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Transcript

You Alright, Louisiana? · Stuff Keeps Happening

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  Hello. I bought one in order to get one free.
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  But stuff still happens. So what's up, dear listener?
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  It's gonna be a rough one. We're gonna start
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  off with something different before we dive into
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  the rest. So we're gonna start off with a cheesy
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  heist. one of the cheesiest possibly. A guy in
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  Texas was recently arrested due to a mac and
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  cheese heist. A former Chick -fil -A employee,
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  Kishan Jones, went back to Chick -fil -A after
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  being fired and decided to try to make a bit
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  of money, not from working there, from going
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  behind the counter and ringing up a hundred orders
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  of macaroni and cheese catering trays. It's at
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  this point that I would like to say I didn't
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  know Chick -fil -A did mac and cheese. Or catering
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  trays. I guess I knew they did catering trades
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  for, like, the nuggets. And catering trades of,
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  like, hating queer people. But mac and cheese,
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  that's new to me. Anyway, apparently it's about
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  $100 per tray. He went in and rang up 800 trays.
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  So far, it's pretty mac. Let's talk about the
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  cheese. What he ended up doing was refunding
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  all of these orders to his credit card. 800 orders
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  at about 100 a pop? That's 80 grand of refunds
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  to his credit. As you might imagine. He's super
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  arrested. It actually took a few tries to get
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  him, but they got him. So as of April 17th, he
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  was arrested. I just want to note, I think the
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  most important part of this story is I first
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  saw this on BBC, and I just want to mention this.
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  The BBC wanted to make it clear that these trays
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  have about a 10 ,000 calorie caloric content.
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  That was part of the article. It was like, yeah,
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  this heist happened. By the way, it's 10 ,000
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  calories per tray. Good to know. Good to know.
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  Anyway, don't do that. Don't do that. That's
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  like the most arrestable crime imaginable. Guy
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  went in and was like, I'm going to ring up in
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  this ledger, falsified records and then refund
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  them to my bank. The most traceable crime in
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  history. I'm going to go rob a bank and just
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  like leave a little note that says, hey, everyone,
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  it was me. Here's my address. All right. That
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  was the warm up. Let's talk about Louisiana.
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  What's going on? Quite a lot is going on in Louisiana.
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  I wanna preface by saying I'm not a Louisianian.
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  I'm not from Louisiana. So this is my best effort
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  to internalize everything that's going on on
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  the ground, but it's also kind of like a national
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  thing, so here we go. I want to start by talking
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  about Calvin Duncan, and I want to say that this
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  was originally going to be the primary focus
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  of this story, but even more ridiculous stuff
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  has happened out of Louisiana since this. Calvin
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  Duncan was arrested and found guilty by a jury
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  of first -degree murder. He spent almost 30 years
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  in prison. One problem, he didn't do it. Like
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  at all. While he was incarcerated, he taught
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  himself law in order to help himself and other
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  inmates navigate their legal situations. He became
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  what was known as a jailhouse lawyer, not an
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  official lawyer, but someone who actually could,
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  like, navigate some of this bullshit. After years
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  of incarceration, new evidence came up in his
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  trial that showed that the cops lied in the trial.
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  Who'da thunk it? So after having maintained his
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  innocence, he now has this opportunity to push
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  back and get out. Here's the thing. The state
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  was like, cool, uh, yeah, I mean, there's this
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  new evidence and it's pretty damning for us,
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  but what if, instead of going through all the
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  rigamarole to make it easy for us and you, we're
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  gonna do a plea deal? The plea deal is we will
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  drop the charges down to manslaughter, and then
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  you can get out on time served. Duncan took the
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  deal to get the hell out after 30 years of false
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  imprisonment. And then everything got wackier
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  from there. Duncan would go on to be exonerated
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  by Louisiana's factual innocence policy. Basically,
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  he was factually innocent, and so they expunged
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  the record. Duncan got his law degree and started
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  doing a whole bunch of community activism, specifically
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  in criminal justice reform, all the while being
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  a thorn in the side to a bunch of politicians
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  across Louisiana, including then Attorney General
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  Jeff Landry. Duncan would then run for office.
