You should just keep trying different doors.

[Micah Sargent]

There's a puzzle somewhere in your of life.

[Leo Laporte]

All right, let's take a break. When we come back, your picks of the week. We're going to wrap this thing up. You're watching this week in Google with Paris Martino. Micah Sargent filling in for the wonderful Jeff Jarvis, who will be back next week. So glad, though, to get Mike on. It's great to have another young person on with you, isn't it?

[Paris Martineau]

It is good.

[Ad Voiceover]

Got great ideas but no idea how to build a website? Get Blue bluehost With their AI design tool, you can quickly generate a high quality, fast loading WordPress site instantly. Once you've nailed the look, just hit enter and your site goes live. It's really that simple. And it doesn't matter whether you're a blogger, influencer or just starting your side hustle, bluehost has you covered with built in marketing and e commerce tools to help you grow and scale your website for the long haul. And when you upgrade to Bluehost Cloud, you get 100% uptime and 24. 7 support to ensure your site stays online through heavy traffic. Bluehost really makes building your dream website easier than ever. So what's stopping you? You've already got the vision. Make it real. Visit bluehost.com right now and get started today.

After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save save on every plan versus Verizon and at&t@t mobile.com.

KeepAndSwitch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.

[Leo Laporte]

All right, pick of the week time. I'm going to let Micah start this one because he's our guest today.

[Micah Sargent]

All right. I've got something goofy that I love. I came across it in a link in a Verge article to another Verge article from a long time ago and it is a.

[Leo Laporte]

Wait a minute, don't tell us it's a bar of soap.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes, it's a bar of soap. No, it is the case for a magic mouse and here's what's great about it.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh my God. Does it have a charging port?

[Micah Sargent]

It has a wireless charging spot on the bottom. So I thwock this onto a wireless character charger and it has a little thunderbolt or excuse me, a lightning connector into the mouse. And it also makes the mouse more ergonomic so the mouse is easier to grip because it's bigger and it has, yeah, wireless charging built in. So when I leave my desk I just put this onto a wireless charging puck.

[Leo Laporte]

Brilliant.

[Micah Sargent]

And charges it and so it always stays charged. Also, it's just 25 bucks. Oh, and the other thing that I love about this is from time to time, my. My magic mouse, when it was just on its own, occasionally it'd brush up against something on the desk and get it into the little optics spot, and it would be sometimes difficult to find it and pull out the little fiber or whatever was in there because this kind of pulls the optics away from the base. I have not had that issue once since I've gotten this. And it also comes with a little prism that's built in there to help send it along to where it needs to go. Yeah, this thing is really cool.

[Leo Laporte]

And you know what I thought it was, though? I. And I was hoping it was. You know how the Apple mouse has the charging port on the bottom and I was hoping it was some sort of thing that you could use the mouse and have the charge come in from the side.

[Micah Sargent]

It's from the side.

[Leo Laporte]

If you keep it charged, it solves that problem.

[Paris Martineau]

Suppose if you really needed that, you could just get a different mouse, right?

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, wow.

[Micah Sargent]

That's too logical. You're saying.

[Paris Martineau]

No, no, no. You gotta get something for your. To cradle your. I mean, I'm saying this with my.

[Leo Laporte]

It's a good point.

[Paris Martineau]

Apple magic keyboard and magic trackpad put in a custom acrylic thing to mimic the feeling of holding my laptop while I'm using.

[Micah Sargent]

Laptop. What in the world.

[Leo Laporte]

That is weird. Who made it put that in your lap?

[Paris Martineau]

Someone in. I mean, I use it on my desk. Honestly, I use it on the desk like a. I would a normal desktop.

[Micah Sargent]

But I just didn't.

[Paris Martineau]

I don't like the two sliding around. And I'm used to the trackpad being the same distance from the keyboard as it normally is. And otherwise I'll hit it with my.

[Leo Laporte]

That's quite glued.

[Micah Sargent]

What is it? How's it on there? Suction.

[Leo Laporte]

It's just.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, I just hit my.

[Micah Sargent]

It's just a. Oh, it goes down in. Got it.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Okay.

