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What are smart mobs? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: from How Stuff Works dot Com? Stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: is brought to you by Visa. We all have things
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Speaker 1: we like to think about online fraud. Shouldn't do one
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Speaker 1: of them, because with every purchase, PISA prevents de texts
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Speaker 1: and resolves online fraud safe secure Visa. Hey, and welcome
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. Josh Clark, Chuff Bryant Here Josh and Chuck,
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Speaker 1: staff writers for How Stuff Works dot Com. What's up, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: the dynamic duo. That's exactly right, yuch right, that's us, Chuck.
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Speaker 1: I was reading the other day, as I do once
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Speaker 1: in a while, I try to keep the brain going. UM,
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Speaker 1: and I came across a really sad article. It turns out, Um,
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Speaker 1: July one will forever live as a day of infamy. Well,
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Speaker 1: I mean your birthday, July July fifteenth. This is my birthday,
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Speaker 1: July first, two thousand and eight. Um was ay when
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Speaker 1: two great underground pop culture icons were killed and one
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Speaker 1: fell swoop. Have you ever heard of a guy named
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Speaker 1: Ron English? No, I don't know Ron. Now I think
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Speaker 1: there's a coach out there, college football coach defensive coordinator
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Speaker 1: named Ron English. This is not the one I'm talking about, Okay.
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Speaker 1: This guy, um is this dude who is considered the
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Speaker 1: father of agit pop art. It's like pop art, like
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Speaker 1: think Warhol, but with like a social or political message
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Speaker 1: behind it. This guy created like EMC supersized with his
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Speaker 1: this gangster parody of Ronald McDonald. I think he did.
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Speaker 1: Did you see the one where he merged Obama's face
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Speaker 1: with um with Abraham Lincoln's beard and had that kind
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Speaker 1: of creepy but cool. So that's Ron English Okay. And
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Speaker 1: he's he's this real Uh, he's underground, he's really um.
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Speaker 1: He kind of hijacks uh the sides of buildings. He's
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Speaker 1: putting these billboards, he's works of art up when he's
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Speaker 1: not supposed to, and he's just kind of creating controversy,
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Speaker 1: public protests, slash pop art. Yes. Uh, he actually accepted
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Speaker 1: money from the Ray Band company to create a building
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Speaker 1: rap of this work of art, and then Ray Band
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Speaker 1: proceeded to pay a smart mob. A group of people
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Speaker 1: just show up wearing Ray bands and all stare at
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Speaker 1: this building rap for like fifteen minutes on that day.
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Speaker 1: So in the in one fell swoop RayBan basically killed
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Speaker 1: or at the very least totally co opted ron English
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Speaker 1: and smart mobs, which is is really sad because you know,
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Speaker 1: the first, the first smart mob on record had to
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Speaker 1: be dispersed by the Delta Force at the Battle of Seattle.
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Speaker 1: So I love marketing people. I love them because you know,
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Speaker 1: they're They're definitely not the uh the apocalyptic horse people
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Speaker 1: of the end of an underground trend, ever are there?
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Speaker 1: And no, and and far be it from them to
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Speaker 1: turn a really cool underground thing into commercial advertisement that
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Speaker 1: they keep it going. So yeah, money, root of all
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Speaker 1: evil and end of all underground culture. But um, that
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Speaker 1: Battle of Seattle I mentioned, you know what I'm talking about, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the the protest at the World Trade Organization summit and
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Speaker 1: I think ninety nine in Seattle. We should probably tell
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Speaker 1: people what exactly we're talking about when we mentioned smart mobs. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's not something that most people don't know about these Well,
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Speaker 1: basically what it is is just a group of people,
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Speaker 1: uh usually protesters or originally they were protesters who um
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Speaker 1: are also called flash mobs based on their ability to
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Speaker 1: um assemble and disperse really quickly. It's really kind of cool.
