715: Our Wizard Lies

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks, Episode 715: “Our Wizard Lies”
Release Date: September 26, 2025
Hosts: Jason DeFillippo, Brian Schulmeister, with Dave Bittner

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Episode Overview

This week, Jason, Brian, and Dave navigate the latest tech and internet disasters, skewering bungled policies, corporate antics, and AI-driven chaos. Expect fiery takes on the TikTok-US-China saga, the organizational fallout from “Doge,” meme coin insanity, regulatory theatrics, AI investment bubbles, and the continued collapse of consumer trust in big tech. Cutting through buzzwords and corporate doublespeak, the Geeks focus on the hard truths that matter: who messed up, what broke, and whether there’s any hope for sanity in a world gone tech-mad.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The TikTok “Deal” Circus

• U.S.-China TikTok Agreement ([00:26]):

  • The hosts lampoon the lack of actual details in the purported TikTok deal between the U.S. and China, mocking statements by President Trump, President Xi, and TikTok owner ByteDance.
  • “What does that mean, Jason?” – Brian ([00:26])
  • The supposed $14 billion deal is cloaked in uncertainty, with only vague mentions of American billionaires like Larry Ellison and Michael Dell potentially involved.
  • Jason jokes, “I’d rather have the Chinese own it than Larry Ellison…he’s on his Lex Luthor path.” ([02:29])

• Getting News from TikTok ([03:02]):

  • The pitfalls of relying on TikTok for news are highlighted through a personal anecdote about ER visit misinformation.

2. Tech and Politics: Wired Wakes Up

• Wired Magazine Finally Talks Politics ([04:02]):
  • After years of criticism for being “too political,” hosts note Wired has finally dedicated an issue to politics, showing how inextricable tech and policy now are.
  • Jason: “Tell me which megalomaniacal motherfucker is going to ruin my day today? That’s what I want to know.” ([04:37])

3. Doge Debacle & Disastrous Modernization

• Government Workforce Carnage ([04:44]):
  • They delve into the fallout from the government’s “Doge” project, including mass layoffs, operational chaos, a $1 daily spending limit (“literally ran out of toilet paper for five months”), and traumatized workers.
  • Brian: “Signs around the office saying, bring your own toilet paper—BYOTP—didn’t help much.” ([06:05])

4. The Meme Coin Grift & Web3 Absurdity

• Exploiting Tragedy: ‘Kirk Coins’ ([07:09]):
  • In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, thousands of meme coins popped up on the Solana blockchain, with slivers of the proceeds dubiously pledged to Kirk’s nonprofit.
  • Jason: “If you really gave that much of a fuck, why didn’t you sink the tens of thousands of dollars straight into the charity?” ([08:17])
  • Brian: “Because then that wouldn’t be a grift.” ([08:19])

5. Amazon’s FTC Settlement: Dark Patterns & Tiny Payouts

• Amazon Pays (Sort Of) for Deceptive Practices ([08:37]):
  • The $2.5 billion settlement is mostly a PR move—only a fraction of harmed Prime users will see any money.
  • Brian: “The grift continues in this new administration...$1 billion handling fee.” ([09:40])
  • Changes include easier Prime cancellations, but most users are left out: “Only customers who signed up...between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2020...will receive the $51.” ([10:02])

6. Microsoft Cuts Ties Over Israel’s Use of AI

• Cloud Services Pulled from Defense Ministry ([11:55]):
  • Microsoft disables cloud and AI access after revelations of surveillance on Palestinians, but the hosts highlight the arbitrary ethics of Terms of Service enforcement.
  • Jason: “Someone at Microsoft had to read their own ToS and decide that genocide is fine, but we really gotta draw the line at phone calls.” ([12:53])

7. Palantir as “Lifestyle Brand” & Peter Thiel’s AI Antichrist Rant

• Merch Drop ([13:04]):
  • Palantir’s “cultivation strategy”—$119 tote bags and pro-military vibes—reflects a growing fan base and brand obsession.
  • Thiel’s religious AI warnings: “Regulating AI could literally be the work of the Antichrist” ([14:09]).
  • Brian: “Go fuck yourself.” ([15:20])

8. Regulatory Paralysis: AI “Red Lines” Proposal

• United Nations Red Lines ([16:59]):
  • AI experts ask world governments to at least prohibit the most extreme AI abuses.
  • “So nothing’s going to happen from that.” ([17:57]) Jason and Brian deride the futility.

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9. The “Workslop” Dilemma: When AI Makes Work Worse

• Workslop Defined ([19:50]):
  • AI-generated content is now slowing productivity, according to studies by MIT and Harvard.
  • “Fewer than 1 in 10 AI pilot projects deliver any real revenue gains...not only are we not getting results, we’re actually slowing shit down.” ([19:56])
  • “Work sloppy seconds”—when AI-slop is handed down to the next person ([21:18])
  • Estimated invisible cost: $186/employee/month just handling the slop. ([21:32])

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10. The AI Bubble: Spending Without Value

• Deutsche Bank’s Warning ([22:18]):
  • US economic growth is being propped up by AI infrastructure investment, not actual business value—which can’t last.
  • “It’s the world’s dumbest, biggest bet that we’ve ever seen…just betting on the fact that this is going to happen now. None of these guys need to work ever again—they’re just doing this for shits and giggles.” ([23:58])

11. YouTube Reinstates ‘Banned’ Conservative Channels

• Content Moderation Flip-Flop ([25:01]):
  • Alleging pressure from the Biden administration, YouTube plans to restore previously banned channels.
  • Brian: “So it’s get—you know, we can’t be banned, but you guys can.” ([26:55])
  • “Cowards.” – Jason ([26:53])

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12. Cybercrime News: SIM Farms and Human Trafficking

• Massive SIM Farm Takedown ([27:17]):
  • Secret Service busts a sim farm able to send 30 million texts per minute.
• Human Trafficking & Online Fraud Syndicates ([28:48]):
  • Discussion of coerced scam operators in Southeast Asia, operating via Starlink satellite internet. “That’s why they can’t catch most of these scammers—they’re sitting in Myanmar on their, you know, SpaceX terminals.” ([29:10])

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13. Media Candy: Streaming, Docs, and Musical Musings

• Quick Reviews:
  • Elio (Pixar): “Biggest flop in decades…just for kids.” ([31:12])
  • Superman (New DCU): “Heartwarming... exactly what you want.” ([31:28])
  • Human Origins (BBC/PBS): “Fantastic…beautifully shot…well worth it.” ([33:29])
  • Alien Earth (Hulu): “Stuck the landing...Stan Winston would be proud.” ([33:50])
  • Lilith Fair Documentary (Disney+): “Great music documentary...phenomenal 90s footage.” ([38:50])
  • Tron Ares Soundtrack (Nine Inch Nails): “Is it a Nine Inch Nails album? Absolutely not. Is it okay? It’s fine.” ([40:02])
• Streaming Woes ([35:05]):
  • Disney+ & Hulu increase prices after recent PR disasters.
  • “I miss cable. It was cheaper. Less headache.” ([36:51])
• Wicked Movie Trailer ([37:56]):
  • “That shot of ‘our wizard lies’ is so telling for this current time.” ([37:58])
• AI Music & Legal Confusion ([43:40]):
  • Human lyricist with AI “artist” signs $3M record deal—copyright laws remain a mess.

