Latest / Stuff Keeps Happening / 14 Million Bees
Transcript
- 0:00Hello. I went up the spout again. But stuff still
- 0:05happened. So what's up? Bees! Bees! 250 million
- 0:13bees! 14 million bees. I don't care anymore.
- 0:17This past Friday, a truck in Washington State
- 0:20overturned full of bees. 14 million of them.
- 0:23It was originally reported as 250 million bees
- 0:27pouring out the back of this truck until, I shit
- 0:29you not, a group of master beekeepers arrived
- 0:33on the scene. These dudes rocked up and they
- 0:35were like, hey, Buzz Buzz, I have a better number.
- 0:38It's actually like 14 million, not 250. Get out
- 0:42of here with that. So they got an expert opinion
- 0:44on the bee count. But actually, this is kind
- 0:47of amazing. Within a couple of days, they actually
- 0:50managed to get most of the bees back. I want...
- 0:53more situations where the most niche professionals
- 0:58who get to call themselves a master of their
- 1:00craft show up and just solve the problem. Like,
- 1:04who knew? We got a truck full of bees. Someone
- 1:07call the secret society of master beekeepers
- 1:10that we have on hand, apparently? Rad. Amazing.
- 1:14Very cool. The only thing I know about beekeeping
- 1:17is the smoke thing. Like, smokes. smokes up the
- 1:22hive. Other than that, the rest of my hive knowledge
- 1:25is from Destiny 2, so not applicable. So yeah,
- 1:29there was a threat of 14 million bees invading
- 1:33Washington State, but then the beekeepers took
- 1:35care of it. The end, and now we move on. Policy.
- 1:40The state is doing surveillance in the surveillance
- 1:43state. Yeehaw. There's a scenario that's often
- 1:45brought up by pro -abortion rights activists
- 1:48where they say, okay, consider a case where a
- 1:51woman is living in a state where abortion is
- 1:53illegal and she needs to go get one because it's
- 1:56threatening her life. So she goes to another
- 1:57state. gets the healthcare that she needs, and
- 2:00then is prosecuted by her home state as a murderer.
- 2:03Like, the cops find out, and they go after her,
- 2:06and they're like, you are from whatever state,
- 2:09you did a bad, we're coming after you now. For
- 2:12simply, like, doing self -preservation, right?
- 2:15So again, this scenario is brought up often in
- 2:18just sort of like arguments as a hypothetical
- 2:20that isn't actually all that hypothetical. But
- 2:22unfortunately, most people who are hearing this
- 2:24argument either lack the ability to sort of like
- 2:27put themselves in that situation and have that
- 2:30foresight to see, oh, wait, yeah, I can see how
- 2:32this could be used against me in my own way.
- 2:36Or they just agree with the state in this scenario
- 2:39and they're actually totally OK with it. So I
- 2:41want to I want to point out a story that is a
- 2:44lot more real. It's not exactly that scenario,
- 2:47but it's Scarily close. A woman in Texas was
- 2:51believed to have given herself an abortion and
- 2:53she was believed to have fled the state. So her
- 2:56family went to the cops and was like, we don't
- 2:58know where she is and we're scared for her safety.
- 3:00The cops then use a system called Flock, which
- 3:03gives them access to a massive network of over
- 3:0680 ,000 cameras across the country to look for
- 3:10this woman. They can scan for license plates,
- 3:12they can look for identical features, they can
- 3:14go far back in history and access all of that.
- 3:17including cameras that are across state lines
- 3:19and without a warrant or prior authorization.
- 3:23The only thing they have to do to use the system
- 3:25is input a reason why they're using it, to which
- 3:28they said the reason was, had an abortion, search
- 3:31for female. This is a literal nationwide camera
- 3:34network that cops can just access because had
- 3:38an abortion, search for female. But it's okay,
- 3:41it's a privatized network. So since it's not
- 3:43the government doing it, it's okay. Let's just
- 3:46keep Let's keep letting tech companies do this.
- 3:49So it's a bit of a fascist hellscape out there.
- 3:51Combine that with the State Department now planning
- 3:53to start vetting foreign student social media
- 3:56when they're coming in for a visa to study here,
- 3:59because we just love free speech. It's so tasty
- 4:02and it goes down smooth. Speaking of smooth,
- 4:05what's not smooth is this transition into the
- 4:07next segment about RFK and his report and its
- 4:12hallucinations. RFK Jr. is an incompetent, hubris
- 4:15-driven fool who is actively working to undermine
- 4:18the health of an entire country because no one
- 4:21has told him to actually shut the fuck up ever.