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Speaker 1: It's very cool. Um, there's this guy named Alex Stepson,
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Speaker 1: I think is his name. He edited the User's Guide
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Speaker 1: to the twenty one Century, and he wrote a smart
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Speaker 1: mobs that, Um, basically any city in the world can
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Speaker 1: be shut down by ten thousands warming protesters right block
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Speaker 1: off streets police from taking action. And the reason that
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Speaker 1: these mobs are so successful is because they are all
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Speaker 1: linked using you know, readily available technology, text messages, cell phones,
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Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So they're getting, um, they're getting
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Speaker 1: directions from like some central mastermind, puppet master you know,
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Speaker 1: somebody his black turtleneck in the dark. Yes, yeah, that guy. Um,
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Speaker 1: and he is aware. He's sending the messages saying like
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Speaker 1: cops are coming, disperse, reassemble, you know at this park,
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Speaker 1: and um, so they're always one step ahead of the cops. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and imagine this looks really neat. I mean, I don't
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Speaker 1: think we've ever seen like a big wide shot of
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Speaker 1: a smart mob, but I think it just goes from
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Speaker 1: like what looks like a crowd of people and all
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Speaker 1: of a sudden, instantly they're just they're just been along,
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Speaker 1: like they're just minding their own business. But they've they've
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Speaker 1: lost the the one common thread, and that was that protest.
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Speaker 1: At that moment, they're no longer protesting. They're just people
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Speaker 1: on the street now and they have nothing in common
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Speaker 1: and as such can't be beaten, you know, with riot
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Speaker 1: shields and batons because wind. But that's that's one of
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Speaker 1: the problems with a quote unquote peaceful protest of the
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Speaker 1: past is everyone is shows up in this one place.
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Speaker 1: Cops usually even though about it beforehand. There's gonna be
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Speaker 1: a rally there, and they're all just parked there in
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Speaker 1: some like city park or street corner, and you know,
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Speaker 1: the cops can effectively just surround them and do whatever
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Speaker 1: they want tear gas, mace, you name it. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: they do a lot of that stuff. But with the
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Speaker 1: smart mobs, isn't because they just break up and all
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Speaker 1: of a sudden the cops are like, hey, where what where?
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Speaker 1: Where they go? And then there are two blocks away exactly.
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Speaker 1: And the way that they're the mastermind Mr Black Turtleneck
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Speaker 1: is keeping tabs on the the the cops is through
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Speaker 1: a method called surveillance. Right, it's the it's the opposite
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Speaker 1: of surveillance it's basically I think it means looking uh,
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Speaker 1: looking above from below, something to that effect. And it's
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Speaker 1: basically the public sector keeping an eye on the government
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Speaker 1: sector or the security sector. UM. It's like UH Rodney
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Speaker 1: King beating being videotaped, perfect example of surveillance UM. And
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Speaker 1: another example is UH this group called the European Information
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Speaker 1: Society Group. Basically they run around They're just a loose
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Speaker 1: assemblage of people who have camera phones, video phones, and
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Speaker 1: they they like, if there's a state run hospital in
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Speaker 1: Britain or something that is UH that has really unacceptably
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Speaker 1: unsanitary conditions, they'll they'll film this and put it on YouTube.
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Speaker 1: And it's with this, you know, quick dissemination of of information.
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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, the British government is acting to
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Speaker 1: clean this hospital clean. It's act up depending on what
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Speaker 1: they were just taking a task for. Yeah, it's really
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Speaker 1: kind of cool. A lot of good can come out
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Speaker 1: of these and and there. I don't think they've had
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Speaker 1: a violent flash mob they have. Actually, the guy who
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Speaker 1: came up with this term, his names Howard Ryan Gold,
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Speaker 1: and he's this futurist he UM. He's one to definitely
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Speaker 1: keep an eye on whatever he's talking about is usually
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Speaker 1: going to come about in the next five fifteen years.