14. Hardware & Consumer Tech Hot Takes (with Dave Bittner)

• New AirPods 3 Impress ([45:18]):
  • Dave: “I am impressed…I put them in and the room fell silent. The world went away.” ([45:47])
  • Best Apple product to date for Brian and Dave.
• Meta Ray-Ban Glasses at Disney Parks? ([51:23]):
  • Tech meets theme parks, but practical/cost hurdles make the experiment unlikely to become mainstream soon.
• Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary Special ([55:49]):
  • Documentaries highlight Disney’s historical corporate sponsorships and evolving tech interface.
• Fur-suited Metro Riders ([62:21]):
  • A moment of levity featuring a recent DC metro “furry ride.” “Never know where Dave might pop up.” ([63:40])

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15. Regulatory Theater, Corporate Grift, & Nostalgia

• Amazon's settlement - “$2.5 billion is less than a single month of Prime revenue.” ([61:40])
• Jim Henson Company Auction - Iconic puppets, props, and memorabilia up for grabs. ([58:08])
• Radio Shack and Retail Nostalgia - Latest SEC allegations of Ponzi schemes at legacy brands like Radio Shack and Pier 1 Imports. ([59:53])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Let’s talk about the policies that will actually affect our lives for the next year.” – Brian ([04:33])
• “If you really gave that much of a fuck, why didn’t you sink the tens of thousands of dollars straight into the charity?” – Jason ([08:17])
• “Signs around the office saying, bring your own toilet paper—BYOTP—didn’t help much.” – Brian ([06:05])
• “Regulating AI could literally be the work of the Antichrist.” – Dave quoting Peter Thiel ([14:09])
• “Workslop: AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” – Brian ([21:03])
• “It’s the world’s dumbest, biggest bet that we’ve ever seen…just betting on the fact that this is going to happen now.” – Jason ([23:58])
• “I miss cable. It was cheaper. Less headache.” – Jason ([36:51])
• “I put [the AirPods] in and…the world went away.” – Dave ([45:47])
• “Never know where Dave might pop up.” – Brian ([63:40])
• “Welcome to 2025. I know, it’s just so weird.” – Jason ([66:21])

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Timestamps for Critical Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 00:26 | TikTok “deal” discussion & critique | 04:02 | Wired’s pivot to politics and tech policy | 04:44 | Doge project & federal workforce fallout | 07:09 | Meme coins surge after shooting | 08:37 | Amazon/FTC settlement deep dive | 11:55 | Microsoft/Israel controversy | 13:04 | Palantir’s rebrand & Thiel’s Antichrist AI remarks | 16:59 | UN’s “AI Red Lines” debate | 19:50 | Workslop – the curse of low-quality AI output | 22:18 | Deutsche Bank on the AI economic bubble | 25:01 | YouTube flips on banned conservative channels | 27:17 | SIM farm cybercrime bust | 28:48 | Human trafficking-powered online scams/Starlink | 31:09 | Media reviews: Elio, Superman, Human Origins | 35:05 | Streaming price hikes & cable nostalgia | 37:56 | Wicked trailer and cultural resonance | 43:40 | AI-generated music and copyright crisis | 45:18 | AirPods 3 review (with Dave) | 51:23 | Meta Ray-Ban at Disney | 55:49 | Disneyland anniversary special | 59:53 | Radio Shack & Pier 1 nostalgia; SEC charges | 62:21 | Furry-ride DC Metro fun | 66:21 | Anxiety over “weird” global defense meeting rumors

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Summary Tone & Style

No filter, irreverent and acerbic. Hosts drop F-bombs, skewer hypocrisy, and mock corporate/government blunders with a mix of gallows humor and genuine frustration at the state of tech and society.

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Overall Takeaway

Caught between the dystopian reality of AI “revolutions” and the parade of familiar tech grifts, the Grumpy Old Geeks dissect the “walk of shame” playing out daily across Silicon Valley and Washington. In their words — “workslop” and all — it’s a world where “our wizard lies,” and everyone is left to bring their own toilet paper.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo, discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DiFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schillmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's Friday. That's the only good thing I have to say about today is it's Friday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, it's Friday. Well, the US And China have agreed to agree on a TikTok deal. What does that mean, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

You tell me, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, nobody really knows. White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, who has, you know, been a bastion of truth and honesty, and we trust everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

She says she oozes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Truth said a TikTok deal is expected to be signed in the coming days after President Donald Trump posted an update on Friday that did absolutely nothing to clarify where the deal currently stands following a call with a Chinese president. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said both of the two had made progress on approval of a TikTok deal and that he appreciates the TikTok approval. He also told reporters in the Oval Office that he approved a TikTok deal, according to Reuters. But Chinese state run media reported the call a little bit differently, according to the New York Times, stating that the Chinese president had conveyed the government respects the wishes of the company in question, is glad to see business negotiations in line with market rules and a solution that conforms to Chinese laws and regulations and takes into account the interest of both sides, thus clarifying everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

TikTok owner ByteDance did little to clear things up when it issued another statement. We thank President Xi and President Donald Trump for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States. ByteDance will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to Americans through TikTok US, whatever that might be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, so there's been a flurry of activity since you published this article to our show Notes. So I just want to bring you up to speed on the latest and greatest. This comes from Business Insider. Are you ready for it? TikTok finally cut a deal, but there's still plenty of uncertainty about what comes next. So we still in the dark? That's right. They're saying it's a $14 billion deal, but that's kind of all we know. You know, we got the names thrown out that it was going to be Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, the Fox people.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right? Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much, you know, and I honestly, me, personally, I'd rather have the Chinese own it than Larry Ell Ellison. But I don't know if you've seen, I don't if you followed Larry Ellison. Over time he has become kind of a fan of the Panopticon. He's like, that's his, like his goal.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's on his Lex Luthor path.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I mean he owns a island. Okay, what else do you need?

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, you know, it's, it seems my decision to never have anything to do with Tick Tock has just been better and better over time. It's aged very well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it's panned out. It's panned out. My roommate was adamant that she couldn't take her 97 year old grandmother to the emergency room for a, for a procedure that she needed because there's so much flu in the emergency rooms that everybody's getting sick and it's just a, it's basically a death sentence if you walk in. And so yesterday she had to do it and she asked the ER people like, hey, have you seen much flu yet? And they're like, nope, not a case. We're getting ready. But not a single case. And she's like, well, maybe it was just Midwest TikTok, like getting your news from TikTok.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that would be a good idea.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let's not do that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I did see this in the news and I'm going to put it in follow up because we've gotten a considerable amount of crap over the last 12 years now because we're too political. Yeah, I know we're too political because, you know, we're just too political. Even though we're talking about politics as it relates to technology. Well, Wired has finally decided to jump on the bandwagon 12 years later.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the party, pal.

[Brian Schulmeister]

For the first time in its history, Wired is dedicating an issue to politics, citing concerns about the tech industry's alignments with President Trump. So they've had to issue a statement because they're actually going to talk about politics while the rest of us in tech have just been doing it because there's no choice and getting shit for it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. Yeah, but you know, Brian, we've always said that we were not. That's why we started this show, because every other tech show in the world was so fucking boring. It's just like, oh, I don't care about what features are on the new Galaxy smartphone. I really.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, let's talk about the policies that will actually affect our lives for the next year.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Tell me, tell me which megalomaniacal motherfucker is going to ruin my day today? That's what I want to know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All of them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of one of them, good old Elon. We're getting. We're getting stories of Doge now. The fallout from Doge.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can't wait for the book deals.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's pretty much just as bad as we thought it was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pretty fucked up by big balls.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah, pretty much so, yeah. Projected 300,000 fewer federal employees by next year was one of the projections. That's one in eight workers, thanks to Doge. Because of the incentives to resign. Well, apparently they thought the government would just run itself, so hundreds of those very same pushed out employees are being offered their jobs back across the board. Thank God. Predictably, all that modernizing achieved no meaningful cost savings or operational efficiencies. No shit. The federal workers who remained described a hellscape of purgatory and leadership by utter neglect. Forced back to hostile offices, they encountered armed tactical guards patrolling, telling the staff that they were there to desensitize you to my presence. That's what you want to hear. Working in the United States government. Yeah. Yep. And get this, a $1 spending limit per day meant some offices literally ran out of toilet paper for five months. What a shitty place to work, Brian. Meanwhile, mass layoffs, dubbed the Valentine's Day Massacre, coincided with tone deaf emails about mental awareness.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, you know those signs around the office saying, bring your own toilet paper BYOTP didn't help much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Yep. So the Doge saga has left many workers traumatized. And as one CDC employee put it, this was the trauma that they wanted. They planned that, they promised us, and for once, they did a great job of delivering. Others are just plain mad, vowing to stay and make things difficult for these, quote unquote, the quest for functional government, or at least a functioning bathroom, continues.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So. So, yeah, that went well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And now this is. This is a technological tie in. So don't cancel us here. But there was a big, beautiful funeral on TV last week, Brian. It was the biggest. The biggest, most beautifulest funeral. And when I die, I hope there's a merch table. Because nothing says funeral like capitalism.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Gog show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Shop gog that show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sorry, my bad. I would be horrible. I'm glad they didn't pick me to run merch table there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Just imagine though, Brian, a few years ago you could have gotten a commemorative death nft. A death ft, as it were.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm sure Melania is going to run one out. She's always a little bit late.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, since we can't get the death fts, we're just going to have to make do with meme coins. Or a few. So, within minutes of Charlie Kirk shooting, dozens of meme coins appeared on Pump Fun, a site where any site used.