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  He was running for a position that is very, very
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  niche. Let me read it off. Orleans Parish clerk
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  of criminal district court Basically a clerical
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  position around criminal justice stuff But it
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  has meaningful power and the person who was in
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  that seat was routinely referring to Duncan as
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  a murderer and Landry was upset about the fact
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  that Duncan was saying he was exonerated Despite
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  having been exonerated Landry was like nah, it's
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  not a real exoneration. Remember he took that
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  plea deal. So he said he was guilty Which is
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  how guilt works Despite sitting politicians calling
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  him a murderer on TV and the attorney general
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  pushing back on him, he won his election with
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  68 % of the vote, only for the Republican legislature
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  in Louisiana to turn around and pass a bill that
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  removed that seat before he could actually take
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  up the position. They expressly were like, no,
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  fuck this guy. We don't want him to have a position
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  at all. We'd rather get rid of the position entirely.
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  And so they very cynically put forth a bill saying
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  that they're just trying to save money by consolidating
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  positions. The money that could potentially be
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  saved by consolidating these positions is negligible.
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  It's a rounding error. Not to mention the unknown
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  future impact of changing this position. Who
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  knows how much this might cost? The legislature
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  passes the bill. The governor, who was formerly
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  the attorney general, Jeff Landry, signs the
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  bill. The state effectively passed a law preventing
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  one dude from having the seat that people elected
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  him to. Obviously that's fucked, and there's
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  already been a bunch of lawsuits and pushback,
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  to the point that there was actually a restraining
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  order placed on Duncan or the bill. I don't exactly
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  know how restraining orders for this kind of
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  legal purpose works. Long story short, a court
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  was like, stop that. So Duncan shows up to his
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  first day of work after the court said, stop.
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  trying to stop this guy from having his job.
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  About half an hour after showing up to work,
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  another court said, actually, no, fuck this guy.
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  The Fifth District Court of Appeals was like,
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  nah, we're going to actually uphold the law.
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  And so he went home after like half an hour of
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  work. As of now, it's just in legal limbo. We
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  don't exactly know what's going to happen. But
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  essentially, the entire state's legislature is
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  fighting to prevent a dude who was elected from
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  having been elected already. I've heard of changing
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  the rules. while you're playing, when it's not
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  going your way. I haven't heard a change in the
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  rules after you've already lost. Actually, I
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  have. That's been happening across this country.
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  This is only part one of the Louisiana story.
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  Part two. Gerrymandering. Gonna begin this section
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  by giving a quick overview of Gerrymandering
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  for people who are not in a place where this
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  happens. Side note, if you're one of those people,
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  can I move in with you? Thank you. Gerrymandering.
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  It quite literally gets its name from a guy named
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  Gerry, who signed a bill that fucked with a district
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  that ended up looking like a salamander. They
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  merged the two together, Gerrymander. In the
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  United States, we have two houses of Congress,
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  the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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  The Senate has two representatives per state,
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  the House of Representatives has a variable number
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  per state, generally based on population. Generally.
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  States are carved up into districts that will
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  be used to actually vote for a congressperson
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  to represent them in Washington or in the state
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  legislature. These districts are drawn by political
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  committees. They quite literally, every 10 years
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  or so, usually with the census, they'll look
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  at the maps and redraw the districts, in theory,
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  to update them to be more fair. But in reality,
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  people end up gerrymandering. They look at the
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  map and they say, how can we modify the existing
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  districts to give our side an advantage in the
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  electorate? That's gerrymandering. How can we
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  work this map to our statistical advantage? Regardless
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  of how absurd the districts end up looking. So
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  gerrymandering, I want to be clear, this happens
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  from both parties, Democrats and Republicans,
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  they both gerrymander. Recently, there's been
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  an uptick in gerrymandering bullshit ever since
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  Texas decided that they were going to try to
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  update their maps in the middle of a cycle. Rather
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  than being on the sort of like ten year census
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  aligned rework, they were like, there's an election
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  coming up and it doesn't look good for Republicans.
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  So we're going to redraw our map to give more
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  Republican seats so that we can win. So Texas
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  was like, hey, we're going to just draw out virtually
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  all Democrat representation from our state just
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  because we want to. The legislature pushed it
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  through and the governor signed it. And then
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  it went through a bunch of legal bullshit, but
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  ultimately was upheld. This kicked off a huge
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  back and forth. States quite literally, right
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  and left, were all trying to do their redistricting
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  now. Since then, it's been a game of popcorn.