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Speaker 1: So he coined the term smart mob, and he said
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Speaker 1: in an interview later on that he deliberately chose the
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Speaker 1: word mob I think, uh and I quote because of
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Speaker 1: its dark resonances. And there have been instances where where
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Speaker 1: flash mobs have broken out, um for the purpose of violence,
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Speaker 1: like uh, I think the uh what year was that
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Speaker 1: there was uh the Miss World pageant? Uh? In two
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Speaker 1: thousand two in Nigeria there was I guess a local
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Speaker 1: newspaper wrote an article praising the pageant and it was
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Speaker 1: sent around among the Muslim community and through text messaging,
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Speaker 1: violence basically broke out. Two people died because of it.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of a that's a loose association with with
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Speaker 1: a flashmob. It it can happen, and even if it
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Speaker 1: hasn't fully happened, you know, uh. The NILA is well sure,
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Speaker 1: anytime you get a bunch of people together in protests,
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Speaker 1: they're probably worked up over something, and even if they
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Speaker 1: have peaceful intentions, cops come around and one thing leads
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Speaker 1: to in another, and you know, before you know, violence
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Speaker 1: could be breaking out. You know. Ryan Gold actually he
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Speaker 1: went around the world and started noticing these, uh, these
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Speaker 1: smart mobs and flash mobs were already in existence before
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Speaker 1: he coined the term, and he realized that UM, for
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Speaker 1: protests or civil disobedience to be able to survive, UM,
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Speaker 1: it was vital that smart mobs exist, or else it
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Speaker 1: would just be all surveillance, no sue veillance, and we
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Speaker 1: would all just be using cell phones just to call
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Speaker 1: our friends or Mama Mother's Day or that kind of thing.
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Speaker 1: The way that they were intended to, and out of
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Speaker 1: this kind of inspiration, this hacker mentality of like, Okay,
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Speaker 1: I've got this device, let's see if I can make
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Speaker 1: it do this. Uh. That will keep governments in check
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Speaker 1: essentially for the next for as long as we have
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Speaker 1: this technology readily available, and as long as we're can
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Speaker 1: humor driven capitalistic culture in the West, these this technology
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Speaker 1: you always will be available. It's great. It's not going anywhere.
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Speaker 1: It's like in our burros, a snake eating its own tail,
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Speaker 1: but in a really cool way. Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So do you know about some of the fun smart mobs. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the funds smart moms. Way, give me an example there, Uh, well,
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Speaker 1: I know in New York. Well, it's it's sort of
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Speaker 1: using the same technology, but they're not in protest of anything.
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Speaker 1: It's just groups of people gathering to do kind of
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Speaker 1: crazy things in front of people. So it's sort of
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Speaker 1: a performance art, uh, much more than protest. But I
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Speaker 1: know in New York City a group of people went
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Speaker 1: to a toy store, um maybe f Ao Shorts. That's
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Speaker 1: where I would go if I was in New York
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Speaker 1: and they all they all jumped on the floor and
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Speaker 1: started trembling at this big giant They were like dinosaur
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Speaker 1: bowing bowing before it. Yeah it was. And then they
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Speaker 1: disassemble and they're gone, and New Yorkers are probably left
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Speaker 1: standing there or the tourists probably New Yorkers aren't even watching.
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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I left the I Heart New York t
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Speaker 1: shirts just looking around like what was that. So that
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Speaker 1: was a cool one. And uh, I think in London,
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Speaker 1: uh they did one where all these people showed up
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Speaker 1: at a furniture store and started laying around on all
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Speaker 1: the couches and things, which I don't know, that's that's
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Speaker 1: a bit lame if you ask me. It was. It
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Speaker 1: was definitely the one of the lambor ones I've run across.
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Speaker 1: But it was cool that One of my favorites was
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Speaker 1: one that took place in Rome where the people were
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Speaker 1: instructed to go to this bookstore. UM, and all these
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Speaker 1: people converged on it and we're told to um insist
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Speaker 1: that the people who worked at the bookstore helped them
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Speaker 1: find books that didn't exist, and god knows how much
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Speaker 1: time they wasted doing that, right, and probably didn't sell
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Speaker 1: a single book. I wouldn't think so, because smart mobs
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Speaker 1: are notoriously poor. You know Steve Martin, Actually, technically you
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Speaker 1: could make a case that he started the first smart mobs. Uh.
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Speaker 1: Do you know about his early stand up? Uh? Actor
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Speaker 1: comedian Steve Martin. Yeah, that's Steve Martin. Yeah, I know
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Speaker 1: about his early stand up. I didn't King Todd and
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Speaker 1: the Air to the Head. Oh this is even earlier
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Speaker 1: than that. I mean, this is like undiscovered Steve Martin.
