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Hot Shareholder Drama · Stuff Keeps Happening

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Hello. I finally got Biggoron's sword. But stuff
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still happened. So what's up? We're at war still.
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It's still happening. We're at war still. The
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United States and Israel are still at war with
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Iran, and Israel is still continuing their operation
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in southern Lebanon, essentially just eradicating
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neighborhoods to create a buffer zone. We're
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about two months into this war now, and it's
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a war. It's a war. They keep saying it's not
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a war, it's a war. The fighting between the US
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and Iran has largely boiled down into this blockade
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standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. It's bi -directional,
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blockading both sides. It's on or off, depending
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on the hour, seemingly, and depending on which
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untrustworthy nation's leader you trust, we're
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at war or we're not. But on the ground right
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now in Lebanon, Israel is sending demolition
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teams with, like, dynamite and shit to go blow
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up neighborhoods. Israel was like, hey, Lebanese
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people evacuate your homes because we're going
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to be conducting some military operations there
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and we care about your safety. So we want to
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make sure you're not going to be there. And then
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they blew up their homes like they brought in
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bulldozers. It wasn't like, oh, dang, we've done
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accidentally blew up this house. Now we should
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do the due diligence of cleaning it up. No, they're
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bringing in bulldozers to just destroy neighborhoods.
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They're just. Reckon it, even during a ceasefire.
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Beyond the immediate human impact, which is immediate
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and human, and therefore the most important,
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there's also obviously wide -reaching economic
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impacts globally. Here at home in the US, gas
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prices are averaging about $4 .22 a gallon at
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time of recording. That is not the highest it's
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ever been, but it is spiking, and it's also not
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the same kind of spike the rest of the world
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is seeing. The US is positioned like physically...
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Pretty far from where all this is happening and
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also the US is a pretty big oil producer In fact,
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the Department of Energy is bragging about how
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we're now producing more oil than certain countries
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that recently were bombed Like their oil fields
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were bombed, but we're beating them We're producing
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more than them losers. So yeah, like gas prices
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are going up here But it's it's not as bad as
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it could be and it's gonna get worse like Brace
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yourself for that. You don't need to freak out.
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Nothing's gonna change overnight, but it basically
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means fuel prices are going to, at best, stay
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where they're at and inflation is likely gonna
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tick up over the next few quarters. There's a
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bottleneck right now in the Strait of Hormuz
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for oil and liquid natural gas. Things are just
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not moving. At least nowhere near the capacity
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that they need to move. to handle the supply
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chains that we currently have. So especially
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in Southeast Asia and some places in Europe,
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they are trying to renegotiate how they're going
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to be getting all their fuel needs. How? It goes
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beyond fuel and natural gas too. There's so many
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layers here. Obviously the energy impact to the
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global economy is a big deal, but here you've
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got a dangerous shipping route, and shipping
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vessels aren't thrilled at the idea of going
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through an active war zone. Insurance for those
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shipping vessels is going to go up through the
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roof because of the active war zone. And the
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business value of delivering another Labooboo
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when the potential liability is... our freighter
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got sunk. It's just not there. So we've got the
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markets going like... That was me being markets.
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Oil fields in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and UAE are
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not operating at max capacity right now. Some
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of them have massive infrastructural damage.
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So even if we just, like, magicked away everything
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that's going on in the Strait of Hormuz and Israel
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and Lebanon and Iran and the US and all of that,
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the damage has been done and we're just gonna
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have to ride this out now. There does not appear,
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to my eye, to be an end to this war in sight,
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despite the White House constantly saying that
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we're near the end of it. I don't know what to
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say. We're just in a dumb conflict that didn't
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need to happen and no one wants. And now we gotta
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pay for it. It's the American way. Speaking of
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expensive and paying for it, let's talk about
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AI. Sorry. Disclaimer, as always, I'm going to
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interchangeably use AI, Artificial Intelligence,
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and Large Language Model slash LLM. It's just
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easier. I give up. A bunch of companies, across
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all sorts of sectors, are running into a similar
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problem with their AI investments right now.
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It's getting expensive with every company trying
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to just cram AI into their workflows or their
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product offerings or whatever Ultimately, it's
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all going back to one of like four companies
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that are actually offering the models that are
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being used to do all this There are exceptions,
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but largely you're gonna have Google and thropic
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X AI or or open AI be I guess Microsoft's and
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videos kind of doing some now, but Microsoft's
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also kind of open it. It doesn't matter Point
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being, there's a handful of companies that actually
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have the sauce and everybody else is paying for
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that sauce. Unfortunately, that sauce has some
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really expensive ingredients, like graphical
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processing units. So here's what's happening.
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When you use an AI system or an LLM or something,
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you use what's called tokens. It's a measurement
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of essentially how much computing this model
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is doing for your query. Functionally, think
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of them like tokens you put into an arcade machine.