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  A whole bunch of states are all trying to do
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  the same thing, trying to undo or re -undo the
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  damage that Texas kind of started here. I want
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  to be clear, it's not like there wasn't existing
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  gerrymandering before Texas did this, but what
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  Texas did was flying in the face of all understood
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  norms. Which is not surprising. That is the the
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  MO of the current Republican Party. Just ignore
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  norms. And then when people make a stink about
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  that, just be like, that's not the law. Why do
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  you care? Anyway, gerrymandered. Louisiana. They
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  have about one third black population. The most
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  recent Louisiana district map had six districts,
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  two of which were majority black. That's about
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  equal to the population representation. Except
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  that wasn't always the map. Previously, there
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  was only one district. They had to fight to get
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  that second district to have any kind of meaningful
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  representation. And this pissed off a lot of
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  white people. A coalition of voters who literally
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  referred to themselves as non -African -American
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  voters sued the state and was like, hey, we're
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  gonna, we say this is racist because you gave
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  black people representation and took it away
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  from the whites. This was a lawsuit that went
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  all the way to the Supreme Court that ultimately
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  handed down a decision that gutted the Voting
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  Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act is a landmark
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  piece of legislation that came about in the civil
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  rights era, helping to get minority representation
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  at all. What the court has essentially done is
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  change the rules around how to prove if an electoral
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  map is unconstitutional. You now have to prove
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  that it was explicitly drawn with racist intent.
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  It goes beyond saying this map does not properly
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  represent these minorities. You have to specifically
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  say the people who drew this map were being racist
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  about it. This more or less removes that avenue
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  for legal justice. This is not the end of the
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  Louisiana story. So this just like just happened.
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  And Louisiana has a primary election going on
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  right now. And the Supreme Court is like, hey,
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  yeah, your district map is all fucked up and
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  you can redraw it if you want to because it's
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  unconstitutional. And so Landry signs an executive
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  order postponing the primary elections that were
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  already underway. Some mail -in ballots have
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  already been returned and they're like, wait,
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  no, we want to pause the elections so we can
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  redraw our district map to remove representation
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  from minorities before we do this vote this time
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  around. John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the
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  Supreme Court, has been trying to undo the Voting
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  Rights Act for basically his entire career. It's
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  not a secret. It's like his pet project. This
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  was a 50 -year -long plan coming together, all
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  sorts of groups, all sorts of organizations and
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  lobbyists, and a lifelong effort from one of
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  the most powerful people in the country to overturn
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  voting rights for minorities. Before I finally
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  move on from this, I do want to be clear that
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  it's not like this is happening in a vacuum with
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  no pushback. Like I said, there's been legal
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  pushback every step of the way, and people are
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  pissed. Turns out when someone's elected to a
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  position with overwhelming support, and then
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  you try to undermine that position even existing,
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  it doesn't go over well. So voters, activists,
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  journalists, all sorts of folks have been pushing
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  back both directly and legally. It's not going
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  uncontested. It should also never be swept under
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  the rug, and these people should not be allowed
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  a moment of grace. Moving on to tech bullshit.
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  We're moving away from political bullshit. In
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  Detect Bullshit, let's talk about Smart Glasses.
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  Remember back in 2012, Google was like, hey,
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  here's Google Glass. You're gonna forget about
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  this in a couple years. But at the time, it was
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  a big deal. Not because it was like a product
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  that was gonna change the world, but because
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  it was a product that was going to creep out
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  the world. I guess it changed a little bit in
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  that way. Google Glass was a wearable device
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  that had a little screen up here and a little
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  camera. And that's basically it. It was honestly
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  pretty innocent. Yes, it had a camera and could
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  record. That's creepy. We'll get we'll get to
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  that in a bit. But largely, as far as wearable
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  tech goes, it was pretty out of the way and like
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  did have some reasonable applications. Ultimately,
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  it kind of found its way into very niche business
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  use cases and has been discontinued. But Google
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  Glass was a thing that came out and people had
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  their first reaction to wearable smart tech that
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  records you. Fast forward to now, and one of
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  the leading providers of smart glasses on the
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  market is Meta, the Zuckerberg company. They've
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  partnered with Ray -Ban and they have these Meta
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  AI smart glasses. And sort of the main draw of
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  these things is they have cameras on them to
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  record point of view footage. You can also at
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  any time be like, hey, Meta, here's a I'm saying
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  a thing, do some AI stuff and talk back to me
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  or whatever. They're AI powered glasses. However,
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  it is 2026. They are not actually AI -powered
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  glasses. They are glasses that connect to Meta's
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  servers and process all of the information there.