- 4:24Here are my supporting arguments. I talked last
- 4:26week about the MAHA report in which RFK basically
- 4:30was like, here's my big report on what's poisoning
- 4:32the children's these days. The report said the
- 4:35things that you would expect a conspiracy theorist
- 4:37anti -vaxxers who say are bad for the children,
- 4:39like... vaccines and those dang phones. It was
- 4:43also, of course, altered by the White House to
- 4:45remove key sections about large chemical companies
- 4:48that may have faced scrutiny. But now, after
- 4:51people have been poring over it and actually
- 4:53seeing what's in the report, it has come out
- 4:54that the report appears to be littered with AI
- 4:57hallucinations. So it became pretty clear that
- 5:00this report was just citing absolute bullshit
- 5:03probably made up by chat GPT. For example, there
- 5:07were authors credited to papers that they never
- 5:09wrote and co authored with people they've never
- 5:12met. The White House has categorized these errors
- 5:14as quote formatting issues and have released
- 5:17an updated version to address these. Formatting
- 5:20issues. These are formatting issues in the same
- 5:23way that the lack of additional zeros in my bank
- 5:25account is a calculation error. So he puts out
- 5:27this report that cites things that don't exist
- 5:30and science that no one agrees with. He's also
- 5:32railing against fluoride, which is projected
- 5:34to create a ten billion dollar bill of just dentistry
- 5:39appointments if it gets taken out of municipal
- 5:41water. And then he's fucking with ongoing research
- 5:44contracts for things like research into a vaccine
- 5:47for the bird flu. The thing that we're worried
- 5:51about happening. I spent a lot of energy during
- 5:53campaign season just pushing back on the swarm
- 5:56of RFK bots in my comments that were constantly
- 5:59claiming that he wasn't the obvious anti -vaxxer
- 6:02conspiracy theorist that he absolutely obviously
- 6:05is. People literally came into my comments and
- 6:08said he's not an anti -vaxxer. When the man founded
- 6:11an anti -vaxx think tank, it's... is bonkers.
- 6:15Public Health is a group project and beyond just
- 6:18the entire country failing, the teacher is for
- 6:21some reason telling us that the only way to get
- 6:22an A is to punch yourself in the balls on loop
- 6:25forever. Moving on, remember Boeing and how they
- 6:28made the airplanes that kept falling out of the
- 6:30sky? And then it came out that they were like
- 6:32skirting safety regulations and then they totally
- 6:34didn't kill multiple whistleblowers over it?
- 6:37So the US Department of Justice had opened up
- 6:39a criminal fraud case into Boeing and they're
- 6:42now Just kind of quietly just scooting that off.
- 6:45Yep, the DOJ is basically bringing Boeing to
- 6:48a pinky promise to do better and to pay out 1
- 6:51.5 billion dollars sort of in like investments.
- 6:55to the families that were lost of the over 300
- 6:58victims. So 1 .5 billion in a sort of soft agreement
- 7:01to not be charged with fraud. Boeing's market
- 7:04cap is around 150 billion and they reported about
- 7:0715 billion in profit from Q4 2024 alone. But
- 7:11notably, if Boeing was actually investigated
- 7:13and charged with the fraud that they almost definitely
- 7:16did... they would no longer be a viable government
- 7:19contractor. We'd have to actually start applying
- 7:21standards to our war forges and we cannot have
- 7:24that. Let's move on to world stuff. What's up
- 7:26France? How's your power? I hope it's back. France
- 7:30had been kind of going through it. It got dark
- 7:31so they lit some fires. First there were widespread
- 7:33power outages in the French Riviera area. That's
- 7:36fun to say. French Riviera area. French Riviera
- 7:40area. That's fun. Do it. Anyway, there was an
- 7:43outage. and they're like what the fuck this seems
- 7:45to be like sabotage at a substation the next
- 7:48day there was another outage that was more sabotage
- 7:51at another substation seems to be arson there's
- 7:54no suspect in custody hey don't do that like
- 7:57it affected 200 000 people who were just trying
- 8:00to exist i i get the impulse to go after infrastructure
- 8:03to make a point or whatever i don't know What
- 8:06this is or who did this or what their intention
- 8:08was but hey don't do that But it's okay because
- 8:11as I said they lit fires But not particularly
- 8:13close because over in Paris there were celebratory
- 8:16riots over a PSG victory It was like a super
- 8:19hype and storied victory that I do not have the
- 8:21context around but there was a bunch of people
- 8:23at the stadium in Paris that were basically live
- 8:26streaming the event from from Brussels where
- 8:28it was happening and they were winning and they
- 8:30won and then riots they're like multiple fires
- 8:33a bunch of altercations with cops and apparently
- 8:3581 people at least have been arrested and local
- 8:38officials were like that's not y 'all are bad
- 8:41they called them barbarians a small village of
- 8:44just about 300 people in the swiss alps has been
- 8:46buried almost entirely in ice and rock the town
- 8:50of blatton was flattened oh jesus i That was
- 8:55not written. That was not planned. That was literally
- 8:58an ad lib I didn't even intend for it and now
- 9:01I have to keep it in but that's that's terrible
- 9:03and I apologize But I can't change it now. I
- 9:06mean I could because like I edit this after I
- 9:08record it But that just happened. I can't I have
- 9:12to be this is my truth Anyway, this village was
- 9:15submerged under rock and ice when a nearby glacier
- 9:18in the Alps broke off and caused a massive mudslide
- 9:2190 % of the town is just wiped out. Thankfully,
- 9:25all 300 residents were evacuated well beforehand,
- 9:28thanks to warnings from geological scientists.