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Put in tokens. machine runs. If you want to do
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more, if you want to play more, you gotta do
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more tokens. And if you die a lot, you gotta
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buy even more tokens. It's a perfect analogy.
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So tokens are sort of the metric here, right?
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And interestingly, I'm going to start by saying
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that tokens have gotten real cheap. As the years
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go on and we refine these systems and whatnot,
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we are getting a better return on investment.
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It is cheaper to run these systems. It's not
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cheap, and it's not efficient, but it's cheaper.
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than it was. So if token costs are going down,
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why are prices going up? It's because we're using
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more. It's the American way. A lot of things
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are the American way. Since tokens got cheap,
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companies use more tokens. And that's kind of
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just how AI is, right? It's not a good product.
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It doesn't really work well until you do it a
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bunch and then it might work kind of okay. If
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you want to get the best results out of AI, you
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need to have the most compute power. And that
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rule is not going to change. So the upstream
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provider companies are the ones that are building
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or contracting out data centers to build out
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all the AI support to be able to run all of this,
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to be able to serve all of this functionality
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to the companies that are buying it from them.
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And so far they've been hyper underpricing. They've
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been subsidizing the cost so that everyone's
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going to onboard to AI. It's now you've got companies
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and power users who have these subscriptions
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that were largely flat fees, 20 bucks a month
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to get chat GPT or whatever, 200 bucks a month
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to get the supreme version. And like, I don't
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know, 150 bucks a seat for corporate stuff. Those
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are made up numbers, I think. I just I might
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have gotten some of them, right? So you pay your
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subscription, you've got access to the thing,
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now you can use it as much as you want. Great,
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except that's the problem. And so they're switching
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from an access model to a metered model, measuring
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how many tokens that you're using and or how
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you're using the system at all to upcharge for
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certain types of queries. So everyone's using
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more tokens, and then now they're saying, hey,
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we were undercharging you on those tokens, which
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are cheaper than you thought, but you're using
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more than you thought. ultimately resulting in
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significantly higher contract renewal prices
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that are now coming due. So it's been, you know,
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a few years of this now, right? And companies
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are now re -upping their contracts with these
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AI companies. According to aggregate reports
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of potential new contracts coming in from these
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companies, the suggested increase to the price
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of these contracts has been around 20 to 40 percent
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above the previous year price. Ultimately, with
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negotiations and whatnot, that price has come
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down closer to like 12%. That is still a huge
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spike. A 12 % year -over -year increase in one
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of your most expensive contracts. For software,
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that's rough, buddy. This isn't necessarily a
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complete inversion. Like, nothing has exploded
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here. But this is the beginning of the reality
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check. This stuff is expensive. And it's been
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heavily subsidized It is the corporate version
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of uber uber was super cheap and super super
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approachable for a long time because it was heavily
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Subsidized the initial investments into uber
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were used to reduce the amount of money that
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you were paying They were covering a lot of the
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costs then once everybody got used to it and
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taxis were phased out in some places Price go
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up So I guess in addition to using too much water
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and like driving up people's energy costs and
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plagiarizing artists and stuff, we can add predatory
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vendor lock -in to the list of reasons we don't
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like AI. Hello Albert Manifold. I am very sorry
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to hear that you nearly didn't get your appointment
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as Chair of the Board of the Anglo -Persian Oil
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Company. Oh, sorry, BP. I meant BP. Backing up,
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BP's been doing some bullshit. Last year, in
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February, they announced that they were gonna
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roll back a whole bunch of climate initiatives.
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They're like, hey everybody, bold new idea. We're
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going to increase investment in oil and gas,
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and we're going to remove our climate initiatives
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basically entirely. So BP has essentially scrapped
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their 2030 climate initiatives, and they've all
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but gotten rid of any renewable investments.
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And then they had some shareholder votes. So,
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uh, for the porous out there, sup buddy, uh,
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When you have money and you can own a lot of
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stock in a company, you get to sometimes vote
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on stuff that they do. We don't get to do that.
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But big boys do. And also sometimes if there
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is a group that is an activist investor, they
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get a say. I'm setting the stage here, I promise.
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Picture this. The year is like last week and
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BP is having a meeting with their shareholders
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and they're like, hey, we got to vote on some
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stuff. Here are our ideas. Idea number one, we're
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going to end our climate transparency. Idea number
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two, we're going to move our investor meetings
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online. Idea number three, Albert Manifold. That's
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the idea. The shareholders did not vibe with
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these ideas. They vibed a bit with Albert. We'll
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talk about him in a second. Essentially, BP went
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to their investors and they were like, hey, you
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know how we're not going to do climate stuff
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anymore? Well, now we want to stop talking about
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how we're bad for the environment also. As for
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moving their meetings online, the criticism there
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is it's getting away from the protesters that
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often show up at these shareholder meetings.