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Speaker 1: Day's basically, Um, he used to He'd be at like
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Speaker 1: a comedy club or whatever, doing his his bit, and um,
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden he just stopped and be like,
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Speaker 1: who who wants fries? I'd love some McDonald's. He get
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Speaker 1: everybody down to McDonald's, right, Everyone in the club would
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Speaker 1: follow him down he's doing his bit, you know, the
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Speaker 1: whole time. Then he gets to the counter and he's
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Speaker 1: ordering for everybody, you know, ends up with like in
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Speaker 1: order of like sixty cheeseburgers and like eighty yards of fries,
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Speaker 1: and he keeps changing it, you know, and asking what
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Speaker 1: God what they want, and then finally ends up just
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Speaker 1: buying um an order of small fries and they leaves
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Speaker 1: everybody back to the club. Yeah. So it sounds like
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Speaker 1: the people that suffer. It sounds like people that suffer
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Speaker 1: from this, or the business owners exactly. And I think
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Speaker 1: that's part of it. It's it's kind of nice to say, like,
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Speaker 1: you know, we we are the consumers, but we also
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Speaker 1: are more powerful than than you'd like to let us
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Speaker 1: believe you are kind of commanding or demanding a little respect, perhaps, yeah,
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Speaker 1: very much. So, well, I miss that Steve Martin. How
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Speaker 1: could you not instead of the one who does the
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Speaker 1: uh father, I'm with you. Well, as it turns out,
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Speaker 1: Steve Martin is in the same echelon these days as
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Speaker 1: Ron English and smart Mobs. Now they've all maybe you
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Speaker 1: could make a case of sold out. So sad to
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Speaker 1: see all three started out great, but it kind of
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Speaker 1: makes you, makes you wonder what's next. We'll be keeping
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Speaker 1: an eye out for it. Right, maybe we should go
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Speaker 1: start one up right now, I think we should as
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Speaker 1: well and stick around while Chuck and I are assembling
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Speaker 1: our own smart mob to find out what article on
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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com reminds him of his childhood?
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Speaker 1: After this stuff you should know is brought to you
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Speaker 1: by Visa, we all have things to think about, like say,
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Speaker 1: what's the best site to buy a new leather jacket
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Speaker 1: or whether to buy the three or six megapixel camera?
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Speaker 1: But thankfully we don't need to think about online fraud
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Speaker 1: making sure you're not liable for any authorized purchases. How's
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Speaker 1: that for peace of mind? Safe secure Visa? Okay, so
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Speaker 1: Chuck tell us what is it? What? What article on
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Speaker 1: the site reminds you of your childhood? Right? You don't
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Speaker 1: even know this? I don't. Actually this is a surprise
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Speaker 1: of me too. It's actually an article that was featured
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Speaker 1: today written by freelance writer Ed Grabbynowski who's been with
13:21
Speaker 1: us for a while. Is that how you say Ed's
13:22
Speaker 1: last name. I threw it out there, that's how it spelled.
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Speaker 1: It sounds sounds right, Yeah, I call him the grabster um.
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Speaker 1: How jet packs work? Yeah, and I saw that. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that takes me right back to my childhood and the
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Speaker 1: G I Joe jet pack that I had. Do you
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Speaker 1: have a jet pack of your own? Well, it was.
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Speaker 1: It was for the doll the old I'm a little
13:42
Speaker 1: older than you, but the old G I Joe's were tall,
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Speaker 1: twelve man. I came in right after those. I'm I'm
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Speaker 1: a big fan of the shorter what four and a
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Speaker 1: half inches? Yeah, I don't even those don't exist to me. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: So I had the little jet pack. I had the
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Speaker 1: submarine and you can attached the jet pack on the string,
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Speaker 1: and you know it's fun for a five year old.
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Speaker 1: That's great. Well, so Chuck revealed what article reminds me
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Speaker 1: of the childhood, and that he was apparently born in
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two. You can learn all about jet packs
14:06
Speaker 1: and all sorts of other wacky, childhood adventurous stuff on
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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
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