[Paris Martineau]

It just falls.

[Leo Laporte]

So somebody made that or can you buy someone.

[Paris Martineau]

I got it on, like, Etsy or Amazon or something. It was just some person in China made a little acrylic keyboard tray holder. I've definitely mentioned it on the show. Have you?

[Leo Laporte]

I don't. I wasn't here. I don't remember that. That's amazing.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, it's like a magic keyboard acrylic tray. I think you could search and it would come up. So I get you.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah.

[Paris Martineau]

My pick of the week is as I was doing my Thanksgiving shopping at the grocery store. I came up to the checkout aisle and I saw the same scene. I See, every time that infuriates me, which is all these magazines. But they're not normal magazines. They're like weird special editions like Taylor Swift or the Magazine of Cats or a Lifetime issue just dedicated to Lord of the Rings. And I always am sitting there waiting to check out. I'm like, what happened? I mean, I know that magazines don't work anymore as a business, but how are these racks suddenly filled with single issue magazines? And why is it so popular? So I ended up posting about this on Blue sky, asking, has anybody written about how magazines have been entirely replaced? Placed these single themed issues? Got quite a few responses for interesting. Eventually, a couple days later, someone responded with a link to this podcast by Slate's Decoder Ring, a podcast I really love.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh good.

[Paris Martineau]

About this very topic. And I listened and it was the perfect answer to all of my questions. And it was also a delightful answer. I won't spoil the answer for you, but there's a whole industry that has fueled this shift and it's just a. They tackle it in such an interesting way. And I'd really recommend the podcast episode. But anybody who's interested in learning about.

[Leo Laporte]

This, my recommendation is a Little bookazine called Leo Leor's Gadget Gear and Gift Guide 2005. It's a retro look back at the right holiday gifts for. And you know, because it's a book as it's. It's cheap, I don't know how much it was.

[Paris Martineau]

Well, bookaz are actually kind of expensive. But I'd like you to open to a random page and then give us the recommendation on there.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, that's on that page.

[Leo Laporte]

There's the Magellan Spartrec color. These are handheld GPS devices. Back in 2005, no one knew how to drive and your car wasn't driving yet, so you had to have one of these. Or what about digital voice record like the Olympus DM1? Well, all you have to do is look at the back cover of this magazine. Yeah, you can.

[Paris Martineau]

I have a digital voice recorder. I used to have an Olympus.

[Leo Laporte]

Look, here's what. Here's the plexiglass keyboard and mouse holder.

[Paris Martineau]

Oh, I love that little Leo. Can you do that again?

[Leo Laporte]

The little Leo?

[Paris Martineau]

There's just you going like, huh, we.

[Leo Laporte]

Took a lot of pictures. This is part of the Leoville Press bookazine line.

[Micah Sargent]

Wow.

[Leo Laporte]

There were a lot of these. There were a lot of these every year.

[Paris Martineau]

Did you write all of that or did you have a ghostwriter?

[Leo Laporte]

I'm sure I had a ghostwriter. I Don't know. I might have picked the. Oh, here's a good one. The. The palm one Z. Goodness. 72.

[Paris Martineau]

Leo's pick.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Even though your Mac can connect to a pocket PC device. Device. That doesn't quite make a pocket PC device the best device for your pocket PC. How about the Sidewinder Emergency Charger?

[Micah Sargent]

Absolutely.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Yeah, everybody's got to have that. So. This is so old. This is almost 20 years old. Look at this. Exclusively on G4Tech TV Canada. Call for.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, my goodness.

[Leo Laporte]

Become a master of technology. Technology with Amber MacArthur and Andy Walker. Look at that.

[Paris Martineau]

I bet those co hosts wouldn't have teamed up on you in a game of whatever that marathon.

[Leo Laporte]

No, they were terrified of me, actually. So that's it. You know, these have been around for a long time. That's 20 years old. That's 2005. Means it was out probably for 2004. But I don't look at day older, do I?

[Micah Sargent]

Not a day.

[Leo Laporte]

Look at that. Don't I look just. It's like I'm saying, oh, you guys.