[Brian Schulmeister]

To be completely different.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Totally different, where anyone could instantly create and trade tokens. Names like Pray for Kirk Coin and Deadkirk flooded the Solana blockchain, and at least one token hit a $16 million market cap in the first hour. Well, Bloomberg reports more than 10,000 Kirk related tokens have been launched since the shooting, with creators pocketing hundreds of thousands in transaction fees. One investor sank tens of thousands of dollars into RIP Charlie Kirk Coin lost big, then helped lead a community takeover of his team. Pledged to donate fees to Kirk's nonprofit, Turning Point usa, even posting receipts online to build legitimacy. You know, if you really gave that much of a fuck, why didn't you sink the tens of thousands of dollars straight into the charity that you wanted to give the money to?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because then that wouldn't be a grift.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know. Because he hoped to make a lot of money and pocket it for himself. That's why.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I was checking these out. I was looking for the Pray for James T. Kirk coins. Couldn't find them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Amazon is going to pay $2.5 billion in fines and reimbursements to prime subscribers to settle the Federal Trade Commission's allegations that it deceived its customers to generate subscriptions, according to the FTC on Thursday. Now, we had talked about this in the past. When this started, it was basically, you know, it was dark patterns to get people to sign up for and keep prime subscriptions rather than being able to cancel them. That entire first sentence from this Reuters article is not entirely true. Okay, they will pay $2.5 billion in fines and reimbursements, but not entirely to prime subscribers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, really?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

See, this is why I don't like journalism anymore. $1 billion in fines is going to the FTC. Oh, the other $1.5 billion will be going to the prime customers that are.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Eligible for the payout, because the FTC had they. They incurred $1 billion worth of pain and suffering over this debacle, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. So the grift continues in this new administration. I guarantee that that might not have been the case in previous administrations, that the $2.5 billion would have, or at least, you know, 2 billion gone to the actual people that were affected, not the $1 billion handling fee.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, seriously. Maybe it's a tariff. Maybe it's the new tariff on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Of course, Amazon does not have to admit any wrongdoing because it's a settlement now, before everybody. Everybody started to go, oh, good, I can't wait to get my buck 50 in audible credits or whatever they're going to actually do instead of actually giving you cash. No, no, no. Hold your horses. Only customers who signed up For prime between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2020, through certain offers, and who used few prime benefits afterwards will automatically receive the $51, according to court documents. So we are not all getting a little buck or two. It's a very specific subset of Amazon customers, and I guarantee that most of us listening to the show have been a member since long before 2019.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I've been a member since it was in beta.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. But Amazon did say in a statement that the deal allows it to move forward and focus on customers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, that's so great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. As part of the settlement deal, Amazon has agreed to create a clear and conspicuous button to allow customers to decline a Prime subscription and to make it easier to cancel. They've also agreed to more clearly disclose the terms of a subscription during enrollment and pay an independent supervisor to monitor compliance. Now, please, look at that we're paying for video thing, but you're still pumping US ads. Bullshit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Fucking assholes. So here's the deal. Prime has been around for 20 years. Next year, my Amazon prime account will be able to drink. That's fucked up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. We old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we old. We damn old. I remember where I was. I was at Technorati and we were all talking about it because back then you could put everybody's address on there. And I think Niall Kennedy was the first one to get the account and spread it with people around the office. And then there wasn't enough in his account, so I went and got one and spread it around, too, to other people in the office.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I couldn't tell you when I signed up for Amazon, but I can tell you it was literally just a bookstore when I did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. When you signed up. But I'm talking about for Prime. Prime in general. Oh, yeah. No, I mean I think I signed up for Amazon on Mosaic. Well, Microsoft says it has cut off certain cloud services to Israel's Defense Ministry after reports that its unit 8200 stored Palestinians phone calls on Microsoft's Azure system. President Brad Smith confirmed the company found evidence supporting those claims. Including AI services being used in Europe. The move follows weeks of employee protests over Israel's use of Microsoft software during its Gaza invasion. Protests that led to several firings. Microsoft told Israeli officials that it had disabled the cloud storage and AI subscriptions. Reports say the unit is now looking to move its operations to Amazon Web Services. Now I like this. They're getting booted because of phone calls. Someone at Microsoft had to read their own ToS and decide that genocide is fine, but we really got to draw the line at phone calls.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, look, in Microsoft's defense, who thinks to put genocide in their tos?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, nowadays everybody should, apparently so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Particularly the next company you're going to talk about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Palantir Technologies, the defense software giant known for working with US Immigration authorities, the military, and major corporations, is trying to reinvent itself as a lifestyle brand. Brian. The Denver based company has relaunched its online store selling pricey made in the USA merch like $119 tote bags and $55 baseball caps and T shirts featuring globe like graphics suggesting Palantir controls the world. That's not a suggestion, my friend. That's the shop.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Palantir.com yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Unlike traditional defense contractors that sell novelty items to employees and veterans, Palantir is openly marketing its brand identity. Pro, Western, military friendly and winning obsessed. Charlie Sheen should get some shirts. With growing fan base, company executives call it the lifestyle brand, encouraging supporters to wear the gear that signals allegiance to Palantir's mission. Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My God, what is wrong with people?

[Jason DeFilippo]

The merch push comes as Palantir deepens its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including a new $30 million contract to build immigration OS.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Palantir. Selling clothes isn't about revenue, but about cultivating a more acceptable public identity. And now, Brian, nothing says more acceptable public identity like having your co founder out there thumping this bullshit. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel is warning that regulating artificial intelligence could literally be the work of the Antichrist. Yes. Speaking in a series of religious lectures in San Francisco, the Palantir co founder claimed government controls over science and technology might fulfill biblical prophecy about the end times. That's fucking crazy. Thiel, who has recently become fascinated with eschatology or the study of the apocalypse.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know when I became fascinated with that, Jason? I was 11.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I was 11 and I went to the library and I. Because I was raised Roman Catholic, and then I started reading all the books about the end times because I was 11 and I did not have a fully formed frontal cortex.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just watched the Omen when I was like five. And that was when I got into it. Well, he says his speculative thesis is that a one world government promising peace and safety while restricting technology could be the Antichrist in disguise.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, go fuck yourself.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He pointed to Scripture in 1 Thessalonians to support his view, suggesting that while peace and safety sound good, in an age of AI and global weapon systems, they could be tools of destruction.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I would like to point Peter Thiel through some of the other passages in that book he picked up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So like all of the other ones.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There'S a lot of other scripture that maybe he should be taking a look at.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The 57 year old billionaire even floated the idea that the United States itself, given its global dominance. Not anymore, buddy. Could play the role of Antichrist. The comments come as lawmakers push for stronger rules on artificial intelligence. Rules Teal has a direct financial interest in avoiding.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's this whole bit about chasing the money lenders out of the temple. Just saying, just saying, just saying, just saying. And much like the top of the show when we talked about the TikTok deal, have they've agreed to agree on something? Well, AI experts are urgently calling on governments to think about maybe doing something sometime, somewhere about AI. Okay, Everybody seems to recognize the fact that artificial intelligence is a rapidly developing and emerging technology, has the potential for immense harm if operated without safeguards or apparently could be the Antichrist. But basically no one, except for the European Union kind of can sort of agree on how to regulate it. So instead of trying to set up a clear and narrow path for regulations, experts in the field have opted for a new approach. How about we just figure out what extreme examples we all think are bad and just agree to that, Please, for the love of God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