- 9:30While obviously this is tragic, the support has
- 9:32also been swift. There are relief organizations
- 9:35on the ground helping to clear out the rubble.
- 9:37There are search efforts going on for a missing
- 9:39person. There are funds that are being raised
- 9:41for the families that lost their homes, and there
- 9:43is an intent to rebuild the town. We're just
- 9:46waiting on those details. So here's to the people
- 9:48of Blatton. I am sorry for the joke. It wasn't
- 9:51intentional, but I had to include it. Meanwhile,
- 9:55in Gaza, the genocide continues. I don't have
- 9:58much more to say on this, but I can't not mention
- 10:02it. The US and Israel were supposed to work together
- 10:04on a food distribution relief effort, and it
- 10:07went as bad as it could have gone. They shot
- 10:10at the hungry people who were trying to get food.
- 10:12I'm just gonna read this quote from a Gazan resident.
- 10:39When asked, Israeli officials said that they
- 10:41know nothing about this. because that's what
- 10:43they do. There's even reports of an Israeli tank
- 10:46firing on crowds trying to seek aid. It's...
- 10:49I don't know what else to say, as I said. Barring
- 10:52direct third -party intervention, I don't really
- 10:55see this changing. And all the while they're
- 10:57using our tax dollars and the word of God to
- 11:01explain away their crimes. Which I don't, uh,
- 11:04agree with as a taxpayer. How about some good
- 11:07news? How about some good news? Because I got
- 11:09something from Kenya and Germany, and it involves
- 11:11our favorite subject, rhinoceros cove. Researchers
- 11:15in Germany and Kenya have worked together to
- 11:17perform the first successful IVF procedure on
- 11:21a rhinoceros. IVF being in vitro fertilization,
- 11:24like the artificial fertilization, but on a fucking
- 11:28rhino. The reason that they're doing this is
- 11:30because the North African white rhino is very
- 11:33nearly extinct. There are two. Left in existence
- 11:36and both are female so they've been researching
- 11:38how to do this on a rhino and they practiced
- 11:41on a South white rhino which is Related but is
- 11:46not north point is they were practicing on a
- 11:48practice rhino before they go to the main event
- 11:50But yeah, they just took their frozen male rhino
- 11:53sperm that they had in the freezer We've all
- 11:55got that somewhere in the back of the freezer
- 11:56there and they they just kind of boom Preggers.
- 12:00This is a huge conservation breakthrough and
- 12:02could actually potentially repopulate a species
- 12:05on the brink of extinction from decades of poaching.
- 12:09So, yeehaw, yay science, good job. Thanks for
- 12:13the cum, rhinoceros. Technology, Texanology.
- 12:17Texas has passed a digital privacy law that basically
- 12:19says, hey, Google and Apple. Really, anyone who
- 12:22runs an app store, so basically Google and Apple.
- 12:24you need to stop miners from being able to make
- 12:27purchases and download other apps without parental
- 12:30consent. This is a very large state doing this,
- 12:33and this is not the first time that we've seen
- 12:35one of the biggest states in the country just
- 12:37kind of make their own digital privacy laws because
- 12:40the federal government won't fucking do it. Several
- 12:43years back, California made a sort of like similar
- 12:46-ish set of laws to what the EU has, kind of,
- 12:49but also way watered down, and it's just California.
- 12:52But because of that, it essentially was like,
- 12:54well, we need to adhere to California's laws.
- 12:57So it's functionally, we need to do the work
- 12:59anyway. We might as well just support it in all
- 13:01the states, et cetera. And so now we've got states
- 13:05around the country banning porn or in this case,
- 13:08they're banning what certain people can do at
- 13:10certain ages on the Internet, which to be clear,
- 13:13there's a lot of Americans, about 80 percent,
- 13:16agree that something needs to be done about minors
- 13:19on social media. But what? We don't really agree
- 13:23on why. A large portion of people say that it's
- 13:25not up to the state to determine what should
- 13:27happen, it's up to the parents, and some people
- 13:28say that the state can pass laws that empower
- 13:30the parents, and some people say passing any
- 13:32laws is an infringement on the rights of the
- 13:34teenagers from being able to engage with the
- 13:36economy on the internet, as well as speech issues,
- 13:39and so on and so forth. It's a very messy subject.