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Don't want to see that riff raff. So here's what
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happened. The shareholders said no to the first
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two. They said yes to Albert. We'll talk about
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him in a second. But they said no to the first
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two. BP needed 75 % of shareholders to vote yes
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on the different initiatives because these were
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like special initiatives or whatever. And they
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didn't even pass 50%. So not even half voted
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for it. Except for Albert, and we'll talk about
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him in a second. So what's going on here? Because
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VP shareholders don't seem like the kind of people
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that would care about this. So what's going on?
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After BP had made their original announcement
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about reducing their climate initiatives and
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reinvesting in oil, one of their investors, who
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is a quote, activist investor called Follow This,
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filed a motion. They're like, hey, we want to
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put forth a resolution to basically require the
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board to be like, why is this a good idea? And
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how is this going to be good for us? If it's
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like the oil industry is going down BP was like
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we hear you we hear you we understand dear dear
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investor We'll talk about it some time passed
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and then BP got back to them and they're like,
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hey We're not gonna talk about it. Actually it
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your proposal sucked. It was busted and we're
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not gonna do it We're not gonna tell anyone about
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it. We won't vote on it. Why was it for us? Shut
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up. I don't I don't like you anymore. That was
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me being the board of BP Fun fact, Stuff Keeps
11:29
Happening is just a long con for me to make a
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bunch of audition tapes. So. God, I am meandering
11:35
on this one. Okay, focusing. Albert. So one of
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the big shareholders for BP, which happens to
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be an activist investor, was like, hey, explain
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yourself. And BP said, okay, whoa, never mind,
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actually no. That kind of pissed off shareholders.
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They're like, hey, we have a right to do this.
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Like, this is a thing that we get as shareholders.
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The right to, to, to man. A, uh, uh. a vote on
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things. As this is all going down in the wide
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world of BP shareholder drama, Albert Manifold
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becomes essentially the face of it all. He's
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the visible board member that's being proposed
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as the new chair while all this is happening.
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And so the time comes to vote, and our boy Albert
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gets just over 80%, which is enough to seat him,
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but is a massive anomaly. Board chair shareholder
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vote results. I don't know how to categorize
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that. They usually are close to if not literally
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a hundred percent. Everyone's usually on board.
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But given all this bullshit, they actually got
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strife and pushback from their shareholders.
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This is not me saying that the shareholders of
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British Petroleum are suddenly climate activists.
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But at least half were not into completely about
12:46
fixing. Hey, you want to invest in beads? This
12:49
is wild. This is this is wild. This is cool.
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An international team of researchers has amassed
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over 140 ornamental beads and decorative things
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made by a civilization over 15 ,000 years ago.
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142 Natufian ornaments were discovered and analyzed
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and here's the really cool part. These things
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are made of clay and we found fingerprints preserved
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in the clay. The Natufian society is an interesting
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one. They're largely settled in what we now call
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Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. The southern Levant.
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But these people were largely a sedentary society,
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which is to mean they weren't nomads. They weren't
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just traveling around. They were largely in one
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place at a time when that wasn't really happening.
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This is before agriculture. Like long before
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it. And we now have evidence that there were
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people of all ages children adolescents and adults
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Seemingly using clay to make like rings and beads
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and necklaces and all sorts of ornaments arts
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and crafts Before we even had agriculture a community
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coming together all ages Making stuff just because
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it's fun to make stuff Have you played with clay
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prior to this discovery the the amount of relics
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that we had of a similar category was five And
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now we got 142 more. This changes the way that
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we think about cultural evolution in sedentary
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societies. It's rad. 15 ,000 year old fingerprints.
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And so I ask you, dear listener, would you like
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to make some beads so that maybe in 15 ,000 years,
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some random guy might write a newsletter about
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our fingerprints? Lightning Round! Beloved Twink
14:31
Vampire Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 is gonna
14:34
be getting a dedicated prequel novel. A United
14:37
States -based big game hunter was trampled to
14:39
death by elephants while hunting antelope in
14:42
Africa. It's pretty easy to avoid. And finally
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for today, someone reportedly attempted to shoot
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members of the Trump administration at the White
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House Correspondents' Dinner. He had guns and
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tried to rush past security into the ballroom
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to shoot people, but didn't get to the ballroom
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and didn't shoot anyone. It's really embarrassing
15:01
for the White House, but otherwise, like, it's
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not really a big deal. I'll say that the general
15:07
response was either complete apathy or disbelief,
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and I genuinely don't think it matters which
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camp you fall in. Who cares? Like, it doesn't
15:16
change anything. And of course, they're now saying
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this is why they need to build the ballroom at
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the White House or whatever. It's all very silly.
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Thank you so much for listening to today's episode
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of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to SKH .News for
15:28
sources, bonus content, and an invitation to
15:31
next year's White House Correspondents' Dinner.
15:33
My name is Endeavourance. We'll talk again soon.
15:35
Take care. and be well.