AI Bad.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Group of politicians, scientists and academics took to the United Nations General assembly to announce the global call for AI Red Lines. A plea for the governments of the world to come together and agree on the broadest of guardrails to prevent universally acceptable risks that could result from the deployment of AI this might have actually made news, except for the fact that our dear leader decided to get up and word salad some shit about every country going to hell.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh God, that was fucking embarrassing. You think Hero of the week is the. Is the cameraman who tripped the escalator, though. Good for him.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The only thing the group offered offers concretely is that any global agreement should be built on three pillars, a clear list of prohibitions, robust auditable verification mechanisms and the appointment of an independent body established by the parties to oversee implementation. Everything else is for the governments to agree to, which is kind of the hard part because it hasn't happened yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So fucking stupid.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So nothing's going to happen from that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nothing. Nothing at all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Forget it. Yeah. Waste of time. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass. You know that feeling when you're doom scrolling and suddenly it's an hour later and you feel even worse? Been there. Lately I've been swapping that bad habit for something that actually makes me feel better. Masterclass. I've been diving into Penn and Teller's class on the art of magic. Yeah, that Penn and Teller. In their first ever masterclass, Teller actually breaks his silence as he and Penn teach their approach to creating moments of wonder and astonishment. What I took away is that real magic isn't just about tricks. It's about designing an experience that completely messes with what people think is possible. That perspective hit me hard and I have started looking at my own creative projects through that same lens of surprise and delight. With Masterclass, you can learn from the best to become your best. Plans start at just 10 bucks a month. Build annually and you get unlimited access to over 200 classes taught by business leaders, writers, chefs, scientists, and even world renowned thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Doris Kearns Goodwin. The app fits into my routine perfectly, whether I'm watching on my laptop, listening in audio mode while I'm walking the dog, or sneaking in a 10 minute lesson between edits and the classes really make a difference. Three in four members say they feel inspired every time they watch. And honestly, I get it. Here's the best part. Every new membership comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, so there's no risk. Right now our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual [e-mail] grumpy old geeks that's 15% [e-mail] grumpy Old Geeks One more time for the people in the background. Masterclass.com Grumpy old geeks.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And we got a new term that's, that's been going around this week. Jason Workslop.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I've been seeing that. That's a good one. Good one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is a good one. AI generated work content is slowing everything down. So we've been talking a lot about how we're not seeing any of the pluses of this AI revolution that's being shoved down people's throats. Particularly at work where, you know, there are mandates that everybody has to work AI into their workflows at this point. But, you know, nothing's really coming of it. And now an MIT Media Lab study found that fewer than one in. Well, we talked about this last week here. That 1 in 10 AI pilot projects deliver any real revenue gains and warn that 95% of organizations are getting zero return on their AI bets. But new research from Harvard Business Reviews better up labs working with the Stanford Social Media Lab paint an even worse picture. Not only are we not getting any results results, we're actually slowing shit down. Great, it's getting worse. The insidious effects of Workslop is that it shifts the burden of the work downstream, requiring the receiver to interpret, correct or redo the work. In other words, it transfers the effort from creator to receiver. The report's authors wrote they have defined work slop as AI generated work content that masquerades as good work but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task. So you used to have to do that by hand. Yeah, you really have to gum up the works by hand and pretend that you were working. Now you just press a button.

[Jason DeFilippo]

These people drop the ball. They so drop the ball. And I'm going to coin something new right now, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

When you get that work slop from your co worker that he has been handed down, it's work sloppy seconds.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, you can get that at Pump Fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You can get that at Pump Fun.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Surveyed workers reported spending an average of 1 hour and 56 minutes per incident dealing with low quality AI outputs. Researchers calculated that based on respondent salaries, Workslop carries an invisible cost of around $186 per month per employee. For companies with thousands of employees, that can translate into millions of dollars in lost productivity each year from this revolutionary technology that was going to make everything better.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And they don't even count on the the actual cost that they're spending on the AI itself, the per seat license.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it also takes a social and emotional toll in the Office. When asked, 53% of participants said receiving work slot made them 38% confused and 22% where we would solidly fall offended.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And then they took the time to actually send the AI their their emotions to create a gift that they could send back to the person, thus killing several watersheds in the process. Well, Deutsche bank is warning the US economy may be riding a shaky AI wave. Well, no shit. Welcome, welcome Deutsche Bank. In a new report, analysts say tech spending has been the main force keeping the economy out of recession this year. George Serovelos, the bank's head of FX research, wrote that AI machines in quite a literal sense appear to be saving the US Economy right now. That growth isn't coming from AI itself, but from the massive infrastructure buildouts, data centers, chips, and talent needed to support it. Now, Deutsche bank argues that kind of parabolic spending can't last. Been saying that for several months now. If it slows before AI delivers on its big promises, the US could face higher unemployment, falling incomes, and hidden weaknesses in consumer demand.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Could face. I would argue we're already facing that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's seeping through right Now. Bain & Co. Estimates the AI sector would need $2 trillion in annual revenue by 2030 just to fund its computing needs. Now, there's also news this week about how Nvidia is investing $100 billion into OpenAI or getting part of OpenAI for the $00 billion which OpenAI is then going to spend on Nvidia Ch. Thus creating the. The ultimate AI Ouroboros. And, but, you know, you run the numbers on this. It's not going to work. Nothing. None of this is going to work. And the other thing that I read.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This week, that was a Ponzi scheme.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And Mark Zuckerberg is saying that this is what, this is really. He kind of, he kind of lifted the kimono a little bit on this one. He's like, yeah, it would be unfortunate if we misspent, like hundreds of billions of dollars. But. But if you don't and the thing actually comes to pass and they can get something out of it, some kind of super intelligence or figure out how to make it actually work. If you're not investing now, you're going to be at a position when it actually happens and you'll be playing catch up. So they're just trying to stay ahead of it. It's the world's dumbest, biggest bet that we've ever seen. They're just betting on the fact that this is going to happen now, none of these guys need to work ever again. They're just doing this for shits and giggles. So what? You know all of this stuff, every single one of these guys is doing this for fun.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, they're doing it to win. It's just an ego thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's. But that's the same thing. You know, there's, there's no but.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I doubt they're having fun. That's, that's. I don't think that they're having fun. I don't think that they're enjoying their lives.

[Jason DeFilippo]

God, I hope not. I seriously hope not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, in the latest example, a big, big tech kissing the Ring and blowing Dear Leader's channels, once banned by YouTube for spreading false information regarding the COVID 19 pandemic or the 2020 election, may soon have the opportunity to get their channels back. In a decision transparently courting conservative voices, Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, has sent a letter via counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in which it alleges the company was pressured by the Biden administration to take down misinformation on YouTube related to the COVID 19 pandemic that did not violate the company's existing policies at the time. Because you're allowed to lie, it now describes the Biden administration's actions as unacceptable and wrong. It also informed the committee that YouTube would be offering a path to reinstatement for creators whose channels were banned for repeatedly violating community guidelines, violating community guidelines on election integrity related content, as well as for COVID 19 related content. The guidelines under which those bans were carried out were removed by the company in 2023 and 2024, because God knows we don't need anything about election integrity related content anymore. Details on exactly what the path for reinstatement looks like were not shared. So basically they're just rolling that back and saying, oh, all of these people, like Steve Bannon's war room, co Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino's channel and the channel for Children's Health Defense, which was previously linked with Secretary of Human and Health Services RFK Jr you guys can have those back now since you're in power.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

YouTube values Conservative voices on its platform and recognizes these creators of extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse, the company wrote. The letter was sent in response to subpoenas as part of the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigations into alleged government directed content moderation. You know the thing you guys tried to do to gimp Jimmy Kimmel.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. You hypocrites.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Cowards. Cowards.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, so it's get. You know, we can't be banned, but you guys can.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. In more fun news, federal authorities are warning of a severe threat to critical infrastructure following the dismantling of a massive cybercrime facility near New York City. The U.S. secret Service has busted what they call a sim farm operation in the Tri State area.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's right next to where they make the salsa.