[Paris Martineau]

Come over here and learn about tech.

[Micah Sargent]

You silly gooses.

[Leo Laporte]

You silly gooses. All right. My pick of the week is something I've been saving for just for a day like today.

[Micah Sargent]

Special occasion.

[Leo Laporte]

It is a web page page with many, many calculators on it. It's called calculator soup at Calculator.

[Paris Martineau]

I love calculator soup.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, you know calculator soup.

[Paris Martineau]

I use calculator soup whenever I need to figure out percentage change, which is often. It's very embarrassing to admit, but I don't want to do that math. I know how to do it. I don't want to do it. And so I will always load up calculator soups. Percentage change.

[Leo Laporte]

I can't believe it. We're both calculator soup users. Look at all the calculators.

[Micah Sargent]

So many calculators.

[Leo Laporte]

So many calculators. It's free to use and it's. It's. I should give credit to the author, Edward Fury. His calculator soup. Online [e-mail] Ideal Gas Law Calculator. Yeah. Oh, it's all in here, baby. A Yu Gi. Oh, calculator. I don't. If you want to play Yu Gi. Oh, you need. Need that, you need that. It's just kind of mind boggling. This guy at some point just sat down and said, I'm going to start writing calculators. And he's come up with literally dozens. Which one do you use?

[Paris Martineau]

It For I use it for percent increase, percent difference and percent change. Like any of those. I just need to do a quick thing.

[Leo Laporte]

How about a dot product calculator, two editors.

[Paris Martineau]

I don't even know what that means.

[Leo Laporte]

I know you don't have to because it does.

[Paris Martineau]

That's true.

[Leo Laporte]

The displacement of function as an average. Wow.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. Anyway, just be on the screen.

[Paris Martineau]

I didn't realize this website had so many other calculators on it.

[Leo Laporte]

You just always go right to the one you want.

[Paris Martineau]

I just. Yeah, it comes up in my browser all the time.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Yeah. Well that's really funny. Yeah. It starts with a basic.

[Paris Martineau]

It's the best one I've tried a lot. It's just got exactly what you need and it's got a good ui. Few ads.

[Micah Sargent]

It's nice tank volume calculator using different types of tanks like horizontal cylinders.

[Leo Laporte]

See? You know where else you going to go to find that out?

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. When I'm trying to make a custom fish tank, where else do I go to learn the volume of a vertical capsule?

[Leo Laporte]

There is a competition I would Sync says he uses omnicalculator.com oh sure, it's got a little more color on the page but.

[Micah Sargent]

And it does have animations.

[Leo Laporte]

Ooh, I don't know. I like the. I like calculator soup myself but I'm a soup guy so there you go.

[Paris Martineau]

Yeah, yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Pretty cool.

[Paris Martineau]

Soup for you.

[Leo Laporte]

Soup for all. Thank you, Micah Sargent for filling in for Jeff Jarvis. If people want to see Jeff's talk, he's on in like an hour. I think it's about 5:00. Right. So it's half an hour at the Commonwealth Club. Let me go to the website and I'll tell you. Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. He is a guest speaker. Whoops, I'm in discord to do that. There it is. Commonwealthclub.org and just ignore all the other sexier events like Craig Mundy interviewing Sam Altman and go straight to Jeff Jarvis. How we reclaim the Internet. Yeah. 5:30, so you got one hour but he's doing it online so you can get some online only tickets and watch Jeff's talk. 30 bucks for a book and general admission so you get the web. We weave just $10 if you want to watch Commonwealth Club at commonwealth.org Jeff Jarvis speaking there tonight. He'll be back on the show next week. Paris Martino, she's at the information if you've got a hot tip for a lead that she should follow up. Signaler Martino01 and you will. Don't use your work phone, kids. No. And practice.

[Paris Martineau]

Good op. Second, this house.