- 13:42Not to mention that Congress has been batting
- 13:44around things like COSA and other just shitty
- 13:47attempts at making actual technology policy.
- 13:50It's embarrassing. But what we actually need
- 13:52is comprehensive data privacy laws, which we
- 13:54can then use to enact the specific needs of communities,
- 13:59such as having actual, understood control about
- 14:02the relationship between parents, tech companies,
- 14:05children, and all of the data generated therein.
- 14:07Obviously, tech companies are very much against
- 14:09basically anything that requires them to do additional
- 14:11work, track additional data, or whatever, and
- 14:14they're gonna really sneakily talk about how
- 14:16it's an infringement on your rights for them
- 14:18to have to collect extra data about for - example,
- 14:21your age, which agreed, but they already have
- 14:24that information. They're not worried about collecting
- 14:28more of your data. They love doing that. They
- 14:31have your data. It's a matter of if they're going
- 14:34to have their bottom line impacted by preventing
- 14:3713 -year -olds from purchasing whatever, almost
- 14:40definitely just using their parents' credit card.
- 14:43So stay frosty because the tech companies are
- 14:47not your friends, speaking of which. If you use
- 14:49Gmail, you are now getting an AI summary of your
- 14:52emails, whether you like it or not. Fuck boy.
- 14:55I don't know why I put the fuck boy in there.
- 14:56You're not a fuck boy. You listen to this show.
- 14:58That means you're a... I don't know. I don't
- 15:02know. Something. Anyway, yeah, so Google is going
- 15:05to start rolling out... Email summaries. So in
- 15:07long emails and in email threads, they're gonna
- 15:09pin an AI generated summary to the top of your
- 15:12email. It includes a disclaimer saying that the
- 15:15summary is written by Gemini and may contain
- 15:17mistakes. May contain mistakes. Here's a product.
- 15:21So they are just happily running people's emails
- 15:23through their AI without asking them first. It
- 15:26used to be that you had to request a summary.
- 15:28Now it just happens. You can disable the feature
- 15:30in the settings but I would highly encourage
- 15:32you to actually go out and explore other email
- 15:35providers. I know the idea of switching an email
- 15:38provider sounds like hell, and it's not fun,
- 15:41but there do exist other providers that aren't
- 15:44gonna do this kind of bullshit and actually respect
- 15:46you, your data, and your privacy. I've linked
- 15:49a little bit of information in the newsletter
- 15:50today about this, but the two services I generally
- 15:53recommend are Fastmail and Protonmail, and I'll
- 15:56link to them in the description. This is not
- 15:58sponsored. I just genuinely want people to move
- 16:00off of Gmail. Lightning round! The US is looking
- 16:02into whether or not the new pope is allowed to
- 16:05keep his American citizenship given that he is
- 16:07a foreign head of state huh some climber dudes
- 16:11in the UK sent the mountaineering world into
- 16:13a tizzy after they essentially cheated climbing
- 16:16Mount Everest by inhaling xenon gas which is
- 16:19apparently like performance enhancing as far
- 16:22as acclimating to the environment goes they went
- 16:24from London to the peak of Everest back to London
- 16:26in a week which is like super record -breaking
- 16:30to the point that There's now an investigation.
- 16:32In the UK, there was a terrifying car chase where
- 16:35cops were chasing down a guy going at 10 miles
- 16:38an hour, high speed. He eventually crashed and
- 16:41they got him. And finally, for today, big news.
- 16:43Cyberpunk 2077 sequel is officially titled Cyberpunk
- 16:472, which makes sense. Hey, it's Pride. It's Pride.
- 16:51What's up, Pride? So because it's Pride, instead
- 16:53of hawking my merch and Patreon, I'm going to
- 16:56ask you if you can hear my voice. Consider making
- 16:58a donation to a charity like The Trevor Project,
- 17:01an organization of your choice. Or you can just
- 17:03go search for some good options that is helping
- 17:06to ease the lives of queer people in 2025. Queer
- 17:10folks, especially trans folks and especially,
- 17:12especially trans children deserve protection,
- 17:15support and safety. So here's to all y 'all.
- 17:17I'm wishing you a raucous pride. I don't say
- 17:20raucous often. Okay. Thank you so much for listening
- 17:23to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening.
- 17:25Head to SKH .News for sources, bonus content,
- 17:29and the remainder of those millions of bees that
- 17:33I captured myself. My name is Endeavorance. I'll
- 17:36be back on Monday. Take care and be well.