[Jason DeFilippo]

New York City. New York City. Get a rope. The scale of the discovery is staggering. Agencies to network of some 300 servers holding over 100,000 SIM cards. Experts say that these farms are typically used by cyber criminals to flood phones with Spam and carry out fraud or ask for money from your. Your representative. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the only texts I'm getting from Democrats 19 times a day asking for money. And I just continue to respond with tell me what you're going to do and I'll give you money.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. However, the sheer size of this particular operation prompted a serious warning from the government. Officials say the network was so vast it could have overwhelmed cell towers capable of essentially disabling the entire cell phone phone network in New York City. The Secret Service estimates the farm could have sent about 30 million text messages per minute. The investigation was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sounds like my wife.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or that girl. I never called back. The investigation was escalated after the farm was linked to Swatting Attacks targeting U.S. members of Congress around Christmas last year. The Secret Service has seized all the equipment which they say was used by organized crime and other threat actors. But the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made. So apparently you can buy a hundred thousand SIM cards and 300 SIMs or cell servers and just be. Can get away. Must have used Bitcoin to buy those, I bet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I wonder.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Well, speaking of. A multi billion dollar fraud industry has taken root across Southeast Asia fueled by human trafficking victims. People flying to Thailand for jobs or vacation are being snatched and forced to work as cyber scam slaves in lawless regions of Myanmar are. We've covered this a little bit because guess who they're using for their Internet service provider now?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, you got it. Shocking, an investigation reveals Thailand is a key transit hub with alleged involvement from purported immigration officials at Thai airports. Victims are met at Bangkok's airport and driven across the border to notorious scam centers in Myanmar, such as the sprawling KK Park. I've seen pictures that like satellite pictures that place massive inside. Run by Chinese criminal gangs and militias. Thousands work up to 20 hours daily running online scams. Failure to meet financial targets result in brutal punishment, including electric shocks and beatings with bamboo rods. The UN estimates hundreds of thousands have been trafficked across Southeast Asia. While a recent multinational crackdown freed some victims, thousands remain in these fraud centers. The crisis persists with Thai authorities denying allegations of official involvement in the trafficking pipeline. Yeah, so that's why they can't catch most of these scammers is because they're sitting in Myanmar on their, you know, SpaceX terminals. What's the damn name? Starlink. Starlink terminals. Yeah. Media candy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've been consuming an awful lot of media recently, Jason. Probably just to try to escape the hellscape that is normal life. So we Watched Elio, which is the latest Pixar thing that's come out on Disney plus now that I can continue to subscribe to that since they reinstated Jimmy Kimmel. So I don't feel so bad. It was fine. This is one of those Pixar movies. Normally I would say Pixar movies are for the whole family and they throw in a lot of an adult humor and they make the story complex enough that you can really enjoy it as an adult. In fact, I would say 99% of the Pixar movies I've been able to watch and I would even recommend recommend you without a child to watch because they're really good movies. This one, not so much. This is for kids. I feel like they really dropped the ball on, on making it a multi level movie this time around. So my kid enjoyed it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Their biggest flop in like decades.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, and I think it's entirely because of that. Like it just. It had nothing for adults at all. My wife and I were just zoning out while it was on. It was very well done for, for a couple kid, but they didn't have the multi level enjoyment that most of their movies do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Got it. All right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I finally was able to watch Superman once I was able to start to use your Max account again because they're cracking down on shared households. So thank you for that highly enjoyable movie. Nice message. I. I think that they tried to cram a lot in and I think it would have been a better intro to the new DC universe if they just would have focused on Superman and not had Mr. Terrific and fucking the best Green Lantern I've ever seen in my life. That guy was hilarious. I love Nathan Fillion, but overall, heartwarming. Exactly what you want a Superman to be. You get a bit of hope and faith in humanity which immediately gets crushed as soon as the movie's over.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it was fine. That's how I put it was fine.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it was fine. You know, I liked it. I liked it. And then finally I. Well, not finally, but there's a new series. It's been out on the BBC for a little bit. It is now airing for free on PBS and Nova. You can watch it on YouTube or through the PBS app. This is Ella Al Shamira, who I've talked about before because she's been a guest on the no Such Thing as a Fish podcast and she's an anthropologist and she's very clever and she's had her own podcast that I've talked about on the show as well. Well, she is hosting a series about human origins, humanity. And the first two of five have now dropped on PBS and nova and I watched both of them. Human Origins is the first one and Human Journeys is the second one. This is fantastic. This is wonderful stuff that traces humanity's origins and talks about the different, the different subspecies that were around back in the day, which is phenomenal. I mean, you learn about the hobbits. I didn't even know that these existed. It was amazing. It's, it's well worth it. It's incredibly well produced, as you would expect from the BBC or anything that PBS is throwing money behind as well. She's fantastic in it. Explains things wonderfully well. Beautifully shot. I mean, all the things that you would want out of a high quality science broadcast.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sounds good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, Definitely worth watching.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I like the free part. I'm down with free and free. Absolutely free.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No need for me to go. Jason, can you send me that code?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Something that wasn't free definitely was. Alien Earth on Hulu. It finally finished up and 10 points for the landing stuck.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That is all I've seen online is people are saying that they nailed it. So I'm gonna watch this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's so good. I can't wait five more years till the next episode comes out. It's gonna be great, but. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, I mean, my biggest issue with all of the Alien movies is you just never really get to see the alien that much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, you do here. Oh, you do good. And they did a great job with it. I mean, Stan Winston would be proud. It's so good. It's so good. The Traders Ireland finished up this week, so thanks again, Vinnie. All 12 episodes have aired. I'm so glad I didn't look at the actual article that Vinnie sent because it was full of spoilers and would have ruined half the show for me. So thanks, but yeah, no, it was, it was, it was a good one. I, I'm highly, I'm highly happy that I watched it. Keeping my streak of watching every episode of every trader's English language that you can possibly find. Now I'm, I'm on a desperate hunt. If somebody can send me a torrent where I can find Traders Mumbai. It's apparently a barn burner, but I can't. Nobody's posting it anywhere. It's driving me crazy. I tried vpning to Amazon Prime India and they're saying, no, you cannot watch it here. Go back home. So I'm gonna get canceled for that anyway. Yeah, I, I, I love the Traders. I still love the traders. What can I say?