[Leo Laporte]

Opsec's everything. We. We do OPSEC here. Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Micah. Tomorrow we are going to do a 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern, 0100 UTC. We are going to do. Which would actually be December 6, December 5 PST. We are going to do a advent of code roundup with our advent of coders Darren Oy and Paul Holder and Sci Fase and myself. We'll be talking about the first week of the coding challenges and what we have learned. It'll be a little bit of fun. Tomorrow at 2pm you're going to be interviewing Emily Forlini.

[Micah Sargent]

Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

Very excited.

[Micah Sargent]

Co host for Tech News Weekly, an ama. So if you've got questions for Emily, head into the discord and look for the thread which you'll find there in the events and you can leave some questions that you might have. I've got.

[Leo Laporte]

This is club only. Yes, yes.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, Club only event. So for you club twit folks.

[Leo Laporte]

And you're going to ask her about the family farm, right?

[Micah Sargent]

Yes, please do. Yes.

[Leo Laporte]

The Dry Belbas farm. I'm telling you. I'm telling you there's a story there. Do you know that? Are you talking about Emily Dry Belbis. The family farm? It's one of. Just ask her.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay.

[Leo Laporte]

Say Leo said I should ask you about the family farm.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay.

[Leo Laporte]

I'm not kidding.

[Micah Sargent]

Okay.

[Paris Martineau]

I think there is a story there.

[Leo Laporte]

Oh, there's a huge.

[Paris Martineau]

As we've learned.

[Leo Laporte]

Yeah. Oh, you know this story, right?

[Micah Sargent]

Why do you know this story?

[Paris Martineau]

You looked. We had a whole tangent on this last time she was on the show, he immediately was like, dry Belus. What about your family farm?

[Leo Laporte]

See Dry Bel.

[Paris Martineau]

Go listen to the last time she was on a twig if you want to hear more. Or listen to Micah's interview tomorrow.

[Micah Sargent]

Exactly.

[Leo Laporte]

It will be streamed live publicly as we as we usually do, 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 2200 UTC on all of those eight channels. But then after we stream it, it goes into the club Twit plus feed for a month and then it becomes public once again. So chance to chance to see it if you really want to watch live. Thank you, Micah. It's great to see you.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. Good to be here. Thank you both.

[Leo Laporte]

This was fun working with you and the wonderful Paris Martino. Thank you all for joining us. We do twig every Wednesday, 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 2200 UTC. If you want to watch live, you can on those eight platforms. Discord TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Kik, Facebook, LinkedIn and X.com after the fact, of course. We're on the website Twit TV Twig. There's a YouTube channel dedicated to this week in Google. Great place to watch, but also a great place to share clips with other people if you see something that you think you others might want to know about. Like the calculator soup. Of course, subscribing is the best way to get it if you subscribe. That way you'll get it automatically the minute it is available, which is shortly after the show finishes. Thanks, John. Ashley filling in for Benito Gonzalez this week. Great job, John. Appreciate it. He's our producer, director, director, editor. Everything does it all. Is that your Christmas tree? Yeah. Very nice.

[Micah Sargent]

I. I need to put something. It's been blank and I figured the tree would be nice. It's actually not bad.

[Leo Laporte]

It's the holidays.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Leo Laporte]

Thanks everybody for joining us. Thanks to the club members especially who literally paid for this show this week. We really appreciate it. Keep, join, keep participating. And if you've not yet joined TWiT TV club, TWiT. And we will see y'all next week on this week in Google. Bye bye. Bye bye.

[Micah Sargent]

There we go.

[Ad Voiceover]

After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest, largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and at&t@t mobile.com KeepAndSwitch.

Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.

[Leo Laporte]

Imagine relying on a dozen different software programs to run your business, none of which are connected. And each one more expensive and more cost complicated than the last. It can be pretty stressful. Now imagine Odoo. Odoo has all the programs you'll ever need and they're all connected on one platform. Doesn't Odoo sound amazing? Let Odoo harmonize your business with simple, efficient software that can handle everything for a fraction of the price. Sign up [e-mail] that's O D o.com stay warm this season with Aria Jackets and vest. Available now at Cavender's Aria. It's built for every adventure with cozy warmth and rugged durability. Shop the latest selection of styles from men, women and kids at your local cavenders or on cavenders.com.