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  So here's what happened. A few months ago, a
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  Swedish newspaper did an investigative report
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  that showed that there is a firm in Africa that's
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  been reviewing footage recorded from these glasses.
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  A firm called Sama in Kenya was using real people
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  to review videos recorded from these glasses
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  so that they could tell AI what the video was.
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  AI systems don't have a basis of reality. They
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  don't know what things are. They need humans
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  to give them references and explain what things
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  are so that they can hopefully draw a parallel
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  the next time they have something to do with
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  that. But you can't just get that for free. That
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  data doesn't exist. And so there's a real manual
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  labor that goes into training these AIs by taking
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  things and describing them to the AI system.
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  So this office was full of people doing exactly
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  that. And they were watching the content that
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  people recorded from their glasses, including
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  going to the bathroom, or having sex, or changing
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  clothes. Workers at this firm were like, hey,
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  this is super uncomfortable. And they ended up
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  talking to some journalists and sharing what's
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  going on. Meta, being Meta, is like, hey, I don't
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  know why everybody's upset. Our Terms of Service
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  says that all of the data processed by the glasses
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  goes to our servers and is processed by us. and
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  our third parties. They have since been like,
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  we're no longer working with that third party.
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  Stop being mad at us. Now, to be clear, some
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  people definitely record some spicier stuff on
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  purpose with these glasses, but some people don't
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  even realize they're recording. One worker from
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  Sama mentioned that there was a video that showed
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  a woman changing clothes, but the video seems
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  to have started when a guy put his glasses down
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  on like a nightstand and seemingly accidentally
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  started to record. Later on, his wife came into
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  the room and changed right in view of the camera.
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  And that video ended up on someone's screen halfway
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  across the world. Now, this is only one of the
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  big problems with smart glasses. I haven't even
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  mentioned the growing trend of men wearing these
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  glasses to go harass women or the upcoming feature
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  that meta has touted where you'll be able to
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  look at someone and their AI will give you a
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  profile of them, including their name and any
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  other information it knows. Totally not a massive
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  problem. Hey, it's at this point that I want
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  to say computer science ethics courses are desperately
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  lacking. As evidence, I submit everything I've
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  said so far. I just want to mention the Iran
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  War. It's still going on. As of right now, like
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  time of recording, there's a bunch of inscrutable
• 15:39
  discussion about a potential end to the conflict.
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  I have my doubts, but instead of trying to say
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  anything concrete right here, I just want to
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  say... Lightning Wrap. A reservation logistics
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  company accidentally deleted their entire production
• 15:54
  database and all backups because of an AI tool
• 15:56
  they were using. Here's the weather. The new
• 15:58
  CEO of Xbox has ended the development of Copilot
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  for Xbox. Good. They've been an ongoing effort
• 16:05
  from a bunch of like teens and young people who
• 16:07
  are storming into Scientology buildings to try
• 16:10
  and map them out. It's pretty fun. GameStop made
• 16:13
  an out of the blue offer to purchase eBay. eBay
• 16:16
  was like, what the fuck? There is currently a
• 16:19
  cruise ship stranded out in the Atlantic where
• 16:21
  there's an outbreak of a potential variation
• 16:23
  of a hantavirus, specifically, um, Andy's virus,
• 16:28
  with a near 40 % mortality rate. Multiple people
• 16:30
  have already died, and that's been confirmed
• 16:32
  of hantavirus. I want to be clear, this is not
• 16:35
  likely to become the next pandemic. I cannot
• 16:39
  predict the future, but it does not appear that
• 16:42
  this is... going to just be a disaster. And finally,
• 16:45
  for today, a New England seafood company donated
• 16:47
  a lobster to an aquarium because the lobster
• 16:50
  had a really rad coloration to its shell, like
• 16:53
  an epic skin. It's got like a split down the
• 16:55
  middle and it's like orange on one side, black
• 16:58
  on the other, like a Halloween lobster. Spooky
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  lobster. Thank you so much for listening to today's
• 17:02
  episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to SKH
• 17:04
  .News for sources, bonus content, and your very
• 17:08
  own multicolored lobster. My name is Endeavorance.
• 17:11
  We'll talk again soon. Take care. and be well.