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Speaking of going back to Hulu and Disney plus. Yes. Just because they didn't step on their dick enough times last week, they figured, oh, oh, God, we just lost $3.8 billion in market cap because we said something stupid and did something stupid. Let's raise the price. Idiots stupid.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Like, wait, wait, wait until January, February. What the hell, man?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but it was already in buffer, so it was going out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, Nobody wanted to go in and, like, remove it from the queue for posting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Like, the interns were going to a music fest and they couldn't be bothered to take it out. So, yeah, effective October 21st, there's a, there's a range. It's going anywhere up from $1 or $2 to $3, depending on the package you have.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Really? Like, it's not a huge increase, but it is, it is. Is a monumentally bad timing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, monumentally bad. The only, the funny thing is, the only one that I get, I, I. Mine doesn't go up, I think, because I've got the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm grandfathered into some weird old package that isn't going up either. But on the negative side of that is I don't even know how I could upgrade to get Hulu if I wanted to. Like, I pressed the button to try to find out, and it just shits out on me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it says, you're in Canada. Go yourself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I'm using the vpn. It says I'm.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, that's weird. Then, yeah, I got. I've got Hulu and Disney plus with no ads. And it says Hulu with no ads is staying the same. But I gotta go look, I mean, I. Because probably gonna end up keeping. I canceled it, but then I redid it after they brought him back, and now I'm just all confused because now I'm just, like, mad. And I should cancel anyway because Alien Earth was honestly the only thing left that I watched on Hulu, so. So it's so difficult, Brian. It's so difficult. I miss cable.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know. I miss cable, too. It was cheaper.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was cheaper. Less. Less headache.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, less headache. Cheaper. Unbelievable. I probably should have saved this one for. For our Dave segment, but I'm going to put it in here now. Anyways, the Wicked for Good final trailer has dropped now. You and Dave are the musical guys. I, you know, I was never really a big musical guy. I know my music nerds from high school and, and beyond. You know, so I lay everybody was wearing the Les Mis shirts, and then everybody was wearing the Phantom of the Opera shirts and then everybody was wearing the cat shirts and then everybody was wearing all that stuff. And then Wicked came along and it's, it's, it was a really big musical and everybody loved it. Now you know, I watched wizard of Oz, the, the original. I watched the Wiz. So I was familiar enough with the story. My wife finally wanted to watch the first, first installment of Wicked with a kid a couple weeks back. I found myself really enjoying it. I watched this trailer. I'm really, definitely looking forward to seeing the rest of the story. And I just think that that shot of our wizard lies is so telling for this current time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, it kind of is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But unfortunately we know how the story ends and the wizard wins and everybody gets crushed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you haven't seen Wicked before, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I have not. Again, for me, this is all new, so I'm very excited to see that the rest of it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I watched the trailer to see how if they did a decent job, they, they completely protected all of the ending stuff in the trailer. So if you've never seen it, it's still safe to, to go watch the movie because it was a, it's a three minute trailer and I'm like, oh my God, they're going to blow everything. They blew nothing. So it's great. They just, they just pimped all the songs and. Yeah, no, I mean, I've seen Wicked on stage a couple times and I'm, I'm looking forward to this because I thought that, I thought the, the first part of the, the, the, the, the series was good. I thought it was really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, me too. I mean, I am, I am primed to dislike Ariana Grande with every fiber of my being, but she was phenomenal.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no, she was great. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, and I, I did watch Lilith Fair, Building a Mystery because right after talking about it, it basically dropped on Disney plus And it is a great music documentary. It is fantastic. I loved seeing all the backstories. I liked seeing how much fun that they had doing. I like seeing the blowback that they had to put up with and I like seeing how they handled it. Highly recommended if you like your music documentaries and if also you're of a certain vintage like us. All this footage from the 90s, phenomenal.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, cool. I've been meaning to get to the Devo documentary as well, but yeah, I.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Keep meaning to get to that one too, and I haven't yet, so maybe this week the Tron Ares soundtrack from Nine Inch Nails has dropped it dropped right before we went and recorded last week, but I hadn't listened to it it yet. I went and listened to it. Now it's curious that they decided to go with the branding of Nine Inch Nails. I mean, I think, you know, the filmmakers wanted it. It fits with Tron and I guess he sings for the first time on a soundtrack which Trent Reznor has never done before. So I guess that's why they decided to brand it as Nine Inch Nails.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And they gave him a bucket of money.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Is it a Nine Inch Nails album? Absolutely not. Is it okay? It's fine.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's okay. It's not great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, it's not great. But then again, I haven't really thought his Nine Inch Nails albums have been that great for the past decade, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was going to make a mention a couple weeks ago because the. The new administration, there's a. There's a beautiful Nine Inch Nail song with the refrain broken, bruised, forgotten, sore Too fucked up to care anymore. That's how I wake up in the morning when I read the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Boy, when we felt that so strongly back in the 90s, we had no idea what was coming.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no, no. God, that was just like a general hangover day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now it's just like, oh, this is existential dread involved.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly. Then I saw this bit of news and it kind of made me go, oh boy, here we go. Human lyricist Talisha Jones and her AI artist Zania Monet have together signed a multi million dollar record deal. According to Billboard, Jones released the Zanier Monet album unfolded on August 28th. And since then, the TikTok earnest power ballad How Was I Supposed to Know? Has racked up 5 million streams across YouTube and Spotify. Jones claims to have written all the lyrics. I'm sure Chat GPT helped. She used the AI platform, SUNO to transform the words into full songs. The deal is reportedly worth 3 million and comes from Halwood Media, best known for representing chart topping producers like Murder Beats and Soundwave. So yeah, yeah, apparently she sounds. The AI voice sounds an awful lot like Beyonce. So opening up themselves to a bit of a lawsuit there, Beyonce YouTube comments suggest that many fans didn't realize Zone is an AI creation, which could lead to backlash as news trickles out. Obviously there's a lot of litigation going on right now. Platformers from Chat GPT to SUNO were trained on copyrighted materials such as Beyonce. Beyonce in a way that some have argued is illegal. Just yesterday, record labels escalated a lawsuit against Suno, claiming that the platform was trained on songs ripped from YouTube. Even if Suno doesn't get sued into oblivion, copyright law could prevent Halwood from monetizing Xavier Monet. The US Copyright Office sanctions humans using AI as an assistive tool, but has said that they would not grant copyrights where expressive elements are determined by a machine. If you cannot get a copyright on your product, you cannot monetize it and get paid for it. While Talisha Jones providing the lyrics, but AI handling the composition of vocal performance, the Copyright Office has its work cut out for it. Trying to figure out what to do here. AI songs have had success with playlist placement and TikTok, but so far there's little evidence that generated music capitalized on viral moments. If you remember back in June, the AI band the Velvet Sundown, which we talked about, made waves for getting over 500,000 monthly Spotify listens. But just a few months later, they basically forgotten about and nobody gives a shit. It seems difficult to maintain an audience, let alone grow it, when the artist in the page pictures can't interact with fans. Of course, that's just being lazy. We all know you can use AI to interact. Somebody just has to get on it and actually do the work. Which nobody seems to be doing yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. So I should go use SUNO while I still can.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. It's not going to be around much longer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it's not. Well, didn't. Didn't Universal Music make a deal with them?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can't talk about that yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought they talked about that. I thought you talked about that on the show already. That was an old deal.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Things have changed. Changed?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, okay. Well, yes. Zip it. Mum's a word. Well, I do want to follow up with a little bit of Lionsgate news. Lionsgate thought it had cracked the future of filmmaking with artificial intelligence, but reality is a bit less Hollywood, more blooper real. So what it turns out is that they were going to train their AI from Runway with all of the movies from Lionsgate's back catalog. And, well, turns out that. That there's not enough data. So that whole thing is kind of falling apart. So there you go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Finally, the last thing I got is there's an article by my friend's wife, Meryl Marco, that hit Rolling Stone this week called Jimmy Kimmel May Be Back, Trump's Attacks on the First Amendment Aren't over by Meryl Marco. It's about how the movie network is kind of paralleling what's going on in reality right now. It's a great read. She's awesome.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Awesome.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Go have a. Go have a look. The link is in the show notes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I also put the link in the show notes for the 30 minute plus monologue that Jimmy Kimmel did his first show back. The first time I've watched Jimmy Kimmel in decades. Unless one of the bands since the man show. Unless one of the bands I was working on was performing there and I was actually there. He did a very good job.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was excellent. He nailed it. I thought I agreed. The Dark side with Dave. Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Hello, Dave.

[Dave]

Hi.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You never know what we're gonna get. Long intro or short.

[Dave]

Keeps it interesting. Right. Variety is the spice of life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. We got more room for goodness today. All right, so I. We. You and I both talked about how our AirPod threes were in the post and coming on the same day. I got mine, like right after we hung. Hung up last time.

[Dave]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And did you get yours?

[Dave]

I did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What do you think?

[Dave]

I am impressed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm blown away, I guess.

[Dave]

I'm ordering today, so, you know, I got them. I unboxed them. I put one of them in my ear. I put the other one in my ear.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm glad you chose that orifice.

[Dave]

Yeah, well, you know, I mean, there's still time. Time, but. And the room fell silent.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It went away. The world went away.

[Dave]

And that was actually a little disconcerting. Right. Like, I was like, whoa, wait a minute. This is really quiet. And you know, they. They said in the. The promotions for these things that they had twice the noise canceling of the previous generation. And I figured. Figured that's marketing fluff. But no, it's. It's real. Yeah, they're amazing. They are really amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I was expecting like a, you know, a small incremental jump from the twos to the threes, but it's a big jump. I. I mean, I had to. I had to find. I had to go down a size on the. The nubs. The little foam nubs.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because the ones that came were they. I put them in and they just fell right out. So I go down a size.

[Dave]

I must have bigger ear holes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You. Yeah, must be. And it. Yeah, it just went right away. I haven't. Here's the irony behind this whole thing. I really want to try out the translation, but since ICE has taken over Los Angeles, I can't find any Spanish speakers to talk to me anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, I don't know, you can pull up a foreign language channel on YouTube.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And that's is fun. I'm I'm waiting for them to do Farsi because I do live in, like, little Persia and there's a lot of Farsi speakers around here, but they haven't released that language yet.

[Dave]

So there must be some French Canadians up Brian's way, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I actually do. My friend. My friend Jean Viev. She speaks French Canadian. I could. She calls it, like, the Newarkes of. Of French.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's the. That's the thing, though. They have French in there. They don't have French Canadian. And so insanely different. Like, French. Actual French speakers just go, what the fuck are you saying?

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that the AirPods still may be Apple's best product in terms of just a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're on the Galloway train. He thinks that, too. Yeah.

[Dave]

Well, I think it's everything that Apple excels at. It's a design. It's impossible design. It does what it says it's going to do. It's aesthetically pleasing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Frictionless.

[Dave]

Yeah. Yes, frictionless. Expensive. But I, you know, I love them. It is among my favorite devices, gadgets that I own, and it's nice that I just don't have to think about them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They just work.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Except for when they.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That is so incredibly rare. I guess out of all the tools that I've had, the AirPods are the ones that don't work the least.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I agree with that. But. But when I'm, like, out walking and I haven't put them in my ear yet, then I throw them in and I want to start my podcast and all of a sudden I have to, like, turn off Bluetooth and turn it back on again. It's really annoying. But again, it's really annoying because they always just work.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's the edge case, you know?

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah. I'd say. I've rarely had that happen. I'm sure it's happened, but not enough that I remember it being a thing. But, yeah, just a. Just a big fan. And these are also waterproof compared to the last ones. So I was. This is the other thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can throw them in the laundry by accident and not have to buy a new pair, like I did with my, like, first gen. Yeah, Well, I.

[Dave]

Was wearing them in my hot tub. I was wearing them in my hot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Tub and With a bunch of French Canadians.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Chicks.

[Dave]

Yeah, that's right. Basically, it looked like an episode of the Benny Hill show. And. And again, the sound of the jets and the bubbling water and everything just went away.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I gotta try that because when I get in My hot tub. My Apple Watch Ultra 2 tells me that the noise level is too high and that I should should run for the hills because it's over the over the decibel range and if I'm there for more than half an hour, I could incur hearing loss.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I get that every time I take a shower. My watch tells me it's too loud.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Dave]

Yeah. Somehow water pressure and air pressure are not the same thing, I guess.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, But I gotta say yeah. Between the AirPods and my Apple Watch, those are my two favorite Apple devices. I care less about the rest. But those two, I can't live without. Unfortunately, that means I have to have a phone too. But I could honestly do without the phone anymore. They could just make it a computing puck that sticks in my pocket. Pocket. Because I do everything else from all the other devices. I don't have any social media on my phone anymore. I guess the camera I use, but still, it's like the rest of it. It's kind of overkill.

[Dave]

I'm just happy that there was a piece of consumer electronics that delighted me. I still had the capability to delight unexpectedly. I'll take it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, if you want some undelightful consumer tech, Meta's Ray Ban glasses have come out. But. And of course, we had to tie it in with Disney. Disney is testing out a futuristic way to guide visitors around its theme parks. Smart glasses. The company's imagineering team has built a prototype app for Meta's Ray Ban glasses that acts as a personal AI tour guide. In a demo, the glasses answered questions about rides, food and merchandise, and even alerted a guest about short wait times or nearby characters like Winnie the Pooh. The technology relies on Meta's new wearables Device Access toolkit, announced at its developer conference. Disney calls it an experiment with no word yet on whether it will actually roll out in the parks. Now, this is actually good use technology.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But this will not roll out in the park purely because of cost. It's going to be too expensive to either. If you're. If they're going to pass out the glasses, it's only going to be like one of those private, super expensive. You get the personal tour guide experience for super rich people and super rich people are going to want the actual person who can get them on the rides without waiting in line, not glasses that just tell them where to get a good cheeseburger. And if it's going to be one of those things where you have to have your own Meta Ray Ban glasses and we'll just provide you with an app, it's going to cost too much for them to develop the interface in the app for the limited number of people that are actually going to use it. So it's not going to happen. I get experimenting with it. Of course they're going to experiment with it because maybe someday down the road this technology will be cheap enough that they could implement it and the park, but it's not going to come anytime soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But what about this, Brian? What if Facebook actually subsidizes it and pays for it? Or I'm sorry, Meta pays for it, because it'd be a loss leader for them to actually get their technology out there. Like. Like, I'm sure Apple pays, you know, Disney extra perks to. For them to make their movies compatible with their vision. Pros.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I mean, maybe Disney has a long history of doing that at the parks. You don't see a lot of corporate sponsorship anymore. But if you go back back in, back into the day in like the 50s, 60s, 70s, even some of the 80s, a lot of the rides were sponsored by various, you know, Goodyear sponsored stuff and all kinds of stuff. So maybe. Although at this point in time, Disney is doing a delicate dance of trying to retain their reputation along with, you know, Walt Disney's values. And making a partnership with beta would not be a step in the right direction.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but they also just raised the price of Disney plus by three fucking bucks at the same time when they just lost $3.8 billion in market share.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So that's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Who knows if anybody's actually thinking over there right now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They are making some strange decisions. But yeah, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

[Dave]

The other thing I'll add that contrary to what you're proposing here, Brian, is that years ago, I don't know if you're familiar with the. They had like a Perry the Platypus, like Phineas and Ferb thing at Epcot, where you went around to the different countries and special things, secret things would happen. Happen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I mean, because I haven't been to Disney World since I was a. Since I was like in my 20s. So it's been a long time.

[Dave]

Okay, so at Epcot they had a thing and it was originally, I think it was Kim Possible was where it originally started. And then they converted it to a Phineas and Ferb thing and they handed out little Android devices, like little phone size, basically, like ipod. What's the ipod that just. That looks like the phone, that sort of thing. In other words, a phone without a phone but it was really fun. And you would go around from place to place and it would give you clues and you'd have to do things. You'd have to ask certain people for things and do certain things and put in code words and. And things would happen behind the scenes that if you weren't playing this game, you'd have no idea that there was anything there to happen. And it was really, really fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Pokemon Go. Yeah.

[Dave]

But then eventually they just rolled it into an app that you can now use on your mobile device.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Shifting it to your own stuff so they don't have to pay for the tech.

[Dave]

Yeah, exactly. But it still works. In fact, we did it last week. Time we were there, my youngest son was playing with it. And so the things are still in there. They still work. So what struck me about that the first time we did it when they handed out the Android devices, was they just had a little cart set up and it said, you know, hey, play the Phineas and Ferb thing. And it was like, oh, what, do we just take this device? And they were like, yep. And it was like, would I have to sign anything? Nope.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, but to my point, those Android devices were basically throwaway technology and incredibly cheap, unlike Meta's Ray Ban glasses.

[Dave]

True. Yeah. There was no. No motivation to try to sneak it out of the park.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Dave]

Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And just a tangent really quickly. Phineas and Ferb, my son has just discovered that delightful show. Yeah, That's a lot of fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It really is. Yeah.

[Dave]

Yeah. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, I love Dr. DoofenshmirtZ.

[Dave]

So funny. So good funny.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And related to what we were just talking about, a new documentary has dropped. Dropped on Disney Plus, I guess this was an ABC special, the happiest story on earth, 70 years of Disneyland. Dave, you are probably have seen almost all of this footage before, as have I. There's some new stuff in it, which makes it interesting. And it was put together really, really well. And you can see some of the sponsored stuff from back in the day in this documentary as well. But, you know, it's a Disney documentary. Why wouldn't you watch it?

[Dave]

Yeah, I'll check it out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. And the Mandalorian and Grogu official trailer has dropped almost a year away from when we're actually going to get the movie. So thanks for that.

[Dave]

Right, Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it looks nice. It looks fun. I'm looking forward to it. It's great to see Sigourney Weaver that was pretty cool.

[Dave]

Yeah, Yeah, I saw you guys. I was looking at the rundown for the show. I saw you guys also mention that they dropped the Wicked trailer this week as well, so I'm looking forward to that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And it was good to see A buff hut.

[Dave]

A buff hut. A strange turn of phrase.

[Jason DeFilippo]

A buff hut. Buff hut.

[Dave]

Hey, it sounds like a diagnosis, you know? Oh, the test results came back, and unfortunately, I. It's. I have to break the news to you that you have a buff hut.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm gonna have to go watch this now immediately.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Don't take Tylenol for that.

[Dave]

No, no, no.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I saw. I saw the. Somebody posted it, and I saw it on the thing, and I looked at the screenshot. I'm like, well, that helmet's wrong, so maybe this is just some AI slop that somebody threw out there. And then Brian put it in, and it was too late for me to go watch, so I got to go watch it later today.

[Dave]

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I'm looking forward to it. And we'll. We'll go see it. It'll be interesting. Like my son pointed out, like, how are they going to differentiate this as a movie versus the TV show? How do they. They up their game cinematically when so much of the TV show looks. Yeah, so much of the TV show looks so good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I just feel like it's going to feel like a long episode. That's about it.

[Dave]

I. Yeah, I suspect this. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Maybe higher stakes. We'll see. But that's assuming you're going to see this movie, Dave, because I'm not sure you're going to have any money left after the next thing that Jason's going to tell you about.

[Dave]

You mean the auction? Auction.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah, that one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave]

I actually put this in here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, you put it in. Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dave]

So Jim Henson Company is having a 70th anniversary auction. It looks to me like they, like, I don't know, Brian Henson said, why are we paying all this money for storage?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's, by the way, how he. That's. That's why all the Farscape masters got burned, because he's like, I don't feel like paying for storage for this. Let's burn him instead of.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah. I think we lost decades of Johnny Carson's Tonight Shows because of that sort of thing. Nobody wanted to store the quad reels that they were all on. But this auction details are sparse. So far, they have not published the catalog. There's going to be a coffee table version of the catalog. Which I will be buying to go into my collection, but I don't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We'll see.

[Dave]

I mean, the thing is, the Muppets themselves that are going to be selling are going to be five figures at least, probably.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah, at least.

[Dave]

So, you know, too rich for my blood for something like that. But maybe I can get something. I don't know. We'll see.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, looks cool.

[Dave]

I will definitely check it out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, and there is a. There. There are Farscape props there as well. So. So maybe I'll. What am I talking about? I can't afford anything. I'm buying anything from this fucking thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, but it'll be fun to look at. We'll see what's in there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bad news for one of your other favorite things, Dave. The Security and Exchange Commission alleged this week that Retail E Commerce Ventures, the company that bought Radio Shack out of bankruptcy in 2020, has been basically just been running a Ponzi scheme and defrauded investors out of $112 million dollars.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Didn't we say that they were gonna do that when they bought the damn thing?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave]

Well, it wasn't the Radio Shack battery of the month club. Basically a Ponzi scheme. So true. I don't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave]

This is sad. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Yeah, I mean, it's sad. It's a zombie brand.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it was weird to see all the other big stores that were kind of wrapped up in there, like linen and Things, and Pier 1 Imports, which I. Pier 1 Imports. Pier 1 Imports was like my entire design scheme in college and post college, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Those fucking rattan chairs.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And the lamp. The lamp that everybody had.

[Dave]

I think our flatware, like our plates and bowls are all from Pier 1. Pretty sure, yeah. So I saw again earlier in the show that you all were talking about Amazon settlement with. With the FTC.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Dave]

There are $2.5 billion, a billion of which is a fine, and 1.5 billion is refunds to Amazon. Folks, I just wanted to add a little. A few details about this that relevant to past conversations we've had, because we all. We often complain about how no one ever goes to jail. And evidently that was one of the things that led Amazon to settle quickly. They were only a few days into their trial that they decided to settle that a couple of their executives were in peril of personal liability for this. So the scuttlebutt is that that could be why they settled so quickly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, unfortunately, I would have preferred jail time, but I understand not wanting to Pass up a billion dollar fine, especially with this administration.

[Dave]

Right, right. And the other someone else I saw did the math, and $2.5 billion is less than a single month worth of Amazon prime subscription revenue. So, yeah, it's couch cushion money.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, Pretty much. It's. It's like we say, it's coffee budget, tops.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What does it say here? It says, Amazon, the company takes in around $2.5 billion in sales every 33 hours.

[Dave]

There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bring back consequences. Bring back real consequences. This is what happens. These companies get beyond human scale and there's not a whole lot we can do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's nothing you can do to them. They are legitimately too big to fail.

[Dave]

Yeah. Finally, this story came by. I saw on Reddit. Or did I? It is a Reddit thread about furries riding the D.C. metro. This is an event, is their second or third time. Third time that they did a furry ride on the D.C. metro. There are pictures and sure enough, there are.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There you are.

[Dave]

How do you know? That's just it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We bought the mask.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Damn. I have receipts. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I do love thinking about the absolute delight such a small segment of our listening audience has every time we bring up furries.

[Dave]

I'm thinking about people who are just minding their own business on the Metro. Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think you see weirder things on the Metro in dc.

[Dave]

You do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

More disturbing, too.

[Dave]

That's true. Yes. Yes, that's true. But I don't know. I thought this was great fun and, you know, you never know. Maybe I was there. Maybe I was there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Never know where Dave might pop up.

[Dave]

You never know where I might be hiding inside of a furniture. You just never know anywhere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Dave]

All right, well, that's what I've got. Hang in there, gentlemen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'll try. I hope next week we're just going to be dissecting the entire Jim Henson auction. That's. That's just my.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's fine with me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Dave]

I. I don't know. Did you guys mention next week's big Secretary of Defense. I'm sorry? Secretary of War. Calling everyone home for the big military meeting next week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, we'll see if there's a show next week. We didn't mention it, but could be the start of who knows. It's a bit weird.

[Dave]

It is very weird.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What's the mood like there after that got announced?

[Dave]

It's. Well, it's just so weird. Like, why would you be calling all of your top military people from their very important jobs all over the world and insist that they be there in person.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Allegiance, push up contest.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ice cream, social.

[Dave]

Right. And obviously, you know, there are many, many conspiracy theories for what this could be about. But the thing I'm having trouble imagining is what the non conspiratorial reason for a gathering like this would be. And I. That I do not have an answer yet. I don't think it's just them getting together to, you know, hey everybody, we bought pizza and it's Bob's birthday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We all got assigned the card.

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, why would you make it public? Well, why would you let anybody know?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have so many questions about so many things that are done on a daily basis.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason, I would want to be as far away from that meeting as possible, preferably under about 800ft of concrete.

[Dave]

Yeah, I mean, and, and to, to your point, I mean, it's a security risk.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, absolutely. But we've had so many of those. We, we just. At the, what was it at the Charlie Kirk thing? It was the President, the Vice President and like, like three levels down the chain of command all in the same place. That's not supposed to happen.

[Dave]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, at least it was a dignified affair.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yes, of course.

[Dave]

Spark machines and so on and so forth.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you know, it would. It was going to be private but he just posted it to Telegram and then just everybody found out.

[Dave]

Well, it's a big enough meeting that there's no way it's not going to leak whatever is going on in there. But I don't know, I'm. I have to admit I'm a bit anxious about, about what it could possibly be and hopefully I'm overthinking it and it turns out to be nothing. But it's just so weird. That's the thing, it's just so weird.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So welcome to 2025. I know, it's just so weird.

[Dave]

That's right, that's right. All right, well thanks gents. I will see you next time hopefully.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Closing shout out. Over at Patreon we've got new patron Christina. Thank you very much. And Count Squeakula up there pledge. Appreciate that. And also we'd like to thank Ashley, Matthew, Edgar, Hillary, Matintosh, Ray, Matt, Mark, Jess and Lon. Thank you all so much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank you, thank you. Over at PayPal we've got Tom, Joseph, Jens Dennis with a $25 contribution and Jurgen throwing us the big 50 bucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Woo hoo. Thank you all so much. Over at the tip jar we've got Ross and Jennifer. Our standard begging you, pleading you for anything that you can empty your pockets with. Please go to GOG Show Donate to send us whatever you can. And if you go to patreon.com gog you can sign up to help the show out for as little as $3 a month to get the show early ad free and in high definition. And if you sign up for the whole year, you get a discount. And somebody asked us on email this week who whose money that comes out of if you pay for the whole year. Well, our show Patreon just said, yeah, we're going to give you a discount but it's coming out of your cut.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, Patreon doesn't take the shave. We do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, no, we do. But you know what?

[Brian Schulmeister]

We take it. I don't care. It doesn't matter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I don't care if it's easier for you. We appreciate it. You can even go up to Gold monkey level. And beyond that is to get the show early ad free. And like I said in high definition, so no merch sales this week. We're still kind of hammering out that problem with pesky tariffs and international shipping and stuff like that. So that should be fixed by this year. So go buy a T shirt or a mug.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm pretty sure Palantir sorted that problem out, although I doubt anybody out of the US is buying their gear.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And we did get a lovely note from Gerald that I'm not going to read, but thank you so much for writing in. Appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoy the show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm very glad you enjoyed the show. Thank you much, Gerald. And that's all I got.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's really it. So until next time, I'm Brian schillmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 715. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps keep the show on the air. And we mean that from the bottom of our hearts. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends and foes and everyone in between. And we'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts, feedback and cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show Contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG show. Review and we'll read it on the air. Oh, and guess what we've got that aforementioned merch stag your grumpy gear now at Shop Dot Gog show. Stay grumpy.